Discovery of the Ancient Gods - The Morta Invictus

Discovery of the Ancient Gods
Records of the Invictus Imortalis Omnipotenta
Research and Findings by Dr. Bronze Age

To the Dean of Historical Archives, Dr. Brimstone, West Manehatten College
-I began the expedition into the farther reaches of understanding about the world I and all of us live within.  It was an endeavor I had sought to begin for so long, though the University has thought me a fool for such nonsense many a year I have spent in teaching.  I send you this journal now with evidence and proof of my findings!  I have done it, what no pony has accomplished before me!  I have discovered beings beyond scope or understanding, and perhaps even given credit to the age of our world far more reaching than ever thought possible.

My first findings involved a situation overheard at the Night Symposium held by our esteemed compatriots the Night Pegasus.  Though I found myself dozing from the late hour more times than I care for, to hear Professor Psion discuss her work into probability, and what differentials magic can have on cause and effect, is a rare treat.  To be sure, I am no physicist in any form, but her work is concise and easily understood even by a layman such as myself.

What most surprised me was not Professor Psion going over her allotted time, but for the fact that we were introduced to the Princess of the Night herself upon its conclusion!  Princess Luna had come to discuss and debate with us, the commoners of the scientific community!  Such an honor indeed, but I digress.  It was when a free forum was begun that I finally had the chance to speak with Psion, and even Princess Luna herself!

My work into the ancient cultures of our world, periods of time spanning back millennium, were something that I had very greatly hoped to humbly ask of the Princess.  She had perhaps even lived amongst some, and her word would have been invaluable to my research.  The discussion that followed must have lasted till daybreak, and I was left fatigued but beyond enthusiastic to my work.  But, this tangent brings us finally to the point that led me to my excursion.

The Princess commented, even hushed, that while my work and research was most certainly invaluable and impressive… there are some things in the history of our home better left hidden, for that is what they desire.  These words stayed with me all through the next semester of my teachings at the University, until finally I had taken it upon myself to venture out.

I had discovered evidence that brought credit to my theories.  The theories that for there to be such amazing, god-like creatures as Alicorns, invariably there must be other such creatures.  Ancient civilizations that spanned back more years than my mind can fathom, holding the remains of creatures that defy understanding.  The evidence is there, buried and covered by centuries and smokescreens of a caliber any lesser stallion would be turned away from for fear of becoming lost in the annuls of time that he were vying to discover.

Now, I have little time remaining to discuss the story of my discovery, nor the events that occurred there.  Contained within this letter are my notes and findings that I made along this journey.  The beings that I found, not ancient lost things but very much alive… and the terrible truth I have been made aware of.

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“The writings in this ruin are clear.  Our ancestors did indeed worship these creatures as gods and goddesses… and for my life I cannot see them as anything else.  The Invictus Imortalis Omnipotenta is the most prevalent title, but it seems often shorten to simply Morta-Invictus.  How unsettling, the name of a race of beings that translates as Unconquerable All-Powerful Immortals.  I have no doubts this was a coined name by their worshippers, but it stands that they had to have ‘reason’ to name them as such.

The history of this race goes back farther than this civilization, farther than the others… perhaps farther than all of them.  I have even found some small, perhaps too small… no, this evidence states these creatures could predate the world itself, and everything in it.  From the White Aeries to the Southern Ice Shelf I have searched and every dig site, every discovery, every single broken piece of truth has given me reason to believe these creatures have been here!

They exist in every piece of recorded history our world has!  It was not until I found the Aspect Tablet that I truly knew just how involved these immortals have been.  I can say very little as to what this tablet is.  It is made of no material I have ever seen, no test or examination can say for certain what it its construction is of either.  It is light as a feather, but looks as if it should weigh nearly a ton.  And most of all, it has given me the insight into the immortals I needed.

It is said that before time, before light, before all that there is, the five aspects were.  Of the five aspects came the warriors that upheld their virtues.  Each of the five paths brought powerful wills to enforce the demands of the aspects, and so they were demanded of by the paths they followed.

Honor, for the battlefield calls only the glorious to its embrace.  Life, for to live is by the sword, and spear, and all manner of warring things.  Death, for to end on the fields of glory is the only measure of redemption.  Wrath, for it is a warrior’s most formidable weapon.  Peace, for it calls of future glory.

These five aspects, these paths... they at first seemed like just some call of a culture’s army.  That is until I found mention of them in every place I found evidence of these immortal beings.  These are not simply tenants of faith, these very well may be the actual natures of these Morta-Invictus!  The five aspects may hold power over, if even define them as living beings!  What impossible structure could this uphold over a mind, what stringent discipline would this define a will to be?  The gods and goddesses of the past may have been just as ruled as those they oversaw.

Few other sources but the Aspect Tablet speak of the power these beings held.  Only that it was terrible, and could send entire nations into eternal darkness.  Not darkness of the sun’s light being blotted, as Nightmare Moon tried a millennia ago.  No, I have reason to believe that these Morta-Invictus truly wiped entire ancient cultures off the face of the world, and never has reason been given why.  They act as if by some higher will, higher power, and give no justification or reason to their actions.

Truly, these beings are above us.  For us, these actions would be seen as tyrannical, evil, unforgiveable… and yet no matter how I view it I can see that for just as much destruction they also brought purpose, brought a way of life for so many cultures.  They quite literally brought about the rise and fall of empires.

Is that all we are to these creatures?  Puppets to be made to dance?  Perhaps… perhaps not… one cannot delve into the mind of a god.  The Tablet contained some very minor writings into the nature of this.  That the Morta-Invictus would oversee both the birth and downfall of all that stood before them.  They were truly the life and death of all around them.

If all this were true, why have we not seen them?  Why has their influence waned to obscurity… if not more so than that?  Myth, legend… folktales.  Barely any remain of these beings.  What they were… no, what they are.

Immortals do not simply vanish, they do not die out like the cultures that worshipped them.  The Tablet has had few words to say of this, but as I translate I see reason to believe that at some point the Morta-Invictus and the Children of the Stars did have battle with one another.  I have read such a moniker and title before.  Those are the old words for what we now know as Alicorns.

The Alicorns and Morta-Invictus were at war some time in our past.  A war that very well could have wiped life itself from the face of our world.  Two races of immortal, god-like beings vying for the death of the other.  All that is said after is the Children of the Stars called upon the seeds of fire, the stones, and the ancient curses to overcome.

A defeat, that is what drove I think the influence of the immortals away.  An entire race of god-like warriors and they were defeated on the battlefield.  From that point forward, along the timeline I have been able to formulate, the Morta-Invictus not only faded into obscurity, but erased nearly all evidence of themselves from time and history.

From that point in history forward, no mention or even hinting at a mention of these impossible creatures can be found.  What very little I have discovered took me months of translating and collected to form a basic idea… so much still as supposition.  The Tablet provides a clearer picture, but like the image on a jigsaw puzzle box and I am missing several pieces.

From what I can formulate from this.  The Morta-Invictus were indeed immortal beings of our past, as old if not older than the Alicorns themselves.  How old is impossible to determine.  They have spent many centuries removing themselves from history’s eye, and I am lucky to have found what I did.  Perhaps their defeat at the hooves of the Alicorns, perhaps simply seeing themselves as for a higher plane… whatever the true reason I have found only one final mention of the Morta-Invictus still existing.

A clue, though more of an enigma, pointing me to the deserts of Saddle Arabia.  I cannot be for certain what I will find in that waterless void of sand and wind, but I hope it leads me closer to discovering the truth.  To think… gods once walked among us… maybe still do.”

Sincerely yours,
Dr. Bronze Age, Dean of Historical Archives and Research, Royal Canterlot University

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Doctors Psion and Brimstone set the handwritten papers and notes aside as they looked at the small mountain of images, notes, and research journals the West Manehatten College had received.  Dr. Brimstone had called Psion in to discuss her involvement, and it had come down to the two of them studying side by side the incredible amounts of detail.

A pony cantered in, slightly out of breath as he corrected his glasses.  “Professors…”

“Has word been found on Dr. Bronze Age?  Anything?”

“Ah… no… but you both have a visitor!”  He sounded rather nervous over his obvious breathlessness.

“Who is it?”  Dr. Psion asked as she put her own glasses back on.  They both stiffened as a dark form walked calmly inside and nodded for the student to leave.  “P-P-P… Princess Luna!”  Both Brimstone and Psion instantly bowed as the Princess entered and stared at the table, all the papers and journals covering it.

“It is well to have hoped his works would not have survived, or perhaps even he had heeded my warnings.  Too much now to think any shall ever see the venerable doctor again.  While it saddens me, it is his work I fear that may have caused unrest where things should be left to lie undisturbed.  There are some things better left… better left as they are.”  The Princess focused magic through her horn as the splaying of papers and journals collected into neat piles.  “A tragedy it would be to destroy such fervent work… but it is best I think that these works be stored in the archives until a day comes that they are… safer.”

The two doctors watched as the Princess made her way back to the door, a little dumbstruck.  “Your majesty!  I… ah… a humble Pegasus of the night I may be… please, at least assuage our curiosities.  We are already aware of them… but what in the heavens are these beings?  These Morta-Invictus?”

Princess Luna took a dark, faraway look in her eyes as she turned her head to the wall.  It were as if she looked for something not in the room, but far back in the past.  “They are… glories and dreams and terrors of an age we have long since worked to put behind us.  Worry not, my curious ponies.  There is no more to fear than ever there was.”

Two steps out the door and Luna melted away, vanishing from the hallways of the College and taking her next steps into her private chambers far off in the Canterlot palace.  “You were correct, sister.  It was indeed Bronze Age.”

“As much as I feared.”  With a turn, Celestia moved from the window she had been standing in front of to face her younger sister.  “Do you think they will act, Luna?”

“I have little doubt they will simply stand by… but neither will they challenge the peace.  They suffered greatly for it last time.”  Celestia’s words were rife with doubt, and Luna could tell.

“Ancient gods… not the most simple of things to be worried over.  My more pressing question, Dr. Bronze Age made way towards Saddle Arabia.  I have no doubt he sought the Archons.  What do you think became of him?”

The silence that followed hung like a lead weight in the air.  Finally, Celestia looked back out the window and upon the flowing fields of Equestria.  “Death would be a blessing were he to gain the ire of those terrible creatures.  You of all of us should know best.”

Soon left alone in her chambers, Luna only watched the day pass, the memories and discoveries of the day weighing heavily in her heart.  “I know all too well… wherever you are, Bronze Age.  May fate be kind.”