Imbalanced: New Age

by Nameless Narrator

The Noose Tightens: Nicolai

[Blazing's Entry]

To be honest, I came along with Desert Shade mostly out of curiosity. I finally wanted to find some sense in the unexplained nonsense that's happening, but all that led to was me getting intimately acquainted with griffon cells.

Why do I get the feeling that I got inadvertently tangled in things that don't concern me in the slightest?

And what's the deal with the damn bounty?

[End Entry]

---

Des leads the way to the Legion fortress. When it becomes clear to her that I'm not going to run away, she checks Veronica again and coughs.

"So, about the tracking you using magic."

"I am one big ear. One big bladder, actually, but that can wait," damn biological needs. There are certain things one misses about being made of pure divine energy, "What I know from when I talked to ponies who attempted to use magic to find me before is that I should be invisible."

"That's not actually true," Rolled Scroll takes over. Now that I can see her as more than an outline, she's kinda pretty in her skinny, sky blue coated way when not covered in bandages. Granted, the last thing may or may not have been my fault, ehm. I'm not a sucker for black manes, though.

"How come? I've never been able to use magic of my own, so all I know is from when others tried to use it against me."

"Scrying spells don't work in Equestria at all thanks to Corrupted, they just show empty, dark landscape, but here in the Empire they are just fine. When we split up in Vanhoover, Des dealt with the cultist noble and we spent some time in the city relaxing while discreetly looking for a new job. Lyam was the one to be approached by a hooded stranger looking for strong hooves to collect a certain bounty in the name of the Silver Sun."

"But that one was-"

"Fake, we know. Des has some renown within the Silver Sun. When we got to Manehattan she had a chat with Bucket who told us you left shortly before we came. We took the first ferry we could which happened to be the one you boarded as well but much earlier. We barely made it before it left Manehattan. HOWEVER, and Des is kinda stingy with details about this-" Scroll coughs meaningfully, making Des pout.

"I just don't want to make any hasty judgement," the hippogriff grumbles, "All I'm going to say for now is that we actually found a second group chasing after you with a different bounty offer. They have recieved it in Canterlot from a mare."

"So?" I shrug.

"Neither of them could remember how she looked and all their memories of the evening were jumbled and confused."

What?

"Like the cultist noble who killed his mates to summon me?"

"Exactly," Rolled Scroll takes charge again, "I checked their heads for enchantments and the lingering but percievable effect was exactly the same. The same, and I must admit extremely powerful, mental magic user who is behind your resurrection put an unbelievable bounty on your dead body."

"Maybe they realized they made a mistake? I have that kind of effect on ponies meeting me."

"The bounty was issued either shortly after you returned, likely when you were still travelling with us, or even before."

"That makes absolutely no sense," I must admit, suddenly seeing Des' point of view.

"Yeah," Des nods, "Now get to the magic part, we aren't getting anywhere by speculating."

"Right," Scroll gives me a victorious smile, "See, we knew we were somewhere close to you when we reached Griffonstone, possibly only a train behind. On the ferry, I used divination magic to discover you were around and we looked for you when it docked in Griffonstone."

"But how?"

"Well, you are not invisible to magic, you unravel the cast spell. When my divination failed over and over, not doing anything instead of failing to find you, I knew you were around. It wasn't that difficult to guess."

"Then how come it took you so long to track me? Especially here in this town where I shouldn't be in the first place."

Scroll sighs, wiping her forehead off.

"That was the difficult part. Bucket told Des where you were headed, but refused to say why. I was busy scribing divination scrolls all the way to Drachenberg. We had no clue where to look for you, though, when we arrived so we just randomly scoured the town. In the early morning, Des patrolling the town center heard a full-blown shooting, only to spot Corrupted pouring from some posh mansion. At that point, she contacted us over radio and told us to immediately leave the town. We took the first train passing through."

"You could have tried to warn someone," I mutter.

"We did tell few griffons on the way out, but they either didn't believe us or didn't understand what we were talking about."

"Look," Desert Shade says sharply, "I know best how quickly Corrupted spread. If we wanted to get out, we couldn't waste time. It's not like we could save anyone once they got onto the streets. Take this in whatever way you want, but I'm not stupid enough to lay my life in some crazy attempt to save someone I don't know."

"Ehm, ehm," Lyam coughs.

"The sacrificial valley doesn't count! End of the world meant I would lose many ponies and griffons I knew."

"Of course," the griffon chuckles.

"Anyway," Scroll interrupts the starting argument, "The train took us north while I scryed on the situation in Drachenberg. When my spells started showing a dead city overgrown with corrupted vegetation I stopped, thinking you and the whole town were already gone. HOWEVER, Des wanted to know something about the new tainted growth which we haven't seen in Equestria before so I resumed, checking various areas of Drachenberg until my spell failed. Recasting the spell only led to the same result which I attributed to finding the Corrupted version of you. But said anomaly moved west while all other Corrupted remained in the area, and we knew you somehow survived the apocalypse."

"Then you looked at the nearest westward city and got there by train way faster than Veronica and I could do on hoof, right?"

Scroll beams.

"Exactly! I still had to check your location over and over, something for which I prepared the scrolls on the way before. You see, when you break a spell it causes a painful feedback, plus I have to keep reusing it over and over which is exhausting like you wouldn't believe for extremely long-range scrying. Using scrolls alleviates is a ton, but it's still a lot to handle. Thankfully, when we were on the train and here in Steinheim I could sleep whenever not using magic. We knew you were approaching the town from the south, so I just made Des and Lyam invisible while they tailed you ever since you entered Steinheim, and when we knew the situation we prepped a trap. You know the rest."

"That's pretty smart."

"We have to be. Since we aren't omnipotent, cheating, divine superbeings we need to be inventive, smart, and tech savvy," comments Des.

That is all nice and so on, but one thing remains. One thing Desert Shade has to clarify, especially after admitting not giving a damn about a whole population of a griffon city turning to Corrupted.

"Des," I hesitate, "You strike me as the kind who wouldn't do anything bad unless necessary, but also not as an altruist who would drag herself and her friends all over a continent for somepony you've met once. So... why do this for me?"

We're at the entrance to the Legion fortress, several wide steps separating us from the visitors' lobby. It's clear the 'old castle made of stone' design hasn't been upgraded over the years, only got more electric lights and some public relations buildings slapped onto its walls just like we're about to go into.

Really, imagine a castle with a police station glued next to its entrance. Shows Griffon Legion officials give about the same amount of damn about architecture that I do.

"It's... personal," Des says, "I think. I said I'd tell you after we deal with Veronica and have somewhere comfortable to sit down."

The totally-out-of-place police station greets us. Griffons in uniforms walk aroud, carrying stacks of papers, halls on both sides lead to offices from which I can hear typewriters hard at work, and there's a receptionist in front of us, staring with interest at Lyam and his bound, waking up while groaning Redtalon cargo.

"Oh hey! Wasn't expecting to see you this soon," I hear Flora's cheery voice. She gives Desert Shade currently negotiating with the receptionist a curious look, "Another alicorn booty hunter? Oooh nice, she took the Redtalon pain in the plot along with you. Can't help you, though, hunting is only illegal around here if you're her... and in several other cases, but not yours."

I shrug. Stuff's going on, I have no clue what I'm doing or what to do other than the barest goal of returning to Equestria, and I have no control over my life.

Come to think of it, I should feel really at home like this.

"YOUUUU!" I hear Veronica growl when she notices Flora.

"Hey, don't look at me. You only threatened me if I was the one who came to the Legion soldiers with it. I have absolutely no clue what's going on," she leans to my ear, "Our plan still stands?"

I shake my head and whisper back.

"Just report to Bucket what happened. Leave the rest out. Tell him I'm with Desert Shade."

"Okay, well, it's been nice getting to know you, but it's time to go back to business. If there are any survivors in Drachenberg, they need help ASAP. Some of my superiors should be arriving shortly to question me."

The idea of high-ranked Black Ops members being around is not comforting, but I believe Flora not to break her word and drag me into it.

"We're celebrating tonight, guys!" Desert Shade returns with a big clanking sack, "If they're paying so much for her we should just stalk her all the time and wait for her to do something."

"I'll find you!" Veronica calls out while being escorted away by two police griffons.

My reaction is the same as Des' as we both say the same thing at the same time.

"Get in the line."

"Get in the line."

"So, what now?" I ask, turning away from the fuming griffoness.

"You look like you could use some-"

The reinforced door to the police station slams open, heavily armed griffons pouring into the lobby. They are all wearing some kind of black, padded armors covering them from head to paws, leaving a plastic visor and wing holes the only ways to tell they are not machines but in fact real griffons.

Griffons with shimmering energy shields emanating from devices locked around their forelegs take point, another ten armed with something similar to old assault rifles hide behind them, pointing the guns at us. The final figure to enter is a griffon in his late thirties, authority etched into his every movement. He is in excellent physical shape despite showing minor signs of aging like grey strands in his black coat and pale feathers on his otherwise sand-coloured head. His beak and talons look made of steel, although I know it's just the natural material.

Huh, how is the thing called? I have no idea.

However, the truly terrifying thing about him is not his own look, but his clothing. Unlike all the soldiers, all he is wearing is a black, gold-trimmed jacket. This one, however, doesn't bear any markings of rank. This griffon either doesn't want to be identified in an unknown situation, or is supposed to be recognized anywhere he should be.

For some reason I'm not exactly surprised that a noble like Veronica is the first one to talk:

"Holy shit, who dragged you here so fast, Niki?"

"Veronica, here in chains? Is it my birthday?" 'Niki' gives her a frosty glare before continuing.

"Round everyone up, split them up into individual cells so that they can't communicate, and prepare an interrogation room where I can talk to them one by one," he looks at the local police griffons who immediately salute and start rushing around.

When they surround Des' group, she just raises her foreleg.

"Weapons down," she says. Lyam lowers his foreleg reaching to his belt for a sword. Strong Back flicks her hooves, making her horseshoe blades slide back.

When the leading griffon takes a step towards me, I finally realize what instinctively shocked me the second he appeared. The Black Ops jacket has the same lack of markings Vargaz wore, meaning this griffon is the head of the Intelligence Service, and the most powerful Imperial noble right after the Emperor himself. The second thing is a strange serrated dagger hanging on a belt around his waist with the symbol of a clockwork gear instead of a guard. That thing is not a weapon but an artefact, one Crowley used during his attempt to usurp the Imperial throne. It can twist time to a limited degree in exchange for draining the user's life force.

Someone this important being here at the same time I am could be a complete coincidence, but I have enough experience with my life not to believe that.

One shot, one opportunity, mom's spaghetti. Flames of true death swirl around my numb foreleg. If I'm to lose a leg, at least it's going to be the one messed up already. I can possibly kill him before he uses the dagger, thus causing absurd amount of panic, and get out. Maybe there aren't more Black Ops soldiers outside. Maybe-

"No!" I hear Flora's desperate voice. She's giving me a pleading look. "Whatever you are thinking of, please no!"

Flora has seen my power work against Corrupted and must know how deadly it is. She also must know this would be only my deed, and nothing would incriminate her to be a part of it, so...

...does she simply not think the situation is serious?

She is a Blops member. Maybe I'm misinterpreting the griffon being hostile and after me?

The pink and black flame fades away, and I stomp my hoof to make my blood flow through the freezing stump that is my foreleg.

"Good choice, for both of us," the griffon nods approvingly, takes another step forward, and gives me an exploratory look. I freeze at his next words, and realize I probably should have killed him on the spot no matter the cost, "Blazing Light, Frostfire, Mistake, Blaze, Dark Prophet. Meeting two living legends in my lifetime, especially one supposedly dead. What a lucky griffon I am... I would say it's good to meet you, but I am not a liar."

He turns away.

"Excellent job, agent Flora. As I said, lock them up."

***

An alarm goes off inside my head. A call to assembly. There are only two alicorns who can find me, with my immunity to classic magic granted by divine power beyond comprehension of others, so I leave the empty, recovering landscape behind me and teleport to a place I'm finally starting to call home. Dark surroundings greet me along with faint whispering of fallen souls 'nearby'.

Magnus and Scream silently appear inside my obsidian temple as well. Both of them look apprehensive, but at least not frustrated as usual. That means there's finally some news. We've searched for over five years, looking for anything explaining the plague and its end. Depth-scanning magic, temporary time travel, any means we could lay our hooves on but to no avail.

"Anything?" I ask, honestly a little worried about them just standing there and repeatedly looking at me and then at each other.

"Yeah," Magnus nods, "but I have absolutely no idea whether I've got bad or good news."

It has to be something huge to shake somepony like Magnus.

"At this point, anything is a clue we desperately need. Come on."

"Well... here it comes," he takes a deep breath, "Harmony is gone."

Scream's jaw drops.

"Uh, what?" I add my intelligent insight.

"The god we call Harmony, the eternal force of evolution, willpower, change, and magic in all things, my creator, and one of the trinity above us... has disappeared. Its power is gone, having left only faint traces all over the planet."

"B-b-but how?" the enormity of the fact makes even me stutter.

"Now that's something I have no idea about," he simply shrugs.

"What does it mean for us?"

"Us, as in us three, or us, as in the entire world?"

"The world part first."

"At this point, if my measurements are correct, fairly little. The world has absorbed enough of Harmony's essence just by being manipulated by it, and lifeforms should remain the way they are. In the long term, though, I honestly have no idea. Give me another twenty thousand years and I'll give you a better answer. It's quite possible that the lack of Harmony's continued influence will make evolution stagnate, or the faint power still remaining will be enough, I simply cannot know the answer. There are no facts or previous experience to reinforce any theory I can come up with." Magnus facehoofs, looking at me with annoyed exhaustion, "Aaand by your thoughtful stare I'm pretty sure I know what it means for the three of us. More running all over the place."

"You said some of Harmony's power is remaining. Just lingering around?"

"Yes and no. I don't have to explain the yes part, do I?" he asks, and both I and Scream shake our heads, "Good, you haven't undergone a random lobotomy while I was away. Well, the no part... certain artefacts have appeared recently bearing focused power of the god. Six of them, each overflowing with Harmony's power supporting a certain emotion or natural force. From my brief observation there has to be more."

"What emotions or forces?"

"Kindness, loyalty, destruction, imprisonment, betrayal, and magic. I, ehm, 'borrowed' the artefacts representing betrayal, kindness, and honesty before the ignorant masses took them away from me. The power inside betrayal and loyalty resonated together, making me think these, as I call them, Elements are paired and there is twelve of them. I am not sure what 'emotions' to look for exactly, because the translation of power into how it feels is vague at best, so I can't just do a simple deep scan of wide areas."

"How did these items appear?"

"Call them fragments, will you? I have a hunch about something I'm not sharing not to tarnish my image of superior intelligence. As to how those appeared, two young alicorns found one in our city. When I asked, they said taking one teleported them to the other and so on. They didn't know where they ended with each translocation, but the fragments must have been scattered all over the globe. Well, at first they said I was a scary old alicorn who lives in a tower and eats others. The younger one has quite the tongue on her. The older one assisted me with my experiments."

"Which two alicorns are they?"

"Sun and Moon. Sun is the older one. Her name is," Magnus taps his temple impatiently, "Celestia, right! The young one is Luna and is gaining power very fast, so she'll grow up soon."

In difference to most species we've either discovered or created, alicorns 'grow up' not with time but with gained knowledge and power. Age is not a static number, but rather a fluid accumulation of experience. That said, with my sister dead, Magnus and I still have seniority over everyone else by far.

"I will need to talk to them."

"Uhh, how about no?" Scream finally joins in, "I know the two Magnus is talking about, and if you enter our city you'll have a mob on your back very fast. Old Amore called for your pardon after they discovered what happened to Faust, but your sister had manipulated herself into a position of power we won't be forgetting any time soon. The pushback was too strong from all sides and he gave in. All he could do was prevent an all-out hunt for you. You are officially banned from the place."

Well, it's not like I spent much time in our capital, and only, city before but I'm going to miss the few relaxing moments with Scream in the public baths. Nothing I can do now about it. Thankfully, there are still cities of lesser species with limited technology and magic, but nothing to scoff at.

"Can you take the fragments from them?"

Magnus shakes his head.

"That would be unwise, as much as I'd like to do that. You need information from the inside, and while Scream and I aren't exactly beloved public figures, we still hold high social status. We can't show ourselves in bad light by taking completely unique and likely immensely powerful items from a pair of young mares. The second, and vastly more important reason is that the fragments seem to function properly only in Celestia and Luna's presence, meaning the items themselves wouldn't be that useful without them. And finally, if the two are somehow connected to the fragments, or chosen by them or something, they can lead me to the missing six. Then we can grab them along with the full set for experiments."

"Moral as usual, Maggie," Scream smirks, "Now, while Magnus kept spying on a pair of fillies I've actually found something, or someone, who might help in getting us forward, or backward in our case. Remember the guy at the asylum? The crazy alicorn with hallucinations and weird dreams."

"The brown one? Either catatonic, screaming, or shaking?" Magnus raises an eyebrow, "I kinda ignored him. The chance of getting anything useful out of him was tiny."

"Tiny like your c-"

"Scream," I raise my voice, "Not now, please."

"Fine, geez, you should rename this place to the No-Fun Sanctuary. There's nothing wrong with some friendly jabs. Anyway, we did some research in the asylum looking for alicorns possibly touched by the gods. Magnus did some tests on everyone and didn't find any unnatural marks of divine power."

"There were none, all the patients were just alicorns!"

"Exactly," Scream's smile grows wider, "However, the brown one in his mumbling said something he really, really shouldn't know. Remember the dark travellers, Void?"

Dark travellers were creatures our creators made in order to discover what lifeforms could live in the emptiness between realities. They weren't evil as such, but the energy inside them which allowed to survive different laws of physics disintegrated anything nearby when they got to the real plane accidentally. Faust, Magnus, and I had to kill many of them and plead the gods not to make more to save the planet, their playground. That was when there still were only the three of us.

"Unpleasantly well," I nod.

"So did he."

"Maybe my sister eventually wrote something about them? Or Magnus?"

The white alicorn shakes his head.

"No, I didn't and I have access to all libraries. Plus, I've ransacked your sister's research lab after you killed her. Serves her right for destroying mine. She didn't write anything either."

"I refuse to believe there were four primal alicorns. We would have noticed."

"Once again, you are correct," Scream nods, "He is a new one."

"Alicorn of Memories or something?" I take a wild guess.

"Getting warmer."

"No..." Magnus' eyes go wide, "That can't be... the possibilities, the power, the knowledge!"

I must admit I haven't gotten to a conclusion yet. I just shake my head.

"Well, Voidie, the brown alicorn in the asylum might be the most powerful one ever to come into existence if guided properly and helped to deal with the amount of knowledge he 'can' possess. More powerful than you, although not more deadly. More powerful than Magnus. Keyword - he CAN become that. He definitely isn't. He's just a poor guy unable to contain a mind scattered all over time and space."

It finally clicks.

"The alicorn of Time."

***

I wake up after a short nap in the cell. Void's dreams are something I'm not watching, I'm going through a script my body knows but I don't. Every moment with Scream, every argument with Magnus, every second of dread when facing a new terrifying creation of Discord blindly experimenting is real. I am there, having to think of a way to survive, to help others survive, and working off of knowledge that doesn't belong to me. I've never felt anything like this before, not even in my most powerful state before fighting Harmony.

These aren't just memories preserved inside stolen divine power.

The reinforced door to my cell clicks. I've been wondering when the interrogators will get to me. Truth be told, though, I expected some burly griffons to drag me to the 'discussion' room, not the head honcho himself. He enters the cell alone, but I have no doubts his soldiers are right outside the door. I look him up and down, stopping briefly on his black jacket with gold trimmings.

He nods at me.

"Come with me. You are the last one I need to talk to, Blazing Light. Or should I be using a different name for different time and place?"

"Blazing Light is a name I have to live with, mostly because worthless trash was already taken," I give him a defiant stare, not moving an inch, "And who are you, big boss Black Ops guy?"

To my complete surprise the sandy feathers around his grey beak twitch in a half smile.

"My name is Nicolai Irongrip, but more than my name the names of my grand grand grand -well there's a lot- father and uncles might ring a bell to you - Vargaz, Emhyr, and Crowley. I am indeed the leader of the Imperial Intelligence Service, and my brother Cassius is the ruling Emperor."

"That's quite the turnout just for me."

"Oh trust me, I am not here only for you, or at least I wouldn't be if the situation in Drachenberg turned out differently. As things stand, according to agent Flora you are the most acquainted with the situation."

"One thing first," my stomach revolves, "Is a griffon named Cromach among the survivors from Drachenberg?"

Nicolai laughs, but there is only bitter misery in it, no mirth.

"Among survivors? Among what survivors? Aside from you, Flora, Veronica Redtalon, and her three associates there is no one left from Drachenberg, only Corrupted. The Legion answered fast, but lost a lot of griffons and equipment without finding a single non-transformed soul. Everyone from the city is gone."

You know, maybe not knowing and just blindly hoping that Crom somehow got out was better.

Author's Note:

If you understand the heavy-handed reference in Nicolai's name you had an excellent taste in games over fifteen years ago.

Comments

[Two_Madmans]

"That makes absolutely no sense," I must admit, suddenly seeing Des' point of view.

That... Have? To kill him to check, will he back from dead?... Or kill him once and for all?
No, she could make it in moment he lived... Ok, i will continue to see why.

"Exactly," Scream's smile grows wider, "However, the brown one in his mumbling said something he really, really shouldn't know. Remember the dark travellers, Void?"

"The alicorn of Time."

Is there some references to Doctor?

If you understand the heavy-handed reference in Nicolai's name you had an excellent taste in games over fifteen years ago.

People always said i'm not a true gamer...

[Anonymous Critic]

"Kindness, honesty, destruction, imprisonment, betrayal, and magic. I, ehm, 'borrowed' the artefacts representing betrayal, kindness, and honesty before the ignorant masses took them away from me. The power inside betrayal and honesty resonated together, making me think these, as I call them, Elements are paired and there is twelve of them. I am not sure what 'emotions' to look for exactly, because the translation of power into how it feels is vague at best, so I can't just do a simple deep scan of wide areas."

This bit alone leaves so many questions...

For one, what if Celestia didn't 'trade' the 'hard' elements she had for the 'soft' ones the other side did? Who would get what elements? I ask this, because if the elements were distributed in a way where one universe would get a lineup like- kindness, honesty, greed, betrayal, and suffering, where the other got imprisonment, destruction, generosity, loyalty, and laughter. With magic being given to the 'weaker' universe, fast forwarding to the present time, it would be clear who would get which elements (Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie respectively on each list.)

...but this is not the case. In this universe it is where on this side... with Kindness and Imprisonment on this side, which one would Fluttershy get, and who would get the other element? Same applies to honesty and destruction, with Applejack? (...and of course on the other side, generosity and greed for Rarity, and laughter and suffering for Pinkie Pie.) Would the bearers with two elements 'meant' for them in the original universe, (although on different sides), who have both their elements on one side become the bearers of both? (It's not like someone can't bear multiple elements, as Celestia supposedly used them to banish Luna to the moon.) Though all this brings up questions of what would happen to the original element bearers who (on a side) wouldn't have any elements... and as such, what would've happened to them. Plus... how would it work with someone bearing two elements... when most of those pears completely contradict eachother.

On another note, what is with the pairings of elements, and why are they paired with seemingly unrelated elements (at least as shown by the Honesty/Betrayal pairing), and why aren't they paired with their opposing element?

Also, arguably the most important part. What is the twelfth element? And what happened to it? For it to never have been ever mentioned before?

A single paragraph, yet, if true, it seems to completely change the story, turning the entire lore upside down... and all in a way it is easily overlooked by someone not paying much attention at all...

...well played, Nameless.