"BE CAREFUL WITH THAT! That's 3rd century Galloporan!!"
"Sorry Ma'am," the dark skinned young man yelped trying to regain his balance on the cold rocky ground, only to stumble again. Thankfully another worker dived in just in time to catch the precious statue he'd been cradling. She sighed as they took it to be cataloged with the other artifacts, countless treasures that were going to throw everything historians thought they knew about this region out the window. It wasn't everyday you unearthed an ancient outpost of a supposedly mythical kingdom, so why was she still so grumpy?
'It's the cold,' she told herself. This was what she got for growing up in middle of nowhere Appleloosa, but like her grandpa always said, 'No sacrifice, no victory.' Crystal tucked her shoulder length straight blue hair behind her ears, wishing for a warmer hat or earmuffs, but settled for pulling the strings of her parka tighter around her head. If the manuscript fragments she found in the archives were right and as old as she thought they were, they were standing above the ruins of an entire civilization wiped out in the third century A.D.. And even if there were no structural ruins, the pottery shards and tablets they were finding this far north made this an extraordinary find all on their own.
'And no pink harpy to steal it this time,' She smiled to herself when she noticed a silhouette coming toward her through the blowing snow.
"Ms. Crystal!" One of the younger workers yelled over the escalating wind. She turned around as the young man ran up into her tent, nearly tripping on the frozen ground. "We found it," he panted through clouded breaths. "We found the entrance to the catacombs." Crystal immediately put down the pottery shard she'd been examining and followed him across the dig site, past tents and trailers dusted white by the wind and snow.
"How deep was it?" she asked eagerly as the shapes of the other diggers and a much taller male silhouette came into view.
"Not as deep as we thought actually," the man in charge said excitedly. "The lintel was only seven feet beneath the surface, and not an ounce of permafrost in sight." Even draped in furs and warming layers, Shining Armor managed to strike a heroic figure among the diggers. Officially he was there as the dig's military attache in case a group of Gryfonistan soldiers came nosing around, but Crystal had done more than her share of maneuvering to make sure she finally had the chance to act on the crush she'd been nurturing for Shining since their highschool days.
"Look at the runes," she said sliding down into the pit dug before the entrance and running a gloved hand over the intricate carvings. "These look like they were carved yesterday."
"The ice has a way of preserving things," Shining said grimly, looking to the still mostly buried door. "It's getting late Crystal and the wind's only going to get worse. We should cover it best we can and hunker down for the night." Crystal was about to object when the ground began to shake and tremble, sending up panicked cries from the work camp as trailers shifted and tables danced in place. She practically could feel the artifacts falling and breaking.
"It's the Windigoes," An older digger shouted. "They're trying to bring down the mountains and bury us! I told you we should never have dug here, this whole valley is cursed!"
"Quiet!" Crystal yelled, loud enough to make the workers and Shining Armor jump. "We're on a fault line you bug-eye twits, why do you think these are the only major structures in the area?" She turned back to the door, where a good deal more dirt had shifted back into the chamber, enlarging the entrance.
"Logical explanations or not Crystal we need to get inside," Shining cautioned placing a hand on her shoulder, and Crystal felt the last warm blood in her veins rush to her cheeks, turning her dark grey skin red. "Come on, The ruins will keep till morning." Crystal looked at the unearthed door, then up at the snow choked sky and sighed.
"Alright," She relented, "Lets get it covered and get insiiAAAAHHH!!" Another shockwave sent the workers above stumbling, and a sled full of rubble back down into the pit. Crystal felt a pair of hands push her shoulder, and next she knew she was sliding down into a frozen void.
"I know what you're all thinking," Book Worm said as he paced in front of his Canterlot High classroom. "Spring Break: the veritable teaser trailer of all the freedom offered by Summer, and a much needed rest from your academic duties." None of the students liked where this was going. Book Worm was an older balding man with pale blue-purple skin, white hair and preferred yellow and white plaid sweater vests above all other clothing, the same color as his eyes. And he was also notorious for using homework as punishment.
"But," He frowned, hands held behind his back as he turned away from the class. "Seeing as a certain soccer captain saw more merit in reading her novel than the class material." All eyes immediately went to Rainbow Dash, a Daring Do hidden unsuccessfully behind her massive textbook. "I've decided the last part of your semester will be spent on a subject she can actually enjoy: a group project on the evolution of modern literature."
Sunset Shimmer saw her friend's faces fall one by one as they sunk down into their desks, their collective plans successfully monkey-wrenched. Sunset sighed and took her pencil back out; resigning herself to whatever horror Mr. Worm had prepared for them on Dash's account this time.
"I have with me four slips of paper, each with a different literary genre, so I want everyone to pair off in groups of Six. The sooner the better." Sunset reflexively grabbed her pencils and notebook and moved to the front left corner of the room, taking a seat between Applejack and Rarity as the fashionista set her own materials down, including her ever present sketchbook, while Pinkie Pie bounced into the seat right behind her, followed by Rainbow and Fluttershy. Applejack socked the soccer star in the arm as she walked past, just hard enough to let her know where the blame fell, but still earning her a glare from the cyan girl. Sunset shook her head and looked up just as Mr. Worm began walking a hat around the room, telling the students to draw slips to determine their topic. When he got to their group, his frown fell solely on Rainbow Dash.
"Ah yes the famous, or should I say infamous Rainbooms," he said flatly, pulling the last slip of paper out of the hat. For some reason he hesitated when he saw it, glancing between the girls and the slip before handing it to Pinkie. He thought better of it though, and gave the slip to Applejack, who took it with a look somewhere between confusion and 'why-me?'
"Historical Fantasy?" She asked as the teacher beamed.
"The blending of real world events with fantastical elements," he explained smiling proudly. "I find it best to start with Sir Ink Well's Le Morte d'Amore. Now," he raised his voice to address the rest of the class. "The project will include a seven page research paper on the evolution of your assigned genre, and a visual display to illustrate said paper. The display can be anything from a poster board to a diorama." He didn't even pause when he noticed Rarity's hand start to rise. "And yes Ms. Belle a dress will suffice as well." She quickly took her hand down, and Book Worm suppressed a smile into a smirk.
"Now just to show you lot I do indeed have a heart, the only thing I'll be asking you to turn in the day you return from spring break is your thesis and a very basic outline of your paper. Rough drafts will be submitted two weeks later, then your final drafts and displays the week after. Now, turn in your textbooks to page 304."
Their next classes sent them to opposite sides of the school, but the next period was lunch, where they were all subjected to Rainbow Dash's complaining.
"I can't believe Book Worm's making the whole class do a crappy project over Spring Break just cause he's peeved at me." Nobody said anything, and they kept on chewing their food as the prism headed girl ranted. "It's so unfair! I mean it's not my fault his class is boring. I'm not even doing that bad."
"Honey," Applejack smirked after swallowing another bite of her apple, "I don't know if I would call a C average good neither."
"A high C," Rainbow corrected proudly. "Besides Rarity spends more time sketching than taking notes and she doesn't get any grief for it."
"Because unlike you darling," The purple haired fashionista said with a bit more venom in her voice than usual, "I not only succeed in concealing my work, but making good grades as well."
"Touchy," Rainbow muttered diverting her eyes from the pale girl as concern spread over Flutershy's face.
"Rarity," the timid girl asked with characteristic concern, "Are you feeling okay?"
"I am perfectly fine," she said flatly, only to groan and put down her fork as she put a hand to her temple. "Well, perhaps slightly less than fine is more accurate. It's just a headache." Though she didn't fully believe her the yellow girl didn't press the issue, but a certain pink party machine did.
"You sure?" Pinkie Pie asked through a mouthful of brownie and vending machine candy. "My little toe was itching like crazy this morning, and it only does that when something BIG has changed. Or was that the warning for Mystery Meat Monday?"
"Pinkie it's Friday," Sunset sighed, " But now that you mention it Rarity I had a bit of a headache when I got up too. Didn't last very long though."
"aaaaaaaaachooo!!!" All six looked across the lunch room where a pale blue girl with white hair had just sneezed her lunch tray's contents all over the floor. They watched as her friend, a cream colored girl with blue and pink hair helped her steady herself.
"Hey," Applejack said as familiarity rose in her mind. "Ain't that Lyra an Bonbon?"
"Yesir-re-de-dee it is," Pinkie smiled, "I remember them from the christmas bake sale. Bonbon's toffee was incredible! And Lyra's really good on a guitar." As usual, Fluttershy was the first to notice how unstable Lyra was on her feet and how she was squeezing her eyes shut and clenching her jaw.
"Lyra has a headache too," she said quietly, but her friends heard well enough.
"Weird," Rainbow muttered, "some kind of bug going around maybe? Meh, probably nothing." She had just gone back to her burger when Pinkie Pie's posture went ramrod straight.
"Itchy Toe!" She cried, and Sunset barely caught a glimpse of a yellow glow flash over Lyra's eyes before ...
"aaaaCHOOOO!!"
KABOOM!
Every student in the cafeteria jumped a foot up and out of their seats when Lyra's sneeze was immediately followed by the salad bar exploding in a shower of lettuce and tiny tomatoes. Sunset and her friends stared with wide eyes at the sudden disaster area, while Pinkie Pie was busy cheering the demise of the rabbit food lineup.
"Okay," Rainbow sighed, "I sit corrected." Applejack looked at Sunset, where the red and yellow haired girl was staring not at the obliterated vegetable bar, but the pair of friends across the lunchroom.
"Sunset?" she asked nervously. "You okay honey? You look like you've gone an seen a ghost."
"I think I have," she gasped, then shook her daze off as the bell rang. As the six girls stood and delivered their trays to the trash can, Sunset began to turn what she had just seen over in her head. Her next class was science, chemistry to be exact. Fluttershy was three sets behind her and two rows across and taking notes the moment Mr. Periodical started talking. Instead of her notebook however, Sunset took out her journal.
Dear Princess Twilight,
Things are going well here at Canterlot High, though you might not hear the same opinion from Rainbow Dash. Our english teacher found out she's been sneak reading Daring Do's during class, so as punishment he's given us all a big project for the end of the semester. As if we didn't have enough on our plates with graduation. We're all working together though, so how bad could it really be?
On another note, have you noticed anything strange about the portal in Equestria? Nothing's happened to it here, I think, but something happened in the cafeteria today that's left me less than sure. One girl, Lyra I think Fluttershy called her, seems to have come down with a cold, but when she sneezed half the lunch line exploded. I can't be sure but I think I saw something change in her eyes just before it happened. Also, Rarity and I both woke up with headaches this morning, and Lyra appears to have one as well. I would like to say I have a theory as to what's going on, but I not as good a scholar as you are. I'll write you again if anything else happens, but for now, good bye and best of wishes.
Sincerely, your friend,
Sunset Shimmer.
Later that day after classes had ended they all met up in their usual rehearsal room to practice. As they started unpacking their instruments and Pinkie Pie inspected her drum set it was plain to everyone Rarity was still nursing her headache, but she wasn't the only one fighting off pain anymore.
"That settles it," Rainbow groaned, wincing as she turned her upper body and slipped her guitar strap over her head. "Rares, whatever you got is spreading. My shoulders are killing me, and I ain't so much a looked at the basketball court all day."
"Mine hurt too," Fluttershy squeaked, tamborine hanging loosely in her hand as she massaged her shoulder. Applejack just grunted through a series of aches that seemed to be leapfrogging from one part of her body to the next. If Pinkie Pie felt anything, she wasn't complaining about it. Sunset's headache had come back as well, but she doubted it was near as bad as what her friends were enduring.
"Maybe we should put a hold on practice," she suggested, "Make a stop by the nurses office." Their drummer just laughed.
"Pfffft, thats a good one Sunny," Pinkie giggled innocently, "Why would the nurse be here after school is over?" For once, and much to Sunset's embarrassment, Pinkie was right. "Besiiides," the party girl smiled, "a quick jam never hurt anyone, except the bread of course. And don't we always feel a whole lot better after a song?"
"Okay," Applejack cringed with a smile, " something is definitely wrong. Pinkie Pie making sense twice in a row? Pigs should be flying already." Rarity chuckled through her headache.
"Nevertheless," she admitted taking out her keytar, "she's right. We have always felt quite a bit better after a song." The other girls nodded and after a few minutes of warm up, and with a one two three from Pinkie they started playing Welcome to The Show, with Rainbow taking Twilight's lines while an improvised guitar riff from Sunset made up for DJ-Pon3's missing turntables. All six felt their aches and pains melt away like butter as they were replaced with the familiar tingle of equestrian magic manifesting itself. One by one their pony ears appeared and their hair grew into their pseudo tails. When they all raised their voices for the last lyrics, Sunset and Rarity's fingers became enveloped in sky blue and teal auras as the same glow spread to their eyes. When the final note sounded, none of the Rainbooms moved, just stood in place and savored the rush, until Rainbow Dash broke the silence wide open.
"That. Was. AWESOME!!" She cheered, backflipping through the air on her feathery wings. "Girls that has got to be the best we've ever done on that song!"
"Yeah," Applejack laughed in spite of herself, pony ears twitching happily under her hat. "Almost as good as when Twilight sang with us at the Battle of the Bands."
"Sunset darling," Rarity smiled at the guitarist, "Whenever did you come up with that rhythm?"
"Just kinda came to me I guess," she admitted rubbing her neck behind a veritable mane of hair. "I mean I've been working on a new song in my spare time but nothing like that." Fluttershy looked on in admiration as Rainbow zipped around the room, never having been one to pass up a chance to use the benefits of their magic.
"WOO-HOO!" she yelled ecstatically, banking around the room, "You KNOW it was a good song to make our transformations last this long!"
"Totally epic!" Pinkie Pie grinned from ear to pink pony ear. "At least 20% cooler than anything we did before!"
"Hey that's my line!" Everyone laughed at Rainbows indignant yell, even Fluttershy doubled over as she sides threatened to split.
"Oh-ho man," Applejack gasped as she brushed away joyful tears. "That was almost as funny as the time Granny Smith mixed up the peppers in the chili!" But before the other five could get the full story behind that particular comparison, their tambourine player noticed something.
"Uhhh, girls," Fluttershy said turning and looking at her yellow wings. "How long do these usually last again?" Sunset gave the timid girl a confused look, one that turned to concern when she noticed her pony ears were still present.
"Usually just a minute or two after we stop playing," she said hesitantly. One by one their faces fell as they looked at the clock, seconds turning into minutes. After twelve minutes, Rainbow Dash was still floating two feet off the ground.
"Houston," Pinkie Pie said holding her pony ear as if talking into a headset, "We have a mucho-grando-problemo."
Her first sensation was one of wet, sticky warmth and something not quite liquid trickling down into her face. Crystal slowly sat up, joints popping in protest and slivers of thick slime stringing between her and the floor. The next thing she noticed was the heat, and quickly stripped off her double layers of jackets and sweaters to expose her green tank top and blue vest. It was then she noticed the thick green film of goo covering her clothes.
"What in the world is this stuff?" she wondered out loud as was her habit. "And where the heck am I?" She looked up and around; smooth polished stone walls reached up and around her, while on the wall directly in front of her was a huge honeycomb like structure, each comb easily the size of a human child. Two of the combs near the bottom were cracked open from her impact, slick glowing slime oozing out onto the floor. She looked back behind her, and could barely make out a smooth round hole in the wall, her most likely point of entry. "I must've slid down here. Hang on," she gasped in realization. "That means I'm in the ruins! This is incredible!" Then she heard something move, and the sound drew her to the honeycombed wall.
From the two broken combs a pair of tiny insectoid creatures crawled, one standing atop the shattered remains of its comb while the other struggled to emerge rear end first before falling onto it's back and flailing its legs adorably. Each had a vaguely humanoid shape, with two sets of limb where it's arms and legs should be, along with a third smaller set between. Their bodies were jet black chitin, illuminated from within by a strange blue-green glow. Their bodies were segmented, but in a way that made them seem more human than bug, with a larger torso than thorax, and triangle shaped heads with big innocent blue eyes.
The Hatchling that had kept its footing locked it's compound gaze on Crystal like a laser and quickly skittered over to her. All her life, Crystal's two greatest passions had been archeology and bugs, and she'd never run from a spider or wasp. She knew the strange creature could be dangerous, but kept perfectly still as it crawled up her leg and onto her shoulder, sniffing all the way. It skittered along her chest and shoulders, tiny hairy legs tickling and making her giggle in spite of herself, before it came to rest in her hands. It nearly fell off the end of her arm before she turned her hands so as to cradle the tiny creature, clearly no more than an infant of it's species.
"Hey there," She cooed bringing it closer to her torso, cradling it. The tiny creature buzzed a pair of translucent blue wings on it's back happily as it recognized some scent, and shifted itself like a cat before giving a sharp squeaking cry and curling up in her arms. She was so mesmerized by the little creature that she almost didn't notice it's twin nuzzling her leg. "Aww you're just a little guy aren't you?" She smiled kneeling down and scooping it up beside it's twin.
"Impressive."
Crystal nearly jumped out of her own skin when a male voice reverberated through the cavern, seeming to come from every direction at once.
"W-who's there?" She asked, holding the tiny forms in her arms a little closer and cursing herself for ignoring Shining's advice about keeping up with her flashlight.
"Be at ease young one," He said, voice taking on a soothing but ancient tone, "I can do you no harm, nor to your those you currently protect." Crystal looked to the tiny insectoids, both now awake again and looking around anxiously. She felt something inside her shift, and found a resolve she didn't know she had.
"Who are you?" She asked, her voice taking on a hardness it had never known before. The air in the chamber grew chilled and the voice seemed to hesitate.
"... I ... am a shadow," He rumbled dejectedly. "A memory of what once was, and a monument to discarded dreams, and forgotten races. One of which you hold in your arms." Crystal looked to the tiny forms nestled at her chest, and found herself curious.
"What are they?" She asked.
"Changelings my dear," He rumbled in reply, "A race of shapeshifters who once roamed the world above. But the world changed. Like you they felt they no longer had a place in the world." Crystal tensed, accidentally squeezing the tiny hatchlings in her arms tight enough to make them chirp in protest.
"W-What are you talking about?" she asked nervously, but the formless being seemed to merely shake it's head.
"Simply because I am without eyes does not mean I am without sight. You have heart Crystal, one that still pours out love for the weak and neglected, even after so many years of betrayal and ridicule. And yet," The voice paused as the combs along the wall began to glow blue one after the other until, light washing out from the center like a ripple until Crystal saw the cavern and the nest extended far beyond what she thought was a tiny cavern. She was standing at the entrance to a massive underground chasm, a canyon with a river running through the bottom, and walls covered with hundreds of square feet of Changeling nests.
"You found this Crystal," He crooned in admiration. "You found the door that opened the rediscovery of a whole species. And this time," His voice smirked, "This time there's no one to steal it from you, or twist you out of the picture." Crystal's head was swimming, memories of her senior year of college flooding back in front of her eyes. She'd managed to translate a set of scroll fragments purportedly from ancient Gallopor, but Zoom Lense, the reporter covering the discovery from National Biologic, mistakenly gave the credit to her lab partner, a pimple faced nursing major with no business being on the front page of a world renowned magazine.
"Th-That was a mix up," she said with no small amount of hesitation. While the academic praise had all gone to her, the media ran with Zoom Lense's story for two weeks before anyone made a public correction.
"Was it?" The voice asked. "Did you not think it odd that the reporter's cousin shared not one but three classes with Her that semester? And really now, what kind of world is it where learned men and women are slave to the town gossips?"
"I trust my colleagues," She said defensively, but the voice just laughed.
"To do what?" It asked accusingly. "Hold you back? They are not worthy of a mind such as yours. They do not respect you; They envy you, and feel not but jealousy for your talents. Why, imagine what will happen once your newest discovery comes to light."
She had already begun too. She could see herself emerging from the catacombs, swarmed by reporters. But she could also see her colleagues, those that had helped in her research jockeying for media attention and commenting on her young age and inexperience in the field. They would twist her discovery into an intelligent klutz's fortunate accident, and redirect the spotlight squarely onto them and their decades of awards and experience. She might get two, three weeks in the public eye tops before they systematically discredited her completely. They would turn her into a laughing stock before they let her become a star.
"And what of them?" The voice asked with heartfelt concern, "What would become of them in your world?" Crystal looked down at the chittering forms in her arms, big blue eyes looking up at her; eyes full of innocent hope and devotion. She saw those same eyes panicked and afraid, locked behind bars and inside glass cages. Their limbs and wings, delicate and beautiful to her eyes, pried off and put in jars for study. And she saw entire combs being carted away by soldiers, among them a white skinned corporal with blue hair.
"NO!" She screamed, eyes flying to her face causing her to drop the changelings, who quickly set to flying and hovering in front of her. "N-No," she sobbed, falling to her knees and hugging her arms. Her moment of glory was a nightmare in the making, but just before she was about to break into a full on crying fit, one of the changelings flew up to her and landed on her shoulder where it perched like a bird.
"Changelings are a magnificently peculiar race Crystal," The voice smiled through the inky blackness. "Shape shifters you know: They can take on any form they wish, and their hive mind allows even the smallest of them to come together to form ever larger disguises. They feed as you do, but to sustain their magical abilities they need a little something," he paused as if looking for the right word. "... More." His choice did nothing to alleviate Crystals confusion or anxiety.
"D-define m-more," she stumbled. Another time, she could have sensed the smirk in his voice, but now the sound was like honey in her ears.
"Love my dear. To fuel their magic, Changelings must feed on love." An admiring quality entered his voice. "And there is no love greater than that of a mother for her children." Crystal saw a puff of smoke out of the corner of her eye, and when she looked at the changeling hatchling on her shoulder, there sat a beautiful black and blue bird.
"Look at these pods Crystal," the voice said as an eerie glow once again pulsed through the cavern. "Feel the life pulsing within them. Yearning, hungering. For five thousand years they have been sealed down here. Back then the world was afraid of them. People saw monsters, but you," he crooned. "You my dear see their true nature. They are children; children who have been locked away and forgotten while the world changed and shifted into a hostile place. For five thousand years I have watched as they waited for a kind soul who would see them as they are. Waiting for a leader to guide them back into to the world above. A queen."
"A Queen," Crystal breathed as the changeling on her shoulder shifted its bird like form into one closer to a raven.
"The Changeling hive is infinite my dear, and unlike humans their loyalty to their queen in unwavering." Even without eyes he could see the wheels and gears turning behind Crystal's eyes as a seed of ambition took root. Crystal saw reporters astonished by the Changeling's shapeshifting abilities, covers of science, history, even fashion magazines praising them. She saw army troops hesitating as a swarm of changelings morphed into enormous shapes, ready to defend themselves at her command.
'My command,' she realized as her eyebrows turned up at the ends, and her lips curled into a smirking, then manic grin.
"Where do I sign?" If she wasn't so eager, she might have noticed the venomous smirk in the bodiless voice.
"You may think me old fashioned, but I prefer a toast." Crystal turned at the sound of another Pod breaking open, its rounded end dropping to the cavern floor as it's former occupant shook itself free of slime. The green liquid slowly trickled down to fill the pod shard, taking on a haunting blue glow. "One drink," he smiled as Crystal picked up the impromptu bowl, "And you will have the power you need to chart a new brighter future; for them and you." She stared at her reflection in the glimmering slime, blue hair plastered to the side of her face and obscuring her left eye.
"Drink Crystal," he crooned again. "Claim your destiny. Together, you will all be conquerors." Her hair hid her face, but not the wild grin spreading across it, lips curling back to reveal pointed canines the flashed blue-white in the glowing concoctions light. She lifted the bowl to her lips and tilted the vessel back with her head, but she only managed to swallow one mouthful when the taste sent her gagging and choking.
She dropped the bowl, splattering its remaining contents across the floor as she fell to one knee, her body retching with all its might to try and expel what she had just drank. He head swam as her vision blurred and her throat dried up. Crystal shook her head, trying to ward off the dizziness, only for it to be replaced by a steadily growing cacophony of chants and cries.
"Wha- what's happening?" she groaned when a lance of pain shot through her, making her gasp and cry at the sudden agony. "What did you do to me?!"
"I did nothing," he sneered. "You have merely taken the next step toward your destiny." Crystal's heart raced as her hair began to fall away in matted clumps, and her eyes grew to the width of dinner plates when blue bruises began to spread over her arms and down her legs. But the worst was yet to come, and she screamed when a jagged piece of black chitin erupted from her arm. She welded her eyes shut as more and more of the black shell burst through her skin, but also from the splitting agony as the pain of a thousand voices jockeyed with the sensation of her teeth narrowing to feral points, her canines growing into fangs. The voice's owner watched in muted satisfaction as all throughout the cavern, changeling pods glowed and cracked, their occupants slipping out and joining the growing collective stirr of movement.
"Oh how rude of me," he apologized insincerely, "I never properly introduced myself. I am Grogar, of Tambleon, and it is a great pleasure to make your acquaintance, Queen Chrysalis."
As the rapidly mutating young woman's screams and the buzz of hatching Changelings filled the cavern, Grogar withdrew his spirit through the rock, back across continents and oceans, then up into the sky where the moon hung lazily in the heavens.
The Dark Lord drank in the darkness of the night, his ethereal wings holding him aloft. Though his body remained trapped on the world below, he had long ago broken the chains binding his spirit to his flesh. Now however, something had changed. He did not need a flesh form to feel the power flowing back into the world, the pure magical energies that were already saturating every corner of it. What had been a measly drip had turned into a torrent, and the timing could not have been more perfect. Grogar allowed himself a pleasant grin as he felt another wave of power wash over him, and spread his voice to where he knew it would be heard.
"The earth shudders my Brothers. The stars shift, and our time draws near once more. But so too do those who opposed us, and already I sense the seventh has begun it's approach. Time however has taught us many lessons, none greater than this: Our enemies draw their strength from their unity, unity we must shatter."
He turned his gaze down to the land below, a city thick with concrete and steel buildings, still almost utterly void of any magical potency. Except of course, for one little girl stumbling through the streets. She passed a pair of men, and it took more power than he liked to leak his influence into their minds. Soon though they were stalking after her like hyena's after injured prey. He drifted down toward the city and remembered something his old master had told him in his youth.
Even the strongest of metals can be broken with the tiniest of cracks.