Nymphetamine: The Heart's Price

by Architect Ironturtle

7: A Gang, a Bug, and a Mutant Walk Into a Warehouse

Shining Armor galloped through the streets of Vanhoover, a silent fury powering his steps. Alex had gone too far. Running away after a disastrous transformation was one thing, anypony would panic if thrust into that position, but stealing evidence from an active case file? Especially his case file? That crossed the line, then turned around and stepped over it a second time for good measure. But didn't that place him back where he...? Shining shook his head to dislodge the faulty metaphor and kept running.

The scrying records had screamed Alex's guilt, as they plainly showed him, along with the strange mare from the hospital, plundering the storage lockers. Whoever she was, she was an extremely skilled mage, since even Twilight would have found an invisibility spell a challenge, and the footage showed her casting something just before they became untraceable. That was why Shining was in such a rush. If Alex was erasing his tracks he only had one other place he needed to visit, and if Shining waited until tomorrow it might already be too late. He had to move now, while the lead was still fresh.

Shining turned onto Alex's street and slowed to a brisk trot. Galloping hooves made a lot of noise, and he didn't want to scare Alex away if he was nearby. It was just a little farther...

88888888

"Ok, here's the plan," Alex whispered as he and Chrysalis eyed the lone remaining guard watching his home from deep in Alex's backyard, "I'll slip behind him, and when I give the signal, you yank his helmet off. I can take him down once he's vulnerable."

Chrysalis nodded, emitting nothing but a slight undercurrent of tension, and Alex adjusted his armor a little to make it quieter before creeping forward, slowly but surely making his way into striking range while staying out of the guard's widened line of sight. Once he had gotten about two feet away, he raised his fist into the air and chopped his hand forward. Chrysalis grabbed the helmet in her telekinesis and wrenched it away from its owner (taking the neck plates with it*) while Alex lunged, wrapping his arms around the guard's neck and slapping a hand over his mouth. The guard jerked and bucked, sending both of them to the ground, but was unable to dislodge his attacker before Chrysalis got close enough to him to light her horn and whisper, "Sleep."

Once he was certain the spell had taken effect, Alex carefully released his hold and dragged the guard out of sight of the street. "There," he said, and started to dust his hands off, only to stop short when his claws slashed through the tips of his gloves and almost stabbed into his skin.

"Bleh," he muttered, stripping the gloves off his fingers and sticking them into his belt before slipping his shield back onto his arm, "I don't think anyone else'll come by until morning. We should have until then to pack up and get somewhere quiet."

He started moving, but Chrysalis didn't follow. "Hold on," She said, holding a hoof out towards Alex's shield, her expression carefully neutral, "May I see that?"

Alex raised an eyebrow, then shrugged and handed it over. Chrysalis caught it in her magic and turned the back to face her, then let out a hiss of disapproval mixed with a surge of sweet-and-sour indignation, "This rune is absolute filth!" She exclaimed, and cut an extra line through the center of the carving, "Look, with just one stroke I've doubled both the strength and the durability. What variety of dizzy-eyed nut-hook sold you this?"

"Uh," Alex stammered, "The only one in town?" When Chrysalis glared at him, he added, "Hey, runes are really hard to find these days. I had to spend an entire week tracking that guy down, and he might have gone out of business since then. It just isn't a thing around here," He concluded, stuffing his claw tips into his belt.

"What do you mean?" Chrysalis asked, her surprise starting to turn to anger, "The Crystal Empire was built on runes. It was our greatest skill and the source of our might. How could the trade have fallen into such a..." she trailed off, her eyes widening in horror.

Alex coughed, "I take it all the best Rune Masters lived in the Empire? And possibly the best gems to work with?" Chrysalis nodded, slowly.

"I am the last," Chrysalis whispered, tasting so strongly of salt Alex started to worry that someone other than him might pick up on it, "but I had just finished my training!" She protested, "I'm not a master, I never had the time to practice. I can't be all that's left!"

"You aren't," Alex stated, "But if we don't succeed you might be, so we should get moving. You can mourn your craft and/or start a new guild once we're out of sight."

Chrysalis nodded jerkily and composed herself, slipping on a mask of calm so smoothly it sent a shiver down Alex's spine. If he wasn't able to read her emotions there would be no way he'd ever know if she was lying to him, not with acting skills like that.

"Ok," Alex said, taking a breath for focus, "Chrysalis, please go dump everything we got from the guard station in the truck. We can sort it out later. I'll start packing up inside."

Chrysalis was already moving, and Alex scrambled to follow her. Once inside his home, he grabbed everything that wasn't nailed down and stuffed it into something that was. Normally he'd have a place for every single knickknack, but the last time he'd put down stakes he wasn't expecting to move again, and as such now had a bunch of stuff that didn't fit. It took him a solid 15 minutes to make his final sweep, allowing him to start moving furniture.

"I've been wondering," Chrysalis said as she lifted a chair off the floor, the spikes on the bottom of its feet sliding out of their locking holes with a faint rasp, "Why do you live here? Why not a proper house?"

Alex put down the couch with a grunt, then said, "Eh, no reason, why do you ask?"

"I was curious," Chrysalis replied, "Although you don't seem like the kind who does anything without a reason." Her lips twitched, then smoothed into a mild frown as she tried to lock the chair she was holding into place.

Alex chuckled, "You got me there," he said, "It's just-" He paused mid step, then made a vague motion with his hands, "Hard to put into words. I guess... it feels like this is my last piece of home?" Chrysalis's curiosity, a interesting semi-sweet spiciness, spiked, and he continued, "I mean, I built this place myself. It's got part of me in it, and my father, and my mother, and my siblings. I, couldn't leave them behind. I'm lost enough as it is, I don't want to drift even further."

"You miss them," Chrysalis stated, then tried to shove the chair into place again.

"Yeah," Alex confirmed, "A lot. As far as they know I'm dead, and I might as well be when it comes to seeing them again." He turned to look at Chrysalis, then hurried over to the chair, "Hey, there's no need to be so rough with that!"

"It won't fit," Chrysalis snorted, her frustration with the piece of furniture starting to flare, "I know it can, but it won't."

"Here," Alex took the chair from her and rotated it 90 degrees, "Like my father always said: if you have to force it," He put the chair down, and it clicked neatly into place, "You're not doing it right."

Chrysalis examined the chair, her face screwed up in thought while Alex stretched and looked around. "That should be everything in here," he told her with a nod of satisfaction, "Let's get the paneling taken up."

88888888

Shining watched Alex freeze in place as stuck his through the tent flap, the human's(?) eyes widening in surprise.

"Come on out," Shining commanded, "You're not running away this time, bucker."

Alex stepped out, coming fully into view, and Shining had to resist the urge to back away from him. The guy was wearing so much armor Shining wasn't sure how he could move, let alone fight. It was entirely possible Alex could take a double buck to the chest and walk away while dressed like that, and he acted like it didn't bother him at all. It was too bad the pile of blue and tan scraps on his head completely ruined the image.

"You need to come with me," Shining continued, more gently this time, "I'm not arresting you," Not yet, he added mentally, "But you need help. We're still investigating your transformation. We don't know what happened to you yet, and there could be side effects."

"Side effects?" Alex asked, causally rubbing two of his claws together, "Oh, yeah, there were side effects. You're looking at the side effects, Captain. As for the cause, well, go ask your fiance. Assuming you haven't dumped her already, that is."

"Wait, Cadance?" Shining blurted out, "You think Cadance is responsible for this!? Why? How?"

"Take a wild guess," Alex said cheekily, then snarled, "It's not like it's, oh, I don't know, staring you right in the face."

Shining leaned away from that mouthful of fangs, then cursed himself for showing any weakness. "You still need help, Alexander," he said, carefully keeping his gentle tone, "Come back to the hospital with me. We can run some more tests, maybe find a cure for your-"

"And put myself right where Celestia would be able to make me 'disappear?'" Alex shot back, "No thank you. I've got something much better in mind."

"Oh?" Shining asked, gathering as much of his magic as he could without lighting his horn. Just in case.

"Isn't it obvious?" Alex placed a clawed hand over his chest and swooned, "Boohoo, my heart is broken, I will be an evil bug now."** Shining's brain started to take off into rising horror, only for the actual wording to sink in and cause it to crash land squarely in the Swamps of Confusion at the same time Alex burst out laughing.

"You didn't honestly think I could say that with a straight face, did you?" He chortled, then sobered instantly, "The sentiment is roughly accurate though. Fuck you, fuck Cadance, and fuck Equestria. I'm out!"

He snapped his fingers, and Shining felt his helmet being yanked off his head followed a sharp pain on the back of his skull. His last conscious thought was that he really should have spotted Alex's partner by now.

88888888

"Nice plan," Alex said, admiration showing in his voice as Chrysalis dropped her invisibility and stealth charms, "Although that telepathy trick caught me off guard. Is that common for changelings?"

"Thank you," Chrysalis said smugly, tossing Shining's helmet aside with a casual flick of her horn, "I've gotten quite adept at it over the years. As for your 'telepathy,' we call it the hivemind, and the answer is both yes and no. Everypony in the hive can link with everypony else, but it takes far too much magic to channel constantly. We keep it streamlined through the chain of command and only use it during emergencies."

"Huh," Alex grunted, "Sensible."

Chrysalis must have picked on his unspoken approval, because her smile widened slightly as she leaned down to touch her horn to Shining's.

"Wait," Alex asked, "What are you doing?"

"I'm erasing his memories of us," Chrysalis replied calmly as she lit her horn, "We can't have him trying to find us later, after all."

"What!?" Alex shouted, a surge of outrage and alarm overriding his caution, "No! You can't do that!"

"Why not?" Chrysalis replied, a bit of fluffy, starchy surprise and a trace of bland confusion drifting off of her, "He's a threat to our safety."

"Mind magic is what got us into this mess in the first place!" Alex reminded her, "Do you really think casting more of it ourselves will do anything but make it worse? Tell me, if someone tampered with your memories how would you feel about it when you found out?" Chrysalis's wave of spicy anger told Alex everything he needed to know.

"But he's an enemy!" Chrysalis continued, straightening up to face him more directly, "We can't just let him walk free!"

"So you're allowed to do anything to your enemies then," Alex countered, "Even if you wouldn't like it if they turned the tables on you?"

Chrysalis nodded emphatically. Alex sighed and tried to rub the bridge of his nose, only to stop short when his claws got in the way, "Look," Alex said, doing his best to keep his anger in check, "I don't know how you ponies went about it in the Crystal Empire, but times have changed. You aren't allowed to treat your enemies any way you please without consequences anymore. You'll get backlash from anyone you try to ally with who isn't as old as you are. Besides," he added, "I sincerely doubt that Shining Armor didn't tell anyone what he was doing or where he was going. He's the Captain of the Royal Guard, for God's sake! If someone found out we messed with his mind, and they would check, it would kick off a countrywide manhunt for us. Do you want the Princesses kicking down our door!?"

Chrysalis growled, but her pungent frustration was telling. "Fine," she said after a bit, "But I'm still putting him to sleep. Furthermore, if this comes back to haunt us I get to hold it over you for the rest of your life."

"Done," Alex agreed readily, "Now let's finish packing up."

88888888

Please work, please work, please work, Alex prayed as he stuck his key in the truck's ignition slot for the first time in over a year. He didn't have enough gas to drive even across the city, but since trying to hitch the trailer (now collapsed into its road worthy form) using just pony power would be a massive headache, he was going to give starting the engine one last try. He turned the key over, and was greeted with a sound he had come to dread.

click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-

"Ugh," He muttered, "Dead battery."

He hopped out to face Chrysalis, who was staring at the vehicle with barely restrained curiosity, "No go," he told her, "It doesn't have enough electrical charge to get the engine turning."

"Can you fix it?" Chrysalis asked, running a hoof along the edges of the doorframe.

"Not without some kind of jump start," Alex replied, "If I had a way of tapping into the local power lines maybe, but even then I wouldn't know how to get it into the battery without overloading the circuits." He sighed, "I guess we might as well start pushing it."

Alex trudged off towards the trailer, but Chrysalis stayed behind, a thoughtful frown on her face. "You said electricity was like tame, super weak lightning right?" she asked after a moment, causing Alex to stop and look over his shoulder.

"Yes, but I don't see how-"

"Would a shock spell work?" Chrysalis asked, and her horn sparked, "I can cast a decently powerful one."

Alex stared at her. "Maybe," he answered, a grin slowly spreading over his face, "I'll have to do some research though. One sec."

He ran over to the pile of books Chrysalis had dumped in the bed of the truck and started rummaging through them. "Gotcha," He said with a grin, pulling out a large paperback titled Giancoli Physics. "Let's see," he muttered as he brought the book under better lighting before flipping to the index and scanning through it carefully, "Batteries, batteries, where's the section on batteries..."

He flipped to about halfway through the text and started skimming, then more in depth reading as he found the right passage. "Ok," he said, closing the book with a snap, "Does your spell gather electrons or remove them?"

Chrysalis gave him a blank look. "Right," Alex said to himself, "Guess we'll have to check then." He went digging through the back of his truck and came out with a bar magnet a minute or so later, "Charge the spell up but don't release it," he told her, grinning wide enough to swallow the moon, "I want to see which end of this is attracted to it."

Chrysalis rolled her eyes, but went along with it. She could feel the enthusiasm rolling off of him in waves, and couldn't quite bring herself to quash it. It was too cute.

"Gathers electrons it is," he said after waving both ends of it near her horn, "I probably could have predicted that, based on how static charges work, but I still needed to check. Come on."

Alex all but dragged her over to the truck and popped the hood open. "You see this?" he asked, pointing to a small black box with some red and yellow stickers on it, "This is the battery. When I give the signal, send your shock spell into the anode, that's this metal nub with the negative sign next to it," he tapped it lightly, "That should give me enough juice to get the engine to turn over. You got that?"

Chrysalis nodded and started charging her horn as Alex headed for the driver's seat "Ok, now!" He called, and Chrysalis shoved the energy into the node. The engine clicked, then buzzed, then roared, causing Chrysalis to squeak and jump away as Alex shouted, "Boo-yeah!"

Chrysalis wanted to be mad that Alex had managed to break her regal image like that, but his flood of delight at their success kept her from feeling more than mildly annoyed. Then the elation was washed away by a surge of guilt, shame, and heartbreak that sent her galloping over to the passenger's side and into the truck. By the time she got there, Alex's emotional slate had gone blank, and he was turning the steering wheel with smooth, mechanical motions while looking over his shoulder.

"What?" He asked her in a tone of mild annoyance, focusing intently on lining the truck up with the trailer.

"Who were you thinking about?" Chrysalis asked. One of the few things King Shifter had taught her was how to help other Greater Changelings get past the emotional clusterbucks that always surrounded their creation, and she'd gotten a heap of practice helping her sisters recover from Sombra's manipulations. Stomping on his emotions before they manifested was the last thing Alex needed.

Alex slammed on the brakes, bringing the truck to a halt as the wall around his emotions cracked, and he stared out the windshield for a long moment. "True Strike," he said finally, "I wanted to show her what we'd done."

"She was a friend?" Chrysalis prodded gently.

"More," Alex said simply, "Before Cadance, at least." He didn't elaborate, and Chrysalis didn't ask. His aura said it all. Instead, she leaned over and hugged him as best she could, their positions notwithstanding. Alex stiffened at first, but tentatively hugged her back, his armor uncomfortably scraping against her skin.

Chrysalis didn't know how long they stayed there, but it must have been at least five minutes before Alex finally let go. "Thanks," he said shakily, "Didn't know I needed that."

"Anytime," Chrysalis replied, smiling softly. Alex would heal. Eventually. Chrysalis would make sure of it.

88888888

"...in Armor! Can yo... ...re me?"

Shining Armor groaned and raised a hoof to his head, then, vision swimming, looked around. Gone. Of course they were gone. And, judging by the throbbing in his head, he probably had a concussion. Wonderful. Shining nodded to the local guard, whose helmet was also missing and had some nasty bruising around his throat, then activated his personal distress beacon with a shaky tap of his hoof and laid back to wait for the ambulance.

He didn't know when they would cross paths again, but Alex was going to pay for this.

88888888

"This is the place?" Chrysalis asked, frowning skeptically at the wooden warehouse surrounded by a rotting plank fence in front of them. The engine had died roughly 3/4 of the way across the city, forcing Alex and Chrysalis to get out and tow it the rest of the way. Alex had put in most of the effort, though, as Chrysalis had been focused on maintaining the invisibility and muffling spells that kept the guard from descending on them en mass. They'd still had a few close calls despite that, simply because the truck-trailer combo was so big. Chrysalis would have preferred to leave it behind, but between Alex's books, tools, and other items it just wasn't worth it. Her pockets could only hold so much!

"Yep," Alex said with a grunt, taking another few steps forward to bring them closer to the gate, whose padlock would have been a minor obstacle if the chain hadn't been rusted through. And the gates themselves hadn't been blown off their hinges.

"This place used to belong to the East Equestria company," Alex pointed up at the remains of a sign, white on some other color Chyrsalis couldn't pick out in the darkness, "But they got shut down a few years before I showed up because of, quote, 'Questionable Business Practices,' unquote. A few smaller shipping companies tried moving in here, but each went out of business almost immediately and the place got a reputation for being cursed. Even the local gangs usually steer clear, so we shouldn't have any trouble."

"Are you not worried about falling victim to the curse as well?" Chrysalis asked, bracing herself to keep the truck from moving as Alex slipped out of the harness to move a piece of the gate out of the way.

"Not particularly," Alex replied with a waft of mild bemusement, "Even if some vengeful unicorn did cast a spell on this place we're not planning on opening a shipping company here, so I doubt it'll target us." He picked up the rope tied to the truck's frame and pulled hard, scuffing his shoes against the paving stones. "Come on, I think there's a loading door to the left."

The next few yards were tricky, as the ground slopped down towards the coast, but eventually Alex and Chrysalis managed to get the truck just outside the door. The faint murmur of voices from inside the building made them pull up short though.

"I thought you said this place was empty!?" Chrysalis hissed, her wings fluttering in agitation.

"It is," Alex replied, "Or it should be anyway. Can you hold on by yourself for a bit?"

When Chrysalis nodded Alex let go of his harness and slipped back to put on the brakes, leaving her to stew for a moment. When he returned she let her own harness go with a relieved sigh. "Let me guess," she told him, "You want me to go scouting, don't you?"

"Close," Alex replied, "We're both scouting this time. Unless I know who's in there I won't know how to deal with them."

"As you wish," Chrysalis said with a shrug, her bland indifference mixed with a slight tinge of pepper.

Alex's heavy armor made climbing to the warehouse's upper balcony difficult, especially without making any noise, and Chrysalis didn't help matters by flying up and smirking down at him as he struggled upward. Alex, for his part, just frowned at her as he worked, which only made Chrysalis smile wider. The door was locked, but so thoroughly rusted that the bolt crumbled at the first experimental tug, allowing the pair to make their way inside thanks to Chrysalis muffling their steps and wrapping them in a veil of darkness that, while not as effective as true invisibility, took less effort.

The balcony didn't stretch out over the main floor but mostly stuck to the walls, save for a wider walled off area that must have held the building's offices. The warehouse itself was empty, save for the odd piece of trash or broken table, which gave them a clear view of the two clusters of sapients who were standing a ways apart in the center of the concrete floor while eyeing each other warily. One group consisted mostly of apes, and had a gorilla wielding a mace standing at their fore, while the other was a mixed bag of griffons and ponies with a unicorn levitating a trio of handleless daggers as their apparent leader.

"Looks like a gang fight," Alex said, keeping his voice low despite the muffling charm, "The local mafia and such don't want to attract royal attention with large scale battles, so they tend to use one on one duels to settle disputes. If we stay quiet they'll leave on their own, but that'll take most of the night and they might come back later. Your thoughts?"

"We should scare them off," Chrysalis replied, her caution starting to burn away as anticipation settled in, "No witnesses. Also, I can teach you how to harvest emotion directly."

"I take it you have a plan?" Alex asked. Chrysalis smiled and started whispering, and soon Alex had a grin wide enough to match his partner's. "Let's do it."

Author's Note:

*Strangling is just about the only thing that Royal guard armor would be effective at defending against, so it needed to be removed in order for the attack to work.

**Challenge accepted and completed.

I've been sitting on this one for long enough. It may be a bit short, but I'm releasing it now. Enjoy.

You might have noticed that Chapter six has a different title now. I decided the old one didn't fit and replaced it.

I also noticed while working on this chapter that I hadn't actually been writing Alex as the Traumatized Rape Victim he is. Hopefully this will help fix that.

Comments

[wlam]

"Boohoo, my heart is broken, I will be an evil bug now."**

And delivered, that's for sure.

[Hunter]

And that ladies and gents, is why the canon armor is all but garbage in an actual fight.

[candyman20XX]

Nice to see an update here and hope it's the start of a trend.

Kinda curious just how Shining will react when he finds out about that bit of mercy he was given in keeping his memories.

[Canary In The Coal Mine]

8419869

Kinda curious just how Shining will react when he finds out about that bit of mercy he was given in keeping his memories.

Honestly? He'd probably just attribute it to wanting to torture him about Cadance, to know that she was the cause of it somehow, that her magic could have that kind of effect. Should he work it out though, it may actually do the opposite for him (if he realizes that he isn't changing into an 'evil bug', it means that Cadance didn't use her power on him). Either way, sowing distrust among your enemies is a tried and true tactic, and this will have more of that effect than endangering Chrysalis' goals in the long-term.

Plus, they have no idea that Changelings can affect minds. After all, if they could, they would have surely used it on him, right?

[tsaukpaetra]

Hauling a truck and trailer is no easy task, props to increased strength for that.
Giving Shining a cryptic middle finger was hilarious! But it concerns us that now Shining seems to have acquired a vendetta now...
Keep going! ;)

[Razzy]

Yay, it lives!

Shiny got owned.

Griffies! :D

'Vanhoover, a silent fury powering his' - remove a

'and Alex adjust his armor a little' - adjusted

'slipping on mask of calm' - on a mask

'bottom of its feet cliding out of their locking' - sliding out gliding

'I don't want to drift even further' - even further away

'We're stilling investigating' - still

'"Wait, Cadance?" " Shining blurted out,' - remove the last quotation mark

'carefully keeping his gentle' - his gentle tone

'Alex pray hoped' - prayed

'slot for the time in over a year' - the first time

'Chrysalis didn't know how they stayed there' how long they

[popmannn]

He didn't know when they would cross paths again, but Alex was going to pay for this.

Why? Cause he hurt your pride? Let's break it down:

Your fiancé brainwashed and raped him, then lead him on for months, basically destroying his life. The spell is removed and that curses him with the transformation. Then he escapes the hospital he was in despite not being a prisoner or even under arrest as he committed no crimes. Then he took back the items you all but stole from him under the guise of "evidence" that you now know isn't linked to his curse at all. Then you run him down you try to stop him when he wants to biggitty bounce, even though hes not a criminal. All while saying he's not under arrest but you're still detaining him cause "waaaah, he took the crazy books and stuff I basically stole, back from me!". Before you get knocked out and all he does leave?

I'm sorry, at what point has he done anything that would give you reason for a personal vendetta, other than not respecting your authoritah!