Gods Among Us

by Gravitiaxis

Chapter One: The Return

Time for me to recite some ancient history to you, our world has a long history that I’m sure you are familiar with given the fact that we were both apart of it. What’s that? Who am I? Hmm, it seems you must’ve lost some of your memories if not all of them… Well my names not really important to you right now.

I highly doubt you would remember the time, but eons ago our world was a paradise full of peace and happiness. It’s kind of hard for me to forget, it was always so boring, so much love and happiness. It was disgusting. Hm? What’s that? You say you rather enjoyed the peace? Hmm, well to his each own, right?

Well I didn't really expect you to remember how times were back then, that blow you took for her really did a number on you. Of course being who you are, or were… That wound had no chance of putting you down for good, but it did ruin quite a bit of my plans for you.... Hmm, I’m starting get off topic. Now, where was I… Ah, yes.

I was talking about the world. Hmm, I wonder if I should keep talking… Meh, you probably won’t remember this conversation when you wake up, heh. Hm? If I’m not going to tell you then I should just leave you alone? Just for that I’ll tell you anyway. Why’s that? Because I like to hear myself talk, duh! Now shut it so I can talk some knowledge into that empty noggin of yours.

Like I said eons ago our world was a paradise of peace and happiness. Three races made up the majority of the world's population, the graceful Pegasi, the magical Unicorns, and the powerhouse Earth Ponies made up the majority, but those races were young and weak. They hated each other and would often start wars over petty things. It was actually pretty fun to watch, but eventually it had to stop, so that's where we come in: The Alicorns, who are basically gods to all of the other races, due to the fact that our existence makes it possible for them to live and survive. Of course, there were other types of gods with different types of appearances, but most of them were Alicorns.

We created the basic essentials for them to live and thrive, such as fire and water, electricity, food, air, weather, love, hate, things like that. For everything that made a pony a pony, there was at least one Alicorn god who provided them with such things.
There were eleven original Gods who were all born in the beginning. They were basically the anthropomorphic personification of whatever aspect they embodied, while others were just eldritch abominations, each with enough power to destroy the world if they ever wanted too. I’ll do you a favor and put them in order, and even give my own little title for each one.

The Creators made only one rule in which we were to follow: All we had to do was to look and preserve, but never rule.
For what seemed like an eternity, we set out to follow that one rule which was given to us by the Creators themselves. However, there is always one who gets too ambitious. The fourth eldest of the gods grew tired of this rule and decided to take matters into his own hands. This god's name was Discord. The thought of using our powers on another god was unheard of. We had never fought against each other, so there was no need to ever use them except for when we were doing our jobs. We just assumed we were immune. We were wrong.

Out of all the Gods, Discord had the perfect set of powers that allowed him to easily take over. While not a physical powerhouse like most gods, Discord was a master trickster. With or without his powers. Oh, he warped the minds of every god he could get his hands on. He corrupted us and turned us against each other, made those who were already manipulated to follow him. I won’t tell you where our loyalties lie, since it adds some mystery in the story, don’t you think? No? You want me to tell you? Fine, I’ll tell you.
I had sided with Discord to create a world of chaos, and you sided with his sister Celestia to continue a world of peace.

The remaining gods that didn't join Discord or Celestia stayed neutral, locked themselves away in their own domains, and waited. Just sat back and watched as we began destroying ourselves.

Discord had turned most of us into more twisted and sick visions of our original selves, to the point where we became the opposite of what we originally were. We were created as perfect beings, but he had corrupted us and turned us imperfect.

While were fighting each other among the heavens, Discord threw out the seeds of corruption and watched as the whole world turned into evil and vile creatures, just like us. No more happiness and peace. Only death and chaos.

This proved to be very effective for him in the near and immediate future.

The war among the heavens had lasted for a long time, longer than anyone had originally thought, but eventually your team came out came out victorious. While you couldn't take the lives of all of the corrupted, becuase you know, morality and what not, you did manage to reform most of us while banishing the others. When the war against each other finally ended only a handful of us remained, but as tired and weak as we were, we still had to stop Discord, a task that was easier said than done.

He was now feeding off the unhappiness and chaos that had engulfed the whole world, so by the time you had turned your attention to him, it was already to late. He held enough power to rival all of the elders combined.

Fighting with Discord would prove to be suicidal as just being near him was enough for him to begin corrupting you, so the Elders, in our wisdom, created six magical artifacts to be given to each other. These artifacts, now called the Elements of Harmony, became the world's saving grace, as you found yourselves now immune to his madness as long as you kept the elements with you.

After distributing the Elements of Harmony to the remaining elders, one of the eldest alicorns, Celestia, led the group as we confronted Discord. You used the powers granted to you by the elements and challenged Discord to another all out war. Although Discord was immortal, you encased his body in stone. In the throes of defeat Discord attempted to kill Celestia, but another god decided to protect her and take the full force of the attack, which did a number on his already worn out body.

While immortals cannot die, we can take enough damage, or tire out, which in turn can turn us into a stone paralysis while we recover our lost power. Given how much energy you had lost, and how grave your wounds were, the time you stayed in the coma would vary from months to centuries. I don’t think I need to tell you who the god who took the hit was, right?

Yeah, I didn’t think so.

Well, time flies by when you’re an immortal. Celestia eventually restored the world back to the way it was. Due to many of the alicorns being banished, the races learned how to fend for themselves. While some of the damage that Discord caused was permanent, Celestia and her younger sister took up leadership and began to stir the world back towards peace. While they were few, they kept watch over the world and protected it from any threats that appeared.

Centuries pasted and the war became lost to history, much like a campfire story passed down from one generation to the next. The true details of the war were lost and only known by the few that remained.

Oh? What happened to the god that saved Celestia? Hmm, it seems you must’ve lost some of your memories. Oh well, that god stands as a statue in the Cantorlot gardens. Close to Celestia so she can keep an eye on him until he returns… Which I have the feeling will be real soon.

Hmm… It seems I was right on the money. My psychic link to you is weakening… Thanks for listening to an old fool talk, not that you will remember this little history talk of ours, or me for that matter. Hehe, I’m pretty sure we’ll meet…soon if…later. Till ne… time…

For centuries the weather in Equestria has been carefully planned and controlled by the Pegasi, so when a routine storm in Canterlot lasted a few hours longer than scheduled, and in fact only seemed to be getting worse by the minute, everyone was understandably spooked. Still, that was nothing compared to the panic that ensued once word got out that the Pegasi had been trying to stop the storm, only for them to realize that the clouds were no longer listening to them. For the first time in a long time they were acting on their own. Things only got worse as unscheduled and unstoppable storms appeared throughout Equestria. Still, the worst storm was in Canterlot, with wind strong enough that you could actually be blown away. It was raining so hard that if it kept up, the entire town would experience a flash flood.

Celestia was in the throne room with her sister when she began to figure out what was going on. Luna seemed to be in a panic. No one could blame her since for the first time in centuries, the situation was beyond their control.

“Sister, what shall we do? The weather has never acted like this before.” Luna said with a look of concern on her face. Celestia’s silence was enough to tell Luna that not even her older sister had the answer. “Maybe it’s discord. Maybe he’s-”

“No, I highly doubt that. Discord doesn’t have power over the weather to this magnitude. It’s something else.” Celestia said, trying to mask the uneasiness in her voice. Meanwhile, Luna continued pacing about the room, flapping her wings a few times in order to shake off the feeling that something was wrong.

“Then what can it be? If the weather doesn’t stop soon the populace with be swimming in rainwater if they have not already been blown away by the unrelenting wind.” Celestia sighed at the her little sister and began to shake her head. She got up from her throne and began to walk towards the window where she looked down at the visible garden a few stories below.

She wasn't looking at the flowers, no, she had her sights on one of the statues. The statue garden was full of sculptured pieces of art that held distant memories of the past, but only one every really mattered to her on a personal level. Over the years this particular statue had began to whither away due to constant abuse from the elements, but now, as Celestia looked at it, the statue was looking strangely renewed. It looked as if it had been finished only minutes ago, looking more detailed and life like than it had in ages. This caused Celestia’s eyes to widen as she had a hunch about what was happening.

“Luna. Follow me.” Celestia said as she quickly turned her back to the window and towards the Throne room door. Luna silently followed her sister as she led her out of the hall and into the rain.

Usually this would be a problem for any normal pony, but being of god status the princesses could easily walk into the rain and they wouldn’t get wet unless they wanted too.

Luna followed Celestia to the gardens and noticed that the center of the weather appeared to be there. “Sister what is going on?” Luna asked as she watched the trees and the flowers blowing violently in the wind.

“The return of an old friend.” Celestia said, giving her sister a warm smile. She led her younger sister to a statue that she was looking at from the window. The statue was of a male alicorn that was standing up, but with his head looking down as if he was resting his head onto something. His arms were drooping lifelessly as did the rest of his body. His large wings were neatly folded onto his back. The only thing that looked to be truly out of place was his face. He had a blank look, as if he had fallen a asleep while standing up. For anyone oblivious of why it looked the way it did, you would think the statue looked kind of sad.

“Sister… This statue…” Luna said before being cut off by Celestia.

“Yes. It’s the statue of him. He’s finally returning.” Celestia said while trying keep tears from forming within her eyes. The two watched in silence as the speed of the wind began to pick up. It began to circle around the statue, engulfing it within a cyclone of wind. The two sister took a few steps back as lightning accompanied the cyclone, striking the statue multiple times, but not doing any visible damage to it. Suddenly the lightning stopped, soon followed by the wind. Everything in the vicinity became dead silent as the storm abruptly vanished.

Luna tilted her head in confusion. “What happened? The rain just stopped out of no-” Before she could finished her sentence, something grabbed her attention. A certain sound that struck curiosity into the two sisters. The sound of something breaking.
The two princesses inspected the statue closely to see that it was moving, just barely. It was accompanied by the sound of cracking as the stone slowly began to crack and break. Pieces of stone began to fall off as one of the statue's arms began to move, which revealed that someone was trapped within the stone. It soon began to grab other loose pieces on it’s body, and began to break himself out.

Upon freeing his face the statue began to yell as it struggled to rip out of the stone prison. Upon freeing his entire body the alicorn fell to his knees as if in immense pain. “haa… Hah… Haa…” The stallion's breathing was heavy and rapid at first, but slowly returned to a normal pace as he remained on his knees. Celestia kneeled down, and placed a hand onto the god's shoulder.
“We welcome your return… Brother.”