!

Continue form chapter 78 -

Pompeii was an ancient city located in what is now the comune of Naples in the Campania region of Italy. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many villas in the surrounding area (e.g. at Boscoreale, Stabiae), was buried under 4 to 6 m (13 to 20 ft) of volcanic ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. And where the last of the 3 goddesses, Sunset Shimmer, Twilight Sparkles, and Trixie Lulamoon, fell saving as many people as they could.

The 3 first appeared during the aftermath of the Great Fire of Rome, was an urban fire that occurred in July, 64 AD. The fire began in the merchant shops around Rome's chariot stadium, Circus Maximus, on the night of 19 July. After six days, the fire was brought under control, but before the damage could be assessed, the fire reignited and burned for another three days. In the aftermath of the fire, two thirds of Rome had been destroyed.

While emperor Nero was talking with the senators with what’s happening was when they showed up, appearing before the emperor. They offer to restore the entire city in exchange to be made the official goddesses of Rome, seeing how the other gods are offering nothing. They used their magic to restore a single building that was destroyed by the fire to show everyone what they could do. Emperor Nero accepted the offer and the 3 were made into the official goddesses of Rome.

They used their powers to rebuild the city, block by block and they worked with the city planners to design a city that will stand for ages. First they gave the homeless people temporary homes which are just hovels but better than nothing, they were built outside the city walls to allow the goddesses to work on rebuilding the city.

The goddesses gathered the building materials they needed for the building. Getting wood, stones, and other building materials they needed. When asked why they couldn’t just make things appear, the goddesses explained that while they are gods it’s not like they can just make something appear out of nothing. They need materials to work with before they can use their powers.

In a year with the goddesses working everyday, either all together or as they call it in shifts so that they could take a day off for rest. The first thing they did was improve the aqueducts and sewers for better supply of clean water supply and better sewers to have better sanitation for the city. They even built what they call sewer treatment plant where instead of just having all the waste of the city to flow into the waterways, it would be filtered first. The waste could be used as night soil and what’s left be a whole lot cleaner than it would had been otherwise.

They then improved the roads of the city so that it’s easier to get around. They began building new homes from single homes, to apartments all of which have running water and flushing toilets. They built schools, libraries, hospitals, parks, indoor market places which they call malls. They built guard stations for the soldiers who keep the city safe, courthouses, temples to themselves, bathhouses, storehouses and warehouses. For entertainment they built taverns, theaters, race tracks, and a massive coliseum. (1)

The 3 goddesses after they completely rebuilt the city could be seen around the city. Each doing what they’re the goddess of, Twilight Sparkles the goddess of knowledge, Sunset Shimmer the goddess of power, and Trixie Lulamoon the goddess of dreams. Their symbol is a triangle made up of three smaller triangles, the top colored purple, the left blue and the right red. The triforce of power, wisdom and dreams, for power needs wisdom to be used, wisdom needs dreams to inspire, dreams need power to make real and so on.

Twilight could be found in the schools teaching and spreading knowledge. Sunset could be found in the senate or at the army barracks, teaching both how to govern and battle tactics. Trixie could be found at the theaters and coliseum, putting on shows for the crowds and teaching others how to be dreamers.

All three would put on musical shows as they call it, the songs they did while playing musical instruments. Their shows were nothing like the romans had ever heard before or seen. Soon there were many people forming bands, having been inspired by the goddesses. That wasn’t the only thing they did as they invented the sandwich.

Their frame spread through the empire as they goddesses lived and help mortals, like the stories of old. They explained that gods roles are to serve mortals not to rule over them. Unlike the old gods, they’re teaching them how to think for themselves and be self reliant, instead of falling to their knees and pray for help. Which doesn’t work with them as they can’t hear people praying to them. They’re powerful not being able to see and hear everything. And yes they’re more than happy to help someone if they could but it doesn’t mean they can grant wishes or do anything.

The stories of gods being all powerful and knowing is just that, just stories that people tell and make it bigger then what really happen. They explained that while gods can live forever, it doesn’t mean that they can’t die, they’re just much harder to kill then humans. They can’t just do anything they want they have limits and they do need to rest, eat, and sleep like all living creatures. Twilight even gave out copies of her friendship journal for people to learn from and show that gods are flawed as they are. She even engraved the words ‘Perfection Is Impossible, There Is No Such Thing As A Flawless Being. Thinking Me And The Others Are And Expecting Us To Be What You Think We Should Be Is An Insult’.

Then came their visit to Pompeii where, all of them died. As the volcano was erupting they were attacked by a Christians sect with the leader claiming that the goddesses are really demons sent by the devil to led humans to evil. This led to a purge of Christians through the empire for the deaths of the goddesses. Which the Christians viewed as evil for saying that no God is prefect or flawless, as they viewed their god to be prefect and flawless.

This led to a splintering of the goddesses followers, with many high ranking members saying that their version of the teachings of the goddesses is the right way. Once Rome fell many of their teachings were lost of suppressed by the Christian church, the two faiths became bitter enemies and rivals through the centuries. With the church of the three goddesses becoming a main religion in the modern times, as unlike the Christian faith women always had equal power in the faith, known as the Triforce Church. But one thing remain the same the core belief of the 3 goddesses faith, ‘The greatest power is to make friends out of enemies.’

“In the end their followers believed in the belief, not the ones who they followed. Either for power, money or how they thought it should had been,” Celestia said.

Celestia is standing in the main temple of the 3 sisters after she flew from the moon taking Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov and the other cosmonaut back to their home country instead of them taking the long way. She asked about them having any tales of three young women with powers appearing. She was pointed to the local Triforce Church, where she learned about the fates of her daughter and her friends. There she flew to the eternal city where the main Triforce church is located. And there she went through the records that survived, with the high priestess recognizing her as the mother of goddess Sunset.

Now she's sitting in front of the alter with the high priestess with a news crew filming them. Outside is a crowd waiting to see the goddess and those watching on the tv. For the first time since the deaths of the 3 goddesses, another goddess is now walking among them. And she has already proven she is a goddess but spinning the earth around so that it was day and then night before putting it all back to normal. Celestia explained that her daughter and her friends were just young gods and are much weaker then she is, for the older a god becomes the stronger they become. And they were just young gods in their 20's when they died by human standards, while she is by their standards thousands of years old.

“It is true but I like to think we kept their teachings alive,” the high priestess Holly said.

“Yes you followers of my daughter and her friends still kept the idea that it’s better to make friends then enemies and learned from the friendship journal that Twilight kept before she left with the others,” Celestia said as she read through the newest copy and besides some grammar changes, the pages are the same as she remembers.

“Is it true you don’t know what happens when you die?” Holly asked.

“No even we gods have no idea what happens. There are ways to keep your soul from passing but once what ever keeps you bound is gone, you go with it and into the unknown. No one has ever return to tell what happens. And ghosts and bond souls are dead but haven’t pasted on yet, so if there is an afterlife they haven’t been there yet. Not to mention I always found the afterlife to be just a comfort for the living,” Celestia said.

“Why is that?” Holly asked.

“It means that for those who believe in that, once you die and go to heaven or whatever. If you wrong someone, you can take comfort that no matter what they are in heaven and you can say sorry to them when you die. I seen so many people on different worlds using that to make themselves feel less guilty for their actions. For even if they killed someone not guilty of a crime they can take the comfort that they one they killed is in heaven and they don’t have to feel guilty for their actions. I don’t believe in an afterlife, my daughter and her friends are dead and I will never be able to tell her how sorry I am for being a horrible mother to her,” Celestia said.

"Gods are flawed as everyone else," Holly said.

"Yes, we are and always be," Celestia said. "I read that book with that faith your faith is a rival of, I can only imagine how much of it is just made up. Leaders changing things so that it would reflect their world view, like how the other branches of your faith books have been changes to reflect the beliefs of the ones who started those branches."

"Many will just say that it's written by their god and has never been changed," Holly said.

"That's foolish to believe that their bible has never been changed at all, as unlike the book of friendship that your faith uses. No one can say who actually wrote it and how much it has changed, I read it before Twilight and the other left and its how I remembered it. Sure some grammar has been changed but other then that it's like I'm reading the letters she use to send me," Celestia said.

"That's the reason why the Triforce and Christian has always been at odds with each other. They can't and won't believe that a god can be flawed," Holly said.

"If their god is real and that he will comeback to see them. They will see that he's nothing like what they thought him to be, or if their god is even a she," Celestia said. "I always hated how my followers always thought that, I'm prefect and flawless, it just made me have a big ego where, I couldn't see when I was wrong till it was too late to do anything. Which is why I abandon my followers as they just grew too dependent on me and expected me to do everything for them. Which is why if the old gods of your world are all real and not made up, as that does happen. They too just grew tried of their followers hold them to a standard that no one could ever live up to and just left. I'm happy that my daughter and her friends made sure to have their followers be able to be independent of them when they're gone and not to believe that they're prefect and flawless. Or think that just by praying and doing nothing will cause good things to happen, especially when they can do something to help."

"Your daughter's teaching does says when you can help someone in need, offer a helping hand," Holly said.

"There is also the fact that the bible being rewritten and changed from the first edition. Does also mean that all the evil that the god of the bible did, could be all made up as well. It happens more times to both gods and mortals than I can count where they're blame for things that they didn't do," Celestia said.

!

RV -

"Another Celestia who found her Sunset too late," Sunset said as she and the others went back to viewing other worlds.

"And they're all goddesses," Trixie said.

"Sunset do you think our Celestia is looking for us?" Twilight asked.

"If she does, she still has to prove to me that she is worth forgiving," Sunset said.

!

1 - Sunset and the girls did city building in real life.