Corrupted Lands

by Nameless Narrator

We Are the Land: Mrrwrm! (True Queen)

"So, are you absolutely certain that none of your Corrupted did that?" asks Twilight Sparkle for the third time.

The tall, Corrupted Queen by the name of Nightshade rolls her eyes.

"Yes, yes, and yes. I know it's difficult to understand when you don't have absolute control over your subjects, but queen Chrysalis would already be looking for a different answer to why ponies are disappearing from Ponyville. She knows how hive minds dominated by a single ruler work."

The two have been debating the recent situation for half an hour without success. During past two weeks, several groups of farmers, mostly mares, have been abducted with visible signs of battle on each farm. No significant damage has been caused, but all more complicated tools, weapons, and supplies have been stolen along with the ponies. Neither Hex Guards nor the changeling Black Ops have found a thing leading towards explaining the events, so eventually Twilight Sparkle resorted to complaining to the only ex-pony capable of sufficiently defending the surface of Ponyville enclave - the slowly reconstructed Ponyville town.

Unfortunately, Nightshade could not feel any wild Corrupted in the vicinity of Ponyville, her Hunters and Protectors tasked with protecting ponies from hostile beasts raised no alarm, and Twilight Sparkle was far from happy, leading to the meeting currently going on in her office on top of the tree castle overlooking the regrowing town.

"All of the disappearances happened on the furthest reaches of Ponyville," the princess clutches at straws, "Could wild animals do this? A manticore or something?"

She knows it is nonsense, simple beasts don't steal equipment. Come to think of it, neither do the Corrupted.

"Look, Twilight," Nightshade is resolved to end this discussion, "The only Corrupted I can't sense are the ones transformed by princess Celestia and cut off from the hive mind. Even if it was a new hive settling in nearby, I could either sense their trespass into my territory or some of my subjects would. Us Queens are literally made to be able to feel and control other Corrupted, so I doubt I could somehow miss a wild pack running around and stealing both ponies and equipment. My best guess is that ponies did the abductions, and as such my Corrupted didn't bother checking it out. I can't really make such complex rules like which pony is and which is not a friend for them yet. My hive is growing smarter with each day, but making them into something even remotely resembling a society is going to take years."

"My little ponies understand how important it is to be kind to each other and cooperate to get through these years!" Twilight objects, "They would never hurt others!"

Nightshade facehoofs.

"Don't tell me you haven't lived through separatist groups trying to take over bits of land to create a domain they would rule? Come on, YOU teach little foals history down at the school. You taught ME when I was little. I know these things used to happen on monthly basis in the pre-corruption era."

"Well," Twilight hesitates, "yes, but that is what happens when ponies are safe and have time to think about the dark side inside them. If there is a good thing about the spread of corruption then it is that it forced us to work together tighter than ever before. The situation is still too dire for these things to happen, I think."

"Is it? For the first time in nearly a century it is possible to safely walk on the surface. The land around Ponyville is mostly unexplored, and there is enough food and weaponry being brought up from the enclave so that a group of power hungry maniacs could abduct ponies to be their slaves."

Twilight shakes her head.

"I doubt that is the case. We have lost ponies like this before, soldiers mostly, and it has always been due to Corrupted catching and transforming them."

"Well then," Nightshade says more aggressively than she wants, "I KNOW it wasn't my Corrupted and I am pretty sure no other hive or group is behind this. You FEEL that your ponies wouldn't sate their natural thirst for domination like this either. Wild animals wouldn't steal farming equipment and weapons. I guess the farmers just imploded into a tiny ball of joy and happiness, and got sucked through a black hole into the land of friendship where they play with their hoes, shovels, and ploughs."

"No need for that," Twilight frowns, "I just-"

"You just don't trust me enough to take my word for it not being any of US, but rather one of YOU!" Nightshade's tentacle tail cracks through the stuffy office air like a whip, "You have no clue what it feels like to have hundreds of minds in your head, and to have SOMETHING constantly nagging you to breed, kill ponies, transform everything into black goo and absorb it. I could have easily let Chilly or Mana Burn cut me off from the hive mind, but that would mean the Ponyville hive would go wild again and you would lose EVERYTHING! Instead, I have to constantly remind myself I at least USED TO BE a pony, and when it becomes too much I have to spend time with one of my separated guards to finally be ALONE. ALL THIS AND IT IS STILL NOT ENOUGH FOR YOU?"

"Listen, I am sorry to put you in a situation like this, but it is all for my ponies-"

"WHICH I AM NOT ONE OF ANYMORE, IS THAT IT?" Nightshade takes a deep breath as the betrayed feeling slowly subsides, and gives Twilight a cold stare, "You wouldn't ask one of 'your ponies' to do this, but I am just some THING for you to use. Well, consider this as me giving up my equinity... princess," Nightshade's coat disappears completely, turning into a mesh of scaly muscles harder than steel, and her wings, the last memory of her being a pegasus, retract inside her body, "I WILL find out what happened to 'your ponies' and I will end the threat," she hisses, "However, now that I know how you feel about US, how NOTHING has changed aside from US, I won't help you like this anymore. If you ever want something more, then be prepared to pay a price."

Nightshade storms out of the office, leaving confused and terrified Twilight sitting and staring at the door slammed shut so hard they cracked.

"We are not welcome here anymore," Nightshade scowls at Mana Burn and Chilly who were waiting outside, "We are nothing but tools to be used against wild beasts ponies couldn't tame."

"My Queen," Mana Burn matches Nightshade's angry pace, "What did princess Twilight say? To be honest, I don't wish to leave my home."

"DO YOU THINK I DO?!" Nightshade yells at him, tears welling in her eyes. She wipes them off and watches the wetness glisten on her new... body, "It's fine. My rules are still in effect. Corrupted are still allowed unlimited access to the enclave, so you can do whatever you want. Chilly and I are going outside. We have assholes to hunt."

"Do you mind if I talk to... my mother?" Mana Burn asks shyly.

"You are free to do what you want," is the only thing the grey unicorn Protector hears before his Queen storms away, followed by the white Hunter.

"Oh dear," he bites his lip, "This can't be right."

The fresh surface air cools Nightshade down, making her reconsider her transformation. She knows she acted rashly, but that does not change the fact that Twilight does not see her hive as more than animals. The hard part being she is mostly right. However, this means no more experiments, no more pointless discussions, and no more worried glances her way when she is asked to work with ponies.

As the last illusions of her equinity shatter, Nightshade can finally focus on being what she really is. Twilight will help the hive get food in exchange for protection, that is given. Her Corrupted feel easier around ponies, as their constant bustling around allows them not to think about the original orders of transforming or killing them. For now, the evil voice in their heads is shut off by Nightshade's instructions, pony interaction, and the hive's biological needs being sated.

There is no reason to worry too much. The alliance is so beneficial for both sides that breaking it is out of the question.

Chilly and Nightshade reach the place of the last disappearances. Just like many times before, there are clear signs of fighting, but no larger amounts blood, most of the light farming equipment is gone, and there are no traces of the attackers. With Nightshade's corruption settling deeper into her, she is able to send her mind further and further away to scout for hostile Corrupted. There are several packs of the wild ones, but she can sense their fear and respect of her preventing them from entering the hive's territory. However, there are little sparks of will not too far away from the hive's territory she cannot invade, just like several inside the enclave - semi-corrupted ponies no doubt. Probably one of Twilight's scout groups.

"Mrmmmrmm!" Chilly grumbles in his "annoyed cat" tone.

"What?" Nightshade scans his mind without a result, being gently pushed away by his force of will. The separated Corrupted rarely let her inside their minds. Mana Burn prefers to speak so he can think of himself as a pony. Bastion does not hold any loyalty for Nightshade, and so she has no place in his head. And Chilly is just Chilly, her secretive Hunter.

He shows her a broken branch here, an imprint of a hoof in the mushy corrupted soil there, but there is nothing she can put in place.

"It's not like we have any better lead... or any lead," she looks skeptically at Chilly still set on following a trail of what could just be a natural decay of trees and signs of a pony wandering off for a bathroom break. She knows to trust a Hunter, though, in the matters of finding something or somepony.

After about two hours of following a trail completely invisible to her, Chilly finally leads her to a path cut through thick vegetation. Nightshade invokes a mental map of her territory along with current positions of her hive. Ponyville is to the north, there are several Hunters and two Protectors within ten minutes' march, and they have made a circle around the edge of the hive's influence.

"So, whoever did this knows how far my Corrupted can go, knows the usual search area of guards well-enough to cover their tracks, but not for needlessly long time, AND has a hideout set up nowhere near any of the places the attacks happened. If a Corrupted did this, then they have a Hex Guard training, a school education, and Twilight is a potato," a quick mental search shows her a group of semi-corrupted ponies to the south, "Are the tracks going that way?" she asks Chilly and points towards where she senses the group. The Hunter nods, "Yeah... some bastards made a base just beyond the borders of my territory so that they could quickly return to the vicinity of Ponyville, and be protected by my Corrupted in case something hostile came from further south. They know I instructed my hive to protect any pony, known or unknown. And since I prefer not to spread my influence, they are pretty safe. So, there is at least fifteen semi-corrupted ponies who know about our habits and are armed. There can be any number of ponies whom I can't sense there as well. Do we bring in the cavalry, or are you up for some serious practice?"

"Mrrmr?"

"No, there's no need to be gentle with them. After all, Twilight insisted none of her ponies did it," Nightshade smiles sadistically, "Kill, transform, fuck, or do anything you want to anypony who resists."

Chilly's front hooves transform into razor-sharp white talons, his tail twists and grows a scythe blade on its end, and his coat glistens with ice and rime, hardening into armor.

The semi-corrupted earthpony sentry outside of the entrance into a cave opens his mouth to scream when he spots Nightshade calmly walking out of the shadow of trees. Black tentacles shoot out of the ground underneath him and choke his warning by filling his throat full of black biomass as he takes a breath to call for help. More and more tendrils cover him, solidifying into a coccoon on the ground which melts, and is absorbed through a hoof into Nightshade.

The Corrupted Queen steps into a wide cave lit by several torches and glowing crystals. A bunch of normal ponies and semi-corrupted ones are either having their way with other beaten, bruised, and shackled ponies, just chilling, or enjoying an orgy around a black blob in the back of the cave which Nightshade recognizes as a female Breeder.

"Oh yeah, grow another hole, you monster bitch, one of the newbies wants to play!" an earthpony currently buried balls-deep into an orifice on the end of the Breeder's tail sucking and slurping his member laughs and slaps the Breeder's pregnant belly.

His smile freezes when Chilly and Nightshade enter. Some of the shackled ponies gasp.

"Hello, dear food," Nightshade's pleasant smile is mirrored by terrified whines and hurried grasping for weapons, "Your princess signed your death warrant."

A semi-corrupted unicorn mare in Hex Guard armor slides off of a chained earthpony, obviously tortured by being forced to stay hard for countless orgasms with magic, still dripping his seed and levitating a sword. Her eyes betray that what little mind still remains before going full Corrupted is set on defending her prey from anypony who would take it.

"Heh, if Twilight left you alone for a week or two more then I could just come and collect you all for my hive," the snort of contempt is answered by the attack of the, while tainted beyond saving, still organized ex-guards.

Fifteen semi-corrupted ponies and ten normal ones, especially with combat training, would never be afraid of an attack from two Corrupted. One of them being a Queen as the big balancing factor, they poorly split their focus and heavily misunderstand that Chilly is the real threat while Nightshade mostly defends herself, her Protector transformation giving her tenacity and toughness to withstand magic and bladed weapons.

Soon, anypony resisting or trying to fight is incapacitated. Despite having free choice, Chilly opted for the non-lethal, although painful and possibly crippling, attacks.

As Chilly watches the rogue guards for any attempt to escape or attack, Nightshade unshackles the farmers.

"Where is the equipment they stole?"

"I-I-I-In the back," a trembling stallion answers, pointing towards a pile of something covered with tarp, "t-those are loaded carts."

"Good. Get them ready for transport. You are going home."

"Thank- Thank you!" the stallion bows and loses balance before being propped by a mare next to him.

"Now..." Nightshade ponders, turning to the bandits, "Who was the 'newbie' who wanted to join you?"

One of them nods towards an earthpony stallion who cannot be more than twenty years old.

"So, you wanted to know how a Corrupted tastes?" she grins, sits down, and spreads her legs, "How about I enlighten you?" he takes few zombie-like steps forward as Nightshade channels her inner Breeder and releases weak mind-clouding pheromones. They wouldn't work unless the pony really wanted it. He does, and a moment later he buries his muzzle in her crotch, "Mmmm, good food."

"Look, we just got caught in our lust for a while," a nearby bandit pleads, "We'll bring the supplies back, help the farmers, take night shifts, just-"

"I don't care," Nightshade moans, pushing the choking stallion between her legs deeper, "Twilight was vehement that- ooooh..." the stallions entire head slides inside her, "none- none of her ponies would do what you did. Thus," tentacles shooting out of her marehood entangle the unlucky stallion pleasuring her, crush him into mush, and pull the entire corpse melting into black goo inside her, "you are not ponies. And since you are not my Corrupted either, you are my enemies."

Her bulging, muscular belly returns slowly to its toned shape as she licks her lips. Only then she notices the farmers staring and whimpering in terror. She gives them a defiant look:

"Grab your stuff and get out. I called Hunters to escort you to Ponyville. If you have any complaints about what I'm about to do, go thank your princess for it."

The cavern floor turns soft and swampy, sticky holes opening underneath each bandit. Those resisting get dragged inside by tentacles, those limp and defeated simply slide in. There is no difference in their fates, though. All of them will be decomposed to nourish Nightshade, her hive, and her land.

The tentacles, being generally nice horrible abominations, hold the farmers standing in the wrong spots steady so that they do not suffer the same fate.

Feeling the power flowing through her coat of muscles, Nightshade knows fully that by publicly doing this, her equinity is gone forever.

Not that she minds anymore.

Comments

[funguy26]

wow is gone

[Anonymous Critic]

Deeper and deeper down the rabbit's hole we go!

[Two_Madmans]

Neither Hex Guards nor the changeling Black Ops

Changeling in Black Ops? Wha...
Oh, wait. Right. Chryssie renamed them after she met helping griffons.

[Blewfire]

I understand Nightshade's motives for what she did and doing. I think it will make things harder for her in the future. Because she is setting herself up judge, jury and executor. I kinda understand where Twilight is coming from too but I still kinda side with Nightshade.
That is one of the things about your stories I like. Is that you make situations where both sides are equally right and wrong. Like how things are in real live.

[ProjectRabbid]

crazy story so far

[Nameless Narrator]

11527044
Glad to hear it's worth the time spent reading.