Mage in Equestria: Live For The Swarm part 6

The natural light of the glowing mushrooms coating the city was a great reprieve from the dark.

Walking down a broken road to the large structure in the center of the chasm, you took time to observe the place in all it's glory.

Even in it's slightly ruinous state, the abandoned city was quite a sight to behold.

The blue fungi seemed to be capable of growing out of the very black stone the buildings were made of.

Their roots burrowed into any crack and crevice they could find, some mushrooms have even grown to such large sizes that they broke through walls or brought buildings down under their weight.

Though the twisted stone forms that the city was comprised of are of the most amazing architectural design you've ever seen, the fungus seems to be the new ruler here.

Jagged outcroppings and spikes stretched out overhead above the roads, likely having served as bridges.

Strange tendrils of the same blue luminescence hang over head casting a ghostly glow over the paved stones which you tread.

As you walk down the road, you swear you could almost hear the echoes the old inhabitants left behind.

In the silence, you could feel the ripples and dents they left in the material realm.

One needs only to concentrate less on physical reality and more on the natural energy of the universe to hear them.

Your walk comes to a halt as you decide to reach out and see what you can see.

Taking a kneeling position in the middle of the road, you close your eyes.

You let go of your reality and cast aside the shackles of three dimensional thought.

Fading into the ebb and flow of time, you open your eyes to the old world.

What you see seems to be a blend of the past and the present.

You could see the ruins of the ancient city around you where you knelt, but there was also an overlay of what things appeared as ages ago.

The streets and skies were filled with the changelings that once lived here, and in great variety.

The sound of buzzing wings caress your ears with it's familiarity.

You could spot drones you were familiar with form the hive, but among their superior numbers were other changelings of all shapes and sizes.

There were some much smaller scurrying about the ground.

A group of three children at play darted in and out of passersby.

A hulking brute of a changeling pulled a large wagon behind it, it's wings far too small and fragile to lift it's thickly armored body.

What stood out the most though were the slender robed ones off in the distance.

They held themselves high with an obvious sense of higher status.

Atop their heads were jagged horns, much like Chrysalis' but a bit smaller.

Their smooth black robes billowed behind them as they walked into a large building.

The heavy metallic doors closed shut behind them with an audible thud.

You have a hunch that whatever is in there, it holds some moderate importance.

Time to go check it out.

You wrench your consciousness back to your body.

The images quickly fade away, though you can still feel their echoing calls.

Continuing down the road, you come to a fork.

In the middle, directly in front of you, was a building made of stone bricks, much like the ones that made up the road in which you came here.

The structure was rectangular, unlike the others, with a large cylindrical tower atop it.

A small path with a set of stairs led to the hole that was the entrance to the place.

You walk the short distance to what would have been the door, if it existed anymore.

The metal doors were nowhere in sight and the hinges seem to have been torn from the wall.

Inside is pitch black.

Nothing you can't handle.

You venture inside after conjuring up a small sphere of light.

The building you entered is a library.

The entire interior was filled to the roof with shelves nearly four times as tall as yourself.

Thousands of books littered the place, seeming to have been knocked from the shelves and strewn all over.

Cobwebs hung from the ceiling and shelves and a thick layer of dust coated everything.

Amongst the ruins, you see no sort of table or chairs, no counters, nothing.

Only a vast amount of books.

This place was more than just a simple library.

This was a changeling archive.

Having learned from both books and your queen that these sorts of places were sacred to the old empire, you figure some sort of earthquake left the place in such disarray long after it was abandoned.

The archivists would never have let any damage at all come to the tomes housed here.

The largest question however is why such a large city was void of it's citizens.

You sweep your sphere of light over the floor.

Tomes and scrolls of uniform sizes covered much of the place, their paper having decayed for the most part.

Smaller mushrooms like the ones outside grew in a few places.

On the back wall directly opposite of the doorway were irregularities.

Structural damage perhaps?

With care not to trip, you traverse the sea of scattered tomes to the back of the archives.

From here, the ceiling was open to the large tower that protruded from the top of the building.

Small ledges lined the interior, likely serving as places for the changelings to sit.

Expecting a crumbling wall, you sweep away the dust and cobwebs to find no such thing.

More of the strange runes and pictures you saw on the great doors sealing this place off were carved into the stone, reaching all the way to the top of the tower.

With a magical push, you force air up to the ceiling, clearing the dust from the mural.

You levitate your orb over the stone and gaze upon the story that was carved into it.

A history of the city was depicted.

Pictures of changelings and many bizarre creatures covered the wall.

From what you can tell, a high sect of Magi of sorts were in charge of the libraries.

The same you saw enter here.

Their main purpose was to write and store knowledge obtained by the empire.

You come across a very large carving of a quite masculine changeling.

A large spiked crown sits atop it's head and lesser members of society bowed before it.

This must be the king.

The tale progresses to tell of how the King put the Archivists' limited magical knowledge to their limits.

From the books you've read back at the hive, changeling magic was quite inferior compared to unicorn magic.

What you read here however is quite astounding.

The Watchers as the archivists were called, managed to open windows to other dimensions.

They would cast their gaze into the astral in attempts to find creatures from other worlds for the purpose of acquiring new forms to take on.

From what you understand, changelings need to be able to picture in their minds what they wish to transform into.

In the depictions of the portals, the Watchers came across many planets and realms, though none inhabited.

Casting their sight deeper and deeper into the multiverse, they finally found what they were looking for.

Your heart sinks at the sight of where the story goes.

The Watchers found a realm of pure chaos.

The very realm you've read of in the Mad Arab's Necronomicon.

Having gone insane from the horrors they saw, they began attacking everything they saw.

Horridly twisted monstrosities of flesh were depicted, tearing apart the changelings.

Whatever the magi saw in that window they opened, it was unimaginably terrible.

The story having reached to the ceiling of the tower came to a stop.

At the very top was a picture of huge center structure you saw in the middle of the city.

That must mean the rest of the secrets here lie.

The terrifying things you just saw were never mentioned in any of the books you read.

Was this place never archived?

Is this city meant to be buried, never to be seen again?

You think perhaps the King decided it was best not to have the horrors discovered here be known.

All of this bore an unnerving similarity to Phlegeth, the Realm of Information.

The very same realm you sought to travel to before ending up here.

Your thoughts are interrupted by a hissing sound from outside.

The very hissing a drone makes.

It seems as though Chrysalis' scouts found you.

A shadowy form slips through the doorway, you only having just barely caught sight of it.

You sweep your light over to the exit only to find nothing.

Hating the feeling of being watched by an unseen entity, you conjure forth more lights and scatter them through the air.

You find no scouts, no changelings, nothing.

You are alone with rotting paper and your dwindling grip on reality.

First you hear things, now you're seeing things?

Whatever you saw, it was just another echo. A ghost.

It also had to have been quite a powerful one if it could manifest with such force in the material plane.

Thankfully, ghosts can't hurt you.

Deciding it's about time to leave and head to the palace, you start towards the exit only to hear the shuffling of hooves behind you.

This was no ghost.

You turn around and are greeted by a welcoming sight.

A drone stood before you with a grin on it's face.

So you WERE followed by the queen's scouts.

You rest your hands on your hips and sigh at it.

"Ok, I guess I deserved being stalked for disobeying orders."

The changeling's smile grows bigger.

"You actually had me beginning to get scared you little bugger."

You meet it's adorable little grin with one of your own.

"Is her majesty upset with me at all?"

Your new companion simply stands there showing no reply.

Of course the drones were mute, but it didn't even shake it's head or anything.

It just stands there smiling at you.

"Right, I'll take that as a no. I suppose while you're here, you would like to accompany me?"

Your cute little friend jumps up and down in delight a few times before trotting over to your side.

"Very well, off we go to the center of town."

With that, you leave the library with your changeling companion.

 

Having walked for a short while, you finally come to a large gateway, much like the one you opened at the end of the tunnel leading to this place.

Runes and symbols, similar to the ones before, are carved into these doors as well.

Not even bothering to try and open them without magic again, you siphon energy in front of you.

The doors blow open as you blast them with your arcane force.

Inside is, once again, pitch black.

Looking down at your companion you see the poor thing is nervous.

It's cheerful grin has been replaced with a worried frown and it shuffled closer to you.

"Oh come now friend, no need to be afraid. I'm here after all."

It's expression lessens a bit, though it's still obviously at unease as it follows you into the black.

As the darkness envelopes you, you bring forth another light.

You've entered a short hallway leading only to another pair of doors.

Overhead hangs a chandelier coated in cobwebs, it's candles having melted away long ago.

Ragged green tapestries coated in dust hung from the walls.

Your friend follows closely behind you as you near the door at the end of the hall.

Another blast of magic brings them open.

You flood the room with your glowing orbs of mana, illuminating the spherical interior.

The room was a perfect hollow sphere with an iron frame supporting it.

Hanging in the center by four equally spaced chains, was a huge globe of the world.

With the same iron making up continents and solid land, the seas were clear glass revealing the blue glow within.

The very same glow the mushrooms outside gave off.

A small set of stairs led down to the bottom of the room where another set of stairs led to another door.

It doesn't seem possible to view the entirety of the globe without a pair of wings as there was no sort of walkway around it or anything.

You decide to look over the globe later after you find the rest of the tale you saw in the library.

You walk under the hanging ball of glass and metal to the door opposite of you.

The drone accompanying you follows you as you blow open the doors.

You relocate your lights to the new room you opened up.

The glow revealed a much larger room, this one dome shaped.

To your left and right are six doors, three on each side.

In the center of the room was a large throne, jagged spikes decorating the back of it.

More tapestries hung from the walls like in the hallway.

Approaching the throne, you notice a large crystalline sphere resting on a red pillow.

It resembled the massive globe in the previous chamber, a haunting green glow emanating from it.

More of those strange runes like on the gates were carved into it, obviously by magical means since tools would have shattered it.

The object gave off a great deal of energy and you could feel battering against your own.

This object was clearly of some sort of great importance.

Picking it up, you find it's smooth and unnaturally cold to the touch.

Surely this was for some sort of royal use, though you know not what.

Tossing it up into the air and catching it with your hand, you ponder what it could possibly be, dissecting it's arcane aura.

You feel a strange sense of familiarity in it, much like something from your own world.

Everything else about it was completely alien though.

After tossing it in the air a few times, your hand is left empty, expecting it's return.

Slightly panicked, you looked around in case you missed catching it, even though you here no sound of it falling.

The curious object was nowhere to be seen.

Just like your companion.

Where did that little guy get to?

He was at your side in the globe chamber, but you don't remember him being with you after.

Catching on quickly, you realize he must be playing around with you.

You look up, expecting to find your changeling friend on the wall with the orb in it's mouth.

What you see is not your hive mate.

>Glaaki tekel'd Mhhg'gthaa!

A voice, screeching and jagged rings out through your mind like a scalpel.

>Glaaki tekel'd Mhhg'gthaa!

The orb you sought was held above you by a hideously twisted tentacle resembling that of an octopus.

Many more, much more than you could count, writhed around the mass of mouths and eyes.

The whole creature seemed to morph and reform itself at a constant rate, having no definite shape.

A thick ichor dripped from it smelling of decay, it's tendrils keeping it suspended from beams across the ceiling.

>Harne nhhhngr lw'nafh!

The malformed mass of tentacles plays with your very mind as the creature shifts and changes.

At one moment, it was of one shape, the next it was completely different.

What was most disturbing was how it knew the language of the Hybrids.

It spoke to you in Aklo.

This hideous monstrosity, as unlikely as it seemed, was a shoggoth spawned by the Old Ones.

That in mind, you decide it's definitely time to flee.

You sprint with wild abandon out the room and down the hall you entered.

Hoping the changeling that accompanied you in here would take the hint and join your escape, you make your way to the final exit.

In the middle of the gateway stood the changeling.

You come to a skidding stop, your heels kicking up loose stones and dust.

"Come on little one, it's time to go. NOW."

You stoop down with extended arms to scoop up the creature and it simply stands there staring at you.

Your hands pass right through it.

Your look of utter confusion draws a smile from it's face.

Then, it simply vanishes.

No poof of smoke, no green magic, nothing. It just ceases to exist.

Your confusion is shattered by a screeching howl from the building.

This was definitely no time to be standing about.

Running down the paved road back to where you came from, you notice a sharp pain in your hands and forearms.

They were covered in a black tar the same shade as the changeling's carapace.

Small tendrils of the substance burrowed into your arms, squirming beneath your skin.

Your attempts to rip them out of your flesh are in vain as they burrow further up your your body.

>C'GOF'NN F'GUNHOU'G!

The pain brings you to your knees in the middle of the road.

All hopes of concentrating magical force is dead, the agaony far too great.

The tendrils force themselves up your neck to your face.

Your vision is shouded by black.

Your mind joins it.