Godly

Godly
Chapter 32: Of horns and new-borns

We head down the hive towards the forge while a Changeling flies up to us with the moonstone in her hooves. I thank her as Cadence takes it with her magic and continues on to our destination the sounds of metal on metal ringing louder the closer we get.

Once there, the smiths stop hammering and turn to look at us. "Good day everyone!" I greet them all as we walk in, Orion whines and decides to stay out of the room due to the noise. "Just letting you know that later a few minotaurs will be coming down here to learn how to forge with metal, so be prepared for that," I then warn them as I head over to my own personal anvil and change to Vulcan.

I take a seat on my basic looking chair and hold my hand out to Cadence. "The moonstone please, Cadence," I ask her. She floats it over to my hand where I hold it to my eyes and examine it.

It's more stone than metal but there is a very small amount in it. With a huff I put it down on the anvil and lightly tap it with my hammer, it chips a little but not by much, so I don't think I can smelt this. So I change to Geb and yelp as the chair no longer can hold my weight and shatters under me.

The others giggle or laugh as I can hear Seth laughing his bug butt off at the other side of the room. Out of principle, I refuse to stand up and remain seated on the crushed chair as I float the moonstone over and place my rocky fingers on it.

I close my eyes and feel throughout the stone, I can feel the power and energy flowing through it like a calm flowing river. I open my eyes and start thinking on how I will reshape the stone into a basic looking horn while taking glances at Cadence's as a reference.

"Luna, can you point your forehead at me please?" I ask her politely.

She frowns slightly but walks over to me. "Okay," she warily replies as she tips her head down.

Starting with the base, I carefully mould it to fit where the cracks and jagged pieces remain. This process takes a good hour as this moonstone is very hard to reshape and Cadence is giving me advice and warns me if I start making mistakes on the shape, but at the end it now fits onto the stump of her horn.

I pull it away carefully and smile at Luna, who is rolling her neck and groaning.

"That was quite uncomfortable," she complains as a quiet crack sounds from her neck.

I chuckle as I look towards her. "Well now with Cadence's help, I'll be able to shape it into a horn. But I have no Idea as to how to attach it. How do you attach crystal horns?" I ask as I look to Cadence.

"Oh, we mould the crystal into a horn, then we make sure it connects to the unicorn's magical core via the base of the horn and brain. Once the connection is made, we use magic to fuse the crystal horn to the remains of their horn and wait for a day or two to let it adjust, then we place a crystal brace around the fused area to protect it from possible damage," she replies.

"Hmm, so I'll make the horn and you'll be the one to attach it along with a brace?" I ask as I slowly begin moulding the rest of the moonstone.

"Well, we hast no experience ourselves with such a procedure, although we can bring a doctor from the Empire to do so for us," she replies as she watches the moonstone slowly change shape.

"Fair enough, Cadence and I will stay here, so you can go relax if you want Luna. Or perhaps talk with the Minotaurs some more," I say as I keep my focus on the stone.

Luna hums in thought for a second. "Perhaps we... I will do so. I've been interested in seeing if a Minotaur mage can learn other spells besides elemental and levitation," she replies and starts walking off.

"See if Whisper would like to learn!" I shout out to her as she reaches the door.

Time flies by as Cadence helps me shape the moonstone and it's been a good four hours before we decide to take a break. As I leave the forge with Cadence, Crystal Blade cheers in triumph as he levitates a steel sword up with a cleanly cut topaz socketed to act as the pommel.

I turn to watch as he pours magic into the gem and the blade sparks to life with electricity arcing along the metal.

"I've done it! Finally!" he says and turns to me. "It would seem out of all the elements only lightning and wind are compatible with your steel as fire warps the metal, and ice makes it too brittle. But it channels lightning much more easily than my crystal blades can!" he explains and levitates the sword over to me. I notice a warped sword with a ruby in the pommel and a shattered one with a sapphire in the pommel on the table to the side.

I change to Vulcan and grip the sword with my right metallic hand. The grip and handguard has been covered in a thin layer of changeling resin which insulates it from the electricity. The amount of voltage I can feel would be at least three times more powerful than a hand taser. And I've been zapped by one of those before for a dare once, very unpleasant.

I look it over some more and grin. "Very good, how many of these can you get made within two weeks?" I ask him as I hold the sword back out to him.

He takes it back with his magic and puts it on the resin covered table. "Two weeks? Errrm... I think I can have about twenty made? The hardest part is cutting the gems to the perfect shape and then engraving the runes into it to feed the magic through the steel," he replies with a frown.

"So most of that time is going to the cutting and engraving? What if Changelings did the cutting and fitting while you focused on the engraving?" I ask him.

He frowns in thought and looks down. "If they can cut them perfectly... then I could get about fifty or so done," he replies and looks back up.

"Then get to it. We can use them to subdue Celestia's mind controlled forces for when we confront her. We're not going to wait for her to come and attack us first," I tell him, getting a nod as a bunch of the more experienced smiths head over to Crystal Blade as he starts explaining how the topazes need to be cut.

Cadence and I head to the cafeteria and get a quick meal while we discuss the moonstone and I ask her if she'd conduct Chryssi and I's wedding when I propose to her after we've dealt with Celestia. She was more than happy to do so and couldn't wait.

So once we finished our meal, we headed back to the forge and spent the rest of the day moulding the moonstone. By the end of the day, and a couple of visits from both Chrysalis and Whisper, I place the half finished stone horn into a secure container in the forge and bid good night to Cadence who heads off to a guest room.

I arrive at my room and find Chrysalis lounging on the bed in her bipedal form with a few slabs of resin she's holding and levitating around her while looking over the one in her hands.

"Something the matter?" I ask her as I change to Hercules, remove my armour leaving only the under garments, and lay down beside her.

"These are the latest reports that I received from our scouts near Canterlot. The Nightmare has managed to enslave half of Equestria's settlements while also nabbing a few gryphons along the borders," she replies with a frown.

I hum in thought while looking at the slab. "Crystal Blade has made an enchantment for our steel swords that'll conduct an electrical current that we can use to subdue the Nightmare's forces. But, we'll only have about fifty of them in two weeks time..." I tell her with a frown of my own on my face. "We may have to start gathering all we can to keep her forces busy while we focus on the Nightmare once I portal her to a secluded location."

She closes her eyes in silence for a few seconds before looking back at me. "Luna and we Queens have been discussing ways of restraining or containing her, and we believe a small dug out cavern filled with a pool of liquid love to dump her in would be our best option. And while she's in the pool, Luna, Cadence, and I will use lightning magic to paralyze her long enough for the liquid love to force the nightmare out of Celestia. Although, I won't deny not taking pleasure in Celestia's' pain and agony while doing so," she informs me with an almost evil looking grin.

I chuckle and snake my right arm around her and pull her into my side. "After all she's done to you and your hive, I'm not gonna complain. But the plan itself sounds good, I could sneak into Canterlot as Loki, find Celestia, and then change to Janus quickly before porting her into the cavern where you can zap her. Question is, what do we do if the liquid love does nothing?" I ask her.

She sighs and levitates all her slabs to the floor next to the bed before cuddling up to me. "From what Luna has told me, nightmares are a parasitical entity from a dark realm that feeds on the magic and anger of its host. And only four known cases of possession have been recorded and it took the fourth to discover that positive emotions harm them as the previous three were put down. Other than that, not much is known about them."

I hum in thought for a few seconds before looking back at her. "I would like to capture this nightmare for study and research into countermeasures or spells, but we don't know how to keep it contained. We'll just have to see what we can do and if I have any gods that could contain or harm it," I reply and sigh. "Let's just get some sleep and we'll discuss this tomorrow with the others," I say and kiss her cheek.

She giggles and wraps her arm around me until sleep takes us.

I open my eyes to my practice area and that female voice speaks up again. "New Gods and Goddesses added."

Six icons appear before me depicting new gods and goddesses to choose from.

Horus, The Rightful Heir. An Egyptian warrior type god.

Set, The Usurper. An Egyptian assassin type god.

Olorun, Ruler of the Heavens. An Yoruba mage type god.

Persephone, Queen of the Underworld. A Greek mage type goddess.

Yemoja, Goddess of Rivers. An Yoruba guardian type goddess.

and lastly, Heimdallr, The vigilant. A Norse hunter type god.

I look between the gods and smile, its always nice to have a new selection of gods to choose from, and I'm going to be having fun figuring out how these ones work and perform.

So I change to Heimdallr and read up on his abilities. Huh, I thought he was a warrior with his axe but apparently he's a hunter as he throws it, kind of reminds me of that god of war leviathan axe. Not only does he have a large axe, he has a sword named Hofud he can summon to reveal enemy god locations near him, but I wonder how that would work here? And he can then launch it a long distance from himself like a missile.

He has a horn called Gjallarhorn on his back that deals damage over time to targets in front of him as he blows it which ends in an AoE burst around him dealing damage and knocking up enemies. He can also call forth the power of the Bifrost to travel long distances from one point to another, again, not sure how that would work here.

Lastly, he can dash forward, smack someone with his axe homerun style through the bifrost into Muspelheim and Niflheim dealing damage before coming back and slamming into the ground ahead of where he sent them. Makes me wonder if I can open gateways to these realms... perhaps I can make a gateway back home to Earth? Or Midgard as the Norse lore called it.

I summon my sword which appears before me in a flash, then flies up into the air a good thirty feet and just rotates while hovering and emitting rainbow coloured light.

I feel my mana slowly being drained but I can... I don't know how to describe it, but I can 'see' the location of everything in the area, the Gold Fury, the Fire Giant, the lane minions. I can feel where they are in relation to me. So as a test, I command Hofud to launch at the Gold Fury, it responds and flies off and hits it's target as I hear the Gold Fury screech.

I look at the axe in my hand, not as heavy as I thought it would be, but I wind back and throw it as hard as I can forward. blue light trails off the axe head as it spins before vanishing in a glow of rainbow light. It then reappears near my hand and I quickly grasp it by the grip.

So for the next hour I just have fun throwing the axe at god bots and npcs, practicing my aim with both the axe and sword.

I spend the rest on the night trying out his other abilities before waking up.

With a yawn, I open my eyes to find Chrysalis gone. I sit up and scratch my neck as I get a thought. 'Do ponies or any other race farm or harvest honey?' I would like some as I liked honey back on earth.

Though I facepalm as I forgot I have a bee god, so maybe I can set up some of his hives and hopefully they can generate honey, although he can shoot a large trail of honey, I don't know if that would be edible and it'll be annoying having to change all the time for refills.

With that in mind, I stand up off the bed and change god to Ah Muzen Cab, the God of Bees.

I look myself over and shudder as I can feel something moving in my right forearm which looks like a beehive. I wince as a few bees fly out of it before re-entering through different holes.

I wiggle my fingers to get used to the sensation, but the sound of voices distracts me.

'The Sparkle family are asking for more crystals to help teach their foals magic.'

'I need more iron!'

'The Scarlet hive have arrived for their next supply of liquid love, get the pods ready!'

'My Queen, your first clutch is preparing to hatch!' I hear an excited female say followed by the gasp of one I know very well.

'Prepare the nursery! I'm on my way!' I hear Chrysalis reply before it's drowned out by more voices.

'Xenion! Where are those logs for the boiler!' I hear someone ask but the reply is lost to other voices.

I clutch my head as more and more voices join in, slowly blending in to just blabbering at this point, getting louder and louder until even my own thoughts are drowned out. I can't take it anymore and yell out in my head.

'SHUT THE HELL UP!' I scream. Lots of startled and panicked yelps or gasps speak as one before it's all quite.

After a few seconds of silence, Chrysalis speaks up. 'Who is this!? How did you get into the hivemind!?' she demands angrily.

'Chryssi, clam down, it's me Carl,' I reply and rub my temples, while being mindful of the big stinger on my left forearm.

'Carl? How did you get into the hive mind?' she asks. 'Never mind that for now, our eggs are hatching! Come to the Nursery now!' she tells me, making my eyes widen and I start running out the room then flying down the tunnels.

It feels strange as I can feel the locations of the changelings of all three hives around me, so locating and finding Chrysalis was simple as I entered the Nursery.

Chrysalis looks me over with intrigue before waving her hoof in gesture to go to her. I walk over to her side and watch the eggs in the wall slowly cracking as the centaur shaped changelings inside use their horns to poke and push until the shell breaks off and the fluid inside spills out and the cries of the new-borns fill the Nursery.

The nannies use their magic to levitate them down and carefully place them into prepared cribs at the back of the room, small little boxes with soft moss bedding. I walk over and look down to the closest one to see my new-born daughter. Her lower half looks just like a normal changeling, but the upper half looks like a human's torso while her head has a more flatter looking face.

The biggest difference though is they have dull green coloured hair and tail instead of fins on their head and tail, while their eyes when they're open look just like Chrysalis' eyes.

I smile but frown as the voices start up again, so I quickly change to Hercules and put my mace against the wall. Carefully, I reach into a crib and pull out my child cradling her in my left arm while gently stroking her short hair.

Chrysalis walks over and looks up at me. "How do you feel?" she asks me with her own smile.

I look at her and hold back tears. "Despite what we have to do soon, I'm happier than I've ever been," I reply and lean down to kiss her softly.

We leave the nymphs to the nannies who clean them up and feed them small amounts of liquid love, while Cadence hears about the new borns and decides to help out. Chrysalis and I head up to the Minotaurs embassy where we find Luna talking with Stonehoof.

"Good morning," I greet them both.

"Pantheon, greetings. The Princess and I were just trading stories from our homelands," Stonehoof replies with a nod.

"Good morning. Did something happen? A short while ago every changeling suddenly yelped and stood still..." Luna asks with a bit of worry.

I chuckle at the thought of a thousand or so changelings suddenly springing into the air in fright. "I found a way to access the hivemind using a bee god, but I have no control over it yet as I could hear every changeling talking at once. So I yelled into the hivemind and startled them all," I reply with another chuckle.

"I see... So what brought you and Chrysalis here?" Luna asks me.

"Just informing you both that we'll have a meeting in three days with the Minotaurs, the Zebra, the Unari, the Crystal Empire, along with the Changelings and I to discuss how best to deal with Celestia," I reply looking between the two.

Stonehoof scratches his chin in thought. "That is acceptable, we're still settling in and I'd rather have our encampment ready for the other Magai when they arrive," he says looking back to the others still setting up large tents.

"Fair enough, this'll also give me time to bring the Zebras here with their own set up for an embassy and finish Luna's new horn," I tell him and then look to Chrysalis. "Would you be so kind as to inform the other Queens about the meeting?" I ask her.

"Very well, I shall see you later tonight, I still have to go over some reports from the scouts," she replies and walks off.

I turn to Luna and smile. "Right then," I say and clap my hands together. "I'm going to go talk to the Zebras and then continue your horn once they get settled in," I tell her as I change to Janus.

"We shall wait here for you then, I still want to know how Stonehoof's mother convinced his father to join her clan," she replies and turns to the Minotaur.

I chuckle and open a portal to the elders hut in Wanori, then step through.