//------------------------------// // To...THE DEATH! Part 2 // Story: Celestiphobia // by Dr Atlas //------------------------------// “HAHA, you fight just like my sister!” “I have fought your sister, or your brother, it’s hard to tell the difference between you bugs.” Stan rolled his eyes. “Tell me about it…” He then noticed the watchful eyes of the crowd. Almost all of them looked at the pair in awe, while others started eating popcorn. As for the guards, they just facehoofed. “I-I mean, You dare call me a changeling yet again, for that I shall have your head.” Stan swung his sword and intentionally hit it against Carl’s spear. “Perhaps if you aimed for my head you would've had it by now.” Carl flung Stan’s sword into a wall with his spear. “Oh ho, for now you are disarmed changeling!” Carl held his weapon in front of Stan’s face. Stan looked around, seeing that now an entire crowd of ponies were gathering around them, he was starting to realize it was going to be a lot harder to get out of this. “Think I’m disarmed, do you?” Stan ran out of the crowd and into a guard. “Do you mind if I take this?” He took hold of the spear he was holding. “Yes, actually, I do mind.” The guard yelled as he struggled to hold his weapon. Both were fighting over it until Carl gave a warriors yell and charged toward them. Realizing that it would be futile, the guard let go, making Stan land on the ground and Carl charge out of the group of ponies instead of charging into Stan. “HA! Your bug eyes must be effecting your vision.” Stan rose to his feet and held his spear erect to his brother. Carl stopped dead in his tracks and turned around. “You best give up now and surrender changeling, the princess might go easy on you.” Stan’s whole body went tense when he said that. “Um...surely the….p-princess will...uh…come on Stan, stay in character." “Or perhaps she will slay you like the rest of your kind.” Stan started breathing heavy. “She...She will...uh…” Stan was trying to form words, but his mind was too busy thinking about what the princess would do to him if he actually got caught. “I’m sure the princess will show no mercy for you.” “Indeed; I won’t, little bug” Stan snapped at that point. His left eye twitched and his face was filled with fright. “THE PRINCESS WILL NEVER TAKE ME!” Stan screamed with tears in his eyes. “None of you will!” Stan dropped the weapon and ran past Carl screaming all the way, leaving Carl to stand by the crowd alone. After a long and awkward silence. Carl looked back at the crowd, seeing that most of them were starting to understand the little scheme that he and his brother put together. Carl smiled and started stepping away. “Well, uh...looks like he was truly the changeling after all. Y-You all can, uh, go back to whatever it is you ponies do.” He dropped the spear and clamped his mouth shut once he said that. A guard stepped forward from the crowd and said. “What do you mean, ‘you ponies’?” Carl continued stepping back, looking for a way out of this. “Wha-What do you mean..’You ponies.’” He felt his flank hit the side of the building, making him yelp. The guard slowly walked toward him, with several other ponies doing the same. “Where’s your ID, changeling?” Carl gulped. “I-In my other pair of pants?” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Stan continued to scream and run from what he thought would be his death, he barreled through streets and knocked over various foods and trinkets the shop vendors were selling. “You-you will n-never h-h-have me for a meal you...you tyrant!” He screamed in the air, making ponies from all around him gave him looks of either worry, fright, or 'what is wrong with that pony'? Stan turned away from all the attention and went into a dark alley, crashing into a trash can in the process, and dropping the paper as well. As he laid in the pile of trash he tried to get his breathing and heart rate back to normal. “I-Its okay...she...she can’t find you here….you’re….you’re safe…” He smiled and breathed a hefty sigh; then snapped his mind back to attention. “Wait...w-where’s the paper!” He spun around looked in all directions to find the treaty, he rummaged through the trash, but to no avail. It wasn't until he tossed a trash can, having the lid land on his head, out of the way to finally find it. He gasped. “Oh...no...no, nonononoNONONO NO!” He ran up to the now water soaked paper. He held it in his magic and unrolled it to see of the words were now illegible, the water completely ruined it, the ink was dripping down the page, and now the words were no longer there. He slumped down, unable to comprehend that this happened. “No...oh for Chrysie’s sake no. It can't get any worse.” “Yes it can...” Stan stood in attention, only to get the lid of the trash can to cover his eyes. He slowly looked behind him and tipped the lid to look at his worst fear st right in her glowing red eyes. She leaned in on his ear and whispered. “Run…” “O-okay…” Stan screamed like a hatchling and ran past her, dropping his disguise in the process, and crashing into something both soft and hard. Before he could see what it was, he felt something crash into him with a lot of force, pinning him into the ground. Stan quickly put two and two together to realize that the royal guard finally got him. He struggled, but the pony on top of him must've weighed a ton to keep him in place. “Well, well, well, what have we here?” Stan’s ear stems went up as soon as he heard those words, he was slightly relieved to know it wasn't that nymph muncher's voice, but a rugged stallion, who was the one holding him in place and staring down on him. “About time you gave up. I was thinkin’ your brother was the only one who had some sense in his head.” The guard turned around and whistled. Stan craned his neck to see Carl in chains from his neck to his hooves. Stan tried to make eye contact, but Carl kept looking at the ground in shame. Stan looked back at the guard. “You let us go.” he snarled. The guard chuckled. “We’ll let you go when we reach the castle.” He leaned into his ear and whispered, “I’m sure our princess would love to have a word with the two of you." Stan immediately went into a frenzy and pushed the guard off of him. He flailed around and screamed, shouting, “NO! YOU’RE NOT TAKING ME ALIVE!” and, "You're not turning me into another meal!" The other guards struggled to keep him in place. Carl could only watch in horror as his brother was starting to go borderline insane. “What do we do captain!” One of the guards, who was trying to restrain him, yelled. “This bug is crazy!” “Knock him out or something cadet!” The captain yelled. The next thing Stan felt was something cold and hard hit him against the head. As he started losing consciousness, he could only hear two things, his brother screaming his name, and a soft but evil voice whisper... “Gotcha.”