Ciardite - The Hive of Rock
It happened so long ago, now I can barely remember all of it. It all happened far to the NorthEast of here, long before I had even heard of the Vanhoover region. Near a small town that was almost completely surrounded by towering mountains. It was thought to have been wild, and for the most part it was. Hell, I can't say for certain if the town my old hive was close to is still standing anymore. I may not remember much of my old life, but I remember the day it all changed.
I was exhausted from the night before, I had just finished the final tests of my latest experiment in regards to effectively utilizing my hive’s rock based magic. In fact, I woke up to the queen’s attendant poking me awake with a hoof, “Miss Ciardite, I must insist that you wake up this instant! The Queen is eager to hear your report about the Rock armour experiments!” He kept pushing until I groaned and rubbed at my eyes, clearing them from sleep as I looked around groggily, a pencil falling from my forehead to the bits of paper that lay scattered on my desk. I was attempting to write a comprehensive report, but it looked like now I was going to have to demonstrate instead. Oh well, Queen Diamend liked to see the results versus hearing them. Though as I was thinking about how to present my findings, I felt a force tugging at my tail as I was dragged out of my own lab by her assistant, “come come! We mustn't delay a moment longer! She awaits your arrival in the throne room!” I groaned and gave a murderous look to the assistant and any poor drone that got to see their hive’s scientist being treated like a child.
“Put me down, Jeeves, I can walk on my own hooves you know!” I heard him give a humph at me as I suddenly felt the cold and comforting hard ground on my hooves, and face.
“If you insist, Miss Ciardite but I believe you're acting most unladylike.”
I growled as I got to my hooves and wobbled as threateningly as my tired legs could hold me and projected my thoughts to him using the hive mind, ‘and here's what I think you can do with all your prim and proper bull. Shove it up your plot!’ I snarled as I cut my thoughts away and stomped off towards the double stone doors that marked the throne room. The guards each looked at me as menacingly as they could, but I fixed them both with a cold stare and they each eventually looked away and opened the doors. I sighed softly as I stepped into the throne room and as soon as the attendant skittered in, felt the whoosh of air as the doors both closed and the throne room became much darker. The only light came from the walls of the naturally growing crystals that radiated the queen’s mood. Right now a soft purple with bits of red, and I soon found out why the second I heard her sultry voice make a noise from behind her throne.
The attendant blushed bright red as he mumbled and fumbled and cleared his throat several times before I punched him with a hoof and stepped forwards and poked my head around the great throne, “Queen Diamend. You asked to see me?” I asked, my voice suddenly much more polite and formal than it was with her plot-kissing attendant.
The Queen made another soft noise before looking up in surprise as suddenly the room flared to life with her magic as her… Toy, was sent flying to the other side of the room into the darkness, poor pony hit the wall with such a force he actually cried out a few moments as Diamend rushed around frantically, pushing me back in front of the throne as she sat and stared down at me, her cheeks redder than the crystals in the room, “y-yes… I did! I uhm, thought you'd be… Ah… Slower in getting here.”
I blew the one tuft of mane that hung over my right eye out of the way a second and bowed to my queen, “you can thank your assistant for the prompt arrival.” I smirked a little, I could feel his eyes staring down my carapace as if they could shoot beams of light.
Diamend nodded slowly as she adjusted herself and smiled, “I see now, well… Onto business, I hear you've recently finished the latest project I've assigned to you?”
I nodded slowly as my horn lit up with magic and I pulled her assistant forwards in between the two of us, “be a good bug, Jeeves and stand still.” I mumbled while raising my voice slightly, “yes, I have, my Queen. You had asked about using what we mined into armour and weapons, which any blacksmith can craft. But I've found means and abilities to use the natural rockscape of any environment to be useful with the right magic in becoming a suitable, emergency set of armour. Of lesser quality and of raw materials of course.” I punctuated the point by encasing the assistant in a perfect replica of our Royal guard armour, made out of the floor around him, “with enough training, I'd say this could be done with metals as well as various semi-precious stones to efficiently produce high quality armour and weapons…. Instantaneously.” I shrugged and shot a few reasonably sized rocks at the assistant who screamed and squirmed inside his new suit like a scared little filly.
Diamend nodded slowly and leaned forwards, “this is quite helpful, how soon can you teach the rest of the hi-...”
That was all she got to say as one of the guard captains burst into the room, panting with his weapons drawn, yelling through the hive mind to everypony, ‘attack! We’re being attacked!! The ponies from the village… And Griffins from the North! They're working together!’
The queen immediately slammed a hoof down and began rapidly barking orders through the mind, ‘guards to your stations! Get every drone able to fight to their places!’ She growled before looking down at me, “take your research, leave through the back ways, through the caves. Destroy what you can't take!”
I stamped a hoof down on the ground and stared defiantly at the queen, “no! I'm going to stay and fight! I can use the rock magic better than almost any drone you can put on the front lines!”
I watched as the crystals in the room darkened and the queen let out a small hiss, “follow. The order. Now.” I gulped audibly and turned tail and ran for my lab, using my magic to seal up the door behind me, if only the others could've used it like how I could…. They might have survived. Instead, as I dug my way through the hive until I popped out into the almost burning daylight with a small saddlebag of my research, I saw for the first time what we were dealing with. It wasn't just a small mob, I was looking down the face of a mobilized and disciplined army. And in that moment, I learned how screwed we really were. Our hive wasn't the biggest, but we were able to hold our own against almost any force. This though…. This was enough ponies and Griffins together for a single purpose: extermination. I could only watch in horror as they maneuvered around our traps, encircling our main force and cutting them off from the rest of the hive.
It was a slaughter. I was able to feel my heart pump with sorrow and rage that day, I screamed and dug my way back to my lab…. Some pony had to protect the queen’s escape, or else the hive was doomed. I puffed out a breath as I carefully dug into the back of the throne room, only to find most of it ruined… The throne itself cracked as I crept closer I could hear the queen wheezing as she talked with somepony I couldn't see I. Front of her, “y-you think…. This… Will help… Equestria? Slaughtering the changelings because of the mistake of one foolish Queen?!” She roared out and started coughing.
I only heard a male voice growl before taking a few steps towards the queen, “if there's a chance history could repeat itself… well...We’re not leaving it to just happen again. I think the townsponies that hired me would agree.” I gasped as suddenly the sharp end of a claymore stuck through the throne and I saw the lights and energy in the crystals dim and flicker until one by one… The only light coming from the ponies and their torches, though they left just as quickly with shouts of, “find the rest of them! Take no quarter!”
I stood there in darkness and silence until I thought it was safe to run around the front of the throne, I was able to see fairly well in the dark, I wanted to fool myself, that I hadn't just watched my queen die… But as her body came into view I felt my heart sink like a stone. “No….” I mumbled, “no… Nononono!” I repeated it like a bad dream, desperately opening and closing my eyes as I tried to wake myself up. I grew more and more frustrated with each second until I screamed in rage. Something inside of me had changed that day when my hive died, part of me went with it.
I ran out the throne room and tried to follow the sounds of the soldiers. I had one thing in my head, and it was all about how to kill them. I charged through the hive with abandon…. But I never found anypony. It was like they vanished as soon as they arrived. I ran outside the hive entrance, and looked over the battlefield. I tried to go further but the tears had caught up with me and I collapsed against the stone if the entrance, sobbing. Everything. Everything was gone. I was alone. But I had to live… I had to. I was the last one of my hive now… And I wanted revenge.
