The drip drip of water falling from the ceiling of the cave can be heard. The only source of light is a sickly green glow that throws harsh shadows against the walls of the tunnel. Each time the glow illuminates the walls, a hissing sound can be heard before a harsh zap cuts it off.

Suddenly, the click of chitin on stone can be heard as a shape begins to move down the tunnel. Harsh buzzes and chirps can be heard until finally the light picks up once more revealing a changeling.

But not just any changeling, this one stands a good two feet over its hive mates. It possesses teal silk, making it look like it has a mane and tail, and a long crooked horn above eyes with cat-like pupils. Indeed, Queen Chrysalis walks down the tunnel. Her posture radiates control as she surveys the damaged remains of her children.

Shortly after the failed Battle of Canterlot, she and her hive had been tossed out of the city and into the borderlands of Equestria. The queen, faced with the knowledge that the safety of hive may have been compromised after she made her intentions known, made the decision to relocate to a cave in between The Badlands and the Everfree Forest.

The Hive was dying.

The emotions that they fed on were becoming few and far in-between with the xenophobic equestrians recognizing the imposters much more frequently. And with the Infiltrators coming back with less and less, the queen had to make a choice. Indeed the Battle of Canterlot was the last nail in the coffin for Chrysalis's Hive.

It was supposed to be a simple take-over.

The queen would come in and incapacitate Shining Armor and shortly thereafter her hive would come in and feed off all of the joy and happiness that came with the wedding. Once The Hive had enough emotions stored up they would leave Canterlot dispersing an amnesiac behind them to make the ponies forget they were ever there.

But no plan ever survives contact with the enemy, or in this case, food source.

So here she was, the great Chrysalis brought to her knees by prancing ponies. Or so they thought, indeed while she may have been defeated her infiltrators had managed to acquire DMAC that was on its way to the sisters and acquire it and the pony that came with it.

Her clicking hoofsteps stop as she comes before the source of the light.

Before her are the last of her scientists, four of them, grouped around a crystal cube.

"Any progress on the DMAC?" The Queen asks

"Yes my Queen, we have made it about halfway through the seal. We expect to breach it at some point in the next hour." A drone replies.

"And what about her?" The queen asks pointing to the slime cocoon tossed against one wall.

Inside was the shape of a pony reaching toward the outside of the cocoon almost as if lashing out.

"We've had no use for her yet, my Queen."

The queen harrumphed, "See to it that she becomes of some use yet."

Bounty was quite enjoying her nap. She hadn't had a proper soft bed since before she took off for the Blackveil.

*beep*

Now if only that Celestia-damned beeping would stop.

"It's a sack."

"It has shiny bits on it though"

"Well what exactly does it do that it needs a DMAC?"

"I dunno."

The four scientists were grouped around the newly opened DMAC and the rather boring object inside.

"Does anyone have enough energy for a scanning spell?"

"I think I can help with that." The queen purred startling the four scientists into a bow. "Oh get up you imbeciles, it is time to see what this was all for."

A sinister green sprouts from Chrysalis's horn, illuminating the crazed grin on her face. The spell takes effect and the grin immediately dies, "What!" she cries.

"What is it my Queen!?" A scientist cries excitedly.

"NOTHING!" Chrysalis roars, "THERE'S NOTHING MAGICAL IN THIS DAMNED BAG AT ALL!" Overcome with anger Chrysalis flings the offending object away before lighting her horn as if to obliterate something. Then she pauses and slumps over defeated. She looks to a nearby drone, "Inform everyone that we will have to go on survival rations for the time being."

The Queen straightens her back, now was not the time to show defeat. Her children were relying on her and she would not let them down now. She turns to the scientists, "Take the pony to the nursery, we will need her to keep the nymphs alive." The scientists nod their heads before turning to fulfill their duties only to let out a gasp.

The cocoon has ruptured, leaving green slime and a single white feather on the floor to mark her passing.

Active UNSC signal detected

Attempting connection with asset... done

"Attention UNSC asset callsign PNY"

"Shaddup Mom, five more minutes." Bounty gurgles.

"PNY there is a top-tier ONI asset nearby signaling for immediate recovery."

"Screw off, come back during business hours."

...

Wait, business hours? Bounty's eyes shoot open only to see the murky green of slime. 'The changeling,' she thought grimly while attempting to swim around inside the pod to get a better bearing on her situation. Much to her dismay, the shell holding in all of the slime was only translucent limiting her vision to only a few feet.

But that was enough to spot the bag.

It seemed to be the exact same as it was before she got knocked out. In the top right of her vision "HUD Initializing" flashed several times before her vision lit up with a compass bar. 'What?' she thought turning her head briefly, seeing the text change to face her new heading. 'Well neat-o, guess I'll never get lost again.' The white pegasus turns back to the bag once more; only to have the text "Asset Located" flash in her vision. She cocked her head as the bag flashed with a yellow outline, 'I suppose I may as well grab it, I'm already in this far.'

Then she discovered a new problem, she was stuck in the pod. No matter how much she struggled the gelatinous goop around her wouldn't let her move close to the barrier separating her from the outside world.

Bounty ruffled her wings angrily, not content with being in a pod until the 'lings decided otherwise. Slowly an idea blossomed in her head and she brought a wing up to her mouth and grabbed one of her longer primaries in her teeth. She gave a strong yank and pulled the feather out, wincing at the pain. She grabbed the main part of the father with her wing and slashed the outer shell of the cocoon with it, leaving a long tear.

She slowly swam toward the edge and ungraciously flopped onto the floor. She pulled in a deep breath and had to silence violent coughs as slime was forcefully ejected from her lungs. She looked around warily, spotting a nearby light source she crouched low to the ground and listened. The angry hissing and chittering from nearby gave away what was sure to be a fairly large group of changelings. She located the nearby alien pack and poked it repeatedly.

"Hello? Alien dude?" she hissed.

There was no response.

"I could really use a little help right now."

The cold pack didn't respond

"Great," Bounty mumbled. She grabbed the pack in her hooves and shook it slightly. Suddenly "Motion sensors linked initializing…" appeared in the bottom corner of her vision. Then a series of concentric circles with a yellow dot in the middle appeared in the bottom corner of her vision. A pulse came out from the yellow dot and a number appeared next to the circle ticking up from 0 to 50 meters. The pulse began to repeat intermittently highlighting red dots that were in the direction of the light.

"Hmm…" Bounty mumbled, "Really wish I could see better so I would know what was going on."

Night Vision Activated

The room suddenly started glowing green as Bounty looked around, shocked. "Handy" she murmured, spotting changelings much too close for comfort. She tucked the bag under a wing and began to move silently towards a nearby opening in the tunnel leading deeper in the cave. After a few heart-pounding moments she was safely hidden inside the side tunnel, and not a moment too soon, as she hear angry hisses and buzzes coming from her previous location. She takes this as her cue to keep moving and follows the tunnel farther down.

"Where is an alien when you need him…" She mumbles. The tunnel that she took seems to lead deeper under the earth, exactly what she didn't want. Nonetheless she continues to follow the winding tunnel.

Till it becomes a dead end.

"Well, shit." she grumbles, making to turn around. This is when everything goes horribly wrong. The stone floor under her gives an ominous crack, just as faint buzzing can be heard from her escape route. "Shit shit shit!" she shouts forgetting stealth in her rush. Visible fissures run through the floor before the ground gives a crack and the floor disappears from under her.

The two changelings checking the hall hear an exclamation before the floor begins to shake. A cloud of dust blasts into the room followed by a roar. The two move quickly down the tunnel only to find the end blocked off with freshly fallen debris.

One chitters at the other before they turn and hurry to inform their queen of the turn of events.

Much to her surprise Bounty wasn't crushed beneath tons of rubble. Even better yet, she had been dropped into a much larger cavern. She quickly transferred the pack to her hooves and spread her wings, gliding down to the floor, and landing lightly as to not drop another floor.

With her night vision enhanced eyes she peered around the room looking for a for a way out, but instead discovered something else. It was some sort of odd rock formation that jutted up from the ground, but that wasn't it, it seemed too… unnatural. As she drew closer to the monolith the pack resting on her back began to vibrate slowly, almost as if expecting something.

She stopped in front of the monolith and took in its strange design. It appeared to be made out a shiny metallic substance, and almost as if sensing her presence, light began flowing up lines in the side.

"Well what do I now?" she asked out loud. She slid the pack off her back, allowing it to land on the ground with a low thud. "Wait," she said, "Alien thing plus alien bag…" On a hunch she set the bag on top of the monolith and waited for something to happen.

Of course nothing happened.

She sat there dumbly for a few seconds more before poking the bag a few times trying to get a reaction. "Hello? This thing on?" she asked.

The bag just fell off its perch.

"Well damn." she mumbled sitting next to the bag. 'Wait, it's a bag!' she thought. She grabbed the bag on both sides and pulled, hard. But the bag remained unyielding, she stopped for a breather before trying once more. Again, no cigar. She pulled even harder and shouted "Come on! Just OPEN!"

The bag cracked open with the sound of a zipper and Bounty flew backwards, head over hooves, comically. She jumped to her feet and rushed over to the bag, eager to check out her discovery. Inside were a few oddly shaped items and a couple pairs of what looked like glasses. Bounty harrumphed and continued to shuffle through the bag, looking for and other pockets.

Then she found it. Inside a velcroed compartment was a glass tube with metal ends that contained a transparent ball, flickering between light purple and grey. "Gotcha." she cheered, moving back to the monolith; abandoning the bag for now. She set the tube horizontally on the monolith and waited once more.

After a few seconds, the top of the pedestal opened up like a shutter revealing an empty port. Bounty took notice of the handle on top on the tube and snaked a hoof through it orienting it vertically. "All or nothing, I guess" she muttered before shoving the tube in the port.

With the flickering purple light sheathed inside the monolith Bounty sat on her haunches and waited.

New connection detected…

Bringing core functions out of stasis…

ERROR: Matrix unresponsive.

Signalling for technician…

Datastream received: Applying changes...Done

Attempting to restore matrix…

AI Matrix Online.

...

"What happened?..."

...

"And what the hell am I connected to!?"

A/N:

You don't want to know what happened to delay this for so long.