//------------------------------// // Chapter 12: The Lower Half of the Story // Story: Rag Doll // by No one is home //------------------------------// “So, let me see if I’ve got this right…”  Wow, Frank can really project that disapproval.  “You’re trying to get back to this unicorn that you are in a weird pseudo romantic codependent relationship  with, who is an unknown fraction of your age, depending on how long you were sensory deprived?” “Okay. It’s not as bad as it sounds.”  I’m pretty sure I’ve made a pretty good point. “Dude, it is way worse than it sounds!” Frank’s irritation is only surpassed by his disapproval.  And boy is he good at disapproving.  “You used a foal to get around your sensory deprivation for so long that the two of you became codependent.  Then she developed a crush on you that you should have shut down immediately.  But instead of doing that, you humored her up to the point that you have a weird dating relationship involving tea parties.  The mare involved probably has some kind of weird assexual doll fetish at this point.  And I need bleach to unlearn this because I asked you, ‘How did you get down here, anyway?’  How is any of that not worse than it sounds?!?!” “I mean, Bro, I don’t think it’s as bad as you make it sound.” Steve is just optimistic as hell.  He’s just a great guy.  And he’s also on my side in this.  That helps.  “I mean an old guy dating a 25 year old isn’t that weird if you ignore the doll curse thing…” “It is if the old guy knew her since she was five!”  Steve may have the teeth, but Frank is definitely the snappy one. “Dammit Frank!” I flail my head about wildly.  Now I’m annoyed too, dammit.  “Can we not talk about my pseudo love life for this entire walk?” “You’re the one who brought it up!” Frank huffs and we keep walking in an awkward silence for a while. “So how did YOU end up in a subterranean urban slum?”  I’m talking just to break the silence, I’ll be honest.  Awkward silence is awkward. “Oh, wow dude, you don’t know?” And I can depend on Steve for ice breaking exposition, nice… -=-=-=-=- Okay, so back in ancient times, the city literally just hung off the side of the mountain.  There was the Hanging garden city of Canterlot, the jewel of Old Equestria.  Half the city was dug out of the side of the mountain. That was all the business that supported the half of the city that lived on the platforms.  But the businesses that supported the nobles needed workers. And also other businesses that made the things they sold.  So they built a smaller city further down the mountain in the shadow of Canterlot.  Decanter… or sometimes Lower Canterlot.  It varies… Anyway, this was where you would find all the low rent tenaments, warehouses, manufacturing, and of course all the low income workers.  Most importantly, this was where nearly all the capitols non-pony residents could be found.  Especially the changelings.  Pretty much all the changelings lived in Decanter. So as the Upper City expanded during the Golden Age of Friendship, Decanter slowly went from being simply in the Canterlot’s shadow, to becoming entirely buried by it.  Well, at this point almost all of the earth pony, griffin, and hippogriff residents just sort of stopped living here.  The changelings, minotaurs, lunar pegasi, and some of the younger dragons remained, though, being more well adapted to living underground.  For a while Underground Decanter became a sort of exotic entertainment hub.  It was a happy time, but it wouldn’t last. No one knows exactly what happened.  Some say the magic went away all at once, some say it faded slowly.  Some say the pony tribes split up before the magic disappeared, some say it was after.  Which caused which?  I don’t think any creature knows.  What we do know is that when pegasi couldn’t live in the clouds anymore they came to the city that was closest to the clouds.  And they drove every creature that wasn’t a pegasi out of the city. But changelings had been living hidden among ponies for ages.  It wasn’t that hard to keep living in the underground spaces, as the Pegasi built more and more.  Always up, always towards the clouds.  And the more they built, the more they buried.  And the more they buried the more places they gave us to hide.  But as magic faded, we couldn’t change anymore… at least not as fast… So we adapted to our environment more slowly and became the underlings. -=-=-=-=- “Wow, Steve, I’m impressed.”  I really and truly am very impressed.  “You guys have the most detailed history of the before times out of anyone I’ve met so far.” “Well, the feather brains literally buried history, and we live underground.  What did you expect?” Frank is, of course, just a ray of subterranean sunshine. “I am curious though?”  I feel like we’re bonding so I’ll ask the question. “Do all underlings have human names, or is it just you two?” And now I have clearly confused Steve.  “Human names?  Like ‘humans’ in those pony fiction books?  They don’t have Underling names, they very clearly have pony names.” “Dude,” Frank huffs the huffiest huff imaginable, “there are no such thing as humans.  Honestly it’s insulting, and a little concerning, that ponies mix up mythological creatures with creatures that used to live alongside them in ancient times!” Well there’s some kind of unnatural light that’s not magic.  Steve offers the helpful but unnecessary exposition.  Steve is great at that.  “We’re coming up on the hive propper.  You are going to love this!” “Are you sure you don't do weird things with love?”  I mean I wanna trust Frank, but Steve is really selling the idea that he really wants me to love the hive. “Look,” Frank is as stern as I’ve seen him thus far, “Just don’t be weird.  Flop around as as little as possible.  And if you get weird with our sister I will personally rip out your fluff and replace it with used, broken potion flasks!”