Mage in Equestria: Live For The Swarm part 5

That is not dead which can eternal lie and with strange eons even death may die.

 

The very darkness itself is your shroud as you sneak through the Hive.

Drones buzzing about don't seem notice the faint ripple surrounding you.

Making your way through the twisting network of tunnels and caves, you eventually come the the one you blasted out not too long ago.

The hole in the cave wall is pitch black.

In order to maintain your cover, you can't even make any immediate light since you were still not only wrapped in bent space but also still in relative sight.

It looks like the only choice is to venture in and just keep walking forward.

It shouldn't be too hard at all as the tunnel is a near perfect cylinder, but the thought if not being able to see anything in front of you does not bode well.

Not that you were afraid of the dark, oh no, you had overcome that fear at a very early age.

It was the fear of the unknown that made you nervous.

Sucking it up, you take your first step into the black void.

So far, so good.

You keep a slow pace as the dark engulfs your sight.

You lower your shroud as there really isn't any need for it anymore, returning space to it's original form.

After getting a good ways into the tunnel, perhaps about half way, you look back over your shoulder to the light of the Hive.

Nobody seems to be watching so you send a flaring blast of light down the blackened expanse.

As the sparking jet of violet manaflame reaches the intercepting road, you see nothing barring your way and it dies out.

After conjuring forth an orb of light, you continue.

Eventually coming to the edge where the cylindrical tunnel met the abandoned road, you hop down and land on the paved bricks with a thud.

A puff of dust picks up all around you.

After coughing a few times, you blast it all away form you with a gust of air.

Your choked hacking and coughing echo down the road.

As it fades away, you can't help but feel watched.

The feeling of attention bearing down on you, though faint, is still there.

Perhaps you were followed?

You bring forth two new orbs of light in your palms and send them hurling down either ends of the tunnel.

Nothing there but old stone and dust.

The way to your right however was caved in further down.

The craftsmanship if the road must not have withstood the subterranean elements as much as you thought.

You send the first back to the mouth of the tunnel you dug out only to find nothing as well.

You were alone and paranoid.

Bringing the orbs back to you, you let them swirl lazily around your shoulders and you head down the path to your left.

The large bricks the paved the road appeared to be carved from a stone even darker than what made up the hive.

A repeated series of designs decorated the walls and reminded you of the Changelings legs.

They must have had great pride in their architecture.

As you continue on you can just barely see what looks to be the end of the tunnel.

You still can't shake the feeling of being watched either and expected Chrysalis to appear at any moment to punish you for disobeying her.

Well, if she really wanted to stop you then she would have by now.

Coming to what you thought was the end of the road, you find a pair of massive stone doors.

Lined with some sort of dark metal, possibly iron, you gaze upon the markings that adorned the gate.

Carved into the very stone the doors were made of were sets of strange symbols.

They vaguely resembled Egyptian hieroglyphics in their placement.

They also seemed sort of familiar, though you were sure you've never seen them before.

Well, it was time to see what was beyond the doors.

Seeing no sort of locking mechanism, you focus a mass of energy down the center of the two doors and push it forward.

They barely move.

You push as hard as you can, gritting your teeth through the strain and the gate slowly opens with a rumble of grinding stone.

Dust falls from the gateway and a large gust of air barrels into you as though the darkness beyond let out a breath.

The void before you is absolute.

Your orbs do not reveal anything but more paved flooring as far as you could see through the aperture.

Stepping through, and kicking up a few small pebbles, you are met still with what seems to be an endless expanse of darkness over a paved floor.

That same feeling you felt earlier is intensified.

It is as though a million eyes are upon you and you can't even see them.

Blasting globes of light in every direction you could, you are met with nothing but black.

Nothing was revealed in the dark and most of your orbs fizzled out as you lost connection with them.

Whatever sort of cave you were in now was truly gargantuan in size.

It could not possibly go on forever though.

You keep a series of at least 20 spheres dancing around you to ward off the void hungry shadow surrounding you and trek on.

Heading forward, you walk.

And walk.

And walk.

Nothing but black as far as you could see.

That paranoid feeling won't go away either and you're starting to get frustrated.

You're sure you weren't followed, you saw nothing in the dark, and yet you feel as though you're under a microscope.

Having had enough, you come to a stop.

You gather energy from around you and form another globe of light, this one much larger than the others.

It floats about 3 feet in front of you just above the ground and you continue pumping more light into it.

The sphere is so bright now that you can't stand to keep your eyes open.

Eyes shut, you pack a bit more force into your new light source before bringing it up above you and launching it through the air.

You open your eyes and watch the huge shining beacon as it makes it's steady incline through the void.

The light it casts reveals nearly the entire floor of the cavern you're in after it reached the stalactite covered ceiling.

With your little sun illuminating what you now can see as a spherical dome, the only thing catching your attention is the enormous crevice in the middle.

The floor is torn asunder, the tiles caving into it.

Carefully approaching the edge, you see a staircase carved into the side, descending into the dark.

You can't help but think you've bit off a little more than you could chew.

Sure, you wanted to explore out of the Hive, but this was getting to be too much.

Whatever was down here gave you an ominous feeling.

However, Chrysalis would surely have noticed you were gone by now.

On one hand you have exploration of the perilous unknown.

On the other hand, you have a very upset Queen to attend to.

Looks like it's time to go into another hole.

You leave your huge floating globe in the dome as you descend down the stairs.

It will fizzle and burn out eventually as you go deeper.

The steps are fairly short and plentiful likely due to being made for creatures with more than two legs.

Quadrupeds, you're guessing, would have a really hard time with stairs made for humans.

Your humorous thoughts are broken by a hushed whisper that you can't make out.

Are you hearing things?

You dismiss it as just being paranoid.

Continuing down the steps, you hear it again.

This time it was a but louder though still you can't understand it.

Ok, you aren't just hearing things due to paranoia.

There was something there whispering to you.

Freezing in place, you wait to hear it again.

Nothing but silence hangs in the air.

Silence, darkness and your modest amount of light.

You guess it really was just all inside your head.

The darkness and lack of sound must be getting to you.

Having gotten used to the constant buzz of your hive mates, the absence of that constant hum felt odd.

So did being alone.

Thoughts of paranoia release your head from their grasp as you near the bottom of the chasm.

A soft blue glow can be seen from a large cave directly in front of where the stairs ended.

Your heart nearly leaps out of your chest with the joyous thought of civilization.

Finally, something to break the dark and silence!

You practically fly down the remaining stairs towards the inviting blue light from the cave.

From the maw that is the entrance, you come to a much larger cavern.

Much, much larger.

You gaze in utter awe at what you see.

Before your very eyes lies what appears to be an entire underground city, surrounded with enormous glowing mushrooms.

Their soft blue light brings the entire subteranean wonder into view.

Massive spires of black stone erupt from the ground, rising up to hold the roof of the cavern up.

Structures carved of the same black stone coat the landscape before you.

The buildings, shaped like twisted stalagmites, mirror the ones on the roof of the cavern.

The structures are riddled with holes like the limbs of the changelings, perhaps for windows and entrances.

The most astounding structure lies in the very heart of the city.

A sprawling palace with towering claws reaching towards the roof of the cave.

You could make out five large substructures spiraling out from the center fortress like the roots of a tree.

The whole place was built by means impossible without magic.

Only arcane expertise could carve and warp stone in such a manor.

Also, only beings capable of flight could reach the structures hanging from above.

This was indeed a changeling city, forgotten and hidden from the world.

Even in it's abandoned state, it was a truly glorious sight.

With two other stairways to your left and right, you descend from the ledge you stood upon.

It was time to stir up the ghosts of the past.

The place reeked of forgotten knowledge.