A lot can change in twelve years. Looking back, the time I lived in the hive with thousands of brothers and sisters seemed like a lifetime ago. I was but a childish fool all those years ago, thinking myself as learned.
I remember the details rather well, having mulled them over in my head millions of times. It was during one of our gathering missions to collect food and resources for the hive. I remember having a slightly higher affinity with the arcane during those days; I had liked to play the part of the wise changeling.
What happened to me does not happen to wise changelings. I was pillaging a cottage on one such mission while the owner was away. I happened upon a key ring, normally not suspicious but there seemed to be nothing for the keys to unlock. Curiosity got the better of me so I began to search more thoroughly around the property.
I eventually found a bush next to a tree that seemed oddly out of place. Upon investigation I discovered a trap door of sorts. I was filled with giddy excitement, this could be the stash of all stashes, I could finally get some recognition in the hive! I hated how right I was.
I quickly found the key to unlock it and used my magic to heave the door open, revealing a set of stairs descending into darkness. I ran down inside without hesitation, stopping suddenly as I heard the heavy door slam shut behind me. I began to panic, had someone been watching me this entire time and decided to lock me down here in the darkness?
I ran back up the stairs to pry the door open. In my fear clouded mind I had momentarily forgotten about the fact I needed to use my magic to open the door. Instead I had pushed up on it to no avail. I paused for breath and heard a sound the sealed my fate: the door had suddenly locked itself.
I laughed in vain hope, remembering to use my magic; I attempted to open the door. It didn’t budge. I flew into a desperate rage as I pounded my hooves against the door as hard as I could. I think I vaguely recall my throat being sore from screaming, yelling, and finally crying in a curled up ball.
I had eventually calmed down enough to walk back down into the darkness. I lit my horn to show the way, the walls seemed to be carved out of smooth stone. The hall soon opened up into a rather large room. I was confused by this, I wasn’t that far underground and I sure as hell didn’t see a giant rock anywhere near that cottage in the woods.
As soon as I crossed into the room, there was a thud behind me. I turned to see that the tunnel had sealed itself off, the wall of stone where the door was had melded seamlessly into the rest of the wall, I had quickly lost track of where it was.
Suddenly the light from my horn was out shown by hundreds of torches along the walls lighting the room with their gentle flames. In the center of the room stood a multi-layered pedestal with a huge golden treasure chest sitting on top of it. My heart rate sped up as I eyed it greedily, this was indeed a great find!
I quickly approached it, but as soon as my hoof touched the first step, another set of smooth walls shot up and collided with the ceiling. My jaw hit the floor, the ceiling, now clearly revealed by the torches, was covered in sharp spikes. But the most shocking thing of all was the countless skeletons impaled upon them.
A red, dark energy seeped into them from where the chest was now barricaded. This time the nightmare truly began. The mist solidified in their empty eye sockets, making it seem like the skeletons were staring at him with their glaring eyes.
Then they began to twitch. They twitched, clattered, and ground their bones together in some sort of sick laughter as they freed themselves one by one. They landed nimbly on the ground with bone grinding against bone to absorb the impact. They stood before me, revealing skeletons of pony, griffon, minotaur, and dragon alike.
Everything froze around me as adrenalin surged through my veins. My horn lit up as I mentally prepared my magic for the assault. Everything sped up again as they charged, my horn flared as I shot them with a beam of magic.
Bones flew in all directions and I grinned in triumph, but it was short lived. More and more skeletons fell around me, and I had only disabled three at best. The decapitated skull of one of them continued to laugh at me from the floor.
I kicked it aside as I pressed through the thin portion of their ranks. I managed to punch one out of my way, managing to hurt my hoof more than its head. I spun back around and shot another blast of magic, this one in the form of a large ball that detonated amongst them. More bones flew through the air as I enchanted the ground beneath my hooves, drastically slowing their movement for a while.
I stood with my back to the far corner, blasting them with as much magic as I could, but they kept coming. I was beginning to pant heavily as my attacks slowly weakened in strength, but I refused to give up. I looked above me to see the last of the skeletons free itself from its spiny prison, but I failed to noticed earlier how the ceiling descended towards me.
At that moment I knew I had only three options. I could either give up and let them kill me, run away for as long as I can before the spikes impaled me, or go down fighting. I chose option three and faced the horde once again. I squinted my eyes against the pain as I poured everything into my horn for one final last ditch spell. My head felt like it was splitting, and if the green blood running from my eyes meant anything, it probably was.
I didn’t care though. I was dead anyway, with no hope of escape. A fleeting thought filtered through my mind just then, why didn’t I call out to the other changelings for help? I already knew the answer, though. My pride. I wanted to be the important one for once. I wanted to be more, to stand out among a crowd of twins. To be special.
With a cry I released the magic into the room where it spun about wildly. It decimated the zombies and cracked through the stone with ease. The sound of such sheer destruction was quickly drowned out by a loud, screaming sound as the stone ceiling was shifted to one side. It seemed to break loose and fall freely.
‘Well, nothing I can do about that. At least I did everything I could…’ I sat back and waited for the cold embrace of death, but none came. The sound had stopped as suddenly as it started. I opened my eyes to see the room obscured in clouds of shattered bone and stone. Soon the dust settled, revealing the golden treasure chest completely unscathed.
As I stared, the top seemed to open of its own accord I watched in awe as a black book slowly floated up to hover above the open chest, spinning slowly as it did. I stumbled to my hooves and waded through the debris towards it. I reached out and took it in my hooves, it had a thick, sturdy weight to it, and I smiled.
I was about to open the cover when it flashed brightly, momentarily blinding me. When I recovered I was shocked to find myself back in the forest clearing, but it was wrong. The cottage was missing, like it had never been there at all. I found the familiar tree and bush and rushed to investigate, but the trap door was gone.
I continued to fruitlessly search the area as I had not long ago but it was for naught. I pulled the book in front of me and contemplated the meaning behind it. Was this some sort of powerful artifact? Were the skeletons I fought against the remains of those who failed? A chill traveled down my spine, then back up to my mind. Oh wait, it’s the hive mind! Had I been cut off from it somehow?
‘8480/D, what are you doing?’ a hundred minds called out at once.
‘This one was gathering food and supplies…’ I tried to defend.
‘8480/D, we know where you are and there are no supplies to be gained there. You will go before the queen.’ They sang out.
I gulped; I had wasted too much time and energy today, and all I had to show for it was a book that probably wouldn’t mean anything to the other changelings.
The journey back to the hive was relatively quick, but seemed like eternity to my panicked mind. Before I knew it I was in the Queen’s throne room, a quivering mess as she glared down at me. She said some things that I don’t quite remember exactly, but the meaning was very clear: I was to be banished for my perceived failure to the hive, never to return on pain of death.
Like I could realistically survive alone out there anyway. I almost wanted to laugh in her face; I had faced a noble death with honor and was rewarded with life. I left the hive that day with nothing but my book, and flew well into the night. I landed inside of a forest on the boarder of Equestria and dug out a small shelter under the ground.
That night I finally opened the book I had nearly died for in order to claim as my own, and I thought I had really died. The book was power, power in the form of the forbidden dark arts. With no home to claim and nothing to lose, I continued to turn the pages well into the morning.
The book fed me with knowledge, and I thirsted for more. I practiced my arts, mastering the spells shown in the book. Over the years my form changed, I grew progressively thinner, the dark powers keeping me more alive than love ever had. The blue of my eyes faded, replaced by a red hue as they seemed to shrink into my skull.
But I didn’t care, I had achieved my dream, I became something more than just another changeling. I had become Sigma, the Warlock.
