Imbalanced: New Age

by Nameless Narrator


The Noose Tightens: Escape

[Blazing's Entry]

No, seriously, I am the alicorn of Diaries. I had all my things taken away from me before the 'interrogation', and as soon as we sat down I pulled out a journal out of nowhere along with a pen. Three attempts at dis-booking me later the guards gave up in hope that a sword will be mightier than a pen when held by a trained griffon.

So, Nicolai is Vargaz's distant descendant. I really shouldn't be that surprised, considering how griffons like to keep things within bloodlines or at least a small circle of noble families. He seems to be a good guy, if something like that can be said about someone this high up the food chain. I'm sure that he'll lie to me, experiment on me, or kill me if he assumes me a threat to his country, but not out of him being evil.

Also, Crom is a Corrupted now. Well, better than being dead, I guess. I have absolutely no doubt that after he got transformed he didn't get eaten by some stronger Corrupted. It's he who does the eating, not who gets eaten.

Well, certain backside situations back in the mansion aside...

Good times.

My eyes ARE NOT wet, and Nicolai DID NOT see anything he could use against me after he told me about Drachenberg.

[End Entry]


"Are you finished?" asks Nicolai as I lay my journal down on the table, "And I am honestly sorry for your loss. I have known agent Cromach ever since I was little and he was a legend just like his ancient namesake. Your assumption about me was definitely correct, though."

I raise my eyebrow. At least he didn't mention the totally nonexistent tears.

"You have good eyes and can read upside down. A nice talent to have."

"On diplomatic missions definitely. Now, let's get to business," he pulls out a small device himself, and taps a button, "Recording. I'm not sure how familiar you are with technology. Equestria has never been on the forefront, and especially now. First some things about you, according to our reports you died. Any comments?"

I tilt my head.

"It hurt? A lot."

"Come on, don't make this difficult for either of us."

"Yes, I died, and the fact that you are still sitting here means I was successful in stopping a freaking god. Some respect, maybe?" I stick my tongue out at Nicolai, not really meaning the last part.

"You are talking to the second most powerful griffon in the Empire, that is respectable enough," he winks at me, "Now, what is your business here in the Empire?"

"At this moment I'd really like to just go home. Before... it was to see Cromach again after my rather unexpected resurrection."

"What is your involvement with these individuals - Veronica Redtalon and Desert Shade?"

"Veronica is going after me for a bounty issued by I have no clue whom or if it's even real, and I'd really appreciate if I didn't get involved with her again, ever. Desert Shade said she had an idea about things, which is far more than I can say. As for Des and her group, they were around when I got resurrected, thought I killed a group of ponies who violently sacrificed themselves to bring me back from the dead, and captured me. We kinda talked it out, it turned out they were acquantainces of Crom and let me go after telling me about current state of Equestria and how to get to Manehattan where Crom was supposed to be. Why she's here I have no idea, she said it was personal. If you and your soldiers arrived ten minutes later she might have told me."

"My goal is to assess you as a threat to the Empire. On a scale from one to ten, how would you rate yourself?"

"You've got to be kidding me."

"Actually, I am," Nicolai chuckles. Doubtlessly an icebreaker to make him seem more approachable and make me more cooperative, "but still, answer in your own words."

"Negative three?"

"Come on."

"I have nothing to do in the Empire anymore, no reason to ever visit again, and definitely no desire to get involved in whatever power struggle the Drachenberg corruption falls into. Alright, maybe after there is a good way to keep Corrupted contained I'll come back, shove Crom and his tentacles into some crate and bring him home with me, but that's the extent of it."

"So you have no idea who might be behind the bounty on your head, right?"

"Not a clue. At first I thought no one would even know or care that I was alive again, but boooooy was I wrong. The old world isn't as gone as I expected."

"Now, tell me about the, as you ponies call it, corruption."

"I told Flora all I knew and it took me days. I'd prefer not going through it again."

"I didn't mean Corrupted, I mean corruption, the effect. I see you are heavily tainted and yet you are still... sensible."

"You have absolutely no idea how difficult it is for me not to crawl under the table and start sucking you off. It is... overpowering. Your mere presence is beating against my head, telling me stick my ass in the air and beg. That, or just tackle you on the floor and ride you into the sunset. Is that enough of an answer?"

"I have no interest in stallions, but I will take that as a compliment. However, Corrupted are known for their desire to spread far and wide, cover and devour everything, yet all I see is an extremely sexually submissive alicorn."

"Look, I don't know how it normally goes, I haven't talked to tainted ponies that much."

"That is why I am asking for your personal experience. I believe you to be a thoughtful pony, and a mystery of your own taint is something you would not ignore."

"I... I think Corrupted don't care about spreading that much anymore. I heard Des' story about how she went to the sacrificial valley again and broke Harmony's influence over Corrupted, making them a new species rather than contagious killing machines. I just think you and most ponies don't understand that, still seeing just a living plague. Granted, the are not friendly or civilized by far, but Nightshade got it right."

"The Corrupted Queen from Ponyville, right? One of the three friendly hives, as they say."

"Yes, well, I don't know anything about the other two, but that's who I'm talking about. Corrupted are base creatures who nonetheless are curious about the world around them, but whenever you enter their territory it's like going near a mother bear protecting her cubs. It's theirs, you are the unknown intruder, food, mate, and biomass at the same time, that's why they are more likely to transform you than to let you go. Des told me it was because of hunger more than anything. She showed me some berries Ponyville unicorns invented to feed to Corrupted when their own territories don't grow enough naturally, and when that hunger is sated they can easily live in cities with ponies. I... felt their minds around me, and that's the major difference between the feral ones and the friendly ones. Don't take me wrong, just feeding them isn't going to give anyone their land back, but it might allow for a safe passage. Keyword - might."

"Hmmm," Nicolai sits there, thinking. I open my mouth to say something more, but he just raises a single talon while rubbing his head, "Do you believe there might be a way to communicate with Drachenberg Corrupted?"

"That depends on whatever it was that transformed them. It definitely didn't feel natural. And communicate? Maybe, since most of them were griffons and ponies. They might not be outright hostile when approached carefully and not with a legion of soldiers," I cough meaningfully, "Griffons are a lot more aggressive, though, so I'm not sure. However, you're on a time limit."

"How come?"

"As I said, Des knows it better than I do from hearsay. Corrupted soil spreads even without Corrupted around, which means you can't just form a perimeter and contain Drachenberg. In some time the ground will change and new Corrupted will sprout behind you. That's the point, they have all the time in the world. It might not be violent, but even if you come to some truce, it will spread."

"That isn't a message of hope."

"I'm sorry, you wanted blind hope and encouragement? Go on, lads, you can do it! Everything will be sunshine and rainbows again, the Empire will never have to deal with something that over two centuries ago nearly wiped an entire civilized continent."

"I am trying to find a solution which will not involve incinerating a city-sized area of our Empire. There are those who would not care about such minor things, even if the place was still filled with only griffons."

"Look, I don't know, right? Ask Nightshade, ask Twilight, ask somepony smart who has had more experience with this. I've been alive again for not even A MONTH!"

He ignores my outburst, but goes silent for a moment. His next words feel carefully chosen.

"You suppose individual Corrupted are different just like griffons or ponies, right? That's why the effect on you is more of a submissive carnal nature rather than a predatory one. Are there different kinds?"

"According to what calls out to the transformed the most, they fall into the common groups of Hunters, Protectors, and so on. As I said, ask Flora. But yeah, there can be Hunters who would rather chase you than mate with you, those who would eat you and those who would not, or those who would corrupt you by luring you into a dominant position until you'd basically orgasm your brains out and those who would make you their bitch. The base instincts of mating, hunting or feeding, and caring are always there. My theory is that, let's say, a mother extremely loving her foal gets corrupted, right? Depending on what's stronger inside her, she might turn out to be a Protector or a Breeder. Both care for Corrupted in their territories, but each one differently. It's just an example I kind of made up right now, and there has to be tons of experimentation and exact details missing, but the essence is there."

"Just out of curiosity, what kind do you think you'd turn into if you lost control?"

"I don't think I'm anypony special. A Hunter probably."

"Alright then. Now I'm going to need you to tell me everything, every little detail since you've entered the Empire. We have time, so just take it slow and accurate."

I sigh.

"Can I get a drink?"

He stands up, performs a complicated knock on the door which is answered by a short one, and sits back down.

"They'll bring us something."

"Right. I took a ferry from Manehattan-"

The detailed recap takes several hours. Nicolai often interrupts, asking for more depth or my opinions on things, but in the end we've gone through whatever little thing I could remember. It makes me wonder how the tiny recording device can record so much, but technology must have leapt forward when I was dead.

"-and then Nicolai said the guards would bring us something, which they did while I was talking about my brief stay in Griffonstone-"

"I know, I was there," Nicolai laughs, "Although I am easy to miss."

"Like a giant flashing disco ball in the middle of the night sky, one that's dropping screaming pianos. So, are we done?"

"For now, yes."

"For now?"

He stops my incoming complaint with a raised foreleg.

"I will keep you split up here in the fortress for a day or two. I'll go over the testimonies and see if there's something I forgot to ask. You will be allowed to use Legion gym and certain other facilities when under observation plus a trip outside, just ask the guards and they'll come with. Same goes for food and drink. You can actually go wild with that, since it's on the Intelligence Service mission budget. Just don't talk to the other prisoners and make my life difficult."

"Can I have something even remotely resembling a bed? The thin wooden plank isn't helping my old back."

"I'll see what I can do. Anything else before you're led back into the cell?"

"What have you got so far? I'm not asking for any classified information, but what do you make of the situation?"

He scowls.

"You were in the wrong place at the wrong time, that is all."

"Story of my life, really."

"If you hadn't caused the corrupting explosion it might have been used at a later date on a much larger city. It is possibly a good thing you happened to pull the trigger, as they say, prematurely. The sacrifice of Drachenberg townsfolk might have saved tens of millions. The equipment you described was on the level of top technology of the Intelligence Service, which means the project was financed from the top. The good thing is that it seems there was only one site with actual Corrupted and that was in Drachenberg, although I have zero doubts the research documents are already somewhere else in full."

"Who do you think is behind it? That amount of tech and gold doesn't really leave many options."

"It doesn't, and that worries me the most. The letter you found and Flora delivered incriminates a certain high-ranked griffon, but leaving a clue like that behind is incredibly foolish and said griffon definitely is not."

"Is someone trying to frame this L?"

"I mean, everyone can make mistakes, but that would be the most logical conclusion considering his track record of decisions and deeds."

"Name, hmmm?"

"You said you didn't want to get involved in internal power struggles within the Empire further. Not to mention that I cannot tell you the name for national security reasons. Plus, I might be an optimist, but I firmly believe it is a ruse."

"Alright, and the fact that there are Corrupted in the Empire now?"

"We will set up an observation operation. Empire is vastly larger than Equestria, which means settlements are not so densely spread and we might have time before corruption takes hold that is too great to easily purge. However, if it becomes too much the city will have to be bombarded, incinerated, completely razed, wiped from the face of history."

"I don't think you can send me Crom in a box before you do that, can you?"

He stands up, picks up the recording device, and whispers into it:

"One XXL stasis holding box to be delivered to the Order of the Silver Sun headquarters in Manehattan. Contents - a corrupted griffon Intelligence Service agent."

"You're not as dry as I thought you would be."

"Look, if it proves possible we might extract a certain Corrupted from the town. Granted, we would keep him long time for experiments, but we would make them as little invasive as possible and when we're done with him he might disappear. I owe agent Cromach something, as well as you now despite your involvement being less voluntary in nature."

"Huh, I know those are just words, but you're not even half as heartless as I would expect a griffon in a leading position to be."

"The Empire is not the land, Blazing Light. It is not its natural resources, riches, history, or traditions. The Empire is its people, and while I am willing to sacrifice griffons, it is only to save many many more."

After Nicolai's another complicated knock, the door opens and two Black Ops soldiers lead me back to my cell.

Can I summon more journals to put something under my head as a pillow while I wait?

Nope.

Unexplained divine powers suck.

On the other hoof, I spend a good chunk of the next day walking around Steinheim escorted by now faimiliar duo of Black Ops griffons. I'd like to call them goons or henchgriffons, but they don't feel like dumb, armed muscle so I'll reserve my judgement. They actually went with me to an ice cream parlor, and while the smaller and stricter one just asked for vanilla, the bigger one took a bucket of assorted flavors. I guess their training must be exhausting.

However, when they relaxed I had a chance to appraise their armors. They are dark green, the best colour for hiding at night and traversing forests, but rather strange one for deserts and nearby areas. The big guy then showed me, much to the ire of the smaller one, that the suits can change colour. It's not only switching between some pre-defined ones, they simply adapt to the closest environment. The technology is insane. I have no clue what those armors are made of, but they are supposedly able to completely deflect small projectiles, fire-resistant, and somehow also light and airy. As for the rifles and some smaller gadgets, I didn't get much out of them other than them having tiny long-range radios. Tiny as in button-sized.

The shields, though, were something I was infinitely curious about. Unlike the weapons which they refused to showcase, understandably so, they knew I saw the energy shields in action. I suspected crystal technology and I wasn't too far off. Just like unicorns can change the internal structure of crystals with magic which then release it like a spring regaining its shape, the griffons can do it with electricity in order to cause near-magical effects. Their 'shields' are simple, light discs just over double the circumference of my hoof which after flipping a switch create a field of energy with the properties of standard unicorn magical barriers. They are weaker and not as customizable in terms of color, preferred size and speed of the impacting thing, but anyone can use them without straining the user.

What is even more amazing that they harnessed the power of the sun to a crazy degree. They don't need disposable batteries, they just recharge the ones they're powering the equipment with during the day. In fact, the large of the two backpacks on their backs is just a big accumulator while the small one is the miscellaneous equipment. Normally, unicorns used to recharge crystals and then were useless for few days. When I asked where they carry the ammo, they remained silent. However, I'm not completely stupid, I hope. Since they can harness solar energy to achieve magic-like effects, what's stopping them from acquiring beam weapons? Beams and pushing spells are the most basic tools of unicorn combat, which makes it even more embarrassing that I can't use either, so if they can make shields, why not that? No ammo, no excess weight, Black Ops would be the fastest, the most agile, and the most effective units in military history.

Oh well, all good things must come to an end, and just like that I'm getting ready to go to 'bed'.

A very quiet knock on my door makes my ears twitch.

"Yeeees?" I ask carefully, "If it's the pizza, I didn't order any."

The lock clicks and the door slowly opens. A griffon in standard Imperial Legion attire, good old chain and leather mail, comes in, carrying a familiar pair of saddlebags and a sheathed sword. He throws it on the floor towards me.

"Blazing Light?" he whispers.

"Are there more tainted alicorns around?"

"We've got to go."

"Oooookay? How about no?"

"Look, alicorn, my boss wants you out of the Empire."

"So does Nicolai and his sci-fi griffons."

He chuckles.

"That's what he told you? Well, he would, would he? The Intelligence Service has spent hundreds of millions for research into your pony magic. They have been the biggest buyer of harvested unicorn bodyparts until the treaty with Manehattan took effect. If you stay here, you'll be moved and spend the rest of your life in a hamster wheel. You being partially tainted alicorn is even better for them since they can perform experiments on something that has never existed before."

"Who is your boss? I have bad experience with random good samaritans."

"I work indirectly for his brother Cassius. The Emperor doesn't know about this operation, but Nicolai has always wanted more power in his talons. There are a lot of griffons in the Empire who prefer separation of power into the Intelligence Service and the Throne. They don't want a single griffon with too much influence around. Black Ops has already accumulating technology and bribed allies for years in preparation for this. An alicorn to work with could be the last straw. Do you think their presence in Drachenberg was a 'monitoring operation' of someone else's crime?"

"You know a lot for a simple grunt."

"I have been told enough to effectively ask for your cooperation. Intelligence Service is powerful, do you really believe that an operation like Drachenberg would have gone on for so long without their interference? They are behind it. The only reason their agent Flora ignored your offense and dragged you into this was to make you a new and better laboratory subject than they had. Do you understand? Their original test subject got killed, the new one was unstable and weak, and now they can get an alicorn. You have to get out of the Empire as soon as possible. Without you, your destruction of the Black Ops facility would mean at least temporarily restoring the balance of power in the Empire."

"How do I know you're really on my side?"

A dumb question if ever I uttered one.

"You don't, but do you really want your life to end here? The only reason you're not chained and under constant observation is that Nicolai doesn't believe it would help. You've already returned from the dead. What more can he do out here, with only twenty soldiers, and without a laboratory? Your willing cooperation is the only way he can keep you here."

Who do I trust? Veronica seemed to recognize Nicolai which doesn't speak in his favor. Flora, after saying she would let me leave Drachenberg, immediately reported me to her boss. Screw this, whenever there was somepony who was nice to me for no reason, it didn't end well.

So, what about this guy? He seems to serve some high-ranked politician who doesn't want me to be a piece in the imperial power struggle, no matter for which side. Some third party profiting from the separation of power between the ruling brothers? On the other hoof, he brought me a weapon and all my stuff. Bad guys usually don't give you a weapon and only one escort you can stab and be gone with the wind.

"Alright, let's go!" I strap the saddlebags on my back.

The griffon goes on ahead, checking behind corners and leading me through the fortress. Pretty soon I'm sort of lost as we rush through the dungeons connected with secret passages the griffon opens by pushing loose chiseled stones in what I assume is the correct order. Ten minutes later, we're running through the streets of nighttime Steinheim towards the town center and the train station. With the vision of freedom standing by the platform I pass my griffon guide.

This time it wouldn't surprise me if the station was empty.

Unfortunately...

...it isn't.

Tens of GIL soldiers pour from the shadows and previously empty underground passages, surrounding me and my guide behind me.

"What now?" I turn around and meet a fist, "OOOW!"

Kick in ribs. I curl up. Legs forcefully spread out. Turned on my back.

I sense a Corrupted around, a single mind. Not too powerful, but it's there.

An elderly griffon wearing ornate wine-coloured robe with golden decorations comes into view. He's using a walking stick to prop himself instead of just forelegs. It's impractical, especially in his age, it doesn't look good or menacing, and...

...it's the Corrupted.

Just like I wore Suitie as clothes, the walking stick is a living being, a Corruptor. A quick intrusion into its mind gives me a feel of a symbiotic relationship between the it and the griffon.

"Aaaah, Blazing Light. At first I thought I'd have to execute some of my spies for drinking too much on duty," his voice is raspy, but completely sure of itself with the singsong quality of a boasting villain. Yeah, my decision to leave the fortress was... my usual kind of decision - the wrong one. Or possibly I only changed what side's lab rat I'm going to be, "but I guess they were correct. Oh but where are my manners? I am grand vizier Legius, and you will pay for throwing a wrench into the clockwork of my plans, alicorn, with your body. I have to thank you, to be fair, for bringing young Nicolai so far from any possible assistance," Legius knocks his Corruptor walking stick against the concrete of the platform, and I instinctively start my tracing spell. Trails of energy spread out through the ground, leaving thin black lines seeping through to the surface. The elderly griffon cackles, "Such a tragedy. Two cities in less than two weeks, and poor Emperor's brother as well."