Cryptic Coda & Obscure Odysseys

by Ice Star

The Great Divorce, Part Four [Alicorn Pre-History]

The Alicorn introduced himself with fire and false faces. He burst into the clearing, coming out from the shade of the trees with streaks of flame curling in his flowing mane. Elysium spread her wings to shield her party of mixed qilin; she could see that he was an Alicorn in his eyes, for he looked at her with recognition of what she was. Then, from somewhere Elyisum could not see, came the light of an overwhelmingly bright aura.

Though her heart pounded and she stood ready for battle, Elysium watched as one of the moon-qilin she arrived with pointed to his flank. Before the light fully obscured it, Elysium gasped. He was an Alicorn, beyond all doubt. Wings and mortal-defying magic aside, upon his flank was a great mark. A skull and black holly were emblazoned on his coat. Gone was the guise of a winged lion, though the flowing orange mane with a waving edge of fire stayed. His mark looked proper on his natural, equine form. The tail of the feline flicked, and in a flash, it was replaced by a flaming plume fit for an Alicorn. About his face was a wispy goat's beard of orange. Elysium watched the red-coated stallion emerge from his magic, his young face as bright as the two orange eyes that greeted her.

He truly paid little heed to the party she protected. The flame-tipped feathers of the stallion folded neatly as soon as he caught sight of Elysium's nervous blush.

The Alicorn stallion's name was Stolas, and he whispered it to Elysium, who worked with the qilin to translate. Other than a smattering of words she had no knowledge of, Stolas spoke the peculiar dialect of the sun-qilin and boasted knowledge of other tongues: moon-qilin, dragon, and more. He showed off the cave he lived in like it was a great mountain worthy of Canterhorn's praise. Elysium found herself snickering at how her friend would find this stallion's antics silly, for who boasts of a cave that way? Stolas had a humor to him, sharper than the talons of the longma, and his stories of the mainland qilin and their tradition of night-sneaking and moon-songs could be told alongside the stories of sun-qilin fighting mountain spirits to steal light. Eventually, all of them were laughing together.

Elysium could never recall a time when she felt true and happy among mortalkind. Stolas was company that did not try to guide and govern her like Canterhorn. He was a fellow star-orphan, who had lived and survived alone, honing his sorcery with no need, want, or the possibility of contact as she had. While all the qilin relished in the knowledge Stolas had of the precious stones that made up the majority of their diet, only Elyisum and the moon-qilin were pleased with his extensive knowledge of plants. The sun-qilin were disappointed they would not be to use Stolas as a source of information on the fish that were the non-gem staple of their diet.

The depths of the ghost forests were dangerous, and Elysium and Stolas were the ones tasked with gathering supplies while the qilin trained and rested at the cave. That was the way things had to be, for the qilin were tired from travel and the trauma of chaos upon the world left them with the need for tranquility.

There was something about time with Stolas that made Elysium still feel like she was alone, even when he never stopped talking. Together, they made the effort to teach one another. She helped him with warcraft while he showed her new plants and magical skills. They ventured out, even during the perilous day, and managed to avoid an encounter with draconequui and their magic. Stolas told her all the tales of his travels alone, while Elysium was enraptured by the enormity of his theatrics.
Stolas had never had a friend, and every tale of Elysium's journey with Canterhorn held a plethora of wonders for him just to hear about. He had an un-Alicorn streak of loneliness to him, one that brightened every time Elysium found herself explaining an enjoyable moment of camaraderie. Under his eyes were the dark circles of a stallion who did not sleep for the unhealthiest of reasons; he explained that the ghosts would find him if he did, and would he have no false faces and magic at hoof then. He resigned himself to wandering the forests and aiding the settlements he found- though, never for free.
Elysium would offer him the rare sympathy she saved for Canterhorn and the ghosts, trying to offer the touch of her wing or a wither to lean on. Canterhorn and her had spent enough years traveling together to know that immortals could ease themselves into perfectly healthy sleepless periods for years or more; stress and suddenness were what took a toll, leading to the dark circles that Stolas sported.

After months in the haunted forests of the sun-qilin islands, Stolas finally agreed to make the trip across the ocean. Elysium had grown fond enough of him to nuzzle him, and her golden light was always brighter at the thought of Stolas. She could no longer sneak up upon him with surprises of gifts gathered from sun-qilin settlements because all too often he would spoil her desire to show generous favoritism by looking into the memory orbs of flame that he was able to use for scrying.

Qilin of both groups were eager to venture out from the forest canopies. They were now leaner, stronger, and now knew that neutrality was better to present than niceness. They accepted the gifts of supplies provided by the settlement and called for more friends and kin alike to join them. The promise of glory in battle and seeing the far reaches of the world was stronger than any ties of blood and home, so many were quick to pack and leave for the shore. Entirely new fleets of boats were under construction to support all the new troops, and the new methods devised by Elysium and Stolas ensured that boats would be offered as compensation for qilin fighters and depleted hoards.

With the sun-qilin satisfied, Elysium and Stolas set sail with their first army. Back to the mainland, Canterhorn, and forwards into war.

Canterhorn welcomed the two younger Alicorns eagerly. During Elysium's time away, the elder stallion had managed to restore some of the finer semblances of civilization to the sun-qilin. They thrived under his protection and were awed by his great magics; for the first time ever they no longer had to deplete herb stores over common ailments and previously mortal injuries were no longer succumbed to. They spent their moon cycles organizing feasts and leisures that even those who knew the history of qilinkind and dragons said were absent. The first holidays could now be celebrated and even in such dire times all because of the Alicorns.

Joining the rank of the worshipped Alicorns, dragons, and ancestors were the mountains. Canterhorn's hold over them had shown the qilin the full power of the peaks that rose above the land. The returning moon-qilin led their sun-qilin in arms and the young Alicorns into a great welcome home festival, with feasts in their names and the promise of a great war to come. Moon-qilin of the mainland only held their festivities at night, and for the first time in ages, they felt no fear in lighting lanterns and keeping open fires. Three eternal souls would now protect them.

Stolas had not seen the mainland in the centuries since he had crossed the land bridge to find the sun-swallowing islands where the draconequui did not reach. All had grown different with time, and Elysium delighted in showing it all to him. Instead of lingering where their qilin armies celebrated, or quietly basking in the joyous celebration around the feast like Canterhorn, Elysium allowed herself to be whisked away by Stolas.

Even without the dishonesty of his shifting magic, there were sides to him that Elysium hadn't known. He had confessed to her that the reason he used his talents of scrying and shifting was not just because there was a sliver of something he enjoyed in dishonesty and disguise, but because of how he handled ghosts on the sun-swallowing islands. Instead of wishing to evaluate them so thoroughly as Elysium did and offer the good among them respite, he preferred to snag the wicked from their ranks. He had seen those who evaded what they had truly earned in mortal life and found it fitting to give them rightly-earned torment.

Only Stolas had the same draw to the ghosts of mortals as Elysium did, and she had no one else to trade conversations about ghosts. Even more than that, he was the only one who ever joined her in her speculations about what to do with the ghosts. They would weave their way through the trees, seeing if there was a straying spirit drawn to their magic. Stolas rarely kept an eye on her like Canterhorn did, but always extended a hoof to help her along.

At the highest peak in the valley, they could watch the web of lantern lights, and the mortals who were so much like ants below them. And they could do it together, savoring the company of the one they really wanted to be spending time with each other.

After many nights of songs, dances, and feasting, Canterhorn held a meeting with Elysium and Stolas. He explained to them the graveness of the wider world that would never be helped without them. Stolas was vital to their cause, and Canterhorn held none of the World Tree's words from him. With the agreement of the two younger Alicorns, the plan was made to leave under the light of the next night.

When that night came, the Alicorns went to the sun-qilin Yongle and the sun-qilin representative. Only the latter was willing to follow the Alicorns out of the vast land of the qilin and help the Alicorns in further amassing their armies to march against the draconequui. Yongle expressed only sorrow that the greatest security and friendships he had would now be gone, and he would be left to defend his kind and build his city all on his own.

But it was what must be done, and the Alicorns left with great fanfare. Nowhere else in the world was there such rejoicing, but in the mist-ringed mountains, the songs and cheers of the qilin rang. One small part of the world had harmony if they could defend it.

Canterhorn was able to help the rallied qilin perfect their art of smithing and introduce new concepts to them, pulled straight from the halls of the Alicorns. With the aid of dragon-kin, the qilin crafted fireworks for war and peacetimes. The band traveled to the land of the zebra, boar, and other creatures where the medicine of the qilin became perfected and they found more creatures willing to support them. Here, Elysium worked with mortals to build bigger, better boats that could sail their troops from continent to continent if need be but was mostly for wars at sea. It was here that she also learned that Stolas used his talent for shapeshifting to be dishonest, and for him, it was a helpful thing in life. This confused and fascinated her, but she always had much time to work and little time to think about it, though she knew it was something she would have to judge eventually.

And maybe, just maybe, her feelings got in the way.

Together, they ventured deep into the lands of the zebra, boar, giraffe, hyena, and other creatures. Rhinos and hippos had joined them, trained by the qilin armies and Canterhorn in the art of war, unlike mortals who had known it before. There, they found Anarchy, a fearsome witch among the draconequui who brought only disease to thought and undoing to any society, no matter how small. She drove mortals against one another as easily as snapping.

Canterhorn fought with her and the mountains were leveled into savannah. Elysium and Stolas joined in soon after, not wanting their mortal friends to take the brunt of Anarchy's attacks. The mortals were helpless to her magic; it was never a fair fight. Many perished anyway, and rivers ran red. However, clever Stolas and Elysium had been working on something fitting for lovers of their kind. While Canterhorn fought for his wife with unparalleled ferocity, the young union had magic and might of their own.

The magic of the draconequui could not move the dead. With their magic combined, Elysium and Stolas called every ghost that had clogged the region from the start of time. They called the spirits of their lost friends from here and along the way. Their legions soon flooded with faces that would not perish, and the living were outnumbered by ranks of dead.

Canterhorn helped the younger Alicorns jostle the continent, and the swarm of ghosts pushed anarchy down a faultline's chasm. By the time she would be able to wake, escape, and heal from everything done to her, there would be more Alicorns and more weapons against her kind. She would only be a mortal fear.

That day, three Alicorns knew that victory over the draconequui was possible, and they lead the marches of the dead onward to the next sunrise.

Mayhem was a male draconequus as fond of females as he was of his namesake. He was found with the gaggle of females that had each been tormenting the world around them in hopes of impressing him. Calamity, Disorder, Furor, and Hullabloo all whined and threw tantrums taken out on the world in the attempts at seduction that were directed at Mayhem. Only great old Anarchy was missing. Every one of them eyed the scouts from the qilin (who had yet to split into different nations) with a very real, predatory hunger. Like the dragons, they were not averse to eating meat.

When the ghosts swarmed in and joined rank with the living scouts, the harem began to stir with discontent. The presence of Elysium and Stolas swooping in had them imitating their friend Frenzy. The young union faced down their many foes, not simply leading their troops into battle, but also harnessing greater magics than their previous encounter.

For days, the battle wore on and the ghosts grew in ranks until Stolas and Elysium let loose their most elaborate magic yet, tearing at the threads of Midgard until the force of their powers tore them apart with a cry.

They woke up in separate realms, each place was bursting with magic in a new, fantastical landscape. Unknowingly, the couple was so connected in their love that in their expressions of despair at the sudden loss of one another, the two star-orphans mimicked each other's movements. Elysium's tears flowed freely, and even Stolas shed some when he could not break his way out of his newfound realm to reach his mare.

Harmonia spoke to them both together, while apart.

Though separately confined, the two Alicorns calmed their shaky breathing. They quieted their minds with thoughts of the other and of the present, letting the magic of the realm flow into them and help name what they were as half of Justice.

"Judgement," Elysium whispered, relief flooding her voice and the actualization dawning on her as the sun touched her again.

"Punishment," murmured Stolas, shifting his wings with a new sense of comfort. He felt the world change around him, and the next thing he knew, he could sense Elysium sitting across from him again.

The battle was over. Canterhorn had thrown the draconequui into the sea they put their smooze in, and it was in the deepest trenches that the sea ponies would tie them. Rumor had it that there was a prince under the waves who might know what to do. They had won, just as Stolas had won the right to shift into griffon form and try to squeeze Elysium's lungs out of her in a hug.

Here they were, the god of justice, broken down to its two most fundamental elements and spread across two souls.

Stolas and Elysium meditated in their realms. Not only were they as well-suited to each Alicorn as a spouse, but they had much to think of. For one, there was marriage. It was an Alicorn rite, one passed down to mortals in time, and was meant to honor the commitment for as long as the parties were able to. Unless something went wrong, and considering the immortal origins, that usually meant eternity (or, in the case of mortals, until death). Would they want it? Could they justify it in these dark times? Did it mean foals in the future?

And what of all the draconequui that they had to defeat? There were still Echidna, Frenzy, Uproar, Entropy, Babel, Tezcatlipoca, Strife, Achlys, Tlaloc, Havoc, Turmoil, Tumult, Bedlam, Chimera, and Xiuhtecuhtli. Those were all the draconequui that Canterhorn had found during his time alone or on his treks protecting Elysium when they still had to evade instead of fight.

They were enough to make regular deep-sea fare like Scylla and Charybdis come across as peaceful. Elysium had braved enough serpents and sea monsters to know she only met a fraction of the ocean in her lifetime. She wasn't ready to change that, even if she was a warrior. The thought of settling down somewhere safe enough to have foals in an era of peace with none other than Stolas appealed to her.

For Stolas, he was certain he wanted Elysium in his life no matter what. He felt his thoughts of struggling to discern what he wanted her to be were naught but war anxieties. How could anyone see the future clearly through battle after battle? How could anyone envision an end to this? With that, he could accept that it was not his fault if his confidence was not unshakeable. Time together would tell if Elysium and him could make a life together.

He left his realm fist, half-confident and ready to find Canterhorn. Beautiful Elysium left moments later, her head held eye.

All the ghosts in their corner of the world would be invited to their wedding.

Paradise and Tartarus were found by complete accident. It was the honeymoon of Stolas and Elysium with the night itself as their wedding canopy. They were trying to find somewhere safe in jungles and savannahs where the loss of the two gods meant failure for the world. In an attempt to go beyond their realms, they found a shake and a tear where they were plunged somewhere utterly new.

Rolling plains, vast forests, sky-scraping crystals, the purest waters, rocky gorges, and more were in harmony. They stretched farther than the two Alicorns could see even when they flew far above the treelines of the biggest forest they could find. All they could see looming in the distance was a warped mountain of rock and crystalline bits that look like it could be shaped into a towering castle like the mountain Alicorns had.

Right before their wedding, Harmonia visited them again. She told them that Paradise and Tartarus were not personal god-worlds, as if she hadn't made that clear the first time, and that it would take great push and pull of the planes to uncover them in such a dire time when the layers of the world wished to retreat from the reach of the draconequui, lest one of them become a god. She said that they were eternal realms that the new gods needed to find before the draconequui and that they needed to be severed from direct access from the planet. This, of course, meant that anywhere across the planet, numerous gateways existed anywhere on the planet and at any time some creature could wander into either one, which have stood since the dawn of Havenfell's creation. These attached realms needed to be even more hidden than the planes of magic that attached to immortals and worked their godhood into being, severing themselves from Havenfell.

The Union of Justice's first real task would be to sever Paradise and Tartarus away from the planet into this state of everlasting connection, but one that was thankfully invisible. All gateways would have to be by choice. They would need guards. There could not be many of them. The draconequui could not claim these realms for themselves.

"Is this..." Elysium breathed, pumping her wings higher toward the twin sky. Above them, an achingly eternal twilight shone over the land.

"...Paradise?" Stolas finished for her.

As soon as he spoke the name, the stars rippled and winked like a symphony of lights. The clouds roiled and churned into perfect lazy swirls high above the land. The air from the trees grew sweeter.

The two Alicorns cheered, but they knew that they must find the twin to this world. They began to look.

While Elysium took to the skies, it was Stolas who found that they were not alone. Under the trees he found the source of shuffling and barking where he hadn't heard any previously in this silent land. Dogs in earthy hues were hopping around on the ground, wrestling, and scratching at themselves as dogs did. They had caused too much commotion among themselves to notice when Stolas approached. He was able to sneak up on them, and it is there that he saw that they were no ordinary dogs Their limbs were numerous. Dogs with two heads ran about on uneven numbers of limbs. Dogs with many legs dug holes and rolled about on the ground. One dog, the biggest of the young-looking ones, had three heads and a darker coat.

When Stolas trotted over to them, he too took the form of a multi-limbed dog. He let them sniff him and see that he was no threat. Then, he followed them when they retreated to their den through the trees and into a cave of Midgard, yet he refused to go join them. Some of the dogs stayed back with him, others went to join the rest of their feral, mismatched families. This was not Tartarus, but it was important. No other animal life lurked in the forest except for these dogs.
Stolas, whispered the trees. Harmonia's voice sounded farther away than ever before. Soon, he could see why: the crystalline root from Harmonia that was reaching through the Midgard entryway was small and thin. It looked as though it had been spun from glass and dew.

"Yes?" he murmured quickly, through the gritted dog teeth of his form.

The root retreated as soon as the last word was whispered. The sound it made was like a dragonfly darting by in a swift breeze, with a glass-like chiming following as the thin root retreated into a crack on the Midgard side. By now he had stood tall, backing out from the arch of trees that led to the Midgaardian cave. He let his canine disguise fall and he was crowded by the dogs who were eager to greet his true form. Stolas knew that he had to find his way back to Elysium, and he knew not the ends of this realm, or if it ended at all.

He hadn't found Tartarus, but he found something better. Stolas turned to the dogs and whistled towards the three-headed black dog. "Will you follow me, little friend? I promise only good things for the rest of your kind, that they will multiply, and that they may be loved by creatures like my mortal ponies for ages to come."

Two drooling heads cocked to the side curiously, and the dog trotted over to Stolas.

"I will call you Cerberus," he said, patting each one of the heads and scratching each dog under the chin. "For now, you will follow me and I will introduce you to my wife. You are going to be a splendid gift in our lives, for in all the time I have lived in Havenfell, I have never had a companion. That bothers me, you know. Elysium is purer in her absence of sociability towards other creatures, but I think I understand the draconequui somewhat in their need to meddle. You shall always have a home with me, no matter the season. I know I shall have something special awaiting you."

With his gentlest magic, he scooped up the newly-named dog and placed the pup snugly upon his back. Time to search for Elysium. He ached at having to leave the rest of the strange dogs. The name Harmonia gave them escaped him. But he knew that even in his absence, they would be well. Harmonia had said that every single one of them was immortal, and that meant Stolas and Cerberus would have friends to come back to. They may look lean with hunger, but true immortals did not need to eat. Their bodies had yet to get used to this, soon their latent sustaining magic would kick in. When the war was done, he would come back for them and give them a feast. For now, the realm that sapped all need for food could do its work and they could be safe betwixt the worlds of Paradise and Midgard.

He found Elysium at the mouth of the greatest gorge either of the two had seen. The dark rocks were just short of black, and the kind of gray that comes from being soaked by the sea. Yet, not a drop of water could be found. All around them was naught but rocks. Each of them had flown over this canyon — oh, how even that seemed to be too small of a word — thinking that they had just been too high to see the bottom and that all the darkness was because water may have obscured it. Now they saw the truth. This place cradled shadows and was barren of any hint of water, without a hint of the way down.

The length of the chasm was unclear, it stretched on as endlessly as the realm did, and despite the irregular shape nature gave it, both could tell that they stood at the swell. The widest point was the closest to a specific landmark as any from the groves, caves, and smaller rock faces that Stolas had been investigating. Oh, how the two Alicorns wished for Canterhorn to be with them. His magic would be able to read the riddles of the stone to the two younger equines.

"I checked that mountain. Every stone, natural cave, and crystal. There is no Tartarus there that I can find." Elysium said. "I started muttering the name out loud to myself while I was flying, and when I flew around here, there was a tug to my words. Listen, darling. Tartarus, Tartarus, Tartarus."

At her chant, something happened and all three creatures lifted their ears. The sound of rocks shifting rose from deep in the chasm. The clarity of the name grew like a song each time Elysium said it, an unintentional emphasis happening where the name seemed to devour everything before it in her sentence until only the certainty of the name remained.

The newlyweds nodded to each other and stretched out their wings, each grazing the feathers of the other with tender affection in the process. The two young gods and their new dog plummeted into the dark. Hundreds of thousands of years and farther in the future, griffons would invent bullets, and yet those would not travel with the deadly, straightforward focus of Elysium on her plunge. Stolas followed afterward, trying to strike a balance between swift and steady with Cerberus on his back. He knew he still needed to follow his wife.

When they arrived at the bottom, the wideness of the chasm meant nothing. They could see only the pale illumination of the steps in front of them, the light of each others' eyes, and the outline of another's form. All the light that shone down below was like what an ant in a tomb might see.

"Tartarus, Tartarus, Tartarus," Elysium chanted again.

The groan of creation answered them. The jangle of stone against stone shook somewhere in the shadow.

The two gods wasted no more time, they followed the sound deep into the dark and caught sight of something that sent both of their hearts galloping. Spread before them was a door wide enough to encircle a few mountains and so tall that the highest point was barely not obscured in shadow. There was nothing to roll the door away and no hint that it would. The trim was a familiar sight: a crystalline root of many hues would its way around the edges of the vault like the trim on a basket, with the root trailing off into the dark. The immense vault door was shaped like a serpent with eyes of the darkest onyx in might sockets and teeth so pale and sharp they almost looked real as the serpent devoured itself. No detail had been spared on the scales.

"Tartarus," whispered Stolas at last, and behind the vault, a solemn thrum of understanding resonated.

You have indeed found the place where all gates to Tartarus converge, came the steady voice of Harmonia. It is well-connected with Paradise, yet to sever either of these realms from my planet, you must know them both.

"Must we go inside?" Elysium fluttered her wings nervously. "We have an innocent with us." She nodded towards Cerberus.

"We also do not know if we will come back in one piece if we face whatever is on the other side of that door..." Stolas said grimly. He rolled his withers so that Cerberus scooted closer to him.

How observant of you, came that flat, delicate tone. And do understand, that is a compliment. The realm is not fond of many. It was created by consequence, not on purpose. Destruction is not within me, not of my own creation. Tartarus may yet have a use. It tells me that it shall only accept the most worthy and visionary to shape it. This is no mere realm of fire or icy darkness like a prison. A thousand torments are nothing to what this realm can grow to be. The potential for more to dwell within is always there. You three need not go inside. I especially would not want to see either of you two lost among its untamed grounds, nor would I wish to see little Cerberus mauled and frightened.

The two Alicorns nodded solemnly.

Go back to Midgard, my champions, came Harmonia's faint whisper. There is still work to be done.

In the morning Canterhorn was flooded with the realm-hopping tale of the two newlywedded gods and with many kisses from Cerberus. He had been spending much of his time repairing what he could of the earth. In their battle with Anarchy, nearly all the mountains had been flattened and wiped out to what could only be savannah land in the foreseeable future. After battling the harem, wounds had still been made in the world, and those would always need to be filled. When his wife, Helena, was freed he would tell her of the many important duties he had learned. Together, they could use it to better their two kingdoms, her minotaur and the ponies they shared.

When Helena was free to unmerge, he would tell her all about how necessary it would be for their future foals to learn of such stewardship. Spending time with the young Elysium and Stolas made him long for all the wonders of family. He knew in his heart that he could take care of foals just as well as he could help the two star-orphan youth.

While the two young gods spend more time together, both as lovers and planners, it was Canterhorn who sheltered troops and used his magic to know the earth. From where the vast armies of Elysium and Stolas were located, he used his skills to read the world. There were three things that they always needed to find. The first was food and water for the living troop. The second was an area that drew large quantities of ghosts and wore all the signs of haunted land, that way they could recruit the dead. The last important signs to read were all the signs of chaos and corruption upon the world, and how the ghosts felled by them turned their illness and emotion onto the land itself. Those signs would lead them to more draconequui.

Elysium and Stolas knew what they had to do to sever the realms. First, they deposited Cerberus with their armies where he would be cared for and a safe distance from their magic. Next, they flew to where they had been when they found Paradise. Then, they united their magic and set it free. They probed past the visible world, past all that could be easily touched, and into the vast unseen magic of things.

They felt magic without borders, every localized leyline, and the presence of every living creature's unique magical signature. The burden of it struck them from the skies where they had been readying for their ritual and weighed upon their wings with a might beyond any yoke and stone. The experience was like being temporarily stripped of skin and imbuing every last nerve with the capability of five non-magical senses and then widening the awareness of those new senses to whole continents.

Sweat poured down the faces of Stolas and Elysium who bravely pressed on to do what only gods could. They found the intangible essence and forms of Paradise and Tartarus. Touching both of them with their own magic sent the signals of hearing the name of each did right to their minds, giving them the awareness of the intentions of the realms. With the forms secured, they proceeded to encircle every scrap of Paradise and Tartarus where they intertwined with Midgard. Then, they began the proper severance — pouring all of the magic of their talents, Alicorn might, and all that they had learned in their lives into the permanent unraveling of the bond to Midgard. Together, they thought of the deep canyon that they had ventured down and of all the power that it would take to make something like that through magic. Only Alicorns and draconequui had the capability of achieving such things, and two of them working together were better than one of them making an attempt alone — so they continued to pour forth their power, their auras mingling and blending before their eyes until they finally released the magic.

Elysium and Stolas found themselves each flung in opposite directions, breaking trees in half with the force of how they were thrown from one another. The world trembled and bent like a pulse of air had popped and sent ripples all throughout the world. The rings of Stolas' and Elysium's magic went with them, traveling outward and never losing luminance even as they lost sight of it.

The severance was complete; only pinpricks of the strongest paths to the gates of Tartarus were left intact. Stolas had plans for them, ones that would keep mortals out for good, but permit some level of accessibility of his plans — and what plans he had! The feat he performed with Elysium flooded him with inspiration on how he might put Tartarus to use. When he looked at her, something in her eyes told her that she was thinking similarly — though, he hoped she was thinking of Paradise, for he wanted to make Tartarus into something truly unique that the young world was in great need of.

The couple groaned as they rose to their legs, lighting their horns to heal themselves where any wound or breakage could be found until they were as pristine as when they started. Only now, there was a light brighter in Stolas' eyes and Elysium's halo shone even more than it did before. Their manes and tales flowed all the more proudly.

Stolas and Elysium knew the draconequui would come, such displays of magic couldn't go unnoticed around the world, and certainly not to creatures whose more mature members could habitually sense such things.

It took much time, but eventually, the draconequui found the armies of Canterhorn, Stolas, and Elysium. All three of the gods were rested and ready. Their armies were overflowing with ranks of living and dead alike.

Echidna had curses fired at her from legions of unicorns and qilin until patches of her body were plagued with gemstones, then had dragons set upon her

Frenzy was tied to Uproar and sealed together with the power of three Alicorns. Their hatred drove them to pummel entire canyon systems into being and bite at each other until their forms were scrap and blood. Their souls would regrow their bodies in the span of centuries at the earliest. That was more than enough time for the world to heal and the Alicorns to be ready.

Canterhorn kicked Entropy into space.

Babel was buried at the curst of the earth below the deepest desert with only a mere tower to grace the spot of his prison of so many eons.

Tezcatlipoca was hacked to pieces in battle and had his body scattered about the continent, with gallons of his blood given to zebra witch doctors. His soul was loose, and like Frenzy and Uproar, he would return in time, but by then he would be made to learn his lesson again if he dared attempt anything.

Strife was squashed beneath uninhabited mountains on what would one day become Mirkaysia.

Achlys was slain weeping for strife by legions composed of those made childless mothers due to the draconequui, with the ghosts of their young aiding them as they were able. Her bones were ground to dust with the knowledge that she would return again.

Tlaloc was thrown into a volcano and locked in its heart.

Havoc had the lush land of Brumbralia piled upon him until his anger dried the vast island and his magic seeped into the evolutionary patterns of the non-sapient wildlife

Turmoil was swarmed by ghosts that drove him madder than before and ran hiding among the ancestors of the changelings for many thousands of years.

Tumult was locked in where three tectonic plates met and left to be stretched. Cerberus also bit him many times with each of his heads.

Bedlam was eaten alive by leviathans and tatzlwurms, all knew that he would return one day, as immortals do.

Chimera was turned into water and had his form poured out at different points of the Eastern continent and frozen in what would become Sibearia.

Xiuhtecuhtli was turned over to the ocean and kept in a prison of its deepest trenches for many lifetimes.

With the defeat of the last draconequus, rejoicing like no other shook the world. Even the festivals of Alicorns at the time could not compare to the revelry of the world's dead no longer haunted but hopeful, and all the creatures that migrated with the gods now celebrating a victory many years in the making. It was after the draconequui had been stilled for some time that announcements were made. The majority of the qilin would return to their land, and many others among the living would follow in their steps. Canterhorn would go coax the mountain Alicorns out again.

Only the innumerable legions of dead were left with nowhere and nothing, which was exactly what they had before, and they began to lament.

This was stopped by Elysium and Stolas who used the Voice of the Alicorns to capture the attention of the living and the dead alike. They declared that the norm of ghosts in the world would end, and with their magic combined, they opened the way to Paradise. There, Elysium raised the first platform for judgment and Stolas began to brave Tartarus. All the ghosts who joined them had been good souls in life, and in Paradise they found themselves restored and Elysium gifted those judged good with knowledge life deprived them of. With all the souls that she judged fair, they worked together to give shape to her crystal behemoth of a castle, Paradise Estate.

All the ghosts of the world would need to be rounded up. All the evil spirits in the world would need to face their side of eternal judgment — the tortures that Stolas was crafting. Meanwhile, at the Gate of Gates, Cerberus grew well and was loved. His own magic thrived and manifested as bilocation: all gates of Tartarus that remained would have him there, always, and all at once.

Stolas braved the rivers of Tartarus which he named Styx, Acheron, Phlegethon, and Cocytus. Their unique waters were the tamest abnormalities in the vast and varied landscapes of the underworld. Stolas erected a fortress, one safe area where he could oversee everything, and it became known as the Volcano of Gloom. He set up Tartarus so that it was filled with lands of ever-increasing torture, as well as a section of naught but cold and solitary jails that the mightiest magic guarded. Fire and ice were but tame offerings. Above all else, Stolas found that Tartarus chose him as only Elysium had before; his magic was magnified and his ideas never had to stay so anymore. All he wanted could be manifest in Tartarus, the realm welcomed eagerly and accepted all that he gave it while awaiting its future eternal residents. Without the previous level of ties to Havenfell, there was something richer and more magical about both realms.

Now the age of ghosts had truly begun perhaps all would be well.