The next day, Chrysalis was wheeled into the room, chained to a flat wooden platform, along with her cohorts. The former Queen of all Changelings definitely looked worse for wear; her mane was a mess, her teeth were bared, and she would glare at Celestia and Luna every so often, given them looks that would have killed if it were possible. The Diarchs of Equestria stared back, without any emotion on their faces. Chrysalis would try to move every so often, only to be held to the floor by her bindings. Royal Guards stood on either side of the platform, ready to act if the queen should burst her bounds in any manner; several had rifles.
Changelings who were part of the audience booed - but not many. Most had been banned on the order of their Queens from doing anything to disrupt the trial. By now, the audience was mainly full of quiet members of the species that had taken part in the war.
At this point, most of the raucous crowd had been removed, and only those known to have great patience were allowed in. The message was clear; no more disruption would be allowed.
"All rise; the Honorable Judge Fire Fox presiding," A Royal Guard - one still holding a spear - announced.
"Be seated," Fire Fox said almost immediately. "Today we continue the case of the former Queen Chrysalis and her confederates."
Several of the changelings on trial hissed at him in unison, even through the muzzles that had been placed upon them, and their wings beat in what James knew to be an unfriendly way.
Fox ignored them. "The prosecution may begin."
"The prosecution calls..." Rusty looked down at a list. "Drone 1394, the former counselor Draconis, sent to keep the hive of Queen Nocturnal under Chrysalis' rule."
One of the muzzled changelings was dragged forward by two Guards, each clearly in no mood for any trouble. The changeling, his hooves tied together, wings tied down, horn covered with both an anti-magical ring as well as having a tennis ball shoved on top to keep the horn from being used as a physical weapon, did what he could to resist anyway, to no avail, and was slammed in the head by a spear. This stopped his resistance until he was up on the podium.
Draconis was shoved onto the podium, his restraints being adjusted so he could do no more than just stand. The muzzle remained upon his face for a moment before a unicorn Guard removed it. At once, the drone began to shout profanities and insults at all those gathered in the courthouse.
"Queen Amalda, would you mind helping us with your aberrant subject?" Nocturnal said in a voice full of contempt. "It would be such a shame if he did not cooperate..."
The albino changeling queen exchanged a glare toward Nocturnal for a moment before walking forward. "As your queen," she said to Draconis, "I command you to speak the truth in this trial in all areas, and not to try and use any loopholes to escape from either your own punishment nor that of my mother. In addition, I charge you to not try and disrupt this trial by any means."
Draconis stopped shouting at once. His face seemed to bulge and contract for a moment as he apparently attempted to disobey. At last, sighing furiously, he said, "As you command, my queen."
Despite the contempt of the last two words, Amalda nodded. "And that goes for the rest of you!" she said to the other captive drones in attendance, who abruptly stood stock still.
"Draconis, you stand accused of heinous crimes against changeling-kind," Fire Fox said. "Among the charges are threats to slay changeling nymphs, mistreatment of drones of Nocturnal's hive - not to mention the queen herself - and the taking of excessive amounts of emotional energy to feed your own hive despite the needs of the hive you were the overseer of. How do you plead?"
Draconis struggled again, but ultimately hissed the word, "Guilty, but only because I was obeying the words of my queen, who gave these orders."
"That excuse is not allowed. The prosecution may proceed with the questioning."
"Objection," Amalda's attorney, Fox, interjected. "A changeling must obey the will of his or her queen. There is literally no other thing they can do when presented with an order."
"But surely there is some leeway between the giving and following of those orders?" Rusty demanded.
"Only as much as the queen allows or insofar a she leave it up to the drone. As such, if the former queen gave him an order, Draconis could only ever obey it."
"But cannot mercy or ruthlessness in obedience be a free choice by a drone?"
"To an extent."
"Enough of this," Fire Fox interrupted. "The objection is dismissed; it has been established previously that changelings have a certain amount of free will in following their orders. As such, Draconis' crimes, if established, will be shaded by his actions and personal choices."
"Right then," Rusty said, walking up to the podium. "Many of the witnesses we've interviewed for Nocturnal's hive have asserted that beatings and acts of torture and cruelty were committed. They have also testified that you ordered or allowed these things to happen. How true are these allegations?"
Draconis again seemed to struggle, but quickly growled, "Very true."
"Could you not have done less cruelty?"
"If my Queen had allowed it, yes. But her commands were to keep the other hives in subjection. That meant crushing any free will among them. I had specific orders to make sure that any disobedience or defiance were punished. I did what I had been told to do; keep the hive under control at any cost, and to do so as brutally as necessary to force respect."
"And you had no leeway? I doubt this."
"I had almost none. As such, any chance for mercy would be slight. And mercy is just another term for weakness; if those hives were given the slightest mercy, we would be weakened in their sight, which would have loosened our grip on them."
"So the queen gave you orders for cruelty, and you obeyed them?"
"Objection!"
"Overruled."
"Of course she gave me orders to keep the hive down, and I did my job."
"With any choice, though? Without using any of your limited freedom to-"
"I already said no. Either chop my head off already, or bring in a lawyer who knows how to do his job."
Bang! "This constitutes insult and slander toward the prosecution, as well as contempt of court," Fire Fox said, "and will not be tolerated. The previous two sentences will be stricken from the record."
"What's the matter, judge?" Draconis hissed in a sadistic tone. "Too given up to your mercy and harmony to listen to those more intelligent than you?"
Bang! "The defendant is hereby charged with contempt of court. The prosecution may proceed. Any further unlawful outbursts by the defendant will lead to his being gagged."
Draconis didn't reply, but stared viciously. This wasn't against the law, though, so the judge ignored it.
"No further questions."
"Defense?"
"No questions."
------------------------------------------------------
Chrysalis herself, after the questioning of several of her drones, was brought onto the stand for questioning, still laden with chains. Her muzzle was removed, though the rifles and spears of the soldiers were a warning to her in case she tried anything.
"Chrysalis, former queen, you stand accused of crimes against sapient species. Among the charges are murder, including that of your own subjects to fuel your own power, conspiracy to wage aggressive war, and conspiracy to enslave the pony race and use them as mere food. How do you plead?"
The muzzle was removed via magic as the prosecuting attorney spoke. Chrysalis bared her fangs and hissed angrily.
"How do you plead?"
Chrysalis spat at the pony; a unicorn guard blocked the spit with a small shield spell.
The gavel banged again ,and the judge shouted, "The defendant is warned that her actions are in contempt of court."
"Which is accurate," the former queen hissed, "as I hold this entire court and all here in contempt."
"Well, that was predictable," James said, sighing and leaning his chair back and turning to look at Shining.
Shining wasn't paying him any attention. His eyes glared at Chrysalis.
If looks could kill, Chrysalis would be a puddle of black goo right now. Fortunately for the ex-queen, physics didn't work like that.
But Shining wasn't the only one to be staring at the queen as if that was indeed how physics worked. James sighed again.
Anger is such a crazy emotion. It can be good or evil, depending upon the intent and circumstances. But eventually, only forgiveness and moving on can lead to a lasting peace. I didn't fight this war just so that another could be fought five or ten years later.
In the meantime, Chrysalis had been slapped with a contempt of court charge, and Fox, the changeling lawyer defending the previous queen, was speaking. "Our Queen desired to unite our race, to face the challenges of the world united instead of divided. And by anyone's definition, the conqueror can impose their will upon the conquered. If that were not so, this trial would not exist, and the griffons would still be under a king rather than a loose organization of autonomous states. Of course our Queen dealt with dissidence; what society tolerates militant rebellion? I know that Equestria would not; should any of the three tribes - four if one counts thestrals - try to secede, I doubt that the benevolent Princesses ruling them would stand for it. A state exists because order is maintained, and if that were to change, then farewell to order, law, and sovereignty."
"Objection! Insult to our rulers!"
"Oh sure, you can insult our queen, but we can't even question your princesses," Fox retaliated, rolling his eyes.
"Objection sustained, but the point of the defendant is taken. Neither side is to insult the other." Turning to Fox, the judge asked, "Have you anything more to say?"
"Sir-"
"Your Honor."
"Your Honor, as of this moment I have nothing more to say."
"The prosecution may proceed."
"Then this prosecution has something to say of she who was formerly Queen of all the changelings," a new lawyer said. James looked and was surprised to see that he was a changeling himself; clearly, he was from another hive. His voice sounded like a mix of Scottish-English accent. "She who was formerly queen over all the hives has rejected their individuality and sovereignty, rejecting the basic rights even of the queens wherein. She has sought to reduce our society to one dedicated purely to one of destructive war, conquest, and unquestioning obedience to a foreign queen, namely, Chrysalis herself. She has reduced her own hive to a dependency and autocracy that not even the queens of old, as aristocratic as they were, even dreamed. Indeed, they are still recovering from decades or more of this mismanagement and cruelty. Furthermore, she has robbed us of the fairly and peaceably-gained produce of emotional energy, leaving thousands of drones to either seek more on their own, or else perish. She has sought to rule with an iron tyranny, with a yoke of cold iron to our necks and a whip of threats and wickedness upon us, to which she has not even spared nymphs, our beloved children, from the freezing and painful lash. She had brought a destruction of our society, with many thousand dead in the late war, sacrificed for the sake of her own hive, which itself was merely a pawn of her ambitions. This prosecution, Desert Cook, contends that the said Chrysalis, no longer queen but mere prisoner, ought to be thoroughly prosecuted and that the sentence be executed with the speed that the blood of untold thousands, from the conquest to the late war, calls to account." The changeling - Desert Cook? - then backed off.
"The court, for the last time," the judge said to Chrysalis, "demands your affirmative answer to the charges."
Chrysalis laughed. "All you weaklings demand an answer from me? You only beat me through cowardly-"
Bang! "The defendant has refused to answer the charge of innocence or guilt." The judge sighed and looked to the Princesses. "What is the law for a defendant who refuses to enter a plea again, Your Highnesses?"
Luna stood up. "The laws of some kingdoms, such as Saddle Arabia, would allow for a defendant who refuses to enter a plea to be tortured until they answered innocent or guilty. Equestria has rarely needed coercion to gain a plea. However, a law does exist; that namely, the defendant can be taken away and not contribute to their defense whatsoever. It is similar to a result as if they had pleaded innocent, but they are not present for their own defense, since they refused to give a plea. Likewise, the penalties for being found guilty after refusing to enter a plea are the same as those imposed on one who plead not guilty and was found to be so. So, unless the former queen desires to be bound and placed in prison until her sentencing, the Crown suggests that she enter a plea."
Chrysalis spat at her, but the spit fell far short of its target. "Fine, I'll play your game. I plead not guilty because I am rightfully and by conquest Queen of all changelings."
"Except for the plea, the rest of the previous statement is to be stricken from the record," the judge said. "Another strike for contempt of court is added."
Chrysalis laughed.
Ignoring her, the judge went on, "Witnesses may now be called. Prosecution first."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There weren't many witnesses from Chrysalis' own hive called against her. Those few who were weren't, in James' mind, the best defense for their ex-queen. They were mainly her chief ministers, to whom she dictated orders. They said little different from Draconis.
Those from outside her hive... those were largely firebrands. It was clear that years of slavery to a foreign queen had left those under it with a seething rage and suppressed hatred that was coming to the surface all at once.
"Our hive was desolated!" a changeling witness was saying now. "We were but tools for their interest and amusement, and we had no one we could complain to about their mistreatment; to even suggest it was to invite even more brutal and disgusting behavior by our so-called 'benefactors.' I was an architect for my hive, and we constantly had materials taken away from us to build up Chrysalis' own hive. They made themselves wealthy - by changeling standards - off of our backs, off of our labor, off of our blood, sweat, and tears. They never thanked us, and those wags who asked them to got a free beating and more hard labor the next day. We couldn't wait to throw off their shackles, and thanks be to whatever powers that be that we were made free at last!"
Changelings around the chamber buzzed their wings, though the buzzing didn't sound angry to James; it sound more... sympathetic. More like the crowd approved of the witness' speech. Indeed, some clapped their hooves in response, with loud clop sounds echoing around the room. There was little in the way of speech; they obeyed the orders of their queens. But it was clear what they thought of the witness' testimony.
I don't know how much the defense will be able to do, James thought. Not that any of the defendants are going to escape punishment, but... even for a doomed defense, this is hopeless.
He was right. Fox - the defender for Chrysalis - attempted to question the most recent witness. "You just accused my client of unjustly oppressing your hive. Do you have any conclusive evidence for that statement?"
The witness proceeded to light his horn
"Solenopsis, no!" one of the Queens in attendance shouted. "Use your words, not your magic."
The drone, who had clearly been about to assault Fox, desisted, though with reluctance. He then proceeded to use some of the most foul language James had heard in Equestria to curse Fox; the faces of much of the audience went red, as did that of the judge, and even Chrysalis lifted her head in some sort of mild amusement.
BANG! "The witness will only use language appropriate for public speech, and will only respond to the questions of the defense."
"Your Honor, given the unreliability of the witness, given his lack of proof and clear insanity, I move that he be removed and put in an asylum," Fox said.
That brought an angry silence from... everybody.
I get that the witness was comparing him to a hybrid of an ant and a caterpillar when the judge interrupted, but was that necessary?
"I object to that, Your Honor," Rusty said, sounding calm but clearly furious. "I move that that... request be denied, and a new defense attorney be brought in who will actually respect the rule of law."
"Quiet, both of you," the judge replied, clearly frazzled. "The request for the removal of the witness is denied, as is the demand for a new attorney. However, I will warn the defense that this court will tolerate no attacks on any individuals."
"Odd, sir, since you were fine to let him abuse my client without proof of his absurd claims," Fox responded.
The gavel fell, not a bang this time but a thump. "No more of that, sir. Just do your job as a lawyer."
Fox sighed and muttered something incendiary and offensive under his breath. "Yes, Your Honor." Solenopsis crossed his forelegs, still angry.
The judge sighed. "Given the circumstances, there will be a fifteen minute recess. I trust that all may return in a more mature mood after that?"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some twenty minutes later, James and Shining were again sitting in the courtroom. Solenopsis and Fox were facing each other again, neither being very pleased to see the other.
"Let us continue where we left off," the judge said. "And any further offenses will lead to the offender being monetarily penalized."
Both changelings reluctantly nodded.
"Right then. Defense, you may proceed."
Fox walked toward the box. "Now, as I was saying, what evidence can you provide for your allegations?"
"There. Are. Records," Solenopsis growled out. "Plenty of evidence. And unless there's a magic that lets me project my thoughts to everyone, there is no way I can immediately provide you non-violent satisfaction."
"Rather convenient."
"Actually," Princess Luna said, "a variation of my normal dream magic may allow for just such a projection for the judge, jury, and audience to witness."
The judge looked surprised, but managed to recover his composure quickly. "If you insist, Princess."
"I do, if the witness allows it."
"I will," Solenopsis said.
"Then by means..."
Luna got up and walked over to Solenopsis. "This may be a bit surprising," she warned. "It is rare that I use my dream magic on someone who is awake."
"I will do whatever it takes to make sure justice is done."
"Then prepare thyself, such as thy may."
The grooves in Luna's horn lit up, and a white light raced to the drone's head. The latter shuddered for a moment, but then steadied. As this happened, a second band of light flew from Solenopsis' head to form a screen for the entire courtroom to see.
Pictures flowed from the screen; changelings being beaten as they labored; emotional energy being taken from the hive by laughing and grinning drones of Chrysalis' army. A drone backtalked a guard for being rude and was savagely beaten. Even the Queen was shown being slapped in the face for questioning the amount of energy Chrysalis' hive was taking for itself.
"What do you have say to that?" Solenopsis said when the montage of memories was done and the screen faded away.
Fox rallied. "I say that you have quite the imagination. How do we know these aren't fabrications? Memories mean nothing without an indication that they're true."
"I made sure that his memories were unable to convey falsehoods when I undertook this spell," Luna replied sternly.
Fox was silent.
"Does the defense have any further questions?" the judge asked.
Shaking his head, Fox said solemnly, "No further questions, Your Honor."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Well, if their case wasn't hopeless before this whole thing, it is now," Shining said, as they walked out of the courtroom.
"Personally, I'm tired of this drama. I'd almost - almost - prefer fighting the war again."
"It is terrible," Shining agreed. "Not so much I want bullets flying again, though."
"Something to that, I guess." James stopped and leaned on the wall. "I'd prefer this mess of a trial to be over with. We have everything we need to bury all of the main criminals six feet under, and to put everyone else in prison for how ever long the law says they deserve. If nobody rose to the baiting, this would probably be over already."
"I doubt that. And how about I take you to Pony Joe's for some donuts? Maybe that'll cheer us up."