//------------------------------// // (Present Chapter 49) Little White Lies // Story: The Unique Properties of Dark Magic // by Shadestyle //------------------------------// Over the next few days until the case could be dealt with for good, Twilight quickly had several questions of hers both raised and answered "What I don't get, mom, is, if everything in Canterlot was destroyed, how did you even get those pictures of me? I'm glad that our photo albums were fine, but... Something seems odd about it," Twilight mused. "Well, you're right about that, dear, it is odd. Far be it from me to look a gift horse in the mouth though. Apparently, other ponies have been finding little things like this left in the rubble. Old toys, photographs, one pony actually found her wedding band, sitting right where her house was, all of it completely untouched," Velvet explained, running a hoof along the photo album gently. "It's made things a bit more tolerable, I suppose," she finished quietly. Twilight quietly accepts this. There may have been a million and one theories for why certain sentimental objects survived the destructive magical eruption that flattened the city, but there was a time and a place for it. Now was a time to be grateful it was so. Applejack, meanwhile, was putting considerable effort into strengthening her case by contacting other members of the Apple Family. "Looks like Fuji and Pippin are willing to look over Twi's test results and do some investigatin' of their own, but Rome and Black Diamond are a total loss. I don't hardly blame em, but by golly it's going to make this rougher than it needs to be," Applejack muttered, chewing a pen nervously as she looked over the letters with care. Granny Smith sent her a letter that warmed her heart, apparently, she was already gearing up to take advantage of the changes to come, slyly recruiting a couple of unicorns with some kind of fancy applejuice machine. It was a sign of confidence and trust, and one that gave the mare the resolve to see this through. After all, what showed more confidence in you from your elders, if not insider business arrangements that assume you'll win? Soon, it would be time to settle this once and for all, and drag the whole of agriculture into something a bit more honest. Earth Ponies used a magic all their own to grow some of the finest food in Equestria, and soon, Equestria would remember it once again. On the day of the big event, Applejack's other friends came to support her as well, from Rainbow Dash to Rarity, none of them wanted to miss the big day. "You show em Applejack!" Rainbow Dash said, offering a hoofbump to the suited farmpony which was met with a confident nod. Fluttershy and Rarity simply smiled, they didn't have anything to say to such a serious occasion, but their presence was girding. Applejack was only stopped from entering the impromptu courthouse by Pinkie Pie, however, who for once had an air of brevity. "Don't worry. You've got this," Pinkie said quietly, as if somehow sensing Applejack's well-hidden nervousness. With a deep breath, Applejack entered the courtroom. Unless you were going before the princess directly, your experiences with Equestria's legal system would vary. In this case, it involved going before a small group of appointed ponies who would deliberate on a case. Some were empowered to ask questions of one side or the other, some to interject, and one to act as a central figure, this pony would deliver the final decision. Applejack saw them getting into their tall seats, as Chancellor Golden Apple and his own motley crew of lawyers and goons filed in. Golden Apple gave her a look as he passed. "For what it's worth, cousin, I-" he began, only for Applejack to hold up a hoof. "Save it," the mare responded, not bitterly, but with a definite edge. Friendly words were for friends and family, and Golden Apple had no intention of acting in either capacity today. Applejack noticed Celestia, sitting off to the side. The princess winked, and it became clear that, yes, the case was a foregone conclusion for anyone who knew anything. Chancellor Golden Apple seemed to notice as well, and tensed up, glancing around the room. What was he looking for? It didn't matter. Applejack settled in for the beginning of a long and drawn out song and dance that she knew well enough to follow along with. It was strange. Golden Apples lawyers were true beasts, worthy of their cutie mark, with how they savagely tried everything they could to get Applejack to fumble, to misspeak or misquote evidence, to contradict herself, or make a mistake in even unrelated matters. However, as one day of deliberations drew into two, and then three, one thing was not as it should have been, Applejack noted. Golden Apple himself. He did not seem interested in participating, even as her case pulled ahead without Celestia needing to intervene, bit by bit, he didn't seem more nervous than he had been upon entering, and the way he was nervous didn't fit a courtroom setting. Ponies often thought Applejack's ability to suss out dishonesty was supernatural, but so much of it came down to really basic things that didn't really distinguish truth from falsehood, merely tension from relaxation. Did it matter what a pony answered with, when they seemed tense at the question alone? If you asked them why they seemed stressed, did their answer hold water? It was things like that that helped Applejack in her day to day business, both before becoming an Element of Harmony, and afterwards as well. Aside from skilled, or mentally unwell ponies, she preferred to believe, and had reason to believe, that most ponies weren't comfortable with being deceptive. It was any wonder that Weiss Noir made her uncomfortable. For him, nothing mattered but making ponies act in a particular way. Whether he told the truth, a half-truth, or an outright fabrication that was only the truth if you had the full context, depended only on what he wanted you to do for him. So, then, knowing all of that... 'Why is Golden Apple acting like that? If he knew he would lose, why even drag me here?' Applejack questioned, her eyes narrowing. 'He looks like he thinks somepony's gonna show up at the last minute, and by golly I do not like it.' Something was rotten here, and as the court took a brief recess, she confronted the Chancellor in the hall. "Explain it to me, Golden, what in Equestria possessed you to go and do this iffin you ain't even gonna try to prove me wrong. You are jumpier than a hen in a snake's den and it absolutely ain't cause I'm kicking your flank," she demanded. Golden Apple frowned, he seemed to debate with himself, but finally shook his head. "It doesn't matter. Do what you need to do." With that, he walked off quickly, too quickly, in fact. Applejack could tell that the pompous Earth Pony had come to a decision. As ponies went back in for what would likely be the last round of deliberation for the day over whether or not Earth Ponies were, used, and did magic in the production of apples, the mare noted his expression, and how a dangerously defiant glint seemed to enter his eyes. During a lull in the arguing, Golden Apple stood up. "With the permission of the court, I would like to say a few words that will bring this case to a close," he said suddenly, and the spectators looked as confused as the appointees themselves. The head pony took a long look at the Chancellor, whose lawyers were fumbling over one another trying to figure out what exactly he was doing, what exactly it was he planned on saying, and why he didn't gosh-darn tell them if he had some kind of ace in the hole! "Very well, say your piece," the head pony allowed, and he strode forwards confidently. "I would like to begin by pointing out something many of you already know, and the rest of you, I am sure already assume of me," he began. He put a hoof to his chest. "I am, for lack of a better word, a rich bastard." The seeming non-sequitur caught most of the room off guard, and it was only Celestia herself who had the wherewithal to consider the deeper implications of this off-base comment. "I'm not filthy rich, that honor goes to Filthy Rich, of course," he said with a nod to the pony in question, who was part of the spectators. "But I'm without a doubt rich, both in the acquisition and subsequent frittering away of immense wealth. My shipping company, and my luxury apple farm has provided for myself wealth sufficient to live in the lap of luxury. I want for nothing, and while away my days doing two things. Luxuriating in the things my bits grant me, and gaining more of them. This court case, this entire suit, then, has done neither of those things," he barks. "Do you have a point, Chancellor? If so, please get on with it," the head pony requested. "I do. It is with this preface that I would like to admit to the frivolity of this case I have brought before the court, and the true intention of it." he said. Celestia's ears twitched, and she began to tense. "Therefore, in the interest of making more bits than I would following this farce to its end, and in surviving to spend them, I would throw myself on the mercy of Princess Celestia, and urge you to-" A faint whine, a burst of light from Celestia's horn, shielding spectators, a crash of stone, and then, a crack of air. These are the things that lasted long enough for ponies to even notice them happening, as a giant mechanical monstrosity crashed through the room, orichalcum armor and magical hellfire rockets sending everything it touched everywhere around it as it grabbed Chancellor Golden Apple, and, in a flash, drug him screaming into the sky with a crackling trail of neon electricity behind it. Golden Apple screams his lungs out as the machine crests over a cloud, humming loudly as a Rainbow Dash peers out from the open cockpit. "What's wrong, Seaman?!" she shouts with a smirk. "You're insane!" he screamed in response, thrashing in the mechanical claw of the Great Sacred Treasure being piloted by Game Master, who used her imitated skills to pilot it. "Now that's just sad! Don't you know? The market teaches you not to panic... When there's a sudden drop!" With that, she dropped the Earth Pony, sending him screaming to the ground, a thrashing flailing animal in the face of the terror surging through him. The Great Sacred Treasure screamed as its rockets ignited once again, sending it flying in an arc back towards the courthouse, while Golden Apple continued falling like a ragdoll. He squeezed his eyes shut as the ground rushed up too quickly for any other action, but at the last minute, the feeling of weightlessness turned into a sudden sensation of intense forces in the wrong direction. "I got you!" Rainbow Dash yelled, snatching him out of the air at the last minute and setting him down. He collapsed as soon as she did, blinking and struggling to breathe. "What the hay is that thing? It's crazy!" Rainbow Dash yelled, hovering near the Chancellor as Celestia flew up and fired a beam at the flying machine, a beam that parted around its armor as it slammed into her, before firing off a beam of plasma that drove her back. Spotting the pony in the cockpit, Rainbow Dash balked and threw up her hooves. "Another one!?" she cried incredulously at the doppelganger, the second in as many months. "Game Master- Imitates, I don't know," he choked, legs shaking as he tried to stand with adrenaline savaging his nerves. Rainbow Dash frowned, giving the pony one last look before darting away to help in the action. He watched in awe and horror as Game Master fought savagely in the machine, making a special point of attacking the Element Bearers, and Applejack most of all. The earth pony's sweat marred her brow as she stumbled back, Vampire Killer Whip in her teeth slapping out at the mechanical abomination, knocking aside bolts of plasma before a missile streaked from one of the sides, spiraling around and getting too close for her to safely bat it away with her flaming whip. The missile exploded as she sliced it in half with the Weapon of Light, and sent the mare into a broken chunk of wall with a yell of pain, Twilight's aura springing up to grab her before she could fall. Celestia slammed into the back of the machine, tearing off a chunk of it, but as she did, another piece of machinery slid over into place, replacing the functionality of the damaged rocket and allowing it to whir around and strike her in the face with the barrel of its gun. Game Master bared her teeth in a smirk, firing blast after blast that seemed to lose effectiveness against the princess with each repeated shot. One final shot managed to crash into her face, but the clearing smoke revealed the princess's untouched expression, and it was pissed. At least, one could intuit that it was, beneath the off-white platemail armor that had grown to encapsulate her entire body, synthetic unicorn horn that made her nearly as durable as she was regenerative. "Enough." Celestia blurred with a wingbeat as the machine tried to go after Fluttershy, who was in the crowd trying to keep them calm and away from the violence, and with another wingbeat, slammed the wretched machine and its pilot deep into the stone foundation of New Canterlot. With an ignited horn, the princess pulled Game Master free of the heavily damaged machine, her body held perfectly still in wrathful telekinesis. Celestia studied the pony with a cold fury, and noticed a loose bandage sparking and sparkling, the source of the pilot's disguised form as Rainbow Dash. She tugged away at the bandages, until the illusion failed entirely, revealing a gigantic Wannabeetle, a familiar one, despite the cracked shell. She glared at the bandages, at the runes sewn into them. "Unicorn magic..." she hissed, recognizing it for what it was. She turned to the crowd. "Blueblood?!" "Blueblood!" she roared, determined to receive an explanation for this. "Scary, isn't it? Just how vulnerable any pony is to violence. Just how little others can protect you from it, when you can't protect yourself. How quickly and accurately it comes, when it's... Necessary." Black Angel said quietly next to Golden Apple, who was swept up in the crowd. He and the rest of the crowd were watching as the normally arrogant and rude Blueblood cowered before a Celestia who was trying her best to not have him thrown in the dungeon after what his loyal and loving pet had done to Applejack, who was being carted away to a hospital as rapidly as possible. Golden Apple wanted to cry at how close the eldest of Chapter Black was to him, too close. He could scream, tell everyone what's going on, the truth, but he was too close. Black Angel smiled, and quietly muttered under the din of the crowd. They didn't seem to react to his words, or even his presence. "It's alright. You didn't say anything too terrible, so this was just a little scare. Just a little scare, Chancellor. We'll use up the prince now, Game Master has been framing him for quite a bit, so now is a good time to... Expend him. Draw a healthy amount of attention away from Chapter Black." The stallion's smile widened as he thought of something. "You know those old mafia movies, where an important fellow is threatened so he would keep his mouth shut? Pretend that that is what's going on here. Just a fun little movie, just a cliche, where the important person keeps his mouth shut... "So a horse's head isn't found in his bed the next morning." As Prince Blueblood was brought in for questioning, and his pet seized as damning evidence, Golden Apple kept his mouth shut. He tried to give honesty a shot, but the cost... Unacceptably high, for any businesspony.