//------------------------------//
// We Are the Land: Twilight's entry III 
// Story: Corrupted Lands 
// by Nameless Narrator 
//------------------------------//

We have Canterlot.

The sentence shouldn't make me so happy, but that's how it is. The city I was born in, the heart of Equestria as I remember it, and the beacon of hope visible from Ponyville. Day after day I visited the surface, only to watch the dead mountainside city and feel my resolve fail. Day after day, while I was teaching in the Ponyville school I hoped any story I could tell was even close to showing the foals how monumentally important the white city was. And day after day, it wasn't enough.

We have recovered, and are repopulating, Canterlot.

I know I should mourn the loss of fifty ponies during the fights with the wild Corrupted, but I am only a mare. When I saw the old tower which I spent my filly years reading books in, I knew it was worth it, and if somepony is not convinced, then I will just have to try harder to make them see. Sadly, not everything is as amazing as I make it seem. Canterlot is a dead city, no matter what we do. In the old days it used to be a home to hundreds of thousands of ponies. Now, every living pony could pick a building and live inside on their own without having to worry about any sort of housing crisis. We cannot even raise the population limit much higher, because Canterlot cannot feed more than a hundred ponies no matter what we do.

However, this may be able to save the few pegasi we have left. If they can finally fly outside without the threat of flytraps then we might prevent more suicides that culled the pegasi population after we lost the surface. Nopony can imagine how difficult it is to live without one of your most basic needs. Well, since Canterlot is mostly made of stone and concrete then the flytraps cannot simply grow there, and pegasi should be able to stretch their wings if they fly low. Not too surprisingly, many ponies are signing for relocation to Canterlot because they want to live under clear sky, and not in the crowded underground. We are going to lose some sense of community, but I believe we will also gain much more.

Note to self - with decreased population of Ponyville, we could transform more space into mushroom farms, and underground cultivation areas for crops. Plus, as we are able to recover more and more farmland around the town thanks to Nightshade's hive, we could populate Canterlot to a decent degree. All that remains is to order periodic scouring of town for Corrupted and the flora surrounding them for several weeks, and then secure the main gate of the city. The first time Canterlot fell, it was because we were surrounded and cut off with not enough supplies to feed the citizens. The following uprising and exodus of ponies through corrupted countryside into Ponyville left only a hoofful of them alive. This time we have underground supply routes, Ponyville mines and blacksmiths churning out equipment, and a fortress which can be attacked via only one, fairly thin mountain path.

Canterlot will not fall again!

To ensure that is not an empty promise, I am cooperating tightly with Queen Nightshade to find every weakness of the Corrupted we can use. She is worried we will use it against her, but we have never been the aggressors. If Ponyville hive stands with us, then we will stand with them in their time of need against anypony and anything which dares to pose a threat. I have never thought I would say that - but if Corrupted can be a part of the society, no matter on what level, then so be it. They are fascinating creatures with unusual thought patterns and habits. All in all, ponies, even the soldiers tasked with surviving danger on the surface, are gradually getting to accept the Corrupted roaming around Ponyville and doing their business, which generally is mating and finding food.

At first, it was only Nightshade's willpower and mental strength holding them at bay, but the big breakthrough came with some of our food-focused scientists' attempts at growing what they call "corrupted berries". I know, it is not an innovative name, but it serves its purpose. We tried to find a name which would fulfill the scientific naming conventions, but we couldn't understand the berries enough. As mentioned before, Corrupted are more plant, or mushroom, based lifeforms, but the ability to metamorphose their bodies to an unprecedented degree without the use of a horn or any other magic-focusing appendage says something different. I believe they can use magic, the energy in everything around, and transform it at will because they are made of it, at least partially. This theory is yet to be tested, but my observations lead me to believe that the Corrupted percieve mass, energy, magic, and possibly even divine power as one and the same thing.

The berries are the manifestation of that.

They are less a kind of food, and more a biochemical power source. I attempted to extract the energy using various means and store it in crystals, but all experiments ended with the vessel shattering. Either my means of transport are insufficient, or the power stored in the berries is much greater than our crystals can handle. If the Crystal Empire was still a place, I could order sets of minerals to experiment with and figure it out. Sadly, the crystals around Ponyville are sub-par at best. This might change when we resume mining operations inside Canterlot mountain, but that is still at least months away. The theory about the power in the berries being too great seems correct, however, as Nightshade explained that Corrupted can live months on single one.

Which leads us back to the cooperation topic.

The berries, for lack of a better word, seem to condensate the essence of life itself into a piece of "fruit". The mere presence of Corrupted in an area is enough to make it happen naturally. HOWEVER, our unicorn wizards quicky found a way to crystalize the berries faster. Since Nightshade told us the Corrupted were starving as well, we fed them some of the ones created by us. They proved to be a much less nutritional than the natural ones, but more than enough for Corrupted to gain more physical and mental strength. Now that they are well-fed, the Ponyville hive is much more willing to obey Nightshade, thus taxing her mind less and allowing her to imprint more rules for them to follow. The more interesting thing is that well-fed Corrupted hold much lesser need to spread, as they are not threatened by death.

The next two experiments were dangerous, but determined that we CAN trust the Corrupted around us.

When Nightshade told me the theory of possible extinction being the reason for uncontrolled cancerous spreading, we asked for volunteers to repeat Mana Burn's experiment. As they mated with several satisfactorily fed Drones, Hunters, and even Protectors, Nightshade followed the spread of corruption within the subjects, noticing the effects of taint being nearly nonexistent. I am not going to spread the information about it being mostly fine to have sex with Nightshade's Corrupted, but it is one less thing to worry about. A thing to note - only one stallion out of the volunteers wanted to mate with a Protector mare. Perhaps they can't handle not being in charge of such situation and under a strong mare's hooves.

The second experiment was mostly an accident, but one much more rewarding than the previous one.

One of Nightshade's rules of cooperation was to allow free access for her Corrupted to the entirety of the underground enclave. It was a tall order to prevent panic and violence, but we had little choice after the big battle. The Corrupted followed Nightshade's rules to the letter, which could not be said about our foals. Several got out on the surface through the open tunnels, and were found and returned by Nightshade's Hunters, who showed great pleasure in the chase. None of the younglings were tainted or hurt, so we allowed a monitored group to play outside. Of course, they eventually went to play hide and seek, so I asked the Nightshade to explain the rules to a Hunter.

The results were, as my long-gone friend would say, totally awesome.

Nightshade's Hunters suffered because of the peace treaty, having to venture outside of the hive territory to chase prey and satisfy their instincts. No other kind aside from Corruptors had such a problem, but Corruptors are weird to say the least. Protectors patrol the borders of Ponyville, Drones move stuff and do some things to plants we have yet to examine, Breeders are enjoying the lifted ban on sex with friendly Corrupted, and Nightshade suffers less headaches because of it. Hunters, however, were the issue until we gradually allowed ponies of all ages to spend their time outside. The possibility of playing chasing games, even if they have to limit themselves, is enough to keep the Hunters content. Our ponies are happier, although quite worried, to be on the surface, and the Hunters chase down those who wander too far away and lead them back. Everypony wins.

There is no way for wild Corrupted to understand what is happening in Ponyville, but those under control of an "understanding" Queen are proving to be a blessing in black and oily disguise. Also, happy Corrupted are more cooperative during long experiments. With Ponyville starting to thrive, I was allowed more intricate experiments on the kinds of Corrupted previously difficult to touch - Protectors, Corruptors, and Queen Nightshade herself.

Let us start with the simplest ones - Protectors. While the lesser Corrupted are mostly satisfied with mating and finding food, Protectors are purely territorial, and are never a part of a roaming group for long. In short, they need a territory to settle down in and protect, as the name we gave them suggests. While wild Protectors are limited to protecting only the area of their choosing, ponies turned into them can easily become the bodyguards of another pony or Corrupted whom they consider worth it. According to Nightshade, Protectors are the rarest kind of Corrupted, aside from Queens, due to the naturally high requirements on their mentality and physical attributes. My son Mana Burn is one of them now, and his participation in the experiments alongside the normal Protectors of Nigthshade's hive told us a lot about the differences between transformed Corrupted and the ones born naturally. First of all, the transformed Protectors cannot achieve the sheer size and physical toughness of their natural counterparts. However, as seen by Chilly destroying the Ponyville titan, size and natural armor come second to the higher intellect of the transformed ones. The smaller, and by "smaller" I mean up to the size of male alicorns, Protectors like Bastion and Mana Burn cannot break through a wall or withstand a falling meteor like a wild Protector shaped by a Queen to explicitly do so, but the remains of pony within them allow them to metaphorically outmuscle the wild ones.

The penultimate class of Corrupted are the Corruptors, and their research is a pain in the plot. From what little I have managed to find out they have no set physical form, little to no need for standard corrupted berries, and their mentality is completely different from the other Corrupted. To be honest, they feel like a totally different species. Since their bodies are much more moldable than that of any other Corrupted including Queens, they can move in yet unforseen patterns, like phasing through solid matter or inside ponies akin to a disease. Sadly, this means they are nearly immune to any physical damage, telekinesis, or magic causing kinetic effects. They are also non-reliant on common senses. They percieve the world via some sort of "aura" emitted by any living being, making masking spells completely ineffective against them. As for the food, when they get hungry they simply corrupt any matter nearby and absorb it. This includes plants, ponies, other Corrupted, liquid, and even rocks. In their feeding patterns they prove to be different from other Corrupted who do not attack each other unless ordered by a Queen or remaining in someone else's territory for far too long. While the mentality of normal Corrupted can be understood by basic instincts, that of Corruptors cannot. Their only desire is to spread corruption and cover anything which is not tainted yet. However, since they have no real will of their own, unlike any other Corrupted, they obey their Queen no matter what the order is.

The last but definitely the most terrifying class is a Queen. They are collectively insane, as Nightshade told me. They possess pony-like intelligence, but they are also pushed beyond its limits by the commands ingrained within the Corrupted hive mind - spread, breed, dominate. Without this obstacle, I believe it would be possible to strike alliances or communicate with hives on regular basis. However, the Queens are specifically instructed to transform ponies, an order which is becoming more and more prevalent in their minds, as if something was pushing them to aggressively find the last of ponies and taint them. A lock against cooperation like this, the rapid spread of the Corrupted without any previous trace of them, and their physical attributes are more of a reason to think that someone or something made the Corrupted with the sole purpose of annihilating ponies, and that said creator had the means to link every single Corrupted all over the world into one mind into which he put the instructions. Such power could only come from ancient alicorns or gods themselves, but none of this shows any marks of Discord's or Nightmare's modus operandi.

Well, back to the Queens. Despite being a class of their own, they seem to assume the major attributes of one of the other classes as well as their major skillset. The defeated Ponyville Queen was doubtlessly a Queen of Hunters, indicated by the structure of her hive, her reliance on overwhelming the enemy with numbers, and not the greatest strength or endurance. Nightshade is a Queen of Protectors, as expected of an ex-Hex Guard, and her natural desire not to increase her hive's numbers, but to strenghten every single individual in it. This leads me to believe she will never be able to use some of the more magic-like abilities of the Corrupted like ignoring physical matter and transforming the world with only the power of will. The Queen of Corruptors in Canterlot was her exact opposite, and I am beyond ecstatic for her to be gone and purged with fire. Her reported abilites make me think the Queens can empower Corrupted of their class somehow. I don't envy poor Bound Tome having to deal with the empowered Corruptors. For some reason I believe there is no Queen of Drones, because submissiveness is not in their nature by definition, but I imagine a Queen of Breeders to possibly exist as a broodmother able to estabilish and nurture a massive hive. Hmm... what would a Queen of Queens be like?

Now, the notion of Queenhood and spreading is definitely connected with motherhood. However, I see no reason for there not to be a possibility of a King Corrupted. None have yet been reported, though.

Getting this kind of information was only possible because I had one other reason to believe Corrupted can become allies - my mentor's notes currently being deciphered by princess Luna and the previously mentioned semi-corrupted unicorn by the name of Bound Tome.

Bound Tome and Luna have managed to read the first part of the journal, which is both chilling and hopeful at the same time. The exact methods written in it are beyond the scope of this entry, but during the march of Golden Legion, princess Celestia successfully captured and dissected many Corrupted, coming to some of the conclusions I did in my research with Nightshade. Since Celestia had no reason to be gentle in the experiments, she and her unicorns revealed a rather invasive way of breaking into the mind of the Corrupted...

...then she used it on her soldiers.

I can understand the despair which had driven her to do so. I saw the pony race dwindle into almost nothing. However, I would have never gone with the orders she gave her ponies. She turned her legion into Corrupted one by one, slowly and carefully preserving their minds while granting them Corrupted abilities. It wouldn't have worked with normal ponies, but the strong soldiers of crazy willpower went through with it, and evolved into something else. Celestia turned the Golden Legion into a Golden Hive, and set herself as the Queen, taking away any free will her soldiers may have had. It was the only way to cut them off of the hivemind gnawing at their resolve and sanity. I know the soldiers would have followed her to Tartarus and back even without the change, but... I cannot say I would have done the same. On the bright side, we are now sure that both Chilly and Bastion used to be the Legion's soldiers, and their skills and power give me tiny bit of hope that there are some more places protected by more surviving members.

The last thing - Joy and the Cult of Lust. After killing the Corruptor Queen, Vertradict and Joy retreated back to their pocket dimension, refusing any other request for cooperation. I cannot blame her, although I would like to. Joy used to be a batpony over two centuries ago, one of princess Luna's best Nightguards. How she became an alicorn is beyond me, but her reason for hating both Luna and me is crystal clear. On Luna's orders fueled by lack of information, I got involved in a fight between an insane archmage and Joy's lover, the alicorn of Hope. The archmage stole my power to bolster his own and kill him. Joy, however, should have been dead at the time, having been killed by the mage weeks before that. My only explanation is that her unexplained ascension to alicornhood allowing her resurrection left her with time to find out what really happened, and to become really bitter towards us. That, however, is a different story for a different time.


- The Journal of Twilight Sparkle, entry 359