My Little Cyborg

by Ignimbrite

Trials

The next day, Shadowpiercer met with his court-appointed lawyer, a green pegasus named Short Brief. He was a decent enough fellow, if a bit dull. He explained to Shadowpiercer that the trial would occur in Canterlot due to the high-profile nature of the crimes. This would give them a bit of time to prepare, as the train wasn't quite ready yet.

He was, of course, as surprised as the police that the bomb had been manufactured unintentionally.

"Based on everything you've said so far, I recommend trying to plea down to unlicensed possession of a class B magical explosive. It'll still land you in jail for a few years, but it's better than a death penalty for treason. It would probably get you out of the attempted murder charge too, although the prosecutor would probably try to add reckless endangerment to the charges if we do that."

All things considered, that was the best deal he'd heard yet. It was definitely better than what some of the patrolling guards offered.

Just like everyone else, of course, Short had a hard time believing his story. There had to be some way to verify it.

Then, Shadowpiercer remembered.

"What about Twilight?"

"The princess's protégé? What about her?"

"She found out about where I'm from, along with several other things, and she took detailed notes on all of it. If we could get a copy of her notes..."

"She might be considered a trustworthy expert witness." He thought a moment. "Of course, we would have to go through the courts to obtain such documents legally."

They continued discussing strategies for the rest of the allotted time.

---

Sierra Springs was disappointed that he could not learn more about this stranger from another world.

It was odd that he would switch from defending the town to trying to bomb the Princess, but assassins were an inscrutable lot. Perhaps he just didn't like harming fillies or something. It at least meant they were somewhat on the same side.

No matter, Sierra Springs had country to conquer. He, Summit, and their troops had been marching through the forests ever since the attempted assassination.

Above them floated their newest machines. The things were more alien than even the foot soldiers, with long forward-pointing legs connected to a flat disk-like body and a domed head. With a word from him, these machines would leap into the skies and strike everything from above. Nothing would stop him.

---

"All rise." Everyone rose. "Now hearing the State vs. Shadowpiercer. Her majesty, Princess Luna presiding."

Shadowpiercer was surprised to see the figure from his dream the other night taking position behind the bench. He hoped she would not speak in the same deafening voice as she had in that.

He leaned over and whispered to Short Brief.

"She's a judge?"

"The princesses sometimes judge high-profile criminal cases, especially crimes against the state. Normally Celestia would be doing it, but she's one of the witnesses."

Perfect. The avenger of blood is my judge.

Before the trial began, Luna summoned an aura that began at her horn and enveloped her entire body.

Short Brief leaned over and whispered to a thoroughly confused Shadowpiercer.

"Spell of Impartiality. It temporarily blocks personal feelings so that only the testimonies will affect her judgement."

Shadowpiercer nodded. He wasn't very much relieved, though. For all he knew, it was just a glowing cloud to provide an illusion of a spell with no net effect on the user.

The case started out as expected, with the prosecutors demanding that he get dragged off to Tartarus and the defense claiming the device in question was neither intended for use as a weapon nor known by the defendant to be one. The opening arguments were simple enough, although Shadowpiercer quickly grew tired of the prosecutor citing his crosshairs cutie mark as evidence that he was an assassin.

Witnesses were called, of course, to testify of his actions leading up to that point. Relieved as he was to hear them point out that he tried to save those around him from the machine attack, he did not like hearing what they initially thought he was.

Rainbow Dash smugly pointed out that she knew who he really was all the time, Pinkie went off on at least five tangents, and Rarity had apparently believed he was merely an out-of-towner with some rather odd mannerisms.

Shadowpiercer was not too surprised to hear Applejack claim that he "seemed a little shifty at first," although he was surprised by what Fluttershy thought he was.

I really wish I could unlearn that.

Finally, the two victims were called forward.

Twilight went first, describing her research into the nature of his identity. The princess considered pausing the trial for a couple days when the research notes were brought in as evidence. Nopony was entirely sure if that would have been enough time to review all of them, but Luna didn't want to postpone the trial for an entire month. Fortunately, she accepted a short summary instead.

The summary still took forever.

Naturally, the princesses wanted to see the radio trick when that was brought up. This worried Shadowpiercer. For one thing, he had never tested his battery after the incident, so he had no idea whether or not it had charged up enough to work. For another, even if it did work, it could just as easily be seen as confirmation that he was spying on them, which could potentially result in other charges being added.

He explained this to Brief, who in turn relayed the first problem to the judge. It was decided that the demonstration would have to proceed anyway, although he would be allowed to test it for himself first if he wished. He decided to test it in front of everyone to save time.

As they were bringing in the radio, several alarms began sounding.

"Attention everypony. Please remain calm and make your way towards the castle." The message repeated itself as everyone began moving that direction. Fortunately, the castle was nearby.

As they all stepped outside, Shadowpiercer could see that the sky had changed color and seemed closer, as if...

There was a flash of light off to one side, and some burning material sprayed out from the point as if it had hit a wall.

His guess was correct; they were under a shield.

He looked up to see something flying overhead. What passed for wings was a set of tapered beams parallel to the direction of its flight. The beams were connected by a wide bridge with a smaller bulge on the trailing edge in the center of the bridge. More pulses of light came from the wings, sending more flashes across the shield.

As bad as another invasion was, there was one thought that kept echoing through his mind.

This was my idea.

Someone somewhere had overheard him discussing the flaws in the last invasion, and they had added an air force to compensate.

Comments

[Haver]

More good

[tsaukpaetra]

.... Recognizers? Huh.
It's rather insane that a resonator transformer is a bomb, really, but magic.