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// Preparation: Tallying Up 
// Story: The Little Pony Legend: The Redeemers 
// by eric-emanwu 
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Preparation: Tallying up.

Lin Beifong was massaging her head. It was almost day one, and she already was unsure about this process. True, it’d been years since most of these beings had caused trouble, but she didn’t want to take any chances. And unlike the Princesses of Friendship, she wasn’t about to stake the safety of Republic City or the world on “the magic of friendship”.

Still, she looked out into the police foyer, and quickly saw a line of people awaiting her. Clearly Princess Korra had gotten everyone prepared for this day. Gathering a list together of all the people she was interested in bringing out for this special team. Lin squared her jaw, and made her way outside. In her presence, everyone seemed a bit less upright, though to their credit, none of them flinched as she looked at them all. Eventually, she held out one of her hands to Spike who was standing nearby. Quickly, he handed her a paper. After making sure it wasn’t 2 blocks long like some of the papers he carried around sometimes, Lin began speaking.

“Alright, listen up all of you. You’re all here because Princess Korra wants you all to start living beyond paying your debts to the world. If it were me, I’d leave you all locked up in a cage without a key!” (several of them did flinch at that, or gave her a dirty look) “But I’m not. So I’m going to go over the candidates here today for the...um, there doesn’t seem to be a specific name written here.”

“Yeah, I was trying to come up with something fitting for this group, but I couldn’t come up with a good nickname like in the old days” Spike said sheepishly. “Guess I’m getting a bit rusty. I figured maybe they could come up with the name before long.”

Lin sighed. “Step forward when your name is called. Now, Zaheer!”

A man with a slight beard stepped forward in line, looking serene. “Zaheer, despite you serving out several years already, your crimes are still quite serious thanks to being the former leader of your branch of the Red Lotus. Manslaughter, assault, fraud, theft, breaking and entering, attempted murder in the first degree, attempted genocide, attempted regicide, and a long list of other crimes that would normally leave you behind bars where you belong.” Zaheer flinched a bit at that, but he remained calm looking. “Not to mention your actions lead to the loss of priceless royal treasure for the Earth Kingdom. We still haven’t recovered many of those items. According to our estimates, you need to serve an equivalent of over 270 years of prison time to make up for all of this. But if you act in charity, honesty, kindness, loyalty, joy and love, you will have an option for early parole. Do you accept these terms?”

Zaheer squared himself and spoke firmly, “I do.” 

“Starlight Glimmer.” The anthro unicorn stepped forward, dressed in a purple airbender garb. “I must say Starlight, I am quite surprised you didn’t take Princess Twilight’s full pardon several years ago.”

Starlight shrugged at that. “I wasn’t ready.”

Lin gave a rue smile at that. “Guess you’re having second thoughts now, huh?” Starlight though just gave a light chuckle. “Charges of manipulating the space-time continuum, creating a cult of “equality”, causing death and misery in alternate timelines, lying, illegal trespass on royal grounds, stealing cutie marks, repressing special talents, and assorted other magic related crimes in mind control and emotional manipulation.” Starlight felt the smile on her face strain a bit like she was in her equality village again, but she kept her eyes straight ahead. “Your service to equestria and to the air nation is on record, but you volunteered to do more to make up for all this and to support your friends. According to our calculations, and thanks to good words from many of your former victims, you only need to serve 100 or so years of prison time, but if you act in charity, honesty, kindness, loyalty, joy and love, you will have an option for early parole. Do you accept these terms?”

Starlight frowned, but she steadied herself nonetheless. “I do.”

Lin also raised an eyebrow looking over her information. “You want to be able to rent an apartment with your husband?”

Starlight at this bristled, and seemed to be using all her airbending training to keep her head level. “Yes. What’s it to you?”

“Nothing, nothing. Just, it’s nice to see that you already have plans.” Starlight seemed to calm down after that, but still had a less than pleased look on her face.

“Sir Varrick Gladstone!” Almost everyone in line turned their heads at that. But yes, there he was, the eccentric millionaire, standing in what looked like custom metalbending armor but wearing a large cowboy hat. Despite everything, Lin suddenly looked very smug. “Well Sir Gladstone, here to finally admit guilt for everything?” 

Varrick, despite everything, instead of being intimidated, merely gave a slight smile. “If it means being able to put my past behind me, then yes. Yes I am! Although,” and he gave a slight smirk “you still can’t fully link me to everything, since some of these charges were never formalized.”

Lin gave a bit of a sour look at that. “Well after consulting with the nations, they’re formalized now!” Varrick gave a bit of jump at that, but kept his cool. “Attempted kidnapping of the Republic City President..”

“Alleged! Alleged attempted” then Varrick forcefully shut his mouth with his hands. “Sorry. Force of habit.”

Lin still had a sour look on her face at the interruption, but seemed to calm down. “Additional charges include smuggling, theft of the Sato Industries inventory (Varrick actually looked quite a bit ashamed at that), Illegal weapons manufacturing, false advertising with the Apple Family, war profiteering, torture of spirits and colluding with a known rogue state. According to our records, due to your work in the defense of Republic City, many of these crimes you were given immunity from. However, we do have on record that these various charges would be a heavy accumulation of life sentences if all accounted for. Especially the war profiteering. All told, about 150 years worth. That being said, if you chose to work with this group to the end, we have agreed to begin discussions with Gladstone International for government contracts, and to seal the majority of your records. But you must act as you have in the past: with honesty, kindness, joy, patience and no tricks during this period! Am I clear!??”

Varrick gave an uneasy laugh, but simply replied, “Whatever you say.”

“Zhu Li!” The woman next to Varrick then stepped forward, looking quite emotional compared with how others knew her in the past. “Accessory to Conspiracy, betraying your friend, illegal weapons manufacturing, illegal handling of spirits, collaboration with a rogue state, industrial sabotage.” Zhu Li looked remarkably embarrassed. “All told, some of those charges were excused due to your service as well, but if you’re joining up on this train, that’s about 100 years worth of crimes by national estimates. However, if you help with this, I promise that you’ll never have to worry about this ever again.”

Zhu Li gave a humble, “Thank you.”

Then Lin’s attention was drawn to a note connecting the previous 2 names together. “What’s the ‘special request’ in your files?”

At this Varrick gave a sly grin that made Lin suddenly want to punch his face. “Well, unlike many of the people here today, Zhu Li and I actually have some pretty substantial assets that we’d have to give up if we both did this thing full time. As such, I requested that only one of us can leave Republic City at any time. I mean, until we have some means of...communicating from anywhere at any time, Zhu Li and I can’t just leave Gladstone Industries in anyone’s hands for who knows how long.”

Lin gave a sour look at that, but then got a dark smile that actually seemed to wilt Varrick slightly. “Actually, while this is technically volunteer work, you should see the contracts we drew up for you and Zhu Li on this matter. It was drawn up by some legal experts from Cabbage Corp (Varrick scoffed at that), and according to our research, since you could easily turn your work into profit opportunity, we all thought it would be better for you two to separate your economic gains from this public service. Place your work into what they call ‘a blind trust’ in order to keep your economic interests separate from helping the public good.” Varrick was about to cry out in protest, but Lin continued. “That is, unless you’d rather pay some rather hefty reparations instead. I’m sure your company could handle payments for something like that.”

Varrick was about to speak out against this, when Zhu Li held his arm. “Sweetie, it’s alright. We’ve weaseled our way out of so much the last 6 years. Shouldn’t we do something straight forward for a change?” Varrick turned to look at her. “Come on. Let’s do the thing, and come right back to where we started.”

Varrick paused, but then gave a sigh. “Yes dear. I suppose you’re right.”

Nodding, Lin looked at the next name on the list. “Sonata Dusk.” The first of the former sirens made her way forward, looking surprisingly perky. “You are charged with sabotaging a music competition, assault with water, emotional manipulation and assisting in a government coup.”

Sonata got a bit of a blank look after hearing all that. “Uh, what?”

Lin rubbed her head. Of course she’d have to deal with this kind of idiocy. “I forgot. You’re the dull one.” Sonata’s face contorted slightly at that, but she said nothing. “Anyway, to make things simple for you, since you helped so much during the crisis several years ago, your sentence has been substantially reduced. In fact, the rulers of Equestria were insistent on the lightest possible sentencing.” Sonata gave a small grin at that. “As such, you only need to finish serving out about 40 years worth of work, and you’ll be free to go wherever you wish. Understood?”

Sonata gave a bright smile. “Yes Mam!” However, then she gave a sad look at the 2 others beside her.

“Adagio and Aria.” And so Sonata’s sisters stepped forward. Both of them looked like a mess. It seemed that despite their break at Camp Everfree, going back into the royal mines still had clearly dirtied and rumpled them up bad. “Charges include emotional abuse of victims, manipulating the emotions of others, attempted overthrow of seapony government, wrongful imprisonment of others, harming spirits, attempted fratricide, accessory to a government coup, attempted murder and manslaughter, mass property damage, magical mind control, 2nd degree murder.” Both Adagio and Aria looked quite sad at all this, though Adagio for her part had a strong glare as well. “Several of your past crimes were...remedied by your prolonged banishment, and Queen Leilani has stated that you’ve done some good work in the royal mines. That being said, for the many offenses, the nations have a minimum sentencing of 300 years for the two of you to work off.” Both girls jaws promptly dropped.

“Seriously??” Both girls were quite taken aback that the cry came not from them but from Sonata. “What makes these 2 so much worse than Zaheer? Why do they have to work almost twice as hard for their mistakes? My sisters might’ve been power hungry beings, but how are they any worse than the anarchist over there!?” The two sirens took a step back, suddenly feeling afraid. They’d never seen their sister like this before.

Lin gave Sonata one of her signature fierce glares. Unlike the last time she beheld it though, Sonata held her glance, though she was visibly sweating in the process. “It’s the murder charge. Regardless of intent, the big difference between your sisters and the airbender over there is that the leaders felt that the actual destruction of life by your sisters was of far greater pain than the potential lost life Zaheer had.”

“But then why should they be treated any harsher? Shouldn’t their crimes be less offensable since they didn’t plunge an entire kingdom into chaos!?”

“It’s not that simple. This took weeks of discussion to even agree on the lengths, and believe me, Caretaker Wu was pushing for longer things for both of these people.”

“It’s not right!”

Lin finally gave an exasperated sigh. “You wanna complain about this? Take it up with the Princesses of Friendship. They set this up.”

Sonata growled. “Fine. I will.” Then they all stepped back, Lin rubbing her head in exasperation. She then looked at the next name on the list.

“Sunset Shimmer.” The orange anthro unicorn was wearing her old black leather jacket as she stepped forward. Or at least she tried to before Lin cut her off. “Wait, wait. Sunset Shimmer? What are you doing here? Didn’t Celestia pardon you?”

Sunset smiled slightly at this. “Yes. She did. However, I’m here to volunteer as team warden. I will help keep everypony and everyone in line in case anyone tries to backslide. Since Princess Korra and Princess Twilight are always going to be busy, they sent me with this.” And she held up a signed piece of paper that Lin took and read aloud.

“As princesses of friendship, I, Twilight Sparkle and I, Princess Avatar Korra, hereby authorize Starlight Glimmer and Sunset Shimmer to act as our official representatives for supervision. Sunset in particular has the friendship journal in case she has any stories to tell, and will be bringing her research project along as well. All in authority are to hereby accept this as a sign of the avatar’s will.” Lin got a puzzled face after reading that, but then shrugged. “Eh. It’s your life.”

Sunset merely gave a firm nod, the fire still inside her eyes.

“P’Li.” The combustion bender stepped forward, a surprisingly happy smile on her face. “Assault, conspiracy, sowing discord and distress in the former earth kingdom, Manslaughter, and theft of the chest of harmony.” Lin though actually was smiling back at P’Li. “After all these years, it’s hard to believe I almost killed you one time.”

“Only because I tried first!” laughed P’Li. The others in line were highly surprised by this open display of affection, but kept their thoughts to themselves so as not to get any more Lin glares.

“Anyways P’Li, despite your many problems, you’ve been a model prisoner the last 6 years, and helped out with several crisis. As such, the nations generally agree that you only need about 130 years to work off and you can begin your schooling.”

P’Li gave a small bow. “Thank you Lin.”

“And finally, Kuvira.” The ex-dictator stepped forward last. Unlike so many of the other people though, several of the other members (Varrick, Zaheer, Zhu Li) turned to give her a less than pleased gaze. Lin for her part was giving a neutral but serious look. “Kuvira, I’m not going to lie to you. Su pleaded with me to go easy on you when helping to determine your length of punishment, but the facts don’t lie. You have perhaps the longest list of crimes on here. These include a government coup, abuse of power, attempted murder by means of magical poisoning, coercion of local leadership, accessory to sound manipulation, War Crimes which include disrupting the harmony of the spirits, illegal imprisonment of opposition, attempted murder, destruction of private property, firing without declaring war and 2nd degree murder.”

Kuvira kept her head high, giving a stoic glance back. “I understand.”

Lin looked at her list again. “While you have been a thorough prisoner with working in the fields as part of your sentencing, yours is still the longest sentence here.” Lin then looked up, a stern look on her face. “375 years of service. But, if the right circumstances arise, and you act in harmony, compassion and humility, then we’ll release you. Do you understand?”

Kuvira’s eyes briefly wandered over to Starlight and Sunset, who were giving Kuvira looks of utmost compassion and sadness. Seeing them, Kuvira finally gave a light smile of her own, before seriously replying, “Yes. Whatever it takes.”

Lin then stepped back. “Alright you grunts! You’ll be transferred to Sunset Shimmer’s authority in 3 days time as she readies your first task. Until then, you’ll be staying in the barracks over to your rear.” Lin then barked, “DISMISSED!”