A Long Overdue Sneak Peek. (Thank goodness this isn't a library book.) · 10:01pm Dec 10th, 2022
Hey everyone. Hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving and will have a Happy Christmas.
Now down to business.
I'm still working on Chapter 11 and ... let's just say there are parts of it that make me go: "This is why I'm (despite my name) an engineer, and not a lawyer."
But fear not. As I've said before, this chapter and story it is part of will both be finished.
So as a thank you for your patience all these months, and months, and months, here a sneak peek at the first part of Chapter 11. (Please note these scenes might be slightly altered when the actual chapter itself is posted in its entirety.)
Chapter 11. “Can I justify wicked scales and a bag of deceptive weights?”—Micah 6:11
It was the bed’s bouncing that woke Fluttershy. She snapped up into a sitting position, braced for a possible attack.
“Regal, darling. It’s just Highflyer,” said a voice nearby. Fluttershy whipped her head about in that direction to see the rainbow-maned unicorn who was both familiar and a stranger. Rarity—no, Regal Love—tipped her head toward the far end of the bed, and Fluttershy looked over there in time to see a small camo-clad blur disappearing over the side of the bed. The blur, which she recognized as Highflyer, came to a stop under the desk and reached up to hook his front hooves on its underside. His vest was open so the current pose provided an unobstructed view of his chest and stomach. Though his face was masked as usual, Fluttershy could sense the tension radiating off him.
“High?” she prodded gently. “What’s—?”
“He’s in a mood,” said Spike’s voice from above them, and Fluttershy looked up to see him lowering himself into the room on a rope. “After Discord wasn’t able to get that tattoo off him, I sent him back to the TreeHAB so Twilight could try. She couldn’t get it off either.”
Highflyer looked away with a disgusted grunt. Suddenly a large drop of ink welled up on his falcon pendant tattoo. The drop trickled down his chest to his stomach where it reformed itself into the words:
Highflyer: *Exasperated grunt*
The masked stallion looked down and bared his teeth at the words. Then he noticed how the two mares and the dragon were all watching him apprehensively. He let out a resigned sigh—which the ink on his stomach dutifully recorded much to his annoyance—and muttered, “Get on with it.”
They all moved to join him under the desk.
“Is anypony there?” Regal Love asked, addressing Highflyer’s chest. He twitched, squirmed, and grimaced as the words on his stomach morphed first into her question, then into several responses in the affirmative from the ponies at the TreeHAB.
“Skywishes, how’s Bonfire doing?” Fluttershy asked. “Are you making sure she gets fed, and is staying warm, and—?”
Skywishes: “I promised you I would, didn’t I?”
Fluttershy felt her face flush. As much as she had wanted to see Discord, she had also been reluctant to leave Bonfire in the other pony’s care. After all, Skywishes would have thrown the little one out of the TreeHAB if Fluttershy hadn’t begged her not to. And Skywishes had also made it clear she’d be ready to sacrifice Bonfire if it would mean helping her fellow ponies.
Skywishes: “She’s the same as usual. Troubled, fitful sleep whenever she gets exhausted enough; and seems to regard everyone and everything as a potential threat when awake. And I’m starting to think she might have a permanent limp in her front leg if we can ever get that splint off it. But other than that, nothing has changed with her since you left.”
Fluttershy felt simultaneously relieved that Bonfire’s situation hadn’t gotten worse, and disappointed that it hadn’t improved.
Twilight: “It’s true, Fluttershy. But what’s going on over there? You mentioned a while back that you were filling Discord in on things, but we didn’t find out much beyond that.”
Regal Love let out a faint nervous laugh. “There’s actually quite a bit to share.” And she proceeded to fill them in on what had happened since she and Wisteria had first left the TreeHAB on this endeavor. Fluttershy let her friend do the talking, wondering if Regal Love would share her confession about Discord with the other ponies, and not sure if she would prefer that or to tell them herself.
“And you’re not going to believe this,” Regal Love whisper-shouted. “But the prosecutor is none other than Tequila Mockingbird herself!”
Applejack: “What makes you so sure it’s Tequila Mockingbird herself and not some changeling posing as her?”
“Oh.” Regal Love seemed to deflate slightly at this idea. “Oh, that’s true. I suppose I was just so stunned at the idea of facing her, that it didn’t even occur to me that she might be a fake.” She paused to consider this. “I’m not really sure if that would be better or worse than facing the actual lawyer...”
Skywishes: “Well, regardless of whether she’s a pony or a changeling, it seems her current goal is to prove Discord guilty, while your current one is to prove him innocent.”
Twilight: “True, and the law does say ‘Innocent until proven guilty’...”
“But judging by what we’ve seen in the papers, everypony seems to believe he’s already been proven guilty.” Regal Love concluded with a sigh.
Screwjob: “Yeah, somehow you’ve got to get them away from that mindset of he’s a cold-blooded murderer, and back into the old mindset that his MO is making it rain marshmallows, playing mix-and-match with the flora and fauna, and causing everypony’s toast to land buttered-side up.”
Highflyer snorted. “I don’t think even he can manage that last one.”
Twilight: “It might help if we could get him in on this conversation.”
Discord’s elation had worn off to be replaced by anxiety as the minutes ticked by with no sign of his lawyer or her assistant. Had something gone wrong? Had they been discovered? Dare he risk trying to contact anyone through his tattoos with the guards watching his every move?
While he was still deep in these troubling thoughts, the door suddenly opened, revealing Regal Love and Wisteria, the latter with a thick folder clutched in one front leg.
“We’re back again, officers,” Regal Love said brightly. I’ve had time to review the case and need to discuss it with my client.”
Once again it took some coaxing but finally the guards left. The two mares hurried to the front of the cage and Regal Love quickly cast the spell that would allow them to talk without being overheard.
“Well,” said Discord. “How about we pick up right where we left off when we were so rudely interrupted last—”
Wisteria raised a hoof to halt him, rocking back on her haunches in the process due to the folder currently clutched in her other hoof. “Before we do that, we need to borrow another one of your tattoos.”
The draconequus raised his eyebrows at this. “Why?”
“So we can stay in touch with the rest of the group. Right now all we’ve got is that moth on a piece of paper at the TreeHAB and the one that’s, uh, buried itself in Highflyer’s chest. We can’t keep Highflyer around with us, and even if he went back to the TreeHAB and Twilight sent the paper here to us, it would leave Spike without a way to communicate with us.”
“Ah, say no more.” The draconequus straightened up and peeled a moth tattoo off his neck. As the moth’s wings vibrated excitedly between his fingers, he studied the glowing bars surrounding his cell. “There’s a chance this thing might not be able to squeeze through these bars without setting off the alarm.”
“I’ve thought of that,” said Wisteria, removing a piece of paper from the folder. “So I’m going to try slipping this underneath the bars.” She slid the piece of paper across the floor, but the instant its edge passed under the bars, a piercing alarm shrilled. The moth tattoo shot from between Discord’s fingers and splatted itself into a smear at the very edge of the paper just before the guards burst into the room, ready for battle. Apparently Regal Love’s earlier sound-blocking spell didn’t extend to the alarm.
She quickly flashed said spell away and covered this action by once again acting startled. “Oh, you’ve got to stop bursting in on us like that!” she scolded the guards but they ignored her.
“Get away from there!” a unicorn guard barked at Wisteria, then used his magic to haul her away from the cell before she could even attempt to obey. She just barely managed to snatch up the paper as she was yanked backward.
“What were you doing?!” the guard demanded. “We told you to stay back from that cell!”
Wisteria cowered under the guards’ collective glares, folding the paper in her hooves over and over as if in nervous reflex, but in reality hoping to hide its new inky contents. “I-I know you did. I didn’t mean to disobey, but I accidentally dropped this paper and it went fluttering up against the cell bars, setting the alarm off. I didn’t mean for that to happen, I swear I didn’t. I’m really, really sorry.”
“Yes, we both are terribly sorry about the false alarm.” Regal Love joined in. “It won’t happen again, but I really do need to discuss the case with my client.”
The guards looked suspiciously at the prisoner who glared back at them, at the cowed assistant who avoided their gazes, and at the lawyer who faced them with the tiniest of hopeful encouraging smiles. Finally the guard who seemed to be unofficially in charge nodded and signaled to the others to leave the room again.
“I don’t think we want to risk setting that alarm off again,” said Regal Love once she’d put the secrecy spell back in place. She turned to Wisteria. “Does the letter work?”
“Let me see.” Wisteria unfolded the paper and whispered to it, “Is anypony there?”
A moment later Spike and Twilight’s responses in the affirmative appeared on the paper, and a moth darted down Discord’s neck to form the same words along his forearm.
“Well, darlings,” said Regal Love, addressing both the paper, and the pony and draconequus currently in the room. “We might not have very long to discuss this case, so we better—”
“Wait a minute,” the draconequus interrupted. “First things first. You left me hanging on several questions last time. For starters, did you get the pieces of Amethyst’s horn back?”
Wisteria was nonplussed by this sudden tangent but before she could respond, new words were appearing on the paper.
Spike: “No, by the time we were able to check the restroom any pieces of her horn that might have been left there were gone. And we’re also not sure what happened with that note she wanted us to leave for the security guard. We dropped it where he’d likely find it, but we had to hop on the train to follow you before we could find out if he actually found it and did anything with it.”
At this, Discord abruptly turned to Wisteria. “By the way, why are you disguised as an earth-pony?”
She looked uncomfortable. “I ... uh ... I didn’t really have a choice. I had to because ... well...”
When he cocked a shaggy eyebrow expectantly, she looked at the floor and said in a rushed whisper, “You kind of zapped my wings off back at Foal Mountain.”
Discord’s expression immediately fell. “I’m sorry,” he murmured, reaching a hand out toward her. It halted just short of the bars, but trembled as if it were taking every ounce of willpower not to go any further, a gesture that escaped Wisteria’s downcast gaze, but not Regal Love’s, who immediately made a mental note of it.
However, his soft apology did seem to strengthen something in Wisteria because she drew a resolving breath. “We’ll deal with that after the trial. What matters now is proving your innocence.”
Discord drew his hand back to fidget with his claws. “You really think they’ll be able to kill me?”
The fact that the question lacked his usual mockery sent a chill down Wisteria’s spine. “I don’t know.” She looked up until her eyes landed on the cuffs circling his wrists. “But since they’ve found a way to block your power with those cuffs, I can’t shake the feeling that they’ve also found a way to kill you.” She paused then added, “Princess Celestia seemed to be implying it when I talked to her.”
That seemed like such a long time ago now, and she wondered not for the first time where the Sun and Moon princesses were now.
Regal Love cleared her throat for both the former partners’ attention. “About this trial. ... I don’t want to give you false hope, but I’m afraid it doesn’t look very good. I found out last night that Tequila Mockingbird is handling the prosecution.”
“I thought she was retired,” said Discord.
“Yes, she was,” said Regal Love. “But from what I read, it seems she came back especially for this case.”
“What an honor,” Discord deadpanned.
“Well, it certainly would be if she truly is—” Regal Love caught herself mid-sentence as his sarcasm registered. Then she blushed. “That is ... it was pointed out to me that whoever shows up at the trial might actually be a changeling posing as Tequila Mockingbird. But whether she’s the real Tequila Mockingbird or not, she’s there to convince the jury you’re guilty, and unfortunately her reputation alone is going to swing a lot of weight in her favor.
“Then there’s also the matter of the jury, and the fact that we don’t know how many of them could be disguised changelings...” One eyelid twitched and she swayed on the spot. “Or the judge ... or the bailiff ... or any other official for that matter.”
“Regal?” Wisteria reached out to steady her. “Do you need to lie down?”
“No,” Regal Love said faintly, putting her head down between her front legs and taking several deep breaths. Finally she recovered enough to raise her head.
“Sorry,” she breathed, “but just thinking about truly going into that courtroom not knowing who is or isn’t a disguised enemy...” She shook her head. “I’m amazed Amethyst was able to brave it as long as she did at the hospital.” Her eyes suddenly went shiny with tears. “And to think Applejack went through this all alone all those years ago, unable even to trust any of us.” Her voice broke on the last syllable, and Wisteria pulled her into a hug, giving the disguised pegasus a rare opportunity to be a shoulder-to-cry-on rather than require one.
Regal Love didn’t dissolve into an all-out crying mess, but she did shudder against her friend. “I’m not giving up on the case, but I’m just not sure where to start. None of those legal thrillers prepared me for anything quite like this.”
All this time Discord had been listening, taking in every word, and now spoke up. “Suppose...” he said, stroking his beard thoughtfully. “For the sake of argument, we were dealing with the real Tequila Mockingbird, and the jury, etc. was made up of only real ponies. How would we proceed?”
Regal Love’s head snapped up, her earlier despair suddenly pushed aside as her brain tackled this question. “Well, there would be Discovery. She would produce her witnesses, I would produce mine, and we would each cross-examine—”
“What witnesses?”
“Pardon?”
“What witnesses would you each produce?”
Regal Love hesitated a moment. “In an ideal scenario, she would produce the Cakes and Haystings, the witnesses who claimed they saw the murders of Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie...” Her professional façade seemed to crack a fraction here, but she soldiered on. “While I would produce Dinky, Amethyst, Highflyer, and possibly Screwjob to tell their side of things. Maybe even produce Derpy’s body as evidence if it were possible to safely move her...” She trailed off but Wisteria could guess what she was thinking. That was an ideal scenario, but in a far more likely scenario, bringing those ponies in to testify would be the equivalent of marching them into a potential death trap.
At that moment, Wisteria saw a sudden look of unease flash across Discord’s face. “Discord, what’s wrong?”
“We might not know the identity of most of the ponies in that courtroom, but I’d bet half my power that Ms. Mockingbird’s three star witnesses are the same changelings I ... um ... interviewed to clear up my own suspicions.”
“Are you thinking they might bring that up to make you look bad?” Wisteria asked.
He nodded, and she suddenly remembered how convincing those three changelings had been when playing the part of traumatized eyewitnesses. Now if they also decided to pass themselves off as traumatized victims...
“Couldn’t you just tell everypony what you told me? About how they were never in any actual danger. That you were just trying to scare them.”
“I could, but do you honestly think any pony on that jury—if there actually are any ponies on that jury—would believe me over them?” She was silent and he let out a short bitter laugh. “Wonderful isn’t it? I’ve just given them even more ammunition to use against me, and we can’t so much as pull the old ‘Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire’ routine on—”
“Wait a minute.” Regal Love cut in, halting him mid-rant. “Who says we can’t?”
“What do you mean?” Wisteria asked.
“What if we challenged the witnesses to take a lie-detector test? If they refuse, that might cast some doubt on their testimony. It might not be enough on its own to prove Discord’s innocence, but it might give us some extra time to build a case of reasonable doubt. Or to find a way to expose the changelings.” Regal Love seemed to be growing excited at the idea. But then that excitement promptly dampened. “Wait. There’s that whole disclosure part of the trial. We’d have to tell Tequila Mockingbird ahead of time about wanting to do the test. And if any changelings find out about it from her, they might disguise themselves as maintenance staff and tamper with any available lie-detector before we can use it.”
Suddenly a new pony joined the conversation.
Twilight: “Not if we can keep it away from them until the actual trial.”
Well, there we are for now. I'm not making any promises, but I'm going to see if I can have the chapter posted by Christmas. Until then, be blessed and thank you both for your patience and for sticking with this story.
Oh my...this just keeps getting better and better! (And by that, I mean the overall quality of the story, not the situations that the characters find themselves in. Yeah, no, they are so screwed for right now.)
Ooh, this is very good! Looking forward to this chapter!
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Thanks for the comments, guys. I'm happy to report I've completed the whole chapter and sent it to my editor. It ended up being a pretty long one (ha ha, my longest one yet actually) so I'm not sure how long the editing will take, but I will post the chapter as soon as it's ready.
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Good news, folks! I finally got Chapter 11 posted!