Chapters View Online
The Godking is NOT Amused
Artifacts of Immeasurable Power are not amusing
It felt like he was being squeezed through a tube and he could feel his connection to his followers being cut off, reducing the power of his divinity from an overgod, to a greater deity. He could also feel the laws of life slipping from his grasp, he grasps with metaphysical senses, clinging to any thread he could in the hopes it would keep him in place, but all he managed was tearing a piece of it with him.
Soon, he was no longer being squeezed, but he was falling. He could arrest his development with his wings, but his anger needed to be taken out on something. Space debris impacted Alvaris all the time, with the planet no worse for wear. His body, forged from the flesh of a Champion, and refined farther with his divinity was tougher than adamantium and would be fine impacting a planet.
A corona of heat formed around him as he wrapped his wings around himself. He could see the landscape through the flames just fine. What intrigued him was the city built hanging over the side of a mountain, not on it, hanging off the side, with the heaviest building, the castle, the furthest from the mountain. A feat of engineering he hadn't seen since the forges of the secret Dwarven City.
He soon impacted the ground, his angle causing him to travel several miles before the earth arrested his momentum. He stood up, the dirt and stone of this world was quite solid, more than his own.
It seems he had some luck, for he was outside of a quaint town. While all the bright colors were unusual, he was a near-omnipotent being, a different color palette wasn't going to unnerve him. Speaking of near omnipotent...
The strand of his reality's laws of life was still within his metaphysical grasp, and he released it. One of two things would happen, either it would leave to rejoin the laws he plucked it from, showing him the way back home in which he would rain all his fury against the wizard. Or the law would attempt to merge with this reality's, it would make his life harder, as this reality would most likely become aware of him, and try to reject him, but he would gain some of his powers back.
He sighed as he felt the laws merge, it wasn't what he wanted, but he'd live with it. He felt eyes on him, even though he knew nobody was watching him.
With the merge, knowledge arrived to his mind, the types of being living in this reality along with their biggest accomplishments and failures. It seems the area he landed himself in was occupied by sentient mini equines. They seemed to put quite an emphasis on working with others, a peaceful race, like the elves before the humans betrayed them.
He contemplated changing his form to fit to these peaceful equines, before deciding against it. They were a peaceful race, and as long as he didn't harm them, their immortal rulers wouldn't try to vanquish him.
He began walking, the dirt and ashes literally sliding off of him, perks of being a divine entity, it was impossible to become filthy.
Upon reaching the town, he found it deserted. He could have sworn he had seen the figures of the mini equines from afar. Soon, a sextuplet of what appeared to be mares appeared before him, He studied their forms as they walked up to him. five of them wearing necklaces, he could see the sixth, a purple unicorn, similar to the kind in his reality, only smaller and more pastel, wore a tiara. Each of the gems in their accessories was reminiscent of the tattoos upon their flanks.
Veretus had plenty of experience crafting artifacts. Some of the greatest weapons in his reality were forged by him, some while he was still near mortal. He could tell artifacts of immense power when he saw them, he just couldn't tell what they did.
The sextuplet stopped before him, and he knew there was going to be a small problem when the purple unicorn among them spoke. It wasn't that he couldn't understand them, his connection to life allowed him to understand all languages, but their language wasn't meant for a human-like body, being a series of vocal ranges a trained mortal could probably make, but not him. He would have to cheat.
"What are you and why have you come to Ponyville?" The purple unicorn asked politely, It seemed that they were going to try diplomacy, good.
He prepared his divinity, It was much smaller not being surrounded with faith from Alvaris, around only 5 percent its normal size. This was still enough to cover this entire town in his divine domain if he spread it thin. He spread his divine flame towards the ponies, Hoping none of them currently had Detect Magic cast, and if they did, wouldn't assume he was attacking them.
The two unicorns among the six recoiled, unfortunately, aside from the purple one with a six-pointed star flank tattoo, there was a while unicorn with three diamonds for hers.
"Ready up, let's take him down!" The purple unicorn yelled panicked.
He stopped spreading his domain, if they were about to attack, he would need it thick enough to defend himself from whatever these artifacts would do, Just because he had the hardest body in the universe, didn't mean there were ways around it. Magical weapons for one, and artifacts counted as the most potent of those.
The group began to glow, a tendril of light linking the artifacts together. He would interrupt them, but he had no idea if the glow surrounded them was just for show, some creators liked their magic items to be showy, or if it would actually harm him. Soon, a rainbow beam spread out from the group, before striking him.
He could feel it, something was searching his soul, his experiences, his body, trying to find fault with him, it found none with his body, an entire ecosystem of itself, Impervious to any malady. His soul, despite being created by the equivalent of a Fallen angel, was pure, his love of life suffusing it.
Which left his experiences. It started at the beginning, seeing his original purpose, to rule over the immortals with his brother, soon following his previous incarnation's fate. He wondered if the artifacts were sentient, as they recoiled from his memories of the first Demonic invasion, at the betrayal he suffered at the hands of mortals when they locked him in the abyss fighting twelve demon lords and losing.
His fall from grace and subsequent birth, he could tell it was not enjoying the death it was seeing, but that was the law of his reality, might made right, and violence was everywhere.
He could tell it was debating what to do, it first seemed to try to petrify his body. That failed, his divine flame made him impervious to most transmutation. It seemed to try to send him somewhere, he didn't know where, but like before, he refused to leave this spot. It tried to attach itself to his powers, trying to suppress them? take them away? it didn't matter, his Conviction was forged over several lifetimes of war and betrayal. And unless they broke that, his divinity would only leave him when he was dead.
While it was slightly interesting seeing a foreign reality's magic, he grew tired of this. He flared his divinity, forcing the rainbow light to separate from him, until the rainbow died down, before dying altogether, the artifacts seemingly spent.
The wearily small equines opened their eyes, hope shining in them before despair seemed to creep in. He pondered on how quick the two could interchange, he only experienced despair once, when his son Galzreig had died, for ten long years he grieved, blaming himself.
As much as this was a distraction from his rage, it was time to sort this matter out. Transforming his body to facilitate communication would take too long since he had to use the thread of life, at least long enough for these equines to try something else. So forgoing trying to act non-threatening he quickly spread his divinity out, surrounding the mares with its warm embrace.
Be not afraid... Ponies, yes, I believe that is your species' name, I am the Godking of my civilization, and the foolish actions of a headstrong wizard has stranded me here.
He could tell they were relaxing already. He knew a bit about equestrian practices, and he assumed the mannerisms of these mares were similar to normal horses.
It would be mightily appreciated if you would guide me to your immortal rulers, in the absence of a way to return home, I wish to discuss with the figures closest to godhood here.
Twilight barely heard what the strange biped with six wings had said, the strange fire which she thought was an attack earlier was just... So warm . Like the feeling when Princess Celestia would praise her, or she passed a test with all answers correct, even the extra credit ones. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she felt like this was wrong, obviously, something was wrong, but this warmth was right, so was she wrong?
"Canterlot..." The purple unicorn intoned softly like she was falling asleep. Veritus was worried, that was usually not the response after having just failed to eliminate him.
Did these ponies never feel the presence of an actual diety? or did this reality have no concept of divine sparks? He retracted his divine domain. As he did so, he could see them come to their senses. The orange pony, no wings or horns on her body, and three apples as her flank tattoo spoke up.
"What in tarnation, it was like I was a filly in ma grandma's hooves again."
"it felt like a hug from my animal friends..." That was from the yellow pegasus, three butterflies as a flank tattoo.
"Uh-huh, uh-huh, it was like I was throwing a party for all my friends, all at the same time!" the other pony without any extra features said, a flank tattoo of three ballons. Thankfully, their confusion had given them enough pause to allow Veretus to transfigure his voice.
"Apologies ponies. I did not expect that your deities would not have a divine flame, and thus you would never have experienced the feeling of a domain before." He said with full sincerity.
"Deities?" the orange mare asked in her twanging accent.
"Divine Flame?" The White unicorn asked.
"Domain?" the purple unicorn finished.
He sighed. quite a curious bunch, but he was in a hurry.
"While I would enjoy answering all your questions, your Immortal rulers are who I truly wish to have a discourse with."
"Now hold on just a minute!" The scratchy voice of the blue pegasus, their flank sporting a tattoo of a cloud spitting out a low detail rainbow lightning bolt. "We're not taking you anywhere, first you crash down from the sky without a scratch on you, cool, but then you come into town and scare everypony and you didn't have something bad happen to you by the elements? No way are you seeing Celestia and Luna."
"Rainbow!" The rest of the gaggle of ponies yelled at the blue one.
"So your immortal rulers are called Celestia and Luna? Interesting. Now if you would please direct me towards them."
"We might as well Twi." The orange mare sighed.
Their immortal rulers were ruling from Canterlot, the feat of architectural engineering he could see hanging off the mountain even now. He was guided onto a colorful train that would take him there.
The trip reminded him of the one he took all those years ago to the peace talks with the Storm Kingdom. A land whose artificers were one of the best, led by a storm giant. The train back then was faster, however, crossing under the sea between their two continents in 10 hours.
All things must pass, and when the demons broke free from the seal he had made and started slaughtering the world, the Storm Kingdom fell like the rest.
Just another failure of his.
The Godking is NOT Amused
Twenty Questions is not amusing.
Author's Note
This was a fun one to write, Kept imagining all the things Celestia wished to do with this stranger who seems to give only passing courtesy that he is in her kingdom. you can just Taste the politics in this chapter... Tastes like burnt toast.
Edit: also, since I'm insane and love making stat blocks, here's Celestia's .
Twenty Questions is not amusing.
Turns out Celestia did not in fact demand her servants to make that cake, instead she had them served tea and small sandwiches.
Unfortunately, even if Veretus needed to eat, these sandwiches would do no such thing for his appetite, they were smaller than Celestia's hoof.
That does not mean he did not eat the platter that was placed in front of him. It had been the first time he ate in a little over a thousand years, the last time was before the Godsfall. Even so, he never thought he would be eating hay, because that is what was on the sandwiches.
They were seated in another luxurious room, the table a large rectangle with two chairs on each of the shortest sides instead of the one he was used to from his time as a mortal king.
He was obviously seated at the longest side of the table, nearest to the edge Celestia sat. While proper etiquette would demand he sat at the other end, nothing since the start of the day said proper etiquette would be needed or wanted.
The table had no chairs, only cushions, so he sat on his knees on the cushion. The table barely reached his shoulders when fully sat, so he also had to lift himself a bit.
When Celestia was finished, she levitated a napkin to her mouth and wiped. He would have to learn how she did that. He obviously couldn't fully replicate the spell, he was not a wizard, he could not even cast the spell mage hand. But what he could do was cheat with his Domain.
"I suppose you would not be averse to me asking questions while we await your sister's awakening?" He had spoken up. He had questions about this world, and using his connection to the laws of life here could only get him specific information. What species lived here, what their core beliefs were, how the species functioned, etc. It would not tell him anything about what knowledge they have accrued, inventions, or even much of how their society functioned.
"I suppose if you answer mine, twenty questions then?"
"Twenty questions?" He asked, having not heard this phrase.
"We take turns asking questions, you won't have to worry about repeating your answers to Luna, I'll fill her in." She replied calmly, a stark contrast from earlier, in which she was off balance and stuttering.
"I suppose that seems appropriate then, do you mind if I ask the first question?" At her nod, he continued. "What are the markings on your flanks? all I know is that they have something to do with your skills."
"We refer to them as cutiemarks, they can perhaps be referred to as the destiny on our flanks, or our special talent. Mine for instance is controlling the sun, which would have caused the extinction of magickcraft if I hadn't come along."
"That was two answers."
"I suppose it was." She pursed her lips. "It is now my question though, what is your name, and why are you here." She said the honey in her voice couldn't distract him from the icy edge behind it. The queen of dragons had tried the same trick, as well as his brother. If he didn't give a satisfactory answer, he was sure she would try to attack him on the spot. Try being the keyword.
"I come from what I suppose is a different reality, since all signs point towards it." He paused, thinking about what all he should say before deciding the entire title should be what she would want. "I am Godking Veretus, God of Might, Dragons, and Vindication, Lord of the Planes, Jailer of the Abyssal Sea, Overgod of Alvaris, and Half-Champion. I was sent here by a cheating wizard who had somehow found a scroll that could somehow banish a being of my power."
"However, that was two questions, I think I now deserve to ask two now." He smoothly transitioned, getting the hang of the game. "If you and your sister are not truly immortal, is there a being that is?"
"Discord..." The name hissed from her lips. "A draconequus, and self-proclaimed god of chaos... But do not think he'll be any help, he delights in harmful pranks and is the worst of the worst."
"Then my second question shall be how did he earn this much ire from you?"
"He is... Childish, true, but he manipulates reality on a whim. He has done some terrible pranks that to perform on a pony are unforgivable. Removing a unicorn's horn for laughs, delighting in pranks based off of a pony's fear." Celestia only now sucked in a large breath.
"He seems tame."
"TAME!?" She shouted, putting her hooves on the table as she stood up. "How is he tame!?"
He ignored her outburst.
"The trickster gods that existed before the Godsfall would do much worse than preying on your fears. Two lovers, only to realize they are on opposite sides of a conflict, sending adventurers on quests that span most of their mortal lives, only to realize it was all a sham at the end. I once heard of one posing as a man's wife for years before pretending to be killed by his neighbor. The man then killed his neighbor in perceived retribution." Veretus explained like it was common for trickster deities to do these things.
"That also counted as your question, so my turn again."
"But-"
"How do you perform magic? More specifically, that telekinesis you used to consume your meal."
Celestia took a few deep breaths. Before sitting down and answering the question.
"Every pony has magic inside of them which they use naturally. Earth ponies- those without wings or horns, usually are stronger and have a better connection to nature. Pegasi use their magic to fly, and unicorns, thanks to the horns on thier head, allow them to use magic with the proper intent and training." By the end of it, Celestia had sounded like she was giving a lecture to a student, rather than the powerful entity he was.
"Hmm, so intent, similar to sorcerers..." He muttered. Celestia began to open her mouth to ask a question before she was halted by Veretus' cup floating in the air, the multicolored shifting hue belying his elemental affinities as the god of all dragons.
"H-how are you doing that?! You don't have a horn! Unless you were lying about not being from our world!"
"Simple, you said that magic to you ponies was just intent and training. A god only needs intent to change the world around him, so I extrapolated how to use my own powers of divinity to perform magic... It seems your laws of magic are much looser than mine is." He set the cup down at the end of his explanation, where it promptly turned into a pile of shattered material. It seemed he was holding it together with his magic after using too much force to lift it.
"That was your fourth question. Be careful Celestia, you only have six left before I end this game." He began, his tone brokering no argument from the mare. "Now, I have nowhere to go, and traveling for obvious reasons would attract attention, I will ask if I may stay within your fortress."
"I-that... That would be delightful Veretus." Celestia lied through her teeth, he could tell she was used to an entire world relying upon her, and here he was, a being displaced from his home, and he showed no indication of being lost or worried. It upset her for some reason.
"Now, how were you viewed by your subjects back in your world?" Celestia's horn glowed at this question. He ignored that.
"By the mortals? As a king who would gladly lay his life down for them. By the immortals? A thorn in their side that would destroy them without a moment's notice if they tried to pull it out."
"So then-"
"It is my turn to ask Celestia, how long have you lived?"
"One thousand one hundred and thirty six years." She impatiently answered back. "If you were the king of both of these factions, why did you suppress the immortals?"
"Because since the mortals were first born from the Lover and Deceiver, the immortals have always sought to control and use the mortals, who have infinite potential, unlike them, who were created by the two previously mentioned for a singular purpose. this was what the entire Godsfall was about."
"Now Celestia, what is your currency? If I am to be stuck here I may as well earn some. Regardless of my lack of need for amenities."
"Bits," she materialized a golden coin with a sun on one side and flipped it over in her magical hold to show the other side, a crescent moon. "This is a newly minted one, and is made out of gold plated electrum."
"How did you become king?" Celestia let out her questions quickly, most likely afraid he'd make her waste more of them.
"The previous king was murdered by one of his two sons, my son had recently became the city's guardian, and as the guardian's handler, a title which made more sense when the city was protected by a Large Roc. We had no idea which son had committed the murder, so my companions tricked me into performing a ruse to make me king, and promised it was only till we could put the rightful prince on the throne. I had once owned a sentient sword by the name of Void, who would shock whoever was not the rightful wielder with lethal force." He paused, looking wistfully back at the past.
"We had a legend about a king drawing a sword from the stone proving his right to rule. So Greesh, a small goblin- hm. green humanoid about as tall as my waist pretended to find some records about this succession right. In which we then set it up, After several months we still found no proof of which prince had done this, so I officially sent both of them out to perform a hundred good deeds. It was only after that we had found out the Dragon Queen had promised to bring back the Prince's mother if he killed his father, a despicable act of deception. By then, I had already started halting a war which was draining our precious resources and began fixing the food deficit, and many citizens had already seen me as their true king."
Veretus recollected himself before asking his question. "I myself admit to becoming king through unusual circumstances, but might I question how you became princesses?"
It was her turn to look slightly wistful before she hid the expression. "After a certain point, the sun no longer would naturally move by itself, so a unicorn by the name of Starswirl the bearded had to collect a group of unicorn archmages to lower and raise the sun. This would cause all participants aside from Starswirl to be unable to use magic in the future. Eventually, I and my sister came along, and I had the ability to lower and raise the sun with little effort."
"Is murder a common solution where you come from?" Celestia asked nonchalantly, but Veretus could feel the dagger behind them. If he answered in the affirmative, she would most likely try and fail to attack him. And being hated by one of the diarchs of this land would not help him avoid the world's notice.
"Before I answer this, I must explain a bit about where I come from first. Alvaris has had a history of violence dating back even to when it was first created. The first Immortals, the Elementals, had warred upon its surface for a hundred years before the lover and deceiver had stopped them and punished the Champions who had allowed them to destroy the paradise they had made to galavant in. Next, the Lover and Deceiver fought for intervening in each other's creations, causing the birth of mortals and other monsters. Next with infinite potential, also comes the potential for violence and even war. Even the Peaceful Elves could not resist this temptation when betrayed by the humans. Eventually, the demons, made to enforce the laws that the immortals would be ruled by, decided that as the strongest and most Numerous of the immortals, they would conquer Alvaris. My brother wished to do nothing about this, I wanted to do everything about this. So I abandoned my seat of power and helped the mortals in their war of Survival." He paused. He could continue explaining their history, but he had already given up a lot of information.
"Is it a common solution? yes, mainly as a last resort. a monster isn't going to listen to reasons why they shouldn't eat you, and talking things out is just as common amongst the mortals."
Veretus could tell she was thinking, so he posed another question to distract her. "if you are not a true Immortal being, then I must ask, what are you? you have the features of all three different ponies you mentioned earlier."
"my sister and I are Alicorns, with the power of all of ponykind." she left it at that.
"If you are a king, why do you wear armor and wield a sword?"
His Ichor ran cold. Had she just insinuated that he was a coward? That all Kings were merely content to sit safely behind their armies?
"I wear this armor, and wield this sword in defense of my people, whether that would be the Mortals or the immortals. I will and have died for them Celestia, I have lost my life for them, I have given up my mortality for them, I watched my son die for them! Do not ever insinuate that I will not sacrifice everything for those I wish to protect!" he was standing, when did he do that? He was not angry, no, he was merely seething at her audacity to judge him. They stared into each other's eyes, his smoldering orbs, and her violet ones.
"Is tis' a bad time to gather the break and fast?" a voice came from the doorway, breaking their staring contest as they both looked at the dark blueish purple Alicorn that had just entered.
The Godking is NOT Amused
Immortal Combat with Lunar Mares is amusing
The sister of Celestia bypassed them, Ignoring
"Ahem, no dear sister, we were just conferring with a visiting Monarch." Veretus applauded her smooth transition, she truly had the skill to make what was about to turn into an all-out fight seem to be a minor disagreement.
The Lunar Diarch, her identity obvious both from the way Celestia addressed her and her cutiemark, a black splotch of night sky with a Lunar moon in the center, that and the fact she was an alicorn. She hummed at Celestia's words, and Veretus had no idea if she believed her sister or not, before ringing a bell.
"We are thinking that we might indulge in the fluffery that is Pancakes this night." she commented off-hand. Entirely unconcerned with Veretus being in the room.
"While we wait upon our servants to fetch us this fluffy goodness, may we ask what thou art monarch of?" Luna, he remembered her name was, asked of him. He returned to sitting down, Celestia's transgressions forgotten now that he had a new conversation partner.
"I am Godking Veretus, Ruler of the Planes of Alvaris, or another reality in simpler terms. I have been trapped here by a wizard who had cheated my challenge of combat by banishing me here somehow."
"Challenge of combat? Thou art a fighter then? We suppose the armor and sword make sense now. It is rare to see one who revels in the thrill of fast-paced action like us these days." she nodded at the end, floating a fork and knife in her dark blue telekinetic grip as what she called pancakes was delivered by what Veretus assumed was a servant.
"And Godking? thou art king of a theocracy which worships you as a deity then?"
"No, I am a true immortal deity, like this Discord your sister mentioned. While I do not possess the same reality-bending powers as him, my power lies in my domains of Might, Dragons, and Vindication."
she shook her head confused after swallowing a bite. "Thou art a god of Vindication? How does that work?"
"The mortals believe that any action undertaken or approved by me is justified and right. That is enough to form that particular domain."
Celestia by the side looked miffed and off-put by the fact her sister was conversing so smoothly with him.
"And God of Dragons? Thou looks nothing like a dragon except for your wings, what pray tell is the story behind it?" She asked after swallowing another bite.
"When I was still a mortal, or rather I suppose I was in the transition period of becoming a Demigod since I was regaining my previous incarnation's memories before we diverged, my kingdom went to war with the Queen of Dragons. She was the Goddess of all evil dragons and was the cause of the previous king's death through manipulation. After a long-fought battle, we finally killed her, and before she could resurrect, I stole her divinity and took it as my own. When the Godsfall happened, an event in which my brother killed all the gods and stole their divinity in a misguided attempt to become a champion, the King of all Good Dragons was killed, and I became the sole dragon diety left." He shrugged.
"Our condolences, we are sure the events you just described brought you much hardship." she dipped her head for a few seconds. Veretus felt much better about this Diarch than Celestia, she seemed more accustomed to hardship than the Solar Monarch.
"Enough about myself, your sister and I had just finished a discussion about ourselves, perhaps I may learn more about you? For instance, most of ponykind is averse to violence, yet you did not flinch when I mentioned death." At his question she shrunk into herself, seeming unsure.
"Enough, you do not-"
"nay, sister, we- I must own up to it." Luna interrupted her sister's outburst. "While the ponies have had near a thousand years of peace, we have been trapped on the moon for that time due to my own folly. We had mistakenly believed that we were invisible, not only to the public, but to mine sister's eyes. that we were not being given our rightful dues. Perhaps my fears were true, perhaps they were merely paranoia, but we had... Fallen to our fears, and became a creature of darkness called Nightmare moon, who wished to bring Eternal Night." she looked down in guilt, her sister put a comforting wing over Luna's withers while glaring at him.
"I understand, that pain of falling, of no longer believing in yourself... I was the first Angel to fall from grace in my reality." He spoke softly, the memories still painful after a thousand years.
Both mares looked at him surprised, probably expecting a different reaction.
"Be glad you were stopped Luna, My own circumstances... Caused even more destruction and pain since I was left unchecked. My own pain at being betrayed by the mortals, surrounded by eight beings of equal power to me, and the hopelessness and powerlessness I felt... I wanted to die, and take all of reality with me." He chuckled, it rang hollow throughout the room. "Angels are beings of Law and Belief, when those give way to despair... An Angel falls, and I was one of the most powerful, made directly from the essence of the Lover and Deceiver, two cosmic entities even more powerful than this Discord. I became the Champion of Death and began plotting not only my own demise but that of Alvaris itself. And when the Lover returned, if she returned, that of the immortals in her rage. Now Alvaris is a Demonic Wasteland because of me."
Luna shrugged off her sister's touch before standing up. "fight us."
"Sorry?" He looked at her, she had a serious expression on her face.
"Fight us, thou art a warrior correct? We find that our frustrations, despair, and melancholy are banished after a fight where it is only you and your opponent. So fight us, and let us learn more about each other through our Hooves!" She reared up before slamming a hoof on the table to emphasize her point. The last time Veretus had fought for the sake of fighting had been... never actually. It was always a matter of saving lives, either those of others or his own, or training. He did not even hold back when training his son... Putting those memories away before he got caught up in them, he answered the mare's challenge
"I must warn you, I have never... sparred before, I do not know if I can hold back."
She snorted at him. "We would expect nothing less than full power, only when you lose yourself in the thrill of battle will your frustrations leave. And healing magicks have come a long way from our day, so as long as we do not kill each other, any injuries will eventually heal."
Celestia looked like she was about to protest before her sister gave her a withering stare. He guessed she needed this as much as she thought he needed it. And to be honest... Veretus was not averse to this, his power was weakened, and this meant perhaps she might actually give him a challenge. Something he had not had in a thousand years since facing his brother.
Luna led them out of the dining room before finding the nearest balcony. She turned back to look at him. "We hope those wings are not just for attracting mates!" she chuckled before spreading her own and flying off. Veretus spread his six wings, a powerful flap of his sending him flying after her.
They only stopped when they were on the other side of the mountain from Canterlot. Luna's horn glowed before she was engulfed in full Aqua-colored plate armor. A sword as large as her in her telekinetic grip.
"We hope thou art ready for thine butt to be kicked!" She shouted over the winds they were kicking up with their wing beats. He moved first. His six wings propelled him faster than her singular pair. His sword was a blur as he attacked, causing trails of blood and sparks to fly through the air. He felt her magical aura trying to freeze him.
She was surprised at his speed, which allowed him to get his hits off, but even being attacked she was smiling, her horn glowing brighter as the area descended into darkness. He could still see due to his ability of Truesight, he assumed Luna had a way to as well.
She retreated with a flap of her wings, moving so deceptively fast that he had no chance to get an opportunistic hit off before she merged with the darkness, making it impossible to tell where it began and she ended.
His answer of where she had gone was answered as she struck him in the back with her greatsword, his armor instantly repairing itself, but not before his amber ichor splayed lazily into the air. The wound wasn't as bad as it could be, his Draconic resilience to cold preventing the chill that came with her every attack from affecting him too badly.
Her attack off-balanced him, causing him to begin falling, she trailed after him, attacking him. he only regained his balance in time to deflect her final attack.
He smiled, perhaps this was going to be fun.
In retaliation, he used his power to mark her, a power leftover from when he was the executioner and hunter of one of the old gods. Now fueled by his own power, he could feel it on her. In addition, he used his power to shield himself before raising his sword up in the air. The area was suddenly awash with light as her spell of darkness faded.
He looked up in time to see a gigantic block of stone being hurled at him, awash in Luna's magical glow. He retreated downwards to reduce the impact before using his immense strength, he reared back and stabbed his sword into the stone. It shattered into pieces as he flew through the debris.
Unfortunately, it seems this gave Luna enough time to prepare, as she deflected both of his attacks before her horn was aglow once more. He was cautious of what she was doing, was it going to be an attack spell this time?
He was not prepared for the moon's light to suddenly disappear. His effort by casting the daylight spell was ruined as she once more merged with the darkness. repeating her trick of attacking from behind him.
He couldn't dodge her first attack, the sparks in the air revealing herself rather than the feeling of his back being cut open. He was more prepared this time however, parrying two of her heavy telekinetic swings before she teleported the sword past his block and cut into his left wings.
He grunted in pain, since it wasn't on his armor, he didn't have metal blocking the massive amounts of amber blood that spilled into the air. A long gash down his wings, his draconic one almost completely severed. Ignoring the pain he beat his wings hard, causing a gale to knock Luna away, and allowing him to retreat into his daylight spell.
He put a hand on his almost severed wing and cast a healing spell, causing the leathery flesh to knit back together once more. He then focused on his sword, he could feel it lose its charge, transferring over to his reflexes.
Luna melded into the shadows, and he began to slightly smile when a beam of blue light streaked past him, his guess that she couldn't move into the light without revealing herself was correct. he parried the last three beams before realizing that the laughing sound wasn't from any spectators or Luna, but himself...
When was the last time he laughed he wondered... probably in the better days when they created the Adventurer's Guild.
He teleported above Luna, his Divine fire attacking her in a rush, trying to overwhelm her with its power. She tried to resist before she lost out to probably having never felt a Deity's Divinity, her body subconsciously locking up.
He flew after her as she fell, his sword aglow with his divine power, lighting up the night as he dived, being careful not to actually sever anything important that he would have to fix. Two slashes under her wings in her sides caused streams of blood to trail behind them before he reared back and pierced her in the lung.
She coughed up blood and fell unconscious as the blood loss no doubt finally caught up with her. He dived under her and caught her before gently spreading his Divine Fire over her wounds, causing the worst of her injuries to heal.
She slowly opened her eyes as she was met by his smiling face, lightly awash in his halo of lights. She sighed, before weakly speaking.
"While tis' was a glorious battle, we might ask that we return to the castle before somepony sees us and believes you to be trying to take over Equestria."
"I only have one more Diarch to defeat before world domination is mine." he joked, surprising himself.
she shook her head. "Two more, thou must still defeat Mi Amore Cadenza, an Alicorn who had ascended during our banishment. Thou will have much trouble against the Alicorn of love." She joked with a smile on her face.
He shook his head in mock sadness. "I can never match the power of love, not in my current state, we must retreat and find a new avenue of attack."
They both laughed lightly as he alighted upon the balcony they had taken off from. Luna was surprised that all of her injuries had already healed in the time they had flown back when he let her down.
It felt... good to laugh. While others would probably call him insane, he missed fighting, he missed the companionship of new people, or in this case new ponies. Going on adventures and delving into the deepest of dungeons. He now realized why in a thousand years he never fully became the champion of Life. It was because for almost a thousand years he wasn't truly living.
He decided then and there, World against him or not, he was actually going to live while he was stuck here, not whatever he was doing before. Which meant he welcomed whatever this world threw at him, he would continue to live until it killed him.
"LUNA!" both Luna and Veretus turned their heads to the Irate Solar Alicorn, the smiles slipping off their faces. "A. WORD." She spoke through gritted teeth before lifting her sister in her magical aura, not even giving Luna the chance to respond. She walked through a door, slamming it behind them as Luna floated inside, giving him a shrug before disappearing behind the portal.
Of course, neither of them probably knew that he could still hear them, especially since they weren't exactly being quiet
"He is a violent, dangerous self-proclaimed god Luna! He could have killed you and had no remorse about it!"
"He is not-"
"How do you know Luna! He admitted to solving his problems with murder! How do we not know he is not worse than the only other king we know? Sombra. "
The room was silent for a few seconds. Veretus thought that whoever this Sombra was, he must have been terrible to give them this impression. Eventually, Luna's voice spoke up.
"I never expected the previous Element of Kindness and Generosity to act like this. He is a creature far removed from friends and family. I understand we have had some awful experiences with kings and gods dear sister, but that does not mean we should judge all beings in good and bad." he could hear the clops of hooves on the marble floor. "Perhaps you should do some introspection yourself, because, after the battle we just had, all I found in him was a gentle soul willing to do whatever it takes."
The door opened up, he could see a stunned Celestia as Luna shut the door gently behind her.
"Now come, we believe you were promised a room in our castle, we should see that taken care of post-haste."
The Godking is NOT Amused
Wedding Announcements are not amusing
The Room Luna had set him up in was even more luxurious than the bedroom he once had as a mortal king. She had shown him the room, including the facilities when asked. He was surprised at this plumbing the ponies had invented. Luna knew little about it except it was only common in the bigger cities of Equestria.
"So why do you use thou and thees, along with referring to yourself in the majestic plural? I doubt you are speaking for your kingdom when you converse with me."
she looked embarrassed to have it called out, and he vaguely wondered if he shouldn't have asked the question.
"we- I am still adjusting to life a thousand years later. And occasionally slip into archaic dialect." she kicked the carpet lightly.
"I did not mean to cause embarrassment, I did not know that the Majestic Plural was considered archaic here. I have not been using it since I can no longer speak for all that I rule over while here." he nodded towards the bed in the room. "I suppose I should try to sleep."
"oh!" she seemed startled from her embarrassment at that. "Apologies, we will attend to our duties and let you get some rest."
She closed the door behind her as he turned towards the bed... He hadn't slept for a thousand years, he barely even knew if he could anymore. He'd have to improvise.
He first tried laying on his back, but that both pinched his wings and was uncomfortable since his wings kept his body around half a foot off the bed. He then tried to lay on his stomach, which let his wings hang off the side of the bed. His armor still made it slightly uncomfortable, but it would do.
He tried closing his eyes, but he was still wide awake and aware. He tried thinking about dreaming... Still nothing.
He sighed and sat up. While he resolved to actually live his life here on Equestria. Perhaps he was trying to act too 'mortal'. He didn't actually need sleep, but he had imagined dreaming might be a novel experience.
He opened his door, still having no idea where he was in the castle. He sought out a nearby servant, but they always seemed to disappear around a corner before he managed to get their attention.
He thought that was odd, but didn't dwell more on it before he found himself in front of the throne room once more, the dark night covering the room in a different motif.
The door was open with Luna sitting on the throne. She seemed bored out of her mind, and he could relate, he had done the same for nearly eight hundred years.
She looked up as his boots clanked against the floor.
"We thought thou was going to sleep?" She said, curious surprise in her voice.
"Majestic plural again Luna." He warned her. "But I do not actually require sleep, I merely had some epiphanies earlier today and had lost myself for the moment. You seem to have few petitioners, mind if I sit in?"
"We- I would not mind Veretus. Your company would be welcome... Few ponies come to me for help regardless." Her ears drooped near the end of her sentence. Veretus pretended to wipe some dirt or grime off the steps leading up to the thrones before sitting down.
"Have you tried being proactive in helping your subjects?" He finally questioned.
"Proactive? How would helping ponies who do not come to me for help ingratiate myself towards them?"
He chuckled at that. "Because your subjects are unsure on if you are a good ruler."
"Why wouldst they think we are a bad ruler?" She whined sadly.
"It is not that they think you are a bad ruler, it is that they are unsure of your capabilities, from what I can infer, Celestia has been helping your subjects for millennia, while you have barely been ruling for a year in their eyes." He sighed as memories of his own kingship returned to the forefront.
"When I became king, many of my subjects were reluctant to rely on me. Even though I was already a public figure known to most of them. So I rolled up my sleeves and asked my advisors what issues needed to be taken care of. I then went on to sign a peace accord with another kingdom over a war of petty significance, and thereby solving a food shortage."
"Then what do you suggest w- I do?"
He looked at her, thinking. He didn't know much about Equestria, but he doubted that they had any serious issues like his original kingdom.
"A holiday."
"Pardon?" She replied to his sudden thought.
"You need a holiday. Perhaps one after yourself and what you stand for. Every citizen, even those directly under you, enjoys a reason to celebrate with family and friends."
"Ah..." She looked reluctant. "There is already such an event coming up in a few short moons... It is called nightmare night."
Hmm, he could sense some tension behind that name... "Like nightmare moon?"
She merely nodded in confirmation and he could understand that sentiment. They had made a holiday out of her biggest moment of weakness and self-doubt.
He paused, thinking why he cared if this affected her so much... Even his two companions, Greesh and Kardak did not take up any of his empathy, the little that he had.
Then again, Greesh and kardak were mortal, and never really were anything but. They didn't know how it felt to truly fall from grace, how it felt to have all those eyes judging your every action.
But Luna... She had become Nightmare Moon, she had given in to her self-doubt and fear like him. While most of their lives were different, they both had come back from the brink of madness somehow.
"I... Will not make you attend such festivities, Luna. Mortals can be cruel with their coping mechanisms."
"No, It was my sister who invented the holiday for the ponies. Nightmare moon... I had terrorized many of them in my moment of weakness. She needed some way to lessen the pain I had caused." Luna sighed into her hoof. "You are correct Veretus, I should attend."
"We, Luna." He corrected her.
"But you said not to use- unless, you wouldst attend with me?" She looked at him with surprise.
"I will admit it is partly for selfish reasons... I have never participated in a holiday in an unofficial capacity..."
"We shall have much merriment together!" She clapped her hooves together, a smile on her face.
The room descended into a semi-awkward silence, he supposed she was waiting for an affirmative, or perhaps a cheer. But he was unused to this line of conversation and was unsure what to say or do.
The silence was broken by the sound of nervous walking. He could tell since the rhythmic sound of the pony's steps occasionally missed a beat. Both of them turned towards the entrance of the throne room, there, a dark blond stallion stood. His face conveyed how nervous he was as he walked in. They waited until the stallion reached the bottom of the raised platform the thrones were placed upon.
The pony did pause for a second when he had finally noticed Veretus. The god was impressed when he did little more than shake his head and bow towards princess Luna.
"Y- your Majesty... I-" he nearly whispered.
"Please speak louder our- my subject, so I might hear-"
"Luna!" Veretus spoke. his voice quieter than the mare's, who had blown the tapestries sideways with the force of her voice, but it echoed in both of the pony's ears and minds. "That is not how you command a subject's attention."
He felt tempted to make a joke, but this was now no longer a private conversation. Luna was the night-time diarch of Equestria, and she must appear so to her subjects and servants. While he had completely gone against that by interrupting her, he had to nip this habit of yelling at her subjects in the bud, not only would it not work for the ponies, who by nature are skittish, it would not have even garnered respect if this exact situation happened with ponies being replaced by mortals from his own reality.
"Speak firmly but gently. your subjects rely upon you for not only the land they live on, but as a leader, an inspiration, and a foe. Shouting at them, unless addressing an enemy, or a large crowd, only has them see you as a foe." Veretus spoke from experience. He had been royalty since he was first created, and these lessons were implanted firmly in the deepest reaches of his soul.
"I- ahem." Luna interrupted herself from speaking back to Veretus, focusing her attention on the pony underneath, not more confused than scared. "We apologize for the ungraceful bearing we have caused. Please, speak up so we might solve thy plight."
Veretus nodded as he noted her posture. She sat up straight, straight for a quadruped at least, her hooves firmly planted, her body relaxed as if this pony could do naught to harm her, not that he probably could anyways, but ready to spring up into combat if such an event happened. Her words were spoken gently, but not firmly, he would not fault her for slipping back into the majestic plural, it was an appropriate time to do so after all.
"Princess luna..." The stallion started off weakly, no doubt confused as to what had happened. "I had waited all day in your sister's court to resolve this before she abruptly ended her court early."
Luna gave Veretus a sideways glance, most likely knowing the reasons why.
"I've come here from Pinehoof to ask for help on an ownership issue. I've a plot a land that nopony in town has disputed was mine, so five years ago I built a well on it, it's what I use to water my crops when the weather team doesn't schedule any rain for several days."
This time Veretus looked at luna with an inquisitive glance, scheduling rain? That was as strange to him as modern mannerisms were to her. The stallion continued on, no longer paying attention to his audience of two so riled up was he.
"Then some mare by the name of Golden Carrot comes in and apparently buys the land the well is sitting on! Then she has the nerve to refuse letting me use it! My crops haven't been watered in a week your majesty, and no rain is scheduled for another! It'll take weeks to build a new well, and by then all my crops for this season will be small and unripe!"
The stallion was panting, his rage forgotten as he shrunk back, realizing he had just yelled at his princess. Truly, Veretus was looking towards Luna, waiting for what she would do. He did not know Equestrian laws.
"We will deliberate on this matter. In the meantime, we shall have one of our guards requisition a cloud for a light rain on your farm. Will you require accommodations while you spend the day?"
The stallion bowed and took Luna's offer of accommodations. Although Veretus didn't see why she needed to deli-
"We do not know equestrian policy on this." Luna turned to Veretus and spoke after the stallion closed the throneroom doors behind him.
"I do not know why you are looking at me, I am more out of time than you are." He said plainly.
"But are you not a god, can't you just simply know?" She spoke to him in a whining voice.
"No Luna, I am not the god of laws. You will have to learn how everyone else learns, through study. Or asking a legal counselor"
"Legal counselor? Oh, yes, I believe Tia has called them lawyers." She nodded sagely, like remembering this tidbit of information was her lifelong achievement.
"...Tia?" Veretus questioned.
"Oh, mine sister's nickname I have given her. I believe in private company she calls me Lulu."
Veretus shook his head, they had gone off track.
"We must aquire one of these lawyers to attend to us." Veretus steered them back onto conversation.
"I do not believe that to be difficult, we shall have one of our guards aquire one."
So it was in the morning hours that Written Ink was rudely awakened by three ponies with bat wings and fangs and promptly escorted to the castle too scared to ask anything, worried that he had performed some terrible deed accidently. It was then that he was left at the throneroom door, alone and confused except told that, "they are waiting on you."
He deliberated just turning away and going back to his comfy bed. But when he thought of those fangs and batlike wings...
So he tentatively opened the doors to find... Princess luna, and some bipedal furless creature in full armor with a large mass of wings. Both of them we conversing too silently for him to hear all the way where he was.
He took slow steps Inside. He knew that he was being silly, that princess Celestia had announced her sister's redemption, but the bipedal creature she had not. Was Luna truly consorting with demons like the contemporary controversial newspapers were spouting?
Before he knew it, Written ink stood infront of the two beings, their eyes were focused on him as he felt it was an eternity before Luna spoke.
"We have summoned you here today to ask a question on a seemingly unlawful practice."
He began sweating even more, what had he done!? Wait, she said seemingly, perhaps he could claim that he didn't know-
"A farmer has built a well on unowned property, and five years after, a mare has come and bought the property from the town and refuses to let him use the well. Is there anything this stallion may do?"
-he wasn't in trouble, he breathed a sigh of relief.
"If this stallion can truly claim to have built his well five years ago, he can claim the land around it as his own due to adverse possession. Meaning the town had sold his property without his permission."
The two monarchs looked at one another, the solution couldn't be this easy? Veretus was sure they were going to have to make a ruling that would leave one party dissatisfied, but if the law itself were on the blond stallions side...
They had dismissed lawyer and talked until Luna used her magic to lower the moon. Soon afterwards, the sun rose up. Along with the sun, the Alicorn of day, Celestia, decided to join the two at the dining hall for her breakfast. She was obviously nonplussed about seeing Veretus sitting next to Luna confusedly trying to figure out how to eat daisies.
She was most likely about to make some remark about this before the dining hall's atmosphere was consumed by a pink mare.
"He asked it!"
The mare had horns and wings, so obviously the Alicorn of Love both he and Luna had joked about yesterday. She had burst into the room behind Celestia, knocking the larger mare over. She had then started doing what Veretus assumed was a full body siezure, like when a soldier had been wacked in the helmet too hard. Her four hooves kept impacting the ground one after another in a pattern, she furled and unfurled her wings constantly, and she kept repeating the phrase, "he did it" so fast he was surprised she was still understandable.
"Auntie Celestia, Auntie Luna, he finally popped the question!" She squealed, a sound Veretus thought no creature could make, before she suddenly did a full body stop so fast he feared she might get whiplash.
"Aunties... Who is this?"
The Godking is NOT Amused
Mortal Love is not amusing.
"He's Veretus, an annoyance"
Both luna and Celestia answered the confused mare before glaring at each other.
"Sister, he is not an annoyance. He has been nothing but a help to me since he arrived."
"Luna, how could he have helped you? He rules an entire universe-"
"He still used to be a mortal ruler sister, so-"
It was at this point Veretus stopped listening to the two diarchs bicker. The reason was that the Alicorn of Love had walked around the two and was now looking at him, his plateful of flowers barely touched.
"Soooo... You and the princesses?" She nodded twice in the direction of the bickering mares. He assumed it was some sort of insinuation.
"No. While I admit that while both mares are near-immortal, and Luna has experienced what it is like to fall. Neither evokes your particular insinuation." He tried eating the daisies on his plate once more before grimacing. The flowers were really too salty.
"Please, I can practically tell that you love both of them. And while I appreciate that I'm pretty enough to invoke that feeling as well, I did just announce I'm engaged..." Veretus was confused at her words. He had not truly loved someone in that capacity since his previous incarnation.
"As the Alicorn of love, you do know there are different types of love, correct?"
"Of course, but I can clearly feel that... Your love doesn't feel like any of them! How?" She switched from calm to panicked in a heartbeat, beginning to repeat at least seventeen different types of love before shaking her head and restarting.
"You most likely would not know this feeling. It is a feeling of love for those being that are both greater and weaker than you. Like a parent seeing their subjects and hoping for the best. It is a love of all mortal kind, their flaws, their strengths, triumphs, and failures. I love everything about your kind. Which is why it hurts when I must punish evil mortals."
"That's not how love works, and the explanation barely makes any sense! You can't love everypony no matter what they do. A random stranger? How about someone trying to hurt you?" She shook her head. He just leveled his gaze at her before she looked away uncertain.
"You do not understand because you are still mortal and filled with an uncertain future. Alicorns are long-lived, yes, but I can see your tether even now, and it is not inexhaustible." He spoke calmly, like lecturing a child. Although to him, he supposed she was.
"But... You keep mentioning mortals, surely you aren't crazy enough to believe you'll never... Die..."
Her words died off as if the word was too horrible to imagine. Veretus snorted in amusement.
"I am The Godking. It is in the title. I will perish when the universe itself collapses or my divinity destroyed. A mortal creature trying to kill me? I will kill it with love in my heart, but it will pain me for extinguishing such potential. You do not know it filly, but I have already died for my love once."
"That can't be! Love makes you stronger! Not weaker!" She yelled out, making the two diarchs jump and making them pay attention to their conversation.
"Of course it makes you stronger, but it is also the most painful emotion. Nothing compares, not even the inky blackness of oblivion..."
The mare was about to argue back but closed her mouth upon seeing the Godking's eyes. She merely sat down at the table next to him before grabbing the daisies that Veretus had pushed away and drowned her confusion in food.
The two other Alicorns walked over to the table, their argument forgotten.
"Quite fitting that you'd break her." Praise be to Celestia for that remark.
As much as Veretus understood her reluctance to trust him, he disliked that he was the wedge between the two sisters.
"Celestia, I am sure that Veretus did not intend for this!" Luna exclaimed quietly. Veretus was sure the brooding pink Alicorn could still hear her since Luna had spoken from the opposite side of him.
"I did indeed mean it luna." Veretus interrupted the two mares before they could devolve into an argument once more.
"B-but, why?" Luna asked softly, her ears drooping.
"Because it was her own doing. She asked a question that she could not comprehend the answer to. She will eventually either see that I am right," Celestia opened her mouth to probably imply that he was wrong, "or find her own truth. I do not care which one she chooses, but I do hope that she finds her own." Celestia's glare died down at those words.
"And why is that?" She asked.
"Because my truth is self-destructive. I would and have given everything for my love Celestia... For it, I killed my brother... I had watched my son die for it. And my love was the reason I fell." He got up at the end of his speech, for that's what it was because he never raised his voice, never changed to a harsh tone. He then said goodnight to Luna before walking out.
It was not that he was angry at either of the three mares, but it was nearing the time Luna would sleep, and he doubted Celestia would like to go on a walk with him of all gods. He was quite tired of having only seen three rooms in this castle.
Considering he had no idea where he was going, and no servant in this castle would seem to make themselves known towards him. Oh, he knew where they were, they always hid around corners upon seeing him. He wouldn't bother them if they were not brave enough to even stick around in his presence, he wasn't in a hurry, after all, he had the entire day to wander freely before Luna woke once again.
The hallways split off and curved until he was inside of a garden. The flora was much unlike his own reality's. while the trees and shrubs were the same as the pre-godsfall plants, the flowers were different, less adapted to survive being eaten or trampled. In fact, the flowers, an eclectic mix of greens, blues, yellows, and reds almost reached out towards him, as if asking to be admired. And he would, if it wasn't for the white unicorn stallion in front of him, his eyes glaring into Veretus's with some form of misguided hatred borne of love. His cutie mark was a purple heater shield with a magenta six-pointed star in the middle of it.
"In what should be the second happiest day of her life, my fiance is drowning her sorrows in food. Tell me, in the fewest possible words, why I shouldn't kick your flank back to whatever type of place you come from?" The stallion threatened him after their silence extended on for a few minutes.
"Aside from that you do not possess the aptitude to do so mortal? The very reason you are here." Veretus spoke, he could see some other ponies leaving the garden worriedly, many of the plants had also slightly drooped from the pressure in the air. This was one of the aforementioned reasons he loved mortal kind. The Godking was giving off enough pressure to make an immortal submit and apologize for his transgressions, and this stallion was ignoring it, ignoring his instincts that he was weaker than Veretus in every way. All this, most likely because this was the soon-to-be groom of the Alicorn of Love.
"the reason I'm here, is because somepony, which is you, has nearly convinced her that loving another pony is painful! Why? Why would you do that?" The stallion spoke with gritted teeth, his horn was aglow with a purple aura, but no specific spell had yet to be cast.
"Because she is marrying you ." Veretus was tired of this, not at this conversation, not at this pony, but at this pony's denseness. "You will live a much shorter life that her, she will watch you grow old, deteriorate, and die. She will still be alive when your bones are naught but dust. And instead of reaffirming your love, convincing her that she is strong enough to love, than to never have loved at all, you are here, ready to fight a being that could swat you aside as an afterthought." Of course, most of that was lies, although now it was the truth. Veretus had no idea the Alicorn was marrying a much shorter-lived mortal, she had merely asked about his unhealthy obsession, and Veretus had no illusion that his self-destructive love was unhealthy, or bordering obsessive. Now though, he saw that she needed this lesson. In a mere seventy years, assuming no magic was wrought to extend his life, this pony would wither away and die, and the Alicorn would slowly watch it happen.
The stallion looked ashamed, before perking back up with steel in his eyes, it was the same steel he saw in each soldier's eyes when he gathered them in front of his Worldgate, ready to assault the Dragon Queen's forces. The stallion was now determined to make a difference. He ran past Veretus back towards the castle but stopped a short distance away before craning his neck behind him, addressing Veretus.
"I realize now you did this with no malicious intent... but I still can't decide if I should thank you, or hate you."
"Do neither, and make haste to your spouse stallion."
"Shining Armor, my name's Shining Armor." the stallion nodded before continuing to run off, disappearing from Veretus's visual sight within moments. The plants were once more welcoming and inviting instead of scared and fearful.
He sighed and looked up at the sun. It was still only noon...
The Godking is NOT Amused
Nightmare Night is not amusing.
The days had gone by, and Veretus learned that the ponies literally bent nature to their whims, as a testament to this, he had witnessed the still air of Canterlot become a slightly chilly breeze via pegasi and the greens of foliage had literally become orange and autumn overnight.
The stallion's issue with the well was quickly resolved after Luna informed him of the proper channels to take, and that a letter had already been sent to his mayor informing them of his plight.
Luna's grasp of becoming a proper ruler was coming along nicely, she still reverted back to the majestic plural sometimes mid-conversation, but he had also gotten her to stop her magically enforced shouting in casual conversation with lessers.
He still spent every night sitting in Luna's nightcourt, so much so that she had a seat with his proportions built. They spent much of the free time talking, which was plentiful since ponies required sleep, and very few with troubles were up at night to bother them.
The days were uninspiring compared to his encounter with shining armor, in which he hadn't seen either the Alicorn of Love or him since. Most days he simply sat in the royal gardens, which still seemed to be in eternal summer. Sometimes he would fly around high above Canterlot, observing the ponies as they went about living.
While to any mortal, it would probably sound boring and monotonous, but he was in fact having fun.
But tonight was going to be a different kind of fun. Tonight was Nightmare Night, and Luna had just woken up and told him they shall be going to ponyville, the town in which he landed outside of, and which lived the six mares which used the artifacts. Neither really dressed up for Nightmare Night, Luna because she was Nightmare Moon, and she did not want to hide from herself. And Veretus, while he could shapeshift, an aspect of his power would always reveal itself in those false forms. He also couldn't really be bothered.
"Are you sure you are ready for this Luna?" Veretus asked as they stood in front of a chariot with no wheels. While he had never seen one, chariots like this did exist in his reality, always pulled by some flying creature.
"We shall be, even if we are not presently." He could hear her nervousness. He merely nodded, Luna was braver than him. Even now, he could barely forgive himself for his fall.
They flew through the air, the carriage being pulled by two of Luna's bat-like guards. Veretus looked down towards the ground at Ponyville below. He couldn't see the line he dug through the earth with his descent anymore.
With a lurch, the chariot began a circled descent and the houses of Ponyville grew closer.
When the chariot landed the citizens of Ponyville crowded around the square, it was quite an unsubtle thing, a large vehicle landing in the busiest place of foot traffic. Luna stepped out of the carriage after taking a deep-
Hello Ponyville, we are delighted to join you in your day of revelry!
If Veretus didn't have the facial dexterity of stone, he might have flinched, Luna had just shouted louder than she ever had before. Perhaps she was more nervous than he thought? Regardless, he stepped out of the carriage, her voice had literally blown many away, with some ponies having landed on the surrounding roofs.
"Luna-"
"Nightmare moon and her dark consort! Run!" Were the words that interrupted his admonishing of Luna. His eyes snapped to the group of foals in which the words came from, the last of their group running behind a building.
Veretus knew it was merely kids doing what they did best, horsing around. Unfortunately, the innocence of childhood most often comes along with ignorance. And their words were that which broke the proverbial camel's back.
Every pony began screaming and ran off.
"Stop." Or atleast they would have if it wasn't for Veretus. His domain stretched to cover the entire town square they were in. Every pony quite literally froze in motion, his command heeded on a subconscious level.
"Thy would listen to foals of all things?" Veretus's voice came out with a sharp edge. "Your princess has repented, she has murdered her own ego more than you ponies can ever know. And still you fear her, still you deny her the right to make amends? A shame on your lineages."
The ponies stayed in place as he retracted his domain, they looked at the floor, the sky, even eachother, but they couldn't look at him.
"Veretus..." Luna looked at him with a complicated expression. He looked at her and apparently that was all that was needed as she nodded. Taking a step forward, she cleared her throat.
"My little- no..." She shook her head, remembering what Veretus had taught her, she would and could not emulate her sister. "Ponies, I thank you for listening to my royal guest, and I thank you for understanding. I have come here to celebrate this night with you all! Please?"
While being stuck here in this reality, and after observing the ponies, there was one thing Veretus learned. Ponies forgave and forgot really easily. They both forget their own faults, and others forgive them for those faults. So it was no surprise as Luna was quite literally swept up by a crowd and taken to participate in the festivities. He couldn't help but smile.
"I think that is the first expression I've seen you make." A voice returned him from his thoughts. The purple mare was standing there, looking like a stereotypical wizard, fake beard and all.
"Ah, purple mare, yes. I am glad that I can see one of us put their past behind them." He nodded, and then he noticed the small dragon standing bipedally beside her, dressed as a dragon for the festivities, ironic.
"Purple m- my name is Twilight Sparkle, and what do you mean one of us?"
"Apologies, Twilight sparkle, I'll now remember your name. I am merely glad Luna could have fun on a day dedicated to celebrating her worst moment." Luna had just dunked her head in a barrel of water in which what looked to be apples floated. Twilight had flattened her ears.
"I-I never thought of that..."
"That still doesn't answer her question." The dragon next to twilight spoke up. "What did you mean, 'one of us'?"
"Ah, in simple terms that perhaps doesn't do my crimes justice, I had gone through similar experiences as Luna, except I nearly succeeded in destroying everything. Does that satisfy the Question whelp?"
"You may not like talking about it, but that is no reason to call Spike names!" The mare piped up angrily, her embarrassment forgotten. And Veretus was confused, he had not-
"Are young dragons not called whelps here?" He asked as he realized the problem.
"You know about Dragons?!" The little dragon asked excitedly, looking up at him and interrupting Twilight's next words. He nodded towards the Drake.
"While I am sure there are many differences between my dragons and yours, I am the god of Dragons regardless."
"Oh, uh, I'm sorry your uh... How do you address a god?" The drake, Spike he believed Twilight called him, looked both worried and awestruck, a strange combination he'd seen many times on the battlefield.
"Usually something pompous and overdramatic... I do not enjoy titles. You may call me Veretus, or address me as Godking. Despite the fact I am far removed from my kingdom, apparently, Luna has decided I am visiting royalty." He shrugged. Spike turned towards twilight.
"I... Uhh... Look, I know I was- but I need to-"
"Go on Spike, the night is still young, we'll catch up later" she interrupted the drake before leaning down and whispering loudly. "Remember the notes."
The drake nodded before waving twilight away as the mare began trotting in the direction of Luna. Spike had then turned towards him.
"So... Uh..." The young dragon stammered.
"Do you wish to walk as you ask your questions young Drake?"
"Whataredragonslike!?" Spike blurted out quickly, Veretus took a second to separate his words.
"Come Spike." Veretus said as he began walking. The short dragon that barely came to his waist followed behind. "Do realize, what I share will only be about my reality's dragons."
"Your reality? Twilight mentioned that, but I just got confused?" The drake said.
"Hmm. Suppose the continent across from Equestria. Now imagine it being a near-infinite distance away."
"That's far... Sorry." The drake suddenly apologized, and now it was Veretus's turn to be confused.
"Why are you sorry? You had no part in my travel to here."
"Well, I just figured somepony should apologize for sending you so far from your friends and family..." The drake looked sheepish as he had to explain himself.
"I understand, but nobody should apologize, I was sent here by someone who cheated my challenge of combat." Veretus shook his head. "Enough about my plight, dragons were selfish and greedy creatures who saw other mortals as inferior beings" Spike began to open his mouth before Veretus interrupted the drake.
"Were is the exact word I used, and this goes back to the first demonic invasion. Back then, it took a legion commander to personally kill an adult dragon, and some dragons, nearing the end of their lifespan couldn't be felled even by a Demonlord. As this was merely a thousand years after the mortal races were first brought into existence, no dragon had yet succumbed to old age."
"How long do dragons live?" Spike asked, his voice filled with the innocent curiosity of a child.
"Nearly a thousand years spike." Veretus debated whether he should spell out what that meant to spike. His tether on life was long, and wouldn't burn out shortly. "Which means dragons in my reality have barely reached their thirtieth generation."
In the time he had said this, they had passed by at least ten ponies who had a passing remark about Veretus's 'gettup'. Whatever those words meant, Veretus was surprised at how little ponies were skittish on this night. Many in Canterlot would at least stare.
"You still haven't explained why they aren't like that anymore." Spike interrupted his thoughts in the way only a child can do.
"Be calm Spike, now, the dragons had survived the first demonic legion unscathed, many of the younger generations had perished though. This only spurred the oldest dragons to mandate that they should be tougher on those who haven't reached their venerable age. The norm after that was for wyrmlings, the term for a dragon that had just hatched recently, to be abandoned after being taught how to defend itself, although, for some dragons, it was not uncommon to abandon the egg after making sure it had all the necessities to hatch."
"That's awful! Although... I guess I understand it..." Spike looked taken aback at first before becoming withdrawn. Veretus hesitated, while telling this drake about dragons was harmless in the grand scheme of things, motivating this drake... Would probably require him to go against the destiny this world set out for him...
"Spike." Veretus was already kneeling down, one hand resting on the pommel of his sword, the other resting on Spike's shoulders. "I put that practice to end a long time ago. No being deserves to be alone like that, fighting for their survival... But it still happens. It's unfair, and I hate that."
"I built the Dragon Knights for that exact purpose spike. Because perhaps if you had a partner who could grow with you, understand you, and fight with you, the world would seem less bleak..."
Veretus looked down upon feeling a weight upon his leg. Spike had taken to hugging it in lieu of being unable to match Veretus's size and give him a proper hug.
"Thanks... But these dragon knights... Are they cool!?" The drake had done an emotional 180 so fast Veretus could only blink. And he had no idea what this 'cool' meant.
"I suppose those bound to dragons of the ice element could be considered 'cool'?" He said uncertainly. He was afraid this was some form of lingo he didn't understand.
"No, no, cool as in, you know? Awesome? Were they an unstoppable group of knights that would save princesses and beat up villains?!" The young drake was excited and made a few punching motions which would only serve to hurt himself if he performed them in actual combat.
"Then I suppose they were, although there were no princesses to save. I built the dragon Knights as the antithesis of any who would seek to harm my kingdom, an order of knights who had to learn the value of life by caring for it. Each knight hatched and raised their own dragon partner. Their first priority was to redeem any evil, their second was to punish those unredeemable, and their third was to never admit defeat! These knights would be the first into battle, and the first to perish, all so that others could live!" He turned towards spike, his wings fully spread their impressive length, his crown of horns aglow in his divine metallic lights.
"The knights bled and died for my ideals, they fought and won for their own! And they were the best marshal force I and my companions could train them to be... Upholders of justice..." Veretus had reduced his voice to a whisper, yet it still carried along far into the night. He was no longer just speaking with his mouth, he was speaking with his divine soul.
He could tell spike was lost in fantasy. Most likely imagining exactly what one of these knights looked like, although it wouldn't be that had for the drake. He had used his divinity to shape the image of them for the dragon in his words.
"Woah..." the dragon breathlessly said and Veretus could feel the metaphysical anger of the world at him. He didn't care. He knew of no conceivable way to get back, and if he had to leave a being, a child no less, in a depressive mood, he would rather be dead.
"Veretus... I know I'm not good at fighting, twilight and her friends always do all the work. all I really know how to do is sort books and help with chores..." the drake began, his claws curled up into fists. "I want to be a Dragon Knight."
Veretus looked around, they had walked to the edge of the town, the houses only lights in the distance. the darkness of the night would be oppressive if he couldn't see in it as clear as day. But finally, he stopped stalling and looked down at Spike.
"...The original knights didn't know anything about fighting either spike." His voice was a whisper, but it echoes in the empty fields. "I don't know if I can train you to be one spike, the last dragon I trained... I killed."
Spike looked up at him, there wasn't any tears, those only happened in plays, but there was uncertainty and doubt, and also that resolve, the resolve that looked so much like...
"Very well..." he finally relented with a breathy exhalation. "The custom has only appeared in the past few hundred years, but I shall nominate you as a Dragon Squire. This means that until you perform a monumental deed of good, you shall spend your days training and learning. You also would not receive a dragon egg... but seeing as you already are a dragon, I doubt that will be an issue for you." Veretus was back to his confident self by the end.
They stood in awkward silence for a moment. Veretus didn't really know what to continue that on with, this wasn't a grand ceremony or a populated plaza in which he was making a speech, he just... made Spike a squire with no fanfare in the middle of a field. Spike was silent because he was lost in his own fantasies of fighting monsters and saving suspiciously diamond-flanked white unicorns...
Author's Note
This chapter was probably going to be longer, but I already had trouble coming up with this, so here you go. As a thriller writer, slice of life is really hard to write.
The Godking is NOT Amused
Metaphysical discussion is not amusing.
"What?!"
These words echoed throughout Canterlot early the morning after Nightmare night. Those that identified the outraged voice as Princess Celestia's would privately conspire that all her precious sugar was stolen as a Nightmare Night Prank. The reality? Luna had just told her that Veretus had made Spike a knight upon the dragon's own urging. Apparently, according to laws which neither Luna nor Veretus knew of, which dated back to before the unicorns created Equestria with the earth ponies and pegasi, since Spike held no titles in Equestria, and now held the title of squire in the Holy Dragon Empire, The kingdom in which Veretus used to rule, Spike was now firstmost a citizen there, and now was a secondary citizen of Equestria.
Both of them looked at her blankly.
"This means spike is now subject to extraterritoriality in Equestria..." Still, the two looked at her blankly, Celestia sighed.
"This means spike is no longer subject to Equestrian laws unless he does something damaging to the kingdom." Still the confusion from both the Lunar Diarch and Godking.
"If spike commits a crime that is illegal here, and legal in Veretus's world, he cannot be prosecuted." The Solar Mare said with great exasperation.
"I do not think we get what you are trying to say Celestia, Spike is now a Dragon Squire, not only is he unable to do any evil in fear of having the title rescinded, Spike is a good drake, and I doubt he would knowingly commit a crime." Veretus said assuredly. He took measure of the dragon, and he knew Spike only felt unable to help.
"What if spike, in his pursuit of justice, damages property?" Celestia asked.
"Then he will pay for it, or the pony will forgive him and doesn't require it. If it is beyond his purview to pay, I will do so in his stead." Veretus assured resolutely. Celestia merely looked at him deadpan.
"With what bits?" Veretus couldn't help raising the edges of his mouth a little at this question before waving a hand in front of him. In a blink of an eye, a linen sack fell to the floor with a thud and the sound of metal clinking together. Both mares looked at him in surprised exasperation, for Veretus had just conjured their currency out of thin air.
"how-"
Both mares began saying before just falling silent.
"The ability to create is a minor trifle for the Divine Spark, I could conjure a hundred times this. It is the deities whom have domain in creation that are impressive. Nissa, the goddess of machinery, has created an entire army of clockwork golems in the time it takes a mortal to blink." And Veretus was telling the truth. His domains made him amazing at combat or settling disputes, but in other aspects he wasn't that great when compared to other deities. The two mares took their time removing their jaws from the floor. What helped with this was that the false alicorn of love had just walked in.
"Auntie Luna, you're back from holiday already?" the false alicorn asked. Veretus didn't pay attention to the two Diarch's responses, and he didn't particularly pay attention to the ensuing conversation. This Mare was fake; how could he tell? Her tether was different.
To be clear his ability to see the lifespan of creatures, or tethers as he called them, came from his connection to the law of life. In these tethers he could see approximately when they would die of old age, this didn't mean they would live that long if someone interfered, but assuming no serious harm befell them, they would die naturally then. He could also tell their current age and race from it, even when polymorphed. That last one was usually useless since few creatures ran around in disguises.
This Alicorn was both too old to be the Alicorn of love, and they were never an alicorn to begin with, they were a Changeling Monarch. Searching through the knowledge he first acquired when coming here gave him little information besides that they fed upon emotions, were an insect-like race, specialized in Illusions, and that they lived in a caste society. Workers with barely any rights were at the bottom, all the way to the Ruling class, which usually was a single monarch and their offspring.
The question was, what did they do with the real alicorn of love, and should he do anything about this? Firstmost, he felt no pressure to help out, he had already angered this world's will by making Spike a squire, doing anything about this would most like compound upon that. Second, this creature had done their homework, they acted like the Alicorn of love, talked like her, even walked like her. Veretus had no means of reverting a creature back to its original form, and without a method to do so, he would have to draw blood. The downside to that is that he had no idea if this was an illusion or a physical change, and regardless of either option, if the effect would be expelled upon loss of concentration or death.
Maybe he could-
"Veretus." The voice of Luna called out. He focused his attention on her. "Is there something on your mind? You were silent when I said good day."
"Of course, spike's training." Veretus lied with a straight face. He was the god of vindication, not truth. "Good day Luna, I shall talk with you about it when you wake."
"We still must speak about that Veretus," Celestia spoke up as Luna left the room.
"let it go auntie, I'm sure Veretus was only trying to do good." Both Celestia and the Godking looked at the false alicorn in surprise. Celestia, most likely because she remembered how only days ago Veretus had put her in a depressive slump, and Veretus because he knew this mare to be an imposter. She had no reason to step up for him, in fact, she had every reason to sow discord amongst the two rulers.
"I-" Celestia only sighed, "very well Cadence, I shall let it rest."
"Don't think I haven't noticed that you seem to like to avoid interacting with the wider world Veretus, if Spike causes an Incident, I will treat it as a diplomatic matter." the mare sternly said as she turned to Veretus, he merely nodded.
So then he set out back to ponyville. Ultimately, he decided to do nothing about the imposter. Cadence, as he just learned her name, was an alicorn, and from discussions with Luna and their fight, Alicorns seemed to be built to withstand punishment, being able to sustain themselves on their magic itself. Of course, this still brought on bodily damages, but an alicorn would be in better shape than a normal pony.
If the real Cadence was not found within a month from now, he would tell the Diarchs regardless of the future harm to him.
With this resolution, he landed outside the ponyville library, which was an oak tree, its trunk expanded to make it big enough to live in. It was still living, which made him stand there and marvel as it reminded him so much of home.
As he reached towards the oaken door, ready to enter, a flash of purple light blocked his path. When it was gone, the purple unicorn, twilight, was standing there. She was between him and the door. While he could just step around her, her glare told him that he would be attacked for his trouble. He opened his mouth and-
"No." The mare seethingly said, not even giving him a chance to say something.
"Pardon?" Veretus asked. He was confused at this hostility from her, last night she wasn't exactly cordial, but they were at least amicable.
"No, you aren't seeing Spike. I won't allow him to become some warmonger!" She shook her head vehemently at him.
"Why would I-"
"He told me everything. How your subjects beat up your criminals, how you kill them if they won't change! How much of a tyrant you are to use magic on the souls of your subjects! I won't-"
"Twilight sparkle."
Veretus said calmly, but to anyone nearby it may have been a thunderclap. He wasn't angry at the mare, but he was upset at her. She was using her own society's values to judge his own.
"Thou art not a meek peasant who believes everything their lord says, thou art twilight sparkle, student to diarch of the sun, leader of the elements of harmony, and element of magic itself." Veretus began, "and we will not suffer these blind accusations-"
"Blind-"
"Yes twilight sparkle, blind . You know nothing of our culture, of our laws and threats. Quite frankly, if any mortal from my world heard you, they'd rip you limb from limb for merely insinuating what you have blatantly said."
"Because you enslaved them!"
"Because I have given everything for them!" Veretus was now seething. His wings were fully outstretched and tensed. "I had been trapped inside a prison with no escape for them, I have killed gods, demons, and angels for them, I killed my brother for them, I have even lost my son for them twilight. do not-"
"Enough! " the childish voice of spike interrupted him. Both of them looked towards the doorway where spike was standing, dressed in a pink frilly apron. "Twilight, I asked him to make me a knight. And Veretus, please don't talk to twilight like that."
While Veretus nodded, his bubbling anger cooling. Twilight however apparently felt differently.
"But he's a killer! It's too dangerous, what if you get hurt?!"
"Then I-" spike began before Veretus interrupted him.
"Please spike." Veretus was kneeling down to eye level with twilight.
"What..?" Twilight began to ask before he pulled out his sword. Twilight reared back before he stabbed it into the hardened earth road in front of her before releasing it.
"If you truly see me as the monster you depicted me as, that I would control my subjects, and turn spike into a monster, that I would seek to impose order through any measure... Take my sword, strike me now so that I may never get back up. As a killer of millions, I would deserve it, would I not?"
He held his head down, his lack of helmet meant his neck was exposed. He didn't raise it when she took his sword in her magical grasp. While Luna's blade could barely cut into his bone, his own sword was an artifact, and would cut into his neck like a butter knife.
This meant that he was serious, he wouldn't raise his head, for he truly did think he was a monster, not for the reasons she listed, but he wouldn't end it on his own. He would continue to follow his own conviction forever as penance until someone else ended it for him.
"I- but? I can't" twilight stuttered, she was looking at him conflicted, this being that Celestia had repeatedly warned her couldn't be trusted, who came from a world of tyranny and murder, who was powerful enough to defeat both Luna and Celestia... Was asking her, a simple student, to judge him.
"Twilight..." Spike said imploringly from behind her. She barely heard him. Could she do it? Could she condemn somepony to death for unforgivable crimes? Were they crimes in the first place? Or did they just sound like it?
She looked down at spike hugging her leg. The sword fell into the ground once more as it fell from her magical grasp. She wasn't this god in front of her, she wasn't somepony who wanted to decide if he could live or die. Perhaps he liked it, or perhaps he was thrust into that position long ago, regardless...
"I can't, in fact, I won't." Twilight finally said, Veretus looked up at her, Spike smiled.
"So you have decided that I am not what Celestia, in her stubbornness, believes I am." He was about to get up when she spoke again.
"No, I have not..." She shook her head before holding a hoof out. "But I learned with my friends early on to not trust first perceptions and another's word on how somepony is... I'd like to try to be friends first."
He looked at her pausing... And he took her hoof. While she was shorter, and couldn't actually help him up, he at least gave her the illusion she was.
"Thank you twilight sparkle. I accept your offering of friendship, new as it may be to me." He bowed his head once in acknowledgment.
"Surely as old as you are you had many friends throughout time?" Twilight asked, surprised. He shook his head.
"I have had four companions in all my memories... Hm... I suppose that would mean something different here. Companions are like friends, but they fight and die together, completing quests of grave peril come life or death."
"That is... Extreme. I suppose I really can't judge your standards if your friends had to go that far..." The mare said sheepishly, Veretus chuckled.
"They would not be companions if they had to. They were companions because they wanted to. They believed in what we were doing..." He sighed sadly. "Unfortunately, time changes much, especially when you grow apart in capability and station. Or perhaps it is I that no longer saw them in the same light."
"Right..." Spike interjected. "As much as it was traumatizing to see twilight put in that position... I do have to ask, am I still allowed to be a knight?"
"Squire." Both of them said at the same time.
"Alright spike, but I'm coming with," she turned back to Veretus. "And no real weapons!" Veretus had to chuckle at that.
And that is how they found themselves at the same field from last night. Twilight at the side, three parchment scrolls and five quills in her magical grasp, each writing at the same time different observations. If he couldn't outright see she was a mortal unicorn, he would have asked her if her domain was knowledge.
Spike for the past hour had been squatting. Veretus was pretty impressed at that, and Spike had attributed it to always carrying around large stacks of books. If his balance also improved due to that, when spike grew his wings he would be an impeccable flyer.
Even with nothing going on, twilight's quills had been writing the entire hour.
Spike looked as if he was now tiring out, and truly Veretus had grown bored in the first ten minutes, but he had learned to endure hundreds of years of boredom, an hour wasn't that bad.
"That will be enough spike. Now, we will cover how a dragon fights." Spike collapsed on the ground, before getting back to his feet with a second wind at the mention of more dragon lore. Twilight summoned with a flash of magic two more parchments and seven more quills. And Veretus was seriously wondering how she multitasked that easily without cheating with magic or psionics.
"First of all. In my reality, all dragons have the ability to weaponize an exhalation of energy from their throat. This varies from dragon to dragon however, and can even be consciously trained and changed in some instances. Dragons may breathe an effect of cold, to fire, poison, and there have been dragons who have exhaled breaths of magic before."
"Well, I can breathe fire and send stuff to-"
"Hold it!" Twilight interjected, her quills writing so fast he could see the letters being blocky with too many right angles than the flowing script the ponies used. "How can a dragon breathe magic?! That should be impossible! And probably no tactical use!"
"Calm thyself Twilight. Our laws of magic are similar at the grandest scale, so this should be applicable to you two as well. Greesh, one of my companions, once told me magic is the most stable in a high energy state, of which he theorized that in this state, magic is both invisible and free-flowing. When a wizard casts a spell, they move the energy, causing magic to change to a lower state, and thus making it more malleable." Veretus looked worried at twilight, in the time it took him to say that, five more scrolls had appeared, and Twilight's writing was becoming unrecognizable in her haste to write stuff down.
"But that would take intense control and focus! you'd never be able to do anything else while casting a spell!" Veretus nodded.
"Not all of the mortals in my reality are born with innate magical power, unlike the creatures of this realm. In fact, usually, wizards have none, so instead of manipulating magic internally, they do so outside themselves, observe." Veretus helps his hand up, palm facing upwards. Soon, the air above it was filled with a small cloud of his multicolored magic. He would have been unable to do this in his own reality since whatever magic was actually composed of was much harder to manipulate there. If an actual archmage had found their way to Equestria, he feared what manner of spells they could make if they actually survived the world's retribution.
"So? that's just levi... ta... tion..." Twilight's words died in her throat as the cloud of magic soon turns into a stream of liquid that cascaded into his hand, and then down off of it. Her jaw had dropped, While she currently knew of no application of liquid magic other than as a storage medium for spells, but this. Changed. EVERYTHING!
Veretus was confused, all the quills had simultaneously stopped writing. All the utensils and scrolls were still inside her magical aura, but her eyes had gone... Unfocused. He waved a hand in front of her once, there was no reaction.
"I... think you broke her Veretus." Spike called out. He seemed quite unworried considering his adoptive sister was blatantly catatonic.
"Is this... normal for the mare?" he asked, now worried.
"For her? absolutely. You just showed her something she didn't know was possible. Right now she's probably thinking faster than Rainbow dash can fly."
"Who?"
"Rainbow mane, blue fur?" Spike raised an eyebrow at him, which to Veretus just looked odd on a dragon.
"Ah, her. I take it she is fast then?" He asked.
"Oh yeah, She's so fast that she can perform a sonic rainboom!" Veretus looked at him blankly. He had no idea what a sonic rainboom was, and he hoped Spike would remember that he was not native to Equestria, or this world.
"Oh right," he replied to Veretus's stare sheepily, rubbing the back of his head. "Yeah, she's really fast, she can clear the skies over ponyville in ten seconds."
This he actually learned watching the citizens of Canterlot. Apparently, Pegasi could touch clouds and break them apart into water vapor with little effort. He had tried to do so himself, and it took hundreds of attempts of either going right through the cloud or breaking it apart with the slightest force to learn how to surround himself with enough magic to replicate the feat. Clouds were surprisingly soft, at least as soft as the silk sheets he had when he was mortal.
"I do not think she will recover before the time she allotted into her schedule is up. Let us continue. Breath fire on me spike."
And so he did.
Author's Note
Only one or two more chapters left until the Second arc's final chapter.
View Online
The Godking is NOT Amused
The Sun's Perspective is not amusing (extra)
Celestia was having a marvelous day, the opening ceremony of a new Bakery had taken less time than anticipated, her stack of paperwork that seemed to grow longer every day was suspiciously short, and somehow, she had found ten minutes for a tea break before she had to spend several hours sitting on her throne listening to her pony's problems. She enjoyed solving them, but sometimes ponies could be such foals.
Celestia felt the tingle of familiar magic, which meant it was her student she had barely a few months ago sent to ponyville; That she would unite the elements and wield them as she and her sister had once done, in a hope to save her sister from being Nightmare Moon. She was surprised when she had five new friends, each wielding an element, but she was glad. Spike, her adopted brother, and an abandoned dragon egg she had hatched had the ability to send objects with his breath, so this meant that her student must be sending her a letter, perhaps to complain about Veretus, or hopefully a report that this time the elements of harmony worked on him.
As she prepared to catch the less than a pound letter, what she was not expecting was the form of Veretus to appear over her. His almost impassive face probably mirrored her own, as she barely had enough time to realize that he was in fact not a piece of parchment before he fell upon her.
She expected to be on the ground as he impacted her, but then she realized she was still sitting upright. The servants had rushed in at the loud crashing sound. She surveyed around and realized that Veretus had somehow, in the less than a second it would take to fall upon her, redirected himself with a flap of his wings to instead land on the table, which was specifically reinforced to handle a full-grown dragon leaning on it.
She mentioned this particular quality because the table was cracked from a less than five-foot fall, his head had smashed into her teapot, and her artisanal tea sandwiches were scattered over the floor. As he sat up, she marveled at both how undamaged he was, and how all the tea cascaded down his form, leaving him bone dry like wetness was a made-up concept.
"Apologies, while I knew dragons could imbue spells into their breath, I was unaware that Spike had already performed such a feat." Celestia couldn't even be smug about his situation, this god was just so infuriating, it was like he had no care in the world, that he was far away from home, that he would never see his friends and family, that he had just been teleported unexpectedly. He barely grew angry at something a normal pony would, and she admitted that she was jealous of him. Celestia and Luna barely spent time together normally, they were up at different times of the day, and the two hours at dawn and sunset they got together was pitifully short.
But he didn't need to worry about sleep, and that meant he could spend all night talking with Luna, and then, when it came time for her and Luna to meet, he was still there, taking up their time together.
"No need to apologize Veretus, I'll have somepony replace the table during my time in court." She hated herself, she could have just mended the table with magic or told him to replace it himself since he had shown that with a simple whim he could crash Equestria's economy, which she had spent a millennium carefully managing for inflation. However, she was stubborn, and so she would pretend that she was such a good ruler that a table that could withstand the weight of a dragon was the same price as a cup of tea to her. She didn't anticipate the funds she would have to reallocate to do so.
"Thank you, Celestia, I must be getting back however, Spike has been left with a comatose Twilight, And I fear what Twilight may do now that she knows how to condense magic," Veretus said as he nodded once at her before walking towards the door.
"Very well, I- wait? What?" She turned her head, but the Godking was already gone, she sighed. Twilight would probably write to her about today's events, and she would understand then. Now she was left with several servants still staring at her, probably waiting for her to address what just happened. They could wait, she took a sip from the teacup still in her aura, somehow spared from the shattering fates of its sisters, she grimaced as she did.
Typical, it was cold.
Author's Note
So, this was originally going to be a short comedic dialogue between Veretus and Celestia about this situation before a timeskip, then I realized I could use this scene to flesh out why Celestia is so obstinate with Veretus, Instead of this just being a 'she hates him because' situation.
So here's an extra short chapter purely from Celestia's point of view.
The Godking is NOT Amused
Magical Mishaps are not amusing.
By the time Veretus had gotten back, which was ten minutes at his full speed, which also included spending a fair bit of that time in freefall, he was witness to what could only be described as pandemonium. The town looked like it was the scene of a horror play that a child had written. The town was covered in a purple mist, and as it highly contrasted with the landscape, Veretus could see that the area it covered was spreading.
He thought this was ridiculous, one unicorn couldn't possibly contain all this magic, could they? This was enough magic to fuel an entire Golem army and it was still increasing. Of course, if he was a fool, he would land outside town and walk inside, but he was not. He landed where he remembered the front of Twilight's abode was.
The mist was warm, and sent tingles along his exposed skin, but it did little other than that. He feared for what had happened to any ponies who were caught within this mist, as this was directionless magic, or as sorcerers called, wild magic. the front door hung ajar, most likely the handle couldn't withstand the mist as it was trapped inside the library.
He entered inside, it was always a surprise that these ponies always built their doorways so that even Celestia could walk inside. The entrance was chaos, as the front door apparently led straight into a library, where books were migrating from shelf to shelf, flapping their covers like wings as they constantly reorganized themselves according to some esoteric sorting system. He ignored the small platoon of cupcakes rolling upon the ground trying to lob icing at him that just slid right off.
He did not think that Twilight would perform such an ill-thought experiment upstairs, so he refrained from seeing what the mist had done to the objects up there. He looked for some stairs or a door that led to a basement. A minor search in which the cupcakes, eventually realizing the futility of their assault against him, went to harass the book birds. He didn't find a basement, but he did enter another room which contained both twilight and spike, and some machine reminiscent of something Cillen, the Lich god of progress would create.
Spike was being strangled by a long sheet of paper that was coming out of the machine. Ineffectually, he might add, as Spike's scales prevented papercuts, and paper was never an effective means of trying to kill a creature. But it did mean that he was unable to help twilight, whose horn was glowing with at least three layers of purple shades, she seems to be grimacing, whether in pain, or in an effort to stop or continue on this experiment he did not know, but both were unaware of his presence.
He sighed, walking up to twilight, he took a hold of his central green horn, before cracking it off. Of course, it had started regrowing at a speed visible to the naked eye. With horn in hand, and after an application of aggressive telekinesis to hollow out the horn, he not too gently fitted his horn over twilight's.
The mist didn't disappear of course, magic didn't work like that. But Twilight stopped grimacing as her spell could no longer work, for he had turned his own horn into a magical item that prevented a unicorn from using magic, she looked up at him.
"V-Veretus?"
"Calm yourself Twilight, I have stopped whatever experiment you were failing to contain, let us not see if we can fix the results." He calmly soothed her, or atleast he hoped he did, Ponies responded to his assurances differently than his own subjects did.
"I- Alright, how do we- Spike! Oh hang on!" Twilight most likely tried to free spike from his paper prison with her magic, but scrunched her face in confusion when nothing happened.
"my magic, it's-"
"Suppressed, I had to quickly stop whatever you were doing, do not take my horn off in case your experiment resumes." He quickly said before she began panicking. He went over to spike and ripped the paper from his form, the dragon fell to the ground and landed on his rear. The machine decided to try and strangle him with its paper, he decided to break the machine by squeezing the opening the paper was coming out of shut. Twilight opened her mouth to say something, but deciding against it, shut it.
"W-What's going on Veretus? This didn't happen when you made liquid magic." Twilight was scared, and probably for a good reason, she couldn't perform any magic, What was happening with her machine was happening to all of ponyville, and all of this was her fault.
"You didn't make Liquid magic, you just made slightly unstable gaseous magic. Thankfully it is not as bad as some sorcerers I have seen, but I know of no way to fix it aside from waiting for it to stabilize and return to a higher energy state." He shook his head, thinking, If what was happening to ponyville was the same as what was happening here, he doubted they could wait for it to just go away, that could take minutes to an hour.
He decided then and there he was going to have to teach Twilight Sparkle how to complete the spell. He hoped against everything in this reality and his that he could do it, because he had never taught another person how to perform magic. Not even his own son needed instructions on that, as dragons instinctually knew how to use what they were capable of.
"Take off the horn Twilight." Veretus said calmly, his inner turmoil hidden.
"but you said-"
"I know what I said, but the only way we are fixing this quickly is you completing the spell." he interrupted her. He didn't wait for her to struggle with removing his horn with her hooves, taking it off of her swiftly himself. The spell resumed, her scared face was aglow in the shine of her horn.
"Calm yourself now Twilight. This magic is yours, it will do what you say, what you command! Force it to gather, force it to take the shape you desire." The mare struggled, scrunching up her face and concentrating. Nothing happened for several long seconds before she stopped, panting.
"I can't do it... I'm just not powerful enough..." Veretus paused at that.
He did all his magic by brute force, Magic would bend to his will, and if it didn't he would make it with overwhelming force, but he forgot that he achieved that via his divine spark, and twilight was no more a god than he was still a champion. He had forgotten that after seeing her overwhelming display of magic. He had to give her a shortcut, perhaps one day she would be strong enough to do this with pure force of will and intent, but today was not that day.
He thought on what Twilight most valued, Spike for one, for she was almost willing to kill to keep him safe. She had those other five mares around them when they first met, and they seemed quite close. It was with them she activated the Elements of Harmony against him.
"Forget what I told you twilight." he began, confusing the mare. "Think about how your friends are dealing with this disaster you have made."
While she thought of that, he took the time to scrounge up the names of the other four ponies aside from rainbow dash in his memory.
"Think of how Rarity is dealing with this, rainbow dash as well. Pinkie Pie, and Applejack? And finally, Fluttershy. I suspect they are fighting the effects this wild magic is causing, but they will fail without you." he could see her worry, but soon it changed to determination.
"Now, do not let your friends down, this magic is yours, and it will obey!" her horn glowed brighter in one uniform color. No longer did she struggle as she held her head high, a smile on her face. The mist began receding to a point above her horn, fast and faster until there was so much it started swirling into a ball.
Smaller and smaller that ball shrank until eventually, it was the size of a bird egg. this part she struggled at, gritting her teeth as she shrunk it even smaller. Veretus held out his hand underneath it, as soon, it fell like droplets of rain, creating a small river of purple in his gauntlet. Twilight opened her eyes panting, before staring at his palm in shock.
"Thats it!?" she breathlessly yelled. "But... there was so much mist!"
Veretus chuckled.
"Twilight, to create the cascade I made, required enough magic to create twelve artifacts. Usually, wizards don't actually use the amount of magic you've just used unless they were casting quite a strong spell."
"but... how do they turn magic solid then?!" she yelled franticly.
"They don't use brute force like we just did, most transfer the energy with finesse using their own meager reserves. As magic is formless and massless, a skilled magic user could use these thirteen drops of magic to drown ponyville in a tidal wave before it returned to a stable state."
Twilight just sighed before lifting up the liquid magic in her aura and dropping them into a jar.
"Thank you anyways Veretus... I shouldn't have tried that without somepony... somecreature experienced." The mare corrected herself, and Veretus was surprised. the ponies loved using their own racial pronouns and were quite instinctual for them after doing it all their lives.
"It was no problem-"
"Twilight, you in here!" the scratchy voice of rainbow dash came from the other room. Most likely they were here to check up on Twilight. He had other things to discuss, so he grabbed spike and they both disappeared from the Library.
And appeared outside on the bridge. Many ponies were out cleaning the streets which looked like a band of raging elementals had swept through.
"What's the big idea Veretus." spike asked when put down. "You can't be shy can you?"
"Of course not spike. But dealing with this has already taken up enough of my time, Luna will be waking in an hour and I must be getting back to canterlot. The dragon migration will be happening in a little more than a fortnight." Spike nodded at that.
"Yeah, I know, Twilight has made plans with her friends to watch it as the dragons will be passing over Ponyville." The dragon seemed to have a reserved enthusiasm upon saying so.
"Then I shall know where to find you then, as we'll be joining them in the flight."
"What?! Are you serious?" Spike was filled with excited surprise at that announcement.
"Both you and I must learn more about the dragons of your reality. Quite frankly, the ponies know little about them, and my innate knowledge of creatures only goes so far in this reality." He doubted that spike heard his reasons why, as he was lost in his imagination once more.
"But wait." spike suddenly snapped out of it, turning towards him. "It's going to take a long time to follow them on foot."
"Spike, I said we will be joining them on their flight, I mentioned no walking amongst that. I will be carrying you as I fly."
"But what if they attack us!?" Spike asked, beginning to panic at the thought. He swore the dragon had too much imagination.
"Spike, unless a dragon on par with myself exists, we shall be fine. Now I must truly be getting back to Canterlot, we shall discuss the journey during your next training session." He barely listened to Spike's response as he took off into the air.
Perhaps he'd try the sandwiches that Celestia had been eating when he dropped in on her earlier.
Author's Note
So, with this having gotten some overwelming support and likes, (and several snafus with my literal spiderweb of a plot of my other book) I'll be working on this story exclusively until the ending.
The Godking is NOT Amused
Dragon Lands are not amusing
Two weeks go by quickly when you've watched hundreds of years pass by. He had returned to the castle before either Celestia or Luna had gone to the dining room. The table still had the crack in it, so he mended that quickly.
The castle had been scrambling in these two weeks. Veretus had no idea if Shining armor was suspecting that his wife-to-be had been replaced, but he talked about an anonymous report that an army was preparing to assault Canterlot. This was the moment he found out the future prince was the guard captain, and brother to Twilight Sparkle, who he lamented would have to wait to hear the news.
The imposter insisted on continuing with the wedding regardless, which he would reveal them if it truly came to that day. In the meantime, the imposter had been inquiring deeply about Veretus, and recently, after finding that the residents knew little about him, began asking Veretus himself these questions.
He answered them, the answers were harmless, and things everybody in Alvaris knew, how he ruled, his source of power, past accomplishments. She stuck to him when like this when no other pony was around to see, and somehow found him even when he went flying around Canterlot.
Spike had progressed, although his form was still terrible. His training was settled to every three days after Twilight had told him that spike couldn't afford to be training every day.
The flight of dragons was visible as specks from Canterlot. He had decided to take the train today, which had delayed him as he took ten minutes trying to get a ticket from the pony at the booth. The pony must have caught some malady mortals usually do, as he just couldn't focus.
The flight was an interesting sight as the train pulled into Ponyville. Dragons had never congregated like this in his world, being fiercely independent creatures. Even after the Godsfall there hadn't been enough survivors to create such a sight.
The dragons flying overhead were all adults, for each he estimated to be five times his size, and most reached ages of in the hundreds. The colors were much more varied than his reality as well, as he saw every color he could think of up there.
The elements of harmony and Spike he found were observing the flight from a trench. He didn't have the heart to tell them that a trench would only trap the heat if one of the dragons decided to breathe fire directly down on them, or himself forbid, along the trench.
"Veretus!" Spike called out to Veretus as the young drake saw him, waving him into the trench. He acquiesced, and walking into the trench, realized it was sized for its current pony inhabitants. The trench came up to the horns of its unicorn inhabitants. Unfortunately, the walls barely came up to his chest.
"Get down, if they spot us-"
"They have already spotted you, a trench in the middle of a field is easily noticed from above." He interrupted rainbow dash. He had already noticed several dragons angle their heads this way before focusing back on flying.
Spike was off in a corner of the trench next to a cart filled with pastries. An interesting hobby he was sure, assuming Spike made the treats himself. Apparently, he had stared for too long, for spike began nervously shuffling his foot.
"I know... It's not very dragon-like is it... I'll just-"
"I said nothing of the sort," he looked over the mares with a skeptical glance, only rainbow dash looked embarrassed. "Dragons are free to take up their own hobbies, plus, you would stain yourself cooking, I assume, without it." This had gotten Spike to stop taking the apron off.
"Wait, you assume? Veretus, when was the last time you were in a kitchen?" Twilight asked curiously.
"In this or my previous life, never. Now hand me one of those Spike, it has been a thousand years, and I cannot find a single pastry in the castle, despite Celestia always going on about cake and occasionally smelling of chocolate."
"Wait... How long did you say it's been..?" The pink mare, Pinkie Pie, asked slowly.
"A little over a thousand years." He replied.
"Uh oh." Applejack muttered.
"I think I need to lie down." Pinkie said before pulling a couch from out of his peripherals.
"My couch!" Rarity quietly exclaimed as Pinkie Pie collapsed upon it, a hoof over her forehead and moaning out to the world like... Honestly, he had never heard someone lament as she had.
Probably because she still sounded happy despite it all.
"While I would be more than happy to indulge in these shenanigans, Spike and I must be joining the dragon flight."
"What!?" Twilight exclaimed, Veretus looked towards Spike with an eyebrow raised.
"You did not tell her?" The Drake rubbed the back of his head with a claw sheepishly.
"I will ensure no proper harm befalls him," Veretus said, turning back to Twilight.
"No, I-" Twilight sighed. "Sometimes you have to trust a friend. Very well, but I expect a complete report on your return."
Veretus was surprised that in only a scant fortnight she trusted him that much.
"I will not misplace your trust Twilight Sparkle. Come along Spike, we must be off."
"Right, let me just get- Woah!" The drake was interrupted by Veretus grabbing him and with a beat of his six wings, they ascended hundreds of feet into the air. After the two had left and disappeared into the throng of dragons Applejack walked up beside Twilight.
"That's awfully trusting of you Twilight... and you're following them aren't yah?" The mare sighed.
"Yes! Rarity, we need you to make the perfect dragon costume! I'll pack the provisions, and Rainbow, you're our wings!" Twilight said as she began teleporting supplies from her library, starting with a saddlebag.
"Do I need to be the voice of reason in saying you just told 'im you trusted... and I'm being ignored, aren't I?" Applejack snorted before sitting down as the three mares began conversing with each other on their mission.
Meanwhile, up in the air, Veretus had already dodged three dragons trying to ram him. He was growing tired of this, so the next time one decided to veer over to ram him out of the sky, he merely took Spike in one arm and pounded upon the dragon's side with his other, he could have maneuvered to just punch them, but he feared using his full strength on a dragon only a few hundred years old.
The dragon, who was a light green, shot off opposite of their previous momentum before falling from the sky and landing in a lake. The dragon was still alive, so at least he could claim that, they may be quite late to the migration, however.
"Woah, how did you do that?" Spike asked from his arm.
"An application of weighing more than the dragon, and an amount of strength to bend a column of iron." He replied as he looked to see if any other dragons were going to try to knock them out of the sky, he saw that they had given him enough space to fully do a roll with his wings outstretched.
Seems that might makes right is true for any reality, and especially for dragonkind.
The journey along was quite uneventful, While Veretus was constantly on the lookout for an equivalent to his reality's ancient dragons, many of the ones near him were barely five hundred years old.
After an hour Spike gasped while looking out of Veretus's grasp, they had just ascended over a mountain range. Past the snow-tipped peaks the land rolled out, Celestia's sun framed the landscape in cascading rays, and the clouds were alternating the colors of the rainbow in cottony goodness.
Even Veretus was taken aback, he had never flown on long journeys like this, not until Alvaris was ruined by the demons, and after they had invaded the clouds were dry and wispy reds. But this... This was picturesque. He once had a companion who liked to paint, he never figured out why you'd want to, but this made him realize that he wished he knew how so that he could capture this scene for others.
Eventually, after the entire day of flying, they had arrived at a volcanic range. Veretus breathed in the sulphuric smell, it reminded him of when he forged his first artifact in the depths of a volcano. Spike had covered his nose, unused to the smell.
He had landed upon an outcropping over where adolescent dragons were hanging out.
"I shall seek out elders, why don't you go see if those adolescents will be of any help." He said as he put Spike down.
"Right... Uh... What if they don't like me? What if I'm not dragon enough..?" Spike asked, his voice a whisper at the end.
Veretus kneeled in front of spike and looked him in the eyes.
"Spike, being a dragon isn't about fitting in. Each dragon has something they want, and it's unique to each, and a dragon will do anything to keep it."
"But last time I was greedy I became huge and out of control!" Spike franticly worried, Veretus heard about that. It was before he had made Spike a squire. He shook his head at the drake.
"That was something you didn't already have, what I'm talking about is something you have and want to keep a hold of."
"But... What is that?" Spike asked, Confused.
"You'll have to figure that out yourself. Now you better get going. And have fun at least, I believe this is like a vacation for young dragons." He shooed spike down towards the dragons diving into lava, which he assumed would be painful if they weren't covered in scales. The drake looked at him unsure before walking down the rocky slope.
With Spike getting some tips from his own reality's dragons, most likely on what not to do if the adolescent dragons acted the same as mortal adolescents from his reality, Veretus set off in finding an old dragon. He could have asked any dragon how their culture worked, but the adults had already proven they were hot-headed.
As he flew around, he could already see one aspect that was different, Much of the adolescents were the same age, maybe a day or two apart, but there were none near Spike's age. Many of the adults looked up as he flew overhead, snorting at him with derision, but content to just watch him pass by. Or they were just too lazy to try and force him out of the sky.
Eventually, he had found one, They were absolutely large, as large as ancients back home, the dragon's hide was a faded cerulean blue. His horns grew downwards from his head like a dog's floppy ears before curving forward. A large hat of an orange gem cluster sat upon his head like some sort of crown. His wing membranes were the same orange as the crown.
This was most likely the ruler of the dragons, as he was also the only dragon Veretus had seen wearing armor. He tried not to think about how much metal was wasted making armor that would be weaker than his scales as he approached.
"You are no dragon, leave before I eat you." The dragon's voice was gravely and deep, nothing at all like the delicate hissing and thrumming throat contractions his own dragons used.
"In my world, I am the God of Dragons, so I am a dragon, even if not by your standards." Veretus shot back blasé.
"And this is my land as the Dragonlord, so if you aren't a dragon by my standards, you aren't a dragon!" The Dragonlord as he claimed as his title was getting irritated, Veretus continued approaching, this time on foot, forcing the Dragonlord to lower his head to keep an eye on him.
"If I am not a proper dragon by your standards, then what is?" He asked, and the Dragonlord snorted.
"Large and strong, Ferocious and headstrong, Might makes right to a dragon, and you are no dragon." At this Veretus raised an eyebrow.
"Then I suppose I shall act like one then." He said as he grabbed the end of the dragonlord's tusk. His gauntleted hand barely fit around the pointed tip as he used Telekinesis to grab a hold of the rest of the tusk. with a heave of Veretus's muscles, the dragonlord was suddenly suspended in mid-air above Veretus by his tusk, before he slammed into the side of a caldera. Lava floated through the air, hit with enough force to cause it to act as he had just dropped the Dragonlord in a lake instead of a pool of lava.
He ignored the lava droplets cascading down his armor as he walked to the edge of the caldera, the Dragonlord was stunned, he was lying on his back, and Veretus was surprised he was half-submerged. Either the lava pool was deep, or he had used more force than he was aiming for.
"You dare to strike me!?" The dragonlord shouted, and any dragons that weren't already paying attention now were. "Dragons, capture this-"
"Dragonlord, you yourself described your dragons as ferocious and headstrong, If you finish that order, you will have proven that you are not a dragon by your own definition," Veretus said calmly. Was this the most diplomatic approach? No, but Veretus was sure that the Dragonlord wouldn't listen to reason, or say anything to what he perceived as someone other than a dragon.
The dragonlord got up from his position, his eyes were still clear, and Veretus was surprised, they were not narrowed in anger, or rather more anger than the dragon's face already conveyed even before he had approached.
"You surprised me, if this is a ploy to out me as the Dragonlord, I should inform you that only Dragons can become Dragonlord." He seemed calm considering a being barely the size of one of his claws had just flipped him over.
"I do not seek your title or the worship of your dragons, I came for information on your culture, but I've already found out more than I need to know from this interaction." Veretus wasn't goading the Dragonlord, he truly knew all he needed now from the Dragonlord's own words, smacking the Dragonlord was just to affirm that he would not be pushed around.
"I cannot let you leave after insulting me like this... Dragons, NOD!" He suddenly yelled, and the dragons in the vicinity nodded their heads in affirmative.
Normally Veretus would be sickened by such flagrant abuse of power, but these were dragons, they feared the strong, and overthrew them when they became the weak. This wasn't oppression to them, just the natural order of things.
"Then a challenge then, Vers Relekihl if you will." The words rolled from Veretus's throat like a true dragon's, the Dragonlord looked confused at his words. "It means Power challenge in Ponish. It is combat to subjection, using no armor or weapons, the winner gets to demand anything from the loser aside from his life. If the loser cannot fulfill it with their current means, then the demand is forfeit and they must choose another." This was one of the traditions he actually found noble and just with the old dragon culture. Many a time this would only be used to claim territory and hoard, and the stipulations were that the dragons couldn't purposefully take each other's lives, either during the combat, or after.
"Interesting... The name thrums something deep in my ancient heart... Very well, but I assume you will be very disadvantaged with your enchanted ar... mor..." The dragonlord's words died in his throat, as Veretus had merely teleported out of his armor, with nobody holding them up anymore they had crashed to the ground, cracking it. Of course, Veretus didn't go around lugging a several-ton armor set everywhere on him, it weighed nothing to him, and would continue to as long as he met the requirements to use the armor.
The Dragonlord didn't know that, however.
Veretus readied himself, the Dragonlord wasn't as tough as Luna, and the nature of this challenge dictated no forged weapons, meaning he would entirely be unharmed by any means the Dragonlord had.
with a leap and a flap, Veretus launched himself into the air before punching out at the dragonlord's chest. The dragonlord crumpled like a bag of stones and wheezed as he breathed. Veretus blinked, even Luna took more of a beating than this, but this dragonlord was just pitifully weak.
He actually felt sorry for the dragonlord now, as he supposed he found out one thing different about old Dragons in this reality... They didn't get stronger up until the end of their life. Then again, the Dragonlord still had another thousand years, so maybe they just aged slower?
"Fine..." The Dragonlord wheezed out, sounding truly defeated. "What do you demand."
"I demand the right to be labeled as a dragon." Veretus plainly stated, and the Dragonlord paused, staring at him, before giving a low, deep laugh.
"You are the oddest creature I have ever fought... So much that for once my pride is not wounded in losing to you. Fine, you could have had all the riches of the dragonland, or even became the next dragonlord, but you ask to be a mere subservient dragon?"
"I merely came to learn more about this reality's dragons, I had done so, so all I had left was to repair my Injured pride as God of Dragons." Veretus stated, beginning to put his armor back on. his mortal clothes had disintegrated long ago, so he was stark naked while fighting the Dragonlord. While he felt no embarrassment, he felt defenseless without his armor, even if that wasn't true.
"Now I should check up on my charge I had left here, I had not let him pack, so I believe he should be getting hungry by now," Veretus said as he clasped on his bracers, the final piece.
"I cannot tell if you truly thought this through or not, but as you are now a dragon, and were within your right to challenge me, you may freely go." The dragonlord said, heaving himself out of the lava, and the caldera it was contained within. As Veretus left him, he did not envy how the other dragons would probably capitalize on this, thinking that the Dragonlord was weak, when in fact, he was just weak compared to Veretus.
Veretus returned to the Caldera where he had left Spike. If his blood could run cold, it would. He had expected to meet Spike here, either dejected at having been outmatched and humiliated by the other dragons, or successful at somehow impressing them. But the same group was here minus three others and spike.
He didn't even notice the lava aggressively bubbling as he approached the group of dragons.
"Where is Spike." He didn't so much ask as demanded, he ignored the dragons hopping out of the pool like they had been burned, as he grabbed one of them by the horn and repeated his demand.
"wh- who?" The drake asked terrified.
"The Small. Purple. Dragon." Each word was punctuated heavily.
"N-north... to the f-forest. Ph-Pheonix e-egg smashing..." At those words, Veretus immediately dropped the adolescent and took off, his wings causing thunderclaps to emit every time he flapped them.
He had arrived at the forest in less than a minute, the once beautiful scenery now evoked a feeling of oppressive darkness in the nighttime light. He couldn't see anything below the tree cover, and he wouldn't be able to cover enough ground. He would have to rethi-
A bright flash, like the sun, shined in the forest to the east. His wings maneuvered in that direction before the light had faded from his eyes. He had broken through the canopy of trees with the sound of branches snapping before impacting the ground, causing dirt to go flying everywhere.
"-but I'll rip you to pieces if you touch one scale on his cute little head!" He heard the voice of Rarity yell out throughout the forest. His form had disappeared from his spot before her voice had faded.
He had appeared behind them, his wings outstretched to their full length, Spike was holding a golden and red egg, three adolescent dragons, he didn't bother noting them in his memory except for the oddity of one of them having hair, and they were laughing. Although that had stopped when he had appeared, and unlike unicorn teleportation, which he had seen twilight do a few times, his was instantaneous and produced no visual effects.
Speaking of the mare, she and her friends Rainbow Dash and Rarity were behind Spike, rearing up to fight the dragons. His hand began reaching for his blade before he stopped.
They were adolescents, dragon adolescents. He had worked himself into a frenzy and now that he had found Spike, he had to let go before he did something horrendous. He took a deep breath, Startling Spike and his friends before he used his telekinesis to lift the three dragons in the air. His shimmering multi-hued aura which only appeared when he used Equestrian magic surrounded them.
"Silence your laughs before something flies down your throats..." He said in a low tone. "I can only assume since ponies do not start fights with dragons, that you are the aggressors... in which case-"
"Veretus, no! don't kill them!" Twilight shouted out, and the entire group froze, including Veretus as they all looked at her, the three drakes in mention looked in horror at her statement, the other two mares in puzzlement, while Veretus and Spike looked at her in disbelief.
"I- Twilight, I was merely going to send them back to the lava pit where I dropped spike off at... Why would I kill them for performing nothing but an act of bullying?" Veretus felt slightly hurt by her words, he thought she had said he was a friend... perhaps he misunderstood the pony connotation..?
"I- I'm sorry Veretus... It just slipped out.." Twilight hung her head in apology.
"While we're on this, I thought you said you trusted Veretus with taking me here... Why were you following us?" Spike spoke up.
"I... oh Applejack was right, look, you suddenly decided to take Spike far away from Ponyville on some journey of self-discovery, what was I supposed to say? 'no, I don't trust you, take me with.'?"
"Yes," Veretus said plainly. "I would have been happy to take you with me if you did not trust in Spike's safety with me, and it seems with the events today, with good reason."
"I-" The mare paused mid-thought. "What about tradition or something, only dragons can be a part of the migration."
"Twilight, I have broken more traditions than you have lived counted in years, one more would not have harmed me," Veretus said matter of factly. He had just remembered the dragons caught in his magical grip, so he sent them on their way with a teleport, not bothering with a more powerful spell, they probably landed at his intended destination... Probably.
"Right, well..." Twilight began before sighing. "I... should have just told you I guess..."
"I must also apologize to Spike," Veretus said after the mare.
"Huh?" Spike expressed his confusion.
"I had been treating you like I had my own son... which was unacceptable since not only are you two different types of dragons, you are different mentally as well... I should not have left you with those adolescents when I knew there were only two possibilities... Although I did not expect you to stand up to them like this."
All of them were staring at him blankly in shock, he was about to ask when they shouted in unison.
"You have a son?!"
"Had... those are dark memories..." The group descended into awkward silence after that. They had eventually warmed back up afterward as they started walking back. It was a four-day walk, and they had plenty of time.
"Thanks everypony... While those guys may have been my kind... You're my real family." Spike started before he turned towards Veretus. "And Veretus... I don't exactly know what you are yet, but I do know that advice you gave before you left... You weren't talking about dragons specifically... were you?"
"Probably not Spike... Probably not..."
Author's Note
My god! Where have the words gone? I agonized over this chapter writing nothing for two days, that was at 1k words!
The next chapter is the season finale, And also the end of Arc 2 which I've named Beginnings of Friendship. Afterwards, we begin Arc 3, Selfish Love.
Remember to Comment, I read every one of them, and at this point, I believe I've responded to almost every one of them.
The Godking is NOT Amused
Queen Chrysalis was worried. It was the day of Princess Cadence's wedding, who a month prior she had locked in the crystal caves beneath Canterlot. She wasn't worried about princess lovebutt though, nor was she worried about the Elements of Harmy who had been invited by Celestia, at Chrysalis's behest, to help set up the wedding. She had actually just asked for Twilight Sparkle, as she had a scheme to frame her as a crazy pony in front of her brother, allowing more love and sympathy from Shining Armor to come to her.
And that part of the plan was working. Every other pony wrote her inconsistencies she had been creating as pre-wedding jitters. But that manic mare had fallen for it, constantly talking about how something was off with her. If chrysalis was right, and when it came to manipulating creatures she usually was, Twilight Sparkle would finally cause a scene in the rehearsal in an hour. All was going to plan...
All except one thing. Godking Veretus, who claimed himself as high God of someplace called Alvaris. Chrysalis may have been quite young for a changeling monarch, but she had never heard of that place, and she knew about the hippogriffs...
His stories aside, he worried her for two reasons. First was that he was always wary around her, at first she thought he knew that she wasn't the real Cadence, but he hadn't warned any of the ponies. Her second reason was that he was feeding her... Constantly.
Changelings feed on love. more accurately, changelings aren't emotivores, but energyvores, Centuries of history, some only recently rediscovered, Implied that changelings didn't actually feed on love, but some sort of energy made by the emotion.
Regardless of the truth, changelings were minor Empaths, able to feel in near proximity the emotions of other creatures, and minor impressions of what would trigger their love. This allowed them to use their shapeshifting ability to turn into the best form suitable for creating the strongest feeling of love.
Extracting love from a creature in large quantities taxed them, causing lethargy, drowsiness, and in long-term harvesting, confusion and disorientation. This was why Shining Armor hadn't discovered her yet. She had used this to her advantage to make twilight Sparkle think she was brainwashing her brother. Changelings both had to conciously extract love, and couldn't gather it from farther than a single room's length.
This last one was what frightened her so, this Godking was not only constantly feeling affection for those around him, he was somehow sending it directly towards her, twenty-four-seven, every day for the past month since he had first laid eyes on her.
She looked up at the clouds from where she felt the emotion originating. Since she had met him, he had started occasionally lazing about on clouds for an entire day, content to just sit there and watch Canterlot go about its day. Even now, blocked from sight, and hundreds of feet above Canterlot, she was still being force-fed his love.
Despite everything about this accomplishing her goal, something about the Godking just irked her, both his love for some reason felt slimy, despite love having never felt anything besides tingly to any changeling, and she couldn't get the thought of him out of her head, no matter what she did. She always felt like he would be her greatest obstacle, that no matter what she did, that if she didn't get rid of him he'd ruin everything .
She had an hour before the rehearsal, and she had to do something about him now. She took off from the Balcony she was overlooking, flying up to the cloud the Godking was laying upon. When she alighted upon it he was already looking at her, his stupid Imperious gaze, like she was a child of no consequence always sent shivers up her spine.
She had come up here with no plan, and already with her horn alight with a greenish glow, she teleported them, he didn't resist.
They popped up in the upper caves below Canterlot. Mapped out months in advance of her infiltration, the lower level of the 'Crystal Cavern' was where she was keeping the Alicorn of Love. However, they were in a sidecave to the main one, at the end of a branching tunnel. The only light was the greenish glow of her horn, but changelings didn't need light to see.
He just stood there, watching her, his imperious gaze was filled with mild curiosity, like she was putting on some form of play. She gritted her teeth, she was going to break this creature.
She sensed about him, all she could feel was that unending affection, but she was a Changeling Monarch, and they weren't Rulers of the changelings for nothing. She focused her senses, delving deep into his emotions, no matter how much it made her carapace crawl.
there... an odd dragon, it was buried deep, the feelings surrounding it was that of dejection and sorrow, filled with familial love. He missed this dragon from his homeland, oh she would have fun with this.
"You're a long way from home..." she began, slinking around him, she was slightly upset he didn't turn to follow her as most creatures would, afraid of being stabbed in the back.
"I am." he answered calmly, She couldn't see his expression from behind him. So with reluctance, she completed her slinking circuit to his front, her horn had been extinguished, but she could see his eyes tracking her even in the pitch darkness.
"you must miss your family, perhaps your friends, who are so worried about you..." she said with mock sympathy, he merely shook his head calmly.
"Not so much, and my companions are probably more worried for where I ended up..."
"Now that's not true~' she cooed, circling around him once more, he declined to turn this time as well, which was what she was counting on. "I know at least one creature you miss..."
He didn't respond to that, which let her know that her tactic was working. When she was behind him, her form was engulfed in Green Flames. She was skilled and talented in all aspects of being a Changeling, and her transformation skills were top-notch, as in less than a second, Instead of wearing the visage of the Alicorn of Love, she was a dragon.
She was surprised at the form, it was lithe and powerful, standing several inches above the Godking, it was a quadrupedal form. She imagined her deep red scales would sparkle in any light, her claws were sharp and strong, digging into the very crystals the caves they were in was covered in with the barest of effort. Her tail, thick and corded with muscle, felt like if she swung it right she could shatter rock. The four horns burst from the side of her head, their sharpened tips extending past her snout and perfect for stabbing foes.
She chuckled, she was surprised, but decades of acting prevented it from showing as her voice came out in a rich deep cacophony, like a bass's strings. She saw the Godking flinch, his body was tense as his metal claws gripped themselves tightly.
"I can be anything, any creature you want, but being so far from home, you'll Never see this form again. And I don't feel much like this form suits me..." She was absolutely lying, this form was powerful even greater than taking on the form of an Ursa Major.
"Of course, if you please me maybe I-" She had finally circled her was back towards his front. what she saw had caused her to slightly pause. He wasn't crying, or shaking in terror, his eyes were devoid of anything. That imperious gaze full of mirth was gone.
"-ll occasional take this form." She finished, his reaction was so odd she focused on what he was feeling, She had stopped as previous experiments revealed that his sickening affection remained in the forefront regardless.
She felt nothing but unending rage, enough to drown the whole world . She was so horrified she recoiled slightly. It was then that in a flash he moved. Her form, larger than his and powerful enough to go toe to toe with one of Equestria's strongest predators, was powerless as he grabbed her neck and forcefully pushed her against the crystal wall.
"I would give anything, even my own Conviction, if you could truly be him..." He said with an infinite weariness in his voice. "For ten long years... I blamed his death on myself, on these two hands that killed him... And I would burn the world to bring him back."
What was more frightening was that even underneath all this hatred, he still sent that steady stream of love. As he finally dropped her, she dropped the transformation. He walked off down the caves, and as she gained her bearings, she couldn't help but whisper one thing.
"You never stopped..."
He was gone from her sight, but still, she stayed there shivering. Her mind kept making several connections, each worse than the last. So lost in thought that she didn't even notice she had gotten up and was walking downwards through the caverns.
She only regained her awareness when her magic opened up the crystal wall she had placed to prevent the escape of Cadence. The Mare looked like a wreck, filthy from a month of sleeping on the ground with no water to clean herself with. She was haggard, the beginning signs of malnourishment and dehydration were evident.
"Come here to Gloat some mo-" Cadence trailed off. Perhaps it was something in Chrysalis's expression since the rest of her was in pristine condition. Although she began to wonder about her own sanity after the words left her mouth.
"Get going... you're free to go..." Cadence merely looked at Chrysalis blankly, and Chrysalis's muted shock was beginning to give way to anger. She was giving up and this mare just-
"You're kidding, right? You keep me trapped down here for a month and you expect me to just leave and forget it ever happened? " Chrysalis growled at the mare.
"When somecreature lets you go after holding you prisoner, you skedaddle as fast as you can!" She yelled at the mare.
"In case you can't tell, I can barely walk thanks to you! Besides, who knows what you've done to Shiny in my name! What you've done to my friends!" For a mare that claims she could barely walk, she was standing and getting in Chrysalis's face quite well.
"I wouldn't have had to do any of this if my people weren't starving!" Chrysalis yelled back, pushing against the Alicorn's furry snout with her own chitinous one.
Cadence recoiled at that.
"You... Your people are starving? why didn't you just ask for help?" Cadence lowered her eyes and her ears drooped. Chrysalis hated that expression, like her Changelings needed pity, like she needed it.
"And who would help!? The griffons are anarchists at worst, and their society is collapsing due to inflation at best! The dragons are self-obsessed jerks, the zebras and yaks are too far away and any other creature doesn't have enough population to help us!" Chrysalis ranted. Cadence looked down, before looking back up with renewed determination.
"Why didn't you just ask us for help? Celestia would have figured something out." Chrysalis laughed, deep and hard like she had heard the funniest joke in the world.
"Because she refused us aid nearly a thousand years prior, before I was even born!"
Cadence had no response to that. While she knew Celestia was burdened by Luna's banishment, was it truly so bad that the kindest mare she knew would refuse to aid another when asked? What she didn't understand was that as far as she could tell, Chrysalis didn't look like she barely escaped, she looked like she casually strolled down here, so Cadence had no idea why she was releasing her.
"Why?" Cadence asked, chrysalis merely hummed in acknowledgment. "Why are you abandoning your plans?"
"Because..." Chrysalis laid down. Not in the normal way pony like quadrupeds did, which was tucking in their legs and laying on their stomach. She merely flopped over onto her side. "I had a talk with the godking-"
Cadence giggled, Chrysalis looked at her without an ounce of amusement.
"Sorry... It's just, he seems to have the effect of causing whoever talks with him to reaffirm their decisions in life..."
"Quite." Chrysalis merely agreed. "I turned into a creature dear to him... who was long dead... His want for this family member was so great he was prepared to destroy the world if it meant getting them back... I realized, that if I did fail somehow, If I messed up somewhere, would I turn out like that? Maybe all my subjects would perish during the attack on Canterlot... Or perhaps in return for amnesty Celestia tells them she'll finally help them if they depose me... The hive holds little love for me due to my decisions that have kept us from being on the brink of complete starvation."
Chrysalis was surprised that at the end of her rant the pink alicorn was laying a hoof on her wither, giving her a sad smile.
"I understand... Veretus showed me that I've been avoiding the role of leadership... He makes it seem so easy, deeply loving creatures whose lifespan is probably just a blink to him. I always feared it, leading ponies who would look up to me, and I would see them age and die, ponies I would have known for most of their lives..." Chrysalis snorted.
"And you decided to date a unicorn, even get close to his family with that fear." Cadence smiled softly, now laying in front of Chrysalis.
"Falling for Shining Armor was an accident... And twilight just has this way of connecting ponies, her dedication to knowledge, her little freakouts when something doesn't go to plan. After they had entered my life, it was just impossible to say no." Chrysalis sighed at the alicorn's words. She could feel how much those two meant in Cadence's love.
"So what will you do... I suppose I won't run, Shining Armor won't drop the shield even in the state he's in, and my army won't attack without my signal... I just don't feel like fighting anymore." Cadence beamed, getting up quickly for a mare who survived isolation with no food and water for a month.
"Now, we return to the castle, and I get married. You are formally invited to attend, Queen Chrysalis." Cadence bowed slightly before rising back up, waiting on her reply.
"Even after everything?"
"Of course. We talked about stallions, the daily grind of life, and had a heart-to-heart. We didn't paint our hooves, but I'm officially declaring this mare talk, and that makes us friends. And friends help each other, so you're going to help get me cleaned up and ready, and after the wedding, I'm going to help your subjects get fed." Cadence declared with finality, holding out of hoof to Chrysalis.
She took it.
The Godking is NOT Amused
Being King Once More is not amusing.
It was the day after the wedding. Nopony had seen hide nor hair of Veretus after he stormed off from Chrysalis. But Cadence and Chrysalis knew he always came to the dining room to see Luna and Celestia. So after she had finally convinced her two aunties to not throw Chrysalis into Tartarus, she then convinced them to keep away from the dining room that morning.
It was to Cadence and Chrysalis sitting together, staring at the entranceway that Veretus entered. He paused, and Chrysalis smiled, speaking in her layered voice.
"Greetings, King of Food."
After he had stormed off, Veretus had actually forgotten about his decision to reveal her identity, but this was unexpected. The Changeling Monarch seemed to have bonded with the Alicorn of Love. He looked around the table, wanting to see what the two diarchs made of this, they were missing, however.
"Come and sit with us Veretus, We have a lot to talk about." Cadence motioned him with a wing. He felt like this was a setup, but he had no actual excuse to leave, so he sat across from the two mares.
"Alright, I am here, and I am listening," Veretus said as he settled in. He hoped this would not take too long.
"C'mon Chrysalis... You agreed that it would be for the best." Cadence nudged the changeling monarch up, who he had now learned was named Chrysalis... Inventive. Chrysalis stood up from her pillow, looking at cadence with a hesitant expression, cadence merely nodded. the Changeling monarch looked back towards Veretus before clearing her throat.
"The hive pledges its eternal support to Godking Veretus, Jailer of the abyss, God of Might Dragons and Vindication, so long as he promises to love each one of its members to satiety." The Queen bowed her head. The minutes ticked on but Veretus just sat there, flabbergasted at this display. He had pushed her against the wall earlier, He had refused to play her intimidation game, and then he had left her. What had happened between now and then to change what should have been an angry mare to a subservient one? And why did she want him to love each of her subjects to satiety?
"Uh... Veretus?" The voice of cadence removed him from his thoughts. "Uh... What do you say?"
"Why?" That was all he had in response. "I am not your kind, I am not even a god of your kind since nothing similar to you exists in my reality. So why?"
"Because despite my joke earlier, you could effortlessly feed my Hive by existing ... I merely wanted to ask you to feed us but..." She looked away, and cadence took over.
"But quite frankly Veretus, you need something to do all day; when you aren't at Ponyville you just lay about on a cloud."
"Watching Canterlot go about its day is enjoyable."
"It's voyeurism." Cadance shot back snarkily.
"You'll understand when you're older." For some reason Cadence pouted at his words, chrysalis giggled.
"Fine. But you do understand what you are asking for, correct?" He raised an eyebrow. Chrysalis literally just cocked her head in confusion.
"Uh... For you to feed us, regardless of how awful it tastes?" He shook his head at her.
"You've been feeding on the byproduct of my engine of immortality. My divinity is not compatible with this world's power systems. Pledging your allegiance to me means going against your reality. This means many hardships." He looked at her, waiting for if she would rethink her-
"We are already going through hardships!" She pounded one of her hooves on the table. "You think these holes are natural! They are our body's attempt to conserve energy, as impractical as it may be! These holes cover every changeling, and they will never go away! We live in the most inhospitable location with nary a soul to feed from. The last hive, when in our glory days we numbered seven! So yes, I say buck the world! The world has done nothing for us!"
Veretus smiled. He suddenly stood up and outstretched his wings, his divinity flared, as the room was awash in radiant flames.
"In my name as Veretus, Seeker of Truth," the world pulsed angrily as he stated his birth title, an outdated concept in his reality now. "Past Godking of Alvaris, God of Might, Dragons, and Vindication, hereby accept the worship of the changelings, in return, they shall not want for food or home, so it shall be, and forever shall it be until I break my oath! " the world felt like it cracked as he finished. He swept Chrysalis in his wings, his divine connection giving him all the information he needed.
They were no longer in the dining room, and Chrysalis sputtered as she regained her bearings before looking downwards in shock. They were standing on thin air over a large hollowed-out mountain. Desert stretched out as far as she could see. This was the hive.
Veretus gently nodded before he reached metaphysically through her towards her subjects. He was brute-forcing this, as his tenuous grasp on the law of life was too weak to perform this action through it.
When he said she was feeding off the magical byproduct of his divinity, he was being serious. His divine spark constantly tried to suffuse his body with the unending reserves of magic it created by feeding off his Conviction. As his body was already at the pinnacle of what a flesh and blood creature could achieve, the magic usually suffused outward. Back in his reality, it would harmlessly mix into the environment. But as he mentioned earlier, everything to do with his divinity was incompatible with this world. This meant this magic sought outlets for it to go into, and that was why he was constantly feeding chrysalis.
Tens of thousands of thoughts became known to him, and they became aware of him in turn. His magic suffused through this link, seeking each and every connection. In return, faith flooded him as per the accord. Chrysalis's subjects knew instinctively of the deal they had made.
His divinity rejected all of it. It wasn't that he was breaking his oath, but his divinity was forged purely from his own self-worth and ideals, the other gods may have eventually caved in and used faith to grow theirs, but he would never taint his own power in that way.
Instead, he refined it. It was more intensive to do so without using his magic construct specifically designed to do so.
He pushed the magic downward. He had promised food and home. He had fulfilled food, it was now time for home.
Chrysalis assumed she had finally overexerted herself and everything up to this point was a starvation-fueled hallucination. Because the Hive was blossoming . Instead of the drab grey rick, moss grew, instead of the dry sand, the mountain was surrounded by a natural moat. And trees and plants spread for a half mile outwards.
She could feel the surprise of her subjects, and for Godkings sake, that was water . She was surprised as tears fell down into the water below them. She looked up at Veretus, only to notice he was focused on directing the changes, and then realized they came from her.
She had only wanted food, they were used to the harsh climate, and they had dug deep enough to drink from an underground river, but he had given so much more.
And with the final bit of grey covered by green, they were back in the dining room, his wings, warm and soft, became unfurled. And Cadence was still sitting there, looking bemused.
"You done hugging yet?"
"He... He..." Chrysalis had no words.
"How many hugs have you gotten in your life Chryssi?" Cadence now asked worriedly.
"He created life in the most inhospitable environment to it... He changed the landscape with a single whim..." She suddenly snapped her neck towards Veretus, who had sat down and... Looked slightly winded? "That... Was real, correct?"
"Of course... Had to fulfill my end." She shook her head, he did more than fulfill his end, he took the whole damn length and added more string!
"How... How did you do that?" Chrysalis asked.
"Overwhelming magical power, enough to turn a mountain to dust, why? Want to have that power yourself?" He asked seriously. She almost doubted her ears.
"How..?"
"Your world has the notion of priests." He started.
"And you're a god." Cadence finished, Veretus nodded.
"Except my world has different words for them. Clerics are the servants of gods and the universal laws. The most powerful of these are Champions. They have a portion of their deity's power to call upon at any time."
"But... Why?" Now it was Chrysalis's turn to be confused about his motives.
"Because you reminded me what he looked like..." Veretus admitted sadly. Chrysalis nodded slowly, and Cadence tactfully remained silent.
"Alright. I'll accept." Chrysalis didn't know what compelled her to accept, but she knew it wasn't the overwhelming power.
"Done." He flipped his hand at her.
"But... I don't feel any different." She said confused.
"Because I haven't granted you any divine power yet. It takes no effort to declare you my champion." He said offhandedly.
"Speaking of which... Every three days I teach spike. You'll be joining him tomorrow so you can learn my tenants. I won't be allowing you to resurrect ponies until then." He paused as both mares looked at him like he said something so shocking it was hilarious.
"What do you mean by... Resurrecting ponies?" Cadence asked tentatively, Veretus leaned forward.
"How much do you ponies know about the soul?" He asked instead of answering the question.
"There's no evidence that it exists." Cadence answered back swiftly, "but what did you mean by-"
"It does exist, and unlike many beliefs about it, it does contain your identity, so does your body, however. When you die, your soul dissipates naturally in a day, becoming merely a collection of energy that returns to your surroundings. Death and survival are the natural order of things in Alvaris, so the mortals have devised methods to bring the soul back to the body." Cadence shook her head in disbelief.
"Even if that was true, they'd be stuck in a rotting corpse, that's terrible!" Cadence shouted in shock, the Veretus just leaned back to sitting straight up.
"Except the mortals also figured out ways to heal, A powerful cleric could restore limbs, and even restore those on the verge of death to peak physical form."
"But... how?" Cadence finally asked after doing an impression of a fish. Chrysalis was merely silent, looking down at the table.
"Divinity. It is pure power, and even a demigod contains enough magical power to flatten an entire town in one go, let alone an actual god."
"Alright," Chrysalis spoke, surprising the two of them, her voice soft. "I'll join you tomorrow."
She said nothing else, so Veretus merely nodded before standing up.
"I'll meet you here tomorrow morning. We'll then fly to Ponyville." He said as he exited the room.
Author's Note
Alright. First chapter of the Selfish Love arc. Unfortunately, this arc might contain more exposition than I had first intended.
The Godking is NOT Amused
The Tenants are not amusing.
Celestia was waiting for him after he had left the company of Cadence and Chrysalis. He stopped five steps away from her and they stared. More accurately, he stared, and she glared at him. This went on for a few minutes before she finally spoke.
"What did you do?! I felt more magic than Discord ever used south of Equestria..." So that's what this was about.
"I am no longer just the god of dragons... You may now add changelings to my list of domains." He said before resuming walking past the alicorn. He paused when he was beside her, and she turned her neck to look at him. "And I did what I do for all my followers Celestia... I give them hope."
She didn't respond, so he resumed walking. The morning had just begun, and he had many ponies to watch before the night began.
And after the night was spent with Luna in her court the morning came. Breakfast seemed tenser than usual, as Chrysalis had shown up alongside Cadence. While usually Luna was the icepick to crack the icy atmosphere Celestia created when he was around, today she was as cold as her sister.
He silently sighed, not in the mood to taste more pony food out of curiosity for the taste of sustenance he didn't actually require. And neither did Chrysalis, as changelings required only the Love byproduct they harvested and water. He got up motioning chrysalis to follow him, she obliged.
Corridor through corridor they went, after a month of exploring the castle he knew this place almost as well as the guards, which was why when they went a convoluted route to the front entrance, it was purposeful. Each pair of guards they passed by gave Chrysalis a hard stare, different from the stone-like behavior they were trained to use. Chrysalis lowered her withers, lowering her profile in guilt. Most likely she could sense the anger each and every pony they passed presented.
She was visibly relieved when they had finally passed the castle gate and began to stretch out her insect-like wings. He just continued striding along on foot towards the train station. She looked at him pleadingly, but he ignored it. Through the city they trekked, and while not every pony looked at her with suspicion and fear or anger, many did, for the princesses had explained only the basics. At least until Cadence had grown tired of the two diarchs being obtuse and plainly said the facts.
Her doing so had a polarizing effect, while many ponies sympathized, many more were angry that this scary creature had kidnapped and impersonated one of their princesses, let alone almost stole her husband.
When they had reached the train station he put a hand on her withers and they were suddenly in front of Twilights library. Chrysalis looked at him angrily and opened her mouth, but shut it when the library's door opened.
"Oh... Good morning Veretus..." Spike yawned as he rubbed his eye of morning crust he remembered getting as a mortal. "I'll be ready in five... and twilight too... Come inside I guess."
Spike opened the door wider to let them in before wandering back upstairs, most likely to awaken Twilight Sparkle. He entered inside and took a seat in the kitchen he remembered he saw when he came here as Twilight was attempting to liquify magic. He could now claim to Twilight and her friends he'd been in a kitchen.
Chrysalis followed, her anger had dissipated with the interruption to her thoughts, now she was back to being depressed. Refusing to take a seat in the home of the sister of the stallion she had nearly ruined the life of.
In a few minutes, Twilight walked in, a toothbrush levitated in her magical grasp and was going back and forth with it in her mouth. The purple mare paused as her eyes finally alighted upon chrysalis's form. Her eyes narrowed as she continued trotting inside. Spike seemed to take Chrysalis's presence in stride, quickly grabbing a few bowls and a box made of some sort of sturdy fiber with a picture of a mare in skin-tight clothing with green hair-like tentacles. he placed one before himself and twilight before pausing and looking at their two guests.
"Uh... Hungry?" he asked gesturing with the bowls. Chrysalis was about to say something before Veretus Interrupted her.
"Never, but I'd like to try whatever that is, and Chrysalis would like the same." The mare in question seemed like she was going to argue, but just silently sat down at the table. Spike just shrugged before passing two bowls. He first poured what seemed like flakes of paper into his bowl before adding milk to it, also contained in an odd box made out of tough fibers. Twilight took the two boxes in her magic and poured herself some from each before she set them down in front of Veretus, despite Chrysalis being closer, and got up to spit out whatever the white foam in her mouth was.
He followed both Spike's and Twilight's example, pouring the flake bits, which he now saw was some sort of grain-based food covered in sugar, which he found plainly decadent considering sugar was rare, and now extinct after the Godsfall in his world. He poured the milk from the carton, but not knowing how much was needed he poured until the bowl was nearly overflowing with the flaky bits. He then passed both boxes to Chrysalis.
He looked down and wondered how he was supposed to eat it. His fingers would be cold and wet if he used them, and then he saw spike using a spoon, which he noticed was placed next to his bowl. He scooped up bits of the flakes mixed in the milk before putting them in his mouth. The texture was odd, a mixture between hard bread and soft loaves, mixed with the chill of the milk, and the sweetness of the sugar, it was like he was consuming an all-new form of pastry.
He closed his eyes and savored it. Once he swallowed he took another spoonful, then another, Eventually, the texture turned from the half bread mix to soggy, the taste was still the same, but it was like he was eating flavored paper. He ate it regardless, as he had made the food and wasn't going to waste Spike's hospitality.
When he ran out of flakes, he wondered what he was supposed to do, then he saw spike drinking from his bowl, so he mimicked him, and found an entirely new sensation to enjoy. There were still very small bits of the flakes inside the milk, and the milk tasted extremely sweet, giving it a slightly grainy but enjoyable texture and taste.
Before he knew it, his bowl was empty. He set it down and realized spike had finished before him, Twilight was munching on her's and trying her best not to make eye contact with Chrysalis, and Chrysalis was doing her best to eat her's while looking at it like it had just told her all of reality was simply a dream.
He had followed spike to what he thought passed for a washbasin, where they had placed their bowls and spoons. They had then waited for the other two to finish before they all headed out to the field.
Now both Spike and Chrysalis were in front of him instead of just Spike, with Twilight being at the side, she uncharacteristically didn't have her mass of parchment and quills with her.
"Today, since Chrysalis will be joining us, and you've progressed well with your physique Spike, we will be doing something different. You will learn the Tenets of my faith. Since only Chrysalis is required to abide by these, you may merely take reference, Spike." Spike still had trouble with his stamina, but he assumed that was due to Spike's age and stature rather than any failure in muscle building, since spike could effortlessly go through the exercises now. He turns towards Chrysalis.
"I have already begun teaching you the first tenet on our way here Chrysalis, what have you learned?"
"That everycreature hates me, and that I should feel awful..." she spoke dejectedly. And Veretus admitted that despite Cadence's newfound want for leadership, she had screwed up being so candor. The ponies didn't care that Chrysalis had made up with cadence, that she had not gone through with the invasion, all they cared was that this creature so different from them almost cost them everything. Apparently, the ponies' capacity for forgiveness only extended to their own species.
"Wrong," he spoke strongly and loudly. "You may not receive forgiveness, and you may not seek it, but always look to better yourself!" All three of them looked at him in surprise.
"You took the actions of a desperate leader, with no visible recourse, and no allies or aid in sight. While you may feel guilt, while others may condemn you, still take solace in the fact that you did what you thought was right, and learn from it. " His words resonated through the field they had taken as their practice spot. He did not ask that his followers follow some sort of moral code, he did not ask that they uphold some strict doctrine, all he asked was that they seek to grow, that they claw their way up from whatever background they started out in, and rose to the top of moral superiority.
"This brings us to the second tenet, to believe evil is foolish, but to provide redemption is always admirable."
"But, that makes no sense, how are you supposed to give a second chance if you don't trust them?" Spike spoke up. Chrysalis was in thought, and Twilight was looking at her hooves, an unreadable expression on her face.
"You don't have to trust someone to believe in them Spike, through the ages, I have been betrayed and lied to... But still I have faith in the mortals, still I love them with everything I am made of."
"And now to my third and final tenet, No height is too great to climb, no valley too low to sink in, temper yourself in your pursuit of justice, for while I will always forgive, Good and Evil are the same, and I will not abide atrocious acts." He paused to let the last one sink in. Many of them looked slightly confused, Twilight was still pensive, but Spike was in deep thought.
"Very well," Chrysalis spoke up, standing. "Already I can see why you rose to rule your world. So I should be unapologetic in my pursual of your tenets, those who wrong me and others, while they may have hurt others, they have their own motives, and to not be overzealous?"
He clapped once, Chrysalis seemed to come to her own understanding of his tenets.
"With that, despite only taking a short time, I will let you all think on this. I will see you back at the castle Chrysalis, Spike, I trust you to continue with the regiment." He nodded to all three of them once before he was suddenly no longer there. While Spike began doing pushups, Chrysalis began walking away from the group back towards Canterlot. Before she had gotten far, Twilight called out.
"Chrysalis." The Changeling in question took a deep breath, ready to receive the verbal abuse she expected from the sister of Shining Armor.
"I'm sorry for today..." This gave chrysalis pause, her mouth open ready to agree with whatever terrible things the purple pony was going to say about her.
"Why- What are you apologizing for?! I'm the one who nearly ruined your life!"
"Because despite Cadence believing in you... I didn't. But Veretus..." She looked down at her hooves before smiling up at the Changeling. "He always hopes for the best in ponies, doesn't he?"
"I think he hopes for the best in any creature he meets... because he has no hope in himself, Twilight." Chrysalis spoke slowly. "The Godking has too many troubles... and he doesn't like speaking about any of them despite his willingness to educate..." Twilight merely blinked.
"I don't think we can actually do anything about it though... He always keeps everypony at tails length... well, except Spike." Twilight looked back at where Spike had finished his pushup and was now working on limbering his body for the true workout Veretus had put him on, at first it seemed to her ridiculous, putting Spike's childish body through so much was bound to strain it, but Spike had improved so much in a single month...
"I don't know why, but despite him not smiling... I get the feeling that every time he visits Spike, he's smiling inside."
"...It might be that he sees Spike as the son he lost," Chrysalis spoke up after a pause. Unsure if this was okay to share with the mare.
"But... they aren't the same species." Twilight stated confused.
"It does not matter when it comes to love... Besides, the Godking's son was a dragon."
"Then... we can't do anything..." Twilight said, her eyes lowered and a sad expression on her face. Chrysalis thought about what would be appropriate to say.
"There is one thing." She began, Twilight looking up at her with eagerness. Chrysalis looked towards the small dragon now seemingly using a stick as a fake sword, his stance atrocious.
"We can believe in them... "
Author's Note
... You know, when I started this out, describing the process of eating cereal was not planned...
The Godking is NOT Amused
Sibling Relationships are not amusing.
It was a month after he had first taken the changelings under his protection. The location south of Equestria, now known to him as the badlands, was Blossoming into a verdant oasis surrounded by mountains. Luna told him that many ponies were already charting expeditions into the new Verdant expanse he had created. Most travelers apparently avoided the badlands, as there was no water on the surface and the weather was constantly scorching hot. The changelings had made their home there because of this feature, spending most of their time below their hollow mountain. Now, with the badlands hospitable, they had a new form of cover from the world, the trees and megafauna he had spawned with his magic, which he wouldn't admit to any creature had briefly gone beyond what was in his powers as a greater diety to do, and had slightly strained his backdoor on this world's law of life.
After Chrysalis came back from Ponyville, he made her his champion. His first champion in fact, as he never had a reason to need one, and Veretus was unsure himself why he had given the Changeling Monarch the honor. She had returned to the hive to organize them, it took time to demilitarize a militia population, especially one which involved most of your citizens.
The last time that he had trained Spike, which was yesterday, he had started the dragon on using wooden replicas of weapons. He would have to be trained in many of the mainstream weapons to a basic level so he could find what suited him the most. He had also gotten the name of the food he had eaten that day when he brought chrysalis along, cereal. The palace cooks had looked at him weird when he had requested this for the past month, but in return, he had found out that there were much more types than Spike had served him: sweet, covered in sugar, tasted like chocolate, had these odd fluffy things called marshmallows, even ones that had dried fruits.
While he had indulged in this cereal craze... the diarch's relationship had soured. Before, Luna would have a conversation with him, and would always at least try to include her sister into it and Celestia would occasionally say or mumble something in response. Now, for the past few days they had eaten in silence, there was no glaring or tense atmosphere, but one of desolation. Any conversation he tried to start Luna would half-heartedly reply to, occasionally inserted some off-hand comment about her sister that he barely got the context of.
This morning was one such day, Luna at least usually sat by his side during this time, but today, she had sat on the opposite end of the rectangular dining table from Celestia. Veretus wasn't in that great of a mood either, for Luna hadn't attended court and had spent the entire night within her room.
Celestia, usually at least regal and composed, looked like a mess. Her usual flowing-in-the-absence-of-wind hair was dull and muted, several strands had escaped the flow and looked frayed. Her coat had several patches that seemed brushed in the wrong direction. To be fair, Luna didn't look that much better, she was missing half the regalia she usually wore.
The atmosphere was one of sadness and tenseness. He tried to eat the cereal he had gotten today, filled with dried cranberries, strawberries, and blueberries, but it tasted sour and solemn. He put down the ornate silver spoon in his grasp before taking a breath.
"You two are acting like foals." He said, using the correct term for the young of their species. "I cannot bear to watch this anymore, Please, Celestia, Luna..." Both of them looked at him, his voice had more emotion than it usually did, sadness and pain.
"Do not end up like me and my brother..." He finished his thought as he got up, the servants would clean up his unfinished food, and left the dining room. He didn't go too far, he had settled at the first bacony he saw. He stood there, looking up at the stars of the sky that had yet to shift from Luna's night to Celestia's day.
"She's put a lot more effort into the night since you came here..." Veretus was mildly surprised when Celestia's voice came from behind him. He thought Luna would be the one to chase after him. He turned around, Celestia was looking up at the sky like he was doing moments before.
"I was unaware that effort was needed to raise and lower the moon." He said, looking to see if he could notice anything about the moon that would stand out, Celestia chuckled for some reason.
"She doesn't just move the moon, each night she causes the stars to come out and shine, each and every one she crafts... and I must admit, during the past month, she hasn't changed the stars once..." Celestia sighed
"But... what of astronomy? how would your people have navigated by the stars if she always crafted new ones?" Veretus was worried, he hadn't bothered looking at the stars since he got here, but he remembered Twilight mentioning astronomy.
"She keeps guiding stars and the early constellations the same but..." celestia sighed once more and looked at him. "When Luna was just a filly, and before then, the sky had no stars and the moon, well, it was always visible in the sky. I had begun raising the sun in place of the unicorns for around three years by the time Luna gained her cutie mark..." Celestia giggled into her hoof.
"She came up to me one night after I had just finished lowering the sun, all excited and happy, when she showed off her cutie mark, her crescent moon, I was happy, then I was stunned as she pointed to the sky. she didn't just place one star, she had created a messy, but picturesque expanse of twinkling lights, and she spent five minutes pointing out all the constellations she made, many symbolizing moments in our relationship..." She swiveled her head to look back up at the stars.
"I do not get what this has to do with your fighting aside from being a side effect of it," Veretus stated, turning back towards the sky trying to see what she was staring at.
"Almost everything... there." She said, causing him to look at her, in which Celestia had a hoof pointed up towards the sky, towards a group of stars that looked like... dragon wings... "She made that the night she challenged you... And I felt so angry, not because I hate you, but because I felt you were undeserving of a treatment she had reserved for her sister... It was selfish, and even now I want to pummel you for becoming my sister's special somepony."
He turned, fully this time, to look at Celestia, he had expected a visage of anger or perhaps a black stare, instead, he got sad eyes and a small smile.
"I- wait..." he began, interrupting himself in confusion. "Is that word reserved for the same use as mate? if so, I have been clear with cadence, and during a conversation with Luna, that I hold no attraction towards either of the three of you... Seems I should have made you understand as well."
"But- But you spend all night with her! Talking for ten hours is not something that normal friends do!" Celestia blustered. Veretus chuckled.
"Despite your long lives, it seems you have truly spent too much time looking over your subjects. Celestia, we have millennia of things to talk about, a single topic could last days if we allowed it... and I would spend the same time with you, but you had made it clear my company was not wanted." She looked ashamed at that, looking at the floor instead of him.
"Right... I- I will admit that I have been less than stellar in showing the same virtues I ask from my student... but I am-"
"Stop, Celestia. I don't want your apology." He could see his words hurt her, and he had to quickly explain what he meant. "I don't want your apology because it is unnecessary Celestia. I Imposed myself on you, In the beginning, I was too angry at the ones who had sent me here to properly introduce myself, and in it, I committed several actions that I should not have."
"But that doesn't excuse-"
"It does Celestia, because despite everything, I understand . You have run this kingdom for a thousand years alone, it had only been two months after your sister's return, and here I was, getting in the way... I wish I could offer to leave your kingdom, find some other race to take shelter with, but I have already set events in motion." He looked apologetically at her, for he truly wasn't thinking when he decided to use the strand of life he had plucked from his reality to bond with this ones. He had taken shelter with the first race he saw, not taking into account if they could survive the retribution he would rain upon them, and he had spent all this time with Luna, forgetting that she has a sister.
"I would not want you to leave anyways Veretus." she said, shaking her head. "Luna... you have truly done more for her than I could just by being able to relate ... And I admit, my vision of you was clouded, for I have had terrible experiences with both kings, and gods, and kings claiming to be gods..."
"Our more recent spat... had less to do with you, and more events that would unfold soon... but I must ask... what happened to your brother? You claimed you killed him, but... how could your hatred towards one another become so large that you would resort to lethal violence?"
"...I never hated my brother Celestia, even now, I still love him... But he apparently never thought of me the same way. I should have seen it a thousand years earlier, I should have seen it when even as the mortals, mortals he had manipulated, closed the gates of the abyss on me and he didn't come to my aid... I should have seen it when I fought him after he had stolen the divinity of all the gods... but I only saw it after he had pretended to surrender... and strike me through the heart..." He felt the memories drudge up... the pain had disappeared long ago, but the reminders still stung.
"That's... awful. I assume you are still here because of what Cadence has said about your subject's magic? Is death... painful?" Celestia hesitantly asked, her face betraying her nervousness at the answer.
"I did not die from it, I have claimed true immortality multiple times Celestia, when will you understand that when I say that as long as my divinity still exists, I cannot die... But truly, dying isn't painful or sad... It is nothingness Celestia, everything about you is broken down and reused."
Celestia walked up to the railing and put her fetlocks over it, looking down at the city from there.
"Truly Celestia, my brother never thought of me as his, but you two... you are what I could never have..." He walked beside her, looking down as well, the railing too low for him to actually lean on, and Celestia turned her head towards him. "You can laugh, cry, even play with your sister..."
"Surely you two acted like brothers at least once?" She asked with doubt.
"Despite being made of the same stuff as the mortals, we were still immortal... We were rulers first and foremost, and when you make immortals with the infinite capacity for growth, but trap them in a cage of rules... I suppose we go crazy."
"Is your brother's death the reason you don't seem that interested in going back? I must admit... your lack of worry over trying to get back to your friends and family was one of the reasons I have been... distant."
"...I am unsure if I wish to go back, I had done nothing but sit on a throne for eight hundred years, my universe isn't that old, it is only a few thousand years older than I. When I reached the heights I did... Everything became trivial," he looked her in the eyes. "When I came here and Luna offered to fight with me... It was the most enjoyable day of my life because I had the potential to lose with no cataclysmic stakes. The world would not end if I lost to your sister, and that's what made it truly fun."
"I... do not get your fascination with fighting, I have always been appalled by violence, despite seeing it sometimes necessitated."
"Then perhaps my next enjoyable activity would be more your style." She hummed inquisitively at his statement, looking at him with confusion.
"Later, right now it is too early for any pony to be out and about." He replied to her inquiry.
"But I have court lat-"
"Celestia, you care about your subjects deeply, I can respect that, but in looking after them, you forget to take care of your own matters. You will open your court for four hours, half the time you normally do." She glared at him.
"You are a guest in our lands, I don't think-"
"Luna has not had a petitioner for a single moon cycle." This statement caused Celestia to choke back her words. She took a moment to compose herself.
"...Why has she not come to me about this?"
"Because you are her elder sibling, while she knows she can rely upon you, she wants to impress you, make you proud... She loves you more than you know, despite all you were forced to do to her. But still you are blind to what ails her, neither of us blames you, for we see that you want only the best for the ponies. You solve every problem during your court, and many know they will have time to petition you tomorrow." Celestia instantly knew what Veretus was getting at and lowered her head in sadness.
"And so none of them trust my sister enough to solve their problems..."
"Not unless they are truly desperate or their plight is urgent."
"Very well," she sighed. "I will close court early tomorrow and see what it is you wish to show me."
"Thank you Celestia for finally putting aside your mistrust of me."
Despite that he deserved it...
Author's Note
So, this actually took a little while because with Thanksgiving coming around the corner, work is hard. Plus I have three other projects going on, One is a Collab in the Displaced universe with BlackDust here!
The second one is a one-shot for Byciclette's Sci-fi contest.
Finally, I've taken my renewed interest in all things pony to begin using my four years of highschool art classes, or at least what I still retain from five years ago.
I doubt I'll be able to work on the next chapter for this story until after Thanksgiving, so since that's the case, Happy early Thankgiving everypony!
The Godking is NOT Amused
Pony Watching is not amusing.
It was when the sun had begun to dip, a time the ponies called two pm, that Veretus had gone to Celestia's court. The herds of ponies streaming out, many with disappointed and confused faces, walked a wide circle around him.
Celestia was sitting there on her throne talking to a pony with a grey coat and white mane. She looked up and smiled at the sound of Veretus's boots clanking against the marble floor. It was strange to him, as Celestia had always frowned in his presence.
"I am just finishing up here Veretus, then you can show me your surprise." She spoke before turning back to the pony beside her.
"But your majesty! I must still request that you reconsider! Not only are your schedule changes too sudden, your subjects still have many more problems needing to be solved!" The grey pony exclaimed, and Veretus shook his head. Such insult to a monarch's decision would have had the pony dismissed from his position in his kingdom, but Celestia and Luna truly were too kind.
"I have promised to show our visiting dignitary throughout the city Status Quo. You would not want me to revoke my promise, do you? It would set a bad example for Equestria, so much so that they might declare war." The grey pony turned a few shades whiter at Celestia's words.
"N-No your majesty... My apologies..."
Celestia nodded as she stepped down from the throne and walked by Veretus. The pony named Status Quo stook there nervously. Perhaps Celestia wasn't too kind after all...
"Perhaps you were right, I do coddle my ponies too much if me ending court early rattles them like this..." Celestia spoke up during their walk through the castle, Veretus shook his head at her ridiculous statement.
"Perhaps? You and Luna are much too kind to your subjects, while I reigned, it was only if something threatened the safety of the kingdom as a whole that it would be brought to me. I had soldiers and advisors for domestic issues, which seems to be the majority of your petitions."
"You must have had a lot of free time..." Celestia wistfully sighed as her imagination took her away.
"I'm afraid not," Veretus spoke sadly. "My days were always spent preparing for the next coming disaster. First, it was finding the perpetrator of the regicide, making peace with other kingdoms, then preparing for war with a greater diety. Up until my final ascension, I had none of this free time..."
"Final Ascension?" celestia asked, Intregued.
"When I could no longer stay on Alvaris for fear of destroying it by my mere presence... In other words, my ascension to Overgod after I destroyed my brother..." Veretus smiled in sad fondness.
"You are joking... right?" When Celestia received no silly smile or hint of mirth from Veretus she frowned. "How can one possess such power that unleashing a tiny bit of it would destroy the world?"
"Faith, the power you so dismissed as an evil brainwashing technique. Tell me, Celestia, have you heard the phrase, Consciousness begets Reality?"
"Consensus reality, yes I've heard of it, but not everypony can believe the same-" Celestia shook her head before looking at him incredulously. "No... you can be saying..."
"Every creature, from the tiniest insect that could think, to the most egotistical creature in Alvaris, believed that I was the strongest god. And so it became that I was the strongest god..."
"Faith seems to sound more and more evil the more you describe it..." Celestia said as she covered her shocked expression with a hoof.
"Because you don't understand it as I do. Faith is much more than just believing in something beyond you..." He turned to her as he stepped onto a balcony on the side of the castle opposite of the mountain, and spread his wings in preparation for flight. "It is also about belief in the self. Now come, my favorite activity is soon at hand."
As he took flight with a flap of his six wings, she followed. The difference in wingbeats was immensely obvious, while Celestia flew with slow, graceful flaps which barely made any noise, Veretus' six wings were powerful, and each flap of them propelled him forward with a mighty 'fwoomf'. Soon, they had alighted upon a stray cloud over the city proper.
"So what is it you wanted to show me?" Celestia asked impatiently.
"This." He waved a hand to signify all of Canterlot, Celestia rolled her eyes at him.
"Yes, I live here, I know what Canterlot looks like."
"But you have never looked at it Celestia. Right there." Veretus pointed down towards an earth pony filly who was leaving a candy shop. "Bright light, every day after school she goes to this candy shop with ten bits from her mother, buys three items which comes up to seven bits, and saves the rest."
"Are you peering into the personal lives of ponies?" Celestia asked with an eyebrow raised.
"No Celestia, I can hear everything they say from up here. One day they talked. Regardless, over there is Berry Glow. She claims to make the best pies on her block." Veretus chuckled, and Celestia looked at this deity a little bit worried that he knew these details of their lives.
"Then we have-"
"Enough." Celestia cut him off. "Is this some attempt at regaining your childhood? The time when you had no cares and worries about being king or growing up?"
If ever Celestia had seen a creature's face go from joy to impassiveness faster than she just did, she didn't remember it.
"It is not... It is envy... These ponies get something that I never did, so I watch them, and be happy for their peaceful life."
"But- your parents?"
"Killed, along with my whole village at six months."
"Who raised you? Surely you participated in some normal activities throughout your long life?" Veretus looked at her through the corner of his vision.
"I was raised inside a monastery serving a false god... A false religion... all created to keep my past self trapped inside the Abyssal Sea... I had no childhood Celestia, from before I could walk I was educated in how to serve faithfully... Unthinkingly... Lethally."
She looked at him in horror, these were the subjects he loved? She felt guilty at ever considering him to be evil, it was his subjects that took advantage of him. She lit her horn, taking his arm in her magical grasp as she began walking towards the edge of the cloud. He looked curiously at her.
"Come on." With those words, he finally followed as she lifted off from the cloud and alighted in front of the candy shop.
"Celestia, whatever plan you have, I do not think-"
"Be quiet and just follow me." She said, interrupting him as she opened the door, the small bell tinkled as the Stallion at the counter opened his mouth.
"Welcome, feel f- P-Princess Celestia! What can I do for your Majesty... today..." His words slowed as he took in the figure of Veretus who followed in after her.
"If you could prepare some treats please, an assortment if you could." She smiled and gently asked, ignoring the inquisitive eyebrow raise Veretus was giving her.
"Uh... right away Princess!" He finally recovered, grabbing several candy bars and some scoops of candy and putting them in clear bags made out of a material Veretus had never seen. When all was done, He put them all in an opaque bag on the counter.
"And how much would this be?" Celestia asked as she levitated the bag by two loops at the opening.
"Oh, uh... Nothing your majesty, I couldn't-"
"Nonsense, please, I am purchasing these from you." She interrupted him gently.
"twe- twenty-seven bits..." He finally said. With a pop of their teleportation, three stacks of bits were suddenly on the counter. She smiled as she exited, the bag of candy floating behind her. Veretus followed, he had to admit, he was intrigued by what she was planning.
Celestia didn't fly away, instead, she walked. Veretus felt that Celestia didn't truly understand the danger she was putting her ponies in with this jaunt through the city. At any time a threat could try and get rid of him. His paranoia seemed to be off today however, as they had reached a secluded fountain. The water seemed to have dried long ago, and the figure was of a pony he had never seen.
She sat down at the base, patting the grass beside her while smiling at him. He sat beside her, very lightly leaning against the base. She said nothing as she levitated one of the candies she had bought to him. He took it with an eyebrow raised. He had watched Bright Light open these candies before, so he very gently peeled the coating off. He guessed it was to protect it from dust or something.
He took a bite, it was chocolate, of course, some nuts, and some sort of sweet half solid. Celestia was eating her own with a smile and eyes closed. He still didn't get what they were doing. She could have just ordered some sweets to be delivered to the castle if she wanted some. Despite her eyes being closed, she levitated more candy to him when he had finally finished his.
Throughout the hour, he had tried more types of sweets than he had ever had in his immortal life, Some were pure chocolate, some had nuts, liquid sugar, some were very hard, some were soft, half weren't even chocolate. During the entire thing, Celestia would talk about when she remembered first having the treat, or when it first was invented.
"While the hour was pleasant, I don't exactly know why you wanted to do this." He finally said when the bag was empty.
"Luna and I used to do this all the time as fillies, not here, and not these candies specifically, but we always had a secluded spot the other foals didn't know, where we'd just eat pie or something, and speak about our lives..." She smiled as she looked at him. "Now I shared my experience growing up with you, I know it may not have been nostalgic as it was for me, or as meaningful, but..."
"Thank you, Celestia. You shared something personal, and I can recognize the significance of this gesture." He gave a gentle smile, he never remembered using facial expressions this much back in Alvaris.
"Tell me Veretus... I understand you seem to idolize your subjects... but why?" He closed his eyes at her question, his memories of why were long, and he was searching for the most significant one.
"The human, Princess Lurauna..." He whispered.
"Do you mind talking about her?" Celestia asked tentatively.
"Of course not. She is the only one I would ever call a true paragon." He looked upwards in sad fondness. "When the Demons first Invaded Alvaris, she lost her father in the third defense."
"Third defense? I thought you had came to their aid?"
"An immortal's sense of time is much different than a mortal's, it was two years before I finally had enough of my brother's inaction, and had left to fight alongside the mortals by myself. After her father's death, as the only heir, she took to the throne reluctantly, for she hated being a royal. Her first action wasn't to train more troops or create a militia. Instead, she reached out to the other races, the elves, longtime enemies of the humans, the Dwarves, who the humans had largely stayed separated from, the orcs, who would raid human settlements for supplies, even the neutral halflings. She had even sent word to the dragons."
"And they banded together to defeat the demons?" Celestia asked, leaning towards him with interest.
"Eventually, but while all but the dragons had agreed to meet, during the meeting, each wanted to lead their combined army, convinced that their race alone held the traits necessary to command. So she challenged each one to a contest of their strengths. The Elves claimed they were Geniuses, having invented the most impressive magics, so she challenged them to light up a room with magic the quickest. While they had used a spell to cover every inch of the room in daylight, taking only a few minutes to invent a spell and cast it, Lurauna had merely lit the hearth with a fire spell, taking less than a minute to completely illuminate the room."
"The dwarves refused to accept any challenge from her after seeing the elves' defeat, and instead proposed their own. They would both present a resource their kingdom had that would be invaluable in the war. The other races would judge which would be more useful. The dwarven king claimed their mines of adamantium would protect the entire army from the demon's attacks. Lurauna, having spent her entire life with the peasantry of her city, spent an entire hour naming each and every person she could think of, and how they could help. The dwarven king admitted she had won before any of the other races even voted, admiring her passion for her people."
"And finally, the orcs, as they already spent their lives as an army, their leader know an army ran on its stomach, so he challenged her people to a three-hour competition to gather enough food for a hundred people. The orcs lived off the land and were confident they couldn't lose if they banded together. They each had a team of thirty to hunt and forage. While the orcs chose their strongest hunters, Lurauna chose farmers and butchers. At the end of three hours, the orcs had brought back monsters that took several orcs to defeat and other assorted game, Laurana had brought back thirty carts worth of food, donated by friends and family of those she chose. The orc leader disliked her disregard of the spirit of the challenge, but reluctantly admired the human's willingness to work together."
"What of the Halflings? What challenge did they put forth?" Celestia asked excitedly, enthralled in the story.
"Nothing, they already witnessed every value they themselves held dear in her challenges. They saw her simple solution in the challenge with the elves, her love of friends and family in the dwarf's, and their willingness to share in the orc's. They held friends and family in the highest regard, and immediately promised to fight off the Demons under her lead." He frowned as the memories came back.
"But even after uniting, their first battle was still almost lost..."
"What?!" Celestia shouted, getting up and stomping her hoof against the pavement. "After all that, proving to the other races that she truly cared, they banded together and still weren't powerful enough?!"
"Of course not, The demons were the army of the immortals, each has an innate knowledge of battle from birth, and once killed, they would reform back in the abyss, ready to take to the front lines once more, summoned by a higher-ranked demon." She sat down dejected after his explanation.
"Then how could they win..?" She sorrowfully said.
"Because I had faith in them," Veretus said, and she looked at him.
"So what? because you believed in them they got stronger?" Celestia snarked.
"No, Celestia, because I helped them fight, they grew stronger. That battle was the birth of the gods..."
"But how did you help them?" She asked, beginning to get irate.
"I had descended during the battle, already they were losing. The godlings had fought ferociously against the three demon generals, and with the entire army's faith behind them, they barely held their own. Lurauna was at the forefront, her hair scarlet with demonic ichor, she wielded plain armor and a normal sword, but she held her own just as much as the other godlings... My descent was punctuated by the clearing of the cloudy skies for miles around, my golden armor gleaming in the sun as my twin blades bisected one of the generals in a single cut."
"So with your help, she led the army to defeat the demons, and then imprisoned you as one?" Celestia asked, still remembering his imprisonment in the Abyss.
"No, throughout the campaign, She and I had... grown close. She always saw the best in anyone, even in my brother, which she convinced me to talk with him, listen to his side on why he refused to help the mortals after we had sent the demons back into the Abyss. I had my armor melted down by the dwarves and forged into her regalia and weapon. And upon the final battle, all twelve Demonlords, each with a strength to equal the godlings, had sought to stop us. Upon the closing of the battle, I had beaten all of them inside of the gate they had used to assault Alvaris, all of the godlings were injured or dying, so I was the only one holding them back... And then, against Lurauna's wishes, the other leaders gave the order to close the gate."
He closed his eyes, speaking the memories only made them more clear and painful. He felt something soft press against his side, it was Celestia, her eyes threatened tears. She had embraced him, her head near his.
"I'm sorry..." Was all she could choke out.
"And I said-"
"Not for what I've done, but for what I can imagine you went through afterward... You loved her, didn't you? You gave up your armor to keep her safe, and then you had to spend her entire life Imprisoned, unable to see or speak with her... Nopony deserves that fate... Even Tirek, a foe we imprisoned, was allowed letters to and from his brother..."
"I- Even after everything... She abandoned her kingdom, everybody she knew... My brother had locked our Celestial Kingdom from entry... But every lock has a key, and she went through the Trial of Empathy to unlock it... to plead with my brother to get me back... He didn't kill her, he couldn't, the Celestial Kingdom makes it impossible to die there... instead he imprisoned her, kept her locked up as she continually starved to death, until eventually, she barely recognized me..." The words choked out... He never remembered being so angry as when he had finally been convinced to return to his Kingdom, and she still wanted him to reconcile with his brother...
"So you love every creature because she did... It's your way of remembering her."
"I suppose part of it is..." He said after a while.
"It's not just a part, Veretus, you spent two years until you finally came to their aid, the Godking I see in front of me wouldn't waste two minutes if all of what you've told me is true." She said firmly.
"Fine... I will concede this argu-" He was interrupted by the fact that either this world had just had tens of thousands of infants be born at the same time, or tens of thousands of creatures had just entered the world. He didn't realize that he was standing up, looking towards the north, nor did he realize that Celestia had done the same...
Author's Note
So here's this. Still working on the setting book. Probably going to be shorter than I first envisioned it, but the things I'll be adding later, classes, backgrounds, even magical items will be free and in a separate book.
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The Godking is NOT Amused
Dragons are a Godking's Best Friend. (Part 1)
"-and you will not help them!" Celestia said as she galloped quickly throughout the castle, Veretus keeping pace with some light jogging.
"You described the antithesis of all that I embody, And you want me to stand aside !?" Veretus said back, raising his voice over the wind resistance.
"Shining Armor and Princess Cadance are more than ready for-"
"The couple barely survived Chrysalis! And she wasn't trying to kill anybody! you expect that an ancient threat that had no qualms about not only enforcing his will but killing others is not more trouble than they can handle?" he interrupted her as they stopped in the throne room.
"Veretus has a point sister. Sombra is a formidable foe who will be as powerful as he was a millennia ago. Our combined might barely equaled his back in the day, for all we know, he is stronger now, and us, weaker." Luna interjected, already present, presumably having felt the same as both of them.
"Shining armor has grit Celestia, I will admit that, however, grit and power are two different things. Cadance has barely come to terms with her immortality, I understand the city is her right, but you are placing unnecessary pressure on them." He said calmly now that they all stopped, raising his eyes for emphasis.
"They are up to the task, now please, should they be unable to banish him, I will also send twilight and her friends-"
"To do what? I understand you have faith in our ponies sister, but Veretus makes good points, and for once he is offering his help. both of us know Sombra won't let them use the elements."
Celestia paused, the frustration on her face was visible, and Veretus almost found it cute, that small thinking pout and cross stare at her sister. Her hesitance was noted, and oddly, he felt that he should... console her? He placed a hand on her wither, she tensed for a second before relaxing and looking at him.
"I shall compromise, I will go with the two, they will secure the city, and I will deal with the tyrant of fear." He could see Celestia thinking, and Luna visibly relaxed. As much as she knew he was right, Veretus knew Luna hated arguing with her sister, it always worried her, reminded her.
"Very well," Celestia said, sighing in defeat. "However, you will not assist them with controlling the city, this must be the culmination of her lessons, Shining is an experienced captain, he shall assist her where she falls."
"Agreeable, My only want is to destroy the tyrant, I have little interest in the city." She shook her head sadly at his words.
"One of these days Veretus you must stop isolating yourself."
He shook his head, their talk was done, and he had to begin flying. As much as their civilization was advanced to rely on little magic, their transportation was still too slow.
"Trust me Celestia, it is better for your citizens that I do." And with his parting words, the throneroom doors closed, separating them.
Spike was feeling off. It wasn't the girls, they were safely in the cart, chatting and talking about the urgent matter Celestia had summoned them for. He didn't know why he tagged along, he usually didn't. Saving the world was their thing, not his. sure, he had been training, but unless he suddenly grew ten hooves he wasn't going to be seriously fighting any of the villains they usually fought.
He looked out the window once more, watching Ponyville down below grow more distant as they ascended the mountain. He was wringing his claws, and he probably looked nervous, but he just didn't know why .
"-ike, Spike?" The words from twilight shook him out of his trance, he looked up to the group looking at him worredly. "if you want to go back-"
"No, no need, just uh... comfy, is all, let's get going." He hopped down, wondering why he lied. they rushed through the city, and he barely realized that for once, he kept up with the girls without riding on twilight back, he was out of breath, but he kept up. They rushed through the castle, where he did finally get levitated up to her back, and they burst through the throneroom doors.
"Princess Celestia, we're... here... oh, princess Luna." Twilights words halted as she took in the fact that her mentor wasn't even present, Luna was sitting on the throne, and seemed surprised that they had entered so quickly."
"Twilight and friends, we didn't expect you for another few minutes..." Luna looked around, the room felt awkward. a few attempts at conversion were made before Princess Celestia finally entered.
"We appreciate your haste my little ponies, apologies, but I was waylaid by a minister."
"Well, yer majesty, what's the matter? Twilight said it was direly urgent." Applejack spoke up, and both of the princesses looked at each other.
"We said to come with haste, but we did not say that the situation was dire." Twilight sheepishly laughed as Princess Celestia continued. "Two days ago, Veretus, Cadance, and Shining armor went to the north."
"For what reason? There's little up there but just dreadful weather." Rarity asked.
"An ancient empire has returned, along with a foe we always feared..." Princess Celestia looked away, composing herself. "Veretus went to the north to fight him, while Cadance and Shining armor went to assure the city."
"Then we got nothin' to worry bout, That guy's tough as nails, maybe even tougher than me, he'll kick flank, and return in no time." As Rainbow Dash spoke, Spike's stomach fell. The feeling had returned, was it something to do with the north, normally, he'd be commenting about how such a sense was cool, like a superpower out of his comics, but his mouth was dry, and he felt that if he opened his mouth, nothing would come out.
"Normally, we would think so, but we received a letter from them this morning... Veretus is indisposed, they are safe, but they requested help... We will be sending you, please hurry as fast as you can, they were brief and provided little detail, and I only worry about what is going on up there."
"We're on it princess, if my BBBFF and Cadance need our help, we're glad to go." Spike barely remembered what transpired after. They thankfully didn't notice his state, and time flew by before he absently looked out the window of the train that had gotten on. Aside from the conductor, it was only them, and it had grown dark. Snow battered against the windows heavily, leaving the outside looking like hyperspace.
And then the sky lit up in bright firey gold. The pit in his stomach filled for a moment before falling again. The girls had crowded around the window in awe, chatting excitedly, wondering what the golden light was. Their discourse was stopped by the train coming to a screeching halt. They all got off as the train reversed, it would return in a week when hopefully everything was solved.
They soon noticed a figure through the heavy snow, all of the ponies were bundled up, and he only wore a scarf, thanks to being a dragon.
"Twilight?" The voice of Shining armor came from the figure, he was also heavily bundled, ski goggles included, as he approached.
"Shining!?" Twilight yelled over the raging snow in surprise, none of them had expected him to meet them, he didn't even know when they were coming.
"It's not safe out here currently, quick, we have to go before another-" And in the middle of his sentence, the sky lit up once more, this time accompanied by a loud crack, like thunder, which hurt everypony's ears. Everypony except spike, not because he was a dragon, but because he was no longer in the tundra.
"And yet you're still this weak, you can't kill me." The voice of veretus came from in front of him, except he was different, his eyes were black instead of the multicolored hue they normally were. Instead of his six different wings, all six of them were black and feathered. He sounded disappointed as he sat on a stone throne, oh, and he was twice as tall as he normally was.
"Stop the invasion! Millions are dying! Everything we worked for is disappearing!" Veretus's voice also came from behind him? He couldn't turn his neck, he felt stiff, and a rumble filled his chest... was he bigger?
"And yet you're still so weak! Perhaps they do deserve it, I may as well kill you, start over, of course, I will have my second death." The Not Veretus stood up, and in a blink, his hands were filled with a scythe, long and menacing, it was clearly not a harvesting instrument, at least not a conventional one.
And then Spike could barely follow. His own head moved about wildly, there was Veretus, he had his set of dragon wings, but he had two sets of white feathered wings instead of one black and one white. Fighting alongside him was a large upright elephant covered in armor? as well as a short, barely half Veretus's height short, creature slinging spells like a wizard in Ogres and Oubliettes, you know, it was exactly like in Ogres and Oubliettes!
Eventually, by realizing how his stiff body moved without his attention, he realized he was large, about as large as the elephant creature, he was a quadruped, and he was definitely a dragon . His scales were red and reflected every bit of light that shone on them, what took him hours of polishing seemed to come naturally to whoever he currently was.
The battle grew more intense, The elephant guy, which he learned was named Kardak when the other two shouted out his name as the Not Veretus's scythe burrowed into his chest. Like some sick game of sports, he swung back and threw Kardak's body off his scythe, he lost track of it as his body focused instead on trying to fight. Yet each blow seemed to only encounter a solid sheet of air.
"You can't kill death, not now, not yet." He spoke, parrying Veretus's twin swords, both made of black metal, with his scythe as he swung his scythe around, hitting the little green creature, Greesh from Veretus's panicked shout, in the stomach, where he flew out of his sight.
Spike's horror was mounting. He wanted this dream to stop, he had no control, no agency! He willed himself to wake up, anything to make this scene stop. It wasn't like his comics, they were stories. Sure he sometimes dreamed about being one of them, and every superhero needed a low point in their story, but this? This felt real, it felt bloody, and it was vivid...
Veretus was losing, with every exchange he lost ground, he stepped back, and the body he was in was being ignored, at one point it even opened up its jaw and tried to bite the Not Veretus, and still, it was blocked by some barrier. This guy was cheating!
Eventually, Spike was knocked away, more like an annoying fly than like one of the other combatants. He recovered his wits, or rather his body did, and it opened its eyes to see Veretus disarmed, Spike willed the body to do something, to move, to run! To get in between them before Veretus was killed just like the others!
It seemed this it could get behind. With fluid grace, they moved as the scythe swung back underhanded. it was all a blur, he wanted to get there, move Veretus, Despite being little more than a dream he was trapped in, no, a nightmare, he willed it to happen.
The pulse of pain surprised him, he hadn't felt much, it felt like getting a flu shot, then he felt cold, the world blurred, and he could barely hear anything, but one thing came in clearly.
"Son! Son..."
"Spike! Spike!" Spike blinked as the tundra was back. Twilight was shaking him, the others looked worried. Their outfits looked frazzled, and he realized his scarf was missing. Then he noticed he was laying down on grass. The world was spinning, and he grasped for coherency.
"I'm... okay?" He didn't mean it to be a question, and he was sure it didn't ease their worry. He cleared his thoughts and tried again. "I'm fine, really."
"Yah sure? Yah dropped like apples off the tree." He waved off Applejack's concerns.
"Well, okay, but one more time and we're doing... something?" Twilight warned with confusion, and he felt her confusion himself, they could confine him to bed rest, but he doubted that'd help at all. Something was going on, something strange and horrible, but he just didn't know what to do.
After meeting Cadance, they split up, Rarity and Applejack went to ask ponies questions, and the rest of them found the library. Their goal? Find something to stop Sombra, as they guessed Veretus was only fighting to a standstill. It didn't settle right with him, Veretus had talked about his powers multiple times, and it was no secret that he even made a desert into a verdant prairie! Maybe he was weakened, did god's get the flu?
The girls crowded around a book while he was distracted once more, oddly enough, he had grabbed a book about crystal pony mythology, as rare as it was. When you had alicorns and powerful foes once a month, along with raising and lowering the sun, he supposed they didn't really have a need for religion. At least not like Veretus described it.
He looked at the odd creature sitting on a pile of gems, gold, and wealth on a random page he had flipped to. another boom shook the sky, the gold swirled- not again!
"They're not my problem." The deep rumbling voice came from his own throat, it was low and baritone, and had a background noise like crumbling rocks, he was laying down, probably in the same body, only a little smaller, as he looked down on... Veretus? the face was right, if quite young? Except he only had a single sword, and he wore a red hooded cloak atop chainmail instead of the plated suit of metal he normally wore. He also had none of his wings.
"They helped build this, every citizen that helped you is in danger." He gestured to the gigantic pile of gold coins, gems, and trinkets Spike was laying on.
"Then they can defend it as well. The city is not my concern." Apparently, that was the wrong thing for this body to say, as Veretus launched himself at Spike. Before his form could do anything, however, Veretus held one of his horns and forced his head to the carved stone ground with a heavy thunk.
"Just because you own half the city, doesn't mean you can abandon them in their time of need. I raised you better." He let go, but Spike's body didn't raise its head as Veretus walked towards a staircase. "I'll be at the city walls. If you don't show up... I no longer have a son."
The door atop the stairs slammed shut, and spike shot up to his feet. The girls looked at him strangely, but he didn't care as he closed the book. He felt he had an inkling of why he kept having these dreams, or... visions? something. He ran towards the door, halting at twilight's voice.
"Wait, Spike! What are you doing?" He paused, what was he doing? He started moving and felt like he was going somewhere... The city walls? no, the Crystal kingdom, the name of the city they were in, didn't have city walls, the houses gave way to plains thanks to Cadance and Shining's magic, and then to tundra... to Veretus he realized. Something there kept calling him.
"I'm going to help." He said without turning around, he didn't want to show the concern and worry on his face. He had no idea how he could help, but whatever was calling him thought he could.
"But we just found mention of the fair, and a crystal heart, how could you-"
"Please twilight... All I can say is I'm going to help." He took in a large breath and turned around. He hoped he looked confident as they locked eyes, she searched him for what felt like an eternity, and then Twilight nodded.
"Okay, I believe in you, You never failed me before, my number one assistant." He didn't know how much he needed to hear that as he marched outside. His back was tall, as much as it could be since he used a tail for balance. He marched out of the city, most of the ponies were grey and downcast, so they didn't stop him. He marched through the cold tundra eastward. He didn't rely on any specific sense to know he needed to go this way, but rather some feeling inside him.
He paused only shortly as he could make out some darker blackness in the night sky, and as he reached ever closer, another loud boom, and golden flash lit up the sky. He saw it through that flash, a large wall of inky blackness, like an impenetrable fog. it corralled whatever made that flash, only letting the occasional wave through. He took a deep breath and plunged head-first into the cloud.
He was scared, lost, and alone. He had wandered the inky blackness for hours, maybe days? Twilight would be disappointed he failed, she'd leave him, call him worthless- he paused, the entire cloud lit up in a golden hue that passed by him before disappearing, and he wiped away his tears. Twilight wouldn't do that, those were just his own fears and doubts, and suddenly it struck him.
His favorite comic quote went, "The ignorant have no fear, but bravery is acting despite that fear." Nothing had happened to him but his own fears, he had only been in here for minutes, not hours. He walked on and wondered what Veretus was afraid of, that had to be the reason he hadn't kicked this Sombra's flank by now.
He paused as another golden glow appeared, but it didn't pass him by, instead, it circled him, surrounded him until he couldn't see, and when his eyes cleared, he gulped, in front of him was perhaps the most terrifying thing he had seen.
The dragons he knew were like him, but just bigger, maybe some were quadruped, but some were bipedal like him, and their scales were monochrome but dull... This dragon was five times as big as Spike, his red scales shown in the inky blackness, Every part of this creature was built for war, sharp claws, sharp teeth, strong scales, piercing eyes, goring horns...
"Go away, before I burn you." It said in the same rumbly low baritone he had heard in his vision, he was shaking, his body wanted to turn around, but he refused, he was going to help, he had to help.
"I... R-refuse." He said, and mentally kicked himself, why did he choose today to be stubborn, sure, he had a hero streak, but this was different... he could die.
"Turn back, or die." The red dragon repeated once more. The bigger dragon's eyes narrowed as he reared back, inhaling deep before golden fire washed over Spike. He held an arm in front of his closed eyes, hoping his fireproof scales would protect him...
And it didn't hurt, the golden fire washed over him harmlessly, and the dragon stood there looking menacing as spike brought his arm down.
"You're not real, are you?" He asked with sudden realization.
"Indeed I am not, a fact my father laments every moment." The dragon said softly, regretfully.
"Are you a memory?"
"In a sense..." The red dragon lowered its head down to spike's level, Each ridge and bump, curve and scale seemed too real... "The workings of an immortal are much more complicated than a simple mortal, which is why he needs your help..."
"How- no, why does he need my help? He's a god, isn't he?"
"It is because of that, that he needs your help. They have used against him the only thing he cannot overcome... Himself." The red dragon craned his neck, nearly twisting it fully around as he looked up as another boom crackled out. It should have deafened spike at this range, instead, it was soft and quiet, lighting the dark mist he was in golden.
"I... I can't. I'm not strong, and every weapon he's trained me in I wasn't good at." Spike struggled not to avert his eyes as the bigger dragon suddenly craned back down and stared him down. He had been awful at every weapon, which to be fair, he hadn't been training long, but Veretus said some weapons should just... click.
"You are a dragon are you not?"
"yeah, but-" He was interrupted by a huff of golden smoke.
"You are a dragon, in this realm, your teeth sheer diamonds, your scales are heat resistant and hard, your kind bathes in lava, and your claws, if you didn't dull them, would rend through rock. tell me, why do you fight with weapons ?"
"Because Veretus said to... and I'm still not strong, I can't lift a lot, just some books,.."
"A stack, which is larger and heavier than you, you keep your wants and desires in check, barely unleashing them, stifling yourself." Spike was beginning to think this... memory, whatever he was, could read his mind, his own memories.
"I... I nearly hurt my friends when I get greedy. I nearly hurt, and really scared Rarity last time. And all my friends, and ponyville..."
"The dragons of this world are truly worthless..." Spike frowned, he didn't like the other dragons, they were jerks, but he was being a bit harsh, wasn't he? As if sensing his displeasure, the dragon continued.
"Do not misunderstand, they have decided that greed and avarice are power, they take what is not theirs, and call it power. It is inefficient and wasteful, and most importantly, not theirs . A dragon takes, yes, but they do not steal like foxes, they challenge, dominate, and earn what is rightfully theirs. They desire, and the world capitulates..."
The dragon suddenly reared up, standing tall and looking down at spike. "If I teach you to be a dragon, if you truly wish to help him, understand that you will be hated, not be friends and family, but by your kin, by your world... because you will have chosen a foreign path, one which this world doesn't agree with..."
Spike paused, to be a dragon? He didn't like what those jerks were like, but this seemed different, although, was it just more of the same? The dragon admitted that his kind also stole, but he made it seem as if they did it honorably... and then he thought of what he saw in the visions. Their world was harsher, but he was also Veretus's son... or the memory of him... didn't this also mean this was Veretus offering? But... What could he do if he refused? Nothing.
"I... I want to be stronger."
"Then you have already started. prepare yourself, because it will wholly depend upon you." upon that, the Red Dragon opened its mouth wide, and breathed golden flames upon him once more. He was blinded, so he didn't see the crown of horns, made of purple and brackish fire atop his head, fit over him like a circlet.
"Roar your name to the world, tell it your name, and thus your desires..." The dragon's voice was barely a whisper, fading every moment.
"I-I'm Spike?" He stammered out in confusion.
"Roar it out wyrmling..." the voice came, smaller.
"I am SPIKE!" He shouted out, yet nothing happened.
"That is shouting, take a breath, close your eyes, and think on your name and desires, then roar . it. ou..." And the voice was gone, the place was still, and the oppressive black mist made it hard to think, he constantly feared failing, he no longer had guidance...
And so he took a deep breath and thought. He didn't want this Sombra to win, and that was a desire, wasn't it? He thought of why, He thought of Twilight, He cooked and cleaned, he loved it, because he loved his sister. She was rash, whenever she saw knowledge, she forgot everything, sometimes to her detriment.
Rarity, the diamond of his eye, the first thought was of her generosity, she was prim and proper, like those in Canterlot, which she idolized, but was still down to earth. It was part of his Crush, which he knew she used him for, but nopony was perfect, it might not go anywhere... but he'd chase it as far as he could.
Fluttershy, soft and gentle, kindness itself. She'd talk as gently to a bear as she would to a squirrel. She was getting braver every day, and he wanted to do the same.
Rainbow Dash, the fastest flyer. She was fearless and headstrong, she wasn't afraid of failure, because she never failed. If she fell, she got right back up, and he wanted to do the same.
Applejack, honest and hardworking. She sweated and toiled and barely complained, and you'd find no one prouder of their work than her. And no one more honest to themselves.
Pinkie pie, the ever-energetic party pony. He didn't think she could hate anypony, even if she tried. Maybe dislike, but hate? never. She probably already knew what he was doing, readying a party for the city, for him and Veretus on their return.
Veretus... He was unflappable. That was what he wanted to learn. Spike didn't care much for fighting, despite his fantasy of being a knight in shining armor, large and muscular. Despite his comic books. The others saw him as a child. Honestly, he probably still was, he liked comic books and Ogres and Oubliettes. He was sometimes scared, but he was also grown up in other ways.
And that was why he saw Veretus as his teacher, Veretus cared just like him, he never spoke badly of anypony, not even Chrysalis. He'd say what they did was bad, sure, but Spike could tell he never hated anypony for what they did. He loved to help, but held himself back, and he just... wasn't surprised by anything, he wasn't scared...
And Spike now knew why, he wasn't unflappable, he was scarred. He had healed, over and over, and Spike couldn't even imagine losing Twilight, but he lost his son...
And then Spike knew himself. He was helpful because it was the right thing to do, and he was kind because he could be, he loved cooking and cleaning, he had friends who liked him, he had Twilight, Shining, and all of the family as his family. He was getting closer to big mac, thinking about introducing ogres and Oubliettes to him, maybe that weird science guy at the school as well? Although they didn't hang out much.
He knew what Sombra would do, and his want was to stop him from ruining everypony's life. Then, it was a whisper that he was barely conscious of... "Spike..."
And he could taste his name, not like it had a flavor, but that he knew what it was made of. His wants, his desires, his selflessness and greed. His past and his present were there too. He never realized that names, even his, were so simple, yet so complex.
If he had his eyes opened, he would have seen it. The oppressive fog retreated, not smoothly or quickly, but jaggedly and stuttering, it parted not from the air or some sort of force, but because it felt fear. It was afraid because its own wants and desires were lesser, it wanted ruin and destruction, it wanted fear...
And this little dragon's ambition had conquered fear itself. Spike didn't grow, he didn't need to, and he didn't want to. He was a child, and a child he'd stay, just a little bit longer, optimistic at the world.
And he opened his eyes and walked through the parting fog... Forward, to save his friend.
Author's Note
So, surprise chapter a year later... lots of bad news, little good. A week after my last chapter, some friends and I had a falling out, as they were the same that was helping me with my book, they decided to be vindictive and delete what they were working on. As I recruited them to help me while I was in college, I struggled for the next few months to work on it with work and college looming over me, and failed spectacularly.
Then WOTC started changing 5e. Quite frankly, it's no longer the simple system I wished to play. (I had done everything in the early days, but still enjoyed the system, just had little ideas to play as without homebrewing.) Then they started changing rules, a few were ok, but several I hated, like grappling. And made me want to work on my stuff less.
Then this whole debacle of the open GL happened, so I'm stopping even trying since 5e just isn't the game I want to play anymore. I'll stick with past editions and alternate systems.
So, I'm going to finish this story, might leave it at its cliffhanger end, as this was supposed to be two books. Might finish book two, we'll see.
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The Godking is NOT Amused
Dragons are a Godking's Best Friend (Part 2)
Twilight rushed through the crystal castle, oh, how she could use her number one assistant right now to bounce ideas off of. How could she be so stupid?! Of course the crystal heart was a magical artifact, how else would you turn emotions into magical energy? She thought it was just something special about the crystal ponies.
She knew Spike was doing something important right now, she didn't know what, and she almost doubted he knew either. But that look on his face... her brother, and she truly thought of him that way, was growing up. She just wished it wasn't on the eve of some egotistical mad king with the agenda of plunging the world into darkness and eternal servitude.
Shining Armor, her big brother best friend forever, or BBBFF, ran beside her as she spoke hurriedly.
"Sombra had to have a place where he spent the most time, he'd have hidden the way to the artifact there, if not the artifact itself. So we need to think, where would a king, obsessed with his rulership and authority stay?"
"Well, in o- uh, overarching history, mad kings usually stayed where their symbol of power was." Shining armor says, stuttering behind her as she ran.
"Symbol of authority, symbol of authority..." She muttered under her breath as she ran. "Right! This way!"
"Wait, where-" Shining had to stop talking before he got left behind as she suddenly pivoted and ran down another hallway. A king's authority was in their throne and crown. Since she doubted Sombra could hide the heart on his pony- er, body, she reminded herself, she had to stay creature neutral, he could only have hidden it in the throneroom.
They skidded to a stop as Twilight surveyed the room. The stained glass windows had nary a curtain, the entire room was lit up brilliantly like the sparkling gems it was made of, holding no shadows to hide... shadows! She barely paid heed to Shining trying to get her attention, her mind devoting everything to figuring out a solution.
The problem? Sombra studied dark magics, the type the library described as black as the moonless sky, and filled the majesty, the second part was propaganda most likely, some poor book writer forced to write falsehoods to fulfill one stallion's ego. The issue? She knew the basics of any dark magic, enough to be a laypony, but not enough to actually competently cast a spell, because she knew no spells.
Yet... Her mind thought back, embarrassment washing over her as the memories filled her. Veretus said that his... wizards he called them, manipulated magic like a limb through knowledge and dedication... She had the knowledge, but she had barely tried anything else since she almost destroyed ponyville.
Yet... they were doomed if she didn't try, the crystal ponies were out there, enjoying a festival, the others distracting them so that their rejuvenated spirits wouldn't fall lower than they had ever been...
Formulae ran through her mind, Shining's worry and exclamations washing through her with no comprehension, her horn buzzed with magical potential that she held in place. Here was an issue, her magical glow brought light to the room, filling it with a magenta glow accompanying the symphony of colors. She needed it to be dark, pitch black, yet her own nature showed through...
"Twilight..." Shining's voice came through her haze of calculations, softly, worried, and everything paused. She realized, she had no idea how to change magic's nature... if she could even do so, but she could change herself.
She couldn't think like Twilight Sparkle, who had the best brothers in the world, whose friends were amazing and great and wonderful and every one of the other forty-seven adjectives she could think of. She had a be a king, a tyrant.
"Stand back..." Was all she could manage to say as her magic flowed around her horn, not like the gas that it normally took the shape of, but like liquid, coiling up and down her horn. She was egotistical, The world was against her, so she'd crush it under her hoof, one peasant at a time. She was powerful, time and time again, she stood victorious...
The liquid around her horn bubbled and glowed a sickly purple and green, it no longer flowed in a scintillating pattern, but oppressed her horn like boiling ink. She raised her head high, And the pulse that emanated from her horn turned the throneroom distorted.
No longer were the rainbow-hued crystals sparkling brilliantly, now they only gave off different shades of grey. Ascethic spiking juts were now sharp and angular, but the most important part was the throne itself, now black and imposing, it cast a shadow over the room. In that inky black shadow were stairs leading down.
"Twily... are you okay..?" He put a hoof on her withers, and she nodded.
"Fine... I need to go down... Can- Can you make sure none of the Crystal ponies comes in? If they see the room like this..." She didn't finish, but Shining slowly nodded.
"They'll panic, thinking Sombra did it. Will you... Will you be okay?"
"Yeah... I- think so." He didn't look convinced, but he walked back to the doors of the room anyways, checking down the hallway before giving her an all-clear. And so, she began her descent.
Going down the spiraling staircase was boring, if dark. The stairs were some silvery metal jutting out of the crystal wall, which was so grey it could be mistaken for stone. It felt like she had been walking for hours when she finally saw the bottom. Looking up, she couldn't see the top entrance, just walls and stairs reaching as far as she could see in the dim light.
The bottom was barren, with no door, window, or any type of portal. The only fixture was a large ornate mirror. A clanking noise echoed above her, like armor clattering together, yet she couldn't look up, in front of the mirror, her gaze was glued to her reflection.
Her horn was inky black and sharp. Her irises were a sickly dark purple as they glowed, trailing off into the air like magical fire. This... It wasn't possible, She- She just- She couldn't form coherent thoughts. Could casting one, admittedly self-made, spell cause this? Corrupt her so much?
She felt awful, not because of the physical changes, but because she knew, and read countless books that warned it was a slippery slope. Today she was doing the basics, but what about tomorrow? next week? next year? Would she find that her friends hated her? Or what if she suddenly thought of them as subjects to experiment on?
She saw him, but her thoughts were spiraling downward too much to care, his gleaming armor shone even in the darkness they were in. His every step down the stairs was deliberate and heavy. Thunk... thunk... thunk... and then all was silent as he stood behind her, towering over her in every way. His crown of horns and glowing orbs lit up the area like torches.
It was Veretus, and his eyes were filled with hatred and pity as he drew his sword, the sound grating on her ears.
"You had such promise young Twilight, but here I find you, the next tyrant, ready to take the throne after I have dispatched that horrible stallion." She tried to refute his words, say something, anything, yet her throat felt like a clamp was over it, she couldn't breath, couldn't speak...
"Already you give false hope to the kingdom and trick your friends into stalling for you until you could assure the artifact is still hidden. You betrayed their trust, you betrayed mine... You even let spike go off to his death... He was a child, Twilight. He wasn't ready for Sombra... And I couldn't protect him..." His words dug even deeper, Spike... was gone? Was all he said true? She couldn't find an ounce of anger or indignation at his accusations within her, only sadness and resignation. The evidence lined up...
She didn't stop Spike, She had no idea he'd go off and try to directly help Veretus... She had tried to reason it away. She would have always realized a page was missing from a book, so she should have known right away something was wrong, and yet, did she purposefully pretend to not notice? And then she didn't have Shining follow her... Did Shining suspect too? He was guarding the door, so they would have run into each other...
And there the indignation came, not at her brother, or Veretus, but herself. Shining was her BBBFF, Even if she plunged the world into darkness, he wouldn't allow anyone to kill her, god or not.
It was a spark, She barely saw it seep into her dull eyes as the sword came down. But it was there, and she held onto it. Her friends- yes, obviously they were doing their best, they all were, and they constantly reminded her she wasn't perfect. They didn't put her down, but reminded her that when she couldn't do something, they were there. That she didn't need to be perfect, she just had to be... herself.
The blackness covering her horn shattered with a burst of magenta light flowing across it, the sword stopped above her, her back shielded with a half-opaque barrier the same color. She turned away from the mirror, it wasn't her, none of it was.
Seeing that pressing down farther was futile, Veretus backed away, his wings unfurled, and she wondered what brought this on. Maybe she couldn't call him her mentor like Celestia, but she saw a lot of the same qualities in him. He was old and immortal, a ruler, and he always wished to see those around him grow. He taught her his version of magic, and even now, she could feel the liquid magic flowing over her horn. Usually, it'd take effort to hold this much magic, but it almost seemed to want to flow, to keep in motion, whereas before it wanted to disperse and separate.
He lunged at her again, and she realized the stairs, even the walls were gone. The magic came unbidden, and with a pop his sword slashed at empty air, she was behind him, but too stunned at the suddenness to do anything but stand there as he turned around.
"Why-" Her question was interrupted as he attacked her once more, this time, each time she teleported, he was on her immediately, yet even through it, she found it strange. her mentor, Celestia, once told her about how he fought with Luna, and yet he was only attacking her with his sword. And oddly enough, as much as she hated fighting, She was adapting to this, so much so that she began creating shields instead of teleporting, which cost much less to do.
This fueled her suspicions even more, She was nowhere near as skilled as her brother, who could shield an entire city alone for weeks. Veretus was physically strong, but each strike only cracked her shields.
"Who are you!" She shouted after teleporting one more time a distance away. the thing impersonating Veretus paused and turned its head at her. I seemed to think, before shaking its head and this time, with a large flap of Veretus's wings, it ascended. She barely had enough time to teleport away as it divebombed at her.
She felt foolish. Did she really have so little trust in Veretus that she thought he'd try to kill her? She sighed, she had hope, and faith that her friends and brothers could help, because she couldn't figure out how to get out, not while whatever this thing masquerading as Veretus was attacking her.
"Faith? " For some reason, the word sparked something in her memory. Veretus always claimed his powers were based off of it, but always denied being like those ponies that proclaimed themselves as dieties and mythological descendants in order to fool the masses.
"Spike, enough, your stance is off," Veretus called out as Spike was holding a large stick the god had conjured out of thin air, a quarterstaff he called it.
"I'm trying, I swear, but... I don't think I can really use this, it's awkward and clumsy... can't you just teach me how to use that cool flamy thing you do?" Spike complained, and Veretus shook his head.
"How can you create divinity when you don't even have any faith in yourself?" He scolded as he walked past twilight, who was taking notes.
"Like... worshiping myself? Is that like some god loophole or something?"
Veretus sighed, shook his head, and summoned that ethereal golden flame in his palm. "My divinity is the whole of myself, When I fight with it, I am essentially flinging myself at the enemy, and trusting them to break before myself. The first step is to have something you want, a concept, a desire, and then have faith in yourself to carry on with that desire. In truth, your language would call this trust, instead of faith. But in my realm, the two are the same when dealing with godhood. Now, resume the stance, unless you think you're still incapable of it?"
And so Spike and Veretus continued, until Veretus was satisfied, which varied between weapons, sometimes he was satisfied even though Spike was just flailing about with no form...
And then she realized, whichever pony followed her would get caught in the same trap she was stuck in. It wasn't just her that had to have faith in her friends and family, They had the same in her, because she needed to break this trap. She teleported once more, this time in front of her attacker. He kneeled as she conjured a shield directly on him, She was done being passive, but she had to be sure she could destroy whatever it was. It was the only thing she could destroy after all.
He struck the barrier over and over as her horn lit up. She needed more, hence why she trapped him. as her entire focus was on gathering magic into her horn. Cracks spread through the shield as her horn lit up the black space around her, outshining even the imposter's light. With a shattering sound the shield broke, and she still didn't have enough! Every time she tried to push more, something within her screamed, told her that pushing more was a very bad idea...
The sword came at her slowly, at least to her. Twilight's horn hurt, but... she could do this, she had to do it... her life flashed before her eyes and she realized her friends really did make her life better...
Almost unbidden, the liquid magic around her horn seemed to react, right now her horn was covered, no longer could it flow, and so it didn't. Instead, it seemed to crystalize, her horn felt heavy and solid, and then the sword impacted it.
An explosion rocked the space around them, everything within her sight disintegrated to white...
"TWILIGHT!"
Author's Note
Alright, short part two, Let's make this three parts now! But seriously, Twilight's segment came out way longer than it was supposed to be, and I still hate a lot of it, mostly the fighting scene, as I kept picturing an awesome scene of twilight constantly on the defensive, instead, it reads out to me like a chicken flailing and a new farmhand trying to wrangle it. Or, in other words, the reality of a mare with little combat experience trying to survive a construct.
The Godking is NOT Amused
Magic scrolls are not amusing
The Godking was bored. Not the bored in which you look for something to do, but the bored where it seems life was just repeating itself. It had been a thousand years since he had deposed his brother who had devoured all the god's divinities in the hopes of becoming a Champion, a being of pure law. It was eight hundred since he had rounded up the immortals, showed them who was in charge, and got the cosmic balance back in order. And it had been twenty years since he gave the decree of any god or goddess who wished to ascend to the rank of Overgod, to challenge him, defeat him and his two companions, and the title was theirs. His priests wouldn't oppose, and neither would the rest of mortal kind, he had saved them from extinction at least thrice by now.
Not that he was complaining about doing so, he loved the mortals. His previous incarnation literally fell from grace and died for them.
However, this incarnation had been mortal before remembering his past life as one of the Celestial Princes, and boredom was still leftover. In the meantime, he decided to look at all that he had accomplished. The throneroom he sat in, in a castle made out of pure celestial gold among the clouds, was sparsely decorated, with merely a red carpet leading from his golden throne to the far-off door.
He was never much for decorations he realized. Even when his friends made him king when he was mortal, he merely had the symbol of the kingdom etched into his armor. Even the pair of swords he used to wield were plain, with blades of black metal.
His first companion that had followed him after their death was Greesh. Mortal souls usually didn't actually have an afterlife, just dissipated into the energy of Alvaris to be recycled. Or after much of the abyss's energy had been trapped in Alvaris with no way to return to the Abyss, many souls rose after death to continue in death as a pseudo ghost.
Greesh was a goblin, Unconventional even by goblin society for his expertise in magic, specifically of the school of evocation, the magic of harming. While souls would look like your own concept of yourself, Greesh had been afflicted by a magical curse that had aged him 30 years, nearly half the lifetime of a goblin, early on in their adventures. So Greesh still looked like that middle-aged goblin, and still acted like it.
On the other side of the throne was Kardak, of the elephantine tribe, he was a nearly ten-foot-tall bipedal elephant. Afflicted with madness early in their adventures, Kardak eventually returned to sanity under his rule after Veretus had become a mortal king. Even before then, Kardak was completely loyal, and the kingdom's trouble only enforced that loyalty.
He had plucked both their souls from Alvaris when they decided it was their time to go, Greesh refusing to extend his life despite being more than capable of doing so, and Kardak living a full one thousand years of life due to his soul bond with his dragon, watching over the kingdom they had left behind.
And himself, having gone through so much, from first growing up in the church of the silver flame, learning the ancient forging techniques of the dwarves where he began to learn the true nature of himself, to becoming king and killing the dragon queen herself and taking her divinity. Protecting Alvaris from the Demon's second invasion, losing his son while killing his previous incarnation, and killing his own brother, who let the immortals run amok. He had changed a lot throughout these events, shaping not only his personality, but his body as well.
He stood at a perfect 6 feet tall, nothing about him would ever change that. His form under his sparsely decorated plate mail was both lithe and powerful. On his back, each of his six wings spread out fully were equal to his height. His lower two being draconic, the middle two being demonic, a reminder of his previous incarnation's fall from grace. And his last two were angelic, reminders of his past as a Celestial Prince.
His three horns, the first one jutting from his forehead like a unicorn's but slightly curved, was draconic and pale green. The two jutting from the side of his head to the front were more demonic in origin, one pitch black, the other pure white. Finally, floating around his head were six orbs of light of different metallic colors.
This was the form he had taken after all that he had gone through, and his power was still growing. His previous Incarnation, upon ascending to become a champion, the law of death incarnate, foretold him becoming the Champion of Life. A champion's word was law , and while they had very little power outside the law they claimed dominion over, their words were prophecies in and of themselves.
His introspection was interrupted by the golden doors of the throne room being thrust open. An elf, creatures of near-human looks, only with pointed ears and more angular features, had opened the door, only this elf was deathly pale and shirtless, revealing a chest full of scars with a glowing blue metal orb in place of where his heart would once have been, a Necrotheon then. He had once hated anything to do with the undead, and believed any who would meddle with such things defied the sanctity of life itself.
He was truly not okay with forcing the soul back into an unwilling body, the only way to create an intelligent undead. Fortunately, the Necrotheon's Lich God, Cillen, circumvented this by making false souls for the bodies he animated. It took years to teach them how to function.
Behind him was a human in a red robe, and an orc in leather armor holding two hand axes, most likely all of it enchanted.
He rose from his seat, stretching all of his wings to their full length. He was the Godking, and he would not make it easy to usurp him!
"Welcome godlings, prepare yourselves!" His voice boomed in the throne room. Those who could see magic would see nothing but roaring flames, his divinity was spread throughout the room, unable to be contained even in his impenetrable body.
Greesh and Kardak both took their places, their weapons at the ready. For Greesh it was a simple oaken wand shaped like a club, a reminder of the item which once cursed him. Kardak wielded a greatsword nearly over half his height.
The combat was perhaps fun for Greesh and Kardak, but Veretus never needed to do more than protect them from wounds and heal their injuries. The Orc and Necrotheon were doing quite a good job of distracting his friends while the human kept reading a scroll. The incantation had already taken twelve seconds, so it must have been a particularly powerful spell inscribed on it. He prepared himself to use his divinity to shield both Greesh and Kardak from any injuries the spell may cause.
He didn't count on him being the target of the spell. With a loud shout of "Kreshad!" a large vortex opened up behind Veretus, trying to pull him into it, getting stronger every second he resisted. He looked behind himself, the landscape looked nothing like any place he had seen or been to in this multiverse. He could see a planet, the sun and moon orbiting it stood still, even to his Godly senses, which meant they were truly unmoving.
This was cheating his decree, and his priests would agree. The requirement was his defeat, not his banishment. Even he couldn't resist the pull of the vortex, which meant ar champion had a hand in this, Ignis? He would have the most to gain from this.
He didn't cry out as he was pulled inside, nor did he curse the challengers for cheating, he merely looked at them, the fury in his eyes palpable, before even those disappeared from their sight, and then the vortex closed.
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The Godking is NOT Amused
Angry Rants at Butter Mares are not amusing.
Author's Note
For some reason, this is actually popular, more than my other story which I have actually put effort into.
I'll just say thank you for liking this, and liking Veretus, which was nearly a year of fun me and my friends spent adventuring and rising to the occasion.
Angry Rants at Butter Mares are not amusing.
"So... What exactly are you? You got what looks like pegasus wings, but then you got those wicked leathery ones. Plus you don't exactly look like a pony." The scratchy voiced blue pegasus asked, sitting across from him.
For some ineffable reason, these ponies had decided to accompany him on his journey to discuss with their leading figures.
"I am a god of course. And my wings are not those of the pegasus, they are remnants of my angelic past, my dark past, and my glorious past." Veretus proclaimed, he was not ashamed of his past, and his body spoke volumes of it. Many past gods would abandon thier body, feel it was holding them back, it did, because they were impatient.
Every battlewound not healed by either his magic or his companions was a testament to the life he lead.
"That's a lotta pasts." The orange mare spoke up "how old are yah then? 50? 80?"
"Assuming both of my incarnations... Two thousand, five hundred, and twenty six years have past since I was created."
The six mares were aghast. He didn't need to be an equestrian expert to see that. Mainly because they had surprisingly bipedal facial structures.
"Your older than equestria itself? How? Where have you been, you called yourself a god earlier? That's impossible!"
"Calm yourself purple one!" He raised his voice. The train rocking at the noise. He would engender more control next time, it had been almost a millennia since he lived amongst mortals, and he remembered how fragile non-adventurers could be.
With the mare stunned into silence, he proceeded to answer her questions.
"I have lived for quite a while due to originally being an Angel, beings created to rule over the multiverse my... You could call her my mother , created so that she and her brother did not have to rule and keep watch like worried parents."
"Secondly, when I mention multiverse, my reality is made up of different worlds that each must be traversed to through a kind of formless ether made up of laws. I am ruler of those worlds, not Realities like yours and whatever ones are out there."
"Thirdly, I call myself a god because that is the term the mortals have coined for when one of their own has accrued enough personal power to be considered more than mortal. While it may not be an accurate term for what I wholly am. One of my titles was as Overgod, which requires all the mortals to agree unanimously that you are the strongest god." He finished, his gauntlet having three fingers raised.
"If you were a blessed angel, how come you were able to become a god if only mortals could dear?" The white mare brought up a good point, unfortunately...
"A tale for a later time, we have arrived at the mountain city, Canterlot."
The train screeched to a stop after he had said so. Ignoring the mare's disappointed looks, he got up and walked off the train.
Ignoring the looks of shock and horror upon the pony equines, he felt the heights winds, or rather the lack of it, blow through his wings and hair. It was disturbing, high mountains contained swirling eddies which he would feel even the slightest of. But the air felt... Dead. He was not Milde, the champion of air, but life meant more than living, it was a law connected to everything else, and the air was definitely lacking any life.
"Halt strange creature, identify yours...elf?" The stallion in golden armor, impractical material even if enchanted, shouted before the words died in this throat. The reason being that the spear he had pointed at the godking, most likely it at least wasn't gold, but neither was the coppery sheen dark enough to be copper or bronze. Regardless, it was probably heavily enchanted with how it shined in the sun, most likely to prevent it from breaking against even rock itself.
It broke. Not from a forceful application of strength from the Godking, not from him slamming it against the Godking's armor. No, Veretus merely took a step forward with the spear point resting against his chest, and the spear bent, and then snapped in two like a twig being played with by a child.
The purple unicorn mare walked up to the guard, trying to placate him and his aghast expression. The godking cared not, while most would assume him being petty and breaking the spear on purpose, but the truth? He hadn't even seen the guard or felt the spear. He was not omniscient, and the guard was too weak to even warn his instincts. So as he was distracted by the unusually dead airflow, he merely took a step and broke the spear.
He had stopped however, if the spear broke, he feared what he'd do if he ran into a pony by accident. He'd almost forgotten that while he was weakened being away from his reality, and thus the faith his worshippers gave him. He was still strong enough to wrestle an ancient dragon and win almost every time.
He sidestepped the pony guard and continued on his way, he would not placate a guard merely because he tried to face a threat greater than he could handle. It was the nature of life, when something bad happens, it either crumbles, or it weathers the blow and comes back stronger.
He stopped before he ran into the yellow shy pegasus, only she wasn't being so shy anymore. She was glaring at him.
"What do you think you are doing? You traumatized that poor guard!" She punctuated this by punching her hoof into his chest. If he was a regular mortal warrior, he imagined it would have broken a rib or two. She was still an equine, however small they may be.
"While he is traumatized, that is the extent of his injuries. I was not paying attention. Now imagine if I wasn't what I say I am, with skin harder than the hardest metal, and armor handcrafted by myself for protection, and had continued walking forward."
He could see her shaking now, but still he continued.
"I would be skewered, that I stopped before walking into him and didn't hurt him proves that even if he offended me, which he hasn't, I intend to do nothing but continue on to my-" he paused, she was doing more than shaking now, she was practically in a ball sobbing.
He sighed, a god he may be, a half-champion he may be, but he was not heartless. The anger he had suppressed at the wizard for cheating at his challenge still lingered, and he had put an infinitesimal amount of it towards this poor mare.
He crouched down, ignoring the looks of anger the five other mares of this group were giving him.
"I am trapped an unknown distance from my companions, my home, and my past. I'm sorry that some small part of my anger at the one responsible came out upon you." He said gently, remembering all the times he would softly murmur Galzrieg to sleep...
And with those memories, came the still pain which fueled his ascension to a greater deity. The pain which allowed him to kill a champion.
She peeked out from her mane, whatever she saw behind his face of impassion stirred her, and she stopped sobbing.
These ponies were emotionally soft and weak. They wouldn't survive in his world, but luckily, they didn't have to. His world, Alvaris, was tainted by years of demonic war, what managed to grow grew twisted and malformed. Sometimes trees had eyes, or grass bled blood when you cut it. Not to mention the remnant demons, those who hadn't already been killed became great at setting ambushes or avoiding notice.
"Yah simmered down from yer spat now?" The orange mare came up behind him and asked.
He refrained from telling her it wasn't a spat. Even weakened as he was, if he truly decided to take his anger out on something, chances were it would not survive.
"Verily, now let us continue on, while I will last until the end of time, my patience will not."
He continued walking, but the other mares conversing with and soothing the butter yellow pegasus did not escape his notice.
The Godking is NOT Amused
Pretty Princess Ponies are not amusing.
The castle was a work of wonder, not it's actual looks, those were gaudy and filled with much too many bright colors. Then again, he had lived in a castle made of solid gold with minimal amenities for nearly six hundred years, he had no place to judge.
The work of wonder he refered to was the magic in the air. A wizard he may not be, but a magical crafter he was. This castle thrummed with magic, almost as strong as his golden castle in the Heavens.
Flower vases in every hallway, satin curtains, and stained glass were prominent, and in his opinion, unnecessary. While this showed off their wealth and prosperity, he would have sent the funds back towards things that truly mattered.
Magical research, weapon smithing, magic item crafting, his standing army...
He paused at that last one, he wondered how his Dragon knights were doing with his absence. The order of knights soul bonded with dragons had gone without his leadership for a millennia, but they still knew he would be alive and well to look approvingly down at them and their adherence to the tenants he made so long ago.
His thoughts of what he left behind when his own power made him unable to set foot in Alvaris ever again for fear of breaking the earth he stood upon distracted him from the path until they stood infront of the doors to the throne room itself.
The double doors were an artistic piece in and of themselves. The left contained a white mare with a long horn surrounded by inky blackness with a white sphere above her. Her horn was pointing to the right door, directly at the sun on ot. Underneath the sun was a blackish purple mare surrounded by sky blue. Her long horn was similarly pointed at the white sphere on the left door.
He paused at the door, his two shoulders level with the sun and moon, meaning as he placed his hands on the door, he covered them up.
And he pushed. They creaked open softly, perhaps even imperceptibly to those who's senses weren't able to hear a conversation several miles away.
And on that throne, at the end of the red carpet, was the most beautiful mare he'd ever seen.
To clarify, he meant by equestrian standards, she was larger than the mares that had accompanied him, much larger, her features weren't soft like her subjects, but more angled, still oddly non-equine, but too much so. Her coat was the same white as his angelic wings, and her composure as he walked up the carpet was unflinching. Her flank mark was a sun with eight sunrays coming from it.
His armor echoed in the nearly empty throne room, deafening as he stared with unbroken eye contact with this Diarch.
He paused once more at the bottom the throne. There was proper etiquette for this meeting he was sure, but already by entering the throneroom with her still seated, she had already broken it. He was a king, she was a princess. She ruled over a single kingdom, he ruled over his entire reality.
Then again, he also broke etiquette by not announcing his visit beforehand.
"Welco-" Celestia began before stopping abruptly, looking both ill and perturbed And why shouldn't she? Veretus had just grabbed his left upper arm, one of the few places his armor didn't cover, before ripping skin and muscle away.
"This is proof of my ascension, I would ask that you show the same."
Dark rivulets of amber blood streaked down his arm, spattering to the floor with the consistency of a thick syrup. The wound he made was already healing, torn out flesh growing back, skin healing over like new.
"I- you? What?" Celestia seemed confused, Veretus wondered if they never had to show signs of their divinity before. "Why have you decided to self-maim yourself? And on the carpet no less."
"I was showing you the proof of my status as a god, do you not also have ichor for blood?"
"Ichor? Of course not. Please let us escort you to a nurse, that seems... Serious?" She looked at him in muted shock, his arm was already as good as new. She put a hoof to her temple in a very mortal like show of exasperation.
"It seems you do not know why I am here. I had assumed you had sent these six adventurer's to greet me after seeing my descent." He motioned to the six mares back at the door, it seemed the white unicorn had fainted for some reason.
"Your descent?" She muttered quietly, "oh, the giant fireball in the sky. That was you?"
He nodded.
"Well, welcome to equestria, I apologize about your welcome, but these six had just defeated discord, and we feared the worse."
He understood, the six mares had most likely just undergone a perilous ordeal that had tested their resolve and bonds of companionship. Anyone would be wary of a large fireball descending from the sky in that instance.
"I understand, your artifacts did no harm when used, and as a crafter myself, witnessing their use was excellent inspiration."
She froze, looking at him with what he guessed was no emotion.
"The elements... You know, no. We'll resume this upon my sister waking to raise the moon. Thank you for escorting him here my little ponies. Please feel free to return to your homes as we'll make sure our guest is comfortable."
The six mares nodded and said their piece with the pink normal mare shouting something about a party. Celestia turned back towards him once the mares closed the door behind them. Before sagging in her throne.
"Finally. I must admit today has been a tiring day."
He was confused, she was immortal was she not? Tiredness should be a foreign concept.
"Are you not immortal as your subjects believe? As your world believes."
She looked at him like he had just said something ridiculous
"I am ageless and powerful, but true immortality is impossible without very dark magicks."
Now he was confused, for mortals, it was merely perform an extraordinary deed that no other has done before, learn a large lesson, gather a small amount of followers, and accept their faith.
"The entire kingdome seems to revere you as bringer of light, mother to all, and as the sun itself, are you telling me you have not accepted any of that Faith to increase your power?"
She no longer slouched, she stared at him with piercing eyes.
"Faith based magic is terrible. It influences it's victims to believe wholeheartedly in the caster, it removes free will and agency, and is one of the darkest of all dark magicks. Are you telling me you perform this magic willingly?"
He could feel her anger as she spoke, but instead of being scared, he was confused, the only sense of self faith harmed was the diety's. The original gods were more puppets to the mortals than they were anything else because if all of your worshippers suddenly believed you were a woman, the deity would become one, the deity wouldn't even be aware that they weren't always a woman.
This was why crusades against heretics had existed before the Godsfall. If a god didn't like how a section of followers were depicting him, they would have the rest of the church violently excommunicate them.
"I find your view of faith disturbing. My divinity is not based around the faith of others however, but the faith I carry for myself. But even so, assuming you are using faith correctly, the only danger it poses is to the recipient of that faith."
Celestia stayed tense for several more seconds before deflating. She then got up and began walking past him and stopping at the door before turning back towards him.
"Are you coming? My sister doesn't wake for a few more hours, and I could use a bite." She began, before muttering the next part, most likely assuming he could not hear. "And I could use some cake. Make that quadruple chocolate cake, this is going to be a long night."
