//------------------------------// // Case #6: The Trial of Steel Wing (Part III of III) // Story: Judge Celestia: Upon the Throne of Justice // by Aegis Shield //------------------------------// Judge Celestia: Upon the Throne of Justice Part 9: The Trial of Steel Wing (Part III of III) Celestia re-emerged from the judge’s chambers and returned to the throne. The courtroom quieted, with Steel Wing looking nervously back and forth. Princess Luna stood behind the plaintiff’s table, eager for the decision to be handed down. She glanced at Steel Wing with a cool, glassy blue expression. “I have come to a decision,” Celestia said. “This is a difficult case to decide on, I assure you, my little ponies.” She was speaking just as much to the audience present as she was to the microphone that was broadcasting her all across Equestria’s radios. “Steel Wing is a unique case in many ways. A golem with all the thoughts and feelings of a living pony. He was given clear and functional sentience by his maker— or father, if you prefer,” Celestia lifted a diplomatic hoof, though her eyes betrayed a tired worry. “However, it has been proven to me that he is not pony enough to stand trial and be convicted as a criminal or assassin.” “Yes!” cried Twilight, thrusting a hoof into the air. Steel Wing’s heart leapt. Luna opened her mouth to shout angrily, but was interrupted. “However!” Celestia put in again to quiet the celebration. “I have decided that he is, at best, a dysfunctional piece of advanced weaponry. If he resisted Sombra’s influence and saved my sister’s life at the last moment, whatever magic was at work right then, then his programming is clearly flawed and cannot be accounted for in all of Twilight Sparkle’s facts and figures. He is broken, in layman’s terms.” Twilight’s smile began to fall as she spoke, as did Steel Wing’s. “I therefore cannot allow him to roam free, either. As you are not a pony, and not truly a functional weapon either, you fall into a grey area that I must make a decision on. Anypony with a grasp of dark magic could use you to do terrible things against your will, such that your will is.” “What’s going to happen to me?” Steel Wing ventured in a small voice. “You will be sold into indentured servitude to a proper guardian, for twenty years, at which time you, Steel Wing, will cease to be,” Celestia stamped her hoof to make it official, and that was the end of it. A small ghosted across Luna’s lips before vanishing into a new scowl, and she swept from the room with her two lunar guards. “Princess Luna! Wait!” Steel Wing cried to her from within the barrier that held him. “I’m sorry! I really am!” “May you fall and shatter into a million-million tiny pieces once more,” Luna stopped to glare daggers at him, before vanishing beyond the double doors and out. The massive doors slammed shut behind her, and he hung his head. “Indentured servitude…” Steel Wing murmured, wilting down miserably. Twilight put an arm around him comfortingly, looking up at Celestia with big eyes. She had already vacated the throne and was being led to the judge’s chambers by her baliff… and their wings were intertwined like a young couple holding hooves. She blinked a couple of times, but didn’t have time to question it, for the guards present were already filing up and getting ready to move Steel Wing again. “Serves you right, monster!” “Hope you rot wherever they send you, if you can rot!” “Fall down some stairs and end it yourself, you freak!” There was no holding back as the prisoner was led from the palace and back to the armored train. The vehicle hissed to life after Steel Wing had been put in chains and secured in a windowless armored car. Princess Twilight sat across from him in a sitting pillow, scribbling on some parchment. Zapping the message with her horn, the paper was gone. She smiled at him a bit, waiting for him to look up at her. But he didn’t, he was too busy lost in his miserable thoughts as all of Equestria celebrated his new slavery and eventual death in twenty year’s time. Could he die, if he was never technically alive? What a miserable way to go— maybe they’d just take a big hammer to him when the time came? At least then it would be quick and painless. He looked down at his crutches, wondering why he could feel pain if he was a golem. Chalk one up to Sombra’s strange facts and figures used to make him what he was. He hunched miserably, wishing that he had tears to cry. He settled for an audible whimper, squeezing his eyes shut. “What happens now? Who am I being sold to?” he asked Twilight. “I don’t think you listened to the sentence all that clearly,” Twilight gave a rather sly smile, then smiled wider when a packet of papers arrived via dragon fire. “Ah, there we are,” she opened them and began to paw through them. “Your new papers.” “Slaves get papers?” he asked. “You’re not a slave, you’re an indentured servant,” Twilight said, glancing up at him. “It means you work for free and I take care of you until your time runs out.” She offered a coy, hopeful smile that he’d caught on by now. “And I get executed,” Steel Wing said miserably. “Wait, you?!” he jolted in his chains, chaffing his front legs a bit. “You bought me?! I’m your sl—servant?!” Twilight thought for a time, trying to word it for him correctly. She ran her tongue over her upper lip. Just then a scroll poof’d into existence next to her, and rolled across the floor. It was covered with the Lunar seal. “It’s for you,” Twilight murmured, hoofing it over to him. “It’s not going to explode is it?” Steel Wing was still reeling a little, being sold into slavery for Princess Twilight…. Jeez. He carefully unrolled it to read. Steel Wing, I forgive you. What you did was not of your doing. I am not stupid. I saw the light leave your eyes when Sombra took control of you, and return when you saved me. But I had to make everything look real for the peace of mind of Equestria. Forgive my foul words and demeanor. If you had walked free it would have been a witch hunt until somepony took a hammer or large rock to you. Nothing I could ever say could convince dozens of eye witnesses that it was not you stabbing me, throwing me, and everything else your body was used to do. The nation was already convinced you were a servant of evil, and nothing would change their minds. You gave your life for me the day Sombra tried for my life, do not think I didn’t treasure your sacrifice. And though you will suffer in obscurity for a few decades, when you are reborn you will be a new pony and able to walk free again. I wish you luck, and will see you when I next visit Twilight Sparkle for Nightmare Night. --Luna Steel Wing crumpled the note to his chest, a loud mewling sort of sound escaping his throat. He wished he could cry, he wished it so. He hunched in his chains and manacles, squeezing his eyes shut and clenching his teeth. His ears wilted down low. “F-Faust…” he whimpered aloud, his vision clouding over. “Faust!” he cried again, burying his muzzle in his hooves. Twilight smiled a little, setting the paperwork aside for a moment. Gingerly taking his letter, she set flame to it with her magic so there would be no evidence. Magicking the folder to herself, she flipped it open to the first page. It was a Birth Certificate, designated from the Crystal Empire— signed by a midwife and doctor that didn’t exist. Or wouldn’t exist for twenty years. The birthdate was set for the present day. Steel Wing looked at it, then moaned happily and leaned into Twilight. Her large, purple wing extended over his back and he trembled. “You’ll live with me, as a servant of the Friendship Palace, for twenty years. I'll see to your every need, and you'll work for me to earn your living,” Twilight whispered to him, stroking his back over and over. “Equestria will forget the name Steel Wing, and everything about you. Records are being tracked down and destroyed even as we speak by Luna’s most trusted agents.” “R-Really?” he whispered, looking up at her. “In two decades nopony will remember who you were, where you came from, or even what you looked like,” Twilight said softly, stroking his back over and over. “It’s a lifetime for the attention span of a nation. More than enough for you to vanish into obscurity.” “Everypony was in on it, then? It was all fake? Luna? You? Even Celestia?!” he gaped at the purple mare, who neither nodded nor shook her head. Merely smiled coyly and looked to one side. “Then, when Princess Celestia said I would cease to be…?” “You’re getting a new identity,” Twilight nodded. “We’ll be documenting you with brittle-crystal’s disease, type 3 of course,” she was already filling in blanks with a quill. She paused, and then decided on his parentage. “With a crystal pony mother and a pegasus father, well…” she gestured to his skeletal, crystal wings, “Sometimes genes just don’t mix well and you end up with a handicapped foal.” “Oh Twilight,” he mumbled. He put his face in his hooves, overwhelmed. “I don’t know what to say…” he looked up into her smiling face. “Say ‘yes my Princess’… Glass Quill,” she smiled playfully. “Y-yes… my Princess,” he said softly. The young alicorn’s other wing came about him in a large hug, adjusting his chains for comfort. The manacles unsnapped once she’d worked the locks, releasing him. Glass Quill dipped his head beneath her feathers, away from the rest of the world, and did his best to weep. The armored train raced on to Ponyville. Twilight took a polaroid photo out of her saddlebag while he wept under her wings. It was yellow’d, rumpled, and the edges were frayed. It had been mishandled quite a bit, tacked to several idea boards and used as a bookmark in many spellbooks. It showed Princess Luna on the throne, Steel Wing standing to one side of her, back when he looked like a real pony. There was a red arrow pointing at Steel Wing drawn on it. Twilight turned it over to read, remembering the day that the picture had arrived when an urn of Steel Wing’s shards. Twilight, This is Steel Wing, my most beloved servant. He gave his life for me in his final moments. Please reassemble him, for he is a golem pony of some description. I thank you far, far in advance. I have no doubt Equestria will hate him for what he’s done, but I will take care of the rest. -Luna Sighing quietly, Twilight set fire to the picture and let it curl into ashes so there would be no trace. She stroked Glass Quill’s head with a hoof, letting him rest for the remainder of the ride home. She would need to put anti-magic seals on him so no one would take control, sure, but that was just a matter of time and magic. All of Equestria could celebrate Steel Wing’s demise, for he had already ceased to be as Celestia (and Luna) bade. End of Part 10