Well, it's been some time now hasn't it. But as a certain someone keeps telling me, I'm remembering the call of the ponies

And thus, here we go again.

Begin!

Breakout

Richard POV

The ache to which I opened my eyes was a dull, yet persistent one. It throbbed over and over, again and again.

It felt…more though. More than just a dull pain, more than a simple annoyance. It felt…afraid.

I was afraid.

Upon opening my eyes, I instantly noticed that I wasn't in Celestia's chambers any more. Instead, I was lying upon what seemed to be a hospital bed.

"What in the world?" The words escaped my lips with cause, followed by yet another dull ache upon my eyes. I rubbed them gingerly, carefully, remembering all too well that I'd cut my house into pieces with them earlier.

"Ah, you're up then," said a voice, female and somewhat mature. "Stay calm sir, you'll be weak for some time. The Princess will want to know you're awake."

I blinked and looked blandly at the approaching Unicorn, a yellow mare with a plaster for her cutie mark. As she approached, I was suddenly hit with a bizarre smell…no, a scent, a feeling, an emotion.

Fear. This mare was frightened of me, despite her otherwise jovial demeaner.

"Where the fuck is Chrissy?" I snapped, in no mood to put up with more Pony shite.

The mare blinked at my question and tilted her head to one side, apparently confused. But I knew better, I could feel her fear rising as she continued her charade.

"I'm sorry sir, but I don't know who-"

Hate driving my actions, I was up and pinning her against the wall by her throat before she could blink, her eyes wide and fearful as I glared into them.

My eyes were…green, and the iris was like a cat, thin and unsympathetic.

Dangerous.

"Do not lie to me," I intoned, my voice surprisingly calm for the rage I felt inside. But if anything, it seemed to be more effective, my cold tone causing the nurse or doctor or whoever she was to shiver.

"I-I'm not-"

"I can smell your lies, mare," I cut across, eyes narrowing as she gulped visibly. "Now…last chance, tell me where she is or I'll gut you like a fish."

Instinctively knowing what to do, I held my right hand up and flexed it, my nails elongating of their own will.

"Y-You can't!" she cried, kicking feebly at me to try and break free. "Kill me and they'll kill her!"

Narrowing my eyes, I pulled her close enough to feel her breath on my nose. "I'm going to count to three. You have until then to tell me where she is before I start getting…creative."

"Y-Y…"

"One."

"Please don't…"

"Two."

"Okay, okay!" she cried, tears streaming down her face. "She's being kept in the top floor of the palace, room twenty-five. Just please don't hurt me!"

She was telling the truth, I could sense it.

I let go and watched apathetically as she collapsed upon the floor, shaking and weeping before passing out pathetically.

"Be grateful I'm a man of my word, Pony," I sneered, before turning to walk away. "Chrissy would've killed you regardless if our roles were switched."

"And that's what makes you the better individual."

Turning around entirely, my eyes widening as the pink Alicorn from before walked on in, regarding me with a kind, though wary smile.

"You!" I snarled, hate filling me once again as I remembered what she'd tried to do. "You tried to take my love for Chrissy away from me."

"But I failed," she replied smoothly, stopping a short dash in front of me. "And I'm glad I did, it would have been a travesty to have actually removed real love from someone."

She's being honest, but it doesn't excuse her attempt!

"Get out of the way," I ordered, nails elongating of their own accord once again. "Unlike the nurse, I really don't have any qualms about killing you."

"And yet you're hesitating," she refuted, that kind smile still upon her muzzle. "I'm under no delusion that I'm faster than you. You could probably reach me before I could use my magic to stop you, and yet you're unsure aren't you."

Blinking at her words, I narrowed my eyes and took a threatening step towards her.

"The only thing I'm unsure about is how I'm going to get the blood off of me when I'm done with you," I snarled, baring my teeth, my incisors lengthening ever so slightly. "Now for the last time, move or die."

She regarded me with the same, infuriating smile and shook her head.

"No." she refused, sitting down as she shook her head. "You've been stuck in our world for a long time, held against your will and you've yet to purposefully harm anyone seriously. You're not a killer, and I don't think you want to start being one now."

I looked at her for a few seconds, never blinking as we both stared at the other.

…and then she blinked, eyes widening before she suddenly began to back away, the bitter taste of fear filling the air rapidly.

"Y-You've killed before, I can see it," she whispered, looking at me fearfully. "I can feel it, you're no innocent. You've killed someone, it's stained your soul!"

Unwittingly, my eyes tinged and began to glow, the power I felt coming from it filling me to the brim. I let loose a crooked grin as I began to advance, the green glow beginning to fill the room.

"You Ponies think you know everything there is to know about me," I chuckled, grin widening as she backed into a wall. "Oh, poor Richard. The only thing keeping our kind from extinction so let's treat him like shit. Hell, with no weapons, no horn, no magic, nothing that can be a threat what can he do to stop us?"

"Stop, stay back!" she yelled, horn flaring to life.

"Oh, what a poor, simple, WEAK little thing he is."

I couldn't stop the laugh that escaped me as I closed in, her fear hitting me with the force of a jackhammer.

"Not so weak looking now, am I?"

Before she could try anything, I punched her as hard as I could in the face, watching with supreme pleasure as she collapsed like a rag doll.

I expected more from an Alicorn, but I guess a good punch can flatten anything, even in this world.

Spitting upon her unconscious body, I left her lying there and made my way out of the room.

I had a mate to find.

Chrissy Pov

I was floating, stuck within the land of the living and the unknown. My eyes ached, my head throbbed, my ears itched terribly. I was lost, drifting...

But then words so loud, so powerful thrust their way into my head, screaming at me.

"Seldun velmor, tavish qun, Chrysalis!"

"Seniv tel?" The words were Equestrian but twisted into the language of my own without any effort from me.

"Toure tien, vel qun, Chrysalis!"

"Tive yuin ai?"

"SAI QUN, CHRYSALIS! RICHARD TYLER GEL TAK VOR!"

"Richard!"

My eyes snapped open instantly, muscles snapping into action as I sprang up and looked around. The sight of a dungeon wasn't foreign to me, I'd been in more than a couple in my youth. However, it was the cleanliness of it that quickly clued me in on my whereabouts.

I touched my horn and was relieved to find no null ring upon it, confused, yet relieved.

I'm in Celestia's dungeon, I have to be. But what happened, where is...

As if waiting for a mental que, the memory of my beating swiftly, almost mockingly forced its way into my head. The pain, the hate, the fear and Richard...oh my poor Richard.

I could remember the taste of his panic, his distress as he watched me get near beaten to death. The bitterness is enough to make me want to vomit.

I can vomit later, right now I need to get out of here and find my-

The stench of Celestia was more than enough to bring me back to reality, such patronising arrogance was rather hard to miss after all. And it was this alone that allowed me to swiftly regain my senses and wait, watching as the large door beyond my bars opened and the almighty cunt herself walked on in.

Our eyes locked immediately, a trickle of anger tickling away at my feelers as she approached my cell and narrowed her eyes.

"Changeling," the word left her muzzle as if drawn from stone.

"Twat."

Her eyes narrowed further for a moment, but then as if by magic they were normal. Well, normal for her, which is to say large, kind and expressive.

I didn't buy it for a fucking minute.

"Where is Richard?" I asked, forcing myself to sound calm, collected. Anger would get me nowhere while stuck in a cage.

Celestia cocked an eyebrow and smiled ever so slightly. "Why do you care, Changeling? Are you hungry already, do you require him to feast upon or will any of my subjects do?"

If she's trying to bait me into some angry temper tantrum then she's in for a long wait.

Then again, perhaps I could turn it around.

"No, I merely wish to know where my mate is," I replied softly, flicking away a bit of dried blood on my carapace as if it were commonplace to do so.

"Mate?" Celestia's eyes were quite wide, comically so in all actuality. "What do you mean by mate?"

Smirking just a little mockingly, we locked eyes once again, and I spoke. "I know that you're quite advanced in your old age, but surely a has-been like you knows that the term 'mate' did and still does mean, two individuals that are...with another, bonded I might even say."

Celestia appeared unphased by my words, but my feelers couldn't be lied to.

She was a very irritated mare.

"And might I suppose that in mating with Richard, that you did so with some kind of Changeling ritual, or magic, or both?"

Now that question surprised me, enough to make it actually visible for her to see.

"How would you know that?" I snarled, anger building at her steadily growing self-satisfaction. "Changelings never share our ways with anyone."

"I wasn't told, Changeling," she soothed, chuckling lightly to herself. "But, and forgive me if I am mistaken, Richard shooting magic out of his eyes is a very...new trait. One that I believe he has failed to display before."

Richard did what?

Every being changed by the mating dance could use magic afterwards if unable to do so previously, I'd told Richard as much before. But for it to come out of his eyes, untrained, unprotected...

"Please, is he okay?!" Gone was the little game we'd started, replaced by nigh overwhelming hysteria within, kept barely restrained for fear of Celestia simply leaving. "I... he's only just...can he still see, is he blind?"

Celestia's expression spoke a thousand words, my feelers merely confirming all that I could see.

"You really do love him, don't you?" she asked, incredulous was the tone behind the question.

Before I could answer her, the walls around us began to shake violently. Dust and dirt falling from the ceiling and onto my head as the bars around me buckled beneath sudden weight, my door opening with a heave.

It was a whisper, something tickling the back of my neck…it was all the warning I received.

A sudden rush of energy hit me like a herd of buffalo, and weakened though I was from my beating, the love I had obtained flowed through me still, empowering my essence enough to deny my pain and let me stand as the gap within steadily widened.

I felt stronger immediately, it would not be long now until I had some of my power back.

I needed only to stall for a few moments.

Celestia looked up and around for a mere moment before glancing at me, her horn ablaze with magic.

"I will grant you the benefit of the doubt for only a moment, Changeling," she said, scowling at some internal dialogue before she gestured for me to follow. "Try to strike and I swear I will put you down."

Her eyes glowed gold, a frightening sight I must admit, but I'd seen many things and they were often far more terrifying then a cross Princess.

"Just take me to him before he blows your castle up," I snapped, pushing my way past the idiot and standing by the door, waiting for her to open it.

She scowled and began to walk past me. "This is not over, once we have found him, you and I will be having a long discussion about your futu-"

The moment she opened the door, I summoned all the magic I could and blasted her right in the face. Celestia was prepared however and instantly countered with a golden shield, it's radiance nearly blinding as my magic hit it…and went straight through it.

Her eyes widened for all of a second before she tried to dodge it, but failed, the blast missing her face and hitting her right in the barrel instead. The sheer magnitude of my power slammed her into a wall, the otherwise perfect Pony collapsing into a pathetic heap.

"H-How," she said, the words laced with pain as she tried and failed to get up. "Y-You were drained, you should be barely able to pick up a book."

I sneered down at the fallen Princess and laughed humourlessly. "You Ponies make all sorts of assumptions about my kind. Have you already forgotten that my magic is powered by love, not mana like you and your pet?"

Celestia's eyes flickered with surprise and disappointment, before regarding me with an almost pleading expression.

"Please, don't do this, don't take him away from us. He's all we have left to survive."

"Then perhaps your subjects should've treated him better," I refuted, unmoved by her pleas. "To think if they had, you and he might have had a better relationship after all." I looked down at her and smirked. "But instead he's mine, what a shame."

I powered up my horn once more and took careful aim at her skull, watching with glee as her eyes widened in terrified understanding.

"I always thought I'd feel something more than this," I muttered, half to myself as to her, the glow growing in strength. "But in the end, you were just…disappointing."

I tensed up, preparing to let loose the power it would take to kill an Alicorn.

"You can't kill me," she said quickly, surprising me as a smile crept upon her muzzle. "If you do, he'll never have the chance to return to his world."

I blinked, wavering slightly as I took her words in.

I…I can't, he'll never forgive me if I take it away from him.

"Twilight brought him here it's true, but it was an accident," Celestia continued, evidently noticing my hesitation. "She doesn't have the power nor the experience to put him back. Only I can do that…unless you kill me here and steal it away from him forever."

"You lie," I snarled, only to wince as I felt the sharp taste of honesty tickle my feelers.

"I'm not lying, you know I'm not," she denied, struggling as she slowly began to get up. "You can't kill me, he'd hate you forever. He might even come to me willingly, and then…well."

A fruity pang blew upon me, the all too familiar taste of attraction hitting me none too subtly.

Celestia grinned…only to blink in shock as another blast of magic hit her into the wall once more, the last thing she felt as she fell to the floor unconscious.

"Arrogant bitch," I snarled, kicking her a couple of times for good measure.

Now to find my mate

I opened the door and quickly closed it behind me, a small smile gracing my features as a plan came to form in my mind. Without any further thought, I concentrated and felt the changes instantly overlap my battered form.

It took three measly seconds, just three…to take on the form of the now unconscious Princess Celestia.

"Perfect," I muttered, already hating my voice as I inspected my new mirage. "Well done, Chrissy. You've finally managed to obtain perfect…what does Richie say, oh yes. Dickheadery."

Speaking of Richard…

I took a deep breath and concentrated upon something…very new. A connection, a bond shared between two mated individuals. It could stretch from here to the Ponyville and still be as strong as it was then.

I admit that I could barely control it, let alone figure out how to turn it on. And yet either sheer determination or the consistent fear I felt for my lover drove me, pushed me to figure it out.

And with a little coaxing…I felt it.

I felt him.

"I'm coming Richie," I whispered, power walking down the corridor.

Just hold on, I'm on my way.

I weaved my way through the many corridors and up the stairs, resisting the urge to fly as I instead forced myself to slow down.

Shit

A pair of guards were running towards me, eyes wide with concern.

"Princess Celestia!" the left one yelled, a mare exactly the same white shade as the stallion beside her. "Come quick, Princess Cadance has been assaulted and the Human has vanished."

Before I could so much as open my muzzle, a flash of green blasted the both of them down the corridor so hard their helmets collapsed against their skulls, killing the both of them instantly.

I turned only to dodge another blast of magic, the wall behind me crumbling into dust.

"Richard?!"

His eyes were the purest green I'd ever seen, glowing with a power I could barely stand to taste, for the hate that emanated from it was disgusting.

"I didn't mean to kill them, but they shouldn't have gotten in my way," he snarled, advancing slowly. "Come on then Princess, let's see what you've got."

I won't lie, I was beginning to panic. The raw power coming from him was like nothing I'd ever seen. No newly changed being should have been able to channel that amount of magic, heck even I would struggle. Yet it was rolling from him in fantastic, terrifying waves.

Hate…Changeling magic fuelled by hate, no!

"Richie it's me, Chrissy!" I pleaded, advancing slowly. I couldn't drop my disguise yet, I could hear more guards from below. If they saw us both they'd all charge us and Richard could get hurt. But if I told them to stay back as Celestia then they probably would.

"Please you need to calm down! You can't use your magic when its source is hate, it'll burn you up from the inside out. You need love, not-"

"Shut the fuck up, Princess," he sneered, the nauseating hate hitting me like a herd of buffalo. "Ever since your disgusting pet stole me from my world, you and your kind have done nothing but look down at me and I couldn't do a fucking thing." He looked up at the ceiling and chuckled darkly. "But now I have power. Now I have magic. And you…well, now you're dead."

A terrible bout of magic flew towards me, nearing closer and closer until it hit me like a carriage…and faded like dust in the wind, leaving myself quite unharmed.

"What!" Richard blinked and backed away, a trickle of fear emanating from him as our eyes met momentarily.

I quickly looked down at myself and blinked as well, surprise filling me rapidly before realization came to me.

"How are you still standing?" Richard demanded, glow growing again as he came ever closer, only to stop as I looked back at him, love for the silly man clear for anyone to see if they looked at my face.

"Because mates cannot hurt each other," I intoned softly, judging him close enough to see my face clearly before I let my eyes shift back to that of my original form. "It's how our bond is, Richie. It's how it will always be, forever."

Surprise came first, then disbelief, then self-hate and finally…

"O-oh," he mumbled, the terrible green glow fading back into his eyes swiftly, before his normal blue orbs were all that remained.

"Hey baby," I whispered, lifting a hoof to gently stroke his face.

"Chrissy, I-I…"

"It's okay, I've got you."

The light left his eyes the moment I stopped speaking and he began to sway…and then he fell against me, quite asleep.

He's almost completely drained, I need to take him somewhere safe before I can share my love with him.

My reserves were vast but were recovering from the null ring's primitive attempts to drain them, so I couldn't just give it to him then and there, I needed a place for the both of us to recover in peace.

The only option left came to me quickly, and though I hated to think of it…it was all I had left where I knew for certain no one would come.

"I wish I didn't have to take you there so soon Richie," I muttered, gently placing him upon my back and holding him there with magic. "But Canterlot is too dangerous and Ponyville is a death sentence."

I had no choice, for my mate's survival I had no other choice.

"We're going home, Richie."

If we don't die on the way there.

And that's that, it's been a long fucking time but damn am I happy to upload this!

I hope you are too, please do let me know what you think. I am pretty much dying to understand so as to know just how to take this story forward.

Cya, stay snuggly! :D