Celestia sat at the end of a very long polished mahogany table in a corridor just as long. Large columns ran down either side of the corridor, and pale white moonlight shone through the mosaic windows on the right side of the long chamber. As Celestia sat on one end of the unadorned table, Luna sat all the way on the opposite end, her eyes fixated on her elder sister, even from such a long distance away.
"I'm glad you decided to speak with me one last time," Celestia said quietly.
Luna's expression was flat and bore no strong emotions such as anger or hate. There was the slightest hint of contempt, but that was mostly overshadowed by disappointment and a touch of shame.
"I have a question, sister," Luna said calmly, her voice somehow carrying all the way to Celestia's ears despite the vast distance in between the two sisters, "If my welfare had not been connected to this prophecy, would you have still resorted to such methods to obtain Spike's egg?"
Celestia's intense regret was plain to see as she grimaced and said, "Luna. . .Luna, I have thought about such things and run it through my mind countless times. Nightmare Moon was only a small piece of what my visions were revealing to me. Discord, Sombra, the dragons, the Changelings. . . I still would have done what I had to do to ensure it came true. You are not to blame, Luna-."
"I was NOT implying that, sister," Luna said testily.
Celestia's gaze and tone became just a bid icy as she replied, "Luna, can you honestly tell me that if you had been in my position, that you wouldn't have made the same decision? You had always ruled with a firmer hoof than I. You were always more practical and direct in your methods, as opposed to my nurturing and guiding from afar."
"You are speaking to the one who has protected and comforted countless young ponies in their sleep when nightmares seek to terrify them," Luna replied, her gaze narrowingly slightly.
"And you are speaking with the one who receives accurate visions of the future," Celestia responded swiftly, "Therefore, this conversation my not have much of a purpose. You couldn't understand how this feels, to be able to see not only the future, but the means to get to that future."
"So was Spike just a means to an end?" Luna asked as she leaned forward in her chair.
"No, and can you please give me a chance to explain my mindset in this," Celestia said, the desperation in her eyes in contrast to her calm measured tone of voice, "Don't you see what my choice was? Either I take the dragon egg and ensure the hope, peace, and the triumph of harmony and good for the future; or I allow Discord, Sombra, the dragons, and Chrysalis to destroy this world."
". . .and Nightmare Moon," Luna mused.
Celestia looked over at Luna hopefully and said, "Then you do understand-?"
Luna slammed her forehooves onto the table and said, "No! These visions of yours only showed you events that Spike would play a role in, not what would happen if he was not taken under your so-called 'care.' Those threats surely could have been avoided without Spike."
Celestia was very tense, but nevertheless stood her ground and continued, "Twilight discovered her magic by hatching Spike. Discord would have fully corrupted Twilight and her friends had I not sent back those Friendship Reports through Spike. One merely needs to ask any Crystal Pony about Spike's importance. Ember would have never become Dragon Lord without Spike's help, leading to Garble declaring war on us. Thorax would have been imprisoned or even killed if Spike had not befriended and stood up for him, leading to Chrysalis victory."
"How can you be so nearsighted!" Luna shouted back, "Surely there are many other tests that would have sufficed to reveal Twilight Sparkle's potential, as it was Rainbow Dash's Sonic Rainboom that triggered her magic. You could have delivered the Friendship Reports necessary to break Discord's curse in any number of ways. I had wanted to go to the Crystal Empire myself to begin with, and either of us could have intervened had Twilight failed. Garble would not have hated Equestria enough to declare had it not been for his encounter with Spike before hand. As for Thorax, I cannot be sure, but it is foolish to assume that Spike is the only one who could have befriended Thorax. Surely Fluttershy or Pinkie Pie could have fulfilled that role."
Luna gave Celestia a harsh glare as she continued in a low, level tone, "And yet you chose to steal away a child from his mother based on visions of one single possible future."
"It was a perfect future, Luna," Celestia insisted, "Look around! There is peace and harmony between all races, and the forces of evil have been either reformed or sounded defeated. Would it really be wise to take a chance and jeopardize such a glorious ending? Would a good ruler really put the happiness, freedom, and safety of her people at risk?"
". . . .You never even asked for her name, did you?" Luna asked flatly.
Celestia winced at the question, and she said in a guilty tone, "Had things gone differently, I would have asked. But upon seeing how things were going to end, I simply could not. What I chose to do was bad enough. Knowing her name would simply be all the more haunting."
Celestia hung her head and said in sadness, "If only the time frame had been smaller. Not centuries, but perhaps a decade or two. I could have persuaded her to lend me the egg for that time, offered her a place to live nearby so she could still look in on her child as I raised her."
"She still would not have agreed," Luna said with certainty, "You would still be asking to take her child out of her nest for the purpose of having unicorn magic thrown into it. What's more, she wouldn't be allowed to raise her own child, but forced to watch a race of creatures she had little respect for do so instead, spitting in the face of his own dragon heritage."
Celestia stood up in a fervor and said, "Would you rather I sacrifice the future of the entire world for the sake of one individual!?"
"Every individual matters, sister," Luna insisted.
"And when one such individual causes everycreature else to suffer?" Celestia argued.
"Sister!"
Celestia shut her eyes and held out a forehoof, "I'm sorry. I am. You are correct. I just implied that the dragoness intentionally sought to ruin the future. That is not true. She was a mother protecting her child. She wasn't evil. She was. . ."
Tears began to leak out of Celestia's eyes as she croaked out with a sob, ". . .she was standing in the way of the future of my little ponies. . . I saw my visions, and I was afraid what would happen if things did not play out successfully. I had already failed so much already. I saw the fulfillment of that prophecy as a way to set things right."
Luna was sitting calmly with her forehooves together and asked, ". . .and the consequences?"
Celestia didn't even both to wipe the tears from her eyes after she opened them. "I'm prepared to face them. I was always prepared to face them. Even back then, I anticipated it. In the back of my mind, I was counting down the years to the point where I could finally confess. . .after the prophecy . . .and face my punishment."
". . .Really?" Luna said with a raised eyebrow, "And you believed it to be worth it."
"Yes," Celestia said without hesitation, "All the good Spike has done. . .it's all worth my fate."
". . .We will never see each other again, alive," Luna said with a palpable bitterness, "When it's over, I will be long gone."
"I know," Celestia said softly, averting her eyes from Luna's gaze.
Luna jumped onto the table and walked across the polished surface towards her elder sister. "You've put me in an even worse spot that I had put you in."
"I know."
"And I can't even commit to holding a grudge against you," Luna, her tone growing all the more bitter and aggressive by the second, "All because you had something Nightmare Moon did not: 'good intentions'."
The disgusted sounding way Luna had said the two words filled Celestia with shame, and she finally raised her head just in time to see that Luna's face was inches away from her own.
"But 'good intentions' do not justify your actions, just as the ends do not always justify the means, sister," Luna said with conviction.
"I made my choice. A choice which benefited the greatest number of creatures possible," Celestia said with certainty, in spite of the tears in her eyes, "And I am willing to pay the price for it, whether or not you will ever forgive me for it."
Luna's eyes seemed to bore into Celestia's, and the younger alicorn kept a straight face as she mused, "So, that is how it will be. You will constantly bring up the positives. . . the happy accidents if you will, in order to justify your actions."
"Not justify," Celestia corrected, sitting up a bit taller in chair, "Explain."
"Very well," Luna said calmly, and she sighed and raised her head, turning to gaze wistfully at the full Moon shining through one of the hall's ornate windows, "I suppose I owe you some credit, sister. You are not quite evil, but you are tainted. . .like I was. I by jealousy, you by megalomania. And it is for that reason why I do not hate you. I cannot quite forgive you just yet. . .but I do not hate you."
Luna then forced herself to turn nad look Celestia in the eye once again. As tender emotions began to leak out, and the emotional dam Luna had built up began to leak, Luna said in a breathless whisper, "Goodbye, Celestia. . . I still love you, big sister."
The end of the log table closest to Celestia suddenly snapped upward and shattered, and Celestia's chair fell back as she was violently thrown backwards. Celestia had no control of her body as she was hurled down the seemingly endless hall for several agonizing seconds, until she finally collided with a wall.
Celestia gasped for breath as her eyes fluttered open, and she looked around to take stock of her surroundings. She was still in the same location as when she had first fallen asleep. It was the same prison wagon, complete with metal bars in the windows and chains fettering her legs to the metal frame of the vehicle. Celestia could feel the magic suppression ring on her horn, as well as the chains binding her wings. These were both unnecessary, as Celestia had no intention of trying to escape and was perfectly willing to accept her punishment. However, Celestia understood that for the sake of granting justice to those she had wronged, she should be put through all the morbid pomp and circumstance of that of a criminal.
Celestia peered out through one of the windows, and she saw that she had already reached the end of the line.
The wagon stopped, and the doors opened, revealing Guard Captain Gallus and Lieutenant Pipsqueak, both with grim expressions on their faces.
Celestia sighed and hung her head as the two high ranking guards approached and unlocked the chains on her legs so they could escort her out of the wagon. Celestia didn't say a word as she was led towards the towering, imposing gates of Tartarus. However, Celestia was far more interested in the figures that were waiting in front of the gates.
Lined up and waiting patiently at the doorstep of Tartarus were Princess Twilight, Dragon Lord Ember, and, of course, Spike himself.
Celestia had never felt so small as she did right at the moment, and it wasn't just because Ember, decked out in golden armor, now stood a head taller than the teenage Spike.
Ember leaned stood with a claw on her hip and said with passive aggressive sass, "So. . . here we have the little ex-princess who thinks pony lives are more important than dragons."
Unable to hold it in, Celestia muttered loud enough for all those present to hear, "You would not be Dragon Lord had I not-."
"DON'T!" Ember snarled, pointing an accusing claw at Celestia, "Don't. . .go there!" Ember then let out a huff and said in a slightly calmer tone, "Whether or not I would've won the Gauntlet of Fire without Spike isn't the point here. The point is that you're an egg thief. Nothing else matters right now."
"I'm sure I saved so many dragons from terrible fates," Celestia said, although it came out more as a desperate plea.
"Dragons might have had an 'everydragon for themselves' mindset, but we never believed in sacrificing our own," Ember replied with a look of disgust.
Seeing that there was no further point in speaking with the Dragon Lord, Celestia turned to the other alicorn and said timidly, "Twilight?"
Princess Twilight stood firm and regally, albeit with a look of utter shame. She took a deep breath, and said in a tone of voice that betrayed the greatly rehearsed nature of her words, "You taught me that actions have consequences. At the very least, you've admitted your actions, and are facing the consequences. At the very least. . ."
As Twilight's voice trailed of miserably, Celestia forced herself to look at Spike. The second the dragon's and alicorn's eyes met, Spike quickly shut his eyes and clenched his fists, repeating loudly, "You did not make up for it. This does not make it even. None of it makes up for what you did to me. What I did was not worth it. Those were my actions, not a way for you to redeem myself."
"Spike," Twilight said in familial concern as she swiftly got closer to him.
"I am not a pawn. My actions are my own. I am not a pawn. I have free will. I'm not a chess piece," Spike rattled off as his body began to shake.
Twilight wrapped a wing tightly around the teenage dragon for security and whispered a few words into his ear. Spike stopped his rambling and took a few deep breaths. Then he opened his eyes and looked directly at Celestia.
"I don't forgive you," he said with certainty.
Celestia nodded somberly in silent acceptance, knowing better than to say anything else.
POW!
Celestia felt a fist slam into the left side of her face and sending her sprawling several meters across the ground. The pain and fury of the blow moved right through her, and she shakily raised her head to see a pair of Dragon Lord Embers standing before her. As Celestia's vision stabilized, she realized that there was still two Dragon Lords standing before her, both of them scowling with their arms folded.
". . .Thorax?" Spike said as he looked from one Ember to the other.
"Now you can never be sure who is who. . ." one Ember said.
"So you can't charge either of us for hitting her. . ." the second Ember said.
"Spike means so much to us. . ."
"So what she did to Spike was personal to us. . ."
"That punch was the least she deserved. . ."
"And it felt so good."
Then both Embers each blew a burst of smoke at the ground at their feet, creating a smoke screen that hid the two of them. A flash of green magic could be seen within the smoke, and then both Ember and King Thorax shot upwards into the sky and flew off into the distance.
Pipsqueak was still wincing from seeing the blow, while Gallus turned to Twilight and dutifly asked, "Shall I pursue them, your Majesty?"
Twilight sighed and hung her head, "I'm sorry, but I'm just so tired of all this. Sorry, Celestia, but I'm letting it go."
"By all means," Celestia said calmly as she got back up onto her hooves.
Spike scowled and said, "You're not a martyr, Celestia."
Celestia just nodded silently as Gallus and Pipsqueak approached to escort her into her new residence.
Twilight shook her head and turned towards the gates of Tartarus. She touched her horn to the massive doors, and used her Alicorn magic to unlock the seal. It felt like a massive earthquake had erupted as the massive gates slowly swung open.
Celestia stared down at the ground under her hooves, unable to look ahead of her as she was led into the accursed realm of imprisonment that was Tartarus.
The group quickly passed by Cerberus, who tilted two of it's heads at the downtrodden Celestia, but nevertheless yielded and bowed in respect to Princess Twilight Sparkle. The group then walked by the many dangerous creatures that were caged up in the first level of Tartarus, making sure to avert their eyes from the cockatrices and basilisks. They did not stop there, however, and continued to descend into the depths of Tartarus.
The realm contained many large mountain-like spires where the most dangerous beings were chained up. Lord Tirek, and later Cozy Glow, had been imprisoned upon one such spire. However, none of these were the destination of the group. Instead, they descended below these spires and towards the back end of Tartarus. This was were the massive vaults lay. Huge cells carved into massive stone mountains, with doors sealed with powerful unbreakable magic.
Celestia was held back a ways from one such massive cell as Twilight and Spike approached the massive door.
Twilight turned to her dear dragon friend and said, "Well, this is it Spike. This is where it all finally ends."
Spike nodded slowly. ". . . Yeah. . ." He said uneasily.
"Are you ready for this?" Twilight asked, a concerned gaze upon her face.
"Let's not waste any more time," Spike said with a more curt, determined nod.
Twilight took Spike's words literally, and she turned and walked right up to the massive metal doors. Another charge of Alicorn magic broke the seal on the door, and the doors squeaked open on its massive hinges.
Spike strode right up to the opened doors and craned his neck to look up at the massive doorway. It was just barely tall enough to accommodate previous Dragon Lord Torch, which was an impressive size indeed.
Spike gulped loudly, took a deep breath, and called out in a shaky voice, "M-m-mom? Are you there? It's me. . .your son."
Spike's voice echoed within the cell in a rather feeble manner. Then, the echo was drowned out by the rattle of chains. Loud footsteps could be heard, and in the twinkling of an eye, an adult female dragon came out of the shadows. Spike took in every detail of the dragoness: her green eyes, spines ,and ear fins; her lighter green underbelly and wing membranes; her pale purple scales.
The dragoness' eyes welled up with tears, unfathomable joy and relief evident in them as she beheld the muscular teenaged dragons standing before her. She fell down onto all fours, the chains around her wrists, ankles, and neck rattling as she thrust her snout towards Spike, her nostrils flaring as she took in his scent.
"Oh, my child! My son! My precious, precious child!" she wept loudly as she gently nuzzled Spike's chest with the tip of her snout, an amazing feat for a creature as large as she; something only a loving dragon mother could accomplish.
Spike didn't even try to hold back his own tears as he threw his arms around his mother's snout, hugging it tightly as he rested his head on her scales.
Princess Twilight blinked back some of her own tears, and was acutely aware of the blubbering Pipsqueak was doing right behind her. She mentally rolled her eyes at how stoic and professional Gallus was insistent on being, and then used her magic to unlock the shackles that fettered the large dragoness.
As the accursed bonds finally fell away, and Spike lay sniffling atop her snout, the dragoness turned her eye to Princess Twilight and said, "So. . .you are responsible for this glorious moment?"
Twilight bowed to the dragoness and said, "On behalf of all of Equestria, I deeply apologize for this great injustice that has been done to you. The kidnapping of your child, your wrongful imprisonment. . . the Equestria Crown is deeply ashamed of these actions and has taken steps to pay you restitution and ensure justice is done. A large amount of gold and gems many times larger than the horde you once owned will be paid out to you from Canterlot's own treasury, and the one responsible for your wrongful imprisonment will serve a sentence equal to time and a half of the time you were imprisoned here."
After hearing this, the dragoness finally noticed Celestia. The very air seemed to heat up as smoke bellowed from the dragoness' nostrils, and a vicious snarl echoed through the cavernous realm of Tartarus, alarming many of the other inmates throughout.
"Don't. . ."
Any threats that the dragoness would have made were silenced by the small voice that had called out to her. With wide eyes, she stared down and met the gaze of her only son, who looked back up at her with a pleading look on his face.
"She's going to pay for what she did," Spike pleaded, "She's facing justice. She's gonna be locked up here for a long time. Just let her be locked away. I know you wanna smash her, maybe even kill her. . .but we need to show that we're better than her. We should give her justice, not revenge. It won't feel good afterwards, trust me. This way, she'll be forced to suffer like you did and really face her crimes. It's a better punishment than whatever you're thinking of."
Spike moved across the long snout and then leaned into his mother, resting his forehead against hers and said, "We're not killers, mom. We're better than that. We're better than her."
"Stop, stop, say no more," the dragoness whispered, although a creature of her size had very loud whispers, "Anything for you, my child. Anything."
During all this, Celestia stood with her head hanging lower than ever, her mane and tail starting to lose their luster as guilt and shame permeated her body. She was barely aware of the world around her as she was led into the large cell after the dragoness had moved out of it. As the massive doors began to close, Celestia finally lifted her head to call out in desperation, "Wait! Dragoness! What is your name?! Please, I must at the very least know what your name is! Please, I must know! I need closure! Tell me!"
After the dragoness took in the distraught and agonized look on the alicorn's face, she called out her answer. It would be the last thing from the outside world Celestia would hear for a very long time.
"You do not deserve the closure of knowing my name!"
And then the massive doors shut and were sealed.
Author's Note
Okay, so now it's all up to you! What should the dragoness' name be?
