Airship Mauled

by Darkonshadows

Chapter Twelve, Courtroom Chimera: Objection questionable.

Author's Note:

The plot thickens... add some parmesan to it, it tastes great apparently.

-Maries-

“No.” Shining said while looking down, the circle turned green. So he was telling the truth. We’ll give him a pass on that. The last of our questions asked, the unicorn stallion looked upset and had answered them all honestly and had proven himself to have gone quite a bit beyond his normal authority his current rank would give him.

“No more questions your honor, it’s up to your judgement.” We were delegating the punishment to Celestia.

“Shining, we’ll be talking later.” The sun mover, Celestia, would surely punish him as necessary. We didn’t care, we just wanted it known that Shining had gone above his rank as guard by ordering an attack on an equestrian civilian who was not taking any aggressive actions and hadn’t until the end of the parade. “Take your seat at the prosecution table. Will the prosecution proceed to tell us what accusation we should focus on next?”

“I would like to address the illegal operation of a parade, fireworks and the use of mind controlling magic.” We could immediately throw out two of those accusations, not that Pace Set would be happy when we did.

“May we present evidence that the parade and the fireworks were entirely legal?” It didn’t surprise us in the slightest that Jade went through all the proper channels.

“Yes, but first I want Ms. La Perm sitting in the witness stand.” He would have been better off if he asked us to sit in the witness stand, Jade could lie by telling the complete truth. A little more than a year ago we would have not thought such a thing possible. “I also request the right to ask her questions before the evidence is presented your honor.”

“Granted.” Nodding to the prosecutor, Celestia turned to us and waited.

We watched as Jade got up and moved to sit in the witness stand, Pace Set got up and took to the floor.

“Why, if there was a parade scheduled, did no one know it was going to happen?” Pace Set started pacing around, he stalked like a predator. We didn’t know what he was trying to prove. “Also did you get a permit for a parade and the fireworks used during it? Do you even realize what could have happened if a pegasus pony had been hit by those fireworks.”

“I have an idea as to what can happen to a pegasus if they had been directly hit by the fireworks, but that’s not what’s important. The skies were cleared that night and the weather team knew to not fly above a certain height, they also kept the airspace clear for the fireworks being put on display during the parade. Not a single pegasus was in danger.” While Jade was speaking, she stopped to look at the green glow that popped up every now and then. “We obtained a signed permit for the parade from a member of the royal guard named Rally Cry, scheduled a marching band to wait at a predefined location and the route was readily approved ahead of time. The reason nobody else knew of it other than those who were involved in it, was because the parade was not highly advertised.”

“Why didn’t you advertise the parade?” As if everyone didn’t know the answer to the Mr. Set, we knew why she did it personally.

“Well I wanted it to be a surprise.” A green glow appeared. Knowing Jade as well as we do, we’d say it was a complete surprise for the royal guards that got caught up in it.

“Who was this surprise meant for?” Okay now Pace was asking the right kind of questions, we thought we’d have go through this fighting an entirely unarmed opponent.

“The ponies in Canterlot at the time, they were all quite surprised.” At least Jade didn’t need our assistance at the moment as the circle glowed green with her honesty, she was handling her own quite well. 'Ponies in Canterlot' included the royal guards. “As for the rubber chicken, it really wasn’t important to any of this.”

The circle glowed red, then Jade sent us a wink. We smiled and winked back, she had just told the truth and it came out as a lie. It was of importance, just not to the trial or the current case. It was important to Jade who was part of this Trial.

“What rubber chicken?” Oh how that caused Pace to be thoroughly interested and his ears were immediately at attention.

“If you don’t know about it, then it’s not that important.” Again the circle glowed red and Jade smiled smugly, our prospective mate was quite good. “I’m sorry I brought it up if no one has yet to discover what was done with it.”

“No I think it is important. What is it about the rubber chicken that you don’t want me to know about?” Oh this would be interesting, Mr. Set’s thoughts had been derailed by Jade’s humorous insertion into the trial.

“Nothing...” That caused a red glow, then Jade said something that confused everyone in the courtroom. “I did nothing with a rubber chicken.”

The circle now glowed green when seconds before it had been red.

“What… but… how… Celestia, I would like to test the ‘Circle of the Concise’ again!” It was a minute later that Pace took the witness stand and looked towards us.

“Okay ask me a question that I have to answer truthfully.” This should be interesting at the very least Pace. What could we, as collective minds, bring against him?

“Do you take bribes?” A simple yes or no question like that shouldn’t trip him up.

“No, I have never taken a bribe and likely never will.” The circle glowed green, so Pace was not a sleazy prosecutor as far as we knew. “Now ask me a question that I have to lie to.”

“Are you happy with your life at this moment?” Giving us a flat look, Pace rolled his eyes and answered.

“Oh yes, I’m perfectly fine with what life is throwing at me at the moment and am not at all jaded by all of the shenanigans going on in this courtroom. Why meeting a chimera that’s an attorney in the courtroom is among one of the most enjoyable things that I’ve ever experienced!” The circle turned red and we didn’t appreciate his sarcasm. He sent Jade an inquisitive narrowed eyed stare. “Okay, its working… you may present your evidence now.”

Getting up from the witness stand, he made his way back to his seat while staring at Jade. We coughed and picked up our copies of the documents in question and delivered them to both Celestia and Mr. Set.

“This is evidence of the parade plans, the fireworks display launch sites and zoning to keep pegasus ponies from getting hurt. You’ll find it all in order.” If I, Maria, didn’t see to it personally, then Mara or Marie would have surely remembered for us if we had forgotten to think of something.

We hadn’t forgotten the evidence and we as Maries were currently on a roll. One might even say we were enjoying our job too much, even knowing we were not being paid to do this.

“It checks out.” It seemed Celestia didn’t seem the least bit surprised that we had legal documents to have a parade, parade route, fireworks and fireworks launching locations all laid out. Along with the permit allowing us to do as such. “The parade and fireworks were legally used at the correct times they were said to be. Even if not advertised, all precautions were apparently taken and the parade went on as scheduled.”

“Yes, but what doesn’t check out is the possible use of mind controlling magic that lead the various guard members into taking part in the parade.” This one was a thing that Pace had some merit in pushing, Jade hadn’t prepared for that. “I would like to focus on that issue now.”

“Granted, defense you will be given a few minutes recess to discuss your strategy and then put forth whether Jaded is guilty or not of the particular crime of mind controlling the royal guards into joining the parade.” After saying that Celestia banged her gavel. “A portion of the crime of disturbing the peace in Canterlot will be rescinded from the point Shining Armor started chasing Jaded La Perm to the parade taking place until its end. The parade was legally formed through all the proper channels, though it was not advertised and did not need to be. Disturbing the peace cannot have happened within that given time frame, unless Shining Armor wishes to be charged for causing the disturbance of peace among the royal guard himself. As you said Mr. Set, he’s not on trial and will be seen to at a later date.”

We looked to Shining and he wilted a bit, Marie and Mara were beginning to feel a bit sorry for him. Even I felt a bit sorry for him. The least we can do is convince Jade to help Shining with the courting of his prospective mate Cadence. He does not seem like a grand warrior and would thus probably need a little nudge to prove his worth to such a strong female as the one who creates lasting mating bonds.

“I agree to that your honor, it’s what happened after the parade that may still count as disturbing the peace.” It seemed Pace Set had firmed his resolve to continue the trial.

We immediately turned to Jade to start working up a defense, this would be tough. We had to convince Celestia, the jury and the prosecutor that mind control was not used.

“How do we do this Maries? This isn’t one of the things I had considered being brought up on when I did my pied piper act.” Our prospective mates were not perfect, but we still wanted Jade and Fizzle anyways. They were wonderful together and we wished to be wonderful with them.

Jade told us the story of the pied piper, how an Abyssinian fluted all the rats out of infesting a town and then never went hungry because they forced the rats into captivity. It resulted in a lucrative rat farm where the Abyssinian ate happily for the rest of their days.

“Well we’d have to convince them that you’re music does not entrance that mind, but the body. Yours as much as anyone else's.” Marie started, but couldn’t seem to figure out where to go from there.

“What if we convinced them that Jade could not do what she did without sympathetic magic?” My saber toothed sister Mara queried curiously. “Then it wouldn’t be of the mind that the magic controls.”

“How would we swing it though sisters? We don’t want Jade to be guilty of this crime, even if it isn’t dark magic and we could prove it did not control the mind. They could still claim that it illegally controlled the body.” I was approaching their two thoughts cautiously, as is my nature, while thinking of my own solution. “This is a tough situation… unless… Jade, do you trust us?”

“Our sister has just had a very intriguing thought.” Mara turned to me with a smirk. “It should do for our purposes.”

“Yes, I find that to be an effective strategy.” After hearing my thoughts, Marie concluded that my idea was sound. Our snake sister leaned over to start hissing in Jade’s ear and her eyes went wide. Jade smiled brightly. “Do you approve prospective mate Jade?”

“Of course… it’ll be quite interesting to see what Pace Set has to say about it.” After looking thoughtful for a moment Jade smiled and gave us all a kiss on the cheek. “He can’t deny that I had a right to do it if we go that direction, do it Maria!”

“Your honor, we’re ready to push forward on the allegations of mind controlling royal guards.” I intoned as the speaker for our job as the attorney in this case. We, Bloody Maries esquire, will defend our prospective mate to the best of our abilities.

“Okay, court is now back in session.” The gavel was slammed by Celestia’s magic. “How do you respond to the accusation of Jade performing mind control magic on the various related military units that night?”

“First off I would like to state, that the magic my client used does not in fact control the mind. It does however control the body, but only under a very specific set of circumstances. In this case I would like to put forward that my client is innocent by way of self-defense against multiple highly aggressive ponies.” We heard Pace Set scoff in our direction at this, well he wouldn’t be scoffing for long.

“How did your client control the bodies of my ponies and how would it count as self-defense?” In answer to that question Celestia, we were going to need Jade’s things.

“For her to force a body to march, she needs several requirements. One she has to have a wind instrument, two she has to have a griffon mask, three she has to be marching and four she has to be playing prior mentioned instrument while marching. We can give you a demonstration of the effects if you are to trust my client with the two required items.” We saw that neither Celestia nor Pace could see how this counted as self-defense. “It is self-defense because of one last requirement, you have to enter the range in which the magic will take effect. Every pony caught up in the parade tried to assault my client physically with their hooves and not with their magic, under that threat she’d be free of the accusation as they moved close enough to her of their own free will.”

“That… is very annoying.” Stated Pace after a minute. “Fine, let’s examine the effects in the courtroom.”

One test of the marching mask and the ocarina later by Jade, Celestia came to a verdict about the accusation. So far we hadn’t needed the jury to actually do anything if the issue was clear cut and judge Celestia could call it without a doubt.

“I find the defendant not guilty of not using mind control magic, she did use body controlling magic that has a limited range and in self-defense.” None of the jury spoke up against the verdict Celestia just laid out, we were proud of ourselves. “She cannot attack violently while playing the music instrument and marching, she can only delay an inevitable beating. Next accusation.”

“… I will skip fighting with lethal intent for now, I wish to get to the accusation that Jaded La Perm took party to the theft of the airship The Gilded Buttress and was part of a conspiracy to commit grand theft.” Here Pace paused and pointed to the doors opening into the courtroom. “To that end, I sent a summons for Mr. Billion Karats to make an appearance in the courtroom as it was his ship that was stolen.”

-Jade-

I could already see Celestia smiling deviously.

“I hope to end this swiftly.” A unicorn stallion with gold colored fur and blonde hair came into the courtroom, he was wearing a fancy coat, top hat and monocle. He even had a mustache that screamed fancy.“This young cur is so far beneath me, she’s not even worth being called dirt.”

Oh yes, I definitely hit a jackpot here...

This guy was going down and hard!

Comments

[MadHadder]

Billion Karats is his name, making billion karat airships that endanger the livelyhood of ponies is his game.

[MadHadder]

He also sounds like your way above average royal rich snob.

[MadHadder]

For those of you that don't know, karats are the units in which gold is measured. (I'm saying this cuz I found this out in the second Kingsmen movie a few months ago.

[Oreon]

Billion Karats' about to be renamed Notevenone Karats

[FridayPie]

8984792

Actually it should be spelled carat if there is "one billion". There cannot be more than 24 karat.One billion karat would be something like 800000% pure.
Carat is weight unit used for precious stones and metals in jewelry. It is equal to 200 milligrams.
The term karat related to measure fineness of metal through how many parts of 24 is present in alloy. E.g. pure gold got fineness 24K. Many countries use decimal fineness, e.g. 75% gold would be stamped as 750, not 18K. Latter is primarily used in UK, USA and related countries.

[Shadowshame]

The purrpurrtrator will be revealed next time on courtroom chimera

[The Scarlett Mare]

“What… but… how… Celestia, I would like to test the ‘Circle of the Concise’ again!” It was a minute later that Pace took the witness stand and looked towards us.

*Cackles madly*