//------------------------------//
// Verminous prelude 
// Story: Theory of nothing 
// by Elidjz 
//------------------------------//

"The moon is not made out of cheese."





Equestria... actually the entire world of Equus is filled to the brim with large amounts of evil entities and ancient artifacts. Plenty of ancient buried temples and ruins where such artifacts were concealed.

Like an orb filled with a strange substance that would cause anyone that ingested it to suffer great mutation and gain a great intellect. The fact that it had been created using the blood of unwilling sacrifices and with foul intent meant that whoever ingested it would also become quite malevolent, losing all of their empathy and gain and an unnatural bloodlust.

Siad orb was now laying on a pedestal, in an old buried temple dedicated to the sun goddess. Multiple of its entrances were accessible above ground and in caves, but concealed by trees and bushes. Nopony had found it even though it was situated very close to the major city of manehattan. But it was teaming with rats.

That is until today. When a lone explorer found an entrance and after extensive preparation, entered the old temple. The next two day the pony had taken extensive amounts of pictures, taken some gems and bracelets and explored the upper area. The explorer after having then reached the main hall. They then proceeded to take more pictures of the broken, but still impressive statues and engravings on the walls.

After getting scared by some scampering rats, which had been an annoyance for the entire exploration, noticed the orb laying on a regal pedestal. Said pedestal was covered in cracks. The pony started getting closer, but stopped as they sensed some pain in their front right hoof. They then lifted their hoof seeing a rat dangling from it. It had bitten them. The pony started swinging their hoof around, trying to dislodge the rat.

They managed to swing their hoof hard enough that the rat's teeth snapped off, sending it flying... directly into the orb. The orb simply blew up after getting hit by the rat, covering it in a dark red substance. "Shit!"  The pony sweared both because of the now destroyed orb and their current wound. They pulled out some bandages and alcohol to clean their wounds.

They did not notice the rat thrashing around. As its legs and arms twisted around and its bodies quickly increased in size. Two pairs of horns growing out of its head. It squeaked in pain. The pony did not notice. After a minute or two, all squeaking and thrashing had stopped.

The vermin then slowly stood up before wobbling towards the oblivious pony. The pony did not notice due to the many natural sounds around them. Like dripping water and all of the other rat.

They never noticed the vermin coming towards them.

The vermin searched through the ponies saddlebags, finding some old, still usable, ritualistic robes. They also put a bunch of jewelry and a necklace on, before grabbing the remains of the orb and whatever liquid was left. They then left the temple, followed by some curious rats.

After a moment they reached a tiny hill. It gave them a good look of the surrounding area. The city on the horizon was particularly noticeable. It then dropped some of the liquid on a nearby rat which would soon also grow in size.

A cruel smile appeared on the vermin's face.