“Twilight? Twilight? Hey, Twilight…TWILIGHT!”
Spike’s yell snapped Twilight out of her daze. For half an hour, she’d been trying to shelve a sideways book, bumping ineffectually against the other books.
“Huh? What is it, Spike?”
“The fact you were on a whole other planet. What’s up with you today?”
Twilight couldn’t tell him what was up with her. She was still reeling from yesterday evening and spending hours in Big Mac’s arms. She didn’t even remember how she got home. All she could think about was being in his arms again…
Her thoughts were interrupted by a newspaper flying in her face.
“Hey!” She snapped at Spike.
“Sorry.” Spike said with a semi-apologetic shrug. “Just you’d want to see the front page.”
Twilight looked and her eyes widened in shock. It was a picture of Trixie being arrested by two royal guards. ‘TINPOT MAGICIAN DICTATOR ARRESTED!’ The headline declared. Twilight read the article.
‘Traveling magician Trixie Lulamoon was arrested after a month of searching while performing at Trottingham. Trixie was reported to the army of Canterlot of having used the artifact known as the Alicorn Amulet to defeat the Elements of Harmony and take over Ponyville. Although the Elements were able to take the amulet from Trixie, both it and she vanished shortly after.’
Twilight’s insides turned to ice again. She remembered that event all too well; Trixie wanting revenge for her humiliation, defeating her in a magic duel, kicking her out, enslaving the town, Twilight tricking her into giving up the Alicorn Amulet, Trixie secretly helping out with the show for the delegates from Saddle Arabia and apologizing…
Only now she remembered that quite a few ponies, including some of Twilight’s friends, had organized a manhunt for Trixie, turning the whole town and a section of the Everfree upside down in order to bring Trixie to justice. Twilight hadn’t said anything because, one, Trixie had been long gone by that point, two, she had hated to think what the mob might have done to Trixie if they found her, and three, Trixie was repentant, so there was no need to punish her. Eventually, the whole thing had died down and that was the end of that, but apparently someone had complained to the royal guards themselves. And now they had found her.
Twilight stood in the middle of the library, staring at the article and feeling very sick, not noticing that Spike had received the mail from the postman until he held an important looking letter in front of her face. Twilight opened it.
‘Twilight Sparkle, you have been summoned to appear at the trial of Trixie Lulamoon’
The sick feeling in Twilight’s stomach intensified.
A week later, Twilight was sitting in the fanciest courthouse in Canterlot where Trixie’s trial was taking place. Trixie was dressed in a prison jumpsuit, her hands were cuffed, she was flanked by two guards, and she looked very scared. Twilight couldn’t help but feel bad for her. The judge entered the courtroom and the trial began.
“Now begins the case of the town of Ponyville vs. Trixie Lulamoon.” The judge said. “Ms. Lulamoon, you are accused of using a dangerous magical artifact to get revenge on someone who allegedly wronged you and take over a town of innocent people and force them to serve you. How do you plead?”
“Guilty, Your Honor.” Trixie said, all brashness and bravado gone from her voice.
“Your Honor, I would like to begin by calling to the stand Miss Twilight Sparkle.” The prosecutor said.
Twilight took the stand, took the oath, and sat, hoping she could help Trixie in some way.
“Miss Sparkle, is it true that Miss Lulamoon purchased the Alicorn Amulet in order to get revenge on you?” The prosecutor asked.
“Yes.” Twilight admitted.
“And when she beat you, she kicked you out of town, sealed it off from the outside world, and enslaved the populace?”
“Yes.”
“Did you attempt to contact any other authorities in any other town?”
“No.” Twilight admitted, answering a question she’d been afraid to hear.
There were several gasps and surprised mutters.
“Why, may I ask, did not do so?” The prosecutor asked. “Are you not the princess’ student? Surely she would’ve helped you.”
“Princess Celestia was away at the time preparing for the delegates from Saddle Arabia.”
“Yet there was no one else you could ask for help? Princess Luna? Anyone?”
“I was able to stop her!” Twilight protested. “I was able to trick her into removing the amulet and everything was returned to normal.”
“And you let her go?”
“She apologized! She learned her lesson!”
“Miss Sparkle, Miss Lulamoon’s crime is not a case of wrecking someone’s belongings out of petty spite, it is a case of using a powerful and dangerous artifact to get revenge and forcing innocent ponies to be her slaves! These are very serious crimes, Miss Sparkle, and saying you’re sorry does not cut it. Also, whatever became of the Alicorn Amulet?”
“I gave it to my friend, Zecora, to hide it away so it could never be used again.”
“So, instead of turning this dangerous artifact over to the authorities or your mentor, you gave it to a friend of yours so she could hide it away. How do you she wouldn’t abuse its power?”
“She’s a zebra, not a unicorn!”
“Be that as it may, all ponies have some form of magic inside them and the Amulet has the power to augment magic and corrupt anyone who wears it. Let’s recap, shall we? You let a mare who kicked you out of your home and enslaved innocent townspeople get off scot-free because she said she was sorry, gave the amulet to a friend of yours instead of the authorities, and told no one about this incident at all, without ever considering the anguish the other ponies of Ponyville may have gone through?”
Twilight couldn’t answer. Her mouth opened and shut stupidly, feeling all the eyes burning into her.
“No further questions, Your Honor.” The prosecutor said.
The rest of the trial was a blur for Twilight. Trixie’s lawyer argued that Trixie was a victim of the corrupting nature of the Alicorn Amulet but the prosecution pointed out that Trixie had bought the amulet willingly. Several citizens of Ponyville recapped Trixie’s deeds, such as imprisoning the mayor, forcing Snips and Snails to pull a wheel less wagon, and forcing ponies to decorate Ponyville in her honor. When Trixie came up to speak, she told about how she lost everything in Ponyville due to the Ursa Minor and the actions of the ponies there. She’d become a laughingstock and forced to work on a rock farm because of them. She’d wanted to get back at the town that ruined her; Twilight was just a particular target.
Eventually, the jury brought in the verdict: guilty on all charges. The judge sentenced Trixie to 20 years in prison, 10 for good behavior, and when she got out, she would be forbidden to practice magic. As the court adjourned, Twilight watched from the courthouse steps as Trixie hid her face from the reporters as she was taken to the paddy wagon. In spite of all she’d done, Twilight couldn’t help but feel awful for Trixie. Her dreams were destroyed, partially due to herself but also due to Ponyville and Twilight.
But what also hurt was the way the other ponies who’d been to the trial were looking at her and whispering to each other. Twilight knew what they were talking about: how could Celestia’s student let a vengeance-seeking pony with a dangerous artifact off without so much as a slap on the wrist and not tell anyone? This was worse than that meeting.
Twilight numbly made her way back to the train station, planning to hide under the covers for the rest of the day.
The next morning, Applejack, Macintosh, and Braeburn had just finished breakfast. Applejack was reading the news, Trixie’s trial on the front page. Applejack was glad that Trixie had gotten what she deserved for what she did to the town, heck, AJ had been part of the mob that had searched for Trixie after Twilight beat her! But then Applejack found an editorial talking about Twilight’s actions in the whole thing.
“…so, Twilight Sparkle, Celestia’s student and the Element of Magic, let’s a vengeance-seeking magician who enslaved an entire town with an infamous artifact off the hook with nary a word to anyone else and dumps said artifact on someone else and just hopes they’ll get rid of it and not, you know, use it or sell it to another seedy character? I don’t know about you folks, but there is definitely something wrong with this picture! Does Twilight really think that major crimes can be fixed just because the perpetrator says that they’re sorry? Does sorry fix murders? Arson? Grand theft? No! And while we’re on that, did Trixie ever say she was ‘sorry’ to everyone else in Ponyville? Was she even sorry at all or did she say that to Twilight so she wouldn’t tell the princesses? I don’t know about you, Equestria, but I think Celestia needs to re-evaluate her choice in students…”
“The nerve of some people.” Applejack sighed.
“How’s that, cuz?” Braeburn asked from the sink where he was washing dishes.
“This guy talking crap about Twilight in the paper about how she handled that Trixie takeover.” Applejack explained as Mac took the paper from her and began reading it himself.
“Oh, yeah, I remember you told me about that. Half the family wanted that Trixie gal’s skin for what she did to you guys. Uncle Wolf Apple even wanted to break out the noose.” Braeburn chuckled.
“I admit that I wanted to whoop Trixie’s hide for what she did to Ponyville and I even want to whoop Twilight a little for just letting her go, but this…this is gonna destroy her. Being Celestia’s student means everything to her, and if ponies start saying she’s not good enough, I don’t know what she’ll do.”
“Well, I don’t know Miss Twilight all that much, but I do know that she didn’t want anything bad to happen.” Braeburn said, adjusting his hat and causing something inside it begin to slip out. “I’m not saying she should’ve let that Trixie gal go the way she did, but she probably thought it was best for everybody to just move on. You best check on her, though, if she is gonna take this news as bad as you say.”
A picture fell out of Braeburn’s hat. Applejack grabbed it before Braeburn could snatch it up and looked at it. It was a picture of Fleur de Lis, Equestria’s most famous model, lounging on a bed in very revealing red lingerie. A hint of perfume lingered on the picture and written on it was a phone number and ‘Call me, loverboy! XXXOOO’. Applejack turned to the sheepish Braeburn.
“She was passin’ through Appleloosa, her limo broke down, and I offered her a place to stay until it was fixed. I gave her my bed and took the couch, but she said it was inhospitable to make her sleep alone.” He explained.
“Oh, really?” Applejack said skeptically.
“Aw, come on, AJ! The hottest model in Equestria dropped right in my lap! How could I say no?”
“And that justifies you leaping on every hussy that opens her legs?”
“Hey, I was a gentleman with her! She enjoyed the town, made a few generous purchases from the businesses, and paid to replace all the furniture we broke!”
“Furniture?”
“She was, uh, quite the animal, if you know what I mean.”
“Ugh.”
Macintosh missed out on the discovery of this particular lover of Braeburn’s. Once he’d read the article, he had immediately left the house and headed for the library.
I know a bit about court and to be honest the line of questioning about twilight seems to me to be a bit out of line as it is trixie's a trial not twilights
6076172
Yeah, I had a feeling I messed something up somewhere.
If many starts to say terrible things to Twilight, it will effect everyone of her friends and family.
I do not like where this is going...I'll keep reading for now.
6076187
Don't take my word for it I could be completely wrong
However the line of questioning could be objected to by the defense on grounds of relevance or hostility to the witness which may help trixie's case
However depending on where u go with the story this could be a boon as perhaps a sub plot is that the upper echelons of equestria try to stage a coup on the princesses. The judge could be in on it. This is stopped then all the recent trials by said judge are reevaluated and trixie's is given a mich lighter sentence.
Just my thoughts
The fact that Celestia hasn't clamped down on how press and nobility are treating Twilight or how much stress Twilight is under doesn't speak well of Celestia. Abandoning your inexperienced student to asshole nobility and scandal hungry press without a word to defend said student is unforgivable. To me it seems to be Celestias inability to teach Twilight how to handle these things that has left Twilight such a nervous wreck.
6076187 While I didn't like the prosecution it wasn't that far out of line, since prosecutors as well as defense attorneys will do anything within legal boundaries to poke holes in credibility against their cases
6076602
Yes, several of the Mane 6 antagonized Trixie and the Ursa Minor thing wasn't her fault, but she still bought a dangerous artifact for the sake of revenge and enslaved the entire town, a majority of which didn't deserve her wrath. Don't you think Ponyville deserves some form of justice?
6076716
Hmm...yes, that could work. When Twilight became Celestia's apprentice, she hardly ever left the castle with Celestia and Spike being the only people she was close to. Not that Celestia was trying to keep her away from people, it's just that Twilight knew being the princess' apprentice was once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and thus devoted herself entirely to it, as well as trying not to let Celestia and her parents down (I imagine the apprenticeship was a full-time thing, thus Twilight only saw her parents on holidays). When Twilight decided to stay in Ponyville, Celestia allowed it, not thinking to tell Twilight that not all people are as nice and forgiving as herself and her friends, thinking that Twilight could handle it and her friends would help her through it. Ergo, Twilight finds out the hard way that if you mess up, people WILL let you know about it and they will NOT be nice about it. Also, psychological scars are not that easily brushed away or just disappear because you have friends. Twilight takes everything personally because she feels she's a representative of Celestia and her decisions, therefore if she messes up, she'll have let Celestia and Equestria down, as well as proving that Celestia made a bad decision and Twilight believes that Celestia can do no wrong.
6078372 All the more signs of Celestias utter incompetence in teaching. Might just be that I get easily pissed off by how she treats her student. For example: She sent Twilight to deal with a full-grown dragon with a baker, an animal-care taker, a farmer, a fashionista and a weatherpony. To anyone else that would be a pretty clear sign of Celestia wanting them dead. It's either malevolence or incompetence. Trusting them is not an excuse to willfully endanger untrained civilians.
But that is just one example. Unless she does something about the situation here and soon, Celestia here has pretty much abondoned Twilight and is just using her till she finally breaks. There is a limit on how much stress a being can take before permanent physical or mental damage sets in. Based on how she seems to completely ignore the situation, to me at least, it almost seems that Celestia is on purpose trying to burn Twilight out permanently. That is not a way to teach a lesson. That will only ruin Twilights health. From Twilight stress levels and reactions I can already tell that some serious damage has already been done. I mean some of it was visible in the show but you have taken it a few steps further. To the point where it could already be too late. Far beyond the time when any compentent guardian or teacher would have stepped in.
6078520
That's my number one beef with Celestia too and why I hate Twilight's ascension: "Guess what, Twilight! Everything you've been doing has been me manipulating you to become an alicorn princess!"
Celestia is kind of an ass. Not helping Twilight.
Yeah, between this, mind-controlling the town, and accidentally making the Parasprite problem a zillion times worse, there's honestly a lot that Twilight has to answer for.
I mean, not half as much as Celestia, but Twi isn't blameless.
6080689 How much of what Twilight has done could have been avoided if Celestia had actually done anything to deal with Twilights stress issues back when Twilight lived in Canterlot? Or if Celestia just thaught her about the world properly instead of just leaving her stranded with no guidance about reality.
The Smartypants incident for example was clear indicator of mental trauma and severe issues that should have been handled ages ago.
EDIT: typos. I hate typos.
6080689
The parasprites were more Pinkie's fault in not telling the others she knew what they were, what they were capable of and how to get rid of them.
6081280
Three words: the Crystal Empire. No explanation at all, treating the whole thing like a test, not sending the Elements of Harmony, not sending any kind of reinforcements, turning down Luna's offer to help, and not explaining that there used to be a city ruled by an evil tyrant.
6081280
Or reforming Discord: bring back the reality warper who cares only for his own entertainment because you may or may not need him for some undisclosed event.
6081414
I would also argue that casting spells to radically alter the dietary function of thousands of rapidly reproducing creatures without studying potential side effects would count as a screw up in her column... Hey, wait a friggin' second, she did this with the Vampire Fruit Bats too! She didn't learn friggin' ANYTHING!
... And people wonder why I think it was a stupid idea for her to be made princess...
6081421
Preaching to the choir, sir.
6081427
... Yeah... That goes into the "Celestia is a friggin' Moron" category...
6076187
Wow, I'm commenting a lot. Sorry about that. Anyway, the best way I could see this working is if the enemy lawyer was trying to prove that the justice system of Equestria was indeed at fault, showing that the "Justice System," basically involved letting certain highly privileged individuals run rampant over due process, potentially throwing the entire legitimacy of the elements in the same light as mob rule and furthermore establishing that while Trixie did do wrong, the legal system was so frakked up that at the bare minimum she should get a verdict of mistrial, possibly even getting the case thrown out.
Alternatively, he could be setting up Trixie for a possibly successful suit against Ponyville for siccing an Ursa on her, destroying her personal property, slander of her name...
Man, it sucks when the rules of fiction don't bend to your will, eh, ponies?
... I'm not trying to be an ass, but I do believe that a) Trixie was wronged originally, and more importantly b) Actions should have consequences. You make a stupid decision, you should get punished.
I see the media is only attacking Twilight. Why the hell aren't they attacking Celestia over the freeing and Reform of a Chaos God who might slip back into his old ways just because he might get bored? Or bringing her sister back as one of the rulers of the nation after she went genocidal goddess of the night TWICE. They are only attack Twilight because she is an easy target and do not have the stones to try going after Celestia.
6078347
I'm Pretty sure Trixie did not know about the Corrupting Influence of the Alicorn Amulet.
6086246
Well, I'm certain the media does stuff like that all the time, even if world leaders aren't godlike immortal beings who have ruled since the beginning of time.
Celestia was right there, in town, and did nothing. Pull that cake from your mouth and do your damn job Trollestia!
I can never decide whether Trixie and Twilight are half sisters or lovers. Either way, they are inseparable.
A scene transition should be there.
Purgery! I saw a comic where Maud Pie purchased it as a gift for Trixie. It florred me.
Luna could have handled it. Twilight was too proud to ask her for help.
Never! trust a zebra. Ever.
She'll tough out prison.
Again, scene break.
Everyone wants to whoop Twilight, but for a different reason.
Thank you for not making Breaburn gay.
THAT justifies leaping on every hussy that opens her legs.
Lucky bastard.
This is turning into more sad than good. I dunno if i can continue to read this. I skimmed over this because its a case of hitting one of my pet peeves... Regardless, I hate seeing someone's life completely destroyed, especially if its someone who actually WANTED to change. (If they really deserved it, then meh). TBH there's too many holes here and it's REALLY bugging me.
And don't worry about the court procedure, you tackled that with the knowledge you had.
That being said... Dunno if i wanna continue. Besides the darker turn and Twilight slowly seeing things crumble before her (Plus how quickly everything is going, I'm able to read this in no time), I just don't know. It's not grabbing me Like i thought I would.
But that's just me.