I Will Be Your Villainess

by Darkevony

Chapter ???: I won't let you fall.

Please... please make it in time. Please let nothing bad be chasing after me. I need to make it... I need to!

"Princess Twilight!" I yelled in a frenzy of terror, slamming my hooves onto that door. I could think of no other solution other than to seek her help, knowing that even her and her friends could not stop the future that awaited. She rightly hesitated to answer that door, since I had never been able to apologize to the princess before. But when she finally did answer it, I practically dropped at her feet. Err, hooves. "Twilight I need your help with...!"

"Er, Tiara? What was that?"

"We have to stop...!"

The Princess looked around making sure there were no traps, cameras, or something foul behind me. Then she looked me up and down again.

"What are you trying to pull here, Tiara?" She squinted her eyes to show her distrust of me.

"It's...!!!" Frustrated, I tried writing on the soft ground what I was trying to say. But it ultimately culminated in nothing of note. Somehow, I could not get my limb to jot down the words I needed. Like some serious case of dyslexia, I grew woozy just trying to picture those words in my head. Not even drawing a picture of those seven figures worked. Not for lack of artistic talent, but due to the same effect as before.

"Oookay... Well, uh, thanks for visiting." Twilight stepped back into her castle to close the door behind her, and I quickly dove for the entrance nearly getting the door slammed on my forelimb as a result.

"Please... Princess... I need help." Twilight looked noticeably troubled by the very idea that Tiara was sincerely asking for her help on something. History had shown that listening to that cry for help had been a terribly bad idea. But Tiara was still just a filly, and she was a Princess of Friendship. If anyone had a duty to protect her citizens no matter how rotten they had been, it was Twilight. After some more hesitation on her part, she finally pulled back the doors to let me in. But not before casting an extra protective spell on herself just to make doubly sure.

“I’m sorry about the spell. I wish I could trust you Tiara. But you’ve given me no reason to in the past. Know that I am willing to help you now only because I feel I must.”

“I understand, Princess...”

---

I’d heard those same words from so many ponies now. I wish I had the ability to instantly give them some peace of mind, but trust takes hard work to build. And luck. My efforts had been in vain with many until now, and rarely have I gotten an adult to trust me in all this time since arriving in Equestria. Even if I could speak the words I wanted to tell her directly, there was going to be no way Twilight would believe in me. Even if we were to become good friends, I doubt anyone would ever believe all the crazy things about myself, or of the awful future that awaited us.

That’s why I never thought to tell anyone about myself. Because after all, I’m not doing this for me. One day, Tiara will return and I will be gone from this world. So it doesn’t matter if every pony has been formative to my youth, teaching me the values of friendship and being a good person. It doesn’t matter how much I’ve grown to love every pony here. It won’t matter. Because this isn’t about me. This is about saving Tiara.

That’s why it’s doubly important for me to start doing something now. I thought that removing Tiara from the main events of the show would keep her away from turning into a villainess entirely, and from what I could tell, things seemed to be going well if not better than what had happened in the show. Since I never went to the Crystal Kingdom, I never took part in Sombra’s bid to regain power. I never stood in the way of Spike getting the heart to the center of the city, and ultimately, Sombra was defeated soundly and quickly. In the show, he was restored by the villains so as to make an ally of him and he refused out of selfishness, believing he could take them on alone. And while he succeeded at first, he was vanquished for his folly.

But now, both he and the other powerful bads understood that they could not win simply by letting fate take its course. They were aware of their upcoming destiny and were now making their own strides toward changing the future in their favor.

I should’ve realized it sooner. A part of me hoped that with Tiara out of the picture, the future really had changed for the better. When it came time for Equestria to face its second changeling invasion and for Starlight to grow into her own, instead, there was nothing. This timeline was different in many ways, after all. For starters, the changelings had already been freed from their corrupting madness. By Twilight and her protégé a long time ago even before I had ever arrived to Equestria. Queen Chrysalis herself was now in a magically induced coma from a deeply powerful spell, which not even Princess Twilight could tell when it would break or how. In her historical lessons on changelings, Twilight mentioned that the one recorded use of that spell had lasted over a century, having been powerful enough to outlast almost an entire generation of ponies.

So I had hoped that with the events of the show having been almost completely changed like this meant that things were turning out for the better. In hindsight, I should’ve worried and wondered endlessly as to what must’ve happened to the villains that never showed up. Stygian and The Shadow, The Storm King, or Tirek. I was such a fool...

They had all showed themselves now fully intending to work together with Silver Spoon to accomplish what sounded like a sure victory that seemed to lie far into the future. Strangely, something was still not sitting right by me. If all the villains knew of their defeat, where was Cozy Glow in that group? And why was Luna’s Tantabus and Celestia’s incarnation of that in the mix? It must’ve been due to never having fixed Luna’s regrets. Ponyville never went through that collective dream where Luna was finally able to forgive herself.

I never thought anything of it. If a Tantabus was running amok, Luna would’ve been noticeably bothered by it. It would have even shown up in the dreams of Twilight’s circle of friends. But neither in the dream world nor in the waking one was there ever a visible issue. If Luna had overcome her fears somehow, they must’ve been outside of what I could notice, without the help of Twilight or her immediate friends. And perhaps Luna hadn’t entirely won over her Tantabus as she would’ve liked since it now looked to have a physical incarnation in the real world.

But what about Celestia’s very own Tantabus? Its outline was similar to that of Daybreaker in its ethereal form, and it shown almost as brightly as a fierce desert sun. What had struck the Princess with such regret as to create it? Perhaps it had always existed, and someone had found a way to release her regrets like this?

Then there was that green one... Its shape was otherworldly. Twisted and contorted, full of holes in the ghastly image of Queen Chrysalis herself. Its maddening energies were lined with bright lights within its ethereal appearance, each giving off their own unique signature of magic. A collection of troubled souls whose magic had fed into this Tantabus... I had only heard a few tidbits here and there from Twilight’s lessons at Mrs. Cheerilee’s school and a bit from her protégé who didn’t much like to talk about it, but from what I gathered, that was the congregation of all the troubled changelings who had lost themselves in madness long ago during a tragedy of their old kingdom.

And while it was my own mindlessness that stopped me from being able to predict that they would team up like this, what I could never have expected was Silver Spoon at the helm of that group...

Oh poor Silver Spoon... because of me, she never got her own redemption. My sudden shift in attitude caused her to be stuck with all the infamy her and Tiara had garnered before I arrived, and she had likely been outcasted by everyone because of it. I had the fortune of giving my efforts to Tiara directly, so I never really thought about how difficult my journey to redemption in every pony’s eyes had been no matter how hard it got. But Silver Spoon had been all alone in that... It must’ve crushed her... Her having the Alicorn Amulet proves that.

However, I can’t let her simply do as she wishes and bring ruin to this beautiful world of love and harmony, no matter how much I empathize with her struggles. My heart aches for her, but I will fight her if I must, for the one I’m truly trying to save is Tiara. For now, I’m not nearly strong enough to do that, I realize. Not against a united foe of that magnitude.

Still, if the logic of Equestria is truly like I theorize it to be, then I still have a couple of avenues left to visit in order to gain that power. Now I only need to confirm it.

---

“So what is it that you needed help with, Tiara? You look quite shaken up, I must admit. I’m sorry if I can’t help in thinking that this is a trick, however.” Twilight levitated a comb to my hair to brush out all the sticks that had lodged themselves into my mane from when I ran with haste through the Everfree. She then proceeded to smudge out all the dirt from my coat with a handkerchief.

“I...” I couldn’t say it. Whatever Silver Spoon did, it wasn’t going to allow me to speak on what I had seen of them. But then again, it was like I had mentioned before. Twilight wouldn’t have believed me either way even if I could say it. “I really want to learn magic!” I yelled at the top of my lungs thinking that statement would be suppressed too. If I couldn’t speak of it to anyone, then the choice was obvious. I would need to become strong enough to fight against it on my own.

“You want to learn about magic?” There was clear doubt in her voice. “What for? Why the sudden interest? And why are you so rushed about it?” She prodded with her questions.

I scanned my brain for any amount of believable excuses for a while in an enduring silence, growing Twilight’s suspicion of me. What could she even begin to believe from me, of all ponies? The only thing I could think to do was play at her nature. Taken straight out of Tiara’s manipulative playbook 101.

“I’ve always been interested in magic for as long as I can remember. It’s just so... magical, you know? I’ve never had a horn so I never thought to learn deeply about it since studying it just felt like it would make me sad knowing I’d never get to perform it.” Not a lie. Humanity doesn’t have magic, so seeing it in the show was always so awesome. “I’m really sorry for always being rude and for jeering at your lessons when you’d go to visit Mrs. Cheerilee’s school or held seminars at your library before, Princess Twilight. I only wanted to seem cool to my friends.” Also not a lie. Tiara only ever grandstanded to gain some respect, even if it was from her terrible friends.

“I can’t say I approve, but I understand. Peer pressure is hard to overcome sometimes, so I’ll accept your apology for those incidents Tiara.” She tossed the idea of lending a hand to Tiara once more over in her head, then relented. “Alright, I’ll put my trust in you. If only because Chrys seems to trust you too, Tiara. She’s told me about some of the good deeds you’ve been doing lately. I’ll personally see to tutoring you in the ways of magic.”

“Oh thank you, thank you! You really don’t know how much this means to me, Princess.” I could just about kiss her lavender hooves.

“This is only conditional, Tiara. Break my trust even once, and I won’t allow you even a hundred miles from my castle, you hear?” Twilight worded with a more lax and airy tone, trying to stem her own happiness at having yet another pony to be able to give extensive lessons to on the intricacies of magic.

“I’ll do everything in my power not to! I promise!” At my words, the Princess gave me a hearty laugh, finally letting her guard down a little.

“Well, how about a quick introduction lesson then? Most ponies should already know this, but it’s important to review the basics. Let’s go over to the library where I can gather some reading material too.”

“I would love that.” I quickly followed up her steps as she walked to her castle’s library.

“Say, you never did mention why you had the sudden interest or the rush to learn magic, Tiara.” She said in between the silence of our galloping.

It’s a good thing she didn’t turn back to see my face. She would’ve caught my cold sweat from my lack of answers. Thankfully, I like to think that I’m of quick wit. “I visited Zecora earlier, and even though she doesn’t have a horn, I always found it fascinating that she can work with magic so expertly. Her brews, remedies, and knowledge of magic is something I wish I had. I also heard about how you, Starlight, and Sunburst fixed the Crystal Heart by using Sunburst’s wisdom on magical spells, despite his lack of magical talent. It gave me hope to at least learn about magic like they have, and so I ran as fast as I could here hoping you’d agree to teach me. Thank you for giving me this chance, Princess Twilight.”

Twilight laughed to herself contentedly, happy to be verifying her protégé’s words were proving to be true. “You can drop the ‘princess’, you know. If I’m going to be personally teaching you from now on Tiara, it’ll be better that way.”

“I-I’ll try...”

“But it’s always lovely to have one more interested mind in the magical arts. So, let’s begin shall we?” Twilight pushed the door to her castle’s library open to reveal the myriad of books within.

---

I shudder to think of the future. I’m scared to gain more power for Tiara’s sake. The villains seem to think that Tiara is the key to their success, somehow, and that I will in some way be twisted to join their side, even if they feel they don’t have to manipulate me so closely. That is evident by the fact that they only took away my words that could oust them, and nothing else like my free will. Maybe they know something I don’t. Maybe they strongly believe that I will bend to their will somehow, but I know in my heart of hearts I will never, no matter what.

What scares me is thinking that maybe Tiara will. Once she returns. I know she isn’t a bad person. I just know it. If given the chance, the friends, the love, I’m sure she will choose the right path.

But I also know what Tiara is capable of if she turns fully evil... If that were to happen, I know that she will find the way to gain that same power that nearly erased all of Equestria before. And I know that if she goes through with it in this reality, then with the help of the villains, she will undoubtedly be successful in her goals.

Even her imprisonment in stone felt like the lesser of two horrible ends. For if she manages to win, then there will be no truer tragedy for Tiara.

I can’t afford to second-guess myself. I need to trust that Tiara’s better nature will prevail. I need to do everything in my power to make sure there are still those who will support her for when the day she returns arrives. So that she knows she is loved and needs not turn to that path.

Tiara... with every bit of me, I promise you...

I won’t let you fall.

Comments

[Poparakelis]

Did they time travel?

[Darkevony]

11649915
If you mean the villains/Tiara, then no. They've had visions of the would-be future.

If its about the pacing of the story, it's not outright stated but yes, sorta. Time is fast forwarding pretty quickly per chapter. This is all just the introduction chapters of the story still, which is why I'm rushing them along a bit to get to the real meat of the story.

[Pete100]

Was this a flashback chapter?

[Killer20]

11650159
But that INTRODUCTION is the most important Part of your Story! It doesnt matter if chapter 20 is amazing if your first few chapters are Bad and therefore nobody will GET to chapter 20

The First chapter Of this was REALLY GOOD, And then you just started rushing things in chapter 2 I think… and now THIS Chapter is EVEN WORSE with Pacing and Characters…
YOU SOLD you‘re premise in chapter one, BUILD on that, not rush off to get to Something else right away!

I know it can be frustrating to have so many great Ideas for future scenes and Moments, and having to Wait to actually get to them.
I‘m currently writing my own Story and I‘m writing scenes from chapter 5 when I‘m not even fully done with chapter 1…

But you NEED to actually tell the Story, not just rush off to the Cool stuff later!
It really hurt my Enjoyment of the Story , and I hate that because the First chapter really Sold me on it!

[Always Breakfast]

Interesting. Someone is feeding the villains visions of "canon" but appears to have left out the part where they all lost. One would think if they got the whole story at least a couple would've bailed out just based on that (perhaps that's why Cozy didn't show up?).

[Luckyfanisaac]

“Alright, I’ll put my trust in you. If only because Chrys seems to trust you too, Tiara.

Who’s Chrys?