Pony-Losophy

by Newenglandee

Speaking with the Enemy: The Tyrant Tirek

"You're certain you wish to speak to him?"

The Huntsman was slightly mortified Twilight wished to speak to Tirek. The horned, bearded centaur was sulking off in his cell, Cerberus standing nearby as the Huntsman rubbed the triple-headed beast's head, Tirek briefly glancing over his powerful shoulder before turning back to look at some far-off thing only he seemed able to see. The alien being confusedly stared at Twilight as she nodded, holding a hoof up. "I want to talk to him. Can you ask Cerberus to step aside so I can approach the cell? If he minds, that is."

"If SHE minds." The Huntsman said, the tri-headed dog "ruffing" as it licked the Huntsman with large, sloppy kisses, the alien being smiling warmly at this display as he scratched behind the ears.

Twilight blinked stupidly. "What?"

"Her name is Fluffernutters, she'd be happy to let you talk to Tirek, and she would like everyone to appreciate her lifestyle choice." The Huntsman remarked, stepping away with "Fluffernutters" as Twilight approached Tirek and sat down across from him, notebook at the ready.

"Your brother has come to the Council meeting. And he's been very kind."

Tirek visibly stiffened before slowly turning around, giving Twilight a slightly amused, partially annoyed look. "Oh, of course he is. Scorpan always was too...nice." He muttered. "Heaven's above, what a pathetic display. Bowing and scraping before pastel ponies for peace. Disgusting."

"What exactly is your problem?" Twilight asked, giving him a dark glower. "Your brother and you were princes. You would have inherited an entire kingdom. You had money, power, respect, why did you feel the need to try and take over Equestria? Why weren't you happy with all that you had?"

Tirek then gave her a sickening, small little smile. "You'd like to know my motivation, is that it, my little pony? Well!" He shrugged slightly. "I suppose I can tell you. Come closer."

Twilight blinked, looking at the cell, then at the Huntsman. He nodded, patting Cerbe-er, Fluffernutters, on the head, as if to say 'Try anything and ol Fluffy here might just slip from my hand'. Twilight leaned forward, Tirek beckoning with a claw.

"Closer."

Twilight leaned in even further, Tirek suddenly slamming himself against the glass, mockingly leering at her as she slightly reeled back. "HAHAHAHAHA! That, my dear pony! THAT is my motivation!" He told her, a smug, dark look on his features, yellow eyes burning like hot bonfires as that awful sneer danced over his bearded face, the silver nose ring he had swinging slightly back and forth over his crimson-furred form. "I could take anything I want, whenever I want. I could have anyone I'd like at anytime. To have all that this world had to offer and to know nobody could stop me. Why would I NOT do what I did?" He remarked.

"Because it's disgusting and immoral. How would you like it if it was done to you?"

"Oh, the little pony wants to punish me for being baaaaad. I feel so awful." Tirek snorted. "Life is cruel, Twilight Sparkle."

"No, it really isn't. I don't find a storm cruel when it makes me cold or pours rain on me. I don't find the measles "cruel" when I get sick. It's amoral, it's indifferent. That's not cruel, it's nothing. Not one thing nor the other." Twilight said as she shook her head back and forth. "Ponies can be cruel. PEOPLE can be cruel. It's people that cause the cruelties in life, and that's an easy thing to remedy: be just and good to each other. Because a life of virtue and justice is the best life you can live." She said, putting a hoof on her chest. "Even if you never become rich or famous, you'll be happier."

Tirek snorted so loudly and powerfully it almost seemed like he was going to blow his nose ring right out of his nostrils. "Balderdash." He bellowed. "Absolute rubbish. Anyone with half a brain would tell you that the best thing in life is to do what you like, to do injustice without penalty, and the worst thing of all is to suffer injustice without taking revenge." He told her, pointing accusingly at her.

"Vengeance isn't justice."

"You say that now. But you'll think otherwise when you find something you truly want denied from you by another. And that urge rises." Tirek whispered, his tone becoming lower...more persuasive. "That desire to just...take it. Why not? It's owed to you. Why shouldn't you claim it? And who cares if it inconveniences another? It's yours. And it's how we all live. All of life is about taking something from somebody else in some way. Some of us are just nicer about it than others. There's no decency or true justice to be found in our nature, my dear. You just think so. And the sooner you wise up...well, I'd say you'd be "happier"..." He tilted his horned head slightly to the side before chuckling. "But I think you'd most likely just gouge your eyes out from the horrific revelation. So at least I'd be happier."

"People are good at heart. I'm sorry you can't see that."

"Oh really? Do you know of the tale of Gyges?" Tirek inquired as he folded his arms over his ripped chest, giving her a dark grin. "The famous Gryphon?" Twilight's lips became taut. She said nothing as Tirek went on. "He was once a normal shepherd. But he found a magic ring in a cave that turned him invisible. As soon as he discovered the powers of the ring, he got to work, rising up through the ranks. Earning the king's trust. Becoming a trusted messenger, then a spy. Then he charmed his wife, the two conspired together and finally killed the old king, allowing Gyges to claim the kingdom for himself."

"Yes, and I know the moral that cynics like yourself say about that tale." Twilight said, cutting him off with a wave of her hoof, a glare in her own indigo eyes. "That if anybody found a ring like that, nobody, no matter how just, would stay on the path of justice for long. That in the end, all of us would be tempted at some point to do wrong. People aren't just willingly, they only act that way under compulsion. But I don't believe that." She said. "I believe people do good because they ARE good. That goodness itself is an external principle. It's a form, an idea, a force, it exists outside of us and we can participate in it, and it's necessary."

"Oh? And why's that?"

"Because only a person who seeks to be good and succeeds in doing that will know the full appeal of a just and unjust life, and can weigh them against each other. With true goodness comes the true wisdom about the relative worth of the alternatives. And that true wisdom is knowing the alternatives are a load of horsefeathers." She remarked, sticking her tongue out at Tirek, giving him a raspberry. "You lived a lesser life because you never even tried to be good. You'll never know it's greener on the other side of the pasture. I almost feel sorry for you."

Tirek banged his fist on the cell, Twilight stepping back as he glowered at her. "Don't you DARE patronize me!" He snarled at her, spittle flying out from his fanged maw. "I'll crush your bones and turn them to powder, then spread that over my dinner." The centaur sorcerer snarled. "I will turn your skull into a decorative and festive birdhouse."

"How disturbingly creative." She remarked, trotting off as the Huntsman let "Fluffernutters" take her position back at the cell as he followed her further down the path of Tartarus towards the other cells. "I think I need to talk to someone less...angry."

"I'll see what I can do." He remarked with a calm nod.

"You know, though..." She stopped, looking the Huntsman over, rubbing her chin. "You might be a good subject yourself. I'd love to study you."

"I don't believe you'd like what I'd have to say." He said, his ethereal voice taking on a slightly sad tone.

"How did Celestia manage to defeat you? What did she and Luna do?"

"They were able to manipulate the sun and moon. Specifically, they launched the moon into me, then launched me into the sun. It was incredibly painful." He intoned.

"But you're a living galaxy. Would a single star honestly have hurt you?"

The Huntsman gave her a slightly amused look. And then, suddenly, he was now a towering, hulking, ENORMOUS figure. He legs and arms as skyscrapers, claws sharper than jagged cliffsides, a huge, imposing, terrifying form that was the Goliath to her David, and now holding her in an enormous palm as she gulped. It was oddly soft and warm in his grip, like satin left out in the summer sun, yet even though she didn't think he really would hurt her, the mere size and scale of him was...just thinking about it made her shudder.

"I limit myself out of fairness and pity. I limit myself because I am not without a heart. And above all...because I am selfish. The same way your own rulers are."

"What do you mean? I've never met any pony as selfless and devoted to us as them!" Twilight insisted as the Huntsman held her up slightly more in his palm and she felt his breath on her fur.

"Little one, tell me. Why do they do what they do? Why do they rule over you? Make the choices they make?"

Twilight thought about this...blinking a bit. "Er...um..."

"Think about that." He said, carefully putting her back on the ground before his size returned to "normal" as he kept walking forward, Twilight trying to catch her breath before the question came out.

"Would you have really killed everyone on the planet if they hadn't stopped you?" She asked.

He stopped in place, head slightly turning in her direction, his face almost unreadable. Almost.

"Of what import are brief, nameless lives to a living galaxy? I don't personally enjoy consuming innocents. Not even the satisfaction of knowing I'm being fed is true enjoyment and pleasure, however close it comes to it. No, it's a regrettable thing, but unavoidable. Everyone needs to eat. My species can't survive without consuming prey like yourself. Sentient prey that can give us a challenge. And prey that has that spark of sentience in them. Some call it tantric energy. Others call it chi or ki or kokoro. Some call it the spirit or the soul, and some call it magic. But for us, it's a sign you are food."

"That's...that's cruel." Twilight murmured, head slightly hanging low.

"It's not cruel, it's nature. It's life. I don't hate you. I don't love you either. It's a fact, neither good nor bad, just something true that has to be done. One's own preservation and need to survive isn't a bad or good thing."

"But when you have to hurt people to do it, I mean..." Twilight flinched. "Fluttershy will sometimes feed fish to her animals but they're not a sentient race, and a lot of other animals aren't. It's not the same."

"Not to you. But to my kind, it was."

"Then why do you still stay here? Why do you do what the Princesses ask when you could have just laughed in their faces and claimed the planet?" Twilight wanted to know as the Huntsman turned away from her and looked out over the expanse.

"Because I experienced true goodness. And a single day living of struggling to be good is worth an infinite lifetime of amoral pleasure. Gyges was a fool. I won't be. I want to be more than what my nature defines me as. To rise above it. And it goes back to what I told you to think about. Think about your princesses. Why are they good?"

"Because being good is a good thing to be?"

"Is that truly why they do what they do?"

Twilight opened her mouth, then closed. For a moment, something had flashed up in her head and she almost said it, but...she couldn't quite. What was it? What was she thinking about? What was it dancing on the tip of her tongue? What-

"Why, why, why, why, why, why-"

Twilight turned, seeing a familiar bearded form leaning against a nearby cell which was filled with three aggravated-looking seahorse-dragon-esque creatures that were banging their heads uselessly against the cell walls, holding their skulls or slamming their heads on the ground. "STOP! PLEASE! ANYTHING BUT THAT!"

"Why why why why why why?"

"Discord? What're you doing?"

"I! Am annoying the pants off of the Sirens here."

"They don't wear pants."

"Then clearly, I've succeeded admirably." Discord remarked, putting a paw on his chest and smirking. "They can't stand my line of questioning."

"I'm doing some questioning of my own." Twilight admitted as she hovered her notebook out of her belt pouch. "Would you mind me asking you some things for my book?"

Discord beamed. "Why, Ms. Sparkle, I'd be delighted to."

"Just take him far away from us and we'll never sing again! Cross our lack of hearts and hope to die!" The lead Siren Adagio screamed out.

Twilight smiled, the two trotting off as the Huntsman guarded another cell nearby, an annoyed-looking canine-esque being with bluish fur, golden Aztec jewelry around his neck and wrists and rather bushy eyebrows "harrumphing" as he turned away from them, Ahuizotl not particularly interested in talking to anyone since he'd finally been caught and thrown into Tartarus. Trying to usher in 800 years of burning heat to scorch the planet was darn near unforgivable.

"I was born to a handsome young pony and a stag..." Discord began to say.

"Wait, really?"

"...actually, I don't remember. I remember things not quite in order and not quite the same. Sometimes one way, sometimes another. But truth be told, if I'm to have a past, I prefer it multiple choice." The goat-headed, chimeric-bodied living embodiment of chaos remarked with a smile.

Twilight had a feeling this would be a verrrrry interesting interview.

Comments

[Doomhunter]

can't wait for next chapter.

[Ri2]

Wait, how'd the Sirens get there?

[Newenglandee]

6223900

Neither can I! Discord will be a delight to write for.

[Newenglandee]

6223988

Trust me, I'll elaborate. After all, Sombra ended up here too and he WAS supposed to be dead.

[thedarkshark24]

Not this one is interesting good and evil is a fun topic so is looking in the middle ground.