//------------------------------// // Preparations // Story: Earning Freedom // by Daxisle //------------------------------// Preparation As the day slowly gave way to dusk, Sin sat outside the library in wait for Macintosh. His interests in dealing with the five mares inside varying from little to nothing at all. He took a breath as he considered what he was going to have to do tomorrow, things were never simple for him, that was a fact he'd grown accustom to, but the attack he planned was insane at best and suicidal at worst. He'd given his Slayer crossbow and bolts to Discord and informed the Draconequuis to keep it until he was inside the court. If these dogs were half as smart as they were in the Federation, they wouldn't allow it inside for obvious reasons. He first tried to reason that it would have been the most efficient means to simply have the god simply teleport in, grab Spike, and teleport out; or use some other magical way to solve the problem. Though, Discord accused him of getting cold hooves and trying to escape the matter unscathed. If Sin wanted his help, he'd need to play by his rules, and his rules sucked. He saw a pair of figures approach the library on the brisk of Twilight and was surprised to see it was actually Uppity and the stallion who'd attended her at Sin's trial. "Afternoon, Sin." She greeted cheerfully. "Afternoon," the oaken stallion replied. "Ms. Sparkle and her friends are inside if you wanted to talk with them." "Thanks, wait why are you out here? I'd like to speak with everypony at once." Sin shrugged and informed the prosecutor that he was waiting for someone else and would be in as soon as they got there. She nodded in return and beckoned her aid to follow her inside. Not a few minutes later, another pair of figures approached, one of which he was expecting, the other not so much. Macintosh quietly chided his sister for her nervousness as they approached, saying something about their sister being fine and not to worry. "Alright, Sin have you seen Applejack? She still ain't come back to the farm n' little Applebloom's worried sick." Sin shook his head, out of all of the mares present, he knew the cow pony was not one of them. Which was a little odd to him, considering she was Spike's friend too, but he didn't really care enough to question it beyond that. Dejected to the dead end, Applebloom sank to the ground only to be picked up by her brother. "None of that now, Ah've toldja, AJ's fine, probably still off with her coltfriend er somethin'." The issue put on the back burner, the three made way inside to find Uppity addressing the mares in the room. Apparently both Celestia and Luna had teleported in to join the breifing. "Is everypony here?" She asked looking around. Applebloom pointed out that her sister's absence, but Twilight pointed out that she couldn't find her, prompting the DA to begin without her. "Right, so I've been doing some research into Diamond Dog Law. Their trial system is a great deal different than our own..." She began going into a tyrade about subsections, clauses, causations, and all other legal jargin that Sin knew no one present, minus the princess and maybe Twilight, would possibly understand. Thankfully, Rainbow Dash cut in and said something to the effect of 'explain it to the none egg heads'. "Well, basically they gather a council of alphas from around the region to hear testimony, see evidence and decide guilt." She explained. "Also, unlike in Pony societies, guilt doesn't need to be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, but merely holding more evidence for conviction over release." Sin scoffed internally, what a redicious way to run a justice system. "So basically what you're saying is that we have to convince these alpha guys that Spike shouldn't be... you know." Rainbow said awkwardly. "Exactly. Now, there is both good news and bad news with this. The good news is that most pack Alphas are very intelligent and fair in their assessments, since dogs are proud creatures; no alpha would last long if they showed blatant disrespect to their fellows. The bad news is that the evidence against your friend, plus the fact he's a dragon and the history between the species', is pretty condemning. There's little to no chance he'll be found not guilty, but there is a chance we can have him on a lenient sentence." Fat chance of that happening. Dogs hate dragons, part of the curriculum in the Federations schools was to explain the slavery dragons had imposed on dogs for years until the Equality shift lead by the Equestrian Alicorn Sisters. And if there was one thing Sin knew about dogs, it was they knew how to hold a grudge. Pinkie suggested offering a party to soften their hearts, for some reason, but the idea was shot down by Uppity. Though the pink mare was adament that her idea was the solution to their problems, parties made ponies smile and when ponies smiled it meant that they were happy, and if they were happy, they were in a good mood, and if they were in a good mood they'd be more willing to accept bribes and favors. 'Well, there she is, Sin. One of the smartest ponies you've ever met.' I'm telling you! She's not as stupid as she lets on, I swear on my life! "Perhaps we could offer up a trade?" Rarity suggested, garnering the room's attention. "Dogs love gems, and who could blame them? Maybe they'll let Spike go if we offer them so many they can't refuse?" Okay, now THAT was an idea. She may be one of the more prissy and snobby ponies he'd met, but Sin had to give credit where credit was due. Offering a trade where everyone wins was something that hadn't even crossed his mind. "If it weren't for the fact that we were dealing with pack Alpha's that would be a viable option." Uppity countered, pointing to a large sheet of paper with a detailed drawing of the Diamond Dog hierarchy. "The reason Alpha's are chosen is their virtue, intelligence and the fact that being bribed is much less likely to happen, due to them owning their own mines. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to try, but getting our hopes up would be ill advised." Dejected, the white unicorn looked down in shame of her idea being shot down, and Sin mentally kicked himself for not coming to the same conclusion. The best bet was to beg for mercy and hope Spike's sentence would be minimized. Celestia had spoken up about calling an emergency meeting with the pack leaders of the region to discuss possible territory expansion to appease the crime, but they would need time to council before deciding and couldn't stop the trial in time. Any and all deals to be made would have to be taken up with the arbitration council. Another issues was that, in accordance with Dog law, the accusing party would also need to be accepting of the terms and drop the charges. And what with over 60 dogs petitioning, it seemed unlikly that every single one would back off. As the mares continued to converse, Sin walked out of the living room and into the kitchen to get some quiet. As expected, Macintosh followed him in. "Did you make a decision?" He asked. "Ah have. Ah don't know what yer plannin ta do, but Ah'm in. Ah know Spike would do the same fer me. Speakin of friends, where's Shade? Things would go a lot easier if he was with us." Breaking the news in a way the farm pony could understand, Mac stood with a look of both uncertainty and disgust. His opinion on drug usage was much alligned with Sin's as well as his happiness that Shade wasn't as hateful as he was before. As far as the plan went, he explained everything he knew from start to finish, which was basically that if Spike was sentenced to death, than he'd wait until the security was weakened and dispose of the detail, have Discord help free the dragon and smuggle him into hiding. The details were fuzzy since there was so much to take into consideration, but that was the basic gist. "Think hard about this, Mac. If you help me here, you'll most likely become an enemy of Equestria. I've got no problem with the country hating me, but this is your home and your family that you'll be exiled from." Mac pressed his lips and thought more deeply about the consequences, but still decided to help anyways. He loved his family and all, but things weren't exactly working out on that front, between his grandma's constant passive aggressive behavior and Applejack's foalishness, the prospect of leaving again didn't strike him as badly as it should have. "All of this assuming we make it out alive, of course." Sin stated, getting himself a cup of water. "Get out alive of what?" They both turned to find Rainbow Dash looking at them with skeptical eyes. Neither stallion spoke, simply giving her a neutral look as the silence consumed the room. It was careless that she had overheard them, but Celestia already knew they were up to something anyways, so it wasn't as big a deal enough to lie about. The cyan mare threatened to tell the others about what little she heard, but a dismissive shrug from Sin told her that it wouldn't change anything. It was amazing how liberating it was when one stopped caring about getting a lecture or felt much shame. "Look, I just wanna know if you guys are gonna try and break Spike out or not." Slowly, the oaken pony nodded his head in the affirmative. "Alright, I don't want to see Spike hurt any more than you guys do, and I think it's stupid that Celestia's just letting those mutts take him like they did. Let me know how I can help." That was an unexpected twist, especially considering Rainbow was the Element of loyalty. Would she really betray her country and princess like this? Was she really willing to throw her life, family and dreams away for the little purple drake? "Are you kidding? Spike's a friend of mine, yea he did something stupid but he shouldn't be... you know, for making a mistake. I don't care what Luna or Celestia says anymore, they abandoned him when he needed them most. And that's not cool, no matter the reason." She said with absolute resolution. Sin looked over at Mac for his take on the rainbow maned pegasus, to which the apple stallion smirked and nodded. Returning the smile, the Federalist filled Rainbow in on the plan, a new sense of respect growing for her as she received instructions. Shining Armor finished his last meeting with the Trottingham Solar and Lunar captains. The rest of the cities and towns would be informed via pegasus messengers. He'd really hoped that what Celestia warned about wouldn't happen, but he'd worked with Sin once and he knew the stallion wasn't afraid to take heavy punishment to defend those he cared about. It was kind of commendable, in a way. Shining had known Spike since he was a hatchling and cared for the dragon every bit as much as Twilight did. And while he didn't agree to the possible penalty, he did understand it and had chosen to side with Equestria's interests should the line be drawn. And peace was always Equestria's main interest. "Valiar," Shining barked as the two came to the train station. "We'll be heading North to the Amaranth Vale tonight. The orders for tomorrow are simple, ensure there are no equine disruptions of the trial for Spike." "Eh? But you said-" "Yea, I know what I said, and I'm not any happier about it than you are. Cadence and I have a wedding to plan and this extra work is killing our bonding time. But these orders come straight from the princess. Apparently she suspects your new friend of causing a ruckus, and wants us to make sure he doesn't." It took a moment for Valiar to connect the dots and immediately dismissed the brown pony he'd met before as a friend. The two had never crossed paths before, and the night they met the said like two words to eachother. "Regardless, both Princesses will be there and we need to make sure this doesn't become an international incident. If it does, we could face a rebellion from every single dog territory in the nation." The crimson stallion became much more intrigued about the situation, and so long as he wasn't taking on the princesses themselves or Shining, he felt confident that his magical abilities would be more than enough to handle that weirdo. Especially now that he had his reflector rune back. Valiar was ready for whatever this "Sin" had in store for him.