Your New God... Ahuizotl?

by CanterlotGuardian

The Village Life

“Show me around the village.”

Loraszca stirred slightly, moaning in that sort of way that indicated that she'd just been rudely awakened from an excellent sleep, one that probably had been long-awaited, and most likely few and far between at that. She brushed the sleep from her eyes, still trying to focus on who was standing there in front of her, that giant form with blue fur and-

She groaned. “What time is it...?” she murmured sleepily. “And why are you waking me up so early?”

Ahuizotl looked rather perplexed at this. “So early? This is early for you?” He thought about it for a second. “Well, I guess it's probably early for me, too. Late, as well.”

Lorrie sat up and plopped down onto the floor, landing on all fours. Elegance be damned, she thought. This.... thing... woke her up early, and she wasn't about to try to pretend that she liked it.

“What in Equestria are you talking about?” she asked, padding softly over to her makeshift sink. She checked the bucket underneath it, and groaned. “Damn it all, I just got water yesterday. And now I have to go get it again...”

Ahuizotl cocked his head. “You don't have any kind of running water?”

“Nope,” she replied curtly. “We haven't had any kind of utilities here for a while. Not for a lack of trying, mind you. Chrendotl's curse basically set us back to the Stone Ages. We had electricity, running water, the works. Now look at us. All of us have to get our water from the well that's in the center of the village, and we light everything with candles and lanterns.”

“You think it was his curse that did this to you? He must have been a very powerful magic user.”

Lorrie absent-mindedly flipped a lock of hair out of her face as she used her magic to levitate the bucket from underneath the sink. “Our village has been on some very hard times since Chrendotl left, I think I mentioned. The whole water and power thing is only a part of it. We basically spend all of our time hunting and gathering food, and that's not even so we can eat. It's for the Calling of the God. We wanted our offerings to the gods to be everything we had, so that the gods would see that we were truly serious about calling one of them to be our patron.”

This flabbergasted him. “So you all don't really eat? How do you survive?”

“Well, everyone else doesn't eat. I do, but that's because I don't eat the same things that the rest of the ponies in the village do.” Seeing the look of befuddlement on his face, she added, “You're not familiar with changelings, are you?”

“Not very,” he admitted, “other than just knowing they exist. And to be honest, I really hadn't actually seen one in the flesh before I met you.”

“Modest and truthful. I like that. Good qualities of a god who won't betray us all to the Wolves.” She smiled again at him, simple and innocent. And again, he could tell that she genuinely meant it. She liked being around him, or at least intensely tolerated him.

Something about what she said gave him a slight pause, though. “These... Wolves. You seem to place a great significance on them. Am I to assume that these are not just ordinary wolves?”

“You catch on quick,” she replied, her smile fading slightly. “You're absolutely correct These aren't regular wolves. The Wolves aren't even wolves at all, at least not like the ones that the average ponyfolk is used to.”

“Then what are they?”

“We don't know,” Lorrie replied as she branched off a second tendril of magic to snap open the crude lock that she'd fashioned for her hut's door and swing it outward- all the way, she made sure, to give Ahuizotl enough room to get out, as well as herself with the bucket. “They just showed up one day, about ten or so years ago. They claimed to be representatives of an advanced species, and stated that they had been watching us for a very long time. They knew that we had been through an awful lot of tough times, and they wanted to make things better on us.”

“Had you ever seen anything like them before?”

Lorrie shook her head, shutting the door as soon as they were both through. “They looked basically like ponies, except they were incredibly tall, each of them shimmering with a thousand scales, as though we were looking at a rainbow fish of sorts- except obviously these beings looked nothing like fish.”

Ahuizotl racked his brain as they descended the steps of her hut, trying to think of any time a being of that sort had been mentioned in any of the ancient texts that his species had kept for millennia. He couldn't think of any off the top of his head, which perplexed him. “So what did they want with you, then?”

“Simply put, they wanted to help us. To give us the secrets to some long-lost magic that only they knew about. They claimed it was the key to unlocking the Great Potential inside of us all, and that we could become the greatest city in Equestria if we used this magic for ourselves.”

“Sounds like a load of horseapples to me,” he remarked offhoofedly.

“That was what Great Wonder thought as well,” she acknowledged. “His family are all lorists- ponies who have specialized in familiar and tribal record-keeping since the beginning. And he had never heard of these Wolves- well, they didn't call themselves that at first; he's never revealed what exactly they referred to themselves as at first- or this long-lost magic that they spoke of. So he turned them down. He saw them as shysters, just a group of freak-show ponies taking their act on the road, trying to sucker in gullible ponies for a quick buck. He sent them away from the village, warning that if they ever came back, he would be forced to use physical force on them to send them away for good.”

“And have they ever showed up again?”

“Well no, not technically. They've been wise enough to stay out of our business and leave us be well enough alone. But then... there are the disappearances.”

Ahuizotl nearly stopped in his tracks. This was becoming more and more like a horror story by the second... and not the good kind that makes sense all the way through either. “Pardon me if this sounds a bit unbelievable... but ponies are just disappearing from the village and no one even cares? It would seem to me like this would be a thing that would be a constant cause for alarm.”

“You'd think so, wouldn't you?” Lorrie sniggered, “but the sad fact of the matter is, the ponies in this village are so incredibly stuck in their ways that they really don't even care to address the matter- well, except for the whole 'we need a god' thing. That part, they're real sticklers about. Now that you're here, though, they can finally stop talking about it as though it's this event that will end the existence of this village as we know it.”

They arrived at the well and Lorrie attached the bucket to the spindle, lowering it down into the well to draw the water out. “So does no one go out to look for these ponies? They just... leave them to die or whatever?”

Lorrie scoffed as she tested the weight of the bucket to see if it was full enough yet. “You know what I think? I think it's just ponies who get tired of all the spiritual mysticism and bullshit about this place, and leave to go back to wherever they came from to begin with. I mean, it's all enticing and whatnot. Get away to a village out in the middle of Luna-forsaken nowhere, start a whole new life, nopony to look over your shoulder and wonder if they've caught up to you. Nopony knows who you are here, other than 'that other new pony', and that's how they like it.”

She began to wheel the bucket back up to the surface. “And when they leave, it hurts us as a community, because we're kind of dependent upon everypony to chip in and help out- you know, because of the curse or the fact that no one here knows their hoof from their flank, or whatever reason they come up with this time. We're an insular group, and when somepony leaves, that job that they fulfilled in the village has to be taken up by everypony else, which makes it harder on us all. Though to me personally, I don't care.” She levitated the bucket carefully up into the air, balancing it on the top of her head.

“To be frank, I'm happy whenever somepony leaves the village. That means they came to their senses and realized that nopony should ever have to live this way. That's one more woke pony in the world, and Luna knows we need more of those in existence.”

“It sounds like you and the rest of the village are so diametrically opposed...” Ahuizotl remarked as they started to head back to her hut. “So why are you even here to begin with? Why would you willingly associate yourself with ponies with whom you hold no real connection with, ponies who have such... outlandish beliefs?”

She stopped and looked directly into Ahuizotl's eyes, and he saw a fire smoldering in them that he hadn't seen in a pony's eyes in ages. It caught him a bit off guard, and he (wisely) chose to remain silent in the face of it.

“Don't make the same mistake I did when I first came here,” she warned. “Just because they believe things that don't sound like they make any sense at all, doesn't mean I don't have a connection with them. Their beliefs may not make a lick of sense to anyone in the outside world, but their belief in the tenets they follow is true as rain, genuine as they come. I can't say that about any other group of ponies I've ever met. They're all so... wishy-washy. They don't want to commit to one belief or another. These ponies? They don't care at all. They believe what they believe, in spite of what anyone has to say about it, and I respect them immensely for it.”

She broke his gaze and began to walk again, Ahuizotl trailing behind her like an obedient puppy. This changeling was unlike any being he had ever encountered before. She was mysterious but kind, firm but loving, wise and knowledgeable and yet at the same time unwilling to simply accept what she saw at face value without questioning it. He honestly wished more ponies were like her. And then he remembered when she had basically said the same thing to him, not so long ago.

“So when are we going to tour the village like you said?” he asked as they ascended the steps to her hut. She swung the door open and walked in, waiting until he was inside to shut it. She set the bucket under the sink, levitating a crude washcloth over to her in order to bathe. She dropped her disguise, revealing herself once again as changeling. She began to bathe herself, taking the utmost care not to miss a single spot of her chitined exterior.

“After I get done with this,” she replied after a moment. “I still haven't explained to you fully about the Wolves yet, either. And you still need to introduce yourself, after all.”

Until that point, he had simply been gazing listlessly out the window, just thinking about the things he had been told about this village and their inhabitants. At this tidbit, though, he snapped himself back to reality and leveled his gaze at her. “What do you need to know about me?”

“Anything, really.” She continued to wash herself while talking. “I need to be able to tell the Council something if they ask about you. And even if I didn't, I'm curious. You don't look like anything I've ever seen before- and believe me, I've seen a lot.”

“You changelings get out a lot?” he said in a semi-joking matter.

“While you jest, it's not too far from the truth. Queen Chrysalis is constantly sending her drones out on recon missions. She leaves the risky ones for her trusted advisors, though- and me, naturally. I'm the only one outside of her advisors court that she would trust with a mission like this.”

“So you're on a mission. What's the objective?”

She draped the washcloth on the edge of the sink and levitated a towel over to her, drying herself off. “It's weird, you know. I normally don't like bathing myself in front of anyone. Even my Queen knew that I preferred to bathe alone. It's just always weirded me out, knowing that others could be watching me while I clean myself. But I don't have a problem with it around you.”

“That is weird,” Ahuizotl acknowledged. “But that doesn't answer my question about your mission.”

“I know,” she replied flippantly. “There's a reason for that. I'm not supposed to tell anyone what I'm doing here. That's why I haven't revealed myself to be a changeling yet- well that, and I'm pretty sure they don't tolerate other members outside their race very well.”

Upon seeing the look of confusion on his face, she continued: “They believe that earth ponies are destined to rise up and rule Equestria someday. Their justification for this is some old passage, 'The meek shall inherit Equestria' or whatnot. They take it to mean themselves as earth ponies, because pegasi and unicorns have 'great advantages' over them that they could never hope to surmount. Pegasi can fly, and unicorns obviously have magic. Earth ponies have neither, and they've always resented that. So, Great Wonder promises them that one day they should be able to rise up and take Equestria back for themselves. That's what this whole colony is all about.”

“But there are pegasi here too, aren't there?” Ahuizotl pointed out, now severely more confused than ever. “I saw a few of them assisting Great Wonder at the ceremony I inadvertently crashed last night.”

She nodded as she finished toweling off. “The only reason why Great Wonder allows pegasi in the village at all is because even he acknowledges that there is some work that needs to be done, basic maintenance on the village, that earth ponies can't do by themselves- repairing some of the lookout posts, gathering nuts and fruits from high up in the trees, that kind of stuff. That doesn't stop them from thinking that the pegasi are beneath them though.”

“But what do the pegasi think? Surely they can't have no problem with this. I mean, Great Wonder is almost literally calling them nothing. Why would they continue to be around these ponies who have such intense disdain for them?”

“I have a few hunches,” she replied. “I think some of them might have come from a place where for whatever reason, they weren't accepted among the populace, so even if these people don't like their species as a whole, they're willing to overlook that for the solace of belonging to a group that actually wants them around. Either that, or they genuinely do want societal change, and they're willing to accept tenets of any belief structure that offers that... in spite of how biased towards them they really are.”

“So basically, the intelligence level of this village isn't that high,” he remarked. “And there's no magic here at all.”

“Nope. Great Wonder has forbidden it. That's why whenever I practice my magic, I have to do so when I'm alone, either at night or just when I'm pretty sure nopony else is around.” She jumped up onto her bed and lay down, facing the ceiling. “So what else do you want to know about the Wolves? Or about village life in general? Or about me, heavens forbid?” She chuckled a bit at that last one.

Ahuizotl had a lot of questions, mostly concerning Great Wonder and his belief structure, but he felt like he'd pressed the issue enough as it was. And besides, there was one more thing that he needed to know. After all, a village god shouldn't be completely clueless about the village he's the god of, right?

“Feel up for giving me that tour now?”

She groaned. “Oh yeah, there's that too... Alright fine, let's go. It won't take too long, I hope. There's really only like four or five major landmarks in the village that you should really care about. Other than that, just ask me whatever I guess, about the village or something. I'll answer just about any question you have, unless it's about my mission or my favorite color.”

“Why not your favorite color?” he asked bemusedly.

She hopped down off the bed and shot him a playful wink. “Because I don't have one.” She opened the door and let him out first, before exiting behind him.

She walked him around for a little bit before stopping at a wooden structure that was a sight bigger than the rest of the buildings in the village. “This is Great Wonder's personal hut,” she explained. “That's why it's bigger than the others. He believes that as the ruler of the village, his living quarters should reflect that. Any business a villager might have with the chief is also done in there. Also, and this is kind of important, any business done with the chief is never spoken aloud outside the hut, unless it's a matter that affects the entire village.”

“Why so secretive, you think?”

She shrugged. “I have my own opinions about that, but this is neither the time nor the place to be answering them. Everypony should be getting up pretty soon and starting their daily duties, so I don't want any information to cross the wrong ears.”

They walked around for a bit more after that. She explained to him about some of the various types of trees around the village, which produced what kind of fruit, which to avoid because they were poisonous, and so on. Before long, they found themselves at the bonfire site that he had been watching just the previous night, at the Calling of a God ceremony.

As though she had read his mind, she spoke up: “It looks a lot different in the daytime, doesn't it? Not nearly as... ominous as it does when the Inferno's raging.”

“So what's it going to be used for now? I mean, what did it ever get used for other than Calling ceremonies?”

She thought for a second. “Come to think of it, not much, really. The pursuit of a god was kind of all-consuming to the tribe- well, technically, it was all-consuming to Great Wonder. The rest of the village just follows along, hanging on his every word. I always thought it was odd, really.”

“What's that?”

“That he never demanded to be worshiped as a god himself. I mean, if he truly has found the secret to eternal life, he could rule this colony as its god for the rest of his unnaturally-long life, if he wanted to. But he doesn't, at least not from what I've seen. He just wants to have power over those whom he deems worthy. He doesn't want to be worshiped, or called a god. He just wants a god to call his own.”

“I think that's something we should mention to the chief eventually. I mean, now that I'm here and I guess I'm ok with being this village's god, we really should start tending to the dietary needs of the villagers- I mean, except for you.” He realized something just then. “Which reminds me. Earlier you said you don't need to feed on what everypony else feeds on. So what do you eat?”

She looked around to see if anypony had come out of their huts yet, then beckoned him down to whisper something into his ear. He acquiesced.

“It's love, Ahuizotl.”

That was not the answer that he was expecting. “Love. You feed off... love?”

Lorrie nodded. “That's what all of our species feed on. We literally derive our life sustenance from the love that ponies share for one another- well, love given freely by any species, technically, but pony love is the sweetest. It tastes the best to me, and to a lot of other members of my species. And despite how deluded these backwoods ponies are, I can say this about them: I can't really identify which type of love they have for each other, whether it be a genuine, true love, or just one borne out of necessity, but they do love each other. And let me tell you- their love is filling. I don't even have to feed but once a day now, and I'm sated until the next day. It's pretty nice.”

This was opening up entirely new worlds of thought to Ahuizotl. There was literally a species in Equestria that didn't even have to feed to survive. Rather, they lived off an emotion so intangible, it was often applied to situations that it had no business being applied to. And yet it was still real enough to provide sustenance to an entire species?

They walked on for a bit longer, talking about small things: what happened in the village's daily routine (there definitely was one), how often new ponies happened to show up in the village. She even gave him some tips on how to fit in, reminders of customs that the village had that he probably wouldn't have known about beforehoof had she not told him, and only discovered when he violated them and he was staring down an angry chief wanting to know why.

They got to a large building, though it was visibly smaller than the chief's hut. She pointed to it. “This is our storehouse. As you can probably tell, it's not that full, since the Calling was just last night. Soon though, it'll fill back up. And hopefully, we can convince them, like you said, to start using these offerings a bit more productively... Like say, to feed the villagers themselves.”

Ahuizotl was about to ask something else of Lorrie when he heard hoofsteps fast approaching. Whoever was heading towards them was running at a pure sprint. A few seconds later, a caramel-colored earth pony rocketed past them, heading in the direction of the chief's tent. Lorrie looked at Ahuizotl, and he at her. They understood at once, and followed the pony to the hut as fast as they could.

When they arrived, the pony had already flung open the door and was attempting to rouse the chief. Great Wonder snapped his eyes open and got up quick as a flash. “What is it?” he asked with a raspy, “I just woke up” voice. “What did you see?” While he was asking this, Lorrie explained that he was one of the camp's scouts, sent out on a daily basis to patrol the surrounding woods for any sign of danger.

He panted hard as he tried to catch his breath, but the next words he said were heard loud and clear by all those in attendance.

“The Wolves... They approach.”

Comments

[QueenChrysalisForever]

This is quite interesting so far, I look forward to reading more!