Ch6
When morning came, it came with the feeling of being pulled off my rock of a bed and falling back first to the floor. All in all, it was an effective alarm clock, not adding to the fact that a set of three spears was at the ready to skewer me should I try to fight back in response. The holders of said spears, were the same three guards from last night or at least Brutus and two similar guards (you don’t forget a guy, human or not, who’s that big).
‘This creature is a dangerous being who needs to be captured.’ Remembering the white princesses words, I abstained from allowing using a quick ‘Time Out’ to achieve some minor revenge against the three so as to not prove her right at the moment but it did not mean that I would forget it when I became pardoned for my, at the time, unknown crimes. Getting to my feet slowly, I watched as the guards lowered their weapons in response before the leader held out his hand.
“All weapons are to be confiscated when during the process of court so please hand over any all weapons you may have on you or we will be forced to take them from you.” I handed over the bugvisor as I was told but made no move to remove my energy items. Even though I had handed my weapon though, one of the guards patted me down and found the case. Having been curious to what it was, he opened it.
“What are these things?”
“Just some coins i’ve collected over the years in my free time.” It wasn’t a complete lie as I had collected the collectable versions of them in my free time back on earth but I wasn’t going to tell them that. With my bluff working, the guard tossed back the case and beckoned me to follow. Doing so, we went back the way I had came, into the main hall we then turned and went directly for the huge doorway that stood open for griffons, both guards and civilians alike, to come and go as they pleased.
Upon reaching the door, I found that my lawyer from last night was waiting for me while seeming to straighten his tie constantly. When he finally noticed my presence as well as my three escorts, he was quick to hop over through the air and land right in front of me.
“I take it that all of the proper procedures have already been handled, guards?” the leader nodded. “Good, then I will be taking both him and his belongings off your talons then.” Without much of a fuss, the guards handed me over, as well as my bugvisor to the lawyer before flying off, most likely to perform their average everyday duties.
“Well that went smoothly.”
“As long as you behave, and i’m with you then you can be left to your own devices before the trial starts, within reason of course.”
“So how long till my trial begins?”
“Well, some important dignitaries from Equestria arrived late last night, not the princesses mind you so don’t worry, and are currently going through the standard court proceedings before they are allowed full access to the city which should take roughly an hour now.”
“That seems like a pretty long time just to let some people in.”
“Well if you include the locating of a temporary housing to suit their needs as well as assigning guard escorts without inhibiting the ranks, then it is actually much longer.”
“I see. So what do we do till then.”
“As long as we stay within the confines of the parthenon, don’t break anything, and get to court on time, than anything really.”
“Ok then, what should we do?” The Griffon rubbed the underside of his beak in thought.
“Whenever I’m here on my off hours, I usually spend my time in the hall of records going over the past wars of our kingdom.” I snorted a laugh at that.
“So I guess your a history buff then right?”
“In a way.” he smiled at that.
“Alright then, let’s head to the hall of records then. Who knows, I might learn something.”
“If that something is to not take the Trial by Duel then, you just might.”
“Nope, i’m taking that challenge and getting out of here. I don’t feel like losing my head anytime soon.”
“If you just let me work, I can possibly get you 20 years.” The lawyer began frowning after saying such.
“Even if you could get me 5 years, I would still take the duel. I never want to go back to prison again.” The last part was spoken under my breath but I could already tell that my lawyer had heard me. ‘That reminds me, I haven’t learned his name yet.’ It turned out that my lawyers name was Feathers Worth when I asked him, which he explained was a name of great meaning for his job as he always has to prove the worth of those he defends. After that, Feathers Worth began to lead the way to the Hall of Records.
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(Applejack POV)
We had arrived by train in Griffonstone late last night before climbing to the top of the mountains. When we had finally reached the top and said we were dignitaries from Equestria to the guards, we had been given temporary beds in the barracks to sleep before being escorted by guards to the parthenon. Once inside, we were taken before the court and explained our reason for being there which lead us to where we were now, watching bureaucrats work.
While the other’s and I watched as the court griffons continued their work of sorting and stamping the necessary papers, I was only thinking of everything that had happened since yesterday. First, some strange feller randomly appears when my family is at its lowest and helps save us, then the princesses appear to tell us that he is actually a dangerous ‘person’, as they call’m, and then when it seems like the whole mix up can finally be cleared, the princesses tells us he was reliving a memory dream so bad that it would put discord to shame. In the end, it just didn’t make sense, especially when Celestia lied.
“Something wrong Applejack.” Pulled from my thoughts, I saw that it was Pinkie who noticed my spacing out.
“Yeah Pinkie, this whole thing just doesn’t sit right with me.” The others noticed what I had said and were no longer paying attention to the old griffon as he worked.
“What do you mean AJ?” It was Twilight who asked the question.
“While the princess is a respectable pony who doesn’t lie, Celestia did so right during her explanation of the whole thing and the displaced.”
“The Princess lied to us? Then why would she tell us about a war that never happened.” Fluttershy was the one who spoke.
“No not the whole thing, for the most part she was telling the truth, but near the end I started getting that feeling that she wasn’t saying something and I don’t know what it was.” The others didn’ say nothing else and left it alone to probably think about it for themselves. With no one talking, the room became very loud with the sound of rustling papers but the sound didn’t stop me from continuing to think about what the princess lied about.
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(Celestia POV)
Luna and I had spent the whole night working, with only small breaks for eating and and my duties to raise the sun, but otherwise we were doing everything we can to finish my original work from so long ago. It was a small collar, just large enough to go around a human's neck, and on it were etchings of runes and glyphs to help us control anywho wore it, to a degree that is. Unfortunately, no power source small enough could power the collars indefinitely so I had been forced to do away with some of the actual control formula which would lead to the individual having no control except to do my orders but they would not be the mindless servants I needed them to be which would be detrimental to my plans if any one of them figured out some way to break free. That was what lead us to what both I and my sister were doing now.
Currently the collars were untested which meant we needed a guinea pig of somesort to see if the enchantments held in place. To find the right candidate, we were looking through the hundreds of journals I had created on the displaced I had imprisoned over the years trying to find one strong enough to work but not to be a hassle if it somehow didn’t.
‘No, too large, No, too powerful, No, too erratic.’ When I turned the page as I had done before hundreds of times before, I found myself staring at a sketch of a person I never wanted to see again. His hair was white as snow and his skin blue as ice, and his clothing was flamboyant like the vamponies from myths and legends.
“Celestia, I think I found a good enough one.” I quickly closed my book, keeping it from Luna’s eyes, and looked at her possible candidate. They were short in stature, with long golden hair, but the red overcoat he wore easily fit into my memories of what he could do so I did not need to read the description I had given him.
“Yes he seems like a good choice for now, hopefully the past 300 hundred years in imprisoned in stone shut him up finally.” My sister looked confused at my words, so I simply smiled to her. “Why don’t you go and collect him, I’ll get the collar ready.” Luna nodded before exiting the room to fly out onto the distance to find the person in question and leaving me alone to think.
Opening my book back to his page, I remembered the last words he ever said to me.
‘You think I had any control of what went on in her head, HAH, don’t make me laugh. If I could do that, I would already be out of this stupid world by then instead of being hunted like some damn rat. Still, even if she does come back, begging on her knees no less, you won’t forget the fact that you made this happen.’ Shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I quickly used my magic to pull his ages from the book and lit them aflame.
“I may remember it, but she never will, I can’t let her if i’m to be a better sister.”
(CLACK)
The terrace doors opened from behind signaling Luna had arrived. Acting quickly, I stepped atop the burnt ashes and turned to face her and saw she had the displaced we needed.
“Tell me again sister, why can we only use one, wouldn’t more be better when this is all over with and we know if we can control them, to use more?”
“Unfortunately Luna, I do not have enough resources to make these collars as much as I want so we must use them sparingly otherwise the displaced might get away before I can send more if he defeats them.” Luna said nothing but continued to stare at me saying nothing, I was almost thought she was beginning to see through my lie about he resources. We actually had plenty to make well over a hundred but the collars had to be connected to an owner to use them and I was going to let Luna become any more involved than she already was. It was for her own protection.
“Very well then. Let us get to work shall we?”
“Why Luna, I would love nothing more. After all, it beats sitting around listening to the nobles complain.”