The case’s file was showing basically two sides of the same story with three actors. The first one was a pony named Fire Anthem, an earth pony that had been in a very chaotic relationship with the second character, Face Full, who had been his girlfriend for a whole year, as he was in love with her, but had been proven several times that she was seeing other stallions. It had escalated to the point where he had hit her, two days prior to the arson. The night of the crime, he had come to apologize to her for what he had done, and tell her he had understood they would never work as a couple. He had knocked at her door, had convinced her to let him enter and had begun to explain.
But then, as he was trying to apologize, in tears, she had begun to tease him, taunt him and make fun of him, because she knew she had the upper hoof. She had taken him in to better humiliate him as she had for so many months before.
Feeling trapped, furious, Fire Anthem had pushed her away, making her crash onto the wall and making a spice rack fall and the spice’s bottles beak in a loud noise. That loud noise was heard by the third character, one of the neighbors who had also seen the stallion run out of the house. After that, Fire Anthem couldn’t even go back to his home and ran for a long time, until he finished inside a big bush where he decided to stay and mourn. He fell asleep and, when he woke up before the rising sun, went back home where he finally went to bed until the guards came and accused him of arson.
“So, basically, he did nothing wrong, right?” asked Spike.
“We don’t know.” replied Twilight. “This is just his version of the facts.”
“Well, it certainly looks like he did nothing wrong to me.” the dragon stated, as he was still a bit young and had that strong belief that the truth was always obvious.
It was, after all, his right to see the world in a Manichean manner.
The second story began the same way. Fire Anthem had always been a very jealous and violent boyfriend. Face Full was in love with him and wanted to believe she could change him, make him become a better pony and had even had some little successes here and there, but one night he looked even more jealous than ever before and hit her as she was trying to prove him she was completely innocent.
She had decided she should never see him ever again, but he came to her house two days later and, after a long time as he used her love to him against her, she finally let him in, as a part of her still wanted to believe there was some good left in that pony and that maybe, just maybe, the worst was done and the sun would soon rise after the darkness.
She was wrong. He began to justify his act, to explain why he had been right to hit her, why she was actually the one guilty of everything that had happened. She couldn’t believe her ears. She wanted to disappear, to flee from that nightmare, but there was no escape. He seemed even crazier than the day he had hit her. She began to fear what he might do this time. He was stronger than she was. He was also faster. She knew she had no way to win if he were to attack her.
She told him to leave her home, that she didn’t want to see him, that they were over, but he refused and became furious. He insulted her and threatened her. In tears, she tried to defend herself and responded that he should better go, because there was nothing he could do against her, that he couldn’t force her to do something she didn’t want to. She told him she was free, free to decide, free to love, free to reject him and that, in the end, he had no other choice but to accept it and move on.
The result she obtained was certainly as far away from what she had expected than was possible. He fulminated. In a second, he had violently thrown her against a wall while telling her he would take everything she had away from her until she would have no other choice but to stay with him.
Finding some courage from deep within her, she just shouted: “Never!”
He looked at her with the look an assassin would have and just said: “You can burn in hell.”
He looked around, then grinned and ran away, out of the house, leaving her alone on the floor, crying out of the physical pain and her broken heart.
But two hours later, as she was trying to figure out what she should do and still couldn’t find any good solution to her problem, she began to smell something weird, the same smell that a burnt meal would have, just way heavier. She ignored it for a few minutes, but it became so unpleasant that it took her away from her deep thought. She realized something was wrong and began to look around, until she saw the black smoke that was invading her whole house.
In panic, she went out, shouting for help, looking everywhere to make sure Fire Anthem wasn’t there, ready to jump on her.
Her neighbor heard her screams and alerted the fire ponies and the guards to make sure she would be in safety.
The fire ponies eventually extinguished the fire and the guards went to find Fire Anthem as, under her neighbor’s advices, Face Full had explained he was the one who had tried to fry her and kill her.
The fire ponies proved that the fire had been started inside the kitchen, where all the wood was stored. The window had been broken, proving somepony else had entered and making it a criminal case.
“That Fire Anthem guy is just mad!” Spike said out loud. “He must be locked away. What a jerk!”
Twilight sighed. She didn’t even reply to that one. Contrarily to Spike, she knew it wasn’t that simple. Still, she was envying her assistant’s feelings. The insurance to know what has to be done is something that is very comforting.
But for the alicorn, it was clear she had no idea what judgment she should pass at this point. The neighbor’s testimony only said that Fire Anthem had run away from the home after his visit, nothing more. After that, there was no certitude whatsoever, even if, just as the judge before her, she was doubting anypony other than Fire Anthem could have been the cause of that arson.
Maybe it was way easier than she was thinking. Maybe she should just follow her instinct. Maybe…