Religion
I needed out.
Not back to Earth, largely because that's not possible anymore, but I needed out of my room. I wiped my eyes and looked around the place. I'd kind of... ruined it, I guess. The carpet was just a bunch of multicolored spots wherever I'd walked when I was pacing or stomping around. My bedsheets were cheese now, so there's that. One of my bedposts was made of what looked like Twizzlers. The nearby dresser had already melted into a puddle of chocolate.
I took a deep breath and got to my feet.
Hooves.
I groaned and rubbed my arm. Or my foreleg. That thing. Although isn't it still called an arm now?
Whatever. I don't care.
My wings fluttered by themselves as I walked to the large window in my room. Yeah, maybe I could leave like that. There's no way that TD will just let me walk out of the palace. There are guards and stuff. He's probably told them to make sure I don't leave. But he'd promise that I'm totally not a prisoner here!
I nudged the window open and poked my head out, grimacing when I saw that my window is decently high up. Yeah, I have wings now, but I'm not totally sure how to use them. If I did then I'd just fly on out of here and go wherever. Can't do that now, though. Maybe I could...
I shakily stepped onto the window frame and spread my wings as much as I could. I flapped them a couple of times, just to see if I can lift off. Nope. Hmm. Maybe I could glide, though? I scooted forward a few inches and leaned in so I can spread my wings a little more. Unfortunately, that just means that I lost my balance, and I plummeted to the ground like a rock.
"Shoooooooooot!" I cried, wildly flapping my wings in the vague hope that I could somehow figure out how to work my wings in the few seconds I had be--
I hit the ground hard enough that I go right through the pavement.
I could tell right away that I didn’t have any broken bones, but my bell had been rung pretty good. I groaned and slowly climbed out of the hole I'd made. Dumb sidewalk. Looking back at it, I could see that the impact crater was a perfect outline of me when I hit the ground. Kristen E Coyote, that's me. Still, though, I got the feeling that if I wasn't the new god of chaos, that would be a pretty fatal fall, or at least one that I'd spend quite a while recovering from. With a deep breath and rubbing my head to steady myself a little bit, I shakily got to my hooves and looked around. There weren't any guards instantly around me, so that's good. I'm sure he had some walking around the palace, but he didn't have any just outside my window. Good.
Alright, let's get out of here.
There was no way that TD was going to be happy about this, but who cares, really? Some sadist made me the new chaos god because TD just couldn't help himself and killed the last one. Let him worry a little bit. Although, considering what just happened, being the chaos god had a few perks, namely not dying when I leave a Kristen shaped hole in the ground.
Now that I think about it though, would I leave a Kristen shaped hole, or just a stain on the ground if I wasn't the chaos god? All things considered, I'd rather not find out.
Whatever. I left my room so I wouldn't have to think about all of the crap that's happened to me recently.
So, what did he call this city again? Baltimare? I stuck my tongue out at the stupid pony name as I walked away from the palace. The ponies couldn't come up with a single name that was A. original and B. not a horse pun? The main characters live in some hamlet called Ponyville, right? Reminds me of the city of 'Townsville' in the Powerpuff Girls.
Huh, maybe I could actually take TD up on his offer to have a little bit of this place to call my own. Give it a real, non-horsey name. Ontario, Highlands Ranch, Colorado, Canada, stuff like that. No horse puns for me.
Anyway, it didn't take me too long before I'm free. Now I just had to decide what to do. I didn't have any money, so I probably couldn’t do anything fun or get something to eat. Maybe I should have eaten some of my bedsheets before I left. My ears perked up as an idea struck me. So, I've been making food and stuff out of thin air. So that should solve that problem, right? I looked around to see if anyone was watching me before I went to a more out of the way area of the sidewalk. I'm not quite in the city proper just yet, so it's not like I'm trying this in front of a lot of people.
I cleared my throat, looking around one more time just in case, and pointed to the stretch of sidewalk in front of me.
"Chocolate chip cookie!"
Nothing happened. I frowned and looked at my hoof. Not sure why. I couldn't tell if there was something wrong with it. I tried again, pointing at the sidewalk... harder? With more enthusiasm?
"Pepperoni calzone!" Nothing. "Glass of milk! Roast beef sandwich! Peanut M&Ms!"
I glared at the empty sidewalk as though it's the reason I'm not getting fed right then. I groaned and stomped into the city proper. I'll figure it out later. I mean, according to TD, I have an eternity, right?!
I quietly scoffed to myself, but tried to push it out of my mind. No, I'm not going to think about that today. Between losing my family, world, species, and then mortality, I can't just stay in my room brooding right now. I'm sure TD and I and maybe Celestia will have a hundred talks about it. I need some air before that.
Okay, so where am I?
I turned around and could see the palace in the distance. I'm pretty sure that it's the center of the city at this point. It would make sense. If I got lost, I'd just ask where the palace was and probably everybody in the city would know. I'm fine.
I did some people... pony watching as I walked down the sidewalks. Most of them were just going about their day, completely oblivious to the fact that the new god of chaos is walking with them. Really not looking forward to that reveal. After Discord, they're not going to be happy with me when they find out. Maybe they'll be mad at TD too, since I'm his sister and all.
No, no, none of that! Not thinking about it. Moving on.
Still, though, I...
Moving on!
I did have a distraction come up when I heard a little girl behind me. She didn't sound that old.
"Mommy, why doesn't that mare have a cutie mark?"
I froze on the sidewalk and looked behind me. I saw a small pony pointing at me and looking up at her mother. A few ponies around me stopped and tried to pretend that they weren't looking at me. Jerks.
"Ruby, you're being rude!" the mom scolded, using her magic to pull on the girl's ear. "We do not point."
"But Mom, I just wanna know!" the girl whined. "All grown up ponies are supposed to have cutie marks! Is there something wrong with her?"
I tightened my jaw and looked away. Buzz off, kid. I'm a princess now and stuff! I could probably have you arrested for offending me! I quietly sighed and continued walking, feeling a lot more self-conscious. I can almost feel the people around me staring. They're going to feel awkward when they find out who I am.
I pushed that crap out of my mind and started looking around at the buildings. Most of them seem to be like shops and restaurants and stuff. Feels like a city, I guess. Not even close to as big as, like, Denver or something like that. Not too small, though. It's too bright and vivid for my taste. Too... cartoony, I guess? Makes sense since this is a cartoon on Earth, but it just doesn't look right to me. It's not home. Not sure at all how TD managed to adapt to a place like this. I remember us talking about places we'd like to live other than Earth. He was more of a Middle Earth/Westeros/Star Wars kind of guy. Not happy bubbly cartoon ponies.
As I'm walking along, a building catches my eye. Well, not really the building itself, but I saw that there's a big statue of TD on top, looking down on the street with this serene look on his face. Uh... what the heck is that? Looked like a lot of ponies were going inside, too. They all had these red scorpion necklaces around their necks.
Wait? Red scorpions? Like TD's butt tatt-- oh no. This is his church, isn't it? I had no idea what day of the week it was, but I started to hedge my bets on Sunday. I turned around and began walking away. I am not going to get involved with a religion that worships my brother like he's Jesus, or something.
Then again...
I turned back around, biting my lip as I see more people going into the church. Morbid curiosity begins creeping up on me. I shouldn't. I really, really shouldn't. This has gotta be like blasphemy, or something. Obviously TD knows about this, though, since he hasn't stopped it. I wondered if they just made up his doctrine or if he got to say what they preached in his name. Maybe they...
Screw it. Maybe I can find something to tease him about. Despite all of my instincts telling me not to, I made my way to the church. There's an older looking pony in these big white robes and a huge scorpion necklace. I can just slip past him and--
"Ah, good morning, sister!" the pony sayid, extending his hoof to me. "I see you are new here."
I tilted my head as I stared at the extended hoof. So... is that supposed to be just like a handshake, or something? I slowly raise my own hoof and touch it to his. He moves his own hoof up and down with mine. So yeah, I guess this is just like a handshake, then.
"Uh... yeah, I was just passing by and thought I'd look and see what's going on."
The pony's smile widened. "Oh, of course! My name is Father Snap Feather. We always welcome new visitors to The First Church of His Holy Majesty Prince Antares. May I ask you your name?"
"Uh..." Do they know my name yet? If so, are they going to start bowing to me when they realize I'm TD's sister? Probably best not to risk it right now. "I'm... Diving Bell."
Brilliant.
"Well, Ms. Bell, we're certainly happy to have you." He motioned into the church. "Please come in! Service will start in just a few minutes. Take a seat anywhere you'd like."
"Alright. Sure." I pointed at his necklace. "I don't have to have one of those things, do I?"
"Oh, certainly not, Ms. Bell," he said, waving his hoof. "I can certainly get you one if you'd like, but these are symbols of our love and devotion to our lord Prince Antares. If you are merely visiting then I'm not sure it would mean as much to you as it does to us."
"Right. That makes sense. I'm just making sure. Alright. I'll see you inside."
I stepped into the church and found an empty seat at the very back. There are still a few ponies next to me, but I'm doing my best to not make eye contact with them.
"Good morning to you, sister!"
Dang it.
I forced a smile on my face and turned to the ponies sitting next to me. Looks like a family of four. "Uh... yeah, hi. How are you?"
"I'm quite wonderful," the dad said. "This is the best day of the week, isn't it? Although I must say that I haven't seen you here before. Are you new?"
"Yeah, definitely. Really new."
"Well then welcome!" The dad took a book off of the back of the pew in front of him and handed it to me. "We'll be reading from this today. It's Prince Antares's holy book."
Oh, he's got his own bible too? How delightful. I gingerly opened it up to one of the middle pages and saw the phrase "Book of the Element of Generosity" on the top right corner. I flipped through a few pages and saw that it's kind of... interesting, I guess? Lots of platitudes. Makes me remember what Dad said a lot: wise words and an empty platitude walk into a bar, then he buys himself a drink. I'll admit, though, I haven't read the entire thing, nor have I studied it with some of the pastors or anything, so what do I know? Maybe there's a lot of context I'm missing.
The door to the church closed and Snap Feather walked up to the pulpit. The organ music stopped, and it's only then I realized that it had been playing a pipe organ version of Jeremy by Pearl Jam.
Yeah, that's a nice "church-y" song.
"Good morning, mares and gentlecolts," Snap Feather said once he got settled. "To all members I'm delighted to see you back, and for any new ponies, I welcome you! As you all know, our prayers have been answered! Not only did Prince Antares return to us from his original world, but he slew Discord in combat, freeing us from any further harm from that villain!"
The room burst into what I could only assume was applause. Everybody stomped their hooves on the ground in a kind of clapping way, so that's probably right. Gosh, though, if only they knew what really happened. It wasn't some awesome battle like from some anime, what TD did was...
My wings fluttered uneasily. None of these ponies would be okay with TD if they saw him like that. That wasn't my brother, and I'm guessing that it wasn't the "god" they've built him up as either.
The ponies stopped applauding after a few seconds, allowing Snap Feather to continue on with his little speech. "We thank him for what he's done. He will always protect us! He saved our country during the war, and he saved us from Discord's evil ways. His good subjects should give him praise now more than ever. What he has done will never be forgotten. He will...
I heard the door to the church open and turned just in time to see a group of about a dozen ponies walk in, all wearing black and carrying duffel bags. Was this a funeral and nobody told me? The pastor was still going, but I could see a few ponies around me looking at the newcomers with interest. My wings fluttered again. Something wasn't right.
One of the ponies grabbed a nearby pole with some kind of flag on it, pulled off the flag, shut the door to the church, and barred the door with the pole. Yeah, okay, not good. I wasn't sure if I should warn the people around me, but it, might be a bit too late for that.
I shot out of my seat when one of the ones with horns pulled out a crossbow. No no no! Uh... I'm immortal now, right? I can take the shot? Wait, don't I have powers, or something? They seemed to manifest whenever I got really emotional, and this kind of seemed like it could fall under the category of stressing me out! Thankfully she doesn't fire at Snap Feather or anything. She just points it into the air and fires.
Yeah, that got the attention of everybody else. It's not as loud as a gun, but with only one guy talking, they're all going to hear it. A lot of the ponies started screaming and running away from the bad guys, but two of the ones with wings pulled out their own crossbows and blocked any of the back exits, while the other three winged ones took to the air with their own crossbows. Two more horned ones, unicorns, I think TD called them, pulled out knives, and two of the regular ones put on boots that had blades on them.
Come on, turn them into newts, or something!
"Mares and gentlecolts..." The last pony, who isn't armed it looks like, took a few steps forward. He's got slicked back hair and I guess a nice suit. He had a slight smirk like he totally owned the place. "Mares and gentlecolts, if you could please be silent." When the general noise of a bunch of freaked out ponies doesn't immediately stop because he asked nicely, he nodded to the pony who had fired the first shot. She grinned and loaded another shot, pointed it at the pulpit, then fired, burying the arrow into the wood.
"If you could all please be silent!"
The ponies stopped freaking out, but they were all shivering like lambs in a pen. Guess they were kind of like that.
"I understand that this must be shocking, but I need to to all remain calm. This will all be over in short order if you simply follow my commands, the first of which is to congregate in the middle of the room away from any doorways or windows." He tilted his head in a nod. "Thank you."
"Sir, I must insist that you stop this at once!" Snap Feather said, pushing through the crowd to get to the main bad guy. "We worship the god Antares, and he does not take kindly to those who threaten his followers! Surely you saw what he did in the war. He will not go easy on you if you continue down this path! Leave now. So far you have done nothing that cannot be forgiven."
The head honcho's mouth twisted into a grin as he moved closer to Snap Feather. Kind of reminded me of a lion coming up to a wounded gazelle. "You are the high priest here, yes? I wonder if you truly believe what you are saying, or if you are leading these ponies astray with your talks of worshiping this pony, who, in the grand scheme of things, is little more than a newborn. You would worship a child?"
"A pony who saved our country during the war!" Snap Feather retorted. "One who dethroned the tyrant Purgle and sacked Schunie, something no army has ever done in the history of the city! He will protect us from the likes of you!"
"Oh?" The bad guy made a show of looking around. "I don't see him here." Snap Feather opened his mouth to respond, but the bad guy just waved him off. "Oh, I'm not saying he won't be here. He will be. I'll make sure of it. But first, if you would like your congregation to remain safe, I suggest you follow my instructions to congregate in the middle of the room." He sneered at Snap Feather, then lit his horn and tore the scorpion necklace from around his neck. "We shall see what kind of god he really is in due time."
Snap Feather glared at the guy, but he slowly backed up with the rest of the group into the middle of the room. One of the unicorns noticed that me and the family next to me hadn't moved, so he pointed his crossbow at me. "Move to the middle of the room," he growled. "We wouldn't want this to get messy."
The bad guy chuckled and put his hoof on the other guy's shoulder. "Now now, no need to be violent. I'm sure they were just moving." He pointedly looked at me. "Weren't you, madam?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm going," I grumbled.
"Excellent." Once me and the few other stragglers had moved to the middle of the room, the big bad started circling around us like a shark sizing up his prey. "Good morning to you, mares and gentlecolts. I apologize for this rather intrusive behavior, but my associates and I couldn't just stand by and watch while you were led astray." He motioned to one of the stained glass windows with TD on it as he kept walking. "You are worshiping a usurper. A pony who has no respect for the natural order of things. He does not wish for balance in this world. He merely seeks to shape it in his own image without any regards to consequences."
The big bad wheeled around and glared at the closest pony. "He fought our lord and murdered him! Chaos is the natural balance to all of the order your false usurper wishes to enforce upon the world, and when Lord Discord merely tried to bring balance back, your god cut him down!"
Oh. Oh dear. Uh... guess Discord had his followers too, I guess. So wait, does that mean...?
No. No, my day isn't going to go that poorly.
"Prince Antares saved us from the torture Discord would have brought upon us!" one of the ponies retorted. "He wanted to enslave us all, not bring balance!"
The big bad sighed and shook his head. "Typical propaganda. Our lord shaped the world into his own image, yes, but did he ever truly, permanently harm anypony? He merely wanted you to see the world for what it is! Imbalanced! Too structured. Not enough fun." He chuckled again. "But it matters not at the moment. Our lord may have died in his current form, but I have no doubt that he will return! There must always be a god of chaos!"
Gulp.
"But now that we've gotten that out of the way..." The big bad lit his horn up again, and a bright light filled the room for a few seconds. When it faded away, the big bad had perched himself on the pulpit with a big grin. "Let's get this party started! The first order of business is, of course, to invite the guest of honor. So..." He started looking around the room, tapping his jaw like he was thinking about something. He must have figured something out, because he grinned again and pointed at a nearby mare. "You!"
The mare whimpered and backed away. "M-me?"
"Yes, you!" The big bad hopped off of the pulpit and walked up to her. "Since I am not of the belief that Prince Antares is all-knowing, I'm going to gather that he has absolutely no idea of what's going on. I need you to go get him for me. Of course, it's best if you also inform him that he is not to enter the premises under any circumstances." He tapped his jaw again. "In fact, why don't you ask him to invite his sister, too? I think she'll be most interested by the display."
Sometimes being born with the natural Powell snark has its issues. Most people would keep quiet when presented with something like that in a situation like this. To be fair, I didn't say a single thing. I almost did, though. I bit my tongue so hard I probably would have drawn blood if I wasn't the new me, or however you want to put it.
"B-but the door is barred!"
"The door?" The big bad scoffed and put his arm around the mare. "The door is so boring. So common. You're a pegasus, my dear. Use your imagination."
With that, the pony lit his horn up again, lifted up one of the pews, and threw it right through the nearest stained glass window, completely shattering it. Before the poor volun-told pony could say anything else, he grabbed her with his magic and threw her right out the window. There wasn't any glass left in the frame, so she didn't get cut up or anything, but dang I didn't want to be her. I heard her hit the ground on the other side, so I guess she was too shocked to right herself and fly away.
"She'll be fine. I didn't throw her that hard," the pony said as the two other unicorns took a big tarp out of one of their duffel bags and covered up the hole. "At any rate, we have more important things to do right now. This place is far too drab. Time to liven it up a little bit!"
With that little go-ahead, the two pegasus ponies flew up so they could stop the congregation from doing something stupid while the other five ponies began destroying every bit of the church they could get their hooves on. The smashed pews, threw rocks through the windows, splattered bright paint on all of the paintings they saw, put smoke bombs down the organ pipes...
Basically they were just being jerks.
"Come on, my good stallion, where's your sense of fun!" the big bad said, dancing up to Snap Feather and throwing an arm around his shoulder. "You should really let go a little. Come on, get in on this!"
"I will not desecrate this place, by your command or the command of any other being!" Snap Feather snarled. "This is a holy site!"
"This was a failed storefront before you bought it. Come on, take the stick out of your plot and live a little!"
Alright, these bozos can't hurt me. I didn't care if I couldn't activate my powers. Enough was enough.
"You're seriously a moron, you know that?"
The big bad waved his hoof, and destruction immediately stopped. His smirk came back as he walked up to me. "It appears I still need to explain a few things to you, my dear. You see--" Suddenly, his eyes widened for a few seconds, but he instantly went back to the smirk. "Oh. Ohoho. What have we here? Or rather, what don't we have here?" He chuckled and pointed at my rear. "No cutie mark. At your age? That's unfortunate. The only mare I know of with that particular issue is..." He licked his lips at me. Shudder. "Prince Antares's sister. The one that came back with him. The one who saw our lord's destruction."
I really hate it when all eyes are on me. Usually it means that I've done something stupid or something like that. I rubbed my arm and took a few steps back.
"You wanna back off, buddy?"
"Oh, hardly," Big Bad said, his grin widening. "I cannot believe our good fortune. Antares's sister! You, my dear, would make a perfect sacrifice to the lord of chaos!"
Before I could respond, he motioned to two of the unicorns, who lit up their horns and pulled some rope out of their duffel bags. My wings flared open on pure instinct, but they wrapped the ropes around my chest, pinning my wings to my sides, and tied my legs together. Without anything to balance with, I wobbled on my hooves for a few seconds then crashed to the floor. Come on, magic! I know they can't hurt me, but sheesh! I don't want to be tied up or anything. It's just uncomfortable. If I thought I was annoyed with them before...
"Has Antares arrived yet?" Big Bad said to one of the winged ones. He flew over to one of the stained glass windows next to the door. He peeked out and grinned.
"They've just arrived! He's here with a bunch of guards." The pony tilted his head. "He really doesn't look happy."
"I'd imagine not," Big Bad said airily. "However, I need you to inform him that he shall not enter this church if he wants his delusional followers to remain safe. If he harms you we shall execute one of the sheep in return."
The ponies in the crowd cried out again, but a few more orders quieted them down again. Meanwhile I started trying to figure out how to get out of the ropes, magical or otherwise. Gotta admit: good knots. I'd be impressed if it wasn't so annoying. Big Bad looked at me struggling on the ground and chuckled.
"It is useless, my dear. Once we show these sheep that your brother is not the god they think he is, we shall make our escape with you in tow. Then we may begin the ritual. Our lord will be reborn!"
"He's al--" I groaned and thunked my head on the ground. "You're an idiot. I just have to say that. You're not going to be able to get out of this."
"We've been planning this since our lord reclaimed Equestria. We knew that if Antares ever returned and ousted our lord we needed to act." Big Bad began pacing around me. "We used to be normal ponies, you know. Blinded by the supposed might of the alicorns. But then the war happened. We all lost something in it. The alicorns represent order and light, but did that stop the destruction? No. However, we saw the power of our lord once already! He could have stopped everything with one swipe of his claw. When he returned, we rejoiced! No more would the world suffer under war!"
"And you call us delusional," one of the ponies growled. "I was in the war too, you know! We fought for our freedom in that fight! You just want to hoof it over to some mad god that wanted to control us completely!"
"But he did not kill," Big Bad countered. "You would have been alive. There would be no war."
"But a lot of suffering!" another pony said. "He wouldn't have been a good ruler!"
Before Big Bad can respond, I heard my brother's voice like he's speaking through a megaphone. Like the one guy said: he didn't seem very happy.
"Hey assholes? You'd better start coming out now, or things are going to get messy! If you do not release these innocent ponies right now, I'm going to do some things I regret!"
Big Bad grimaced and lit his horn. A ball of light came out and went into his neck. "If you come in we shall harm your sheep!" he retorted, his voice magically louder. "Besides, we have another interesting guest in here that I think you would not appreciate being harmed!"
TD paused for a few moments, and if I knew him, he was probably trying to figure out what to do next. He'd probably got who Big Bad was talking about, though.
"So, my sister, then?"
"Exactly!" Big Bad said triumphantly. "You wouldn't want her harmed, I'm sure. Unless you would rather leave her to me. You do owe us, as a matter of fact. She was there, was she not? She was there when you murdered our lord! She's certainly seen what you can become. Shall we have her explain to these sheep that you murdered Lord Discord?" He picked me up with his magic and turned me to the crowd. "Tell them, whelp! Tell them what your brother did! He was cruel, wasn't he?"
I don't say anything. I just glared down at him and clenched my teeth. He scoffed and shook his head at my defiance.
“You would do well to follow my orders,” he growled. “We wouldn’t want us to hurt you, would you?”
“You already said that you’re going to sacrifice me to bring about the next chaos god,” I said through clenched teeth. “It’s not going to work, I can tell you that now.”
“And what does a female that has only been a pony for a few short days know of magic?” Big Bad sneered.
“I know that my brother is outside ready to kill you.” I looked around the church. “Where is the guy you sent to talk to him anyway?”
“He...” Big Bad looked around, a slight frown on his face. He cast the noise spell on himself again. “Antares, where is my colleague?!”
“He’s here with us,” TD replied. “I’ll give him back when you’ve released everypony in the church. That aside, I really think it’s a bad idea to harm my sister in the name of the chaos god.”
“Hardly,” Big Bad said. “I think it’s rather fair, don’t you? You killed Lord Discord, and now we’re going to take somepony close to you in response. Having said that, if you do not release my colleague this instant I will start killing! I may begin with the foals!”
“Oh that is it!”
With a cry of rage, light appeared around my hooves and the ropes holding me instantly turned into dust. I flared out my wings which sent out a shockwave that blew Big Bad and a few of his cronies back into the walls and the pews. One of the winged ponies fumbled with his crossbow for a few moments before pointing it at me and firing. I raised a hoof and the bolt turned into a rubber chicken before it could get anywhere near me.
“Alright you boneheads, listen up!” I stood up on one of the pews, my wings still flared. “You’re talking about sacrificing me to the next chaos god? Well spoiler: I’m the new chaos god! You were going to try to sacrifice me to bring about... me!”
Everybody in the room gasped, and the ponies who had been holding us hostage instantly fell on their faces and bowed to me. That did not actually help my mood.
“If I ever hear that anybody who claims to worship me has hurt anybody, I’m not going to be happy, do you understand?!”
“P-please, Lord Discord, we were merely trying to bring about your return!” one of the terrorists whimpered. “We--”
“I am not Discord!” I snarled, grabbing the pony’s head so he was face-to-face with me. “I’m Kristen! Got that? Kristen!”
“Y-yes, Lady Kristen, I--”
“Did I say ‘Lady Kristen’?!” I snapped. “Kri. Sten. That’s it. I may be the new chaos god, but I sure as heck don’t have to deal with your crap!”
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Big Bad trying to crawl away. I wheeled around and pointed at him. “And where do you think you’re going?”
Big Bad gulped and uneasily chuckled as he tried scooting away. “M-My Lady, I... uh...”
“No, go ahead, I’m so interested to see how you’re going to explain your way out of this one.” I stomped up to him and put my hoof on his chest, pinning him to the floor. “What exactly were you going to do to me again?”
“Uh... well, I...” He uneasily rubbed the back of his neck. “I was... bluffing?”
I stared down at him for a few seconds. I’ve seen better excuses from children sneaking cookies out of the pantry. I would know. Me and TD were some of those children. Eventually I made a noise of disgust and walked over to the main door. “All of you are to stay right were you are. Throw your weapons down, too. As your god I command it, or whatever.” I instantly hear several weapons clatter to the floor. “Good. We’re done here.”
I put my hoof on the flagpole and it melted into molten metal, which actually didn’t seem to damage the floor all that much. Chaos. Sure. I threw the doors open and stepped inside to let TD walk in. A few guards followed and began arresting my “followers.”
“Don’t say a word, TD,” I growled. “Just... don’t.”
“Uh-huh.” He looked both nonplussed and a little amused. “My lips are sealed. Speaking of...” He turned to his followers, all of whom were looking at me with their jaws nearly on the floor. “I think it goes without saying, my followers, but none of you are to repeat what you have seen here. Your church was taken over by these ponies who were thwarted by my guard. Tell nopony anything else. Don’t even tell your dogs.”
“Y... yes, Prince Antares. Of course. Our lips are sealed,” Snap Feather said.
“Good.”
“Yeah and the same goes for you guys,” I said, motioning to the bad guys. “As your god or whatever I don’t care.”
I stomped out of the church, TD following closely behind me.
“Should I have somepony escort you back to the palace?”
“Don’t bother. I can take care of myself. Just... let me have some time alone, okay?”
TD stared at me for a few seconds but slowly nodded. “Yeah, yeah I can see how that’d be something you want. Just let me know you’re alright, okay?”
“I’m not going to run away or anything. I’ll be fine.”
With that, I walked away, leaving TD to clean up the mess at the church.
Great. Just great. I just wanted to get some air and that just ended with a bunch of misguided people who were going to sacrifice them and/or me to... me. Life is stupid. Really, really stupid.
I should have never jumped through that portal.
I took a shaky breath as I considered the events I’d just been through. A thought struck me that stopped me in my tracks. I seemed to be better with my chaos magic in there. I could control it a little bit. Maybe that was me just being pissed off, but...
I pointed my hoof at the ground. Maybe it would work this time!
“Chocolate chip cookie!”
Instantly a chocolate chip cookie appeared on the ground. I smiled as I took it in my hoof. Maybe this wouldn’t be totally awful. I popped the cookie in my mouth.
It tasted like crap.
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Lawl.
~Crystalline Electrostatic~
23:37_6/8/2017
fuckin’ called it
This can only get better. Am I the only one who thinks she would get along well with Sunset for some reason?
Well that an interesting coming out of the closet for being the new avatar of Chaos
8220705
that’s the chaos part, it was poop flavored
Great chapter, can’t wait for the next one!
8220786 I dunno, I don’t think chaos would be so literal.
Yeah, it figures that if the light side immortals had followers, the dark side ones would too. I wonder if Cadance and Shining have to worry about this crap happening in the Crystal Empire with Sombra worshipers? And as predicted, Kristen’s secret is getting more holes in it than a colander, so it’s only a matter of time before word gets out about what she is now. Hopefully though, this might have gone a ways into putting her reputation on the positive side, at least to start with.
When this is all over, we’re going to have the two
cultschurches merging, aren’t we?Say hello to the new Followers of Chaos and Snarkcasm.
The best way to spin this would be to make it so Antares and Kristen represent two sides of the same coin, much as Celestia and Luna do for the day/night cycle. Though what the coin would be in this case, I have no idea.
8220886 A wooden nickel?
So, honestly, no offence to your editors, but they missed a few things.
But he'd promised.
The second part of this sounds awkward. I suggest removing the 'for'.
Antares'.
Without any regards to consequences?
You say 'through' twice here. The first one can be changed to 'about' without losing much meaning.
And now my comments on the story itself.
Better control brings about better taste.
Hope she gets much better at controlling that. Nice chapter, not much actually happens here, but this is necessary to get something rolling at least
8220892
In for a penny out with a pound?
I see those two as the gray in the world if ponies think there like two sides of a coin like the sisters a little too easy don’t you think? Nah I see it as a complex balance that wants to get along but there always a bump that fixes itself in time since the world could and should be able to function without help so much maybe they be the balance to remind the world it can survive and preserve that make death happy at least sobering a bit there
Keep trying, girl! You’ll get it eventually!
Trying to sacrifice your own god to himself…. Yea that sounds like something chaos worshipers would do. I can almost hear Discord laughing from here.
hmm...
“TASTY chocolate chip cookie”?
wonder if Kristen will find out about the “Animate objects” thing Discord did?
animate a chair or couch and ride around on it instead of walking?
8220896 Fixed.
s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/2e/01/89/2e0189b406b426f20a62bd0247e4f1a2.jpg
Kristen really needs to work on modifying the molecule particle properties that tastes like an actual chocolate chip cookie and not whatever it was.
Other than that, neat chapter. I kinda get the feeling that Kristen can survive the entire catastrophe that unravels before her because if its one thing for certain: Chaos is art, creativity, fun, energetic, life. Thus, rather than be an incarnation of Chaos, maybe in due time Kristen can lighten up her role as the “Princess of Animation” 
, because Its too bad that the previous incarnate Discord was very irresponsible for his use of chaos upon the world of Equestria.
ahh, so Kristin gets pissed off at the mention of child endangerment as well? huh,, so the child protector “gene” runs strong in Powell blood.. welp, I have very very very.. slight pity for any child abuser etc.. they now have to face both The Alicorn God-Prince, and his sister who is the Goddess of Chaos
*sits back and watches the latest pedo’s head fly more than 100 meters, and holds up a scorecard of 8.5*
I hope we see more idiots like the Chaos cult..
I hope she works to get a handle on her magic, proper control. What she just did was a great, great start.
this is a vary good chapter I love it.
I can see Kristen is going to have a hole lot of thinking to do to even begin to accept the change she has gone threw.
8221186
https://pics.me.me/im-gonna-need-two-bolters-for-this-heresy-19223606.png
8220826
Well looks like a cookie smells like a cookie feels like a cookie but tastes like poo. Ha! Those werent chocolte chips!
I was needing a Brony Writer fix. I have been re-reading your works but wanted something new, and ta-da!
The backlash of Kristen isn’t going to be so great, but I think in the long run it could work out. Discord in this universe was cruel, and hopefully Kristen can be a better one, who brings a little chaos instead of pure mayhem.
Do if Kristen is the new chaos god does that mean that she and TD could wisit their parents on Christmas?
...
okay you know what you stuck up
, self centered 😠 , egotistical 👿 whiny 
moron 
i get it! you had alot happen in a small point of time, but cut the crap already, you have no moral high ground here, as far as the moral standing for the events that have taken you to your current point go, you are below fucking discord. he told you he had a family and he needed to return to them, the personification of death himself told you he needed to return, you threw yourself into the portal to try and stop him. everything that follows is your own fault and i hope that discords reputation isn't one sixth as damning as yours comes to be and if you dare name a city after Canada or a province i well dedicate the rest of my life to tearing a hole into your dimension and de-powering you, i won't kill you out of respect for TD, but i well leave you with nothing.
8221656
You know she can't hear you, right?
Well then.
our
8221507
She can't make an edible cookie right now. Portals, and accurate ones at that? No way.
8221656
... What?!
Discord: tortured ponies for fun.
Kristen: is upset that she's lost everything. Yeah, it's her fault that she's in Equestria, but no choices were made that turned her into the chaos god. There's no way that ANY of the alicorns could have predicted that, much less Kristen. When the disciples of chaos talked about killing foals, she went into protection mode. Discord would have NEVER done that unless he thought of something funnier. I'm not seeing where the two of them are similar at all. In terms of how she's reacting, yeah, it's arguably not very well, but nobody could predict how they'd react to a situation where in two days they'd lost their parents, species, home, and mortality. She's doomed to be the god of chaos forever without any say in the matter. There's no way she's just shrugging and saying "oh well." Again, it's only been two days since all of this happened at the most.
In terms of her going through the portal, yeah, it was a dumb move, but remember what TD's mother had said: his disappearance hit her the hardest, especially since she largely blamed herself for it. Then he comes back and things finally might be okay again, then death himself comes to take him away. Dumb move? Yeah, probably. But one that made sense to her based on her not wanting to lose her brother again forever. So how in the world is she supposed to handle all of that?
8222272
so far her actions have accounted too, blame her brother for everything that's happened, condemn him for acting against a threat. act as though her brother is some sociopathic tyrant who is locking her away like a prisoner. her internal dialogue has been nothing but denying herself even the smallest traces of blame well heaping it on those around her. the fact of the matter is discord at least in cannon had redeeming qualities, she has yet to have any.
8221656 victim blaming at it's finest.
8221399
i made a horse pun, typo but still a pun
8222383
victims aren't usually the cornerstone of there own suffering.
Okay that last line though
8222420
She just wanted to be with her brother and not lose him. TD went psycho and even attacked his own wife. Kristen shouldn't even be a pony, TD came to Equestria as a human. Brony Writer never explained why very well. You are blaming her situation completely on her when the fault is clearly on TD and Celestia, who started the whole situation.
8222420
Look at it from her perspective: she's not the new god of chaos if TD doesn't kill Discord. True. TD probably wouldn't have let her just walk around Baltimare by herself. True. She has no idea what's going to happen next and she's scared, as I think most people would be.
8222272
^ This.
Also: Thank God (Antares? lol) for that tone shift. This fic was getting far too angst-y. It needs more of that 'This is seriously my life?' feel that TD the Alicorn Princess had. I think you pulled that off nicely by making this chapter from Kristen's perspective, and I'd enjoy seeing more from her. The TD stuff has been getting a little stuffy, preachy, and predictable.
I don't get why people are raging about Kristen's bitchiness. Did they even read the first few TD stories? I can't remember how many people TD has punched in the face. Kristen seems more of the same, but with one part Snark replaced with a dosing of Rage. She's not evil incarnate for being a human being experiencing depression and the first stages of grief (1. Denial & Isolation, 2. Anger).
Hope more chapters will have this tone! I've missed it.
8222575
8222420
I agree with SVD. By the logic of blaming Kristen, you could similarly blame TD for not paying more attention when he crossed the road in the first story. I once was in the crosswalk when a car ran a red light, and I would have nearly been hit had I not been watching traffic despite the walk signal. Both siblings seem to suffer from problems with watching their surroundings when distracted by something, emotional or otherwise. (Like when Discord snuck up on TD)
I don't really think this is a situation where any one person is 'at fault'.
8222575
8222578
you both make points but in the end your posing this from the stand point that the person is innocent and/or ignorant. neitehr of which is true, the 'just wanting to see her brother' argument isn't valid as she stated herself her intentionw as to force him back, despite the case of both death himself and TD telling her and his whole family he had to return. we arn't talking about satan or some trickster spirit here, we are talking about a universal embodiement of a cosmic law, a law that pertains to finality itself. death is itself the most perfect expression of order, therefore even if his showing up had been a thing in the human world, reasons to doubt him would be non-existent.
the one you both claim to be the victim here essentially did the equivalent of taking a loaded gun and shooting herself in the foot, and then blaming everyone around her for everything that follows. there is a degree that can be explained by shock, but even then there would be some internal expression of realization for her own guilt in this matter. well it's true the others aren't innocent, literally everything that happened to her so far has been a direct cause of her own actions.
and her treatment of her brother may be based on what she saw, but in doing so has shown her to lack even the slightest ability to be empathetic to what he'd gone through. TD has just had to fight in a war, he has not only had to kill himself, but had to send good people, some of whom he knew to death and dismemberment, to pain and torture, any human, and i mean literally any human, who can understand just what war actually is would see how he reacted to discord's actions as not only reasonable, but inevitable.
you talk about blaming the victim, but it seems to be of no bother to blame the one suffering from PTSD. despite it all TD is clearly trying very hard to make up for things, he is trying to balance, family, running a country, and having to deal with enough stress to make most people collapse.
i get it, she is in an alien world, in an alien body, dealing with a lot, that doesn't mean she can start condemning others for things that so far she seems fully incapable of comprehending.
she saved those ponies in TD's church, that was a good thing to do, but with what you've shown so far, what you've shown in her mental state, she didn't do it cause it was right, she did it to save herself some guilt. so no at this point the character really isn't a sympathetic character, her actions arn't understandable, up intel now you've written TD's story well, but this character, she honestly seems less human then the ponies.
8222975
To start with, I've never said that what Kristen did wasn't dumb. It totally was, and even she knows that. It was the wrong move, and if she had to do it over again she absolutely wouldn't have jumped through that portal. It was a dumb move. But remember: this is somebody who blames herself for whatever happened to him. She already lost him once and she thought it was her fault, or at least that if she'd done something different that none of it would have happened.
I'm also not saying that she's handling this perfectly, but that's how people can be. Not everybody handles big changes well. Heck, TD got in that fight with Celestia when he lost everything. Kristen's being grumpy and scared, TD got violent.
In terms of the church, she froze a little bit when they came in. Keep in mind that she's from Colorado. We, unfortunately, get a lot of shootings here. So a group comes in dressed in black and carrying weapons... she's not sure how to use her powers yet. What's she really going to do? Throughout the whole thing she's trying to figure it out. It had nothing to do with guilt. The minute she saw them she tried to think of what to do. If she had full access from the start, she'd have turned them all into turkeys, or something.
So is she handling this well? No, of course not. Is she doing a little blaming when she shouldn't? Probably yes, but at the same time TD did kill the last one, and if he hadn't, she wouldn't be the current chaos god. Even TD himself admitted that he had a choice on whether or not to kill Discord and he chose to do it. Kristen feels completely helpless. Yeah, her going through the portal was her choice, but nothing after that was. She didn't chose to become the chaos god. She's not handling it well, but TD had his moments where he didn't handle it well either. He threatened to burn Ponyville to the ground if anybody bowed to him.
She still need to learn about her powers it seems
8223281
i get what your saying but it doesn't really throw the blame on TD as much as she, the story, yourself, and several reviewers seem to be doing. rather the events that have happened to her are her fault or not her projecting the blame onto her brother, celestia, and whoever else is still wrong as you may not be able to control the ripples, but you still threw the rock in the water. it's hard to like her right now, she needs more... human traits, too two dimensional right now.
I personally think,that they both can work in/as tandem similar to royal sister (day and night are still part of the day), like...hmmm....
. As for ponies accepted her, well at last she is also pony...now ( And if that is not enough, I think that she can always use her ability to build some amusement park and maybe some new sports ( swimming pool with water where you can breathe freely, yes,Yes so many possibilities
) or holiday, yep it can work
.
TD/ Antares will take more "Order" aspect of Snark, Sarcasm, Foal Services, Education and Pastries and Kristen (Apart from chaos as such) will take more chaotic/ creative aspect of it ( Also he is more associated with the element of fire and she with water{ she like swim }), Well maybe she will be have little different aspects from her brother: for example, instead Sarcasm - Sport, Pastries - Sweets ,also maybe something with creativity
I wonder too if she also accidentally will creates a new race of ponies (possible due to her lack of control) and how they will be looks like.
Coming from the last chapter, this chapter was just... bad, for one reason -- it felt so contrived. She conveniently stumbles upon Antares' church and enters despite herself, a church which is then conveniently taken over by a bunch of Discordian zealots who conveniently threaten some foals (triggered!) which of course conveniently leads her to reveal herself and her new powers. It all just felt rather flat and artificial. Here's hoping you come back stronger next chapter.
I feel a Schism coming, between brother and sister..... I hope I'm wrong
8222975 Put yourself in her position, I know that if I lost my sister for 5 years, I would do what I could to keep her from leaving, even in futility. Also, there's no way she could have known she would turn into a pony or that that portal would collapse.
Edit: Less human than Ponies? I don't recall Kristen telling any of the ponies they need to change their name/identity to satisfy other ponies' needs for their world beliefs. That's almost the definition of dehumanizing.
8224221
Never change JBL. Never change. Lol.
Your points ring true. But I couldn't help laughing a bit throughout that scene. Call it pandering, "narritivium" at work in the story, or anything else but I still found it funny.
Definitely a bit different from the rest of this story so far but I think sometimes comedy just doesn't need to be overly engineered.
Not sure if that is what the writer was going for but I thought it was hilarious. Plus I don't see the scene being too different from the rest of the TD series in spirit at least.
It felt more like a nice break to me to reset the mood of the story a bit. I guess even the coincidence could have been due to her powers. That just feels like a stretch.
Although I do wonder how her new chaos imbued nature is going to affect scenes involving Kristen.
I think it is just a bit of a jump to reset the stories mood a bit in my opinion.
I am pretty sure that it will resume it's normal flow. At least judging from the prior stories.
"to to" should be "you".