//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Guard Detail // Story: An Epistolary Legal Consultation Between Princesses // by Jordan179 //------------------------------// Dear Princess Celestia, Today I found out that some males have very poor impulse control, some beings cannot be reached by kindness, and our prisoner found out why one should not mistake kindness for vulnerability. After an incident including maniacal shouting, demands for certain specialized items of Griffon cuisine unlikely to be available at a mere county jail, and a demonstration of the fact that the Human species appears to be very good at converting small objects into improvised missile weapons, Mayor Ivory Scroll Mare and Constable Turnkey both intimated to me that it would be a good practice of my Royal responsibilities for myself to arrange assistance in guarding the prisoner, Charlie Yu. This request seemed reasonable and necessary: as you mentioned in your previous missive, we are used to dealing with monsters much more dangerous than is Charlie Yu, but he might pose some threat of harm to the ordinary townsponies. My friends and I held an impromptu meeting at the library and arranged a watch schedule. With eight of us on this (Spike and Big Mac both volunteered to assist), we reasoned that this would be no problem for a week or so. We arranged four-hour shifts, The actual guard duty was not onerous, though it was at times annoying. Spike took first graveyard shift. He brought a stack of comic books and some paper with him -- I think he's writing his own adventures for some of the characters. He won't let me see it until he has the final draft done. Spike wants to be a writer -- that makes me happy. Spike said that the prisoner gave him no problems. Yu tried to annoy him once or twice but was easily controllable when Spike "looked scary." When I asked Spike what he meant by that, Spike growled and let a little greenish steam seep out from the corners of his mouth. My little brother is growing up. And yes, I suppose if I was someone Spike disliked, I would have found that "scary." It was my turn next. I brought both a professional tome and some lighter reading, in case Yu was too annoying to focus on any more complex work. I had already revised my schedule to account for the guard duty, which was not too difficult though I knew I would have to go over with it again in detail with Spike later in the day. One can never be too organized, after all. As I expected, the prisoner attempted to engage me in conversation. At first, this largely consisted of a protracted attempted self-exculpation centered on the claim that he was "hard up" and that he had been just rejected by "the last Pony he would ever have a chance with" when he ran into Miss Hooves. This provoked my curiosity, so I asked him why he had assumed that Pinkie Pie was "the last Pony with whom he would ever have a chance" (I hate dangling prepositions). Charlie Yu explained to me that back in his world, he had not been remarkably successful with Human females, having had only a few brief romantic relationships with them, always ending in the "woman" (lit. "man" short for "Human," "wife of man" eliding to "woman" in his native tongue) terminating the courtship after at most a few weeks, and refusing to even remain his friend. As he claimed that all these encounters had included actual sex, I was struck both by the implicit promiscuity of his culture -- it sounded like something one would see mostly amongst the Lone-Mad in our own species -- and by Yu's evident inability to get along with the females of his kind, since these courtships were ultimately unsuccessful, resulting in neither marriage nor foals. I asked him whether or not all these females had been willing, and he said "Yes," though he added that in one case both of them had been "wasted" on some combination of alcohol and other substances. Apparently in this case there had been no further courtship, though the woman involved had not actually been hostile to him afterward. (This demonstrates a lack of inhibition on his part against diminished-consent sexual conduct, though in this case his capacity to consent would also have been diminished, and the female's lack of resentment could be taken as retroactive consent). I then asked him why he considered Pinkie Pie his only chance for courtship in Equestria, pointing out to him that Equestria had a population of 83.2 million Ponies at last census, of whom 54.7 million were mares, and some millions of these mares unattached. Thus, logically, even granted Charlie's unusual species (and, I did not add out loud to him, low intelligence and unpleasant disposition), the chances were that there would have been a special somepony for him too, if he merely kept looking for one. He explained that when he had approached other mares in Ponyville, they had seemed nervous and unwilling to engage him in conversation. "Some of them looked at me like I was some kind of freak or monster," he specified, "just because I was looking at them." His eyes shifted, and I noticed that he was now inspecting a part of my anatomy which was not my face. Turning so as to ensure that I was facing Yu directly and standing in the most decent imaginable posture, I pointed out to him that it's considered impolite in our culture for a Pony to stare at another Pony's more private anatomical features, and asked him if matters were different in the land from which he originated. He admitted that it was considered rude to stare at a woman's "tits" (from my experience in humanoid form, I am fairly certain he meant a twin pair of udders over the rib-cage, rather than the actual nipples) or "ass" (humanoids have relatively large buttocks). Both are apparently highly erogenous zones among his kind, which makes me aware of a social error I must have been committing in my attempt to dance in that form -- but that is neither here nor there. Then he added, "But you Ponies should talk! You trot around town naked all the time! How can I help but steal sideways glances as mares walk by?" I thought about this. I remembered that in the humanoid world I visited, everyone was constantly and completely attired, displaying only their faces, forelegs, and hind legs (and only the lower portions of these) to others. When I had asked about this, their Rarity -- who, like our Rarity, was an expert on social presentation -- had informed me that to uncover other parts of one's anatomy would be "indecent" and "give boys the wrong ideas" about oneself. Was I now hearing that same attitude from a humanoid of the other sex? Among our species, of course, nudity is entirely innocent; it is the clothing one chooses to wear that is considered seductive. What is more, the humanoids among whom I had walked were furred, though much more lightly than ourselves; by contrast Charlie Yu's species appeared to have almost entirely lost their coats, retaining only an abbreviated mane, a patch on the lower belly and very light down over the rest of the body. "How was I supposed to deal with that? Every day I could see what my body cried out for!" This sounded like something with which I was familiar. "Are you saying," I asked him slowly, "that you respond to us, all the time, as if we are in unsuppressed estrus?" He looked at me blankly. I had to explain to him the basics of our biology: specifically, that mares go into estrus once every 21 days, and that during that period, unless we suppress or mask our odors, stallions become inappropriately aroused and prone to various emotional excesses. In primal days, this probably induced immediate mating: now that we are civilized sapients, of course, we act more decently toward one another, and mares are careful how they behave when estrus arrives. I was a little surprised that, after living among us for three-quarters of a year, he had somehow managed to miss such a fundamental fact about our species, but then I remembered that he was neither particularly intelligent nor perceptive -- and I also remembered that, in humanoid form, I had myself been mostly anosmiac. Of course it is considered impolite for mares to speak of such matters to strange stallions -- everypony knew Charlie Yu to be male -- and the stallion with whom he had the most social experience, Macintosh Apple, is a remarkably taciturn Pony. "It sent vigor through my extremities, amassing a pressure that I could never release!" he cried. I understood him well enough, despite the unusual wording of this declaration. Renewing the translation spell, which may have been starting to wear off, I informed him that the details constituted excessive information about the state of his "extremities," but that I did understand that he meant that he was sexually frustrated. "How could you understand that?" he asked me. "You're a Princess, you have everypony kissing your hooves! You probably have a whole harem of stallions back in your library!" I reminded him that we were talking about his condition, not my own, and added parenthetically that I am not a polyandrist. He looked blankly at me, and I steered the conversation back to his own motivations. "So you're saying," I asked him, "that you were essentially in rut when you encountered Miss Hooves?" Again his stare was uncomprehending. "Priapic." No response. "Aroused." Still no response. I sighed, and descended to his level. "Horny?" "Yes!" he said. "I sure am! Can you ... ?" "No," I said firmly. I backed away a step, nervous despite my own powers and the presence of the bars between us, and informed him that such a tryst was most definitely undesired on my own part, and hence its occurrence was distinctly improbable. He seemed disappointed. Meanwhile I was musing upon .the information that he had, however rudely and ineptly, managed to convey to me. I find this somewhat embarassing to relate, but I consider it necessary to an analysis of this case. So I shall, and hope that this does not cause either of you to lose any respect for me. During the days I spent in humanoid form, I was emotionally in protracted estrus (while there I found out from their library that they had their own estrus-like cycle, which I was fortunate enough not to directly experience, during which the emotional effects were even more extreme). I found myself almost constantly eyeing the humanoid stallions, and speculating about the possibilities of courting them, despite the fact that I was always aware that as I would be soon returning to our own world, such courtship would be completely pointless. It was as if there was a very primitive part of me that didn't care, that just wanted to mate, regardless of the long-term emotional consequences. This was quite unlike my normal nature, and it greatly disturbed me. I think that humanoids are in general much more sexual beings than are ourselves, and they are essentially in a constant state of rut or estrus. If this is how they feel all the time, I'm surprised that the school I visited wasn't one continuous love scene, like a badly-written romance novel. To them, of course, this would be normal, and in order to maintain a decent civilization they would learn to repress these desires in most situations, just as do stallions and mares in Equestria even if the mare forgets to take her suppressors. But I think that this goes a long way toward explaining the constant obsession with complete attire -- it would have been very distracting to me must be very distracting for them to see each other's genitalia, even briefly. I do not like to excuse Charlie's conduct. In fact I do not believe that this does excuse his conduct -- he was still a sapient being, and could have chosen to over-ride his primal impulses. I did nothing too improper when I was in humanoid form. But then I only had to endure it for a few days -- Charlie has been among us for eight months. In addition, I am intelligent and self-controlled; Charlie is stupid and impulsive. I can now understand his motivation for mounting Miss Hooves. Though I still cannot understand why he chose to be so cruel to her afterward. He had in fact achieved his ostensible goal -- he had mated, and more to the point, he had a mare-friend. Why did he then publicly reject and insult her? Had he not done so, there would have been no legal action against him, even had what he originally did been technically considered rape, since Derpy Hooves herself would have been his loving friend rather than bitter victim. Is this something humanoid, or is it male? The humanoid analogue of Flash Sentry was a nice colt -- I couldn't see him behaving in such a fashion. And I am certain that neither Shining Armor nor Spike would treat a mare so cruelly. I feel unqualified to understand this matter, as my experience of males in general has been very limited -- the only stallion I know at all well aside from my big brother is Big Mac, and he's an extremely decent Pony. Do our stallions ever act like this? I hope not, but a certain nagging pessimism makes me wonder if such malice is more prevalent than I imagine. I told Charlie Yu that it was still wrong to force sex upon a mare, no matter how frustrated he felt, and the conversation ended. The next two to stand guard duty were Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, who expressed a desire to pull the duty together (and their own attitudes tend to balance out each other's, so I considered the pairing wise). Rainbow Dash told me that she was mostly past the initial phase of anger that had led her to almost attack the prisoner upon his initial arrest, and that I could trust her to be "cool" to him (she meant by this formulation "pleasant" rather than "callous"). Fluttershy said that she thought he couldn't be much worse than a "cranky bear," which did not exactly give me confidence regardless of which way one took it, but then Fluttershy is much better at protecting herself than one would imagine at first. Their reports on this experience are inserted here. Rainbow Dash - Watching one lame spindly-legged biped was nothing compared to some of the really awesome things I've done. Did I ever tell you about the time I ... (Twilight:Her report here digresses into a prolonged anecdote about high-speed precision cloud-flying, which I judged you wouldn't find all that relevant) ... Rainbow Dash - Anyway, so whenever he got lippy with me I just snarled at him and gave him my best scary face, to show him I meant business. He got the message. I was mostly worried that he might try something with Fluttershy, which is why I wanted to be there the whole time she was with him. Fluttershy was all nice to him, like she usually is with anypony in trouble, and she even got him that Griffon thing he wanted -- they call it a "ham burger" though it's not usually made with ham. I once knew someone who really liked them so I knew what it looked and smelled like, so it didn't bother me none. Bird meat, of course -- no way would anypony cook cow around here, but it's still kind of gross to most noses. This made him happy so he didn't cause any trouble. He only got fresh with me once and he had enough brains not to try to touch me. I would have knocked him into next week if he had. He didn't try anything with Fluttershy either, though I did see him constantly staring at her butt. She either didn't notice or pretended not to, she can be really nice that way, even when someone's acting like a jerk. She's a really cool Pony and she did a really good job with this lame-o. Fluttershy - Charlie Yu wasn't so bad, and I think that he just went a little crazy, like bears do sometimes in the summer. I think that maybe both Charlie and Derpy were acting a little crazy, or maybe were just getting lonely -- Ponies can do foolish things when they get lonely. He wasn't mean to me, anyway, and I think I made him laugh at least once; he seemed be acting really sweet to me. Maybe he's sorry about what he did and he wants to be a better person from now on. I made him a burger and told him I'd bring him some flowers to make his cell look nicer. He's done something bad but he should be able to have a nicer cell. He's not all bad. You all know that I have a very good friend who was once really bad but tries to be better now. I don't think that Charlie Yu can't be reformed. Twilight - Fluttershy, I'm sorry but I have to leave this in, since it's germane to demonstrating that we made a real effort to treat him kindly. I don't fault you for being kind to him: it's just the way you are -- and we all love you for it. It's just that some creatures are -- not as nice as one of your bear friends. The next to guard the prisoner were (in order) Applejack and Big Mac. who swapped some chores in order to accomplish their availability. They -- who both knew him well from his previous work on Sweet Apple Acres -- reported that the prisoner spent most of their shifts asleep. Applejack - I felt a mite sad for Charlie. He seemed right sad about his situation. I made sure he had blankets and a pillow and mostly just watched him sleep. Big Mac - He wasn't no trouble. Woke up at the end and we talked a bit. Twilight - The afternoon shifts were Rarity and Pinkie Pie, in that order. Rarity - I thought that Charlie Yu might appreciate some decoration of his cell, so I brought over some wall hangings I've been working on -- I modeled them on the ones from the old Castle, but of course they looked much nicer with a more modern touch. I ... Twilight - Her report here become a very long and interesting analysis of the evolution of wall hanging designs starting back with the Old Crystal-Imperial patterns, and the ways in which the Three Tribes and later the Realm adapted these models, and how the modern Equestrian fashions might benefit from a revival of some of the older modes. It's not that relevant to Charlie Yu, but I append it separately for your later persual; it contains some insightful suggestions as to how both the Palace at Canterlot mght be redecorated and the Castle of the Two Royal Pony Sisters be restored. Rarity - I had Constable Turnkey escort the prisoner to the shower while I went into his cell and performed the redecoration. Turnkey is such a dear, he was quite willing to cooperate with my request! I was not about to go into that cell with Charlie; he's probably not completely evil, but I did notice him examining my anatomy in a rather indelicate and impolite fashion. The hangings took only a few moments to attach; hardly a difficult or protracted task. I was not pleased by his reaction. He seemed unimpressed by my work, and made no answer to my request for a detailed criticism by saying "Whatever. I could really use a TV. Don't suppose you got one." Discovering that he meant a sophisticated electronic device, which Twilight tells me is a long-wave electromagnetic receiver with the capacity to produce moving images like those in a movie theatre, I informed him that such devices were nonexistent in Equestria, and also unknown in any other land with which we had commerce. He pronounced this "lame," and became noticeably sullen. I attempted to engage him in conversation regarding the fashions of his native world, but he was remarkably ignorant on this topic. He mentioned some things about "really short skirts" and "tube tops" and "titty shirts." His drawings of these garments were amateurish, and I don't think any of these items of apparel would work well in Pony anatomical terms. The "high heels" he drew were absurdly elevated, to the point that I imagine they would be positively hazardous to the ability of the unfortunate mare wearing such shoes to walk without risking serious injury to her hind legs. Is it too much to ask that the next time a random interdimensional gate-thingie opens up it disgorges a being of taste and decorum? I wouldn't even really care if it wasn't equine -- there are some non-equine beings who are capable of considerable culture and refined sentiments, as I have discovered personally amongst my dearest friends. Charlie Yu is ... not ... one of them. He is crude, uncultured and utterly lacking in the graces of civilization. (added by Rarity a bit later) ... and I wrote this before I knew what was to happen on Pinkie Pie's shift. I do not wish to brag, but I am, quite simply, an excellent judge of character. I am very sorry, though, that dear Fluttershy was so annoyed by that masher! Twilight - I find what I must now relate deeply upsetting to set to paper. Nopony was actually hurt, not even Fluttershy, but the poor mare was understandably upset to have her kindness repaid in such a foul manner. I can tell that Charlie disgusted and greatly disappointed her.. I was a little worried about Pinkie Pie taking a shift, because of the extremity of her reaction to Charlie Yu when she first learned of his crime. She promised to me that she wouldn't treat him with any unnecessary violence this time, and even Pinkie Pie Swore to it, an oath which one may accept as a true bond coming from that Daughter of Paradise. I was not, of course, worried that he would hurt Pinkie: she is more than a match for him physically even without her special powers, and his wiles are pretty much nonexistent. I warned Pinkie Pie of Yu's rather unpleasant sexual obsessions, and she told me that "He'd better not get fresh with me or I'll take him somewhere he won't like!" I was not sure exactly what she meant by this, and merely pointed out to her that we were supposed to be keeping Charlie Yu in the Ponyville Jail rather than taking him somewhere else, until we received further orders from Canterlot. "Oh, I'll bring him right back!" Pinkie assured me, giving me a laugh which was nastier than any of which I had believed her capable. It rather reminded me of her Discorded state, and worried me. But a moment later she went back to being her normal cheerful Pink self. I wonder if this is a reaction of the Paradise entity, influencing Pinkie's own behavior? If I understand its original enchantments correctly, its most fundamental purpose is to protect Ponies, and Derpy Hooves is -- and Charlie Yu isn't -- a Pony. Paradise has never been at all malign before, so I don't think it will impel her to do him real harm. And she's never had any problem with Spike, nor to or any other non-Pony who wasn't actually attacking us -- though I remember she had problems with Zecora when we first met her. Pinkie was one of the most hostile ones then, until Zecora proved herself to be friendly. Pinkie Pie is the friendliest Pony I've ever met. She was even friendly to Charlie until he actually confessed to attacking Derpy. So my fears seem absurd. I love Pinkie Pie. She's no monster. I just wish I could talk to Granny Pie about this. She knows more about Paradise and Pinkie Pie than anypony. She could explain to me what was going on. My misgivings led me to keep Pinkie company during the first part of her shift. Nothing untoward happened, and I'd missed lunch, so I went to get some hayburgers. Pinkie, for her part, had spent most of the shift drinking cup after cup of coffee and working her way through an immense stack of pastries from Sugarcube Corner. I want to re-tell this in my own words because Pinkie's formulation is a bit incoherent. I'll send along the originals too, later. Now alone with Charlie Yu, Pinkie Pie experienced no difficulties in guarding him, nor did she take him on any extra-dimensional excursions. He appears to have attempted conversation with her but she refused, said "I'm watching you!" and glared at him until he was unable to meet her gaze. Around this point the High Lady Fluttershy arrived, bearing a vase of flowers and a bag of snacks she had made for Charlie. She expressed admiration for Rarity's previous decorative work, and stated her opinion that the flowers would look nice on his night-table. She asked Pinkie to let her into Charlie's cell in order to set up the flowers and give him the snacks. Pinkie Pie expressed some trepidation, reminding Fluttershy that Charlie was a "really mean meanie," but Fluttershy assured her that she knew Charlie wasn't really that bad, and wouldn't try anything. She attempted to gentle Charlie with what I could tell from Pinkie's description was mild tele-empathy, such as I have seen her employ on many beasts and monsters during the time I have known Fluttershy. This usually works. An interesting conclusion that may be drawn from what happened next is that tele-empathy cannot reliably control a sapient being, only influence its emotions in a way which may not be entirely predictable. It is also possible that Humans may be especially-resistant to mental powers, especially when weakly applied. Such a resistance would explain some of the tales you told me of The Megan -- though I do not know if Charlie Yu really was of the same species as was the One who saved our ancestors in that dim dawn time, six thousand years ago. Fluttershy remained in Charlie Yu's cell while Pinkie Pie watched them closely from right outside. Pinkie's abilities meant that, should Charlie somehow manage to overcome Fluttershy (an unlikely outcome), Pinkie could simply manifest in the cell and subdue him with her naturally superior strength. Fluttershy, who despite her self-depreciating manner is well aware of her own strength, agility and psychic powers, assumed that there wasn't much Charlie could do to her anyway. This was her first mistake. Charlie seemed intimidated by Pinkie's presence, and for a while Fluttershy and Charlie simply conversed. Charlie Yu seemed to be grateful of Fluttershy's sympathetic attention, and poured out a long and self-pitying tale about how nopony had ever really given him a chance, and how much he missed the Internet (a sort of combined communication and research system), TV (already explained by Rarity) and video games (electronic versions of various board, reflex and role-playing games): all diversions popular in his original culture. I am not sure how much of Charlie's rambling complaint Fluttershy actually understood, as Yu is not the best at explaining complex matters, but her sympathetic demeanor seemed to be soothing the savage Human, and the conversation progressed in an essentially civilized fashion. Fluttershy became increasingly relaxed and trusting with him, as if he were no more dangerous and unpredictable than a large brown bear. This was her second mistake. Unfortunately, Pinkie Pie's continuous consumption of coffee and cupcakes caught up with her, and she felt an increasing urge to make use of the jail's sanitary facilities. Pinkie Pie told Fluttershy that she should leave Charlie's cell while Pinkie attended to this necessary business, but Fluttershy -- who was in the middle of an involved conversation with the prisoner -- said to Pinkie that Charlie was no problem at all, and that Pinkie should just go to the lavatory. This was Fluttershy's third mistake. It is not entirely clear what happened next. For some reason, Fluttershy arose, perhaps to adjust the wall hangings or the vase of flowers. This involved a change of posture, perhaps a swish of her tail to help balance herself as she performed whatever kindly task she was attempting. This must have exposed to Charlie's lustful eyes what was to that Human an overpoweringly-attractive portion of her intimate anatomy. From what Pinkie Pie heard Fluttershy say, Charlie must have seen this as a romantic invitation, and decided that his response should be to disarrange certain parts of his attire, the better to make a timely response to this imagined sexual signal. This in combination was Fluttershy's fourth mistake, and the only mistake that Charlie needed to make in order to precipitate disaster. Pinkie Pie reported hearing a shriek from Fluttershy. After what cannot have been more than a matter of seconds, she manifested in the jail cell, apparently emerging from the plumbing in some undefined fashion. There, she beheld an interesting tableau. Charlie Yu was cowering in utter terror on the floor of his cell, both of his hands engaged in pulling his pants up with such force that it must have occasioned him considerable discomfort. Fluttershy was standing on top of him, giving him her full Stare, at such an intensity that Pinkie Pie said that simply being in the same cell with her made Pinkie's own mind feel "kind of swimmy." Pinkie was able to hear the last words of Fluttershy's geas: "... and you keep those pants up, Mister, don't pull them down again!" Charlie either dumbly nodded, or was overcome by such severe terror that his involuntary shaking had produced an equivalent motion. In either case, he was clearly offering no resistance to the enraged Element of Kindness. Then, Fluttershy became aware of two things. These were the presence of her fascinated Pink audience, and -- oddly enough -- the vase of flowers, which during the brief struggle which had obviously occurred in that small cell had fallen off the table and broken on the floor. She looked at the flowers, burst into tears, and ran out of the jail cell. The door had been locked: Fluttershy was somehow able to manifest enough strength (probably through a partial Shift) to rip the metal door right off its hinges. Fortunately, the prisoner was in no emotional state to attempt any flight or other resistance, and Pinkie simply moved him to the other (unoccupied) cell until we could get in a mechanic to repair the broken door. Pinkie Pie had Constable Turnkey go get help while she continued to watch Charlie in the other prison cell. Turnkey contacted me, and I quickly went to the jail to examine the prisoner. He appeared unhurt, but he was exuding a foul odor and clearly required a shower and a change of at least the garments over his hindquarters; his fear had evidently been extreme. The first part should have been easy, but when we attempted to take Charlie to the shower, we discovered that he was completely unwilling to remove his pants, clinging to them with such mad determination that I became worried that we might either rip his clothing or injure his fingers should I use the most obvious technique, that of telekinesis. It was then that Pinkie Pie told me what she had heard Fluttershy say to Charlie, and the nature of our difficulty became evident. Fluttershy had been upset and had not precisely considered the implications of her geas. Charlie would "keep his pants up" regardless of any objective reasons why he might want to pull them down, such as ablution or evacuation. Going to Fluttershy's house, I found that she had barricaded herself inside and was crying incoherently. I teleported within, but could not calm her enough to get much information from her, save the bare facts that Charlie had indeed made an indecent advance toward her, but thankfully had not gotten very far in this attempt before she overpowered him with both mind and body. I endeavored to convince her that she should return to the jail to remove or at least re-state her geas in terms which would enable Charlie to preform basic hygienic functions, but at the mention of the jail and Charlie she rushed into her bathroom. A few moments later I heard the shower running. I managed to locate Rarity, whom I felt might be best to talk to Fluttershy on such delicate matters. When I told her what happened, Rarity was understandably upset. When I mentioned the detail of the broken flower vase (one which still puzzles me in regard to Fluttershy's apparent fixation upon it) this had some significance to Rarity. "Oh." she said. "Oh, dear. This may be difficult." Rarity refused to explain this further, telling me that this was in regard to something very personal that Fluttershy had confessed privately to herself and which Rarity was fairly certain Fluttershy would not want even myself to know. I respected their confidence and asked only that Rarity persuade Fluttershy to return to the jail and remove the geas. "That," Rarity said sadly, "may take me some time. But I'll do my best!" She then packed some cosmetics and clothing, and set off to soothe her friend's injured feelings. Rarity has since returned to the library, and we completed the above portions of this document. We have still not managed to get Fluttershy to emerge from her home. Rainbow Dash is currently in there with her, consoling Fluttershy in whatever special way of which she is capable. Spike is currently watching the prisoner, who has over the last few hours developed a truly terrible stench. I may have to simply tear Charlie Yu's pants right off him, regardless of his protests, but this would be a last resort as he would then be under the strictures of a literally-impossible geas, which as you know well is dangerous to the subject's sanity. On top of this I am pretty sure that Fluttershy won't watch the prisoner any more, and it may not be entirely safe to let either Rainbow Dash or Pinkie Pie continue to watch him. Rainbow Dash is simply furious at Fluttershy's treatment by Charlie Yu; and Pinkie Pie -- it did not escape my notice that Pinkie Pie delayed her entry into that prison cell just long enough for Fluttershy to cast that panicked geas. Again, I fear that the Paradise entity may be overreacting to Charlie Yu's idiotic aggressions, and I know that Pinkie Pie -- despite her silliness -- is really my match in terms of intelligence. Pinkie Pie is extremely cunning when she wants to be, and a malicious Pinkie Pie is a rather frightening prospect -- at least for the target of that malice. I really think that Charlie Yu would be safer in Canterlot. I will try to talk with Pinkie Pie to calm her down and get her to desist from harassing Yu. Perhaps if I point out to her that Fluttershy was very upset by what happened? Or would that merely trigger more hostility toward Yu from Paradise? I must think this over carefully. In the meantime, I am, always and forever Your Former but Still-Faithful Student, Princess Twilight Sparkle ==== Dear Princess Luna Selena Nyx, Unpleasant duties are the price of maturation. A young filly may hide from the wickedness of the world; a grown mare must unblinkingly face up to it; and -- as you and your esteemed sister have both told me -- a Princess must stand between the storm and her little Ponies. Even when that storm is an unpleasant, noisy little squall such as Charlie Yu. What is the course of honor, of true justice? I feel divided between my loyalty to my friends, and a terrible suspicion that in honesty is growing within me. I have always prided myself on my intelligence, my adherence to pure reason -- but I have feelings like any other Pony. Can I deny them? What is the path of my true duty? If I seem vague in this missive it is because my own thoughts are still formless. I reflect upon what Charlie attempted with Fluttershy, and how hopeless and foolish was his attempt. I reflect upon what he did to Derpy Hooves, and how he was able to succeed. How was he able to succeed? Logic tells me that there is a clue I have missed in this affair. I completely agree with you as to Derpy's character. She is a good and honorable Pony, one strong in her determination to do her duty to her Realm and her foal, and one experienced in service to both. She is a Pegasus, and like all Pegasi has received at least some training in the Militia. I have seen Fluttershy fight, and thus I cannot forget that even the gentlest and kindest Pegasi is still a warrior born. Derpy Hooves delivers mail to the Everfree Forest. I have not previously inquired as to the details of her service, but I have been in that wild wood many times myself, and I know that it is not a domain into which weak fools may venture without consequence. Derpy is not weak, nor is she foolish in matters of survival -- or combat. How was one whom I know to be a weak fool able to overcome her? I fear that you may not like the answer that is forming in my mind, that you may not like me quite so much, when I have fully foaled it. You were and largely still are Loyalty, that I know well. Yet you were and largely still are Honesty, as well. I hope that -- if my suspicions prove correct -- you still retain the high opinion of me that you have previously expressed. I, too, hope that we may meet in better circumstances and are able to converse at length upon many matters. You, too are my trusted friend and kindred spirit, and I too hope to know you more closely in the fullness of time. Even had it not been necessary to save all Equestria, the deed of which I would have been gladdest would have been my part in liberating you. A soul as pure and bright as yours was not meant for Shadow. And even had I neither been who I was, nor known what we had once meant to each other, I would always and forever be happy to count you my friend. Yours in Friendship, Forever Princess Twilight Sparkle Who Was Once Dusk Skyshine