Hearth's Warming Evil

by Tortfeasor

Sins of the Father

Hearth’s Warming Evil

Disclaimer: Dear Princess Celestia, today I learned that I don’t own My Little Pony.

Chapter Eight: Sins of the Father

Twilight Sparkle heaved a sigh. She dearly loved her big brother, but did he have to use that nickname where there were hundreds of ponies around to hear? Annoying as it was, Twilight considered her foalhood nickname a small price to pay for the knowledge that she was safe in Ponyville. She’d done more than enough desperate fleeing in the past few days to last her the rest of her life.

“Took you guys long enough!” Rainbow Dash lofted from the walls to fly towards them. “What’d you do, take the scenic route?”

“Not really.” Pinkie Pie jumped in front of Rainbow Dash. “That castle was kinda scenic, but we only stopped there because so many ponies were starting to get all chilly willy. The rest of it was just snow, and snow, and some more snow, oh, and did I mention we saw some snow?”

“Um, yeah.” Rainbow Dash, like most ponies, clearly didn’t know what to make of Pinkie Pie.

“It’s good to see you made it.” Twilight decided to come to Rainbow Dash’s rescue. “Did you have any trouble?”

Rainbow Dash smirked. “Me? Trouble? As if. Sombra had already sent a pony of his own, but after I showed your brother your letters she wound up in the dungeons.”

Rarity snorted in a most un-princess like fashion. “Well, if we needed any more proof that Sombra launched an organized coup I’d say we just got it.”

“Twilight!” The pony in question turned just in time to be nearly tackled by her brother. “I’m so glad to see you. I didn’t know what to do with myself when that pony showed up from Platinum City saying you were dead. Mom and dad would kill me if they knew I’d let you get hurt.”

Twilight couldn't quite hold in a chuckle. “It’ll take more than an insane unicorn using unimaginably powerful dark magic to do me in. I just hope mom and dad don’t think they have to come back from wherever it is they took that archaeological dig team. By the way, meet Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy. Lyra and Bon Bon are bringing up the rear and making sure we don’t leave anyone behind.”

“Ah,” Shining Armor started as he realized just who he’d been ignoring. “Your Highness, it’s an honor to have you here. I wish it was under better circumstances, but whatever Ponyville can do to help is yours to use.”

“A warm meal and a bed for all these ponies would be worth more than all the bits in the world,” Rarity said. “Twilight, why don’t you take your brother and the others to the castle while I stay here and make sure all these ponies get into town.”

“Um, I think Lyra and Bon Bon have that pretty well covered.” Twilight pointed to the end of the line where the two ponies in question were keeping the mass of ponies from aimlessly milling about. ”Besides, don’t you want to be there when I tell Shining Armor and Rainbow Dash what I found in Clover’s journal? And then we can get you a warm meal and into bed.”

Shining Armor gave Twilight a suspicious look as he raised a hoof in some sort of signal. “Um, right. Anyways, it’s a good thing you sent Rainbow Dash ahead. It gave us some time to start thinking about where we’re going to shove three hundred new ponies. They’ll be in pretty tight quarters until we can get them out to the farms, but it sounds like the worst we have here is still going to be a big step up for them.”

Twilight didn’t miss the pained look that crossed Rarity’s face. Travelling with the earth ponies and getting among them had done something to Rarity. Rarity was normally eager to give of herself to any pony who needed it, but lately her generosity seemed to be morphing into some sort of self-destructive martyrdom complex. It was as if the guilt of a thousand years and more of mistreating earth ponies had come crashing down on Rarity all at once.

The others, unsurprisingly, didn’t know Rarity nearly well enough to pick up on the small cues that caused Twilight such alarm. Twilight forced herself to shove down her urge to give Rarity a good talking to. They were safe for the time being, and after she’d brought Rainbow Dash and her brother up to speed on her plan she would have plenty of time to hunt Rarity down and get to the bottom of what was wrong with her.

Getting three hundred ponies inside Ponyville took not nearly as long as Twilight had feared. As she watched the flow Twilight let herself indulge in a bit of pride for her brother at organizing such a feat on such short notice. She couldn't help noticing, however, just how easily Shining Armor accepted the closeness with which Lyra and Bon Bon worked together. It still pushed against an ever diminishing part of Twilight’s brain to see a unicorn treating an earth pony as an equal.

“Okay,” Shining Armor said as the last ponies left for their temporary homes, “let’s go the castle and hear this great plan you've come up with, little sis.”

Twilight rolled her eyes as she followed Shining Armor. Sure he was probably the only pony who could get away with calling her something like that, but did he have to enjoy it so much?

“Hehehehehe, Twiley.”

Twilight turned her most furious glare only to see it bounce of Rainbow Dash’s mischief filled smirk. Oh, this was not going to end well.

It didn’t take the group long at all to reach the castle at the center of Ponyville. Apparently, Shining Armor had already told someone to gather together a number of chairs in a meeting room for their use.

“Alright,” Twilight began once everyone had taken a seat. “I think I've found a way in Clover the Clever’s journal to beat Sombra. Before she was assassinated along with Princess Platinum, I think they were working on a way to seal the Wendigos once and for all and end the winter.”

Rainbow Dash and Shining Armor were only two ponies, so their reaction wasn't quite so explosive as when Twilight had spoken to a larger group, but it wasn't for lack of trying.

“That’s great!” Shining Armor regained speech first. “So when do the fireworks go off?”

Twilight Sparkle sighed. “That’s the thing. This is, without a doubt, the most complex spell I've ever seen. Basically, Clover the Clever planned to use the innate magic of all three tribes working together in harmony to wall the Wendigos off from our world. But for a unicorn to harness pegasus or earth pony magic, let alone do anything with it, is already a challenge for even the most talented unicorns. Harnessing both at once has always been thought impossible, even if you could get a willing earth pony, and then I'll have to cast the spell. So once I get some food and sleep I’m pretty much going to lock myself in a room with Clover’s journal and figure this all out.”

“Well,” Shining Armor said, “I can give you plenty of time here in Ponyville, but I don’t know about the rest of New Unicornia. Sombra’s messenger said that he’s already ordered mass roundups of earth ponies in Platinum City as well as putting unicorns who are ‘soft on the traitors’ under house arrest. I don’t know about you, but that sounds to me like every pony in Platinum City who might disagree with Sombra and can do something about it. Once it gets out that Her Highness is still alive, and I don’t see how it won’t, I think the only way it ends is with either Sombra or us dead, and that means civil war.”

Twilight knew Rarity was descending further into her own personal gloom before a single word had left her mouth.

“We’ve trapped nearly a third of our population in slavery for the simple reason that they were born with neither horns nor wings. Sombra and far too many ponies would rather see New Unicornia rent by fire and war than give up those slaves. They either don’t know or don't care that the destruction of the earth ponies in New Unicornia will free the Wendigos and doom us all to starvation in ceaseless winter. Maybe it’s no more than we deserve. For a thousand years and more we've wrung our bread from the sweat and blood of other ponies. Maybe Celestia and Luna really are out there, watching us. And maybe this war will be no more than their judgement on us, the woe due to us for perpetuating such abhorrent acts. Twilight, I hope that your plan will end this quickly. Yet, if we have to repay the blood wealth of a thousand years of unrequited toil, and if every drop of earth pony blood drawn over those thousand years must be repaid by our blood… Well, I can only say that either Celestia and Luna are indeed just Goddesses, or that we've reaped nothing more than what we've sown.”

Rarity’s earlier actions had worried Twilight, but had gone unnoticed by the others. Rarity’s speech seemed to have caught the attention of the others, and it had brought Twilight to the verge of panic wondering what her friend might do next.

“Rarity,” Twilight knew that she was the only one who could start pulling Rarity back from the abyss, she fervently hoped the others would jump in and help. “Listen, a lot of ponies have made a lot of mistakes going back a long way. That doesn't have to include you. I know you saw Sombra, so you know that he’s completely crazy. Whatever he does, and whatever the ponies who follow him do, it isn't your fault. I know I told you this before, but I can’t do this without you. When all this is over we’re going to have a lot of things to fix. But if you lose yourself now, then Sombra is the only one who wins.”

“What is there to lose Twilight? A spoiled, whiny dress-maker playing at princess who couldn't even stop a crazy pony from taking her kingdom away from her. I’ll only hold you all back, so let me at least be remembered for doing what I loved most. The ponies who came with us seem to find some hope when I’m out there helping them. If I’m going to be worthless as a princess I can at least end up as a pony who tried to help others.”

Rarity suddenly found herself draped by an excitable Pinkie Pie. “It’s okay! So what if you made some mistakes? I mean we all mess up, and what are friends for if not to forgive you? So I forgive you!”

“I don’t know if I’d go so far as to say ‘friends.’” Applejack pulled Pinkie Pie off Rarity’s back. “But look, I know I've made it pretty clear that I think you've made mistakes of your own, and some pretty big ones at that. Thing is, no one’s perfect, and I still think I was right when I said that you’re the best thing us earth ponies have seen in a long time. So if you wanna burn yourself up in some blaze of glory, fine. But that don’t sound much like the princess who waded into that pony’s guts to save my neck. I think that princess would say that what’s done is done, and she’d be thinking about how she can end this winter and stop that varmint Sombra.”

“But it’s all my fault.” Rarity blubbered with tears pooling in her eyes.

“No, it ain't. It'll only be your fault when you give up.” Applejack, an earth pony from the poorest part of Dirtville wrapped the Unicorn Princess in a hug as the floodgates opened.

“You, uh, you know some weird ponies.” Shining Armor walked over and whispered to Twilight as Rarity continued to sob into Applejack’s arms.

“Rarity’s been under a lot of stress. Her father’s dead, I’m not saying where her sister is, and now she’s staring down a civil war with a genocidal maniac. But, yeah, they’re weird, and, strange as it might sound, I wouldn't have it any other way.”

“So, Rainbow Dash was telling me that you think Sombra has some crazy plan to become God or something like that,” Shining Armor said.

“Something like that,” Twilight replied. “You know that life energy is incredibly powerful, right. Well I think Sombra is killing all the earth ponies who go into those Penal Colonies of his and using the energy to try and change himself into… something. When I fought him back in Platinum City he had abilities that no normal pony could possibly have. I don’t know if he could actually make himself into God or anything like that, but he thinks he can, and he’ll keep killing earth ponies until we stop him, or until the Wendigos get loose and kill us all.”

Shining Armor looked past Twilight to see Rarity’s tears finally drying up. “Well, before we get some food into you there’s probably one last thing you’re going to want to do. Sombra’s messenger is a pegasus called Masquerade, she’s down in the dungeons and I think you probably have few questions for her.”

--

“I love this place! I love it, I love it I loveitloveitloveitloveitloveitloveitloveitloveitloveitloveit!”

Lyra was bouncing about from place to place like a child on a sugar high. A rather impressive feat considering how tired she’d been when they’d arrived at Ponyville. Bon Bon was content to let Lyra do the impulsive tourist thing. Though, truth be told, she felt more than a little like joining in.

“Come on Lyra.” Bon Bon chided without really meaning it. “Ponyville’s not going anywhere, and now that we’re here, neither are we. Those nice ponies at the gates said that they've set up food and beds for all of us, and I for one would just about kill for either of those right about now.”

“Oh all right.” Lyra whined. “It’s just so exciting here. I've never been out of Platinum City before now and I want to see everything I can!”

It was an easy thing to tell the Ponyville locals from the newcomers arrived from Platinum City. Not only did the ponies from Platinum City gawk like the tourists they were, but the local earth ponies acted entirely different. They almost entirely lacked the downtrodden look of their city counterparts, and they had no hesitation to speak to or be spoken to by pegasi and even unicorns.

The ponies from Platinum City also looked as starved as they were, so the prospect of a good meal drew them like moths to a flame. If the local ponies providing food thought anything strange about a unicorn being among the tired ponies lining up for a plate of simple grains they kept it to themselves. The ponies lining up for food had long since become accustomed to seeing Lyra among them and had long since ceased to comment at her walking among them.

“This food is amazing.” Lyra said around a mouthful of roasted oats.

“That’s because you’re so hungry.” Bon Bon retained enough manners to swallow before speaking. “But yeah, nothing better than not eating for awhile to make any food taste good. I wonder what Pinkie Pie and the others who went to the castle are having.”

“Probably some huge feast.” Lyra replied with the certainty of a born cynic about such things. “Way it always goes, shack up with the rich and powerful, and you get their table scraps.”

“I don’t know Lyra.” Bon Bon was used to Lyra’s mercurial nature. “Whatever scheme it was that Twilight Sparkle was cooking up, it sounded pretty dangerous. If that’s the price of having a huge feast, then I’m glad to say that my adventuring days are over. All these ponies are going to have a plenty hard enough time just settling in here as it is.”

“And they’re all going to be coming to you whenever they need help.” Lyra smiled. “Face it, you’re a celebrity to all these ponies.”

“Me?” Bon Bon couldn't hold in her laugh. “You’re the one they’re going to put in the history books. I’m just an earth pony who happened to know a couple of important ponies. You, Twilight Sparkle, and Rarity are the ones who are going to remake this country. I mean just listen to them talk. The Crown Princess of New Unicornia walked with them, suffered with them, and got them through it all. If you weren't so busy poking your nose in everything you saw, you’d have heard all the ponies we came here with telling everyone they met how great they think Rarity is.”

“How can you say that Bon Bon? We’re the ones who made you and all these other ponies have to flee through a blizzard. Don’t get me wrong, I wake up every morning and feel lucky I met you, but ponies like me have spent a very long time doing some very, very bad things to ponies like you.”

“Ponies like you,” Bon Bon poked Lyra with a hoof, “but not you. I should know better than just about anyone else that a horn or wings doesn't mean a thing. All those ponies when we first met were total jerks, but you've got a horn, and you’re the nicest pony I've ever met. So yeah, a lot of unicorns have done a lot of bad things to a lot of earth ponies, and that includes me. But you've only ever tried to help me out, so tell me Lyra Heartstrings, why should I hate you?”

Lyra sat in silence for nearly a full minute before heaving a sigh.

“Okay, I admit it. You’re definitely the smart one. How do you make everything seem so easy?”

“It’s not easy,” Bon Bon grumbled her answer. “There are an awful lot of ponies who would be perfectly willing to hate any earth pony or unicorn just because of what some other earth pony or unicorn did. Like I said, Twilight Sparkle came up with a very dangerous scheme. Even if they hate each other, there are a lot of ponies who would work together to keep that hate going, and those ponies up in the castle are about to get in their way.”

“Well,” Lyra raised her simple pewter mug of water, “all the best to them, but here’s to our adventuring days being over.”

--

Twilight Sparkle really, really wanted to eat something and then fling herself into bed. Every step she took towards the dungeon and away from food and sleep produced a near mutiny from her body. Just as she neared the door down to the dungeon her stomach finally rebelled with a growl probably heard back in Platinum City.

Shining Armor seemed to feel no pity whatsoever for her as he laughed deep and long. “ And mom and dad always used to say that I was the big eater. Don’t worry Twilight. It’s just one prisoner down there, we’ll see if she knows anything and then you can eat.”

Twilight grumbled several things under her breath that she thought it best the others not able to hear too clearly. “Just open the door already.”

Shining Armor’s horn lit, the door squeaked in its frame, and it stayed put. More effort opened it a little more, but it wasn’t until Shining Armor pulled with his hooves as well that the door finally popped open.

“Sorry,” he picked himself up from where he’d sprawled on the floor. “We don’t use the dungeon very often, but I guess I need to remind the gaolers to do some basic maintenance at least.”

“Why’s that?” Twilight asked. “I know Ponyville is a lot smaller than Platinum City, but you have to have some ponies get thrown in jail every so often.”

“Not very,” Shining Armor said as the group started down the stairs. “To the creatures in the Everfree Forest, unicorn, pegasus, and earth pony all mean the same thing, snack. We have to let earth ponies guard the walls to keep us all safe. Once you've done that, a lot of things that are probably par for the course in Platinum City just won't work here any more. Sure the occasional pony will get drunk and do something stupid every now and then, but it’s just as likely to be a unicorn or a pegasus as an earth pony.”

“Sounds like quite the place to be.” Applejack had long since lost whatever compunctions she might have had about speaking directly to unicorns. “Think I might move me and mine when all this is over.”

“We’ll be glad for the help.” Shining Armor seemed just as willing to ignore all the pesky legal formalities involved in relocating earth ponies. “Cutting back the forest is hard work. All those ponies you brought are going to let us bring a lot of new land under cultivation. But that’s for later, ladies, meet Masquerade.”

“If it isn't the bitch queen and her whore.” Masquerade leaned idly against the wall of her cell. “Come to laugh at me? Well enjoy it, because when King Sombra ascends to Godhood the first thing he’ll do is make you all die the slow, horrible deaths you deserve.”

Rarity walked up to the iron bars. “Tell me, why shouldn't I send you to meet your ‘God’ right now? It sounds to me like you've just admitted to treason, and I’m not in a very forgiving mood right about now.”

“Please do.” Masquerade pushed off the wall to press her face against the bars. “If I have to choose between dying and living in a world where the heirs of Commander Hurricane degenerate themselves by mixing their blood with filthy earth ponies then I’d rather get off while it’s still a world worth living in. You bunch of Maremounts can bring about the end of everything good in pony society, but I don’t plan on being there to see it.”

Rainbow Dash bristled at the insult, but possessed enough discipline to stay put when Rarity raised a hoof.

“Good for you,” Rarity said, “what if I told you that your glorious Sombra’s plan to exterminate the earth ponies will lead to the extinction of all pony-kind? Because that’s exactly what will happen. The Wendigos will get loose from their prison and your ‘pure’ society of pegasi and unicorns will starve.”

Masquerade rolled her eyes. “What part of Godhood didn’t get through that thick skull of yours? King Sombra will have more than enough power to hold the Wendigos at bay. Then all you ponies who think the earth ponies have it soooo tough can find out first hoof by taking their places as slaves to your betters.”

“I think I know what I’m going to do you to.” Rarity smirked rather unpleasantly. “I’m going to sentence you to live. I sentence you to see us succeed and build a better world, to see us prove everything you believe in wrong, to see that what makes ponies good isn't a horn or wings, but what’s inside. Then, and only then, will you get to go meet your ‘God’ in the lowest pits of Tartarus. And do please tell him just how much of a failure he was when you get there.”

“You go to Tartarus first!” Masquerade shoved the apparently broken cell door open. The door was just wide enough to wedge itself to the wall on the other side of the narrow corridor, blocking the helpless Rarity and her would be assassin from the others.

Rarity, however, turned out once more to be anything but helpless. Masquerade dove at her, intent on killing with her bare hooves, only to be struck in the neck with the wooden handle of the axe Rarity had carried since she'd taken it on their way to Ponyville.

“I rather think I won’t.” Rarity used her axe to trip a gasping Masquerade. Then, in macabre irony, she used the exact same attack that the pegasus commander had attempted on Applejack. The edge of the axe buried itself almost all the way through Masquerade’s chest.

“...k you.” Masquerade managed to cough around bloody froth before she found out whether or not she was bound for Tartarus.

The others managed at that point to throw the cell door away from the wall and rushed to Rarity.

“I’m going to have a long talk with the ponies in charge of the dungeon.” All traces of cheer and humor were absent from Shining Armor’s voice. “Then I’m going to find some new ponies to be in charge of the dungeon.”

“Are you okay Rarity.” Twilight frantically looked her friend up and down for any sign that Masquerade might have harmed her.

“I’m quite fine.” Rarity swept the blood off her axe along Masquerade’s leg before putting it back through the loop she’d hung it on. “But I fear it will take forever to get this blood out of my coat, especially without my normal suite of products to work with.”

“She’s fine.” Twilight heaved a sigh of relief that seemed to deflate the others as well. “I think I’m quite done with excitement for the day, let’s go get some food and then get into bed.”

They walked back up the stairs, at the top Shining Armor fixed a hapless guard with a glare and told him to remove Masquerade’s body and then find the head gaoler.

Twilight was looking forward to the meal with an anticipation most ponies reserved for the birth of a child, unfortunately a pony she suspected to be in charge of the kitchens was standing in front of the door back to the meeting room with a nervous look on her face.

“My lord,” she stuttered as they approached, “I’m afraid there’s a problem with the meal.”

“It doesn't matter if it got cold.” Shining Armor waved a hoof. “We spent longer than we planned in the dungeon, and I don’t think any of us will care very much.”

“That’s… that’s not it.” The chef wrung a napkin with apparent worry. “It… the meal… was poisoned. One of the message running boys, Featherweight I believe he was called, snuck a bite off your plate. He fell to the ground choking and kicking. Before we could do anything he was foaming at the mouth, and then he went very still. I think it may have been that pegasus you sent to the dungeons. Some ponies told me they saw her walking through the kitchens shortly before you had her arrested.”

Shining Armor began to curse with considerable ingenuity.

“So, Twilight.” Rarity leaned in to whisper. “Is that where you learned to be so creative with your language?”

--

The throne room in Platinum City had undergone quite the renovation despite only having been under new management for a few days. Gone were the gleaming white marble tiles, the torches in bright, mirrored recesses, and the gilt furniture that gleamed in the bright light. In their places were fires in low set braziers that hardly managed to cast shadows, crystals jutting up from the floor that could easily impale at a single misstep, and, of course, King Sombra himself.

She approved. Power didn’t come from silly things like accommodation, respect, and compromise. Power came from fear, mystery, and destroying anyone who would dare to so much as think about challenging that power.

“Love what you've done with the place. Much better than those fools who used to run it. So who needs to die?”

Sombra had never been much for words, his recent transformation seemed to have only cut his daily speech quota. A single crystal grew from the ground, in it was a picture of two ponies.

“Kill.” Even for one as tight-lipped as Sombra, nothing more needed saying.

“With pleasure.” She bowed and left the palace with a terrible smile on her face.

Comments

[Alchemystudent]

The ease with wich our team makes it to Ponyvillle is a testiment to how the two different worlds act