CH60: The Duties of a Death-Prince
The news that not one, but two alicorns had been naturally conceived and born spread around Equestria like a wildfire. Of course, speculations ran wild as to who the father was, among the Palace’s staff especially so.
Some speculated that an unknown donor had spent a night with them, some that they magically impregnated themselves. Some say that the tree of harmony itself had impregnated them and even others said that the whole pregnancy was faked by the young princess to grow more popular.
And then, there were the more… adventurous rumours one could catch up. Some of them were quite graphic descriptions of how King Sombra had come back and had raped them both, while brainwashing them and making them into his broodmares. Others depict how they had used magic to grow masculine parts and impregnate each other. Depending on the version of that story, sometimes the other elements, the 4th FRC or BOTH can be involved.
But there were also some rumours that hit much closer to the truth than Markus himself would’ve liked. Apparently, a nurse had overheard what Cadence had said and, connecting the dots, concluded that Mortis may be the father. Luckily, this theory found little to no support, especially since Twilight and Rainbow themselves stated that theory to be false.
That didn’t change the fact that they could barely leave their castle anymore. Not because the foals were such a nuisance or something, but because only hours after they had made it home, they experienced a virtual Tsunami of paparazzi washing against their doors and persisting even weeks after.
Mystic had only barely managed to disperse them enough that at least she could enter and exit the castle undisturbed, but as soon as Rainbow and Twilight tried their luck, the storm worsened again.
Speaking of Mystic though: merely a few days after the birth of Dawnbreaker and Spectral Flash, the Shadow Guard was introduced to the public, much to the dismay of Mortis and Mystic.
Turns out that Celestia didn’t find it funny in the least that Mortis tried to establish his own military power and away from the public eye at that.
“Rules are rules and we are bound to them just as much as anypony else, Markus!” Celestia chastised him.
She loved her little ponies and could never hold something secret from them. One of her great weaknesses, in Markus’s opinion and apart from that also a major security hazard.
Furthermore, Celestia also found that her own reasoning also meant that he had to adhere to the same rules and duties as she and her sister, now that he had his own guard. Thus, she had him run a day court for her, while she finally had a day of vacation in, what felt like decades. However, this experiment backfired massively, due to Markus being so fundamentally different to Celestia.
Celestia was a kind and loving Monarch, who put her ponies over herself and, most importantly, who could be negotiated with.
Mortis, on the other hand, wasn’t a diplomat. He was calm, calculating, direct and stubborn. The nobles had to experience this first-hoof, when one of them, a lowly noble with a name not worth mentioning, proposed that all orphans from the age of 14 onwards shall work in order to “get at least some use out of them”.
Needless to say, Markus, being a highly protective idealist, wasn’t amused in the slightest. He gave the noble a very distinct ‘No’ and told him to leave that very instant. However, that was when the noble made a grave mistake: he started to negotiate.
His plan was likely to make such an absurd proposal from the beginning, to then negotiate the Princess down to something that would seem less bad for her, but would likely be just as favourable to the noble. With Markus, however, his seemingly unstoppable force didn’t just meet an immovable wall. It met a Black Hole.
“So that’s why I thought, maybe we could—“
“You aren’t listening to me, aren’t you?” Mortis said, rising from his throne.
“M-my prince? Why, of course I am listening to you! I just thought that—“
“Your words seem to differ greatly from your actions. Though, not to worry: You might not listen to me, but I think I know somepony, whom you will lend your ear…”
A black, swirling portal suddenly appeared beneath the noble, sucking him in and transporting him into a dark room with millions and billions of small lights dancing about in front of him, but strangely not leaving enough light to reflect off the walls.
“This is the death realm. Specifically, the area which holds the souls of deceased minors. Some of them were orphans and died due to slavery and other cruel acts and all of them would like to voice their opinion on your proposal…”
What followed was too brutal to be described in a Teen-rated fic, however you can be certain that the experience broke the noble on a mental AND physical level.
Needless to say this whole event didn’t resonate well with the nobility, which promptly forced Celestia to cancel her experiment and take her sole spot in day court yet again. However, it didn’t just have negative results, as a few days later, Mystic found fifty applications sitting on her desk.
Turns out that while it didn’t resonate well with the nobles, the general populace liked to see a prince who kicked noble butts.
Mystic asked Markus what to do with them, as it wasn’t originally intended to expand the shadow guard. However, looking at his future role, Markus realized that this might be necessary, seeing as the royal guard’s performance during the past war was – to him – less than just dissatisfactory.
But Markus didn’t know, what an avalanche he had caused there, as within only two months, the shadow guard had grown from 60 to over 200 ponies, with even more temporarily put into the reserves due to a lack of uniforms and weapons.
And that was the next problem. When he made these weapons at first, Markus didn’t want them to be replicated. He knew what this new technology would bring upon this world and thus wanted to limit them in number and distribution.
However, this line of thought was flawed from the beginning. Isolating a concept is almost impossible if it has already taken materiel form. The war had happened. Nations outside of Equestria had already witnessed the power these weapons brought and were now most likely looking into building some of their own and, sadly enough, the only way to avoid another war was to further distribute these weapons and research new ones to remain on top. It was an endless cycle and Markus knew full-well that he had started it.
He went to the factory, where Flim and Flam were still entrapped. He only wanted them to replicate the weapons he had built for his company, however when he entered the facility, he came to see something truly amazing.
Robots. Flim and Flam had used their magic to build robots and thus automate the entire production process. Markus had never mentioned any kind of automatons to them and yet these robots were there.
This simple thing made Markus realize something: when you’re faced with a problem, you don’t simply strive to encounter it, but to completely overcome it. The Twins had not only built enough machinery to complete their momentary tasks but had automated enough that this single factory had supplied the 4th FRC on its own and was still far from capacity.
Thinking this further, made him think about what other nations were doing with their knowledge about his weapons. He had only thought about how they might try to replicate them, but now he realized that they likely would also research ways to counter them. The ball was already rolling and now, Markus could only keep Equestria from being rolled over.
Mortis made Flim and Flam his head researchers and immediately gave them their first project: finding a way to propel carriages with magic alone.
Those changes all took place in the mortal realm. However, there were also changes in the death realm.
When Mortis became a prince of Equestria and thus found public recognition, the Death Realm changed as well. An intermediary plane was created, where the souls of the deceased would be judged by none other by Mortis himself, who would then assign one of four fates to the soul. The first option was immediate Resurrection. The second was the Death realm, where the souls, freed from their bodily needs, could exist in eternal bliss. The third option was reincarnation and the last option was destruction.
In order to make such a decision possible, the plane provided the Prince with all the memories of the soul. His task was, in turn, to talk to the soul and determine the personality and maturity of it.
In addition, this plane had a few rules that even the prince couldn’t break. Firstly, one could not exert any kind of physical force upon each other. Secondly, one could not leave the plane until a ruling was made. Thirdly, reincarnations cannot keep the memory of their encounter, while the resurrected may upon request. The fourth rule was that the fate of the souls could not be disclosed to others, not even close relatives. Lastly, one could not lie and was always forced to say the full truth. Should one try to lie anyways, one would experience the same unpleasantries the soul before Mortis did right at this moment.
His memories were showing him to be envious of his brother, because he was always popular with mares. However, one day, he found his special mare. They married, had three foals and a wonderful house and when he came home early one day, he found his wife in bed with his brother. His reaction was to kick him out of bed and then sit on top of him and literally slap him to death. When he realized what he had done, he turned to his wife in shock, only to see a frying pan come flying his way. Result: death by flying pan.
Mortis knew all of that, of course, when the soul entered the plane. However, what he didn’t know is how mature this soul actually was, so he talked to him, until he found an opening and asked about his brother…
And now we’re here.
“My brother… hgnnnn is… I…” His face contorted as he tried to hold back the answer that was coming and instead tried to replace it with his own. However, his struggling was in vain, as rules were rules and NOPONY could break them.
“I… Khhllt mngh britha.”
The stallion froze, as these not fully understandable noises slipped from his lips, before he repeated out of his own volition: “I killed my brother…” And again. “I killed my brother…”
Tears welled up in the corners of his eyes as he repeated this over and over to himself, finally realizing the full extent of his actions, he broke down and cried.
“I KILLED MY BROTHER!!” He cried louder and louder, until his lungs gave out and he had to stop. He looked at Mortis, who was sitting silently directly across from him. “I killed my brother.” He told him with regret clear in his voice. “I.. it just… it just happened. I don’t know how or why, I just—“
“You do not need to speak further, child. I have heard everything that I need.” Markus interrupted him.
The soul looked downward in an expression of shame, before he asked: “W-What’s going to happen now?”
“Now, I am to judge what will happen to your soul.”
“And… what options are there?” The stallion asked nervously.
“Well, there would firstly be the option of the afterlife. Stripped of your bodily needs you would experience eternal bliss. Then there is reincarnation. A second chance, if you so will. Thirdly, there’s immediate resurrection and lastly, there is destruction.”
The stallion gulped as he heard the last option.
“Right now, I don’t believe the afterlife to be fitting for you, as well as resurrection. However, destruction is also not necessary, as your soul is in no way corrupted.”
The stallion let out a sigh of relief as he heard that.
“Instead, you are going to be reincarnated and get a second chance. The memories of this encounter, as well as your past life will be erased to allow you to start completely anew.”
“Th-Thank you, but… may I ask you something before I go?” The stallion asked.
“Of course.”
“Where did my brother end up?”
“Unfortunately, I may not tell you that.” Mortis answered.
“I see. That is unfortunate. However, if he is in the afterlife, could you please tell him that I’m sorry?”
“Yes, I could do that.” Mortis answered.
The stallion nodded his thanks, before Mortis lit up his horn and the soul vanished from the plane.
His brother’s soul came there just as he did, however, his encounter wasn’t as fortunate. When he met Mortis and realized where he must be, he immediately went on a rant, how he should’ve been the one to marry that mare since he was the naturally more gifted one of the two. In short, while he was the victim, he didn’t recognize his fault at all, even labelling it as his actual right to steal his brother’s wife. As such, before he had even said a single word, Markus had made his judgement and incinerated the soul right on the spot.
Stats
Page generated in 0.021 seconds
Total duration
973 users online
35,742 hits today, 1,872,792 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
nice chapter, like the glimse on his duty's
celestia is a stupid bitch...
What a douchebag
10641486
I don't see why. Her actions seem reasonable to me; government and military groups have responsibilities, and have to be accountable to the citizenry.
Now to play the long game and see what happens when that mare comes before Mortis.
Good chapter, I especially liked seeing his duties. I am kinda surprised there isn't a option for Tartarus though.
Ah yes commit ntr be deleted from existance.