Purity and Corruption

The night sky, usually lit by the light of the stars, was lit by the image of fireworks. A celebration was being held; the same celebration that had been held every year at Canterlot, the Grand Galloping Gala. This year’s gala was particularly special; it was being hosted not long after Twilight’s coronation as a princess, and thus could have been considered to be a double-celebration. Despite the festivities, however, an odd feeling hung in the air around the castle, just off the western face; a singular feeling of dread seemed to emanate from the distance, though most ponies shrugged it off as a side effect of a few too many drinks. A pair of guards, watching over one of the western towers, eyed the horizon with a mix of curiosity and fear as the feeling intensified; a few bright flashes from fireworks filled the sky, followed by a much brighter, significantly longer flash of light.

Those ponies who had noticed the change looked to the west, their fears practically confirmed; a bright orb shone in the distance, growing in size before a hole tore open in it, chaotic energy swirling out as another glow set in. They watched as the glow seemed to grow larger and larger, only to realize that it had not been increasing in size, but that the distance between them and the glowing object was rapidly shrinking. Rushing into the castle as the object approached, screams of terror emanated throughout the party as the object collided with the castle, smashing through several walls and finally knocking down a tower, which collapsed upon the thing. As the dust from the damage settled, a singular pile of ruined marble shifted, the being underneath still moving. As one pony approached, taken by curiosity, a red hoof broke out from the marble, and soon enough of the marble had shifted to reveal half of a red face to match the hoof. It looked to the pony, uttering a single sentence: “Fear the blue one; he is your doom.”

As the ponies at the Gala concerned themselves with the one who had fallen from the sky and collided with the castle, they had failed to notice another who had fallen, this one into the forbidden Everfree Forest. In a clearing it had landed, forming a small depression in the earthy soil of the patch of blue flowers he had landed in. Awakening, he sat up, rubbing his head with his hand. “Where... where am I?” He looked around, the area lit up somewhat by the moonlight through the opening in the forest canopy. He stood, trying to maintain his balance as he looked down at himself. “Who... who am I?” He rubbed his head again, the pain of trying to remember his past surging through him as he failed to recollect any memories, save one; “An...dire... My name is... Andire...” He looked down at his left half; blue skin, a hand ending in four fingers and a thumb, and feet with five toes. His right half; black, or at least a very dark grey, ending in hooves on both limbs and with several holes on the limbs. His clothes, or what remained of them seemed to have been damaged; they were only present on his left side, and at the middle they seemed to be both torn and severely burnt. His two halves also formed imperfectly; there was a jagged border between the two, as if the halves were not meant to be part of the same body.

Looking back around, he wandered through the forest, the light from the moon dissipating and progressively getting darker as he wandered further in. Looking on his person, he found a wand, still attached to what remained of his belt; removing the wand seemed to disturb what little force left his shreds of clothing attached to his left half, as they fell to the ground behind him as he continued, the only pieces remaining intact being his boot and steel-clawed glove. “Guess I’ll need new clothes...” he said to himself, shaking his head as he continued through the forest, focusing energy into his wand and illuminating his surroundings.

As the night continued on, the unicorn continued his search; he found that the Everfree forest had always been a prime source of chaos in Equestira, in spite of its location at the heart of the land of harmony. Reaching one of the several natural nodes in the forest from which the strange energy spewed forth, he procured a small box with a wand attached to it, levitating the crystal lens that made the node visible in front of his eye as he plunged the wand into its vortex with his teeth. The energy that coursed through would have harmed any other pony, but he had been doing this for years; he was used to the feeling, almost enjoying it. A small dial attached to the box turned as it filled with raw chaotic energy, making a clicking sound as the box filled up. The unicorn disconnected the wand from the box, adding it the collection he had been forming for the past few hours.

As he set his wand back into his leather sash, looking for another source of energy, a bright flash of light illuminated the forest through a gap in the canopy overhead; looking skywards, the unicorn saw a brilliant orb of light, tearing itself open and pouring forth chaotic energy as another orb appeared from within, quickly rocketing down towards another nearby clearing. He couldn't let a chance like this go; whatever had fallen from the sky, it was worth checking out. Putting away the node-seeking crystal, he rushed towards the clearing the thing had fallen in, hoping to catch up to it before it disappeared.

As the unicorn arrived in the outside of the clearing, he stopped himself just in time to find himself at the edge of a patch of Poison Joke; it was a stroke of luck that the moon had illuminated the forest enough for it to be visible. Proceeding with caution around the edge of the plants, he looked into the center, where a depression in the soil indicating where the thing had landed was visible. However, whatever it was that had landed had already left the vicinity; looking around, the unicorn noted a series of what looked to be oddly shaped hoof prints- or rather a succession of hoof prints and another print he failed to recognize. Following the prints, he wandered deep into the forest, his eyes adjusting to the darkness of the forest.

Andire continued to wander deeper into the forest, moving the wand around as he inspected his surroundings. “A forest,” he spoke to himself, scanning the nearby plants for any familiarity. “No forest that I can remember... but what can I remember? My... name... my... spells?” He looked to his wand, realizing that he had cast an illumination spell almost instinctively. “So I'm a sorcerer, then... interesting.” He continued into the forest, finding a bridge and testing it with his foot before crossing. It was not long before he found himself in front of the walls to a large building, fortified yet at the same time in ruins. He stopped, looking up at the castle before walking up to its lowered portcullis, sliding his still-glowing wand into one of the holes in his right upper limb before grasping the base of the iron gate, attempting to pull open the ancient, rusted defense.

The unicorn continued, following the footprints through the forest and across a bridge, finally arriving at the front entrance of the ruins of the ancient Sister's Castle. Peering forward, he could see a light near the opening of the walls; squinting, he could make out a vaguely bipedal figure, though the majority of it was mere silhouette in the darkness. The small portion illuminated by the object the creature had with it appeared to be a black hoof, covered in holes. “A changeling? Here, now? No... Never seen a changeling like that before... the figure's off...” the unicorn inched forward, sneaking close enough to get a better look at the thing. While the right half of the creature did appear to be changeling, the left half almost had the appearance of a distorted, wingless dragon; it shared the clawed hands and the bipedal body structure, though it was lacking in so many other features it could not have possibly been one. Stepping back before deciding to take the chance, the Unicorn shouted to the being, “Hey!”

As he pulled on the iron portcullis, the gate began to shift, creaking as he slowly managed to move it up a few inches. Pieces of the metal bent with the force Andire exerted, groaning as they threatened to break off and ruin the progress he had begun to make. As he stopped to rest his arm, he heard a shout from behind, a simple exclamation of greetings. Letting go of the portcullis, he wiped the rust off his hand before grabbing the wand from the hole in his arm, holding it in front of him as he turned around. Failing to see anyone, he looked down, noting the creature that stood in front of him; it was blue, not much unlike him, and had crescent-shaped black hair; it was some form of quadruped he did not recognize, though he thought little of it as he could hardly remember anything himself. He stared blankly, waiting a few seconds before responding, “...Hey.”

As the unicorn waited for a response, the being ceased what it was doing, grabbing the glowing object in its arm and turning around, staring at the pony. It had a definite odd appearance to it; the left half of its face was a pale shade of blue, and the right half of its face retained the same changeling-like appearance of the arm. The facial structure was different, though; it was much longer, yet rounder, than any pony that he knew of. It didn't appear to have any form of snout, either. The arch of the nose, rather than combining with the lower half of the face like most beings he knew of, curved back inwards before sloping almost straight down, creating a distinctive pyramid-like nose that he hadn't seen before. Its eyes were smaller than any being he had seen before, and the eyeballs themselves were pitch black, with a singular yellow pupil in the center.

As the being that stood twice his height stared blankly back at him returned the greeting, the unicorn continued, “Who... are you? What are you doing here?” The being blinked a few times, apparently lost in thought before responding, “My name is Andire... or at least, that's what I can remember it being.” Andire turned back, looking at the portcullis as he continued, “As for what I'm doing here, I can't really say. All I can remember is waking up in a patch of blue flowers, my name, and that I can use magic...” The unicorn watched as Andire twirled his wand in his hand, electrical arcs sparking between the two platinum caps of the rod as he cast a spell on the portcullis, sending a powerful burst of electricity into it and melting the rusted metal. “Oh. Well then, that saves me quite a bit a trouble.” Andire entered the castle, reinitiating the illumination spell as he wandered through the courtyard. “So, who are you, then?” he asked, turning to looking back at the unicorn.

The unicorn followed, stopping to looking between the melted iron bars before catching up to Andire. “My name? Oh... well, my name is Duck de Steelhorn,” he answered, looking to his sash and removing his wand, “I'm a mage too... you know, the horn? I am a unicorn, after all,” he levitated the wand with his horn, demonstrating his magic. Andire looked down at Duck, stating, “The horn? I'm sorry, I don't follow. What does the horn have to do with magic?” He held up the illuminating wand, showing his two horns to the unicorn. “Never used them for any magic...” Duck looked up at Andire's horns, watching the wand he held as he noted a slight pain in his head begin to set in. “Hey, Andire... what kind of magic is that, anyway?” Andire looked down at the wand, looking to Duck as he responded, “Oh, this? You know, just a bit of luxomancy, with a bit of kaomancy to increase the energy and thus the brightness... Oh, I know that too. Huh.” Confused, Duck continued, “Luxomancy? Kaomancy?” Andire nodded, pulling open the front doors of the castle as they continued. “Oh, you know.”

“Light magic, and chaos magic.” As Andire mentioned the latter of the two, Duck took a few steps apart, noticing the pain in his head decrease as the distance between the two increased. He remembered the magic energy he had been collecting, asking, “Chaos magic? How do you get chaos magic?” Andire set the wand back into one of the holes in his changeling half, holding up his hand and spreading his fingers as he answered. “How? Why, the same way I collect any other magic,” as he spoke, arcs of different elemental energies flowed across his hand, finally settling on chaos. “It just comes naturally to me.” He clenched his hand, the energy dissipating back into his body as he continued, “But I have to say, chaos is probably my speciality. Now, mind you, I don't know exactly why I have this feeling, but it just... is there, you know?” He grabbed the wand once more, sending a surge of light-energy that bolstered the radius of the wand's glow. “This castle is rather nice... where are we, anyways?”

Duck looked around the castle, as if to try to recollect a memory, though he already knew where they were. “We're in the ruins of the castle of the Princess Sisters,” he answered, continuing, “Within the confines of the Everfree Forest, in the nation of Equestria.” Andire continued to look around, bemused by the answer. “Princess sisters? Your princesses get their own castle? I thought princesses usually lived with the Queen and King until they were wed...” Andire rubbed his head, trying to remember how he even knew what any of that meant. “Anyways... Equestria, you say? Hm. May have to do some exploring.” Duck, panicking slightly, stopped and retorted, “No, no, no, you can't do that. Do you have any idea how they would react to someone like you?”

Andire stopped, looking down over himself before turning to Duck and replying, “With a set of new clothes? I could really use some.” Duck turned back, answering, “No, they'd panic. Well, perhaps not panic, but they certainly wouldn't want anything to do with a being like you. One. You're half-changeling. Do you even know what a changeling is?” Andire thought to himself, answering, “No, no recollections on that one.” Duck began to pace back and forth, explaining, “Changelings are beings that disguise themselves as others, feeding off love and draining their victims of their energy. Not to mention what they did last year...” Andire thought to himself, smiling as he interrupted, “Disguise themselves? Like, shapeshifting? Interesting, though I'm not sure about the whole love thing.” Ignoring Andire's remark, Duck continued, “Two. Just... just look at yourself. You're sure to scare most of the ponies I know, and you'd probably be attacked by those who weren't scared. And three, you seem to be bleeding chaos energy. Do you know what that does to a being like me or the other ponies? It's harmful. It hurts. My head hurts when I get too close to you when you're casting that illumination spell, what do you think will happen if you start using more powerful magic?” Andire looked at his wand, looking back to Duck, “I don't think anything that bad could happen. I mean, what's wrong with chaos?”

Duck looked at Andire, exasperated. “What's wrong with chaos is that ponies like me are beings of harmony. Thus, exposure to chaos is damaging,” he explained, trying to convince Andire of the danger at hand. Andire thought, replying “I see. I think I understand, though I have to ask; if I cause you this harm, why are you still here?” Duck sighed, answering, “The same reason I was out here in Everfree to begin with,” he removed the box he had been collecting the chaos magic with, “it's the best place to collect chaos energy.” Andire, confused by the response, questioned, “Collecting chaos energy? I thought you were harmed by it? What are you doing collecting it?” Duck sighed, answering, “I can survive the damage. And despite what harm it does do to me, I've become a chaos mage.”

An armored figure stood in front of the throne of Celestia, a long glaive strapped to its back; on the left half, it had the appearance of a rather large, bright red pony, with a curved horn emitting from the side of its head. On the right half, however, it was perfectly human, with the exception of a second horn coming from that side as well. The figure was covered in a layer of blue-grey plate armor over leather clothing, looking between Celestia and her guards as he awaited the reason he had been called in. “Visitor, I... How should I put this... we'd like to know who you are, and what you're doing here?” Celestia was concerned about the alien; it resembled one of the beings from the mirror-universe, though it would have been impossible for one of them to cross over without being turned into a full pony. And yet, the being standing in front of her stood in both forms.

The armored figure looked up, holding his helmet in his hands. “Ah, yes. My name... My name is Xzen. As for what I'm doing here. I came here with a warning,” Xzen paused, putting his helmet back on before continuing, “'Fear the blue one; he is your doom.'” Xzen looked down, frowning as he remembered the results of his recent fight with the “blue one”. “Yes, I'm aware of the warning,” Celestia responded, “but what I'm not aware of is who the blue one is, or why he is our doom.” Xzen looked back up, answering, “Right... the blue one. He's another one like me- I imagine he doesn't look too different from me at this point either.” He looked down, inspecting the red, equine body that had formed in place of his left side. “Anyways, he's dangerous. Recently, he... he arrived on my home world, and he nearly killed me,” Xzen removed one of his gauntlets, revealing the claw-shaped scars that had formed underneath. “If it hadn't been for the portal, I'd be dead... though I fear he's come along with me.” Celestia nodded, adding, “And if it hadn't been for him, I suppose the damage to the castle wouldn't have been done?” Xzen looked back, eyeing the holes still present in the ceiling of the throne room.

“Yes... if it had't been for him, there wouldn't be any damage. I apologize for the damage dealt... perhaps I can help?” Xzen turned towards one of the groups of workers, still cleaning up bits of rubble that had fallen from the ceiling. Lifting his hand, he levitated what rubble was still present, holding it up to the ceiling as it mended with the stone, fixing a good portion of the hole. Looking back towards Celestia, he continued, “Of course, I'd need more stone... but I can always repair what damage I've done.” Looking once more to the ceiling as he continued to mend the rubble back onto the stone it came from, he smiled, thinking to himself, “Keep the kindness act up, Xzen, and you just might earn their trust... And perhaps once you've earned enough of their trust, you can gain enough of their power to kill that chaos-wielder...”

Andire wandered through the castle, reflecting on what Duck had explained to him before. It was getting late, and as such Duck had retired for the night, returning from Everfree to his home in Ponyville. “Beings aligned to the elemental energy of Order... or Harmony, as they call it,” Andire spoke to himself, thinking about what that would entail. “And I'm aligned to the elemental energy of Chaos... or something like that...” Andire pointed his hand to one of the walls, casting a spell to summon a small gust of wind and clear the dust from the brick. “This castle... may not be a bad place to live in,” Andire continued walking through the halls of the eastern wing of the castle ruins and noting a gap in the wall, speaking once more, “Though it may need some renovation.”

Andire lifted one of the stones nearby, setting it in the gap as he thought about how Duck described the odd half of his body. “Changelings... beings with the capability to shape-shift...” He thought about the possibilities of such an ability, considering numerous factors before coming to a moment of realization. “And if my current form would scare off the natives of this world...” he looked down at his changeling hoof, making an attempt at the ability. “Perhaps... I can...” the hoof began to shift, slowly changing color and shape before taking on a similar shade of blue to his normal skin, though the hoof itself had failed to turn into a replica of his hand. “Hm...” He looked to his right half, attempting to force it to shift; he felt a sharp pain emerge as he heard a cracking sound, his bones rearranging as his humanoid half took on the form of an equine; overall, he had successfully managed to disguise himself as a rather large pony, though a sharp pain shot through his body before the Adrican half returned to normal. “Perhaps I can blend in... though I'll need to practice, heh.”

The next morning was marked by the mixed scents of freshly cut and burning wood; Andire was wandering around the forest near the castle, circling the ruins as he burned down half the trees he passed and knocking down the rest, followed by burning their stumps. An hour or two passed before he managed to clear out a relatively large area around the ruins, collecting the wood, ash, and charcoal and bringing them back into the castle. Using two rather large pieces of ancient debris, he pulverized the wood he hadn't burnt into a pulp, mixing it with the ash and charcoal and water from a nearby river to form a sticky, black substance that he coated the stone walls of the castle in. “There, that's better,” he looked upon his work, a dark black coating covering the previously dull grey stone of the ruins. “Now, to name it,” Andire thought to himself, looking upon the surroundings before deciding upon a proper name. “I'll call you,” he pulled out his wand, preparing a flat board of wood he had saved, “Blackmire Fortress.” As he named the still-in-progress castle, he burnt the letters into the board, sticking it upon the gate where the portcullis used to be.