There we were, all four of us, in freezing cold snowstorm weather. For a mortal, such weather would kill them within minutes. But as it seemed, even without Faust to give us immortality, we still retain much of our godlike abilities, such as being able to resist extreme temperatures, hot or cold.
Why were we there, exactly? Well, it was part of my plan.
You see, during my time as a Goddess at the Pantheon, I had rare visits to its grand libraries once a while. I remembered from one of my visits a book which contained all the mythos of the world, from beginning to end. The reason I wanted this book, of course, was that it also mentioned how Faust became the Creator. At the time, unfortunately, I never got to that part.
So the plan was simple: go to the Pantheon, take the book, find out how Faust became a Creator, then if it was doable, reenact the process, which will then establish me as the Creator. Which meant that if everything goes according to this plan, I will be able to now literally do whatever I so please.
Of course, no plan survives its execution.
When I first presented it, Baron immediately pointed out that all of the books in the Pantheon had been moved somewhere else to secure an alliance with Equestria and some other nation. Baron called it the Crystal Empire, a northern power that now guarded the sacred book we were after.
So we travelled north, heading towards the city with intent to steal the book, destroy the city, and kill its populace with it. Then enact the process of making me creator, and give our immortality back to all of us.
But when we arrived at the city's supposed location and found that there was nothing but snow for miles, Baron decided to relay information that he should have in the first place.
Apparently, the city had been cursed into disappearance by some power hungry mortal, who did said curse when he knew that his failure was imminent.
I, of course, was quite angry at this revelation. And by quite angry, I meant that I was enraged.
Baron, taking notice of my rising rage, attempted to calm me down by saying that it would reappear soon. Which didn't work, as I blasted him far away, so far that it took him two whole days to get back to us.
After that, we spent our time waiting for the damned city to reappear. We usually waisted this time on certain things, such as non-magic dueling, among other things. But I elected to instead decide to do something that I haven't done in quite a long time: meditation.
The reason for me doing this was quite simple. Whenever a God meditates, their spiritual being leaves their body, and is able to see anywhere around the world. With this ability, I would be able to spy on what my enemies were up to, and if they knew where I was.
I was interested to see what they were up to.
Behind me, I heard Stiermann and Baron having a non-magic duel, both of them throwing jeers and insults to one another. I didn't know where Aurora was, but I could care less about her.
I stood on my staff that was planted vertically in the ground with perfect balance. My eyes were closed in deep concentration, reaching the stage of being physically out of the body.
...Then I heard the shuffling of snow to my left, along with frustrated grunts as well. With my concentration interrupted, I opened my left eye to see who it was that did it.
It was Aurora. Of course it was. She was standing on her staff much like I was with my own, although she was often tipping over to one direction.
I decided to ask, "What are you doing?"
She yelped as she suddenly fell into the snow below her. She was back up soon after, looking at me with a frustrated expression, "You ruined my concentration!"
"As you did mine," I shot back, "and don't speak to me that way again. Unless you want your tongue cut from your head?"
Aurora quickly realised her error, bowing multiple times, "I'm sorry, My Lady! All that I wished to do was replicate what you were doing!"
Opening both of my eyes, I raised an eyebrow, "Really?"
"Yes, My Lady!"
She immediately began trying to replicate what I was doing. She fell again and again, making me believe she was only embarrassing herself.
"Will you cease attempting to stand on your stick? You're just embarrassing yourself at this point."
"No! I can do this! You'll see, My Lady!"
I groaned. Aurora seemed more of a miss now I come to think of it. I know she wanted to replicate what I did, but at this rate it would be wise for her to just give up already.
Sighing, I jumped off of my staff, bringing it over to where Aurora was, and used it to swipe her staff away. Aurora fell face first into the snow. Once again, she gave me a frustrated look, but decided not to say anything.
"You're embarrassing yourself," I repeated, "and a Gatekeeper will do anything but embarrass themselves in my presence. Go back to Stiermann and Baron. I have more important things to do than watch over you."
She quickly nodded, before grabbing her staff and leaving, not without a saddened look, I might add.
Again, I sighed, going back to what I was doing.
"Stultus puella," I grumbled silently.
Finally, I reached this point. Being outside of my physical body was something I haven't done in forever.
I quickly set off to my target. It was easy to travel, especially when all It takes is for you to think of the place you want to go to.
Immediately, I found myself in the throne room where those damn jewel wearers made me cower in front of them. I saw that court was in session, except Celestia was running it instead of Luna.
It seemed like they were in a daily routine, so I'll skip what was said during that time so I don't bore your mind with things you've probably read multiple times before.
And so I waited for something interesting to happen, and I don't know how long that wait actually was, but I did eventually get something.
It was now turning into night, Celestia's court long being over, but she stayed in the throne room to do other small tasks of governing, which I groaned at.
What was the purpose of such menial tasks? One only bores themselves out with those things. In the perfect world, such things wouldn't need to be done. Fear alone would keep everything in place.
Just as I expected would happen, Luna soon walked through the throne room doors, a little frantic, I noticed. Celestia immediately focused on her sister, and galloped to her. Someone, who I guessed was some personal servant of Celestia, left the room with many papers.
When the pony was completely out of the throne room, Luna asked, "Is it true? She's heading north?"
"Yes, she is," Celestia replied, "but we don't know why."
"And she's with the Gatekeepers as well?"
"Yes. This is bad, Luna."
Seems that they were spying on me. Better start looking for those scouts when I come back.
"Does she know of the Crystal Empire?" Luna asked.
"So far, we haven't heard anything that would say that she does. It may still be safe for Cadence and Shining Armour to be sent there when it returns."
"Why else would she go north?"
"Like I said, we don't know. Perhaps she knows she's being watched, and is trying to shake us off."
"Zerstörung isn't like that, sister. She would rather kill them than run away." Damn right I would.
They went on talking about other matters after that, reasoning that I probably didn't know anything about the Crystal Empire, thus wouldn't be a threat to "Shining Armour" and "Cadence" whenever they come to rule it when it returns.
How ignorant they are. They just gave me new toys to play with. Now armed with this information, I ended my meditation.
Returning to my body, I opened my eyes, and immediately saw a peculiar sight.
In front of me, there were three mortals, all clad with armor and swords. The one in front of the group, a unicorn, held a dagger with his magic. They had all immediately jumped and cowered when I opened my eyes, the one in the front, however, remained stationary, although he still held an expression of fear.
"You're trying to kill me, aren't you?" I stated flatly, my eyes narrowing.
A long, deaf silence answered me. None of the mortals dared to move an inch, as if they thought that I could only sense movement.
Finally, after a long wait, the mortal in the front attacked. But he didn't straight up just charged at me. He didn't even scream as he did it.
All he did was throw his dagger to my face. My- that was one of the most intelligent things I've ever seen a mortal do!
...Too bad the blade was caught between two of my fingers, though.
"Nice try," I said sarcastically.
I twirled his dagger in my hands for a few moments, analyzing its design. I then looked back to the group, who were in the same positions as they were before.
"But I'm afraid it would take far more than that to kill me," preparing the dagger, I then said, "but you, however, can be killed quite easily. Allow me to demonstrate."
Suddenly, like a lightning bolt, I threw the dagger, which penetrated into the skull of the unicorn. Not even a few seconds later, he dropped to the snow, dead.
After that had occurred, the remaining mortals attempted to run away from the scene, which made me laugh. I always found it funny how cowards thought they could escape.
Before I could give chase, however, a white blur decapitated both of them, quickly ending what I had planned for them.
When the blur became clearer, I saw who it was.
Aurora. Of course it was.
She looked towards me with an excited look, "How did I do, My Lady? Is my work satisfactory? Please do tell!"
I groaned loudly. She was willing to do anything for me, that's for sure, but as this day pointed out, she also often embarrassed herself. All just to gain my attention and approval.
I decided to humor her, "Your work is satisfactory," I then jumped off of my staff, taking it in my hands again.
Walking off to the distance, I continued, "But next time, do not interfere in my affairs. Got it?"
"Y-yes, My Lady! Anything for you!"
"Good."
My patience was drying thin with Aurora's constant attempts to gain my approval. She was an annoyance that still had yet to prove her worth, and all she's shown so far is that she knew how to humiliate herself.
If she continues like this, I might have to eliminate her for being useless to my plans. But as of now, I focused on what I will do to that "Empire" once it decided to reappear.
I had thought of some satisfying punishments to inflict on its populace for interrupting my plans. And none of them were going to be pleasant for them.