Dusk - 2nd of Plantation '15 EoH - Midnight (2 days at sea)Dusk - 2nd of Plantation '15 EoH - Midnight (2 days at sea)
It’s rare that I get to learn something new. I imagine many people are frustrated when they learn something new. I’m usually not one of them, but this time well… I learned something about myself, and I didn’t like it.
I plan far too complexly.
That seems like it shouldn’t be a thing, but it most definitely is. With but two days at sea my little team was already ahead of schedule. I knew I shouldn't have gotten Sudikahmen to take them right to Quis, but I had been afraid of them having to go over land and being far to slow.
Instead, they were moving far too quickly. So quickly in fact that the final stage of my plan was already completely shot. Unless I intervened in a more direct than usual manner to accelerate the other side of the equation too.
Meaning I was pretty much fucked because if I did that, others of my kind would see it, and probably work out that I was breaking the rules. The walls between realities are thin in some places, and allow you to see through into other places similar to your own. I had seen what happened to a version of me who broke the rules once. It was one of my worst memories.
I wasn’t going to stop breaking the rules, mortals need help. So what I had to do was not let myself get caught. Which left me with but one way to do things.
I knocked on my mother’s door, took a quick breath and called, “Mom, It’s Dusk, I need to talk.”
The door folded open, collapsing in upon itself, yet outwards and around me. In essence the door passed around me, leaving me in my mother’s workshop. It’s easier to understand if you know fifth-dimensional geometry.
Mom’s workshop fits her perfectly; clutter everywhere, projects in many stages of completion scattered around, mementos of past accomplishments on display, and tools of every kind set orderly upon the proper workbench. She’s Creativity. Her home oozes her very essence. Almost literally.
“Just a moment,” Mom called, hooves clicking on something metallic, “I need to sculpt this just a bit better.”
“No problem.” I replied, looking over at the curtained off section of her shop where the new things were.
Who knew what she would try to get permission to put into the world this week? Nobody, that’s who.
We gods are assigned to an area of space, you would think that we would take the form of something living in that space. But that’s not true, only my direct family used pony avatars.
Mom always took the form of an Alicorn. Which is fair, when she created that possibility for pony kind she did shape it after how she liked to look. She’s a bit taller than Celestia, has nice glossy white fur, a mane and tail of a uniform dark wine-red color, joyful blue green eyes, and a quill and inkwell cutiemark.
I personally think she looked to plain for someone who is the literal source of all creativity, but that’s just not something you say to your mom.
Mom trotted out from behind a stack of boxes, wiping her mane from her eyes with her magic as she came into view. “Please tell me you haven’t been fighting with your brother again.”
I shook my head. “For once, no. We would fight far less if he didn’t intentionally make my job harder. Just saying.”
Mom sighed and held a hoof to one of her temples. “You have been butting heads for six entire cycles. It’s starting to give me a headache and I don’t even know how that is possible.”
“Mom,” I said flatly, “I said we weren't fighting.”
“Oh, thank dad!” she exclaimed, smiling instantly, “I am much happier to talk with you now. What do you need?”
I bit my lip nervously. This was the only way I could get away with doing what I needed to do. By making them think I was something completely unrelated. The thing was, it’s hard to lie to your mom when she’s a mortal. Try lying to your mom when she is literally divine.
“I want to do something nice for Celestia and Luna.” I said, using a truth to skirt around the other truths. “They do their best to keep their nation happy and safe, and deserve something special. I would like to make a deal with one or both of them, and we both know there is one thing they want.”
Mom frowned, “Sweetie, I can’t undo Worldspells. We all agreed on their rules. Once a mortal casts their allotted spell, its effects are eternal, even for us.”
“I know,” I said nodding gently, “I want your permission to allow their parents souls to haunt the area around their bodies. That isn’t breaking the spell, their physical bodies will remain petrified, it’s simply modifying what happens to the intangible parts of them.”
“Humm…” Mom’s face scrunched as she thought about it. “I think that would be fine… If I gave you permission, then that’s within the rules. But… You’re not old enough to be allowed to intervene in the lives of people as important as they are. I shouldn’t need to remind you, dear.”
“You don’t. That’s why I also want you to order me to make a deal with them.” I explained. “Bargains for souls or the dead are my job, we both know those two deserve something nice and their parents deserve some form of existence other than eternal limbo, and frankly mortal kind is starting to lose faith in us. Most of Equestria doesn't even know your name anymore.”
She nodded, and sighed sadly, but also understandingly. “True, but that’s not a bad thing. Ponykind is growing up. They can care for themselves now. We can simply do our jobs unseen and they will thrive.”
This was the moment which would either completely screw me and my plans over, or allow me to fix my mistake.
I nodded slowly and put on my best sarcastic tone of voice. “Oh yes. I remember when you said that about humans and they turned out so well!”
Before mom could reply I changed my appearance, putting on the form of a human male, eight feet tall, transformed from the norm to the extreme for the express purpose of war. I added a set of bulky blood splattered gray steel armor, and raised a plasma-thrower to the sky, and shouted their species old warcry, “The witch shall fall before us!”
Mom blushed in embarrassment, “Okay, so, they didn’t turn out quite like I’d hoped, but-”
“One of their planets discovered magic after thousands of years of believing magic and gods were not real, and… Well, you know what happened.” I said while returning to my normal white earth pony form.
“You think ponykind would follow the same course?” Mom asked with a concerned frown. “They’ve had magic all along, though I suppose something similar could divide them.”
She loved her little ponies. Point out that our absence could lead to the madness which had ended humanity millions of years prior was mean, but it was all I could think of that might work.
“I do.” I answered. “Or at least, I’m afraid of it. So I want to kill two birds with one stone and be nice to two people who deserve it while reminding two important ponies that we exist. Come on, Celestia was two when your last church in Equestria closed. That was three thousand years ago. Even she has never heard of us!”
Mom frowned, biting one corner of her lip and shuffling her hooves in nervous thought. After a few moments she nodded to herself, then looked me in the eyes. “Promise me you’re not trying to manipulate events to get your brother fired?”
I slapped a hoof to my face, “Motherbucking… I never even thought about trying that!”
Mom facehooved with me, “Don’t tell your dad I put the idea in your head. Please.”
I giggled. “I won't. Also, I’m not manipulating Dawn.”
Mom sighed and gave me a nod. “Alright. Go ahead. Dusk, please broker a deal with Celestia and/or Luna to remind mortals of our existence. I leave the details up to you. This is an official request from a fourth rank Goddess.”
I gave mom a thankful smile as her words burned through our reality, alerting everyone that I had been told to go make a deal. Now it was just something I was being ordered to do, a part of the daily work, nothing out of the ordinary. No one would think once about it. “Thanks mom, “I’ll be back soon.”
“Hold on,” Mom said in that unique ‘tell me everything or else!’ mother’s tone, “I’ll let you do it, because you’re doing something other than fighting with Dawn. But I want to know why you really decided to help them.”
I felt a hoof yank on my metaphorical brain, sending a wave of panic through me. I was right, there was no fooling mom, at least, not completely. I would have to tell her something to satisfy Since she partially saw through me, it had to be true.
There was only one true thing I could tell her which would make sense. It was also a small reason behind my actions. Not the main one, just a little bonus for myself.
I took a deep breath, cleared my throat and replied, “Mom, I like Luna.”
Mom nodded, “I see. So you want to try to make friends. I suppose-”
“Not... that, kind of like.” I admitted with a light blush and quick hoof scratch behind the head.
Mom raised an eyebrow at me. Buck… She was upset.
“Dusk, she’s a mortal.” Mom berated.
“I can’t help who I like!” I retorted. “Besides, no one sees as many mortals as I do! If you think about it, it makes sense that I’d eventually like one of them. I see literally all of them!”
“I just want to protect you. Assuming she isn’t killed, when this cycle ends and the mortal plain reforms, even an immortal will perish. You couldn’t keep her alive through it, other Death’s have tried and failed.” Mom pleaded.
“First, I accept the fact of her destructibility. Second, I could to keep her alive. We both know of a few cosmic evils which have survived multiple cycles. It can be done.” I objected.
“No one knows how they managed to survive-” Mom started.
“Sure, we don’t know right now. But if I married her today, I’d have ten-to-the-ten-to-the-fifty-two ears to work it out. I’m a smart cookie. But if I don’t, that’s okay. You do know you’re talking to Death, right? All things end one day. It’s inevitable, and nothing to fear.” Seriously, how many times did I need to explain this to others of my kind?
Mom huffed irritably and rolled her eyes. “Fine… Go ahead. You’re old enough to make your own decisions. At least in our personal life.”
I let out a sigh of relief. “Thanks mom. I’m heading out now.”
That was one hurdle in a life goal passed. Hopefully Luna liked girls, I hated being a stallion. I’d do it for her though. Assuming she liked me back.
Deciding to not think about not being liked back, I took a step back and down to the mortal plain. I spawned my avatar just inside of a broom closet in the Canterlot palace. I didn’t feel like walking the entire way, and who knows what a guardspony would do if they saw somepony fold in from higher dimensions.
Okay, fair enough, I know. I just didn’t want to cause running and screaming today.
I adjusted my view of my surroundings so I could see as if I were standing behind myself, and proceed to ensure I looked nice. Normally I just set myself to look like your typical pony, as in, what biology says a pony is. This time I made my fur have that fresh-shampooed shine and smell, put my mane up into a ponytail (for Irony’s amusement), and gave my normally simple mane and tail the look of being freshly trimmed.
After clipping my view through the door and ensuring the hallway was empty I trotted outside and headed towards the Night Court’s courtroom. It wasn’t a long walk, I’d put myself pretty close to where I wanted to be. A few short minutes took me to the large open double oak doors of the Court’s waiting room. Which was empty, as usual.
Fifteen whole years and poor Luna still only saw five or six ponies a night. I guess after a thousand years a culture just gets so used to Celestia solving everything that nopony bothers with her sister. Poor mare, thank mom she found some friends!
As I walked into the waiting room, two Lunar Guards immediately dropped their book and snack (Ah, the coveted never do anything post. Gotta love/hate it!), and put on their ‘serious business’ faces.
“Er, Ma’am, please wait a moment while we see if the princess can see you.” The guard on the left said quickly as she pushed her book behind a seat to hide it from view.
I gave the light brown batpony a smile. “We both know she isn’t doing anything too important. It’s a Thursday, so her friends are not over, and-” I quickly looked through the door to find the court chamber empty, as I had expected. “-nopony is currently speaking with her.”
“Fair enough miss, but there are protocols to Royal Visits.” The other guard objected, straightening his helmet with a quick push of his magic.
I gave them a polite nod. “Yes there are, and I am very sorry to arrive unannounced, but this is sort of a clandestine, and critical meeting. Would you please simply tell her that Deus-Custos Dusk Vitae would like to see her on a matter of business?”
The brown guard tilted her head to one side slightly, “Hold on… That title is familiar…”
I nodded, “Yes, my people used to have a lot more contact with Equestria. I’m here to see about opening up old diplomatic ties. I’m sorry for showing up unannounced, but I am maneuvering around… political rivals.”
“Oh!” The other guard quickly stood up and opened one of the doors leading into the Court Chamber, “Sorry I just assumed, you know, local looking to meet the Princess. Just a moment.”
As he left the other guard stroked her chin with a hoof. “You know, I’m a history buff,” She said suspiciously, “and I can’t think of any country which uses that title.”
“It means ‘guardian’. If I were an Equestrian the equivalent rank would be something like a minor Lord combined with a Knight.” I informed casually.
“Right, but I would like to know where you are from, exactly. Before my counterpart just lets you waltz into the Lunar Court.” She said narrowing her eyes in further suspicion.
Well, fair enough. I had been actually wanting to make my kind known again.
“The odds of you recognizing my home’s name are pretty tiny, it’s been about a thousand years. Have you heard of Aramenel?” I asked.
Her eyes unfocused for a second, a sign of a batpony thinking hard. “No, I can’t say that I-” Her eyes suddenly widened, then narrowed dangerously as she reached for her spear. “Oh, you are so full of horse appl-”
I waved a hoof to arrange some quantum foam into the relevant atoms to form a hoof-sized wooden treasure chest, and it to manifest in a ‘reverse dissolving in water’ style. “No I’m not. Want a jewelry box?”
The spear she had been reaching for remained lying against the wall as the mare’s eyes remained transfixed on the box. “How did you do that? You’re not a unicorn!”
“I folded the fabric of spacetime to fit quantum particles together into the correct arrangement to form matter, and guided that matter into the form of this box. Want it? It’s real. Permanent too.” I explained, hoping my ‘simple Equish’ explanation would do.
“But how did you do that? You’re not a unicorn!” She exclaimed.
“I’m also not an Earth Pony. I’ve heard that my great uncle lives here these days. Discord and I are kin.” I explained.
“Wah?” She asked, mouth working into a shocked ‘o’ shape.
The poor mare seemed to just shut down. So I set the jewelry box next to her spear just as the door swung back open, and the other guard emerged.
“The Princess doesn't recognize your name, but she will meet with you.” The guard informed gesturing to the open door. “Er- what’s wrong with her?”
“I made her a jewelry box and mentioned my great uncle.” I replied trotting into the dark oak and deep blue silk decorated courtroom. “She’ll be okay.”
Luna looked great on her throne under the epic five Celestias tall tapestry depicting her cutiemark. Though she always looked great in my opinion. Perhaps exceptionally great is the right phrase. The way the moonlight passed through the skylight and made her silver throne glow like the moon was awesome.
If my boss’s rules didn’t dictate what I was allowed to spend my power on, I would have my couch glow like that. Then I could look regal as hell while watching old TV shows and eating chips. Man I wish I could get a promotion to even one higher privilege level!
I could do the epicly gorgeous ethereal wavy mane… But I didn’t want to steal her thing. Also I liked my simple look. It suited me.
Luna gave me a suspicious look as I entered, “I am curious to know who the pony who is brazen enough to claim to be a minor god of the ancient world in order to see me is.”
I facehooved, “Oh right. You were trapped in the moon, your memories are fresher.”
How the hay had I not taken that into account? Sure we hadn’t been directly doing things in Equestria for a hundred years before she was born, but still… She would remember the basics.
“Quite so,” Luna replied in a ‘not amused’ tone. “The question remains, who are you, and why did you choose to lie to my guards? You would have been let in to see me in an hour at most.”
“I didn’t lie.” I replied in as truthful a tone as I could manage, making sure to look into her eyes. “I am Deus-Custos Dusk Vitae, least of the Aramenellî. You remember some of the old religion, do you remember my name?”
Luna shook her head. “No I do not. I do remember days when you would be imprisoned for blasphemy for claiming to be a goddess. Those laws are long gone, as is the ancient ways of our ancestors, but I am still gravely offended to be lied to. Who are you?”
My ears drooped sadly. Nopony ever remembered my name! Everyone remembered mom. Sheesh!
I sighed sadly, “I understand your skepticism, but I don’t like making you upset. What would you accept as proof of my identity?”
“Very well, on the off chance you are telling the truth, I will humor you.” Luna informed. “I will accept anything which is unmistakably beyond the power of pony kind as proof.”
I thought for a few moments. Pony magic can do a lot of what I can, so that could be a tall order for somepony with a good background in magic like Luna.
“Oh!” I smiled happily, “Discord can vouch for me. He’s Chaos! He lives here, you have to believe-”
“Discord has repeatedly insisted that he isn’t the God of Chaos.” Luna interrupted with a roll of her eyes.
“Well of course he did!” I objected, “He’s Chaos! He’s never worked like the rest of us, I mean it’s his nature. He is literally Chaos. It would be orderly to define chaos as chaos.”
Luna smiled slightly. I had just quoted a bit of philosophy I had hoped she would recognize. Looks like she did. “You certainly have more knowledge of the old religion than anypony else I know of,” Luna said slowly, “except for-”
“Twilight!” I said with a grin, there’s an idea! “Just a moment.”
I turned my focus on locating Twilight, a simple matter, alicorn souls burn brighter than anything else. She was in her castle in Ponyville, just finishing dinner with her coltfriend. I frowned, “Humm… She’s finishing dinner, it would be rude to warp her here to vouch for me.”
Luna raised an eyebrow and with a warm glow from her horn fetched a quill and parchment, “Who is she dining with?” she asked.
“Her coltfriend. I don’t remember his name, he’s orange, a pegasus. Looks to be a guard type, or perhaps an athlete. They are eating honey friend oats.” I answered. I loved it, Luna was so smart. Smarter than me in fact, I wouldn’t have thought to use a letter to see if someone was actually seeing someplace else remotely.
Luna scribbled a brief letter and teleported it. I watched Twilight receive the letter, read it, write her own and have Spike send it back. After a few minutes, the letter arrived in a flash of green fire, Luna caught it, and after reading it gave me an impressed nod.
“Well done. However, I am well aware that most unicorns with training in divination could do the same, and unlike most I still remember that with great effort any living creature can learn to cast spells.” She shifted on her throne, moving to face me a little more.
“Twilight has agreed to allow you to teleport her, if you can.” Luna added.
Ah, so it was the old power test! Sweet!
I already had Twilight located, so I simply focused on the space around her, careful to not select anything like the floor she was standing on, and bridged her spacetime position with the spot three feet to my left. The Lavender alicorn simply appeared, no sound, no flash, no fanfare. The universe simply moved her at my command.
“I’m sorry dear, but-” Twilight started to say, before looking around in surprise. “I’m loosing my touch I didn’t feel the magic from that at all!”
Twilight had appeared facing Luna, a minor error in my transportation. “Whoever this pony you want me to identify is she’s really good with magic, or I was pretty distracted.”
“Hello!” I said, waving a hoof. “Don’t worry I’ll put you back soon.”
Twilight turned in my direction, and to my surprise, didn’t have a surprised reaction at all to my not being a unicorn. “You teleported me?” She asked in that ‘science time!’ tone.
“No, not exactly.” I explained quickly. “I warped the geometry of spacetime so your geodesic-”
“You opened an Neighstine-Rose Mane bridge?”Twilight’s eyes lit up as she clapped her hooves together excitedly, “You have to teach me that spell! If an earth pony can learn it, it has to be simple and elegant enough to be done with basic sorcery, meaning I’ve been over complicating my own attempts this whole time-”
“Twilight,” Luna said gently, “I need you to tell me if you can recognize this mare. You can discuss theoretical thaumaturgy later.”
“Right! Sorry…” Twilight exclaimed, blushing sheepishly. Clearing her throat Twilight began to look me over carefully, “I’m guessing that you’re claiming to be somepony from the past… Can you tell me your age? I need to have at least an idea of the time period.”
I smiled softly. It would be fun to see somepony who would understand the significance of my age. “You are looking for the Classical Era, before the year one thousand. As for my actual age, in your years it’s about… Let’s see… Eight times ten-to-the-ten-to-the-fifty-six years, give or take a few billion.”
Twilight’s left eye contracted to a pinprick while the right expanded to nearly fill her entire eye. “That’s not scientifically possible!” She protested loudly.
“Yes it is.” I replied, suppressing a giggle at her ear twitch of irritated scientist.
“You can’t be eight times older than the universe!” She objected pointing a hoof sharply at me.
“You can, if you don’t actually live within this three dimensional section of space. Only the bottom four spatial dimensions are unstable. The rest of it persists between cycles.” I explained. “To be fair, your ancestors didn’t know our ages either, they just assumed we were eternal.”
Twilight gave me a blank baffled look. Great, she wasn’t going to be any help. I could literally feel Twilight trying to compose a list of questions to ask me. There was only one thing to do, I had to put on my work uniform. Bucking great...
Aunt Luck, please don't let this doom my chances at having any sort of relationship at all with Luna.
I gave Luna a sad frown, “I… I didn’t want to do this, because I like you, and if I manifest as my traditional aspect, you will fear or hate me. I’m not a bad person, and I’m not here to hurt anypony, I’m actually trying to help and also well… I’m lonely. I’d like some friends who will stick around till the end of this universe. Just… Please don’t be afraid of me alright?”
“Why would I be afraid?” Luna asked.
I focused on manifesting as my true self.
My avatar enveloped itself in a dark purple ball of crackling, fiery lightning as it liquefied while my real self replaced it’s location. The moon light dimmed, as if the moon itself became less bright. The room’s candle’s flames withered and shrank to pinpricks of light.
The air turned cold, flowing over me and congealing into my long, hooded black robe as well as the swirling shadows which I could never banish from my side while presenting my true self even though they were not a part of me.
My skeletal hooves slid from within the robe's sleeves as my form solidified. The barest hint of my ‘head’ could be seen through the thick shadows beneath my cowl. A thick fog formed beneath me, wreathing the room in it’s wispy tendrils from which my scythe rose to float at my side, blade held down as if to harvest wheat.
“Because I look bucking horrifying.” I answered.
Fortunately, I was able to block sound from leaving the room before the screaming started.