//------------------------------//
// Part III, Chapter 6 - Arraignment 
// Story: Fitting In Is Hard To Do 
// by origami 
//------------------------------//


Six Days Earlier...






Mint Julep sat at her kitchen table with her head in one hoof.  Sitting opposite her at the table was an empty chair with a plate in front of it, on which sat a peanut butter and crystal berry jam sandwich.  The mare looked at a nearby clock on the wall and saw that nearly an hour had passed from the time her daughter should have been home from tutoring to now.  As she waited for her daughter's return, she couldn't help but feel a pit of worry form in her stomach.

Mint and her husband had decided they wanted the best education possible for their daughter, as any parents would.  So when they heard of a weekend tutoring program that would help make their daughter's grades the absolute best, they intended to enroll their daughter post haste.

Though expensive, the couple were able to get their daughter into the program with little trouble.  Things had been going good at first; Raspberry's grades were top or near top of her class, and the couple weren't hurting for bits near as bad as they feared they would.

Of course, that was before her husband's accident.

The incident had put a large monkey wrench into the couple's plan.  Mint Julep had made as many efforts as she could to find the bits needed to both get her husband healed and out of the hospital and keep her daughter in the tutoring program.

Despite her best efforts, she could not get a loan to afford the costs associated with the program, and all the denials came with the same reason: no source of income.

Had Mint known about the financial woes in the past, she would've never given up her previous job to take care of Raspberry.  Even her attempts to find work for when Raspberry was in school were fruitless; they simply didn't pay the bits that she needed.

With no other options open to her, Mint Julep resorted to the last option available to her.  She would have to secure a private loan.  Even as she thought it, Mint cursed herself for allowing it to go this far.

The meeting for the loan was brief.  She'd been referred to by somepony to a crystal unicorn named Peridot Gamble.  According to his spiel, he was an employee of a financier from the griffin kingdom named Mint Eagle, who was willing to give her a loan, provided she agreed to their terms.  Of course, after reading the contract, she knew they were committing highway robbery.  Unfortunately, she needed the bits and saw no way around it.  With a dejected sigh, she signed the paper and received the loan.

The repayment process quickly became a nightmare.  Despite making the first two months payments on time and in full, she was still being charged for interest.  A threat from her to go to the guard was met with a spear pointed at her throat and the threat that she would be skewered if she wasn't compliant.  In that one moment when the spear poked into her throat hard enough to draw a pinpirck worth of blood, she knew that she was dealing with loan sharks.

After that, the payments became more and more, until it came to a head.  The last time Peridot came to collect, Mint didn't had enough to cover it.  He ransacked the house and had taken a considerable amount of her jewelry, including a necklace belonging to her great grandmother, a wedding gift from her mother.  Seeing the heirloom snatched up and thrown into a bit pouch had turned her stomach.

She swore she would find a way to get the loan shark off her back, but she had no idea how she would do it.

A knocking at her door shook the mare from her thoughts.  Quickly, she went to the door and answered it.  Standing at the door was her daughter, but she wasn't alone.  Standing behind her were the collectors, all three wearing grins on their faces.  The lead one, a crystal unicorn looked down at Raspberry.  "Why don't you go and play in your room?" he suggested to her.  "Your mommy and I need to talk."

Raspberry nervously looked at her mother, who simply nodded.  "Go on, sweetie," she told her daughter, "Do what the stallion said."

The filly looked at all three ponies for a second before bolting to her bedroom, tears clearly present in her eyes.  The three stallions entered the apartment without invitation, but Mint knew better than to raise a fuss; the trouble that would bring her would be more than it was worth.  The stallions walked over to the table and sat down, the red earth pony taking the sandwich meant for Raspberry and eating it.

"You know why we're here" the green one said.

"Yes, I do" Mint replied.

"So, where is it?"

Mint went into her fridge and pulled out a sack of bits from behind some cartons of milk and cream.  She placed it on the counter nervously.  The unicorn passed it to the other.  "Count it" he told them.

The second unicorn began counting out the payment, and when he finished, gave a frown.  "It's short."

"Short, huh?" the first unicorn responded, then looked at Mint.  "I wonder why that is."

"Please," Mint began pleading,"That's all I can get!  I can't find a better job-"

"Save the sob story, sister," the crystal pony replied, "You don't think we've heard all the sob stories in the world?"

Mint stopped talking, understanding fully now that she was not going to find any sympathy or compassion from these stallions.  The crystal unicorn continued speaking.

"I heard that one only the other day from a mare that borrowed half as much as you and your husband did.  You know what I told her?"  The stallion paused for a moment before he raised up his right hoof.  "Nothing that this guy right here couldn't say better as I clubbed her hard enough to leave a shiner."

Mint gulped.  If that mare only owed half as much as she did and got that rough a treatment for a short payment, she could only imagine what she was in for, and that thought was beginning to raise terror in the back of her mind.

The green stallion got up from his chair and cut the distance between the two so that they were practically muzzle to muzzle.  "So," he said with a sinister tone in his voice, "Where's the rest of the payment."

"I don't have-"

Mint's response was cut off by a hoof striking her so hard that it knocked her to the floor, but it wasn't to her face.  This blow went to her midsection, taking away her air.  She gasped on the floor for several moments before the stallion bent his neck down to look her square in the eye.

"Don't make me ask you again," he said even more sternly, "Where's the rest of the payment?"

Mint, still gasping for air, tried to respond, but was again treated to a hoof strike to her stomach, causing her to let out a choked cry of pain.  The stallion had hit the same spot as before, making the slowly disappearing pain come back with a vengeance.

"You've already missed one payment," the stallion spat at her, "Wanna go for a second one?"  He punctuated the question with another hit to the same spot, making Mint groan in pain.

"You should count yourself lucky," the stallion smugly remarked, "You could be getting a worse beating from Sledge over there."  He moved back over the mare's head with a look that made the terror in the back of her mind move very quickly to the front.

"Of course, If I let him do that," the stallion said in a whisper, "You'll have a lot worse than that bruised abdomen."  Mint went pale as she realized now how far these stallions would go.

"Maybe ya should just let me have at her," the red stallion suggested, "Might be easier to make a claim on the life insurance payout."

"No, you idiot!" the unicorn scolded.  "The sources say neither she or her husband got one.  Besides, those claims get investigated by the guard's fraud division.  The whole operation would be found out in no time."

The other stallion looked towards the crystal pony nervously.  "We really should get going, Perry," he said to him, "We've already stayed longer than we should have, and the guard's bound to show up soon to talk with her and the filly about earlier."

"Earlier?" Mint questioned in her mind.  "What about earlier?"

Perry, as Mint now had a name for the stallion, looked back at her very sternly.  "Here's the deal.  We'll take all of this and call it full payment.  A guard is gonna show up in a bit to interview your daughter about something that happened earlier.  You tell them that she's too traumatized to speak and you won't let them see her without a warrant.  As for what happened, you tell them that she kept babbling on about a changeling grabbing her.  You also tell them we stepped in to stop them.  Understand?"

Mint still couldn't speak, so she simply gave a nod.

"Good." the stallion said as he gestured for his two fellows to leave.

"Oh, one last thing." he said as he dropped two pieces of paper on the floor.  "I would definitely make sure I have next month's payment in full.  We wouldn't anything bad happening to anypony else you care about."  With that, the three stallions left.

Left alone in the kitchen, Mint moved to sit up, groaning as she could feel muscles in her body that were bruised from the hard strikes she had received.  Up on her hooves, her attention turned to the papers and she let out gasps of horror.

The two papers were photographs.  The first was of her husband in his hospital room laying in bed asleep.  The camera was behind a pair of hooves holding a pillow a short distance from his face.  The second was a photo of Raspberry as she walked past an alleyway the camera was situated in.  The view of the camera this time was from behind the sights of a cocked and loaded crossbow.






Present Time...






Thorax was currently sitting inside his cell.  At the moment, he was in a rather uncomfortable state.  He had been arrested less than a week ago, which meant the last time he fed on any love from the Crystal Heart was on the morning the day he was arrested.  Now, he was beginning to starve, and his body was telling him to address the problem.

It was an unpleasant conversation he was going to need to have with Plea, whom he was told was coming to speak with him later today to prepare him for his first court appearance.  Thorax would have to think of how to best approach the subject.  Ultimately, telling the stallion the truth would be his best bet.

A hoof banging on the bars of the cell got the changeling's attention.  "Your council's here for you." the guard spat at Thorax as he moved to unlock the cell.  Despite his cooperativeness, the guards still treated Thorax with disdain.  Of course, nopony said the guards had to be nice to prisoners, just don't beat their skulls in unless necessary.

Thorax got up and exited the cell, then was led to the room where Plea was waiting.  The stallion, in a black jacket with white shirt and solid purple tie, greeted Thorax.  "How are you holding up?"  he asked with concern.  "You don't look quite so good."

Thorax elected to broach the subject then and there.  "No.  I haven't been doing so well for the past couple of days."

"How come?"

"Well..."  Thorax took his time thinking of how to word his response, then elected to just come out with it.  "I haven't been eating."

"Why not?" Plea asked.  "I know prison food isn't the greatest, but it can't be so bad it's inedible."

"Maybe for a pony it isn't," Thorax replied,"but there's no real nutrition in it for changelings."

Plea was confused for a moment, and then remembered who, or more specifically what he was speaking to.

"Oh," he said with realization, "You're not getting any love, and you kinda need that, don't you?"

Thorax nodded.

"How were you getting it before?" Plea asked.

"Princess Cadance was letting me take overflow from the Crystal Heart.  She figured it was the safest way to feed me without any of the crystal ponies getting hurt."

Plea nodded his head.  "Makes sense.  The love the crystal ponies have inside them is the most powerful in Equestria, or at least that's what I've been told.  There would probably be more than enough in the Crystal Heart to spare for just one changeling to feed."

"But I can't feed on it anymore," Thorax told plea, "and if I can't feed anytime soon, the hunger pains I'm feeling will just get worse."

"So, we need to get you fed properly." Plea reasoned.  "At least what counts as properly for you."

"Whatever you can do, I would appreciate it very much." Thorax said to him in thanks.

"I can't make any promises," Plea cautioned the changeling, "but I can certainly see what I can do."

Plea jotted down some notes onto a note pad and placed it off to one side.  He then looked at Thorax with a more serious expression.

"Now for the real reason I'm here." Plea said to Thorax.

"Right," the changeling nodded in understanding, "The arrangement."

"Arraignment," Plea clarified, "but yes, that's what I'm here to discuss with you."

Plea went into his bags and produced a sheet with bubbles and lines on it.  He moved his hoof over the sheet, and as he did, he explained each bubble and line and what they meant.

"This is a flowchart to explain the process of how the arraignment will proceed.  First, you'll be brought to the courthouse by the guards and taken in to find out which courtroom the arraignment will be held in.  Before they bring you to court, they'll have you clean up and eat, or at least it would be eating if you could digest our food."

"Once they find out which room you'll be in, they'll take you to a holding area where you'll wait until your trial comes up on the docket.  There's very few crimes here in the empire, so I don't expect a long wait."

"Once the case is up, they'll bring you in to courtroom and shackle you to the defendant's chair."

"Sh-shackled?!" Thorax interrupted with alarm.

Plea nodded.  "There's been several ponies that have made attempts to flee the courtroom when it looked as though their cases were going to end in conviction, so they would make attempts to escape while they had the chance.  Most never got past the stunning spells of the unicorn bailiffs in the courtroom, and none have ever escaped the pegasi that patrol the hallways and outside the courthouse."

Thorax didn't say anything, but Plea took this as a sign he understood.  The stallion continued explaining.

"Even though you'll be shackled, you'll still have freedom to move.  The shackles are attached to tethers and not chains; they changed to those after several cases where there the accused were found guilty but later proven innocent because the appeals courts found the evidence against them wasn't substantial enough to warrant conviction, and surveys among ponies found that seeing a pony in shackles with chains made them look more guilty than they really were."

"And the tethers don't?" Thorax said.

"It's less," Plea answered, "Though it's not by a whole lot.  They're still working on a restraint that will allow the guards to keep control of a pony without affecting a jury's overall perception of them based on physical appearance."

"Anyways, after you're brought in and everypony else is present, the judge will enter the courtroom.  The bailiff will instruct everypony to stand and wait until the judge tells everypony to be seated.  Once everypony sits down, he'll address us to stand."

"The judge is then going to read off the crimes that you're being accused of, which in simple terms, amounts to you having assaulted the three stallions and the filly, as well as trying to abduct the filly and causing her harm."

"But I didn't do any of that!" Thorax protested.

"I know that, Thorax," Plea said to him, "of at the very least I believe you're telling me the truth.  That doesn't really matter.  The whole point of the trial is for all the evidence to be presented and for the jury to cast a verdict.  My job, as well as yours, is to convince them that you didn't attack the stallions or the filly, and that you were actually there to keep the filly from being harmed by the stallions."

"Back to the proceedings." Plea continued.  "After the judge reads off the charges, he'll then ask us for our plea.  The three answers we can give are guilty, not guilty or no contest."

"If we enter a plea of guilty or no contest, the judge will set a date for you to receive a sentence in the dungeons.  After that, you'll be taken to the dungeons and made to serve out your sentence.  After that...  Well, I honestly don't know.  As much as I hate to say it, the princess may elect to banish you from the Crystal Empire altogether."

"Now, we don't plan on entering either of those pleas, because you're not guilty, which is the plea we're entering.  Once we do that, the judge will set a date for pretrial procedures to begin.  Once he does that, the discovery phase begins."

"Discovery?" Thorax says questioningly.

"Yes." Plea confirms.  "Discovery is when both the prosecution and defense, the defense being us, interviews the witnesses and reviews all the evidence that was collected by the guard shortly after you were arrested.  The evidence is both physical, such as the hairs that were found in your muzzle, and testimonial, which would be the story the three stallions gave to the guard."

"The most important part of discovery is the fact that the prosecution is not allowed any surprises at trial, so they have to disclose all the witnesses and evidence they have.  If they don't, then we have no way to establish a proper defense, and this becomes a mistrial.  Once we get their witnesses and evidence, we can begin establishing our defense."

"How do we do that?" Thorax asked.

"For starters," Plea continues, "We'll send the physical evidence to a forensics laboratory.  They'll examine it and give us a full report on what they find.  We can also call on them as an expert witness."

"But they didn't see the crime happen."  Thorax said with confusion.  "How can they be a witness?"

"There's three kinds of witnesses: Lay witnesses, expert witnesses, and character witnesses." Plea explained.  "Lay witnesses are ponies that see a crime happen.  Expert witnesses are ponies that specialize in an area that is relevant to the crime or the evidence and give testimony related to those specific things.  Character witnesses, which I believe I explained before, give testimony about the 'character' of the accused pony.  You know, things like 'they're trustworthy' or 'helped me carry in the groceries'.  Just describing you as a good pony that wouldn't do something like this."

"Oh" Thorax replied, satisfied with the explanation.

"Of course, discovery works both ways.  I have to give a copy of the forensic report to the prosecutors so they can review it and have an expert witness make deductions of their own."

"Moving on, I'll also be interviewing the stallions that accused you.  I haven't met with them yet, but once discovery begins, you can bet your flank I'll be paying them a visit.  I also am gonna want to speak to that filly once I get the chance to."

"You wanna speak to the filly?" Thorax parroted in an uncertain tone.

"She's the only witness that the guards didn't speak to." Plea informed him.  "According to the guards, she fainted and was taken home by the three stallions.  She made it home, as the guards checked with her mother, but the mother said she'd been so traumatized by what happened to her, she was refusing to speak with anyone.  I'm hoping that a psychologist friend of mine who works with foals can help me get some kind of a story out of her."

Thorax just nodded at the information.  He hated to think that his efforts to stop the stallions had left such a negative impression on the filly that she was scarred for life.

The guard approached the two and informed them that their time was up.  Plea was about to leave before he remembered something.

"Dang-it, I forgot to mention bail."

"What?" Thorax said in confusion.

"Bail."  Plea repeated.  "After we enter the verdict, the judge will set the date for pretrial motions, but will also set a bail.  That's a sum of money that can be paid to have you released from jail for the duration of the trial.  If you're found innocent, you stay out.  If you're guilty, you go back in.  You can't leave the Crystal Empire, but you're not confined to any one specific building."

Thorax gave a nod in understanding.  The guard made a gesture for Plea to move, his face becoming annoyed.  "I'll see you tomorrow." Plea said to Thorax as he headed out the door.  The changeling was then led back to his cell, where a tray of oatmeal and milk was waiting for him.  His stomach growled in protest, clearly not being offered the meal it truly craved.






The Next Day...






Thorax was awoken the next day and directed to prepare for his first court date.  After rising from his cot, he was brought to a shower stall and given soap and water, which he made quick use of.  Though the shower was far from comfortable, with a lack of hot water, it sufficed in getting him clean.  Once he was finished and toweled off, the changeling was then led to a door he'd seen before but had never been through.  A look through the barred window told him this door led outside.

"We're going outside?" Thorax questioned.

"Our orders were altered this morning," The guard replied shortly, "Apparently, your lawyer got the princess to partially reinstate a deal you had with her about using the Crystal Heart for food, so we're taking you there."

"Oh" was the only response he could think to give.  Plea had been able to negotiate for Thorax being able to feed on the heart again that quickly?  Maybe there was hope that this pony could convince the other ponies that he wasn't guilty of the crime?

No, that was probably hoping for too much.  Thorax had learned the hard way a week ago that the ponies here in the Crystal Empire had made up their minds about him.  The way Plea explained the trial, there would be twelve ponies that would have to decide his fate, and the changeling had no idea if there were any ponies that would set aside their prejudices to listen to the evidence in his case.

The evidence of the filly's hair in Thorax's mouth and the three stallions claiming he was trying to kidnap her.  The more thought Thorax had put into the case, the less confidence he had.

"Move!" the guard behind him barked as he slapped Thorax's flanks with a spear shaft.  The changeling let out a small yip and marched ahead behind the lead guard.  Two flanked him left and right side.  Above him were pegasus guards, ready to tackle him to the ground should he choose to try and take to the air and escape.  All in all, he was well surrounded and would need some outside help if he were to actually attempt an escape.  Quickly he pushed the thought from his head; trying to make a break for it would not help his image in the least, not to mention that he would then actually be guilty for attempting to escape custody, and the outcome of the case against him now would be a moot point.

After several minutes of looking around at the streets that had been lit with glowing white gemstones, Thorax found himself approaching the Crystal Palace and the heart that sat beneath it.  The guard in front moved ahead and turned to face Thorax, gesturing him to move forward.  He had a key in his magic grip.

"Here's the deal, bug," the guard sneered, "I'm taking this collar off.  Those unicorns behind you will blast you if you try anything funny.  This comes off and I'm out of the way, you move ahead and feed.  You get fifteen minutes.  After the times up, the collar goes back on.  Got it?"

Thorax nodded, but was met with a hoof to the snout.  "Words, bug!" the guard reprimanded him.  "Do. You. Understand?"

"Y-yes" Thorax replied as he rubbed his snout.  The guard just gave a grunt as the key went into the lock on the collar and with a twist, the lock came free.  Magic took the collar from Thorax's neck and immediately his senses returned.  The ponies around him felt nothing but anger and contempt for him, as well as some fear mixed in.  He ignored it as best he could; these emotions seemed to be the default ones for when ponies encountered undisguised changelings.  He approached the heart and looked upon the large gem resting on its pedestal, basking in the magic and love that permeated it.

"Clock's ticking parasite!" the guard shouted, bringing Thorax's attention back to why he was here.  Thorax channeled his magic and opened his mouth.  Almost immediately, a tendril of pink energy left the heart and went into his mouth.  Almost immediately, the terrible pains from hunger abated, and the changeling found the satisfying feeling of love inside himself again.  As Thorax fed, he wished to himself that he could one day have a friend to share love with, as he had originally wanted to.  For now, he had to take what he could get, which was unfortunately too similar to what he had been doing in the hive, and too similar to what other changelings did.

"Time's up!" the guard said, and Thorax cut off the stream.  A moment later, and the collar was slapped around his neck and locked into place, once again cutting off his senses.  The guards then changed their positions so they could move again.  As they did, Thorax took notice of the changing sky.  Where night had once been, there were oranges and purples appearing on the horizon.  Slowly, the sun found its way above the horizon.  According to the ponies, Princess Celestia was responsible for the task, while her sister raised its counterpart during the evening.  It was apparently a spectacle to behold, and a town was chosen every year to host a festival that celebrated the longest day of the year.  Perhaps if things could work out and he was proven innocent, he could go to the host town for that year and partake in the celebrations.

As the group moved and the sun changed the sky from the purples and oranges to the blues of the day, Thorax found himself brought to a unique-looking building.  At least, unique-looking by the standard set by the other buildings.  It was modeled after buildings he'd remembered Sunburst showing him of a placed called Ancient Pona, a lost civilization whose ruins were still standing and often studied by various academics.  The front used a post and lintel system, with large quartz columns holding up a ridged roof, the end of which was decorated with various shapes carved into the material.  As visually interesting as the building was, it had nothing on the ornate bronze sculpture sitting at the base of the large staircase leading up to the front doors: A large pair of scales with the words ACTION and CONSEQUENCE placed on each side.  The sight made Thorax gulp a breath as he was led inside.

Past the front doors was a large lobby area, with a large round kiosk in the center.  Inside, a mare was sitting in front of a book with an inkwell to her right and a stamp and ink pad to her left.  Resting inside the inkwell was a quill, ready for the mare to write with.  As the guards approached, the mare looked up and greeted them.  "Good morning," she said politely, "Bringing the prisoner for his trial?"

"Yes, ma'am" replied the lead guard as he produced a scroll from his armor and presented it to the mare.  She took the scroll and read it, then took the stamp and ink pad and put a mark on the scroll before handing it back to the guard.

"He'll be going to courtroom five," she informed the guards, "You all should know your way to the holding area by now."  The lead guard nodded and gestured for the group to follow.  As they moved, Thorax took note of the way that the mare at the kiosk was looking at him; she was more curious about him than fearful.

The guards moved Thorax quickly to the holding area, which was similar to the prison with the exception of only the floor being made of stone instead of everything.  He was provided a bench and nothing else.  According to what Plea had told him yesterday, he would only be here for a short amount of time before he would be moved to another area.  Thorax elected to look for a clock and found one, the time being somewhere just before eight o'clock.  Having no clue what he could do to pass the time, he opted to just sit in his cell and wait as patiently as he could.

Patience was soon rewarded as the guards came to take him to the courtroom.  He was led out of the cell and taken to a door with a V marked on it, which a lesson from Sunburst told him was part of a numbering system the ponies of Ancient Pona used; this "numeral" meant five, so they were in the right place.  A guard opened the door and stepped through.  Thorax was pushed in behind him.

The courtroom was not nearly as ornate as the exterior of the building would lead one to believe, but still rather impressive.  The walls were made of large, opaque crystal that was made of minerals that gave then a blue color.  On one side of the room was a small set of platforms that was sealed off by a wooden railing, with a row of six chairs on each platform.  On another side of the room sat a pulpit, with one platform raised over top of another one.  On the last side was a section of chairs that was separated from the main court area by a wooden railing.  This one was different, however, because in the middle of the railing sat a pair of swinging gates that allowed a pony access to the court area.  Inside the seating area were several ponies, some wearing hats with a white card that said "PRESS" on them, and more than a few with cameras at the ready.

Thorax was pushed along to the last objects that he took notice of: A set of tables, one of which he was being led to.  Sitting at the table was Plea, who had his notepads placed before him in an orderly fashion, as he had apparently been working on some notes before Thorax was brought in.  As Thorax made it to the table and the guards began attaching bindings to him, he then took notice of the other table, where three ponies were working.  One of them, the apparent leader, was an older mare, who had two younger ponies reviewing various papers.

"So," Plea said as he interrupted Thorax's thoughts, "Get the chance to eat this morning?"

Thorax blinked in surprise before he answered.  "I did.  How did you get that done so fast?"

Plea smirked.  "It's amazing the things you can accomplish with the phrases 'prisoner abuse' and 'civil suit'."

Thorax looked at his attorney confused.  Plea gave a different explanation.  "I simply pointed out that denying a prisoner the ability to eat counted as cruel and unusual punishment and that violates your basic rights as a living being."

Thorax still didn't understand fully, but just nodded.  All that mattered was that he was getting to eat again, so he could at least make a decent effort to stay focused on the trial ahead of him.  At that moment, the changeling then took notice again of the ponies at the other table.  "Who are they?" he asked Plea.

Plea didn't even give them a glance.  "That's the prosecution," he told Thorax, "They're the ponies that are going to be trying to put you in prison.  You don't have to worry about that today, but we will have to prepare for them in the near future."

"So, they're working to make sure I go to jail for this?" Thorax asked, his voice deflating.

"I won't give them the chance," Plea said with conviction, "or at the very least, I'll put up the best fight that I can."

Thorax looked at Plea and could tell he was serious about what he said, so he returned a smile to the stallion.  At that moment, the older mare from the other table approached, her face adopting a smug demeanor.  "Is the bug gonna save us the trouble of a long and needlessly drawn out trial?"

Plea just gave her another smug look back.  "I don't think that's how 'Innocent until proven guilty' work, State."

The mare just chuckled.  "There's plenty of strong evidence against him," she told Plea, "A no contest plea will save a lot of trouble."

"Then my client goes to the dungeons and is never heard from again," Plea pointed out.

"Would that be the worst thing in the world?"

"For the ponies that have actually gotten to know him and become friends with him.  I'm sure as the case carries on, you'll get to meet them."

State just looks at the two and turns around to go back to her table.  "Who was she?" Thorax asked.

Plea's look changed from smug to frustrated.  "That was State Evidence.  She's the criminal prosecutor for the Crystal Empire.  Those two other ponies are just some paralegal flank kissers she brings on as interns for free labor."

Thorax looked confused.  "I thought slavery was illegal in the Crystal Empire."

"It is," Plea confirmed, "but internship is different.  The ponies don't always get paid, but the experience counts as on the job training that'll help them get hired in the future by other law firms."

"Did you ever have to do that?"

"Oh yeah.  Everyone pays their dues."

The conversation the pony and changeling were having was interrupted by a pony in a uniform similar to Shining Armor's stepped into the courtroom.  While not as nice and being a blue color, it still commanded authority.  "All rise!" the pony, a stallion, boomed loud enough for everypony in the room to hear.  As instructed, everypony stood up.

"Announcing Princess Mi Amore Cadenza of the Crystal Empire."

All at once, the ponies in the courtroom turned and faced the upper balcony.  Sitting there in a more ornate chair than the other ponies was the princess, whose look at Thorax radiated contempt.  Apparently, she had had a change of opinion about him since their last conversation.

"Please remaining standing for the honorable Judge Iron Gavel."

All the attention was now directed back to the front of the courtroom, where a stallion had entered and climbed to the top of the pulpit.  Though most of his body was covered by a long black robe, Thorax could make out that the stallion had a grayish blue coat and mane that was mostly gray but starting to turn white.  Once the stallion climbed the last step, he sat down.  "Be seated" he then told the court, who obeyed.

Once everypony was seated again, the stallion who announced the princess and judge stepped forward with a manila folder in his grasp.  "The criminal court of the Crystal Empire is now in session," he spoke aloud, "Now hearing case number S6E16O133 - The Crystal Empire vs Thorax the changeling."  As the stallion finished speaking, he handed the envelope to Iron Gavel.  The judge then opened the folder and read over a document inside.  Once to his satisfaction, he took a quill and wrote something down on the document and faced Thorax and Plea.

"Would the defense please rise" he requested.  Thorax and Plea both stood up.  Iron Gavel then took the folder and read over the contents of the paper.  "Thorax the changeling, you are hereby accused of attempted foalnapping, endangerment of a foal, and assault against three stallions.  How do you plead?"

Before Thorax can respond, Plea speaks for him.  "My client enters a plea of not guilty, your honor."

The judge accepts the plea and writes down more information on the document in the folder.  Once finished, he gives it back to the stallion who gave it to him before.  "Pretrial motions will be heard on Monday.  Process of discovery may begin now.  I am setting a bail amount now at fifty thousand bits.  Court adjourned until Monday."

With that, the judge bangs a wooden mallet against a wooden disc and makes a loud thud, and the courtroom becomes an uproar.  The ponies wearing press hats begin to bombard Thorax and Plea with questions, while those with cameras begin snapping photographs, the flashes, causing the changeling to go blind momentarily.  "Stand still!" a guard orders as Thorax feels his restraints being removed.  Once freed of them, he's led back to the holding area.  Before he is out of earshot, Plea approaches him.

"I'll meet you back at the jail later and we'll discuss our next moves" he told the changeling as he was led out of the courtroom.