//------------------------------// // FOR QUEENS SAKE, KEEP HER AWAY FROM ME! // Story: Celestiphobia // by Dr Atlas //------------------------------// “Stan. You hoo, Staaan?” He waved a hoof in front of Stan’s face. “Hello? anyling in the cave?” Carl then proceed to clop his hooves in front of his friends face, hoping to snap him out of whatever trance he was in, but Stan continued to sit still on the floor with his mouth hung open, his ear stems flopped down, and his eyes wider than ever. Carl groaned and looked past Stan to the guards. “What did you do to him?” He asked. One of them lifted their hoof and the air. “WE didn’t do anything. That bug barreled through all of us. He didn’t stop for anything.” Carl laughed. “Yeah, sounds like something Stan would do.” He looked back at Stan’s still wide open eyes. “Kind of Reminds me of when you, me, Billy, Steve, Rob, Rachel, Andrew, Tyler, Joel, Patrick, Winchester, Larry, George, Mason, James, and Kyle used to run around in the hive all the time. Good times.” Carl realized the silence in the room and looked over Stan’s shoulder again to see the guards making the same expression Stan was. “What?” Celestia stepped forward. “How did you remember all those names? I thought you weren't in the hive anymore.” Carl shrugged. “Doesn’t mean I don’t remember when I was in it.” He held his head high. “I can almost remember all two-thousand and twenty of them. Thought, there might be less now...” Shining walked out of the group of guards and said. “You changelings can do that?” Carl nodded. “Even the queen can remember all our names,” He turned to Celestia. “I’m sure you do the same right?” “Um.” Celestia thought about it while she looked at the guards. Most of them scratched the back of their necks and looked away, while others looked at one another. “I’m sure I can remember some.” Carl tilted his head. “Only some?” He flew as far into the air as the chains allowed. “Come on. I’m sure you can remember over five-hundred, even Stan can remember all of them.” Celestia looked at him in bewilderment. “Really?” “Yeah.” Carl flew next to Stan and nudged him. “Come on Stan, show her what you know.” Stan responded with a slight tilt in his body from the force of his friends nudge, which then led him to fall sideways on the floor, with the expression of fear still on his face. Carl rolled his eyes and walked up to his face. “Look Stan, I know you’re a bit nervous being here, but I’m sure if you just-” Stan then proceeded to yell at the top of his lungs, but not before puking on Carl’s face. Everyone in the room shielded their ears while Carl wiped slightly digested love off of him. “Blegh, Stan! What the bu-” “WHY!?” Stan stood on all fours and pointed at Carl “Why did you take him for queens sake, he didn’t do anything, he was just a coward!” “Coward? *petoie* Stan I’m not-” “He didn’t even know anything,” Stan continued to stare at Celestia in both anger and fear. “w-why did you have to kill him?!” He started backing up toward the group of guards while everyone else in the room gave looks of concern. “Uh..Hello. Stan, I’m still here.” Carl shook the rest of the throw up off him and looked at Stan. “You are acting really crazy.” “No...n-n-no…” Stan ran into Shining and tackled him into the ground. Shining shielded his face from what he thought would be a punch, but all he felt were drops of some sort of liquid. As Shining looked up, he saw the changeling in tears. “Changeling?” One of the other guards tapped him in the head, but Stan seemed unfazed by it and continued looking at Shining with eyes filled with tears. Stan leaned down and whispered. “Don’t let her….fu-fu-ff-for queens sake don't let her...I-I-I don’t want to…” Stan sniff a bit of snot and continued to shake and quiver. Shining looked back and forth at Celestia and the guards, trying to see if they knew how to handle something like this. The guards just shrugged and some were starting to back out of the room, and Celestia looked just as confused as them, that was, until she walked up to Carl. “His name was Stan, correct?” She whispered. Carl turned away from the scene and raised an eye at Celestia. “Yeah, why? Wait, don’t tell me you’re gonna-” “Stan! Would you kindly walk over here.” Celestia motioned her hoof for Stan to come to her. Meanwhile, Stan continued to bawl his eyes out into Shining’s shoulder. It wasn’t until his ears twitched that made him raise his head in the air and turn to Celestia. He then turned back to Shining, grabbed him by the sides of his face and brought him to eye level. “Please, I know you hate us, and I know what we did was probably the worst thing we could ever do, but will you just find it in your cold dead heart to realize that I am still a creature with a soul, and that I don’t want it to be eaten’ by...” He hid behind Shining and pointed a hoof at the white alicorn. “h-hu-hu-h-her…” “Shining.” Celestia said in the most serious tone possible. “Will you and the guards escort Carl out of the room and leave me and Stan in here.” Shining could feel his entire body shake from the changeling constant shivers. He couldn’t understand why he was acting like this. Just a few minutes ago this changeling was bent on ending his life, but now he begging for his own life not to be ended. “Are you sure princess?” Shining asked. Celestia nodded and Stan tightened his grip on Shining's shoulders. “No..n-n-nono, don’t leave me…” “Orders  are orders changeling.” Shining said with a shrug. He looked at the guards and tilted his head toward Carl. “Get him out of here.” Carl raised his hoof. “Um, can I have a say in this?” He asked. Celestia leaned in on his ear. “You said this friend of yours was ordered by the queen to deliver that paper, he probably knows more about this situation than you do.” As Carl was unchained escorted, he looked back at Celestia. “But why do you have to talk to him in private.” “Just a theory I’m testing.” Celestia smiled and motioned the rest of the guards to leave, as they did, Stan continued to cling to Shining. “Don’t you see the evil smile...She’ll rip me to shreds, she’ll eat me piece by piece, or swallow me whole...and I am not into that…” Stan was now pulling on Shining to stop him from leaving, but the other ponies, even Carl, was helping Shining out of the room. “Will you just give it a rest. I’m sure she’ll go easy on you.” Shining grunted as the others were on the verge of shutting the door. Stan wouldn’t let up. His fear reaction was making him almost too strong for the rest of the guards to handle. It wasn’t until Stan felt something on his hooves that made him let go of Shining. He and the others fell to the floor, and before Stan could get up, he felt his body get dragged across the floor. Stan’s breathing and heart rate went up again as he realized he was being held by magic. He struggled to get out of its grasp, but it was too strong for him to handle, he craned his neck to the doors to see if someling could help, but they were already shut. It was just him now. Him and… Stan then felt the dragging stop and he was now still on the floor, he laid there, motionless, his mind was telling him to run for it, but his body was too petrified to make a move. He was about to scream for help but what happened next made him regret even thinking about it. Celestia was now hovering over him, her smiling face was mere inches away from his, and as Stan continued to breath heavily, the white alicorn said. “Nice for us to finally meet. So, do you mind telling me why you decided to come into my-?” “FOR THE LOVE OF THE QUEEN, DON’T KILL ME!” Celestia recoiled in surprise and Stan ran to the double doors. He was about to make a grab for them, but Celestia quickly regained her senses and caught him again with her magic. “Stan, please stay still.” “What?!” Stan yelled while flailing around in the air. “So you can have an easier time chewing me into bits!” Stan got out of her magic aura and flew into a nearby column. Celestia flinched at his pain. “Please changeling I only Want the meat from your bones.” Stan looked back at the red eyed alicorn and yelped again. “Don’t!” He flew around the column and into another on the other side of the room. “Can you please stop flying and let me rip you apart.” “NO!” Stan yelled as he went for the windows. “You’ll never make a meal out of-” *SMACK* “Oh my…” Celestia held a hoof to her mouth as Stan slid down the window. He didn’t even think about how tough a wall of glass could be. He then landed head first to the floor and later fell flat on his stomach. “W-when will this end…” Stan groaned as he sat up and rubbed his head. “Right now.” Stan jolted into the air and flew again, knocking over the royal throne chair and falling down the short flight of stairs. He got up again and decided to run instead of fly. “Queen help me...Just leave me-” *SLAM* “...Alone?” Stan said in a daze, after shaking his head a bit, he looked up to see what hit him. He gasped and fell to the floor once he saw the white tyrant right above him, her wings were outstretched and her smile was replaced with a look of seriousness. “You leave me no choice changeling.” She yelled. Stan shield his face, he didn’t want to see it coming, he just wanted it all to end, so he couldn’t feel teeth rip him apart, or his limbs being ripped off, or a strange warmth surrounding him, or…. Warmth? Was he in her belly already? Stan decided that, since he was still alive, he would at least see what was with this warm, fuzzy feeling. He opened an eye and expected to see the the walls of a stomach, but it was something else entirely. As both his eyes opened, he looked down to see the face of the princess, her eyes were closed and her neck was right under his chin. Stan looked to his sides to see that her wings were embraced around his body, as were her arms. His mind was now trying to process this, wondering why she wasn’t killing him yet, was she actually….hugging him? A few minutes of silence made Stan get the courage to ask. “Um...w-what are you doing?” Celestia opened her eyes and looked up at him from where her head was. “Calming you down.” She then closed them again and continued to hold him in place. Stan’s mind was still trying to figure out what to do. He was starting to think this was some sick trick into killing him, but wouldn’t she of done it already? And why were her eyes no longer red. He thought about getting out of this strange grip, but he felt somewhat safe in the position he was in. It kind of reminded him of when he was just a hatchling, and the queen would help him and the others get to sleep by doing something like this...it was like she was trying to...to… Stan had to ask, he didn’t care about what the answer could be, he was dead anyway...or was he? “Are you...trying to…” “I already said I was calming you down.” She turned her head so she could look at him upside down. “Are you calm?” Stan wasn't sure how he was suppose to answer that. He was too busy figuring out why she was doing this. Her face didn’t really look scary anymore, it looked...beautiful actually...Why did it look like this? She wasn’t like this a second ago. She was snarling with sharp teeth with blood dripping from her face. “I-I-I don’t know...why are you-” “You were acting a bit crazy…” She turned him around and so that his body faced her’s. “But I’m sure you’re okay now, right?” Stan continued to look both confused and scared at her. “I...I think so.” Stan had to admit, he was a little bit calm after that weird hug. He looked up at her to see that she had a paper next to her in her magical grip. “Would you mind telling me what this is?” She asked in a tone that was way too motherly for him to handle. Stan couldn’t take much more of this. He should be running away from this alicorn, but the way she talked, and the way she looked at him made him feel somewhat...safe. “Well…” Stan scratched the back of his neck, it was hard to make eye contact with your worst fear. Or was she? As of right now, she was acting more like a...friend. “Or perhaps you could tell me how all this happened. Would that make it easier on you?” Stan breathed a hefty sigh, he had never been this confused. Why was he okay with talking to this monster? She ate little hatchlings for queens sake, but here he was, sitting in a room, with just the two of them. He decided that maybe now was the time to finish this. Maybe later he could get Carl and get out of this confusing place. “I might as well start from the beginning…”