The Divine Age

Canterlot Castle- Throne room

“This is outrageous! Why can’t we be granted the power those peasants of that new country have?!” a remarkably stuck up pony was shouting at Princess Celestia.

If it wasn’t for the fact that a majority of these nobles yelling at her were well known for their thirst for power, Celestia might have already banished pompous unicorn. A wisp of ash flew in to the court room and reconstructed itself as a letter.

Mail from Twilight? That's quite rare these days.Celestia thought. She broke the seal and read the letter, completely ignoring the indignant unicorn that was yelling at her.

“This is unacceptable! Not only do we not get the power we rightfully deserve, but even our own Princess ignores me to read a letter from some snot nosed peasant?!” the unicorn yelled in rage. Even Celestia’s tolerance wasn’t enough to deal with this pony, so she lit her horn and teleported the pony to Zebracia.

Luna came in through the large entrance to the throne room after feeling her sister banishing some noble to a far off place. She took a quick glance at the throne room and saw Celestia reading a letter on her throne, the guards as impassive as ever and a group of nobles quivering in fear on the floor before the thrones. She sighed as she made her way to her throne.

“Is a banishing spell really necessary, sister?” Luna asked as she sat in her throne.

“It wasn’t a banishing spell Luna, I just teleported the fop to Zebracia,” Celestia stated as she rolled her eyes. “And yes, I’ve been dealing with these ponies nonstop for the last two months. Even I don’t have patience for their whining anymore.”

“Are you sure you should be saying that in front of them?” Luna asked, looking at the now indignant nobles.

“We deserve that power!” they shouted. Celestia didn’t respond but motioned for the guards to take them away. The group was force out of the throne room, leaving only blissful silence. Celestia finished reading the letter and passed it to Luna.

☀☀☀

“I don’t believe the gall of the Princesses! Throwing US, the premier nobles of Canterlot, out of the throne room like common rabble!” a unicorn stallion ranted, his voice making the windows shake.
“Calm down Quite Loud. There’s something interesting happening in the throne room now,” a noble mare said and paid off the guards to let them spy. Quite settled down and cast his signature amplification spell. The nobles listened in to the meeting occurring.

☀☀☀

Dear Princess Celestia and Princess Luna,

This letter has been sent to inform you that the rulers of Aethereus will be visiting you shortly. Night, goddess of the void and Day, goddess of light. Night wishes to apologize for being the cause of Nightmare Moon incident and establish relations between Equestria and Aerthereus.

From your former student,

Twilight Sparkle, sub-regent of Aerthereus.

“Since when has Twilight been a sub-regent of a country of deities?” Luna asked.

“Since three months ago when Night reappeared and became her mate. Now we have to deal with Day as well,” Celestia put her head into her hands. “I’m not ready to deal with them again, not after last time.”

“Well yo-“ Luna started to say until a flash of light interrupted her.

When it died down, there stood two divinely gorgeous mares. There were few differences between the mares. Day was both the inversion and twin of Night, white fur, golden eyes with no signs of an iris or pupil, a rainbow mane that included white and non-visible colors, and golden instead of silver armor like her sister.

“Greetings Celestia, Luna,” Day greeted. Night just stood there impassively.

“Greetings Day, and hello to you too Night,” Celestia responded. Luna stared at Night, trying to not attack her for what she did, or rather didn’t do. Celestia continued, “What brings the manifestation of light and dark here today?”

“Right to the point as ever. Very well, my sister wishes to apologize and I wish to make you two my champions,” Day stated. This shocked both of the Princesses; Celestia was the first to regain her composure.

“Why do you wish for Luna and I to be your champions?” Celestia calmly asked.

“Other deities are making their own champions, or in the case of my sister, courts. Currently her court is being shared by Harmony, Discord, and myself. However Night is getting a bit annoyed and will told me and Discord to form our own,” Day said.

“What about Harmony?” Luna asked.

“As you know the girls were originally Harmony’s champions. I didn’t change much about the girls other than making them closer to the mares they wanted to be and loyal to me. So Harmony and I can share them,” Night answered.

“Closer to the mares they wanted to be?” Celestia inquired.

“Unlike Luna, my dream walking includes the ability to see the memories that made the dreams and access the life of the dreamer. I can live your entire life in a matter of moments,” Night explained. Celestia and Luna were shocked silent at the extent of Night’s powers. “I should also mention that Luna came close to this and was driven mad by it, resulting in Nightmare Moon.”

Was that the only reason?” Luna asked, her voice tinged with contained rage.

“No, that was only a small portion. The main reason was, your bond price very unstable due to the fact Night is darkness, and you represent light in the darkness. You were almost entirely incompatible and that resulted in many issues. Those compounded with the life walk my sister explained is what led to Nightmare Moon being born,” Day clarified.

“Sorry about that whole Eternal Night thing too. It was either that or let you get obsessed with genocide so you didn’t have to live those lives ever again,” Night added. Celestia realized just how much Night did for Equestria while Luna fumed at her inability to control her powers.

“Yes, well. Do you two accept my offer?” Day asked cutting into the sisters moping. They thought about it for a moment, trying to weight the pros and cons.

“May we ask what that would entail?” Celestia asked.

“Since you both are already powerful I won’t do a soul bond, instead I will place a blessing of sorts on you both, so there likely won’t be a price. The blessing will increase your affinity with your magic and unlock new powers. An example would be Luna’s dream walking coming close to Night’s life walk, but significantly weaker and therefore controllable. In your case Celestia, it may make your fire magic into plasma magic, much more focused and destructive. There may be other things but I think I made my point clear,” Day lectured.

The amounts of pros were outweighing the cons.

“What about drawbacks or responsibilities?” Luna inquired.

“The only thing I can think of is that you’ll be at Day’s beck and call, much like my court,” Night said.

The sisters considered this very hard for a few moments.
“Can we have more time to think about this?” Celestia finally asked.

“Of course, send the letter to Spike when you’ve decided. But I would like a response no later than a month if you can. Twilight’s experiment nearing completion and I want you two to be there for it,” Day replied.

The sisters nodded a black hole appeared behind the goddesses. They walked into the mass of gravity only for it to transform into a wormhole in the presence of massive power the goddesses were giving off. The royal sisters a big sigh as the portal shut.

“That was exhausting,” Celestia said tiredly.

“She barely apologized,” Luna muttered, crossing her arms and pouting.

“We’ll talk about this later, we have more petitions to listen to,” Celestia waved her hand and the next whining noble was brought in.

☀☀☀

“Those whorses just delayed a chance for ultimate power!” Quite Loud shouted. The guards didn’t like the nobles bad mouthing the Princesses and moved in to teach them a lesson. A green mare in the group quickly teleported the group to a roof top in the city.

“Thank you Lady Green Envy,” a unicorn stallion thanked and glared at Quite Loud. “As for you, what were you thinking shouting that in the castle?!”

Quite Loud shrank back. “But you heard it yourself, Black Justice! They wanted time to think about ultimate power!” the noble whined.

“They are the rulers of Equestria you dolt. Putting themselves under the rulers of another country would mean submitting the entire country to them,” a mare said.

“Quite right, Duchess Crescent,” a snooty stallion agreed.

“We should think about how we should get Day to make a soul bond with us instead of pointing blame, Lord Crust, Lady Crescent,” another stallion noble said.

“Well, it doesn’t have to be Day, there are many gods that I’m sure would aid us, the upper nobles of Canterlot!” a noble mare said.

“I do have the means of getting to Aethereus, but not the ability to get any of them to soul bond with me,” Lady Green said. the nobles instantly jumped on this.

“Please send us to Aethereus!” the rest of the group shouted at her.

“Oh very well, but do not expect it to be easy to get a deity to bond with you,” Green said as she teleported them to Aethereus. Green Envy smiled evilly as green fires consumed her from to reveal a green changeling. She looked to Canterlot Castle, “Soon, you will fall and I will take your place.”

☀☀☀

Aethereus Palace - Throne room

The current petitioner was Aeros, one of the younger gods that served under Wind. Rarity looked quite bored listening to his petition for more power so he could overpower the pegasi weather control over Equestria. Fortunately, before Rarity had to crush his tiny dreams, a wormhole opened up in the middle of the throne room and the two eldest goddesses strode out. Aeros immediately fled the presence of the two most powerful beings in the universe. Rarity got off her throne and bowed to her rulers.

“Relax Rarity, I know how stressful dealing with the petitioners are,” Night said. Rarity flopped back down on the throne.

“So many stupid requests… So many stupid laws and requests that deities of all things want to push forward…” Rarity dramatically sighed.

“Yes, this is the true burden of rulers. If so many knew, there would be none to take the position,” Day said wistfully.

“Anyway, we’re back now so you can goprepare for the meeting with the Dragon Lord, Rarity,” Night granted Rarity permission to leave. Rarity quickly thanked them and teleported to her room to prepare for Ember's visit.

“So sister, what should we do now?” Day asked.

“We sit and listen to dumb petitions, as we always have,” Night answered solemnly. They both sighed and their horns lit, summoning their thrones. They walked to them and sat on their respective thrones. Night waved her hand to bring the next petitioner in, the dragon guards opened the doors to begin the burden of rulers.

☀☀☀

Underworld of Aetherus – Meeting room of the Sins

The nobles poofed into the middle of a grand room seemingly underground. There was a grand door made of a black metal with flowing red designs decorating it. The group had no idea where Lady Green Envy had sent them.

"Where are we?!" Black Justice demanded. The nobles squabbled amongst themselves before a feminine cough caught their attention, what they saw when they turned around shocked them. There sat six deities in a semicircle looking at them.

The one on the furthest left looked almost like a gray minotaur statue, suited in armor. He was sitting in a crystal throne that seems to have grown around its arms and legs. The slowly blinking eyes and excoriatingly slow rise and fall of its muscular chest, confirmed it was a living being.

The next figure was likely a succubus, like all succubi her body was designed to attract the attention of the being looking at her. This led to many arguments over the looks of a succubus when multiple races looked at them. For ponies, she almost looked like Celestia except her figure was more voluptuous. Her mane and tail were light pink, while her eyes were red instead of magenta. Her cutie mark was a heart on fire and had a Venus symbol in the center. She sat in a pink loveseat wearing a rather provoking evening gown.

The third being was a boar, or at least the ponies thought it was a boar, it was far too thin to be a normal boar. The boar looked cadaverous, his skeleton and skull clearly outlined by his skin and black fur. His tusks were covered in green ooze that smelled of stomach acids. It was genderless as it sat naked on a throne that looked to be made of chewed on and dissolved bones.

A red dragon sat in the center of the semicircle. The dragon was muscular, dangerous looking and most of all; both he and his armor were on fire, black fire. His glowing red eyes unnerved the ponies, but when he smiled and showed his sharp white teeth, one of the nobles soiled themselves. The dragon seemed to be sitting on solid black fire.

Next to the terrifying dragon was a griffon. The griffon looked like a gold and silver statue. Silver feathers and gold fur combined to awe the nobles, but what really caught their eyes was his beak and talons seemed to be made of lightning gems. Even his irises where like opals, ever changing color with the lighting. He looked down on the ponies haughtily from his solid gold throne.

An oddly well-dressed diamond dog was the last deity they saw. It wore a sharp suit, a monocle and had a small handlebar mustache. He sort of looked like the diamond dog version of Fancy Pants. The white diamond dog had a flawless cloud crystal floating in his paw. He sat not on a throne, but a pile of riches piled to look like a throne.

There was an empty throne made of shadows that seemed to change every time the nobles blinked.

"Why you are in our home, mortals?" the dragon said in a voice that sounded like rage barely restrained, asked. The group attempted to suppress their fear response.

“Why have you come here? Do you want to be eaten? I’m hungry,” this time the thin creature said.

“Perhaps they are here to submit themselves to us,” the Griffon said in a dismissive tone.

“I can feel it! They want, they desire, they need power!” the diamond dog said happily.

“Yes, they wish for power. Not just any power… the power to conquer,” the minotaur commented slowly. “Is that what you want little mortals? Power to fulfill your desires?”

The unofficial group speaker, Black Justice spoke, “Yes, we wish to make a soul bond for power.”

“Then what can you offer us, the Sins, in exchange?” the gorgeous mare asked, playing with her mane. “What can you offer that we do not already have?”

The group huddled and discussed what they were about to offer.

“We offer you all money, any amount of gold and jewels you desire,” Black Justice stated. The Sins were shocked at the gall of these mortals.

“You offer to buy the powers of deities?! We are not mercenaries, you pathetic mortals!” The griffon screeched. Gale force winds seemed to come from his wings and blasted the nobles off their feet. Wrath raised his right claw and the winds immediately ceased.

“I do like shiny things though Pride,” the dog told the griffon.

“I am aware. It may work on you but they offered it to all of us. That was an insult I could not let pass,” Pride sat back down and calmed himself.

“So you wish to help them, Greed?” the dragon asked as the nobles got back to their feet.

“Why not? I get shiny and something to do,” Greed shrugged.

“Then you will have to bond with them all. I do not think the rest of us will be willing to bond with these excuses for mortals,” the minotaur enunciated slowly.

“We are not excuses! We are the highest nobles of Canterlot! The crème de la crème of ponies!” one of the ponies in the group shouted.

“Are you willing to make six bonds, Greed?” the dragon asked, ignoring the yelling ponies.

“Anything to add to my chair. You already know this Wrath!” Greed said, wondering why Wrath was asking these questions.

“He just wants to make sure you understand the strain of making so many in such a short time dear,” the mare said.

“He is a Sin! A measly six soul bonds won’t affect him in the least, Lust,” the griffon said, crossing his arms and returned to staring at the ponies.

“Yes, but Greed was the last of us to get out and he was severely weakened when the closing door caught him and cut him in half. At his full power I doubt it would affect him but in the state he’s in right now, he might go to sleep for a month or so, Pride,” Wrath informed the griffon. Pride just huffed and looked down on the ponies.

“How rude! To disregard us as if we weren’t right here!” the same pony ranted.

“Quite Loud, cease your ranting before they decide to smite us!” Black Justice attempted to quite the pony. Quite stopped shouting and looked indignant.

“If you wish to do this Greed, we shall take our leave and attend to some personal matters,” Sloth said, the noble’s conversation was ignored by the Sins. Greed nodded and the rest of the Sins vanished into thin air.

"Let’s get started mortals!" Greed said gleefully. "You can pay me when you've finished with your lives!"

The crystal in Greed's paw begins to glow gold and the nobles are consumed by it.