11| Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels
While I entertained the idea of returning to Mercy to take part in the next stage of the plan, Celestia was resolute with her idea of letting the guards handle it. I had to agree with her: What was the point of hiring someone to do a job if you were going to do it for them? That, and I didn’t want to find a mountain of paperwork waiting for me at the end of the day like the previous, so I handed things off to Comet so he could keep me apprised.
When it came to making the arrests of the aptly named Map Stallion (and, by association, Lumen), I thought it was a good idea to read up on some Equestrian law before jumping head first into arresting someone. Despite how far our rule extended, Celestia and I couldn’t waltz into any random town or village and arrest any old Tom, Dick, or Harry without a convincing reason. Similarly to Earth, I needed to make warrants stamped with Luna’s seal to prove the validity for each pony I wanted to apprehend. It was also a courtesy to present the warrant or warrants to the leader of the community we were making the arrest in. Given how tightly knit a lot of communities were, plucking someone off the street without good reason wasn’t a good idea, even if I was a princess who was presumed to know what she was doing.
After I figured out what I wanted to do, I gave Comet two jobs: to present Granite the warrants stamped with Luna’s seal to prove their validity, and to ask him for a list of any local nobles buying land. While Comet chased up any leads, Firefly hung around town in wait of Lumen and the Map Stallion while Midnight went back to the campsite for the same reason. As luck would have it, Mercy’s sheriff and deputy were unicorns, so one went with Middy and the other with Firefly to cover more more ground, and to aid in teleporting whoever showed up to Mercy’s jailhouse temporarily.
In trusting Comet, Midnight, and Firefly to do their jobs, that put my worries at ease so I could focus on Luna’s regular duties.
As far as court was concerned, I often felt as though it was a waste of my time tending to tedious bureaucracy and monotonous paperwork, as well as babysitting a wide variety of simple-minded individuals. I had wings for crying out loud! I could soar through the sky like a majestic bird! I had a horn that could bend the laws of physics and reality itself! So why the actual fuck was I stuck telling a noble she couldn’t impose a tax on a popular local swimming hole?
To be fair, I think that was just a bad day at the office. God only knows I got those on the odd occasion on Earth. Because I was handling the morning’s petitioners by myself since Celestia did it yesterday, Lunchtime couldn’t have come soon enough. By the time I got to the dining hall for some much needed coffee and food, Celestia was waiting for me like she’d just gotten out of the bath with her immaculately groomed mane and coat, while mine was slightly frazzled from the stress of dealing with idiocy all morning.
“How were the proceedings?” Celestia asked.
I sighed deeply and headbutted the table.
“That bad, huh?”
“Somepony tried to levy a tax on land that didn’t belong to them!” I exclaimed.
Thump, thump, thump, went my head.
Celestia rolled her eyes and giggled to herself. “Come now Luna, you’ll headbut a hole through the table.”
I sat up and brushed a lock of my mane from my face. “Ares has done that more often from falling asleep at his desk than I have! Anyway, this brings to light something I’ve been meaning to ask you.”
“Oh? And what might that be?”
“If one of us wants a day off, the other has to pick up the slack, and things are a bit draining as is between court, the paperwork, and the happenings in Mercy.” As far as I knew, I’d been picking up most of the slack. Celestia might’ve done the proceedings yesterday, but she still stuck me with the paperwork. “What I’m suggesting is we both hire an adjudicator to stand in now and then.”
Munching on her cornflakes while I helped myself to some food, Celestia actually seemed to properly consider what I had to say. “Hmmm, some extra time to myself does sound particularly nice…” Another mouthful of contemplative cereal chewing. “What would you do on your days to yourself?” she asked me.
“I want to get out there and just... fly! Fly to the top of Mt. Canterhorn and drop like a stone so I can feel the wind running through my mane!” I said with all deserved conviction. This was supposed to be a holiday for me, not so I could be shuffled from one world’s paperwork to the next’s.
“I have to agree with you on that one, Luna,” Celestia said, her eyes downcast. She sighed and drank some juice. “Alright, I’ll bite for now. We’ll each take on somepony to act in our stead with matters of the court.”
I rolled my eyes at that. “Oh please, it’s sitting in a chair for several hours telling stuffy nobles that no, you can’t monopolise the castle’s food supply, and no, you can’t knock down a wall of the castle to build a pool!”
Celestia blinked owlishly in disbelief. “That... actually happened?”
“The head chef is a son of one of the nobles, and said noble wanted me to sign over responsibility of stocking the food stores to him so he would have everypony pay him for the food instead!”
Celestia raised an eyebrow at me and smirked. “So why didn’t you? It would mean one less thing for us to worry about.”
I gave her the same answer I gave to the noble. “Not only is that exploitative, I’d go so far to call it profiteering. We don’t privatise food to make money.”
“Are you absolutely sure that’s what he would’ve done, Luna?”
Given the nature of rich people, I’m pretty sure he would’ve. Regardless, I said; “We’re getting off track here. Back to hiring adjudicators?”
“Yes yes, of course.” Celestia cleared her throat. “So we each hire somepony to act as one another’s representatives and train them to take care of minor aspects of our duties, freeing up our own schedules.”
“In a nutshell,” I replied. “Either that, or we could close court for the weekend, or at least one day.”
“Is that such a good idea?” Celestia said.
I snorted humorously. “That depends how you look at it. Can the nobles go a couple days without us telling them which end shit is supposed to come out of?”
“Luna!” Celestia chastised, despite breaking into a small fit of giggles a moment later. She took a few seconds to compose herself. “You are right with one thing, though; our schedules are long overdue for a change. What’s today?”
“Thursday,” I replied. “We can do it like this. Monday to Friday we open court from eight AM to five PM. On Saturday, we take care of the more important duties by appointment. You do the Saturday one week, then I’ll do the next, and then we both get Sundays to ourselves.”
Celestia sighed warmly and ruffled my mane, and I batted her hooves away like a younger sister should, smiling back up at her. “I am liking this idea more and more, Luna. Alright, so it shall be. You can take the afternoon to draft the notice that we’ll put on the throne room doors, but it’s something that we’ll have to start with next week.”
“Yeah, can’t randomly close your doors and leave everypony that shows up wandering around like chickens with their heads cut off,” I laughed.
“I’ll see you at dinner, then.” Celestia leaned down to wrap a wing around me in a hug, then gave me a peck on the forehead. She made her way to the throne room, and left me to my own devices for the rest of the day.
Drafting the notice and Celestia proofreading it later meant I had the vast majority of the afternoon to do whatever I wanted. Contradictory to what I had suggested and why, I went to the library afterwards to try and make another spell to assist with charting the chasm. I was taking already existing spell concepts and modifying them based on inspiration from movies and TV, and this particular one was inspired by the scanner probes from Prometheus. Unlike the film, having a fully 3D rendered map wouldn’t get me lost after the area was fully mapped.
Unicorn doctors had a kind of primitive way of analysing your body like an MRI would, but the spell needed a lot of fine tuning to be used as effectively. What I did was reverse the matrix to scan outward instead of inward, and amplify the power to cover a wider area. I then fed the scan results onto another parchment, designed to come up as a kind of 3D map thanks to a branch of magic called hard-light constructs.
The only problem I ran into was that I had little knowledge in the way of topographical charting and cartography, so I needed a resident expert to help finish the spell. Someone like Atlas or another pony that worked for him.
When I went to find someone to help me with just that, I opened the door as I went to leave and was surprised to see Firefly on the other side. “Oh, hello. Caught one of them already, have you?”
She blinked and looked me up and down. “Did I interrupt something?”
“Nothing important. What’d you need?”
“Well, I thought I’d stop by and report that neither stallion showed up to town or the campsite. Midnight suggested we stay in town overnight to maintain a presence if either of them show up,” Firefly stated.
“If those stallions are mining gold, keep an eye on places in which they’re liable to spend large quantities of it. Buying everypony drinks at the bar, surrounding themselves with mares at cat houses, etcetera,” I said.
“Sure can!” Firefly went to walk away, but paused and looked over her shoulder. “What’s a cat house?”
I face-hoofed. “You know, a brothel, whore house, that kind of thing. How do you not know?”
“I know what a brothel and a whore house is, just haven’t heard them called a cat house before. Ciao for now!” With a poof, Firefly was gone.
So long as I had someone outside my door to ward off any more would-be thieves, Midnight and Firefly could spend the night in Mercy so long as it was on official business, although Firefly seemed the type to go to a bar and drink everyone under the table because of her metabolism. With Atlas in Mercy for the week, I had to wait on him if I was going to finish my spell, or at least try and find someone who could help me polish it off.
As I sat at my desk thinking up new spell ideas and jotting them down in the journal Luna gave me, I wondered what she would think about my new spells after we swapped back.
And then that’s when I realised something extremely important.
My eyes widened in panic, and I began jerking my head left and right in a fruitless attempt to find an immediate answer to my problem. My hooves began crumpling the pages of the diary as I rifled through them to see if Luna left me a note of some kind, but to no avail.
I began banging my hooves on the desk, paying no mind as to who might hear me. “Goddamnit, Luna! What the fuck!?” That little shit never told me where the mirror she used to trade places was, let alone how to find it!
More knocks came from my door. Grumbling and muttering profanities, I threw it open. “What?” I demanded in annoyance.
Boreas immediately took a couple steps back, Ares doing the same. “Are you ok?” Boreas asked. “We heard a lot of shouting and screaming.”
I sat on my haunches and took a deep breath to calm myself enough to think of an answer. “Sorry about that,” I groaned. “I was trying out a new spell and wound up giving myself a bit of an electric shock.” To make the lie more convincing, I stretched and rotated my leg and wrist for show.
“Are you going to be ok? Can I get you anything?” Boreas asked.
“No, I just… I’ll be fine.” I tried giving the two of them a reassuring smile, but Ares didn’t seem to buy it. “Actually, I could go for a stiff drink. Is there any liquor around?” I needed a damn good drink after that revelation.
“Are you sure drinking is a good idea after an electric shock? It’ll mess with your heart,” Ares said matter-of-factly.
“Alicorn healing factor,” I said with a proud smile. I remember when I broke my arm in college, and that took six weeks to heal. Because of Equestrian magic, an adult earth pony can break a leg and be up and kicking, quite literally too, in a few weeks. Unicorns were the average at about a month, but pegasi take a longer due to their bones being hollow to make flying easier. A story Celestia told me in passing, she said it took her about a week to heal a broken foreleg. The only downside was a marginal decrease in magic power since latent magic aided in the healing.
“Alright,” Boreas sighed, “I’ll go see what’s in the cellar.”
“Maybe some wine instead of the hard stuff,” Ares said, levelling a gaze at me.
I didn’t need something weak, I wanted something strong! Boreas, not knowing what to make of my request and Ares’ suggestion, shrugged indifferently and began trotting down the hall.
“Alright, so why were you really shouting and screaming?” Ares asked, turning to face me once Boreas was out of sight.
I blinked at the unexpected question. “Because I accidentally gave myself an electric shock?”
“Nobody uses their own name when spouting profanities,” he said pointedly.
Shrugging off the question, I rolled my eyes and levitated over the parchment I was working on earlier. “I was working on increasing the power level of this spell matrix and got the spell wrong and wound up shocking myself.”
Ares looked it over for a few second before he too, shrugged. It appeared he couldn’t understand what I was working on, so at least my bluff paid off. “Alright, if you say so.”
“Have a good night, Ares,” I said politely before I closed the door. The thing about paranoia is that you get put on edge when someone mentions something about your secrets. Therefore, I had no idea if Ares was onto me, or if he genuinely thought shouting my own apparent name to the heavens was odd.
Wanting a distraction, I filled Luna’s luxuriously large bathtub with extra hot water and some aromatic oils and soaps while I waited for my booze to arrive. I needed both to melt this newly found stress away if I had any hope about how I would rationally approach trying to locate the mirror before Luna and I were due to swap back. Which, after I looked at the calendar, was in exactly two weeks. Did the bitch try and strand me in a land of magical horses, or did she simply forget? I know I did. Brooding on it wouldn’t do me any good, so I resigned myself to the tub for an hour to think more about my situation.
I just hope the next two weeks wouldn’t be too busy so I had time to look for the mirror.
During the night, I tried looking for Midnight’s and Firefly’s dreams so I could have a quick word with them, but I couldn’t find either until I was due to raise the moon, which hadn’t happened before. I made a mental note to ask them why that was when I saw them next.
Even though the next day was bitingly cold, my latent pegasi magic made it a lot more bearable. It aided in offsetting the temperature differential during high-altitude flight and prevented wings from icing over below a certain altitude. Despite that, I still put on a scarf to keep warm. It was a bonus that it made a young Luna look pretty cute too.
As I was walking to the dining hall, I happened across Veloce walking down the halls for breakfast too, who was wrapped up in a blanket like a little bat burrito. I giggle-snorted rather indignantly, much to the pony’s annoyance.
“Hey,” she objected, “us thestrals don’t have the same kind of magic pegasi do to keep the cold off of us! Our wings can freeze faster than you can say batsicle!”
I couldn’t get rid of my grin as we walked to breakfast.
There weren’t nearly as many petitioners as there were the previous day, so Celestia and I had quite a bit of spare time between us, further validating my point about having someone fill in for us when the amount of work was at an all time low. It was like that one time on Earth the office was full of people on a miserably rainy day, and you could count the number of people actually needed to take care of the work on one hand. I didn’t understand why Celestia was blind to something like that.
Around three o’clock, I’d draped myself over my throne seat like the letter M as my hind legs idly swayed back and forward in wait of the next petitioner while Celestia went to the restroom. Everything was so quiet I heard a lone pony walk up the hall towards the throne room before I saw them, so I quickly righted myself and sat up properly.
Firefly poked her head around the door and waved. “Hi! I can see you’re so busy you probably don’t have time for me,” she snarked, “but it behooves me to inform you I’ve apprehended the Map Stallion and he’s currently waiting on you at Mercy’s jailhouse.”
Next to me, Boreas frowned and narrowed her gaze at Firefly. “While on duty, please be more respectful to the Princess,” she said very evenly. “Do not let it happen again.”
I blinked, rather surprised how she said that. Regardless, as the current guard at my side, she was quite right to say that too.
“Wait here and I’ll go fetch Celestia,” I said to Firefly.
I quickly teleported to outside Celestia’s bedroom, where I found one of her guards standing outside. “Is Celestia in?” I asked.
“She is, Your Highness. Shall I fetch her for you?”
I wasn’t going to let the guard potentially wander in on Celestia mid-trickle. “I’ll do it. It’s important.”
“As you wish,” the mare replied.
I rapped a hard knock, then gave it a few seconds before entering. I opened the door, just in to catch Celestia walking out her ensuite.
“Something the matter?” she asked.
“Firefly’s apprehended the Map Stallion. I’m going to go over to Mercy and bring him back here. Would you mind watching over court while I do that? I shouldn’t be too long.”
“By all means,” she said approvingly. “It’s about time we brought him in for questioning.”
I teleported back down to the throne room to get Firefly, and moment later we were at the jailhouse. Inside, Sheriff Runic Gleam was waiting for us. He was a white, black and brown tabby-coated stallion specialising in shielding wards that kept prisoners inside their cells. You couldn’t get out unless the caster of the ward deactivated it himself.
“Afternoon, Princess,” Runic greeted with a tilt of his hat, snuffing his cigarette in the ashtray on his desk. “If you’ll follow me, I’ll take you to your stallion.”
“Much obliged,” I replied. Runic got up, grabbed the jailhouse keyring, and unlocked a door next to him that lead down a corridor lined with half a dozen cells each side. At the end of that hall was another door which he also used a key on, then deactivated the ward surrounding it. At the end on the far right was the stallion that broke into my room. Rather pathetic really. His mane was dishevelled, there were stains of god-knows-what on his coat, and he was sleeping on his side on a bed of straw. From the looks of it, he had a hard night out. All the cell contained was the straw bed, and two tin buckets. One with fresh water, and you don’t want to know what was in the other one.
“Found the guy in a bar, as you foretold, Princess, showing off a small sack of gold nuggets he must’ve mined,” Firefly stated.
“Where is the gold now?” I asked pointedly.
“Right here, Your Majesty,” Runic said, magicking a small sack out of nowhere and giving it to me. “Keep it as evidence if you must.”
I took it, then opened it to peer inside. My expression instantly lit up at the sight of all that gold, enough to make at least thirty to thirty-five gold coins. “For your help,” I said to Runic, levitating him enough nuggets that equated to about four or five coins. I teleported the rest back to my room to show Celestia later. Evidence or not, me being a first-hand witness was more than enough, so I had no use for it.
“Thank you very much, Princess,” he said gratefully.
As Runic began unlocking the cell, I turned to Firefly and said; “Where is Midnight now?”
“Back at the campsite with the deputy. He got a few hours sleep while the sheriff and I kept an eye on this drunk.”
“I’ll take him back to the castle so he can sleep off the rest of his hangover. Meanwhile, go see to Midnight. After I raise the moon, find Comet and come back to the castle.”
“Understood, Princess.”
I levitated the Map Stallion from the confines of his cell, and then teleported both of us into the castle’s dungeon. The guard manning the post, surprised to see me show up with someone in tow, immediately snapped to attention.
“Princess!” he exclaimed with a salute. “What brings you down here with…” His eyes hesitantly scanned the stallion in my aura. “...him?”
“If you could place him in a high security cell, that would be most appreciated. When he wakes up, get him some food and water, and something to bathe with. I’ll be down tomorrow morning to deal with him.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
The guard winced and levitated him from my hold, then took him off deeper into the dungeon. The kind of place that has no windows, but a single lamp hanging opposite the wall for light.
After that, I walked back up through the corridors to the throne room, where Celestia was looking over a scroll.
“Afternoon,” I greeted as I walked inside.
“How’d everything go?” she asked, looking over the top of the scroll in her aura.
“He’s currently in a cell sleeping off the tail end of a hangover.”
“Must’ve been drinking heavily if he’s still asleep after four,” Celestia snickered.
“Yeah, you should’ve seen him when I went to retrieve him from Mercy. Anyway, I’ll see to him tomorrow, and give him his sentence,” I said.
Celestia rolled up the scroll, placed it with a few others and gave me her attention. “And how do you plan on dealing with him?”
I sat down on my throne, and poured myself a cup of tea. “If you’d like, you can join me for his sentencing. Just so I’m not having to tell two different ponies the same thing twice.”
“I shall. Now, what are your plans for Lumen?”
“If he doesn’t show up by this evening, I’ll send him a personal summons for tomorrow. The immediate kind. I’ll take him down to the cell where the Map Stallion is, and then we can all have a nice little chat,” I said.
“I hope you’re not going to be too harsh,” Celestia said, fixing me a stern look. “I would like you to tell me what you’re going to say to them both. At the end of it, we still have to give your assailant the exile sendoff.”
I took a sip of tea, and munched on a biscuit. “The more the Map Stallion co-operates and divulges, the less time he’ll spend in the cell. Hopefully that’ll convince him to spill the beans about Lumen, too. At most, Lumen will get a sentence for conspiracy depending how much he’s involved, but the other guy will inevitably be exiled as per our chat on the night everything occured.”
“That sounds reasonable,” Celestia said. “Can’t have somepony that dangerous loose in this land. Now we just play the waiting game until he wakes up.”
“He’s been passed out since the early hours of the morning, so it shouldn’t be too long now,” I said hopefully. “He also had this on him.” Remembering the gold, I magicked the sack from my room and showed it to Celestia.
“Oh my,” she said once she looked inside.
“I gave Runic, the sheriff, some for his troubles, then when Midnight and Firefly return, I’ll give them a share as a bonus.”
“Hmm, a nice thought,” she smiled.
Sure enough, I didn’t have to wait long. After I lowered the moon, Midnight and Firefly knocked on my bedroom door half an hour later. Midnight looked absolutely shot for having nothing but three hours sleep in the last thirty-six hours. I found out that both he and Firefly stayed up all night waiting for the Map Stallion to show his face when he was in a bar the whole time. After I gave them both a share of the gold, I sent the rest down to the treasury to be minted and told them to get a good night’s rest.
As luck would have it, Comet came by and gave me a short list consisting of a half dozen names of nobles buying up land inside the caldera. And wouldn’t you know, Lumen’s name was on the list. That was when I discovered his surname was ‘Histoire’.
Shortly after, Ares knocked on my door, and I opened it to the same guard stallion I spoke to in the dungeon.
“Princess,” he bowed, “I’m here to inform you that the stallion in the cell has come around, and has been given some refreshments. What would you have me do with him in the meantime?”
“Nicely done,” I said approvingly. “Keep a close eye on him and make sure he doesn’t do anything else stupid.”
“If I may ask, what is it he’s done? If my superior officer asks, I need to give him an answer.”
I pondered the question for a moment. “Were you privy to the rumours last month about a break-in at the castle?”
“I heard about that, but only in passing.”
“Yeah, that’s the one that broke in. Stole a few of my belongings–”
The guard’s eyes widened.
"–and assaulted me.”
His jaw hit the floor.
“So yes, make sure he doesn’t go anywhere.”
“I shall pass on the information to my replacement come shift change. On your leave, I shall return to the dungeon.”
“Have a good evening, and make sure to report anything worth noting,” I said gratefully.
“Your Majesty,” he said in lieu of farewell, bowing slightly before cantering off back to the dungeon.
That night gave me enough time to mull over the finer details of what I was going to say to the Map Stallion and Lumen. There was always a sense of closure when someone that wronged you got what they deserved, but that feeling became even sweeter when it was you who’s handing them their just desserts. I also couldn’t deny that there was a semblance of revenge in handing those two their sentences.
Come morning, it was just as cold as the previous day, if not more so. The scarcity of petitioners again gave me a chance to write Lumen’s summons, thankful that Comet’s list had his surname so the pegasus courier had a complete name and address, the latter of which I obtained from the records of his visits.
During the day’s proceedings, Celestia dealt with the petitioners while I sat in my throne thinking up some spells I wanted to try and jotting them down so it looked like I was busying myself, as well as actually finishing off any paperwork so I had a completely clean work slate. While I kept an ear out and answered any questions put to me, I was in court partially to catch Lumen’s arrival.
As much as I loved bad weather making the workload scarce at work, it was annoying how you were often stuck with long periods of time with next to nothing to do. Come two o’clock, and in the absence of any petitioners, Celestia and I were discussing what we were going to do when Lumen arrived. I told her something I thought of to catch both stallions off guard, which she seemed to like a lot. A bit of a bait and switch, really. We were going at it for a solid twenty minutes when an oh so familiar face walked into the throne room.
“You requested my presence?” Lumen said with a proud grin.
“Ah, thank you for answering the summons,” Celestia said. “There have been some matters that have come to light that Luna and I need your input on.”
“It would be a pleasure to assist, Your Majesties,” Lumen replied, beaming widely. God, his smug levels were off the chart.
“You go on ahead, I’ll catch up,” I said as Celestia got up off the throne. When she and Lumen were out of sight, I turned to Midnight. “Did you catch our earlier conversation?”
With an ever so slight grin, Midnight winked. “Yes, Princess.”
“Come then, let’s meet them in the dungeon,” I replied in kind.
As I left the throne room, I instructed the two guards standing present outside to close the doors for the next twenty minutes, and to have anyone that comes looking to wait until we get back.
With Midnight in tow, I couldn’t wait to get down to business.
A couple minutes later, we both found ourselves walking up on Lumen and Celestia, waiting for us by the senior guard posted at the main entrance to the dungeon.
“So good of you to join us, Corona,” Celestia said.
Lumen, however, was looking quite perplexed. “Pardon me for asking, Princess, but who is she and why are we going into the dungeons?”
“All shall be revealed in due time, Lumen,” she replied.
The lack of what he was being told, combined with the fact that we had turned the corner into the secure section of the dungeon made Lumen increasingly antsy, like a smoker that needed a ciggie.
Eventually, we arrived at the Map Stallion’s cell, and I sat off to the side while Celestia took care of business. Midnight, however, could only be seen by Celestia and I. He was our insurance against Lumen if he tried anything.
Judging by the combined looks of Lumen and the cell’s occupant, they’d both been found out, but neither said anything for the moment.
“About time!” the Map Stallion exclaimed in exasperation, jumping forward against the bars. “I demand an explanation of what the hell I’m doing in here!”
“You are being charged with treason, theft, breaking and entering, and assault for the time being,” Celestia said. “Given the nature of whose room you broke into and subsequently assaulted, your crimes will amount to at least two years behind bars, upon which you will be exiled.”
“Bullshit! You got nothin’ on me! Cough up the proof and witnesses or let me out!”
All the while, I had a parchment and quill with me, writing down the stallion’s description all the way down to his compass rose cutie mark. Unlike Lumen’s white and blue version, this one was brown and green against his rust-red coat.
“Princess,” Lumen hesitantly spoke up. “I don’t understand why I am here, or what Corona there is doing.”
Celestia ignored Lumen’s question in favour for the Map Stallion’s continued third degree. “By the way, what’s your name? I don’t believe Luna caught it when you assaulted her.”
The stallion visibly blanched at that mention. “Why does that matter?” he said after a moment.
“It’ll help with the description Corona here is writing down,” Celestia clarified. “You see, if you accept the plea bargain I’m about to give you, you will spend considerably less time in the cell, potentially as little as two weeks or a month instead of two years. After that, you will be properly exiled. Corona is writing down your description and details so we can give them out to every town and city. That way we’ll know if you make a return within these borders.”
He was silent, fuming like an angry bull being stopped dead in his tracks. That was the look of utter defeat, and I loved it.
Unbeknownst to me at the time, Lumen was trying to back away from the situation unfolding before him, but was stopped by Midnight, whose invisibility spell flickered when Lumen bumped into him.
“You’re not going anywhere, pal,” Midnight said, giving Lumen a coaxing shove back to his original position.
“I demand to know what I am doing here!” Lumen indignantly demanded.
I waved to the Map Stallion. “Hi, you remember me, yeah? We first met at Powder Keg’s shop when you were buying those sacks of boom sand for your little mining project. What we want to know is why you were talking to Lumen here.”
“How the hell did you know about that?” he gasped. If he kept giving us answers like that, this thing could be over quite soon.
“Those ponies I was with? Princess Luna’s personal guards. We were in Mercy specifically to find you and bring you in for your crimes, and we saw you talking to Lumen here at one point,” I said.
“You mentioned a plea bargain. What’s in it for me?”
“Time off your two year sentence for each answer, so long as the information proves correct,” Celestia said.
“He’s one of the financiers,” the stallion said immediately. “We were discussing about the cost of replacing some equipment that vanished from our campsite.”
Midnight grinned rather proudly. Had he not done that to begin with, Firefly might not have spotted the two talking. Credit where credit was due.
“Shut up you idiot!” Lumen spat, glaring at his former accomplice.
“If I’m going down I’m taking you with me, asshole!”
I unrolled the end of the scroll further and levitated Comet’s list over to the bars of the cell. “How many others are financing your little project?” I asked.
“Alongside Lumen, Wintergreen and Lamplight are financing the whole operation. The other nobles are buying land for a cut of the profits.”
I kept jotting down all the information.
“That means you three will be getting time for conspiracy,” Celestia said to Lumen. “To the tune of about three months, after which you will have your title and land stripped from you during incarceration as punishment.”
“What?! You can’t do that to me!”
Celestia levelled a very scary gaze to Lumen. “Had you gone through the proper legal channels and obtained permits, none of us would be sitting here, your little friend wouldn’t be getting exiled or have a scar across his face, and we could all be enjoying a nice cup of tea at home by the fire, couldn’t we? You’ve made your choices, now you’re going to answer for them.”
“What I don’t understand is why they decided on a cloak and dagger operation,” I smirked. “Either way, they would’ve likely walked away with the vast majority of the profits, minus the fees of their operation and a tax cut to the crown. Now they don’t get diddly squat.”
Celestia turned her attention back to the stallion behind bars. “Why’d you break into my sister’s room?”
“Lumen paid me to steal the maps. We didn’t have the resources to chart the area ourselves, so he told me of a place where we could find some.”
Lumen, however, continued to grimace and groan with each revelation that implicated him.
“Six months,” Celestia said over her shoulder, to which Lumen groaned some more and began the humourously slow process of sliding down the wall in defeat.
“What what was your role in all of this?” she continued.
“Supervisor for the operation as well as messenger boy. Go here, do this, manage the work force, then I’d be as rich as the twats that got me into this position.”
“Don’t blame others for your poor choices,” I said. “Who are your work force, and where were you getting your equipment from?”
“A couple packs of diamond dogs. In exchange for a share, they’d be happy to do all the digging and manual labour. As far as the equipment goes, one of the other nobles was responsible for using his connection to source mining equipment, so I honestly don’t know.”
I had no idea what the hell diamond dogs were, but I was suddenly getting flashbacks to my mom’s David Bowie album that she used to play during long car rides. God I hated that thing.
“I believe I’ve gotten all that we came here for,” Celestia announced, turning away to walk back down the corridor.
“Compass,” a voice said, making me look up and Celestia turn back around. “My name is Compass.”
“It’s nice to make your acquaintance, Compass,” I said. “Too bad it couldn’t be under better circumstances.”
“No kidding,” he dryly replied. “Sorry if I was rude to you the other day. Lumen was putting the screws to me to get all the boom sand we could get our hooves on.”
“That apology doesn’t mean anything when you threatened to slit Luna’s throat,” I said, taking a few, intimidating steps forward.
“He did what?!” Celestia exclaimed.
“How in the actual fuck did you know about that?!” Compass demanded.
“Midnight, do the thing.” And just like that, I was sitting there in all my blue glory, making Compass and Lumen go wide-eyed with the most sincere look of utter disbelief. Compass may have had double vision, but he didn’t see that one coming.
“Aw shit,” Compass groaned, where he proceeded to noisily bang his head against the bars.
“I should add high treason and threats of murder to the list of your crimes, but I’m not sure it would matter at this point,” Celestia seethed, giving Compass a look that made him tremble. “Luna, if you wouldn’t mind finishing things up while I see to the throne room.”
When she teleported away, Lumen and Compass let out a sigh of relief. Honestly, I did too. There was no telling what she’d do to Compass if she lost her temper and snapped, so I was glad she had the maturity to step out and cool off.
“So… What happens now?” Lumen asked despondently.
“For one thing, you’re not leaving this dungeon. Midnight, show him to an anti-magic cell,” I said, waving Lumen off. Cells built specifically for unicorns were weaved with runes that dampened, but didn’t completely negate a unicorn’s magic. Cells for earth ponies had thicker bars and walls.
“Come on buddy, let’s go and find you someplace nice,” Midnight said. “Try anything fancy and I’ll put you next to Big Bubba.”
As Midnight lead Lumen away, I turned back to Compass. “Here’s what’s going to happen. I’ll be having an artist draw up a portrait to go along with your description. In the time it takes me to chase up the information you provided me, your poster will be mounted on the wall of seedy dive bars, kingdoms, and everywhere in between. Upon your exile, if you ever set foot in this country again, I will know about it.”
“I guess nothing I can say will make my position any better for me, will it?” Compass said rather bitterly.
“If it’s any consolation, I can let you pick where I teleport you to,” I offered. “The Undiscovered West, The Mysterious South, the Unknown North beyond Mt Everhoof, or the Gryphon territories in the east.”
“Your map makers need to get more creative with their naming,” Compass scoffed. “I’ll let you know when you get your business done. Now get lost so I can mope in peace.”
“Suit yourself,” I shrugged. I rolled up my scroll and tucked the quill inside, then made my way back up to my room. Idiot forgot to ask how long he was going to spend in the cell for being oh so helpful.
With all the details Compass provided, I had my work cut out for me in tying off loose ends for this whole debacle. I had nobles to question and sentence, packs of diamond dogs to locate and have a word with, not to mention figuring out who was making all that mining equipment that Midnight got rid of.
I could only hope and pray there was no more hiccups along the way, but things like that always have a way of going tits up.
I've only just gotten around to adding this here. Updated the description to cover my bases as well.
Ares belongs to Seryph Song on DeviantArt. Art and character used with permission.
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Update faster
8748286
Be more patient
8748398
I have absolutely no idea what a "Conduit" is, so no.
Think more along the lines of Natsu eating fire.
vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/powerlisting/images/4/4e/Episode_61_-_Natsu_eating_fire.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20111104232702
8748699
I believe he may be referring to the Conduits from the Infamous series
8748704
I've not played any of the Infamous series. Still no idea what you two are on about
I always love reading your stories, good quality it is.
, either way, I'm looking forward to reading the next chapter of this story
Just sad that the chapter ended
8748909
In the Infamous series conduits are people withe superpowers the one you play as in the first two games can absorb and release electricity. Absorbing it recharges his available energy and heals him.
For further explanation.
8749565
If that's the case, a Conduit would be an inaccurate comparison.
Firefly's pyromantic magic burns through her energy reserves quite fast, which is the cause for her accelerated metabolism. That also means she can drink you under the table.
This means that Firefly needs to eat a lot more food than the average pony to keep her energy levels up. Also, because physical energy and magical energy are linked to a small degree in my story, if she replenishes her magic by drawing in nearby fire, then that will offset the need for extra food.
I've put a lot of thought into this hehe
8749580
that sounds similar to how the flash needs to eat a massive amount of food.
8750077
I understand that The Flash absorbs kinetic energy to increase his speed, but nothing about him having to eat tons of food to replenish his energy levels. Even if he did, it's still an inaccurate comparison.
As of right now, the only media I've drawn inspiration from for this story's creation has been Code Geass and Fairy Tail. And MLP, but that's obvious. Everything else I've made up.
I'm not a big Marvel or DC fan anyway, heh.
And the penny drops. Well, one of them at any rate.
Hopefully Luna is okay. And still alive.
I’m suddenly worried that the cracked mirror from the assault is a “Chekhov’s Gun”. After all what better use for a mirror portal than an actual mirror?
I hate to see what he does in the communal showers