17: On the road to Mt. Doom- wait, wrong "throw thing into boom place" story.
Harriet’s eyes went wide as the black forest surrounding mount Canterlot finally gave way to open grassland from which one could clearly see in the southern direction which would eventually be Harriet’s goal, but for now she was focusing on the white walls of a city hugging the base of the mountain - lower Canterlot. When she looked further up and slightly clockwise around the mountain, she saw the half-circle shadow about halfway up to the top which had to be upper Canterlot, the seat of Equestrian royalty.
The caravan trip from Manehattan had been surprisingly peaceful, although quiet would be a misstatement considering some situations when sneaking required nopony to speak for hours until the caravan guards allowed normal travel. As it had turned out and Harriet should have expected, travel through Equestria mainly relied on caravans, with the occasional solo travellers, meaning that in comparison to a train the trip was almost painfully slow, especially for someone like Harriet who had been watching her back due to the sheath containing the Soulstealer. Thankfully, as far as her worries about somepony tracking her for the sword went, nothing happened.
Being the resourceful dragonpony Harriet is, before leaving Manehattan she had bought the simplest, cheapest acoustic guitar she could find to quell boredom on the way. Alright, it hadn’t been her idea, it may have been the last victory of a vendor by the fortified Manehattan gate, but she still enjoyed messing with it and making up a simple tune so she considered it a victory. No, the other caravan passengers hadn’t kept their distance during every camp, stop asking!
But none of that was important now, because Harriet was in CANTERLOT which by all measures was about as big as an average griffon city, but which the other passengers hyped up so much that the dragonpony was much more an excited tourist now than a mare more or less desperately trying to prevent some sort of unknown catastrophe.
With her guitar dangling on a strap around her neck, the sword with the scariest name she could think of on her back, and a big military backpack containing all her possessions, Harriet bid goodbye to the caravan guards from Hammer and Nails mercenary group, and entered lower Canterlot.
The caravan schedule was set up so well that the trip ended late in the morning, giving Harriet enough time to arrange everything for her way south as well as some time to admire tourist attractions.
To her surprise, lower Canterlot was very similar to Manehattan in the fact that Corrupted and ponies walked side by side, although these Corrupted felt somehow wilder. There were no Corrupted “taxi” services, no seductive Corrupted or tainted prostitutes waving Harriet’s way from a shady alley, and not even the occasional vendor with a pet Corrupted as a store guard. This city looked like a normal pony or a griffon city with semi-wild Corrupted overlaid on top of the civilization.
Well, the important part was that no one bothered Harriet, and she could be about her business despite her drawing many confused, interested, or downright lecherous stares.
“Ah hah!” she smiled when after buying a place on an evening caravan to a place called Ponyville like the dutiful dragonpony she was she spotted a house with a banner “Tourist information center” hanging above the door. Once inside, she patiently waited in queue, and then watched the elderly store clerk blink, look up, cough, and look further up.
“H-How can I help you, umm, miss?” asked the stallion, standing up from his chair behind the counter to lessen the height difference between himself and Harriet.
“Can you tell me what is there to see in the royal city?” she asked eagerly, “I gotta leave in the evening, so I want to cram as much exciting stuff as I can into today.”
The clerk smiled, much more in his element now, and reached behind him to a stack of pamphlets, after short deliberation picked one from the several options, and handed it to Harriet.
“Here you go, miss. This is the compilation for the passing tourists, the recently refined and updated edition. It’s way better than what I can pull out of my memory, and includes service schedules so that you can even pick one of the plays at lower Canterlot theater about recent or ancient history.”
Yayyyyyy!
“Thank you very much,” Harriet pocketed the pamphlet, “Do I owe you something, or…?”
The stallions shook his head.
“Don’t worry about that. All in the day’s job,” he smiled and gave her a curt bow which she requited.
What Harriet didn’t see were his eyes locked on her lightly swaying hips as she marched to the door and left.
“Almost hypnotic… like a lava lamp… princess Celestia should be worried...” the clerk mumbled.
And thus Harriet’s day in the heart of Equestria started. If this place was anything like Manehattan or Griffonstone, the first thing to do was to find any plaza.
“Eleven thirty-six,” she looked up when she found a small one, and immediately discovered a clock, “That meeeeeans… that means...” she skimmed through the pamphlet, “Either morning changing of the guard- no, that was in the upper Canterlot,” she looked up, “Nope, but maybe I can catch the afternoon one. So… a noon play at the theater as the nice pony said. Today’s is ‘Freeing Canterlot - how a librarian saved princess Luna and defeated the evil Corruptor Queen of Canterlot’. Huh, based on real events.”
Eager to learn more about the Corrupted and history in general, Harriet trotted off to the theater marked on a very handy map within the pamphlet, dropped everything but the Soulstealer into the building’s storage, and bought a ticket for an aisle seat. Thankfully, the seats were adjustable to a griffon size, so even Harriet could squeeze into one without having to sit in the aisle.
After few strange clanking noises repeating three times and making Harriet think she did something wrong, the lights dimmed, and a pony dressed fancy, poofy clothes walked on the stage, adjusted his glasses, and proclaimed loudly:
“Princess Twilight Sparkle, our glorious alicorn ruler, has been through many events which shaped the fate of Equestria. In her young age, she saved princess Luna from the dark influence of the evil god Nightmare, she even befriended the god of chaos - Discord, and in due time she became one of our rulers. However, nothing could have prepared her for the coming of the Corrupted, and the devastation which rampaged through the old and vibrant Equestria. Today’s tale of woe and desperate courage, however, isn’t about her, but about a young unicorn librarian who had no idea that on one fateful day he would become the hero saving Canterlot from the scourge of evil Corrupted. Meet - Bound Tome,” as the announcer trotted off, the audience started stomping their hooves together, and the stage went dark. Several hoofsteps later, the lights returned, showing a unicorn sitting at a table in a library, scribbling something into a large, open book with a second book open next to it.
Jaw dropped, Harriet watched the incredible story. She gasped along with others when Bound Tome survived the Corruptor intrusion into the castle library by dropping one of the massive bookshelves on the Corrupted. She cheered when the unicorn ingeniously escaped by dropping from the window one floor down onto a balcony. She bit her claws along with the rest of the audience when Corrupted chased Bound Tome through the overrun castle. She couldn’t help chuckling when the unicorn discovered the Corrupted originally crawled up the sewage pipes and entered the castle via an old bathroom. She cursed everything when the retreating Nightguards’ decisions led to their wipeout and doomed the castle servants. When a real Corrupted- no a Separated came on the stage, playing the role of Bastion, the strangely friendly Corrupted who helped Bound Tome survive the infestation, she squee’d in excitement. The scene as Bound Tome and Bastion fled the castle through said old toilet and into the sewers and mount Canterlot mining tunnels had her at the edge of her seat, and Bound Tome’s eventual feat of magic igniting the old mining explosives to bury the Corruptor Queen’s top servants chasing him along with himself made her eyes water. Bastion dragging Bound Tome off, putting himself in danger made her jump in her seat and cheer loudly. Her taint flared up when those two found a mysterious entrance to the dimension of Joy, the alicorn of Lust, who revealed Bound Tome’s and Bastion’s lust for each other, and allowed them to have fun with each other without the fear of corruption overtaking Bound Tome completely. And in the end, when Bastion, Bound Tome, and Joy flew from the top of mount Canterlot on the back of Joy's friend, a tainted gold dragon Vertradict, fighting their way through flytraps and Corrupted, and ending up in Canterlot castle throne room where the evil Corruptor Queen was locked in a fight with princess Luna, Harriet’s claws were nearly shredding the armrests of her seat.
The story, the visuals, everything… even when Harriet knew this was some cheap production for tourists… she loved it, and as she stood outside the theater again afterwards she had to fight herself to avoid buying another ticket for the evening, and postponing her trip south.
However, as her excitement slowly went away, she realized something which could be crucial - that the story was supposed to be based on real events, which meant that in a cave on top of the mountain there was a dragon who has supposedly been dealing with taint way longer than Harriet had, and who wasn’t hostile. As she looked at her legs which now bore what looked like tight, scaly, black, latex boots, she knew she had enough time to check the place out before leaving.
As it turned out, the way to get to upper Canterlot was a winding road around Canterlot mountain. To mild annoyance of the occasional traveller going up, Harriet was way too used to trotting up and down a hill so that even her heavy baggage didn’t bother her too much, and under an hour later she entered the cream de la cram, or whatever the weird griffon with strange accent once said - the real seat of power.
Huh, aside from tourists it’s just unicorns and Corrupted around. I wonder why...
A moment later, she found herself glued to a shop window showing various shiny trinkets. The price tags were more than affordable, and there still was some space in her backpack even after her Manehattan shopping spree due to the supplies she ate on the trip here, which all persuaded Harriet that walking into the shop was a good idea.
“Hyaaagh?!” a pony passing Harriet when she was leaving the shop afterwards jumped away.
“Fwrry.” she waved her foreleg apologetically, and spat out a set of fake teeth with sharp fangs made in the image of something called a 'batpony', “Okay, these might be a bit over the top,” she hid the scary dentures away, and tapped her head before removing a set of fake ears on a string of the same species, “And these? The tips are so fluffy! Nope, I’m keeping those,” she put the batpony ears back on in front of her own.
Her military backpack was now the proud host of a small equestrian flag of three alicorn heads and one changeling with some Corrupted mare in the background, and four little badges, each being a different color and representing one branch of the Equestrian Guard - The grey and dark purple of batpony Nightguard, the gold and white of the Royal Guard, the brighter purple and violet of the Hex Guard, and a black and green one of the changeling special services.
She flipped through her tourist guide pamphlet to see how she was on ye olde schedule, and immediately decided on her next target. Thankfully, upper Canterlot was a very neat and organized city in its building plan - the streets being concentric half-circles crossed with straight avenues leading from the mountainside to the outer walls, so while she wanted to reach the castle grounds as fast as possible and she had to go through the entire city, she knew she wouldn’t get lost.
Arriving just in time, she rummaged through her backpack to grab a camera, and took pictures of the afternoon changing of the guard at the Canterlot castle entrance overseen from a balcony by a huuuge purple pony who had to be princess Twilight Sparkle herself. She was much taller than Harriet if one included her long horn, with graceful neck, and a semi-ethereal dark violet mane gently flowing in the wind. When she spread her wings to give the new guards her blessings, and the incessant clicking started, Harriet realized that she by far wasn’t the only one with forelegs on camera triggers.
And that was it. Princess Twilight went back inside, the mixed ranks of Hex and Royal guards spread out to do their business, and after some rearranging of stuff in her backpack Harriet decided that it was time to stop fangirling, and got mentally ready for the difficult part of her climb.
It was rough. She had to return onto the path between upper and lower Canterlot, and then take a smaller one branching away and leading up. It took over two hours of pretending to be a mountain goat before Harriet, sweating and gasping for breath, reached a plateau near the top with an ominous, dark cave mouth.
Better make this quick, or I might not make it to the caravan station on time.
Unsure which parts of the play earlier were real and which were completely made up, Harriet hugged the mountain wall as she snuck inside, careful to make as little noise as possible. The shadows grew darker at first before her eyes, used to the light outside, adjusted to the darkness of the cave. This wasn’t a cave like her dad’s, well-lit and lived in. Dust was everywhere, and parts near the entrance looked as if somepony built it rather than being a natural hole, because, you know, nature rarely forms marble columns reaching all the way up to the ceiling. The good part was that those columns allowed Harriet to hide quite often, although she was afraid that her hoofsteps were a dead giveaway anyway.
Her doubts about this place being long empty evaporated when suddenly, as if she passed through some sort of an invisible veil blocking all noise, she heard aggressive grunting and stomping. She gulped when she looked ahead and saw something which hadn’t been there a moment ago.
Piles of bones as big as Harriet lay scattered randomly around a much bigger cavern than her dad’s. Stifling a growing scream, she quickly rushed over to one. The play had said nothing about the dragon being the bad guy, so it was possible he was long gone and something much less friendly inhabited the cave now. Come to think of it, the entire cave was far bigger than it by all means should be this close to the top of the mountain.
After some courage gathering, she poked the bone pile.
She poked it again.
Her brows furrowed.
Not only did the bone she touched stay still rather than rolling from the pile, it also gave in as if made of rubber. Sniffing the pile also didn’t present any stench of rot, worms, or anything connected to such amount of presumed death. Emboldened by the strange discovery, she stepped on the pile. No noise other than soft “boing”, no rolling bones, no crunching under her weight, nothing. Plus, the pile acted like a singular object, and a soft one on top. To be honest, it felt like a…
...a couch? Yeah, the soft waiting couch from the Griffonstone hospital or the one in the Silver Sun mansion in Manehattan.
Alright, confusion aside, she had other things to do. Magic was magic, and this had to be something magic-y related. Maybe the dragon would know.
Clearing the bend in the gigantic corridor, the place opened into…
Harriet jumped behind the nearest definitely-not-bone pile, blushing to her claws and feeling the need fueled by her taint burn brighter than the midday sun in Windy.
Okay, okay. Breathe in, breathe out. In, out, in, out… like what the minotaur did to me in- STOOOOP!
The sides and hidden alcoves of the cavern were full of ponies, minotaurs, all species, most of which Harriet couldn’t identify, mating with Corrupted and each other. That, however, despite shattering Harriet’s already fragile self-control completely, was secondary to what was happening in the cleared out center of the reality-defying cavern.
A dragon bigger than her dad, all covered in scales very similar to the tainted ones on her legs and nose with the occasional patch of golden ones still untouched by the corruption had just swiped his massive foreleg against a comparatively tiny pony figure.
A pony figure she recognized.
It was the masked creature from the destroyed Silver Sun mansion, not the star pony called Nightmare, but the one previously in the white robe which was now nowhere to be found, revealing the pony’s semi-corrupted dark skin now covered in a shroud of purple and black fire. Flow was his name, was it?
As the dragon’s foreleg approached the pony, it got slashed in half by something invisible, making the dragon, who if Harriet recalled the play correctly was called Vertradict, recoil and hiss in pain. However, the slashing wound quickly knitted together as tendrils of black goo grew from one side of the wound to the other and rejoined the split halves.
Seeing that physical attack failed, Vertradict reared back, and let out a jet of fire from his mouth which scorched the stone floor, but left the pony inside a circle seemingly untouched by the flames.
“This isn’t enough to even scratch me,” growled the dragon, “Don’t worry, I can take much more.”
“The problem...” huffed Flow, “...isn’t making it bigger. It wants… to be bigger. The problem... is closing it… afterwards...”
The enemy focused, and yet another invisible slash cleanly separated Vertradict’s thick foreleg from his body at the shoulder. The ground shook as the severed limb hit it, but Flow dropped on his knees, gasping for breath. Both fighters seemingly exhausted, the advantage returned to the dragon when, just like before, tentacles grew from the wound on his body, and quickly grasped the hacked off limb which rejoined the dragon within seconds.
Flow was the big baddie, so Harriet jumped out from her hiding spot, and yelled:
“Smack the bad guy, mister dragon! He’s weak.”
Her cheerful smile disappeared instantly as Flow vanished in a puff of black smoke, and Vertradict charged straight at her.
Uh oh...
“Aaaaaaaaahhhhh!” Harriet didn’t stop herself from screaming now as she galloped as fast as she could back towards the exit, “Why is everything mad at meeeeeeee?!”
She was quick, the pillars having slowed Vertradict down. She could do it, she could get outside. Corrupted things hated heights, so maybe the dragon wouldn’t simply fly up and follow her, and-
A set of claws, each as long as she was tall, gripped her. Seconds later, she found herself facing the biggest mouth ever.
She looked down. Maybe she could survive the drop without breaking anything, but could she run fast enough afterwards?
No, she couldn’t.
“Umm, hello?” she waved at Vertradict, managing to conjure up a nervous smile.
Smaller tentacles grew from the dragon’s palm on which she stood, and restrained her, not that she tried to move anyway.
“Who sent you?” hissed the dragon.
“Uhh… I sent myself?” squeaked Harriet, “Eeeep!” she tried to back off from the approaching nostrils, but the tentacles kept her locked in place, “I saw the play about you and Bound Tome down in the city, and I wanted to ask someone similar to me about how to deal with corruption, and from what I heard you’ve been tainted for years and are still okay. I can barely think when it comes over me. My scales are all black and shiny now and I liked my red and dad will be mad at me and-”
A solitary tentacle landed on Harriet’s lips, silencing her.
“A friend helped me with it, and before you ask - no, she can’t help you anymore,” Vertradict tapped a single claw of his other foreleg against his temple, “It’s all in here. Discipline. You’re young and full of hormones, so it will be more difficult. If it helps, never forget what the price of giving in is and, if possible, find an untainted partner to sate your lust with. It’s easier to survive when you’re not pent up and when you don’t have any unfulfilled fantasies.”
“I had one, but when I think about him it just gets worse. I just want to hide in a cave with anything long and thick that won’t give me splinters...” Harriet whimpered.
Her tension, however, eased up when Vertradict chuckled.
“Somepony like you should have no trouble finding a one-night stand, little one. Now, with regard for your own safety, you will leave,” he lowered her back on the floor, “You will not ask any further questions, and you will forget what you saw. If you don’t… you will face worse problems than me. All of us will.”
“Umm, okay?” Harriet, understanding precisely nothing, didn’t question her somewhat unexpected freedom, shifted her backpack on her back for more comfort, and took few steps towards the cave, “Umm, mister Vertradict?”
“What did I just tell you?” the dragon lowered his voice.
“I’m not asking anything!” she said quickly, “I just wanted to say thank you, that’s all, I swear!”
“Heh,” Vertradict turned away, “Just leave, little dracon. Every second you’re here endangers us both.”
Not daring to provoke the dragon further, Harriet picked up the pace and left the cave behind her, taking deep breaths of the cold outside air.
Why would they be fighting is obvious. Good guy versus the bad guy, but why would they be talking? I thought that happened only in the movies where the bad guy spills his whole plan.
She shook her head. Vertradict had let her go, and she shouldn’t sniff around further. Besides, she had her own mission, which-
“Aaaaaah!” she looked at the sun which was now significantly lower than the time spent inside the cave should allow, and rushed down the mountain in the fastest way possible that didn’t involve a sheer drop.
***
It was the evening of the next day, and Harriet was on the road south. Well, road might be an overstatement, but it certainly was a path used reasonably often. After her adventure in the strange, time-eating cave, she had just barely caught the caravan as it was about to leave, and that had thankfully been the end of her excitement for the day.
Today’s trip had been uneventful, which was a blessing considering how encounters with Corrupted always ended with some kind of loss. Physical, or sanity-related. Unfortunately, as Harriet’s eyes these days grew used to the early night gloom of the tainted landscape, she knew this wasn’t about to last. With majority of the other passengers sitting inside the big, covered wagons, Harriet who liked walking with the outside guards trotted up to the closest one, and said:
“Sir, I think I saw some Corrupted circling around.”
The earthpony wasn’t disturbed by a mare a head taller than he was, and simply nodded.
“We counted three. They might be queen Nightshade’s patrols, although those usually visit out in the open. However, even despite how deep we are inside her territory, we can’t rule anything out. Just stay hidden and we’ll take care of this, miss.”
“I can help!” said Harriet eagerly, surprising herself. When did she start wanting to get into a scrap?
“I don’t doubt it,” the guard looked her up and down, “but there’s five of us, and every casualty or a wound to the passengers reflects badly on our company, so I’d prefer you to just stay safe.”
At the same moment, a growling shape of a Hunter pounced out from behind a tree by the side of the road straight at Harriet. For once, however, she was ready. This was the first time she met a hostile Corrupted smaller than she was, and with a quick, two-handed swing of her cast iron pan, she smashed the incoming Hunter straight in the face, sending him away like a tennis ball.
“Ha haaa!” she grinned. Her smile froze instantly, when the Hunter, unharmed, got back to all fours before she could cock her forelegs back again, and was charging towards her.
The guard by her side reacted faster, though, his sword being a way lighter and faster weapon, jumping in front of Harriet and slashing at the attacking beast. The sword scored a shallow flesh wound which barely fazed the Hunter whose furious bite made the caravan guard back off immediately.
With the Hunter occupied, Harriet dropped her pan, grabbed her collapsible blackjack, and with a flick of her claws made it slide to its full length. Come to think of it, it was like a penis in a wa-
Not now, you incurably horny dragon! That’s just the corrupted influence of the Hunters talking. Not that I would mind being their “prey” is they were less bitey.
Angry at herself for being suddenly aroused by a piece of metal, she channeled the annoyance to a powerful swing straight at the busy Hunter’s neck. It connected, but just like before, while the Hunter’s smaller size and weight was making it seem like Harriet’s attacks were powerful in knocking him away, they were causing next to no damage.
However, they did draw his attention, and Harriet quickly learned that blocking the swipe of even a pony Hunter wasn’t a smart idea. He might have been somewhat weaker than the corrupted griffons she had met before, but it was still strength which more than rivalled her own, and he made up for it with agility and, by the way he moved to avoid being surrounded, intelligence as well.
So, the griffon ones are big, strong, rabid, and dumb. The pony ones are smaller but faster and smarter, and definitely not weaker by enough to make a difference. Got it.
Harriet backed off a little to give the guard breathing room, and looked around.
They had guessed correctly, and there were three Hunters around the two wagons of the caravan. Two were facing a pair of guards each, and one was fighting Harriet and her guard companion.
A griffon head peeked from the second wagon to examine the sudden commotion and stopped movement. A second later he looked in Harriet’s direction, and jumped out. Aside from the lack of a helmet, he was wearing a suit of light plate armor, had a kite shield strapped to his left foreleg, and a mace on a belt on his chest.
He charged straight forward, past Harriet, and with his shield raised he rammed into the Hunter previously pushing the guard back. The Hunter rolled on his side, but jumped with previously shown unnatural agility on all fours, only to meet the griffon rearing on his hind legs, and his flanged mace already on the way down.
This blunt weapon worked way better than Harriet’s blackjack, sending the Hunter rearing back.
A small explosion followed by a hiss from behind alerted Harriet to a strange pony-like creature taller than herself who by the looks of it had just thrown a vial of something at one of the Hunters attacking from the back who was now smoldering and rolling on the ground. In the night darkness, Harriet couldn’t make out much of the “pony”’s colors, but… it had… holes in its legs?
Oh by Emperor’s talons… that’s a changeling… but those are supposed to be small, aren’t they?
A cold shiver ran down Harriet’s spine. The usual griffon legends about changelings as eaters of younglings and lovers, devourers of hearts, and a scourge with only one goal resurfaced in her mind. It was different seeing the occasional small one in Canterlot or Manehattan where she knew she was protected, but out here in the wilds, and with one so big, she had to steel herself against her desire to jump into the first wagon and hide under a blanket.
Not that there’s one big enough to hide my big, fat butt...
Harriet’s panic attack, however, was short-lived, as ground suddenly burst out around the Hunters, revealing many more Corrupted. Harriet’s following heart attack, though, lasted even shorter when the new wave of Corrupted swarmed the hostile Hunters, devoured them within several seconds, and simply disappeared back into the ground.
“Ooof,” the caravan guard wiped his forehead when Harriet joined him again. The griffon who had heroically charged in to help only nodded at the guard’s thanks, and retreated back inside his wagon, “Wasn’t expecting Nightshade’s patrol to take so long, to be honest.”
“What happened?” asked Harriet when the caravan resumed moving forward, “Who were the other Corrupted… or Separated?”
“Nah,” the guard shook his head and waved off another one who approached with a first aid kit, “Seps as a rule don’t travel in groups. Plus, no white legs. These were Nightshade’s Corrupted. They usually chase the wild ones away, but I heard that something wrong has been happening in Nightshade’s territory recently, so I guess that’s why it long before they came and ate the wild intruders. Looks like we got lucky with helpful passengers tonight,” he gave Harriet a pat on the back, “You’ve got a mean swing, miss.”
“T-The griffon d-did most of the work...” she mumbled, blushing and looking away.
“True, but you helped as well,” he nodded ahead into the distance where something was brightening the night, “Huh, we’re closer to The Midway Inn than I thought. This area should be safer than any place between Canterlot and Ponyville. Maybe there really IS something to the rumors about trouble.”
The guard didn’t know any details, so Harriet decided to leave him to his thoughts, and simply walked along the first wagon until the caravan reached a big walled off square area with a three-story building hugging one end of the place and several wagons belonging to other caravans already set up at the resting space by the gate. This complex was a small fortress, a place of civilization and warmth carved out of the tainted landscape.
***
Unlike many of the obviously new ponies taking this trip, Harriet wasn’t completely taken aback by a Separated mare serving as a waitress. The entirety of the bottom floor of the Midway Inn served as a tavern while the upper floors hosted a variety of rooms, from cheap, small ones with multiple beds mostly used by caravan guards to several more expensive suites for the richer patrons and the owner of the establishment. Having eaten very, very late and light dinner, Harriet knew she should go to sleep immediately, but she was certain that the not yet gone adrenaline from the fight against the Hunters wouldn’t let her anyway, so she left the main building, and found herself a spot by the outer wall only faintly lit by the glow coming from the inn’s windows, carefully put down her backpack, and started toying with her guitar.
*Twang!*
“Awww...”
With a pout, she glared at the broken string. Her claws were good for playing, but also much better at cutting things than a pick. However, she had expected that, and there was no shortage of replacement strings recently replenished at Canterlot inside her bulging backpack now somewhat defying laws of physics and developing its own gravity.
A short while of fixing things later, yet another thing for which her claws were much better than a pony mouth, Harriet sat down next to her backpack, and struck up a tune she had made over the various stops and boring parts of the trip from Manehattan. Okay, she tried to, but not even the near two weeks of starting from scratch and without any guide could result in anything worthwhile. Still, as long as she could pluck the strings in roughly the right order corresponding with the tune inside her head, she was happy.
”YOU!” a furious roar cut through the night.
“Huh?” Harriet looked up, and the guitar fell from her forelegs, “Oh no...” she stood up, and immediately reached for her backpack. If she acted quickly, she could grab all her stuff and gallop inside the inn.
“D-Don’t move ye- you fek- fucking half-breed!” Black Thorn screamed again.
The dragonslayer was swaying as he walked towards Harriet, clearly drunk off of his ass.
“H-Hey,” she backed away, tripping over her things, “I-I don’t want any more trouble.”
Unfortunately, that only served to ignite Black Thorn even further. He growled, his dagger floating up from his belt.
“Then y- you shoulda stayed home!” he charged at her, his weapon slashing wildly ahead of him.
In panic, Harriet reached for her backpack, not letting her eyes leave the approaching unicorn, and her claws didn’t grip the strap, but the handle of her heavy, cast iron pan.
“Eeeep!” she jumped backwards as she saw the dagger flying towards her thanks to Black Thorn’s glowing aura of magical grip, and swung at it. The dragonslayer clearly wasn’t in any shape for delicate maneuvers, and even his agile floating weapon couldn’t avoid the big surface of Harriet’s cooking utensil of destruction. With a quiet ‘tink!’, the dagger bounced harmlessly off of the pan, and its handle hit Black Thorn in the chest, “HEEEEELP!” she yelled, sensing her inevitably temporary moment of safety.
Hoofsteps allowed her to let out a sigh of relief as two guards rushed from outside the main gate, and immediately trotted towards Harriet whose second of reprieve was over as Black Thorn’s knife resumed its aggressive flying.
“What’s going on here?” asked an earthpony guard built like a hill, “And drop the knife before I knock your head off!”
Harriet realized she was shaking already when Black Thorn’s dagger returned to him.
“That bitch nearly cost me EVERYTHING!” he snarled at the clearly unimpressed guard.
“HE KILLED MY MOM!” screeched Harriet, not daring to move due to the second guard’s hoof pressed against her shoulder. Her size, just like Black Thorn’s telekinesis, didn’t seem to faze either of the professional earthponies.
“Leave it for the judge or the Hex Guards. Heck, if you want to, try persuading Nightshade to have her Corrupted eat one of you, but as long as you’re here, drop it. Fights are bad for business. Underst-?”
The earthpony’s words were cut short as he suddenly froze up just like his colleague touching Harriet who backed off, seemingly unaffected by whatever had just happened.
“Well, well, well...” she heard another voice she recognized. Mist Shield, was it? The unicorn mage of the dragonslayer group. Yes, it was him, and he was approaching from the tavern entrance along with the other three. Despite hearing him only once, good memory was a prerequisite for being a worthwhile waitress. What was drastically worse was the fact that just like back in Wyrmlure, Harriet realized that the glow of Mist Shield’s horn corresponded with a heavy feeling in the air which was a soundproofing spell, “I’m not much for personal revenge, girl, but considering how much trouble you’ve caused us I think I’ll make an exception this time. Black Thorn, gut that hybrid whore!”
Harriet didn’t have time to deal with other dragonslayers spreading around in a square, because Black Thorn’s dagger flew at her with renewed vigor and rage.
She knew this couldn’t end well even as she successfully blocked the first two slashes with her pan. Black Thorn was far less scary when drunk, because he just attacked her over and over without using any magic, but even if she somehow knocked him out, then what? Would the others let her go? Of course not.
That finally made her more mad than afraid. If she was going to go down no matter what, she would go down swinging!
Backing off a little, she waited for another slash, and she smacked the flying blade back at Black Thorn. This time, however, she didn’t wait, pounced straight at the dragonslayer seeing red, and…
...panned him.
The blow fueled by terror and blind rage in equal amounts actually made the dragonslayer do a flip in the air. However, as she felt a tug on her belt, she realized she had underestimated the unicorn yet again.
As he landed on the ground, Harriet had to raise her pan to defend herself from a blow by her own steel blackjack already flying through the air. This time, she had no chance for a counterattack, because the blunt weapon strikes were vastly more powerful than those of the flying dagger, each getting closer to knocking the pan out of her claws.
“JUST DIE ALREADY!” screamed Black Thorn, the blackjack glowed red, and…
...the next blow was so rough that Harriet lost the feeling in her claws and the handle broke in half.
She backed off.
A push to her backside made her forelegs tangle. She had accidentally gotten too close to the earthpony with the big shield who had shoved her forward.
On reflex, she rolled away just in time when a red flash scattered dirt where her head had been a moment ago, and bull rushed forward at Black Thorn, knocking him away.
Seeing Black Thorn being pummeled by Harriet who was about as surprised as the drunk dragonslayer himself, Mist Shield let out an annoyed grunt.
“This is taking far too long. Just kill her,” he ordered.
In her panicked gasping for breath, Harriet heard the hoofsteps and flapping of wings too late as Deadeye’s wing razors slashed her back open when the pegasus flew by. Tower Shield, the armored earthpony holding his namesake charged at her, knocking her off of Black Thorn. Still rolling, Harriet saw her opportunity, though, and acted on it immediately.
With the melee members of the dragonslayer group trying to pile up on her, they inadvertently opened up a straight path back to the inn entrance, and as she scrambled back on all four, Harriet bolted forward, leaving behind all her stuff aside from the Soulstealer firmly in a sheath on her back.
She got few meters away before a glass vial of black liquid shattered to the left from her, and dark tentacles sprouted from the ground, catching her hind legs and binding them so tight she knew she had no chance to escape anymore.
“HEEEEEEELP!” she screamed again, hoping that she was outside of whatever spell Mist Shield used to hide what they were doing.
Another vial broke at Harriet’s hooves, making her cover her head. To her instant surprise, it didn’t seem like another binding concoction or anything, because her legs were suddenly free. She didn’t wait for anything, pushed herself up, and BOLTED.
She was almost there.
She felt as if she could reach the closed door.
She hit something soft, and tumbled on the ground accompanied by somepony’s:
“Ow ow ow ow ow- stop hitting me!” Harriet barely listened to the voice, flailing her legs violently and crying.
“Let me go, let me go, let me go!” she struggled against the grip which, for once, was giving in. She didn’t see over the tears nor did she care who she was struggling against. She'd been so close to being safe, and they stopped her.
She was winning, SHE WAS WINNING!
“Calm down, calm down, miss!” said the voice, “OUCH!” Harriet bit the nearest limb. Thankfully for whoever was holding her, while she had non-pony strength, she certainly still had pony teeth.
And suddenly, she felt the now painfully familiar full-body grip of unicorn telekinesis which completely immobilized her. Damn, stupid, horny cheaters!
“NNNNNGGHHHHHHHH!” she tried to yell ‘No!’ through her forcibly closed mouth, but no matter how her muscles bulged, the telekinesis didn’t budge.
At least make it quick, please… not like the last time...
“Shhh, shhh,” somepony, a stallion going by the voice, gently patted her mane, “Nopony’s gonna hurt you...”
“What’s this?!” Harriet heard Mist Shield’s voice.
A thud, a violent crunch, and some grunting later, a different male voice said:
“A group of semi drunk fucks attacking a mare, you make me sick.”
“You birdb-” she hears Black Thorn’s voice.
-Calm down, everyone. Go inside, and go to sleep.-
Harriet felt the new, this time female, voice in her bones, and if she wasn’t being restrained, she would have immediately gone back inside, and hidden under the bed. Like this, however, she only saw all of the dragonslayers shuffling back to the tavern like zombies. Fear gave way to confusion, and she blinked away the remains of her tears, only to see a young, brown earthpony stallion with grey mane who has been patting her head all this time, and whose bleeding nose showed he’d been the one to receive running Harriet to the face.
Harriet’s magical shackles dissipated when the dragonslayers all left, and when she was standing back on all fours, she found herself facing a pristine white unicorn mare almost as tall as she was with reddish orange mane which, on a closer glance, looked like real fire. Eyes of the same color locked on Harriet, and the mare smiled. Harriet, however, felt a tug on the Soulstealer sheath which she pulled back and gripped tightly against her chest.
“No no no no...” she shook her head.
“Alright, alright,” said the mare in a rather deep but warm voice, “I was just curious.”
“How is she?” a soft and calm voice which projected femininity with a hint of seduction came from the left where Harriet had heard absolutely no hoofsteps. She looked up to face the tall, changeling mare from the caravan.
She was beautiful, even for such a horrifying creature like a changeling.
With surprise, this up close Harriet could see that the mare wasn’t completely black. Her… carapace was covered with light grey streaks giving her a resemblance to a zebra. The random, semi-regular grey stripes and spots weren’t the only zebra-like feature, as Harriet looked more down which gave her a clear line of sight of the mare’s round and wide hips. In fact, the changeling did have that kind of hourglass figure for which even someone as non-violent like Harriet would commit a genocide or two. Not the one with impossibly narrow waist. In fact, she was somewhat round even around her belly, but it was firm, not chubby or hanging down, and her long legs looked anything but skinny and weak.
She noticed Harriet staring, and just smiled, shaking her head and making her grey mane streaked with pink draw Harriet’s attention away from the incredibly erotic body. Harriet blushed, realizing the changeling quite likely knew her train of thought, mostly because this was the natural form the changeling chose for herself to lure her victims.
The changeling booped her.
“It’s impolite to stare... miss?” she said.
“H-Harriet,” our heroine stuttered.
“Pleased to meet you, Harriet,” said the changeling, “My name is Gem, and by the look of it we’ve just saved your life.”
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It has been almost a month since the last update.
9535140
Calendar conspiracy.
A bit strange to see this word. Most brony using "dracony".
I don't think future is counting as AU.
And didn't others had this tag?
9647640
- I've never used dracony. For me, it's dragonpony or a dracon (from Wizardry series).
- A while ago, few ppl started hardcore bothering me with AU tag on some stories, and I got tired of explaining what the AU tag is for, so I slapped it on to shut them up.
9649218
[poiler]You thought I would spoil who the baddie is this early?
9649383
- Yay.
- I think Harriet is sweet.
- All of them get screwed, but Corruptors take it the worst, true. You gotta realize that the mercenaries aren't overly experienced with Corrupted, at least not on the level of Twilight and her analysis.
9649630
-Ok, i will call it Mistake.
-I based mostly on Blaze's and Corrupted... experience. But I see.
9649774
- I didn't say Nicolai still had Suitie on him, did I?
No, seriously, did I? Because if I did... that's bad. Like unpublishing the story for plot holes bad.
- No one says Bucket is right.
- It's a white robe, not the recipe for secret herbs and spices mixture that KFC uses.
- Nope. Heavy is working for Bucket.
- Bucket has a lot of money, knowledge, and contacts. He got upgrades. Still no jetpack, though.
9649814
- Chaos noodle!
- Not really.
- None of those, or is it?
- A chaos noodle!
9649853
Plot dickens.
9649885
- Funny how people recall the axe and lightning before the color scheme.
- Totally! Such artefact! Much import!
9650327
In what I did read for this time didn't.
When Bladedancer was mentioned is looks familiar the first I was thinking is Silver Sun.
Completely white with glowing green eyes without pupils... Yeah, you will definitely think about certain character...
Wait, time inside must runs slower, why it's looks like it's runs faster?
FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUR!
9651024
- Oof!
- Well yeah, but she can simply be wrong.
9651063
- That joke was supposed to be there eventually.
9651106
- Just a random hippogriff mercenary.
9651125
- Nightmare DID mess with him at the end of New Age.
9651262
- It runs in whatever way the owner wants it if they're powerful enough to control it. Since neither Joy nor Scream are there right now, it acts strange.
- Yep, she survived everything.
9651524
She stole somepony's sweet roll, I know it!
But replacing his nightmare powers on discord powers... still strange for me.
9651546
Girl just wants to have fu-uuuun.
Harriet, just resign yourself that you are now caught up in events beyond your control.
kinda like me reading this series. 
Nice to see some cast from Changelings series. Expecially Gem or I think her name was originally Four. 
I think, I might be wrong.