//------------------------------// // Protea // Story: Scarlet // by Skijarama //------------------------------// Silence. Nopony moved in that small room. They barely even dared to breathe, as if even the tiniest, most insignificant sound would send the whole world crumbling into dust.  Scarlet stared long and hard at the image before her, blinking several times, trying to will it out of existence with just her thoughts alone. It was an illusion or a hallucination. It couldn’t be real. It could not be real. There was no way that Primrose was one of them… “This is… it’s just a nightmare,” she eventually thought to herself, clamping her teeth down on her tongue as hard as she could. A spike of white-hot pain ran through her skull, making her wince and close her eyes.  “Wake up…” she pleaded with herself, slamming a forehoof against her head when her almost-bleeding tongue failed to yield the desired result. “Wake up, wake up, WAKE UP, WAKE UP! DAMMIT, JUST WAKE UP!” But no matter how many times Scarlet blinked, no matter how hard she bit down on her tongue, no matter how many times she practically punched herself in the head, nothing worked. This wasn’t a dream. The changeling was still there, staring back at her, its glowing eyes shimmering with fear, guilt, and a whole host of other emotions that Scarlet was far too distraught and confused to make sense of. Finally, Scarlet’s efforts to wake herself up came to an end, and she set her hoof down on the wooden floor. She affixed the chitinous creature before her with an unreadable look.  The changeling, seemingly emboldened by her stillness, lowered its head and took a few timid steps forward. “Scarlet,” it began in a distorted voice that made the unicorn’s blood boil and her skin crawl. “Please, listen to me… my-” “Shut up and get the hell away from me!” Scarlet suddenly shouted, taking a step back and igniting her horn with magic as fire flooded her veins. Protea’s eyes went as wide as saucers, and she retreated several steps to cower against the wall, her tiny body shivering. But no matter how much Scarlet’s heart may have once cried out to her to go to the child’s side and offer her whatever comfort she could, she couldn’t bring herself to do so now. She couldn’t even think through the haze of fire and hatred flooding her veins. One of her hooves scraped slowly along the wooden floorboards in a display of aggression. “Scarlet, hey,” Lens’ voice came from her left, low and soothing. “Just calm down, alright? Let’s hear her out before we-” “Lens,” Scarlet snapped, cutting him off before glaring into his eyes. He recoiled and backed away from her, his own eyes flying wide. She bared her teeth, not having the patience to put up with him right this moment. “Shut the hell up, and stay out of my way,” she snarled before turning back to Protea. “Scarlet, please…” Protea whimpered, shrinking down under the mare’s hateful gaze. “I… I’m still the same filly you found in your basement-” “Bull. Shit!” Scarlet snapped, her face starting to twitch. Oh, how she wanted to rip this abomination apart just now. The only thing holding her back was the horrified eyes of Lens and the terror in Protea’s. There was also a desire to learn the truth from the strangely intelligent changeling, and corpses don’t talk. “Listen to me! I only ever lied to you about my race!” Protea protested, looking away in shame. “Everything else I have ever told you was the truth! I just…” she suddenly sniffled, and Scarlet’s heart skipped a beat when she saw a tear rolling down the changeling’s cheek. “It’s the worst feeling in the world to lie to the ponies I love… but I had no choice...” “The ponies you love?” Scarlet spat, incensed at the mere idea that this thing was even capable of that. “Don't make me laugh!” “I’m telling the truth!” Protea shot back, lifting her head to look into Scarlet’s eyes. “Please, Scarlet! I… I do love you. You’re like a mom to me!” “SHUT UP!” Scarlet snapped, her pupils shrinking to pinpricks. She stomped forward and slammed a hoof down in front of Protea, forcing the small, quivering grub to press herself into the wall. Scarlet leaned down until her face was mere inches from Protea’s. “You do not get to talk to me like that! You are NOT my daughter! You never were, and you never will be!” “Scarlet, please,” Lens tried again, approaching her tentatively from behind. He mouthed uselessly like a fish as he hunted for the words. “I said, stay out of my way!” Scarlet scowled back at Lens, her horn flaring with magic. “Shut up and stay in the corner!” “Listen to me!” Lens countered in as soothing and placating a voice as he could manage while lifting one hoof in a disarming gesture. “I’m upset, too, but we need to keep our heads together. Prim- ...Protea is clearly different from the rest of her kind! We can talk to her, reason with her. If nothing else, we should hear what she has to say before we lash out.” “And give her the chance to lie to us again?!” Scarlet roared, appalled at the mere idea of giving that demon a chance to speak. “I think not!” “...I never lied to you,” Protea whimpered quietly from behind her. Scarlet, already on the verge of completely losing control of herself, slowly turned back to face the changeling. “Is that so?” she growled in disbelief. “Do you truly expect me to believe that?” Protea looked back up at her, her entire body shaking. “Y-yes! Silent killing m-my family, hunting m-me, the l-lamp… everything I e-ever told you w-was true… I’m not going to die a liar...” Scarlet snorted, but before she could say anything, Lens stepped in front of her and put a hoof on her chest, silencing her. “Hey… let me talk to her for a second, okay?” he said in a soft whisper. “Let me get some answers…” Scarlet scowled, severely tempted to bite his hoof off for the suggestion. But after a moment, she relented and took a step back. “Gah! Fine! Just be quick about it! I won’t tolerate that thing any longer than I have to!” “Scarlet-” “Get. Talking.” Lens eyed her for a short time, concern written all over his face. After a second, though, he drew himself up and nodded. He turned back to Protea with a more disarming look on his face. “Okay… so… Protea, was it?” he asked, adjusting his glasses. “I have a few questions for you.” Protea nodded, looking down at her hooves. “...Go ahead.” “First… how is it that you can talk?” Lens asked, settling down onto his haunches as well. “Most changelings can barely even form single, broken words, much less communicate like this. What makes you different from the rest? Are you special, somehow?” “No,” Protea shook her head, her eyes drifting closed. She let out a tired sigh, her ears drooping. “The ones you’re talking about… my mom called them Ferals.” “Ferals?” Lens echoed. Protea nodded. “Yes. They’re changelings affected by some kind of horrible curse. I dunno much about it… mom never wanted to talk about it before she…” she sniffled and choked down a sob. Scarlet scoffed. Protea continued a moment later. “I just k-know that the Ferals are cursed, and I’m not. I’m a Free Changeling. Th-that’s why I’m so different from them. That’s why I can talk… the curse makes them like that.” “Do you know where the curse comes from?” Protea shook her head. “No. I just know that, sometimes, it can spread. If one of the Ferals ever gets too close to me and hurts me, then… I c-could possibly become like them…” For a brief moment, the fire in Scarlet’s veins dies down, her mind wandering back to how terrified Primrose had been when they had first crossed paths with ‘Ferals’ on the way to Shimmervale. It wasn’t just because changelings are foul, wretched, and absurdly dangerous beasts. If she was telling the truth, then she was at risk of becoming one of them. Whatever pity she felt for her didn’t last long, however. Different or not, Protea was still a changeling… one that had wormed its way into her life and tried to take her dead daughter’s place. “Changeling,” she suddenly spoke up, cutting off Lens before he could voice his next question. Slowly, Scarlet lifted her eyes to glare into Protea’s again. “Tell me. What was your plan? Why me? Why did you choose my house that night in Swanrun?” Protea shifted uneasily on her haunches, her eyes turning to one side. “...I just wanted to get out of the rain,” she said quietly. “I had no idea who you were or anything about you. I just… I was scared of being out in the open. I wanted shelter, and the door to your cellar was nearby…” Scarlet was silent for a second before slowly stepping forward. She brushed past Lens until she was looming directly over Protea again. “...I don’t believe you.” Protea’s eyes widened fearfully. “H-huh?!” Scarlet’s eyes narrowed, the fire starting to build up in her body again. “You can sense emotions, can you not? You can taste them. You feed on them!” she accused, her eyes starting to shimmer as her vision blurred. “W-well, yes…” Protea admitted with a shaky nod. “B-but-” “So then I can’t help but be skeptical of your claim that you found me by blind chance!” Scarlet went on, her coat bristling with rage as her hold over her composure began to slip. “I was still grieving for Crystal! Every day I spent without m-my little girl in my home to smile a-and laugh and play was torture! I had never felt so lonely or miserable in my entire life!” She leveled a hoof at Protea, her lips peeling back to show her teeth. “And then, one night, a foal around my daughter’s age suddenly appears in my home! A weak, cold, hungry child in need of aid and shelter!” Protea began to stiffly shake her head, tears rolling down her cheeks. “S-Scarlet, please… I n-never meant to-” “YOU TRIED TO TAKE HER PLACE!” Scarlet roared, her composure finally breaking apart. “You tried to put yourself where my daughter belongs! You tried to replace her in my life and my heart so you could suck up all of the love meant for her! And I was blind enough to let it happen!” “W-what?!” Protea asked in horror, her eyes flying wide. “N-no! No, I would never do that!” “HOW CAN I BELIEVE THAT?!” Scarlet went on, her face starting to twitch erratically in her rage. “You are a changeling! A shapeshifter, and one of the monsters who caused the fall! One of the demons that murdered my daughter! How can I trust a single thing you say?!” “Scarlet, stop,” Lens said forcefully, reaching out to grab her shoulders. “Listen to yourself. You’re being-” “Let me go, Lens!” Scarlet snapped, thrashing against his hooves in a bid to get at the cowering changeling in front of her. “Let go, dammit!” “Listen to me!” Lens shot back, grunting with the strain of trying to hold her back. “You’re being unreasonable-” “I DON’T CARE!” Scarlet shrieked like a banshee, her patience finally running out. With an agonized scream, her horn flared with magic. Lens’ words died in his throat as she lifted him up in her aura before turning and hurling him across the room to pin him against the far wall. With a growl of effort, she cast a simple sleeping spell over him. Lens shuddered, a breathless gasp slipping past his lips as Scarlet released him, and he fell to the floor with a dull thud. Satisfied that there would be no further interruptions, Scarlet turned her shimmering eyes and hellfire glare onto the terrified changeling in the room. Protea was crying and weeping hysterically, trying to push herself up against the wall in an effort to get away.  “Scarlet, NO!” she screamed out between her sobs, tears running down her cheeks. “PLEASE, NO! I DON’T WANT TO DIE!” The child’s pleas, however, did not reach Scarlet’s ears. With a long, anguished scream, her horn flashed with light, and a magical blade burst into reality in the air by her side. The purple edge showed in Protea’s reflective eyes and chitin, and the terror she was putting on display grew so much worse. “PLEASE!” Scarlet screwed her eyes shut and lifted the blade over her head before bringing it down, her mind flashing back to all of the moments she had spent with Primrose over the last few months. Every laugh, every smile, every tear, every embrace… everything. She remembered, and she made her choice. Primrose’s voice screamed in Scarlet’s ears, filled with terror and fear and grief. Scarlet flinched. The blade met its mark. Crunch. Scarlet was only vaguely aware of the sensation of her blade burying itself into something hard. She couldn’t hear anything through her own heavy breathing and the ringing in her ears. Shivering, she slowly opened her eyes to assess the damage. Her sword had embedded itself into the wall less than an inch away from Protea’s head. The changeling’s eyes were glued to the sharp edge of the magically manifested sword, her chest rising and falling in heaving, frantic gasps. Sniffling and barely stifling a sob, she slowly, gingerly turned her eyes to look into Scarlet’s. Scarlet’s heart began to wither in her chest when the image of Crystal Clear staring back at her in the same way filtered into her mind, overlaying itself on top of the image of the crying changeling. Scarlet’s breath hitched in her throat, and her hyperventilating gasps began to devolve into pitiful sobs. Her sword flickered and then vanished in a shimmer of light. The energy coursing along Scarlet’s horn sputtered and faded, announcing the end of her magic. She couldn’t do it… not to a child. Protea sniffled, her lip trembling. “Scarlet…?” she whispered, lifting a hoof. “Get out.” The words came out cold and emotionless. Protea recoiled upon hearing them, her ears flattening back against her head. “But… b-but…” Scarlet’s nostrils flared, her coat bristling up with impatience. “I said, get. Out. Get the hell out of my sight before I change my mind. I never want to see you again,” she explained, drawing out each word slowly and methodically to ensure that the child understood. Protea whimpered again before lowering her face. “I… I understand,” she choked out. Slowly, she rose to her hooves, her hoof wandering over her barrel to ensure her saddlebags were still secured. “I’m sorry…” “Don’t be sorry,” Scarlet snapped, stepping away and pointing for the door. “Be gone.” Protea stared back at her for a few seconds. From the way her face was twitching and trembling, it was painfully clear that it was taking all of her might to maintain her composure. She closed her eyes, a swirl of green flames enveloping her body. When they faded, Primrose stood there, her face hidden by her rats nest of a mane. “Goodbye…” Scarlet’s eyes widened at the sight of the earth pony filly… the one she had come to care for as if she were her own daughter… the one that she now knew was a lie. Fire flooded her veins all over again, the last of her restraint burning to cinders in the inferno of her rage. “GET OUT!” she screamed, her voice going hoarse from the volume. “JUST GET THE FUCK OUT! GO! GO! LEAVE!” That outburst seemed to be the last straw for Primrose as well. A few tiny sobs leaked past her lips before, with a long, miserable wail, she broke into a sprint for the door. Even in her disguised state, her magic kicked in, throwing the door open in a green aura and briefly disrupting Lens’ soundproofing spell. Scarlet stared after her for a moment, the filly’s echoing cries filling her ears. With a scream of rage, Scarlet grabbed the door in her magic and slammed it shut, silencing Primrose’s crying as the spell retook effect. The room was plunged into a tense, heavy silence. Scarlet remained planted in that spot, gasping desperately for breath as her emotions, at long last, began to come under control. From the back of the room, Lens groaned and lifted his head, his eyes staring at her in shock, horror, and disbelief. “Scarlet…?” he asked in a stunned, breathless whisper. ”What… w-what have you done?” Scarlet didn’t say anything. She didn’t even register the words, to be entirely honest. It felt as if her entire world had just crumbled into pieces around her, leaving her stranded, cold, empty, and alone in the middle of an ocean of despair. Everything she had done, everything she had worked for since leaving Swanrun… All of it… it had all been for nothing. “We’re finished…” she whispered, slumping to her haunches. Her vision blurred with tears again, the horrible truth coming down on her like an avalanche. There was no longer any point to this fight. The whole reason she had left her home and uprooted her life had just gone running through the door with the direct order to never show herself again. The child that had come into her life, the last chance she had to redeem herself for letting her daughter die, was gone. Silent and his Nightblades would come looking for her soon enough, and in this city, there was no way she would be able to get away. And then they would come for Scarlet and Lens. Scarlet slumped forward, burying her face into the bed that Primrose had slept in. With her agonized eyes hidden from the world, she broke down into a fit of broken, hysterical sobs. Her tortured cries and screams, despite being muffled by the blankets, were deafening as they echoed in that small, silent inn room. With every wail, she was announcing to a world that could not hear her that she had given up… And that nothing could have hurt her more.