Titan's Arcology

by pushi

Rating: teen
Tags: Destiny, Fluttershy, Science Fiction, Adventure, Violence, Crossover, Death, Twilight Sparkle, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Alternate Universe, Rainbow Dash
Length: 10563

Thirteen Guardians were sent to explore the Golden Age arcology on the distant moon of Titan. None returned. Twilight Sparkle and two close friends investigate after discovering that the truth behind the missing Guardians had been covered up.

The City is still recovering, and fragments of the Red Legion are scattered across the solar system. In the aftermath of the Red War, however, the exploits of the pony race's most dangerous enemy on a distant moon have gone unnoticed.

Twilight Sparkle unearthed details of a failed mission to survey the abandoned New Pacific Arcology and so brought together two close friends in order to investigate. Is this a simple case of the Hive exercising their unstoppable thirst for Light? Or is something more sinister brewing beneath the waves of Titan?

Published 2020-07-18 08:40:00 UTC
Last updated 2020-07-18 08:40:00 UTC

Entryway

“In their cosmic worlds of paracausality and impossibility, the Hive do not distinguish between a word and its meaning. Take the Deathsinger, for example. She sings of death, and lo, death befalls all who listen. The constructions inside their netherworlds are formed of hundreds and hundreds of words, permuted in such a way, that when they are spoken, these creations are formed. It is these paradigms of unimaginable power that the Ascendant Hive use to crush any and all incursions upon their thrones. We can rest assured knowing that for the Hive to manifest this power in the material world would take an impossible amount of energy - an amount unachievable with the use of Darkness alone.” - Excerpt from the journal of Toland, the Shattered.

Date: 5/1/2788, approx. 4 months since Red Legion incursion into Sol.

The three ships soared a hundred meters over the surface of Titan. The black ocean below, stormy and thrashing, tossed its liquids up into the air as a gargantuan tail slammed itself upon the waters before eluding beneath the waves. Fluttershy, sat in the cockpit of her ship far above, shuddered.
“Scared?” asked her Ghost, a hint of amusement in his robotic tone.

“No,” she lied serenely, “but I’m thinking. Of them. And of Zavala.” Her Ghost sighed.

“I just can't believe he’d make the decision to abandon a squadron of our own to the Hive. I don't want to even think about it, all of them down there in the dark, getting their Light eaten one by one-” The radio tucked into Fluttershy’s chest pocket buzzed with static, and she scrambled to grab it and hold it against her ear. Twilight’s voice came through, the sound soothing the yellow mare - as it always did.

“We’re turning to the left, girls. Keep close.”

Fluttershy laid down the radio, and glanced to her right, noting the position of the rainbow striped ship beside her, then focusing her attention ahead, towards Twilight’s ship. She mimicked the vessel’s movement, swerving hard to the left. Over the horizon, the enormous oval shape of the Arcology swam into view.

Twilight flicked the switch beside her seat, and felt the familiar jolt at her navel as the electronic display before her faded, and a blast of cold wind hit her face, forcing her to raise a hoof to shield herself from the gust. The feeling of the seat beneath her vanished, and she slowly glided downwards, her hooves coming to a rest against icy metal. Slowly, she lowered the hoof from her face.

She stood at one end of a broken, cracked bridge. Metal supports poked out of it at odd angles like dislocated bones, and tiles had been long since torn off its surface by the storm. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy landed beside her, their manes wild, being blown about just like hers by the wind, as their ships took flight back into the atmosphere. Looming far above them, at the other end of the bridge was a gigantic structure that stretched high into the sky and far across the ocean to the left and right.

At the very top of the Arcology, a gigantic green mass spread from the glass ceiling, forming fetid, chitinous-fleshy tendrils that sunk deep into the ocean. Twilight clenched her jaw. The Hive. Like Luna’s precious Moon, another haven of ponykind turned to ruin by their foul clutches. She turned either side of her to look at Rainbow and Fluttershy. Fluttershy looked determinedly forwards, wings spread wide, her stalwart stance more akin to the that of a Titan’s, rather than a Hunter’s, while Rainbow Dash was staring at the dark entrance to the Arcology across the bridge with apprehension, her wings tucked meekly beneath her cloak.

“We’d best get going.” said Twilight at last, stepping forwards. “Let’s get in there.” She started to run, the two pegasi following close behind. She floated across a jagged gap in the bridge, and the trio stepped silently into the Arcology.

“This place used to be the pinnacle of Golden Age technology.” Twilight explained as they traversed the decrepit halls of the Arcology, “A floating city in the middle of Kraken Mare, with a thousand methane reactors to keep everything powered for millennia! I suppose ponies must have lived happy lives here, before the collapse.” They walked through onwards, and found themselves in a twisted corridor overgrown with plantation. Light shone through a broken window onto Twilight’s face, and the artificial sounds of wildlife echoed all around, bouncing off the curved walls.

“It’s amazing there’s still life here.” said Twilight, touching the petals of a blooming flower, and taking in its exotic scent, “what with the Hive’s control over this place.” Fluttershy nodded vigorously.

“I guess it really goes to show that the Light really does shine in the most unexpected of places.” she giggled gently. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, stomping past her.

“Cut the cheesy crap Fluttershy.” she snorted. “Let’s just find these missing Guardians and get out of here. I can't stand this place.”

Twilight ears suddenly pricked up, and she froze. She had heard something. It was faint and distant; she wasn't sure exactly what it was.

“Stop.” she said, holding out a hoof to pause Rainbow Dash. “Do you hear that?” Rainbow too stood stock still.

“Yeah, I do. Sounds like-”

“It sounds like screaming!” came a panicked yell from Fluttershy behind them. Twilight was sure of it now.

“Come on!” she said, breaking into a run towards the sound, Fluttershy and Rainbow in hot pursuit alongside her. It grew louder and louder, until she could make out the words and tone that the pony spoke. It was a male voice, ripe with terror, coming from a room up ahead.

“Let go of me!” the voice shouted. “I swear, if you try to-” His words were suddenly cut short as a terrible scream erupted, and moments later that too fell silent. Twilight pressed on, but suddenly skidded to a halt. She had just rounded a corner, and come face to face with a translucent wall of darkness, completely blocking the way forwards. Twilight leaped back, her muzzle scorched painfully by Hive arcana.

“A barrier.” she grunted, teeth gritted. “There’s got to be a power source nearby.”

“Well, this crystal looks like a power source.” came Fluttershy’s voice. Twilight whirled around, and saw her standing beside a large purple glowing crystal, hidden from view by a wall that had rendered it invisible from the angle in which they had entered. Twilight approached it and inspected its jagged edges and pulsating core, before pulling out Spike.

“I can sense something familiar about this crystal, Spike.” Twilight said, “any idea what it is?” Spike the Ghost scanned the crystal, and Twilight recognized an expression of great surprise on his display.

“Void Light.” he replied, sounding as surprised as he appeared. “They’re using Void Light to fuel this barrier.”

“What?” gasped Twilight. “How in the Traveler’s name can that be?” She leaned in closer to the crystal, eyes wide, but right then - smash! A pair of cyan hooves bucked hard against it, cracking the purple rock right down the middle. Twilight leaped back again, startled, glaring at Rainbow Dash.

“Rainbow!” she said, annoyed. “I was inspecting that!” The rainbow maned mare turned angrily to face Twilight.

“Do you think I care? No!” she hissed. Twilight was taken aback at the sharpness of her friend’s response.

“Rainbow, I didn't mean-”

“I don't want to hear it!” she snapped, jabbing a hoof into Twilight’s chest. “The last thing we need right now is for you to get distracted! There’s a stallion who could be dying out there, and twelve others! We've got to find them! Now come on!” Rainbow started to run through the now unobstructed corridor opposite the crystal, Fluttershy close behind her, and a dejected Twilight bringing up the rear.

Rainbow rounded a corner and skidded to a halt. Twilight and Fluttershy stopped, then slowly made her way forwards. In front of her was what once must have been a corridor, but could now only be described as a nest. The floors, walls and ceilings were covered with the chitinous masses of the Hive’s infestation, leaving the remaining space cramped and uncomfortable. Thick, slimy bodies writhed and squirmed along the ground and in the walls, their black skins pulsating unnaturally. Twilight stared. She had never seen an area infested this bad. Not in the Skywatch - not even aboard Oryx’s Dreadnaught. This was something else. Something far more fetid and vile than the King’s brood. Rainbow Dash eyed the tight entrance to the nest like it was a slug she had stepped on.

“Do we have to go through there?” she asked, her muzzle wrinkled. Twilight exhaled.

“Of course we do. That stallion wasn't in the room with the crystal, so he must be just through here. If we get there quick, there’s still a chance we can save his Light before the Hive - well, you get the idea.”

She faced the entrance to the nest, took a deep breath, and stepped forwards. She was at once hit with the most putrid smell that had ever crossed her senses. It was terribly acrid, and it burned her nostrils as she inhaled. It stunk like a combination of gas and feces and urine slathered over a rotting corpse that had been cooked in a furnace.

It took every fiber of Twilight’s being to stand against the smell. She felt the vomit rise up her throat, and gagged. She then made the mistake of imagining the smell with vomit mixed in, and gagged again, this time her mouth opening. She shut it quickly, and resisted the urge to throw up. She had to keep going, to move faster, otherwise, one of the Guardians she set out to save would be devoured by the murderous Hive.

The smell continued to assault her from all angles. She felt horribly indecent as she stumbled forwards, head bowed to avoid scraping her delicate horn on the ceiling, and trodding on the slimy, slippery bodies of the black worms at her hooves and at her head, that dangled like the feelers of a great star-nosed mole from within the crusted mass that surrounded her. Her head was pounding, and her breaths were coming in shorter and shorter bursts.

She glanced behind her, and saw Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, each with similar expressions of sickness and disgust. She turned back to staring at the ground at her hooves, navigating around the slithering worms on the ground. The tunnel, or corridor, or whatever it was seemed to stretch on forever. The urge to collapse on the ground in a pool of her own vomit and just die, right there was rising, but Twilight quickly shook such thoughts out of her head. She was sweating horn to hoof, her robes covered in filth and worm residue, though they were never particularly clean anyway.

The experience was too horrible, and it seemed never ending, but at last, she emerged out of the tunnel, into a bright, wide corridor. She threw herself onto the cold, hard ground, blessing the fresh air that she inhaled through her tainted nostrils. She gasped and gasped, trying to take in as much as she could, to cleanse her system of the blight she had inhaled. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy emerged soon after, gasping and retching just like her. They sat for a moment, recovering themselves.

“That was awful.” Rainbow Dash groaned, attempting to wipe her mane clean of slime. "Good thing Rarity's not with us, huh?" Twilight nodded.

At that moment, a dreadful scream rent the air between the ponies.

Twilight had never heard a mare scream like that in her life.

Animosity

Rainbow Dash was hyperventilating. Fluttershy was trembling, eyes popping. Twilight’s mouth still hung open in shock.

They had been powerless to save her. All they could do was watch in horror through the barrier as that towering demon had seized the poor mare with invisible claws, and jammed her into that wretched, crystalline cocoon. The screaming had been unbearable. She had clearly undergone massive pain as her body was contorted so that it fit into the crystal. The sight still lingered in Twilight's mind. Ponies weren't supposed to bend that way. The shrill sound still echoed too. The worst part was when their eyes had met.

It was only for a second, before the purple rock had enveloped her entirely, but in that instant, Twilight felt worse than she had ever felt in her life. When those brilliant, beautiful green eyes had met Twilight’s purple irises, she knew that she had failed. For the first time, she hadn't been able to prevent a death, when the one whom she could have saved was mere meters away. She cursed herself. Why couldn't she destroy that barrier? She threw everything she had at it, before collapsing of exhaustion on the worm-ridden ground, only capable of watching as the horrific scene unfurled.

That beast that had done it. That shadowy, dancing witch that swam through the air. It was unlike any other Hive Wizard Twilight had encountered before. It had seemed almost aware of the suffering it was causing to the poor pony it had murdered. It sang as it killed her, laughing a horrible, shrieking laugh, its purple, glowing horns shining with Darkness. Twilight couldn't understand. Normal Wizards didn't act like that. Not even other Wizard generals of the Hive did things even close to that. Twilight could sense a difference with the Wizard, but she couldn't quite put her hoof on what exactly it was.

She glanced over at her friends, who had calmed themselves at last. Rainbow Dash was staring at the ground, and Fluttershy sat with her, rubbing her back comfortingly. Twilight knew why she was so upset. She had failed too. There was nothing she took harder than the loss of a fellow a Guardian. Brought up under the eye of Shaxx, the companionship she held for her fellows was unrivaled. Fluttershy too, looked glum, but not to the extent of Rainbow. She stared absently at a blooming petal as she massaged the cyan pegasus, avoiding Twilight’s eye, but she eventually got to her hooves.

“I think we should leave.” Fluttershy said. “Before any of us get - before that Wizard finds us.” Twilight looked to her.

“The Wizard won't attack us three on one, and Thrall aren't a problem for us. Didn't you see it after it - did what it did? It caught sight of us, and straight up vanished. I think we should try and track it down ourselves. I don't think we should just let a Wizard with this kind of power be allowed to live.”

Rainbow too got to her hooves, nodding.

“We’re going to find that bitch. And make her pay.” she growled, wiping away an angry tear from her eye.

At that very moment, the radio tucked under Twilight’s robes buzzed, and a voice came through, sounding panicked and urgent. She hastened to pull it out, and held it to her ear.

“Hello?” she cried. “Hello? Can you hear me? Don’t worry, we’re coming for you! Just hang tight and-”

“Twilight? What the hell are you talking about?” Twilight paused, the voice not what she had expected. It was not the panicked, distressed voice of a Guardian in peril, but instead, the deep voice of Commander Zavala. It did however, sound muffled, and was the sound of a yelling crowd almost drowning it out.

“Doesn’t matter, Twilight, we need you right now! They’re swarming me! Get to the tower plaza immediately, and come take some of them off me!” Horror flooded into Twilight’s mind, and she collapsed on the ground in despair. An attack on the Last City. One that had breached the Tower itself. Just when she had thought they would safe. She hadn’t told anyone of their unsanctioned mission. And now, Twilight was useless to them, just like she had been to that mare. Trembling, she spoke again.

“Who’s attacking?” she managed to whisper.

“Surely you’ve heard them! These blasted foals! They all want autographs!”

Twilight froze, barely daring to believe what she was hearing. The unfathomable despair she had just felt began to shift into something else, as her brain processed what she had just heard. Slowly, she got up, clutching the radio in her still shaking hooves. This was what Zavala was doing then. While Twilight and her team crawled around a forsaken rig in the middle of a methane ocean, searching for a lost party of thirteen Guardians, Zavala, the commander of those lost there - was calling her for help with childrens’ autographs.

Then, the anger that had been building up in her burst free in a shriek of rage, and she flung the device to the ground, where it collided with the ground, smashing into a thousand pieces.

“That idiot!” she screamed. “That cowardly, lazy, worthless bastard!” She stomped the radio with all her might, head pounding with anger. Her hooves hit the edge of a sharp rock, and she tripped over, the pain only angering her further. She prowled up and down the room, head bowed, fuming. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy stared at her, concern evident in their wide eyes. Fluttershy began,

“Twilight, you-”

“Quiet!” she shouted suddenly, rounding on the yellow pegasus, her fury overtaking her. “I don’t want to hear any useless thing you have to say! All you've done these past months is whimper and cry and say: ‘oh, the Light makes everything okay’ - wrong! You’ve always been with a team! You don’t know what it’s like to fight alone! You wouldn’t last an hour outside the city without somepony to ‘save’ you every time a Dreg crawls out of its hole!” Fluttershy had curled up in fright of Twilight, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. Twilight's nostrils flared as she gazed down at the pathetic sight. "How you ever became part of our team is beyond me." she spat.

Rainbow leaped forwards furiously in between the pair, cutting Twilight off before she could continue her verbal barrage.

“Calm down!” Dash shouted, holding a hoof against the purple alicorn. “This isn’t what we need right now! We’ve got to work together. Please, Twilight. Just focus on rescuing those Guardians.” There was a moment when it seemed Twilight would oblige Rainbow’s plead. Her purple eyes had flashed with guilt at the sight of her friend’s misery, but she shook that feeling away. The anger she felt towards the Hive, towards Zavala, and towards herself at her failure would not be abated so quickly.

“That’s rich.” Twilight spat, stepping forwards, forcing her muzzle dangerously close to Rainbow’s, “coming from the mare who used to do nothing but kill other Guardians!” Rainbow Dash sighed.

“Come on Twi, that isn’t fair. You’ve been in the Crucible before. It’s a training exercise. Nothing else.” Twilight let out a harsh, mirthless cackle.

“A training exercise? Oh, don’t make me laugh. Installing illegal modded hilts for your blades so you get an unfair advantage? Sat there with Cayde, discussing tournaments and throwing around your Glimmer over matches? Getting drunk, and running around Starlight Gap, throwing axes at everypony you see? You call that training?” Twilight stepped even closer, closing the gap between their faces completely.

“You know what?” she hissed, her voice trembling with poorly suppressed rage. “You’re more lazy than Zavala. When you’re not wasting your time on mindless games, you’re either sleeping or eating. At least he does something worthwhile for the City, even if it's only organization, but you - all you do is swagger around the Tower, thinking you’re so amazing because of your pointless games! Why don’t you just go back to your Crucible, since you don’t give a damn what happens here!”

Rainbow’s nostrils flared in indignation, but Twilight turned her back on the cyan mare, and sprinted off, leaving her stood in the center of the cracked room, breaths heavy with anger.

“Twilight!” cried Fluttershy, “come back!” But the purple tail had vanished behind a corner, and Rainbow Dash did not follow after her.

Arcform

Twilight felt she was deeper into Hive territory than she had ever been before. Even the Threshold, the apex of Hive operations aboard the Dreadnaught seemed nothing compared to this. Here, in the abandoned Arcology, surrounded by worms and filth, she was completely alone, save for her Ghost. She had encountered more of those crystals, full to the brim of Void Light. She hesitated before she had smashed them, knowing that inside each one were the disintegrated remains of the Guardians she sought to have rescued.

She found, through Spike’s scans, that the crystals were nodes in a network of Void Light, running deep through the Arcology. Twilight still didn’t understand, though. Why did the Hive need all that power? What were they using it for?
Once Twilight’s curiosity had faded into solemn loneliness, she came to realize her mistake. The silence between her and Spike had been awkward the entire time. She knew that he thought she had acted completely irrationally, and wasn’t about to think or say otherwise. Now that she was back to being alone again, and the whispers of the shadows that had so often taunted her when prowling Hive territory begun again in her ears, she was wholeheartedly regretting her previous actions. She could only hope that Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were okay.

Twilight swallowed. She would not stop until she found them again and apologized for the things she had said.

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy walked in silence. It had been a shock to Fluttershy that Twilight had lashed out at her in such away, but she felt more worried about her friend than she did sorry for herself. Twilight had ran, and Rainbow Dash had decided not to follow her down the twisting halls. After she had gone, Fluttershy made to chase after her, but Rainbow had held her back.

“I’m sure the great Twilight Sparkle can handle anything the Hive have.” she had snorted, but Fluttershy was still afraid for her. The Hive here were toying with powers never before seen by the City, and Fluttershy, despite her lack of knowledge about the creatures, knew that being alone in an unexplored place without any form of communication with the worst fate imaginable lurking behind every corner was as good as suicide.

The pair emerged out of a tight corridor into an enormous opening. They stood on a platform overlooking what must have been the entire Arcology. Far, far below them was a city, with sprawling buildings and skyscrapers reaching high up towards the sky stormy sky. A maze of roads curled in between the white houses, and dazzling neon lights shone brightly in amongst them. There was a gigantic lake in the very middle, surrounded by sprawling forests that stretched to the very edges of the cavernous place. Far above them, the huge domed roof was cracked and broken in the center, the hazy yellow-brown Saturn partially visible through it.

But even from this immense distance, the hold that the Hive had taken over what was once a bastion for ponykind was visible. The trees that surrounded the lake were long dead and blackened, and the water of the lake itself was dark and murky. Chitinous tumors spread along the towering walls and crawled their way across the buildings, snaking their way around skyscrapers, blocking and uprooting concrete on the roads, corrupting the once thriving and beautiful city with ugly infestation.

Fluttershy gazed at the scene, watching, and thinking of what life must have been like here before the Collapse. She imagined the trees, bright green and ripe with life. The lake, blue as the sky, full of boats and swimmers and fish. The roads, packed with busy ponies, going about their daily lives, completely ignorant of the fate that would soon befall them.
She jumped slightly when Rainbow tapped her on the shoulder.

“Are you okay, Flutters?” she asked. Fluttershy nodded.

“I'm fine.” she replied, turning away to continue onward. At that moment, Fluttershy’s Ghost leaped into view at her side, speaking urgently.

“I'm detecting a broadcast.” he spoke. “From up ahead.” Fluttershy gasped.

“Twilight?” she asked, holding her breath, eyes widened hopefully.

“No.” he replied shortly, “it’s missing her tag. I don't know who exactly it is, but it’s encoded with Vanguard headings, so it must be one of the missing Guardians!” Fluttershy withdrew her radio, and her Ghost tapped into it. The pair listened closely to the radio, but all they could hear was static.

“Hang on.” her Ghost said, “I’m tuning it.” The static faded slightly, to be replaced by garbled syllables mixed together, the audio mess no more decipherable than before. Rainbow Dash took the device and spoke into it, as the noise on the other end became slightly clearer.

“Hello? Who’s there? We're here to rescue you!” Rainbow shouted down the microphone. A loud sigh of relief was audible from the other end.

“Rescue me? Oh, thank goodness!” came a grateful voice from the radio. “I thought there was no one coming! I've been hiding down here for hours!” Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash shared identical expressions of exhilaration. There was still someone alive down there!

“Hold tight!” Rainbow said, pulling out her own Ghost. “Trace the origin.” she commanded. The little Light obliged, floating ahead of them, leading the way forwards as they sprinted through the maze-like halls.

“We’re on our way!” Rainbow reassured the mare, still clutching Fluttershy’s radio under one of her wings. “We’ll get you out of here.”

“Thank you so much,” came the voice again. “It’s so awful down here. I just want to get back to the Tower and meet up with my friends. Have you found any of them yet?”

Rainbow winced. She had always preferred to be blunt, and if it had been anyone else, she would have told the truth: that this was the only broadcast they had detected, and that the rest of the Guardians sent to the Arcology had been turned into mashed up piles of Void Light, but there was such a childlike naivety in the mare’s voice, which caused the words to clog up in Rainbow’s throat. She could tell from it that mare was young, and perhaps had only recently Risen. In her mind, she cursed the Hive for causing such pain and suffering to her fellow ponies, especially ones as young as her.

Monsters, she thought. All of them.

“We haven’t seen any of them,” Rainbow spoke at last, “but they can’t be far. We’ll find them.”

The pair rounded a corner, and came face to face with a nest of Thrall. They raised their ugly, grey heads from the pile of bones on which they had been feeding and rushed her, claws outstretched, and shrieking. Rainbow drew her blade and cut them down effortlessly, their ashes erupting from their disintegrated bodies and falling to the ground. She suddenly realized that these were the first Hive she had actually encountered here since entering the Arcology apart from that Wizard earlier. Was its festering population concentrated at a specific point? Or were they occupied with other pursuits?

The filly spoke again through the radio, her voice sounding hesitant.

“The Hive here are strange,” she said. “There’s a Wizard here with purple horns, and a massive shrieker, but it looks asleep. I'll go and deal with it.” Rainbow’s stomach lurched at her words.

“Don't!” she said sharply, speeding up her run. “Stay hidden. Wait for us to arrive, and for the Traveler’s sake, do not let that Wizard see you!” Rainbow knew she had frightened the filly with what she had said, but she had to make sure that she didn't endure the same fate that had befallen her friends, of which she was so unaware.

“We’re close.” came the voice of Rainbow’s Ghost, just up ahead. “Only a few hundred more meters.” Rainbow nodded, and raised the radio to repeat the message to the mare.

“We’re a couple hundred meters away. We’ll be there any minute now, you got that?”

No response came from the tiny device.

Twilight stared in awe at what she was looking at. She had found her way to the deepest part of the Arcology, and here, at last, she found answers. The chamber in which she stood was incomprehensibly huge. The Hive infestation covered everything around her, but this did not disgust her as much as it once had. Far, far in the distance, she could see through enormous windows into the murky waters of the Kraken Mare, and the outlines of dark, twisted shapes swimming through it. Her eyes, however, were locked on something gigantic hovering directly in front of her, just above the ground.

It bobbed ever so slightly up and down in the air, but she knew it was dormant. The crooked shape and black, rocky texture was unmistakable to Twilight. It was a Shrieker, a magic construction build from pure Hive arcana, and one of this size could only mean one thing. A summoning ritual. Something glowing caught her gaze, and she forced her eyes away from the gargantuan Shrieker to look at yet another crystal, located at its base, obscured by a rock sticking out of place. This then, was the reason that the Hive had siphoned the Light of Guardians. To use it as a power source to fuel this ritual. Twilight looked up at the Shrieker once again, not wanting to fathom the unimaginable horrors that the Hive could pull into the world with a Shrieker as big as this. It had to be destroyed, but to get at its vulnerable core, she would have to force it to awaken. First, however she had to break the crystal at its base.

Maybe, she thought as she stepped forwards, drawing her blade. Maybe we’ve destroyed enough crystals down here to sever Hive’s power supply.

A spark of hope shot through her, but was quickly extinguished. She had forgotten that it wasn't just this group of Guardians that had fallen to the Hive here. There had been many more casualties, back when only she had her powers. So many dead Guardians. So many crystals. She approached the glowing rock, and as she knew she must, Twilight readied to strike, holding her blade high over her head. She willed Light to act upon her blow, but right then, a cacophony of dreadful shrieks rent the air. She backed away from the crystal and the Shrieker, as Hive began to emerge from all angles. Thrall clawed their way out of the ground, rocks cracked open with an ear splitting crunch, and Acolytes leaped out, brandishing their weapons. Spike emerged, trembling.

“I think this is an ambush, Twi,” he stuttered. One of the approaching Thrall stretched out its razor-sharp claws, and jumped towards Twilight, poised to rake them down her face.

She dashed aside, slicing it to the ground in one swift motion, but more of the faceless demons took its place. She backed up, hurling a Void grenade towards a group of Acolytes who were bombarding her position with starfire. They exploded in a bloom of purple, their bodies disintegrating before they even hit the ground, and she charged the hoard of Thrall head on, swinging and slicing away with her sword. The blade tore through their crusted skin, and the blasts of Light she threw in whenever she had the chance burst thick holes through their bodies. Despite her constant flow of slaughter, it seemed that the more she killed, the more that would burst from their burrows and rush her head on, murder the only thing in their minds.

The onslaught was not the worst she had encountered from the Hive, but after minutes of hacking and punching and shooting the endless river of grey death that would sweep her away at the slightest mistake, her muscles began to ache, longing for reprieve, and her exhausted brain was pounding with lack of oxygen.

Schlick! Twilight let out a yelp of pain as she felt sharp claws plunge themselves into her side, ripping through the skin at the base of her throat. She stumbled backwards, throwing off the beast that clung to her, but the damage has been done. The flesh at her shoulders had been completely lacerated, rendering her front right leg completely useless. Spike had emerged, and directed his gaze at the wound. Cursing, Twilight bent her back legs and leaped high into the air, gliding away from the army of Thrall the swarmed at her hooves, but just before she was out of their reach, one of them had jumped up after her, and had seized Spike in one of its gruesome claws.

“Spike, no!” she screamed. The Thrall raised him greedily to its open maw, hungry jaws ready to feast. Without a second thought, Twilight stopped her escape, and landed directly on top of the Thrall's skull, crushing it into a thousand pieces. She reached for her blade to cut away the surrounding Hive, but found herself crying out in pain instead, as she had tried to move the joint which had been completely torn apart ten seconds before. Quickly, she tried to grab the sword with her left, but it was too late. Another Thrall had grabbed Spike's small body, and she felt claws cut into her side. More claws sliced away at her, and the view of her companion was obscured by a multitude of scrambling grey bodies. She tried to reach him - to save him, but fell heavily to the ground as the tendons in the back of her knees were severed, knocking the wind clean out of her.

Still, she crawled forwards as the hoard worked away at her, tearing her body to pieces. The pain was unbearable; she couldn't think straight. She just knew she had to reach Spike, and kill his captor. She tried to summon a Nova Bomb, but her exhaustion was too much for her to muster even as much as a single bolt of axion. She just wanted the suffering to end, but at the same time, she couldn't just leave Spike to be devoured. Her vision was fading. The grey bodies before her became blurry, like she was seeing them through a translucent window. The deafening shrieks of the Thrall became muffled. She had run out of fuel, and did not move, but instead, allowed herself to be taken.

Will I become a crystal? She thought. Will that Wizard arrive, and shove my mangled corpse into one?

Twilight supposed it was better that she would die before it happened. At least she hadn't been forced into one while alive. She smiled to herself, knowing that it could have been worse, and shut her eyes.

But right then, there was a sound like a surge of electricity shooting through a conductor, and it sparked new life into Twilight, who shot open her eyes and turned her head around to stare at its source. She knew that sound. She had heard it countless times before. She looked up, and sure enough, there it was: a dazzlingly blue body, galvanized by Arc Light that emanated tiny bolts of electricity from every point, any facial features lost to the blue lightning that surged over its skin. It hovered directly above the army of Thrall, a gigantic staff clutched in its front two hooves, made of pure Arc. It drew the attention of every single one of the beasts, but they turned their faces away, blinded by the raw Light the figure exuded in such vast and electrical quantities.

Then, the Arc-pony descended like a bolt of lightning, smashing its staff into the ground, and Twilight felt the staggering force of its impact, but the Thrall surrounding her felt it a hundredfold. The mass of bodies disintegrated in a flash of lightning. A beaten and scratched Ghost fell beside Twilight, and began to heal her wounds, but the electrical embodiment had not finished. More Thrall came, but it was ready - almost glad to take them into the storm. With an elegance the likes of which Twilight had never seen, the form swung the staff around, sweeping away every one of the demons that crossed its inexorable path.

The figure and the staff were as one as they danced about each other, their movements as clean and as powerful as the current flowing through them both. When at last the Thralls’ onslaught ceased, the last of their screeches faded into the dark, the conduit of destruction strode over to Twilight, and held out a hoof, the staff wrapped around its other front leg. The current faltered, and the electricity surging through the figure ceased, making its features discernible. A cyan coat, a jagged, rainbow mane, magenta eyes as bright as a rose. Twilight took Rainbow’s outstretched hoof, and lifted herself to her own hooves, eyes harshly averted from her’s.

“What is it you Warlocks always say? Harmony within, hurricane without?”

Twilight collapsed back to the ground despite being fully healed, panting.

"Rainbow! Oh, Rainbow!" Twilight could barely form the words in her mouth. "Rainbow, I'm so -"

“Don’t mention it,” the rainbow mare soothed, embracing Twilight with a warm leg. “It's okay.” She added with a whisper, "Fluttershy's the one you need to apologize to."

Final Song

At once, the three Guardians leaped out from behind their hiding place, and jumped into the air, charging their attacks, eyes fixed firmly on their target. A coordinated surprise strike: a Nova Bolt from Twilight, an Arc Blade from Rainbow, and a Solar Ray from Fluttershy. This would be quick and clean - a swifter death by far than the beast deserved. But as Twilight floated mid air, hoof held backwards, building up a glow of purple, the Wizard span around to face them, staring right into Twilight's eyes. In seeming slow motion, the Wizard stretched out a skeletal, clawed hand.

At once, Twilight felt something cold and invisible seize her sharply around the middle, the feeble sparks of Void Light were wrenched from her hoof. The three Guardians were stuck, hovering ten feet off the ground, just like that worm had been. Twilight struggled, kicking at her bonds, but they did not give.

"Ack! Let go of me!" Rainbow Dash hissed from her right, squirming to break free. She reached for a throwing knife, but a flick of the Wizard's claw caused the bone in her leg to shatter like a twig.

"Rainbow!" cried Fluttershy, reaching for the other pegasus. "You monster!" she spat at the Wizard.

Slowly, the creature turned its horned head to Fluttershy. It opened its mouth and cackled, then shot its hand downwards, and Fluttershy sped towards the ground, colliding against it with the sickening sound of shattering bones and cracking flesh. Rainbow Dash erupted into a cacophony of hatred. Twilight knew Fluttershy was dead, and did not dare to look down, hoping against hope that her Ghost had the common sense not to try and resurrect her until the Wizard was safely at a distance.

Twilight instead focused a determined, and unflinching glare at the Wizard, who swept past her, towards Rainbow. A look of savage pleasure flickered across the devil’s face as it stared into Rainbow’s convulsing eyes - an icy blue against a rosey magenta. Rainbow's entire body was shaking with fury, teeth clenched and legs trembling. Twilight heard Rainbow’s shouts, her curses thrown defiantly into the Wizard’s face, but Twilight knew it was for nothing. She shut her eyes, and the same sound that had come from Fluttershy’s body came again a second later, and the shouts fell silent. When she opened them again, she was face to face with the demon.

She could see every last detail of the ancient visage, and it made her want to throw up all over it. Brown, flaked skin. Shining eyes like irregular tessellations. Rows and rows of rotting, needle-like teeth. Twilight tried one last time to conjure something - anything, but the oppressive heaviness in the air of the chamber and the dead, reeking stench of the Wizard’s breath sapped any Light she still had left in her. The Wizard raised its arm skyward, but instead of bringing it down towards to ground, it instead clenched its fists sharply, as if snatching something out of the air. Twilight felt the grips compress her body, and a sickening crunch echoed around the chamber as her rib cage was shattered.

She fell out of the air, and hit the ground with a thump, agony coursing through her body once again. She blinked blood out of her eyes, and saw just in front of her, cowering under a jagged rock, the floating forms of Rainbow’s and Fluttershy’s Ghosts. Twilight forced her head upwards, and saw the Wizard encircling her and her fallen friends, manic cackling shaking Twilight’s soul. She hastily turned back to the Ghosts, and pulled out her own.

“I need you three to stay put.” she wheezed, her teeth clenching at the pain of speech. “If I die, then don’t try to resurrect me. Go back to the Tower and - well. Just tell everypony what happened.” The three Ghosts nodded, and Twilight drew away from the rocks, turning again the face the Wizard, who was bearing down upon her, claws outstretched. The air in the chamber had become so heavy that Twilight struggled to stand, and not even a spark of Light would come when she tried to summon it. She was doomed.

The next moment, the Wizard was upon her, its putrid breath once again pouring all over her face. But suddenly it rose up again, away from her, and drifted off across the chamber. Twilight stared as it descended down over a mass of blue and red, that she knew to be the body of Rainbow Dash. She swallowed as she watched for a second the Wizard gently levitate the body into the air, but had to look away almost immediately. The sight of one of her best friends lying there, blooded and mangled, dislocated bones sticking out at nauseating angles like needles was enough to make her sick.

She took a deep breath, and looked back at Rainbow and the Wizard. With its other hand, the Wizard pointed to the ground, and something bright began to emerge from the rock. The jagged tip, followed by the widened base and shining purple surface of a Hive crystal rose up from the ground, one side hollowed out, the hole barely wide enough to admit a pony. Twilight’s stomach churned at the sight, she began to crawl towards Rainbow, towards the newly erected crystal, just as she had done for Spike. No. She couldn't let it happen. Not to Rainbow, who had just saved her life. Not to Rainbow, who was always there for her, who had shown her there was more to being a Guardian than reading and blind service. Not to Rainbow, who was a symbol of hope and joy to the children of the City, and to Twilight herself.

But exhaustion overcame her, and all she could do was watch, as the Wizard funneled Rainbow into the crystal, which swallowed her twisted form whole, before its mouth was sealed over with purple rock. Twilight merely sat, dazed, staring at the crystal. It couldn't be. Rainbow Dash, Lightless and gone forever. No. There had to be a way to free her. If she could just get her out of the crystal... A shadow eclipsed Twilight’s vision, and she looked up to see the face of the Wizard staring down at her, its mouth shining with a crooked, maniacal grin.

Before she could even react, the invisible hands had seized her once more. She tried to struggle, but the pain in her ribs was too much for her to even move once in the air. The Wizard pointed to the ground once again, and another crystal emerged from it, beaming a horrid, dark glare around the chamber. She began to float towards it, the exposed side of it a black hole waiting to swallow her as its twin had swallowed Rainbow. Twilight’s heart was thumping. Gone were thoughts of her friends and of the city. They were replaced by a primal, unfiltered, terror.

“No. No, no, no, no!” she shouted, writhing about, not caring about the rattling pain in her lungs or the throbbing ache in her head. “Let me go! Let me go!” She was screaming, and the entrance to the crystal was growing closer. She felt its cold surface press against her front legs, and she drew back, gasping for air. The Wizard turned her around mid air, so that she was facing it, and began to stuff her violently inside. Twilight screamed in pain and terror as her legs were twisted and bones shattered as she was forced ruthlessly into the dark and cold confines of the crystal, crammed into it so that she filled every inch of its insides. Her vision became blurry, and she felt the almost rock spreading over the gap in the crystal like ice. The Wizard was watching, smiling, as Twilight was being enveloped by Darkness.

But through it all, she could see something small and glowing hovering over a yellow mass on the other side of the chamber behind the Wizard. Twilight watched as the glow flickered, then died, but something bigger rose where it had fallen, and slowly edged its way towards the original crystal, the one containing the filly Rainbow had spoken to, right at the base of the spinning, singing Shrieker. Death became an afterthought as Twilight stared, transfixed as Fluttershy raised a jagged stone above her head, and brought it down on the crystal, shattering into a thousand pieces.

There came a horrible sound. The Shrieker’s song, like that of a lost voice, turned to shrieks of horror and pain: a woman being murdered. The arcane mass had stopped spinning. Its shell was shuddering, the eyeball within bulging wildly, shining cracks spreading from its iris all over, when at last - it burst. The Shrieker exploded in an eruption of purple, shooting its black casing all around the chamber, and at once Twilight felt something. It was the same feeling she had felt only once before: when she had stood at the shard of the Traveller, having reclaimed her Light after the Red Legion attack. It spread like a warmth through her body, starting in her chest and ending in the tip of her horn and in the base of her hooves. Her muscles clenched, her eyes grew bright, as the sensation of familiarity washed over her. Her Light was back!

The Wizard turned away from her, and flew over to Fluttershy. It screamed a garbled curse of rage, and threw her across the room, so that she collided against a rock with a sickening crunch. Twilight swallowed. Even with her Light, the Wizard was no small threat. She focused her mind, and burst a hole in the crystal, spilling herself out of it and onto the ground. Her body limbs had been completely contorted beyond use, save for her right forehoof, which she used to inch herself towards the Wizard, who turned, its glowing eyes locking onto hers. It swooped over towards her before she had time to react with Light, it had grabbed her by the throat and lifted her into the air, not with an invisible, arcane hand, but with its own, chitinous clutches. She was choking, and the Wizard was screaming in rage and hatred, its face pressed right against hers, mouth open wide, spraying the suffocating Twilight with spit. She bit and punched at its claws, but they only clung on tighter, and once again, her vision was becoming blurry.

Not like this! She told herself. I’ve come so far! It can't end like this!

Twilight wasn't even aware of deciding to do it. She pulled her right hoof back, and felt the sparks building there. A simple punch wouldn't be enough. She needed something more. At the base of her hoof, a tear in spacetime made possible only by mastery of the Void began to form. The Wizard was too preoccupied with hissing and spitting in her face to notice the ball of purple Light growing larger and larger. Only once it was the size of a hoofball did the Wizard notice, and its face turned swiftly from rage to terror, but by then it was too late.

“I heard you liked Void Light,” Twilight choked, before smashing her hoof into the Wizard’s face.

The Nova Bomb erupted against the Wizard, the cataclysmic detonation enveloping its entire body. An ungodly scream filled the entire chamber, but it faded soon away into silence, as it, along with the Wizard itself, decayed rapidly into nothingness. Twilight collapsed to the ground, as purple sparks of stardust fell all around her, breathing heavily, the pain of her injuries returning to her senses. From under the rock where they had been hiding, the Ghosts emerged. Spike flew to Twilight’s side, and eased her pain, repairing her flesh and healing her bones. Fluttershy limped over to her own Ghost, who had previously collapsed with the effort of bringing her back to life, and nuzzled him lovingly. Twilight, got to her hooves. The air seemed to lighten, and the glow of sunshine was coming in through the thick glass windows, brightening the entire chamber. She looked all around. At the cracked and dead husk of the giant Shrieker, at Fluttershy and her Ghost, and her eyes fell finally onto the purple crystal.

“Rainbow.” she uttered, before sprinting over to the crystal. Her Ghost was already there, picking at the side of the crystal, trying to break it open. There had to be a chance she was still alive. It had barely been two minutes since the Wizard had forced her into it.

“Please, please, please,” she whispered, as she focused her Light to dig away at the side of the crystal. A crack began to appear, and she wrenched it wide open, heart thumping in her newly repaired chest. She was met with an awful sight. Rainbow’s cracked body had been melded with a purple goo that oozed from the edges of the crystal’s insides, and that was spreading over her even now.

Panicking, she drew a blade and began to slice away at the goo, all the while Rainbow’s Ghost trying, and failing, to resurrect her. At last the fleshy grips on Rainbow were broken, and with a great effort, Twilight wrenched her free of the crystal. At once, her Ghost healed her, but still Rainbow did not stir. Her colours appeared pastel-like - washed out. Her once vibrant mane had become a grayscale.

“We have to get her back to the Tower.” Twilight said breathlessly to Fluttershy, who was watching, eyes wide. “I know she's still alive, I can just feel it.” She looked back to Rainbow. Was there still any Light left in her?

“Radio Zavala. Tell him what we’ve done. And let him know that I've got a few words for him when we get back.”

Epilogue: Whispers

The sun was setting over the hospital room in the Tower. A cool breeze caused the window curtains to flutter gently, through which the great Traveler looked over them. It was a rather small room, as Guardians rarely needed treatment for their injuries. This, however, was an exception. The two ponies sat at Rainbow’s bedside, not talking, only gazing at the unconscious mare.

Applejack had taken the news of her lover’s injury the hardest, as Twilight knew she would. The moment she had been told, she had sprinted towards the hospital room, the rare sight of tears upon her face. It had been close. There was but the tiniest ounce of Light left in Rainbow’s body. A few more seconds in the crystal, and she would never have been able to come back to life again. It was going to take time, but eventually, that single drop of Light would grow itself into a river, which would flow Rainbow’s life back to her.

“Zavala knew,” Twilight spoke at last. “He knew about the powers the Hive had on Titan. That's why he didn't want anyone going after those he had sent. He didn't want to lose more Guardians.” Applejack nodded silently.

“It's a good thing we did go, though,” she continued. “Who knows what the Hive could have summoned. Even if Rainbow-”

She stopped suddenly, glancing at Applejack, worried she had said something to upset, but the reassuring smile from the orange mare told her otherwise.

“It's alright, Twi.” she replied. “I know this kind of thing happens all the time. Just think of the others.” Applejack said softly, still staring at Rainbow’s closed eyes. “All those lives, lost to the Hive. How many did you say it was, again?”

“Thirteen,” replied Twilight.

“Thirteen. God.” Applejack repeated. “It's a miracle y’all got out of there alive. And stopping that ritual - I should have been there.”

Twilight sighed.

“You would have been a great help. We might even have been able to save some of them. But there wasn't any time. We had only just found out Zavala tried to cover it up when they had already been gone eight hours, and by then, you and the others were already off. I forgot to ask,” Twilight paused. “How did your mission go?”

“‘Bout as well as roundin’ up sheep with a chihuahua. We were chasin’ Zahn ‘round the old ironwork facilities, but he lost us in that damned forest.” A shudder passed over Applejack. “Place gives me the creeps. Rainbow would have felt right at home, though,” she said, smiling at her marefriend. “That's where she really belongs. Out there in the wilds, hunting and exploring. You don't send two Titans and a Warlock to do a Hunter’s job. Not when the best one alive is right there in front of you.”

"Cayde might disagree with that." Twilight chuckled.

She sat there and watched for few more minutes, before deciding to leave Applejack and Rainbow in peace.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” she spoke from the doorway to the hospital as she shut the door, and began the walk through the Tower back to her room, Spike floating along beside her.

“Would you say that’s the closest we’ve came?” he asked her.

“To dying?” Twilight asked. Spike nodded. Twilight considered for a moment before answering.

“It isn’t.” she said finally. Spike snorted.

“I’d have to disagree there. I’d never been grabbed by one of those horrible Thrall before. Thought I was done for the moment it got hold of me.”

Twilight rubbed his top affectionately with an outstretched hoof.

“Don’t you worry, now. I promise you I won’t ever let that happen again.”

They reached the door to Twilight’s study, and she was just about to pull it open and get some rest when she suddenly remembered something.

“Spike, I’ve got to go and do something.” she said, whirling around and sprinting back along the corridor. “You go to sleep!” she called back over her shoulder, ignoring his protests.

Once Twilight was sure she was out of sight, she sunk into the shadows between two buildings. She reached her hoof into her tattered robes and pulled something small and sharp out of a pocket. Her heart skipped a beat as she surveyed it in the dim glow of the sunset. A piece of the Wizard had survived her Nova Bomb. A single, tiny bone had fallen to the ground after its obliteration, and Twilight had snatched it up without even thinking. Now, she was examining every last inch of its ancient and jagged form, reading it, gathering from it the information she sought. Each crack - each line carved into the bone told her something different. One told her the Wizard’s name had been Necra. The word meant ‘conductor’ in the Hive language.

That made sense. Twilight thought. She carried out the Shrieker’s song.

The next one, however, gave her the blurred and dim image of something tall stood - no - floating in blackness, somehow an even darker shade of black than its surroundings. A surge of pain pulsed through her head and she shut her eyes, wincing.

Silver horns. Poison-dripping teeth. Arms like metal sticks that ended in four, dagger-like claws. Burning blue eyes in the shape of diamonds and ragged, moth-like wings. The tiniest sound caught in Twilight’s mind, and eyes shot open in panic. Her heart was racing, and sweat was forming on her brow. She looked down at her hooves, and saw the bone clutched there. Immediately she dropped it, backing away, eyes wide. Then came to her the terrifying truth. The object laying on the stone floor was not a bone. How could it have been? What bones held such secrets and survived blasts with the power of an exploding star? Twilight had stared into the depths of the shard, and something tall - something horned - something wicked, had stared back.

In that moment, Twilight understood. It all fit together. Necra. The Shrieker. The Song and the ritual. Even the presence of the hellish Taken on Io.

And a whisper, just a whisper, of the name Savathûn.

Reconciliation

There was the sound of frantic hoofsteps approaching from behind, and Twilight turned, to see an out of breath Fluttershy stumbling toward them.

“Rainbow!” she gasped, “don't run off like that! You know I can't keep up with - sweet Celestia! Is that a Sh-Shrieker? And Twilight! Goodness, I'm so glad you're okay!” Twilight smiled, breaking her hold with Rainbow, and hugging Fluttershy.

"I'm so sorry about those things I said, Fluttershy." Twilight said, looking into Fluttershy's blue eyes, "I'll understand if you don't forgive me, but I hope that -"

Fluttershy cut her off with a little giggle. "It's okay, Twilight. I forgive you."

"Hey girls?" Rainbow said from behind Twilight, "have either of you seen this?"

Twilight follow Rainbow dash's gaze to the giant black sphere floating above them.

“That Shrieker’s what the Hive have been funneling the energy gathered from those Guardians into. I think they're trying to summon something here, to Titan. With that amount of power, who knows what they could force into existence. It's got to be destroyed. The only trouble is, it's dormant, so we can't as much as dent it. We need it to open up.”

Twilight sat herself down on a nearby rock, unfazed by the sticky web-like substance that covered its face, thinking hand, but no ideas came on how to awaken the Shrieker.

“We could try exposing it to the Light,” Fluttershy suggested, a hint of orange burning in her hooves.

“You could try,” Twilight replied, “but Shrieker shells are made of an osmium-titanium alloy plated with zeptocyte. Nothing’s gonna get through it.”

“Oh,” Fluttershy mumbled, the tiny flames in her hooves extinguished. Twilight let out a deep sigh, frustration kicking in. They had come too far, Twilight almost dying for the final time, to be stopped by something as silly as a Shrieker hiding in its shell.

“Any ideas, Rainbow?” she asked the blue pegasus. The answer she received was not at all what she had expected.

“Yes.” Rainbow grunted. “We wait.” Twilight was taken aback at the short tone of her friend, and wondered if she still felt sore about the things Twilight had said to her.

“Rainbow,” she began, approaching her, “I’m sorry for everything I said before-”

“This isn't about that!” Rainbow exclaimed in frustration, whirling around to face her. “There’s supposed to be a filly here! We spoke over the radio! She said she was in a chamber with a giant Shrieker and that purple horned Wizard - this chamber! But I can’t see…” Rainbow’s voice trailed off as her eyes landed on the crystal behind at the base of the Shrieker. Twilight too, turned to face it, and understood.

“Oh, Rainbow,” she began to say, approaching the pegasus to embrace her once again, but she was pushed away by Rainbow, whose face was hidden in shadows, and whose body was trembling with barely controlled rage.

“We wait,” she said at last, after what felt like minutes, but could not have been more than a few seconds. “We wait for the Wizard to show up here. I know it will. I can just feel it.”

Twilight nodded, though Rainbow could not see her.

The three climbed part way up the side of the room, where chitinous growths and rocks provided hoofholds and cover from the sight of anything on the ground.

Five minutes later, there came the echoing, bone-tingling sound of cackling laughter from a point in front of them. The three ponies peered around the rock behind which they had been hiding, and gasped. There it was at the base of the Shrieker: the purple horned Wizard, floating impossibly a meter off the ground, its skin-dress fluttering in a non existent breeze. But it was not the mere sight of the demon that caused them the react in such a way, but the unexplainable thing clutched in its clawed grasps. The Wizard held in its claws a serpentine struggling, pearly white worm. It was far longer than any Hive worm Twilight had ever seen, and it thrashed its sightless head violently in every direction, but the Wizard’s hold was too strong.

Twilight stared, almost transfixed, as the Wizard encapsulated the worm in an moss coloured aura, and lifted it effortlessly into the air with an invisible hand, its entire body squirming as it floated higher and higher. There was another terrible screech of laughter - the Wizard pushed its arms outwards - and the worm was torn end to end. Twilight heard a sharp intake of breath behind her, but did not turn to face Fluttershy. She was too focused on what was happening. A white, viscous liquid was oozing out of the two wounds in the now unmoving worm, and the Wizard was waving its arms around, squeezing every last drop of the pearly goo out of the worm’s corpse.

When all of the liquid had concentrated in a floating mass, the two halves of the worm fell to the ground with a barely audible splat, and the Shrieker, at long last, stirred. A low hum began to reverberate around the chamber, as a glow of purple lit up behind its rocky shell. A gigantic black hole opened up on the surface of the Shrieker, and the Wizard directed the worm’s fluids to float right into it. Once all of the liquid had been fully devoured, the Shrieker awoke fully. The shell opened up, revealing its gigantic, purple eye.

It began to spin, each rotation making the air in the chamber heavier and darker. A sound rent the air, bouncing off the walls and chilling Twilight’s spine, like a tragic song whose dead singer’s voice was caught on a frozen wind. The Wizard rose up, swelling with pride, her job complete.

The Song had begun.