New Hope: Loss
"As much as I sympathize with you, what Lunar Watch did was the correct choice," princess Twilight shakes her head, "I know it hurts, but both his report and your recount of the situation are the same in their core. We can't afford to lose anypony, and if we are in a situation when it is unavoidable, we are to keep the losses at minimum. Honestly, with how the rules are he should get a commendation for 'losing' only one pony when faced with six Corrupted."
I grit my teeth. Deep down I know what he did was right, what bothers me is WHY he did it.
"Your Highness, Lunar Watch is a racist bastard who only used the protocol to cover being a coward on top."
"I disagree," Twilight says firmly, looking straight at me, "ANYPONY would be terrified in that situation, and he chose the right course of action. The unit escaped a pursuit by a Hunter and a Corruptor, and returned to Ponyville."
"Is he actually getting a damn MEDAL for leaving me out there to rot?!"
Twilight raises a hoof.
"HOWEVER, his report about the area his unit was sent to explore was grossly incorrect, rushed and imprecise."
"Yeah, just watch him blame me for, I don't know, not giving him enough information or something equally false. I brought you what was left from my on-site testing."
"I know," she gives me a weak smile, "Look, I can't bend the rules and act on a hindsight. The best I can do is reassign you to somepony else."
"Yeah," I mumble, looking at the glistening black coat of my legs, "I'm sure they'll be ecstatic..."
"I don't know, Mana Burn didn't seem to have any issues with you."
"Huh?"
"At the moment, you have the power to control the Corrupted, at least temporarily, and I want you to use it. I need to do more tests to ascertain whether you and Chilly are just anomalies, or whether there is a way to reach out to other Corrupted, perhaps communicate with them. We have to find out how they can so easily change their physical attributes, how they can be reborn just few hours after being killed by us, and how the spread of corruption onto ponies works. Right now, you might be the most important pony in the world."
Blushing, I step my legs back and forth.
"I wouldn't even know where to start with all that."
"Well, that's where I come in. What we need to do first is carefully monitor the spread of corruption in a pony. Let's say we do it first on somepony who is mentally and physically strong."
"You want me to CORRUPT a pony? What about the 'there is too little of us to lose any' speech?"
"I want you to help me PREVENT the corruption of a pony. And no, I don't think you or Chilly doing it would give us satisfactory results. You show some characteristics of a Queen like the one leading the Ponyville hive. You can order others around, take control of their bodies, and break them down into their base mass. In short, I believe your influence would be too strong. We need a Corrupted who is just a grunt."
"So, if I get it right, you want me to bring a Corrupted here, into the heart of last remains of pony races, infest Mana Burn, one of your best soldiers, and make sure he doesn't go crazy and try to mate with anything he sees including chairs?"
"So crudely delivered - yes. There will be more later."
I sigh.
"I hope this decision won't lead to a complete disaster."
A crazy glint passes through Twilight's eyes.
"Welcome to what I think about every second of my life."
We part ways, and I come back to Chilly's little forest room. During the past week, this place and a chunk of hallway around transformed into a perfect replica of the fragile forest he lived in on the surface. Thankfully, there were no more incidents, althought I had to go outside several times to get more berries and other samples for experiments. I believe that this fragment of the unnatural nature will be self-sufficient and able to feed Chilly in some time. I "asked" him not to change any more of the area not to weird ponies out. Whether he understood or not, the spread stopped there despite him spending most of his time wandering through the vastly spread halls of Ponyville enclave. There have been exactly zero incidents of ponies being hostile to him, as after I fed him the last time he has "allowed" me to sense his presence and mood continuously. I must admit it's super weird having an open "link" to somepony inside my head, always sensing little bits of what they are doing, but it helped me know ponies respected princess Twilight's news about Chilly.
Well, to be completely honest, I believe it was more the case of them being too scared of him to do anything.
"Yo, up for a little trip on the surface?" I ask Chilly when he wakes up as soon as I enter his doorless room, my cheer surprising even myself.
"Mmrmmr!" he grumbles, mirroring my enthusiasm.
When we stand on the surface again, taking in huge lungfuls of fresh air, I ponder how different this place looks to my new eyes. It feels more like home than the underground tunnels, artificial lights, and the constant humming of pony voices in the distance. Granted, it's dimmer out here, and the "voices" in my head telling me to conquer some territory and gather forces are much closer, but I like it out here now.
Oh well, time to get to work.
Mana Burn said he would prefer a mare for the experiment, so I let my mind jump from Corrupted to Corrupted in the vicinity.
Several Breeders. We should avoid using those for now,
Breeders are traps. They are physically weak, barely able to defend themselves even from a civillian, but that's not what they are supposed to do. The scent of a Breeder can make a pony lose all their inhibitions and give in to lust instantly.
Perhaps I should do it, just for fun? Probably not, though. I doubt Twilight would look at me kindly for transforming her bodyguard into a stallion humping machine.
There are few female Hunters around. Judging from their size, they shouldn't be too overdeveloped to make Twilight's little guard suffer from performance issues.
Should I get a female Protector just to see him try and mate with a mare twice his size? Screw it, we're doing it just for the hilarity value!
Three, four, seven Protectors nearby. I'm either able to spread further and faster when looking for Corrupted, or there is a ton of others around whom I wasn't able to sense before.
It's quite lively today.
I smile to myself. I don't even know why it makes me so happy that the surface is anything but a barren landscape, although filled with killers feasting on pony flesh. Certain several inches of pony flesh, to be exact, heh. I could go for a little "feast" myself, come to think of it.
Let's go with the Protector mare then.
Chill runs up my spine as I tap into her mind.
Oh heavens! Something sees me! Something is watching me, getting closer!
Chilly.
Chilly!
CHILLY!
The touch of soft fur and the warmth pressing against my back stops the icy feeling of shadowy claws wrapping around me.
What the fuuuuuu-?
I'm shaking all over.
I have no idea what really happened, only that my instincts told me that something drastically more powerful than I am wanted to find me.
Can't go back empty-hooved. Let's try to find a nice Huntress, preferrably one who won't have a dark, looming presence inside her head. I touch the next mind very carefully, aware of the shadow looking for me again. Not daring to take the Huntress over completely, I leave her with just an order to come to me.
Chilly growls at her as I lead her back into the enclave, but the mare obeys my explicit order to not do anything other than follow me.
The white unicorn bodyguard of princess Twilight is waiting for me in the laboratory we set up just for the "occasion".
"Okay, what should I do?" Mana Burn asks me meekly. Pretty cute for a high-class unicorn.
"How should I know," I grin, "I'm not a stallion."
He pouts. Even cuter.
"I mean is she going to bite me or something?" he comes closer to the Huntress watching him with curiosity. She is as tall as him, slim and obviously ready to pounce and restrain her prey. Just like all the wild Corrupted I've seen her colours are shades of black gleaming in the white light of the lab lights.
"Start whenever you are ready!" Twilight's voice comes from behind a glass panel of the observation room.
"Let me start you off, Mana," I nuzzle the unicorn and slip my mouth tentacle between his teeth. He blushes, and I whisper in his ear, "Don't think of her as a monster, and it'll happen naturally. She wants it much more than you do."
Tapping more directly into the mind of the Huntress, I have to restrict her instinct to jump Mana Burn here and now, keeping her in the more submissive role. As soon as the stallion finally puts his muzzle to good use, waves of mirrored pleasure wash over me.
Corruption spreads quickly. Moments of Mana Burn eating the Huntress out later, I can sense a new mind joining the pool of the infested I can reach out to. For the moment, I just observe his slow fall into rutting insanity.
Oh if only Twilight understood how little she truly knows about her closest subjects. With Mana Burn's mind spread before me, I watch pleasure creep through him, tainting his strongest and most dutiful thoughts with it. It does not take long for him to see the Huntress just as a willing mare, and when he admits her as "normal", I see the corruption push against his submissive desires first.
The Corrupted are a tool MADE for something, that's why obedience comes first.
Failing being the submissive one, Mana Burn is tempted with power, dominance, herding, and being the indisputable alpha male. That one catches on, as expected of a stallion. No matter the upbringing, the core of both stallions and mares still hosts the desires of ancient times where intelligence was only starting to take root.
As he ruts the Huntress harder, strings of his drool touch her back, and his pristine coat fills with veins of black.
"Mana Burn, stop and take a break," Twilight orders.
Not gonna work. He is more mine than yours now.
With a careful mental touch, I put the memory of him being admitted to the Hex Guard and swearing his loyalty to Twilight forward.
He shakes his head and stops the mechanical pistoning in and out of the Huntress.
"Sorry, your Highness," he bows, "I... I-"
With my momentary lack of attention, the Huntress impales herself on his member still halfway inside, making him explode into her. His horn lights up, liquid magic dripping from it. I watch more and more of his self being consumed, trying to make notes of the pointless resistance he tries to muster. As the unfocused magic released by his mind-shattering orgasm lights up the room, the Huntress panics, revealing one instinct I have not seen yet. She splits part of her mind, and a thread of living corruption drains into Mana Burn's horn, dousing all the magic and making him drop on his -finely toned, I must say- rump, tongue out and eyes rolled back.
I can sense his head lighting up with pleasure as his horn slowly turns black and melts, dripping down his forehead. Horn rot, an ability where a Corrupted sacrifices a large portion of their strength to assault a unicorn with pleasure so overwhelming they literally orgasm all their magic through their horn.
Hmm, so this is how it works.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Twilight barges inside the room, screaming at me.
Chilly, Mana Burn, and the Huntress surround her, growling. They won't move against her, not without my command. In a moment of clarity, I notice a strange similarity between Chilly and Mana Burn. Their minds feel almost identical.
Mana Burn is mine now. Protective, obedient. And excellent guard who will become a great Protector when I transform him completely.
"Your Highness, this is a result of your experiment. You have seen horn rot in action, the spread of corruption in one of your finest. I will tell you every little detail I've gathered, but your bodyguard is now one of my Corrupted."
"That wasn't supposed to happen! I thought you could prevent it," she says, begging more than anything else.
"I need to do this, your Highness. I need to find out what this means."
"What 'this' is it?"
"Chilly, sever his connection to the others."
When he touches Mana Burn, the ex-unicorn shakes his head.
"Wh-what happened?" he scowls and clutches his head, "Aargh! What is going on, my Queen?"
The expression on Twilight's face when he addresses me as the queen is barely contained fury. Veeeeery barely.
"What did you do?" Twilight hisses.
"I certainly wasn't expecting he could still talk," I raise an eyebrow, "Chilly, keep him locked out."
"No... no need," Mana Burn focuses, and my link to him weakens drastically. It still remains, though.
"You can do it too?!" I blurt out.
"I... think so..." he groans under the strain.
Several things click inside me.
"Your Highness, please stop looking like you want to send me to the moon. I think I know a little of what's going on."
"Mana Burn, are you okay?" Twilight ignores me.
"Please don't hurt my owner, princess. I will stand in your way if I have to, no matter how much it hurts me."
"Mana..." she looks about to cry.
"Your Higness," I try again. Twilight turns to me, defeated, "I think ponies who used to be devoted guards have a 'slot' -I don't know how to explain it without you being able to see their minds- for an owner. They can lock the influence of the others out and, if Chilly is any indication, they can do the same for somepony else."
"Chilly can't talk, though."
"Yes, I think he was alone for too long so he forgot. I have no clue if he can learn again, but I don't think so, or it would take too much time and effort. Decades, possibly. Chilly is incomparably more powerful than Mana Burn, though, which leads me to think he must be REALLY old, maybe from the early years of the corruption's spread. Let me see if I can get a glimpse of his 'real' master."
Don't freak out. Just show me.
I can't access the memory, the only feelings I get are:
"White... and... a rainbow?" I shake my head, "I don't think he wants to show me out of fear he would lose the preserved memory. He is already sort of accepting me in its place. Ummm... your Highness?"
Twilight is staring at me, mouth open and eyes wide.
"Uhhh, your Highness?" I try again.
"That can't be..." she whispers.
"Wha-"
I get interrupted by warning of screaming sirens and bells tolling through the enclave.
The Corrupted are attacking.
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I'm laughing already.
As a side note, where are Discord, Nightmare, Chronos, Magnus, etc.? With the end of the world, the gods, or at least the other alicorns, have to be doing something about something...
Hmmm...
You know, if you cut off right here, it would've been a pretty good cliffhanger...
...or you could do this as a cliffhanger too. Either way I guess...
Anyways, considering he is white with blue, and his past "owner" seems to be Celestia... something tells me he might be Heavy, resurrected by the corruption... meh, I'm probably just stretching for possibilities here.
9389432
I'm more for Celestia. White and "rainbow", she was gone, there is something powerful, and Chilly probably was a guard.