Welcome to Wherever You Are

by FrozenInTime


Act II Chapter 1: Turned

The Badlands, time unknown. The Hive.

Trixie tried to sift through her memories for probably the sixtieth time that day. Each day she would try, and each day she would only grasp the same memories, ones that she already knew. She would try to remember who she was before, why she is where she is now. Why there was a purple Alicorn lying on the magic-runed table in front of her.

She watched the steady rise and fall of Twilight's chest, as she lay on her back, forced into a coma by Chrysalis' magic. They were in a small room, otherwise unoccupied. No other Changelings were in the immediate hearing range. Trixie thanked the vastness of the twisting, turning labyrinth that was the Changeling Hive.

"...How did this happen? How did any of this happen? Why am I here? Who am I? Gah... irrelevant. Don't worry, Twilight. I will not let her do to you what she did to me..." She spoke to Twilight as if she could actually hear her. Trixie looked around at the black walls of the hive, inlaid with many glowing green orbs that acted as light.

Right there. That's where she tortured me...

The memory sent chills down Trixie's spine.

"AAAAAGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!"

"You could make this so much easier for yourself! Just tell me what I want to know!" Queen Chrysalis lowered her horn to Trixie's once again, forcefully draining even more magic from her, and coaxing another scream from Trixie.

"N-no! Do what you will with me, monster! I will not betray my friends!

The Queen grinned at the Unicorn's failure to cooperate. "Hah! Friends? Soon enough, Ponyville will be set upon by my children. Your... friends... will all be slaughtered!" She lowered her horn again, as Trixie struggled from the magical grip around her.

Trixie had been waiting for this precise moment. If she could distract Chrysalis for even a moment, she could use a redirection spell without it being detected. The moment their horns touched, a red aura rushed up her horn, clashing with the green aura of her torturer's.

A bright flash appeared at the contact point, and Chrysalis was forced to break away.

The spell was only intended to cause an immense amount of pain to the Queen. If it worked, she could escape her grip and have a fighting chance. At the very least, it would be a final act of defiance.

The Queen staggered back, and Trixie fell to the cold, black ground. She immediately pushed herself back up, charging her horn. The red aura immediately disappeared, turning green and spreading to rapidly surround her entire body. The magic froze her in place, the only part of her able to move was her eyes.

She watched helplessly as the Queen slowly walked towards her, and began to speak again.

"Impressive. I should have realized the extent of your power as soon as I started draining it from you. To think I was just planning on killing you... well, you have proven you would be much more valuable as a member of the Hive."

She grinned again as her horn lit up, and Trixie's eyes slowly closed.

The next time Trixie opened her eyes, everything around her was solid green, save for the teal, transparent membrane-like wall directly in front of her face. Through it, she could see outside her confinement, albeit with a green tint because of the color of the membrane.

Her head felt unusually heavy, her back itched like crazy, her hooves felt a bit strange, and her rear legs were stuck to the floor. She was somehow being forced to stand on her rear legs, and her front legs were crossing her chest.

She quickly took note of the area in front of her, already thinking of an escape plan.

Strange topography. Stalagmites, cave-like holes on the walls near the ceiling... everything is black and green, it looks like. The floor is irregularly shaped, yet the ceiling is almost perfectly flat... this room is similar in size, about twelve meters either way, but slightly larger than the one I was jus-... wait, is that creature standing upside-down? On the ceiling?!

She looked up at the Changeling, before she realized that she was actually looking down. The topography now suddenly made much more sense to her; she was in fact hanging from the ceiling, and was looking at the floor.

The green-tinted view turned sky-blue as the chrysalis was slowly lowered by the Changeling. About half way down, he flipped it upright. The pressure suddenly falling from Trixie's head made her dizzy. As such, when she finally reached the ground and the Changeling stabbed into the membrane with his horn and dragged it up to cut it open, she fell forward. It was remarkable just how little energy she had.

She limply fell into the Changeling's hooves, who caught her and laid her against the wall. Trixie thought she could remember a white Unicorn who would have loved a cliché, dramatic moment like that. Why couldn't she remember her name?

"Ugh... where..." Upon hearing her own echoing voice, she covered her mouth with both hooves.

My voice! What's wrong with my voice?!

She slowly looked down at the hooves covering her muzzle, only to see two black claws. She gasped sharply, quickly looking herself over. All of her fur was black. Her horn was clearly a bit bigger, and now curved upwards. She seemed to have two large fangs extending to her chin. Strangely enough, her mane and tail were virtually unchanged, if a bit messy. She calmed slightly when she saw her Cutie Mark still in its proper spot on her flank.

Her biggest surprise came when she saw the two insect-like Changeling wings on her back. If she wasn't so shocked, she would have asked the Changeling in front of her why he had Pegasus wings. Or normal eyes, for that matter.

"Am... am I a..."

"Yes, you are a Changeling."

Trixie was shocked at the creature in front of her, how it didn't sound like some feral beast. She had never seen a Changeling before the Queen, and she had quite a damaged impression on them.

The Changeling slowly sat down against the wall, a few hooves away from Trixie.

"Well, let's get started. First off, you'll need a name." Trixie was taken aback by the statement.

"Trixie is happy with her name," she said, putting on her old bravado by speaking in the third person. The Changeling was purely shocked.

"You... you remember your name?"

"Why wouldn't I?" The Changeling began to smile.

"Incredible! You kept your memories! I don't know how, but you resisted the Queen's spell!"

"Slow down, and please tell me what's going on!"

The Changeling deflated slightly, but kept a meager smile on.

"My name is Shift. I don't remember my real name, because every one of us, before you, had our memories erased upon being turned. As you've undoubtedly already figured out, ponies are being turned into... more of us. The loss of all memories from before the turning, combined with a feeling of kinship with the queen, has led most to believe her way is the correct one.

Pegasi are turned into ones like me, with normal wings. Naturally, we are more adept with flight. Earth Ponies grow claws. Unicorns grow larger horns, and sometimes also claws. A few of us have found special... talents. He held his hoof up to face-level, and blue electrical sparks began to flow and swirl around it. Soon, they took on the form of tiny blue lightning bolts.

There are some, like me, who know what we do is wrong. Taking ponies away from their families, destroying their old lives, feeding off of their love... it's ghoulish. Our small group has been slowly growing, and trying to find a way to stop the Queen. Our knowledge of the outside world is very limited, however, and our goal is bordering on the unattainable. If you kept your memories... tell me, do you know of anything that could stop the Queen?"

Trixie scratched her head with a claw, trying to remember something, somepony, anything that could be of use. But she found that many of her memories were gone. She didn't know who she really was, only her name. She couldn't remember how she ended up here, and she had the faintest memory of meeting six ponies in a town called...

"Ponyville!" she shouted as she remembered both Chrysalis' taunt and the Elements of Harmony. She learned about the elements from an enemy-turned-friend, and more recently, that friend was now a Princess.

"That name... it sounds strikingly familiar..."

"I met a pony there... a Princess, named... oh, horseapples, what was it... Twilight Sparkle! She is the bearer of the Element of Magic, and she has five friends, who are also Elements, and..."

"Come again? Elements? As in the Elements of Harmony?"

"Yes! How did you know?"

"It may be hard to believe, but we are educated on certain things here. Mostly things that are a threat to the Queen. I read about the Elements, and they caught my interest for a while. They seemed capable of defeating the Queen, but I lost hope when a more recent entry detailed the Elements binding to six ponies, whose locations were currently unknown to the Queen or the Hive. If we can get the Elements... this 'Twilight Sparkle' seems to be our best chance."

"I think I remember where Ponyville is... but, where are we anyway?"

"This region is known as 'The Badlands', according to the Queen."

"Hm. I didn't expect a Hive to be here. In any case, we should act quickly. The Queen mentioned attacking the town when she was torturing me, and if she's as clever as I think she is, she'll already be trying to capture the Elements, or otherwise disrupt them."

Shift got to his hooves as the electricity flowing around one of them finally stopped. He turned to Trixie and reached out that same hoof to help her get on her claws.

Being careful not to scratch or impale his hoof, she gently wrapped the claw around it before pulling herself up.

"Trixie, I don't know how you kept your memories, or anything about you really, but I'm glad to have you on our side here." His eyes were slowly drifting to Trixie's Cutie Mark.

"Well, unless you want a claw to the face, I advise you to take your eyes off my flank."

If Changelings can blush, that's exactly what Shift did. "No! No! I was looking at your Cutie Mark! The rest of us didn't have one when we were turned."

A claw found its way to Shift's face, but didn't strike it. Instead, the foreleg wrapped around him and pulled him into a hug from his medium sized, frayed, sky-blue mane. " Ha, I was just kidding my friend! Trixie is happy to help!" Once again, that mysterious redness appeared on Shift's face, as he returned the gesture.

Later that day, (or at least she assumed it was still the same day, as she had yet to go outside and check. Truthfully, it was because she couldn't find her way out) Trixie found herself wandering the Hive aimlessly. Every room besides the one she had the conversation with Shift was filled with Changelings, and the one she was in was utterly massive, with holes leading to other rooms in the walls. Very few of them gave her any heed. There were normal Changelings and unique Changelings in mixed crowds as they flew around, wings buzzing (or flapping).

"I guess I'll have to learn to use these things sooner or later..." she said, looking back at her Changeling wings.

She focused through the ever-present buzzing sounds, and sure enough, her wings began to... twitch.

"Don't worry, you'll learn." Trixie almost jumped at Shift's voice from directly behind her.

"Sorry. I would show you, but..." he looked back at his Pegasus wings, his meaning clear. He could not teach her due to the obvious differences in their wings.

Trixie focused again. And she tried again. And again. And again. The first time she got off the ground, Shift had to catch her when her wings suddenly stopped.

On the ninth attempt, her wings started off a bit faster. They quickly accelerated until they were two blurs at her sides, and her claws retracted. She didn't even know the latter was possible until then. Her hooves slowly lifted off the ground. Looking down, her legs began swinging back and forth under her wildly, as she squealed in fright.

"Don't look down. That makes it much harder at first."

As Trixie slowly got higher and higher off the ground, her fright turned to delight, and she began softly laughing. Many Changelings had stopped to watch her, many of them were smiling. Words like "Check out the New Blood" and "Not bad for a first flight" could be heard.

Trixie was flying. She was able to propel herself forward, turn gracefully, and even do a few flips. Even Shift was laughing a little now.

But it stopped when she disappeared into one of the holes in the wall, and her laughter suddenly died. No crash was heard, but Shift still felt the need to check it out.

As he flew into the hole, he realized it was actually a hallway, which he immediately began trotting down.

At the end, he saw Trixie sitting on her haunches in front of a large cage. In that cage, there was a white Unicorn mare and filly, both unconscious.

"Rarity..."

The rest of the memory was completely blank to Trixie.

Shift, this was not part of the plan!

Trixie looked in dismay at the Changeling horde returning from the attack on Ponyville. She was looking at a group of three near the front. It was very clear that the horde was decimated in the attack, as less than one fourth of them were returning now.

She was not focusing on the Changelings themselves, but their cargo, being a lavender Alicorn.

She quickly took to the sky and met the horde. When they all landed outside the entrance to the Hive, Trixie stayed close to Twilight. After all, Queen Chrysalis had given Trixie the honor of breaking Twilight's magic, so she could be turned.

But Trixie would be doing no such thing.

The Queen actually believed that Twilight was dead at first, which Trixie played along with. She convinced Chrysalis that she had experience in Necromancy, even, and that Twilight could still be saved. Even though she was actually still alive, but barely.

"Wouldn't she just be a lich, then?"

"Far from it. You see, uh... her soul has not left her body. I can... return it to life!...Yeah!" She played off her best innocent smile.

Queen Chrysalis could be extremely stupid when she wanted to be.

Present time.

Queen Chrysalis began to suspect something when Twilight had failed to turn for quite some time. She began checking in on Trixie's progress, or complete lack thereof.

Soon enough, she was draining magic from the comatose Twilight and putting in her own, trying to accelerate the process. But Trixie had a countermeasure; herself.

She, in turn, would drain Chrysalis' magic, putting in her own to prevent the change. It rapidly made her weak, as she lost her own magic, and the Queen's didn't have the best effect on her either. Her already damaged memories became non-existent, and the ones she had became unfocused and vague.

But for Twilight, she would endure. This was their one chance, and she wasn't going to let Chrysalis buck that up.

Still, she can't last forever. Neither can Twilight.