Corrupted Lands

by Nameless Narrator

Heart of Old Equestria: Breached

I levitate a thick book down from a shelf far above me. It silently glides through the still air of the royal library in Canterlot castle, and ends up on a reading table in front of me. It looks like a tiny speck in comparison to the massive bookshelves reaching the ceiling high above stacked and stacked with more books.

"Okay," I mumble to myself. It helps to keep the constant solitude at bay, "Let's see if 'Miraculous Minds of Equestria: Volume VI' contains something more valuable than the previous five parts."

Just from the first few pages I can guess it does not, but my job here is to scour the library for any mentions of obscure magic, inventions, and anything forgotten by ponies and time. I've been doing this for nearly a year already, ever since old Dusty Quill went out of the castle to give his old bones one last taste of willing mare meat. I guess fucking a Hunter till death is still a better way to go than dying of dust-filled lungs. I'm pretty sure I will do the same one day, although I doubt my willpower will last for sixty years.

I sigh, imagining my name in a book like the one I'm reading:

Bound Tome, a unicorn - discovered a spell reversing mind-deteriorating effects of corruption, thus ending the era of darkness. In addition, he improved the magic to such degree that ponies could keep the corrupted traits if they wanted to. Died at the blessed age of ninety of a heart-attack while having sex with his three six-breasted alicorn wives.

The image makes me smile and shake my head while waiting for my blood to return to its rightful place.

"Heh, I doubt I'll last two more years like this. Perhaps I should have kept trying to get into Hex Guard just so that there would be something mares could admire about me. Nah, failing the exams three times was a bit too much."

Funny thing, I am pretty good at complex magic. Sadly, I find it difficult to focus under pressure even despite all the unicorn battlemage training. With me being sub-par at physical activities and not really useful in a fight, I joined the ranks of research mages and started studying with Dusty Quill here in Canterlot when I was allowed to go to the surface. It should have been simple - spend five to ten years here dealing with the library, finish my apprenticeship, and then join the active research back in Ponyville. Now, with Quill being one of the corrupted monstrosities outside, I'm going to sit here forever, day after day, going through ancient books which couldn't have been moved to Ponyville due to being too derelict to survive the transport.

Yep, most of them. Thankfully, the library is protected by a spell keeping the books inside from turning to dust when touched. I have aaaaaaall the time in the world to read volume after volume of, while super interesting, probably useless tomes.

"Hmph! I'm giving it a year before I walk outside and spread my asscheeks in front of a Protect-" I shake my head, "What did I say? I mean before I wreck a Corrupted mare's... ehm."

I might not be too experienced or, well, experienced at all in such matters, but this library offers some rather "instructional" books, such as "A Comprehensive Guide to Alicorn Anatomy and Heat Cycles". Too bad that in this age, where most of the population is forced to go through periodical military training, I am not that attractive to anypony.

Any mare, I mean, M A R E!

Well, reading here alone lets mind wander, and where else could the mind of an eighteen-year old "untapped" unicorn go other than... there.

"Amber Trap, a unicorn - the inventor of the 'Want it, Need it' spell. Known for using it repeatedly on himself to gain the attention of ladies. Died by casting it unknowingly in the vicinity of a deserted dragoness."

I snicker. No matter how advanced and intelectually ascended unicorn wizards are, long-term loneliness is a crippling thing to everypony. Perhaps I should try using the spell in front of the Nightguard mare outside, who is patrolling the library. Getting some batpony tail would be pretty cool.

"Nah, not even that kind of magic will make your skinny ass attractive to one of the gorgeous thestrals. Better keep doing your job while you still can, and when it becomes too crushing," I shake my head, "there is a whole world of carnal pleasures just outside of the protective spells hosted within the castle walls."

Yep, I'm giving it a year. Perhaps I might even bother with making an idiot of myself in front of one of them by using my patented pick-up lines like "Would you like to know about some pre-corruption history?"

"La la la la, I'm a failure, la la la."

Halfway through my shift, I hear some scratching and the clanking of armor from the hallway outside. Nothing unusual. The library's protection spells lower all incoming noise, presumably so that the business outside wouldn't bother the readers in the old days. An another Nightguard patrolling the castle must have stopped to chat with the mare on the library shift.

A cool fact - Nightguards used to actually patrol just at night in the pre-corruption era, but now the name is just a designation for all ponies serving under princess Luna, no matter night or day.

"Should be another of my excellent pick-ups..." I snort in contempt, "Hey, girl, I know loads of cool facts, does that make me cool?" I imitate a mare's voice and make a mocking face, "No, no, it doesn't. Now go away and let this handsome and muscular earthpony buy me a drink."

So yes, this is my life. Sitting alone, reading, and being sarcastic to myself while a single Nightguard stands in front of the door in the hallway. I guess I should be happy none of them ever go inside aside from using the bathroom, and that they can't hear me. The odds of me finding anything relevant here are so slim I'm pretty sure the only reason I'm here is so that there is one less potential Corrupted outside.

The heavy, barred door of the library shakes with a blow that makes dust fall of the ceiling-high shelves.

"That can't be good."

Excellent, I might have a career as a marginally successful fortuneteller.

A quick walk to the window leading into the hallway later, I slide under it as a head covered in slick, black mane passes by.

"Corrupted, here inside the castle?" I take another brief glance outside and see several Hunters prowling through the hallway.

I crawl underneath the window again to have a look to the opposite side of the hallway and see the most beautiful mare I have ever seen, her black posterior inviting me with its delicious firm plumpness. Several small tentacles followed by a tongue slip out of her marehood as if they saw me looking, and slide back.

She turns halfway to me and I see the Nightguard mare guarding me being tangled in tentacles originating from the other mare's chest.

"That's no normal Corrupted. A Corruptor perhaps?" I whisper, dying with curiosity. Granted, most of it is coming from my nether parts telling me that surrendering myself to the Corruptor is an excellent idea, "Oh dear..."

The batpony struggling in the Corruptor's grasp is pulled upwards to her captor's mouth, and several more tendrils wrap around her neck, squeezing. As she opens her mouth to gasp for breath, the Corruptor mare draws her into a sloppy kiss. Splatters of black liquid taint the floor, but the choking thestral gulps down much much more of it. It goes on forever, and I watch my guard's belly bloating into unreasonable proportions before she is released and falls limply down, opening and closing her mouth while a thin black stream dribbles out. The Corruptor then presses her muzzle against the guard's rump, and starts sucking everything she gave her back again.

More than what she gave her.

The utter horror at the mare's body deflating until there are only skin and clearly visible bones left breaks my horny stupor.

"Invisibility, invisibility, invisibility," I curse my nerves forbidding me to remember the spell I'm looking for.

The Corruptor can't have seen me. Yet, as she turns to the window I'm peeking through, I know she somehow had to feel me ogling her, and deliberatly showed me the entire spectacle.

As the first strands of her black mane appear right in front of the window, I finally turn invisible, and breathe out deeply. There is no way I'll be able to keep the spell going while moving, so I stare into the abyss of two pupil-less black eyes looking through the window at what MUST be empty library.

She smiles warmly, and opens her mouth, giving me a good look at the rows and rows of sharp teeth inside. Her jaw splits, opening the tunnel even more.

I don't wait. She somehow knows, and it has nothing to do with seeing.

My quick dive backwards is accompanied by shattering glass and three tentacles whipping the air where I was a millisecond ago. There is a set of iron bars on the hallway part of the window, giving me hope that she can't get through.

However,-

*SLAM!*

The door shakes again and cracks.

-it seems she knows as well.

"Dammit, dammit, dammit," my muttering habit returns, "So, invis is out. Can't teleport down to the inhabited floors either."

The library is well-protected against magical interference.

"I don't want to become a tube of nutrient paste. It tastes like crap," I complain.

Another blow. The wooden part of the door splinters, but holds, kept together by the metal framework.

I rush to the nearest window leading outside and shoot it open. The rebounding shutters smack me in the face.

"Blrmb!" I shake the daze off and look out, "Hmmm, if I grab the windowsil, swing myself just in the right way, and let go at the right time, I might just miss that balcony by inches and break my neck down on the castle grounds. Perhaps if I hit that Hunter before I hit the ground I might break only two legs and still get the fucking of a lifetime as all the others pile on me."

I look away from the black shapes sleeping or slowly walking faaaaaaaar down.

"So, scaling the castle wall down isn't happening. How the frick did the Corrupted get inside anyway? The protective enchantments have been working for decades, keeping even the Canterlot hive Queen out."

The door shatters.

"IM'SORRYPRINCESSLUNA!" I focus on the only thing I can see besides the Corruptor melting the remains of wood and metal with her touch - the enormous bookshelf filled to the brim right next to the entrance. The glow of my horn blinds me, and the mental strain makes me feel as if my bowels were being evacuated via my ears, but the shelf moves.

The Corruptor looks up as the rain of books from the toppling shelf starts.

The entire library shakes from the impact.

"Didn't know you spent your free time buried in books as well, miss. Perhaps we should meet for luuuun-FUCK!" I spot shadows wrapping around my legs a fraction of a second before real tentacles materialize to grab me.

The semi-liquid Corruptor growls as the pile of books nearby melts and reveals her underneath, crushed by the shelf. Talons grow on her one free front leg, dig deep into the marble floor, and she starts pulling herself towards me.

"Alright, crushing doesn't work as well as I hoped," I turn to look for a way out which wouldn't lead into a hallway filled with Hunters through a doorway blocked by a gigantic shelf with a pissed off Corruptor under it.

Everything goes hot and red.

I wipe the bloody gunk off my face, looking around at its source.

The Corruptor dragging herself inch by inch from her not-too-effective prison is forgotten for a moment when I notice a Hunter's remains lodged halfway through the window I was peeking to the hallway through before.

The steel bars held, the minced Hunter did not.

I don't dare to go closer to the rapidly dying Corrupted to find out what showed him inside with such strength it grated him on the bars.

"Alright, one down, time to return to the-"

The Corruptor screeches, and something drags her irresistibly backwards through the door blocked by the shelf, her talons cutting the floor even further. For just the tiniest moment I pity her, then I return to the reality where she sucked a mare dry, and not in the fun way, and concern myself with the possibility of me being next.

"Okay, okay, don't panic. Somepony out there is just using ridiculously strong telekinesis to do this. Princess Luna perhaps? What would she be doing here, though?" I raise my voice and yell, "IS ANYPONY THERE?"

Nothing aside from hushed screeching, blows, and thumping of Corrupted running away.

All noise finally stops.

"The Corrupted are inside the castle. A pony did not do THAT," I look at the bleeding mush remaining of the Hunter blocking the window and come to an excellent conclusion, "And I really don't want to meet whoever DID do it."

I run past bookshelf after bookshelf, dive into the furthest storage closet, cast an invisibility spell, a soundproofing spell, a barier protecting me against scrying, and quietly whimper and whine to myself over and over while trembling like a little filly.

Yep, I am a failure.

Comments

[funguy26]

still loving it but who is this i'm loss

[Nameless Narrator]

6776906 Bound Tome, an 18yo unicorn magician working in Canterlot castle

[Shadowshame]

I really don’t understand how this is supposed to be a direct sequel to dawn of the silver sun

[Nameless Narrator]

11289312
It's a storyline continuation, not a "happens directly the next day" continuation. I didn't feel like writing 200 years of history where Blaze was dead in a storyline centered on him.