Numbers.
Numbers define us.
Numbers define our world.
When broken down to their most basic of pieces, everything becomes a number.
So why care about what happens to others?
After all, they’re just numbers.
My string’s let me see Tirek as he screeched at me for the three hundredth time today, exactly. The bags under his bloodshot eyes and the grimace covering his face were the first signs of my success. Little victories, the smallest openings, the tiniest tools; those are the things that bring down the greatest of castles and mightiest of titans.
“I demand your permanent silence, whelp! Another sound out of you and I’ll tear your head from your shoulders!”
I chuckled before responding.
“I am madness, how do you propose to do that?”
An enraged roar accompanied my mad cackles but our respective vocalizations were cut off by a series of sharp cracks.
It’s been a month already?
The rainbow mane of Celestia poked through as the lone monarch stepped into the prison and the portal closed afterward.
I poked the shard of the Nightmare that I had hidden in my sleeve.
‘Your first lesson is about to begin, Little Moon.’
The sharp voice of the parasite spat at me.
‘Why have you not answered my calls before, subject?’
My grin deepened as my eyes flared.
‘I am no one’s subject, parasite. So I suggest that you do not call me such if you want your lessons.’
‘My question still stands.’
I would’ve rolled my eyes if I had any.
‘It was not time, rushing accomplishes nothing.’
‘You still should have answered me!’
‘Enough, do you wish to learn or not?’
I heard her grumble through the connection but she eventually responded.
‘Fine! Just teach me already.’
I chuckled to myself as I shifted on my web of wire.
‘Our first lesson begins now.’
I could feel her anticipation building, it was pooling in my head and pushing against the insides of my skull. The pressure was mounting, the world was fading, and energy saturated me. Like lightning in my bones, power ran through me and coalesced in my eyes. The shadows thinned as previously invisible light faded into view, but for all the new sensations, my mind grew dark.
‘Always start small.’
The clopping of hooves warned me that Celestia was on the move.
‘Because it gives them hope.’
I snapped my vision back into one of my strings and gazed into Tirek’s glowing yellow eyes. One could see white veins at the edges and his visage had new lines to it when he snarled; the price of overuse.
‘Because it makes them feel strong.’
Celestia opened her mouth. I didn’t hear her words but I felt her contempt rise and fall like the ocean’s tides, while pity still fought to assert itself within her.
‘Because you want them to stand, you want them to try, you want to see them curse at the heavens with a grimace or grin.
Tirek’s roar echoed through my head despite me not hearing his message. Words, ideas, people, all of them melted away beneath the ocean of numbers that struggled to quantify the emotions before me.
‘Because if they never tried before, who’s to say that they wouldn’t succeed if they did?’
Celestia scowled at Tirek before making another statement that I didn’t bother listening to.
‘So you watch them stand.’
Celestia finished her message and then turned to walk away.
‘So you watch them struggle.’
The portal opened once more and the alicorn stepped through.
‘So you watch them take any victory that they can, no matter how small.’
Tirek’s grin covered his face as he laughed, but it shattered like glass once I joined.
‘Just so that you can help them fall all the harder.’
His scowl was turned on me now and I smiled right back despite the fact he couldn’t see me.
‘That’s how you break someone, Little Moon.’
I switched perspectives so I could continue looking him in the eyes, those glowing, bloodshot, hardened eyes.
‘You let them think that there was hope.’
And watched his light fade as sleep finally overtook Tirek for the first time in weeks.
‘So that the truth hits harder.’
I began to hum and like clockwork Tirek progressed through a cycle of stirring, ignoring me, and finally, screaming threats.
“I’LL RIP YOUR-”
I cut him off with the crack of one of my strings whipping him across the face. His blood was a deep crimson, almost violet, and his face went from an enraged scowl to abject shock.
“If you’re quite done, I do have a question or three.”
And there’s the snarl, how predictable.
“Well, you can shove it up your rear then, moron! I don’t have the patience to deal with your buffoonery!”
I tilted my head as I chuckled.
“Deal?”
I laughed some more.
“Deal? I can do a deal.”
I cut off Tirek’s objection by continuing.
“How about you answer me three questions, and I give you three hours of peace.”
His deadened eyes flashed with life once more.
“Make it six and you’ve got a deal!”
I guffawed at his enthusiasm and had to grip my strings tight to keep from falling out of my hiding place above Tirek’s cage.
“Fine, fine, six hours of peace.”
His wide grin was so endearing. It became even more so when it fell at my words.
“Why are you here?”
Tirek snorted before responding.
“Simple, I saw that the ponies had power, I saw they were still weak despite their power, so I took it.”
I tilted my head as I leaned back in my hiding place.
“No no no, that’s the story of half the beings down here. No, why did you do it?”
Tirek raised an eyebrow.
“Does it matter?”
I shook my head.
“Not really.”
My grin deepened as I added.
“But I am curious.”
He rolled his eyes before responding.
“My homeland needed a jump start because the central ley lines got scrambled.”
“Ah, so you needed power to save your people? How noble.”
He shook his head as he grinned.
“Oh no, not save, rule. Do you have any idea the kind of power magic gives to those who wield it in a magicless society?”
My silence was all the answer he needed to continue.
“And I had so much of it! All the magic anyone could ever want was wtihin my grasp!”
My eternal smile widened before I spoke out in a tone nearing song.
“If you had the power of all…”
I paused for a moment, letting the silence strangle the air.
“Then how did you fall?”
I watched as his grin fell into another snarl. I watched as his yellow eyes dimmed and warped into a reddish gold. I watched as he reached out to squeeze the bars of his cage with white-knuckled fists and I smiled as he spoke.
“My worthless brother betrayed me!”
He wore his hate like a cloak with his distaste hovering around his head as the cowl. The tattered sleeves of pride covered his arms while ignorance hid his body. Tirek bore the mantle of negativity with practiced ease and my grin widened at the sight of it growing further down his form.
“He told them, he told them everything! When I get out I’m going to–!”
His speech about vengeance descended into animalistic growls and fiery roars.
‘What is the purpose of this?’
I let my senses recede back to my own form as I tried to rub away the throbbing ache in my skull.
‘Anger is a very useful tool, Little Moon.’
The pulses of dull pain faded by the moment as I worked away.
‘So I’m trying to burn it out, let him rage against nothing until his internal fire sputters out.’
I popped a few bones in my spine while listening to the primal shrieks of my victim.
‘Or I might be able to turn his anger inward.’
Another few pops came from my shoulder and another series of cries from Tirek echoed through the prison.
‘But that will take time, I promised him six hours of peace, so I will give it to him.’
I felt a small shock go through my neck as the parasite replied with astonishment evident in her tone.
‘Why would you not press your advantage? Is he not off balance?’
I nodded.
‘Oh, he is, but not now. After all, I did promise.’
Silence ruled our connection as I laid down, preparing for sleep.
‘This… lesson has been informative.’
My expression brightened for a moment, but only for a moment.
‘Thank you, Little Moon. It may not be much but it still feels nice to be appreciated.’
It may have been the patronizing tone, it could’ve been the sarcasm oozing through the mental link, but whatever it was, something set her off.
‘My most thoughtless compliments are twice as meaningful as your existence in its entirety!’
My smile waned while my eyes dimmed, so I chuckled. I laughed. I cackled.
‘Little Moon, there are truly terrifying things out there. You are not one of them.’
Silence ruled once more as the last echoes of my mirth faded and the air seemed to fill with an electric charge. Fire, ice, and lightning all flared through the mental link, searing a small piece of my consciousness with the parasite’s rage.
‘YOU DARE CLAIM THAT I AM WEAK, MORTAL?!’
I flinched at the spike of pain but my smile never faltered.
‘No, Little Moon. I didn’t say that, but you do not scare me. You should not scare me. That is the truth.’
The nausea of confusion tinged the whirlwind of anger but was quickly swallowed by the raging storm of emotion around it. A couple of moments passed before the firestorm chilled to the temperature of a blizzard.
‘Explain.’
How do you explain eternity? My answer: you don’t. Instead, you show it.
‘I need to rest but you can join me in my dream. It will be far easier to explain there.’
‘You dare order me to–’?
I cut her off with a poke to the shard of her soul.
‘I’m not ordering, I’m inviting. But if you want an explanation, you will need to be there.’
‘To what end.’
I sighed as I shut off my vision and my smile returned in full.
‘You will see, Little Moon, you will see.’