It had been a long trek but their journey was over as The changeling scout team knew that they had arrived at their destination. There was a ruin of some sort, it was old and barely sticking out at all. Mostly ancient stone and lots of dirt, the Captain knew not what to make of it, why it had any importance, yet Queen Chrysalis herself had asked him to lead the team, to inspect it thoroughly and report anything at all odd about the ruins.
"Get to work , dig around, you find something, anything at all and you report to me." The captain pleased with the command he had given had retreated to his tent as the many sent for excavation and cleaning of the site went to work.
Not long had passed and already they had made the discovery that there was more than just dirt smothering these ruins, there was obsidian a somewhat rare volcanic glass like mineral, lots of it, apparently the mountain overlooking what was once a city was actually a now inactive volcano. The obsidian was getting cleared and collected, as it was indeed a rare resource in its own right.
They had come across rooms trapped from the affects of time in a shell of obsidian, many clay pots and ancient but illegible scrolls were recovered. There was more to these ruins then what the captain had initially expected to find and was content with what he had seen in his walk through what was now actually beginning to look like something had lived here at one point, he was returning to his tent when one of the changelings inspecting the site had screamed.
He turned and ran straight to the source of the scream. When he had arrived in a large room with many changelings staring in shock, he began to see why, there trapped in obsidian was the remains of some long dead but still surprisingly intact creature, the bones still very solid and visible and its shape still somewhat etched in the dark glasslike material, awestruck as he had no idea what it once was. It was similar to a minotaur but had a smaller shoulder build and had a very different head and seemed to have actually had some sort of feet, the captain smiled. "Send word to the hive the Queen should be quite pleased with this."
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Nearly a month had passed since the initial sweep of the ruins and there was very little left of the obsidian to be cleared. Many more artifacts were being found in the ancient city of an unknown race, but the items paled in comparison to the only remains found, the remains still trapped in obsidian.
They had been carefully cut from the larger bulk of the dark mineral and were but a slab of unknown, they had recently been removed from the city and brought to the hive for an inspection from Queen Chrysalis herself. The doors flew open.
"Where is it!?" Queen Chrysalis shouted as she entered the identification chamber. "Oh! My Queen the specimen it is just over here." The small changeling who seemed to be in charge of the current discovery led her to a table were the remains lay.
"Amazing, they exist..." Queen Chrysalis said sounding as though she had just seen a ghost. "What exist my Queen?" The changeling had never seen anything like what was on the table in front of him until it had arrived from the ruins.
"This... is a creature I have been looking for longer than I care to remember. I had seen many a scroll or ancient text loosely mentioning a civilization of beings nothing like our own or the ponies that we border, a race of bipedal beings not gifted with magic but with the gift of extraordinary, although unorthodox motivation, these creatures were of a species thriving in the skill of learning and creating new ways to cause destruction, with one in my control nothing will stop my plans. Send for the White Swarm there is an old spell they will need to master." The Queen said with a smile across her face that seemed almost too happy. "As you wish my Queen." The changeling bowed and ran off to do as he had been told.
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Journal entry 1, White Swarm. "It has been nearly 2 months since the discovery of the remains of some creature, although the Queen knew of their existence, she knew of no record of their name, we have been akin to calling them the ancients. My name is Reflection I am a member of the White Swarm consisting of many magic specializing changeling, we have been learning a spell from Queen Chrysalis herself, a spell to remove the Magical Anatomical Essence or MAE from a long dead being, we know not what the purpose of the spell will be for, but it would be safe to assume a connection to the remains that now sit in the identification chamber."
Journal entry 3, White Swarm "The White swarm has begun to master the spell and have successfully extracted MAE from not quite so ancient test remains, alas the Queen still says we are not ready for the process as we have been informed that we will need to figure out how to infuse the essence into an object or... another living thing as spells to create a physical life form from nothing is still but a dream, but as a member of the White Swarm I will not stop until the Queen is pleased with our results."
Journal entry 5, White Swarm. "It has been months and the infusion process is seemingly impossible nothing seems to accept even the smallest traces of MAE from the ancient, many of the White Swarm including our own captain have begun to lose hope in the possibility of success, but I will not lose hope we must succeed, the Queen demands it."
Journal entry 8, White Swarm. "We should not be doing this, I know the Queen wants this thing to live, but to what extent will the Queen go. We have found something that accepts the essence but... Its... Just not right, the being that will accept the essence is none other then one of our own, still in the stasis of an egg. The Queen believes that this will work out for the better as it is of no surprise that our capability to change should give the essence free control to shape a form of its own... I'm just worried that the Queen would sacrifice one of the swarm for this thing she is trying to have us create... I... Believe in the Queen..."
Journal entry ** White Swarm. "Tomorrow is the day we have been trained for, we will make a monster."
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"Ready the slab." Queen Chrysalis said looking like a mixture of excitement and terror. "As you wish my Queen." Said a changeling with a nod to a group of other changelings as they lifted the slab telekinetically to a stand overlooking a small table, on the table sat an egg, no different than any other changeling egg black with a green shadow-like crowning.
Reflection was restless as she knew they only had one shot at success, they would need to pull all of the MAE from the remains and infuse it into the egg although she was conflicted with changing that life the young in the egg might have, she knew that it was the order of their Queen and that it must be done.
"Reflection, I am trusting that you and your team can do this, hmm allow me to rephrase that statement you and your team Will do this." The Queen had said to Reflection with a smirk on her face that struck fear into the now captain of the White Swarm, her promotion was a surprise to herself more than the rest of the White Swarm who even their prior captain seemed to have thought was more than capable of the role.
"We shall not falter, the full magical prowess of the White Swarm is at your command and we will bring this being to life" Part of what Reflection had said was still ringing in her head. "Bring this being to life."
Reflection went to the head spell casting pedestal and motioned for the other members of the White Swarm to join her at the others. "Are we ready to begin?" She asked the members as a round of hesitant. "Yes." Flowed throughout the chamber.
"On your command my Queen we will begin." Reflection said looking at the slab in awe. "You may begin." Said the Queen, all at once there was a silence then a green glow began to form on the horns of the White Swarm, the glow began to brighten then condense as a beam shot forth from their horns at the slab of obsidian with the remains still trapped within, the beams crossed and the whole of the remains began to glow an ominous white as a smoky substance began to be released.
It collected and formed as a sphere of white smoky light trapped in the green glow of changeling magic, it moved slowly across the room and hovered above the egg, this was it, this was the moment that they had trained for, the sphere lowered getting closer and closer to the egg until they made contact as it began to sink into the egg.
There was a magical rumble to the room and then all went silent, the sphere was gone... "Did it work?" A changeling had said just before a great flash of light... and there sitting still and quiet was the egg, now completely black aside from little white and green lines that now danced across the surface of the egg.
"The infusion is a success." Reflection said weakly... "Amazing, now to wait for it to hatch, and my new plaything will make a more powerfull weapon that you could ever imagine." Queen Chrysalis said with a bellowing laugh, Reflection stood staring at the egg.
"What have I done..."
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OK author note, this was my first chapter in the first story I'v ever written, I'd love to hear what people think.