//------------------------------// // The Path To Redemption // Story: The Goddess of Empathy // by The Sleepless Beholder //------------------------------// “Stand!” the guard orders me, hitting the side of my ribs with the butt of his spear. I glare at him with all the anger I can project into my gaze, but he doesn't flinch, forcing me to obey and stand up. The chains binding my hands and feet rattle with the movement. The fact that a brainless guard can order me around is just salt in the wound of my current predicament. But I won’t be able to complain for much longer. The guard positions himself behind me and points to the reinforced wooden door of my cell before announcing, “Sunset Shimmer. It’s time for your execution.” “Took you long enough,” I say to show no fear of death, but the guard doesn’t care; he just presses the tip of his spear against my back as a warning. “What? You think spearing me from behind will be worse?” “I can make it much slower,” the guard warns me, his frustrated tone making me smile. “I’m sure your precious goddess will be delighted by that.” The anger in his face almost gets a laugh out of me, but he hits me with the butt of his spear again, this time in the right temple and with much more force. I clench my teeth at the sharp pain erupting in my head and wait a few seconds before moving towards the door, just to frustrate him further. The guard gives the signal for the door to open, and, as soon as it does, the shine of Celestia’s sun tries to blind me. She’s angrier than I expected, and even angrier are her followers waiting outside. The large courtyard of the gallows is packed full with people shouting at me, cursing my name and celebrating my upcoming punishment. “Hypocrites! You pray about harmony and forgiveness and kindness, but you celebrate death with pleasure!” I scream mentally, holding back my anger so it doesn’t show on my face, and I start walking towards the execution platform with my back straight, a firm step, and always looking forwards. Even if these are my last moments, I will spend them with dignity. They won’t see me begging for mercy. As I walk, I notice that mixed with the crowd are those who just two days ago followed me, ready to replace their goddess with a much better option, and they’re now cursing my name along with the others. I feel my blood boil. “So that’s how it is. You worms take my offer for a better world, then go back to licking your goddess’s feet while I take the fall. What twisted form of justice is this that keeps you away from the noose?” “You forced them to follow you when you realized they would never follow your true self,” a voice speaks inside my head, as angry as the sun that shines oppressively over me.  “True self? Look who’s talking. Do you truly believe to be as perfect as you’re portrayed?” I spit back at the voice, which is a good distraction from the stones occasionally being thrown at me from the crowd. I do my best to not flinch, letting them bounce against my body to show that they can’t hurt me. But then, one impacts right where the spear had hit my temple. Just as I expected, at the first flinch, the first show of vulnerability, a full barrage of projectiles is unleashed over me, trying to break me, forcing me to stop and raise my arms to protect my head. “Move!” the guard shouts behind me, and I instantly feel a foot hit my back, sending me face first onto the dusty stone floor. I spit dirt out of my mouth, still feeling the rocks raining over me, my only protection being my leather chest piece and my still bound arms atop my head. “I said move!” the guard shouts again, hitting me in the spine with the butt of his spear. “How?!” I shout at him, wanting to shove that spear up his arse. “Crawl,” he says with a sneer that I can't see but I know is on his face. “Now!” He shouts, keeping his spear over my back so I can’t stand up. Cursing under my breath, I start crawling on the floor, the crowd now laughing at my pathetic display. My only consolation being that their laughter interrupted the stones being thrown at me. “You must be laughing,” I tell the voice in my head. “This brings me no joy,” Celestia responds. “Yet you’re allowing it.” Suddenly, a hot wind blew against the crowd, silencing them, and even the guard had to step back, allowing me to stand back up with a grin on my face.  Not anyone can manipulate a god to their benefit. But I can.  I walk the rest of the way to the gallows without any more aggressions, the crowd’s ire quelled by the disapproval of their goddess. I start going up the steps, which are numerous enough for my situation to fully sink in. This is the end. All that I worked so hard for is about to disappear the moment the floor falls under me and I plummet for a short eternity till the rope around my neck snaps my spine. Worse would be to survive the fall. It would be some agonizing minutes for sure. But maybe it would be for the best. Go out with a bit of a fight, staring down at everyone from above with my last bits of strength. Let it be known that I didn’t just lay down and die like a commoner. I eventually arrive at the top, where the noose is waiting for me, and right next to it stands the captain of the Royal Guard. Stupid name for the army of a city without king or queen, but Celestia wanted to be both god and royalty. Calling herself ‘princess’ so the kids would like her more. And they call me egocentric. The captain grabs me by the shoulders and places me right on top of the trap floor before adjusting the noose around my neck. Surprisingly, he isn’t rough or hateful, not even an insult coming out of his mouth. Just the expected question.  “Any last words?” I look down at the crowd that waits expectantly for my drop, and I can’t help but chuckle.  How many times did I imagine myself like this? But without the rope and with a victory speech prepared. “Celestia…” I say looking at the sun, who had lowered its glare so I could see it without blinding myself.  I know she’s listening. I have her full attention.  One last time. “TONGUE MA FART-BOX YA FUCKIN’ WALLOPER!” The captain finally lost his temper and kicked the lever, letting me plummet to the floor that I would never reach alive. I feel my stomach lurch at the sudden movement, hoping that I don’t throw up before dying. That would look pathetic. My life doesn’t flash before my eyes, I can only see everything in a blur due to how fast I’m falling, and I can barely think as my mind goes into a panic due to my impending doom. After a few seconds, the rope finally goes taut. There’s a quick snap. And I land with my back on the floor. I open my eyes, not realizing that I had closed them, and look up. The noose had snapped perfectly down the middle. Did I get lucky? Was the guard truly incompetent or cheap? Was this one of Celestia’s shite tests? My questions were answered when I noticed a woman standing in front of me, wearing a long sky-blue cape with a pattern of leafy vines that cover her body. She was looking down at me, her wild green hair obscuring her face, but I could feel her gaze on me. A familiar feeling. She is a goddess.  A goddess is standing right in front of me. Letting me see her physical body. Something Celestia never allowed me to despite dedicating almost my entire life to her worship. And I could only think of one thing to say. “Who in Tartarus are you?” The goddess lets out a sigh that sounded… tired? Could gods get tired?  “I spare you from Celestia’s punishment, but if you wish to truly atone for your crimes, look for my temple.” “And why would I do that?” I ask genuinely. “Is this some kind of deal?” The goddess pulls her hand out of her cape, and with a twist of her wrist, my chains break apart. “Hey, I asked you a question!” I protest, but the goddess turns into white petals that fly away in the wind. “What? You can't just leave. I have questions, dammit!” It’s useless. The goddess is gone, and I’m left on the floor with a sore ass and in debt to some nutter with godly powers.  Beats choking to death, at least. Speaking of which, the crowd that had gathered for the execution is now leaving, ignoring my existence completely. Even Celestia fucked off and hid her sun behind the clouds. A perfect show of the influence gods have in the world. No mortal would question their decisions. No matter how insane they were. However… overruling another god? And Celestia specifically? That was impressive. Maybe there’s something to gain in finding this goddess. I stand up, rubbing my neck where the rope had bitten into the skin, and look at my clothes, covered with dirt and other stuff I don’t want to identify.  I need a bath, but the guards took all my money, and I’m sure my house is currently occupied by someone else. I also don’t have any allies that could shelter me. I have only my life and the clothes on my back. Just like how I started years ago. “Can’t cry over spilled milk,” I tell myself before I start walking to the public bathhouse. As I move through the streets, I’m forced to shield my eyes from the light. Little fun fact about Mycemare; every structure in the city, even the floor you walk on, is made of white as snow marble. Cleaned regularly till it reflects the sun upon its surface like a mirror. Only Celestia’s grace prevents her followers from ending up permanently blind due to this glaring design problem, and I don’t have that luxury anymore, so I have to walk around with fingers over my eyes, attracting the mockery of passersby. I ignore them as best I can and continue marching onward, guided by memory since my vision is almost nothing, and eventually arrive at the bathhouse, letting out a sigh of relief when the roof hides me from the glaring sun. Once I stop seeing everything in shades of gray, I move towards the large pool of water at the center, which is filled with people bathing or just relaxing from a day of hard work. “Great. Not even a chance of privacy.” I decide to simply ignore everyone and just go on with my business. There’s no reason for me to care about their opinions anymore. I go to a lone corner of the pool and take off my black boots and chestpiece before using the water to clean the dirt and muck off of them–an easy task on leather, but my tunic would be more difficult.  I give one last look around to check that no one was paying attention to me before finishing undressing down to my underwear, then immediately jump in the water. It is cold! Celestia’s supposed to use her glaikit sun to heat the water, but apparently she’s such a resentful boot that she will deny me even a warm bath. Whatever, the boot can laugh all she wants, I’ll get clean anyway. I plunge my tunic into the water, and luckily, since I wore my chestpiece over it, it got saved from most of the damage. After some good scrubbing, it’s clean again. I leave everything under the sun so it could dry─I was honestly expecting the sun to hide behind the clouds again, but Celestia probably didn’t notice─and go back to the pool, scrubbing myself this time, careful to not put too much pressure over my bruises. I take a deep breath and dunk my head under the water to clean my head. It’s at this moment, with my eyes closed and in the relative privacy inside the sky-blue water, that I let loose. I lost everything! Years of planning, secret research, skulduggery and effort lost due to that delusional, feet-licking, book-loving, short-sighted, purple clipe! that can’t wipe her own arse without sun-mommy’s permission. I almost had it in my hands! With that crown in my head I would’ve achieved godhood in just a few weeks! Two month’s maximum! But now I don’t have followers to do my bidding. Or a quiet place to go back to. I can’t even feed myself. I feel like I’m crying, but luckily, being under the water helps keep me convinced that I haven’t lost my dignity yet. What in Tartarus am I going to do now?! Beg in the streets? Try again with some other god? Ask for forgiveness?! Forgiveness… That green-haired nutter. I couldn’t recognize her, so she mustn't be really well known, meaning that her followers most likely won’t know me, leaving fertile ground to start over. And if she has enough influence to override Celestia’s execution… yes… this could work… It’s the best option I have at the moment. My lungs beg for air so I stand back up, take a deep breath, and go for my dry clothes. New objective: Find the green nutter, and get her on my side. How hard could it be?