//------------------------------// // Trial in the Clouds // Story: Legends Never Die: The Beginning of Harmony // by bookhorse125 //------------------------------// “The meeting of the Council of the Affected will now come to order.” A sky blue pegasus banged a gavel on the table. “Will Her Majesty Queen Haven of Zephyr Heights please begin by proposing to the council what her proposal is?” Haven, seated at the head of the table with Alphabittle on her right and Phyllis Cloverleaf on her left, rose and said, “I propose that, in light of everything that has happened, we lift all charges of treason or crime from Sunny Starscout and her friends, both new and old,” she added, nodding to the creatures seated at the table. “Objection!” called Helios from next to the pegasus who called the meeting to order. “That’s against the law, Your Highness.” He sat back, looking very pleased with himself. Haven glared at him. “And that,” she said through clenched teeth, “is exactly why we’re having this meeting.” Sunny sighed and shifted her gaze to the table in front of her. The Council of the Affected was composed of all the ponies - and, in this case, all the creatures - who would be affected by the new decision that may be made. Starting with representatives from each of the three tribes - Haven and Helios representing pegasi, Alphabittle and Jinx Evergreen’s father representing the unicorns, and Phyllis and Sweets for the earth ponies. Sunny’s friends, of course, were all there, because if Sunny’s charge of treason was lifted, then they would be off the hook as well. But first, they would have to convince the council. Something like lifting the charge of treason needed a unanimous vote. And Helios wasn’t budging. From the very moment that Sunny and her friends had walked through the door (led by Thunder and Zoom, their heads down so that it looked like they hadn’t come of their own free will), the yellow pegasus had been shooting Sunny glares so intense it was a wonder she didn’t catch fire. Even as Permafrost and Sour Lavender were passed along to a new set of guards to be brought down to the dungeon, the pegasus’ eyes never wavered from Sunny’s. Pipp and Zipp kept muttering about how strange this was - they didn’t remember the pegasus being this much of a jerk before. “Why should we do such a thing?” he demanded now, glaring right back at Haven as she sat down again. “Our ponies saw her walk right up to this… this… this Legion of Doom, as you call it, and walk away with them! If that isn’t treason, I don’t know what is!” Haven looked to her daughters for an explanation, but it was Flurry Heart who took the floor. She cleared her throat and stood up, and even Helios fell silent. “Sunny was under the influence of a pony named Cozy Glow,” Flurry explained, reaching under her wing to pull out a piece of paper, which she slid across the table to Helios, who read it furiously. “A spell designed to create a connection between the minds of two or more ponies - a mind link. This connection allows one to enter the mind of another, even giving them the ability to control actions, memories, and thoughts.” “And how do we know that this is the spell that was used?” Helios snapped, shoving the paper away from him. Jinx Evergreen’s father caught it, and he smoothed it out and scanned it. “I’ll show you.” Flurry gestured to Sunny, and the earth pony stood up and followed Flurry Heart around to Helios’ side of the table, where they made sure he could see. Flurry lit up her horn, a sunshine yellow light filling the already sunny room. Yellow light surrounded Sunny, and a singular symbol appeared above Sunny: a curving golden strand weaving between two horseshoes. “So?” the pegasus snorted, rolling his eyes. “Big deal.” “If you’ll look on the corner,” Flurry Heart said calmly, pointing to the paper that was now in Haven’s hooves, “you’ll see this exact symbol. It’s called a spell sign - it’s a way of identifying a spell without using words. The spell I used reveals the spell sign of the last spell cast on a pony.” Helios gaped at her. He flushed as he looked down at his hooves. “W-well, say that is the spell that was used,” he finally snapped. “Who’s to say that it still wasn’t her free will? How do we know that someo - somepony put the thought into her head that she was going to abandon her kingdom?” “I thought you might say that,” Zipp said, standing up as Flurry and Sunny sat back down. “So I brought in the pony who did it.” She turned to Thunder and Zoom, guarding the doors, and nodded. The former pushed open the door, and a foal trotted into the room. “Who’s this?” Helios yawned, acting disinterested. Cozy Glow glared at him. “My name is Cozy Glow,” she said in a cold voice. “And I’m here to tell you that what they’re saying is true.” “How riveting,” he said in a bored voice, propping one hoof on the table and leaning his head on it. “Here, Cozy,” Zipp said, nosing a glass of clear liquid towards the filly, who picked it up without hesitation and drank half of it. Now Helios looked concerned. “What was that?” he asked sharply. “Just a little something I made,” Zipp said modestly with a shrug. “It’s a potion to make whoever drinks it tell the truth.” “Because we want to make sure that we hear nothing but the truth,” Imara added, smiling pleasantly at Helios from across the table. “You know all about how important it is to tell the truth, don’t you, Helios?” She blinked her wide eyes innocently, but Sunny noticed that the way Helios squirmed in his seat suggested more than just discomfort - perhaps there was panic and fear in there. But how? He couldn’t have known Imara before. “Cozy Glow,” Haven said in a kind, gentle voice, redirecting Sunny’s attention back to the filly, “could you please tell us what happened?” She shrugged. “Sure. We - that is, Tirek, Chrysalis, and I - we wanted to take over Equestria, but we didn’t want anypony standing in our way. So we went to Sunny’s house and put the spell on her that would allow us to enter her mind and control her thoughts and actions. Then, without her, none of her friends would be much threat. I didn’t do anything drastic at first - sudden mood changes, strange thoughts that she couldn’t get out of her head - but the longer it went on, the weaker she became.” Cozy swallowed and looked straight into Sunny’s eyes for the next part. “It took all of us together to finally break her and have complete control, but when we did, we had her bring Grogar’s bell to us so we could use it, and we used her as a shield to escape Zephyr Heights. If they tried to hurt us, we threatened to hurt Sunny. We kept her captive so that her friends would hopefully remain out of the picture - and we set up a distraction for them in the north that would keep them busy.” “King Sombra,” Flurry said, her wings shuddering slightly. “You call that a distraction?” “Well, it worked,” Cozy said. “But Sunny was also growing stronger - she had begun entering our minds and reminding us of… things we had tried to forget - and then we realized that we hadn’t been holding on with the mind link as tightly as we should have, and we couldn’t use it anymore. Sunny escaped and went off to go try and warn the other tribes that we had been lying to them about ponies wanting to destroy them all. “Then we discovered how much more power Sunny had than we thought - and that if she used it in just the right way, we could reenter the mind link and get her back under control. But that failed - something snapped her out of it before we could really use her for anything good. So we gave up on that. But we did use the mind link - I used the mind link - to make her do things she didn’t want to do, things that would only benefit us.” She looked down at her hooves. “I’m really sorry about that, Sunny,” she added in a whisper. “That’s all we have to go off of?” Helios asked with a nervous little laugh. “There’s no evidence to back it up or anything?” Wordlessly, Pipp slid her phone across the table, the screen playing a clip of Cozy Glow confessing her involvement in Sunny’s traitorous activities. When it was done, the room was so silent that you could hear a pin drop. “What is Grogar’s bell?” Haven asked, the look she was giving Cozy Glow surprisingly hopeful. “It’s an ancient artifact that can steal the magic from any creature and give it to another,” Cozy explained. “It used to belong to an ancient ram named Grogar when he was the first emperor of Equestria, but after he was defeated, Gusty the Great hid the bell atop Mount Everhoof. We only recovered it… it feels like a few months ago, but it was actually a century ago. All I know is that Sunny knew where to find it, so we had her bring it to us.” “Thank you, Cozy Glow,” Haven said. The filly gave her a smile, but Zipp noticed how she was teetering on her hooves ever so slightly. Opening her wing, the exhausted filly leaned into the older pegasus. “Well,” Haven continued, looking pointedly at Helios, “I think that settles it-” “Uh, no it doesn’t!” the pegasus contradicted, sitting up straight. “How do we even know that was the truth? That ‘truth telling potion’ could be nothing more than a glass of water for all we know!” He pointed an accusatory hoof at the half-full glass of clear potion on the table and lifted his nose haughtily. “Why don’t you try some, then?” Imara suggested, gently scooching the glass over to him. “If you’re so sure.” Now Helios looked uncertain, and he regarded the glass, weighing possibilities in his mind. “I shouldn’t-” “But if it’s just a harmless glass of water,” Imara urged. “You aren’t - you aren’t afraid of it, are you?” she asked with a pretend gasp of shock. Helios glared at her so hard that it was a wonder the changeling didn’t spontaneously combust into a pile of glitter from the ferocity. He looked around the table and saw that every single pony or creature was expecting him to either drink the potion or admit his cowardice. Grumbling and mentally swearing his revenge, Helios grabbed the glass and downed the rest of it in a single gulp. “There!” he snapped at Imara. “Happy now, you little-” “Well, first,” Imara said, indeed looking very happy, “I would like to ask you a few questions, just to make sure that this is legit. That’s all right with you, isn’t it, Helios?” He gulped and muttered, “No.” “Oh, wonderful,” she said cheerfully, clapping her hooves. “We’ll start with something simple. What’s your name?” “Termite,” he said automatically, then clapped his hooves over his mouth as everyone except for Imara gasped in shock. “I - I mean-” “And where do you come from?” Imara continued in a cheerful, calm voice as if nothing had happened. “The Changeling Kingdom,” Helios peeped in a voice several octaves higher than usual. “And where is the real Helios?” The doors opened, and a very dazed pegasus walked into the room, shaking his head as he struggled to get his bearings. He scanned the room, his eyes widening in shock when he saw all of the different creatures, and the fact that his queen was back so soon, and Sunny Starscout was sitting there with all her friends. “What… what’s going on in here?” Helios asked, his eyes landing on the duplicate of himself. “Oh,” was all he could muster before collapsing on the floor. Flurry Heart lit her horn, and Termite’s disguise burned away, revealing the dark green and red changeling for who he really was. “Imposter!” the alicorn shouted, pointing a hoof at him. Thunder and Zoom leapt forward, but Termite hissed at them and shifted into a falcon, spreading his wings and disappearing out the window before the guards could catch him. “How did you know?” Flurry asked Imara, stunned. “I grew up doing this,” the changeling said with a very smug look on her face. “Besides, from what I hear, he was acting very strangely. And it would take a master manipulator to do all of this,” she added, waving her hoof around them, indicating the city below. “Plus, the only creatures who wouldn’t change their mind with the evidence right in front of their faces are the creatures who are idiots or the creatures who don’t want something to happen.” The sky blue pegasus cleared his throat. “Let’s keep moving.” He hit the table with his gavel. “We need a new pegasus representative. Your Majesty, would you like to make a selection?” Zoom raised her hoof, and Haven nodded her consent. The guard prefered to stand next to the queen rather than sit down at the table, but Sunny felt a huge weight lift off her chest as she joined them - everything was going to be okay. “Name?” the pegasus asked for the records. “Zoom Zephyrwing.” “Profession?” “Royal guard.” He nodded and made the note. “Let us proceed.” Bang. “All in favor of lifting the charge of treason from Sunny Starscout?” Haven asked, and all hooves and claws in the room raised. Sunny, who wasn’t allowed to vote as the matter was concerning her directly, glanced across the room at Cozy Glow, who was looking at Thunder and Zoom with apprehension, and she got an idea. “Actually, could we extend it to all those who fought bravely against Chrysalis in the swamp?” Sunny asked, turning to Haven. She gave a little start as she realized what Sunny was saying, but she eventually conceded by announcing, “...All in favor of approving the change?” One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, fourteen votes were in favor. Haven, Alphabittle, and Phyllis added their votes, as well as Zoom and Sweets. Jinx Evergreen’s father hesitates slightly before putting his hoof in the air, but it was there, it was approved, the ruling passed. A huge grin on her face, Haven drafted the new proclamation on official looking paper and signed it with a flourish, then sent id down the table to the pegasus, who scanned it and said, “Approved as read,” before adding the royal seal and rolling it up. “This meeting is officially adjourned.” Bang. Termite ducked into a low alleyway, back in his original form as he watched Haven make the announcement - all charges of treason or any crime had been lifted from any pony or creature that fought against the Legion of Doom in the swamp, even those who changed their mind. If you ended up fighting for Equestria, you were off the hook. He growled and ducked back behind the brick building before he was spotted. All that work… for what? Nothing. Sunny Starscout and her friends had gotten away as usual, and his queen was surely going to be very angry with him when he returned home. A boiling, blinding rage built up inside the changeling as he walked away, a new path laying out in front of him… and he would take it. “Soon, Sunny Starscout,” he snarled as he took the first step onto this new path. “Soon I shall have my revenge."