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Shatterpoint1,539 words

Shatterpoint

The cocoon cracked with a sound that shattered through her bones and brought Twilight’s eyes widening against heavy liquid. Fire traced her limbs and her forehooves came up, appearing black through the horrid sludge. Strength she couldn't name brought them slamming against the strange wall and she lashed her head forward, foreign instincts forcing her mouth open to bite at the fleshy prison. Somehow it caught her teeth and gave way, tearing a long strip into the walls of her small world.

The first attempt at breathing did little but jerk her head forward in a racking cough, breaking into the light. Her lungs forcibly ejected the gunk, leaving it to dribble from her mouth. Her ears and legs still burned, as did something rising from her back. She couldn't name where the alien pain stemmed from and, after her throat and lungs were clear, she whipped her head around with wide, terrified eyes.

Gossamer wings spiked from her coal-black back; a green shell wrapped her torso. When she brought a hoof to her mouth to muffle the scream she could feel bubbling in her chest, she found out exactly how she’d torn from her prison. Her teeth were sharp enough to cut. Her blood wasn't even red, but a stomach-lurching green.

That was it. The scream reverberated through her chest and through the air. Struggling madly, she fished herself from her prison and crashed into the slime-soaked obsidian floor.

“Well, you reacted well.”

Twilight reeled to see Chrysalis watching her, looking slightly bored.

“Turn me back!” she screeched, though it became more of a hiss.

Chrysalis shrugged, waving one long foreleg. “Even if I could, I wouldn't. You are here for a reason. If I could, I’d lock you away and be done with it. Unfortunately for both of us, that is no longer an option.”

“I don’t believe you,” Twilight squeaked.

“I don’t require your belief.” Chysalis snapped, teeth gleaming as she stepped closer to Twilight and stamped a hoof, eyes narrowed. “We are what we are, and you can’t change it. Best you make what you can of it.”

Twilight shuddered, even as she fought to mold this spotty odd form of magic inside her to her will, but the feeling of mentally gripping it sent a shudder through her, and she quickly let it trickle away.

This creature had twisted and mangled it and taken it from her. Her heart plummeted to her hooves. The shell left behind was hard, cold and angry.

Her head lurched down to chest-level, horn pointed as a spear at the creature who’d taken everything that mattered away from her. Twilight stood and lurched forward into a mad dash, fire flaring in her stomach and on the edges of the new holes in her hooves as the air whipped through them.

And then her anger pulled something else forward, a great cacophony of warmth and light that flooded her veins and reminded her that she did, in fact, still have a heart. Green magic blossomed around her twisted horn and the agonizing fire faded.
Twilight fell to her haunches, unable to help herself from reveling in the familiar magical warmth around her horn and the power that spiked her whole body, taking all the pain away.

Then that euphoria was jerked away and a band of burning-cold ice blazed to life around her neck. The fire returned, barely dulled, and her head spun wildly. “W-what just happened?”

“That, Twilight, is the reason you are here. You have a bad habit of meddling, so that is all you shall learn of my reasons. Now, I have a few orders to impart before I leave you. You are my drone and must obey—but I am smart enough to trust you have no budding loyalty to me yet.” Around Chrysalis’ horn budded the emerald fire of her magic.

The ice around Twilight’s neck tightened and her eyes slipped shut. A numbness slipped over her body and sank in, and she found she couldn't move. Her mind drew to a sluggish halt. When Chrysalis again spoke, it was magic to magic—directly engraving her orders into Twilight’s mind.

‘You will not try to, or accept, contact from anyone you used to know. Why would they want to see what you have become?’

‘You will not try to instill rebellion in any changeling you talk to, including Syril or any other royal.’

‘You will not attempt to escape.’

‘You will learn of our law and remember that it applies to you as well. You will face the same rewards and punishments as any other changeling.’

‘You will never attempt to hurt me or my son. The same goes for any other changeling, save in self-defence. Even then, you shall not kill. The right to kill is mine alone.’

‘If and when I contact your magic just as this, you will remain in this state until I leave you be.’

The numbing pressure left Twilight with trembling legs and she was glad she’d been sitting. With one shaking hoof, she traced the band of ice and pulled the pendent to where she could see it. Pale white with a ghostly-green hue and an elliptical form,she shivered at the sight of it. “What is this? Was it how you stopped me from talking in my dream?”

“Why, is it not tradition to give a pony a gift on their birthday? This is a new life for you, after all, and there is no going back.”
Determination rose in Twilight like the dawn sun. “Then I’ll find a way back to how I was myself.”

Chrysalis’ laughter went on long and hard, and her expression went from imperious to amused in half a second. “The greatest scholars of our time have long tried and long failed, Twilight Sparkle. But very well. Later we will discuss library access for you, if you cause no trouble. A lab could be arranged as well, if you continue to impress, so long as others handle anything that could be used as a weapon. We possess much of pony knowledge, as well as the kelpie’s and gryphon’s, not to mention our own. Think of all you could learn. Now, wait here. Someling will be in to take you to wash all that off and show you around. Do try to break the implanted rules, for it would amuse me.”

Twilight could only stare as the queen left, more unnerved by her unexpected amusement than her earlier venomous attitude. Drawing in a breath and releasing it slowly, she turned to studying her new form, staying as calm as she could. Her fur was gone, replaced by a cool layer of chitin, but she could feel through it better. It was stiff, but not completely, she found when she pressed one hoof to her chest. Her now green mane and tail were silkier and clung together, similar in a way to the princesses’ manes, but limp and peppered with holes at the tips, just like Chrysalis’. Her stripes were now faded shades of violet and blue.

At least it wasn't the webbing she’d seen on the other changelings. She did look much more like Chrysalis than the soldiers. Why?
Storing the thought for later, Twilight poked at the hard shell around her torso. She couldn't feel through it or move it, and had no way of figuring out what it was. Giving it up for a lost cause, she turned to her frail wings.

They were flimsy and ghostlike, but they did hold a sort of gossamer charm to them—except for the fact that they were on her back when they had no right to be. And, by Celestia, they were sensitive. The dry air weighed on them, even windless, and the holes were burning again. A sort of numbness overtaking her, Twilight raised one foreleg and peered through a prominent hole near the hoof.

“What now?” she muttered weakly as the fight ebbed from her. She could feel Chrysalis’ magic orders buzzing like a hive of hornets at the back of her mind. Experimentally, she paced towards the window and moved to test the bars. She walked there alright, but her hoof refused to raise itself to touch them. When she tried to imagine her friends rescuing her, a trace of horror at what they would think of her now traced her mind and grew fiercer the more she thought.

Was she weak to mistrust them so easily? How much could this strange magic do to her? Would it keep getting worse? She felt like a dusty marionette—helpless. And what was worse was that she was perfectly aware it was happening. She trusted her friends more than this. She knew she did.

So, why was she afraid?

Twilight couldn't help herself. In a strange and alien body that burned, in a towering spire of rock, with escape right in front of her that she could not reach and budding fear forced upon her of the things that mattered most, she buried her muzzle into her forelegs and wept.

Author's Note:

So, I'm alive! *Recorded Applause Plays*
I'm so sorry for the wait everyone. I hope this chapter is alright.

Also, I've got a tech issue. When I copy in from Google Dox, the paragraph formatting is lost and I have to go through and do it again. Does anypony happen to know a way to fix that?

Thanks for the read! Ta!

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Bigou

Bigou #1 · Jan 13th, 2015 · · ·

You're not the first one to pester about this, so I suppose it's a known bug. Probably linked to how Google Docs handle said formating and, before you ask, the same problem exist with any text document imported from a software like LibreOffice Writer, Ms Word or even from (Microsoft) Office Online to Google Docs/Google Drive, then converted into Google's format.

So unless Google correct the problem, or FiMfiction add the possibility to import docs from another web text processing, or directly from .odt files, I fear you're stuck with doing your paragraph formatting a second time for every chapters.

Goldengriffiness

Goldengriffiness #2 · Jan 13th, 2015 · · ·

5499518 Ah well, at least I know now.
Thanks for the scoop! :)

Arzoo

Arzoo #3 · Jan 13th, 2015 · · ·

It's alive!

I'll be honest, I had to go back and reread from the beginning because I had no clue what this was about after so long.

Arzoo

Arzoo #4 · Jan 13th, 2015 · · ·

Is there anything stopping her from removing the necklace? I mean, with the implanted commands it's a bit late for her to seek help, but it's a little weird that she would willingly continue to wear it.

Goldengriffiness

Goldengriffiness #5 · Jan 13th, 2015 · · ·

5499845 She's panicking at the moment, and she also assumes that if she's been snared this badly, old queenie's likely to have been carefull. But beyond that, that would also be escaping, and the drone commands are quite powerful. Don't worry, she'll notice that later, and realize it was awfully strange she didn't try to take the thing off from the start.
Good eye ;)

Meta Knight

Meta Knight #6 · Jan 13th, 2015 · · ·

wow man IT has been awhile since I've seen this gotta say I love the story and the ones you have on fanfiction

Mauser1888

Mauser1888 #7 · Jan 18th, 2015 · · ·

So thrilled to see this updated! I did have to go back and reread the story from the beginning, but it was well worth it. I do hope there will be more frequent updates in the future.

Poor Twilight...

Goldengriffiness

Goldengriffiness #8 · Jan 19th, 2015 · · ·

5519308 Yup I hope to try, got a chunk of the next done already, but need my friend's help because guys are hard for me to write at times. Dang you Changling Prince who I don't think I've stated the name of yet. XD

Goldengriffiness