Tirek? Admitting he was wrong? That set off a few alarm bells. But maybe he had simply explained himself well enough that the old centaur finally got the point. But that would be giving him the benefit of the doubt, and he couldnāt very well do that, now could he?
Discord stroked his goatee for a moment, mulling over Tirekās words. He did, however, make a few good points there. The draconequus was the catalyst for pretty much all the craziness that went downā¦ just the way he liked it, really.
āHmā¦ well, I suppose youāre right. If it wasnāt for me, you would never have gotten as far as you did. And, if it wasnāt for me, Twilight and her friends would never have unlocked that quaint little box of theirs.ā
āThen again, I suppose you should get most of the credit for that one!ā
Discord resumed circling around Tirekās cage, mimicking a backstroke as he continued.
āIf it wasnāt for you, I would never have acquired such a shiny little medal! If it wasnāt for you, I would never have thought to give that medal to Twilight as a token of our true friendship!ā
He paused to grin at Tirek, the smug look on his face almost unbearable, he was sure.
āIf it wasnāt for you, you wouldnāt be locked in a cage right now. Isnāt that deliciously ironic?ā
The crooked-postured centaur withdraws within himself in a disquieted state of unease as Discord suspiciously parsed through his.. frankly,Ā generous wording. In truth, Tirekās first instinct compelled him to appeal to Discordās ego solely to derail him from acting upon his first vindictive whim, but there was at least a kernel of truth to his apparent admiration for his former ally.Ā If nothing else, he felt power was something inherently worth respecting - even simply as a means to an end towards the slightest possible off-chance of seizing it forĀ himself.
All the same, he was silently relieved to see the Draconequus eager to return to boasting than keep onto his confrontational trajectory. Words, were evidently a cheap weapon which Tirek was glad to be assaulted by, given the endless possibility of gruesome alternatives such an incomprehensible entity could wrought upon him... Even so, however, the centaur seemed thoroughly peeved by Discordās conceit that heĀ āwouldnāt have gotten as far as he didāĀ without him. Which may well have been true, if the fool hadnāt gotten INĀ his way to begin with! The pure venom emanating from Tirekās stare could have snuffed the life out of any weaker-hearted creature, but it seemed to Discord of no even remotely perceptible concern - more likely though, perhaps, he simply wasnāt even paying attention.
As he continued on with his insulting exposition, the centaur kept on a sneering, stone-cold poker face. These insinuations of supposed failures on his part weighed little on him, since after all, how could any of this gibberish have ever been apparent without this hindsight? Still, though, the abstract but paradoxically literal nature of this explanation which he owed his defeat to had piqued his curiosity immensely. Since from the very instant he had been barred back into this cage, heās been wracking his brain towards a logical explanation for that mysterious rainbow of light which had came out of nowhere and vanquished him in a mere matter of seconds.Ā
All the same...Ā though words may not yield the same results as ruthless force, the smugness on that crooked face provoked Tirek with such upset he might have bitten him right in his stupid, noodly fool throat if he were only sharing this cage with him.Ā But, since no such wish-fulfillment possibility had intercepted his present reality, he doubled down to assert full focus onto his situation as-is, and how he could possibly profit from Discordās present, grandiose state of mind. He may not have had his brutal might to fall back on, but there were at least a few avenues of advantage to take in being underestimated...
āThis all seems as though circumstance has either yielded highly into your favor to land a victory into your lap by the blind tidings of sheer dumb luck... Or, I sense this was perhaps all a ruse of such elaborate design that I couldnāt have begun to comprehend it!ā The centaur inquisitively raised an eyebrow as he addressed his free floating visitor, as if suspicious of his eccentric visual displays as though it was hiding something immensely deeper underneath it all.Ā āIf my suspicions are correct, I clearly had no hope of any true victory. I was as good as captured the instant you shackled me in chains!ā The centaur embellishes his bitter words with a modicum of surprise, which he hoped to mask his insincerity with.
āSo thatās the real reason you came here, isnāt it! After such an ingenious masterstroke, you couldnāt even enjoy your victory with the knowledge that I might still be sitting down here with a single idea in my head to underestimate your cunning and mettle!ā The frightful old monster scowled at the Draconequus, as though in light of an epiphany that heās been played for a fool by him this entire time.
