Sad)

It would be him. She thought he would’ve cut ties and gotten out of Dodge. Or maybe cut a deal with her, like he did Tirek. But of course, he did the exact opposite of what she predicted. Chaos. So annoying.

“Honestly, my dear Twilight. I never expected you of all ponies to do this.”

Twilight stared at Discord. “I get that a lot.”

“I mean, mostly out of the sheer cliche of it all. The best of us, the dear leader falling into the dark side? Haven’t you read a million books like that?”

“I prefer saying I fell into the twilight side.”

He rolled his eyes. “How long did you rehearse that line, hm?”

She glared. “This was what had to be done.”

“Fluttershy would sure agree with-”

“Fluttershy isn’t here to disagree!” She took a deep breath. Discord’s face seemed one of… sympathy. It made her want to tear him apart. “...She isn’t here because of them. The Changelings. Vermin that the other Princesses won’t exterminate.”

“So since they dare to not agree with genocide, the wimps, you locked them away?”

“And everypony thinks that the Changelings captured them, getting me the public support needed to exterminate the Changelings.”

“Clever. Couldn't think of a better plan myself.”

“Believe me. I know you couldn’t.”

“In any case, when your war is done, what then? You set up your tyrannical reign? Should I make the ‘Big Sister is Watching’ posters already?” He snapped his finger, creating a blue and red poster that showed Twilight glaring, the words ‘Obey’ displayed prominently.

“...No,” she said quietly. “The Princesses will be freed. They will be free to do what they wish with me. It won’t matter. The Changelings will be gone.”

“You’ll get your vengeance, you mean.”

‘Fluttershy is avenged, that’s what I mean.”

“I’m sure it’ll be such a comfort to her in the great beyond, seeing her dear Twilight kill untold numbers of lives in her sake.”

“How did you even find out about this?” Twilight spat out, ignoring the stone in her gut. “And why do you even care? The Princesses? Fluttershy?”

“I hate you.”

Unperturbed, he went on, “As for why I’m doing this… True, I have grown closer to the Princesses as of late. An unfortunate side effect of redemption. But they’re not the biggest reason. ...And I do not want Fluttershy’s name to be sullied by this, yes. She deserves better. But the fact of the matter is that she’s gone. You reaping your vengeance or me stopping you. Either way… she won’t come back. So she is not the biggest reason either.”

“Then what? For the giggles? To amuse yourself?”

Discord’s carefree mask fell, and was replaced with eyes of honesty, and a small, weak, sad smile. “...I recall… a princess. She had an enemy. Quite the distasteful fellow. Rehashed every old villainous trick in the book, from A to Q. And he had even cheesier jokes than Pinkie Pie, with none of the charm and perfect delivery. But worse than that… he hurt innocent lives. And he did not care. He was given another chance. Made a friend. And still he did not care. He betrayed her, and the princess. And, as traitors do, he ended up being betrayed as well. It was then that he remembered true friendship, what he had thrown away. It was then that he cared. But it was too late.” He looked away in regret, but then he brought his eyes back to her. “Or… it should have been. But the princess, for unfathomable reasons, instead of leaving him to his deserved fate… saved him. Offered him friendship once more.” It was Twilight’s turn to avert her eyes. “He did not deserve it. Not one bit. But she saw regret in him. Saw good. She saw that he could be better than he let himself be. And so she did not give up on him.” He stared into her eyes, open and unafraid. “So now, he will not give up on her.”

“...So-so what? You… are you going to fight me? Or did you expect that… that speech to work?”

“The latter. Admittedly, it is a bit saccharine, but I thought it had it’s charms. Otherwise… I stay here. I will not move. I will not allow you to fight your war. I might tell everyone of your plan, as you’ve already considered in that paranoid brain of yours. I’m a liability. A risk. You must stop me if our plan will work.”

“And what makes you think I won’t?”

“Because I won’t fight back. As you did for me, as Fluttershy did for me before you, I place my faith in you.”

“I… it’s too late. What I’ve done…”

“You’ve acted out of grief and locked them away. They’re alive, relatively unharmed. Let’s face it, they’ve fallen to worse places. They will forgive. Perhaps not right away, but in time, all will forgive. It is not too late.”

“...And then what? I go back to the Magic Element of Harmony princess who believes in friendship conquering all? ...I don’t know if that pony is alive anymore.”

“...No. You go back to the pony you always were, are, and will be. Not the villain. Not the Element of Harmony. Not the Princess. Those are not who you are but merely what you’ve done.”

“...Then who will I be?”

He smiled. “My dear Twilight Sparkle.” She looked away in shock, her eyes fluttering in thought.

“I… I…” She let out a cry of anguish and dropped to the floor. “I just… I-I thought this was… F-Fluttershy…” He was by her side in a flash, and without a word wrapped an arm around her in comfort. The friends sat there in silence, as the war died around them.

Author's Note:

The Prompt: I am Equestria’s most-feared supervillain, but I wasn’t always. In bygone days, I wore a different title—that of Element of Harmony.

This isn't a TMP prompt, but in fact one Donny ran impromptu on his own blog. I quite like this one. Bringing together two of my most constant subjects, Twi and Dissy, once more. There's sadness and pathos and something real here, and writing Dissy's speech was pretty fun. While hopefully not the last story I'll add here, it's themes of friendship and redemption, as well as its overall quality, makes it a fine stopping place for now. There are, however, three pieces currently exclusive to my Tumblr. Prompt #24 (due to copyrighted song lyrics, a TwiPie romance story about karaoke): http://thebombasticbookman.tumblr.com/post/87474786744/prompt-24-caritas-or-as-you-are-by-bombastic-bookman Prompt #-1 (Never finished, ApplePie romance): http://thebombasticbookman.tumblr.com/post/87465384471/prompt-1-submission-sweet-applepie-by-the and Prompt #0 (Copryrighted song lyrics, RariPie romance, more karaoke) : http://thebombasticbookman.tumblr.com/post/90204646570/prompt-0-smile

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