//------------------------------// // The Noose Tightens: Execution // Story: Imbalanced: New Age // by Nameless Narrator //------------------------------// [Blazing's Entry] It's finally hitting me. Cromach is gone. I won't hear him whisper some stupid joke into my ear ever again. No more pecking my neck with his forelegs wrapped around me in a bed far too small for both of us. No more... anything. And that's how I feel. No more anything. Empty. Hollow. Dull. I can't even cry anymore. I've been through so much that I'm just burnt out. Things happen to me, good or bad, and I just watch, unable to bring myself to appreciate or hate them. The best I can do is a tired snarky joke along the lines of "Oh, surrounded by a battalion of soldiers about to feed me so many bullets that I'm going to have a lead diarrhea? Lovely." I doubt many ponies could understand. Lost cases like I am don't get many chances to be happy. Chokey was my first one and I blew it. Well, Blinding Light blew her up, to be accurate. See? That's what I'm talking about. I should be offended by my own head, but it's just how I am. I can't even get angry anymore. I'm worn out like an overused horseshoe. Cro was the little flicker of hope that still remained, and when Nicolai said everyone in Drachenberg was gone I didn't believe him. After all, a Black Ops boss could have been trying to manipulate me into something I wouldn't otherwise do. However, I believe myself to be at least decent judge of character, and now I am sure Nicolai was doing nothing of that sort. Cromach is if not dead then at least completely out of my reach. No further chance of regaining a normal life, no chance for someone I can spend several calm years with. I just need to forget about myself and do what little I can for Guiding, and right now it looks like tasking Crimson Heart with at least an attempt at getting ponies into Pine Hills was it. Legius is going to destroy another Imperial city, then his soldiers will execute Nicolai, his agents, Desert Shade, Lyam, Rolled Scroll, and Strong Back. After that, a life in a lab until I die. At least I won't have to pay for food or rent. I tried thinking of a way to free the other chained prisoners, and I even found some really good ones, but everything crashed and burned after adding over two hundred soldiers surrounding us into the equation, not to mention the fifty on watch at any given time. How many could I kill if I unleashed all my remaining true death? Thirty? Fifty? A hundred? It would kill me instantly and there are too many enemies to deal with. I must think of something. If I don't have enough power I still have at least a little brain. Well, the part that isn't telling me to hump anything within reach. There's a whole night ahead. I MUST think of something. I must. I can't sleep, I might be the last hope for them. I just wish I wasn't so exhausted all the time now. I mustn't sleep. I mu [End Entry] Scream appears in a blast of yellow light. Her platinum mane is messy and burnt in places, the golden coat is covered in soot and dust, she's limping, and her wide, panicking eyes are scanning my temple for me. As she turns in the right direction, she breathes out in relief. "You're still here. Thank stars! Void, we must go." "What's going on? Some experiment gone wrong?" I step down from my obsidian throne. "Much worse, we need you in the capital city." "But I'm banned from there." "They... they have bigger problems right now." I haven't been keeping tabs on other alicorns in past years, rather on anything showing excessive divine interference. Is there some sort of revolution going on or...? It's not like I'm going to refuse to help no matter what the alicorns still think about me. "Take me there, honey." Scream takes a deep breath, her horn charges with enough energy to send bright sparks in a small tornado enveloping us, and everything blurs. Seconds later, we're standing on a high crystalline arch overlooking a massive stretch of land on which the miraculous alicorn city is built. A smoldering stretch of conflagration. Enormous buildings cracked in places, plazas covered in thick smoke, energy leylines powering machinery ripped out of the ground and sparkling, alicorns screaming and milling around. "What in all creation?" I gasp. There must have been a natural disaster or something. No enemy could cause so much damage to... us. How wrong I am becomes astoundingly clear when a red centaur the size of a building comes into view, stomping a fleeing alicorn into paste. I spread my wings and gather my power. "Wait!" Scream wraps her hoof around my back, "That creature can absorb divine power and use it against us." A glowing blue cage surrounds the giant, keeping him in place, and I see Magnus on a roof a short distance away, air around him swirling with arcane energy. When the cage buzzes and flickers after the centaur takes its bars into his hands and bends them, I realize how temporary the suppression really is. Scream is right. Rushing into things wouldn't help. "Alright. Calm down, Creamy, and tell me all you know," I sit down and take her shoulders with my forelegs. She's trembling. "Mhm," she nods, "It... it started few months ago. Alicorns disappeared, but there were only few of them so we thought they just moved away like you did. Nopony really considered that anything could be happening. We've become so complacent... so stupid... so-" "Focus, honey!" "Sorry. The disappearances eventually mounted and made Amore take action. I don't know exactly what happened, he didn't want to spread panic, but the entire investigation squad disappeared as well. Magnus, while digging some dirt on Amore's opposition, discovered the entire squad in Amore's dungeons." "What? He would never-" "Not as prisoners," she shakes her head, "They were in intensive care of the best healers we have. Something completely drained their divine power." "That thing," I nod to the gargantuan beast currently smashing a tower which alicorns are flying away from. A beam of red light from his horns hits one who drops to the ground like a rock. Another life ends, another soul is put into my care. "Mhm, you'll lose all your power, the ability to fly, your endurance, everything." "How come we haven't known about this being until now?" "Magnus suspects Discord is trying to regain his power lost during the fight against Harmony, and-" "The fastest way to regain that much divinity is to suck it out from the most powerful creations. I understand. Tell me, does the thing have any weak spots? Anything you might have noticed while it was rampaging down there?" "It's... it's not strong as such. The first drained alicorns must have been attacked with the direct assistance of Discord. But now it can weaken you from far away and heals instantly when it gets more power. The only thing I can think of is that it is slow." "You say its primary weapon is the ability to siphon energy, right?" I grin. Scream nods, "Creamy, gather whoever you can and get them out." "What about you?" The dark flames of complete entropy and utter end of everything cover my entire body. "I'm going to offer the monster a tasty dinner." Looking at the destruction and gore far below me, my blood turns to ice. Discord will pay. *** "NMMMPH!" I scream into my gag in the phantom pain of my essence being ripped out of me by Tirek. The dream agony fades quickly, and soon there's only me left, empty and useless as it is. Dim early morning light is already upon us, and the milling of changing soldier shifts is what must have woken me up. Good thing to know is that Void's plan must have worked to some degree, because Tirek was eventually imprisoned in Tartarus and Discord turned to stone. Maybe I'll have a dream about more details later, although I wouldn't count on it because when I'm inside Void I know years or even decades have passed since the last memory. From the center of the camp where we are shackled there leads an empty alley between tents to the edge through which I have clear view of Steinheim. Still just a normal, uncorrupted town, which I suppose is going to change soon because I failed to come up with anything useful. "Awake already, I see," I hear Legius' raspy voice, "Cannot wait to miss the show?" he takes a pocket watch out of his robe and checks it, "Thirteen more minutes, if our charging estimates were correct. The soil underneath the city is already tainted, we just need to set it off. SOLDIERS! Set jamming devices up around the camp's perimeter and get the prisoners ready for the show." A lump grows in my throat. All those griffons, once again, gone. Families gone, dreams gone, hopes dead, all because I couldn't freaking wait three weeks in Manehattan for Crom. I shouldn't be here. I shouldn't have returned. I know I didn't get a choice, but I shouldn't have done a thing. I should have just sat somewhere and waited. This is all my fault. As freaking always! And as I watch the soldiers wake Nicolai, Desert Shade, Lyam, Flora, Strong Back, Rolled Scroll and the Black Ops soldiers, I know I will have a lot more names to remember. Everyone who died in the zebrican invasion, everyone from the first Silver Sun team I led, everyone who died because of me... ... I made sure every name was carved into the back wall of the Order mansion. Every day I used to visit and read some, but when I was there after my return I forgot and rushed off in hope of regaining life that was long gone. The lump grows further, making me gasp for breath. A lead ball inside my stomach joins when the fifty Legion soldiers surround us, guns at the ready. One of them ungags me, unties my shackles from the stake, and leads me a short distance away from the others who are forced to stand up and face the barrels of the rifles. Legius checks the watch again. "So, Nicolai, any last words before your... tragic death by lead poisoning?" he sneers. "You severely underestimate my brother's intelligence." Legius tilts his head, clearly disappointed. "And you severely underestimate mine. In a minute, you will see the way in which I will make our Empire this world's absolute superpower. Something you would have never been able to do." "How can you transform another city? The Corrupted will destroy you!" I call out, "You'll end up like Equestria. There will be no world to fear you." "Fool," Legius scowls, "Your Corrupted are designed to work against magic users, not advanced technology. We can eradicate them unlike your pathetic ponies. Manehattan was just a fluke for which we were not prepared. That will not happen again." The ground trembles. I know full well what that means. Everyone's eyes widen as a giant stalk shoots from the ground where Steinheim's train station is. Black tendrils immediately cover the dome. Just like before, the stalk opens, and explodes into black cloud covering the city within a minute. I feel the voices. I feel more and more Corrupted fill the emptiness I know from Equestria. The new pressure in my head, the whispering, the hopelessness, it's all becoming too much. I plop my butt on the ground and cough. I want to throw up, but all that's coming out is dark saliva. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry," I repeat over and over. Legius' laughter is my only answer. "Firing squad, ready!" Clicking comes from all over the place. "My devoted brethren," Nicolai's clear voice rises, "You have served our Empire well over the years. Rest assured that your previous sacrifices have saved griffons who will never know it and never thank you or your families for it. However, we never did what we did for thanks or personal rewards. Our missions, our service, all that was only for the good of the Empire. No matter what happens here and now, tyrants do not last forever, and the goodness of our people will shine through in the end. The Intelligence Service might act from the shadows, but we work only for the light." "For the glory of the Griffon Empire!" Nicolai's soldiers proclaim as one. "Well, guys," I hear Desert Shade sigh, "we're kinda going against the odds here. Any ideas? Hmm, Lyam, I order you peck through your shackles and beat hundreds of armed griffons up. When you're done, tell Scroll to bring me some coffee." "Thirty-five years, Des. Through Tartarus and back. Corrupted, bounty hunters, nomads, ponies, griffons, dragons, and a damn god. You know, my life would have been really boring without you." My streaming tears hiss on the ground as I listen to more and more goodbyes being said. ...the whole world... "Ready!" the firing squad leader calls out. I start choking, pushing myself to throw up but I can't. Voices, my own telling me I failed, thousands of Corrupted pushing me to give in, real ones barely gettng through the deafening haze of the others. ...spread... "Aim!" More clicking and shifting of legs. ...cover everything... ...we are the land... ...you understand... ...one of us... ...SPREAD... "FIRE!" ...DEVOUR!... I finally release the blockage in my throat, letting three thick black tentacles taste the air. "Miiiiiiiiine..." I hiss, feeling my territory grow. Dark, smoke-like veil surrounds the familiar warm creatures while the THREATS launch lead and flame at them. They will be corrupted, not destroyed. "My... prey..." The soil deep underneath overflows with energy I call unto. My tentacles, thick as three of the feline-avian creatures put together burst from the ground all through their cloth lairs spread around. Their fire and projectiles whizz by or melt when hitting me. So much energy all around, all for me to use. I grow a copy of myself which immdiately pounces at the nearest ENEMY, enveloping him and filling all his holes. Taking him from the inside, transforming his nerves, and making him into one of me. No... not one of me. Just FOOD. The creature is absorbed, and my clone splits into two. We will cover everything. One true world. Ignoring the screams and gunfire, I pass through the veil protecting those worthy of becoming one of many me. So many males. So tasty, creamy, full of energy and fluids. Where to start from? Or maybe the few females? Fill them, corrupt them, be reborn from them stronger. The feline-avian one looks strong, she will breed more of us faster. No. The curious hybrid female one, the one with more energy, more divine energy first. The irrelevant firm material wrapped around her melts as I touch it. The female struggles, but I feel drips of myself enter her pores and SPREAD. Her will, her resistance crumbling, and her desire rising. "DES!" I hear the big FRIEND one who looks like the ENEMY. He will be next. I will suck him dry before transforming him. Growing grasping claws on my front appendage, I grab the small hybrid by her barrel and raise her to my mouth. So tiny, so imperfect, not adaptability at all. Half the size of my current form, fragile, one touch from being destroyed. No more of this, she will become a perfect host. "Remember how I said a corrupted alicorn would be a fun last thing to see?" she squirms, making high-pitched noises, "I take that back!" I feel... discomfort. Looking at its source, I see some THREATS pouring acid and liquid flame on my ground tentacles. I let the afflicted appendage dissipate in case the... discomfort spreads and grow another one. My clones are already breeding the fallen ENEMIES who scatter while using their less effective weapons. There is another Corrupted nearby. A tiny, castrated, SLAVE one, OWNED by that old... griffon running away. We are ONE, we do not serve, we simply ARE. I stretch my will, materializing a thin tendril which rips the poor Corrupted out of the griffon's grasp and turns it into biomass. Now back to the important thing, my divine prey still strugging in my grasp. "Open... wiiiide..." I squeeze her barrel until she screams and my tongues enter her muzzle, then I let go. Our mouths meet, and I release more of my essence inside her to take her faster. She chokes as the black goo goes down her throat, into her lungs, and splatters on the ground. Physical form is important, but the mind so much more. Every fold of her brain for me to explore, to absorb, to learn from. So much to see, but not under THREAT. Just a little peek inside her head before I eliminate the ENEMY completely. I am her now, as she is me. Everything will become me. I try to twist my talons to escape the shackles. Morning is coming and I haven't thought of anything yet. If the damn griffons weren't watching all the time I could just pull the stake out and run with the others. Maybe I could make some kind of a deal? They are going to need an expert on Corrupted, right? If I don't think of a way out soon I'll have to offer my services to the old guy. Besides, how come no one ever listens to books? NEVER trust a grand vizier. More experience with the world. More knowledge. More to copy. More to understand. Someone released Corrupted into the town. We need to get out. Note to self - tell Lyam and the rest to pack their bags immediately and take the first train wherever it's headed. Who would do something this stupid? Does it have something to do with Blazing Light? Well, probably. He's a magnet for trouble, but there's no way he would be behind it. At my age, I know a villain if I see one. What was the name of the place... Finn's Fast Food? Scroll should be there, chugging milkshakes by the barrel. She can inform the others we have to GTFO. There is nowhere to run, little creature... hippogriff. Lyam followed the bitch, but she disappeared two alleys later. Just out into thin air. Bucket has no idea about any bounty, but the Order seals were perfect, not the hoofwriting, though. Someone is trying to frame Cromach for putting a bounty on a guy who he's been practically drooling about the first time we met and even now he mentions him in casual conversation. So many questions but absolutely no answer aside from one - the culprit has the top-priority Order seals none of which have disappeared and all are in Cromach's and Bucket's possession. Magic? No, even the magical aura on the seals is perfect. Whoever is behind this is either an excellent wizard or an ex-Order unicorn. Or... could it be...? I have to talk to Cromach about his office. Her mind is always puzzled, constantly thinking. Now her rapidly dissipating worry is how to escape me, but what has bothered her in the past? The ENEMIES are resisting, but that is of no importance. Their implements cannot hurt me significantly, and their biomass is feeding me just fine. She... she... someone... who was it? I can't remember. We got a lot of money and a tip for a great job. Just chase some ponies and observe what they do. It was legal, it paid extremely well, and if anything happened to them in the wilderness no one would know that we kept their stuff. Nobles on top of that. She said it was for the law. She said... something about a murder? I can't remember. Scroll suspects magic, but it's not an enchantment she can break. Someone just messed with our heads, changed things. It's not locked, it is changed. We know that it happened, but we don't know what really happened before the changes. I remember eyes on me... I remember anger... sad, desperate anger. I hate her and she hates me... but who? Her brain is damaged, synapses missing, some forcibly connected differently. I appease her confusion with comforting warmth. Her belly is bulging and rounding up beautifully into a proper female form as I keep gushing into her mouth. She will absorb everything and become one of me. I have a lot of money saved up. Nopony knows where from, but I get money every month. Not enough to go on any binge, but enough to live comfortably. That's why leaving the orphanage doesn't hurt too much. They helped me put myself through schools, through training, and taught me about life. I shared what part of the good fortune I could with other orphans and helped them start as more than dock workers and stall vendors. In the end, they helped me as well. Those who ended up in banks helped me trace the money I was getting to a network of whorsehouses all over Equestria. Unfortunately, that's where the trail went completely cold. Each place had a different owner, although all of them cooperated with somepony in the past who helped them set up - the head of the entire thing. Still, no matter who I trailed, no matter who I paid, no one could put me a single step forward. Here, ten years later, at the blessed age of thirty-four, I finally give up. Whoever you were, I think the fact that I am aging very slowly is your doing. I also think the money was yours as well. But I'm ready to finally live my own life. Deeper. More distant memories. Explore her everything. Dig until there is nothing left. Red eyes are looking at me. Cold, distant, a little curious, but most of all - disappointed. The eyes move away, showing a black muzzle with short, carpet-like hair. I raise my tiny forelegs to touch the big pony. It tickles. "What is this, Vert?" the voice is flat, hollow. Scary. "That little innocent bundle is what you created. She is what those years of experiments and studying were for," this voice is deep, rumbling, and downright terrifying. However, it still bears far more warmth than the first one, "She is what you wanted, sort of." "NO SHE ISN'T!" the pony screams, her enormous wings stretching. Shadows dance on the uneven brown walls, cast by red flaring light emanating from the pony's horn, "I WANTED-" "I know what you wanted, but she is what you got," the calm, rumbling voice cuts her off. The crimson eyes with slit pupils cross as I bubble and poke the mare's nose. "I feel nothing, Vert. So many memories, so much hope poured into it, and I feel absolutely nothing. Should I... try again?" "I would not. Your dream was just a dream. I told you before - you are not fit to be a mother. You've never wanted to be one. This poor filly was just... a mistake. Don't make the same one again." "She just makes me remember all I lost. She's just... pain. I don't care about her. I HATE HER!" I start crying. The lady is not nice like the other big voice. "Then get rid of her, but accept your responsibility. You brought her into this world, and she deserves a chance. I will not stop you if you decide to end her life here and now, but I believe every spark of burning fire has a reason to exist, don't snuff hers just because you didn't get what you wanted." The scary lady looks at me. "Become a better pony than I am. That's all I ask of ya. Stars know it shouldn't be too difficult." The world shatters. I start choking again and toss Desert Shade away. All the voices inside my head mingle together into a buzzing headache. Stumbling, I retract my tongue, and again, and again. "Cho...key...?" I croak, slowly regaining control over my breathing. On the ground in front of me, Des is coughing and throwing up globs of unpleasantly familiar black goo. She's kinda further away than I'm used to. I look down at my forelegs which look like black ribbed cables twisted together, ending in four tentacles that grasp when I test them out. Yep, I'm taller, lanky, and feel drippier than a running nose. I finally lost it, but the shock made me get it back. But... that was Chokey. That was definitely Chokey looking at newborn Des. I would never mistake that face anywhere. The shabby black coat, though a bit darker than I remember. The mane combed over onto one side and shaved on the other like a clop star crackwhorse. But Des said she was born some eighty-ninety years after I died. And a... horn? I feel Des' mind untangling from mine, I feel limbs and appendages I don't have dissipate, and I finally realize what happened during the past two minutes. The protective veil around the prisoners fades, the Corruptor clones of myself melt, and the giant tentacles up until now smashing soldiers left and right retract back into the craters from which they came. Thankfully, the Legion soldiers are having enough trouble fighting the griffons I corrupted before I snapped out of it. I turned into a Corruptor. The infectious explosion Legius caused must have been the last straw. Now, though, I'm losing the innate abilities my completely transformed self was able to control which my pony mind can't. That means I don't have any defense other than my body not returning to its original form, and also that we're now in the middle of a mix of corrupted griffons and Legius' soldiers. Fortunately, it seems we're still a secondary problem. Thinking later. Action now. I roll coughing Des on her back, and... ...get kicked in the chest. It doesn't translate to anything more than minor discomfort. "Good... to see you're... still sane..." I croak, attempting to talk with a thicker neck filled with tentacles, "Get... Lyam..." Not waiting for an answer, I jump to Nicolai, clearing far more distance than I'm used to and tripping over my longer legs. Recovering is easy, however, and several seconds later I rip the metal stake to which Nicolai is shackled out of the ground. The griffon salutes while looking me up and down and rushes off to release the others after I attempt to break the chain on his legs shackled together and melt it by mistake. Note to self - no hugging anypony friendly for now. "THE PRISONERS ARE ESCAPING! THE PRISONERS ARE-" The alarm call is cut short by a bullet turning the griffon's skull into jigsaw puzzle. Ripping the holding stakes out for anyone I can reach, I look around for any immediate threat. The scream must have gone mostly unnoticed, as the Legion soldiers are busy using flamethrowers and acid bombs against anything too gurgly and too close. They are winning. Legius was right. Corrupted are the biggest threat to unicorn mages and alicorns due to horn rot. They aren't invulnerable against weapons that destroy them and the soil they stand on. Clock is ticking then. Someone taps on my back. It's Nicolai who points away from Drachenberg and starts running. Checking that Des and the others are catching on and following him, I move out as well. Nicolai's agents, who must have known where Legius' soldiers took their equipment join us several minutes later in full gear. Unfortunately, unlike us before, they are followed by more and more alarmed screams. First bullets whiz by, and Nicolai points at his agent. "YOU, OTHER GUYS!" he calls out while running, "RUN IN FRONT OF MY GRIFFONS. ENERGY SHIELDS!" We form a square, and the agents in the back sling their shield generators into slots just above their tail. The oval shimmering shields cover each one's behinds. Anything shot as us directly from the back will most likely ineffectively hit those. "THERE'S A FOREST ABOUT A DAY TO THE NORTH AND AN ABANDONED FORTRESS HALF A DAY LATER, WE CAN HOLE UP THERE UNTIL REINFORCMENTS ARRIVE!" orders Nicolai, "IF WE'RE CUT OFF, ASSUME IT'S LEGIUS' GRIFFONS AND SHOOT FIRST!" The flight north begins.