A sharp kick to the ribs jolted Twilight back into consciousness. As she gasped for air her head swam with distant thoughts and distant fears.
“Get up,” the voice commanded from a million miles away. She felt a sharp prod to her flank. Twilight knew that there was something going horribly wrong, but she was just so warm and comfortable that she couldn’t care less. As Twilight slipped back into a drug-induced slumber she felt herself being dragged across the cobblestone floor…
With a hollow THUNK! Twilight woke up again, a dull roar assaulted her ears, and she felt sore all over. THUNK! She wondered what was hitting her head. THUNK! Twilight opened her eyes to see the wooden planks of a simple, rough platform. Something screamed for Twilight to wake up to focus, but Twilight was just so comfortable… Twilight was lifted into a stockade. With a metallic click, she was rendered immobile. In front of her was a roiling crowd of angry faces.
A midnight blue alicorn walked in front of Twilight, “Princess Luna,” Twilight smiled.
Luna ignored Twilight and addressed the crowd, “Today we have dealt a colossal blow to the insurgents!” Queen Luna’s royal voice boomed over the crowd, “Before you here, my little ponies, is the one who whored out our secrets,” an angry roar erupted through the crowd “Our city still bears the scars of her treachery!” she pointed an accusatory hoof at Twilight. “She would see your beloved Queens in the grave!” Another roar rang through the plaza. “Now we all know that my sister’s former student deserves the harshest of punishments, but I am a forgiving Queen!” From the crowd, cheers erupted. She turned to one of the guards, and smiled. “Cut her horn off.” The unicorn in midnight blue armor grinned, and grabbed a bone saw.
All the while something in the back of Twilight’s mind was screaming that she needed to get out. The voice wouldn’t let her sleep; maybe if she listened to it the little voice would shut up…. Twilight tried teleporting away, but her magic failed. She pushed with all her might, but the iron holding her would not bend. She kept struggling until a magical aura took her and locked her into place. Panic feigned at the edge of Twilight’s consciousness.
Then she felt something thin rest on top of her horn. As it began to move back and forth, she felt something warm run down her face. Pain screamed at her, it was in her face, but farther away than the sun is from the moon. Twilight knew that she had to focus, but she was trapped in an endless fog in her mind. It was the noise that was the most dreadful thing to her. She wanted it to stop; it sounded like somepony was sawing logs on her forehead. It was deafening, the back and forth. Something dripped in her eye, it stung like liquid fire, but Twilight ignored it. She felt as if she was standing in a tunnel, and a train was coming. Suddenly it hit her like the Ponyville Express at full speed. The pain erupted from her skull, blinding her. She couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t move. Twilight could hear somepony screaming; it took her a moment to realize that it was her. The pain dulled a little, and it felt like somepony dumped a warm bucket of water on her face. The sawing stopped, and Twilight heard a something fall to the deck with a hollow clatter. The sharp pain subsided into an intense throb, and Twilight was released from her iron bonds. She fell to the oak planks, devoid of energy. She opened her eyes to see a lavender unicorn’s horn bathed in a red pool.
Twilight giggled at the surreal sight of a horn that looked so much like hers sitting on the ground…
Twilight woke up in a gentle haze, cut by the sharp pain erupting from the front of her skull. Twilight shot up fear freezing her solid while her heart raced in her chest. She began to tremble…. ‘What just happened to me?’ The tears began to stream down her face. Her head was hurting like nothing she had ever felt before. Utter devastation overwhelmed her as she collapsed to the floor. Her horn was gone, her magic was gone, her friends were gone, her life… all of it was sawn off and rotting on some deck in the middle of the city.
Weeping, she reached to what she was sure to be nothing more than a stump to find…her horn? Her other hoof shot to her head. It was there! Right where it should be! Elation flooded Twilight, “It was all a nightmare,” she sighed to herself. Her head felt like it had been caved in with a hammer, but she was alive, whole, and…she had no clue where she was. Forcing herself through the headache, Twilight lit the room with magic.
She was in a small, concrete, windowless room, with a bare light bulb hanging from the ceiling. Twilight flipped it on. Beside her was a simple cot, covered in rough linens. Scrawled over the door was ‘Remember the nadir’ in thick black paint. Other than that the room was bare. Twilight tried the door, but it was locked, and warded with a spell to prevent tampering; Twilight was not leaving this room until it was unlocked from the other side. She began to pace, but the headache made her hoofsteps unbearable. A wave of nausea overwhelmed twilight and she had to lie down on the cot.
She fell onto the cot, and Twilight felt the faintest edge of something beneath it. Interest piqued, Twilight pushed her headache aside for a moment and felt under the cot and found a small, jewel encrusted box. On the top were three diamonds that made Twilight think of Rarity’s cutie mark. She knew that she should just put the box back under the cot, but Twilight had to push forward. She found the latch, but before she was able to open the box she heard a key slide into the door. She slammed the box back under the cot.
The figure in the doorway made Twilight stare, slackjawed.
“Umm…hi?” He said. He stood at around the height of two ponies. His scales caught the light and reflected like a thousand amethysts and emeralds, and his claws looked sharpened pieces of quartz. He looked older, but there was no doubting that this was Spike. He smiled kindly, “How are you feeling?”
“I feel like a buffalo is tap-dancing on my forehead,” Twilight replied.
Spike gave a nervous giggle and rubbed the back of his head, “Yeah, sorry about that. It’ll pass soon. I’m glad that you’re finally up, it’s been two days since we brought you down here.”
“Two days!” Twilight was shocked. “What did you do to me?”
“Calm down,” he said in a calming voice. “I didn’t want you drugged either, but Pinkie does things her way and only her way,” Twilight nodded, and there was a beat of silence. “Since you’re awake, the Feather needs to speak with you,” Twilight tensed up. “Don’t worry, he’s a pretty nice guy, if you stay on his good side,” Spike laughed. “We once took out this lieutenant in the Lunar Army, a rapist and murderer, not to mention an all around prick. But we have him sitting in the middle of a field, Feather had a sword under his chin, and what does that prick do? He brags,” Spike was oblivious to how uncomfortable Twilight was with the way his story was going. “Brags! Needless to say when morning came the lieutenant was strung up over Canterlot’s north gate, back cracked open blood eagle style.”
“Great,” Twilight felt a little queasy at the thought of being in the same room as the pony that did what she had already seen. She had no clue of what a ‘blood eagle’ was, but it sounded horrific.
Spike stepped out of the doorway, revealing another concrete room. This one had books scattered haphazardly across the floor and piled in the far corner. Across the back wall there was a window covered with corrugated tin, and in the middle of the floor was a metal desk with two folding chairs. To the left was a door, and across that wall there was a map of Canterlot and a map of Equestria. Twilight looked to the right and found a wall covered in portraits, connected in a web of red string; at the top were portraits of Celestia and Luna. Most of the strings ended on Luna’s picture, and only a few were pinned to Celestia. Outside, Twilight heard the general sounds of a city. She considered making a jump for it, but last time running didn’t exactly work.
“Wait here,” Spike stepped out of the door, leaving Twilight alone. Along with her headache, she felt nervousness nibble at her heart. However, Twilight found that she didn’t fear for her life. The cold, logical part of her brain kept saying, ‘He saved you, you have nothing to fear from him,’ and logic had never failed Twilight before…except when Pinkie was involved, and then logic flew out the window. Twilight started to look at some of the books when the door opened behind her. She turned to see the same cloaked pony that she had met on her first night here.
“I would like to start off with an apology,” he said. “When I told Pinkie that I needed to see you, I didn’t think that she would use such extreme measures,” He sighed. “I’ll have you know, this talk was far from free.” He sat in the chair behind the desk.
“Thank you, I guess,” Twilight kept her cards close to her chest.
“For saving you this time, or the last?” He pressed on. “I noticed the new wings by the way. How’d you come across those?”
“Well I…”
“Why did you blow your cover?” the White Feather pressed harder. Twilight could hear the heat of anger in his voice. “What were you doing the other night?” He placed his front hooves on the desk, looming over her. In a blink he had a short knife at Twilight’s throat; its tip digging into her skin. Panic blinded Twilight, but fear kept her hooves iced to the ground. “Does Celestia know about her? Is she safe?” He saw Twilight rigid with fear, and a nagging question seated itself behind his eyes. The very same one that he had asked himself the first time he had seen Twilight with her new wings. “Who are you?”
“Princess Twilight Sparkle!” Twilight shouted out.
“Princess?” He took the knife away from Twilight’s throat, and she felt like she could breathe again. “Now I know that is not a title given away around the castle…” the White Feather thought aloud. He was eyeing Twilight suspiciously. An audacious conclusion was forming in Feather’s head, “What was the Year of Sunlight?” any foal should know about that.
Twilight shook her head, “I don’t know.”
She heard the cloaked pony gasp. “I can’t believe she did it…. You’re not from…here, are you?”
“Yes!” Twilight felt oddly relieved. “How did you know?” she asked.
“She told me of a project she was doing with some of Starswirl’s old experiments. And with what I saw in your apartment the other night, I found it safe to assume that she was at least partially successful in escaping.”
Twilight was surprised, “You know about Starswirl’s old experiments?”
“I’m not a common street thug,” He breathed a heavy sigh, and walked around the room. “It looks like things just got harder for me. You don’t know it, but you had the ear of half the nobles in Upper Canterlot, and I needed you to gain their support,” He paused, and tuned to Twilight. “Equestria needs us. Our Queens wage another costly war, now with the Changelings, and the cost is taken out on their subjects. Poverty is widespread, and the crowns seize what they ‘need.’ They rule through fear, and create enemies to justify their means.”
“And you are there to what, liberate them?” Twilight said sardonically. “From what I’ve seen you’re nothing more than a glorified murderer.”
“You don’t know what Queen Celestia took from me,” He snapped. He lifted the metal shutter with his magic. “And you don’t know the stakes that we are working with.”
Twilight was taken by the view beyond the window. Outside was a massive cavern that was well over a hundred yards tall, and harbored everything from proper brick buildings to massive blocks of shanties. The whole cavern was lit with massive crystals that were suspended from the ceilings that cast an artificial blue light on the whole place. Snaking through the buildings were streets strewn with refuse, and packed with ponies.
“That, Princess,” Twilight could hear a shade of bitterness as the word rolled off his tongue, “is Lower Canterlot. You’ll find no greater seat of kindness and no better sanctuary for evil in Equestria,” they sat in silence for a moment taking in the view, “It used to be a gem mine, until the gems went deeper, leaving this cavern empty. Many left homes in the countryside to try in stake a claim in the mines, and it was free to squat down here. Some enterprising Upper-Canterlotians decided to set up shops, and build some proper buildings down here. Thus gradually another city grew underneath the capitol.”
“The Queens just let this place exist?” Twilight asked.
“They collect taxes from ponies that live under the mountain just like they do anywhere else,” He sighed. There was a long pause, and Twilight watched some foals playing in the street. “I need you, Princess,” He turned to face her.
“‘Need’ me? What for?”
“I’m losing,” There was a weight to his words. “Yes, I can kill anything that Celestia sends my way, and I will always fight the treachery of the crowns until they put me into the ground,” the White Feather looked out over the city. “But I am losing, and I always will be without you. Ponies tremble at the mention of my name. The Queens’ propaganda paints me as a demon who eats foals for breakfast, and murders for carnal pleasure. To them, I am the enemy. I don’t care about your mirror’s connection with Upper Canterlot. You are an alicorn. Ponies will rally behind you, and shout your name from the rooftops if you denounce the Empyreal Diarchy. They will hang banners with your cutiemark. They would even lay their life down if need be. You could turn the tide in our favor.”
“I can’t have ponies die for me!” Twilight said, horrified at the thought.
“Would you have them die for nothing?” anger flared up on his words. “Twilight, you know not how cruel the Queens can be, what they claim is ‘justice.’”
“I have seen the Queen’s justice,” the fire in Twilight’s chest was tempered by the spike of icy fear that shot from her horn to her tail. The White Feather looked at her, “A pony who stole some bread to feed his foal,” Twilight found herself trembling, her nightmare still gripping her heart in its icy wings. “They cut his horn off.”
“I’m sorry that you had to see that Twilight, but what you are feeling right now, the anger and hatred? Use it and take my hoof.” He offered his clothed hoof dramatically.
Twilight felt torn. On one hoof, she knew that she should help the ponies around her, not as the Princess of Friendship, but as Twilight Sparkle. However, she was scared, scared for her life and scared that she would never see her home again. “I’m not mad,” she said. “I don’t hate Queen Celestia, and I haven’t even met Queen Luna. I don’t even know who’s lying to me! Are you telling the truth, and Celestia lying to me, or is it the other way around? I’m sorry, but I just want to go home.” Twilight found tears coming, and she fought them back.
“You want to come home,” sympathy coated his voice. “I do too,” He paused and Twilight could hear the gears tuning in his mind. “Would my Twilight’s notes help? If you are anything like her, you should know that she writes volumes.”
Twilight didn’t want to feel the ray of hope that entered her heart. She knew that this wasn’t going to be that simple. “You have them?” she asked.
“I can get them,” he said, “but on one condition,” Twilight’s heart sank, “you have to stay in Lower Canterlot for a week.”
Twilight was skeptical. “That’s it? You won’t make me fight, or lead your revolution?”
“How could I?” Twilight could hear him smile. “All I ask is for you to stay in Canterlot for a week, and the notes are yours. I swear,” he crossed his heart. “You’ll be more or less safe down here, just keep your cloak on and stay away from the brutes. Or you can leave now, but how long will it take you to work out the spell without?”
Twilight nodded, and she hated herself for doing so. “Okay, get me those notes.”
Twilight left the building under disguise as soon as she could, she didn’t know what was in the city, but she knew that she didn’t want to hang around White Feather anymore. She was almost as uncomfortable with the little gift that Spike had given her with her cloak: a simple, cruel looking knife that was about a foot long. Of course Twilight told herself that she had used knives before, the one she had for cutting melons was nearly as long as this one, but she knew that this knife was no kitchen knife, and the thought its purpose made her uncomfortable.
Lower Canterlot, however was something else. It looked like a patchwork blanket turned into a city. One block she was walking through almost a carbon copy of Apploosa and the next block featured buildings that reminded her of Ponyville. Ponies were everywhere. Twilight had visited the great cities of Equestria, she grew up in Canterlot, but she had never seen streets so crowded. The streets were so clogged at times Twilight was beginning to feel claustrophobic; she envied the pegasi zipping around in the open air above buildings. On every street corner there was a merchant selling everything from grilled carrots to mining helmets.
Even with no destination in mind, Twilight felt pulled towards the back of the cavern. As she made her way in the pale blue light, she wondered how these ponies lived without seeing the sun. She had only been awake for a couple of hours, and she already knew that she wanted out. How am I going to last a week down here? Twilight thought to herself. She tried to distract herself by studying the subterranean ponies. After Twilight had lost the track of time, she had come to a conclusion: something was off. On the surface, the ponies of Lower Canterlot still laughed, the foals still played, and smiles were still shared, but there was an almost palpable tension in the air, as if it the city was dry brush and just waiting for a spark to ignite.
What was the far wall of the cavern was now looming over Twilight, and the traffic was flowing towards one specific area on the back wall. As Twilight got closer, she could see that it was a mine shaft, topped off with an elevator that penetrated deep into the earth. Twilight’s chest tightened at the sight of four golden armored guards, but the crowd had become too thick for Twilight to run without gaining unwanted attention. Twilight found herself at the front of a mob of quietly stressed ponies. All of them stared at a small concrete building to the right of the mine shaft, looking like a pack hungry timberwolves. Then the iron door on the building opened, and a strong looking ocean-blue unicorn stepped out.
“I need twenty good strong backs today,” She said. As the crowd began to shout Twilight struggled to keep up with the situation. One of the guards opened up the gate to the elevator, and the other three leveled spears against the crowd. It then clicked in her head that these ponies were here to work in the mines, and that there were closer to a hundred ponies gathered.
“Single file!” shouted one of the guards and the each pony in the crowd shoved to get to the elevator. Twilight just tried to make her way out. Tensions were running high and Twilight was beginning to fear for her safety. She started to look for a way out, but a body hit her, almost knocking her off her hooves.
Twilight turned to apologize, but the stallion was squared off with another.
“You’re trying to steal my spot,” sneered the first, a unicorn.
“I was waiting here before you were,” the second argued, who was a pegasus, his words radiated with anger like heat from a fire. The first pony lunged at the second, and Twilight caught them both in her magic. She had seen enough violence in the past few days, and she was tired of seeing it.
“Stop it, both of you!” her call attracted many in the crowd around them. Still holding them in her magic, Twilight stepped between them. “Now is this really worth fighting over?” she asked condescendingly.
“I had work today, until this pig came along!” the unicorn flailed his hooves at his opponent, but Twilight’s magic kept them apart.
“You don’t call me a pig! I was here waiting before the light was on this morning. I deserve this not you!” The pegasus yelled.
“Both of you calm down!” Twilight shouted. “Now is this the only job in the city?” She asked the first pony.
“Well…no, but-”
Twilight cut him off, “How about I help you find something else?” He nodded, and she set him down and turned to the pegasus, “I suggest that if you get her so early in the morning, be quick about getting in line. Fighting is not the answer to everything.” She released him too.
Twilight was still standing between the two of them when the pegasus smiled, “Better hope the coltcuddlers are paying today!” his laugh was cut short by a knife the unicorn had hidden in his mane. He stabbed the pegasus, then again, and again, then he buried the knife so far into the pegasus’ chest that he didn’t bother to pull it out again. Bleeding, the pegasus fell into Twilight’s hooves. As the crowd scattered, she watched in disbelief and horror as the unicorn calmly got onto the elevator. The guards didn’t bother with stopping him; they just closed the door, and pulled the lever to let the elevator down. All the while, Twilight held the dying pegasus. He couldn’t speak; his lungs were filling with blood, and his dying coughs sprayed blood all over Twilight’s chest. Twilight sat there, shocked, stunned, as his dead eyes stared at the ceiling of Lower Canterlot.
“You there, halt!” The guard’s command snapped back into reality. As he began to approach her, Twilight knew she couldn’t stay; with a silent apology, Twilight teleported away and left the pegasus’ dead body laying there.
Twilight popped back in a dark alley not a hundred feet away from the mineshaft. She looked back to the four guards, and knew that they didn’t mean to follow her. She found herself trembling. The tears flowed freely from her eyes. She looked down at the blood that covered her chest and forelegs and vomited on the loose cobble pavement.