Around the time Apple Bloom and I were both experiencing a whole new definition of love, my parents--along with my grandparents and Dr. Egghead--had found themselves being taken straight to the one place that they'd never expected to return to: Canterlot. The second they had all stepped hoof inside the castle, they were immediately brought into the throne room. As they were being dragged across the hall, my family and therapist had spotted three figures standing before them. On one side stood Princess Luna, on the other side stood a pink alicorn with hair that's a mixture of purple, pink, and pale gold, who's probably best known as Princess Cadance. But standing right in the middle of those two, was the one pony that they've been trying to avoid for a long time.
They knew that Celestia would be white with a rainbow mane, but what they weren't expecting were the green shades in her eyes. As they were all taking a deep gaze into those green eyes of hers, none of them were feeling that they were looking upon a princess but were rather feeling as if they this might be some monster hiding behind Celestia's skin.
Anyway, when the green-eyed monster--who might've been Celestia--felt that the suspense had been raised enough, she rose from her throne and said to Shining Armor, "I take it that one of them is the suspect?"
Shining Armor was a bit nervous, but after receiving a reassuring glance from his wife he was able to say, "Actually, the suspect had wiped out my squad and ran off."
"Then would you mind explaining to me on how highly trained soldiers were made into mince meat by somepony without any military training whatsoever?"
"Because this wasn't just any ordinary pony that we were facing...your suspicions about this pony were true."
A satisfied smirk started to form upon Celestia's face. "So he really is a Mindbender, then? and you allowed him to get away?"
Shining Armor was a bit embarrassed to admit this to her, but he digressed. "Yes, I confess that I wasn't able to capture him; but as you can see, I didn't return empty hoofed."
"And just what's so special about these five that you felt had to be brought before me?"
"Well princess, these five are the ones who've been hiding the Mindbender from you all this time."
Celestia kept her glance upon my family as she said, "Ah, so you managed to apprehend a couple of traitors for me. I suppose you're not too much of a failure, Shining (even if you do cry like a little girl in weddings)." She then slowly stepped towards my family as she was inspecting them. "I'm just gonna take a wild guess and say that you're Sheldon's...family?" they each gave her a nod. "OK, now let me see...you two are his mother and father, and you two are his grandparents. Now what does that make you, his great uncle?"
"His therapist." Dr. Egghead answered her.
Celestia decided to ask more important questions. "Now tell me, when did any of you had known that Sheldon was in fact a Mindbender?"
"When his parents took him to see me one day, he showed me his Cutie Mark." Dr. Egghead explained. "I immediately recognized it the moment I laid eyes upon it."
"And then what happened?"
"I'm one of the few who keep any forms of history concerning Mindbenders, and I knew just what you would do to him if you ever found out."
"So you told his parents to take their little colt all the way to Ponyville? you do know that my former student resides there, right?"
"Yes, I might've forgotten about Princess Twilight Sparkle; so I can only assume that you found out because of her?"
"Oh dear me no, the suspicion just sporadically popped into my head and I just sent some of my guards over there. Although I'm still a bit surprised that Twilight herself didn't bother to report this herself." And as if on cue, Twilight had found herself teleported right into the throne room.
"I'm not too late, am I?" Twilight asked.
"Oh no Twilight, in fact you've arrived just in time to watch me pass judgement upon these ponies."
But before she could, Twilight attempted to share a few words of her own. "Now princess, I can understand that you're not exactly happy with what these ponies had done, but I can assure you that they were only doing what they thought was best for their son."
"And I'm suppose to take the word of the same princess who failed to even bother reporting any of this to me in the first place?" after an uncomfortable silence, Celestia returned her focus back to my family as she passed her judgement upon them. "For the crime of hiding a Mindbender, I, Princess Celestia, hereby declare each and everyone of you as traitors. And as punishment..." she stopped to take a quick glance on the nervous looks of Twilight, Cadance, Luna, and Shining Armor as sweat started to slide down each of their faces. When she felt like she had enough, she decided that she made them wait long enough. "You shall all be executed, by the next sunrise, in front of everypony!"
Everypony just gasped while my family just had these defeated looks upon their faces. In a last attempt to undo this, Luna whispered to her sister, "Celestia, I strictly advise you not to do anything rash!"
"Fear not, dear sister," Celestia whispered in response, "I won't." She then had one last thing to say to my family, "Now don't be so melancholy, look on the bright side: your son might end up joining you after this. Take them away!"
While some guards were taking them to a dungeon, my father shouted, "You won't have our son! do you hear me?! you might take away our lives, but you'll never take away our son's!"
The second they were all gone, Twilight was the first to say, "Princess Celestia, what the hay just happened?!"
"That, my dear Twilight, was me performing my royal duties (unlike somepony else I know)."
Luna then said, "Dearest sister, I strongly suggest that you reconsider your actions! who knows how our subjects will react once they see innocent blood being shed?!"
"I'm sorry Luna, but last time I checked, it's I who has our subjects love and respect, not you. After all, I wasn't the one who got myself banished to the moon for a thousand years. Also, what do you mean 'innocent blood'? they're traitors, remember?"
"Perhaps what they did wasn't the right thing to do," Cadance voiced her opinion, "but even I think that executing them is going a bit too far. Couldn't spending a night in the dungeon be punishment enough for them?"
"No my sweet and naïve Cadance, nothing is enough for a traitor. The second you decide to defy your own ruler, then there's never going to be any middle ground at that point. Besides, their execution is the least of my worries; it's how I'm going to kill Sheldon is what I'm worrying about."
Twilight then tried another tactic, "Celestia, when Sheldon was just a little colt, he told me that he was afraid of you. But I assured him that you're merciful; so please, I'm begging you to prove that what I said about you is true and spare him."
"She's right, sister," Luna agreed, "I too had known about his apparent fear of you when I visited him in his dreams; and I'm sure that the last thing you'd want is to let those nightmares become a reality."
None of this seemed to have moved Celestia by the slightest. "Oh Twilight, Twilight, Twilight, forced tears and pitiful pleas shan't break a heart of stone. And even if I did wanted to spare him, he should've thought of that before he decided to murder members of the royal guard. If he was afraid of me then, then he'll have more than enough reason to fear me now. (Every Mindbender has the right to fear me.)"
"And what about when he finds out that you had his entire family murdered?!" Cadance shouted. "When word of this reaches him, won't you become scared when he comes for your blood as well?!"
"Now Cadance," Celestia told her, "I have absolute cause to execute those five; and it's only murder if you don't have a reason for it. And if Sheldon does try to come after me by the time this happens, then I'll have more than enough cause to execute him as well."
"Well I hope you're enjoying this new reputation of yours, because I'm sure not!" Luna cried.
And to this, Celestia said, "Do I care what you think? do I even care what any of you think? no, I don't! I rule Equestria; therefore, my words and my words alone are the only things that matter! I mean, did any of you really think that your words matter as well? none of you are like me; you're all just tools with pretty titles. The only reason why any of you are allowed to even be here with me is all because of me!" she turned to Luna, "You're here because you're my sister and I just didn't feel like banishing you again." She turned to Cadance, "You're here because I was able to find it in myself to adopt you as my niece." She turned to Twilight, "And I'm the reason why you're even a princess to begin with! I gave you that privilege, so don't give me any reason to take that away from you." She then turned to Shining Armor, "I trust that you'll be able to preform the execution, Shining. You already failed to bring me the Mindbender, it would be embarrassing for you to not be capable of delivering justice as well."
...
By the time the sun was beginning to rise, my mom, dad, grandpa, grandma, and Dr. Egghead, were each trapped in a cell while patiently waiting for their lives to end. "Oh, who would've thought that my life would come to an end by the swing of a sword?" my grandpa was analyzing his upcoming death.
"None of us could've predicted it, Sheldon." My grandma told him.
My mom was the most depressed of them all, "Our poor boy is going to die; we never got him fully prepared for the real world, and now he'll suffer for it. And it's all because of us!"
Before she could even try to flood the dungeon with her tears, Dr. Egghead told her, "Diane, remember just why it is we're brought here in the first place: to protect Sheldon. He might be out there starving and freezing, but at least he still has a chance to live. So don't act as if we're dying for a lost cause."
"He's right, Diane," my dad assured her. "Sure, we might not have been able to prepare him on time, but at least he's not in this dungeon right now."
"And besides, Sheldon Clopper II has Mind Powers, so he can pretty much take on anything that comes in his way." My grandpa pointed out.
"I know," my mom said, "I just wish that I could've said goodbye to him."
The cell door had suddenly opened, and there stood Shining Armor with a face that's sort of a mixture of guilt and sadness. "It's time."
They each found themselves being brought before a big stage that was practically looking down upon the onlookers. Some of them recognized who they were and they started to murmur to themselves. But their murmuring had came to an abrupt end when Celestia had stepped forth to make her announcement.
"Citizens of Canterlot, the ponies who stand before you are traitors who have committed the crime of hiding a Mindbender! and as you all witness this, keep in mind that this is what comes to those who take my loyalty for granted!" she paused for a moment so that she could switch her gaze to my family. "Would any of you wish to speak your last words?"
What followed was a solid fifteen seconds of silence; Celestia was prepared to order for the execution, until she was interrupted by the voice of my mother. "I only have this to say. I know that some of you might be thinking how our current predicament could've been avoided had we simply turned our son over to Celestia, that we would have been granted her mercy just by staying loyal to her. A weaker pony might have no problem sacrificing their only child to save their own skins, but we are not so weak as to stoop to that. We were willing to take any risk there is just to save our son from Celestia's wrath, and we would've gladly do it again, even if it still ended in our deaths!" my mom took one last defiant glance towards Celestia before saying, "Our son was just a colt when we made the decision to flee to Ponyville; he has now grown to become a fine young stallion with powers that even you can't possibly comprehend! and the longer he gets to live, the more stronger his powers will become; and there's not enough guards or magic that can save you when Sheldon finds out what you've done to us!"
Both my mother and Celestia held onto their gazes in what might feel like an eternity. Without gazing away from my mother, Celestia bellowed out her next command. "Shining Armor, bring me their heads!"
Everypony was just roaring as Shining Armor had unsheathed his sword and prepare to decapitate Dr. Egghead. But as he raised it, something within him had caused him to freeze in place.
"What're you waiting for?! get on with it!"
Even though Celestia was ordering him to kill them, the looks upon Twilight's, Cadance's, and Luna's faces, had seem to be giving him a different order. But that didn't stop Celestia from taking the sword away with her magic and pushing him aside. "Fine, I'll do it myself!" and he calls himself a stallion!
By the time she had chopped off his head, everypony had gone silent and the whole world seemed to have slowed down. Shining had quickly covered his sister's and wife's heads right before Celestia had decapitated my grandparents. Before she came to my parents however, they both looked each other in the eyes, and gave each other one last kiss before the blade had gone through their necks.
After she was finished with this act of murder, Celestia made one final announcement, "And now my little ponies, you have all seen what befalls to any of you who dare to betray me. But there's one last thing I'd like to tell you all. From this day forth, I, Princess Celestia, hereby declare the Mindbender known as Sheldon Clopper, to be an outlaw and an enemy of Equestria! I shall bestow an award of one million bits to the pony who brings me his head. But let me remind you all; if any of you do know where this criminal might be and refuse to tell me about it, then just remember what became of the five traitors who thought they could keep a secret from their princess."