Rogues Anonymous
“Hear ye, hear ye, may the 17th meeting of the Canterlot Chapter of the Discord Association for the Reformation of Villains, Evil Doers, Rivals and Ne’er Do Wells Commence!”
“Aye!” a small chorus echoed.
The room was a small gymnasium in Canterlot castle. In the center was a podium and a ring of plastic folding chairs. At the podium stood a Draconequus, gavel in talon, smiling down at the subjects in the chairs. There were two unicorn stallions with red bright hair, a blue on blue unicorn mare wearing a dashing purple cape, a changeling queen in literal irons, and jet black jagged hunk of crystal in whose depths purple, green, and red fire danced, and one very confused purple alicorn.
“Now,” Discord began, “our first order of business is greeting our newest member, Twili-”
“Actually,” Twilight interrupted. “I… I’m uh, just here to observe.”
Discord held for a moment, mouth open slightly and eyes locked on her.
Then he grinned.
“Very well. It is my honor to introduce our royal observer, Princess Twilight Sparkle!”
“Hello, Twilight.” A chorus of decidedly mixed enthusiasm replied.
“Now,” Discord went on. “It’s tradition for us to introduce our current members to new-”
“I know everypony here.”
“Yes, but it’s a-”
Twilight rolled her eyes.
“Flim,” She pointed to the first of the unicorn twins, “Flam.”
“Yep”
“Yep”
“Trixie”
“Greetings, Twilight Sparkle!”
“And,” Twilight said, skipping over the massive crystal. “...Chrysalis,” she ended, somewhat sourly.
“Queen.”
“Excuse me?”
“I am the recognized Sovereign of a foreign power. By the Diplomatic Code of Equestria, you are to refer to me as ‘Queen’ or ‘Your Majesty’ …Princess.”
“Of all the-”
“Twilight,” Discord interjected, “even if you are just observing I’ll request that you respect the other members’ wishes, and the by-laws you’re legally bound to, of course.”
Twilight sighed.
“Fine, Queen Chrysalis.”
“Better,” Chrysalis said, amused, “But, you missed one.”
“Missed one wha-?”
“Crysstals!”
“Ack!”
A sudden flutter of wings and Twilight was gone.
After a few moments, her head poked out from behind the chair.
“Did... did the giant quartz block speak?”
“Crystals!”
“Princess Twilight Sparkle,” Discord said, gesturing, “may I introduce you to King Sombra?”
“Uh,” Twilight said, staring. “...Hi?”
“Crystals!”
“Uh-huh. Sooooo...” Twilight crawled into her seat. “Uh, how have you been?”
“Crystals.” The stone replied amicably.
“That... so?”
“Crystals!”
“Uh... huh.”
“Crystals.”
Twilight didn’t have much else to say. Discord waited for a moment and then grinned.
“Very well, let the meeting proper, begin!”
And with a bang of a gavel began a very long stretch of Twilight’s life.
-----
Twilight’s sigh heralded her entrance into Celestia’s chambers. The older alicorn paused her work as her faithful student flopped onto a cushion with another sigh and all the grace of a discarded toy.
“How was it?” Celestia asked. “Learn anything?”
“Flim and Flam are both compulsive shysters. Chrysalis is intensely passive aggressive. Sombra has a deep love of cats. Discord is intensely creepy when he’s being nice.” Twilight paused and sighed. “Trixie was nice though.”
Hidden from Twilight’s view, Celestia gave a sad smile.
“That, at least, is good to hear.” She said. “She was the only one to enroll voluntarily, you know?”
“Really?” Twilight said. She shifted slightly, thinking for a while. “Well, I’m glad to see Discord is doing some good. Hopefully this project of his works out for the best. I’m glad I got a look at it.”
“Actually, Twilight,” Celestia began, “I’d like you to keep attending.”
“Excuse me?”
------
Three meetings.
“-and that-” Trixie concluded, hiding beneath her hat, “-is why Trixie no longer trusts wheels.”
“Crystaalssss.” Sombra hissed, sympathetically.
Chrysalis made a noise. A... snort?
“It was very brave to tell us that Trixie.” Discord got up and walked over to pat her on the back. “I’m glad you could share it with us. Now,” he looked up and smiled, “Twilight, how about you share your greatest fear?
“Uh...” she began, caught off guard. “Losing my friends, I guess.”
Chrysalis made the noise again. A... snarl? Whatever it was, it triggered a tiny spike of ire in Twilight.
Discord eyed her. Then, suddenly he turned to Flim and Flam.
“What about you Flim?”
“The light!”
“The light?”
“Uh-” Flam kicked him in the shin. “I meant... the dark.”
“The dark?”
“Yeah!”
“Flam?”
“Me too.”
“The light?”
“No, the dark!”
“That’s odd, because last meeting you said Nightmare Night was your favorite holiday.”
“Oh-”
“-It’s-uh-”
“-A condition.”
“A condition?”
“Yeah, we find-”
“-Monsters!”
“Monsters?!”
“Yeah, monsters, right?” Flam realized everyone was staring. He turned to his brother. “What do we find monsters?”
“...Comforting.”
...
“Oh.”
Flam’s eyes darted around the room. The silence hung.
“I meant candy.”
Chrysalis made that noise. Twilight finally realized what it was.
She was snickering.
------
Meeting six.
“Now, I decided to shake things up.” Discord said. “We could try bonding over some friendly competition. Sombra and I have discussed it, and I asked him to pick out a board game for us to play. Sombra?”
“Crystals!”
A cardboard box, glowing red, levitated out from under the table they were seated at. Emblazoned in bold red letters was the word RISK.
Discord looked at the box, and then at the dark crystal.
“As your counselor I find this choice to be less than appropriate.”
“Crystals!”
-------
“-and then Sombra flipped the table.”
“He always did have anger issues.” Celestia chuckled.
“Shame,” Twilight said. “Chrysalis and I were cleaning house before he lost it. Flim and Flam were putting up a bit of a fight though.”
“Seems like you had fun.”
“Yeah,” She paused. “Still feels odd. Playing games with, you know... all of them.”
Celestia’s smile fell slightly.
“Well, hopefully the rest of your nights are as entertaining.”
“Yeah... I guess.”
------
Meeting nine.
Discord lifted Chrysalis’s cage onto the platform. He turned to her, panting.
“Ready?”
Chrysalis, bound head to hoof in cold iron chains, simple stared at him, utterly deadpan.
Discord simply continued to smile back.
“Discord, I don’t think this is such a good idea.”
“Nonsense Twilight. You’ll all catch her. Same as the rest!”
“But Discord-”
“Ready?” He asked again.
Chrysalis sighed and looked away.
“Yes.”
“The cage-”
“Ali-!” Discord grabbed the cage and gave a full body swing back. Chrysalis gave a resigned sigh. “-oop!”
“-is cold-”
Chrysalis sailed through the air and a cloud of multicolored magic appeared in the air to catch her-
-and the cage sailed through uncaught. A deafening crash followed.
“...iron.”
“Chrysalis!” Trixie leapt into the cloud of dust. “Chrysalis! Are you alright?”
Chrysalis stared up into the ceiling lights, unblinking.
“...Chrysalis? Are you okay?”
“I,” she began, monotone, “am imprisoned away from my people, forced into humiliating bargains, and weekly I am wheeled to a mad house ‘therapy’ group in a cage like a rabid dog and forced to perform demeaning tricks in order to ‘better’ myself.”
Chrysalis looked at Trixie. Trixie’s lips were quivering.
Chrysalis sighed and looked away.
“Yes, Trixie, I’m fine.”
“Hurrah! The Great and Concerned Trixie was overwhelmed with worry!” and with that, Trixie tried to glomp Chrysalis’s cage.
“Yeah... Th-thanks, Trixie.”
------
Meeting ten.
Twilight felt a leftward jerk and shifted her course left. A jerk right and she complied. She came to stop suddenly and the hoof holding her own let go. After a moment the blindfold lifted and Twilight blinked at the sudden light.
She looked behind her seeing the obstacle course. Cleared without a single misstep. She turned to her guide and grinned.
“We did it!”
“Was there ever any doubt?” Trixie smirked. Twilight whooped and hugged her as the room broke into applause.
“Very good Trixie, Twilight.” Discord said, stepping forward. “Now, Twilight, it’s your turn to pull the next pony through the...” Discord fell silent.
A hunk of obsidian and a bound and chained Changeling Queen stared back at him.
“Hmm.” Discord rubbed his chin. “This may be problematic.”
“Crystalssss...” Sombra sighed.
------
“Crystals...” Sombra began, quietly.
“Crystals...” Suddenly red and green light flared in his black, glassy depths. “CRYSTALS!”
“CrrrrrySTALS!” A pair of glowing tiny cymbals floated in the air, clicking syncopathic. “Crystals. Crystalllls. Crystals? Crystals!”
The cymbals clicked faster.
“Crystals!”
They began spinning around the stone, clicking louder and louder and louder.
“Crystals!”
The clacking reached a fevered pitch.
“CRYSTALS!”
The clicking suddenly stopped. The light faded, and several soft, slow, clicks brought the piece to a close.
“Crystals.” Sombra intoned, somewhat mournful.
Everyone except Twilight broke into applause. The beret that had been angled stylishly on Sombra suddenly glowed red, and then did a twirl, taking a bow. The cheering doubled.
Twilight looked around, shocked. She turned and looked back at Chrysalis and her jaw dropped. Chrysalis was grinning, and nodding her head.
“Yeah.” She said, nodding to herself. “Yeah!”
Twilight stared for a moment longer, shrugged, grinned, and joined in the applause.
------
“Crystals?”
“Yes, Trixie agrees with Sombra.” The unicorn turned to Flim and Flam. “Why do you two lie so often?”
The two unicorns seized up and locked eyes. What had been a lax meeting came to a standstill. After a long moment, they eased up and turned away from each other, with matching sheepish expressions.
“It’s... not like we like to lie.” Flim began.
“It’s just that, telling the truth, it’s-” Flam continued.
“-Kind of-”
“-really-”
“-you have to understand-”
“-we shouldn’t make excuses-”
“-but it’s just that-”
“-the truth-”
“-it’s-”
“-scary.” they finished as one.
The silence stretched. The stallions looked at each other, and then away, matching hurt looks on their faces.
The room exploded into applause and cheers.
“Trixie is so proud of you two!”
“So’s Twilight-I mean-whatever!”
One side of the circle devolved into a unicorn/alicorn hug pile.
Chrysalis quirked an eyebrow and glanced at the chunk of black gemstone to her right.
“Are you... crying?”
“Crystals!” the stone hotly denied.
------
“Just like that.”
Celestia smiled.
“I see.”
“And Sombra really was crying. Chrysalis told me so.”
Celestia laughed.
“I see!”
“It’s just... fascinating.” Twilight said, smiling.
“Oh?”
“I never thought of what they would be like outside of all the schemes and adventures and fighting.”
“It is really enlightening to see what a pony is like when they’re at ease and happy.”
“Yeah, I’m glad I observed this. It really was educational, seeing that all these, well, villains, were normal deep down.” She paused. “Makes me wonder why they all, well, did what they did.”
Celestia’s face was even, but after a moment, she smiled.
“Yes, hopefully it will continue to be as enlightening.”
“Yeah. I’m glad I’ve gone.”
Twilight sighed and laid back, closing her eyes, missing the look of light worry on Celestia’s face.
------
Four months of meetings had changed things. What had started as a therapy for an awkward collection of shysters, charlatans, tyrants, and terrorists had turned into a weekly meeting between friends. An excuse to talk, and play.
So, when the teal pegasus appeared, no one suspected what would follow.
“Ah,” Discord said, looking up from the lectern, “You’re late.”
“Yeah, whatever.” The pegasus replied. Discord frowned, and then shrugged.
“Group,” he said, calling order with the gavel. “We have a new member.” He gestured with his paw. “Everypony, meet Lightning Dust.”
“Hello”
“Hey”
“Greetings”
Chrysalis snorted.
“Crystals!”
Twilight frowned.
Lightning Dust flinched back from the oddball assortment in front of her.
“Lightning Dust, I’d like you to meet the rest of the group.”
The rest of the group introduced themselves one by one, until it reached Twilight.
“We’ve met.” She commented, flatly. Lightning Dust flinched.
The gym was silent.
“Really?” Discord said, lowering his glasses. “Would you like to share, Twilight?”
“Not really,” Twilight groused.
“It seems to be bothering you” Discord said.
“Oh it’s nothing,” Twilight said, feigning nonchalance. “Miss Hot Shot here just nearly got me and half of my friends killed.”
Lightning Dust flinched.
“Hey, I didn’t think-”
“Of course you didn’t think!” Twilight snapped. She then threw her head back groaned.
Flim and Flam looked at each other.
Twilight shook her head and went on.
“Look, I paid my price, okay?”
“Oh, really?” Twilight rolled her eyes and muttered. “You're lucky all you got was kicked off some flying team.”
“You watch your mouth!” Lightning snarled and tensed up.
“Or what?” Twilight said. “What makes you think you can just go strutting around, hurting other ponies? Huh?”
“I-I just...” Lightning Dust was fighting back tears and violence.
“Cryyystals...” Sombra muttered, worried.
“Just what, huh?”
“My dad you stupid-!” Lightning choked on whatever she was going to call Twilight. She held for a tense moment and then fell sobbing. “You-you stupid-My dad. He died and I told him I would-and now I never-my dad you stupid-” and then she began bawling in earnest.
Trixie was on her in an instant.
“Shh, shh. It will be alright. Listen to Trixie.” She cradled Lighting in her forehooves. “We all make mistakes.”
“I...” Twilight started, staring agape at Lightning. She looked at the rest of the group.
“I...” she repeated, pleading.
“Ah, history repeats.”
Twilight turned shaking to Chrysalis.
“W-what?”
Chrysalis snorted.
“Everyone who attends these meetings has a sin, Twilight Sparkle. We aren’t told it. Most of us know, but those in the dark are expected to figure it out.” She sneered and raised a brow. “Looks like we know yours.”
“I... I... What do you... I...” Twilight looked at the group around her, the other eyes turning away. “I... I... didn’t mean.”
“Of course you didn’t.” Discord said. “You didn’t consider Lightning’s perspective on all of this,” he smirked, “after all, you just didn’t think.”
“But she-”
“She what Twilight?” Discord said, sneering. “She had no idea that your balloon would show up? She was just concerned with making a good impression?”
“She nearly-”
“And who are you to decide to chew her out in front of everyone?”
A memory came to mind.
“Who are you to shame her, particularly since as a group member she looks to you for support?”
A plan.
“Do you have any idea where she was coming from, or how she felt?”
They hadn’t meant anything by it. They just wanted to teach her-
“And what exactly makes you think this would be the best way to help her anyway?”
-a lesson.
“I” Twilight said suddenly, cutting Discord off, “I-I have to g-go. I-I’m-I…” She looked at everyone, tears welling in her eyes. “I’m sorry.”
And then Twilight fled, the sound of her sobs echoing behind her.
Trixie slowly turned and looked at Flim. Flim stared back, and nodded. Trixie nodded and then looked at Chrysalis. A chain of glances and nods followed. The group sprung into motion and within a minute the gym was empty save for Discord.
Discord surveyed the empty gym for a moment.
“Well, looks like my work here is done.”
And with a snap and a flash, he was gone.
-----
Celestia ran her hoof through Twilight’s hair. She had stopped crying some time ago.
“I...” she began again.
“Shh,” Celestia said. “It’s alright.”
“No,” Twilight said, “it isn’t.”
“Shhhh,” Celestia cooed again.
“Twilight!”
And with that the strangest procession Celestia ever saw entered her coffee room.
“W-what...?” Twilight began.
“Twilight, look-” Flim began.
“-what we want to say is-” Flam continued
“-everypony-”
“-and we mean EVERYPONY-”
“-makes mistakes!”
Twilight stared, dumbfounded.
“Trixie agrees with them.” She said, marching up to Twilight. “Just because you made a mistake doesn’t make you bad. The Great and Humble Trixie has floundered many times, but you’ve been there for her. And now she gets to return the favor!” And with that, Trixie pulled Twilight, and Celestia, into a hug. Flim and Flam joined. Twilight, lost, looked at Celestia. Celestia smiled down at her, and spoke.
“We are born with naught but our wills and what the world gives us. With so little, mistakes will be made,” she began. “We can learn though, and move past those mistakes stronger and wiser than before.”
“It’s not much.” She admitted, quirking her smile. “But, it is enough.”
Celestia tightened her hug and nuzzled Twilight.
“We meet others.” Celestia smiled. “and we grow.”
“Friends.” Twilight said, surrounded.
“Yes.”
Twilight let out a laugh and sob, and hugged all those around her tighter.
After a long while the pile of hooves untangled and Twilight looked up at Celestia. She then noticed the chained changeling parked by the entrance way, and looked at Chrysalis questioningly.
“I think you’re a wretched twit Twilight Sparkle.” Chrysalis shrugged.
Silence. Chrysalis grinned.
“But, I think you’ll be a fine rival some day.”
“Crystals!” Sombra said, supportively. Of who, no one was sure.
Twilight laughed.
“I guess that will have to do.” She then looked at Lightning Dust. “I owe you an apology don’t I?”
“Hey, its… I get it” She replied.
“Still, I want to make one, so... sorry?”
“Heh, okay.”
“Which leaves one more, I think,” Celestia interjected, “to apologize to.”
“Yeah,” Twilight said rising. A blue hoof clasped her shoulder.
“Don’t worry Twilight Sparkle. We shall accompany you.
Twilight looked around. A sea of nods met her. She smiled.
“Okay.”
------
“Rainbow?”
The pegasus turned to her and smiled.
“Oh, hey Twilight!”
“Hey, listen, I need to-”
Rainbow looked over Twilight’s shoulder and a look of confusion came over her face.
“Is that... Lightning Dust and Trixie playing Frisbee?”
“Yeah, about that, it’s a long story-”
“And is that-” Rainbow squinted, “-Flim and Flam carting Chrysalis around in a cage!?”
“Yeah, listen-”
“And where did that rock come from?”
“Rainbow!”
Rainbow snapped back to attention.
“Huh, what?”
Twilight sighed.
“I need to say something to you.”
Rainbow grinned. It was a grin Twilight was used to. Wide, confident, warm, and trusting. A grin that said Rainbow Dash would always be there.
It hurt to see.
“Sure Egghead, what’s up?”
Twilight bit her lip. She couldn’t face this. She couldn’t hope to fix this. It was beyond her.
But she had to.
Twilight opened her mouth to speak.
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A long time gone to finally be learning from the Mare Do Well incident, Twilight dear.
Concept's great, though. Trixie's adorable, the Risk game was great.
4027795
> Story gets a like and comment before it's even approved
> Check and see its the J-man
> Mfw:
31.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ltnuq4nItX1r3k1m8o1_500.png
Thanks for that.
I rather liked this, thanks.
...Just two questions, why was Twilight the only one to join the group because of the mare do well thing?
And why did it take this long for Celestia to do anything about it since she has known about mare do well before Rainbow Dash even knew it was her friends?
I mean the other four were also mare do well(Rarity made the costumes and knew about it) but they are not forced to aknowledge it was wrong.
And in Magical Mystery Cure, it is shown that Celestia has been stalking Twilight since she was an little filly by observing her life, she must have known Twilight was mare do well long before Rainbow Dash ever did, and she only thinks to act now?
4028151 Shh. Shhhh.
And here it is!
I'm sorry... but for most of those there, there's a vast difference between Twilight and her lapses of sanity while at least trying to do the right thing... and most of them there, who were downright evil.
On one hand, I really quite liked this story. On the other hand, 4028270 raises a very good point.
Thank you for writing this. I had a smirk on my face the entire time.
While I liked the idea, and Twilight certainly has some flaws, Dash was a hair's breadth from letting ponies die. While the mane cast weren't nice to her in that episode, they saved lives and made Dash stop being criminally negligent, keeping her out of jail. Meanwhile, Dash has never apologized for the many mean spirited things she has done to Twilight or any of the other cast members, and we never see her try to make amends for it, unlike Lightning in this story.
The villain bonding time was cute and sweet, and it would have been nice to dwell on how Twilight got a chance to learn from her flaws and insecurities in ways the other villains didn't, but bringing Merriweather William's shitty writing into it did nothing for me and pissed me off.
No downvote from me, but a good deal of disappointment because of how cool the concept was. I like the idea of Celestia sending Twilight to learn that villains are people too, but I hated the way it treated her own flaws.
This was really good. Kind of sad it's finished.
I am left scratching my head as to what Twilight has to apology to Rainbow for?
The fic made sense to be until that point. Still good that Twilight got called on her flaw with Lightning Dust. And Risk isn't much of a strategy game. Too much luck.
4028625
Agreed. It was such a fun story, and then, of all things, Mare-do-Well was the flaw.
No, just—just no.
4028858 I found that bit to be exaggerated as far as Twilight goes, too.
She completely forgave Sunset Shimmer for trying to Mind Rape her and her friends and use them to become a dictator for life, as well as destroying her alternate world friends' friendships for petty and cruel reasons.
She also was cool with Trixie when Trixie tried to reform even after Trixie enslaved and abused her friends for shits and giggles (even if most of that was the Amulet, Twilight still forgave her for bringing a dangerous magical artifact to Ponyville and making it the site of a magical duel). Heck, Twilight even ignores Discord's crimes and how much of a self-righteous ass he is to her all the time, being annoyed at worst with him.
What made Lightning different? The fact that she was the wrong shade of blue?
Basically, I was cool with the concept, but disappointed with the execution.
4028625
Yeah, going to agree with this, it was all fine, even the Lightning Dust scene, because it showcased how emotions can make snap poor judgements, and it allowed Twilight to put to use what she had experienced earlier in the fic.
Proceeding to tie that in to the apology to Dash, and Discord's lecture, just causes the whole thing to fall apart. The premise is already silly enough, with Chrysalis, Sombra, and even post reform Discord, being on a whole different level of evil than anything any of the other characters have done. Trixie being there voluntarily kind of explained that, although if we are just including anyone that is kind of a dick in the series, then I wonder why Gilda or Suri wasn't there.
But post-reform Discord trying to teach a lesson to Twilight like that just doesn't work. His entire speech is laughable considering that every appearance he's had since befriending Fluttershy has involved actions worse than anything in Mare Do Well, and he's never even hinted at being remorseful, that's his character in the show, so having him turn around and try to shame Twilight here, just feels forced and hollow, it's no longer Discord speaking, it feels more like an author speech inserted into another character's mouth.
It just comes off as a radical shift in levels of offense here, hurting your friends feelings and not apologizing is hardly comparable to the crap pretty much any of the other villains have pulled, only Lightning Dust is on a similar level since her crime was unintentional, although you could argue Trixie into that category too depending on what her motivations for buying the Alicorn amulet were. If what Twilight did actually required that kind of lesson, then we would need to put the rest of the Mane 6 and Celestia there too, the other 4 for Mare Do Well, and throw in Celestia and Rainbow Dash for the Wedding incident. MDW just embarrassed Dash, the other 5 and Celestia devastated Twilight at the wedding, and directly attacked her.
I dunno, in the end, Discord was the worst character possible to use to point out what Twilight is doing, and the MDW incident is just way too flimsy to justify Twilight being there or needing to craft the entire ending around it, it is just the ending, but with a short story, the ending kind of needs to tie everything together, and this one just feels really forced, its not really funny, and its not even really wistful or sad, it's just kind of head scratching. I just imagine Dash being confused at the apology because she knows she's done similarly insensitive stuff without an apology and probably never wanted one from her friends to begin with.
4028931 Dash and Celestia would be there for a lot more than hurting Twilight's feelings at the Wedding.
Celestia gambled the lives of an entire civilization just so she could teach Twilight a lesson. A lesson in modesty, no less.
Dash has so many crimes she could realistically be at that meeting, but is just barely not because unlike the rest of those characters she actually does heroic things.
You could argue Celestia just wanted her to learn a lesson about ponies being people regardless of their actions, but that didn't need to involve Discord's big speech about how terrible Twilight was, nor does it have anything to do with Mare Do Well. Not to mention Celestia would be being hypocritical again, mostly because she's doing exactly the same thing (setting up a painful and humiliating lesson to teach Twilight some empathy) and getting away with it.
In other words, I agree with you and go a step further.
4028919
No, she freaking doesn't! Have you forgot the beginning episode of Season 4 where she and her friends pulled Discord from the bath and started accusing him of wrong doing without any evidence? What's worse is she calls him her "friend" and clearly doesn't mean it. Yes, Discord makes this very hard to do but Twilight nor any other pony aside from Fluttershy and Cadance try to act nice to him. Seriously, Equestria has a living time bomb in it and Fluttershy is the only one putting any effort into making sure it doesn't go off.
4028946
Yeah, Mare Do well, and the Discord speech are what kills it. Discord has no room to be talking considering his actions post reform involve putting the entire country in danger with the vines, and humiliating Twilight and Cadence as part of a joke/friendship test. The MDW thing just kind of makes it confusing though, its like a total nonsequiter, the other characters are there for enslavement, war, fraud, and actual crimes, but Twilight needs to learn a lesson for being kind of insensitive to her friend.
Even Lightning Dust herself is kind of confusing, Twilight has instantly forgiven a lot worse ponies than LD, I could understand Rainbow Dash exploding on her, since she put up with her the entire time and directly witnessed her recklessness almost killing her friends, but Chrysalis would have been a far better target for Twilight to prejudge and be biased against, or at the very least bring in Sunset Shimmer, Twilight blowing up on LD doesn't make any damn sense.
4028975
Er what? That makes no sense, Twilight was right to accuse Discord, the vines in the season opening were his fault, and he even knew it so he lied about it the entire episode, he was even happy that the elements were gone, and only agreed to clean up because Fluttershy told him that it was his fault. Even when Twilight does trust Discord in Three's a Crowd, that trust is betrayed for his friendship test/joke. Why exactly should she put forth the effort to act nice to him, when the one time she does, and travels to end of the country hooked up to a giant chariot just to help him, her only reward is getting attacked by a giant worm, the only bright side for her in that episode, was that Cadence actually had fun on the trip, and that wasn't Discord's intention, he was trying to piss Twilight off.
4028975 No, she acts annoyed with him and accuses him (rightfully!) of being responsible for causing a serious national attack. She has every right to do so, and turns out to be correct. She never holds his past crimes against him, except when he is antagonizing her. If she did, he would be a lawn ornament right now. She's quite tolerant of his bullshit, considering he repeatedly abuses her verbally for his own amusement and has yet to do anything nice for her in return for the benefit of a doubt she has given him.
4028979 Yeah. The idea is cool, but the speech is a) Way too harsh on Twilight for no good reason and b) completely out of the left field in content and tone.
Hmmm, yeah it rather loses its touch when it tries to make Twilight learn a lesson or justify her "belonging" with the therapy group. Twilight's written pretty out of character (in the context of this story, I'm not even talking about int he context of the show itself) when she treats Lightning Dust so coldly there. I mean she hardly blows up at the other villains (most of who tried to kill her, her friends, and a large portion of a city intentionally, unlike LD's unintentional tornado) when she first joins but suddenly turns icy on LD after learning that villains are people too? LD wasn't even close to the worst of her villains (and arguably wasn't her villain at all) yet she is the one to get a reaction like that? And then the whole apology thing with RD is pretty "wtf" worthy.
I will say the first half was enjoyable regardless.
Wait, what exactly is Twilight apologising to Rainbow for?
You had a nice quirky setup here, then you threw it all away to pursue a vendetta against Mare Do Well. Because apparently saving Ponyville from a collapsing dam is evil now. It's not like you couldn't have used Lesson Zero to paint Twilight as a villain - you had to take an episode you personally dislike and try to shoehorn it in. Your story doesn't even stand by its own morals - since Celestia is doing to Twilight precisely what you think Twilight needs to apologize to Dash for.
Happy feelsday everypony.
Also,
Grammar Nazi time
*You're
My review:
Crystals!
Also
*reads comments*
Urge.... to.... snark..... rising...........
AND THIS IS THE EXACT REASON WHY THE COMBINATION OF SAD AND COMEDY CAN WORK.
Good job.
4029448 The original lightning dust ending had her demoted to the sliver pin with dash having the gold in my opinion better then the canon ending.
4029001 She accused him of being the problem much the same way she did when she confronted Chrysalis when she was disguised as Cadance, without a shred of evidence outside of the assumption that she was absolutely right. This is not anything new to Twilight as she assumes she's correct quite a lot. When you do this as often as Twilight does, of course you're going to get lucky every now and then.
Also she isn't tolerant of Discord at all and has not once given him the benefit of the doubt. Because if that was even remotely true, she wouldn't have blamed him the moment things get a little wild. The only reason why he isn't stone is Fluttershy refused to cooperate with Twilight and the others. Now with the Elements gone, she has no magic "Fix everything" button if he decides to go rogue and cause an immense amount of damage and yet Twilight still insists on not putting any effort into actually befriending him.
Everything she's done has been at the insistence of somepony else. Fluttershy and then Cadance. If Discord had actually been sick, she would have left him there if Cadance hadn't said something. Twilight is not forgiving or patient, she only puts up with the bastard because Celestia and Cadance said so.
4029626
I wonder why Twilight doesn't forgive Discord so easily in the show... Hmmm, could it be because he altered her friend's minds and used that to break her emotionally? I wonder why you don't forgive someone for doing stuff like that very easily? Even more so when he's never been sincere about wanting to be her friend (and she never has called him her friend, he is the one doing that) or turning over a new leaf and has always intentionally manipulated her and sought to hurt her (even post his "reform")... Truly it is a mystery.
I can never understand why people want to forgive Discord for his horrendous actions so easily. Just because he's that "trickster" type with De Lancie's voice? I've read fanfics where Discord's reformation is done well but in the show itself he's done nothing to earn any repentance or trust and continues to be an antagonist. She shouldn't forgive him for his actions. And his most recent episode? It was clear to a blind man he wasn't really sick and was just there to hurt her by ruining her day with Cadance. Of course she isn't going to be nice to him.
Lightning Dust on the other hand? She didn't do anything nearly as bad as Discord and frankly Twilight doesn't know anything about her. If she can forgive Trixie at the end of Magic Duel, a character she personally fought and interacted with and who did far worse things to ponyville, I don't see her being this cold to LD without provocation, especially after her interactions with other villains int his story.
Lovely setup, great interactions, wonderfully quirky little characters... All wasted when I discover I was tricked into reading a Mare Do Well fix-fic. The finale broke my suspension of disbelief. Might have worked with an AU tag, but that's the only way. Concur fully with 4028919 and 4028931 .
Where is Gilda?
This was really good! I'd like to read another story about the group!
4029672
4029000 When you have the equivalent of a god of chaos held back by a leash of friendship and the magical deus ex machina is gone you act like an actual friend even if you don't want too. Twilight doesn't even do that much, which in turn is slowing down Discord's reformation (you'd be a moron to think anyone would be reformed in one episode (you know, outside of the mind control Twilight was planning on forcing on him)).
Also I never meant she had to actually forgive the annoying bastard, just actually treat him as she would a friend. Accusing him of wrong-doing each time she sees him without giving him the benefit of the doubt only makes her look like an immense bitch, even if she's justified. Why? Because Twilight is the one that is supposed to know what friendship is, not the dude who's being reformed. It was for that reason Celestia trusted Fluttershy with reforming him, because Fluttershy would actually go out of her way to be nice regardless of his treatment of her. What's this, someone actually tries to help him act like less of a dick?!
Now that I think about it, I'm willing to bet she also did it because the others would never actually try beyond a weak, token attempt. Discord has one actual friend, while the rest (not sure where Pinkie actually stands with him) rather blatantly treat him as an enemy.
The morons have missed the point harder than the CMC ever could.
As for this story, I thought it was ok. Yes, Twilight does have a sudden bitch switch that gets toggled on and then immediately off and the bit at the end was just confusing. For one, it's kinda late for apologizing for the BS stirred up by Mare-do-well. Second, it feels really tacked on. If you're gonna make Twilight apologize for that, base the story around it. This way you can actually explore the ups and downs of those events. Here it's really out of place.
4029908
That's a terrible message for the show to support, having Twilight fake niceness just because Discord is powerful should never ever happen outside fanfiction. That's sort of the whole point to their relationship though, she's the foil to Discord's plans, she is the Picard to Discord's Q. You might have a point if she ever actually turns out to be wrong, she keeps blaming Discord, because so far, it has always been Discord's fault. He knew about the vine's, and threw the whole leadership into chaos over a lark to teach his own twisted version of a "friendship lesson". Three's a Crowd was the same premise, he again screwed with Twilight to teach her a twisted lesson that backfires on him and shows him what friendship is between Twilight and Cadence.
And in the end, that's why Twilight just giving in and giving Discord the benefit of the doubt is a terrible idea, because it strips Discord of his character arc, not only has he not actually earned the benefit of the doubt yet, having the characters just give in to his antics sends a terrible message to the kids. Discord needs to learn that lesson himself and make the first step, right now, even Fluttershy needs to use their friendship as a threat more often then actually displaying it, because Discord has not yet done anything to earn his chance, his appearances in season 4 so far have been spent showing him that his concepts of what friendship are have been either wrong or misguided, but he also seems to be learning, he'll likely get his chance in later episodes when he realizes that he is treating even his friendship with Fluttershy like a joke. Of course, him annoying the ponies seems to be pretty much his whole point, so don't expect Twilight to give him a chance anytime soon, because right now, he doesn't want that chance, he seems to like being a more benign antagonist to Twilight, rather than wanting to be her friend, especially considering the one time Twilight actually gave him a chance he almost got her eaten by a giant worm.
Or to sum it up: at this point in the canon, Twilight being nice to Discord is pointless, because he will just throw it back in her face and betray her (again) because he does it even to Fluttershy at this point, he needs to grow first, before the other characters can really warm up to him, it's his lesson to learn, not Twilight's.
4030050
What part of 'Actually put effort into acting like the friend she claims to be' is faking it? What they are doing now, where Twilight acts highly antagonistic towards him and yet claims to be his friend is faking it.
If she can't be nice to him, how can she claim to be his friend? Because guess what? Acting like a dick to him is only going to cause a damn loop. You don't reform someone by continuing to treat them like dirt or antagonizing them. If you're unwilling to put anything forward, you can't expect anything back. Discord will continue being Discord until Fluttershy grows old and dies unless the Mane 6 actually try and help him. Only one of them is taking Discord's reformation seriously and it's not Twilight.
Interesting premise, lackluster execution, and enough missing punctuation to make an entire paragraph from the missing pieces. Overall, I give it a D.
4028979
See, now that I had a chance to think about it, Lightning Dust showing up doesn't make any sense. She didn't really do anything in her episode. She didn't set out to murder anyone. It was just an accident. One Dash could have easily have prevented by just saying, "Hey, let's not make a tornado."
And she didn't even have a strong connection to Twilight. Sunset Shimmer would have made more sense. I think everything after Dust showing up was a misstep.
That picture is too funny!
4030166
The first part was a response to the first paragraph in your previous post, where you said Twilight should be nice to Discord just because he's powerful and they don't have the EOH anymore, which is a bad message to use in anything outside fanfiction.
As for Twilight herself, again no, Twilight ISN'T Discord's friend, Discord plays on her feelings of sympathy in order for them to maybe become friends, but at no point has Twilight ever indicated that she is actually friends with Discord at this point in time, he plays on "what a friend would do" to milk her sympathy, but as of this moment there is no direct indication that they actually are friends in any capacity beyond mutual friendship with Fluttershy.
Again, this is Discord's character arc, not Tiwlight's, and having the others just buddy up to and trust him makes no sense, when literally every thing they have actually blamed him for so far has been his fault and even worse in retrospect, to the point that he has deliberately admitted to trying to ruin Twilight's free time. There is zero reason for Twilight to ever trust him, yet so far she still took care of Discord when she believed he was sick, to the point of hauling him to the other side of Equestria, finding out he was faking it, and then quickly going back to happy when she found out cadence had fun despite Discord actually being disappointed that he hadn't ruined their time together.
Also, I think you made an earlier statement about Twilight almost leaving Discord after he genuinely got sick. I think you're getting fanfiction confused with canon, because I just rewatched the scene and it immediately cuts to Fluttershy's house after he gets sick EDIT: unless you're referring to the fair scene, in which case, Twilight still never said no, and was convinced when Discord ruthlessly manipulated her by bringing up Fluttershy. So not only does she haul him accross the country like a pack mule, she hauls him back again, without even protesting. So how nice is she actually supposed to be to him, she spent the entire episode giving him the benefit of the doubt, had it thrown back in her face, and still took the sick Discord back to Fluttershy's. The last episode about the Breezies had a pretty good line about this, sometimes kindness doesn't work, and you need to be firm, and lay down the law.
I mean, I liked the story and all don't get me wrong, but the villains and their 'lesson' was kinda just as brutal as the Mane Sixx were during the MDW incident... so it's kinda a case of the pot calling a kettle black in this situation... even though she really did need to apologize to Rainbow, in my opinion.
javascript:AddYoutube(document.getElementById( 'comment_comment' )); WE DONT GET TO HEAR WHAT TWILIGHT SAYS NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
4029626 She didn't outright say he was behind it. She said it looked like his doing and she wanted answers.
And of course she assumes she's right often. She often is. I think now is an appropriate time to point out she was right about Chrysalis to begin with, and the friendship lesson Celestia learned (though she said it as a lesson about trusting Twilight's instincts, it was her way of saying she should have had more faith in Twilight) was to have more faith in her judgement. She was also right about Luna, Zecora, the culprits on the Friendship Express and, of course, Discord. This is because her mind is a scientific mind, and makes intuitive leaps based upon prior knowledge and understanding. Scientists call this Deductive Reasoning, and use it to generate and prove theories all the time. It has only served her wrong once or twice.
As for giving him the benefit of a doubt, she went along with Celestia's plan and continues to go along with it, throughout two seasons. She had every right to say to Celestia "no, fuck this, fuck your plan, fuck everything. We are keeping the Eldritch Abomination that tried to mind rape us inside a statue, because none of us except you want him to be free." Instead, she said "alright, 'Tia, because I love you I'm going to go along with this." And did that for half a year of being trolled. True, the Tree Of Harmony means that the Elements cannot be used, but she could easily have modified her spell so that the tree banished Discord along with his vines. And again, she didn't interrupt Fluttershy's day out so he could go spend time with her, but took it upon herself to help him as best as she could. And he threw that all back in her face. Repeatedly.
Basically, you need to accept that Twilight not doing her absolute utmost to serve an insane, assholish Eldritch Abomination does not mean she is a villain or a bitch. It means she has flaws and a less Discord-compatible life outlook than Fluttershy.
So she did something bad right? What was it? Why was she apologizing to rd?
4030650 Apparently the Mare-Do-Well incident... a season or so after it.
FUCKER STOP LEAVING IT ON CLIFF HANGERS
Oh my gosh this is the best idea ever! I can't believe that I haven't read a story yet about Discord making a reforming group... thing!
And no fair with the cliff hanger that I will never fall off of/climb back from.
4028975 That's a very good point. The princesses should be going out of their way to get Fluttershy anything she asks for, since she's now the only thing preventing the return of Chaostopia. Of course, that MAY be why she that special pass to observe the breezies...
Context for people who don't understand what Twilight's apologizing for: What's Eating Rainbow Dash.
I disagree with the arguments that story makes, but I'm not going to get into it now.