//------------------------------// // The Noose Tightens: Fortress // Story: Imbalanced: New Age // by Nameless Narrator //------------------------------// [Blazing's Entry] I lernd to writ wit tentacls. Nise. Alright, enough of this, back to using telekinesis. Since this body is working mostly on its own, I've learned how to work my tongues like three more limbs pretty fast. I still have to levitate the journal like a normal unicorn, but if I wrap my prehensile tonguetacle around the pen I can sort of write properly. It's actually less exhausting than levitating stuff. Messing around with my body, yes I know how that sounds, was a good way to leave my head free for sorting out what happened. I have some sort of manifestation of my old full power which is definitely stronger than I used to be chasing me. There's a gold dragon who is about as corrupted as I am according to his visage, which means teetering on the edge of real existence and being a full Corrupted, who saved my ass. Said dragon is cooperating with some sort of black, distantly alicorn-looking shadow. Huh, now that I think about everyone in this situation, at least Veronica is now a Corrupted in Steinheim and not after me anymore. Always the optimist, me. [End Entry] More death. More victims begging for release. Maybe I was wrong when I resisted the gods in the past long gone. Maybe they were right in trying to wipe the slate clean and start over. Millenia have passed since the gods reared their ugly heads, and I have taken to observing mortals in their struggles to achieve some sort of happiness. The cycle is the same over and over, no matter if it is in some the new empire or a small village. It starts fine, then traditions get rooted so deep into the culture that any innovation stagnates, and after stagnation the witch hunts begin. Anyone out of line is persecuted and either has to leave or die. And if the little creatures don't turn against each other then it's something else - diseases, foreigners, wildlife, natural disasters, resources running out. There was never a need for divine plague to ruin most living beings. In the end, I am always hailed as a saviour. Why bother prolonging the pain? Why not nip the agony in the bud? Why not give the little ones a chance to enjoy themselves and end them before everything turns into struggle and misery? I realize that, now after seeing it happen again and again, I don't have an answer anymore. I used to believe that overcoming a struggle hardened both civilizations and individuals, but they always forget, always return to their old ways in times of peace. Mortals always turn into the hateful creatures they naturally are. Jealous of each other, competitive to the point of insanity, and willing to hurt even their closest ones for their own benefit. If they happen to be in charge, to possess authority, it becomes even more likely. I would think again if I saw a single new empire grow past a certain point, to get at least a little close to what the alicorns achieved in terms of harmony within our city, but they always crumbled under their own weight. I do not think the little ones have the capacity to see past their mistakes and overcome their differences for the greater good. In the end a war always happens, more death, more greed, and the cycle repeats itself with the survivors. Through their pain, through their unheard prayers, I grow in power and I understand. As they grant me the essence of their souls, I hear their last wishes, I hear their pleas, and they are always the same. Peace, stability, happiness... ...but they lie to themselves. They do not act like that in life. That, or right before death, right as they are going through the agony they themselves caused, only then they finally understand their mistakes. I wish I could help, but there is only one type of solace I can bring. Maybe enough has been enough. I have seen the error of their ways, and I do not hate them. I know they cannot help themselves, but I cannot allow this endless loop continue. It begins with a small, dirty village disappearing in black flames. Towns full of beggars, whorses, anyone working themselves to the bone just so they don't starve recieve a ticket out of this merciless world. Cities are turned to dust within seconds as I unleash my full power. Some souls thank me, some despise me - the greedy ones in control hate that I ended their selfish rule. Empires crumble under the shadow of Death. No more pain, only peace. I have made my final judgement. *** Ah yes, the time when Void finally snapped and got imprisoned in Tartarus for. I've heard about that part. Of course, his imprisonment ended when mirror Twilight Sparkle used a spell devised by Scream to force a soul out of Tartarus and into a living -well, until hit by the spell- mortal which was me. Due to my talent of magic resistance I survived with a part of the alicorn of Death's soul inside me, but there's no reason to recap that long story. Damn, it feels so long ago. It was, but only because I was dead for a long time. Before that it's been what... five, six years? Time sure flies when you're just barely avoiding being killed all the time and often failing miserably. Come to think of it, not that much has changed. The half-crumbled Legion fortress is only a short distance away, and thank stars for that. A day and a half of mostly trotting through untamed landscape has left a mark on everyone. Props to every single one of them, though, if I wasn't a ninety-eight percent Corrupted I would have dropped before reaching the forest. Still, they are all at the end of their rope. Chatter has been dead for hours, everyone just focuses on breathing, running, and taking a sip of water from time to time. The only good thing is that Legius' soldiers must be in the same shape. We have gained more distance on them again, but Nicolai reassured us Legius can't allow us to get away otherwise he faces painful execution. Wait, wait, there are two good things, the other one being that we haven't been hit by any more reinforcements yet. Rolled Scroll drops on the ground when we reach the shade of the hallway after passing the fortress' main gateway. She's already proven to have incredible stamina for a unicorn, not to mention a wizard. One of Nicolai's griffons rushes over to her with a first aid kit, but Des just waves him away and opens the largest bag on Lyam's back. You know, it's really lucky that both Des' group and Nicolai's guys managed to recover their stuff before fleeing the execution site near Steinheim. I must have caused far more damage and panic than I thought. Speaking of tentacles and body changes, I can't really feel the difference between midday sun and the cool shade inside the crumbled fortress hallways. I know there is one, but neither the scorching sun nor the quick transition into an area of rocks still cold after a night seem to bother me in the slightest. However, as Nicolai's agents mill around with their boss saying orders they try to run in big circles around me whenever possible. "Got a mirror?" I ask Des lying on the ground after checking up on Scroll and attempting to control her breathing. She nods towards the large bag Lyam was carrying and which is now lying next to the griffon sitting with his back to the wall and eyes closed. I used to have a prosthetic griffon arm from the mirror world which ended in talons, and some sort of that memory helps me control the tentacles on my forelegs with enough dexterity not to drop anything. I don't know why, I'm just avoiding using telekinesis for no real reason. There are many things inside the bag I don't recognize, mostly some gadgets and what looks like electronics and batteries, but the mirror is easy to find. As soon as I gaze into it I immediately forgive everyone their caution around me. What looks back at me isn't much of a pony, and leave it up to me to become the world's first unsexy Corrupted. I look as if an alicorn lost a coat and was left only with open musculature covered tightly by thin skin. As if I was made of cables is a better expression. Black, slick and oily, mouth full of... huh, I still have teeth. Was kinda expecting a sucker-y tentacle hole like Suitie had- Ah, here it is. Yep, the inside of my neck is wiggling like short grass in the wind. "Sorry," I apologize to a griffon standing paralyzed and staring at me, and close the black hole my front has become. I seem to have opened my mouth three times wider than any living creature ever should, "I was just checking." My legs have grown thinner and longer, although I feel physically stronger than ever before. Okay, I got one thing out of it, I notice as I angle the mirror to show my behind. I like big plots and I cannot lie. Or maybe it just looks rounder and wider in contrast to the lanky limbs. Ten of Nicolai's agents are resting nearby, Des' entire group is out cold, the Black Ops leader is studying his map, and I hear the echoes as the rest of his griffons are rushing through the fortress. "How are things?" I ask. He twitches as he raises his head, but gives me a weary smile. When the adrenaline overdose is slowly fading, I must look like the biggest threat around. "Depends mostly on how you are feeling, to be honest." "If I had to list all the things I want to do with this many sweaty and muscular griffons around me I'd make an old whorse blush," I chuckle, "but as long as I have something to focus on that isn't a butt or a dong I'll handle myself." "Glad to hear it, we'll try to breathe less provocatively and get out of those the tight, figure-hugging uniforms," he nods. You know what? Nicolai is a Cromach-tier bro if ever I saw one when he relaxes, "Well, things are like this. We have another fifty Legion soldiers coming from the north." "Rescue party?" I ask with no enthusiasm or hope. "With cake, streamers, and confetti." "I thought so." "Thankfully, they don't have an airship this time. They'll be here a bit sooner than Legius' main force which should arrive in at most two hours in full. I'm having my guys rest in half an hour intervals in fives." "Is that enough?" "To not drop? Yes. To recover in any decent capacity? Of course not, but we don't have the luxury. The rest are hanging solar generators wherever the roof or windows can hold them." "Can I help? I'm half braindead, but this body feels unstoppable." "My griffons are mapping the fortress for broken walls, access routes, and any damage we can either use or we must be wary of, and I need that info to be accurate. The solar generators need someone with experience to set up as well. What we're going to need is to block the main gate. The portcullis is stuck, so I sent few agents to move some rubble to at least slow any attackers wanting to get through the front entrance. If you could move the bigger chunks and block the gateway completely it would be a blessing." "On it!" Rushing over to the main entrance, I startle an agent currently carrying a piece of collapsed ceiling on his back. "I'm supposed to help. Got any bigger chunks you need moving?" He points his talons. "End of the hallway, third room to the left's completely ruined. There are a bunch of pieces that barely fit through the door. If you could get them here it would make my day, honestly." I just nod and rush off. As expected, the parts of broken ceiling are heavy and inconveniently shaped for the griffons to waste time with, but I just stomp the worst of the concrete and chiseled stone away before pushing the remains out. Ooookay, so this body isn't as strong as I thought, but it's still enough to make a minotaur bodybuilder jealous. The somewhat circular chunk three times my size takes me a while to push to the entrance, but my reward is daylight being almost completely blocked off as it covers a good part of the gateway. "Emperor's talons!" a passing agent nods in approval, "That might actually hold them off completely or force them to use explosives. Great job!" "Thanks. At least something this body is good for." He pats my back, then looks with horror at inky blackness seeping into his talons. "Emperor protect us!" he watches for a moment as the corruption sets in only a little, then recovers with astonishing self-control and asks, "Got a little more in you?" "What do you need?" "We're not done by far. Go upstairs and check the portcullis room. The winch and all the levers are too rusted to move. See if you can do something about it. If not, you can help by bringing more stuff to make a better barricade," when I look with exhaustion at the giant disc I rolled here a moment ago he adds, "No need for something this crazy again, just so they can't use a battering ram to clear it." "But the explosives will wreck it anyway, right?" He winks at me. "Yeah, but quite likely collapse a quarter of the fortress on them and completely block the best access route." "What about the roof?" "Talk to lord Nicolai about it, other guys are already making sure it's more of a death trap that it was before we arrived." The room right above the entrance is easy to find, and while the lever holding the winch locked protests as I pull it it gives out when I stick a hind leg through a nearby hole in the wall, use it to steady myself, and tighten all my muscles up into a tiny little spring. Loud grinding and rumbling of the portcullis dropping down is my reward. "Oh damn, screw, ass!" I hear a startled scream from downstairs. Another job well done. Twenty minutes of carrying more rubble to block any obvious access path later, I decide to have a rest. As expected, I'm not tired physically, but after I spent a minute trying to wrap my tentacles around a pillar while calling it Scream I realized I really needed to shut down. My eyes lock on Lyam's brown barrel peacefully moving up and down. This is what I lost, one blanket, one bed, two of us. Maybe after I turn completely I'll have enough brainpower left to return to Drachenberg and find my place there with Crom again. Who knows? But damn, I want to eat this griffon up. Just give five minutes with him behind some corner and I'll show him things a mare would never do or know how to do to him. With corrupted body and being stallion who knows how things should feel, I would make him scream so hard Legius' soldiers gathering outside would hear it. "You're drooling." I snap out of my internal savaging of Lyam's helpless body and turn to Desert Shade lying on the floor with a raised eyebrow, smirk on her muzzle, and a rapier in her talons. She notices me looking at the weapon. "Just in case you tried something." I sigh and sit down. "Is you-know-what affecting you too? I've been tainted for a while now, and I know the first few days are really bad." She nods, sheathing the thin blade. "I've done things to half of our entourage in my mind I would never dream of thinking about trying before. We're talking ten griffons, me, and a huge funnel. Stuff that would make me sick few days ago is playing on a loop inside my head as the best idea I've ever head." "No new violent tendencies?" "I want to make entire Legion army on our back submit with my crotch and then force them to rip their boss into tiny pieces, starting with legs so he can watch and scream. Is that violent enough?" "You're taking it well then, I guess." "I'm getting used to it. As long as I'm focusing on something important I'm not gonna lose my mind. You didn't do such a great job corrupting me. Thank stars." "I think it has something to do with mental pressure. I tainted your body, filled you with whatever catalyst is supposed to bring the change, but then I snapped out of it and didn't press on futher to make your mind give up. After that you just threw up most of what I got inside you." "Or maybe you're just a crappy kisser. I mean, shoving tentacles down my throat and then vomiting enough goo inside to make me bulge is a good start, but your technique leaves a lot to be desired." "Yeah, I got this a lot. Sorry for not keeping my head anyway." "Geez, you're a downer," she sits up and pats my side, "I was kidding. I've seen far too many ponies give in to corruption, most of them willingly in the end. Staying sane in your shape is rare enough, and recovering after your body turned completely is something I've seen happen only once." "Oh, who was it?" "It was," her expression grows thoughtful, "you know, it might be some alicorn thing. Princess Celestia was the only one before. Remember how I told you she led the first army against Corrupted into the sacrificial valley and then I told you we 'rescued' her in the end after destroying Harmony's link to Corrupted? Celestia, in order to fight a completely new enemy, did some pretty disgusting things to her soldiers, namely turning them into Corrupted under herself as Queen. Twilight knows more, because she examined the process and made it less invasive with Nightshade's help." "Wait, Celestia turned into a full-blown Corrupted? How did you rescue her?" "A part of her mind sort of locked up, focused only on reviving her soldiers using Corrupted biomass while sieging the Corrupted city inside the valley." "Corrupted city?" "I told you I really didn't want to remember things that happened there, but I think this might be important so don't push your luck. Celestia was pressing onwards only on the memory that she needed to eradicate the threat and save Equestria even two centuries after the surface was wiped out. When Twilight and us got there, Celestia remembered and after we... stopped what was going on she kind of returned to her normal form and eventually sorted her head out as well. Oh by the way, you think YOU look scary as a Corrupted? Celestia would make you leave a brown streak long enough to reach Equestria." "Oh, how did she look?" "Powerful. You look like a Corruptor, kinda drippy, stringy, lanky, and more bleh than terrifying. She... she was huge, with veins of molten magma coursing through her coat. Her mane was the kind of burning red you get the evening before a really windy day. She looked like a volcano about to erupt. I think it has something to do with divine power. Granted, I know very little about it, but my guess is that is what allowed her to return to her normal self afterwards. She's been herself for so long that her body just knew who she really was." Huh. Huuuuh. Huuuuuh? Hello? You sound like you're having an epiphany. I am, thank you very much, Bob. Care to share it? Des might only be guessing, but I'm not. Divine power preserves memories and personality, and unless purged by Harmony or some similar means it cannot be destroyed. That is why Straw Basket managed to resurrect Cromach after my insane father disintegrated him, his soul was still hanging around preserved by the divinity I infused into Crom when we fought possessed Crowley in the Holy City throne room. I see, you're thinking that if Celestia was able to return to her self after a century of being a Corrupted then- Then there still might be hope for me... and him. But time isn't on your side. Definitely not. I'm clutching at straws here anyway because Crom's divinity was a drop in the ocean in comparison to even extremely weakened and exhausted Celestia, but you know... stupid blind hope. "You look like you're having an idea," Desert Shade comments on the lenghtening silence. So I've just been told, heh. "I think the reason you're taking your corruption really well is because you're very old and possess some minor divine power." "You noticed, huh..." "You admitted to being over hundred and fifty years old and I believe you because you know things about old Equestria no one should these days. Mind if I ask how you got it?" She shrugs. "You can ask but my best guess is from my mother and before you ask further, no, I have no idea about her. I myself realized something was wrong when I turned fifty and looked just like I do now. Without the mane cut and scars, of course." We chat for a short moment before she yawns again. "I'm gonna stop bothering you now." "No problem," she lies down, covers her head with a blanket, and dozes off. Dammit! I forgot to ask her who was behind the bounty on me. She said she had an idea. Oh well, if we get out of this then there will be enough time. *Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!* "PLACES, EVERYONE, THE PERFORMANCE IS BEGINNING!" I hear Nicolai call out. "Wuzz goin 'n?" I mumble. "It's time for tea and biscuits, Blazing," Des, taking an assault rifle from a passing griffon gives me a bloodthirsty grin. I rush over to Nicolai. "What should I do?" "Grab a rifle and start unloading when you're sure you can hit. We don't have ammo to waste." "I haven't used a projectile weapon in like ever," I shake my head, "Close combat is more my thing." "Well, our strategy relies on not letting them get inside at all," he looks outside through a thin, vertical slot in the wall, just enough to aim a barrel through, "With the fifty coming from the north, hmm, about two hundred and fifty, maybe? No heavy equipment, though." "What's the plan then?" "We need to hold this place long enough for our solar generators to charge the communication station for a beamed transmission which should take at most an hour more. We would be able to set up a standard broadcast earlier, but Legius' griffons are jamming pretty much everything we can reach using normal means. Then we need to get a message out and survive until my agents arrive." "Any details on how we do that? I mean really, until they start sticking their heads inside some hole in the wall I'll just be watching." "Not at all. If you can't shoot you can bring us ammo." "Ammo?" I look at the open bags of bullets lying scattered all over the front hallways. "Yeah, our main weapons use accumulators we've been charging on the roof. That's why I needed to reach this place at noon to get the most out of them. Black Ops have some nice tools that might help us get out of this." "Won't the Legion soldiers notice those and fly there?" "Eventually yes, that's why I have five snipers stationed there with the order to shoot only at anything that flies. Five agents are running between us and the solar generators. Five are holding the northern wall. Everyone else is here. Plus, the roof is in abysmal shape and if anyone steps in the wrong place they will drop onto something sharp." "Will your battery-based toys be enough?" "Watch!" says Nicolai, and for the first time I see his evil smile, "FIRE!" Beams of orange light shoot out from the fortress walls, exploding wherever they touch and searing black scars into the ground outside. With disbelief, I stare at what must be at least thirty smoldering corpses of Legius' soldiers. "They'll scatter now not to give us the splash damage again." I ignore him. With that firepower, I realize Legius wasn't grandstanding when he said he could wipe Corrupted in Drachenberg and Steinheim out easily. My time window to possibly recover something of Cromach's self, if there ever was any, has suddenly shrunk into almost nothing. A tentacles spawns from my chest to catch a thrown hoof-sized rectangle. "Third floor, the safe route is marked. Don't walk elsewhere or the floor might crumble under you. Bring me a new one and give this one to an agent to recharge it. GO!" Still holding the near-scalding accumulator in my new tentacle, I bolt towards the stairs up.