Hearth's Warming Evil

by Tortfeasor

The End of Harmony

Disclaimer: I don’t own My Little Pony. It’s the property of Hasbro. Yadda, yadda, yadda…

Trapped inside their last desperate refuge, the leaders of the three pony tribes glared at one another in unbounded hostility. The lines on the cave floor served to separate them just as much as the walls in their hearts. Finally, the tension came to a boil.

“I claim this rock for Pegasopolis!” Commander Hurricane rolled the sole inhabitant of the cave besides the ponies deep into what little dirt composed the last remains of the once proud country.

“Unhand that rock this instant, you scoundrel.” Princess Platinum gestured imperiously, as befitting one of her exalted station, from the dirt and ice forming the entirety of the still graceful country of Unicornia.

Neither of them noticed as Chancellor Puddinghead leapt from the far end of Earth to steal their prize. “Oh look, you found my rock. I've been looking for it everywhere.”

“Hey, you invaded our territory.” Commander Hurricane pointed a threatening hoof.

“Finders keepers, losers weepers.” Came the reply in a sing-song manner only one completely confident of victory would dare use.

“That’s the last straw.” Commander Hurricane put a hoof literally and figuratively over the line.

“Give me my rock.” Princess Platinum’s horn began to glow with the magic that made the unicorns believe themselves superior to the other pony tribes.

“You lost it, I found it.” Chancellor Puddinghead picked up the rock with a victorious smirk.

“Well prepare to lose it!” Commander Hurricane dove at the earth pony who’d dared set hoof in Pegasopolis.

At that same moment, Princess Platinum had yanked at the rock with her magic. Chancellor Puddinghead, however, had managed to hang on with her teeth and was dragged clear of the dive.

The pull continued, until Chancellor Puddinghead’s head met the cave wall with an audible thump. As she dropped her prize and staggered away the rock lifted back into the air.

“It’s mine!” Princess Platinum cried in triumph as the rock floated towards her surrounded by the glow of her magic.

“That rock belongs to Pegasopolis!” Princess Platinum had only a moment to savor her victory before an irate Commander Hurricane tackled her from the side.

The leaders of Unicornia and Pegasoplis began a tussle that carried them across each of the three shrunken nations in turn. All three assistants pressed themselves against the walls of the cave in an effort to avoid being caught up in the war their leaders had begun over a rock.

Meanwhile, Chancellor Puddinghead had recovered from her run-in with the cave wall and had stealthily approached the rock once more. Her opposites struggle carried her her into their view just as she grabbed her prize and prepared to make good her escape. Neither Princess Platinum nor Commander Hurricane were about to let Chancellor Puddinghead so triumphantly abscond with their prize.

“Unhand my rock!” Princess Platinum pulled with magic once more.

The leader of Unicornia had learned from her past mistake. That slovenly earth pony had a most tenacious grip. Deciding that the time for subtlety was past, Princess Platinum yanked the rock as hard as her magic would allow.

Out of control, the rock sped across the cave, taking one of Chancellor Puddinghead’s teeth with it, straight into Smart Cookie’s head.

Earth ponies had long been renown for their physical toughness. Working the fields from sunup to sundown to bring food to the tribes was physically trying under the best of circumstances. No earth pony, though, was tough enough to survive a rock hitting their skull straight on with the full force of a unicorn’s magic behind it.

“Smart Cookie!” The five surviving ponies were all shocked at the violence, but it was Chancellor Puddinghead who had just lost a dear friend.

“You call us barbarians!” Commander Hurricane punched Princess Platinum across the jaw with a hoof trained since birth to excel at pony on pony violence.

“Ruffian, how dare you assault the daughter of the unicorn king!” Princess Platinum growled as she wiped a trail of blood from a split lip. “I’ll show you barbarians just what you’re dealing with.”

A stalactite directly above Commander Hurricane began to crack and groan as the enraged leader of the unicorns got cracking at it, in the most literal sense possible, with her considerable magical prowess.

“Ooooh, you’re gonna glow at me.” Commander Hurricane hadn't looked up to see the very mortal danger she was in at the moment. Heedless of her peril, she began to stalk towards the unicorn princess.

Her follower, Private Pansy, had looked up and seen the danger about to befall Commander Hurricane. As one final crack resounded through the tight quarters, Private Pansy dove towards her leader and pushed her out of the way. The chunk of rock would have been quite lethal had it fallen on her head. Private Pansy’s motion instead carried her forward so the stalactite hit just between her wings.

Clover the Clever, who had until now removed herself from the chaos around her, raced forward and threw the stalactite off Private Pansy and into the wall. She turned Private Pansy on to her side and saw with relief that her sides were still rising.

“I…” Private Pansy’s eyes snapped open, “I can’t feel my wings. I can’t feel my wings! Oh goodness, I can’t feel my wings!”

Private Pansy began to hyperventilate in panic as Clover the Clever tried in vain to calm her down. The unicorn was shoved aside as a recovered Commander Hurricane dashed to her subordinate’s side.

That brought her attention back to Princess Platinum just in time to see Chancellor Puddinghead, clearly mad with grief, lunging towards her with the rock that had proven the downfall of all three tribes. Shouting a warning would have accomplished nothing, Princess Platinum would merely die turning her head. Desperate, Clover the Clever hit Chancellor Puddinghead with a wall of magical force.

The earth pony would normally have survived such an attack none the worse for wear. However, in the close confines of the cave such an attack sent Chancellor Puddinghead into the cave wall at high speeds. Even that probably wouldn't have done the trick by itself, but her neck hitting and snapping on a rise in the cave wall served to end the life of Chancellor Puddinghead.

“Oh no,” Clover the Clever muttered over and over, “what have I done? I... I didn't mean to. She was going to... What have I done?”

“You've won.” Came a strangled response she hadn't been expecting.

“You've beat us.” Clover the Clever turned to see Commander Hurricane cradling a weeping Private Pansy. “We give, you’re on top. Do whatever you want with me, just spare the rest of my ponies.”

“I accept your service.” Clover could immediately tell that something was off with Princess Platinum. The life and fire that had blazed so fiercely in her friend had been diminished by the terrible few minutes just gone by.

“You fought well.” Some might have said Princess Platinum’s voice sounded mature, Clover merely thought it sounded dead. “And you showed loyalty to your fellows. New Unicornia will have trouble for some time until the earth ponies learn their place at the bottom of society. We would have you and yours be our sword and shield against our lessers.”

Clover had known Princess Platinum for years. In all that time she had never once heard her friend use the royal we. The pain on Princess Platinum's face was clear as day though. Clover wouldn't have been surprised one bit to find out that her friend was trying to hide that pain behind the impersonal tone she was using.

“Clover the Clever.” The pony in question very nearly didn’t respond to the summons, the voice coming out of her friend’s mouth was almost unrecognizable.

“Yes, your highness?” Her own voice sounded hollow in her ears. Clearly she hadn't escaped from this terrible cave without her own scars.

“We... No, I need to you do more for New Unicornia than you have already done. This winter must be ended now that the tribes are united. Have you any ideas?”

“I… I think so. My mentor, Starswirl the Bearded, taught me about creatures called Wendigos. They’re winter spirits that feed off fighting and hatred. The more hate the spirit feels, the colder things become. I think they’re behind the storms that have driven from our homes.”

“Then this is our doing.” Clover had no trouble discerning that Princess Platinum meant her doing. “A peaceful end to this storm died in this cave just as much as Chancellor Puddinghead. Is there any other way to end the suffering of ponies everywhere?”

“Maybe,” Clover felt unclean even before the words left her mouth. “The life energy of a pony makes for very potent magical energy. It won’t end the winter, not by a long stretch, but I think... I think I can use the lives we... took to partially seal the Wendigos and give us enough time each year to at least bring in sufficient crops to live on.”

Princess Platinum paused to ponder Clover’s words. The only sound in the otherwise silent cave was the soft crying coming from the now flightless Private Pansy.

“Do it,” came the soft response. Then Princess Platinum walked close enough to Clover for her to see the tears glittering in her friend’s eyes. “And Clover, I’m sorry.”

Twilight Sparkle was the youngest Court Sorceress in New Unicornia since Clover the Clever herself. Many on the royal council expected miracles from her on account of that fact. She felt she was delivering one to them by not smashing their chairs over their thick skulls. It had been a hard winter, all eight months of it, and the common ponies were restless. Reports coming in from the pegasus guard stations in the lower city were disturbing to say the least. The earth ponies in the part of Platinum City derisively called Dirtville were on the verge of rioting.

This latest crackdown on earth ponies without the papers to be in Platinum City would very likely send them over the edge. If the council could bring itself to wait even a single week more most of those ponies would begin returning to the countryside to work on farms during the short spring and summer. But no, the chancellor, Lord Sombra, just had to insist on making the problem worse. Not that he or his lackeys had put it like that. They thought the earth ponies little better than slaves, and were convinced that the day they gave the earth ponies an inch would be followed a week later by the end of unicorn domination in New Unicornia.

Twilight failed to hold in a snort of laughter at the ridiculousness of that thought. If Sombra, Jet Set, Upper Crust, and the others could see the conditions in Dirtville they wouldn't fear for the loss of unicorn domination for another hundred years. Of course, the conditions in the worst part of Dirtville were paradise compared to the rumors about Sombra’s ‘Penal Colonies.’ Twilight knew only enough about those horrible places to know that she wouldn't wish her worst enemy into one. And she feared a number of earth ponies whose only crime was trying to get out of the cold were about to wind up in those dark holes rather than working on farms bringing in food for the rest of New Unicornia.

Twilight Sparkle was hardly one of those strange unicorns who believed that Princess Platinum and Clover the Clever had made a terrible mistake with the segregation of society placing unicorns and pegasi atop the earth ponies. She was, after all, a product of the society that had born and raised her. On the other hoof, she knew how short the growing season was in New Unicornia, and how dearly the farms needed every earth pony hoof and back they could get. Now Sombra was planning to remove dozens if not hundreds of earth ponies from that most important rung of society.

All that added up to another bad winter starting in four months time. That would likely mean more riots, which would mean more earth ponies sent off to those abominable penal colonies. And that would probably lead to starvation among even the unicorn poor, not to mention the pegasi or the luckless earth ponies. Not that Sombra would care. He sat there in the darkest corner of whatever room he was in, darkening the shadows around him and hardly ever speaking a single growling word.

His dark and mysterious silent act had, however, succeeded in sidelining Princess Rarity from nearly all the levers of power. With her father ill, Rarity should have held complete power as regent over New Unicornia. Somehow, Sombra had managed to convince enough ponies to flat out lie that things were not nearly as bad as they seemed. That left him with most of the power in the palace. Twilight could somewhat understand, if still completely detest, his actions. The first thing her friend would do upon becoming regent would be to strip Sombra and his followers of all power. Followed by finding the point in New Unicornia farthest from Platinum City and exiling them there.

Still in a foul mood, Twilight finally arrived at her rooms. The Court Sorceress had a fair amount of space to herself. Most of that space, though, was taken up with the detritus of her various duties. Twilight’s actual rooms consisted of a bedroom that doubled as her study, a sitting room, and a small bathroom.

Finally alone, she allowed herself to sink into her lone couch with an exhausted sigh. Was it too much to ask to be able to walk away from one meeting of the royal council without a pounding headache at the latest draconian scheme Sombra or one of his lackeys had put forth? The answer was obviously yes, or else she wouldn't have had to ask that question.

And just because the world hated her, Twilight’s moment of rest was rudely shattered by a hoof taping on her door. Glaring at the foul piece of wood that had failed at keeping her privacy, Twilight dragged herself to her hooves and somehow made her way to the door.

“Good afternoon Lady Sparkle, I take it the meeting of the council didn’t go well.”

“Just Twilight, Soarin. My mom is ‘lady,' I'm just Twilight.” However foul a mood Twilight was in she would never take it out on one of Rarity’s guards. Not only were they each of them very skilled and deadly fighters. But they were among the hoof-full of ponies Twilight could count on in the palace.

“And no.” Twilight would rather not revisit that hour ever again. “The meeting did not go well. His grand high all powerful infinitely majestic sun that our world revolves around lordship Sombra listened to her highness's objections when I put them forth, and then he ordered the pegasus guards to move into Dirtville this evening.”

“And I take it you’ll be out there?”

“Of course.” Twilight was already floating a heavy cloak towards her that would both cover her horn and keep the cold away. “If I can catch Sombra having earth ponies who have their papers in order deported I can rub his face in it. I’ll never convince the likes of Blueblood, Jet Set, or Upper Crust, but enough council members only follow Sombra because he has momentum. Get a few of those shaky supporters scared and they’ll come running to Rarity.”

“Spitfire and I will wait for you at the gates,” Soarin sighed. “Try not to get killed, kidnapped, or whatever angry earth ponies do to unicorn nobles out there when they’re rioting. They’d make me clean out your rooms, and I don’t want to have to move all that heavy stuff.”

“Complain, complain, complain.” Twilight laughed as she walked out her door. “And here I was going to bring you back a pie for your concern. Let the deprivation serve as a lesson that whining is not tolerated in Rarity’s personal guards.”

Soarin’s cries of sorrow were far too over the top for Twilight to even begin to take seriously.

“I’m serious.” Soarin stopped her at the gate. “It’s dangerous out there. The earth ponies in Dirtville aren't just going to riot, they're near outright revolt. If they find out who you are they won’t care about what happens next, they’ll string you up.”

“I know,” Twilight said, “but I don’t have any choice. I can't ask anyone else to stick their neck out for me like this. I have to see firsthoof what Sombra is doing to the earth ponies. If the price of that is that I get myself into a little danger… Well, I can have an ‘accident’ easily enough here in the castle.”

“We’d all die before we let Sombra or his goons touch one hair in your mane.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of. You, Spitfire, and the others need to watch your own backs as much as you watch mine and Rarity’s.” Twilight flipped the hood of her cloak over her horn and set off.

Close to the palace one would never suspect there was any unrest in the city. In fact, through the whole district of the city composing the residences of noble and wealthy unicorns business went on as usual. Twilight walked down broad tree-lined avenues, the trees were evergreens for obvious reasons, with large, well cared for buildings on either side. Ponies, unicorns of course, were already lighting the ornate crystal lamps that would keep the streets lit like day even during the long night. Twilight didn’t think there were so many crystal lamps, certainly not nearly as many ornate lamps, where the unicorns lighting the lamps lived.

Platinum City rested on the slopes of a great mountain. Since its founding it had been laid out on a simple principle, the rich and powerful were literally on top of their so-called lessers. That meant Twilight’s trip to Dirtville was a trip down the social strata that made up New Unicornia.

Even the poorest unicorns lived above the wealthy pegasi, and far above earth ponies of all stripes. There wouldn't be much point to a society founded on the domination of unicorns otherwise. The buildings became smaller, and far less decorated, but even unicorns struggling to make ends meet still had first pick at the best building materials and craftsponies. The city guards also invested much more time and energy in this part of the city than they ever would in even the wealthiest earth pony homes, not that that was saying much. And, while still unlit, there were at least enough crystal lamps to be more than a joke.

The pegasus part of the city was brutally simple. It was divided into the military areas and the not military areas. The function of the former was obvious, keep the earth ponies down and make sure that they knew resistance would prove suicidal, at best. The latter was composed of the many secondary functions pegasi played in society. The weather ponies were an obvious, if occasionally futile, fixture, but pegasi also served as the best messengers across New Unicornia.

The pegasus and unicorn parts of Platinum City were not only metaphorically separated from the earth ponies. Between the lowest rungs of the pegasi and the least worse off earth ponies was a very literal wall. Unicorns and pegasi passed freely back and forth. Earth ponies returning to their homes likewise drew little notice. Those ascending the city were a different case. Hard faced pegasus and unicorn guards closely checked papers, and gave even foals and old mares thorough searches before reluctantly allowing them entry.

Dirtville itself was not the whole earth pony part of the city, though if it kept growing it would be before too many more years, rather it was the name for where the poor among the already impoverished earth ponies resided. It was also where a great many earth ponies who worked on farms during the spring and summer came during the fall and winter. Their presence was technically illegal, but until Sombra had come to power it had been a law only enforced when throwing the book at a pony.

Dirtville was also on the edge of riots verging on revolt. Twilight hadn't made it far beyond the wall before that fact became abundantly clear. Squads of heavily armed pegasus guards moved with grim purpose down the narrow, filthy streets. The earth ponies fortunate enough, if that was the word, to live here moved with a nervous eye down towards Dirtville. A great many homes and shops were already closed, locked, and darkened. Twilight didn’t have to be one of the smartest unicorns alive to suspect that the rest would be following suit before long.

Had she not known exactly where she was going, Twilight could have found her way by simply going the opposite direction of every pony besides herself and the pegasus guards. She would have also known where she was by the unpaved streets that gave Dirtville its unflattering name.

A few guards gave her the occasional glance, most ponies after all wanted to go away from the oncoming riot, but they had larger issues than one strange pony. Finally amongst the very literally unwashed masses, Twilight started trying to find an out of the way corner where she could watch events unfold.

Unfortunately, no one had informed the angry earth ponies of their part in Twilight’s plan. The riot she had been afraid of touched off long before she found an appropriately hidden spot. What exactly touched off the riot, Twilight never knew. Once the riot got going, however, that particular bit of information went straight to the bottom of her list of priorities. Priority one had become survival.

The pegasus guards moved in with armor, spears, swords, axes, bows, and all the other modern implements of doing bodily harm to other ponies. The earth pony rioters seemed to have found an astounding amount of rocks for a part of the city without paved streets. Briefly, Twilight wondered if depriving the earth ponies of just such a weapon had been part of the reason Dirtville had never been paved over. If it was, it had failed, and failed miserably. The earth ponies also had a motley yet obviously dangerous assortment of cobbled together weapons and household implements that could be quite dangerous in the right hooves.

Twilight had never been in battle, but the screams, blood, chaos, and overwhelming stench of fear made her hope quite fervently that she never became involved in one. Also, it was abundantly clear that the roundup Twilight had been planning to stalk wouldn't be happening until enough earth ponies had been killed to cow the others, and if she stuck around too long she was liable to wind up killed as collateral damage.

Running out into the miniature war was not an option. That left running back into the maze of alleys and twisting streets that made up Dirtville. Hopefully, any ponies who saw her would assume she was exactly what she appeared to be, a pony fleeing from the riots.

Twilight never saw the rock that hit her from behind. She supposed it most likely came from a unicorn guard tossing a caught projectile into a presumably empty alley. Whatever the cause, the impact staggered her and forced her to collapse in a snowbank that surely would have been cleared away in the unicorn or pegasus parts of Platinum City. Dazed and rapidly blacking out, Twilight rolled over just in time to see a pony approaching her. She could only muster a feeble effort to pull her hood back over her horn as she saw the other pony gasp in recognition of what she was. As consciousness faded, Twilight Sparkle wondered just how prophetic Soarin’s last words to her would prove.