A gust of wind made us all stumble back as Daring Do practically vanished with a single powerful flap of her wings.
I bit back a curse at the fact that she slipped away while we were distracted by the awakening horde, and instead briefly watched her flight path. It became immediately clear that Daring Do was heading towards the pyramid, not the exit.
“We have to follow her!”
“Uh, the skeletons are that way?” Two pointed out, literally pointing at the skeletons. More were beginning to awaken. Those closest to us were also starting to rise up to their hooves.
“It’s forward or backwards, and we still haven’t gotten what we came here for. Move! Move!”
At my urging, we started to gallop through the ranks of rising undead and towards the temple proper. By now, half of the skeletons in view were beginning to awaken, the dark black substance rapidly materializing in their forms.
“Maybe they’re nice skeletons?” Four suggested.
“You wanna find out?” One asked. “Go ahead and hug one. We won’t be waiting for you!”
I kept my eye on Daring Do. She was soaring lazily, clearly content with her own safety far above the undead horde. I was half tempted to send some spells her way, but I decided to keep her not paralyzed. She could potentially lead us to a way inside, as long as we kept her in our sight.
Quickly, we cleared the ranks of skeletons without issue and arrived at the base of the pyramid. For all their doom and gloom, the undead constructs were slow to reanimate. That was a fact that I intended to use to the fullest extent.
“Up!” I yelled, and began scaling the pyramid.
Thankfully, in the center of the side of the monument facing us was a set of uncased stairs. On either side, the pyramid was covered in smooth bricks, whereas this section was uncovered. I didn’t question why a race of flying buggos left stairs in their city. Aesthetics, visitors (or captives), transportation of goods on carts, it didn’t matter to me.
I was beginning to consider ordering the shedding of our disguises when the stairs ended abruptly, leveling off at an opened doorway. The twin stone doors were pushed inward, their once beautiful decorative coverings now rotted away and the plain stone facade underneath revealed. I casted a detection spell for anything in particular but got no results. I then dashed inside, spun around, and motioned the other lings to follow.
“They’re climbing!” Three yelled, peering over the edge.
I grabbed him with my magic and pulled him back, “Get inside, we’ll bar the door!”
Just as I pulled Three back from the ledge– and the others joined me on the other side of the doorway, two skeletons shot up into the air and hovered in front of the pyramid, level with the door. There were two massive jets of the black ink jutting out from their shoulders blades, forming liquid wings which beat rapidly. The oval liquid wings fragmented as I watched, but always reformed and kept the skeletons somehow in the air.
Then, they lunged at the door.
I blasted them with a concussion wave, intending on shattering their skeletal bodies. However, the wave of compressed magic dissipated when it reached their forms, and fragmented into small ripples of energy.
One yelled from right next to me, “Shut the door!”
I then summoned an ice spear and hurled it at the skeleton on the left. It began to melt as it got close, but the majority of the spear impacted the changeling skeleton in the chest. Bone was shattered and a spray of black ichor coated the ground beneath its halted form.
But it stayed airborne.
The massive hole in its chest was slowly covered up by black liquid as the changeling recorrected it course and restarted its dive towards us. I began to summon a similar spear of ice to impale the other skeleton but stopped when its horn became coated in the black liquid and spewed forth a jet of black fire. I dropped the spell matrix and switched to a shield one. Two and Three also brought up shields, while One and Four were busy pushing the stone doors shut.
When the stream of black fire impacted my shield, it bounced off and spewed downwards onto the ground, but not before making me gasp in pain. Normally, it would take quite a lot to directly hurt the caster, to the point where either the shield would collapse or the caster would. However, despite being well within limits that I could maintain for potentially days on end, the spellfire felt like shards of glass being scraped against my horn. It hurt.
The doors were slammed shut and I dropped the shield, my right leg falling to the knee and my head bowed. Three and Four immediately began melting the stone, sealing the door shut.
“Zero– Oro– oh fuck it, are you alright Your Majesty?” One asked me.
“Pain,” I wheezed.
Two rushed over to my side and tried to help me up.
“I can walk, damn it! Give me a moment!”
The doors buckled and thin cracks began appearing. The changelings paused, looking at the door.
“We might not have a moment, Your Majesty,” One pointed out.
“Gah! Fine!”
I accepted two’s help, putting my right leg over his withers and leaned partially into him. Despite the fact that my right leg wasn’t injured, I had felt fatigued from the pain. It was like I ran a marathon; I was panting heavily, sweating, and limping from my still recovering leg. The thin line of formerly-cracked chitin was flaring up in pain.
“The door won’t hold them for long. Maybe five minutes at most,” Two analyzed.
“Then we’d better be long gone by then. Come on, the only way is further deeper into the temple. Everyone, stay close.”
We began to trot down the hallway, which was eerily similar to the entrance to the city. Perhaps once it was different, with paintings and other decorations, but anything organic had rotten away centuries ago. As we left the entrance behind, the loud thuds of the skeletons slamming whatever foul magic they were using against the door faded into distant echoes. I calmed down and recovered enough to walk by myself, as well as think about what just happened.
“Those undead, they really packed a punch. A single spell brought me to my knees, Panar dammit!”
“If those things are what killed the city, then nothing less would suffice. Changelings are quite capable of offensive magic, after all. You’d need to be something strong or nasty to turn that against us,” One said.
Four nodded, “I think we’re really in it now. Those skeletons will be crawling all over the temple, looking for ways in, I bet. The only way out will be fighting.”
I sighed, “Drop the disguises– remember to take off your bags– and get ready, then. We’re going to need every advantage we can get if two of them can do so much damage. Flight, magic, everything. Daring Do is already convinced we’re changelings anyways. If she sees me, fine, I’ll just erase her memories. If not, then her window of opportunity to report my survival is rapidly closing. I can just tell Princess Cadence to block or bury her report, anyways.”
We each took off our saddlebags, dropped our disguises, and then put the bags back on.
“There’s something else,” I muttered, “The changeling royals. The ones that survived and fought, probably only Prince Carotid, would have to have died somehow. Someone with decades of experience, geared to the nines, and willing to die for their cause. If I had God-Splitter, then I’d be making short work of those monstrosities. That Prince had a much better chance against them than I do right now, yet he still had to have died. There must be something else. Maybe the Prophet himself came down and killed the Prince.”
“What are you saying, sir?” Two asked.
“I’m saying there’s going to be a boss fight. There just has to be. Something killed the Prince, and there’s no doubt that it’s going to wake up, if it hasn’t already.”
We came upon a three way intersection, with the left going down in a staircase, the middle going straight, and the right going up in a staircase. There was no sign of which direction Daring Do chose. The changelings looked to me, and I began to feel out each direction.
“The left,” I said immediately. There was something there, something bright.
We descended the staircase and ended up in a large room with many passageways leading out of it. Many of the passageways were blocked by doors, though many doors were blown to bits. The contents of the room had long since been destroyed, either by time or by whatever went rampaging through this place. A hanging chain on the ceiling and pile of unidentifiable scrap on the ground indicated that there once was a chandelier. A miserable pile of stone bricks at the far wall suggested the presence of a grand fireplace.
But no changeling Prince, nor escaped pegasus.
“Uh… There! That far door!” I pointed to one in the corner.
The pull was stronger now. So strong that it almost hid the fact that I was feeling two pulls. One led to that doorway, and the other led straight above me. The one ahead was stronger, and somehow was more trustworthy. The second one felt quiet and... poisoned.
I flew over the rubble-strewn room and through the doorway. Instead of another hallway, the doorway led to a large room that was actually intact enough to identify what it was once used for. That wasn’t to say that it was in any good condition at all. No, it was the epicenter of what was the final death throes of the Third Hive.
In what was once the Hive’s armory, Prince Carotid lay crumpled at the far end of the room. The metal bars that separated the armory from its entrance were mostly torn off, as were the metal racks that still held rusted and dented weapons. In a straight line from the door to Carotid’s armored skeleton was a path of destruction; the stone tiles were ripped up and ripped out, the weapon racks were wrecked and thrown to the side, and fragments of metal and bone littered the ground.
‘Prince Carotid did not die without a fight.’
There were two more details that failed to escape my notice. First, corruption. In a circle around the Prince’s skeleton, the tiles shone in a clean tone, likely as clean as they were when the Hive was still occupied. It made me wonder just how deteriorated the building was, or if the corruption that leaked from the skeletons had also done something to weather the structure of the Hive itself. What was more curious was the fact that the destruction that led up to the Prince halted suddenly at the edge of the circle.
‘Evidence that he had a shield up?’
Second, there were whispers coming from Prince Carotid.
“Another vision,” I whispered.
I flew over the trail of destruction that led to the Prince’s corpse, and I admired the armor. After all this time, it still shone in the soft blue light of the enchanted gems that lit up the room. It was far from the smooth armor that equestrians used, instead calling to the art of insect-like jagged pieces that changelings preferred. The jagged pieces looked almost like they were harvested from some great metal dragon. An empty gem slot sat on the front of the helmet.
And it sang. The enchantments not only still persisted after all this time, like whatever kept the lights on, but held their original strength. I wasn’t nearly skilled enough in enchantment to understand just what was held within the adamantium armor, but I knew it was powerful. So powerful that it made my peytral look like a tin can, haphazardly and amateurishly hammered into shape. It was far closer to God-Splitter than my peytral in terms of power and importance.
“Seal the door, and blockade it as much as possible. I’m going into the vision.”
I reached out and brushed the lower jaw of Carotid’s skeleton.
The world faded away.
Prince Carotid and I watched Queen Millipede vanish into the crowd. Once more, I was watching everything from a first person perspective, the lines between me and the owner of the body being blurred. Some of his thoughts leaked into my own, from suspicion, to thoughts, to bits of knowledge.
“Valkyries!” I yelled out.
Ahead, from the entrance to the city, four changelings in silver armor and wielding extremely long spears flew out and hovered above the crowd. Their two-piece, long red capes that draped off their back fluttered in the wind their wings produced as they hovered, nearly half of the length of their elongated spears.
“Begin your scans from here! We must buy as much time as possible!”
“At once, Your Holiness!” All four said simultaneously. Then, they spaced out and began projecting green beams down into the crowd, locking onto changelings at random, staying for a second, then flicking to another changeling.
‘They were looking for signs of infection.’
I turned away from the Valkyries and scanned the crowd myself. The first signs of the crowd thinning were beginning to show. Whether that was the fact that all changelings that could escape already had or if there was something now cutting off the escape, it was impossible to tell.
I gave a glance back at the Valkyries. Carotid clearly wanted to leave, to go to the front lines and fight the infection himself.
One of the green beams the Valkyries was projecting suddenly turned red, and the Valkyrie immediately thrust the extremely long spear into the light. A changeling was hoisted out, impaled on the spear. As red blood dripped from the impalement, a bit of black mixed into the blood.
The changeling was screaming.
“Infection!” The Valkyrie called out.
A second Valkyrie came over and with a massive exhale, scorched the still-living impaled changeling in an intense beam of superheated fire. The screams died away, and eventually the Valkyrie stopped burning the corpse. With a flick, the first Valkyrie hurled the burnt carcass into the pit behind her, where the water was flowing into.
“Well in hoof,” I muttered.
I turned back to the city. Somehow, it seemed like the half of the city behind the pyramid was somehow… darker.
The distant screams that permeated throughout the air were growing louder. The infection proper was getting closer. The front line was getting closer.
Death was coming.
“Something must be done. Valkyries! Stall the infection as long as you can! May Panar welcome you upon your deaths!”
Without waiting for a reply, Prince Carotid and I took off from above the fleeing changelings.
“Panar guide my aim,” I said as I began to fly to the pyramid. “Let your will be my own. Let your desires guide my mind. Panar, lend me your strength, so that I might seal this infection, and save our species.”
As Carotid flew, I grabbed onto his train of thought and held tight as it sped on at breakneck speeds.
‘The infection must be stopped. The Prophet is lost. The Hive is lost. The infection must be stopped. How? A spell. Something to cleanse the infection. Sparing the survivors or not, it didn’t matter. The infection must be stopped. Something went wrong with the last Ascension ritual. The Prophet has fallen. I must cleanse this city in holy fire. That is the only way.’
I briefly glanced up at the sun which hung in its suspension and containment rings above the statue of the Prophet.
‘The sun. A perfect catalyst for the cleansing spell. Panar’s Fury has shown effectiveness against the disease. Faith, as always, is the perfect weapon against taint. I must retrieve Moth’s Illumination and use it to channel the spell into the sun. Moth’s Illumination… should still be in the armory.’
I narrowed my body as I rapidly approached the entrance to the temple-pyramid, flattening myself out as much as possible. Carotid had no intention of slowing down.
‘The Prophet is lost. The Hive is lost. I am lost. Hope is not lost. Panar guide me, and I will repay your trust a thousand fold. The ancient infection shall at last be sealed. No more Hives shall fall.’
I blasted open the twin doors to the temple, stripping away their painted facade before I could even really see it, and zipped through the hallway at impossible speeds. If Carotid had not memorized every single bend, every single straightaway, and every single intersection, he would have ended up as a bloodstain on a wall or ceiling or floor along the way.
Instead, he tore through hallways and through the third Divine Acquiescence room in a blur of speed. The room, which already was in a chaotic state, had its chairs, sofas, and tables thrown up into the air in the wake of the Prince’s speed. It was only once he blasted open the final door did Prince Carotid finally let his speed bleed away.
The armory still possessed most of its weapons. The Valkyries’ racks on the left wall being the most empty out of all. Yet it was the Valkyries’ weapons out of all that would see the least use. Four survivors. The rest were with the Prophet, curse his lack of vigilance. The Royal Guard were holding the line as best as they could, but they would die soon enough, if they still lived.
My eyes rested on the weapon racks on the far back wall. Each one contained slots for only one weapon each, and each rack was custom built for said weapon. Each rack was empty, as their designated Prince or Princess almost always kept said weapon with them at all times. The only rack that was occupied was Prince Carotid’s. The Staff of Moth’s Illumination lay bound up in an adamantium chain, the hexagonal lock emblazoned with a glowing red rune.
Prince Carotid sent a silent prayer of thanks to Panar that he was chosen to be the Illuminator of the Hive, and had been bestowed both The Staff of Moth’s Illumination as well as Unbroken Radiance. It was thanks to his armor, Unbroken Radiance, that he has lived long enough to carry out his duty. It was thanks to The Staff that he could carry out his duty in the first place.
With an unlocking spell taught to him by The Prophet himself, he undid the adamantium lock and pulled Moth’s Illumination from its socket. As he did so, he felt a low rumble shack the entirety of the Temple.
‘Ah. The Prophet has noticed my arrival. It matters not. It will take him moments to travel down from the High Alter to here. Moments that will be his end.’
I placed the staff in front of me, tip pointing up. It was a gnarled wooden branch, utterly simple in its design. It needed no jewels, no gold linings, no adamantium plating carved every inch in runes and blessings and prayers.
It was Moth’s Illumination, and it would burn away the darkness.
Carotid began casting a spell that I did not recognize. It was complex, like a picture created from two dozen circles and lines entwined with each other. However, since I was also casting it, the spell’s form itself was being practically burned into my memory.
‘Huh. That’s extremely useful. Like, ridiculously so. I have immediately gained a spell that is effective against those infected skeletons, and against whatever else is thrown my way. Knock on wood….’
Something tore through the room beyond the armory. Something big, mad, evil, and mad. Twice mad, that’s how mad it was. A black blur then ripped through the armory, slamming into an invisible bubble around me. Moth’s Illumination briefly glowed brighter, but held strong. My mouth began moving, quietly making words to what I assumed to be a prayer that Carotid was saying wordlessly, as he concentrated on this Panar’s Fury spell.
The black blur, now a black cloud of vapor, enveloped the shield. I felt and heard it tearing at the invisible bubble, straining Carotid’s mind. But for every minuscule, equally invisible tear the black amorphous mass made, glowing yellow light from the staff shot out, burning the cloud and forcing it to retreat from the invisible shield long enough for the staff to repair the shield.
Carotid coughed, splattering blood onto Moth’s Illumination. Whatever spell he was casting, multicasting it along with holding the shield was far more than what he was actually capable of. Carotid was dying, rapidly burning through his own body as he worked to repair the shield, cast the spell, and pray to Panar.
“My Prince, lower the barrier,” the black cloud whispered. “This is foolish. You do not need to burn up here. Join me, Ascend. True immortality is within reach. If. You’d. Just. Surrender!” The monster accompanied each last word with a gouge into the shield.
With one final effort of will, Carotid lifted the staff off the ground and slammed it back down. The darkness was chased away for a brief moment, long enough for Carotid to aim the staff at the ceiling and shoot out a thick beam of light red energy through the stone roof.
‘The sun shall channel Panar’s Fury, and burn away the darkness. If it cannot, then at least it shall seal this city as its final tomb.’
The black cloud hissed in pain, condensing itself into a single shape outside of my view. I collapsed onto the ground, my back against the wall, my eyes glued to the ground. Blood freely flowed from my muzzle, pooling onto the stone ground between my legs.
The condensed form approached, stopped just out of my view. It stood there, silently looking at me. I could feel its gaze boring into me.
I weakly coughed, “It’s over. This place shall be our tomb, together.”
A jet black hoof, wreathed in smoke came into view and lifted my head up. The changeling it was connected to was mostly obscured by smoke, but I knew it was the Prophet.
“My Prince, this is your tomb, not mine. You throw your life away for nothing. I have Ascended beyond Ascension. No death is absolute for me, anymore. I am finally the apex predator we always claimed to be. Die now, my son. Everything you have fought for is lost.”
The hoof retreated from its position beneath my muzzle, letting my head drop. But not before I spied two dark green slitted eyes staring back. As the puddle of blood grew in size, I chuckled weakly.
“No. It is you who are lost. Fear not, My Prophet. I have cleansed your sins, despite your failings. This nightmare ends here, in the Third Hive. No more changelings shall fall to the Scourge. No more royals shall have to Ascend to keep the plague at bay. No more shall we fear the night and the darkness it brings. The chain is broken. The Fourth Hive will be pure.”
The Prophet growled, “I will hunt the survivors, just as we always have. There is no escape. That should have been obvious by now.”
“You have seconds at most. This place shall become your tomb. Panar’s Fury will cleanse you. Embrace… the… light.” I wheezed the last words, my voice growing weaker as the blood pouring from my mouth and nostrils intensified.
“No! You have failed! I can undo the spell! I am the one who shall consume the sun!” The Prophet declared, far more to himself than to his dying son. I watched the staff of Moth’s Illumination vanish from sight as The Prophet left the room.
“Goodbye… father....”