After the Fact

Canterlot, Royal Palace.

It was eerily silent, the underground dungeon of the palace being mostly empty, but today, an unfortunate stallion has found this to be his resting place for the night.

A set of hooves is heard clip-clopping on the cobblestone floor, making their way to the cell of this unfortunate stallion.

And once they arrived, the stallion merely looked at them, a professional poker face adorned on his face.

“Mr. Hit Marker?” The guard asked.

No response, only staring, but the name was only for formalities than anything else.

A sigh of disappointment is made as the guard motioned for several figures to come.

Then, when the figures came into view, the stallion, Hit Marker, had to force down a grin from creeping up to his muzzle, not out of respect of course.

“To what do I owe the pleasure of meeting Equestrian high figures?” He finally asked, a sarcastic tone as he eyed the new, yet familiarly studied, faces.

Before him, on the other side of his cell, a member of nobility stood, Fancy Pants, and to this surprise, Prince Blueblood trailing behind him.

“Your name is Hit Marker, correct?” Fancy asked, eyeing the stallion inside the cell, who sat on the cold cobblestone, which didn’t seem to bother either one as the silence continued.

“You know I don’t need to answer that question,” Hit answered, diverting his gaze to the young prince, “but I must ask, what is that joke of a prince doing here? With you nonetheless.”

Blueblood was about to make a retort to that, but Fancy just raised a hoof to signal the young prince to keep hush, not wanting to make this as complicated as is, which the prince reluctantly followed through, keeping his comments to himself, but also making a mental note to have this stallion prosecuted and sentenced on the highest penalty available.

“Yes, I can see that you noticed him, hard not to, but I have to ask again, why?” Fancy said, his voice growing to a much more annoyed tone as he continued to talk, “This time you can’t get away as easily as you did last time, every firm in Equestria and beyond would know that your actions have consequences. And beyond that, I really do, honest to Celestia, doubt any firm, no matter how much you pay them, will take your side, even the ‘Fine Print Firm’, you know, the still fairly new firm going around, I also doubt they’d even be willing to take you even if the bits are needed. At the end of it all, you might get sent to Tartarus to serve the better part of a century or decade at best, at worst probably a banishment that would last millenniums. And I doubt the death penalty would just resurface because of what you’ve done, but even then I might be wrong.”

“Who said I didn’t have a lawyer, or even an attorney to represent me?” Hit said, a smile forming as he asked the question.

“Excuse me?” Blueblood interjected, finding the comment odd, “But YOU, Mr, are lucky that you even found a place beneath Canterlot after your little political stunt, sure, you managed to reveal the changelings and ‘aided’ Canterlot when she needed it then, but the point still stands, you tried to murder some pony, a member of ROYALTY!”

“Political stunt?”

“Yes, an entire political stunt, I must admit, it was well planned, but alas, you were stupid enough to be overly confident and found yourself in the custody of the Royal Guard, now, in a few days, well, as Mr. Fancy said here, it’s to Tartarus with you.” As Blueblood finished, he tried to make a smirk to counter Hit’s own smile, but instead, he was met with a confused stare from the prisoner.

“Fancy, did you tell this as some sort of elaborate joke? Because I honestly don’t find it funny to the slightest degree.” He responded, a scowl nearly forming from what he perceived to be a joke.

“E-excuse me!?” Blueblood stammered, “But I think you don’t realize the facts laid before you, you just committed a grievous crime against the nation whose lands you are currently standing – er –sitting on, not to mention to who it was directed towards.”

“Oh, hush now Blueblood,” Hit said, before he asked a favor to Fancy, “Could you have the guards leave for a moment? I’m sure you still remember the shield spell that Shining had every noble unicorn study and use, yeah, also use that with a soundproof spell.”

And soon, Hit saw Fancy Pants nod as he gestured for the guards to leave. After a few seconds of hooves moving about out and leaving the underground dungeon, the eerie silence returned, with Fancy’s horn glowing, as a small bubble, but one that did not last long as Hit spoke up.

“Can’t keep beating around the bush forever, now can I?” He said.

And Fancy felt the need to respond to that, “No, you can’t, sooner or later, the truth will be wrangled out of you-”

“WRONG!” Hit shouted, the suddenness of his outburst, coupled with the manic grin that he had was unnerving to Blueblood, with the only thing separating the pair of nobles from him being the iron cell bars, “YOU PONIES THINK YOU GOT IT ALL FIGURED OUT! WELL, GUESS WHAT…” Then, he started to have a maniacal laughing fit, which lasted for about a solid minute or so.

As the laughter died down, Fancy was the first to speak, “Finished with your laughing fit?”

“He-he, yeah, yeah I am,” Hit said, a content grin as he repositioned himself to meet the two ponies' gaze, “so, back to the point, unforeseen consequences.” That was all Hit said.

And at that moment, Fancy’s pupils shrunk to a noticeable extent as he processed what Hit just said.

Blueblood, who didn’t understand a single thing and its importance, merely looked on, then, with a hard to admit, disappointed, sigh and partial grin, he began to take his leave, “Well, Mr. Hit Marker, I can only tell you this, I think our next meeting will be in Tartarus, so best get ready for that, if we even have a chance to meet again.”

“Oh, believe me, we will meet again, of course, I think it’s best for all of us to settle down, let this all die down.” Hit replied to the leaving stallion.

As the prince left, Hit Marker and Fancy Pants just stared, the silence eating up Fancy’s soul, “Y-you were sent by them, weren’t you?”

“Well, I can’t answer that question for you, it’s beside the point, the deed is done after all, and I think you best prepare yourself.” Hit respond.

“NO.” was Fancy’s response.

“Excuse me?” Hit asked, taken aback by the stallion’s response, “I don’t think you understand, what happens next is beyond what I am allowed to even meddle, let alone openly give my opinion about.”

“Lie’s,” he responded, “If that was the case, then everything, nothing would make sense, you can’t have that sort of foundation for your case building, you can’t build a not guilty plea on any lie, no matter how elaborate it may be. You’ll be figured out by Equestrian investigators, not to mention the Princesses could just use a simple truth spell to wrangle out your intents, magic, will solve it.”

“Hmmm,” Hit pondered on that, clearly just for the sake of it, “well, I guess I could surprise you. Personally, I think Equestria has grown dependent on magic. Anyways, the trial, it won’t go as expected.” A smile formed.

Silence, but then, Fancy merely broke eye contact, dispelling the soundproof bubble that he had held up all this time.

“I can’t offer you any more help other than this talk, and as reluctant as I am right now to even dare call you an ‘associate’, some pony I once considered a friend, I have to break ties with you, and I can only hope that they would show you some form of mercy, young lad. But I think you should be put out of your misery than waste space on a rotting soul.” He said, refusing to call this stallion a friend, one that he couldn’t believe, but had to accept, had attempted to take the life of another pony, royalty no less.

“Don’t worry, you’ll eventually find another one…” It was all that Fancy heard as a response as he exited the vicinity.

As he exited the underground dungeon of the palace, he was greeted by the sight of several Royal Guards, Princess Celestia herself, and a new face, who he assumed to be at least a lawyer.

“Ah, Mr. Fancy Pants, a pleasure seeing you here,” Celestia said, her ever radiant smile doing nothing to change the scowl on Fancy’s face as they passed one another.

A nod and bow were all Fancy did as he continued walking past, being reluctantly followed by Blueblood.

“That was odd,” Celestia remarked. “but back to the topic.”

She said as the two ponies that served as her personal guard lead the way down to the underground dungeon for a meeting she did not expect to hold.

“Please, Fine Print, just take up the offer that the crown has put forth, your firm stands to gain nothing from this endeavor that you are-” Celestia was cut off as the stallion known as Fine Print looked at her.

“Princess, please don’t even start,” Fine Print said, avoiding making eye contact with the princess, “I just want to make it clear, and tell this to the others that might ask, I'd like to make myself very clear, I am doing my job, and my firm, although fairly new, would like to make a name for ourselves, I would like to do this on my own terms.”

A heavy sigh of disappointment was what greeted Fine Print, clearly, the princess was unhappy with his somewhat cemented decision.

“If it would ease you mind a bit, your Highness, I will consider the offer of staying out of this whole ordeal, maybe even join with the prosecution if need be, but I am unable to guarantee anything, consider this as a gift, I am still yet to prove my firm’s capabilities, and should I find myself opposing your attorneys in the court of law, please just remember and know that for that matter, there is simply something that is meant to be, some even beyond our control. I am, as I have said, just doing my job, I have to earn a living, to live after all.”

Celestia’s ears perked up at that response.

“And why is that?” She asked.

She received no answer as they made their way into the underground dungeon. Where the culprit was being held at, she had to make sure she kept her temper controlled, and that she did.

This was going to be a long talk, a sooner rather than later, Celestia would find herself watching the trial go down.

Author's Note:

I'll just leave this here.

Hope you enjoyed it!

I’ll finish this eventually...

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