//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 : Revelation : // Story: Without Notice // by MrSuicide //------------------------------// Without Notice – Chapter 3 : Revelation : _____________________________________________________________________________ Ditzy Doo widened her eyes. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing reflecting off of that mirror. Last time she checked, she was a blond mane, grey coat cross-eyed Ponyville mailmare, but looking at the mirror right now, that description didn’t seem quite believable anymore. She still had her grey coat and blond mane intact. Well, okay, her wing looked oddly “undamaged” even though she was supposedly struck by thunder she admitted. But the most important change was that she now had a long grey horn sticking out of her head. Really, a horn! What in Equestria’s name is going on? Or, specifically, why was her mind making this up? She was never an Alicorn to begin with and knew she hasn’t gone crazy yet. She stared hard at the mirror, trying to see if it would swift its image of her. It never did. The next thing she tried was rubbing her eyes with her hooves. Still, the image of an Alicorn still reflected off of the mirror. “Ok. How about if I tried doing this?” *Bang….bang….* The mare had decided that in order to change the mirror’s “perspective” of her, she had to “fix” her head in order to make it stop its nonsensical fantasies that it had been producing. So, she simply went up to one side of the room and began to thrust her head onto the wall. Sadly, it didn’t quite work as well as she had wanted it to work. She looked back at the mirror which was positioned at the far side of the room, faced towards the door that she had entered the room from. There… On the mirror… Stood an Alicorn…whose head had a tad bit of a bruise mark. “Oh for buck’s sakes…I guess my mind isn’t playing tricks on me…” She sighed… *Whisper…* She quickly looked around the room. No pony, but herself was in it. What was that? Was this room haunted? Was that why the guards let her into this room and yet, not into the other ones? *Whisper…* She was a bit frightened. Luckily for her, the whispers eventually grew more and more into an audible level for her to hear. Your purpose…No, your value is far too great to lose. I shall not loose you to the retched light in your name! It truly felt awesome that somepony needed her for the first time, but she was never “great” to begin with. Labeling the word “great” on her may be a bit insane even. Besides, how was she great to begin with? She can remember all of her horrible, miserable days like it were yesterday. Whenever she tried to help, other ponies would simply brush her off without any hesitation. When she did get the chance to help however, other ponies would purposefully make it seem that she was a klutz. The “mask” that she wore did help lessen the pain, but sometimes, the pain would be too great for it to contain. At those times of mental or physical suffering, she would usually head straight to bed, not bothering to have dinner and silently cry herself to sleep. Sometimes, she would question the very existence of her life. And sometimes, she would even consider taking her own life, but she never did. She believed that every pony would take that as a sign that she gave in to their harassments if she did. She shook those thoughts away. There was no time to think about memories of a past life. Speaking of time, she wondered if it was still in the morning, afternoon or night… Surprisingly enough, there weren’t any clocks in this room, or anywhere that she has visited in this mansion thus far… *Shrug…* She looked at the mirror again. Was that what the whisper meant when her value was far too great to lose? But…she still doesn’t quite understand why it had to be her or how did Princess Celestria and Princess Luna got defeated so easily… She had many questions, but simply, not enough time. She shook her head and sighed. She figured that she might as well leave this room now because from just staring at herself, it gave her the creeps. She trotted to the door…open to find it locked. Dang. It must have been the work of that stallion, but why did he want to exterminate her in the first place? Sure, she had a horn now, but she was clearly inexperienced with one. Heck, she didn’t even understand how to even “start it up”. She trotted back to the mirror and thrust her head onto it in frustration. What she didn’t know was that the mirror surprisingly gave away, revealing a secret entrance with stairs leading underground. What kind of pony would keep their secret “domain” behind a mirror? Heck, even she was wise enough to not keep something extremely secret behind something as fragile as this. Out of curiosity and “boredom”, she decided to journey down the stairs rather than wait for outside assistance with unlocking the door. Besides, she wanted to know what was going on… When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she witnessed unimagined horrors. In this room…no, dungeon, there were many ponies strapped onto what appears to be medical tables. Were they even ponies? The things had half of their bodies covered with a sea greenish black coating and had their manes changed to a dark arctic bluish gray color. The non-Pegasus “ponies” were growing sky blue wings while the Pegasus’ wings themselves were slowly changing into the said wings. The Unicorns’ horns were slowly molded to be more curved and non-Unicorn “ponies” were growing a curved horn. All of them were stripped of their genders and cutie marks. They all appeared to be unconscious for the most part. For fear, she didn’t trot anywhere close to them and decided to stick to trotting near the dungeon’s walls, towards the other end where the path continued. She felt sorry for them and at most, they reminded her of them, forcibly changed, but not to the extent they were placed through. Unlike them, she went through what became the existence of her “mask” due to the abuse she had received. She shook those thoughts away. She had more pressing matters to attend, one of them being able to get out of this horrible dungeon. Once she got to the other side, she quietly closed the large wooden doors behind her before trotting ahead. She couldn’t stand looking back or risk being assaulted by those…things. A brief trot later, she found herself staring at multiple tubes mounted on the walls and on the ceiling. These clear screened tubes had what looked like ponies of all types “swimming” in them. It was more like their bodies were being rapidly transported to an unknown location that she dared not even imagine. She continued on, witnessing some ponies were “nicely” stacked in small piles. They were still physically unchanged for the most part, but when she went to observe them up close, they bared moderate artic blue eyes and had fangs sticking out of their mouths. For whatever reason, she decided to poke them. They felt cold, like they were…not alive at all. She quickly jumped back at the realization. Exactly what was this place and its sole purpose? Guess that stallion has a lot of questioning to do when she got back to him…that is, if she can after she’s done with this “tour”. She continued to trot along the pathway, head lowered due to the horrors she had seen. After coming across some more tubes, she was met with two large wooden doors. She can finally get out of this horrid place. Not exactly… She entered to what looked like an equipment room. Towards her left were glaives and shields on weapon racks. Towards her right was a large map of Equestria nailed to its wall. There were numerous red “X” marks on selective cities and towns, one of them being on Ponyville, stating that said town or city has already been conquered. It didn’t seem like anywhere was free…say, Manehattan. Judging from the reports that lay in front of the map, Manehattan was putting up quite the resistance for their forces to occupy…stating that the ponies of Manehattan employed guerilla warfare that constantly depleted their forces whenever they attempted to suppress them. Apparently, the stallion in control was called “Tyrant” and had her as his second in command. Wait. She was his second in command? Why would she commit these unimagined horrors? She couldn’t even possibly hurt a fly! But for whatever reason, she shed a tear and with resolve, she wanted to make things right again, even if she wasn’t directly responsible since technically, she didn’t “arrive here” since a few “minutes” ago. Well, she assumed it was only a few “minutes” ago since she did have a lot of trouble contacting a clock after all… “…So you see Albert…” Oh horse apples. She can’t just get found out now, but why was she frightened? According to these folders, she was indeed his second in command, but she still felt insecure around his presence. She quickly placed back the folders she had opened to its previous state. As fast as she could, she attempted to search for a hiding spot. “My second in command may be awake now, but I think she has changed greatly after that incident. I don’t think we should trust her as easily as we did in the past…” The overhead air ducts! It did look large enough for her to fit into… She was still the same size as she was before she “first perished”; why not try her hooves at that? Besides, she got the chance to test out the “full extent” of her recently acquired magic. She flew up to one of the air duct openings and started to squint. “…When she looked at me, she didn’t quite seem like she was her past self anymore…” Her horn glowed yellow. Success is at hoof! “…She looked more like a frightened filly who disobeyed her parent or something.” She easily removed the four nails and the air duct opening, levitating them in her yellow glow. She physically got into the air ducts while trying hard not to make as much sound. “She didn’t even realize that I was in my shape shifter form!” Tyrant and Albert had just entered the "equipment room" when she finally got into the air ducts. With "skill" and patience, she silently closed the opening with her magic without them knowing. Silently, she examined the occupants below, only to witness Tyrant change his form. He, no, she looked like one of those…things that she had seen in the tubes and on the medical tables. “Albert, please do me a favor and look for Derpy Hooves before she goes somewhere she isn’t supposed to go to…” “At your command, Queen Chrysalis…” Albert replied. _____________________________________________________________________________