• Published 11th Sep 2012
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Cry for Eternity - asylum1388



After Celestia's death, Twilight must take on a role she is woefully underprepared for.

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Chapter 33

Author's Note:

So this chapter took quite a bit longer than I wanted it to due to a cascade of issues all at once. Some of them weren't my fault, most of them were.

I left it at a cliffhanger, but the next chapter is practically done, so... yeah...

Lastly, the creators of the various ponies on trial are all mentioned here.


Pre-reader: PiquoPie.
Editor: f0xhole.
Additional input given by: TheLastBrunnenG

Sixty-eight years since the coronation of Princess Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight glared up at the clock on her wall as she sat at her desk with several files floating in front of her.

Inkpot was late that day. She hated it when he was late. When he was late, it meant that day court was going to start late, and when court started late, it meant that setup was taking longer than normal. That could only mean one thing: court was going to be more complicated than usual.

This had rarely been a problem before Sunshower retired, but these days it was almost a weekly occurrence. Twilight stretched, cracking her back, before settling back down to continue her waiting game. Her ears twitched at every sound, hoping each one to be approaching hoofbeats.

Finally, after another five minutes, her door swung open and the dark grey Earth Pony stumbled in.

“Sorry, Your Highness! There’s been a change of plans. Several of the Canterlot Superior Court’s judges came down with some awful bug last week and haven’t been able to take the bench,” he gasped, leaning against Twilight’s desk to catch his breath. “There was already backlog of sentencing cases, and now it’s getting worse. I had to cancel your normal court session; instead you’ll be passing sentences.”

“Unacceptable, Inkpot!” Twilight snapped. “I should have been informed of this days ago.”

“I know, I know! I only found out myself earlier today. I’ve spent the last two hours preparing briefings for you,” he groaned, holding out a stack of scrolls.

Twilight glared at the scrolls for a moment, but didn’t move. “So what you’re saying is you haven’t done any of the paperwork I gave you this morning.”

Inkpot blanched. “Well, no. No, I haven’t, but-”

“In that case, you can do it tonight. I hope you didn’t have plans,” she said, standing up and walking pointedly past him.

“Actually, I do...”

Did,” Twilight corrected.

“But Princess, I literally didn’t have the time to do it! A-and none of it needs to be finished until tomorrow evening anyway!” Inkpot stammered, jumping in front of her.

“Yes, but I need to check it over when it’s finished to ensure you don’t misfile anything again,” Twilight replied dismissively, walking around him. “Have it on my desk by sunrise.”

“...You know what? No.”

Twilight froze. She took a deep breath before turning around and affixing him with a venomous stare.

“You heard me! File your own damn paperwork,” he growled, throwing the casefiles on the floor in front of her. “I haven’t misfiled anything in over a year and have been working thanklessly — and I really mean thanklessly — to make sure everything is exactly as you want it, and all I have to show for it is a few overpriced therapy sessions.”

Twilight blinked at him, stunned at the response. “Do you want to get fired?” she managed to get out.

“You’re going to fire me. Right. That’s funny,” Inkpot said, rolling his eyes. He turned around and sauntered off before calling over his shoulder. “I’m taking the rest of the week off. I’ll see you on Monday.”

Twilight could only gape after him as he walked away. She wasn’t sure what was worse; the fact that he had the gall to speak to her that way, or that he had the nerve to call her bluff. Either way, the result was the same, she was alone with a disorganized pile of scrolls and no seneschal present to give her a helping hoof.

She snatched up the scrolls with her magic and stomped away, grumbling to herself. She opened one and buried her nose in it. Sight wasn’t necessary; she knew the way to the Throne Room by heart, and there was nopony foolish enough to interrupt her reading.

Or rather, she thought that there was nopony foolish enough to interrupt her. The sound of a voice calling her name informed her that she was sorely mistaken. She lowered the scroll to find Luna staring at her sheepishly. Pursing her lips, she glared, waiting for the other Princess to speak.

”Hey, Twilight, can we talk?” Luna asked, rubbing her hooves uncomfortably

“I’m busy.”

“But-”

“Enough, Luna! I said no!” Twilight shouted as Luna shrunk away from her.

“Oh. Okay,” Luna murmured before turning around and slinking off.

Twilight shook her head and continued in the opposite direction. Arriving in the Throne Room a few minutes later, she took her seat on the throne and the room fell silent as a guard approached her, head bowed.

“Your Highness, would you happen to know-”

“Inkpot won’t be joining us today, bailiff. Let us begin.”

“Oh, I see,” the guard mumbled. He glanced over his shoulder before looking back at Twilight’s hooves. “In that case, let me explain what we-”

“I’m aware,” Twilight interrupted. “I want this over quickly, if this gets delayed for any reason I'm going to start holding ponies in contempt. Bring in the first convict.”

The bailiff frowned and gestured to the guards at the front of the hall. “Our first, ummm, defendant is Quintal Weight, who has pled guilty to fraud.”

A pair of guards led an aged stallion up to her, and he immediately prostrated himself before her. “Your Highness, I-”

“Bailiff, if he speaks out of turn again, muzzle him,” Twilight growled, finding and unrolling the scroll detailing the case. “Now give me the short version, I really don’t feel like going through this entire thing.”

“Y-yes, Your Highness,” the bailiff gulped. “Mr. Quintal was the CFO of the Manehattan Mutual Trust, and was recently accused of siphoning millions of the company’s bits into his own accounts. He pled guilty to the charges as part of a bargain, the terms of which can be found at the top of that scroll.”

“Section twelve of the Equestrian Code of Financial Law states that the penalty for that particular violation is ten to twenty-five years in prison, and/or monetary fines,” Twilight muttered, glancing at the scroll.

“B-but, Your Highness, I made a deal! I was supposed to avoid prison,” Quintal Weight whined.

“The Manehattan Trust recently received a loan from the Equestrian Financial Bureau; a loan they haven’t been able to pay back. In short, by stealing from them, you stole from me,” Twilight snarled. “Twenty-five years without the possibility of parole. In addition, your assets will be seized to pay back the money you stole. Also, any assets you’ve transferred to your family and friends since you started committing your crimes will also be confiscated, just in case you’re hiding any money with them.” She glanced towards the bailiff. “Get rid of him.”

A restless murmur passed through the assembled crowd as a pair of guards arrived to lead Quintal away while the next prisoner was led in. Dissent, mixed with scattered approval. Many of the nobles present weren’t entirely happy with the way Twilight had treated one of their wealthy brethren, but others seemed to follow her logic.

At least they weren’t all hopeless.

“Next is Ms. Wingding. She worked at the Weather Factory in Cloudsdale and was caught stealing rainclouds red-hoofed. Then she was subsequently convicted,” the bailiff started.

“Rainclouds?” Twilight muttered. She frowned down at the cuffed Pegasus. “Of all the things to steal, why rainclouds?”

“I was selling them to the buffalo. They rely on natural rain to fall on their grazing lands, but they’ve been in a drought. I was trying to help,” Wingding replied tearfully. “I know I was wrong, but they needed help.”

“I’d like to add that the Factory’s foreman has asked for leniency. He said they wouldn’t have even noticed that anything was missing if she hadn’t been caught,” the bailiff interjected. “And the Equestrian criminal code does not require prison time for petty theft, community service is the traditional option here.”

“Right...” Twilight sighed. “Tell me, Wingding, how much did you make off of the... merchandise?”

“N-not much. I didn’t really ask for much, though,” Wingding whimpered.

“Oh for the love of... Four to seven years in prison,” Twilight groaned. “Next!”

“What? B-but you can’t!” Wingding stammered.

“I can and I have,” Twilight grunted. “I said next!”

“The Princess has spoken. I’m sorry Wingding,” the bailiff said to the pegasus as he led the heartbroken mare away. He came back a minute later with a young Unicorn stallion. “Alpha Delta, convicted of harassment and third-degree assault.”

“Who was the victim?” Twilight asked.

“A young mare who-”

“Thirty years,” Twilight interrupted. “Next!”

“Your Highness, witnesses said that he never actually touched her, nor did he try to. The assault charge was a technicality,” the bailiff protested.

“He’s right! I was drunk and never meant for anything to happen. I’ll never drink ag-”

“Don’t make me repeat myself,” Twilight growled.

“Princess, there’s never been a thirty-year sentence for first-degree assault, let alone third. Are you certain you..?” the bailiff began before sighing and shaking his head. “Yes, Your Highness. Follow me, Mr. Delta.” The bailiff led the stallion away.

Twilight groaned when he didn’t immediately return. Of course there would be complications. Why wouldn’t there be?

Growing impatient, she unrolled one of the scrolls Inkpot had given her and began to scan it, hoping to get a head start on the evening's work. She made it a fifth of the way through before her thoughts were interrupted by an eruption of cheers from a small crowd of ponies gathered in the back of the room, causing her to drop the scroll.

She glared towards the door as the bailiff led an Earth Pony towards her.

“Princess Twilight, Mr. Cherry Split,” he said, gesturing to the shackled stallion.

“And he’s been convicted of..?” Twilight asked, barely keeping herself from losing her patience as the crowd cheered again with the announcement of Cherry’s name.

“Uhhh... Mayhem, Your Highness. He’s committed just about every non-violent crime on the books and several that were written just for him. Impersonating a Royal Guard, reckless use of a carriage, loitering, trespassing, breaking and entering, health code violations via secretly slipping cats into restaurant kitchens, stealing every piece of green cloth in Canterlot, defacing Crown property... The list goes on and on,” the bailiff said, gesturing to a scroll in front of him.

“He doesn’t belong in jail, he belongs in an institution,” Twilight muttered.

“Those are for crazy ponies! I’m not crazy!” Cherry chirped. “Everypony knows Starswirl looks better in yellow!”

“Th-that was you? You painted Starswirl’s statue?” Twilight screeched.

“Yeah and it’s too bad they caught me! I was going to come back with a chisel and change the plaque to say-”

“Enough!” Twilight bellowed. “Give him the maximum sentence and get him out of my sight!” She was immediately met with a deluge of jeers from Cherry’s seemed fanclub. “Hold them in contempt as well!”

“Next on the docket is Broken Fence. She stole classified documents from the Ministry of the Interior,” the bailiff said, nodding towards an approaching Earth Pony.

“What documents did she steal?” Twilight asked.

“Files pertaining to our trade deals with the minotaurs; financial data and stuff,” the bailiff replied. “You have the files with your paperwork.”

“Oh. This is... sensitive information,” Twilight muttered after looking over the evidence. “This isn’t good Fence. You’re in a lot of trouble.”

“I was only bringing it home! I was going to bring it back the very next-”

“Quiet, traitor!” Twilight interrupted.

“T-traitor? I-I-I was only showing it to my colt, he’s really interested in that stuff. He’s only thirteen, he wasn’t going to tell anypony!”

“Throw her in the dungeon, she’ll be tried for treason in military court,” Twilight proclaimed.

“Good gracious, you can’t be serious!” Broken Fences squeaked as she was dragged away. “Please, Princess! Have mercy, please!”

“L-last for today is Saccharine,” the bailiff read, shifting uncomfortably as he avoided looking at Broken Fences. “Pled guilty to ponyslaughter. He confessed to killing his wife.”

“He confessed to killing his wife and only got ponyslaughter? How? Who’s the attorney who made that deal?” Twilight asked bewilderedly.

“I-I didn’t mean to, it just sort of happened!” Saccharine answered sadly. “She was hitting me with a rolling pin and I just grabbed the closest thing to try to fend her off and- and...”

“He hit her once, Your Highness. It’s all there,” the bailiff explained, gesturing to one of Twilight’s scrolls. “A neighbor who witnessed the fight through a window corroborated his story, as did the autopsy; he grabbed a cutting board and swung it at her without looking. It hit her right in the temple, she went down, and he immediately called for help.”

“That’s awful,” Twilight said distastefully.

“I’d like to add that it was not the first time she beat him like that. We have multiple hospital records, dozens of witness statements, and the testimony of their three foals, all stating that she was a habitual abuser,” the bailiff sighed. “Honestly this is a major failing on our part, law enforcement should have stepped in a long time ago.”

“Be that as it may, he killed his wife,” Twilight said, staring down at Saccharine. “Twenty years, possibility of parole in ten.”

The bailiff sighed again and tried to lead Saccharine away, but the stallion held firm. “P-princess, what will happen to my foals? I don’t have any relatives to take care of them!”

“They’ll be cared for,” Twilight said coldly, already standing up to leave. “Court adjourned.”

She stomped out of the Throne Room, making for her office with a long trail of papers following her. As glad as she was that court was over, having taken less than an hour, it only meant that she had to get to filing that much sooner. Not that she hated filing, in fact, she remembered a time when she had actually loved it, but these days it just seemed so... tedious.

She pushed her way to the office and was surprised to find that it was occupied by none other than her nephew.

“Dusk? Weren’t you supposed to be going home today? You’ll miss your train,” Twilight said.

He jumped slightly when Twilight spoke and turned around to face the Princess. “Yeah, I know. Something important came up though; too important to put off,” he said, uncertain at first, but increasingly confident as he spoke.

Twilight sighed internally as Dusk approached her. Yet another problem to deal with. “I suppose you’re here to tell me all about it?”

“Something like that,” he growled. Alarms began going off in Twilight’s head a moment too late as her nephew winded up and slapped her across the face. “How dare you yell at Luna like that!”

Twilight blinked as her brain struggled to process what had just happened. “E-excuse me?”

“I was there! I was right around the corner. Luna asked to talk to you, and you yelled at her,” Dusk hissed. “You had absolutely no right to do that!”

“Dusk, let me explain something to you. You just hit me. I could call the Royal Guard and-”

“I don’t care!” he screamed. “I hate what you’ve become! You’re a miserable wretch!”

“You listen here, Duke-”

“No, you listen. Have you ever wondered why I don’t bring my grandfoals here to visit? Because of you!” Dusk interrupted. “Because I don’t want them to grow up dreading having to see you and I don’t want them to remember you as some old bitch who can’t stand to be around anypony.”

Twilight was speechless. She was only able to stand there with her mouth hanging open as Dusk pressed his attack.

“It’s almost as if you like making other ponies unhappy. You sit here in your office all day barking at anypony who comes in, making decisions with no input from anypony else, then, when you’re done with that, you emerge, complain all through dinner about anything and everything, then go to bed to do it all over again! And if the rest of us are lucky, you might grace us with a short visit to berate us for some small matter we had no control over!”

Twilight opened her mouth, but Dusk cut off her retort.

“Seriously, the only one who can stand to be around you anymore is Luna, and you treat her like dirt! Worse than dirt! She receives more of your abuse than the rest of us put together.” He stomped a hoof on the floor, shaking with fury. “Let me ask you something, when was the last time you did something that made somepony happy?”

Dusk waited as Twilight stumbled over her words before giving a mirthless laugh. “That’s what I thought, you can’t even remember. You make me sick,” he sighed, sitting down and shaking his head, unable to look at Twilight. “There. I said what I needed to. Do what you have to.”

Finally able to get a word in, Twilight advanced on the stallion, ready to lay into her with every bit of frustration she had built up, but found herself unable. There was something stopping her; the expression in Dusk’s eyes relayed Twilight could never have expected to see.

Fear.

Twilight’s nephew — her own flesh and blood — was terrified of her.

“Have I... really been that bad?” Twilight whimpered.

Dusk blinked once, then glanced up at Twilight, bewildered, but only for a moment. The briefest glimmer of hope flickered in his eyes. “You’ve been... distant since Fluttershy died, and after we lost Applejack, it became downright difficult to be around you. It only got worse after we lost Rainbow Dash,” he murmured. “We’ve all been so worried about you, and you’ve done nothing to alleviate that. In fact, everything you’ve done has made us worry harder. We tried to reach out to you more times than I can count, but you always ran away. You just hid in your books and ignored us like... like dad said you used to when you were a filly!”

Twilight collapsed to a sitting position, thoroughly ashamed. Dusk stepped forward timidly and continued, “About what Rainbow said at Applejack’s wake, the thing about Celestia... she was wrong to say it, and I can’t stress that enough, but she only said what we were all thinking. You’re not the pony I remember from growing up, and it really hurts to see you like this.”

“I... I don’t know what to say,” Twilight whined, but Dusk wasn’t finished.

“You remember, don’t you? How excited I always was to come visit you? I lived for the times when dad took us to Canterlot to visit Aunt Twilight and Aunt Luna, and when I had foals, I made sure to keep the tradition going because I loved it and I knew they did too,” Dusk sighed. “You were my idol. I wanted to be like you in every way and all that work I put in was so that I could be like you. I loved you as much as I did my parents; I still do, but I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up.

“The fact that I have to keep my grandfoals away from you? It hurts, Aunt Twilight. Watching you turn into this grouchy old mare hurts! I’m sorry I hit you, but I’m at the end of my rope and it hurts so much and I don’t know what to do anymore!”

“I guess I have been out of sorts,” Twilight said quietly.

“You’ve been ‘out of sorts’? That’s it?” Dusk replied, his voice dripping with disappointment. “Aunt Twilight, you’ve been ‘out of sorts’ the way Discord makes things slightly disorganized.”

Twilight flinched at the barb, but didn’t respond. Dusk returned to Twilight’s desk and gestured to an ornate box sitting on it. “I want to show you something.”

“How did you get the Elements out of my room?” Twilight asked, approaching the desk cautiously.

Dusk ignored her and gently poured the Elements out onto the desk. “I still remember the first time I saw these, like it was only yesterday. I was six and we took a camping trip to Rainbow Falls, all of us. Do you remember it?”

He shot her a glare, but didn’t wait for her to answer. “The first night we were there, we all gathered around the fire and you, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rainbow, Rarity, and Applejack told the story of how you all became friends. You went all out, and by the end, you were practically putting on a play. At the very end, you brought these out. I’ll never forget it; the way they shined, even in the dark. It was almost like they were alive.”

“I remember that night...” Twilight murmured. “You couldn’t take your eyes off them.”

“And look at them now,” Dusk growled, waving a hoof over them. “They’re practically dead.”

“Yeah, they’ve been like that for years... After our friends started dying, they started to fade. Almost like they’ve given up-”

“That’s a lie.”

Twilight blinked a few times before turning to Dusk, only to meet an angry sneer. “They were fine until you started pushing us away. You’re acting like they just up and abandoned you.”

“I’m the only pony left with a connection to them and they resist any attempt I make to reach out to them!” Twilight snapped. “They did abandon me!”

“Yeah, well maybe they feel the same way about you!” Dusk snarled back.

Dusk’s words cut through her like a hot blade, cutting off Twilight’s retort before she could even put it to thought. “Wh... What?”

“‘The Elements picked our friends to wield them because those five ponies were living embodiments of what they represent.’ That’s what you taught me,” Dusk explained. “You also said that the connection went both ways, that not only did the Elements work through our friends, but that they also drew their power from our friends. You know what that means, don’t you?”

Twilight didn’t speak. She had utterly no idea where Dusk was going with his point.

He gave a frustrated groan and continued. “That means that since you’re the only pony left with a connection to them, they need to draw their power from you, but you’ve been acting in ways that are the opposite of what they represent.”

Twilight continued to gape at him. As much as she wanted to deny everything that he was saying, she just couldn’t bring herself to.

“Think about it. You’re miserable and haven’t even made an attempt to be happy in years, you’re mean and spiteful, you don’t think about other ponies anymore and haven’t done anything for anypony else in who-knows-how-long, you haven’t been honest with any of us about your feelings, and you’ve been too absorbed in your own pain that you haven’t been there for the rest of us when we needed you,” Dusk stated, pointing to each Element as he spoke of them. “It’s no wonder they’re acting funny. And Magic- Magic can’t function without the rest of them, so it’s probably hurting the worst of all of them!”

Then, it happened. For the briefest moment, she could’ve sworn that Magic had been shining, as if the Element was trying to speak to her. As if it was trying to tell her that Dusk had spoken the truth.

And it was the truth. Every word of it.

She had been acting against everything she had ever learned, everything her friends had taught her and that she had taught them. She had told Rarity that she would look after her foals, but when was the last time she had seen any of them? She had promised Pinkie to keep smiling, and she had broken that promise.

She... had let them down; she had let them all down.

A lump formed in her throat and she could feel her eyes burning as her world came crashing down around her.

“D-Dusk, I... Oh, Celestia, what have I done?” Twilight whispered. “Dusk, I am so s-”

Dusk Shine held up a hoof, cutting her off. “You can apologize to me all you want later and when you do, I’ll accept it, but right now you need to go find Aunt Luna. She deserves an apology more than anypony.”

“Y-yeah. Yeah, you’re right,” Twilight replied softly, turning to leave. “Tell... Tell the bailiff to inform the ponies I sentenced today that I’m going to go over their cases again and resentence them. Today- Most of the sentences I gave out today weren’t really fair. And Dusk? Thanks.”

Twilight galloped down the hall at top speed, ignoring anypony she came across until she came to Luna’s room.

“Luna? Luna, I’m sorry!” she called out, bursting into Luna’s room without hesitation, only to find it empty.

Not only that, there was a distinct buzz of dark magic in the air.