The ROB had gotten fed up with me. He'd wanted to see me suffer in Equestria, not make friends, and have the ponies become so used to me being transported there that they didn't care anymore and instead just greeted me as an old friend come to visit.
Now, he was angry. After teleporting me from Equestria - for what I didn't hope would be the last time - he brought me to his twisted domain and there he subjected me to the most brutal of tortures. Brain Washing. Starvation. Exhaustion. Physical tortures undreamed of, unwitnessed, by mortal eyes. And no matter what he put me through there, always floating behind him were four lights of quintessence; the very essence of magic.
"All you have to do to make this end," he said as he gently stripped slivers of skin from my body, "is tell me there are five lights instead of four."
"All you have to do to make this end," he said as he contorted my body into painful shapes, "is tell me there are five lights instead of four."
"All you have to do to make this end," he said as he wouldn't let me sleep, "is tell me there are five lights instead of four."
"All you have to do to make this end," he said as he starved me slowly, "is tell me there are five lights instead of four."
"...five lights instead of four."
"...five lights..."
"...five lights..."
"...five lights..."
I wasn't Captain Picard of Star Trek the Next Generation, though I admit I tried to be strong through it all, tried - like him - to not let myself be broken. I failed. Horribly. And in the end - after countless months...
"... there... are... five... lights..." I rasped through my bloodied muzzle. "Five... lights..."
"Good boy," the ROB stated. Then - "bored now" - with a snap of his fingers, I was in Equestria again--but this time, in the worst place I could have possibly ended up. The Badlands. In the middle of a sandstorm. Howling winds battered my body, getting sand everywhere - into my eyes, nose, mouth, and wounds - setting my nerves aflame in agony! I limped along on three legs - my fourth broken - as I struggled to... to go... to go... where?
A raspy croak escaped me as I collapsed. Before the world faded away... I thought I heard the sound of... buzzing wings?
* * *
### Scout Drone 4893 submits following: have spotted pony in sandstorm. Pony greviously wounded; possibly dying. Orders requested.
### Tactical Drone 3741 commands Scout Drone 4893: State species of Pony.
### Scout Drone 4893 submits following intel to Tactical Drone 3741: Pony is Earth Pony; tan-coated, brown-maned, hazel-eyed; image of computer crossed with screwdriver on flank.
### QUEEN CHRYSALIS WILL SPEAK. ALL DRONES WILL CEASE COMMUNICATION. MEDICAL DRONES 7865, 9809, 3453, 4564, 1910, 2454 WILL JOIN TACTICAL DRONE 3741 AND SCOUT DRONE 4893. INITIATE RETRIEVAL OR YOUR ESSENCE WILL BE RETURNED TO THE EVER-MEMORY. QUEEN CHRYSALIS HAS SPOKEN.
### Scout Drone 4893 Hears and Obeys.
### Tactical Drone 3741 Hears and Obeys.
### Medical Drones 7865, 9809, 3453, 4564, 1910, 2454 Hear and Obey. Moving to join Scout Drone 4893 and Tactical Drone 3741. ETA 15 Grains.
### QUEEN CHRYSALIS WILL SPEAK. YOU WILL MAKE IT FIVE GRAINS OR SO HELP ME... QUEEN CHRYSALIS HAS SPOKEN.
* * *
When her drones brought the pony - David - before her, it took all of the Queen's iron will and focus not to break down sobbing at the sight of him. Her friend, her gentle, beloved friend had been... the only word she could find was "brutalized"; and that was from pony vocabulary, for there were no words in Hempid to describe, let alone comprehend, what had been done to him. No sooner had the brought him before her than "OUT! OUT! ALL OF YOU, OUT!" she thundered, both physically and through the Ever-Memory. Once her drones were gone, a spell from her sealed the doors and then Queen Chrysalis was weeping as she gently carried her friend with her magic to her personal chambers above the throne-cavern. Tears streaming from her harlequin eyes, Chrysalis eased him gently into the cool, essence-lined cocoon-sac she used as a bed and then... she began to tend to him.
Gently, tenderly, lovingly, the Queen licked his body with her tongue, cleaning the sand from his ruined flesh; then she adapted her tongue to cleanse his eyes, nose, mouth, his hooves, and even his intimate places. When he erected as she cleaned his sheathe and testes, the Queen didn't care; in fact, she rolled - covering them both in the viscous liquids generated within the cocoon-sac - as she took him inside her, sobbing gently in pleasure. Making love to David, with David, for David - her beloved friend, her only companion, the One Pony she wanted as King - she kissed him, slow, gentle, lingering, dripping into his mouth copious amounts of her nutritious saliva and her even more potent Royal Jelly. She knew not truly what it might do to him--but it would heal him and that was enough for her.
She did not move as she made love to him; the Queen just took him in as deep as possible and then lay with him inside her, letting her internal muscles do as they would, an indescribable dance that brought them closer and closer as she kiss-fed him again and again, and again. "Mh-My King...!" she whimpered closing her eyes as she climaxed, feeling him release within her, too. Then, she opened her eyes--to meet his own hazel. Keeping him inside her, drawing close, cuddling gently healing flesh, she cried with relief as he slurred, "Chrys--ssie..." Unable to form words, so palpable was her relief, Queen Chrysalis nestled even closer to him, continuing to hold him inside and out as she whispered, "Oh, my King, my King... What happened to you?"
David's answer... chilled her to the core...
"First day he came and took me away.
Second day, never fed me, not even hay.
Third day, no sensation, and sleep deprivation.
Fourth day, five lights or he wouldn't be nice.
Fifth day, his hatred grew as rhetoric he'd spew.
Sixth day, my screams as he twisted my dreams.
Seventh day, mind taken, humanity forsaken,
Eighth day, was pain from contortions insane.
N-Ninth day he'd grin... and again, he'd begin."
By the time the final word of the horrifying poem escaped David's cracked lips, Chrysalis was seething with rage inside even as she keened softly for her beloved. No matter what it took, no matter what she had to slaughter, betray, and sacrifice, she vowed that she would find this ROB - this Random Omnipotent Being - and make him suffer before she killed him. David did eventually recover, though he was forever changed; he stayed very close to her, having developed skittishness akin to the Element of Kindness. Tics and spasms suffused his body, long remnants of the brutality he'd gone through. He walked with a permanent limp. Nightmares often haunted him.
Chrysalis didn't care; she hadn't wanted him for his body. When he was lucid, David was her beloved friend and a great King; bright, funny, kind, thoughtful, gentle and wise, often coming up with bold, new ideas and sometimes little things that might help her and her hive--and he was a wonderful lover. But then, sometimes, just sometimes...
As her four drones stood before her delivering their report, tucked beneath her wing, David raised his half-furred, half-chitin covered head to look at them, but his eyes were unfocused as he saw only something he could see. All stopped as Chrysalis immediately focused on her King. "There... are... five... drones...!" David whimpered with voice of frightened colt. "Five... drones..." Even as the scouts stopped what they were doing to surround him, nuzzling, nosing, conveying that he was not alone, Chrysalis closed her eyes, tears threatening to fall. "Yes, David," she whispered, knowing there was nothing she could do to convince him otherwise, "there are five drones."