//------------------------------// // 24 The Best Laid Plans of Goddesses and Ponies // Story: The Queen is Dead // by Meep the Changeling //------------------------------// Dusk - 22th of Plantation '15 EoH - Morning I have a crappy apartment. It probably seems weird to mortals, the whole god living in a place a poor pony in Fillydelphia could barely afford thing. Then again, the entirety of our world would seem odd. It’s flat, no matter how far you go there is no curvature, you’ll never end up back where you started from. There is nothing besides the one plane, sure you can go up into the ‘sky’ or down through the ground, but there will always just be more sky, or more ground. There is no space here, just the one infinite flat plane. It’s not flat as in, perfectly level. It’s only flat as in no straight line path can produce a geodesic. There are mountains, hills, rivers, and seas, but no ‘globe’. Gravity isn’t really a thing here, nothing is pulled into a round shape, and yet, everything is still held down like gravity existed. There are no suns or moons, the sky is blank whiteness. Yet there is day and night, the sky glows white, fades to black, then fades back to a white glow. No object casts the light, it’s just there. If you looked up at night there would be stars though. Not real ones, just projections. I couldn’t stand the blank blackness after seeing the mortal worlds. It took me time, but I worked out a way to arrange the laws of 3d space to create the illusion of a starry night sky in our 6d home. That’s why you can find the Fibonacci sequence everywhere in the mortal plane, it’s part of a universe wide ‘Light Bright’. Those stars are one of my favorite things. Not just because they look nice and liven up my reality, but because they are the only things I have ever been given praise for. The only thing I have done that my fellow gods like too. We all have jobs. Things we must do because we are the very essence of that metaphysical concept. Mine is the one no one cares about. My dad is Conflict, everyone sees the value in his work. Without him nothing would change, there would be no progress. Mom’s work is equally important, Creativity provides new things to keep mortals interested in their reality. Great Uncle Discord is Chaos, that spark of random chance and possibility that makes… well, that makes possibility possible. Hell, my brother’s work is seen as important. Sure, it is. Someone needs to mould life, adjust its conditions to keep within the Big Man’s expectations for the universe. Someone who isn’t a fucking jerkfaced sadistic bastard. My work though, mine isn’t seen as useful at all. ‘Oh that’s Dusk, she arranges the mortals essences after they have been used. Shelves them for storage, we could probably train a mortal to do it. Nevermind that’s how the Big Man double checks his results, it’s not important.’ Despite all the comforting, explaining, and guiding I do, despite the care put into forming the perfect eternity for every last soul under my jurisdiction, I’m unimportant. Which means I’m poor. Since under the Rules, we are given privilege for our personal lives in accordance with our relative worth. That’s right, the Gods use money. Infinite resources, infinite time, nearly infinite power, and we use currency. It’s stupid, but it makes sense. It’s not just the twelve of us, all life bearing worlds have their own gods. There are thus an infinite number of little ‘villages’, ‘towns’, ‘cities’, each settlement sized for the number of worlds of mortals they watch. Sometimes we need help, thus trade is a thing, so currency is also a thing. But since currency is a thing, and I have the ‘least important’ job, I get jack shit. I could will a 50 room mansion into existence right now, if that stupid power limiting currency system didn’t exist. Instead, I had to settle for my shitty studio apartment. Which isn’t in an apartment building, because I literally could just afford the actual two room apartment. Two rooms on a dirt lot, with no decor whatsoever. It’s right across the street from my brother’s sprawling castle made entirely from obsidian, blue diamond, and solidified potential energy. With its moat filled with a river of boiling spacetime. Decorated with a thorny hedge made from rosebushes. Also the energy construct servants in the form of hot people. I sighed and stopped looking out the window. At least I had my futon. That was in fact it. That was all I could conjure for myself. Two rooms with no decor, and a futon. I had other things, but those were things I got by making deals with mortals. Three dimensional objects magicked to work for me. Not to say I didn’t like my accumulation of mortal stuff! We’re not that unlike mortals, we have needs for entertainment and intellectual stimulation. So chilling on my futon with my holo-generator set to create an illusion of a living room and watching Dragon Ball was basically how I spent my off centuries. Yes, Dragon Ball. Hilariously that series is one of the closest things to how gods and the space beyond mortal space works. Also the abridged series is genuinely amazing. It’s probably on my top ten best series of all time, which says something since for me all time is really damn long. I paused a moment and considered giving it another watch. I’d done everything I could to get my plan back on track. Luna had mobilized and deployed the Equestrian army, Celestia was busy negotiating for Gaian help, Twilight was off making sure Zebrica didn’t panic, and as predicted the Swarm was catching up to Jade and David. All that remained until the showdown was a train ride. Assuming Chrysalis's didn’t just attack Quis, which I seriously doubted she would. Taking a major city would result in losses, even with her power and revised tactics. She wouldn’t go into Equestria at less than full strength… Barring her having a sudden fit of intermittent explosive disorder. Which was unlikely due to her calculation nature and having only failed once so far. Yeah, I could relax for a bit. But first… I turned around and reached for the pack of Lucky Strikes David had given me. I didn’t have an endless supply, but I was feeling good, things were going my way, it was time for a little treat. I lifted the pack off the windowsill and sensed something. A presence I had not felt since… Last week sometime, I think. Oh fuck no! Glancing up out the window brought me eye to eye with my brother. Eyes like glowing coals, fur blacker than anything else to exist, a straight, slicked back obsidian mane, a face chiseled into a sadistic grin. “Hello, sister.” He said in that voice like rotting honey. “Dawn.” I grunted, trying to keep emotions from showing at all. “Mother tells me you particularly enjoy a mortal, Luna was it?” He asked, phazing through the wall as he walked around me… In violation of our agreement to stay out of each other's space. “My personal life is none of your business.” I growled, ears falling back in irritation. He chuckled, “Oh, but it is! It is… My sister, the mortal lover. Have you finally realized they are toys to be used and discarded?” “We’re not two anymore, Dawn.” I grumbled, conjuring my lighter and lighting one of the Strikes. I needed to keep calm, so as to not give him a damn thing. “Just tell me what you want.” He gave me a disdainful look as I took a drag on the cigarette so I could blow the smoke in his direction. Ha! Take that you bastard! “Let's start with what I can do for you.” He said, idly rummaging through my shelf of video media. “This… Luna. I can give her to you. A small tweak, a nudge really, and she’s yours. All I do is require her instincts to make you the center of her mind, creating pure devotion to your every move. Perfect, unconditional, complete love. I’ll even remove the distrust and fear of being hurt I added to that emotion, nothing but the positive.” “That wouldn’t be her loving me, and you know it.” I said with an eyeroll. “Oh but it is. Reproduction is after all, part of life, and love is an emotion I created to make it happen… As well as to lead to some… personal amusements.” He chuckled, actually fucking amused by being the root of every domestic dispute ever. “I know my own work perfectly, my silly sister.” “Just tell me what the fuck you want.” I growled, anger flashing across my face. Shit. Now he had me. I saw it too, that flare behind the eyes, that perverse delight. “So you do love her. Interesting… You really do experience mortal emotions. I knew it!” He grinned, teeth sharpening to points for a split second. “Yeah, no shit! You spend a few cycles personally experiencing all of their souls and actually give a shit about something aside yourself and maybe you’ll develop a bit instead of remaining the unchanging face of self indulgence.” I spat, “Now tell me what you want or get the fuck out of my house!” “Very well, sister.” Dawn turned to face me, narrowing his eyes, “Stop meddling with my toys.” “Yeah, no. Mortals are not your personal property.” I said bluntly. “True, not all of them. At least, not yet.” He flashed me that smile again. If I hadn’t already known he was up to something with the mortal world I would have then. "But you know who I mean. Stop whatever you are doing and allow Chrysalis's to return to gathering power, and Luna will be yours. I’ll even pay for you to build a guest bedroom in your… home.” “Chrysalis?” I asked, raising an eyebrow in an attempt to appear unwitting. “She’s a Changeling Queen, right? I’m not doing shit with her.” He laughed, genuine amusement washing over him in a wave, “You’re adorable when you lie. As I said earlier, I know my work perfectly. Including when it’s being meddled with, which is why I am giving you this one chance to stop. You can quit right now, and I’ll give you your toy to enjoy for as long as you can.” His lips curled into the tiniest frown as he finished speaking. He fucked up! He revealed something he didn’t mean to but what? My mind raced, I put everything I had into figuring out what he possibly… My eyes narrowed in realization. Yes, there is was. Can. Implying a finite amount of time. Insinuating an end. So that was his game. “I see. You do know that I am Death, right? You can’t kill me.” He laughed again, throwing his head back with a delighted grin. He snapped his head back down to look me dead in the eyes and said, “That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange aeons even death may die.” The hell? Did he think I was an idiot? “Dude, Lovecraft is fiction.” I said with an eyeroll. “True,” he said, walking towards the door, “and yet, you and I both know of many times fiction has been closer to reality than any might have suspected. There are Rules even we must abide by, but those are not all the laws governing us.” “What are you saying?” I asked, turning to follow him. “Have you ever thought to explore this place we call home?” Dawn asked casually. “Have you ever wondered where we came from? What our kind’s history might be? If all we have been told about our world, powers, and origins is all there is about is?” He turned around again, “For instance, we serve only the mortals of Galactic Sector ZZ-9 Plural Z Beta, and their colonies elsewhere in three dimensional space, should they ever create any. Why? Do you know?” I shook my head, “Of course not. No one does.” He chuckled, opened the door with his boiling black aura, “Quite wrong my sister. Quite wrong. You should go to your… lover. Enjoy her while you can. I will win. You will perish, and your mantle shall become mine. I will have absolute power over mortal kinds lives and afterlives. It will be… delicious.” He stepped forward, slammed the door behind him, and walked across the street, features shifting into that of a pleasantly nice, kind looking stallion. I hated that literal two-faced bastard more than words could allow for. I let out a held breath and lit up a second cigarette. Fuck I needed stronger ones for days like these... Okay Dusk, recap. Your psychotic brother found a way to potentially kill you and take your powers, and it involves Chrysalis. You know that Chrysalis has become more powerful than she could have on your own, ipso facto Dwan’s made her into a weapon to destroy you. But, he offered you a bribe to stop fucking with her, so he isn’t done forging the weapon yet. Meaning she has to die as soon as possible or you’re probably fucked, because that botfly creating bastard dosen’t fuck around. Everyone’s ready to move on to the border, the trap’s about to spring. Meaning we’re fine… But also that Chrysalis is more dangerous than anticipated. Any delay could be disastrous for everyone, even me. The plan is fine but there is no room for errors at all from now on. I sighed and held a hoof to my head. “I need a drink…” I muttered to myself. Azur / Lily - 22th of Plantation '15 EoH - Morning My horn hurt. It’s a unicorn thing, overtax yourself and your horn hurts. It’s like a headache only in the horn, and less painful. The light throbbing is sort of an alarm your body gives you, warning you that you’ve pushed a bit too much magic through your horn too quickly. Finding a hotel had been simple. Getting booked in one with a Diamond Dog, an about to cocoon herself changeling, and a cart full of weapons had been hard. Hard but achievable. The fourth hotel gave us a room in the basement, not because those rooms were bad, just because they were away from the currently filled rooms. I can’t blame them for tucking us away from other guests. Jade’s cocoon making had been grosser than almost everything I had ever seen before. She’d basically puked up twice her own mass worth of Dross, flopped into the mess, and used her magic to pull it over herself before the stuff hardened. It sounds gross, and it’s even worse to watch. Imagine a cat coughing up a hairball twice it’s own size. Then that hairball drys like clay into something a lot like wood. Leaving behind the smell of burnt mint. Even worse, I know what happens inside a changeling cocoon. Right now a friend of mine was literally dissolving herself into a soup-like mess of organic matter, to be rearranged into a different configuration and materialized. Sometimes knowing just about everything in the field of Biology is a thing I regret. The creepy part of everything was despite her entire nervous system turning to goo, Jade kept her memories. All changelings did. Ponyfeathers, all metamorphosing insects did. Bugs are bucking creepy… If Changelings couldn’t talk they wouldn’t be at all endearing. To push the ‘your friend is soup’ out of my mind I had spent the last few hours working on a spell while David and Lightstride chatted. It was a spell I had been working on since just before we had arrived at Capsan, specifically it was a cure. A cure I hoped I wouldn’t need to use, but wanted to have on hoof just in case I needed it. Ändrin’s tutoring has helped me a lot, not just with this specific spell ether. Reading from a book, memorizing the science behind what the spells will be working with, and committing spells to memory can only take you so far. You need a rival, peers, or a good teacher to push you to the next level. I wasn’t sure Ändrin’s advice and tricks had pushed me up that much, but they were enough that I was pretty sure I could do this now. It was tricky to work on anything for insects, at least it was for me. Mammals, some plants, sure easy. But insects… Insects are very different creatures, almost alien in the way they work. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, it just meant that my cure had to have a twinned spell matrix to compensate for the fact that changelings do not have a brain, but rather hundreds of nerve clusters all along the nervous system, just like any other bug. It was also hard because I couldn’t just test things. I supposed I could test it on Lightstride, but there was a matter of ethics involved. If an illness isn’t debilitating, but poses a risk of extreme trauma pending an unlikely event, yet the patient is happy, do you cure them? I personally say no, you don’t. Not until there is a problem. One day, with our little group’s luck there would be a problem. So I was going to be ready to save the day, and my friend. I had just finished a test-casting of the matrix without feeding power through it, just to make sure the matrices were stable and working together properly. That’s why my horn hurt. The spell didn’t take much of my overall energy, but it did take a whole bunch at once! More than I had predicted. Which was good, or maybe bad. It was hard to tell honestly. My horn hurt. I felt this was as good an excuse as any to sit hunched over my spellbook and notes while making ‘humm’ and ‘uh huh’ sounds, and occasionally scribbling random runes on a page, so nopony would bug me while I just sat there and vegged out. Or rather, while I thought about the past twenty-two days I had spent fulltiming in mare mode. It was nice to be pretty all the time. It was nicer still to be treated like a mare. The complements, the instant kindness, the flirting… The gender binary is a stupid thing. Why must I identify as male, but want to be treated as female? It would be so much simpler if I felt transgendered, I could fix that myself in a week. It would be so much simpler if I were simply gay too. I could just do what I liked for makeup and clothing, and after one or two visits to the right clubs in any modern town and everypony who might be interested in me would know my real gender. But unfortunately for me, I’m not gay. I didn’t know if there was a word for my preference. Bisexual was close, but doesn't quite work as I don’t actually care about gender at all. Male, female, the odd intersex person, it’s all good, as long as someone is there to cuddle. That’s a problem because if I fulltimed as a mare, I would lose out on the strait mares who might like me. Which is a large portion of the mare population to say the least. Of course if I presented as male, nopony seemed to believe me and I’d pick up a reputation as a transcolt or something, which would also reduce the dating pool. Then again, did anyone ever see me as a colt? No. Not realy. The real question was, is being treated how I liked being treated worth the potential loss of a special somepony? Was it best if I retired my old identity as Azur Herz completely? I could easily list myself as female while immigrating into Equestria. I doubt they would check, and even if they did those piercings meant they would have to do more than just make me lift my tail. I frowned for a moment as I took a look at my other jewelry. The silver and bronze bangles on my forelegs were especially nice, I hadn't’ taken them off since I got them… however that had happened. While my piercings had taken some getting used to, I supposed the lower one would be fun for a future special somepony, and I liked the ones on my head and ears. The tiny gold hoop in my left eyebrow was especially cute. Buck it… Azur, you like the mare stuff to much. You’ll just be making yourself uncomfortable for the sake of not losing out on something you probably won't get anyways… Just be happy. I sighed and resolved to present as female from now on. Whomever I wound up with was the only person who had to know what my plumbing was like. Assuming that happened. I sat back a bit more on my haunches, I needed to think. If I was going to be a mare full time, I needed a full name. Lily was good for a personal name, but Equestria did require a surname as well. Lily Pond? No, too natureie sounding. Lily Spark? No just bad… Lily Rose? I nodded to myself. “Yeah…” I muttered quietly. Lily Rose sounded good, if a bit flowery. But it would do. It wasn’t - Hold on… Wasn’t Lily Rose the name of a brand of salted cider? Cider… I wished Dusk were here. We could go for drinks and work out a proper mare’s name for me. She actually listened, and cared. Three loud hoof-on-wood thumps echoed through the room. Someone was at the door. Light and David stopped talking and turned to look across the small room at me. I was the closest to the door after all. I gave them a nod, “Don’t worry, I’ll get it.” “Thanks.” David said, turning back to Light to talk about… I don’t know actually. I walked over to the door, turned the knob with my hoof, opened it a crack and- “Lily!” Dusk greeted with a genuine smile, scaring the absolute piss nearly literally out of me, “I need a drink, we should go for a drink. I’ll buy.” “Eeeep! How the bucking hay did you even find me!” I exclaimed, ears standing upright in alarm. “Uh… Well from your point of view it would be magic. Can we just say magic?” Dusk asked with an embarrassed hoof kick. “Wait a goddamn minute… That’s what’s-her-face’s voice!” David said, the bed squeaking as he jumped up and bolted to the door pointing at Dusk and exclaiming, “You! This time before you vanish you are telling me exactly who you are and what the hell you're doing with me, Jade, and Az-Lily!” Dusk facehooved, “Dammit… I forgot you were traveling with them!” Light stood up slowly, a concerned look on her face as she warned, “Uh, you shouldn't be antagonizing-” “Light, shut it.” David snapped. “Now, you have been following us since Applewood at least, helping move us along from place to place. Why? Who are you? What do you want with us?” He demanded, some serious anger and fear behind his words. Dusk rolled her eyes, “Look… I’m not allowed to just give you that. Not without making a deal of some kind. There are Rules. If we’re going to do this, can we do it behind closed doors? And with Jade present?” “Uh, Jade’s busy pupating into a Queen.” I said shyly. Her eyes shrank to pinpricks.”What?” “Jade’s indisposed. I’ll fill her in.” David grumbled, “Come in and explain yourself.” “No no no nono!” Dusk growled, slamming her head into the door, “Damn it! Of course she’d go Queen now! She saved the whole damn crew! Argh!” David and I shared a raised eyebrow for the split second before David grabbed Dusk by the scruff of her neck, pulled her inside, slammed the door shut, and demanded, “Explain now!” Light flinched and dove behind the bed. Prompting a pit of fear to ball up in my belly like an angry cat. Dusk eeped and gave him a dirty look, “Okay… I can forgive that. Sort of deserved it… Oh Motherbucking ponyfeathers! You can’t move a changeling cocoon without hurting them!” She groaned, holding her face in her hooves. “Can you please tell us what’s going on?” I asked, hoping that politeness would work better than fearful anger. “Yeah…” Dusk sighed. “I’m driving a plot to kill Queen Chrysalis's. You three are a part of it, David, you and Jade were intentional parts. Lily, I’m glad you met them, but I never intended to drag you into this… Didn’t know you existed to be honest.” David nodded to himself, “We’re bait…” Dusk nodded, and smiled softly. “That’s why I put you on it. You’re perceptive, intelligent, skilled… You are the one to see Jade through this.” “She’s a child!” David growled, “Everything else aside putting her in danger is… Morally outrageous!” “No she isn’t” Dusk and I said together. “She told me she is seventeen, that’s a child.” David protested. “Not for a scout.” Dusk rightly pointed out. “In fact, if you were to give her an equivalent lifespan to your own species Jade would be twenty seven years old. A scout lives for seventy five years at most, more commonly fifty. Yes I put her in danger, but she is a fully developed adult, despite her ignorance of the outside world. “Besides, even if she was a child… Is not the life of one child worth the lives of millions? Is any one death not a bargain for saving the lives of everyone the Swarm will kill if they keep existing?” I frowned, that was grim but… I couldn’t fault the logic. Except for one small thing. “But who are you to decide who dies?” I asked, trying to ignore the fact that this was my friend talking. “What she said!” David barked. “No one important,” Dusk said with an eye roll, “just the actual anthropomorphized personification of the concept of death.” The room fell silent for a full three seconds. “Bullshit.” David sneered. Dusk turned her head and looked into David’s eyes, her own eyes starting to glow a pale ghostly green. “You first met me at the Santa Ana Trainyard, on the twenty third of September of the year two thousand and fifteen. You had spent the night binge drinking and putting on your old uniform, trying to relive the days when you still had hope for a fulfilling life. In your drunken state you stumbled to the train station, seeking an end to your pain, and threw yourself in front of the twelve thirty train to Los Angeles.” David’s jaw dropped. I felt my heart skip a beat. Light peaked out from behind the bed only to duck back down. Dusk continued. “Upon your soul’s entry into the Lobby, you felt at peace. You had no questions for me, a rare thing. All you wanted was to move on to whatever awaited you. As with all who die I read your soul in preparation to construct your afterlife, and saw only pain. “My brother is an asshole, he chooses people to suffer at random, and you were one of his playthings. Yet despite your life, you were still kind. You take with you into the next world the things you have with you upon your death, and as you were able, you gave me this pack of cigarettes after I lit one of my own.” A small package of cigarettes appeared in a flash of green flames, simply hovering in front of the pale mare’s face with the logo held outwards. “I uh… but…” David jibbered. “Because of your kindness in the face of misery, and because these are seriously good cigarettes, I took the risk of allowing you a second chance at life, reincarnating you five years ago within Stalliongrad having chosen your species, location, and time so as to fulfill my own plans, and to ensure you would at last find a true friend.” Dusk finished, the package vanishing, along with the glowing flames. “Everyone in this room’s visited me before too. You just forget when you come back.” Wait, but, “I… I never died.” I said, looking more baffled and confused that David did with the one drooped ear and floppy tail. Dusk frowned, an honest actually sorry frown, “You did actually. I’d forgotten myself… Look, even gods don’t have perfect memories. But you did. It was… That time your father set you on fire. I remembered that after sobering up. I put you back because your death was cruel and unfair, and my brother wasn’t even involved… My dad yelled at me for it.” “But… universe… time…creation paradox?” David feebly protested. “We didn’t make it.” Dusk said with a smile. “We’re a part of it, just like you, except we live in three more spatial dimensions, and two more temporal dimensions than you do.” “But… If gods are real why didn’t any religion seem to be correct?” David protested, starting to regain composure. “I... died?” I squeaked, tail drooping. Dusk nodded at me and gave me an oddly comforting hug. “You did. It’s okay, I fixed you up. Heh, guess I always had my drinking buddy’s back!” Clearing her throat, Dusk turned back to David, “We stopped caring about humans. It was before your recorded history. At first we thought it would be best to let you develop on your own, then well… The religions you invented were too well established to challenge with the truth, and if we did show you the truth you would discover magic and that would destroy your social structure and do more harm than good… “We don’t need mortal’s worship to live or anything, so we just did our jobs from the shadows.” “Okay… Say I buy that. Why are you a pony if you were a human god?” David asked, his shocked tone slowly morphing into a curious tone as he pulled a chair over to sit on. “Ponies are cute, and I don’t experience time like you, I can travel through it like you do this space. I know all the times and places that this planet and the planet's creatures from here colonize. Of these species I found ponies to be the most adorable, and thus from a mortal's perspective I have been a pony since this cycle began.” “Cycle?” I asked curiously. She nodded “Yeah, this cycle of… Look the universe's three dimensional space has cycles of expansion and contraction. That’s how we measure time. The universe is born in a burst of energy, expands, cools, then compresses back down and explodes again. That’s a cycle. I’ve seen eight of them. There have been forty two so far.” I didn’t have a physics background, but from what she was describing, that was literally using the heat death of the universe as a calendar. “H-how old does that make-” “There literally isn’t a number in any mortal language big enough.” she admitted with a blush. “But, we are a species, and while we do not die, we do come into being. If I were a pony I would be thirty eight or so. An adult plus a bit.” “Alright…” David said slowly, locking his eyes onto Dusk. “So, can you do anything to actually prove you are a god, which couldn’t be replicated with mind reading?” Dusk nodded, “Sure, easily.” She hummed for a moment then nodded to herself, held out her hoof, and a small medal simply unfolded from nothingness into her hoof. It was made of bronze, shaped like an upside down five pointed star with the tips that had little decorative bumps, and attached to a bright blue ribbon. “Pretty sure you recognize-” “How did you get that?” David asked in an emotionless voice. “I reached across spacetime and picked it up.” Dusk answered, turning it around to show David the back, “It’s yours, there's your name, rank, and serial.” David stared at the medal for a few seconds then nodded. “Okay. I believe you… Put it back.” “What? Why?” I asked, “Shouldn’t you be proud of winning-” “It’s not that sort of award Lily.” David said as Dusk vanished the medal back to… wherever. “But-” Dusk gave me a ‘shhh’ look. “It’s a veteran thing. Don’t push it.” Oh. Well then that was different. “Sorry.” “It’s okay.” David said before looking back up at Dusk. “So… You’re a god. Of death.” “Yes.” Dusk said nodding. “But as you can see, I’m also a person. I’m also nice. You don’t need to be afraid of me.” “I stopped being afraid of death along time ago.” David muttered. “I know. Thank you.” Dusk said with a smile. “I hate how he made mortals… Ah, skip it.” “Wait,” I asked, “If you’re a god of death, the you have control over death, right?” She nodded, “Yes… If by that you mean I have control over mortals souls after they have passed on.” “Can’t you just like… Make Chrysalis's drop dead?” I asked curiously. “That’s actually a good question.” Light said timidly from behind the bed. “Agreed.” David grunted. “Why put Jade in danger if you’re a god?” Dusk sighed and sat down on the floor. A goddess sat on the floor. It was weird. I felt like the floor should have morphed into a throne or something. “I’m on the bottom of the deity totem pole. There are Rules. That’s all I can tell you without using a loophole. If you want to know more, we need to make a deal, and there is only one deal I am willing to make.” Dusk said slowly, “You agree to take the first train possible to the Equestrian border, and head to Appaloosa, and I’ll tell you what you want to know.” “Why?” David asked. “Because I can’t tell you more without a deal, and I need you to go there. After which you will be free of me… Unless you want to hang out… Yeah.. right… hang out with god who puppeteered you…” Dusk sighed, ears drooping sadly. “I’m honestly sorry… I… Just… She has to die.” I looked at David with a concerned expression. He returned the look, and in a silent moment we both knew we had to agree. He nodded, “Alright. I’ll go there, and I’ll take Jade with me. Now tell us.” Dusk let out a relieved sigh, another weird thing for a god to do… Or was it? “Right,” she started, “I can’t actually kill anyone without permission. See, the end of life is part of life, and hence, that’s my brother’s domain. I only have dominion of mortals after they pass, not before, nor can I choose how they pass on.” Her face suddenly melted into a tired, depressed, and angry look. “Do you know how many die every day? I don’t experience time in a line, after this conversation I could process three centuries of mortals souls then come back to you a second later from your perspective. But for me, that time has passed. I see every single last mortal’s life in full. It’s my job. “I create an afterlife for everyone, and I give them exactly what they have earned through their own actions in life. But… To do that… I know everyone. Everyone. Their hopes, dreams, fears… I… I‘ve grown to love mortal kind. You are precious, more so than us. “You get to forge your own paths, you love, you fear, you… You are more than I am. I am a personality and a concept, and little more. You are these amazing creatures with agency over yourselves that I could only dream of, existing for the briefest of moments, but burning brighter than my grandmother who is literally the manifestation of the concept of light itself.” Dusk bit her lip in an angry expression, “And Chrysalis destroys you without even a thought. She’s the moral equivalent of my brother, a cruel, sadistic, narcissist out only for their own power and pleasure. She embodies the random cruelty and calculated evil more than anything else alive on your world. Every time a soul comes to me because of her, I… I feel angry, and sad, and… I don’t know.” I blinked twice. This was… weird. Good weird, but weird. Death itself hated people dying. “But… you’re death… How can you hate people dying?” I asked, genuinely confused. “I don’t know… I shouldn’t. But I do. I’ve had emotions like a mortal’s for a long time now. I even have a crush… I can’t remember when it started… But it’s not normal.” Dusk sighed, laying down with her head on her hooves. “But what does this have to do with using Jade and I as bait?” David asked, a hint of anger creeping back into his voice. “I could destroy her right now. That would be easy. But if I did, I break a Rule, the other gods notice that I stepped into someone else's domain, and I am severely punished, forever imprisoned, maybe even destroyed. That leaves my brother free to do as he wishes… That might sound fine, letting Life do whatever it likes. But it’s not. Remember, botflies are a part of life, disease is a part of life, pain is a part of life, misery is a part of life… They don't have to be, he made them a part, and sold everyone on them being a part…” Oh… Oh! Oh Faust’s glowing mane! I totally knew what botflies were! “Oh Gott warum!?” I shuddered, “Y-your brother intentionally-” “Made creatures whose whole life cycle revolves around laying eggs into a foal's eyes so the maggots hatch and have food. Yes. He did that.” Dusk spat. “And without you around, he would have absolutely no one keeping him in check?” David asked, ears laying flat in anger and eyes wide with horror. “That’s the problem in a nutshell.” Dusk said with a grim nod. “Okay, I’m totally fine with being used as bait.” David said standing up, “Lily, are you fine with being used as bait?” I nodded, “Vollständig.” “Light, are you okay with this?” David asked. “Yes.” She said, peeking out from behind the bed again. “A-are you going to go all angry god for him dragging you?” “No.” Dusk answered. “Oh thank… you!” Light sighed in relief before timidly pulling herself up onto the room’s single bed. “Okay.” Dusk said standing up slowly. “You know the plan. Take the first train you can, as quickly as you can manage, and get to the Equestrian border on a straight line for Appleloosa. You don’t need to fight her, I’ve arranged for the whole Equestrian army to be ready with an ambush. You just lead her in, and boom! A major threat to the world is removed, everyone is safer and happier, and you can move on with your lives.” “Huh.” I said giving her an impressed nod. “That’s actually a good plan… Wait, you're a god, of course it’s a good plan.” Dusk chuckled, “We’re not infallible. Or all knowing, or even smarter than mortals. I can be a pretty big idiot… You should see me try to say hi to Luna…” I was about to say something when Dusk gave me a cheery grin, “But enough business! I came here for a drink, and I want my favorite mare buddy to come along for a drink. Since Jade’s thrown a wrench in the timetable, we may as well go for a drink… Oh! Then we could go shopping again! You could use some more cute dresses!” Again? Again! My eyes widened in realization, “That’s how I got those piercings!” Dusk frowned, “You didn’t always have those?” “I wha- Nein!” I objected. “Oh… Well they suit you. But seriously, drink, go for, wanna?” Dusk asked, no, pleaded with her eyes. I felt I needed to tell Dusk how I felt about her, now that I new the truth. This seemed like the best time to do it. “Dusk, you’re my friend, even if you are eine Göttin. While I expect amazing birthday gifts, you do not have to bribe me with dresses to go for a drink.” Dusk blushed lightly, “I’m not bribing, I just want to see you in cute outfits to see if they might look good on me so I can pick one out for if Luna accepts my offer for a date... Wait, you’re treating me like a normal friend!” Her eyes light up with an actual real glow. It was creepy, but kinda endearing. “Ja. Because you’re my friend.” I said with a laugh. “Right.” David said shaking his head. “Lily, you seem to have just rolled with this… You go for a drink. I need to just kinda sit and process things for… hours. Lots of hours.” “Hours huh?” Dusk said with a smile, “Not bad for someone who needs to reevaluate their whole worldview. I uh… I’ll bring you back something nice to drink. You gave up booze right? I think Zebrica has good soda. I’ll get you a soda. Right then, Lily, Butterscotch’s Pub?” I felt my heart speed up in anticipation, “Oh mein Gott, ja!” I beamed her a grin. “Sweet!” Dusk smiled held out her hoof, I took it, and an instant later found myself back in Capsan’s pub splitting a bottle of pure deliciousness with my first real best friend.