Imbalanced: New Age

by Nameless Narrator

Borrowed Time: Joy

My first breath inside the well-lit cavern sends shivers down my spine. The air is fresh, and yet it brings with it the scent of perfumes, spices, but most of all - sweat, lust, fluids, and everything that would make pony’s blood rush to his head, and then much, much lower. Despite that, I feel as if great weight of the world has just been lifted from my back. I can finally breathe in huge lungfuls of the erotic scents, and feel lighter with each one. The muffled moaning and the occasional loud gasp leave no doubts about this being the realm of pure, undiluted Lust.

If there ever was a time for the fires of divine Hope to regain power inside me, then it would be here, with her. I can feel it, the well of divinity inside me changing and shifting, surging through my veins like phoenix fire and cleansing all impurities. As soon as the power bursts like a bubble, it is absorbed by something different, the new essence I felt down in the mines, the power denying the existence of any other.

Eventually, the vortex of scraps of divinities stolen or granted in my past lives inside me calms down, leaving nothing. Despite that, I don’t feel empty like when I used everything up during my fight against Nightshade. The power is there, it just feels like nothing, but I can feel it growing, latching onto my body and soul, permeating me. I absorb magic and divine power from my surroundings alike with no resistance whatsoever, as if the whole pocket dimension wanted to fill me.

This place was made for me, or with me in mind.

Everything bears down on me at once, after my overwhelmed mind finally registers what my eyes have been locked on all this time. An alicorn is watching me with a soft smile on her muzzle. The flickering light of torches in holders fastened to roughly hewn pillars scattered around the cavern reflects off of her panther-like black coat. Memories of Scream cross my mind, and I recall her bountiful form of a worshipped clop star rippling with every movement, flank hypnotically swaying from side to side in an irresistible attempt to break the mind of anypony watching, be they a mare or a stallion. This alicorn has some of that allure, but she is fit, sleek, with muscles well defined even while standing still and only breathing. However, much like Nightshade whose form was a mix between physical perfection for combat and Corrupted affinity for breeding, the mare ahead is an amalgam of both aspects, heavily leaning towards the latter, though. On her round, toned, and inviting plot rests the cutie mark of a pink blossom, its folds glistening with dew and…

That’s not a flower, and the moisture is not dew by any stretch of the imagination. The pulsating mark is a marehood, open, wet, and ready to swallow you whole. The air in this place suddenly grows heavier and heavier.

The thing is that unless Des’ investigation was completely wrong, or she lied to me to use me to get here, this alicorn orchestrated my resurrection, and put a massive bounty on my dead body. I’ve never been good at math, but this doesn’t add up.

“Cho...key...?” I finally manage to make my paralyzed mouth croak.

”Blazing, this isn’t really happening, right?”

It isn’t. It can’t be. I wish it would be, but it can’t be. This has to be another trap, nothing else. A trap made for me by the one trying to get me.

“Joy...” hisses Desert Shade, completely ignored by the alicorn.

The venom in her voice is palpable, but there is something else as well. Des is curious. She clearly hates the mare silently standing nearby, but also desperately needs to know what happens now.

Red eyes watching with disgust a tiny set of forelegs attempting to grab the huuuge muzzle.

There was more in the vision I lived through when digging through Des’ head, but this is the clearest image I can recall. This ‘Joy’ is somepony Desert Shade saw soon after she was born. Either her mother, or her guardian.

“What…? How…?”

The red eyes with slit pupils stare at me. Not with hatred, anger, or anything negative. Not with threat or curiosity. However, not even with love or friendship, which sends a chill down my spine. It’s simply an apprehensive look of somepony having absolutely no idea what to do at the moment.

I bet I look exactly the same.

”This isn’t really some alicorn version of Choking Darkness, right? Some dimensional shift or alternate reality, or maybe- hurk?! What’s-? Blazing? BLAZING HEEEEEEEEELP!”

Heavy?

HEAVY?

Silence.

The presence of Heavy’s soul tied to myself is still there, only immensely dampened. What could threaten a spirit? I don’t feel any magic other than the ambient aphrodisiac effect of this place. How can I help him-

Joy takes a step forward. I freeze, physically and mentally.

She starts walking, slow and steady. Hips swaying, tail swishing, toned muscles under her slick coat making the reflected torchlight dance.

Why is she so big?

More like, why am I so small?

The heavy scent lingering all around grows stronger, worming its way into my nose, mouth, and making me blush.

Big, powerful mare. The things she could do to me… use me like a rag. Crush me under her. Fill me with her mind-melting scent and make me her living toy. Keep me around and tease me forever until I beg her with no regard for my dignity. Everything I’ve ever dreamed of.

As if anypony would want me around for long.

Like a freezing shower, the realization of the absolute truth regarding my existence brings me back from the lust-fueled haze. To dream is a nice thing once in a while, but for ponies like me those things are really just dreams.

Chokey is dead. Crom is a Corrupted. Whoever this is is using my desires against me. A tactic like that truly is worthy of the alicorn of Lust. Scream would have done the same thing. Hope is dead, Blazing, deal with things here and now.

With renewed grasp on reality, I match Joy’s pace and…

...stumble.

I look at my forelegs, my bronze-coated forelegs ending with completely and utterly unremarkable hooves. Brushing away a lock of my mane, the flicker of yellow doesn’t escape me. I’m an alicorn again… uncorrupted, old myself.

No. I try to spread the wings I don’t have.

I’m a unicorn. That’s why Joy is a head taller. Oh dear, the things she could do to my smaller form. Perhaps she could make me even smaller and shove my whole body-

A loud moan from behind brings me once again back into reality.

Okay, I really didn’t need to know that Desert Shade is actually a little taller than my normal self. The fact that she’s currently giving Joy a steamy, lidded gaze, tongue lolling out of her mouth, panting, and rubbing her hind legs together doesn’t restore my confidence. Neither does the string of drool dripping down her chin.

I am facing Scream, the golden alicorn of Lust. My dark flames of true death are fading, drowned out by my uncertainty. Choking Darkness is by my side, mind broken by Scream’s mere presence. This will not do, I need her to get my soul back, and the mare is my best option. I hate using Blazing Light’s death to manipulate her in her vulnerable state, but I don’t have a choice. Taking a step closer, I wrap my wing around her and feel Scream’s influence dissipate. Choking Darkness takes a long breath, and her reaction tells me that I acted before she could become Scream’s permanent drooling slave.

A memory? Guidance?

I don’t have wings, but when I inch closer to Des, I feel my divinity reacting, clearing the air around, and making Des tense up.

“What? How? YOU!” the hippogriff immediately draws her rapier and points it at Joy, “You tried to do it again, didn’t you...? I will-”

“Oh shut up, you unwanted pile of misery!” growls Joy, waves her hoof in a slapping motion, and I feel an invisible impact dissipate in the air around us. Joy raises an eyebrow, looking at her hoof, “Hmph, I should have guessed. Congratulations on regaining your power, Blaze, although I must admit I was hoping I would get to play with your Corrupted body.”

“Whoever you are, I don’t appreciate you using that form in front of me. If you think an illusion like that will help you in any way, then I regret to inform you that you are managing the exact opposite,”

Joy gives me a short, loud laugh sounding more like a bark.

“Illusion? My dear Blaze, if there is somepony who knows how useless illusions are against you then it’s me. To be quite honest, I am a little hurt that you doubt me so much. After all,” she walks closer, one of her forehooves catching on fire which turns into a horseshoe with hoof-blades sticking out of it. When she comes close enough to reach if I tried hard enough, the magical weapon dissipates, and I feel the magic draining into me. The alicorn, however, remains the same, “magical or divine disguises never worked well on you.”

“I saw Choking Darkness get disintegrated in front of me.”

“So what?” she shakes her head, “Same thing happened to Cromach and it didn’t stop him. Being difficult to kill runs in the relationship, it seems.”

“But Cromach’s spirit survived due to the divine power I infused him with way before that. He-”

“HE GOT EVERYTHING!” she screeches into my face before turning away and puttng some distance between us, “YES, yes yes yes yes, HE got EVERYTHING while I got NOTHING! I was working my ass off in Canterlot while he was working yours in Manehattan. I got a measly visit every other week or so while he could spend so much more time with you. He won! THE DAMN GRIFFON WON! He won you, and I was left in my cold bed each and every night.”

She isn’t acting.

Could this really be her? But how? No, no no no. Remember - the amount of gold on my head could buy a very comfortable castle along with all the servants.

“Heh hehehehehe,” she spins around and glares at me, eyes wide like a maniac watching their prey, “You know what? In the end, I think… I think I wanted Twilight to fuck the timestop spell up. I wanted to finally stop feeling like A SECOND-RATE USED RAG, LIKE A CHEWED OUT GUM! Even now I recall time slowing down for me as my body got ripped to atoms inch by inch in slow agony. At that point, though, when I knew more than well that I would never be with you the way I wanted, the way I dreamed of every night… I welcomed it. I lost, and Cromach won. My only consolation was that he would suffer the same fate as me. Oh, how wrong I was...”

The alicorns of Lust can have all the sex they want, all physical contact they can dream of, and eventually that loses any meaning past a short burst of pleasure. They need something else, something more meaningful, and it is more vital to them than to anyone else in existence. Just like Scream, who was separated from Void for millenia, and orchestrated a plan which would cause the deaths of millions with no moral objections in order to get him back, they desperately crave real love. And if they are deprived of it...

…they go completely and utterly insane.

“Chokey...” I whisper.

“Choking Darkness is dead, Blaze. My name is Joy, and I invite you to stay here,” she flashes Desert Shade an annoyed frown, “as well as… it.”

That wasn’t an offer.

Yeah, I know.

Damn how I wish I had Heavy on the line for a second opinion, or in the worst case scenario - scouting for a way out.

Author's Note:

What a happy, cheerful reunion.

Comments

[An Alternate Universe]

guessed, Congratulations

This line killed me:

I was working my ass off in Canterlot while he was working yours in Manehattan.

Anywho, that went in a direction I wasn't expecting. I guess that's what I get for not reading previous stories, but the surprise was delicious.

[Nameless Narrator]

8084746 Care to guess in which way the reunion is going to go horribly wrong ?

[An Alternate Universe]

8084847 Chocking has gone insane over the years and is responsible for something or other that Blazing now has to stop? The spread of the Corruption to the Gryphons

Yeah... I got nothing.
Though this;

Author's Note:
What a happy, cheerful reunion.

sealed the deal. And also Blazing, that guy couldn't find a happy ending if it offered to take him home from the bar (mostly because the good outcome would be a trap).

[TheDerpyBarnOwl]

Damn, easy cheerful endings avoid Blazing like the plague.

[Nameless Narrator]

8086228 Maybe one day, or maybe not.

[An Alternate Universe]

8086602 Pft. A likely story.

[Two_Madmans]

“Choking Darkness is dead, Blaze. My name is Joy, and I invite you to stay here,”

It will not ends well

[Anonymous Critic]

What a happy, cheerful reunion.

What the heck did I just watch?

[Anonymous Critic]

8086602
Since when were you such an optimist?