Chapter 18

"Burying Tirek Forever"

With his head about to banished to the sun, Scorpan and Discord traveled to Tartarus to bring Tirek's headless body to Cerberus, the three headed dog who had protected the princesses when they were imprisoned there not too long ago. They had to realize along with the princesses that all that had happened would never erase the pain that Tirek inflicted upon them all. Looking down at Cerberus, who was looking back up at them, Scorpan closed his eyes and together with Discord, who had transformed into a mailman, they opened the casket and still wrapped in the large plastic bag, dumped Tirek's headless body down to Cerberus who happily began to make the body his own chew toy.

"Enjoy your new toy, Cerberus," said Discord, excitedly. "Complements of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna as a way of them thanking you for protecting them and Princess Cadence."

As Cerberus enjoyed his new chew toy, they quickly made their way back to Equestria where Scorpan was looking sad and Discord couldn't help but noticing. After all, Tirek was Scorpan's brother after all and had to show some sort of sadness.

"Come on, Scorpan," said Discord, happily. "You've got to get into the spirit of things, the creature who terrorized Equestria is gone for good. Surely you can see that?"

But Scorpan took no notice as he looked up at the blue skies that were outside the entry to Tartarus. In his mind, he felt that he could have saved his brother, if he could and help him understand that Equestria was more than either one of them had made it out to be.

"I can see that, Discord," replied Scorpan, looking over towards him, a slight smile appearing on his face. "But, I cannot help but wonder whether we were too hard on my brother. Even if he did what he did."

A forlorn came onto Discord's face when Scorpan had said that. He knew that by putting Tirek through all of the torture over what he had done made him realize that perhaps maybe that all of Equestria had gotten too puffed up in their minds over this individual.

"You have a point," sighed Discord, realizing that he too was to blame. "And all of Equestria will be after me next, even if I did face my troubles, I would certainly be no better off than Tirek was."

"I don't want you to suffer, Discord," replied Scorpan. "But, I wish now that I could have saved my brother and help him at least defend himself when we confronted him. But, that wasn't the case and it was by his stern belief that Equestrian magic was only meant to exist for him did we put Tirek through the torture. If he would have just listened to sense could I have saved him."

Discord was now beginning to understand the severity of what Scorpan was talking about. Tirek was put to death because he was a heartless creature who showed no remorse for his actions and was now beginning to fear that unless if he truly apologized for his actions, he would end up like Tirek and that was something that neither he, nor Scorpan, nor any of his friends would wish to see.

"Then there is something that needs to be done," said Discord as they approached Canterlot castle. "I need to make everypony in Equestria realize that I am truly sorry for what I have done with your brother."

They then both looked down to see that the crowds had already dispersed from the execution site, but something else was beginning to make them take notice. They began to see several ponies feeling sad and some were feeling sick to their stomachs. Even they began to feel a sense of remorse over this event that had just taken place.

"I think everypony now is beginning to see that they cannot go through another execution," remarked Scorpan, looking down on the Canterlot streets. "If there was ever a time to express your apologies for what you have done to these ponies, it is soon."

He looked over at Discord and knew that as soon as the excitement was downed, he would have to face the crowds of ponies and attempt to obtain their forgiveness and mercy. Nopony would go through another execution although some would be begging for Discord to be executed.

Meanwhile, the four princesses of Equestria were standing in the throne room around the bag containing Tirek's head and were now preparing to send it to the sun as Twilight's friends watched from a safe distance. Much like Discord, they were all wondering if they, themselves, were too hyped over all that had happened.

"Goodbye, Tirek, forever," said Celestia coldly as she, Luna, Cadence and Twilight aimed their horns at the bag and using all the magic that they possessed, fired four blasts of Alicorn magic at the bag and it levitated into the air and with one final flash of light, the bag was shot through the window and into the skies towards the sun where it soon disappeared from view.

"You know, I cannot help but ask," said Rainbow Dash, as the light of the Alicorn magic disappeared. "Did we really go too far in making Tirek pay for what he did to us?"

"The princesses had no other choice," replied Applejack, looking back to Rainbow Dash. "Tirek was perhaps the biggest threat to us in a long time and always will be unless they did something. You can see how everypony was filled with rage over this guy. If they didn't do it, then everypony would have taken matters into their own hands."

"I agree wholeheartedly," chipped in Rarity. "But, don't you think it was way too out of character for us to do such a thing to a living creature? Why I would never treat anypony any differently than they are."

"Unless if they were somepony that I would not invite to my parties," added Pinkie Pie, trying to lighten the mood. "Which we need to have to celebrate Tirek's true defeat."

The four other mares gave Pinkie a glare when she spoke that, because a party to celebrate such an event was completely out of the question.

"What?" asked Pinkie Pie, shrugged her shoulders. "I was just trying to get everypony's mind off the scary stuff."

But, Fluttershy could see that there was something else that was being aired and that was concerning Discord and his possible fate. She was now beginning to fear of possibly losing her closest friend to an angry mob of ponies and that unless she and her friends stood by his side, then there would be a repeat of what happened with Tirek.

"Fluttershy, is everything all right?" asked Rarity, as Twilight joined them. "You seem kind of quiet."

This caused the shy pony to break out of her train of thought and focus on her friends once again, her flower wreath that was on her head nearly covering her eyes.

"Nothing," she replied, looking away for a moment. "It's just that with Tirek gone, I'm worried that Discord would be next. Even if we did accept his apology after he betrayed us."

"You have a point there, Fluttershy," said Twilight, trying to comfort her friend. "Discord is truly sorry for what he did and while we did accept his apology, all of Equestria has not and he needs to get through to them. I'm pretty sure that we don't want to see our friend be put through the same manner as Tirek."

"Indeed," agreed Rarity. "It would be the only way to save himself from a date with Lock Down, even if he seems like a nice pony."

The ponies nodded in agreement as Celestia, Luna and Cadence watched from a distance while they had their magic recharged. They too understood that Discord needed to apologize for what he did and then they could avoid a repeat of Tirek's execution.

Discord was about to make his apologies known to all of Equestria and the Equestria Healing Process would be taken to another level.