//------------------------------//
// In Place of a Chaos Lord 
// Story: Resurgence 
// by BronyWriter 
//------------------------------//

I was beginning to suspect that I'd done too good of a job. Seriously, I didn't want it to turn out like this! I just wanted to make something that looked like the One Ring to see if I could and maybe pull a few pranks, but I didn't think that it would actually end up corrupting ponies. I should have just kept it in my room. 

Although... that did bring something up. If the Ring had a mind of its own in the stories, then a ring made by a chaos lord would also probably have a mind of its own and want to go around and spread chaos wherever it could, hence why it was rolling so well. 

That actually explained a few things.

So Celestia, TD, Twilight and I were standing outside of Twilight's window, each of us using our respective magic to try to find the Ring while Luna stayed behind to help Starlight. So far nothing was coming up. That was less than ideal. It seemed that the Ring made an effort to be in the hooves of anyone it could. If we couldn't find it right outside the window it had gone out of, that probably meant that someone had it. 

I am never making a ring of any kind ever again.

TD sighed and powered his horn down. "Sorry to say, but I don't think it's here. I think that four super-powerful ponies would be able to find it if it was just lying a few hooves away from where it would have landed."

Twilight glared at me out of the corner of her eye. "Maybe we should get the Elements of Harmony to deal with it. Just blast the Gala until this super evil ring that controls minds isn't a threat anymore."

"Well that's not really what I made it to do," I admitted. "I really just wanted a ring to make me turn invisible."

"And your chaos powers didn't quite follow your probably vague instructions," TD guessed. 

"And that's another point," Twilight said, wheeling around to face Celestia. "When were you going to tell me that TD's sister is the new Discord?"

Celestia let out a quiet sigh. "At least until some of the scars of Discord had begun to fade. I assure you, Twilight, Kristen is not Discord. She has none of his malice or desire to take over the world."

I'm glad that TD put that sound spell around us.

Twilight scoffed. "Oh, and what do you call the Ring? You're telling me that she wouldn't use an artifact of potentially untold power to take over the world?"

"I seriously wouldn't," I said in a small voice, flattening my ears. "I don't actually want to hurt anybody. I never would have done this if I thought that it would turn out this way."

Twilight glared at me. "Hmph. We'll see. A word of warning, though: we've used the Elements on the chaos lord before. If you try to hurt my friends, I won't hesitate to use them again."

I flinched back at that, but... I couldn't really blame her for that. TD and Celestia were both frowning at her, with Celestia looking like she was about to lecture Twilight about not making assumptions, or something like that, but yeah, I could definitely see where she was coming from.

"We'll talk about all of this later," TD said, cutting into what might have turned into some kind of Twilight rant. "First we need to find the Ring, then we'll deal with destroying it if we can."

Yeah, and that might be a big "if." 

"Alright, we have to focus and find the Ring," TD said. "Obviously Kristen can sense where it is when somepony puts it on, so that could help us out if we get there fast enough. If we search the Gala then maybe we can find somepony who has it naturally. Pony dresses and suits tend not to have pockets, so that could help us narrow things down." He shrugged with his wings. "It's a place to start, at least."

"Good idea," Twilight said with a nod. "Once we find it, I can take it and figure out how to destroy it."

TD and I exchanged a look, but didn't comment. I really hoped that it didn't turn into a fight once we got the Ring back. The Gala was precariously close to being destroyed as it was, depending on who had the Ring. The four of us went back into the main ballroom of the castle. Not much had changed, really. The ponies were still talking with each other about whatever, and quiet, classical music was still playing. No one had put the Ring on in here as far as I could tell. 

Now that we were actually in the room, I reached out with a subtle scan of magic. My eyes widened when I felt a slight tug in the direction of the dessert table. 

"I'm getting a signal. It's close."

The other three breathed a slight sigh of relief and began following me. There weren't many ponies at the table. Only a stallion with a blue mane and mustache, Rarity, Applejack and... 

Pinkie Pie.

Oh no. Ooohhhh no. If Pinkie Pie had an evil chaos ring...

I motioned for the other three to stay back and walked up to the group. They all turned to me with a smile.

"Kristen!" Rarity said. "How delightful to see you again." She motioned to the stallion beside her. "Kristen, this is Fancypants. He's one of the premier fashion moguls in Canterlot."

Fancypants gave me a gentlemanly smile, took my hoof, and gave it a quick peck. "Good evening to you, Princess Kristen. I trust you are finding the Grand Galloping Gala entertaining?"

"Uh, it's certainly been different," I said, forcing a smile on my face.

"Well I think it's been superrificly fun!" Pinkie squeed, bouncing up and down a couple of times. "It's always wonderful to hang out with my friends."

"And the food ain't too bad either," Applejack chimed in with a little smirk. 

I chuckled and reached out with my magic again. The pull was much stronger this time. There was no mistaking it, though. Unless she had something similar to the ring, or something like that, I don't know, Pinkie Pie had the One Ring. I grimaced, looked back to TD and jerked my head at Pinkie Pie. Him, Celestia and Twilight all groaned and facehooved. Yeah, same.

I took a deep breath and turned back to Pinkie. "Hey Pinkie Pie? Uh, can I talk with you about something for a minute? Shouldn't take too long." I hoped. 

Pinkie frowned and tilted her head, but nodded. "Yeah, sure." 

Okay, step one complete. I beckoned her to follow me, and when we reached TD, Celestia and Twilight, they led us out of the ballroom and right to Celestia's throne room. Pinkie Pie was humming and bouncing beside us. This would take a little skill to get away from her. I didn't know if the Ring had already taken hold of her a little bit, which would likely mean that she wouldn't give it up so easily. Pinkie Pie was crazy enough as it was. Pinkie Pie with the One Ring would be... I don't know. Worse than Discord but with none of the malice?

When we reached the throne room, the four of us all turned to face Pinkie, who was giving us an expectant smile. I cleared my throat and stepped forward. 

"So Pinkie... I was wondering: did you happen to find a ring on the ground tonight?"

"You mean this?" Pinkie reached into her mane and pulled out the Ring, balancing it on her hoof. "Is this it?"

Twilight got a hungry look in her eyes and she lit her horn. "Yes. We need it back or else something bad could happen!"

Pinkie raised an eyebrow and tilted her head. "What kind of bad? Is it an evil ring?"

"More like a chaotic one," I replied, reaching my hoof out to take it in my magic before Twilight could. "I kinda accidentally made a ring that was a little too powerful."

Pinkie frowned and looked down at it. For some reason my magic wasn't working to take it back! 

"Huh. So this is kind of like some sort of chaos ring with some of your powers in it?" She glanced up at me briefly. "I saw you turn a plate into a big cookie, and I figured that you might have Discord's power now. I didn't say anything because if you didn't want to, then it wasn't my place."

Well, at least there was that.

"But if you put some of your magic into this ring, and it does all kind of chaos stuff, and Twilight really wants it and you want it back and you say that it's really powerful..." Her eyes narrowed and she brought her hoof back. "Then..."

She brought the ring to her chest and her eyes began glowing pure white. To make matters worse, the outlines of a horn and a pair of wings appeared around her, and she began lifting into the air.

"Instead of a chaos god you would have A QUEEN! NOT SCARY BUT WITH PARTIES THAT WILL LAST FOREVER! RANDOM AS THE SEA! STRONG ENOUGH TO BANISH SADNESS FOREVER! ALL SHALL LOVE ME AND LAAAAUUGH!"

Twilight, Celestia and TD instantly lit their horns for what I thought was going to be a pretty nasty fight, but before they could do anything, Pinkie's eyes returned to normal, the outlines of the horn and wings faded, and she landed back on the floor. Then...

She began laughing her head off. 

"Oh my gosh!" she giggled. "You should have seen your faces! Priceless! Rainbow Dash is going to have to come up with something really great to beat that prank!"

"P-prank?" Twilight said, leaning against Celestia like she'd just had a heart attack. 

"Uh-huh! Pretty good, right?" She giggled one more time before holding the Ring out to me. "Here you go."

I frowned and slowly reached my hoof out to take it. "Just like that?"

"Mhm," she replied with a nod. "It's not mine, silly. It'd be really mean of me to just steal something from you, especially since you pulled me aside to talk to me."

"Pinkie, what are you doing?!" Twilight cried, lighting her horn to snatch it out of Pinkie's hoof. "Kristen is the new chaos god, remember? With that ring she could--"

Pinkie frowned and turned to Twilight after I'd taken the Ring from Pinkie. "Twilight, you shouldn't be such a Judgey Mcjudgerson. Just 'cause Discord did bad stuff doesn't mean that Kristen will just because she has his powers."

"Yeah, and I feel really bad about making this," I chimed in. "I didn't mean for it to be this powerful."

"It still is," Twilight muttered. "And you should have seen what it did to me and Starlight!"

Oh, yeah. Starlight. 

"Well what kind of friends would we be if we didn't make sure she was okay?" Pinkie said. With that, she began bouncing out of the throne room in her usual manner, singing some random song. 

"Hey dol! Merry Dol! Ring a ding dillo! Ring a dong! Hop along! Fal lal the willow! Pink pom jolly Pinkie, Pinkie Pieadillo!"

Oy.


*  *  *  *


After TD helped me teleport the Ring back to my room, the five of us went back to Twilight's old tower to see how Starlight and Luna were doing. When Twilight opened the door, Luna and Starlight were both sitting on the floor, and Starlight had a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. She gave us all a tired look when we entered.

"I guess I'm going to jail now? This probably violates my parole."

Celestia shook her head. "No, these are extenuating circumstances, I think."

"At least there's that," Starlight muttered.

"Aw, cheer up, Starlight," Pinkie said, bouncing over to her. "You want a cupcake?"

"Not really," Starlight groaned. "Right now food--"

Before Starlight could say anything else, Pinkie Pie shoved a cupcake into Starlight's mouth and wrapped her in a tight hug. A small smile crossed Starlight's face as she chewed the cupcake. 

"Thanks, Pinkie. I guess that does help."

'Well, now that that's settled, there is the matter of what to do next," Luna said, getting to her hooves. "Now that several ponies know of Kristen's new powers, things will become much more complicated."

"Well so far it's just us in this room," TD said with a shrug. "I know that I can keep it secret."

"Luna, Kristen and I haven't told anypony either," Celestia said.

"And I haven't either, and since you don't want me to, I won't!" Pinkie Pie made a bunch of weird motions. "Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."

With that settled, the four of us looked over to Twilight and Starlight, both of whom were exchanging uneasy looks. When they noticed us staring, they quickly looked away.

"Well, I guess," Twilight muttered. "But after everything Discord did..."

I grimaced and walked up to Twilight. I raised my hoof and she flinched, but she didn't stop me from putting it on her shoulder. "Look, I may not have the same experiences with Discord that you guys did, but I know enough. He was pretty cruel. He brought my brother back to Earth just because he knew it would torture him by kind of making him choose between his families. Then there was all of the stuff he did to you guys. That kind of thing freaks me out, and I would never do that to any... pony."

Ugh. I'm going native.

Twilight and Starlight still looked unsure, but thankfully Pinkie chimed in behind us.

"I believe her."

Twilight glanced over at Pinkie, then back to me. After a few moments, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes. 

"That's good enough for me."

"Which is good enough for me," Starlight said.

I smiled at Twilight for the first time in a long time, and the two of us hugged it out. when we broke away, I took a deep breath and turned to everyone else.

"Now, I should probably get rid of that ring, huh?"