BaronEngel
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The Beast in the Box
🕑 Added 2019-04-02 21:48:29 +0000 UTCOkay this a warning. This post may disturb some. However it goes a long way to explain the behavior of a particular pony. This was a very disturbing dream, and I almost decided to not post this. But without this information it's hard to understand the motivations of one pony, and what drives her to do what she does.
Luna stretched out on the divan in Celestia's office and looked up from the dossier she was reading in my Equestria dreamscape. The sun had dipped behind the western horizon, and the sky was slowly becoming a deep reach velvet blue. Her older sister was technically off the clock now, but she was still sitting at her desk finishing up some last minute business.
Tonight was a rare and cherished thing in the palace for the Royal Sisters. A free evening. Neither of them had any official functions to attend or courts to hold. Usually they spent this time in private. Either alone or together. It was a chance for them to catch up just spend some time together as sisters.
Also it was gave Luna a chance to read and get caught up on the wide cast of players who made up this grand theater called the Canterlot Royal Palace. In particular the variety of ponies who made up her sister's Mares-in-Waiting and Stallion-on-Call. At the moment the Princess of the Night had no similar collection of individuals which wasn't surprising. She'd only resumed her full duties less than a year ago, and was still in the process of properly establishing her Night Court. However Luna was very happy to have reestablished the organization called the Night Watch which reported to her court.
Celestia had provided her sister with dossiers on all of her staff. However Luna found that there was always certain details, facts, and points that required further verbal explanation and fleshing out. This was particularly true as Luna read Phoenix's dossier.
Finishing the last of her paperwork, Celestia cleared her desk for the day and locked all sensitive material either in her desk or the wall safe. With that accomplished she took a moment to make herself a highball of bourbon and ginger beer from the wet bar in her office. The drink dutifully floated alongside her as she wandered over to her sister. Tonight they wouldn't be dining in the main hall, but in one of the private dining rooms attached to their quarters. Pausing for a moment Celestia reached out with magic and grabbed from the bar a bottle of chilled champagne and couple of similarly chilled flutes for her and sister.
Luna looked up again as her sister approached. From the look on her younger sister's face Celestia knew that getting the bottle of champagne had been a wise choice. Celestia laid down on the divan across from her younger sister and proceeded pop the cork on the wine. filling a flute she immediately passed to Luna. The Prussian Blue alicorn accepted the glass without a word. The mare downed a good portion of it. Finally she looked back at he sibling. Confusion, horror, and disgust was written all over her face.
"Celly, is the information in these reports correct. Did, did this actually happen to her?"
Celestia took a long sip of her highball before answering. "Yes Lulu the information is correct. In fact if these reports are guilty of any crime its that they don't truly convey the horror that mare faced in her youth. It's why I insisted that Equestria would annex that territory and the dragons wouldn't object over it. Once that territory is under our sovereign rule I am going to obliterate that place from the world!"
Luna flipped the pages of the dossier back an forth with her magic. "So you've never been able to determine what happened to parents or who they were?"
The pale alicorn took another sip of her drink. "Correct. Unfortunately by the time the operation occurred she'd been the Beast in the Box for long enough that nopony there could remember when she'd arrived. Not surprising considering the turnover of the inhabitants in that disgusting place. Either due to moving on, or simply dying, the population was constantly in a state of flux."
"However at some point Phoenix either arrived with her parents, was brought as prisoner along with them, was sold to somepony there, or was born in the abomination of a community. One way or another she apparently demonstrated her two signature talents at a very young age. An uncanny ability to quickly and repeatedly teleport, and her extraordinary regeneration and healing talent."
Celestia stared at her drink for moment. "I've never been able to determine which twisted monster decided to start having her fight but apparently she'd been doing it for over 4 years before she was rescued. Every night she was forced to fight against wild animals and eventually other ponies for the entertainment of others. Phoenix doesn't have any clear memories from that period anymore. I made sure of it."
In one gulp the Princess of the Sun downed the remainder of her drink. Then stared silently off into space with a pained expression on her face. Luna sat silently and looked on. This was a side most ponies rarely saw of her sister. Celestia always had been able to project an aura of serenity and calm that many ponies took it for granted. Luna knew differently, and it was a tribute to her sister's character that she'd been able to rule for so long in her absence.
"She must've died hundreds of times Lulu. Torn to bits while others watched on. Only to awake in her cage until once again she was forced to fight again. They kept her in a shielded cage where the only she could teleport was into the arena they'd erected for her to fight. She could teleport around in the arena but she couldn't escape it."
"At some point she started fighting back. Then she started winning. Soon they no longer betting on how long she'd survived, but how many beasts she'd bring down. She'd become the Beast in the Box. Finally the degenerate creeps in that settlement grew tired of her fighting packs wild animals, and they started putting other ponies in the arena with her."
"Celly did she....."
"Yes Lulu she did. Dozens of them most likely." Celestia stared down at her hooves. "Some survived their encounter with her but many more died from her teeth and hooves. Eventually they started using her to execute prisoners. Even grown adult ponies. Ponies who were familiar with the ways of combat she slaughtered."
Celestia levitated the bottle of champagne over and poured herself a glass. She downed half the glass before continuing. "It was 17 years ago when I decided to ignore the possible complaints from the dragons and mounted an expedition across the borders to attack that retched settlement. The inhabitants there had grown bold and had started conducting raids back into Equestria. I would not stand for that and the army came down on it like a hurricane."
The mare finished her glass. "It was during the mop up phase of the operation that some soldiers found a crude cage covered with wards. The stench from the rotting straw, decomposing food, urine, and fecal was almost unbearable. Living inside this little nightmare, covered in her own filth and crisscrossed with hundreds of scars was a filly."
She closed her eyes. "The soldiers were horrified by what they saw, and immediately began trying to opening the cage. With the best of intentions they succeeded in breaking the ward and opening it."
The princess swallowed and was silent for a moment. "They wanted to help her. Survivors commented that the filly apparently was unable to speak. They tried to coax her out but she wouldn't move. Finally one of them stepped into the cage. It was then that she attacked them."
The alicorn shivered slightly. "2 were killed almost instantly. 3 more didn't survive the evening. 4 were eventually able to return to service, but 5 more had to be mustered out. Eventually she was shot repeatedly and fell. Understandably the soldiers assumed she was dead and went about tending their wounded comrades. It was about half an hour later that one of the sentries noticed that the body was gone. A frantic search of the camp was begun. That's when her 2nd attack happened."
Celestia took a deep breath. "Fortunately there were no more fatalities, but another 14 soldiers were injured to varying degrees before she was once again she was shot repeatedly. Not taking chances this time the commanding officer, who'd been seriously wounded in the attack, had what appeared to be a corpse bound, muzzled, and had an inhibitor ring put on the filly's body. Much to everypony horror they found 20 minutes later a bound filly struggling to free herself. At that point I was contacted immediately."
To be continued.
Comments
WILLIAM C JOHNSON
Not to mention what happened to the Great Dragons during the thankfully brief war. 'Axe
WILLIAM C JOHNSON
But Celly has already demonstrared the ability to effectively "Nuke" a place with the Everfree forest episode. Bringing down the essence of the sun on a place is essentially that. 'Axe
Baron Engel
Yes but that would replace one toxic environment with another. Celestia wants the healing to begin finally.
MishaFox
No wonder she wants to remove that place completely. Too bad they don't have nukes in this world. That would do it nicely.
Baron Engel
Yes very much.
Caerdwyn
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gaXL0_7wno" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gaXL0_7wno</a> Appropos.
Baron Engel
Yes. Phoenix is the most extreme rescue that Celestia has succeeded at. She's other very bad cases in the past that she wasn't able to help much. Phoenix is a case of one coming back into the light.
ColdSilverD
I knew it was going to be dark. It certainly explains a lot. She is indeed a monster, as she told Bloodfeather. It is a miracle she ended up Celestia's monster. Now we know the backstory of 2. I am almost dreading the third.
Baron Engel
So is Celestia.
Baron Engel
Yeah I rather deliberately didn't draw her as filthy or torn up as she was in the dream. I haven't dealt with it directly, but over the years I've worked with people who had or still did volunteer work for animal rescue organizations and the stories that they had about some rescue cases were heart wrenching. Also I have studied some the history of child labor and use of child soldiers. It will not give you pleasant dreams. You are correct that Last Thing was a very, very difficult case but for different reasons. Phoenix was effectively a wild, abused animal when Celestia comes into the filly's life. There will be two posting dealing with Phoenix's redemption, and
Violet Wilk (BlueCherryWolf)
I had a feeling that Phoenix had a dark back story but hell that is so much worse than I had thought. I'm kind of amazed that Celestia could save her at all.
Dorian Inman
Wow! I honestly speculated that Last Thing would have been because of her talent...but, yeah, I cannot even imagine. And I’ll hazard a guess you’ve toned this down a bit considering the warning at the beginning.
Baron Engel
Phoenix is the most extreme rescue Celestia has ever done and succeeded at. She's helped other ponies who had horrible pasts, but she was never able to rebuild them as much as Phoenix.
Dorian Inman
Damn! She was feral...I’m sure Celestia had a hard time just getting Phoenix to not instinctively attack her without using brute force. I’m sure kindness confused her to no end.
