Chapter 8. - Bug Alone
“Lantern! Be careful.” said Archive with a hint of worry in her tone.
The pegasus nodded then trotted away from the fire with his torch in his mouth. Archive kept her eyes on him as he got farther and farther away, right until she finally lost sight of him as he took a turn around a large boulder. Even after he disappeared in the midst of rock formations, she still followed the glow of his torch until the light dissipated into the darkness as the pegasus gained distance from her.
Archive sighed deeply and decided she would take a short nap until her fresh chitin armor solidified completely. The gentle crackling of the fire and the carefree dance of the flames proved to be the perfect lullaby for the Nymph as she fell into a comforting sleep.
Actual dreams came few and far between for Archive since the day she reached adulthood and started her work in the hive. Usually she would use her time in the dreamworld categorizing and storing useful memories that she gathered from her siblings throughout the day. This time though, she saw herself with Lantern in the cave around the fire, chatting and laughing and just generally having fun. The dream was simple and soothing, nothing deep nor profound.
She woke up refreshed and well rested. After a jaw splitting yawn she stretched her limbs one after the other. As she gathered her feet under herself she noted with a smile that her chitin set perfectly, and it adapted a beautiful shiny black color.
“Okay. I think I’ll make a quick checkup until Lantern gets back.”
With that, she rose her previously crushed back hoof and slammed it down hard on the solid rock floor of the cave. The crisp ‘clop’ sound of her hoof hitting the stone and the echo from the high ceiling satisfied Archive greatly.
“Good as new.” she stated to herself.
She lay on her stomach and reached around to her back to feel where her wings used to be. Just as she was expecting, the two small nubs where her new wings would sprout in a few days were there, and felt like there was no problem with them.
She spent the following minutes flexing and exercising her flight muscles, lest they become weak from disuse in the time until her new wings grow out.
By the time she finished the simple muscle training, she built up quite a giddy anticipation for the last thing to check. She couldn’t wait any longer to try her gorgeous new horn.
Archive was indeed impatient, but she was not a fool. Her old horn was damaged very badly. In fact, it was beyond bad. The old horn was essentially crippled to the point where she couldn’t even actively channel magic through it. Fortunately it was still able to passively gather emotional energy and support Archive’s recovery. Had her horn not been able to perform its primary function in its broken state, her only option would have been to forcefully drain Lantern’s emotions to sustain herself.
The memory of kissing Lantern and draining him flashed before her and made her blush, but at the same time it brought a feeling of deep shame and regret. She didn’t do it on purpose. It was on instinct but she still knew she shouldn’t have done it.
She shook herself to get rid of the gloomy thoughts and concentrated on her horn. She made sure to be very careful and slowly charge her horn with the smallest amount of magic she could, so as not to overcharge and burn the magical appendage out on the very first trial run.
She was concentrating so hard on the task, that she stuck her tongue out while looking up at her horn. The horn started to glow with the faintest of green aura and Archive felt the arcane channels opening up in her horn to let the built up magical energies out into the air. As she let go of the magic, the glow dissipated nicely without any residual energy around her horn and the channels closed properly. Now that she’s charged it once, she could feel the network of arcane channels and she couldn’t detect any kind of damage left over from her injuries. That meant that her horn healed perfectly.
“Oh, I’ve missed you so much.” she said as a warm and fuzzy feeling flooded her.
She grew confident and decided to actually try it. She scooped a few pebbles closer to her chest with her hooves and started to levitate the small stones in a circle before setting them down one by one in a neat line in front of herself, then looked around and located a bigger stone, about as large as half a pony. Although she wasn’t a Drone, she could lift the stone without problem. A test of magical dexterity followed the two previous tries. She took three smaller stones into her magic and positioned them on a flat section of the floor, then lifted the big one and put it onto the three little ones. She stood up triumphantly, then proceeded to bounce around the stones like a foal that found a bit on the ground.
“Hoof? Check. Wings? Looking good so far. Horn? Beautiful. Magic? Works, with precision and strength. Change?...”
Archive was about to try changing her form, but she collapsed to the ground from a sudden pain she felt in her chest. Her heart rate skyrocketed instantly and every single beat shook her whole body. Her eyes grew wide as she lay on the ground and tears started to roll down her face onto the cold floor. She took a shaky breath and stood up again.
It took her a couple of seconds to realise that the pain she felt wasn’t actually her own.
“LANTERN!?”
She turned in the direction of the pool and started running as fast as her hooves could take her. She hardly even touched the floor. Her muscles protested against the sudden exertion and her lungs burned with the flames of Tartarus but Archive payed no mind to the pain. Adrenaline coursed through her veins, dulling the ache of her muscles as she raced to Lantern at a breakneck pace.
As the rooms and tunnels of the cave flew by her, time came to a screeching halt as she stepped into the hall of the pool and spotted the pegasus guard lying on the floor, in the dim blue light of the glowing rocks embedded in the wall.
She run up to his prone form, kicking the small bowl out of her way. She started checking his vitals the moment she reached him. He was still breathing, although very raggedly. His face was red and his expression showed he was in severe pain. Lantern was swimming in sweat and he had a burning fever. Foam was gently oozing out at the edge of his mouth and pooling around his muzzle. Archive checked his eyes for pupil reflex, but his pupils kept randomly dilating.
“Oh, no. This is bad!”
From the corner of her eye Archive spotted a pair of small mushrooms partially obstructed by Lantern’s wing, that glowed green in her natural night vision. She recognised the mushrooms in a blink of an eye. They were the same kind as the ones that appeared in the hive a few years ago and caused a mass infection, knocking out the majority of the Drones for days with just their spores. She dared not to think what those could do to a pony if one were foolish enough to actually eat them.
She started panicking and froze completely. Her mind was buzzing with memories, but everything seemed to be just a jumbled mess. The only thing that made sense was her own voice ringing in her ears ‘Ancient Law’, but her body was paralyzed.
Just then, she felt as if the sun was shining on her face, but the warmth that washed over her was coming from Lantern. He was shaking and Archive felt his immense fear, but underneath that a much stronger feeling radiated towards her. Pure Love, directed straight at her. She only felt it for a second before fear overpowered it again, but that second was enough to snap her out of her stupor.
Her emotions fought inside her for dominance.
“If you really feel that way, at least have the guts to say it out loud!” she shouted in anger.
“Don’t you dare die on me now Lantern!” Archive started crying.
She reached around his barrel and cried out at the top of her lungs “Lantern, FIGHT!”, before she suddenly tightened her grip and yanked her forelegs upwards so hard that she fell over backwards with Lantern strongly clutched against her chest.
As they hit the ground, Archive could see Lantern throw up the contents of his stomach. He kept retching, even when he had nothing left to expel.
After Lantern settled down from his coughing, she felt him taking her hoof and placing it on his face. Archive gently stroked his face along the line of his scar, pulled him tightly against herself, buried her face in the soft fur on his back and kept on crying.