Hearth's Warming Evil

by Tortfeasor

Dedication Has no Reward

Hearth’s Warming Evil

Disclaimer: All I wanted for Christmas was to own My Little Pony. I remain disappointed..

Chapter Two: Dedication Has no Reward

Getting back into the unicorn part of Platinum City was a relief. Watching Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy gawk like tourists at the sights and sounds was plain amusing. And Twilight Sparkle needed some amusement after the night she’d had. Last night had been long, cold, and nerve-wracking, not to mention it had left her with a host of unanswered questions.

Twilight needed a way to defuse the riots before they started. Doing so would hit Sombra’s dire predictions about the earth ponies right where it would hurt most. She hadn't had a way to do that before now, but if Rainbow Dash’s claims about her timid friend were even half true than Twilight Sparkle was in business. The other half of her plan rested on the mystery mint green unicorn she’d seen last night. Even if Fluttershy was as golden tongued as promised, Twilight still had to deal with convincing the earth ponies that it wasn't all some unicorn plot. A unicorn who already knew her way around earth ponies would be worth her weight in bits.

“Thank you both for coming all this way.” Twilight slowed as they approached the palace gates, closed as a precaution against the riot in Dirtville. “I know it sounds like I’m asking a lot of you, and I am, but if we don’t stop this from blowing up it will only keep getting worse.”

“I, I’m still not sure I can do this.” Fluttershy had a tendency to speak into the ground that muffled her words quite effectively. “All those ponies, and all that responsibility, I mean what if I mess up? And what if ponies get hurt because of me? I can’t do it, I just can’t.”

It had taken them a bit over two hours to make their way from the pegasus garrison to the palace. In that time Fluttershy had declared her inability to perform her part in the plan seven, now eight, times. In that same time Twilight and Rainbow Dash had talked Fluttershy down from her panic attack seven, soon to be eight, times.

“Fluttershy,” Rainbow Dash sounded like she was on a script, and having had the same conversation eight times she very nearly was. “You’re not going to do this alone. I’ll be there, Twilight Sparkle will be there, she said she’s going to find some other ponies to help us, I thought you said you liked helping ponies get along.”

“I do,” Fluttershy complained, “but this is so many ponies. When I do it normally it’s just a few ponies, and I already know most of them. This is going to be so many… strangers. And if they get angry they’re going to be angry at me. I just don’t think I can handle that kind of pressure.”

“Fluttershy,” It was Twilight’s turn to play her role in the drama. “The worst that can happen is what will happen if you do nothing. The earth ponies in Dirtville don’t want to riot. They just feel like they’re backed against a wall and they have nothing to lose. If you give them another way out, and I’ll make sure you have one to give them, then I think they’ll take it.”

“Do you really mean it?” Almost like clockwork Fluttershy began to perk up again.

“Absolutely,” Rainbow Dash was, of course, the one to seal the deal. “Listen, I trust her on this, and I have I ever let you down?”

“Well, no. But I’m scared Rainbow Dash.”

“Don’t be.” The play entered its final act as Rainbow Dash put a hoof on Fluttershy’s shoulder. “I mean your special talent is talking to animals, and talking to ponies can’t be that different. You’re like the perfect pony to do this.”

“I am?” Fluttershy’s look towards Twilight and Rainbow Dash pleaded for outside affirmation.

“Of course you are.” Both of them answered in tandem. Yes, they had the whole exercise down to a script.

“Well, I’m afraid this is where I get off.” Twilight turned to face her pegasus escorts. “I wish I could say I knew when I’d need to use your services, but that all depends on Sombra and what he does.”

“Don’t worry.” Rainbow Dash waved a dismissive hoof. “We’re not going anywhere in a hurry, Lightning Dust will make sure of that. Come on Fluttershy, let’s get going.”

With that, the two pegasi took to the air. Fluttershy seemed to be a rather lackluster flyer in addition to not dealing well with ponies.

“Out of the frying pan and into the fire.” Twilight muttered as she turned to walk through the palace gates. There were enemies just as dangerous as any horde of rioting earth ponies inside the great stone walls at the peak of Platinum City.

--

“You spent a whole night out there, a whole night, and somehow you didn’t find the time to get a pie for a poor, overworked, long-suffering guard who worried about you that whole night?”

Soarin was rewarded with a smack to the back of his head from Spitfire, the senior member of Rarity's guards.

“What he means to say is that we are very relieved to see you Lady Sparkle. When news of the riot reached us and no one knew where you were we feared for the worst.”

“Twilight,” Twilight sighed. “I keep saying this, my mom is ‘Lady Sparkle,’ I’m just Twilight. And it’s good to be back. My little vacation was very educational, but the best part of it has definitely been getting home. Now, I’m betting Rarity wants you to drag me straight to her.”

“Well she didn’t say drag.” Twilight wasn't sure if Spitfire really was taking her seriously. The mare’s sense of professionalism definitely took up space normally used for humor. “But her highness did say to show you into her chambers as soon as you returned.”

“Of course she did,” Twilight huffed. So much for a shower, or a hot meal, or an hour of sleep before she plunged right back into the thick of things.

Twilight’s bedraggled state drew more than a few stairs from the immaculately put together courtiers darting down the halls on whatever oh so important piece of business occupied their attention at the moment. Part of it, a large part, was vanity on their part, and part of it was Rarity’s insistence that everyone in the palace exert some effort on putting forth an image worthy of the unicorns bestriding society.

Twilight had never cared much for either, and after the night she’d had she couldn't care less what she looked like. Sure Rarity would wail about her lack of decorum, but compared to last night Twilight wasn't particularly scared about Rarity.

That was, at least, until she saw Rarity. Twilight didn’t think Rarity had slept a wink last night either. Her normally intricately curled mane showed signs of extensive frizzing, she clearly hadn't sent her cloak off for its morning pressing to remove even the tiniest wrinkles, and Twilight could tell that if Rarity had spent any time combing her coat it had been far less than her typical hour. If Rarity was this haggard then all bets were off about what her friend would do.

“Twilight, darling!” Rarity scrambled to her hooves rather than her normal graceful rise. “You had all of us so worried running off and disappearing like that. That horrible Sombra was already talking about appointing some horrible protégé of his with a terrible ego to your post.”

“Well you can let him know that I didn’t catch anything terminal last night. I’m sure he’ll be overjoyed at the news.” Twilight took the opportunity to flop down on the layer of pillows Rarity had strewn liberally about the floor.

“Indeed.” Rarity waved Soarin and Spitfire away. Twilight wondered if they’d slept at all last night either. “I think I shall also include a pointed reminder that the appointment of certain positions at court, including most specifically that of Court Sorceress, is the exclusive purview of the royal family.”

“Twilight.” It took a distinct effort for Twilight to open her eyes when her name was called. “I’m worried about you. Getting a hoof on the pulse of average ponies on the street has been very useful, and there’s no one else I’d trust beside you to do it. But I’m worried it’s getting too dangerous.”

“Plenty dangerous in here too.” Twilight mumbled into a very soft, very comfortable, oh so tempting pillow.

“Danger you can be protected from.” Rarity was clearly letting emotion borne of worry fuel her. There was no other way she could still be so energetic. “Over the past several weeks, several unicorn nobles with views similar to ours have wound up with what I believe you would call an acute case of being dead. Just last night a number of earth pony fanatics somehow infiltrated the unicorn part of the city and rather brutally murdered Fancypants and his wife. At least that’s the official version, I’m rather certain the attackers started a great deal closer to the unicorn districts, and I have my doubts that they were earth ponies.”

That woke Twilight up. Fancypants was a very well respected unicorn noble, and a unicorn noble who firmly believed that taking too hard a line with the earth ponies would backfire in the long run. If Sombra was both powerful and confident enough to be ordering assassinations like that…

“If Sombra’s capable of taking out a unicorn like Fancypants then I’m barely safer in here than I am out there, the same goes for you. That’s all the more reason to get you proclaimed regent so you can banish Sombra to the moon.”

“Sombra had more than enough support on the council to block that before this latest riot,” Rarity said. “If ponies start worrying that going the wrong way will wind up with them in the ground my father will retain all his useless power until he’s finally put in the ground.”

Twilight could tell how uncomfortable Rarity was speaking about her father’s incapacitating illness and looming mortality.

“Even if that happens it only delays the inevitable.” That Twilight held just as intense a dislike for the topic wouldn't make it go away. “Sombra can’t say you’re illegitimate, or that you’re too young, and by the time he can sham a vote through the council that you’re incapable of ruling and he should be made regent he’ll be halfway to exile on the other side of the world.”

“That assumes we don’t wind up in the ground first. Sombra was quite conveniently fast, a little bit too much for my tastes, with his suggestion of this new unicorn for your position when you didn’t show up right at sunrise. It makes me wonder if Fancypants wasn't the only unicorn who had an unpleasant appointment last night.”

“You’re certainly cheerful today Rarity.” Twilight suppressed a shudder at just what might have happened to her had Applejack not come across her when she did. Twilight owed that family more than she already thought she did. “When was the last time you took a day off, designed some completely impractical dress, and tried to stuff me into it?”

“Noblesse Oblige Twilight, Noblesse Oblige.” Rarity’s smile came nowhere near her eyes. “When Sombra is taking so much from the ponies who look up to us I have to give even more to make up for it.”

Rarity had always been generous. That generosity had been a large part of what had led to them becoming friends when Twilight first came to the palace as a student at the Clover the Clever Academy. Sometimes, however, Rarity had a tendency to carry that generosity to self-destructive extremes. Twilight wondered how painful it would prove when Rarity learned that had to take care of herself to have something to give to others.

“Enough with the moping.” Rarity forcibly and visibly dismissed her gloomy thoughts. “You spent all night out there, and I trust it wasn't for nothing. Have you finally come up with some wonderful, miraculous plan to humiliate Sombra?”

“Come up with, no. Coming up with, yes. It’s still a work in progress, and I have to make sure some of my assumptions will actually pan out. Just as long as Sombra doesn't start sending in the pegasus guards every day to haul out earth ponies without their papers I think we’ll have enough time to put it together. I’ll spare you the details until I have them all worked out. It looks like you have more than enough on your desk as it is.”

That was certainly true. The business of monarchy was never ending. And despite not being officially regent, and therefore having very limited official powers, most of that business fell on Rarity while her father was occupied with the business of dying. Soarin had complained about being overworked, next to Rarity’s poor desk his every day was a vacation.

And Twilight had another weighty item to add to the already imposing pile.

“So, Rarity, how have those defensive magic lessons been going? From what you're saying it doesn't sound like Sombra has much respect for the security of the royal body.”

“I’m in no danger of usurping your position, if that’s what you’re asking.” Rarity snorted at the absurdity of the thought. “The books are useful enough when I have time to read them, and when I can work out all those diagrams and figures and numbers to actually cast the spell, and when Sweetie Belle isn't pestering me about some thing or another. I think I would be much farther along if I had another unicorn showing me how it works. Alas, we've been over this, you don’t have enough time for what I’m already asking you to do, and finding another unicorn we trust enough is looking more and more like a chase for a human, or a flutterpony, or some other mythical creature.”

“I know, I know,” Twilight said. “But you have to make this work. I’m betting Fancypants had guards last night, and look what happened to him. Spitfire, Soarin, and the others would die before they let Sombra hurt you, but I’m worried that that’s exactly what Sombra would do, kill them and then walk over their corpses to kill you. And I might not be there, or I might be in just as much trouble as you, so that’s why you need to get a lot better at defending yourself. If you die it’s over, simple as that. Sweetie Belle will need a regent for years before she’s old enough to rule, and I can’t come anywhere near stopping Sombra from taking the job for himself if I’m alone.”

“Now who’s the cheerful one Twilight?” Rarity shot an accusing glance back at her. “For your information, I am making progress. The simple truth, however, is that we can’t all be magical prodigies like yourself. And I rather suspect there are any number of matters you’re farther behind on than you’d care to admit because of how many balls you have to keep in the air at once.”

“I’m sorry,” Twilight sighed. “It’s just that I’m feeling pretty stretched, and hearing about Fancypants gets me thinking about what’s at stake. Things are bad in Dirtville, Rarity. They’re even worse than what I've been telling you before. If Sombra keeps going the way he is we’re looking at a full scale revolt down there within a few years. Putting something like that down would mean stretching our food supplies to the breaking point, not to mention the cost in bits and lives. We can’t let Sombra win. If that means working more than we’re used to, well, sleep is for other ponies. Look, I have one last thing I need to take care of from last night. It’s just something I have to look up in the library to see if I’m on the right track. Once I’m done with that I’ll come back here and we can work on some defensive magic, okay?”

“That sounds lovely. And Twilight, I’m sorry as well. You’re not alone feeling pulled in more directions than any one pony should possibly be able to stretch. And while the thought of my own end is rather discomforting, thinking about Sweetie Belle getting caught up in all this…”

“Getting caught up in what?” Both Twilight and Rarity nearly jumped through the ceiling as a voice from nowhere chimed in.

“Sweetie Belle!” Rarity put a hoof to her beating heart. “Don’t sneak up on us like that, haven’t you learned a thing in all those etiquette classes?”

“Yeah, but what good is talking fancy and knowing which spoon I use first gonna do me without a cutie mark?”

Sweetie Belle’s pout reminded Twilight Sparkle a great deal of Apple Bloom. She couldn't help wonder what it would look like for a unicorn princess to meet an earth pony slum-dweller from Dirtville. The image wasn't hard to conjure up, and it brought a small smile to Twilight’s face. Both fillies still had the innocence of one who hadn't yet grasped how society divided the three tribes. Unfortunately, Twilight couldn't help thinking what would happen once Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom grew old enough to realize that unicorns and earth ponies were supposed to be enemies rather than friends. That made the smile disappear into a tight frown.

“It will help you be a princess of New Unicornia.” Rarity seemed oblivious to Twilight’s mental excursion as she carried on with her younger sister. “A task which has no bearing on cutie marks, I should know that quite well. Finding buried gems is nowhere in the job description of royalty, but everything I learned in those classes has proven its worth time and time again.”

“Sweetie Belle.” Twilight had an idea how to calm down this latest sisterly spat. “Rarity and I are gonna be practicing magic in a little while. I have to go take care of something right now, but if you promise to be quiet and not bother us then you can watch.”

Sweetie Belle’s transformation from over-excited filly to perfectly still was instantaneous. If there was one thing that bothered the filly as much as not having her cutie mark, it was her inability to use magic. Under normal circumstances Twilight would have relished shaping a young mind as her teacher in magic, and it was technically her duty as Court Sorceress. As Rarity had pointed out, though, Twilight already had more than enough tasks in front of her. Teaching Sweetie Belle how to use magic would just have to wait until Sombra was nothing more than a lingering smell around the palace.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Twilight turned to Rarity. “This could take me five minutes to find what I’m looking for, or I could be there all day. Go ahead and start without me if it’s looking like I’ll be in the library awhile.”

Twilight didn’t quite feel like she was stranding Rarity with her little sister as she left, but it was a close thing.

Platinum City had the most comprehensive collection of information in the world. At least that was the case for a unicorn. Pegasi would only ever come here to read a military manual or something related to their job. Earth ponies, well once upon a time there may have been an earth pony or two hired to do some cleaning around the library. The vast majority of them, being illiterate, couldn't have accessed the information even if the doors were thrown wide open.

Twilight sometimes considered the library her own personal fiefdom. Although she was pretty sure the librarians would dispute that claim. It was probably safe to say that she knew the contents of the library better than any pony besides the librarians who staffed it. The cutie mark registry was one of the few sections of the library not among her long list of habitual haunts. It was only useful when one was trying to find out the identity of a pony they didn’t already know, and Twilight knew perfectly well who the banes of her existence were.

It was also, she reflected, increasingly lacking in registering the earth ponies living in the city. The population of Dirtville normally swelled during the winter as earth ponies came in from the country. More and more, though, it seemed like they were staying in the city even without the hope of a job or papers. It was almost like Sombra was herding the earth ponies into Platinum City, but what could he possibly gain from something like that? All Twilight could see was that it would lead to a revolt and earth ponies dying in their thousands culminating in mass starvation among all three tribes. She could imagine no outcome in which Sombra would come out ahead in a situation like that even if he did somehow claim the throne.

Twilight shook her head to drive her morose thoughts from her mind. She was in the library precisely to stop Sombra from doing whatever it was he was trying to do. Thinking about how bad things would be if he won wouldn't do anything to stop him. Finding that mint green unicorn on the other hoof could well prove instrumental to ending Sombra’s power.

That still left Twilight with a rather daunting task. The unicorn registry was regularly purged as unicorns died or moved out of Platinum City. The flipside of that was that the registry was expanded as new unicorns moved in or fillies like Sweetie Belle got their cutie marks. All in all, there were several tens of thousands of unicorns living in Platinum City and Twilight Sparkle had to find one of that multitude in particular.

Twilight immediately discarded the exquisitely gilded book containing the living high nobility. Twilight knew all of them on sight, for better and worse, and the mint green unicorn wasn't among their number. She hesitated briefly before setting aside the larger book containing the lesser nobility. Twilight doubted the mint green unicorn was one of them. Unicorn nobles were the ones most closely wed to the idea of unicorn supremacy, imagining one of them daring Dirtville during a riot to meet with an earth pony strained credulity. On the other hoof, Twilight didn’t know all of the lesser nobility by a long shot, so she couldn't discount the possibility, however remote.

That left the volumes containing unicorn commoners. Twilight hesitated yet again before setting aside the first volume. The registry was sorted by date of cutie mark registration. The first volume contained the oldest ponies who had lived in Platinum City the longest. Twilight hadn't gotten a terribly clear look at the mint green unicorn, but she was pretty certain that her quarry was nowhere near Granny Smith in age.

The second volume cracked open. There was always the possibility that the mint green unicorn was newly arrived to Platinum City and was in one of the latter two volumes, but Twilight didn’t think that a relationship could be built up to the point where a unicorn would go into Dirtville without some years behind it.

Twilight was an exceptionally fast reader, and she remembered exactly what cutie mark she was looking for. It still took her over an hour before she found what she was looking for. Even then, she almost flipped past it from sheer force of momentum.

“Lyra Heartstrings.” Twilight muttered to herself. Lyra was listed as owning a musical repair shop in the lower unicorn part of the city. That didn’t explain why she would be visiting Dirtville, but at least Twilight finally knew who to ask. “And look, we both went to the Clover the Clever Academy, I’d say it’s time for a class reunion.”

Comments

[NovariusKamron]

This is so good. More please!

[Starlight Nova]

Have you ever considered submitting this story to Equestria Daily? You can find out how to do so here.

[Tortfeasor]

3695042

I took a short break from typing away at the next chapter to say that's exactly what I'm doing!

3696590

The thought has crossed my mind on numerous occasions. But I've heard a great many things to the effect that the EqD pre-readers are a bunch of autocratic, arbitrary persons who draw reasons they should reject your story out of a hat without ever reading it.

[Alchemystudent]

Yea, LYra!

[Alchemystudent]

One thing that makes this story work is that the girls are still themselves, albeit in differen circumstances.