"How did it go?" Discord asked the princesses as they emerged from within their chambers, bags under their eyes but shining smiles on their faces. Behind them Discord could see large piles of paper that stacked nearly to the ceiling, with each of the papers having the answer to a yes or no question that had been asked by the princesses.
"Well at first we were certain that the results would be more split," Luna revealed to the god of chaos. "After all, most of the ponies didn't even know that you had changed sides, let alone had become one of our strongest allies that has aided us in our battle with the gods."
"But after the Ambassadors and I showed the land of Equestria not only how you fought against Rose when she tried to conquer the land, but then outsmarted Janis when he thought he had us beat, their opinion of you rapidly changed," Celestia added on, getting Discord to look at her with surprise. "Yes, it seems that upon seeing what you've done for us, along with a lot of ponies misplaced distrust of Thor, they have all come to a similar conclusion."
"And...that conclusion is?" Discord meekly asked, not sure if he wanted to know the answer.
"The ponies are in agreement with our thoughts. They have elected that they would be fine with you replacing Thor as god of Equestria," Celestia revealed with a proud smile, while Luna nodded her head in agreement. Discord held a hand to his had at the news that had been dropped, before summoning a chair behind him that he collapsed into.
"I can't believe it...they actually voted me as they god of Equestria?" Discord asked with disbelief, before a smirk crossed his face. "Who knew that all it took to become ruler of Equestria was to have all of the ponies love and adore you to the point where they simply elect you as the ruler? I really tried to hard way back when I tried to take this land by force, didn't I?"
"What do you mean by ruler of Equestria? My sister and I are still the rulers of this land, thank you very much," Luna replied with a smirk to Discord's words and the god simply gave her a sassy smile in reply. "But you are not wrong on their change in perspective. Of course, the information that you were chosen by the spirit of Faust herself certain did change those that were on the fence. The only time I've seen a vote more one sided than yours was when Thor was elected to be god of this nation."
"Speaking of the god of thunder, does anypony have any idea where he has gotten to?" Celestia asked with some concern as she glanced around the hallway, unable to see or sense the god of thunder. "He has been very distant as of late and I fear that he has taken the idea of his "failures" to heart."
"What failures? He's helped us at every turn and done the best for this nation. Not to mention that Janis was the reason that so many turned on him," Discord reminded her, yet Celestia shook her head.
"The fact that things got as bad as they did has caused Thor to believe that he has failed the world as a divine, when he clearly hasn't. He takes failure to heart and he cannot stand to see others let down," Celestia replied with a sigh. "Once we have instated you into position of god hood, Discord, I will make sure that the ponies of this land celebrate Thor for what he has done to aid us. Even if he were not a perfect god, he still aided us against the titans and the gods of the other lands. He deserves to be praised for those actions alone."
"Yes, but that will have to wait till later. Come Discord, the Ambassadors having been waiting just as long as you to hear the results of the vote," Luna said to Discord, leading him away from Celestia. Luna led Discord down the hallway, but as he reached the end he glanced over his shoulder to see Celestia vanish in a flash of light. "She will meet with us later. There is somewhere she needs to be."
Discord nodded to show that he understood, but even as the doors to the main castle chamber opened and he saw all of his pony friends on the other side turn towards him with expectant eyes, he couldn't help but wonder where Celestia was going to. He assumed it was where Thor was and focused on his friends.
"So? What are the results?!" Twilight asked with uncontained enthusiasm as she raced over to where Luna and Discord entered, with the rest of the five following after her. "Please tell me that the ponies of this land have some common sense and didn't elect Discord without thinking about it first!"
"Sorry Twilight, but the ponies will be ponies," Luna replied with a smile, one that made Twilight groan as she hung her head. "And the voting was nearly unanimous. They all want Discord to replace Thor, especially after hearing about how Faust picked him herself to be the next god of this land."
"When will they learn? This is just like Thor all over again. They get so swept up in what's going on that they don't stop to think," Twilight muttered to herself in a disappointed tone. "They did it with Thor and they did it with Discord. How soon until they'll want to elect somepony like Sombra as the god of the world?"
"Well I for one am happy to finally see that the ponies trust you the way I trust you," Fluttershy said with praise as she beamed up at Discord. The god smiled in reply as he rubbed the back of his head nervously, not sure if the ponies were as trusting as Fluttershy said they were. The other Ambassadors gave their congratulations as well before Luna tapped Discord on the shoulder.
"Come on Discord, we have to start getting the castle prepared for another celebration. After all, it's not every century that Equestria has two gods that are voted into power."
Discord nodded in response and allowed himself to be lead away by Luna, with the Ambassadors following after him. As they walked they passed by a window that allowed Discord to see into the garden of Canterlot, where, for a brief glimpse, he saw the numerous statues that he had once been apart of. He felt himself shiver slightly at the sight, before a sense of comfort and disbelief washed over him.
'That was the old you that was trapped in there. The one that was selfish and cold and didn't care for anypony else besides himself,' Discord thought silently before he forced a smile onto his face. 'But I am not that Discord anymore. I am a friend of the ponies and will do everything in my power to aid them, to be the god that they need me to be. That is my promise.'
({[]})
Celestia found Thor in the middle of a barren wasteland, using his incredible strength to carve a trench through the earth next to a village of antelope. Once he had carved the trench he then flew back to the top of where the trench began and slammed his hammer into the top of it, shattering the ground and drawing forth the water that had been trapped within. The water cascaded down into the trench and quickly filled it to the top, getting the antelope to begin to thank Thor for his actions. Thor waved to them before he turned to see Celestia floating overhead.
"Come. We shall fly while we talk," Thor ordered Celestia, who nodded her head in agreement before she and the god of thunder took to the skies. For a long time the two flew over the wastelands in silence, with Thor on the lookout for anything that required his attention.
"The voting was unanimous," Celestia said at last to break the silence. Thor glanced over at her with a look that told the princess the news did not surprise him. "I'll admit, with his history and how often he enjoyed getting into trouble I thought for certain that it would take longer for the ponies to warm up to him. But after helping save us from the other gods and being chosen...how do you feel about all of this?"
"I believe that Faust made the right choice in choosing her successor to her title. Discord will be more than a worthy god to aid all of you," Thor said with nothing but confidence in his voice.
"A better successor than me?" Celestia asked, getting a smirk to cross Thor's face.
"Celestia, princess of the sun, after having wielded Mjolnir you have shown me that you are more than worthy of standing among the divine. But as a goddess...I fear you would be a poor one," Thor stated, getting Celestia to raise an eyebrow at him. "You have the wisdom and patience of a god, but what you lack is the ability to harden your heart and do what a mortal would not be able to. You are a far too caring and loving individual. That is not a fault, to be clear. In fact, I believe more gods would be able to learn from you than you from them."
"Are you trying to compliment me or insult me, because with you I'm fairly certain that it could go either way," Celestia asked Thor, who let out a small laugh in reply.
"You are more suited to being a leader than a god, Celestia. And you can take heart in knowing that comes from someone who is more suited to being a god than a leader. As these past couple of months have shown, I am nowhere close to the leader and ruler than you are. That is one of the many things that impressed me about you."
"Now see, that I can tell was a compliment," Celestia said with a laugh, only to get serious again a moment later. "So will you be coming to Discord's coronation? I speak for all of us that we would be honored to have you there. After all, we wouldn't have found our true successor to Faust had it not been for you."
"You should not tell half truths, Celestia. Yes, I aided you in finding where Faust left her power for thee. However, it was you and Discord's cunning that won the day, not my strength. This is your victory, not mine. You should celebrate together. But know that even if I am not there in person, I will still be watching."
"...you will be returning home soon, won't you?" Celestia asked, having pieced together Thor's thoughts. The god of thunder nodded before he and Celestia came to a stop. They were floating above a sea of clouds, with the setting sun casting a warm pink and red glow over the two and the cloud tops. Thor then cast his gaze towards the sky and Celestia followed after it, seeing the stars faintly beginning to twinkle overhead.
"There are many things that need to be done, both on Midgard and Asgard," Thor told Celestia. "The Odin sleep will soon take part and I must return home to keep my father safe. And then there is the issues that constantly plague Midgard, such as evil forces and natural disasters. Thor abandoned the people of that world once. He shall never do it again."
"I can understand your reasoning. How much longer do you believe you will be with us?" Celestia asked Thor, who thought about it for a moment before he smiled and crossed his arms.
"I believe that I shall leave after Discord has ascended to his throne. I will not leave until I am certain that there is a god in place who I can trust to look after your nation. Not to mention there are...a few personal tasks that I must take care of before I leave Equis," Thor said.
"I see. Will this be the last that we ever see of you?" Celestia asked.
"Nay, princess of the sun. While Thor may not return in any of the ponies lifetimes, you have my word that this shall not be the last you see of Thor," Thor replied to Celestia with a laugh. "Shall you ever need the aid of the god of thunder, all ye need to do is pray for his aid. And I shall arrive with the thunder and the lightning."
Celestia smiled at Thor's answers, before she lowered herself onto the cloud and sat down. A sigh escaped her lips as she watched the sun finally set over the horizon, allowing nighttime to finally fall upon the land.
"You know Thor, the heavens could really use more gods like you," Celestia said, but once again her words got Thor to laugh.
"Nay Celestia, for if there was another god that acted and boasted the same as I, I would not rest until I had rid the universe of that pest," Thor replied with a chuckle. "For the only person that Thor cannot truly stand is another Thor. We tend to get on each others nerves."
rip story.
8264439
It's not ogre yet
Twilight, shut your bitch ass up. If they voted for you unanimously, you wouldn't have said shit. Sit the fuck down, you're a minor character compared to Thor, Discord, and the Princesses.
As for Sombra, the motherfucker's dead. Chrysalis has a better chance.
I'm sorry, you mean like when YOU became a PRINCESS for literally THE SAME F * C K I N G R E A S O N!?!?!?!?
8264533
Considering how she spent an entire year being all like "But I don't want to be treated like a Princess! I don't want to be considered above my friends!"... no, Twilight would most certainly have bitched if she'd been elected Princess by the ponies unanimously. That's Twilight's biggest character flaw and also one of her great strengths -- she overthinks everything.
And I don't blame her -- I love Discord, but I'd have serious misgivings electing the god of chaos as a god of a nation. I don't doubt that Discord will try to step up and fill the role, but he's no Faust. He's just a whole hell of a lot better than Sinaj.
I think Thor might be wrong -- Celestia does have it takes to make the hard decisions. She once banished her own sister to the moon for a thousand years. But Celestia probably should not ascend to godhood without her sister -- they need each other too badly.
8264459
8264439
static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/11121/111217261/4525559-4458281556-tumbl.jpg
I love this story. Personally, my favorite is probably "The Strongest there is," followed by "Whenever You Call," but this story is definitely as good as those two.
Even if it was Janis' fault, I'm still expecting a collective apology from the populace for how they thought and spoke of Thor.
I'm not saying I want it, just that I'm expecting it to happen. I also wouldn't mind if it happened.
8264583
While I agree with both of your top statements, I don't agree with the last one entirely. Celestia's fatal flaw is how forgiving she in. I don't mean forgiving as in, "I forgive you, go on now, do what you want.", but I mean as in,"You've tried to destroy everything I hold dear, instead of killing you and stopping any sort of plots you would have in the future, I'm going to trap you in a state of constant awareness. Letting you build up your revenge and madness." While she may have good intentions, she needs to learn when to truly end a inevitable threat of massive proportions. But she won't, which is why she wouldn't be a good goddess
8264819
Considering that one of the people she did that to rather than killing him just ascended to be her nation's god, and saved her bacon and everyone else's, can you even really argue that that's a bad idea? Thor would have killed Discord, and probably Luna, had he been around back in the day, and they wouldn't have been here now to fight alongside Celestia.
Plus, Celestia flat out doesn't have the power to kill many of her foes. She was okay with just straight up murdering titans, but Celestia can't kill a god and didn't want to kill her sister (and might actually have been trying to kill Sombra... she isn't the one responsible for him vanishing for a thousand years.) Tirek's the only threat I can think of that Celestia could probably have killed, and chose to have imprisoned instead.
There are several gods now imprisoned in Faust's mirror.... which Rose told us, will eventually drain all of their energy and kill them, and Celestia was okay with this. Imprisoning them and slowly draining their power gives the opportunity for them to maybe reform in time to be released, before they die... but it's not an indefinite sentence. Faust died that way. Rose and Janis and Sinaj may all well die that way too. It's not like Discord being in stone or Luna on the moon, where odds were they'd get out someday.
But it's not a good thing for a nation to be ruled by a god. It's probably better that Discord, who didn't have a position in the government, got the job; ponies wouldn't have stopped trying to demand that Celestia lead them, and with a god-queen there's even less room for dissent and growth than there is now. Celestia would have had to step down as princess and then more or less disappear. Maybe she should wait to do that until Twilight is ready to take her place.
8261493
Wheel fell off a car. Change.
Table leg broke. Change.
Just understand difference between regular progress and chaos. While progress is usually improvement, chaos has no direction. Highest form of chaos is entropy. Mix of all matter without any sort of order. I would not be comfortable with Discord as a god.
Okay... but what about that mysterious being that Janis was calling to in one of the previous chapters? We still have a loose end. Something's gonna go down.
8265451
Except... "discord" is not "chaos". And "discord" can co-exist with harmony. Just look at the more experimental forms of Jazz to see that.
As to whether Discord is "chaos" or "discord" is up to the interpretation of the viewer/reader...
Well, that's a new level of self-loathing at the end there, Thor. Or just a healthy dose of self-criticism in combination with humor. I'll side with the latter.
Indeed, there are still a few loose threads to tie for Thor, but I like his promise. He will leave, but he won't abandon anyone.
8265205
I was talking more about the show when I made my comment. Now, if we take this story into account, then you are in fact correct.
8265726
Thing is, Discord counts himself as spirit of chaos and disharmony. Specific words. In show anyway. Don't really like him. He is positioned against stability and order.
She says, after having left a massive dump on him...
Foreshadowing Dark Thor?
8266241
How do you spell Celestia? H-y-p-o-c-r-i-t-e.
the silver circle thingggg, WHAT IS ITTTT