Lyra Heartstrings v. Republic of Terra

by PegasusKlondike

Petition

Lyra walked with rage in her eyes. The red haze of something akin to bloodlust burned her vision, obscuring everything except her goal: justice for the injustice done unto her.

"They've all been nothing but jerks!" she murmured angrily. "Well now it's the pony's turn to show them up! What do I need to do to show them that ponies aren't animals!"

She stormed down the nighttime streets of the market, snorting pure steam from her nostrils and grinding her teeth in determination. Her hoof struck a can on the street, a stray piece of litter likely left by some pedestrian that afternoon. With such passionate anger threatening to boil over, Lyra took out her rage on the can. Kicking it as hard as she could, she watched it fly down the street, landing in a dark alleyway with a clatter.

"We're people!" she ranted to the empty, dimly lit street. "People with ideas, people with feelings, people who want to bucking help you, and you guys treat us like criminals!"

Her chest heaved with angered breath, and Lyra wanted nothing more than to strike down the first human that came in her path. Looking around for something else to destroy, she caught her reflection in the window of a closed shop. The pony that stared back at her had bloodshot red eyes, furiously bared teeth, and flecks of saliva all across her mouth. That face would have made a child cry for its mother, and make people lock their doors in fear. Lyra sat down on the sidewalk, her anger subsiding at the sight of the feral beast in that window.

"Who am I kidding?" she said to her reflection. "I am an animal.... at least I am here. Bonbon and Aaron were right, it's their city and their rules. Who am I bad mouth them? I'm...I'm just some animal. What was I thinking, trying to adopt a human child?"

Lyra stood from her seat, head hung low and her spirit close to being defeated. "Look what ponies did to them. We attacked them and destroyed their civilization, their culture. We slaughtered their friends and their families, I should be surprised that they even let me inside their borders. Maybe I deserve this for.....for being a pony. Maybe we're the jerks, coming here and expecting the same things now that they earned over centuries."

And as she walked down the lonesome street, she came to the one place she knew she could never go. Abraham's Pub had become almost completely deserted, the tired and drunken men having stumbled away to their homes for the night. But the inside of the bar was not her concern right now. The sign swinging above the door creaked in the breeze, and Lyra sat down on the sidewalk, just staring at the painted picture of the bearded, warty man's face. The man whose name they all said with a certain reverence and respect. A man called Lincoln.

"Aaron says that you were one of the greatest leaders of mankind. That even two thousand years after your death, your name is a synonym for freedom and doing what is right. No matter the cost. You freed millions because you knew it was right, that freedom was something that everyone was entitled to. But freedom isn't free, it has to be fought for, it has to be earned. I can't fight for my freedom, because fighting back would just make them right. What would you do Abraham? What would you do in my place?"

The sign of the pub did not answer, its sway in the breeze reminding her of the slightest shake of the man's head.

"I guess you don't have an answer for me either. I'm sorry to have hurt your legacy. I'm sorry for being an animal to your descendants. For being who I am." Lyra stood from the curb, walking very dejectedly back to the house in the residential district.

Several minutes later, she opened the door, quietly closing it behind her. Bonbon looked up from a book she had been lightly reading on the couch, dread seeming to pour from her very heart. "There you are! I've been worried sick, are you all right?"

Lyra barely looked up from the floor as she walked up the stairs. "I'm fine," she said in a voice barely above a whisper.

"Lyra?" Bonbon said, watching with concern as the unicorn went wordlessly upstairs. "Sweetie?"

Bonbon slid off the couch, heading upstairs and into the bedroom. "Hon? Do you want to talk about it?"

The lump under the covers sighed, and Bonbon's heart threatened to just tear in half. Her beloved lay here on the verge of the emotional precipice like she had been so many times over the last year. To see such a once happy go lucky mare beaten and dragged down to this kind of low made Bonbon want to weep. Climbing into bed with Lyra, she hugged the other mare to her body, just trying to bring her some kind of comfort.

"Lyra, please," she whispered into the unicorn's ear. "Please, just let me help you. I hate seeing you like this, I hate seeing you suffer and beating yourself up for something that was beyond your control. I love you, and I don't like this distance that you put between us when you become like this. Please Lyra, please just talk to me. Where's the mare I fell in love with? Where's that bold, hardy, outspoken Lyra that kissed me under the lightpole in Canterlot?"

"All my life I've been fighting," Lyra finally whispered back. "I've fought ideals, I've fought hardship and hatred. I fought the very idea that ponies were the greatest race on Earth. But I can't fight this, not without hurting the creatures I dedicated my life to. At every point, I've been nothing but a burden to the humans. The best thing I can do for the humans is to just leave them alone."

And with Bonbon cradling her form, the gentle warmth of their love soon encompassed them, lulling them to sleep.

*************************************************************

There he sat, in his professional business suit and tie. A short crop of red hair adorned his freckled head, and the Terran Social Worker loomed huge over the pitiful and childlike form of Lyra. With each second he grew to greater heights, towering even farther over her.

"Yeah, you're just a worthless animal, that's what you are! You think you can just waltz into our lives and demand to be equal? You took our lives, you destroyed our nations and our society, and now you want to take our children too!"

"But-but," the puny form of Lyra tried to say. "I-I just wanted to help. Nopony here wants to raise her. I want to raise her!"

"As some kind of a pony? Now you're trying to kill our way of life! What kind of a sick monster are you!"

Lyra whimpered, curling into a tiny ball on the floor. "I just wanted to be happy," she cried.

"What's more important?" a more kindly voice asked her. Lyra looked up from the floor, seeing Mr Patterson take the place of the mean and bigoted social worker. "Is your happiness more important than the future of an entire species? We wrote our laws to ensure our survival and our happiness. Without them, we could fall back to the suffering we inflicted on each other before the War. Without our right to protect our species, we could be gone within a few generations. I worked to save my species, not to delay our extinction."

"Why can't they be the same thing?" she asked. "Why can't humanity be safe and happy and still make other races happy too?"

"Because it is dangerous!" a deep voice boomed. The image of Mr Patterson wavered, forming into a titanic, flat sheet that rose into the sky. Coated in a waterfall of words and signatures, the gargantuan document bent over, looming greatly over Lyra. "The Supreme Law of the Land is immutable!" the monstrous personified Constitution yelled. "Who are you to question the unquestionable word of the Law?"

Lyra stood shakily, laying back her ears and trying to hold her ground. "I'm...I'm Lyra Heartstrings." Something stirred inside of her, that trusted fire of passion that lit whenever she needed her courage. "I'm a citizen of Terra! I'm a musician! I'm a wife to a loving mare. I've explored the world! I've met some of the most important people on the planet! And most importantly, I AM A PERSON! I WANT TO BE TREATED LIKE ONE!" she shouted to the Law.

The Constitution of the Republic of Terra shuddered, crumpling down to the ground. Laying flat, the document encompassed her entire world. The words distended, melting into shapes and colors that settled into a desk, chairs, file cabinets, and a very despicable man now at his normal size.

Mr Sanders sneered at her, sitting in his seat as he shoved his papers back in his briefcase. "Oh yeah? What are you gonna do? Sue me? Sue the entire country? Good luck you talking freak of nature."

His words rang over and over again, becoming clearer each time they reached her ears.

"Oh yeah? What are you gonna do? Sue me? Sue the entire country? Good luck you talking freak of nature."

"Oh yeah? What are you gonna do? Sue me? Sue the entire country?"

"What are you gonna do? Sue me? Sue the entire country?"

"Sue me? Sue the entire country?"

"Sue the entire country?"

"Sue the entire country?"

"Sue the entire country?"

Lyra awoke with a start, panting as though she had just outrun some fiendish monster. Wiping the terrified sweat from her brow, she looked outside the window for a second. Still dark, not even the slightest hints of pink on the eastern horizon.

Grabbing a scrap of paper and a pencil from the nightstand, she scribbled down the last words from her dream before she forgot them. Looking at them with discerning eyes, a slight smile cracked on her lips. "That's it. That's how I can fight back. I'll use what rights I have to fight for the rights I don't have."

She had a plan, a simple plan that had been right in her face all day yesterday. Tomorrow, she was going to find out how to do it, and then she would bring her fight to the justice system of the Republic.

***************************************************************

Once again with her borrowed human in tow, Lyra stormed to the Undercity lift in the suburbs. "Undercity please!" she said to the lift worker. Her eyes burned with determination, and without even questioning her about her human escort, the lift worker punched in the codes.

The ride was short, but to Lyra, it felt like hours. With her blood rushing and her mind dead set on justice, she tapped her hooves impatiently, and bolted out of the gate before the lift came to a proper stop.Practically running through the halls of the Undercity, she made a beeline for the government offices.

Flying down one particular hall, she stopped at an information desk. "Where can I find the judicial offices?" she barked to the clerk. Surprised by her sudden appearance and very curt question, the clerk carefully pointed down to a door at the end of the hall. "Thank you," Lyra replied, trotting down the hall.

"Lyra, wait up for a minute!" Aaron shouted. The mare didn't stop, but she slowed to let him catch up. Jogging to her side, he panted as he tried to catch his breath. "What has gotten into you? Where are you even going?"

"You'll see," she said softly. The tone of that sentence made Aaron cringe, like Lyra was some kind of a criminal with her mark nearby. Knocking on the door to the office, she waited for a moment.

"Come in," a voice said softly. Barging through the door, she beheld a gentleman sitting at his desk, filling out some kind of form. Noticing his guest, he slipped it into a file. "Can I help you ma'am?"

"Yeah, I'd like to file a petition." Straight to the point, none of this finagling and jumping through hoops that humans seemed to adorn their government with so much. Sitting in a chair at his desk, Lyra made herself into dead weight, a sign that she wasn't going anywhere until she got her request.

"A petition for...?" he asked curiously.

"I'd like to sue the Republic for the right to adopt a human child."

Both Aaron's and the judicial clerk's went bone white. The clerk swallowed the lump in his throat, reaching for a dusty stack of papers. "Can I see your Republic ID?"

She whipped it out, slapping it down on the desk. The clerk picked it up, scrutinizing it for any signs of fraud or forgery.

Mr Patterson grabbed her shoulder with a iron grip, forcefully pulling her closer. "What the fuck are you doing?!" he hissed to her ear. "Just think about what you're doing here for a minute, think about how generous we've been before you go down this path!"

She shoved him off, staring him right in the eye with a look that petrified. "Don't patronize me. Never, EVER talk to me like I'm some kind of a child or an animal. And I'm going to make sure that nopony else is treated that way here either."

"Just because you're pissed off doesn't mean you should take it out on us. Lyra, please, think about this before you jump off the deep end!"

"I have my rights, and don't you try to tell me that I don't!"

Aaron shook his head, groaning. He knew she was actually going through with this, and nothing he could do would stop her. "I'm not trying to tell you that you don't have rights. I'm trying to tell you that what you're doing is dangerous! You have no idea what you're getting into!"

The clerk interrupted their little chat, laying Lyra's ID back on the desk. "Everything seems to be in order. I'll have your writ of certiorari form in a moment."

The clerk rose from the desk, walking out the door. "Writ of what?"

"Writ of certiorari, a petition saying you want to challenge a predetermined law," Aaron replied, a hand to his face in shame.

Lyra grinned smugly, sitting more comfortably in her chair. "Don't worry about it, with my story I'll have the jury weeping with sympathy and on my side in a day."

"There won't be a jury."

Lyra froze in place, her heart sinking to a cold depth. "W-what?! No jury?!" Her entire hasty plan of action had been based on the simply idea that if she shed enough tears in court, the jury might find sympathy with her.

"No, there won't be a jury at all. You've challenged my government on one of their most basic laws, your appeal will go straight to the highest court in the land! Your case goes straight to the Supreme Court! There's no sob story sympathy, no hoping the judge will go easy on you!"

She hadn't expected that at all. In Equestria, the laws were fair enough to never really be questioned by the people. And when a law seemed outdated or unfair, the diarchy would exert their power and dissolve it or push for an alteration of that law in the legislation. She hadn't accounted for the fact that things would be radically different when there was an entire branch of government dedicated to enforcing the written law.

Setting herself firm, Lyra held strong. "I'm still going to do it."

Aaron slumped over in his chair, absolutely despairing at the horrendous implications that he couldn't seem to make clear to Lyra. "If you do this, I'm not going to help you. As far as I'm concerned, you're just going to be a warm body in my house. In fact, if it weren't for Bonbon I might just kick you out!"

"Why are you so against this?!" she demanded to know. "I want to make myself happy, I want to make the life of that child better and to make her happy! What is this going to do, huh? Make a few conservatives uncomfortable?"

"Disrupt the social balance! Politics have always been a catalyst to disaster, and nothing is more political than questioning the law!" He held his hands together, glowing with magic. Spreading them apart, a silvery magic screen floated in his grasp. A stream of magic filtered from his head and into the magic screen. Black and white images began to flicker, scenes of men standing together, getting beaten down by law enforcement as they tried to stage a peaceful protest. Water cannons knocked down entire crowds, vicious dogs strained on their leashes, snapping at any person who came too close.

"That was a little scene from the 1960's. Six hundred people ended up in prison, dozens had to get medical help, all from one day of peaceful protests against the laws back then. For thirteen years the very fabric of the social order threatened to tear apart and these things happened on a weekly basis! While I admit that it was ultimately one of the best things to happen, Terra is too vulnerable, too weak to handle something of that caliber! And it all can come from such a tiny little catalyst. Back then, it was because one old woman refused to give up her seat on the bus. But you want to go ahead and just sue the entire government. Lyra, what you're doing is a recipe for instability and political unrest. Please, for the love of this nation, for the love of my people, don't fill out that writ. I'll be perfectly happy the day that civil rights are extended to every citizen, but we are too unstable right now."

Lyra stared blankly at the human, then slowly shook her head. "I'm making a commitment to this. Besides, humans are a strong and proud species with a rich history, you can handle it. I was led to believe that you guys were all grown up since the War ended."

Aaron sighed. "God, what did I do to deserve this? And for once don't you dare actually answer."

The clerk bustled back in with a small stack of papers, laying them on the desk for Lyra. "If you'll just fill out these forms, we can process your petition."

With a pen levitated in her magic, Lyra began scribbling it down. And across the cosmos, a very powerful watcher began to take notice, taking note of this potentially interesting turn of events.

***********************************************************

Aaron flopped down on his couch, sending a tendril of magic into the kitchen to retrieve a glass and a decanter of some cheap whiskey. Setting them down on the rough coffee table, he poured himself a quarter glass and drained it.

Lyra walked proudly into the living room, taking one of the chairs by the hearth. "One for me?" she asked.

"No. Ponies that threaten to disrupt the social balance and tear apart all my hard work don't get any free booze." He slugged down another gulp of harsh gryphon whiskey, leaning back in his couch and staring at the ceiling.

The mare stared at him from across the den, and a sense of worry trickled into her mind. A question that had to be asked formed on the tip of her tongue. "Are you a racist?" she blurted out.

Aaron looked up with angry fire in his eyes. "You know just what to say to piss people off, don't you? Of course I'm not a racist! I live with ponies, I work exclusively with ponies, most of my best friends are ponies! Why the hell would label me, your gracious host, a racist!"

"I didn't mean that as an offense. But you do seem to be really happy seeing ponies subjugated and denied their rights here in the Republic. I mean, you're almost going out of your way to keep me from acting out."

"I'm doing this for the good of my people," he retorted. "I have literally died to save them, and I'll gladly die again just to make sure they stay safe and happy. And if it means that some creatures don't get the right to vote or make a family or get paid the same as us then....then so be it."

She scrutinized him from across the room, seeing how he faltered. "You don't like it either, do you?"

He shook his head, taking a sip of his whiskey. "Someone very close to me doesn't like it, and sometimes her feelings and emotions drift over into me. Sometimes I'll wake up in the middle of the night on the verge of crying because she is having horrible flashbacks to some war or genocide. Sometimes I'll get giddy in the middle of an important meeting. Sometimes symbiosis is a real bitch." He swirled around the last of the whiskey in his glass, staring at the amber liquid as it sloshed around. "Alcohol helps, I get drunk and she gets a little drunk. Knife cuts both ways."

Draining down the last of it, he slammed his glass down on the coffee table. "If you were born, say, fifty years from now, when the human race had reestablished themselves enough to where we were comfortable in the world again, I would support you in full. We would be stable, we would be more accepting and tolerant of pony and other creature society. Who knows, we might even have fully integrated communities by then. That would be the time to make such a request, when the generation born now, with ponies as friends and neighbors, is all grown up."

Lyra suddenly understood his position a little more, and she nodded slightly. "So, what you're saying is that the relationship between our species isn't mature enough yet to handle something like this."

He didn't say anything, and the human just leaned back into the cushions of the couch and stared off into space. But something about the way he just sat there told Lyra he didn't want to accomplish anything at all, that he wasn't even doing his odd mind to mind talk with the spirits.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"I am, but you won't be in a few seconds." He looked over at a clock on the mantle, counting out loud. "Four, three, two..."

"What? What do you-"

The front door burst open, a certain custard earth pony panting and looking around with bloodshot eyes. Bonbon looked terrible, her mane was unkempt, her tight blue and pink curls coming apart and splitting. Her coat looked like she hadn't even bathed this morning, and a little dirt was caked in the soles of her hooves. "Lyra! I've been looking for you all morning! I was so worried after last night, and-and I searched all over the city! At least where I could, that is. Are you alright? Where did you go?"

"Yes Lyra, why don't you regale us with what you did this morning?" Aaron said coldly.

She suddenly felt very vulnerable, and remorse for going straight to the courts froze her in her seat. "Um, Bonnie, it would be best if you sat down for this."

"Why? Did you do something bad?" Bonbon asked, taking a spot in the loveseat next to Lyra.

"Legally no, but morally...maybe. Bonbon, today Mr Patterson and I went down to the Undercity again...and I sort of..." She couldn't do it, the words just caught in her throat at the thought of betraying Bonbon like this.

"Just say it Lyra," her wife said, her voice edged with worry.

Lyra sighed, looking her straight in the eye and held her wife's hoof. "I...I...I filed to sue the Republic. I filled out a writ and they're processing it right now. I'm going to court for our right to adopt."

Bonbon dropped her hoof, a look of pure horror on her face. "You...you unbelievable, selfish jerk! You didn't even talk to me about this! I don't care that you did something that everypony would expect from you, but you didn't even leave me a bucking note! I thought we were partners, I thought that everything we did, we did for each other and with each other! And here you run off behind my back and do...THAT! I...I don't know if I can handle it anymore. I can handle you being the weirdest mare that anypony knows, I can handle your obsessions, I can handle your emotional highs and lows. But I can't handle your dishonesty and your selfishness! You don't even want to adopt a child and be a happy family, you just want to be right! Did you ever even stop for one second to think about me! To think about what I want!"

Bonbon slid off the couch, storming out of the den and upstairs to the bedroom. The thunderous slam of the door made Aaron wince, but not Lyra. She sat on the couch, staring at the space where Bonbon had been only seconds ago. A tear slid down her cheek, but she bit it back. She knew she deserved this, that she had betrayed her best friend and wife just so she could get what she wanted.

She vaguely heard the clink of the decanter and the splash of whiskey into a glass. Looking over to Aaron, she saw him slide a glass across the coffee table towards her.

Lyra grabbed it in her hooves, not even bothering to use magic. Slurping down the burning gryphon distillate, she barely held down her own self loathing. "I bucked up again. I royally bucked up this time."

Aaron placed his glass aside, grabbing a jacket magically from the hatrack by the door. "I've...got a little date tonight, so I won't be back until late. There's food in the pantry, and if you want something hot there's some money in the top drawer of my desk."

Grabbing a hat from the stand, he turned to walk out the front door. But he stopped, leaning back into the den. "You know, all hope isn't lost. The Supreme Court gets dozens, if not hundreds of petitions. Historically they only take on about one in twelve. So your odds are pretty good that you can just forget that this ever happened."

Aaron left the house, the door heavily closing behind him. Lyra leaned back in the couch, levitating the entire decanter of whiskey and taking a huge gulp. Of all the things she wanted in the world, her desire to be a mom was only rivaled by her hope that they would just throw this one out.

*********************************************************

The Clerk to the Judicial Branch ran down the hallways of the Undercity, dodging people heading either back to the surface or back to their apartments down here for the night. But not him, he had a most important message to deliver.

Jabbing a finger under his collar, he loosened his tie enough to breathe and wiped the forming beads of sweat off his face. Huffing and puffing down the hallway, he seriously wondered if he should go to the gym more often, or even the surface to get some fresh air. Screeching around a corner, he barely dodged a pair of soldiers getting off guard duty.

"Hey watch it civie!" one grunt growled

"Pardon me!" he shouted back. Checking the manila folder in his hands for any damage, he continued at a dead sprint down the halls. Finally, after several minutes of searching all the obscure and out of the way offices in the deepest halls of the Undercity, he finally found it.

Stopping for a moment to catch his breath and straighten his tie, he knocked on the clouded glass window of the door. He waited for a moment, seeing the fresh black letters painted on the window.

"Come in," a voice said vaguely. Entering as civilly as he could, the Clerk stepped inside and beheld the office of the Chief Justice. A neat and ordered desk complimented several bookshelves crammed full of replica law books. Several decent and dignified photographs dating from before the War sat facing a rather severe looking woman behind her desk.

"Your Honor," the Clerk started, still trying to catch some simile of his breath back.

The name plate on her desk denoted her as Chief Justice Abigail Haliburton. Sitting very stiffly in her office chair, the woman was seen by some as the embodiment of the stern, cold judgement of law. Streaks of early grey ran through her once shining brown hair, hair that she always kept trapped in a bun. She steepled her thin fingers, pursing her lips very tightly while she waited for the Clerk to regain some decency and civility.

"Are you better yet?" she asked coldly. The Clerk nodded, stiffening his backbone and fixing his posture before her disapproving stare. "Then what is the reason for this little visit only one minute and thirty eight seconds before the Justice offices close? I'm a very busy woman, and you are wasting the last seconds of my precious time." A rather bold faced statement, coming from someone whose job it was to represent a branch of the government that had so far seen almost no use.

"Your Honor, we have a petition! Someone filed a writ of certiorari this morning." He presented the folder to Chief Justice Haliburton. She took it in her lithe fingers, snapping the seal and pulling out Lyra's writ. Placing on a pair of low reading glasses, she scanned the form.

Glancing back up at the Clerk, her face bore no expression. "Is this a joke? This writ says that the petitioner is a pony. It's even signed with an obviously pony name."

The Justice Clerk cringed a little from her hard tone, the sweat starting to form on his face again. "It's no joke, your Honor. She came in this morning and filed it, providing solid evidence of her citizenship and her desire to make a petition."

Chief Justice Hailburton scanned the document once more, seeing nothing out of place in this petition to challenge Terran Constitutional law. Setting it down, she sighed. "I want you to go find all the other Justices and tell them we have a case to debate. And put on a pot of coffee, it's going to be a while before they all get here."

"You want the other eight Justices right now?! But your Honor, it's almost eight thirty! Most of them are at home by now."

Chief Justice Hailburton didn't waver, rather she waved him on. "Then get the message out, we're going to convene first thing in the morning."

"Your Honor, this is against the tenets of the Court. The Justices aren't supposed to convene for another five months to consider any cases."

Chief Justice Haliburton read over the signature on the petition once again, feeling the significance of this case. "We'll make an exception here. How many more cases do you see falling into our laps in five months when this is the first one in a year? Now get to it. Maybe recruit a few couriers to get the message out."

The Clerk groaned at having to run all over both the Undercity and the surface. And as he ran out of the offices, wondering if he could recruit a few night shift workers to help him out, he suddenly remembered that Justice Nakamura lived on a small soybean farm five miles outside of Lazarus. Thank God none of the Justices had gotten too bad of a wanderlust and moved out to one of the several farm towns springing up around the border.

"Right, get a message out to the Justices at nine o'clock at night. Wonder if I'll even make it home before sunrise." Bolting down the hallway at break neck speeds, he left Chief Justice Haliburton on her own once again.

Taking a deep breath, Abigail regarded the petition with some scrutiny. Exactly one year after the establishment of the Republic of Terra, and now the ponies decided they weren't so pleased with how they ran things. The first case to be considered before the Justices of the Supreme Court, and it was from a pony. Not even the extremely few convicted criminals in the city had bothered to send their appeals as high as the Supreme Court, and so that entire branch of government had simply existed as a precaution. Just so the legislation and the President would have them handy when the time actually came for when they needed the law interpreted. And now, a year after their institution, their first petition wasn't from a human at all.

Ponies. A frivolous and far too self entitled race in her opinion. They came from a land where good fortune and easy living literally fell from the sky, and now they wanted to complain because life here was hard. Well, she thought, time to wake up and smell the coffee. This is a human country, and all your self entitlement was taken away the second you crossed that border. And when you said you wanted to be a part of our society, you agreed to be the cogs that we needed you to be in the machine.

And this case, this petition to change the Constitution of the Republic of Terra, it might be the little fix that the Republic needed to get all the cogs spinning in their rightful place. And who knew? Maybe it would finally prove to the other branches of government that the judiciary was just as important as the legislation, if not more so. For who was to keep Lazarus a human city other than they who dictated the law?

**************************************************************

Dawn crept over the hills and farms of the small nation of Man, and those who had been chosen to decide the nature of the Law convened for the first time since the ratification of the last constitutional amendment. Nine men and women of various backgrounds and creeds crammed themselves into a tiny conference room. Chairs had to be dragged out from other offices, and the planning committee for waste management had been kicked out of the conference room they normally used for the duration of this deliberation.

Half of the room nursed a cup of coffee, the other half tried hard to refrain from falling asleep on the desk. The only one wide awake was Chief Justice Haliburton, and she was far from chipper and cheery.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the Supreme Court, I call to order this convention of the Justices. Clerk, if you will take roll."

The judiciary clerk from the night before snapped to, pulling out a sheet of paper. Even if he had been up all night running down some dirt road to wake up a Justice at two in the morning, he still had work to do. "Justice George Nakamura?"

"Present," a man of Asian descent replied, a fist propped into his cheek to keep him from falling to the table in weariness.

"Justice Clare Watson?"

"Present."

"Justice Darryl Brockman?"

"Here."

"Justice Javier Marcos?"

"Present."

Justice Christopher Dailey?"

"Here."

"Justice Nora Lanning?"

"Here."

"Justice Glenn Rutherford?" A few moments passed, and no response came. "Justice Rutherford?" the Clerk repeated. He stared straight at the hefty man in the corner, who by all appearances was awake. Justice Dailey shoved him on the shoulder, and Justice Rutherford's head lolled onto his chest, snoring slightly.

"Damn it," Haliburton muttered. "GLENN!" she shouted scathingly.

Justice Rutherford nearly leaped out of his seat, and he looked around wildly for the source of his interruption. Catching the glares of his peers, he sheepishly said, "Oh, um, present."

The Clerk cleared his throat, marking down the presence of the Justice. "Justice Barbara Sikes?"

"Present," a lady with the look of a Southern debutante replied.

"And Chief Justice Abigail Haliburton?"

"Present," the Chief Justice said. "Thank you, Mr Wozniak. Now, ladies and gentlemen you may all be questioning why I have summoned you here at this hour and with such urgency. No, the Republic is not going through a radical regime change and we are not here to approve the Constitutionality of a sudden life or death amendment."

"Then what are we here for Abby?" Justice Rutherford asked, wishing he was back in his specially pony-crafted feather bed. "If there's nothing worth convening for, why did you have us convene?"

Chief Justice Haliburton gave him an emotionless stare, reaching down to the folder in her briefcase. Tossing it out in front of Justice Rutherford, she neatly folded her fingers, letting the file speak for itself.

Justice Rutherford grumbled as he grabbed the file off the table, skimming through it. Looking back up at Haliburton, he looked more confused than anything. "This is a writ," he stated. "Why are you having us convene to consider a writ in June? By tradition we're supposed to convene in October."

"Glad to see your eyes haven't gone yet, Glenn. Yes, it is a writ of certiorari. And yes, it is highly unorthodox to convene the Justices to consider a case months before the traditionally allocated time. But I have chosen to bend the rules for this one. Ladies and gentlemen, our Constitution has been challenged, and we must decide how we will answer that challenge."

Justice Brockman slipped on his reading glasses, bending over to decipher the cursive script of the writ. "It says a pony was denied the right to adopt an orphaned human child based on her species and nothing else, and that she is suing for the right to adopt without harassment. Also says that she was denied based on a clause of the Constitution, read to her by a low level worker from Terran Social Services. I'd say that is a direct challenge to the Guardian Clause. Abigail's right, this is big news."

He slid the file over to Justice Marcos. Flipping through the file, Justice Marcos took his time, nodding to himself slightly. "Well, it all appears to be sound. A citizen of the Republic feels she was wronged by a law of the Republic. Tradition dictates that we consider this further."

Chief Justice Haliburton folded her fingers as Justice Marcos passed the file along to Justice Sikes. "And it appears your "yea" is guaranteed, Javier. And why exactly do you feel we should pursue this case?"

Javier shrugged. "I don't know, why did you call us all down here to consider it in the first place? It has potential to radically change Terran law, for better or for worse. And it's our job to decide whether this even sees the light of day. I mean, even you must think this is important enough to warrant a breach of our traditional boundaries."

Haliburton nodded. "Well said, Justice. Justice Sikes, what do you think? What strikes you about this writ?"

Justice Sikes barely skimmed through the material, her gaze looking rather bored. "Well, I say that we should just toss it in the bin."

The Chief Justice raised an eyebrow, the most show of any emotion that she had done all morning. "And why would you say that? The petitioner is a registered, taxpaying citizen of the Republic that believes she has been wronged by the government, and yet you say we should just turn the other cheek."

Justice Sikes puffed herself up like a brooding hen, an indelible and very ladylike smile on her face. "This is all some very maladroit ruse to break humanity up again. Those ponies have no sense of proper decency, living in those squalid little hovels down at the bad end of town. Think for a moment about one of our precious children being raised by a farmyard animal like a pony! The very thought of it just makes feel like fainting!" Quite the drama queen, Justice Sikes. Her melodramatic mood had of course been far more useful in her days as a debutante, but it sufficed to sway people over to her side in a debate.

Justice Lanning rolled her eyes, looking up from the file and the petition. "If you could maintain your composure for at least a minute, I would like to discuss this in a more serious manner, Barbara. If you may consider the fact that this pony has not made a normally expected petition, like a challenge to the separation of church and state or even the right to use our medical facilities. No, she has gone straight through the system, all the way up to the greatest demand one can make, the absolute right to raise one of our young as her own. The petitioner has not allowed us to wean our distrust off of her kind, yet here she boldly demands the right to adopt." Nora took of her reading glasses, setting them down on the table and sliding the petition to the next Justice. "I'm with Javier on this one, it has merits, and we really should give this one a chance. I vote "yea"."

Chief Justice Haliburton nodded, tallying down Justice Lanning's vote to proceed. "Very well, that chalks up to two definite "yea"'s and one "nay". Justice Brockman, what say you?"

Justice Brockman ran a dusky hand over his short hair, then after a moment of thinking, he nodded. "I vote "yea". This is a question of civil rights, and civil rights are something that should always be accounted for."

Haliburton nodded, marking down his name. Moving on to the next Justice, she started, "Chris, you've been awfully quiet, what's your opinion?"

Justice Dailey nodded over to Justice Sikes. "I'm with Barbara on this one, we should just throw this one out. I vote "nay"."

"And would you care to explain your reasoning for your vote?"

He nodded. "It's all a power play. They figure that if they can stir the nest enough, we'll capitulate and let them do whatever they want. I wouldn't be surprised if Princess Salami or whatever her name is put the petitioner up to this. I say we don't feed this little upstart and just let the ponies simmer down."

Chief Justice Haliburton nodded. "Fair enough. Glenn, have you had enough rest to make a proper decision?" the Chief Justice said to the portly fellow in the corner.

"Yes your Honor. I vote we toss this one out. Nay," Justice Rutherford said definitively. "We haven't matured our international relationships enough to question such cases like this. If we take it on, rumor could reach Equestria that we're actively trying to suppress the ponies of Lazarus, ponies that were until recently citizens of Equestria. We could lose them as our economic crutch. Worse, we could lose them as military allies."

Justice Watson finished her meticulous examination of the writ. "Your Honor, I wish to cast my vote as a "yea". I mean, why shouldn't we give it a chance? Who knows, taking it on could finally silence all the grumbling from the ponies and the other creatures. And who cares if word reaches Equestria? We did pretty good on our own, and we have other economic allies we can rely on. Besides, I don't think the gryphons or the donkeys in the city even care."

Haliburton tallied down the two votes. Looking over to Justice Nakamura, who had since gained his composure and his wakefulness, Chief Justice Haliburton gave him the go ahead. "George, what say you?"

Justice Nakamura let out a deep breath. "Yea."

Chief Justice Haliburton raised an eyebrow quizzically. "Care to explain why?"

"Because, we rely on them more than we like to admit. And it is shameful to treat such valuable assets like tools to be used when we need them and put away when we don't."

"Sound reasoning." Chief Justice Haliburton tallied down Justice Nakamura's vote. With so many votes to try this petition, even if she did vote "nay" it wouldn't have any effect. But of all the Justices that she shared the duty of interpreting the law with, Abigail respected the word of Justice Nakamura more than any other. A man of true honor, one that always sought both sides of the argument before making a decision. Unlike Justices Dailey and Sikes, who relied more on their wealthy upbringing or religious background to make a decision.

Facing all the expectant and waiting Justices of the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Haliburton made her vote heard. "And I vote "yea". It is decided, at a vote of 6 to 3, that the state accepts the case of Lyra Heartstrings v. Republic of Terra."

*****************************************************

Lyra had fallen asleep on the couch sometime after midnight. Curled in a little drunken, aquamarine ball of self loathing, she had wondered all night if Bonbon had truly had enough. After all, their relationship and few years of marriage had been through more bumps and rough patches than most other couples endured in a lifetime. Bigotry, intolerance, infertility, fights, and now this. And for once...she blamed herself completely. There was no secret conspiracy by the Equestrian crown, no bigoted idiots who tried to interrupt the most special moments of her marriage, nor even a simple misunderstanding. It was all her fault her marriage and her life were falling apart.

And when she woke up late that morning, she went up to the bedroom, just to see if Bonbon's anger had mellowed over a comfortable rest. Opening the door with her magic, she saw the custard earth pony packing her clothing into her suitcase, leaving a pile of Lyra's belongings on the bed.

"Honey?" Lyra quietly said. "Bonnie? I...I know I screwed up this time. B-but it won't happen again. I'm going to be a more responsible mare from now on. From now on, it's all about us, not just me anymore."

Bonbon didn't say anything. She never even stopped packing her bags. Hefting the considerably lighter suitcase onto her back, she looked her wife in the eye for the first time that morning. "I know you meant well, that you had the best intentions in mind when you let your anger get the better of you. But there's an old saying, that the path to Tartarus is paved in good intentions. You've blazed your own trail down to Tartarus, and for once I don't want to be dragged down with you. Lyra, I'm going back to Ponyville with Twilight and her friends today. And...and I don't care if you come home or not."

And with that said, Bonbon walked quietly out of the bedroom, leaving Lyra alone, her head hung low in shame. A teardrop splashed on the floor, and as Lyra looked up, she saw something that truly made her want nothing more than to crawl in a hole and die.

Up on the bed, lying on the pillow the she had shared with her most beloved, lay the ring that she had given to Bonbon on their wedding day.

Picking it up, Lyra cradled the wedding band in her hoof, tears flowing freely down her face. Lying down, she hated herself for ever saying anything, for ever acting out or breaching the bonds of her marriage.

What felt like hours later, she heard the shrill whistle of the train from across the city as it departed for Equestria, her life and her love speeding away with it. Eventually, after another hour or so, the front door opened downstairs. Heavy footsteps came up the stairs, and the door creaked open.

"So, you are still here. I wondered why Bonbon was actually carrying her luggage." Aaron sat down on the corner of the bed, pulling something out of his pocket. "I don't know whether now is the best time to give you this or not. But since you're basically my roommate until I have to go back to Equestria, it's probably best that I don't bother you any more than necessary." He left the letter on the bedspread and stood up to leave.

Lyra looked up with reddened, tear soaked eyes. "Please don't go. Please, I just need somepony to be here for me."

That broken, desperate stare struck a chord of sympathy in him, and the man sat down again, softly stroking Lyra's mane. His gentle, rhythmic strokes soon began to calm her tempestuous soul, and with her horn glowing with magic, she picked up the letter. Stamped on it was a seal bearing the flying phoenix of the Republic, a set of scales hanging over its head.

Tearing it open, her worst fear became reality. "They...they accepted my case. I'm going to court."

Author's Note:

What's this? A special place just for A/N? Nifty.

Comments

[Iron Sides]

Oh yeahs... Leetle pony challanging entire country. Hey Rich! What ya think about this?

*Richard reads chapter* I dont like it. This is not good and my ways to taking care of problems wont work for this.

me: Oh? How do you deal with problems?"

Rich: Dynamite...

me: Yeah... no

[dashdlkashd]

Hmmmm, I actually think the humans would be slightly more... urked? After all, memories of the ponies rebelling against their human masters are still fresh in their minds.