XXV.
Poetry In Motion
ICC Permanent Premises
Courtroom 1 Foyer
23. November, 2015
8:59 am MET
Shining Armor wheeled around the corridor like a dog searching for its own tail.
“Officer!” he muttered as soon as he broke out of his nervous loops. “Officer! Open up!”
Twilight had a hard time catching up to her brother as he flailed his way to the security door off the far end of the passageway.
She had only barely failed to get a hold of him when he jumped up from his seat in the gallery, yelping angrily when the judge had called the recess. Then he barked at the soundproof windowpane, asking it - perhaps a little bit too loudly - what the hay the idea was supposed to be. The other guests had turned around, and gave him bemused, faintly annoyed looks.
A few minutes into the recess, with the courtroom on the other side of the windowpane beginning to thin out, he slipped outside in a huff.
“What’s the holdup?” he now loudly asked the door, then following up by angrily smacking a hoof into it. “Hey!”
Twilight was so terrified that she didn’t dare to breathe a word that would have cut his tirade short. His panic-stricken fits were always catching her off-guard; it genuinely frightened her to see her older brother act like that. At that moment, he was light years away from the cool and debonnaire Shining of her childhood. He who’d always been so above it all…
And now? He could barely keep a lid on his temper - at least until somepony finally took pity on him and unlocked the door from the other side.
A bearded human head peered out.
“What is it?” it asked. “What are you making noise for?”
“I’m Captain Shining Armour, Royal Guard! I’m with the Equestrian delegation.” he breathed, frantically trying to look beyond the human head. “Where is she?”
“Who? Who is where? What do you want?” the guard snapped.
“Chrysalis!” he spat. “What is she doing?”
“She is in private deliberation with her counsel. Is something wrong?”
Shining twisted his head uneasily.
“You need to go and check. Something’s not right!”
Rather annoyed, the human cocked his eyebrows.
“I’m sorry, who are you again?”
“I’m the official adviser on prisoner security!” he snarled. “Now go look if she’s still in deliberation, then come back right away!”
Wordlessly, the human disappeared from behind the door and smacked it shut.
Something collapsed inside Shining, and he dropped onto his haunches and sunk his head with a sigh.
Twilight took the chance, laying a calming hoof on his right shoulder. He flinched slightly.
“Shining...” she whispered. “What’s the matter all of a sudden?”
“I...” he gulped, sticking his muzzle in a hoof, “I had a hunch, alright?”
As much sympathy as she had for her brother, she did feel embarrassed at his tirade. An coarse tone overrode her kind demeanor.
“You… you jumped up literally the moment she did. What gave you the idea something was off?”
“Because there was nothing to discuss!” he hissed, “The prosecutor was pounding her with the charges. She had nowhere to go. And yet, in the middle of it, she just up and left!”
“Well firstly, it was her lawyer that called for the recess.” she argued. “I met him, Shining. He is a fine human - very frank and very capable. He must have had a good reason.”
Shining laughed cruelly. “He’s a complete foal! A slave in the making.”
Twilight shortly looked up and down his anxious writhing form.
“Okay. Come, Shining. This isn’t over yet. Let’s sit back down.”
But he was adamant.
“I’m not leaving until I have confirmation.”
“Okay, what is going on with you?!” she suddenly snapped. It scared her just as much as her brother.
But he only closed his eyes. Maybe in shame.
“Do you hear me?”
Silently, his gaze returned to his sister, glazed over, clueless, forlorn. Just like they had been for the rest of the week.
He was not well, Twilight did realise that.
Back when she first ran into him in the human prison one week ago, she could only barely manage to convince him to rip himself away from his work and spend some time with her. Even when he wasn’t suffering a sporadic flight of panic or anger, his head was constantly drifting off into the clouds; ignoring, evading, escaping all the questions she had saved up for him.
How was he? How was Cadence doing when he left? Were the humans treating him well? She had only managed to get two complete answers out of him, and both consisted of the words ‘duty’, ‘danger’, and ‘Chrysalis’.
It like he was in a trance. Like there was some kind of suppressed urge commanding him to keep his mind sharpened and on constant alert.
Yet at the same time, it wasn’t like he was deathly afraid of someone, though that would have been understandable. Queen Chrysalis would have been the obvious choice, the prime choice. She was one of the only ponies to have ever caught him off his hooves, and that on the supposedly happiest day in his life.
Another possibility Twilight considered was Princess Celestia - and him obsessing over the various obligations and duties he thought he was owing her. He had always been deeply honoured by his position and had always done his job with a stalwart smirk on his face.
Of course, that meant that the Canterlot Wedding hit him harder than it would have most others. Before he departed for the human lands, he had mentioned to Twily that he was afraid he had ‘let down his princesses and his home more than enough’.
Maybe this was just his attempt to win back his Princess’ favour - to assure her that, if it came to Chrysalis, there would be no way in Tartarus that he would allow her to undermine him a second time. It was always like Shining to stride into the manticore’s den.
The was only really one problem… he never did really fall out of Princess Celestia’s favour to begin with. She was her merciful self, just like always. She had accepted his sincere apology long long ago, and declared the matter finished - an unfortunate event best to be, if not forgotten, then at least moved on from by everypony.
The only battle that was still being fought was raging in his own mind.
Perhaps his fear wasn’t reserved for any pony. It was coming from him.
“Why won’t you talk to me?” she begged, her eyes clenched in grave concern.
“You’re not like this. You've never been like this before. There must be something wrong.”
“You know what’s wrong, Twily.”
“No, I do not! Would you care to explain?” she exclaimed, Far too loudly for her own tastes.
She looked around meekly. The corridor was still completely deserted - almost everypony still holding out inside the gallery.
“And before you say anything, Shining: ‘Vigilance’ is all well and good, but this... this is getting scary.”
He nodded curtly in a futile attempt to shake her away from him.
A few more seconds of silence were interrupted when the human security guard’s pudgy face emerged back in the security door’s opening with something of an apologetic salute.
“I checked the office and talked with my foreman. Everything is okay, Captain Shining. The Queen is on her way back to the courtroom as we speak.”
Twilight’s ears perked up.
“You hear that, Shining? Now let’s go.”
With a little magical prodding, she moved her brother back towards the gallery entrance as the door was locked shut behind them.
As gently as she could, she pulled him through the door up the stairs of the courtroom’s tribune gallery.
The curtains to the courtroom proper had been lowered. The fillies and gentlecolts who had been granted a seat here - mostly Equestrian government officials and correspondents, and a select few humans huddled on the outer edges - were silently awaiting the looming continuation of the proceedings. Twilight tried hard to avert their searching gazes as she dragged her poor brother back onto his seat and perching herself on a cushion cushion.
Shining, at least partially comforted in his knowledge of the changeling queen’s whereabouts, held his - tentative - peace.
At some point, the curtains lifted again, as though the siblings were witnessing the world’s most macabre operetta.
An bailiff’s garbled yell of “All rise.” and “Vous éleves.” broke the silence. Shining was the first one standing up and at attention, in the most finicky military manner.
Magistrate Lex Fori resolutely marched into the chamber, and the two human justices trudged behind. From a door on the right side of the hall, Chrysalis was led in on a chain. There she was again. The Queen of all Changelings, in the flesh.
“Shining, look.” Twilight whispered, trying to grab his attention like a toddler’s. “There she is. Everything’s okay.”
“Could be one of her impostors, for all we know.”
“Shining.”
He winced sourly, then shook his head.
“Look at her happy face. Look at it.”
Twilight looked, and she understood immediately.
Oh, how Twilight loathed that ugly, sneering changeling gob.
Her oily hair was tied into a half-hearted ponytail, her belly and wings were tied down by an ugly brown vest, and On her nose sat that same, ridiculous-looking pair of glasses as before, probably placed on her muzzle in a futile attempt to make her look learned and prudent.
One part of Twilight almost couldn’t bear looking at her, trying to avoid the creature’s taunting gaze. But another part of her seemed dead set on rousing the changeling’s attention instead - to let her know she was there, perching up above, and watching.
It was a tempting thought.
“It is 10:15 am. The chamber is in session.” came the court usher’s announcement.
“Thanks again.” the elderly human justice Jessica Suruma said, looking up from her bundle of files. “Continuing where we left off… Mister Estermann.”
She turned to the inauspicious, bony, grey-maned lawyer who was in the process of parking a bundle of files on the desk. “Have you found the time adequately discuss the situation with your client?”
“Indeed we have, Madam President. Thank you.” he harrumphed.
“And you have given adequate thought to your ensuing course?”
“That we have, Madam President. I intend to carry out a brief examination of the prosecution’s evidence, if that would be alright.”
The evidence. Twilight leaned forward. Now, this was the part she had been looking forward to the most. The courtroom drama. The duel between two sharp legal minds on different sides of due process. The protagonists and the antagonists, locked in a twisted battle for the fate of Queen Chrysalis. While she did remind herself not to underestimate Alexander Estermann’s capabilities, her faith in the evidence that was heaved upon his client and him was much greater.
She nudged her brother with genuine excitement.
“Hey they go. Now let’s see what she’s made of.”
She thought of all the evidence of the terrible siege that destroyed the prospering metropolis of Timbucktu above the Smokey Mountains. An ancient cultural cataclysm that probably knocked back Equestria back a few generations through its loss. A catastrophe so genuinely awful that the dry, clinical analysis that was devoted to it this day could have never done it justice. But for what it was worth, it proved. It proved all. From the weathered sandstone temple brick to the rusted filly’s copper broach to the pegasus officer’s battered skeleton.
How chilling. How saddening. How humbling.
Of course, one could not name all these documents without mentioning the crown jewel among them.
Twilight had looked up to Starswirl the Bearded ever since she was a foal in the cradle. Already from deepest childhood onward, her mother would feed her the sage’s flowery, deeply profound odes, his witty, mystifying riddles and his sweet, kindhearted hymns about a young Equestria’s future. Truly, few others had done so much to make Twilight into the mare that she was today. He had been - and still was - a giant of Equestrian thought. Nopony was more prolific. Nopony was more diverse. Nopony was more creative and recondite.
And his academic papers were not half bad either. Indeed, nopony had fostered and inspired the savants and scholars of the Equestrian world like him. Back in the day, he had virtually stomped all the great schools and universities out of the ground by himself.
Granted, the treatise that he wrote on the topic of Timbucktu’s sack preceded a lot of his more legendary and influential work, but yet his devotion for the stunning and telling details did not disappoint. Even after so many centuries, his work managed to illustrate the goings-on of the day like few others.
Twilight anticipated that this first round was heading towards a rather predictable end. In some way, it wasn’t fair. Not many other seminal catastrophes could say they had the luck to be chronicled by the greatest equine mind of all times.
All the more, she wondered what on earth her dear brother was so nervous about. Could he not see that Chrysalis really did have nowhere to run?
Looking over to him, she just caught him wincing.
Banishing his torment from her thoughts for a moment, she listened into the proceeding.
“Very well, my learned friend. I yield the floor to you.”
“Thank you, Madam President.” Estermann harrumphed, and turned to the spry young human prosecutor Serafina.
Twilight couldn’t help but notice that she seemed a little ill this day, her sickly eyes opened only half-way. Had she caught a cold?
Alexander leaned into his table, holding himself upright by the very tips of his quite long talons.
“I would like to tread back quickly and ask my esteemed colleague of the prosecution to expand upon the charges and the facts.”
Tellingly, he scratched his eyebrow with a claw the moment the words ‘esteemed colleague’ passed his lips.
“What could that mean, Shining?”
Twilight knew that now was the time to all the human gestures. Perhaps, they could reveal a thing or two about their thought processes before the the words even exited their mouths…
Shining evidently couldn’t care less, though, the way he was coldly glaring into a distant, empty corner of the room, staring down some invisible enemy.
“The prosecution has presented a rather extensive case on the fate and remains of the city and the population of Timbucktu. Because of that, it was somewhat surprising that things became a whole lot less detailed as far as the Changeling side of the affair was concerned. Indeed, as far as the supplement of the prosecution goes, it appears that no physical proof of the presence of changelings in the aforementioned combat operations seems to exist. No corpses, no weaponry, no clothing, no everyday items these supposed aggressors may have carried with them into battle. Would that be a correct assessment?”
Serafina sent back a look of unmistakable antipathy.
Twilight needed no human face-reading skills to realise that. Looks as lethal as those could be found all over the animal kingdom.
Indeed, Prosecutor Serafina did not seem to have a lot of sympathy left for her counterpart in the defence. Twilight already saw that on the feast at the day of her arrival in Europe.
“My learned friend...” she grunted, “ It may be true that on the physical front, not a lot of evidence remains of the Changeling forces themselves. However, this absence of evidence in no way serves as proof for the absence of Changeling involvement.”
She snatched hold of a folder. “There are several possible explanations as to why little to none of it has survived to be presented, namely the fact that Changeling soldiers - going by contemporary recordings - generally did not carry any notable amounts of - as you suggested - weaponry, clothes or everyday items. Neither in battle, nor out. Hence, there was less of a chance of anything being dropped and remaining for excavation.”
“Were any bodies of Changelings discovered on the crime scene? After all, plenty of p… equine cadavers were exhumed in the rubble.” Estermann immediately pressed on. His eyes gleamed at the sight of an apparent thread.
“No changeling bodies were exhumed.” she sniffed, before being interrupted.
“Should it be taken as a that an enormous Changeling army took a well-sized city by storm without a single casualty, then?”
“Obviously not.” she repeated, in a much more severe tone. “I may remind my learned friend that the Changeling forces had held the field for several hours - arguably several days - on end. They would have had plenty of opportunity to remove their fallen and given them a proper burial at other locations; something that the slaughtered and penned-up population of Timbucktu had not.”
She crossed her forelegs. “Besides, I would like to remind the defence of the fundamental anatomical difference between Equestrian equines and changelings. It’s sensible to assume that decomposition takes a far larger toll on the latter than the former over a thousand-year period. Hence the absence of any excavatable bodies.”
That explanation seemed reasonable. Who knew how quickly their weird, leathery remains would fade?
“I believe my esteemed colleague meant a seven-hundred-year span.” he interrupted her anew.
“Boy,” Twilight whispered, “He does not give her a break, does he?”
“One thousand Equestrian years, my learned friend.” she smiled. “It is for those reasons that we believe that the testimonies of those victims who were there on that day supply sufficient grounds for putting the so-called Changeling Kingdom’s chief commanding officer on trial - We consider them argumentum a fortiori.”
Now Alexander sniffed.
A gesture of hesitance?
And what about Chrysalis?
She was sitting still in the back, and listening to the proceedings with her eyes shut. And probably enjoying every single minute of it.
Twilight caught Shining gazing at her. Unhealthily long.
“Very well.” Estermann continued, “It was mentioned that Changeling combatants did not carry mundane things - bits and bobs, if you will - into battle. That seems reasonable enough.”
“Oh, you artful fox.” Twilight grinned, trying to distract her brother from the changeling. “What are you building up to?”
“Am I right to assume,” the counsel meanwhile continued, “that the same cannot be said for arms and armour? Shields? Harnesses? Helmets? Blades? Spears? After all, I may remind the prosecution that, according to Equestrian archeological findings, several Timbucktuan victims were found to be lacerated by that type of weapon.”
“Actually, there is no evidence to suggest that changelings equipped armour or held weapons during that time period in the first place - even into battle.”
Resolutely, she cocked her head upright. “Not only do contemporary records detail changeling tactics to rely extensively on agility, speed, and loose formations - all of which would have been hindered by armour - but are changelings proven to possess innate magical capabilities - mostly centered around implementing damaging heat - that conventional weapons would be redundant and cumbersome.”
Demonstratively, she held her file up. “The sharp traumas were found on a distinct minority of victims’ bodies. They’re guaranteed to have mostly been dealt by weapons taken off Municipal Guard soldiers in the heat of battle. Indeed, more than ninety percent of all bodies exclusively exhibited lethal blunt and burning traumas, while less than thirty bore sharp ones. This suggests fairly well that the Changelings at Trot fought - if I may so put it - in the nude, and with bare hooves and horns.”
“Oh… she’s good” Twilight swooned, “She’s very very good.”
Of course, Twilight knew a lot of those titbits, even if she could probably never present them so convincingly in a court of law as that human prosecutor.
She was growing more and more interested in the defence’s rebuttals.
“Indeed a very unorthodox tactic for a supposed organised fighting force.”
Estermann looked down at his notes. “Can the prosecution provide any information pertaining to the composition of the alleged Changeling attacking force?”
“We have estimates of the sizes of the individual battle groups. They’re...” she checked, “five, five and six thousand. Sixteen thousand all in all.”
“What about the composition?” he repeated. “The roles? I am speaking about… reserves, flanking forces, logistical forces, civilian hosts. Has it been established what percentage of that force was composed of active, frontline combatants?”
Here, Serafina bit her lip.
“We do not have concrete data to provide. It can be assumed that the Changeling army did not operate in such… sophisticated manners.”
Twilight stole a glance back to Queen Chrysalis,who glared at the prosecutors in affront.
Estermann trudged on.
“Is it possible to organise a siege and a sack so… deviously detailed as the prosecution will have this chamber believe, without such absolutely basic components like logistics and reserves?”
He looked at Serafina challengingly, “Even… the Zulu tribes of Southern Africa, who fought with nothing more than a spear, a shield and loin cloth to their name, practiced rudimentary formations like flanking forces and reserves. If one would allow that comparison.”
She breathed in. Her sickly eyes suddenly gave the counsel an impressive glare.
“My learned friend, It does not take a lot of administrative finesse to organise a riled-up mob and direct them to advance towards a predetermined location…”
She struck out a demonstrative finger and pointed at an imaginary target, “The evidence does not point towards any highly detailed attack pattern. The waves in which these assaults took place were very… natural, for lack of a better word. Those who felt brave, fought first. Those who wished to move up and support the vanguard, did just that.”
Her claws spread in a rolling motion, “Battle cohesion was nonexistent, but fortunately for the attackers, there was very little room left for confusion. They were pointed towards the city and instructed to push forth and overwhelm whoever stood in their way, until there was nowhere left to push.”
Her claws pushed down hard on her stash of folders, squishing them slightly under her light weight. “And they did just that. The Timbucktuan defenders did achieve some limited success in pushing back this mob, but ultimately found themselves overwhelmed by a numerically superior swarm - in the most literal sense of the word ‘swarm’. And as observed, Her Royal Highness Chrysalis was constantly in sight to oversee the situation and convey the most vital of orders on location.”
She paused, and cleared her throat belligerently. “On a side note... It should be noted that even these same Zulu tribes, with their spears and their shields and their loin cloths, managed to decisively defeat an entire garrison of professionally trained British riflemen in a pitched battle - in spite any perceived lack of equipment. But I digress.”
Twilight caught Justice Suruma nudging her glasses and leaning forward.
“Before we stray off too far off topic, the judge harrumphed, "I would like to pose to the defence counsel the question if there is anything else he wishes to address this session.”
Confused, he glanced up.
“I am under the distinct impression that all that could have been said concerning this subject matter - considering the current state of evidence - has been said now.”
Estermann frowned and gritted his teeth before hiding them away under a forced smile.
“I agree wholeheartedly. Please allow me to return from my... momentary distraction and focus on my main point of contention with the narrative of the prosecution.”
He kneaded his claws and assembled his thoughts. “The primary objective of the Prosecutor has apparently been to prove that an assault on the City of Timbucktu, followed by the occupation and demolition of the same, took place. This - barring some questionable and very noticeable omissions - appears to be a reasonable assumption that is based on concrete physical evidence.”
Well… that definitely wasn’t an exaggeration.
He sniffed, “Even so, one must remember that the crux of these proceedings is to prove the culpability of my client, Her Royal Highness Chrysalis, in said attack. And while the prosecution has presented a compelling amount of evidence concerning the nature and sequence of the events, it has yet to provide definite evidence to support the thesis that Her Royal Highness played a role - much less an active role - in them.”
He instinctively grabbed the lapels of his robe. “It is at this point where the gaps in the prosecution’s narrative become positively untenable. It is customary in front of the chamber to establish - even prior to the Confirmation of the Charges - for instance, a suspect’s presence at the scene of a crime, a chain of command linking her to relevant offending units, or at the very least an allegiance to the suspected perpetrators. But here?”
He shrugged theatrically, “It begs the question on what grounds the prosecution intends to hold trial over Her Royal Highness in the first place. The evidence is so feeble that it may not warrant the confirmation of these charges - let alone positively prove that she was, in fact, the commanding officer that coordinated a military assault.”
Twilight admitted that his conviction stunned her. But he fooled her not for a second.
“Now, admittedly - and rather surprisingly - mention was actually made of Her Royal Highness - by name rather than just by title.”
He paused, and gave a smirk, “That is, by one solitary piece of evidence, out of a plethora of others.”
Looking down on his table, he causally began rearranging his documents until he had built a stack of five folders. “Three of five exhibits - among them the mobilisation order signed by Chief Strategos Virgo - made mention of a ‘Queen of Changelings’, who asserted to hold a commanding position within in the attacking force, but eschewed any further comment on her identity. All three documents - without being able to rely on other pieces of evidence that do purport to confirm the identity of Queen Chrysalis - are of no further concern to this investigation. They are - at best - circumstantial, and virtually worthless as inculpatory evidence against the suspect present.”
With that said, he shoved them to the side, so that only two were left. “Two documents actually do specify Queen Chrysalis. But one names the other as the source of this information.”
With that, he shoved the upper file to the side as well, leaving single thick folder lying on the desk before him.
“This is exhibit ‘1C’ - and it is the sole basis on which the prosecution has decided to indict Her Royal Highness for the crimes committed at Timbucktu between the 14th and the 16h of the 1st Autumn, of the year 5. It is this exhibit that ought to supply the basis for a conviction for crimes that bear the very real potential to condemn this person..." he stretched out a claw towards the queen, “...to prison for nothing short of a whole life order!”
He let that sink in for a moment. “The evidence of the crime itself runs thick, yes, but the inculpatory connection to the suspect hangs, limply and precariously, by a solitary thread.”
He swiped a claw over the ‘thread’ in question.
Twilight recognised it immediately.
“Starswirl’s treatise. Now comes to the good part!” The one that came out of Starswirl’s very own quill!
No matter what Estermann was going to say now - Twilight knew she had faith.
When was the last time a good Starswirl book had ever led anyone down?
“I want to see him try get past that one!”
“Now then.” Estermann began, “Can my esteemed colleague of the prosecution point me to the relevant passages?”
Serafina, sighing, split the massive thing open in the middle and tilted it by ninety degrees and went scouring for the relevant parts.
“I…. refer my…. learned friend to, uh… fifteen particular accounts that all, at one point or another, place the suspect in and around Timbucktu, and describe her criminal actions in particular detail. Pages 37, 40, 51, 60, 71, 96, 119, 123, 137, 145, 150, 159, 173, 178 and 189.”
“Can I ask my esteemed colleague to recite these relevant statements to the court?”
Warily, Serafina hesitated and lowered the paper.
Twilight smelled a feint, and so did she.
At this moment, Justice Suruma Jessica reared her head once more, her voice athunder.
“With all due respect for my learned friend, I believe this will not be necessary. I am fairly certain that the Counsel for the Prosecution is well aware of the contents of these passages, and so is this judge panel and - one hopes - so is the defence.”
Again, she was telling him in no uncertain terms that he should quit stalling already.
Twilight had to admit she felt the tiniest bit sorry for the pale human.
Huffing in disappointment, Estermann snatched up his version of the treatise and picked out the statements in question.
“Very well. If Madam President will allow it, I will recite one of the statements myself. It is very relevant to my query.”
Suruma pouted and took off her glasses with her claws. “You have the floor, my learned friend.”
Estermann licked his lips in anticipation.
"Now, Page 51... According to the translation, this is a paraphrasing of an encounter of Starswirl the Bearded, the author of this document, with a survivor who went by the name of… Pavo the Greengrocer, at least according to the provided translation.”
He cleared his throat and began.
“‘The third morn in the moors, I came past the gent, who rested his ginger head in a sick bay’s tent. With his flesh cleft asunder by countless raw gashes, he wailed of what now sprinkled these fields as mere ashes: Timbucktu town, the Pearl of the West, whose silver streets once the cosmos did bless. Turn back four times the world clock’s hand, you would find this trader of no decorum, maintaining a humble grocery stand, inside the Flying Forum.’”
With every couplet, the feeble-looking, spindly lawyer worked himself up into a surprisingly passionate tone. It was a strange side to behold - a defence attorney reading the prosecution’s case with such gusto.
“‘There he had heard the first bells of the war, heralding the changeling incursion near and far. Closing with haste, this pegasus flew, to gather his kin on Merchants’ Avenue. No more than five leaps through the hassle he’d passed, when he turned to see the North-Easterly rampart harass’d: thrashing the defenders, crushing the keeps, Changelings poured in with avaricious leaps… Betwixt them floated, with authority engrossed, a monarch named Chrysalis, as master of the host.’”
Then he stopped. Flapping the booklet shut weakly, he looked back up.
“Et cetera… et cetera.” he grunted. “It’s certainly a very... dramatic account, which, as far as I can tell, stretches across eight more pages. Pavo the Greengrocer claims to have been taken captive by the invaders, being maltreated by them physically and psychologically, getting immobilised by this... ‘muscilaginous brew’ and... after witnessing his family being executed by being thrown over the edge of the cloud bank with their wings fused together, he managed to escape the city only a few hours before it fell apart...”
Twilight shuddered.
Well, what point was he making?
“Firstly, I would like to note the document’s tone...” His teeth clamped together halfway though, “And how utterly, and almost laughably ill-fitting and irreverent it is, given the subject matter.”
Twilight felt the bad need to scratch her ears. She must have heard that wrong.
Crestfallen, Estermann eyed his claws on the desk,
“Whether or not one lends credence to the assertion of Changeling forces actively participating in this incident - much less assuming any role of Her Royal Highness - one must concede that the affair is a uniquely tragic and mournful one, and that it deserves to be treated with the tranquility and respect and clarity of mind that would be required for it to lend any noteworthy insight under the lens of a formal enquiry.”
Scornfully, he picked the bookled up with both claws and presented it to everyone as though they were about to see it for the first time. “This piece of… contemporaneous writing, if one may stoop low enough to grant it this honour, offers none of that. As a matter of fact, it goes out of its way to misrepresent, misconstrue and mythologise the events of the 14th and 15th - so much so, that I have to ask the earnest question of how the Prosecution imagined they could make this Chamber believe that it could as much as indicate the culpability of my client…”
Pierman, who had made the mistake of resuming her seat behind the desk, only barely managed to re-attach her jaw back to her to cut him off.
But before long, Justice Jessica did it for her.
“My learned friend...” she sang, “ I do not appreciate you drawing the professionalism of the Prosecutor into question.”
Estermann cleared his throat and pulled some ugly faces.
“Far be it away from me to question my esteemed colleague’s professionalism.”
“Yeah. Right.” Twilight huffed.
Even Serafina seemed anything but fooled.
“I apologise if this is the impression that I have left.” he continued, “No, my protest lies solely with the exhibit in question, and its… extraordinary-”
“Also, as spirited as your critique of the exhibit is, I would implore the you to remain professional and topical in your presentation. To remind you of your own words: tranquility, respect and clarity of mind are what’s needed right now.”
“Quite right. Apologies.” He sniffed, smiled and nodded, “Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that the prosecution has presented this piece of evidence in the guise of a compilation of detailed primary accounts on the events, when in actuality, it is nothing more than a single account of the author listening to the witnesses relating their experiences to him - experiences that he did not witness for himself.”
He blinked and cleared his throat, “Before I get ahead of myself, I wish to direct a question to my esteemed colleague of the Prosecution.”
Bitterly, Serafina folded her arms in anticipation.
“Does the Prosecution intend to call the author of this work, Mister Starswirl the Bearded-”
“Ser.”
That interjection came from Magistrate Lexy who, until now, had managed to remain relatively silent and composed.
“His title was Ser.”
Justice Jessica did not even bother to silence her this time.
“Apologies, Your Honour… Does the Prosecution intend to call Ser Starswirl the Bearded as a live witness?”
“What kind of a question was that supposed to be?” Twilight whispered, “Starswirl lived centuries ago!”
Serafina was in the process of wiping her nose dry.
“Ser Starswirl the Bearded was declared dead in the year 31. He is already deceased.” she repeated, just for clarity.
“Ah yes. Very well then. But certainly, the Prosecution is planning on calling the witnesses whose testimonies are featured in the work, to the stand; Pavo the Greengrocer, et alia. Is it?”
This was getting ridiculous. Was he mocking her?
“I... understand what my learned friend of the Defence wishes to accomplish.” Serafina answered, a little unexpectedly. “It goes without saying that all fifteen witnesses featured in this document have already passed away due to the extraordinarily long timespan. In light of this, the Prosecution did not intend to present any live witnesses in respects to the Timbucktu incident.”
Estermann chuckled and, tellingly, peered over to his millennia-old client.
“Perhaps my esteemed colleague would think it best to send out summons these witnesses regardless. After all, lest the deaths of all the witnesses can be confirmed, there is the responsibility to summon and let them speak for themselves.”
He was mocking Serafina!
And she did look slightly browbeaten about it.
“To put it most clearly: The deaths of all fifteen witnesses have all been confirmed. They passed away within a period of one hundred and eighty years following the events at Timbucktu.”
Estermann chuckled and shrugged innocently. “I hope my learned friend pardons my pedantry. I simply wished for clarification; For without the possibility to cross-examine these specified persons,... I’m afraid this evidence is not admissible.”
Twilight bated her breath.
Shining, strangely enough, looked almost bored.
“This piece of writing is a clear case of relata refero. It cannot be trusted to establish the truth on the matter of my client’s presence or actions.”
Serafina cleared her hoarse throat.
“As a matter of fact, it is because of the demise of the witnesses that this piece of evidence has become so important. It is the last remaining transcription of the witnesses’ recorded observations.”
“That does not make this book any less of a hearsay account, my esteemed colleague!” he interjected, “This court cannot hope to discern facts from falsities and exaggerations - perhaps... even outright lies - if not in the presence of the witnesses.”
Serafina sniffed, “If I may take an analogy from British and American Common Law, it is an almost universally accepted convention that a document of hearsay can still be admitted to establish the truth if the witnesses of the trial are... no longer available. What must be guaranteed above all is the uninterrupted chain of custody of the document. And this is largely unproblematic...”
She picked up her version of the treatise and flipped to the first page behind the cover.
Her finger tapped onto a very noticeable round crest, clearly visible even in the grimy toner of the copy.
“I direct my learned friend to page one, on which he will find imprinted a seal in red ink. When translated, it reads ‘Blessing of the Lord Chancellor of the Pegasopolian Imperial Court.’ This document has been kept in storage in the Royal Canterlot archives or the last 918 years. It was relocated during Equestrian unification from the Cloudsdale City Archives, where it spent 82 years in storage. It had been left in the possession of a military Board of Enquiry in the direct aftermath of the battle, which was held on… the 27th day of the 3rd Autumn Moon of the year 5. That was barely two months after the incident. It was submitted to this inquiry as a key piece of evidence. From start to finish since its initial presentation, this documents has found itself handled only by the proper authorities...”
Estermann silenced her with a hectic, faintly frantic wave of his claws.
“Ahem… pardon me… my esteemed colleague... Did I hear that right? There was... an inquiry that was held concerning the attacks in the very same year as the attacks? A public inquiry?”
A slight pause stumped the room.
Estermann was flabbergasted, clearly taken by that revelation by surprise.
“On whose authority was it organised?”
“It was commissioned by the Generalissimo of Pegasopolis at the time, Commander Hurricane. As I have mentioned earlier, Pegasopolis viewed the Dominion of Timbucktu as a protectorate. They considered its destruction to be a direct incursion on Pegasopolian sovereignty as well as an invocation of an ancient mutual defence treaty. For those reasons, a board of senior military officers was gathered to investigate how this attack ended up being as destructive as it was. The nature is comparable to that of a modern... Royal Commission, customary in many Commonwealth nations. The results were presented publicly.”
“And... Ser Starswirl’s treatise functioned as a piece of evidence?”
Before long, the harrowing harrumph of Justice Jessica made the defence counsel jump.
“I am sorry for interrupting my learned friend yet another time...” she apologised, “But I too would like to pose the Prosecutor a question.”
A shiver travelled down Twilight’s back. She saw Serafina shrinking back a little in anticipation.
Estermann, meanwhile, just seemed to gasp in relief as, for once, he wasn’t it.
“My learned friend, it appears to me as if this is the first time this chamber ever heard of such a board of enquiry ever convening. Have you not deemed the existence of a previous examination of the Timbucktu attacks important enough to make any mention of it in the evidence?”
She nodded.
“That is... correct. And no, I have not considered this inquiry central to the charges.”
“Why not? After all, it is an investigation into these events.”
“Its results were of a... purely declarative nature.” she explained, but with no conviction or clarity in her voice, “The more important reason was that a lot of the documentation has been lost to time. The records on the proceedings are deeply fragmented. In fact, the only truly exhaustive documentation covers the inquiry’s findings, and little more.”
Jessica tapped a finger on her desk, growing impatient.
“Did the inquiry come to any findings relevant to the present suspect’s whereabouts or actions?”
Serafina raised her head and curled her fists.
“Yes. They found a confederacy of several Changeling Tribes from the Crystal mountains responsible for the attack, and they deemed Her Royal Highness Chrysalis to be the sole military commander of the force that actively participated in the battle.”
A strange sigh of relief seemed to flush throughout the room.
“So these findings support the charges against the suspect?”
Serafina seemed strangely uneasy, her gaze switching back and forth between the the pegasus by her side and the judges.
“They do.”
“Well, my learned friend. In that case, I suggest that you submit the documents on which you based your reconstruction of this inquiry as evidence. Its relevance to this investigation is quite frankly undeniable.”
Serafina nodded. “I will submit it at the next opportunity.”
Satisfied, but nevertheless disgruntled, the justice returned the floor to Defence Counsel Estermann.
He, again, seemed far too giddy about this revelation.
‘What was going on?’ Twilight chewed over, ‘Was this day Backward Day?’
It was so damning! Too damning, in fact, for him to be so happy about!
“My learned friend.” Estermann continued, “Certainly the prosecution can confirm then that the fifteen witnesses and Ser Starswirl were heard as live witnesses at this inquiry. After all, this inquiry took place a long time before their deaths.”
Serafina ground her teeth.
“As I have previously stated, the records are severely fragmented. It cannot be confirmed nor denied that these witnesses were examined.”
She inhaled, “But trusting in the professionalism of the Pegasopolian authorities, it has to be assumed that they were, in fact, examined.”
He let out another of his knowing smirks.
“I hope my learned friend will forgive me when, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, I will act on the assumption that no witnesses were examined by the inquiry.”
He paced around on the spot as he minded the judge panel. “Even if the fact that this treatise is a mere piece of hearsay doesn’t preclude its admissibility, it nevertheless completely negates its credibility before this court. Never have the testimonies of the witnesses themselves proved more vital than here. And yet...”
He hesitated, seemingly caught off-guard by something taking place in the prosecutor’s corner.
Looking over, Twilight watched a spiky-maned pegasus stallion - the very same she had met in both the Hotel and the Cafe doggedly following Serafina around - latch onto her shoulder and pull her down so he could whisper something in her ear.
Whatever it was that he was confiding to her, it provoked a very pained - almost despairing - from the dark-skinned human.
When he was finished, Serafina straightened herself back up.
“I was just informed that the treatise is not, in fact, a piece of hearsay evidence.”
Estermann’s eyebrows jumped high.
“When Ser Starswirl wrote down the testimonies of the fifteen witnesses, he did not do so as a private citizen. He conducted an official act as an agent of the public inquiry.”
Estermann’s reaction was an almost comically sarcastic puss.
“It is for that reason that Ser Starswirl cannot be considered a mere witness to the events, but an organ of the Military Board of Enquiry that directly gathered evidence in a manner befitting the modus operandi of that kind of tribunal.”
That seemed… as though it was cobbled together very quickly.
Even Twilight had to admit it sounded pretty wobbly. Not dubious of course - no, it still seemed sincere enough.
But really? Starswirl, an agent of the Pegasopolian government?
“Well... ” Estermann sneered a reply, “This hearing certainly is full of surprise revelations. Is there evidence that can be supplied to confirm Ser Starswirl’s function?”
Again, Serafina ducked and lent the excitedly whispering pegasus next to her an ear.
“There is a certified copy of letters patent addressed to Ser Starswirl available in the Royal Archives of Canterlot. It contains an order to examine the scene and debrief as many witnesses as he could find. A separate certificate confirms that he received them shortly before he arrived at the site. It too will be submitted for the chamber’s consideration at the next opportunity.”
Estermann fell silent. His claws spontaneously began stroking his chin.
“How did Starswirl the Bearded, in his capacity as one of the most ‘renowned and industrious literary minds of his day’, find himself on the site of of a horrific battle in the first place? How much is known about his whereabouts at the time of the attacks?”
Serafina gazed down at the open treatise.
“According to his personal record, he happened to be on his way to Canterlot Castle at the time, and was residing in an inn outside the small market town of Tall Tale, about sixty-five kilometres away from the scene of the crime, when news of the attack reached the town through surviving messengers. He immediately set out towards Timbucktu on foot, in hopes of bearing witness the fighting before it died down.”
“But certainly,” he grinned, “the letters patent could not yet have reached him at this point in time.”
She shook her head.
“No, they reached him when he was already on his way. By messenger, naturally.“
Twilight saw Estermann’s forehead wrinkling up skeptically.
“Ah… So… did Ser Starswirl initially set out into a warzone to... sate his own curiosity?”
‘Oh,’ Twilight swooned on her chair. ‘You don’t know half of it.’
Serafina harrumphed.
“Starswirl the Bearded was known to earn commissions from writing essays and treatises on important events, and have them published at various royal courts throughout the Equestrian Commonwealth.”
“Does that mean to imply that Ser Starswirl played the role of… some sort of political commentator?”
Serafina scoffed.
“It would be much more appropriate to compare his work to that of a contemporary journalist. Actually, that would be a bit of an understatement because, first and foremost, he was an academic and a public intellectual. He committed to his writings in a manner that was hailed in its day for its scrupulous attention to detail and scientific accuracy. He was, for that reason, held in universally high regard by his peers.”
She raised a finger. “That includes members of the Pegasopolian Imperial Court, which goes a long way to explain why they instructed him to handle this important assignment.”
Estermann cracked an ugly smirk.
“Incidentally… Did Ser Starswirl proceed to publish the treatise, as he would have done with his other work?”
Serafina momentarily ducked and scanned her information.
“No, he did not. Not immediately, at least. After committing his observations to paper, he admitted his work as evidence at the public inquiry. He would only release them for public consumption on the 9th day of the 2nd Spring Moon, in the year 7. That’s several months after the inquiry in Cloudsdale convened.”
She forced herself to a weak smile, “As my learned friend can clearly see, personal gain can therefore be easily ruled out as a viable factor at the time of recording.”
“Indeed...”
Estermann took a closer look at the booklet.
“He mentions that he finally reached the scene of the crime as early as the 17th. That was two mere days after the fighting was over.”
He shook his head. “And yet, at this point in time, he had already been supplied with letters patent issued by a public inquiry for the purpose of a criminal investigation? Of a crime that had... only just occurred?”
She sniffed, and reacted to a nod from her pegasus companion.
Twilight wondered; He really did seem to have found out a lot of very useful information at the last moment, hadn’t he?
“News of the destruction of Timbucktu and the retreat of the Changeling forces had reached the Imperial Palace of Cloudsdale on the very same day, the 15th. Since the dispatches were delivered exclusively by pegasus throughout the Dominion, the messages could easily be carried as far as three hundred kilometers in only a few hours. And Cloudsdale was a mere ninety kilometres away from Timbucktu that time of the year - I would like to remind my learned friend of the travelling nature of these cloud cities.”
She licked one of her digits and turned a page. “Anyhow, the letters patent themselves were already issued the very next day, by imperial decree, in what could only be described as an act of exceptional legal foresight. These letters, too, reached Ser Starswirl within the day."
“Foresight...” Estermann repeated caustically, and shrugged. “I do wish sometimes that we had ad-hoc tribunals working with such great flurry here in Europe. Oh, very well. I believe it is time that I finally shift my focus back on the elephant in the room.”
He looked up, “The treatise itself, and the tone in which it is written.”
Serafina crossed her arms one more time.
“Whether or not Ser Starswirl had any prior experience in transcribing testimonies for legal purposes, it cannot be denied that he shows... no professionalism in his task whatsoever.”
Twilight’s mood soured instantly.
Estermann just scratched the corner of his mouth, “Perhaps I am wrong to speak from my own, limited experience, but back when I began my formal legal education many years ago at university, I do believe it was mentioned that it is generally ill-advised to compose such a piece of evidence as a poem!”
Serafina’s tired stare revealed that she had seen this one coming from leaps away.
“Perhaps my learned friend is in fact wrong to make this assumption. Whatever opinion one might hold of the content of the writing, one must keep in mind it is nevertheless a product of its time. In first century Equestria, most formalistic texts - especially in academic circles - were expected to adhere to a certain rhyme scheme. It was a prominent linguistic trend of its day - a sign of education and erudition. So to dismiss this writing’s information on the basis of how it’s written is quite... counter-productive.”
Estermann shook his head. “I’m afraid these so-called fashion choices are merely the tip of the iceberg.”
He tapped on the page before him with a solitary claw. ”Ser Starswirl certainly went into a lot of detail concerning individual criminal acts, but it becomes obvious very soon that he shows absolutely no restraint at which information he deems relevant and which he doesn’t. He displays no sense of understanding of a statement’s testimonial worth. He seems to sacrifice substance for some... theatrical,... almost sensationalist spins on the story.”
“Oh you uncultured-”
That, Twilight realised with much embarrassment, had just slipped out of her own mouth before her brain could follow.
It was the fact that he was speaking of Starswirl the Bearded as if he was some kind of bit… er… dime novelist that really irked her.
Before either Jessica or Serafina could interrupt Estermann, he turned to a previous page., “Allow me to direct my esteemed colleague back to Pavo the Greengrocer’s infamous account. And I quote: ‘Changelings poured in with avaricious leaps.’... Avaricious. Now, what does this word, ‘Avaricious’, mean?”
That question was rhetorical. “It means ‘To show extreme greed’. Needless to say, this is a highly subjective term for what is otherwise meant to be an objective observation of an event. So I ask you, why is it in here? Was… Starswirl the Bearded a psychic, that he would know such a thing to be true?”
“He was...” Twilight moaned through the hooves clamped tightly around her own mouth. “He probably was.”
“What other explanation is there if one wishes to treat this this as yet another perfectly valid observation? Really, this is just one of dozens - I am not exaggerating, for I counted them - dozens of argumentative statements on the author’s part - 'Murderous', 'cackle', 'ravage', 'grabby', 'baleful' - All of which do little more than showcase the amateurish and deeply lopsided nature of this entire work.”
“My learned friend, I must object!” Serafina barked. “That was clearly intended to be a reproduction of what came out of Pavo the Greengrocer’s and the other witnesses' mouths. Those are not the words of the author!”
“Yeah!” Twilight squeed along in the gallery, hopelessly swept along by the debate.
“Well, then they are the words of the witnesses. But seeing how all these terms have not as much as been isolated in captions, once again underlines the author’s - and by extension, that inquiry’s - disinterest in any kind of objective discourse.”
Serafina looked more strapped by the second.
“These words that my honourable friend seems to be so dead set on discrediting, are nothing more than examples of the... linguistic... embroidery which was typical for writings of this era! Any - supposedly! - argumentative statements and other rhetoric were naturally intended to be disregarded by the justices for what they were! Ancient Equestrien adjudicators would still seek to formulate a neutral and rational ruling on the information contained therein, in spite of the garnishing!”
Proudly, Estermann grasped his lapels with both claws and importantly peered up the judges. He was only getting started.
“I put it to you, Madam President, that the attitude this document displays fit the tone of this supposed ‘public inquiry’ of the 27th perfectly. I believe that I now understand why my esteemed colleague of the Prosecution wouldn’t want to put too much of a focus on it. I know now what was meant by their findings being of a ‘declarative nature’!”
He smiled, smugly. “The reason was that this inquiry turned out to be, from beginning to end, a plainly unreliable and frivolous affair which would more likely have weakened my esteemed colleague’s case against Her Royal Highness than strengthened it.”
He raised a claw in a very martial manner. “This ‘military board of enquiry’ served one purpose, and one purpose alone: ‘Atrocity Propaganda’. A military junta's lurid attempt to construct an enemy image, divulging only the most scandalising hints of this foe's supposed cruelty - just enough so that the public may be spurred on to arms. It's a classic defamation effort, intended to rile up public opinion against changelingkind and perhaps even fabricate a casus belli against their nations!"
He lowered his claw and folded it behind his back. “It's quite remnisicient of 'juristic' propaganda efforts spread in other major conflicts, such as the First and Second World War. There is nothing professional to be found here. Nothing much in the course of due process. I put it to you that the investigation effort was mere pretense for a political diatribe. And, well, for that purpose, any supposed enemy leaders’ names could have just as well been picked out of a big hat!”
When he was finished, silence reigned supreme.
Merely Serafina had stood her ground back in her corner and readily butted back in.
“With all due respect… that is all clearly speculation on behalf of my learned friend. And it is founded solely on the defence’s… decidedly hyperbolic interpretation of the tone of this piece of writing.”
She wildly waggled the binder around in her grasp. “Even so, the supposed tone or format of the treatise does not, in any way, prove the contents of the treatise to be false! It would be beyond careless to discard all the precious details it contains based solely on presentation! As a document of the era, documenting events of that era, it must be judged with respect to that era’s customs and conventions.”
Estermann let out one final grin, uglier than all the ones before it.
“Yes, my learned friend has made this clear quite a few times already.”
He paused importantly. “But as a piece of evidence in a criminal trial of the twenty-first century, it is to be judged by the standards of evidence of the twenty-first century! And if judged by these contemporary, stringently scientific customs and conventions - ones that, mind, have enjoyed many years of development and perfection over those of the Equestrian 1st century”...
‘How dare he?!’ Twilight screamed to herself, ‘Why, when humans were still pulling fish out of creeks with their teeth, 1st century ponies were already writing those books!’
“...Then this exhibit simply and plainly fails to hold up!”
He folded his claws open, and began to count down, one digit at a time, “It proves itself insufficient, inadequate, and incomplete… even if one ignores its blatantly polemic and defamatory nature.”
He paused a second to take a demonstrative glance at his wristwatch, hidden under his draping robe sleeve. “I put it to you that, unless the prosecution manages to produce a more solid and incontrovertible piece of evidence regarding the Timbucktu incident, these charges against my client have proven themselves to be effectively unsubstantiated. Baseless!”
Again, he peered over to the judge’s bench, as thought explain himself once more with clarity. “Indeed... one must consider that anything less than complete dedication to this Court’s own contemporary rules of evidence could very easily be… misconstrued as something of a... political concession to the successor state whence this piece of evidence was first drafted. That would be the Equestrian Principality.”
‘Oh no...’ Twilight sighed.
He did not just go there! He did not just try to guilt-trip the judges into rejecting Starswirl’s work so it wouldn’t come across like they were trying to bend the rules for Equestria. What was this even?
For better or for worse, the judges even seemed only the tiniest bit impressed.
Well, all except one of course.
“Do… do not raise your voice like that in this court of law again, defence counsel.” Lexy Fori growled, in what must now have become customary heckling, “Do you understand?”
Estermann ignored her as he straightened his collar and made ready to sit back down.
“Madam President, the defence has no further questions.”
Serafina was left standing at the other end of the room, pressing a handkerchief against her nose with an empty look.
She was painfully aware of the fact that the defence had the last word.
What was she going to do, Twilight wondered. She hasn’t been left standing in the safest of positions. Whatever was she going to do? Venture out and try to find something else that could pin Chrysalis to Timbucktu?
Just like that?
Now, that even Starswirl the Bearded’s quill had turned out to be not quite good enough for Estermann and his cronies?
Justice Jessica rested her head on an arm as she read the time off a clock situated at the far end of the room.
“Then I believe it is as good a time as any to bring today’s session to an end. The current state of evidence regarding the Timbucktu affair has, I believe, now been exhausted. Thank you, everyone. The next hearing is scheduled for tomorrow. That would be Tuesday the 24th...”
Queen Chrysalis nodded at her, theatrically.
She looked pleased as punch.
Zap!
A bright flash lit up the gallery, causing a simultaneous choir of shrieks of the countless ponies and humans.
Twilight spun her head around, just in time to see her brother getting eaten up by a cloud of teleporting magic and seemingly snapping out of existence.
Shining!
Oh no, Twilight had completely forgotten about him, as wrapped up as she had been in the proceedings.
What was the matter now? Where had he spirited himself off to all of a sudden?
Jumping out of chair, Twilight scrambled towards the door, her interest in the proceedings having evaporated right alongside her brother.
She squeezed past the bailiffs guarding the room and galloped down the stairs into the still-empty foyer.
Down there, she could see the locked security door that Shining had been been pounding during the recess. Only now did she notice that on it hung a tinplate sign, with white letters on a bright-red backdrop reading something that she could not quite understand.
Even so, its meaning was very obvious to her.
Twilight’s heart misgave her.
What if Shining had…
Biting the bit, she flared up her horn and made ready for the run-up.
It was like a maze in there. One tight corridor bled right into the next one. Everywhere, there were locked doors without handles and glass panes with little warnings printed on them offering a view on completely other corridors.
Twilight tried to pass bypass them and make as little noise as possible in the process. She had the very bad feeling that what she was doing now was very illegal. But her caution and common sense were quickly overridden by worry.
Shining passed through here. He was here. Somewhere. Wherever it was that he had teleported himself to.
And the only way Twilight was going to leave this place was alongside her BBBFF.
She didn’t take too long to find him.
As she rounded a corner, he appeared right in front of her.
He was sitting on the floor, propped up against a wall, his tired eyes bleakly staring through one of the windows, into a separate little foyer.
“Shining!” Twilight yelled out, a little too loud that would have been wise, and ran over.
Cold sweat was streaming down his face. His once-so-stylish mane was oily and unkempt. Stubbly fur was forming around his chin and on his muzzle.
Twilight quietly chastised herself for not noticing all the little signs the moment she set hoof in that country.
Falling on her haunches next to him, she caught his drooping head in her hooves.
His glazed-over eyes seemed not to recognise her.
“Shining… It’s okay. It’s me. Your little sis!”
He blinked. Suddenly, he seemed to be back. Or at least a part of him.
“I… I thought...”
“What is it?”
“I thought that I heard her… for just a moment there...”
“Who?” Twilight asked in confusion, before minding putting her older, physically more imposing brother back on his hooves, “Come on, Shining. We’re not allowed to be here. We’ll both be in trouble if they catch us. Come now!”
“Chrysalis...”
Twilight stopped in her tracks.
She scanned Shining’s expression.
It seemed to be caught somewhere between black despair and rosy desire.
“Shining… You’re scaring me.” she told him in an earnest tone. “You really are! You’ve been acting really weird the past few days, and I’ve been putting it down to you working too hard, but…”
Her eyes were suddenly moistened by tears of fear, “I was so wrong. Something is very wrong here.”
He drew a heavy breath.
Then he cracked a melancholic, nevertheless smile-like grimace.
“She’s coming back, Twily.” he then cooed. “She’s not staying here, oh no.”
“Who?” she breathed, “Chrysalis?”
“She will walk free.” he slurred on, still trapped in his spiritless trance, “And then… then everything will start all over again.”
“No. She won’t.”
She pressed his cheeks hard. “Shining. Look at me! Chrysalis will not go free. She cannot! She is so obviously guilty! We are going to lock her away for a very long time!”
Shining just shook his head lethargically.
“Listen! Today.... Today was just a hiccup. She got lucky. There is so much more that she did… so much more that we can prove!”
“She will not go to jail, Twi.” he cooed again. “She will make us all her slaves before that happens.”
Twilight had enough. She lifted her limp brother up with her magic, and slowly started dragging it back in the direction she had come from.
He only seemed to be ever-so dimly aware of what was happening to him.
“She’s close.” he slurred, “Sooo close. I think I’m gonna sleep now.”
“Shining-”
And just like that, her brother went away completely, drifting off into what seemed to be a long-overdue slumber.
But Twilight refused to be deterred.
Spreading her wings, she intensified her toil and carried her brother around the corner… or at least that’s she was planning do, if she hadn’t suddenly been distracted by the faint stench of intoxicating petroleum.
“Oooh. The envy. How spicy.” she suddenly heard a voice say, very close to her ear.
That voice unearthed unpleasant memories; a buzzing sound tickled her ears with every spoken vowel. It was both feminine and deep, both suave and forceful.
An electrical current suddenly hung in the air and pricked Twilight’s horn. She met only few ponies who had a magical aura this looming and loaded with energy.
Twilight bit her lip as she turned towards the creature whose fault this… this everything was to begin with.
Only three steps away from her, separated by a perfectly translucent glass pane, there stood a tall, ash-black pony, wrapped in jingling chains and restraining garments. Her horn glistened of clingfilm.
The bug-like pony was seemingly busy staring into another direction, down her own hallway which she seemed to be in the process of traversing.
“Chrysalis.” Twilight growled.
“Twilight Sparkle. We meet again.” The changeling queen chuckled deviously.
Only then she turned to meet the alicorn eye-to-eye. Twilight slitted hers as the shock was quickly dispersed by anger.
“Goodness. Why so moody? I thought you would be happy to see me like that.”
Twilight gritted her hooves and bared her teeth, either expecting a – or readying to – pounce.
“Oh. I’m sorry.” Chrysalis gasped tauntingly and shuffled back, holding her head low in mocking deference. “I forgot. The last time I saw you, when I flew off that balcony in Canterlot, you still were so small and adorable. But now that I see you in your regalia, and with your snappy two new limbs… I remember you had kind of a promotion in my absence. We should catch up.”
She winked, friendly. “Now, how should I address you? Your Serene Highness? Your Majesty? Twilight, the eternal Princess of… well… Friendship?”
Twilight carefully stashed her brother by the side of the wall and stepped closer to the window.
“Twilight.” She hissed as an answer.
“That works, too. Sometimes, humility is all you ponies have left, huh?”
“That’s more than you ever had.”
“It was enough to make Canterlot my own.” Her eyes, obscured by a pair of almost comically ill-fitting lenses, discretely darted around, searching for someone else. “Speaking of Canterlot… have you by chance seen Celestia creeping around the place?”
Twilight valiantly attempted to produce a snort at the tyrant, just to show her that she wasn’t scaring anypony.
”Princess Celestia has more important things to do than to waste her breath on you.”
“So she sent you instead.”
Chrysalis raised an amused eyebrow. “How thoughtful of her. At least it’s good to see that she is still as selfless as always. Good for her.”
“It was an honour to come here on her behalf. No thanks to you.” Twilight spat.
“And for a split-second I had hoped you were making a social call.”
The Queen then peered over to the blue-maned military pony dozing away between Twilight’s legs.
“Oh, my. How cute!” she squeed, “The Captain of the Royal Guard, fast asleep and marching through the realm of dreams. Bless his heart. May he find peace there.”
All kinds of sick emotions bubbled up within Twilight’s throat - anger and disgust, horror and fear, despair and helplessness. The sensation was overpowering.
“What… what have you done to him?” she exclaimed, closing in on the chained creature easily twice her size.
“What, I? You should ask yourself, pretty princess. I am but a humble prisoner in this place.”
She looked at Twilight, silently judging, before taking another step towards her. “Isn't this what you wanted to hear? That I am at your mercy? All defenceless? Is that not enough for you yet?”
But Twilight was steadfast.
“You put him through so many things... And you have no shame, do you? Not the slightest hint?”
“Why should I?” she shrugged, “He seemed to like it.” Almost innocuously, she licked her gums. “A lot.”
Twilight felt a chord struck inside her. She opened her mouth, ready to spit out another condemnation, but she too overcome with the rage building up in her.
“Oh no. I didn’t… say anything wrong, did I, your Majesty?” she sneered, “I’d never want to tear open any old wounds. Who knows what you would think of me if I did!”
Twilight turned ashen. Her eyes grew raw.
“You will never leave this place. Not as long as I have a say.”
“Wait, wait wait...” Chrysalis interrupted her, mocking confusion. “Did I miss something? Since when do you have a say in something, little one? You think those two wings make you the master of the world now? You’re still as much under Celestia’s hoof now as you were before. Just like everypony else in Equestria.”
Twilight boiled. When there was one thing she could never get over, it was getting talked down to by ponies who should really know better.
“We’re not in Equestria anymore, Chrysalis.” she reminded the queen.
“Oh, you’re ever so right.” Grinning, she let her bespectacled eyes travel around the nondescript, alien walls. “You’re in my realm now.”
“You can call your cell whatever you want!”
Provocatively, Chrysalis leaned in.
“You don’t seem to have paid attention, Princess. These creatures, these bald monkeys… Do you know that they eat meat?”
Of course Twilight knew. But so did Fluttershy’s ferrets and otters and bears. So what?
“Pony meat? It’s quite a delicacy around these parts.” Chrysalis whispered on, “And guess what? I’m kind of starting to like it here.”
“These humans are creatures of justice. They’re going to cut you down to size.”
“These humans will let me go.” Chrysalis declared, quite boldly, and slitted her eyes. “They may be a lot of things, but they’re not ponies. They understand me. You could almost say they’re right up my alley.”
“In your dreams.”
Twilight felt like she should be able to brush off the changeling’s idle talk for what it was. But somehow, it remained clinging on to her like big, lumps of toxic changeling mucus.
“Mark my words.” Chrysalis cheered, expertly edging her way under Twilight’s skin.
From one moment to the next, the changeling too leaned in, rubbing her ugly face and stupid glasses against the pane as she drilled Twilight with her piercing green eyes. “Once I soar out of here, I’ll return to my home. And once I’m back, Im going to do so much worse to you. And your brother. And your Princess, of course. And all your friends too. You will be amazed!”
Twilight felt drawn ever closer and closer to the pane.
“Mhm.” Chrysalis sighed, only to lower hovering head towards Twilight, and whisper at her stiffened ears, “No. It’s not as simple as that. Don’t you remember when I condemned you to your foalsitter in the diamond mines beneath Canterlot for daring to interfere with me? That was like… like flushing a bug down the toilet. Once I would have had Equestria under my hoof, I probably wouldn’t even have taken the time to come and look for you and the pink one. I would have just left the two bugs to duke it out to the death, down there in the drain.”
She felt Twilight shivering with maddened anger, catching each vibration, each hint of it and devouring them with great pleasure.
“You see, that was a metaphor.” she explained on, “I have nothing against bugs. There are differences between them and you. One is a mindless, parasitic kind that infests what does not belong to them and spreads its disgusting, poisonous essence all over to make it their own. And the others... are bugs.”
There, Twilight lost control.
Her hoof struck out and thundered right into the glass pane separating the two sovereigns. But rather than catching her hoof and bringing it to anticlimactic stop, the glass was almost turned to dust by its force. The leg struck right through - and caught the changeling queen by her temple, in the little area between her glasses and her foil-wrapped horn.
It even sent her stumbling away a little, her head knocked back and the rest of her form sprayed by a shower of glistening crumbs of glass.
In the spur of the moment, all Chrysalis could respond with was a bestial hiss.
Twilight would have raised her other hoof for another whack, but got a hold of herself in the last moment.
The cloud of anger lifted from her mind.
“Speak for yourself, monster.” She spat at the changeling, wheezing.
Then, realising what she had just done, she went to carefully extract her limb from the breached window. Thankfully, her thick alicorn skin had grown surprisingly impervious to such bouts of force.
She had little more than a couples of superficial scrapes and bruises on her.
The changeling, meanwhile, went to grab her aching horn with a hoof, but her heavy chains prevented her from reaching it. After a few moments of coping with the surge of incredible, electricity-caused pain, she began to smile weakly.
Her smile turned into a chuckle.
“Whoah there... Princess of Friendship. Is this the way you want to spread its magic? With... the back of your hoof?”
She felt her horn, moving the clingfilm around a little with a surprised look.
“Heh.” She smiled, “Was that all you could have done, though? That was a pretty weak slap. I thought an alicorn would have a bit more meat on the bone. Would you… like to give it another try?”
Her ill-fitting glasses hung in pieces on her muzzle. At some point, they slipped off and shattered on the floor.
“Don’t make me-”
A high-pitched noise filled Twilight’s erect ears.
Flinching, she instinctively pressed her eyes shut and, with as sigh, ducked out and back to the other side of the corridor, trying to shield her tender ears from the sudden onslaught.
At first, she wondered whether Chrysalis had struck her with some kind of spell, and her mind immediately began to analyse the effects that it was exerting on her.
Only when she opened her eyes did she realise that Chrysalis too was trying to duck out of the way of the deafening noise on her side of the window.
It wasn’t magic, so much for that.
Somewhere down the corridor, a door burst open.
A trio of humans in identical blue tunics came running out. Twilight recognised one of them as the bearded security officer from before.
Upon spotting the alicorn princess and her knocked-out brother, the humans’ claws immediately went for their duty belts and unsheathed their short black projectile weapons.
“You there!” one screamed over the piercing noise, “Step away from the windows. Step away from the windows!”
With the gravity of the situation only now dawning upon her, Twilight quickly complied, chucking herself against opposite wall next to Shining’s unconscious form.
“On your knees! Get down on your knees!”
She slipped to the floor, making sure not to squish her brother in the process.
It took Twilight what seemed to be half an eternity to realise that not a single one of their weapons was pointing at the changeling queen Chrysalis.
But in the end, it did not escape her attention.