//------------------------------//
// Chapter 12. Jeremiah 7:8 
// Story: The Pegasus who Kicked the Changelings' Hive 
// by A M Shark 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 12. "But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless."—Jeremiah 7:8





"The prosecution wishes to call Carrot Cake to the stand," said Tequila Mockingbird.

"Carrot Cake to the stand!" the bailiff boomed. The baker got up and shuffled nervously toward the stand where the bailiff swore him in with a loud: "Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?!"

"I do."

I'll bet you do. Discord thought caustically. We'll see to it that you have no other choice.

"Mr. Cake," said Tequila. "I am going to ask you to recite for the jury what you witnessed. However, despite the oath you just took, the defense has requested that you be subjected to a lie-detector test. Do you have any objections?"

The baker's eyes flicked toward the defense. His expression was uneasy and for a moment Discord was sure he would refuse to take the test. But then he turned back to Tequila and stammered, "N-no, Ms. Mockingbird."

She nodded. "Your honor, permission to fetch a lie-detector?"

The judge, who seemed to have been nodding off, started with a reedy "Granted."

"Granted!" the bailiff shouted lest anypony not catch the judge's words.

"No need, your honor." Regal Love cut in, then scrambled to sound professional as Tequila shot her a look from behind those thick glasses. "That is, my assistant has already procured a lie-detector for us." She nodded toward said assistant. "Wisteria."

That was the signal. Wisteria leaned down to get the lie-detector out of her saddlebag. While she was down there, she carefully uncorked the hidden vial and swallowed its contents as she had done so many times before. Straightening up, she placed the lie-detector on the table and looked toward the witness at the stand.

Only to feel a rush of disappointment to see there was no change in the baker's appearance. Maybe it just needs a few seconds to take effect. she tried to reassure herself. Maybe—

"How can we be sure that device is accurate?" Tequila asked, stepping toward their table to peer suspiciously at the lie-detector.

Regal Love had expected this and turned once again to her assistant. "Wisteria, will you do the honors?"

Wisteria nodded and picked up the device's collar, fastening it around her neck. Looking around the courtroom, she swallowed nervously and said, "I'm completely comfortable speaking in front of all of you."

There was a loud buzz from the device and a soft chorus of laughter from the jury as the device's gauge swung toward the lie button.

"Actually I'm really nervous speaking in front of a crowd."

There was a second soft chorus of laughter, but no buzz this time as the gauge swung toward the truth button.

"Very amusing." Tequila said dryly. "However, I propose a member of the prosecution be allowed to test that device as well."

"Granted." wheezed the judge.

"Granted!" boomed the bailiff.

"Get over here, Scout." Tequila barked.

As Scout sprang up and hurried to his boss's side, Regal Love used her magic to remove the collar from Wisteria's neck and floated it in his direction.

When the collar closed around his neck, the pinto looked down at it as if speaking into a microphone and said, "Scout wearing blue tie?" He sounded as if he were asking a question, but the gauge registered the statement as a lie.

"Scout wearing red tie?" Once again he made the statement a question but this time the gauge registered it as truth.

Interesting that he would think to test its capabilities by asking questions rather than making declarative statements. Regal Love mused.

However, Scout's test seemed to satisfy Tequila, and the bailiff moved to attach the lie-detector's collar to Mr. Cake's neck. Regal Love couldn't help noticing that the bailiff carried the device not with her magic as one would expect from a unicorn, but with her mouth. Strange. Had her magic diminished with age? Or did she just want to make it clear she hadn't tried to magically tamper with the device after it had been tested?

"Mr. Cake," said Tequila Mockingbird. "Please recite for the jury what you witnessed."

Mr. Cake fidgeted and avoided looking toward the defense, but then started his narrative. "We had just gotten back from our family vacation. Pinkie Pie was at the front of the store, while we were doing inventory in the back when we suddenly heard her shout Discord's name. We peeked over the swinging doors, and saw him standing in front of her with his back to us. I don't think he realized we were there. He said what sounded like 'This will show them.' Then he snapped his fingers and ... turned Pinkie inside out before disappearing. ... A few seconds later she exploded all over the front room." He looked nauseated, but continued, going on to describe how Rarity and Fluttershy had arrived at the bakery, followed soon by Rainbow Dash and Highflyer.

It was a story Regal Love had now heard several times over during her interviews with the witnesses, and deep down it had always galled her, knowing she was being fed lies. However, she had always managed to console herself with the fact that those lies would soon be exposed at the trial.

But now all throughout Mr. Cake's story the lie-detector's gauge stayed steady on truth, never once wavering toward lie. Her ear twitched as an edge of panic crept in.

"Your witness," said Tequila Mockingbird and Regal Love quickly rose, approaching the stand to cross-examine the witness. It's not over yet. Maybe he's just told the story so many times, that at this point it's just like reciting a poem or lines from a play, so he doesn't feel the usual stress one does when lying. But he can't rehearse and prepare for every question I throw at him. She met Mr. Cake's eyes and ... was that a hint of smugness she saw behind his fearful expression? She wasn't sure, but couldn't afford to waste time trying to analyze it. She began questioning him, trying to trip him up, trying to poke holes in his story, but even when he gave answers she knew full-well were lies, the lie-detector remained stubbornly silent.

By the end, she was having trouble keeping a frown off her face and her frustration in check. Finally she was forced to conclude with a reluctant "No further questions." And the whole process was repeated again first with Mrs. Cake, then with Haystings. All that time the lie-detector never buzzed, and once again she was forced to utter, "No further questions."

"There you have it, ponies of the jury." said Tequila. "Three separate witnesses to the murders of Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash all underwent the same test and all passed it flawlessly." Turning to the judge, she said, "Your honor, the prosecution has no more witnesses at this time."

"Very well, Ms. Mockingbird," said the judge. The lawyer did a sharp about-face, and marched back to her seat, where Scout looked up from his note-taking long enough to grin broadly first at her then at the clearly frazzled Regal Love.

"Defense, you may call your witnesses." the judge directed.

"Thank you," said Regal Love with a diminutive cough. She ran her hooves down the sides of her skirt-suit in an effort to settle both it and her composure. "Your honor, the defense wishes to call the defendant Discord to the stan—"

"Eh-hem!"

Regal Love turned to see her client arch one brow and give the chains holding down his right arm an emphatic clank.

"Um, figuratively anyway," she added.

"Granted."

"Granted!" Snatching the lie-detector from where it was now lying discarded on the witness stand, the bailiff strode over to the defense table. Placing the lie-detector on the table, she boomed at Discord: "Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?!"

"Of course. Nothing but."

"Wisteria, put the collar on him!"

"Me?" Wisteria squeaked, but hurried to obey at the bailiff's affirming nod.

Discord felt her hooves trembling against his neck as she fastened the collar around it, and barely heard her whispering, "It's going to be okay. You're going to be okay." He couldn't tell if she was talking to herself or to him, but pressed his chin against the top of her head, using it to steer her head a fraction closer to himself in a sort of hug.

"Hey!" At the sharp cry from one or more of the guards, Wisteria jerked away from him and quickly resumed her seat.

Then Regal Love was there. "Defendant Discord, Mr. and Mrs. Cake both said you appeared in Sugar Cube Corner on the evening of Wednesday—" And she named the date. "—Were you there on the aforementioned date?"

"No. The only time I was ever there in the past year was three days after that date when I went to ask them why they lied about me."

"Why do you say they lied about you?"

As their exchange continued, Regal Love began to feel cautiously hopeful. While Discord told his side of things, the lie-detector's gauge remained steady on truth. Glancing surreptitiously at the jury, she noticed troubled looks on several of their faces, as if they might be questioning testimonies they'd originally thought were airtight. She also cast a quick covert look toward the prosecution's desk. Scout looked worried, but Tequila's expression gave nothing away.

Regal Love continued questioning Discord up until his capture at Foal Mountain and all that time the gauge's needle stayed on truth. However, if she tried questioning him about his hospital stay, he would either be forced to lie, or to reveal he knew where several missing ponies were currently hiding. So she ended with a "No further questions."

There was a pause of several seconds, then Tequila rose to face the judge. "Your honor, it seems we have a bit of a conundrum. We just heard two contradicting testimonies. One from the witnesses, and one from the defendant. Somepony here is clearly lying, but our conventional methods of catching them don't seem to be working.

"So, your honor, I would like to propose a more ... unconventional method of finding the truth."

"And what exactly are you proposing, Ms. Mockingbird?"

"First I would need to bring in one of my own expert witnesses. He's a tech-pony with the Canterlot Constabulary and an expert in witness testimony verification."

"I see. If the defense has no objections, we can adjourn until your witness is ready."

Regal Love was about to voice her approval of adjournment—anything to buy them more time to work on the matter of revealing the changelings—only to be cut off by Tequila.

"An adjournment won't be necessary, your honor. Given the unusual nature of the defendant, I felt this particular pony's expertise may be warranted today and asked him to attend. He's in the courtroom already."

This brought startled murmurings from both the jury and the audience. Meanwhile the judge gave Tequila a warning glare, as if to say she didn't appreciate such theatrics in her courtroom, before turning to Regal Love. "Does the defense have any objections?"

Regal Love thought a moment about objecting, even partially opened her mouth to say so, but then decided otherwise. "No, your honor. If my esteemed colleague Ms. Mockingbird's witness is already here, then I see no need to waste his or the court's time by delaying matters."

The judge nodded approvingly. "Ms. Mockingbird, you may call your witness."

"I wish to call tech-pony Total Recall to the stand."

"Tech-pony Total Recall to the stand!" the bailiff roared.

From the job title Tequila gave him, Regal Love was expecting some nebbish academic or maybe an older, cynical stallion, but certainly not the pony she saw rise and approach the front of the court. Total Recall was a chestnut unicorn stallion of middle age with a flaxen mane, but with a build that rivaled that of Bulk Biceps. He had to practically turn sideways to fit through the gate on the witness stand, and between his muscled girth and stuffed saddlebags, she feared that the chair might not manage to contain him. Still, he had an undeniable air of professionalism as he settled himself, making sure his lanyard with its tech-pony badge was clearly visible to the jury. The bailiff swore him in with her usual bellow.

"Mr. Recall, please explain your occupation to the jury," Tequila directed.

"Well, as you can all see, I am a tech-pony with the Canterlot Constabulary," he answered in an accent that Regal marked as distinctly Halfinger, raising his badge. "I have worked there for the last ten years. My specialty is in assisting witnesses with testimony and recollection of events. I majored in basic forensics at Canterlot University, but I also minored in hypnosis. The hypnosis was originally just a hobby of mine, but then a few years ago, I started exploring the possibilities of combining it with forensics. We have since begun using it to enhance witness recall and have found it to be a fantastic aid to our reconstruction of crimes. It has allowed us to solve cases that would have been difficult or nigh-impossible otherwise, and has become my primary field of focus for work and further study."

Tequila nodded along, obviously familiar with the background. "And there's a new technique that you've had under development which you feel could be useful in this particular case?"

"Correct, madam," Total answered, his ears dipping slightly. "My section of the Constabulary has been working on a spell that would allow us to project a pony's memories onto a screen, and let us see first-hoof if they match what that pony describes in a written or verbal statement."

That got a rustle of interest out of almost all ponies present in the audience, jury, and defense.

"Since the spell's initial development, my team has been working extensively with a wide number of ponies to test it." Total's muzzle twitched in a slight grimace, again echoed by his ears. "Unfortunately, the current iteration of the spell has limitations that we're still trying to overcome. While the information that we have been able to retrieve is absolutely accurate, the only times we have managed to successfully retrieve and view said memories have been when our test subjects had eidetic or photographic memories. And even then it is only still images at this point." He raised his hoof towards Tequila as though in an apologetic gesture. "We are hopeful we can change that but ... well, we've got a ways to go."

Tequila gave him a smooth smile, this whole line still clearly part of a routine the two had worked up beforehoof. "Mr. Recall, are you aware that the defendant has what has been described as a 'cinematic memory'?"

Total Recall nodded, and Regal Love could see the barest glint of glee in his eyes. "Yes. The reports from the incident last year, hearing how it was used to locate Ms. Applejack, is part of what sparked my own attempts at duplicating that function with pony magic."

"Interesting. And how do you think your spell would fare against a cinematic memory as opposed to an ordinary, eidetic, or photographic one?"

"Hypothetically cinematic memory would yield superior results to all the others," Total Recall replied, his eagerness edging into what had been a very professional testimony before. "At least if we were dealing with a pony. But considering the only cinematic memory we know of happens to belong to the Spirit of Chaos ... There is a chance it will not work, but I am confident that it will."

"I see. So you would be willing to attempt your spell on him if called upon to do so?"

Total Recall looked toward Discord. His expression may have been apprehensive but his eagerness was clearly winning out. Whatever else he might think of Discord, the scientist in him longed to examine the draconequus's mind and prove his hypothesis right. "I would, Ms. Mockingbird."

"Thank you, Mr. Recall.

"Your honor, I hereby request that the court permit Total Recall to probe the defendant's memory. I admit I did not mention this option to the defense during earlier disclosure, but my reasoning for this was because the procedure is still in the developing phase, and I wasn't even sure it would be necessary. However, since it now looks as if it might be, I wish to raise the matter now so that the facts of the case can be firmly established once and for all." She looked over at Regal Love and gave her what appeared to be a friendly, disarming look. "Now, I do recognize that this is both short notice and quite unorthodox, and I want to make it plain that I'm willing to grant the defense as much time as they feel they need to decide whether this line of questioning will be permitted." She turned back to the judge. "I also request that they be given all the information on the topic I was given. Speaking of which..." She held out a hoof, underside-upward, toward the stand. "Mr. Recall, may I have the materials I asked you to bring?"

The unicorn's magic flared and a thick folder and sizable spell scroll floated out of his saddlebags and over to her. "The prosecution enters these materials into evidence," Tequila formally declared before setting them down with a heavy thunk on the defense's table.

Regal Love could only stare at the folder, stunned by this unexpected turn of events. She only managed to snap out of it when the judge wheezed: "Permission granted. Given the time of day, I think this will also be a good excuse to recess for lunch. Ms. Love, will an hour on top of that be sufficient for your team to consider the matter?"

"Um, yes, I believe so, your honor. But permission to request longer if necessary?"

"Permission granted."

"Oh, and your honor," Regal Love added, as a new idea suddenly occurred to her. "If I agree to allowing this test to be performed on my client, I ask that it also be performed on the three accusing witnesses."

"You can test us, but it might not help much as my husband and I don't have photographic or eidetic memories." called Mrs. Cake.

"I don't either," added Haystings.

Of course you all very conveniently don't. Regal thought, battling to suppress a grimace. Though she had to admit the subject of such memories had never come up in any of her conversations with the Cakes so for all she knew they truly didn't have them. Still it was worth a shot. "Permission to test the witnesses regardless, your honor?"

"Permission granted."





Rather than unchain Discord, the entire courtroom had been cleared except for a few guards. Sandwiches and drinks were brought from the court cafeteria. With the judge's permission, Regal Love had cast a privacy spell around the defense table so that it appeared to be covered by a dome of heavily frosted glass. The guards could just see the defense's silhouettes, but not hear their discussion or read their lips. Or see that they were bringing a few extra friends into the discussion.

Wisteria pulled a familiar letter from her saddlebag and smoothed it out on the table. "Twilight, are you there?"

Twilight: "I am. Did the potion work?"

"No, I'm afraid not," she replied, wilting a little. "But there's some other things we need to tell you as well." She slid the paper closer to Regal Love, and the unicorn proceeded to fill Twilight in on how the trial had gone so far. When she was done, there was a brief pause before Twilight responded.

Twilight: "I've heard of Total Recall. I've actually read some of his published works on hypnosis and memory retrieval in both medical and magical journals. Hypnosis was never a field that strongly interested me, but his theories were intriguing and his methods seemed compelling. It makes sense Tequila would call him in as an expert witness for something like this. Could you read the folder's information to me? So I can see if it's authentic."

"I, uh, would love to, darling, but this is an extremely dense spell and far above my own magical—" Before Regal Love could go further, Twilight's message swirled into the shape of a moth which yanked off one of its inky wings, wadded it into a ball, and tossed it at Total Recall's spell scroll, which was lying open nearby. The ink ball landed on it and began rolling steadily back and forth down the paper. As it moved over the words and diagrams—making an almost mechanical buzzing noise as it went—the remaining part of the moth tattoo recreated them on the original letter. Realizing it must be passing the information to the alicorn at the TreeHAB, Regal Love quickly laid out the pages from the folder side-by-side while Wisteria moved the scroll steadily up to make the ink ball's job easier. Reaching the bottom of the scroll, the ink ball sprang off the scroll like a flea to land on the first of the lined-up pages. As it began making its way through the pages, the two ponies used the opportunity to chow down on their cafeteria-provided sandwiches. Wisteria hadn't realized just how hungry she had gotten until after taking her first bite. It was only when she was reaching for a second sandwich that she realized Discord had yet to eat even a bite.

"Aren't you hungry?" she asked him softly.

He opened his mouth as if to give a sarcastic remark, thought better of it, and softened into an apologetic smirk. "Sorry, my dear. The, uh, proceedings of the day so far have put me off my appetite."

"Oh," Wisteria responded. She blinked and looked over their luncheon. "How about this?" she suggested, prying apart two sandwiches—one peanut-butter and jelly, the other cheese and pickles—and reassembling them in a quadruple-decker format.

"Tempting combination," he admitted.

And when she broke off a piece of the new sandwich and held it up toward his muzzle rather than forcing him to eat off the table since he couldn't use his chained-down hands, that clinched it. His forked tongue shot out and wrapped around the piece of sandwich. She shuddered as his tongue brushed against her hoof but he noticed there was no revulsion on her face. She eagerly gave him another piece. The taste might be derivative of his own combinations but he appreciated her efforts to spice the meal up.

By the time she had finished feeding him, the ink ball had finished transcribing all information on the pages. It rolled back onto the original letter where it was soaked up by the moth tattoo and blossomed back into a wing once again. However the moth didn't stay a moth for long because Twilight's response soon came through.

Twilight: "This is quite the spell ... There's a lot to it, but when you start to break it down, it's not so daunting. I recognized components for image parsing, indexing, image projection, and projection controls. All of that's very standard if, uh, not as optimal as it could be. The really interesting parts are for memory location, extraction, and validation."

There was a pause here, and Wisteria could picture Twilight chewing her lip as she focused on reading and re-reading parts of the spell.

Twilight: "As I said ... I've heard of Total Recall, and read several articles on his experiments and theories ... What's here definitely matches what I've read. I'm not seeing anything that could be used for manipulating or altering the memory stream or the projection itself. The spell just projects whatever memories it successfully retrieves. The ponies in that courtroom might be lying about a lot of things, but as far as I can tell, this information at least is genuine."

Regal Love had been nervously tapping her hooves on the edge of the table. "Will the spell actually work on Discord?"

There was another long silence. Wisteria could again picture their alicorn friend fidgeting on the other end, her wings twitching as she poured back and forth over the spell.

Twilight: "The spell itself ... appears to be creature-neutral. Which is expected for a forensic spell, since the Constabulary never knows if it has to be applied to a pony, or griffon, or diamond dog. Now I can't say with absolute certainty that it would work on Discord, given how ... unique his mind seems to be. But based on how he's reacted to most pony magic so far, I'd say the spell should either work as expected, or completely fizzle and do nothing. I don't ... I don't see it being capable of doing anything else."

"Thank you, darling," Regal replied, going back to chewing her lip and tapping on the table again. It eventually prompted Wisteria to ask what she was thinking.

"I'm seriously thinking we should take Tequila's offer," Regal Love admitted with a heavy sigh. She raised her head and looked between her two companions. "It's like she says, this allows us to show the jury your memory of events. We can show them what you were doing at the times the murders took place. We could show your actual interrogation of the witnesses when they admitted to being changelings and framing you. Though..." She frowned in consideration. "Given what you described about that interrogation, it doesn't exactly put you in the most ... sympathetic light."

"If we can replay any events," Wisteria suggested, "then we can go back further, show how he helped me investigate Applejack's—"

"No!" Discord snapped with a ferocity that startled both ponies. "Those memories are between me and you, Fluttershy! Nopony else!"

"But you showed them to Applejack," Regal Love pointed out, confused.

"Not all of them! Just an extremely short montage!"

"That's not what I heard."

But Discord was now shaking his head so furiously the multiple earrings in his ears were clattering against each other. Sure he had shown those memories to Applejack but things had been different back then. He had been helping Fluttershy convince an old friend of her good intentions. And he hadn't realized he was in love with Fluttershy at the time. With that knowledge—and the fact that he'd come to know several ponies since then as either friends or acquaintances—had come a new desire to keep some things secret between himself and Fluttershy alone. But how could he explain that to his clearly frustrated lawyer?

"Discord, you're being—"

"Regal," Wisteria murmured, putting a hoof on the unicorn's shoulder. "Let me talk to him."

At the sound of her voice, Discord didn't look at her, but at least stopped shaking his head.

"Discord, I understand you're uncomfortable showing those memories of our time together to a lot of strangers." She felt a blush burning her own face. "I'm uncomfortable with the idea too. But this might be our only chance to let the jury see you the way I do. To give them a reason to question your guilt the way I did when I first heard of you being accused." Hoping the guards wouldn't notice, she slid her hoof to the side until it came into contact with his eagle claw. "And I'm willing to face the embarrassment that may come with it if it helps clear your name."

At this, he finally looked down at her and sighed as he allowed the tips of his talons to brush lightly over her hoof. "Alright." he said, turning to Regal. "But only as a last resort."

"Good ... That's good." Regal smoothed back her mane and took a deep breath. "That's settled. The only way this could come back and bite us now is if you're not telling the truth. Which isn't the case. Right, Discord?" she said, giving him a look.

He snorted and looked down his long pierced snout at her. "If I was making up this story, I would have given myself a far better part, with grander works of chaos and there would be far more rubber chickens."

"Rubber chickens?"

"Rubber chickens are always funny."

Regal just snorted and looked away, though there was a smile playing on her lips.

"There's one thing that's bothering me," Wisteria spoke up. "Why did Tequila bring up this spell now and not at the beginning of the trial or before? Her questioning of Total Recall just seemed too ... rehearsed. Too planned ahead."

"I've been wondering that, too." Regal Love admitted with a frown. "As you said, this wasn't something spur of the moment but something she clearly planned. But why? Why would she, or the changeling posing as her, be willing to jeopardize the trial by throwing us a boon this way?"

"Maybe it was just a little reverse psychology?" suggested Discord. "She baits us with a way to unequivocally clear my name on the assumption that you wouldn't dare take it because she's sure I'm lying, and by refusing to take it I just look more guilty to the jury."

Twilight: "It is a creature-neutral spell from a respected member of the Canterlot Constabulary. You'd have to argue pretty hard against using it."

"I don't know." Regal mused. "The hope that we wouldn't take it seems like an awfully big gamble on her part. I mean, what if we went the other direction and let Discord's memories be viewed? Everypony would clearly see they match what he ... wait. What if..." She looked up at Discord again. "What if your testimony got through to Tequila and she's trying to confirm the truth?" Her eyes lit up. "Just like Rackets would in one of her books."

"Um, Rarity," Wisteria whispered urgently. "We're not in one of her books."

"Oh, I know that, darling. I'm not foolish enough to think Tequila Mockingbird is absolutely identical to her own fictional creation. After all Rackets is a stallion with a wife and children, while Tequila is a single mare."

"With a sycophantic hanger-on." Discord muttered.

"But that also doesn't mean they're polar opposites in every way." Regal Love went on, ignoring his comment. "And the one thing that's always stood out to me about Rackets—that I've always loved about him as a character—is that even though he knows how to manipulate others and often tends to be a bit ... earthy ... he does have a moral compass and never strays from it. Even when it ends up costing him a case."

"I did wonder why you seemed to like him so much." Wisteria murmured. The fictional lawyer had always seemed to her like such a jarring contrast with the more romantic, stylish, and sophisticated fictional leads Rarity generally seemed to prefer, that it had always puzzled Fluttershy that his books were so high up on her friend's favorites list.

"Like I was saying, I realize Tequila and Rackets aren't the same pony, but if the real Tequila Mockingbird is the one offering us this information, maybe it's because the moral compass is a piece of herself she put in the character. And she wants to give us the same chance he would."

Twilight: "That's not impossible, but it's still relying on a lot of guesswork about Tequila's character when we still don't know if it's really her."

They continued discussing the situation, trying to figure out their opponents' motives, and how they might best work things to their own advantage.

"Could Tequila possibly be trying to set up some kind of mistrial?" Regal mused.

"You mean deliberately trying to throw the case?" said Wisteria, looking back and forth between Discord and Regal Love. "What good would that do?"

"Well, a mistrial isn't an acquittal," said Regal Love. "Discord wouldn't be released, just sent back to prison until a fresh trial could be started."

"Oh," said Wisteria. "Do you suppose the changelings might want a mistrial so they can use that extra time to replace more ponies? All those ponies on the jury might be changelings, but they might just as easily be all ponies, or a mix of the two. Maybe they're hoping to change that in the time it takes to get a new jury."

"Possibly," said Regal Love.

"If we went the mistrial route, would that give you time to make more batches of potion?" Wisteria asked Twilight.

There was a long pause before the alicorn responded.

Twilight: "I'm afraid the one you took today was the last alteration I had for that formula. If it didn't work, that means there's some crucial ingredient missing from the original recipe. If we use a mistrial to buy ourselves more time, I'm going to have to scrap the original formula and start from scratch. Which means a lot of trial and error while I try to pin down that missing component..."

"Okay then," Regal replied with a grimace. "So we'll agree to use the memory spell, and use that to show the jury the truth. We'll continue to aim for an acquittal, but be on the lookout for the possibility of a mistrial if things don't seem to be going our way to buy more time. Agreed?"

Discord and Wisteria both nodded and agreed. It wasn't much of a plan, Discord reflected, but he and Fluttershy had done more with less, and he was feeling confident that with her back by his side he could weather this storm as well.





"You're not going to project any of my dreams onto that screen, are you?" Discord asked as Total Recall moved to stand behind him. He especially didn't want the tech-pony broadcasting any of his dreams involving Fluttershy.

"Oh my, no. The spell only targets memories the subject formed while awake." Total Recall's response sounded almost programmed, as if he'd been asked that question many times before.

"Hmm. Just as well. When I'm involved it can often be hard to tell the two apart and we don't want there to be any confusion, do we?" Discord said conversationally, hoping his light-hearted bravado would hide the fact that he was currently a bundle of nerves. Then he felt a blast of magic splash against the back of his skull and squeezed his eyes shut, digging his claws into the table's surface.

In front of him, in the middle of the courtroom, a wide rectangular magical screen flared to life. The image was grainy, sometimes broken by lines and bands of black and gray snow, but it showed clearly enough Discord's perspective as he sat upside-down on a pool lounge chair that was floating on the ocean facing a Haywaiian beach. A second tech-pony quickly turned down the room's lights so the courtroom could more clearly see the image. Tropical fish were swimming through the air and the sand was slapping about like waves. The ocean was bubbling like a pot of soup and every once in a while the bubbling water would spit sub-sandwiches up onto the heaving sand. Below the whole thing was a date and slowly advancing timestamp alongside controls that would have seemed at home on a DJ booth.

"Agh, I knew it would work!" Total Recall exclaimed in his heavy accent.

"Well, don't that just beat all," Tequila mused with a small smile. "Alright, take us to the evening of Pinkie Pie's murder. Approximately five minutes before the estimated time of her death."

Discord gritted his teeth to prevent out-right grinning. Enjoy viewing the inside of my eyelids because I spent that whole time and then some banging my head against a tree trunk!





Sure enough, for the next several minutes the courtroom was treated to the sound of Discord's head-banging and a screen that was empty save for a steadily climbing time code.

When they were a good several minutes past the time of Pinkie's death, Tequila shouted "Halt!"

Total Recall moved his horn away from the back of Discord's head. The draconequus's eyes snapped open, and this time he made no effort to hide the smirk he aimed at Tequila Mockingbird. "Aw, just look at all that overwhelming evidence! Oh wait, there wasn't any."

"Shh-shh!" Regal Love and Wisteria both tried to signal him not to provoke the opposing lawyer.

Tequila paused just long enough to give them a look that was neither pleased nor disappointed, even the set of her ears remained neutral, before she called out, "Mr. Recall, bring up the day of Rainbow Dash's murder. Once again approximately five minutes before the estimated time of death."

Discord continued to grin even as Total Recall's spell splashed against the back of his skull. This time they wouldn't even have the dulcet tones of his head-banging to listen to.

"Ha! See!" he crowed several minutes later when Tequila ordered Total to stop projecting the memory. "I was fast asleep the whole time. You have nothing!"

"Discord!" Regal Love and Wisteria both hissed frantically at him, but he couldn't resist getting in one more jab.

"Why, it's almost as if I'm innocent of the murders you're trying to pin on me!"

"So it would seem." said Tequila in a tone that clearly meant: You're not fooling me in the slightest. She tapped her hoof against the courtroom floor. "Mr. Recall, bring up the memories for the time the defendant claimed he visited the witnesses."

Discord squeezed his eyes shut as the spell splashed against the back of his head once again...

And this time an image appeared on the screen along with the time code. They saw the Cakes moving around their bakery, both their expressions tense and uneasy as they moved to peek out a window. The two ponies were just turning away from it when a lion paw and eagle claw both shot into view and clamped over the ponies' faces.

"Guess who!" Discord's voice jeered from the screen before it suddenly went dark. But only for a brief moment. Almost instantly the courtroom was treated to Discord's memory of snatching up the third witness, followed by the interrogation scene he'd described just earlier that day.

Wisteria had to admit that even though she was viewing the scene through Discord's eyes, and had been assured the victims were never in any actual danger, she still found it frightening. Glancing away from the screen, she thought she caught a glimpse of the witnesses all shivering and looking away as well. Had they truly been traumatized by the experience or were they merely playing a part? Or did they fear that their lies were finally being exposed?

The scene ended with Discord bidding his captives a cheerful "Toodles" before the screen once again went black.

"Halt!" Tequila shouted.

"Oh, but there's more!" Discord argued. "Don't you want to hear the other taped confession I got? The one by the real villain in charge of this whole scheme."

"And what time, pray tell, did this alleged confession take place?" Tequila demanded. When he replied, she said, "Mr. Recall, play that alleged taped confession."

The tech-pony obeyed.

Wisteria watched the screen, but it remained dark. For a brief second she wondered if something had gone wrong, when she heard a voice from the screen that she recognized as Chrysalis's.

"He's here."

"How observant of you." Discord's voice shot back also from the screen.

Total Recall frowned, then reared up enough to actually poke Discord in the back of the head with his horn.

Discord's eyes sprang open and he snapped his head around to glare down at the unicorn. "What?"

"We can't see a thing."

"What are you talking about? I could see everything just fine at the time."

"Wait," Regal Love cut in. "Was this when you were in the cave?"

"It was."

"Didn't you need a light source to see?"

"No, I just adjusted my eye settings and took it from there."

"Well, it seems we can't adjust those settings back to the point where we can see anything." Total Recall sounded half-annoyed, half-intrigued.

"Well, excuse me for having the superior product when it comes to eyes as well as memory." Discord said caustically. "I guess you'll just have to settle for that old-fashioned method of listening."

"Discord!" Regal Love hissed. "Don't be rude." His unashamed-I-have-nothing-to-hide act was veering dangerously into the arrogantly superior territory.

"Mr. Recall, is there nothing that can be done to, uh, enhance the image for us?" asked Tequila.

"No, I am afraid not," he responded with a shake of his head. "This spell only projects memories, it cannot alter them in any manner."

"Then let us continue," said Tequila and they resumed the memory projection.

Wisteria squinted at the screen, straining to make out any possible images as the two disembodied voices continued their conversation, until...

"You! Outdo my chaos?! Ho, ho, let's see you say that to my face!"

There was a brief flash of light that seemed to poke Wisteria hard in both eyes. She flinched just as she heard Chrysalis's voice shout "Now!" from the screen and this time there were several blinding flashes of light. Wisteria clapped her hooves over her eyes with a pained cry and judging from the screams and groans around her, the rest of the audience was having a similar reaction.

"Miss me?"

At the sound of Discord's voice from the direction of the screen, Wisteria dared to move a hoof from her eyes ... only to see imagery her brain struggled to comprehend.

"We have to get out of here!" she thought she heard Chrysalis shout from the screen and might have caught a glimpse of semi-transparent changelings, but it was hard to be sure among all the chaos she was witnessing through a trailing web of red haze.

This must have been right before I flew in there after him! she realized just as the image raced down toward the ground. The scene went blank and for a moment she thought that was the end of it. But suddenly the image of the ground returned and shifted, as if Discord were turning his head. It flickered as if he were trying to blink the blood out of his eyes, and between those flickers Wisteria saw something even the past moments' madness hadn't prepared her for. It seemed to be a shimmering column of light and suspended in that column in all her grotesque detail was...

"Bonfire?" Wisteria breathed. She whipped her head up, hoping to meet Discord's eyes, but they were currently squeezed tight shut. So she swung toward Regal Love instead, whispering, "Did you see that? I didn't imagine that, did I?"

"No, no, I saw it too." Regal Love whispered back, sounding just as shocked. "That ... was Bonfire. Or at least some creature that looked exactly like her."

But how is that possible? Discord had said he had no memory of creating such a creature when Fluttershy had described Bonfire. Yet there she was.

Wisteria looked back at the screen just in time to see it go black.

After several minutes of uninterrupted blackness, Tequila barked, "Halt!"

Total Recall stopped his spell and the room's lights slowly came back on.

Discord smirked at Tequila. "Well, satisfied?" He probably would have folded his arms across his chest if they weren't chained down.

However, he felt a tinge of disappointment mixed with unease when she only met his smirk with an impassive expression. Was she just that good at hiding her frustration? Or was she a changeling that knew full-well he was innocent? But if the latter was the case, what did she hope to accomplish by having the jury view his memories?

She peered at him through her thick glasses for several extremely long seconds before announcing, "The prosecution has no more questions for the witness at this time. The defense may question him." With that she turned and marched back to her desk.

Well, Tequila might not have looked frazzled at the results of her questioning, but at least Scout certainly did.





Since Tequila had already covered Discord's interrogation of the suspected changelings, as well as the times for the murders of Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, Regal Love was left trying to build a character defense. She decided to start with his time at Derpy's house with her daughters.

The audience watched through his eyes as the little family struggled first with the puffy frizz he had caused their coats to erupt into, then the wild spikes that resulted from trying to wet down that frizz before he finally took pity on them and gave them each a currycomb rubdown to return their hair to normal.

Not exactly the actions of a selfless hero, but not particularly malicious either.

Soon after they were thrust into Discord's memory of waking to a pair of pillows suspended by unicorn magic whacking him as Dinky and Amethyst shouted at him to let their mother go. The shouts were abruptly muffled as the two pillows shot out of sight. The view swung up and around to see the two unicorns now being pinned against the wall by the pillows; then dipped down to see Derpy squirming against his chest, clearly lashed there by ... his dragon tattoo?

At the sight, Wisteria felt a sudden rush of ... not necessarily déjà vu but something very close to it. While Discord wrestled with his tattoo to free Derpy, Wisteria found herself remembering a dream she'd had that night after burying Angel and introducing her friends to Skywishes. After she'd learned Discord was back in Ponyville but had seen no sign of him.

In the dream it had been so dark she could barely see. She had been crying into that scarf she had given Discord and that she had discovered in the trash after he left her. But during the dream, she felt the scarf move as if it were alive, felt it wrap around her, felt its ends caress her face ... felt it suddenly morph into a pair of achingly familiar mismatched arms. She remembered twisting about to face him, and finding herself up against his chest. Though it was still dark, her eyes seemed to have adjusted enough for her to make out the dragon tattoo peeking at her over his shoulder. But when she looked up, hoping to see his face, she saw nothing but blackness. Not even the faintest gleam of eyes or jewelry.

"Care to explain what prompted that pillow assault?" she heard Discord ask from the screen.

"We heard Mom yelling and came to see what was going on." said Amethyst.

"I don't know what happened," said Derpy. "I heard you tossing and turning and muttering in your sleep so I came in to check on you. Then your tattoo just jumped out and wrapped around me."

A small gasp sprang from Wisteria's lips but fortunately everyone around her seemed too focused on the scenes before them to notice. Discord's dragon tattoo had done the very same thing in her own dream! How was it possible? What were the odds that she could dream about Discord's tattoo binding them together the very same night it would actually do that with another pony? What could it mean?

"You look confused."

For a split-second Wisteria almost thought Derpy's voice from the screen was somehow magically addressing her.

"I do not. Look who's talking." The sound of Discord's annoyed voice from the same screen brought her back to the present. On the screen she saw Derpy—dressed in her mailpony uniform and carrying her mailbag—sitting on the roof of a house, looking up at the camera. At least one eye looked at the camera while the other seemed to be doing its best to veer as far off in the opposite direction as possible.

"You're not sure what to do, are you?" she said.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." There was a flash of light and the scene changed. Derpy was gone, but what the shot showed of the rooftop did look similar to what the pegasus had been perched on.

Though now out of sight, it soon became clear Derpy hadn't left the scene. "Discord, do you know what I sometimes try to ask myself when I'm not sure what to do?"

"Doesn't matter to me one way or the other."

"Do I do something to be loved, or in order to love?"

There was the sound of flapping wings. Then just as the flapping faded...

"Wait a minute! Who said anything about love?! I didn't—!" The camera whipped around, took in the now-empty roof, and swung upward to see Derpy flying away. "Hey!" Discord shouted but Derpy either didn't hear or pretended not to.

Though she had just watched things play out through Discord's eyes, Wisteria suddenly found herself wishing she could instead have seen them through Derpy's skewed ones. What might the gray pegasus have observed that had prompted her to offer that piece of advice?





They continued viewing bits and pieces of that day Discord spent at Derpy's house, from magically correcting Dinky's botched batch of muffins, to helping her with the baking, but eventually ran out of applicable memories. After a quick consultation, it was decided they'd go back deeper and use those memories from his time helping Fluttershy with Applejack.

It was strange for Wisteria to see her familiar memories being played out through the eyes of another. She wondered how the rest of the audience was reacting to these scenes, but when she glanced about it was too dark to make out their expressions.

"But surely you've had at least one friend." she heard Fluttershy's voice say from the screen.

"No." she heard Discord's voice reply also from the screen as she turned back to it.

"You have one now." said Fluttershy's voice, and the camera swung down to see her with her forelegs wrapped around a section of Discord's long body.

There was a chorus of sentimental Awwws from the darkness around her, and she hoped that was a good sign.





Finally they came to the day after she and Discord had reunited Applejack with her family and friends. Wisteria felt her stomach cramp at the sight of Fluttershy standing in front of Carousel Boutique, asking, "Aren't you coming with me?"

"No, you go ahead and have fun with your friends. I'll be fine."

"Well, if you're sure..."

Suddenly Discord's mismatched hands darted into view, scooped Fluttershy up and brought her right up so her face filled the whole screen. "I'll just be waiting for you back at the cottage. With a surprise."

"Discord, what are you—?"

"Oh, you'll find out soon enough, my dear. Now run along. Mwah!"

Wisteria felt tears spring to her eyes, remembering that comically exaggerated smooch on the nose had been the last contact she would have with him for a full year. She looked up at Discord, but his eyes were still squeezed shut. She turned back to the screen, silently hoping his memories would finally reveal his reason for leaving her.





He couldn't do it. This was exactly what he feared might happen if they used these memories. He couldn't let her learn his reason for leaving her. Not in this setting with all these strangers looking on. As Total Recall's spell drew closer to the memory, Discord promptly clamped down on it, refusing to let it play any further. Out!

The tech-pony suddenly staggered backward as if he'd just been punched in the face. "Mr. Recall?" Tequila asked as the screen abruptly went blank and the lights came on.

The tech-pony shook his head, looking rattled as he rubbed a hoof over his forehead beside his horn. "That was different. I have never had somepony just mentally sock me out like that." He looked back toward Discord with a new wariness.

Tequila walked over to him and gave his shoulder a quick pat. "Thank you, Mr. Recall. I believe your job here is done." She paused then added, "Unless the defense has anything else to add."

"They don't!" Discord answered before either his lawyer or her assistant could respond.

At this the judge stirred on her perch. "Hmm. Well, in that case, does the defense have any more witnesses they intend to call?"

"Your honor, I move that all testimony given under the spell of Total Recall be stricken from the record and the jury instructed to disregard it."

Tequila Mockingbird's motion was greeted with shocked and surprised whats around the courtroom.

"Your honor, the spell is being manipulated and used in ways it was not originally intended to be used in. Any evidence it may produce is at best unreliable or at worst simply false. Therefore I move that the entire line be disregarded."

Regal Love was about to object herself, only to be cut off by a roaring "How dare you!" from the burly tech-pony behind her. "My spell functioned perfectly!"

Scout was suddenly on his hooves. "Techie not insult Boss!"

He looked as if he fully intended to launch himself at the much-bigger, far-broader stallion when Tequila snapped out a sharp, "Scout! Be Still!"

The pinto froze as if he'd just been hit by a stunning spell.

Tequila snapped out an equally sharp, "Sit down!" and he dropped back into his seat like a bucket of bricks.

"Order." wheezed the judge.

"Order!" bellowed the bailiff, drowning out the bang of the judge's gavel in the process.

"Eh-hem. Thank you, bailiff," said the judge before turning her attention to the tech-pony. "Mr. Recall, you will control yourself."

Total Recall snorted and gave his mane a shake, turning his glare from Tequila to the judge, though hastily softening it in the process. "My apologies, your honor. If there is one thing that will set me off, it is ponies questioning my work or my professionalism, when I give them answers they do not like," he explained, directing the conclusion clearly back at Tequila. He glared at her again. "As I said, my spell functioned perfectly. If you doubt that, Ms. Mockingbird, then call another witness to try and discredit my spell. I know my work and would defend it before the Royal Sisters themselves!"

Tequila faced this tirade without flinching. Did nothing rattle her? "Mr. Recall, mere moments ago in this very courtroom you said, and I quote: 'I have never had somepony just mentally sock me out like that.' Are we to assume from that statement that you've always succeeded in prying memories from resistant test subjects, or that you've never yet had to work with a resistant test subject?"

It was like watching somepony ram a skewer into a balloon, the way the tech-pony's rage seemed to deflate at the question.

Tequila lowered her head challengingly. "Mr. Recall, have you ever pulled memories from a resistant test subject?"

He glared at her, clearly wanting to hold onto his outrage. But then his eyes and ears both lowered. "No," he admitted grudgingly. "That was one of the limitations I mentioned earlier. The test subjects were always willing volunteers who knew what they signed up for, and were eager to help. They never fought to hide things from us. The times that we did encounter unwillingness, the spell would just fizzle. My ... expulsion from the spell by the defendant was something we had not encountered before."

Wisteria felt her stomach suddenly drop as she remembered Discord's first attempts to view her memories, and how it had taken her focusing on those particular memories to ensure he picked out the ones they wanted.

"But we do plan to rectify those limitations in the future!" Total Recall added somewhat defensively. "And everything we just saw was actual untampered memories!"

"I never said they weren't." Tequila's tone made it clear she could afford to be gracious in this confrontation. She had won.

"That will be enough, you two." said the judge. "Ms. Mockingbird, if what the spell is showing us is accurate, then explain what you mean by it being manipulated and used in unintended ways."

"Glad to, your honor. Ponies of the jury, my reason for earlier requesting the testimony we got through Total Recall be stricken from the record was not because I thought the defense was producing fabrications, but because I know for a fact they were carefully selecting only certain scenes to give you a false narrative. We were shown memories of the defendant interacting with Derpy and her daughters, and they appeared to be getting along just fine. But if that were truly the case, why aren't they here now to vouch for his character? I'll tell you why.

"Because two days after the memory we saw, Derpy was in the hospital with her body turned wrong side-out via a spell Princess Twilight stated only the defendant is powerful enough to do. The very same spell that was used on both Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. And what of Derpy's daughters? Dinky's condition and whereabouts were and still remain unknown, while Amethyst appeared in that hospital at the same time as her mother. She was deep in a coma that the doctors deduced was caused by magical backlash while attempting to teleport both herself and her mother to the hospital. Now she did eventually awake from that coma, remembering her identity but not the events that led to her coma. So I ask again: Why isn't she at least here to act as a character witness?

"Because the defendant was treated at that very same hospital and one day he managed to get loose and took Miss Amethyst Star hostage."

"That's true!" shouted a new but strangely familiar male voice from the gallery. "I was there! I saw it! Swear me in, I'll testify!"

This was met with a flurry of startled activity throughout the courtroom which Judge Snow Day, and by extension her bailiff, quieted with cries of "Order!" As soon as things quieted, the judge gestured toward the gallery with her gavel. "You, sir. The stallion who first called out. Stand up. Approach the bench and explain yourself."

As the stallion stepped out of the gallery and into the main courtroom, Discord let out a soft groan that only the two ponies next to him noticed.

Regal Love leaned over to get a look at the now-approaching stallion. She'd never seen Amethyst's security guard shadow, but the wraparound sunglasses and burly build did match the description she'd gotten from the others. "Is that—?"

Discord nodded resignedly before she could complete the question. Regal Love cast a quick glance toward Tequila, expecting to see only impassivity, but to her surprise the older pony actually looked a bit blindsided. So much so that she had actually snatched off her glasses as if it would somehow magically improve her vision.

The judge aimed a disapproving scowl down at the stallion. "Who are you, sir?"

The burly stallion quickly plucked off his wraparounds, tucked them in a shirt pocket, and gave his shoulders a quick dust-off to look more presentable. "Magic Mike, your honor, ma'am. I know you probably don't really know me, but you might have heard of my parents. The, uh, decorated former royal guards Amazing Alpha and Brave Bravo."

Judge Snow Day's expression actually brightened. "Oh, yes, yes, indeed. I remember everypony being sure they were bitter rivals in the ranks until they both made captain and he proposed to her. I also remember they retired from the royal guard to start their own security business. And you're their son. How are good old Alpha and Bravo? Are you their first born?"

The stallion suddenly looked embarrassed. "Uh, no. Actually I'm their ... eleventh born."

"My goodness! Eleven foals!"

Mike laughed nervously. "Actually at this point they're up to twenty-one. ... With their twenty-second on the way."

This was greeted with impressed whistles all around the courtroom and Mike shrugged his withers helplessly. "Everypony needs a hobby."

"Little bro speaks the truth," said a male guard at one end of the room.

"That he does," a female guard concurred at the other end.

"Thanks, Kilo. Thanks, Lima," said Mike, nodding toward each of them in turn, before adding in a quick aside whisper to the judge. "Two of my siblings. Killer Kilo and Lethal Lima, foals nine and ten respectively."

The judge glanced up toward the two guards. "Ah, I thought there was something oddly familiar about several of the guards. Well, Mr. ... Mike, as enjoyable as it would be to talk about Alpha and Bravo, I'm afraid we have a trial to continue. Now explain to me why you said earlier that you could testify."

"Well, your honor, it seems you know who my parents were, and now you also know several of my siblings are also in the security business as well. I'm not in the royal guard, but I am a security guard for the hospital where..." he paused as if searching for the right words. "Where the defendant was treated so he'd be fit for this trial. I was there when Amethyst and her mother appeared; I was there when the defendant was brought in; and I was right there when he threatened Amethyst mere minutes before she and her mother ... well ... disappeared."

"Objection!" cried Regal Love. "There was no mention of this stallion anywhere in disclosure."

"Sustained." The judge scowled toward the prosecutor. "Ms. Mockingbird, is this your doing?"

Tequila had been tapping one ear-hook of her glasses thoughtfully between her teeth, but paused in this activity as she looked up at the judge. "Not at all, your honor. He's as much of a surprise to me as he seems to be for the defense."

"Hmm." The judge mumbled absently to herself as she looked from the prosecution, to the defense, to the off-duty security guard. "Ms. Love does have a point..."

Mike suddenly lunged toward the defense's table. Regal Love and Wisteria both flinched back with startled cries, while Discord hissed and strained against his chains, trying to get himself at least partially between the assistant and the security guard. However, it turned out Mike hadn't been going for any of them, but for the lie-detector still lying on the tabletop. Snapping the collar around his neck, he shouted, "I'm an only child!"

This was greeted with a loud buzz from the lie-detector before Mike plunged on.

"The day Amethyst Star and her mom disappeared from the hospital, Amethyst was coming back from an interview with the doctors when she stopped in the restroom. A doctor told me that when she was in there she fell and hit her head on the counter hard enough to break her horn off and make her amnesia worse."

"Mr. Mike, you are out of order," the judge warned.

"Out of order!" echoed the bailiff. But the stallion now had the proverbial bit between his teeth and refused to halt his narrative despite the judge's and bailiff's repeated shouts.

"When Amethyst ran out of the restroom, I and the rest of the staff tried to catch her so she wouldn't accidentally hurt herself, but she got away from us. We started combing the halls, checking every room to see if she was hiding in one of them. When we checked Discord's room, we saw him free of his restraints and with about half his body squeezed through an opening in the ceiling. We yanked him back out, and when he came down he had Amethyst in his arms. He put his claws to her throat and threatened to split her in two if we tried to stop him.

"When I warned him that if he hurt her, he wouldn't live long enough to regret it, Amethyst shouted, 'Mike, don't goad him. He'll kill me.' Then several unicorns tried to stun Discord with kill shots. I tried to stop them so they wouldn't accidentally hit Amethyst, and Discord ran out of the room with her. In the hall, somepony must have been able to hit him, because when I got out there, he was down on the floor and Amethyst was struggling to get away from him. She managed to get free and ran toward Derpy's room, yelling for her mother. She ran into the room, and I tried to follow her to make sure she was all right, but something was keeping the door shut. I was struggling with the door when it landed on top of me after an explosion in Derpy's room blew it off its hinges.

"That's the last any of us saw of Amethyst Star." Mike concluded, drawing in a deep breath after rushing out the whole recitation.

The judge banged her gavel several times for attention. "Mr. Mike, I warned you repeatedly that you were out of order, and you ignored me every time. You are hereby excluded from the courtroom and will be held in contempt of court."

Mike tugged the collar off his neck, turned to face the judge, and bowed his head. "I can live with that, your honor, ma'am."

"Guards, escort him out!" the bailiff roared. "But none of you who are related to him!" she added hastily as the two guards identified as Kilo and Lima both stepped forward. As they stepped back into their original positions, Regal Love saw Mike raise his eyes in Kilo's direction, and thought she saw the older stallion give him a tiny nod. Oh, Mike might have been booted from the courtroom, but she was suddenly certain his siblings would spill everything to him afterward.

As Mike was escorted from the room, Tequila turned to Regal Love, one ear-hook still poised as if she were about to give it a thoughtful gnaw. "Well, Ms. Love. It seems your lie-detector ruled everything he said apart from that first test lie as truth. Does the defense care to refute any of his claims?"

"Ms. Mockingbird, you are overstepping your position in this trial!" the judge warned, clearly having little patience left for Tequila's behavior. She paused, as if taking a moment to compose herself before going on in a calmer tone. "However, you make a valid point, and I agree the defense deserves the chance to refute, disprove or clarify these new accusations. Ms. Love?"

Regal couldn't help licking her lips nervously. "Um, your honor, a moment to discuss this unexpected event with my client, please?"

"Granted."





Regal Love quickly cast the same privacy spell she'd used earlier over the defense's table before turning to her team members. "This isn't good."

Discord cocked an eyebrow. "Is it? I didn't notice."

"Discord!" Wisteria whisper-hissed.

"Sorry. Need to let off a bit of stress."

"I don't really blame you." Regal Love sighed, massaging her temples. "Oh, I never thought about just how appropriate it was that Tequila Mockingbird's cutie mark is a bird with a writhing worm clamped in its beak because that's exactly what I feel like right now.

"I could try arguing that Mike's story be disregarded since he wasn't officially sworn in or listed among the official witnesses..."

"Why wasn't he on that list?" said Wisteria. "What if he was the real pony back at the hospital and the one we just saw was a changeling posing as him? ... But then again he did set off the lie-detector—"

"Which probably just means the changelings know how to trip it or not trip it at will." Discord muttered bitterly.

"Changeling or pony, he's put us in a real bind." said Regal Love. "Obviously we can't denounce his story about you taking Amethyst hostage as an out-and-out lie, but if we let it stand as is, it'll damage the image we've been trying to build of you. We could have Total Recall play your memory of how things really happened but—"

"But unfortunately there's also some things in that memory we'd rather the general public not know at the moment." Discord concluded. Three sets of eyes moved to the layer of necklaces, chains, chokers, and collars circling his neck and trailing down over his chest ... and the dragon tattoo peeking out through them.

The only reason they were even allowed this much privacy was because their opponents thought Discord was completely unable to use his power. If the news got out that his tattoos were still able to operate under their own reserve of his borrowed power ... if the news got out that he had secretly been communicating with others outside his cell ... he would never again know a second of surveillance-free-time, and his friends would lose the one piece of leverage they had over their enemies. Total Recall's spell would give them the chance to show what really happened between Discord and Amethyst, but it would also reveal the fact that Discord's tattoos weren't bound by the same spell currently inhibiting his own power.

"Do you think we should go for the mistrial?" Wisteria asked.

Regal Love's expression suddenly hardened. "Well, Tequila has already accused us of picking-and-choosing what we show anyway." She looked up to meet her client's eyes. "Discord, if Total Recall accesses your memory, can you give him just enough to prove Amethyst was with you of her own free will without giving away what your tattoos can do?"

His eyes unfocused, as if he were quickly reviewing the scene in his mind. Then he aimed a superior glance at the blobby shape beyond their shield that was Total Recall. "Easily."

"Alright." Regal Love drew a deep breath to steady herself and smoothed out her skirt suit. "First we're going to try and ... alleviate what damage Mike has done. Then I'm going to call for a mistrial."





Only a few minutes after Regal Love had put the privacy shield in place, she flashed it away and declared her client was ready to clarify Mike's statements, first in his own words and then with his own memories.

Discord straightened up as much as his chains would permit, which he was privately pleased to note put his head higher than any of the ponies around him. "Amethyst Star ran to my room because she was attacked in the restroom by a changeling disguised as one of the doctors. She knew that since the changelings can't disguise themselves as me, I was the only one in that hospital she could trust. The only reason I was able to get free from my restraints is because she undid them for me. And as for my taking her hostage ... That was based entirely on a mutual agreement between two consenting adults. It was actually her idea in the first place. Might have worked too if certain unnamed guards weren't aiming to kill her as opposed to simply incapacitate me."

Then at Regal Love's request, Total Recall—who still seemed rankled by Tequila's verbal smackdown—fired up his spell, the lights dimmed, and the memory appeared on screen.

Discord let the memory start with his ordered "Get me loose." and let it proceed to the point where he said "We'll go this way." while lifting Amethyst into the ceiling, before jumping past the part where he switched on a couple of his tattoos like flashlights, to the point where he straightened up from the pile of dust and debris with Amethyst clutched in front of him. From there the scene appeared to play out much the way Mike had described, until they came to the part in the hallway. Now the audience could clearly see and hear Amethyst not struggling to get away from Discord, but actually trying to drag him with her, only giving up the attempt when he both ordered her to go and forcefully shoved her away. For a moment they lost sight of her as Discord turned back to the oncoming ponies, but soon enough the camera swung about to see her disappear into her mother's room and slam the door shut before Mike reached it, and the remaining scene played out as described.

When the lights came back on, Tequila, who had resumed her glasses at some point during the viewing, commented, "I noticed there seemed to be a decent chunk of time missing between you ordering her to get you loose and you threatening her."

The defense had anticipated this, so Discord responded with, "My cinematic memory doesn't just record everything I see nonstop. It blinks off from time to time."

"Convenient." Tequila managed to load that one word with an impressive amount of disbelieving scorn.

Regal Love cleared her throat. "Ms. Mockingbird, you will recall that my client did mention that fact to Miss Fluttershy well over a year ago. Speaking of which, your honor, if I may ask, have you made a decision on whether the information extracted by Total Recall will remain on the record?"

The judge looked momentarily nonplussed. "Hm? Oh, yes, yes, about that.

"Mr. Recall, given your credentials and history with the Canterlot Constabulary, this court will trust in your expertise to overcome even a force of chaos like the defendant. As for you, Ms. Mockingbird. You opened the door to this avenue of testimony. Now you have to live with it. Motion to strike testimony denied." She punctuated the statement with a bang of her gavel.

Regal Love decided now was the time to strike. "Your honor, defense moves for a mistrial."

"Objection!" cried Tequila.

"Sustained. Explain yourself, Ms. Love."

"First, your honor, the prosecution has poisoned the jury. She called upon an unexpected witness to perform a spell that she reassured the court, repeatedly, would be able to only reveal true and accurate memories, no fabrications. Defense allowed this in good faith, feeling that a lawyer of Ms. Mockingbird's caliber would not try and deceive the court as to the validity of what she was proposing. Yet only now, after pursuing her own line of questions against my client and allowing me to do the same does she claim that Mr. Recall's spell was not as effective as she originally advised the court. That she would throw her own expert witness under the train as part of this will only further serve to raise confusion within the jury. Given the extent of the testimony presented and the assurances that were given at the beginning as to its validity from the prosecutor herself, only for her to later recant that claim of validity after said testimony, will have resulted in irreparable harm to my client and this case.

"Second, there was the stallion you called up here. There was no mention of him in the list of witnesses we were given, and we had no time to prepare a proper defense against his claims. It was only through Mr. Recall's spell that we were able to prove how inaccurate this proclaimed eye-witness's view of the situation was, thus raising even more confusion in the jury. The only proper action at this point would be to declare a mistrial, postponing until a fresh jury is selected and proceedings can begin anew."

Judge Snow Day narrowed her eyes and grumbled as she shifted about in her seat. "You do make several good points, Ms. Love. Nevertheless, I do feel that the good ponies of the jury will still be capable of using their own judgment when it comes to ascertaining the truth of the testimony given by your client against that of the other witnesses and evidence submitted." She banged her gavel again. "Motion for mistrial denied."

Regal Love stood stunned for several seconds, her mouth hanging open. She had felt so sure that they'd have been able to end things in mistrial. Then out of the corner of her eye she saw Tequila discretely shaking her head, a small pitying smile on her face. Suddenly she remembered several instances in Tequila's novels where Rackets would ask for more than he really wanted so that when he backed down, it appeared that he was making a compromise when he was actually getting exactly what he wanted. Had his creator just pulled a similar stunt? Asked that all of Total Recall's extracted evidence be disregarded when she was really just aiming to plant doubt in the jury's minds as to how trustworthy any of the evidence the defendant gave them truly was?

Quickly closing her mouth, she forced herself to give the judge a solemn nod, rather than shoot Tequila the savage glare she would have preferred.

Two can play at that game! she thought at the opposing lawyer, firming her jaw for the battle ahead. And unlike you, I don't have to prove my client is innocent, just build enough doubt in the jury's minds to force an acquittal!





The trial continued with cross-examination of the police ponies involved in the deaths of Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, and in Discord's subsequent capture and interrogation. The fact that many of them might be changelings who had helped plant evidence to frame Discord in the very scenes they claimed to have investigated forced Regal Love to stay on her hooves and strained her resolve to the limit.

After what seemed like an all too short time, she dismissed her final witness.

"Since the defense's case was so brief," the judge commented, "I, uh, believe we should just have time for the closing arguments today."

"Closing arguments!" the bailiff promptly boomed.

Tequila paused to straighten her suit and moved forward to address the jury. After giving them a quick walk-through of the evidence that had just been presented, she told them to consider the defendant. She reminded them that upon escaping from his stone prison, his first action was tricking three of the Element Bearers into being the opposite of their Elements; he had appeared to act as Fluttershy's willing partner while solving Applejack's disappearance, only to abandon her and revert to his old ways as soon as that goodwill had been established. She reminded them how everything they'd seen on the screen was only what the master manipulator had wanted them to see.

"We saw nothing in those five minutes when Pinkie Pie's death was supposed to occur, but the defendant only needed to remove five seconds of footage to cover up his crime. He would have needed at least three minutes to hide Rainbow Dash's murder, which explains why we got a completely silent blank screen for that time."

She pointed out the evidence both the police ponies and tech-ponies had discovered at the crime scenes—evidence that Princess Twilight herself had confirmed—as well as the fact that all three eye-witnesses had passed a lie-detection test the defense had requested.

Then she addressed the subject of the defendant's character witnesses, reminding the jury once again that all those witnesses were pulled from the defendant's memories rather than being there to testify in the flesh.

"Where is the pony who arguably worked the closest with him in the past year? Why isn't Fluttershy here to vouch for his character?"

She is here! Wisteria seethed, curling her hooves against the tabletop in helpless fury as Tequila pointed out: "Ponies in the position to either confirm or deny the defendant's claims have a troublesome habit of disappearing."

The lawyer continued her argument, concluding with the fact that mere imprisonment would not be enough for Discord. If he could escape once, he could do it again. Nothing short of the death penalty would pay for his crime.

Now it was Regal Love's turn. "Ponies of the jury, I would like to remind you that the point of this trial is to determine whether or not my client is guilty of the murders of Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. Now with that in mind, I will explain to you how the evidence submitted has been circumstantial at best and immaterial at worst." She proceeded to argue how all that evidence could have been planted to make Discord look guilty; also reminding the jury that while Discord's memories might not show them everything that happened, they could at least be sure that what they did see did genuinely play out that way. "This whole accusation rests on the testimonies of three witnesses and we just saw those very same witnesses admit to my client that they lied and planted evidence to frame him. We also heard Queen Chrysalis admit to framing him.

"Ponies of the jury, my client faces a serious charge. His life is on the line. Think of the true victims here. Think of Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. Neither of them would want an innocent unjustly punished for their deaths. A conviction in this case would be a travesty!" Softening her voice, she urged them: "Do the right thing. Find Discord innocent."





"Well, we gave it our best shot," Regal Love groaned, massaging her temples with her hooves. After the jury had adjourned to deliberate, she and Wisteria had accompanied Discord back to his cell. She'd managed to shoo away the guards to ensure they had some privacy for final words before departing for the day.

"And you were fantastic!" Wisteria countered fiercely. Regal Love had been doing her best to maintain a brave face, but it was clear to her friend that all the setbacks and difficulties they'd experienced in court had really crushed the unicorn's typically optimistic spirit. "We could never have done this without you."

"Oh, indeed." said Discord. "The fact that you managed to put up with me as a client already proves you're leagues better than old Mockingbird could ever hope to be."

Regal Love made a noise that sounded like a half-whimper, half-snicker, and Wisteria patted her shoulder.

"You said yourself we didn't need to prove him totally innocent," she whispered. "Just build a case of reasonable doubt. And I think you succeeded." At least I hope you did. she mentally added. Regal Love had certainly done an admirable job of holding up a strong front in court but Wisteria could see how close she was to cracking now that they were all alone. Not for the first time, she wished she had her wings back so she could wrap one around her friend.

She looked up at Discord, questions burning in her mind. Why did you cut off that memory of leaving me? What are you so determined to hide? What was Bonfire—or at least someone who looked exactly like her—doing in your memory?

He cocked a pierced eyebrow. "Something on your mind?"

Realizing she had been staring, she promptly looked away. Oh, yes. There was so much on her mind, but where to start?

She peeked back up at him in time to see him coaxingly arch his eyebrow a few more notches, causing light to glint off the ring in it. "Is that the same jewelry you had before?" She wasn't sure where the question had come from, but went with it, waving to indicate all the metal in his ears and on his face.

He chuckled lightly. "Yes, it seems after removing it at the hospital, the staff hung onto it for me. Nice to see somepony has their priorities straight."

Wisteria laughed weakly at the joke. But as her eyes traced the scar that now traveled along the top of his skull between his horn and antler, she suddenly wondered what the hospital staff had done with the scarf she'd used to put pressure on his wound. Thrown it away most likely.

Tell him about seeing Bonfire in his memory. That would probably be the least touchy subject to start on, then maybe they could move onto the more ... uncomfortable ones.

But before she could even move her mouth to form the words, there was a banging on the door. They opened it to reveal the same retinue of stocky guards that had escorted them from the courtroom. "Good, you're still here," the leader told them. "We're to escort you and the defendant back to the courtroom."

Regal Love blinked and looked between them. "So soon?"

"The jury's made their decision, so yes."

"Is that ... a good thing?" Wisteria asked with trepidation.

"I ... I don't know," was Regal Love's only reply.





Before they knew it, the defense was back in their familiar seats in the courtroom. On one side of them was the prosecution (with Scout looking worried and Tequila Mockingbird looking impassive) and on the other side was the jury filing back into their box. Once everypony was seated, the ancient Judge Snow Day settled herself, and looked down at them from her perch. "Well, jury. Have you reached a verdict?"

One stallion rose to act as spokespony. "We have, your honor. After much discussion and examination of the evidence, we hereby find the defendant Discord..."

He paused briefly as his eyes flicked toward the defense. His next words were not shouted, yet they still seemed to ring through the room just as powerfully as any of the bailiff's bellows.

"Guilty. On all charges."