What happened to Elegant? was she subjected to a Death of Personality Bayblon style like the protagonist of Memories of a Shadow?
And Quill Tip?

I enjoyed every single bit of this, can't wait for the next project. Although personally I would like to see more of Cloudsdale Dash and 29 hearts, Ace of Spaces.

So everyone gets off basically scott free? Ah well. Depressingly like real life

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I wouldn't say they got off scott free. Fizzy at least has about two years before he'll find himself the subject of a death sentence, and as for Quill Tip.... Would you call being under the thumb of the CIA answering questions and providing physical descriptions for the rest of your life getting off scott free?

As to what happened to Elegant... use your imagination as to what the "Procedure" might entail.

Rarity slips pasts wards and defenses, huh? Time to lock her up, SCP-style.

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Wouldn't be surprised if Fizzy's death sentence gets commuted to something equivalent to life without parole if his research pans out. Worst part is, if the research does cure the disease, Fizzy'll be happy, he doesn't care if he dies or not.

Quill Tip is at the mercy of the EIS and frankly, given the tone of this chapter, so long as he cooperates, he'll be fine. Nothing at all to suggest anything worse then a little roughing up, the EIS doesn't seem nearly as bad as the CIA

As for Elegant? Meh, Whatever. As you point out "procedure" could amount to anything at all, and I would go with a "death of personality" sort of thing as someone else suggested, but that doesn't mean anything much really... you're a whole new person by that point.

Basically I was hoping these three pricks would feel genuine remorse for what they did by the end of their sentence and they won't/didn't.

I know its a dark tag, but then again, its sad that you can sum this up as "Law and Order:SVU: A tale of a pusher, a pimp, and the mad scientist."
Eh, oh well. I can't fault the writing. It is solid, and delivers what it very much went for, a reminder of how effed up our world is that this is common place for so many folks in transitory analogy.

4830659 This feels pretty true to form, really.

But then again, when some have a taste of power, and what it enables, they will do whatever it takes to keep enabling the access to such. Remorse, when you've tasted that kind of corrupting power? If they had any, they would have stopped after the first or second. Still, your words hit very accurately.

I'm personally glad you included the bit from Detective Traser because his thoughts heavily reflect mine on this. The story ends in a way that does not feel like real justice was done. Quill Tip in particular feels like he got the bullshit end of the stick. What's weird is the Elegant ending didn't bother me because it was so vague as to what would happen. Then again she wasn't being extorted to help by denying him basic trial rights. Like Traser, justice and the courts should be better than this. The government should not have the ability to go completely black ops and deny its citizens basic rights. He wanted a lawyer, something we've established as an inalienable right within the American Constitution. Maybe it's that plea that gets to me so much and makes this ending, like for Traser, unsatisfying, if not realistic to a certain degree.

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If his research does succeed, I think the Princesses should just tell him he failed. It's the only punishment that would mean anything to him.

I sort of find it funny that you could not just do a secret trial. It's not like those have never been done.

Also just realized that your are the same guy who did the Shadow Trilogy and the code thingy. Things start to make sense.

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Princess Celestia already had a massive dose of bile taking this out of her justice system. A "Secret Trial" would probably have been a bridge too far.

Also, I hope the "Making sense" part involves you enjoying the story. :D

Really enjoyed this story. Enjoyed this ending too. Enough details to close out the main plot of the story while leaving enough open to allow the reader's imagination to run wild. Great job!

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Basically I was hoping these three pricks would feel genuine remorse for what they did by the end of their sentence and they won't/didn't.

You can't force genuine remorse. You can't threaten someone into feeling it. They either feel it or they don't. Even when faced with death they wouldn't feel it. Quill and Elegant were already plotting on how to use the case itself as a way to get off facing punishment. They are far beyond remorse. That leaves the question of what is justice in this case?
In Quill Tip's case he had knowledge that would allow the government to reach out and try to heal thousands of victims. Being forced to correct one's actions seems like a better use of justice than just a gruesome death.

As for Elegant, well, they could have killed her. Still, I imagine this "Procedure" was designed to strip all the things she enjoyed about her life out. I mean at the end of the story we get this:

Elegant in particular had changed a lot from the first time I’d seen her, and I must be suspicious about the lense through which she now views her reasoning.

Sounds like they did a real number on her. I would say that spending the rest of your life altered in some way is far more fitting than just death. Elegant's actions changed the lives of so many, thus her life is radically altered in return.

We already know that Fizzy Pop is dead after two years of research.

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Then again she wasn't being extorted to help by denying him basic trial rights.

Elegant wasn't extorted because she had nothing of value to give. She was still denied a trial, however.

The government should not have the ability to go completely black ops and deny its citizens basic rights. He wanted a lawyer, something we've established as an inalienable right within the American Constitution. Maybe it's that plea that gets to me so much and makes this ending, like for Traser, unsatisfying, if not realistic to a certain degree.

Government's the world over do this every single day. In this case the reason for sweeping away the trial was far, far, more noble than what most Earth governments do it for. In the end, if the government feels that a trail will cause harm to the public, or to themselves as a governing body, then "rights" quickly evaporate to be replaced with "security". It isn't right, but it's how the world works.

4833793 You're right, you can't force someone to show remorce, but perhaps you can place them into a position where they come to regret their actions of their own accord. That doesn't seem to be the case here though.

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Perhaps one can be put into such a situation. If that is the case then Quill Tip is in such a position. He has to give detailed descriptions on all the victims of the NLA and will more than likely be asked to view each victim that comes in to verify identity. Thus, he will have to see the results of his actions every single day for the rest of his life. If that doesn't cause remorse, nothing will.

Elegant, not so much. Who knows what they did to her. I still feel that she would never feel remorse for her actions. She struck me as the, "Everyone is beneath me and they deserve to my play things because their lives don't matter in comparison to mine," type of person. People like that rarely see the error of their actions.

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While I truly can understand your reasoning, the ending here isn't meant to be satisfying.

This story, as a whole, was written to emphasize one thing above all else: Sometimes, despite all of our best efforts, the only choices we have are flawed ones. It is a measure of what kind of person we or the characters are when we are forced into no good options and how we decide to deal with that.

All of the characters, to some degree, had to deal with this. It broke Daisybloom, It turned Bluefeather into an unwilling accomplice, it nearly shattered Sweet Tart's psyche, it turned Swizzle Stick into a new pony, It made Rarity and Fluttershy desperate enough to abandon their friends in favor of other less savory options. And ultimately, it put Celestia in a choice between doing what was right (by her views), and doing what was lawful.

I've never concealed my admiration for Celestia as a leader, but I've also never concealed my belief that ultimately she must do things far beyond what ordinary people might accept in order to maintain the peace and order she so desires. The Equestria of the cartoons is an ideal world in many respects, but real stories that demand real drama cannot exist in such ideal worlds (Unless you're playing the Idyllic nature as a Lotus Eater Machine thing, but that's another discussion.) without leading down the head-path Lord Of Myth was walking down where you are forced into a position where EVERYTHING can be instantly solved by one of the many deus ex machina's.

In this case, Celestia chose the well being of the victims over the hammer of total justice. Certainly, some satisfaction might have been gained from bringing down the pain on those who were responsible, but those who were the victims of these events would have had their lives further dragged through ruination. And even then, a truly satisfying justice might never have been achieved.

It is the measure of Celestia as a character, in my own view, that she would decide that it is better to forgive and allow the world to forget so that those who will now have to deal with the intimate consequences can be given better lives without fear of reprisal or opposition. Although I do not doubt in this instance that all of those she has identified as being culpable would find themselves and their lives under the closest of scrutiny for decades to come.

Some might disagree with that, and I can understand why they would.

But I have held hard to my conviction that there is never any such thing as an 'easy' solution or a 'perfect' ending. We might enjoy such things from time to time, but the very best conclusions to stories are the ones where you do not draw total victory, but the scraps of a much more satisfying hope from the wreckage of what the story has wrought.

Ultimately, there is a reason this ending is not marked "Tragedy." Because ultimately, the ones we are meant to empathize with - Sweet Tart, Bluefeather, Dasiybloom, Swizzle Stick, Rara and Flutters - Will be given the very best care and assistance Celestia, Luna, Twilight and Cadence can provide them with. And in that, there is a hope for the future. That we can overcome what we are capable of at our worst, and find in it the strength to be at our best.

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It's always a pleasure to have you around, Scytho. Your words are a huge boon no matter how rough writing seems sometimes. I wish I could distill your enthusiasm down into money. XD

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Thanks! I wish I could distill enthusiasm into money too!

The story is well written and asks some right questions. However, I disagree with the view presented in the story, so I downvote it.

4834887

Well, at least you have the courage of your convictions. Which is an unfortunate rarity on this site. So though we may disagree, I respect your disagreement.

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> In this case, Celestia chose the well being of the victims over the hammer of total justice.

The funny thing is, that you wrote Princesses looking in a mirror and not make a connection. Really funny, utterly believable and very painful.

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How would be secret, hell even a private trial worse then having no trial at all? Justice would be served and victims would be helped. It's a win - win situation? For the good guys anyways.

It's also funny that I liked most OC's in here, but not any of the canon characters.

Rarity pretty much contradicts herself with the prince thing. People that have that kind of goals in life for such a long time, won't just give up like that unless it wasn't that big of a deal, but that would contradict because it was a big deal. Hell it would have made more sense if she was depressed because she could not find the prince, but still wanting to find a prince. Therefore while driking she would still be focused on the prince.

But that's just how I see Rarity and most people that follow their dreams so long.

Fluttershy on the other hand... I still don't get it. I just don't. It's really weird you made her have those... ailments (yeah I think that word fits) to explain why she is bad at flying and why she is good with animals, but with other ponies.

Though I can totally understand why parents did not say anything. I mean can you just imagine them saying "You got your cutie mark because there is something wrong with you".

Can someone actually write a fic about that? I would laugh hard.

I guess I sort of did enjoy partly? I enjoyed the start, but then disliked every scene with Twilight, Rarity or Fluttershy.

Also I have noidea what Fluttershy's powers actually do. At all. I guess she can do the social situation control, but besides that I have noidea.

Also I did not enjoy your other stories. I am actually surprised I liked this.

Mind doing an actual trial about something else? It seems that would be very much like your style, except maybe less sexual things. I am sort of iffy at those, I mean you handled it decently in here, but in others I read... Iffy.

So make court trial, with less sexual content, most people being OCs. Ohhh I really like the sound of that. Especially in your hands.

I would be lying if I said I liked this story. But it did make me think.
There have been a lot of stories that have done the former, but not nearly as many that done the latter.
You have earned an upvote.
But I don't like this story.

I put off reading this, thinking it would be just a typical court case story with a shock reveal, but it was much more! I'm glad I finally went through it. If a writer writes to be read, this story certainly deserves to be read.

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Yes I would call it scott free. I hate this story

5448599
You are missing some bones from your body.
They remind me of a centipede.
Answers are not always what we ask for.

Awesome story! I really loved it, especially because of its interesting method of using untraditional sources.

The one thing that was stopping me from either upvoting this fic or placing it in one of my Favorites folders is admittedly a rather biased one.

I have a problem with incurable diseases or disorders- even magical ones -in magical situations.

Yes, I know that magic cannot and should not be a cure-all. That's not at issue. What is is that the premise was used in the first place. Such things should have long been dealt with. And it seems pretty petty of me that I can accept- and write ones of my own -where death occurs, yet I can't accept something as ordinary as an incurable condition.

Here's the thing though. I don't accept incurable diseases PERIOD. Not in real life, and most certainly not in fiction. And death in my fics is something that will eventually be overcome.

So, what does that mean for this well-written tale that used a personally despised premise? Well, I have looked beyond other personal pet peeves for other stories, so mayhap I should for this one as well. I mean, I favorited Airstream's Dusk's Dangerous Game, and he killed off the CMC. Then there's The Immortal Game. That one is one of my Top Favorites, and the author put Twilight through Tartarus and back in that one. And there are ScootAdopt/ScootAbuse fics that have gotten upvotes from me, and I loathe that trope more than what was used in this fic.

So. while I will continue to hate the idea of incurable disorders, I will no longer judge a fic solely because the author used that as a premise. I will judge based on the quality of writing, and of characterization. As his fic is concerned, it appearing in my Top Favorites should display how I feel about it.

At least this is a premise I can bend on. Sometimes, you just have to let personal views go to enjoy the story. Won't change my opinions on Cupcakes or vore, but that's another can of worms altogether.