//------------------------------//
// The Escape 
// Story: The Pony-Filled Life of Alexis Creek 
// by NightmareMoon 
//------------------------------//

	Now that I realized who the mare talking actually was, I was surprised I didn't notice before. Now that I thought about it, I could hear a faint buzzing of insect wings–I had thought that was just a fly, but now I wasn't sure–and I could hear the "Chyralis-ness" of her voice. 

One problem: Who was the other stallion? Like I said, definitely a stallion; I could tell from the deepness of his voice, yet I had a bad feeling about him, one that I didn't have with Chrysalis.

A very, very bad feeling. "Skippy," said Chrysalis, "don't play around with me. Games weren't included in the brochure. Not that I gave you one. Back to work…," she sighed in defeat, "Discord."

I could literally feel the smile on the stallion's face. Or at least, Discord's face. Why did this always have to be me…? 
Twilight had "trained" me for these types of situations–the types of situations that the Elements were in all the time. But I would have to deal with them even more, because… I was more, say, interesting. Unknown. People would want to get their hands on me–and they were lucky if they could get close.

Except, we weren't dealing with crazy Lyra-type ponies here, the type that were just obsessed with my life (I have run into at least twenty fan clubs since I came here). But never people who wanted to harm me, or even worse, kill me–other than Sombra, who's long gone, and exiled in the mountains. Or wherever, I didn't pay attention to that history lesson (or, for that matter, any other history lesson).

"You call me 'Skippy,'" Discord remarked, "so I'll call you... Hmm, 'Buzz.' What a suiting name! But like you said, no matter how much it absolutely pains me to say it, we have to get to work. Work, work, work, busy bees! Why do they call them that, anyway? Oh, yes–because I invented that term!"

Discord is, officially, loopy. 

"Get to work, Discord," hisses Chrysalis. "We have a deal, remember. Remember that when you call me silly names, remember that while you stray off and go... turn kittens into hydras, or whatever it is that you do. Remember that! We have a deal, and we have a deadline. If we don't meet that deadline–the Moon's anniversary–we'll fail. And you know how that will turn out!"

I didn't know what to do, frankly. I could keep on listening, and find out what their scheme was, or I could find a way out. My immediate survival or Equestria's: What would it be?

I decided that I had to get out of there, and quickly. If they discovered me, I wouldn't be able to get back to Ponyville anyway. Maybe I could find Zecora... or not. What if she'd been found by the "squad"? I couldn't trust her anyway, because she could be a spy. 

Well, she could. So could everypony else. It was just luck: Who got discovered, and who escaped before they could. It wasn't a matter of actually being bad, or taking revenge on your friends. It was about whether Discord and Chrysalis got to you first.

Not to mention, who was Chrysalis feeding off of? Discord didn't have love, and if he did I'd be surprised. He destroyed Ponyville and didn't even care. He liked it. So it was likely that Zecora was Chrysalis's only source of food for the past... however long she'd been here.

No, I wouldn't go to Zecora's, although that's why I came in the first place. Instead...

Would they be able to track me, I reasoned, if I turned on my chat with Lyra? Maybe, or maybe not. It was a risk I'd be willing to take: After all, what other choice did I have? I could run, but there still were other dangers, like Timber Wolves, and those plants. I'd been looking out, checking that I didn't step in any Poison Joke, for the whole journey here. If I just ran, I would definitely step in Poison Joke.

Or I could teleport, which would take a long time–I wasn't even sure I could, not with no training. Maybe I could turn invisible again out of instinct if I tried hard enough, but they would hear me. I would be caught or something bad would happen, no matter what I did.

But I had made a choice. 

The telepathy was voice-activated, so I whispered: "Telepathy with user 'Lyra Heartstrings, Human Extraordinaire' activated." I was shaking, trying not to alert anypony near me. After a minute of waiting, desperately wanting to just talk to her, crazy or not, I heard something.

((So, I hear Alexis talking with Twilight, and she says "I like pie, you know"–... Oh, hello, Alex! I was just talking about you with Pinkie. I WANT TO BE A HUMAN! Anyway, what are you callin' up me for? I'm just a puny pony... Why me? Why can't we switch places? Why?!)

Lyra, I really need your help. Really, I do, and this is an emergency. Discord and Chrysalis are right in front of me. Seriously! I'm stuck in the Everfree... Can you teleport? Please, can you? Or at least tell Twilight to?

((Well, I don't know. For that I'd need some, oh, maybe... Some hands!))

I'll get Twilight to cast the hands spell on you if you get me out of here. Tell Twilight to lock onto my signal and then teleport me out of here at all costs. Please tell her!

((Well, ya know, I'll think about it. Maybe I will... In a week or two. Ga'bye!))

Lyra, you know I'm not messing around... Fine, you know what, I'll get Celestia to transform you into a human if you do this for me! Please...

((Deal!))

I shut the telepathy off. Of course I wasn't going to ask the Princess to transform Lyra into a human! That was crazy. But I felt bad about lying to Lyra, even if it was Lyra we're talking about here. Lyra who's obsessed with me, Lyra who keeps annoying me. But maybe...

Maybe I could take her to Earth, just for a little while.