//------------------------------// // The Underbelly // Story: The Tyrant Within // by Impossible Numbers //------------------------------// Luna’s shadow slid through the lower levels, past dungeons, along cellars, deeper and deeper into the catacombs underground. Her stars no longer twinkled: in the darkness, stealth was of utmost importance. The underbelly of Cinch’s world. Down here, slipping past the guards with ease. Luna felt the power, even more clearly than Celestia ever could have. Essence of darkness throbbed along her soul. A creature attuned to darkness, Luna had to clench her whole form to prevent it being flooded and drowned. Unexpectedly, she found bars and chains. Iron. The cold radiance stung as she drew close. She felt the power of raw, grounded metal. Its gravity squeezed her skull. There were ponies down here too. Ponies dressed in rags. Ponies with no hope. Ponies who cringed at her passing, and whose bellies rumbled. Through her current senses, they smelled more of bone than flesh. Luna’s heart hardened. The chambers down here echoed with unheard cries, silent woes, the invisible mass of misery that was the city’s secret. She flowed on. Cinch led Celestia into a cavern with edges and corners. A library, but one trying to recreate the night. Most of it was windowless, lost to pure black. Only light from the corridor spilled in, and the dull glow of Bludnox as she flapped and led the way. “Hunting the Blizzard of Paradise was easy,” explained Cinch as she beckoned Celestia to follow. “Easy compared to my next task. The Fire of Friendship, combined with her ice powers, were enough to defend this place from the windigoes, but I needed better than a defence. I needed a way to fight back.” “Against spirits,” said Celestia as though it was obvious. “But spirits can’t be harmed by conventional forms of attack. Even magic can’t do much against them on its own. You’d need something emotional.” Cinch reached out and pulled a random book off the shelf. As she did so, something clicked deep in the wall. A grinding of crystal on brickwork, and the wall – complete with bookshelf – withdrew. Stairs glowed under her activated hornlight. “Correct,” she said. “You’d know from experience.” “That’s why you insist on unity, I take it?” “That’s why I insist on hard work. Nothing can be achieved without discipline. Unity is but a bonus.” Their hoofsteps echoed down the staircase. Through the trials underground, through the cranking machinery, beyond galleries upon galleries of pony slaves, Luna’s spirit heard the psychic echoes of judgement over and over. “Laziness in the workplace…” “…incompetence at his job…” “…repeat offender…” “…constitutes high treason to the crown…” Luna slid further on, following the trails of guilt and horror. There were many ponies up ahead. The smell of sweat and tears. “…for these crimes, I find you guilty… guilty… guilty…” The chamber widened into a grille. Luna’s shadow closed in, peered through. “…the sentence: one hundred years hard labour…” There were forges, furnaces, metalworks, and the rustle of hundreds of rags. Luna froze where she was, undulating. “…may Cinch have mercy on your souls.” “Tell me,” said Cinch as they emerged into a domed chamber, “what unites the sun and the moon?” Celestia thought carefully, lighting up her own horn to match Cinch’s. It had to be a trick question, but she couldn’t see the answer… “Nothing,” she said, defeated. “They’re polar opposites. That’s the point of the binary.” “Yet you can control both.” “To an extent. I already said I favour the sun.” “Exactly.” Cinch waited as Bludnox flew across the far concave wall, revealing it to be nothing but an icy sheen. The ice sank into the floor as soundless as silk. “A shame: you have finally trained and disciplined yourself, and I congratulate you for it. Yet you haven’t gone all the way. Not like I have. The answer sits right under your nose, flies over your head both day and night. Allow me to enlighten you.” The Blizzard of Paradise flared. The dark chamber beyond was revealed in pure blue. Caught in the middle of strands of crystalline webbing, trapped in a shifting aurora borealis of an orb, something black had curled-up. Sloshing, bubbling, seething. The air spiked: Celestia groaned, stood back hurriedly, kept her distance from the haunting remnants of shriek leaking out of the orb. “The strong control both,” recited Cinch. “Light and dark. Day and night. Good and evil. Friendship… and hatred.” Slaves. Hundreds and hundreds of slaves. Endless machinery, the sparkle of magic, the weapons of war: no wonder Cinch had progressed so fast. And the more ponies she unearthed from the Old Country’s winter wasteland, the more opportunities they brought for crime, the greater the scope for punishment. When you aimed for the finest wheat, you ended up with a lot more chaff. Luna’s shadowy spirit stirred. Right. Time to go. She’d seen enough… A hoofstep. Luna turned. The Sidesaddle Soldiers were right behind her. Celestia gasped from the cold plunge, stepped back further, felt her energies waning. Relentlessly, heedless of the shrieks of pain and rage from the orb, Cinch’s flat voice remained untouched. “I have done it, Celestia. I have become the one pillar. Look at us. Who else could unite two opposing forces?” Celestia cried out, clutching at her head. Her wings flared in agony. “I have worked hard on this hatred. I have cultivated it in all its varieties. It has taken a lifetime, but I finally see it for what it is. Hatred, well-earned. All those years watching you coast and cruise through life on your privilege while I struggled and scrimped to surpass you. I, a mere nothing!” Celestia’s stomach was aflame. She breathed hard, readying herself to fight it. “Hatred, turned on itself. Hatred is weakness; it shows us for the pathetic, failing nothings we are. But see! I have turned weakness into a strength!” Celestia’s mind cursed, writhed, struggled to get any words out. “Hatred, consuming the world. I won’t stand for any mistakes. No more flaws, no more failures, no more imperfections. Not from anyone. Not even me.” Celestia found her voice through the squeezing pain. “But… the Fire of Friendship…” “The Fire of Friendship, the Sea of Self-Hatred: really, Celestia, do you think I am that foolish? I have fed both. They and all elements are mere tools to me. What unites them is the same thing that unites anything. Hard work. Not so-called ‘gifts’: effort. Such crude divisions can be overcome, with the triumph of the will.” Ice slid down Celestia’s back. The soldiers lunged, closed in, fired. Luna gave a shriek that echoed through the underworld – “LUNA!” Celestia turned to flee, screamed, felt the poison cripple her wings and crash into the ground via her knees. Something dribbled out of the corner of her mouth. “You… You’ve poisoned me…” “No. You are merely too weak to stomach this.” Ice rose up from the ground, encased Celestia’s legs. A token effort, as she hardly felt the strength to flee. Hoofsteps strode past. She sensed out of the corner of her cringing eye the passing blue light of Cinch, heard the distant echoes of her bird screech. “Cinch!” cried Celestia through teeth fighting to grit. “This is madness! Is it worth throwing your soul away just to play with power?” The hoofsteps paused. “Power that has created the greatest nation in history? Well, I’m sure my ‘soul’ won’t object.” “But Cinch… I knew you were driven and talented, but where are you taking this!? Please, just stop and think.” “Stop. And. Think. Coming from you, that’s pure irony. You think I didn’t know Equestria would become jealous of my accomplishments? That you would?” “I heard what you were up to, yes. There are better ways, hundreds of them! We’re learning to coexist with them back home! We’re making progress!” Cinch snorted. “There is only one way to settle our dispute. Words are easy. Actions are better.” “Cinch! No!” “Stop me if you can.” The hoofsteps were already receding, and Celestia found herself lost to darkness. Sunset red blinded her for a moment; Cinch waited on the white gravel, looking up at the rows of chariots. All black, with yellow zigzags and lines. The pink “S” stood out alongside each one. The captain saluted, turned to her. “The army is ready to go, Your Highness.” “And Luna?” “We have her, Your Highness.” “Excellent, Captain. Set a course for Equestria. We have some tiresome, ignorant students to enlighten.” She nodded. On her back, the Blizzard of Paradise spread its wings, gripped Cinch in a freezing embrace, became her wings by proxy. Rising from all over the citadel, marching out of its surrounding wall, the army of the Dressage Downs was on the move. An hour passed. Cold, alone, afraid. A light began to glow. Finally, Celestia summoned the strength of the sun, even through layers and layers of earth. The ice shattered under her hooves. Her legs broke free. She fired up her wings and exploded, rising, scorching the stone steps and blasting through the library bookcase to smash a wall and follow in Cinch’s wake.