Imbalanced: Legacy of Light

by Nameless Narrator

20: Booty in Pine Hills

Harriet fell asleep with a smile. It felt like forever since she’d slept alone in a soft bed and felt safe.

She was in Pine Hills, it was long after midnight, but she was almost done. Tomorrow, well, later today, she was going to find a guide to take her to the Badlands place, and then she would go home, which was something she’d said to herself far too many times already, but this time she meant it more than ever.

Her trip from Ponyville to Pine Hills had been thankfully uneventful, albeit Harriet knew she’d be feeling prying eyes on her for the next few days. She knew she’d been followed, although whether it had been by curious Corrupted, protective amazons, or someone completely different had been impossible to tell in the darkness of the night. That wasn’t important now, though. She was safe, she was in a tavern in the rather small city, and she was in one piece.

After everything that had happened, she slept without nightmares for once while hugging her backpack with the Soulstealer.

When she woke up, it was to sunlight tickling her nose through the drawn curtains. With a yawn, she checked all her possessions, discovered that everything was still there, and soon enough she was walking down the tavern stairs to the main room on the bottom floor.

The bartender, a light blue, brown-maned earthpony she barely remembered from her half-asleep entrance yesterday looked her way, and gave her an encouraging smile as stood under the stairs, trying to finally get a good look of the place where she’d ended yester- much earlier today.

The whole place looked old-timey, which warmed Harriet’s heart immediately, as it reminded her of the tavern in Windy. On a closer look, though, there was a lot of technology behind everything. The flickering torches on the walls were in fact very clever light bulbs, the load bearing pillars scattered all over the main floor were made of stone rather than wood, and while the tables, large and small, were wooden, they all were supported by metal framework ensuring none would become rickety without any serious violent effort. On the far wall there was a stage for dancing or staging plays, and-

She should probably stop staring and talk to the waiting bartender, shouldn’t she?

“Good morning, gorgeous lady,” the bartender smiled with the swag of a thousand Chads, “Or early afternoon, to be exact.”

“Good m-aah,” Harriet yawned, clamping her talons over her mouth, “morning. I’m sorry, I’m still not really awake.”

“Same here,” the bartender… right, his name was Frosty Mug, just like the tavern, Harriet faintly recalled their quick meeting this morning, “The Buttfest is killing me, but it sure brings the gold.”

What?

“The… Buttfest?” Harriet immediately lost any idea about anything she wanted to ask before the mention of something this unusual.

“I think it’s got a real name or something… half-a-yearly union rebuilding appreciation whatever,” Frosty sighed, “Sorry, if we can talk about it in two weeks, I’ll know a bit more.”

“Two weeks?”

“Week for the Buttfest, and then a week of sleep, to be frank. Heh, my first one almost killed me when I was just starting out,” Frosty shook his head, “Nevermind, what can I do for you?”

Harriet looked around at the fairly deserted tavern. There could be at most ten mainly solitary figures scattered all over the main room.

“It looks pretty empty here...”

“You should have seen this place an hour ago. I had to sit tourists on other tourists, AND I had full tables outside,” Frosty winced at the memory, “Every six months… worth it every time.”

Just as Harriet was about to ask for details about this town, her stomach rumbled, and she chose differently.

“Got something like a late… very late breakfast?”

“I’ve got some leftovers from brunch, but I can ask the cook to fix you something. It’s no problem,” Frosty shrugged, “She makes mean hayburgers, not the stuff they sell in Manehattan. Much healthier, too.”

“Yeah, sure,” Harriet smile. The idea of something that will fill her up maybe for the rest of the day was an enticing one, “Can I get some eggs, sunny-side up too, please?”

Frosty nodded, and disappeared through the back door to presumably the kitchen. He quickly came back after some muffled conversation.

“Five minutes,” quickly returning to the usual bartender thing of cleaning a glass, Frosty asked, “So, what brings you here, miss Harriet? I assume from your previous surprise it’s not Buttfest.”

“I want to take a tour to the Badlands,” she quickly said her rehearsed line, “I’d like to see the biggest, and the most badass anomaly there.”

“Oh, have you arranged a guide, or are you an adventurer? I get both tourists and raiding parties here,” said Frosty with the air of an expert on the subject.

“Raiding parties? Is there some vault there or something?” Harriet shook her head, “No, I just want to see the place. I’m just a tourist, no sword swinger.”

“Heh, there might be a secret vault somewhere in there. There are rumors about everything these days,” Frosty walked around the counter, and sat on the bar stool by Harriet’s side, “My tavern is kinda… the headquarters for mercenary groups and adventurers trying to get supplies in order to explore the Badlands, and for those who want to trade information or just share stories about various expeditions. It’s quite the traffic, although it means that I see quite a lot of ponies, and not only those by far, only once.”

“Is it that dangerous?”

“From what I heard, it’s much worse but worth it one hundred percent,” Frosty cracked his neck, “You see, the Badlands is filled with strange anomalies - areas where reality is different, weird. Like, there’s one where everything that gets in turns into gold.”

“Woooow.”

“Sounds great, doesn’t it? Let’s say you bring a rope, tie it around a rock, toss it in, and voila, you’re rich,” he smirked, “Well, not exactly if you count in the fact that the gold always has a skull mark on it, disappears in three days, and you go along with it.”

“W-Where to?”

Frosty shrugged.

“I don’t know, and I’m not sure I would want to. All I know is that I’ve never seen anyone who tried paying with it ever again.”

“Eep!”

“Yep. Some anomalies are plain weird. There’s one which shoots everything upwards at quite unhealthy speeds, then there’s a travelling ball of fire you can avoid only by not looking at it, and lying down. Oops, free information there.”

“So… it’s all bad,” Harriet frowned. It looked like the last leg of her journey wouldn’t be as straightforward as she hoped.

“Not entirely, because if it was, there would be much less traffic around here. You see, the anomalies can sometimes be beneficial. I know of a group who found a healing rock. It can regenerate any wound that isn’t straight up lethal, but if you keep it on you for too long, you start growing extremely itchy beard all over.”

“And what’s the baddest anomaly out there?”

“Hard to say, really. My guess is that if there is any which would kill you in a more brutal and gruesome ways than most others, it would be in the center of the Badlands in the old changeling hive. I’m not sure if there’s anyone who knows how to get there, maybe not even Desert Shade.”

“Who’s that?”

“Arguably the best guide and explorer. And by arguably I mean that I’ll happily argue about it with the remains of anyone who tries to achieve at least a tenth of what she did. There are a lot of guides who can get you to the Badlands or even a few hours’ trip inside, but Des knows the safest routes through most of the territory.”

“Umm, can I hire her? I mean, can I afford it?”

Frosty scratched his head.

“Yeeeah, that’s where I’m not really sure. Des is loaded, and her time is precious. She often brings new anomaly samples as well as materials the amazons use to preserve Corrupted bits.”

“Why?” Harriet tilted her head. Why would anyone need pieces of Corrupted? “Science or something?”

“Heh, go check the market, miss tourist. Pine Hills is the sole provider of Corrupted trinkets and various oddities. I’ve got a potted flytrap myself. It keeps this place insect-free in summer. Oh, and winter boots, actually. They fit amazingly well, are warm, and rub my hooves when I’m resting. Great for long nights on shift.”

“Sooo… you make stuff out of Corrupted? You catch them or something?” Harriet’s eyes went wide, her desire to visit the market growing with each word.

“Amazons do. It’s part of their culture. They’ve got some mixtures they use to breed with Corrupted to make more amazons, but stay somewhat sane and pony-like. I don’t really understand it, because they don’t talk too much. To be frank, they aren’t the smartest, the result of their heavy taint, I suppose. Damn good hunters and fighters. They and the dreamlings protect this town from Corrupted,” Frosty chuckled, “Funny thing - the place with the most Corrupted products is the place with almost no Corrupted within the city limits. Dreamlings hate them, and even Nightshade isn’t too keen on making an enemy out of queen Guiding Light.”

“What’s a dreamling? The only lings I know about are changelings.”

“They are some kind of changelings, as far as I know, but they have something in their heads which makes them able to deal with Corrupted. I can’t tell you more. No one really knows anything. The dreamlings keep us safe, feed the same way as changelings, and keep to themselves or their lovers mostly. They come here for ambience often, though.”

Market, market, market- no, bad Harriet, business first!

“Well, thank you for the info, mister Frosty. Do you know how I could contact this Desert Shade? I’ve got some bits for the trip. I hope it will be enough.”

“I’ve got a device which can signal her someone is looking for her here. She typically doesn’t spend too much time in the city.”

“Busy exploring?”

“That, and with her amount of absolutely unique knowledge, she needs some secrecy in case others pretending to be clients wanted to gain it. I’ll let her know, and… she will figure out a way to contact you, trust me.”

“Great!” Harriet beamed. The money was going to be a problem, but maybe she would be able to strike a deal or something. Ponies seemed interested in her as a tainted dragonpony, and if this Desert Shade was so interested in unique knowledge, she might want to examine Harriet just like Bucket did, “I’ll go check out the market.”

“Oh, and… don’t be mad if other tourists mistake you for one of the booty priestesses,” Frosty waved at her as she opened the door to leave.

“Wait, what?” she asked, but Frosty was already busy with a client who immediately took Harriet’s place, “Eh, nevermind.”

There was no way a butt-anything would be a threat to her mission.

With renewed courage and, granted, some amount of confusion, Harriet stepped out into the village-like streets of Pine Hills. Unlike at night, though, the streets were swarming with ponies, griffons, zebras, and even untransformed changelings. However, at this point Harriet was used to bigger crowds of Manehattan and griffon cities, so she simply followed the flow of the masses, and enjoyed the distant drum music.

Despite the amount of ponies around, Pine Hills obviously wasn’t a big city, not close to even Ponyville. Possibly something similar to Wilbur’s Pass, actually, which gave Harriet confidence that even if she got lost, it wouldn’t matter too much, because she wouldn’t be too far from anywhere.

The main square was pretty big, though, hosting dozens of stands, and three big buildings, probably the only so big ones in the city. Even Frosty’s tavern was only two stories tall despite being expansive, but these were three-story houses each. One, a box-like structure, had a clock near the roof, and its official look only augmented by-

Silver Sun members, here? Yep, definitely. The two ponies standing by the side of the large wooden door each wore the white robes she remembered from Manehattan. Harriet briefly considered walking up and saying hi, but decided against it. They wouldn’t know who she was, anyway, because her stay in Manehattan was brief.

Well, the official building had to be the town hall. The second, rather more interesting building with a slanted roof and a small tower, albeit smaller, had its wide double door open, tourists pouring in and out via a short and wide staircase. For some reason, the walls were decorated with stained glass windows, and statues depicting both mares and stallions, all very well… endowed in the plot department. Coupled with what Frosty had said, this town certainly looked focused on booty. The counterpoint was, though, that unlike Manehattan and certainly and bigger griffon city she’d seen, there didn’t seem to be any prostitution or official sex trade, which was unexpected from a place on this corrupted continent.

The music grew louder, and soon a procession of mares of Harriet’s size and bigger happily jiggling along the way started walking through the square, tourists hastily getting out of their way. Some were chubby, some were muscular, but all bore the black marks of corruption on their bodies in some way. One had a tentacle growing out of her back, one’s coat was simply oily and black, clinging tightly to her curvy body, and even had a whole foreleg made of tentacles twisted together. All were happy, all were smiling, randomly stopping and twerking, much to the amazement and obvious enjoyment of the tourists. With her size, Harriet had a clear view of the slowly moving procession, blushing as her own taint brought fantasies of being smothered by those plots.

Shaking her head to regain some composure, she gave na examining look to the final big building. It was black, with strange, blue-ish tinge to its windows, and it loomed. Like a small fortress within a city. The doors of this one were closed, unguarded, and Harriet immediately knew that she would rather eat her own hoof than try to get inside even for a brief tourist look.

Quiet humming in tune with the drum music following the sexy procession made Harriet turn around and notice a dim orange amazon and a what looked like a semi-Corrupted changeling with weird, thin, orange veins in his chitin, both responsible for the hum. The amazon was armed with a black spear which looked as if a normal wooden weapon was somehow grown-through with taint, and the changeling with his head propped against the thigh of the amazon’s foreleg had nothing other than a belt and a small pouch on him.

They looked guard-y. Time to ask some questions, if they didn’t mind.

The changeling’s ears perked up as Harriet approached, and the amazon measured her up and down.

“Hello,” Harriet smiled, “Are you from here?”

“Yes, well-grown one,” said the amazon, “How we help?”

“Guards,” barked the changeling. He didn’t seem hostile, more unused to talking or something.

“What are those two buildings?” Harriet pointed to the black fortress and the ornate, suggestive house.

“Church of plot,” said the amazon, nodding to the not scary house, “Little ones thank for our protection. Safe place for tradition. Bloodrage often visits.”

“Bloodrage?” Harriet tilted her head.

“Amazon queen. Powerful warrior. Slain many cursed ones,” the amazon seemed satisfied with that explanation, and the changeling just patiently watched the area around, his head faintly swaying with the beat of the drums.

“Umm, well, I couldn’t notice… there’s a lot of plot thematic here.”

“Plot important. Bait for cursed ones. They want to breed, we catch and use. Little ones like plots too. Make friends. You could be one of us. Your plot mighty. Could lure many cursed and little ones.”

Aaand now Harriet was sure that despite her taint, even her scales must be bright red again. Desperate to change topic now, Harriet coughed and pointed at the black structure.

“And that one?”

“Dreamling hive,” said the change- dreamling? “No go.”

“Are you a dreamling?”

“Yes.”

“What’s a dreamling? I mean, you look like a tainted changeling to me. Sorry if that’s insensitive.”

The dreamling looked at the amazon, his stare silently asking for help.

“Dream ones strong, wild. Centuries old, mind broken. Best hunters, best fighters. Queen smart, others learning, healing. Slowly. Guard city with us. No cursed get inside unwanted,” the amazon explained in his stead.

“Umm, thank you very much,” Harriet gave the amazon a quick bow, which to her surprise both she and the dreamling requited, “I’ll go check the stalls and shops.”

The two simply nodded as Harriet pushed through the willingly parting crowd to the nearest stall offering strange black, circular pads of varying sizes.

“What’s this?” she poked one with a claw. It quivered in response, “Umm...”

“Treated boots of all sizes,” the vendor mare was instantly giving her all her attention. She raised a hoof, showing off a smooth, black glove covering it halfway up to her knee, “Tough, waterproof, light and airy at the same time. Plus, they give massages.”

Harriet narrowed her eyes at one thick pad.

“How do they work? Like leggings made of Corrupted skin or something?”

“Oh no no no, nothing so violent,” the vendor shook her head, “It’s a tiny part of a living Corruptor treated with amazon potions. You touch it, it spreads over your leg. There’s so little corruption in it that it can’t cover more of you than that. See?” she grabbed the hem of the ‘boot’ with her teeth, and started peeling it off. The boot apparently got the message soon, and slipped off, transforming back into a black disc, “They wiggle and rub your legs when you’re not walking around.”

“Neat!” Harriet smiled. Something like that would come in handy after a long day of walking. The mare didn’t look tainted, at least not above what looked to be standard in Equestria, and when Harriet looked around, she realized that quite a lot of ponies were wearing the black boots already, “Do they work with claws?” she presented a foreleg.

“Sure. Claws, talons, fingers, other tentacles, anything.”

“I’ll take four.”

“Sure thing! Be sure to try them on first. You’re a big lady, and you might want some more covering ones.”

Few minutes later, Harriet smiled absent-mindedly as her new boots started softly vibrating under the frogs of her hind hooves, and gently tightening between her claws. She could get used to this.

Seeing her sudden relaxation, the vendor grinned, and winked at Harriet.

“My friend over there sells panties and skirts from the same stuff. Those will blow your mind. If you were a stallion, something else as well,” she chuckled.

Harriet choked at the idea, and quickly spotted the referenced stand surrounded by a crowd of ponies. Obviously…

As tempting as it sounded, Harriet was one hundred percent sure that if she bought anything like that, coupled with her taint already putting her on edge, she would just find the darkest corner, curl up there, and happily drool herself silly for the rest of her life.

Maybe after she was done with her mission…

No, no! Bad, pervy half-dragon.

Avoiding the underwear stand like the plague, Harriet still wanted to check the market out, and after some two hours, she found her backpack restored to its full, bulging souvenir glory, and her money on the seriously diminished side. She rubbed her new scaly bracelet made of, at this point not too surprisingly, a twisted Protector tentacle, the loose end of which lengthened and poked her nose back, making her squee quietly. Those things were too cute and cool, considering what they came from.

“Well-endowed one,” someone spoke up to Harriet, who stopped playing with her toy, and blinked when faced with an unbelievably curvy mare, oiled from head to hoof. She had a broad chest, but Harriet could see her cushiony, round plot from the front with no problem. Come to think of it, she looked like an amazon version of a zebra she’d seen in the brothel before. Her whole body was covered in tattoos smoothly guiding anyone looking to her backside, “May I invite you to our celebration?” she tilted her head, giving Harriet a friendly smile, and quickly nodded to the procession of jiggly ponies who had stopped in front of her.

Too much sudden attention! Harriet blushed again under the eyes of tourists and everyone.

“Well, I- umm, I don’t know what to do. This is my first time here, and-”

The zebra freely kissed Harriet’s nose, completely breaking the poor dragonpony.

“Just follow my lead,” not waiting for Harriet, she turned around and with a hypnotic swaying of her hips, she joined the procession beginning to move again with the resumed music. Her quick look back made Harriet start to slowly walk along with the line of amazons, much to the cheering of the crowds. Her embarrassment didn’t last long, and in few minutes she was nodding her head to the beat, and occasionally dared to shake her butt a little as well.

What she didn’t know was that the procession’s trip was just beginning, and that the group’s goal was to bless the whole city with their presence. Besides, once she started, she had no idea how to politely leave, so… at least she got a good look at the whole town in the next two hours.

Eventually, it was over, though. Cheering ended, Harriet realized she’s covered in body paint from… something, neon pink hoof prints marking her body. She could use a shower, although she did like the the random design actually. There was still enough daylight, but at this point she just wanted some peace, so she took the side streets, and enjoyed the relaxing silence away from the crowds, occasionally interrupted by a pony at work outside.

What she noticed too late in her exhausted state of mind, were the suddenly dampened sounds, and strange stillness in the air she’d felt twice before already.

“This won’t change anything, but it will sure as Tartarus make me feel better,” said Black Thorn, charging towards Harriet from a side-alley.

“Wha-?” she opened her mouth, and instantly realized that an isolation spell had already been cast, calling for help wouldn’t do anything, and that the other dragonslayers were spread out in the street behind and in front of her where they hadn’t been a moment before.

That’s when all hopeless aspects of her situation hit Harriet at once, and she just got angry at everything.

She didn’t reach for her pan this time, but directly into the backpack she’d dropped instantly for the Soulstealer.

“Filly’s got a new toy?” growled Black Thorn, his dagger flying at Harriet.

He clearly wasn’t expecting her to rush towards him, because the dagger missed its first blow completely. Black Thorn’s horn glowed, and a spark of lightning earthed itself straight into the Soulstealer without any effect on Harriet.

That gave Black Thorn a pause, which even somepony as inexperienced as Harriet used to slash at the dragonslayer, hitting him cleanly in the scale armor covering his chest. Unfortunately for her, while the hit surprised Black Thorn even further, the dragon scales of the armor held against the amateurish blow, making the unicorn only jump back and gasp for breath.

A moment of divine inspiration hit Harriet as she instantly jumped to Black Thorn’s side, avoiding the flying dagger yet again. He kicked her instinctively, but her weight and his surprise mostly meant that the lighter unicorn just pushed himself away.

From the corner of her eyes, Harriet saw the glowing knife approach again, and risked everything. Swatting the flying weapon with her foreleg, hoping that her regrown scales along with the Corrupted boot will be enough protection, she followed the smack with a slash at Black Thorn’s head, finally scoring a blow.

The dragonslayer screamed as blood poured from the side of his face and muzzle cut open, and magic exploded outwards from him, making Harriet brace against the shockwave. While it didn’t fail completely this time, the impact was nothing she couldn’t handle, and she was instantly in Black Thorn’s face, taking a deep breath.

She didn’t know where the instinct came from at first. Then flames burst out of her open mouth, and Black Thorn screamed.

The shocked scream turned into laughter.

“You couldn’t light a matchstick with that, girl,” he punched her so hard she saw stars and dropped the Soulstealer, and in the next instant his hind legs kicked her away, “Unlike with your mother, I’ll make sure you bleed out slowly.”

Harriet suddenly felt pressure of magic all over her body. She could fight it, she was stronger, but it slowed her enough for Black Thorn to jump to her, put his foreleg on her chest, and drop the dagger down at full strength.

A flash of light blinded Harriet, and heat infinitely worse than that had come out of her throat a moment ago was followed by the telekinetic pressure disappearing completely.

She blinked several times, then gagged.

The entire front half of Black Thorn was missing, leaving a mess of burned flesh and intestines.

“You don’t learn, do you?” Harriet heard Prominence’s calm voice, “Well, lesson over.”

Black Thorn’s hind legs keeled over, making Harriet yelp and kick the charred remains away while fighting the bile rising in her throat. Pack Rat’s face coming into view helped that immensely.

“You’ve got a habit of getting into trouble, miss,” the earthpony smiled.

“They-They’re following me now...” she chuckled, still stunned by the sudden turn of events.

“That ends now,” Gem’s calm voice was nonetheless loud enough for everyone to hear, “I gave you a chance to stop this from your own free will, but not anymore.”

The surviving dragonslayers were all watching, paralyzed, with eyelids slightly closed.

“What is your reasoning behind this repeated murder attempt?” she continued.

Mist Shield groaned, clutched his head, then raised up, dead look on his face.

“He’ll kill us,” he said, “We lost the jewels he gave us to trade for the artefact, and we lost it as well. We must report it, we can’t run away. There’s nowhere to run. He can reach us anywhere. Black Thorn wanted revenge for all this, hoping that if we brought the girl’s corpse with us, maybe we could earn another chance.”

“Who is this ‘he’?” Gem pressed on.

“A… unicorn...” Mist Shield clutched his head, “That’s all I know!”

Gem looked him deeply in the eyes, and he went completely slack, even his jaw dropped. After a moment, she said:

“He’s not lying. They were supposed to meet somepony here in Pine Hills, but they don’t remember any details. Somepony scrambled their heads even beyond my ability to deal with. I can feel changes made by both incredibly powerful magic and changeling influence in their heads. They were all scared out of their minds,” Gem sighed, “Desperate ponies do desperate things. However, this is unacceptable.”

She walked over to each dragonslayer, and bit them in the neck. Afterwards, she walked over to silent Harriet.

“It’s over. They won’t bother you ever again, I promise.”

Harriet’s legs almost gave out, but she had to keep her cool. The dragonslayers were a terrible thing, but she was standing here-

She quickly ran over to Magpie and grabbed the Soulstealer out of the surprised griffon’s talons.

Now she could focus, as little as it meant.

“How- How did you find me? Why?” she asked. Who said Gem and the others weren’t the bad guys after the sword she’d been warned about?

They exchanged glances, and in the end everyone looked at Gem.

“You didn’t notice us while you were parading around with the amazons, did you? We arrived in the morning. I’m not at liberty to tell you about our business, but we had dealings with Mayor Crimson Heart here, and queen Guiding Light,” she said, “Magpie noticed one of the dragonslayers following you and the parade, and told us. We knew they wouldn’t attack you in public, isolation spells don’t work too well in crowds, but when you took this route, they had their chance.”

“Why didn’t those spells work on you either time?” asked Harriet, still suspicious.

“A mind-affecting magic against me?” Gem chuckled, “Heh, nope. Same goes for Prominence for reasons I’ll let her explain if she ever wants to. Magpie and Packy just followed our lead.”

Harriet quickly shuffled the Soulstealer back into her dropped backpack presented by Pack Rat.

“What a strange sword,” mused Magpie, “I haven’t seen a design like that before, but that silvery metal… that’s a minotaur thing, right?”

“I don’t know, honest,” Harriet backed off a bit. She calmed down a bit when Magpie just shrugged and walked off to Gem.

“How’s the tourist trip going anyway, this unfortunate event aside?” asked the changeling, “Have you found a Badlands guide already?”

Harriet shook her head. She wasn’t too keen on telling Gem her real goal, but the fact that her group saved Harriet’s life multiple times was a compelling argument. In the end, she opted for sharing something hopefully innocent.

“A bartender at the Frosty Mug tavern said he’d arrange me a meeting with someone by the name Desert Shade. I’m not sure if I can afford her, but she’s supposed to be the only one able to show me the really scary types of anomalies.”

“Ooooh, you landed Des? What did you do for Frosty to call her?” asked Prominence with a smirk, “Does it have anything to do with you jiggling your assets for the whole town to see, hmm?”

“No!” Harriet pouted, “I just told him what I needed, and he said he’d try to contact her, that’s all.”

“Strange...” mumbled Gem, “Oh well, I guess you just got lucky then. Some good karma after all the bad stuff you’ve gone through. I mean, two murder attempts and some weird Corrupted anomaly nearly killing all of us? Nasty.”

Prominence whispered something into Gem’s ear.

“Huh, not a bad idea,” replied the changeling, “Hey, Harriet, we’re off to the Badlands as well. Mayor Crimson Heart asked us to measure some anomalies, and we were about to find a guide ourselves, but if you landed Desert Shade herself, we could get much better readings from deeper into the center of the area. We’ll split the costs.”

“Well...” Harriet hesitated, but saving one’s life multiple times won again. Plus, she couldn’t afford this Desert Shade refusing to guide her due to something silly like a lack of money, “Sure, why not? I’ll have to tell Frosty, though, that there will be more of us. He said Desert Shade was bothered by others trying to gain her knowledge.”

“Can’t blame her,” Gem shrugged, “I’ve had crazy ponies go after me for my alchemy recipes too. By the way, we’re staying at the Tainted Goblet. Frosty didn’t have a room for all of us, what with all these tourists around for the Buttfest.”

“Frosty said miss Shade would contact me herself, so I don’t know what’s going to happen or when it will be,” Harriet pouted, “Wait, you know her?”

“I know about her,” Gem corrected her, “She’s kind of a legend around here. Never met her myself, but I buy some chemicals I can’t make from ponies who say she supplies them. She travels all around Equestria,” she sighed, “Well, I guess we just have to wait now. We’re not exactly limited on time, but I hope it doesn’t take a month.”

Author's Note:

And so, dragonslayers won't be a problem, and Harriet is almost done.

Comments

[InsertNameHere]

So, just to make sure, the original Blaze got erased from existence by Nightmare? It doesn't really specify what happens to him at the end.

[Nameless Narrator]

9742463
That's how it looked, definitely. Specifically, as if dragged under the surface of pitch black ink, and no one has seen him since.
Now, answering that clearly would ruin so many fun theories about what's going on.

[Two_Madmans]

“Oh no no no, nothing so violent,” the vendor shook her head, “It’s a tiny part of a living Corruptor treated with amazon potions. You touch it, it spreads over your leg. There’s so little corruption in it that it can’t cover more of you than that. See?” she grabbed the hem of the ‘boot’ with her teeth, and started peeling it off. The boot apparently got the message soon, and slipped off, transforming back into a black disc, “They wiggle and rub your legs when you’re not walking around.”

Gryphon technology?

“Hey, Harriet, we’re off to the Badlands as well. Mayor Crimson Heart asked us to measure some anomalies, and we were about to find a guide ourselves, but if you landed Desert Shade herself, we could get much better readings from deeper into the center of the area. We’ll split the costs.”

Well, that will not ends well. Or maybe will, but the process will be difficult.