//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: I'm a bug. F*** // by Smrrt //------------------------------// "Is everything ready?!" Chrysalis yelled into the huge cavern, getting impatient. The past two weeks, she hadn't been in the best of moods. The failed Canterlot invasion still stung, especially when one considered it was only one slight oversight that cost the changelings their victory. The actual purpose of the invasion was to get a "Welcome Home Present" for Chrysalis' daughter Jadira. In the end, she had to result to only giving her a beautiful necklace with a jade inside of it. That is, if everything went correct. The preparations for the transportation ritual, which would take their princess from earth to Equestria, had been going on for 6 months by now. It had taken some time to place the four crystal pillars in a square position, while at the same time, the changelings needed to make sure that they were always charged with magic. The next step had been less of a physical task and more of a mental one. The spells that had been woven in the cavern's walls and the ground were so complicated that a single mistake would mean they would have to start from scratch. When you wanted to travel safely to another world, you had no other choice than to stick to protocol. Unless you wanted to run the risk of getting your atoms smashed into the tiny pieces they were made of. "Everything is ready my Queen." one of the changelings saluted. "We're done with the final check-up. Everything is in order. You can start, whenever you want." "Finally." Chrysalis shoved her underling aside and walked into the center of the room. The changelings who had been working on this project, quickly flew to the sidelines and watched their Queen with anticipation. The prospect of their princess finally returning home got the entire hive excited. She was supposed to be a different kind of changeling, since she was breed from Chrysalis, a regular changeling queen and some other creature, called a human. The doctors and scientists couldn't wait to have a first look at her. The Queen's horn started to glow in the familiar green light. At the same time each of the pillars started to glow. From each pillar, a green light appeared on the ground, connecting to where the Queen was standing. The ritual had begun. Laura was bored shitless out of her mind. Her new book had yet to arrive at the local store, for reasons beyond her. It was supposed to be there yesterday! So now she was sulking on her bed alone, her friends gone for the holidays and her dad overseas because of his job. Fun fact about her dad, just like Laura, he was a fan of the show My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic. He especially seemed to have taken a liking to the new villain Chrysalis. If Laura was honest, she preferred Discord every day. Thinking of the show, she glanced over to her computer. She could watch an episode now or she could look up on youtube what the fans had come up with for the changelings. Last time checked, there had been a reference video to the Matrix movie. On the other hand, after having her spirits crushed, she didn't feel like watching videos. In fact, she didn't feel like doing anything at all today. She looked outside her window. The weather was nice. Not too hot, with a small breeze every now and again. Come to think of it, she always wanted to just lay outside in the grass on a warm summer day and sleep through the entire day. She never came to it though. Seeing as she had nothing better to do, she walked downstairs and out into the backyard of her house. Finding a spot that didn't have little things like rocks and such, which would hurt her back, she laid down and closed her eyes. 40 minutes later she was out like a light. Chrysalis could feel it. After many hours, she finally pinpointed the location of her daughter. Seeking her out of billions of creatures normally would have been difficult, if not for the fact that there had been only two magic signatures on the planet. One she quickly recognized as her husband's necklace, from which she herself owned a duplicate. As much as she would like to bring him over as well, the hive had only stored enough love for one transport. Her husband would know what was going on, so she focused on the other magical signature. The Queen had a hard time suppressing her excitement, but she needed to keep her emotions under control or else this might go horribly wrong. The critical part of the ritual, the actual transportation, began. The Queen's horn glowed even brighter than before and green electric sparks came out of the pillars. One poor changeling got fried. The fella raised a hoof, indicating to the rest that he was okay. The Queen didn't notice this. She had just "picked up" her daughter, so to speak and began to "carry" her to Equs. Beads of sweat started to roll down the queen's face, but she ignored it. She was almost done and nothing would distract her from accomplishing her goal. Not the underlings shuffling nervously on the side, not the fried one who just regained the ability to get and certainly not that itch that had been bothering her for a good hour. I could really use a scratch on my- NO!! Because of the distracting thought, she lost the grip on her magic, which then backfired at her. The lights from the pillars wavered, one of them send out even more violent sparks. "No, no, no, NO!!!" Chrysalis shouted, trying to regain her focus, but it was too late. One of the sparks hit her directly on the horn, sending her flying to the ground. Then everything went silent. "My Queen!" Everyling shouted and flew towards the fallen ling. As they arrived, Chrysalis raised her head. "Equestria...find...her..." and she lost consciousness. "Best. Nap. Ever." Laura stretched her arms, her eyes still closed. She faintly remembered having a dream flying through some sort of tunnel, while sleeping. It had been pretty relaxing for some reason and right now the aspect of lying just a little while longer was very inviting, if not for one thing: she was hungry. Begrudgingly Laura got into sitting position and rubbed her sleep out of her eyes. And stared. And stared. And stared. And continued to stare as an entire herd of candy colored ponies stared back in fear. Damn, what did I drink? Was the first thought that crossed Laura's mind, still staring back. Must be a dream. "Uh, hi?" she raised a, wait a minute, claw?!?! "RUN!" Somepony screamed, causing everything to fall into chaos. Ponies ran in random directions, trying to get away as fast as possible. Suddenly Laura found herself dodging ponies left and right, silently wishing she wore something more flexible than a jeans. She got knocked to the ground by a pony that looked like Lyra. Luckily none of the equines trampled over her. Laura rubbed her sides, getting up again and found out that nopony was left. What was more, she then noticed the houses right in front of her. "This looks like- What the hell is up with my voice?!" she shouted, her voice taking a dark undertone, like Queen Chrysalis' voice had. Remembering what she saw earlier, she raised her hand. It was not a hand anymore, but more like a claw. Her skin was black, her nails a little longer, beautifully sharp and in a green color. In a slight panic, Laura raised her second hand and looked down the entire arm. Black. Her entire skin, no, chitin was black! She was an insect woman! Looking down, she still wore her green t-shirt and jeans, but her shoes were gone! Plus instead of feet, there were those hoof-like things, changelings had. I am an anthro changeling!! she realized. Looking on her back, there were two pair of insect wings sticking out. Somehow they managed to put some holes into her shirt. Reaching up, eeyup! There was the changeling horn. And a little crown! Wow! She reached into her pocket and took out a small package of Skittles. "I really need to hold myself back with those things." she said and downed the entire thing. I'm lucid dreaming about being a changeling queen. In anthro. Hmm, can I fly? Insects don't really learn to fly, they just can do it. Somehow. Just as the thought left her mind, her wings buzzed for bit, getting her a few centimeters of the ground, before she dropped back again. She could feel the wings as additional limbs. It was as if she had had them for her entire life. Without thinking much, she lifted herself off the ground again for a couple of seconds. This is awesome! I can't wait to- whoa, look at my hair! This blue-green looks cool. Hey, it's even a little sparkly! Wonder why that is? Chrysalis' mane wasn't like that. Oh well, I should check this place out, before the dream ends! Feeling confident, Laura flew upwards towards the skies of Ponyville, admiring the scenery. The air was a little cooler up there, but still bearable. Choosing a random direction, she flew towards what appeared to be Golden Oaks Library. It really stood out with all the houses. The wind that blew against her face during the flight, caused an adrenaline rush in the girl's body. Beneath her, ponies were running away at the sight of her shadow, closing windows and doors and from the sounds of things, barricading them. Laura didn't mind. She had her eyes set for the library. She already managed to lower her height, although she dropped faster than anticipated, almost hitting the ground. Maybe she needed a little practice after all. Deciding that it would be safer to walk on foot or rather hoof (How do I keep my balance with these things?! Oh right, I have a tail now.), she walked. "Eh, looks better as a cartoon." Laura muttered to herself, when she arrived in front of the door. She was about to knock, when she remembered that technically, this was a private library. With that logic, she just opened the unlocked door and walked inside. The smell of books and ink hit her nose and... "Holy shit! That's a ton!" Laura exclaimed. It actually didn't look that big from the outside. "Hello?" Nobody seemed to be around. Maybe Spike and Twilight were hiding too? Shrugging, she walked over to one of the shelves and looked at the various titles. "Daring Do and the Sapphire Stone, Daring Do and the four Crystal Skulls...jeez, that's a lot of Daring Do books. More than Indianer Jones' movies, that's for sure. Dang, that voice." Not sure whether it is annoying or cool. A sudden noise caught Laura's attention. Turning around, the last thing she saw was "1001 ways to keep dust of your books". Twilight closed the last shackle, looking triumphantly down at the changeling. It looked different from the ones she saw in Canterlot, but he or she or it was a changeling none the less. Safe was safe. And Spike thought the shackles were unnecessary creepy, making her look like a mad scientist. Twilight wasn't mad, just careful. Also for the record, Twilight Sparkle was actually a very tolerable pony. You could see that on how she was the only pony not freaking out over Zecora's appearance. However, that was the thing: she was only a pony. And as a pony she loved some things, she disliked some things, she tolerated some things and she hated some things. A few examples for the last being: tardiness, ponies that weren't careful with their books, magic kindergarten and changelings.