//------------------------------// // Chapter 9: The Second Coming Is At Hoof // Story: The Twilight of the Crystal Heart // by WanderingPony //------------------------------// The first thing Trixie Lulamoon saw as she topped the staircase exiting the Royal Dungeons was red. Of course, this was on account of the rather squishy tomato passing close enough to her nose as to make her eyes cross. The flying fruit dumped it's content of pulpy insult across the hooves of one of the guards, then with a end-over-end roll, tried the same with Rarity. Only a Pinkie-worthy vertical bounce saved her from the horror of rancid ketchup stains. The anonymous "Sorry, Trixie!" from the fruit-thrower in the crowd was the second shock. The unicorn could read a crowd easier than a book, and this one was ugly, the kind that normally would get her in the mood to pack a wagon and get out of town- but for once, almost none of it was aimed at her. No, the manticore's tail was up and dripping venom for the other ponies that'd shared her stay in the cell. The crowd hissed as the five other prisoners got their first look at the morning sun, then broke out in a chorus of ear-flattening boos for good measure. "Uh-heh-heh...Trixie normally doesn't get this kind of audience until AFTER the show!", she deadpanned. Her fellow prisoners didn't notice, wilting visibly under the barrage of (thankfully, without further rotten produce) anger from the crowd. Puffing her chest out, Rainbow Dash began to lift off to return the harsh words. To her surprise, Fluttershy was the first one to do something about it, headbutting Rainbow Dash hard enough to make her bobble a few inches off the ground. "These are nice ponies, Dashie! They've just had a lot of horrible things happen, and when someone sticks a pin in your tail, you snap at anypony you thought put it there!" Applejack shook her head as if to flick off a especially bothersome fly. "And they ain't heard what the Herd had at the trial, so they don't know nothin' about what rightly happened in the Empire. We're gonna get this over with...and...and..." Pinkie finished for her. "And we're going to go home. And hug. A lot of ponies. And find Twilight, and-" The resulting "WHAT?" was enough to bring the procession to a grinding halt. Celestia wheeled about in a clatter of golden shoes, body-checking her sister halfway across the path. "Pinkamena Diane Pie, Twilight's GONE. You saw her die! I saw her die! We-WHRMPHLE.", the Princess exclaimed. Pinkie's bandaged hoof had attached itself like a suction cup to the wild-eyed monarch's lips. "My mane went all flat and I was really, REALLY, REALLY not-happy and sadpressioned and everyone was all crying and Twilight isn't dead cause if she had been I'd have gotten my tail wrapped around my left hindleg the same way I did when Auntie Marble got all squishy when that column she was buck-sculpturing fell on her and I couldn't stop myself from giggling when they called her a "pillar of the community" at the funera- SNERK!". Rainbow Dash took this moment of silence to quietly collapse into a heap, narrowly beating Rarity toppling into the embrace of a topiary stallion. "Thou didst only NOW desire to tell us you believe Princess Twilight is ALIVE, Pinkie?", the un-liplocked Princess Luna managed to sputter. "Well, when someone threw that really splattery to-ma-toe, it reminded me of Auntie Marble and that reminded me about my tail and I hadn't been thinking very much about anything but I was all "I-DEA!" like Rarity and that's when I knew Twilight couldn't be kaput! I mean, we kinda blew her up with the Elements that one time and THAT didn't do it so I should have thought about my tail and-" -it is a testament to the springy rubber-pony resilience of Pinkie Pie that resulting gang-hug failed to render her even flatter than her late auntie. The moment was ruined by the outright snarl as the manticore of a crowd decided that group hugs were not going to improve their mood, turning it into an accidental team huddle. Or perhaps the fact that somehow, Pinkie's mane and tail had decided to hug everyone into a knot while they were squashing her between them. "They ain't gonna take Pinkie's tail for an honest-to-Celestia witness- beg pardon, Princess I know YOU believe her - so we're gonna have to go through this roundup anyhows...you know you ain't gonna have no more dungeon if they lock us back in there with Twilight alive, right?" "Trixie knows some very good tricks for escaping from a locked room and angry mobs. Some even work for both at once." "Well, Rainbow I'm sure won't let a few guards- is anyone sitting on Rainbow Dash? Darling? No, that's Luna's wing I'm on, dreadfully sorry..." The slightly ruffled Dash hadn't moved an inch from where she'd settled, a few feathers randomly poking out like a giant blue pigeon as the hug-conglomerate separated out into it's pony-parts. Two noses, one dark and one pale gently lifted the apathetic pegasus back onto her feet. "Art thou well, Rainbow Dash?", Luna said. One of Rainbow's eyes drifted as it tracked the ruler of the night. "Ugh....kinda seein' doubles and I got a really bad headache. Anyone got a nice stormcloud I can cover my head in?" "Nay, not well. Guards! Lend this good pegasus your wings and bear her gently to the throne room. And summon a physick." --- Soarnus Methodus gently prodded at the head in front of him and frowned. "Has someone been using this pegasus as a battering ram? There's fresh bruises and if I had a unicorn that actually could work a healing spell, she'd have a horn in her ear faster than thunder after lightning. Concussion, aggravated by repeated blows to the head and flight, and if you weren't going to march her into the throne room this instant, she'd be going to a hospital bed instead. As it is, if you let those droning politicians keep her on her feet, I will turn the pony responsible back into a blank flank with my teeth." A moment later, a griffin-sized cushion slid under the wobbling patient, the gentle motion being enough to pitch Rainbow Dash into an undignified if comfortable spraddle. "Fortunately, you have a unicorn who can carry her friend in comfort.", Rarity said. "It is a pleasure to be able to return the favor.". The pillowed surface fluffed in places, gently supporting Dash's abused skull. "Now, shall we make our entrance and finish this dreadful appointment? All it needs is a bad tail dye and polka-dotted hoof polish to render it a complete travesty, but somepony is going to find the next best thing." And with that, the throne room doors opened, to the sight of a royal herald about to blow her sun-on-moon emblazoned trumpet...which found itself whisked away and gently bent in two by Trixie's horn. "Don't you know our friend is trying to rest?", Trixie quipped. "Announcing us when everyone already knows we're here is so gauche, anyway.", followed Rarity. Bearing the pegasus between them, the two unicorns led the rest of their party down the carpet, noses up as if they'd been carrying the royal diadems on their backs instead. --- To the side of the Princesses on their thrones stood the messenger of ill tidings, Herald of the Herd Tally-Ho. A thick scroll she held by it's seal, ready to unroll and unleash it's contents upon the poor creatures that stood marked before it. The white-on-silver, sun-and-moon tabard across her back marked her as being the Herald Royal for the day's court as well, though no loud announcements were to be made. Indeed, as Tally Ho nodded her readiness to begin, even the murmurs of "inside voices" soaked into the walls and dried up. One could hear a pin drop as the herald's teeth began to grind down on the seal... *ptink* "Pinkie, give the guard that pin please." ...and the wax crumbled away. With a shake, the scroll unrolled. And unrolled some more, to at least two ponylengths of text so small the mare had to attach one end of the scroll to a podium, then put on a pair of reading glasses. "We will dispense with the reading of the full charges. Abridge the announcement to the portions regarding the innocence of yonder ponies, Herald.". Luna's voice already held a measure of frost at the sheer long-windedness the Herd had sent in it's decision. Tally Ho managed to raggedly tear off most of the front third of the scroll in the process. "...in lengthy deliberation...with all due precedents and amendment..." A faint growl. Perhaps it had been Celestia's stomach. Perhaps something else. "Your Highnesses, in the matter of mass equiscide, the Herd finds the defendants...guilty of the lesser charges of involuntary ponyslaughter in all counts." From the crowd, bubbles of disgust, satisfaction, and shock. From the thrones, the press of air any pegasus knows as "storm warning", and a silence that was only marred by the sound of jaw muscles barely managing to freeze noble faces into a stone mask of impartiality. The five so condemned huddled together as if winter had plunged their tiny circle into a killing frost. "For their crimes, they are hereby banished to their town of residence and placed under threat of the fullest weight of the law should they go beyond it's bounds, nor higher than the roof of the highest building that rests upon the ground in Ponyville. Their property and any titles, honors or gratuity is hereby forfeit to the Crowns, where it's proceeds shall be given to the survivors of their heinous acts as recompense. When not under direct supervision of a representative of the Crowns, they shall be hobbled and horn-bound lest they cause still more grief to the innocent. Any fruit of their labors hereafter shall be reviewed by said representative, who shall take the greatest share under the law to further benefit those ponies who have been so aggrieved. This edict shall stand until such time as the Herd determines the guilty have paid to the fullest for their crimes against the Crowns, Equestria, and all decent folk. Long live the Princesses." The barest hint of smoke wafted from Celestia's nostril, a scent quite clear to Tally Ho. "I will render the second decision to their Majesties with equal alacrity, of course." "In the matter of participating in acts that led to the demise of a pony of high and noble standing..." A gold-shod hoof struck the floor hard enough to send chips of stone flitting through the air, one of which drilled a small hole in the already abused scroll. "Neigh, Herald. Neigh and no, for you do not have all the guilty of such a crime standing before you. Every pony who participated in such a crime shall share in the punishment when they are gathered before you to hear it." And with that, the Princesses descended from their thrones to stand with the huddled mass of misery below, each with a wing over the little ponies. Luna gave the herald a stare more griffin or hawk than pony.. "And lo, we are gathered here, knowing our crime. Read you the Herd's wise and merciful decision, and it shall fall upon us all in equal measure. Before you all, this we decree as the law in this matter." Celestia's burning and level stare made it abundantly clear Luna spoke for them both. Tally's composure crumbled. "P-p-rincess Luna, the decision was not meant for your-" "I am the Night and the Moon, ruler and Diarch. Certes, this I do speak in perfect clarity. Thou shalt declare this doom on mine self and my sister as you do it on every pony who stands charged with this crime, and we shall bear it together." "Majesty, I canno-" The torn and perforated scroll found itself floating a horn's-length away from Tally Ho's nose. "Do you my bidding, or thou shalt find the Crown's displeasure poured upon thee in generous measure." The herald's mouth became ashes and bitter moondust. Swallowing the acrid taste, she took a deep breath and read aloud, like a filly who had been required to recite a half-read textbook by an angry teacher. "...of noble standing, Princess Twilight Sparkle, we hold the accused guilty of aiding in the demise of a noble of highest regard. In this, there is but one punishment the law allows, and the Herd declares that before the Princesses, the guilty shall be subject to petrification for no less than one century and a day, whereupon they may be considered for parole at the Crown's merc-" The scroll was snatched away in a flash of orange feathers and a raptorous cry. Gathering the tangled lengths of the document in sharp claws, Philomena perched on the podium and scorched the vellum like so much birdcage lining, kneading the now utterly mangled legalese into blackened crisps. The brazen act managed to turn the eyes of the Princesses (and most everyone else) away from the sweating herald, much to her relief. "Philomena, that was a VERY bad phoenix! We do NOT steal things and burn them for no good-" The phoenix turned her head to the ceiling and began to sing joyously and without restraint, the squawking tones burning away at the solemn decorum of the proceedings as quickly as claws had cindered parchment. "And why are you singing THAT?". Celestia shook her head. "You've got years before your next-" The cracked and half-ajar doors that had led to the dining room smouldered. What lay beyond began to glower with a heat that rivaled Celestia herself, sucking a whistle of air into what had to be a small inferno beyond. Philomena took to the air and beat against the panels, crooning a victorious sound between pecking demands to be let past. And with that, the doors flew open and revealed the heart of the warmth- a single red feather, bursting into flame.