Twilight Gets a Puppy
Season 3
By TDR
The Crescent Empire,
part 3
[ Canterlot, 11 years before the return of Nightmare Moon]
“Celestia smiled as she looked down at the little purple filly before her. The smiling unicorn foal was nearly vibrating in place behind her little desk, just as she did with nearly every personal lesson.
Her brother Rahs however, had already gotten bored, torn down a curtain, and bundled it up in a pile as a bed, to sleep in a sunbeam. It would be more annoying if he didn't do this every time.
“Alright Twilight today we are going to learn about something a bit different. Do you recall last week how we discussed the MP required to move objects?” Celestia began
“Yes Princess.” Twilight chimed up.
“And do you recall how much issue you had when you tried to calculate how much MP would be required to move the Sun?”
“That wasn't a fair question as no one can measure how heavy the sun is to apply it to the formula.” Twilight pouted, she hated trick questions.
“ Indeed. But in truth it's less because of the unknown weight and more because of my aspect.” Celestia smiled. “Today we are going to talk about the various gods across Equss.”
“How is that going to help us calculate the weight of the sun?” Twilight questioned, though Celestia smiled as the filly gathered up a scroll to start taking notes.
“It won't with that, but it will help explain why the machine we used last time maxed out when I was hooked up to it.”
“I thought cause Rahs broke it.”
“Bork.” Rahs protested from his curtain bed.
“Hey... that was mean.” Twilight pouted.
Celestia rolled her eyes, ruffling her wings a little to get the attention back on her, if the pair started an argument neither of them would be fit to learn anything today.
“At any rate, gods are rather capriciously scattered across Equss. No one knows how or why gods come into being, sometimes they are born with it, other times they preform some deed to ascend. And at least once it was because of making a food condiment, though I'm not sure what happened after that.”
Celestia watched as the filly wrote every word down.
“Now gods powers come from something called portfolios, these are the things that the gods are gods of and what they draw their power from. Can you guess what mine are?” Celestia questioned.
“Ummm... the sun.... and ponies?” Twilight suggested.
“Very good. My primary portfolio is the sun, which is why I have such control over it and why even if we knew the weight of the sun it wouldn't be a judge for my power level. I am also made up of three of the tribes of pony and thus ponies are my second portfolio. There are also smaller portfolios a god can have for minor things, in my case, I have the nox-cal as one of my secondary portfolios and for a while I had zebras.”
“Woof?” Rahs questioned.
Celestia glanced to him and the smirk on the puppies face before looking to Twilight who was also giggling.
“He wanted to know if cake was one of your portfolios.” Twilight snickered.
“No it is not.” Celestia sighed. Not for lack of trying though, she thought to herself. “ Now then, there are many types of portfolios, the first type is a physical objects, for example. The minotaur god Kaz, is the god of fire and minotaurs, he also has lesser portfolios in sailing and brewing.”
“Like potions?”
“Errr, something like that...”
[ Present day, ice field outside of the barrier of the Crystal Empire. ]
Hooves thudded in the snow as the massive black furred minotaur bull looked down at the approaching alicorns. He was easily twice as tall as Celestia and a wall of solid muscle. His white horns sprouted from his head grew out wider than his shoulders and were capped with steel tips. He wore nothing but a tiger pelt loin cloth gathered about his waist and a large belt with the tigers skull as a belt buckle. A huge war maul rested on one shoulder, the head of the weapon as large as a normal pony. Hanging from his waist was a large rune covered cask that sloshed loudly each time he shifted his stance.
“Took you long enough to get here.” Kaz muttered, his voice rumbling.
[ the past]
“Another type of portfolio is for less physical objects, but ones you can still feel physically like heat and cold. The Dragon's god Bleu, for example is the god of Dragons, and the wind, she also has lesser portfolios in gems and lightning.”
Sitting on the minotaur's broad shoulder was a small blue bundle of scales and spite. The dragon god was currently no bigger than Spike and had her wings wrapped tight around her. Despite the cold wind getting no where near her, or her perch the scaled goddess was trying to act like she was freezing.
“I'm turning into a popsicle over here, but yeah take your time.” Bleu whined.
[the past]
“Then there are metaphysical portfolios. The rabbit god White has the portfolios of rabbits and time. The griffon god Lockheed is the god of griffons and hunting, while the breezy god Teacup is the god of the breezys and war.”
A gold furred and silver feathered griffon stood near by the first two, his coat practically shimmering in the light as he glared at the two alicorns approaching, his green eyes narrowed as he watched their approach with clear annoyance on his curved beak. The crunch of snow under him was barely heard as his talons flexed crushing the ice under them.
A small blue figure buzzed in the air next to him. The pastel blue and robins egg blue maned breezy was covered in a tiny suit of leather armor and had red war paint decorations covering the exposed part of it's form. A butter knife decorated with runic symbols dangled from it's side and despite the harsh winds and snow falling around them the figure remained stable in the air.
[The past]
“What other kinds of gods are there?” Twilight questioned.
“As many as you can imagine. Most tend to keep to themselves, but there is the Orc god , Burlap who has orcs and the swamp.....
A great green boar as large as the minotaur sat in the snow near the griffon. He was covered in great mats of moss covered hair done up like dreadlocks. The boars tusks curled up over his snout as he watched the pair approach, the matted hair shifting and writhing on it's own.
...The Buffalo god Iinii who is god of Buffalo, and the snows,...
The snow covered hill behind the others soon turned to look down at the approaching alicorns. The veritable landmass of the buffalo god snorted a greeting, or in annoyance, or perhaps just to clear his nose , before he turned to look back at the dome.
….The Beast god Martle, who holds domain over the beasts and the wilds....
A crimson furred manticore perked it's ears as the pair drew closer, though like the buffalo her gaze was on the dome. The scorpion tail lashing through the snow behind her.
…..The naga god Ascepius, god of naga, snakes, and healing. …..
A green scaled serpent, nearly as long as a train car uncoiled from near the minotaur's legs, the female regarding the pair with interest, though she was clearly not going to come away from the source of heat that was Kaz to greet them.
…....Rhino, the god of bugs, and rhinos.......
A great gray lump with a thick horn on the end of his nose had been speaking with the manticore. A large multicolored blanket was draped over his massive back and a large pair of glasses rested in front of his eyes.
He squinted towards the pair as they approached, only for the naga to turn him around and point him in the proper direction towards the alicorns.
…...Kodiak, god of the bears and the forests.....
A massive brown form, easily twice as tall as the minotaur, but not quite reaching the size of the buffalo snarled, as he glared with open hostility at the pair of approaching alicorns.
….......Fledge, god of the harpies and birds. ….........
A massive blue tinted raven hopped around atop the back of the buffalo tilting it's head as it regarded the ponies curiously.
[The past ]
“....There are many more gods scattered all across Equss. Some might be in remote parts of the world undiscovered Some may wish to remain apart and still others might simply not care to look beyond their own borders” Celestia explained. ”In either case there are also gods who regularly meet to discuss the affairs of the world. This gathering is simply known as the Host or Council. They make rules that the gods need to follow, though given the powers at play, there are not many rules and most of them are broad or self serving. There are rules on trying to destroy other gods, and races , rules for trying to steal from gods. There are also rules on trying to make your own life form, though those are more recent. The Host also acts as a court to pass judgment on those who have broken the rules, or those who are a clear danger to Equss. They are tried by a jury of their peers, as the only peers to gods are the other gods.”
Twilight was hastily writing.
“So is there a god of moon since you're the god of the sun?” Twilight questioned simply, still looking at her paper as she wrote. As such she didn't see Celestia flinch, Rahs however did. Celestia turned to meet the moon dog pups gaze, watching for any sort of reaction, only for him to drop his head back to his paws with a wuff.
Celestia let out a small sigh.
“Perhaps we should move on before I need to list all of the gods I know Twilight. After all this information isn't going to be much use to you unless you ascend yourself.......”