Tales of Midnight: The Colony

by NA_SolarEclipse

Chapter One: The Sentence

“Midnight Star, your crimes against the Platinum royalty are great and without provocation. The royal prosecution finds you guilty for attempted murder of our very own Princess Platinum. What say you in your defense?”

How did this happen? Why did this go so wrong?

So many questions ran through my head, but there wasn’t a lot I could answer. Quite simply I needed time, and no pony was going to give me that.

“I deny any knowledge of an attempt of murder upon Princess Platinum. Why would I try to kill the ruler that we all know and love? I plead not guilty.” The words I said, as quickly as they were formed together, had to sound as though they were planned out. But that was exactly what I didn’t have: a plan.

“That is for the jury to decide Miss Star. Court will now commence on the case of Midnight Star and the attempt of Princess Platinum’s life.” The old greying judge, with his dark blue distrustful eyes, wanted to sound neutral as he was required to be but I knew better. I knew better than to think this was at all going to go in my favor.

With opening statements over the prosecution, which was led by Clover the Clever and her associates and the defense, just myself were given time to review evidence and formulate statements. It was tradition. As I was escorted out of the dreary wooden court room. I breathed a sigh of relief for such silliness. Otherwise, I’d be on the proverbial chopping block in five minutes. No, it was better to have some time to think about my eventual failure and maybe try to win my life back in the seclusion of the defendant’s room.

~~~

When I was born, I was intended for one purpose: to kill the Princess. The Gold family had lived in the shadows of the Platinum bloodline for much too long, and the timing for my upbringing was perfectly in line with the dying out of the older members of the Platinum family. If we all played our cards right and nothing unexpected happened, I would have killed the princess as of yesterday. Unicorn life is easy to predict like that. With all of the routine and laws we followed, it was surprising how much such things had not been abused.

In order to get as close as I needed to the Princess I needed to make some friends in high places, play the game right, and not get caught. After I was old enough to do so, I became a servant to house Platinum. They were suspicious as to why a comparative peasant was in their midst, but I eventually fit in among the servants who may as well have been slaves. I became one of them over the course of three years. Being only 17, I was the youngest in service to house Platinum at the time. Only one other servant had a particular problem with me being so young and new, but nothing serous had happened. However, I may have stepped on his lifestyle choices to defend my own position. It wasn’t my fault that homosexuality was seen as an abomination, but it was my fault for bringing it up.

Over those three years, I had gained the liking of one of the royal advisors. I befriended the old mare, and made her feel like she was coming to peace with her life so I could take her place on the advising counsel. In her will, she relinquished her position of power to me. Just as planned.

Being on the advising counsel, I only needed one more jump to get as close as I needed to be. I had to take the speaker’s place. The former speaker of the counsel was a dopy red stallion by the name of Candle Bright, although he was not as bright as his name. He let the counsel do all of the thinking and writing for him, which was his downfall. I had to cozy up to the idiot to get my place as second in the counsel. It was degrading.

After a certain important speech was replaced with and incriminating confession, it was still all going according to plan. All I had to do was get rid of this Candle Bright, and I’d be the speaker of the counsel. I fabricated a confession, framing Mr. Bright for several crimes going on near the Earth pony border. Being in the place of distrust and in the nature of race, the recipients of Candle’s speech turned on him immediately and tried him for high treason against the crown.

He lost. Worse though, he didn’t even try to plead innocent. He just took the guilty verdict. It didn’t matter much to me though, I just needed his spot as speaker. But one thing did bother me. I knew he never really read the speeches we wrote for him but this was obviously a set-up, he didn’t even waver much when he announced his association with Earth pony criminals. Even he should have known the words in that fake confession were going to get him killed, but he read it anyway. It stopped bothering me when I got his position though.

As speaker of the counsel, I got audience with Clover the Clever and Princess Platinum herself. It only took two more years past being a servant, and I was third along the chain of command given that the Princess didn’t have any next of kin, children of her own, or living relatives to take her place. Five years and I went from being an unknown to the speaker of the counsel. Being 19 at the time, many unicorn citizens and nobles saw this as ludicrous. None of them challenged tradition though. Challenging tradition was not how things worked.

Five years, and everything was still going according to plan.

As speaker of the counsel all I needed to do was find the right time and place to kill the Princess and eventually her assistant Clover, and I would be the first of house Gold to take the crown in more than five hundred years.

Finding the time, place, and strategy for killing them either individually or together was difficult however. Clover made sure to make herself as difficult to sneak around as possible. But things changed one day. I was simply giving Clover the reports of the counsel for her to look over, and she addressed me.
“I know exactly why you are doing what you are doing Midnight Star.” Were her words.

For the first time in five and a half years, something not according to plan slipped by. I of course feigned ignorance, but she knew better. Turns out, the Gold family weren’t the only ones who wanted Princess Platinum dead. She had watched over the quote ‘brat’ and her family for too long, and wanted some pony else aside from herself or a foal that Platinum may later have to take the place of ruler of the unicorns. So a week ago, we came to an agreement. Clover would disappear for a few days and the Princess would mysteriously die from poisoning of her drink. The chef would be put to death, Clover would never come back so she could die peacefully, and I would take the crown just as I had wanted for my family. It was strange, but I had to trust this mare as she knew why I was where I was.
At any rate, though it was faster than planned, I was still going to achieve my purpose. The purpose that was emblazed as my cutie mark: a black tiara. An undeserving ruler simply used to figurehead a vast change in the operations of all of unicorn kind. After achieving the crown, I would simply die of either a faked death or a changed name. Another one of the Gold family would take my place and they would be the one to make the changes the family wanted.

Just a figurehead.

Yesterday was the day that the plan came to a close. Needless to say, I was sure that I would have been in the clear. Clover had several search parties after her, I had poisoned the Princess’ beverage, and she was going to meet with some of her guards to boost moral for the search. Everything was in place.

But then the slip happened. By some divine prank, the very servant whose sexuality I stepped on was the one to serve the Princess her traditional tea. By either hate of me or the Princess, he assaulted her in the middle of the meeting. Right after the tea was set down. He was taken into custody to be put to death, and the guards investigated. Unsurprisingly, they found the poison in the Princess’ drink. Being the last on to oversee preparations in Clover’s absence, I was suspect.

The final nail in my coffin though was Clover’s miraculous return. She showed up immediately after I was put in prison to await trial. Timing was all too perfect, this was a set-up. Ironic really. Having relied on set-ups and the like to get where I was, I never suspected that I would be the one who was tricked.

Now she was prosecuting me into my death sentence, and all I can do is watch. I literally have nothing to defend myself with. I was suspected to be out of the ordinary from the beginning, no pony really trusted me as speaker for the counsel, and Clover had me framed for an attempt at murder. Had it not been for my eagerness to complete my purpose and finally stop having to trick ponies into dying, I would have succeeded and lived quietly knowing that I could never make up for all of my transgressions.

Instead I would be put to death for attempted murder and life would go on unfazed. The public would assume justice was had, and Clover would probably have that servant acquitted for his actions. I go down in history as the failed assassin, and the Gold family never gets another chance to take the throne.

Ultimate and utter failure because I placed my trust in an aging unicorn that had me figured from the start.

A banging at the door stirred me out of my thoughts. “Hey in there! It’s time to face your crimes whelp!” The guards then oh so courteously barged into my small, dark room of contemplation and shoved me back to the court room.

~~~

As I sat on the stands listening to the judge bark out words of tradition and justice, I thought of how screwed I really was.
I had nothing to prove my innocence in this case. I had indeed overseen the preparation of the Princess’ meal, but no pony to prove that I wasn’t the one to actually poison it. Even if it wasn’t me that poisoned her drink, I would still be in the same place with no pony to stand up and say they didn’t see me do it. It was my word against evidence and the word of Clover, the closest advisor to the Princess.

The absolute best I could do in this case is frame Clover for collaborating with a murderer and give her some jail time and sully her name. In the best case scenario. Worst case, I would die either by burning at the steak or by stoning. Execution by heads-pony had been outlawed by the Princess a few years before I was born, so there wasn’t any chance of instant ratification of my death. It was going to be painful.

“And we can see from this evidence, found in Princess Platinum’s beverage, Midnight Star had attempted to poison the Princess and usurp her throne. Had it not been for the fake attempt at Prince Platinum’s life by Mr. Torches, the conniving Miss Star would have taken the crown in my absence and be ruling over the graceful unicorn race by day’s end.” Clover certainly knew how to bring my attention back to the court case, even if it was a bit late.

The judge nodded at her statement knowingly. “This all seems very convincing Miss Clover. What say you in your defense Miss Star?” His gravelly voice was not even trying to hide the distaste at saying my name.

All eyes on me, so I stood up. There was no way I could get out of this alive, but I was at least going to take Clover down a notch before I was done. I adjusted my glasses and began my statement. “Of course, it is convincing. How could it not be more perfect? My quick ascension from servant to speaker of the counsel, Clover’s disappearance, and of course my overseeing of the preparations on that particular speech. Perfect foundation for me to take the Princess’ place as ruler and do what I want with it.” I didn’t want the entire Gold family to suffer for my mistake. “All to perfect. Even from where each and every one of you jury members are sitting, you can see that this was a set-up from the beginning.”

I received a few nods of either hate or interest among the silently judging jury. “What are you getting at Miss Star?” Even the judge was interested in where I was taking this.

I couldn’t help but smile, even in the position I was in. “Certainly a perfect crime doesn’t just happen, there has to be an accomplice.”

Silence.

“Miss Star, you do know that you are openly admitting to attempted murder of the Princess don’t you?” Of course the judge had to voice the collective thoughts of every pony in the room.

“I’d like to call to the stands some pony you have hear from immediately before myself. I call to the stands: Clover the Clever.”

More silence as Clover creped over to the questioning stand. “Miss Star, I hope that you know that you are already pretty much tagged for this murder. But as we should always ask, Clover the Clever do you swear to answer all questions to the best of your knowledge and with full honesty?” The Judge recited to the no longer smug unicorn.

“I do swear.” Clover answered. “To answer all questions to the best of my knowledge and with full honesty.”

The smile on my muzzle did not leave, though hers had. “Clover, you and I both know why you are up there. It’s not just because law requires that I get at least one witness called to answer questions. You know better don’t you?” My smile dropped as I finished my statement.

Clover simply stared at me. “Answer her silly question so we can end this sure trial Miss Clover.” The judge conveyed, sharing the opinion of the audience behind me.

Clover opened her mouth to speak, but stopped. Everything was silent while she found the words. “I… I don’t know what you are talking about Miss Star. I am simply here so law is met.”

I couldn’t help but sigh. “You knew about me from the beginning. You knew that I was going to try and take the crown for myself. You knew. And though you may have formulated this case against me in a last second attempt to save face, you and I both know that for at least a moment you thought it could happen. You thought you could be a part of the turning of the age and make a difference for the good unicorns under the oppressive rule of the Platinum reign. You thought that some pony would care about what your take on things is. You thought that maybe, just maybe, you could make a difference.” The court room was deathly silent. “Answer me this Clover: why?”

Every pony had expected me to continue, but that was the statement.

Clover’s eyes were downcast. Tears welled up in her eyes. “I don’t have to answer that….I….”

“She is correct, you are only required one answer by law. She doesn’t have to say anything at all. But from the evidence presented, I think we are all ready for the jury to step out and discuss a verdict.” With the judge’s word, the mentioned jury filed out to the back room and the audience began their chatter.

“What is she getting at?”

“Still a criminal if you ask me.”

“What a waste.”

“I can’t believe I bathed for this dribble.” The audience clearly wasn’t moved by my last stunt. But that wasn’t unexpected, I didn’t want to move any pony’s heart. I just wanted to have some compensation for my fall.

Clover on the other hoof, was almost crying silently still at the stand. The bailiff escorted her back to her spot as the prosecution almost out of simple adherence to code. I may not have won my life, but I did at least get Clover to question herself. Even that was a victory for me, if not a final one.

~~~

After the required one hour of discussion, the jury filed back into the court room quickly. As if wanting nothing more than to just get this over with. With all of the audience members and other court essentials back in their seats as well, it was time for the verdict. It was not going to be pretty.

Once more, the judge graced the room with his gravelly voice. “Members of the jury, what verdict have you come to on the case of Midnight Star and her attempted murder of the good Princess Platinum?”

The voted upon jury speaker rose and cleared his throat. “We the members of the jury find the defendant, Midnight Star, guilty of attempted murder of our very own Princess Platinum.” The younger blue stallion would have been cute if he wasn’t the one hoofing over my death sentence.

“Well then, that is not surprising.” Thanks dirt bag. Way to stay neutral in a case. “Then I hear by pronounce the defendant, Midnight Star guilty as charged. She will be put to death by the days-”

“Wait!”

The court room was hushed by the unexpected voice of Clover the Clever. I had to admit, I couldn’t help but widen my gaze at her as well. I had to bring my reading glasses down below my eyes to give her the look on my face.

“We only caught her before she succeeded in murdering the Princess.” She paused for a moment, either to think of what to say or simply for dramatic effect. “We cannot put her to death simply for association of attempt, the laws don’t allow it.”

I had no idea what was going on. Neither did the judge or the jury.

“However, her crimes are still unforgivable. Instead of bloodying our hooves with her death, I rule that we send her to the Colony. Being the Princess’ advisor, I know what she’d want for this crime.” Clover, the aging mare who had played me into forfeiting my life, was suggesting I don’t go to prison or get put to death?

From the nods and murmurs about the court room from the audience and the jury, it was clear that they agreed with what she said. That was a good sign for me at least. Maybe.

“I see.” The judge too was contemplating her words. “Then by the word of the Princess’ advisor I sentence the defendant, Midnight Star, to be shipped out to the Colony.” The judge levitated the wooden gavel and hammered it down three times to adjourn. “Court Adjourned!”

As the guards took me away, I shot a look to Clover. She returned it and mouthed ‘I’m so sorry.’ My spirits dropped like a rock. I wanted to ask one question before they took me away, but I didn’t have the chance. What was the Colony anyway?

Author's Note:

Props to the obvious inspiration for this court room scene from the great crossover series Turnabout Storm. If you haven't seen it, and want a very well done work of animation and voicing done right, GO WATCH IT!! NOW!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUDfoZGhLjE

Thanks much to my brother for the awesome proof-reading. Were it not for his watchful gaze, i would have missed many a bad grammar more than I already have.