Godly

Godly
Chapter 4: Crossing a line

My eyes open to a familiar place, as the jungle practice map from the game greets me. I'm standing in the fountain area which is a large Greek or Roman style dome with eight archways leading to small areas, each with different enemies or practice areas. It's here that I've been practising with some gods over the last month, especially the warrior class ones along with a few mages and hunters.

I guess I dozed off on my cloud waiting for that Cadenza person to show up. I shrug and change into a new god I haven't tried yet.

My body morphs into Fenrir the Unbound, son of Loki. Dark blue fur grows all over my body as I shift into a half feral half bipedal form along with a tail. Red glowing lines run up from my paws and claws to halfway up each limb, which give off small embers now and then. Molten saliva is coming out of my mouth and fire from my eyes but I don't feel any pain nor heat from them.

Chains are wrapped around my waist and chest as well as my left thigh, forearm, and tail. I then flex my fingers and smirk at the sharp looking five inch long claws that look like they can tear steel to ribbons.

I begin moving about like I do with any new god I try just to get used to the new limb structure. While my arms feel the same, my now multi-jointed legs will take some getting used to, but I've had some practice due to Anhur's legs being the same.

Once used to my new body, I walk over to the archway that leads to a red themed camp of three cyclops, two little ones and a big one. These are armed with battleaxes and thick leather armour. In the game this would be the damage buff camp. But here, they're just strong melee based monsters to fight.

They glare at me like usual and I smirk as I bend down ready to pounce, but before I could, I feel something different nearby that doesn't belong here. I look behind me back at the fountain and see Princess Luna standing there with a confused expression and looking around.

I growl deeply getting her attention and I slowly walk on all fours towards her.

"What are you doing here?" I ask her in a deep, rough, and gravelly voice.

Her eyes fly wide open and she starts to back away. "What on Equus art thee!? Where is Carl!?" she shouts in shock.

"You're looking at him," I reply with a frown. "Why are you here!?" I demand, not happy in the slightest that she's in my head right now.

"Our sister hast asked we check thy memories to see if thou art speaking the truth. But we did not expect thee to be lucid," she replies and then her horn glows.

It feels like she's trying to rummage through my head with tweezers or pliers, but with a snarl I push back.

"I'm warning you, leave now or I will make you leave," I tell her, now angry at her and her sister.

She grunts and her horn glows brighter, making the pushing sensation stronger.

I clench my teeth and glare at her. "Have it your way then," I say and pounce at her with a snarl.

She yelps as I land on her back making her stumble and her horn stop glowing. She tries to buck me off but she screams as I dig my claws deeply into her sides.

"Release us, monster!" she demands and tries rolling over to crush me.

When I'm on my back with her above me, I kick her away from me with my powerful legs, sending her into the fire giant practice area and rolling on the ground a few metres.

"You dare to come into my mind, try to rape my memories, and then call me a monster for defending myself!?" I shout at her now enraged as the lines and runes on my body are glowing brightly. The fire in my eyes and mouth getting hotter and brighter as my anger rises.

She stares at me as I unleash Fenrir's Ragnarok ultimate skill. My body triples in size and my teeth and claws get even sharper as well as my strength and senses increasing.

I howl loudly making the very ground rumble and the sky to turn red. I then run towards her making her scream in fright as her horn glows and she disappears. I skid to a halt and look around, but I don't feel her here anymore. With her gone, I then force myself to wake up.

I frown as I open my eyes to see a panting and shivering Luna staring at me. I'm still Ganesha as my cloud tilts forward and I stand up.

"You better have a damn good explanation for that intrusion," I warn them coldly, the smaller horses looking confused and or afraid.

Celestia is now giving me a death glare while Luna is hiding behind her still shivering.

"We want to know what kind of being thou are and why thou art truly here. For now we only see a possible very powerful threat to our ponies,” she replies.

I narrow my eyes and point my dagger towards her. "And you thought invading my mind without consent was a good way to do it instead of just asking?" I ask with a snort out of my trunk. "You're walking on thin ice now, Celestia," I then tell her.

She bares her teeth and her horn starts glowing before a female voice shouts out.

"STOP!" I glance behind Celestia towards the doorway and see a horse with pink fur and a three toned mane and tail of creamy yellow, hot pink, and deep purple. She has a mark of a blue crystal heart with a gold flourish like pattern on each side of it, and she has a pair of wings and a horn as well. She also seems to have been crying heavily if the matted fur on her cheeks is any indicator.

"Cadenza!" Celestia says happy to see the girl.

"We hast heard Sombra hast been defeated, who is responsible for doing so?" she asks the tall white horse.

Celestia then turns and glares at me again. "That would be this creature," she says coldly.

Cadenza frowns and looks at me. I simply cross all four arms and continue to glare at Celestia.

"And why art thou angry with him?" she asks Celestia.

I speak up before Celestia could. "She and her sister just tried to invade my mind to see my past, I didn't take too kindly to that. I think if you didn't just show up, a fight might have broken out," I reply making the white horse's glare harden.

"Again!? Auntie, what have we told thee about that!?" Cadenza says making Celestia's glare soften.

"Cadenza, he proclaims himself to be a god! He even took control of our sun from us!" she replies.

"Only to kill that damn Sombra jerk," I comment making her glare at me again.

Cadenza glances at me and then back to Celestia. "Be that as it may, he did stop Sombra from killing our mother and anypony else. Has he shown hostility to others prior to thy attempt?" she tells the white horse and then asks.

"Nay, he hast not," Celestia says and sighs before walking over to me, but I remain on guard. "We art warning thee, would thou harm anypony, we shall bring the full wrath of the sun down upon thee," she threatens me.

I narrow my eyes and change back into Ra. I feel the sun respond to me and I make it brighter for a few seconds making her go wide eyed. "Do not make threats you can't back up, or I'll show you what a real god of the sun can do," I tell her making her back away and look out the window to the setting sun.

I change back into Hercules making the sun return to normal and start making my way to the door.

"Where art thou going!?" Celestia demands angrily.

I stop and look at her. "I'm clearly not welcome here, so I'm leaving. Why would I stay in a place ruled by a paranoid and hostile ruler? I'll just find somewhere else to call home, surely you aren't the only nation in this world," I tell her and start walking again.

"Please wait," I hear Amore say as she struggles to stand and limps over towards me, ignoring the pleas of her doctors to lay back down. I stop and turn around to face her. "Thou art welcome here. We still need to thank thee for saving our Empire," she tells me with a slight bow of her head making Celestia gasp.

Cadenza quickly makes her way over to her and nuzzles the mare. "Mother, are thou alright?" she asks with concern.

"We art fine, my dear. Carl here saved us and our ponies," Amore replies and returns the nuzzle gently.

I look from her to Celestia and then back to her. "Thank you, but until Miss Hothead and her sister are gone, I will be waiting outside of the City. I shall return within a few days, maybe by then these two will have calmed down," I reply, making Celestia glare at me for the nickname I just gave her.

Cadenza frowns at Celestia and Luna for a few seconds. "Very well, we shall await for thy return," Amore then tells me.

With that said and done, I exit the way I came in with a couple of the crystal armoured ponies escorting me. I see it's lightly snowing now and a lot of the little horses coming out of their homes. I walk past them as they keep their distance with wary expressions but I spot that horse who threw the little child at me to save himself. I frown and walk over to him making him back up against a building and I lightly bop him on the head with my left hand, though it was still enough to knock him onto the ground face first.

"Don't throw a child in harms way again or next time I'll use my mace!" I threaten him but it seems I knocked him out. I look to the terrified horse next to him that looks female. "Make sure to tell him what I just said," I tell her getting her to rapidly nod in reply. I then make my way back to the edge of the city.

Once I arrive at the edge, I switch back to Ymir and trudge my way about a mile out, leaving the stunned guards behind. I then create a large chunk of ice in the shape of a dome and start carving it out into a makeshift house or igloo, I want to be able to keep an eye out on the Crystal City in case the psychotic white horse decides to attack me when I least expect it.

I carve up more ice to make basic looking furniture; a table, two chairs, a bed, a cabinet, and just for fun, a potted cactus plant with icicles for its needles.

The whole process takes me a couple of hours and a bright light momentarily distracts me. I look back to the City to see a large pink dome encase the City and the snow seems to melt or evaporate on contact with it and within it.

I quickly make a crude lawn chair out in front of my equally crude house and just sit back and watch the shimmering dome around the City. Just to entertain myself, I then create a large palm tree made of ice to my left along with a large umbrella over me as well as turning the area into a beach looking setting, though the sea area is just frozen looking waves... oh well, looks pleasant nonetheless.

After a couple of hours I spot winged horses flying around the dome and after a few minutes some of them break away and start heading towards me.

'They got some good eyesight,' I think to myself and I raise an eyebrow as they finally land in front of me. Instead of fur, they now look like they're made of crystal.

"You are the one named Carl correct?" the one in front of the others asks me warily while the others look at the setting I made with confusion.

"Yeah, that's me," I reply in the slow deep tone of Ymir.

"Empress Amore and Princess Cadenza has invited you to join her for dinner in three days to allow us time to get the Empire back up and running. She has also told us to inform you that Princess Celestia and Luna will be reluctantly returning to Equestria tomorrow morning," he tells me.

"Alright, I'll just relax here until then. Thanks for the update," I reply and yawn while scratching my icy belly.

"Very well. Personally, we guards thank you for putting an end to Chancellor Sombra's treachery... one of the ponies Sombra killed in the throne room was my sister..." he tells me and flies off with the others.

I watch them head back into the City and I pick up a chunk of ice and carve it into the shape of an apple and slowly munch on it. Shame I can't make different flavours with the ice, would make eating ice more bearable.

Three days later

I've just been lounging around or exploring the area for the last three days waiting for the dinner Amore and Cadenza have invited me to. I also watched as the Princesses flew off over the horizon with a bunch of winged ponies and haven't returned, yet. I know it's just a matter of time before they come back.

Luna hasn't tried getting in my head again, but I've started practising with Janus in my sleep as I want to see how his portals will work since I'm not tied to game mechanics or logic. Though I kept my guard up as I wasn't just going to let her get the drop on me again.

I yawn as I'm back on my lawn chair as Ymir with a mug made of ice filled with wine from Bacchus' wine jug. I just chill and take sips from the mug enjoying the light gentle snow falling around me. It's actually rather relaxing here if you're immune to the cold.

For the next ten or so minutes I just relax and finish off my cold drink. I then spot something flying from the City towards me and I suspect it's the flying ponies again.

They arrive and again land in front of me, but this time less wary and actually smiling.

"Greetings, Sir Carl. The Empress is awaiting your arrival to dinner," the lead pony tells me.

The thought of a properly cooked meal, even a vegetarian one makes my stomach rumble and I chuckle deeply.

"I've been looking forward to it," I reply and stand up. I chug down the rest of my wine and toss the mug away. It’s not like it can be counted as littering.

"Then if you would, please follow us," the leader says and starts walking away.

"Actually, I want to try something," I say getting a raised brow from him.

I change to Janus, god of portals and transitions, and after a second, I'm hovering above the snow by half a foot. My body despite being made of metal and gears feels cold. I have grey plate like roman style armour with golden trimming along the edges. I also have two faces, one looking like a wizened old man with a metallic goatee, and the other on the back on my head much younger looking.

My torso is connected to my pelvis by six chains. And on my left hip is a gold and grey key like sceptre magnetically attached to me.

"Now then, I'll just make a portal to the Throne Room and we'll be there in a jiffy," I say in Janus' metallic, polite, and refined voice.

"Portal?" one of the ponies asks confused.

I float over to to an empty area and gather energy within my hands, just as I practised over the last three days in my sleep. Once I have enough, I weave a portal into the air and imagine the exit in the Throne Room behind the throne. The portal clears up and the Throne Room is in view.

I give a slight bow and gesture to the portal. "After you," I say making them look stunned.

It takes them a few seconds to recover but one by one they enter and once all six are through, I follow in behind them.

Once in, I collapse the portal and the energy dissipates into the air.

"That's rather useful, saves us the cold walk back," a female guard says with a giggle.

I smile and politely cough into my left hand and change into Hercules. "I believe I have a dinner to attend to?" I ask them making the leader get serious again.

"Right. Please follow me to the Dining Hall, Sir Carl," he tells me and starts walking towards the now fixed doorway.

I follow behind him with my mace just resting on my shoulder lazily. We pass by maids and other guards who either try to ignore me or thank me for saving them.

"Why are you calling me Sir Carl?" I ask the lead guard.

"We all appreciate what you did for us, I especially thank you for avenging my sister. It was Empress Amore that started calling you that shortly after the Equestrian Princesses left back for Equestria, and we just followed her example," he replies.

"Huh... Whilst I am a god, I do hope you don't start worshipping me like one," I say getting a chuckle out of him.

"Our Empress and Princess also don't like to be worshipped as such as well. Though the Equestrian Princesses believe themselves to be goddesses due to their ability to move the sun and moon and their defeat of Discord who was also said to be a god," he tells me with a frown at the mention of the Princesses.

"Well don't expect me demanding tribute or rubbish like that, right now I'm just looking for a place to call home," I say with a sigh.

We reach a pair of doors and he opens them up for me. "Announcing the arrival of, Sir Carl!" the guard shouts out getting both Amore's and Cadenza's attention from the maid they're talking to. They're both sitting at the end of the rectangular crystal table and look much better than they did days ago. Clean coats, brushed manes and tails, and straight feathers. They both also look like they're made of crystal.

"Ah, Sir Carl! We thank thee for attending. Please sit wherever thou wishes," Amore tells me and gestures with a hoof to the cushions around the table.

I sit down at the table next to her right side and across from Cadenza. I then notice something off as the table is way too short for me and even sitting cross legged, the edge of the table is just above my knees.

"Oh, we didn't think about thine size..." she says in realisation.

I chuckle and change to another god, Ratatoskr, the Sly Messenger of the Norse gods. I look like a large squirrel and I'm now just a few inches shorter than her when I stand up. I have light brown fur over my body with light brownish white fur on my chest, stomach, and lower front of my face. I also have three stripes of light blue going from the top of my head, down my back, and to the tip of my tail.

I'm also wearing a pair of small shoulder pads and a necklace with some leather attached to it. On my left hip is a small bag slung around my shoulder. I also don't feel that off balance as he's got a similar feel to Fenrir's body. Though I'm going to have to be careful with my now sharp claws on both my hands and feet.

Cadenza just stares at me for a few seconds before squealing and her horn lights up. I yelp as I'm lifted off the cushion, pulled towards her, and wrapped up in her forelegs as she hugs me while rocking back and forth.

"Oh my gosh! Thou art thee most cutest thing we hast ever seen!" she says and squeezes me tightly.

Fortunately the right side of my face is mashed against her surprisingly fluffy chest so I can still breath, though it feels like she's trying to snap my spine.

She eventually loosens her grip and I give her a raised brow in reply to her sudden hug. She blushes and giggles nervously as she sets me back on my cushion.

"We apologise, Sir Carl... But we couldn't restrain ourselves," she tells me sheepishly.

"It's fine, no harm done. And besides my spine nearly breaking, it felt nice. Haven't had a hug for a long time," I reply with a smile. My voice sounds younger and higher in pitch now.

Amore then goes wide eyed as if remembering something. "We forgot to mention that Princesses Celestia and Luna shall be attending as well shortly..." she tells me with an apologetic smile.

"What?" I ask with a frown at the thought of them both.

Before she could answer, the door opens up and in walks Celestia and Luna, each with a small escort of guards wearing different coloured crystal armour and with normal fur, not crystallised. It’s like they have the timing down to a T.

Luna looks at me before going wide eyed and also squealing like Cadenza did at the sight of me before she rushes over.

If she thinks she's going to get a hug from me then she can think twice.

I quickly change to Fenrir and howl loudly, making her scream in fright again, as well as the others as she trips over before scrambling back onto her hooves and running behind Celestia.

I frown at both of them and return back to Ratatoskr, then I sit back on my cushion while maintaining my frown. I can already feel my appetite fading at their presence.

"Was that necessary?" Celestia asks with a glare while Luna is cowering behind her.

"If your sister thought she'd get a hug from me, then she thought wrong. I'm still quite angry at what you tried to do before," I reply trying to sound intimidating, but it's not very effective looking and sounding like this.

She doesn't reply but instead she and Luna sit at the opposite end of the table. I turn my stare to the table and my mood is completely ruined.

"We asked them both to come and hopefully start afresh," Amore tells me and I glance at her unhappily.

"They tried to violate my privacy as well as my memories and expect to give nothing in return," I tell her and look back at the two sisters. "If I wanted to see everything you've done in the past, would you let me? I'm sure you've both done things you're not proud of, or done without others knowing it was you under the pretence of the greater good," I tell them both.

I notice Luna looks sadder at that while Celestia barely winces. Yeah, that's what I thought.

"So unless you're willing to let me rummage through your heads, you stay out of mine. I won't be so kind next time I find either one of you in there," I say the last part specifically to Luna who looks away.

I can see Celestia getting angrier before seeming to snap.

"Enough of this farce! We knoweth that thou hast come into contact with Discord as we can sense his magic within thee!" she shouts at me.

My eyes widen at that. His magic is lingering within me?

"It seems thee dost know Discord," she then says and before I could reply, six different coloured perfectly cut gems each with a different colour of the rainbow appear around her head in a flash of light and they start spinning around her horn as it and they start to glow.

I don't know how, but I can just feel power radiating from them and her as it builds up quickly.

"AUNTY!? WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!?" Cadenza yells angrily and her horn lights up as well which is making the gems slow down slightly but not stopping them.

"We shall seal him away just as we did to Discord! We shalt not let one of his puppets roam free to continue his reign of terror and chaos!" she replies to Cadenza.

I quickly change back to Janus and make a portal below me just in time as a prismatic beam of energy blasts right at me. I fall through the portal and come out right above Celestia with anger in my eyes as I fall on top of her, knocking the wind out of her due to my heavy metallic ass landing on her back. She falls to the floor and the gems clatter around us as I roll off her to her left.

Her beam of light hits the wall and blows a hole right through it. Seal me away huh? More like blow me to bits.

I quickly change again to Geb, Egyptian God of the Earth. I'm made out of stone with a floating torso with two floating rocks as my upper arms with a carved stone obelisk on each one and more stones make up my legs. I hold my left rocky hand out, which is now a solid piece of floating stone with six chunks of stone acting as two fingers and a thumb, and the gems being a mineral react and fly over to me. I grab them and try to use them myself, but eyes widen as they slowly sink into my arm as I can feel power flooding me.

The six gems then appear on my floating left forearm kinda like a bracelet and start glowing.

"WHAT HAST THOU DONE!?" Celestia demands very angrily.

"I don't know what these are, but if you thought I'd let you use them on me, then you're just stupid," I reply slowly and deeply similarly to Ymir.

"Return those immediately!" she tells me and I frown at her.

"I correct my statement... you are stupid. If you think I'll give these back just so you can use them against me again, then you must think I'm dumber than you," I say and the gems detach and start spinning around my arm.

I grin and feel the power building up making Celestia's eyes widen in disbelief.

"Impossible! Only those with pure intentions may wield the elements!" she yells in confusion.

"Is that so?" I reply and release the energy. I intentionally miss her by inches and hit the wall where the energy just dissipates on contact, doing no damage at all.

I huff and release the gems and they clatter to the floor for a second time. Seems these are only strong if the wielder is willing to use them offensively. At least I think so since I didn't want to kill her, so they just released the energy as light I think... Then again I could be completely wrong.

With a frown I start making my way to the door getting Celestia to snap out of her stupor.

"Where art thou going!?" she demands and I growl in a gravelly tone.

"Away from your insane ass! I came here expecting a nice meal and maybe someone to talk to! Instead I get attacked by a psychotic horse who thinks she knows what's best for everyone and can judge anyone she meets straight away!" I roar back at her enraged.

Her eyes widen as I stomp over to her and get into her face. "I'm new to this world. Yes, Discord helped me get here! But right now I'm just trying to find a place to fit in! And it appears that it isn't here!" I tell her and without warning, I grab her horn and pull her head into mine making her yelp in pain and my stone eyes glare into her surprised ones.

"I'm only going to warn you this one time, Princess. Leave me alone or I'll snap off your horn, shove it up your ass, and pluck all of your feathers and use them for a pillow!" I threaten her and push her away making her trip over.

With my piece said, I look over to Amore. "You shouldn't have invited them... then maybe we could have had a civilised conversation," I tell her sadly.

She also looks ashamed at what happened.

"Yes, perhaps we expected too much from them," she replies and bows to me. "Please, allow us to at least thank thee for saving our Empire from Sombra. Thou art welcome here whenever thou wishes to visit," she tells me with a bow.

I smile at her as Celestia stands back up and levitates one of the gems in front of her with a look of thought on her face. Luna though is hiding behind her guards who look on edge and seemingly ready to attack me. But the crystal guards look angry at both of the Princesses more than at me.

"I may do that, but not any time soon I think," I reply and change into Mercury, the Roman messenger of the Gods.

I'm now a nimble but still fit looking guy wearing roman style leather armour and golden trim. My helmet covers my cheeks but leaves my chin exposed, it also has two metal wings, one on each side near my ears. My sandals have a small white feathered wing on the side that flutter a couple of times before just lazily moving about.

Cadenza quickly gets up and flies over the table to me, rears up on her hind legs, and surprises me as she wraps me in a hug with her forelegs and wings.

"We thank thee for saving our mother and empire... We thought we lost her and our home," she tells me and sniffles a little.

I smile slightly and pat her on the back. "You're welcome, I do hope to see you and your mother again someday. But for now, I think I'll go and explore for a bit," I reply and she lets go after one more squeeze.

Before anyone could say anything else, I run out the Crystal Castle and back to my igloo in just under five seconds. The world felt like it slowed down as I passed the little crystal ponies in the streets. I even spotted one who looked like she was about to trip so I placed a large pillow I found outside what looked like a cafe so she would land on it.

I then facepalm realising that I don't have any proper possessions to take with me.

I exit my igloo and look around, apart from the City there's nothing. After a shiver from the cold, I decide to pick a random direction and start running whilst yelling. "Gotta go fast! DUU DU DUU DU DUU!"