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// Legacy Prompt #25: Insidious 
// Story: Ponywatching 
// by ThunderTempest 
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“It is a statistical truth that thirty three percent of all ponies who are given access to world-changing abilities are actually evil.”

Twilight snorted, nearly sending her mouthful of water out of her nose. The dissertation she was reading, entitled ‘The Corruption and Temptations of Power’ was already pretty ridiculous, but this was just the icing on the cake. That said, she wasn’t quite sure if she was laughing at the ridiculousness of the whole thing, or if because she knew it was true. Well, that may have been a bit of an exaggeration, but Twilight had experience with ponies being given huge amounts of power. 

Trixie could hardly be called ‘evil’, after all. The most she’d ever done in her normal state was be a pony who made statements that her horn couldn’t back up. She definitely wasn’t evil. And even when she’d upgraded to the Alicorn Amulet, Twilight wasn’t sure that that counted-the Amulet was designed to corrupt, to twist the wielder’s mind. Even then, she’d been more of a nuisance. An all-powerful one, but hardly what Twilight would call ‘evil’. The whole time, Trixie had simply been content with proving her dominance over Twilight. Her taking Ponyville was her idea of baiting Twilight. No, Trixie, even at her worst, wasn’t really evil.

Sunset Shimmer, on the other hoof, might be an actual contender, mused Twilight. She’d definitely had a plan, no matter how horrible it was, to conquer Equestria. And turning into a she-demon had pushed her towards the evil side, but Twilight knew that there was a good, but misguided heart under Sunset’s attitude, and Twilight couldn’t help but see shades of herself in Sunset. Celestia had told her about Sunset’s time as the Princess’s former student, and Twilight recognised more than a few similarities with her own time under Celestia. As such, it was difficult for Twilight to entirely distance herself from Sunset, because it was like looking into the proverbial (and sometimes literal) mirror and seeing herself if she decided to rebel, if Celestia kept her from things that she wanted to learn without good reason. 

But Twilight’s mind, for better or worse, was made up. Sunset wasn’t evil. Misguided, maybe. A little bad, sure. But nopony truly evil would ever seek redemption with the ferocity that Sunset had. The poor girl was clinging to any hope she had of anyone treating her normally one day, and Twilight could see that same, deep-seated fear of disappointing the Princess that came with being a student of Celestia.

Twilight let out another giggle as she thought about her other friends and foes. The very idea of her friends, the Elements of Harmony being evil was ludicrous. They were helping to bring the world back into balance. And most of the trials she’d faced in the time since that Summer Sun Celebration had not been truly evil.

Tirek was definitely evil, there was no question about that. But now, he was locked away in Tartarus, and Discord had certainly been evil, but again, he had switched his ways so many times that Twilight was utterly unsure of how to treat the draconequus.

With a final laugh, Twilight levitated the ridiculous dissertation back onto her shelf in her castle, and headed out to meet her friends. They’d been very busy for the last few months, making sure that everything was nice and balanced.

After all, harmony was important. So very, very important.

Everything had to be harmonious and ordered. Ever since her ascension and subsequent coronation to princess, Twilight felt like she could just reach out and touch the universe and tell it to all be nice and ordered and in perfect harmony, but life was chaotic by nature. It would be so much easier if she could just cast a spell and stop the universe, and force it to be ordered. Twilight made a mental note to look to see if there was such a spell. She could probably cast it-she was an alicorn now. If she wanted, she could probably move the sun , and eventually the moon, with a little practice.

It wasn’t evil to want the universe to be ordered. The universe could do with a bit more order. Though she probably wouldn’t bring this idea to order the universe up to her friends. They might take it the wrong way.

Still, she had a lunch to get to. Twilight trotted down the streets of Ponyville, smiling at those she passed.