Puppets of Tragedy

by Iridescence T Wind

Turnabout Puppet

I was currently waiting at my desk, while the court room chattered to themselves, and others took pictures of me and my minions. My stance, leaning idly in a medal chair with my feet resting on another one proposed that I was relaxed, when I was anything but. In fact the longer i sat here, the more unease I felt. despite about half an hour having past since Twilight left with her new client after a brief exchange between the rest of us and herself. Spike was also missing, but only for the first ten minutes, after which he sat at the table opposite of mine, and started doodling in a spare sketch pad a reporter pony had decided to let him borrow. From what I could over see, he was drawing a vague set of images of the villains I had standing on either side of the throne room, occasionally adding and removing details. Currently he was being frustrated by Aku's ever moving firey eyebrows, and trying to draw the fire was causing the little dragon much annoyance until he eventually erased his twelfth attempt and simply wrote the word 'fire' above each eye and continued on.

Though the distraction did little to ease the tension in the room as Twilight came back in with the former tyrant, looking visibly shaken despite her best efforts as the later looked on with a curiously dead expression that spoke volumes of disgust to his own impromptu lawyer. "Welcome back Twilight Sparkle." Luna spoke up, after they had took their seats, "We trust that thou has been properly informed as to the current circumstances of your... client?" she spoke the last word hesitantly, questioning the legitimacy of the word in regard to the Siren.

"Yes Princess Luna, I am ready to begin when you are." Twilight responded, looking through her notes, which were a collection of paper floating around her in a slow orbit around the lavender mare as she nervously scanned through the piles of documents probably not for the first time.

"Is the Jury ready?" Luna asked as well, and almost as one the group of jurors nodded, "And is the..." she looked over the small handbook that had been left on the desk, "...Prosecution ready to deliver the opening statement regarding the crime in which the defendant is being accused of?"

"I am your highness." I remarked, a facade of calm over my own worries.

"Then let us begin, Prosecutor."

Slowly I stood up, "We are gathered here today for the trial of Sharp Opera, former tyrant of the kingdom of Sirens that was sunk beneath the earth a thousand years ago after the failed attempt to usurp him from his rule. Sharp stands accused of innumerable murders, oppression, rule through force and oppression, usurping and killing the Sirens previous king, and the abuse and forced sex with the women of the siren nation during his rule of one thousand years."

I could hear quills writing furiously on levitated paper behind me, as I stopped talking. Luna nodded, and turned her gaze to Twilight, "Does the defense have anything they'd like to say regarding these charges?"

Twilight shook her head, as the siren next to her grumbled inaudibly. Luna continued, "If that is the case, then please continue, Prosecutor."

"I'd like to call my first witness to the stand, The historian of the Siren kingdom at the time, Melody."

I left out that melody was to be the future ruler, as we had yet to get everything cleared up with her own people yet. After Luna's own agreement to this, the siren in question took up to the stand and I stood up as well, "Melody, if you would please state for the record, how many recorded crimes that Sharp Opera has committed over the years."

She nodded, bringing out a stack of papers, and flipping a page, "This packet, is a list of every name of every siren that has been killed by Sharp Operas hands over the course of one thousand and twelve years of submerged ground. When counted all together the number of our species that have died to his hands is eighteen thousand four hundred and ninety seven Sirens, of those eighteen thousand, twelve thousand of them were male as he tried to drive us to not just obey him from force but as the only biological way to reproduce or else go extinct even if we did take him off the throne. A majority of these males, if you can't tell from my implications, were murdered just after birth, personally by Sharp, who oversees each mare who bears his children."

There was numerous audible gasps, even Twilight Sparkles jaw had dropped at the implications, but Melody wasn't done, "This is just the Sirens, mind you. Searching our records farther behind, before Sharp had driven us underground. there are records of numerous fights among the numerable respected nations of Equis before it was united and driven back by the princesses. These crimes are too numerable to count and in the end must simply be given to the judge in its raw form." She handed off the packet to Princess Luna, whos wide eyes scanned over the documents.

"Now, Melody, what would you say that Sharp Opera has been in your eyes?" I asked her, and she spoke on.

"Sharp Opera has culturally been adapted to be our god-king until you came along, Puppet Master and managed to break his torturous rule over our people. To me he was a monster that demanded my constant attention and care to detail lest I be thrown to the magma of his rage and die."

More scratches of quill on paper in the back and Twilight remaining stock silent.

"Thank you Melody, the prosecution rests their case." I said, returning to my seat.

Luna looked over the records I had originally given her, though she had a hard time, while scanning through the large stack of papers that melody had also added to the desk, "Thank you Prosecutor, if the Defense has any questions for this witness, please let it be done now."

Twilight nodded, and stood up, taking a deep breathe to calm herself as she approached the stand and began to cross examine Melody, "These records of yours, how are they kept?"

"They are maintained and recorded by the lore keepers within the old temple that they were wrote. As of my generation it is my duty to maintain these records and make sure none are lost upon their stone walls." Melody replied smoothly.

"Have these records ever been mishandled or exaggerated at all?" Twilight asked, next, pursing the line of questioning.

"Never in recorded history. These records are also the recorded history of my people, and the tools provided to add onto these histories as well as maintain them from eventual wear are only kept by the Lorekeeper who has the trust of her people." Melody stated, her face a cool gaze of ice to Twilight's curiosity.

"Alright then." Twilight sighed, before starting an additional line of questioning, "Do you know of the motivations behind Sharp Operas actions? More specifically what do you know about him on a personal level."

Melody shook her head, "I was born long after he forced our kingdom into the ground. Though I am under the impression that our ruler with his massive amount of power, which he used to keep us subservient to him, could of also been used to expand upon our domain rather than cause the countless needless deaths of our people. His power was massively evident in the records of the past as well as recently in the past when he had partaken in battle with the Puppet Master, or the prosecution of this case."

"What about his personality and demeanor?" Twilight asked again.

Melody looked to the defense position, where Sharp Opera had raised his gaze in a glare towards Melody, who gazed cooly back at him as she spoke, "During my interactions with him over the years of my life, it was utter terror to behold his outlook. Whenever I interacted with Sharp Opera it was like I was an object, rather than a person, one that could be discarded at a whim, and that was terrifying. Because to be discarded under his rule would mean to die."

Twilight was struck speechless, presumably under the gravity of Melody's words. I had to remind myself that this was the 'peaceful' land of Equestria that hadn't seen much of war or violence over the last thousand years, and that this sort of thing wasn't as known as it was in my own world. Where the magic of friendship wasn't the overriding factor but rather a combination of luck and skill in an overall competitive business structure ruled my world, with the infamous sins of greed and wrath among others sparking wars and controversy. Equestria, in comparison, had known far less violence on its open kingdom as of recent, though I suspected that a thousand years ago it was comparable to an apocalypse. Considering the amount of villains that were returning from a 'thousand years of fill-in-the-blank-here'. From the shows lore and what few accurate history books I had taken from Twilight's library, and the Siren's own kingdom, more than six or seven major events had happened 'a thousand years ago'. Just what had happened on that chaotic year?

Twilight continued to question Melody, each response of hers worsening Sharp's overall appearance to the crowd of jurors and reporters. Soon she moved onto the other assembled Sirens, each providing their own stories of misdeeds they had experienced under Sharps Tyranny, as well as an restrained ex-soldier of Sharp's being presented to the court for the fanatical worship he had induced in them. After that final example, Sharp was finally called to the stand to offer his testimony to his own acts as the ruler of the Sirens.

To the point, princess Luna was the first to speak after the sluggishly moving siren had taken to the stand, "Sharp Opera, do you promise to tell the truth, and nothing but the truth, as by adherence to this court room?"

Sharp didn't reply with words but rather nodded.

"Please address the court room that you will speak the truth and nothing but the truth, Sharp." Luna asked again.

Bitterly, the former tyrant replied, but rather not to Luna, instead glaring at me, "What is the point of this trial, Puppet Master? What do you stand to gain here, putting on a show for these masses? My sentence will remain the same, despite your interference."

I remained silent, not speaking but rather with a steadfast slight grin to my face, hopefully one that spoke of mysterious undertones rather than looking just clown crazy psychotic or something. Judging from my puppets view it was thankfully the former, rather than the later.

With no response forth coming from the prosecution, and Luna on the verge of redirecting the tide of the court again, exasperatedly the siren shushed the judge, "Fine, we'll see just where this goes Puppet." He turned his head towards Luna and Twilight's general direction, facing the open space between the two of them with his gaze, "You wanted the truth and the whole truth? Fine. This is the words of God-King Sharp Opera, Siren of the molten earth. Listen well Pony folk, for this is a tale I will only be telling this once."

He took a deep breathe and began, before any interruptions could begin, "Once upon a time, around a thousand years ago, Equestria was nothing but war and outrage. Crystal ponies had vanished off the face of the planet. Chaos and Disharmony personified roamed the lands spreading its poisonous roots throughout the lands. The three pony tribes fought bitterly hoof to hoof, sword to magic, magic to lightning and back again. It was a land where the undead roamed the mountains in the rulership of an evil necromancer goat, Where a centaur tried to cause eternal night with a bag. Where species arose, and went extinct within the same decade. Among this chaos and turmoil was the Sirens. My Sirens."

His glare turned away from us towards Celestia, his head almost turning completely around in order to spot the Alicorn who was watching impassively from her throne behind Luna's judge-seat, "We lived a simple life behind the waves, a small nation of three cities off the coasts of Equestria. At least until Equestrias problems, or more promptly Celestia's problems started to become ours. First it was the momentary distraction of sending Discords chaotic mind our way. We lost our first city to him as he turned our members into flying bears and fishes, never to be seen again, though I presume they died once his magic had been sealed behind that barrier of stone that the elements of harmony had caused."

He turned his gaze back towards the judges stand, "The second city we lost during the rise of Nightmare Moon, the moon she had brought forth having caused several tsunamis, and with it dragging the city of Kelpton out from the beaches edge and throwing it miles inland, where a majority of the water dwelling members of our society, died, screaming from their injuries, unable to be treated or healed with the state of medicine of that era. It was there that our kind got our names, as we wailed for our lost."

He looked almost sickened with those words, as if he wish he could destroy the namer of his race. He continued on, his rant growing more vehement as he went on, "My uncle, the ruler before me had agreed to meet with Celestia on terms of joining forces shortly after, much to the growing hatred of the rest of the noble court. I was third in line before the first city had fallen, and had become the last in line after the previous events. I was convinced beyond a doubt that my uncles path lead to ruins, with the utter carnage that had been brought forth by the nation this Princess had governed, I decided to take action before it was too late."

From the back Celestia commented, quite calm and conversational, "I was going there to make amends with your late uncles kingdom, and repay the debt we owed."

"You mean like how Commander Hurricane broke the back of the Griffon united tribes to repay them for the emergency food they had offered your nation when it would of otherwise starved hundreds of ponies?" Sharp shot back.

"Wait a second," Twilight's voice rose up, and I shifted my gaze to watch the lavender mare as she spoke, slightly confused, but more than certain of what she was saying, "Commander Hurricane lead a counter force against the Griffon empire's planned invasion and saved multiple other nations from them by destroying their armies!"

"Is that what the poisonous leach teaches to her subjects these years?" Sharp Opera sneered at his defense, "I'll have you know that Bi-"

He was cut off as a Gavel landed on his head, three times, while Luna proclaimed, in a royally loud tone, "Order in the court. We will have order in this court!"

I winced, improper use of said gavel, but it worked well enough, I guess. Luna stared between Twilight and Sharp, her own glare cowing the two back into their seats, they had slowly raised into a standing position as the story had went on, and it was Luna's words of sure confidence and cold undertones that reminded them where they were, "The Defense and onlookers will remain silent until the Accused has finished his testimony," She looked to Sharp as she added in, "And we would appreciate it if you wouldn't refer to our sister in such hostile terms."

"She's not our sister." Sharp replied under his breathe, "Just yours."

Luna redoubled her glare, on him and he sighed, "Yes your Blue-ness."

Ignoring his name calling Luna gestured for him to continue, and he did, much more subdued, but around twelve times as bitter, "Disposing of my buffoon of an uncle was easy enough, he was a wind siren, and I was of fire. While he sat and ruled and grew fat, I had spent the dawn of my youth to my adult age training to someday take a stand as an active noble of either of the three cities. It was easy to start a coop, since his advisors were already angry with his decisions, and in the lime light of approaching doom, a change of office wasn't out of the question. After he was dead, we prepared for war and calamity."

He stopped for but a mere moment, looking down into his hooves. "Our declination of friendship with the princess who had been a part of destroying two of our three cities was ultimately our downfall as the bloody evil b-"
Smack.

Caught between a curse and a sentence he continued on, wincing in pain, "-eeeuttiful mare that was Celestia, upon learning of the change in rulership, charged us with her cutie mark incarnate."

"We refer to the event as the sundering from the surface." Melody quipped in from the rows of witnesses. Before a gavel tapped her on the head to be quiet. I really shouldn't of just left the instructions as 'use the mallet to bring order to the court'. Those poor heads.

"She threw the sun at us, and with the combined might of all our remaining mages, we shifted the entire city out of its path of destruction before it could hit."

"We didn't know where we ended up in, but it was deep underneath the earth, where we hoped that no one would ever find us again. From then on there, it was population control, all unneeded beings were killed as per our bylaws. Only the needed population from those who had been warped into that miserable cave were allowed to stay alive. The rest, you already heard testimony from."

He shook his head sadly, "We only needed one male to maintain the population, and early on my magic was burnt out from the amount of effort it had taken to move the city. One of the last laws wrote was that we were never to expand upon our new dwellings, lest we find another ancient evil like the likes of Nightmare Moon, Sombra, Tirek, or even Grogar."

"This is quite the tale you have wrought for us all." Luna replied her voice ever the room filling volume it was, staring as though for the first time, at the being in the witness chair. She had been staring like that, entranced since he had mentioned Nightmare Moon, Luna's alter ego that the elements of harmony had cleansed from her, "If the prosecution and defense would like to cross examine the accused, please do so now."

Twilight remained sitting, switching her gaze, from Sharp to me and back. I rose, but didn't walk towards him, "I have a few questions for you Sharp."

Sharp remained silent.

"Why was it that you haven't tried expanding? At the very least it would make sense to know where you are, even if you had to collapse the tunnel afterwards."

"When you dig, does the stone and dirt you break apart magically disappear?" Sharp snarked, "No, it becomes pebbles and other fine rock, While I may of been able to eventually melt the rock, where would that molten rock go? Into the community?" He rolled his eyes and snorted.

"Not a moment ago you admitted to having a group of sirens to teleport an entire city, and yet it never once occurred to you to teleport the debris of rock from mining away?" I replied back.

To which, Sharp remained ominously silent for but a few moments, before replying calmly, "It wasn't the sirens who had provided the spell." He sighed, "It probably dosen't matter anymore, but a unicorn was the one who provided a nexus for our desperate magic to connect to and fuel his spell. It was tremendously draining, and several of the sirens who had partaken in the ritual had died from energy loss afterwards. Siren magic is primarily sound based, not spell based."

I added that into my mental notes as well as my laptops notes, as Twilight asked a question, "So would you say it was fear of... the other forces of the outside world that forced you to commit these... heinous acts, and maintain your tyrant nature all these natures over a mental state of constant peril?"

Twilight's response was...subdued, still trying to wrap her big brainy head over the implications of what Sharp was saying. Sharp offered no excuses for himself, "I did what I had to to make sure my nation survived. I knew not how long an Alicorn could live, so I made preperations for our nation to still exist in a virtual paradise of perpetual stasis. I turned law and government into religious practices, and made my mark upon our histories. I do not deny it, and I await my punishment Stone me if you wish, you will not have the pleasure of hearing me beg for mercy. Nor will I waste what time I have left concocting lies and treasonous slanders in front of two former apprentices to Star Swirl the Bearded. One of which, during my time, bore the element of honesty at that."

The bold statement left Twilight speechless, as well as myself. I wasn't sure exactly how to respond to that. I had been hoping for some kind of excuse, or something to tear down, but with Sharps ever mindful gaze on his situation, he was essentially pleading guilty. Guilty on a case that held no chance of a sudden turnabout, or revelation that he wasn't the villain in this story. He was prepared to suffer his consequences, probably for far longer than most people could live.

"If the defense, and prosecution has no more objections or questions they would like to ask the accused..." Luna asked, her tone somber, as though matching the mood perfectly for once, "I think we should let the jury decide their verdict for Sharp Opera."

Half an hour had gone by since then, with Sharp Opera practically acting like a statue he was going to be destined to be. I had some idea of an alternative punishment for him, but it wasn't going to be easy. In preparations for the case I had dug through several stolen Equestrian law books for previous cases of villains being imprisoned in other manners than death-by-stone, only coming up with a few results, however. The best option of which, was eternal community service in Tartarus. Which I would offer up once the verdict was given. I wasn't a fan of sentencing someone who could no longer do harm to death. Even if it was a tyrant who had slaughtered thousands. I wasn't a killer, after all. Those I fought often had probably been hospitalized (Indeed I could still see Shining Armor's pointed glare, as well as feel it, aimed at the back of my head, where it had been aimed for the last several hours straight, not once had I seen the guard blink since he had started).

I waited, impatiently as the jury continued to reason with each other, reaffirming their decisions. But it wasn't the court or the stare of the solar princess that sent shivers down my spine, it was something else, something stranger. A sense of foreboding...

Smoke still filled the bleak grey skies of Equestria. Around the Ork god, lay hundreds of bodies, but not one of his enemies. It infuriated him, that these few remaining mortals clung so stubbornly to life. They were doomed to fall underneath his warrgh, as without fire, hundreds more of his green skinned brothers would rise up for each one felled, and there was only so much ammunition that these proud enemy warriors could muster. But his impatience after long years of war had finally run thin, and he commanded his kill squad to stop their daily prayer to him, and directed their primal minded beings towards the source of his annoyance. As one, half a dozen bodies moved, dominated underneath his leadership, as they started towards the last fortress of the resistance.

Idly he fingered his trinket, a simple mask that had appeared between him and his rival during his last conflict. It had given him much joy to learn of the world beyond it, another world ripe for conquest, with a starting seeds of invasion already planted underneath the soils of which he had dwelled. Two batches of orks, already waiting for the perfect moment to arise and strike out. He watched on, as his kill team approached the fortress, ablaze of gunfire and war chants, screaming Orks being mowed down row after row of deadly fire, few return shots managing to pierce its bunkers. It was a wonder that they haven't had run out of ammunition yet, considering it had been several weeks since the siege began. Whereas before it was a massive fortress, now it was just one bunker. A bunker of bolter fire, powered armor, and the revving of prepared chain-blades and thunder-hammers.

All of which would be useless against his kill team. Each member was a warboss in their own right, an Ork that had been so heavily modified with their own parodies of a tech priest's cybermancy that the ork was effectively more machine than green skin, with big metal limbs easily capable of tearing apart lesser metals in an instant, with weapons that would shame a tank, and the guts, ability, and strength, not just physically, but mentally to lead a waaagh on their own. He had rounded these six up for their ability and put them to the final task that would crush the last bit of organized resistance in this world, and allow him to start expanding on other worlds. These lumbering giants of course were painted the symbolic red of his people, their abused machines miraculously working at the combined war screams of their tech priests, and the ferocity and speed applied through their almost religious worship over the color of red, the color of rage, blood, and all things Ork Culture adored.

absently he kicked sniveling runt of the liter from underneath his feet, as he slowly stood. He wanted to view this menace himself, to fully enjoy impending doom. Off handedly he was amused by his newest pawn's ambitions, but now was not the time... Skargor Duffwort was prepared for this wars end.

And then the sun vanished.