//------------------------------// // Please // Story: Stay // by Magenta Cat //------------------------------// It was nighttime, in the desert. In a place like this it's hard to believe that life exist. Without water nor plant it's not a very likely scenario, but there is life in the desert. Birds with feathers that can transport water for their offspring, insect and reptiles that had learned to live with little, cactus that catch till the last drop of water in order to survive. And of course, the subterranean Changeling Hive Castle. Away from any possible view, under a giant rock of magnetite in the middle of the desert, inhabit the most dangerous beings alive on the planet. Or what used to be the most dangerous. These days they are more like the saddest beings alive. It's been a long time since the failed Canterlot invasion, since then they had to recluse themselves underground, in the only place they could call home. Burning out any fragment of magic they had since that fateful day and hunting anything that wasn't smart enough to live. Those who once were feared where now reduced to a sad existence than can't be called life. They would have been taken out of their misery months ago if not for an incredible coincidence, one that made the few who could still afford to think, to believe in miracles. They would compose complex myths and legends around the event, telling stories about gods and spirits that saw their sorrow and forgave them from their sins, sending the being that saved their very existence. A being that, until that moment only existed in the darkest legends from the forgotten past, had found its way to the castle. A human. Now, most of the sentient species the had meet required massive quantities of individuals to feed from their emotions. Hundreds, if not thousands, were needed that time to save what was left of the sad kind. But that the same emotional charge was carried by a single human. When they first encountered, his fear shined in their minds as a golden shine that lasted for days. When they decided to keep him alive and offer help, his gratitude was almost palpable. And finally, when they told him their sad history, the indigo glow of his compassion flooded the hive till there was no changeling hungry. The agreement lasted for months, they would provide him protection and shelter and in exchange he would give then his heart. Not stolen, as it happened too many times in the past, but offered. But this being that held so many enigmas, even for an entire race of empaths, decided that he didn't wanted to spend his days in the desert forever. He had thought about it a lot of times. Sure they seemed to be relying on him to survive but at the same time he couldn't help but feel traped inside those dark caverns that composed the castle. After weeks of debating over it, he decided that if they were there before then that meant they were able to find another way to make it. And he already returned the favor to them by now. There were no real bonds and he really wanted to get out, living in a cavern was getting suffocating for a person who has live all of his life in a city with a way warmer weather. He needed to get out. One morning, before anyone else, he awoke, left his room and walked to the door of the only tunnel that went to the surface. If the indications of the few talking changelings were something to follow, he just needed to walk in the direction of the dawn for two hours or more before encountering with a town of apple farming ponies (he thought how that very concept was preposterous) and from then it would be only civilization. That was the plan, or at least it would have been if it wasn't for a lonely figure standing right in front of the door. The very queen of the dammed race was waiting for it. "James." She greeted him. "I see that you're trying to leave." With a total deadpan voice. "Not trying, I'm leaving." An emerald shine that only she could see was surrounding the human. They had talked about this before. She warned him how the ponies could be fearful of a creature they've never saw and how there wasn't any guaranty about how they could react to his presence. And even if he managed to fit in, if the ponies discovered the connection between him and the hive it was very likely that they would force him to guide them back. The princesses were a force to be reckoned with and she din't wanted to know what kind or retaliation they wanted for the attack on their capital. Also, he was a too valuable resource to let him go. "Can't I convince you by reason to stay?" She tried, one last time. "I'm sorry but it's not my problem anymore." He replied. "Don't misunderstand me, I really thank you for saving me, but." Keeping its gaze on the changeling queen. "I want to have a life too." She stood firmly on front of him, four hooves on the solid stone. "If you want to go, you will have to face me." Her horn started to glow. Slightly at first but gradually illuminating them both and the wide cavern with a greenish light. "If after this you are left unable to even move it will be enough with you being alive to feel. Even if you can only feel hate towards me it will have to be enough for us." Hate wasn't as nutritive as love or compassion but desperate times call for desperate acts. "Go ahead." This wasn't the first time this threat was brought into. "I just had it. If you want to kill me, do it! But there's no way in hell I'm staying here another day." Red, orange and green composed the emotional spectrum of his mind and heart, there was no more the indigo of compassion but there was still a slight sparkle of yellow. That fear was all that she needed to press him. "Then so be it. By reason or force you will stay." Her horn's light pulsated. "You will be well cared, all of your needs monitored and attended. But you body will be beyond any repair; your limbs useless and unable to communicate with the world around you but you won't die. You will desire for it, and that desire will be so strong that it will feed generations of my changelings and I will make sure you live to do it. To hate me and fear me. Forever." As he spoke her horn glowed stronger. The few creatures lurking in the darkest corners of the cave were now gone, blinded by a light that had nothing to envy the one from the sun. "Last warning. Do you stay?" Chrysalis could see how every color was leaving his aura, every one but yellow. Fear. She had him. "No." He replied, ready to die if it needed to but he wasn't going to stay by his decision. He was going to be free one way or another. Suddenly, a small spark of emerald cracked trough the yellow of his silhouette and, out of nowhere, the fear that surrounded him was replaced by an unbreakable will, accompanied of orange sparks of his desire to be free. Chrysalis saw this and couldn't hold it anymore.She was sweating and her hooves shaking for the effort. Her horn lost its light at the same time that a small drop of water ran down over the insect queen's cheek. Lowering her head and falling over her knees in exhaustion, the once powerful and feared governor of an entire specie lay down defenseless in front of the only hope of salvation for her kind. A hope that was getting away more and more. "I can't hold it anymore." She said shutting her eyes. "There's nothing left on me, not even enough magic to fight for my own." She barely managed to say those words between sobs. All this time since the fight in Canterlot and still her body hadn't fully recovered from the trauma suffered there. Being about to die of starving didn't helped matters neither. She was now a shadow of what she has been. No more a queen but now an illusion of one. He was perplexed before this vision but didn't said anything. I wasn't necessary, she started again. "Go ahead, leave if that's what you want." Without moving from her place. "But please, as a last act of kindness, kill me before leaving. I don't want to be here to see how my children starve again, I can't." She lowered her voice with each word. "I'm not that strong." "I--" But she interrupted him, screaming. "I'll give you everything!" There were no more menaces nor sobs. Desperation itself was coming from her and materialized into words of pleading. "My crown! my kingdom! You will be king and your word will be law and creed for them. Whatever you want, it will be accomplished with absolute obedience. Even I will bow freedom and will to your command. Just stay!" Here eyes were red but without tears. She had spent them all. He advanced a few steps, avoiding the pit of tears that once was the Changeling Queen, and put his hand over the door but stopped himself to gave one last look to the first place that had offered him kindness since he appeared in this strange and aggressive new world. She raised her head too and, for a second, both looked steadily at each other. Time seemed to froze in that exact second till the soft sound of very small hooves over the cavern's stone floor. Both looked in the direction of the castle to see a small black silhouette coming to them. She was like a miniature version of Chrysalis, the difference being her sky blue eyes and electric blue chitin and mane. Her father colors. "Mommy, what's going on?" "Monarch!" Chrysalis rose as fast as she could and hugged the young changeling. "What are you doing up so early?" "I had a nightmare." The small insect-filly answered. "But I can't remember it now." She looked at James with his hand over the still closed door. "Is Jimmy leaving?" Nobody could answer the small changeling. The mother hugged her child even stronger than before, as if that could be the last time she could. If Chrysalis was paying attention, she could have seen how the entire emotional spectrum was storming inside James, changing suddenly from avarice to will to fear and backwards, till all was left was one single one. Compassion. "Don't worry Monarch, i'm just going out on a short trip for the day. You can come with me if your mother doesn't mind."