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// The Swarm 
// Story: Where Did I Go Wrong? 
// by zeroxwolfx 
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        In our kingdom there were five great cities, along with many more smaller towns and villages between them that expanded to our boundaries.  Four of the cities were rather close to each other, all of them near the center of our land.  The fifth was the furthest to the north and had a large naturally forming icy wall arch that guarded it’s northern edge.  It was the city of Shimmermist.  It was by no means the largest of the cities in area or population, but it was still a very lovely, developed settlement, filled with it’s own unique snowy decorated, crystalline structures.  I knew the place very well actually, as I had visited there many a time when I was young.  My uncle even had some land there.  It was an exemplary, beautiful city in the north that was somewhat quieter than the rest as it did not partake as much in the hype of media stories, or the rush of fashion and entertainment that the other cities had.  Shimmermist was the first city that fell.

        When they first came, they thought it was a rain cloud, a large, spotted rain cloud, but this was unusual in an of itself.  There was hardly rain in this season and the weather was always very well controlled in all of our cities.  But this cloud came quickly and ominously.  It grew closer and closer and crystal ponies began to panic.  All they could do was wait as it dawned upon them.  As it approached ever closer, they could hear it, the sound that no cloud no matter how stormy or dark should make.  It was a buzzing sound, a great,and terrible ear shattering buzzing sound that roared towards them, growing louder and louder the closer it became.  As the demonic roar, the freight train like roar of buzzing came near, they could now see little black dots growing larger as the cloud approached them.  It was at this point that they could see with their own eyes, that it was not a force of wind that pushed this cloud but it was a massive number of creatures that approached them.

        They landed, and we saw them.  They were insect-like creatures, gruesomely similar to a pony in size and shape, but they couldn't be further from my beloved crystal ponies.  Their bodies were not at all like the plush, shimmering coats of the crystal ponies, no, it was a hard, armor like carapace, that was black, blacker than when you close your eyes, on the darkest of nights.  Their limbs were disfigured, full of holes, and sharp edges.  Their wings were... not proper, they buzzed, and were thin, like the wings of a locust.  Perhaps the most terrifying part of them was their eyes.  They showed a horrible ghastly green color that was without white, without any hint of of a soul.  But they were deep, beautiful in their own way at first, but great and terrible.  I remember looking into them, hypnotically as they were.  If you stared deep and hard enough into their depths, you could see it.  A deep, dark black hole, with a great monstrous, bottomless hunger.  And those eyes were looking at you.

        When the few guards and soldiers that stood in the city had been dealt with, the insect monsters rounded up the citizens, brought them into the center of the town.  We received reports of this days later, of which I did not believe, not until I would see them for myself.  What was written on paper did not do justice to the horror that I would witness in years later. Every one of them, biting, clawing at them, hissing, roaring, and tearing through the houses.  They took every one.  Every stallion, every mare, every filly, every colt, and every elder.  They herded them into the open, like cattle.  

That is where they consumed them.  They were not so kind as to eat their flesh though, oh no.  Instead, they consumed their goodness, their light.  The happy thoughts, and the love was sucked out of them, through the vampire teeth of the equine insects.  It was a horrible processes that felt like dyeing.  And it did not all happen at once, no, it was like the pain of loss, of losing what you loved most, slowly.  The insects took their precious time too.  After Shimmermist fell, it took months for them to drain the life out of every one of those poor souls.

Not more than a handful managed to escape the feeding and bring the news of what happened to us.  When I think about it now, I believe that those few were simply allowed to escape in order to tell the rest of the empire what was in store for them.  The news itself was such a shock to me, my mind could barely comprehend it.  The Crystal Kingdom had been attacked by a massive army of unknown creatures.  This was no ordinary, everyday celebrity politician royal banter, or on-goings of the doldrums; this was a work of a storybook nightmare. That is when I saw the survivors of Shimmermist.  I rushed to them when I heard that survivors were in the castle infirmary.  What I saw nearly brought me to tears, for it was the saddest sight I had ever seen.  These were not my brilliant coated, lively, happy crystal ponies.  They were dead inside, their eyes were so cold, so grey.  I looked into them, and I almost felt that my own love had been sapped from me.  My heart wrenched for them, and I was brought to my knees at the sight.  

This was the first time that I saw ponies die with my own eyes.  I watched, as their eyes faded, the happiness taken from them, and replaced with nothing.  Shining Clover, Jubilee Crescent and Tree Dancer.  Those were their names.  And I watched them struggle through each moment of breath.  There was nothing wrong with them, not physically, the monsters never directly killed anyone.  But their souls had been taken, their joy, their happiness and they had lost all will to live.  Each breath was such effort for them.  Each beating of their heart took so much work, so much effort just to continue on.  Until eventually, they lost all hope and gave up that effort.  I watched each of those three ponies die.

        I did my only duty that I could do and I kept the Crystal Council sessions open longer and on all days, no break for any holidays or special occasions, the nation was in a state of emergency.  Just as I was instructed and prepared to do. I gave them a speech, telling the crystal ponies that we had suffered a terrible loss at the hands of a previous unknown monster, but that everything was being done to be sure that such a tragedy would not take place again.  I felt wrong saying this, and I had no idea what would be done, or could be done to survive.  The council passed laws, here and there, little things, to try and keep ponies safe.  They had walls fortified around the capital city, and sent out patrols around the smaller villages, as there were many towns and settlements besides the five great cities, or four as it were.

        I kept sitting there, opening sessions, listening to hearings, looking at those foolish old ponies as they argued and bickered every day.  They were scared but even as they were, they used the process of the council to do all they could.  What were they doing? Where was the army?  They used what few troops we did have to hunker around the main cities, sending out occasional notices, and reports to the outer villages.  They even sent one poor scout to try and reason with the black monsters to see if they had any demands, or to see if a treaty of a sort could be made.  They sent him back to us in a consumed state.  Suffice to say that was reply enough that even the council could understand.

Reports came in as months dragged on in fear.  The creatures were not satisfied with the population of Shimmermist.  Their numbers grew, and they were spreading south.  Northern villages and cities were beginning to go dark.  The council, plagued with fear, could do nothing to stop the onslaught of the creatures.  Even as I implored them, as I begged even, they would not hear me to rescue our northern villages, they abandoned them callously, trying to save what little forces we had to protect the main cities.  

The pieces were set, and the game was almost up.  The Crystal Kingdom was set to fall and all of it’s inhabitants would be consumed by demons.  Someone had to do something.  The crystal ponies didn't need a democratic council of withered old ponies.  They needed a hero.


Next Chapter: When A Hero Is Needed