//------------------------------// // Respect Existence or Expect Resistance // Story: Respect Existence or Expect Resistance // by Next Gen Wonderbolt //------------------------------// The hiss of my can is the only sound in the street. My hood covers my horn and hides my face from the moon light illuminating the streets below. The wind whistles through the holes in my legs, sending shivers down my back. The hoodie traps my insect wings, preventing me from making a quick get away. The image finally starts to complete itself. A picture of the corrupt leader everyone worships, loves, and respects. Respect. The word is so foreign to me. Nobody respects me. I have to fight for my right to live, my right to survive, and to prosper. You would think ponies who have so much respect for the different races would have respect for us because, after all, we are ponies. We're not alicorns, unicorns, earth ponies, or pegasi, we're a hybrid of insect-like ponies. We impose fear for simply needing love to survive? WE are hated simply because we need the one thing people can give so easily!? We go through all this crap because nobody has a heart? I slammed my can down on the ground. It's a load of horsecrap! Why do we always play the bad guy!? If they can tolerate ponies with wings, a horn, even a pony made of crystals, why can't they tolerate us? What makes us different? Is it because we're part insect? Is it because of the radical stunt we pulled a while back? What they don't know is that we did that to SURVIVE. That's what we fear the most, is dying because nobody gives a damn about us! Because they can't see past the skin, past the looks! I step back to look at my work. The image of a changeling half turned into Twilight Sparkle, sat next to a message that read 'RESPECT EXISTENCE OR EXPECT RESISTANCE'. I'll admit it's a bit radical, but it's not like anything Chryssi pulled back at the wedding. I picked up my spray can, I step back some to admire the work when a shadow flies overhead. I hear a pony land behind me and instantly I run. I get caught in a light blue aura. I'm turned around to face the princess of the night. She sets me down, luckily my hood is up so she can't see my face, but the hood is removed and my face becomes visible to her. I expect her to banish me or kill me, it's what they do right? Kill us because we aren't like them, because we don't have fur or a cutie mark, because we need love to survive and not food. I look up and face Luna, I'm not afraid to die, I'm not afraid of her. She stares at me with a nonchalant face, I can't read her emotions or anything. She simply looks at my art and looks back at me. I also step back and admire it. I'm done here, as long as people get the message, I don't care what happens to me. "It's quite impressive." She says. There's a bit of admiration in her voice, but not much. I nod my head in response. "What inspired you to do this?" She asks. I look at her with my teal eyes. "Why do you treat us like crap?" It silences her. She turns back towards the image on the wall. "That I cannot answer. My sister, Tia, sees you as a threat. Why she does, I cannot fathom, for she is my sister. She has her right to her opinion." "So her opinion is to kill and fight creatures who need love to survive?" She remains stoic. "Her opinion is that, we, ponies, just like her, are evil!? That just because we have insect like characteristics, we're a threat to her people!? Tell me that isn't the biggest load of bullshit you've ever heard?" She doesn't answer me. The moonlight still shines down on us, her mane flying in the wind and sparkling none the less. To anypony else she would be intimidating. She was a princess after all. "I do not hate you. You are as you say, creatures living, thriving, surviving. I would think my sister would have this way of thinking, not me. For I used to not value life the way others do. I wanted to be loved by my subjects too, loved and cherished like my sister. The ponies would bathe and rejoice in her sunlight, then sleep and ignore my night. I too wondered, what made me different from my sister." "But that's individuality, it was between your personalities, not race." She sighed. "Yes, but it's the same feeling." I thought about it for a moment. It seemed to make sense, she was different from her sister, so she knew what it was like to be the outcast. She was hated, seen as a threat just as I am. She was accepted though, she got another chance, now she's loved, and people like her. We don't get that second chance. We never did and never will, and that's what pisses me off. "You show little fear. Why is that? Why have you not fought back? Why have you not tried to escape?" I stand tall. "I'm not afraid to die. I know I'm like everyone else. I hold myself to their level, to the level of society ponies hold. I am a pony, I just have a different appearance. I know that if they can tolerate pegasi, alicorns, and unicorns, they can tolerate us." Luna nodded in understanding. "You know that if my sister sees this, and she will see it, she'll try to silence you." I nod in agreement. "That's the point. I want her to see it. I want her to see the hate she's caused, the hate she's spreading, the fear she's spreading. This is the only safe way to spread the word, and to attempt for equality." I put my hood up and snicker. " It's ironic really." "How so?" "All we need is love, and instead we get hate." I begin to walk away, my next message ready for delivery. It's going to go nicely with the main square of Canterlot, where everypony will see it's word. Before I can disappear, though, I feel a hoof grab my shoulder. Luna looks at me with a determined gaze. She stares me in the eyes, the intensity increasing, but it does not make me flinch. "You will not fight this war alone. I'll guide you through it, whether you want me to or not. I will not stand to see another pony turn to dark forces to survive and to be treated right." Thank you, Princess." I bow to show my respect. "Where are you heading now?" I point towards the main square. "Right smack in the middle of town, where everyone can see my message, where they can see the truth." "Be careful my little pony." I smile big, bigger than physically possible. It wasn't because I had royalty helping me, no, it was because she had called me a pony. She had just show respect for my existence! She had respected my life, me as a whole, as a living thing. I picked up my can of spray paint and raced towards the middle of town. Adrenaline and new found strength coursed through my body. My heart was racing. I saw a shadow fly overhead and towards the castle. I looked yonder towards my ultimate goal. The walls of the castle were my final destination. That was the prize jewel, like a diamond in the rough. It'd be my diamond though, my prize for my perseverance, but not the only prize. The prize waiting for me on the pedestal was not tagging the walls of the castle, but to gain equality and respect from the ponies of Equestria. I wasn't doing this for me, I wasn't doing this for the Queen, I was doing this for all my brothers and sisters looking for a safe haven, for safety, for happiness. For love.