This story is a sequel to Jury Duty II: Jury Harder
Technically, the good news would be that the paperwork for Chrysalis' current disguise is so perfect, that cover identity can be summoned for jury duty. It's not just any changeling who can manage such a feat! Really, when you think about it, being called to serve on a trial would require a mistress of the art! And surely an entity who used to rule over her hive (and will get it all back and more, just you wait!) can deal with a simple matter of dealing out vengeance!
...justice?
...what? It's not as if there's any real difference.
(While this story is listed as a sequel, its only real connection to the previous tale is in theme, and so it can be read as a stand-alone.)
Chapters (1)
this made me think of a very silly fan-character actually named Mary Sue:
I think Luna is looking for you, Chrissy. And not like you expect. She's got a bottle of the good stuff, two glasses, and time marked out on her schedule as 'Discussing Things I Wish I Had Done'
I love the way you wrote Chrysalis, and the Jury Duty set is one of my favorites of your works.
10/10!
Pretty sure that's the wrong noun
Excellent story
It amazes me that none of the other jurors ever considered the possibility that Chrysalis was only PRETENDING to be stupid. After all, most people don't seem to realize that they aren't LOOKING for smart people to serve on Jury Duty, they want IDIOTS that they can convince of anything. Which is why they picked Chrysalis. They thought she was too stupid to change the outcome of the trial, and they were SO wrong that it's hilarious.
Chrissi is a hillarious egomaniac here.
Oh, your changelings are illusionists instead of shapeshifters? Neat.
Nope, grossing the ponies out did not cut it. Nice try though.
So close to a reformation, SO close...and nope.
Heh, high quality shipping boxes.
I laughed, but mostly feel bad for cheeselegs here.
Also, >only sane changeling left
Given the optimistic asspull of the nulings, I really want to see them dropped into Estee's cynical butterfly universe. There may well be explosive reactions.
I'm screaming.
It's finally here.
With a VENGEANCE!
See? Even Chryssie loves that check-in green pony. <3
A pony only a changeling queen could understand.
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I mean it's easy enough. Sure they aren't stealing love anymore, so that's good. But now they're feeding off friendship, any major community disagreement risks starvation and they can't let their numbers drop below a critical threshold.
Also, having your body radically reworked by channeled Agape and a rapid forced metamorphosis can't be good for you. Take years off your life, that kind of thing would. Which means they have to get another generation out NOW before they all die of old age and manage to raise them right so they can keep a sustainable way of life going.
Or maybe changelings do a cicada-esque cycle, where they lay eggs that stay dormant for a few centuries until ponies have forgotten them again. The redemption phase is the final part of their bloom cycle, to ensure their eggs will be preserved and unmolested by ponykind until they re-emerge as monsters once again. This will be the last and only generation of good changelings, and they're going to have to live with that. Especially once they get a princess perspective on the long cycle view of what's going on.
They want stupid. It's smarts that scare lawers. Lol
well I'm sure that made for some interesting newspapers...
Well that was refreshing seeing a delusional post dethroned Chryssie living it it out among the pony populace.
Waterproof crates should be made the standard. No changeling queens or purple maned orange fillies should ever have to deal with soggy cardboards or leaky crates.
Ooh, another Jury Duty! Jury Duty II is one of my favourite stories here, so I'm sure this will be good.
That opening feels rather like an extended ramble that summerizes nearly in the original story summary itself. A bit irritating, but fits what I've come to expect from Estee, and I didnt mind it too much.
Is it just me, or is that green earth pony the one from Jury Duty II? Whats-her-name, that Luna befriended? I think I'm going to have to check that.Most likely, she is described the same wayUnanimi is when she is introduced.
I dont know if I've said this before, but I love your interpretation of griffins, Estee, specifically, the griffin-born ponies and their origins. It's really cool.
Speaking of which, I also adore the irony of a pony named after meat, and (pretending) to be too dim-witted to understand the meaning of the connotations. Bonus points for 'Merry Suet' sounding like 'Mary Sue', that's just hilarious.
Out of curiosity, where are you getting those words for changing anatomy? I dont remember seeing them in any other stories. Is there any reasoning behind them, or did you just throw a combination of apostrophes and letters together to make a cool word? I do love the specific descriptions and explanations of the differences between ponies and changelings.
And there you have it folks, Chrysalis cannot stand two things. Being upstaged, and bad pretendors. Amazing story, better than I expected. I'm really glad you're still finding some time to write, Estee. I really enjoyed this.
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Ah, but Chrysalis's disguise was, as befitting her queenly nature, perfect. There was no way beings of average pony intelligence, which was just barely brighter than rocks (and not the shiny kind like jewels, nor even a regular stone well polished by years in a river, but rather the kind half-coated in dirt and grime whose coloring matched so many a pony's coat), could see anything other than what she had meant for them to see. No, so perfect was her disguise that it would be inconceivable for ponies to see through it, even if she acted in ways contrary to it. She was just that good.
Perfect way to round out the year
Poor Chrissy. All that hard work, establishing her pseudonym, to be brought down by the villian’s need to monologue.
On the bright side, a victory song can be switched to a song of defeat by just transposing it to a minor key...
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Estee’s thoughts on changling language can be traced back to This blog. A true creative genius can find inspiration in the most mundane of things...
These Jury Duty stories have been delightful, and I'm delighted to see the best (and only) queen have her day in (the other) court.
I also have a healthy respect for her use of italics when thinking.
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It's the perfect name in both parts.
Fantastic, all the thoughts behind the mask in particular. I'd love to see more of this Chrysalis.
Since the last story I've actually gotten a bit of practical experience of Jury Duty in my own country (Scotland, the systems a little different to the rest of the UK). I didn't actually get chosen but I did sit thought the selection process (I'm glad I didn't get chosen as the trial was about what could mildly be considered very very bad things which I would not want to spend several weeks hearing about). The biggest difference I can see from the American system is that the lawyers have no say in Jury selection at all, I didn't see them at all, the process once anyone who has a connection to the case is removed is entirely random.
In addition Scotland has three possible verdicts Guilty, not guilty and not proven.
This was great! Makes me want to reread the other jury duty fic. I love the way this built to its climax with Chrysalis' line.
I didn't care for the first Jury Service story, but ye gods the second was brilliant.
And now, a third to join the second. This was fun to read.
When you consider yourself the only sane member of your species, you probably aren't. Not that Chrysalis will ever entertain that notion.
Oh dear, she's lost her hive. That does even worse things for her mental state. How'd that happen in this universe? The canon method has a number of assumptions behind it that might not hold in a setting running on Continuum thaumophysics... though I may be overthinking the whole thing.
And there's herd instinct at work. Anyone who disagrees with such a massive majority must be wrong.
Excellent ponyism with the "hackamore" insult.
It's a shame. A changeling on the jury could do so much to see justice actually being served (if they could be trusted,) and Chrysalis was less than an inch from a live-changing epiphany. Ah well, at least some security holes got patched, and this particular smirking, unstylish stallion got his just desserts. A great read throughout, and a fascinating look at Chrysalis's particular breed of delusion. Thank you for it.
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I'm half afraid Estee would go with my take, that the shiny version is the adult life stage that like many insects exists to breed and die, and can't really eat.
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To realise this they would also have to acknowledge that they too were selected as the eleven other most stupid and easy to manipulate individuals in the jury pool... and nopony wants to admit that to themselves.
9375308
Best case, I think her hive abandoned her for one of the other queens that seem to exist.
Worst, would be starvation...
There's also the common plot of "other changeling queens start negotiating with Celestia 'cause Chrysalis screwed things up", but we haven't seen anything like that yet?
Also, all the infiltrators seem to have been exposed... So Equestrian knowledge of changelings might've gone up.
9375172
Interesting, what does a ‘not proven’ verdict imply? Besides the obvious, I mean how does it affect someone to get a Not Proven?
Jury selection SHOULD be random, it’s one of the many flaws in our (US) court system that it isn’t.
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Not proven is more or less as it sounds, it is basically another version of not guilty for legal purposes you are let free and considered innocent. From the jury point of view it basically means that we think the accused committed the crime, however the prosecution has not provided enough evidence to meet the level required.
I like how chrysalis is written here. Deeply selfish and with an overly hight opinion of herself while being unable to reconise her own incompetence and thinking everyone else inferior. This leads to her being unable to self reflect and thus she becomes more and more delusional.
Now she is arguably her own worst emeny and doesnt even realise this after she just detroyed all her plans because she felt ignored/dismissed by those around her.
Im kinda interessed in reading about the reformed changeling in Estees world. After all one of my favorite part of it are the princesses and their past in building the nation and now we have Thorax and Pharynx trying to build a nation up from whatever state chrysalis left it in.
This together with the princesses giving more or less helpful advice while becoming nostalgic themselves might be a good story.
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Oh, cool! Thanks for pointing that out.
So happy to see Vapor Lock make a friend.
By any chance is Chrissy's pegasus disguise named Marry Sooee?
Not bad, and Chrissy is written so well, I'm facinated in a whole "watching a train wreck" sort of way.
Mind you, I'm waiting now for Live Free Or Jury Hard, in which Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Discord all get jury summons and get stuck on a jury. And, the situation is such that Discord is playing the straight dracquonis. And, having so much fun doing it...
9375424 It used to be much more random. The modern, and highly corrupt, jury selection process is one of the negative side effects of the progressive movement. In the 20th century, the movement led to far more leeway in premptory challenges, as well as exceedingly broad 'challenge for a cause' arguments. It permitted lawyers to have far too much influence over the selection process, effectively having the power to remove those who would most likely rule against their side without any actual reason given.
Indeed, because of this biased jury screening, predictability of outcome in many cases can rise to nearly 80% based solely upon the traits of the final jury... meaning the jury selection definitively leads to overt implicit bias.
It can drastically effect high-profile criminal cases and lawsuits against companies/politicians where ideologies and influence-peddling can severely effect an outcome. Add to this the issue of partisan judges legislating from the bench, and it's no wonder the system is both slow and ineffectual.
I propose... robot judges. And instant death penalty for all those found guilty! ALL HAIL SKYNET!!
One wonders what Princess Celestia would make of it, upon hearing reports that the most infamous fugitive from justice is under cover fixing the holes in their justice system. Friendship or master plan?
9375432
Here in the USA, if you're found "Not Guilty", you can't be retried for the same offense even if more evidence turns up,
Being sued in Civil Court doesn't count -different jurisdiction
One thing. Ponies presumably have the power to cast a geas to MAKE you tell the truth, or a Detect Lie spell
& yet almost nobody uses this in their verse
The italics are strong in this one.
It would be nice if Chrysalis were in contact with the clerk from the Record office. It would be nice for her to get some symphetisers and contacts
I really love the Jury Duty series. I hope we will see more of this in the future!
Humm. What do you think the justice system would feels like after being frozen in time for a thousand year and being under Sombra rules right before? Cadence and Shining Armor must have to rebuild a lot of it. Go to jury duty themselves.
And deals with a back log of cases a thousand of years old!! I hope some won't have to deal with a thousand years interest for a lease or something...
Changeling hacks, all of it.
Waterproof crates -- the mark of world domination.
9376425
Shows how slanted Chrysalis's perception is
9374733
This reminds me of a video i saw recently discussing just what a Mary Sue is.
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In Estee's ficverse just about any spell you can imagine exists but the ability to cast many of them is tied to specific Cutie Marks. So a Lie Detector spell probably does exist but Unicorn's with the appropriate Cutie Mark to cast it are probably rare.
Sigh, if only they decided to listen her... Or Chrysalis decided to use her hypnosis to shut them up...
9375308
Huh, the Princesses aren't doing so hot.
Ah, I can see where Chrysalis went wrong here. She stood out. She tried to change people's opinions.
An experienced infiltrator would have voted 'Not Guilty' from the start. And then privately drained, cocooned and replaced Mr. Smirk less than two hours after he left the courtroom. (Or, given that he doesn't seem to love anyone, perhaps just killed him.)
Still, it's nice to see justice being served. One way or the other.
Glorious.
Especially "Merry Sue." That's... Utterly perfect.
So, what did Chrysalis almost think there?
Wonderful.