Corrupted Lands

by Nameless Narrator

We Are the Land: Hai, Ai em nyu heer!

The moldy grey corrupted landscape is illuminated by an eerie pink glow coming from an enormous shimmering dome in the middle of nowhere. Freezing wind whispers in the black leaves and turns the dark grass crunchy. Dark forms of wild Corrupted slowly walk around, reaching for black berries which are not too high up in the trees from time to time. Here up north the winter starts much earlier than everywhere else, and the crisp air reveals there is not much time before the blanket of snow covers the land.

Blurs move on the inside of the magical pink barrier, dampened sounds of music and life reaching outside here and there. The outside of the barrier, however, is far from lively. Deserted houses, inhabited by Corrupted looking for any shelter, farming equipment left lying around, broken and unattended, ruins of landmarks being reclaimed by nature is all that remains from the outskirts of the once great Crystal Empire.

No pony or Corrupted would ever bother noticing a black egg by the side of an abandoned house, slimy tendrils coming out of its bottom growing through both the mortar and soil.

The egg quivers. Impacts dent its surface from the inside. Over and over the invisible attacker hits its prison, making cracks appear all over it. The blows become weaker, but more erratic and faster. The top of the egg flies open, letting a black, sticky head peek through the hole and desperately gasp for breath.

"Blrlblrlbl!" the head shakes, three tentacle tongues licking the black goo off its muzzle. It sniffs the air around, then the egg, then the air again, and then bites a piece of the eggshell off, munching on it, "Mhmmm..."

This goes on for minutes, but the newborn Corrupted mare cares not for time, only for eating a hole big enough to allow her to get her skeletal body out. Her physique gives away a starvation a pony could never survive, but the longer she nibbles on the egg, the more mass she gains. When she reaches the size of a grown earthpony stallion, tendrils creep out of her hooves, and penetrate the ground and the egg, which liquifies and is drained into the mare's body.

When the egg is no more, completely absorbed by the new Corrupted, the only proof of what has just happened remains a dark, mossy green mare with bright green eyes curiously sniffing the short grass at her hooves.

Spread.

"Mrm?" she looks around, ears twitching and turning.

Spread!

She takes some dirt and throws it around in a bigger circle.

SPREAD!

Her final attempt to understand the forceful voice coming from everywhere and nowhere at the same time is her stretching her neck and legs as far as she can.

"Mmmm..." she rubs her leg as something snaps in it and sits down, sulking. The voice, however, does not stop twisting her mind to obey.

Devour!

Sharp teeth rip off some grass for her to munch on. It doesn't taste bad, so she just walks around for a while, content with simply grazing.

DEVOUR!

The voice in her head yells, making images of everything that is yet to be corrupted dance through her simple mind. Grass, trees, rocks, pretty and colorful four-legged creatures, other warm, soft and squishy beings, all has to become one in a perfect unity of a single mind and body.

So, she tries to obey and appease the voice to stop her head from hurting. From all that is supposed to be taken over, she can only find a piece of a stone windowsil. However, a rock is a rock, and as the voice said - devour!

As she chokes on the solid block, she has some time to ponder her instincts not being too beneficial to her health while punching her neck and twisting her strong tongues in order to dislodge the obstacle.

"BLEH!" the rock bounces off a wall, followed by the mare's angry grumbling, "Mrmrmrmrmrm!"

Is there a thing such as voicepalm? Because if there was, and the voice had hands, it would definitely be smacking itself repeatedly.

The mare, despite her strange behaviour, does not present any features specific to any kind of lesser Corrupted, but her straight posture and ability to wonder about her own instincts make her a prime candidate for a Queen. The voice, having failed its attempts so far, turns to what this Queen might be after all - a Breeder.

Breed.

The mare moans as her body shivers in pleasure, and her thoughts are rebuilt to find somepony and something to make her feel like this again. Sadly, she does not understand the whirlwind of unknown pictures of creatures in various positions overwhelming her simple thoughts.

"AH!" she finally makes at least a little sense of things. Now to find the correct candidates for making the voice quiet down. She walks without any real direction through the landscape dotted with ruins.

One of the bright four-legged things wrapped in a hard, grey, shiny shell is lying on the ground, motionless.

Breed!

The anger from afar connected to the order makes her increase her pace. She feels scared whenever the distant influence forces her to do something, so she tries as hard as she can to stop it. However, she finds a possible solution, and allows herself a triumphant smile.

A rock! Not the one that tried to kill her, but a new one, non-hostile one.

Now, as the images showed her - orifices were involved. To the voice, rocks and ponies were the same, insignificant "things". This gave her a way to solve the situation to everyone's satisfaction. She will breed the things, and the voice will stop yelling.

"AH?!" the hard and shiny part of the four-legged thing's head falls off, revealing long, soft strands of mane. In blind panic, she spits out sticky liquid on the head in her hooves, and shoves the metal part back on. SAVED!

Not worried about the anger of the voice anymore, she examines the four-legger. Since the rock has none, she examines the soft thing's orifices. The front ones wouldn't do, as the images showed, so she has to choose the correct of the hind ones. The tight one under more of the soft long strands looks like the better choice to keep the other breeding thing inside.

And thus, the young Corrupted Queen shoves a hoof-sized boulder up a dead guardsmare's anus.

KILL THEM! KILL THEM ALL! WIPE THE WORLD CLEAN!

The pony's corpse, luckily, contains a piece of cloth with which the confused Corrupted starts polishing the ground.

Waves of blind anger and rage nearly consume her, making tears stream from her eyes and blood drip from one tentacle tongue she bit off during the fit. Her mind is forcefully torn apart, ripped out of her body and spread over a large area. A speck of warmth some distance away is put in front of her terrorized self's attention, and she starts limping in its direction.

Fighting her splitting headache as well as the screams of fury threatening to make her brain explode, she approaches a trembling four-legged thing, one without the shiny shell.

"Eeep!" the little thing, barely reaching the Queen's knees, whines, "Mommy..."

It whimpers some more when the young Queen's front legs grow sharp talons.

Kill!

The small four-legger is yellow, the long strands coming from its head and backside are chocolate brown, and the way it sparkles like a mirror unvoluntarily makes the Queen smile. It walks closer, encouraged by the Corrupted's confused expression, and wraps its tiny front legs around the taloned black one.

Maim! Kill! Make them suffer for their futile resistance!

The Queen tries again, this time opening her mouth to bite the foal's head off. Her momentary lapse of determination is followed by the soft touch of a little nose booping her chin. She stands there, muscles of her body creaking as they fight against the order inside her head to messily obliterate the little creature. Every strand of the Breeder Queen's will is resisting the foreign influence. The voice, however, does not understand a mare's instinct forcing her to protect a defenseless youngling, no matter what species.

"Aaaah!" the Queen clutches her head, feeling as if her brain was boiling.

DEFECT! Kill. Kill! KILL! KI-

"Blrp?" the Queen's world hiccups... and restarts. This time, however, in blissful silence.

"Are you okay, weird lady?" the little thing opens its mouth and says something squeaky. As far as the Queen is concerned, it might just be breathing loudly. She does not understand a thing.

"Mrrmm..." the Queen wobbles, trying to steady herself and figure out the new controls of her body.

"You look silly, like daddy when he drinks the special juice," the squeaky voice continues. The Queen likes this voice, it makes her warmer, not like the one inside her head. She pats the sound-making blob which twitches as the talons touch its head. It is soft, hot, and nice, "He he, you're a nice Corrp- Corrup- bad pony."

"Pon-ee," the Queen croaks.

"Yeah, pony!" the foal's face brightens up, "Like me, my dad, and my mom! Only you're weird, and they are awesome. They even beat up some of you Crop- bad ponies when they came to take our farm," the foal's stomach rumbles, and it clutches its belly, "That was two days ago, owww. So hungry. You don't have anything to eat, weird lady, right?"

"Rait?" the Queen gives the little colt a puzzled look. The thing seems to want something.

"Food?" he rubs his belly, and then points to his mouth, making chewing motions.

The feeling of "rightness" flows through the Queen as she sits down, spreads her legs, and guides the colt's head to her teats. He gives in to reflex, and starts suckling the sweet black milk soon enough. Barely visible veins of corruption spread from his muzzle to his neck as he drinks, but nothing worse happens. This young of a pony understands nothing about breeding or dominance, and while he is still controlled by instinct as well as by his intelligence, such little corruption has nothing to take hold of yet.

When the Queen starts feeling light-headed, she pushes the colt away.

"Mrmm?"

"Thank you!" he jumps up, reinvigorated and chipper, "Ummm... I guess you can't take me home, right? It's behind the shield. I'm not supposed to stay out here on my own. There's a ton of other ponies there as well. I think they'd like you. You're nice."

"Pon-eez..."

"I'm Wheat Sickle, what's your name?"

"Neighm?"

"I guess you Corcrap- bad ponies don't get names then. Hey, you have a nice coat," Sickle rubs his muzzle against the Queen's dark green chin, "Soft, and green like grass in spring."

"Spring," the Queen repeats.

"Hey, you said that one right!" he smiles, points to himself again, "Wheat Sickle," then touches the Queen again, "Spring."

"Spring," the Queen repeats, touching her nose with one talon, "Weed Sikkel," she taps on his head.

"Good enough," Sickle hugs her leg again. His warmth assures the Queen she finally did something right. A small sense of satisfaction rings through her, as she, in defiance to the now silent voice, accepts the name "Spring".

Wheat Sickle starts trotting towards the pink shield in the distance. Spring overtakes him in few long strides.

"Hey, wait!" he squeaks as she walks too far forward, "You're too big."

"Beek?" she waits for him.

"Can you take me on your back like mom does?" he jumps up and down. Curious, Spring lowers her head to him. Sickle tries to climb up her neck, failing and falling flat on his rump, "EEP!" he squeaks as a bunch of tentacles grow from the ground, pick him up, and carefully lower him on Spring's back, "THAT WAS SO COOL! Do it again!"

"Mrmrm?"

"Nevermind," realizing she has no clue what he wants, Sickle finds a comfortable position to lie in, "Let's go!" he points towards the shield again.

"Lesgo!" Spring mirrors the enthusiasm in his voice, and resumes her brisk walk.

A Hunter crosses their path, growling at Wheat Sickle. When Spring approaches him, however, he rushes off. They pass more and more Corrupted walking around barely giving them a second glance. Spring can feel the ones who are close, but she can also feel something inside them, something much more threatening than they are. As they get to the pink, quietly humming barrier, there are Hunters and Protectors beating against it with hooves and tentacles. They don't seem to be trying too hard to break through, but their bruised looks prove they have been doing this for a while already.

"Mrrmr!" Spring grumbles angrily as her muzzle hits the impenetrable barrier over and over.

"You aren't supposed to get in," Sickle explains, "Only ponies can."

"Pon-eez..."

"Yeah, sorry. You're really nice. If I could, I'd take you in with me," his little legs hug her neck from her back.

"Nais."

He points at the ground, and Spring leans down to let him get off her. She gasps when Sickle's hoof effortlessly passes through the shield and tries to follow him, forgetting what happened before.

"Mrmrmrm!" she pokes the barrier after rubbing her bruised muzzle.

"If you ever get in, I'll tell mom to make you some cookies!" he gives her a wide smile, waves, and trots off.

Spring is alone again. Surrounded by dozens of abused-looking Corrupted, Spring feels completely alone. A large Protector keels over nearby, hooves cracked from beating the shield. Scream is hungry, and the malevolent will controlling these Corrupted does not seem to care about losing them too much. Her instincts keep telling her to absorb the Protector and gain strength, but she knows the same drive was forcing her to hurt the little colt. Instead, she tries to do the same thing as before, and shoves her teats into the Corrupted's face. A moment later she feels her strength flow away, but at the same time something inside her grants her more and more.

The more a Breeder Queen cares, the stronger she becomes.

She can't understand words, but the feelings of everything being the way it is supposed to be calm Spring down. As the Protector suckles, his memories and sensations flow into Spring. There is a plan behind forcing the Corrupted to blindly attack the barrier over and over. Why is she being kept out, though?

Images of thousands of ponies, shiny, winged, horned, and a pink, tall one with all the extra accessories, milling around make her eyes go wide. She wants to get inside as well, to see all of the pretty sights. A flicker of the Protector's further orders assure Spring that the Queen leading the attacking hive does not share her desires, rather that she wants to taint and devour all that sparkling beauty.

Spring arrives to a conclusion - she needs to persuade the other Queen not to do that. After all, the other one is a Breeder as well, and she should understand the "pon-eez" are not dangerous. They are small, physically weak, and squishy, but those things should make her want to safeguard them, not destroy.

Filled with confidence that nothing can go wrong welling from her being alive for mere hours, and being rather simpleminded, Spring walks along the edge of the barrier until she sees a mare taller than she is. The other Queen's smell makes her knees weak and fills Sping with desire to let the milk from the Queen's dripping, hanging melon-like teats melt her mind, to press her mouth against the other's hinquarters and be force fed eggs so large even her strong neck would distend, to become just an incubator for more Corrupted and make the Queen's hive the strongest, largest, and not having to fear anything.

The last spark of uncertainty in the Queen's scent forcing her will unto others wakes Spring up. Perhaps the Queen is scared of the voice as well?

The barely avoided loss of will and individuality makes Spring take a more careful approach. Sneaking through the hordes of Corrupted ignoring her, she gets close enough to the Queen to hear her making noises at-

Spring squeaks quietly, grinning from ear to ear.

-a bunch of sparkly ponies in the shiny shells from before. There are two ponies on the other side of the barrier making noises at the Queen as well.

One is the tall, winged and horned, pink mare with multicolored mane that sparkles in the weak sunlight like some of the ponies. Spring can feel the warmth coming off her in waves even this far away., and her sharp eyes can make out a small picture of a sparkly heart decorated with gold ornaments on her rump.

The other one is a white, blue-maned, muscular stallion with a horn bearing a scar across his face and one milky-white eye. He is smaller than the mare, and he is not even close to being as well-built as the Protectors. However, the thin, dark blue beard outlining his muzzle make all three of Spring's tongues hang out. His toned behind adorned with the mark of a sea-blue shield only serves to deepen her desire.

Spring perks hear ears. Perhaps she can decipher the noises the Queen is making according to the feelings she bears.

"You must be the Queen of this place, and, from the scent lingering on both of you, the stallion is your recent mate," the Queen examines the leading duo, ignoring the dozens of armed ponies around them, "We have forced your barrier to shrink during the past week, and we can break it completely soon. However, I wish only to understand what you lesser creatures are, and if you can be of any use. Let us in to observe, and we will return those of you we captured, untainted and unharmed. Your stallion might even learn a trick or two about pleasing real mares like us."

The pink mare gags, and the white stallion has only one reply:

"I have a bad history with queens trying to get close to me. So, how about you burn in Tartarus for all eternity instead?"

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

This is a zombie apocalypse story, right? (no, I have not read the story)

[Nameless Narrator]

6855936 Zombie no, apoc yes.

[Anonymous Critic]

Is there a thing such as voicepalm? Because if there was, and the voice had hands, it would definitely be smacking itself repeatedly.

Hahahaha... just... her desperate trying... and utter failure at interpreting and obeying the voices... bwahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!

[Anonymous Critic]

And thus, the young Corrupted Queen shoves a hoof-sized boulder up a dead guardsmare's anus.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[Anonymous Critic]

The pony's corpse, luckily, contains a piece of cloth with which the confused Corrupted starts polishing the ground.

It's like if Three was made a king changeling!

Haven't laughed this much since the Third Diary!

[Two_Madmans]

WIPE THE WORLD CLEAN!

What was Harmomy's goal? I'm sure it was something like that. If it is, and if Coruption is Harmony's thing, why others let it?

Maim! Kill!

Burn!

[Teraunce]

I really hope Spring manages to win as she is definitely very new and very much an adorable goofball.