None of the ponies could make a sound, for the horror that all of them felt staring at their new god prevented even the smallest of noises from escaping their lips. All except for Celestia, who glared at the god with her eyes like slits. Thunder filled the room as Thor glared down the god with the two faces, yet instead of being afraid of the thunderer Sinaj simply let out a loud laugh.

"None of that, god of thunder. You wouldn't dare try to strike me down now," Sinaj said with a wave of his finger to Thor. "I am the new god of Equestria, meaning that every action you take against me will felt throughout the nation of ponies. Say you strike me down. I will make sure that my final actions are placing a curse upon the land of Equestria that the ponies will never recover from. One that kills every foal and mare within the land, so that your precious ponies would be wiped out."

"Thou would not dare," Thor thundered as he pointed Mjolnir at him.

"Try me, thunderer."

Sinaj gave Thor a smirk that made the gods divine blood boil and with a methodical approach Thor began to walk towards the altar. Yet after only a few steps the shadow beasts that Thor believed to have been struck down swarmed towards the god of thunder, blackening out the room with their sheer numbers.

Yet numbers had never been enough to stop the god of thunder. With a bellow that was known to make frost giants shiver with fear Thor swung the hammer that had slain gods through the overwhelming number of shadow beasts. Within the darkness flashes of lightning from the hammer illuminated the battle, yet more and more shadow beings poured themselves into Thor.

"My word he does take an impossibly long time to kill, doesn't he?" Sinaj asked the ponies, who turned their heads away from the battle and towards the god with hate filled eyes. "Now now, that's not a look you should be giving to your new lord and savior. Be careful or else I will wipe out everything the eight of you care about. And I really do not want my first action as god of your nation to be genocide...but I'm not above it."

"Of course you wouldn't be, you damned monster," Celestia spat at the god, whose faces narrowed dangerously at her words. "You stole a book passed down from my father to me and then you steal the position of god from those that would be far better deities than you could ever dream of being. I am not surprised in the least that you would threaten my land and my ponies."

"That is not the tone I would expect you to take with me, princess. Especially considering how you have reacted in the past to deities such as myself," Sinaj and Janis said together with all of their divine rage made clear in their voice. Yet instead of cowering, Celestia instead took a step towards the duel god and spat to the side.

"Yes, I was afraid of you divine at first. Because I thought of you as beings beyond my comprehension, beings that acted with rhyme and reason that I couldn't comprehend," Celestia admitted, before she smirked at the duel god. "But now, thanks to Thor and Discord, I have seen the true nature of gods like you, Toraxo and Rose. You're all just arrogant fools with more power than you ever should have had the pleasure of having. No different than the many mortal villains that I've had to face. So no, I'm not afraid of you. I'm disgusted by you."

The air thickened around the ponies as Janis and Sinaj's faces both contorted into an image of pure rage, a rage that shook the chamber and made the shadow beings that were supposed to be killing Thor glance over at them with fear. Janis then very slowly and very deliberately began to walk towards Celestia, his approach making the Ambassadors and Luna back away from him, but the princess of the sun held her ground, glaring right into the four eyes that glared at her.

"Before I obliterate your very being and send your soul screaming into the abyss, I would be eternally grateful if you could inform me how you are managing to summon this kind of courage in the faces of a being such as myself," Sinaj whispered to Celestia, who smiled in reply.

"Two reasons. The first is that even if you kill me, you still have to deal with the god of thunder over there, who has a reputation for striking down every god that has fought him," Celestia informed the god while motioning her head to Thor, who had almost dealt with the shadow beings once more.

"That is a fair point. But Thor will be dead soon enough. Even he cannot match the might of two divine powers in the same body," Sinaj said to Celestia, but once again all his words did was get a smile out of the alicorn princess. "You find humor in my new powers? Perhaps you are not brave and have simply gone mad in the face of such might."

"No, you fool. I am simply laughing because despite all your planning and all your arrogance, you still have yet to see that you do not have the powers of two divine. You are the same divine that you were when you came in here," Celestia informed Sinaj, who looked at her like she was crazy.

"The ritual worked. I felt it work. And if it worked, that means that the godly powers that were once Fausts are now mine," Sinaj said in a slow tone for Celestia.

"You are correct in saying that the ritual worked. But you were not the only being standing on that alter when the ritual was concluded, were you?" Celestia asked Sinaj, who narrowed all four eyes before he turned back to the alter, where three shadow beasts still stood. He made a motion for them to leave the alter, but to his surprise he found that only two of them obeyed him.

"What are you doing? Obey your master and come here!" Sinaj roared at the final shadow beast. But instead of following his order, the final shadow beast chose to smile, a smile that had a single, large tooth that he knew all too well. "No...it can't be..."

The shadow being then vanished in a puff of confetti and a moment later Discord was standing on the alter, but the god and the ponies could sense that he was not the same Discord that he had once been. A new power radiated from him, one that was akin to that which Faust had held all those years ago. What was more, there was a new mark upon his body, a mark of an ink pot and a quill.

"No...it cannot be!" Sinaj roared before four sets of magic erupted from his eyes and hurled themselves towards Discord, who smirked as he snapped his fingers and created a barrier that reflected the magic back at Sinaj. The dual god took all four blasts to the chest and was sent flying backwards into the wall, which crumbled under his power.

"Oh, but it can," Discord replied as he walked forward while cracking his fingers, smirking at the seething god of the elk. "I figured out your plan a while ago. Steal the book, get us to unintentionally help you find the alter and then become the god of the ponies, making so you got to rule Equestria and Thor couldn't hurt you without dooming the race he swore to protect. It wasn't a bad plan, honestly."

"If you knew of my plan, then why did you never try to stop me?!" Sinaj roared as he unleashed more streams of divine magic towards Discord, but this time Discord had the magic be sucked into numerous vortexes he created. With another snap of his fingers he summoned new vortexes behind the god of the elk, having the gods of magic appear from within and strike the god in the back. Sinaj let out a roar as he was sent flying across the ground, skidding to a stop at Discord's feet.

"What would be the point?" Discord asked Sinaj, kneeling down next to the god and lifting him by the back of his head. "Even if we had all the plans in the world, we would have still ended up here. That's how things work in Equestria. If the ponies want to find the Elements, they'll find the Elements. If an evil forces wants to break free of their prison, they'll break free. Things like that can't be stopped and believe me, I've tried. So instead of trying to stop your eventually successful plan, I decided to...tinker with it."

"So you played along and waited until I was about to become the god of Equestria, only to step in yourself," Sinaj spat at Discord, yet all Discord did was shake his head.

"You still don't get it. How can a god with four eyes be so blind. You were never going to get those powers. Didn't you hear a word Celly over there said? The god of Equestria would be chosen by the alter. The alter doesn't just grant the power to the first lunatic that walks up their and spouts some nonsense," Discord reminded Sinaj, who seethed at the god of chaos.

"It was a risk letting you get right up on the alter, I'll admit. After all, it might of thought you were a worthy successor to Faust and then egg on my face. But I was also willing to bet that it would pick somepony...or one, who had a bit more of a connection to the ponies. Somepony that they already trusted and saw as a friend."

"Are you saying...you are that god?" Sinaj said with a laugh as he rose back up to his feet, glancing over towards Thor to see that the god of thunder had dispatched his remaining shadow beings, leaving him alone in the room. "You have never been one to take your divine role seriously, Discord. You were created to be one of the stronger gods of this land, but you've always run away from that responsibility and power, preferring to be an annoyance throughout history. You can never be the god they'll need you to be."

"Of course I can."

"How? You're a god of chaos. You create havoc, mess with the lives of others and can't sit still long enough to make a normal decision, let alone one that a divine must make. How will you become the god they will need you to be?" Sinaj asked with a snarl, but to his surprise all Discord did was smile.

"Simple. I'll change."

Sinaj and Janis had both heard many crazy words come out of Discords mouth, but at that moment the words he had just spoken sounded like utter insanity to the god of the elk. Janis shook his head with bafflement and confusion, before the anger set hold once more and he began to channel his divine power.

"It doesn't matter what you think you will do, because all of your futures end here and now!" Sinaj roared with fury as his divine power shook Faust's chamber, making all of the ponies and even Discord back away from his might. "I will annihilate you all here and now and simply take over Equestria myself! I do not need to be the true god to be the ruler of your land! All I need is to wait for-"

WHAM!

Mjolnir had decided that it had had enough of Sinaj's talking and decided to silence him by placing itself firmly on the side of the gods face. The side effect of this polite attempt to get Sinaj to stop talking was that the god of the elk was sent hurtling into the wall of the chamber with such force that even as a divine the god was still knocked out cold. The ponies and Discord all turned to look at Thor, who shook his head at the unconscious god.

"He talked far too much. Some silence I feel would be for the best," Thor said before glancing at Celestia. "What should be done with him?"

"Why are you asking me?"

"You are Faust's pupil, the one she wished to carry out her will. It is your choice. Not mine."

"Can the mirror hold more than one god?"

"If given time, I believe I can make it so."

"Then let us do that. I will have no more death on my watch."

"Very well, princess," Thor said before he turned to look at Discord, a smile crossing his face as he felt the new, divine power that radiated from him. "So, thou finally found the god thou wished to be. And it seems that Faust has agreed with your choice. I am proud of you, Discord."

"Well, when the choice was between me getting the powers and rule of Equestria or that bag of cats...the choice was clear," Discord said with a smile before he looked down at himself, as if finally realizing what he had done. "I just hope that I made the right decision. Janis was right, I'm not a very good god. I've made plenty of mistakes. Am I really the right one for this job?"

Before Thor could answer Celestia and the other ponies surrounded Discord, each of them hugging him and thanking him for what he had done. The princess of the sun then walked up towards Discord and gave him a proud smile.

"There is nopony else I feel that is more qualified to fit this role, Discord. While you may not be as active as you could be, you have shown today that you are of the title of deity. Not because you were created to be one, but because you chose to be a better one," Celestia said to Discord. The god of chaos looked away from her and at the faces of the Ambassadors, who all nodded up at him with huge smiles on their faces. Finally he looked towards Thor, who nodded with a smile as well.

"Well, you guys might be willing to put up with me, but will the rest of the ponies? Some of them still haven't forgiven me for what I did when I was out of control," Discord revealed, but to his surprise Thor let out a boisterous laugh and placed his arm around Discord's shoulder.

"Trust me friend, after seeing what the other gods of Equis were like and having feared me, they will welcome you with open arms," Thor told Discord, before a more serious smile crossed Thor's face. "And for those that don't believe in you right away, you will just have to work that much harder to convince them. Show them why you are worthy, my friend."

Discord didn't have any words left to say. All he could do was look at his friends with a smile on his face, still unable to fully wrap his head around the fact that he had been chosen. He wiped a tear from his eye and then tossed it to the side to create a portal back to Equestria, before looking over at where Janis lay.

"Do not worry, I shall take him," Thor said before walking over to Janis still unconscious body and hoisting it over his shoulder. "Once he wakes up I will have Celestia carry out his sentence. Perhaps he can join Rose in the mirror, where the two can yell at each other for all eternity."

"We will also need to tell the elk of what has happened to their god. But if they're anything like the zebras, they shouldn't be too distraught by the loss," Celestia said as she and the other ponies followed Thor through the portal. Discord walked forward to join them, but at the edge of the portal he stopped and turned his head to gaze up at the statue of the alicorn, which looked a little different than he remembered.

"Faust...thank you. For believing in me," Discord said, before he turned and walked through the portal, leaving the chamber, and the alter, alone once more.