Devourer

by Croabadrake

Chapter Seven: Unseen

Darkness. There was nothing but inky black darkness. He opened his eyes… there was still darkness. Huh. He shook his head and then began to rise to his feet before bumping his head on a very low ceiling of some sort. He instinctually looked up in confusion before groaning, realizing that it was too dark to make out his surroundings anyways. There he stood, crouched down, confused, and blind. He heard a groaning noise, similar to his nearby.

“…Gold? Gold Hoof, is that you? Are you there?” He said softly towards the noise.
After a moment a response came from the darkness accompanied by shuffling and a thump. “Yeah, I’m here Brass Shield. My head hurts… I can’t see anything, where a--*thump* OW. Owowow, I didn’t need that…..”
Brass Shield let out a sigh of relief, partially in that his friend was still there with him and partially to cover up his laugh. “I don’t know where we are,” he replied after swallowing the laugh completely. “It’s just… dark.”
“See if you can light this up, you were always better with light spells than me.”

Brass Shield nodded, and then contemplated why he did so while they were both still blind. Then, he concentrated magic into his horn and cast a basic light spell. Strangely enough, the spell barely had any effect and cast a glow barely bright enough to see Gold Hoof’s white coat, which reflected the light better than the surrounding tunnel.

“Is that really all you can do?” Gold laughed. “You must have been hit on the head harder than I was!”
“Oh shut up,” Brass replied. “I don’t know why my magic’s not working here. It looks like we’re in a low tunnel.”
“Duh. But how did we get—“

Both of them suddenly remembered what had happened just before they woke up. Then, they both panicked with such synchronization it was as though they had practiced.

“DID THAT REALLY JUST—“
“DID YOU SEE THE—“
“WHAT WAS—“
“ARE WE IN—“
“—AND THEN POW—“
“—BUT I TRIED TO—“
“—IT WAS SO—“
“*THUD* MY HEAD OWOWOWOW—“
*scratch*
“…………”
“…………”
“Gold?”
“Yeah?”
“Did you hear that?”
“Yeah. Brass?”
“Yeah?”
“Did you make that noise?”
“No.”

The two stopped and listened intently. They had heard a loud scratching noise, echoing through the tunnels they were in. They looked at each other and lowered their voices.

“Brass, did you see that thing?”
“Well duh, it kind of nearly threw me through the throne room door… what did it do to you?”
“It punched me in the side of the head. My helmet didn’t help… I blacked out right there.”
“Right… so…… are we……?
“Dead? I, um…”
“My magic isn’t working right, and it’s so dark…”
“……hey Brass, come here.”
Brass moved over to Gold, where he promptly received a knock to the head from one of Gold Hoof’s hooves. “Ow! What was that for?”
“We can still feel things, so I don’t think we’re dead.”
“We hit our heads! We already knew we could feel things!”
“I know, hee hee.”

Brass rolled his eyes. He gathered some more power and focused it into his horn, supplementing the light spell. The light shining from the tip of his horn brightened a bit, enough for them to see the walls of the tunnel they were in as well as a short distance in either direction.

“…Gold, I think we’re looking at how it’s been getting around the castle without being detected.”
“You think?”
“I wonder if… I wonder if it forgot to come back at us. It looked like it wanted into the throne room, so maybe it left us here once it was done.”
“…You really think so?” Gold asked, without sarcasm.
“Yeah, it’s the only thing I can think might have happened.”

There was a sudden cracking sound, echoing through the tunnels from a distant passage. Brass Shield and Gold Hoof both turned towards it and crouched next to each other. When it died down, they began speaking again.

“…what do you think that was, Gold?”
“What do YOU think it was!? That had to have been the monster!”
“…….oh dear Celestia, you don’t think it’ll find us here!?”
“Don’t you dare freaking jinx it, Brass!”

The sound of crackling electricity echoed through the tunnels as the previous sounds did, this time accompanied by another strange sound. This sound seemed to be someone… eating?

“Nahhh, ahm, nyahmam…. Amnomahm……. Ahhhhh…….”
“That’s… scary, Brass. I want out of here.”
“Me too. It sounded satisfied with whatever it ate… maybe if it finds us, it won’t—“
“NYYAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHH”
A horrible scream travelled through the passages, and both Gold and Brass could feel the tunnels shaking. A gurgling, grating voice followed: “SIX!? SIX TYPES OF MAGIC HERE!?!”
Brass and Gold remained motionless. Was it talking about…?
“AGH, THIS MAGIC IS INTENSE. VERY, VERY INTENSE…… ugh, I did not suspect that there were SIX types of magic, all combined into one aura past the wards…… are these? These…. These are……… ah. Ah yes, she told me about these… heheheh……”

There was suddenly a steady skittering noise moving throughout the tunnels. It took Gold and Brass but a moment to figure out that the creature was now on the move… but to where? The skittering noise was getting noticeably closer.

“Oh crap, Gold, what now? It’s coming this way!”
“It’s cool, I’ve got this. Turn out the light and get close to the wall.”

Brass hesitated for a brief moment before he heard a dark chuckle from down the passage as it drew closer. He cut off the spell and they were cloaked in darkness once again. He felt a weak wave of magic wash over him, a wave he recognized as Gold’s signature invisibility shell spell. He heard Gold signal for him to be quiet as they saw a dazzling light approaching from another tunnel.

When the light turned into the passage they were in, they saw the Devourer once more, crawling in their direction. The lights were coming from the necklace around its neck, consisting of a bunch of linked-together gold chains with different-colored, glowing gems on each chain. It was wearing all six Elements of Harmony as one big necklace for transportation. The two guard ponies suppressed their gasps of surprise out of fear as it crawled ever-closer to them.

Time seemed to slow down as it passed them; they hugged the wall while it travelled down the middle. The motion range of its arms and legs just barely allowed them to get close enough to possibly touch them, and it came extremely close to doing so. It felt like an eternity before it was halfway between them, its arms having passed them harmlessly and the magical aura of the Elements around its neck masking the much smaller aura of the minor invisibility spell. To their horror, it stopped for a second between them.

“Yes, yes…” it said in a low voice while holding up the Element of Generosity, which just happened to be the front-most on the necklace. “The Queen told me about you six artifacts… you will make an excellent addition to the ransom deal, heheh…”

It let go of the Element, allowing it to dangle free again. It then began to—one of its legs touched Brass.

“…Eh?” it said in suspicion. Brass’s heart stopped. “What was—“*clonk*

As if lady luck herself had stomped on the floor above, a small rock fell from the ceiling and bounced off of its head. It looked up in annoyance, and then back down the tunnel it had come through (its neck allowing it to move its head in a creepy, owl-like turn). A rumbling reached the guards’ less sensitive ears, and then there was a massive crashing as dirt and large rocks fell from the ceiling in the direction it had come from. When the cave-in had finished, the trio looked on in shock/irritation (depending on whose eyes you’re seeing through).

“BLAST IT,” the creature cried out, almost making the guards jump. “I’ll have to remember to NOT scream so loud the next time my un-magical aura is overcome. That will be troublesome to clean up later… bah.”

It turned its head back forward and began to move away, having chalked up its brush with Brass Shield as debris from the coming cave-in. As it began to move on, Gold moved silently behind it, following. Brass knew he couldn’t ask why in all of Equestria Gold would be following the monster.

They followed it for several minutes, catching up with its quick pace whenever it stopped at cross-roads to decide which way to go. The two guards were able to eventually stand and even keep careful pace with the creature as the tunnels grew taller and went lower into the ground. When it finally reached its destination, the two managed to just barely stifle their surprise.

The tunnel narrowed down to a low, tight entrance that the creature then crawled through. The two guards looked through the hole before proceeding and saw a large room that had been dug out… filled with servants and guards, all tied with rope that had presumably gone missing before. The creature looked across its prisoners and smiled at their expressions of shock at its necklace.

“Do you like it?” it crooned softly to the group.

The color drained from the faces of many of the ponies in the room, while some of the servants (and one guard) fainted. The creature grinned and moved into the middle of the room, where it took off the necklace and set it down on the ground beneath it. Was it going to try and destroy them?

The creature turned to smoke, which Brass and Gold recognized as the form it had initially attacked them in. Then, a green light erupted within it, seemingly catching even it off guard. It stared forward, hearing words that were only audible to it.

“Devourer, this is your queen,” it heard Queen Chrysalis say through the message. “We received your message, and we are sorry to have interrupted your meal. Do as much damage you can, and call for a teleport out when you need it or when you see fit; send the call to the hive. Destroy their walls and possessions, and feel free to devour the flesh of the ponies themselves if you feel that it would be good to do so. If you can, get a hold of the Elements of Harmony, the objects I told you about before we were banished. Devourer, we are counting on you for revenge. I trust your judgment. We will be awaiting the call for teleportation.”

The creature had been silent with its eyes closed the entire time, leading Brass and Gold to wonder if it had fallen asleep. They had almost begun to contemplate entering the den when it suddenly let out a long, gruesome laugh and opened its eyes.

“HAAAAhahahaaaaa, well, my little ponies,” it said, turning to the now-squirming prisoners. “It seems that you may just be my next meal!”

The tied-up ponies began to panic, squirming harder and a few seemed to be screaming through their gags.

“But…… I am not ready to eat you just yet,” It spoke slowly. It seemed to be relishing in their fear of it. “First, I must contact someone… and then I must contact another. Those tasks are, regrettably, more important than simply feasting on your flesh, blood, and bones. Yes, my little ponies, you were not my main focus during my stay here. I hope you’ve lived pure-enough lives to not have much regret, though, because you have a very short time to get over it…”

The creature turned away from its prisoners and raised its smoky head. It closed its eyes and opened its mouth, emitting a low droning noise for several seconds before smoke similar to its body began to rise from the rough ground in front of it. This green smoke twisted into the air and slowly molded its shape into that of the Devourer, and then shifted into a near-perfect copy of its corporeal form. It revealed the only difference when the copy opened its eyes, revealing glossy blue-green orbs similar to that of a normal changeling rather than the white sclera and green iris of its normal eyes.

The copy turned, appearing to look around the room as the Devourer itself ceased the droning but didn’t open its eyes. The copy moved to the entrance of the den and past Gold and Brass by passing straight through the wall restricting the passage’s opening; it was an illusion. It moved through the passages and out of sight on some unknown task. After a moment of silence, Brass turned and began whispering to Gold.

“Why did you follow it here!?” he asked.
“Why do you think? We found the prisoners, and we can rescue both them and the Elements of Harmony! Think about it, we’ll be heroes!”
“And if we buck it up? What then!? We’ll be as well-off as the ponies that are trapped in there with that thing!”
“Look, Brass Shield, you’ve known me for how long? Since childhood. Trust me, this is going to work.”
“This isn’t a children’s game, Gold Hoof.”
“I know, but this is better than just running, isn’t it?”
“No, we could go get one of the princesses, or Shining Armor! That’s why they brought him here, to deal with this!”
“And what if—“
Their whispering was suddenly interrupted as the Devourer began to speak. They both instantly grew silent, almost having forgotten that it was even there.

“Ah, there you are—“
The guards froze.
“—darker of the sisters…”
The guards unfroze.
“You may notice a change… no, no, do not bother. This is an illusion that you cannot harm. Darker sister, where is your—“
It paused for a moment before continuing. “Oh, there she is. Brighter sister, darker sister, and…” The Devourer flinched to the side. “…your noble knight, sneaking up behind me. Good. I just wanted to tell you all….. thank you!”
The Devourer smiled, apparently seeing their reactions through the copy’s eyes. “Why? Why, you ask? Why, for providing me with so little challenge in obtaining six little artifacts that you treasure so dearly!”
Its smile grew much, much wider as Brass and Gold shivered, knowing that Celestia, Luna, and Shining Armor were… reacting to the statement.
“Ah-ah-ah! I told you, the illusion cannot be harmed! Oh look, you put a hole in your own wall. Tisk-tisk. Heheh… you know what my possession of the artifacts entails, don’t you?”
It paused for a moment, a look of expectation briefly on its face before the grin resumed, making it look more satisfied than ever.
“Haha, that’s right, Knight! You can say goodbye to your missing friends shortly! AHAAHAHAAHAHAHHAAHA—“

The Devourer opened its eyes, apparently having dispelled the illusionary copy, but it didn’t stop laughing. It turned to its captives, still bellowing and howling with taunting laughter. Several ponies began crying, while many of the guards in the room vainly attempted offensive magic. The Devourer laughed and laughed, until even some of the guards were crying either in frustration, sheer terror, or hopelessness. The Devourer suddenly took off, passing through the passageway past Gold and Brass and speeding down the tunnel.

The Devourer called back to the room as it disappeared into the darkness, “ENJOY YOUR LAST FEW MINUTES, IT’S ALMOST TIME!”

Then, there was silence. Gold and Brass looked at each other. Brass was the first to speak.

“We don’t have much of a choice then. You start at one end, I’ll start untying at the other and we’ll grab the elements once they’re all free. We’ll find our way out on our own.”

---------------------------------------------------------

A black cloud hovered over the tip of the tallest tower on Canterlot Castle. It opened its mouth and let forth a message, headed for a destination far beyond the boundaries of Equestria where it was to be received by a queen and her swarm.

“I HAVE THE ELEMENTS: BRING ME HOME.”

Comments

[Stanislas]

a story about changeling, a story about queen chrysalis evil..........this gunna be gud

[Garbo]

Changelings are awesome

[Razzy]

Damn it, they're going to ruin everything!