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CH.5: A god's lament

~20,000 B.D The great plains~

Fire and smoke dotted the landscape and blocked the skies, all around laid the bodies of those slain in the battle. Dragon heads rolling around far from their bodies while charred remains of griffins and diamond dogs burned spreading the smell of death and decay miles beyond. The world was at war with itself. The races out to kill and destroy all those they believe to be less than them. While thousands upon thousands of casualties could be seen from both sides, this was but one of the smaller skirmishes of late. What was more sickening than that is that even in death the spirits of the soldiers continued to fight each other as though some force drove them to erase the others existance.

It all started when the dragons started attacking the dogs in Gem fido. Records say that the dogs simply did their best to do defend from the attacks until one day for some reason they all became aggressive and went out of their way to attack. But, it wasn't the dragons they retaliated on. No, even though they were being bombarded everyday they set off for the Hyponia mountains and began to seige the griffon defense towers. Again records will show the griffons did exactly as the diamond dogs where they defended at first than suffered a severe change in strategy and charged full force into battle.

The difference here is that while a smaller country than the rest the griffins were smarter than most gave them credit for. They split the army in two where one half attacked the dogs while the other half made their way to the Magna Leo forests and attack the cat civilization. With news of race wars starting, the royal alicornian began making preparations for the inevitable battles which started as an attack on their southern settler towns. Everyone eventually became part of the world war even if they didn't directly fight, even the peace loving simians of the shadow-leaf forests found so far north creatures hardly ever hear of them except when they go on their life pilgrimage to the Gaian tree, were pulled in if only to defend their homelands.

The first major fight to define the war was the three-way struggle between cats, dogs, and griffins at base of the Draconian badlands mountain-range. The battle went on for seven straight days and all three armies decimated each other. Nothing made it out of the battle alive. The death total came to 10,000 each on all sides which meant at least 10% of the griffin species died in that fight. As the war dragged on it ended up being more skirmishes than actual battles but when the races did wage war they only ended in tragedy. At night the moon shined red as the blood that poisoned the rivers while in the morning the sun revealed death and destruction unknown to even the gods themselves. And that is how those times were in the "Thousand years of Blood".

I knew of the wars going on. I tried my hardest to save them, to save my children from they're blood-lust and demonic rage. But even I have limits and nothing I tried would work. Back than I kept regular contact with the priests of each civilizations so I tried to get them to change their views but than just ignored as though I was an apparition, That was when i decided to take the direct role of intervention which to a point before "it" happened. The battle was on the plains of the Equ capitol as the dragon armies were making their way to take control. It was a standstill as unicorns began to explode the insides of the dragon infantry killing them on the spot. I came in and thought if I intervened i could get them to see reason.

When I saw a break in the fight I separated the two armies by raising a huge wall of earth between the two. While it kept them from attacking each other they still felt the need to kill something and so needed a new target, that's when 'it' happened. They turned on themselves. Simply at the loss of an enemy both races turned on each other to fulfill their need for bloodlust. I was at a loss at what i was seeing, dragon were ripping wings and tail from their brothers and mother while the unicorns were blowing up various equs. Pegasi flew around driving the ponies into the ground snapping necks and smashing skulls.

At this I did what was possibly my worse mistake ever. I fled. The all powerful goddess fled from the scene because she couldn't handle the sight of her children killing each other in such destruction. I kept flying to i was back home inside the Gaian tree and simply began to cry. I cried the tears of a thousand souls dying in hopeless battle. I mourned the lives of those who have passed in hopeless battles. But what I did that doomed thousand more to end up the same, was that I gave up on them. I simply lost hope in saving them all from their self-destruction. With that I left and went back to the now ended battle began to guide the souls to rest. This was 500 years into the war.

Battle after battle for the next 500 years slowly dwindled each races populous until by the end of the war each race had killed off nearly 80% of each of the nations. And after each battle I would simply do my job and guided each of the souls on their way to the other side. Each battle field I went to took was taking an odd toll on me. I became depressed and cold to emotions. My coat turned ragged and black as the night sky. My red pupils overtook my eyes leaving red orbs instead of sockets. My wings took on a ghastly smoke look that resembled torn dragon wings. I began to call this form the Reaper and started the myth that death was a reaper.

With my transformation into this being of death's guidance I lost my touch with life and the world began to suffer from it. While slow the world began to destroy it self, once dormant volcanoes began erupting non-stop, the ocean slowly dried up, weather went haywire, and plants simply wilted from having their life source cut off. I was oblivious to all of this stuck in my depression of the war. This continued 'till I found something that made overjoyed at the prospect of what it meant but was immediately put into a rage at who did it.

It was on the final year of warring in a fight between the bogs and cats and a lone cat survived. I arrived on the scene to find him clutching his side. He looked upon me with dread thinking that even though he won the battle death would still claim him. As I looked upon his injuries something caught my interest. He was bleeding but not blood. From his side oozed a black tar-like substance that I sensed a chaotic feeling from. I immediately figured out that this was what was making everyone fight each other. I healed the wounded soldier and cleansed him of the black liquid that I decided to call "smooze". when the cleansing was done I asked if he knew what the black ooze was. He said that the stuff began oozing up into the grounds and eventually poisoned the waters at first they didn't think it was in fact they thought it was good making them stronger faster and smarter but, than everyone became angry and after that it was all a red angry blur. I let him go to whatever home was left for him and began a plan.

If I destroyed the source it should cleanse all those infected but, where is the source? I kept repeating. The cat said it oozed from the ground so the source had to be underground. With renewed hope shook off the reaper form and ground my hooves into the earth began searching for the smooze core. It was than what my negligence had done to the world. If the war had continued any longer the world would have given up like me and have destroyed itself somewhere along the line of implosion. The smooze core was way too deep for me to dig to so I had to use m last resort.

I flew up to the sky and dispersed the smoke and clouds so that the sun could shine down. As I hovered there soaking in the power of the sun my physical form slowly burned away leaving a green aura form twice my original size four wings layered on top of each other sprouted forth and golden armor finished the picture. As I began collecting power by being shined so bright it as though you were staring at the sun. I eventually collected so much energy into my being the sun itself dimmed.

I flew high into the sky until I could touch the stars themselves. I called upon the spirits of the fallen to give me their strength as I dive bombed the planet. I broke the sound barrier before even entering re-entry and had gone to over mach 10 speeds before the ground was even visible. When I hit the ground I bore straight to the planet. When I came upon the smooze core I shoved all of the energy I had collected into it as I bore past it. I manged to fly out the other side of the planet before the energy went off, but when it did it had mixed results. The smooze core was completely destroyed cleansing everyone still alive of its taint and cleaned the world of the destruction of my negligence. but it also changed the landscape of a massive scale. The planet itself doubled in size. The Draconian badlands became part desert, while the Magna Leo forests had random volcanoes popping up. Giant crystal shards shot out of the ground in Gem fido turning nearly all of the rocks under their landscape into crystals and gems. The Hyponia mountains were oddest of all when the mountain range began to be entwined with root bridges. Something that could not be helped is that the shadow-leaf forests and the lands surrounding it began to drift away. With a new world and an evil destroyed peace had reigned ever since even through mourning. I learned something i shall never take for granted.

"Never give up hope"





A/N not much dialouge here so beware text walls. It's hard to describe things and avoid them at the same time. Hopefully next chapter i can do something less tragic.

~Vinetion