Assorted ponies had gathered at Twilight's Friendship castle after the court case had ended, just to relax and chat about the case. They were gathered in a section of the Cutie Map room adorned with pillows and cushions for ponies to sit and relax. Queen Esmeraldes was joined by Sahmek and Ryuuzan, who were understandably sitting side by side. Celestia, Luna, Quill Feather, and Wind Shear were relaxing on the cushions with some drinks with the main seven also happily joining them.
"Congratulations Sahmek, Ryuuzan, and Quill Feather on an expertly argued case." Princess Luna smiled as she sipped a mug of coffee. "We had faith you were going to do well."
"It was hard getting all the paperwork, but it would have been useless without the additional paperwork Ryuuzan provided." Quill Feather smiled, scritching the back of Ryuuzan's neck appreciatively. "Without it, the case could have crumbled down to a 'He said this, versus she saying that.' argument, which would have been nearly impossible to win. Believe me, I've tried too many of those cases, and they hardly ever ended well."
Quill then turned to Luna and leaned toward her ear. "About my resignation letter, with your permission, I think I would like to amend my resignation into 'Semi-Retirement' seeing as I will be assisting Ryuuzan and Sahmek. I do have a considerable amount saved for retirement already. But, if you ever need me to help you Princess, just ask."
A cupcake just plopped down in front of Ryuuzan and on the top was a sign saying 'Happy winning case and becoming the richest gryphon in Equestria'. Looking toward the pinked foreleg of Pinkie-Pie, he saw that her hair had returned to its usual shade of pink, and some curls had returned, but not as nearly as curly as it usually was. "Thahhnk yuu Miss Pinkihhh." Ryuuzan smiled as he tried talking more to the relaxing ponies, even though he still used hoof language out of habit as he talked. "Cahhn I... azzzkh you for pah....pahrty? That is... if yuu are ok with it."
Pinkie Pie’s hair suddenly poofed up with the sound of her party cannon firing up. After her personal time off from parties, the idea of throwing one was just too tantalising. Her face lit up as she smiled huge and bounced all around the room. "Yay I get to throw Ryuuzan a party to rival all the gryphon parties I’ve ever thrown!" She landed beside the father and son and nearly crushed them together in a patented pony-hug. And after a few seconds, all the other ponies (including Luna, Celestia, and Spike) joined in on the biggest group hug that hadn't been witnessed in Equestria for decades. "It's gonna be bigger than the one I threw for Grumpy Gilda." She even began rubbing shoulders with Queen Esmeraldes, pulling off her crown and placing it on her poofed mane with a small tip off center. "Please please come join us for the party too your Gryphon Highness, well I know it wouldn't be lowness, as I’d have to always stoop down to say Hi, and that wouldn't be fun, and everypony would be grumpy faced as I talked to their knees." Pinkie spoke at a blistering rate, as she was regaining the attitude she had suppressed for the trial duration.
Queen Esmeraldes's eyebrows shot up, and then she started laughing at the party pony's silliness going full tilt. "Actually I do know Gilda, through some circles. Do you mind if I invite her along? I think she would like to see you again Miss Rainbow Dash, did I get your name correct my dear?" She whispered the last part toward Rainbow as she slow circled above everyone, adding a twist here or a flip there in the air like she always did. "The last I heard, Gilda is an assistant hoof-ball coach and trainer. I will send a message immediately. Can you send a message magically Princess Celestia?"
Princess Twilight had come forward, already writing on a parchment with a quill and ink. "Already on it, Queen Esmeraldes. I'll set the party time for tomorrow afternoon, if that is ok, Pinkie? And I can have Spike here send the message via Dragon-fire. The other party should have a small green cloud of smoke appear before them before the letter will arrive and land right on their head."
After the letter was finished being written, it was give to Spike. The small dragon engulfed the message in his magically imbued flames and everyone present watched as the smoke that had been produced began moving of its own accord above their heads before popping out of view. With the message sent, the group returned to conversing amongst themselves and generally becoming better acquainted.
***********
Five days later, the skies above Canterlot were overcast with thick, heavy clouds, causing a general gloomy atmosphere to develop. The morning air was dense with humidity and ozone as the wind whipped against anything that . The weather teams had been ordered to not cause any rain, but to keep the clouds low and dark to maintain a stern mood when the five guilty ponies received their just rewards for their acts.
Thousands of ponies and other peaceful species were intermixed from not only Canterlot, but from cities like Las Pegasus and Vanhoover, to as far away as Zebraca, Prance, and Prussia. It was mostly reporters that had arrived from the other countries that were here to cover such a rare but somber event. The reporters had gathered on a hillside adjacent to castle proper for an optimal view of the event. Queen Esmeraldes was there and was joined by her brother Sahmek and his new son Ryuuzan. Two more dignitaries from Las Pegasus joined the queen in their own section.
A separate area slightly between two sections of the gathered populace was where the reporter and press ponies were positioned. They were told 'explicitly' that they would permitted to photograph the location, however, all cameras were ordered to be lowered and placed in a holding station with the lenses covered so as to not record any pictures of the condemned ponies, per rules set by both princesses.
Both princesses arrived from one of the tower windows, wings spread, but locked into a glide, landing at the front of the crowds. Light hoof stomping echoed throughout the ponies and heads were lowered to show respect for the royal sisters.
As soon as the crowd had settled down, Celestia held up a wing and cast a small spell on herself to make her voice clearly audible to those attending the grim event on the castle grounds. All of the castle staff had also gathered amidst the general population to also witness the event.
"Citizens of Equestria and Canterlot, surrounding cities and nations abroad, including guests Queen Esmeraldes and her royal staff of the Gryphon Empire, myself and Princess Luna bid you greetings. We are here to witness an event that has not darkened these peaceful lands in 138 years." Celestia nodded to Luna who magically donned her regalia. To the careful observer, they might have noticed the the dark blue glow the regalia now possessed, showing that the items had recently been imbued with magic. "This is the day we carry out the punishment for five citizens of Equestria that took the law into their own hooves, deciding through planning, fueled by deception and greed, develop an event that correlated in the deaths of four royal guardians as well as two members of their own group. One of the other members under the same plan had decided to also end the lives of 18 gryphons that had been exiled from their lands convicted under their own charges and laws." Celestia finished her portion of her speech and nodded to her younger sister who continued the speech.
"For this reason, all five ponies have been charged, not only with murdering six ponies, but an additional eighteen gryphons." Luna had charged up her Royal Canterlot voice and as she spoke her green eyes shone with ethereal power. The crowd had begin shouting in surprise at hearing that the gryphon victims had been added onto the original six ponies, then, surprisingly, hoof stomps were heard as those gathered agreed with the decision out of respect. "ALL life on our world is sacred, not just ponies or gryphons, and the punishment should be of the harshest of magnitude. Even though the gryphon exiles were sentenced, the five ponies had no rights to exterminate those gryphons with their twisted plans of greed, making bits off the misery of others. That is why we, with Princess Celestia in agreement with Queen Esmeraldes, have formed a treaty further cementing our peaceful relations between Equestria and the Gryphon Kingdom, despite the group of ponies wishing the opposite for our citizens."
Celestia walked over to her sister and draped one of her huge wings across her sisters shoulders and illuminated her own magics. Both princess spoke in perfect unison as the two sisters called for the five ponies to walk forth from the castle entrance towards the base of the clearing where a section of ground had been cordoned off. The ponies in question walked out from the castle with a group of five guards flanking them. "These are the five ponies that have been sentenced. Let their names, along with the group they represent, never be spoken again or referenced in any light. No reporters or photographs of the guilty ponies are allowed from this point forward. This rule is most strict, and for any pony or citizen that does not heed this rule, the punishment will be most harsh as there is no reason for the guilty be further remembered. They had their time with their families in memoriam, in private, apart from the public. Let the history books only remember the tragedy and the ultimate price these ponies paid, to hopefully lead others 'not' to choose their same destructive path."
A single snare drum was rapped by a guardian unicorn, announcing the arrival of the five ponies that were sentenced to capital punishment. Each one wore the face of some measure of defiance, except for F Hay Baily who continued to mumble about his innocence, that he was a decorated and pillar of Canterlot society, and that the penalty didn't suit someone of his stature.
As soon as the five reached the cordoned off area, they stood facing the princesses.
Celestia spoke to the five, nodding to each in turn. "You five have been issued the sentence of Death: being turned to stone and then crushed by magics, in accordance with Capital Crimes and Punishment, Statute Ten: Murder of ponies and gryphons in pursuit of greed by deception. Have you five have anything final to say before sentence is carried out? Besides asking for mercy, as you gave none to your victims."
"Only thing I, or rather we, have to say is you get rid of us Princess. There are others that will take up our cause. They will keep our memories alive, until Equestria and the Gryphon Kingdom are in ruins!" Night Hooves strode forward and pointed his hoof to different areas of the crowd. "Our group mates are here in the crowd, nearly one hundred standing, and nearly 1200 more in Baltimare and Las Pegasus. Give the princesses a kind hello from us brothers and sisters!"
As soon as Night Hooves finished pointing to different points to the crowd, various ponies that had grasped something in their teeth bit down on something encased in thin glass vials. Almost immediately, their bodies became encased in a blue green sparking haze. Swan Song was among these ponies, biting down on her own vial before triumphantly striding forward, encasing herself in a deep green lightning filled haze. "Death to the pony ruling sisters and to the Gryphon ruling family!"
"Sister, they booby trapped themselves, get that stone spell finished!" Luna unfurled her wings and tried using her magics to hunt for the ponies in the crowd. "We will trap the conspirators!"
"I'm trying Luna, the spell is not instantaneous!" Celestia backpedaled as she powered her own aura to shield her sister, herself, while also trying to extend it to help aim any blast away from the gathered ponies.
But then Sahmek leapt up from his seat and dove for the stage, flapping his huge wings to accelerate himself toward the cordoned off area in front of Princess Celestia and Luna. Grabbing one of the guard's sharpened pole arms and aiming for Swan Song as she continued charging her spell bomb, screeching as loud as he could to disorient the ponies trying to assassinate the princesses and everyone else.
Small gas charged pockets of lightning were erupting from all over the crowd as other ponies had erupted in blue flames, causing the surrounding ponies to scatter, screaming in complete panic.
"What are you DOING Sahmek?" Swan Song back peddled a step when she spotted Sahmek reach for the polearm.
"I might not get to all the ponies in the group, but I know I can kill YOU at least and save the Princesses!" Sahmek screeched as he swung the polecam in a tight spin and brought the blade down onto the mare's head with a gut wrenching sound of bone and flesh being broken and torn.
The polearm hissed at it split Swan Song's skull, nearly cleaving it in half.
All Swan Song could do was smile slightly as her body went down in a complete heap, as the explosive spell released from the wire and glass vial inside her muzzle and exploded, knocking Sahmek backward into the two princesses, knocking them off their hooves.
A deep menacing female laugh started emitting from the downed mare, her eyes glowing a mix of deep purple, and a sickly green, as the princesses got back onto their hooves. "You think you finished us? I'm the PuppetMaster of Neighpon, the new Timberwolf Clan sends their regards!" Swan Song reached up and pulled out the polearm from mid skull, the crystalline energized spell disappeared revealing a pony golem mixed with thick tree branches, vines, and a wooden head. With a final huge howl imitating a timber wolf, Swan Song's golem finally fell and passed away.
As soon as Swan Song's form fell, the ponies that had attempted to kill the ponies and gryphons gathered here had indeed began turning to stone, as the spell did take some time to form. As Celestia had said earlier, the ponies were not turned to statues, but roughly shaped concrete and stone blobs. As soon as Celestia's spell was finished, Luna started her crushing spell to grind each pony to dust. Hard sounds of stones being demolished echoed throughout the area. The entire group of ponies that had gathered here turned their backs to the five condemned ponies, not wishing to witness their last moments alive.
The sounds of crushing stone slowly diminished as the stones were reduced to nothing more than powder. Celestia slowly walked toward the cordoned off area where the ponies had been reduced to foot high piles of granite and silica. The sun princess held her eyes shut as she used her hooves to silt through the powders for any larger pieces that hadn't been crushed. If she had found any pieces she would stomp her hoof down onto them, the magics in her hooves and shoes were enough to pulverise the stone to granules and dust.
After she was satisfied that there was nothing left, she walked back to stand beside her sister, her eyes still tightly shut.
The only sound left besides the whipping winds was Celestia, who had her head lowered, and was crying softly. She had blinked the tears from her eyes and turned, seeing the condemned ponies were truly gone. She powered up her magics one final time and announced to the crowds before her. "Consummatum est, It is finished. Ponies, gryphons, citizens and most importantly friends, please take the rest of your day to be with family or friends and learn from what happened here. Never make the same choices these five ponies made in your lives. Lest you too will be reduced to stone and crumbled under hoof."
Luna looked over to her sister as she extinguished the magics flowing through her horn. "Sister, art thou ok?"
"No, Luna. It will take me awhile to recover." Celestia continued to hang her head, and slowly walked up the hill toward the castle. "I know the ponies were guilty, I just hated to be the one extinguishing their lives."
"Sister, do remember the twenty-four victims these five had extinguished by their own hooves. At least they can now be at rest. You still have a conscience, and a deep concern for all life. We love you for that," Luna replied, following the path her elder sister took. She then motioned for the guards to bring the gryphon guests inside the castle, doing her best to keep a respectful distance behind Celestia, giving her some privacy with her thoughts.
**********
Epilogue:
Deep inside a weaving lattice of small catacombs and linked caves deep inside the Everfree, a lone pony had waited for a sentry to arrive to report on the happenings at Canterlot castle. As soon as a timberwolf arrived he growl grumbled to Swan Song, then faced inside the chamber and bowed low.
"Report..."
"Everything went according to plan, except the timber golem I was magic controlling failed to detonate on stage like we had hoped. However, about twenty ponies were injured when the timber golems ignited their crystal stun bombs in the crowds. Before you get angry at the princesses not being blown to pieces, it was agreed that this was only a test run, to see how the crystals worked with the timber golems. I can assuredly say the test was as good as we had hoped." Swan Song bowed low. "The Golem puppet I had created worked flawlessly through the trial, no one ever suspected it was but a puppet, even though it was over 10 miles away. The magic link I established worked without fault until someone interfered from the Gryphon Empire and cut the link inside the head of the golem. I was lucky I cut the magicked remote link before it was cut, otherwise the feedback to me would have been most lethal."
"You are expecting me to throw you a parade when your doll failed to kill the royal sisters ?" A set of long curved fangs appeared under deep green eyes as it spoke. "The only thing keeping you alive is your ability to create and control your doll from afar off."
"And you think creating autonomous timber golems are easy ?" Swan Song shot back, her voice low. "Golem making and control from such a large distance away is damn near impossible. I only learned how to control the golems from my mother who was a unicorn training me, with a magics enhanced gem implanted inside my head, just like the base of a unicorn horn. And don't be too quick to forget I can translate Timberwolf for you. And who 'exactly' let you into the clan in the first place !"
"I offer you my talents I am expert with to give you viable plans to invade Canterlot someday. You didn't even 'have' anything like your previous home before you arrived here four weeks ago. You should be a bit more thankful Chrissy !" Swan Song continued with a sneer.
"The name is CHRYSALIS !" The former changeling queen seethed as she strode forward angrily, coming into view stopping in front of Swan Song. "I suppose you want your reward ?"
"Yes Empress Chrysalis." Swan Song had dipped her head low and waited. "It was the amount we agreed to, correct? On completion of the golem test wh..."
Crysalis had lunged at Swan Song, unhinging her fangs and had sunk them deep into Swan Song's neck, venomiting the mare as she stood on her feet.
The resulting screams echoed deep into the woods where the timber wolves kept their lair.
"In due time Celestia and Luna, When my timberwolf army is fully created with Swan Song's magics in creating golems that rival changling's abilities in stealth and disguise, I will Trample down your city, your castle and your little Ponies until they are bones Under My Hooves." Crysalis licked the venom from her fangs menacingly as she looked down at the pony at her feet. "I will enjoy grinding your skulls to PASTE, Celestia and Luna, count on IT.. !!"
*****