The Equestria Healing Process

Chapter 8

"A Small Request"

As night fell on Equestria, everything seemed normal as Luna assumed her duty as princess of the night. It was so quiet that you could barely hear a pin drop as many of Canterlot's residents were still stricken with fear of Tirek's rampage still stuck in their minds. But, unbeknownst to anypony, a strange and cloaked figure similar to Tirek was walking around Canterlot. But unlike Tirek, who was hunchbacked while in the cloak, this figure was stocky, yet walked like any normal two footed creature. The pony who had been Tirek's first victim was walking along the same route as before and noticed the figure coming towards him. Remembering his encounter with Tirek, the pony grew nervous and stepped back in fear for his life and his magic.

"Stay away from me," he whimpered, dropping a basket of oranges that were on his back. "I know who you are and I know what you want. But, you are not getting my magic again, you hear me?"

But, the figure stuck out his claws and approached the pony. However, unlike Tirek, this figure was more calmer although he was fearing in is size and figure.

"Calm down," said the figure, speaking a gruff yet calming voice. "If you think I am like my brother, then you are mistaken. All I ask is for you to direct me to the palace."

The pony was still scared, but nonetheless complied with the figure's request. He pointed his magic towards the main castle where Celestia and Luna resided. The figure looked up at his intended destination and then looked back at the pony.

"It's right there," said the pony nervously towards the figure. "To my right, you can't miss it."

"Thank you and remember, you have nothing to fear," said the figure and then walked off towards the castle doors. Luna's night guards could see the figure coming closer towards them and thinking that it was one of Tirek's accomplices; they kept their watch and debated mentally whether or not they should capture the figure.

Meanwhile, Princess Luna had just returned from being in another one of her subject's dreams and was walking down the hallways of the castle when she walked into her sister's bedroom and stared down at her, relieved that she was finally getting a good sleep after everything they had been through together.

"Sleep soundly, my sister," thought Luna as she stared at the sleeping princess of the day. "Soon, Tirek will no longer be a threat to Equestria."

Luna placed a hoof on her sister's mane and stroked it, thinking of how these events had possibly strengthened their relationship as well as that of their relationship with Cadence and Twilight. Given the fact that they had been captured against their will twice in recent weeks, it seemed as though Luna felt that as long as she and her sister were going to be targets by creatures like Tirek, it seemed as though it made her realize that Luna and Celestia would one day realize that their time would soon come where they would pass their powers onto Twilight for good.

Just then, a loud noise was heard and the sounds of screams were heard as Celestia woke up with a start and the two royal sisters ran out into the hallway to find out what was happening.

"Take your hooves off of me!" cried the cloaked figure, struggling against the magical bonds from two of Luna's guards. Recognizing the figure underneath the cloak, Luna raised her horn high and released a freezing spell to stop the chaos.

"ENOUGH!" she cried in her royal Canterlot voice and the guards and the figure were frozen in her freezing spell. After a moment, Luna undid her spell and the cloak came off to reveal a hulking bear-like figure with wings.

"Scorpan," gasped Celestia, amazed at what she and Luna were seeing. "What are you doing here at this time of night?"

"Forgive me, princesses," said Scorpan, bowing to them. "I am sorry to have come to you at this time of night, but I need to ask a favor of you both."

Luna raised her left front roof and waved it to dismiss the guards that had held Scorpan against his will. As the two guards left, Luna and Celestia beckoned Scorpan to enter Celestia's quarters and they shut the door behind them. Celestia sat down on the side of her bed as she and Luna listened to what Scorpan wanted.

"We're listening, Scorpan," said Luna, who joined her sister on her bed. "But, this was a very odd time for you to come and make demands of us."

"You know me Luna," replied Scorpan. "I am not here to make demands of you both, you must understand that. But, I need to ask you something in regards to the fate of my brother."

The two sisters knew very well that although Tirek was a creature of pure evil, he was Scorpan's brother and whatever Scorpan had to say to them, they had to listen.

"Go on," said Celestia, although she was being cautious of what Scorpan wanted them to do with his brother. "But just remember, we may not honor whatever you request of us, Scorpan. Never forget what your brother did to us and to all of Equestria."

"I am aware of that, Celestia," sighed Scorpan, knowing that he couldn't reconcile with Tirek much like Celestia and Luna did 1,000 years earlier. "I am still angry over what my brother did to you and your sister and that I should have come to your aid. But, had I attempted to come to your aid, I would have been no match for him with the power that he was absorbing."

At that moment, Scorpan took in another sigh and looked down at the floor for a second, before raising his head back up towards the sisters. Neither Celestia nor Luna were prepared for what Scorpan said next

"I want my brother to be punished to the fullest extent of the Equestrian law," he said ominously and a pair of loud gasps was heard from the two sisters upon hearing those words. "There is no other place for him to go to where he would no longer be a threat. As long as he remains in Tartarus or anywhere else for that matter, he will still be a threat.  But not if he is given a form of punishment that prevents him from leaving Tartarus again."

The two sisters looked at each other and knew that Scorpan and them shared the same thought: that they all wanted Tirek to suffer for what he did to Equestria. Unlike themselves, Tirek was a creature of pure darkness and he would never be reformed like Discord was.

Scorpan could also understand what Celestia was trying to say to him. He could see that while Celestia and Luna were able to reconcile after Luna's 1,000 year imprisonment on the moon, the relationship between him and Tirek would never be repaired. Tirek's heart was as black as night and creatures who were born with black hearts did not deserve to exist in Equestria. Scorpan was born with a black heart, but Celestia and Luna changed his life forever and he was indebted to both of them for doing so.  After a few moments of silence, Scorpan finished what he said as he walked over towards the fireplace.

"Whatever you all decide on Tirek's fate is what I will be satisfied with," sighed Scorpan walking over towards the roaring fireplace. "I just don't want him to hurt anypony ever again, that's all. He has no soul and no heart, unlike all the other foes you both have fought."

Celestia and Luna then looked at each other for a moment and then walked over to Scorpan standing on each side of him. They wanted him to really think about what he was intending for them to do to his brother.

"We have fought so many foes in our existences," sympathized Luna, placing a wing over Scorpan's shoulder. "My sister and I have always believed in reformatting our enemies into believing that their old ways were not what they should live with and that everyone in Equestria who had done wrong, deserved a second chance."

"But, we have learned that we can't always trust those we attempted to reform," added Celestia, looking over towards Scorpan. "We learned that the hard way when we chose Discord over Twilight to find your brother. But, we chose Discord over Twilight because Tirek was far too dangerous for Twilight and her friends to go after alone. But, we had to find a way to stop him and the only way to do that was for Twilight to unlock the chest that was at the tree of harmony."

"However, to do that, the chest needed six keys," continued Luna, releasing her wing from Scorpan's shoulder. "Our plan was to store our alicorn magic into Twilight for her to use as bait for Tirek to take, then something would happen where the final key would be revealed and Twilight and her friends would unlock the chest and use the power inside to defeat your brother."

Scorpan was shocked by these confessions that his friends had made to him. The thought of seeing his friends without their magic made him sick to his stomach and only grew his resentment for his brother even more.

"I don't know what to say to you both," gasped Scorpan, walking away from the fireplace and placing a claw on his face. "Either that you had a plan to either destroy yourselves or save Equestria. By doing this, you put yourselves at my brother's mercy where as you could have fought back."

"If we did fight back, he would have drained our magic," protested Celestia, trying to defend her actions. "It was the only option we had, Scorpan, as long as Discord was on his side. I'm sorry, but it was."

Scorpan wanted to berate his friends for what they did, but he couldn't. He held in whatever emotions he had and sighed heavily, feeling low since he felt that he could have been there for them.

"I'm sorry, my friends," he said solemnly. "It's just that you didn't deserve to be treated the way you did. When I learned of your imprisonment in Tartarus, I'd just lost control of myself and wanted to get back at Tirek for what he did to you."

"Revenge is never the answer for anypony," said Celestia, trying to continue sounding sympathetic for Scorpan. "Sooner or later, we need to let events like this go and we learn from our mistakes so that they won't happen again."

As much as he hated to hear that, Scorpan lowered his head and walked towards the door, opening it to leave, but not before turning back towards the sisters one last time.

"I hope you both know what you are doing," he said. "Remember, we are friends, no matter what you decide to do."

And with that, he left the room and shut the door, leaving the two sisters behind to think about their conversation.