//------------------------------//
// Love and Hatred: Compromise 
// Story: Imbalanced: New Age 
// by Nameless Narrator 
//------------------------------//

[Blazing's Entry]

"You must be the first pony to warrant a coffin with a revolving lid."

I can't help thinking I heard that before.

Shadowstep's reaction to my not exactly continued existence was mild amusement, and a lot of worry. To be honest, I was pretty bothered myself. Cross' admission that he and the rest of Shadowstep's squad are the 'powerful individuals' Nicolai's agents discovered was a problem.

Fortunately, Shadowstep has an EXTREMELY soft spot for Cross, who couldn't be happier thanks to seeing Heavy again. I guess it must have been difficult for him to find somepony to replace Heavy with whom he could drop his disguise and be the patchwork hybrid he is. He almost burst into tears when he gradually realized the two of us weren't some illusions or tricks to lure him off guard, to which my comment of "Remember how Void summoned Heavy's spirit after he got disintegrated so that you two could have one last chat? I think I got him beat in the revival department." definitely helped.

Starlight immediately wanted to dissect either me or Heavy, each of us for different reasons. An archmage of her proportions must have had her hooves itching seeing a guy who dies and rises again like a pony doing push-ups, especially when during our last encounter I got supposedly completely erased by a god. Heavy, on the other hoof, was an intelligent Corrupted who got in touch with divinity himself, although to a minor degree. Corrupted like that are usually under Nightshade's direct protection, so there was never a way Starlight could capture one and perform some experiments. Despite her rather selfish and sadistic nature, her curiosity served as an amazing bargaining chip, because like with everyone else, Shadowstep had the best of the best at her command and didn't want to risk losing them.

Antares was happy to see me, and he still owed me for reuniting him with Shadowstep, which secured his vote on our course of action. Granted, unlike others he had no personal stake in our dealings but he is a fair guy and an excellent hoof-to-hoof fighter. Such risky, close combat style where everything is on the line attracts certain type of individuals who deep down respect each other.

Oh, and they have a new member - some changeling drone calling itself Thirteen and preferring a female shape. Unlike most changelings, her number is in no way related to power or status, but rather to her unfortunate circumstances. I didn't get much info from Shadowstep, but Thirteen supposedly was recently left in a Legion fortress as an egg by her griffon mother who got entranced and fed on by a reckless changeling. The Legion griffons weren't exactly gentle with a live changeling, and their experiments left the poor drone a bit damaged in terms of balance and coordination. She dropped a bag she was supposed to hand to Shadowstep twice and keeled over out of nowhere in the middle of Shadowstep's speech, but no one said anything, so I guess they didn't mind. She actually offered to carry Heavy's bag of equipment including the last explosive, and when he commented on her not exactly fitting into the group, she said she just liked being at least a bit useful and getting fed from time to time.

While we were sitting and chatting inside the last non-disabled turret, Starlight, being the selfish changeling she is, explained to us what was actually going on. Of course she wasn't supposed to know anything secret, but she's an excellent mage, and had spent a lot of time charming and digging through the heads of researches and soldiers to eventually know more about this project than each individual and separated branches of the laboratory staff. As it turned out, Nicolai's guesses concerning the supersoldiers were mostly incorrect. I'm gonna write the gist of it down mostly because I'm sure to forget it, and Nicolai might need as accurate information as I can provide. I don't understand the details, but there are several types of "enhancements". Some griffons voluntarily gave up a limb and recieved an advanced prosthesis which contained their limb along with some electronic interface between griffon neural network and their limb which got corrupted. It seems that the physical portion of corruption cannot pass through the mechanical gateway. That means that with enough practice they can use the transformative abilities and newfound strength of their tainted limb without risking it spreading to the rest of their body. The second part of the work here deals with the research into Corrupted resilience and the crafting of armors from their skin. Heavy's guess concerning electrified metal mesh inside tainted hide was actually extremely accurate, and while the armor doesn't offer Corrupted-tier resistance to damage when the hide is stretched on an iron frame it does deflect projectiles or blades significantly better than steel or whatever material the standard new suits are from. Nicolai called the low-tier ones kevlar or something.

Then, rather less fortunately, came the difficult part - Shadowstep herself.

When we explained why we were here, it turned out that no one actually had any problem with stopping to work for the Redtalons, especially after I gave them the short version of my dealings with them. There was one issue, though. No matter the opposition of the rest of her squad, she refused to leave a mission unfinished, and her mission was to protect this facility. Thus, we came to a stalemate. I wouldn't just go away and lose a chance to save Crom, and Shadowstep wouldn't back off due to her reputation. The Black Company has built around them a wall of stories, myths, and legends over the centuries, and Shadowstep wasn't going to tarnish it under any circumstances.

I only prayed to myself that Heavy wouldn't ask me to let TBC finish their job unopposed, because I was sure I would have given in, left this place in shame, and then gone to Drachenberg on my own with practically no chance of coming back.

However, Shadowstep came with an idea of her own - I would help her FINISH her job in a spectacular manner that would be remembered for a long time to come, and in turn they would leave Redtalon ranks and rejoin the Silver Sun in Manehattan.

This is sure to fail miserably, but she won't budge, so I have to.

[End Entry]

Shadowstep's idea is to lure Cassius and Nicolai here, and give them to the Redtalons in return for their help in getting to Cromach. That way my goal will be finished, Shadowstep will retain her squad's historic reputation, and they'll return to Manehattan. 

I guess my nickname "betrayer" will live on.

Heavy leans to my ear and whispers.

"Are you sure about this? Nicolai and Cassius are your friends... somewhat."

Biting my lip, I take a deep breath. This is going to get messy.

"Heavy, just promise me you'll be on my side in this no matter what."

"You're planning something no one will like, aren't you?"

Smart pony.

Before I can say something else, Heavy raises his voice.

"Alright, how do we do this then? Some patrol might have already noticed one of the wall guards is missing. Since I'm not hearing any alarms, though, I don't think anyone went inside the other turrets to check on the sentries."

I look Shadowstep straight in her amethyst eyes, trying to keep my voice from wavering.

"Alright, Shadowstep. If you want to get Cassius here, we still have to disable the last turret otherwise the automatic defense system will shoot his flagship down anyway."

The black and dark purple queen-tier changeling nods.

"That should be very simple to explain. You can do it while we rally the guards and prepare the ambush. I'm certain you'll need less time than we will."

"Won't the soldiers be suspicious about Cassius' sudden appearance?" I ask, trying to dissuade Shadowstep from her plan.

"Leave the lying to us, you do your part of the plan. Starlight still has enough influence over the griffons in charge, and all of us are changelings. Making other races do what they don't want to is kind of our whole thing."

I sigh. Well, I tried.

"Alright. As long as they don't swarm me and Heavy as well."

"We'll take care of that, don't worry. Give us fifteen minutes."

After my nod, the whole Black Company leaves as one. I sit down, breathing heavily. The good thing is that no matter what, they couldn't have used magic to read my mind, and I think I'm used enough to changeling mind control to know they didn't try anything that way either.

"Alright, Blazing," says Heavy firmly, "You're not a pony to throw someone who helped you under a cart for your own benefit."

"I've changed a lot, Heavy. I have my own goal now, and I intend to give it my best shot."

"If you were a pony like that, I wouldn't be here helping you."

I give him a bright, fake smile.

"Let's hope I don't make you swallow those words then. Come on, we still need to disable the last set of cannons," I stop myself and raise my hoof, "Come to think of it, can you do it yourself?"

"Of course, why?"

"I could use a minute or two to think."

"Alright. I'll be right back," he walks off with his now nearly empty backpack.

This can go so horribly wrong. I can cause so much damage just because I want things to go my way for once, just because I'm taking the selfish route. The thing is... without a goal this will never end. I will keep going from place to place, hoping for something good to happen to me. This way I might really betray everyone who believes in me, but if I'm to go out it will be for a good reason. Reasons.

Cromach and Guiding Light.

To be honest, I'm just reassuring myself. It's not like we have a way to explain to Cassius what's going on. Radio signal would get noticed, he said, so we just have this blinking stick with a button which I have no idea what it does, but supposedly would transmit a signal which can't be intercepted. I only need to use it outside.

My legs are still shaking. I can't stop gasping for breath.

I'm sitting here on the floor with my back against one of the tables, doubts running through my mind over and over, until a hoof softly lands on my shoulder.

"If it helps," says Heavy, back from his sabotage trip, "I believe in you."

"No," I shake my head, "It actually makes it much worse." 

"Alright, I don't believe in you anymore," he retorts, completely unbothered.

I snort.

"Stars damn it, Heavy."

"Better?"

"No," I admit, "This isn't something words can help with, no matter how sincere."

He sits down next to me.

"We can still use the signal device to send the retreat code. The two of us would get out while Shadowstep prepares the ambush."

I shake my head.

"That would solve nothing. Look, Heavy... no, nevermind. Let's wait for Shadowstep to get things ready."

Ten more minutes of me sighing and mumbling to myself, and Cross in his unicorn diguise enters the control room.

"All units are ready. How about you?" he asks.

"Ready as I'll ever be. Let's go."

With Heavy by my side and Cross in the front, we leave the turret, descend down the stairs leading from the fortress walls into the courtyard, and I use my magical sight to see griffons hiding behind crates, tool sheds, and in some instances even just lying around in pitch-black uniforms in the shadows. 

That's a lot of guns.

Starlight, in her classic white unicorn with purple mane disguise is standing near the closed entrance to the central building. Shadowstep, not bothering to shapeshift is in the darkness by the opposite wall. Antares, using a brown griffon disguise joins Cross and both of them hide along with use and some soldiers behind a wall of unmarked wooden boxes.

I levitate the signal device...

Should I really do it?

To Tartarus, general Stormwing marched... as they say.

...and press the button three times.

My tactical vision doesn't reach far up, but I do spot flashes of white lines in the sky. Something Cassius must be using to test the waters so that he doesn't fly his ship into crossfire in case we got captured and the device fell into the wrong hooves.

I count to sixty before the outlines of Grand Cross appear above and slowly descend into the courtyard.

As expected, few griffons show up and start shooting at the ship without any real intent of causing damage. They immediately stop and fly off when faced with machine gun fire ripping the ground around them apart. Covering fire engaged, Grand Cross lands right in the center of the courtyard which the soldiers cleared out to make a bait landing zone.

The hexagonal ship lands on multiple legs sliding out of its bottom. Few moments later, a ramp appears out of one edge, revealing lit interior and a group of Imperial Guards in their power armors stomping outside. They start shooting immediately at the griffons serving as a distraction. I jump out of my hiding place, waving a flashlight, and freeze when faced with an aimed minigun. Well, at least it's not spinning already.

"Don't shoot, don't shoot," I call out, "I'm on your side!"

Several normal Legion soldiers rush out, one of whom runs over to me. He takes his helmet off. Strange, I kind of never imagined Cassius wearing a normal combat suit, but here it is.

"Good job," he nods, "Situation report."

I cough loudly.

"Well, Emperor-"

As soon as the words leave my mouth, spots of darkness shimmer all over the courtyard, revealing griffons aiming their rifles. I can feel Shadowstep's massive magical power flare a short distance away and spread to anyone around the Grand Cross excluding me and Heavy. Purple chains of energy snare every 'enemy' and envelop the flagship itself.

"-things didn't exactly go as planned."

"You betrayed us..." whispers Cassius, his face contorting in rage, "YOU BETRAYED US!" 

There is no way the capture of Cassius and with some luck Nicolai as well won't force the answer I want. I just hope I understand hate and greed as much as I think I do.