//------------------------------//
// Do you hear me ? 
// Story: Ryuuzan, a Gryphon Silenced 
// by Kimono-Gryphon 
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Quill Feather patted Ryuuzan's shoulder with her hoof as she  led him to the witness booth to testify, sitting on Celestia's left, but facing the Prosecution and Defense areas. He was then sworn in by Wind Shear before Wind Shear assumed his place at the side of the gryphon to translate. 

"Objection your Highness, we aren't questioning Wind Shear. How do I know Wind Shear is translating 'exactly' the gryphon's responses, and siding with the Prosecution's office?" F. Hay Baily had rose up, voicing his disapproval of Wind Shear. "We would prefer some pony of independent ties between either parties here."

"Your Highness, Wind Shear does not work for the Prosecution, he is employed by the crown. And besides, he is also a prosecution witness, as he is also witness to material happenings in this case. His oath as a royal guardian binds him to tell the truth, according to the requirements of being a royal guardian. Besides, he has a relative that is deaf, and has learned to translate accordingly." Quill Feather stood and replied with assurance the objection would be over ruled. "And the defense, I am sure, would love getting a pony from their little group to slant the answers for the court, as the prosecution wouldn't have the time to vet or question the ponies motives in a timely fashion to satisfy both parties and yourself your highness."

"Objection is overruled. Defense, Wind Shear does work for the crown and answers to myself directly if the need ever arose. Besides, The Element of Honesty here can plainly see Wind Shear translating honestly, and would let me know if the answers were genuine." Celestia nodded, but did point out Wind Shear's qualifications. "However, the court does have an independent translator available. Miss Quill Feather, you can compare the named translator to her lists of all the members of the Ponies for Purity group, and if the pony has any ties directly or indirectly through family members or friends they can answer here in front of me, verified again by the Element of Honesty. It would take only maybe a few minutes? But if they do have any ties to the group they will immediately be disqualified. Then we can have Wind Shear continue to translate 'only' what Ryuuzan answers."

Within a few minutes, the court interpreter was brought in, and questioned after their name was cleared by the prosecution.

"Name and occupation please for the court?" Celestia asked the pony as she stood in front of the prosecution's bench. "Do not worry my little pony, it's just we may require your services if that is ok. Could you answer your questions standing beside Wind Sheer using sign language?" She turned to Wind Shear, "As a test, can you sign her replies out so we all can see the answers and if you match."

"I will try my best your highness, though, I may be a bit slower in my replies in sign language compared to the pony here that specialises in it." Wind Sheer noted as he stepped beside the petite pony, that appeared to still be attending college.

"My name is Winter Lily your majesty, I am an evening server for the kitchens, and I volunteer my time during days when needed as a sign language interpreter." The female nodded and answered, swearing to being honest. 

"Miss Lilly, what is your experience with sign language?" Quill Feather had smiled reassuringly to the petite earth pony dressed in a simple drawstring bow-tie and collar.

"My father, Evergreen Breeze was completely deaf since his birth. When I went to school I learned all I could about sign language to help my mother assist with my dad whenever he went out into Canterlot. It was a bit rough as I was so young, but my dad had been looked down upon as being strange or weird as he was the only deaf pony in town. As soon as I was able, I offered the court here help with dealing with those of us that are deaf and other ponies that can hear well." Winter Lily had pulled out a letter copy of her certification from her training, showing it to Celestia.

"You said 'those of us who are deaf'...  " F. Hay Baily questioned as he wrote down notes. "Are you deaf as well?"

Winter Lilly blushed but nodded. "I am, I taught myself to read lips before I lost my hearing completely a few years ago. I have a degenerative ear condition."

"Wait, you were there in the throne room before Ryuuzan arrived." Quill Feather was confused. "I thought you could hear the snoring when you brought the coffee and tea cart."

"Snoring?" Celestia had questioned, looking over to Luna questioningly. 

"Later sister, We went over this already." Luna had face-desked, rubbing her hoof over her ears.

"Actually I guessed it was some noise in the throne room, because every few seconds ponies folded their ears, looking nervously around. So I reacted accordingly." Winter Lilly replied as she and Wind Shear both signed her response. 

"Ok, it's agreed that Wind Shear and Winter Lilly are answering the same, so to be fair, Wind Sheaer, you can be moved to the prosecution table since you are a material witness, and besides, I'm sure Miss Lilly would love the bonus pay she will be receiving throughout the trial." Celestia nodded and showed Winter Lilly to her seat. "Ok, I think we can finally start."

*****

Quill Feather started the questioning of Ryuuzan, as Winter Lilly spoke each response so every pony could hear clearly. 

"State your name, and current residences please." Quill Feather started the questioning, keeping the basic ones first.

"Ryuuzan" The gryphon replied, spelling out his name for Lilly to respond clearly. 

"Current and former address?"

"Currently staying in protective custody here at Canterlot Castle, old residence was 147 Hearthstone Lake, WhiteTail Woods, Equestria."

"Let the court be known Ryuuzan has correctly identified his previous residence of WhiteTail Woods, the same house that is at the center of our investigation." Quill Feather had rolled out a poster board with a map of Equestria, with the surrounding cities, and Canterlot in the middle of the map. "Can you show us where on the map where you lived?" 

Ryuuzan got up with Celestia's approval, and pointed exactly where he lived. 

"Objection your highness, it seems the gryphon may had been coached previously by the prosecution to point where locations are on the map." F. Hay Baily had rose up, with a slight grin. "Let us ask the witness to identify other areas."

Ryuuzan nodded to the defense. 

"Point to these locations" the defense attorney read from a list. "Sweet Apple Acres, Fillydelphia, Appaloosa, Las Pegasus, Vanhoover, Baltimare, Everfree Forest, and Cloudsdale." 

With every location Ryuuzan pointed out quickly, there was some in the crowd that laughed. As Ryuuzan got all the locations correct and in order, the laughter became more focused at the embarrassed defense attorney for being shown up.

"Ok gryphon, thank you for the 3rd grade foal geography lesson." F. Hay Baily grumped as he sat down as Ryuuzan triumphantly held his beak up, walking past the defense table, back to the witness stand. "No further questions your highness."

"Please tell the court the events that happened eleven nights ago please." Quill Feather had smiled, winning a small battle in her mind against the defense. 

"I was in my bedroom, located upstairs at the home address I provided for the court. I overheard ponies downstairs discussing plans about the crown, other members joining the group, and proposals to try to violently stall any talks with the Gryphon Empire, as there was going to be a summit within a few weeks. They were thinking of even escalating up to the point of possible assassination attempts using ponies or other creatures in disguise, ranging from guards to food staff and servers here working at the Castle here." Ryuuzan signed, starting to explain. 

"Objection your highness, any conversations the gryphon overheard is hearsay, and inadmissible as direct evidence." F. Hay Baily rose his hoof from his seat, probably knowing he was going to object every reply in some fashion.

"Sustained, Prosecution please have Ryuuzan just recount events he witnessed directly, leaving out any 3rd party conversations unless he was spoken to directly." Celestia clarified, nodding to the defense.

Quill Feather nodded, simply motioning her hoof for Ryuuzan to continue.

"My mother came upstairs to retrieve my dinner plates and utensils, singing to herself. I had played asleep, but she came over to me and whispered in my ear, hoping I enjoyed my last meal, as she was going to move out of WhiteTail Woods. She found a new friend that was opening his home to her alone, and she, with her group, were going to tie up loose ends, and I was to meet my maker at sunrise." Ryuuzan glared at one of the ponies sitting behind the defense table, and pointed a sharp talon at one female in particular.

"Who are you pointing to?" Quill Feather asked, making notes. "Let the court know Ryuuzan has identified one defendant."

"My dear 'mother.' Swan Song." The gryphon replied coldly. "As long as I remember, she always told me she was going to leave me behind when a new friend entered the picture, after she seduced them into her life. I decided to escape an hour after every pony left the house. I managed to rip the leather attachment from my chain that connected it to the floor after struggling with it. I then flew out the window, and aimed for Canterlot Castle."

"Ryuuzan, why were you chained in the first place?" Quill Feather had pointed to her left wrist and to her neck, pointing out the chain and neck collar he wore.

"Oh, I tried escaping before about 8 months ago, but one of the visiting ponies in the group tackled me as I jumped from the upstairs back window. I was beaten senseless for 2 hours after that, and then consequently chained to an eyebolt in the floor with a length of chain 25 feet long, enough for me to use the house bathroom and shower." Ryuuzan clarified, then continued. "I think mother had stolen the chain, bracers, and collar from her employer E.M.M.R.S. years ago, but kept it in my bedroom closet as a reminder to me how cruel she is."

"Were you abused, or beaten at any other times?"

Ryuuzan clearly shook as he remembered, then pointed to his throat where he parted some fur and feathers of his neck ruff to reveal a sizable scar. "One time, I was 4 years old, and mother was drunk and incensed. I asked why she was crying, and all she did was scream at me, telling me it was my fault. I told her I could sing some whistlings I had make up, hearing some cardinals in the trees beside the house, thinking they would make her feel better." Ryuuzan gulped clearly and his eyes watered. "Before I finished my first note, mother tackled me, and drove me to the floor. Hery eyes were wide open and wild as she screamed for me to stop. She pulled me up to the desk she had in her room and pinned my head to the side of it before cutting my vocal chords with a scalpel she had from EMMRS. She shrieked at me, nearly laughing in fury that she finally made it quiet in her house."

"She said what was your fault?"

"That I had killed her daughter, my twin sister, in utero before I was born." Ryuuzan had taken a breath as he wiped his eyes with a tissue.

"Was she a gryphon as well?" Quill Feather had looked through medical records to verify Swan Song's pregnancy. "It would seem almost impossible for different species to produce an offspring, but she succeeded."

"No, she was a pegasus pony." Ryuuzan answered plainly, looking down as he openly wept. "Her fur pattern matched mine perfectly, wings and everything. Mother said she looked perfect when she and I were born, but ...   my sister didn’t cry when she was born. Turns out she was stillborn, but then I emerged a minute later, and for some reason, I survived." 

The entire hall was stunned silent.

Quill Feather looked up, clearly shaken upon hearing the news. "I do have test results from one Dr. Wing Mender. According to his write up for you, from tests and blood analysis,. Ryuuzan, you are 50% gryphon and 50% pony. This was concluded based o  blood samples and traits of each in your physiology. It's just the gryphon traits are more physically apparent, while your blood type is more closely linked to ponies." Quill Feather read from Dr. Wing Mender's notes.

"Mother went into labor at EMMRS where she worked at as head nurse, and the lead doctor was Dr. Clear Mind. He had the records sealed after I was born." Ryuuzan did manage to sign with some difficulty. 

"Objection your highness, Speculation without evidence."

"Your Highness, may I ask a favor of you specifically?" Ryuuzan turned and asked Celestia directly, as he motioned Quill Feather over with a specialized key to open the bracers at his neck and wrist. 

"Oh?" Celestia was slightly taken aback by the gryphon's question, but she answered amicably. "Yes, you may, as long as it doesn't interfere with your testimony."

"Actually, it will bring some things to light, as it were." Ryuuzan had pointed to a small flap in the collar that was held tight by a lock on one end of the pull. "I want you to remove some things I have inside there. Originally this pouch in the collar was used to hold identification papers of whomever was unlucky enough to be issued these bracers and collar. Obviously my arm is broken so I cannot use the pull to open the pouch."

"And since there's vital information in here, you should be able to retrieve it, maybe with the defense attorney here too so he won't have a coronary thinking it's a conspiracy against him. Here comes his objection in 3, 2, 1...." Quill Feather started replying as she removed Ryuuzan's wrist and neck bracers. 

"Objection, your highness. Let..." F. Hay Baily started, but was cut off, amidst laughter from the filled hall. Even the gryphon queen gave some chuckles.

"Just get your plot up here." Celestia waited for the defense to arrive, then pulled open the enclosure and lifted the contents of it with her aura for everyone to see. Wrapped in blue cellophane were 9 pages folded together, along with a lightly rusted scalpel.

"One thing mother had done about a year ago in the midst of a destructive drunken binge / rant was to acquire something she could use to blackmail the EMMRS with. She lifted these from Clear Mind's safe, and hid them inside her desk, taped to the underside of one drawer." Ryuuzan pointed out some pages, showing his and his sister's birth records, as well as a list of 18 coded patient entries at EMMRS. "When I escaped that night, I grabbed the pages from the folder, making myself an insurance policy. If I were killed, I hoped some pony would find these documents and turn them over here to you, your majesty."

Ryuu had returned to the witness seat, and continued. "I left the home and I flew as high as I could manage, I then locked my wings and aimed for the castle. I think I fell asleep, because the next thing I remember was Lu... sorry, Princess Luna, asking me what was going on. Then I woke in the hospital."

On one side of the hall, Pinkamena Diane Pie had arrived at the hearing, with a somewhat large box on her back. She had walked up to the prosecution desk and placing the box down at the prosecutor's table, sounding like shells were in the box. Then taking a seat in the general assembly

Snickering started from behind the defense bench, but had grown louder as Ryuuzan described his arrival at the castle.. It then became full blown laughter, causing Celestia to bang her gavel.

"F. Hay Baily, please control your client Swan Song, or the next witness will be herself." Celestia warned.

"You are such a utter FOOL Ryuuzan!" Swan Song seethed, standing up and walking to the open area between the defense desk and Celestia's podium. "You should have stuck to the plan, and the home. Then everything that the group received through the crown would have been yours. You should have just kept that beak shut! Now, you are stealing from me all over again, just like you stole the life from your twin Sister !"

The sting was almost palpable, the tension so thick you could only cut it with a chainsaw.

"I..   ahhghhh.. (HUFF) didnn..  azkkk..  toh... beeh   BORNNNH" Ryuuzan screeched hoarsely, holding his clawed hand to his throat. The effort to talk had clearly stung since a secondary operation was performed to repair the damage to his throat, and artificial vocal cords created magically were implanted.

The hall was deathly quiet.

"Shut up, you damned mare !" F. Hay Baily angrily huffed, trying to regain control of his client. But Swan Song was too far gone, almost giddy to a point.

"And why should I be quiet?" Swan Song seethed, pounding her hoof into the defense's table. "Ryuuzan just gave Celestia a list showing Nineteen of those gryphons listed were exiled from The Gryphon Empire for Murder that were here in Equestria. Eighteen of those Gryphon murderers were housed at EMMRS!"

"How do I know this? I was the head nurse that attended to every last gryphon under Clear Mind's research." Swan Songs voice lowered to a snarl. "And then, I returned home to raise that gryphon I gave birth to. It all fit so well. However, there is one small final detail to this little lovingly concocted plan that has been left out. There were 18 gryphons at EMMRS, but there were 19 exiles, what happened to the last one, anypony care to guess ?"

The entire hall was deathly quiet. 

"There was one more gryphon involved, and they are even here at our fun little trial." Swan Song pointed her hoof just to the left and behind the Gryphon Queen, to another gryphon, as others gasped in surprise. "Isn't that right, Banished gryphon BN-438-02? Before you answer, tell us your real name and titles, or I WILL."

"I am... exile number 19." Sahmek stood, hanging his head low and addressed the court. "Sahmek Irenizz Nazzhu, Gryphon Ambassador at Baltimare. Older brother to now Queen Esmeraldes Nazzhu."

*****