She shrugged off that sensation and choose to look around a second time. This search turned up an arrow, though it wasn't like the first which was very obvious, and placed with purpose. Indicating the right hallway, it seemed accidental, being little more than two marks that only sorta looked like an arrow.
“Amateurs,” Swift Light muttered.
Trodding slowly in that direction, she didn't make it far before she came to a roadblock. Part of the ceiling had collapsed, cutting off the hall, while also opening a hole in the wall. Peering inside, Swift Light found a roughly triangular room with a single exit devoid of a door. The actual room itself was mostly empty, as there were only a few moldering barrels in the corners.
With no threat present and no obvious traps, Swift Light stepped inside, trotting quickly up to the door. From there she found herself at another crossroads, only this one went in three directions.
To the right there was a short hallway, ending with two doors, one on either side while straight went on so far that Swift Light couldn't see the end. To the left, there was an opening that when peered into revealed another storage area filled with barrels that had long since rotted away. Part of her was tempted to scour through the wreckage in order to cure her curiosity, but she held back.
“Now where are you?” Swift Light muttered.
Looking around, Swift Light found another arrow like the last one, not very deep, jagged, and only a few inches off the ground. Pointing into the hall with the two doors, Swift Light reluctantly began to follow it, clearly aware that she was walking back to her starting point on the second floor. There had to be some method to this madness, or so she told herself.
With that less-than-confidence-inducing thought in mind, Swift Light trotted over to the hall, peeking into one door and then the other. She saw no threats in either, with one being mostly filled with rubble while the other had only dark liquid-filled tubes. Again her curiosity tempted her to inspect the experiments, but she decided to peer a little at the first room.
“Aha,” she muttered, glancing up.
Though the roof had given way, enough rubble had gathered together to create a ramp leading to the third floor. It was rough, but it would serve as a serviceable staircase to what Swift Light hoped was one of the final layers. This sense of hope buoyed her dour mood, and urged her to continue onward, putting one hoof in front of the other.
Up she went, clambering over hunks of stone, and the broken remnants of various furniture. She nearly reached the top when she heard the unmistakable sound of something cracking. The dull boom heralded a cacophony of smaller sounds rippling across the ground beneath her. Evidently, the strain put on the stone floor had been too much, and now with Swift Light’s weight, it had been pushed over that limit.
“Damn damn damn,” Swift Light cursed.
As hastily as she could muster, Swift Light scrambled up the pile of rocks, hoof reaching for the next floor. Her attempts were in vain, however, as she felt herself suddenly become weightless, the ground falling out beneath her. With an indignant cry of rage, Swift Light tumbled into the darkness, her orb winking out the moment her concentration waned.
The cataclysmic crash of stone and wood into the floor below was deafening, stunning the already discombobulated mare. For a moment Swift Light wasn't even sure which way was up as she bounced off ground, then something else, all of which was hard. Her forehoof twisted uncomfortably, and a rather large stone slammed into her eye with enough force to make her scream in pain.
With one final bounce, Swift Light slammed into something glass, shattering it on impact. The ensuing rush of liquid covered her from head to hoof, the oddly slimy texture leaving her unnerved and terrified. Before she even got back to her hooves Swift Light tried to light her horn, but the pain made that too difficult.
Grimacing in agony, Swift Light remembered her training, and pushed down any distraction, focusing on her casting. Sure enough, she was able to conjure another mote of magical illumination above her head.
“What the heck?” Swift Light murmured.
Looking around, Swift Light found herself in what had likely been a laboratory at some point. Various-sized vats of green liquid ringed the walls, leaving just barely enough space for a boarded-up door. Two skeletons lay nearby, their last moments having been spent sealing themselves inside. Everything in the center of the room had been destroyed by the rubble which had fallen from the floor above, leaving no clue as to what they had been trying to contain.
Swift Light hissed, and looked down at her leg, noting immediately that it was broken but not too badly. She wouldn't be able to walk on it, but at least there weren't any bones poking out at weird angles or anything like that. Her right eye was also likely going to puff up and become unusable in a moment, though beyond that she was relatively unharmed. Her armor had taken a good amount of the fall damage, though it now sported more than a few dents.
“Gross,” Swift Light murmured.
She flicked her good hoof in an attempt to remove the sticky green goo, but that didn't help matters. The stuff had the consistency of jello yet it clung to her like the most unpleasant of glues. Even rubbing her hoof against the ground did nothing but smear the goop deeper into her already matted fur.
Cursing under her breath, Swift Light tried to push herself up, only to collapse when she found out her back legs were stuck together. A bitter, angry string of mutterings was interrupted by the sound of insectoid legs skittering across the ground. Looking up, Swift Light saw that the small two-inch long beetle she saw earlier was back, and was staring at her from a few feet away.
“Hey, little guy. Don't suppose you can lend me a hoof, huh?” Swift Light muttered bitterly.
To her surprise, the creature scampered right up to her and seemingly began to inspect her broken foreleg. A little confused, but not exactly intimidated by a single scarab beetle, Swift Light merely observed the thing. That was until it suddenly lurched forward and used its tiny mandibles to bite into her flesh.
“Yowch!” Swift Light cried.
Pulling back her hoof, Swift Light used her magic to crush the insect with a rock. Bluish-red blood squirted out from under the impact point, signaling that it was indeed dead.
“Stupid little bugger,” Swift Light murmured.
Glancing down at the bite, Swift Light was a bit disturbed to find that it had managed to take a tiny chunk of her flesh with it. Despite the pain, Swift Light continued to try and free herself of the goo binding her back legs. To that end she looked around for any sight of her sword, hoping that the blade would be able to do what her hooves could not.
What she found was not the familiar and much-cherished weapon, but rather a whole swarm of beetles. Hundreds, possibly thousands of the shiny carapaces glinted in the darkness, creating a million tiny splashes of color. The horde of insects merely sat there, filling up nearly every available space in a sea of limbs and mandibles.
“Now let's just relax,” Swift Light remarked in a low tone. “Noone needs to get squished.”
As one, the tidal wave of chitinous limbs rolled towards her, covering everything in sight in a sea of insects. Swift Light reacted immediately, looseing the smallest fireball she could, careful not to burn herself, or further damage the room. The ensuing blast wiped out a large section of the insects, incinerating some, charring some, and leaving many more burnt.
The damage done to the mass was immense but didn't even seem to matter, as more surged out of the darkness. Though horrified, Swift Light kept her cool and backpedaled toward the wall while working another spell in her mind. As the wave grew close, Swift Light’s magic pulsed, and flames began to shoot from her horn. Back and forth they swept.
Hundreds died every second and though their ranks were immediately refilled, they couldn't get any closer. Every time one side surged forward Swift Light turned her attention back that way, burning them all to a cinder. Back and forth she went, her mind calculating how much magic she had and how many enemies remained.
She assumed that she had the strength necessary to eliminate the rest, but with no way to confirm how many remained she couldn't be sure. Even still, she was confident of her position, as she was a capable mage who excelled when it came to the use of fire. That confidence remained until she felt a sudden pinch in her neck.
“Damn,” Swift Light cursed, swatting a hoof against her neck.
Something crunched against her flesh, adding yet another uncomfortable liquid to join the rest matting her coat. Her concentration flickered, but she was able to maintain the spell, that was until something bit a chunk of her scalp off. With a yelp, Swift Light smacked her head, crushing another of the beetles that had managed to sneak around her.
Glancing up, Swift Light saw that she had been outflanked, a small horde of the buggers having crawled across the ceiling. Her spell died, and in an instant, she was beset by the full tide of scuttling, blood-hungry beetles. She barely even had a chance to scream before she was assaulted by more of the tiny things than she could hope to count.
Each swat killed up to three at a time, but it didn't matter, as the endless horde simply pushed past the corpses of their kindred. Swift Light’s careful punches soon gave way to panicked flailing, her mind assaulted by a terrifying multitude of bites. Insectoid limbs covered nearly every inch of her body, turning the pony into a writhing mass of innumerable hungry bugs.
Beetles tore at every inch of her body, consuming the mare even as she screamed in agony. Within seconds they had even eaten her cries, leaving little more than a wet gurgle that fell way shortly before her flailing stopped. Unconsciousness had taken her mercifully quickly, though she had still been aware when the beetles had begun to consume her eyes.
After that a relative silence fell over the room, one broken only by the occasional pop or slurp as Swift Light’s body twitched. Within a minute the mare was dead, and less than an hour later not even bones remained of the once venerable guard pony. Then and only then did the beetles stop moving, a strange stillness overcoming the swarm.
Their many bellies were filled with what had been Swift Light, their bodies partially covered by the same goo that had covered her. A contentedness rippled over the small ocean of insects, a sensation that they shared for only a moment before another feeling replaced it. White hot panic all but exploded in their tiny minds, though there was no apparent source or origin for this sensation.
The tiny, barely sentient creatures were not used to this or any feeling for that matter. They did not have true thoughts after all, only impulses, instincts, and desires born of hunger. Yet they were scared, terrified even, and worse still they could not locate the source of what was causing them such horror.
Then there were more feelings, more sensations, and stranger still, thoughts.
Get off, get off get off! They all thought in unison.
Each individual beetle threw itself violently upon the ground and began to roll around in an effort to remove something. A few seconds later, the panic that had assaulted them faded when they collectively seemed to realize there was no threat. In fact, they soon realized that they were not individuals at all, but in fact, were linked in a way that they had not been a few minutes earlier.
They were a single entity, a single mind, one that knew itself, knew its name.
Swift Light. They/It thought to itself. I am Swift Light.
A pulse ran through the swarm, and all at once, they gathered themselves into a central point. Limbs interlocked, bodies connected, the pool of skittering, twisting individuals becoming something else. Through instinct and twisted magic, they bound themselves together into what could only be described as a churning mass.
A hoof burst from the center of the horde, followed by a leg, and then a second limb came right after. The two beetle-made body parts then gripped the ground, and pushed, as if trying to escape the ocean of limbs. A head burst forth a moment later, one the same size and shape as Swift Light’s had been not long ago.
Dragging itself forward the hive formed a torso, and finally two more pairs of legs at the very back. With that herculean effort done, the swarm that walks was born and began to unconsciously mold itself into a form more familiar. Beetles flowed up, and back, creating a mane, and tail, their many limbs extending to become a layer of fur complete with a cutie mark.
The swarm that walks croaked, its many bodies squeezing together and pushing in an attempt to recreate speech. As it struggled to utter a word, the swarm shimmered briefly before its exterior became a familiar white color. The beetles that made up the thing’s mane and tail turned to a blondish-brown color, followed by its eyes.
“He-he-help. Me,” the swarm that walks croaked.
The swarm turned, and looked around in search of its foes, only to find that the room was empty. The bugs were gone, leaving only it behind, a turn of fate that Swift Light had not seen coming. In fact, she had assumed she was going to die there on the ground only now she was alone for some reason.
That assumption was shattered the moment it gazed upon the broken shard of glass and saw itself. The many horrid creatures recoiled, it's mass rippling as it tried to back away from itself. Realization soon came, and with it, a horrid feeling in the pit of the swarm’s many, many bellies.
“I’m…” Swift Light dare not continue that any further.
Stepping forward, the swarm that walks looked at itself, noting the tens of thousands of squirming beetles that made up its form. A million eyes stared into their reflection while a million tiny limbs touched a million different bodies. The panic soon melted away, strange insectoid instincts replacing the very pony-like feeling of existential dread.
“Swift Light!” shouted a distant voice.
The swarm that walks recoiled once more, its many eyes turning to the hole above them. It knew exactly who was there, and with that knowledge came one feeling and one feeling alone. Hunger, hunger the likes of which Swift Light had never felt before, and she could not help but obey that urge.
Above the swarm, Viciz clambered slowly through the empty room, eyes flicking back and forth nervously. She clutched a rusted dagger in both forehooves and a low burning torch in her magic just above her head.
“Swift Light!” she whispered as loudly as she dared. “I swear if this is some kind of joke I am going to suck the love out of you or something.”
Edging closer to the pit in the center of the room, the changeling was about to look down when a cloud of buzzing wings suddenly filled her vision. With a horrified scream, she waved her torch in front of her, attempting to banish the multitude of beetles. That, unfortunately, did not work, and soon she was assaulted from all angles at once, vicious mandibles tearing through her carapace.
She would die a minute later, her body serving as the perfect catalyst to create many, many more of the beetles. Their numbers increased, and the hunger faded into the background, replaced by rage.
The swarm did not regret its actions, only the necessity thereof, rather its anger was directed outward. Towards the mysterious foe that it had seen once before. That person or entity was the ultimate cause of its current predicament, and with new knowledge flooding its ever-expanding form, it knew just what to do.
“I don't think anyone’s gonna show their boss,” called an earth pony smuggler from the edge of the airship.
“Alright, we waited long enough,” shouted a zebra from the helm. “Pull anchor and get the engines firing again. I want to reach-”
“Wait!” yelled the earth pony. “I see something.”
“It's about time,” murmured another of the crew.
“I don't think that's…” the words died on the stallion’s lips.
The shape he had seen had indeed been ponylike, but then it had stepped into the light and revealed that it was anything but. Made up of a million beetles, the swarm burst into a cloud of buzzing wings, and angry jaws. He wouldn't last more than a few seconds, his crew a couple minutes, and within an hour the airship had taken flight once more.
Only now its crew were far, far more numerous, yet were only a single individual spread across a dozen Swift Light-shaped masses. With the knowledge and skill of how to run and fly such a vessel now stored in its mind, getting back to Equestria would be easy. From there it would get more difficult, but in the end, the swarm that walks knew it wouldn't be hard to find its target.
And when it did, the swarm would feast once more.