//------------------------------// // Entryway // Story: Titan's Arcology // by pushi //------------------------------// “In their cosmic worlds of paracausality and impossibility, the Hive do not distinguish between a word and its meaning. Take the Deathsinger, for example. She sings of death, and lo, death befalls all who listen. The constructions inside their netherworlds are formed of hundreds and hundreds of words, permuted in such a way, that when they are spoken, these creations are formed. It is these paradigms of unimaginable power that the Ascendant Hive use to crush any and all incursions upon their thrones. We can rest assured knowing that for the Hive to manifest this power in the material world would take an impossible amount of energy - an amount unachievable with the use of Darkness alone.” - Excerpt from the journal of Toland, the Shattered. Date: 5/1/2788, approx. 4 months since Red Legion incursion into Sol. The three ships soared a hundred meters over the surface of Titan. The black ocean below, stormy and thrashing, tossed its liquids up into the air as a gargantuan tail slammed itself upon the waters before eluding beneath the waves. Fluttershy, sat in the cockpit of her ship far above, shuddered. “Scared?” asked her Ghost, a hint of amusement in his robotic tone. “No,” she lied serenely, “but I’m thinking. Of them. And of Zavala.” Her Ghost sighed.  “I just can't believe he’d make the decision to abandon a squadron of our own to the Hive. I don't want to even think about it, all of them down there in the dark, getting their Light eaten one by one-” The radio tucked into Fluttershy’s chest pocket buzzed with static, and she scrambled to grab it and hold it against her ear. Twilight’s voice came through, the sound soothing the yellow mare - as it always did. “We’re turning to the left, girls. Keep close.” Fluttershy laid down the radio, and glanced to her right, noting the position of the rainbow striped ship beside her, then focusing her attention ahead, towards Twilight’s ship. She mimicked the vessel’s movement, swerving hard to the left. Over the horizon, the enormous oval shape of the Arcology swam into view. Twilight flicked the switch beside her seat, and felt the familiar jolt at her navel as the electronic display before her faded, and a blast of cold wind hit her face, forcing her to raise a hoof to shield herself from the gust. The feeling of the seat beneath her vanished, and she slowly glided downwards, her hooves coming to a rest against icy metal. Slowly, she lowered the hoof from her face.  She stood at one end of a broken, cracked bridge. Metal supports poked out of it at odd angles like dislocated bones, and tiles had been long since torn off its surface by the storm. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy landed beside her, their manes wild, being blown about just like hers by the wind, as their ships took flight back into the atmosphere. Looming far above them, at the other end of the bridge was a gigantic structure that stretched high into the sky and far across the ocean to the left and right.  At the very top of the Arcology, a gigantic green mass spread from the glass ceiling, forming fetid, chitinous-fleshy tendrils that sunk deep into the ocean. Twilight clenched her jaw. The Hive. Like Luna’s precious Moon, another haven of ponykind turned to ruin by their foul clutches. She turned either side of her to look at Rainbow and Fluttershy. Fluttershy looked determinedly forwards, wings spread wide, her stalwart stance more akin to the that of a Titan’s, rather than a Hunter’s, while Rainbow Dash was staring at the dark entrance to the Arcology across the bridge with apprehension, her wings tucked meekly beneath her cloak. “We’d best get going.” said Twilight at last, stepping forwards. “Let’s get in there.” She started to run, the two pegasi following close behind. She floated across a jagged gap in the bridge, and the trio stepped silently into the Arcology. “This place used to be the pinnacle of Golden Age technology.” Twilight explained as they traversed the decrepit halls of the Arcology, “A floating city in the middle of Kraken Mare, with a thousand methane reactors to keep everything powered for millennia! I suppose ponies must have lived happy lives here, before the collapse.” They walked through onwards, and found themselves in a twisted corridor overgrown with plantation. Light shone through a broken window onto Twilight’s face, and the artificial sounds of wildlife echoed all around, bouncing off the curved walls. “It’s amazing there’s still life here.” said Twilight, touching the petals of a blooming flower, and taking in its exotic scent, “what with the Hive’s control over this place.” Fluttershy nodded vigorously.  “I guess it really goes to show that the Light really does shine in the most unexpected of places.” she giggled gently. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, stomping past her. “Cut the cheesy crap Fluttershy.” she snorted. “Let’s just find these missing Guardians and get out of here. I can't stand this place.”  Twilight ears suddenly pricked up, and she froze. She had heard something. It was faint and distant; she wasn't sure exactly what it was.  “Stop.” she said, holding out a hoof to pause Rainbow Dash. “Do you hear that?” Rainbow too stood stock still. “Yeah, I do. Sounds like-” “It sounds like screaming!” came a panicked yell from Fluttershy behind them. Twilight was sure of it now. “Come on!” she said, breaking into a run towards the sound, Fluttershy and Rainbow in hot pursuit alongside her. It grew louder and louder, until she could make out the words and tone that the pony spoke. It was a male voice, ripe with terror, coming from a room up ahead. “Let go of me!” the voice shouted. “I swear, if you try to-” His words were suddenly cut short as a terrible scream erupted, and moments later that too fell silent. Twilight pressed on, but suddenly skidded to a halt. She had just rounded a corner, and come face to face with a translucent wall of darkness, completely blocking the way forwards. Twilight leaped back, her muzzle scorched painfully by Hive arcana.  “A barrier.” she grunted, teeth gritted. “There’s got to be a power source nearby.” “Well, this crystal looks like a power source.” came Fluttershy’s voice. Twilight whirled around, and saw her standing beside a large purple glowing crystal, hidden from view by a wall that had rendered it invisible from the angle in which they had entered. Twilight approached it and inspected its jagged edges and pulsating core, before pulling out Spike. “I can sense something familiar about this crystal, Spike.” Twilight said, “any idea what it is?” Spike the Ghost scanned the crystal, and Twilight recognized an expression of great surprise on his display. “Void Light.” he replied, sounding as surprised as he appeared. “They’re using Void Light to fuel this barrier.” “What?” gasped Twilight. “How in the Traveler’s name can that be?” She leaned in closer to the crystal, eyes wide, but right then - smash! A pair of cyan hooves bucked hard against it, cracking the purple rock right down the middle. Twilight leaped back again, startled, glaring at Rainbow Dash. “Rainbow!” she said, annoyed. “I was inspecting that!” The rainbow maned mare turned angrily to face Twilight. “Do you think I care? No!” she hissed. Twilight was taken aback at the sharpness of her friend’s response. “Rainbow, I didn't mean-” “I don't want to hear it!” she snapped, jabbing a hoof into Twilight’s chest. “The last thing we need right now is for you to get distracted! There’s a stallion who could be dying out there, and twelve others! We've got to find them! Now come on!” Rainbow started to run through the now unobstructed corridor opposite the crystal, Fluttershy close behind her, and a dejected Twilight bringing up the rear. Rainbow rounded a corner and skidded to a halt. Twilight and Fluttershy stopped, then slowly made her way forwards. In front of her was what once must have been a corridor, but could now only be described as a nest. The floors, walls and ceilings were covered with the chitinous masses of the Hive’s infestation, leaving the remaining space cramped and uncomfortable. Thick, slimy bodies writhed and squirmed along the ground and in the walls, their black skins pulsating unnaturally. Twilight stared. She had never seen an area infested this bad. Not in the Skywatch - not even aboard Oryx’s Dreadnaught. This was something else. Something far more fetid and vile than the King’s brood. Rainbow Dash eyed the tight entrance to the nest like it was a slug she had stepped on. “Do we have to go through there?” she asked, her muzzle wrinkled. Twilight exhaled.  “Of course we do. That stallion wasn't in the room with the crystal, so he must be just through here. If we get there quick, there’s still a chance we can save his Light before the Hive - well, you get the idea.”  She faced the entrance to the nest, took a deep breath, and stepped forwards. She was at once hit with the most putrid smell that had ever crossed her senses. It was  terribly acrid, and it burned her nostrils as she inhaled. It stunk like a combination of gas and feces and urine slathered over a rotting corpse that had been cooked in a furnace.  It took every fiber of Twilight’s being to stand against the smell. She felt the vomit rise up her throat, and gagged. She then made the mistake of imagining the smell with vomit mixed in, and gagged again, this time her mouth opening. She shut it quickly, and resisted the urge to throw up. She had to keep going, to move faster, otherwise, one of the Guardians she set out to save would be devoured by the murderous Hive.  The smell continued to assault her from all angles. She felt horribly indecent as she stumbled forwards, head bowed to avoid scraping her delicate horn on the ceiling, and trodding on the slimy, slippery bodies of the black worms at her hooves and at her head, that dangled like the feelers of a great star-nosed mole from within the crusted mass that surrounded her. Her head was pounding, and her breaths were coming in shorter and shorter bursts.  She glanced behind her, and saw Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, each with similar expressions of sickness and disgust. She turned back to staring at the ground at her hooves, navigating around the slithering worms on the ground. The tunnel, or corridor, or whatever it was seemed to stretch on forever. The urge to collapse on the ground in a pool of her own vomit and just die, right there was rising, but Twilight quickly shook such thoughts out of her head. She was sweating horn to hoof, her robes covered in filth and worm residue, though they were never particularly clean anyway.  The experience was too horrible, and it seemed never ending, but at last, she emerged out of the tunnel, into a bright, wide corridor. She threw herself onto the cold, hard ground, blessing the fresh air that she inhaled through her tainted nostrils. She gasped and gasped, trying to take in as much as she could, to cleanse her system of the blight she had inhaled. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy emerged soon after, gasping and retching just like her. They sat for a moment, recovering themselves. “That was awful.” Rainbow Dash groaned, attempting to wipe her mane clean of slime. "Good thing Rarity's not with us, huh?" Twilight nodded. At that moment, a dreadful scream rent the air between the ponies. Twilight had never heard a mare scream like that in her life.