Loyalty
It doesn't matter how many times you come here to try to "redeem" me. My answer is the same. Go and tell my dear brother that his pleas are worthless to me. There is no going back after what he did, and I will never, ever forgive him.
...No, I shall not. You will not persuade me. He betrayed me. He betrayed his own brother. How could he do such a thing, and then expect things to ever be the same between us? There is no bond more sacred than family. I thought he knew this. I would sooner see him burn than forgive such an act. That traitor is dead to me.
What? What did you just say? Come closer. Come over to this cage, and say that to me again. Look me in the eye this time.
You do not dare compare me with him! I am no traitor. You are the traitors. You, your little ponies, your wretched snake, all of you! You dare stand there, call me a traitor? For Discord? When he himself betrayed you? Abandoned his friendships with you for the likes of me?
Feh. None of you understand. I am the only one here that prizes loyalty. I am the only loyal creature left. I would have died for my brother. I would've have laid my life down for him a thousand times over! That is loyalty! That is family! ...But nobody else but me cares... Family... loyalty... it all meant nothing to Scorpan. As soon as he saw something better, he stuck a knife in my back and left me.
...Why? What do you mean why? I did not betray Discord. Discord was a traitor. You can't betray a traitor. What I did was not betrayal. It was karma. That vermin deserved his fate. In fact, he deserved far worse. That I didn't crush him under my hoof and smear his remains over the grass is testament to my mercy. He should think himself lucky. Had it been me he betrayed, I would've shown none.
...It is far from hypocritical. It is the truth. It is the way the world is.
No, you can't. You can't betray a traitor, because there is no loyalty there in the first place. I despise traitors. What I did was not a betrayal.
It's true. I have no respect for Discord's decision to become your personal housepet, forsaking his true self for your weak-minded, disgustingly saccharine notions. He was a conqueror. He was a king! A fallen king, and a king of a broken nation who ruled for no reason, certainly. But he had power! I respect power, and I respected him. So I do find it disgusting what you did to him. What you turned him into. He did betray himself to make you all happy, and he's doing it again by going back to you. One day, you might regret forcing him to do that, because this won't be the last time he lashes out like this. Once a turncoat, always a turncoat.
But I lied in Canterlot when I said that that he only betrayed himself. Because he did betray you as well. I know. I was the one who tempted him. You might not think that I'd care about something like that, but I do. While I might not have respected what he became, I could've still respected his loyalty, if only he'd shown any. If he had ignored my poisonous words and stayed true to those he pledged himself towards, I would've gone back to prison with a higher opinion of Discord.
Instead, he sold you out. He turned against those he once considered his friends, and I watched him do it. I knew from the moment he agreed that he wasn't worth my time. I could never trust him. I could never call him a friend, because I knew then what he does to his friends. He's just like everyone else. Sooner or later, he'd stab me in the back in favour of somebody new. If my own brother could do it, anybody could. Discord especially.
That is my tragedy, princess. I am the only one left who puts any value on loyalty. But I am alone in this world and have nobody left to be loyal to. I would've been honoured to call Discord my friend if I had met him in his prime... Instead, I met the weasel wearing that old legend's skin who aligned himself with your pitiful lot. If he had remained loyal, he would've arrested me, and I would be alone. If he betrayed you for me, as he did, it would've helped propel me back into power, but I still would've been alone in the end. And here I am now.
Scorpan did this. He is the reason I am alone in the world. He is the reason I can never trust again. He's the reason I can never call anybody a friend again. Because I'm on my own in a world of traitors, and if there is anybody left who cares about loyalty, then they're not on my side.
Do you see now, princess? Do you see why I can't forgive him? Why I can't ever?
...Leave me. Just leave me alone. I don't want your pity or your platitudes about "friendship" and "forgiveness." I hate you. For what you did. For what you took from me. For what you all have that I never will. Go away and let me rot in peace. Give me another few centuries, and maybe I'll finally die and this nightmare will end. That's all I really have left to hope for.
And another thing?
Stop visiting me. Stop coming here every year. Stop offering second chances. And especially stop bringing me messages from him. I don't care anymore, princess, and I want you to tell him that I don't care. I want you to tell him to give up on me, and then I want you to give up as well.
I am damned. Now leave, and let me reign in Hell.
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Nice.
5293452
You're a fast reader.
5293457 About to read it.
I just figured if it's by you it's probably pretty good, so I thought I'd write a preemptive compliment.
5293460
Well, that just makes me feel all warm inside.
SOMEPONY has been reading Paradise Lost!
Another story written by Danny? Already on board!
You wrote Tirek amazingly well. He makes a terrible, horrifying amount of sense, even if it all stems from the eroneous assumption of 'someone who betrays someone is predisposed to betray everybody else, not just that one person'. And... yeah, it does make sense what he did to Discord. Instant Karma.
good story my friend!
5294517
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Wow... You made me like Tirek...
Bravo, good lad, bravo.
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This is an interesting read for a person who considers loyalty to be incomprehensible as a moral virtue.
This fanfic is really good! It's too short for Equestria Daily though... Maybe Twilight's Library?
DannyJ?
Danny, eyyyy.
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That's a pretty great portrayal of Tirek
5330819
Thank you. Glad you think so.
This website needs more stories like this.
Tirek's character was spot-on, in my opinion. You did an amazing job!
5339756
Thanks!
5339767
You're most welcome!
Funny how Tirek speaks of the things the princess has that he never will, What would that be, her power, or a loyal sister? Now I'd definitely would like to see a fic where Tirek questions how the Royal Sisters remain together despite the betrayal of Nightmare Moon.
Maaan, the only thing bad about a good one-shot is that it's a one-shot, and this is a great one-shot. Making it even worse.
A damn good one-shot. :)
From the second sentence onward, I knew exactly what the story would be. Because it makes perfect sense.
You captured Tirek perfectly, in my opinion. I think he does have a strange sense of honour that shines through at times. He wouldn't let his brother talk him out of conquering Equestria, but he did not fight him—Luna and Celestia can't claim the same for themselves.
He betrayed Discord, but only after Discord let himself be seduced by Tirek.
And most tellingly, he honoured his bargain with Twilight. He let all her friends go, even the traitor who didn't himself think he was worth it, even after questioning Twilight why she would even consider Discord still a friend after what he'd done. He didn't even try to attack them after he drained her magic.
Compared to Discord, Tirek is the honourable one, now corrupted by bitterness and paranoia.
5511423
Thank you! Yes! That's exactly what I was trying to get across! Tirek isn't some random monster. He's got a sense of honour and principles just like anybody else. It's just that his morality is subtle and not everyone will notice it's there.
Now I didn't like Tirek in Twilight's Kingdom because I thought he was just a power hungry brute, but you made him into such an interesting and compelling character, that it just proves that he was a gold mine of potential. I want to know more about him, why does he hate ponies, and how exactly did Scorpan betray him.
This makes him a sad character who has very clearly defined values, and that is something that a good villain needs, values.
5598090
Tirek did interest me precisely because of that potential. Of course, I think it helps that I could read so much into it. Maybe you could call canon Tirek a flat character, and that would be fair. Personally, when I look at his canon appearance, this is the character that I see. I just think of his depths as being hidden or implied rather than put front and centre like they are in this fic. It's very likely that the writers intended no such thing and that this interpretation really is just my invention, but I like to think that all characters have a deeper level to them than what we see in a given work, and I like to find those depths.
I'm glad you enjoyed the story. Thank you.
Ohh. This is good. I can't believe this has been sitting on my read later list so long.
It reminds me of a theory a Brony friend mentioned to me, from before Tirek (between seasons 2 and 3), that each major villain is a corruption of one of the elements of harmony. Nightmare Moon was the pick for Loyalty, Discord for Laughter, Chrysalis for Honesty... villains afterward didn't really fit that line of reasoning, though.
I ramble. Very interesting take on Tirek. He certainly hasn't gotten much attention, so it's a nice change of pace.
5683355
Oh, I don't know about that. One could make a good case for Sombra as an antithesis for kindness, and Tirek could also be interpretted as being the villain of greed, what with his insatiable hunger for magic.
5683372
Oh, true. But this story has me so sold on Tirek being a corruption of loyalty, lol.
5685773 Well, there was a lot of focus on Loyalty in Twilight's Kingdom, they even directly mention it twice when they refer to the necklace.
5683355
I rather like this idea, and in fact think it continues to fit even with Tirek as ~loyalty. Chrysalis/honesty, Sombra/kindness, and Discord/laughter fit, but NMM represents envy, which is (almost by definition) the corruption of generosity. Add in Starlight Glimmer as ~magic, and we've covered all the elements and every major villain / double episode thus far.
5918038
Nice point, and interesting... my original comment was before Glimmer, so now we have the complete set. Wonder who that seventh villain will be.
A world of traitors huh? No loyalty left in the world? Next time she should bring Rainbow Dash down. See what he thinks of that.
6037239
He (Tirek) did say that if there is anyone who cares about loyalty left in the world, that they wouldn't be on his side, so Rainbow Dash coming to visit him probably wouldn't help a whole lot...
Good story. Though Tirek has been, and most likely always will be, villainous scum, I can see where he's coming from. Especially after reading Fienship is Magic. Probably though the most sympathetic thing about him though is that he has been left to rot in what amounts to solitary confinement for over a thousand years (what is amount of prison time for trying to steal magic anyway? And from the backstory given it sounded like he didn't even get far). That cannot have done wonders for his health, mental or physical.
6361816
Ponies in general don't really seem to think of punishment the same way we do. I'm not entirely sure that they even care whether a punishment is proportionate to the crime or not. Ponies seem to value intent and feeling more. Reformed villains get away with a hell of a lot, no matter the scale of their crimes, whereas unrepentant villains are shown very little sympathy in-universe. Compare Trixie with King Sombra. Both dabbled with dark magic and essentially enslaved a populace, but look at how differently they were ultimately treated. Trixie apologised in the end, and so essentially got away with everything, whereas Sombra showed no remorse whatsoever, and so his apparent death was not just unmourned, but celebrated.
Maybe immortals are held to a different set of standards than regular ponies, but to me, it seems Tirek got the sentence he did not because his crimes were especially heinous, but because so long as he refuses to accept friendship and end his villainous ways, Equestrian morality says that his punishment must continue. But all things considered, it doesn't seem to have had too adverse an effect on him. I guess longer-lived beings just have more mental fortitude when it comes to surviving extreme lengths of tedium.
I wouldn't trust Tirek even if my life depended on it! He is nothing but trouble!
Good job portraying Tirek sympathetically without being overly sympathetic.
6915633
That makes me sound like a tightrope walker.
Hooray for a story on these lines that keeps the shades of grey. Tirek's thoughts on Discord particularly interested me. I was mildly irritated by the decision not to spell out who Tirek was talking to for so long, but his narration is very convincing, so that's only a minor quibble.
Oh God, how long was that link to the audio reading broken before I just now fixed it?
I'm a tool sometimes. I apologise.
Good short story.
D30: I'm doing a story that involves some interesting Tirek stuff as well. Here it is. Tirek's in Chapters 2 and 8. (Warning: REALLY geeky, designed to be an all-inclusive multiverse crossover
)
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/424532/geeks-of-the-round-table-the-dark-invasion-part-1-the-night-begins
5511423
And remember Discord also betrays Tirek's trust by holding out on the fact that there's another princess (Twilight). By doing so Discord makes what could have potentially been a very easy victory for Tirek much more difficult, while also revealing his interest in controlling their relationship. Not only do we see Tirek markedly ticked of by this news but their is also a obvious shift in how he treats Discord, before he at least appears to be genuinely friendly towards him, after when he's melting Twilight's window he seems to consider him a afterthought and when he asks Discord about the Main Six he does so in a fairly distant manner unlike the tone he'd been using with Discord up till then.
Interesting story. We see how Tirek views the world and understand but personally I think he is hypocritical.
I also wonder whose the princess Tirek speaks as it is never mentioned. Twilight perhaps?