//------------------------------//
// "Was It Really Worth It?" 
// Story: Interview with a Monster 
// by twilightsparkle3562 
//------------------------------//

I returned to work the next morning feeling like somepony who had failed his most important task to date. I tried to get through to Tirek, trying to make him see the error of his ways, but it just didn't matter one bit. He was not going to listen and the stuff I am writing about him now was stuff that I didn't want to write, but I had to. But, that is besides the point now, there was no reason in any sense of the word that I should keep worrying about Tirek. He's in a cage now, where he would spend the rest of his natural life or longer. Now, here I was, about to tell the story that I had obtained while I was in Tartarus.

"Come in," I said as I heard a knock on the door and turned to see my boss walking into the room. I couldn't tell if he had a look of either disappointment on his face or what, but it was not a look of congratulations. At least, not in my point of view. "I assume you hear to reprimand me for how I conducted myself during the interview, I suppose?"

"No, Hot Scoop," he said. "I know what you were trying to do to get Tirek to understand the error of his ways. But, you can't change somepony's ways to benefit their lives or as well as your own. Tirek will never forgive anypony for what he did and you know it. What do you have written on here?"

He turned over towards my typewriter and saw the article's title, "Interview With a Monster," written at the top. Once he read the title, he backed away and looked over at me, nodding in approval.

"This is exactly what the ponies of Equestria will want to see, Hot," he said. "Everypony has branded Tirek as a monster, a creature that should be locked up and never released. It's too bad he couldn't end up like his brother."

"Scorpan?" I wondered, turning away from the typewriter. "What do you mean?"

"Do you remember a couple of months ago, we sent somepony to interview Scorpan after he helped Discord redeem himself?" he said. "But, the interview never happened. It's such a shame, we could have gotten his side of the story behind betraying his brother."

"How could I forget?" I chuckled, briefly playing around with a pencil on my desk. "You went berserk for days when we couldn't get an appointment in. But, why do you ask?"

"Because I said so, Hot Scoop," replied my boss, as he smoked a cigarette in his mouth. "Scorpan is the poster child of true redemption, not Discord. No matter how hard he tried, Discord will never, at least in my eyes, prove that he was truly sorry for putting Equestria on a silver platter for Tirek to consume. But, the only reason why Discord won't face the same justice is because the Princesses feel that he's been punished enough."

As I listened to my boss rant through huffs and puffs of smoke, I realized that he was probably wanting to interview Discord and lie about how much of a backstabber he ways. But, there was a side to Discord that I felt was if he deserved to have the whole truth behind his betrayal shared. But, that was for another time and another place.

"Boss, I think since you brought up the princesses," I said. "Would it be okay if I got an interview with Princess Twilight about the loss of her library?"

"If she is willing to talk, Hot Scoop," he remarked, quickly changing the subject. "I know from your first attempt to interview her, you were rudely turned away by that farm pony, Applejack. I know we are a newspaper business, but we have rules of whether or not ponies want to open up about their personal struggles."

…

Just then, we heard a knock on the door and I turned to see one of our secretaries emerge with a piece of paper enveloped in a magical aura. My boss took the paper and read it briefly to himself before turning the paper over to me.

"It's from Princess Twilight's assistant," I said, reading the paper before putting back down on the desk. "She says that she and the other princesses want to talk about the events with Tirek. They say they want me to interview them at the Castle of Friendship in five days."

"Why do they say that?" wondered my boss.

"They probably have some grievances that they wish to air," I guessed. "At least that they won't be like Tirek to say the least."

For a moment, I didn't know whether or not to approach this either carefully with a sensitive nature or with jubilation over the fact that I had finally obtained the interview with Princess Twilight over the loss of her library. My mind was torn, but that was just how it was.

"Guess you have a big task ahead, Hot Scoop," said my boss as he got up to leave my office. "Might as well finish the Tirek article and then motivate yourself to get ready for this interview."

Before he left my office, he turned back towards me and gave one wise glance.

"And if I were you," he said. "I'd bring a pair of tissues as well. Who knows how strong the emotions will come out?"

With those words, he departed and left me alone to finish my work. The article was completed under an hour and then edited before being placed in the pile of stories to be published in the next day's newspaper. Now, I was back home in my apartment, preparing my mind and body for quite possibly, the most emotional experience of my natural life.

"An interview with a brokenhearted princess and her fellow princesses," I thought to myself as I went to sleep in my bed that night. "Whoever thought that I would be given the chance? I don't know how it is going to go, but I must be ready for whatever comes my way, even if my own emotions may get the better of me."

And with that, I went to sleep closing the book on one part of this story and opening the book on the other…

TO BE CONTINUED...