Few Hours later, in Ponyville...
The barn was ready and furnished to host a meeting. The chairs, created in few hours from wooden scraps, were barely standing up, a condition that made them suitable to be sat on. The table was a poker table with a missing leg, and was standing up thanks to the elaborate and overly complicated method of stacking books in place of the missing leg. The floor was littered with fine-quality hay.
The five friends of Twilight were sitting on the chairs, and talking about the hottest topic of the moment. Where in Equestria Twilight Sparkle was, and if it was recoverable.
So far, the meeting had decided that no, Twilight wasn't telling a lie, when she said that she was going to Magic Kindergarten for a term.
Now the question was whether to try to save her from the punishment, or just visit her from time to time.
Rainbow Dash beat the hoof on the table, causing it to tremble.
"We must act! What Princess Celestia has done to our friend isn't right. It's downright wrong! It's..."
Applejack huffed.
"You repeated that statement ten times, Rainbow. Saying it again ain't going to work out. And we still are not convinced to go against Celestia..."
Rarity interrupted Applejack.
"Not directly, at least. Break one of the windows of the Kindergarten and attempt to foalnap Twilight seems pretty uncouth and foalish to me."
Rainbow answered back.
"And what's your plan, Miss 'It's unsure.' ? Are you going to invite Celestia to the spa, and hope that it's going to release Twi as result?"
The white mare gave a huff of superiority.
"No. My plan is simple, albeit not very exciting."
The mares looked at Rarity in curiosity, and the latter started to talk with a voice that resembled the one used by the αγγελος.
"My idea is to use a lawyer or a notary, and free our friend with legal cavils.
As far as Twilight told me, she is out of the school system and, as such, she cannot obviously return into it unless Twilight decides so. And that's one point in favor of this solution, since it means Princess Celestia broke an unwritten law.
Celestia also gave this punishment to Twilight without a provocatio ad populum, if she is considered anything but a true teacher to Twilight in legal terms; or she just sent her student several classes behind, something that a teacher cannot do.
So, if we recruit a notary or, at least, somepony expert in Law, we should be capable to understand better what to do, and free Twilight in no time."
Pinkie Pie said:
"Boooring."
"Well, in this regard, Pinkie is right. An attempt to solve this problem in legal way will cost us too much time. So much time, that we could just wait the end of the term."
"Also, I don't like to get involved with loads and loads of fancy papers."
Rarity rolled her eyes.
"And what are your proposals, besides doing a dynamic entrance in the Royal Palace and foalnapping Twilight?"
Pinkie Pie, slightly bouncing, spoke up.
"We should get there, and have a huge party with Celestia. If we pull it off well, maybe she will free Twilight!"
Rarity sniffed.
"Maybe... maybe. But it's unlikely."
Pinkie Pie huffed
"Come on! But, whatever, I can do that when she is free once again. Any other ideas?"
Applejack pounded her hood on the table, creating a crack.
"We should visit her at very least. At least show that we still care for her."
Rainbow Dash and Pinkie agreed.
Fluttershy added with a timid voice "Mmm... I think that we can also come over with some gifts. Oh, and if you think it's alright, we can also visit her while wearing smocks, like if we are also punished like her..."
"That sounds like a good idea." Applejack referred to Rarity, who had a lost gaze.
"Rarity, can you please create five smocks for us? We had an idea..."
Rarity, startled, jumped three meters in the air, and screamed an incoherent phrase in an unknown tounge. Done that, Rarity asked what was the question.
"I asked you if you could create five smocks for us, since we have a plan."
Rarity, smiling nervously, remaining silent.
After three minutes of silence, Rarity spoke up.
"Yes, I can do that. Surely, why not?"
Applejack exclaimed: "Then it's decided! We will visit Twilight with smocks on!"
Then Applejack pounded the hoof on the table again, this time breaking it with a loud crack, and causing Fluttershy to take cover and whimper.
While the others tried to save Fluttershy from ingesting a makeshift cyanide pill, Rarity murmured
"I am not sure about the smocks. I mean, we should fabricate documents about our position first, if we want to visit Twilight while she is in the kindergarten class. Also, I think that I am going to be the only one allowed in. Either way, this is going to end badly."
Still the Apple Family's property, but in another part, three fillies, Sweetie Belle, Applebloom and Scootaloo, were discussing in their clubhouse on a tree.
"We tried that again and again, Scootaloo. Also, I don't really feel in the mood to get hurt badly and go to the hospital. I really don’t like syringes and such"
Scootaloo, while doodling rainbows dripping blood on a piece of paper, said.
"Then tell us what to do. I don't really want to resort to the magic accidents of Sweetie Belle to pass my time, especially if those come with other kinds of accidents..."
Sweetie Belle, who was crawling on the floor in boredom and thoughtfulness, immediately jumped, and said with her squeaky voice.
"I can't help it if that happens! And my magical accidents aren't so bad!"
Then, while talking about that, Sweetie Belle remembered something.
"Now that you make think about magical problems, what happened to Twilight? I didn't see her this morning, neither in the Library nor at the Corner."
Applebloom and Scootaloo looked at Sweetie Belle with incredibly surprised eyes, and open mouths.
"What? What happened?"
Applebloom moved her left hoof up and down slowly.
"You are telling me... that you still don't know what's the big news of the past days?"
Sweetie Belle reclined her head sideways to express her confusion.
"What big news?"
Applebloom hissed like a locomotive for few seconds, before frantically moving her front hooves up and down.
"You know... the news that said that TWILIGHT HAS LEFT THE TOWN TO GO TO THE MAGIC KINDERGARTEN BY CELESTIA'S WILL?"
Sweetie Belle put her hooves in front of her mouth.
"Oh my gosh, that's... really bad. Was it for the incident with the doll?"
Scootaloo rolled her eyes, while Applebloom twitched like during an epileptic attack on the floor.
"Yes, Sweets, and what for otherwise?"
Cracking with her voice, Sweetie Belle answered.
"Who knows."
That said, Applebloom stopped, and collapsed on the western wall of the clubhouse, panting like a bellow.
For few minutes, there was only the heavy breath of Applebloom.
Then, Sweetie Belle had an outburst of intelligence.
"Wait a minute! Princess Celestia is Twilight's teacher, right?"
Applebloom, still panting, answered.
"Technically, Celestia is Twilight's mentor."
"Whatever, I think that it doesn't matter much. What I am trying to say is, if Celestia is Twilight's teacher, then how could she send Twilight back to Kindergarten?"
Applebloom expressed her opinion on the matter.
"Duh, Celestia is the princess, she can do whatever she wants to. She can send Twilight back to Kindergarten anytime she wants to."
Sweetie Belle answered back.
"Are you sure? Sometime ago I've read some big books about the laws of Equestria, while I was bored while at the notary with Rarity. One of those books was called the... 'Una Natio Sancta ex Tribus Gentibus' I think. It was full of big and complicated words, but, for the few things that I could understand, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are under the same law that regulates the citizens.
This means that, as 'Private Citizen,' whatever it means, she is under the same law that every other pony is under too. And, if one of the princess happens to have an additional duty to the one of ruler of the nation..."
Applebloom completed Sweetie's sentence
"She is bound by the same code of rules that bounds the profession... I know this, but I don't get what is the goal of your lecture."
"What I am trying to say is this: if Princess Celestia is Twilight's teacher, and Celestia is bound to the Teacher's Code Thingy or something like that, isn't the punishment of Princess Celestia a bit too much? Or downright wrong?"
Applebloom looked quizzically at Sweetie Belle, while Scootaloo scratched her head.
"I don't understand, SB. What's the connection between the rules that the teachers must follow, and Celestia's choice of punishment against Twilight? I mean, it's true that we never saw Cheerilee do something like that to any of us, even after the bigger fights during the recess; but I think that's a completely different thing."
"Yeah, Sweets, what is the connection?"
Sweetie Belle huffed.
"Don't you understand, Applebloom? We got up on all sorts of things at school, and yet we never heard nor received the punishment of degrading. If such a thing even remotely existed, then why have we never heard of it, even if we should have? I think we should go deeper. We should go, and check if such a thing as 'degrading' exists."
Scootaloo spitted on the floor.
"Oh, come on! You are not really thinking that we are going to follow you in the pursue of books that we can barely lift, let alone understand!"
Applebloom put her right hoof under her small chin.
"Well, it does sounds like a good idea to me, since we didn't really organize something today. If for once we do something different, what hurt could it bring to us?"
Scootaloo rolled her eyes, and walked towards her farm-breeded friend, "No hurt can come from that," Scootaloo took a pencil, and started to wave it like a cane "but reading books written in difficult words and on a cryptic subject matter is bound to cause one thing, and one thing only to me. And that thing is boredom."
Sweetie Belle pouted.
"You are always refusing to do any activity that is remotely connected to books and such. Culture doesn't bite, you know? Also, if you don't want to do it for ourselves, at least do it for Twilight. She is one of the few friendly adults in this town, and she has always been helpful. We should at least try to see if there is something we, as fillies, can do."
Silence followed.
The three fillies exchanged gazes of various kind and purpose. Sweetie Belle was looking at Scootaloo with puppy eyes; Scootaloo was looking at Applebloom with a stern gaze; and Applebloom was silently begging for help to Sweetie Belle.
A long, unusually silent time passed, but it was finally broken by Scootaloo's words.
"Alright, whatever," she said resignedly "But don't expect to see me do this everytime. Come on, let's get on my scooter."
The other two fillies immediately took the helmets, and jumped on the wagon of the scooter.
When finally Scootaloo was ready, she asked.
"So, is our destination the Library? Or do you have a better idea?"
"No, our destination is not the Library. Our destination is Ugodan Birokrat's office. He should be able to tell us what we are looking for, and hopefully he isn't too busy right now."
Scootaloo opened her mouth to question Sweetie's decision, but decided to ultimately keep it shut. Even if she wasn't sure about that, and she wasn't really dedicated to do that, Scootaloo thought that if Sweetie Belle and Applebloom agreed that the best course actions was to contact Silver Spoon’s father, then she had no choice but let them try, no matter how awkward or even bad the things could go.
So she proceeded to take speed with the scooter, and to move towards the office of Ugodan Birokrat.
Ten minutes of motorized movement later on the strangely crowded streets of Ponyville, the three fillies finally reached their destination.
The building that contained Ugodan's office was pretty simple in its design, because it was just a big gray square stretching towards the sky for three storeys. On the left side of the building, on a part of the building that had lost many flakes of plaster, showing the red and black bricks behind, there was a small parking lot for small vehicles. Scootaloo parked her scooter there.
Sweetie Belle and Applebloom jumped down the wagon, and reached the doorbell, while Scootaloo secured the vehicle to the wall with a chain found there and the lock that she kept in her helmet.
When the three were finally all in front of the door, and when they found the office's doorbell, they proceeded to create a pyramid with their bodies, in order to reach the button of the doorbell.
Scootaloo placed herself near the doorbells. Applebloom climbed Scootaloo's back, and tried to stretch towards the buzzer, hitting accidentally three other buzzers, before pressing the right button.
A female voice filtered by the radio spoke up, while Applebloom jumped down the back of a pained Scootaloo.
"Who's there?"
Sweetie Belle immediately answered.
"I am Sweetie Belle. I am sister of Rarity, one of the Notary's clients. Can I enter?"
Few seconds later, a loud thud, signaling that the door had been open from the inside, was heard. The three pushed the door, and entered in the building. The hall of the structure was not something really interesting, since it was a room that contained just a table made of down tree and acacia and a series of niches in the wall that kept the emergency keys for the occupiers of the building.
Since the usher wasn't there at the moment, the three went straight to Ugodan's office.
"Boy, this place looks depressing," said Scootaloo, whispering like if she feared to awake a gigantic beast lying in the walls of the room or in the stairs.
While Sweetie Belle was climbing the steps, she spoke to Scootaloo.
"If you consider this depressing, then a nice surprise will await you, once in the office of Ugodan."
Scootaloo stopped for a moment at the base of the stairs.
"What surprise?"
Sweetie giggled.
"If it's a surprise..." then she resumed her climbing along with Applebloom.
Scootaloo was going to ask another question, but she decided to shut up, and just go along with the bizarre choices of her friend. Hopefully, the "surprise" wasn't going to be an unwanted "touching session."
One flight of stairs later, they finally reached the glass door of the office. The big glass of the door had the words "Notarial Associated Studio Silver Stamp & Ugodan Birokrat."
"Here we are," said Sweetie Belle "Brace yourself for what's coming." Then she pushed the door, revealing...
A white hallway, with white floor, white walls, black sofas... and display cabinets containing toy soldiers and trains. LOTS of trains and toy soldiers. Toy soldiers and trains of any colour, kind, and size, of any time period and material, of any theme.
All of this kept on the walls, both lateral and frontal, sharply contrasting with pretty much any other thing in the building or the office.
Scootaloo's jaw dropped, and her eyes remained still. Ditto for Applebloom. Sweetie Belle playfully poked at Scootaloo.
"Do you like it?"
Scootaloo exited from her stupor.
"I like it? Yes. But I am mostly surprised by this. I mean, I've always seen gray and dull offices, and those are the first thing that come to my mind when I think of 'office.' Also, the owner of this collection surprises me. Not even in my wildest dream I would have imagined that the father of a stuck-up filly had a collection of anything, let alone a collection of cool things!"
Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes.
"It's 'talius pater, talius filius', not 'talia mater, talia filia', Scootaloo. If Ugodan is a nice pony, it doesn't mean that Silver Spoon is nice."
"Still. He could have..."
A creak from the other side of the room overpowered the sound of Scootaloo's words. From the other side, a stallion with black coat and a white spot on the muzzle, gray mane, curled up mustaches, entered in the waiting room. Applebloom hissed, and whispered to her friends.
"He's coming. If we want his attention and benevolence, we should not say anything about his daughter and how she raised her."
The other two fillies nodded, as Ugodan walked towards them, and greeted them all.
"Ah, gospodica Sweetie Belle, it's a pleasure to see you!"
“Good morning, sir Ugodan.”
Then Ugodan noticed the presence of other two fillies in the room.
“Uh, hello there, ždrebica cuta and ždrebica naranča. Are you with Sweetie Belle?” said Ugodan while getting near with a swinging movement, movement that upset Applebloom and Scootaloo.
“They are my friends Applebloom and Scootaloo. Applebloom, Scootaloo, meet Ugodan Birokrat.”
Applebloom stretched her hoof.
“A-a pleasure to m-meet you sir…”
Scootaloo silently stretched her own.
Ugodan proceeded to shake their hooves, and, still with a swinging movement, he moved towards the door asking:
“So, now we acquainted ourselves, can I kindly ask you to come in my studio? Once there, we can talk in peace, with my secretaries out of the way. Don’t worry about how much time you take to, I have plenty of time today.”
Sweetie Belle nodded and walked behind the black notary. The other two stood there, unable to tell if going in the room was going to be a “stranger trap” that Sweetie Belle accidentally started, or the notary was just weird.
“That notary seems a walking stereotype of… how it’s called… ‘micropedrast’ ?”
Applebloom whispered in Scootaloo’s ear.
“It’s ‘poularast.’ Anyway, yeah, it doesn’t seem so trustable. I am not certain if entering in that room is going to be something that I will regret.”
“Me too. But I guess that, if he does something suspicious, we can always run away. Or jump out the window, if he locks the door.”
Applebloom sighed.
“Alright. Let’s do this.”
And they finally entered in the room.
Once the three were in the room, Ugodan took the key that was on the long table, and locked up the door.
“There! And now, no one but us can exit and enter from this room!”
The statement didn’t reassure Applebloom and Scootaloo, and made them smile awkwardly, and look around for an exit, while Ugodan Birokrat sat on the chair at the opposite end of the table.
“Tell me, what is the reason that caused you to visit my small and cozy studio?”
Sweetie Belle jumped over one of the red padded chairs.
“We are here, Ugodan, because I, and my friends, have doubts about some laws.”
Ugodan put his left hoof under his chin, and asked with the same unsettlingly cheerful voice:
“Tell me more, I am interested to know.”
“One of the friends of my sister, Twilight Sparkle, has been punished by her teacher, Princess Celestia, with being sent back to Magic Kindergarten, and attending to it for four months. Now, a doubt came to our minds: does the punishment of ‘degrading’ exist in the school system? Is the Princess authorized to do that?”
Birokrat moved his chair closer to Sweetie Belle, alarming the other two fillies a bit.
“Vrelo, the punishment of ‘degrading’, as you call it, doesn’t actually exist, if it’s what I understood, namely, the process of sending a student or a pupil back one or more grades for around a term. And, since the Princesses are bound by all the other laws, I’m certain that even if they happen to take another duty other than the one of a ruler, they still can’t create a punishment iz nikako without a good reason.”
Ugodan moved towards the bookshelves full of books, and extracted the book labeled as “Una Natio Sancta ex Tribus Gentibus”, and another labeled as “Scholastic Law.”
Done that, he put down the books, and, while flipping the pages, he continued talking.
“So, tell me Sweetie Belle, what has Twilight done to be punished?”
Sweetie Belle admitted. “I don’t remember. You should ask either Scootaloo or Applebloom.”
The two unsure fillies had a shiver run down their spine, as Ugodan asked them to sit down, and to reply his question. Applebloom sat down slowly while looking around, and Scootaloo remained still, saying that she was fine as she was.
Applebloom told the whole story to the notary, and, when she had done the telling, Ugodan started to flip the pages of the first book even faster, until he abruptly stopped.
“Vrelo, what Twilight has done seems something akin to Breach of the Peace, and thus it IS punishable. Ipak, I don’t think that any judge and clerk worth his salt would waste time with a process against her. And the Constitution says that Celestia can judge only the gravest crimes. And Breach of the Peace isn’t one of those.”
Sweetie Belle sighed.
“Ok, understood. Is there anything that I can do to get Twilight out of this situation, now that I know she isn’t supposed to be punished like that?”
Ugodan put the books back in their place.
“Sue Celestia. You can do that, since she isn’t subjected to any immunities, but that’s very costly, and it takes a while for it to have effects. Otherwise, you can try to get a pettifogger to threat Celestia, but I don’t really suggest that because, in addition to being very expensive, it’s not certain that said pettifogger wouldn’t side with Celestia…”
Sweetie Belle smiled while jumping down the chair.
“Got it! Well, thanks Ugodan. Now, can you please open the door?”
Without any other word, Birokrat unlocked the door, and let the three fillies out.
Once out the room, Scootaloo and Applebloom dragged Sweetie Belle away, screaming “Stranger Danger! Stranger Danger!”