//------------------------------// // Ch. 16: A Very, Very Mad Mind // Story: Extraterrestrial #51 // by TundraStanza //------------------------------// --- A/N: Warning! This chapter is so confusing that even I don’t know where it’s going to end up. Actually, strike that. I know where the chapter ends, but I don’t know what’s going to happen between now and then. --- A Very, Very Mad Mind --- Smatterday ???? ???? ---{#51’s POV} So much noise! Why was there so much noise? I don’t remember the hive mind being this loud. I struggled to hold my ears down, but the effort was useless in this realm of mental landscapes. In the hive mind of Her Majesty Chrysalis, there was always a sense of calm even when five or ten of the drone minds had troubles unrelated to the hive. My queen knew how to give us the most numbing, emotionless thoughts that still gave us a sense that she cared. This… I didn’t even know what this was! All of these thoughts… All of these worries… Urgh! There was no end to the fracas that bombarded my mind’s ear. If I couldn’t find a way out soon, there was a high probability that my skull would split like a melon. I hissed and I lashed, but the absolutely painful cacophony wouldn’t stop. Queen Chrysalis! I shouted into the storm of thoughts, Where are you? “Ah ha ha ha.” I opened my mental eyes wide. In spite of all the noise that would not shut up, I somehow heard that chuckling more clearly than anything else. But… it wasn’t her. It wasn’t my queen. I didn’t like this voice. “Chrysalis?” asked the voice almost mockingly, “Chryssie’s not fit to be the Sweet Potato queen, much less real royalty, like me…” What? Who in the two worlds did this voice think they were? To refer to Her Majesty as a vegetable queen and calling her a fake was unforgivable. I bared my fangs in spite of being unable to actually attack the voice while trapped in this mess of other minds. I had no idea how much of my mind was vulnerable to this entity. I didn’t even get a sense of how close it was before I had been dragged into this space. “Aren’t you glad you’re not one of those horrible humans anymore?” the voice cooed. W-what? If I could choke on my own spit, I would have right then. All of a sudden, a slight ringing noise flashed through my head like lightning. Unfamiliar images started flashing through my mind. What in the wide, brown badlands was all of this? ---{Cier’s POV} Barriers expanded. Science and magic joined together. A potion paved way to a grenade. Uniforms with the letters P.E.R. dressed all sorts of ragged and professional-looking ponies. All of these and more were blurred together in images of television static. If I were in my body, my eyes would be shaking while being stuck open. My mouth could not form any word to describe these horrible, misconfigured images. At some point, letters started forming in between the garbage images. T. Celestia was staring with murderous eyes. C. A unicorn stallion was arguing that his name was genderless. B. The OC pony of Lauren Faust and a Discord look-alike laughed together. HAIL A proposal for “gryphonization” was addressed to a congress. QUEEN Twilight Sparkle said the f-bomb for the first time in her life. MAB! “~Bee, Cee, Beta, Gamma, Phi…~” sang a terribly off-key woman’s voice. ---{#51’s POV} As if the nonsensical words and images weren’t enough, the voices I heard at the start of this awful encounter had come back in full. The shouting and complaints were indistinguishable. This was way too much. I needed to get out of here right now! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! I yelled as my horn charged. I started releasing green blasts in just about every direction that my mind could conceive in this place. I heard glass shatter. Still the voices persisted in making thinking a very painful task in itself. I fired more shots. Screens of various sizes seemed to crack all around me. Eventually, the cracks in the mental area glass started joining together until it formed one giant circle made from the crooked-lined crack. It surrounded me, before the landscape shattered all around me. I felt myself falling. I tried flapping my wings as rapidly as I could, but I still kept falling. ---{Terry’s POV} Smatterday 7:20 AM Eastern Time The Inn Bedroom I don’t know what happened. One second, Cier was talking to me. The next, he was on the floor tossing and turning in his sleep. How did that even happen? I don’t know. I heard hissing and groaning escape his mouth. He was in pain. My son was in pain and I didn’t have a clue how to help him. I turned to look at Arlene. She looked shocked and concerned as she stared at Cier. She didn’t know what to do either. Urgh, I felt so useless right then. ---{Arlene’s POV} I could feel Spirit Redeemer somewhere inside looking at what I was seeing with just as much worry. She couldn’t help her friend Fifty-one, and I couldn’t help my child… my baby boy. Water started to form under my eyes. Cier… I pleaded quietly, Please be okay. ---{Peter’s POV} This was nudging futs. The ghostly unrest around that boy was crazy. Sure, most ghosts that wander the earth are soaked in negative emotions, but what I was sensing from around that boy was just plain crazy. As I floated there next to Arlene, I thought I saw a faint glimmer of green from the changeling’s horn. It immediately dimmed, but glowed again. This repeated quite a few times. I didn’t know what to make of it. Next thing I knew, the kid was up in the air. His wings were buzzing like crazy. His eyes were opened wide. A sound like a cross between a growl and a hiss came out of his mouth. He quickly zoomed around and went into the bathroom. “The frig?” I whispered. ---{Cier’s POV} I felt something wet against my face. I blinked a couple of times through the blurry view that I was seeing. My vision started clearing up and I could see a sink with a running faucet. The water was pouring out. My hooves and my face were wet. I looked up to the mirror and stared into my own changeling eye and pony eye. “Huh?” I finally blurted out. I could also feel a slight breeze behind me. My wings were flapping. Did I fly in here and start splashing myself? Weird, I couldn’t remember doing so. “Cier,” my name was called slowly before Dad’s voice continued, “Are you alright?” My head still hurt a little, but otherwise I thought I was doing okay. “I think so,” I replied. “What was that all about?” asked a partially whispering voice. Peter, I surmised. I slowly hovered out of the bathroom. I dropped down onto the opposite bed before answering. “I think Fifty-one and I have stumbled upon another scheme originating from this whole ponies-on-earth mess.” “Another scheme?” echoed Dad. I gave them the best explanation I could about what I had just been through. There was another hive network in the making besides Chrysalis’s. This one was being ruled by a changeling calling herself Mab. Though, her actual ruling capabilities were questionable as she couldn’t readily calm the members of her own faction. There was an eerie feeling of arrogance simply by sharing thought space with her. Mab was apparently convinced that she was a real-world P.E.R. (Ponification for Earth’s Rebirth) agent. She held very strong feelings against humans. Most of the minds in her hive sounded like rebellious teenagers yelling and complaining about everything. Except hers was the loudest and most head-splitting of them all. Fifty-one was insulted that she called out meaningless letters for names instead of distinguishable numbers. I wasn’t entirely sure how we managed to get out of that mind crushing experience. All I knew for sure was that it looked like Fifty-one was firing his magic in any direction he could aim. When the mental landscape was filled with enough cracks, there was a falling sensation. Next thing I knew, I had water all over my face. “That would explain why your horn was glowing on and off,” commented Peter. When I asked him what he meant by that, he and Dad took turns explaining what had been going on here in the real world. So a forced connection to Mab’s hive mind left my physical body in a state of sleep. I had been experiencing a world of hurt, but to anyone outside, it looked like I was having a really bad dream. “Tsu,” I half-chuckled, “I kind of miss the dreams that were just dreams. Recently it’s just been mind channeling and mental conversations. No offense, Fifty-one.” I see no offense to take. I closed my eyes and let my mind wander. ---{#51’s POV} I felt compelled to reconnect and assure myself that Her Majesty Chrysalis’s hive mind was still out there. Briefly, I extended my mind’s reach. I was blessed with a much more serene sea of thoughts. My queen still gave off the sense of being preoccupied, but she answered all the same. “51? Did she get you? No?" I relayed the events that had recently transpired while I was in Mab's hive mind. "Hm. Yes. Well done. Please be sure to secure the well-being of those you can...” Had I heard that correctly? Queen Chrysalis was… tasking me with the welfare of others. She was giving me a purpose. In the past, I would have thought that it wasn’t my right to feel anything. Given the circumstances, however, I couldn’t help it. My queen still had trust in me. Yes, Your Majesty, I mentally nodded. I was... so happy. ---