//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Godly Promotion // by Dapper_Dan //------------------------------// The concept of death is a truly fascinating concept. It’s not really a hard concept to grasp, being universally agreed upon to be the end of one’s mortal life. It’s what comes after that always gets people talking. Is there something waiting for an individual after they draw their final breath, or is it truly the end. This simple thought terrifies most people and causes them to seek out some kind of assurance of their continued existence after death. Thus, the concept of religion was born. Most, if not all religions, agree that there is something beyond our simple lives, that one is rewarded for their actions in their lives, be they good or bad. It brings comfort to know that there are beings out there watching out for them and possibly guiding them in their day to day lives. I say this because I was one of those individuals, taking solace in the thought that my life actually mattered in the grand scheme of things, that I wasn’t just another person living life just too eventually disappear into oblivion. It brought me peace while I was on my deathbed, struck with a disease I could not truly remember. My sister there with me, telling me how much I meant to her, how I helped her through her hardest times, holding my hand until the small glint of light left my eyes, my soul surrendering itself to my final resting place. At least that’s what was supposed to happen. I didn’t really know what I was supposed to see when I died, but they always rotated around the gates of St. Peter or a lake of fire and brimstone...I got neither. What I got was darkness as far as the eye could see. The silence was deafening, surrounding me while I floated there; my being failing to feel anything...think anything...perceive anything. I merely existed. I don’t know when I managed to regain my mind, but I never had a concept of time while I drifted in the void. Could have been a few seconds, could have been years, but I never really put much thought into it, despite having quite a long time to contemplate. It couldn’t have been that long since my mind still managed to hold itself together. I don’t know when I decided to get my act together, my mind drawing a blank on most of the details, but I do remember experimenting a few times, flexing my nonexistent fingers and eventually creating something by complete accident. It was around that time when I decided it would be a great idea to play God, having taken that phrase far too literally. I remember creating a few stars at first, after getting over the very idea I could actually do that and the small panic attack afterwards. I amused myself for awhile, creating and destroying anything I deemed entertaining, but even that got old pretty quick. That’s when I decided to take it up a notch, creating planets and eventually life itself. That was a little over...I think fifteen millennia ago. Now the void I was once surrounded by was littered with little dots of light, stars littering the backdrop while planets of all sizes orbited around them. The Void had become a universe, housing trillions upon trillions of stars and planets with hundreds of them hosting life in some way, shape, or form. I had truly become a god. To this day I still contemplate how this could have happened, how a mere mortal can be given near limitless power despite most assuredly never doing anything to earn or deserve it, never coming up with anything close to the answer, or never having any facts to back up said answer. That’s enough about that though, don’t want to bore myself with the details, or at least the ones I can remember. Right now I let my focus drift towards the ball of dirt and water I was currently looking down upon, or up at since there is no up or down in space. The little planet I called Solitarius, since it was the only planet in this vast universe to house truly sentient life, this life being the end result of a dice roll of genetics. For all intents and purposes, I should have gotten a monstrosity of a creature, but the very first beings to call this planet home ended up being so simple, yet so splendid in their own way. Fur as white and pure as freshly fallen snow covered its equine form with wings as large as an albatross sitting on its sides, covered in pure white feathers, and on its forehead, partially covered by a rose red mane, sat a long horn as sharp a freshly forged spear. This Alicorn, who I simply named Spring, was my first sentient creation, but she was most definitely not the last. I went on from there, creating hundreds of species of all shapes and sizes to populate the planet, giving each one the power needed to mold the planet to house their respected species. Mountains were raised to house the Griffons, who made their nests and eventual cities on their peaks. Land was cratered and raised for the islands of the Minotaur’s and entire landscapes were burned away by the dragons, the warmth of the flames never truly leaving the earth. Solitarius, now known simply as Equss to its inhabitants, was no longer recognizable to me after everything was said and done. The land was now pretty much nothing but a jumbled mess of continents and islands with seemingly no order in their arrangement, and it was a truly amazing sight to see. Each race mother came to me once completing their task, seeking my guidance and knowledge, which I was ever so eager to give despite having an admittedly small pool of wisdom to call my own. I had become a god, but I was most definitely not omniscient. I created each being a mate and sent them off to populate their respective territories, letting them decide their own fate while periodically checking in on each one till they had deemed their jobs as complete and passing on to their final resting place, a paradise with no official name. I watched on the sidelines as the offspring of all the races populated their respected land, the world coexisting in peaceful harmony for nearly a thousand years. Until the eventual evolving of all races achieved what all sentient beings are known for...sin. Mistrust began to fester between the planets inhabitants, eventually morphing into disdain, and later escalating to full on hatred, with it being the most prevalent within the equine territories. The latent magic bestowed upon the world by the mothers had taken root in all their children, morphing them to better adapt this magic into their lives, but none as noticeable as the ponies. There were no longer Alicorns like Spring, but in their place, stood ponies resembling those of Greek mythology. Unicorns, Pegasi, and seemingly normal ponies roamed the lands, each wielding powers resembling the powers of the Alicorn’s, but at a much weaker level. This divide created mistrust within the species that led them to split off from one another, but eventually coming back together in an unsteady alliance to assure their continued survival. The normal looking ponies, also known as Earth ponies worked the land, growing crops and feeding the population while Pegasi controlled the weather to assure that each farm got the necessary rainfall and the unicorns took it upon themselves to raise and lower the sun and moon (much to my annoyance). Each passing day the pony races nearly go to war with one another while the rest of the world watches from the sidelines, watching but not daring to intervene and risk the ire of the other races. Me though, I wanted to live in it, watching from the front lines as the entire pony race spit on the other, throw suspicious glances to any creature outside their tribe walking within their cities, and generally looking down on any creature except their own, be they pony or not. I didn’t want to become a part of the problem, nor did I ever want to put myself on the receiving end of their insults. I wanted to do this so I can truly understand their pain, why they would hate one another. This was just one of the several reasons that led to craft a vessel to house my subconscious so I could live amongst them again. They were only a part of the whole truth though because, lying under all of these reasons sat one deep seated desire I had wanted after watching the planet for as long as I have. What I truly wanted was to once again feel mortal. The feeling of being able to experience life outside of the ethereal level, to feel the wind against my form and experience the warmth of the sun once more. This was my only desire, and I now had the power to do so once more. That last sentence echoed in my mind as I looked upon my soon to be new body, an ash grey Thestral stallion with a pitch black mane moving to cover one of his eyes, which stared back at me with irises like that of the purest gold, his pearly white fangs poking out the sides of his muzzle. I looked upon the stallion with pride, letting his form imprint itself upon my memory before eventually sending him down to the planet’s surface. I took one last look down upon the creation of my children before shutting away my mind and throwing myself down towards my vessel, not a thought running through my mind as I descended upon the planet with one simple goal in mind. To live again.