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// CHAPTER XXVIII: Just One Kind of Folks 
// Story: Special Illumination 
// by ponichaeism 
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	Jack Apple stood tall and proud alongside Starswirl, faced Orrin Tin and Lockhorn Plenty as they sat on the judges' bench in front of the podium, and declared, "This is an outrage. I won that vote, fair and square."
Several ponies on the benches hollered in support of him, Brandy Apple the loudest of all.
Orrin put a simpering smile on his face as if he were talking to a child. "Now Jack, I ain't doubting that. What I ain't so sure about is your loyalty."
"My l-loyalty?!" Jack sputtered.
Exactly as I predicted, Starswirl thought, trying to visualize his decisions and the decisions of others as a branching mathematical path. I can either protest along with Jack, do nothing, or....
The wizard turned to Jack and said, "I'm afraid I must agree, Jack."
Orrin gritted his teeth and snapped, "You keep your little horn out of--" He shook his head. "What?"
Starswirl said, "Although it may dishearten me, his logic is sound. He accused me of using magic to charm the townfolk, and you and your wife were very curious about my pendulum. If his accusation is true then logically you would have been charmed into being curious about it, ergo you were and could possibly still be under my spell. Although you and I know that isn't true, there still remains the conflict of interest."
"That's....yeah," Orrin said.
Alright, Starswirl thought, now that I've given these ponies a taste of how logic works, let's see how much farther we can take it.
Starswirl turned to the two elected judges and gestured to Jack. "Therefore, I have a request: I wish Jack Apple to be my legal counsel."
"Your what?" Lockhorn asked. "What in the hay does 'legal council' mean?"
Starswirl faked an embarrassed laugh. "Oh, here I am thinking about Varnetian law again. Please, forgive me, I'm just so very used to it."
Imply you haven't given their legal system much thought, to dissuade them from thinking you've been spying on them. Unless that implies I'm trying to establish my own society here? I didn't think of that; I didn't have time to think of that. Oh well, too late.
"You see," Starswirl said, "since the law in Varnice has so much more it needs to take into consideration, ponies appoint a lawyer intimately familiar with its intricacies to advise them in legal matters. Since I haven't even been in this town a week yet, I request that Jack Apple advises me as I give my defense. After all, since you accuse him of being under my sway already, logically what harm can it do?"
"No," Orrin said. "I forbid it. You're just going to trot him out like a prize pig--"
Starswirl put what he thought was the right tone of disbelief to tie Orrin's comment back to Starswirl calling him out earlier without having to explicitly say so.
"A prize pig?"
Orrin rolled his eyes. "I was just using a--"
"Legal council, eh?" Lockhorn Plenty said. He glanced sidelong at his fellow judge and announced, "Well, I think it's a mighty fine idea."
Orrin whispered harshly, "You fool--"
"Well, seeing how there's only the two of us I think we'll wait and discuss the matter." 
The third elect was Pasture Allfields, just as Ettin had predicted. Pasture was a stout-looking pony with dark blond hair ringing his balding head and a golden-green coat the shade of a pale pear.
"Tell me what you know about him," Starswirl whispered.
"Allfields?" Jack said. "He owns a modest pear farm, but he's well-respected round here. He's a stodgy old feller and none too trusting of foreigners, but he's fair. If'n you ain't done nothing wrong, I reckon he won't vote against you."
"The problem is, 'done nothing wrong' entirely depends on who's doing the judging."
"Hmph. Well, you got me there."
"Thank you, by the way. For standing up for me."
"I ain't just standing up for you, Starswirl. I'm standing up for this town. If'n we lose our decency, then there ain't no point in going on, you hear?"
Starswirl muttered darkly, "All too well."
"We're all ponies and we all deserve the same decency, I reckon, but some ponies, why they're as stubborn as mules and don't rightly see that."
"Unfortunately unicorns are seldom better, I can assure you."
As Pasture Allfields took his place between Orrin and Lockhorn, who refused to sit next to each other, Jack Apple said, "Too bad you're the folks with the power."
"Perhaps I do have powers you don't, but you, Jack, stood up for what you believe, and that takes strength. Although strength and power are often conflated, they are rarely the same thing."
"Aw, shucks. You didn't need to go into all that."
"Now, Pasture," Lockhorn said, "What do you think of this unicorn having Jack Apple as his 'legal council'?"
'This unicorn', Starswirl pondered as Pasture Allfields thought. Lockhorn refuses to use my name, and instead addresses me by my kind. So he still thinks of me as alien, something different, not far divorced from Orrin Tin's own views. Lockhorn Plenty is not going to be thinking about this logically, merely doing the opposite of what Orrin does.
Starswirl whispered, "The judgment, must it be unanimous?"
Jack Apple said, "If'n you mean all three have to vote guilty, then no. Only two a'them."
"Of course not," Starswirl muttered. "I'm willing to wager Orrin and Lockhorn will refuse to vote the same way out of spite, otherwise this trial would be over already."
"Ayup. Mind you, it used to be all three had to vote guilty, but then them two fought so much the folkmeet voted to change it just so's anything would get done round here."
So the one I must persuade is the third judge, the one in the middle.
Ah, balance, how I regret you now.
Starswirl asked, "How will this unfold?"
"Pretty simple, like most things in this here town. The witnesses go up, get asked questions some, then the three judges make a decision."
"Will I get a chance to ask them questions?"
Jack Apple said, "Huh. Nopony's ever had a reason to."
"Hm." To the judges, he announced, "I have another request."
"Oh, what is it now?" Orrin asked, rolling his eyes.
Time to test out this Pasture Allfields, Starswirl thought.
"Yes?" Pasture asked. "What is it?"
"As I've said, the legal traditions where I come from are somewhat different, so forgive me yet again for comparing them with yours, but will I get a chance to question the witnesses myself?"
Orrin asked, "Why in tarnation would you get to question them yourself? We're the judges."
"Ah, but you see, the only pony who truly knows what happened there is myself. If I were to pursue my own line of questioning, would that not perhaps bring new aspects of the case to light? Not that I'm implying anything, ha ha, but if you were in my place and a witness perhaps forgot an important detail that could exonerate you, would you want to let it go unremarked on? Put yourselves in my hooves, I beg of you, and allow me this request."
The three judges looked at one another; or, more precisely, the two on either side looked at Pasture Allfields.
"We ain't never done it that way before," Orrin said. "Soon everypony will be wanting to question every witness."
Even Lockhorn balked at the implications of setting a precedent, while Pasture Allfields sat in quiet contemplation.
Jack Apple strutted forward. "If a pony's tale is true, then it ain't gonna change, will it? So what's the harm?" He turned to the folkmeet. "I lived in this here town almost since the mines opened, and I seen the lot a'you grow up into decent folk. Far as I'm aware, a trial ain't about wasting time till we pronounce a pony guilty as guilty can be. It's about figuring out if'n they deserve the punishment hanging over their head. Starswirl is right. He's the only one who knows what went through his head last night, and if he's got a reasonable explanation for it, then I reckon that might just get him off the hook. After all, did we put Orrin Tin on trial when that mine went and collapsed? No, because we knew it wasn't his fault. Was he careless? Maybe. But did he go and make it fall in on purpose? I don't think so, and neither did the lot of you, from what I recall."
Shaking, Orrin snapped, "I fail to see what that has to do with anything, Jack Apple." 
Jack turned to face him. "It has to do with a pony who's so keen to throw common decency out the window. You ain't always been this thirsty for blood, Orrin."
"Our way of life has never been under assault like this, Jack."
"And where's your proof, huh?"
Orrin leveled a hoof at Starswirl. "Him! He comes round here with all his....his....magic!"
Jack turned to Starswirl and asked, "Why are you in this here town?"
"Just passing through," the wizard lied.
"You see? I work at a tavern, and every few weeks we get a pony who's 'just passing through'. So what makes this one different than every other pony that comes through here?"
"He's a unicorn!" Orrin shouted.
"I asked what makes him different."
Orrin's jaw worked as he flapped it up and down, but no sounds came out.
"I move we allow his request," Lockhorn Plenty said abruptly. "Pasture?"
The pony in the middle rubbed his balding head. "This unicorn feller talks a lot about logic, don't he? Logic this, logic that. We ain't never had a trial where the accused gets to ask the witnesses why they're accusing him, but it seems to me that it'd be, ahem, 'logical' to give it a try and see if it works. Not every little thing that we didn't come up with ourselves is bad, Orrin."
"It's settled then," Lockhorn said with exaggerated sagacity. "The unicorn can have Jack Apple's help, and he can question the witnesses himself. Two to one, Orrin."
"So it is," Orrin muttered to himself as he glared at Jack Apple and Starswirl.