Interview with a Monster

by twilightsparkle3562

"Facing the Beast"

I couldn't tell just exactly was going through my mind as I approached the cage that bore one of Equestria's most feared enemies. From my first impression, he was clothed in a long black cloak that covered his body and I could tell from the look on his face that he had been branded for escaping. He did not feel the bare winds, nor smells the gassed airs. Only the marks of some inner crucifixion and woe were implanted in his face.

"Good morning," he said quietly in a pitiful effort to be polite.

"Lord Tirek, my name is Hot Scoop, may I speak with you?" I asked, not knowing whether to run away or stay and do my duty.

"You are the pony assigned to interview me, is that correct?" he retorted. "To ask me why I did what I did to your fellow kind?"

Rather than answer the question, I just stood there and said nothing, waiting for Tirek to lash out for being rude to him. But, he didn't say anything in regards to the issue. Then, he proceeded to ask me something else.

"Let me see your creditentials," he said and I took out my identification and showed to him from a short distance. "Closer, Closer."

Honoring his request, I showed my identification with the fear that he my absorb my strength right then and there. To my surprise, however, he didn't.

"If you think I am going to steal your magic," he said, remorsefully. "Then, you shall not fear. My powers have been stripped from me upon my re-imprisonment and I have been threatened with death if I escape from here again. Now, what is it that you wish to ask of me?"

I then sat down in the chair that had been provided for me and I looked back to see Lock Up watching from a short distance along with several others guardsponies ready to keep Tirek in line in case he would get out of hand.

"I would like to ask you about your recent escape from here," I said, taking out the notebook to take down whatever notes I could get. "Why you did it and whether or not you have any regrets for your actions."

Almost immediately, I could tell that Tirek was going to be hostile and I had to prepare myself for it.

"Do you want to know why I did what I did?" he asked, bitterly reaching out to clutch the bars of his cage. "Do you? All I care for is power and nothing else. I came to Equestria to fulfill one goal and one goal alone, to obtain all the magic in Equestria for myself and myself alone and nopony would be able to stop me!"

"You have no regrets for your actions, Tirek?" I asked, not convinced by what he had just said. "Not even to the fact that you caused so much to your victims, both mentally and physically?"

"I don't," he replied, his voice calming down a little. "I have no regrets for what I have done, colt. Power is all I crave and nothing else. When those pathetic mares came here to offer me friendship, I wasn't going to let myself sink to their level."

As he said those words, I couldn't help but think back to a conference that Celestia had held after Tirek's re-imprisonment when she said that Tirek had rudely turn down the chance of accepting friendship. I was now beginning to see that Tirek wasn't going to embrace any form of friendship, however I had to keep asking him the questions I had to ask him.

"And when you write down your words," TIrek continued. "You can say that I would rather die than to embrace the magic of friendship."

"Very well," I said quietly, writing down what Tirek had dicatated. "But, you did much more than steal magic, Tirek. Are you aware that you have been charged with crimes that are much more than just stealing magic? You have been charged with false imprisonment, destruction of property among other activities."

"I don't care what I am charged with," snapped Tirek as I wrote down what he had said. "I did what I did and like stealing the magic of your kind, I have no regrets for what I did! Throwing the princesses in this place was revenge…revenge for robbing me of my freedom in the first place."

"Revenge," I said quietly, staring at Tirek with a blank expression. "All because of the fact that you had your freedom stripped away from you? Do you realize of the horrors that you have instilled in the royal sisters, not to mention Princess Cadence of the Crystal Empire, who had been placed in a similar situation by the Changelings?"

Upon hearing this, Tirek let out a quiet chuckle when I mentioned Cadence's name almost as if he enjoyed the horrors that the young leader of the Crystal Empire had gone through.

"What are you laughing at?" I asked, insultingly. "Are you saying that you enjoyed seeing Cadence being thrown in a hellish situation such as this?"

"Yes, because she killed somepony close to me," Tirek remarked, bitterly as his eyes widened with rage. "I was friends with the true leader of the Crystal Empire and was distraught when I learned of his death. How would you feel if somepony you were friends with was killed in such a brutal manner?"

"You speak of King Sombra, don't you?" I replied, looking up from my notebook. "A creature who was just as worse as yourself, Tirek? All you did was steal magic while he carried out murders, murders that were unjustified and unlawful. Was that what you were planning to do? To restore the laws of King Sombra? Was that it?"

Tirek didn't take this lightly and he lunged himself at the bars and spat in my face, his slimy and vile saliva hitting the skin beneath my eyes.

"Yes," he answered, silently after a brief silence. "Only that I would have all of Equestria under my wrath and that no other creature would be able to stop me. Furthermore, any monuments that honored my enemies were destroyed without mercy."

"Which brings me to the question of why, why you would destroy a home that belonged to a princess of Equestria," I said, throwing the subject of Tirek destroying Princess Twilight's library onto the table.

"What is that to you?" he asked, uncaringly. "Why do you ask me of such a question?"

"Because Princess Twilight, for that matter," I said. "Would like to at least know the truth. Do you realize of what valuables of her's that you have taken away from her? She had treasures in that library that are of great value and can never be replaced."

Tirek was silent upon hearing this and I could only begin to wonder whether he would answer the question…