The trio arrived near Appleoosa with a flash. Discord brought the other two into a tight huddle where Discord began while wearing Football gear “All right team, here is the plan. As Twilight said we should be able to overpower him. The worst thing that can happen is he get away from us without us being able to talk to him. So I say our first priority should be to make sure he's cornered before we approach him so he can't escape.”
“What about Starlight, surely she can't stand up to Tirek?” Asked Luna.
“Sure I can, I fought Princess Twilight to a draw remember? And she’s an alicorn.” Defended Starlight.
“We'll have to be careful, but all in all I say Starlight can take care of herself.” Agreed Discord with some concern.
“So we do our best to surround him and cut of escape routes before you approach him, anything else?” Asked Luna.
“Take care if our conversation seems too easy. Tirek is a treacherous one. He may see through what we are trying to do and lull us into a false sense of security.” Suggested Discord.
“I suppose we have to look for him now.” Said Starlight.
“Can you sense him?” Luna asked Discord.
“Yes, he’s close.” Said Discord. “I don't think he's very strong yet.” He added.
Discord sat on a mat dressed in Tibetan robes meditating for a few moments. “There” he suddenly pointed.
They went as quietly as they could. They all saw Tirek after they rounded a Bush. Luna and Starlight both cast invisibility spells on themselves to sneak around him.
Tirek could sense something but was thrown off by the sight of Discord approaching. “ Discord, don't tell me Celestia was so foolish as to give you the task of collecting me again. Or is this a test your ‘friends’ gave you to prove your loyalty. “ sneered Tirek.
“Quite the opposite actually. We are here to give you a chance to come peacefully.” Discord said.
“We?” Tirek asked as he whirled around to find a light purple pony he didn't recognize and Princess Luna behind him forming a triangle with Discord around him. Tirek sent a small blast of magic in Starlight’s direction and tried to flee between her and Luna.
Starlight easily deflected the blast. With a point of her horn she froze Tirek in the same purplish crystal she used on Twilight once. Luna sealed the four of them under a magical forcefield dome.
“You have nowhere to go, Tirek. You might as well chat with us.” Said Discord shattering Starlight’s crystaline encashment with a tap.
Tirek immediately tried to ram the barrier Luna conjured. He gave a weak roar of frustration when it made no dent. He refocused on Luna and attempted to steal her magic. Discord just popped her away elsewhere in the enclosure created by Luna's spell.
“What do you think you can accomplish here?” Discord reasoned. “ even if you somehow get the better of us here and continue to steal pony magic you will just be ultimately defeated and sent back to Tartarus like you were last time.”
“I could ask you the same question.” Replied Tirek. “If you have all the cards here, why try and reason with me?”
“Because everypony deserves a chance change for the better.” Replied Luna.
“Blegh, sentimental nonsense” dismissed Tirek.
“Maybe to you, but not to us.” Said Starlight.
“So the ponies got their hooks in you, huh, Discord? I suppose I have some blame to share in that after our last encounter.” Taunted Tirek.
“My friends care about me and trust me.” Discord said looking at a framed picture of his Ponyville friends he took from a nonexistent pocket behind him. “Two of them are here with us now.” He smiled at Starlight and Luna.
“They don't care about you. They just want to get what they want from you and throw you away.” Dismissed Tirek. “They just want to control you, Discord.”
“I used to think like that.” Interjected Starlight. “As a young Filly I was very attached to my friend Sunburst. After he moved away I felt used and abandoned. I let those feelings of rejection control me and I negatively affected ponies around me.”said Starlight.
“Everypony does whatever it takes to get what they want. You three are no different.” Tirek said dismissively.
“Really, then why am I free?” Posited Discord. “What could my friends possibly be getting from me that could be worth the risk they take letting me roam instead of leaving me in stone? All any of them have ever really asked is a little restraint on my part. The only time more was asked of me I betrayed them, I'm ashamed to say.” Discord said.
Starlight and Luna were a bit taken aback by the show of self awareness from Discord just then. It was one of the most selfless things they’d ever heard him say, even in their sessions.
Tirek clearly had no comeback for this as he stood there seething from being verbally and fiscally cornered.
“Many ponies, including my friends wonder why I changed,why I choose to cooperate rather than be my chaotic self. Truthfully, I wonder myself sometimes, as evidenced by our last encounter. But the answer is simple. It is not easy to be my friend. The same can be said for Starlight and Luna after a fashion.” Declared Discord.
“Trust me, It wasn't easy for Twilight to get through to me either.” Began Starlight. “She made me to stare into the very destruction of all of Equestria. Everything and everypony I might have ever cared about gone because of what I was doing. My pain and resentment were so great I still didn’t care. Twilight could have continued fighting, found a way to beat me eventually. Instead she persisted in reaching out to me and help me heal.”
Tirek once again sneered, “Sentimental drivel.”
“Tell me, Tirek, if we are just trying to control you, why are we still here talking? Why wouldn't we just take you back to Tartarus or some other prison? What do we gain by putting in this effort?” asked Luna.
“You could make me do things like this to others the way you are to me.” Replied Tirek.
“We three are here to offer you the same chance each of us were given, to choose a better way. No one forced, tricked, or manipulated us into doing so. We came because we've each been where you are. On a path of destruction, and were shown another way. We wanted to be the ones to give you that chance.” Luna said.
“and If I refuse your better way?”Tirek asked.
“We will do what we must to protect innocent ponies.” Answered Luna honestly.
“So my choices are your way of a cudgel? Not much of a choice” said Tirek feeling he had caught them in a lie.
“I thought much the same at first.” Said Discord. “Fluttershy refused to use her element of harmony on me to prove her sincerity. But honestly, looking back, if I hadn't chosen the right path, I would have been stopped eventually even without the elements. Maybe not then maybe not for another 1000 years but eventually I would have been thwarted and would be back in the same place I was with nopony to help or share my pain.” Said Discord.
“We could set you free now and let you do as you wish, but Twilight and the others will put you back in Tartarus if you keep harming ponies. That is not a fight you can win.” Said Starlight.
“What harm? I only Take that which is mine.” Said Tirek dismissively.
“What makes you think that magic is yours?” Asked Discord and Luna at once.
Luna continued, “Equestrian magic never belonged to you. Nopony ever took it from you. It is inherent in everypony born. My sister and I were ruling when you first arrived in Equestria. Ponies had lived with magic millennia before that.”
“You stole my magic as well and that certainly was never yours.” Discord added.
“Stealing magic from ponies is certainly harmful. Our way of life depends upon Pegasi being able to control the weather, earth ponies having the strength to work the land, and the Princesses being able to cycle the sun and moon.” Starlight said.
“What is any of that to me?” Tirek scoffed.
“Come now, Tirek, you may be cynical, but you are not heartless.” Luna replied.
“What could possibly give you that impression?” Asked Tirek skeptically.
“The way you speak of Scorpan.” Said Discord with a look that signaled the others to trust him.
Tirek lashed out. “What would you know about my Brother?” Tirek said angrily.
“Everything.” Said Luna. “I was there when Scorpan came to my sister and I with your plans.”
“You couldn't possibly understand the depths of his betrayal.” Said Tirek scornfully.
“Can't I? I too have been so consumed by my own selfish desires that I lost sight of the suffering I was causing. And my sibling also decided to turn against me to protect other ponies.” Luna said indignantly.
“How could he choose strangers over his own Brother?” Asked Tirek.
“He didn't, what he and Celestia did to us was just as much to protect us from doing something horrible as it was to protect the ones we may have harmed.” Said Luna getting choked up.
Tirek roared with all his strength from the painful emotions, “WHY SHOULD I CARE ABOUT ANY OF THIS? WHY SHOULD I CARE WHAT HAPPENS TO ANYPONY ELSE?”
“What is left to care for?” Asked Starlight meekly. “Say you got your way and once again took every last drop of magic in Equestria. Then what? You’d have all the magic you could want and no pony to stop you. There is no pony to share it with, no pony to lord it over. How do you enjoy all that power when there is nothing to do and no one to share it with?”
Tirek growled at the point.
“You know I was once like you. I had never experienced the value of Friendship until Fluttershy and the others gave me a chance. You were right about one thing Tirek, I can't exactly be my chaotic self and keep my friends. But the one thing I hadn't quite grasped then, that I certainly understand now, is that friends are worth the effort.”
“And here we are, Tirek, three ponies who have been where you are, making an effort and giving you a chance to choose a better life, one that you can share with others again instead of destructively take.” Said Starlight.
“Will you be our friend and stop this selfish destruction?” Asked Luna.
Tirek, realizing he is beaten, relents. “Alright.” He said.
“We need you to give the magic you’ve taken back as a sign of good faith.” Said Luna.
Tirek opened his mouth wide and streams of magic escaped his mouth and left the magical bubble held up by Luna through a hole Luna allowed.
As Luna dropped the force field Tirek asked, “What now?”
“We go back to Twilight's Castle in Ponyville.” Said Discord