Screw the Elements. They're utterly useless. If you think there's some higher power, then I say it now...strike me down. How about that?
Oh, look at that. I'm not getting struck down.
"You're stuck in a cell in Tartarus. What do you call that?"
And how did I end up here? If there was some higher power, then why did it allow I and my sisters to exist? Why did he or she or it allow us to suffer?
We spent our early childhood living off our parents to survive.
...literally.
We are from a land of endless suffering, manipulation and cruelty. Our world is a giant sphere, always in constant war and conflict, the smell of blood filling our nostrils daily as we starved and scraped and suffered. There was no true sun, no life-giving rays, only endless red stretching out across a dark horizon as we hid in caves and the hills, trying to keep hidden from beings that would feast upon us.
We knew there was only one way to survive. We had to manipulate others with our skill...our voices would sink into the minds of our prey and we would claim them. We learned it quickly from our father...one of the only genuinely happy moments we remember. We'd been hidden in the bushes, waiting as he sat near a tree, talking to some stupid, idiotic orcs. Ugly, foul, big-tusked things, their skins like those of frogs, faintly bumpy and smelling as though they'd been left in the sun to rot. Their stupid little eyes, black and soulless, stared at my father as his voice was low and deliberate and enticing, carefully luring them into a trap of his own making. He was DRONING. On...and on...and onnnn...
Hypnotizing them with the power of his voice. We watched in awe, immune to his effects as the orcs became almost utterly still, just staring stupidly ahead as my father made them ready for us to dine upon them. We ate well that night, it...it was a good moment. Just the four of us now that mother was long gone, and for a while our bellies were full and we had gotten to seen our father in action. Being able to make others do what we desired with our voice alone...such power. And so USEFUL!
And all from ourselves. We didn't have no "Elements of Harmony" to aid us. No higher power. Our lives were pain, and only we could solve that. Tell me...why does pain exist? Why does suffering exist? There's no doubt that pain, suffering, they make things like "second-order" goods possible. Things like courage and compassion. But they also make second-order evils a possibility, from spite to cowardice, pony.
"Things like that lead to things like other goods, such as tolerance."
True. But they also allow for evil like INtolerance. So why not just have pleasure, and no pain?
"That's unrealistic. Besides, we have free will. People choose to do wrong."
Ah, yes, THAT argument. "But free will". There's no inconsistency in the idea that a free agent always chooses rightly. The idea that a higher power could not knowingly create a world where free agents would choose the right thing is so ludicrous!
"That wouldn't make ponies people. It would make them machines who only do what they're told."
Oh really? Even if you wished to make that argument, girl...tell me. Why IS there so much suffering? How many times have you and your friends almost died? Why doesn't any higher power try to step in? Why don't they do something to prevent such actions?
"I know the argument. If a higher power can prevent something from happening without sacrificing anything of comparable moral significance, they should be morally obligated to do so, right? If a God is truly good, they will always do what's necessary to halt evil."
Indeed.
"But you don't acknowledge evil is ultimately futile. Good triumphs over evil. It's why YOU'RE in HERE. In the end, you lost. Despite all your skills, all your knowledge, all your efforts...you lost in the end. Dictators always fall eventually."
How cute you believe that.
"I find it cute you think any higher power should listen to you. What kind of God or Goddess would they be if they said "how high" whenever you demanded they jump?"
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... "Besides, you're ignoring your own choices." Twilight added, shaking her head back and forth as the Sirens glared at her slightly. "Nobody put a knife to your neck and made you hurt others. You could have done the right thing once you escaped your home. Found a better way. You chose the easy way out. That's on you. Not any higher power. All you're doing is shifting the blame. It's all about you until it comes to blame. That's why you're in here...and I'm out here." She said, gesturing around herself. "You can't, even now, own up to what you did. You have to blame it on everyone BUT you. Why is it so hard for you to believe that maybe there IS some objectivity to the world?"
They just glared, Twilight's final words haunting them as she walked away...
"It's because it means admitting you were wrong for so long. And you'd never, EVER want to admit that."
But even as Twilight walked off, she bit her lip, Discord noticing her expression as he clapped his hands, and a large red couch popped up, Discord sitting in a nearby chair as he smoked a pipe and cheerily smiled at her. "Come now. Tell me what's on your mind?"
"I think the Sirens are just looking for an excuse to blame others for what they went through. Plenty of other people have it bad, they don't turn into monsters. They don't HURT people. It doesn't justify what they've done!" Twilight insisted. "You can't hurt other people just because you've been hurt."
"True, true." Discord said with a shrug. "But taking responsibility is something no 'villain' really wants to do, as you might have figured out. It is NEVER...their fault."
"When people do bad things, they should own up to it." Twilight reasoned softly, resting her hooves on her chest, closing her eyes. "I keep thinking back to Trixie and Starlight. They really did try to turn themselves around. They owned up to what they did. And they didn't exactly have the best upbringing either. Then again, they didn't live in a realm of war..." Twilight bit her lip. "...how much of what the Sirens did IS their fault, and how much of it isn't?"
"I've been to such lands, they're known as the Lower Planes of Hell, giant squares that are, as the Sirens spoke of, endlessly at war. Such lands are warring intensely...Law vs Chaos...both evil and foul and deadly." Discord intoned softly, somberly. "...at nights...I can still see the bodies stretched across the razor grass. I can hear the screams of the dying. Both sides are bitter and hateful and damned."
"Why damned? Why don't they just try to leave?"
"They refuse to make peace." Discord said with a shake of his head. "They both want to conquer all that is good and just. And in truth, it's best they ALWAYS remain fighting. For if they ever really stopped, ever truly did work together...they'd escape and cause near-endless suffering to countless innocents. That land of horrific evil allows good to flourish elsewhere, for it contains two of the most disgusting, hateful forces in existence to destroy each other. As the saying goes..." Discord waved a hand in the air, smirking a bit. "Don't interfere when your enemy is destroying himself."
"But you said one stands for Law, and the other for Chaos. Is Law really that bad?"
Discord flinched darkly as Twilight cringed. "Oh. I'm sorry. Forgot, you're a Chaos Spirit."
"If you thought imprisoning me inside a statue was harsh...imagine turning an entire city into crystal. Incapable of doing evil. Everything pristine...perfect...and unmoving." Discord murmured softly. "That is what I witnessed on the Lower Planes, at the hand of a fallen angel. All within died on the spot, turned into crystal. They would never again commit crime. Never again suffer. It would be endless, eternal order. Stagnation." His eyes became tiny pinpricks, his mouth a taut line. "...it was the foulest, most sickening thing I'd ever seen. Containing people like THAT to that hellhole? That things like that can't get out? If I did truly believe in a higher power, that'd be WONDERFUL evidence for it existing. Cuz those...THINGS!" He spat. "Will never, EVER get out."
"Then how did the Sirens escape?" Twilight wondered aloud, Discord rubbing his chin.
"That...is the right question."