//------------------------------// // Chapter Two: Home, but not Home // Story: Gods Among Us // by Gravitiaxis //------------------------------// “We bid you return…brother.” The white female alicorn said as she placed her hand onto your shoulder. This startled you and put you on the defensive. “GRAAAHHHH!!!” You said letting out a loud battle cry which startled the sisters. You tackled the female to the ground, placing your arm on her neck successfully pinning her to the ground when you began to apply force down onto her, almost choking her. “Discord! I won’t be falling for your tricks again! I’ll Kill you!” You said to the unknown mare below you. You rose up your other arm that wasn't on her neck and began to summon energy to it. It began to radiate powerful dark magic that was in the covered your entire hand in a fiery wavy type motion. Seeing how aggressive you were her darker companion’s horn began to shine dark blue which was accompanied by her hands radiating the same magical energy as yours but on a higher magnitude. The Alicorn using her free hand raised it towards her sister in an attempt to get her attention. “Luna! Wait! He’s just confused!” She yelled trying her best to push you off of her. The other female slowly backed off as she watched her sister try to calm you down. “Brother, calm down, it is I, Celestia! Your sister!” She said grabbing your shoulder still trying to push you off but only to find out that she didn't have enough strength to push you off. “It is alright, you are safe.” Upon hearing her say that she was your sister, you slowly began to ease up on her neck. You began to back away from her. “My…sister?” You said rather than asked. You slowly began to recognize her. It was Celestia, her appearance had rather changed but you could tell that she was still the loving sister you knew and loved. “It is…alright?” You asked as stood up and began to back away from her. Celestia nodded her head as she slowed pushed herself off the ground. If she wasn’t wet before she was definitely soaked now. “Yes, you are home brother, you are safe.” She said giving you a smile that radiated pure warmth upon looking at it. Though still hesitant you got a closer look at her to make sure. Though she has aged a bit over the centuries and possibly changed her appearance as well, there was no denying that this was your sister. A small but visible smile crept across your own face upon realizing this. “Celestia it is you…” You said while giving her a big hug in which responded to by returning the favor. Upon letting go, you looked at the other alicorn who accompanied her and quickly recognized her as Luna. “Luna!” You yelled out while starting to walk towards her to get a better look. “Yes, brother. It is I.” She said sounding a little shy upon being in the presence of the older brother she had not seen in years. “It is so…good…too see…ugh…” Before you get to her, your legs gave out and you quickly passed out, upon falling towards the ground. In shock Celestia and Luna both called out your name and rushed toward you in order to help you but it was too late. You had blacked out and drifted into distant memories. *** 2000 years ago... “Beautiful, ain’t it Endless?” You said as you and your closest friend/brother stared at another sunset together. Sitting on the edge of a cliff, you and Endless enjoyed watching the sunset together. The both of you barely ever have anytime to interact with each other due to the fact that both of your jobs are time consuming. So every once in awhile the two of you meet like this and talk about various things such as the future and family. However lately you've had something on your mind and decided you need some advice about what you should do. Endless smiled and silently nodded his head. “Yes. Yes, it is. We've must have seen the sunset over a trillion times and yet we’re still baffled by its beauty… I guess some thing’s never change, right brother?” You nod your head eagerly while keeping your eyes on the sun. “So, tell me. What’s today’s topic going to be about?” He said with a monotone voice which caused you to look at you brother with an indifferent face. “You know, I don’t understand why you keep asking me what we’re going to be talking about. You already know what I’m going to say before I say it.” You said with a small sigh. You watched as Endless shrugged his shoulders without changing his tired expression. “Sometimes I know and sometimes I don’t. Just humor me. It makes me feel like I’m actually normal.” You scoffed and shook your head. “Normal, huh? Well it is better than you finishing my sentences all the time like you did when we were younger.” You said thinking back to when you two were young Gods. Endless would do this constantly, just to annoy you, but like all children he grew out of it…eventually. “So, what’s today’s topic going to be about?” He repeated. You looked up at the sky and began to think to yourself. You began to think about your entire existence. You are Letum, the sole embodiment of Death. You are one of the oldest beings in the universe, second only to your brother Endless himself, whose an anthropomorphic personification of Time. Because of this you are feared by the immortal and mortal alike. You are the judge and jury when it comes to death and if it’s their time it’s their time. A long time ago when you were a young god, you didn't mind killing anyone that got on your nerves. Needless to say to you were easy to anger and kind like a bratty child that did what he wanted when he wanted. However you eventually grew up and decided to become more serious with your job. You created an age limit for all living things and set whatever master plan of yours into action. “I’m thinking about becoming mortal.” You said looking at back at your brother. You raised an eyebrow as you saw his shocked expression on his face. “What? Don’t like the idea.” “I’m sorry brother I thought I heard something stupid come out your mouth.” “Think of it like this, I’ve been reaping these mortals for billions of years, and yet I still don’t know how they feel and why they do the things they do, but then it hit me. You will never fully understand a person if you don’t crawl underneath their skin and see life from their perspective.” You said passionately. You watched as Endless shook his head sighed. “Look I don’t really care what you think. For too long, immortals and mortals have been separated. I think it’s about time we reintegrate into society.” “Oh wow. I’m not even going to begin on how ironic it is hearing that from someone of you profession, are you at least going to keep your powers, because you’re going to really vulnerable.” He asked sounding kind of worried for your safety. You slapped him upside the head, before telling him who you were. “Don’t insult me Endless, I am Letum, the god of Death and Mortality. When you first came into existence, I was there, waiting, and at the end when it’s just you and me, I’ll reap even you brother, and upon doing so, my job will be finished. I'll put the chairs on tables, turn out the lights and lock the universe behind me when I leave. I am the most powerful god, Who do you take me for?” You asked him feeling bit angered at his lack of faith in you. “I take you for an idiot… Idiot.” He said with a smug look on his face. “Just hear me out, old man.” “Old man? I’m only a second older than you.” Ignoring him you continued to speak. “This is justified as for me wanting to better understand the lives of mortals, thus living a mortal life without remembering my Godhood would be the best bet. In that case I may simply appear as a fully grown adult with no memory or past, or I may actually be born into a human family and live a seemingly average life. The options are up to me.” You said trying to figure out which would be a better choice. “Would you really give up an incarnation just be a mortal. Will it be worth it?.” He said sounding serious. "Yeah It would. It will be worth it. Too experience life...and death for the first time. To better mine as well as all of our knowledge of what it means to be...mortal." “So there’s going to be a mortal walking around killing people just by touching them, I think that’s going to cause quite a seen. Trust me when I say that this isn't the right thing to do.” He said looking at you with the same expressionless face as always. “...Were you just looking into future right now?” “No, I’m just telling you I don’t like what you’re doing. Immortals are made to be with immortals. Mortals are made to be with mortals. That’s the way how we run things, Letum, but you’re a full grown god, I don’t need to look after you every five seconds like back in the old days. When there were only three of us and everything else that was around was trying to kill us. No matter how dumb I think this is, I’ll support you through your stupidity,” He said giving you a somewhat featureless smile. “Glad to know that I still need your permission to do things.” You said chuckling to yourself. “Tomorrow I’ll be a new man… or woman. I want you to look after me until I’m able to look after myself.” Endless shook his head and placed his hand on your shoulder. “Do you know what race you want to be?” You raised an eyebrow and asked him what was wrong with your current appearance. Endless took a few seconds to look at you and shook his head. “Your kidding, right? You look downright creepy. You’d probably kill people by just looking at them.” Endless put a somewhat disgusted look on his face and shook his head again. You then began to recite the time where you visited an old mortal during a near death experience, she didn't trust you with your hood on, so when you took it off you killed her off for real. How most mortals depict you is generally being seen as a tall, often skeletal, spectre in a black hooded robe, who wields a Sinister Scythe when you visit the commoners and a sword when you visit royalty, though the scythe is the most common of your symbols. You are also often shown with an hourglass as a symbol of elapsing life. How you look depends on how people think of you. You can easily change your appearance into something…less ominous, but to you that just causes more work to keep up appearances. Let them look at you the way they want, right? Your real appearance was way more horrifying but after your brothers and sister kept avoiding you, you decided to change appearances. “Wow that hurts coming from my closest friend and brother.” “Well it should. I still strongly believe you’re one of my top five creepiest immortals I’ve ever seen in my entire life.” He said while cracking a smile. “Well, duh! I look the way I do because this is who mortals perceive me as looking. What am I supposed to be prancing around like the Easter bunny sprouting out rainbows, friendship and candy, while I reap your soul?” “Well it’s food for thought.” “Shut up.” You said as he broke into laughter. “Oh, how about a Pony? Like a unicorn or pegasus” Endless suggested. “Why would I want to be a pony?” You deadpan. “I’m aware of that, but almost all of the Alicorns were pony-like at birth. Well except for me, you and a few more of our siblings.” He said to you making yourself think. “Plus you’ll still have fingers, so you can carry around that creepy ass scythe.” You shot a small glare at him before rolling your eyes. “Pony it is. I look forward to the coming days.” You said looking at him once more this time to see a tear form across his face. You didn’t think much of it since End;ess often sees things that often make him cry. So after a while you stopped caring, but this time something compelled you to ask her what was wrong. “What’s wrong? Can’t stand to see me go?” He seemed to be unaware of the tear that had formed fell from his right eye. “What?…Yeah, That’s it. I’m afraid to see you go. It’s just; I never thought I’d see the day where you would become so mature. I mean, a thousand years ago you were still picking your nose and throwing temper tantrums.” He said with a sarcastic tone of voice. You knew that wasn’t the case and that there was something more important that he saw in his vision. It would be a futile effort to ask him what was wrong. If what he saw was from the future then he wasn’t going to tell you. So the least you could do was lightly punched him in the shoulder. “That’s not true and you know it!” You deadpanned. “I still pick my nose and I still have temper tantrums. It’s just…not as much as I used too.” “Don’t…Don’t agree too that.” The two of you shared a brief laugh as you two looked at the sun as it finally set beneath the nearby mountains. You closed your eyes and began to wonder if what you were about to do was the right thing to do. Not many gods would turn themselves mortal just to experience how a mortal would feel like. Most just do it woo the hearts of a mortal in order to have sex with them. You’ve never done this due the fact that you can kill mortals just by touching them. You made sure to tone the power down a bit as you experienced mortality, didn't want to start killing people on accident just because they shook your hand. Whatever type of mortal you turned into it was going to be up to the new you to determine which path he was going to take. The two of you gazed upon your younger sister’s sun as it slowly descended, but the presence of another person was near by. You both turned around to see your other younger sibling approach you. It was Luna, she was wearing what looked like dark midnight silk gown. Which made her appear like she had just got out of bed. She had a somewhat serious expression her face as she walked up to you. “Ah, Luna. Come and sit down. Enjoy your sisters sunset with us.” You said while motioning for her to cover towards you and sit down next to her, but she shook her head. “I’m sorry I cannot. I bring with me a message from Celestia.” She stopped upon hearing you sigh and took a few seconds before speaking again. “She wants you and Endless to attend the meeting today.” “Again?!” You yelled out in frustration. “It’s the third time in two months. What is it about this time?” Endless asked her with a hint of annoyance in his voice. “I think it would be best if you come and see for yourselves.” Luna said before quickly disappearing into the wind, leaving you and Endless alone. Endless sighed as he began to stand up and brush his cloak off. “Shall we go see what our annoying siblings are arguing about this time?” “I’d rather not, but I don’t feeling like hearing her mouth later on.” You said while quickly getting up to your feet. The two of you turned around and watched as the view around you changed into a large room with over several thrones each one signifying the difference in rank and power. The entire room was golden colored if not out right gold itself. Each seat was occupied with a god except for two of them, which was yours and Endless’. “DO NOT PLAY GAMES WITH ME DISCORD!” Celestia said in an enraged tone as he pointed her finger at her brother who sat lazily in his throne, looking as if he was entertained by the fact of her being angry. “I know you stole my Scepter! Give it back!” She yelled. The two over you walked towards your seats and sat down, but the two of them seemed have been unaware of your presence. Discord snorted as he began to clean his ears. “I can’t give back something I didn’t steal. Maybe you misplaced it.” “BULLSHIT!” She yelled radiating pure heat. The room got noticeably warmer as her anger rose. The only thing their constant bickering was accomplishing was causing making her angrier. “I know you’re lying. Give me back my Scepter!” She said yelling out like of a little girl, whose older brother had just stole her doll and wouldn't give it back. “Wow, the love-hate relationship is strong with these two.” You joked, which caused some of the younger gods to laugh, but they stopped upon seeing Celestia look at them. “Just the other day the two of you were all lovey dovey, but now you’re back at each others throats. It’s either you love him or you don’t. Make up your mind.” “Do Not Joke about this. Brother. He means to start a war with me and you’re sitting there making jokes like that of a fool in a king’s court.” Celestia said shooting a death glare at you. The entire room looked at you with eyes and ears waiting to hear you response to her disrespect. “Celestia, I understand the predicament you are in, but do not let your anger blind you into forgetting who you’re talking too.” You said shooting back an icy emotionless stare which caused her back down a bit. Your lack of eyes and emotion probably was a factor in that. “I a-apologize.” She said slowly sinking into her throne, like that of a daughter who just got chewed out by her parental figure. “Would anyone mind explaining what today’s dispute is about?” Endless asked while leaning forward in his seat with a tired look on his face. Our younger sister Forever, raised her hand and began to talk. “It’s pretty much exactly how it sounded when you two came in. Celestia’s accusing Discord of stealing her scepter.” She said chuckling to herself. Celestia’s scepter The Sun Rod was a powerful item that is the essence of her very existence and of the sun itself. If ever destroyed it would be the end of her. Though the scepter had no real power, it was what was on the rod that really matter, The Orb of Stars. This was the true value of the artifact, the power to create suns at a whim or to make them go supernova at any given moment. “Discord…” You said in a menacing tone that caused him perk up and look at you with his undivided attention. He stood up from his seat and began to speak to every last one of us. “Now hold on a minute. Why is it that as soon as her silly rod is missing the first person she accuses is me. There are hundreds of other gods out there who could have done it, but yet she insists on blaming me! Anyone in this room could have stolen it. Luna, Oceanus, Delirium-” “Hey! Don’t put me in this argument, what would I gain from taking her rod?” “Oh come now, You’re goddess of destruction, you could destroy the entire universe with a big bang! Quite literally in fact.” Delirium eased up and began to think about how beautiful it would be to see that happen. Just the thought of the destruction of the entire universe seemed to be pure ecstasy to her. “Yeah, you do have a point. I would very much love for that to happen, but it couldn’t have been me who took it, because if it was me who did it, we wouldn’t be here right now talking like this.” She said with a mad grin on her face. “Besides I have my own artifact that I can use too destroy the universe, I don’t need hers.” She said now sounding bored with the conversation. Delirium is the youngest of the Elders, yet still older than the rest of existence. She is usually quite short and thin, and looks no older than a fourteen-year-old child. One of her eyes is blue, and the other is green. Her hair changes style and color constantly, as do her clothes. Her shadow never reflects her shape, and is tangible, like velvet. Only a few gods (particularly you and Luna) seem to be fond of Delirium, to varying degrees, and protective of her. She in turn is affectionate towards you, particularly just you. Despite being axe-crazy and insane she holds enough respect, fear and loyalty towards you, for you to not suspect her, but you also knew that most things that she says is not very trust worthy. She sometimes makes up the wildest of the fantasies just to explain a story that never happened, or give an answer that was in no way relative to your question. She is the personification of madness, it’s truly unknown if even she knows whether or not she insane or not. “Think of the universe as a little fish, and I’m the shark. As much as I want to take and rip the little fish to pieces, I don’t wanna anger the huge ass kraken that the fish is being protected by.” She said looking at you with large grin on her face. “So find someone else to blame Dissy, because I’m not the one you should be accusing.” She said stick her tongue out at him. “Even if it’s not you, it can still be anyone else in this room or out of it that could have the rod.” Discord said still maintaining his smile. “No god can walk into another gods domain without permission Discord.” Oceanus said rubbing his beard. “I agree, it’s simply impossible.” Typoon stated. The other gods nodded their head in agreement. “Yes, a god cannot cross into another gods domain, but a mortal can.” Discord said gathering everyone’s attention once again. I leaned forward in my throne as I tried to soak in what I just heard. “Are you saying that a mortal crossed over to another plane of existence and stole one of the most powerful weapons ever created?” You said with a hint of doubt behind your voice. “Come now, Letum. Do I have to remind you of the war with The Primordial?” Gaia stated. Everyone in the room sighed with great distress as they tried to forget those times of the past. You sighed deeply as you tried your best not remember as well. “I guess it’s…not to far fetched that a mortal could have a hand in this.” You said rubbing your forehead. “There are two types of mortals my brothers and sisters. Regular mortals can’t take one step within our domains without dying. Now what’s the other type that can?” “A demigod…” Oceanus stated. Discord quickly turned around and faced him while clapping his hands. “Correct sea for brains. I think one of our mortal children crossed the border with the help of their divine parent.” The entire room agreed that it was possible that a mortal could do so, but the problem was whose child had taken it. Discord looked at Celestia with a large victory grin before sitting down. “I bet you didn’t think of that, dear sweet Celestia.” “It’s only a theory at best.” “Ah, yes but a rather good one, if I do say so myself.” Discord said content with his speech. Seeing you in thought, Forever, looked over at you and began to whisper to you. “If this is true, then none of our artifacts are safe. By the time we find out who stole them it might already be too late.” “I am aware of that, brother. This is a dire situation we’ve found ourselves in. I’m sure you remember the reason why we created the artifacts.” You replied back to him. “Yeah, to fight the primordial and to keep him along with all those other monsters locked in Tartarus.” “Correct, the thief doesn’t need the complete set, the lock to the gates changes constantly they’re going to have to go after specific artifacts.” “Hmm, do you know which ones?” You sigh as you shake your head no. “No I don’t, but I may know who does.” You said standing up from your throne gathering everyone’s attention. “There’s not much we can do on the matter. But I fear that all of our artifacts maybe at risk of being stolen. So I’m issuing a lock down. No one leaves their domain without Endless’, Forever’s, or my permission. This meeting is over!” You said watching as everyone slowly walked out of the room, but you only two from leaving. “Delirium! Celestia! Come here. I need your assistance.” You said motioning the two of them come over to you. Endless who was standing next leaned over to you and whispered in you ear. “I know what you’re about to do, but be careful from here on out. Things are not going as I had written. Someone is changing history and I tend to find out. Forever and I will be in the mortal world looking for clues to who might have taken the rod.” You gave him a small nod as you watched the two of them walk and disappear within a golden portal that Endless had summoned. You felt a light tug coming from your robe, upon looking down you saw that it was Delirium who had touched you and Celestia standing next to her. “You called?” Celestia asked. “Yeah. We’re going on a little trip.” You said opening up your own little portal which emitted a dark shadowy aura which was not like yours. It was more dark and depressing. “Yay! Road trip!” Delirium said bouncing around like the little girl that she was. Before being the first the jump into the portal, not knowing where it will go. You and Celestia followed after her, while telling her not to run too far ahead. You hoped that the place you were headed to would have the answers you were looking for, but at last not every thing is that simple. *** Present You woke up in an unknown room. It was fancy and almost royal like, but it was pretty much devoid of everything besides for a few dressers and a nightstand, which held a picture of an unknown alicorn and a unicorn. The two of them seemed to be lovers, which wasn’t very surprising since a long time ago many gods fell in love with mortals. You slowly stood up from the bed that you were lying in and began to rub the back of your neck. “How long have I been out?” You thought to yourself. Slowly dragging yourself to your feet. You picked up the picture and began to inspect it. You know almost every god that existed, yet this one didn’t look familiar to you. “Maybe it’s one of their daughters…” You thought while putting the picture frame back where you found it. Your entire body was stiff, and tired. It felt kind of strange to you. You walked over to a nearby mirror and began to look at yourself. You didn’t look like how your remembered yourself looking. You were supposed to look like a bag of bones yet, now you looked like a fully fleshed and naked alicorn. Before you could question yourself further, the door to the room you were in opened up. Celestia, Luna and an unknown mare had walked into the room. The unknown mare gasped upon seeing you naked and quickly averted her eyes away from your body. “Miss Heartwood, please wait outside.” Celestia said. The mare you assumed to be a maid bowed and quickly exited the room, closing the room as she left. “I see that your finally awake brother, would you mind putting on some clothes? You’re looking a little bare.” She said as a small blush began to form hers and hers face. You chuckle to yourself as you walk towards a nearby chair which had a fresh set of clothes. “Why so bashful, it wouldn’t be the first time you’ve seen me naked. We used to always walk around without clothes on.” You said putting on what looked like noble clothes. While not a fan of nobility you decided to be respectful towards your hosts and just wear what your sister had laid out for you. “Perhaps brother, but times have changed. We can’t be as lenient as we were before in the old days. Even we need to develop standards.” She said in the same motherly tone of voice you knew and loved. “Standards, huh? And when did we develop those?” You said chuckling to yourself as you finished getting dressed. “After the war.” Luna said to you, which caused a rather grave expression to escape your face. You had utterly forgotten about to the war. “The war! What happened to war? What was the outcome? What happened to the other gods? Where are the other gods? ” You asked frantically. “Calm yourself. The war was won. We successful defeated Discord, but at a terrible price.” Celestia said still maintaining her stern motherly appearance despite being a lot younger than you. Your face lit up upon hearing that you had won the war against Discord. “By the creator, we did it. The Elements actually worked! Haha!” You said practically jumping for joy. “I’m sure whatever was lost in the war could have been rebuilt. This palace that your living in is proof of that.” You said unafraid of masking your joy for this good news. “That’s just it. Letum. The things we lost in the war were irreplaceable.” Luna said to you as your expression quickly changed to that of a more serious tone. None of your young brothers or sisters had ever called you or any other older sibling by their name to their face unless the situation was truly dire. “L-like what?” You asked. “Brother have you forgotten the details of the war? You were there. Millions of lives had been lost, our children were slaughtering each other, both Mortal and God alike.” Luna said with a hint of sadness behind her voice. “What do you mean? My memories are a little foggy.” You said speaking truthfully. Your mind kind felt like it was in disarray. Your memories seemed to be scattered and incomplete. Only bits and pieces came to you. “How many of us are left?” “There are less than twelve pure gods left.” Celestia said to you. This incited both shock and anger within you. “Only twelve!? We were in the thousands when the war started. At the end of the war we were in the hundreds! What happened to everyone?!” You yelled causing the two princesses to take a step back. “The ten of us are elder gods brother, like and unlike the younger gods we are the servants of the living. We exist because they know, deep in their hearts, that we exist. Those who fallen from worship, have either faded from existence or have disappeared.” Celestia said you as she watched horror escaped from you face. Taking a few seconds to process what you just heard you slowly sat down on the bed and began to hold head. “You said they faded away. That must have taken years for that to happen. How long have I been gone?” “For over two thousand years.” She said. “TWO THOUSAND YEARS! I’ve been gone for two thousand years?” You cover your face to try and hide the shock. “What about the other Elders? What happened to Endless, Gaia, Delrium, and all the others? What happened to all of the others?” You said looking up at her pleading for the safety of your brethren. “We are the Eternal, you know better than anyone that just because the mortals lack of faith, it will never be enough to bring us to our knees and that the only thing that will finally seal the deal will be you. Our brothers and sisters are still here, but most of them have already passed over to their different incarnations.” Celestia said while placing her hand on your shoulder like she did once before. “I’m sorry, brother.” “It’s been two thousand years for you, but for me it’s been only a few short minutes. Like that of a short dream. I…I’m…” You sighed to yourself and began to shake your head. “There is no words that can be used to describe how I feel right, now. I just feel tired.” “It is alright, brother I felt the same way when I came back from my banishment from the moon.” Luna said. “Banishment?” You asked. “It’s a long story-” “Then don’t tell me. I don’t think I can take anymore. Maybe later okay?” You said holing your head down. “Of course. Come sister. Let’s give, our brother some space.” Luna said while motioning Celestia to leave with her. Celestia nodded and followed Luna out of the room, but before doing so she told you that if you needed anything then all you had to do was call for her or Luna and they would come. You nodded your head and watched as they closed the door. You slowly lie back down, but face up so you could look at the ceiling. “I’ve lost two thousand years…” You closed your eyes as you decided to drift away into your thoughts.