Meta Gamer in Equestria: Odyssey

by reflective vagrant

Chapter 15. rehabilitation. (The Warm Welcome, Part 6)

Present day.

Luna's voice was tinged with pain as she responded, "I know I officially apologized to you afterwords, but I want to say again how sorry I am for so forcibly invading the depths of your privacy back then, Moss. You have a truly strong and good soul to open up to one that left you in such a state."

I didn't even really know what to think about it anymore. "My soul didn't feel all that strong or good at the time," was the only thing I could think of to respond.

Luna winced at those words. "Well, I don't think I'll miss anything if you want to skip it."

I glanced back over to her for a second, shrugged, looked back down and said, "OK I guess. We kinda got a lot of ground to cover still. I've had a lot to deal with. The whole ordeal after you declared me innocent, especially with Tempest, learning to trust in..."

I looked over to glance at my guest's hooves, horn, wings and ethereal mane. "...in 'people' again, Archimedes coming into my life and the grim reminder he became, figuring out how to work with those knuckle heads on our first mission, learning what it was like to properly wield magic, helping end the war, the aftermath of the war, Dalock, disease, that bastard Dalock again..."

I paused for a moment then took a sharp, pained breath. "...Fluttershy's death."

Princess Luna carefully and gently, placed the tip most feather of her wing on my shoulder. I started to pull away, but stopped myself, letting the feather stay in contact.

"Discord may have been angry in the moment, but after you left he came to realize it was not your fault. He shouldn't have pushed you as he did and he has been trying to think of ways to apologize when you return."

She paused in what was a surely a humorous memory, taking a moment to stifle a nostalgic giggle and return to a calmer tone.

"And I think I'm starting to see what actions you were ashamed of doing, though I do wish to better understand why you are in such a level of disarray over them. Your actions gave us the fighting chance we needed to finally capture Dalock for good."

I hesitated for a moment upon hearing this, but eventually looked up at her.

"It might not help you justify them to yourself, but try to at least take some comfort in that, please?"

I stared into her eyes and eventually managed to make a clearly forced smile. With this she was content and pulled her wing back to let me continue my tale.

I took a strong breath and let it out again. "The morning after the astral judgment I..."

---

The morning after the astral judgment I was under what was called a "prescription strength calming spell." From what I was told, it wasn't uncommon for those that had gone through the astral judgement in the past to be violently desperate if found guilty and sometimes suicidal levels of depressed when found innocent. As such, the calming spell was standard procedure for them either way.

Starlight was sitting next to my bed in the prison's hospital wing, doing her best to console me and provide company. Unlike the calming spell, I wasn't obligated to have company and I could ask her to leave at any time, from what I was told, but I needed answers and the spell gave me just enough of a level head to want to seek them out. So I used the opportunity as it presented itself.

"So you see, the astral judgement is supposed to be a purely voluntary appeal for those that insist they are innocent of an act of treason or a death penalty offense. It isn't meant to be put on an unwilling subject, and is only allowed to be forced on somepony against their will when we are at war. Even when we are at war, we still have a tri-factor set of check and balance regulations to make sure it isn't abused."

I only sat there in my bed, hugging my own knees. After another glance up to Starlight to acknowledge that I was hearing what she was saying, I turned my head back down and searched for a way to further smother my face into my knees.

I wanted answers, but even with the calming spell I still felt like total crap. I knew I had been declared innocent of espionage and that I wasn't a soldier of the foreign army, but that didn't feel all that important to me right then.

"I saw everything she raked my mind for," I told Starlight as I rocked back and forth. "Every last inquiry into my home world and my being here. I saw every last answer my mind was able to provide right along side her."

Starlight came up to the bed and tried to extend a hoof in comfort, only to find me shrinking away.

"P-please!" I exclaimed in a fairly calm, but still elevated, voice. "Please, don't touch me. She tried to comfort me in... that place when she was finished. I didn't want a hug, but she smothered me so quickly I couldn't breathe, let alone object. It felt like hours of suffocating and struggling in that iron grip of hers before she finally let me go. After all that, I don't want another hug, or anyone touching me for that matter."

She backed off and let me have my space. The air grew increasingly awkward as I struggled to think about what to talk about next. If I were wanting to talk about it, we would have discussed how I never really had any particular fondness for my own race back home. How we would be fairly decent to each other on the surface level, but we would also regularly do horrible, seemingly unfathomable acts to each other. That "Princess of the Night" already knew enough about that. I didn't really need another soul knowing how that astral judgement made me ashamed of ever being a member of the human race. One being knowing that secret of mine was one too many already.

Instead, I deflected with another question, "So what are those safety guards? That tri factor thing?"

Starlight had an expression of mixed joy and uneasiness at my question.

"Well, first off, since only dream walkers can perform astral judgements, any pony recognized with the one in a million gift is forbidden from participating in any other step in the paperwork of an astral judgement even if their position normally could do so, and those that are trained in dream walking can only perform it legally when an approved request is delegated to them. Second, a request for a war time forced judgement has to be approved by a governing princess and a governing princess only. Finally, only the officer..."

She gave a pause. Both of my lucky charms were tilted towards invoking bad luck that day, so I had to work with what I could do on my own. All I could tell was that she was being careful on how she worded the last part.

"...assuming responsibility of the prisoner may submit the form for Astral Judgement. Any willful violation of this process is an affront to our nations ethical standards and is a punishable offense equivalent to an act of treason."

At that word, a shiver ran down my spine that grew to an outright spasm as it reached the ends of my limbs. "T-treason... Can we change the subject now?"

"Yea, no problem," Starlight said with an uneasy smile. "What else did you want to talk about?"

My mind wandered as I looked around. I could finally see other prisoners outside the window in the court yard. It reminded me of how I was never able to leave my cell, not that it would have done me much good. I would have likely been forced into more trouble if I was with the other prisoners. I doubt there was another humanoid here, though I was seeing a few other races in the court yard. Those dog like creatures and ponies were the most prominent though there were still so few that it seemed the prison was anything but packed. I didn't even have any neighbors back in my old cell.

"So what happens to me now that I've been declared innocent?"

Starlight followed my eyes and slowly went towards the window. "Normally, when a citizen is found innocent, they are released immediately. But you aren't a citizen. You aren't even technically a legal resident. Until I get some paperwork pushed through to grant you residency as a refugee, we still have to hold you here as an illegal alien. It should be finished tomorrow after I get a little information from you, though, and you should be able to be released the day after that."

She turned around and looked at me a bit more apologetically "but then the real trouble begins. You'll be released into the populace and our efforts to keep the details of the war from the public haven't lasted as long as we had hoped. You'll be viewed as an enemy and a spy just for having a similar form as the invaders. We'll have to make sure you aren't released without an escort that can vouch for you and protect you."

Somehow, I didn't find myself getting very upset at the idea of an officer escorting me like a criminal and I could tell it wasn't the spell. I still kinda felt like a criminal after what I saw about my home world again.

"So I'll have to-" I took a pause to press on my amulet as Starlight gave me the signal that its outgoing effect had used up its current charge again. "So I'll have to have a parole officer then."

She gave another uneasy, about to throw technicalities at me, look.

"Well, technically they're called Rehabilitation and Reintegration Escort Officers. They're a type of officer that lives with you and follows you around when you go out until you're deemed capable of being on your own. But they have been called parole officers before, since they have had to arrest their charges every now and again for breaking the law while still under their care."

A guard rattling a hoof on the bars to my medical cell alerted Starlight that her time was coming to a close.

"I need to get some information from you before I go so I can finish up your paperwork. I don't have to have everything, but the more you can tell me the easier it will go. The only item I don't have but absolutely need from you is your name. What is it?"

I briefly cracked the tiniest of smiles and responded, "@#^$#*Moss."

I looked down towards my mouth in disbelief of what had come out. Meanwhile, Starlight cocked her head in confusion.

"Moss? Isn't that your character's name from the board game?"

I nodded in agreement at her question. "What I meant to say is-" I took a moment to brace myself then spoke each word as carefully as I could, "My. Name. Is. @#^$#*Moss. No. Not moss, @#^$#*Moss. @#^$#*Moss! @#^$#*Moss, damn it!"

By this time I was rolling off the bed as the calming spell struggled to keep up with the sudden spike of emotion.

I looked up at Starlight as she quickly came around the bed and stopped just far enough away to respect my personal space. Tears started coming out of my eyes as I whined. "I can't even tell you my name..."

Starlight knelt down sympathetically and set her eyes alight with magic mildly similar to the stares I got from the zebra, but far more visible than a mere glint. After a few seconds, she dropped the magic and responded.

"You've been bewitched into not saying it... I think. I'll do my best with what I have then. But it will probably take me an extra day to file a few extra pages. Sorry."

Author's Note:

For those wishing to burn me at the stake for the way I mentioned Fluttershy in this chapter, all I have to say is that the whole story isn't revealed yet. Stay tuned.

Comments

[Who cares]

You should probably have left the death of a main character a surprise.

[reflective vagrant]

9015557
For the sake of argument: Yes, perhaps I should have. But it's done now and I intend to stand by my author's note for better or worse.

[reflective vagrant]

9015557 Oh, and I did a minor rework to ch 8, if you wanted to go back through. Nothing in the grand scheme changed, but a bit smoother and a bit better character development I think.

[Timeless Lord Slayer]

Intriguing as always. I'll just keep reading for more.

[Zwei]

I hate mind reading. It always infuriates me unless the main protage gets back at the mind reader. But this story is too intriguing i will keep reading but i'll still be annoyed.

[reflective vagrant]

9129692
reads comment. ponders things to come in story with an ironic laugh.

...Well you might just get some level of satisfaction, depending, but it might not be in the way you expect.

Thanks for reading.

[Caniputmyballsinyojaws]

I swear if he forgives anyone of those gaurds and them as well I am gonna flip my crap

[reflective vagrant]

10917619
perhaps you should look up the story of the one man Gautama Buddha could not forgive. Not a source of inspiration for this story, though.