Part 3 Hidden Truths
“You mean they’re trying to take Spike?” Rainbow Dash angrily bumped her hooves together, ready to pound something, “alright, when do we beat them up and how long before we stop?”
Twilight rolled her eyes in exasperation. She had teleported to Ponyville and gathered her six friends at Sugar Cube Corner to explain this whole situation to them, but they seemed too outraged to even listen to her. They had to go back to Canterlot now. Find out whatever they could about dragons and law to help Spike’s case. More than anything, they needed to find a way to prove Celestia had decreed Spike could stay with her and this decree took precedence over any other claim. Every second they wasted put Spike in greater risk.
“For the last time,” Twilight suppressed her irritation and spoke, “we can’t go beating these ponies up. We have to present a case for Spike.”
Rarity stamped her hoof, causing every pony to jump in surprise, “I can’t believe you Twilight!” She stared at the alicorn through narrowed eyes, “How could you possibly be willing to throw Spike’s life away for this trial? You’re a princess! You or Celestia just have to say no they can’t take him, and our problems are solved!”
Twilight inhaled sharply through her nose, trying to keep calm. “Princess Celestia and I may be monarchs, but we are not dictators. What kind of message does it send to every pony if we rule in favor Spike because we don’t like the council?”
Rarity was still undeterred, “This is absolutely preposterous! Spike is our friend! Surely, you could make an exception for him.”
“And then what?” Twilight challenged her friend, “Even if I just said no today, that might not stop another scientist from experimenting on him when I’m gone!”
Her friends flinched when they realized what she meant. Twilight was not an immortal, naturally born alicorn like Princess Luna or Princess Celestia. Given time, she would pass on like any other pony, leaving Spike to potentially live on by himself as dragons could live far longer than a pony. They never really thought about it, but being a dragon meant Spike would likely outlive all of them.
“I have to take on this case now while I’m still here for Spike,” Twilight fought back her tears while trying to maintain her dignity, “so that he can live on a free dragon among ponies when we’re all gone. I have to bring this case down now, while I’m still alive to do so.”
Her friends stared at her, as Twilight inhaled sharply to steady her pulse. She was absolutely terrified of what could happen to Spike in the distant future when she would no longer stand beside her treasured friend, so she had to ensure him the best possible future. Every one of her friends wanted that for Spike, as well.
Applejack frowned, “But couldn’t Princess Celestia or Princess Luna keep on protecting Spike?”
Twilight smiled at her friend sadly, “I’m sure they want to. But the council members said certain evidence brought before them, forced them to veto her decision. The council never vetoes a royal decision unless they are absolutely convinced to give the matter consideration.”
“What evidence was that, pray tell?” Rarity’s brow furrowed, hardly masking her contempt.
“They wouldn’t say,” Twilight said, just as wary as her friends, “But if we want to stop those scientists from taking Spike tomorrow or any point in the future, we have to move now while we still can. ”
Her friends exchanged glances, and then turned back to Twilight. Each one of them voiced their support and agreement to help in whatever way they could. With that, Twilight teleported them all to the Canterlot Library, to dig up whatever information that they could.
***
Dr. Saffron walked side-by-side with her little assistant, led by the royal guard. After explaining their arrangement, Silver Stone accompanied the doctor to the dragon Spike’s room in the castle to meet him, though she would enter alone. Being the protective guardian she was, Dr. Saffron insisted on following her assistant to the door at least, before returning to business. The guard promised they would attend to Silver Stone’s needs as necessary, so the doctor need not worry. Not that she wouldn’t of course.
She meant what she said to Twilight. She wasn’t doing this for herself. Silver Stone needed closure. After all her nightmares waking with screams of guilt, she needed peace. Dr. Saffron’s heart broke every time the filly had to remember that horrible day in vivid dreams. She loved Silver Stone, more than her career, more than her kingdom, more than herself, and would do anything for her. The only way to prevent another one of those horrible days depended on furthering dragon research. If obtaining peace for Silver Stone meant researching on the princess’ dragon, then so be it.
They came to the door and the doctor asked once more if Silver Stone was sure she could do this, to which Silver Stone annoyed, said yes. Sometimes this motherly affection could be smothering. Dr. Saffron said farewell to her cherished assistant.
“I’ll be back tonight,” Dr. Saffron wrapped a hoof around her assistant, “you stay safe, okay?”
“I’m sure I can handle a baby dragon,” Silver Stone responded with irritation, but also embraced her protector.
“Still, be careful,” the doctor responded as they parted. “Dragons are not creatures to be underestimated.”
Silver Stone nodded. Dr. Saffron had debriefed her on what little scientists knew about dragons in preparation for this encounter. She already knew what dragons were capable of firsthand, they both were. A guard led the doctor away, and she reluctantly left. The second guard motioned to the door before them, and stood with two other guards posted to keep watch. They would monitor the room through their secretive means, but arrive seconds before any sort of incident could take place. At least, that’s what they said. Taking a deep breath, Silver Stone gritted her teeth preparing herself for whatever creature she might find. With gritted teeth, she opened the door and entered the room.
There was no way she could have anticipated … this. Instead of some ferocious dragon that grunted and groaned to communicate, shifted its reptilian eyes as it hoarded treasures, and bellowed waves of fire at anything it wanted to, she saw a purple and green dragon no bigger than her, sitting at a table reading what looked like a comic book. Upon hearing her enter, the dragon put down his book and turned to see who had come in.
“Hi there,” Spike tried to be polite considering this would be his only company for the entire day with Twilight busy on the case. “My name’s Spike. You must be that Silver Stone the council mentioned, right?”
Silver Stone blinked and felt her mouth open slightly in complete bafflement. Every story tale she ever heard painted dragons as vicious beasts capable of leveling entire forests. From her firsthand experience, she recalled dragons as unfeeling creatures, who cared for nothing but their hoards. This little dragon was anything but that. He had greeted her like any pony would greet another, discerned who she was quickly, and identified himself with a name.
Noticing the filly’s hesitation, Spike scratched his chin in confusion. Realizing this might be a different filly, Spike put his hands behind his head in a sort of apologetic gesture.
“Sorry,” Spike quickly stuttered, “I just assumed you were Silver Stone because you’re all silver and you’re the first filly I’ve seen walk in here—”
“No that’s me,” Silver Stone quickly cut him off, “I’m Silver Stone.”
Spike gestured to a chair on the other side of his table, “Well, make yourself comfortable. We’re going to be here a while after all.”
Suspiciously, she walked over to the seat and inspected it for any hidden trap. She knew there probably wasn’t anything but she still didn’t want to take any chances. Dr. Saffron had taught her to be meticulous and observant, like any good scientist. Spike looked at her curiously, wondering if she had something against chairs.
“You know,” Spike’s voice stopped the filly’s inspection, “I doubt the chair is gonna bite you.”
She grew a bit flustered, feeling this dragon might be teasing her. She quickly sat down in the chair, and stared at the dragon perplexed. He was oddly docile.
After that uncomfortable silence, Spike nervously returned to his comic book. This was quite possibly one of the most awkward meetings he ever had, and he lived with Twilight so that was saying something. What was he even supposed to say? Hi, there. I know your mother/sister/employer is trying to take me for her personal lab rat, but we should still make some small talk or something considering we’re stuck with each other all day and I’ve already read this comic three times. Even in his head that sounded thorny and uncomfortable. He found himself immensely grateful that Cadence had managed to sneak him one of his comics back at Twilight’s house (after the guards thoroughly examined it of course) so he could pass the time, but the same comic, no matter how amazing, became less enjoyable to read when it was the only thing he had for the whole day. He wasn’t sure he could ask the guards if he could have another comic book; they were reluctant to even let him have this one. If this filly was going to sit there in silence the entire day, he could only imagine he would read this book hundreds of times before the day was up. What else could he do?
Silver Stone felt equally uncomfortable, unsure what she should say or do. Sitting before the baby of a creature that took her parents, she expected to feel anger, spite, but instead she felt pleasantly surprised. This little dragon, Spike, was actually kind of cute in some ways, and she could not possibly associate him with the great winged tyrants she had seen in the sky and her dreams. He seemed completely domesticated and fairly intelligent, and she found herself wondering if this was a case of nurture versus nature. Maybe, she had come here with incredibly misled preconceived notions. No, she definitely came here with incorrect preconceived notions. In any case, now she was stuck here for the rest of the day. She really wished she brought something to read because making small talk would be undeniably awkward, given the bitterness between both of their mentors. Yet, there was nothing else she could really do. Why hadn’t she brought a comic book of her own?
Then she looked at the comic book in Spike’s hands, and realized what he was reading. Her eyes grew large in shock. Spike looked up when he heard a sharp gasp, wondering what was happening now.
“Is that the collectible Power Ponies: Eclipse issue thirteen, where the Power Ponies finally discover the true mastermind behind the Shadow League?” she wasn’t even sure she was seeing this, “where did you get that?”
“I traded it for a Power Ponies/Beast Brigade cross over comic at an exchange,” Spike explained, but he added with a sly smile, “though to be fair, I got the better deal here.”
“I’ll trade you for that comic,” Silver Stone offered excitedly, “I’ve been searching for it forever, but none of the stores keep it in stock.”
When she realized she didn’t have her own comic collection with her, she almost panicked. “I don’t have my collection with me now, but I promise I can get you something amazing!”
Spike chuckled, “Sorry, but what could you possibly have that I want?”
Silver Stone’s head swiveled side to side, making sure absolutely no pony could hear her. She leaned in close to Spike and whispered, “What about the comic that all Power Pony fans have demanded since the series' inception?”
Spike’s eyes narrowed with intrigue. She couldn’t possibly mean – no, he was certain that comic was a myth, an April Fool’s joke. Or the writers never finished it. So much mystery and myth surrounded that book that supposedly no pony had ever laid eyes on it and lived to tell the tale. That is supposing it even existed.
Silver Stone grinned, “The book that the creators toiled endlessly to create, but did not publish due to copyright claims, causing its publication to be delayed for a decade, by which time the public had given up hope.”
Spike’s eyes widened incredulously. This sounded exactly like the comic book that he spent years searching for, but could never find. He had all but given up hope of finding it. Was she saying it truly existed? That his long searches might finally be at an end? He held his breath, feeling tension and excitement flood his body.
She had him now. “You know what book I’m talking about?”
“The –,” Spike couldn’t even finish his sentence, “you mean it’s real?”
“Oh, it’s real,” she smirked, “and I’ve seen it.”
“How?” Spike asked, “I searched everywhere but I never found it.”
“You weren’t looking in the right place,” she explained. “But I found it.”
Spike stared at her, trying to see if she was just toying with him. She seemed completely earnest.
“So what do you say?” She smiled nonchalantly, “Your Power Ponies: Eclipse for my Power Ponies Hearth’s Warming Eve with the Teenage Samurai Griffons?”
Spike’s head swiveled right and left, to be sure no pony was listening to them. If she was telling the truth, no way could he pass up this offer. He leaned in close and whispered, “if you can deliver, you’ve got a deal.”
***
“Hello, Princess Cadence,” the librarian politely greeted the alicorn. “Is there something I can help you with?”
“Yes, I need history books from the royal archives, detailing dragon and pony interactions since the reign of Princess Celestia,” Cadence was not particularly excited to do any of this.
The librarian frowned, “I’m not sure we have such records.”
Cadence hoped that meant there was no information whatsoever for her to use against Spike. The less she found the better.
“Well, there are mentions of such interactions in this one book,” the librarian motioned Cadence to follow her to a back room with several texts transcribed from ages long past, “but they’re honestly more of footnotes.”
“That’s fine,” Cadence replied as the librarian took a book from the shelf and laid it on a nearby table for her. The librarian told Cadence to make herself comfortable, and left to tend to others.
Cadence skimmed through the book. Indeed, dragons were largely a footnote; there were mentions of pony and dragon interactions but they were few and interspersed with various other accounts. There were essentially no recordings of events where dragons actually attacked ponies; in fact, such attacks appeared to be scarce, largely exaggerated, and typically resulting from dragons being provoked. For the first time since the trial was issued, Cadence began to feel relief. She wouldn’t be able to portray dragons as monsters that needed to be understood to prevent conflicts in the future. Maybe, Twilight could win this after all.
“Excuse me, milady,” Cadence turned to see the librarian approaching with a book and several scrolls levitated by magic, “a stallion from the science department, Dr. Facts I believe it was, just came by with these and said these would help with your case. Is he a friend of yours?”
Cadence’s eyes narrowed as she slowly took the materials, noticing a royal seal of authenticity on each document, “I’ve never heard of him. Did he say a pony named ‘Dr. Saffron’ sent him?”
“No,” the librarian responded, “he said that these were from the council’s personal collections to ensure ‘the advancement of science’ or some nonsense. Sounds rather pretentious if you ask me, but the seal isn’t a counterfeit, and I seem to recall Dr. Facts has contributed a number of books on various fields.”
As the librarian left once again, Cadence placed the heavy book and scrolls on the table, unsure what to make of them. Slowly, she opened a nearby scroll and read its contents. It detailed the various creatures officially recognized as Equestrian citizens, noticeably leaving out dragons. Cadence would have loved to crumble this up and burn it, but if a member of the science department gave these to her and she pretended not to know, she worried the council might believe she was not trying to win and rule in favor of Dr. Saffron.
Her eyes turned to another scroll, which detailed cultural barriers between dragons and practically every other creature officially recognized as Equestrian citizens. It also detailed how these barriers had lead to multiple confrontations. Few of them were violent, or even intentionally malicious on either’s side part, but they still resulted in setbacks from complete tranquility and in an extreme case, the destruction of entire forests and near extinction of certain animals. Cadence soon found all of the documents containing similar information that would prove her case, but nothing necessarily incriminating.
Then she noticed a scroll she had unintentionally shoved to the side. Picking it up, she opened it to find a detailed account concerning the science department. Legally speaking, it had existed long before Princess Celestia under ponies such as Clover the Clever and Starswirl the Bearded, but was reorganized by name under the Princess and relegated to minor roles of government. So the department was older than Celestia, how did that pertain to anything? Then she noticed that the department had established certain practices that Celestia had never officially altered. Many in fact were still in effect, as they had been since the time before the princess. Although it had ceded many of its powers under Celestia, there were a certain well-established laws that could not be altered and were installed to keep a check on the Princess’ powers to prevent a tyranny. One of the most noticeable of them was a rule stating that all objects, relics, and animals discovered by the science department were property of the science department.
She then opened the book, which she realized contained a list of every such thing the department had ever found, that legally belonged to them. She came to a page that was bookmarked and scrolled through the contents. What she read made her heart sink.
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I want to like this story. I feel like the premise of it is interesting but I just find it so hard to ever see this hold up.
The whole thing is "inhumane" as they're willing to use untested practices on a sapient unwilling being for decades at a time. Not only that but they're doing it on a child and ripping him away from friends and family. The law itself is racist by the way they're using the wording and the fallout should a dragon ever catch wind of this would be huge. That's not even including how he's a national hero.
Three chapters in and already I'm outraged... Brilliant.
I'm looking forward to where this story leads. With a premise and conflict such as this, it makes me want to know what happens next.
Hm.. I feel like twilight could just use the opponents claim as a counter claim, saying that she then takes on spike as property, as "finders keepers". To say the least, she could just keep him to herself and not let anypony near him.
Well dang it. Got to chapter 3 and then bam. Closed the loophole.
I guess twilight could bring up animal cruelty laws to prevent certain tests...
And wouldn't owning a sentient creature count as slavery?
Finally, if they were to deny the first one, wouldn't that, by default, declare spike to be a sentient creature and therefor applicable to international laws concerning sentient creatures?
Those would be my defense points, though the last one is iffy cuz idk if there even are international laws...
Thumbs up and a face for how well written this is. Keep up the good work!
That scene with Silver stone and spike was cute.
6937382 Hopefully Spike has made an Ally in Silver Stone...
6937286 Honestly, I wouldn't doubt that Twilight would accept charges of slavery if it meant Spike would be free.
Favourited! I can't wait for the next part, and to read the ponies' struggles, external and internal.
This story made me mad. That's a good thing. Making your reader feel any emotion is a very good thing, as long as you can capitalize on it. It has my upvote.
I certainly hope that Spike does not become Data in this. You've done an excellent job so far, but remember that Data, despite all of his progress, was still a machine with a logical, machine brain. He said so himself over and over in the series. Spike is a child, a little boy—one whose greatest fear is being separated from Twilight. If this has a "good end" take the time to play with how Spike must feel about Cadance's betrayal. Forgiveness sometimes takes a great long while...
6938715 Thank you very much. I have been reading all the comments people have posted regarding this story and its setup, and I intend to take all of them into account as I can. Yes, I recognize taking Spike for experiments is the equivalent of child slavery. These are the things Twilight will have to discuss in the trial to prove this is unethical. I am writing whenever I have free time, but there are certain obligations that cut into my spare time. While the chapters may be slightly delayed, this will give me plenty of time consider all of the comments I have read thus far detailing certain issues with the setup, and effectively deal with them. The next chapter is currently being written, and after that, I believe the trial shall commence. Once again, thank you for your support.
6937382 Thank you! I'm glad you liked it.
6938715
Cadance isn't betraying Spike. With Twilight as attorney, another princess was required as prosecutor to make the court even, and the only alicorn on equal ground with Twilight was Cadance. This was the only way for the court case to go on, lest Spike would have gone straight to science. But this still is sure to be terribly hard for the three of them, especially for the pink alicorn who has no choice but to do her best against Spike, for him to have a chance.
Please just add an extra empty line between paragraphs, most of the time its a sore for the eyes to read with things so clumped up and hard to keep follow and read
6939608 I can on my next fic, but I don't want to suddenly change the format I've had here, and I don't want to go back and change my format at the moment. I do understand how it's a problem and if enough people ask, I will consider changing the format for easier reading.
6937382 I liked their scene together, too. It, for lack of a better term, "humanized" Silver Stone so I could better relate to why Dr. Saffron is pushing for this seemingly cruel treatment of Spike.
God dammit, Spike's egg is on that list isn't it?
Big plot hole here. Any research done on Spike would be faulty, noticeably so. First, he has no wings, has never eaten meat and appears to be structured differently than any other dragons, I bet you anything his scales and fangs are weaker than normal dragons. Second, since he was raised in Pony society, he would be accustomed to Pony customs, meaning his physiological state is totally different, altering his behavior, making any behavior research totally useless. This case would be all for not, as the research, even if done and used, would later prove faulty when actually applied. Plus, what about immigration law? Wouldn't he be considered born in Equestria? If not, he would at least be able to take some form of citizenship test, as he obviously speaks the language, knows the national anthem, and has loved there at least a decade. Unless I'm understanding this wrong, he should be eligible to take a citizenship test.
Shit, I'm going into legal mode over a fictional story based off a fictional character in a little girl's show, shoot me please.
I found something that I wish would happen. ...Namely Twilight turning into Samuel L. Jackson and doing this.
38.media.tumblr.com/acac4e612643b8bf171ffbead0f5f884/tumblr_inline_o2s0i3CBFI1rp8zvc_500.gif
55.media.tumblr.com/60139bc6e9e02f749f1bbc33771abab1/tumblr_inline_o2s0ic6yUS1rp8zvc_500.gif
Mainly because Samuel L. Jackson makes everything better.
Also, thought of some more thing. Twilight could probably mass Teleport her Mirror Portal Machine and book to the trial if she looses, toss Spike through it, with prior warning given to Sunset Shimmer to be waiting for him just in case, and then Teleport the device away to some place the council and scientists wouldn't find it. One of the hidden rooms in Celestia and Luna's old castle would work.
There are literally an unlimited number of ways Twilight could basically go "Fuck you." Hell, she knows Starswirls Time Travel spell can be altered. She could alter it to work for more than a few moments, keep it from causing a closed timeloop without any paradoxes and Warn herself to do something about this before it becomes an actual thing, even if it does create a split timeline.
6951740 I suppose she could send Spike to the alternate world and have him wait out the trial there. But, I have another idea how I want the story to unfold. The other route I don't even want to think about. Time travel itself is one of the most confusing things to write about and any time travel story, no matter how excellent, is bound to have some inconsistencies.
It's a conspiracy I tells youse!!!!
6944972 <bang...>
This sounds exactly how governments work, as well as how ONI works from the halo game and book series
6938752
So the science guys have to keep the fact that they are forcing cadance to do this underraps. Also they do know if they win they make enemies of ALL the royals.
Is any pony gonna talk about how adorable silver and spike were/are, fine I will they were freaking precious