After the Rampage

by twilightsparkle3562

Chapter 2: Reunion in Canterlot

After his very tense encounter with a pair of guards, Scorpan entered the capitol of Equestria with every street being patrolled by more of Luna's night guards than ever. Scorpan was not used being so watched, but he had to stay focused and clean up the mess that Tirek had made on Equestria. At the same time, an orange unicorn pony carrying a basket of oranges on his back was making his way through the streets, thinking that he was being well protected.

Then, he saw Scorpan hulking shadow and began to think back of when he had the dishonor of being Tirek's first victim. The pony shivered and quaked as he backed away trembling.

"Get back! Get back!" he whimpered, not wanting to have his magic taking away again. "I know what you want, Tirek! Or whatever you are, just go away before I summon a royal guardspony!"

Scorpan could see that the pony was frightened by his appearance. Maybe it was because of the black cloak that he was wearing since Tirek wore a similar one when he came into Canterlot. Still, Scorpan wanted to calm this pony down and tell him that he didn't come to steal magic. In fact, Scorpan could well remember the screams of ponies he and Tirek attacked before he was reformed.

"It's all right, my friend," he said in a calm voice. "I'm not going to steal your magic. Trust me, I come in peace."

Just like he did at the gates, Scorpan raised his paws out to show that he wasn't coming to harm anypony. This made the unicorn calm down slightly, but he was still on edge, like all the inhabitants of Canterlot.

"You are not here to harm me?" asked the pony, getting back to his feet. "Then, what do you want?"

"I am Scorpan," answered Scorpan. "And I am here to do whatever I can to help Equestria recover from what my brother had done. Now, calm yourself and tell me where I can find Princess Celestia or Princess Luna."

The pony thought for a second that Scorpan was intending to harm Celestia or Luna, given the size of Scorpan's body. But, that was not the case.

"Well," said the pony. "Luna is ruling at this time. She has been very busy lately with all of us getting nightmares and such. I don't know if she can talk to you right this second."

"Then where is the castle?" asked Scorpan again, as he watched a guardspony walk by, keeping his eye on him. "I need to know where it is, my friend."

The unicorn then pointed towards the tall building with the light from his horn where Celestia and Luna resided. This was useful information to Scorpan and now, he knew where he needed to go.

"Thank you, my friend," he said. "You are most grateful."

So, Scorpan took the air and flew over to the main castle while the young unicorn pony sighed in relief, knowing that this creature was nothing like Tirek at all. More importantly, he kept his magic and thus could sleep soundly for the first time in several days.

Meanwhile, as Scorpan flew towards the castle, Princess Celestia was fast asleep in her bed while her sister ruled over the night that fell on Equestria. It had been a harrowing several days for Celestia, with several of her subjects calling out for Tirek to be brought back to Canterlot and placed on trial with all the ponies he attacked for their magic testifying against him.

Others were calling for Tirek to be executed in a rather gruesome manner unbecoming to Equestria which was that Tirek would be hung, drawn, quartered and beheaded in the streets of Canterlot.

But, Celestia never believed in killing anypony, not even Tirek. For she was a pony who could only order the execution of those who had killed another pony of great importance. In fact, her recent visit to Tartarus was now starting to feel like a waste of her time. She and the other princesses offered Tirek a chance to be like Luna or Discord and learn the magic of friendship. But, he coldly refused and thus Celestia was left with no choice but to have Tirek rot in Tartarus forever.

All that Celestia wanted to do was to move on with her life. Yes, she did make the mistake of sending Discord over Twilight and her friends. But, that was probably a good thing to say the least because Discord now understood the magic of friendship even though he had to learn about it the hard way.

Suddenly, Celestia was awakened by the sounds of struggling going on right outside her bedroom.

"Take your hooves off of me!" she heard Scorpan cry out and hastily climbing out of bed and throwing on her yellow robe, Celestia dashed out of her bedroom and saw several night guards struggling to hold Scorpan down.

"ENOUGH!" barked Celestia and the struggling stopped as Scorpan looked up to see the princess of the day looked down at him with a warm smile on her face. "Release him at once!"

"But, your highness…" protested a guard, but Celestia had the final say, even though Luna was on dream duty.

"Do as you are told!" she ordered, tears of happiness forming in her eyes. "And stand guard while I talk with Scorpan."

The guards were baffled, but did as Celestia told and Scorpan was led into Celestia's bedroom with the door closing behind them. Once the doors were closed, Celestia and Scorpan came together for a very long embrace, with Celestia crying slightly.

"It's all right, Celestia," said Scorpan, calmly as he continued to hug her. "I'm here for you and I'm here for all of Equestria."

"I'm so glad you came back," cried Celestia as they broke apart while Celestia wiped away a few tears. "We need you more than ever, my friend, after what your evil brother did to us."

"I know," sighed Scorpan as he sat down in a chair across from Celestia's bed. "I always feared for the day that he would escape and finish what we both started. And now, it came to pass."

Celestia trotted over and sat down on the edge of her bed, a glass of water in her magic aura as she continued to reconnect with her old friend. It seemed for a moment that all of the pressures that had come onto Celestia in the aftermath of all of this had disappeared. However, Scorpan knew that Celestia had been just as much a victim of all this as the rest of her subjects and fellow princesses.

"Now, tell me what I can do to help," said Scorpan and Celestia sighed heavily as she continued to feel the pressures leave her body.

"Well," sighed Celestia, knowing that there was something that Scorpan could do. "I know that you can help me, Luna as well as Cadence and Twilight and the rest of our subjects. But, there is somepony else that I think you can help more."

"Who is that, Celestia?" wondered Scorpan, scratching one of his wings. "Who would you like me to help?"

Celestia was silent for a minute and then lowered her head to find the words to say to Scorpan. It wasn't easy, but it needed to be said.

"I need you to help Discord see the error of his ways," she explained. "I am aware that he fully understands the magic of friendship now, but the damages he has done while siding with Tirek are far beyond anything unmeasurable."

Scorpan considered the matter and thought of what would happen if he would take this opportunity. He could well remember that Discord was just as much an enemy of Equestria as Tirek was, determined to turn Equestria into a world of chaos of his own free will. Why his old friend would want him to get Discord to understand the error of his ways was beyond his own thoughts.

"I want him to apologize for what he did," continued Celestia, her voice sounding a little more firm than before. "But, not just him saying that he is sorry, Scorpan. He needs to go to the towns and cities he attacked and by doing important deeds will he finally get on the good side of those he harmed."

Celestia then sighed heavily again, for she knew of something of much greater importance that needed to be addressed and it concerned Shining Armor, her former captain of the royal guard and the husband of her adoptive niece, Princess Cadence of the Crystal Empire.

"But, there is another matter concerning Discord that I need you to help us with," continued Celestia as she produced a piece of paper that showed Discord's picture on a WANTED poster from the Crystal Empire. "It's an order from Prince Shining Armor that Discord is to be arrested and brought to trial for treason. What worse about this is that Shining Armor is doing it under his authority, not mine."

"Then, what can I do?" asked Scorpan.

"I need you to convince Shining Armor that Discord is no longer the creature he thinks he is," answered Celestia. "I think that this grudge he has against him has gone on long enough and he needs to move on just as much as we do."

So, as Celestia wrote up a letter ordering Discord to come to Canterlot at once, it appeared that Scorpan had an enormous task ahead of him, not just helping Equestria get back on their feet, but also dim the tension between Twilight Sparkle's older brother and a recently retired enemy of Equestria.

Who knows how everything was going to turn out in the end?

Comments

[LtMajorDude]

This story has my attention.
Don't disappoint me!