Battlefield, Eastern Equestria - 21st of Snowfall 2559 RHBattlefield, Eastern Equestria - 21st of Snowfall 2559 RH
2,636 Years Ago - The Renneighsaunce
I panted in breathless agony, each small movement bringing the searing pain with it. But the pain was worth every agonizing moment because the monster lay defeated before us. The fresh burns across my right side would fade away within weeks. The cities slain by this demon would not be so fortunate. But at least he would devourer no more souls on this or any other day.
Tirek, once monstrously large and powerful, lay before me, diminished in both size and power so as to be a dry husk. The likes of which would barely be taller than me if he could stand. Celestia’s strategy had been brilliant, commendable even. Forcing him to burn through his absorbed magic with hit and run tactics, won this day.
All that remained was to ensure that this monster would never again raze a city and consume the very essence of its people.
Not trusting a direct blast from my magic to slay the centaur, I reached out with my magic, pulling my halberd to me from where it had been flung mid-battle. The ancient weapon had served me well, and as I raised it to behead my defeated foe I felt a sense of satisfaction. Equestria would soon be markedly safer.
“Do it,” Tirek wheezed. “Show me you have the guts to kill, pony!”
“As you wish,” I replied.
I reared up, grabbing my weapon with my forehooves. It would be foolish to even let the magic enabling my telekinesis to come into contact with-
A blazing line of orange-red, magma-like energy, surged upwards from the ground, peeling open into a rectangular doorway into the heart of a black abyss filled with obsidian spires. I nearly dropped my halberd in horror, dreading the thought of a dozen more beasts such as Tirek surging from the gaping portal. Instead, a great wind blew, picking up Tirek and dragging him along towards the open gate, claws scratching lines in the dirt as he feebly resisted the wind which seemed to ignore me.
While I sought to understand what my eyes were telling me, Tirek plunged through the portal.
“Fools! I will find a way back!” He screamed, the portal oozing closed as he disappeared into the abyss which lay beyond it.
“Heh, I think not,” Celestia laughed from a place behind me as the portal closed.
“I… but…” I stammered, halberd falling from my hooves as I finally comprehended what had just occurred.
“Do you like it? I’ve been working on banishment spells for some time,” Celestia said in relief. “I wasn’t sure if the spell was complete. But our friend’s trip to Tartarus would indicate it’s more than ready for use.”
“He’s going to get out!” I exclaimed, still in shock. “Sister, he can come back! There are natural portals to Tartarus!”
“Yes, but that reality is infinitely large. I made sure the prison I built in it is millennia away from any natural portal to our lands,” Celestia said in a tone I believed was meant to be soothing.
“Why would you- You saw what he did to Reigns!” I protested, turning around slowly.
Celestia nodded, slipping her helmet off her head with a pulse of her golden magic in order to stretch her neck. “Of course I did. I was with you, wasn’t I?”
“But, but you imprisoned him!” I protested.
“Everyone deserves a second chance, Luna. Perhaps after a few thousand years of Tartarus’ natural torments, he will be ready to leave. If not, we can keep him there until he is willing to change. Without any of that mind alteration you hate so much,” Celestia explained. “Do you need healing? I can do it if you can’t.”
“Sister!” I exclaimed, the shock wearing off. “I understand your aversion to killing. I do, I really really do. But it’s a necessary part of ensuring the safety of any civilization! That’s why I kill monsters like him. How many thousands died in the last three days? How many thousands more will die if he escapes? This is beyond foolish!”
Celestia rolled her eyes. “Hardly,” she disagreed. “I’ve constructed a rather secure arcane and physical prison to keep creatures banished via this spell contained. We can keep twenty creatures as strong as Tirek contained easily, and that’s before the improvements I plan on making. Think about it, we can remove our enemies from the world, but allow them the chance to earn a new life. It’s a moral win for everyone involved, even them.
Sometimes I felt I just had to love my sister’s naive and foolhardy nature. This was not one of those times.
“You seriously intend to take all of our greatest threats and throw them all into a single pit?” I asked, pleading with my eyes for her to see the idiocy in that without me needing to point it out.
“It’s not a pit!” Celestia objected, scowling at me as she spoke. “It’s an extra-dimensional heavily warded prison complex with isolation cells. Designed to break those monsters down so they can be remade into friends. That’s a superior system both morally and logistically! You can’t just kill everyone who opposes you. Prisons are good.”
I nodded. I agreed with her there, I really honestly did. “Yes, sister, prisons are good,” I agreed. “But there is a point where they are too much of a threat to innocents to imprison or let go free! When they can disintegrate entire towns with a thought they must be destroyed for the sake of the commoner. How many lay dead or stripped of their magic from just the last HOUR of his rampage? Thousands! Thousands, Celestia!”
Celestia let out an exasperated growl. “Luna, I have had it up to here with your bloodlust!” She exclaimed holding her hoof up to her throat. “Prisons are morally superior to killing. I understand you are worried about escapes. But I assure you it’s not possible. Tell you what, if I take the effort to train appropriate guard beasts to supplement my wards, will you stop insisting we kill every last living thing that crosses us? People make mistakes! Death is such a final thing! It’s one thing to kill in the heat of battle when your own life is at stake, or as a preemptive strike against a massed army ready to attack, but to do it elsewhere… That’s wrong. If you kill like that, you are as bad as they are!”
“If you kill like that you are as bad as they are!?” I asked in stunned disbelief, taking a step backward in my shock.
“Yes!” Celestia insisted firmly, looking at me like I was a total idiot.
“H-how?” I demanded. “How does killing someone who murders casually and randomly, make the world a worse place? It removes evil from it and ensures it can never come back. It is good, right, and proper to destroy evil and ensure it can never return!”
“I do not feel as you do!” Celestia exclaimed throwing her hooves up in exasperation. “You will not change my mind about this. I will not kill a helpless opponent.”
“Then at least let me do what is just and right so you don’t have to!” I pleaded.
“No!” Celestia shouted. “We are a nation of law and order. If you kill someone in front of me who is not our enemy and can not fight back, so help me Luna, I will charge you with murder and bring you to justice. End of discussion!”
Celestia vanished in a flash of gold magic, teleporting away. I hated it when she ended debates like that.
Night Court, Canterlot - 8th of Solardusk 17 EoH
Present Day
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Lyra exclaimed. “I’ve never read about you two disagreeing on the banishment policy in any history book.”
“Of course you haven’t. We didn’t write that sort of thing down,” Luna explained with an irritated sigh. “If we did allow people to know we venomously disagreed on that matter, it would have weakened the Crown’s overall position. And we were already beginning to face the effects of not keeping a proper frog on the nobility.”
“So… What else was lost to history?” Lyra asked suspiciously.
“Nothing important, merely our personal grievances against one another. I know this story makes it sound like we always despised each other, but we did still care. We made up after a few days,” Luna admitted. “But by this point, I had the seed that became the Nightmare planted. It was clear to me that Celestia would never implement any of my ideas, save for the most trivial of matters.
“I was her general, her dog of war. It was the norm for me to not dictate policy, save for the rare circumstance, but instead to inspect the troops and look to the outside world to secure our nation. While I was largely fine with that, I felt our people were suffering needlessly… And if I might make a point, they really were and still are.
“Literally every villain Twilight has ever faced has been one Celestia has faced before. She is even now confronted with the evidence that her policy does not work, yet she sticks to her ideals. And of course, her protege follows in her exact hoof steps.”
Lyra held one hoof up in a calming gesture, frowning slightly at her close friend. “Easy, Luna… It’s alright.”
Luna smiled. “I’m fine Lyra. And for the record, as the Nightmare, I would never harm you. I’m still myself, with all my memories and thoughts. I am just… Impossibly angry. But that rage and hatred is focused. I’d only hurt you if you got in the way of me attempting to destroy the target of my anger.”
Lyra nodded slowly. “Right… But as a knight of Equestria I’d have to stop you. I may be your bodyguard but the oath says to protect her too.”
Luna smiled widely. “Good girl! That’s why I like you as a friend Lyra. You’re not afraid to stand up to anyone.”
“You’re not mad?” Lyra asked in surprise.
“Of course not,” Luna laughed. “I wrote that oath you know. I’d be mad if you would blindly side with me against your sworn duty. Now if you came to me with a valid list of grievances and asked to be released from your oath in whole or in part, then it would be a different story. And speaking of story… Shall I continue?”
Lyra thought about it for a few moments, then nodded deciding that Luna wasn’t being unduly angered by the subject at hoof. “Alright. But don’t keep going if it’s going to piss you off past the point of no return, okay?”
“You have my word I will not,” Luna soothed. “The next thing that happened is related to King Sombra. It doesn't involve our defeat of him, that went smoothly. But it gave me a taste of the kinds of ponies that Celestia’s rule had placed into power…”