You are an ancient god who dates back to times of the beginning. However you have been lost to time due a major wound that you had gotten a long time ago, turned you into stone. A few thousand years have pasted and you're now reintroduced to the
You are an ancient god who dates back to the times before history was recorded. Along with your other brothers and sisters, you lived in a time of paradise and happiness. You lived in harmony and ruled over the mortals without a care in the world. Until war broke out. A war that would last for centuries and caused the near extinction of all life in Equestria. During a last ditch effort to defeat your enemy you receive a grievous wound to your already tired and withered out body, which caused your body to turn to stone. Where your body would repair itself and recover your lost energy. However it's been centuries since the war, the world and people you had once known and loved has faded into history along with your existence, but the world has gone too long without you and it's about time you return.
Need help with grammar, please comment if you see any mistakes. I'm sure there are a lot. Anthro- ponies still have horns, wings, etc Some chapters will be comment driven
Time for me to recite some ancient history to you, our world has a long history that I’m sure you are familiar with given the fact that we were both apart of it. What’s that? Who am I? Hmm, it seems you must’ve lost some of your memories if not all of them… Well my names not really important to you right now.
I highly doubt you would remember the time, but eons ago our world was a paradise full of peace and happiness. It’s kind of hard for me to forget, it was always so boring, so much love and happiness. It was disgusting. Hm? What’s that? You say you rather enjoyed the peace? Hmm, well to his each own, right?
Well I didn't really expect you to remember how times were back then, that blow you took for her really did a number on you. Of course being who you are, or were… That wound had no chance of putting you down for good, but it did ruin quite a bit of my plans for you.... Hmm, I’m starting get off topic. Now, where was I… Ah, yes.
I was talking about the world. Hmm, I wonder if I should keep talking… Meh, you probably won’t remember this conversation when you wake up, heh. Hm? If I’m not going to tell you then I should just leave you alone? Just for that I’ll tell you anyway. Why’s that? Because I like to hear myself talk, duh! Now shut it so I can talk some knowledge into that empty noggin of yours.
Like I said eons ago our world was a paradise of peace and happiness. Three races made up the majority of the world's population, the graceful Pegasi, the magical Unicorns, and the powerhouse Earth Ponies made up the majority, but those races were young and weak. They hated each other and would often start wars over petty things. It was actually pretty fun to watch, but eventually it had to stop, so that's where we come in: The Alicorns, who are basically gods to all of the other races, due to the fact that our existence makes it possible for them to live and survive. Of course, there were other types of gods with different types of appearances, but most of them were Alicorns.
We created the basic essentials for them to live and thrive, such as fire and water, electricity, food, air, weather, love, hate, things like that. For everything that made a pony a pony, there was at least one Alicorn god who provided them with such things. There were eleven original Gods who were all born in the beginning. They were basically the anthropomorphic personification of whatever aspect they embodied, while others were just eldritch abominations, each with enough power to destroy the world if they ever wanted too. I’ll do you a favor and put them in order, and even give my own little title for each one.
Endless: God of Time and Destiny. The Old Man with the Hourglass Death: God of Death and Mortality. The Gloomy Grim Reaper Forever: Goddess of Space and…Space. The Little Girl Who Wanders Forever Discord: God of Chaos and Disharmony. The Ultimate Trickster Celestia: Goddess of the Sun and Fire. The Asshole Mother Figure Gaia: Goddess of the Earth and Life. The Weird Spiritual Freak Typhoon: God of the Sky and Weather. The Guy Who Is Both Fire and Ice Oceanus: God of the Sea and Water. The Stoic Order: God of Law and Order. The Jerkass Lawmaker Luna: Goddess of the Moon and Night. The Loveable One Delirium: Goddess of Destruction and Madness. The Crazy Hag Who Talks Too Much
The Creators made only one rule in which we were to follow: All we had to do was to look and preserve, but never rule. For what seemed like an eternity, we set out to follow that one rule which was given to us by the Creators themselves. However, there is always one who gets too ambitious. The fourth eldest of the gods grew tired of this rule and decided to take matters into his own hands. This god's name was Discord. The thought of using our powers on another god was unheard of. We had never fought against each other, so there was no need to ever use them except for when we were doing our jobs. We just assumed we were immune. We were wrong.
Out of all the Gods, Discord had the perfect set of powers that allowed him to easily take over. While not a physical powerhouse like most gods, Discord was a master trickster. With or without his powers. Oh, he warped the minds of every god he could get his hands on. He corrupted us and turned us against each other, made those who were already manipulated to follow him. I won’t tell you where our loyalties lie, since it adds some mystery in the story, don’t you think? No? You want me to tell you? Fine, I’ll tell you. I had sided with Discord to create a world of chaos, and you sided with his sister Celestia to continue a world of peace.
The remaining gods that didn't join Discord or Celestia stayed neutral, locked themselves away in their own domains, and waited. Just sat back and watched as we began destroying ourselves.
Discord had turned most of us into more twisted and sick visions of our original selves, to the point where we became the opposite of what we originally were. We were created as perfect beings, but he had corrupted us and turned us imperfect.
While were fighting each other among the heavens, Discord threw out the seeds of corruption and watched as the whole world turned into evil and vile creatures, just like us. No more happiness and peace. Only death and chaos.
This proved to be very effective for him in the near and immediate future.
The war among the heavens had lasted for a long time, longer than anyone had originally thought, but eventually your team came out came out victorious. While you couldn't take the lives of all of the corrupted, becuase you know, morality and what not, you did manage to reform most of us while banishing the others. When the war against each other finally ended only a handful of us remained, but as tired and weak as we were, we still had to stop Discord, a task that was easier said than done.
He was now feeding off the unhappiness and chaos that had engulfed the whole world, so by the time you had turned your attention to him, it was already to late. He held enough power to rival all of the elders combined.
Fighting with Discord would prove to be suicidal as just being near him was enough for him to begin corrupting you, so the Elders, in our wisdom, created six magical artifacts to be given to each other. These artifacts, now called the Elements of Harmony, became the world's saving grace, as you found yourselves now immune to his madness as long as you kept the elements with you.
After distributing the Elements of Harmony to the remaining elders, one of the eldest alicorns, Celestia, led the group as we confronted Discord. You used the powers granted to you by the elements and challenged Discord to another all out war. Although Discord was immortal, you encased his body in stone. In the throes of defeat Discord attempted to kill Celestia, but another god decided to protect her and take the full force of the attack, which did a number on his already worn out body.
While immortals cannot die, we can take enough damage, or tire out, which in turn can turn us into a stone paralysis while we recover our lost power. Given how much energy you had lost, and how grave your wounds were, the time you stayed in the coma would vary from months to centuries. I don’t think I need to tell you who the god who took the hit was, right?
Yeah, I didn’t think so.
Well, time flies by when you’re an immortal. Celestia eventually restored the world back to the way it was. Due to many of the alicorns being banished, the races learned how to fend for themselves. While some of the damage that Discord caused was permanent, Celestia and her younger sister took up leadership and began to stir the world back towards peace. While they were few, they kept watch over the world and protected it from any threats that appeared.
Centuries pasted and the war became lost to history, much like a campfire story passed down from one generation to the next. The true details of the war were lost and only known by the few that remained.
Oh? What happened to the god that saved Celestia? Hmm, it seems you must’ve lost some of your memories. Oh well, that god stands as a statue in the Cantorlot gardens. Close to Celestia so she can keep an eye on him until he returns… Which I have the feeling will be real soon.
Hmm… It seems I was right on the money. My psychic link to you is weakening… Thanks for listening to an old fool talk, not that you will remember this little history talk of ours, or me for that matter. Hehe, I’m pretty sure we’ll meet…soon if…later. Till ne… time…
For centuries the weather in Equestria has been carefully planned and controlled by the Pegasi, so when a routine storm in Canterlot lasted a few hours longer than scheduled, and in fact only seemed to be getting worse by the minute, everyone was understandably spooked. Still, that was nothing compared to the panic that ensued once word got out that the Pegasi had been trying to stop the storm, only for them to realize that the clouds were no longer listening to them. For the first time in a long time they were acting on their own. Things only got worse as unscheduled and unstoppable storms appeared throughout Equestria. Still, the worst storm was in Canterlot, with wind strong enough that you could actually be blown away. It was raining so hard that if it kept up, the entire town would experience a flash flood.
Celestia was in the throne room with her sister when she began to figure out what was going on. Luna seemed to be in a panic. No one could blame her since for the first time in centuries, the situation was beyond their control.
“Sister, what shall we do? The weather has never acted like this before.” Luna said with a look of concern on her face. Celestia’s silence was enough to tell Luna that not even her older sister had the answer. “Maybe it’s discord. Maybe he’s-”
“No, I highly doubt that. Discord doesn’t have power over the weather to this magnitude. It’s something else.” Celestia said, trying to mask the uneasiness in her voice. Meanwhile, Luna continued pacing about the room, flapping her wings a few times in order to shake off the feeling that something was wrong.
“Then what can it be? If the weather doesn’t stop soon the populace with be swimming in rainwater if they have not already been blown away by the unrelenting wind.” Celestia sighed at the her little sister and began to shake her head. She got up from her throne and began to walk towards the window where she looked down at the visible garden a few stories below.
She wasn't looking at the flowers, no, she had her sights on one of the statues. The statue garden was full of sculptured pieces of art that held distant memories of the past, but only one every really mattered to her on a personal level. Over the years this particular statue had began to whither away due to constant abuse from the elements, but now, as Celestia looked at it, the statue was looking strangely renewed. It looked as if it had been finished only minutes ago, looking more detailed and life like than it had in ages. This caused Celestia’s eyes to widen as she had a hunch about what was happening.
“Luna. Follow me.” Celestia said as she quickly turned her back to the window and towards the Throne room door. Luna silently followed her sister as she led her out of the hall and into the rain.
Usually this would be a problem for any normal pony, but being of god status the princesses could easily walk into the rain and they wouldn’t get wet unless they wanted too.
Luna followed Celestia to the gardens and noticed that the center of the weather appeared to be there. “Sister what is going on?” Luna asked as she watched the trees and the flowers blowing violently in the wind.
“The return of an old friend.” Celestia said, giving her sister a warm smile. She led her younger sister to a statue that she was looking at from the window. The statue was of a male alicorn that was standing up, but with his head looking down as if he was resting his head onto something. His arms were drooping lifelessly as did the rest of his body. His large wings were neatly folded onto his back. The only thing that looked to be truly out of place was his face. He had a blank look, as if he had fallen a asleep while standing up. For anyone oblivious of why it looked the way it did, you would think the statue looked kind of sad.
“Sister… This statue…” Luna said before being cut off by Celestia.
“Yes. It’s the statue of him. He’s finally returning.” Celestia said while trying keep tears from forming within her eyes. The two watched in silence as the speed of the wind began to pick up. It began to circle around the statue, engulfing it within a cyclone of wind. The two sister took a few steps back as lightning accompanied the cyclone, striking the statue multiple times, but not doing any visible damage to it. Suddenly the lightning stopped, soon followed by the wind. Everything in the vicinity became dead silent as the storm abruptly vanished.
Luna tilted her head in confusion. “What happened? The rain just stopped out of no-” Before she could finished her sentence, something grabbed her attention. A certain sound that struck curiosity into the two sisters. The sound of something breaking. The two princesses inspected the statue closely to see that it was moving, just barely. It was accompanied by the sound of cracking as the stone slowly began to crack and break. Pieces of stone began to fall off as one of the statue's arms began to move, which revealed that someone was trapped within the stone. It soon began to grab other loose pieces on it’s body, and began to break himself out.
Upon freeing his face the statue began to yell as it struggled to rip out of the stone prison. Upon freeing his entire body the alicorn fell to his knees as if in immense pain. “haa… Hah… Haa…” The stallion's breathing was heavy and rapid at first, but slowly returned to a normal pace as he remained on his knees. Celestia kneeled down, and placed a hand onto the god's shoulder. “We welcome your return… Brother.”
“We bid you return…brother.” The white female alicorn said as she placed her hand onto your shoulder.
This startled you and put you on the defensive. “GRAAAHHHH!!!” You said letting out a loud battle cry which startled the sisters. You tackled the female to the ground, placing your arm on her neck successfully pinning her to the ground when you began to apply force down onto her, almost choking her. “Discord! I won’t be falling for your tricks again! I’ll Kill you!” You said to the unknown mare below you. You rose up your other arm that wasn't on her neck and began to summon energy to it. It began to radiate powerful dark magic that was in the covered your entire hand in a fiery wavy type motion.
Seeing how aggressive you were her darker companion’s horn began to shine dark blue which was accompanied by her hands radiating the same magical energy as yours but on a higher magnitude. The Alicorn using her free hand raised it towards her sister in an attempt to get her attention.
“Luna! Wait! He’s just confused!” She yelled trying her best to push you off of her. The other female slowly backed off as she watched her sister try to calm you down. “Brother, calm down, it is I, Celestia! Your sister!” She said grabbing your shoulder still trying to push you off but only to find out that she didn't have enough strength to push you off. “It is alright, you are safe.”
Upon hearing her say that she was your sister, you slowly began to ease up on her neck. You began to back away from her. “My…sister?” You said rather than asked. You slowly began to recognize her. It was Celestia, her appearance had rather changed but you could tell that she was still the loving sister you knew and loved. “It is…alright?” You asked as stood up and began to back away from her.
Celestia nodded her head as she slowed pushed herself off the ground. If she wasn’t wet before she was definitely soaked now. “Yes, you are home brother, you are safe.” She said giving you a smile that radiated pure warmth upon looking at it.
Though still hesitant you got a closer look at her to make sure. Though she has aged a bit over the centuries and possibly changed her appearance as well, there was no denying that this was your sister. A small but visible smile crept across your own face upon realizing this. “Celestia it is you…” You said while giving her a big hug in which responded to by returning the favor. Upon letting go, you looked at the other alicorn who accompanied her and quickly recognized her as Luna. “Luna!” You yelled out while starting to walk towards her to get a better look.
“Yes, brother. It is I.” She said sounding a little shy upon being in the presence of the older brother she had not seen in years.
“It is so…good…too see…ugh…” Before you get to her, your legs gave out and you quickly passed out, upon falling towards the ground. In shock Celestia and Luna both called out your name and rushed toward you in order to help you but it was too late. You had blacked out and drifted into distant memories.
*** 2000 years ago...
“Beautiful, ain’t it Endless?” You said as you and your closest friend/brother stared at another sunset together. Sitting on the edge of a cliff, you and Endless enjoyed watching the sunset together. The both of you barely ever have anytime to interact with each other due to the fact that both of your jobs are time consuming. So every once in awhile the two of you meet like this and talk about various things such as the future and family. However lately you've had something on your mind and decided you need some advice about what you should do.
Endless smiled and silently nodded his head. “Yes. Yes, it is. We've must have seen the sunset over a trillion times and yet we’re still baffled by its beauty… I guess some thing’s never change, right brother?” You nod your head eagerly while keeping your eyes on the sun. “So, tell me. What’s today’s topic going to be about?” He said with a monotone voice which caused you to look at you brother with an indifferent face.
“You know, I don’t understand why you keep asking me what we’re going to be talking about. You already know what I’m going to say before I say it.” You said with a small sigh.
You watched as Endless shrugged his shoulders without changing his tired expression. “Sometimes I know and sometimes I don’t. Just humor me. It makes me feel like I’m actually normal.”
You scoffed and shook your head. “Normal, huh? Well it is better than you finishing my sentences all the time like you did when we were younger.” You said thinking back to when you two were young Gods. Endless would do this constantly, just to annoy you, but like all children he grew out of it…eventually.
“So, what’s today’s topic going to be about?” He repeated.
You looked up at the sky and began to think to yourself. You began to think about your entire existence.
You are Letum, the sole embodiment of Death. You are one of the oldest beings in the universe, second only to your brother Endless himself, whose an anthropomorphic personification of Time. Because of this you are feared by the immortal and mortal alike. You are the judge and jury when it comes to death and if it’s their time it’s their time.
A long time ago when you were a young god, you didn't mind killing anyone that got on your nerves. Needless to say to you were easy to anger and kind like a bratty child that did what he wanted when he wanted. However you eventually grew up and decided to become more serious with your job. You created an age limit for all living things and set whatever master plan of yours into action.
“I’m thinking about becoming mortal.” You said looking at back at your brother. You raised an eyebrow as you saw his shocked expression on his face. “What? Don’t like the idea.”
“I’m sorry brother I thought I heard something stupid come out your mouth.”
“Think of it like this, I’ve been reaping these mortals for billions of years, and yet I still don’t know how they feel and why they do the things they do, but then it hit me. You will never fully understand a person if you don’t crawl underneath their skin and see life from their perspective.” You said passionately. You watched as Endless shook his head sighed. “Look I don’t really care what you think. For too long, immortals and mortals have been separated. I think it’s about time we reintegrate into society.”
“Oh wow. I’m not even going to begin on how ironic it is hearing that from someone of you profession, are you at least going to keep your powers, because you’re going to really vulnerable.” He asked sounding kind of worried for your safety.
You slapped him upside the head, before telling him who you were. “Don’t insult me Endless, I am Letum, the god of Death and Mortality. When you first came into existence, I was there, waiting, and at the end when it’s just you and me, I’ll reap even you brother, and upon doing so, my job will be finished. I'll put the chairs on tables, turn out the lights and lock the universe behind me when I leave. I am the most powerful god, Who do you take me for?” You asked him feeling bit angered at his lack of faith in you.
“I take you for an idiot… Idiot.” He said with a smug look on his face.
“Just hear me out, old man.”
“Old man? I’m only a second older than you.”
Ignoring him you continued to speak. “This is justified as for me wanting to better understand the lives of mortals, thus living a mortal life without remembering my Godhood would be the best bet. In that case I may simply appear as a fully grown adult with no memory or past, or I may actually be born into a human family and live a seemingly average life. The options are up to me.” You said trying to figure out which would be a better choice.
“Would you really give up an incarnation just be a mortal. Will it be worth it?.” He said sounding serious.
"Yeah It would. It will be worth it. Too experience life...and death for the first time. To better mine as well as all of our knowledge of what it means to be...mortal."
“So there’s going to be a mortal walking around killing people just by touching them, I think that’s going to cause quite a seen. Trust me when I say that this isn't the right thing to do.” He said looking at you with the same expressionless face as always.
“...Were you just looking into future right now?”
“No, I’m just telling you I don’t like what you’re doing. Immortals are made to be with immortals. Mortals are made to be with mortals. That’s the way how we run things, Letum, but you’re a full grown god, I don’t need to look after you every five seconds like back in the old days. When there were only three of us and everything else that was around was trying to kill us. No matter how dumb I think this is, I’ll support you through your stupidity,” He said giving you a somewhat featureless smile.
“Glad to know that I still need your permission to do things.” You said chuckling to yourself. “Tomorrow I’ll be a new man… or woman. I want you to look after me until I’m able to look after myself.” Endless shook his head and placed his hand on your shoulder.
“Do you know what race you want to be?” You raised an eyebrow and asked him what was wrong with your current appearance. Endless took a few seconds to look at you and shook his head. “Your kidding, right? You look downright creepy. You’d probably kill people by just looking at them.” Endless put a somewhat disgusted look on his face and shook his head again. You then began to recite the time where you visited an old mortal during a near death experience, she didn't trust you with your hood on, so when you took it off you killed her off for real.
How most mortals depict you is generally being seen as a tall, often skeletal, spectre in a black hooded robe, who wields a Sinister Scythe when you visit the commoners and a sword when you visit royalty, though the scythe is the most common of your symbols. You are also often shown with an hourglass as a symbol of elapsing life. How you look depends on how people think of you. You can easily change your appearance into something…less ominous, but to you that just causes more work to keep up appearances. Let them look at you the way they want, right? Your real appearance was way more horrifying but after your brothers and sister kept avoiding you, you decided to change appearances.
“Wow that hurts coming from my closest friend and brother.”
“Well it should. I still strongly believe you’re one of my top five creepiest immortals I’ve ever seen in my entire life.” He said while cracking a smile.
“Well, duh! I look the way I do because this is who mortals perceive me as looking. What am I supposed to be prancing around like the Easter bunny sprouting out rainbows, friendship and candy, while I reap your soul?”
“Well it’s food for thought.”
“Shut up.” You said as he broke into laughter.
“Oh, how about a Pony? Like a unicorn or pegasus” Endless suggested.
“Why would I want to be a pony?” You deadpan.
“I’m aware of that, but almost all of the Alicorns were pony-like at birth. Well except for me, you and a few more of our siblings.” He said to you making yourself think. “Plus you’ll still have fingers, so you can carry around that creepy ass scythe.” You shot a small glare at him before rolling your eyes.
“Pony it is. I look forward to the coming days.” You said looking at him once more this time to see a tear form across his face. You didn’t think much of it since End;ess often sees things that often make him cry. So after a while you stopped caring, but this time something compelled you to ask her what was wrong. “What’s wrong? Can’t stand to see me go?”
He seemed to be unaware of the tear that had formed fell from his right eye. “What?…Yeah, That’s it. I’m afraid to see you go. It’s just; I never thought I’d see the day where you would become so mature. I mean, a thousand years ago you were still picking your nose and throwing temper tantrums.” He said with a sarcastic tone of voice. You knew that wasn’t the case and that there was something more important that he saw in his vision. It would be a futile effort to ask him what was wrong. If what he saw was from the future then he wasn’t going to tell you. So the least you could do was lightly punched him in the shoulder.
“That’s not true and you know it!” You deadpanned. “I still pick my nose and I still have temper tantrums. It’s just…not as much as I used too.”
“Don’t…Don’t agree too that.” The two of you shared a brief laugh as you two looked at the sun as it finally set beneath the nearby mountains. You closed your eyes and began to wonder if what you were about to do was the right thing to do. Not many gods would turn themselves mortal just to experience how a mortal would feel like. Most just do it woo the hearts of a mortal in order to have sex with them. You’ve never done this due the fact that you can kill mortals just by touching them.
You made sure to tone the power down a bit as you experienced mortality, didn't want to start killing people on accident just because they shook your hand. Whatever type of mortal you turned into it was going to be up to the new you to determine which path he was going to take.
The two of you gazed upon your younger sister’s sun as it slowly descended, but the presence of another person was near by. You both turned around to see your other younger sibling approach you. It was Luna, she was wearing what looked like dark midnight silk gown. Which made her appear like she had just got out of bed. She had a somewhat serious expression her face as she walked up to you.
“Ah, Luna. Come and sit down. Enjoy your sisters sunset with us.” You said while motioning for her to cover towards you and sit down next to her, but she shook her head.
“I’m sorry I cannot. I bring with me a message from Celestia.” She stopped upon hearing you sigh and took a few seconds before speaking again. “She wants you and Endless to attend the meeting today.”
“Again?!” You yelled out in frustration.
“It’s the third time in two months. What is it about this time?” Endless asked her with a hint of annoyance in his voice.
“I think it would be best if you come and see for yourselves.” Luna said before quickly disappearing into the wind, leaving you and Endless alone.
Endless sighed as he began to stand up and brush his cloak off. “Shall we go see what our annoying siblings are arguing about this time?”
“I’d rather not, but I don’t feeling like hearing her mouth later on.” You said while quickly getting up to your feet. The two of you turned around and watched as the view around you changed into a large room with over several thrones each one signifying the difference in rank and power. The entire room was golden colored if not out right gold itself. Each seat was occupied with a god except for two of them, which was yours and Endless’.
“DO NOT PLAY GAMES WITH ME DISCORD!” Celestia said in an enraged tone as he pointed her finger at her brother who sat lazily in his throne, looking as if he was entertained by the fact of her being angry. “I know you stole my Scepter! Give it back!” She yelled.
The two over you walked towards your seats and sat down, but the two of them seemed have been unaware of your presence.
Discord snorted as he began to clean his ears. “I can’t give back something I didn’t steal. Maybe you misplaced it.”
“BULLSHIT!” She yelled radiating pure heat. The room got noticeably warmer as her anger rose. The only thing their constant bickering was accomplishing was causing making her angrier. “I know you’re lying. Give me back my Scepter!” She said yelling out like of a little girl, whose older brother had just stole her doll and wouldn't give it back.
“Wow, the love-hate relationship is strong with these two.” You joked, which caused some of the younger gods to laugh, but they stopped upon seeing Celestia look at them. “Just the other day the two of you were all lovey dovey, but now you’re back at each others throats. It’s either you love him or you don’t. Make up your mind.”
“Do Not Joke about this. Brother. He means to start a war with me and you’re sitting there making jokes like that of a fool in a king’s court.” Celestia said shooting a death glare at you. The entire room looked at you with eyes and ears waiting to hear you response to her disrespect.
“Celestia, I understand the predicament you are in, but do not let your anger blind you into forgetting who you’re talking too.” You said shooting back an icy emotionless stare which caused her back down a bit. Your lack of eyes and emotion probably was a factor in that.
“I a-apologize.” She said slowly sinking into her throne, like that of a daughter who just got chewed out by her parental figure.
“Would anyone mind explaining what today’s dispute is about?” Endless asked while leaning forward in his seat with a tired look on his face.
Our younger sister Forever, raised her hand and began to talk. “It’s pretty much exactly how it sounded when you two came in. Celestia’s accusing Discord of stealing her scepter.” She said chuckling to herself.
Celestia’s scepter The Sun Rod was a powerful item that is the essence of her very existence and of the sun itself. If ever destroyed it would be the end of her. Though the scepter had no real power, it was what was on the rod that really matter, The Orb of Stars. This was the true value of the artifact, the power to create suns at a whim or to make them go supernova at any given moment.
“Discord…” You said in a menacing tone that caused him perk up and look at you with his undivided attention.
He stood up from his seat and began to speak to every last one of us. “Now hold on a minute. Why is it that as soon as her silly rod is missing the first person she accuses is me. There are hundreds of other gods out there who could have done it, but yet she insists on blaming me! Anyone in this room could have stolen it. Luna, Oceanus, Delirium-”
“Hey! Don’t put me in this argument, what would I gain from taking her rod?”
“Oh come now, You’re goddess of destruction, you could destroy the entire universe with a big bang! Quite literally in fact.”
Delirium eased up and began to think about how beautiful it would be to see that happen. Just the thought of the destruction of the entire universe seemed to be pure ecstasy to her. “Yeah, you do have a point. I would very much love for that to happen, but it couldn’t have been me who took it, because if it was me who did it, we wouldn’t be here right now talking like this.” She said with a mad grin on her face. “Besides I have my own artifact that I can use too destroy the universe, I don’t need hers.” She said now sounding bored with the conversation.
Delirium is the youngest of the Elders, yet still older than the rest of existence. She is usually quite short and thin, and looks no older than a fourteen-year-old child. One of her eyes is blue, and the other is green. Her hair changes style and color constantly, as do her clothes. Her shadow never reflects her shape, and is tangible, like velvet.
Only a few gods (particularly you and Luna) seem to be fond of Delirium, to varying degrees, and protective of her. She in turn is affectionate towards you, particularly just you. Despite being axe-crazy and insane she holds enough respect, fear and loyalty towards you, for you to not suspect her, but you also knew that most things that she says is not very trust worthy. She sometimes makes up the wildest of the fantasies just to explain a story that never happened, or give an answer that was in no way relative to your question. She is the personification of madness, it’s truly unknown if even she knows whether or not she insane or not.
“Think of the universe as a little fish, and I’m the shark. As much as I want to take and rip the little fish to pieces, I don’t wanna anger the huge ass kraken that the fish is being protected by.” She said looking at you with large grin on her face. “So find someone else to blame Dissy, because I’m not the one you should be accusing.” She said stick her tongue out at him.
“Even if it’s not you, it can still be anyone else in this room or out of it that could have the rod.” Discord said still maintaining his smile.
“No god can walk into another gods domain without permission Discord.” Oceanus said rubbing his beard.
“I agree, it’s simply impossible.” Typoon stated. The other gods nodded their head in agreement.
“Yes, a god cannot cross into another gods domain, but a mortal can.” Discord said gathering everyone’s attention once again. I leaned forward in my throne as I tried to soak in what I just heard.
“Are you saying that a mortal crossed over to another plane of existence and stole one of the most powerful weapons ever created?” You said with a hint of doubt behind your voice.
“Come now, Letum. Do I have to remind you of the war with The Primordial?” Gaia stated. Everyone in the room sighed with great distress as they tried to forget those times of the past.
You sighed deeply as you tried your best not remember as well. “I guess it’s…not to far fetched that a mortal could have a hand in this.” You said rubbing your forehead.
“There are two types of mortals my brothers and sisters. Regular mortals can’t take one step within our domains without dying. Now what’s the other type that can?”
“A demigod…” Oceanus stated.
Discord quickly turned around and faced him while clapping his hands. “Correct sea for brains. I think one of our mortal children crossed the border with the help of their divine parent.” The entire room agreed that it was possible that a mortal could do so, but the problem was whose child had taken it. Discord looked at Celestia with a large victory grin before sitting down. “I bet you didn’t think of that, dear sweet Celestia.”
“It’s only a theory at best.”
“Ah, yes but a rather good one, if I do say so myself.” Discord said content with his speech.
Seeing you in thought, Forever, looked over at you and began to whisper to you. “If this is true, then none of our artifacts are safe. By the time we find out who stole them it might already be too late.”
“I am aware of that, brother. This is a dire situation we’ve found ourselves in. I’m sure you remember the reason why we created the artifacts.” You replied back to him.
“Yeah, to fight the primordial and to keep him along with all those other monsters locked in Tartarus.”
“Correct, the thief doesn’t need the complete set, the lock to the gates changes constantly they’re going to have to go after specific artifacts.”
“Hmm, do you know which ones?”
You sigh as you shake your head no. “No I don’t, but I may know who does.” You said standing up from your throne gathering everyone’s attention. “There’s not much we can do on the matter. But I fear that all of our artifacts maybe at risk of being stolen. So I’m issuing a lock down. No one leaves their domain without Endless’, Forever’s, or my permission. This meeting is over!” You said watching as everyone slowly walked out of the room, but you only two from leaving. “Delirium! Celestia! Come here. I need your assistance.” You said motioning the two of them come over to you.
Endless who was standing next leaned over to you and whispered in you ear. “I know what you’re about to do, but be careful from here on out. Things are not going as I had written. Someone is changing history and I tend to find out. Forever and I will be in the mortal world looking for clues to who might have taken the rod.”
You gave him a small nod as you watched the two of them walk and disappear within a golden portal that Endless had summoned. You felt a light tug coming from your robe, upon looking down you saw that it was Delirium who had touched you and Celestia standing next to her. “You called?” Celestia asked.
“Yeah. We’re going on a little trip.” You said opening up your own little portal which emitted a dark shadowy aura which was not like yours. It was more dark and depressing.
“Yay! Road trip!” Delirium said bouncing around like the little girl that she was. Before being the first the jump into the portal, not knowing where it will go. You and Celestia followed after her, while telling her not to run too far ahead. You hoped that the place you were headed to would have the answers you were looking for, but at last not every thing is that simple.
*** Present
You woke up in an unknown room. It was fancy and almost royal like, but it was pretty much devoid of everything besides for a few dressers and a nightstand, which held a picture of an unknown alicorn and a unicorn. The two of them seemed to be lovers, which wasn’t very surprising since a long time ago many gods fell in love with mortals. You slowly stood up from the bed that you were lying in and began to rub the back of your neck. “How long have I been out?” You thought to yourself. Slowly dragging yourself to your feet. You picked up the picture and began to inspect it.
You know almost every god that existed, yet this one didn’t look familiar to you. “Maybe it’s one of their daughters…” You thought while putting the picture frame back where you found it. Your entire body was stiff, and tired. It felt kind of strange to you. You walked over to a nearby mirror and began to look at yourself. You didn’t look like how your remembered yourself looking. You were supposed to look like a bag of bones yet, now you looked like a fully fleshed and naked alicorn. Before you could question yourself further, the door to the room you were in opened up.
Celestia, Luna and an unknown mare had walked into the room. The unknown mare gasped upon seeing you naked and quickly averted her eyes away from your body. “Miss Heartwood, please wait outside.” Celestia said. The mare you assumed to be a maid bowed and quickly exited the room, closing the room as she left. “I see that your finally awake brother, would you mind putting on some clothes? You’re looking a little bare.” She said as a small blush began to form hers and hers face.
You chuckle to yourself as you walk towards a nearby chair which had a fresh set of clothes. “Why so bashful, it wouldn’t be the first time you’ve seen me naked. We used to always walk around without clothes on.” You said putting on what looked like noble clothes. While not a fan of nobility you decided to be respectful towards your hosts and just wear what your sister had laid out for you.
“Perhaps brother, but times have changed. We can’t be as lenient as we were before in the old days. Even we need to develop standards.” She said in the same motherly tone of voice you knew and loved.
“Standards, huh? And when did we develop those?” You said chuckling to yourself as you finished getting dressed.
“After the war.” Luna said to you, which caused a rather grave expression to escape your face. You had utterly forgotten about to the war.
“The war! What happened to war? What was the outcome? What happened to the other gods? Where are the other gods? ” You asked frantically.
“Calm yourself. The war was won. We successful defeated Discord, but at a terrible price.” Celestia said still maintaining her stern motherly appearance despite being a lot younger than you.
Your face lit up upon hearing that you had won the war against Discord. “By the creator, we did it. The Elements actually worked! Haha!” You said practically jumping for joy. “I’m sure whatever was lost in the war could have been rebuilt. This palace that your living in is proof of that.” You said unafraid of masking your joy for this good news.
“That’s just it. Letum. The things we lost in the war were irreplaceable.” Luna said to you as your expression quickly changed to that of a more serious tone. None of your young brothers or sisters had ever called you or any other older sibling by their name to their face unless the situation was truly dire.
“L-like what?” You asked.
“Brother have you forgotten the details of the war? You were there. Millions of lives had been lost, our children were slaughtering each other, both Mortal and God alike.” Luna said with a hint of sadness behind her voice.
“What do you mean? My memories are a little foggy.” You said speaking truthfully. Your mind kind felt like it was in disarray. Your memories seemed to be scattered and incomplete. Only bits and pieces came to you. “How many of us are left?”
“There are less than twelve pure gods left.” Celestia said to you. This incited both shock and anger within you.
“Only twelve!? We were in the thousands when the war started. At the end of the war we were in the hundreds! What happened to everyone?!” You yelled causing the two princesses to take a step back.
“The ten of us are elder gods brother, like and unlike the younger gods we are the servants of the living. We exist because they know, deep in their hearts, that we exist. Those who fallen from worship, have either faded from existence or have disappeared.” Celestia said you as she watched horror escaped from you face.
Taking a few seconds to process what you just heard you slowly sat down on the bed and began to hold head. “You said they faded away. That must have taken years for that to happen. How long have I been gone?”
“For over two thousand years.” She said.
“TWO THOUSAND YEARS! I’ve been gone for two thousand years?” You cover your face to try and hide the shock. “What about the other Elders? What happened to Endless, Gaia, Delrium, and all the others? What happened to all of the others?” You said looking up at her pleading for the safety of your brethren.
“We are the Eternal, you know better than anyone that just because the mortals lack of faith, it will never be enough to bring us to our knees and that the only thing that will finally seal the deal will be you. Our brothers and sisters are still here, but most of them have already passed over to their different incarnations.” Celestia said while placing her hand on your shoulder like she did once before. “I’m sorry, brother.”
“It’s been two thousand years for you, but for me it’s been only a few short minutes. Like that of a short dream. I…I’m…” You sighed to yourself and began to shake your head. “There is no words that can be used to describe how I feel right, now. I just feel tired.”
“It is alright, brother I felt the same way when I came back from my banishment from the moon.” Luna said.
“Banishment?” You asked.
“It’s a long story-”
“Then don’t tell me. I don’t think I can take anymore. Maybe later okay?” You said holing your head down.
“Of course. Come sister. Let’s give, our brother some space.” Luna said while motioning Celestia to leave with her. Celestia nodded and followed Luna out of the room, but before doing so she told you that if you needed anything then all you had to do was call for her or Luna and they would come. You nodded your head and watched as they closed the door.
You slowly lie back down, but face up so you could look at the ceiling. “I’ve lost two thousand years…” You closed your eyes as you decided to drift away into your thoughts.
The Past… Two Thousand Years ago, Before Discords Betrayal
While you were off on your own little adventure with Celestia and Delirium. Endless and Forever decided to take a trip to the Underworld, which is a gloomy, depressing realm, if only because it is often depicted as being beneath the earth. (The fact that mortals go there after they die might have something to do with it, too.) Still, it isn't evil. It's not Hell. All of the dead come here, whether they were saints, total jackasses, or just those who were kinda so-so in life.
Some of your versions of the Underworld judge the dead and grant them different living standards (or nonliving standards, if you prefer) depending on their conduct in life. In others, there's no real judgment, and life—or whatever—continues much as it did before. Possibly they receive, in due course, a chance to go back to the living, but at the end of the day it all depended on whether or not you wanted them to come back.
It’s original purpose was to be used as a dungeon of torment and suffering for the wicked, but later branched off into a part of the underworld and called this part was called Tartarus, in turn, below Typhoon (sky), Gaia (earth), and Oceanus (sea), Tartarus is the place where, souls and other beings are judged after death and where the wicked received punishment. Like other primal entities (such as you and Endless), Tartarus is also a primordial force or deity.
You created Tartarus and shaped the underworld. Throughout time you would often choose many servants to guide the dead to their afterlife. Mortals who would be suspended between the borders of life and death as a form of immortality, to either pay back a debt, to earn your good graces, or just because you asked.
Despite having power over this place it’s not exactly your domain. You can travel to and from Underworld, but it belonged to another god. Her named is Persephone, your eldest daughter, who was created from the unity of you and Gaia, which is another way for saying you had sex with her. She earned your good graces during the War with The Primordial and so you awarded her with the underworld.
Of course she was completely thrilled with this gift and made it into the afterlife it was now. She didn’t really leave the underworld much after you gave it to her. She says it’s because she doesn’t have time for a vacation, but the actually reason she became stuck down there was during a small dispute between Discord and Delirium. She and a few other smaller gods sided with Discord out of fear, but soon found out that the one they should have feared was the one who was actually insane and not faking it.
Unlike the other gods who got fates worse than death, Persephone got off easy. She was locked in the underworld and forced to work nonstop. Judging the nonstop flow of mortal lives, sending them to their afterlife, expanding the underworld to better fit the new residents and whatever else her job requires her to do, has caused her to become tired and overworked.
Despite being second eldest in the pantheon, even you were not stupid enough to incite anger within your little sister. Despite fearing you, she has proved herself many times over than even you should not take her lightly.
It’s been a few thousand years since the little dispute and it’s been speculated that Delirium most likely forgot about the punishment she inflicted on Persephone, if not about her all together. You tried to convince her to let Persephone go, but each time she told you that she didn't know who you were talking about, each time with the same cheerful, childlike expression. So after awhile you just hoped that she eventually remembered on her own, of course she never did.
The two gods slowly walked through a large grey barren wasteland as they headed to one place in particular, Persephone's castle. “How long until we get there? My feet are killing me. They would be bleeding if I could bleed.” Forever said groaning as she walked alongside her older brother.
Endless sighed deeply as he continued to walk forward. “Forever, you’re over six billion years old and yet you still complain as if you just came into being. Now you know why Letum and I never take you seriously.” He said while shaking his head.
“And you’re still the same cold, emotionless bastard from when we were young. But I can’t really complain about your lack of personality, now can I? If I could see the future all the time I would be just as depressing as you are too.” Forever said which incited a rare snarl from her older brother.
“You know there’s a reason why you’re third in charge, little sister. Now wouldn't be the time to find out.” He replied sounding annoyed with his sisters constant bickering.
“We’re not kids anymore, Endless and the fact that you can control time, doesn’t scare me. You could get away with that threat all those years ago but now I’m not as weak.” Forever said before stopping after seeing her brother stop first.
“You hold so much anger, why? Is it because you feel like you hold no power over the others? Do you feel like you’re being outshined by me and Letum? You feel like you’re stuck in our shadow, don’t you? You couldn't beat us in a fight back then, so what makes you think you can beat us right now?” Endless looked at his younger sister and waited for a reply. When he didn’t get one he began to cracked a hollow smile. “That’s what I thought. Now, while you’re busy playing the jealous little sister, who yearns for her peers attention. I'm going to go see If I can actually do something worthwhile.” He said walking away from Forever, leaving her to think about what he said.
“Wait!” She yelled out, causing Endless to stop. “I…I’m just…I’m sorry. Look, I’ll follow you and Letum...for now. Tell me to jump, I’ll jump, tell me to shut up, I’ll shut up, but let me say this. One day I’ll have my turn and you two will be the ones stuck on the sideline.” She said in a threatening tone of voice. Endless slowly turned his head to face her and began to chuckle.
“For as long as you hold even the smallest seed of jealousy in your heart. You will never be stronger than…hm?” Endless trailed off as he began to look past his sister. Forever asked him what was wrong before turning around to see what he was looking at. Behind her was a large gloomy depressing castle which had appeared as if it was there the entire time.
"Was that there the entire time?" Forever said with an astonished look on his face. Endless shook his head no and told her to head towards it. When they walked inside the castle, they saw that it was even more creepy inside than out. The entire place seemed to have been filled with water. Upon entering into the place, there were a few steps that led down into the water which seemed to be everywhere. Forever looked into the water to see what looked souls floating around inside of it.
It was the river of styx. If a regular mortal touched it, they would die. While if a god touches it they develop amnesia. "Whoa, that's awesome. The water it looks...so inviting...Makes me wanna..." Forever slowly bent over and began to reach down with her hand ready to touch the water, but after a few seconds she stopped and quickly looked back up at her brother. "You were just going to let me touch it weren't you?"
"I was going to stop you...eventually."
"You liar. My hand was like a centimeter away from the water. How much closer did i need to get for you to save me?"
"I was going to save you...after you touched it."
"You asshole. I see what type of brother you are." Forever said while taking a few steps away from the water.
"Come now, even you're not that stupid. I knew you weren't going to touch it and if you did...besides even if you were going to touch it. Letum was never going to let me live it down." Endless said. Forever was going to yell at him but stopped upon seeing a boat slowly drift towards them. "It must be for us..." Endless said while getting into the boat.
"Gee, you think?" Forever said following him. When they both got into the boat and sat down, it began to move on it's own. As if someone was steering them. Endless looked behind her to see a tall spectral being with a bony like appearance.
"Lady Persephone...is expecting you." The man said in a dark cold emotionless voice. He didn't look at them but it was obvious that he was talking to them. The thirty minute trip to her was mostly spent in silence. Every so often the boat would bump into something with would cause the boat shake a little. The response to this was the two gods holding onto the boat for dear life. All it took was one little drop and you instantly forget your name. These two weren't going to take any chances.
Upon finally entering into a large room they see a lone woman walking on top of the water, who seemed to have been yelling at no one in particular. "You shut your mouth, Boris! I don't take orders from you! Yeah, I know we're stuck here, it wasn't my fault she was wrong! How was I suppose to know she was going overreact like the bratty child she was?! No, Your stupid!" She yelling, seeming growing tired with her invisible friend's constant bickering.
"...Is she...talking to herself?" Forever said whispering to her brother.
"I wouldn't been surprised. She hasn't had a rest in over several thousand years. Can you truly blame her for making up false companions to talk with? She probably has seen another god in who knows when." Endless said feeling sorry for her.
Persephone stopped talking and slowly turned around and looked at her aunt and uncle. Her original enraged expression changed to a more happy one. "Well, if it isn't my favorite uncle and aunt, Endless and what's-her-name." Persephone said while slowly walking towards them.
"Hey! My name's-"
"I know your name, I just don't care for it! So tell me, what do I owe the pleasure of this unwanted visit? What are you doing sneaking into my domain." She said stopping only a few seconds away from the boat. Her expression was tired and stressed. The rumors really was true, Delirium had truly forgot about the punishment she inflicted upon her niece. Persephone was wearing a longer black dress and held a large sinister scepter in her hand.
"It's hardly sneaking, if you leave it open for us to walk right in." Forever said.
"Be that as it may. Just because the door is open you don't just waltz right in as if you own the place. Learn to have a little respect!" Persephone yelled. She then stopped and began to rub her forehead. "You're here to check on the gate to Tartarus aren't you?"
"Yeah, will you let us see it?" Forever asked.
"No."
"Excuse me?" Endless added.
"I said no. I've been trapped in this shithole for thousands of years and neither one of you assholes came to visit me." She said turning her back on the two.
"What the hell? You're mad just because we didn't visit you? What are you? Five hundred years old?" Forever snapped.
"I agree with Forever. That seems likes like a childish reason for not letting us see the gate." Endless stated.
"I don't give two shits about you not coming to see me. I'm talking about why didn't you free me?"
"Because we're not stupid. Delirium told us not to let you go, and that's exactly what we're doing. Delirium is nice most of the time, but beware the nice ones. I don't want to wake up chained to a mountain, with a bird eating my liver, just because i helped you. She actually threaten to chain me up to a mountain, once. I kid you not."
"Then I guess we have nothing more to talk about." Persephone said while turning her back to them and walking away.
"Wait!" Endless said. ""We don't have time for this. If we let you out will you promise to let us go and check out the gate."
"But of course. Now hurry up." Endless snapped his fingers and waited for a few seconds. Unseen to them at first, the chains that were on Persephone flashed a briefly and broke off of her. ""Haha! Yes, I'm free! I'm finally free!" She said practically dancing around in a little girl. After a few quick seconds of gleefully dancing she stopped and looked at the two of them, "Well come on. Get out of the boat. The water in here won't affect you."
Reluctant at first Forever slowly began to step out of the boat but was pulled back in by Endless. "She's lying." He said to Forever.
"Awww, I almost got you. I can't tell you how many mortals died and how many gods forgot their name just because they fell into the river. It's actually a pretty hilarious thing to see." She said chuckling to herself as she remembered the all the times it's happened.
"And you were just going to let me fall in? No wonder Delirium locked your ass up. Let's hurry up and check out that gate and get out of here." Forever yelled.
*** Present
You opened your eyes and realized that not much time had past since your little talk with Celestia and Luna. You let a small yawn and stood up from the bed. You walked towards the window and began to look out of it. The world didn't deem to have had advanced much in the span of two thousand years. This however was a good thing. That would mean that you didn't have to work very hard to adapt to the changes in society. It was getting dark outside. The sun was still high in the sky but it was still slowly setting. After briefly looking outside of the window you quickly left room only to be greeted by two well armored guards.
"Good afternoon, Milord. Princess Celestia is in the throne room, while Princess Luna is in her room. Both of them have requested to see you." Of the guards said. "Which one would like to head to first?" The guard asked.
You thought about it for a second and decided to choose which sister you should go and visit.
You thought about it for a quick minute and decided to give them your answer. “I’d like to go to Princess Luna’s room, please.” You said. The two Guards in front of you nodded their head and signaled for you to follow them.
You followed the guards patiently and quietly up to Luna’s private chambers. You looked around you, and admired the beautiful architecture that made the palace as beautiful as it is. The grand arches and the massive stained glass windows all made it an impressive looking vista. Luna’s tower seemed to be no exception.
As you begin the walk across the bridge that leads to Luna's room, you got a small glimpse of it from the outside through the many windows. It’s the second tallest tower in the castle, so it almost easily catches your eye. The massive buttresses give it a Gothic look, and it is truly a fitting tower for the Goddess of the Moon. You pass by several other guards, all staring at you, looking for any signs of trouble.
Upon reaching the door to her room you gave it a quick knock and waited for her to answer. “You may enter.” The voice said coming from the other side of the door.
You opened up the door to see Luna emerge with a book she had just pulled from her bookshelf. Her face lit up upon seeing that it was you instead of her other guards. You returned her enthusiasm by giving her a warm smile. “Hello, Princess. How are you doing?” You asked while slowly closing the door to her room.
Luna placed the book down on her bed and motioned you to walk with her outside to the balcony. The room appeared to be neat and well taken care of, not a single thing looked out of place within the room. It was full of books and other artifacts that seemed to be almost ancient. “I’m doing fine. I’m just getting ready for the night court.” She said while leaning on the balconies railing staring up at the sun.
“Night Court?” You asked.
“Yeah, Celestia rules the kingdom during the day, while I rule the kingdom during the night. The day court and the night court.” Luna said while letting out a small childish smile. Despite it being two thousand years since you've last seen them, it feels like you just saw them a day ago.
“I see… So what’s this kingdom called? What did you name it?”
“It’s called Equestria, Celestia had named it after we took control and unified it under one rule.” Luna said already knowing what your question was going to be. “Before you ask, yes. We took control of a smaller kingdom and began to wage against all the neighboring kingdoms who didn’t want to join and those who didn't...well let's just say that they're not here today.” Luna said with a small sigh.
You tilted your head in confusion. The one law that Gods had to obey was to never rule over the mortals. Celestia and Luna seemed to have broken the rule. “But the rule-”
“The rule was broken after you turned to stone. Everything went to shit after you turned to left.” Luna said as if she was starting to be reminded of something. “The remaining gods split up and began to fight for power. With you out of the picture, Endless recovering from his injuries and Forever…in Tartarus, there was no one left to keep us in check. Celestia tried to keep everyone in line but that could only work for so long. The only gods that are still on our side are Typhoon and Delirium. The two of them help us out whenever there’s a threat from the other gods. I’m sorry, brother, but the world's not the same as you once knew it.” Luna said closing her eyes and turning her face from you as if she was expecting to experience your wrath, but she soon opened her eyes upon hearing you sigh.
“I expected as much. The universe needs Death to remind them who’s in charge, which brings me to my next question. Who’s been reaping the souls since I’ve been gone?" You asked fearing that some incompetent fool has been doing your job for you since you couldn’t do it yourself or even worse, no one was doing it at all. “Also you don’t have to shy away from me, Luna. I’m not angry…just disappointed.”
“Oh, uh. I’m sorry. Look you’re going to find this funny but the person, who took over your job, was Ladius.” Luna said with a small giggle upon seeing your reaction, which was mixed with pure dread and amazement.
Ladius was Persephone’s immortal son, which she had with a mortal, making him your grandson. While he wasn’t born with ‘godly’ powers he was born with immortality. You used to think about giving him the powers of a god, along with the responsibilities that go with them, but the bad part about Ladius, is that he’s a grade A slacker. He wasted five hundred years of his life doing pretty much nothing. Whenever you appeared before him asking him to do better he would always refuse you, telling you that it was his immortal life and he could spend it anyway he wanted.
While he was right, and that he could spend his years doing whatever he wanted, you had plans for him, plans that he didn't seemed to want to be apart of. What most gods fail to realize is that gods can die, but they just don’t stay dead.
Resurrective Immortality, gods can regenerate when their body dies. They retain all their memories but are given a new appearance and personality to better suit their next incarnation. You wanted Ladius to be your next incarnation when and if you ever died, but of course when you presented him with this option he refused, saying that being the boss of who lives and who dies is too much of a pain and that he didn't want to do it. So this was kind of a shock to you upon hearing that he was the one who took up the mantle of the Grim Reaper.
"Wow...out of all the other beings out in the universe, the most laziest, underachiever too ever be born had taken up one of the most brutal and taxing jobs ever. Excuse me for not believing until I see it." You said letting out a small laugh which was accompanied by another one of Luna's giggles.
"I don't blame you. I was a little shocked when I heard it from Persephone, but I think she might have had a factor in him taking over. I mean it's good that someone had finally taken the job, but let's face it...he's not you." Luna said meeting your gaze.
"I see...glad to know that I'm the best at killing people." You said sounding as if she had hurt your feelings.
"Yeah...w-wait! T-t-that's not what I meant. What I mean to say was...was...ohh, you were just joking." Luna said letting out a large sigh while you gave her a loud laugh.
"Relax, I was just joking. You need to learn how to lighten up." You said while shaking your head.
"Sorry, spending a thousand years on the moon alone and conscious the entire time doesn't exactly do wonders on a persons social abilities." Luna said sticking her tongue out at you.
"Oh, that's right I've been meaning to ask you, what's the deal with that? I'm gone for two thousands years and you've spent half of it on the moon in solitary confinement, mind explaining?" You asked looking up at the sun watching as it slowly ducked beneath a nearby mountain.
"Hold that thought brother. I have to put up the moon." With a flourish she opens her wings, and takes a small leap over the railing and she’s aloft. Her flowing mane contrasts sharply with the sky, and you see it shift patterns as the light hits it. She stops, and hovers just a short distance from the tower. A magical aura surrounds her, and you see the sun finally settle and fade from view. The night sky grows across the sky in great splotches of change. With a small pulse of magic the brightest that is the sun has finally faded away from view, leaving only an empty sky since the stars were not out yet. The magical aura around Luna changes shade, and soon the stars begin popping into existence, one by one almost as if she hand picked the most beautiful stars in the galaxy to show tonight. Having finished her work of art she turns, and comes back to her balcony. You take a step back and give her a large smile, but she averts her gaze from you, which prompts you to ask her what was wrong.
"Tell me, brother. Do you enjoy our sister's day?" Luna asked.
You weren't really sure if this was a really question or not so you just gave her a half hearted answer. "Sure I guess, I'm not really a daytime god, but my job requires me to reap the souls of mortals and guide them in the daylight sometimes, so I've grown to enjoy it, when the time comes." You said while shrugging your shoulders. "But to tell you the truth, I much rather enjoy the night. I'm not really sure why but I just like to see it. I enjoy a good sunset from time to time but I usually just like to see the night sky that comes afterwards."
"R-really? You don't know how much it means to me to hear you say that." She said as her face began to lit up with joy, but the joy quickly subsided for some reason. "I just wish my subjects felt the same way as you do. You see in the stories, our subjects, the ponies, play and work in the day but "shunned" the night and slept through it, which made the younger Alicorn god...which is me grow bitter, eventually I began refusing to lower the moon to make way for the dawn. My bitterness "transformed me into a wicked mare of darkness: Nightmare Moon." Luna chuckled as she began recalling a few bad memories, you were going to tell her to stop, but she kept talking.
"This was actually the partial truth. While yes I was bitter by the fact that everyone loves Celestia's Sun, and I did refuse to lower the moon, I actually threatened and attacked Celestia in a fit of anger and jealousy, because I believed that Celestia was the one receiving all of the love and worship of our subjects while I received nothing at all. I believe for a long time that this was true and at the time it probably was and still is, but believe me when I say that I'm not as brave or bold as you or Celestia. I would never challenge yours or Celestia's authority unless I knew that I was justified. Until one day while I slept, I had a dream. It felt like someone had been whispering to me, telling me that Celestia was holding me back and if she was out of the way there would be nothing to stop me from receiving the same love and admiration as Celestia did. So I listened to the voice and stood up against Celestia and waged war against everything that didn't bow before me. The war against Celestia lasted for three long years, and many lives were lost, but eventually Celestia realized that there was no hope in making me back down so she forcefully made me realized how outclassed I really was." Luna said stopping for a few seconds a tear slowly dripped from her eye.
"I don't think I've never seen her so calm and serious, it was truly frightening. Even as Nightmare Moon I couldn't help but fear her. She crushed my entire army and then proceeded to beat me senseless before banishing me to the moon with the use of the Elements of Harmony. Where I stayed for a thousand years before coming back again. I came back exactly with the same plan in mind which was total domination, but luckily the new wielders of the elements of harmony was able to defeat Nightmare Moon and free me from my jealousy." She said while giving you a reassuring smile.
You knew she was lying about her envy. The elements primary function is to cast off evil or to defend it's wields from negative outside forces. Anger and envy are negative emotions from within, the elements have no known power over emotions, Luna was only trying to fool herself into believing that all of her anger and jealousy was now gone, while in truth she was only repressing her feelings. You thought about bringing it up, but you were never had a way with words. So your blunt way of speaking your feelings on matters wasn't needed for this situation. "I see..." You said nodding your head. "It's a horrible story, but sometimes shit happens. I'm glad you finally decided to take charge for the first time." Upon hearing you say that Luna's face lit up once again, this time with a certain glow you hadn't seen from her, ever. "I just wish it was under better circumstances." Her face quickly toned down to a more sadden look as she lost the 'certain glow'. "Thanks for telling me, you know you didn't really have to tell me if you didn't want too."
"Nah, It's okay. You deserved to know. Thanks for asking, I don't really have that many people to talk to anymore so I get quite lonely, from time to time." She said while taking a step forward and giving you a small, but gentle hug. She gave a small blush before taking a step back. "I should...um, probably get going. The night court is going to begin. You can come if you'd like." Luna said while walking a few steps away.
"I'd loved too." You said while following her as she walked out of the room and into the hallway but before you could even get two feet from the door a guard approached you.
"Pardon my intrusion, but Princess Celestia has called to see you in her bedchambers. She expects to have a visit before she retires for the night." The guard said giving you the same emotionless look that every other guard has on their face. You looked at Luna who had nodded her head and told you to meet her in the throne room. She turned around and took two of her guards with her, while the guard that was with you told you to follow him to Celestia's Room.
When you finally arrived there, you found Celestia reading what looked like a scroll. Upon opening up the door she quickly turned around saw that it was you. "You should have knocked." She said in her naturally calm voice.
"Hm? Oh, my bad. I'll try to remember that next time. So what's up? You called me here for a reason right?" You said while walking closer to her, so it wouldn't seem like you were avoiding her.
"Oh, yeah. I called you here because I wanted to ask you something." She walks towards you as well which made you tense up a bit. "Are you feeling alright?" She said while placing her hand on your check and then placing the back of her hand onto your forehead, much like that of what a mother would do to her child.
You gently grabbed her wrist to stop her from feeling you. "I'm doing alright. I could be bet-"
"That's not what I meant." She said quickly changing to a more serious look which caused you to the same.
"I see...then you've already noticed." You said giving her a small sigh, while walking over to her bookshelves and leaning on it. She nodded her head and motioned for you to explain your condition.
Celestia took you by the arm and pulled you closer. “Are you…”
“Am I mortal? No. Am I immortal? No. I think I’m somewhere in the middle.”
Celestia let go of your arm and gave you a confused look. “What do you mean?” She asked while folding her arms.
“I don’t know, I think I’m somewhere in the middle. I can't really explain it. I mean I feel mortal, but I'm not.” You said shrugging your shoulders. “I don’t think it’s permanent I’m slowly recovering my lost strength, I just don’t know how long it’s going to take for me to fully recover. It can take weeks, months or a few years.”
“If you had to guessed, how much strength do you have?”
“I’m a little over demigod level. I've lost majority of my powers and strength, but I should be fine if given the right amount of time.” You said to her while shaking your head. While your body was in the process of renewing itself, Discords attack was enough to interrupt the healing process leaving you with only enough power to be considered as a demigod.
“I’m fine with it. Whenever you decide to leave, I’ll arrange a few bodyguards to travel with you.”
“Umm, I think I can take care of myself, Celestia.”
“I know you can, but you’re not exactly at a hundred percent right now. That’s why I’m sending someone to travel with you.” Celestia groaned as she began to walk back and forth. "Do you...know how this has happened?"
"I have a hunch, it was back during the final stages of the war, when I heroically sacrificed myself for you. I was already weak and injured, so my physical body at the time was in the middle of changing to my next incarnation. When I saw Discord try to attack you, I reacted on instinct and took the full force of the attack so it wouldn't harm you, but the amount of force he put behind the attack had interrupted the sequence cutting me off from changing to my next incarnation, which practically killed me and turned me into stone." You said with heavy weight behind your voice. Celestia looked at you and let out a sigh.
"I'm sorry, brother...that you're...you know." You stopped her by lifting up your finger.
"Relax. I don't think it's permanent. I'm not as powerful as before, but I'm still strong enough."
"Oh, believe me. I know you are. It's just that I can't help but feel like it was my fault, you're like this." She said while rubbing her forehead.
"It is your fault." She looked up at you with an astonished look on her face. "You hesitated when we needed you the most and the result of your hesitation caused me to lose my immortality, along with most of my powers." Upon hearing this from you she began to look a little downhearted. "I'm not angry, we all hesitated once or twice during the war and before the war even started I said I wanted to see how it felt to be a mortal, so It looks like I got my wish. Even if it wasn't by my terms." You said while letting out a quick laugh.
"So what are you going to do now?" Celestia asked you.
"Like I said I'm probably just going to travel around and try to experience as much as the mortal life that I can." You said with a certain enthusiasm behind your voice, that you haven't heard since you came up with the idea.
"I see...well can I recommend you somewhere to visit? I'm sure you'll experience the most of it there." She said to you waiting for your reply.
"Sure thing. Any place with help."
"It’s a small town, but I’m sure you’re going to love it. The town is called Ponyville."
*Some of the flashbacks aren’t going to be in order anymore, so some things probably won’t make sense, until you piece everything together.*
2000 years ago, After the betrayal of Discord, before the end of the war
Discord’s corruption seemed too had hit the gods a lot harder that you or other siblings had originally thought. In the beginning of the war it was easy to take down a regular god that was begin controlled by Discord, they were sloppy fighters and held no real power that could do any real damage to you. So, it became a real problem when Discord managed to corrupt a few of your own siblings and turn them against you. The first was Typhoon, it was suspected that he had joined up with Discord, but you soon found out that Discord had corrupted him.
It didn’t take long until Endless told you to meet with Typhoon and snap him out of whatever spell Discord had him under. The two of you confronted with Typhoon in order to learn why he was using the weather to kill innocents for no reason. The three of you met in what would now be Appleloosa, but at the time it was just a large forest that was home to hundreds of animals and other tribal communities.
Upon entering into the area, you saw that everything was now desolated, the only thing that showed that there was a forest here were the now broken trees that were littered everywhere. The entire place had the combined smell of death, burnt wood and flesh. There were several powerful tornadoes swirling off in the distance which were destroying what looked like a small settlement. If you were a little earlier you could have saved them, but there were already dead.
You looked up in the air to see Typhoon, who was already aware that you had entered into the area. He looked down on you with a confident smirk on his face. “Letum, it’s so good of you to come!” He yelled as a crackle of lightning flashed down nearby.
“Typhoon, what the hell do you think you’re doing?!” You yelled back at him.
“I’m making my mark on this world! I’m sick and tired of following these mortals’ orders. When they want it to rain they come to me. When they want it to be hot, they tell me to do it! Well, I’m sick of it!” He yelled at you with anger rising in his voice. He slowly descended towards the ground in order to talk to you face to face. You waited for him to fully touch the ground until you began talking again.
“It’s not an order, it’s a request! They’re asking us to do these things for them! They can’t do it themselves! That’s why we do it for them!” You yelled back at him.
“Shut up! Discord was right, he said that you would come to stop me! From now on, I follow my own orders!”
“You idiot! You've been talking to Discord!?” You asked seemingly shocked and angered by this revelation. “Ah shit, you haven’t turned traitor, you've been corrupted!” You yelled back at him.
Typhoon eased up and began to shake his head. “No, he didn’t corrupt me. He opened my eyes. He told me that we could make an ideal world where the gods could rule over the mortals, rather than watch over them as their idiotic protectors.” He said to you looking as if he truly believed that what Discord told him was the truth.
“And you think that I’m just going to let you do this? Your a fool if you think so.”
“I don’t care what you think. This is going to happen, brother whether you want it to or not.” He said while in a quick burst of speed, he quickly punched you in the chest before you could react, causing you be thrown back away from him. Your body dragged across the ground for a few quick seconds before you slowly came to a complete stop. “Get ready to be dethroned.” He said while breaking into a powered sprint. His body quickly turned into lightning as he charged at you.
“Don’t get ahead of yourself Typhoon.” You said instantly jumping back up to your feet and began to charge him as well in shadowy like form that quickly covered your whole body.
The two of you almost instantly collided with each other which caused a large shock wave. The resulting force behind the shock wave uprooted the ground, sending shards of rocks and dust blasting out in all directions. The two of you flew back as you cancelled each other out. You found yourself smashed into the ground, while Typhoon flew into the air. You quickly bounce back up to your feet again and jumped into the air towards him, punching him back towards the ground before he could properly recover.
He quickly crashed into the ground, engraving his body underneath dirt and stone. As he tried pull to himself out of the hole you, quickly landed on him causing more rubble to uproot. You grabbed his neck with your left hand, holding him in place and then began to repeatedly punched him in the face with your right. He tried to get you off of him by using sheer physical strength, but couldn't as he found himself pinned underneath you, so he decided to use a different method.
His eyes quickly began to light up a golden yellow, as you punched his face. He then began to yell as a discharge of electricity began to shoot from his eyes, striking you in chest, causing you to take a step back away from him. He quickly tried to get up and jump away but you quickly grabbed his leg and began to slam him back and forth on the ground as if he was a rag doll. On the fourth slam, you jumped up in the air and used both of your hands to body slam him into the ground. You then kicked him in the chest causing him to grind through the ground and break into the air but you quickly teleported along with him and punched him back into the ground. You gently landed back down onto the ground and watched as Typhoon slowly stood back up breathing heavily at you.
“What was that about me being dethroned?” You mocked while slowly walked towards him. The sound of thunder in the distinct told you that he was about to try something.
Your assumption was right on the money as he summoned lightning into his hands. He quickly redirected the lightning bolt at you, but you moved your shoulder out of the way and charged him, but instantly summoned another lightning bolt and strikes it across your body sending you backwards landing you onto your back. He then begins to levitate into the air and begins summon a lightning bolt that gave off a certain power that made you shudder a bit as you pulled yourself to your feet. “Don’t you do it!” You yelled as you figured out what his next move was going to be.
He had decided to use his artifact on you, as in The Master Bolt, the artifact that Typhoon uses to control all the lightning in the world, while it may not seem as powerful as all the other artifacts, such as Endless' hourglass, which controls time or Celestia's orb, which can blow up or create suns, it’s still painful to get hit by. As he hovered over you the sound of thousands of lighting bolts crackling at the same time began to deafen you as you tried to shield your eyes from the light, blinding you. After a few seconds of charging it, Typhoon quickly threw it at you, before you react everything became bright white, even when you closed your eyes you couldn't shield away from it, which was soon followed by immense pain.
The pain caused you to quickly jolt awake, making you realize that you were dreaming and that you were safe. “Relax, you were just dreaming.” The unicorn in front of you said without looking up from the window.
Chapter Six: Meeting Twilight and Going Over Some Old History
You slowly shook your head as you tried to process where you were. You suddenly remembered that you were on a train to a town called Ponyville. The stallion in front of you was supposed to be your personal guard, his name was Dawning Zeal, he was handpicked by Celestia to guard you during the day from anything that would wish to harm you. “Yeah, I know.” You said while rubbing the bridge between your nose. "How far are we from Ponyville?" You asked him while letting out a tired sigh.
"Not long, probably fifteen minutes or so." He said without looking at you. From what you had already figured out about most guards who work at the castle don't really talk much, unless you talk to them. Zeal seemed to continue to follow this rule despite not being at the castle or being a guard there anymore.
"You don't talk much do you?" You asked him, wanting to know if it was because he was trained trained not to speak or was he just naturally silent.
"Not really, I was trained to look, observe and to protect, not talk. I don't speak unless spoken too, sir."
"You're going to be away from the castle for a while, so you might as well speak freely. I don't want a mindless servant who doesn't speak up unless his master says so." This seemed to have gotten his attention, since he was now looking at you. It didn't take much to see that he was young, but experienced. He probably joined the guard as soon as he left school.
"Are you asking me to speak freely sir?"
"No, I'm actually telling you too. I'm ordering you to speak to me as if we were friends, not master and servant."
Zeal gave you a smirk as he then began to look out of the window again. "Yes sir. May I ask you a question, then?"
"Go ahead."
"If you're supposed to be some all powerful god, then why do I have to protect you?"
"What's the reason why you protect Celestia and Luna? To protect us, duh. Trust me when I say we're not as all powerful as you think, we do get tired and we do have weaknesses, Even we need guards." You said while standing up from your seat.
"Where are you going?" He asked you.
"I'm going to use the bathroom." You said while walking away from your current seat and towards the nearest bathroom. As you walked towards the bathroom, someone brushed into each other, causing the both of you to look at each other. The pony that had bumped into you had on a brown robe that covered her entire body, the only part of her you could actually see was a small part of her face, which hid away her eyes, so you couldn’t see. The only thing that you could see was her fur which pastel violet and bits and pieces of her mane was purple and white. A small smile formed on her face as she turned to look at you.
“Oops, I’m sorry for that. I wasn't watching where I was going.” She apologized. The mare gave off a weird feeling, there was no way you could really describe it, she just felt a little…off.
“No, it’s ok…It was partially my fault as well. I also wasn’t watching where I was going.” You said to her while nodding your head. You slowly turned around to walk away, but stopped upon hearing that she was still talking to you.
“Are you headed to Ponyville?” She asked sounding a little amused at the thought.
“Yeah…why do you ask?”
“No reason, it’s a fun town to live in. I know this because I was born there. The ponies who live in Ponyville are really nice and supportive of other ponies. I’m sure you’ll love it.” She said while offering you a small hand shake. You looked at her hand for a few seconds before looking back at her. She had the same grin on her face that didn’t allow you to figure out what she was thinking. You reluctantly shook the mares hand and told her that you really needed to used the bathroom. She only replied with a small nod before walking away from you.
Being the God of Death you can pass right through walls, chairs, tables and such, you rarely have any problem properly interacting with floors, stairs or any other structures people are meant to walk upon, but you decided to just grab the handle like a regular pony and walk in, however you stop for a few seconds only to get a good look at the mare, but only to see that she is nowhere to be seen.
This caused you to blink a few times before continuing into the bathroom. You quickly closed the door and began to use it. The whole using a bathroom and eating thing kind of made you mad. It seemed to be very repetitive and unnecessary, but of course you would think this, because you’re not the one who created these mortals, you don’t really have that much knowledge on why they do the things they do. Your job is to kill them, not create them.
When you finished using the bathroom you left it and headed back to your seat. Zeal still had the same unchanged expression as before. He paid you a passing glance and nodded his head. “We’ve almost reached Ponyville.” He said while grabbing his one duffle bag that was filled with clothes and probably some money to last him a while.
“Hey, did you happen to see a mare walk by? She had one a large black robe on like mine.” You asked taking a seat.
Zeal took a few seconds to think before shaking his head. No, the only pony I've seen has been you and the other passengers. I haven’t seen anypony of that description.” Zeal gave you a look of concern before looking around at the other ponies around. Most were minding their business and would only look at you every now and then. ”What did you see?” He asked sounding serious.
“Nothing really...I was just talking to her before I used the bathroom. She had this weird aura around her that didn't seem normal.” You rubbing your chin as the image of the mare popped up in your mind again.
“Maybe she was goddess. She probably noticed who you are.”
“I highly doubt that. No one besides for Celestia and Luna, know that I’m back, besides if that was a God, I would have known. This mare felt...different.” You said finishing with a sigh, before slouching back in seat. “Nevermind, forget I said anything.” Zeal slowly nodded his head as he leaned back as well, but instead of looking back out of the window, he decided to keep an eye out for someone of the mares description.
After waiting a few more seconds you felt the train come to slow, but complete stop, looking outside you could see that you had arrived at Ponyvilles train station. Upon stepping off the train you were greeted by a purple young alicorn.
“Hello, I am-”
“Twilight Sparkle, right? Celestia told me who you were. Nice too meet you, I’m Letum.” You said extending your hand out for a handshake.
“Nice to meet you too...Celestia told me that were on some type of pilgrimage, is that right?” She asked shake your hand.
“Yeah, I’m here to find myself...or something like that.” You said looking at Zeal as he slowly walked off of the train. He bowed to to the young mare and walk up to introduce himself.
“Hello, Princess. My name is Dawning Zeal, but you can call me Zeal.” The young princess bowed back to him and nodded her head.
“It’s nice to meet you too, Zeal.” She said giving him a warm smile.
“So tell me. Celestia didn't tell us where we're going to be staying. Mind if I ask where?” You asked folding your arms.
Twilight placed her index finger on her chin as she replied back to you. “You’re going to be staying with me at the library. Don’t worry I have plenty of extra rooms so you can stay.” She while signalling you to follow her back to her home. Celestia didn't tell you much about Twilight, except that she was a princess. You decided to take the time that you had right now in order to see how much you could learn about her.
“Hey, Twilight mind if I ask you a few questions?” You asked her walking beside her.
“I don’t mind. I also have some questions for you but I’ll ask mine later. So what do you want to know?”
“I see that you’re an Alicorn. Tell me, who are you parents.”
Twilight let out a small chuckle as she looked at you. “I know where you’re going with this. I wasn’t actually born an Alicorn. I was originally a unicorn. My parents are both regular old unicorns.”
“I see. So that’s how she’s keeping things together. She’s turning mortals into gods in order to replace the ones that were lost.” You said curiously. You made it a mental note to ask Celestia about this the next time you saw her.
“Now here’s my question for you. The message I received from Celestia only told me that you were supposedly an old friend of hers, is that true? If so how old are you? What type of god are you?” Twilight sounded as if she was truly fascinated by you. This made you wonder how much did Celestia tell her, like did she tell her about the past or did she only tell her a few small things.
“So Celestia told you that we were just old friends, huh? I guess she can say that. She’s my younger sister, not by blood, though.” You said watching as Twilight looked at you with her mouth open wide.
“You’re her brother? How much older are you ?” She asked.
“Ahh...I don’t really know, roughly about a few thousand years or more I don’t know. I wasn’t really keeping track at the moment. Do you know about the creation story.”
“I know a little about it. There aren’t many books that cover the topic, and Celestia refuses to tell any further than that she and Luna created the sun and the moon respectively.”
“That is true, but let me tell you a little more. In the beginning, two beings came into existence. Those beings were Endless and his younger brother which is me. When he came into being immediately after. Endless controls the fabric of Time, while I controlled concept of Death.” You gave off a small sigh as you tried to keep the story PG13 and keep some of the parts from the beginning a secret. “I can’t really tell you how we were born, because all I remember was that I didn’t exist one second, while the next second I did the next. You may find this confusing, but imagine not knowing how you were created and being instantly thrown into a war without warning, because this is what happened to me.”
‘War? What do you mean?’
“At the time of our birth, the universe didn’t exist. Life didn’t exist. Practically nothing did and that was just it. We were at war with nothing, except that they were something.”
“How can you be at war with both something and nothing? That doesn’t make sense.” Zeal said finally deciding to speak up.
You sighed and shrugged your shoulders. “It doesn’t have too. When me and Endless came The Primordial was a great being whose power greatly outmatched mine and every other god in almost every way possible. It was in a war with other beings that we called The Meanwhiles and Neverweres, mindless beings that somehow existed but didn’t at the same time. I think they were failed attempts at creations that were supposed to have existed, but only made it halfway. When me and Endless appeared, The Primordial mistook the both of us for being one of them and immediately tried to kill us. It took a lot of persuasion to finally get it to realize that we weren’t a threat. It then forcefully enlisted us and every other elder god that later came into existence afterwards into the war against his enemies. Of course with my brothers and sisters help we eventually defeated them and seal them in the prison known as Tartarus, but The Primordial became distrust worthy of me and my brethren so he tried to kill us. So we banded together and went to war with the beast.
The war against The primordial lasted for centuries as needless to say we were able to defeat it and sealed him into the same prison with the same enemies he hated. With the Primordial gone, we were free to do what we wanted. There are ten Elder gods. The oldest being Endless who created Time, then me who created the concept of Death, Forever created the universe, Discord was created the chaos and carnage that accompanied the creation of the universe, Celestia appeared and created the sun as well as every other star, Gaia created the planets and life, Typhoon created the sky and the atmosphere, Oceanus created seas and water, Order who created Laws and maintained order, Luna who created the Moon and Darkness, and Delirium created Destruction and Insanity, her original name was Delight, but for some reason she changed and turned into Delirium. To tell you the truth not one of us are actually related. We just call each other brothers and sister, since we participated in the war together. You know like brothers in arms?” You said finishing your story. “So that’s pretty much it. Anymore questions?”
Twilight came to a complete stop, causing you to realize that you had reached the library. As you looked at you couldn’t help but feel kind of amazed. Even two thousand years ago, you had never seen someone actually build a house into a tree and live in it. “Wow... I don’t really know what to make of that story. “
“Neither do I.” Zeal added.
“Why isn't the story listed in books or documents?” She asked.
“I don’t know. A long time ago there were books but I guess they're gone now, history tends to disappear every now and then, but eventually it comes back.” Twilight nodded her head.
“You have a point. Come on in. I have a few more things to ask you.” She said while opening up the door to her home and walking in. “Spiiiike! I’m home!”
For a house that was filled with books you had to admit, the place was pretty well taken care of. You and Zeal watched as a small purple and green teenager dragon had appeared from out of the kitchen.
“Welcome back, Twilight.” Spike said with a large smile on his face as walked into the room. The smile slowly faded in to a look of concern as he looked at you. “Hi. I’m Spike.” Zeal gave him a small nod and watched as you gave him a small wave.
“I’m Letum and this here is my bodyguard Dawning Zeal.” You said greeting the kid. You were pretty used to people knowing who you were. It was rare that you needed to introduce yourself, so it didn’t really feel natural. You looked closer at the little dragon and saw something that looked familiar about him, but you just couldn’t put your finger on it.
Twilight led you and Zeal into the next room which appeared to be the living room. She gave you the signal to that you two could sit down. Twilight seemed to be fascinated by the fact that you were basically the god that was willing to tell her about how society was a few thousand years ago. The answer to that question was very primitive.
She kept you in that living room for hours as you told her old stories that should have already been in the history books, but judging by her expression you could tell that most knowledge had been lost. Neither Spike nor Zeal looked like the type to have been interested in history but they proved you wrong when they began to ask you a few questions as well.
“Were there any dragons back then?” Spike asked sounding enthusiastic about hearing your answer.
The question kind of struck you a bit. You would have thought that he should know that dragons are one of the longest living species still alive and have been around a lot longer than two thousand years. “Yeah they were.” You said chuckling as you tried to remember exactly how long dragons have actually been around. “If I’m correct, dragons have been around for a good two million years and from the look of it are still kicking today.” Spike nodded eagerly as he confirmed your statement. “Good, dragons were always one of my favorite races.” You said nodding your head to nopony in particular. You wouldn't be surprised if you actually ended up meeting some old dragon friends of yours.
Most of Spikes questions were directed towards dragons. Such as how many dragons lived back then(enough), were they hostile or friendly to ponies(most of the time), what did they eat(meat and gems), did they have their own kingdom(yes), stuff like that. Of course you answered his questions to the best of his ability, but you were pretty sure that there was not much to tell that he didn’t already know of.
Most of Zeals questions were more military like in nature. “Was there much war back then?” He asked.
This was a simple question with a simple answer. “No, there wasn’t...Well, they’re shouldn’t have been. You didn’t really have much to fight over when you were provided with almost everything you ever wanted.” You said in an emotionless tone, which caused an uneasy feeling to enter into the room.
You had no problem talking about how things were back in the day, but you decided to avoid talking about the war, as the wounds were still fresh. So you decided to tell them about how mortals acted back then as well as the gods. Some of the races though got advance enough to actually cause genocide upon each other. You were glad to know that these equestrians weren’t as stupid as those who came before them.
Eventually the questions had to stop as you began to become tired. This little history lesson would have to wait. After figuring out that you’re a mortal you found yourself becoming increasingly tired, having to sleep, eat and use the bathroom was annoying. By the time you told Twilight that you were tired it was already two O’clock in the morning. Spike being the youngest in the room he had long since fallen asleep.
Twilight woke up the young dragon and walked him to his bed, before leading you to your new room.
The room was relatively big. You assumed that this room was the guest room. It had two beds already made and everything. You didn’t really like the fact that you had to sleep in the same room with someone else but at this moment, beggars can’t be choosers. The bed was as comfortable as it looked and the feeling of having someone else sleeping in the same room as you quickly subsided as you soon fell asleep and drifted off into dreamland.
You were expecting to drift into distant memories like you always did but this time something felt different. You were having one of those dreams where you could actually feel what was going on around you, rare, but unique. This one however seemed to be forced rather than just happening randomly.
This place held untold arcane beauty. You could practically feel the magic admitting itself from the magical runes that floated about almost everywhere. You knew exactly what this place was and what it represented, but for your sake you decided not to think about it.
“So this how your mind looks. It’s pretty impressive if I do say so myself. Strange, but impressive.” A familiar voice said coming from nearby. You watched as the person revealed himself. You had no doubt about whom it was.
“Luna, may I ask why are you here?” You asked in a seemingly uninterested tone. Luna let out a small chuckle as she walked more into your view and began to admire the view.
“I’m the mistress of dreams. I can come and go as I please. You should already know that, brother.”
“Yeah I know that, yet the fact remains that I don't care. Did you see anything?” You asked folding your arms in a serious manner, as you hated when people enter into your mind and dreams without your permission. You always disliked gods that used their powers to peer into your mind while you were sleeping. You found it annoying that there was a chance that a god would worm his or her way into your head and try to steal your most precious secrets. You’ve spent thousands of years making your mind impossible, hiding each and every dark secret in impregnable labyrinth that no one can break through except for you and those that you allow.
“Come on, you keep your memories and secrets so tightly locked that not even the god of dreams himself can see them without your consent.” She said looking back at you with her cyan colored eyes. You took a moment look at Luna. You found it weird that despite being older than most life, that Luna and Delirium chose a much younger appearance to present themselves with rather than an older one.
Delirium loved to choose forms that were in the range between eight years old to sixteen, while Luna choose to look like she was either in her teens or if she was in her late twenties. Most of the other gods liked to choose more intimidating and older appearances. Right now in your mortal form you looked to be in your late teens to early twenties, but this was going to change later when you got your power back.
You let out a small sigh as you reminded her to stay out of your memories. Just because she can’t get into your memories doesn’t mean she won’t try.You know what they say curiosity killed the cat. You had no problem leaving her to wander in your chasm of a mind, foe an indefinite amount of time. “Alright I get it. Geez, I don’t see what’s the big problem is, we’re about the same age and I pretty much know as much as you do.” She said throwing her hands up in defeat.
“Luna, for starters, I’m almost twice if not three times as old as you are. Endless didn’t start keeping track of time until after Discord was born. I’ve seen and done things that would make even the oldest of gods go mad with revelation. So don’t compare my age to yours.” You said shaking your head. “Let’s just change the subject. How are you? What do I owe the pleasure of you visiting me in my dreams for?” You asked giving her a fake bow.
“Please do not mock me, brother. You know how much I hate being made fun of. I’m only here on request from Celestia. She wants to know how you’re doing.”
You let out a long exaggerated sigh and began to shake your head again. “I haven’t even been gone for an entire day and she’s already worried about my safety. Just tell her that I’m doing fine. Glad to know that you only came to talk to me because Celestia told you too.” You joked.
“Oh, be quiet. I also wanted to know how you were doing; it’s just that Celestia’s request gave me a reason to come.”
“Hmph, even after two thousand years of absence I’m still loved.”
“Oh, you’ll always be loved brother. Do not think that just because you’ve been gone for to millennium that our feelings about you were going to change.” Luna said in almost motherly tone, which was actually rare for her.
“Glad to hear it.” You put on a small smile and began to rub the back of your neck. “So tell me. Is that all you have to say or is there anything else you want to talk about?” You asked, watching as she placed herself into her thinking pose, acting as if she was really thinking about something.
“As much as I would love to stand here and chat about old times, but alas I can’t.”
“Whys that?” You asked.
“Morning is almost here and it’s about time Celestia takes reign, plus I need some rest.”
You gave her a short nod as you began to feel it as well, morning was almost upon you, so after another small little chat about seemingly non-important things Luna left you, allowing you to wake up to be greeted by Celestia’s bright flaming ball of fire, other wise known as the sun.
As you rose from your new bed you saw that Zeal had already left. His bed was already empty and neatly made, as opposed to yours which was nearly a mess.
After a few quick seconds, spent making up your bed, you put on your robe and began to head downstairs towards the living room where you were greeted by Spike, who was chowing down on whatever food he was eating at the time, which caused you to stop. “Hey, Spike. What are you eating?” You asked walking into the kitchen.
Spike shoved what looked like colorful rocks into his mouth. He took a few seconds to collect his words as he began to lick his fingers. “Mmph, I’m eat, mph, some gems. You want some?” He said tossing you a bright green gem, that looked like an emerald. You took a few seconds to think about the choice of eating a rock, but judging by how a god can eat practically anything they want, you decided to try it.
“Never ate a rock before…” You thought while shrugging your shoulders as you took a bite out of the small gem. At first you expected your teeth to crack at the attempt of trying to bite an inedible object but you, as well as Spike were surprised upon seeing your teeth actually sink through. With a large crunch, you took a bite out of the gem and began to chew on it. You were even more shocked to fine out that the emerald actually had a taste to it. Suddenly an age old question had been finally solved. If a dragon can eat gems, then what does gems taste like if someone else tried to eat it? That answer is really not that different.
You took another bite out of the emerald in order to confirm the taste. It was exactly what you thought it tasted like. It was green apple flavored, weird, but still tasty as hell. Seeing the expression on your face Spike grabbed another gem from his bowl and tossed it to you. “Good right? Here, have another one.” You caught this gem and began to look at it. The color of this gemstone was purplish making you think that it was an amethyst stone.
You took another bite and found that this one was grape flavored. “Wow, I would have never expected eat a gem to actually find out that there’s a taste behind it.” You said finishing the grape flavored gem.
Spike nodded his head furiously. “Finally, I gave Twilight a lick, but she told me that it didn’t taste like anything.” He said throwing another gem into the air and catching it with his tongue. He then slid his bowl to you. “You want some more?”
You shook your head no and slid the bowl back to him. “Generous offer, but nah I think I’m good.” You found it strange that your appetite hasn’t been as large as was supposed too be. You could eat an apple and be done for the entire day.
Spike shrugged his shoulders as he resumed gobbling down his breakfast. “Suit yourself.”
You waited for Spike to finish his breakfast before striking up another conversation with him. You followed Spike into the library section of the house and watched him take a look at a few of the books that was stacked up on the floor. You noticed that the entire time that you’ve been awake that you haven’t seen Twilight nor Zeal. So you decided to see if Spike would know.
“Yeah, Twilight’s on an errand for Fluttershy and your buddy Zeal said that he was going to take a walk around town.” Spike mentioned as he picked up a book and looked at it for a few seconds as if he was scanning it. He then shook his head and threw it back into a pile full of other books. You offered to help search for whatever book he was looking for, but he politely refused, telling you that you didn’t have too.
“Hmm, I see… I should probably-” The sound of a door slamming open stopped you from finishing your sentence.
“HEY, TWILIGHT!! Are you home?!” A female voice said coming from behind you. As both you and Spike turned around to see who was at the door, you couldn’t even see who it was before you felt a sharp pain pierce through your head, knocking you unconscious as you fell to the floor.
Chapter Eight: Meeting Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie
When you came too you could see that you were surrounded by Spike and two mares you’ve never seen before. One of them was a Pegasus who had a rather short mane consisting of all the colors of the rainbow, and her eyes were a sharp magenta. Her body was almost the same shade as the sky when it’s clear of all clouds; the second was a pink earth pony with fluffy pink hair, whom had a huge smile on her face, upon seeing that you were now awake. You blinked a few times, confused and angry at the same time because the question that was going to through your mind, “What hell happened? Who the hell hit me?” you thought to yourself.
“Ooh, ooh! Who are you? I’ve never seen you before! Are you new in town? My name’s Pinkie Pie, I just love meeting new ponies, do you wanna be friends? Do ya, do ya, do ya?” You tried following this mare with your eyes, but her bouncing around quickly made you regret doing so. Your first assumption was that this pink mare attacked you. The first thing you thought about was attacking this mare back. You picked yourself up from the floor and began to walk towards her but stopped as your head still hurt.
“What happen?” you decided to as Spike.
“Pinkie, with her usual cheery self came in looking for Twilight, but when she saw you she flipped out and tackled you, trying to give you a hug. The shocked caused you to fall backwards and hit your head on the bookcase.” Spike said pointing to the mess of books you caused to fall over.
The rainbow colored mare walked closer to you but took a few steps back not wanting her to do anything to you. “Hi, I’m Rainbow Dash. I’m…uh, sorry about Pinkie Pie knocking you out. As you can see…she can be pretty enthusiastic.” She said pointing her thumb back towards the pink pony who was still bouncing around.
“It’s alright…you’re not the one who should be apologizing.” You huffed. “So, what’s her problem? Is she messed up in the head?” You asked wondering if the mare known as Pinkie pie had some kind of condition.
“Nah, Pinkie’s just being Pinkie.” Rainbow Dash said with a smile.
“So she’s always like this?! That’s gotta be a hassle.” You said folding your arms and shaking your head at the pink pony.
“Not as much as you think, she’s actually pretty fun to be around, she’s pretty much friends with everyone in town. Soo who are you?” She asked.
“I’m Letum.” You replied back.
“Letum? That’s a weird name.”
“That is a weird name!” Pinkie yelled.
“Let-tea-um? What does it stand for? Does it have anything to do with your cutie mark?” She said rushing over to look at your flank. You look at her rushing back and forth to get a clear look.
“It stands for death in old language.” You replied.
“What parent in their right mind names their child death?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“I don’t have any parents. I named myself.”
“What do you mean?” Rainbow dash asked.
You were about to answer. But Pinkies constant poking made you feel uncomfortable so you lightly pushed her away so you could make her stop. “Your cutie mark it’s a skull with two bones making an X. Hmm, that’s weird are you a coroner or something?”
“Yeah…Something like that. I’m the god of death.” You said inciting a shock from the two mares in front of you. Your wings had been perfectly tucked into your robe so they weren’t able to see them, so when you extended them, this incited even greater shock and an almost quiet squeak from Rainbow Dash.
“You’re an Alicorn? I didn’t know that the friend that Celestia mention was another alicorn.” Pinkie Pie yelled as she quickly got down her knees. She looked back up at Rainbow Dash who seemed to be so shocked that she didn’t move, so Pinkie grabbed her and made her bow. “I’m so, so, sorry, if we offended you in any way.” She said realizing the importance behind your title.
You let out a small chuckle as you signaled them to rise. “Relax. If you actually offended me by any chance you would’ve known.” You said. You liked when mortals bowed down to you it lets you feel like you still have power, it’s just that you can’t really experience being mortal if everyone’s being nice to you because you have direct control over where over their afterlife. So you decided to keep your wings hidden underneath your wings from now on, until you needed them.
“So, wait you’re telling me that you’re the grim reaper? Where’s the black cloak and skeleton like body? Where’s the huge scythe you’re depicted to have?” Rainbow Dash asked sounding skeptical of your claim.
“I do not carry a sickle or scythe around with me everywhere I go, it’s my symbol of power, carrying it around and using it to reap souls is a total waste of a weapon that can end universes, I don't have those skull like features. I only look that way because you assholes make me look that way! You mortals never once have seen my face! Never! Do you want to know what my preferred look is when I want to interact with you mortals? Find yourself a mirror. And I only wear a black cloak if it’s cold or if I don’t want children to see who I am, because their innocence.” You said, highly annoyed at the common stereotypes presented to you.
“Ok, ok! Chill.” Rainbow Dash said.
“Umm, let’s change the subject.” Spike said alerting you that he was still in the room. “Did you come to see Twilight?”
“That’s right! Is she home?” Pinkie asked. Spike shook his head and told them that Twilight was over her friend Fluttershys house.
“Alright thanks Spike. Come on, Pinkie lets go.” Rainbow Dash said rushing out of the room.
“Okie doky.” Pinkie said beginning to run out of the library, but stopped to quickly run back up to you. “Ohh, you should come with us. You might be able to meet more our friends.” Before you could even respond back to her, Pinkie grabbed your arm and quickly dragged you out of the library.
Chapter Nine: A Chat Between The Ophelia and The Sun Goddess
Delirium, Goddess of Destruction and Madness. The youngest of the Elders. She used to be Delight, the personification of Harmony and Happiness, but changed to Delirium long ago for reasons unclear (you think she did it to prove that anyone can assert freedom from Endless). All who look upon her see a child who can create anything she imagines and warp reality, including a person's memories, added with the fact that she can destroy anything just by looking at it. It is implied that her delirium is partly a defensive mechanism from knowing too damn much (more than anyone, including her siblings). Apparently she knows secrets that even you or the other Elders don't know. For example, while Endless knows everything that was, is, could or will be, Delirium knows everything else; everything that wasn't, isn't, couldn't or won't be. It's unwise to ignore what she says - nearly as unwise as listening too closely, so when she says something is going to happen it's wise to almost always listen.
With all of this speculated/known about her there is no wonder why neither you nor your siblings challenge her authority whenever she rises to the occasion, but her usual crazy and insane demeanor makes her incredibly calm and obedient to whatever you or the others tell her to do.
Delirium usually acts as a messenger between the elders when they don't feel like talking to each other directly. While most gods would hate this job, the crazy girl revels in the fact that she can go wherever she wants, whenever she wants, because being a messenger, gives her the power to travel through different planes, dimensions, domains, and universes, without being questioned.
Today, she was having her routine tea, with her older sister Celestia. The two would get together ever week and chat about non-important things, like what Delirium did in the last twenty-four hours, which is surprisingly a lot and it seems to Celestia that today would be no different.
The two of them sat together at a table in the middle of Celestia's room. They would have been in the dining room, but those who look upon Delirium often become mad at listening to her babble for too long. So they often have their sessions in Celestias room.
The two sat in silence for a few awkward moments. Delirium sat twisting her her green and blur hair with her finger as she began humming a unfamiliar tune, while Celestia slowly levitating her teacup and taking a sip every so often. "So." She said breaking the silence and gathering the attention of her guest. "How was your day, Delirium?"
"My day was just FANTASTIC! Thanks for asking!" Delirium said enthusiastically taking a sip of her tea. "I had the most wonderful conversation with an awesome squirrel today. I call him Senior Fuzzybottoms." She said with glee. Celestia couldn't help but smile at Deliriums childlike nature.
"Is that so? What did you and Mister Senior Fuzzybottoms talk about?" Celestia asked actually sounding interested about the conversation she had with the animal.
"The usual, It was mostly about Squirrel Politics. I heard there might be a war between the Sciuridae and the Accipitrinae, or Squirrel vs Hawks if you want to be technical." She said shrugging her shoulders and taking another sip.
Celestia raised an eyebrow as the possibility of war between animals. "War between animals? That completely insane... but this is Delirium I'm talking about. She tends to warp reality just by entering into the room. Can it really be possible that she gave intelligence to an animal or is this one of her infamous warnings?" Celestia asked herself as she steadily finished her cup of tea. She levitated the teapot and began to fill her cup up again. "Do you want some more Tea?"
Delirium nodded her head furiously. "Yes Please." Upon finishing her own cup, Celestia began to fill up her sisters. As she did so Delirium looked out the window and began to speak. "Oh yeah, Senior Fuzzybottoms also mentioned something else."
"And what was that?" Celestia said as she finished pouring her sister tea.
"He happened to tell me of a man." Delirium said using telekinesis to levitate the cup and drink
"A man...and pray tell, who was this man?"
"While not the man he once was, he is still a man non the less. He was there from the beginning. A power that exist at the end of all things. He walked with our gods and shaped our deepest beliefs. An executioner at the gallows. A lone hunter on a pale horse. A soldier on the battlefield. A criminal in the shadows. Fields become burial grounds in his wake. Every great atrocity, every feeble passing, he stands witness. In their strife, in their revolutions and in their wars, he has left his mark. And in the end, his will be the last face we'll all see." Delirium said looking directly at Celestia, waiting to see a change in any facial features. Yet, saw nothing as Celestia was known to have the greatest poker face among the elders.
"I see..."
"You should. He was here, in this room not too long ago. And ooh have we've missed him so."
"We?"
"Me. I. We're all the same. Tell me how is the Reaper Man faring, these days?" Delirium said taking a sip of her tea.
"I have no idea what your talking about." Celestia said taking a sip of her tea and closing her eyes.
"Celestia."
"Hm?" Celestia said acting coy.
"I see your missing a statue in your garden." Delirium said pointing to her side.
When Celestia opened her eyes, she found herself in the Cantorlot Garden with Delirium pointing to an empty spot in the garden, where you used to stand. Nearby guards and Civilians looked at the two of them in awe as two of the most powerful beings in the universe just appeared before them from thin air. Most fell to ground in worship almost instantly. While not in fear of Celestia but in fear of Delirium as many have heard stories of the crazy girls enjoys making other beings around her insane, if angered in anyway. "I don't under-"
"Tosah! How long are you going to keep it up? Where's Letum?"
"You're not going to let it go are you?"
"Nope!"
Celestia let out a deep sigh and took another sip of her tea. "He's in Ponyville."
"With Elements of Harmony?" Celestia nodded her head she continued drinking. "Ohh! I wonder if he's met my granddaughter!" Delirium said clasping her hands together. "Oh I simply have go and see him. Thank you sister for the tea. I expect to see you again next week at my place. Tootalooo!" Delirium said giving her older sister a small wave as her body quickly warped into herself disappearing into thin air, leaving Celestia alone in the garden.
Everfree Forest. It’s been thousands of years since you last entered into this place. And it was no secret that you hated this place, with a passion. You were shaken by the fact that these dreaded woods still stand, even after two thousand years. In the times of old, this forest was on of the first forests ever grown by Gaia, the Life Giver herself. To preserve and protect the forest, Gaia birth hundreds of monsters and animals that would watch over the sacred place for her when she wasn't the one doing it herself. Though she had never confirmed it, a few gods themselves actually believe that the forest is actually alive.
There were plenty of reasons why you and the other gods tend to stay away from this place, but to find out that someone actually chooses to live near this place is just absolutely insane.
Pinkie Pie practically dragged you all the way up to Fluttershys cottage. As you tried to catch your breath, Pinkie gave the front door a loud pounding. She yelled repeatedly as she continued to bang on the door. Your patience was growing thin with the mare so you quickly stopped her and told her to let go you, which quickly did. You happy that Rainbow Dash had backed you up, saying that there was no need to bang on the door so loudly. "I just want to introduce Flutters to Letum."
You were about to chew her out but stopped when you saw the front door open up. A yellow mare with a pink mane slowly opened up the door to greet her friend. She quickly hid behind the door upon seeing you. "Oh, h-hello Pinkie. W-who's y-your friend." She asked.
"Don't worry, Fluttershy. This is Letum. He's the friend of the princesses that Twilight was telling us about. I know he doesn't really look like much but-"
"HEY!" You yelled out.
"But I'm pretty sure that he's really important. He's The God of Death." Pinkie Pie said in her almost infectious tone. Fluttershy yelped as she hid behind her door once more. Could you blame her? Her best friend just brought the The Grim Reaper to her doorstep, Of course if she had any sense she would hide.
"Relax Fluttershy. He's a good guy." Rainbow Dash said before raising her eyebrow and looking at you. "You are a good guy aren't you?"
"You're not dead are you?" You replied right back, which incited a groan from Rainbow.
"Touche." She said shrugging her shoulders. "Hey, Fluttershy. Is Twilight here?"
Fluttershy gave her friend a small nod as she opened up the door more, so you and the two mares could come in. Her house wasn't like you thought it would be. Her home was full of animals who all surprising didn't start growling at you. One the perks of now being mortal, huh? You followed Fluttershy deeper into the house to see Twilight sitting on a couch in the living room. She looked surprised to see you here, but quickly recovered upon seeing Pinkie Pie and Twilight.
"Letum? what are you doing here?" Twilight asked standing up.
You gave her any annoyed expression and looked at Pinkie Pie who was engaged in conversion with Fluttershy and Dash. "You friend there yanked me out of the library and dragged me all the way here. She almost pulled my arm off." You said pulling off a windmill motion with your arm, trying to shrug off the nagging pain that Pinkie had inflicted onto you. "Whatever. So tell me, why'd you come over here for?" You asked while looking around the cottage.
"I-I asked Twilight to come over so she could help me look for Angel." Fluttershy said while walking towards Twilight.
"Angel?"
"He's an awesome bunny that lives with Fluttershy." Pinkie Pie yelled, which caused you to glare at her. You would've have been happy if Pinkie Pie left and had gone some place, but you knew that wasn't going to happen.
"Angel, hasn't come home in three hours and I'm starting to worry about him." Fluttershy said seemingly hiding a few tears. You didn't really understand the weight behind the situation, but you could tell that Fluttershy loved that bunny, so it wouldn't hurt if you help look for him.
"Do you know where he might have gone?" You asked while picking up a nearby picture frame which showed Twilight and her friends together.
"Usually whenever he's upset he runs in the Everfree forest to cool down." The thought of going in Everfree forest sent a chill up your spin.
"I-I see..." After a few minutes of conversation on whether or not Angels in the forest, Fluttershy led you and the others to the entrance of Everfree. The trees were tall and wide, just like they were two thousand years ago. You looked inside and saw how dark it was inside. While you didn't have outright fear of the place, you did feel uncomfortable about being near this place. "So...this rabbit of yours...Does he do this type of thing often?" You asked.
"What do you mean?" Fluttershy asked.
"Run away. Does he run away often?"
"Only when we get into an argument. He sometimes he calms down and comes home. Other times I have to go in and get him."
"Then that's good. All we have to do is wait." You said sounding enthusiastic about not having to go into the forest.
"But the forest more dangerous this time of year, he could get hurt. Please, we have to go and look for him before something happens." She said with the most adorable eyes you have ever seen. You almost felt yourself die from how cute she looked.
"So much for taking the easy way out." You let out a deep sigh and told her that you were going to find her bunny, which prompted many thanks from her and her friends. "Since, you've been in here so many times. How about you show me around?" You said with a sharp smirk as you watched her look into forest.
"O-ok. You guys can wait out here i-if you'd like." She said towards her friends.
"Alright. We'll head out towards the town and ask around to see if any has seen angel." Twilight said gathering Rainbow dash and Pinkie Pie and walking back towards the direction of the town.
"Alright, then. Let's go. I don't want to be here any longer than I have too." You said signaling Fluttershy to lead the way as you walked into the forest.
The place looked exactly like it did the last time you were here. "Things work differently in The Forest...It's my home. My sanctuary. Do honestly think I'm going to let you waltz right in here and without my consent? I'm always watching those who wander in here either by accident or not." You thought to yourself, quoting what Gaia had said to you a long time ago. You wondered if she was watching you right now. It made you wonder if she had confronted the two of you, would she be able to tell if who you were.
Fluttershy surely did live up to her name. Every time you said something or looked in her direction you barely ever got a response that wasn't a whisper. You were glad that you still had super hearing or this would have annoyed you. After thirty minutes of wandering around calling out for a animal you've never seen before, Fluttershy finally decided to start a conversation.
"You're strange." She said causing you to look at her funny.
"What do you mean by...strange?" You said looking behind a nearby tree.
"W-what I mean is..It's just...your different from the other gods."
"You've met all my other brothers and sisters?" You asked jumping into a nearby tree in order to see if you find a white speck anywhere as you called out to Angel.
"Is that so strange to hear? I-I mean I am an Element-"
"-of Harmony. Yeah I totally forgot about that. So why do you think I'm different?"
"You give off a different feeling than all the others." She said this time, gathering up the courage to look you in the eyes. This was mortal was definitely not like her friends. You wondered if this so called element of Kindness was actually demigod in disguise. If so, then whose her parent? You made it a mental note to question her about this later.
"You are correct, I am different than my brethren." You said jumping out of the tree and back to the ground.
"I-I thought as much. Unlike the others, you hold much sadness and regret about your past mistakes. I-I can see it in your eyes." she said again averting her eyes from yours, when you quickly looked at her. This statement shocked if not completely horrified you.
"H-how did you- when did-...Who are you?" You finally managed to say.
You watched as Fluttershy closed her eyes, as if she was confirming something. "That statement holds more wisdom than it imply." There was nothing strange about this mare. She seemed perfectly normally by all standards, a little smarter than she originally lets on, but still normal. If she was normal, why did she seem different? This question began to naggin in your brain as you averted your gaze.
"When your as old as me, you have no choice but regret the things you've done and seen." You said rubbing the back of your neck.
"How old are you?"
"A lot older than this universe and I'll outlive it into the next." You said chuckling to yourself. You quickly stopped as it occurred to up that this forest is fricking huge and there was practically no way you were going to find that bunny.
"I see...So then your-"
You stopped Fluttershy from talking as you began sense something. It was a familiar feeling. You used to sense it all the time, but it seemed like being mortal had downplayed your ability to sense things. So you decided to walk around until you found it. "Whats wrong?" Fluttershy asked.
"My Reaper Senses are tingling." You said tapping your temple as you began to take a few seconds to hone in on whatever you were feeling, before walking over towards a nearby bush and looking into it. "Oh no." You said as you saw the image in front of you first. You tried to keep Fluttershy from looking but her curiosity and stubbornness caused her to look anyway.
You watched as her face went from confused to pale and fearful, before passing out. The image in front of you was not exactly a pretty one. There was a black fox with red eyes standing there feasting upon a white rabbit which you assumed was Angel. The black fox looked up at you and took a few seconds to realize that someone was staring at him. It froze as it looked at your seemingly cold gaze. *Growl* The little fox angrily growled at you for interrupting it meal. If you had even a fraction of the power you had before this animal would have ran away in fear. "Do you have any idea who I am?" You said to animal not really expecting a reply back from the beast.
"YIP!(No, but should I care?)"
...
Did that fox just speak? You said to yourself as you looked at the animal dumbfounded by what you just heard. "What did you just say?" You asked fox.
Now it was the fox's turn to be surprised as it jumped back. "Yip? Yip? (Holy crap? You can understand me?)" You nodded you head slowly. "Yip. Yip! (Then you must be a god.)" The fox said before licking it's lips and bowing down to you. Of course as a God you can understand animals. It's a pain in the ass to filter it out when your near a lot of them, but you've never heard an animal like this speak so perfectly to you as if you were actually talking to someone. As the animal bowed to you decided to take this opportunity to touch it to see if it was normal.
Upon placing you hand on it's forehead you felt a sharp rebound as you felt a familiar presence from the fox. "Grr.(What was that for?)" The fox said jumping back and rubbing it's head with it's own paw.
"Yeah. That makes sense. Are you-"
"Yip! Yip! Yip!(That's right! I'm the personification of death...for rabbits. If I had to guess, you're my boss. It is a great honor to finally meet you, Master Letum.)" This is new. It seems that when I lost all of powers. The concept of Death split into different, yet equal personifications after I died. Now that's Interesting. You could feel it now, millions of versions of you roaming around doing your job for you. If you had knew that you could have done this before you would have killed yourself sooner.
You mental face palmed as you realized that Fluttershy was still unconscious and her pet still laid at your feet dead. So you decided to ask the rabbit for a favor.
"Yip!(So all you want me to do is just bring back the bunny I just killed...er, I'm not complaining but isn't that against the rules?)" The fox told you trying to clarify this to you so he wouldn't get in trouble.
"I'm the one who created the rule! So I'm the only one who's allowed to break it. So stop wasting my time and just bring that bunny's soul back! I'll do the rest!" You said growing impatient with the little reaper in front of you.
"*Whimper* (Alright calm down!)" The fox said while snapping its paws, something which should have been impossible.
At that moment you could see the soul of Angel standing by his body and the unconscious body Fluttershy.
"Squeak?(What the heck just happened? And is that my body!)" The little bunny said as it ran over to ravaged remains of it's body. He then turned around and ran towards fluttershy and tried to wake her up. Your horn formed a shadowy like aura as you touched angels corpse and began to apply some energy to the body, healing it into what it once was. You then grabbed the soul of Angel and began to stuff in back into the bunny's newly healed body. "Squeak?(Hey, Get your hands off me. What are you doing?)"
"I'm trying save you. How about you stop struggling and get back your body?!" You said it back into his body. You then picked up the body and closed your eyes. You horn grew darker as energy from you flowed into the body of Angel causing him to almost instantly spring awake.
"Y-you healed him." Fluttershy said as she watched the whole thing.
You gave her a small smile as you handed the rabbit to her. Fluttershy shrieked with joy as she grabbed Angel from you hands and put him in a death hug. "Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!" She said with just absolute glee on her face.
"Yip. (Aww, ain't that just the most heartwarming thing you've ever seen? No? Yeah, me neither. Alright Boss, I've gotta get back to my job. Those rabbits aren't going to kill themselves...all right that was a lie. They do tend to kill themselves quite a lot.)" The black fox said as it jumped into the nearby bushes before you could even get a word in.
You watched Fluttershy as she cried tears of joy at the resurrection of her once lost pet. After giving her a few seconds to herself you decided to tell her that it was time to go. "O-oh yeah. T-thank for saving him." She said said while picking Angel up as she stood up. You told her that no thanks was needed and only thing you really wanted in return was for the two of you to leave, before something found you. Fluttershy granted your wish and you quickly found yourself out of the forest and back at her cottage in no time.
After bringing Angel back from the afterlife, the three of you decided to head back to Fluttershy’s house and wait for the others to come back. On the meantime you engaged in small side conversations with Fluttershy(and Angel whenever she left the room) and learned a little more about the shy mare and her friends. Apparently she has two more friends that you haven’t met yet, Applejack and Rarity.
Given by the description that Fluttershy gave you, Applejack was the stereotypical country girl and Rarity was the prissy high class type of girl. Those might not have been her exact words, but that was all you got out of the description. You learned that all of her friends each make up one of the six elements of harmony, pretty much making them the collective incarnation of whatever element they possess.
Since Fluttershy is The Element of Kindness she represents everything that makes up the concept of being Kind. Twilight is the Element of Magic so she represents the concept of everything Magical and Arcane; Rainbow Dash is the Element of Loyalty, she represents the concept of Bonds and Promises. Pinkie Pie is The Element of Laughter, she represents the concept of all things Happy and Fun. Applejack, is the Element of Honesty, she represents the concept of Truth. And Rarity is the Element of Generosity, so she represents the concept of Self Sacrifice.
This was very interesting to hear so you decided to see if her knowledge went even farther back. “Tell me, do you know how the elements were created?” You asked taking sip of some tea that she offered. You stuck your tongue out due to hot it was.
“O-oh, watch out. The tea…it’s kind of hot.” She said almost hiding behind her own cup upon seeing your “Why didn’t you say that earlier?” look. After a few seconds of silence she quickly went back to the conversation. “No, all I really know is that the gods used them along time ago to seal away Discord and they were used again by Celestia to banish Nightmare Moon.”
“You know about the conflict of Discord?” You asked taking another small sip of your tea.
Fluttershy nodded her head as she took a sip as well. “Yes. Just a few months ago he broke from out his prison and began making a mess of things.” This instantly caught your attention as you looked up at her. If Discord was out of his stone prison then that was really bad news.
"So...your telling me that Discord had already escaped from his prison?" You said desperately trying to keep your cool. Fluttershy winced a bit in fear as she could visible see how angered you were becoming.
"N-no...I mean yes. He did break free, but me and my friends stopped him, by using the elements to turn him back into stone.” She said trying to provide you with comforting information.
You slowly began to calm yourself after hearing that discord was no longer a threat. "That's good. You gave me quite the scare Fluttershy. For a second there, I actually thought you were about to say that Discord was still free, roaming around doing whatever he pleases." You said slowly raising your cup of tea in order for a sip.
"But he has been set free." She gasped in surprise upon seeing the fragile cup shatter under your forceful grip. She quickly tried to gather a few napkins for you since most of the tea spilt onto your cloak. While your cloak looked like it was created from any old fabric, it actually wasn't. It's been been created with a rare kind of fabric that is stronger than steel and with magic that is gives it natural resistance to the elements, such water or fire. While not as strong as your original cloak, it was still handy none the less.
You couldn't even feel the hot liquid that you had just recently spilt on yourself. Even if you could feel it you wouldn't had paid much attention to it. This news that was just presented to you was much more important than some hot tea. "He's been released?" You yelled causing Fluttershy to almost shrink into her seat. "This is horrible! Why didn't Celestia tell me he was back?" You said asking no one in particular. Your yelling caused Angel who had just recently fell asleep on the couch to burst awake in surprise.
"M-maybe s-she didn't w-want you to worry about it?" She asked rather than said.
You slammed your fist on the table which almost caused the table to collapse. "He almost destroyed the entire world! And practically killed me in the process! How the hell am I not supposed to worry about that?!"
"I'm sorry." She quietly shrieked. You were perfectly justified to be angry. At this moment you feared for your life, because if Discord found you and in your current state could pretty much kiss being the God of Death goodbye.
"He'll destroy the whole universe if we don't stop him. Why didn't she tell me?! How could she be so stupid!?"
"I-I don't think he'll do something like that. He's changed?" Fluttershy said said trying to defend Discord.
"Changed? What makes you say a stupid thing like that?" You yelled. All the horrors and fears you've seen and hoped to forget all began to come back at just mentioning of the possibility of Discord being back.
"Because he's been reformed!" She yelled back at you. This was the first time you heard he actually raise her voice at you.
"Reformed? Bullshit! The Elements of Harmony couldn't possibly-"
"We didn't use the elements to reform him. I did it." At that moment everything grew silent.
You took a moment to consider the possibility that this soft spoken girl actually succeeded in changing the God of Chaos. You couldn't believe it, you would have to see it for your own eyes, you couldn't take her word for it. The Element of Harmony was created for the sole purpose of eradicating evil. You used them plenty of times on those who had been corrupted by Discord and used them to reform them back into their original selves, but when you used them on Discord you found out that the elements didn't have the same effect on him, as it did the others so you used a different alternative means to stop him. "That's impossible. We spent a thousand years fighting Discord, trying to get him to stop, but did he do it? No! He just got worse!"
"W-well all you did was try to fight him. As soon as he did something wrong, you shunned him and immediatly tried to hurt him. Did you ever even stopped to hear what he had to say?" Fluttershy rebutted.
"Before or after I ripped out his throat?"
"See! You tried to solve your problem with violence, when you could have showed him kindness."
"What the f- He was stealing weapons of mass destruction...by making our children do it for him! In what world do justify being kind to a god whose means of a perfect society is complete and utter chaos?!"
"My world! Just because he was stealing a weapons from you, doesn't justify harming him when you've could have talked it out. Even evil people deserve kindness." You could see that despite being a shy individual, even Fluttershy had a berserk button, and seems that she only speaks up when someone talks about a friend of hers. You couldn't see ho a sweet and lovable mortal such as Fluttershy could even hope to befriend someone as vile as Discord, or worse actually succeed in becoming friends with him.
"I'm the God of Death. My job is to kill mortals, and strip them away from the very things that they adore! Kindness is not really my forte."
"Then why did you bring back Angel then?"
"What?"
"You can't say that your not capable of Kindness when you just performed the act not more than thirty minutes ago." You were at a lost for words now. "For the so called billions of years that he;s been alive have you ever once showed him compassion?" This made you think. Have you ever treated Discord with any type of the respect that he deserved? Since the day of his birth, up to the day of his sealing you couldn't remember once showing him any shed of respect. You always remembered scolding him for his tricks and his tendency to play too much. So the answer that came to you was a big fat No.
"But the fact that he's alive and still a god today is proof that even in your darkest of times, despite every thing you witnessed him do, even you couldn't go through with k-killing your own brother. So you showed him mercy, and spared him. You still loved him despite the things he did." The words that were spoken from this young mare shocked you deeply.
You thought back to the war and began to think about how many times you've actually had the option to kill Discord, but for some reason averted it in order to prolong his life. You leaned back in your chair and sighed in defeat. As much as you hated to hear it, Fluttershy was right. You wanted to defend your actions for keeping him alive but you knew damn well that there was no way you explain it. So you decided to just say nothing.
"Now that's rich, a mortal no where near relative to the grand scheme of things, managed to put down The God of Death so badly that he's now contemplating on his life, if Discord and Forever could see me now..."
Fluttershy watched as you sank into your seat with an empty smile on your face. She could see how you really felt anout the situation and decided to leave you to your thoughts. "I'll go get you some more tea..." and "okay" were the only words you two shared for a brief time.
***
The silence finally broke upon the front door of Fluttershy's home opening up, revealing Twilight, Pinkie, Dash and two other mares you never met before, but due to Fluttershys description of them you recognized them as being Applejack and Rarity. The five of them all had sad looks on their faces as they hoped that you and Fluttershy had some good news on the whereabouts of Angel. Of course their faces lit upon seeing seeing Angel who had just fallen back asleep.
"Howdy partner. I'm Applejack." Said the orange mare with the cowboy hat.
"And I'm Rarity." Said the white mare with the nice clothes You gave Applejack a firm handshake and gave Rarity a kiss on the hand, a gesture indicating courtesy towards her. This caused Rarity to blush and Applejack to roll her eyes.
"I am Letum."
"I already know you are. Twilight told us about you on the way here." She said as the two of them began to bow down. You quickly tried to stop them, telling them that as long as you were still mortal that they didn't have to bow down to you. Applejack immediately got back up while Rarity finished bowing down.
"That's mighty humble of you." Applejack said tipping her hat to you.
"Nonsense. You are a god and shall be treated as such." Rarity said to you.
You didn't really have much to say about her choice to treat you as a god. If she wanted to bow down to you, who were you to stop her? Besides maybe some prayer every now and then would be good for you. It might actually restore your lost power. You nodded your head as if you had accepted her choice.
"I gotta ask you something. Are you really the God of Death?" She said sounding skeptical of your status.
"Yes, I am the personification of all things associated with Death."
"Really? You don't really look like The Grim Reaper?" She said causing your eye to twitch.
"...And pray tell, what is the The Grim Reaper supposed to look like?" You said cleverly masking your annoyance.
"Ohh, I don't know, more skulls and bones maybe? And wheres that creepy scythe that your supposed to be carrying?" She said causing Rainbow Dash to facepalm.
"Back at home with all the other shit you mortals like to think about me." You said now showing the anger behind your voice.
"I-I see...never mind." Applejack said backing off.
"So your the one who controls when we're going to die?" Rarity asked you picking up the question from Applejack.
"Something like that. I can't really control anything anymore. So if you've come to complain to me about a lost love save your breath. I've been gone for two thousand years."
"Yes, I already know that Twilight told us."
You looked at Twilight who gave you a small smile. Saves you the time of explaining your back story to them. You moved towards your seat but was stooped by Pinkie when she came almost flying over to you, giving you one of the biggest of bear hugs.
"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you! For finding Angel!" Pinkie Pie yelled as she increased the strength by behind her hug. You were almost convinced that she was trying to secretly kill you. "I knew you were a good pony. I can't wait to throw you a party."
"Please don't." You quickly managed to say before she let go of her hug. This mare was definitely not normal.
While you didn't really have any other reason to stay at Fluttershy's home, you decided to stay and converse with Fluttershy and her friends. Much like how Twilight asked you questions about your past you found the girls asking much more different questions. Like-
"Did you have any children?"
"Yes."
"Did you ever get married?"
"Twice. Both times divorced."
"Did you ever have a relationship with Celestia? Did you ever have a relationship with Luna?"
"What type of animals lived back then?"
"How old are you?"
"If you had choose, who would be your favorite sibling?"
Tiring questions like that. These mares were more interested in personal questions rather than the more historical ones, that Twilight liked to ask. Before you know it was time to head back to the library. You left with Twilight and Pinkie and headed back into town. Twilight continued to asked you question about the history back then. You couldn't really blame her for asking you so many questions, you held billions of years worth of knowledge in your head, how could an egghead like Twilight resist? Pinkie Pie was more into saying hello to all the ponies she pasted on your way back to the library, but she only caught your attention when a shop owner called out her name, causing her to quickly bounce her way over to him.
"Hey Dodgy Trader, Hows the business doing?" Pinkie said as she quickly bounced back and forth as she checked out her merchandise. It looked like junk from afar but upon coming closer one could see that he's wares were crossing a thin line between common everyday things to almost ancient artifacts.
The earth pony took of his hat and gave Pinkie a playful bow. "Hello Pinkie I've doing just great, but I doing better now that your here." He said giving her a wink with his one good eye. His other eye was closed due to a deep scar that ran through it. "Are you here to buy something or did you stop by to say hello to little old me?"
"Aw come on Dodgy, Your no where near little, and definitely not old." Pinkie said returning the wink with one of hers.
The Merchant know as Dodgy let out a hearty laugh. "Flattery will get you no Pinkamena. I'm getting old whether if I want to or not." He said letting out another laugh. You found his statement to be a little weird. Dodgy didn't seem to be very old, he looked like he was in his late thirties, No where near the end of his life, not by what you could sense, but sometimes looks can be deceiving... Dodgy then turned his attention towards Twilight. "Ahh, Pleasure to see you again Princess Twilight." Dodgy said also giving her a bow.
"Good evening, Mister Trader." She said signalling him to rise.
"And who might this be?" Dodgy asked while taking a long look at you. You could tell he held no ill intentions towards you due to the question being asked in more of the curious tone rather than the suspicious one. "Perhaps a lover of sorts?" He said initiating a blush from Twilight, laugh from Pinkie and a quick glance away from you.
"Mister Trader! It's not like that!" She yelled in defense, but Dodgy just waved it off with a quick laugh.
"Sorry, sorry, I thought you two were going out due to how engaged in whatever conversation you were having before you came to talk to me."
"And the first thing you assumed was that I was her coltfriend?" You said looking back him.
"Haha! What can I say? My mind likes to wander. Oh yeah, before I forget, during my travels I found you another ancient tome." He said reaching into the back of his stand and pulling out a huge dusty book.
"Thank you, I though you would never find it." Twilight said reaching to grab the book from him but he quickly pulled it away. "Huh, whats wrong?"
"Unlike all the other times, this one was extremely hard to find. I think I deserve compensation don't you think? Perferably bits." Dodgy say patting the tome gently with his hand.
Twilight let out a small sigh as she gave him a smile. "I shall deliver the necessary bits to you whenever you ready." She said taking the book from him.
"Excellent! Come to my stand tomorrow and we'll talk an affordable price." Dodgy said tipping his hat to her.
"Wait, she's a princess. Shouldn't she get the book for free?"
"Normally, yes. But I've already given her a few of my tomb for free. Even Princesses have to pay every now and then. I gotta eat somehow right?" You slowly nodded his head as his statement made sense, but you decided to ask another question which seemed to be on your mind.
"Where did you get the tome? That thing looks hundreds of years old? I pretty sure you didn't stumble upon it by accident did you?"
Dodgy gave you a shifty smile as he placed his a finger to his lips. "Merchants secret."
"I'm not going to lie, your kinda suspicious." You said folding your arms.
"I won't deny that. The life of a Trader is not an easy one." He said giving you another smirk as he folded his arms as well. The air around you seemed kind of tense, but quickly dispersed upon hearing Pinkie speak.
"OHHHHH!" She said picking one of Dodgy's items off of his stand and began to bounce over to you. "Lety you should wear these!" She said quickly putting what looked like glasses over your eyes. It seemed everything began to become shaded upon putting on these glasses.
"What the? Everything just got dark! What happened?" You yelled out, as you quickly took the sunglasses off.
"Those are my ray bans. I just got them from the city Manehatten. You can have them if you like."
You looked back at the sunglasses and shrugged your shoulders before saying thanks. You put them back on and watched as day turned into night. They didn't have this two thousand years ago, so you were pretty amazed. Twilight shook her head as she told Dodgy that she was going to see him tomorrow, if not later this week. After Pinkie said goodbye to Dodgy you continued on back to the Library which was surprising just down the street.
You didn't know why you felt the need to keep your new sunglasses on, but you seemed to feel more cooler with them on, plus it feel like the right time to take them off. You were the first walking into the library, upon the sight in front of you, you quickly stopped causing Twilight and Pinkie Pie to bump into you. "Ow, whats wrong Letum?" Pinkie said as she rubbed her nose.
Twilight tried to assess the situation, by moving from behind you in order to see someone sitting on the floor, with her back turned away from the three of you. Several books were quickly floating around the person with the pages flowing rapidly from cover to cover and when the book would run out of pages the person would drop it in a neat pile, while picking up another book with their magic and began reading that one as well.
Twilight marveled at the speed of which the pony in front of her was reading, but quickly snapped out of it upon realizing that now she was going to have to reorganize all the books that the unknown pony had read. "What the?"
The pony in the center of the library quickly turned around and turned attention to you. Her facial features quickly changed from one of surprise to on joy upon seeing the three of you.
You slowly reached up to your new sunglasses and slowly began to take them off. As your eyes were glued to whatever was in front of you. "Mother of god..." You said almost whispering as you instantly recognized who the pony in front of you was. He may change her appearance almost constantly, but those eyes showed the same madness.
“Grandma!” Pinkie said quickly rushing over to Delirium giving her, one of her infamous Pinkie Pie hugs. Delirium in turn gave Pinkie one of her own. The two gave each other the greatest of family embraces as you and Twilight just looked at each other.
“Grandma?” Twilight said as she looked back at your little sister sharing an intimate moment. Neither one of you had known that Pinkie Pie was in anyway a descendant of a nigh-invincible mad goddess. Sure you had your suspicions, but you never really took them seriously. From as much as you known her Pinkie seemed to be the crazy happy type of pony, while Delirium was…well crazy insane. How she was able to have a grandchild like Pinkie was a mystery to you.
Delirium let go of Pinkie but held onto her shoulders with both her hands. “Tell me the truth Diane; have you still been spreading happiness and joy like I told you too?” She asked in an almost motherly tone of voice. It’s been eons since you’ve last heard her speak like that, like back when she was still Delight. She lost that version of her for a more childish version.
Pinkie Pie gave her grandmother a vigorous nod. “Uh huh! I’ve done exactly what you’ve told me to do. I’m not the element of laughter for nothing.” Pinkie said giving Delirium a wink, who proceeded to hug her one more time.
“That’s my girl.” Delirium said holding onto her like only a mother would. She let go once more while looking at Twilight.
“Oh yeah, I forgot to introduce you. Granny Pie this is my best friend Twilight. She’s a Princess. And this is Letum. He’s the God of the Dead.”
Delirium tapped her chin for a moment in thought. “No Pinkie, he’s the god of Death. There’s a difference.” She corrected,
“There is? Wait a minute. Have you two met?”
“I’m acquaintances with Miss Princess over there, but my relationship goes far deeper with him.” She said making that sound a little more dirty…than it should have been.
“Oooh, Are you too lovers?” Pinkie Pie said bouncing around you.
“No, I met Twilight at her coronation and Letum here is my older brother.” She said giving you a warm smile.
Pinkie Pie face palmed as she realized that she forgot about the stories that Delirium used to tell her back from when she was younger. “Oh Duh. How silly of me…WAIT! That would mean that you’re my Grand Uncle.” She said facing you with a certain kid like shine to her eyes, as she seemed to marvel at the thought that you and her were related which you technically weren’t. You tried to tell her that but she quickly interrupted you. “That means you owe me twenty one birthday presents.” She said stopping at the thought of receiving that many presents. You were about to tell her that you don’t owe her anything but you decided against it.
“Um, It’s an honor to see you again Madam Delirium.” Twilight said giving her a small bow.
Delirium looked at for a few seconds before tilting her head in confusion. “Who are you again?” She said causing both you and Twilight to let out an almost silent groan.
“N-never mind…” Twilight said holding her head down low. She held it back up with a face of confusion upon hearing Delirium’s laughter.
“You should see your face. It’s hilarious. Of course I didn’t forget who you were. Your Celestia’s most prized student, she almost always talks about you.” Upon hearing this Twilights face almost lit up with joy.
“I’m glad that you still remember who I am Madam Delirium.” She said bowing once more.
“Oh don’t worry I’ll forget all about you until Celestia reminds me again.” Delirium said letting out a pretty loud laugh, but as quickly as she began, she quickly stopped and turned a seemingly absent gaze to you, effectively sending a chill down your spin. “but enough about that. I’m actually here to talk to Letum.” She said pointing at you in a serious matter.
“What about?” Twilight asked.
“Grown up stuff.”
“I’m grown. I’m twenty two years old.”
“No offense Twilight, but compared to how old we are your twenty years are anything but seconds to us.” You said passing her a glance.
“I’d like to speak with Letum…alone.”
“Oh, okay. Come on Pinkie we’ll go into the next room.”
“Ok!”
“No that’s okay. You won’t have to leave.”
“If not then how are you supposed to-”At the snap of her fingers everything except you and Delirium. You looked around to see that both Twilight and Pinkie had been perfectly frozen in whatever last second pose that they were just in. Pinkie had made a weird face just before she was frozen. She seemed to had timed it perfectly right before the snap. Twilight had been caught in mid sentence and mid blink, so her face looked kind of drunken and slurred.
“It seems that even after two thousand years, time seems to be it’s been kind to you Delirium.”
“Always, but I can’t say the same to you. What’s up with the fleashyness.” She said walking over to you and giving you a few pokes in your arm, which to her would feel like a small tickle but to you it would felt like someone was punching you. So you quickly grabbed her hand after the second poke. “Are you mortal?”
You saw that she had a look of concern on her face. “You can say that. Why does that scare you?”
“Did you do it to yourself… or-”
“No I didn’t. It’s just a side effect of only half dying. I’ll recover my strength sooner or later.” You said giving her a reassuring smile.
“Oh…That sucks. We’d all prefer if you gain it sooner.”
“Yeah I understand how you feel, but from what I’ve seen about this time period, it seems to be an age of peace. Everyone’s walking around as if they don’t have a trouble in the world. It’s much better than how things were before the war. They’re actually happy.” You said pointing towards Pinkie Pie and Twilight. You circled around them and began to look at them. Delirium nodded her head in agreement but in mid way stopped herself.
“No. You could hardly say that this is an age of peace. There’s been too many things that have been happening lately. The Whole Nightmare Moon fiasco, Discord returning, and that changeling attack on Cantorlot-”
“Whoa hold up. Changling attack? The changelings attacked Cantorlot. Who were they led by?”
“Queen Chrysalis.”
“She’s still alive?” You asked flabbergasted at the fact that Chrysalis has been alive for over two thousand years.
You had known a mare named Chrysalis from along time ago. She was the first ruler of the Changelings, your patron race. Every god had a race that they favored, while you enjoyed all mortal races, the changelings were the only ones that chose you as their patron god, so you were the one who blessed them with longevity. Regular Changelings can live to be up two hundred years old, while the queens can live for five hundred. Reason behind this is because they don’t need regular food to sustain them. Since they feed off the love of others and receives nutrients from that, their body doesn’t age like all the other races.
Delirium shook her head and told you that she has passed the name down through her daughters. “The Chrysalis that you had known off has long since been dead.”
You nodded your head as you began to understand. “So why did the Changeling attack Cantorlot? I thought they were supposed to be at peace with the other races.”
“Peace can only last for so long, brother.” You nodded your head as you agreed with her. There was a small awkward silence between the two of you, but Delirium quickly broke it. “So how does it feel being mortal? You know having to used the bathroom, eat, sleep and all that boring stuff?” Delirium said poking you again.
“It’s repetitive, but I can’t say it’s all bad.” You said shrugging your shoulders. You watched as Delirium nodded her head enthusiastically as she agreed with you. Despite it being great to see your younger sister again you couldn’t help but feel as something was wrong with her. She seemed to have had something on her mind, but she seemed conflicted upon whether or not she wanted to tell you about it. “Delirium I need to ask you something…”
She looked at you with a questioning look before telling your go ahead. “I’ve got the feeling that you didn’t really come here just to say hi to me. There another reason you came here isn’t it?” You asked while watching as Delirium let out a huge serious sigh.
“I can never get anything past you can I? How did you know?”
“I can see it in your eyes.” You said messing up her hair. “Now tell me what’s on your mind?”
“It’s nothing really, I’m just…Ok I’m lying. I made a visit to The Keeper not to long ago and she told me about two prophecies that with soon come to pass.” Delirium said looking downhearted about whatever the prophecy was. You told her not to worry about and asked her to explain what the prophecies were. “She didn’t really explain anything. She just told me to ask you about it.” She said looking up at you with those crazy childish eyes that have come to enjoy seeing.
“A prophecy that I know about?” You didn’t like the sound of that. Delirium looked deep into your eyes for a few seconds before telling you what it was. “She named one of the prophecies The Return of Strife; I had no trouble figuring out what that one means, the second one though…I have no clue what is to be foretold and neither does The Keeper… Brother, what do you know about The Fall of the Second?”
Luna walked back and forth repeatedly as you just finished telling her of today’s events. She appeared to be just as shaken up as you were. “The Fall of the Second and the Return of Strife… I remember The Primordial mentioned something about the first prophecy, back during the war. I don’t think I’ve heard about the second one though. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so agitated.” Luna said placing her finger on her chin.
“I have a reason to be agitated, Luna. The Fall represents something very important to me, as do a lot of things. The Return of Strife means that something from our past is returning.” You said while sitting on top of a large pillar, watching as Luna’s pacing began to slow down.
“You know, you never actually explained what the Fall is.” She asked hoping to get an answer out of you.
“And I don’t plan on it. It’s one prophecy that I hope will never come too pass.” You said rubbing your face.
“But that doesn’t explain what it is.” She huffed. “Maybe if you stopped keeping secrets all the time we could find out a way to help you.”
“Luna. The Fall holds my greatest secret. If I were to ever tell you or anyone else what it is, I will be betraying all that I am or every will be.” You said staring off into the distance.
Luna frowned as she could feel the emotions that were running through you. “I can feel your pain brother, your anger, your confusion and also…your fear.” She said flinching as you turned your eyes back to her. She recovered upon seeing you let out a large sigh. “The sooner you learn to trust us, brother. The sooner you will be able to overcome your fears.”
“I am the God of Death. I am not afraid of anything. I’ve faced my fears a long time ago. The problem is whether or not you've done the same.” You said staring at her with an absent gaze.
“What do you mean?” She asked curiously.
“I don’t know…maybe I’m over thinking this. Maybe Delirium was mistaken.”
“I’m sorry to say this brother, but I highly doubt that. When has Delirium ever been known to be mistaken about anything?”
You let out another loud sigh. “That’s what I’m afraid of. The possibility that she’s not just sprouting out random bullshit and that she actually is foretelling something.” You said shaking your head at the thought that your younger sister was right about the prophecy.
“That’s relatable. I mean we’re all afraid of what Delirium sees with her eyes of madness. I mean she’s insane, but she’s the smartest out of all of us, right?”
“Honestly sister…I believe that Delirium maybe the sanest out of all of us.” You said causing Luna to burst into one of her laughing fits. She only stopped upon seeing how serious you were.
“S-surely you must be joking. I mean this is Delirium we’re talking about.”
“I'm not…I think her insanity is just a different form of coping mechanism that her brain has developed. She sees things no mortal or god should ever see. Her insanity keeps her sane…” You said hopping off of the pillar. “But I’m just rambling. You shouldn’t be listening to an old man as he talks nonsense. It’ll poison your young mind.” You said placing your hand on Luna’s head. Even now you were still taller than her, much like how a big brother should be. “Besides. Should you be dream walking?”
“You’re right I should be doing my job right now.” Luna said acknowledging the fact that she had spent most of her night talking with you. “I’ve got to go. We’ll talk later okay?” Luna said looking at you with caring and worried eyes before fading from your dream into the next one, effectively making you feel more alone than you’ve ever felt before.
You paid a passing glance towards a large door that was bolted shut. It was the only entrance into the large compound. There was a steady tapping sound that coming from the other side of the door. It was the kind of sound the one makes when the repeatedly tap their finger against a hard metal surface. The sound reminded you of an old melody, a melody that you haven’t hear or dared to think about for as long as you’ve been alive.
The Traitor will heed the call to claim the lives and souls of all he loves She shall return when the fall is won, When a piece of harmony returns from a forbidden place with a secret known by none.
The warrior will crack, Darkness will descend Oh how beautifully reality will bend
None will live All will die The Forbidden one will one day rise
The Feared one shall fall Bringing freedom to all The gods will fade And The First will usher a new age…
You soon began to hear the song play in your head. You remembered a time where you used too enjoy this song. It was a long, long time ago. Who did you use to listen to it with? Was it Celestia? No. She wasn’t born yet. It wasn’t Gaia, she’s younger that Celestia. Maybe Forever…highly unlikely. You tried not to think about it. Now was not the time to remembering.
The dream slowly began to end as the song began to fade. The voice you heard let out on final phrase before disappearing into the depths of your mind. “Soon. Letum. Your time is coming to a close…” The voice echoed through your head, sending a cold chill throughout your entire body.
You opened your eyes to see that it was morning. Not that you actually cared in the first place. The morning rays of the sun poured through the upstairs window of the Ponyville library, casting a radiant yellow light across the room. You groggily pushed you head out of the tangled mess of cloth and blinked in defiance to the sunlight.
Shaking off the last remnants of slumber from your mind, you slowly untangled yourself from the makeshift net that was your bedclothes. “I need more time.” You huffed out, slowly rising from your bed. “I need more time…” You repeated while shaking the sleep from your eyes.
“You need more time for what?” A voice asked, startling you.
You looked to your left to see Dawning Zeal getting dressed in front of you. “Nothing.” You said letting out a sigh that was somehow mixed with a groan. You got up from your bed and began to stretch. You large wings expanded immensely causing Zeal to look at you in amazement. “Feeling pretty comfortable getting dressed in front of another aren’t you?” You asked giving Zeal a playful smirk before popping your neck in order to loosen up the tension.
Zeal gave you a small smile as he finished putting a shirt on. “Technically gods don’t have a gender. You choose one that best suits your next incarnation, right?” You gave Zeal a quick nod before taking a look outside of the window. “So I don’t need to show common courtesy if you’re technically not even a person to begin with. You’re just an all powerful being that likes to play dress up.”
“That’s racist, but I won’t lie, that’s me in a nutshell.” You said letting out a small chuckle before turning your gaze back outside. The sunrise looked beautiful as it rose it rose over Ponyville. At least something’s never change. You thought, as a warm smile began to form across your face.
You would have spent longer looking at the sunrise, but something within the town caught your attention. There was a small figure, female in nature, standing next to a nearby home. It was wearing a large brown cloak that hid away everything but the lower part of her face. The female had a large smile on her face that looked almost deranged in nature; it easily sent a chill through your body. As you focused your gaze on her you noticed that you had seen this pony before, you don’t remember where but you are sure you had met her.
At that moment you heard a voice. You didn’t recognize it as Zeal’s; it was more feminine and more commanding in tone. It was directly in your head. “Something is coming…” The voice said fading out once more. You watched as the figure slowly raised its hand, giving you a creepy little wave to tell you that she was acknowledging your existence. As you tried to adjust your eyes again, you felt someone place their hand on your shoulder.
“Hey did you hear me?” Zeal said snapping you out of your daydream.
“What?” You looked at him blankly before looking back out of the window. The figure had disappeared. “Figures…” You mumbled to yourself. “What did you say?”
“I was asking you what your plans were for today. Are you feeling alright?” He said taking a few steps back so he could look at you properly.
“I fine. I’m just a little tired that’s all.” You lied. You were at the top of your game. “Why are you asking if I had plans?” You asked.
“I’m not doing anything today. So I decided that I would do my job today and protect you and all that.”
“Could you stop saying that you’re going to protect me. I am a god, and I’d like to be treated as such.” You said.
“I wish I could, but Celestia is paying me a lot of bits, just to sit here and talk to you.” He said making a money sign. “That’s money I can use for my family.”
“Do whatever what you want.” You said taking another look out of the window to see if the figure was still there, but quickly let out a sigh of relief when you didn’t see it. “So where’s Princess Twilight?” You asked not really supporting the idea of referring to Twilight as royalty.
“She’s downstairs, stressing about something.”
“Stressing…like how?” You asked curiously.
“Like pulling hair out hair type of stressing.” He said mimicking, as if he was actually pulling out his hair.
“Ohh, that’s bad.” You said causing Zeal to nod his head.
“Depends on how you look at it.”
“What do you mean?”
“If we can just walk right past her, without her noticing, we can skip helping her out with whatever her problems are.” Zeal stated.
“What? Not in the mood to do some manual labor?”
“No. I’m not. Are you?”
“Heck no. If she’s anything like her mentor, we’re going to be working all day.” You said almost whining.
“You think she’s going to ask us?”
“Three heads are better than one right? She has every reason to ask us for help if she sees fit…given the fact that we’re living in her home, besides I support the idea of not having to do any labor. Twilight seems like a workaholic and I’m not in the mood to be worked to death.” You said inciting a groan from Zeal.
The two of you exited from your room and proceeded downstairs to see Twilight with a load of books scattered across the floor. The sound of Twilight huffing and puffing could be heard practically anywhere in the house. “Why can’t I find that book?” She yelled at the top of her lungs.
The two of you hid behind a thin wall that separated the hallway from the library. You looked at Zeal with a confused look on your face. “She’s stressing out over a book?”
“I don’t know. She likes books.” He whispered back. “Lets just hurry up and sneak past her. I’m breaking out in hives man.” You pointed to how close you were to the front door, and signaled Zeal to walk first. He nodded his head a slowly began to creep out into the middle of the library. At first it appeared that Zeal would actually make it across, until a small audible, Crreak, caused Twilights right ear to twitch.
“Oh, so close.” You thought.
“Spike is that you?” Twilight asked as she quickly whipped her head around to who was there. She tilted her head in confusion upon seeing Zeal in mid-sneaking pose. “What are you doing?” She asked.
“Just stretching. I just woke up with Letum a couple minutes ago.” He said pulling you out into the opening so Twilight could see you.
“Morning, Twilight.” You said awkwardly.
“Umm, were you two trying to sneak out of here without me noticing?” She asked causing both you and Zeal to look at each other before giving Twilight a quick, awkward no. “Oh okay…Look! I need you two to help me. Think you can do me a few favors?” She said looking at the two of you with pleading eyes.
“Not real-” Zeal elbowed you in the arm before answering for you. “Yeah we’d love too. Tell us what you need us what’s wrong.”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” She said placing a large book back onto the bookshelf. “I have so many things that I have to get done, but I don’t really have enough time to complete them all.”
“Just tell us what you need done.” You said.
“Rainbow Dash needs coaching with her flying, the Cakes are out of town so Pinkie needs help with the bakery, Rarity needs help making clothes, Applejack’s brother sprained his knee, so she needs help with her farm work and to top it off I need to find Trader and pay him the necessary bits for that ancient tome that purchased from him.” She whined. “Plus I have a whole lot of reports that I have to do.”
“Ever heard of a planner?” Zeal asked.
You elbowed him in the arm for being rude. “I’ve been a little side tracked lately; Spike has been wandering off ever now and then, so he hasn’t been much help to me.” Twilight said rubbing her arms nervously. “So will you help me?”
The mention of her friends made you think about Fluttershy and that little chat you wanted to have with her. You made sure to do that before it got dark, today, but before that happens, which choice should you pick?
You placed a hand on Twilights shoulder "I'm all for learning more about that ancient tome you bought yesterday. What about you Zeal?"
Your companion nodded his head unenthusiasticly. " I'm alright with that. I mean I didn't sign up for this, but hey whatever."
Twilight clapped her hands in delight."Thank you! You guys have just made my life a little bit easier." she said reaching into her pockets, handing you a bag full of bits. " Dodgy Trader should be in the same part of town he was yesterday, if not just ask around for him you'll be able to find them eventually."
You nodded your head and quickly left the library leaving Twilight to her for my activities.
Ponyville was surprisingly easy to navigate. You would have thought that in the future things would have gotten a lot more complicated but surprisingly things are relatively simple.
The townsfolk were also very lively and nice, this brought a smile to your face you were glad to see that the world has changed a lot in the past two thousand years not only technologically but socially as well. That was barely accomplished back in your time and it took the end of the world to bring the races together. The sight of all this really made you believe that everything that you had to sacrifice was actually worth it. You didn't know if this was actually true but it did rest easy on your heart as you hope it was.
"So disgusting. All this peace and harmony, don't you think?" A familiar voice appeared from out of nowhere. You stopped walking which caused zeal to look at you funny.
"What's wrong?" he asked noticing the confused look on your face.
"Did you say something?" you asked.
" Yeah, I asked if you were okay?"
" No, before that."
Zeal shook his head. "No. I didn't."
You took a few seconds to assess your thoughts. "Am I hearing things now?" you asked yourself as you placed your hand on your forehead. "I can't be. I heard her voice. It was so clear and... vivid. I shouldn't be able to hear her... it shouldn’t be possible."
"Everything is possible, Death." the Voice said. Instead of being distant, the voice now felt like it was a close whisper.
" Letum! Snap out of it!" Zeal yelled.
" Sorry! Sorry... I'm just hearing things." You said shaking your head. " I think I'm still a little bit tired, I should snap out of it eventually."
Zeal gave you a suspicious book before shrugging his shoulders. "If you say so... Now where is this merchant supposed to be at?" he said changing the subject.
"Towards the shopping district. His stand is setup at the edge of the district." You replied.
Zeal let out a tired sigh. " Thats so far."
"No it isn't. Its just a 30 minute walk from here." you said rolling your eyes at his laziness.
" I know how far away it is, I'm just wondering why didn't you think about picking the more easy job."
"The more easy... This was the easiest job!" you yelled. " All we have to do is just pay for this book and the rest of the day is ours."
"Hmm, true. You do have a point."
"Come on, let's go."
The two of you headed through the shopping district, your memory appeared to have proved to be right. Traders shop will set up a considerable amount of distance away from everyone else is. As you move through the small crowd of people you felt something bump into you.
"Oops!" said a small child like voice.
You took a few steps back to see a yellow mare with a red mane. “Sorry about that mister." The teenager said backing up a few feet in order to get a better look at who she was talking too. She must have been half asleep. You couldn't blame her it was early in the morning, so you didn't really mind.
"Its alright. Just watch where you're going next time." you said tipping your hood to her. You tried to walk away but she got in your way again.
"Wait a minute... Have we met before? Because you look kinda familiar." Applebloom said moving closer so she could get a closer look at you.
" I doubt it." you said shrugging your shoulders.
"Nah, I'm sure of it, but I can't remember your name. Maybe-"
"Applebloom! What are you doing? I need your help putting up the- Letum? What are you doing here? And who's your friend?" Applejack said emerging from behind her apple stand.
"Oh that's right. You're the guy Applejack told me about yesterday. Let-te-um." the teen said trying to pronounce your name.
"Hello Applejack. Nice to see you again too. This is Dawning Zeal, my personal bodyguard." you said slightly grimacing at the mention of him being your body guard.
"Howdy." Zeal said giving Applejack a firm handshake.
"That's what I'm supposed to say. Boys this is my little sister Applebloom. She works with me on the farm with my older brother Big Macintosh and my grandmother Granny Smith."
" I can see the resemblance." You said giving her a small smile.
"So, I see you didn't answer my question. Where are you doing out here, up so early in the morning?" Applejack asked.
"Running errands for Princess Twilight." Zeal said.
"Oh yeah? What does these errands consist of doing?" Applejack asked sound a bit nosey.
" Twilight wants us to purchase a book for her from a guy named Dodgy Trader." you said pointing at his stand with you not far from where you guys were standing at.
Applejack began to narrow her eyes that she look off at Trader who was conducting his business with a few shady looking customers. "Trader, huh?"
" I sense you don't like him very much do you?" you suggested.
"Its not that I don't like him... It's just..."
“He's kind of a weirdo." Applebloom finished.
“What she said.”
You slightly nodded your head. "I see where you're coming from. He does seem a bit off."
"So what type of book are you supposed to buy?" Applejack asked.
"Twilight likes to collect ancient books and items. So she tasked us with buying her latest find." Zeal said causing you to nodded your head in agreement.
"Yeah she's been doing that for the past couple years." Applejack said shaking her head in dismay.
" What? You don't like ancient runes?" Zeal joked.
AppleJack shook her head. "It just doesn't sit right with me. I mean all that stuff must have been hidden away for a reason right? I don't think we should be messing around with stuff that could be potentially dangerous. I tried telling Twilight this but she told me that if anything would happen, she would have it under control. Its not that I don't trust her, its just better to be safe than sorry, right?" Applejack said showing visible discomfort with the tempering of forbidden knowledge. Not many people would show Applejacks mindset on this matter, Zeal nodded his head as if he was either agreed or was acknowledging her ideals. A lot of history and secrets become lost over a long period of time so it would definitely seem beneficial to society if one were to uncover some of them.
You on the other hand didn't really know where you stood. Did you believe that the knowledge of the past should be shared with those of the future? Or maybe do you feel that Applejack has a point, some knowledge had to be locked away for a reason and shouldn't be tampered with. Or do you not care all together?
“AppleJack I have to say I disagree. Knowledge should never be kept away from the masses. I speak from experience, when I say that those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.” You said earning a disapproving nod from both AJ and Zeal, but earning good one from Applebloom.
“What if that knowledge will be used to harm ponykind?” Applejack stated.
“But what if knowledge can be beneficial to ponykind?” Applebloom suggested. “What if the knowledge that’s hidden away can be used for good.”
“Usually good things aren't hidden away. There would be no need.” Zeal said. “But if that's true and the knowledge is hidden away, there is still an equal amount of chance that we may uncover something bad.”
Applebloom slowly nodded her head. “I guess you’re right.”
AJ patted her younger sister on the back. “Come on sis. We need to get back to work. We’ll see you two later and make sure to keep an eye on Dodgy Trader, he’s not normal.” She said steering her younger sibling back to their stand. You gave them a short wave as you and your bodyguard walked towards your original destination.
Dodgy Trader had on his trademark smile as he waited for his next customer. He spotted you and your companion and gave you two a wide grin. “Letum! I knew you would be back, but judging by the look on your face, I can see that you’re not here to buy anything. So what can I do for you?”
“Twilight asked made to come and pay for that ancient tome she was supposed to but from you. I have the money for you right here.” You said reaching into your robe, pulling out a small pouch of bits.
“I wasn’t expecting her to buy it so soon.” Trader say rubbing his chin. “I’ve decided to change my method of payment, if that would be fine with you.”
You slowly placed the money away and looked at Zeal, who shrugged his shoulders. “I guess...So what do you want as payment?” You asked sounding curious.
Trader let out a crooked grin. “Don’t worry, I’m just looking to see if you’re the adventuring type.”
“And whys that? What job do you need doing?” Zeal said asked sounding suspicious of Traders offer.
Trader tapped his chin in thought. “Not much, well it might be...depending if you like to work… and money.”
“I don’t like work...and I don’t need money.” You said.
“You don’t! But I do!” Zeal said, his eyes almost making money signs. “How much bits are you paying?” He asked.
“If all goes well, a lot.” Trader smirked.
“I like the way that sounds.” Zeal said rubbing his hands together as he began to think about the possibility of making some money. You placed your hand on his shoulder in an attempt to snap him out of his money crazed state.
“Calm down, we don’t even know what he wants us to do yet. Don’t go blindly accepting jobs that promise money when you don’t even know what the dangers are.” You said earning glance from Trader.
“Thanks mom, I’ll make sure to remember that.” Zeal said rolling his eyes. “So whats this job that you want done? Is it dangerous?”
Trader nodded his head. “Yes it is. Usually I can travel by myself, but this job requires a lot of magic and wits, and as you can tell I’m lacking in one of these departments.” Trader said pointing to his forehead, where a unicorns horn is supposed to be. “I received word from a client that the artifact that they want me to recover is protected within an underground fortress deep within the Everfree forest, which is riddled with both traps and defenses that would prove deadly to even the most careful and cunning of ponies.”
“So this artifact, I suspect is also dangerous, right?” You asked.
“Of course. It’s held in the everfree forest. Everything in there is dangerous.” Zeal answered.
Trader nodded his head. “Yes it is. The Artifact is called the Eridian Staff. My client-” Trader winked. “-wants me to retrieve this artifact for them. I won’t be able to get close to the underground temple where the staff resides but I reckon you two might have a shot.”
You narrowed your eyes as Trader. “Who’s your client?” You asked.
“I’ll tell you after you retrieve the staff.” He replied with a blank smile.
“So what is the Eridian Staff? How will we know what it is?” Zeal asked.
“Oh, trust me. you’ll know it when you see it.” Trader claimed.
Both you and Zeal looked at each other. “So when do you want us to look for if?” zeal asked.
“You’re not actually considering looking for that staff are you?”
“Yeah, I am. Since you’re a god and everything, I don’t expect you to understand the concept of money, but yeah I need that money.” Zeal said.
“What makes you think I don’t know what money is? I was alive before the concept was even thought of.” You said growing aggravated. “Besides weren’t you the one who said ancient knowledge should be kept away?”
“Yeah I did say that, but this isn’t knowledge we’re talking about. It’s a potential weapon.”
“That’s even worse!”
“Look you can either come with me or you can stay here and whine about how awesome I am about to be when I return with that staff.”
“Look Zeal, I’m not going to tolerate your disrespect much longer.” You said with your patience growing thin. Trader watched closely as the two of you began to bicker back and forth. He waited till the right moment to jump back into the conversation. You imagined that he’s the type that doesn’t like to get sidetracked by petty things.
“Can we get on topic here? Yes? Thank you. I don’t need you two searching for it today, but I will ask for your assistance later though.” Trader said giving the two of you a stern nod. “Letum, it doesn’t really matter whether or not you accompany your friend. I have a map of all the traps and secret passageways within the temple. It will make a difference on whether or not your friend comes back alive though. So really it is your choice.”
Will you accompany Zeal to the abandoned underground temple or reject on the grounds that its dangerous?
You shook you head and began to think. Dodgy Trader had a point. Zeal would most likely get killed going on this quest so it was on your best interest to at least go with him and help. “Fine, if it will make you feel better I’ll go with him.”
Both Zeal and Trader began to smile. “Thank you, I owe you both for doing this for me. If the two of you can get this artifact for me, it will tremendously help my business.” Trader said clapping his hands together at the thought of how much money he would make after finding the artifact.
Zeal patted you on the back and began to chuckle. “And if we’re lucky we might have to fight some ancient monster that guards the weapon.”
You gave Zeal a disapproving stare. “Don’t jinx us, because you’re probably right about that.”
“What, you think there’s actually some big huge monster capable of killing countless people hiding within a underground temple guarding some powerful ancient staff?” You blinked a few times as you watched Zeal facepalm. “Yeah, that’s sounds likely.”
Seeing as you didn’t have much to talk about with Trader anymore, you decided to leave and head towards your other objective today. You sent Zeal back home so you could go and visit your new friend Fluttershy. You had remembered to ask her about her heritage. Among the main six she was the one held the most worldly knowledge. So she was the one to go too when you had something on your mind.
The walk from the marketplace to Fluttershy’s cottage was about a ten minute walk. You spent most of that time thinking about what you were going to talk with Fluttershy about. As you walked along the path to her house, you noticed that she was outside talking with Angel. Apparently they were arguing about something. As you came closer to the house their voices began to become clearer. “Oh please, Angel. Won’t you you please eat your carrot?” She asked in a soothing voice that would have made even the most hardass of gods blush.
“Squeak!(No! I told you that-)” Angel stopped talking upon seeing you walk up the hill. “Squeak. (Never mind.)” Angel said, taking the carrot from Fluttershy placed by his feet. Fluttershy let out a small giggle before she turned around and spotted you. She gave you a small smile as she picked up her basket of blankets and clothes. She began to place them on thin wires so that the hot sun could dry her clothes.
As you walked up to her you asked why she wasn't using that new machine that cleans your clothes for you. "No reason really. I just like to do things the old fashion way. Ever since Twilight became a princess she's been trying to usher Equestria into a better, more technological era." she said rubbing her shoulder. She didn't appear to like the idea of there being more technology around. "M-maybe I'm just old fashioned." "Sometimes it's good to stay old fashioned, but there's no use in being afraid of the changing times. Sometimes change is necessary for people to move on in the world. So in the end, it might actually be good." You commented.
"Of course, but change is not always good..." She said causing you to ponder about what she was saying. As you were about to ask, she quickly switched the subject. "So what brings you here, if I may have the pleasure of asking?"
"What? I can’t drop by to say hello?" You said folding your arms.
"Oh, no. That's not what I meant, I was just- oh, you were just joking." Fluttershy let out a small sigh as you begin to chuckle.
"I'm here to ask you about something. It's kind of personal depending on how you feel on the matter."
"It's okay. Y-you can go ahead and ask me. As long as it isn't too personal." She said giving you a gentle smile.
You nodded your head and took a breath. "Last time I was here you displayed knowledge in plain sight that most mortals wouldn't have." You noticed that Fluttershy turned her eyes away from you. "I wanted to ask, if any of your parents were of divine origin." Fluttershy then let out a feeble sigh. "If you don't want to answer me then its okay. I won't hold anything against you."
" No! No... Its not that. It's just not many people ask me about my parents. I used to brag about it when I was younger but no one believed me, because I had no proof, I was often bullied and ridiculed for it." She said looking sad. Apparently her childhood was kind of horrible. "I knew eventually you were going to ask, but I don't really mind the thought of talking about it with you. I mean, my mother is the goddess of nature, Gaia. In other words, your younger sister."
"I thought as much. I can see the resemblance a bit. She used to act just like you when she was younger." You said giving Flutters a warm smile. She returned the action before looking off to your side.
"Oh, come now, I wasn't that shy." A song and bird voice said coming from beside you. Upon looking, you saw a green mare with a patch of mist covering her body. "Or maybe I was. It's hard to recall that sometimes, when you lived a few lives."
You step back in shock for couple of seconds before realizing that you should have been ready for this to happen. The gods do this all the time. "Gaia? What are you doing here?" You asked.
" I'm the goddess of Earth, Letum. Exist everywhere, I thought you would remember that, besides you said my name, so I thought I'd drop by and say hello to my favorite older brother and daughter." she said giving the two of you a small smile.
"H-hello mother." Fluttershy said, grabbing her arm in shyness.
"Hello my dear daughter. How have you been doing lately? It's been quite some time since we last seen each other." Gaia asked in a motherly tone not heard from her in a long time.
"I-I've been doing good, mother. I've been taking care of the animals just like you expect me too." Angel nodded his head as he began to flex his little rabbit muscles.
"Judging by how little Angel's been doing lately, I say you're telling the truth." Gaia said picking Angel up and scratching him behind the ears. He must have really liked this because his legs began to tap against her hand. "So have you been considering my offer Fluttershy? I don't have many children that I can ask to take this favor of." she said with a certain seriousness that told you that she was asking Fluttershy to do something serious for her.
Fluttershy I began to fidget more. "I-I have mother, its just that I don't think that I would make a good earth mother." Fluttershy said weakly.
"Nonsense! You would make a marvelous Earthmother. It's in your genes." Gaia stated. "Literally."
Barely understanding what she was saying, you decide to jump into the conversation. "Wait Gaia? You're not talking about-"
Gaia nodded her head. “I'm nearing the end of my incarnation." She said with no visible sadness or uneasyness. She appeared to have accepted this ordeal why many other gods and goddesses would have tried to prevent it. It must have been by her own choice. "You look fine to me. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with you." You said frantically.
Gaia closed her eyes and began to think. She snapped her fingers and glanced around you to watch it as all time around you began to slowly freeze to a halt. This was much like how your younger sister Delirium did when you two were in the library the other day. "No, there's nothing wrong with me, but I'm just tired Letum. I'm just very, very tired.” She said shaking her head. "Aren't you tired Letum? You have to be; you're older and have done so much more than me. You're older than all of us."
"Yes, I am. I am tired Gaia. So tired, that at times the weight and stress becomes almost too hard to bear, but I keep going. If I could reincarnate, I would do it right now and let someone else take my job, but I can't. Not yet. I have so much I can still do, as you do too. Don't place that burden on your daughter Gaia. We both know that the stress can sometimes be overwhelming. Especially if she's not ready yet." You said, placing a hand on her shoulder.
"I guess I can keep going for a little bit longer, besides I wouldn't want to leave you all by yourself, now would I?" Gaia said giving you a small smile. The smile was sincere, but held something else behind it. You watched as she slowly grabbed you and pulled you into a deep hug. "I've missed you…” She whispered into your ear. “We all missed you so much.” She said holding you tighter.
You wanted to do the same to her, but something held you back. Was she truly being sincere? Or was she just trying to play you, just like she did all those years ago. Gaia was one of your ex-wife. Your second to be exact. Her nickname is the Earthmother, she controls almost all laws of nature. She's the one who created all life in the universe, and deals life where you deal death. While not as powerful as you are, she is still not to be trifled with, her anger causes earthquakes and her tears causes floods. As long as you still walk under her domain, her earth, you were under her mercy, especially now due to how weak you were.
Gaia is smart, but doesn't like to be outsmarted. Your marriage lasted for a few million years, but shortly after, she changed into her second incarnation. You never found out why she changed incarnations, but afterwards she changed. She was no longer the goddess that you fell in love with.
She became more deceitful and sneaky. She told more lies and began to cheat on you with the younger gods. This eventually lead to your divorce.
You didn't know whether or not you still love Gaia the way you used to. Too much time had passed and you didn't know if she was truly being serious with you.
So out of fear you lightly pushed her away, trying not to show any real change of emotion. "Relax Earthmother. I'm not going anywhere, anytime soon." You said with as much truthfulness emotion as you could muster.
Seeing as you didn't make any move on her. She gave you a small smile as she backed away. "I'll hold you to your word." She gave you a small wink before turning around once more and walking away. "I have to go now. If you ever need my help with anything, just call my name. I'm always listening." She said disappearing into mist, which dissipated into the air allowing time to flow regularly. "I'll make sure to call Ladius, so that the two of you can talk with each other. From what I've heard, he's missed you ever so much." You chuckled with yourself as you imagined the chat you were going to have with your grandson.
Fluttershy gasped as she began to move again. "M-mom? Where did she go?" "She...uh, went back to work." You said scratching the back of your neck. Fluttershy nodded her head, most likely understanding why. "Would you like to come inside for a cup of tea? Its about to rain soon."
You look up at the sky for a few seconds as the faint sound of thunder clouds begin to rumble off in the distance. The small pitter patter of rain soon began to become more audible. You gasped as a small amount of rain began to touch you, it felt warm and nice. You turned around and looked at Fluttershy. "I would very much like that." You said inciting a small smile from the young demigod.
"Oh good!" Fluttershy said almost yelling out. "Come on in, I'll warm us up a pot." As Fluttershy walked into her house along with Angel. You took your time. "Rain huh... Gaia, are you crying?" you asked no one. You looked up at the sky once more before walking into Fluttershy's house.
Chapter Eighteen: All You Can Really Trust Is yourself, Right?
“You met Gaia today? What did she say?” Luna asked curiously.
You let out a sigh and gave Luna a smile. “Nothing of value. She just wanted to tell me how glad she was when she heard that I was back.”
“Are you sure that’s all she said? She didn’t say anything else?” You gave Luna a serious look causing her to look away, despite being the stronger one here, Luna still seems to display the same level of respect she did all those years ago. Something of which you were glad to see in her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to-”
“It’s alright, you did always have a habit of asking one too many questions that didn’t concern you.”
“I’m sorry. It’s just that, I know the history between you two and...” Luna trailed off as she saw you narrow your eyes. You didn’t mean anything by it but Luna seemed to think otherwise. “So how’s everything going with your little mortal friend?” Luna fake smiled.
You raised an eyebrow and chuckled. “Who? Do you mean Zeal? He’s a good mortal, there's just something strange about him. There’s nothing really different about him, yet I can still feel that something is off. ”
Luna tilted her head in confusion. “Maybe he’s one of the rare ones?” She suggested.
You raised another eyebrow. “Maybe…Who was the last hero of old?” You asked.
“A young mortal named Starswirl the Bearded. He was born about a thousand years ago. He helped formulate hundreds of magical devices and spells that allowed mortals to progress through day to day life. He also discovered that some cults were trying to bring revive the dead god, Leviathan, and helped stop it.”
“Holy Crap! Why in Tartarus would someone want to do that?” You asked no one.
Leviathan was a Neverwere(a being outside of time), one of the beings you defeated during the last days of the First War. Being a being outside of time, time itself A.K.A Endless had no power over him, leaving your younger sister Forever to deal with this faction, while he dealt with the Meanwhiles(beings outside of space). Your powers affected both sides, so you were the main reason why the whole fabric of reality is in shambles, as Death affects all beings, whether those that were meant to exist or not.
The last time you seen him was during the Discordian War(Third Primordial War, which included the suspected partnership of Discord and The Primordial), when one of Discords followers released him into the universe. The first time you met and battled him was at the dawn of the universe. Not long after Forever’s birth. The first time you two battled, you were left brutally beaten and on the verge of dying, it took the intervention of Endless and The Primordial to drive him back so that you could seal him in Tartarus. The second battle ended in a draw, with the both of you left unconscious and Leviathan getting away.
The final time you two met was during the Third Primordial War. You were supported by all of the gods then, so beating Leviathan was far easier than the other times.
Luna shrugged her shoulders as a sure sign that she didn't know. “Corruption tends to last through generations, Brother. Many of the mentally insane mortals in this time period had ancestors who had been exposed to Discords corruption.”
“That would explain how everyone is a lot weirder in this time period.” You blinked.
Luna nodded her head. “Discord wanted to create a more fun world, while his methods were wrong and resulted in the near extinction of the divine and mortal, he actually succeeded.” You both nodded at Discord attempt.
For a time, the two of you spent a long while in awkward silence. For the immortal life of you, you tried to remember something Gaia mentioned to you. When you finally did, you succeeded in scaring Luna. “Sorry, I wanted to ask you about my grandson Ladius.”
“Ladius?” She asked as if she didn’t know who you were talking about.
“Yes, Ladius. My only known grandson. The Immortal Loser?” You said prompting a snicker from Luna. The immortal Loser was a nickname both Luna and Delirium came up with, when the three were discussing his frequent idleness in divine politics, as well as mortal.
“Ah yes, I remember now. He’s been doing well since the last time I checked. When you ‘died’, he was the first person to volunteer to be the new Grim Reaper. Apparently, he felt a bit responsible for your death.”
You scoffed. “Him feeling responsible? I don’t know why. He rejected my proposal to be the new Death for centuries before I died.”
“You are correct, but the two of you didn’t really start connecting with each other until the final days of the war.”
“Yeah! Because he was so butthurt about him dying at the end. Mythic really had it out for him. He just tried to suck up to me so I could give him an extra life.” You said, growing a tad bit furious at the way how your grandson used to behave. “His whole world was about to burn and the first thing he asked me when I tried to recruit him was ‘Will you ensure that I survive in the end?' Such a coward! I don’t understand who he got if from because it sure as hell wasn’t me or his mother.”
“Well, he’s the spitting image of how you were.” This statement caused your lips to curl up with disdain as you narrowed your eyes.
“Excuse me?” You said wanting her to repeat what she said.
You could see the seriousness in her face. If there was one thing about Luna that was true, it was her respect for family, no matter how distant. The Goddess of the Night did not tolerate the way you were speaking about your own flesh and blood. “You used to act the same way.”
“When?” You said, standing up to her. You were not about to have your name slandered by being called a coward. “Explain to me how Ladius and I used to be the same, so I can see the correlation between the two of us.”
“During the Discordian war, you were so fearful.” She said putting emphasis on the word fearful. “You were always looking over your own shoulder. You never trusted anyone, not even Endless. The one person who's been with you since the beginning. No one else noticed it,” She began to nod her head. “but I did. I knew you had been corrupted by Discord. You did your best to cover it up and it worked well, to a point, but your fears often manifested into your dreams Letum, something of which, often happens to lapse over into my domain. Discord changed us, he infected us with our opposites. You used to be so brilliant and brave, but during the war you were indecisive and easily frightened. I thank our Creators that your love for the mortals remained untampered with or the war might have ended a lot differently. The only difference between the two of you was that Ladius had a choice in matters of whether or not he wanted to help us, you however did not. Because we all knew that If The Primordial was to ever be set free, all her fury was going to be directed towards you.” She said, poking you in chest. “So before you start talking about other people, how about you stop and look into the mirror first.”
You could only look at Luna in horror. Not because she had just talked back to you, nor because she intruded into your dreams without your permission, but because she was right. You had changed dramatically over the last few thousand years. While you had nothing to say, you just sat down on a dream rock and silently thought to yourself.
“Ohhh, that’s got to hurt. Are you just going to let this 'lesser god’ speak to you this way?” A voice said, popping up in your head. “She said you’re a coward. Maybe that is what you are. A coward.”
“Not now...” You said accidentally out loud.
“The truth hurts, doesn’t it, Brother?” Luna said, overhearing you.
You quickly looked back up at her. “What?“
“I said you’re a coward.”
“I said the truth hurts, doesn’t it?”
You pinpointed the two voices and realized that Luna wasn’t the one who called you that. You realized that the voice hasn’t been messing with you until you were told about the prophecy from Delirium and when Luna just spoke to you. The voice only talks to you during times of distress, meaning the more anxiety and sorrow you begin to feel the weaker the cage gets. Not a good sign. Not a good sign at all.
“Yes. Yes it does.” You said faking a smile.
Luna seemed to had noticed this. “I can sense yours emotions, Brother. ever since Delirium told you about that prophecy. You've been scared. You've had a lingering bout of the fear following you around. I just want you to know, Brother, that I understand how you feel.”
"No she doesn't. None of them know how you feel. You are all alone. And you better start getting use to it."
"No you don't. None of you know how I feel. I'm all alone, but I guess I better start getting used to it, because in the end you will all fail to be there when I need you the most. It has happened before, it with happen again. So I shall not put my faith and trust in the hands of others, especially towards the likes of you." You hissed suspiciously, showing that you were starting to grow a lot angrier than you should be. Luna seemed to pick up on this as well, because she began to step back a little.
“Do you really feel that way, Brother?” She said, showing sadness by your words.
“Yes, you do. You are spineless and weak. Nightmare Moon was a better Goddess than you, and she was just a piece. Tell her Letum. Tell her that she will never amount to the glory that is her sister. Tell her that she is not worthy of the worship and praise of the mortals. Tell her.” The voice said growing darker in tone and louder in volume.
Seeing as she was visibly hurt by your words you let out a sigh and began to shake your head. “Yes...No, No! No I don't. I don't know what I'm saying. All I have are you guys. You've always been there for me in my darkest of times and I've been there for you in yours. I'm sorry for the way I've been acting. I've just had a lot on my mind, lately.” You smiled sincerely.
Luna smiled and gave you a hug, which you happily accepted. The voice in your head let out what felt like a snarl as well as a snicker. “Be careful of whom you trust. She’ll betray you in the end. They all will. Every. Last. One of them. Until only I remain, because in the end all you can really trust is yourself. Right, Letum?” The voice snickered, once more.
Chapter Nighteen: Princess Luna And Ladius' Answer To The Mortal Reaper Dilemma
You opened your eyes, as you began to feel an unfamiliar presence coming from beside you. As you turned your head and looked, you were greeted by a friendly looking skull who was wearing a robe. “About time you woke up.” The skeleton said leaning back in his chair.
“Geez, is that how I look to other people? No wonder they all feared me.” You said sitting upward in your bed. “Ladius, right? Or did you change your name?”
The skeleton formed what seemed to be a faint smile. “I’ve been using your name for the past two thousand years. I was surprised, You have many such as Death, The Grim Reaper, The Shepherd, The Second Son, The Farmer, The Protector, The Mighty One, The Dark One, The Shade, I have a lot more if you want me to keep going. How about the Raging Storm, and the-”
“How did you get access to those names?” You asked.
“Hello?” He said tapping his head with his bony finger. “I have access to some of your memories.”
“Oh, ok. That makes totally sense.” You said rubbing the sleep from your eyes.
“Oh yeah? It does, does it?” Ladius said standing up, removing the hood from his skull, revealing a tired worn out face that you had known to be your grandsons. His face didn’t portray rage, just fatigue. Despite being immortal, Ladius looked far more older than you’ve ever seen him look. “Barely two thousand years in and I already wish I was dead.” He chuckled. “But I can’t die. Despite trying to run away from it, I knew I would eventually have to take up the job. It ‘runs’ in the family so to speak.” He said sitting back down and shaking his head.
“So how do you like being the new death?” You asked, causing Ladius to scoff.
“I’m no where near as powerful as you were. I’m just a piece of the real thing thing.” He said letting out a tired sigh.
“A piece of the real thing, huh?”
“Yeah, There are thousands of little concepts that have originated from you.”
“Yeah, I already figured that out. I met a little Grim Reaper fox, who killed Fluttershy’s pet Angel.”
“I’m sure you did. There’s a Death for practically everything now. A Death for Rabbits, Death for Ants, Death for Trees, and a Death for Mortals. Which is my job, and man let me tell you. It is taxing to do this job every second of everyday. I can’t see how you’ve been doing it. So I split the job into sections. Which of course gives me the freedom to do at least one job, while another version does the others.”
“We all had jobs to do." You stated. "I got through mine just as everyone else did.”
Ladius sighed. “Perhaps. I just wish dear old mom gave me more of your power to work with, when she split your soul.”
“She did what?” You yelled out in anger.
“What? You didn’t know? There was a reason why it took you two thousand years to finally heal. You were missing pieces of your soul.” Ladius said watching as you put your cloak on.
“Who the hell gave her the authority to mess with my soul?” You yelled out growing angrier by the seconds.
“You did when you appointed her the responsibility of guiding and monitoring souls. Look dad. I know you're pissed, but what mom did was necessary, your recovery was predicted to take a few centuries. You know the world could not move on, unless death followed after. You were not here to do your job so we created others who could.”
You rubbed your forehead and gave your grandson a sigh. “He is Right brother. Please do not be mad at him. It was for the good of the entire universe.”
You quickly turned around and saw your youngest to Luna who is in the room with you as well. She quickly walk out of the shadows and give you a small wave. "What the... Do you guys just watch me while I sleep or something. Because if you do then that’s creepy as hell."
"You can't be talking. You used to kill people in their sleep." Ladius joke.
“Well I'm not dead am I? So what's your excuse?
Ladius narrowed his eyes. "Touche."
“So Luna? What are you doing here?” You asked.
“The same reason why he's here. We're here to talk about the nature of you getting back your power.” She said walking over to your bed and taking a seat on it.
"What she said. The other deaths have been doing an adequate job killing and harvesting souls, but there's nothing better than the original." Your grandson said shifting in his feet.
"As time passes, my powers begins to come back to me in small bursts. Though not much, it can still add up if I’m given enough time, but I predict it will take at least a few good decades in which I will be at full strength.” You theorized.
Both Luna and Ladius gave each other a stern not before answering you." I don't think we have a few good decades left." Ladius said. This caught your attention a little.
"I agree, if we take in consideration of that prophecy that Delirium was telling us about. I'd say we should be turning all of our attention to helping you recover your power as soon as possible. Do you think you're capable of that?" Luna asked.
You gave a little shrug off the shoulders. "Well we can always going to my domain."
"Your domain? Why would we go back there?” Your grandson asked curious as to why you would say such a thing.
"When I was turned to stone, my Artifacts of Power most likely went back to my sphere of domain, within Purgatory. Meaning all of my power is at home right now sitting there waiting for me."
"Ah, okay that makes sense. We all know where your domain is, but you locked it up so tight that not even mortals could get inside. Only beings that are equal in power or stronger than you can enter into it, unless it is you yourself." Ladius explained.
"Correct, I can open up the pathways for you, but you're the one who's going to have to get my symbols of power back."
"How will he be able to walk into your domain? Since it’s not his?” Luna asked.
"When my mom and me split up his soul. A part of him flew into me. That's why I'm able to control certain aspects of death." Ladius answered. "It's not because I'm his grandson, it's because I literally had to become part of him to do so."
"Yes technically you are just another version of me. My artifacts should react to you just fine, if not a bit painfully.” You said nodding your head. “But be warned, if you try to use my symbols without my consent it would not end well for you.” You said with a certain situations that told your grandson not to toy with you. “They are one of the most powerful artifacts in the universe. Do not mess with them in any way.”
“Relax, you can trust me. I'll be able to-”
Suddenly a knocking came from your door. The two of you pause and waited for the person on the other side to say something. “Letum? are you alright? I thought I heard voice is coming from your room." Spike said from the other side of the door.
Taking a few seconds to open up the door, you greeted Spike with a friendly grin. “I'm ok Spike, I'm just speaking with a friend.”
"A friend? Who? it can't be Zeal he's downstairs with Twilight right now."
You move out of the way and showed spike, Luna and Ladius. "Spike this is Luna, I’m sure you know her as Princess Luna my younger sister and this is my grandson Ladius.
Ladius bowed his head towards spike, while Luna gave him a friendly wave. “Princess Luna and Lord Reaper. It is an honor to see you.” Spike said as he quickly began to bow. You looked back towards Ladius and gave him a look in which he quickly replied too.
“I liked the name.” He shrugged, while taking off his hood, showing his pony like body. " Sorry little man, I forgot to take off the hook. How's that? Better right? I don't like all the formalities, so can you just call me by my real name." Spike nodded his head.
"How did you do that? Was that some type of magic robe?" the young dragons asked.
"Its a copy of Letum's. Not as powerful, but still good nonetheless. It makes me invulnerable to most physical harm."
"While mine blocks basically all forms of physical and magical types of harm, giving me the perfect defense against those who wish to harm me." You added.
"Wow that's pretty neat. What were the three of you talking about, if I may ask."
"Stuff…” Ladius said looking at you.
“Important stuff...” Luna added which caused you to facepalm.
“We were talking about the nature of my immortality.” You said partially answering spikes question.
“So what's the plan then? I'm pretty sure you don't want to stay mortal forever do you?"
"We're are... currently working on it Spike. I need to force my way into my own domain, in order to get my artifacts of power back. This is the symbol of my strength and my being. I need to become a god again.” You explained.
"Hm, that seems easy enough when you explain it. Well if you need any help, you know where to find me, but I don't think Twilight would let me do anything too dangerous.” Spike said turning around and leaving the room.
When you was sure he was gone, you began to speak again. “We’ll talk later okay?” The two of them nodded their head and teleported away. Luna faded into the shadows of your room while, Ladius just simple faded away. “Alright. Things appear to be finally lifting up for me.” You said in high spirits as the thought of gaining your powers back greatly uplifted your spirits.
“But for how long?” The voice in your head giggled. “How long do you think they’ll be on your side?” The voice giggled once more causing you to grip your head in pain. Everytime the voice popped up in your head you would feel a sharp pain, as if a thousand needs were stabbing at your brain. You were good at masking pain, but that didn’t stop it from hurting you.
“I won’t let you get to me.” You groaned. “Not now. Not ever.” You walked past the mirror in your room but stopped upon seeing something different. As you looked into the glass you saw a disoriented version of yourself. The aura that floated off of you was dark and evil. And the mirror version of you had on a sinister grin that held no other emotion other than malice and insanity.
“You said that before, and don’t you remember the consequences? Face it. Without me you’re nothing. You don’t need them. They’ll all just betray you in the end like she did. They will all turn on you and rip you to shreds...but it could all be averted if you just let me out now.” The mirror you said.
“I gave up being you a long time ago. I suppressed you in the deepest and darkest depths of my mind. So why are you here now taunting me as clear as day? What are you trying to tell me? What do you want?” You asked the other version of you.
The the mirror version of you let out the deep sinister chuckle. “The same thing that you want.”
"And what would that be?"
Suddenly the other version of you walk out of the mirror and grab you by the cloak and pulled you closer. Staring deep into it’s eyes that were yours. "I want to live.”
In fear you quickly tried to hit the other you, but the image had disappeared. You jumped back in fear and waited for something to happen, but nothing did. “What the hell is happening to me?” You said now breathing heavily.
In the midst of calming yourself down, you failed to realize that Zeal was listening in on you. He slowly moved away from the door so you wouldn’t see him. “What the hell indeed. Celestia will want to know about this.”
Zeal slowly walked away from your room and left you to yourself. He had to tell Celestia about this. Hell, he was pretty sure she wanted to know about this. As he walked down stairs he immediately grabbed a pen and paper. He began to write down every bit of detail that he had discovered over the past few days of hearing you toss and turn and talk in your sleep. Celestia would truly want to hear bout this for sure. He might even receive a raise after doing so.
After writing down what he could with the amount of time that he had, he quickly called out to Spike. “SPIKE!!! I need you to do me a favor!”
Spike walked into the room and look at Zeal with a questioning glance. “What's up Zeal?”
“I need you to send a letter to Princess Celestia.” Zeal said handing Spike his letter.
“A letter, huh? Yeah, I can do that. What does it say?” The teenage dragon asked while slightly opening up the letter before Zeal grabbed his hand.
“No looking.” He hissed. “Send it to her. It is of the utmost importance.” Zeal said, as his horn began to glow a misty yellow. The magical mist slowly began to intrude its way into Spikes nostrils. He blinked absently as he nodded his head, blowing out a magical flame burning the scroll and sending it to Celestia. He walked out of of the room as if nothing happened.
***
Dear Princess Celestia,
I regret to inform you that I have discovered some interesting information pertaining to Letum. Lately he’s been showing some rather strange behavior. Ever since we arrived in Ponyville he’s been sleep talking alot, but nothing really of importance accept about something called The Fall.
From what I’ve heard I think it’s about something of serious, because he often cries when mentioning it. I’ve been listening to what he’s been saying and he’s been mentioning Princess Luna a lot also. Perhaps the two of them have been talking behind your back? I cannot say.
Also I’ve seen a recent change in personality. He’s becoming more worried about things but he doesn’t allow himself to truly show it. Plus I think he’s harboring what appears to be a split personality, but I cannot say for sure. I’ll have to watch him abit more to see. These are just assumptions right now.
Also we’ve been tasked with the search of a legendary artifact. It was called the Eridian Staff. We’re scheduled to search for it really soon. That is all the news that I can give you at the time.
Your Honorary Guard, Dawning Zeal
***
Upon reading, Celestia tapped her chin in thought, she then burned the letter so that no one could read it. This was something she had think about. “What is The Fall?” A question asked by only a few. With only Letum, Endless and one other god, who actually knows what the secret is and fortells.
Celestia picked up a quill and began writing her response.
***
Thank you Zeal for telling me this. I will surely look into this. The Fall is a prophecy that I’ve heard a long time ago, but I have only have limited knowledge which extends only to it’s name and not what it foretells.
The Eridan Staff? I have not heard about such artifact, but I am sure this quest of yours will be enlightening and adventurous. Please stay safe and try to keep him from suspecting anything and report in when you’ve learned anything else.
***
Not long after she wrote back, Zeal could hear a burp coming from the other room. “What the- Hey it’s a letter from the Princess! Zeal! It’s letter for you!” Zeal quickly walked into the room and took the letter from Spike and began to read it. A smile formed on his face as he was about to reply back, until he could hear the pitter patter of feet coming down the stairs, you never did like the way shoes feel on your feet. Immediately he knew it was you and hid the letter away.
“Morning.” You said rubbing your head. The headache you received earlier was still present and strong as ever.
“Morning. How did you sleep last night?” Zeal asked, slipping the letter into his pants without you looking. Spike apparently saw this but did not say anything.
“Why do you want to know?” You asked suspiciously. “For the past few days you never asked me how I slept. Why take the sudden interest now?”
“What? I can’t ask how you’re doing? Why are you getting defensive?” Zeal asked.
You narrowed your eyes for a few seconds. The two of you stood in complete silence with only Spike in the room to watch. “Wow, this is awkward. I’m about to go into kitchen and get some gems. Anyone want some gems?” Spike asked, you nodded your head. “Alrighty then. What about you Zeal want a gem?”
“Dude. I’m a pony.” He deadpanned.
Spike looked at the two of you for a second before smiling. “So, you want a gem right?” He said asking again since Zeal didn’t directly answer the question. Zeal blinked a few times before silently nodding his head. “Gems for everybody!” He said walking into the kitchen.
You let out a tired sigh. “I didn’t sleep that good last night.”
Zeal smiled and sat down in a chair. “Yeah, I heard you talking in yo sleep last night. Calling out to Princess Luna. I didn’t know you had feelings for your little sister, so what you do have like...like a little sister complex or something?”
“But we’re not really brothers and sisters.” You said shaking your head as you didn’t understand what he meant.
Zeal took a few seconds to look at you in awe, before chuckling to himself. “But you still protect her and cherish her as a sister?”
“Yeah? Why?”
Zeal let out another laugh. “Oh my gods, it’s like talking to an old person.”
Twilight whom had heard the entire conversation upon walking down the stairs, could only look at the two of you in confusion. You shook your head and walked over to the bookshelves and pulled out a book that caught your eye. The Wanderings of The Keepers of Time.
You open the book and began to read a few of the first pages before stopping and closing the book. You quickly turned around and looked at Zeal, who was looking at you back. “What?” You then threw the book at him, hitting him in his the shoulder. “Ow, man. The hell?”
“You sick little freak! That’s my sister!” You yelled back. Zeal bursted into a laughing fit, upon realing that you had just now realized the joke. Twilight rolled her eyes at the two of you as she walked towards Zeal and picked up the book that you had thrown.
“Zeal told me that the two of you are going on a job for Dodgy Trader. Sooner or later.” She said inspecting the book as if she was looking for any damages.
“Yeah. Why do you want come?” you asked looking for another book.
Twilight shook her head no. “Not this time. I’ve rather enjoyed my retirement from adventuring and saving the world from evil.” She said before sighing as she found that there weren’t any scratches on the book. “Why? Do you want me to come?” The alicorn princess asked while raising an eyebrow.
Zeal gave her a small smirk as he shrugged his shoulders. “Nah, I think the God of Death and a specially trained soldier can easily find some stupid old staff without the help of the Elements of Harmony.”
“If you say so.” Twilight said while also shrugging. She seemed to be genuine about her feelings towards wanting to retire from saving the world and hunting for weird artifacts. No one could blame her she’s done it more times than any other pony at the time that in which she was mortal. Apparently now that she’s immortal she’d like to live most of it in quiet.
You decided to delve deeper into Twilight's mind set. You didn’t know much about her so asking a few questions about her would allow the two of you to break the ice. You took a seat on the floor and thought of a question to asked the young princess. Perhaps Immortality? Immortality would be a great subject to start with and then move into more personal things when the chance would occur.
“Hey Twilight. How do you feel about being immortal?” You asked piquing Zeals interest in the topic.
Twilight herself also took a seat in front of you after picking out a book to read. “How do I feel about being immortal?” She said repeating your question. For what seemed like a few minutes of humming to herself, Twilight just let out a weary sigh. “To be honest I thought about it a lot when I first ascended, I stressed myself out to the point where I almost couldn’t sleep, but eventually I feel like nothing has really changed. I’ve yet to take on royal dues like Princess Celestia & Princess Luna. I’ve just started out so for now I’m keeping a rather positive outlook on things.”
“Such as?” You asked raising an eyebrow.
“For one thing I don’t required sleep like how I used to. I don’t become as tired as quickly as well. Whenever I cast magic the chances of there being a backfire is almost nonexistent and any wound I receive heals almost immediately. It’s rather interesting when I began to study it to the full extent.”
Upon hearing this both you and Zeal looked at each other with confused looks. Zeal shifted in his seat as he tried to get a better understanding of what she meant. “Are you telling us that you performed test on yourself?” He asked with an audible gulping sound.
“Yes. At first I started out with just small cuts and bruises, but any wound in that caliber would heal as soon as they appear so I decided to turn to more… serious tests.” She said flipping through a page in her book.
“She set herself on fire.” Spike said emerging from the kitchen with a plate of gems in his hand. He walked over to you and sat down the plate on the table with a the intent of sharing the gems. Seeing as when you first ate the gems they were tasty as hell, you decided that you’d eat them again. While you didn’t eat in great number like Spike did, you did how however pick out the ones that looked good, such as the emeralds and the amethyst gems. They were just as good as you remembered them being.
Twilight and Zeal both looked at you in disbelief. “Are you eating gems?” They both managed to say at the same time.
“Yeah, I found out that I can probably eat anything I want.” You said taking a bite out of a topaz gem. The topaz gem tasted like pure mint causing you to cough a bit as you swallowed.
“Okay, I’ve seen weirder stuff.” Twilight said turning her attention back to her book.
“So you set yourself on fire?” Zeal asked?
“Yes. I wanted to see if my burnt cells were capable of healing at the same rate as a normal wound.” She said while nodding to herself.
“The test was a failure though. She came out of the fire unharmed and almost succeeded in burning down the entire library.” Spike said grinning as Twilights cheeks turning red.
“Um, yeah. I found out that regular fire almost has no effect on me and it would mostly cause a magical one of high caliber to successfully harm me.”
“Interest.” You said chomping on another gem. “What other tests did you do?”
“I tried drowning, but I found out I don’t require much air to breath anymore, so suffocation was out of the equation. I tried piercing my heart, but the wound just heal. I tried decapitation, but-”
“I couldn’t go through with it. I could help her in burning herself or drowning her but cutting off her head was not something I think I could to do.” Spike said shuttering at the thought of cutting off his best friends head.
“Yeah, so I did it myself.” She said letting out a small yawn.
“What were the results?” You asked.
“I woke up three days later in the morgue, extremely dehydrated and tired.” Twilight blinked blankly.
“She regrew her body.” Spike added finishing the last of the gems. He then began to lick the plate clean of any crumbs.
“Yes, I also seemed to had forgotten a few things such as where I live and I thought my name was Pinkie Pie. So decided not to perform that test again unless I would end up causing permanent damage to my memories. I also tried to see how long I can go with food or rest before succumbing to fatigue.”
“How long did you last?” Zeal asked.
“486 days, 22 hours, 16 minutes, and 43 seconds.” Twilight said almost grimacing at the thought.
“Holy crap. You lasted that long before passing out?”
“No. The test never stopped. I’m currently on the 486th day.”
For a moment there was silence in the room. You didn’t expect to hear that she had lasted that long without eating or resting, considering how that was her entire lifestyle just before she ascended. Gods don’t naturally eat food or rest if they don’t want too, but new gods such as herself often still indulge in their former lifestyles such as eating, sleeping and drinking, just for the fun of it or because for of habit. So hearing that she’s been doing based on solely willpower alone is impressive and almost frightening.
“Perhaps you should consider stopping it and get some rest.” You suggested. Twilight shook her head and smile.
“I understand, but I’ll wait until I’ve reached an even 500 days.”
You just nodded your head, accepting her stubbornness. "How does your family feel about you becoming immortal?"
"They seemed to have accepted pretty well. "She said touching her chin as if she was confirming something. "My older brother Shining Armor he accepted it pretty well given that he's married to the goddess of love, who just so happens to be my former foalsitter. My parents however took it a little hard at first but they eventually came around to the idea of her daughter being involved in the grand scheme of things.” She said flipping through the pages of her book as if she was looking for something. Twilight seemed accepted her role as the Goddess of Magic. While she has yet to fully wrap herself around her new duties, she feels herself growing increasingly more powerful as each day goes.
Ponies use magic everyday and as the new Goddess of Magic, she gains her power and strength off of this concept. Since magic is used by one third of the pony population every day, you theorize that if given enough time she could will become an exceptionally powerful goddess.
“May I ask you a question Letum?” Twilight said closing her book after reading all the information that she wanted.
“Of course. What about?”
“I was reading up on any old book last night. One of the tomes the Dodgy Trader had given to me. It was called the Anatomy of The Olden Gods.” She said standing up and placing the book back where she found it. “The book had something written which caught my attention and I thought I’d ask you for your knowledge of the matter.”
“Go ahead. I’m all ears.”
“The book stated that gods don’t live forever. Is that true?”
You nodded your head. “Gods can live forever but the incarnations that inhabit the god doesn’t. Like me. I’m an incarnation of the God of Death, while I can die, the concept of Death cannot. There will always be a god of death.” You said accidently thinking back to the war with Discord. You wished the same rule applied to all the gods that had died. You truly wished it did.
“How does the God of Death work anyway?” Zeal asked, “There has to be billions of us on the planet. Thousands of us are dying at this second. How can you take all of those souls at once if you're right here?”
“When I was turned to stone, the concept of Death was split in hundreds of little fractions. Each Death handles a species, theres one for everything that lives. A death for mortals, a death for rabbits, a death for trout, a death for everything.” You said, think about how to explain it better. “When I was at full strength I was omnipresent. I was everywhere at once, but I only chose to show myself unless I was performing my job or unless someone called me.” You said watching as Twilight formed a face of confusion.
“I remember Celestia told me something about this. I didn’t really understand what she meant at the time. Does that mean, this extends to me as well?”
You shook your head no. “No. Well, not now at least. As you become more intune with your powers and grow older, it should come to you more naturally. When it does happen, just think of it like teleporting but it requires little to no energy in which to do so.”
“Thats interesting… So how long will this process take?” Twilight asked. You told her that it varies between the younger, more weak gods. Sometimes it takes a century and other times it take thousands of years. This brought a frown to her face. “I see… I still find hard to believe that I’m immortal.” She sighed.
“What? It’s just hitting you now?” Zeal asked.
Spike then decided to join in with a scoff. “No. It’s been hitting her on and off for the past few years. At one moment she’s fine about it and the next she’s moping around.”
“That’s not true...I didn’t mope...” Twilight said blushing.
Spike then raised an eyebrow. “She totally did.”
“Well can you blame me? I’m going to outlive all of my friends. I don’t want that to happen. Did that happen to you, Letum?”
You slowly nodded your head. “Yes. Most of my friends that I’ve made over the millennia are dead, most were gods though.” You said growing sad by the thought. Twilight understood the weight behind your voice. You took a look in her eyes that showed that she didn’t want that to happen to her. ”But do not let that keep you from your destiny. As you learn to be a goddess, you find out that our lives aren't that different from you mortals. Yeah, we’re more powerful, yes we are immortal, but at the end of the day we still experience the same things you do.”
“How can you?” Twilight asked catching you by surprise. “You were born immortal, plus any friends you made that were mortal, they died in a few decades while you yourself are already immortal and undying. Plus you’re the one who kills them. How can you understand how I feel? What are we to you and Princess Celestia? We’re nothing to you. Just specks in the fabric of time.” You remained quiet for a few moments. Twilight seemed to be a lot more conflicted about her ascension than she had let you to believe. You made sure to talk to Celestia about this.
“Twilight I’ve lived a long life. A life so long that the numbers of years are immeasurable. I’ve had mortal friends. I’ve had immortal friends. I’ve had friends who were ponies and I’ve had friends who were dragons. Most of them are dead. You think that just because I’ve lived for an immeasurable amount of time means that all their deaths mean nothing to me. You are wrong. They hurt me much more than you could hope to believe. More so, as I’m the one who has to end it. Each and every death of a loved one hurts me just as much as it hurts you, but I’ve had years to have that pain build up to the point where I’ve hidden myself away, but you know what?” You said taking a breath as you felt a tear drop from your eye.
“Just because I’m the god of Death doesn’t mean I don’t know how to live. The way I see it is, life is a pile of good things and bad things. The good things don’t always soften the bad things, but the bad things don’t always spoil the good things and make them unimportant. All the friends I’ve made over my incredibly long life are important to me. So don’t you dare say tell me, who has lived ages before you, that I don’t know how you feel.” You said with anger vibrant in your tone. Twilight held her head down trying to shy her eyes away from you.
“Come on, go easy on her Letum. I don’t think she meant to say that.” Spike said with Zeal agreeing.
You let out a tired sigh and watch as Twilight remained silent. “Sorry, I kind of overreacted.”
For a few moments the room was silent. The tension remained kind of high. You’ve experienced many wars and lost a lot. Twilight has not yet begun to live even a fraction of what you’ve been through. So you believed you’ve had every right to be angry with at her assumptions of how you and your family act.
Twilight silently apologized and began to leave the room, but there was a knock at the door. As you turned around to look the door opened up to reveal a small teenage red haired mare and a orange haired mare whom you recognized as a as Applejack and Applebloom.
Applejack stopped in the middle of the room and upon not receiving the desired response, she quickly realized that something was wrong. “Is something tah matter? Did we come at a bad time?” She asked trying to get one of you to speak.
“Yeah we’re totally fine.” Zeal said.
“Yeah, we just got into a small fight.” Spike added.
”Is that true hon?” Applejack asked while looking at Twilight. In which she confirmed with a simple nod of the head. “If you say so.”
“Yeah, don’t worry. We’re fine. What are you guys doing here?” Twilight asked. “I wasn’t expecting a visit today.”
“You recall that we’ve been needing help at the farm lately, apple bucking season is here and we need help.” Applejack said while looking towards you and Zeal. Both of you immediately turned your heads.
Twilight facepalmed. “Sorry, Applejack. I totally forgot about that. I can just pick all of the apples off of the trees for you if you’d like.”
AJ shook her head. “That wouldn’t be applebucking now would it?” She said with a smirk. “Apple bucking is an old family tradition. Of course magic would surely make it easier, but wheres the fun in that?” AJ gleamed.
Zeal scoffed at the mention of applebucking being fun. “You actually have fun applebucking?”
“Sure do. It’s a great way to build up muscle and pass the time.” She said happily.
Zeal shrugged his shoulders. “To his each own.”
“How much help do you actually need?” Twilight asked.
“Zeal can help us.” AJ suggested.
“Uh, let me think about-No!”
“Okay then. What about Letum?” Applebloom said. All eyes were now on you. You didn’t mind helping them out. Being who you were, you’d be a tremendous help to them.
“Sure I’ll help.” You said shrugging your shoulders as well.
“Great. I’d really appreciate it if you did. Being a God and all, I’m pretty sure you’ve got a lot of strength behind you.” She said patting you on your back.
If you had known about how much work you had to do, you probably would had rethought your decision.
After a small conversation with everyone, you left the library with the Apple sisters. You walked patiently through the town and towards your destination. The three of you talked about a verity of things, apples, of course were included into the subjects.
It wasn’t until you reached the edge of the farm in which AJ decided to get serious. “Hey Applebloom can you go and tell Big Mac that we’re home and that we have company?” Applebloom quickly nodded her head and quickly ran off to the house in the distance. Applejack then turned and faced you. “Tell me. What’s been bothering Twilight?” She asked with an eyebrow raised.
“Wow. You’re good. How did you know?”
“Come on. We’ve been best friends since ah’ve met her, plus I also gain points for being the Element of Honesty.” She winked. “Zeal’s a good liar, but there’s no fooling me.”
“I’ll remember that.” You smirked. “Twilight has been stressing over the fact that she will outlive all of her friends.”
“Again? She’s still thinking about that?” AJ said while tapping her chin in thought. “Okay. I’ll go rustle up the other girls and we’ll go talk to her. Thanks for telling me.” You nodded your head and told her that it was no big deal.
“If you head towards the house, you’ll see my older brother Big Macintosh. He’s ah large red stallion, so he’s hard to miss. Just tell’em AJ sent you and he’ll let in. Also thanks again.” She said as she began to walk back into town.
You looked back towards the house and slowly began to walk in its direction. There were apple tress and crops everywhere. Apple acres was the model beauty of what a farm should look like, one of the best if you said so yourself. Gaia must have blessed them tremendously.
As you walked up to the house you were greeted by a large red stallion with what looked like a wheat straw in his mouth. Upon looking at him you were immediately reminded of Oceanus. His physical stature and that aura of calmness that wrapped itself around him reminded you of your younger brother. “You must be Big Macintosh.” You said outstretching your hand for a proper handshake.
He looked at your hand and a small smirk formed across his face. “Eyup.” He said giving you a firm handshake. If he had squeezed any harder, you would have felt some pain.
“So you’re AJ’s older brother?”
“Eyup.”
“You don’t talk much, do you?” You asked raising an eyebrow.
He formed another smile. “Nope.”
You gave him a smirk as well. “Good. I think we’re going to be good friends.” Big Mac nodded his head and walked back into the house. He didn’t really offer you to come in, but you could tell that he didn’t mind.
As you walked in alongside him, a familiar odor entered into your nostrils. The smell of death was all over this house. “Is someone dying?” You asked yourself as you quickly noticed Applebloom walk towards you.
“Hey Letum, do you want tah see mah grandma?” She offered despite Big Macs disapproving stare.
“Your grandmother?”
AB nodded her head. “Uh-huh. Well she actually wanted to see you. I don’t know why, but she has been very interested in meeting you.” She said causing you to raise an eyebrow. She must’ve told her about you. Perhaps her grandmother is dying.
You nodded your head and followed AB to the backroom where the smell was the strongest. As she placed her hand on the door, she turned and faced you. “I don’t know if you can smell it but Granny Smith has been smelling extra weird lately. Big Mac and Applejack said they don’t smell anything wrong but I do. So if you smell anything please don’t say anything.” You nodded your head and walked into the room along with her.
Inside of the room you could see an old pale lime green mare lying in her bed. She looked like was sleeping but you could tell she wasn’t. “Applebloom is that you?” Granny Smith asked, her breathing was slow and shallow.
“It’s me Granny and I also brought Letum.” She said urging you forward so you could speak with her. AB backed up slowly and closed the door with her as she left the two of you alone. Granny Smith was really was dying and if she knew who you were then she was probably about to bargain for a longer life.
“Come closer child.” She said urging you to walk forward. Despite being the older one in the room, you found yourself listening to her. You walked all the way to her bedside, where you looked at her face to face. “Ohh, those eyes. So old, you are much older than the previous one.”
Previous one? “You met my grandson?”
Granny Smith nodded her head. “Oh yes. The two of you almost look alike, it’s just that your eyes give you away. You’re so much older than he is, plus your eyes show much pain and sorrow. While his do not.”
You narrowed your eyes at the old mare. “How old are you?”
“And you’re much smarter than the other one as well.” She said chuckling to herself. “I’m 190.” The dying earth pony managed to cough out. You slowly waved your hand over her frail body as if you were checking for something.
As I thought, she’s not a demigod. How is it that she possesses such extended lifespan? You asked yourself. I don’t sense any magic prolonging her life. So what could be the cause?
“A gift from the God of Death.” She wheezed out.
“A gift from my grandson? Why would he do that? What’s your relationship with Ladius?”
“He’s an…old friend-”
“As in former lover. I should have guessed that as soon as you mentioned him.” You scowled.
Your grandson had a history with failed relationships, and whenever his lovers broke up/rejected him, he would take it extremely hard. You now found yourself dealing with another one of Ladius’ love affairs. You began to question whether or not this was the real reason why the Apple family wanted your help.
“Please…what I ask of you is not what you think.” She said breathing steadily.
“Oh, it’s not? So then pray tell, what are you asking of me?” You said growing agitated by this entire situation.
“What I ask of you is not a longer life, but a release.” She said with a tear forming from her eyes. “I’m so old-”
“Not as old as I am, but old enough. No mortal should have to suffer like this.” You said walking back and forth. "And what of your family? I'm sure they would miss you."
"Oh, I'm sure they would, but I'm also sure they would understand as well. Just tell them why and they will accept it."
"No," You shook your head. "No. They will understand why, but they won't accept it." You said shaking your head. You wanted to just walk out of that door and forget all this nonsense, but something held you back. Perhaps it was your own honor telling you that it would be wrong to do so. You inhaled slightly before sighing. "I will release you." You said watching as a smile kept across her tired aged face.
"Thank you. I am in your dept."
As you were about to touch her, you began to sense a familiar presence enter into the room. A hand appeared from the shadows and grabbed you wrist with a firm grip, urging you to stop to stop what you were doing.
"What do you think you're doing?" The specter said allowing you to realize that it was your own grandson who had entered the room.
He showed a certain fury in which you haven't witnessed in a long time.
You yanked your hand away from his grasps and glared at him as well. "I'm releasing this poor mare from your torment."
"You will not." Ladius said taking a step closer showing that he was going to stand up to you.
"Excuse me? I think your forgetting who your talking too!" You said pushing your grandson to the ground. Despite the obvious power difference between the two of you, Ladius quickly winced at the sign of your anger. "Do not test me, Ladius." You said facing towards Granny Smith who had already closed her eyes and accepted what was about to happen.
"Do you like separating families?" Ladius asked causing you to withdraw your hand away from Granny Smith's body. He watched as your face became one of resentment. You never liked your job but death was necessary. Mortals had to die. Everything has to die.
Death could be both a wonderful and horrible thing. You would know since you personify it's very concept. You bring unwanted change and the feeling of loss and abandonment everywhere you go, but the change that accompanies you could be a verity of things. It could be a change in lifestyle, a change in emotions, bring ponies together or even change a ponies general preference or ideals.
You, however knew how death effected a family and for whatever reason, the apple family would be truly devastated by the loss of Granny Smith. So devastated, that you don't believe they would ever forgive you for it. "No. I don't, but death in necessary. There is no way you can justify yourself for keeping this mortal well past her time." You said furious with what your grandson had done.
"And what would you have done?" Ladius asked. "It's been eons and you haven't even forgave Gaia."
You took a step forward and looked Ladius in the eyes. "You're treading on thin ice child. If I were you, I would choose your next words carefully." You said with a strange calmness in your voice which Ladius nor Granny Smith were expecting. Ladius knew that at this moment he was powerful than you. Even if by a substantial amount, he still knew that crossing you in anyway, shape or form was anything but a good idea.
"Fine, but lets see if you can deal with the fallout of a broken family." He said slowly fading backing in the darkness of the room.
Ladius was right. You weren't an expert when it came to mending broken hearts. When you came to take a soul, you made sure to leave before things got intimate, but now you didn't have the choice to up and leave, but perhaps there was something else you could do.
"I won't kill you. Not now at least. I'll give you more time to spend with her family, but how much time should be enough?"
Making your choice, you took your hand off of Granny Smiths chest and stumbled back into the chair.
Granny Smith let out a horrid cough, before breathing in once more to find that her lungs were working just find now. She was now breathing normally. She quickly commented on how her body had began to stop aching and she found herself able to move her limbs more freely now without pain. This may not what she had asked for but she was happy enough not to be in pain anymore.
You suspended the curse and gave her a week to live. The suspected that three days were enough for her to spend with her family and enjoy life for the last time, plus that was all the power you could give anyway.
Giving someone more time always used up a little bit of power, but since you were a god when you did it, you could do it without any problems, but since you're still mortal your strength is still weak. You found easy things like this to be very taxing on your body. Right now you could feel it taking it's toll on your body.
"Are you ok?" Granny Smith asked as she placed a hand on your shoulder.
"I'll be alright." You said shoving back the sudden drowsiness that you were feeling. "You have three days. Make them count."
Granny Smith nodded her head as she seemed to understand the weight behind what you said. "I'm sorry for dragging you into to all this." Granny Smith said. "But when I heard that you were the Alicorn of Death. I knew I had to try and convince you to kill me."
"Apology accepted, but I don't like being tricked. Next time you want something from me, don't work your way around it, just ask me. Who knows I might have helped you anyway." You said giving her a smirk. "And I'm sorry you had to get involved with with grandson. Like I said before, he was always a tragic hero of sorts. He could never really hold on to a relationship for very long. So when he and his lover would break up, usually it was the lover who broke up with him, he would be very scornful. I didn't think he would ever stoop down to such a level where he denied his lover from the afterlife." You shook your head at such nonsense. He gets a little bit of your power and he begins think he's in control. You didn't know what Granny Smith did to anger Ladius like that, but you knew for sure you weren't going to ask. You had to talk to Ladius about his temper though.
"Everybody changes."
You chuckled at Granny Smiths remark. "Nah, he's always been like that. We all have a flaw."
Granny Smith looked at you with confusion in her eyes. "I wasn't talking about Lasko." The Voice chuckled.
"Never mind." You said as your mind began to race. "Get out of my head."
"Never." The Voice responded.
After taking a quick break, to regain some of your energy you stumbled towards her door and leaned against the door knob. When you brought back Fluttershy's pet, Angel, You didn't use nearly as much energy as you did just now. You now had a real sense of how weak you truly were. "Don't look at me like that," You said commenting on how Granny Smith was looking at you with concern on her face. "I should be fine. I just need a little rest."
"That's not what I'm worried about." She said causing you to raise an eyebrow. You asked what she meant and learned that she was wondering about how to tell her grandchildren that she was dying.
Growing a little apathetic at this point, you just shrugged your shoulders. "I don't know. Just tell them. Start from the beginning, start at the end, make up a lie. All that really matters is that you tell them. I'm pretty sure they're out there worried sick about you. You owe them that much. As their own flesh and blood to ease their worrying by any means possible." You said standing straight up now. You watched as Granny Smiths face fell. "You have three days Granny. Three days. Please make them count." You said looking at her with sad eyes that showed her that you were serious. You couldn't count how many times when you gave somepony extra time and they squandered it, thinking they'd extra time. You didn't want Granny Smith to do this but she seemed to had understood. You hoped so, no one likes to see a broken family.
You left out of her room and walk into the living room. "Are you alright?".Big Mac asked as he noticed how weary you were. You immediately told him that you were fine.
"You should focus more on Granny. She's better now, but she can tell you all the details."
Applebloom's smile began to gleam. "Did you really heal her?" Applebloom asked.
You patted her on the head. "Er, something like that." You mumbled underneath your breath, trying to avoid the question. "Why don't you go talk to her? She's awake right now." You said moving out of their way so they could walk past. While Applebloom quickly ran to go see her grandma, Big Mac took his time.
"Thank you, for what you've done." Big Mac said offering you a handshake, which you reluctantly agreed to.
"Trust me. I didn't do much." You said with your smile fading. "You won't be thanking me in three days." You thought.
"Nonsense. You are always welcome here at our farm." Big Mac said said giving you a hardy Eyup, as he followed his sister into Granny Smiths room.
Not wanting to stick around during the talk you quickly left the house.
Delirium whispered a cheerful tone as she walked through her maze of a garden. Everything chaotic and irrational existed here. The trees were floating in the air, water flowed upward, the residents sometimes moved backward, cartoon like twisters raged behind the scenes, the very rules of reality were estranged from Deliriums domain.
Despite the chaos that rages here in The Garden of Mania, the residents enjoyed everything thing that happened here. Every last one of them.
The residents of Deliriums domain were all referred to as the Children of Madness. They were called this because majority of the residents were Deliriums own flesh and blood who fell pray to their own insanity, while the others were ponies who accidentally traveled into her domain, something of which she doesn't take kindly too.
As she skipped down the endless pathways. Delirium walked up to one of her neighbors who was rolling on the ground in a deep laughing fit. Just watching this stallion caused her to begin laughing as well. She loved seeing others in a good mood. It made her happy as well. "Whats wrong Sir Gigglysnout? You know I love a good joke."
"Oh, I have no joke madam, I've just happened to forget that I forgot what I've forgotten." Sir Gigglesnout said bursting out into another laughing fit, this time Delirium joining in with him.
Sir Gigglesnout was a vibrant blue stallion with a gold mane and crazy emerald eyes that burned with insanity. Sir Gigglesnout wasn't always his name, his name used to be something normal, but over the countless years that have passed, he had long since stopped trying to figure it out, so he, like everypony else in this place was given one by Delirium. He didn't mind, though, he didn't mind at all.
Finishing her laughing fit, Delirium sat down on the ground next to Sir Gigglesnout. "Hey Gigglesnout, have you seen the new pony around anywhere? I've be looking for him everywhere, but he's stuck to the shadows like Ice cream on a hot summer day...wait...no...that's the wrong expression." She said laying on her back and kicking her feet into the air.
Sir Gigglesnout placed his finger to his lips and brought Delirium closer. "Shhh...It's all hush, hush."
"How hush, hush are we talking about?" Delirium asked putting her her sneaky face.
"Very." Sir Gigglesnout said giggling to himself.
"How about I pay in one joke?" Delirium asked poking him with her elbow.
"Pay me two and I'll tell you."
With a loud POP! Delirium took off her arm and slapped Sir Gigglesnout over the head and popped it back in her socket. "You'll only get one good sir! Now take it or leave it."
Rubbing the back of his head, he sighed. "You drive a hard bargain Mama Bear, but I just looove your jokes! Tell me! Tell me!"
"Ahem!" Delirium said clearing her throat. "Why did the chicken cross the road?"
"Oh! Oh! I know this one. To pay his taxes!"
"Nope! To get to the other side!"
Sir Gigglesnout burst out laughing. "It's so simple it's hilarious." He yelled as tears began to stream from his eyes. "It's still as funny as the first ten times you told it to me."
"Of course, it is. Everything is funny when I tell it." Delirium giggled.
"You've never told a lie. Alright, a deals a deal. The new pony is somewhere where bubbles blow themselves." Sir Gigglesnout snickered.
Delirium slapped her forehead as a result. "That's literally everywhere! Argh!" Delirium pouted. "Can't you give me another hint?"
"Okay, okay. The new pony is located near the reverse fountain."
"Ohhh! I know exactly where he is. Thanks Sir Gigglesnout. May your laughter be ever glorious." Delirium said giving her friend a fake salute and hopping back onto her feet.
The reverse fountain was a strange anomaly in which the water that flows within it is strawberry milk and the milk flows upward. It's usually one of Deliriums favorite places to go. How did she overlook this spot? She would never know.
Quick Thought kneeled over as he tried to catch his breath. How did he ever get in this mess? Probably his lust for knowledge, that could be the reason or maybe it was that gypsy mare who sold him that ancient tome, maybe it was her fault. Quick Thought didn't know anymore. His thoughts didn't feel like his own anymore. What was happening to him or in fact where the hell was he?
Everything was so strange here. The ponies were all mad in one form or another, the geography blended against physics and reality. Things that shouldn't exist did, and things that should exist did as well. This place contradicted itself. Quick Thought was losing his mind here. As he walked through the maze he found himself at the base of a fountain. He didn't even care, he quickly rushed over to it and began to drink. He quickly spitted it out upon figuring out that what he was drinking wasn't water but strawberry milk. "Oh gods, what is this?" Quick Thought whispered.
"All around the devilish maze, the stalker chased the bandit. The stalker thought it was all in fun... BOO!! Goes the Stalker!!!" Delirium said scaring Quick Thought right into the fountain. "Ohh, Do you like it? It's strawberry milk. It's my favorite."
Jumping out of the fountain Quick Thought began to back away from Delirium.
"Oh Celestia! Not You!" Quick Thought yelled.
"Yes, Me! You called for a god, you weren't being specific enough." Delirium pouted. "Or perhaps were you looking for a sexy goddess?"
"Where am I?" Quick Thought demanded.
Delirium shrugged her shoulders. "Even I don't know how to navigate this place. It's always changing, it's so stupid. I got lost looking for you." She said pulling a dandelion flower from out of her ear and sniffing it.
"What do you mean? You live here don't you?"
Delirium shrugged her shoulders again. "Remembering is too hard, but forgetting is so much easier." She said shoving the dandelion into her mouth and taking a huge chop out of it.
"What are you talking about?"
"Or better yet. What are you doing here? This is the domain of those born from insanity. So you must have some form of insanity to trespass correct?" Delirium asked raising an eyebrow.
"My name is-"
"I know what your name is." Delirium said growing increasingly more annoyed. "It's hard not to know you name. Your name is printed all over your mind and it's annoying me. Names are so boring, but I do remember asking you a question. A fairly simple question if I do say so myself." She said letting out a silent yawn, before holding her head in pain. "Ouch." She said as a headache began to form. "Now, let me ask you again. Why are you here?"
"I-I was on a search for madness. No, that's not right. I meant to say knowledge." Quick Thought said shaking his head.
"You had it right the first time. Knowledge is a product of madness, or was madness a product of knowledge? Two halves of the sma e coin, coin wouldn't you say?"
"I suppose."
"Well, I'm afraid to tell you this, but you'll find no knowledge here, only madness. Pure and utter madness."
"Then take me home. I-I don't want to be here!"
There is no leaving this place. Not for you at least. I don't take kindly to those who trespass into my home...Ouch!" She said placing her hand on her head once more.
"Holy Celestia, your Delirium aren't you? The Mad Goddess?"
"Were you expecting someone different?"
"What are you going to do to me?" Quick Thought asked.
Nothing really. You've done it to yourself, I'm sure you can feel it. That alien sensation that's crawling its way into your head. " Delirium smiled, as she place her hands on Quick Thoughts temples, pulling him closer as she spoke. "Madness is like a disease, an incurable one to be exact. Everyone has their tipping point which kick starts their descent into the abyss. Trauma is a great motivator for madness, but I would say the concept of knowledge would be yours." Quick Thought began to hear a strange buzzing within the depths of his head. It was extremely annoying at first, but it quickly became a pleasant and almost blissful feeling. "You came here in search of knowledge, and I shall grant you that wish. Look into my eyes and embrace dementia."
For a moment Quick Thought's mind was empty, almost painfully so, until a rush of information was poured into his brain. All knowledge Delirium deemed accessible was dumped into his tiny mortal mind. Trillions of years worth of information and secrets was sent through him like a jolt of lightning.
As a response Quick Thought tried to scream out in pain but only a small whimper could be heard. His body tried to convulse, but nothing happened. In a split of a second everything was force fed into his mind. Just a tip of what true knowledge she truly possessed, and as a result Quick Thoughts eyes rolled into the back of his head.
He slumped downward to his knees, with his head facing upward and drool leaking from his mouth. Witnessing how truly brain dead he was, Delirium broke into a maniacal chuckle. "Oops! I think I broke him." She said giggling some more. "
It was safe to say that today was truly something. Giving Granny Smith three days seemed like a long enough time to set things straight with her family.
You didn’t know why but you smiled for some odd reason. You had a feeling that the Apple Family was strong. You could tell that the death of Granny Smith would only cause them to grow closer to one another.
Of course they would be shaken up by such an event, but you had faith they would be able to pull through.
You let out a huge yawn, one of the biggest you’ve had since becoming mortal. Being tired was a pleasant, yet troubling feeling. Pleasant in a sense that you knew that sleep was right around the corner, but troubling because you felt vulnerable, while in this state.
As you sat on the warm grass, you began to watch as the sun began to set. It as still as beautiful as it was all those years ago, back during the war. You were glad to know that something’s haven’t changed over the course of a few billion years. “Beautiful sunset sister. It is just as good as when you first created it.” You thought. You didn’t know if she could hear your horrible attempt to contact her telepathically, but it didn’t hurt to try.
You soon began to feel a small vibration in the back of your mind. “Thank you, brother. It’s always nice to hear that ponies still enjoy my sunsets. Also, I see you’re finally able to speak telepathically now.” Celestia replied to you.
“Yeah, I just thought about doing it. I wasn’t even sure I could make it through to you.”
You could hear Celestia mumble something before she began to talk to you again. “Well, it worked didn’t it? I guess I don’t have to send you anymore letters now will I?”
You shook your head. “No. I’d prefer if you continued anyway. Talking like this is tiring, since I’m using magic to keep the call going instead of just willing it to happen.”
“Oh, I see. No wonder I can’t see you clearly. My mind is only showing fuzz.”
“Sorry Celestia. My powers aren’t returning as fast as I happened it would.”
“Don’t worry about it brother. Take your time. Now if you’ll excuse me. I have to get ready for bed.”
“I still can’t believe you are willingly going to sleep.”
Celestia chuckled. “It’s refreshing and it kills time, something of which we have a lot of.”
“I suppose. I’ll leave you to your own devices then. Good night, Celestia.”
“Good night.”
That truly did take a lot out of you. Letting out one good sigh, you began to stretch. You listened as a few of your joints began to pop in response to how stiff your body was.
You couldn’t help but fantasize about how comfortable your bed was going to be when you got home.
As you watched the sunset, a memory of the distant past began to surface. You remembered when Celestia first created the sun. Like that of a child who had hidden away something out of fear of being caught, Celestia hid away her creation from everyone but you. As the older brother she consulted you about whatever she did, and this feat was like no other. Unable to fully control her power, Celestia created a Red Giant by accident, but that didn’t mean it was any less beautiful.
“This is magnificent.” You said purely awestruck by this work of art.
Celestia began to blush. “Oh, please, you’re just saying that in order to make me feel better about myself.”
“No, I’m not. I mean it. This is truly magnificent.” You said touching the huge ball of fire. There was a sizzling sound accompanied by you wincing in pain.
“Careful it’s hot.” Solestia said, pulling you away from the red giant.
Celestia was not always not always her name.. She had gone by another name a long time ago which used to be Solestia, but she reincarnated into another form and changed her name. By Twilight’s time she has only lived through two incarnations.
“Dully noted.” You smirked while rubbing your hand. “I really do mean it though. I don’t think even I could create something like this.” You said causing her to blush even more. It wasn’t like you lacked the power; it was more on the side that you lacked the creativity to create anything. Fighting a never ending war against beings who should’ve never existed doesn’t have a place for creativity.
“Well, I’m glad you liked it.” Solestia puffed.
Noticing a change in her voice, your brotherly instincts began to kick in. “So are you going to tell me what’s the matter or are we going to have to play twenty questions?”
“It’s nothing, it’s stupid, and you’ll probably just laugh at me.” Solestia said looking a bit crestfallen.
You began to frown. You kneeled over and placed a hand on your little sister’s shoulder. “Solestia, I know I haven’t been showing you much attention lately since I’ve been focusing all of my time on the war effort, but I need you to understand that you can trust me. When you and the others were born I made you a promise that I would intend to keep until the day I die. Do you remember what that promise was?”
“You promised us that you would always be our older brother.” Solestia said with a small smirk.
“That’s right, so what type of brother would I be if I laughed at something that is important to you? We’re siblings and as the older brother I should be able to deliver council to those who are younger than me. Now tell me what’s wrong.”
Solestia inhaled slightly. “What if they don’t like it?” She whispered.
“What?”
“What if they don’t like it?!” She yelled.
“Oh, you’re talking about everyone else. What about them? Who cares about what they think.”
“I do!” She yelled out in a near fit. She then sighed and shook her head. “I wanted to create something beautiful, but how does this compare to Forever’s universe? This is minuscule compared to her creation.”
You began to frown. “Think of it this way, when Forever created the universe was there much change at all?” You asked taking your sister away from her star and showing her the vast emptiness that was space. Everything was dark and empty. “Now what do you see?” You asked.
“The same as we have always seen.”
“Exactly! Now let’s get a little bit closer. Now what do you see?
“I see a small tinkle in the distance. Almost like a sparkle.”
“Yes! That’s your sun Solestia. You brought that large ball of fire into this vast emptiness and created something that could combat the darkness that we’re all accustomed too. While it’s small compared to Forever’s creation, but to me I see hope. I don’t know why, but I feel like there can be beauty even in all of this carnage, but like I said this is only my opinion and it may not mean much coming from-“
You were cut off by Solestia, who had pulled you into an affectionate hug. “No, thank you. It means a lot to me. I’m going to keep making more suns, all types and colors, just for you. I’ll bring light to our bleak environment.” She said with a spark in her eyes that showed creativity and passion.
“Don’t do if for me. Do it because you want too, do it because it makes you feel good when you create works of art. It doesn’t matter if we don’t like it; all that matters is whether or not you like it.”
“Thanks Death, I’m going to get started right away. The next star I create it’s going to be named after you.”
“Oh yeah? What are you going to call it?”
“The Death Star!” She giggled.
“Please don’t.”
Your relationship with Celestia has always been a good one. You rarely, if ever got into any conflicts with her. You maintained this relationship with her between both of her incarnations and between both of yours.
Sitting here on this soft warm grass was a pleasure. You didn’t know how long you were here, but you felt a small presence to your immediate right.
When you turned to look, you found yourself staring into eyes of orange mare with Aqua colored eyes and red/yellow mane. You watch as her mouth curled into a frown. “It appears I’m already too late.” She said referring to the sunset which she had just missed. Her expression show one of disappointment, but she slowly began to perk up upon seeing that she wasn’t alone. “Was it at least good?” She said without really addressing you.
“Yes, it was. It was as beautiful as it is everyday.” You admitted.
The mare cracked a small smirk. “That’s good. Glad to see that some things haven’t changed in the world yet.” She said hiding away the sadness in her voice. “My name is sunset shimmer, who are you? I don’t think I remember you being in this town before. Did you just move here?” You nodded your head. “Then you must be Letum.”
“Yes, I am. May I ask how you know my name?”
“A certain pink pony has been blabbing it to everypony in town.” Sunset said with a sigh.
So pinkie has been the one who has been spreading your name around, you knew it was a small town but with Pinkie telling everyone who you were, she was causing word to travel a lot faster than expected. It wasn’t like that was a bad thing, but it did make you feel a little unsettled if it meant that literally everyone in the whole town knew your name.
“Why am I not surprised?” You said shaking your head. “So do you live in this town too?”
Sunset Shimmer shook her head. “No, but judging by how much trouble this town gets into, I can’t help but wish I did. I actually live in Cantorlot. Have you ever been there before?”
“Yes, I have. My sisters live there.”
“You mean Princess Celestia and Luna, right? Now that I see it you guys really do resemble each other. ”
“I can’t see how. We’re not related by blood.”
“No. You three have that similar aura, that’s so godly and weird, Twilight’s like that as well. I guess that feeling comes with being an alicorn then.” She said shrugging her shoulders. “Too bad I’ll never know the feeling…”
“Would you like to be an alicorn?” You asked.
Sunset Shimmer began to chuckle at the thought of her becoming an Alicorn. “Me? A Goddess? Last time that happened I almost killed somebody…” She said almost whispering to herself. “You make it sound like you can just it around like a title.”
“Technically I can. I have the authority being one of the oldest and most power, but I can’t because I don’t have enough power to grant the status.”
“I figured. So tell me, how does it feel being the God of Death?” She said putting air quotes around your title.
“It was a tiring job with little to no rewards. I was in charge of creating strange, creative, and elaborate ends for mortals. After causing their deaths I would take their soul and take them to the afterlife, but right now that position has been taken by my Grandson.”
“So, you’re the ponyfication of all deaths in the universe, correct?”
You nodded your head. “Correct. For as long as I live, there will always be death within the universe.”
“So if I were to kill you, would mortals such as me be unable to die?”
“Good question. No, it’s nigh-impossible for me to die. As long as there is one living thing in the universe, I will always exist. I will be the only one of my siblings to live until the end, and then some if I play my cards right.” You said imagining the future years you’re going to have to experience later on.
“What do you mean?” Sunset asked.
“Alright, let me show you this way.” Said opening up your robe and pulling out what looked like an hourglass, which held Sunset Shimmers name at is base.
“Is that my-”
“Hourglass? Yes, it is. Every being that has ever been born has an hourglass that predates your time of death as soon as you were born. Even I have one, but on a much larger scale with much more sand depicting centuries instead of minutes.” You said thinking back to how much sand you have in your hourglass right now. “While most mortals have complete control over the choices that are presented to them in their lives, I ultimately chose when and where a mortal will die, by either adding time,” You said grabbing the dirt from off of the ground and converting it into sand so that you could add some more time to her lifespan. “Or by taking some away.” You said taking the amount you just poured in, out.
“That must be a pretty neat power. Controlling who lives and who dies.” She said sounding as if she was criticizing you for it.
You placed the hourglass back into your robe. “You mortals do this all the time. Adding and subtracting each others time from your own hourglasses just by doing the most average of chores.”
“For every action there is a reaction.”
“Exactly.”
“So how much time do I have left or is that a secret you can’t share with me?” She asked raising her eyebrow.
“Sorry, I would tell you but I didn’t really pay attention.”
“It’s alright. Maybe it was for the best, no one should know when their going to die. My old mentor told me that certain things should not be shared with mortals. I assume our deaths are one of them.”
You nodded your head as you began to stand back on your feet. “Whoever told you that was a wise pony. What was your mentors’ name?” You asked growing an interest.
Sunset formed a small smile on her face. “It’s your sister, Celestia.”
You let out a sigh. “Figures.” While at first you never thought that Celestia would be the type to take on a protégée, so you couldn’t help but a feel a bit surprised when you found out that Twilight Sparkle was her student as well as Sunset Shimmer as well. “Wait, does that mean that you and Twilight are friends?”
Sunset scoffed as she turned to face the moon that had now appeared. “Friends, no. Not even close. We weren’t really students at the same time since I was eleven when she was five and I guess you can’t really call us rivals either. Our relationship is nonexistent.” She said lowering her head to a down as if she was in deep thought. “It’s just a prisoner and her jailer.” She whispered so low that even you almost didn’t hear her.
“What?”
“Nothing.” She said letting out a sigh. Something had been bothering her, you wanted to ask her about her story but you realized that it was neither the time nor the place. “It’s been nice meeting you, but I have to get back home. I don’t want my roommate to get too worried about me. I really enjoyed our talk. I hope we can talk again some time.” She said while shaking your hand and turning around in order to walk away. You offered to walk her home but she refused. “Don’t worry about me, I was a student of Princess Celestia, I think I can handle myself.” She said with a small chuckle as she walked away from you. Taking her word for it you decided it was time for you to go home as well.
You woke up the next morning feeling vigorous and refreshed. Zeal had waking you up with a light gentle tap and a mention of your name. She was already dressed and looked as though he had been awake for quite some time. “Are you as excited as I am?” he asked as he sat parallel from you on his bed.
Today was the day that you and Zeal were going into the forest looking for the artifact that Dodgy Trader was so pressed to find. Excitement wasn't really the emotion that you were feeling right at that moment. It was more of a combination between uncertainty and curiousness. You wondered about the true nature of this artifact and how much power it held. You also wondered that upon finding such artifact would you actually allow it into the hands of mortals if its power is deadly.
Sitting up from the bed you expressed your thoughts to Zeal and wondered where was his place on the matter. He mentioned that at first he didn't even think about the consequences of such an artifact being in someone else's hands. Is pure motivation for taking the job was money and adventure, but after hearing your thoughts on the matter he decided that the two of you needed to be careful in deciding the fate of the artifact. “I like money as much as the next guy, but if that artifact has any sort of ancient power to it its always good to be cautious.” Zeal remarked.
You spent part of the morning preparing yourself by either getting dressed or conversing with your other roommate such as Spike and Twilight. He caught the young spike downstairs in the kitchen making a fresh bowl of gems for you and him to eat for breakfast. For some reason he wasn't really in a talking mood but he remained polite and wished you a good morning. Knowing that not everyone is a morning person you didn't take his rudeness to heart and simply nodded head and went to find Twilight.
You found Twilight in her usual spot reading from a colorful book. You smiled at the fact that she didn't always read large textbooks that either taught magical spells or old history. This book had quite a few pictures in it indicating that must've been for children.
“Good morning Twilight.” You spoke softly not really wanting to disturb her from her book.
“Good morning to you too, Letum. Did you sleep well last night?” Twilight replied.
You gave her a small smirk as you nodded your head. “Yes madam I did.” She returns the smile and wondered if Ponyville was everything to your liking. You expressed a certain happiness towards the town and told her that you couldn't really didn’t any bad points to the town. Due to the fairness of the town it seemed pretty well established and was an ideal place to live.
Twilight smiled warmly. “Trust me you're only saying that now. While Ponyville is by all means a wonderful town. We've been going through a bit of a dry spell around here. Weird things always happen in this town just not recently.” Closing her book, Twilight decided to tell you about a few of her misadventures during the course of her time in town.
She retold her a story from a few years ago which involved the town almost being destroyed due to the pride of the other pony named Trixie who thought that she and Twilight had some sort of rivalry going on about who was the better unicorn. “Trixie lied about how she had defeated an ursa major that was attacking Hoofington. Her biggest “fans” Snips and Snails went into the forest, intending to find an ursa major and lead it back to Ponyville, hoping to see her defeat it.” Twilight sighed but a slow wry smile appear on her face. “Trixie panicked and the Ursa Minor began rampaging through part of the town. Luckily I was nearby and I was able to spell which allowed me to lull the bear with a lullaby. After I made it tired I began soothing it with a gigantic container of cow milk and send it back to its mother.”
You had to admit messing with a creature such as a Ursa Minor was idiotic at the least. They were luck that the mother, The Ursa Major, hadn’t been aware of it’s missing child and came to look for it. If so, Twilight theorized that most of the town would have been destroyed if not all of it.
“How did you know which spell to use to calm the Ursa Minor?” You asked while sitting across from her. “That hardly seems like a spell Celestia would have taught you. It almost has no real value in the world of magic.”
Twilight gave you a knowing smile. “Most ponies feel that way, but I like to think that all knowledge is relevant no matter how irrelevant or crucial it may seem.” You could understand why she thought that way, in fact you supported such a way of thinking. Having a drive for knowledge is always vital if you want to make it somewhere in life.
You informed her that you indeed share her beliefs. She was happy to hear that you did, but you knew more than anyone about the dangers of attaining too much knowledge and you didn't hesitate to inform the young mare that her quest could easily blind and/or corrupt her like so many ponies before.
Suddenly Twilight expression darkened and her tone suggested that she was indeed serious. “I understand the risk of what I learn. I'm no longer a child thinking that the magic and secrets I learn would put me in the graces of the Princess. The things I learn is for the good of all Equestria.”
You silently nodded your head, expressing that you understood what she was saying. However, you did not fully agree. The quest for knowledge leads to a thirst for power and that thirst always leds one thing.
You continue to your cold smile not letting her see your annoyance. “You’re not as different as you think.” You thought to yourself feeling almost sad.
There was an awkward tension between the two of you that neither one of you wanted to admit.
Eventually Spike came into the room with breakfast and slowly the tension began to fade.
Zeal had eventually came downstairs and joined you. You all spent your morning casually chatting with each other, all the while trading funny or interesting stories.
As you shared a few good laughs with your friends you couldn't help but feel a growing pain itch it's away from the depths of your mind. You try not to worry about it, but the consistent nagging sensation was really starting to irritate you.
Zeal had noticed you're agitated state and slightly narrowed his eyes at you. “Are you alright? You're not looking too good.”
You shook your head and inform them that you were having a headache that was growing slightly more painful as two seconds roll by.
Both Spike and Zeal appeared to be rather worried about this. You wanted to tell them that you were alright but the strain on your face gave them no closure. Zeal made a joke about how eating gems for the last few days has probably been the cause of it but you didn't laugh.
Twilight snapped her fingers most likely doing it without realizing that it annoyed you in the process. “I think I have a spell for headaches. What type of headache is it?” She asked.
You explain to her that the pain was around the back of your neck and there was a significant pressure around your temples making you feel as though you couldn't even complete one thought without a pulse of pain interrupting you
Twilight’s horn glowed her traditional color as she tapped your forehead. Her spell delivered the desired result as your headache slowly began to fade away. The pulsing after a few moments of bringing pain each time your heart had happened to produce a beat, had finally started to die down and within five minutes you were fine.
“How are you feeling now?” Twilight asked as she sat back down in her chair.
“I feel better now thanks.” You answered holding back a small sigh.
“Have you been having these headaches recently?” You nodded your head. “Ever since you woke up from being a statue?” You nodded your head once again. “Interesting.”
You figured that she was thinking of some magical spell involved with your headaches. You had a feeling she might be able to find the root of the problem and eliminate it. However, you didn't want her poking around inside your head. there were too many secrets and too much knowledge that you didn't want coming into the light.
You wanted to ask her about this new spell she was probably in the middle of thinking about, but before you can get a word out there was a knock at the door. spikes was the first to get up. you figured he was used to being Twilight's little servant boy so he was the one to open up the door.
He had a smile on his face so you knew that it was somepony he had known. As the pony walked in you realized that it was Dodgy Trader and he still had that same shifty smile on his face.
