Chapter Eight

Deep In The Pit

“Equus!” yelled Twilight. “Stay close to me!”

I could barely hear her over the cacophony of thousands of insect wings. The grey swarm had knocked half of us to the ground. One bug tried to grab me, but I punched him. Another wrapped his hole-filled front legs around my barrel, but Pinkie Pie swung her wheelchair like a mace and swatted the creature away.

Twilight and Rarity used their unicorn magic to blast away a few of the attackers. Fluttershy was the first to get snatched and pulled into the cave. Spike punched one insect with his brass knuckles so hard, the creature’s head snapped with a loud crack.

Vinyl was holding her own by using her unicorn magic to spin her rope chainsaw fast enough to slice in half several opponents. Octavia stayed close to her lover’s side, bucking away the bugs Vinyl missed.

Applejack shot a few of the bugs with her Element, but caused more damage by bucking any that came up behind her into the mountain. Some of her attackers got embedded in the rocks.

In spite of all those efforts, we were outmatched. Pinkie was knocked away as five grey insects grabbed me at once and lifted me off the ground. I struggled to escape, but several arms held me so tight, I could barely breath.

Past the waves of bugs, I could see the cave getting closer.

And then my abductors started punching me.

No, something was hitting them. I craned my head around towards the new assault and saw several black bugs pulling the grey ones away from me. A black one said to his companions, “Take him back to base!”

“Equus!” Twilight shouted. “I can’t see you! Say something!”

I could barely hear myself over all the racket the swarm was making. Waving my legs around was about all I could do since I was still so high off the ground.

“There he is!” cried Rarity. She fired a beam of blue magic at the black bugs that surrounded me. They screamed as they let me go.

Rarity gripped me in her magic, pulling me back to the group.

Then a dozen grey bugs slammed into her, knocking her out. I hit the sand with a teeth-jarring thud. I looked around, shaking my head to clear my vision. Several black bugs were fighting alongside my friends, much to their surprise.

Something landed on my back. I looked up and saw a grey insect with a malevolent grin on it’s face. It raised a perforated hoof and slammed it into my head.

The world fell away.

* * *

The first thing I noticed when I woke was my sore neck. That was due to my head having been strapped to a wooden frame that was propped upright. The strap that dug into my brow wouldn’t even let me turn my head. My Element had been taken off.

As my senses slowly returned, I realized that I had been tied down, my arms and legs spread apart. The harder I struggled to get loose, the more I simply strained my limbs. I was helpless.

Just like in the wood-engravings of my family history book. What did my ancient family do to earth ponies? A lot of things. Sadistic things.

Looking around, I saw a stone floor, walls and ceiling. A fire in a nearby burning pit provided the only light. The dancing orange light made it hard to see every detail of this large room. I wondered why there were so many shelves in here.

My eyes adjusted a bit more. Those weren’t shelves. They were coffin-spaces. I was in a crypt. One that once held three thousand ponies.

A distant wall had a large hole. It was made from outside this room, judging by the rubble.

“Ah, good!” someone said out of my sight. “You’re awake. Now we can begin.”

I heard heavy footsteps, slow and dragging.

At first I thought that another alicorn had walked into my field of vision. After all, the creature was as tall as Princess Celestia and had a horn and wings. The pale grey chitin and the long, stringy blue hair made it obvious that it . . . no, she was one of the insects.

I noticed that her horn was much larger than those of the smaller bugs. There was a three-pronged crown in her thinning hair. Was this beast the hive’s queen? Her large, green feline eyes were drowsy and cloudy.

There were tremors in her joints, as if she were an ancient crone. Her large pale blue gossamer wings were sagging and shredded like wet newspaper. The creature took hesitant breaths, as if struggling to keep from drowning.

The decrepit state of this poor thing almost made me forget who captured me. She grinned and I noticed her long sharp teeth were yellowed. Then a ball of green fire engulfed her head. A white male pony head appeared. He looked a bit like me. Black short-cropped mane. Long muzzle with thin, almost gaunt features.

“Quietus Mortis?” I asked, half-knowing the answer.

“Correct. I and the others have been waiting for you for months.”

“How did you come back from the dead? Nightmare Moon only had enough time to resurrect my dad.”

He nodded, the pony head looking bizarre on such a large insect. “She was working on returning me when you and your friends showed up. I was more than a mere ghost, but was still less than flesh. When your father ran to us with his injuries, I sat in the shadows and bore witness to your betrayal.”

The horn glowed with green magic and a cart was rolled over next to me. I could just barely see my Element resting on one corner of the cart.

“When your father smashed your legs, I wanted to laugh. But I had to stay quiet, or I would have been sent to the moon along with him.”

I ground my teeth, feeling more angry than scared at that point. “If my dad knew why the war between Luna and Celestia really began, he might have thought twice about killing himself.”

Quietus examined what was on the tray. “And I suppose that Princess Celestia told you it was to keep the dead from returning? That the sun served Equestria better than eternal blissful night?”

How could I tell this lunatic the truth, I thought. Then I mentally scolded myself. He’s a fanatic, when do they ever listen to any dogmas but their own?

I had nothing to lose by telling the truth, so I said, “Princess Luna became Nightmare Moon after her lover, Discord, was turned into stone by Princess Celestia. Nightmare Moon wanted to reunite with her reality-warping boyfriend, but her sister wouldn’t allow it. That’s why they fought.”

He tilted his head at me, jaw gaping a little. Quietus frowned and said, “You must think I’m an imbecile. Why would I ever believe that?”

“Discord told me.”

“Impossible. He’s still a statue.”

“Not anymore. Someone stole his body and revived him. He told me the real reason why the two sisters went to war.”

Quietus rolled his eyes. “I suppose Discord’s up to his old tricks again?”

“No, he went back to his home reality.”

“How terribly convenient. I suppose we’ll wring the truth out of your precious princess while Nightmare Moon peels her skin off. She’s good at that, you know. She taught us everything we know about torture, after all.”

He used his magic to lift a skinning knife off the tray. “I wasn’t lying to Pinkie Pie when I said it was easy for Nightmare to take over her body.” He looked into the darkness, a dreamy, wistful look on his face. “I would have given anything to watch the master at work. Rainbow Dash was definitely taken apart with expert care and precision. Our Goddess probably cut perfect circles around the destiny marks before she pulled them off bloodlessly.”

“Actually, no.” That snapped him out of his revelry. “Didn’t Nightmare Moon tell you? I examined Rainbow Dash’s body. The cutie marks were sliced off in jagged circles and muscle was exposed. Blood was spilled.”

The skinning knife suddenly flew onto my throat. The tip slowly bit into my skin.

“Even here, in this sacred temple, you mock your family’s deity and provoke me. Where did you get your habit of defiance? Your father was faithful and your mother was devoted to him and Nightmare Moon.”

Stunned, as if swatted in the face with a hammer, I asked, “How do you know my mom?”

The blade was yanked away as Quietus smiled, pleased at his small victory over me. “The dead always know the secrets the living keep, Equus. The afterlife is much larger than the living world, so it took a very long time for her to find me.”

“Hold on. You said you were more than a ghost in the castle. How did you end up looking like this?”

Quietus chuckled. “I’m so glad you asked. After Nightmare Moon and your father were sent to the moon, I knew that I lacked the strength to attack you directly. So I drifted back to the crypt of my followers.”

He walked around the fire. “She is a very generous Goddess, you know. Every pony she visits is bestowed a small amount of her power. Nightmare Moon knew she was in danger of being sent back to the moon if your father failed to kill you. So she gave me her ability to bring my followers back from the dead, though not at her speed or power.”

Pacing back and forth, in and out of my fixed vision, he continued. “In my case, it would have taken years to get a decent-sized army resurrected, but that little resources problem was resolved by an unexpected visit.”

“The bugs.”

“They call themselves changelings, actually. This body once belonged to the one they named Queen Chrysalis, but I now command what was once her army through her hive-mind-control abilities.”

Struggling to keep up, I said, “I’m not following you. Did you get Nightmare Moon’s mind-control powers as well? How did you take hold of Chrysalis?”

“It was easier than you might imagine. It seems that when the queen and her hive broke into this crypt, they sensed spectral energies from me and the few followers I brought back as ghosts.”

“Sensed you?”

“Fascinating creatures, these changelings. Not only can they fake their appearance, but they also feed on the emotions of others. It seems that ghosts are made of the same magic that keeps these parasites alive. Queen Chrysalis and her hive were desperately hungry after tunneling under Equestria for so long. She needed food for her hive and I needed her abilities as a Queen to suit my plans.”

“You offered to . . . feed this queen? How?”

“By merging. She thought she would get all the free food she wanted by feeding off of my ghost. When she dropped her mental defenses, I immediately took control of her mind. Having a living body gave my resurrection power a huge boost. Dozens of the faithful appeared in this crypt within moments. They were able to commandeer Chrysalis’s small-minded minions quite easily. I had half the hive at my command by the end of the day.”

“Why does Chrysalis look so sick? Why are your changelings grey?”

“Before Chrysalis’s mind finally went, she told me that her race feeds off of love. That’s obviously a lie, as my love for Nightmare Moon is without measure.”

“You’re starving these poor creatures,” I said. “They can’t live off of what drives your family.”

Quietus shrugged. “My army’s numbers grow every day. The longer I stay in this body, the more followers I can drag back from the afterlife. As long as this body remains alive, it will be the doorway for all who wish to help return our Goddess to her rightful glory. Soon, however, my ghost-body will absorb enough pain to reintegrate into flesh, just like with your father.”

“Why did you send changelings to threaten me? Why the assassin?”

“To test my army’s abilities, of course. The first changelings were only strong enough to reach you before they died. I told them to threaten you by any means available in order to guide you to me. The one in your morgue was simply a test to see how much damage a changeling could take before getting killed.”

Now I knew how a test animal felt. “What are you planning?”

Quietus smiled. “Fillydelphia isn’t that far from here. Once the entire hive belongs to me, that city will fall in a day. The hills will be slick with blood once again. By the time your Princess Celestia finds out what’s happened, it will be far too late for heroics. Nightmare Moon will use her sister’s ribs for soup bones by the end of the week.”

Recalling the carnage I saw in Appleoosa, I asked, “Where are the townsfolk?”

He waved a hoof dismissively. “Oh, they’ll be dead in a few hours. It only took half my army to clean out Appleoosa. The other half is busy sharpening their skills at giving our Goddess the same power she gave us all.”

“W-what are you talking about? What power did she give you?”

Quietus looked at me as I had suddenly dropped from the ceiling. “The power to absorb pain, of course. Oh, Equus. Don’t you still bury the dead? Haven’t you felt stronger around the grieving?”

Recalling how oddly perky I was after burying Vinyl Scratch’s father, I nodded. “I haven’t always had that ability.”

“You did after Nightmare Moon entered your dreams. She always leaves a small portion of her magic to those she visits. You should be honored.”

I didn’t feel her magic last winter when Applejack was half-mad with grief over Rainbow’s death. When I stabbed someone that shot me with an arrow, however, I felt like I could wipe out Manehatten with my bare hooves.

It was due to the Spectrum I fell into. That vat of liquid magic that revived Discord must have somehow kick-started Nightmare Moon’s magic.

The memory of killing the changeling, of enjoying the act, came unbidden. Even the death-throes of a giant insect helped feed my then-unnoticed talent.

In spite of what Quietus said, I didn’t feel honored. Was I turning into this monster that abducted me? I felt no remorse over killing a bug. Would I feel awful about killing another pony? Would that be such a big step for me?

Quietus was studying me, waiting to see if I could figure everything out. I surmised, “The changelings are starving because you and your followers only have love for Nightmare Moon. She needs pain and suffering from the living in order to return. That’s why those changelings in Ponyville died so quickly. It’s like trying to live on just bread.”

He picked up a pair of sharpened pliers. “Go on.”

“But your followers’ ghosts are getting stronger from what they’re doing to those poor ponies.”

“Which just goes to show which species is superior,” he said proudly. “The Mortis family has overcome prosecution and even death. Who else can make the same claim? And when the grey changelings die from combat or starvation, the faithful are still kept in this world by me. The Queen has plenty of unhatched changelings that can be used by your family, so death is now only an inconvenience.”

“Then why aren’t you controlling the entire hive? Are those black changelings beyond your limits?”

Quietus growled under his breath. “Chrysalis told me something about a . . . what did she call it? An Under-queen, still a pupae. That unborn insect is what’s keeping me from total control of the hive.”

Then there’s still a chance to fight you, I thought.

“Oh, don’t labor under false hope, Equus. Your friends may not have been killed just yet, but their skins will clothe my followers soon enough. The Under-queen will inevitably be smashed under my new hooves, leaving me the one true leader. As for you? This family crypt is half a mile underground. No one will hear you, no matter what I do to you.”

He put down the pliers and pointed a scalpel at me. “You were warned that the Vengeful were coming for you. You betrayed your family by spoiling Nightmare Moon’s long-awaited return. However, I am going to force you to do right by your family.”

“What are you talking about?”

Quietus got on his knees, studying my cutie marks. “You are about to become part of something glorious, something much greater than yourself and your selfish desires.”

The scalpel drifted towards my right flank.

“Your agony will help give me and our Goddess the power we need to set this world on the path to glory. Hopefully, with your last breath, you will find the strength to thank me.”

The blade rested just above my cutie mark.

“This isn’t murder, Equus.”

The blade pushed into my skin, slicing past the fur.

“It’s absolution.”

As Quietus guided the scalpel around my cutie mark with practiced care, I screamed.

Author's Note

"Dark Father" by Sephiroth is this chapter's theme.