After a good night’s sleep, the ponies were ready and raring to go as they followed the Central Administration agents to the giant obelisk-like building in the exact center of the city. They stopped in front of a pair of big bronze doors. The agent at the front placed their fire-wrapped hand against one of the doors and with a low humming, they opened outward. The ponies braced themselves as they followed into the building.
The inside was undoubtedly magnificent, but Rarity honestly found it just a bit tacky even by her standards. The floor was made of marble lined with gold-plate lightning bolt patterns. The desks where countless secretaries were inputting data on terminals were all slightly upraised and lined with gold-plating with a pattern of light beams. The hall itself was decorated with gold-inlaid marble columns and inlaid marble pots containing large ornamental mushrooms.
The ponies followed the agents to a gold-plated grated elevator with a liftman dressed in red operating the switch. Once they were all crowded inside, the liftman gripped the switch. “Where to, mac?”
The agent, not looking at the liftman, replied “The very top, laborer.”
The liftman spasmed in shock and gave the agent and the ponies a look of sheer alarm. “Seriously? All the way to… to… him…?”
The head agent turned toward the liftman and lifted his mirrored glasses, revealing pale, strikingly blue eyes. “Need I repeat myself, laborer? We’re getting up there one way or the other, and when we do, he’ll be hearing about you, that’s for sure.”
The liftman flinched back into place and raised the lever to up. “Top floor, High Director’s office, watch your words and count your blessings!” At that sight, the ponies exchanged unhappy looks.
The elevator began to rise at a quick but comfortable rate. Over the next half hour, the lift passed many different types of floors, each dedicated to things like data inputting and handling, intelligence gathering, magical research and development, urban planning, manufacturing methods and other subjects dedicated to the advancement of civilization.
Eventually, they made it to the very top, a round hall with a series of doors at every angle, with the most intricately carved door in the very center with the gilded words Zeo Photum: High Director of Core Metro. The agents stepped out of the elevator followed by the ponies. The head agent walked up to the door and rapped on it three times. From a speaker on the side, a digitally-distorted voice rang out. “What’s your business?”
The head agent, for the first time showing a slight lapse in composure, coughed and pressed the button below the speaker. “I-it’s your agents, sir. The delegates from the surface you’ve ordered us to escort have arrived.”
After the head agent withdrew his finger from the button, there was a brief pause. Then, the voice rang out again. “You may enter.”
The head agent straightened his tie, opened the door, and entered followed by the other agents, who were in turn followed by the ponies. Inside, sitting at the top of an upraised podium with a gold plating engraved with a sun, moon, and stars design, was a man with finely-combed brown hair, blue eyes, and a light, somewhat pale complexion.
The man looked up from the papers he was reading and signing and removed his glasses. “Speak, please.”
The head agent gulped and stepped forward. “Most honorable High Director, it is my privilege to introduce the delegates from the surface world: Miss Applejack, Miss Rainbow Dash, Miss Pinkie Pie, Miss Rarity, Miss Fluttershy, and their leader Princess Twilight Sparkle.”
The High Director gave them all a good look with a discerning expression. “Ah yes, the ponies from the legends. They’re exactly how the stories depicted them, the bright colors, the three different tribes, and the fabled cutie marks. Thank you for your services, agents. You may leave now, I wish to speak to the delegates alone.”
The agents saluted and exited the way they came. The high director descended from his podium, revealing his white coat decorated with jagged golden patterns, and walked to the middle of his room, where Twilight trotted up to meet him. “The reports said that you came down here to help us back onto the surface. But I want to hear it from your mouths, why did you really come down here?”
Twilight inhaled and looked deep in the High Director’s eyes. “Your honor, the civilization we come from holds friendship as our most revered virtue, and we specifically as the Council of Friendship work everyday to spread the values needed to form and maintain friendships to all creatures regardless of species or nationality. This also means we work to resolve friendship problems between such creatures.
“We came down here after discovering that your ancestors and ours came together to brave the harsh wilderness of the primeval world and in the process formed the world’s first friendship, but it wasn’t to last. We don’t know what, but something happened between the ancient humans and ponies that caused such a disagreement that your ancestors couldn’t bear to live in the same world as ours, so they combined their magic to make an entryway to the Heart of the World, where you built this civilization. We came here to finally resolve the ancient problem, but as we’ve traveled through this city, we’ve noticed that although you’ve done very well for yourselves, there are still many people that are often forced to resort to drastic measures to keep themselves and their loved ones alive. So we feel that it would be in your people’s best interest if you’d all follow us and immigrate back to the surface world.”
The High Administrator’s expression didn’t change, but his voice grew a few octaves colder. “Are you saying that you have a problem with how we do things in our city, and with how I’m running things here?”
Twilight leaned back in shock. “N-no sir! It’s just that, um, no matter what you or anyone does, there’s always going to be great scarcity while you live down here, and that scarcity will always cause great suffering!
“You said that you know the legends, well I can tell you that they’re all true! There’s enough food and water to feed your people a thousand-fold! There’s food practically growing on the trees! And there are things like the sun which can provide enough warmth for everyone! And drinkable water falls from the sky regularly!”
The High Director then got an inquisitive look, scratching his chin. “If all the legends are true, and the land above really is a land of plenty, then that makes the idea of picking everything up and moving there quite… tempting.”
The High Director held himself high and folded his arms behind his back. “If it’s not too much trouble, I’d like to make an announcement to the city, and I’d like you lot to accompany me to the balcony.”
Twilight turned back to her friends and they all sounded in affirmative. She then turned back to the High Director. “We’d be glad to!”
The Ponies trotted behind the High Director as he made his way behind the podium to a pair of doors in the back of the office. He opened them and let in a blast of cold air. The ponies flinched once it hit them, but the High Director walked through the doors without trouble. Once outside, the ponies were met with the oppressive darkness of the cavern being broken from the hundreds of miles of the city lights below.
Twilight marveled at the sight below them. “I can see why you wanted to come here to make your announcement!”
The High Director took a deep breath at the edge of the balcony. “From the moment I first became High Director and gazed down at the city from here, I knew that this is what I was meant for. Now, would you kindly line up behind me, three on both sides if it’s not too much trouble.”
Twilight started gesturing at her friends. “No trouble at all, High Director! No trouble at all!
Once the ponies were in place, the High Director raised both his hands and in them appeared two orbs of light, which flew to the opposite corners of the back of the balcony, illuminating the whole place. Then he pointed one of his hands forward and a stream of softly-glowing white glyphs flowed from it and spiraled into a large cone in front of the balcony.
Unbeknownst to the ponies, all the monitors in the city changed their images to show the High Director and the ponies behind him. On every street block and whatever large space was available, a screen of pure light appeared to display the same image.
After clearing his throat, the High Director began to speak. “Citizens of Core Metro, I, Zeo Photum, High Director of our proud city, may have the privilege of delivering the most important announcement in our people’s history.” He gestured to the ponies behind him. “As you may have heard, emissaries from the legendary surface world have come down to the Heart of the World on a mission to restore us back from whence we came. I must admit, I have done my very best to plan and organize so as to provide for all two hundred million of you, but this cavern does not yield its resources easily, and not without great sacrifice. As such, a mass migration to such a resource-rich land seems like the most promising solution.”
The High director then took a deep breath and put his hands together. “However, when the delegates first got down here, they stated that the reason we all live down here today is because of a dispute between our ancestors and theirs, and they themselves did not know the details. So when I first heard, I commissioned our historical and archaeological societies to mount an extensive investigation into the earliest history of our city, and what they found has proven… shocking, to say the least.”
The ponies started looking at one another in a worried fashion. The High Director then snapped his fingers and in several flashes of white light, a series of tablets and tapestries appeared at the back of the balcony. The ponies looked upon these images and gained expressions of great alarm at what they had to show. The High Director continued. “It seems that the truth is much darker than what any of us expected: At first, the bond between man and pony was very strong, but as time went on, the humans began to work harder and harder, carrying greater burdens as the ponies reveled in the fruits of the humans’ labor and adopted hedonistic and carefree lifestyles; leaving the humans themselves to break their backs protecting and maintaining their civilization. The exploitation continued until humans were all but a second-class servant species.
“Eventually, our ancestors had had enough and demanded to be treated as equals, but the ancient ponies found the very thought laughable. Realizing that as long as the ponies and the humans lived together, there would never be justice, our brave ancestors combined all their elemental magics together to carve a path to who knows where. But as long as they got away from the pony menace, it would be preferable.
“We could make the journey to the surface, but afterwards, there’s no reason to believe that history won’t repeat itself. So I propose a new course of action: We shall return to the surface, but not in peace. We shall launch an invasion as a declaration of a quick and merciless war. And at the end, we, the greatest warriors the world has ever seen, shall rule all and take everything the surface has to offer for ourselves and only ourselves.”
On that note, the ponies moved to escape. But with another snap of the fingers, the High Director had, faster than even Rainbow Dash could see, bound them all to the ground in cords of solid light.
“Now I know what many of the wiser among you are thinking: No matter how skilled we are as warriors, a war with an entire world will be long, painful, and costly. Thankfully, the princess of ponies that I have single handedly captured agrees that it would be costly for her people too, so I propose we settle this dispute with a challenge. The princess and her compatriots will face the best we have to offer in combat at our city’s Professional Dueling Arena. If they win, we’ll call off the invasion. But if we win, on behalf of her kingdom, the princess will offer her unconditional surrender. Do you agree with these terms, Princess Twilight?”
With a gesture from the High Director, Twilight was dragged across the balcony floor right next to him. She made an angry grimace at the High Director, then gave the screen a look of solemn determination. “It appears there isn’t much of a choice. I accept your terms, High Director Photum.”