113. The Crime
"Another?" asked Bold Roast, clearing away Radish's emptied glass.
“Nah,” said Radish, leaning against his hoof on the café’s counter.
“Is Light still out of town?”
“Yeah. How long do these artist retreat things usually take?”
“Usually, a week”
“It’s been a week.”
“Well, which one did she go to?”
“I, uh, don’t know. She was vague about it.”
“You didn’t ask for details?”
“I didn’t want to be one of those, you know, intrusive, untrusting boyfriends.”
“Yeah, mares hate it when you show interest in their interests.”
“Hmm.”
Hazy Shade entered the cafe. She noticed Radish and approached him curiously.
“Radish? You’re here? When I saw that Cat’s Howl was closed all week, I thought you and Light had… uh…”
“Had what?”
“Nothing! So, how are things? How’s Light been?”
“She’s been out of town since Tuesday.”
“You mean, she just… left? Right after she…” Hazy shade winced and looked away.
“After she what? Hazy… did Light talk to you before she left?” He took Hazy Shade by the shoulders. “Did she know?”
Hazy Shade gave a worried nod.
Radish slumped back. “She left me. I moved too fast, and I scared her off.”
“No you didn’t!” insisted Hazy Shade. “Fanny would never cut and run like that!”
“Come on, major,” said Bold Roast. “Light’s not afraid of anything.”
“She loves you, Radish,” said Hazy. “She really wants to be with you. I’m sure she’ll be back soon. Maybe she’s on her way back right now.”
“Yeah… maybe you’re right.”
Radish dumped some money on the counter, then left out the door. He wandered down the street, only pausing when he realized he wasn’t sure where he was going. He half-wanted to speak with Underglaze, Light’s ex-boyfriend, for some insight, and half-wanted to catch a balloon ride to Cirruscinnati to see if she went home to her parents.
“Hey! You there! Stop!” Radish heard shouted out.
Midtown ponies had a tendency to shout their conversations from across the street. Assuming it was directed at anypony else, Radish kept going. He then heard an ear-splitting whistle, and the clamber of hoofbeats on the sidewalk behind him.
“I said stop!”
Radish turned. A uniformed pony of the City Watch was standing behind him, with fury in his eyes and a truncheon in his hoof.
“What do you think you’re doing!?” he bellowed.
“I’m sorry?”
“That! What on earth is that!?” he said, pointing with his truncheon.
Radish looked at what he was pointing to. It was his cutie mark, on public display. He had forgotten his coat at Bold Roast’s.
Saguaro Shade entered the ninth precinct of the Canterlot City Watch. His old pal Jitte, a Watch sergeant, met him in the lobby.
“Thanks for coming, Shady.”
“What’s the issue, Jitte?”
“A beat cop picked up one of yours in Midtown. I thought it best to send for you before processing got too far.”
“You know I don’t interfere in these matters. Whatever the crime, let them do the time. Goes for guards as well as anypony.”
“The crime here is an unusual one. Public indecency.”
“Really? How indecent we talkin’?”
“He walked down the street without any clothes on.”
“Well, what’s wrong with that?”
“Well…”
“Wait… Root?”
“Yes.”
“You arrested a pony for his own cutie marks!?”
“The officer thought they were fake. Like paint or something.”
“Let him go.”
“Shade, imagine if you took a page from a dirty magazine and taped it to your flank. Should you be able to trot all over town like that? There’s no difference.”
“Difference? It’s growing out of his blasted hide! You’re telling me it’s illegal to be walking around in your own fur!?”
“A kid could have seen them! If he went through the palace like that, you’d bust him, too.”
“For being out of uniform. Not for being himself.”
“Yeah? What if he took a palace tour on his day off, showed them then? You’d let him walk your halls with those?”
Saguaro Shade bristled.
“Damn straight I would.”
“Then that’s your call. My town, my call. I can remand him to your custody this time, but next time he forgets his jacket, I’m booking him.”
They entered the holding cell hallway and stopped in front of a cell. Radish was on the bed, lying down and facing the wall. He was covered in a poncho from the precinct’s lost-and-found box. Jitte unlocked the cell and left.
“Come on, Root. We’re leaving,” Saguaro Shade said.
“I’m not going.”
“How’s that?”
“Let them book me. Let it go to trial. Let them make a federal case out of it!”
“Root, you’re angry, and you have every right to be. This won’t help.”
Radish turned over to look at Saguaro Shade.
“No, commander. I wanna fight them in court over this. Let them try to explain to a judge why my body is illegal. Let the arresting officer get his name and face in the paper. Let them name a legal precedent after me! Let’s give Canterlot the trial of the century!”
“Root… that’d all be rosy. ‘cept for one thing.”
He leaned in and whispered.
“You really wanna drag her into this? Because you know she’d get involved. You know she’d walk into court and testify on your behalf. You know she’d say the nicest things about you to the jury, to the lawyers, and to the press. She’d do it all willingly, cheerfully, lovingly.
“And then idiots would come out of the woodwork to drag her for it. Opinion columns and newsreels questioning her judgment. Spittin’ accusations and insinuations. The whole city whispering innuendo about you two. She’d never complain, she’d never show a hint of unhappiness, she’d just live with it. For you.”
Radish pulled up the poncho and looked over his cutie mark. He touched it with his hoof.
“Guards protect princesses,” Radish said. “When I took that oath, I thought it meant from invaders and marauders. But it goes beyond that, huh? It means protecting her from those idiots. From my own pride. She’s got enough to worry about without taking a witness stand on my behalf.”
“It’s up to you, Root.”
“Let’s go, commander. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry, Root. You haven’t done anything wrong.”
They left the cell and walked down the hall.
“Should I have just never come to this town, commander? Am I just one big headache for everypony in the palace?”
“Root, when you submitted an application to transfer from the Rangers to the Guard on my recommendation, Princess Celestia walked into my office and asked me what I thought I was doing. We actually got into a heated argument over you.”
“Really?”
“I looked her square in the eye and asked, ‘What are you afraid of?’”
“What did she say?”
“‘Getting that boy’s hopes up.’”
“Well, I did get my hopes up.”
“Yeah. But you’ve got a new hope now, huh?”
“Light Fantastic? I… was hoping…”
"Shady, one minute," called Jitte, as they passed by the front desk. Saguaro Shade and Radish turned. "Something's come up. I can't let him leave now."
"What’s this, now?"
"A mare is saying her child saw his cutie marks. I'm sorry, but I have to book him."
Saguaro Shade put himself between Jitte and Radish.
"Don't do this, Jitte."
A tall pink earth mare shoved past Jitte and pointed at Radish. "There he is! That's the pervert who shoved pornography in my daughter’s face!"
"I'm sorry, Shady," said Jitte, pulling out hoofcuffs.
Radish frowned. "I guess I'm getting my wish. Trial of the century."
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Dear readers, I'll be taking the rest of December off to rest and spend time with family. Radish and I will return in the new year.
11776803
WHAT, you can't stop the story in the middle of a cliffhanger like that, 2 to 3 weeks without a story, worse end of the new year
11776803
You've been putting out chapters at a blistering pace and each one being top quality, for that I am grateful to the point of grovelling
It will be a fantastic Christmas present to see your updates back in the new year, I'm really looking forward to it! Thank you once again for your wonderful work, have a good break with your family and all the best!
Oh my goodness, this is going to be very, very interesting.
11776803
Hope the rest of the year treats you well!
Wow, this is gonna be bad. Light off who knows where, Radish on trial and Celestia having to deal with all the negative publicity. Hoo boy.
Well, this wasn't the direction I thought things were going. Looks to be a fun ride though.
Called it! Fucking Light gets brain washed by Starlight and won’t return. Now that she’s out, and by out I mean give her a season, and we’ll see a “Our Town” Light Fantastic.
i can see this ending two ways.
1) raddish puts up a fight and ends up accidentily getting a law put in place that requires the covering of any cutiemarks.
2) raddish breaks down and fully vents about how his mark has ruined his life and made him have to work around it insted of with it like most ponies and maby a new law that allows ponies to have official cutiemarks insted is made
or the wild card could be light showing up with starlight in tow to help and demand celestia make a choice about raddish or let him remove his mark
O O F
When justice is not justice.
People do nothing wrong and get taken down.
This is why I left my job as a security guard after only 6 weeks.
I hated doing the things we were told to do, but most of all the things we were NOT DIRECTLY told to do (Racial profiling, big time).
The final line in my resignation letter said "I would rather be unemployed than compromise on who I am."
This is why you get so many ugly people in security - all the moral ones leave and we are left with the bigots, just like the fictitious guard here who arrested dear buddy Radish Root.
Stupid hardboiled neighponese town guard pony, just has to go and ruin everything.
Theory time! The pony who saw radishes mark is Cozy Glow! ... I think that's her name anyways.
also giga oof on the situation here, surprised it took so long tho.
11776803
Alrighty! Have a fun Christmas, and happy nonspecific holiday!
11776804
yeah fuck people for wanting to enjoy Christmas
I wouldn't want to be the lawyer in this case. Its not as straightforward as it might look in the first instance. People have a right not to be unwillingly subjected to the visual depiction of such acts and critically, Root isn't perceived be himself a lewd act (as certainly legislators from certain parts of the world would define LGBT people) but to be - unwillingly - wearing such an act.
Root could be in serious trouble here. In a purely legalistic sense, exposing a child to pornographic material is a crime. Not just a crime, it constitutes child abuse. What's more, Root knows it. He has demonstrated he knows this. He has always been careful who he shows his mark too, refusing to show it to Spike or to the CMC, demonstrating an awareness of this fact. It will be incredibly difficult to argue that he should be free to display his mark in all circumstances, when he has previously gone to great lengths to conceal it because yes, its definitely sensible not to show that to a curious 3 year old, come on.
Worst case scenario here: The prosecution changes the Charge from "Public Indecency" to "Exposing a Minor to Pornographic Material".
You could maybe argue (based on some Michelangelo depictions of Celestia that I am certain exist) that depictions of Celestia naked are inherently artistic) but its shaky. You'd essentially be arguing that under normal circumstances that would be the case, but not in this very specific case: which tricky to do legally speaking. Law is based on precedent.
The best case scenario he can hope for here, I think, is that the Prosecution (correctly) determines that Prosecution is not in the public interest, or to hope for some kind of jury nullification from a sympathetic jury that appreciates the unique circumstances around this case. There is legal precedent for the court to recognise that Root is only
humana mortal, and cannot maintain this situational awareness at all times; and can only be expected to cover his marks when appropriate to the best of his knowledge and ability and that prosecution for this oversight is not sensible. Additionally, it might make recriminations for the police involved, for not simply making a subtle request - reminding him he'd left his coat behind - and instead instigated a public nuisance. I do not think it likley that a court will decide: "Its okay to expose children to acts of that nature, so long as it is manifested on a cutiemark." Recognition that this is a trial he endures - and has born admirably - is the best scenario here.As such, I don't think its likely.
I don't think he will lose the case.
But a likely negative scenario is that Root receives affirmation that he is legally entitled to bare his own marks in public, but be served with a legal protection order keeping him away from schools and children that he must not willingly violate: this would not be named the same as a sex offender registry but would in effect be the same. (It would also be pointless, as Root has already demonstrated an awareness of the unsuitability of his marks.) This would of course be outrageous, because he was already doing that, but it would placate the mob if prove to be extraordinarily divisive.
This would instigate his desire to have his mark removed further, leading into the Out Town Catastrophe. I'm thinking this might lead him to a bad place where he is the only one happy with retaining Starlight's Cutie Mark, or that he'll find out about the whole situation and beg her to help him, placing the newly reformed Starlight in a really difficult position.
The other option of course, is that he wins his case, becomes happy and open with his marks, and then finds out that Light Left him to find a way to remove them; driving a wedge into their relationship.
11776864
Why are you talking as if what i said matters, if he wants to rest he will.
11776803
Happy Holidays and thanks for all the chapters you’ve been sending out.
11776871
I am at least 80% sure he was being sarcastic. I do not believe he did not wish the writer to have a bad holiday.
11776876
I just wrote it as a meme, I would have put fry's screaming face to ease the writing, but I can't put an image, people really took what I said literally
Remember when Twilight and Applejack were mad at him for changing his Mark?
Let them see this.
I just thought of a mildly fucked up joke. If this were in America Radish could get away from this Scott free by being LGBTQ+.
Why won't you let me say nice anymore you evil man?!
Anyways great chapter see you all next year
11776867
You have a well thought out and eloquent post here. I wanted to point out two things though. This line is not how rights work. I know that this is a popular interpretation of rights, but a right is read "You have the right to *verb*". In other words, people are not allowed to stop you from doing a thing. It is never "You have the right to *subject of verb*", or "You have the right to *noun*". The first dicatates the behavior of others and the second takes the property or labor of others.
Laws, on the other hand, are restrictions on rights. One excellent point you brought up is that we as a society have decided that children need to be protected, so it is worlh restricting our rights when minors are concerned.
The second thing I wanted to point out is that this is not any nation on earth. This is not the US, or the UK, or any other western style constitutional nation. This is a monarchy. There is an absolute ruler (yes Celestia and Luna are both princesses, but we all know that one has all the political power here.) and a political structure to support her. In addition to this, I suspect that this is a theoratic monarcy at that. There is an active higher power at work in the form of Harmony. All earth based governments with a strong religous component have legal clauses for "Acts of God", and in this world cutie marks are assumed to be given directly by Harmony. I really can't see this trial going anywhere.
11776900
Time to drag the Tree of Harmony into the courtroom to testify!
11776900
As an exercise, I've been trying to imagine what arguments I would make if Prosecuting or Defending this case.
Would be the argument I would attempt to make.
The counterpoint - that Root has as much right to display his marks as anyone else - is incredibly difficult to make. His marks are unique. So to might be his obligations under the law. The Law Routinely restricts our rights so long as the perceived gains can justify it. That indeed is the Foundation of Law; and the fact that Root has been royally screwed over by Harmony is not a legal defense. Someone who is born with unnatural compulsions, is screwed over by Harmony. Someone who is born into a family of thieves is screwed over by chance. Someone who hear's voices in their heads telling them to murder people has been screwed over by fate. Life isn't a fair race where everyone starts at the start line. The law doesn't generally allow for such things, and Root may well find himself on the wrong side of it here.
It is as you say - frankly - the religious component of the case which throws a spanner into these works. Root finds himself subjected to these marks. A victim of Harmony. However; these is not a legal defense. After all, suppose someone received a Mark in Serial killing? Are their religious liberties being trodden on, by preventing them from serial killing? Harmony is not a witness. They cannot be called to the stand to explain themselves.
I wonder. Is belief in "Harmony" as a cosmic force universal? Can Root claim that his religious rights are being infringed, if Harmony is believed to be a cosmic force dictating his expression? Can he present evidence that concealing the marks causes him mental anguish?
If I were writing this to be dramatic, I would have Root lose this case (because I am not sure how he can win it. He should have remembered his coat in order to avoid this situation.) and have Celestia dissolve the Court: triggering a constitutional Crisis as it is accepted that Celestia has this power and authority, but has never exercised it.
Frankly these situations are why "Prosecution is Not in the Public Interest" is an important decision for a public prosecutor to make; where it might be suspected that a crime has taken place or when they know the outcome in advance, meaning it is not in the interests of the public to pursue it. These might include the theft of medicine or food in an emergency, teenagers exploring their sexuality with each other, drug use in charitable "Safe Consumption" Rooms, a bout of violence from a mentally unstable person during a psychotic episode. It isn't in the interests of the public, in Root, or in Celestia to blow this into a big trial.
11776913
Could be interesting if Harmony's avatar materializes in the court room and starts lecturing everypony present about why the proceedings are wrong.
so from this i understand that nobody has had to legaly cover their cutie marks in history and nobody has been sued or something for their mark yet. Lets face it there were likely worse marks and even was apparently one talked about in a past chapter where there was a pony with a mark like his in the past.
Im no legal expert but i think that the fact raddish has been exposed to the "porography" since his childhood should be taken into account and also that there is no real solution to his mark known. if anything else this trial will raise awareness about how cutiemarks can be as much a problem as a blessing and i would love if the tree had to apper in the trial and explane why she "branded" and exposed raddish as a child to pornography.
Like the dude was legit branded and if he does get sued i will enjoy someone trying to argue against his cutiemark
Ah, something I thought of just now.
If Radish is locked up, he won't be able to worry about Light and try to find her. She will probably get captured and stuck in Starlight's village until Twilight busts the place.
The crime is he too sexy for his own good, and the verdict guilty
Man, come to think of it, Root is not recognized for his actions, he went to Nightmare Island, almost died, he fought against the changelings, a single warrior counts many and their princess, against the roots that consumed the forest of freedom, he He fought against Tirek, but no one knows any of this, at least not many, the ponies always refer to him when they go as "the stallion with the obscene cute mark", and now he doesn't know where his girlfriend is , just when he was going to ask her to marry him, and now he's being judged for something he's not responsible for, bro, how much will this affect root's mind, like I'd be irritated for doing so much and being so little recognized, and still in prison, not to mention the effect of having his cutie mark removed, it will fall like a guillotine on him. holy Jesus
11776803
Have a great christmas and new year :)
Oh man! Every time I think I know what’s going to happen next… Cocktail Olive- you plot tease you! We have two tantalizing storylines going on here. I didn’t think anything you could throw at me would make me say, “Fanny- your story can wait! I need to see this court drama!” Cue the Law & Order “duh duh”. I’m imagining Neighsay as the prosecutor (or some pony equal to the task- Spoiled Rich would be perfect too). I’m sure it’ll be a different pony equally perfect in ways I’ve yet to imagine (perhaps even a sympathetic character making more than just ultra-conservative points). Will there be a jury? Will the jury contain familiar ponies? Is light willingly staying in Starlight’s town or is she actively being kept from returning home? After making a National case of it- and if he wins, would Radish even be tempted by Starlight’s solution? Or is Rad destined to lose this fight and be even more open to having them removed?
I’ll have to re-read previous chapters to get my fix while Cocktail is on a well deserved break for the holidays. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I’m selfishly anticipating his (and Radish’s) return. Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays everpony!
You know what, I've been wondering where Harmony has been in all of this. But what if this isn't Harmony's fault? What if another force has been tampering with things, just small enough not to be noticed in the grand scheme of things? A.. long game plan if you will. As in, how much chaos can just one regular earth pony cause? It's one thing to mess with the princess's heart, It's another to be the potential cause of a religious and constitutional crisis.
"With so much chaos, somepony will do something stupid. And when they do, things will turn nasty. And then, Celestia will be forced do the only thing she knows how to do. At which point, all Radish needs to do is keep his word. And then..."
11776976
I mean I don't know if radish will be very effected by removing his mark. I mean most ponies build themselves along with their mark but radish has an odd relationship with his. Maby removing his will only remove his attraction to celestia and since his skills and stuff were not made along side his mark he will just be him still
11777069
...makes me wonder what his end goal here would be tho? Also he cant see him im pretty sure, so maybe discord being what holds equestria together would be a shocking revalation or something.
11777123
Oh gosh i just realized, what if his plan is to just get Celestia to take a vacation. that would be AMAZINGLY IRONIC.
11776923
That is a really good argument. If I was on the defense, I might counter with something like this:
As one's marks are the core of their Harmony given selves, I would argue that it is a duty to display them. Let's take this hypothetical serial killer. It is to the good of all that everyone around him be aware of what he is at his core. And while the exercise of his talents would not be accepted, well, we are not asking if the defendent should be acting out his marks in public are we?
This case would certainly be interesting, with zingers on both sides, like "Just because we know that Harmony wants us to multiply, does not mean we parade the act in the streets" and "So the proscution proposes to know better than Harmony itself".
11777262
It is probably relevant as to what role "Harmony" is believed to play. Everyone believes in "Harmony", but is Harmony believed to be an intelligent consciousness? A Divine Being? A Cosmic Force? Does everyone agree? Does the court need to pick a side?
Is it even the role of a court or a government legislate as to what Harmony's will is? Suppose I am a Pony who does not believe in Harmony? Who thinks the world is governed by chance and that Cutie Marks are not a manifestation of guiding destiny, but merely a visual manifestation of randomly mutated magical abilities.
A Mark in cooking is not a sign of a governing guiding intelligence telling me I should cook, but simply a manifestation of a randomly generated natural talent in cooking magic? What if there are ponies who reject the idea that Harmony governs their lives at all, that they should be free to follow their own chosen destinies, not those governed by an external force? Is the veneration of Harmony merely one possible philosophy, a fact of the universe, or simply the primary state religion?
And if it is simply the state religion, can a secular court really make law according to its precepts? What of Griffons, Sea Ponies and Dragons - are they to be governed by the Will of Harmony as defined by Ponies?
This could open up a whole can of worms as whether or not the near religious status of cutie marks and the destinies they are believed by ponies to represent and whether or not Equestria is a theocracy or not. Is this the case that establishes "Its My Destiny" a legal defense? Because thats a whole can of worms.
Celestia may have no choice but to Nullify this trial: but that might open up even more problems.
11777275
You bring up a lot of good points. As rich of a world that the author has built, we simply don't know what the situtation is where these questions are concerned. I really hope that we get a peek into the inner workings of the world with this trial, or at least pony society as CoctailOlive sees it.
11776867
Had to go all the way back to the start to confirm, but an interesting thing about his Mark is that it doesn't EXPLICITY show pornographic material.
Very VERY Heavily implied, and anyone that knows would understand immediately what it is, BUT it could be argued that a child would not understand the reference until they were older or had it explained.
Much like the humour in Shrek and similar shows/movies, where it's not until LATER that your grown up self goes "Damn, they allowed THAT?!?"
Will be VERY interesting to see how CocktailOlive plays it out.
Also, one thing I especially love about this chapter is the amount of discussion it has already!
A rash resolution by Radish Root results in a reactionary regulation being reinforced by a reprehensible rozzer. Will the rule of law require a regal response that puts at risk the reputation of the reigning princess? Or will the royal guard regiment be transferring our hero's residency to the moon?
To find out... return Next Year. Same Radish time. Same Radish channel.
Root is right it is time to shove this hole crap ball in everypony's face.
let celly show up i can only think what she is going to say.
11776881
What do you mean you can't put an image? Just click the "Insert Image" button and paste a URL. Like so:
derpicdn.net/img/view/2014/1/20/529727.gif
11777069
Or it could be, more simply, Harmony’s idea of ‘subtly’ shoving ponies’ noses into the fact that there’s just something wrong with their attitude towards cutie marks in general (what exactly would be for it to say, but it’s pretty clear even just from the show that the pony/mark relationship can already be problematic in much less graphic cases than specifically Radish’s).
And of course, lines of reasoning like this also raise the question of who exactly “Harmony” even is. The Tree? That only even came about courtesy of the Pillars’ actions, so it’s actually considerably younger than ponykind...
11778110
Yes, but for some reason every time there's a problem, and it's kind of annoying
THEORY TIME
I've begun to theorize more about Dreamlestia. If, as shown, her alter-ego has so much strength over her, it comes to reason that it escaped her somehow. I don't know how, but this alter-ego, a.k.a. Dreamlestia, is what Celestia repressed. Until she truly melds with all she denies, until she accepts everything, she couldn't love Root.
In fact, perhaps her splitting from Celestia triggered whatever is behind Cutie Mark Magic to try and fix something that had the potential to cause her such disharmony. It may not be sentient, but in a way, it's speaking to the world, telling them a piece of Celestia is desperately in need, and is being denied. Root isn't her 'soulmate,' but he is the one thing that can help her recover. But until they can all piece it together somehow, until Luna can see that the dream entity is FROM Celestia herself, this will continue to hurt Radish.
I actually worry what will happen if his cutie mark is taken away. Is Dreamlestia, perhaps, trapped in the mark? When he loses his destiny, will Celestia feel an emptiness too? Can his mark even be taken? Will his mark return when returned, or...will it try and return to her?
Just imagine if his mark was to represent the greatest need of the world...and the way to do that was to show Celestia getting back what she's denied herself for so long, to the point she almost loses control of herself when she so-much-as pretends she is someone else?
I've been thinking on this a lot. So this is just a bit of my brain spew, as I reread the story for a third time, gnawing at the bit for the next chapters to come out :P
Love it when the fanfic gets good
cant wait to see how everypony reacts to this
11783701
That's fair, I genuinely didn't know that was southern slang. I only lived in the North, only heard southern slang on tv, so my bad!
Just re-watched The Cutie Map and there is a pegasus in "Our Town" that almost matches Light's coloration and could possibly be her with the colors muted. It's got me wondering exactly how far ahead CocktailOlive planned everything
11784602
I'd guess she planned enough ahead to leave her readers shaken, but not stirred.