When Celestia had finished reading the four ponies' minds, she took a moment to collect her thoughts. When she finally spoke again, her voice had a sharp tone to it.
"It seems that there are quite a few things you were reluctant to tell your friends about, Redfield." Redfield cringed. His two companions gave him questioning glances.
"The creature you hold so many accusations against, it did not appear by chance... it fled from your custody." Redfield seemed like he was about to give a reply, but Celestia continued, "And it fled after the foal had gone missing no less."
One of the other two ponies watched Redfield's face with unbelieving eyes, "Redfield, what is the meaning of this?"
"It doesn't matter!" he barked back, "It was a danger to our society and had to be killed at all costs!"
"He was innocent!" Celestia's voice thundered through the large hall, making the guards present shudder in their armor. Celestia continued, her eyes filled with anger, "You used him like an animal, beat him, locked him in a cage, forbid him to speak!" her voice got more quiet again, though it still carried its icy tone, "And when he fled, you were scared. Scared he would one day come back for you."
There was a pause as Celestia watched Redfield's face in silence and the other two ponies looked at him in shock, "You used the missing foal for your own purposes, thinking if you could convince the others that he killed it, they would hunt him down for you... and they believed you. But your plan failed... they caught him alive."
She turned to the bound unicorn, "And when they called for her to interrogate him you hoped he would die or go mad during the process, so they would never find out." the unicorn hung her head and a tear escaped her eye.
Celestia held her head up and addressed the four of them with a stern voice, "You have committed many crimes. Slavery, deceit..." her eyes passed over the unicorn, "Torture, forbidden magic..." she turned to Redfield again, "And you tried to deceive me as well, because she knew what you had done."
"Your majesty, I..." Redfield started to croak.
"You came here for justice, and in my name there will be justice. All of you will be judged for your actions. Guards!" the guards in the hall stepped forward, "Redfield and his companions are to be placed under arrest until their trial." she turned to the unicorn again, "As for her... Remove her chains and see to it that she receives medical attention and food." the unicorn looked up at Celestia, "I will not have one of my subjects suffer like this, even if they are under arrest." the unicorn's eyes widened a bit in realization, "You will be judged for your actions as well, Trixie Lulamoon."
Trixie only nodded quietly and hung her head, another sob escaping her throat as tears ran down her cheeks.
Celestia watched in silence as they were lead out of the hall. She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself, the things she had seen in their minds, especially the things Trixie had seen in the gnoll's memories... She had hoped that something like this could be averted, but now there was no way back. She needed to write a letter.
There was going to be a trial.
---
"What do you mean he's going to get me a living manticore?" Purple Haze shouted at Spike, "Have the both of you gone insane?"
"He said he wanted to do something romantic for Heart and Hooves Day!" the little dragon wailed, "How was I supposed to know he'd do something like this?!"
"Heart and Hooves Day? How did he even find out about that?" Spike put on a guilty grin. Purple Haze gave a groan, "Why do I even... Wait. Are you actually writing this down, Twilight?"
Twilight blushed, "Well it does open an interesting insight into the courtship rituals of the gnolls. I wonder if there's a ritual for presenting the manticore as well, or if they have a mating dance..."
Purple Haze blinked her eyes, "Courtship rituals? Mating dance?!"
"Well... you are a nice couple, and the girls and I have been waiting for you two to... you know, take the next step..." Twilight mumbled before picking up her head again, "When you do... could you note down how you practice your intimacies? It would be helpful for the research on inter-species relationships."
"You mean they're going to kiss?" Spike asked with shock.
Purple Haze just stared at them, "You're unbelievable... both of you."
"But didn't you get him a present for Heart and Hooves Day at the market?" Twilight replied with a blush.
This time, it was Purple Haze's turn to blush, "I..."
She was interrupted by a loud belch from Spike, "How many letters is she sending today? We haven't even written our apology letter yet!"
"You didn't send anything else, did you?" Twilight snatched the scroll from Spike with an accusing glare.
He held up his arms in defense, "I swear, we didn't!"
Purple Haze shook her head, "I've gotta go find Scar before he does something crazy..." she started to head for the door, "Courtship rituals... Mating dance... I don't belive it! It was probably Dash or Fluttershy who came up with this idea! I..."
"Wait!" Twilight called out to her.
"What?" Purple Haze turned around, she didn't like the tone Twilight's voice had taken.
"Read this..." Twilight handed Purple Haze the scroll with a clear sign of worry on her face.
Purple Haze raised an eyebrow but read the letter nonetheless. As she read the words, all signs of emotion started to leave her face. When she had finished it, she simply stood there, motionless. Then, she read it again and again, letting every single word sink in.
"What's it say?" Spike asked with concern.
"They're here..." Purple Haze whispered, "They're actually here... We need to find Scar right now!"
These short chapters....Gah!
I 'gah' as well, but it is awesome.
Next episode: Scar rips some limbs.
DunDunDuuun... 100k words
Edit: and over 800 comments
I called it! GO TRIXIE!
Needs more. Reading is like eating food. No matter how much I eat, I can never get enough.
the vindictive bastard in me "well Tag time to go to work" the rest of me "the maze could use some more statues"
I can already see Purple Haze going ape on them and it is glorious!
2422703 Most of me: Time to remove their bones!!
2422703 The phrase, "Tag! You're it!", has never really been as frightening to me as it is now.
Well, at least they can arrive in style. How many individuals do you know that would show to a trial riding a manticore with a talking hammer?
Why is the first reaction always a toss-up between death and statue?
You are not very nice ponies, any of you!
2422893 Meh, I'm thinkin' prison time or banishment. Or perhaps just the punishment being left to Scar and him letting them off the hook (with the exception of Redfield, who is apparently guilty of numerous other incredibly grievous crimes).
2422880 ...look this sir tag look again this is Purple Haze we're riding on manticore
I have the feeling that the wacky Hearts and Hooves day shenanigans plot is going to end up subsumed by the dramatic trial plot.
I'm torn because I liked the shenanigans so this saddens me but at the same time I'm very interested in where the trial plot is going.
I'm gonna say it before anyone else does.
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Let the gnoll decide!!
Curb-stomp 'em Scar!
2422893
I'm more interested in what punishment Trixie will get-- the rest of those ponies will most likely end up banished, and imprisoned to where they were banished to. Community service seems a bit weak. Maybe she'll be ordered to be Scar's personal
slaveindentured assistant for a few months? I can easily envision RD talking Scar into making Trixie do the most menial of tasks or something equally embarrassing... and Scar, being his somewhat innocent self, would probably have no idea why RD's doing this or why it's so funny to the pegasi. (I know Scar would put his foot down before being talked into ordering Trixie to do something completely degrading for the sake of being mean to her)2426852
It's one thing to ignore the wrongness of an action, and quite another to be deceived about it. I'm truly hoping the gentlecolts accompanying Redfield get a (relatively) light sentencing. It's very clear that Redfield is either a figure of authority to them, or at least convincingly presented himself as one. When confronted with evidence (however fabricated it may have been) that Scar was a threat either to Equestria, or at least to their community, they reasonably believed Redfield when he told them what they had to do. There was no discernible reason for them to question the morality of what they were doing, so they didn't.
Redfield, by comparison, knew exactly what he was doing. While possible that he believed he was doing right, he had no evidence to suggest that Scar was a threat, and simply acted as if he was. He then used the disappearance of that filly, a tragedy in and of itself, in order to further a completely unrelated agenda. He either held authority in the community, or presented himself as someone who held authority (whereby the community gave him authority), which he abused for his own gain. He knew the filly disappeared before Scar escaped, and then directed resources away from finding her to chase after Scar. Whatever the other ponies did, what Redfield did is undeniably evil.
Finally, we have Trixie. While she did engage in activity that was not moral or ethical, she did so under the reasonable belief that it was necessary, as presented to her by Redfield. The contrast is that, once she obtained evidence that Redfield was either mistaken or lying (and reasonably established that his mind could not be changed), she took it upon herself to do what was right, even at great risk to herself. Trixie doesn't need to be punished under the Equestrian legal code: Had she done what was right from the start and reported what was happening instead of getting involved, Redfield & chums would not have beaten her, debased her, and locked her in chains to be dragged to Canterlot. She's already been punished for her involvement.
2427266
Speaking of "reasonable belief", Trixie was told Scar had taken an innocent foal and was acting under reasonable belief that looking into his memories was the only way to discover the foal's fate.
Since Celestia did the same thing with even less justification putting Trixie on trial is going to be rather silly. Unless, of course, Celestia is intending to manipulate the results so she can sentence Trixie to joining Scar's team since then it's a fridge nightmare.
April 14, 2013
Found this story with a picture of Applebloom and what appears to be a large werewolf like creature as a cover image.
Decided to read.
Chapter 1: interesting, will continue on to chapter 2
Chapter 2: haha, this is pretty good actually. Short but interesting.
Chapter 3: Ok, I'm following this. It's long but the short chapters make it very fun to read.
Chapter ???: Ok, I f***ing love this
April 15, 2013
Chapter 57: Yes! New day, new gnoll story chapter
Chapter 83: MOOOOOOAAAAARRRR!!!!!! Plus, you are a genius!
FUN!
100K words in five hours. Just a bit of light reading.
Give Refield to the manticore!
2503230
That's nice.
I did it in 1 and a half.
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A pathetically hypocritical thing to say, considering what she has just so casually done to them. Due process? Who needs that? I'm the fucking princess, bitches.
2624396 I wish there was a thumbs up emoticon to put after the first one.
2429626 She is referring to the Alicorn Amulet episode.