Corrupted Lands

by Nameless Narrator

New Hope: Return home

The large guard room in the access tunnels to Ponyville fills with ten more soldiers and a white unicorn mare staying on the other side, as far away from me and Chilly as the situation allows.

"Come oooon!" I roll my eyes, "I'm just trying to get home. Why do you insist on making it so difficult?"

"It's simple. You are a Corrupted. No matter what your little story is, you are not getting inside."

"I'm normal! Mostly..."

"Look, the only reason you're not dead yet is that we are leaving that decision to you. If there is any equinity left in you, you will walk away, stay on the surface, and never be a threat to any pony again. Surely you can understand a noble sacrifice like that, especially if you really WERE a member of the Hex Guard like you claim."

"Sacrifice?" I grit my pointy teeth desiring nothing more than ripping the unicorn's leg off and beating her to death with it, "I have a family here, well, mom! I have friends here!"

"I am suuuuure all of them will be happy to see a Corrupted pretending to be somepony they know. I will repeat it only once - leave, and 'your'," the way her hooves make quotes in the air makes me boil even more, "family will recieve a commendation of 'your' bravery without having to see their 'daughter,'" kill, kill, kill, "tainted."

"You are not stopping me, you pompous twit!" I take a step forward, making all guards around clutch their weapons and clench their buttholes, "After this, I might even PREFER living out there rather than being cooped up down here with the likes of you! Now shove your fancy horn up your bony ass and let me see the mare who raised me into the nice and polite mare I am today!"

"Soldiers, purge the enclave from this Corrupted filth!" she orders.

"Stay your weapons!" a voice filled with authority comes from the hallway leading down to Ponyville.

Two tall unicorns wearing the dark purple armor of the Hex Guard push themselves into the already full room.

I know those guys. Well, I've seen them before, not actually talked to them. Mana Burn and Knowledge, the Hex Guard elite, and princess Twilight Sparkle's bodyguards -and consorts, according to some rumors. I can see why, those guys are huge for unicorns!- which means the voice commanding absolute obedience behind them is a lavender alicorn even taller than both of the soldiers or anypony else in the room.

"Your Highness-" the rude unicorn mare starts, but Twilight just raises a hoof, interrupting her.

"Go secure the lower part of the tunnel. We have some 'repairs' to make to this entrance."

"Sorry, your Highness," I mumble and lower my head, "I'm hungry, scared, tired, and I really, really want to see my mom."

Everypony rushes off, leaving only Twilight, her bodyguards, me, and Chilly in the guard room.

"Do you truly wish her to see you, Nightshade? There is little left from the mare you were before," she asks calmly.

"Before? You know me? I'm just a grunt," I blink.

"I know all my little ponies," Twilight smiles wearily, "After all, there is so few of us left. I pay close attention to everypony here in Ponyville. I would be a pretty awful leader if I only cared about what I myself think. So let me ask again, do you really want your mother to see you like this?"

"Of course! Why would you ask? Like what?"

Her horn shimmers, and I take a good look at myself in the conjured reflective surface.

The dark grey pegasus with silver mane and tail who left Ponyville two days ago is no more. What looks at me from the mirror is a taller, slimmer and more muscular creature of inky black coat, dusty grey mane, and a thick slick whip instead of a a fluffy light tail. The eyes staring at me in utter horror are completely black, with bestial yellow pupils being the only major difference in color.

Hey, at least my tears feel the same.

"Damn it," I whisper, "Damn it! Damn it!"

So it wasn't the guards' fault. My head was just trying to make sense of my new body and kept telling me I was mostly fine.

"The gate guards said you asked specifically for me, Nightshade. Why?"

I slump on the cold floor. Chilly coming closer and nuzzling my neck helps stave off the cold depression taking me, but not much.

"I wanted to report the result of the forest expedition. I wanted you to know what I learned about being partially... about being a Corrupted. I wanted to hug my moooooooooom!" I break down in tears.

The touch of soft feathers wrapping around me is something I've felt only at home. The alicorn herself sat down next to me, and is waiting for me to gather myself.

She needs to know. Whatever happens next, she needs to know the threat or corruption is different from what we thought.

"So?" she gives me a reassuring smile when I stop sobbing and wipe my eyes.

"You're not afraid of horn rot?" I push her away, but she doesn't budge.

"Terrified," she said in complete seriousness, "but my research indicates that horn rot is not an infection, but an ability Corrupted use to fight against magic users."

"Well, I am-"

"Corrupted cannot talk."

"I-"

I stop.

"Mrmmrmr!" Chilly agrees with Twilight.

"Speaking of which," she looks at him, "Who is your strangely peaceful companion?"

"I call him Chilly. I think he used to be a pony, likely a soldier, and he still keeps other ponies from harm. He was the reason the part of the forest we were sent to was empty..."

Recounting everything that happened helps not think about the future. I hesitate before telling her how I went crazy, but she gives me time, and doesn't say much when I finally decide to do so. When I'm done, she helps me get up, and dusts herself off.

"...one last thing - without Chilly, I think the potential farmland in the forest will be useless, as others will move into the empty territory."

"You have given me a lot to think about. If you want you can come with us inside. For now, you will be under observation and I will perform some tests on you and," she gives my white friend and exploratory look, "Chilly."

"Mmrmm..."

"Does he understand what I am saying?" she says, clearly surprised.

"I doubt that. He can understand simple things I say and think because we are both Corrupted. He just learns fast, and knows that I want something whenever I talk to him."

"I see," the corners of Twilight's mouth twist up a little, "Mana Burn, accompany Chilly to the holding cell on the twenty-seventh floor. It's close enough to my personal laboratory. Knowledge, prepare a room for miss Nightshade nearby and set up a guard schedule and security rules."

"Umm, why?" I wonder aloud.

Twilight's smile returns to her usual sleepless expression.

"I believe you don't want to be a threat. However, that doesn't mean you are not. These are just precautions in case I'm wrong."

Unfortunately, I have to agree with her.

I spent the next two days 'assisting' the princess with her experiments. She took samples of my blood, spit, waste, and other bodily fluids I wasn't even aware of having. When she insisted on me 'giving' her my, ehm, juices, offering either the assistance of one of her bodyguards or herself, I had to go to the bathroom to stop myself from spontaneously combusting.

A sharp stab of pain makes me clutch my head in the middle of watching princess Twilight melting some of my shaved coat in acid.

Confusion, hunger, loneliness, walls closing around me.

"What's wrong?" Twilight stands up.

"I... I don't know," I groan, standing up on wobbly legs, "It's coming from that way."

She props me up as I limp forward, following the soft but insistent tugging inside my head. We stop in front of Chilly's holding cell. With all the testing and hustle, I completely forgot about him.

"Open the door."

She opens a metal panel next to the door, and watches the blinking lights inside.

"Something strange is going on inside. We should obs-"

"Open the door, or I am opening it permanently!" I growl, ignoring the fact that I'm threatening an alicorn. Come to think of it, the more I say it, the more convincing I sound.

Twilight pushes more buttons, and the door slide open.

Chilly is slowly walking in a circle in the middle of the room, frozen grass sprouting and melting in his hoofsteps.

"Chilly?" I come closer.

He just keeps walking, head hung low and ears drooped, not hearing me. My attempt at talking to him in my head falls on its ass. I can't sense him anymore. Touching him does nothing either.

He is alone again.

"I need to go outside!" I say firmly after watching the weakening Corrupted for a moment.

"What for?"

"I need to find something. I think he's hungry, but that would have been fine on the surface where he had his land. This sterile place doesn't do him good. That might explain why the Corrupted never hunted us underground. I gotta go out and get some of the berries."

"That's dangerous."

My subject will not suffer due to my negligence.

"I am dangerous!" my tone turns aggressive, "Stay with him! Open the door and let him roam through the tunnels. I will find you when I get back, just give me two hours. If I don't... have somepony escort him back to his forest. With him staying there you will have a protected area for farming."

Yes, I am ordering an alicorn around. And yes, she will obey unless she wants to lose her horn. The Hunter who saved me will live through the day, or I won't.

Rushing through Ponyville enclave followed by Mana Burn who saves the gate guards from becoming my food, I leave him in the guard station in the tunnels and breathe in the fresh surface air. Strange, it feels much less threatening up here now. As if I belong here.

Letting my mind roam, I use the sharp senses of Hunters nearby to catch a scent of the berries. There are some around, but they are high up in the trees where Corrupted fail to reach. Looks like I have to go there personally. Growing claws for climbing up, I am assaulted by irresistible vertigo and fall from several pony heights down on the ground. Thank Twilight for its mushiness.

Alright, it's not that they don't know how to fly, they literally can't. Strangely, the uselessness of my wings doesn't bother me anymore.

A tree... a TREE is my obstacle now?!

I call the nearest Protector, and order the bulky earthpony-shaped Corrupted of twice my height and three times my width to push. With the help of my back tentacles we tear the tall tree down, and I gather the remaining berries.

Then it dawns on me that there is a Protector and a Hunter standing behind me, and I am not crapping myself.

"Good job, guys!" I throw some of the harvested berries to them, and they hungrily devour them, "Now piss off, I'm not taking you home with me."

To my utter astonishment, and the feeling of correctness of the situation deeper inside me, they leave.

Happy to see Twilight walking Chilly through the corridors near her lab, I shove a berry into his mouth. His eyes light up and he shakes his head. A little stab of jealousy hits me as he licks Twilight's face, making the alicorn jump far away with the help of her wings in complete shock.

"Hey, I brought you these," I grumble.

He licks me.

"That's better!" I pat him.

The corridor gets colder, and the walls freeze over.

"What's going on?" Twilight asks, coming back and blushing.

"Ooops," I giggle and scratch my head, "Let's get him back to the holding cell. I think Chilly needs a room fo his own."

To our surprise, he leads the way, and the metal door turns to ice and melts at his touch. As he sits down in the middle of the room, the stone floor turns to corrupted mush, and fragile, pale bushes cover it. Wines drop down from the ceiling, and I spot several more small berries ready to grow on a tree taking a large chunk of the back of the room.

Twilight watches the transformation with mouth open so wide a string of her saliva doesn't need to go far to touch the floor, well, ground.

"Celestia's rainbow mane!" she says when the first light green leaves fall down from the tree, "Whhuh?"

"I told you, they are the land we walk on and live under. They aren't invaders, and we aren't prey, they are..."

Sadly, I don't have the right words to finish the sentence, so I just shake my head.

"Nevermind."

"MORE TESTS!" Twilight snaps out the paralyzed stupor.

"Later, your Highness," I smile to myself. There is one last thing left undone. Actually, two things, but this one is more important, "I want to visit my mom now."

"Mana Burn will escort you. Speaking of which, I sent Knowledge to restore your status as a Hex Guard. He's going to be your partner for quite some time, not just to monitor you, but also to make sure ponies don't get the wrong idea."

"You're not coming with me?" I gulp. My new "appearance" would bear a lot less negative connotation if the princess came along.

"Don't worry too much," she looked me straight in the eyes, "A mother will know."

Biting my lip, I hope beyond any reasonable measure that she is right.

Not too much later, after I had a shower and wishing I had a drink of something strong to steady my nerves, I knock on the door of the suite I grew up in.

"Coming!"

Few days ago, I was screaming the same thing into the air of the for-

A quick facepunch puts my unruly thoughts back in line.

"What can I do-" she takes a step away from the door when she sees me.

Please, don't yell for the guards!

Please, don't yell for the guards!

Please, don't yell for the guards!

I can't make a sound.

"Welcome home, honey," she smiles, "You're all grown up now. My my, does the time fly."

I stare, gradually breaking into giggles.

"You saw me not even a week ago, mom," I hug the mare. All my worries dissipate when she hugs back.

Mana Burn closes the door behind us, staying on watch outside.

"How did you know?" I have to ask. I could barely recognize myself, "Secret mom superpower?"

"Not really," she goes to the kitchen and returns with two cups of tea, "Princess Twilight told me everything yesterday. I wanted to see you, but she said you needed time to deal with it yourself. I'm glad it didn't take long."

"So you're not worried by this?" I run a hoof through my coat.

"Pfff," she waves her hoof, "You looked a lot worse when you slipped out of me. Even the doctors thought I slept with a swamp monster. I have the pictures somewhere. Call the guard hunk inside, I think he'd like to see them."

"MOOOOOOM!" I whine loud enough for most of Ponyville to hear.

"Come on, don't be shy!"

I'm home.

And nothing has changed.

Comments

[krazykidfannumber2]

Awwww her mom sill cares for her! Even though she was turned into an utterly awesome-looking badass that would make rainbow dash green with envy twisted into a nightmarish abomination; a form so vile that it's mere resemblance to a pony is a travesty, her mother still thought of, and loved her as her daughter.

[Anonymous Critic]

"MORE TESTS!" Twilight snaps out the paralyzed stupor.

Now we know she's Twilight...

[Anonymous Critic]

Well, Nightshade isn't quite a corrupted... but she's not really a partial either... there lies the question... what is she?