Redemption

After proceeding in far enough that even I can't see my hand in front of my face, I draw a light stick from my belt. Feeding a small amount of magic into it, it emits a soft glow my optical equipment turns into daylight. Looking around, I spot several spikes driven into the walls with similar crystals embedded in the tips. Considering a light stick lasts about 12 hours with a strong charge, whatever has happened, it occurred a fair time ago.

Suppressing my emotions with the familiar ruthlessness borne of long hours training and fighting, I continue in deeper, light stick clasped and held aloft in my left hand, storm blade in my right. After moving several hundred feet further in, I find my first signs of trouble. As the motion of my light stick causes the shadows to dance and sway, I spot discolorations on the floor of the cave between several spikes of rock. Kneeling down, I look over the spatter of what I'm now sure is blood, well-dried.

I stand as the feelings of fear and dread I hold inside build, pushing against my mental barriers as I push ever onward into the tunnel. Reaching a larger cavity, I come across a larger discolored patch on the floor. Stepping over the bloodstains, I walk up to a makeshift map attached to one of the larger rock formations., It points the way I came with the tersely worded note, Surface. From this chamber it seems to split off in three directions, one being labeled surface as well, possible a secondary shaft. The next shaft is labeled 'Mess, Sleeping, Morgue', and some other entries that are too smudged to be legible at this point. The last path reads 'Power, Receiving'.

Taking a moment to consider, I decide checking the power should be my first course of action, maybe bring it back online if possible. With that thought, I head down the leftmost tunnel, watching my surroundings carefully as I go.

Coming to what should have been the first security checkpoint, I step into the site of a massacre. Glancing around at the blood spattered walls, I step over the bodies of what I can only assume was the security station's fire team. Moving forward to their barricades, I stop, appalled by the number of dead swarmling drones laying about in their green blood, covering the fire zone and even further back into the tunnel, with bodies laying as far back as my light will reach.

The main power forgotten, I press forward, stepping over or in swarmling bodies as I navigate my way deeper into the tunnels, toward the entry receiving point from my world. Reaching the portal room, I look around seeing it almost pristine but for a few swarmling bodies and several armored security ponies, probably taken completely by surprise, poor bastards.

Checking the gate circle itself, I'm semi-relieved and at the same time saddened to see the anchor crystals embedded in the floor around it to be dark, with many of them cracked. Nothing else should come through this gate, for better or worse. Walking back to the two armored figures, I kneel down, checking them for any usable supplies. Aside from a few light sticks laying nearby, most of their equipment lays broken around them, and while their swords are serviceable, my own are custom-made for me and also far superior both in quality and enchants.

Glancing around the room, I see several crates laying nearby in various states of being unpacked. Obviously, they hadn't been here much longer than it took to secure the layout, they hadn't even had time to set up defenses beyond the already established interior checkpoint. "Poor, poor bastards." I whisper with a sigh, resting my palm lightly on the shoulder of one of the heavily mutilated bodies.

Standing, I head out of the gate receiving room, back to the checkpoint. From there, I take the other branching tunnel to the power room. Reaching the 'room' in question, more a naturally formed chamber where they set up, I take a moment to assess the damage. Along one side of the room sits a bank of crystals composed of a lighter element, cheaper to produce in large scale than diamond. Normally, they sit in individual cradles broadcasting power to objects in the area specifically attuned to them, such as armor, and weapons, as well as lighting and heating elements.

Sadly, most of the crystals in the room are shattered, surrounded by the charred remains of a number of swarmlings. Probably suicide rushed the crystals to knock them out of their cradles, many of which are damaged or destroyed as well. Moving towards the back of the cave, I find one of the crystals in relatively good shape; in this case, it's merely got a large crack down the front facet. Resting a hand on it, I focus and draw its energy in, feeding it through my gear and pooling as much as possible inside myself.

Taking my hand off the crystal as I stand, I walk out of the chamber. Putting my light stick away, I pulse energy into the area around me, causing the light spikes on the wall to flicker and glow. This lights my path as I draw both blades and continue back to the blood splattered checkpoint. Returning to the tunnel, I note the slight scratch marks on the floor and walls I'd missed earlier on my way in.

Coming to the crossroads, I draw a shuddering breath as I turn and start slowly walking down the tunnel towards the rest of the base. Spots along the floors and walls indicate combat along the length of it, the occasional swarmling corpse appears from the darkness, surrounded by a puddle of its own blood. Coming to another security checkpoint, I find that the defenders had enough warning to try to barricade themselves in using a collection of unsecured wall panels and various crates and metal canisters. The swarmling bodies are piled deeply here, reaching almost to the ceiling at points along the barricade. On the left end, a 7 foot section of the barricade had given way, allowing them in to storm the defenders.

Swallowing thickly, I step into the breach, staring around at the various swarmling corpses and pieces of the defenders laying scattered about haphazardly. Taking a moment, I close my eyes, and swallow a few times, thankful for my pressure suit keeping out the smells.

Turning back to the task at hand, I head for the armory first, or as the running joke went, the morgue.

Walking down the corridor, I marvel at the signs of combat scarring the walls. Bodies are piled 2-3 deep in places, giving me some difficulty in maneuvering down the tunnel. As I continue forward, I check any swarmlings that don't appear obviously dead for signs of life. Reaching what should have been the gate to the armory itself, I can only stand in shock as I stare at the spheroid hole in the ground before me. NOTHING is left of the room. I can't be sure what would do that, but I'd heard of experimental weapons being transported through, and obviously, something had a safeguard or the defenders set up a dead man's switch. Either way, I'm not getting anymore supplies or gear here.

Stopping a moment to give a nod of respect to the de facto grave of the armory's defenders, I turn and start retracing my steps back down the tunnel to the security station. Next stop should probably be the mess. It would have been the next logical holding location.

Grasping any shred of hope I can, I start down the tunnel towards the mess hall. Tears run down my face silently as my eyes ceaselessly track back and forth over my path looking for any living threats, but the cave is still, stubbornly silent. Coming to the entrance to what looked to be the mess hall, I found several splintered tables levered up against the entrance. Several holes punched through them tell me the story of how they'd failed to stem the flow.

I can only pause as I imagine what must have gone through the defender's minds as they held out as long as possible, hearing and feeling the creatures eat and tear at the all-too-flimsy barricade before finally forcing their way in so the ensuing bloodbath could commence. And bloodbath it was, because it felt more like an abattoir than a mess-hall the moment I stepped in, with bodies heaped everywhere and several abortive barricades situated about the room as the defenders were pushed back and massacred, their bodies torn beyond all recognition.

A chocked sob pushes itself past my lips as I stand there looking around, but even in my pain there is a silent snarl on my face. Pushing on, I enter the doorway in the back, finding what looks like a kitchen from Tartarus with bodies and parts of bodies laying everywhere and a coat of red and green blood covering EVERYTHING. Running to the back, praying desperately, I come across something that gives me hope. A circular rune has been carved into the floor, with storage crystals spaced around it. I don't know what the rune does beyond the fact that most of the conduits seem to channel power from the crystals inwards. Reaching out, I try to feed a flicker of power into it, with the aim of tracing the activation sequence, when my suit gives an audible alarm and I hear several crystalline snaps echo behind me.

Spinning around in a combat crouch, storm sword in hand and a tear streaked snarl on my face, I confront an empty room. Relaxing slightly, I bring up the diagnostics readout on my suit; most of the errors make no sense to me, but certain lines pop out at me.

Power system Error - Corruption detected.
Power Crystal #2 - Offline
Power Crystal #3 - Offline
Power Crystal #4 - Offline
Power Crystal #5 - Offline
Power Crystals reading no connection, please replace.

Well . . . buck. I certainly am not capable of replacing the crystals myself, that normally takes an experienced armorer to remove the damaged ones and to graft the new ones into the armor without risking serious losses in power capacity and efficiency.

I regard the rune on the floor again before I turn to head out. As I do, a small blue crystal on the floor catches my attention.

Striding over, I reach down and lift a recording crystal to my face, examining it silently. Moving to where I can watch the door, I feed a trickle of magic into it, causing it to glow softly. As it starts playing, I can only bow my head in relief as I hear Vine's voice issue from the crystal, but I quickly perk up as I hear the contents of her message.

"Redemit, I don't have much time. You said you were right behind us, but then the rear guard told us about the Swarmling Queen. They didn't think you'd make it, but I don't think you'd let that stop you from fulfilling a promise. However, a few minutes ago, there was an incident in the receiving room, the next thing we know they're screaming for backup at the receiving checkpoint. Then they tell us to run and barricade the secondary checkpoint, they're doing that now, but we're trapped down here, and they said there were a lot of them. We're going to try something very foolish, you'd certainly approve. Wind Scythe is feeding a number of power crystals into a blind teleport, we had reports of an abandoned structure about 2 days east of here, some kind of ancient fortress. We're going to try to make it to the surface and make our way there with his squad. If you're hearing this, we have the elements, and we're heading for that structure."

Bowing my head, I give a silent sigh of relief. Vine might be still alive, just unable to communicate. But then the message continues.

"Your gear was brought through the portal, but never stored in the armory. We tried to get it, but it was in the barracks, and the secondary checkpoint just went quiet. They're coming, and the major's going to buy us as much time as possible, but we need to start if it's going to work in time. Catch up quickly, big guy." With that, the message stops, the crystal blinking once as it returns to its ready status.

Closing my eyes tightly, I give a quiet whine of relief before opening them again and moving back into the cafeteria. I should have my scout gear in my supplies, and then I can go find her. While I doubt she's out of the woods yet, by any means, I have hope. Moving forward into the cafeteria area, I glance around, but find nothing of use.

Continuing down the corridor, I come to the security station, and turn down the third tunnel, but pause as I hear several whispers just on the edge of hearing, buck. Continuing down the corridor, I keep my blades up and ready. I continue igniting the wall mounted glow sticks as I proceed down the corridor. Coming to the end of the corridor, I come upon what looks like an improvised barricade where somepony had bolted a metal plate to the doorway. The plate itself is covered in scratch marks, bearing mute testimony to the stress it'd borne up under before an unknown force had forcibly bent the top right corner in, popping one of the corner bolts loose and giving the swarm access to the room beyond.

Still hearing the whispers, I decide against subtlety, and instead spend a bit of my remaining power, feeding it into the strength rune. Rocking back and drawing a leg up, I straighten it out explosively, wrenching the remaining bolts out of the rock with a scream of tortured metal and stone. The barricade obligingly flies across the room, clearing the way for my entrance.

Striding into the room, swords ablaze, I glance around. There isn't much in the room, almost everything still seems to be crated. Several crates bearing the Night Guard emblem catch my eye, but I continue scanning the room, eventually finding what I seek. There is a dark hole in the back wall, hidden behind several crates.

Striding forward, I ignite a light stick and toss it forward into the darkness. Several shapes scuttle back into the darkness, not good. Noting a general lack of bodies in the main room, I can only come to a rather nasty conclusion. There is a nest inside that tunnel, and unless I want to watch this world burn like mine, that nest must die.

Moving over to the marked crates, and keeping an eye on the tunnel, I crack the first one open, whistling through my teeth as I pull out a string of grenades and a satchel of incendiaries. Checking the next crate, I give a silent cheer when I find my scout suit is indeed here, and seems intact. Starting a self diagnostic on it, I crack the last crate, finding some of my clothes and other toiletries, my blade care kit, and also . . . my eyes light up as I see it, my force bow. Giving it a tender stroke, I leave it where it is, instead opting to go back to the explosives crate.

I pull two frags and two incendiaries out and clip them to my armor. Better armed, I stand and advance on the tunnel in the back wall. Crouching down slightly, I continue my slow march inwards. Using the glow of my white blade to light my path, I wave it around, discouraging anything from trying to jump out at me.

Coming up to a bend in the tunnel, I slowly move forward, keeping my guard up as I come around the natural blind spot. Seeing nothing, I proceed forward only to have something slam into my right side, knocking me into a wall and banging my head around inside the helm.

Shaking off the stars before my eyes, I slam my elbow to the right impacting into something that gives a dry crack and a squeal of pain. Before I can take advantage of this, something tears through a weak point between two of the plates on my leg and into the leg underneath.

Staggering I feel magic flowing through me weakly as it seals the wound and starts healing the tissue underneath the skin once the blood loss has been staunched.

Turning to face my attacker, I see a lone drone favoring its left foreleg as it stands there hissing at me. I feel my eyes narrow as my world dissolves in rage. Shooting forward I knock its attempted bite aside and grab it by the throat, holding it up at arms length as I stare at it through slit eyes. Tightening my grasp, I start to choke it as I also proceed to forcibly suck its life out. The swarmling's energy collects inside my body, accelerating the healing process and feeding my rage.

Tossing the lifeless body aside, I turn back to the tunnel. I kneel down to pick up my other blade and then proceed to stride down the tunnel, still slightly hunched due to the low ceiling. Coming around another bend, I see something that sets my eyes ablaze: scattered along the wall are the corpses of various creatures, mostly ponies with the occasional gryphon. All are refugees from my world, many known personally to me, now to be used as nurseries for more swarmlings.

Striding forward to the first corpse, I thrust my white blade into its chest cavity and push energy through it, causing the body to twitch and balloon slightly as the flesh around the sword starts blackening and the material inside boils, killing the eggs implanted inside.

Pulling my blade out I turn to the next set of corpses as a pair of swarmlings finally rush me in defense of the eggs. Watching them come, I grin ferally as magic condenses on my wings. I sweep them out before me and grasp the two swarmlings by the base of their necks. While I hold them up in the air immobile, I stab another two corpses with my blades and rip the swarmlings' life out and channel it into the blades. The corpses ignite in green flames collapsing in upon themselves as they turn to ash.

Moving on to the next two corpses, I repeat the process as the two creatures in my grasp shriek in agony, their every scream only feeding my vicious pleasure. I continue down the tunnel, burning the corpses, destroying the eggs inside. After 4-5 cycles, the swarmlings finally stop moving and are unceremoniously dumped aside as I continue down the tunnel purging the rest. After the last body in sight is reduced to ash, I fall to a knee panting from the exertion.

My power's running low, but then, that's what incendiaries are for. Pushing myself to my feet, I continue down the tunnel towards a slight glow ahead. Coming into a natural cavity in the rock, I stop and stare in silent horror at the sight before me.

In a shallow depression in the floor lies another couple of bodies, with readily apparent signs of infestation, but skittering all over the room are more swarmlings. Much of the walls' surface is covered in a glowing material, much like the mud mix some insects use to build their hives. The swarm is building a new hive, and where there's a swarm hive, there's a swarm queen... Buck.

At my appearance, the drones closest to me turn and hiss, but keep their distance. The queen knows I'm here, and it is planning something. They haven't been here long, judging by the fact I am standing in the egg chamber, so I can assume that I am a day behind Vine, which makes cleaning this nest up quickly of utmost importance.

Glancing around, I decide I've got nothing to lose, and a better opportunity won't be presenting itself. "You really shouldn't have waited," I state conversationally as I start backing up into the tunnel's mouth. "Now, it's time to pay the price," I quip as I pop the releases on an incendiary, and a fragmentation grenade, tossing the incendiary towards the center of the room, followed by the first fragmentary towards the left as I quickly toss the other fragmentary to the right.

Stepping back into the tunnel another couple feet, I deploy my tower shield and brace my feet as the chamber erupts in activity. This changes abruptly as the world turns white and a wave of heat impacts my shield shortly followed by twin thuds and a wave of pings on my shield heralding the fragmentation grenades going off.

Opening my eyes and raising my head, I look into a scene from Tartarus. Swarmlings lay everywhere, most charred to one degree or another, while others lay twisted and mangled from the concussive shock and wave of fragments thrown up by the fragmentation grenades.

Even through all that, three successive explosions in the tight confines of the room, some of the swarmlings turn out relatively unscathed, which they demonstrate by rushing my position in the tunnel.

Readying my shield, I pull my storm blade, and ready myself in the natural choke-point the tunnel offers. The first wave, in this case a single changeling, is dispatched quickly with an economical thrust to the face with my blade. Wrenching my blade loose, I ready myself again.

As successive waves continue to charge me, my focus narrows down to the 5 feet of space in front of me. Stab, Recover, Shield Bash, Stab. Retreating as necessary, I slowly whittle their numbers down. I take the occasional bite and buck, but my armor absorbs and stops most of it.

Eventually, the numbers and health of the swarmlings begin to diminish, as I end up facing swarmlings that show signs of damage before they come into my engagement envelope.

Then, as I'm tiring and the swarmlings seem to be dwindling, the queen strikes. My proximity sensors give me only an instant's warning before the queen is upon me from behind, almost taking me, then and there. On instinct alone, I spin to my left my right arm slashing out with my blade, inflicting only minor damage on the swarmling before me but forcing it back as my tower shield moves to cover my vulnerable flank as the queen charges me from behind.

The impact of the queen impacting my shield tosses me into the swarmlings to my right. The tunnel is already rather choked with bodies, which serves to hinder their follow up attacks, and also to cushion my fall as I land in a drift of bodies I don't consciously remember killing.

I have an instant to know fear, and then the queen is upon me, charging forward in the tight confines of the tunnel. The still vaguely-horse-shaped creature charges me. While the confines of the tunnel thankfully prevent it from doing serious damage, it still manages to rear up slightly to bring its front claws down on my shield, knocking the air from my body and stunning me.

I try to roll aside, but the pile of bodies I fell into entraps me, slowing me down, stopping my escape. The queen rears up again, tunnel permitting, and slams down onto my shield once more. This knocks me dang near unconscious when the top edge of my shield impacts on my helmet, translating its momentum through to my head. The interior padding does its utmost, but can't stop it all as I see stars.

The last thing I see is the queen rearing above me as its surviving drones stand by watching impassively. Then the queen's hooves impact on my helmet, and I know nothing.

Redemit

I find myself standing in the middle of what looks like somepony's oddly familiar bed chambers. Glancing around, I note a bed with dark blue sheets. The wall hangings are all likewise somber, consisting of darker hues all oriented on a dark and stormy night. I also note my armor is missing, instead I'm wearing a simple shirt and pants, with a cloth belt about my waist.

On the walls rest several book cases with various books inside them, and on another wall is a line of windows. A double doorway in their midst leads onto what looks like a balcony. In the corner is a couch and several seats in a circle providing a comfortable atmosphere. Resting on an easel nearby is a painting showing a white alicorn, much like my Queen, only instead of a rich and dark blue, this one's coat is a pure brilliant white. She's portrayed standing with wings unfurled, staring straight out at me from large purple irises. A golden collar with a purple gem adorns her chest and golden shoes adorn her fore hooves, wafting in a breeze is a mane that seems more energy than hair composed of four different shades: Pink, Green, Blue, and what looked like a grayish purple to me. But then, I wasn't very good with colors, everything always looked black and white to me ever since my Queen granted me her boon.

Thoughts of my Queen, dead on a world that was even now being bathed in fire and destruction, sadden me, causing my attention to wander. Idly, I shuffle towards the balcony doors, my curiosity getting the better of me as I try to figure out where I am.

"Redemit," a voice calls. A voice I thought I'd never hear again, a voice that was to me as water was to a pony three days gone in the desert. My eyes widen and my heart seems to freeze inside my chest. Turning slowly, I look at the couch, and the being that now resides upon it.

Lounging on her side, is another alicorn, but where the one in the painting was bright as the sun, this one is dark as the deepest night, where the other carried an aura of majesty and the colors of the sky graced her mane, this one carries an aura of raw power, her tail and mane are the night sky itself, and lightning occasionally travels across the 'stars' therein. A form fitting dark blue helm rests upon her head, complementing the spiraling shape of her horn, with a chest guard bearing the sign of a storm cloud wreathed crescent moon. Upon each of her feet rest dark blue shoes. On her flank, proudly displayed, was a mirror image of the mark upon her chest plate.

I fall to my knees as I bow myself to the floor. "My Queen," I state simply, not knowing if this is death, or a dream. Either way, I am loathe for it to end.

"Redemit, why art thou here?" She asks. I'm not sure where 'here' is, but the why is all too easy to ascertain.

"I failed, my Queen." I state simply, closing my eyes in shame as I ponder the probable fate of my body and the actions the fledgling hive will take. In the massive forest, no dwellings nearby, they will build and grow, and by the time the world outside receives their first taste of their impending extinction, it will already be too late.

"Oh? Why dost thou say that?" She asks calmly, still considering me from her position upon the couch.

"Because I wasn't there to keep you safe, and then I wasn't there when the Elements came under threat. Instead, I was stuck in a city playing tag with the locals," I reply, rising to look Her in the eyes as I admit my failures.

"So, because thou weren't there, We and our 500 other very capable, very devoted, guards were struck down, but if thou had been there, the thousands of swarmlings would have stood nary a chance?" She asks in a mildly amused tone.

Gritting my teeth at the familiar pain, I continue to meet her eyes as I reply, "At your side, till the end, is where I belonged, my Queen. I lived, and you did not. This was unacceptable," I reply, my mental anguish hardening my tone towards the end.

Rather than taking offense, she simply closes her eyes and shakes her head with a soft sigh. "We all serve at the behest of fate, my faithful human," She remarks, not unkindly.

"It was Our fate to perish with Our world, where it's your fate to safeguard the remaining survivors. So then, why art thou here?" she asks again.

"They followed us. The alpha site was overrun, and only a few escaped before I made it there. I hunted down the remaining swarmlings and found them building another hive. I moved in immediately to cleanse the site, but their numbers were too great. I wiped out what eggs I could find and drastically thinned their numbers, but I was eventually cornered, and they wore me down before the Swarm Queen flanked me, my last memory is a blow to my helmet, then I found myself here," I report with a small sigh.

"And is that all? Art thou ready to die now?" She replies with a slight smirk.

"For my failure, I deserve death, but I cannot rest, not until my oath is fulfilled. I failed once, I will not fail again," is my immediate reply.

"Very good, that is the spirit we came to admire," She replies with a bright laugh. "But now that thou hast chosen thy path, how wilt thou achieve it?" She queries with a languid smile.

"I do not know, my Queen, I was hoping you might be able to help with that?" I reply, a fire crackling within me as my will solidifies.

Shifting off the couch and to her feet, she walks over to me. Stopping before me, she stops, and tilts her head as she considers me.

Slightly confused, I look to her questioningly as I watch her eyes start to glow and a purple mist begin rising from the edges of her eyes and trailing up above her head before dissipating. Opening her mouth, revealing two rows of sharp teeth in a weirdly cute smile, she giggles. "We thought thou wouldst never ask," Her eyes flash and my world dissolves.

Redemit

My eyes pop open as warmth fills my body. Looking up, I spy several drones standing over me, reaching up I grab two of them by the throat and squeeze as I drain them. The crack of their cartilage feeds the monster inside me as I veritably explode to my feet. Feeling a new power within me, and without really understanding, I feed power out of myself and watch it coalesce as it flows out of me, condensing several feet away from me into a familiar shadowy shape. Spreading wings the color of a thunderhead, and looking at me out of eyes the color of lightning dancing amongst the clouds, with the night sky flowing from her neck and tail, She opens her mouth and speaks with the voice of a thunder blast. "Kill the drones, the queen is mine." I reply with a simple nod and turn away, feeling the familiar weight of my storm sword settle into my grasp as it ignites, lightning dancing up and down the length.

Looking around, I find myself standing in the middle of the same room, the carbonized husks of the previous occupants surrounding me. The hissing of multiple swarmlings draws my attention to see them standing over a pile of their own dead, obviously the swarm queen wasn't wasting time or materials, but I'd deal with her eggs later, the living called me, and I intended to answer their call.

Triggering my shield, I extend it to mid-range before the second stage extension runes fail. I charge forward, a battle cry upon my lips. "For Nightmare Storm!" I scream, my Queen beside me, a primal scream issuing forth from her razor-filled maw as we charge forth.

Reaching the first changeling, I simply slam it with my shield, feeling it go down with a gurgling cry as I trod it underfoot, crushing its exoskeleton and organs with equal ease. Slashing out to my right, I truncate another at the middle of its forelegs as Nightmare snatches one on my left up in her maw and flips her head up and down with a sickening crunch of vertebrae, signaling its demise.

The fight for survival forces my focus to narrow, and I concentrate simply upon the space around me, hacking and slashing at the creatures about me. My armor suffices to shrug off or blunt most of the blows I receive as swarmling life surges through me, healing my wounds and empowering my strikes.

As the tide of battle quickly turns in our favor, the swarm queen makes her appearance, charging out of one of the holes. A small group of swarmlings comes with her, all undamaged, unwearied, and crying for blood.

Turning to face the new threat, I withdraw my blade from the thorax of a dying swarmling and charge the new arrivals. My jump jets firing, I throw myself forward, leaving a path of fire behind myself as the jump jets react with my corrupted energy, over-charging and leaving a burning residue in their wake.

Slamming the swarmlings in front of the swarm queen aside, I roar, spittle flying as I force her reinforcements to focus their attention on me as my Queen breezes past me to confront the swarm queen herself. What happens after that is lost to me as I find myself under assault from all sides. In the fighting, I lose my shield, the supporting structure on my arm finally cracking under the pressure. Tossing it aside, I draw my combat knife from the sheath on my chest and spread my wings, condensing magic into the crystalline feathers, causing them to harden like knives.

I feel the familiar rage overtake me, and instead of fighting it, I master it with the cool reserve of a soldier, I embrace it to me like a lover long lost, as my eyes take on a greenish glow and I start laughing, my blades and wings flitting and dancing all about myself. The whispers in my head turn to knives, stabbing at my consciousness, but with so much adrenaline in my system, I ignore them as I continue to sow death all about myself. Every strike only serves to drain and weaken my opponents as I dance with death himself as my weapon.

Eventually, the rush of new power abates, and my rage escapes me, leaving me gasping for breath and aching in every limb. My wings give me a particularly loud signal that I am going pay for this. I slowly turn, examining the room. Swarmlings, well, swarmling parts, lay everywhere; the floor and most of the walls are painted in the green fluorescence of their blood. My armor has seen better days: nearly every plate has chips taken out of it, with a few that are outright buckled, and the chain-mail underneath is still drawing magic in as it repairs itself.

Seeking my queen I look to my left, and freeze. She stands, wings outstretched, a hoof resting on the swarm queen's weakly struggling chest, a hungry smile upon her lips. Glancing at me, she smiles. "Well done! Now, hold this one, but do not harm it further, I have plans for it," She orders.

Moving to her side, and sheathing my knife, I kneel on the swarm queen's chest, with one of my wings pinning its back legs to the ground. I place my sword to the side and grasp its front legs in my hands, holding them still, yet holding back so I don't crack the obviously-weakened exoskeletal structures.

Nightmare steps off of it as I hold it down, then slowly walks around to where she can look down at its head from above. The swarm queen stares up with rage-filled orbs, some measure of intelligence flickering behind their surface. "Now, my human tells me thy drones doth press my little ponies most grievously. I will have knowledge of where they are, and after that, I will have you, body and soul. I do not much care for your form, but in this task, it will serve," At her words, the swarm queen's eyes widen, and her struggles increase as it begins to toss its head and the rest of its body around, thrashing in my grip, threatening to damage itself.

"Oh, that's quite enough of that!" Nightmare growls hungrily, almost sensuously, as she reaches out and grasps the swarm queen's head in her hooves, bringing her head down as lightning arcs up from her forehead, forming the shape of a spectral horn with a spark of energy upon the tip. The queen struggles hysterically until the horn makes contact with its own twisted and malformed horn and its body goes limp.

"Gather your gear, and prepare to cleanse this place. We shall be with you shortly, my human," She states, her form starting to waver and flow down the point of contact between them.

Standing up, I grasp my sword and glance around the room. I start taking stock: one more incendiary, and my armor is in shambles. I'm not even sure where my other blade is, or the sheathes I had attached to my armor to hold them. Acting on impulse, I bring up the diagnostic module, most everything not relating to my chest plate reads as offline, including most of my jump gear's jet nozzles. Acting to save my remaining power capacity, I order a power purge, flat-lining my power supply, but removing the corrupted life energy from my remaining power crystal, allowing it to start drawing a clean charge from the local ley lines.

I figure the first place to start would be to retrace my steps to where I reawakened. Stepping over and around various pieces of debris and gore, I look around, finally spotting one of my scabbards laying on the floor. I reach down and grasp it, pulling it from the floor with a slight sucking noise. Shaking off the worst of the gore, I sheath my storm blade and hold the scabbard in my off hand as I move towards the entrance, looking for my other blade.

Coming back to the mouth of the tunnel where I'd first started my assault. I finally stumble across my other blade, the scabbard laying on the ground nearby, knocked off at some point as I fought the swarmlings. Picking it up, I again shake off as much debris as possible, then sheathe my other blade in it and head back in towards Nightmare and the swarm queen.

Glancing over at them, I see the swarm queen laying on the ground, apparently comatose. Nightmare is nowhere to be seen. Kind of curious at this point, I walk over and examine it. It lies on its back, fore limbs folded across its chest, appearing to simply be asleep, but as I watch, its eyes open, revealing aquamarine eyes with slit irises. I start to tense for a moment before I realize who's eyes I'm looking into, my Queen has claimed this body.

Looking at me, She smiles, and slowly rolls over. "This form shan't last long, but for our purpose, it will last long enough. Come, we must make haste, thy former handler is in dire straights,"

Saluting, I move to her side. "I'm down to one incendiary, and torching the bodies by hand will take more power than I have. We may need to return to cleanse this place," I state.

Looking around and grimacing, she replies. "Nay, time is of the essence, but this place cannot be spared, hand us thy last incendiary," She orders.

Grasping the grenade, I pull it off, careful to not prime it, and hold it out to her. She considers it a moment before the grenade and Her horn start to glow a soft blue. After a moment, the grenade stops glowing, and She nods.

"We shan't need to stick around, as we leave, drop this behind, it shall suffice," She states with a satisfied smile.

Taking a moment to look around, and then down at herself, She frowns. "This form is displeasing to Us, We shall remedy it, one moment." Taking a deep breath, she closes her eyes and concentrates. Her form dissolves in a rush of green flame and reforms as an alicorn. Horrifyingly, She drops to the floor gasping for breath.

Instantly, I'm at my Queen's side, hands outstretched, my meager magic supply already gathering at my command as I reach out to heal her.

"Nay, stay thy hand and conserve thy power. We did not know that their mutations made changing quite so . . . painful," She states as her breathing slows. I relax as She slowly stands.

"I have some pain killers, if you wish them, My Queen?" I offer as I remain at her side, my magic flowing back into the storage crystal on my spine with a faint tingle to mark its passing.

"Again, Nay, We shall need out faculties unimpaired in the coming fight, let us proceed," She responds, moving towards the tunnel I entered through.

"Yes, my Queen," I say as I move in front of Her, sweeping for targets as I go. Stopping at the doorway, I step aside to let Her pass. Holding up the incendiary grenade, I look at it a second before priming it and tossing it into the center of the room. Turning, I run down the tunnel to the first bend where Nightmare is standing, waiting for me.

As I pass, She erects a barrier on the tunnel. A few moments later, the space beyond goes white and the ground shakes beneath us. Flames curl their way down the tunnel as the rocks themselves seem to catch fire for an instant before dying out. Turning, we proceed down the tunnel, the room behind us continuing to glow as the heat within sanitizes the area and attached tunnels, ensuring a clean sweep.