A Shadow of Your Former Self

by anonbecause1

Chapter 15

Fluttershy fiddled with the fringe of her pillow, ignoring the tea and sandwiches for now along with Twilight. “I’ve never seen you so troubled Twilight. None of us have, we’re really worried for you.”

“I wish I had taken you girls with me. I had no idea this issue would be so complicated.”

“We should get together at the castle and talk this out together. You know I’m against capital punishment but that’s me. I can’t imagine what it’s like for you or the other princesses.”

“I think I’m the only one on the fence. Celestia, Luna, and Cadence all seem like they’re leaning towards going through with it. I might be ok with it too if I hadn’t spoken to all of his friends.”

“It sounds like he’s reformed himself. It’s very admirable, Discord has come a long way but it’s still hard for him to like anypony besides me.”

“That’s the thing, we’ve reformed villains before, I ask myself why is Sombra different. But then I remember he’s the only one with a body count.”

“Well that’s not entirely true.” Twilight jumped up with a yelp as she felt her chair move and whisper in her ear. She turned around to see that Discord had transformed himself into Fluttershy’s arm chair. His form twisting and shaping until he was back to normal.

“Do you have to sneak up on me!”

“I didn’t want to interrupt.” Fluttershy didn’t seem a bit surprised as she floated over with a plate of sandwich crusts. Discord happily took a few, and by took a few she means he gave them legs and walked them into his open mouth. Fluttershy giggled happily at the show before returning to her seat on the duvet, Discord following shortly after.

Twilight buried her frustration, as she usually had to do with Discord, before returning to her seat (checking to make sure it wasn’t alive first). “What do you mean by ‘that’s not entirely true’?”

Discord stroked his beard, formulating his answer. “I mean he may not be the only one with casualties as a result of his actions. Chaos reigned in Equestria for about 50 year and during that time there certainly weren’t any hospitals or police. Chrysalis, nopony died during her takeover of Canterlot but she has killed before. About 20% of changeling feedings end in death. And Tirek didn’t get far but if he had, you could expect the citizens of Equestria being worked to death as slaves. And didn’t Starlight Glimmer cause several apocalypses? Millions of dead there.”

“Is this supposed to make me feel better? Because it’s not!”

“All I’m saying is that King Sombra’s only fault was that he was a good records keeper. You can quantify his crime more easily then any of the other villains.”

Twilight looked to Fluttershy to see if she was hearing the same thing she was. Fluttershy looked down sadly but seemed to be ok, they had definitely talked about this before.

Twilight turned back to Discord, “So you’re saying he should be forgiven?”

“I’m not saying anything. I’m just wondering why you feel like you have to get so personal with this.”

“Personal?! I may have to sentence a pony to death. How is that not personal!?”

“But you have never had to do that before.” Discord was apparently getting bored because he possessed Fluttershy’s bonsai tree on the coffee table. “You have defeated all kinds of villains before, corrected all the mistakes Lulu and Kay Kay have made in the past. Then a villain shows up pre-reformed and you kill him for it? Not a very good message. Or are you only satisfied when you get to blast a villain with rainbows?” Rainbow confetti suddenly blasted Twilight in the face, giving Discord the time to materialize right next to her. She pushed him away.

“Celestia and Luna never made mistakes with the elements of harmony.”

“Oh really?” Discord pulled a chart out of nowhere, comparing and contrasting what the elements did when the sisters used them vs what they did with Twilight and her friends did. “I was turned to stone by the elements, Fluttershy reformed me. Lulu was banished by her sister, you set her free. Need I go on?”

“Get to the point Discord.”

“Ugh, why do you hate fun?” Fluttershy’s house was suddenly a lecture hall complete with stadium seating and a white board. Images of Celestia and Luna taking the elements of harmony from the tree of harmony as stick figures drawn behind him. “Kay Kay and Lulu took the elements of harmony from the tree. The elements manifested in you and your friends. The elements chose you but not the princesses. They could technically activate them but they did not get the best results.”

The lecture hall disappeared leaving Twilight with a single desk and a ‘test’ with a connect the dots bubble question. “Get it?”

Twilight looked at Discord in irritation then back at her bubble test. What was he getting at? The elements work better with her and her friends then they did with the princesses? If so then what did that have to do with Sombra? A question on her ‘test’ asked ‘how do the elements work?’ with the rest being variations on ‘who is the most handsome Draconequus?’ and ‘who is smarter the Twilight?’

How did the elements work? They set wrongs to right. Does that mean they should let Sombra be judged by the elements of harmony? That…would be a good solution actually. If he was good then nothing to worry about, if he was bad then the elements would be the judge. An impartial one!

“That’s it! Thank you Discord.”

“I knew you would get it eventually.”

“Fluttershy, gather our friends. We need the elements of harmony.”

“That’s the spi…Wait what?”

But it was too late, Twilight was already gone leaving Discord to scratch his head as Fluttershy hovered next to him in concern.

“Maybe she is only happy if she can blast somepony with rainbows.”

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

“And that concludes my 27-point slide presentation on why we should use the elements of harmony on Sombra. Any questions?”

Rainbow Dash yawned as Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinky Pie, Spike and the princesses struggled to remain awake.

“Thank you, Twilight, that was very…thorough.” Celestia praised, Luna glared at her sister for being so alert after all that. Cadence was about to fall asleep but Shinning Armor elbowed her in the side and she jostled right awake. To be fair, it had been her turn to tend to the baby last night.

“Excellent, so we can stage a public judging by the elements of harmony?” The princesses looked to each other before nodding. Celestia smiled at her faithful student.

“So long as the elements do not leave the tree of harmony for too long, then yes, we agree.”

The room erupted in celebration; Twilight almost fainted from relief.

Whatever happened next, it would definitely be the right thing to do.

Comments

[DualKitsune]

Oh Noooooo he's umbrum!

[Crystonian]

Um..he's an Umbra. Or descendant of one. Plus my theory is that his 'dark' magic is actually a from of shadow magic. An old, rare, and very primordial magic.

[GarrusVakarian]

10241088
If he is an umbrum it would make sense that he forced the crystal empire to work to death underground.

Considering that the umbrum stole food from the only people who could consistently grow it in a frozen wasteland means that they haf to eat to survive and being locked underground for the time the first crystal princess ruled probably led to an almost total genocide of the umbrum.

The reason Sombra took over the empire was probably because he was the last umbrum and was just taking well deserved revenge.

[Ice Star]

Please remember that Elements of Harmony needs to be capitalized. There were so many instances of it being rendered improperly here and it gets too distracting after a while. Also, shouldn't Twilight be worried about him being an umbrum? If Sombra was good at keeping records, wouldn't that also imply (maybe?) that she knows what species he is and the motive for his takeover, even if he didn't?

Chaos reigned in Equestria for about 50 year and during that time there certainly weren’t any hospitals or police. Chrysalis, nopony died during her takeover of Canterlot but she has killed before.

That should be '50 years'. Also, ponies have Royal Guards. Are you suggesting that they were around, but unhelpful? It would also be nice to have Discord's dialogue tweaked a bit more so that how he knows these things are at least hinted at and it feels less like an info-dump.

That aside, I do think this is a realistic solution for the characters to discuss. The pacing continues to move along well, though Discord's implied(?) message of 'Jeez, Twilight, no matter how beyond horrific and thoroughly evil your actions are, you're still deformable and able to be forgiven' is a terrible message to give the readers.

I hope there will be more focus on how Sombra is coping in the next couple of chapters. There are only so many of them left, and I want to get as much out of this story as possible.