Ranger
Chapter 126: Fortuity
By Wanderer D
The group tried to present as solid a team as they could, glaring at Discord and bracing themselves for whatever crazy stunt he might attempt to pull.
"Okay, Discord," Twilight said, stepping forth to confront the draconequus, "All of these vines appeared rather randomly and both Luna and Celestia are missing. Do you know anything about it?"
"Oh, Twilight, I'm disappointed," Discord said, smile fading away as he leaned back and waved his lion paw dismissively. "Here I was, possibly offering you whatever you wanted, and you have to ask the obvious question."
"We both know know that the chances of you not being involved somehow are slim," Twilight replied. "I just want to know what you do so I can help the princesses and Ponyville."
"Well!" Discord crossed his mismatched arms and turned around and away from them. "I must say! I feel insulted that you're accusing me of being responsible for this."
Twilight rolled her eyes. "Please. I'm not accusing you of anything, I'm asking you if you know what this is all about. You gave Celestia and Sunset a hoof, didn't you? Why do that and then turn your back on us? What do you get by not helping us this time?"
"Who?" Discord asked, looking genuinely confused. "I'm not sure what you're thinking about, Sparks, but I think I would remember helping Sunbutt, if I had." After a moment he shrugged and spiraled away. "Doesn't matter. I couldn't possibly take responsibility, officer." He spread his arms and grinned. "I'm reformed, don't you remember?"
"Just so we're clear, Discord," Twilight said—making a mental note to look into his apparent lack of knowledge of Sunset and Celestia's encounter—"I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt because I'm willing to go on a limb and believe you for now. If it turns out you were responsible for this at all—"
"You'll turn me back to stone, yadda-yadda."
"No."
"No?" Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie and Rarity echoed.
Discord himself looked surprised. "No stone prison? What are you planning Sparks? Something worse?"
"Discord, regardless of what we do, I want you to understand that if you lie to me, you lose any chance in the future to ever be trusted." Twilight looked at him in the eyes. "This," she motioned with her hoof, "...is a minor inconvenience. We'll probably just need to blast something and they'll go away. But the princesses are missing, and lives could be ruined by what's going on right now. If you know what's happening and you don't say anything it will be on you."
Discord scoffed. "There you go again, implying I'm responsible."
"Come on Twilight, he'll never change. He's as bad as any of the monsters we've fought!" Applejack said.
Discord bristled and turned to look at her, sneering as he prepared to make a remark, but Twilight beat him to it.
"Don't call him that!" she ordered, looking at her friends earnestly. "He's not a monster… yet… and he has a choice!"
"Now who takes things too lightly?" Sunset's voice echoed in Twilight's mind. "The Twilight Sparkle in my world would be freaked out by the idea of blood being spilled alone. Does "me" here really use Blood Magic? She's called "Bloody"? Runs around getting bloodbaths? What… kind of monster am I here?"
Twilight sighed, and looked at the floor for a moment before closing her eyes. She took a deep breath, and without looking up, she started speaking slowly. "Look, I recently had to… deal with someone that was turned into a monster. She's dead now… killed with her own weapon, spitting blood all over the place. I thought… I thought was getting through to her. I remember some of my history lessons… and I know that Sirens were considered enemies of ponykind, much like you, many centuries ago."
"I have been betrayed too many times to hold any pity for others. First by other seaponies, then cast out by Starswirl… when we came here, locals befriended us… and tried to take advantage of us! For hundreds of years we walked this Earth and humans back-stabbed us and each other!"
"When we talked… she was too far gone, transformed into a creature of nightmares… because whatever chance she wanted was denied to her… so she became what she hated… and yet I could almost feel some regret from what she was doing—"
"Twilight, you can't possibly be talking about Aria!" Alejandra interrupted, glaring angrily at the alicorn. "That-that monster killed our friends! She almost killed Sunset and the others!"
Twilight bit her lip. "I am!" She looked up at the others, turning her back to Discord. "She wasn't always a monster. You know how Annette used to feel about her. Do you think she was a monster then?"
Alejandra didn't reply, choosing to look away angrily.
"It wouldn't have fixed anything," Twilight admitted, looking at everyone. "But I like to think, that even a little part of her regretted becoming what she did!" She hit the ground with her hoof. "Because, even if it didn't fix things… even if it didn't bring back my friends or my mentor… at least there would be regret! A sense, a knowledge that she did wrong! That, on some level, she would have wished she could do something different… that not all monsters—or possible monsters—are without redemption or the capacity for good and love. Even if it's too late. Just... a light of hope."
"Sometimes, Sparkle, they are nothing but monsters," Tala said, hovering above the other mares. "I know you're not so naive as to think you can reform all those you encounter."
"No, I can't," Twilight said, turning to face an uncomfortable-looking Discord. "And I've changed a bit since I thought some were lost causes… but I can still hope that I was wrong about at least one of them." She walked forth and place a hoof on Discord's elbow. "And I hope he can prove me right in believing in him."
Discord looked perturbed. "I—I need…" He shook his head in frustration and pointed over his shoulder in annoyance. "Why don't you ask your friend, the zebra if she knows anything?" He suggested without much enthusiasm.
Twilight gave him a look and nodded, hurrying over to help Zecora, who had just managed to emerge from the vines surrounding the town, leaving Discord behind, gazing up thoughtfully at the moon and the sun, both in the sky.
o.0.o End Chapter 126 o.0.o
When you expect he worst of everyone it can quite shocking when someone hopes for the best in you.
Ha HA! Trust and emotional support for the win!
So Sweetie's Discord is the one who helped Celestia and Sunset reconnect? This is going to lead to some interesting prospects. I hope TSC Sweetie Belle ends up here.
Wow Twilight... Way to show them how much you matured for the past few months while being in XCOM
Discord himself looked surprised."No stone prison?
1. Just forgot your spacing.
Is there a missing scene where Sunset explained what happened during the ol' switcheroo to Twilight? That's the sort of thing you should mention, Wanderer.
9000137
It's a reference to lines of the other Sunset, um, Sunset3? They should all get together for a party or something.
9000125
It could have been Geist. But, I'd rather you be right.
9000125
Either another Discord setting things up or he's not running through time linearly here and it was future Discord who helped Tia/Sunny Two.
It also looks like he's getting the Tirek lesson early in this timeline.
I do like his solution to not answering Twilight's question while he thinks about what she's said, Zecora can show Twilight what he did without admitting directly. Now he can sit on the fence while he thinks and if he chooses to side with Twilight he can point out that he did confess even if he did it indirectly.
Frankly? This pussyfooting around the issue is annoying. Unless Discord didn't actually have a role in this version's plundervines, this softballing of the issue is just grating.
By canon, yes, he planted them long ago for whatever reason, but he's changed since then, he could come out and admit that like Celestia, this is one of those 1000 year things that was just lying around... sorry for the trouble, go fix it, but no...
I understand a moralistic lesson of sorts, but Twilight's a little (lot) harder now and I can't see her playing this so soft. Does not fit the character you've had her grow into, especially seeing as she's still suffering from PTSD and it's now half a day or near enough that Celeatia and Luna have gone missing and the havoc that's playing. Frankly, will be glad when we are finally past this.
Sorry, but the rest of the story is solid, just missed a beat with this arc.
9000199
I'm fairly certain 'This' Twilight would be able to put 2 and 2 together when she sees Discord throw those seeds to the ground, And this might be Discord saying anything you do want to know will be explained by the white milky past juice
Twilight sure learned a lot while in Xcom.
"both know know that the chances"
"both know that the chances"?
"know what you do so I can help the"
"know what you did so I can help the"?
The OFC has been fired!!
It almost feels like Discord is actually being bound here. Like he can't deviate from the original path. Or he really is out of chronological order here and/or off his improv game.
Wow, Discord felt that alright. Twilight certainly didn't pull her punches.
9000379
For all the trolling he did during the events with the Plunder Seeds, Discord did genuinely want to teach Twilight and her friends a lesson. But now Twilight kind of rubbed his face in the consequences of trying to help them in the way he's doing, so not only has she just sucked all the fun out of it, she's also started making him doubt whether the lesson is worth the price.
It feels like that little speech might have actually gotten through to Discord. If it this story progresses that far, I wonder if the eventual encounter with Tirek might go down differently.
Hmm. Curious. Either Discord is lying through his teeth, or the one who reunited the Sunbutts is from another time and/or place. In any case, marvelous work in Twilight taking her lessons in the human world to heart and taking Discord to task.
9000379
Indeed. Saying "I need" like that could mean that he's doing as much as he can... or he just needs a moment to run the cost-benefit analysis now that his game of Trickster Mentor got thrown back in his face.
9000553
And I'm a bit hazy about what that lesson was even supposed to be. Something about worrying over whether her princess status will alienate her from her friends? This Twilight isn't exactly consumed with that issue at the moment, so the lesson isn't even necessary.
Then again, I always saw it as a gambit by Discord from the very start to neutralize the elements. As for all the other times he messes with them, though he tries to put on the role of trickster mentor with a "this was really all meant to teach you a valuable lesson", it always rang kind of hollow to me. Always seemed like he was just causing chaos (cause it's core to his nature) and the "lesson" was a paper thin excuse he was using. Sometimes it's even more a case of the ponies drawing some lesson from the experience and Discord jumping in to go "yep, that was totally what I was going for the whole time."
9000773
Well, given that he seems genuinely confused about helping Sunset and Celestia, Discord isn't really aware that Twilight learned the lesson he's trying to teach -or at least a very similar lesson- in the other world, and that her friends learned the lesson that even if they change, Twilight's still their friend through her disappearance and silent treatment.
It's especially interesting since one can argue that the event with the Plundervines was why everyone but Fluttershy kept Discord at arm's length. Which led to Discord never feeling truly appreciated, which in turn led to him betraying the girls during Tirek's little stomp. If he realizes what he's doing and stops doing it... well, that opens up a lot of butterfly patterns. A loyal Discord is a powerful ally, but it also means that the events with the Tree of Harmony might turn out drastically different.
So is Discord lying? Was it another Discord that help Sunset and Celestia? Or is he some way aware of what must take place now and he's feigning ignorance to preserve the continuity flow? It's always difficult to be sure with reality warpers.
Anyway, nice use of psychology here Twilight. Discord sure was taken aback.
9000869
I think Discord is just shocked on how maturely Twilight is handling the situation.
Unlike her friends, she actually thought things through and instead of accusing Discord, she instead asked him if there eas away to stop it from spreading and remove it.
Also about Discord lying, the Discord who helped Sunset is probably from the Sweetie Chronicles Universe.
9000324
The what?
9001540
OFC, Orbital Friendship Cannon.
Apparently going through hell on earth gave Twilight a bonus +25 to speechcraft.
9001728
Yep
9001728
She had a choice between the Lord's Salvation and Satan's Silver Tongue perks. She decided to take the CMC route and said 'frak the rules', taking both.
So it was sweetie belle discord that did the thing. That would explain how he knew about twilight being shattered.
1) Gosh darn it my praise of Discord being better reformed is useless now isn't it, meh.
2) Well now I can feel proud of Twilight instead. That's nice.
-GM, master of burgers.
Is Discord behind it? I see story that had others behind it... Discord shacken from a friend that isn't Fluttershy? Neat
Twilight has matured and Discords script isn't following canon anymore. Magnificent chapter!