If there was any cave darker than this, Chrysalis pitied those who'd foolishly wander in. Putting one hoof after the other, Chrysalis stepped cautiously through the cave, her hooves tapping on the stone floor. Hissing through clenched fangs as her aching and destroyed body sent wave after wave of fire to her mind. The deafening silence of her hive only bringing more pain, and the tightness in her chest was like an open ocean that sent waves crashing against them.
How did this happen?
It wasn't so bad in the beginning when she had more love to spare, numbing her wounds, trying to heal them the best she could. But as time went on, so did her time start to run out. The love drained from her. And with her wounds untreated, salvation seemed to be a dying sun on the horizon.
Chrysalis cried out as the ground seemed to fall away from beneath her. She began to tumble down a hill, her body screamed out against the silence as the fires roared and darkened the sky, her body letting out wet squelches as her sides slammed to the floor. The cold stone only bit at her as she fell.
Finally coming to a stop, Chrysalis gasped for air, her chest getting tighter with every breath she took. Her breathing reduced to weak wheezes.
She wanted to scream, to call for help. But there was no one to listen, her hive was gone. Either hunted down or moved on, they didn't want to listen. Why would they?
As her body grew heavy, and the pain began to dull, Chrysalis stared out at the darkness. Only her ragged breathing to keep her company as tears streamed down her face. Burning her cheeks as they fell.
This was it.
"Please," she whimpered, her voice was coarse. Closing her eyes, Chrysalis let out a final sigh before the world, her pain, and her tears, all fell away.
"And just like that, he meditated on those words. I never saw something quite like him. Days went by faster then I could count, the darkness seemed to wash over us with each passing second."
Chrysalis's eyes widened, her body burned as she yelled hoarsely. "Who's there?!" Her voice echoing off the cave walls as she surrounded herself. "Lea–"
The words were silenced as Chrysalis felt something press up against her lips, thin and fleshy. Her muzzle crinkled at the sweet smell of copper and dirt that saturated the back of her throat.
"Save your energy. I've healed the small wounds, the bruises and cuts, but broken bones and ruptured organs do not heal so easily," the voice whispered.
"I said lea–" Chrysalis tried to shout, her voice rising before her muzzle was clamped shut by some sort of claw.
"I don't care what you said," the voice barked, lashing at her like daggers from the unseen attacker. "I'd rather not waste all my efforts in healing you." The creature sighed. "I'm sorry, this is a lot more than I expected. This is going to hurt."
For the first time in what seemed like eternity, Chrysalis watched as a light began to shine in front of her eyes. The claw that held her muzzle shut now radiated with a golden glow. The magic seemed to slosh around the appendage as if it were an ooze. She tried to peer at the creature behind the offending appendage, but the light was to dim to reach the creature's body. She looked back down at the claw, but as she looked at it, it began to look more like a paw than anything a claw would resemble. There were no talons, nothing to tear anything apart, it was more like a minotaur's hand. The digits ending with blunt and dirtied nails.
"You are going to get light headed, but I need you to drink this, do you understand?"
She blinked and looked back at the darkness where the voice came from.
As the creature's grip lightened, Chrysalis carefully opened her mouth, her tongue snaking out to lap at the brilliant golden liquid. She coughed as her tongue touched the magic.
"Time is of the essence, I'd rather get it done now, than let your condition worsen."
Her tongue retracted, "Is it not your–" Chrysalis paused as she watched the fingers curl.
"Hold your mouth open, breathe it in, that will make this process quicker... I think." The voice seemed unsure of itself, as if it were trying to recall a memory.
"You think?"
"I'd rather be safe than sorry."
Chrysalis was about to object, but the hand thrust forward covering the end of her snout as the fingers latched on. She couldn't even blink before the magic choked her, the cave lighting up with fireworks as her head began to swim. The magic coursing through her as her head began to sway, the creature's grip was the only thing keeping her from falling back to the stone floor. A soft cry echoed throughout the cave as Chrysalis' mind took a dive into the honeyed magic that drowned her. This kind power was something she had never felt before, it was intoxicating. There was certainly the love she felt from the one named Shining Armor, but this was different. The tightness in her chest began to loosen, and her insides became bubbly. Unable to stop herself, she smiled. A rumbling within her began to shake her body. Was she laughing?
The echoes of her voice seemed to swarm around them, a cacophony of laughter and wheezes. The laughter grew louder, turning into a buzz as the sounds began to drown out her senses, the light in front of her eyes growing dim as she fell unconscious.
"Sleep for now," the voice whispered past the droning, distorted and muffled as if she were underwater.
Closing her eyes, Chrysalis felt warmth wash over her, letting her sink deeper into the slumber.
Chrysalis listened to the creature's heels click on the stone floor of the cave. One step was light, like it barely touched the ground while the other seemed to be trying to crack the stone below. It had been going like this for... she didn't know how long, days? There was no sun to tell her if even a single day had passed. But every time she had followed his orders and gone to sleep, she had woken up to his condition being worse than before, and hers being considerably better. His breathing was ragged, and his body seemed to radiate the same miasma from before when he had first found her. A sickeningly sweet odor that stained the back of her throat with every breath she drew. If it was an emotion, it wasn't love that she was tasting...
"Are you feeling any better?" He asked, his voice hushed and forced, as if the act of speaking was hurting him.
The question brought Chrysalis out of her thoughts. "A little bit," Chrysalis muttered, that was a lie. Her body ached and groaned, but it was better than being on the cusp of death. It burned but this time it was for a different reason. The creature had wrapped some kind of blanket around her, it was like sitting too close to a fire, but it was better than the freezing stone just beneath her.
"That's good."
She heard the creature stop just before her. Craning her neck, Chrysalis stared up into the darkness, her chest tightened as all she could feel was the creature staring right back. Pulling the blanket over head she clamped her eyes shut. Why couldn't she feel anything? There was no pity, no love, hate, sadness, nothing at all. It was as if she was truly alone, the creature, a figment of her imagination. As the blanket wrapped around her tighter than before, Chrysalis slowly sighed, the feeling of worry never left her as she fell asleep but she knew. She wasn't alone.
And that was all she cared about.
"Father... It hurts..." He muttered with a breath that scalded his throat. Lowering himself to the ground next to the sleeping changeling, he hissed silently at the cuts and bruises that riddled his body. The worst was already over, but that didn't mean the job was done.
Bringing a hand to the cloak wrapped changeling, ablaze with the fiery magic that bubbled and boiled, he watched the magic wash over the cloak, rolling down the matted fur, some of it soaking in and droplets dripped to the floor with a little 'pits' as it boiled away from the stone.
He hummed a mirthless tune as he rubbed his hand across the fur and gelatinous magic. Bringing a hand to his face, he coughed violently, the magic caught flecks of blood before the amber magic began to blush like a brick. His eyes were torn from his hand as he wordlessly watched the entire cocoon of amber magic turn crimson. He shook, the once bright light now burned with a dark glow that seemed to draw the shadows to lap at the magic. And just like that, the magic was gone, his hand closed as the magic receded back into his being. The light gone from his eyes as the darkness returned.
He only sat there, watching the cloak for any movement, the breaths from within whispered to him. And he whispered back with a sigh of his own. Craning his neck to the right, he looked over to where he had left his pack. Raising a hand, and with a flick of his wrist, the pack silently slid over to him. Reaching for it, he slipped a hand into its depths, drawing a book from it with his fingers pinching the spine.
"Chapter eleven, life," he muttered, watching the book flip open in his hand, the pages slipping away one by one. Coming to a stop, he stared at the Minotuar writing, the symbols a vision to the past that seemed to speak to him. The ancient Minotuar's written language was heavily influenced by the Equestrian counterpart as they too had a heavy use of symbols to their writings. "Life is created just as easily as it is taken. But to give life is to..." His mutterings trailed off as stared at the hammer. Or at least he thought it was a hammer, the ink was smudged and faded, moving his gaze to the right, he looked at a depiction of the sun. He squinted, his brows furrowing as he stared at the symbols. "What the fuck does this mean again?"
He looked back down to the cloak in front of him. Healing her was nothing more than him taking on her wounds, there was no give of life, no take. But he made a mistake, he got comfortable. As comfortable as he could get with death's doorstep. But it was enough.
He hummed the same tune from before, gently rocking his head from side to side. The magic within him would heal his body overtime, far quicker than Chrysalis would have healed if he would have just left her. But this level of damage, even with his magic, it would take at the very least a week or two to repair the flesh and organs. And a month at the most for the bones to heal. Chrysalis was quite literally on death's doorstep, left like an abandoned child. Steeling himself, he gave quick pants before pushing himself from the floor. Propping himself up on the one good leg he had left while the other acted like a counter weight, keeping him from falling over. Lifting his arm, his hand began to glow a dull grey as magic seeped from his being. The magic sloshed around the hand as it lazily fizzed like a soda about to go flat.
Closing his eyes, he's left in total darkness once more. Reaching out, Diamond grasped at the air. His magic soaked fingers pinch a small bulb before a whisper of a breeze drifts through the cave, his magic dying as the bulb slips out of his grasp. A clang echoes through the cave and Diamond turns back to look at Chrysalis. He sees the cloak adjust but nothing more. Giving a sigh, he looks to the ground and there lies a small golden statue of a pony. Sitting on its rump with no mane or tail to speak of, its eyes closed and one hoof pointing to the sky while the other is stretched outwards. The back hooves laid out in front of it, crossed with each other. A single wing and horn was all there was to the golden monk besides the strange posture.
Picking it up, Diamond stared into the closed eyes of the golden pony. "You know what I want."
Bending at the knee, Diamond grimaced as fire spread up his leg, torching his nerves, he let out a sob as he bowed his head. Extending the statue in the palm of his hand to the darkness above.
The floor of the cave lit up with a light.
"But do you know what I want?" Asked a voice, a motherly voice that calmed the fire in his leg.
Diamond frowned, raising the statue even higher as he spoke up. "I don't have what you want, but there must be something that I–"
The voice laughed, sending lightning down Diamond's spine at the bells that rang in his ears. "Don't worry, you will."
Diamond's eyes widened at this, throwing his head up, Diamond gazed into the light, "What do you–" Only to be silenced as his head was filled with screams that rang out in his skull. Shutting his eyes and grinding his teeth, his face burned as tears fell to the stone below. His jaw began to ache but it was nothing compared to the throbbing he felt in his head.
"Know your place," The voice commanded, the sweet melody it had once been was now cold and dripping with venom. "You call me without even having something to offer, hoping to pawn off– what exactly? Some of your magic? That might work on the others but it will not work on me. You are lucky I'm perceptive enough to pick up on the little things."
"I have been blessed a fortune with such a miracle," Diamond muttered.
The voice cackled. "Child, you are this close to receiving the bottom of my bony hoof with your ass."
Diamond smiled. "The dead can't repay debts."
"Look who's talking."
"I could say the same."
Laughter seemed to fill the cave, echoing from every direction. "So... What is it that you want?" The voice asked in between chuckles, the mirth it carried warmed the air.
Diamond sighed, craning his neck to look back at Chrysalis who seemed to be still asleep, it was either that or she was only hiding herself from sight. Like a child hiding from the monsters under her bed. His gaze fell back to the stone below. "I want that changeling's soul."
"And you know what I want." Diamond nodded. "Here lies the end of our deal, made with the binding of souls." The voice hums for a moment. "It was a pleasure doing business with you my child. You'll have to introduce me to her someday."
"It has been a gift to hear from you, Father. And I will, someday."
As the light faded away, Diamond raised his head, the faintest of flickers drew his eyes to where his Father had once been. Bringing himself up, he walked over to the tiny flame. The small green light shimmered in the darkness, dancing as if there wind were trying to extinguish it. It was so small, and gentle like a candle's flame.
Reaching out, Diamond stared at the flame with wide eyes. Tears rolling down his face as he brought the flame to his chest. Cupping his hands together as if to protect it from the unseen assault, his bloodied hands shaking and twitching along with his body. A sob escaped him as the flame was snuffed, and once more, he was left in the darkness.