Scalpel turned the looming figure of the god after a long time of surgery and nodded definitively. 

“I am finished; these ponies should make a full recovery, as for the others… I’ll make suitable arrangements for burial.”

Whilst he had been occupied Honey had built up enough timber from scrounging the local woods to start a small fire, and she and Grunge had huddled around it whilst Scalpel had finished healing the ponies up. Scalpel moved towards Grunge and began to shift some of the equipment off his back, eventually finding a shovel and signalling Grunge to follow, levitating the corpses ahead as he did so. 

He gave Thea one last questing look as he left, and eyed the Nightmare, called Meelo or -so he had heard- a little suspiciously… and nervously.

The blasted wasteland of Old Hoof hadn’t changed much since he had begun his operations, although most of the fires had long since gone out, leaving only sparking embers to light up the night sky. They stopped just on the edge of the city amidst a spot with looser soil than the surrounding areas, and Scalpel signalled Grunge to start digging. As Grunge began to pull huge tracts of earth out of the ground, Scalpel eyed the surrounding area with some interest.

 Despite being mostly pulverised by the god weapon unleashed by Thea, Old Hoof was still somewhat salvageable. Ideas began to flicker round his head, with the community obliterated by an angry god, there would be little to draw attention to the location for a long duration of time. Initial investigations would no doubt turn up to find out what the blazing light had been, but afterwards once rumour had gotten around, the town would likely be abandoned to the forces of nature. 

“Splendid isolation” Scalpel muttered approvingly, imagining rebuilding the site with some… form of labourers, into a prime location for his research into divinity and the appropriate creation of artificial Alicornal status. With a prime manipulation of the local lay lines he might be able to power such a transformation, following suitable genetic changes and the appropriate preparation of certain esoteric spells. If he was lucky he might be able to fix the power of those lay lines into a constant stream, literally powering his magic through the very essence of the universe and thus making him achieve a greater status than that of a low tier Alicorn like Princess Cadence…

Of course this would all need the suitable equipment and research for the completion of such a project, but eventually after some time he might be able to achieve such ends. The Alicorn Thea may favour him slightly, perhaps even with a boon of some kind for his work here, he did not know. The Alicorns were a strange and seemingly fickle group, they almost seemed entirely disinterested in anything related to ponykind according to the words of Thea, and he was inclined to take that description of their lack of interest in the preservation of equine life as a fact, rather than any spurious speculation or abuse towards godly competitors.

Would this mean in the end, that ponykind needed a protector from their own gods… could he fill such a position?

“What a grand ego trip” he laughed, “I have yet to even achieve my primary goal, let alone begin the considerations of further work in my new future.” 

Once again he was nagged by the loss of those feathers and blood, what a waste of good material; it could have sped up his work by months, years perhaps. Maybe the gods were cunning to know of those who might take advantage of such things…. Still, he could make do with what he had right now. 

When he had taken the shovel off Grunge’s back, he had also taken a hacksaw, in the darkness of the night be began work on removing the Alicornal material, or rather, the horn of a unicorn. He had been suffering from a lack of the main magical races power in this regards, mostly due to the unicorn populations mostly centring in the east and thus in Moon and Star territory and thus out of bounds. This material, whilst not the same as say, the blood of a god, did hold valuable research qualities, further developments in his plans could proceed with such research, a useful asset for a pony who had been on the run for years.
 
Once again his mind turned back to the ruin of Old Hoof… perhaps he could continue the process seen in Grunge, maybe even refine it to perfection. If he could do that with a hundred or so Earth and Pegasus ponies, then he would have an ample workforce to begin restructuring the place, and given the tireless nature of his fabrications, this would doubtless be achieved in a swifter fashion than any non adapted workers. He imagined towering walls and turrets, with a vast laboratory from which his experiments might finally reach their crescendo, tapping into the lay lines of magic and building electrical power plants to further his apotheosis into godhood… it might be in his reach… soon.

He would have to build up the workforce, doubtless there was mostly intact corpses on the outer regions of Old Hoof which he could salvage, and if push came to shove, he could always scavenge off the numerous battlefields of Moon and Star and Earthborn, or raid the local graveyards for suitable flesh. 

He finished with the horns and placed them in the backpack of Grunge. The giant stallion had finished work on the graves and now three six hoof holes yawned out of the ground like gaping maws ready to be fed. Carefully he felt around in the pockets of the inquisitors for anything of value and picked up some bits and an inquisitors handbook for future reading. He levitated and dumped the corpses into the grave then signalled Grunge to bury them, which he did with a fair amount of gusto, presumably thinking it was some sort of game. 

He turned back to where a dull glow lay on the horizon, where the campfire burned and began walking towards it. He might have unfinished business with the Alicorn of wilderness, and perhaps she might reward him… still considering her standoffish nature and general aloofness he doubted he was in for much of a treat, more likely a sullen goodbye and a pat on the back at best. 

Still, future ties with the gods could only work out beneficially, and so long as he kept in their good graces, he stood to profit both from their trust and from their goodwill, which would perhaps disguise his own plans for his ascension into a reality where no mortal dared tread…

“My apotheosis… my rise to greater things.”