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// Heart to Heart 
// Story: Lovely little Tyrant 
// by Zarius9998 
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"Wake up...wake up Celestia...your trial is at hand, Celestia..."

That nagging...that nagging in the back of my head...more and more has that nagging been prodding at me. First, with the original imprisonment of Discord is when it appeared. Then, with the banishment of my sister after the horrid war we had long ago, it grew worse. Again, as Discord was reimprisoned the nagging grew even more malicious. As time droned on, though, I grew accustomed to it's chides, to it's claims, and ignored it. It became nothing but static...

Yet again, it grew. My celebration of the new couple was cut terribly short as I lied about needing rest to everypony else after my defeat at Chrysalis's hooves. What I really needed, though, was a session of screaming at my least favorite Spirit of Chaos.

As these bouts of schizophrenia would sometimes boil me down to near insanity, I required some form of...relief. Seeing as nopony could possibly contain the understanding of what it is like to have lived nearly as long as I, and has dealt with what I have dealt with, and I would never think of involving my dear Little Lulu in my sickness—I felt I owed her that much—there was only one logical choice in who to vent to.

"Ahhh, Celestia my dear. Having headaches again, are we?"

I sneered. His voice always made me sneer. Or maybe scowl? Perhaps scowl would work better...I don't know, but it was not a happy face whenever I entered the secret chamber held within my Castle walls.

"It's that voice again. It's gotten worse lately. In fact, I think it's the worst it's ever been in thousands of years." I retorted, pacing around the center of the room, my hoof-falls clearly denoting my very...unsatisfactory mood.

"Ahhh, I see." I paused in my pacing and watched as the snake slithered it's way onto a couch made of cotton candy, propping his head up and giving me a wry smirk with those annoying mismatched eyes of his.

"Please, do go on, darling."

I glared back at his smile. As much as he enjoyed this; as much as I hated this, I had to do this, else I would lose my ever loving mind. I was just at least glad that The Voice wasn't bombarding me right then and there...else I really would have lost it.

"You don't have to be so smug, Discord." I snapped at him before continuing to circle his container.

"You don't have to be Ruler." he replied casually, ripping a piece of the couch off and eating it before continuing, "Nor do it have to be in this container. Nor did you have to replace my statue with a fake just so you could come here to yell me once in a while..." he chuckled, "Nor did you have to banish Luna, nor did you have to cripple Chrysalis, poor girl."

Every time he spoke the word "nor," I could feel my blood boil. He was blatantly insulting me and my decisions, even after great pain, both physical and mental, was involved with each of them. He knew this would pick at me, and he knew it was working, but I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of breaking me. He hasn't done it yet, and he wouldn't do it then.

"Poor girl? She got what she deserved." I scoffed, "Trying to harm my subjects like that? She was evil."

At this Discord burst out in full on laughter, his obnoxious chuckles echoing and mocking me as if I was a naïve foal.

"What is so funny!?" I demanded, nearly slamming my face against the magical plate as I tried to burn him with my heat ray vision...that I wish I had, at the time.

"Celestia, you honestly, after all this time, have not discovered the fuel behind that voice?" As smug as ever, the ostentatious being snaked his way to the magical field's edge, staring me eye to eye with a gleam only found in those who think they have won, "You HONESTLY don't know WHY you just cannot remain happy?"

"I have lived a very, very long time, Discord." I start, clenching my teeth and hissing, "I have seen many loved ones move on, and have made many eroding decisions. My MIND cannot last forever...but..." I almost couldn't say it...I hated the fact that he was better than me, that be could best me at every turn, outdo me in every way..."but your mind-"

"-can last forever. I know this." he shrugged, "So you try to place your pains on me in order to prolong the eventual collapse of your mind." He flopped backwards, the cotton-candy couch exploding in a pink, poofy mist and reforming into a hot tub filled with steaming water in which he relaxed, "But trust me, you won't be ruling Equestria anymore when that time comes."

Again and again, his words just continued to tick me. I still refused to let him get a hoof over me...that was the one thing I was never allowed to let him do, never again. He used to hold me—mind, body, and soul—but that was long, long ago. Now, I held all the cards.

Or so I hoped...

"Amd why, pray tell, would that be?"

"Oh, just because soon enough everypony will have had enough of your tyranny, is all." he answered casually, waving me away as if it was nothing.

"T-t-tyranny!?" I was taken aback...he was joking? He had to be joking!...right? "I am NOT a Tyrant, Discord! If any thing, You, Chrysalis or Nightmare Moon, were the Tyrants!"

"Is that so?" my secret confidential placed a paw to his chin, seeming to stare off in thought, "I think I can convince you otherwise, for the most part."

"TRY me." I snarled, glaring daggers into his consistently collected face.

"Let's start with me, hmm?" he propped himself upright, his legs sticking out of the bottom of the tub while the water seemed to ignore the fact that there was no bottom, "I promoted, if anything, the exact opposite of Tyranny: Anarchy." he shivered at the mention of that word, obviously releshing in his dream of a world of games without rules, "Nothing but sunny nights and delicious chocolate rain was all I desired. All of it, really, was harmless fun."

"You literally flipped all of Equestria upside down, and threw balance out of the window like it was a peice of trash." I countered, "Nopony could have withstandsd such insanity for long, and you know it!"

"That is not the POINT, Celestia." he explained, waving a claw, "Besides, I love them all just as equally as you!: My toys to play with. I never would let anything horrible befall any of them."

"TOYS? I do NOT think of them as TOYS!" I screamed, momentarily losing my temper and flaring my horn a dark red.

Only for a moment, though. My composure was quickly recalled with a deep breath and a resteadying of stance.

"They are my subjects, and I do everything I can to protect them..."

"Wouldn't want your toys broken, clearly."

I paused and glared at the smug fiend, then continued quickly after, "From you, from Nightmare Moon and from Chrysalis."

"Speaking of Miss Loony Mooney, where do you think that side of Luna learned how to do what she did?"

This question threw me off a bit, I admit...was he blaming me for what happened to Luna? While yes, I admit that I probably could have prevented The Nightmare from arising, I, in my defense, didn't see the signs until it was too late to stop. Discord took my thoughtful silence as his cue to continue, so he went on.

"I mean, Luna was young, compared to you, anyway. There was no chance for her to witness how to properly corroborate on a decision!" He snapped and the floating image of a Crescent Moon eclipsing the Sun flashed into existence beside him. My eyes instantly were transfixed on the ethereal picture...

"So...soon enough...well, as the saying goes: 'Pegasi of a feather flock together,' I suppose." He shrugged and the two shades of light melded together into one, murky yet eerily luminescent orb. It quickly dissipated, though, leaving me wondering what he tried to symbolize with that.

"My sister and I were anything but together, then." I claimed, "Explain yourself, Discord."

"She followed the example of her older sister." he sharply stated, forcing me to rear back at the sudden bite, "Just a bit more radical, as her rage and jealousy took ahold, obviously."

"I am NOT a Tyrant, Discord! There is no PROOF that I influenced her behavior!"

"There is no proof that anypony else didn't do it, either." he responded with a sly nod.

"Th-that's irrelevant logic, foal."

"Just because it's not fully relevant, doesn't make it false."

I groaned, rubbing my temples with my hooves. He was getting worse than The Voice!

"I am growing tired of this. I feel worse than when I arrived..."

"It'a because, deep down, way down in that messed-up mind of yours, your innocent self knows I am right, you know." Discord tapped his own forehead as I looked up at him, "And I'm not even done defending my case, yet!"

"What else do you have for me to digest?" I asked wearily, expecting some indigestion if it was anything near as volatile as his last few comments.

"You have blatantly related Chrysalis to be synonymous to 'Pure Evil,' yes?" I nodded slowly, eyes narrowed, "Well, eat this, Tia..."

I hated it when he called me that...

"What would YOU do if all of your little ponies were starving and a neighboring land held the necessary fruits to survive?" he paused, gauging my reaction, then went on, "Hmmm? Wouldn't YOU do everything you could to protect your precious little SUBJECTS?"

On instinct, I nodded furiously, wondering what he was planning, "Of course!"

"I figured as much..." he paused again, and I looked at him in confusion while he stoked that beard of his a couple times...

Was that it? Was that all he had to say?

Apparently not.

"Do you know what became of Chrysalis—the Changeling Queen herself—and her young?" he asked curiously, genuine sympathy actually lining his question.

"Well, no, but I'm sure she deserves whatever befell the witch." I answered honestly.

He nodded, stroking his beard again, "I see...one more thing before I start to wrap this up: Remember how you felt when Luna was first banished, and you refused to talk to me?"

I thought back, way back, about a thousand years ago...the time spanning Luna's banishment until I started sessions with Discord were filled with nothing but sorrow, loneliness, and self pity. I had forsaken my first and only true love, and had neglected the pleas of my own sister until I was forced to banish her because of the rage that transformed her. I was all alone...ruling a land of lesser creatures which could not comprehend my feelings. The only reason I was able to go on were the friends and foals I met through the years. Though they came and left time and time again, they still were able to keep me going until Luna was returned to me.

Seeing that a melancholy smile had appeared under my glistening eyes, my examiner went on, "Now, I want you to use those far-seeing powers of yours to find what has befallen that so called Witch, Chrysalis."

Shaking myself back into the moment, I decided to play along, expecting to find the insect amassing a force to attack Canterlot again...oh dear Myself, was I wrong.

"I...I didn't..." I felt severe regret swell-up inside me at the sight...and yet...there was a slight tinge of joy that I could not explain, "I never wanted to..."

Discord sighed sadly, shaking his head with a shrug, "All she wanted—all she needed, actually—was just food."

Chrysalis was always a creature of twisted beauty, as much as I disliked to admit it. Her original form, while insect-like and very off-putting, still managed to be captivating and, in a very corrupted sense of the word, beautiful.

But now...

Her right wing was nothing but a torn stub of frayed material against her back, and the left wing had large, tearing slash almost down it's entire length. Of course...not only were her wings crippled but from the way her gait was shaking, it was clear that at least two of her legs had been severely damaged, and her energy was obviously almost entirely burnt, as depicted by the multitude of holes throughout her entire body. To top it off, her horn was chipped at the top, a crack running from the broken piece all the way to the base...something that must have really delivered a searing headache constantly, I was sure.

"And guess what?" Discord broke into my examination of the crippled moth, bringing my gaze to him, "The swarm abandoned her. As a Queen who cannot provide for her young is not fit to be Queen at all, to them." he shrugged again, "She's lucky they didn't kill her, really...or maybe unlucky."

I gulped, my conscience starting to nag me again, quietly whispering into the back of my mind.

"Shining Armor's love probably gave her the strength to survive the blast, but it's very clear that, all alone and without any source of love left for her to use, she will die very soon."

I turned again back to Chrysalis as she suddenly collapsed, her dark blue mane more disheveled than usual as she hunched over, the appearance of one who has accepted the loss of everything clearly radiating towards me.

She was alone...and unlike me, she was going to die alone.

Unless I helped her.

"I need to send assistance for her, now." I stated suddenly, turning to leave immediately.

"Oh, but will you, is the real question, no?"

I paused, freezing in place as his question registered, "Of course I will. It's my duty to help all who need it."

"Even if they need it, do they really want it, though?"

I remained silent, then continued to leave while Discord continued to rattle on.

"Whether you know it or not, Celestia, you are a Tyrant." he became loud, complete and obvious seriousness filling his voice in a manner of the likes he had never expressed before.

"A tyrant of love and humiliation."