//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2 
// Story: 12 Angry Ponies 
// by Gregory the Mighty 
//------------------------------//

After the break, Twilight called the jury ponies back to their places.  Surprisingly, it was Rarity who spoke first.

“Well, there is one thing that bothers me terribly.” announced Rarity. “Quills aside, if the defendant has such bad eyesight that she can’t even read her own packages, how did she write that note in the first place?  With no misspellings or grammar errors?”

“It was a pretty short note.” said Lyra.

“Yes,” continued Rarity, “but if you take that note out of the equation, there’s nothing placing her at the scene of the crime.”

“Except the witness”, said Rainbow.

“But it was so dreadfully dark in the alley!  When she was on the stand, the witness couldn’t identify the cutie mark of the defendant.” said Rarity.

“You haven’t heard of a black latex sneaking suit?  They are readily available at any time day or night at any convenience store. The prosecution was satisfied that the description was close enough.”  commented Twilight.

“Still I want another vote.  It seems amiss to me.”

Twilight took another vote by show of hoof.  This time it was tied six to six.

“What?!” cried Bon Bon, “this is ridiculous!  She’s obviously guilty!”  Bon Bon turned her pink eyes to Big Mac and leered at him.  “You!  You hayseed! Why did you change your vote!”

Big Mac stared at Bon Bon intently.  “Not tellin’.”

“This is insane!  She’s obviously guilty!  Only a guilty pony would have such an inane and silly ‘alibi’!”

Fluttershy stood up.  “I don’t think her alibi is so silly.  It’s just a little jumbled, is all.”

Doctor Whooves stood up with her.  “I agree with Fluttershy.  This alibi does seem off, but not because it phoney, it’s because it’s too certain!

Vinyl Scratch scratched her head. “How does that work?”

“The defendant is dyslexic, right?  That means she couldn’t read the label on the package without help.  The letters wouldn’t add up.  Unless all the letters could have two logical combinations!”

“What are you going on about?”  Bon Bon scoffed. “The reason we can’t find this missing package entry is because she made it up!”

“No.  I don’t think she made it up.  She mis-made it up!”  Whooves stepped up to the blackboard. “Now Twilight, read me exactly what she said was on the package’s label.”

Twilight flipped through her papers.  “She said she delivered the pure flower tie to Grand Taxi.”

“And about time too.  Those black ties the cabbies wear are so drab!”  Interrupted Rarity.

“Hush!  I want to see where this is going.” Said Applejack.

“Yes, the ‘to’ would be part of the sticker, so let’s just write down the letters that were written by hoof,”  Whooves started writing.

THE PURE FLOWER TIE GRAND TAXI

“Ok, now let’s see what would happen if looked at these same letters in a different order!”  Whooves began rearranging the letters until he came to this;

THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE

The room was aghast.  Cheerilee shouted in shock, “She was delivering the package to the completely wrong pony!”

Rainbow facehoofed, “Wouldn’t be the first time.”

Bon Bon objected. “Wait she said the package was from Snails, and they questioned Snails and he never sent a package.”

Whooves spoke up. “Yes, well if she got the destination wrong, she must have gotten the sender wrong too.  Twilight dear, what EXACTLY did she say was the sender?”

Twilight once again checked her papers. “She said it was the ‘Squad of Snails’.”

Whooves put the words on the board.

SQUAD OF SNAILS

“Now, let’s give these letters the same treatment we gave the others.” With some deft letter manipulation, he came up with this;

QUILLS AND SOFAS

The room was again aghast.  

Doctor Whooves put down the chalk. “Makes sense,doesn’t it?  Trixie is a unicorn, and the unicorns are the ones who need the quills, right?” He winked at Fluttershy. “Although I suppose he could be shipping her a sofa as well.  But for a sofa to fit in that box, it would have to be bigger on the inside...”

Twilight took another vote.  More had gone over to non guilty, but Lyra, Bon Bon and herself were still not convinced.  Twilight did, however, inform the guard about the possible different package and told him to look for it on the shipping records.  She then turned to the group.

“I think that’s enough for now.  We have a lot to think about.  It looks like we’ll be here all night, so let’s order dinner.” said Twilight.

Lyra turned to Bon Bon. “What do you want for dinner?”

Bon Bon huffed. “A large Hung Jury with a side of getting outta here.”

To Be Concluded