Nature of The Experiment

by Cracked Egg

Chapter 14 - Confide

Princess Luna stormed through the hive, hacking at changelings left and right. None were maimed, but a few were injured, Luna's blunt broadsword proving enough of a weapon to do the job. As the thestrals tied the changelings up, and a few of the Night Guard were trying to clean the sticky yellow goo on them from when they tried to go through the entrance, Luna was making headway.

She barged into the lobby, and was brought to a halt in her warpath by the sight of a typical night club. The changeling bartender was cleaning a table with a rag, humming merrily. Luna sheathed her sword, and trotted up to the bartender. He looked up from his work to see a very angry Princess that was ready to toss him to the moon in a heartbeat.

He shuddered, his old chitin making a clacking sound, but calmed himself enough to return to his usual demeanor.

"Eh, can't say I was expectin' a Princess 'ere in mah bar. Ah well, take wat'cha ken git ah suppose."

He shrugged nonchalantly, and returned to his post behind the ceramic table. Tapping a hole-riddled hoof, he chuckled lightly at the glowering alicorn.

"So, ya need sumthin' Princess? How's about some Moonshine? Ya had a pretty nice stock up'n 'ere--HURK!"

He was cut off by Luna lifting him into the air with her magic. While the bartender struggled to breathe, Luna hissed.

"Do not play games with Us. Now, vile creature, tell Us where thy Queen is, and perhaps we shall spare thee."

The bartender nodded, and Luna let go. The changeling collapsed to the floor, inhaling precious lungfuls of oxygen. At least he could now say he faced an angry alicorn and lived. He weakly pointed in the direction of the throne room.

"Fine. It be 'round three doors down on yer' left. Ya won't miss it."

He coughed a few times and laid down to rest himself. The Lunar Princess nodded, and headed off towards the throne room, while calling a few thestrals to her aid. The bartender watched Luna and her guards leave with a heavy feeling of guilt.

Forgive me, my Queen...

[|||]

Princess Luna knocked on the doors with enough force to knock a house down, yet they held fast. She motioned her head towards the hinged obstructions, and her guards flew up in the air to start ramming it. A shuffling sound was heard, and Luna noticed a piece of paper had been slipped under the door.

"HALT!"

The guards all lined up behind Luna, giving their salutes. She carefully walked over to the note, and picked it up. What it said confused her to no end.

I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT I WAS PLAYING,

UNTIL I LEARNED MY FATE.

SHE JUST KEPT ON SMILING,

AND TOLD ME, "STALEMATE."

[|||]

"What do you mean speed up your plans?"

Sepia just chuckled humorlessly at my naivety. She stumbled over to me, and jumped. As I was tackled to the floor, I thought she was hugging me, but then I noticed her sniffing me.

Welp...

She gasped, with a betrayed look on her face. She crawled away from me at a speed I didn't even know was possible for a quadruped. She cupped her muzzle in her hooves as tears began to stream down her face. She pointed an accusatory hoof at me.

"Unnatural."

I froze at that word, because it had awoken a thought process within me, and it continued to churn out it's path until it finally screamed the answer.

YOU'RE AN ARTIFICIAL POKEMON WITH NO GENDER, YOU CAN'T BE HER HEIR BECAUSE YOU CAN'T REPRODUCE!

I shuddered, realizing exactly how badly I was screwing this up for her, as well as everyone else.

Boy, I sure am the center everything.

"Sepia wait..."

"NO!"

Her yell nearly threw me into a wall, but I held fast. I rose into the air, and held up my arms defensively.

"Now, we can talk this out..."

"SILENCE! YOU NEVER TOLD ME OF THIS?! EVERYTHING I PLANNED FOR IS RUINED! MY HIVE IS FINISHED!"

As she angrily shouted at me, I saw something very disturbing show in her eyes, something I knew wouldn't let me walk out of this very easily.

She was ready to murder me right then and there.

Sepia lunged in a feral snarl as I used Agility to move out of the way. I was taken off guard by the fact everything slowed down around me, with the Queen's jump now having slowed to a crawl. It was like watching a video in slow motion, but instead this was actual time. I was moving really fast, then!

I carefully examined how quickly Sepia was moving in the air. It was getting faster and faster due to Agility slowly wearing off, so I had to act now, which wasn't hard at all in this situation.

I fired a Signal Beam at her horn, the pixelated beam engulfing her horn in rainbow data packets of pure nonsense info, and perhaps The Virus as well.

Okay fine, yes of course The Virus, I wanted that out of me badly. Besides, it gave me an excuse to sneeze out a Signal Beam!

Agility wore off, and all Hell broke loose. Sepia tossed and tumbled across the floor, her horn singed from the Signal Beam. When I saw she wasn't moving, I was getting a little worried. It was only then that I noticed her body was slowly being consumed by The Virus, the rainbow pixelated mess of a blob carefully engulfing the changeling.

I had never been more terrified in my life.

The now very corrupted Queen looked over at me and smiled.

"Stalemate."

Before I knew what was even happening, she exploded in a shower of pixels.

As I just hovered there, shell-shocked, I reflected on the fact that this hive just lost their Queen because of my carelessness. Grief struck me for the first time I had come here, because I just couldn't ignore it any longer. I cried silently, cradling my own head like a baby, rocking it back and forth.

I floated over to the Queen's throne, and saw a book resting soundly on it, as if everything that just happened hadn't even mattered at all to it. I glared at the book for mocking me, but realized that I should probably write something to remember Sepia by. With a heavy heart, I placed my head over my torso, and picked up the book.

I read the title aloud.

"Compositions For The Crown."

I looked around to see if there was any threat about to barge into the room. Waiting a while, I heard nothing, so I simply sat in the throne and opened the book. The first page after the cover had a note, which I read aloud as well.

"To my dearest Sepia, may you always follow that untamable song in your heart. Let it guide you, and your Heir of Light will be found. - Miasma"

I sniffled, except I didn't have the anatomy to actually weep. As I looked through the book, I saw the many songs she had made for Princess Celestia over the years while in disguise. I checked the author, but it was a different alias each time, until I realized something. Each one was the previous Queen, who had made a song for the Princess each time.

I turned to the very last song in the book, and began to sing it.

"Fate has been cruel, and order unkind..."

"How can I have sent you away?"

"The blame was my own, the punishment yours,"

"The harmony's silent today..."

[|||]

Luna looked over the note repeatedly, trying to make some sense of it, while the guards kept trying to break down the door. Finally, after one more hit, the doors came crashing open. As the throne room doors fell to the ground in shambles, Princess Luna and her guards swarmed into the room, pointing spears at the Porygon-Z holding a songbook.

Lenkar was far too emotional to even notice the guards, but he continued to shudder in his silent despair on the throne. He felt horrible. What wrong had he done to deserve this?

Luna noticed the poor creature was occupied with the book, so she calmly approached him.

"Hello creature, art thee owner of this hive?"

The Porygon-Z looked up from the book, and nearly fell out of the chair.

"N... no. I'm not."

He was completely still, but his head moved in a rigid fashion to look at where Sepia had been.

"The Queen is dead. I killed her."

He grabbed his beak, and shivered, silently cursing everything.

"Why..."

Everypony else in the room was taken aback. Luna glanced between the Porygon-Z and the rainbow pixel stain on the floor. Lenkar was now holding the book against his beak, as if fearing he might fell another if he dare remove it. Luna carefully stepped towards him, and rested a hoof on his tail.

"Tis' alright."

He shook his head.

"No, it isn't."

He sighed deeply, the mechanical whirring feeling just like what Sepia called him.

Unnatural.

He couldn't believe it. One moment he was fooling around with Sepia and her changeling, the next he had shattered her like glass without even trying.

Unnatural.

It was too much for the man. He was supposed to be a scientist, where the only thing he had to worry about was if the Project was going to blow up. Ironically, that's exactly how he got here.

Luna wrapped a wing around the red and blue bird, sitting next to him in the sizable throne. He leaned into Luna, silently and tearlessly sobbing. Holding the book close to him, he sung a few lines of the song to calm his nerves.

"Once did a pony who shone like the sun, look out on her kingdom and sigh."

Luna's attention snapped to what Lenkar was singing, not having heard of such a song before. A false happiness appeared in Lenkar's dartboard eyes as he sang the next part.

"She smiled and said, 'Surely there is no pony so lovely, and so well beloved as I.'"

Recognition flashed on the Lunar mare's features, remembering the fateful day all too well.

"So great was her reign, and so brilliant her glory that long was the shadow she cast."

He gazed up at Luna, with fear present in him.

"Which fell dark upon the young sister she loved, and grew only darker as days and nights passed."

Luna sniffed, having found herself crying. Wiping her eyes with a hoof, she lifted the songbook in her aura. As she saw the book, she noticed it was written so it sounded like Celestia was singing her to sleep. She saw the title of the music.

Lullaby For A Princess...

Luna looked down at the Porygon-Z, who had passed out from exhaustion, his head dropping a little before rising slightly again in sleep. Luna smiled softly, nuzzling Lenkar, and carefully lifted him into the air with her magic. She stopped in front of her guards, and levitated the sleeping Pokemon over to the thestrals.

"Take this one back to Ponyville, do not wake it."

She gave one more glimpse at the pixelated stain on the ground.

"It has had a rough day."

[|||]

Yet such is the way of the limelight, it sweetly takes hold of the mind of it's host.

And that foolish pony did nothing to stop, the destruction of one who had needed her most.

I groaned a little, my head and heart breaking at the same time. As I examined the featureless void, I held my head in my arms again. I was startled out of my sulking by a blinding flash.

A rift opened once more, as MISSINGNO. made it's way towards me.

I stayed where I was.

"I hate you."

A sound like a screeching alarm made of random beeping noises echoed throughout the blank black expanse. It seemed almost like MISSINGNO. was... laughing.

"YOU WOULD NOT BE THE FIRST, NOR THE LAST TO DO SO."

I cringed, bracing for the pain that came with it's speech, but nothing happened. I glanced around, only to see nothing. The sky wasn't a mess like it had been when it first visited. MISSINGNO. closed it's rift, and floated over next to me.

While I crossed my arms and sighed, MISSINGNO. shifted a bit, turning itself slightly toward me.

"I DO NOT CORRUPT ON PURPOSE. WE ARE SIMILAR IN THAT REGARD, ARE WE NOT?"

I looked at MISSINGNO., then back at the endless void around us, chuckling emptily.

"Yeah. I guess you're right."

And so, I made a friend with error itself that day.

Author's Note:

...

Constructive... criticism... oh, you know the drill.

Comments

[gamer91]

First comment... Way of.
Third comment... Spot on

[gamer91]

I refer to my comments on the previous chapter

[Cracked Egg]

6452772

He can't, which is why everything goes nuts.

Details, m'lad.

Details.

[Tephera]

... Great now the chapters finished.

Gayd daynmit!

[Cracked Egg]

6455005

BA-DUM TSSH.

6455023

I shall quench your thirst soon, m'lad.

Soon.