Chapter 1: A Dark World
Dog Years: Crushing Opposition
I retracted my bloodied fist. It was leaking with the red, vital liquid of all living things. The ruby color of it danced beneath the flickering light of the torchlight.
"Say that again, you fuck. Repeat it and I'll tear out those fangs." I growled and took a hold of the Earth Boar's tusk. The beast squealed and thrashed some more, but he was weak now. I had been pummeling his face and stomach for the past minutes without stopping, and through all the effort he'd put into the chase at first, then the brief fight in his home's front door, and the squealing and begging that came afterwards he was probably exhausted beyond further resistance. The Earth Boar whimpered, beady black eyes looking around the room for anything that could save his scrawny ass.
Finally, it belched out a few words in that horrible language they use. Putrid breath escaped its maw and spittle flew about. It spoke as fast as he could, and I listened.
"Heh, story's changed a bit now, hasn't it? Good. So where do I find him?" I said and pressed down on his left tusk with all my weight. The Earth Boar screeched and squealed like nothing human, and then I stopped. He blabbered some more and whimpered; his hideous snorts and regurgitating sputters telling me all I needed to know.
"What do you think?" I looked up at Prancer, my neighbor. The Diamond Dog arched an eyebrow, or whatever they call their brows, and shrugged.
"I think it's a bloody blessing we can understand the bugger without needing to learn his fucking language." Prancer said. He gently kicked the Earth Boar's head and snorted. "Let's go, Bald. I'm hungry, we've been chasing this pig all morning, and sun's rising soon. I'd rather not be found in the Boar Slums when the Equines start on their patrols."
I nodded and stood up. The Earth Boar sobbed and curled up, hugging his hairy legs to his fat stomach. I felt my own belly lurch.
"Say, we could take him down home for dinner." I found myself saying before I realized my mouth was open. "It's been a damn long time since we last had any meat." The Earth Boar squealed and backed away further against the corner of his living room; a disgusting, moldy, five-by-five mud square with a small wooden table in the middle of it and a single window on the far end of it.
"Not funny, Bald. We can't start on that shit again so soon." Prancer said, looking around the room for anything of value. "The guards nearly found the last Earth Boar we took, and even then it was a whole week of them searching the place up and down, breaking doors, smashing windows. You remember."
"I guess that's true." I said, and stroked my mustache. It was recomforting, in a way. "So we're stuck with the usual then?" I turned around and walked out of the room. Prancer followed me after turning a table over and dropping a vase with a single flower inside it. The flower seemed well-cared for, and the Earth Boar crawled towards it hurriedly as it fell.
Prancer stopped me and pointed at the Earth Boar.
"Look it, Bald." He said, as the beast sobbed and pushed the earth together into a small mound inside his cupped hands; he tried to fix the flower. Its stem had snapped. "Earth Boar culture-shit. They get a magic flower when one o' their ilk hits the grave, I hear."
"And?" I asked, arching an eyebrow. "Why's it matter?"
"Matters none." Prancer said. "Just thought I'd educate you in the finer bits of rich Earth Boar culture-shit."
I laughed, and Prancer did too.
Torchlight illuminated our path. The Boar Slums were quiet and desolate, and every street we entered was as empty as the last one. The way was littered in waste and trash. Flies flew about and feasted; their buzzing was incessant.
"Ain't it a bit dangerous to walk these streets like this?" I asked Prancer as we turned a corner and caught a glimpse of a young Earth Boar clique loitering about in an alley opposite of us.
"Are you serious? We just battered some idiot bloody and you're scared of being robbed?" Prancer said and laughed. "That's some seriously idiotic shit right there."
"Shut it. You know what I mean." One of the Earth Boars caught my glances and spat. "We're not exactly loved around here; Diamond Dog or Human."
"I know." He scratched his nose and snorted. "Don't worry about it. These pigs won't do shit to their betters. Something about their religion keeps them from using the tusks Mother Earth gave 'em."
"They use them well enough." I said and glanced at my left hand. The skin was dark, dirty, scarred, and the smallest finger was missing. "If not the tusks, at least they know their way around hammers and chisels."
"Aye, sorry about that. Should have warned you not to trust them in your first day here in Equestria."
I nodded and we turned left. The road led us down to the opening of a dark, damp tunnel that stank of wet dog and piss. Prancer made a face and I covered my nose. After the comparatively clean Boar Slums, Dog Dive was a drainage pipe. The tunnel ran down as far deep as the massive population of immigrant Diamond Dogs needed it to run to accommodate them all.
"Lovely." I said. "Home sweet home."
"You get used to it after a few years." Prancer said, and walked down. "Place stinks. Overpopulated, crowded, unclean, and every day more bitches pop out a new litter to keep on filling the Dive. It'll just keep on going down, made deeper by every generation until it hits the center of the world and a black void sucks us all into oblivion."
"Sweet thoughts." I cracked my neck and followed Prancer deeper into Dog Dive.
Pups, bitches and dogs were out and about as we went into the Dive. Stalls were already busy despite it being so early in the morning. Not that the Diamond Dogs cared, of course. Deep inside the Dive, you could never tell when it was day or night. If you had to shit, you shat; if you were bored, you went out to break the calm; if you needed a fuck, you visited the brothel, and if you were hungry, you went to the market. Life was dictated by needs and the ability to satisfy them. Time was as relative and useless as ever in the Dive. You did what you needed to do when you needed to do it. No more.
Prancer led the way through the crowds of Diamond Dogs that swarmed the single tunnel that was the Dog Dive. No carriages could be seen, as it was not a place to visit if you were wealthy. The Dive was a place for the forgotten.
"Where do you want to eat then?" Prancer asked as we shoved our way through the crowds and into the market. "I have a craving for some of Olly's soup."
I shrugged and started to speak, when a bitch walked up to us and smiled.
"Need a fuck?" She asked. "You can ride me all the way to the Crystal Empire for a few silvers." She was shaking slightly and tears matted the fur around her eyes. Her smile was shaky, and some bruises could be seen beneath the numerous balding patches of hair that covered her body.
Prancer laughed and moved on. The bitch looked at me and tried to speak, but I walked away. I spat and shoved some more dogs to the side as I followed Prancer deeper into the market.
"What, won't you go back there and ride her all the way to the Crystal Empire?" Prancer howled with laughter as we took a seat inside Olly's Diner. "I would have done it myself, but did you see the bitch? Cheaper whore you won't find even in the Z Quarter."
"I don't fuck dogs, or any other animal for that matter." I smirked. "Don't be too offended. Might be the Equines have it partially right after all. You know, aside from not knowing they are animals themselves."
Prancer shot me a look and stopped laughing.
"Careful there, Bald. Some dogs might not take too kindly to those words." He waved at a waitress. "Either way, fuck the Equines. On that we can agree."
The waitress arrived, fumbling with a tray overflowing with bowls full to the brim with dark brown stuff that stank of fish but came from who-knows-where. She didn't try to smile, just nodded at us.
"Soup," Prancer said. "and a view of that tail." He laughed and spanked her ass. The waitress growled at him and walked off. Prancer laughed harder.
"Stop that shit. They'll spit a glob on our food." I said. Prancer chuckled some and ran a claw over the wooden surface of the table, leaving a deep gash on it.
"They won't. They know my name, and yours too." He said, smiling.
"Mine? What's my name got to do with anything?" I asked and edged closer.
"Oh? Don't you remember? Last week, when that Earth Boar clan burst into the Dive's smithy and took a few tools; who was it that bashed in that white one's snout?"
"So what? Buggers weren't supposed to be there, I was bored, they'd shoved Kelly down the stairs, and I had a hammer handy. Why not?"
Prancer smiled wider. "That was a show of force, Bald. Not against anyone either. That white Earth Boar was the deviant son of two of the Earth Boar's most important clans in the Boar Slums. No simple shit, I tell you. You bashed in the skull of a fucking prince!"
"Fuck you." I said and leaned back on my chair. "The fuck's it matter? Why'd that make me important? Earth Boars ain't worth the piss in the streets."
"Shit's what they want you to think. Way I hear it, the Earth Boars have been talking to the Equines. They've been arranging some special treatment." Prancer nodded down the length of the Dive. It moved on deeper and deeper into the darkness. Seemingly forever. "The Earth Boars want the Dive, I hear. That white prince you pummeled into an early grave wasn't just messing around either. Heard he was looking for tools to do some digging."
"Digging? What for?"
A different waitress walked over to us before Prancer could reply.
"Good morning, dears! Is everything alright for you?" She asked, smiling sweetly. Prancer chuckled and groped her ass while she set up the table and set down the trays with soup. She smiled and giggled through it all. "Can I bring you anything else?"
"Nah, but I'd like a few hours of your time later today." Prancer said.
The waitress smiled and walked away without another word.
"See? Not a drop of spit on this. Owner's a friend." Prancer took the bowl between his claws and drank from it. I used the spoon.
"Back to the issue, Prancer."
"Ah, yes." The Diamond Dog wiped his snout with his arm. "Way I hear it, the pigs have been using Curs, Mongrels, and Mutts to do some exploration deep in the tunnels of the Dive. Well, seems that despite everyone's best efforts to cull the population of Undesirables amid our race, they gathered near five-hundred of the degenerates to do the digging."
"Sounds like a pain. Don't you lead the effort to get rid of them?" I asked between spoonfuls of soup.
"Yes, well, I try." Prancer took another deep swallow of soup and sighed contently afterwards. "The things keep being raised by dumb bitches though. They hide the things and then let them run off into the surface or deeper into the tunnels, where they hide and continue breeding. Anyway, the thing is, they found something."
Prancer produced a small piece of cloth with words written on it in deep, black ink. I took it into my hands and arched my eyebrows.
"How trustworthy's the guy who gave you this?"
"Plenty." Prancer took the cloth back and hid it amid his clothes. "Point is, Bald, that we will be getting an influx of Changeling workers to dig it out unless we do something. The Earth Boars will be moving earth and sky to get their filthy tusks all over this, and they'll try to coax the Equines into believing them unless we do something about it."
Prancer leaned closer and tapped the table to accentuate his words.
"They'll drive us out of our homes." Tap! "They'll mow down anyone who resists." Tap! "They'll force us out to starve and die in the open, surrounded by all the other species that hate us as much as we hate them." Tap! "They'll kill us off, Bald. Down to the last one of us. Nothing will be left after their greed moves in. The Equines won't doubt it twice to get a good cut of the Earth Boars' loot."
"Your boy will die too, and you know it."
Tap!
I stared at Prancer without moving. He leaned back and finished his soup, but I had lost my appetite.
"Let's go." He said eventually, and we walked out of the diner. No one raised a claw at us, even if we did not pay. Prancer was right. The world around me was changing. Dogs shot looks at me now, that I hadn't seen before. Only Human in Equestria. Only Human in the Dive.
"Remember when you first arrived at Equinox, Bald?" Prancer asked after a while.
"Yes." I replied. Dark days of my past. I had arrived at Equinox, the only large city in Equestria, just as the great immigration was ending. A blight caused by the Windigos of old Equine lands had devastated the Old Continent and forced entire civilizations and species to abandon it. The Equines founded Equestria, and so many lost species sought refuge with them.
"You were afraid and lost. The Equines did not help you. They only threw you into this slum along with the rest of us who came seeking their aid after their blight destroyed our homes in the Old Continent." Prancer said as we moved deeper into the Dive, towards our home. "We took you in, Bald. We gave you shelter, food, and helped you expecting nothing in exchange."
"You did."
"You even found a son amid our kin, Bald. That little pup you found in that dark alley, abandoned by some bitch or another. We gave you a family where the Equines gave you nothing but shit and dirt."
We approached the caves and tunnel systems we had made our lairs, and Prancer waved goodbye.
"We're your family, Bald. That fat fuck we just took down this morning gave us a good name to track for you to get a few more coins, but will they help you any when the Earth Boars and the Equines drag you and yours out of the Dive and throw you into the streets? No they won't, Bald. You know it. I know it. We need to defend what is ours."
I turned to enter my home, but Prancer took my arm with his claws. I turned to look at him.
"It's a dark world, Bald. Darkness belongs to those who can see through it."
Shev was a small, scrawny pup. He was playing with some rocks and twigs by the fire as I entered the room.
"Back." I said, and Shev turned to look at me. His eyes stuck on me for a moment, but then he returned to his games. I walked past him and sat down. In truth, I was not meant to be a father. I knew nothing of it. I sat and stared at the ceiling for a while, until sleep overtook me. Shev played by himself.
In my head, Prancer's words resonated endlessly.
"It's a dark world, Bald. Darkness belongs to those who can see through it."
A dark world. That it was, but could I see through it? Did I want to?
The shimmering light of the torch faded away as my eyes closed. I slept. The dark world around me could wait for a few hours.
