//------------------------------// // Chapter 12 - Three Days of the Alicorn // Story: Tales From Day Court // by Blade Star //------------------------------// The fallout from the Royal Summit luckily wasn’t too serious. Discord did indeed get a colossal telling off from Celestia, though I doubt he listened to half of it. He was more concerned with his busted lion’s paw; a consequence of trying to cheat at roulette. Still, given that the world had not ended, and that there were other matters to attend to, the princess let the matter drop, leaving Discord with a stern warning. A mere few days after the end of the Royal Summit, we received word from Princess Cadance up in the Crystal Empire. For the past few months, she had been engaged in initial talks with representatives from the isolationist state of Yakyakistan. This small, secretive nation, further north than even the Crystal Empire, had recently reached out with an olive branch toward Equestria. With a strong military force, Celestia saw them as excellent allies, along with the Griffons. However, Yaks, as a people, are remarkably fickle beings. They remind me of Tellarites; they’re deeply argumentative and quick to anger. As such, any false move in the negotiations could lead to dire consequences. For safety then, it had been decided that initial negotiations for the opening of diplomatic relations would take place in the Crystal Empire, which despite it being a protectorate of Equestria, the Yaks recognised as a neutral party. These initial talks had now begun to bear fruit it seemed. Cadence reported that the Yaks were now willing to send a delegation to Equestria proper to discuss the possibility of opening trade routes with Equestria. However, they wouldn’t be coming to Canterlot; they insisted on conducting all business in Ponyville with Twilight, given that she was a relative of Cadence. Family it seems, as well as honour, plays a big role in what little we know of Yak culture. Now, I personally wouldn’t have much to do with this. If all went well, then I might soon be meeting up with my counterpart in the Yak government, but for now, I was just a bystander. Still, everypony in the castle was quite tense at the news. From what we understand, the Yaks have two outlooks on other civilisations; friend or foe. If they are offended in any way, they can go off at the drop of a hat, and their army was believed to be quite formidable, certainly more than a match for the Royal Guard. So if things did go wrong, it would be extremely serious. Still, there was little I could do about it at that moment. Like most other ponies, Celestia included, all I could do was simply wait and watch, and hope that things went smoothly for Twilight back home. Unfortunately for Celestia, the ongoing talks were not the only issue on her plate that day. Day Court still had to go on. She was still having to deal with the backlog caused by not holding court during the summit. As always, every type of pony from many walks of life was descending on the throne room for an audience. It was about half- eleven, not long before the usual recess, when I was summoned to the throne room. “Hey, Buttercup,” I said as the guard walked into my office. “I take it the princess has need of me?” Buttercup nodded. “Very much so, sir,” Buttercup replied, passing me a file containing the details. It wasn’t a trial or anything, I was just needed to advise on the finer points of the law. I let out a low whistle as I read. “This looks to be a tough one,” I commented. “Still, fun times.” Throwing on my suit jacket and straightening my tie, I headed out the door with Buttercup following me. As we walked, I skimmed over the case. The petitioner was a cherry farmer from out in the desert; from a larger settlement called Dodge Junction. It’s a railroad town, hence its name, that provides access to all the smaller settlements in the region. All the produce from the south goes through that way to reach cities like Las Pegasus, Applewood, and other major cities along the west coast. The issue at hand, or hoof if you prefer, was the local buffalo tribe. Unlike their human counterparts, the ponies and the buffalo have done quite well to co-exist. The buffalo retain their land in its entirety, and aside from one minor spat a few years ago, there has been no real conflict. There’s still plenty of space for pony settlements to expand without trespassing too. However, that now seemed to be causing an issue. As I said, the pony settlements, including their farms are slowly expanding. One of them, a cherry farm, wanted to plant a new orchard on nearby fertile ground. Fertile ground that was over the line on buffalo territory. Looking at the map, the orchard already went up to the border, which was a sort of bulwark. Buffalo territory pushed about one mile deep, and two across, interrupting the otherwise straight rows of cherry trees. When the buffalo got wind of what was happening, they stormed on down there, and a standoff had ensued between them and the farmers. The owner of the orchards was now standing before Celestia, along with representatives from the buffalo tribal council, asking her to provide a ruling on the matter. As Equestria’s ruler, she is viewed as a neutral party by the buffalo, and they agreed to accept her decision. However, since there are no less than forty-seven different treaties covering the issue, she had requested my assistance. Making my way along the open, sunlit hallways, I whistled a tune to myself, vaguely remembering the words. Our parade set off, Twas a sight to see. Our flags and banners, Flowing gently in the breeze. We had marched to churchyard, On the hillside at Drumcree. When we were stopped, By the Army and RUC. I soon arrived at the throne room. With court in session, the main doors were closed. Buttercup and I instead entered through a smaller side door in order to avoid the queues and questions from other ponies. Heading inside, the situation seemed fairly peaceful. The cherry farmers were looking a little impatient and scuffing their hooves on the marble floor, but were otherwise calm. The buffalo meanwhile, seemed to have lapsed into some sort of meditation, each sitting with their eyes closed. Hopefully, this whole dispute would stay civil. Closing the door behind me, I quickly bowed to the princess. “You summoned me, your highness?” I asked. Celestia looked up from her thoughts. “Ah, yes, my advisor,” she replied. She then turned to the two parties before her. “Everypony, this is Mr. Owen, my legal advisor.” I quickly went around the two groups and shook hands and hooves. I then turned my attention back to the princess. “I’ve read the file on this petition, your highness. I take it you have some ideas you wish to put forward?” Celestia nodded. “Indeed. Ms. Jubilee here wishes to, as you know, expand her cherry orchards onto a small area of buffalo territory.” I nodded in understanding and turned to the earth pony in question. “And I take it that you put this request to the buffalo’s tribal council?” I enquired. “Well,” Jubilee replied. “No, actually. The land’s only two square miles. I didn’t think there’d be too much of an issue.” I wanted to slam my head into my desk. You’d have thought ponies who lived near the territory would at least vaguely understand the rules. “Ms. Jubilee,” I began. “If you did not have permission to enter, never mind build on their territory, then you were most definitely in the wrong. Buffalo lands, under the Equestrian Internal Nations Act, are sovereign territory of the buffalo tribes. To enter without permission constitutes an incursion into another state. You need to evacuate your ponies immediately.” Ms. Jubilee nodded her head. When ponies and buffalo came to an understanding, tough laws were drawn up to prevent aggressive expansion, however slight. Under the act, and various treaties, the lands of the buffalo tribes were marked as effective protectorates of Equestria, but retained their sovereignty as independent states, with their own government, judiciary and police. The lands were granted to the buffalo, to quote the treaty ‘for all of time’. Since this looked like it could develop into something of an issue, I decided to pitch in a bit more. While purchase or unlawful entry into buffalo lands was forbidden, there was nothing about renting and trade. “However,” I went on. “It may be possible to acquire a lease to the land from the tribal council. You would be required to pay rent, of course, or possibly a share of your revenue, and it would be subject to the approval of the tribal council. But you could feasibly plant and farm there.” I then turned my attention to the two buffalo. “Unless, of course, there is any special significance to that particular area, or the council has any such objections.” Thinking for a moment, the two shook their heads. Celestia smiled. “Excellent. I agree with your recommendations, my advisor.” She turned to Ms. Jubilee. “You will be required to remove all your farmers from buffalo lands, within the next twenty four hours. After that time, they may face arrest and incarceration by buffalo authorities. You are forbidden from entering, even in passing, the buffalo territories near your land. “However, it would be beneficial for both parties to reach an agreement to either farm the land on lease, or to embark on a joint-enterprise in order to farm the land. Are there any objections to this ruling?” There were none. “Good. Then this matter is settled.” The ponies and buffalo, along with myself bowed as we departed. I would need to head back to my office to do the write up for the matter. Official records demanded such. Of course, it was Murphy’s Law that I’d end up heading back to court for another case. I did have a criminal case coming up; an attempted robbery down in Rainbow Falls. I wondered if that was the case Princess Luna had gone after. In any case, I would be meeting with Wrought Steel today to discuss the prosecution’s case and check testimonies and such. Most of my job really is dotting the i’s and crossing the T’s. Wrought Steel arrived just as I was finishing up on my paperwork. As I said, he’s the top prosecutor in the CPS; the Crown Prosecution Service. He’s a silver-grey unicorn, with an equally silver mane; hence perhaps the ‘steel’ part of his name, with piercing blue eyes. His cutie mark is that of a balanced set of scales, which explains his current vocation. Personality wise, he is quite the bloodhound. If he thinks he can win a case, he’ll move heaven and earth to do so. He sticks to the evidence over witnesses, and has a very diametric view of right and wrong. Like my son, he doesn’t give much room for a grey area between the two. I’ve seen him kick the stuffing out of defence witnesses during cross examinations, and turn supposedly unwinnable cases into convictions. As such, when a serious case like a foiled robbery lands on my desk, he’s my first port of call. While I suspected Luna was behind the capture of the robbers, along with her agents, I couldn’t rely on them to speak, and was sworn to secrecy myself. So, we would need to find other evidence. The three masked ponies in question had all been unceremoniously dropped off at a nearby hospital, hogtied, their saddlebags still bulging with the stolen loot. Each one had been seemingly caught unawares and suffered a solid kick to their back legs. That had essentially crippled them all. Needless to say, they’d all been arrested on the spot when the Royal Guard had arrived. Given how they were all but gift wrapped for us, the evidence was pretty overwhelming. We had them, dressed for a show, carrying the stolen goods, and one was still carrying the crowbar he had used to knock out the security guard. What was of concern though, was how they had been apprehended. “Well, Mr. Owen it looks like we’ve got some vigilantes on our hooves,” Steel said as he examined the photos and statements. “And damned clever ones at that.” “What makes you say that?” I asked curiously. Steel pushed a photo towards me. “Their injuries,” he replied. “All three of them were taken down with perhaps two or three blows in a blitz attack. There were no defensive wounds suggesting that they fought back either. And one of those ponies had a weapon; a crowbar, which he never got to use.” “So, what are you saying?” “I’m saying that whoever did this, had training. Royal Guard maybe, or at least some form of military training. Sufficient to sneak up on three hardened criminals and disable them in a matter of seconds. And also smart enough to not leave anything behind. No hoofprints, no hairs or blood, nothing.” “Did our three new friends say anything about it?” I asked. Steel nodded. “Yeah, though it doesn’t help us much. One of ‘em, apparently the last one to get knocked out, said it was an earth pony in a suit.” I barked a short laugh. “Very descriptive,” I replied. “Do you want to put out the description, or shall I?” Steel laughed as well and shook his head. “I know it isn’t much, but it is a pattern.” Reaching for his briefcase, Steel pulled out three more files. “Take a look at these,” he said. The files were from cases all over the shop; Manehatten, Whinnyappolis, and Applewood. Each one was an easy arrest and conviction. Because the villains had been pretty much hoof delivered, either to a hospital, or some form of law enforcement. It was the same MO too; the bad guys got jumped and were quickly disabled, regardless of how careful they were to avoid detection, and were then bound and dropped off. Nopony saw who it was and descriptions were spotty at best. There did seem to be more than one of them though, making me suspect Princess Luna’s agents even more. The stallion in the suit seemed to change species with each witness, so I hypothesised that that could be Strong Shield, it would certainly explain the military training. Then, there was a report of a pegasus mare, with an unparalleled skill with a whip; presumably Yearling/Daring. And finally, one of the captured crooks said in a statement that, before they got caught, he could have sworn that they were being followed by a cream coloured earth pony mare with dark sunglasses. Presumably, that was the ‘Sweetie Drops’, who I now knew lived three doors down. I was just about to finish wrapping things up when the two of us were rudely interrupted. Without knocking, which I personally consider to be extremely rude, never mind that this is a legal office and had held many a confidential discussion, three pegasi of the Royal Guard, led by Strong Shield burst into my office. I quickly stood up, whilst Wrought Steel pivoted around to see what was happening. “What is this, captain?” I demanded angrily. Strong Shield however, didn’t answer. Gesturing to Wrought Steel, two of the other guards grabbed my prosecutor and hauled him out of his seat and began to drag him toward the door. “Strong Shield! What in the name of Celestia do you think you’re doing? Halt at once!” I exclaimed. I do have some authority and can order guards about if I need to. This time however, they simply ignored my protests, as well as Steel’s. Strong Shield turned back to me. “Sorry, sir. But that’s classified until he’s out of here,” he replied, pointing at Wrought Steel. I bristled at that. “Captain Strong Shield. Tell me what is going on, right now, or I will have you written up for disobeying a lawful command!” I warned. Strong Shield merely shook his head. “The case will be instantly kicked under the Preservation of Equestria Act, sir,” he replied. What? Preservation of Equestria? That was an emergency powers act, the sort of thing you use in wartime, suspension of habeas corpus and that sort of thing. At that moment, the two guards finally forced Steel out of the room, closing the door behind him and bolting it. They then stationed themselves there, blocking anyone entering or leaving. Reaching into a pocket in his armour, the changeling turned guard fished out a piece of parchment that bore Celestia’s royal seal. Opening the scroll, he began to read. “By order of Her Grand Royal Highness Princess Celestia, and Her Grand Royal Highness Princess Luna, and with the consent of more than one third of the nobility, a state of national emergency is hereby declared for Canterlot and all northern cities, including the protectorate of the Crystal Empire as of today at 12:00pm local time. In accordance with existing plans as stated in Royal Emergency Directive 2159-B, all personnel essential to the maintenance and continued function of the Equestrian Government are hereby required to evacuate immediately to assigned locations. Authentication is as follows. Twelve Omareha Solemn Certainty. Day word: Cottonmouth. Command word: Trinity. Action word: Jericho.” My eyes went wide as I listened to him calmly read the notification. Instantly, I scrambled to one of my filing cabinets on the far wall. Grabbing the key from its hiding spot under the window sill, I opened the locked cabinet and retrieved the folder marked ‘Continuity Procedures’. Flipping through sections, I quickly found the authentication list; a list of code words that would be used at the end of such a message to prove that it wasn’t a fake. Each one would confirm the date, clarify the nature of the emergency, and refine my course of action. “Okay,” I said shakily. “Day word…Cottonmouth. Confirmed and valid as today’s date. Command word…Trinity. Confirmed. Indication of hostilities with another nation; war now imminent or unavoidable. Action word…Jericho. Emergency relocation to place of safety, further communication through emergency wartime procedures. Dear God.” Not long after Tirek’s brief escape, Celestia, working with Shining Armor, had drawn up plans for continuity of government in the event of a similar disaster. Whilst they may have protected their magic by giving it to Twilight, the government as a whole, as well as what was left of the Royal Guard, ground to a halt, nopony knew what was happening. Under this plan, when a state of emergency was declared, all the advisors, high ranking officers, and other VIPs were evacuated and dispersed around Equestria, keeping in contact by a special provision of the mail service. The idea was that the country and its military could still be run even if the worst happened, at least until the Elements could be brought to bear. I sat down in my desk and looked to Strong Shield. “What the hell is going on?” I asked quietly. “The Yak delegation has said they are going to declare war. We don’t know the details, but something ticked them off. Supposedly, they’re just waiting for a train back north to deliver the news. Celestia is heading down there now to try and save things. Until then, I’m under order to stick to the plan and get you out of here.” “Where?” The Yaks were in Ponyville right now. For God’s sake my wife was probably still teaching in school! Never mind my kids. “I’m not allowed to know that,” Strong Shield replied. “Now come on, get what you need, as long as you can carry it. Leave everything else. You leave in fifteen minutes.” I hurriedly set to work, grabbing important documents on ongoing cases, including Starlight’s file. I didn’t have anything terribly important in here; I imagine Shining was probably destroying half his office before he left. Grabbing a couple personal things, photos and such, I forced it all into my briefcase and locked it. “Right, let’s go,” I said. Strong Shield nodded and motioned to the two guards at the door. They undid the bolts and moved to one side. “Good, now get back to your normal post,” he instructed, he then turned to me. “Roger, try to look a little less frightened.” I scowled at him. “We’re going to probably be at war in a couple of hours, Strong Shield.” He nodded. “True, but nopony else needs to know that, do they?” One of the provisions of this emergency plan was that it was kept quiet. The evacuation would be subtle and done quietly to prevent a panic amongst ordinary ponies. I imagine that most of the castle staff didn’t even know what was happening yet. As we walked down the corridor, heading towards the guard barracks, where all the chariots were kept, a thought occurred to me. There was another possibility as to why everything had suddenly kicked off. It was a long shot, but within the realm of possibility. Plus, if I was right, it would let me go back to my office and stop panicking. I turned to Strong Shield as he walked beside me. “Captain Strong Shield. I have a question. And you are required to answer it, even under these conditions,” I said. The unicorn looked over to me. “Shoot,” he replied. “Is this an exercise?” For a moment, he almost smiled. Then however, he shook his head. “No, sir. This is not an exercise. This is the real deal I’m afraid.” Damn it, then I guess we really were up the creek without a paddle. “Worth a shot,” I replied. Dark humour for a dark situation. I’d looked over these plans in the past. I had to know how they worked in the event a day like today came to pass. They always struck me as being incredibly soulless. You weren’t allowed to visit, or even attempt to contact family. You had to simply drop what you were doing and go to wherever the hell you were supposed to go. I didn’t even know if it had started yet. Were the Yaks already pouring south towards the Crystal Empire? Strong Shield did his best to hurry me along. I would know more after all when I got to wherever the hell I was going. Presumably, once there I’d meet up with the other ponies involved in the legal aspects of government; judges, clerks, and so on. As mad as it was, you would need such ponies to keep running the country. Particularly if Day Court was suspended and special courts set up. We might even end up operating under martial law. Turning left, we found ourselves in the open courtyard. A number of chariots were already set up to go. Strong Shield directed me to board one with a few other ponies already on board. I recognised a couple of them; a couple judges from the lower courts and two secretaries, and a clerk. Enough, including myself, to run a very basic court system. Evidently, I was the last to arrive, for no sooner had I stepped on board than we were off into the air. Gaining altitude quickly, our two pegasi flyers kept up a good rate of knots as we left Canterlot. We soon descended rapidly toward the ground and began weaving in an odd irregular pattern, sticking close to one side of the valley. We weren’t heading for Ponyville, but we were going to pass fairly close to it. I even saw the edges of Sweet Apple Acres, and could just about make out a grey blob, probably my son, working in the orchards. We had soon passed Ponyville though and began to work our way around the edge of the Everfree Forest. I expected that we would be heading further out, but surprisingly, we suddenly turned sharply and heading into the forest itself. Skimming just above the treetops we eventually came to a clearing and set down. I quickly recognised where we were; there was only one clearing large enough to land a chariot in. We were at what was left of the old Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. It was perhaps half a mile from here that I’d first set foot in Equestria, having been knocked unconscious. My son had led us here and then, with a little help from Twilight and her friends, navigated a way out of the forest and out to Ponyville. It was certainly an odd place for us to be dropped. However, it was out of the way; one of the main reasons Celestia and Luna originally settled here, and a good many of the rooms were still intact and serviceable. The guards pulling our chariot advised us that somepony from the mail service would arrive soon to set up communications with the other groups that would be scattered across Equestria. I had no idea where any of them were; I didn’t even know where Celestia was. It was absolutely mad. With little else to do, we began to set up in the old castle. Whilst several rooms were unsafe, and the roof of the throne room had almost completely collapsed, plenty of other rooms, particularly in the lower levels were perfectly serviceable. We set ourselves up in three of the larger rooms; one acting as a meeting area and ad hoc courtroom, one area for sleeping (we didn’t know how long we’d be stuck out here), and one area for all our important papers. There was little else to do. While military and political bigwigs would be scrambling to prepare themselves, we didn’t have nearly as much responsibility. So we ended up just waiting for our representative from the mail service to arrive. She arrived about twenty minutes later. They say every cloud has a silver lining. In our case, it was who we got to deliver our messages; Derpy. She’s Ponyville’s local mailmare. I regularly see her in the mornings when I head out to the station to head up to Canterlot. A grey pegasus with a bubbles cutie mark, and the one lazy eye, Derpy is a great pony. Okay, at times she can be a bit clumsy, but in the time I’ve lived here, she’s never lost or damaged anything of mine in the mail, nor has she ever been late or been stopped by poor weather. Landing, she greeted us with her usual enthusiasm. “Hey, everypony!” she called out waving as she landed. She soon spotted me. “Hey, Roger!” “Derpy!” I replied happily. “I take it you’re our delivery pony for this mess?” the grey pegasus nodded. “Yeah, I don’t get what’s going on though. I got pulled off my normal mail route by a couple guards and they said I had to go here and then to…” she trailed off. “Oops, I can’t talk about that. They said that was really important.” She scratched her head in a somewhat adorable manner as she concentrated. Her antics perked my spirits up a bit. “Anyway, they said I had to deliver this to the ponies out at the old castle. What are you guys doing out here anyway? Team building exercise or something?” Reaching into her brown saddlebag, Derpy produced a scroll, again bearing Celestia’s royal seal and tied with a red ribbon. I expected that this would tell us precisely what we were supposed to do now that we were out here, and tell us how to get in contact with the other groups. Opening the scroll, I skimmed over its contents, which read like this: ‘Day word – Cottonmouth Authentication – Eight Neighbraska Confidence High The state of national emergency is hereby lifted as of 13:30 hours today for all regions and cities listed in the previous activation alert. All groups are directed to await retrieval for return back to Canterlot.’ I was…surprised to say the least. An hour ago, it said that the Yaks were committed and that we were going to war. Now, it was fine; all was well. I checked the authentication, but it was all valid. Only Shining and the four princesses knew those code words, and the order to use them in. So, it was definitely real. I turned to everypony else. “You’re not going to believe this,” I said, grinning to myself. Twenty minutes later, we were indeed picked up by some now far more relaxed guards and flown back towards Canterlot, this time passing over Ponyville. We all had the same question; what the hell had happened? Things had gone from a hundred to zero in half an hour, from war to peace. The guards however, were just as much in the dark. Arriving back at Canterlot Castle, we were all ushered down to the throne room to see Princess Celestia. Once we were all present, she explained what had happened. Whilst in Ponyville, the Yaks, who are apparently temperamental at the best of times, had been offered a number of imitations of their culture by Twilight and her friends, particularly Pinkie Pie. However, each time, they found some flaw and lost their cool. After this happened a few times, they decided to take it all as an insult. That got the prince who led the delegation to make the threat of declaring war on Equestria. As soon as word of this had reached Celestia, she’d moved to take preventative measures. This turn of events was, obviously, the outcome she hoped for. Twilight had luckily been able to recover the situation and made a sufficient peace offering to the Yaks. As such, just as suddenly as the emergency plans had been activated, they were deactivated, as the crisis had been resolved. She did apologise profusely for the disruption and upset caused by the day’s events. However, she did also point out that it had been an opportunity to test out the continuity plans in a real emergency. For the most part they had worked well. Everypony had been evacuated quietly and without trouble. The groups that had had time had been able to get in contact with each other and coordinate effectively. The government then could continue to function under the circumstances. Still, I think we were all in agreement that we not do it again. I got home that night a little later than usual. The day’s events had actually generated a sizeable amount of paperwork on my end, requiring me to catch a later train home. Still, I was back before ten and was just in time for supper. As I climbed into bed, Margaret asked me her usual question. “So, how was your day, dear?” I smiled and shrugged my shoulders. “Eh, the usual,” I replied. The ‘extra work’ had been getting the better part of a hundred DORA statements signed by everypony who was involved in the continuity procedures, to make sure nopony blabbed about what had happened. It was one of those stories that nopony would ever tell.