Tattered laid her head against the railing and did a very improbable thing, she yawned. It wasn't a yawn of being tired, because she was already asleep, it was a yawn of being bored.
This trial hadn't gone as long as yesterday's trial yet, but it was close to that length already. This one had large amounts of downtime where nothing was happening though. She certainly felt sympathy for Number Crunch after seeing what she went through, but the time spent letting Number Crunch pull herself together, and now additional time letting the defense discuss things just made things drag on.
Fortunately there were some things to distract her. The Dreamwardens had apparently seated them by where they were from, which meant that she was sitting smack dab in the middle of all the Riverview ponies. She had the whole Enclave here with her, at least the night pony part of it. It was a rare opportunity to just socialize with her fellow night ponies, something she rarely could do when sitting around the office.
To her left Brick Pounder was socializing with Rudra and Gerald. The three stallions didn't seem aware they had an audience of about a dozen mares watching them. Looking around the amphitheatre it would be obvious to many that there was a severe gender imbalance with night ponies. There were about a dozen stallions out of the Riverview night ponies altogether, two of whom were more rightfully called colts since they were only in their mid teens. Add to that one younger colt that wasn't present. There were more crystal pony stallions in Riverview than night pony ones.
There were nearly ten times as many night pony mares in Riverview though. While there was nothing stopping a night pony mare from trying to start up a relationship with a day pony, but the fact they had conflicting sleep schedules made such relationships less than ideal. With those facts in mind, most mares had come to the realization that competition for stallions would get fierce, and night ponies were naturally aggressive. Most of the stallions hadn't yet realized that supply and demand made them hot commodities, and that mares might start soon coming to blows over them. Abandoning the idea of monogamy might be a good idea, but Tattered doubted most were ready to skip out on that idea yet.
It would have been amusing to watch how oblivious the stallions were, if not for the fact that if Tattered ever wanted a mate she'd be facing those same long odds. Being a night pony mare was kind of depressing with that in mind. It almost made her wish she was a lesbian. There might actually be more lesbian mares than available stallions for all she knew, not that it would be enough to balance out the numbers of mares looking for stallions.
Even the mares that were already married to stallions were likely feeling the troubles of the night pony gender imbalance. If their husbands were day ponies they barely got time with them. Made worse was the fact that night ponies were all active in their own way when sleeping, which meant six to nine hours more they weren't spending with their mate each day. Add to that that night ponies had different temperaments than most day ponies and it made these existing relationships all the more frayed. Tattered knew that at least two of those mares watching the stallions were already married. It was only a matter of time before they turned their attention to the colts due to desperation.
She sat up and turned to her right. Dan was speaking with Nocte. The two were discussing their new roles in the structure of the Enclave, typical business related socializing. Nocte didn't seem to have any interest in Dan, but three other mares were watching the conversation. Dan might be crippled, but he was male, and that made him a commodity. Tattered had a feeling that any claims Melissa might have were going to be challenged.
Tattered enjoyed being a pony, but Sunset Shimmer really screwed up whatever prerequisites made a human transform into a night pony. Like many things it would balance out in future generations, but right now it was a one of the many ways the world was a mess. There would be plenty of infighting to come among night pony mares, driven by the basic need to mate and breed.
On a whim she decided to try something.
"Yinyu?" She asked aloud, though the Dreamwarden wasn't with her. "Can you hear me? I have a question."
"A question? For me? I feel special," Yinyu said, having suddenly appeared perched on the railing in front of Tattered.
Tattered took a deep breath to begin saying her Oaths, but the Warden of Lust put a hoof over her muzzle.
"You said your Oaths earlier while here. I'll take them as said for today, and we are short on time anyway," Yinyu said with amusement. "What's your question?"
Tattered nodded as Yinyu removed her hoof. "What are the Dreamwardens' plans for dealing with the fact there are about ten mares for every stallion with night ponies?"
Yinyu tilted her head in confusion. "Plans? What makes you think we would get involved with that?"
"You're kind of in charge..." Tattered said slowly.
Yinyu laughed. "No, we're not. We decide what happens to those that do bad things dreamwalking and those that use mind magic for bad things. We don't govern night ponies. We don't even limit our dealings exclusively to night ponies, otherwise we wouldn't be having this trial. We get a little harder on night ponies and take more interest in them because they fall more universally into our purview, particularly with dreamwalking, but we don't govern them. We govern the dream realm."
"But night ponies have to universally follow your rules or we get punished. That sounds like governing to me," Tattered asserted.
"As far as dreamwalking, mind magic, and showing us respect when you're in our realm goes, yes, but what goes on in the waking world, if it doesn't involve those things, is none of our business," Yinyu said with another tilt of her head. "We can try to encourage some behaviors, but we can't force them."
"But there's a crisis with this gender imbalance. Don't you care?" Tattered demanded.
Yinyu looked hurt. "Of course I care, I'm the Warden of Lust. All the Dreamwardens care about what happens with night ponies, we're night ponies after all, but it isn't our job to fix everything or something we should try to forcibly do. We'll give advice, but we can't make ponies take it. We may not even have the right answers when giving that advice. Our strict authority is limited to just a few things and for good reason. We have our own Oaths baked into our binding to the dream realm because we need limits."
"What are your Oaths? You mention them sometimes, but you never say what they are," Tattered said with frustration.
Yinyu raised a hoof like giving a pledge. "As a Dreamwarden I swear I will not violate the uniqueness of the lights, even those I judge will keep their light unique. As a Dreamwarden I swear that I will only take action against those that can dreamwalk or use mind magic, no matter how much I may wish to intervene I will not bring judgement to those who have no magical power to bend minds. As a Dreamwarden I swear that if I grow tired of my burden of guarding the lights against those who would dominate them I will first find an heir to my legacy and then bind myself into an eternal dream, never to interact with another again. The lights shall always have a Dreamwarden guarding them. I swear that I will never seek to end all magical life by any means."
"That still sounds like you technically can govern night ponies since we can use mind magic and dreamwalk," Tattered paused as something occurred to her. "Wait...is that why you wouldn't consider judging against Sunset Blessing? Because she has no mind magic or ability to dreamwalk?"
Yinyu frowned. "We believe Tonya is responsible for her own actions, but if we found Sunset Blessing responsible for whatever reason we would make no judgement against her because of our Oaths. We'd might have found some way of leaking information of what she did to the human authorities and leave it to them to figure out what to do about her--or we might have just made ourselves look intimidating, made some empty threats, and hoped she was intimidated enough to not do it anymore. Trying something like that too often would destroy its effectiveness though; ponies would eventually catch on to the fact we can't do anything to them."
"That's not really helpful," Tattered said flatly.
Yinyu shrugged again. "We can't deal with everything."
"And the fact that your Oaths actually do give you wiggle room to govern night ponies, even if they might not give that room to with other ponies?" Tattered asked.
"We agree," Yinyu said with a nod. "Though we see it as an oversight in the Oaths that we intend to correct when we eventually choose heirs. We can blame Luna for that oversight, most our Oaths came from her after all. What a shock that an immortal absolute monarch over night ponies in the waking world didn't think to include an Oath against being an immortal absolute monarch over night ponies in the waking world."
The sarcasm about Luna was something Tattered could have done without. It felt like some sort of sacrilege. For a pony that was chosen by Luna's wisdom it was surprising how often Yinyu questioned Luna's wisdom. However, there was something else that caught her ears in that. "Most of the Oaths?"
Yinyu hung her head with her ears flattened. "The last one came from something else. We won't discuss who or why. There's a good reason it's there, trust us on that. Seeing the mistakes of the past Dreamwardens and what they have taken from the universe is rather humbling and terrifying. We owe the universe far more than it owes us. Hopefully someday the debt that earned us that Oath will be paid."
Tattered wondered what the past Dreamwardens had done that the current ones were so deeply ashamed of. In any case, if Luna didn't see fit to stop them from taking waking world authority over the night ponies then she must have wanted to leave that as an open possibility, and because it was Luna Tattered trusted that wasn't a bad idea. It was clear that there they had problems that needed leadership to help solve. Why was Yinyu so opposed to the idea?
"But you can take authority over the night ponies in the waking world," Tattered insisted.
"How?" Yinyu asked. "You saw from Shadow Dancer's trial we can't even count on all of you to report when mind magic abuses are happening, and you expect us to try exert more authority over you in the waking world? What a joke! Part of the reason we'll eventually need to reveal ourselves is we'll need to make it so every intelligent being on the planet has an opportunity to report such abuses, because we clearly can't count on night ponies to see that mind magic abuses don't happen there."
Yinyu leaned forward on the railing so she was right in Tattered's face. "And furthermore we just plain don't want to govern all of you. I'm the Warden of Lust, I care about inspiring ponies passions and their sexual health. Phobia cares about having ponies understand their fears. Psy is a psychologist, he wants to just help ponies. Sha'am cares about taking care of the dying, Krik those grieving, Ghadab those angry. We want to do our own special little things, not foal-sitting the lot of you non-stop on everything. Ensuring the rules we gave you are upheld is more than enough foal-sitting for us."
Tattered cringed back from the Dreamwarden. "So...we just have to figure out the problem with the gender imbalance ourselves."
Yinyu went back to a regular sitting position and huffed. "I'll try to give some advice when I've gotten more time to figure out what advice to be giving, but ultimately all of you will have to work it out."
Great, the Dreamwardens were just going to let the inevitable fighting between the mares happen. Tattered hoped that it wouldn't come to that, but night ponies were instinctively aggressive so that hope was pretty frail. She might as well start reading up on laws about assault and battery, and perhaps even laws about sex with minors, because she was sure things were going to often come to that. The joys of law enforcement.
Yinyu looked behind herself briefly then looked back. "Anyway, I answered your question as best I could. I'm going to leave you for now. Things are about to start again with the trial. I think you'll find this next part very interesting."
And with that Yinyu just vanished.
"Alright, the defense has had enough time to consider the evidence presented," the Warden of Death declared and then looked at the Tonya. "Is there any change in your plea?"
Tonya shook her head which made Sunset scowl.
"No, ma'am, I'm sticking to my plea," Tonya said, seeming to have suppressed her fear for the time being.
The skeleton nodded. "Very courageous of you. With that matter settled we shall look at our next witness's memory." The Warden of Death turned to the Warden of Silence. "The floor is yours."
The great minotaur bull jumped down from his pillar with trident in hand and landed on the court floor with a very loud impact. He then turned and looked out at the starry expanse and lifted his trident up high.
It didn't seem at first that any image appeared in the expanse, but slowly it focused into a view of Swift Strike. This was apparently the Dreamwarden's memory of Swift Strike in the dreamscape.
Swift Strike looked around with confusion, seeming to be unsure where he was. This was his first visit into the dreamscape then.
"Fuck. I didn't wake up. I'm still in a dream," Swift Strike growled. "When I wake up I'll find that bitch and give her what she deserves."
Okay, it wasn't confirmed yet, but that probably placed this right after Number Crunch had knocked him out. Though it could have been right after Sunset Blessing knocked him out too. Those were the only times Tattered could think of that Swift Strike would have been asleep and making threats against some mare in his dreams. If this was right after Number Crunch then these were his final moments alive.
A loud bell rang out and Swift Strike looked around rapidly again.
The stars around him rearranged themselves into writing one word at a time.
Night pony, you have entered into the dreamscape for the first time. There are rules that must be obeyed if you are to be allowed here.
Guess that explained how Tikhiy Krik managed to introduce himself to dreamwalkers without saying anything. Tattered had to admit he was definitely committed to the silence thing.
"What in the hell?" Swift Strike asked as he stared up at the writing. "I'm sick and tired of others trying to tell me what I can and can't do!"
If you do not agree to follow the rules and swear your Oaths to me you will be removed from here. The writing spelled out.
Swift Strike laughed. "Well, send me out of here then. I was trying to get out of here anyway. That mare might have caught me off guard, but I had put the fear into her. When I wake up she'll pay for everything."
Put the fear in her? What did this mare do to you that you are so eager to be banished from here?
"She tried to hold me tight in her magic and take me back to the authorities. She wasn't prepared for my magic though," Swift Strike bragged.
And your magic put fear into her?
Swift Strike snarled. "Are you deaf as well as mute? I made her feel fear, and I was going to punish her for what she did. I have to act all nice and everything around them most of the time, but when they get out of line they need to pay. I always make them pay!"
The pale white furred stallion with a jet black mane appeared before Swift Strike. The words continued on writing above the stallion's head.
You intend to kill this mare? And you intend to use magic to force her to fear you in order to do it? This is forbidden. You must swear your Oaths now and await trial. You must not use your magic to commit murder. This is an abuse of your power.
"You aren't one of the ponies from Riverview. I don't know who you are, but you're not in any position to stop me from doing shit!" Swift Strike said with bared teeth as he spread his wings threatenly.
I'm Tikhiy Krik. I'm a Dreamwarden, and threatening a Dreamwarden is not wise. The writing continued as the old writing vanished.
Tattered watched as Swift Strike did the totally moronic thing and tried to charge the Warden of Silence. He kept on charging forward long after he should have closed the distance and Tikhiy Krik sat seemingly motionless continually just outside of Swift Strike's range, looking completely unconcerned.
It eventually occurred to the dolt long after it should have that he hadn't connected with anything, and Swift Strike came to a full stop. Swift Strike then tried to take a swipe at Krik with his hooves, only to be met again with the result of just falling short. A duplicate Krik appeared to Swift Strike's side and the idiot tried taking a swipe at that one, only to again miss. Krik made more duplicates, one after another, and Swift Strike tried in vain to strike at each one as they appeared. Swift Strike was fast, hence his name, but against a Dreamwarden in the dream realm that didn't mean anything.
When Swift Strike finally figured out that his attempts to fight Krik were completely futile he came to a stop and glared at the now dozens of duplicate Kriks encircling him. The Kriks for their part all continued to sit in the same way the original had, and were all staring calmly at the enraged night pony. The writing began again after that.
You cannot overcome a Dreamwarden. Stand down, give your Oaths, leave the mare be, and await trial.
Swift Strike narrowed his eyes. "No. She's getting what she deserves. Just like all the others."
A chill ran down Tattered's back as she heard that. What did he mean all the others? There was Phobia, but that was only one. He had used a very clear plural. What had he done?
Krik seemed to have the same concerns.
Allow me access to your memories so I can see what you are speaking of and then I will end this.
Swift Strike laughed cruelly. "You're going to pull some Star Trek Vulcan mind meld crap on me? Sure, why not? Go ahead and have your look. If that is what it takes to get out of here. You aren't from Riverview and this is just a dream, you can't do anything to me."
Tattered shook her head. Oh, how gravely mistaken Swift Strike had been.
An image appeared over the various Kriks' heads, and on it played out the same events that had happened from Number Crunch's memory beginning with his discussion with Tonya and on till he had been thrown into the tree.
"Bitch deserves to die," Swift Strike said when it finished.
The Kriks all frowned and another memory started playing out. This one the rape of Phobia.
Tattered was disgusted and horrified as she watched that particular memory play out. It wasn't surprising that as they all watched this play out that Rosetta broke down crying where she was sitting, and Tattered wasn't really surprised when the black swirling mass of Phobia's nightmare avatar simply vanished from sight a few seconds after the memory had begun. Yinyu's seapony form gave a worried look at the pillar while the other Dreamwardens glanced briefly at it, though the expressions of the others were near impossible to read in their forms.
As the memory came to an end, with Swift Strike still being held tightly against the wall by the magic of Phobia's father, Swift Strike continued to voice his lack of shame or regret. "She made my mare turn on me. She deserved what she got. I'm only sorry I couldn't finish making her pay."
The frowns of the various Kriks turned to scowls as another memory began to play out. Tattered frowned. There was still more?
This time the image turned to a human, a younger Latino woman, cowering and crying on the floor of what looked a kitchen. She was covered in what looked like mashed potatoes and bits of meat and a broken plate scattered on the floor. Fresh scald marks could be seen on her arms.
A beer can was thrown, and it struck the woman right in the face as the alcohol spilled all over her and the floor.
"How can you be so stupid and screw up so much?" Swift Strike's voice demanded. "It was meatloaf and mashed potatoes, not some complex french cuisine. The meat isn't cooked all the way through and the potatoes are soupy. Despite all that it's far too hot. How could you screw up cooking it?"
"I'm sorry," the woman wept. "I got distracted and didn't pay attention when setting the timer."
A hand ran down Swift Strike's view. "You're lucky, Haley, no one else would put up with your fuck-ups. You're lucky I love you or you'd be all alone. I should just break up with you."
Haley gasped and crawled towards him. "Please, no! I'm sorry. I'll do better! I'm so sorry!"
Swift Strike shook his head. "I must be stupid to keep giving you chances. Clean this fucking mess up. I'm going out for a little while to clear my head and get some food from someone who actually knows how to cook. This better be cleaned up when I get back."
With that his view turned and walked out of the kitchen into a living room. He grabbed up some keys and stormed out the front door.
They had apparently been living in an apartment complex from the view. Swift Strike walked out to his car--which despite them living in what looked like run down apartments was a black jaguar--and got into it. He started up the engine and the radio started blasting some song about how they had bitches, money, and how much of a badass the person rapping though they were. Even though it was a memory the bass hurt Tattered's ears.
Swift Strike drove out of the apartment complex at a slow pace down the road. It wasn't a very long distance covered until a traffic light could be seen ahead. However, before he reached that he turned his attention to the side and noticed another young woman walking back behind a grocery store and he let off an appreciative whistle as he turned the car off the road and towards where she was.
He pulled the car into park in front of her, cutting her off, and got out. He then walked slowly towards her as she took a few hesitant steps back. Swift Strike looked her over.
While he might not have recognized what it was at the time Tattered saw that the girl had a blue stripe running through her hair that wasn't hair dye. That put a definite time table on when this event occurred. She was wearing a Food Lion name tag which read Melanie that Swift Strike's gaze lingered on for a moment.
"Hi there, Melanie, what're you doing back here? It's dangerous walking out behind stores or for a lady to be walking alone at all for that matter. You should let me give you a ride home," Swift Strike said in a friendly voice completely opposite his tone at any other point in this memory.
Melanie took a few more steps back. "No thank you. I'm perfectly fine on my own. I don't even know you."
She tried to adjust course so she could walk around him and his car, but he stepped out in front of her. "Come on. I'm a nice guy. Do you have some sort of problem with me?"
Melanie backed away a few steps again. "I just don't accept rides from people I don't know. Now please, just let me get going. I just want to go home."
"Why go home? We can go off somewhere secluded where we can have some fun. Don't you want to have some fun?" Swift Strike asked.
Melanie scowled at him and reached into a purse she was carrying. "No, I don't want to have some fun. Just get out of my way or I'm calling the cops."
Swift Strike moved quickly and grabbed for the hand that was reaching into the purse. Melanie screamed and started running away before he could, but she was running further back from the road and isolating herself further in her panic from where anyone could see what was going on.
He chased after her. As she was nearing the back door to the grocery store he caught her and hurled her against the side of the building. By what was likely blind chance her head collided hard with an exposed jagged strip of metal jutting out from the cinder block wall that Tattered was unsure what it once belonged to. When her head connected there was an audible crunch and her eyes went blank as blood started to drip down the wall.
"Fuck..."Swift Strike said slowly as he shook his head and took a few steps back. "Fucking serves you right. You should have just let me take you for a ride. We could have had some fun and none of this would have happened."
The memory ended with Swift Strike hastily departing the scene.
The dozens of Kriks stared at Swift Strike with contempt.
"She got what she deserved. Treating me like I wasn't good enough for her," Swift Strike insisted to the Kriks. "Now let me go, like you promised."
You present a clear and present danger to a mare if I let you awaken. You clearly don't value life. You now have mind magic which you have shown you intend to use to commit more of these atrocities. By all rights I should be hauling you to trial now, but I'm the only Dreamwarden present in the dream realm right now. So you cannot kill again I am forced to take action.
It hadn't been writing this time. This time it had been a disembodied voice dripping with fury. It seemed Tikhiy Krik could indeed talk, but that he saved that for when he was truly furious.
All the Kriks opened their mouths as one and a deafening otherworldly scream could be heard and it kept on going. The form of Swift Strike vanished and was replaced with a ball of light. Out of the mouths of each of the Kriks came nightmarish long green tongues that wrapped themselves around the ball of light and crushed it into oblivion.
The memory came to an abrupt end and Krik's bull form lowered its trident. The entire amphitheatre was silent after seeing the memory of the execution of Swift Strike. All quiet except for the sobs that were coming from Rosetta.
Tattered turned and looked down at Rosetta. Tonya was holding her tight and Sunset had left her seat to come around and embrace Rosetta as well.
Rosetta looked up at the Dreamwardens with tear filled eyes and a snarl appeared on her face. "That fucking bastard! He got what he deserved!"
Only then did Tattered realize that Haley and Rosetta were one in the same. She could only nod along in agreement. Swift Strike had been a monster and deserved to die.
It also confirmed to her that if she had prosecuted this case in the waking world, as she was supposed to, that Number hadn't killed him, but all evidence would have painted her as a murderer.
"We shall take another recess," the Warden of Death declared.