Corrupted Lands

by Nameless Narrator

Heart of Old Equestria: Never surrender

With Bastion's wing wrapped tightly around me, I am half-dragged, half-running up four flights of stairs again. It's happened far too many times today already, and I am on the verge of throwing up and just lying down on the floor to wait for the end.

What would it change?

Nightshade must have gotten to Ponyville during our first flight through the castle, and the rescue force has to be massing in order to save at least princess Luna. Even if that is not the case, then what can a single pony, especially sompeony like me, do? To be completely honest, what can even a titan like Bastion do in a situation like this? Canterlot is lost, and it is only a matter of time when the Queen breaks through princess Luna's protection. Perhaps I should have waited with the few wounded in the east wing.

No, I need to get princess Celestia's journal to Ponyville no matter what happens. From what I've read about the expedition, she did not have that many ponies with her, but they still managed to get across half of old Equestria with, at least according to the journal, minimal losses. These days we consider an organized force of twenty Corrupted a deadly encounter, and WE are the ones who should have years of experience in dealing with the enemy.

Passing by the library again, I long for the boring and depressing life of mere hours ago. However, the heat of Bastion's sweating muscles pressed against my side burns away the memory of loneliness. He is a soldier who survived the effects of corruption, although not without a sacrifice. He has been protecting Canterlot for a century following his return home ALONE through territory after territory of hostile Corrupted just to deliver a journal which may or may not contain something valuable. All that only thanks to the burning desire to protect.

And I wanted to get into the Hex Guard just to earn a modicum of respect and possibly some tail. No wonder I failed over and over. The harsh training has never been about building muscles or endurance, but about testing one's drive and willpower to never give up while going through it.

As far as I know, the journal might not change anything now that there are too few ponies to actually retake and hold any bigger territory, but I owe it to all the guards whose image I tarnished by my stupidity and mere presence to deliver it.

I don't matter. The agony of my legs and crushing exhaustion don't matter. If I have to die, then it will be only after I can say - I did everything I could.

We end up inside the breached bathroom, and I once again pray that my suit of armor is as good as it seemed until now. Bastion understands when I point to the hole leading into the thick drain pipe, wide enough for two normal ponies, and his black coat hardens, transforming into a replica of the Nightguard armor I am wearing.

"Alright, I'll go first and see if there is anypony do-whoa!" he sweeps me off the floor into a tight hug of legs and wings, and jumps into the hole.

The snarling of Hunters chasing us is cut off by rushing air.

Thankfully, the pipe is not just a straight hole in slick concrete, but rather a slide, although one admittedly leading far more down than a stomach would find comfortable.

An impact.

Water in my helmet.

Can't get up in this thing.

Can't breathe.

Dragged upwards.

Coughing.

Thankfully, since Canterlot is a dead city, the sewers underneath are mostly unused, and the water is crystal clear, coming from a well somewhere inside the Canterlot mountain. At least dying of dysentery later is out of the question. I don't know the layout of the sewers, but I know what direction leads towards the mountain. If we get to some dead ends there, we just need to go along, and eventually we should find one that leads to the waterworks. As I take a step to leave, Bastion stops me, points to the hole in the ceiling, and starts counting on his talons.

One, two, three.

He holds his halberd firmly, the spike on its top aimed straight into the hole.

A Hunter comes down at such speed it skewers itself on it. Bastion crushes the corpse with his hind hooves, absorbing the Hunter's mass into himself.

"Heh heh heh..." he snickers.

"Creepy, but effective, I guess," I croak, dry throat burning from my irregular breathing.

Bastion looks reinvigorated by the deed, making me slightly jealous of my desperate need to eat, sleep, breathe, and some other vital things. Scratching noises from above tell me that more enemies are coming, although at a much slower pace now. This is our best time to lose them, so I fight through my splitting headache, and conjure a sound-dampening bubble around both of us. Complete soundproofing is out of the realm of possibility for me now, so this will just have to do.

During the next half an hour, black and yellow spots stop appearing in front of my eyes, and my lungs only hurt now, not burn with the anger of a supernova. Things look up as we finally reach one the waterworks inside the Canterlot mountain. The tunnels are still shored up from the mining operations which had been going on here some thirty years ago. These days, all mining is done under Ponyville because these sewers were too easy to drop into from Canterlot city, and we lost too many mining crews.

Not that I was alive in those days, but reading DOES have its advantages.

Thankfully, now I can finally overcome my objections to drinking sewer water, because it turned to a mountain stream, if only by name. Excellent! Now I am only starving and exhausted, but not completely parched.

"If I remember my history correctly, then there should be mining shafts leading down the mountain to its base. Some of the old Ponyville-Canterlot tunnels join the main tunnel we use today, but those entrances are sealed. There are others which lead to the vicinity of the enclave, though."

Bastion sniffs the air and looks at the ceiling. Chill runs down my spine.

"No... please no... not again..." I whine as black drips moisten the rocky ceiling, "THEY CAN MOVE THROUGH A MASS OF SOLID ROCK?!"

With the first of the alicorn-like Corruptors forming in the shaft, Bastion gets serious and puts me on his back. I get the feeling that even he believes we are outmatched.

He is right.

The Corruptors give us no chance of retaliation, as they fuse with the shaft's walls and their progress is shown only by thick black veins quickly closing in on us. Biting my lip and holding Bastion's halberd while my other front leg is wrapped around his neck, I scream as a thin arm with razor-sharp talons comes from the black vein and swipes at us.

"LEFT!"

His reflexes are still top-notch, and he fluidly dodges the blow. The Corruptors move through solid matter faster than we can run, though, and the attacks start coming from all directions.

I cough out blood, as a barrier I quickly conjure while Bastion avoids a different blow shatters from an attack from the ground.

We enter a cavern with veins of crystals and metals ending in a tunnel leading upwards. Heavy duty mining had to be going on here before the operations were stopped, but some of the equipment is still lying around. In the light of my horn, this place should be a beautiful sight. Tears well in my eyes, however, as I come too close to the breaking point once again.

The Queen is in front of us, two Corruptors by her side, and two more forming out of the shadows of the tunnel we have just left.

"Shiffffty prey," her hissing voice makes me tremble, and she looks at Bastion, "Fake... pretender... to be one of ussss. Useless..." giving me a lidded gaze and licking her lips, her expression brightens, "You, however... are interessssting. I sssense your desire... deep down. You wisssh to embrace me, to become more than you are... to gain endless pleasure. Sssso pent up... soooo deliciousss. Bow down to me... and I will reward you..."

I wonder how it would feel to have the Queen open like a bodysuit and engulf me, how it must have felt to the pony she devoured in the throne room. Even the Nightguard mare in the library seemed in complete bliss when the Corruptor melted her from the inside.

"I can feel... you thinking..." she hisses again, "I will transssform you into a part of me... and feed you the alicorn..."

"Princess Luna is still alive?" I can't help asking.

"Tough... resistant... draining her power will be a feasssst."

"And the others?"

"My... hive..."

The two words confirm my fears. It is just princess Luna, me, Bastion, and possibly the wounded locked away in the east wing left. Near the exit leading upwards, I notice a red, wooden barrel. Thank stars for easily-recognizable color coding.

"Bastion," I whisper, knowing the Corrupted Protector's hearing, "Get the journal to Ponyville, will you? When it begins, rip the bag off my back and run towards the exit."

Having access to the restriced part of the royal library had its advantages, namely allowing me a peek into kinds of magic nopony should know. The theory, to be precise, of blood magic and necromancy, and where they draw power from. There are no souls of the dead to call upon, but there is enough blood inside me to channel into energy.

"From the corners of the world, I summon the four guardians," I pronounce clearly. Chants and mantras are unnecessary, but they help less-skilled wizards focus. Here comes the difficult part. Self-preservation instinct, please don't stand in my way now!

Finally determined to do something useful with my life, I impale my leg on my horn, successfully cutting an artery and stopping only when my horn scrapes the steel armor on the other side.

"Earth," four pillars of risen ground crush the Corruptors against the ceiling. They start reforming quickly, but that is not my concern.

"Ice," the Queen freezes in a thin block of ice which cracks immediately, but seconds are all I need... and have left, at least if the blood squirting from my leg is any indication.

"Wind," a burst of compressed wind shoots the recovering Queen away.

The last one is only a whisper, because my vision is nearly black.

"Fire," a roaring flare shoots from my cut leg straight towards the red barrel which is doubtlessly filled with explosives used for razing tunnels.

Hey, I am not completely stupid. The scorching heat burns my leg, cauterizing the wound and leaving black marks on the steel armor.

The Queen can take me if she wants, but Bastion and the journal will have a chance to-

"BLRBHFLT!" I turn from a unicorn standing still, well - wobbling on the spot, into a grey blur crushed by instant acceleration.

A second later I get singed again by the ball of fire I shot as I speed PAST it and into the tunnel.

Did I miss the earth-shattering kaboom?

Aaaaah... here it is.

Before the shockwave hits, a pair of legs and wings wrap around me once again, saving me from becoming marmelade in the steel can of my platemail. The tight ball of Bastion and me gets shot at a meteoric speed upwards the collapsing tunnel, crashing through a trap door into a large cavern.

Large... carpeted... cavern?

I could ponder about ponies and Corrupted around us, staring in shock. I could also ponder about the black alicorn immediately coming from the cavern's shadows. Last, but not least, I could ponder about the narrowed yellow eyes as big as I am belonging to an enormous scaly head.

All of those would be excellent and smart choices.

So, it makes complete sense that I do none of that, and throw up inside my helmet while passing out on the carpet due to hunger, bloodloss, and complete exhaustion.

Hey, at least the visor sliding up prevents me from drowning in my own vomit. The old blacksmiths sure knew how to make a good suit of arm-

Comments

[funguy26]

A chif hanger who was all the ponys in the room? Can't wait the story got me invested.

[Anonymous Critic]

I could ponder about ponies and Corrupted around us, staring in shock. I could also ponder about the black alicorn immediately coming from the cavern's shadows. Last, but not least, I could ponder about the narrowed yellow eyes as big as I am belonging to an enormous scaly head.

Black alicorn? There's only one black alicorn I know of, but... he's dead.

[Two_Madmans]

9390427
They all have shades of black color. And some have yellow eyes...
Wait a minute...