The Equestria Healing Process

Chapter 9

“My Hate Will Go With You”

As Princess Celestia went out to raise the sun over Equestria the morning after his arrival, Scorpan made his way down to the Canterlot Caves with the intention of seeing his brother one last time before his date with the princesses.   As he walked towards his brother’s cage, Scorpan began to think back to all the moments up until his brother’s escape from Tartarus.  But, it was the most recent events that made Scorpan angry and cross the most.  Hearing that his closest friends had been sent to the prison where he was sent a surge of anger rise inside of him.

“So, you have come to release me?” asked Tirek as he struggled against his bonds while Scorpan approached the cage.  But, Scorpan didn’t even listen to what his brother asked of him.  “Release me, and you shall be rewarded with powers beyond your imagination, my brother.  Together, we shall rule Equestria.”

“Don’t try that with me!” cried Scorpan, banging the cage with his fists.  “You are going to face justice for what you did to my friends and their subjects, you monster!”

Tirek merely chuckled at this remark that his brother had made to him.  As far as he was concerned, Scorpan had not changed and to him, he was still seeking a chance for power and glory.  Scorpan then backed away and looked down at his brother whose arms was stretched out and held by chains that were placed at opposite sides of the cage with his wrists in shackles and the chains that were once on Princess Celestia, Princess Luna and Princess Cadence continued to adorn his legs.  Just as Discord had said to him back in Tartarus, Tirek was feeling what the princesses had felt by wearing their chains.

However, Scorpan was not torturing Tirek like Discord did, even though he had been Tirek’s partner in crime longer than Discord.  He was his brother and Scorpan did not want to humiliate their family any further.

“Justice?” laughed Tirek, acting completely oblivious to what Scorpan had said.  “Oh, please, that just confirms to me that you are and will always be weak and worthless.  I taught you to embrace power and glory and instead you choose the ponies that possess the magic that we desire.”

“These ponies did not deserve to suffer the way you made them suffer, Tirek,” replied Scorpan, pacing in front of the cage.  “When I heard that the princesses were sent to Tartarus by you, I realized that I had to come to persuade them to punish you to the fullest extent of the law."

“What, by whacking me with a mace like before I was sent to Tartarus?” remarked Tirek, spitting in his Scorpan’s face.  “What good did that do, brother?  Attacking your own kin because I was trying to finish what you and I started a long time ago?  Thanks to Discord, I almost had that goal fulfilled until Princess Twilight and her pathetic friends intervened.”

“Which was a good thing because you are going to finally pay for what you have done to me and my friends,” cried Scorpan, who was screaming at the top of his lungs and standing by his decision to have his brother be punished by the princesses.  “All my life, I was brainwashed to believe what you had always intended to do and that was to absorb what makes the ponies who they are and enslave them as your pwn personal servants.  Well, that ends here, brother!  It ends here, you hear me?!”

Scorpan began to pant heavily as Tirek continued to smile at him without any remorse whatsoever.  He shook his left chain and spat on Scorpan again.  It seemed that everything Scorpan had said to him was falling on deaf ears, but Tirek refused to show it.

“You are even worse than Discord,” he remarked, laughing and glaring at Scorpan with mocking eyes.  “You both deserve each other as the lowest of the low.  I taught you both to embrace power and instead you chose friendship: you with the princesses and him with Princess Twilight and her friends as well as that little dragon of hers.  I should have had them all beheaded as well as you.”

Now, Tirek was going too far and Scorpan raised his wings and was ready to rip open the cage and kill his brother.  But, just then, the sounds of hooves came down towards them and Scorpan looked back to see several of Celestia’s guards coming towards them.  He looked back to Tirek and smiled at him slyly almost like Celestia did when Tirek tried to absorb her magic.

“It’s time to face justice, Lord Tirek,” said one of the guards as he and the others approached the cage.  “The princesses are waiting for you.”

The four guards activated their magic and lifted Tirek’s cage up into the air.  Even as if he was being prepared to meet his match, Tirek still glared at his brother trying to get him to defer back to his side.  But, Scorpan ignored his brother’s eyes and stood there as he was being led away.

“This is your last chance, brother,” cried Tirek mockingly as the guards led him away.  “Call them back here and release me.  Together, we shall rule Equestria as we have always wanted.  Don’t throw this all away.”

“It doesn’t matter,” remarked Scorpan as he lifted himself up into the air.  “Whatever the princesses do to you, my hate will go with you.”

So, he watched Tirek being led away by the guards and after Tirek was gone, Scorpan stood there for a moment and was at an impass over  whether he thought whether or not he should see his brother be punished for his crimes.  In his mind, seeing his friends berate Tirek would be more satisfying than anything he could ever want.  They were the ones who will ultimately make the decision that decides Tirek’s fate.

But, at the same time, Scorpan did not want to witness Celestia, Luna, Cadence and Twilight make a decision that would send Tirek to a place where he would one day return to Equestria and cause terror all over again.  He needed to be there and make sure that they follow up on what he asked of them.

“I must be there to witness his punishment,” he thought and flew out of the caves following the guards that carried his brother to his fate.  As he emerged from the caves and out onto the streets, he heard and saw the ponies of Canterlot shout and jeer at his brother as he was led through the streets of Canterlot and towards the throne room.

“Take this, you monster!” cried a pony who threw a tomato at him while others threw eggs, apples, anything that would make Tirek feel humiliated for what he did.  Of course, the Canterlot royal guards struggled to hold the crowds, but were ultimately able to do so.

“This is for terrorizing my family!” shouted another pony in anger, throwing a scalding cup of coffee into Tirek's face.  The centaur roared in pain and anger upon being thrown that.  But, the pony who threw the coffee showed no remorse as did all the others who witnessed him being carried through the streets of Canterlot.

“How dare you call yourself a ruler of Equestria?” shouted yet another pony.  “Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Princess Cadence and Princess Twilight are our rulers, not you!”

“We don’t bow to dictators, you hear me?!” shouted a well-dressed pony, who spat in Tirek’s face as his cage passed him and towards the doors to the main castle where the princesses were.

Scorpan followed them into the castle, but did so in a quiet manner so as to not be noticed by the other guards.  However, just as they came inside, he felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around to see Discord, dressed in a judge’s robe standing right in back of him.

“Discord,” gasped Scorpan, startled by his presence.  “What are you doing here?”

“Why, I’m here to pass justice on Tirek,” he said with a look of determination on his face.  “And I suppose you are here to see the same thing.”

“Yes,” replied Scorpan as they emerged from their hiding spot.  “I’ve come to make sure my brother pays for his crimes.”

Both of Tirek’s ex accomplices sighed heavily as they saw the guards take Tirek into another room instead of the throne room.  Looking through the door, Discord saw the guards wash and clean Tirek down after being bombarded with food and garbage.

“They must want him to look presentable for the princesses,” whispered Discord to Scorpan.  “Who would ever want to be in front of important ponies looking like that?”

However, all Scorpan could do was stare at his brother as they cleaned him down.  After a few moments, Discord and Scorpan quickly retreated into the throne room through a back door while the princesses as well as Twilight's friends were not looking.  However, Twilight could sense that they were inside and used her magic to bring them forward from behind her throne.

“Discord, Scorpan, how did you both get in here?” she asked Discord while the other princesses sat there in amazement.  “Canterlot is under tight protection because Tirek is here, you know.”

“Well, I had my ways, Princess Twilight,” replied Discord, chuckling nervously as he looked at Twilight, who was wearing her princess crown.  “Scorpan and I want to witness Tirek get what’s coming to him.”

"As do we," replied Rainbow Dash, hovering over the two creatures.  "He terrorized us and we want revenge.  Swift and mighty revenge."

This caused Celestia, Luna and Cadence to look at each other for a moment and then turned back to Discord and Scorpan as Twilight released her magical grip on them.

“It’s just as well,” Celestia sighed to them as they were lowered back onto the ground.  “You were both just as much victims as we all were."

As a matter of fact, seeing Scorpan for the first time was very surprising to Twilight's friends, although his striking presence had caused Fluttershy to shake nervously as they hid behind the throne while Twilight used her magic to bring them back around.

"Who is that?" whimpered Fluttershy, shaking like a leaf.

"This is Scorpan, Tirek's brother," replied Celestia, speaking tenderly to her.  "He is not like Tirek at all.  In fact, he is a very good friend of ours."

This made the two ponies calm down slightly as Scorpan lowered himself to their level and placed his hand in Fluttershy's hoof as the timid Pegasus chuckled nervously.

"I've heard many things about all of you," he said, addressing Twilight and her friends.  "I am very close friends with Celestia, Luna and Cadence and I deeply regret for the actions of my brother and what he put through all of you."

"At least you are not like him," remarked Applejack.  "What he did to us was the worst of the worst.  Who knows what he could have done had we not stopped him?"

"Perhaps you will get your chance soon, dear Applejack," interrupted Luna, as the sounds of hooves came from outside the throne room.  "Here comes our prisoner and captive."

This caused Scorpan to remember the conversation that he had the night before with the princesses.  Indeed, all he wanted his brother to never hurt anypony ever again, but the princesses were indeed going to be the judges of what would happen to Tirek.

Just then, the doors of the throne room opened and Tirek was about to be brought in to face justice for his crimes…