//------------------------------// // Trial; Error // Story: 1000 Years Later // by DekaSkittalz //------------------------------// It’s been about an hour since we got to Rarity’s place, and she’s now putting the finishing touches on my clothes. “While it wasn’t technically your fault, do try to take better care of them this time Null. I’d hate for my work to be rendered pointless within a week.” she says as she presents me my shirt, completely clean and good as new. I take it and carefully slide it on, and relish in the familiar comfort of it. “Believe me I’ll try. And… Thanks Rarity. I may not act like it, but this does mean alot to me.” I say with a soft smile. She waves a hoof and scoffs with a nonchalant smile. “Think nothing of it dear. I’ll throw together some other outfits for you when I get the chance as well.” This gets me to raise an eyebrow. “Other outfits?” “Well, that’s what you were complaining about earlier, wasn’t it? Not having anything to change into? Besides,we can't have you going around wearing the same thing every day now can we? So, I’m going to make you a few outfits.” she says as if it’s the most casual thing in the world. “You really don-” is all I get out before she interrupts. “I’ll hear none of it Null, not one single word; There’s nothing you can say that will stop me. Besides, it’ll be a fun side project.” she states. I ignore my unease at the phrase ‘side project’, having been one myself for quite some time, and shake my head. “If you’re that dead set on it, I won’t stop you. Just remember I’m not making you do it.” I then boop her nose, causing her to go cross eyed looking at her nose. Not giving her time to react, I then head out the front door. “Cya around Rare.” On my way out I hear a small snort of amusement, and the sound of hooves following behind me. A quick glance tells me it's just Starlight, so I keep walking in silence. We keep on like that for a while; me wandering around aimlessly, and Starlight just following along. We find ourselves walking through the center of town, everyone else keeping their distance from me still, when I hear something. Something… wooden. And approaching quickly? I stop and start to turn around, and hear a panicked “Gain way!”. Halfway through turning though, I feel something slam into my lower side at high speeds, making me fall into what I assume to be a cart with a grunt, causing all my muscles to light up in pain. My fight or flight instincts kicking in, I open my eyes, despite the pain, and quickly take stock of the situation; My left eye is screaming in protest, but I manage to ignore it. Looking around, I see I’m not alone in the cart. Three small fillies are around me, one of them holding what is apparently a broken steering apparatus made for this thing, another looking at me with wide eyes, and the third yelling ahead for everyone to get out of the way. Before I can even react, she yells something else, this time towards us all in the cart. “BRACE FOR IMPACT!” Sitting up, I have just enough time to see the front of the cart collide with a fountain, making the cart shatter into chunks of wood, sending the four of us soaring through the air. Terrified screams of the children fill my ears; time slows down, and without thinking, I grab the three fillies in my arms, and blink. Here's hoping this works! When I’m on the other side of my blink, safely on the ground laying on my back next to the fountain, the sound of screaming children is still very much audible, so I’m left to assume they came with me. Glancing down confirms as much. Knowing the immediate threat of falling is gone, I join in on their screaming; my screaming from actual pain rather than fear. GOD, blinking by itself hurts; taking others with you multiplies that pain and then kicks it in the dick for good measure! Soon all our screaming subsides, and the three fillies scramble off me. I sit up with a groan, rubbing my eye. With my normal eye, I look at the three fillies, -Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom I recall from the moment I had my left eye open-, and they look back at me. Looking past them, I notice Starlight approaching, but ignore her for the moment. Taking a deep breath, I start. “What the hell were you three doing?!” They all flinch at my harsh tone, and none speak. “Well? What could you have possibly been doing that led to you all heading down the main street of Ponyville at mach chicken?” The orange one, Scootaloo, flinches a bit at that last remark, while the yellow one, Apple Bloom, tries to stifle a giggle. The white one, Sweetie Belle, decides to speak up. “We were trying to get our cutie marks in Derby Cart making. This was just a test run to see if we had the steering mechanism down!” she says with a small amount of enthusiasm. I notice Starlight frown at the mention of cutie marks, and raise an eyebrow at that. What’s up with that? Scootaloo continues her friend’s sentence. “Yeah, but it broke and we lost control while we were going down a hill.” I stare at them incredulously for a good while. Taking in a deep breath, I let it out and just shake my head. “Cutie marks. Of course. Why would it be anything else?” I ask nobody in particular. “Uh, mister?” I hear one of them speak up. Looking at them, Apple Bloom points at my face. “Are you alright? That’s an awful lot of blood.” I sit still for a moment, then get to my knees and peer over the rim of the fountain and look at my reflection. Sure enough, there’s a copious amount of blood dripping from my eye. I reach in and wash off the blood, the comparatively small amount of blood fading away into the fountain water. I turn back and look around to see another crowd had gathered around. Letting out a sigh, I slowly stand up, leaning on the fountain for support. “Just be more careful next time, alright? I’m already in enough pain as it is, and this really did not help.” They all look down in shame. “We're sorry.” they say collectively. “Stop that. Sad and upset isn’t a good look for you three.” I say leaning in and ruffling their manes. With that, I motion for Starlight to follow and hobble away from the town center, away from the crowd that had gathered; preferably to a quiet place. When we are finally away from the crowd, Starlight speaks up. “Are you alright Null? That crash looked like it hurt.” she says with some concern. “Bah, I’m fine. It’ll probably bruise but that’s about it.” I say in a carefree attitude. “That’s about it? How can you be so casual about bodily harm to yourself?” “Well it’s not like I particularly enjoy being in pain, but they obviously didn’t mean to hurt anyone. Besides, they’re children; can’t exactly blame them for doing dumb stuff.” I say, approaching a park I spotted. “That doesn’t answer my question Null.” she says with a shake of her head. “Because I just don’t care. If it happens, it happens. I don’t have to like it, but that doesn’t mean I have to complain about it. Besides, why should I answer your questions? You’ve been dodging mine since we met.” I say a bit more harshly than I meant to. She visibly flinches at my tone, lowering her head, and folding her ears back. I step in front of and look down at her, halting our movement. “What’s happened to you that’s so bad Starlight? Why are you drifting from town to town? And why are you so particular about cutie marks?” I crouch down to eye level with her. “I-I don’t have a problem with cutie marks.” she says defensively. “Bullshit. You frowned when those kids mentioned it, and you even asked me if I had one when we first met; seeming even more excited when I said I couldn’t get one. What did cutie marks do to you, Starlight?” I press. “They stole my friend! Alright?! They ruined my childhood! That's my problem with them!” she exclaims, the beginning of tears starting to form in her eyes. Seeing my confusion, she continues. “When I was little, my only friend got his cutie mark in magic. And you know what happened after that? He left. He went to Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns, and dropped me like a bad habit; No letters, no visits, nothing. It destroyed me.” her eyes are red and puffy now, her words mangled by intermittent crying. She keeps going before I can even say anything. “When I got myself together, I thought, maybe I could do what he did. Get a cutie mark, get praised, make some more friends, and everything would be better, right? No! I got my cutie mark, and everyone avoided me even more! They were scared of me, because of my cutie mark; because I was skilled in magic. Because I didn’t go to a proper school to learn magic, everyone thought I was a ticking time bomb waiting to go off!” She’s now openly sobbing, and I start to see why she’s the way she is. Doesn’t explain why she’s homeless, but It’s not the right time to press for more answers. I sigh, sit down in front of her, and pull her into a hug; It’s just what I remember seeing so many others do in situations like this. “It’s alright, let it out.” It took her a while, but she eventually calmed down. And by calmed down, I mean cried herself to sleep. I scooted over to sit against a tree a little after she did, doing my best not to wake her. The sun’s starting to approach the horizon; and the entire time, I couldn’t help but just watch her sleep. It was like I was stuck back as a statue, except I could look away whenever I wanted. I just… didn’t though. The weirdest part was that I didn’t even notice until just now; My mind was just blank. I don’t exactly know how to feel about it. It was only when Luna teleported directly in front of me that she finally stirred. “...Am I interrupting something?” Luna asks as Starlight blearily rubs the sleep from her eyes. Looking up from the pony using me as a makeshift bed, I glance at Luna with an unamused look, then back at Starlight. I poke her a little to get her attention. “Feeling better?” I ask. She nods a little, and gets off me. “I guess mom’s here to pick me up. You gonna be alright?” I ask, motioning to Luna. Starlight follows the motion, and gives a tired nod. As I try to get up, she yanks me back down and whispers into my ear. “Don’t… tell anyone what I told you.” I nod and pat her on the head, and she lets me get up. She walks down the path back towards town without another word. Luna raises an eyebrow, and I raise one back at her. “I guess I was interrupting something.” she finally says with a smirk after a moment of silence. I roll my eyes and scoff. “Nothing happened, Luna. I was just lending an ear, the same way I did for you all those years ago.” I state. “Which ended up with her asleep on top of you under a tree?” she questions. “The very same way you fell asleep by my statue.” I state indifferently. Finally catching my meaning, she lets out a small ‘oh’. After another small moment, she clears her throat. “Well, the trial is starting soon. Let’s get to Canterlot, shall we?” she says lighting up her horn with magic. Right as it clicks in my head that she’s about to use her own method of teleportation, she casts her spell and off we go. The pulling and twisting and everything uncomfortable that comes with her method hits me all at once, and I find myself on my hands and knees when we appear on the other side. Holding back some vomit, I shakily get to my feet and glare at her. “I still hate that kind of teleporting.” She rolls her eyes and bats me on the chest. “Quit being such a baby.” Looking in front of me, I see a set of double doors. “This is the courthouse. Are you ready?” I nod and follow Luna in, taking a seat where she directs me to. Feeling a bit better with my eye, I start to open it and keep it open. Looking up on the stand, I see Skyline in shackles, looking resigned to his fate. Luna takes a seat where the judge would normally sit. of course she’d be the judge here. Her branch of military, and she’s a princess. Why wouldn’t she. Assembled on either side of Luna are an assortment of high ranking military personnel. The jury stand is empty, but behind us is a number of guards, news reporters, and various other spectators. Everyone quiets down when Luna smacks her gavel on the block, and clears her throat, and begins rambling off some law stuff that I honestly don’t care to pay attention to. After a while, I tune back in, and seemingly at the right moment. “The accused, Skyline, stands trial in a court martial for work negligence that has led to property damage, the endangerment of others, and the near death of Princess Celestia. These charges are not to be taken lightly. From your own written statement submitted to the court, you admit to laughing at the subject in question when he fell into a patch of Poison Joke, and failing to inform him of the potential dangers of said plant; and following that, failing to administer an antidote, or even offer said antidote, as is standard procedure for anyone who comes into contact with Poison Joke during their time in the gardens. Is this correct so far?” She looks down from the paper she was reading off of, looking towards Skyline. Before he can confirm her statements, I interject. “False.” I can feel all eyes in the courtroom on me, but I ignore it and lock eyes with Luna. After a moment of silence, she addresses me. “Care to Clarify, Null?” “Gladly. Everything you said was right, up til you said he didn’t tell me what I fell into. He did tell me, and against his better judgement, I declined his offer of an antidote.” I say nonchalantly. One of the high ranking officers situated next to Luna speaks up. “If that is the case, then why did Skyline not state so in his written statement? This discrepancy contradicts what the accused says.” "Well as the only other one who was there, mine’s the only other statement you can actually take. As for why he said otherwise, probably fear. When was the last time a court martial had taken place, hm? Let alone a trial with charges of this severity. Probably didn’t want to go against the grain. After all, who’s word would the Princess take, a guard, or her friends? Maybe he was afraid of bias, and thought he’d make it worse on himself if he didn’t just say what he thought was what others wanted to hear.” Glancing over at him, I make a show of making my eye glow. “Even without my eye I could tell he was scared, but this just confirms it.” I say, cutting off the glow and looking back at Luna. She knows I’m lying through my teeth, and narrows her eyes at me. Looking back to Skyline, who’s now looking at me with an expression of barely contained surprise, she questions him. “And what do you have to say to this, Skyline? Is it true that the fear of bias led to your current written statement?” He swallows loudly, and picks his jaw up off the ground and turns back to face Luna. “I-it may have…” he says dumbly. “Null, are you aware of how court proceedings work here in Equestria?” Luna asks. “Not at all. But I am aware that Skyline isn’t guilty of these charges. That, and these chairs are uncomfortable, can we hurry this up?” I ask flippantly. I can see Luna barely able to contain a small smile, and she smirks with her eyes narrowed at me. “Very well, seeing as the resulting damages were not anyone's fault by proxy of Skyline taking the proper precautions, and the resulting damages being done by a physical embodiment of an emotion,spawned by the chaotic plant that is Poison Joke, which cannot be held accountable, I see no further reason to prolong this trial. I find the defendant not guilty. He will however, report to me to resume his duty starting tomorrow. Court dismissed.” she states, slamming her gavel on the block, removing Skylines shackles, and teleporting away, all in one motion. The court erupts into a cacophony of yelling and questions, but I ignore it all and stride out of the courthouse with a stupid smile at having probably pissed off everyone in that courtroom. Glancing up towards the mountain that Canterlot itself rests on, I blink up to a high spot by the waterfall and sit down, wiping off the blood that results from doing so with the water, and dry my face with the sleeve of my shirt. As I’m rubbing the pain away, I hear the sound of flapping heading my direction. Opening my eyes, I see it’s Skyline; He comes to a stop in front of me. “What the hell was that!?” he exclaims. “What was what? Me saving your ass from a life in prison?” I ask with a cocky smirk. “Yeah, that! Wh-why’d you lie for me?” “You can thank Luna for that; I’m following her advice: Giving others a chance.” I say leaning back a bit. “But I thought you-” “Hated you? Nah. still pissed at ya, but I’ll kick your ass later. Besides, you gave me a chance to try and kill Celestia. Wasn’t your intention, didn’t work out, but it’s the thought that counts. Now get out of here, I bet you got some people who will be happy to hear from ya.” I say, waving him off. He just hovers there with a dumbfounded look, which turns to a smile after a moment. “Thank you Null. Truly.” “Mhm. Now shoo.” He flies off and even does a flip in excitement before disappearing among the buildings. I look out at the town, my smile slowly disappearing. it might not have been the best decision in the eyes of the public… but they’d have found a reason to blame it on me one way or another anyways. Besides, what’s that saying? One in the hand is worth two in the bush? Something like that.