Time had passed. Silver and Fast had fallen asleep by the time a gentle knock was heard, then the door glowed with golden magic. Celestia returned, with Luna entering just behind her. Luna stepped up and, with a dark flash, Silver slumped to the bed, free of the ropes.
Celestia took up the other side of the bed, looking down at Silver as he quickly roused. Silver sat up, bumping into Fast's spread, protective wings. Was she still a pegasus? He nudged her gently, "Don't look like that at them. Down girl." Fast huffed, but become her usual unicorn self.
Luna nodded stiffly, "The blocker, if you please." Her tone was cold as ice. Celestia's horn lit with golden energy as she lifted the ring free of Silver's horn and tucked it away.
Silver looked to Celestia, "Is she, my schoolmate, going to be OK?"
Celestia glanced away, then back at Silver, "That has ceased to be a pressing issue."
Luna's wings went wide, "What a hateful way to say that, sister. She is well, and should recover, but there are other matters that are spiraling out of control." She lifted a hoof to point at Silver, "My sister was not aware you appeared in my court so shortly ago. News of your arrest has spread quickly."
Silver recoiled a little, "Is there an angry mob waiting for me?"
Luna shook her head, "On the contrary. It is known we have a diplomat under arrest."
Silver tilted his head a little, "So? I mean... I don't imagine humans are getting ready to outcry."
Celestia shook her head, "There are other nations. Equestria enjoys its power not only because of our control of the day and night, but our trust." She hung her head a little, "A trust that has been broken."
Luna nudged Celestia with a wing, "You are quick to accuse me of temper, but never have I caused such uproar as this! Sister, you knew he was no threat. Why did you do this?"
Celestia raised a hoof, looking ready to slam it down before it more limply fell, "Do not badger me, Luna. No matter how well-spoken and gentle of nature Silver has shown so far, he is still an alien with dangerous gifts. Gifts that have now been abused. I... thought to remove that gift from him, but gave myself a day to consider it."
Silver went pale around his snout as he backed up on the bed.
Luna scowled, "You would rend his horn? His actions were foalish, to be sure, but they were without malice. Others have performed greater acts with active intent without such barbarism." She raised a hoof to point at Silver, "He is faithful to an unhealthy point. If he thought it would make us pleased, he would probably kill himself to save us the trouble."
Silver raised a hoof, "Anything but that." The royal sisters cared little for his muted objection, as they faced one another.
Celestia stomped, breaking the tiles with her anger, "I am aware of this! I did not go ahead with this. It was a rash thought that I gave time to cool. Do not approach me with tales of this. Your own past is dark with such actions you did not let cool."
Luna swept a wing towards the hallway, "Is that what you will tell them? It was your idea, I will remind, to give him this shield. The very shield you swept aside while going for his throat. Who can trust you now? Even the minotaurs are nervous, ever have they been our allies. The dragons laugh openly at us, saying you have revealed your true colors at last."
Fast was silent. This involved matters far above her comprehension, and she huddled in close to Silver. Silver let his ears fall, "Is there something I could do?"
Luna pointed at Silver violently, "Even now he seeks to serve! Who is truly responsible for this? We should make an example of them."
Celestia frowned, "I will not have further pain this day. The only other that could be blamed is recovering from severe burns. Without extensive reconstruction, he would be disfigured for life." She looked to Silver, "It is nothing short of a wonder that you got away with as few burns as you did, considering how close you were to its release."
Silver sat up a little more, "Seriously, can I make a speech or something? I don--"
Luna scowled at Silver, "Enough. You have done enough for one day. Sleep."
Silver felt the pull of magic tugging at him and he struggled against it, "No! Don't..." He tried to focus his magic, but he had learned no sleep, or counter-sleep spells, and flopped onto the bed. His burning desire to be awake made his descent slow, his mind holding desperately even as his body immediately collapsed.
Fast put a hoof over Silver's fallen form, "Don't treat him like that. He respects you, both of you. He wants to help." When both cast angry glares at her, Fast suddenly exploded in size, becoming a manticore and snarling defensively at them.
Celestia gave a soft sigh, "Release the spell, there is no further harm to be done."
Luna let the spell go with an almost angry tug, "I wouldn't want to follow your example."
Celestia's expression became one of motherly disappointment, and Luna exploded in fury, "Do not look to me with that gaze! I am your sister, not one of your little ponies!" She moved a wing, nudging Silver upright again, "My apologies, Silver. You are still wounded, we thought to let you rest."
Silver shook off the fog that had been encroaching, "I am sorry, really. I didn't mean for... all this. I was wrong, completely. The teacher shouldn't have grabbed me, but that doesn't make what I did OK."
Luna snorted softly, "How eagerly he presents his belly. This. This is one of your little ponies."
Celestia shook her head, "Since we are all here, why don't you tell us exactly what happened, Silver?"
Silver considered a moment, "I just passed the test, and ran into the teacher. He was unhappy to see me. He used a spell that immobilized me and began to chastise me, about why I was there, and how I was using royalty to get ahead. I got angry and made that fireball, but I didn't release it. As soon as I had it, I didn't know what to do with it... I could have drawn off the heat slowly, if I had a few minutes to work with it, but I passed out. I must have been tired from the test... I don't know... But without me holding it together, you know the rest."
Luna nodded slowly, "What you did was wrong, but what was done to you was worse."
Silver tilted his head, "Why? I'm not hurt, besides what I did to myself."
Celestia sighed softly, "I ignored your immunity. You were held captive, and your magic blocked. Though your own nation is unable to complain, your condition was not private, nor your status. Others are becoming very upset."
Luna gave a soft snarl, "That professor should be tried for assault on a diplomat! It was entirely unwarranted and unprovoked. Laying a hoof on a student, with magic no less..."
Celestia gestured elsewhere in the building, "Callis Thetics is unconscious with severe wounds. He will not be attending trial for some time."
"He is fortunate," said Luna with a frown, then turned her gaze back on Silver, "Are you well, all things considered?"
"My back feels like it's still on fire," said Silver before he looked to Fast, "You... can stop being big and snarly now."
Fast shrunk back to her horny self, "Oh fine. Somepony has to be on equal footing with them, and it isn't going to be you."
Silver reached, pulling Fast in tight, "I'm pretty sure either of them could do terrible things to you if they wanted, but you are very brave." Fast relaxed under the embrace and compliment.
Celestia nodded at Luna, "Perhaps Silver's idea has merit. A quick speech from him may quell fears."
Luna snorted, "You are clearly losing your touch. Anything he says will be seen as something he was forced to say by his jailors. How do you propose we convince them of his sincerity?"
Silver moved to the edge of the bed, then slid down to the floor on wobbly legs, "I should apologize, on behalf of my people, and thank you for restraining me while my magic was surging."
Celestia smiled gently, "I think you may have struck on something there. I will approach after you say this and offer you an honorary position in the crown warlocks, to be instructed how to control such powers. You get to continue learning magic, and self-control."
Luna spread her wings, "I will personally oversee it."
Celestia looked like she disapproved, but she let Luna have it, "Very well. Luna, you should step forward then. It is well-known you look at him with favor at this point. It will be all the more believable you would offer it."
Silver tilted his head a bit, "Is it that obvious? A mare tried to have me strung up in Luna's court."
Luna nodded, "Tis true. While some ponies may have ascertained our warm relations, many have not. My plan remains the same."
Silver looked up at Celestia specifically, waiting until she returned his gaze. "Are you still... upset with me?"
Celestia looked sad. "The fact that you ask that means you care, but I would be lying to say I am not upset."
Silver didn't like the idea of Celestia being displeased with him. In many ways, she was the example on which all other good ponies should draw. "I'll do my best to calm everyone down. I really didn't want any of this." He trotted to the door, wincing as burned flesh was jostled along the way.
Silver almost collided with Night as she burst into the room.
"Silver!" exclaimed Night Watch, then looking past, "Your majesties! Wait, are you free now?"
Silver shook his head, "Do we still have the bag of bits?"
Night blinked owlishly, "Yes. I hadn't the chance to spend it yet. Why?"
Silver sat down, "Go fetch it."
Night looked at him skeptically, then left in a hurry.
Luna stepped up behind Silver, looming over his small form. "What manner of trickery are you planning? We can see it hatching."
Silver swiveled an ear back towards her, "Not trickery, just doing what's right."
With a glow, Luna hefted up Silver and Fast, "We should go. I will have Night Watch brought to the stage." Luna set Silver down gently on a wheeled cart where his sore back wouldn't rub against things, then set Fast behind the cart. "Your wife should transport you."
Fast grinned and began nudging Silver along with her magic, apparently having quite the good time of it. It didn't take long before they arrived at the stage where Celestia would raise the sun for special holidays that also doubled as a meeting place when the need arose. Celestia had departed to arrange for the crowd that would fill the place soon. Night Watch arrived shortly with the bag burdening her. She placed it beside Silver then sat with Fast, watching him.
Silver swallowed softly, trying to psyche himself up. Just pretend they're all players in a game, and he's the Game Master. He can give them a story worth hearing...
I knew it! I knew it! You had ulterior motives for doing that. I must say, the story of him flaring would fit nicely with the truth.
5761511 In defense of Lyra, her behavior as a defense is not hard, for me, to grasp. The mood in the room was black as night, and she tried to focus on the bright side. That and she's never had someone actually die. She is assuming they'll come out of it OK. That was Celestia in the lobby right? No way somepony will actually die. Celestia and Luna will take care of this!
now he is really using a royal favor for escape of what he had done.
i don't want to be rude but all He said was "sorry!" o "my bad! oh I'm so ashamed !" (many times, not only on this chapter) in our juridic system say 'sorry' meant nothing, "is not important of what you say but only what you can prove to the court" this system work on us because we are not cute little ponies but mens, and some mens sometimes kill, steal and lie some on purpose and other on accident; bring it up God or religion or Oil and economy and politics in the wrong time and the wrong place, and since this have always happen in our history and still today (sigh!) we choose to create it like this. if you steal ? then you're a thief=jail; if you Kill? Then you're a murder =jail, if you hurt someone and there are proof you did it with illegal means? do i have to say it ? Jail.
what i meant to say is...our judges by profession , must apply the law impartially and that they can not personally implicating themselves in one case and always apply the law no matter who's the victim and the offender(there are proof against him, haha joke's on you! Jail !). of course since Silver is a "diplomat" and he has the favor on 1 princess who have the last word on the juridic affairs ... well he cheated (our system).
ponies care for their friends that is what they do, but silver isn't in his core a pony, and this was an obvious negligence of a tool ( as i said before magic is a tool just like a gun)what possessed him to make him do that spell? Did he really think he can take out something good from it?
if it were up to our system, he would be in prison in a blink.
justs a suggestion, but, if this is going in the direction of an adventure story, maybe silver shooed do an impossible mission or a task for repentance for his actions like Hercules, even if he is fond not guilty, just to show that he is sinisterly sorry even if the fire spell was made out of panic, all the wheal showing that even with having crown favor he is not above the law.
5761608 Sinisterly sorry? That sounds devious!
5761606 Heh, even in the show, ponies have hurt ponies without going to jail. Twilight was buried in pain by one Derpy pony, to say nothing of collateral damage to property. Derpy was not sent to jail, because, overall, Equestria's kind of a nice place. Accidents can be easy to forgive, provided no lasting harm comes from it.
Poor Spike should sue, with how many times he's been injured.
This all aside, Silver is not trying to protect himself. It's been made clear Equestria is going to catch trouble because of how they treated a diplomat. Worthy of being a diplomat or not is inconsequential, seeing as it was Celestia's idea to give it to him. He will do his best to minimize the damage he has inflicted, because he made a mistake, but he is not a jerk.
Not an error per se, but I'm very unclear on what's supposed to be happening in this sentence. Luna's dark flash sounds like her magic, and if Silver slumped to the bed, then it sounds like she did something to make him pass out...except that's obviously not what happened, so what's going on?
Not that I don't approve, but he has straps too.
It's not hard to figure out who he means, but the sudden non sequitur is still a bit confusing, since there's nothing here to indicate who the "she" is. I suspect that this will cause some readers confusion.
Also not a literal error, but since presumably each sister has a court of their own, I'd change that to "...you appeared in my court so shortly ago."
Silver picks up on Luna's meaning a little too quickly, here. Without her specifically referencing the breach of his diplomatic immunity, saying that word of his arrest has spread doesn't clearly indicate that that's the issue - it sounds more like she's saying that word has gotten out about what a horrible thing he's done. I'd change her last line to explicitly reference the political aspect, e.g. "Word of a diplomat being placed under arrest, despite their immunity, has spread quickly."
Her looking at him with favor is "well-known."
She asked Silver if he was free. Shaking one's head is taken to mean "no," whereas nodding one's head is understood as being "yes." So, which response is he trying to give? Because it certainly seems like he's free now.
I think she stepped up behind Silver, rather.
When the need "arose," rather.
Shouldn't that be Night Watch?
5761624 sorry I meant «sincerely»
5761641 Fixed up! And no he's not free, seeing as crisis mode is still very much in effect. I mean, he's not strapped to the bed, true, but is he free? Answer pending.
I remember that there were no healing spells, but wouldn't 'regen' be a 'growth-divide' loop with parameters set to cellular level? The 'growth' part is there so that the 'devide' part isn't magic canser.
Edit: maybe something on preservation added in to protect the telomeres?
5761781 If Fast Change was hurt and turned into something else, it would be hurt in the same place. If she was missing an arm, she would turn into an armless dragon or pegasus, and still be a sad shapeshifter.
Please don't hurt Fast Change. She's too cute to maim.
5761803 what? I was thinking to help the burnn victems!
5761803 what? I was thinking to help the burnn victems!
5761831 Just saying, any magic that outright creates something is extremely difficult. Heck, Silver had a heck of a time making an inappropriate body part. However! That does mean it's possible, if you get a serious spellcaster in there to do it.
I have to say, I really enjoyed this chapter, probably to no one's surprise.
I was surprised by what resonated most strongly with me, however: Fast Change. Specifically, her absolute lack of fear in seeking to protect Silver from anypony and anything that looked even remotely threatening was incredibly romantic! Seriously, that scene where she takes the two alicorn sisters to task, and they give her a combined glare...any other pony would have wilted under that. Certainly Night Watch, with her devotion to duty and her history of serving Princess Luna, would have. But Fast's reaction was to change into a battle-body and snarl at them, sending a very clear message of "back off, bitches!" That was full-on mama lion mode, and the intense devotion - and the love that warranted it - were awe-inspiring. This, and her gentle soothing of Silver when he was despairing over what he'd done, seriously made her skyrocket to being my favorite of Silver's lovers.
Besides that, I'm still going "squee!" over the political fallout of what happened. I admit to having inappropriate levels of enjoyment over seeing the rift between Celestia and Luna, probably the first one they've had like this since Luna was restored to her normal self by the Mane Six at the beginning of the series. It's notable, I think, that for Luna this is happening on multiple levels simultaneously. On the one hoof, she's taking her sister to task for her major political misstep, but at the same time she's also rebuking Celestia for doing wrong by her (Luna's) beloved. For her, this is personal and professional at the same time, and given that Luna is the more passionate of the two sisters (or at least, more willing to show her passion) it's quite the sight.
Silver's idea of relating the events as being justified in that he was having an out-of-control surge of dangerous magic is a good idea for blunting the worst of the political consequences, but I wonder how much damage it will repair. After all, Luna very cogently noted that any statement he made right now would seem forced, and it is well-known that he and Luna are in a "warm relationship" as well. Add in to that that it's been a day or two, and there were surely quite a few witnesses (after all, the chapter-before-last noted that several ponies were watching the professor dress down Silver, but there were only four ponies injured) that are telling the story over and over, and I have to wonder just how much Silver's narrative will be believed. Also, he seems intent on donating that money, which might help to ameliorate feelings of reprisal, but won't help with the fear that will probably be directed towards him for at least a little while (and he was just starting to be accepted after what happened with Tirek, too).
But still, I continue to appreciate the character drama, here. I still can't get over how you were able to draw Celestia into this without compromising her character - this is such good stuff.
"Silver Change" forever!
5761860 I'm pleasantly tickled by your approval. You throw the magnifying glass over some things I just kinda typed without thinking too hard about it. My 'see, don't write' method of writing does that a lot, adding to the ability to be surprised when someone points out something in your story.
Actually... you know what blunder Celestia did, I think?
It started way back when she created a diplomatic position for a country that doesn't exist. Normally, I assume, a diplomat knowingly violating a significant law would be followed by the country they are from leaning on the other country, threatening to hurt relations if that diplomat was not brought to justice in their own country. But no country means that even that avenue for repercussions is gone. They can't send him away in good conscience, they can't lean on the country to have him face the law... nothing like that. Because there is no country. She can literally do nothing about it.
Really, no matter how accidental it was, Silver committed a superbly reckless action that really requires some kind of repercussions. I presume he is going to do something about that, but... yeah.
5762534 It is easier for all that Silver is generally moral and if given a fitting scolding and penance, he'll likely go along, despite being unable to be forced. He wants to be liked and useful.
A vary interesting chapter.
I am still weighting for the hammer to fall I am more certain the professor is going to show his true colors in the end.
Harts Fire
You said he was angry. He first instinct was to fireball the professor, and he just barely caught himself before he launched it. There would have been no fireball to lose his grip on if he hadn't briefly considered using it.
5773108 His first reaction was to make a fireball, which was wrong, which he admits, which others call him out on, repeatedly. It's not really a question.
You know, if I was put into Equestria and turned into a unicorn, I would probably do everything in my power to learn World of Warcraft mage style spells. And they think a fireball is bad...
Come to think of it, how would they react to a WoW warlock? Somehow, I doubt the ability to to summon demons, no matter the purpose or the intent, would be looked upon favorably...
6195796 No! Bad unicorn! Bad!
Power reading isn't good for your eyes, but 200000 words in a couple of hours is nice.
6810472 You are truly a soldier.
So... Is Discord fucking with him? Cause he's having one hell of a bad luck.
Did Celestia.... had she.... found the typos? and got mad?
6810538 I am doing the same!
Also
wow just wow
Celestia was being such an unforgivable ass in this chapter towards both Silver and her sister.
Silver
Oh yes, you were paralysed without warning, and threatened so you charged a spell, trying not to use it, but the fucker knocked you out so it detonated, harming several bystanders.
Luna
Blatantly reminding her of Nightmare Moon, holding it against her and chastising her on what was basically a demonic possession.
The Nightmare took advantage of Luna's sorrow, it wasn't a direct product of her jealousy.
7295113
Exactly, The writer seems to consistently drop the when writing Celestia. This is not how a mare with more than a thousand years of political experience reacts.
10769305
Ponies in this ‘verse, I’ve noticed, seem to be somewhat consistently prone to impulsiveness and overreacting. So I suppose it may make sense that not even Celestia is immune...that said, I’ll admit that even as “just” a general species tendency it does get grating over time. Right as of this writing I feel a bit unsure if my motivation to keep reading will even last me through the whole story; I’ll probably slog through a few more chapters soon at the very least, but all of the about 290 more left? Eh...
11688495
Past me was a curious author.