Emperor Golden Scepter

**Emperor Golden Scepter** (his entry here) is the ruler of the Terran Empire, and an antediluvian Alicorn who has lived for countless Ages.

## Appearance

Golden Scepter often appears as a very tall and muscular Alicorn with an alabaster-white pelt, a large pair of powerful wings, a long, black mane and tail, and a Cutie Mark depicting a winged royal scepter with a pony's head on it. He has traits of "classical" unicorns, such as a long, slightly curved horn, cloven hooves, and a leonine tail. Because of his age and power, he has a golden-yellow gradient on his wings.

In terms of attire, as a divine sovereign, Golden Scepter dresses up in gold armor and red regalia, with red capes and a "crown" consisting of a laurel wreath made of gold.

Golden Scepter's true form as a divine is even more ancient and powerful, to the point of being eldritch in nature. His mane and tail are made of black spatial energy and show scenes of stars and yellow giants, and he has three pairs of wings with feathers made of holy fire. Some people have reported seeing him with a shining halo behind his head even in both forms, which speaks of his incredible power. Because he is a "prodigy deity", Golden Scepter's physical and magical growth is accelerated at abnormal rates compared to normal deities, and he currently has a fourth pair of wings on the way.

Golden Scepter's domain of Ponykind allows him to manifest traits of all Pony tribes in his true form, such as the red jewel of Musical Ponies on his chest, and the aquatic tail and gills of Sea Ponies, something that modern Alicorns are unaware of. He doesn't do it very often unless warranted, and the fact that he can manifest Musical Pony traits despite not being born one has made him the target of Musical Pony tribalists. The sheer hypocrisy of this has made him face-hoof a few times.

During the entire Second Age, Golden Scepter has appeared as a seemingly unassuming Earth Pony stallion so he could observe the lives, accomplishments, and failures of mortal Ponykind.

## Relationships

### Rosy Dreams

Golden Scepter loves Rosy Dreams like his own granddaughter after she was adopted into the family by Prince Bright Eyes, and has been proud of how his sons and Mercy handled her upraising and recovery. He even hints that great things await Rosy Dreamsonce she grows older. When he discovered that the Mindflayers, led by Rose Knot, had been targeting and attacking Rosy Dreams under his family's noses, Golden Scepter was enraged and permitted his sons to bring the Mindflayers to justice while he stayed behind with Rosy Dreams to protect her from more psychic attacks. This led to almost every Mindflayer fighting to the death, as they would rather die fighting the Terran Princes than starve in prison. However, Golden Scepter was unaware that Rosy Dreams would sneak away while his back was turned and teamed up with Doctor Sleep to put an end to Rose Knot once and for all, luring her to the Overlook Hotel where the Mindflayers' leader would be devoured by a devil sleeping inside.

### Temnobog

Golden Scepter became a friend of Temnobog after he met the Bogolenya Deer Pantheon during one of his adventures, subtly "nudged" there by Canteros, Amareros firstborn son and child and the god of Requited Love and Reconciliation.

### Belyolen

As with Temnobog, Golden Scepter encountered Belyolen during one of his adventures, which led to him befriending the radiant Deer god. Despite Belyolen embodying all the good aspects of mortal Deerkind, Golden Scepter doesn't favor Belyolen over his dark-furred twin, and learned from both of them the philosophy of a Balance between Good and Evil. He is quite empathetic to Belyolen's own issues and strugges - during a private conversation regarding High King Irminsul and his beliefs of the ideal ruler being perfect and flawless, Golden Scepter suspects Irminsul created Belyolen so he could vicariously experience the achievements of his virtuous son, and asks Belyolen about it. This leaves Belyolen rather shaken as the Radiant Emperor's suspicions might be true, but Golden Scepter comforts him, optimistically expressing his hopes that Irminsul might see the error of his ways and change for the better.

### Rhiannon

Rhiannon became friends with Golden Scepter after he comforted her during a period of guilt-fueled depression, encouraging her to make amends with those she hurt in the past. This by extension has led to the Coltic Pantheon as a whole having good ties with the Terran Empire. When Trench Bull was transferred to the Terran Empire, tried, and imprisoned for life, Rhiannon was among the many deities who visited Golden Scepter, petitioning for divine jurisdiction over Trench Bull's soul in a motherly fury towards the sadistic ex-headmistress for abusing her own students.

### Dr. Endless Dreams

Golden Scepter greatly respects Endless Dreams for not only resisting the maddening influence of a sealed eldritch god when it tried to possess her, but also obliterating its mind and taking over its domains through sheer force of will, becoming another example of Ponykind's potential in his eyes. The feeling is mutual, as Endless Dreams is awed by how ancient Golden Scepter is and has been pestering him with questions about the fallen Alicorn Civilization and other places that existed in his day. Likely due to his incredible age, Golden Scepter is unfazed by Endless Dreams' true divine form, only raising an eyebrow at its eldritch nature and commenting, "I've seen worse things than that" in response.

This led to an incident where Kúzelník and Luminiferous happened upon them showing their true divine forms to each other and having a good laugh about it, causing Kúzelník to worry that their mortal worshipers in the Church of the Stars might go mad by happening upon Golden Scepter and Endless Dreams by accident. Humorously, it has been speculated that they're both so eldritch in nature that they cancel each other out.

### Alicorn Ascendancy

Golden Scepter highly disapproves of the Alicorn Ascendancy's existence after learning what happened to Crystal Prism, and has publicly condemned their cruel and unfettered methods in trying to unlock the secrets of divine Ascension. He has collaborated with the Alicorn sisters Celestia and Luna in investigation and flushing out the Alicorn Ascendancy's members, which is still on-going.

### High King Irminsul

Much like High King Kaldr, Golden Scepter dislikes Irminsul's arrogant and puristic behavior, especially towards his twin sons Belyolen and Temnobog, who are Golden Scepter's close friends. While he genuinely wants Irminsul to break free of the high-hoofed behavior that felled the ancient Alicorns and nearly doomed him, Iriminsul's pride and xenophobia has made it difficult for Golden Scepter to reach out to the High King, as in Irminsul's eyes, since he's not a Deer, he has no right to tell him how to rule.

This eventually led to an incident where, while visiting the Bogolenya Deer Pantheon, Golden Scepter overheard a nasty argument where Irminsul said horrible, racist things about Temnobog and the non-Deer/hybrid Bogolenya deities. Enraged, Golden Scepter revealed his true divine form to Irminsul and humiliated the High King in front of everyone by giving him an epic dressing-down, driving him away in his fury. The Radiant Emperor's actions caused Irminsul to develop a deep-seated fear of him to where he avoids the Bogolenya Deer Pantheon on the off-chance that Golden Scepter might be there.

Belyolen would later exploit his father's fear to save Blue Suede Heartstrings from being wrongfully punished by the Elternteil Deer Pantheon, pointing out that Blue is a friend of Prince Stoltur Skjöldur, one of Temnobog's grandchildren, and hurting him will invite the wrath of the Bogolenya deities and, by extension, Golden Scepter. Irminsul was forced to back down and let Blue go because he feared facing Golden Scepter again.

Despite this, Golden Scepter on some level still remains optimistic that Irminsul will "open his eyes" and realize the error of his ways.

## Skills

### Alicorn Magic

As an Alicorn, Golden Scepter automatically has the combined magics of all Pony tribes, including the lesser-known tribes such as Sea Ponies and Musical Ponies. He is a skilled user of Earth Pony magic, using it to enhance his strength and endurance. This would make his strikes more devastating than normal, and allow him to tank most attacks that would injure and/or kill both demi-divines and younger full divines.

### Psychic Powers

As the Alicorn god of of Psionics, Golden Scepter is one of the most powerful psychics on Equus, bearing various abilities such as telepathy, telekinesis, and extremely strong barriers. He is a powerful empath, capable of sensing and feeling the emotions of sapient creatures, but as the Alicorn god of Ponykind, his empathy is much more profound with the aforementioned race. He is infamous for "emotion-bombing", where he forces his targets to feel the emotions of others - he usually does this to villains if simply talking them down doesn't work, but during the Imperium era, he used it for more ruthless means such as enforcing absolute loyalty to him. This left Golden Scepter completely disgusted with himself after learning about it years later.

Golden Scepter is also a powerful clairvoyant with far-reaching precognition and retrocognition. Because his domain lies in Ponykind itself, Golden Scepter tends to see the futures and pasts of all Ponies, including those who are not his subjects. This is what attracted him to Prince Sparkling Wing, having foreseen him as a great Alicorn King.

Before and during Known History, Golden Scepter has shown skill and experience in teaching and encouraging Ponies' talent for psionics. His first empire from the Alicorn Civilization period had tremendous magic and/or psychic potential, more than anyone who specialized in the same fields. This suggested that while most Alicorns uplifted Equine species of their own, Golden Scepter uplifted mortal Ponykind or encouraged their development as a magical/psychic species, which warranted his Ascension as the god of Ponykind. His reign over the Imperium of Ponykind before its fall produced some of the largest numbers of psychic ponies on Equus.

In the Second Age, he was responsible for helping Bright Eyes of the Tales/Virtuous Seven develop telepathic powers, which helped her friends immensely. When Mrs. Hackney was plagued by the Headmistress, a nightmarish entity produced by a failed experimental medical treatment for an illness she suffered years ago, Golden Scepter aided Dr. Silversmith and the Tales/Virtuous Seven by sending in expert psychics that he taught himself, along with psychics sent by Mothra and her twin fairy assistants/heralds.

Golden Scepter's founding of the Terran Empire in the Fourth Age led to the rise of "psykers", which would include his nineteen sons and a large portion of the Terran population. Psykers were often employed in the government either as battle-mages in the Imperial Army, or as Inquisitors in the Imperial Inquisition.

## Trivia

* Emperor Golden Scepter is based on the Emperor of Mankind from *Warhammer 40,000*, since both of them are godlike beings with immense psychic powers and are huge supporters of Ponykind and Humankind, respectively.