The Divine Age

During Ember’s visit: Aetherus – Home of the Sins

Golden light enveloped the six unicorn nobles, and each one began to be filled with the power of Greed. As power flowed through their veins like blood, their minds were warped and twisted by their power. Desire for more flowed into their minds and with it, what little morals and sense of right and wrong were washed away in favor of their growing need to obtain more power at any cost. When the light died down the six unicorns looked at themselves and each other with slight trepidation. They tested out their powers, with immensely satisfactory results.

“Now little mortals. I shall explain the standard powers that come with a soul bond with me,” Greed said. “The standard powers are in line with what the deity’s domain is, and as such, you all have the power to steal. Whether it may be physical, magical or mental, you can steal it if your power and control is great enough to take it.”

“Does this mean we can steal your power?” Noble Crust asked, vaguely aware of the answer to that already. Black Justice just stared at his compatriots.

“No. You are far below me in terms of power and as such cannot steal my power. I’m sure you all feel invincible now but keep in mind; deities are far more than their bodies. I may not look like it but during the gathering, when the gates of Tartarus were opened to let us out, I was late and cut in half by the gates. I am literally half of what Greed is and I have just given you a fraction of half my power. I estimate you lot combined are at around a trillionth of my current power. You could not take any of my power, let alone my full power,” Greed explained.

“How does a god get cut in half?” Quite Loud asked.

“The gates of Tartarus are special. During the early days of the universe every deity was sorting out their own kingdoms and domains. We took on the negative aspects of emotions and cause much misery for the mortals. The other young deities didn’t like that we were killing their followers and waged war on us. When those deities realized the seven of us were more powerful then all of them combined, they ran to the elder deities. Night decided we needed our own place to call home, with less crowding issues and created an entire dimension just for us. Unfortunately, many of the young deities saw the new dimension as a better place to move to and so we petitioned Time and Space to stop them.

Time decided that a door would be best to seal the entrance to our new home and crafted unassailable metal gates. Space fastened them to the opening and added extra enchantments to keep our realms separate, so no one could just sneak in when they wanted. Over eons the gate’s enchantments warped and inverted under the pressure of legions of deities pounding on it. Instead of keeping things out, it kept them in. To us it was an affront and we drove them out, shredding many of them. Those pieces of dead deities became demons and each one spread negative emotions that were our domains. Tartarus was even better than it was before, until you lot started throwing your criminals in here. They wrecked the place and our servants were too few to clean all of it up.

Anyways, the gates keep things in so if your caught between the closing gates, it keeps whatever was cut inside the gates rendering access to it nearly impossible until someone opens the gate wide enough for the power to come out,” Greed’s monologue came to an end.

During the explanation, Black Justice had figured out how to fully use his new powers and his freshly warped mind gave him a task. As soon as Greed finished, Black Justice created an energy blade and stabbed Quite Loud in the head with it. The unicorn instantly exploded into gold dust and was breathed in by Black Justice, stealing everything that made Quite Loud who he was and making it his own, coincidently his mind warped even further. The others were too shocked to react as he shoved his sword into Noble Crust’s side and pierced through his heart. Black Justice sliced his sword through all three remaining unicorns’ necks. They all violently erupted into dust and Black Justice absorbed all of their power, his body slightly growing and becoming stronger.

“That has got to be a record for shortest time anyone has ever been soul bonded,” Greed commented as Black Justice finished off his fellow nobles. Greed could see the desire for more power in the unicorn’s eyes and smirked. “Time to go do what you want mortal,” Greed said and teleported Black Justice back to his home in Canterlot.

☪☪☪

Canterlot - Justice Manor

Black Justice wanted more, he needed more power. As he walked into the kitchen he saw his wife and son eating lunch, an empty seat with food waiting for him.

“There you are dear. Where have you been? Your lunch started half an hour ago, dear,” his wife asked.
There was no hesitation, not even a slight hint of remorse flashed in his eyes as he impaled his wife on several spears of his new magic. His son just stared wide eyed as his mother dissolved into dust and was eaten by his father. When Black Justice turned to face his son, the colt screamed and scrambled back as his father walked over to him with his spear of magic.

“Shut up, boy. You’re going to help make me very powerful,” Justice smiled menacingly at the colt. He grabbed the colt’s head with both hands and sent multiple needles of magic into his head. The colt’s dying screams as he turned into pure power were music to his former father’s ears, and Black Justice could taste the raw potential his son had. Black Justice grew a few spikes on his head, easily hidden by his mane and let out a satisfied sigh, “Ahhh… the little one tasted the best.”

However, he wanted more and Justice headed out to the streets of Canterlot for a short stroll around the city. As he walked along the streets he saw many ponies and guards about. His horn slightly glowed as he planted small seeds of his magic on everypony as he passed by. The seeds were undetectable by magic and well hidden in the fur of ponies. He saw a group of foals run into a dark alley chasing a cat and smiled wickedly as he followed them. The foals had cornered the cat and were so busy playing with it, they never noticed the black stallion at the entrance of the alley make several dark green knives. One filly looked at Justice and before she could scream, he threw knives into all of their tiny throats, cat included. The foals burst into a dense cloud of golden dust and as Justice breathed in the golden dust his body began to change drastically.

His black fur gained a golden sheen when light touched it. His muscles became more visible and bulkier. His pupils warped into diamond shapes while his irises turned gold. His once well combed white mane and tail turned golden with a black stripe off the side. His hands and feet developed claws as he grew a few inches.

“Hehehe, the little ones truly are the best,” Black Justice’s new voice was deeper and rougher than before. His mind filled with cruel and unspeakable thoughts as he emerged from the alley. He was soon approached by a mare looking for the children.

“Excuse me. Have you seen three fillies and two colts run by here by any chance?” the mare was obviously worried.

“Of course, they are in the alley playing with a cat,” Justice stepped aside to let the mare see.

“There isn’t any-,“ the mare was cut off by a sword sticking through her mouth. Unfortunately for Justice, there were witnesses who screamed. Black Justice sighed and snapped his fingers as the royal guard came charging at him. The seeds burst into pointed crosses and almost everypony on the street was instantly converted into dust, those unlucky enough not to immediately die were subject to feeling the pain of being atomized into pure power. Those that didn’t have a seed impale them were shortly pierced through vital spots by magical arrows and converted. Justice inhaled the power and his body and mind twisted even more.

His muscles grew and bulked up until he was as muscular and huge as a minotaur. His horn had split in two and curved to point behind him. His eyes shifted from diamonds to four pointed stars while his teeth became sharp like a dragons. His claws grew out about half an inch and his legs cracked as they rearranged for an extra joint like a dragons. His tail lost all of its hair as it grew long and thinner, the tip of the new tail became a three clawed hand with all the functions of a hand. Greed had turned him into a monster.

Justice let loose a wave of magic and to his amazement, the surrounding area turned into a small amount of gold dust. He inhaled and gained a bit of power. A feral smile found itself onto his face as he had found yet another good power source.

☪☪☪

Canterlot - Throne room

The royal sisters were still listening to petitioners putting forth stupid ideas. Fifteen nobles wanted to abolish or become exclusively tax exempt, twenty-something wished to push forward with using dynamite or explosive spells to help their miners get more rare metals from the Dragon Lands, and several wanted to reestablish slavery, quoting their accountants on how much they had to pay for servants and how unfair it was that peasants got so much money yet paid so little taxes.

Luna had already fallen asleep after tuning out the nobles as an alternative to getting angry. Most nobles didn’t care what the lunar princess thought or did, so she could get away with it. Celestia on the other hand had withstood a millennium of such drivel without being able to shift the attention to another and therefore her coping mechanism was worn out and reduced to mere imaginary atoms. It had been several hours since she had lost her temper and sent a petitioner to Zebracia and the nobles seemed to be more emboldened then frightened as their petitions turned to demands and challenges to banish them if she refused them. The room guards were far more active today than any other day in history, even during war times they did not do so much as they shuffled the nobles out of the room. The current petitioner was asking to displace Griffonstone so he could mine the lands for its precious metals and gems. Celestia had almost reached her limit, but tried to reason with the noble.

“Duke Short Sight, you surely cannot be asking us to annex the lands of Griffonstone, displace its entire population of griffons, possibly causing a war, just so your company can mine what is surely a land stripped of all its valuable metals and gems for centuries?” Celestia asked, irritation was clear in her voice.

The duke didn’t seem to notice it and answered as if he was speaking to a child, “And how do you know their lands are stripped of valuables? Have you banished anyone there recently, like Sir Loud Mouth, or perhaps Lady Green Envy?”

That was the final straw. Celestia’s mane and tail burst into flames and she teleported right behind the disgraceful nitwit of a noble and kicked him between the legs and through the castle walls in the direction of Griffonstone. The sound was like a low sonic whistle and a sonic rainboom going off at the same time and the duke became the first unicorn to fly without magic or an airship. Surprisingly, the noble’s head was so dense and velocity was so great he passed through several stone walls with nothing more than a concussion and possibly some broken testes. The clinking of bits in bags being passed around drew her attention to her guards. All of them looked as stoic as they had been the entire day, except for one who was being crushed under the weight of hundreds of bags filled with bits, trying to maintain his pose. Celestia snorted and returned to her throne, the sound of the kick had woken Luna up just in time to cast a strengthening spell on the noble just before he hit the wall so he would not splatter and stain the throne room. Luna turned her attention to her fire maned sister.
“What did I miss?” Luna asked, blinking the sleep out of her eyes.

“About sixty nobles asking for something incredibly stupid and short sighted. They even made references and challenges to High Roller’s short trip to Zebracia. I can’t take it anymore,” Celestia had forgone her usual tone and appearance. Right now she looked like a child that had been punished for something she didn’t do. Celestia commanded the guards, “Guards. That will be all the audiences for today, tell those fops to beat it, you are dismissed for the day after you have done so.”

The guards bowed and quickly left the throne room in favor of dealing with whiney nobles rather than an angry Celestia. When the door closed, Celestia lumped down in her throne and let out a suffering sigh. Her mane extinguished and all the feelings she had held back for millennia. Luna could only hug her big sister and comfort her as she cried.

“Where did we go wrong Luna? Why do we have to do this?” Celestia sobbed. Luna could only pat her sister on the back as she drenched her dress in tears.

“Perhaps we should take Day’s offer then? Leave the kingdom in the hands of the more capable nobles and just leave for a vacation,” Luna suggested. Celestia slowly stopped crying as she thought it over.

“Who should we leave the kingdom to then? Fancy Pants is powerful and competent, but not enough to control the throne, and Blueblood is Blueblood. While he is capable I don’t think he understands just how hard it is to run a kingdom as large as Equestria,” Celestia moaned.

“Well-,” any further reply was cut off by a guard bursting through the door, his armor half on.

“Your majesties! There is a monster wreaking havoc in Canterlot! Its headed right for the castle!” the guard reported.

“Perhaps this will be a good chance for you to vent sister!” Luna clapped her hands together and smiled at her sister. Celestia just sighed and got up from her throne. She walked to the window to see the monster carving up the city, turning it and her more annoying subjects, into gold dust and inhaling it.
She charged her horn and fired a beam of plasma at the monster. As the bolt neared, it hit a dark green barrier and was converted into gold dust. The monster looked right at Celestia and smiled. It jumped towards her, and Celestia swiftly shot backwards as the wall exploded on contact with the monster. Rubble and broken glass littered the floor, the guard recovered first and charged at the monster, spear in hand.

“No! Don’t!” Celestia called out but she was too late. The monster created several spears of green magic and impaled the guard, converting him and his armor to dust. The creature inhaled the dust and seemed to get bigger. The monster was as big as a full grown dragon. It sported a plethora of horns and enough sharp teeth that would look more at home in a leech. It was covered in black scales and fur, the occasional gold patch appeared and vanished at random. Sharp spikes stuck out its back like a deranged hedgehog and the tail hand was disturbing. The most distinguishing feature of the monster however was its cutie mark, a black gavel hitting a pointing finger, Black Justice’s cutie mark.
One of the fops from this morning’s group. Was all Celestia could think as the monster finished growing.

“I wonder what alicorn power tastes like,” the monster rumbled and flashed a smile that would scare normal ponies enough to soil themselves, at Celestia.

“Why don’t you have a taste?!” Luna shouted from above the monster and kicked it in the face. Black Justice was sent flying out of the throne room. Luna turned to her sister and shouted, “Come sister we must get to the armory!”

☪☪☪

Celestia’s brain would do nothing as she was being dragged by her sister to the armory. They arrived at the armory and Celestia was now fully functioning. The sisters got suited in their ancient battle gear. Plain looking golden full plate for Celestia and silver full plate for Luna. They opened a secret panel in the floor and descended into the darkness of Mount Canter. They reached a room full of glowing magically charged crystals to find their weapons right where they left them.

Celestia’s sword, one that was heard everyday but unknown to the world for what it was, Sol Invictus. A golden broad sword, the guard inlayed with enchanted diamonds, the hilt was bare but the pommel was a massive diamond containing Celestia’s excess magic from the time she last wielded it several millennia ago to right now. Aside from the gold coloration and gems, it was a plain sword with enchantments.

Luna wielded a pair of silver crescent khopesh. The cutting edges were silver but the middle was entirely black, enchanted black opals encrusting it. As with Celestia’s weapon, her hilts were bare but the pommels of each were obsidian blades instead of a cut gem. The blades held Luna’s power and were deadly weapons on their own. They were gifts from the first pony smiths that experimented with sword designs, they later became the Saddle Arabians, second only to griffon forges.

Weapons in hand the sisters teleported outside the mountain half an hour later. What they saw horrified them, Lines upon lines of ponies, skewered on magic spikes in non-lethal places. Instead of blood they were converting into gold dust slowly, their screams of agony resonated throughout the once great city. Rage flooded through the sisters and they took to the skies to locate Black Justice. They located him by the flow of gold dust to a single place, Justice Manor. They dive-bombed to the house, following the trail of dust and held their weapons out.
Inside Justice Manor

Black sat in a chair made of his own magic, drinking dust from a wine glass while watching his remainder of his pathetic family beg him for mercy. He occasionally threw a dart of his magic at the head of one of their foals to make them cry more. They were all his now anyways, it did not matter who went first. He threw a dart at his insufferable sister, Righteous Justice. Just before it hit her, the roof exploded as two alicorns impaled Black Justice, a rock blocked the dart and converted into dust. The alicorn’s momentum did not stop with impaling the monster as they went deep into the planet, using Black Justice as a shield and digging tool.

Even with three blades impaled in him, the monster just smiled. He grabbed the swords as he was being used to dig a new tunnel and threw the alicorns back. Without the driving force, Justice stopped almost immediately as physics took over. He jumped at the alicorns and punched them both up and out of the very long tunnel. He created several spike ball seeds in his tail hand and jumped out of the tunnel himself.

☪☪☪

In the Mesosphere of Equus

Celestia and Luna fought to right themselves before they ended up in outer space. When they finally got control of their ascent, they began to open their wings and slowed down.

“What do we do now sister? He survived beyond terminal velocity dive through solid rock like it was nothing!” Luna shouted t her sister.

“We get serious Lulu,” was Celestia’s reply. Luna grinned madly as the obsidian daggers and diamond began to glow. Power of ages past flowed into the alicorns as the monster ascended to the Mesosphere for his prize.

He was met with a wave of plasma hot enough to ignite the air around him. Luckily his barrier protected him from any harm and gave him even greater power. A needle thin beam of moonfire was the next thing to hit him. To his surprise, it went through his barrier and burned through both chest and his tail hand. Several seeds exploded and converted his tail hand and a few of his spikes into golden dust. He quickly inhaled the dust and regrew his tail and chest. Both sisters witnessed this and a plan was hatched.

Millions of pinpricks started to dot the sky surrounding Black Justice. He looked curiously before they exploded into millions of needles of plasma and moonfire. His barrier could only take so many hits before it broke, he was littered with holes. And he was mad that he would have to burn his new power to heal himself. When he was fully healed he let loose a wave of green magic and absorbed the dots. He was surprised for a second time that hour as he gained a miniscule amount of power from the dots. The sisters were relentless as they made it rain plasma and moonfire.

Rage built as he burned his new power to heal until he decided it was enough. He released his own rain of green magic and countered the sisters’ attack. He followed up with waves of magic and laid seeds throughout the skies for a mile radius.

He opened a path from him to the sisters and charged. Celestia decided Luna required more time to complete her spell and charged down the path. Sword met claws in midair, sparks setting off several of the seeds as blows were exchanged. A feint on the left with her sword to follow up with a punch to the left of Justice’s face. The monster slashed at Celestia with his magic imbued claws, converting the armor it touched into dust. Celestia blended her magic into her fighting, a fire enchantment on the blade, some flash spells to distract or blind the beast and beams of plasma whenever she could get away with it. Her sword flashed as it severed half the horns on Black’s head. He raged and unleashed a wave of magic at Celestia. The mine field had considerably thinned but there was just enough to slow Celestia. She threw up a barrier of fire magic, allowing the seeds to pierce the back in places that wouldn't touch her. the wave hit and her barrier strained to hold against the wave of conversion magic. Justice, inhaled what dust was created from the wave and sent out a rain of magical arrows at the barrier. Celestia knew it was her end, but if she was going down, she would take this abomination with her. As the arrows pierced her, Celestia began casting a massive self destruct spell unique to her and flew at Justice.

“Not good enough, whorse,” the monster said as the magic claws that sprouted from his chest pierced through Celestia's chest as she neared.

“CELLY!” Luna shouted, her spell finally complete. A rapidly disintegrating Celestia charging a powerful spell appeared in Luna's sight and she knew she would have to support her sister's last act.

Justice began to inhale as Luna and Celestia released their spells. Luna’s spell was essentially a massive boosting spell. When combined with Celestia’s self-destruct spell, it caused a mini supernova. The wave of heat heat was felt all around Equus, in the land, sea and every living thing on the planet knew something big had happened. The Elementals took notice of the fight and moved to contain the damage as much as possible from their home. The blossoming nova froze and imploded into a miniature black hole as it died out. when the core of the hole reached sufficient mass after half a second, it exploded once again. This explosion had no heat or mass, but it did sent out a pulse of magic so large that anyone with a tracking spell of any level could easily trace it back to the fight.

Justice was horribly burned and missing everything below his neck, except for a piece of his right upper arm. Even his jaw was torn off and an eye was missing. Luna had escaped unscathed due to a desperate teleport as her sister was consumed to fuel her explosion and her spell activated. Tears ran down Luna’s muzzle as she remembered her sister's last words and looked down at the miserable wretch that took her sister from her. To her surprise the disembodied head and arm were regenerating and by the time Luna resolved to destroy this monster the neck and arm had reattached with a small portion of shoulder. Luna charged at the horror with her khopesh.

Her blade was stopped by the remains of Justice’s arm and a green spike shot out from his torn off mouth. The spike narrowly missed Luna, turning her helmet to dust but otherwise no damage. The monster threw Luna with its stub as it began to regenerate its torso. The new parts looked more akin to a patchwork of skin and limbs. Arms grew in random places as the skin, fur and scales grew in random places and became discolored. As his lower half began to regenerate as Luna attempted to kill the former pony with a rain of moonfire. The monster just laughed and let loose another wave of magic, absorbing all the power. At such close range, Luna was forced to break off and dodge the wave. As she retreated Justice was regenerating his legs, which now looked akin to a warped centipede using pony legs. eyes and mouths began to appear in random places all over the newly grown portion as well, making him seem like a nightmarish creature rather then anything that could exist in reality.

He is a horror even Tartarus could not imagine, Luna thought as she beheld the mishmash of limbs and flesh the former pony called a body. Black's mouth had reformed into a lamprey mouth and threw up enough seeds to appear as a massive wave towards Luna. Luna could see bits of Black's scorched teeth and flesh mixed in with the seeds and her life flashed before her eyes.