//------------------------------//
// Chapter 7 - Order in the court! 
// Story: Celestia Trigger 
// by Thadius0 
//------------------------------//

	Thankfully, it was the middle of the night, or close enough, when we emerged in the 'present day' High Aerie's courthouse.  I pulled out my pocketwatch to see that, if it was right, it was approximately 2:30 in the morning.  I didn't precisely trust it, but I was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt for now.  Copper and Justice stumbled out next to me and looked around, one visibly in awe at the sight of a world not destroyed, and one merely recording the information.

"Okay," I whispered, "All in favor of sneaking out and looking for information here come sunrise?"

"Yeah," Copper agreed.  "Seeing a place like this, you know, in working order, with nopony around...it gives me the creeps."

Justice did his best impression of a nod as well.  "It would be best to leave before we are accused of trespassing on government property."

The three of us slowly made our way out of the courtroom and towards the entryway, which thankfully had far fewer security measures than its future version ended up with.  The front door was slowly cracked open, and Copper and I peeked out to see that there were no guards on duty.  Justice whirred a bit before putting in his two bits as well.  "From what I can tell, there is a patrol just going around the south corner.  We should be fine if we sneak out within the next minute, considering their walking speed."

We both turned to look at him for a moment before looking at each other and shrugging.  Taking the robot's advice, we left the courthouse and made our way south as well.

"Well," I said, "Hora said this would be a good place to start looking, but I'll admit to coming up with nothing.  How about for those of us that actually need it, we sleep until morning?"

Copper nodded enthusiastically a few times.  "Yes, please!  A time when there's actual food and beds?  I'll take that!"

Justice did his best impersonation of a shrug and followed along behind us.

I will admit, I probably should have taken in the sights of the Griffon capitol a bit more than I did, but seeing as how it was the wee hours of the morn, I was more concerned with getting a proper place to rest than sightseeing.  Along with the thought of waking up in the morning and getting actual food.

Gods, how long had it been since I last ate?!  Time really blurred in the future, what with the Energizers taking out much of the time I would spend sleeping, and endless bleak landscape not offering a clue as to how long it was between Domes, and the nigh-endless hordes of robots that I dispatched almost as mechanically as they themselves were.  Fortunately, we found an inn relatively quickly, and the keeper answered the bell with impressive speed.  I mean, it was the wee hours of the morn, I wasn't going to begrudge him for being a little slow to respond.

"Yeah, yeah, whaddya wan-"  The griffon's eyes bulged as he took in my form, and he scowled a little at the sight of Copper and Justice.  "Room?"

I nodded at the blunt question.  "How much?"  Meanwhile, Copper muttered to herself about how similar griffons and pegasi seemed to be.

"Te-" here he seemed to reconsider while looking at Copper and Justice.  "Twenty bits."

I blinked at that and put one hand on my katana hilt.  "Did you just jack the price up because of my companions?"

Huh, whaddya know, griffons can pale when confronted with threats of violence.  He swallowed at that but shook his head.  "Nah, me, do something like that?  Never!"

At this, Justice beeped.  "Records indicate that price gouging of equine life-forms, while officially abolished in 800 CR, still continued to be practiced until much later."

"Interesting," I mused while fingering the pommel of my blade.  "And what was typically the penalty for those that were caught doing as such, Justice?"

He beeped a few more times before doing as much of a nod as he could.  "Reimbursement of the difference between normal prices and the one that shopkeepers would make the equines pay.  Typically, these sorts of cases were only held once in a blue moon and succeeded when overwhelming evidence was brought forth, and the shopkeepers did not stop their practices until, again, much later."

I nodded and put my hands on the desk between me and the griffon before leaning forward until our faces were almost touching.  "Okay, let me make one thing perfectly clear.  I cannot recall the last time I actually slept in a bed.  That mare never has.  And the stallion, as you probably figured out by now, isn't something you have to worry about.  And when we wake up in the morning, you'd better believe we'll be hungry.  At least, those of us who eat.  So you're either going to provide us with food or directions to it, and do so with a wonderfully cheap price and a smile, or when I wake up, you're going to be the menu."

Here I smiled wide, making sure to flash my pointed teeth at the griffon, who seemed to get the message that this was a carnivore, a bigger, badder one than you.  He then gulped and nodded a few times before saying, quite squeakily, "Ten bits, sir."

Copper seemed to rummage in her battle harness before withdrawing a sack and pulling out a silver coin.  The gryphon nodded, took the coin, and pointed up the stairs.  "First door will have two beds, and your...golem can wait in there with you."

"Many thanks.  And while we will pay for food in the morning, that's if you bring any.  I don't fancy your chances if you fail to show up without at least something for the lady, you know."

Copper grinned at the gryphon as well, and while it was probably expected behavior for something like me with the proper teeth to threaten him to eat him, from a pony, it was just unnatural.  At least, to anyone else.  The innkeeper blinked a few times before stating, quite simply, "You lot are crazy."

"Buddy, we're on a quest to stop the world from ending.  Sanity checked out a while ago."





Morning, or far past it, actually, brought a plate of assorted fruits and vegetables just outside the door.  Copper and I dug into the thing with gutso, and were thankful we did so before washing up.  It took me a minute to demonstrate the workings of an actual bathtub to the post-apocalyptic mare, but she caught on soon enough, and let me just say this:

She cleaned up well.

Her coat had gone from a dirty orange to a bright, sunset amber.  Her mane and tail, once spiky and unkempt, now flowed with a bright green reminiscent of the grass in springtime.  Her mark was a flame burning behind a crossed hammer and screwdriver over a wrench.  And her eyes, previously dull like all the other from 2299, were now amethyst gems, sparkling with hope.  Once she noticed I was not only looking, but looking at her, she waved a hoof at me to regain my attention.

"Oy!  Bathtub's free, but you may wanna change out that water.  I think it turned black by the time I was done in there."

I chuckled a bit at that.  "Yeah, figured as much.  Also, you may want to clean up your harness as well.  It'd be a shame if you got dirty because of your equipment."

She scowled at me for that one.  "Okay, one, where was all this attraction the other day?  And two...I just realized refueling the flamethrower is gonna be hard in a time without robots or Energizers."

I ruffled her mane as I slipped past.  "One, it's not attraction, thank you very much, just fact: It would be a shame if you got clean only to get dirty again, or if your flamethrower stopped working due to gummed-up gears or what have you because it was improperly maintained in the middle of a fight.  And two, don't worry, we have magic now...though I'm getting the sense that it won't be long before we find someone who can help us with that little 'dilemma' of yours."

A good ten minutes worth of work later, and I was clean as well.  It was a bit startling for my hair to dry quickly and spring into position, but I wrote it off as 'being Crono' for the time being and got redressed.  Walking back into the room revealed Copper polishing the harness to the point where it gleamed.  I smiled at the sight of her taking pride in her work and decided it was time we started looking for information in this day and age.

Who knew?  Maybe we'd get lucky.





Okay, for future reference: Never, ever think that phrase!  We had barely left the inn when we saw a small flock of gryphons heading towards the Courthouse.  Being the inquisitive type, I followed along to see a very horrifying sight.

A crowd of gryphons had gathered outside the courthouse, and in the square in front of it, an executioner's block had been dragged out.  One gryphon was wielding a huge axe and wearing the stereotypical black hood over its face, and crouched in front of the block, a zebra awaited its fate.

I'm not about to watch this had been my initial line of thought.  However, when one gryphon stepped forward and jabbed the Zebra with a talon and asked a simple question, my line of thinking changed.

"What did you do to our princess, you striped freak?!"

It was the answer that cinched it for me, though.

"Though I tell you time and again, at my hooves she did not meet an end, never more will you believe me, until from my shoulders my head rolls free."

I'm not about to let this happen.

As the headsman raised his axe, I raised my hand and gathered my thoughts, my power.  With a quick burst of sound, the Lightning attack ripped free of me and impacted the gryphon.  A small explosion took place, flinging the flying feline into the courthouse's wall.  The crowd silenced itself as I strode forward to stand next to the zebra and turned to a member of the crowd.

"What is this zebra's crimes?"

Someone in the crowd had the good sense or lack thereof to speak up.  "Being a zebra!"

"Yeah!"  Someone else decided to chip in, "Being a zebra on palace grounds while the princess goes missing!"

I hummed and pointed to where I'd come from in the crowd.  "Justice, come forward!"

With a whirring of gears, the robot came forward and nodded as much as he could.  "Here, sir."

"Justice, from when the nation of..."

"Griffenheim," he supplied.

"Griffenheim was founded to the current day..."  I trailed off while looking at a gryphon.

"September 7th, 999," the gryphon supplied.

"From when the nation of Griffenheim was founded to September 7th, 999, was there ever a law against being a zebra?"

He beeped a few times and shook his head.  "No.  There never was a law against being a zebra.  In fact, a law against such discrimination was passed in 800 CR, but it would appear that no gryphon actually obeyed it."

"Is this zebra guilty of any crimes according to the laws of the gryphons?"

The robot scanned the zebra with his glowing green eyes for a moment before shaking his head.  "No.  In fact, by the wounds that are present on him, he could press a case against the gryphons for assault and battery, and likely win against them."

Quite a few gulped at that, and I noticed that the zebra was more than just black and white, especially if you knew where to look.  "Okay then!  One more.  Just one.  Is there any law against repaying them in kind for what they've done to this zebra?"

Someone spoke up at that.  "You?  Fight us?  For a zebra?  Oh please, give us a laugh!"

The gryphons chuckled at that, while Copper moved forward to stand next to me.  I merely smiled at their laughter and grabbed a hold of my katana's hilt with my right hand while gathering power in my left.  "You're not the first ones I've fought, you know."

They shut up at that, but someone was feeling cocky today, as I heard a jeer.  "Yeah right!  You don't look like you could last five minutes with one of us!"

I smiled all the wider and drew my blade.  "Newsflash, I'm not of your world.  I'm from a place where my kind are the dominate species with a vengeance.  I found myself here and found a place and time to train and refine my skills, and recently, gained more power than I should ever have.  I waded into combat with two separate hordes of enemies, walked across a blasted wasteland, and met scores of foes that only wanted my demise.  And the thing you've got to ask yourself is...what happened to them?"

Realization slowly dawned on their faces as they realized that I was standing here, but none of the ones I'd talked about had done me in.  After a moment, I moved my left hand to also grip the handle of my katana, sending the power channeling down the length of the blade.  It made for an interesting spectacle, an electrified katana.  I made the motions I'd practiced a thousand times before, the same moves that had aided me in the destruction of so many robots.  Justice turned to the crowd and opened his side panels, revealing glowing points of light within, and Copper gently nudged one control on her harness, setting the flamethrower atop it to 'standby' mode.

The gryphons sucked in their breaths so quickly and in unison I thought for a second that they were one being.

"Hello," I greeted the shocked crowd.  "I'm Crono."

Silence reigned for a minute longer before I spoke again.  "Basically?  Run."

After a moment, the gryphons did just that, and I sheathed my blade before turning to the zebra, who was staring at me in something that was a mix between awe and fear.  Meh, I'd take it for one day.