Becoming the (reluctant) God-Emperor of Zebrica
Author's Note
"Speech."
"Thoughts"
Warning: The following chapter contains mentions and planing of suicide and of Homicide. If these things disturb you, please click off now.
The Day it Rained
It was noon, the sun sat high in the sky, beating down relentlessly on the mud brick homes with thatched roofs of the small dying tribe of a dozen zebras, three of which were the only adults left after years of drought, with the other nine zebras all being foals. They all subsisted solely on the tuff and tasteless grass that was becoming increasingly scarce day by day, their teeth wearing down from only eating the hard to swallow straws that they could barely consider grass. What little they could get of either the grass or water, most of it was given to the foals, while the three remaining adults slowly starved themselves to death, slowly dooming themselves to the same fate as every other adult before them in these years of drought. The mood of the dying tribe was one of sadness, hopelessness and defeat, with the remaining three adult zebras contemplating committing the unthinkable to the foals and themselves...
The only thing keeping the adults from going through with it, was the smiles the foals still had on their faces each and every day, even the weakest of them hadn't given up despite the hopelessness of it all, so what excuse did the adults have to give up? Keeping those smiles alive was the only motivation the three remaining adults had, and while the adults themselves had lost all hope, they were determined to not let the foals fall into the same pit of despair they had, no matter what.
The foals helped the three adults whenever they could, wanting to make things just that little bit easier for their caretakers as thanks for not giving up on them yet, and today wasn't any different. The nine foals split into three groups, each group following one of the adults around daily in order to help with any task their caretakers tried to do, and while they were still physically weaker than the adults, they made up for it with coordination and cooperation, their eagerness to help adding just that little bit more motivation for the three adults on a daily basis.
At this moment, we'll focus on one of the adults, the only female adult left, Ayaan, and her trio of helpers, one of which was also a girl, while the other two are boys.
Ayaan walked with her trio of helpers towards the only river within miles of here, with the trio and her balancing two buckets, one inside the other, on their backs. The foals occasionally pranced ahead of Ayaan, but she nickered at them when that happened, making the foals immediately go behind her. It seemed harsh, but when everyone in their dying tribe was weak and vulnerable, it was completely necessary for her and the other two adults to remain alert for potential predators at all times, lest one of the foals gets snatched when their heads are turned.
When they arrived, they were shocked to see that the river was almost empty, the water, once clear if a little murky, was now the same dirty colour as mud, if a little lighter in pigmentation. There was still enough water to fill their buckets, but just barely, making it obvious to Ayaan that the river would dry up fully by the end of the week if some miracle didn't happen soon. Despite this, she put on a reassuring mask, turning to look at the foals, who clearly understood the dire situation and were looking to her for reassurance.
"Fear not, my young ones, I'm sure by the end of the month, the river will flow with much more water than you see now." Ayaan lied, both to herself and the foals, "Now, let us collect the water we need and return to your brothers and sisters." She said calmly, taking the buckets off her back and grabbing one by the rope handle with her mouth, the foals doing the same. They spent the next few minutes filling up all their buckets with the dirty water and carried it back home, which took roughly an hour on hoof. Once they arrived, they distributed the water as evenly as they could between everyzebra, the other two adults immediately noticed the quality of the water, but decided to leave it be until the foals went to sleep tonight.
Hours past of the same boring routine of harvesting that tough, tasteless, dry straw, eating said straw despite the steadily growing discomfort from their teeth wearing down in the process of chewing the stuff. By the time the sun set and the foals were put to bed, the two stallions pulled Ayaan aside for their weekly meeting, sitting around the camp fire with sombre expressions on their faces.
The oldest of the three, Omari, spoke up first, "The river is going to run dry soon, isn't it?" He asked softly, all three doing their best to not wake the foals. Ayaan nodded somberly, "I can only guess that it will be completely empty by the end of the week, after that..." She trailed off, the two stallions had a grim expression on their faces. The other stallion, Azibo, spoke up next, "The straw isn't much better, lately it's been getting dryer and dryer as I'm sure you noticed, the straw is dying and we'll run out of it in a few days, even if we put more water into it." He fell silent again after that, the trios expressions getting decidedly more grim. Ayaan spoke up again, "Can't we just move somewhere else, where the drought isn't as severe?" She asked with a hint of desperation in her voice, not wanting to commit their agreed upon last resort. Omari simply shook his head, "None of us are strong enough to make the journey to the nearest city anymore, you know this." He said somberly, "Even if we could make the journey, I have no doubt in my mind that they'd simply turn us all away and force us to return here." He added with a hint of anger in his tone at the selfishness of city folk. Ayaan began to tear up, "Surely they'd take the foals in?" She asked with no small amount of desperation, "I'd gladly die if it meant getting them to a place that can take care of them!" She said, raising her voice slightly, prompting the stallions to shush her. Azibo spoke up again in response to her words, "Both of us would do the same if it meant they could get there, but in their current state, it's unlikely that they'd make it the rest of the journey, even if we carried them half of the way there before dying." He said softly, looking at Ayaan with eyes full of sadness as he watched his little sister break down.
Ayaan brought her forehooves up to her face and began softly weeping into them, Omari and Azibo moving to hug her as she let her emotions trickle out. She continued softly weeping for what felt like hours, but was in reality only thirteen or so minutes. When she finally calmed down, she looked between the two stallions hugging her, their expressions sombre, "If there really isn't any other option, then please, let the children live for just one more day, and if nothing happens..." She trailed off, not wanting to say it, but she didn't need to, as the two stallions understood perfectly. With a sigh, Omari nodded, Azibo doing the same, "Very well, one more day, if nothing happens, then it all ends that night, for all of us." Omari said with a grim expression. Ayaan nodded, quickly breaking down into soft whimpers with both stallions doing their best to comfort her despite feeling much the same inside.
After calming down enough, they joined the foals in the main hut, holding the foals close as they dreaded the coming day. The last thought Ayaan has before falling asleep, was, "Ancestors, Celestia, Nightmare Moon, Faust, Discord, anything, anyone who can hear me, if you exist, if you can help, please, heed the words of a zebra who only wants her tribe to survive and for this accursed drought end. In the name of every Shaman, every Chief, every King, Emperor and God, in the name of every Zebra who came before, I beg of thee, end this drought tomorrow." With her prayer finished, she allowed sleep to overtake her, slipping into the blissful abyss of sleep.
Her prayer, having been thought in the name of every being who could possibly help her, and being empowered by her latent magical properties as a descendant of a long line of shamans, broadcast to everyone who could hear such magically powered thoughts.
Many shamans failed to hear it as they simply weren't magically or spiritually attuned enough to detect it, even the most powerful Shamans only heard it as the faintest of whispers, too quiet to make anything out.
Celestia heard it, but because it was in a magical dialect as of yet unknown to her, she couldn't respond to it either.
Nightmare Moon heard it from her imprisonment on the moon and likewise didn't understand it, though she could infer it was a plea for help, not that she could do anything even if she wanted to, being trapped on the moon and all.
Discord heard her plea loud and clear, even understood it in it's entirety, but given that he was still trapped in stone, he couldn't help if he wanted to.
Faust didn't hear it, as she was beyond the plain of existence necessary to hear such things.
The spirits of the ancestors however, they heard her plea, the power of which empowered them to bring forth an entity to help her and her dying tribe, though it would be a random summon at best. They began pooling their very limited power, curtsy of Ayaan's prayer, to call forth an entity from beyond to answer her plea...
After the sun rose over the horizon, Omari, Azibo and Ayaan awoke and prepared themselves mentally for the day, looking up to see not a cloud in the sky, which they desperately hoped would change. The Foals woke up soon after the three adults, their smiles, once an uplifting sight for the three, made them feel like they were stabbed in the gut, the worry the foals showed for their wellbeing felt like the knife being twisted. They held their masks however, serving the nine foals their morning portions of straw, which the children ate without complaints. When the foals asked why the three of them didn't have any straw, the three adults said they weren't hungry, which was a blatant lie, their real reason being that they wanted the foals to feel full on what was likely their last day.
The three adults encouraged the foals to spend most of the day playing, which the foals were reluctant to do, but since the adults wouldn't budge on the matter, the nine foals spent most of the morning playing while the adults worked their flanks off, the adults turning down any offer to help. An hour after noon, the adults heard the foals shouting and screaming, causing them to rush over. Ayaan was the first to arrive, being the one who insisted that she'd keep an eye on the foals. "What's going on here?" She asked, looking at the foals as they fell silent, all staring straight up. It didn't take her long to figure out why, as the sound of something cracking thundered from the sky, making her and the recently arrived Omari & Azibo look up to see something they never thought would happen...
There, in the sky, white whispy clouds began forming, slowly swirling around what appears to be a ball of light, flashing in every colour of the rainbow in rapid succession. Another boom sounding like cracking pottery sounded as what appears to be cracks began splintering off from the ball of light, many more clouds forming and joining with the rapidly growing spiral of clouds with the ball of light at its centre, the cracks glowing through the rapidly growing cover of clouds. The cracks kept getting bigger and bigger, the size of the weather event above them growing with it, blocking out more and more of the sun's rays. After only a few minutes, the clouds stretched from one horizon to the other, swirling around the epicenter at greater speeds the closer the clouds were to the ball of light. Then, the sound of glass shattering roared out from the heavens as the cracks in the sky broke that small area of the sky into little shards, said shards falling towards the earth. A massive wave of magical energy exploded out from the hole in the sky, along with something falling like a ball of fire towards a hill not too far away from the tribe. The moment the flamming ball landed behind the hill, a small shockwave exploded from its impact sight, the shockwave very nearly knocking them over. Moments later, lightning flashed across the sky, followed a moment later by thunder. Just after the thunder sounded, a single drop of water fell from the heavens onto the dry ground, followed by another. The individual drops soon became a light spitting, then a sprinkle, then a shower of water. Not only that, but the shards of the sky hit the ground just after the rain began pouring down, the shards seemingly being absorbed into the ground and releasing massive amounts of magic into the once dead soil, new grass rapidly erupting from the ground as the pulse of magic from each of the shards spread at lightning speed, giving the first sight of truly green grass in a long, long time. The foals were the first to break out of their shock, and quickly began cheering and jumping around in the rain, getting muddy from rolling around in moments.
Soon Omari and Azibo joined in with the foal, crying out in joy at the fact that not only was everything green again, or that it was raining, but at the fact that, thanks to all this, they had no reason to go through with their horrible plan, making them feel genuine joy for the first time in several months. Ayaan on the other hoof, kept staring at where that flamming ball had fallen, something told her that the thing that fell was sent here in response to her prayer. Without thinking twice, she made a beeline for the hill the flamming ball had crashed behind, failing to notice as the magic from both the rain and the shards flooded both her and her tribe's bodies, steadily restoring them from their malnourished state and stopping any pains in their bodies. Ayaan didn't care though, her only focus now was to see what had broken through the sky for her and her tribe. The others didn't fail to notice her running towards the hill where the ball of flames had landed, and immediately began chasing after her, as they felt the pull as well, though significantly less so than Ayaan did.
Ayaan ran and ran, her once chipped hooves now looking filed, polished and applied with a water resistant coating. She didn't notice however, her hooves thundering against the muddy ground as she got closer and closer to the hill. When she reached the foot of the hill, she began climbing it with a frightening determination, slipping quite often but continuing to climb regardless. She eventually reached the top and looked down the other side of the hill, which was now topped with a single fully restored tree. At the foot of the hill sat a single decently sized crater, and in that crater, lay one of the strangest creatures she has ever seen...
Becoming the (reluctant) God-Emperor of Zebrica
Author's Note
"Speech"
"Thought"
The Confused God
I awoke to the sensation of my bones screaming in pain from the slightest movement, indicating that I was currently the farthest thing from fine. Every breath was agony, which was woefully unfortunate, as I rather liked breathing, making me let out a small groan of pain that I immediately stopped doing as my ribs screamed for mercy. While I processed the sheer agony I was in, a single drenched Zebra walked into the shelter where my broken body lay, studying me with her curious green eyes as she realised that I was awake, though she made no move to approach me, as my shield wasn't the most pleasant thing to touch after it recovered from the impact earlier, so she couldn't help me despite clearly wanting to. She approached my still form, sitting beside the makeshift bed she and the foals made for me to rest on while I was immobile, "I see you're awake, though you certainly seem to regret doing so." She said with a hesitant smile, leaning in close enough to enter my line of sight.
I stared at the oddly expressive, miniature Zebra leaning over me with wide eyes, her muzzle only really encompassing her nostrils and mouth, with the rest of her face was nearly as flat as a human face, if said human face had the distinctive black and white stripes of a Zebra and was dripping with water. Overall, she looked like she was the perfect design to be animated, which was a little odd, but I was oddly not put off by it despite the nagging feeling that came with the uncanny valley effect. No, if anything I found her oddly adorable in a weird way, weird enough to make me question myself on if my concept of cute was broken.
While I was internally putting my concept of cute on trial for its clear brokenness, the odd zebra moved out of my visual range for a moment, re-entering my line of sight with what looked like a wooden bowl, bringing it up to my lips. "Here, this is your holy water, you're going to need it if you're going to recover from your miracle, I'm sure" She said, holding the bowl of water with reverence, which confused me somewhat and made the atheist in me groan. "My holy water? Miracle? Y'know what, I can worry about her after I'm not so thirsty." I thought dismissively, opening my mouth a little, my eyelids twitching from the discomfort of moving, allowing her to steadily pour the supposed 'holy water' into my mouth, which I rapidly gulped down like I hadn't drunken anything in days. After up drinking all the water in the wooden bowl, I immediately felt just a smidge better, not by much, but it was definitely better than before, making me speculate about the mineral content of the supposed holy water she had given me, before realising that I couldn't really focus due to pain.
Ayaan felt relieved that her God, whatever it was, was capable of being healed by his own holy water. She believed that the deity had used all his power to break open the sky and call forth the rain that healed the world around her and her tribe. Aware that her God was still in pain, she decided that asking it any questions about why it answered her prayer could be pushed to the wayside until the God recovers properly. "Would you like some more water my lord?" She asked, watching as her God's face contorted in confusion, said expression vanishing as it said, "If you please.". The masculine voice that came from her God confirmed that it was a he, or at least she assumed he was. She quickly refilled the wooden bowl with more holy water by dipping it into the bucket she had with her, missing his look of confusion at his own voice, and bringing the full bowl of water back up to her God's lips and continued to help him drink up until he could move on his own.
As Ayaan's God slowly sat up on the makeshift bed she and the foals made just for him, she watched how his body moved in ways she's never seen anything move before, but then again, nor has she seen a being like her lord before, so she had to assume that the way he moved was natural for gods like himself. She observed what she could only assume were clothes made of some unknown material that obscured most of his body, save his hands and head, all devoid of any fur except for the hairs of his eyebrows and his eyelashes. She observed his neck which seemed to be made entirely out of gold, with the only other place on his body with gold was a triangle shaped piece just above where she assumed his heart was, if he even had one. His entire image in general screamed 'You're worms who oozed through the cracks of my basement.', the only way her Lord could possibly look more deserving of the title of God is if he had a halo floating over his head like a crown.
Ayaan's God slowly turned his head to one side, audible popping could be heard, likely from his golden joints stretching out a bit, as apparently even gods needed to stretch. He then turned his head to the other side, his joints making more pops as he continued stretching. After stretching his neck, he turned his head to face her and asked something she didn't expect from her God, "Pardon my language, but what the fuck was in that water?" His question caught her off guard, how did he not recognise his own blessed water?
"Y-you don't remember?" She stuttered slightly, to which she felt foolish for stuttering in front of a god.
He gave her a confused look, "Remember what?" His seemingly genuine confusion made her several times more confused, before her mind came to a startling realisation. He did fall like a ball of fire to the ground really, really hard, clearly having landed with enough force to shatter his bones and knock him out, so it's entirely likely that he now had a major case of amnesia, meaning he might not have any memory of his godhood. With this explanation in mind, she looked at him with solemn eyes, watching as his face contorted in stronger confusion at her expression, making her truely feel horrible for her Lord, as he didn't even seem to notice his missing memories.
Ayaan internally vowed to help her God restore his memories of his divine origin, but decided that she would, for now, simply treat him with the respect he deserved, even if he didn't remember why he deserved said respect.
I stared at the zebra with confusion as she stared at me with what I could only describe as pity, as if she realised that I had forgotten something, something majorly important. "Why are you looking at me like that?" I asked, weirded out by her expression whilst trying to ignore how different my voice sounded, chalking it up to my previously broken state.
The zebra's eyes go from pitying to determined as she grabbed my right hand with her forehooves and stared point blank into my eyes. "You may not remember what you've done for us, but I promise you, my lord, that I'll help you regain your lost memories of it's the last thing I do.", she said with an amount of conviction that I would've admired if she didn't just imply that I was a God, which was impossible considering that, as far as I'm aware, I am not a God, nor would I ever want to be seen as one.
I decided to just give it to her straight, as beating around the bush with someone who was clearly confused as fuck, never led to anything good. "Okay, look little zebra, I am many things, but a God ain't one of them, frankly I have no idea what would lead you to that conclusion in the first place." I said bluntly, adding, "Besides, even if I was one, I'm fairly certain I wouldn't of had every bone in my body broken not too long ago, as gods shouldn't be capable of being hurt in my humble opinion.".
Despite my words, her gaze remained firm, stating, "With all due respect, my lord, my entire tribe and I saw you literally break through the sky as a ball of fire and cause the largest rainfall we have seen in years, said rainfall restoring all plant life and restoring out bodies to peak physical condition." She said calmly, looking me dead in the eyes with the most serious expression I have ever seen, especially from a zebra of all things, "So please, don't talk down to yourself, because as far as we're concerned, you are the one God who has responded to our prayers when others ignored us.", The level of her loyalty already making me feel nervous. "So forgive me for contradicting you my lord, but you are far superior to those selfish pricks calling themselves Gods, and are the only one worthy of the title in my opinion." She said with not one bit of shame in her voice or expression, honestly making me feel a little impressed by her audacity.
Regardless, I stared at her for several minutes and then sighed, "If you want to think of me as a God, then go ahead, I can't stop you, but please, don't worship me or make sacrifices to me, and don't force your beliefs on others." I responded bluntly, deciding that if she wasn't going to budge on her belief in my apparent divinity, I might as well try to leverage those beliefs to try and prevent her from spreading her personal 'faith'. The Zebra stared at me blankly for several moments, before saying, "With all due respect my lord, you aren't in a right state of mind to know what you actually want, considering that your memories of your time as a God are gone." She said with complete certainty, making me feel offended that she'd dare suggest that I didn't know what I wanted. Despite my anger at her suggestion, I couldn't deny that her words held merit as if I really did have amnesia, I would be completely unaware that I had forgotten anything, leaving me in a stalemate with her assumptions of my supposed divinity. Regardless, I swung my legs off the makeshift bed, allowing me to notice my clothes properly, which I distinctly remember not wearing before ending up here, where ever here was.
My clothes resembled that of a twentieth century style, dark green business suit with a golden irregular triangle over where my heart was located. Despite its appearance however, it seemed a bit too futuristic to be anything other than a power suit made to resemble the style of business attire. "Hmm, don't remember having something like this, nor do I recall this being on the market." I muttered, my voice suddenly sounding a hell of a lot more familiar as I began to put the dots together. I suddenly began feeling my face, noticing how my features were now vastly different from what they were before, I also learned that I was bald, which I felt like I should've cared about, but didn't for some reason. I realised, to my growing shock, that I appeared to be in the body of Gerrard from Horizon: Forbidden West. Despite my shock, I realised that I almost didn't care about this development, as if my new body didn't care in the least that I was panicking and was forcing me to calm down and keep an open mind. I realised that it must be because of the cybernetic augmentations that Far Zenith went through, preventing many of them from reacting properly in a survival situation because they were constantly being artificially calmed down to the point of being lazy. this ultimately led to their downfall, but thanks to my knowledge of this weakness and my high anxiety, I should at least remain calm in mind and remain on alert enough to compensate for my lack of survival skills.
I apparently stayed in a single position for longer than necessary whilst I was thinking, because the Zebra began poking me out of it. I turned my attention back to her, her expression conveying worry for me, "Are you alright my lord?", she asked carefully, to which I responded, "Perfectly fine, I just forgot what I looked like for a moment there.", my words seemingly only making her worry more apparent. Regardless, I steadily stood up from the bed, allowing my full hight to become apparent to the much smaller zebra, her body barely reaching up to my hips. Forgetting my manners for a moment, I bluntly stated, "You're shorter than you looked a moment ago.", which she seemed to get a tad defensive of, "My lord, with all due respect, it is not I who is small, it is you who are huge.", she said as respectably as one could be when contradicting their God. I shook my head as I remembered myself, stating, "Apologies, I forgot myself there.", this seemed to please her somewhat, stating, "No need to apologise my lord, you're still recovering from your loss of memory, so it's understandable that you'd accidentally say some insensitive things.", she said with a small, genuine smile.
With that out of the way, I found walking towards the doorway of the mud brick hut far easier than it should've been with my prior injuries, chalking it up to my nanotech power suit making me stronger and more stable than I would be otherwise. Opening the door, I walked outside to see a small collection of mud brick huts, all arranged in a way so all the doors were facing the campfire in the centre of the small village. Surrounding the village was a lush green meadow, stretching as far as the eye could see, with a rainbow seen arching over the meadow, painting a very positive mood over the general area. Above all this floated many white clouds of various shapes and sizes, the bright blue sky further above the clouds making a beautiful overall image. I wasn't focused on the sky itself though, my attention was on the massive jagged hole in the sky, the dark purple vortex held within the hole being the true focus of my attention. I had only one question in my head as I stared at the hole in the sky...
"What the fuck is that?!"
