Brotherly Bonding Time

by Sketcha-Holic

21.2--The Trial

Cheese looked all around the court room as everypony settled into their seats. He had heard stories about various trials, but actually being in a courtroom was something else entirely. His eyes started at the bench where the judge was to sit, and would flick around to the witness stand, the jury box, and to every court official that stood beyond the bar, waiting for the judge. Looking all around at the other spectators, they all seemed eager to see how this would go--save for a couple, the stallion of which Cheese vaguely recognized.

Cheese's sights landed on the defendant's table, where a lawyer would have to defend that Kazam fellow. He wondered what it would be like to sit there, all eyes on him and declaring him guilty before the trial even started. Indeed, he already had a pit in his stomach over a hypothetical trial of his own, and feeling like he was still covered in the blood of Applewood teenagers and woodland critters.

He sat on the same bench as Pinkie, Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash; as witnesses, his brother and Pinkie's other two friends were seated elsewhere. He supposed he was technically a witness, but Twilight made sure to excuse him for the whole missing memory reason. Every so often, despite Rainbow sitting in between them, Pinkie would turn to him, wanting to say something, but ultimately deciding against it. He was glad she did, because he was in no mood for conversation.

When Kazam came in with his attorney, all fell quiet, and all eyes were on him. Cheese stared at that strange, royal blue unicorn, who wore an inhibitor ring on his horn, and made eye contact with him as he passed. Kazam, who was stoic before, quickly turned confused at the sight of Cheese, and his eyes lingered on him for some time before urged to look forward by the attorney.

Cheese felt like he was expected to be really angry at that stallion. Some part of him was, knowing the basic story about the Las Pegasus debacle and that somehow he and Tomato ended up involved. But, at the same time, he might have been a little too weary from anger over other things to care about something he didn't remember. His loss of his magic, feeling singled out like he was some sort of criminal, forced to endure that stupid needle after a tiring chase--all those he was unhappy about.

After the prosecution, the defense, the jury, and other court officials were settled, it was just the judge who had to arrive.

"All rise," the bailiff said. After everypony in the room complied, he continued, "The Court of Equestrian Justice is now in session, the Honorable Judge Primrose presiding."

The judge walked in and took her seat, and everypony else sat back down. Cheese leaned in his hoof, watching as the jurors all made their promises to be as fair as possible, and the bailiff presented the case of "The City of Las Pegasus vs. Kazam Rune."

"Ah, so today's the big one, huh?" Judge Primrose said. "Well, this should be interesting. Is the prosecution ready?"

The Las Pegasus representatives stood and said, "Yes, Your Honor."

"Is the defense ready?"

Kazam's lawyer stood up. "Yes, Your Honor."

"Very well." Judge Primrose adjusted her glasses. "The prosecution shall present their case."

The case against Kazam sure painted a picture. Cheese imagined the scene of "vampires unleashed onto terrified citizens and tourists" quite vividly, with blood splattering on the streets and coating the fangs of the monsters, and the twisted cries of ponies being sucked dry. According to Tomato, the transformations were unpleasant, but Cheese couldn't know for sure. His only ever transformation was puberty, and every teenager and adult knew what that was like. Regardless, at least he could see what the criminal charges against Kazam were.

According to the defense, however, it was likely that he was framed. Interesting to go on that note, but they did explain that there had been a Magic Expo that night, and that any one of the mages and magicians there could have been the real culprit. He started to wonder if that Great and Powerful Trixie he bumped into from time to time was now a suspect. Either way, how was this case going to go?

And then Cheese wondered if the court allowed bathroom breaks.

---

The first one called to the witness stand was Silk Shimmer. After the formalities of swearing to tell the truth and giving her name, she was soon treated to some interesting questions.

"All right, Miss Shimmer," the prosecutor said. "Could you describe your relation to Mr. Rune?"

"He's my older brother," Silk answered.

"Ah, I see. How many of you are there?"

"Three. I'm the middle child and only girl."

"Who is your other brother?"

"His name is Party Favor."

"And what was his relationship with Mr. Rune like?"

Silk Shimmer leaned on the stand, looking out in space as if the memory were in front of her. "They didn't get along. When you have an older brother who's a magical prodigy and a younger brother who can't even make a spark of magic, there's obviously going to be some bullying. I remember the days when Kaz would try to fuse Party Favor with the cat or with the doves or even with Party Favor's balloons. He always had the excuse that he wanted to 'help' Party Favor and give him some sort of superpower, but Mom would never listen."

The prosecutor rubbed his chin. "So, he tried to fuse his brother with the cat?"

"Yes, sir."

"Ah, so it is. Reports have said that the vampire spell was created by fusing a bat with a pony and imbuing that fusion with increased strength, speed, and stamina. It's clear that he has held an interest in this magic since he was a foal. Where did he discover this magic, anyway?"

Silk Shimmer glanced around the room. "Well... at home, we had a library of books on magic, because our bloodline is supposed to be naturally gifted at magic. Dad tried to have us exercise caution, and told us the story of our ancestor, Wayer Rune, but I think that might have sparked Kazam's interest instead of scaring us straight."

The prosecutor plodded back and forth in front of her. "Wayer Rune? Care to elaborate?"

"He's the guy who created the werewolf, with a fusion spell and other..." Silk paused to think. "...uh, for lack of a better word, additives to make the monster stronger and more durable. He also did stuff with memory magic, astronomy, alchemy, and trying to study a phenomena that he called 'jester magic'."

"Jester magic?" Pinkie whispered. "Is that the magic of having silly outfits? Or jingling silly bells? Or doing silly things? Oh, is that another term for party pony-ness? Wow, this Wayer guy must have been a big fan of party ponies."

"Pinkie, shush!" Rarity hissed.

Pinkie pouted at her, but obeyed. She did turn to Cheese for silent affirmation of her inquiries, but thought better of it when Cheese gave her a glare from the corner of his eye that said, "Leave me alone." She instead just looked at her foreleg, and continued to watch the trial.

Up on the stand, Silk continued, "Wayer was a gifted mage in the Princesses' court back in the day--I'm sure they have more detail on him, all I know is that it was sometime after Star Swirl. Before the Minotaur War, I assume he was a pretty nice guy, seeing as he married an earth pony jester--which was kind of radical during that time--and had kids with her. But, messing with dark magic, even to stop a war, does make a pony corrupt, and he somehow decided that it was a good idea to spread that werewolf curse around. Party Favor and I were scared when we heard the story, but Kazam was more fascinated than anything."

"Ah, so we can assume that this fascination with dark magic led to the events of Las Pegasus."

Silk rubbed the back of her head. "I don't know... Dad did forbid dark magic, even though he did encourage Kaz's talents, to the point that Party Favor and I--especially Party Favor--felt kind of left out and not good enough." She glanced at a stallion in the audience, who presumably was her father, who just looked away in shame.

"Ah, yes, thank you for the background, Miss Shimmer," the prosecutor said, straightening his tie. "Though, I have to ask, where is that other brother now?"

"Some town in the middle of nowhere... kind of northeast Equestria... I'm not sure, we just recently got word from him after a few years of not knowing. I'm really thankful that he's been found and is all right, and I have to thank a couple new friends I made for finding him and convincing him to send me a letter. In fact, I can see one of them in the audience right now." She grinned and waved at Cheese, who just stared back awkwardly.

"I'm happy for you, and I'm glad to hear that brother's all right," the prosecutor said.

"As am I," Judge Primrose said. "The prosecution may be seated. The defense may stand."

The prosecutor took his seat, and the defense attorney stood up. "Thank you, Your Honor." He turned to Silk Shimmer. "Now, I did hear that Mr. Rune is your elder brother, is that correct, Miss Shimmer?"

Silk nodded. "Indeed it is, sir."

"Then my I ask what your relationship with him was like?"

"Well, we weren't exactly close, and he did pick on me for being a lesser mage than he was. On the flip side, however, he never really tried to cast any harmful spells on me like he did with Party Favor. The worst he's done was hypnotize me into breaking a rule or being his little minion. It was enough to make me prefer going out with friends than staying at home. Still, by the night of Magic Expo, I thought he had grown out of that."

The defense nodded. "I see. Just what were you doing at the Magic Expo?"

Silk Shimmer rubbed the back of her head. "I was going to him for a favor, since I was making up for helping out with a scam that nearly had somepony kidnapped--I was helping that somepony's brother start a business so he could contribute to paying her medical bill. Kazam agreed to lend money on the condition that I would be one of his assistants. Another new friend of mine was helping me and took the job as the other assistant so that my debt would be lower. The shows for the next few days were actually kind of fun, but then the whole vampire fiasco happened, and I woke up to find my friend half-bat."

"Interesting." The defense paced back and forth. "Miss Shimmer, perhaps if it really was Kazam who turned your friend into a vampire, if he was as uncaring of you as you claim, why didn't he turn you into one as well? Wouldn't two vampires have made a quicker job of converting patrons at the Expo?"

Silk Shimmer blinked. "I... guess he cares on some level to not choose me for the spell. Still, he had no attachment to his other assistant... and he did hypnotize me to be his lackey. Let me tell you, the other assistant's brother was not very happy about what happened. And he was annoyed that I kept beating him up."

Are you kidding me, I was being beat up by that mare? Cheese thought. As if I'd let myself get thrashed if my brother was in danger. I probably would have broken off her horn in a second.

The defense attorney fixed his hair. "Do you remember what you did during this hypnosis?"

Silk blew on her bangs. "Well, no, most of what I did was told to me by others."

"Well, I have reason to doubt that it was your brother. Somepony else could have placed a mind control spell on you while you were talking to him, and then did the dirty work behind his back. This other unicorn could have easily transformed the first victim, placed him behind the stage, and then released it onto the audience when Kazam's show began."

"Then... why didn't Kazam stop the vampire?"

"Who says Kazam wasn't also put under hypnosis?"

Silk paused for a moment, and tapped her chin. "I... don't know how to answer that."

Judge Primrose tapped the gavel and said, "All right, it sounds like we have enough information from Miss Shimmer. The defense may take his seat, and the witness may step down. Let's call forth the next witness."

---

"Trixie was just minding her own business at the Expo, performing for the adoring Las Pegasus audiences, when all of a sudden, Cheese Sandwich popped out of her hat and spooked the living daylights out of her!" The mare referring to herself in the third person shook her hoof at Cheese in the audience. "He begged her to help him rescue his brother from being a vampire, which she didn't believe until he said that it was Kazam Rune who did it."

The lawyer looked at her oddly. "Why did you change your mind when Mr. Rune was mentioned?"

"Because Trixie always suspected that Kazam was evil! He had this creepy look in his eyes, a devilish smirk, and a fascination with the darkness that Trixie wouldn't dare go near! As soon as Cheese Sandwich's brother was transformed, Trixie's fears were confirmed!" She snapped her head toward Kazam, and narrowed her eyes. "Trixie hopes that you rot in prison! You're lucky that the Great and Powerful Trixie does not suffer from nightmares!"

As the spectators watched Trixie laugh maniacally for a good ten seconds, Cheese raised an eyebrow, while the girls just stared at her uncomfortably. Rainbow leaned in her hoof and murmured, "Yeesh, she's still as big of a loudmouth as before."

"Calm down, Miss Trixie!" the lawyer said. "Did you help Mr. Sandwich?"

Trixie blinked. "Oh. Yes, Trixie did. A frying pan goes a long way in fighting off vampires, and an anti-magic cone to stop magical foes."

---

The purple pony with the silver pompadour, all dressed up in a sparkling suit, was another pony that was up on the witness stand.

"I remember distinctly that my resort got robbed that day, by the notorious Pinkerton Headsmasher! I remember the police telling me that he was ranting and raving about getting attacked by a vampire, and we all had a good laugh, uh-huh-huh! Then, night falls and there really is a horde of them! I had a lot of ponies retreating into my resort, and I remember hearing the phrase 'There's absolutely nothing to be afraid of' over and over from outside. And I thought, 'What the hay?! There's a lot to be afraid of!' When it all stopped, everypony was confused, even the vampires themselves, and we had to wait a week until everypony was cured."

"Ah, yes... uh, thank you, Mr. Gladmane."

---

The off-duty policepony huffed. "I remember that night like it was yesterday. I was doing important paperwork when one of my officers burst into my office and shouted that it was an emergency. It was easy to believe when I saw way too many civilians panicking at the front desk.

"I went out there with my officers, and there they were, barreling down from the sky and tackling ponies left and right, sinking those fangs in their necks and sucking them dry."

Rarity shivered. "I didn't need that mental picture."

"We fought the vampires as hard as we could. They were innocents, many of them foals, that had been morphed into inequine monsters." The chief slammed on the stand. "Several of my officers had been bitten, and I had to fight them! I was lucky that the vampires were repulsed by me for one reason or another, but my officers? They looked tasty."

Rainbow whispered to Pinkie, "Well, considering his name is Chief Garlic..."

---

Several other witnesses went up to the stand and testified of what they had seen. A couple of ponies had been in the audience when Kazam sicced the vampire on them, while a few more had been on the streets when it happened. Some had transformed, some did not. So far, surprisingly, Tomato had not gone up, despite being arguably the most important of the witnesses. Still, when Twilight and Fluttershy were up, Pinkie could not help but cheer for them, and had to be silenced by the judge.

"All right, Princess Twilight," Judge Primrose said, setting her gavel down. "You may begin."

"Thank you, Your Honor." Twilight straightened her notes, and nodded to Fluttershy, who opened the box and picked Vladimir the vampire bat up. "What my friend Fluttershy has here is the very bat that was fused to the first victim. I haven't had the opportunity to study the pony victim, but I did examine the bat for the traces of magic that is still left in them. Being fused to a pony for a week can... imbed some pony qualities into the bat."

Fluttershy nodded. "Normally, vampire bats can only drink blood, and unfortunately... they have a preference for pony blood."

Every spectator and court official cringed at that statement, with Rarity especially nearly fainting. Even Kazam rubbed his foreleg in discomfort, suggesting that he had learned that lesson the hard way.

Then, Fluttershy pulled a tomato out of her saddlebag, which Vladimir happily pounced on and started to suck on it. "So, I found it strange that he happily ate tomatoes and didn't get sick. I took him to the vet for an X-Ray, and found that his digestive system had been altered so that he could have fruit... so, I guess he's kind of a vampire fruit bat now."

Twilight took two X-Rays out of her notes and showed the officials. "I have Vladimir's X-Ray, and a normal vampire bat's X-Ray for comparision. While he still does like blood..." Under her breath, she grumbled, "...he bit me the last time I visited Fluttershy and it still hurts..." She cleared her voice and continued, "The fact that he suffers no ill effects from any other source of food suggests that his physiology was affected when he was fused with a pony. And it was just a week! Imagine if it had been a month!"

The prosecutor scratched his chin. "Interesting... is there anything else about him that is more pony than bat?"

Fluttershy put a hoof to her chin. "Well, I don't know much about his personality before, but he does like wearing ties, reading books, and doing my taxes. Also, when I tickle him..." She stopped there and tickled the bat. Vladimir laughed normally at first; but, then, everypony had to keep from laughing when he whinnied. Poor Vladimir covered his mouth, and zipped into Fluttershy's mane.

"Oh!" Fluttershy immediately regretted doing that. "I'm sorry that I embarrassed you, Vladimir. We just needed to show them the side effects of the spell." The bat just hissed in reply, and Fluttershy looked as if her heart just broke.

The defense tapped on the table. "You very well could have falsified that evidence, this is utterly ridiculous. Are you so sure that that bat is now part pony? Does it work the other way around?"

"That's my hypothesis," Twilight said. "Luckily, with their varied diet, I don't think any of those ponies who turned into vampires will start drinking blood anytime soon. On another note..." She shuffled through her notes until she found what she was looking for. "Working backwards from the counterspell that the Princesses and I used to cure the city, it does appear that the spell is in fact a variation of Wayer Rune's werewolf spell, with other spells compiled on it to make the vampires deadly foes. As it stands, Mr. Rune has been performing blood brewing."

"What is blood brewing?" the prosecutor asked.

"It's a shortcut to spell creation. Instead of doing the hard calculations and word compositions to combine with magic, the mage would just mix a bunch of spells into somepony, and draw the magic from their blood to read the new magic signature of that spell." Twilight frowned. "It's very dangerous, it often causes a lot of physical and magical damage to a pony."

"So, are you suggesting that Mr. Rune was treating his victim like a cauldron to make a new spell?"

"Yes, I am.

The defense attorney scoffed. "So now ponies can pull magic out of other ponies? Since when are all unicorns Tirek?"

"Oh, it's not stealing magic like Tirek was, it's just reading the magic signature and replicating the results." Twilight shuffled through her notes some more. "Anyway, back to the vampire thing. It did require a high magical level to both create and perform, and the Runes are notable for having a family history of powerful unicorns."

"I am sure there are other families that have powerful histories, Princess," the defense attorney said. "From what I've heard, the Light clan has also had an extensive history of powerful mages, one of the more recent ones being yourself. There is still a chance that an obscure distant relative of yours had done it, and Mr. Rune, due to being more well-known, got caught in the crossfire."

"Hm, perhaps. I could do it if I wanted to... but I don't want to." Twilight let the judge look at the notes. "This is just from studying the one spell and the bat. If I had done the research on the victim before he left, I'm sure that I could have gotten more."

Judge Primrose nodded. "Impressive. Speaking of the first victim, I don't believe we have heard from him yet. You may step down, Princess Twilight and Miss Fluttershy, and we'll have Mr. Tomato Sandwich come to the stand. Maybe we'll see if he does still have a little bat in him."

---

Now it was Tomato's turn on the witness stand. With all eyes on him, there was part of him that was relieved that they weren't expecting him to sing, but the rest of him was nervous over them not believing his story. If he hadn't experienced it firsthoof, he probably wouldn't have believed it either. It was strange, he lived in a world of magic, but there were things that did sound preposterous, such as ancient Equestrian legends popping up in the modern day. Well, if Nightmare Moon happened, anything could happen.

He looked to his brother for comfort, and only got confusion over why Rainbow Dash was sitting in between him and Pinkie. That made him wonder just what happened between the two party ponies during the chase.

Once he swore to tell the truth, the first question was, "Tell us, what were you doing in Las Pegasus the night of the crime?"

Tomato cleared his throat. "Well... I was on summer break, and my brother Cheese was taking me on a trip across Equestria. We pretty much went wherever his Cheesy Sense told him to go, and Las Pegasus happened to be the destination that week."

"I see. What is this Cheesy Sense?"

"It's a sense that tells him what town a party's being planned and if that party needs his touch. That week, he sensed that the Magic Expo needed him, and thus, there we were, in Las Pegasus. Since I'm hardly a party pony and was frankly useless at party stuff, I explored the town with Silk Shimmer while Cheese worked on the Expo."

"So how did you get tangled with Kazam?"

Tomato drummed his hooves. "Well, Silk Shimmer is Kazam's sister, so she was asking him for money. I was helping her out, because that money was to help a new friend of mine start up a business. From what I've been told, the guy's been doing pretty well, because so many ponies like pizza!" He grinned and chuckled, but soon straightened out. "But I digress. Silk Shimmer was in debt then, and I was helping her pay it off through both of us being assistants. I thought it was just a normal deal, but..."

He remembered how he had briefly felt his back tingle when making the deal, as if something was warning him to get away and fast. Alas, he had ignored it, shook Kazam's hoof, and listened to the lie of "There is absolutely nothing to be afraid of."

The attorney stomped his hoof to get Tomato's attention. "Mr. Sandwich, how were you transformed in the first place?"

Tomato's ears pinned back, and his drummed his hooves again. Here he goes, reliving that event. "Er... I think it might have been the Wings of Light trick. It was supposed to be something where he made a bat phase through me and briefly give me... well, wings of light. It was a cool trick, but the part where the bat 'phased' through me felt like I was being stabbed. I think that's when the fusion happened."

Tomato squeezed his eyes shut, his heart aching from the memory. "I quickly fell sick. I had a headache, I was nauseous, my chest hurt, and I was hungry. Cheese took me to our motel room that night, giving me a little snack and water and imploring me to go to sleep early, but all that did was make me throw up." His muscles tensed and started to tremble, and his guts twisted and ached. "I pretty much camped out in the bathroom for half of the night, and it felt like I was in there for much longer, retching until I had nothing left, sweating from the heat, shivering for whatever reason, and feeling like I was having a heart attack!"

He felt the wings on his back, spreading out for all to see, even though he knew they didn't exist now. "Then, I felt two of my front teeth grow into long needles, and lumps in my back just grew into wings, and I could just feel my skin back there being stretched out. I felt so horrible that I thought I was going to die, and I was relieved when the pain faded. I was weak, but I was alive. Unfortunately, one look in the mirror made me realize just how much trouble I was in."

The prosecutor adjusted his glasses. "Well, that transformation sounded horrible."

"I don't recommend it."

"I wouldn't want it anyway. How did your brother find out?"

Tomato rolled his eyes and leaned in his hoof. "It would have been too much trouble to hide it from him, so since he was at the door being worried, I just opened it and showed him. He fainted." He looked out at the spectators to see Cheese displeased with that statement.

"I don't blame him. Anyway, let's skip forward to when the disaster struck. Do you remember how it started?"

Tomato rubbed his head, and then shook it, saying, "Barely. We went to Kazam, thinking that he must have made some sort of mistake, but Cheese got mad at him, Kazam found my form interesting, and then... it felt like I fell asleep, but I know it was just hypnosis. Next thing I knew, I was up in the sky, under a bright moon, and I had just been punched in the face." He rubbed his face, wanting to glare at Cheese for even doing that, despite knowing that he must have been desperate.

"And then, I looked down..." Tomato's heart pounded, just like it did that night. "...and Cheese was falling. We were in the sky about... I don't know, twice the height of Manehattan's Trade Center, so it was a fall that not even he could survive--and trust me, Cheese is a tough cookie. I managed to swoop down and grab him just before he hit the street of Las Pegasus' ground neighborhood, but it was so close. So close!" He cradled his head in his hooves. "Sometimes, I think about how it would have been if I didn't catch him in time."

The prosecutor had a hoof on his heart. "It's a miracle how you barely averted tragedy. How did it all end?"

Tomato looked up. "Well, Kazam was about to blast us to smithereens, but he had several anti-magic cones latched into his horn from behind. After that, Cheese smuggled me out of Las Pegasus and took me to Twilight, where she turned me back to normal."

"Any leftover bat in you?"

Tomato blinked at the odd question, but answered, "...well... I, uh, sometimes feel the wings on my back, and I ended up trying to take off a few times... I fell on my face, obviously. I've also hissed at ponies when I got angry. I also have better hearing and can speak bat now."

"Do you still crave blood?"

"What? No! I'm sticking to pony food, thank you." He didn't feel nauseous at the thought of blood, but it was still uncomfortable to think about. Especially after that one time he smelled blood on Cheese, which he still wasn't sure where it came from.

After the prosecutor was done, the defense attorney went up to him, and dared to ask, "Now, how can you be so sure that it was Kazam when you were hypnotized for nearly the entire duration of the attack?"

Tomato crossed his front legs. "He tried to kill me when I didn't do want he wanted. He outright said he had more vampires to play with."

"Oh, really?"

Tomato raised his eyebrow. Somehow, he doubted that this lawyer had any good tricks up his sleeve, and from what he could see in the audience, everypony else had the same thing. So far, he was just rearing to get Tomato mad, and perhaps even hiss at him for getting on his nerves. Tomato didn't want to make a scene, but if he hissed, at least it was further evidence that he had some bat in him.

Was there really any point to this trial if they knew Kazam was guilty?

---

The two attorneys made their closing remarks, and as per Equestrian tradition, the attending Princess was to extend a hoof to the accused, which is exactly what Twilight Sparkle did. She trotted up, despite being able to fly, and faced Kazam.

"Well, we've heard from every one of the witnesses present, and soon the jury will reach their verdict," she began. "As the Princess of Friendship, it is my duty to let you know that your magic can be used for good, Kazam. Guilty or not guilty, I have a duty to be a guiding light for all of Equestria, and to let everypony experience the magic of friendship, even ponies like you. Should you be declared guilty, I'll personally see to it that you have somepony work with you so that you may be a better you. I've seen it with those who have done worse than you."

Kazam glared at her and sighed. "You sound awfully presumptuous, Princess. You should know that not every ill in the world is because somepony didn't have friends." He raised an eyebrow, putting his hooves together. "Sometimes it's because of bad friends, or sometimes, somepony goes bad in spite of good friends. How are you sure that it'll work on me if I'm guilty?"

"Well, nopony came forward and said that they were ever your friend, or said that you ever had friends, so, I thought--"

"I did have friends as a foal, Princess. I helped them with their magic studies in school. We just drifted apart as we pursued our different careers and interests. I don't have some sobstory involving being lonely; my brother's the one with the sobstory. So, I don't see why I need to learn about the Magic of Friendship when I already know how to talk to ponies and get them into my good graces. The reason nopony mentioned it was because it was an unimportant detail. Stop looking for problems where there aren't any."

Twilight blinked, and then glared at him. "Well, if that's what you wish. She turned to the judge. "You can--"

"I do have a question," Kazam interrupted. "Why wasn't Cheese Sandwich called up as a witness?"

Judge Primrose glared at him. "That information is confidential. Now--"

"Oh? Is he sick? Puh, I saw him among the spectators, so he's clearly not. I would think that somepony who had planned the Magic Expo, was responsible for it, and who was very much involved in the events, enough that most of the witnesses we've seen here have mentioned him in some shape or form, and of course... it was his brother who was the first victim." Kazam leaned back in his chair and chuckled. "Don't tell me that he was too traumatized to even think about the event without having a breakdown."

The defense attorney turned to him and whispered, "Kazam, stop it, you're not helping your case!"

However, the sound of an angry gallop barreled through the court, and soon enough, Cheese Sandwich skidded to a halt in front of Kazam, growling at him. "Oh, you think you're so tough, talking smack about me like that?"

"Ah, long time, no see, Cheese," Kazam said. "You seem different."

Twilight hovered to Cheese. "What are you doing? Get back to your seat!"

Cheese ignored her. "Oh, I seem different? Well, maybe that's because you had your lackey rip the memory of Las Pegasus from my mind! Forgive me for being a little cranky for having part of my mind stolen!"

The crowd gasped, and Kazam's smug smile faded into a frown. "Wait, what?"

Twilight had her hoof on her face. "Well, thanks for revealing that, Cheese. But, yes, his memory of Las Pegasus has been stolen, and we have reason to suspect that it was the one behind the Las Pegasus disaster, be it you, or this somepony else that your attorney keeps claiming it is. After all, if there's anypony who'd benefit from the missing piece of the puzzle, it's the culprit."

Kazam blinked and scratched his chin. "Are you sure it wasn't a mind wipe? Outright stealing the memory is an older spell. Props to the guy who decided to be thorough, mind wipes have a risk of the memory coming back with a certain trigger."

Twilight narrowed her eyes. "He had the symptoms and has suffered from magical damage, so I'm certain it's the memory removal."

Cheese slammed on the table. "You better give that memory back, you coward!"

Kazam raised an eyebrow at him and turned back to Twilight. "I guess that's why he seems so different. He's not as ridiculous as before. However, if it is the memory removal, then I fear that I may be correct about my assumptions about his character. After all, memory removal is not an easy spell."

"What do you mean by that?" Twilight asked, still glaring.

Kazam leaned toward her, and whispered, "I hear you're an aficionado of research, Princess, and you're bound to have done a lot of it to figure out how to help him. You must have researched my ancestor's writings on the subject, compared it with different kinds of mind spells, and how it relates to the pony body. Surely you know that the method is extremely painful, and that he would have felt it. He would have seen the pony's face, and the only reason he doesn't remember is because plucking out a piece of the mind disrupts the memory process. He wouldn't have been some sitting duck to somepony trying to steal a piece of him by night, and the thief taking the memory by force as Cheese fights it would have killed that clown if his mind wasn't sufficiently weakened."

Kazam watched as Twilight bit her trembling lip, and her eyes glanced away to Cheese, to somepony in the spectator seats, and to the witnesses in the back, most likely Tomato. He smirked. "You're neglecting a vital piece of information, Princess. Are you trying to protect somepony?"

Twilight sighed. "Cheese Sandwich... consented to the memory removal."

Cheese stepped back in alarm, several ponies gasped, and Pinkie yelled, "What?!" Twilight flinched at all those, and was tempted to hide in her wings for the rest of the week. She especially watched Cheese, and how he was taking this new information in.

Cheese shook his head. "No, but I... I would never..." He growled, and jumped onto the table, his mane, tail, and the fur on his back bristling. "That's insane! You're just making stuff up to make me look bad and yourself not so bad! You're guilty! You did steal it! You did!"

Kazam examined his hoof. "Afraid not. Not very many ponies want to associate with me after my accusations, so I don't have a lackey to obstruct justice. Therefore, I plead innocent to that charge."

Judge Primrose tapped her gavel. "Now, can Mr. Sandwich go and sit down?!"

Cheese ignored her. "Liar!"

Kazam huffed. "Going to keep calling me that, huh? It's a shame, really. To know that a pony like you couldn't handle the guilt of a party going oh so terribly wrong under your watch, that a simple little grudge that you held against your brother had him flirting with danger and turning into a monster. That he couldn't handle the fear that there might be just enough bat in that brother to suddenly turn back into a vampire and kill him. That he couldn't handle the fact that he nearly died, and he couldn't save himself because it wouldn't be funny, and humor in that situation would have been cheap."

The defense attorney covered his mouth. "That's enough! Do you want them to declare you guilty?"

Kazam rolled his eyes and brushed the hoof aside. "What does it matter? We all know where it's going."

Judge Primrose looked at the bailiff. "Please drag Cheese Sandwich away."

Kazam made eye contact with Cheese. "I bet you had nightmares... nightmares of all the little vampires jumping at you, as if they blamed you for their pain, nightmares of your brother changing back and attacking you, and perhaps nightmares of falling and going splat on the pavement. With all that in mind, it's no wonder you gave up that memory to the 'memory thief'. You are weak."

In a split second, Cheese's eyes turned black as night, and he pounced on Kazam. The unicorn had been fully expecting a flurry of punches and kicks that any other pony would have done to try to prove him wrong; instead it was a storm of teeth and growls, with Cheese trying to tear him apart and strip the flesh off his bones like an animal would. With his magic blocked, he could barely defend himself, and made sure to keep Cheese's mouth away from his throat.

"Cheese, stop!" Pinkie cried.

"What are you doing?!" Tomato yelled.

Twilight used her magic to peel the feral Cheese off the now-bloodied Kazam, and soon enough, the bailiff and several other guards had tackled the party pony to the floor. After a bit of wrestling, some chains, and a muzzle to restrain him, the guards hoisted Cheese up and carried him out of the room. Other ponies went out to take Kazam to a doctor, with Kazam's family, Silk Shimmer included, following in their worry. As all the commotion went on, all ponies could do were gape at the scene unfolding before them.

Pinkie Pie and Tomato Sandwich were two of those gaping, and they were still in a stupor as everypony else began to clamor.

Author's Note:

Researching this courtroom stuff to the best of my ability gave me a headache. Figuring out how it would go in Equestria was an even bigger headache. At some point, I think I might have given up on the finer details and just went nuts.

Ah, well, at least I got this over with.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

Almost 500,000 words and it's still not complete yet! Just how much longer will this story be?

[ClockworkShield]

8670040

At this rate we’ll get the rest of this arc, plus another two, maybe three.

[Sketcha-Holic]

8670616
8670040

Considering this chapter's supposed to be set in mid-/later- August, that should give you an idea of how close we are to the end. I just have one major arc left (divided into a couple segments based on location, but still), and then we can finally have the grand finale. I have a goal to finish this beast this year!

[redmar]

Kazam's lawyer isn't making a very good case but with all the witnesses in the crowd when he forced Tomato to attack the guilty verdict is pretty much certain.

[Sketcha-Holic]

8671276
Wait, what? Tomato didn't attack anyone, he just got annoyed by the lawyer.
I think you might have conflated that bit with Tomato and the lawyer with Kazam goading Cheese into a fight.

[redmar]

8671378
I was a bit unclear but I was referring to when Kazam made Tomato attack other ponies in Las Pegasus. Reading my comment again I can understand your confusion since it was rather vague.

[Sketcha-Holic]

8672562
Ah. I gotcha now.

[Chromio]

This is still just as great as it was when it started, looking forward to more

[ChaoticKindness]

It was really interesting to see the trial unfold o:

It's gonna be hard for Cheese to get out of this one

[Godslittleprincess]

Well, now now what?