Chapter 1: Awoken The Dead Part I
Author's Note
New and edited version by Wampior.
Chapter 1: Awoken The Dead Part I
Who am I? I am Golem. I am only a machine, built to serve my master. What am I? I am a Heavy Class Golem Mark IX Specialist. On my knowledge of Golems, I was supposed to be the newest type, being stronger and much more than the older models. Unlike other Golems, I was forged from the strongest metals known and fused with magic from the High Draconic Lords themselves. With estimated strength and power that could destroy an army, I was to be recognized with honor. Add my heavy armor and exoskeleton of Chaos Metal that cost a quarter of my master's treasury, I should be become a feared legend throughout the nineteen kingdoms. But there was one thing that even the Draconic Lords and Grand Forgers themselves feared about my creation, my final and distinctive ability. An ability that makes me more than any Golem known in creation. This trait making me stand out as unique and just as terrifying.
I had intelligence, a mind of my own, able to learn and understand the world around me. How? A complex spell that Queen Rin, her mother, and her grandmother had personally worked on. How long it took to create me, I do not know. I do know though that I was a top secret project that no one knew about, no one besides but a few of the Royal Family knew of it's existence, and only the Queens ever got to worked on the final spells to form my creation. Though I never remember the Queens or who I saw, for I was not even born yet. A fetus does not know who it's parents are, only the small world that I was being formed is all I can remember. To summarize the spell that created me, it is a never changing spell that recasts parts of itself to adapt and grow stronger. This leading to me learning and understanding the world I knew and that I was a being sentient.
But why was I created? For what purpose? Queen Rin, the youngest of the three High Draconequus Queens answered the question herself. "If you know your enemy down to the tips of the feather, you can win the battle before they took flight. But any amount of knowledge is useless if you can not understand the meaning behind it. That is one of many reasons why you have been created and put in this gem." After being tested and fed some needed magical power, I was taken to my newly forged body. When I was finished being built physically, my Chaos Soul Gem that held the massive, ever changing spell to keep me from falling apart. This magically forged gem was holding together my memories and knowledge together and forming new ones. But there were some things added to me as I gained my new body. I was given the standard GPKG (Golem Protocol Knowledge Gem), having it fused into my Chaos Soul Gem.
This ~~forcing~~ allowing me to fully obey and abide by my Queen's wishes and anyone else that was trusted by the Queens. But it also gave me the ability to fully know how to use my body. With my new trainers being a few Draconic Lords and some of the Grand Forgers, Queen Rin left me, hopefully to stop a great war that could destroy the world. But I was told not to care and so I did, not caring as that was my Queen's job, not mine. When she did take leave, I was tested and trained for the equivalent of 2 months. I, having pitch perfect memory, was learning quicker than they could teach, thus making me skilled in CQC and everything else they taught me. I also learned about my metallic body and how to use weaponry. But besides the Grand Forger's bitter attitudes to me, I eventually grew on them, gaining their trust. With trust earned, they in turn taught me some skills. How to use forges and fixing myself was a few to name off, but all of this mattered none now.
I was then put into this "protective" metal box and taken to my Draconequus Queen. I was to be taken and given honoring titles as I would officially serve for my young Queen. But all feels lost as I have been in deep slumber for too long, now as this box is becoming my coffin. I was supposed to serve my mistress under the Banner of Blood and Iron! Any being under my Queen's oath and was a powerful warrior belonged in the Banner of Blood and Iron. They stood out as her bloody and brutal warriors and fought in her name. Yet I was left alone, left in deep slumber as my magic was soon to deplete if I stayed active. And even while sleeping, my energy was still draining, even at a much slower rate, I was soon to power completely off... And never wake again.
But this was not the end, I then was woken to see that my coffin... The doors were being opened! I began to see the light once again, as my vision was fuzzed with ages of slumber. I expected to see my Draconequus Queen, opening the metal package and pleased to see her warrior here at last. But I was met with two unknown creatures stood before me. They were black insest like animals that stood on four legs with a curved horn on their head and bug like wings on their backs. They were gawking at me as I stood in the coffin shaped box. I then saw something in the back, waking me up quicker as I readied for battle. There was a fully clad Black Knight with two old swords stabbed into his armored chest, laying on the ground with no signs of life emanating from him. The Black Knights were the Queen's personal guards! They were in charge of bring me to my mistress. These little bugs had killed my master's guard and were going to try the same with me!
Without any warning, I quickly grabbed both of their small heads and began draining them of their magic and life force. Green mist began fuming from the bugs and danced around my fingers as I breathed in all of their neon blood, magic, and soul. It tasted so good to feast on the living rather than the dead animals I was given. It was my first meal in what felt like decades of starvation. In a few moments, the bugs were nothing more than empty husks of life and magic, completely drained but a shell of their former self. I dropped the empty and shrunken shells as they broke upon impact like glass. Without care, I slowly moved my body out of the coffin and began looking around the room. I began to stretch my once stone stiff body, bringing back my full momentum of movement. I then saw another coffin sized box, around the same size as the one I had slept in. It had dents and metal crowbar trying to pry it open, I simply used my key and found my equipment in prime.
I first grabbed and strapped on my modified Jetpack. My memories rushed in as I began to remember on what and how to use it. Unlike normal Jetpacks that Lightweight Class Golems used to jump far distances, this one was meant for aiding in avoiding and attacking enemies. When running with the aid of the modified Jetpack, I could ram right through clusters of armed knights and crash through walls with ease. Or I could even use the pack to dash away from danger and avoid deadly blows that could cause major harm. That is, if there was anything that could even harm let alone dent my powerful armor. After the Jetpack had finished connecting and locking onto my armor, I began checking to see if it still works. I was displeased to find that the Jetpack's own Power Gems were long dead and dry of any magic. They needed a lot to be fully recharged and more just to activate the dormant spells and runes again.
I put that to my list of things to do as I grabbed my custom made, deadly monster killing weapon. It was a huge sword with a tip that was slanted to the end of the handle. But the blade was unlike anything ever made before. Unlike normal swords, it was not a solid sharp blade, but a machine like weapon like myself. It was a very thick, one sided blade with a gap between the foot and a half razor sharp blade and ended two feet from the dull hilt. In the gape was a chain with small yet razor sharp spikes. When activated, the chain moved in an oval within the sword at a pace fast enough to tear flesh, bone, and some metals apart like butter with a burning knife. But just like my Jetpack, It was completely empty and needed to be recharged.
I held the Chaos Metal forged sword, still ready to do it's job even when drained of power. Speaking of power, I needed more. Those small bugs were no meal, far from it. If I was to be fully functional again, I would need a thousands of these small bugs just to replenish my body to be fully operational. I slid the sword on left side as it magically hooked on my sword like a magnetic sheath. I began to hear buzzing off down the hall as I began to hid behind a create. Two more came in, these ones much bigger as they were reaching to my waist rather from my knee like the two before. They were the same like the smaller ones, just bigger and more ripe with magic. As they investigated the dead brittle husks of their friends, I silently walked behind them. Suddenly, I grabbed them both by the back of their necks. Before they could warn others or summon magic, I absorbed their life essence and all magic that they possessed in them. These ones were much more filling as felt like I devoured 30 of the smaller ones from these two. Like the smaller ones, they fell lightly as they too were empty and devoid of any life.
They didn't shatter like the first two, just creaked into splinters upon meeting the floor. Feeling much stronger, I began walking the unknown halls quietly as I was in search for my Queen and sources of food. But on my travel, I found a few of dead Black Knights, looking like they had been rotting for thousands of years. This worried me that while I was being shipped to Queen Rin, this place was attacked, but how long was I stuck down here? I stopped walking as I then realized that if those bodies were thousands of years old, then my Queen may also be long dead too. As I began to comprehend this, other thoughts on what I should do. If there was truly no one to give me orders... But I was built to serve her and her trusted. How was I going to serve my master if she was dead? Am I... Free of their command?
No, I was entitled to serve my queen and become a member in Banner of Blood and Iron! And members of the Blood and Iron kill those who oppose her rule. These bugs have infested one of her great cities and desecrated her Knights! Even though she may not live, I was built to serve her, and to serve the queen, is to serve the country. Even though I am not officially a member of Blood and Iron, I will oblige to her rightful words of law. Now as these bugs have stolen her land, it is my rightful duty to eradicate all of them. With that said in mind, I continued to wearily walk, searching for my next source of energy. I stalked through the hallways, encountering some armed yet unsuspecting prey, easily absorbing their soul to fuel my body.
After encountering and devouring another group of five, my CSG (Chaos Soul Gem) had finally powered up. After ambushing a few more groups of armed bugs, I had enough Soul Power to activate the other parts of the magically forged gem. Yet I have no time to waste, 10 hours is all I have left until I'll power down into stasis. But now I can convert newly taken Soul Power to other parts of my body, either storing it into powering my Chainsword or Jetpack. If both were full, I could just keep the Soul Power in my CSG to improve the energy in my power attacks or agility. But right now, I needed to stay alive and refuel, that was top priority.
After taking another turn, I found an unlocked door. I gently opened it to find over 50 fully grown Horse Bugs, all of them thankfully sleeping in makeshift beds as they were all bandaged in white wrapping. I have now dubbed them that, at least, until I learn their species’ true name. Even though they only reached to my waist, it was still a fitting name that I quite liked. I quietly and silently absorbed each one, doing my best not to wake the others as I increased my CSG power supply. I also began powering my Chainsword as I finished taking the last one. I then was about to walk out of the room's other door when I heard a group of hoofsteps marching towards that door. Quickly thinking, I saw a pile of discarded corpses of Black Knights. I quickly buried myself in the pile, covering myself as much as I could. I leaned my head towards the door as I left my body relax on the stone floor.
The doors then opened to reveal what looked like a group of 4 heavily armored guards, 6 normal ones that looked like caretakers I saw at the forge, and lastly one that looked like their leader. The leader was the tallest of them all as she could reach up to my helmet if counting the horn. She had a long dark gray mane with two strikes of purple and silver. The long mane was covering half of her face as I could see one of her eyes that had a shade of dull orange and purple. In fact, she was the first to actually have pupils in her eyes. She then spoke with an echoing voice that slithered a bit like an angry snake. I began to decode the language with my magic, quickly matching her emotions with the words.
"What happened to my children?!" She yelled as she caught sight of my work, the rest of them looked over one of many empty husks of their fallen. All of them dead without a trace of being one with the living.
"My Queen, they look as if they were dead for ages." Stated one of the heavily armed guards.
"I can see that! Tell me what happened and have whoever did this to my own, defenseless changelings, to burn at my knees!" She screeched. One of these "Changeling" Caretakers began to examine the corpses near me. Her eyes became jittery as he looked back at his queen with worry.
"Well?" The queen said, persisting the caretaker to speak. The caretaker in turn began to tremble before speaking.
"It s-s-seems whoever did t-this had not only k-k-killed them, but absorbed their b-body mass as energy. I can't even trace a single speck of magical area or any traces of magic that once existed in any of them. But there's something else that scares me my queen." The caretaker said, not wanting to tell the last bit of her analysis.
"Spit it out H-83029." She demanded in a much darker tone. The numbered Changeling gulped before finally speaking up.
"It seems that there is a lacking in the body itself. This changeling's very soul is... For lack of better words.... Stolen. If there is no soul in the body, then it can't magically recycle with the world's magic. It is like something literally stole their body, magic and soul." The Changeling Caretaker said, casing the Changeling Queen to go wide eyed with surprise. Then her gaze became of interest.
"I never knew of such a way to absorb energy from another being." She stated, the gears in her head turning and thinking in deep thought.
"But that's the thing my Queen! It is impossible to absorb the very magic and soul at this scale! I-I'm sorry my queen, but there are no spells that could simply do this. This is the workings of something of legends." She said as she began to rambling on. I could only chuckle mentally as I knew I was very capable of that and much, much more. If what I was told was the truth from my Queen, my CSG was nearly limitless in holding both soul power and magic.
"Guards! I want this monster found at once! Scan every corner for it! It must have not wandered off far. You, go alert mother and the rest of the army! Now!" She demanded, quaking fear into their hearts of her servants. Though I didn't feel it, it was obvious enough the way the Changelings acted around their leader. Time to give them a taste of true fear. I instantly powered up my body, burst out of the pile and charged. Before they could blink, I quickly grabbed two caretaker changelings and quickly absorbed their essence. The Changeling Queen took another moment to process in what was happening as I smashed and absorbed the other caretakers. By now, she had grasped the situation she was in and ordered her guards to attack.
"KILL IT!" She screeched, the guards charging on command. Two of the heavily armored guards charged with their spears in telekinesis grasp. As expected, all of the iron tipped spears slashed and bent away upon impact as not even a scratch was formed on the Chaos Metal. This Chaos Metal was forged in the heart of a volcano as the Draconic Lords fused powerful magical spells into the rare metal in its molten stage. Hardening it after they shaped each and every part in perfect form, it was ready to be polished and built. The guards were in shock as I merely grabbed one of them, crushing it's heavy blue armor like copper as I absorbed his soul. The other guard fared the same fate as I crushed his armor and back with my boot, squashing it like the bug it was.
"FIRE!" The Bug Queen shouted, the other two guards lowing their heads and pointing their glowing horns at me. In an instant, both released beams of deadly Greenfire magics at my chest. I merely raised my arms in defense, taking the full blast of magical power. After ten more seconds of green filling my vision, I could see the horror on their faces as I was completely untouched by their magic. The funny thing is, Chaos Metal was not only the strongest and rarest metal in the world, but had had a unique quality that only gold and silvers had. Chaos Metal was it's own form of metal of being unaffected by magic as a solid. In fact, any and all forms of magic have no damaging effect on the hardened Chaos Metal. It was not a resistant like gold or some silvers, but an absorbent of magical energy. While they were shooting deadly Greenfire, I was having a buffet of magical energy being fed directly to my CSG.
Though it does have it's failings as the armor could only take so much. If taking more magic it can hold and absorb, it becomes weaker to physical attacks. As I said, it was like a sponge, being dry, it is solid, but the more magical energy it absorbs, the weaker and softer it become. Thus making me not an invincible killing giant if I was overloaded with magic. It would be weaker and I would take actual damage. But the thing that make this battle easy for me, is that these Changelings are using Greenfire Magic in a offensive combat. Greenfire Magic is completely useless in most combat castings such as fire spells. In fact, it was only good for illusions and used mostly by skilled thieves. The armored guards were, if anything, bewildered and horrified at how I just took on their rays of green flames. My armor’s strength only lowering by 6% and steadily rising back to full strength.
But the queen, oh, she was steaming with anger as I saw her magic radiating off of her like a molten lava in the dead of winter. She began to scream in anger as she shot volleys of magical attacks at me, all being in Greenfire category. And so my armor was holding, but this time, weakening as her magical blast were much stronger than the others. Now at 80% and decreasing in strength as magic absorption increased, I finally got in a combat stance. She then summoned a greatsword of magical fire, illuminating flames of purple and orange. With a crazed look, she then charged at me, aiming her sword at my chest. Before I dodged her Spellbound Sword, an idea came to mind on how to show who was the top warrior. I quickly absorbed as much magic in my chest as I could, thus strengthening my chest armor to full.
I stood still like a mounted target, giving the impression that I was in fear. Since pride and greed already corrupted her judgment, she continued to charge like a bull. She then drove her sword into my hardened chest with her crazed glee still plastered on her face. That smug look soon turned to absolute shock as I stood strong over her, unaffected by her summoned blade. The magically made blade just melted around my chest armor as her Swordbound Spell falls apart into gooey substance as it quickly dried up into ash. I then transferred the extra power boost into my equipment as I grabbed my swords. Before she could stutter out the impossible, I spoken in the first time I had in thousands of years.
"My turn." I said in a deep rumbling tone as I drove my sword into her belly. She gasped, her eyes wide open and pupils turned into pinpricks. She looked down to see my hand holding the blade driven into her gut. She looked up at me with a plea of forgiveness, her eyes screaming for relief. Pain was scattered across her snout as she was gasping for air. Tears began dripping down her cheek, as her breathing became more of gasping than getting air. Lowered myself to her height, leaning my head to her ear.
"Pain day" I rasped into her ear, activating my Chainsword as it began to saw through and cut up her insides. She screamed out as I gutted and ripped apart her insides and lower half to shreds. I then quickly finished as I left her lower half a bloody mess of neon green and bits of mangled flesh. Her insides were mush as she started bleeding a river on the floor. Now, most would leave her there and take care of the two guards, but I wanted her power to fuel my body even more. The good thing about souls is that they don't leave a corpse right as they die, usually still connected with the dead as their body deteriorates with their soul. I grabbed her black head with my bone crushing hands, absorbing her magic and soul. I felt my body quickly power up as she had more magic than all of the souls I had feasted on combined. If anything, this bug queen had surpassed my biggest meal I have ever had. And that meal was a young hydra attacking a nearby village. I began to feel more and more power coursing through my wires, I felt, I feel...
Glimpses of the past, memories from the unknown flooded my mind as emotions swirled around my head. I felt... I felt anger, the ability to hate another with more than being my enemy. I felt sadness, how much this Changeling had suffered to get where she is. More and more emotions flooded in with the memories as images overlapping each other, like a never ending painting of the past. Names and numbers instantly rushed in my mind as I was still processing how this was happening. The most I could gather was a name, her name. Venom Shade, Sub-Queen Changeling of Queen... Gray Star. How much hatred she had for that name, sickening and wanting to strangle anyone who mention that name. A name that belonged to a monster that only desired to torture her foes and cared little on wasting her subjects lives. But Venom Shade became the monster she so desperately wanted gone. What began as hopes to kill the beast known as Queen Gray Star, ended in her becoming the enemy she so desired to vanquish.
I quickly shunned all of this worthless knowledge out as I began to organize my mind. Locations, enemies, dangers, area, all the important things to know. As I began to sort through the attained memories, I somehow shot some burning red and white magical fire from my fingertips. This motion accidentally engulfing the one of the still stunned guards until he simmered into crisp black ashes. I was confused on how did I just use magic as the other quickly ran away, alerting the others. I didn't even know how to cast any spells, yet I had just burned one of those bugs into the wind! But I quickly pushed those thoughts away as I began to absorb all of the heaving magic in my armor. Fighting and taking this Changeling Queen had brought my armor strength down to 50%. Still sorting out the Changeling's memories, I gave myself an objective to achieve. If I was going to rid my Queen's Land of these bug, it was best to take the heads rather than the regrowable tails of these snake like pests.
"Queen Gray Star! I, Golem of Blood and Iron, warrior of Queen Rin's rightful rule! You and your kin must die." With that said, I marched, ready to do what I was built for. This day was going to be forever remembered in history as the first of many crusades against the Changeling Hives.
Chapter 2: Awoken The Dead Part II
Queen Gray Star; a name to be recognized with utmost respect and to tremble in fear at its mention. She was one of the Twelve Changeling Queens, each one in charge of a segment of the Hive Empire. While she and the other eleven Queens are the strongest and wisest of all Changelings, they were mere representatives for the Hive, for they were obedient to the true rulers of the Hive Empire. The Royal Bloods or better known as a species as Bloodlings, are the dominant species of the Hive Empire. While Changelings feed on emotions and shape sifted, the Bloodlings were known to suck the blood out of anything with a beating heart. They were more related to spiders than equines as they possessed eight legs and had other noticeable features of an arachnid. The Royal Blood were the true rulers of the Hive, commanding and conquering most of islands of both southern and northern Luna Ocean. They had set and built bases in the south of Equestria, preparing to strike and take over the capital.
But Queen Chrysalis, young and cocky, failed as she was too naive for such an operation. Her failure came as she let pride get in the way. Thanks to her blinding pride, the Hive has lost many footholds in the south, quickly being driven back. While she still fought and put damages on the Equestrians, they were being driven back into the southern parts of the Luna Ocean. Gray Star was the last of the original three Queens of the invading south. They were in charge of the conquering the southern lands while the main forces invaded the major cities. But the northern invading forces were met with a battle ready Equestria. The Battle of Vanhoover became a bloodbath for the changelings, one out of every three changelings died in the surprise attack and fled. That is what she was informed until her communications were cut off completely.
Anything after the battle is completely unknown to her, strongly suggesting that they had been defeated or fled from the country. All of this thanks to a pride blinded Changeling. But at least Queen Gray Star got to order and watch her execution for failure. It was well known that she was always pleased to see the suffering of others. Whoever the victim may be, she basked in the taste of fear and agony and brought it to anyone who opposed her. But that wonderful time mattered little, for now she was at the breaking point of making life and death choices. Ever since the failed Invasion of Canterlot and the changeling massacre of Vanhoover, the southern Changeling forces were stranded with no communications or backup. The last of the southern Changeling forces had dropped from 26,000 battle strong to a beaten and disorganized band of 8,000 survivors.
The Gray Queen growled in anger as she continued weighing out her options. She had miraculously found these ancient ruins that held empty tombs as they were on the run. But now as her troops hunkered down in the tombs of ancient stone, they were surrounded and outnumbered by the Equestrian Knights. While the Equestrian Army was the main force fighting the Hive, they had spread out through the country to riddle out any spies with the Royal Guard. The Air Force and the Equestrian Navy had blocked out the main invading forces out of the country and into the Lunar Oceans. Since she is cut off from the main forces, she was stranded and left in the dark. This gave the Equestrian Army and the Equestrian Knights time to drive them back through the Badlands. It would be a survivable escape if it was just the Army, but with the Knights, it was complete suicide. The Equestrian Knights were basically unknown besides that they're the Elite Troops and Spec Op forces of the Princesses.
Gray Star let out a cold hiss. She was outnumbered three to one and with her dwindling band of sick and wounded changelings, it was looking very dark for them. Add that the enemy surrounding the ruins were far more skilled and better armed with more advanced weapons made this near impossible. She was trapped with no other way out but facing the Ponies head on and that was asking for a death wish. With these factors present, it was just a matter of time before her own changelings turned against her. But wouldn’t give up, she was the Wicked Queen, the most feared Changeling Queen of them all! And she never surrendered. Never kneeled down, never gave mercy, that was her only way. She would find a way to escape this, somehow, she will escape and reenact her vengeance. But that was soon dawning as being futile as all of her glory was doomed with the failed invasion. She was very stubborn, that indeed was true, but nowhere near being naive like Chrysalis. There was many reasons why she was at the top and known with fear across the Hive Lands.
But her pondering and planning was quickly cut short as she felt a disconnection. A disconnection with her new Sub Queen. While she was originally learning from a different Queen, they became temporarily alliance. Since the failure in Canterlot, they had no choice but to stick together for survival or simply die. She knew that Venom Shade had a very personal hatred towards her, but that was to be expected by the daughter of Bone Shade, a Changeling Queen that had too much power for her liking. Just like anyone she had deemed a foe from before, she played Bone Shade like a fiddle, succeeded in her demise and in turn gained more power. To her, it was just bringing down another opponent to fill her bottomless pit of greed. Since the Bloodling King came up with the plans to conquer Equestria, she took the challenge of invading the south. Her goal was to cut off ponies food and natural resources. She quickly shook her head, getting back on track. Venom had disconnected the magical link with her.
"Was this by accident? No, she is not that foolish, or she would have been dead a long time ago. But... A treachery to overthrow me? Seems like it at least for someone who hated me with all her being."
Yet, even though the idea was a believable answer, Venom Shade was smarter than this. If she indeed planned to take power, she would at least conceal her signature and make a decoy. While she was still in the makings of becoming a Queen, she was not naive like Chrysalis. If anything, Venom would want Gray Star's downfall displayed before the other Queens themselves, claiming vengeance for her mother. With these facts present, a mutiny being conducted now was completely unlike her. So why do I no longer sense my student? Why would she cut it off- The gray Changeling eyes widened with fright at the sudden realization that there was a massive army being highly skilled in infiltration and assassination missions. They must have snuck in through the underground tombs! She then quickly rose from her seat, it being an old throne made of stone. But before she could alert her able soldiers, one of Venom Shade's personal guards burst through the door and flopped onto the dusty stone floor.
"What's going on?!" She hissed, letting worry show in her tone of voice. The guard in turn quickly got up, not caring for formalities as he trembled in great fear. But she had a good taste for fear, and it was not of her presence. And that never happened. She could taste the fear of the unknown, yet equally frightening as her very self. The guard began mumbling, his mind ablaze with his emotions as flight or fight instincts were in overdrive. She then smacked the guard across the face, knocking some sense back into him.
"Speak up!" She demanded, shaking the frightened guard, bringing him fully back into reality.
"Queen! A monster of metal is attacking us! It was last sighted in the lowest levels of the tombs! It killed them all! It just shrugged off everything we threw at it! It just kept standing there, our magic is useless! We must leave my Queen!" He said, gripping her hoof and using his strength in pulling her. The Queen merely stood still as he desperately tried to drag her out as if his life depended on it.
"We must leave while we still breathe! It gutted Queen Venom Shade like an animal! We have to leave or face the same fate! NOW!" He demanded, managing to pull her a bit. But Gray Star just stared at him, his fear at heights only she had accomplished a few times in her life. She began to worry as panic began to grow within her. What ever this monster was, it was destroying her changelings and her chances of survival. The cries of battle were felt as she gulped dryly. Whatever was down there, it was able to kill a Changeling Queen and come out unscathed. But as she began to chose between to fighting or taking flight, the old stones below began to tremble like the Changeling before her. Metallic roars sounding like that of a feral beast, shook the very the ground as bloodcurdling screams could be heard, all throughout the tombs and out of the ruins. More screeches of pain echoed below as everything had finally succumbed to chaos.
"EVERY CHANGELING FOR THEMSELVES!" A lone Changeling shouted while running away, no sooner being crushed by a falling support beam. She then noticed that Venom's guard had long left her, joining the frenzy in escaping the collapsing tombs as the underground tunnels were caving in, trapping the ill and crushing the weak. These abandoned rooms were now to become her their tomb. She too was in the mind clogging gasp of panic, joining the frenzy of fleeing changelings. But unlike the others, Gray Star began throwing objects and stone out of the way, not caring if it hit or crushed any of the changelings behind her. She even went as far as shoving and knocking down changelings in her way. She charged up her magic and rammed through the old gates, escaping the sinking structures and caving underground tunnels. But even escaping the deadly ruins was not enough, for survival was once again at risk as one of the weaken walls began to collapse onto her.
She quickly dodged out of the way, managing to trip over a limping Changeling in bandages. She hit her head hard on the stone, casing a crack to appear on her forehead, fresh green blood dripping onto the dust. Sluggishly, Gray Star got back up, adrenaline kicking in once again as she got on all fours. She looked over at the fallen wall, surprised to find something from ancient past. There before her was a metal giant, covered in steaming neon green blood. It stomped through the rubble, grabbing a poor changeling caught underneath the rocks. The lone changeling struggled with all of her might, only to quickly be pulled out of the rubble and crushed in it's grasp. The changeling screeched like a Windigo as she began to shrivel up and decay away into bitter ash. The Queen herself gasped as she sensed the very magical energy and life force being brutally taken from the changeling. It gave no care as it's victim's body fell apart like black sand between its deathly cold metal fingers. Before it could give a glance at her, the metal killer was then struck with deadly blasting blots by four of her guard.
She felt some relief from panic as the guards began to relentlessly sending waves of green flames. That feeling however was then striped away as her heart pounded in pure shock. The beast was unharmed from the full blasts of the magical flames! She watched as flames merely danced and died upon mere contact with the thick metal. Responding to the changelings’ assault, it in turn raised and aimed its hand. The area was brightened as volt like strains of hellish lightning instantly engulfed the guards. But what happened next was completely unsuspected and beyond cruel. The once healthy changelings imploded and expanded like that of a water balloon. A bright hellish fire could be seen within them as their insides were burned away from within. As quickly as they expanded, they shriveled down to the bone, leaving only brittle husks of ash.
Their once organic bodies then collapsed like brittle sand upon the stone, turning into a small piles of bone like splinters and black sand. The Queen could only stare, the four's horrific death engraved into her mind. She, the Wicked Queen of Death, had never seen such brutal and terrifying deaths in her life. And she had seen hundreds of them and ordered far more. As she was bringing herself to run away from the death machine of legends, it slowly turned it's armored head at her. It's set of glowing red eyes filling any opposing foe with. The eyes alone hypnotised Gray Star into seeing flashes of the past. The wrongs she has done, the lies she's lived by, and the suffering she caused around her. It all came back, haunting her soul in one devastating blow. She couldn't move, as if her hooves were glued to the floor, she was at the mercy of a machine built by the changeling gods. It's only function to kill and reason to bring death. She then heard a rasp of metal, echoing throughout her mind, sending fear all around being.
"The sins that dwell in darkness, now be brought into the holy light. I bring judgment upon your soul." The voice of the machine echoed throughout her mind, seeing her sins displayed like an organised art. Gray Star trembled as her mind and soul was not even safe from this created monster.
"Several thousand accounts of murder, torture, thievery, and unfair judgment. Plotting and committing countless of crimes against The Hive Empire. Several accounts of mass genocides of both innocent civilians and prisoners. You have broken nearly all of the Sentient Life Rights and Laws. Wrongful endangerment and wrongful treatment of both unjustly treated civilians and soldiers. And finally a dozen's worth of war crimes committed against the Equestrian Kingdom and her ponies." It stated, summarizing the basics of her countless crimes and unforgettable wrongs.
"For committing such unacceptable acts, I bring judgment onto your wretched soul..." it said, Gray Star knowing her end was all but near. She then began regaining her vision once again. She looked up to see the metal giant right in front of her, looking down at her with those hellish red and ghastly white eyes.
"Judgment and Punishment is done." It stated out loud as it began to walk away. Gray Star could only blink in total confusion. What happened? What did it do to her?
"What?" She whispered, not understanding how she avoided her obvious death sentence. But something didn't felt quite normal about her as a whole. She looked down at her hooves only for her eyes to go wide. She was hovering right above a corpse of changeling that looked exactly like herself.
"What... What did you do to me!" She screeched, but no sounds came out of her mouth. She tried speaking again, then started screaming, yet no sound could be heard. She couldn't hear her own voice. "What is happening?!" She thought, panic gripping around her already crazed mind.
"If you are still there changeling, I have cursed you into the Divide. Now you are permanently trapped between the realms of magic and reality. Forever, you are now a dying spirit, unable to come back to the mortal realm or transcend into the stars. You will never feel a ones love, never have the comforts of another, and never again will you harm another." He said, shocking the Changeling Queen to the core. Enraged, she charged at him, horn aimed and anger passed the boiling point. The metal demon then spoke once again, unfazed and unaffected.
"In the Divide, you will forever suffer the never ending imprisonment until you finally fade away with madness. But before I take my leave, remember this very well changeling. Just like the countless lives you leave in ruin, you are nothing. Once a mightily queen, but now you are the same to your people. Nothing." He stated as he watched what little resistance of the changelings had escaped the crumbling city. But most weren’t destined to make it far as they were being chased by armored Pegasi. The rest of them was shot down by skilled archers.
"You are now but a tear and stain in the books of time. Worthless and forgettable. Goodbye." He finished, leaving the trapped changeling to rot away. In due time, she will be consumed with madness and perish. But for now she would suffer for maybe a hundred up to a thousands years of insanity before she faded away from existence. As she was trapped in the Divide, she had no possible way to ever be saved or communicate with another in any way. Dooming the changeling to eternal loneliness seemed fitting to Golem. For such a sinful and uncaring life, she needed much more than a simple quick death. Since she had caused so pain much to so many, it was time she reaped what she sewed. But with justice done, it was time the Golem faced this new world. Although his old one was forgotten, he still lived and represented what he was built for.
"Time to meet the newly evolving life." He rasped, taking a good look of the area before making his way out, ready for first contact. But before Golem began walking, the floor began to rumble once again. Before the machine understood what was happening, the whole place began to sink.
"Bolters..." And thus, came the full destruction and sinking of the ancient city.
General Crossfire, one of the many generals of the immortal princesses sat in the war room. Crossfire was an intelligent and gifted mare, her skills mostly applying in magic to use multiple swords at once in combat. Unlike the other generals or high commanders, she was not mare born of nobility, thus making her military roles doubted and more judged than they should be. And thanks to them, she is stuck in this damn dessert of a wasteland. She was as strong as she was brilliant, ready to push back the changelings and prove her worth. Now Crossfire faced the obstacle of rooting out the enemy from this makeshift fort. She was in the war room, it being no more than a big tent with a table holding maps of the area and battle planes. She was looking over the map, the terrain of the dead land was brutal for both sides to fight in.
Fortunately, she had the upper hoof over these changelings. With an army three times larger and trained with skill intended to kill, she was sure to win. But the changelings had their hooves on high ground. They had set camp in the ruins which were on higher grounds. Add that they had hunkered deep down into the ruins was another problem to deal with. She could order full scale attack, her chances of winning were already high as it was and she would win with her numbers. That, however, would end in too many pointless deaths, so she planned to starve them out until they were too weak to fight back. So it was only a matter time until she would conquer these bugs and get all of her troops out alive with honor. And yet, after three days of using siege tactics on the changelings, politics had somehow found their way to make things harder than they were. These unknown ruins were said to go back beyond the princesses or any known recordings of Ponykind. And so they wanted the old structures intact to study it. So using all forms of destructive siege weapons were now temporarily banned from being used. Oh what a joy!
"Damn these nobles! We’re at war with a bloodthirsty shape-shifting race and they want us to do as little damage as possible! What's next? Ban overly sharp swords?! We might as well be beating them with pillows now!" She thought, cursing like a sailor under her breath. Oh how she hated the political structure of Equestria. But that is how the country works and she had little power to change that. Crossfire grumbled angrily as she calmed herself down, trying to think of something different. Something that doesn't infuriate her even more.
Crossfire had been informed about the rumors spreading among her troops. Some saying that this ancient fort was built by aliens, others believing that it was a Changeling Hive, and other nonsense. But based on what she got directly from Celestia herself, it was a totally different and near unbelievable story. The Sun Goddess herself said that these ruins have been built in a time long forgotten and unknown. A time where Draconequi and other long lost races ruled the world. The general had no other useful information besides the possibility that it could hold weapons of mass destruction. The ruin could also hold an ancient power like the Crystal Heart, or even a hellish gateway leading to Tartarus. If the royal scroll said anything, it was to expect the unsuspected and prepare to either fight or run. She was brought back from her deep thoughts as Shocker Storm, her good friend, rushed in with excitement on his face and out of breath.
"I take it we have good news?" She asked as the tired pegasus stallion began getting his breathing under control.
"The ruins are falling apart and sinking with mountain. All of the changelings are fleeing!" he said, grabbing her forearm and dragging her out, showing a sight to behold. Off in the distance, there were small swarms of black in the sky, scattering in every direction. At first glance, it looked like they were preparing to attack. But that was proven wrong as they were scattered in every direction and not bothering to attack. She then quickly understood why this was happening. The ruins themselves were, as Shocker said, falling apart and sinking into the earth. It was slowly being swallowed into the ground, taking the whole structure underneath.
But there was a big problem that came with the sudden collapse of the fort. The mountainside it connected to also gave way, following the same path. Acres and acres of the the dry mountainside began to sink into the new Canterlot sized hole. The Troops in the front and outer rims of army were doing their best to kill as many escaping changeling as possible. But the cataclysm size of an earthquake had shook the very ground with might, sending all forces on ground off of their hooves. But as the mountainside filled up the hole, it formed a huge towering avalanche of dust. And it was heading their way, fast. Very fast.
"TAKE COVER!!!" Crossfire ordered, amplifying her voice with magic. But it was quickly becoming obvious that they were helpless against the storm to come. The entire destruction and sinking of the ruins and mountainside caused a huge tsunami-size wave of a dust, heading directly at the camps of pony soldiers. Crossfire began shouting at her troops to seek shelter as she herself hid in the war room tent. The storm of thick dust and shrapnel stone hit them hard, tearing up tents and wiping the base off of the map. Everypony was scattered into the strong wave of wind and buried under, most of them already doomed to a sudden and bitter death.
