The Equestria Healing Process

by twilightsparkle3562

Rating: everyone
Tags: Slice of Life
Length: 27634

Discord, Twilight, her friends and fellow princesses try to move on from the events of Tirek's rampage.

Following the events of "Twilight's Kingdom," Discord, Twilight, her friends and fellow princesses struggle to move on following Tirek's rampage. At the same time, Tirek is brought back to Canterlot to face justice for his crimes.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2014-05-31 10:41:07 UTC

Celestia's Nightmare

Disclaimer: I do not own “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,” or its characters.  They are property of Hasbro Studios and DHX Media.

“The Equestria Healing Process”

By TwilightSparkle3562

Chapter 1

    “Celestia’s Nightmare”

It had been several days since Twilight Sparkle and her friends had defeated Lord Tirek and returned him to Tartarus.  From Canterlot to Cloudsdale and from Appleloosa to Ponyville, the damages that Tirek had caused to his victims were not just physical, but psychological as well.  Many ponies were subjected to the wrath of the demon centaur and were drained of their magic and true purpose in life.  Perhaps nopony was more traumatized than not just Twilight and her friends, but also her fellow princesses, Celestia, Luna and Cadence, who had transferred all of their alicorn magic to Twilight, in order to hide it away from Tirek.  The plan ultimately was uncovered and Tirek used Twilight's friends and Discord as bargaining chips to get her to surrender the magic .  Still, although Twilight had found the last key that ultimately released Equestria's newest means of defense and sent Tirek back to Tartarus, the scars of his rampage were still fresh in the minds of all who were victimized, even though it had only been a few days.

It all began one night in Princess Celestia's private quarters in Canterlot where as she slept in her chambers soundly for the first time in a long time, the princess of the day began to think back to the moment that Tirek sent them to Tartarus:

The three once mighty alicorn princesses, Celestia, Luna and Cadence sat in the throne room of Canterlot castle waiting for the moment that Tirek would barge in and attempt to steal their magic.  However, they managed to hide their power within Twilight Sparkle and as Tirek barged in and stormed over towards them.  He used his magic to pick up Celestia and shake her like an old ragdoll as he attempted to consume her magic.

“What have you done?” demanded Tirek, but Celestia only responded by giving him a sly smile.  He then tried to do the same with Luna, who merely glared at him and with Cadence, who closed her eyes and shuddered in front of the enormous monster.   Realizing that they had no magic for him to give, Tirek grew angry.

“WHERE IS YOUR MAGIC?!” he shouted to them and lifted the three off of the throne and down to the floor as he climbed up the steps and sat down on the throne.  The three alicorns merely just glared at him as he sat there on their spot, silently mocking them as they watched him.  After a moment, he could tell that they had transferred their magic to someone else, but he didn’t know who it was they transferred their magic to.

“Getting rid of your magic so that I cannot take it from you? That was your plan?” mocked Tirek as he stared down on them.   “How does it feel, knowing that soon, every Pegasus, unicorn and Earth pony will bow to my will, and that there is nothing you can do to stop it?”

To prove that he was not joking, Tirek produced orbs with silhouetted figures of Earth, Pegasus and Unicorn ponies and then crushed them together.  Even with this, the princesses remained defiant.

“You will not prevail Tirek,” said Celestia weakly, but Tirek was determined to see that they were out of his way for good.

“Give my regards to Cerberus!” he said evilly and produced a portal that sent them into Tartarus.

As soon as they entered the portal, a white light flash that sealed off the portal and Princess Celestia woke up frantically with a start, gasping and her eyes popping wide open.  It was the first nightmare that Celestia had since she first sensed Tirek's presence in Equestria.  Hearing her sister’s gasps, Luna came barging in throwing the doors to Celestia’s bedroom wide open.

“Sister, are you all right?” cried the Princess of the Night, her eyes just as wide as her sister as she galloped over to her sister's bedside.  “I heard you screaming from down the hall.  You must have had a nightmare."

Feeling her younger sisters concerns for her, Celestia took in several deep breaths as she climbed out of her bed and brushed strands of her flowing hair out of her face.  Luna then levitated her magic to retrieve Celestia’s crown from the dresser and handed it to her sister.

“I’m sorry, Luna,” she gasped, taking in deep breaths, her face dripping with sweat.  “I just had that horrible dream again of us going into Tartarus.”

“And I have had that same vision as well, sister,” added Luna, who watched as Celestia donned her horseshoes.   “It seems that although Tirek is gone, We both have a fear that he would one day return seeking revenge and finishing what he started."

“And that is something we cannot allow, dear sister,” replied Celestia, her face still dripping with sweat from her nightmare.  “Tirek needs to be punished for his crimes and it will not just be imprisonment, Luna.”

Celestia walked back to her bed and levitated a cloth to wipe the sweat off of her face.  It seemed that her nightmares had been a sign of fear that was rarely seen out of her and the other princesses.  If this was a sign of things to come, they had to confront it.  Tirek could not repeat what he had done to their subjects and if he was planning to escape again, they would have to stop him.

“I agree with you, sister,” said Luna as Celestia went over to her fireplace and knelt down in front of it.  “I too have had fears of Tirek escaping Tartarus and that I felt that justice was not served when he returned.  We need him to return to Canterlot to face those he hurt, particularly ourselves as well as Twilight Sparkle and her friends.”

Celestia lowered her head down in exhaustion as she heard what Luna was saying to her.  In Celestia’s mind, Luna was right, Tirek needed to be confronted and punished for his crimes.  At the same time, Celestia had to realize that Tirek was a creature who did not deserve a second chance at reformation.  He was a creature of pure evil and darkness, someone that deserved to rot in Tartarus for eternity.  However, the emotions that went through Celestia's mind were raw and fresh and her eyes began to well with tears.  But, she needed to be strong in front of her subjects, so she did the next best thing when she got stressed and that was to sit in front of her fireplace.

“It needs to be done, sister,” sighed Celestia as Luna laid down next to her while she started a small fire  “Ever since he sent us to Tartarus, we have been scarred with the visions of a place that we should never have been to at all.  When we were sent there, I had never been so scared in all my life.  I thought I would never see Twilight or Canterlot ever again.”

Luna bent down to her sister and hugged her tightly in an effort to console her as she silently cried.  Celestia was right, being trapped in Tartarus was the most terrifying experience that they had ever gone through.  There they were, without magic and the only one keeping them company was Cerberus, although he had sensed that they didn't belong there and took very good care of them until Tirek was returned.  Had it not been for Twilight and her friends, they would have never gotten out and Tirek would have taken all of Equestria for himself.

“What if we didn’t get out?” thought Luna, as she hugged her older sister.  “Then Tirek would have turned Equestria into his own personal kingdom and would have enslaved every one of our subjects while we would have watched from Tartarus rule over Equestria with only Cerberus for company.  My sister is right, we were banished to Tartarus once and we are not going to be banished again.”

After a few moments, Luna got up and walked over to her sister's bedroom window and looked down on the streets of Canterlot, who were deserted of its inhabitants except for the night guards patrolling the streets.  Much like her sister, Luna could understand the pain that their subjects were dealing with.  Nopony was safe from Tirek and Discord, not even themselves and as Celestia had calmed down from her nightmare, she walked over to her sister and joined her at the bedroom window.

"Have you calmed down, sister?" asked Luna worriedly, looking over towards her.  "Or has your mind still remained active of these thoughts?"

"I've calmed down a little bit," replied Celestia, who was now thinking of something else.  "But there is something else on my mind of greater importance that we need to confront."

Although she was slightly confused by this, Luna had a good idea of what her sister was trying to think about.

"If you are thinking about Discord, then yes we need to confront him sister," guessed Luna, a hint of anger in her voice.  "Had he not disobeyed us to begin with, then maybe all of this could have been avoided and Tirek would have been stopped."

Celestia could see that her sister had guessed right and sighed heavily as she walked back to her fireplace.  In her mind, she was angry at Discord for what he did by betraying her and the other princesses and joining Tirek's side.  When Celestia had sent Discord to capture Tirek to begin with, she had thought that he had changed for good.  Instead, she failed to see that he didn't change and that was something that was going through her mind.  Yes, he did give her flowers as an apology, but it was going to take much more than flowers to heal from something like this.

"I'm afraid that we must also call on Discord to come here as well," added Celestia, laying down once again by the fireplace.  "We need to have a talk with him about his betrayal and what the consequences are for disobeying us."

"Indeed, sister," added Luna, a small scowl coming onto her face as Celestia fell asleep once again.  "Discord did disobey us and we must let him know how we feel."

With her sister asleep, Luna returned to her duties as Princess of the Night.  She had spent the past few nights trying to help her subjects deal with the nightmares surrounding Lord Tirek's attack on Equestria.  In her own mind, Discord was a traitor and if she had a choice, then she would have returned to stone.

At the same time, however, Celestia had another more pressing and personal issue on her mind and that was on Twilight Sparkle herself.  For Celestia knew that Twilight's home at Golden Oak Library was destroyed by Lord Tirek when he tried to go after their alicorn magic and was worried for her well being.  She then looked over towards a picture of herself, Luna, Cadence, Shining Armor, Twilight's friends and Twilight herself from Twilight's recent coronation as a princess.  Looking at the picture, she sighed heavily with sadness and worry deep in her exhausted face.  Twilight had lost everything in the explosion including all the friendship letters that Twilight had sent her from the days when Twilight was her student.  One of Celestia's goals was to not only punish Tirek and reprimand Discord, but also to help Twilight replace all the items that she had lost.

"Stay strong, Princess Twilight," Celestia thought as she fell back asleep in the warmth of the fires of her fireplace.  "We will help you get through this."

Meanwhile, unlike Canterlot, the citizens of the Crystal Empire were ordered to stay indoors by orders of Princess Cadence and Shining Armor while Tirek was on his rampage.  To this end, Tirek had failed to obtain magic from the crystal ponies who had already had their magic abused before at the hands of King Sombra.  However, as stood overlooking the Crystal Empire, Shining Armor still had his feelings of resentment towards Discord and began to once again think back to the moment his magic was absorbed from him by Lord Tirek.

"Shining Armor," remarked Discord, who then took Shining Armor's helmet and placed it on his own head.  "Whatever are you doing here?"

"Back off traitor," snapped Shining Armor, stepping away from Discord, ready to pounce on him like a wild animal.  However, Lord Tirek appeared in front of him, emerging onto the tower with a royal guard in his hands, having just drained him of his own magic.

"The only one Discord betrayed was himself," laughed Tirek, throwing the guard aside as he turned his attention towards Shining Armor.  "Abandoning his true nature to make friends with weak-minded equines who offer him nothing!"

This made Shining Armor furious and he fired a blast of his magic, in an attempt to fight him.  But, Tirek merely grabbed the blast and turned it into a small ball before throwing it into his mouth and chewed on it like a piece of candy.  He then grabbed Shining Armor's horn and absorbed the magic from him.  After a few moments, Shining Armor collapsed and looked up towards Discord who threw away his helmet.

"How...could...you...do this?" he asked weakly and the last thing he remembered before falling unconscious was Tirek telling Discord to go have some fun while he went in search of Celestia, Luna and Cadence.  "No...Cadence."

As he snapped himself back to reality, Shining Armor knew that Discord was indeed a traitor.  But, he was not only angry at him because he betrayed all of Equestria, he was concerned about the two most important mares in his life, Cadence and Twilight and thanks to Discord, they became targets for this monster, while he was left to rot without his magic.  But, his train of thought was soon interrupted when a melodious voice came out from inside the castle.

"Shining Armor," called the voice and Shining Armor turned to see his wife, Princess Cadence walking over towards him.  Cadence could see that her husband had been up all night and was concerned for his well being.  "You've been up all night.  Why don't you come and have something to eat?"

"I can't Cadence," he said, turning over towards her with tired eyes.  "I can't eat or sleep until Discord pays for what he did to you and Twilight.  I almost lost you both to Tirek and if there is someone who needs to pay, it's Discord."

"Why are you putting all the blame on Discord?" asked Cadence, trying to defend him.  "He was merely misled by Tirek and was remorseful for what he did.  And being angry about it isn't going to do anything.  In the end, it is really Tirek who is the enemy, not Discord."

"He betrayed Equestria, Cadence," protested Shining Armor, his voice rising slightly.  "By joining forces with that monster who took you away from me along with Celestia and Luna and placed you in a place that is only for the monsters and other threats to Equestria.  Who knows what he could have done to Twilight and her friends?

Cadence could understand that Shining Armor was angry about Discord, but at the same time, she knew him personally from her visit with Twilight.  In her mind, all Discord wanted was to be friends with Twilight and even though he led them to a Tatzelwurm at the edge of Equestria, she knew that was all Discord really wanted.  She knew that Discord had a false friend in Tirek and knew that deep down, he wasn't a monster, but a misled soul.

"Do you think that matters, Shining Armor?" asked Cadence, looking shocked at her husband's look of anger.  "Would rather have Discord turned to stone because of what Tirek did to me, Twilight and my aunts?  Is that what you want?"

This had to make Shining Armor think for a moment.  His wife did have a point that Discord was misled, but at the same time, Discord needed to be punished, even if it wasn't going to be the way he wanted.

"No, I don't," sighed Shining Armor heavily.  "I just want to come face to face with him and tell him how I feel about what he did.  You and Twilight are important and I am doing this not just because I am a Prince of the Crystal Empire, but because you are my wife and Twilight is my little sister."

Of course, Cadence knew at that moment that her husband was only acting this way out of protecting those who were closest to him.  However, unlike Shining Armor, Cadence wanted to help Discord realize the error of his ways just as much as anypony would.  Soon, she would get that chance along with her aunts.  After all, Cadence believed in second chances and believed that Discord believed another second chance at being accepted by Equestria.

But much like Celestia, Cadence was also worried about Twilight and the situation that she was in.  Her library was gone and she could understand why Shining Armor was angry at Discord as well as Tirek.  Twilight was his little sister and Cadence was her sister-in-law, so, they needed to be there for her.

"I know now how you feel, Shining Armor," said Cadence, placed a hoof on his face.  "But, being mad at Discord isn't going to help Twilight bring her library back nor erase the memories of what had happened recently.  Right now, all that matters is that we punish Tirek for his crimes and being there for Twilight."

So, Shining Armor nodded in agreement at this and hugged his wife as a way of apologizing to her for his behavior.  Soon, the two of them would be swept into the aftermath that was blanketing Equestria, including the Crystal Empire, which had been spared by Lord Tirek and Discord.

Meanwhile, in his thinking tree, Discord was contemplating of everything that had recently happened and knew that he was going to face the princesses and hear them express their disappointment in him for deferring to Tirek’s side.  Had he done his job like he was supposed to do, then everything that would have happened would not have happened to begin with.

Much like the changeling invasion of Canterlot, a new healing process had begun…

Discord's Lament

Chapter 2

       “Discord’s Lament”

As he sat in his thinking tree, Discord reflected on all that had happened during the time he was with Tirek, until the time he had his magic stolen like all the others and was betrayed.  He could not help but think and no matter what type of magic he conjured up would make him feel better.  Until Tirek crossed his path, Discord was on the fast track to realizing that friendship was more powerful than anything he could ever have.  But he threw it all away when Tirek offered him a chance to go back to his old ways as the master of chaos, only to have been betrayed and absorbed of his own chaos magic.  Perhaps more importantly, he feared that his relationship with Fluttershy had been permanently damaged because of his actions.  He was never loved by the other ponies, but Fluttershy was the one pony who was always there for him.

“I don’t know how I am going to get over this,” he thought as he looked up to the night sky above.  “Because of me, all my friends were stripped of their magic by Tirek.  Should I have stopped him right then and there when I had the chance?”

He snapped his fingers and a television screen came on that allowed him to watch what he did.  He was watching the moment he captured Fluttershy and the others in a cage before Tirek absorbed their magic.  He carefully watched the moment where he betrayed Twilight's friends and told a tearful Fluttershy that Tirek had offered him more than just tea parties:

The town of Ponyville was deserted as Twilight had ordered her friends to tell its citizens to stay indoors until Tirek was defeated.  Now, it was only them who were out on the streets.

"Alright, y'all," said Applejack, looking out to see that the town had been secured. "I think we've warned everypony to stay inside."

"I'm sure Discord will catch Tirek and this will all be over soon," said Fluttershy happily.

"I'll bet he takes his sweet time," huffed Rainbow Dash, who was never a fan of Discord to begin with.  Just then, Discord himself appeared wearing the medallion that Tirek had given to him back in Canterlot.

"Or perhaps these things just take time," Discord said, teleporting over to them.  Fluttershy flew over to her friend and hugged him tightly as she thought that Tirek had been captured.

"You're back!" gasped Fluttershy, as she hugged her closest friend.  "Did you bring the cucumber sandwiches?"

"I did," said Discord, producing a plateful of cucumber sandwiches.  But then, at that moment, Discord revealed his true colors and his face and voice turned from warm and joyful to cold and sinister.  "I imagine they'll be your last decent meal for quite some time."

Suddenly, Discord threw the sandwiches face down on the ground and produced a large cage that trapped Twilight's friends inside.  They shouted and screamed at Discord as Tirek stepped towards them and smiled down at the captured ponies.  As far as he was concerned, he was nearly close to his ultimate goal of gaining the alicorn magic.

"Ta-Da!" he sang to Tirek as the large centaur looked down on his latest victims.

"You've gathered up all of them?" asked Tirek.

"And her little dragon, too," laughed Discord as Spike tried to bite Discord, but the crafty draconequs managed to quickly pull his finger away in a teasing manner.

"How could you do this?" cried Fluttershy, as she was being protected by Applejack.  "I thought we were friends."

"Oh, we were," replied Discord, who seemed to not care about Fluttershy at all.  "But Tirek offered me something much more than tea parties.  Surely you didn't see this coming?"

"I didn't," sobbed Fluttershy, burying herself into Applejack.  "I really didn't."

Seeing his one and only true friend cry like that sent a chill up his spine and it was only then did Discord could not watch anymore of his ultimate betrayal and snapped the television away from his view.  All he ever really wanted was to be friends with someone who would accept him for who he was and when Tirek offered him the chance to have freedom to do whatever he wanted.  He seized that opportunity and it would become the biggest regret of his life.

“Oh, Fluttershy,” he continued to think after seeing his own failure before his own eyes.  “I don’t know what came over me when Tirek tricked me into joining his side.  I may have destroyed my relationship with Celestia and the other princesses, but you are the only true friend I got now.  The other ponies may have realized that I am still not reformed, but I truly am reformed, if only everyone else could see that.”

Just then, he heard a rustling sound and at that moment, a pair of Celestia’s guards, one unicorn and one Pegasus, came forward and landed at the base of the tree.

"Discord, get down here at once!" order the first guard sharply.  Hearing them and not wanting to have any more conflict, Discord snapped a pink bathrobe on to show that he was resting and came down the tree to meet them. But the guards were not impressed for all they knew, they were dealing with a traitor.

“May I help you, gentlecolts?” Discord asked in a polite voice as he peaked out from the tree. "Please forgive my appearance, I was asleep and I..."

“Drop the act, Discord,” snapped the second guard, pointing his spear at Discord's throat, causing the master of chaos to tremble nervously.  “Princess Celestia and the other princesses want you in Canterlot, now.”

This caused Discord to snap away the robe and produce a suitcase and a hat, being that this was an emergency meeting that he had to go to.  But, in reality, he was thinking that he was going to be scolded by the princesses for initially disobeying them. After all, they put their trust in him to capture Tirek and he failed to follow up on their trust.

Following the guards to Canterlot, Discord landed on one of the towers and was met by Shining Armor, who scowled at him as he landed.  Despite his earlier conversation with Cadence back in the Crystal Empire, Shining Armor felt like striking Discord down with his magic after the nightmare he put his wife and sister through.

“I hope you have a very good reason for what you did, traitor,” he said coldly, staring at Discord with disgust and anger.  “We wouldn’t have been in the situation we were in if it weren’t for you.”

Discord gulped nervously as Shining Armor watched while the guards silently led him into the throne room as he saw Celestia, Luna and Cadence sitting there, waiting for him.  Celestia and Luna glared at him with anger in their eyes while Cadence only had a look of disappoint in her eyes.

"Step forward, Discord," thundered Luna, using her royal Canterlot voice. Fearing the worst, Discord walked over slowly towards the three princesses and towards his fate.   As he walked past, he looked up at the stained glass window of Twilight’s coronation, now back to its original state after being melted by Tirek.  He sighed heavily at the window as it now reminded him of that dark moment where he had been in Canterlot changing all of the windows into reflections of himself causing chaos.

But then, DIscord realized that Twilight was missing and was completely unaware of what had happened to Twilight's library.

"This can't be right," Discord thought as he slowly walked towards the three disappointed princesses.  "Where's Twilight?  Shouldn't she be here with them?"

But, Discord didn't have time to think as he stepped forward towards the princesses and looked up at them.  Celestia then rose up from her throne and stepped down towards Discord, her eyes glaring at him like a stern mother would give to her child.  This made Discord step back and feel nervous, expecting what was going to happen to him.

“Discord,” Celestia said as she spoke in an ice cold tone.  “When I decided to have you reformed so that your magic could be used for good instead of evil, I thought you would understand that Equestria is a land of magic and friendship that needs to be protected from those who wish to disrupt it.  By joining forces with Tirek, you betrayed us and you have shamed yourself throughout all of Equestria.  How can you justify yourself for your actions?"

"Give us one good reason why we shouldn't turn you back to stone because of what you did," snarled Luna.

As the princesses continued to glare down on him, Discord sighed heavily and looked up at them with remorseful eyes.  And as far as Discord was concerned, all he wanted was a second chance from them.  A second chance at learning the magic of friendship

“All I can say is that I am truly and honestly sorry for what I have done,” said Discord remorsefully.  “Tirek tricked me into believing that there was something more than friendship and it was an offer that I couldn’t refuse.  He lied to me that I should have chosen power over friendship and being the master of chaos that I am, I chose the latter.  I may never be fully liked by the ponies of Equestria, but I can atone for what I did, if you will just forgive me."

As she watched Discord repent, Princess Cadence could see that Discord was able to earn a second chance despite everything that had happened.  However, while Princess Cadence knew that Discord deserved a second chance, neither Celestia nor Luna were not so sure.

“Because of your initial actions, Discord,” continued Luna, rising to her feet.  “We had to transfer all of our magic into Princess Twilight so as to buy ourselves time for her to find a way to stop Tirek.  As you later saw for yourself, when Tirek found out we had transferred our magic, he banished us to Tartarus and we remained there until Twilight and her friends defeated him with the power that was unlocked from the Tree of Harmony.”

At that moment, Discord began to remember the moment where he felt a shudder during his time with Tirek.  He knew that something wasn’t right and hearing Luna confess it to him made him feel weaker than normal.  He was also feeling sorry that they ended up in Tartarus under his watch.  Had he known the full story of what was happening; he would have turned against Tirek right then and there and attempt to stop him from banishing the princesses to Tartarus.

"You must understand," protested Discord, raising his paws up in defense.  "I had no idea that Tirek would send any of you to Tartarus.  In any case, I thought he would have just left you alone right there."

However, Luna was not amused by this confession and she stepped forward to Discord, looking up at him with cold eyes.  She knew first hand what imprisonment was like and knew that Discord had to eat his words.

"You lie, Discord!" she snapped, using her royal Canterlot voice as her eyes grew white.  "Do you know what it is like to be imprisoned in a place like Tartarus?  Do you?!  We sat in a cell with only Cerberus for company while you and Tirek hunted down more of our subjects.  Had you had any heart, you would have jumped in and stopped Tirek from sending us to Tartarus while at the same time, stopping Tirek before he grew stronger!"

Discord gulped nervously as Luna's temper made him feel more weaker and more shameful than he already was.  The princess of the night then stepped back towards her sister and niece as Celestia calmly spoke in her normal voice in regards to Twilight's absence.

“And if you were wondering why Twilight is not here, Discord,” finished Celestia, her anger turning to a hint of sadness.  “Tirek eventually found out about Twilight's recent ascension and a destructive duel of power was fought on the outskirts of Ponyville not far from our old castle between them.”

"But, that can't explain to why she is not here," wondered Discord.  "I helped her get the last key needed to open that chest from the tree of harmony.  Surely, there must be another reason?"

"There is a good reason to why she is not here, Discord," said Cadence as she stepped down and walked over next to Discord.  But, the master of chaos was not prepared for what Princess Cadence said next.

“If you were probably wondering why Twilight is not here with us,” added Cadence, who was trying to sound calm not like her aunts.  “She is in a state of sadness because her library was destroyed by Tirek when he tried to obtain our magic.”

This made Discord’s heart sink upon hearing that particular news.  It was not that long ago Twilight had taken him in when he was trying to earn her friendship by faking an illness.  Hearing about the library’s destruction was the last thing he wanted to hear.  He wanted to make it up to Twilight, but he didn’t know how.  He could also understand why Shining Armor was so cross at him.  Not only did Discord allow Shining Armor to be drained of his magic, but he also allowed his younger sister to be put in mortal danger.

“Princesses,” stuttered Discord, placing his lion paw on his chest.  “I don’t know what to say about this.  I mean, I, I didn't expect for Tirek to do such a thing.  I mean, I wish I could've helped her but Tirek had drained my magic before going out to find Twilight."

This made the princesses turn towards each other in surprise upon hearing those words from Discord.  Up until that moment, they didn't know that Discord also had his powers stolen by Tirek.  It seemed at that moment that Luna knew that she was being a little hard on Discord, but it was no excuse for what he did to begin with.

“This is very surprising to us, Discord,” said Luna, looking down at him.  “This unexpected development makes you part of a victim in this matter, but, as much I would rather not say this, there is a way you can start to redeem yourself of your wrong doing."

This gave Discord a glimmer of hope in getting back on Luna's good side.  For as far he knew, Luna was seemingly determined along with several others to make sure Discord be punished alongside Tirek.

"You can help by being supportive of Princess Twilight during this emotional period of her life," ordered Luna.   Everything that she ever had was lost and we are going to have to replace them eventually.  You can help us with that.”

“I’ll do anything to earn your forgiveness,” begged Discord as he got down on his knees and began to pray, producing a halo that hung over his head. "Anything, just don't turn me back to stone."

This gave a small smile to Celestia and Cadence’s faces upon seeing Discord act this way, knowing that he was already starting to atone for his earlier actions.  However, Luna was not so sure about Discord especially after playing a part that ultimately resulted in her and the other princesses being sent to Tartarus.

“On your feet,” ordered Luna and the creature of chaos snapped his fingers and rose to his feet, dressed in a soldier’s uniform.

“Yes, ma’am!” he shouted, but Luna merely scowled at him and Discord snapped away the uniform.  “Sorry about that.”

Luna merely rolled her eyes and stepped back while Celestia and Cadence walked past Discord and he followed them to the stained glass window of Twilight’s coronation.  Both princesses had a look of worry in their eyes as they stared at the window.  For unlike Luna, both Celestia and Cadence had spent the most time with Twilight personally and something as traumatic as losing the library was something that they had to help her get over.

“However, Discord," said Celestia, looking up at the coronation window of her most faithful student and youngest equal.  "There is another reason why we have summoned you here."

“What is that?” he asked confusingly as Celestia and the other princesses turned towards him.  But, Discord was not prepared for what Celestia said next.

“I need you on a mission to bring Tirek here so he can be punished for what he has done,” she said to him.  Discord gasped and his face turned white upon hearing those words.

“He needs to pay for what he did,” said Luna, spreading her wings to stretch.  “And even though you have confessed to your crimes, that doesn’t excuse you of any wrongdoing as well.  You will not be punished like Tirek, Discord, but you will be watched closely.”

This made Discord feel slightly nervous, but he knew that by being asked to bring Tirek to Canterlot for his crimes, he would give himself an opportunity to redeem himself in the eyes of the princesses.

“As of right now,” ordered Celestia, beckoning Shining Armor and several guards back into the throne room.  “You are to go to Tartarus and bring Tirek here where the four of us will punish him for his crimes against Equestria.  However, if you fail us again, Discord, we will have no other choice but to turn you back to stone."

“I won’t fail you, princesses,” said Discord, heeding the warning and bowing to them as Shining Armor and the other guards led him away from the throne room.  But as he left, Discord looked up at the stained glass window one more time.

"Let's go, traitor," barked Shining Armor to the master of chaos as he and several other guards led Discord from the throne room as the other princesses watched.  As he was being led, Discord looked up one last time at Twilight's coronation window as well as all the other stained glass windows that were restored following Tirek's reign of terror. A look of guilt and anger came onto Discord's face as the thought of Tirek misleading him caused the inner beast inside of him to grow.  But, he had forgotten the real victims in all of this were Twilight and her friends.

“I hope you can one day forgive me Twilight for what I did,” he said to himself as Shining Armor and the others left the throne room while Discord followed.  "I may never be fully forgiven by every pony in Equestria.  But, you are important to me...regardless of what happens, you, Fluttershy, and everypony else."

As Discord and the guards left the room, Celestia looked down at the floor and walked over towards her throne as the three princesses knew what they had to do next.

"What do we do now, sister?" asked Luna, noticing how Celestia had a look that meant that she had to do something important.

"We wait for Discord to return," replied Celestia as they walked out of the throne room.  "But in the meantime, we need to be in Ponyville for Twilight."

So, the princesses took to the air as they made their way towards Ponyville while Discord was escorted by Shining Armor and several guards on his mission to bring Tirek back to Tartarus...

Twilight Strong, Part 1

Chapter 3

             “Twilight Strong, Part 1”

As Discord went on his mission to bring back to Tartarus, Twilight and her friends sifted through the wreckage of what was left of Ponyville's Golden Oak Library.  Her home since moving to Ponyville was all but gone, only the library portion of it remained as well as the basement, but her bedroom with all the books that she had owned, all the memories that she had made were gone with the library when Tirek fired a blast of fire at Twilight in an effort to gain the alicorn magic that was inside her.

It seemed like at that moment, her life was frozen in time and as much as Twilight wanted to turn back time and save her library, it would do no good because she would just see it get destroyed all over again.

“I can’t believe it is gone,” Twilight thought to herself as she observed the carnage caused by the blast.  “All the memories and books that I have ever had, gone forever.”

Twilight then looked down and picked up a book that had been blasted outside, only to have it disintegrate into dust.  Her eyes began welling up with tears upon seeing this happen as it was one of the books that she mentioned to Pinkie Pie back at Rainbow Falls that had held great sentimental value to her.  In a sense, Twilight had to realize that this was a turning point in her life.  She had a castle now and a kingdom to call her own, but letting her old life go was not going to be easy.  Nevertheless, her friends were sympathetic to her cause and perhaps nopony felt more sympathy for Twilight than Applejack, who had her barn on Sweet Apple Acres knocked down several times only to have it brought back good as new.

But, this was different.  Golden Oak Library was a tree and repairing it would not be easy and both Applejack and Twilight knew it.

“I know how it feels right now, sugarcube,” consoled Applejack, placing a hoof around Twilight’s neck.  “But, you are going to see that things will get better.  We will find a way to replace all the books and other items that you lost.”

But Twilight stayed silent as she began to cry silently, despite all the words of encouragement.  In fact, all of the main six were worried about their friend’s plight, even Pinkie Pie's mane and tail had nearly deflated all the way because she was so sad for Twilight.  All of them realized that Twilight had always been there for them and now they needed to be there for her.

In fact, although the library was Twilight’s home, in a sense it was all their home as well.  All the memories that they had together were inside the library, from Twilight's first party in Ponyvile to her mental breakdown over an overdue friendship letter to Celestia and all the way up to her transformation into an alicorn princess.

“I have to agree with Applejack, darling,” added Rarity, shaking off the dirt and ash off of her hooves.  “Things will get better and after all, Fluttershy and I can always recreate all of your dresses and outfits that you lost in the explosion.   In fact, now that you have a castle, you are going to need a whole new wardrobe in addition to the dresses I'm going to recreate for you.”

But much like her books, Twilight's dresses and outfits had held great sentimental value to her.  Her gala dress reminded her of the lesson that she learned about not being critical about something that was generous given to you; her best mare dress reminded her of her brother's wedding and how she was honored to be his best mare; her birthday dress from Rarity reminded her of when she and her friends celebrated her birthday in Canterlot while Rarity was trying to impress the Canterlot Elite; her Starswirl the Bearded costume reminded her of Nightmare Night, when she helped Princess Luna regain the respect of Ponyville; her winter wrap up vest reminded her of how she was able to rally Ponyville together and help them wrap up winter on time.

But, Twilight did not lose everything in the explosion as her Smarty Pants doll was still with Big MacIntosh and the rest of the Apple Family back at Sweet Apple Acres.  Spike was not so fortunate, either.  He had lost his bed, blanket and all the pictures he had of Pee Wee, the baby phoenix that he had saved and briefly took care of before returning him to his parents.  But, that didn't matter to him as his main concern was Twilight and her situation.

“Of course,” added Applejack.  “Instead of thinking about this moment in your life, think of the good memories that were in this library.  Why, Rarity and I had our sleepover here remember?”

“Indeed,” said Rarity, also trying to stay upbeat.  “I still and will always remember that night for as long as I am alive.”

Although Twilight was happy to hear that at least a portion of her old life survived, she still stayed silent with her head still down pointed at the floor. True, her physical memories were gone, the internal memories would still remain with her, although she didn't want to think of it at that moment. It wasn’t until a loud gasp was heard and Twilight snapped out of her trance and ran over to the doorway to find out what was happening.

“He wouldn’t dare,” cried Rainbow Dash, who picked up the remains of another book from the charred floor.  “He absolutely wouldn’t dare!”

Her friends looked closely at what Rainbow Dash had found and it became clear to them that what they saw a charred copy of one of the Daring Do books.  It was actually the same book that Twilight gave Rainbow Dash when she was laid up in the hospital.  Because of this book, Rainbow Dash became a Daring Do fan for life.  Although she had all the other Daring Do books in Cloudsdale, this one in particular was Twilight's and reminded her of that day she had first became a fan.

“I’m sorry Rainbow Dash,” cried Fluttershy, flying over to join her friends at Dash’s side.  “I know these kind of books meant a lot to you.”

“Of course they did, Fluttershy,” snapped Rainbow Dash, spiking the charred book down onto the floor with tears welling up in her eyes.  “I wouldn’t be who I am without these books.  Hay, I love Daring Do just as much as I love the Wonderbolts.”

Fluttershy backed away slightly from Rainbow Dash after hearing her snap like that and the pain began to get to Twilight who then looked down at another book that was at her feet. However, Rainbow Dash knew that the true victim of this tragedy was indeed Twilight and felt like wanting to give her entire collection of Daring Do books to her.  Seeing her stand in the doorway, Rainbow Dash calmed down and trotted over to her.

"Actually, Twilight," she said, calming down and placing a hoof on her shoulder.  "If you want to have all my books, I'd be more than happy to give them to you.  You'll need them more than I do."

Twilight smiled weakly at this sentence of encouragement, but knew that Rainbow Dash's daring do books belonged to her and her alone.

"No, Rainbow Dash," cried Twilight, wiping away a tear from her eyes with her hoof.  "They're your own books who make you who you are, so you should enjoy them."

"Aw, Twilight," remarked Rainbow Dash, touched by this.  "I just feel so bad for you with all the books and pictures you lost.  I'd just wish we could help you recover from this."

But, Twilight didn't respond and merely walked past Rainbow Dash and into the library's remnants looking up at all of the books that had been destroyed.  Although some books remained in their spots, they were most likely damaged beyond repair and Twilight knew it.  Just then, she saw a book that had seemed to have survive the blast. Picking it up with her magic, she saw that the well preserved book looked familiar to her and looking at it more closely, she let out a loud ragged voice gasp.

“How could this one survive?” Twilight cried upon seeing what she saw.  “This is the book that was about Nightmare Moon.”

Twilight and her friends were lucky that at least one book survived the blast and brought it outside and onto a small pile of salvaged items that Twilight would bring to her new castle.

“There must be more that had survived,” said Twilight to her friends, now feeling slightly optimistic.  “Keep looking harder.”

So they did look harder for anything that had survived, although it was beginning to seem hopeless to rescue anything more that had survived.

Just then, Twilight looked up and saw her fellow princesses fly down and land right next to her.  Twilight ran over and gave them all a hug upon seeing their arrival, while once again crying softly.  Much like what they had said to Discord, the princesses were all going to be there for Twilight during her moment of crisis.

“We're really sorry about the library, Twilight,” sympathized Cadence, knowing the pain her sister-in-law had at that moment.  “If there is anything Shining Armor and I can do back in the Crystal Empire to help you replace anything important that you lost…”

But, Twilight nodded her head sideways as a tear trickled down her face.  Celestia and Luna also could see the pain that was in Twilight’s eyes and felt like they should do something to help her.

“No, Cadence, the library and everything I ever had is gone,” Twilight sighed sadly as she looked up at her fellow princesses with tear filled eyes.  “I accept it, I have a castle now.  It's time for me to move on.  Besides, nopony was inside the library when it exploded."

“That is true, Princess Twilight,” said Celestia, placing a wing over Twilight.  “But, we understand just how hard it is to lose a home of so many years.  Especially if that home was something that was very important to you and your friends.  Just know, even though your home is gone, you have a castle to call your own and we will be happy to help you replace everything that you have lost.  Remember, you may not be my student anymore, but we will be here for you just as you will be here for us."

Twilight was happy to hear this as she and the other princesses once again looked out over the destruction of Golden Oak Library.  At that moment, several other residents of Ponyville came forward to view the destruction, including the Cutie Mark Crusaders.  Not too long ago, they had started becoming students of Twilight in a period of time that Twilight had referred to as "Twilight Time."  At that point, Twilight began to feel that she and her friends were not the only ones who were struck by this loss.

“But, I cannot help but wonder,” said Twilight sadly, as she stared at the Cutie Mark Crusaders admiring the loss of Golden.  “How is all of Ponyville going to react to the loss?”

“I’m sure they will be sad, Twilight,” replied Cadence, standing next to her sister-in-law.  “But, this is why you are here.  You now have the purpose to spread friendship throughout Equestria and there is no better time to start than now.  Everypony needs a little friendship especially after something like this."

Twilight then realized at that moment that Ponyville needed friendship to get through this dark period in their history.  However, she could not be feeling cheated because Tirek was still in Tartarus, unpunished for his crimes. She had lost everything in the library all because he wanted her own Alicorn Magic as well as those of the other princesses.  Almost immediately, the other princesses quickly picked up on Twilight’s feelings of anger and resentment.

“Twilight, is everything all right?” asked Cadence, seeing Twilight go from sad to angry.  "Was it something we said?

“No, I’m fine, Cadence,” replied Twilight, now trying to hold back tears of anger.  “It’s just that I am more angry and sad because Tirek did all of this to us.  There must be a way for him to pay for what he did.”

“There is going to be a way for you to make Tirek pay for what he did,” said Celestia, trying to comfort and reassure her youngest equal.  “We’ve sent Discord to bring him here for punishment.  You can have your chance along with the rest of us to say what you want to say to him.”

"However, I think your students may need your support," advised Luna and motioned Twilight to go over to them.  Seeing their friend and mentor walking towards them, Scootaloo, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle each ran over to Twilight and hugged her tightly.  They were still young fillies and still didn't understand the severity of the situation that Twilight was in.

"Oh, Twilight, we're so sorry for you," said Sweetie Belle, as she and the other crusaders broke away from their grip on Twilight.  "If there is anything we can do..."

"Thanks girls," said Twilight smiling.  "But, all that matters is that you and all of Ponyville are all safe after what has happened.  It's just a library, I can always create a new one in my new castle."

"But, this was much more than a library," cried Scootaloo, spreading her small wings out slightly.  "This was the place where we could go and visit you whenever we felt like it.  With the library gone, are we still going to have Twilight Time?"

"Of course, we will still have Twilight Time girls," said Twilight softly, rubbing her hoof on Scootaloo's head.  "I think maybe, over time, that this will be even better than the library.  But, my castle will never replace my library."

"I agree," sighed Sweetie Belle, lowering her head down.  "We started Twilight Time here and discovered our abilities here under your guidance."

Apple Bloom then realized that there was something that she needed to do for Twilight.  Reaching into her saddle bag, Apple Bloom pulled out Twilight's Smarty Pants doll that Big MacIntosh had been keeping for some time.   The Apple family decided that upon hearing the news about the library's destruction, that Twilight's doll would be returned to her.

"Actually, Twilight," she said, handing her Smarty Pants.  "We've decided to give this back to you as a way of helping you cope with the loss of the library.  It;s a way of us saying thanks for all you have done for us since we became your students."

This made Twilight's eyes well up with tears once again as she accepted her doll back in her possession.  She then grabbed Apple Bloom and the youngest member of the Apple Family hugged her mentor as Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle looked on.

"Aw, Apple Bloom," cried Twilight as she and Apple Bloom broke apart.  "You don't have to do this.  This is Big MacIntosh's."

"No, Twilight," replied Apple Bloom.  "It's yours, Big Mac just grabbed it when he had the chance.  He was going to return it to you eventually.  In fact, when we were in the apple cellar, we were concerned for Applejack and all those we cared about, including you.  You're like a mother to us and we could never live with ourselves if anything were to happen to you."

But, Twilight didn't respond as she stared at her doll while hearing this and the crusaders once again got into a group hug with their mentor as the princesses looked on from a short distance away.  As far as they were concerned, they were seeing Twilight with students of her own.

"It seems Twilight Sparkle has really grown up from your being your student, sister," remarked Luna.  "She has students of her own to teach now."

"Indeed," replied Celestia, as she watched her youngest equal with the Cutie Mark Crusaders.  "I'm very proud of her taking on this role.  Tirek tried to take all of this way from us and he didn't succeed.  We will soon let him know about this.  He may have drained magic and destroyed monuments and structures, but he didn't succeed in taking the magic of friendship.

But deep down, despite everything that Twilight had experienced, Celestia knew in her mind that Twilight did not know that they were imprisoned in Tartarus and soon she would  know the whole truth about what had happened to them when Tirek was in Canterlot.  But for right now, they needed to support Twilight and the town of Ponyville with every chance that they got.

Meanwhile, as the mourning continued in Ponyville, Discord and the Canterlot royal guard were nearing the gates of Tartarus with the intent of bringing Tirek back to Equestria...

"You Gave Me Nothing!"

   Chapter 4

    “You Gave Me Nothing!”

Being escorted by the Canterlot Royal Guard and disguised as a bird, Discord arrived at the gate of Tartarus with the mission of bringing Tirek to Canterlot to face the princesses and be punished for his crimes.  As he flew closer and closer to Tartarus, the anger of being misled by someone as evil as Tirek was starting to grow inside of him.  Discord wanted to transform into something evil and finish off Tirek once and for all, but he couldn’t.  He had a duty to fulfill to Celestia and the other princesses and he couldn’t let them down again.   At the same time, he couldn't help but wonder why Shining Armor was being so mean to him.  Discord had admitted that all that he did was wrong, but he knew that not everyone was going to forgive him and he wanted to know why.

"Look, Shining Armor," said Discord, looking over at the Prince of the Crystal Empire.  "I know you are angry at me because of what I did, but I am really sorry for it.  You have to believe me when I tell you that."

"How could I believe you after the nightmare you put my wife and little sister through?" snapped Shining Armor, who scowled at Discord.  "I thought that I would never see Cadence again, you monster!  You helped Tirek take her away from me."

It was at that moment, Discord fully realized that the damages he had caused were far beyond Fluttershy and the other ponies.  For what he didn't know until that moment was that Shining Armor was indeed Twilight's older brother.  The elder member of the Sparkle family was very protective of Twilight and Cadence and Discord was seeing this for the first time.

"I wasn't intending to do that," protested Discord, trying to get Shining Armor to change his attitude about him.  "That was Tirek's fault, not mine.  Everything is Tirek's fault, I was only causing chaos!"

"Of course you were causing chaos," muttered Shining Armor bitterly.  "All I want to do is get Tirek back to Canterlot without any problems.  Understand, traitor?"

After a few hours of flying, they arrived at the gates of Tartarus.  Shining Armor knew that they had to be careful when they got close to Tirek.  However, Discord had fully witnessed the terror that Tirek caused first hand and knew that there was only way that he could get close to his brainwasher.

“Remember,” he called out to the guards.  “Tirek may attempt to steal our magic again, so if he does, cast a counter spell to stop him.”

“That’s exactly what he wants,” said Discord, turning back into his normal self.  “I know his powers firsthand.  If I went down there ahead of you, you could capture him without losing your magic.”

Shining Armor was not sure of this plan of Discord’s.  After all, he was the one who branded Discord a traitor and was not sure if he should go through with this plan.  All he wanted to do was to make Tirek pay for draining his magic and imprisoning Cadence in Tartarus.

“How do you know that I can trust you, traitor?” snapped Shining Armor, glaring at Discord.  “I am in charge of this mission, not you.  So save whatever ideas that you have.”

But, Discord knew that this was the only way and he had to make Shining Armor understand that.  Thinking that Tirek would only focus his attention on him, Discord took another snap of his fingers and transformed into a disguise that was of Princess Celestia herself..  Shining Armor and the other guards gasped in shock, but Discord knew what he was doing.

“Is this an idea that could work for you, Shining Armor?” asked Discord, showing off his disguise to the guards and talking in Celestia's voice.  As much as he wanted to not go along, Shining Armor had no choice and sighed heavily at what was happening in front of him.

“All right,” he groaned, doing a hoof palm into his face.  “We’ll try your idea but if you fail, so help me Celestia…”

"Hey, do you know who you are talking to, Shining Armor?" asked Discord and Shining Armor bitterly backed away, even though that he thought of Celestia who was really Discord in disguise.

Ignored Shining Armor’s attitude towards him, Discord went into the cave and carefully flew past Cerberus, who acknowledged him as he past, thinking it was really Celestia.  Landing down at the base of Tirek's prison, Discord trotted up the steps towards Tirek’s cell, where he was in a cage and weakened by the loss of his powers at the hands of Twilight and her friends.

“I hope this works,” Discord thought as he approached the cage containing the centaur.  Tirek looked up and thinking that it was Celestia herself standing in front of him, growled menacingly.  Of course, Discord had trouble in his Celestia disguise and nearly stumbled, almost blowing his cover.

"How does she move in these things?" he thought as he approached the cage containing the demon centaur of Equestria himself.

“So you’ve come to visit me after all that I have done to you, mare?” growled Tirek.  “Had you not turned my brother against me, we could've ruled Equestria and no one would have stopped us.”

“I think what you have done to all the ponies of Equestria was unforgiveable,” replied Discord.  “If I had a choice, I would have you executed for your crimes, but that would go against my character."

Tirek chuckled mockingly at what the disguised Discord had said to him.  Character was something that neither one of them were supposed to have.  All that Tirek had taught his brother was that power and glory was all that was worth in life and nothing else.

“I should have known you would say that," he remarked, smiling with no remorse whatsoever.  “Even as I sit in here, you prove to me that you can't even acknowledge the fact that I can escape again and that I would attack again."

And Tirek showed the disguised Discord the scars he had from the attack he sustained.  The scars were shown to be on his face and on his back.  Discord could see that the attack was Cerberus' way of revenge against Tirek for imprisoning the princesses against their will. .

“So if my brother sent you here to seek my forgiveness, then I will not give it to you,” scowled Tirek.  “Just as I refused to give it to Discord, who was weak and worthless.”

This made Discord very cross and now it seemed that Tirek had crossed a personal boundary with him and at that moment, the time had come for him to drop his disguise.

“Discord?” he asked, stepping back from the cage.  “Does he look something like this?”

And at that moment, Discord shredded his disguise of Celestia and assumed his true form, causing Tirek to growl and snarl like a wild animal upon seeing his former partner in crime standing there in front of him.

“You!” snapped Tirek, his fists clenching.  “What are you doing here, Discord?”

Discord snapped his fingers and at that moment, Tirek heard the sounds of chains clicking around three of his four legs and looked down to see that he had been shackled and could not move around his cage.  Discord then snapped shackles around Tirek's wrists that caused him to stretch his arms out as the chains held on each side of the cage.

“What is the meaning of this?” demanded Tirek, trying to struggle against his bonds.  “Remove these at once!”

“You might as well start getting used to having them on you, Tirek,” said Discord, sarcastically, now dressed as a police officer.  “You are going back to Canterlot to be punished for your crimes.”

Upon hearing this, Tirek attempted to drain Discord’s magic and return to his former glory, but the crafty creature of chaos snapped his fingers and cast a spell to disable Tirek’s ability to drain magic.

“What have you done?” he hissed, realizing that his magic had been disabled.  “Is this the thanks I get for attempting to give you freedom?”

This made Discord very cross and he shed his police disguise and donned a black sleeveless t-shirt with a skull on the front and he branded a pitchfork almost like it was a weapon.  The draconequs growled and his eyes turned red as he stared down Tirek.

“Freedom?  Freedom?!” snarled Discord, his eyes growing larger out of his face as he grew more anger inside of him, using his magic to whack Tirek with the pitchfork, almost scratching him.  “You didn’t give me freedom."

At that point, Discord's anger boiled over as he grew red in the face.

"You…Gave…Me…Nothing!”

But, even as Discord unleashed his anger on Tirek, he was merely unfazed by Discord’s rising anger.  As far as he was concerned, Discord was in his mind, at least, trying to demoralize Tirek by acting all big and tough in front of him.  He may not be able to drain magic, but Tirek could still be very mocking towards anyone who came across him.

“Of course, I gave you nothing because you didn’t deserve it,” snapped Tirek, as Discord placed the pitchfork at Tirek’s throat.  He wanted to teach Tirek a lesson right here and right now, but if he did, what good would that do?  So, he lowered the pitchfork and used his magic to raise Tirek into the air.  "You were merely just the puppet to help me gain all the power in Equestria and I succeeded thanks to you."

Discord took the pitchfork and whacked Tirek again, scratching his face.  But the demon centaur stayed resilent and merely shook it off like it was nothing to worry about.

“You are not going to be punished here,” growled Discord, already reaching his breaking point.  “It’s too easy.  I’m merely just the creature tasked by the princesses you imprisoned to bring you to them so they can punish you and humiliate you for your crimes!”

Discord then forced Tirek’s head down to the shackles that were on his feet.  As far as he was concerned, Discord wanted Tirek to feel the pain that the princesses felt when they were imprisoned in his place.

“Do you see those shackles?” Discord asked sharply, now disguised as a prisoner in an orange jumpsuit.  “Those were the same shackles that Princess Celestia, Princess Luna and Princess Cadence wore when they were down here.  Now, you are the one who will wear them when you are presented before them!”

But, with each word that Discord spoke, Tirek simply shrugged them off like it was nothing more than just mindless babbling.  Meanwhile, Shining Armor and the other guards were wondering where Discord and why he was taking so long.

"He should have been out by now, sir," said one of the guards to Shining Armor.  "Do you think he might have deferred back to Tirek's side?"

"Of course, he did," replied Shining Armor, placing his helmet on his head.  "We don't have a choice now.  Let's move in and finish them both off."

But before they could move, they heard the sounds of Discord's screams coming from all the way outside and Shining Armor immediately knew at that moment that something was not right, almost as if Discord was just as angry about Tirek's rampage as he himself was.

"We have to get inside and stop Discord," ordered Shining Armor to the guards.  "Who know what he will do at that level of anger.  Come on!"

So, Shining Armor and the guards raced into the cave as Discord continued to torture his false friend with his chaos magic, lifting him up and down like a sack of potatoes with only the chains holding him down and preventing him from going any higher.

“How does it feel now, Tirek?” continued Discord, as he continued lifting up Tirek.  “To wear the shackles that the princesses wore and just to add the measure…”

Discord snapped his fingers again and a fourth shackle appeared on Tirek’s rear back right leg.  This made Tirek chuckle again despite the pain he was being inflicted on as Discord growled even stronger at him.  This made Discord use his magic to tightened the shackles around Tirek’s legs and it caused the centaur to growl and groan in pain, wiping the smile off of his face.

“That was the shackle you were intending to place Princess Twilight in when you threw her down here with her fellow princesses,” finished Discord, his magic growing stronger out of his paws.  “And you will never take them off ever again because you’re date with justice is at hand.”

The draconequs was just about to deliver another torturous blow against Tirek, when a loud cry came out from behind Discord.

“Discord, stop!” called the voice and Discord turned around to see Shining Armor and the royal guards running towards him.  “It’s not worth it right now!”

Hearing this, Discord ceased his magic and stepped back from Tirek, not letting his bitter gaze go off of him.  Tirek was dropped back onto the ground level of his cell, as Shining Armor walked over towards Discord.

“I can see that you are not a traitor like I thought you were,” he said, taking his helmet off.  “You were angered just as much as I was and wanted to extract revenge against Tirek.”

“I did, Shining Armor,” said Discord, who was already feeling tired and weak from increasing his magic on Tirek.  “This monster tricked into believing nothing was more valuable than friendship and I believed him.   So, do whatever you please with him, I am done here.”

And Discord snapped his fingers and disappeared in a flash while Shining Armor and the others looked on in disbelief.

“Discord, wait!” cried Shining Armor, but it was too late.  Discord had disappeared and now he was left with the task of returning Tirek to Canterlot.

“Cadence was right, he was just as hurt as all of us,” thought Shining Armor as he watched the guards levitate Tirek’s cage into the air.  “Perhaps nopony is feeling more pain right now than Discord and he betrayed us.  I just hope he comes to appreciate whatever Twiley and the other princesses do with this creature of pure darkness.”

So, they left Tartarus with Tirek in tow as a mysteriously cloaked figure watched them take Tirek away from Tartarus..

Nevertheless, Discord had disappeared and little did everypony know was that he had a promise that he kept to Fluttershy about going on a picnic and while Tirek was being interrogated and humiliated by Celestia, Luna, Cadence and Twilight, Discord was going to fulfill that promise…

A Picnic With Fluttershy

             Chapter 6

“A Picnic with Fluttershy”

Flying faster and faster from the gates of Tartarus while in a fit of rage, Discord left his ex-partner in crime to Shining Armor and the Canterlot royal guards and shut him out of his life forever.  All Discord ever wanted was to learn the magic of friendship, by any means necessary.  But, it was all put at risk when Tirek offered to give him something more valuable than friendship, an offer that nearly cost him his friends and his magic.  In fact, the moment he betrayed Twilight's friends still kept on playing throughout his mind and no matter whatever happened to Tirek, Discord didn't really care.  Tirek was a monster that deserved to be punish for what he did.

His time with the one pony that he truly understood as a friend had made him realize that there was indeed nothing more than friendship.  It took Tirek’s betrayal and witnessing Twilight have the alicorn magic drained out of her to make him realize just that.

But Discord knew that the emotional damages he had caused to his friends would not fully go away. But if Discord could salvage it, he could.  Approaching Fluttershy’s cottage, he quickly snapped on his tuxedo that he wore at that dinner party while he was being reformed and produced a bouquet of flowers to give to his friend.  Discord was just about to knock on the door of Fluttershy’s cottage when he stopped short of knocking.

“I can’t do it,” he thought to himself, using his magic to cause the flowers to disappear.  “If I go in there, Fluttershy will just order me to go away.  But, if I don’t go in, I will return to Canterlot, witness Tirek’s trial at the hands of Twilight and the other princesses, and will just keep this awful memory go on and on for as long as I live.”

He thought for a moment of what he wanted to do, but then realized that he needed to go through with this.  It was all part of the healing process, so he knocked on the door and a yellow Pegasus with long pink hair answered the door.  Discord closed his eyes, bracing for the moment when he would be rejected by his true friend.

“Oh, hi, Discord,” said Fluttershy, smiling at him, much to his oblivion.  “I see you have come for our picnic.  Did you bring the cucumber sandwiches?”

“Oh, I did,” replied Discord sheepishly, producing a plateful of sandwiches with cucumbers in between.  “Just as you requested, my dear Fluttershy.”

“Excellent, come on in,” said Fluttershy and then he snapped his fingers and shedded the tuxedo and walked into Fluttershy’s cottage.  Knowing that his friend seemed to forgive so easily, Discord sighed quietly to himself in relief.

"At least she has no hard feelings," he thought as he headed inside.  But, there was going to be more than met the eye before this picnic was over.  Discord then snapped his fingers and reproduced the flowers he had initially put away, because of his guilt.

“I brought these for you,” he said, giving the flowers to Fluttershy, causing the Pegasus to smile warmly at the ex-master of chaos.  “It’s the least I can do after what I did to you and your friends.”

He then walked back over and sat down on the couch, unfortunately taking up Angel’s favorite spot on the couch, much to the bunny rabbit’s annoyance.  But, Fluttershy didn’t mind that at all whatsoever, although she began to notice the hurt that was still in his eyes, several days after Tirek’s re imprisonment.

“Thank you for the flowers,” said Fluttershy, placing the flowers in a vase.  “They’re beautiful.  But, I can’t help but notice that something is bothering you.  Would you care to tell me what it is, Discord?”

Discord felt that Fluttershy was starting to catch on and knew that he had to tell her the truth.  As soon as Fluttershy brought over the cucumber sandwiches on a platter big enough for her and her friends, Discord sat up and stared at his friend with a worried expression.

“Actually, Fluttershy,” he said, twidling his paw and claw while looking down at the floor nervously.  “There is something that I need to tell you about and it is not just about the picnic we are having now.”

“Oh, is this about what you did with Tirek, that big dumb meanie?” she asked, guessing right on the nose.  “If you are thinking that I am mad at you for what you did, I’m not.”

Discord was surprised as he took a bite of the cucumber sandwich that was in his hand.  He knew that by deferring to Tirek’s side, he had caused pain and misery to those who truly cared about him.  Everywhere he went with Tirek, he had aided him in absorbing every pony's magic that the two came across from Canterlot to Cloudsdale to Applelossa and all the way to Ponyville.  Discord even stood by and watched as Celestia, Luna and Cadence were sent to Tartarus when he could have at least attempted to fight Tirek and keep them safe, but he didn't.  Instead, he just floated there and played with a stained glass window of him dangling the princesses like puppets.

But, why would Fluttershy forgive him so easily, even after all he had done to her and her friends?  That was the question that was going through Discord's mind at that moment.

“But, how could you say something that?” wondered Discord.  “I made you cry when I imprisoned you and the others in that cage.   When Tirek drained your magic, I couldn’t bear myself to watch you suffer like that and I realized that I made a grave mistake, but didn’t admit until it was too late after he stole my magic.  But, I had to correct my errors in any way possible.”

Fluttershy sat there wondering what Discord had done.  As far as she was concerned, Discord would not do anything violent out of evil.  He only wanted to have a good time and would do just about anything to do so.

“Um, if you don’t mind my asking,” said Fluttershy, taking a sip of tea.  “What errors would you have to correct?”

Discord was not prepared to say what he had to say to his friend.  As far as Fluttershy was concerned, he would never forgive himself if he had to hurt her feelings like did while with Tirek.  But, he had to tell Fluttershy that he was in Tartarus and extracting his revenge on Tirek for brainwashing him.

“Actually, Fluttershy,” he replied, snapping a halo on his head.  “I hope you can forgive me if I tell you this.  But, I was on a mission by the princesses to bring Tirek back to them for his crimes and I had to let him know how I feel.  I disguised myself as Princess Celestia and once I got close, I shed my disguise and expressed to him my anger for what he did to all of you."

Fluttershy began to grow shocked upon hearing Discord say this.  After all, Fluttershy had always learned that violence never solved anything and had passed along the message to Discord in one of his letters.  It seemed however that Discord had broken that rule.

“You didn’t harm Tirek in any way?” asked Fluttershy, starting to look nervous at Discord.

At that moment, Discord lost himself to his emotions.  He didn’t want to tell Fluttershy why he did what he did to Tirek in Tartarus, but he had to.

“Fluttershy, I couldn’t help it,” confessed Discord, throwing his sandwich back on the platter.  “He made me hurt you and when the princesses berated me for what I did, I knew that I needed to do something to make him feel the pain I helped cause on you and your friends.  So, I tortured him right there in his cell and wanted to finish him off right then and there, but I couldn’t. Instead, I tortured Tirek by adding more chains onto him and gave him the shackles that the princesses wore in Tartarus.  I even added the shackle that he was planning to put on Twilight when she was cast into Tartarus with them."

Fluttershy couldn’t help but feel sorry, yet angry at Discord for what he did.  As much as he was trying to right what he did wrong, going against what she had taught him was something that she didn’t like.  But, she couldn’t stay angry for long when she saw tears forming in his eyes.

“I know that you will probably never forgive me,” he continued sadly, his head hung low.  “But I did it because you are my friend, Fluttershy.  I know that you will be there for me as I will be there for you.  What I did was wrong and Tirek is entirely the one to blame.  He made me hurt you and that is something that I could not let him get away with.  When Shining Armor told me that I was a traitor, I had to find a way to prove to every pony that I am not the monster that they think I am.  I may never earn everypony's respect again, but what I did was wrong and if I could earn the respect of those that I am close to, it would make my life worthwhile."

Just then, Fluttershy’s eyes welled up with tears and she began to cry softly as Discord feared that this was the end, despite making this confession.  Thinking that Fluttershy was going to strike him when he saw her hoof rise up towards him, he shut his eyes and prepared for the worst.  But, instead of striking him, Fluttershy threw herself into Discord’s arms and sobbed against his chest.  This caused Discord to feel surprised and shocked, while at the same time, he could see that Fluttershy had no hard feelings against him.

“Oh, Discord,” she cried into his chest.  “I know you tried to right what you did and I forgive you for everything you did wrong!  You were just misled and you’re right, Tirek is the one to blame and we are all the victims here, not just you!”

Discord was very touched by this remark from Fluttershy and began to release his emotions as well.  The two friends realized at that moment that even though Discord did what he did, one little thing like this would not ruin their relationship that they had with one another.  In fact, it would only make it stronger than ever.

"We are indeed the victims, Fluttershy," he said, hugging her tightly while crying.  "Tirek didn't give me freedom, he turned me into a monster and made me hurt you.  Whatever the princesses do to him, I don't really care.  All that matters is we are together again and that we are friends again."

So, throughout the rest of the day, there they sat in her cottage together, finally having the picnic that Discord had promised Fluttershy.  It seemed now that this experience would only bring Fluttershy and Discord even more together than before.  True, Discord was ashamed for what he did, but what was important was that Fluttershy forgave him in the end.

But, as the sun set on Equestria that night, Discord knew that his work was not done.  There was still one pony that inspired him to fully embrace the magic of friendship that needed to be consoled and it would take place at the former site of Golden Oak Library.

"What are you going to do now, Discord?" asked Fluttershy as Discord transformed into a Pegasus pony.

"I need to see another pony who was hurt by my betrayal," replied Discord, turning back towards his friend.  "She had lost everything when Tirek destroyed her home and I must be there for her."

Fluttershy knew that the pony that Discord was referring to was Twilight herself and before Fluttershy could say another word, Discord took to the air and started to make his way towards the destroyed library.  But, he turned around and flew down to hug Fluttershy one last time.

"Thank you for having me over today," he said softly as they hugged.  "You don't know how much this means to both of us."

"Anytime, Discord," replied Fluttershy as they broke apart and the Pegasus pony watched as Discord took to the air and made his way towards Twilight's former home.  "Be careful, my friend."

Twilight Strong: Part 2

Chapter 7

"Twilight Strong: Part 2"

Ever since she saw her library and former home go up in flames, Twilight Sparkle had many sleepless nights and although she had the power to magically restore the library to its former glory, to her, it was just not possible. Tonight was no exception as Twilight left her new castle and walked over to the library, which was nothing more than a shadow of its former self. Only the library portion remained and many of the books that were recovered were brought back to either the Crystal Empire or Canterlot for restoration and repairs, but Twilight walked through many destroyed books that she treasured so greatly. Walking up to the door, she easily pushed it out of the way and for the first time since Tirek's rampage, she walked into the destroyed library…alone, without her friends, without the princesses, without anyone.

Although her friends had tried to save anything that had survived, everything that was inside the library was gone. Nothing remained and anything that was beyond repair was left behind. Twilight then walked over to the spot where the horse's head once stood in the center of the library and laid down in front of it as tears formed in her eyes. Despite everything that Twilight and her friends attempted to save what was left of the library, nothing could reverse the effects that she was experiencing.

"No," she cried, feeling cold and longing for the old days to return. "Why would Tirek do this? Why now?"

After a moment, Twilight could no longer control her emotions and began to sob her heart out. Her sobs were heard throughout the night air and following his time with Fluttershy, Discord was on his way to console Twilight when he heard the sounds of crying coming from the Golden Oak Library. Almost immediately, he could sense that it was coming from a princess, but not just any princess, it was indeed Twilight herself, the pony that was reinvigorated to defeat Tirek and open the magic box that was at the tree of harmony.

Following his flight from Fluttershy's cottage, he transformed from a Pegasus pony into his normal self and walked over to the destroyed library, peering through the open entrance to see Twilight lying on the floor and sobbing quietly. Although he had hurt many ponies during his time with Tirek, Discord felt that he had strongly hurt two of them: Fluttershy and Twilight. After all, he had considered Twilight as a friend after he put her through that friendship test while Cadence was visiting.  Seeing her sacrifice the alicorn magic for the freedom of her friends as well as his own had inspired him to fully embrace the magic of friendship as Celestia had always wanted him to embrace.

But, all Discord ever wanted was to have friendship and magic and staring down at Twilight was a sign that he went about it the wrong way. Discord quietly walked in and placed his paw on Twilight's shoulder as he knelt down to her level.

"Twilight," he whispered to the crying princess of friendship. "I came by and wanted to apologize to you personally for what I put you and your friends through, if it makes you feel all the more better.  I know you have been hearing this a lot, but if there is anything I can do to help you..."

But Twilight just laid there not realizing Discord was there and although he had done plenty of atoning for his actions, he could see that Twilight's emotions was not something that was going to be fixed so easily.

Suddenly, Twilight felt Discord's paw on her shoulder and looked up to see the ex-master of chaos sitting right next to her. At that moment, Twilight calmed down and although she was still crying, she was trying to pull herself together now that Discord was here.

"I know why you are here, Discord," cried Twilight sadly, opening her tear filled eyes as she stared at the master of chaos. "You wanted to apologize for what you have done. I accept it, you were just misled. It's just that Tirek took away everything I ever had, all the memories that I made here were lost because he wanted our alicorn magic and nothing more."

"What he did was wrong, Twilight," replied Discord, stroking her mane gently. "I should have known better than to be influenced by someone like him. Your fellow princesses made me realize that before my mission to bring Tirek back to Canterlot."

Twilight then got up when she noticed a singed hairbrush not too far from where she was sitting and a puff of stuffing from her mattress was also spotted. The hairbrush brought back memories of the time that Twilight and her friends were affected by the Poison Joke and that it led to her meeting Zecora for the first time.

"I don't know how I can make this up to you, Twilight," sighed Discord, feeling upset for his second closest friend. "My magic may not be good enough to repair your library. It's only used for chaos and not magic restoration."

"That's because it isn't, Discord," said Twilight sadly as she observed the hairbrush. "Ponyville was founded by Earth ponies and if this library would ever return, it would be brought back by what Earth ponies did many years ago."

Twilight brought the hairbrush and puff of mattress back to where she was sitting as Discord looked at the items she had found. Looking at them made Discord realize of just how much Twilight had lost. True, Twilight was a princess now, but she was only a pony and she had feelings and emotions much like everypony else and Discord knew it. After all, he too had spent time in this library when he had that mock flu to test her friendship to him. He even lay in her bed too, hence why looking down at the puff of stuffing brought back memories of that day as well.

"Well, it's up to you Twilight," said Discord as looked over at Twilight's sad expression on her face. "Perhaps the loss of this library may have given you a much better and stronger library in your castle with all the books you can possibly imagine. But, you can make it just like home again in no time at all. This will take time, Twilight, just as it took time for Fluttershy to reform me into who I am today."

This had to make Twilight feel better slightly. Discord was right, everything that Twilight was experiencing would indeed take time to pass and run its course. He was a reformatted soul now and wanted to learn the ways of friendship and the magic it provided and it seemed that he was giving Twilight a lesson of his very own.

"You're right, Discord," said Twilight rising to her feet and realizing now what Discord was saying. "This will take time, but how long will it take? I can't go on like this forever. Tirek may have destroyed my home, but that doesn't mean I can't always keep the good memories that happened in here forever."

She then looked over at the mantle where her treasured pictures once stood. All her pictures from events that she and her friends took part in, including Winter Wrap Up, the Grand Galloping Gala, the Royal Wedding and her Princess Coronation were completely destroyed as well as the picture of the six of them when Twilight first moved to Ponyville.

Or was it?

As Twilight looked up at the destroyed mantel, she felt something crumple underneath her hoof. She looked down and saw that very first picture of her and her friends, lying in the soot and dust. Using her magic, she picked it up and a small tear came down her face again. But this time, it was happy tears. This picture was something that was important to her since it was the first one she had ever taken with her friends, right after Nightmare Moon's defeat.

Looking at the picture now made her realize that Tirek failed to defeat Twilight's determination for her friends and those that were closest to her. Twilight was right when she told Tirek that although she had given him the alicorn magic of her and her fellow princesses, she possessed the most powerful magic of all and that was the magic of friendship.

"So, what are you going to do now?" asked Discord, who waited for a response from Twilight. But she was so overcome with emotion over finding that picture that she just stood there in silence. After a moment, she turned around and starting crying again.

Thinking that he was going to be in an ocean of tears caused by Twilight, Discord snapped his fingers and donned a yellow raincoat, boots and hat. But, fortunately, Twilight didn't cry for very long and he snapped his fingers, removing the raingear that he had donned.

"I'm going to start over again," said Twilight, filled with determination, but with her voice filled with plenty of emotion. "This is the beginning of the next chapter of my life, Discord. My life as the Princess of Friendship and with the fall of this home and library will come the rise of another home and castle."

"That's the spirit, Twilight!" laughed Discord and he and the princess of friendship embraced each other once again as Twilight began to cry happy tears once again.

True, her original home was indeed gone, but her own spirit and the spirits of her friends, family and fellow princesses were stronger than ever and not even Tirek himself could destroy it.

Meanwhile, Princess Luna had overheard what was happening and flew over the destroyed library and saw Discord and Twilight embracing. In her mind, this was confirmation that Discord did indeed fully atone for his actions and that he was indeed truly reformed.

"You have done well, Discord," thought Princess Luna as a small happy tear came down her face. "You are now starting to learn the true meaning of friendship as we have always wanted you to have."

So, the Princess of the Night took off to resume her duties as it seemed that Discord fully understood what he had done and was now looking forward to aiding Twilight and her friends on their new adventures. Grabbing her picture and whatever still undamaged items that she found, Twilight was led by Discord from the destroyed library and back to her castle. Now, although she had recovered that one important picture, Twilight was still saddened by the loss of her pictures from all those important events in her life that she shared with her friends and all those closest to her.

But, she couldn't think about it for very long as tomorrow was also going to be emotional for her as she was determined to let Tirek know how she felt about what he did to her and her friends.

Of course, Discord could also see that he had to do something about it, but it would all have to wait until Tirek's judgment day had passed at the hooves of Twilight and the other princesses for all the crimes that he had committed against Equestria…

A Small Request

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.

My Hate Will Go With You

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…

Tirek's Judgment Day

Chapter 10

     “Tirek’s Judgment Day”

All the princesses and Twilight's friends could do was watch as the royal guards magically carried Tirek’s cage into the throne room.  It was the first time since his defeated that he had been inside the throne room and the royal guards were determined to make him see that any trace of his rampage was gone.  However, Discord could see that he was the one who changed the stained glass windows, so he was partially to blame for the damages that were done to Canterlot Castle.  Shining Armor then used his magic to force Tirek to turn his head towards the stained glass depiction of Twilight’s coronation, which he melted before heading out to hunt her down.

“You see that?” said the guard to the heavily imprisoned centaur.  “You thought that you could destroy the depiction of a princess coronation, the coronation of my little sister?  Well, you didn’t succeed, it’s back and it is going to stay there!”

Tirek didn’t respond as the prince of the Crystal Empire forced him to look dead ahead at the princesses and Twilight's friends, who all scowled at the sight of the monster who had imprisoned three of them in Tartarus and terrorized the fourth and her friends.  Setting him down before the princesses, Shining Armor and the guards bowed and left Tirek alone with only the princesses, Discord, his brother and Twilight's friends for company.  Celestia was the first to stand from the throne and walked down the steps towards Tirek’s cage with a look of hatred deep in her eyes.

“Lord Tirek,” she said with authority in her voice.  “You are hereby charged with capital crimes against Equestria and its citizens.  In doing so, you have ruined the lives of unicorns,Pegasus and Earth Ponies alike.  How can you justify yourself for all you have done?”

But, Tirek didn’t respond and the princess of the sun raised her horn and activated her magic, causing the chains holding Tirek’s arms to twist and cause the centaur to scream in pain.  This caused Twilight and Fluttershy to wince in pain, although Twilight felt that what her mentor was doing was branding her own brand of justice on Tirek.

“Answer me and we won’t do methods like this to you,” snarled Celestia and at that moment, Tirek finally gave in to Celestia’s demands and released her grip on him.  The centaur growled as Celestia continued to circle around him like a vulture to a dead carcass.

“I don’t have to explain myself to the likes of any of you,” retorted Tirek, trying to stay defiant.  “It is my destiny to plunge Equestria into darkness and become its ruler and no princess or any other creature will have the power to stop me.”

But, Celestia was unmoved by this and much like she was when he was mocking her and the other princesses, she remained defiant.  Celestia then used one of her hooves to kick the cage and cause Tirek to shake inside.

“I told you that you will not prevail, Tirek,” continued Celestia as Discord produced a judge’s gavel and bench with his magic.  “And when we say things like that to you, then we mean it.  You tried to banish us to Tartarus because you wanted us to fear what you experienced and here we are, back where we belong and you are going to suffer the consequences of your actions.”

Celestia then walked back up the steps towards her throne and sat back down in it.  Next, Luna came down and being a former villain herself, she realized that Tirek was someone who could not be like her.  The Princess of the Night growled as Tirek struggled to activate his magic.  He wanted to drain the alicorn princesses of their magic again, but he couldn’t.

“Trying to activate your magic draining powers?” said Luna sarcastically.  “You won’t be doing that anymore, vile villain.  Prior to being brought here, Discord cast a spell that would keep you from doing such a thing.  In other words, we have magic and you have nothing.”

Tirek then looked up to the magically created judge's bench as Discord blew a raspberry at him in a mocking manner.  This caused Tirek to snarl and glare at the master of chaos who was once his partner in crime

“You are not going to get away with this!” roared Tirek, trying to make a statement.  “When I get out of here, you will all be the first to feel my wrath before I take your powers and use them to drain the magic from all the other inhabitants of Equestria once again.”

But, the princesses were not going to let that happen and Celestia once again used her magic to twist Tirek’s arms again.  The centaur snarled at the elder princess as Cadence looked away in fear.  Tirek then saw this as an opportunity to mock her, being that she was once a captive of Queen Chrysalis herself.

“Are you afraid of me, Princess Cadence?” he asked mockingly.  “Are you afraid that I am going to take you away from your husband again.  You know, the pony whose magic I ate like a fireball?"

This made Cadence cross and the normally calm princess of love leapt into the air and raised her horn, firing a blast of her magic at his arm, causing him to groan and snarl in pain.   Her sudden outburst struck fear into Celestia and Luna, causing them to worry for Cadence’s well-being.  In fact, this made Twilight's friends feel shocked at Cadence's sudden anger.

"That's going too far," thought Applejack, who covered her face with her hat.  "You know better than to say something like that, Tirek!"

But, Tirek didn't listen as he glared at the angry Princess of Love, who had a look of rage deep in her face.

“Don’t you dare talk about me and Shining Armor like that!” snapped Cadence, her horn glowing in rage, ready to take another shot.  “Say something like that again and I will defeat you the same way I defeated King Sombra when he tried to retake the Crystal Empire!”

“Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, stand down,” said Celestia firmly, trying to maintain order in the throne room.  “You need to conserve your magic.”

Cadence lowered her magic and scowled at the imprisoned Tirek as she walked back up to Celestia's side.  After all, Cadence carried deeply about all those that were closest to her and to hear Tirek mock her and Shining Armor like that was crossing the line.

“Why would you need to conserve your magic, Celestia?” asked Tirek, still talking in a mocking voice.  “Are you trying to fully charge it so that I could take it from you?”

To prove he wasn’t kidding, Tirek attempted to activate his magic draining powers again.  But, as he tried, he could see that it wasn’t working and Luna and Celestia both smiled slyly at him.  Tirek roared in frustration as the two elder princesses stood before him.

“It’s like I said, Lord Tirek, your magic draining spell has been permanently disabled,” chuckled Luna, whacking her hoof on the left side of the cage.  “Nopony will ever fear you again when we are done with you.”

At that moment, Twilight saw this as an opportunity to step down and confront the monster who had made her his primary target and was the one who had destroyed her home.  Twilight walked down and like her fellow princesses, scowled at Tirek with a look of hatred in her eyes.  While Celestia, Luna and Cadence were imprisoned in Tartarus, Twilight and her friends had suffered the worst of Tirek’s wrath, since he had used Twilight’s friends to gain the alicorn magic that she was keeping inside her.

“Everything that the princesses are saying to you is true, Tirek,” said Twilight as she stood in front of her worst enemy.  “When you broke free of your prison in Tartarus, you were thinking that by draining everypony’s magic, you will make yourself the one true being in Equestria.  Instead, with each pony you and Discord attacked, you only made yourself weaker instead of stronger!”

Tirek was not going to have any more of this demoralization that he was experiencing and he wanted to silence her, but the other princesses would have none of it.  Hearing his name made Discord wince a little bit while Scorpan looked over and placed a paw on him to calm him down.

“How dare you talk back to me like that, Princess Twilight?!” roared Tirek, trying to clutch one of his fists in fury.  “I took your alicorn magic and imprisoned your fellow princesses, so you should fear me!”

“We don’t fear you, Tirek,” said Celestia, staring at Tirek from her throne.  “We never did fear you.  Even when you were mocking us before you sent us to Tartarus, we still didn’t fear you.”

Then, Twilight spoke next with a few more choice words for Tirek concerning their alicorn magic.

“And there is something else that you should know,” continued Twilight, her horn glowing with her own alicorn magic.  “I recently learned from Princess Celestia, that the plan to transfer the alicorn magic into me was really a trap that we set for you, so that my friends and I could open the chest that came from the tree of harmony.  I have a castle of my very own now because of it and if you think that my home at the Golden Oak Library is gone for good because of you destroying it, then you are wrong. It will one day return and it will be stronger than ever! You destroy my books, I will replace them; you destroy my dresses, my friends Rarity and Fluttershy will recreate them; you destroy my pictures, I will receive new ones from those who shared those moments with me. In other words, I will one day regain everything that I lost and we will become stronger than ever.  Only this time, you won’t be here to see us become stronger than ever because you do not something that we have and that is the magic of friendship!"

Discord was moved by this speech of Twilight's, since the night before, Twilight was upset over the loss of her former home.  A small tear came down his face upon hearing those words.  Of course, like all the others before him, Tirek viewed this as nothing more than mindless babbling.

“Consider this a warning to whoever you meet in your new prison,” said Twilight, her wings spreading out, as she fired a blast at Tirek's chest.  “The power and magic of friendship will always prevail and it is a power that is greater than all the magic you stole, Tirek!”

“ENOUGH!” roared Tirek, his roar causing one of the windows to crack slightly.  “No matter what you say, I will one day return to finish what I had started and every Earth, Unicorn, Pegasus and Alicorn pony will bow to my will and there will be nothing you can do to stop me!”

“SILENCE!” roared Luna and the interior of the throne room rumbled upon hearing her scream.  “You have said enough, Lord Tirek!”

At that moment, Celestia once again stepped forward and was soon joined by Cadence, still looking to blast some of her magic at Tirek for mocking her and Shining Armor.  At that moment, all four princesses surrounded the cage with their magic auras glowing much more brighter than normal, because of the anger that was inside of them.

“Lord Tirek, we have brought you here to pass judgment for your crimes and we pass it now,” thundered Celestia as the four princesses raised their magic powered horns right at Tirek.

“You are hereby sentenced to eternal torture in Tartarus at the hands of Cerberus," said Celestia and at that moment the four princesses passed their judgment as Discord banged the judge's gavel.

Tirek knew at that moment that he had been truly defeated.  He was being sent back to Tartarus, but not just as a prisoner, but as a war criminal against Equestria and he knew that eternal torture by Cerberus was only reserved for the worst offenders of Equestria.

At that moment, Celestia, Luna, Cadence and Twilight surrounded Tirek's cage and with their eyes glowing white, they fired their magic blasts at Tirek, striking him in whatever part of his body was being targeted.  At that moment, the once mighty centaur began to feel fear for the first time in his life and attempted to call on his brother to help him out of the situation that he now found himself.

“Scorpan!” he called out to his brother who just stood there along with Twilight's friends, satisfied by what he was seeing in front of him.  “Brother, help me!”

But, neither Scorpan, nor Discord didn’t respond to his cries as the force of magic from the four princesses grew stronger and stronger with each amount of anger that was being put in their magic beams.

“Long live the king,” he said satisfyingly as the magic beams consumed Tirek’s body and the centaur was sent screaming out of his cage, body and soul, into the sky above as the magic consumed the throne room.  The beam of magic carrying Tirek flew out of the throne room through the roof and into the sky before turning back down towards the caves of Tartarus where Tirek's sentence would be carried.

After a moment, the bright white light disappeared and the four princesses ceased their magic.  However, as their magic ceased, both Discord and Scorpan along with Twilight's friends were horrified to see them collapse and fall to their sides.  However, Twilight was able to rebound quickly while her fellow princesses were not so lucky.  Unfortunately, as quickly as she was to attempt to rally, Twilight fell over in exhaustion from overusing her magic, more so than when she had all of the alicorn magic.

“Princesses!” they all gasped as they all ran over to their side.  The two former partners of Tirek looked over to see the four princesses lying unconscious and looking down, they saw Celestia and Luna’s manes once again no longer flowing and all four of their cutie marks were once again gone.  Twilight's friends were also horrified by what they saw and ran over to their fallen friend as Shining Armor dashed into the throne room as well, running towards his unconscious wife.

Tirek was once again gone for good and his reign of terror was over, but the damage of sending him to eternal torture in Tartarus was already done…

Aftermath

Chapter 11

                “Aftermath”

It was over.  One day earlier, Tirek was sentenced to eternal torture by Cerberus for eternity and Equestria was deprived of its most feared enemy and his evil ways forever.  But, the energy that the four princesses used to send Tirek away forever was enough to once again take away their cutie marks and leave them weak.  After they had carried out the sentence, the four princesses were taken from the throne room and over to Ponyville hospital where they were treated for their magic loss.  Twilight was the first to wake and looked around to see that she and her fellow princesses were in a hospital as the silence of the room was only pierced by the sounds of the heart monitors.

“How did I get here?” mumbled Twilight as she opened her tinted eyes.  “If Tirek did this to us, I’ll…”

Suddenly, Twilight looked over to see the other princesses still lying unconscious in their own beds, dressed in hospital gowns.  Their royal regalia was off of them and their crowns were right next to them on nightstands.  It was fitting right then and there for Twilight that she realized just how weak she made herself and the other princesses when the fired their magic at Tirek.  However, Twilight feared the worst for she began to think back to the moment that she thought Celestia had been killed at the hands of Nightmare Moon.

“No,” she cried, worrying for Celestia, Luna and Cadence’s well-being.  “It can’t be, it just can’t be.”

Just then, the door opened and two royal guards allowed a yellow pony with brown hair and a doctor’s coat to walk inside.  Twilight could see that it was the same doctor who took care of Rainbow Dash when she was laid up following a flying accident.  Seeing Twilight again caused the doctor to smile knowing that he was seeing the friend of one of his patients.

“Good morning, Twilight,” he said, sitting down on the side of the bed.  “It’s good to see you again.”

“Thanks, doctor,” replied Twilight, who had a deep look of concern still etched on her face.  “But Celestia and the others, are they going to be all right?  Please tell me!”

“Calm down, Twilight,” he said, pushing Twilight back onto the bed as she tried to get up.  Of course, Twilight was in no condition to be out of bed, let alone fly.  “They are going to be fine and you're going to be fine.  All of you just have very low magic levels right now.”

Using a relaxation technique that Cadence had once taught her, Twilight calmed down and at that moment, the other princesses began to come around from being unconscious.  This made Twilight wipe away sweat from her brow as she smiled happily knowing that they were all okay.

“You’re all right,” she cried, her voice weak but still resilient.   “You’re all right!”

But, the princesses didn’t respond to Twilight right away, for unlike Twilight, they were much older and the loss of their magic had taken an effect on them.

“It is done,” groaned Celestia, opening her tinted eyes and looked to the ceiling, sighing heavily, not realizing that Twilight was talking to her.  “Tirek is gone forever.”

"He will never harm another pony again, sister," moaned Luna, opening her tinted eyes while stiring from her own unconscious state.  "Not as long as we rule over our subjects."

“But, in spite of what you have all done, your magic levels have been really low since you banished him here,” advised the doctor, getting up off of Twilight’s bed.  “Any more ounces of magic could have resulted in all of you losing your magic forever.  You should all be discharged by later today, once your magic has been fully restored.”

He then turned towards Nurse Redheart who opened the door to the hospital room.

“In the meantime,” said the doctor, smiling at his royal patients.  “I believe you have some family and friends who want to see you.”

Just then, Nurse Redheart opened the door and Twilight’s friends entered the hospital followed by Spike and Shining Armor as Nurse Reheart drew the barriers between Twilight and her fellow princesses.  Scorpan and Discord were waiting outside the hospital for their own safety; since many believed that they were both still associated with Tirek and going into the hospital would have only resulted in them being attacked by those ponies who would continue to be bitter towards them, even if Scorpan didn’t play any part in his brother’s rampage.

“We’re so glad you are all right, Twilight!” cried Applejack, as she and her friends surrounded her bed.  “You gave us quite a scare there!”

“Oh, and don’t forget the bright flashes of light,” added Pinkie Pie, excitedly.  “Even though they were cool to see!”

The other ponies glared at her, since that remark was out of place during a time like this.  This made Pinkie feel sheepish and slightly embarrassed.  However, Fluttershy quickly reset the mood for why they were here.

“We were really worried about you,” added Fluttershy and they all then backed away from Twilight and gave her plenty of space.

However, although she was listening on the other side through her curtain barrier, Celestia turned over on her side and chuckled softly to herself as she saw Twilight’s friends surrounding her student and youngest equal.  She then turned over to Luna and Cadence’s beds where Shining Armor sat with his wife and embraced her tightly as Cadence looked up at her husband.

“Everything’s going to be okay now, Cadence,” said Shining Armor softly, but then broke into a small chuckle.  “You’ve got to stop saving Equestria like this; it’s starting to get embarrassing.”

Normally, Cadence would take this joke from her husband as quite offensively, but she couldn’t help but giggle for a moment at what her husband had said.  It was true to the fact that she had indeed put herself in harm’s way multiple times, although to her, it was just another day of protecting the Crystal Empire.

“Actually, Twilight,” said Rarity, looking up at her laid friend.  “There has been something that we have been meaning to do for you since you lost the library.”

“Really, what is that?” groaned Twilight, as she felt the pain of the IV still in her leg.   What she also was feeling was still the pain of losing the library.  Most of it had gone away in the days since Tirek’s defeat, but some of the memories still remained.

“After we had been looking through the wreckage of the library,” said Rainbow Dash, sitting down on the side of the bed.  “We couldn’t find any pictures of events we had taken part in together, but then we came to a group decision on the matter.”

Just then, Spike came with a small bag and placed it on the stand next to Twilight’s crown.  Rarity then used her magic to pull several pictures out of the bags and placed them all next to Twilight.  When Twilight looked at the pictures, her eyes began to well up with happy tears.  She was looking at a series of pictures from the Grand Galloping Gala, the Royal Wedding and her Princess Coronation that included her and her friends.  In addition, she was also looking at pictures from events in Ponyville including Winter Wrap Up, Nightmare Night and many others.

“These were from our own photo collections,” said Rainbow Dash, smiling at Twilight happily.  “We have many other photos from these events…”

“…But we’d want you to have them,” finished Applejack, placing her hat on Twilight’s head.  “You need them much more than we do.  Believe me; I know that the memories of the library will still be with each and every one of us forever.”

"And Fluttershy and I were up all night recreating all of your outfits," said Rarity happily.  "Of course, I'll also be creating a new wardrobe for you."

Twilight was very much moved by this gesture, although she had her own present to give to her friends which was the very first picture that she ever had taken with her friends when she moved to Ponyville.  Meanwhile, as he saw the six friends hug each other, Discord looked to Scorpan as they hid in a bush out of sight from all the other ponies who were inside the hospital.

“They sure do love each other, don’t they Scorpan?” remarked Discord as he pulled away an extremely long telescope.

“Of course they do,” replied the hugely winged creature.  “It seems that Princess Twilight and her friends have a bond much stronger than anything you and I can imagine.  A bond that I will never share with my brother, but what I will share with the ponies of this world.”

“Your brother was bad influence on me,” remarked Discord, looking over at Scorpan, still feeling bitterness in his voice.  “I hope he continues to pay for what he did to me and my friends.”

“He will,” replied Scorpan, turning towards Discord.  “Let what has happened to my brother be served as a warning to all those who try to escape Tartarus and attack the inhabitants of this land."

However, Scorpan knew that sooner or later, he would have to return to his homeland.  He didn’t want to leave Equestria again, but he had no choice.  Soon, he would have to say farewell to his friends once again and return to his old life, however he had one more task for Discord.

“Before I return to my homeland,” he said to the ex-master of chaos.  “I ask you to watch over my friends and not be influenced by evil creatures like my brother.  Will you do that for me in my name, Discord?”

Discord then produce a halo and raised his paw in a solemn oath, much like being sworn into a high ranking position.

“I swear in the name of Celestia,” he said to Scorpan and the tame brother of Tirek chuckled at this, knowing that his friends were going to be good hands again.

Twilight Strong: Part 3

           Chapter 12

             “Twilight Strong: Part 3”

A few days after she and the other princesses were discharged from the hospital, Twilight was tasked with hosting a gala celebration of Tirek’s defeat as well as formally opening her new castle to her subjects.   Standing in front of a mirror in her new bedroom and dressed in her coronation gown, Twilight began to think of how far she had gotten as a princess and wondered if there was going to be any more challenges in the future where she would take on villains and enemies like Tirek.  After all, she had help carry out a sentence of eternal torture by a three headed guard dog named Cerberus.  Something that Celestia and Luna didn’t want them to do, but had done so nonetheless because Tirek was just too dangerous to be sent anywhere else.

At the same time, Twilight was still going to be adjusting to her new bedroom, which was just like her old one, but much larger. She now had a wardrobe, a balcony overlooking Ponyville among many others.  See was also glad to see her pet owl, Owlsicious, return to her following the loss of the library.

“This is the start of a new beginning for us, Owliscious,” said Twilight as she applied light makeup on her face.  “Let’s just hope we can all face these challenges together.”

Her owl hooted in reply and as Twilight finished with her makeup and straightened out her hair much like it looked at her coronation.  Part of being a princess was to host important events such as this and Twilight had to look her best.  She knew that thanks to Rarity, Twilight would not have to worry about finding outfits for certain events.

However, although she was willing to host important events, Twilight was also longing for simpler times as well.  Prior to getting this castle, she only had small, not-so-formal get together’s at the library like her Twilight Time with the Cutie Mark Crusaders.  This was going to take some getting used to, but it would be a little easier now that she had saved all of the important items from her library and all the pictures that her friends had given her.  Twilight walked over and looked up at them on her new mantelpiece.

“But, my friends were right,” Twilight thought as she looked at them.  “As long as I keep the memories of the library, it won’t be forgotten.”

Twilight was gazing at the pictures and thinking of the memories at the library, when a knock was heard at the door and Twilight turned to open the door and find Princess Celestia, Princess Luna and Princess Cadence wearing the dresses and crowns from Twilight’s coronation walk inside her bedroom.

“Princesses,” gasped Twilight, her mindset being broken by their unexpected arrival.  “I didn’t expect to see you all here.”

“That’s all right, Princess Twilight,” replied Celestia, as they all over to Twilight’s side.  “We just wanted to see how you are feeling after everything that has happened.”

“I’m feeling fine if that is what you are all asking,” sighed Twilight as she placed the crown that once held her element of harmony on her head.  “It’s just that everything seemed to have happened so fast in such a short period of time.”

Princess Celestia understood what her youngest equal was going through.  It was a difficult period for all of them, a time of transition to an extent, but it was much more harder for Twilight given the fact that she experienced all of this first hand.

“But, you’ll see in time that it was all for the best, Twilight,” said Celestia as they all walked out onto the balcony.  “As you have said when you gained this castle, you have made it your mission to spread the magic of friendship across Equestria with the help of your friends.”

“Princess Celestia is right, Princess Twilight,” added Luna placing a hoof on Twilight’s cheek.  “What you have just experienced is something that is going to come at you on a much more frequent basis.  But, this was only the first of many tests that you will undertake as one of us.  As Princess of Friendship, you will face many challenges and there will be enemies much greater than Tirek that will stand in your way.”

Twilight then looked down off of her balcony and saw many citizens of Ponyville and Canterlot walk into her palace.  She could see her parents were also coming in as well and began to think that what her fellow princesses were indeed true about what they were saying.  Twilight had always thought of being a princess as something more than just smiling and waving.  To this end, it seemed like being tasked with taking on Tirek was a test of whether or not she would be ready for this new responsibility and like all the other tests in the past, she passed with flying colors.

“But just remember, Princess Twilight,” said Celestia, looking down at her youngest equal.  “We are always going to be there for you, just as you were there for us in Equestria’s darkest hour.  Think of this as the start of a new beginning of your life, just as when it was when you first came here to study the magic of friendship.”

Twilight then walked over to take in what Celestia and Luna had said to her when she noticed her fellow princesses close their eyes as they began to sing to her in the same manner as when they were in the Crystal Empire.

Your destiny was uncertain

And that was sometimes hard to take

But it has become much clearer

With every new choice you make

-Princess Celestia

Patience was never easy

I understand you wanted more

I know how hard it was to wait

To spread out your wings and soar

-Princess Luna

But you’re  standing here for a reason

You're gifted and you are strong

Your crown remains upon your head because

You belong

-Princess Cadence

Now that your time was coming soon

As the sun rises, so does the moon

As love finds a place in every heart

You are a princess, you've played your part

-Princesses Celestia, Luna and Cadence

We understand you wanted more

A chance to shine, a chance to soar

-Princess Luna

Now has come the day it turns around

-Princess Cadence

Twilight then saw her fellow princesses take to the air as she looked up while they looked down below on her.  After a moment, the three of them landed back on the balcony as they reached the climax of their song.

Now that your time was coming soon

As the sun rises, so does the moon

As love finds a place in every heart

You are a princess, you've played your part

-Princess Celestia, Princess Luna and Princess Cadence

Twilight then looked down for a moment to think of everything that they had sang to her, before Celestia brought a hoof to her cheek and lifted her head up towards her own.

You are a princess, you’ve played your part

-Princess Celestia

As they finished singing, Celestia and Twilight embraced as the rays of light from the Crystal Empire shined across the sky.

A little while later, all of Twilight’s new subjects were all gathered in a large ballroom as Twilight and the other princess joined in the festivities.  Twilight could see that this was just exactly what her subjects needed after everything that had happened.  Perhaps nopony enjoyed this more than her friends, who were also wearing the dresses from her coronation and admiring how fun that this party was.

As for Discord, he was finally able to have fun for the first time since he repented for his actions by sharing a dance with Fluttershy on the dance floor.

“Shall we dance, my dear Fluttershy?” he asked as he snapped his fingers to reveal an outfit similar to the King of Siam.

“Yes, let’s,” she replied and the two of them danced around the ballroom as the booming music was heard throughout the ballroom.  Twilight and her friends were amazed of how much of a dancer Discord was and realized that maybe he wasn’t as bad as they thought he would be.

“You know, he’s not as bad as a dancer,” remarked Rarity to the rest of her friends, as Photo Finish took another picture with her camera.  “Wonder if he would do the same thing with me.”

“Well, why don’t you?” suggested Discord as he traded Rarity for Fluttershy.  This did not initially bode well for Rarity as she didn’t want to get her dress ruined, but eventually enjoyed it when the band began to play a slow waltz, much to her relief as Twilight and the other ponies chuckled.

Meanwhile, Scorpan was standing just outside the ballroom as he was preparing to leave to return to Tartarus.  Celestia and Luna then took notice of Scorpan and ran outside to see him before he left.

“Scorpan,” called Celestia as he was just about to take off.  Scorpan lowered himself back onto the ground as he turned towards his closest friends.  “Before you go, I wanted to thank you for supporting us when we dealt with your brother.”

“I had to do it, Princesses,” he said to them.  “My brother is dangerous and as much as I tried to help him, he was just beyond repair.  I know you didn’t want to send him to the sun, but in the end, it was for the better.”

“It was Scorpan,” replied Luna, feeling sort of sympathetic for her old friend.  “Returning to Tartarus is the best place for him and there he will remain forever, being tortured by Cerberus for all the crimes he committed against Equestria.  But, like all the events we have lived through, we will live through this one and its aftermath together.”

Scorpan smiled at this and then brought Luna to an embrace before turning to Celestia and giving her an embrace as well.

“I hope you have a safe journey home,” said Celestia as she and Scorpan broke away.  “Never forget that you are welcomed back at any time.”

“Give our regards to Starswirl,” added Luna as Scorpan took to the air once more.

“I will,” said Scorpan, staring back at the sisters before taking off once more.  “And until we meet again.”

The two sisters watched as Scorpan took to the air and made his way back to his homeland.  As the night went on, more repairs were being done as Discord and Shining Armor made up for what happened during the rampage and that as he and Cadence waltzed on the dance floor, Shining Armor no longer viewed Discord as a traitor, but more of as an ally.

"I see now that you are not the monster I thought you were," he chuckled as he danced with Cadence.  "Forgive me if I was rude to you earlier."

"Oh, no hard feelings," replied Discord while he danced with Rarity.  "I once said that I would use my magic for good instead of evil.  But, now I have decided to use my magic entirely for good."

"He's not as bad as he says he is, Shining Armor," whispered Cadence as they continued to dance together.  Although Shining Armor was not comfortable deep down inside, considering that he had not worked with him up until recently.

However, at the same time, Discord had finally been fully accepted by all of the ponies and much like he did when Twilight first introduced her castle, he gave Celestia a bouquet of flowers only since this was a formal occasion, he gave her a bouquet of roses, much like the ones that Twilight received during her coronation and Cadence received at her wedding.

The Equestria Healing Process was going to take a while as a result of everything that had happened, but it was going to be a healing process that everypony in all of Equestria would come to admire.

Weighing Their Options

           Chapter 5

   “Weighing their Options”

By the time that Shining Armor and the royal guards returned to Canterlot, it was already late at night and most of Canterlot’s inhabitants were asleep, except for Luna of course.  Knowing that the citizens were going to react  in a negative way against Tirek being brought back, they came in to the castle as quietly as possible.  Tirek’s cage was covered with a blue tarp, so as not to be viewed by anypony and the demon centaur growled silently in response to being covered up and a royal guard would whack the cage to silence him. One moment, Tirek was enjoying all the magic that he had absorbed and the next minute, he was weakened and back in this cage with chains holding him down like a chained animal.

“Take him down to the caves beneath Canterlot,” ordered Shining Armor to the guards as they landed on one of the towers.  “The Princesses will see him when the time is right.”

“Yes, your highness,” they said and a group of guards lifted the cage up and brought him down to the caves where Cadence was during the changeling invasion.

As the guards brought Tirek down to the caves, Shining Armor saw Princess Luna who was on her night patrol, having just returned from visiting the dreams of one of her subjects traumatized by the events of recent and was eager to hear what had happened in Tartarus.  After saluting her, Shining Armor placed his helmet back on his head.

“I see you have returned with the monster,” remarked Luna as she landed.  “Where is he now?”

“We’ve placed him in the Canterlot Caves until you are ready to meet him,” explained Shining Armor, taking in a deep breath of relief.  “He will not harm anypony else ever again after everything that has happened.”

“Indeed, Prince Armor, you and the other guards have done us proud,” replied Luna, smiling slightly.  But then she noticed that Discord was not with him and wanted to know where he was.  “But, pray tell, where is Discord?”

Shining Armor closed his eyes and sighed again, remembering how Discord just left them alone after Tirek was turned over to them.  As of that moment, Shining Armor no longer viewed Discord as a traitor, but more as all of the other victims.

“He left us in Tartarus, Princess,” sighed Shining Armor.  “Apparently, he went after Tirek and we had to stop him.  It seems as those he wanted to extract his own brand of justice on him.”

“And this is coming from somepony who worked alongside a monster like Tirek,” pondered Luna, scratching her chin with her horseshoe.   But, after a moment, she stopped pondering and sighed heavily. “But, he shouldn’t have left you, Shining Armor.  Our orders were for him to return with you and Tirek, not to leave you behind in Tartarus.”

"What was I supposed to do, Princess Luna?" asked Shining Armor, trying to defend Discord's actions.  "I thought he was a traitor, but I was wrong.  Cadence was right, he was misled."

"So you say," replied Luna, turning back towards the night sky.  "But misled or not, he did what he did.  Right now, we focus on Tirek."

As Luna left to return to her duties, Shining Armor began to think of how much of an idiot he was towards Discord.  Yes, he was angry at him for the damages he had caused.  But, Discord had a heart and he had to see the truth for his own self.  Of course, his thoughts were still with Twilight who joined her fellow princesses in the Crystal Empire to a summit relating to Tirek’s punishment.  It seemed that the scars that Tirek had imposed on them were very much still visible on all four of them and it showed as Luna revealed what she and Shining Armor had discussed.

“I don’t blame Discord for walking out on my brother and the guards,” said Twilight with frustration in her voice as she paced back and forth in the meeting room in front of her fellow princesses.  “But, don’t forget that I was a victim of all of this as well, not just Discord. Not only did he harm my friends, but he destroyed everything I had ever had in the library.”

“We understand that, Twilight,” said Cadence, trying to calm her down.  “But, we all need to work together in what options are necessary to deal with Tirek.”

With those words, Twilight stopped her pacing and rejoined the others around the table.  As much as she wanted to, Twilight had to work alongside the other princesses, even though in her mind, she felt that Tirek should be destroyed because of what he did to the library.

“I’m sorry, princesses,” sighed Twilight, lowering her head down for a moment and using the breathing technique Cadence had taught her.  “It’s just that I have all this anger and resentment towards Tirek for all that he did to me and my friends.  Not to mention, that I had to give up our alicorn magic when he held them against their will.”

A hushed silence fell throughout the throne room when Twilight said those words.  Celestia, Luna and Cadence had specifically given up their magic to Twilight so as to protect them from Tirek, but now for the first time was hearing that Tirek had offered Twilight an offer that she couldn’t refuse.  For the first time, they were learning the truth about what had happened.  Twilight braced herself knowing that in her mind, Celestia, Luna and Cadence were going to berate her for doing such a thing, despite the fact that she did it in order to free them from Tirek's control.

“He held your friends against their will for our magic?" gasped Luna, placing her hoof towards her mouth.  "That scoundrel would dare to do such a thing."

But, Celestia knew that there was something much more to Twilight giving up their magic and glared at her, much to Luna's confusion.

“It seems likely so that it would only be a matter of time before he found a way to obtain it, sister,” sighed Celestia, a look of defeat on her face.  "Tirek would do anything to get what he would want and that was what he did with you, Twilight."

"I tried to destroy him myself, Celestia. But our powers were evenly matched," explained Twilight, looking nervous again.  "Who knows what he could have done to my friends had I not surrendered our magic?  You must believe me."

Although Twilight felt horrible at what she did, the princesses were understanding about it.  As far as they were concerned, Twilight managed to use the magic of friendship in order to defeat Tirek.  But, in order to unlock it, there had to be a sacrifice.

"You did what needed to be done, Twilight," remarked Celestia, a small smile coming to her face.  "We know how dedicated you are to us and we know how dedicated you are to your friends.  We know that you will do anything to protect them from harm, even if it meant giving up our magic."

"Do you remember when you allowed Spike to bring the Crystal Heart to me?" said Cadence, reminding Twilight of the time that she told Spike to bring her the Crystal Heart.  "You weren't willing to risk the citizens of my empire in an effort to guarantee your own goals, Twilight."

Then, Celestia reminded Twilight of something that she had to said to her right after King Sombra was destroyed.  It was a part of the test that Celestia had tasked Twilight with taking that allowed her to ultimately reveal her destiny as a princess.

"I said to you once Twilight," said Celestia, draping a wing over her youngest equal's shoulder.  "That it is far better that I have a student who understands the meaning of self-sacrifice than one who only looks out for her own best interests."

However, there was something that Twilight still didn't understand and that was what had happened to her fellow princesses once she had left them after they transferred their magic to her.

"I understand what you mean, Celestia," remarked Twilight.  "But there is something that has been on my mind of late.  What happened to you all after I had returned to Ponyville?"

At that moment, the small smile on Celestia's face turned back into a frown as she knew that Twilight needed to know the whole truth about what had happened to them.

“I don't know how we are going to tell you this, Twilight," sighed Cadence, feeling torn about what to say to her sister-in-law.  "But, what we are trying to say to you is..."

"Tirek imprisoned us in Tartarus when he found out about what we had done," finished Luna and hushed gasp came through Twilight’s mouth upon hearing those words.

For the first time, she was learning of Tirek imprisoning the ponies that were closest to her next to her friends and family.  Now, it made all the more worthwhile for Twilight to have her choice words with Tirek.

“Without our magic, we were useless to him, Princess Twilight," she continued.   "So he sent us to Tartarus so we could feel the pain that he felt while he was imprisoned there.”

"How could he do that to you?" gasped Twilight, her voice filled with shock and disbelief.  "Tartarus is an evil place only for the creatures who want to harm Equestria.  Why did you even give your magic to me when you could have fought him yourselves?"

"We were at his mercy Twilight," explained Celestia.  "We couldn't fight Tirek because Discord was backing him up.  But we knew that you would unlock the magic of friendship and free us eventually.  I told him that he would not prevail as long as you stayed strong and resilent like we did."

"But, did any of the evil creatures hurt you?" gasped Twilight, now starting to grow concerned for her fellow princesses.

"No," replied Luna.  "Cerberus knew that we didn't belong there, so he had us only shackled to keep us from leaving because he knew that we were weakened.  After we had left, we saw him advance towards Tirek, most likely angry at him for imprisoning us."

As her younger sister spoke, Celestia began to feel the regret down inside her rise up and now, Luna and Cadence also felt the same feeling because by holding Twilight’s friends hostage, Tirek was able to obtain the alicorn magic.  It seemed now that the three of them made the mistake of sending Discord and not Twilight and her friends.  However, there was another side to this situation relating to the tree of harmony and the princesses knew it.

“But, look on the bright side, Twilight,” said Cadence, smiling and raising her wings in happiness.  “You were able to find the last key to the chest that defeated Tirek and transformed your destroyed library into your new castle.”

Twilight had to smile at this and her sister-in-law was right, finding the last key was more important than giving up the Alicorn magic.  As a matter of fact, Twilight could see that the princesses wanted Twilight to give up the alicorn magic to Tirek so as to unlock Equestria’s newest means of defense.

“Princess Cadence is right, Twilight,” explained Celestia.  “You must know that giving up the Alicorn Magic was merely a plan to trick Tirek into obtaining it so that you could find a way to obtain the magic that was inside the box and then destroy him with it.”

It seemed that Twilight knew at that moment that by obtaining the magic of her fellow princesses, Twilight set forth the chain of events that would make her who she was and find her identity.  Still, there was no excuse for what Tirek did and all four of them knew it.

“This is why we are together,” said Celestia as they walked away from the window.  “We need to come up with a form of punishment that fits all of the crimes that Tirek has done on his rampage all over Equestria.”

“Can I make a suggestion?” asked Twilight, raising her hoof to speak, and this caused the other princesses to chuckle.

“You don’t have to raise your hoof with us, Twilight,” chuckled Cadence.  “You are not in Magic Kindergarten anymore.”

“Oh, yes of course,” chuckled Twilight, lowering her hoof down onto the table.  After a brief chuckle and a short silence, Celestia spoke first and opened the voting.

“Who wants to go first?” asked Celestia as the other princesses looked over at each other, wondering who should go first.

After all, the four of them each wanted to brand their own form of justice on Tirek.  But, they all had to come to an agreement on a punishment that satisfied them all.

“Maybe perhaps Shining Armor and I could send him far away from Equestria with the power of our love,” suggested Cadence.  “It worked with the changelings, so why not Tirek?  We could keep him in his cage as we are doing it.”

“Then he will just come back and do everything all over again,” replied Luna, nodding her head in disagreement.  “We cannot have that happen again, Cadence.”

So, that idea was shot out the window and Twilight was next to speak out on her idea.  As much as she wanted to destroy Tirek for harming those closest to her, she had to come up with a suggestion that would be considered by the other princesses.

“I have a suggestion,” said Twilight, taking in a deep breath, her voice filled with anger.  “Can’t we just destroy him for everything that he did?”

This did not bode well with Celestia and Luna.  Destroying Equestria’s criminals was something that they did not like as much as the next pony.  There would only be few exceptions with the most recent being King Sombra in the Crystal Empire, who was executed by Princess Cadence and the Crystal Ponies with the light and love that was inside them.

“I’m sorry, Princess Twilight,” replied Celestia, lowering her head at this.  “But, I cannot allow ourselves to pass out an order of destruction.  We don’t destroy unless if the criminal destroys another pony.”

“But, the library and my friends,” protested Twilight, shocked that her idea was rejected.  “What about them?”

“It’s for the best, Twilight,” suggested Cadence, placing a hoof on her shoulder.  “Chrysalis had me imprisoned in the Canterlot Caves and Shining Armor and I didn’t destroy her, we’d just send her away.  As the Princess of Love, I only destroy my enemies when the moment calls for it and King Sombra was an exception.”

“Princess Cadence is right, Twilight,” added Luna.  “As long as no ponies were destroyed by Tirek, then we can’t destroy him ourselves.  But, what we need to do is to have Tirek be punished in a severe enough manner for his crimes.  I only have one option and that is to sentence him to eternal torture by Cerberus.”

Luna looked up to her sister and knew that this would be the best option between them, even though it was hopeless to have Tirek undergo a reformation.  Unlike Discord, Tirek was a creature whose heart was black as night and could never have a chance at being reformed.

“Then are we all in agreement over Tirek being sentenced to eternal torture in Tartarus?” asked Celestia, raising her wing, followed by Luna, then Cadence and finally Twilight, although the Princess of Friendship would have like to destroy him, but eternal torture was much worse.

“It is decided,” said Celestia, taking in the votes.  “Lord Tirek’s punishment for his crimes against us and all of Equestria will be to sentenced to eternal torture by Cerberus.”

So, it was all set in stone and soon, the princesses were going to get their way with the lord of darkness himself for all that he did to Equestria…