Saving Twilight

by halo003qd

The Protector

When Twilight finally woke up, she felt strangely rejuvenated. She tried to move, and fear flared up inside of her mind. She was sitting inside of a chair, heavy chains binding her hooves together, so that she couldn’t move around all that much. Did Cheerilee catch her again? As she looked around, however, she realized that wasn’t the case. She was in a very large room, and a great deal of ponies sat on benches behind her, while Princess Luna herself sat on a raised platform right in front of Twilight.

Two muscular, armor-clad guards flanked her on both sides and an earth pony with a monocle and a brown-coat paced back and forth restlessly in front of her. A table stood next to him, but Twilight couldn’t make out the items that lay on top of it.

It was Luna who first noticed the unicorn had woken up.

“Ah, we see that thou hast awakened, Twilight Sparkle. Court is now in session,” Luna decreed with a booming voice which easily reached every corner of the room, and the few ponies who had been talking to each other immediately fell silent.

Twilight stared at the Princess in bewilderment. “C-court?”

The Ruler of the Night frowned. “Surely thou dost not claim loss of memory? We are here to pass judge thee for the brutal murder of fourteen ponies, eight of whom hath not reached adulthood yet.”

“Wait, what?” Twilight said, utterly horrified. “I killed Cheerilee, true-”

“Do we really have to do this? She even confesses!” the brown-coated earth pony said.

“-but I had nothing to do with the others; they were killed by Cheerilee!”

The crowd behind Twilight mumbled, and the earth pony in front of Twilight addressed the Princess.

“If I may?”

“By all means, sir Hooves,” the princess said with a nod.

“Ehem,” Hooves scraped his throat. “I’m sure you are familiar with my work, miss Sparkle?”

Twilight nodded, dumbfounded. She had several of his books back at the library, she had just never thought she’d meet him in person.

“Yes, we already knew that,” he continued. “This also means you’re well aware of my expertise. I was summoned here today to present the evidence my research team managed to scrounge up which, as you’ll soon see, strongly suggests you are guilty. You’ve erased your trail well, and no event can be directly tied to you, but when they’re all added together...”

“That’s absurd!” Twilight yelled. “Where’s Princess Celestia? She would never-”

“Our royal sister is currently resting in her chambers, Twilight Sparkle. The procedure to save thee took a lot out of her.”

Twilight nodded slowly, as she recalled the conversation she had overheard while she was out of it. “Don’t I get anypony to defend me?”

“Only if somepony like that can be found in due time,” Hooves said dryly. “In your case, due to the heinous nature of your crimes, and the debt of evidence against you, no such pony could be found. “

He would have continued but suddenly one of the ponies in the courtroom, a very dark blue Pegasus, stood up. “I will represent her,” the Pegasus said in a voice that was deep and threatening but also soothing as if he would be there to protect no matter what, ”I believe this mare is wrongly accused.”

Twilight could barely believe it, she had just lost all her friends, was accused of violently murdering them and 8 little fillies, and this colt was going to defend her, and on top of that he thought she was innocent.

“Oh thank you so mu…” The colt held up a hoof to silence her. He leaned in closer to her and whispered “I believe you are innocent but wait until after the trial to thank me or hate me whichever this way may go,” He gave her a reassuring smile.

The entire time this had been going on unrest had been growing in the crowd behind them.

“I can’t believe he thinks she is innocent!”

“Maybe she is controlling him!”

“What is wrong with him?”

“SILENCE!” Princess Luna boomed. "This shall be allowed, as Twilight Sparkle was originally allowed somepony to defend her,” The rest of the audience quieted down but murmurs still rippled here and there “Now colt, your name.”

“Prinz Spectre, Princess now if we could skip the pleasantries we happen to have a mare fighting for her life here,” the colt said with slight irritation in his voice, “Now, this proof you were talking about…”

“Very well,” Hooves replied, “I shall start with the Ponyville Theatre Fire.”

“Alright,” Prinz said. Twilight was amazed that this Pegasus that was defending her was so calm, if she was in his shoes (which in fact she almost was) she would be nervous as all buck.

“We have quite a high number of ponies who swore, under oath, that you were there amongst the first. Considering your later involvement in the slaughter of the only survivor of that event, I find that to be highly suspicious.”

“Mr. Hooves,” Prinz said raising his hoof mockingly as if wanting to be called upon in class, Twilight shuddered at the thought of school,” That is where I have to stop you and question Twilight about that night seen as how you weren’t there.” He turned and faced Twilight, “Twilight I want you to tell me the entire truth, was Cheerilee out of the theatre before you tried to douse the flames?” he dead-panned.

If it was any other time and he was not trying to help her she would have been terrified at how he sounded. She wracked her brain trying to remember the night that seemed like forever ago. Slowly she said “Yes she was out of the theatre and she got out a little bit after I got there with my friends.” She said failing to recognize the importance of such a little detail.

“She was out of the theatre after Twilight got there…,” Prinz said “which means she watched Twilight destroy the building,” Twilight inhaled deeply as she realized where he was going with all of this, “If Twilight really was the killer and wanted no evidence she would have arrived, immediately thrown the river on the building and then claimed an accident later on the grounds she didn’t know the building was unstable or that she accidentally put too much water on the building.”

When Prinz finished the entire courtroom was silent. He looked around and absorbed the faces around him, most of them had their mouths open, Twilight’s in amazement at what he had just concluded, Hooves’ at being disproved, and the audience’s because it actually made sense. He briefly glanced at Luna as he turned to take his seat again. Her eyes betrayed her disbelief but her face was stoic and unchanging.

Hooves quickly regained composure “Very well,” he said obviously discomfited by the fact this Pegasus was crafty, “Now Twilight, you were aware of our fruitless efforts to find any sort of evidence in the debris you created, were you not?”

“Yes,” Twilight said reluctantly, trying to at least sound cooperative.

“Then why, might I ask, did we find a piece of bloody theatre board in your library that you omitted to tell us?”

Had the crowd not been so interested then they might have started buzzing again but the courtroom was silent for a moment before Twilight responded.

“Oh this one is easy to clear up,” Twilight said, “Twist brought it to me when she found it. We wanted to establish that it really was blood before we caused a fuss.”

“Hm and who could confirm this?”

“Uh… Spike…Twist.” Twilight stammered realizing what this must look like.

“Both of whom are dead.” Hooves said in a “how convenient” kind of tone.

“OBJECTION!” Prinz suddenly yelled startling Twilight, who hadn’t expected it coming, “Sorry about that,” he said sheepishly to Twilight, “This proves nothing. Have you ever considered that Twist was maybe looking into the deaths of her friends? She may have suspected foul play after finding the board then went to Twilight, who also just so happens to be the smartest unicorn in the town, to get help. Twist had just lost one of her closest friends and Twilight’s friends had lost 2 sisters and a loving little sister figure. Why would Twilight, who went on adventures with these same friends to save Equestria not once but twice, suddenly go psychotic ad start killing everypony?”

Luna decided to interject at this point, “Maybe the burden of responsibility was too much for her and broke her senses?”

“So anyway,” Hooves continued, “about this fortress in the Everfree forest that has been conveniently reduced to rubble. How did Cheerilee know where it was and even more so how was she able to gain access as Celestia destroyed all the entrance gems?”

“She obviously missed one!” Twilight blurted out

Luna’s voice filled with anger as she completely forgot to use the archaic language she was normally preferred during
official matters. “How dare you push this upon my sister! She has done nothing but be kind to you and you have the audacity to pull her actions into question!”

Luna was seething at this point but Prinz once again dead-panned “Twilight never pushed anything on Celestia she only pointed out that she may have made a mistake and missed a gem that Cheerilee found.”

The entire room was silent. Nopony moved as Prinz Spectre and Princess Luna starred at each other, each seeking their own justice. The silence was broken by Sherlock Hooves, “Ehem yes… moving on,” he strode toward Twilight with a piece of parchment in his hooves, “This is a letter from your assistant Spike to Princess Celestia, it reads:

Ruins in Everfree.

Everypony else dead.

Twi went after Cheerilee

Send help

Translation: Twilight just killed everypony and is now killing Cheerilee, Spike too was killed, hm don’t like when your assistant betra…”

“This is enough!” Prinz’s voice boomed in the quiet room, “How about this translation: Everypony else is dead, Twi went after Cheerilee to stop her, send help in case. Another thing to consider if Twilight is one of the strongest unicorns in existence why didn’t she just collapse the fortress once all her friends were inside. Why was Cheerilee able to get away only to be killed so easily by Twilight? The whole logic is flawed based on the fact that the townspeople heard them fighting and saw Cheerilee be ripped apart. That sort of power wouldn’t have allowed Cheerilee to leave the fortress.” He then turned to Twilight, “Twilight what happened in there?” He asked with genuine compassion behind his voice.

“Well,” Twilight began, “after I left Spike I headed up the stairs and found what was left of Rarity,” Twilight suddenly burst into tears, “she was my friend and I couldn’t do anything to help her!” Twilight could do nothing but sob as the events of a few nights ago came flooding back to her. All Prinz could do was place a hoof on her shoulder and try to console her.

Luna was floored, no psychopath could possibly have this much sadness from having all of her friends ripped away from her, this much pain from being wrongly accused for all these heinous crimes, this much grief from being the only survivor of this horror. She. Was. Innocent.

Before Twilight could recover Luna was already sending the word to all her guards to tell everyone that the unicorn was wrongfully accused.

For Twilight things seem to move in slow motion. Her innocence being declared as Luna decreed “NOT GUILTY,” with a bang of her hoof and left to go find her sister. The many camera flashes of the newspaper ponies trying to get the best picture for the breaking news.

As Twilight walked outside she was met by the Family members of the deceased, who all embraced her for killing the real murderer and avenging all of the deaths caused over the past month. The entire group broke into tears as they held each other for support. As they turned to go home Twilight stopped. Could she just go back to normal life in Ponyville minus the comfort of her friends? No it was too much of a void that could not be filled.

“Twilight," Rarity’s father asked concern touching his already choked speech,"what's wrong?”

“I’m sorry but I just can go back. Ponyville is a rift in my memory that is too large to fill or even go near.” Twilight looked at all the ponies around her these ponies had just endured almost as much suffering as she had. “My friends, your family will always be with us and I will have it arranged to have the respective Element of Harmony personally delivered to your household as it should be with you the ponies that were blessed with their company the longest. The stain is too much and I am electing to stay here in Canterlot till Celestia knows when.”

“Actually I don’t know when,” said a white alicorn that had just glided off of her balcony to the courtyard below. “Please do not bow for I do not come to you as ruler I come to you as a comforter. The Elements of Harmony fought this evil till the very end and even then gave their strength to Twilight so she could bring swift justice to this unjust deed so fear not for your family members helped in cleansing this evil from the land.”

“Thank you Princess, but if you could excuse me I need to go speak with someone important.” Twilight said slowly turning to go back to the larger crowd.

“I understand my student, if you need anything at all then you just need find me.” Celestia said with compassion.

Twilight turned and ran back towards the crowd with tears of joy forming as she searched for him. When she finally found him he was standing away from everypony else. She ran up and nearly tackled him and broke into sobs which continued on for what seemed like forever. Eventually they separated, “I cannot thank you enough, I just don’t know where to start with everypony being against me and I was being accused but you believed me and I don’t even know you. Why?”

Prinz just smiled and looked back at her “I defended you because I knew you were innocent from the absurdity of the charges being placed against you. Everypony has heard of the mane 6 mares who saved Equestria on more than one occasion why would the leader, one of the most powerful unicorns in existence, and student of the Princess who could probably get her own castle if she asked, throw it away and kill her closest friends and family members, along with her assistant that she raised from an egg, and a classroom full of fillies. None of it made any sense whatsoever, plus I could hear the sound of lamentation in your voice, that much sadness could not come from a psychopath killer who just did away with her closest friends. There was also conviction in your voice as you tried to defend your actions.”

Twilight just smiled there really was somepony out there that still cared for her in her time of need when no one else believed what she had known to be truth all along. She leaned up towards him and quickly kissed him on the cheek,
“Thank you,” She said quietly. “You’re welcome,” he returned, “but now I must return home.” The Pegasus turned and flared his wings, “Be strong Twilight Sparkle.” And with that he propelled himself into the air headed home. Twilight watched him fly away and then turned and walked back towards Princess Celestia and the family that was essentially her own, and upon the breaking of dawn, the sun will shine down upon a new Equestria, changed by the actions of one mare..