The first thought, the only thing heard in response to the mare, is this: She's a smart one.

Janos' bitterness splits Knox's mind and compassion falls away. In his mind he struggles and fights, kicks and bites, and spits at the young ancestor that was, in some twisted way, his father.

You find her ignorance funny, weakling father? You think her impiety is a mark of intelligence? The mind roils, the heart twists, the moon lowers in the sky.

I think she knows what's real, the ancestor replies, his mental tone a frank one, and I think she knows what's godshit.

SILENCE!

For all the world, Knox wants to shift outside of this wretched, heretic form, but he knows it would be more than foolish to transform before this stranger. And so he stays as he is to her, stolid, unmoving, and a pillar of intimidation. He fights off the urge and frowns deeper, the only reveal that something else, something unseen, might be troubling him.

The stranger asks him where the gods have gone and as Manhattan rolls her eyes, he cannot help but chuckle. But the laughter is not a cheerful, friendly one. It is more like a breathless wheeze and a dark whisper, one brought about by so long without food or drink, so long without the company of one as curious as this.

"I know of them because I was born here," Knox replied through gritted teeth, his patience wearing thin with the night and the absence of his goddess. Was she really not to arrive? "You'd do best to feign understanding if you don't want to get singled out, around here," Knox added with a slight snarl. Its hostility is sudden and foreign on Janos' young lips, but it is there and uncontrollable. Manhattan places a paw on his hock, urging him to calm himself and take his anger out elsewhere, but she does little good.

"As for where they are..." at this the ancestral lifts his father's head, turning that dappled mask up to the sky. "I imagine somewhere up there. Ignoring us."

His disappointment is palpable, his bright blue gaze narrowing as it fills with rage. In his thoughts, Knox, influence by Janos's reckless hate for higher powers, sends a beacon of rage, a continuation of his sentiment: and I'm not going to wait for them. He turns from the mare, caring little for her presence. She is not the one he came her to see.

"DID YOU HEAR THAT?" Knox shouts, his words an issued command to the seemingly starless sky. "YOUR DISCIPLES ARE LEAVING YOU! YOU'VE LOST THIS PREACHER TONIGHT!"

And he reared, and he spat, and he was filled with a fury that young, grey pony body could not contain. He wanted to destroy his faith and all that surrounded it. He wanted to kill.
—
[[Tagged: @[Enna]. Hush, your post was lovely! Sorry Knox went kinda crazy.]]