"You call that a fair offer? My client isn't a serial killer."
"No, but he is viewed as a foal batterer in the eyes of his victim and the Princesses, especially the two that were hospitaliz-"
"One. One was hospitalized."
"...I still believe thirty years to life would be easier than seeing what the Princesses will decree."
Silver Lining budded in and added "I was only trying to protect our three Princesses."
Perhaps three minutes had passed, certainly not five. Inside on of the SVU's interrogation rooms, Legal Justice was going back to back in negotiations with Lean, Silver Lining's defense attorney. Nopony could figure out why he came in as a representative, for he was one of Equestria's most successful and higher-ranked lawyers, but all they were informed was a mysterious 'benefactor' that hired him.
But regardless, he was giving Legal uneasy nerves. Between the two facing each other in a court room countless times, they were evenly tied with who succeeded in their respective cases. She saw Lean carry himself with great confidence in his position against her, even after knowing of what exactly took place. It wasn't until Silver Lining, even after being warned to say little if not nothing, spoke up that it was helpful to her.
"Your client seems out of date on recent events, Lean," she said. "Last I checked there are technically six, if you include the adopted and born daughters of the Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Princess Twilight Sparkle."
Lean spoke back with an eased voice. "Forgetting of a recently born foal is a mistake, and of course there's my client's claim of Nightmare Moon taking control of the Elements of Harmony. There's a possibility for that."
"Unlikely," she deadpanned.
"It still doesn't change thirty to life in a dungeon can be seen as excessive. Ten years in a correctional facility, one you or the Princesses can decide yourself, with early release in five if my client shows good behavior."
"That's a slap on the wrist for attacking royalty, Lean. Thirty to life, or face the Princesses. That's my only offer; nothing more, nothing less."
"Mr. Lining, your thoughts?"
His attorney looking at him, the unicorn pointed his eyes towards him. "Neither." was his only response.
A smug grin crossed Legal's face as she told Lean "Looks like your client will be a stubborn brick for you to break, Lean." She then gathered her documents on the table and added "Guess we'll see each other in court."
Lean sighed annoyingly. "Very well. A waste of time it will be, but I'm sure the proper punishment will be determined given the circumstances." He began to get up on his hooves. "Come now, Silver, I will have you taken back to your ho-"
"Not so fast," Olivia spoke up. She remained in a corner of the room, keeping herself silent unless she had a place to speak. "Your client remains here for another night. His victims will be here to identify him in a lineup tomorrow and I don't want far out of my sight until they arrive."
"Come now, Detective," Lean said, "you have nothing to worry about. My client will return in the morning, and you can retrieve him yourself whenever you wish. What's wrong with him leaving-"
"Sweet Celestia you're absent minded," the detective snapped back. "He does not leave. Not now, not tomorrow, not until his arraignment after the lineup. I thought a lawyer with your time would remember those laws."
Lean frowned crossly. He knew he wasn't a favorite attorney to some officers, especially to those in Special Victims. "I'm well aware of rules and regulations, Detective. At least allow my client to assure his home will be taken care of until he may return."
Olivia frowned herself as she turned around to open the door. "The suspect still has his one letter to write. He may write to a friend or relative, but only under close supervision," she said, and then turned her head to call out into the Unit. "I need a Guard for escort; unicorn please."
A white unicorn guard stepped up from around the corner and to the open door. "Yes, ma'am?"
"Please take this suspect to an open desk for his one letter. Monitor his actions and bring the letter to me for mailing when he's done, and then place him in a solidary holding cell."
"Yes, ma'am," and with that the guard took Silver Lining out of interrogations. As Lean took his briefcase and set it on his back, he walked out without as much of a word to Olivia or Legal, but just an unpleased glare. After his exit, the two mares looked at one-another.
"Looks like you're in for quite the trip. He's not going to go lightly on this," said the detective.
Legal nodded. "I know. I can handle him in a courtroom, but how he got to be the defense attorney is beyond me. Who thought of hiring Silver Lining a lawyer in the first place? Lean's records don’t exactly make him cheap to afford."
"Doesn't matter," Olivia added. "Once Nyx arrives tomorrow we'll have the last thing we need to give the case a good start. That and the suspect's statements will keep him behind bars from now until after his sentencing."
"Sure..."
It was clear that Legal wasn't as confident in her tone as Olivia sounded with hers. She was walking through the viewing room that looked into the interrogation room with a look of focus to work on the case more. However, personal ties and thoughts of Nightmare Moon's reign soured her just enough to set Olivia uneased.
"Legal, you have to keep your personal feelings in check about this," she said sternly. "I don't need to tell anypony that you'll be biased over your client."
The attorney turned herself around and said back "I thought we were over this already. I will defend the Sparkle family as any other clients and get them the justice they deserve. What happened with Noble Knight will be kept in the back of my mind." With that, she turned around and trotted away, leaving a concerned pegasus standing in her place.
“Don’t get too wrapped up ‘bout it, Liv. She knows where the line is.”
Olivia turned her head to face the desk of one of her fellow detectives. Her co-worker was a stallion a couple years her senior, but having served in the Illegal Magic division of Equestria’s law enforcement prior to a transfer opening to SVU. He was an earth pony with a light chocolate brown coat, a faded goatee and buzzcut mane, and a cutie mark with a nightstick cutting through the opening of a gold horseshoe. Sitting on his desk was a nameplate that read ‘Det. Final Level’ on a gold plate, but those he worked with just called him Fin.
“I know,” she said to him, “but she’s never come face to face with the former Mare of the Moon before now. I’m just concerned how she handles that encounter tomorrow.”
“How she should, I hope,” Fin commented.
“Confident as always,” Olivia said dryly, causing him to grin and chuckle. She decided to shift the subject as she saw Lean depart from the SVU offices, not saying a word to anypony. “Any ideas how our suspect could bag our worst chance to incarceration?”
The stallion detective only shook his head negatively. “Nothin’. Only info I could get out of anyone was that some mysterious benefactor offered to cover his legal fees until the case closes.” His eyes showed an annoyed glare as he added “Supposedly Lean signed a confidentiality deal so that his paycheck’s name doesn’t get dropped.”
Olivia raised a hoof to rub the temples between her eyes. Circumstances such as that were just one of the detectives’ worst nightmares to deal with for any given case. There was somepony who had something to say about the matter, but rather than face it like a grown pony they choose to hide in the shadows and out of public eye. It was yet another annoyance to be added on with her day’s stresses, but it wasn’t entirely over yet.
“Detective Benson.” Both she and Fin turned to see the white unicorn guard who had Silver Lining in custody, and an open scroll in his magical tow. “The stallion has said he’s finished his letter, ma’am.”
“Thank you,” she replied. He levitated the letter over to her, and she grabbed hold of it with her left wing. There was no sending address on it, nor was there some kind of greeting to whoever was the recipient. All there was to read was the message, so she went ahead and read it aloud.
“Stuck in Canterlot Jail until the trial starts. Take things over for me until I can get back in full swing and I’ll make sure to repay you when this is over.”
/)∞(\
Peace and quiet. The last thing anypony taking care of four little fillies would expect is a time of peace and quiet. If something had broken, noises were beyond volume control or some tsunami of madness would crash down, the source of it would usually come from four certain Cutie Mark Crusaders. It was no surprise for anything they'd do to have near disastrous results, but even the Princess of Friendship had her limits.
An impromptu Twilight Time had caused enough damage that involved Shining Armor using a shield spell to protect his family from obliteration and Tails having to use his Super Saiyan power to blast a hole through the crystalline castle's front doors. After chasing down a magically fueled abomination and reverting it back to one of Spike's comic books, the fillies' sleepover had officially gone out of hoof. Fortunately for Twilight, Cosmo had helped her stay calm and practice Cadance's special breathing technique for composure, but it didn't save the fillies from a lecture from Twilight Velvet.
And that's how most of the CMC learned where Nyx's mother got her anxiety and temper.
To keep things under control, Twilight still allowed the sleepover to take place, but on one condition: it had to be tamed to near silence. She was fortunate her mother was there, for she made the suggestion of looking through the photo album Twilight had in her library. Velvet never had a good chance to look through it herself, so she offered to be the one to show all the fillies the album and see what pictures her daughter had collected.
"Oh, here's a funny one. Twilight told us about this after Shining and Cadance's wedding," Velvet said, pointing a hoof at one of the photos. Nyx and Scootaloo looked over from her left and Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle to her right, with a witnessing Tails, Cosmo and Rainbow Dash behind the five sitting on the living room couch. "Apparently, she beat Rainbow Dash and Applejack in a running competition during the first fall she was in Ponyville. She came in fifth as the two came in dead last. Apparently, they took competition too far to end up having a... oh, what did Rainbow Dash say? Oh, yes! Having an 'egghead' win a race over them."
"Second to last," Rainbow Dash stated, trying to save herself from embarrassment from four chuckling fillies. Even Tails had to try to keep himself under control as he thought about his fast-paced friend back home. "AJ and I figured that out after our second run through the forest."
"You mean when your competitive spirit ignored what Pinkie Pie and Spike told you?" Twilight asked, her eyebrow arched with a smirk on her lips. Her friend just huffed and looked away, causing her to sound off a light laugh. She always found it cute how stubborn Rainbow Dash could be at times to keep up her pride.
She then realized what she was thinking of.
Velvet skipped over a couple pages, stopping at one photo from just before a certain draconequus was a hoofful. "This was from when the first Grand Galloping Gala the girls ever went to. You should have seen your mother, Nyx. She surprised us with a visit the next morning, tattered up just like here, and told us the whole story." Her face then became cold. "Your grandfather never wanted to get involved in such things, so he and I have never gone to one before."
"Why not?" Nyx asked.
"I was never interested," Night Light said, his eyes locked on one of Twilight's books. "Your grandmother and I have been to plenty of banquets and events hosted by her publishers, there was no need to attend. Sometimes we had another banquet to attend, or something was going on with Twilight and Shining Armor, or one of us was too busy with work to go."
"That and your grandfather doesn't like staying a stiff in public for too long. He wouldn't be able to let his mane down and enjoy himself," Velvet whispered to Nyx, but not keeping the CMC out of earshot. "Deep down inside him is a party animal like your mother can be." Her magic flipped a couple pages further into the album, showing a familiar lavender pony dancing around in her birthday dress at Fancy Pants's garden party.
The fillies erupted with laughter as Night Light just tried to cover his face turning red with his book and a cough of slight annoyance. Twilight paid no mind to it, only rolling her eyes as she was used to her dance skills being teased about from time to time. All she cared about was seeing Nyx happy, regardless of how, and her daughter was happy. With family and friends surrounding her, it would be hard for Nyx not to be happy.
When the laughter quieted down, Tails took notice of a picture on the bottom right corner of the right page. "What's that from, a play?" he asked, pointing one of his fingers at the picture.
"Yeah," Rainbow Dash said, "that's from our first Hearth's Warming Eve performance in Canterlot. It's considered one of the best plays ever put on stage."
"I bet it was from you playing Commander Hurricane, Rainbow Dash," Scootaloo said to her idol.
"Most likely," boasted the cyan mare, giving the pegasus filly a playful nuggy. "Thanks, Squirt."
"Oh, Hearth's Warming. That's right," said Tails. He began to recall some of the holiday-related traditions he learned about Equestria from Twilight and the others. "Hearth's Warming is to here as what Christmas is to our worlds and many others."
"You mean you celebrate Hearth's Warming where you're from, too?" Nyx asked.
"Well, in many ways yes, but it's called Christmas," Cosmo explained. "It’s a joyous time of year when our family and friends get together and enjoy various traditions. Both holidays are similar with singing carols, joyous music, giving gifts to loved ones...
"Come to think of it, they also share a similar history, but Christmas is mainly based around..." Cosmo stopped as she saw Nyx craning her head forward, practically as if she was a giraffe. Her eyes were widened and her hunger for knowledge was in full view. Cosmo knew of this look, and feared that she would take up too much focus from the photo album, knowing that Nyx would ask question after question. "I'll tell you all about it another time. Why don't we see what pictures are on the next page-"
"What was your first Christmas like?" Nyx managed to squeeze out a question before Cosmo could close the subject for another time.
"Our first Christmas was... eventful," Tails laughed. "We ended up going to another world where there was trouble on Christmas Eve. Some villains from Kim and Ron's dimension got their hands on the Chaos Emeralds, so we learned about Christmas while battling."
"That's a pretty normal Christmas for us," Cosmo added, both of whom began to laugh together, even if they didn't exactly like that truth.
Before Nyx could get another question out, Velvet intervened and got the focus put back on the photo album. She did so by turning a few more pages that led up to two pages of very different events. On one side, there were four photos of everypony at Cadance and Shining Armor's wedding, including one of the then six members of Twilight's family that Velvet called one of her favorite pictures of all pictures. There was also another photo of the Mane 6 and the newlyweds together, bringing out a couple comments from Rainbow and Twilight after Sweetie Bloom mentioned how beautiful everypony looked.
"Yeah, I know how to make a good picture. Twilight looked pretty good herself."
"Well you're not that bad looking yourself, even if you practically blew the dress Rarity made you right off when you did your Sonic Rainboom."
Both mares immediately went silent and turned red at what they just said. Perhaps, in their minds, that such comments weren't needed to describe one-another, but sometimes anyone could say anything. How close to truth that was lied in the ears of the beholder, and where Twilight began to ask herself why she said what she did, Rainbow felt worse for letting out words that she would save for flirting.
Not that she would ever flirt. She wasn't some kind of flirting filly-fooling pegasus after all.
But the four CMC paid no mind to it for more than a few seconds. Instead they looked at the photos on the second page that began Nyx's timeline in the Sparkle family. It started with a picture of everypony that took part in the play they put on depicting how Celestia and Luna reunited after a thousand years of the latter's banishment as Nightmare Moon. The one on the bottom right was from the Learn & Play Day, the four fillies united with first place ribbons from their tug-of-war competition and their prizes of choice.
The next page turned were very different memories. Jumping right over Nyx's reign as Nightmare Moon, it started with the 'thank-you' party for Nyx after she saved Ponyville from the Everfree Invasion. A few pictures later, there was one of Twilight with Nyx to her left and Spike to the right, herself holding the official document of Nyx's legal adoption. It was one of Twilight's favorites, considering it was taken the day after she came back from Canterlot with the documents officiated. Velvet did make one comment about the photo that no one could forget.
"You know, I questioned this picture very much when I first saw it," she said. The words managed to break in and get Nyx in her heart at how she knew that her extended family did question Twilight's decision to adopt her. "But seeing my family since then, I was never happier to be wrong. Especially to one of my favorite two granddaughters."
"Wait," Apple Bloom said, "you only have two granddaughters, don't ya?"
"Yes," Velvet replied, "but that doesn't mean she isn't one of my favorites."
"Ooookay," Scootaloo said, and the focused her eyes back down on the pictures. She immediately spotted one of the family's most 'interesting' moments following the Crusaders’ attempt to help bring a better Hearth's Warming to Shining and Cadance. It was the Sparkle family in Cadance's hospital room, not too long after her pregnancy was announced. "I remember that day. Who knew putting a princess in a hospital gets you all those weeks of being grounded."
"I know," Sweetie Belle added, groaning at the memory of her own punishment from that mishap. "I never want to spend Winter Wrap-Up working what I did ever again."
Cadance found this wrongfully funny to herself, trying her best to hide a cracking smile behind her hoof. She knew what the fillies meant to do, and she never was upset with them, especially after learning of Discord's 'involvement' with the mistletoe. She was intentionally a victim of a plan gone wrong, but she was glad it ended the way it did as it helped her and Shining Armor.
"Now, now, let's not be upset over an accident," Velvet told the fillies. "Here, let me show you another picture." Using her magic to turn the pages, she found some of the more recent ones placed in the album. It was of the trip everybody took to the Crystal Empire for the Equestria Games. There were several pictures, all showing those of the various groups that were there for the Games from all different dimensions.
But the one Velvet was looking for, one of her new favorites, was from the last day of the trip. It was from that morning before going out to tour the Empire in the royal nursery, and it was an important moment for Velvet. It was the first full family picture since Skyla was born, sans Celestia and Luna. She began to tell why this one was truly special to her, unknowingly that she was going to push boredom on a few fillies began to let out yawns.
/)∞(\
In the confines of his cell, Silver Lining laid in his bunk still awake. He was a little tired, but not enough for him to get some sleep as his eyes gazed out his iron-barred window. It wasn't the biggest window, just open enough to allow the rays of the moonlit night enter his cell, providing him what little light the room had. Luna did indeed provide another blissful night to Equestria, the moon emitting a grand glow as the stars twinkled around it. It was the kind of night that ponies would enjoy soothingly as most slumbered and some living the late-night lifestyle.
Silver did neither of those. All he thought about was what the next few days had to offer: his self-claimed injustice. Nightmare Moon would pick him in tomorrow's criminal lineup, and then he'd be presented before the corrupted Princesses for the start of his trial. Then the trial would take place, and they'd most likely find him guilty for his crime against royalty. That's when his case, and his hired attorney, would be put into action before the eyes of Equestria.
Months traveling around the nation would prepare him for this. This was the ultimate opportunity for him to tell his fellow ponies - to tell the world - of the dangers Nightmare Moon and Twilight Sparkle will cause. He would present his cause before the court and have them bring the proper criminal to justice for endangering ponykind. The only thing needed was the filly to-
"Silver. Silver Lining!"
The unicorn's ears pricked up at the sound of a fairly loud whisper. The volume, easily getting his attention, wasn't quite quiet enough to keep him on alert if any of the guards down the corridor heard it as well. He got up from his bunk and walked to the window, stretching his head up as close as his mouth could reach.
"I see you got the letter. Now watch your volume out there. You're a decibel away from getting caught," Silver snapped.
The voice on the other side hmphed. "Is that a way to treat the one who's trying to keep your flank in one piece? You're the big name in Canterlot right now, but not the way we'd prefer it."
"That's no surprise to me," replied Silver. "However I am surprised you didn't get your attorney to me sooner than he showed up. Considering your connections in the Court-"
"I got you a lawyer, did I not?" snapped the voice on the other side. "You wouldn't even have your traveling or rallying funds if not for me, so don't be telling anypony what to do or how to do it!"
The unicorn behind bars said back "Then watch the volume out there. Any louder and the guards will catch you, and you'll have a hard time explaining yourself for this." He waited until the other pony showed to be silent, and then went on speaking.
"Now look, we're in a good setup right now. The defense attorney isn't offering a deal to accept, and the court will most likely not allow the Princesses preside in a trial because of bias for that filly. That means there will be a judge to preside over it and we can milk this as long as it takes for all of Equestria to stay in the loop. The media will be all over this worse than those reporters that caused the Hearth's Warming catastrophe a couple years ago. I'll preach our minds out to everypony, and we'll make sure Nightmare Moon does no more harm, and the Princesses and Elements of Harmony will fall with her for their foolishness."
"Fine," said the outside pony, "just don't screw this up. I want to see that filly and her mother pay for insulting me and my reputation. I can't be seen during the trial, unless I'm asked by my aunts, so I won't be there to watch things."
"Rest assured, there's nothing to worry about." Silver Lining's ears perked the other direction at the sounds of a door opening down the corridor. "Somepony's coming. Be quiet and get out of here. We'll continue this another night."
Silver quickly got back to his bunk, making sure to make the lowest sound as he got back on his bunk and rolled on with his back facing out. By the time he got himself completely still, the light from the unicorn horn of a Royal Guard emitted into the cell. The Guard walked passed the cell, a quick glance inside the cell for anything out of the ordinary, and then kept going on their way.