“For the dead and the living, we must bear witness.”
― Elie Wiesel
Chapter 5
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Celestia laid on her bed, preparing herself for the day ahead. Today was going to be nerve racking, what with having to keep an eye on the workers at the Cleansing, as well as having to explain quite a few things to Luna. Although she was sure her sister wanted the best for Equestria, she was almost positive she would have taken a different approach.
The process was a bit... gruesome... but if it wasn’t done, the gene pool would deteriorate in quality, and that couldn’t be allowed to happen. Able-bodied ponies are what the empire needed; not ones that would only use up their precious resources. This exact reason was why the ponies of Equestria couldn’t be told what was going on. They just wouldn’t understand why the poor ponies needed to die. They wouldn’t, they couldn’t, accept the greater good. What she had seen after being alive for centuries showed her that what she was doing was right-- that the end justifies the means, no matter the cost.
After a bit of more thinking, Celestia decided it was time to get up and raise the sun. As she stood up the sun followed her lead and caused the orange sunlight to pour in through the window. Celestia smiled, then stretched, relieving the tightness in her muscles that came from lying still for hours on end.
After a filling breakfast of the finest fruit salad, she proceeded with her morning meetings with nothing important going on. She then had lunch with Luna, which was nice. She liked spending time with her sister even if she had somewhat different views. It always led to interesting conversations and debates, which normally ended in a tie since they were fairly evenly matched.
The Cleansing began right after lunch, so once they finished eating, they began their walk to the labs.
“Are you prepared for today, Luna?” Celestia asked, trying to get some insight into how her sister was feeling.
“If this is what I think it is, I’m not sure I'll ever be ready.” Luna seemed ill at ease, which was somewhat understandable. Celestia stopped thinking for a moment. Luna had used regular English without any old words.
“Have you been practicing speaking?” Luna seemed somewhat surprised at the older alicorns question.
“Why yes, I have. I spent quite a few hours last night, and I try very hard when I speak.”
Celestia smiled. “That’s great, Luna. Now about today... I am sure I will have to explain many things, but please believe me when I say that this is the right thing to do. Please don’t run or do anything like that; it will just make everyone feel awkward and won’t help at all.”
“I’ll try.” Luna almost seemed angry. Why must she baby me like that? she thought. It’s not like I’m a filly anymore. Besides, she knows I would rather not talk about this “Cleansing”. The things she’s been implying are horrible, so I can only imagine the actual process being even worse.
As they reached the secret entrance to the labs Luna tried to cool off a little. 1... 2... 3...
As she slowly started calming down Celestia teleported both of them into the scanning room.
“Could you try to open the door so I know they’ve added your name to the acceptable list?” the sun princess inquired of her sister. Luna nodded and approached the wall she had seen Dom use yesterday.
“Luna,” she whispered to the wall. She felt a strange force pick her up and probe everything. It felt overly intrusive. She could tell it was looking at her thoughts and making sure she had no bad intentions inside. She tried to clear her mind of the misgivings she had. It set her down fairly softly on the floor, and...
“Luna. Access denied.” There was silence for a moment.
“How strange. I’ll make sure they fix that,” Celestia murmured. Luna knew the system knew who she was; it was just the thoughts in her head preventing her from accessing the labs. But her sister didn’t need to know that. She would just end up freaking out and maybe even imprisoning her.
“Celestia.” The green magic picked her up and set her down.
“Celestia,” the voice repeated. The doors slid open and the two sisters entered. The doors closed behind them as Dom poked his head out of a door directly to their right. “Over here, princesses.”
Both cantered over to him and entered. They were in what seemed like an observation room with a large glass window directly in front of the entrance and a heavy looking door to the left. As she cantered up closer to the window, she could see out... and her mouth dropped open.
It looked like something out of a horror story: there was a conveyor belt leading up to a pit into the middle filled with grinders that she was sure could crush just about anything that got in their way. A metal staircase was the only way in and out other than the conveyor belt into the crusher.
Celestia laughed to her left. She LAUGHED. What was wrong with her? Couldn’t she see the terrible sight in front of them?
“I have to say the look on your face is fairly amusing,” she said. Luna couldn’t believe her ears. When she looked over her sister was still grinning. The door behind them opened to admit a pony in a white lab coat, who walked over to a control panel that the younger sister had not noticed.
“Are you ready to begin?” he asked.
“Not yet, Butch. I need to talk to my sister for a little bit first.”
“Alright, Princess. Just let me know when you wish to start.”
The older sister then looked over at Dom. “Do you wish to explain?”
“Yes I will,” he replied. He then turned to Luna and began to speak.
“So this is what is called the Cleansing. Here is where we clean the gene pool of ponykind by getting rid of any genetically unhealthy ponies. This ensures the continued health of future generations. If we were to leave the ponies we dispose of here to their own devices, they could possibly harm the gene pool and damage the future workforce. All ponies are tracked through their young life until they are decided unhealthy or healthy, in which case they are either marked with their job by their cutie mark, or they are given a meaningless mark, which tells other ponies to stay away, seeing as they are a danger to society no matter how good their intentions are. This also lets the Genetically Deficient Cleanup Crew, the G.D.C.C., find them easier, so that they can be brought here to be disposed of. Their remains are then used as fertilizer on farms, so that even though in life they couldn’t help others, they can in death.” Dom seemed done but Celestia had to add her own two cents.
“Snips and Snails fit in the category of an unhealthy pony, hence their nonsensical cutie marks. As for Scootaloo, her wings will never fully develop, and so she is handicapped. She can’t do the regular pegasus jobs so she must be disposed of so to make sure her inferior genes don’t spread. She will probably be getting a sickly cutie mark soon, and will be sent here for next month's Cleansing.”
Luna just stood still, taking in all this information. As horrible as it was, her sister’s awful scheme made some sense. She still hated it, but she could at least see where her sister was coming from. She didn’t buy that innocent ponies needed to be murdered, though, and so she was still opposed, but at least it wasn’t just some sick pastime her sister had acquired during Luna’s absence.
“We are ready, Butch.” With Celestia’s words, the lab pony nodded and hit a button. The machines on the other side of the glass spun to life, filling the observation room with a slight roar, despite it being magically soundproofed. The clothed pony then flipped another switch and the conveyor started moving.
“I think there’s about 15 this month,” Dom said as the first pony came into view. As the pony was dumped into the grinder, a soft scream filled the room, which was quickly and abruptly cut off. Luna shuddered; she had always hated blood, and the fact that it was innocent ponies’ didn’t help. She felt her older sister’s eyes on her, but she didn’t say anything. Celestia was always paranoid and Luna could tell this just escalated her fears. If it got out that she did this...
One at a time the handicapped ponies fell in and died a painful death. Then a little gray pegasus with a blond mane appeared.
Luna gasped. She knew her! The amber-eyed pony had been at Nightmare Night in Ponyvile last year. As the tied-up pegasus turned her head to look up at the four in the window, Luna's heart broke.
Without even thinking, she reared up and jumped through the glass, shards going everywhere and glistening in the artificial magic light. She could hear her sister scream behind her, but she didn’t care anymore. She opened her wings and grabbed onto the surprised mailmare. As she turned around, she readied her teleportation spell to the only place she could think of, Twilight’s library. The image she saw just before she teleported burned into her mind: her sister sat looking angrier than she had ever seen her before, and there was something else, too, but the moon princess couldn’t quite place it.
With a flash, Luna and Derpy vanished from Celestia’s sight and appeared in the Ponyvile library. A lavender mare looked up from a book she had been reading and her face filled with surprise.
“Princess?”