//------------------------------// // 29-3: Light at the end of the world // Story: Imbalanced: Legacy of Light // by Nameless Narrator //------------------------------// They’d seen her. From the corner of their eyes, they noticed something I can identify as that bitch sneaking south. Gem was hot on Desert Shade’s trail, she knew from the minds of fleeing changeling she’d passed. She wasn’t particularly bothered about the torn sky, mostly because she’d seen this once before, and she knew she couldn’t do anything about it. Her goal was the mare who had caused everything, either to tell her how to stop it, or to… to make the last hours of their existence rather unpleasant for her. Gem didn’t need to end someone’s life in order to be unpleasant. She had to be moving much faster than the hippogriff, because she caught up with her ten minutes later. The mare had zero idea that Gem, invisible and feather-light to avoid the cracking of frosty grass, was there. Even her heartbeat wasn’t quickening in response to Gem’s approach. That was until, almost as if by accident, Desert Shade dropped something that looked like a hoof-sized triangle with a red crystal in its center. She leaned down to pick it up, and kicked up dirt behind her some of which bounced off of Gem. Gem, despite her reaction time, hadn’t been able to avoid that. She knew what Desert Shade was doing, she could see it, she just couldn’t move at that love-fueled blinding pace for some reason. Wait, didn’t Starry describe a time stopping device at some point? But I can still move, only not as quickly as I want to. Time slowing device then, which doesn’t work on her obviously. Alright then, I still have my alchemy and reactions, and I still am faster than she is, although not by an insurmountable amount anymore. Gem hardened her carapace instead, making herself visible in the process. Even if speed wasn’t allowed, Gem still had hundreds of ways to win a fight. Pheromones weren’t the best option out here in open air, but she could try to immobilize the mare or knock her out, and bite her. After all, there was such a thing as not wanting to be a killer and also being stupid about things, and those two were separated by a very thin line. Desert Shade quickly grabbed a pill from a pouch hanging around her neck, bit down, and swallowed. “Run off home to your daddy, or you’ll get hurt,” said the hippogriff, reaching for a black tube on a belt around her chest that fit just right into her talons. “You have no idea with what you’re dealing with, little filly,” Gem shook her head, and started drawing upon the centuries of combat experience of her mother and Five. “Try me!” Desert Shade grinned. Gem darted forward and sideways, having the speed, agility, durability, strength, and presumably the advantage in knowledge if not raw experience. Desert Shade just swung the short black stick in her direction. Gem’s reaction time made it so that she saw it as if in slow motion. A gun, it has to be. It was easy to position herself in a way that no matter what shot in her direction, it couldn’t hit. The problem was that it wasn’t a gun. Gem’s twisting lunge brought her within reach of a steady beam of energy suddenly bursting out of the weapon, and cutting Gem’s foreleg off with just a flick of Desert Shade’s talons. Gem unsteadily landed on three legs, immediately receiving a kick in the side from Des which sent her on the ground. A laser sword? Alright, heat resistance it is. Regenerating the cauterized stump of my leg will take a moment I don’t have right now, though. Desert Shade slashed down against Gem’s chest, the energy blade of the sword leaving behind only a harmless black line. That was the time Gem needed to regenerate her foreleg with a grunt. Flicking a switch on her sword, it changed color, and slashed again. Gem screamed as she felt the chilling, burning, and rotting of her carapace, flesh, and ribs underneath. Then, as the paralyzing pain dropped to manageable levels, she felt the heat too close to her left eye. It can switch between heat energy and some other kind of radiation, more than one likely. Why isn’t FIVE using something like that? Where did it come from?  Faced with the knowledge that there were no changelings anymore into whose mind she could escape if her body got destroyed, Gem didn’t dare move even as her eye was tearing up from the closeness of the bright sword. “You don’t know anything about what’s going on, little Gem -don’t look at me like that, I know exactly who you are- and if you did, you’d act like those stupid, short-sighted alicorns up above. This is older than us, older than them, and older than this world. I would cut your head off, but we might need the dwarves and changelings yet. Don’t you dare take those istrium jewels off unless you want the world- to fuck everything up. Now limp off to your daddy and do what he says if you want to be helpful again. Good job with the Soulstealer, though. I gotta thank you for that.” Gem hissed as Desert Shade moved the sword, and sliced a long line from her neck down. It was a shallow wound, considering that she could probably cut Gem in half straight up with just a flick of her foreleg. “This is just a warning. If you follow me, I will kill you,” the hippogriff turned around, picked up the presumed time-slowing device, and resumed walking south. Gem was focusing on healing herself, but she couldn’t stop herself from grinning. No, that just means I won’t underestimate you again, and I have the love to be truly undetectable. As soon as Desert Shade disappeared from view, Gem vanished. *** The earpiece deep within Des’ ear beeped, making her click her teeth, and breathe out a silent: “What now?” A Corrupted sprouted from the ground in front of her, and a handsome one on top. A differently-pitched beep in her ear announced that her detector caught something else behind her. Contrary to popular belief, wild Corrupted these days weren’t needlessly violent, rather curious about travellers if they didn’t prove to be easy prey. This one, however, she knew. “Oh fuck, Heavy...” she whispered, glancing behind her, “And Discord who finally discovered a washing machine and a gym,” she started moving sideways to get them both into view. “Does this ring a bell?” Cromach transformed into his griffon self. Des scowled in response. “With real Heavy around, I assume that’s not just some kind of illusion. Besides, Joy is still alive too. What do you two want?” “Answers,” Cromach cracked his talons menacingly, “And by the method of elimination, you’re the last one left to ask.” “Look, I wasn’t instructed about what to do in case you were still alive, likely because none of us thought you were after-” she stopped herself, and nodded to Cromach, “Nevermind. In case I met Heavy, I was supposed to say that you were on the wrong side once and never since then. Keep the track record straight.” Heavy opened his mouth, his eyes going wide. Des immediately hissed at him: “Don’t say it, don’t even think it, wear more instrium from now on!” she pulled a bunch of bracelets from her saddlebag, and tossed them at Heavy who caught them with his tentacles, “You two are targets with the highest profile. The only reason I’m even thinking about speaking with you now is that everyone is occupied with the Herald, and I can’t afford both of you on my back. I know my limits. You should stay inside the istrium safehouse in Brauheim from now on until the end. The more you know, the bigger the chance of everything going down the drain.” “Alright then, Des,” Heavy said over Cromach’s fuming at not receiving any information again, “Can you at least explain the istrium? I know it’s a good metal, but is it just for the magic resistance? Scrying spells, maybe?” “Scrying magic in Equestria, sure,” Des rolled her eyes, “Look, all I can tell you is that everything up to summoning the Herald was planned. Unfortunately, Flow wasn’t supposed to get his ass kicked, so things are a bit dicey at the moment.” “Ending the world isn’t a good plan,” commented Heavy, “We don’t know how long the alicorns can hold the monster and the horde of shadows. And how does Mistake and the zebra army fit into it?” “That’s the final part of the plan that I don’t know. I can’t know, in case the prying eyes get into my head.” “Badlands hive, and Silver Sun money. Now!” Cromach choked out through gritted beak. “Are you still on the two least important parts of this?” Des rolled her eyes again, and sighed when she saw Cromach’s eye twitch, “Look, I was using my… mother’s,” she scowled, “Silver Sun card to pay for a lot of stuff. Bucket knows everything, but it’s all locked in the memory banks of his main body. He’s the only one allowed to know. because his emotions don’t draw attention, and he can always look as if he knows nothing, because that’s how it really is if he locks his memory archives away. He was the one who planned all this based on specifications from,” she traced several lines on her face, lines resembling an angular mask, “I’ve been consulting him so that I wouldn’t make a mistake. As for the Badlands hive, it was the safest place in the world due to Chrysalis’ throne. It’s the biggest chunk of raw istrium in the world. So powerful that, in fact, it suppressed Discord’s powers when he lived inside his pocket dimension in Badlands with his lover before my father offed him for good. No one and nothing magic or divine could see there. Unfortunately, Celestia’s lapdog and beardo’s filly fucked everything up, so we had to pack.” “Alright, let’s say I believe the message you had for me,” said Heavy, “How do we help?” “Heavy, I’m going to need some explanations,” Cromach frowned at him. “No,” said the Corrupted, “All you need to do is a reminder of where your real loyalty lies. Has it ever been with the alicorns, or with us? What Des reminded me of was a promise I made a long time ago after my mistake almost cost us everything, and I resolved never to question my heart again. Neither should you.” “Heart-” Cromach froze. “Don’t say it, don’t think it, don’t draw the attention of the eyes above,” said Heavy with a grin, “Toss him few of the bracelets too, will you, Des?” She was already throwing them at Cromach who returned back into his draconequus form, and caught them. “What do we do now?” he just asked. “Since you so ‘helpfully’ killed Flow before Mistake could finish the unsealing ritual, I’m not exactly sure. I’m heading off to the Maneattan to consult Bucket.” “I know what to do, but I can’t explain for the same reason like Des. I need you to trust me. Ruins of Manehattan- dont’t think it!” Cromach punched himself in the face to focus on anything else than Heavy’s words and the image they immediately conjured up. “I’m good at thinking nothing, and even better at punching. What do you want?” “Leave me out of this, I’m not doing anything off of a wild guess,” objected Des. “Then help us in a different way. We’re going to need someone who knows how to get into pocket dimensions, one in particular, one that even Cromach here knows.” “You mean Joy?” asked Cromach. “Who else than our lusty readhead nutcase?” Heavy shrugged. “But she’s a lost Corrupted.” “So were you, and you got cured.” “Yeah, but it required mental magic specialists, Nightshade to control corruption, the chemistry -oh, now I know why you want Bucket- and most of all it needed Blaze himself to be there for my memory to kick in. Do you think we would be enough to kickstart her? I mean, Chrysalis might help with the mental stuff, but she will want to know everything and we can’t tell her. You might be able to help with the corruption, though.” Heavy sighed. “No, I don’t think we will be enough for her mind to start working. We weren’t with her when she returned to this world as an alicorn. The only creature who was with her from the start was that dragon - Vertradict. He is the friend we’ll need. As for a mental magic or skill specialist if Chrysalis refuses… maybe one last service from the Brauheim hive?” “That might work, but we’d have to do the procedure in Brauheim. Silver Sun mansion doesn’t have the facilities to hold a Corruptor Queen. I know how much trouble it was holding me without stasis. How in the world do we get her to Brauheim anyway? She kicked our asses last time.” Heavy slumped on the ground. “I don’t know...” he punched the ground, “Can’t any of you think of something? Maybe Des’ stasis devices, maybe Bucket might come up with something, maybe-” They all heard the clearing of a throat from nearby, but didn’t see anyone other than a slightly shimmering bark of a tree that hadn’t been there before. Rushing over in horror of being overheard, they read the fresh writing on the bark in glimmering goo: I heard everything and I am the only one who can help. Return to Brauheim with the cure. I’ll handle the rest. Cromach snapped his talons, and the writing disintegrated along with the tree. “How did she avoid my scanners?” hissed Des, “We need to kill her right now. She knows too much!”  *** Great, that’s what I get for trying to help. Why was she trying to help anyway? Harriet had talked about Heavy Hoof and, just like Cromach, he was supposed to be the good guy. Desert Shade had done everything she could to be the bad guy, and to release the Herald, so why had the two sane guys just turned on a bit and joined her? She was helping because she could see through ponies, and none of them acted like someone trying to survive by joining forces with evil and groveling in front of it. In fact, they were all trying to solve a problem under someone’s noses, and from what she understood of the conversation, it wasn’t the alicorns. She probably just didn’t fully understand the situation. All that mattered to her was that she was in a position to help, or at least quite likely not make things much worse. Well, right after she managed to escape a Corrupted, a mare equipped with scanning tech on the level of the dwarves, and a demigod. Escape, though, didn’t always mean running away. She dropped her weight to next to nothing, she was invisible already, she stopped expelling heat and energy, and after one last breath in, she held it for a looooong time. For the rest of the world, she completely stopped existing, hoping she would be able to keep it up with what love she still had left. At first, they passed her on the way north, and then they passed her again, checking for tracks. In the end, they headed south. Gem hoped against hope that they opted to listen to her message. Five more minutes later, she was running again, swallowing love crystals whole. Time was of the essence. She was exhausted, but ecstatic as well, although she didn’t let it show. Sorry, Comfort. I am the best infiltrator now, by far. *** Gem entered the throne room of the hive like a rocket. Shortly after, more changelings joined, including her parents. She’d been calling for them ever since they became in reach. “Mom, dad, everyone,” she gasped for breath between words. Galloping that distance under an hour was a feat no one could laugh at, and she knew her body was going to pay for it, changeling or not, “I think… I think… I think we need to help.” “Look, even if we send someone to help stop the Herald, we can’t be sure anyone would believe our intentions-” boss replied. “No, that’s not it,” she turned towards Two, “Two, I need you to wipe my memories of the past… give or take an hour. Everything except what I marked as orders. Don’t try to look, don’t try to copy anything. I know it’ll be especially tempting for you, but it’s crucial.” “Okaaaay?” Two tilted her head. Gem didn’t wait, and looked at the boss again. “Seven, I need you to summon Comfort. I’ll need a second master of pure mental skills. Now for the most difficult part maybe other than mine,” she looked at One, at Five, and finally at Cryo, an ancient changeling queen almost twice the size of her father, and at a group of blue-ish changelings around her, “I need you to get a corrupted alicorn here alive, and I don’t know where exactly she is, only that she was last seen roaming king Chilly’s territory,“ she transferred her mind map of Equestria to them, since most of them hadn’t left the hive in centuries or ever, ”You will also need Three for energy and whatever other cheat powers he can provide.” “I hug,” Three flexed his forelegs happily, excited to be part of the action for once. “And what about you?” asked One, secretly aching for a fight of that magnitude. “I’ll be the one to get a half-insane corrupted dragon here,” grinned Gem. “You heard her,” boss looked at everyone, “You will all need your minds scrubbed, and I have to stay here to be the hive mind archive after you come back to restore it. My orders brought on a lot of unbelievably bad things recently, but we are still alive because of them. Now, go obey someone smarter for a while. Maybe it will be the second half of what we need.” *** Gem had never been happier to see apocalypse up close. The battle around the Herald was still going on, and by the looks of it that state of affairs was going to last. Spring’s Corrupted were easily matching the flow of shadows where ponies were dropping from exhaustion, and the lack of need for spells to win against conventional forces allowed the unicorns fighting the opening of the huge rift to switch shifts faster. Obviously, the main stopping force were the alicorns, but every bit helped. Gem found Harriet first. Changeling or not, no one bothered trying to prevent her to enter the scattered ranks of the army. The corrupted dragonpony was dragging the wounded off of the battlefield, occasionally clobbering shadows which slipped past the front line. Harriet had just carefully lowered a batpony onto a stretcher held by two medics who immediately ran off when Gem started talking as quickly as she could while still being possible to understand. “Harriet, we need to leave! Where are Promi and the others?”  “Gem? Gem!” Harriet gave her a big hug, “Where did you go off to? They said your hive was behind all- all that!” her back tentacle pointed at the Herald. “Yeah, I don’t get it either, but I think I know what to do to make things right, whatever that means, and I need specifically you for that.” “M- Me?” that took Harriet by such surprise that her back tentacles formed a set of question marks. “Neat,” Gem smirked, “Yes, you. Remember that corrupted dragon in Canterlot you talked about? We need him, and you might be the best one to talk to him at the moment.” “But that’s a two-week trip,” Harriet shook her head, “The princesses seem to be holding on, but that can’t last forever.” “EXACTLY!” Gem gave her a wide and slightly crazy smile coming from her partly wiped and fragmented memory, “So the sooner we leave, the sooner we get back, or do you think that carrying few wounded will turn the tide? Look around, they don’t need more menial workers, they need someone who can end this for real.” “I guess,” Harriet nodded, “So?” “Find Magpie. If I know the idiot, and I do know that idiot, he’ll be on the front line if he isn’t dead already. I’ll go get Promi and then pump all of you with so many drugs we’ll do the trip in two days tops.” Harriet rushed off without more questions, although it was obvious that she had many. Gem, on the other hole, had no answers, so the situation suited her perfectly. She found Prominence standing side by side with the supporting unicorns. “Hey, Promi!” Gem beamed. “You know, I’m going to need answers after all this is over,” hissed Prominence, sweat dripping down her forehead as she was sending a continuous beam of energy towards the distant rift. The energy was dispersing far away from it, but so were the beams of the group of alicorns, so it was probably sufficient. “You wanna make it be over, one way or the other?” Gem’s insane smile remained. “Do you know which way it’ll end?” “Nope?” “Do you know how?” “No idea!” “And you really need my help?” “Without a doubt!” “Alright,” Prominence stopped, and a unicorn quickly ran over to the group from the back lines, taking her place, “This is just slowing down the inevitable anyway. I’ll flip the coin and hope it lands on the evitable side no problem.” “Oh welcome back, Gem,” she heard Magpie’s voice from behind. He was raspy from exhaustion and dirty, but Gem immediately kissed him, forcing a lot of her saliva down his beak. When she broke the kiss, Magpie smirked, “And it looks like you missed me too.” She bonked his forehead. “Let’s see how happy you are to see me after a dragon either fries us on the spot, violates us with tentacles until the world ends, or we end all this.” “Can I pick one, or do I just get all of those?” Magpie felt his body heat up, and his heartbeat raise, “Oh gods… what did you drug me with?” “No time for chemistry lesson, really. Unlike Packy, you are tough enough to survive my dosage, which is why we’re not taking him,” the turned away from him, “Harriet, Promi, come get some too.” After two more kisses aimed at the two mares, Magpie felt on fire. When Gem ordered them to grab two saddlebags with food, he gladly obliged, and when she ordered to run, he ran. The freezing air was the only thing saving him from the molten heat inside, and the faster he galloped, the less painful it was. He was sure that if he stopped, he would burst into flames. *** On the morning of day three, the group stopped in front of the cavern atop mount Canterlot. They were sure they’d died on the way and Gem’s drugs had only temporarily brought them back to life. Everything was a blur. Magpie fantily remembered that at some point they’d been attacked by wild Corrupted Hunters, and by attacked he meant they had left the Corrupted in the dust behind them. How? What kind of performance drugs had Gem been mixing inside herself and filling them with over and over? On the other talon, the world hadn’t ended yet, even though it might end for them soon. “No time, no time, no time!” repeated Gem, her bulging and bloodshot eyes the reflection of his own.  “We need to take a breath, miss Gem,” Harriet put a tentacle on the changeling’s shoulder, “We can’t just rush in and wheeze aggressively at him.”  “...agreed...” croaked Prominence, pointing at Magpie who dropped on his knees and clutched his chest, “...and I’m pretty sure he’s having a heart-attack.” In hear head, Gem knew they couldn’t wait, that every second counted, and that the continued existence of the world relied on how long the alicorns would last, but Promi was right. According to Harriet’s original story, the dragon wasn’t particularly hostile, but rushing in like idiots wouldn’t help anything. She calmed down a little, mixing more chemicals inside herself as Magpie collapsed completely. She rolled the griffon over, and started her heart massage, occasionally interrupted by kisses to give him small doses of her saliva. She didn’t dare bite him in the current situation. Over the next five minutes, Magpie went limp, but at least he was breathing and looking up at the sky. “You were right, Promi, we need to take a breather, and eat something. Two days without food, on massive amount of drugs, and with muscles far past breaking point, we’re all going to pay for this sooner or later. Hopefully later,” she looked at Harriet with a serious expression, “We still can’t stop, though. Harriet, I need you to go inside and start without us.” “W-What?” she shuffled backwards. “Catbird here needs a little rest, but we can’t afford to just sit and wait for few hours. We still need to get back north with him, and that’s the biggest problem. Every breath we take might be the last one before the void rift opens completely and devours everything, so we need to make those count. Go in and talk to the dragon. If you come out running, we’ll try to talk some sense into him, or if everything fails we help you get away,” Gem pressed on, knowing that the group of changelings led by Five and Cryo would already be looking for… Joy, was it? That’s what they called the corrupted alicorn, “Oh, and tell the dragon we’re trying to help Joy. They’re supposed to be long-time friends.” Harriet took a deep breath to steady her shaking legs, faked the most official salute she could, and entered the familiar gloom of the cavern. For some time, there was nothing, only a winding stone tunnel, but then… ...this time she was experienced and suspicious enough to understand that the strange shiver passing through her was her being relocated somewhere else. Smirking to herself, she headed forward, and soon she started smelling the scent of sex, and hearing the moaning. Her body urged her to join as soon as she saw a male minotaur taking a Corrupted Breeder with wild abandon. It had no chance at taking over, however. Harriet herself was shocked at how little effect the inner heat was having on her. Her mission and the memory of Three kept her going around the fake bone couches, between the thick pillars leading all the way to the distant roof, and towards the massive black pile in the back of the cavern which opened one golden eye as big as Harriet herself. “Umm, hello, mister Vertradict,” she said, her voice much higher pitched than she expected. “I warned you, girl...” the dragon opened his mouth, and began rising to his full height.  “Wait, we need your help!” Harriet raised her voice. When it did nothing to stop him from moving, she added, “It’s about your friend Joy!” From his height, Vertradict lowered his nose to Harriet who could see, way too clearly for her liking, his massive and sharp teeth, each easily longer than she was tall. “She is gone, killed by-” “No, she’s not! My friend Gem said she just turned into a Corrupted, and we’re trying to help her recover,” Harriet interrupted him, “I, well, I mean I don’t know much about it. No one is supposed to know any details about what we’re doing, but I think it’s crucial to saving the world if it helps. There’s this huge creature up near the Crystal Empire trying to eat everything, and Gem thinks Joy is the one to stop it… I think. I’m guessing here, because she didn’t tell us anything, really, just that we really had to come here and get you there.” “I don’t know any ‘Gem’,” huffed Vertradict. “She’s a changeling, a really pretty one,” Harriet giggled nervously, “I mean, my tentacles get all wibbly whenever she looks at me, but she’s super smart. She’s outside if you’d like to-” “She’s right here,” Gem turned visible, immediately earning Vertradict’s irritated glance, “and after all this is over, I might give your tentacles the time of their life, Harriet,” she bowed before the dragon, which made him raise an eyebrow, “I can’t explain much, because I had to partially wipe my own mind. It seems that knowledge is our enemy in this situation, although I don’t know why. Some of the best changelings of my hive are currently trying to capture Joy, and will be bringing her north where we have the technology to cure her, or at least the best shot at doing so.” “And do you have the actual cure?” asked the dragon, “If one is completely lost, it’s not as simple as bringing a friendly face to jog their memories.” “I have a… umm...” Gem paused, “an ally going to Manehattan right now to get it. Supposedly, someone there has it. You might know him,” Gem was trying to extract as much information from whatever little she’d allower herself to remember from the overheard conversation, “Cromach.” Vertradict closed his eyes, and sighed. “More dead supposedly still alive.” “And someone called Heavy Hoof.” “He’s in this too?” Harriet perked up, “I know him, he’s a really nice Corrupted-” “And also the steward of Final Sanctuary, a soul chained forever to the alicorn of Death.” “Hey, he can’t be a bad guy,” objected Harriet, “He wasn’t shifty or scheming or anything when I met him in Manehattan.” “Don’t misunderstand me, Harriet,” tentacles shot from the ground, immediately binding both Harriet and Gem like mummies, “Only the young or foolish percieve death as evil. Violence is ‘evil’, because even used in self-defense it brings a cycle of pain and suffering. All creatures can be evil, but death itself? No, it is the end of pain, end of craving, end of everything, the final peace,” he put both of them on his back, “You said there were more of you.” “Outside, but it would be a good idea to let me warn them first so that they don’t freak out-” Gem started, only to be interrupted by Vertradict’s chuckle. “And what might they do against someone like me?” he headed off towards the exit of the cavern. “No, I mean that one of them just had a heart-attack, and I don’t think two in succession cancel each other out.” Vertradict ignored her, leaving the cavern in surprising silence for such a massive creature. As he peeked out from the shadows into the morning light outside, Prominence’s horn was already flaring to life. However, all that he said was: “Boo!” It lacked the desired effect, because the first and only thought on Magpie’s mind was ‘what went wrong now?’. The griffon wasn’t even in a state to be surprised when Gem stood up on Vertradict’s back, and waved at him. “Our ride’s here!” “...thank f- feathers I don’t have to run again...” he whispered just as tentacles sprouted from Vertradict’s foreleg, and pulled him onto his back. Prominence winced as the fresh appendages grabbed her, but didn’t resist otherwise. “I’m going to need some navigation here,” Vertradict spread his wings. “Wait, we’re going to fly? You can’t fly over corrupted land? What about flytraaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-” Gem’s eyes went wide as Vertradict leapt off of the plaza and into the air. With wind whistling in her ears, she looked down to see dozens of pillar-thick tentacles of the largest of flytraps aiming towards them. “Make yourself useful, unicorn!” said Vertradict, his booming voice loud enough to be heard over the wind. After taking a deep breath, he let out a plume of smoke which scorched three of the gigantic tendrils on the way up. “Horn rot!” Prominence called back at him. “There are no real Corrupted up here, only the plants. You’re safe from it,” answered the dragon as he smacked a flytrap tentacle behind him with his tail, causing it to miss and start retracting. “Gonna have to trust you on that! HOLD ME!” Prominence screamed, and pointed her horn down from the dragon’s side. A laser-thin beam of heat sliced another approaching tendril in half. Harriet’s own tentacles wrapped around her barrel as she started slipping while the corrupted dragonpony held onto one massive golden scale for her dear life further away.  For the next five minutes, Vertradict kept gaining height until only the most massive flytraps could reach, and there were so few of those that Prominence and his own fire breath could easily deal with them.  It was getting freezing quickly, something neither Harriet nor Magpie handled well. “Hey, Vertradict, can you deal with the flytraps on your own from now on? We’re got a situation here.” “No problem!” the dragon called back, “But I could use directions!” “Gem, how are you with sub-zero temperatures and rushing wind?” asked Promi. “You do know where my hive lives, do you?” Gem smirked, starting to climb on top of Vertradict’s head. “...smartass...” Prominence rolled her eyes, and sat down. After some concentration, the air around her started to wobble as the whole area heated up despite the roaring wind.   She could only sigh when Harriet, sitting in front of her with Magpie’s back against her chest, stretched her legs towards her. “I never dreamt that my contribution to stopping the end of the world would be as a campfire...” “Get in the line, I’m here just as a fluffy paperweight,” grumbled Magpie.