Not Guilty

by StormbadgerXIII

Chapter 1 - Shattered

Not Guilty

Chapter 1 - Shattered

The beautiful, warm sunlight bathed Twilight as she stirred awake from an energetic night of studying. The heat ignited the fire in her belly, and she rose feeling content and unworried. She had managed to meet another deadline, and without any hassle, excluding the last-minute study. Her time spent with friends certainly didn't help her studies, but honestly she had something genuinely wonderful in place of it.

She lethargically rose from the bed, stumbling her lack-of-full-motor-control-from-just-waking-up way to the bathroom, scrubbing her teath with some toothpaste she received from Colagte, then soaked her body in the warm water of the bath. Why there was a bath in the library was an interesting question, but not one she really could be bothered pondering as the steam relaxed her.

Following her ten-minute long bath, she trotted out refreshed, relaxed, and a little pruney, scrubbing her hair with a towel. Spike was beginning to stir as well, his rest less relaxing than hers. Twilight trotted up the stairs and watched over her baby dragon. Already he was 8 years old, and so mature for his age. It was probably a dragon thing, though, plus being surrounded by ponies. She smiled, as Spike lazily opened his eye to see his friend levitating a nice, juicy emerald over to him.

"Wakey wakey, Spike..."

Spike swung a hand at the gem, missing it by a few inches.

"Spiiiiike... time to get uuuup..." Twilight softly sang. Spike sat up, saw the gem hovering millimetres from his eyes, and snapped his jaw around it... unsuccessfully. Twilight had moved it an annoyingly tantalising distance from him.

"Ok, ok, I'm up." he mumbled, rubbing his eyes. "Can I have the gem now?"

"You can have the gem when you're out of bed." Twilight said, smiling.

Spike grumbled but hopped out of bed, grabbing the gem from Twilight's magic grip, and began chewing on it. He was about to climb back into bed, but Twilight grabbed him before he could. "We have a big day today, remember? It's Rarity's birthday."

"Rarity's birthday?!" Spike cried, frantically looking around, under and on his bed. "Holy guacamole! I hope I haven't lost her present!"

Twilight giggled. "Don't worry, I've got it. Now come on, Pinkie needs help setting the party up."

Spike plodded to Twilight. "So that's why I didn't feel it under my pillow..."

"You needed to sleep well."

"Yeah, I know, but you couldn't have left a note?"

Twilight put a hoof on her chin. "Well, there's that..." Spike faceclawed.

---

The party, not surprisingly, came together really quickly. With Dash's speed, Pinkie's... -ness, and Twilight's organisational skills, everything went supremely well. The room of Sugarcube Corner was festooned with balloons, party and posh foods (baked by Applejack and Pinkie), streamers and the large cake in the centre with a small miniature model of Rarity on top, respendant in her gala dress.

"Man, this party's gonna be awesome!" Dash exclaimed, pumping a foreled as she hovered a hoof off the ground.

"I know, right?" Pinkie replied, bouncing (literally) with joy. "Rarity's gonna love it!"

"Ah reckon' so." Applejack added, leaning on one of the back walls, hat tipped over her eyes. She removed herself from it, pushing her hat back from her head. "Ah hope so, that cake took a hayova long time t'make, even with four o'us."

Twilight nodded. "Plus, those decorations look great." She heard hoofsteps from outside. Sneaking a glance, she spotted it was, in fact, Rarity, being led to Sugarcube Corner by Fluttershy (in theory, in practice she was following, meekly giving directions).

"Quick, she's coming! Hide!" She whispered, and everypony found their hiding spots; Twilight and Spike behind the counter, Dash the chandolier, Applejack and Pinkie the cake.

The door opened slowly. "Fluttershy, dear, there's nothing here to be afraid o-"

"SURPRISE!!!"

"Whahahaaa!" Rarity whinnied, falling to her haunches in shock.

"Did we surprise ya?" Pinkie asked, bouncing up to Rarity. "Did we? Did we? Huh huh huh?"

"Um... surprise?" Fluttershy timidly and quietly said. Rainbow looked at her with annoyance.

"Oh my stars..." Rarity muttered. "You did all of this... for me?"

"Well, duh!" Pinkie said. "It's your birthday!"

Rarity picked herself up, smiling with joy. "Oh! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I thought you'd all forgotten about it! Um, no offence."

"None taken." AJ said. "C'mon, let's get to the partyin'!"

And so they partied, and partied hard...

---

...until the party ended in the late afternoon, when all the food that could have possibly been eaten had been, all the drinks consumed, all the presents given (so many that Fluttershy had to help Rarity carry it all back to her place), and a great mess left behind. Twilight and Spike volunteered to remain behind to clean it up, and the Cakes gave them permission to lock up shop while they brought the twins to sleep and then they too.

"Boy, some party, huh?" Spike said dreamily, a vision of Rarity dancing playing in the theater in his mind, all the little Spikes cheering. He pushed some loose streamers and popped balloons into the pile he was amassing in the centre of the room.

"When Pinkie throws a party, you know it's gonna be a good one." Twilight added, feeling fuzzy inside (not to mention full from cake). She lifted up all the paper plates and shoved them into the bin

"No doubt about it." Spike continued, signalling to Twilight that the pile was ready. Twilight nodded, transferring it to the same bin, then wrapped up the bag and trotted outside, levitating the keys to the shop up. "Spike, could you grab the bag, please?"

"Okie dokie!" Spike said contentedly, hefting the heavy bag and plodding outside. "So, what now?"

"Well, put the bag in the big bin and then we go home and rest." Twilight sighed, "I'm exhausted."

'Who knew parties could be so tiring?" Spike mumbled, rubbing his eyes.

"Pinkie."

---

Twilight woke up the next morning, the rays of the sun double-filtered by the clouds and curtains. While the rest was rejuvinating, it wasn't nearly as such as the night before. She sat up on the bed, stretching both forlegs. Spike was already awake (unusually for this time of day).

"Good morning, Spike..." Twilight mumbled, rubbing her eye and yawning.

"Morning? Naw, it's midday."

"Wait... what?!"

"It's twelve forty-two." Spike said, glancing at a watch on his wrist. "You overslept."

Panic.

"No no no no no no no!" Twilight cried, frantically scurrying to her hooves. Her centre of balance shot out and she fell chin-first to the hard, wooden floor. "I can't have overslept!" She magically gripped Spike's watch and tugged it (and it's wearer) in front of her eyes. "Oh no! I'm going to be late!"

"Late?" Spike grunted, snatching his arm from Twilight's grip. "For what?"

"Princess Luna is visiting today, and I'm one of the only ponies she knows!" She responded, hefting herself off the ground and galloping to the door, her pupils small. "If I'm not there, she might not-"

"Relax, Twilight." Spike said dissmissively, not as worried as his friend. "She'll be fine."

Twilight refused to simply ignore such a potentially disasterous situation past, and flung the door open...

...and galloped right into something hard and metallic. She grunted in pain as her head swam, falling to her haunches.

"Excuse me, are you Miss Twilight Sparkle?" the gold-plated metallic thing which was shaped an awful lot like a white-coated pony asked, stern and unwavering.

"Y-yeah... I am." Twilight mumbled, lifting herself up and brushing herself off.

"In that case, you're under arrest for the murder of Ginger Gold." He replied, with a hint of venom in his voice. Twilight felt her being grabbed by the wings of two pegasi and being virtually dragged... somewhere. She struggled to keep her legs under herself. "You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do." Then, quietly. "not that you'll be getting much of a chance for that."

"WHAT?!" Twilight cried. "Ginger Gold is dead?! And you think I did it?!"

"No, our forensics team know you did it. You weren't exactly careful with your methods." The mare to her right said. "Left a whoooole lot of clues behind."

Twilight stammered. "But- I- what- huh?!" None of this made any sense. She would never kill anypony! "What time did it happen?"

"You should know, seeing as though you did it." the mare grouched. "But for the record, it occured last night, at 12:47am."

"I was asleep!"

"Pffft, yeah right." The huge buck to her left murmured. "That's what they all say."

Twilight continued to protest against it, but stopped when she saw the toweringly tall midnight-blue pony in front of her, its wings spread wide and her face twisted into a frown.

"Twilight Sparkle!" Princess Luna bellowed. "Thou hast betrayed our trust in you by committing such an unspeakable act!" Her face scowling more, she leaned in close. "You have upset Celestia. I hope your happy."

No Twilight thought, her gaze lowering. I'm not happy. She was still confused; how could she do something she was not even aware of? And for that matter, why?

"Thou will be given a formal trial, in the spirit of fairness. But be warned, should thou lose, thou wilst be punished accordingly!" Luna continued to boom, as her long, slender horn glowed with an aura of blue energy. A similar field wrapped around Twilight and the royal guards holding her stepped away. Twilight felt energy building up around her body as she started to glow. Teleporting.

With a surge of energy and a sickening jolt, Twilight felt gravity once again taking hold, and she fell to earth, her legs failing to hold her upright. The floor she landed on was cold, uneven and hard, made of cobblestone. Her head was swimming and her stomach was twisting in knots, and it was all she could do to keep herself from vomiting. Teleporting yourself is one thing, but having someone else do it is less... pleasant.

Even with her body fighting just to make sure it was even alive, she could hear voices outside the little room she was teleported into. "Oh look, Luna sent us the little murderer." The emphasis on murderer tore a hole in her heart. "C'mon, captain, give it the speech."

"Ok, if I have to." Shining Armour replied. Shining Armour?!

"Allow me to accompany you." Celestia added. CELESTIA?!

"Certainly, your grace." Shining said.

This can't be happening... this can't be happening... this can't be happening!

"Ok, listen here, murderer." Shining said flatly, reading off a piece of parchment and not looking at her. Celestia, on the other hoof, was looking at her with... she couldn't tell. Shining continued; "your trial will be tomorrow, 8am. If you lose the trial, then you will be hung the next day. If you win, you will be set free. Understa-" He looked up from the paper and his eyes widened. "Twily?!"

Twilight tried to speak, but her words got caught in her throat. All that came out was a little squeak.

"You're the murderer?!" Shining cried.

"No, I'm not!" Twilight finally managed to say. "I didn't know about it until I was arrested!" Come on Celestia, say something.

"I'd like to believe it, but they're all saying the evidence..." He sighed, his brow lowering into a frown. "How could you..." He shut his eyes and stormed off, barely containing his sobs. Twilight reached out a hoof, but lowered it. She looked to Celestia. "Princess Celestia...?"

Celestia solemnly closed her eyes and trotted out, closing the door behind her with her golden magic. She didn't seem upset, angry or sad. Only... disappointed.

Twilight fell asleep, collapsing in a fit of sobs. It was all she could do.

Comments

[Darth Link 22]

Well, I must say, I'm interested.

Keep it up.

[halo003qd]

Wow Twilight has no luck (check my story) and this evidence had better be extremely circumstantial

[Mother3Forever]

I can't take the suspense! Update soon? Please?

[Erebos]

Dude I'm tracking

[leaderofstars]

damn.

[xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

You have piqued my interest. Don't disappoint.

[Starshine Dart]

I'm interested. Definitely tracking.

[Inferno demon Dash]

Ummmmmmmm.........ok, no doubt that I'll be tracking this but.....damn.....this felt like it was......rushed....BIG time and also really OCC.....she was just...and then...I don't.......Yeah, I'm hoping to see how this is all going to turn out becuse I'm confused as BUCK right now....keep writing and you did very in turn of spelling and grammer.

[StormbadgerXIII]

770346 I am working on the next chapter as we type.

[Crystallize]

Even with this so called "evidence", the princesses and Shining Armor seem quick to judge, or is that just me?

[DoomManta]

"I hope your happy" you're

[Diamond Sparkle]

Poor Twilight.

[RaptorJesus]

I don't know what to do of this story yet, so I'll follow it for now - I just hope you make her friends stand by her (given how fast the princesses and Shining Armor let her down, I wouldn't be surprised if her friends did the same...But I would be extremely disappointed).

[StormbadgerXIII]

771860 I'm not a cruel guy, and I certainly don't want to kill Twilight; she's one of my best ponies!

[StormbadgerXIII]

772482 The other Mane 6, plus further reaction of Princess Celestia, will be shown in chapter 3.

[StormbadgerXIII]

770686 Shining is trying to decide what to think, and Celestia has something else planned in true Monarch of the Morning style...

[Frost]

You're British, from the guard's "you're under arrest" line. Just a random thought. Also, I have a feeling...

[Fome]

Haven't read, and you're apparently gone, but:

is sentanced to death in Canterlot

sentanced