Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot

by Equimorto


Undeliver

Somewhere in the feverish maelstrom of her sickened mind, Fluttershy found herself, and she steered her conscience and held it together. It was hard to achieve anything close to a stable conversation without Luna's help in stabilising the dream, and what she had instead was shreds of paper strewn around in the wind compared to a book. It was drifting in and out of awareness, losing and finding herself in a storm and screaming at the waves hoping an answer would come. She did it regardless. "This wasn't what we agreed on."
For a short uncertain eternity, no answer came, and through moments Fluttershy felt herself unravelling and feared she'd lose herself once more. But she endured, and eventually the voices spoke back. Disjointed and all around her, they gave her meanings more than words. A while it took for them to reach her, a while longer for her to piece them together after piecing herself. They acted within their terms, they claimed. Out of self preservation, they sustained. She had agreed to sacrifice herself, they reminded her.
She could not deny the last notion. She was willing to die to stand by her principles, she'd always said as much. But she would not allow them to hurt anyone else. "Only me," she said in a moment of lucidity and cohesiveness. "You're only allowed to harm me," she added, an unspecified blink of time later. Never would she be willing to let them harm another pony, even without killing them, unless the pony first was educated properly and then agreed to proceed with things, as she had.
But symbionts out of parasites she could not easily make, of that she was aware. Through her respect for life and existence she still knew they would not honour her will and merely let themselves die. She was against the idea of Luna harming them to protect her, but she had no such qualms concerning the concept of her doing so to protect others. They had their warning, and if they chose to ignore it they'd pay the consequences. Although, obviously, Luna's state at that moment complicated things considerably as far as deterrence was concerned.
Regardless, there came an answer, like chittering ants scattered through the wind. They would not stop if things came to it. She would be unable to stop them either way. Shortsighted of them, she found, to antagonise her so in her moment of weakness, but then she supposed it was in their nature to act that way. She wouldn't have a way of truly knowing what they'd do, they argued, and they added that it would be safest to let others partake in the carrying either way. That, she could not stand.
"So you could do to them what you're doing to me?" she yelled at the void, held together by rage for a moment. She did not wait for them to reply, and still keeping herself one she said, "Kill me, and you'll be dying with me. Try to touch anyone else, and you'll be dying alone."
"Are you in a position to make that kind of claims?" came their answer, whole for once.