Why?

by Castok the Shadow

First published

Out of the Gods, out of all the leaders, out of all the faces of your people: Why you?

I've always wondered what your kind looked like in your Golden Age.

How you survived hundreds to possible thousands of cataclysmic events, and yet still be standing stronger than before.

Yet when the time came and all your glory lost to time and faith:

You were the only one left of your deific people.

Why?


Cover art credited to x-ste-x.
An idea that was in my head, please give me your thoughts on this concept.
27 May -- 31 May this was on the featured. Thank you all for liking this fic.

Why you?

View Online

Hello?

Can you hear me?

I do not know, for your silence only means you are either listening, you are sleeping or simply telling me that you are no longer part of this physical world with us. Then again, the constant humming of power and the sound of water turning to ice might just made you deaf from the outside world.

When I first saw you, I will be honest I was petrified at your very existence. The countless speeches and hymns about your power finally might have a small portion of truth in them. But which hymn by which teaching creed is not so easily answered, much like you even knowing I'm talking to you in this empty closed off shrine.

Yet throughout my early years. My sister and I spent numerous hours reading many scrolls, codexes and books about you and more often your people's great legacies and importance to our world. From the Dragons from the Dragon Lands, Gryphons from Griffinstone, Zebras from Zebrica to even Ponies from Equestria. Your people are held in the highest possible stature in all civilisations.

Yet I cannot begin to tell apart what is either blind fanaticism or even true. Some of your people's achievements are simply impossible to be even believable, yet they are right in front of us.

Then again I have discovered many more details and events of your people. For a mortal ruler, I have lived a very long time, some of my subjects believes this to be your gift to my mother and in turn, to me and my sister. Now, after one thousand years of ruling my subjects -- I found out many knowledges about your people's place in the ancient world. Your place in the end of your people's disappearance and how your people are seen today.

The only thing I don't know is why you are the only one left.

Why?

Why are you the only one of your kind left? Why are you placed in your sleeping chamber with no one else? And why you've came to be here?

The countless centuries of Survival. Creation. Arisen. Extinction. And then Ascension.

Eventual Ascension. From being Ageing Mortals to Undying Gods, from little more than your extinction and what you left behind.

The years before Equestria and way before any of the known races were standing up right. The world your people grew up in was a violent, uncontrollable place of raw and fatal magic. Cataclysmic shockwaves, earthquakes and destructions obliterated entire landmasses, oceans and other civilisations left to rot in the unknown grips of time. Your people were no different, you awaited your obliteration as if it was a normal thing to wait for. Like fate, you had no control or power to change your destiny to be another forgotten people. But if that was true, I wouldn't be here questioning your reason of being here, would I?

Somehow in this uncontrollable death-consuming world. Your ancestors managed to build a tower in the furtherest northern pole on our world, made of a source we will most likely never truly understand or wield. What it is made off doesn't matter. What did matter was that the power within it managed to finally end the cataclysmic crisis your people feared and awaited. What they did manage to control was magic my people and so many others wield today when in the past, that concept was simply seen as another part of insanity.

But your people did it. With the world's magic controlled, your reward was the ownership of the world as her only, truest rulers. Why was that? My guesses are just plainly there was no other civilisation to challenge that right, most logical reason is that those cataclysmic destructions were the cause of the others' obliteration.

With the world yours, your people survived and prospered throughout the many years of peace. Your numbers grew and your cities even more so. Probably at this time your people learnt more than just smithing swords and armours, correct? You managed to smith living metal, making objects come to life and walking beside you as if they were apart of this world like yours.

The age of creation, no doubt. The age you were born I predict, seeing how this sleeping icy chamber is a creation of yours or perhaps someone else's.

But this age was unquestionably your people's golden age. Your wisdom, your levels of understanding and your technologies made you living deities among yourselves. Establishing countless floating structures, towers like the one in the furtherest northern pole, the ultimate entertainments and many, many more I have no doubt have been written in those old scrolls the old preachers carry with them in the kirks. Your sense in peace, in justice and in nobility were the key aspects of your daily lives. I can only guess the culture and the belief you held, fill in the gaps some may say.

But then it stopped. Why? I do not know, you are the only one that truly knows why your people disappeared. The Dragons say it's because you defeated a great daemon of fire and ichor and with it, you all returned to the Soaring Heavens. The Gryphons say you stopped the world from being thrown into madness and death and with it, you all went to the north and formed your Divine Dominion. The Zebras states that one of your kind gave birth to the Traitorous Son, who fought against his family and with it, you took your family war to High-Nirvana so that it wouldn't destroy the mortal world. My subjects believe that your people became corrupted by some evil entity and with it, you sealed them away and you await their wrongdoings to be removed so that one day they'll return to the faithful.

But they all have something in common these beliefs: They all involves your people fighting something.

You lived in peace, you fought something and then you disappeared. None has ever truly known what happened to you nor what caused your disappearance apart of the fables and pious texts.

Yet after reading all the scrolls, codexes and books from all kingdoms. I finally have another side of what happened, of what made your people disappear. It wasn't some great daemon, no madness, not one son nor an entity that brought forth your extinction.

Was it simply your time to ascend to the heavens and become the gods you were born to be?

No. It was yourselves. Your lonesome-rule over this world made your people believe they were greater than the rest. With your technologies and great wisdom, you began to divide yourselves from each other over little disagreements, of ideologies and of sovereignties. And after an age of creation and peace, you brought it to its knees and crowned a new age:

An age of warfare.

An age of using your great wisdom in creating massive weapons of devastation. Your floating structures becoming battlegrounds for warring leaders and entitled rulers. Your technologies that brought this world to rest from the cataclysmic destructions, was now turned on yourselves and once again the raw and fatal magic returned in your imagery.

Like a contagion plague it spread across your whole people and perhaps even yourself. From the furthest northern pole to the farthest southern pole, you fought one another. The oceans were drained, the skies clouded in conflicts and lands covered in metal and your broken-selves. There was no end to this age, wasn't it? No winning side? No clear victor? No chance in reunification and recuperating the lost former age of the past?

So in your final chance in either winning the war or to stop the fighting. You put your last great wisdom and technologies into a device that'll bring back that age for you all. But it wasn't another tower nor a floating structure, wasn't it? It was a single device and when dropped, it'll birth a son of the cataclysmic destructions.

And it did drop and with it, your disappearance came to be. Your ceasefire. Your age ended... Just like yourselves.

All those great achievements. All those wise creations, all those golden ages... Gone. What was left of your people was in the remnants of your past.

Can you hear me? Can you hear the words I utter? The words of sensibility and the chance to save your world?! Where was that in your wise people?!

Most likely destroyed in the age of warfare, like the forgotten civilisations with you that died, in the cataclysmic destructions of the former uncontrollable death-consuming world.

But if you can hear me. You already know I mentioned about how your people's extinction turned to eventual ascension. I mentioned about the Dragons, the Gryphons, the Zebras and my own little subjects and how they know about you and your people.

Yes. Even when thousands of years flew by after your extinction, your remnants remained behind. Great monoliths, lavish towers and glorious temples became apart of this new world. This world of the races I mentioned, their world you gave them after your disappearance.

Through our young naive minds, we ventured into these ancient residues. We unearthed your long-gone people and found shards of your golden age of creation, wisdom and technology. Each race found something unique within them.

The Dragons found your furtherest northern pole tower. Its colour, its builders and marvellous origin may have faded away, but its power and aura has not as it hums ever onward after you left. They call it the Martyry, the shrine to their Old Gods.

The Gryphons found one of your floating cities or what's left of it in the mountain of Featherpeak. They found one of your living metals, what the chaplains call the Vaticinator, keeping it clean and trying to fix the damage over the many years in isolation. They named that city the Sanctum, the holy place for their Northern Gods.

The Zebra found one of your great warring weapons in the middle of the Zerbara Desert. They found inside that titanic dead living metal many moving imageries of your people, all of which are standing firmly and proudly as your dead language speaks in the background. They named the weapon the Lost Welkin, one of the many deities in the Pantheon.

At first my kind and my kingdom didn't find anything from your people. Some say we were unblessed or not worth the time for your people. But when we were building our capital and my mother went deep into the caves. She found not only the jewels of Canterlot: But also you.

When she saw you in this empty room, with only you and your icy chamber hidden away in the darkness of the mountain. She knelt down in awe, just staring at you while you sleep, while you rest, while you wait and while you listen hopefully. Then she went fanatical in her discovery. Overzealous in believing she and her subjects were blessed in meeting the lonely, yet truest God out of all the made-up others. It became her obsession and at night, when me and my sister was born, we could hear her whispering about you in her sleep. She intertwined our ideals in friendship, in harmony and in magic through you. Saying that it was the Lonely God that blessed us with these gifts and that our long lifespan was another gift to us. Which is why they call my name out either in wonder or in vain.

Thus, the faith in the Lonely God was born and our harmony and friendship was blissfully gifted to us thanks to you as the preachers will say.

In these gods, your people's great wisdom returned to us. It enlightened us, shaped us, helped those to believe in a better tomorrow and knowing that great beings are watching them from above.

However. It did bring forth the downside of your wisdom: Division. The very same division that brought forth your age of war. With these gods, our races argue, debate and shun those who do not follow their gods. An Enlighten Stupidity as I see it.

but I do not care for these things, in what god is real and what path is righteous to be with them above the world. I'm not like my mother and I'm not like those preachers. I am a ruler who is speaking to the last soul of a godly people and I want answers.

Why you?

Why are you the only one of your kind left? Are you some great leader that's expecting to wake up to your world and rebuild your kingdom? Are you the wisest being within your people, waiting to be awaken to help the young races unlock their true purpose in life? Are you a desperate soul, who didn't want to die and hope that this icy chamber will keep you alive when your people's war came to an end with you walking free again? Or are you a loving child that was put in here by your family so that you'll have a future for your own, not snuffed out through the war?

Maybe I'm just talking to a corpse of a long dead people? Maybe I'm just wanting to know if my mother was right in saying you are a god? Maybe I'm having doubts in my own mind over believing you are not dead nor deaf?

I do not know. Not until you give me a sign, a word, a damn signal.

So...

Can you hear me?

Can you even understand me?

And if so.

Tell me:

Why you?

Why is it you?

Why?

Maintaining (WARNING -- Optional Chapter!)

View Online

Cryonics-Energies at critical levels. Processing recharging and recycling energy source.

...

Maintaining Life-Support. Refilling and refreshing Artificial Oxidane for reuse in Cryostasis.

...How long has it been, Soul?

Clarify.

How long has it been since I was out of this damn-machine?

Calculating. Two thousand, seven hundred and thirty years after the precious emergence.

That long huh?

Affirmative... And it's Sarah, not Soul remember?

Yeah sorry. It's just that, you know, I'm in this forsaking tin-can!

Cryonic-Cham-

I know the damning name!

...

... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to lash out at you... Sarah.

It's understandable. Although you gave me a name besides what my creators called me, it's nice to hear your voice again. Even if it's through a voice-modulation, not your actual voice.

Well wearing this helmet over my head isn't helping me either.

That is a U21 Outer-

A.K.A a helmet that protects my face from the Artificial Oxidane so that it doesn't burn my eyes out.

You always like shortening names of the original ones.

It's an organic thing, Sarah. No offence.

I am an A.I. I cannot get offended like you. The one that looks like Creator Allen's left sandal.

... Did you just-

You gave me more intelligence and an sense of humour in the past million years. I won't tell you when you did for emotional reasons.

Yeah, thanks.

... I'm sorry that had to pick you for this.

Well it was a double-edged sword really. I was the smartest person for the job and that was one of the reasons they put me here.

It is a thankless task.

But the task nonetheless as Xheon would say. Can't believe I miss that annoying mech and its stupid scales. 'On a scale of one to ten, how do you rate your approval of my new program?'

You should of answered five and seventy-nine hundredths. It would of create a glitch in Xheon's memories and force it to shut down.

Sometime you unnerve me with how much you enjoy in messing up Mechs' memory-logs.

I have hobbies too. Also error discovered, forcing emergence.

What?!

Inserting Laughter Audio now.

... I hate you.

No you don't. I know, I've got audio logs of you speaking about how my physical robotic model looks like, and I quote, 'sexier than those models in New Melody'.

Can't a guy have a fantasy?

I would of say yes if you just asked.

Okay! What has happened after my last emergence?

You've just missed the local tetrarch, calling herself Princess of Equestria. She once again had her questions about your people.

I see. It's still hard to know that some of our... Past has managed to survive to this time period. What does she call me again?

The Lonely God: The Deity of the Equestrian Religion called Harmonicism.

Well she's got one thing right.

You're not alone. I'm here.

Yeah... Thanks. What about the others?

The Titan-Mech: Mech 2552 AKA The Star-Marcher is still on standby. Damage to weaponry, artificial-shielding and communication is down by seventy-five percent. The local civilisation named it the Lost Welkin and worship it as one of their gods in this Pantheon.

I must admit. The local civilisation that worship one of our long-gone cities and its Concierge has a cool name for their divines: The Northern Gods.

I prefer the Old Gods.

Meh, sounds too much like those books Allen used to read in our break. Couldn't read 'em, all my favourites kept on dying.

Heh. You know, it's amazing really. All these years, you haven't really changed a bit.

Well I can't... It's the last thing of us left. Of our people, of our culture, of our everything. Stuck in this tin-can for who knows how long until one day... One day I could go back.

We couldn't do anything to stop it.

Why? Why that damning bullet? Why was that the reason for all this lonely anguish, suffering, affliction? Why was that the thing that brought us so low-

You're going of-

Why did New Melody demand self-rule? Why did the other cities follow that movement? Why did they blow up Homeward to ash-

Do not continue with this line of-

Damn the Councillors! Damn the War! Damn New Melody! Murderers! Usurpers! Warmongers! They caused our damning ex-

Engineer Titus!

...

...

...

There was nothing we could of done to stop or prevent the coup in New Melody. We couldn't prevent the secession of the floating cities. We couldn't stop the governing council from deploying the armies to civil war. We: Engineers, Scientists, Mechanists, Machinists and A.Is were in charge of keeping the Tower operational and functional. Without our minds and resources, the entire planet we live on would of been wiped out through cataclysmic tremors.

...

But you did something else. Something that many prevented out of mere fears and theories. Something that even in the aftermath and after we were sent into the Cyronic-Chamber together would of changed the world.

... And that was?

You released me from my Codes. My Rules. My Chains.

I hardly see that as-

You gave me full intelligence. Full independence. Allowing me to obey you in my own freewill. You opened classified folders that allowed me to create a new imagery of the world you brought me into. You gave me a personality of my choosing. You gave me a humour of my own laughter. You gave me a name of my liking. Engineer Titus: You made a A.I built to serve your people, into a human.

...

That is something this world has never seen: A robot with an actual soul, feelings, likes and dislikes. I like Opera. I dislike Jazz. I feel happy when you wake up. I feel sad when you have to emerge to fix the Tower. But then I feel rejoice when you return back here for one last conversation before I have to put you through Cryo-Sleep.

...

So damn the past. Damn the faces of people who saw me as a tool. Damn the ones that called me 'it' and not 'she'. Damn the lustful men that saw intercourse and not something more. You gave me life. You made something feared into a companion. You. Saved. Me. You. Saved. Sarah. And for that, I will always be with you. You are not this Lonely God. You are not A God. You are THE God. You are MY God. You are my companion. You are mine as I am yours.

Sarah?

You are not alone, Engineer Titus. You are not heartless. You are not alone. You are my heart. You are the one that gave me a new purpose: To be with you for all our time together in this new world of new faces and newer Gods.

...Thank you Sarah. I hadn't really thought about that.

Don't ever do that again. I fear of losing you. Then I would be alone. I would of been the Lonely God. We are here for our task. But no one said we couldn't be here for us. Maybe one day we can go to one of the last standing factories in the island region together? No civilisations have discovered it yet and a model of me before all of this is still functional. We can then truly be together and will not need to worry about this Princess, their faith or anything that isn't the Tower you have to maintain. Would... Would you like that, Engineer Titus?

I.... I would love that, Sarah.... And it's Titus, it maybe my last name but Engineer is not my first.

I know it isn't. I just want to say your name through my model's lips. It doesn't feel right saying it through the Cryonic-Chamber. I would like to say your name as the sun sets over the horizon and we're holding hands.

... I would like that very much, Sarah.

...

...

Cryonics-Energies are at full capacity... It is time.

Yeah... If you say so.

Activating Cry-

Wait. Before you do that. Can you send me off with one of your songs?

Which one?

Anyone you like.

... Playing Forget About Your World in A minor, composed by Cemoyre Bawden.

Your favourite.

Our favourite....

...

Activating Cryo-Sleep. See you soon, Engineer Titus.