Earning Freedom

by Daxisle

Unexpected Alliance

Unexpected Alliance

Sin awoke before the break of dawn, checking the clock to find it was 4 hours past midnight. He quietly exited the library and made way to his camp in the everfree forest to collect his belongings and bring them back to be sorted out.

Reaching into his saddle bag, he found he had his last and strongest crossbow remaining from his destroyed arsinle, with no more than five renforced bolts at his disposal. He briefly contemplated making more, but knew the effort to be futile. The final crossbow was one of his most prized and powerful weapons. The Ragnerock would instantly splinter any wooden bolt that didn't have the correct reinforcement, destroying the projectile before it had a chance to find a target.

He traced his hoof over the dark oak frame of the bend, all the way to the whipcord draw string. It was still as beautiful now as it was when he'd fist gotten it after he'd "graduated" his grandfather's survival training. Still, it wasn't an ideal weapon for survival, since it's power rendered any makeshift bolts utterly useless at worst and inaccurate at best. But it would have to do for the time being.

His weapons gathered, the Federalist went over his mental checklist inventory. One cast iron pot, two tarps, flint and steel, tattered cloak, spare cloak, spare canteen, titanium mug, broken goggles (curtisy of granny Smith) his paracord, ropes, two knives, medical kit, cook where and a few more bits and ends.

Looking over his supplies he felt something was missing, but what? That's when it hit him, the stallion wondered over to a near by tree and found his bowl, still sitting as he'd left it, plus a few dead flies, and a fair amount of purple scales.

Breathing a sigh, Sin took out one of his plastic wraps and sealed the bowl to carry without dripping. He didn't look forward to the process of the scale implantation, but the idea of becoming invulnerable to magic was too much for him to refuse.

Three hours after dawn broke, the Federalist reentered the Library to find Twilight Sparkle cooking some pancakes for breakfast. "Hey, where'd you go off to?" She asked.

"To collect my gear from my camp." He stated matter of factly. As the scent of the cooked batter hit him, Sin suddenly became aware of how hungry he was, and the fact he hadn't eaten anything all day yesterday with his stomach letting out an unnecessarily loud groan of hunger.

While he could have gone without it, Twilight's amusement was apparent and offered for him to eat with her. He was hungry, had no bits, and completly spaced foraging for his food that morning, so he wasn't in a position to turn her down. Besides, if he was going to get along with her, he would be better off making an effort for it.

He briefly trotted to the guest room in the back and returned to see two plates made and on the table. As the two ate, the librarian made a few attempts at conversation, but Sin's lack of social skills quickly ended her attempts at compliments of her cooking and sharing his concern about Spike's well being.

After one too many awkward situations, Sin finally caved. "Look, Ms. Sparkle. I'm not a friendly stallion, alright? I know you're trying to make me feel welcome and I appreciate it, but I'm just not a pony person." He said with completely neutral honesty.

"Yea, I've noticed." Replied the mare sarcastically. "You know, you aren't all that different from how I used to be, actually." It was kind of hard to believe from her current personality, but Twilight Sparkle used to be a shut in who spent all of her time held up with her nose in a book, completely uncaring for the notion of friendship or social interaction.

Looking around the home and the many tomes, all of the paperwork, and the fact she used Spike to write at most every moment she had a thought, Sin didn't find the idea inconceivable for a second. "Yea, real hard to believe."

"Why do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"That? Where you're always rude or sarcastic when you say something."

Sin chuckled, slightly perturbed by the inquiry. "I'm not always rude or sarcastic." Twilight disagreed, pointing out in many of their interactions that didn't involve him being in the wrong, most everything he said to her or her friends was either heald snarky undertones or was outright dismissive.

'She's got a point, Sin. You are a sarcastic ass hole.'

Eat a bag of dicks.

Though, the more he thought about it, the more he did come to realize that aside from dealing with her and her friend's outside of trying to make them understand his point of view on Macintosh and Spike, he was quite rude and dismissive. He had reasons though, like Fluttershy being the poster pony for legislative actions and Rarity reminding him of a fat tub of goo back in his homeland.

But then something else occurred to him. He hadn't encountered all that many laws in this land. Yea, he was helping ponies escape for wrongful imprisonment, but that was abuse of power, not law. So maybe he was being a bit unfair here? Okay, maybe just a little bit.

"That's just how I am, I guess." Sin shrugged, still mulling over his thoughts. "The Federation is a different land than yours is. Sarcasm and rudeness are kind of a second language to us."

He half expected a quill and pen to pop out of no where and for the scholar to begin jotting down notes, instead she asked why mean spiritedness was such a common theme in his homeland. Fact of the matter was that apathy and "coolness" was a hot trend in the Federation. If someone cared about something, it was almost common place for others to ridicule it. Especially if the one who cared didn't have a sharp tongue to rip apart arguments made. Leading to most avoiding social interaction on deeper levels and focusing more on shallow topic and agreements.

Sin had his theories, but all in all; North New Equine, well Unitas to be more precise, was just full of spiteful ponies among other races. Constant fear and anger kept everyone stressed out and friendships were based on mutual benefit and manipulation over genuine care and companionship. Division over any issue was the common topic for conversation, his people loved to complain, whine, bitch and moan about anything and everything under the sun yet never take action to rectify the problems they had.

The cynical and stand offish front the stallion put on was a reflection of the culture, he supposed.

Twilight frowned as she considered his words, Equestria wasn't perfect by any means, but its citizens were far nicer and understanding than most others.

"Are you happy you left?"

Sin quirked a brow. "I don't much care for the idea of being happy."

Jaw almost dropping to the floor, lavender mare allowed a bit of pancake to fall from her mouth at his words. Not caring about being happy? What was the point in life if not to find happiness?

It was a question he'd contemplated for a long time as well. Freedom had always been his answer whenever that question came up, but he had to face the facts. Freedom was a means of happiness, not the ends of it.

Before she could ask for clarification, a firm wrasp at the door drew their attention. "Shining?" Twilight gasped before embracing her brother in a hug. The two shared a moment of closeness and Shining let himself in, giving a curt nod to Sin. "Anarchist."

"Captain." Sin replied with a smirk.

Once he was situated, Shining explained to both of them that the Trial for Spike would be held tomorrow and that Celestia had convinced their pack Alpha to allow her and her friends to give testimony on the drake's behalf.

Tomorrow? That was much sooner than Sin expected.

Twilight bit her lip, she was both happy and afraid that the judgement was so soon. At least she wouldn't be kept in suspense for long.

"It was good to see you, sis, but I need to get going. I only stopped by to tell you about where and when the trial would be. Princess Celestia wants all Royal guards on high alert just in case" he looked to Sin, "anything happens." The Federalist didn't react save a small hesitation on his final bit of food. It shouldn't be surprising the princess was taking counter measures against his own actions, she wasn't stupid.

Shining left with a goodbye to both, leaving the two ponies alone again. A quiet sob escaped her lips, but Sin placed his hoof on her shoulder, garnering her attention. "You haven't lost him yet, and there's no time for tears now." he said, summoning every last bit of compassion he could muster. Twilight needed to gather her friends and have plans to travel by tonight.

She nodded and made way to Fluttershy's cottage while Sin made way for Sweet Apple Acres. Macintosh would want to be there too and while he may not help with the plan, he would be there for moral support.

-------------

"Eh? Oh, it's you." Granny Smith grumped at the tan clad pony who stood on her door step. "Yer lookin' fer Mac, Ah assume?"

"No, I came here for your cheery disposition." Sin deadpanned. "Look, I don't have time for this. Spike's trial is tomorrow and I need to tell Mac about it."

"Hoooo no." Granny stomped her hoof down. "We can't have 'im leave fer a whole day! Applejack still ain't back yet from her date, n' Applebloom can't handle the farm by herself! What with 'er bein' a filly, n' all."

As luck would have it, the very stallion he needed came over a hill, carrying a cart full of empty bags with an exhausted Applebloom trotting besides him. Disregarding the elder, Sin made way to intercept and told about the happenings of tomorrow.

Happily, Macintosh was far more receptive than Granny was, but was unsure of the plan to rescue. Applebloom begged to come along, but Mac refused, stating that the danger of her getting hurt was to great, especially if Sin was going to start a rebellion that would pit the K9's against ponies in their own land.

Macintosh dismissed himself to the rest of the day's work that would need to get done if he was going to be away and trotted off to get more rejuvinizer. Thinking quietly to himself about what he was going to do when the time came. Sin was also about to dismiss himself but a tug on his cloak stopped him from leaving.

"Ah know Ah don't know ya, n' Ah don't really like ya fer takin' mah brother away. But Ah also don't want anypony gettin' hurt." Sin looked down at the filly, who looked back at him with confused and concerned eyes. He couldn't imagine how confusing and convoluted the situation must seem to a child. "Spike did a bad thing, 'n when ponies do bad things, they need tah be punished. Righ'?"

But his mind was made up on what was to be done. "Tell me something, kiddo." He stated, leaning down to eye level but maintaining a comfortable distance. "Do you have any friends?"

"Course Ah do." Applebloom stated as if he'd asked the stupidest question in the world. "Sweetie Belle n' Scootaloo."

"Alright, than answer me this. If you knew that someone, er, somepony was going to kill them because of a mistake they'd made, would you stand back and let it happen because 'you didn't want to see anypony get hurt?'"

She took a step back, relinquishing her hold on his cloak. "It's not fair and doesn't make a lot of sense, I know." Sin stated turning around and walking away. "But life is full of senselessness and unfairness. What matters is how you deal with those situations, you may not like it but someone will get hurt regardless of if I stand by and let it happen or not."

He walked away, leaving the applefilly to contemplate his words. He had a lot of work to do tonight. Hopefully he could get on the stand along with Twilight and her friends and plead his own case against the execution. He had a defense formed in his head, so maybe... just maybe he could make them see mercy.

As expected, the former senator found the library far more populated than when he left it. One Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie were all present.

The four mares greeted him awkwardly, which he returned with a curt nod and made way straight for the guest room. He grabbed a quill and piece of parchment and began writing down the points he was going to make. Citing different instances and utilities that the drake would certainly hate him for if he got the chance to rehearse them.

About twenty minutes into his point by point script, the right corner of the page folded itself down and then back up to reveal a sketch drawing of a certain chaotic being looking at him from the parcel, moving about as if completely oblivious to the fact inc wasn't supposed to move.

"And what are you up to Sinbad? Oh my?" He said, looking at the words and tutting. "And here I thought you were a stallion of freedom. I am very disappointed in you."

"Better than him being killed." Sin replied, skeptical as to his already questionable sanity. Was he really talking to a Discord drawing that magically appeared on his paper?

'No, you're not insane. I see him too.'

The voice in my head tells me I'm not crazy, how comforting.

With a snap of his fingers, the drawing disappeared and the full fledged, multicolored draconequus reappeared right besides him. Scrambling to put some distance between the two, Sin took in the much larger serpentine god. He'd seen him before, but that was while he looked like a poorly designed statue. Actually seeing him upclose, flesh and blood able to move around and use all of his limbs properly?

Well, that just topped his list for "weirdest things seen this week".

"So it would be better for him to live on his knees than die on his feet, then?" Discord crossed his lion paw and clawed arms. "You're not the stallion I thought you were."

Spike had committed aggression, that part was undeniable. But death was too far an extreme for what he'd done, and while Sin wasn't against him being punished, he was against it being the dragon's departure from the world.

This piqued Discord's interest, and he inquired about how the Federalist came to this reasoning.

"I'm no fan of government, but I am a fan of consequence." Sin replied, returning to his paper. "Consequences are what govern the world. Action and reaction. If there weren't reaction for aggression being committed, than there would be no point in advocating the non-aggression principal. I mean, why would anyone who didn't care listen to anything if there weren't consequences to be faced for it?"

"Spike aggressed against the dogs by going to them looking for a fight. He deserves their retribution for that, but I'll damned before I sit by and allow him to be killed for it."

Discord looked thoughtful, leaning back into the air and stroking his goatee while he thought. "So, you're okay with him being punished for what he did, but you don't want him to die for it. Is that it?"

"Yes." Sin nodded, writing down a few more points to his list.

"And what if they find him guilty and sentence him?"

He put down the quill and looked at the draconequus "Than I do whatever I can to rescue him."

"Whatever you can? Huh? Does that include hurting others?" Discord opened an eye and looked down at him. "I can't imagine Sun butt would be to pleased with you interrupting a trial like that."

"If need be." Sin countered solidly. "And Celestia, Luna and the rest of them can eat a dick for all I care."

The two stared each other down. Discord's typically playful and jovial eyes far more serious and analytical as he studied the pony's face. Sin grew uncomfortable from the staring contest, something about the red and amber eyes of the draconequus sent shivers down his spine and his stomach into a theme park, but he wouldn't be the first too look away. It didn't matter if he had to maintain eye contact for hours, he was resolute in his decision and was going to save his friend one way or another.

Happily, the tension was quickly broken as Discord's serious face slowly turned into a menacing grin. "I'm in. What's the plan?"

Comments

[Godiswithus3]

Oh, I am so going to enjoy the jail break operation. Spike, hang in there. Help is on the way.

[TheStratovarian]

Did you mean to leave in the (Sin seeks help from discord) ?

But well, quite the nasty little bit of potential here for more than just everything to hit everywhere.

[Daxisle]

6305175 No, that was not supposed to be left in there... Thank you for pointing it out.