Chapter 17

"Aftermath"

It was over. Tirek, the demonic monster who had absorbed almost all of the magic of Equestria was put to death in front of the ponies he had attacked. Everypony cheered as Lock Down displayed Tirek's head before the crowd and then sent out a warning to all evil creatures who would want to attack Equestria for their own gain that they would suffer the same fate as Tirek if they did. Feeling satisfied of his death, Twilight and the others left the balcony and went back into the throne room as Lock Down came inside with Tirek's head in his hands followed by his assistants carrying Tirek's body.

"Your highnesses," he said bowing to them. "I bring you the head of Lord Tirek."

He took a bag containing Tirek's head and threw it down at Celestia' feet. She then picked up the bag and examined it, wondering what needed to be done with it.

"Whatever you decide to do with it is entirely yours," continued Lock Down. "My assistants will do whatever you say with the rest of the body."

Celestia then put the bag down and refocused her attention on Lock Down and his assistants, who then suddenly transformed back into Discord and Scorpan, who had believed to have disappeared for the execution.

"We finally extracted justice," remarked Discord, feeling a sense of satisfaction. "Now, Tirek has learned his lesson to an extent."

Fluttershy was shocked by Discord's actions and her mouth dropped open in horror. She could not believe that her closest friend would take part in something of this nature.

"I can't believe you took part in this," she gasped. "How could you?"

"We had to do it, Fluttershy," replied Discord, walking over towards her. "Think of how much pain and suffering Tirek had caused and how manipulative he was of me. This was my chance at revenge, surely you could see that?"

"I didn't, I really didn't," cried Fluttershy. Discord was feeling slightly bad for taking part in this, but he had to do it. It was the only way to fully get back at Tirek for manipulating him into joining his side and any other way was not as satisfying as the other.

"Sister, what do you think we should do with the head?" asked Luna, wondering what to do with Tirek's head. "We need to send it to a place where it can never be found."

Celestia thought about it for a second and had considered sending it to the moon like what she did with Luna one thousand years earlier. She thought that they should consider a last torturous punishment for Tirek, so that he would not rest in peace. Then there was the matter of the rest of the body, as she thought of possibly cremating it and dumping the ashes in the Everfree Forest. Then a thought came through her mind as she thought of when Tirek sent her, Luna and Cadence to Tartarus. Tirek was never charged with the stunt he pulled on them and began to think of a possible punishment for him, despite the fact he was already dead.

"Discord, Scorpan," she said to them. "Step forward."

Heeding the princess' order, they stepped forward as Lock Down looked on while at the same time, stared down at the casket bearing Tirek's headless remains and smiled down at it.

"What is it you want us to do your highness?" asked Scorpan, bowing to her along with Discord. "Give us the order and we will do it."

"I want you to take Tirek's body and bring it to Tartarus," replied Celestia. "I want you to give it to Cerberus as a thank you for looking after us while we were imprisoned."

Scorpan was very satisfied by this as even in death, his brother would not get any mercy from him or from the ponies he had attacked. Wherever his spirit was, Scorpan knew that his brother would be suffering from eternal torture for the rest of his days.

"We will take him to Tartarus at once," replied Scorpan and he and Discord got up and took the casket out of the throne room as Lock Down followed them out the doors. "My brother needs to have a date with Cerberus, headless or not."

"What can we do, Aunt Celestia?" wondered Cadence. "All we have is Tirek's head and we need to send it somewhere where no one can find it."

Celestia knew that her niece was right, if any evil creature could get their hands on Tirek's hands, they could use dark magic to bring him back to life, so leaving it in Equestria was not an option.

"There is a way," replied Celestia, putting the head on her throne. "I believe that we should give the final punishment against Tirek for his crimes by sending his head to the sun."

The throne room fell silent at this thought, for a banishment to the sun was not done in a long time. Those who were banished to the sun were done so alive and upon arrival, they would be burned up by the sun's heat. What's more, whoever is banished was not banished there alive, but rather after they were put to death.

"When do we do it, Celestia?" asked Twilight, eager to do this after all that had happened.

"We do it after the sun is lowered," replied Celestia who then left the throne room to lower the sun while Luna followed to raise the moon. After they left, Twilight and her friends looked back towards the bag containing Tirek's head sitting on the throne.

"Should we open it?" asked Applejack, considering the possibility of opening the bag and revealing the horror inside.

"Heavens, no," gasped Rarity, nearly fainting. "Why would we ever do such a garish thing, Applejack? Besides, I don't want any of that creature's blood getting on my dress."

"I'd love to open it," remarked Rainbow Dash bitterly. "And use it as a kickball for the fillies at school."

"You guys, nopony is going to open it or use it as a kickball," said Twilight firmly. "We are sending it to the sun and that's that. The more we wait, the more we suffer from the effects of Tirek's rampage."

Although they were feeling that they should extract their own brand of justice on the head, Twilight's friends backed away from the head and awaited Celestia and Luna's return where Tirek's final punishment would soon be carried out while Discord and Scorpan returned to Tartarus bringing the thank you present to Cerberus for looking after the princesses when they were imprisoned.