//------------------------------//
// Chapter Five 
// Story: Fool Me Once 
// by ericwinter 
//------------------------------//

Sunset Shimmer had been the subject of many stares in her life. Some were stares of jealousy, like her time as Celestia’s personal student in Canterlot, or before the Fall Formal when she practically ran the school. Then there were stares of hatred, after that fateful night when all her sins had been revealed and the only people who would spare her feelings were those she had harmed the most. Even stares of awe she was no stranger to, such as when she had won the friendship Games for Canterlot High or helped stop the Sirens and more recently Gaea Everfree. But this, Sunset decided, was worse than any of those, because today the stares weren’t of awe or hatred or jealousy, but instead pity.
“You know, I almost envy actual blind people,” Sunset muttered to Twilight as her friend guided her through the lunchroom crowd, one of Sunset’s hands on her shoulder. “At least they don’t have to see how people look at them when they think you won’t notice.”
“Well it is the first day of school.” Twilight pointed out, shying her gaze away from some of the more obvious watchers for Sunset’s sake. “We haven’t really told anybody what happened, so for all they know this is a result of Camp Everfree.”
“Which it is, technically.” A loud voice interrupted them, drawing their attention to a table just a few feet away where all their friends were waiting with plates of food. Having reached their destination, Sunset and Twilight sat down, before turning their attention fully to Rainbow Dash as she continued. “I mean, you’re blind ‘cause of that amulet, which came from Camp Everfree, so…”
“I think what Twilight meant,“ Rarity cut in, drawing a scowl from her chromatic haired friend, “is that there’s a difference between losing your sight for a mistake in experimenting, and losing it because you went out of your way to save the rest of the school, again. No offense, of course.” Sunset smiled slightly at the ever-common refrain, for once not referring to her brief but memorable stint as a demonic being bent on conquest and destruction.
“None taken,” Sunset replied, shaking her head. “I was pretty stupid for poking my nose where it didn’t belong. Still doesn’t change the fact that it’s annoying having people look at me like I’m an invalid, especially when I can see their pity.”
“‘Least it’s better than after the Fall Formal.” Applejack commented, taking a bite of her food. When next she spoke her words were muffled as she chewed.“Tha’ was rou’.”
“Manners, Applejack!” Rarity admonished her friend, before shaking her head and sighing. “But yes, Sunset has more than proven herself deserving of our regard. With any luck the attention will die down as things return to normal.” Sunset nodded in thanks, before pausing as something caught her attention in Twilight’s vision, now connected by touching ankles.
“Who’s that?” The golden-skinned girl asked, nodding her head in the direction she vaguely calculated him to be. “Tall guy, with the trench coat and fedora.” Blinking in surprise, the rest of the girls turned to look at the man who was lounging in one corner of the cafeteria eating lazily, before Applejack cleared her throat in understanding.
“Ah, that’s Discord. He’s the new Student Counselor, though what Principal Celestia’s thinking hiring a Chaotic, ah don’t know.” The farm-girl shook her head, grimacing. Rainbow Dash, beside her, looked offended.
“Hey, not all Chaotics are bad, you know!” The chromatic-haired girl protested. “It’s just the crazy extremists who get on the news for school shootings and bombings and stuff that make a bad name for them.”
“Ahm not saying he’s a bad person,” Applejack shot back, shaking her head. “But there’s a reason people don’t advertise that stuff. If Celestia ain’t careful, she could have a riot on her hands.” That seemed to mollify Rainbow a bit, but she still looked indignant. Before any more arguments could break out, Sunset spoke up, curiosity getting the better of her.
“Sorry, but what are you girls talking about? The name Discord sounds kind of familiar, but I can’t place it.” Of course, it was tingling her memories in a way that generally meant the name came from Equestria, so whatever information they shared was likely to be off by a bit, but it still had her curious. What was all this talk about Chaotics and riots?
“Oh of course dear, you wouldn’t know. “Rarity answered, turning to give her a sympathetic look. “They’re talking about Mr. Discord’s religion, the Cult of Chaos. Given the Cult’s usual animosity with the Church of Order, it’s very unusual for someone to have their beliefs out in the open.” Sunset blinked at that, then blinked again. That… well, that answered something, but only brought more questions as a result.
“Okay…” She said slowly, wishing not for the first time that she had control of her own vision so she could look back and forth around the table. “And what exactly are the Cult of Chaos and Church of Order?” Sunset could easily admit she had very little experience with religion, but this sounded like something fairly big to have missed during the three or so years she had spent on this planet.
“Ooh, ooh, I know!” Pinkie Pie, who up until now had been quiet--well, not quiet, but all her friends had long since learned to ignore the random and occasionally disturbing sounds she made during meals--suddenly spoke up, bouncing in her seat and waving a hand in the air. “I can tell you!”
“Pinkie?” Applejack said with surprise, an emotion apparently shared by most of the group. “I didn’t know you were religious.”
“Yupperoo!” The pink-haired girl replied happily, nodding her head vigorously. “The whole Pie Family have been members of the Church for generations, and I’ve been studying to be a cleric of the Jester. Aren’t you?”
“Nah, us Apples are just simple farm folk, and don’t need any gods or goddesses to do our work.” Applejack denied, shaking her head. “Aside from a prayer to the Warden for our crops here and there, We ain’t had nuthin’ to do with the Church.” Then she paused, frowning slightly. “Actually, I didn’t think any of us girls had much in the way of religion.” She glanced around the table curiously.
“Not me, Darling.” Rarity said, shaking her head.
“I had a shrine to the Professor as a kid, but that was years ago and I haven’t thought of it since.” Twilight replied for herself, shrugging.
“I’m uh, an Orderly too, actually.” Fluttershy, the actually quiet member of the group spoke up after a few moments, shrinking slightly when everybody turned various expressions of surprise her way. “It’s not, um, really important.” Again there was a lot of quirking eyebrows, but before anybody could say anything they were all distracted by Rainbow Dash’s own declaration.
“Well I’m sort of a Chaotic, myself.” The blue-skinned teenager said, grinning as several jaws dropped in response. She shrugged. “It’s not anything serious, mind you, but a lot of rituals and chants and stuff athletes do before a big game or while practicing actually come from the Cult. To be honest I didn’t even know until my dad saw me doing them once and totally flipped out, but it’s not hurting anyone so I keep at it.”
“Okay,” Sunset said once again, just as slowly as before. “That’s nice and all, but I still don’t know what these religions all are. You guys mentioned a whole lot of stuff that doesn’t mean much to me.” There was a communal wince as everyone realized that she was right. After a few moments of silence that followed, Pinkie once again spoke up, this time sounding much more serious than normal.
“Alright, I’ll explain for realsies this time. You ready?” Sunset nodded, and Pinkie drew a deep breath. Then she started talking again. “Okey-dokey. First there’s the Cult of Chaos, which is mostly just a bunch of people who want like, freedom, and individuality and stuff, which some take waaaaay too far and use as an excuse to go crazy and blow stuff up or kill people for. I don’t know much more than that because, duh, I’m an Orderly and not a Chaotic and they’re a really disparate group to begin with anyways.” Her Pinkie paused, checking to make sure Sunset was still following. Whe she saw the other girl’s look of intense concentration she nodded, before continuing.
“Then there’s the Church of Order, which is a really big organization with facilities all over the world who help with things like charity and soup kitchens and stuff. We worship the Seven Faces of Order, who are a pantheon of Seven Goddesses representing seven archetypes of a person’s role in society. These are the Seer, the Warden, the Soldier, the Messenger, the Artist, the Sorceress--which a lot of new churches try to change to the Professor because they don’t believe magic exists, but my family’s church totally remembers the old ways, and it’s definitely the Sorceress--and then my personal favorite, the Jester. Our belief is that everybody has a role to play, a place in the grand Pattern of Fate as ordained by the Seer.”
Silence descends after Pinkie finishes her expositional speech, leaving Sunset to mull over everything she had said. As she had noted before, the once-pony never had much to do with religion, as was the case with much of Equestria barring a few overly fanatical loyalists to Celestia. That probably had something to do with the many, many powerful tyrants trying to conquer the world who proclaimed themselves to be gods in the past, but whatever the case it left her wary of any sort of organized belief system in higher powers. At the same time, however, neither this Order nor this Chaos seemed particularly bad, excepting the obvious point of fanatics who even the self-proclaimed member of their faction denounced. There was, however, something which caught her attention far more than the rest, and made her frown.
“Wait, The Seer?” She asked, brow furrowing. “Didn’t you say something about that while I was in the hospital, Fluttershy?” Sunset turned to the fried in question, who flinched before nodding carefully.
“Sort of?” She answered, squeaking in a tone that was more question than statement. “Um, there’s a constellation for the Faces, and, um, the Seer’s Star went dark recently…”
“Oh, right!” Pinkie jumped in, to the obvious relief of the cream-colored girl who had started trailing off. “I forgot, there’s also this constellation of stars that people say are supposed to be the physical forms of the Seven Faces. A couple weeks ago the biggest one, which is supposed to belong to the Seer, disappeared for some reason and people have been trying to figure out where it went.” Sunset blinked, then blinked again. A couple weeks ago. That was… no, it had to be a coincidence. She refused to believe otherwise.
“Well that’s… interesting.” She said, trying to frantically backpedal away from the thoughts which had tried to invade her mind. Instead, she decided to focus back on what had originally brought this topic up.
“So Mr. Discord is a member of the Cult of Chaos?” She asked, doing her best to eye the man through Twilight’s vision.
“Yup! He’s got a whole bunch of eight pointed stars up in his office, and the A on his back is a dead giveaway.” Pinkie replied. Sunset hummed in thought, before falling silent. Oh well, it wasn’t any of her business what people believed, and she wasn’t likely to interact with the man much at all. As the conversation turned towards idle chatter, she pushed the subject out of her thoughts. There were better things to think about.