It was the day after the wedding. Nopony had seen hide nor hair of Veretus after he stormed off from Chrysalis. But Cadence and Chrysalis knew he always came to the dining room to see Luna and Celestia. So after she had finally convinced her two aunties to not throw Chrysalis into Tartarus, she then convinced them to keep away from the dining room that morning.
It was to Cadence and Chrysalis sitting together, staring at the entranceway that Veretus entered. He paused, and Chrysalis smiled, speaking in her layered voice.
"Greetings, King of Food."
After he had stormed off, Veretus had actually forgotten about his decision to reveal her identity, but this was unexpected. The Changeling Monarch seemed to have bonded with the Alicorn of Love. He looked around the table, wanting to see what the two diarchs made of this, they were missing, however.
"Come and sit with us Veretus, We have a lot to talk about." Cadence motioned him with a wing. He felt like this was a setup, but he had no actual excuse to leave, so he sat across from the two mares.
"Alright, I am here, and I am listening," Veretus said as he settled in. He hoped this would not take too long.
"C'mon Chrysalis... You agreed that it would be for the best." Cadence nudged the changeling monarch up, who he had now learned was named Chrysalis... Inventive. Chrysalis stood up from her pillow, looking at cadence with a hesitant expression, cadence merely nodded. the Changeling monarch looked back towards Veretus before clearing her throat.
"The hive pledges its eternal support to Godking Veretus, Jailer of the abyss, God of Might Dragons and Vindication, so long as he promises to love each one of its members to satiety." The Queen bowed her head. The minutes ticked on but Veretus just sat there, flabbergasted at this display. He had pushed her against the wall earlier, He had refused to play her intimidation game, and then he had left her. What had happened between now and then to change what should have been an angry mare to a subservient one? And why did she want him to love each of her subjects to satiety?
"Uh... Veretus?" The voice of cadence removed him from his thoughts. "Uh... What do you say?"
"Why?" That was all he had in response. "I am not your kind, I am not even a god of your kind since nothing similar to you exists in my reality. So why?"
"Because despite my joke earlier, you could effortlessly feed my Hive by existing... I merely wanted to ask you to feed us but..." She looked away, and cadence took over.
"But quite frankly Veretus, you need something to do all day; when you aren't at Ponyville you just lay about on a cloud."
"Watching Canterlot go about its day is enjoyable."
"It's voyeurism." Cadance shot back snarkily.
"You'll understand when you're older." For some reason Cadence pouted at his words, chrysalis giggled.
"Fine. But you do understand what you are asking for, correct?" He raised an eyebrow. Chrysalis literally just cocked her head in confusion.
"Uh... For you to feed us, regardless of how awful it tastes?" He shook his head at her.
"You've been feeding on the byproduct of my engine of immortality. My divinity is not compatible with this world's power systems. Pledging your allegiance to me means going against your reality. This means many hardships." He looked at her, waiting for if she would rethink her-
"We are already going through hardships!" She pounded one of her hooves on the table. "You think these holes are natural! They are our body's attempt to conserve energy, as impractical as it may be! These holes cover every changeling, and they will never go away! We live in the most inhospitable location with nary a soul to feed from. The last hive, when in our glory days we numbered seven! So yes, I say buck the world! The world has done nothing for us!"
Veretus smiled. He suddenly stood up and outstretched his wings, his divinity flared, as the room was awash in radiant flames.
"In my name as Veretus, Seeker of Truth," the world pulsed angrily as he stated his birth title, an outdated concept in his reality now. "Past Godking of Alvaris, God of Might, Dragons, and Vindication, hereby accept the worship of the changelings, in return, they shall not want for food or home, so it shall be, and forever shall it be until I break my oath!" the world felt like it cracked as he finished. He swept Chrysalis in his wings, his divine connection giving him all the information he needed.
They were no longer in the dining room, and Chrysalis sputtered as she regained her bearings before looking downwards in shock. They were standing on thin air over a large hollowed-out mountain. Desert stretched out as far as she could see. This was the hive.
Veretus gently nodded before he reached metaphysically through her towards her subjects. He was brute-forcing this, as his tenuous grasp on the law of life was too weak to perform this action through it.
When he said she was feeding off the magical byproduct of his divinity, he was being serious. His divine spark constantly tried to suffuse his body with the unending reserves of magic it created by feeding off his Conviction. As his body was already at the pinnacle of what a flesh and blood creature could achieve, the magic usually suffused outward. Back in his reality, it would harmlessly mix into the environment. But as he mentioned earlier, everything to do with his divinity was incompatible with this world. This meant this magic sought outlets for it to go into, and that was why he was constantly feeding chrysalis.
Tens of thousands of thoughts became known to him, and they became aware of him in turn. His magic suffused through this link, seeking each and every connection. In return, faith flooded him as per the accord. Chrysalis's subjects knew instinctively of the deal they had made.
His divinity rejected all of it. It wasn't that he was breaking his oath, but his divinity was forged purely from his own self-worth and ideals, the other gods may have eventually caved in and used faith to grow theirs, but he would never taint his own power in that way.
Instead, he refined it. It was more intensive to do so without using his magic construct specifically designed to do so.
He pushed the magic downward. He had promised food and home. He had fulfilled food, it was now time for home.
Chrysalis assumed she had finally overexerted herself and everything up to this point was a starvation-fueled hallucination. Because the Hive was blossoming. Instead of the drab grey rick, moss grew, instead of the dry sand, the mountain was surrounded by a natural moat. And trees and plants spread for a half mile outwards.
She could feel the surprise of her subjects, and for Godkings sake, that was water. She was surprised as tears fell down into the water below them. She looked up at Veretus, only to notice he was focused on directing the changes, and then realized they came from her.
She had only wanted food, they were used to the harsh climate, and they had dug deep enough to drink from an underground river, but he had given so much more.
And with the final bit of grey covered by green, they were back in the dining room, his wings, warm and soft, became unfurled. And Cadence was still sitting there, looking bemused.
"You done hugging yet?"
"He... He..." Chrysalis had no words.
"How many hugs have you gotten in your life Chryssi?" Cadence now asked worriedly.
"He created life in the most inhospitable environment to it... He changed the landscape with a single whim..." She suddenly snapped her neck towards Veretus, who had sat down and... Looked slightly winded? "That... Was real, correct?"
"Of course... Had to fulfill my end." She shook her head, he did more than fulfill his end, he took the whole damn length and added more string!
"How... How did you do that?" Chrysalis asked.
"Overwhelming magical power, enough to turn a mountain to dust, why? Want to have that power yourself?" He asked seriously. She almost doubted her ears.
"How..?"
"Your world has the notion of priests." He started.
"And you're a god." Cadence finished, Veretus nodded.
"Except my world has different words for them. Clerics are the servants of gods and the universal laws. The most powerful of these are Champions. They have a portion of their deity's power to call upon at any time."
"But... Why?" Now it was Chrysalis's turn to be confused about his motives.
"Because you reminded me what he looked like..." Veretus admitted sadly. Chrysalis nodded slowly, and Cadence tactfully remained silent.
"Alright. I'll accept." Chrysalis didn't know what compelled her to accept, but she knew it wasn't the overwhelming power.
"Done." He flipped his hand at her.
"But... I don't feel any different." She said confused.
"Because I haven't granted you any divine power yet. It takes no effort to declare you my champion." He said offhandedly.
"Speaking of which... Every three days I teach spike. You'll be joining him tomorrow so you can learn my tenants. I won't be allowing you to resurrect ponies until then." He paused as both mares looked at him like he said something so shocking it was hilarious.
"What do you mean by... Resurrecting ponies?" Cadence asked tentatively, Veretus leaned forward.
"How much do you ponies know about the soul?" He asked instead of answering the question.
"There's no evidence that it exists." Cadence answered back swiftly, "but what did you mean by-"
"It does exist, and unlike many beliefs about it, it does contain your identity, so does your body, however. When you die, your soul dissipates naturally in a day, becoming merely a collection of energy that returns to your surroundings. Death and survival are the natural order of things in Alvaris, so the mortals have devised methods to bring the soul back to the body." Cadence shook her head in disbelief.
"Even if that was true, they'd be stuck in a rotting corpse, that's terrible!" Cadence shouted in shock, the Veretus just leaned back to sitting straight up.
"Except the mortals also figured out ways to heal, A powerful cleric could restore limbs, and even restore those on the verge of death to peak physical form."
"But... how?" Cadence finally asked after doing an impression of a fish. Chrysalis was merely silent, looking down at the table.
"Divinity. It is pure power, and even a demigod contains enough magical power to flatten an entire town in one go, let alone an actual god."
"Alright," Chrysalis spoke, surprising the two of them, her voice soft. "I'll join you tomorrow."
She said nothing else, so Veretus merely nodded before standing up.
"I'll meet you here tomorrow morning. We'll then fly to Ponyville." He said as he exited the room.