The Sacraficing: The Complete Story
"Bon Bon! Bon Bon!" Lyra squeaked and screamed. She couldn't wait for what was about to go down.
"Is it on Lyra? You know I love me a good name-drawing for the... 'event'."
She started to chuckle a little bit with Bon Bon. They knew they where about to draw names to see who was nominated for the sacrificing. The sacrificing is a special kind of event in Equestria. An event where everypony comes to celebrate their freedoms and 'thank' the victims for 'wanting' to help with the cause, that cause being the third sister.
You see, Celestia, Luna, and Cathena are triplets. They ruled over the land in perfect harmony. But then one day Cathena was cursed with dark magic that the other two sisters had never seen before. To this day they still haven't figured out what caused the incident, but, what they do know is that she betrayed them. She made the land as horrible as possible, by having poor living conditions and hunger, and enslavement. But Luna and Celestia weren't having it. They stood up to her, and tried with all their might to stop her. However, she was much more stronger that them, for she had been getting lessons. So they settled on a deal, she would go to a place called Tartarus and rule over there, and each decade they'd send someone down there for her to 'play' with. And ever since then, there had been a sacrifice, to help with 'the cause'.
So, Lyra and Bon Bon got some cider and some popcorn, and began to watch. "Hello, and welcome to your four o'clock news channel, hi my name is Pressiet. And today is something extra-special."
"Oh boy here we go!" Squealed Lyra, though Bon Bon hushed her seconds after.
"Today is going to be the day where we will be seeing who is drawn for the sacrificing! Now, we are going to do this like we've always been doing it. We have three categories with two ponies in each, the fillies, the adults, and the blank-flanks. Today, we shall start off with the blank-flanks. We have here Button Mash, and Jane Cloud. Next is the adults, we have here Flower Wishes and Lyra Heartstrings."
Lyra's jaw dropped to the floor, she couldn't believe what she was hearing! SHE was nominated to go fight in a battle against five other ponies to be sacrificed to Cathena?! She didn't even want to hear the last two, so she turned off the TV, and turned to Bon Bon who looked like she was texting to someone.
"BON BON!!!!!"
"Huh? What? Oh sorry, I was just talking to rose luck, who was very-" She was cut off by Lyra.
"Bon Bon. This is SERIOUS! I have been elected to go into battle, to see who will be sacrificed! And you know how terrible I am at fighting!" Bon Bon paused in awe for a second and then she had a big grin.
"You have been elected?! Why thank you! Ah! Thank you for giving up your happiness, so that way we can be happy!" Lyra looked at her strange, but it quickly turned to anger.
"Have you lost your Faust-damn mind?!?! I mean, I could go to Tartarus! Would you really want your best friend to go to the worst place in the world?!"
"Well if it's for a good cause then I'd say why not!"
Lyra groaned, but then she had an idea. "Well if the cause is so important, why don't you take the honor of the sacrifice?" Bon Bon stopped in her tracks and turned around to Lyra, who had a smirk on her face.
"Well, it's always been those who have been elected to go be sacrificed! And even though there's a number you can call every year to be sacrificed, I wouldn't want to take that honor away from you!" Lyra was angry at Bon Bon for letting her have a chance of going to hell, but then she remembered something... It was law. It was law that you MUST think that this is a good thing or else you yourself would wind-up on death row. They did this to keep a revolution from happening. And so far, it's working...
Lyra decided to go to the gym to help her get prepared for the fight, until she stumbled across a pony who was giving out flyers. "Excuse me miss? Would you care to join us this afternoon as we celebrate the return of Carnation Blue?" The pony asked.
"Carnation Blue?" Lyra replied with confusion.
"Carnation Blue! You know the last pony to be sacrificed? She's returning! And we're celebrating it in town hall! Oh, and we're also having a thank you ceremony, to those who will fight next in the battle." He handed her the flyer, and Lyra did a quick scan over it. She started thinking, 'maybe if I go, this pony will say it's not so bad... That the torture that is given isn't so bad. Plus they're giving the fighters a thank you ceremony, it will give me a chance to meet them, and learn their weaknesses.'
"Thank you sir!"
"No problem, em, uh... If you don't mind telling me, what is your name?"
Lyra was nervous at first, but then she spoke. "Lyra, Lyra Heartstrings." The pony's jaw dropped to the floor.
"Why, Thank you! For helping with the cause! We, as fellow ponies, gladly appreciate it!" Lyra nervously smiled, and then galloped away.
A few hours later she went to the party. Everypony seemed to be enjoying themselves. And then another pony, who seemed to be helping out with the event, pointed to her that she needed to go up on stage because she was one of the 'sacraficies.' So, she did. And then she saw one filly, who was being tugged by his mom.
"Mom! I don't want to die! Please help me!" The mother just looked at the filly and smiled with an assuring grin.
"Now Button, your not going to die! If you loose the battle all that's going to happen is you go to Tartarus where Cathena rules, and you'll just be with her for an entire decade, then you come back and celebrate your return with all of Ponyville! I mean you might be tortured for a long time, but you'll come back!" Button, the filly, looked shocked. He wanted to scream, but then he was put on stage standing next to Lyra. And to the other side of Lyra was another mare, Flower Wishes. Lyra was about to ask Flower Wishes about something, until the mayor spoke out.
"Welcome everypony to the 87th annual Sacrifice Pre-Party!" The town started to cheer, and it was at that moment Lyra had realized, Equestria had lost it.
The mayor continued. "Now, everypony it's time to welcome back, Carnation Blue!" The crowd started to cheer, even Bon Bon who could be only seen from a far distance. Scootaloo was banging on bongos while the unicorns worked their magic to bring her back, after a couple of seconds there was a poof. She was a blue pony with a very light, yet not so bright mane. Her name was frizzled in a way it was hard to tell the style, her eyes twitched so fast she was blinking at least twenty times a minute. She was covered in scars and wounds, which can only be presumed to be attempts of suicide, since she can't actually get hurt in Tartarus. And yes, her ear was chewed up slightly. Everypony paused insight of her twitching and shaking with fear, and then cheered. But then, she spoke.
"No! It's just another mind trick isn't it? I refuse to believe happiness exists anymore! Unless, your just mocking me! Your mocking me aren't you? Oh, won't somebody help me? Please!"
The mayor tried to calm her down. "Now Carnation Blue, your home now! The decade is over and we thank you for helping with the cause! Now you won't have to experience anything but happiness for the rest of your life!"
She slowly turned her head at the mayor and made a very wide grin. She giggled. "Happiness? Rest of my life? I don't even think I have a life anymore! I haven't aged a day! I missed out on what could have been, and now I wish good luck to you next competitors, because DEATH is a much better option!" She started laughing hysterically, and ran towards a lake. She was about to jump in and drown herself, until some ponies rescued her. And told her that she was going to be alright, and that she would get over this in less than a week. But that never happens. Usually they live in misery for the rest of their lives. They put her in restraints and sent her off to a place that keeps sacraficies that want to kill theirselves. They usually stay their for the rest of their lives.
Lyra looked on with a speechless expression. And then screamed out to everyone. "Have you all lost your minds!? You literally just witnessed a pony become so traumatized that she wanted to die, and your cheering about it!? You 'thank' these ponies for 'wanting' to sacrifice themselves just so YOU can be happy! How selfish are you!? Oh and newsflash, they never wanted to do this! You just forced them into it with your stupid laws! You've all been brainwashed by the princesses to think that this is a good thing and it's not! So, you know what?! I don't WANT to see fillies get sacraficed and their lives being scared forever, so you know what?! This time round, I VOLUNTEER!" Everyone paused for a good amount of time and then cheered, it was the first time that someone had ever volunteered.
"And your STILL cheering! What kind of ponies are you! Oh, I know, the kind who are scared of being put on death row! I hope that by the time I come back, y'all would of started and ended a war that would bring this sacrificing to an end! But ya know what? I doubt it, cause y'all don't care. So, GO AHEAD! SEND ME AWAY WHY DON'T YA! Let's see how y'all cope with life knowing that you maliciously ruined someone else's life!" They still cheered, and even Bon Bon was cheering. Lyra, took a big breath for a second, and then let it out, she was ready for whatever was about to come.
Just moments after, she was strapped to a wooden board, that was being shown to the crowd. The crowd started to cheer, "Sacrifice! Sacrifice!" Over and over. Then Lyra realized something, nobody cared about anybody but themselves, nopony was going to save her, nopony was going to say sorry, nopony was going to do anything but say thank you, and goodbye. Not even her best friend, Bon Bon. She was in fact cheering right now. Yelling from a distance, the same chant.
Then. Spike, took a torch with green flames and brung it near Lyra. "Any last goodbyes Lyra?"
Lyra paused for a second, and said "I just want to say, I won't miss you all, because none of you will miss me. Oh and Bon Bon, I hate you. This friendship is OVER! Now do what you must!" Spike lit her with the green flames and just like that, she was gone. Bon Bon was looking at the stage with guilt, she quickly realized how much of a mess this is, and woke up from her delusions. She ran away from the event crying in tears.
"Ugh, where am I?" Lyra questioned. She looked up.
But only heard a voice, it was Cathena. "Welcome Lyra! How are you doing today! Wow, that battle happened quicker than I thought! What? Did everyone gang up on you?" She started laughing until Lyra spoke.
"There was no battle! I, I sacrificed myself."
"I'm surprised! Nopony has ever done that before! May I ask you why?"
"Because those ponies, they only care about themselves. This has been going on for so long that they've forgotten what it was like, like to have everypony living in harmony, and for there to be no death and despair. But that's not my point, my point is that everyone just doesn't care about anybody but themselves, and unless somepony does soon, the place we once knew as the land of harmony, will be reduced to nothing. And if they don't care, why should I? So go ahead, do your worst. I won't care."
Cathena just started laughing and started doing all of his usual mind-tricks. He made things look real, and he started to torture Lyra, who eventually gave in. She saw all of her worst fears. It started small, with spiders and insects. Then it got more hardcore, with being buried alive, and with her getting stuck in quicksand. But then what broke her was that she was being protected while everyone else was dying around her, she was siting a glass tube for 8 weeks while she saw other ponies living happy lives and just ignoring her, and even one time she couldn't move or scream and watched people die in front of her own eyes, for three months! She had a time where she was put to sleep and had nightmares where she was kidnapped and beaten. And yet more was planned for her, but by then, she was already broken.
Four years had passed since the sacrificing and Bon Bon was still trying to figure out how to fulfill Lyra's wish of starting a war, without actually starting a war. She started reading up on the history of the sacrificing, and then started to ask, 'what DID cause Cathena's corruption?' So she started to connect some key components, like how the last time she was happy, she went to school one morning. And she came back unusually ill... Bon Bon then concluded that she must have gotten cursed at the school. More and more components where brought together, and over the course of six months, she had a theory. She ran over to Canterlot, where the princesses lived, and had a plan.
Lyra was biting her legs to the point that they where bleeding. But it wasn't enough to kill her. She became just as frazzled as Carnation Blue! But then the room went black. She fell from a rope she was about to be 'hung' from and then Cathena says she'll be right back. Cathena was then confronted by her sister.
"Oh Celestia! What would you like from me?"
"We have something for you, Bon Bon?" Celestia looked over at Bon Bon and then she gave a drink to Cathena.
"It's just something I made for my favorite pony of all time! I am a big fan of your work! You really did nice for yourself, ruling over this place all by yourself!" Bon Bon complemented with a grin that looked like she was nervous.
"Hmm..." Cathena sniffed the drink, then took a sip, she smiled and drunk the rest. "What was in this? Is it like-" She was cut off by a sensation in her, then she shrunk from her ten thousand foot height, to just five foot nine. She was screaming as the transformation was going on. She turned into a nice yellow pony with a pink, blue, green, and orange mane and tail that was wavy sort of like Luna's. She was starting to wake up.
"What.. Huh? Celestia? Celestia!" Cathena ran up to Celestia with a giant hug. And Celesta gave her a hug right back. "Oh Celestia thank you for freeing me from that wicked spell, I guess I should have followed the formula in science class a bit more! Could you ever forgive me for all the bad things I have done?"
"Of course! After all, forgiveness is what makes ponies willing to try again."
Bon Bon smiled but then quickly realized, "Wait? Where's Lyra?"
"I'll get her, you and Celestia stay here." Said Cathena. And so she want to get Lyra, who was picking at her own wounds to try to make them bleed more.
"Hey Lyra?"
Lyra screamed. "What do you want! I want to be dead! That's what I want! But we can't get that now CAN WE?!?!"
"Lyra, I'm sorry. It's me, the true Cathena! Your friend Bon Bon fixed me! And no, this isn't a mind-trick."
Lyra paused, "Wait? Bon Bon? No, it's not real, she was cheering like the rest of them! She couldn't of-" She stopped talking when Cathena revealed herself.
"Cathena? It, it is you."
"And it's also Bon Bon too," Bon Bon trotted over to Lyra.
"Bon Bon? Did you really do all of this?"
"Yes! After you said your final sayings I woke up from my delusions and wanted to know how I can put an end to the madness without starting a war! I figured out a antidote to Cathena's 'curse' which was just a little bit of soda mixed with a flower called fixamonus." Lyra smiled at Bon Bon and gave her a hug.
"And Lyra, I just wanted to say I am sorry about earlier, I was only thinking about my health instead of yours, sure your supposed to take care of yourself before helping others, but when someone is about to be tortured, just put yourself in their shoes and ask yourself, 'would I want to be in that situation?'"
"It's okay Bon Bon, the whole land was brainwashed to believe in this stuff! You where just a victim of the law, which speaking of, how are we going to prevent confusion all over the land? I mean, now that there's no sacrificing, how are we gonna tell everyone?"
Celestia giggled. "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it, but first, who wants ice cream?" They all giggled and Equestria was yet again ruled by three triplets, and they all lived happily ever after. The End.
