Chapter 11.
He opened his eyes and he stood in a room with Princess Celestia. It was brightly lit and also completely empty.
The princess turned to him. “This is the room in which the accused will arrive. Will need to be shackled before you enter, just for appearances.” She smiled and floated a pair of metal shackles besides her.
She put them on him and guided him out of the door. As they were walking through the corridors to his demise. “Don’t worry and articulate clearly. Just read the statement from Rights and all will be fine. And no word that I helped you.” She smiled again and pushed me through a door, into the courtroom.
He was shoved into the room where a lot of ponies were watching the first conviction of a human, they hoped. He looked around and saw Rights sitting at one bench and Twilight sitting at the other. And so he walked to Rights and sat down next to him.
“Hey kid. Good to see you all shackled up. Heh, heh.” Rights said to him, trying to reassure him. It didn’t work. “Just read this when I and all will be fine.” Rights settled into his chair/pillow and waited for it to start.
The judge stood up. “All stand before the judge and jury.!” Every single pony in the room stood up, there wasn’t a lot of difference in height. Martin stood up too, feeling a bit uncomfortable being the most visible.
As everyone was sitting down Martin got a tug on his sleeve from Rights who told him to sit down. “Just calm down. Miss Sparkle will open with her charge and then you read this to the judge.” Rights gave him a pat on his back and shoved some papers in front of him. “I’ll also call upon some witnesses to aid you.” Rights pointed at some ponies sitting one row behind them.
“Sure, sure. I’ll just listen to you.” Martin said to him, his nerves wrecking him.
Then Twilight stood up and started talking, but her voice had a small vibration in it. “Equestria hereby accuses you of murdering mister White Suits with medical equipment on purpose after escaping from your bonds which were put on you after you acted dangerously in your sleep. How do you plead?” She sat down and exhaled, trying to calm down and get the idea of making her friend go to jail out of her head.
Martin just kind of sat there, getting looked at by ponies. Rights leaned over to him and whispered, “Read the text, and do it quick.” Martin grabbed the piece of paper and looked it over. He scraped his throat and started speaking.
“Judge and jury. As you see I’m am not from this world. I arrived mere days before this tragic accident. I was kindly received by the residents of Ponyville. After one of the residents wanted to show an aerial trick I got injured in his ears. After this I was entered into the hospital where I was treated for my ruptured eardrums. This hospital gave me good care, but when I needed it the most they failed. As I later heard I was at unease in my sleep and to prevent injuries they bound me. But, members of the jury, they didn’t know that a human, as myself, should never be bound liked that. Even worse they gave me medications which have never been tested on humans. That was one of the worst mistakes. These medications have been thoroughly tested on ponies, but not on humans. The side-effects weren’t known nor were they held in account while I was being bound. They couldn’t have known how I would react in such a situation.” There was more on it, but Rights stopped me and started talking himself.
“As you can see my client had no influence on his actions. This accident happened because of the neglect of the doctors to consider that a human isn’t anatomically identical to a pony. Because of this seemingly small thing one pony died and lives were destroyed. And it also was the case that the sedatives used on my client were only adjusted on weight and, just as before, not tested before on humans. Because of this I plead that my client only needs to do community service, to help repay what he didn’t do. See it as charity. But for the doctor on the other hoof. He was the only cause of Mister White’s death and should be punished as such.” Rights settled down again. Martin was angry, he knew it wasn’t all his fault, but he doesn’t want to ruin any more lives by sending an doctor to jail. He knew that what Rights and himself said wasn’t untrue, but it sounded so harsh. He just hoped that as little people would be hurt by this. And he had no problem with doing as much community service as he needed to.
Martin leaned over to Rights and whispered in his ear that he shouldn’t go so hard on the doctors. Rights replied with a no can do, otherwise Martin would need to find another scapegoat and that would be too hard.
Twilight stood up again and called for the first witness, one of the nurses that was tending to me when he broke my bonds. She asked her a lot of questions, like what he said that morning and how he acted. She said that a lot of things were blurred, but she remembered that Martin was, as he was bound, very wild from the moment he was awake. She also remember that the doctor paid no attention to the fact that he was a human and just used the doses that were used for ponies.
Rights said to him that this was only helping them and their arguments. He just felt himself getting sicker and sicker by the moment.
Rights stood up and asked for Martin’s doctor as eyewitness. Rights asked him if he checked the doses. He didn’t. Rights asked him if he knew how Martin would react to being bound. He didn’t. He asked him if he had any explanation for his action. He did.
He started a whole story about how had gone drinking with some friends the night before and that he had a hangover that morning and that he didn’t feel good that morning and didn’t pay much attention. Then the doctor though about what he just said and silently cursed to himself.
Rights sensed this and dived onto this story like a dog to a bone. “So you’re saying that you drank the night before and felt a bit sick afterwards.” The answer from the doctor was positive. “And you still went to work.” Rights continued.
“Yes, but I felt fine on the moment that the human escaped. The choice to kill Mr. Suits was completely his own. I had nothing to do with it.” The doctor said, knowing he was done for.
“Being unsuitable for work, but still going has cost lives. That is why the blame lies with you.” Rights said while trying to hold back a large grin. “I rest my case.” And he said back down on his pillow.
The doctor walked back to his seat and sulked there. What most of the ponies there didn’t know was that he has a drinking problem and that things like this almost happened before.
The judge looked over her notes ones more and then asked if anypony wanted so say anything anymore. No answer came from the room. “Then we will continue this session tomorrow and give the verdict then. Fillies and gentlecolts, I will see you tomorrow.” She stood up and trotted out of the room.
“So Saul, how did it go?” Martin asked him.
He looked at his papers and grinned at Martin. “This is a cat in the bag. We are in the clear. You’ll get some small punishment and the doctor and associates will get the full load. Tomorrow will be a good day. Get some sleep and I will pick you up before court begins.” Rights said to him before finally walking to some door at the side of the room.
Twilight walked over to Martin. “Well that didn’t went as planned for me. That drunk doctor messed things up quite a bit. I just hope that things work out well.” Twi said while semi-guiding Martin out of the room and towards the large wooden doors. As they left the large wooden doors they started walking down the large road towards the castle.
“Do you want to get some coffee? I know a good place and it is close by.” Twi asked Martin. “I used to visit this place a lot while I studied under the princess in the short moments that I wasn’t studying.” She smiled.
“Sure, some coffee would be nice. Just to take my mind of all that has happened lately.” Martin said while trying to avoid walking against ponies.
“The place is called Donut Joe’s and is owned by Donut Joe. He makes the best doughnuts and coffee. And the place is calm enough to study or write an essay. I had some of my best ideas there. And Joe is one of the nicest shop owners I have ever known, he gave me free coffee on more than one occasion. And when I ruined the Grand Galloping Gala he let me warm up there, even though we got cake all over his shop.” Twi got a bit cheerier after seeing that her case was drilled into the ground, she didn’t even seem to notice.
They walked for a while without exchanging a word. When they arrived at the donut shop they entered silently and without a hustle. But then a couple of ponies noticed the large hairless ape that was suddenly standing in the shop. So naturally there was a lot of screaming and tables getting turned over. And in 2 minutes the whole place was deserted. The only thing Joe grumbled was that fortunately the customers already have paid before they left.
So they sat down and asked Joe for 2 glazed doughnuts and 2 cups of coffee. After they got the food and drink from Joe Joe grabbed a broom and started swiping the ground.
They talked about Martin’s life back on Earth and Twilight’s studies under Celestia. They discovered many similarities, like the city names, and Twilight at one moment grabbed a notebook and started scribbling stuff down while they were talking. After they ate their food and drank their drinks they left some bits on the counter and walked out of the door towards the castle. It was well into the evening.
Twilight shuddered ‘cause of the cold air outside. Martin noticed it and gave her his jacket. She thanked him and they walked on.
“What are you going to do after this? I mean if you don’t go to jail.” Twilight said to him while crossing the street.
“I honestly have no idea. Maybe I can find a job or something else. Travel around. I have no idea. And what can I do exactly. There aren’t a lot of jobs here for humans.” Martin sighs.
“Don’t be so down. I’m sure the princess has something in mind to help you. Everything will be fine.” Twi said, giving him a pat on the back.
“Thanks. And the princess always knows a way. A solution for every problem. Now, let’s set our mind to happier things. Like… uhm… your friends.” Martin said while pushing open the large wooden doors of the castle.
“I could go on and on about them. You could even ask the princess about all the friendship reports I wrote her. If I would start about them I would never end.” She giggled a bit as they walked up the stairs to their respective rooms.
“Maybe we can talk about them when they wheel me to the prison in a straightjacket.” Martin laughed.
“Ooh, don’t think that way.” Twilight said while giving him a playful shove. She yawned while they walked into the corridor on which Martin’s room was.
“This is my room.” Martin said while knocking on his own door. ”So then this is a goodnight. Till tomorrow and sleep well.” He said to her. He opened the door and stepped in, closing it behind him.
He simply walked up to the bed and flopped down. He fell asleep in minutes.