Chrysalis Visits The Hague

by Dan The Man

IV. Royal Blessing

IV.
Royal Blessing

Penitentiary Institution Haaglanden, The Hague
ICC Detention Centre
17. November, 2015
9:00 am MET

The sound of two dozen boots, shoes and hooves echoed through the prison complexes rather modest corridors, as a forlorn Estermann and his growingly nervous equine companion were escorted to the lion's den, Chrysalis' cell. Passing the different grated windows and bomb-proof doors left and right, they realised the prison held a surprisingly small number of actual inmates; the ICC Detention Centre seldomly held more than twenty detainees at a time. However, that didn't mean that there were any less guards scurrying around the place, which made the entire premise strangely uncanny, like a train boarded solely with controllers. The so-called escort accompanying the two consisted entirely of guards in light-blue shirts and darker ties, led by the turnkey and the prison wing's own Head Detention Officer. The latter was a muscular man with a darker complexion and extremely thin hair. His name was Otto Mjoberg, a name that seemed to sound typically Dutch, but ultimately wasn't.
With an amiable smirk, he turned to his nervous guests.
"First time in Scheveningen? Mr Estermann? Captain?" he asked in a deep voice.

Both were rather absent-minded at that point, concentrating more on where they were led by the warders, subconciously weighing the odds of ever finding the exit again.
Shining was first to snap out.
"Huh? Oh, of course."

"We missed you yesterday, Captain." the warden said amiably. "When Her Royal Highness was delivered here. I heard you remained in the airport sickbay?"

Estermann looked at the stallion officer discretely. The latter fell silent, apparently disconcerted by the warden's questions.

"It was because of a 'breakdown', or so I heard. I hope you're feeling better today." the muscular man added innocently.

Shining grew even paler at that statement and he shifted his eyes around nervously. The lawyer to his right observed him nevertheless. Why the hell did the Queen's escort suffer a breakdown after her escape attempt? Nobody could be that vain. Plus, he looked physically unharmed, though undeniably ropy.
"I... uh..." the Captain spluttered.

"Oh come." the warden intervened and smiled. "Happens to the best of us. I was in the army too."

Shining looked at him with big eyes.
"Really?"

"Yes yes. Royal Netherlands Army, in the, uh, Dragonders Trip van Zoudtland. I was a Captain, just like you."

The equine was still very much surprised by the similarities. He tried to smile, but was overtaken by his own avidness on the topic.
"Sounds great. I'm the Captain of Canterlot, in the Royal Celestian Brigade."

"Nice making your acquaintance, Captain. It's so funny. In my time, I was working quite a lot with horses myself..."
Then he quickly fell silent.

That was an awkward thing to mention to a speaking unicorn, Estermann thought. The warden must have caught on to the awkwardness, and stopped himself from continuing the story any further.

"What's the matter?" the unicorn asked.
"Please, continue."

"Well,..."
The warden caughed. "Doing what Hussars usually did. For parades and such things."

"Oh." Shining murmured.

Pack animals.

Now it was Estermann's turn to be curious. Now that he had listened a bit closer, Mjoberg had a very unusual enunciation as well. Unusual for a Dutchman, anyway.

"Mr Mjoberg. Forgive me when I ask. You say you were in the Dutch Army. But you're not Dutch yourself, are you?"

"Me?" he laughed. "No. Actually, I'm from Suriname. But I left when I was young."

"Suriname, huh?" Estermann pondered. "Did you... leave pre- or post revolution?"

The unicorn looked between him and Mjoberg, as they were discussing a history virtually unknown to him. But in his defence, he was far from the only one who would feel left out at this topic.

"After the revolution. Right after it." Mjoberg answered uneasily, hesitantly reminiscing his own far-away childhood.

Estermann also pondered about that.
This warden was a man who had fled a violent dictatorship with his family. And, by the looks of it, had yet to return to his country of birth because of just that.

What did this mean for the treatment of his own client, Queen Chrysalis, a former murderous dictator herself?
Obviously, Estermann had to once again admit to himself that things didn't look good. It never had looked good in the first place. The prosecutor, the judges, and now the Head Detention Officer - they all just happened to be persons who had bad personal experiences with tyranny and terror in their lives.
Where, he asked himself, was the fairness for Queen Chrysalis in all of this? It seemed improbable that these experiences wouldn't leave a certain bias on their behaviours towards the Queen.

The entourage rounded the corner into the final prison block, only short of their destination by a few security gates. That's when suddenly Shining sharpened his ears, straightening them and wiggling them around.
"Do you hear that?"

"What?" the turnkey asked.

"Bang... bang... bang." the equine described contemplatively.

"Strange." the warden commented. "I have no idea what it could be."

The turnkey, a younger man with short blond hair and a tight, mirthful smile playing on his lips, rolled his eyes and went forward.
"Not again. Excuse me... please stay behind me, gentlemen."

The journey was completed in a quick jog, heading for a double-enforced door at the end of a corridor, with a couple of warders already waiting in front of it.
'It was Queen Chrysalis', the warden explained.

Another man's shouts met them already from afar.
"Stop it! Stop it at once! Or I will shoot! Stop doing that or I will shoot!"
The entourage found a security guard training a gun through the crenel in the cell door, probably aiming to hit the cell's inmate. "Stop it already! I'm going to shoot!"

The turnkey hurried over to the man and clapped him on the shoulder.
"Plaats rust, Klaas."
The man sighed exasperately and let the rifle slide out of the crenel. It was a tranquiliser gun.
The muffled thumping behind the door continued nevertheless.

"What is happening in there? Who is in that cell?" Estermann inquired, alarmed by the turmoil. "Where is Dr Van Biene?"

"Who?" Shining asked.

"Our psychological advisor!" he reminded the stallion. "Where is she?"

"Oh, her?" the warden answered casually. "She left already two hours ago."

"What, so quickly?" Estermann verified.

"Apparently, her session with Her Royal Highness didn't take too long. The Queen herself was quite calm most of the time."

"Oh. Good." Estermann breathed.
That meant that the Queen may be just as calm with him as she was alone with the shrink Van Biene.

"But about one hour ago..." the turnkey continued, "The Queen started making trouble again. Look at what she's up to now."

What exactly was that she doing in there? The warden listened to the thumping, irritated at most. The unicorn stallion, however, had grown pale once again, stiff as a board, staring at the door, harrowed by every vibration emanating from inside the cell.
He turned to the turnkey and the security team.
"You, private. What does that weapon do?"
He pointed at the rifle by the door.

"That's a tranquiliser gun."

"You must use it!" he suddenly ordered the man, gripped of panicked determination. "Restrain her. Stun her. Make her stop."

Estermann looked at the equine officer and immediately intervened.
"Hold your horses. I came here to talk with my client. You can't simply sedate her, I didn't get to speak to her even once!"

"She's dangerous." the stallion said slowly and menacingly. "You've got to believe me! You all know what happened the last time nopony listened to me!"

"Hang on, what is she even doing in there?!" Estermann tried to find out.

The turnkey stood in a corner near the door, stooped in front of a monitor on a table, linked to several cables leading inside the cell.
"She is banging her head against the wall."

Estermann pursed his lips and slitted his eyes.
"Why... why would she..."

"Don't waste time, sir!" Shining Armour repeated himself. "Stop her!"

"What are you afraid of, Captain?" Estermann snarked. "It's not like she is going to smash her way to freedom like that."

"Captain." the equine Captain turned to his human counterpart. "Do something. As your security advisor, I tell you to make her stop!"

"And as Her Royal Highness' solicitor, I order you not to touch my client." Estermann commanded the warden in return. "Let me talk to her first. You don't have to immediately assume she is... well... rampant."

"Are you kidding?" the warden responded unsurely.

Estermann wasn't exactly sure of that.
"I'm serious. As of now, nobody..." He looked at Shining Armour. "...and nopony! - lays a hand on my client without my consent."

Mjoberg scratched his head and nodded at the turnkey.

The turnkey just shrugged and picked up a microphone that stood on a podest next to the monitor.

As he spoke, his voice rang out of the cell,
"Your Highness? You have another visitor. It's your legal counsel."

The pounding immediately stopped.

The turnkey nodded at the solicitor and nodded surprisedly.
"Good, Mr Estermann."

He notified his colleagues, who proceeded to stack up left and right for the unlocking of the door.

The unicorn sighed anxiously, and nudged the warden with his head, like a dog craving for a walk. The burly Surinamese nodded and adressed Estermann,
"Hang on. Your 'security advisor' here insists that you take some measures for when you talk to your client."

Estermann sighed surly.
"What measures."

"I had an intercom installed in the cell. We can see and hear everything."

'And there goes the pledge of secrecy.' Estermann reckoned. However, he was far from refusing the outside connection to the guards while he was in there with her.

"So,.." the warden continued, "I suppose that, if your client should get... jumpy again, you should give us a sign that you want to get out of there without her catching on. So... do you have a code word or code phrase in mind for that situation?"

Estermann eyed them in an unconcerned manner.
"How about: 'Help. She is getting jumpy. Get me out of here.'"

"Don't you have anything more discrete in mind?" the unicorn stallion persisted angrily.

"Should she get rampant, Mr Mjoberg, Captain Shining, I don't think I'll manage to have time for discretion!"

"You're probably right, Mr Estermann," Captain Shining admitted nervously. "Still... If you really have to go in there now..."

"She's the only reason I'm here, Captain."

The muscular stallion exhaled bitterly and looked at the jurist with much concern.
"Whatever you do... whatever she does... don't look into her eyes."

Estermann slitted his own eyes, about to protest.
"Why would I..."

"Just don't. Mr Estermann. Trust me. I know what I’m talking about. I admire your courage with facing that monster, but please do not be overambitious!"

Oh bugger. That didn't exactly make the situation easier for Estermann himself. Did he have the courage to face her now?
Whatever worries he had, he just straightened his tie and looked down to the unicorn.
"Thank you, Captain. But please refrain from referring to my client as a monster in the near future."

The turnkey looked up from his monitoring table.
"Okay, Mr Estermann. Make ready to go in swiftly. Also, mind the boot on the floor in front of the door." Then he turned on the mic. "Okay, Your Highness - you know the drill; get into the far left corner of the room with your back turned to the door, and don't move until it has shut again."

There was a electric beep, and the door opened up with a little mechanic budge.
Under the watchful eyes of the security personnel, all armed with batons and tear gas, Estermann let the door bound open and slowly stepped into the cell, holding his suitcase in front of him like a knight grasping his trusty shield in a dragon's lair.

---

The room was more or less sterile. It was also more comfortable than your regular prison cell, with a computer, a TV set and a staple of fresh bedsheets. On the ground in the middle, there lay a thick, generously spaced mattress that could indeed fit a horse on it.

The next thing he spotted was a large black thing, lying couchant on the ground, turned away, staring off into the corner of the whitewashed wall.

There was a thick steel chain around each of its ankles, all of which were connected to a large metal bolt centrally embedded in the floor. Around its waist, there was still the stab vest, strapped tightly, like a rather obscure horse-size corset. Its head faced away from Estermann, and the only things that he saw of it were its slim, sharp ears that drooped on the sides of her head like horns, and the rest was covered green, sickly oily hair, that hung to the floor as if it had the weight of marbles.
Estermann remembered a photo of her in the press, in which she had worn a subtle tiara-like hairpin. It was the only accessory she owned. Now however, most of the changeling's mane had been provisionally trimmed, and bundled with by a simple scrunchy.
A pony with a ponytail. It was a little hilarious, until he remembered that they used to do that to some human prisoners in other countries so they wouldn't use their own hair to strangle themselves.

To her right, he noticed a single, fairly big, though barred window, through which garish white sunlight shone that threatened to blind him.
To her left, there was a chunky, grey hole in the wall, with the white of the wall paint knocked away and plaster still crumbling out, and covering the changeling regent and the floor around her with dust.
'Did she knock that hole out of the wall with her head?!' Estermann thought. 'Hard enough to smash cement to bits?'
She was strong. Very very strong.

Moving forward slowly and silently, Estermann felt a pungent smell fill his nostrils. He couldn't lay a finger on it, but it smelled oily, a little like wax and petroleum. It was a tad overwhelming, but he tried to blot it out anyway, like the professional he was.
In the corner, next to the table with the computer on it, there stood a single work chair. He wondered whether they only set that one up for visitors like him. And the TV and the computer too, for that matter. It's not like she would be able to operate them...

All that time, he took his eyes not once off the back of her head - which was still completely motionlessly sitting atop an unsettlingly motionless body, like the head of a creepy doll whose head was twisted by 180 degrees, and whose obscured face one would wish never to see.

Suddenly, he felt his foot get caught by something sturdy on the ground. Narrowly avoiding tripping forward, he involuntarily looked down to inspect what on earth could stick to the ground solidly.
It was a single, black, human military leather boot. Thankfully without a foot in it. It appeared to stand in a greenish-bluish-grey puddle of some sort of secrete.
Carefully tapping against it with his own shoe, he found it to be fixed to the ground with superglue-like staunchness. The vaseline-like puddle seemed to have dried solid some time ago.

Trying not to breathe or make any erratic or loud movements, the lawyer stepped over the obstacle and came to a halt next to the seat at the desk, waiting for something to happen and make a decision on his fate for him.
He felt a cool wind blowing him in the neck. The next split second the door behind him was shut with a blunt, harrowing thud, locking itself from the outside.
A raspy voice emanated from a little speaker on the ceiling,
"Door closed. You may turn around again."

But the regent remained sitting just where she was, in the corner between the grated window and the knocked-out pieces of the dusty wall plaster.

Estermann dared not to do anything until she also gave a sign of life from herself.
She obviously had a destructive phase a mere moment ago, but now she was huddled in a corner, almost void of life? Or was she more like a predator, ready to pounce at her clueless prey?

Estermann figured he would find out either way soon, so he slowly took a seat on the work chair.
But the chair creaked uncontrollably, no matter how still Estermann tried to sit on it.
Reacting to the sounds the leather furniture made, the changeling lifted her head.

Estermann heard her making some extremely soft sniffing sounds.
Capturing the scent of a potential victim, no doubt.

A strange, almost subliminal buzzing noise suddenly became present in the room, as the creature slowly swayed her head to the side, like she was preparing for talking. The buzzing became more predominant. Estermann could not tell if that menacing sound stemmed from his own mind or from deep within the changeling's throat.

It already felt like he was in the room for ten minutes, and had not yet said a word to the creature.
'I might as well start now. Before she might really decide to have early lunch.'
With an audible click, he unlocked his suitcase. He removed the belt, and slowly got out his laptop.
"Your Highness?"

She cocked her ears.

"I am the defence counsel, from the International Criminal Court. My name is Alexander Estermann."

She didn't turn around though.
Estermann silently reprimanded himself for having nearly forgotten with whom he was dealing with here.
"Do... do you know what a defence counsel does?"

Now she turned. She set herself upright with wary slowness.
Her head faced her solicitor.
He couldn't help it. The first thing that caught his attention were her eyes. Gleaming, deeply green balls focusing on him like those of a hawk. In one second they were vicious, raw, animalistic, in the next they loosened, looking judging, overly restrained and uptight. Like those of the evil Queen stepmother featured in every other Grimm story.
Unbelievable that he was defending a fairytale villain in court.
But then he once again he had to remind himself that this was a political prisoner. Nothing more, and nothing less.
What an easy mistake to make. Lexy Fori certainly did so the other evening.
Estermann felt how his thoughts began to drift off into obscurity. Hesitantly, he diverted his stare to her snout. What a horrific sight. Her whole face and neck, her entire skin seemed to be made of matt, equally sickly grey leather rather than coat like that of the other ponies. It was as disgusting as it was unnerving.
She certainly was a very very... unique specimen.

Slowly, she opened her mouth. There he saw her fangs and her blood-red tongue. It was like looking down the throat of a bat. As she opened her mouth, he felt the buzzing noise becoming more audible. It was definitely coming from her.

"Are you frightened?"

Her voice sounded as if someone had put a fan in front of her mouth, but not at all in a humurous way. Her voice sounded disjointed, uneven, unmoderated, vibrating back and forth in front of the lawyers ears. He could swear he felt his auditory senses ringing, like that one time after the barber had held the electric razor next to his ear for too long.
It took him a while to comprehend her speech organ, and he needed seconds to finally grasp that she had just asked him a question.

"I... what?"

"I can feel your fear on my tongue." she said softly, and with a knowing expression.

Having made sure that she would most probably not pounce at him, he looked down and opened the screen of the laptop on his lap.
"Uh... do you?" Calling up the relevant bills on indictment, his glance travelled back to her. "Your Highness..."

"Yes?" she met him deviously.

"How many times have you done this already?"

"Done... what?"

"Attended a court hearing. I have noted that they are a bit different over in Equestria... and I'm just trying to gain a sense for how familiar you are with the... process of..."
He drew some barely helpful shapes and lines into the air with his fingers. He strayed off when he met her asking, inquisitive stare.

"Who are you trying to defend from me? Tell me." she ordered him.

"...Pardon?" Estermann asked lowly.

"Defence Counsel, or whatever fancy title you may endear yourself with: In whose name do you come?"

"Well..." the lawyer stuttered, unsure where she was going with this. "In yours. I am your defence counsel, Your Highness."

She raised an eyebrow, or whatever substitute her kind had for an eyebrow.
She obviously tried to formulate a reply to that, but failed again and again, as she first needed to digest what that human just said.

"You... are not here in my name." she concluded determinedly.
Her vibrating voice disclosed some distraughtness.

"Well..." he looked down again, and quickly typed something into his laptop. He called up a document and swung the screen around so the Queen could take a look at it. "See here. This..." he pointed at the electronic document, "...is the Power of Attorney, followed by the document of ratification signed by the guardian ad litem, and backed up by the Registrar and the President of the Court."
He leaned back, and watched her looking at the strange machine's screen.

She looked up, ignoring the electronic piece of bureaucratic goodness.
Staring the smugly seated solicitor in the eyes, she repeated herself.
"You are not here in my name."

"Maybe... maybe not." Estermann admitted. "But I am your legal representation in court. I am defending you."

She fell silent again. She glared at him, her eye twitched.
Estermann felt some animosity brewing up in her. He was unwelcome here. It was one of the things lawyers didn't want to be under any circumstances. Barring the fact that she might try to eat him, complete trust was essential for any successful cooperation between client and solicitor. But she probably was one of those characters who thought they could do without legal representation.
On one hand, she probably had every right to be sour at him and all other humans; she was in a foreign country, on a foreign continent, in an all-round foreign atmosphere, having been incarcerated against her will by someone not even her own species, and that in comparatively very un-royal conditions.
On the other hand, she of all pe... ponies, should be aware that she had absolutely no friends here. The equines despised her, the humans disdained her, and any and all of her own followers were untraceable. If she were smart, she would have tried to do something to change her less than favourable position.
But maybe she simply didn't think that far. She was probably still bent on revenge rather than reason.

"You... defend me?!" she hissed. "Look at yourself, you lowly titch of a monkey. You want to fight for me? What do you think you can do that I couldn't already do myself?"

Estermann lowered his own eyebrows. The irony of her essentially calling him an animal wasn't lost on him.
"Do you mean you want to fend for yourself in the court of law?"

"Pah!" she spat. "The nerve. I used to feast on maggots like you for breakfast every day for a thousand years! Does your pathetic little head really think I couldn't take on the likes of you, even with you hiding behind that pitiful magic of Celestia and her stooges?"

Lexy Fori's words floated back into Estermann's mind. Love. She fed on love...
"I don't think you understand the concept of ligitation." he established. "W... waggling fists and issuing death threats is not going to get anyone anywhere. Much less let you walk out of here scot-free."

With one hop, she was on all fours, chains rustling on her limbs, and her giant horn threateningly trained at Estermann's sitting figure like a pike. The man froze and panically sunk deeper into the work chair.
Yet, he noticed something pack-shaped and plastic dangling around at the base of her horn, just above her right eyebrow. Was that a recorder, or maybe a battery? No matter what, by the way it bounced around as she tilted her head, it was obvious she had probably hit her head against the wall in order to try and knock it off. It seemed to be distressing her alot otherwise as well, though.

"You foal." she sneered. "In your words, it sounds like I even have a chance to come out of here alive if I play after your rules!"

"The ICC does not practice the death sentence. So whether you do or don't will be completely up to you." Estermann corrected her warily.

"But of course." the Queen of Changelings said incompliantly. "Because being put in chains, locked into a rotting dungeon cell and forgotten for all eternity is something anypony would prefer to a heroic and defiant fight to the death!"

Estermann quickly tried to appease her.
"Besides, this is a fair legal process, so being acquitted entirely is never out of the question. If you could kindly let me go through the charges with you, I can explain your situation to you in greater detail."

She took a shaking step into his direction, her horn still lowered to the height of his head.
"Nopony... not even hairless worms like you... would have the gall to tell me in the face that I have done wrong! Your make-believe stories of hue and cry are not breaking the power of the Queen of all Changelings."

"In other words... you are saying that none of the things the prosecution has charged you with ever happened?"

Her pupil contracted, bringing forth the green in her eyes even more.
"Denial. Just typical for you spineless scum. Never would I lower myself to such a level that I would deny all the victories I led my Changeling empire to in past times. Not for a thousand years in Celestia's jail."

"You call those things 'victories', Your Highness?"
And apart from the fact that she was seemingly stuck in another century,... she certainly had an obsession with ridiculously long time spans, didn't she?

"Slow on the uptake too, aren't you, worm?"

Estermann knew he shouldn't push his luck with his mulish client, but he himself felt pushed closer and closer to the edge of irritation.
"I would... I would like to ask your Your Highness to abstain from affronting me the whole time. I understand you may not be happy with the current situation..."

"Not happy?" the Queen said through clenched teeth. "Not happy?! Look at me, you foal! Is the dishonour I have suffered at Celestia's hooves and your pack's hands really so easily overlooked?"
She looked up and down her own form, wriggling her hooves and ringing the chainwork she was attached to.

Estermann followed her stare, coming across some eerily bump-shaped swellings on her neck and torso.
"Those scabs. Were you injured? Did that happen yesterday?"

She stayed silent.

"They... they do look rather excessive to me."
He looked further down. "Jesus, Maria und Josef... what did they do to your legs?!"

"They didn't do anything to my legs!" the changeling Queen spat.

"Oh." he harrumphed.

Abomination.

"Nevertheless... As your legal advisor, I find the guards' manhandling of you the previous day rather uncalled for. Don't you think?"

"Manhandling?" the changeling repeated. "Choose your words wisely, worm! Those so-called guards, they thought they were a match for me. They tried to take me on while I was... absent-minded."
In a staggering 180 degree turn of her train of throught, she shrugged off her bumps right after she had pointed them out so angrily. "Never mind the little dents in my armour. You should have seen them! I sent them all home, to Mummy's bed, to make the spooks go away and get all their limbs sown back on."

Estermann winced. He was probably going to hell for that. But perhaps it was the only way to win the client over; by being empathic towards her.
Or, in other words, play the ambulance chaser for her.
"Your Highness. Have you thought to have those guards prosecuted for degrading treatment and misconduct?"

"Persecuted, you say?" she asked ponderingly.

"No, prosecuted. I told you, this is a fair legal system. Just as they have a right to prosecute you for criminal offences, you can return the favour. As an individual, you can fight for your individual rights if you are in the wrong. This is how justice theoretically works in these countries."

"Oh, don't make me laugh, worm!" she snarked.

Estermann would have expected her to jump up in glee and relief. Not in scorn and mockery.

"I have not once been in the 'right' in any of the last two years!"
She grinned ridiculingly. "And that system you are babbling on about... it must be the most idiotic form of justice I have ever heard! Everypony having a 'right' to deliver others to the law on their whims? What a slew of tripe! How is that supposed to work when most of them can't even think?"
She turned towards the window and looked up into the sky. "When I was still in my own realm, I spread justice as I saw fit. No stragglers and would-be-dogmatists had stood in my way. Everypony knew who was the law. I was the law. They respected me, they loved me, because they knew that, this way, they didn't have to trust anypony else but me."
She turned back to her solicitor. "What a sorry, absolutely miserable queen this country must have, having thrown all of her say out of the window, into the gutter, for the peons to pick-up. Not even Celestia would be stupid enough to pass down the law to the cads!"

"So I heard." Estermann murmured. Still... this queen certainly had never heard of a little something called the Magna Carta. "In any case, you can and you should use the democratic legal system to your advantage. I would say that you must make your right if you don't have it. I can in fact advise you on a few points on police brutality that-"

"What exactly is it with your bowing and scraping, you hooflicking worm?" the Queen interrupted him with an unnerved glare. "Have I even once indicated that you have the permission to even glance upon me ever since you entered these chambers? If I wanted to hear your advice or your opinion on any of this, I would order you to tell me. Do you understand?"

She was pushing it.
"Listen! I only am doing my job, Your Highness. This is what I came here for. To advise you! You are the one who is uncooperative at the moment. I would greatly welcome it if you could just listen to me for once. Honestly, I do not believe you would last three days on your own in this jail cell, in this country, and at this court! In the few hours you have been here in the Netherlands, you have incurred yourself in no less than four charges of assaulting and seriously injuring officials in front of two nations. You will end up getting shot if you continue this rampage."

Now, the solicitor would have expected her to get mad at the impudent berating she had just been subjected to.
But instead, she looked at him for a few seconds, as if she was trying to decipher him.
Then she said, unexpectedly calmly,
"Quiet. I was expecting nothing less than getting killed, worm. It is not that I recognise any of these laughable 'charges' your leader has chosen to burden me with."
She sneered at him. "What exactly, worm, do you think is stopping me from simply... walking out of this prison, and returning to my Changelings, who, without doubt, are eagerly awaiting their Queen, and will be more than willing to rain down upon your sorry heads as a thanksgiving for your services to Celestia?!"

"Well..." Estermann immediately said. "I would say, several metres of massive concrete, about three thousand policemen, gendarmes and soldiers spread around the city, and approximately ten thousand miles of ocean."

Her mouth sucked up at the onslaught of counter-arguments.
"What are you talking about?"

Estermann pointed to the pinboard.
"Do you see this map, hanging on your wall?"

She turned around slowly.

"We are up here, in the upper middle, sandwiched between these big islands and the continent. That's the Netherlands. And the Equestrian island, which is where you come from, is..."
He tardily lowered his finger,
"all... the way... down... there. Barely in the lower right corner of the map. That must be about 7000 miles. Wait, no, nautical miles. That's even further away. About 13,000 kilometres, I believe."

She stormed up to the map, nearly pressing her snout against the industrially printed cardboard poster, trying to track the way the human showed her.
"Wait... that's... that's not possible. Where's Equestria?!"

"Equestria is that little green dot, riiight there in the corner."

She stared at the little green island, he jaw hanging loosely as she tried to sum up her feelings.
"This... this... little smudge..."

It was all she had ever known. Her entire life, her whole reign, all the boundaries of her empire, all the creatures she had bested and conquered, all the triumphs and defeats she had garnered in all those years...
They all took place on this single, miniscule spot of land? She was certain it was much larger the last time she was there. She had only ever seen the ocean once or twice in her life! That's how massive it was!
Her homeland, the homeland of all her enemies and competitors... it had to be bigger. It should really have filled out at least half of this world map, but it ended up leaving not as much as a footnote. How was this possible?
If this little green speck really was her entire existence, and she really was halfway on the other side of the planet now... she could never get home.
She already had trouble making her way from one end of her empire to the other in one take, wondering if she would ever come across the end of the world during her travels.
But this distance... only Mother Nature knows how many times that... It was impossible to make.
She was trapped. In every sense of the word, trapped.

Breathing heavily, she pushed herself away from the wall, and took another frantic look out the window.
She had already figured out this wasn't Equestria, but... but... damn!
"Maybe... maybe..."
Her voice trembled under the rising forlornness inside her lungs. "Maybe this was Celestia's plan all along. To hoof me over to a far-away race of creatures so viciously naive that she wouldn't have to lift a limb herself to let them judge me in her name."

"From what I have heard, the Equestrian government didn't want to let go of you at all." the solicitor retorted.

"You seem to have heard a lot of things." she said bitterly.

"Yes, and as a matter of fact, I think that here, in the Netherlands, you are a whole lot safer than over there. Here, you have at least a slight chance of getting freed of all charges, either on a technicality or otherwise, while in front of an... the Equestrian court, you do not have as much a right to a fair hearing. In my opinion, you should really view those charges made against you as a legitimate burden right now, whether you 'recognise' them or not."

She started pondering again, her eyes expressing concern and her scanning for options.
Was the gravity of her situation finally dawning upon her?

"Worm." the Queen suddenly exclaimed.

"Yes?"

"Kneel."

The lawyer looked at her unsurely.
"I'm sorry?"

"Kneel, I said."

Now she wanted him to kneel. This could mean something bad. Like that she could come dangerously close to him.
He looked around, and up at the camera in the corner of the ceiling, through which the guards were hopefully constantly surveilling him.

---

"Is he going to kneel?" the turnkey murmured with an intrigued smile on his face as he sat before the surveillance monitor. "I don't think he's going to kneel."

"What is she planning?" the white unicorn pondered with concerned eyes. "This can't be good."

---

The lawyer slowly made ready to rise from the work chair.
"You want me to..."

"If you want to serve me, then serve me! Do as I say, and stop wasting my time!"

He got it. No kneeling, no cooperation.
He had never thought he ever had to kneel before a client to win his confidence. But she was not the ordinary type of despotic statesperson with delusions of grandeur and rightfulness. One had to wonder if Idi Amin would have ever requested the same treatment.
Slipping his laptop back into his suitcase, he hesitantly stood up, and pushed the chair aside with a foot. Observing whether he had enough space to comfortably perform the gesture, he monitored the green-eyed creature and lowered himself to the ground slowly and steadily.

Solemnly, she made her way over to the kneeling human.
He could see the sinister creature tower over him, feeling her chains coil around his knees. Nervously, his hands dug into his thighs, anxious not to succumb to make any erratic, reflexive movements while he happened to be inside her personal space.
Once again, he saw her horn glistening downwards like the sword of Damocles.

"Avert your eyes." she said sternly.

Relutantly, Estermann lowered his stare, discretely looking to the side to espy the surveillance camera another time with an admonishing glare.
'Look the fuck over here!' he ordered them telepathically.

Then he scrutinised the floor before him, seeing little more than the massive, deformed limbs of the changeling creeping towards him, dragging the heavy iron behind them. The floor was obscured by the shadowy outline of her horned head stretching over his.

He flinched when he felt something touch him on the side of his neck, just above the collar. It was long, cold and hard as stone; it had a jagged surface, softened somewhat by being packed in thick plastic foil. It was her horn.
The lawyer painfully tried to blot out the Freudian implications of what was happening to him at the moment.
The creatures horn slid down his neck, pressing against all the vital, life-preserving arteries that happened to run alongside it, and ended up resting on his vested shoulder, before pulling away again.
Then he felt it tower above his other shoulder, where it proceeded to repeat the motion, in all its agonising slowness.
On one hand, it seemed like she was scanning or fondling him, scouting him out for weak points or delicate spots like nerve endings and veins, but on the other hand, he also felt eerily reminded of going through the receiving end of a knighting, with the horn standing in for a sacred sceptre or a hallowed swordblade.
He suddenly felt himself disconcertingly interrupted in his thoughts when the horn ended up resting on his forehead, just below the widow's peak, tip first. She pushed a little against him, ever-so-slightly pricking his scalp; for a short, excruciating moment, it felt like his sorry little head was to be impaled by hers - on its whole length, in the worst case scenario. But then it moved up, brushing right through his greying, yet carefully kempt hair. Steadily ploughing across his headdress and giving it a second parting, it irritated his overly sensible scalp, tickling it. It came to rest on top of his head, lengthwise, pushing downwards.
The lawyer felt even uneasier with every passing moment. He sensed the breathing of the creature's mouth and nostrils in the vicinity of his forehead, he felt the buzzing from the throat translating on his own scalp through her horn, tickling, vibrating, irritating. But it just stayed there.
His nails dug even deeper into his trouser legs than before.

"You will swear to serve. You will swear to obey and fight for the Queen of Changelings in exile, the champion of deception, the mistress of mind and thought, with all your holdings, all your vigour and all your devotion. You will not strive to subdue her, nor will you betray her, not her name, not her cause, nor her reign. You will swear to scatter her enemies and confound their knavish tricks, lest you will fall sorely and forlornly from your Mistress' grace. Swear."

Estermann sighed. That was the most demeaning and self-righteous of pledges he had heard in an eternity. But he was, in the truest sense of the word, not in the position to disagree with her... lest he would fall from the grace of her very pointy horn.
"I... swear."

"Good, worm."

As his head was freed from the burden of her horn, he gave an involuntarily loud breath of easement. Closing his eyes, he solemnly massaged his thighs, and slowly got up again on his two trembling, shaking feet. His hair was a mess now, but he couldn't care less at the moment. He had been so confident that she was going to hurt or compromise him in one way or another, he was absolutely elated at having been spared in almost every way. He asked himself how many other people would have voluntarily gone through such a disdainful process, swearing allegiance and undying loyalty to a tyrant of questionable origin and nature who saw them as little more than 'worms'. He felt the very strong urge to cross his fingers a hundred times over, an urge he knew to suppress.

He nearly fell back onto the work chair as he gathered his belongings, all while the Queen settled back down on the other end of the cell with something of a smug contentment spreading across her features.
"You are an upstart, I felt it. You are still scared, that is certain, but I am sure that even your fear will soon be gone. You will likely do well. Now... you said you could make the peons who assaulted me pay for what they have done?"
She looked him in the eyes once more, fueled with ferocity and determination once more. "Do it then. Make them pay. Spill their tears, send them to Tartarus."

"Yes..."
He slammed the laptop shut and stuffed it back into the bag. He suddenly felt the urge to leave the room, to gain some distance to the changeling regent, despite the fact that she hadn’t done all that much. Maybe he should also go and wash his head.

He finished packing... but awkwarldy remained sitting, once again in complete silence.
"Now that we got these... the formalities out of the way, Your Highness... we should continue this talk tomorrow. Would you... have an expectation of the time?"

"I will summon you, should I need you," she made clear.

"We should really meet tomorrow in any case, Your Highness. May I suggest 10 o'clock? Right after breakfast?"

The Queen looked out the window once more and sighed dourly.
"Lunch. You will come at lunchtime. I have been always hearing from my subjects after the noontime banquet."

"Lunch, then. I will come around 1 o'clock. I will discuss the charges with you, but you can always read them up beforehand, on the computer over here."
He placed a hand on the PC's table.

"Do I look like I am able to read that incomprehensible hand scrawling of your kind?"

Tomorrow then.

---

"Door opens now!"

The security door unlocked and the lawyer with the disheveled hair quickly squeezed through before it had even opened properly.

Shining Armour was the first at his side, staring up to him with horrified eyes.
"Mr Estermann, sir! Are you okay? Are you feeling well?"

He shook his head.
"Gave me the worst shiver of my fucking life. But I'm alright, otherwise."

The warden looked at him nonchalantly.
"What did she do in there? What did she do with you?"

The turnkey smiled at him cockily.
"Over the camera, it looked like she was fumbling around with you. Had fun?"

"Lieutenant!" the white unicorn rebuked him frankly. "Do you think it's funny?"

"Well, she wasn't fumbling around with me." Estermann agreed. "At least... I think she wasn't. I should be asking you what the hell she was doing, Captain. But long story short, she agreed to accept my representation, and wants to work with me now. This is all that matters at the moment."

"No it’s not!" the unicorn captain retorted. "What she was doing in there was 'bonding' with you. She has been probing your willingness and your capability to serve her, with her horn and all her other senses."

"Not all of them. I don’t think she managed to lick me..." Estermann joked nervously, carefully scratching his head and combed his hair back.

"Usually, this works much better for her if her victims are under her spell. When they are controlled by her!"
The unicorn eyed him warily. "You were lucky we pinched off her magical channels with the human technology. She surely didn't test you out of pure goodwill."

"Well, I know I'm not. Controlled, I mean." the solicitor said with an exasperated intonation. "And yet, I 'passed' whatever test she tried on me. Can you wish for more?"

The unicorn didn't back off however.
"Are... are you sure you're feeling alright?"

"Yes!" Estermann exclaimed indignantly. "Stop making everyone here uncomfortable, Captain Shining Armour! There is a difference between guaranteeing our safety and frightening us. I'm feeling perfectly fine. And for your information, yes, she did scare me shitless in there."

Finally, the muscular stallion budged.

"If you excuse me now, I need to go to the bathroom. Then I need to get back to my offices at the ICC. I suppose you want to stay a bit longer, Captain?"

Shining looked over to the closed cell door.
"I guess. That's why I'm here."

"How fitting. Now..." He pulled his coat over his blazer and looked at his watch. "Mr Mjoberg, I would like you to locate the officer of the watch and collect all the information on the transport of Her Royal Highness in the plane and everything that occurred afterwards. Email them to me today or tomorrow. Have a nice day."

"Why?" the prison warden asked as the lawyer quickly departed.

"Pressing charges against the security personnel for excessive violence and degrading conduct. I'm expecting the papers by today or tomorrow, Mr Mjoberg."

"Wait..." the white unicorn looked up to his fellow Captain, irritated and with quickly rising concern. "What did he just say he wanted to do?!"

Author's Note:

Happy 3rd Advent, everypony!

Comments

[ISS]

I really like the idea, really. But I can't take THIS amount of bullshit. Seriously? If she was caught, she should be kept in maximum-security prison, where every single piece of room is welded and attached into cushion wall and tons of sensor (Since she is...Well, magical) watching her. And just... guards are acting like, begging for jailbreak. If this was real case, she would be furiously beaten with baton of justice whenever she tries to harm anyone. Shining Armor is just saying 'be careful or she will fuck you up' by his experience, and guard guys are all like 'Jesus, why are you so paranoid?' Other than she can mind-control and tried to capture entire country? But seriously, liked the idea, but my brain's bullshit meter has broken, so I must erase this from my watching list.

[Dan The Man]

5381270 That's a real shame. You'll be missed.

My idea behind this was that, with her magic being effectively disabled by the electric current, she is little more than a tiger in a cage, and it wouldn't take more than a steel-reinforced door, a thick chain and a tranquiliser gun to keep her locked up for good, no matter how often she smashed her horn against the walls.
And lest we forget, she is still held in probably one of the best-supervised and -known prison complexes in Western Europe, with all the world's eyes turned on her 24/7.

Plus, this is the ICC we're talking about. Those people are specialised in detaining politicians and military commanders - people who are either not willing or not very likely to make a daring prison break (because, for the most part, they're well-fed, middle-aged civil servants). Not... Changeling regents.
This kind of naivety and relative unawareness of the human authorities are part of the ongoing theme, though. In some form, they actually refuse to believe that the situation is so extraordinary that it would require them to deviate from standard procedure to a point where it would inconvenience them...

It's really nothing that's meant to strain the suspension of disbelief that much.

[tsaukpaetra]

Figures she wouldn't know just how small her world really is. Most ponies get pretty flabbergasted when you start mentioning figures like the Earth's size or human population.
We wonder though if she expects to be returned to Equestria at all, what with her expectations of what should happen there....
Even if she can't manipulate via magic, it's still very possible to control another with patience....
Speaking of patience, how is she being fed? We're assuming this version of Changeling can eat normal sustenance, right?
Keep going! ;)

[nioniosbbbb]

5381298 An irellevant thing first. In the "Also liked" section of this fic is my own fic "A Quest for knowledge". I'd like to know more about how this "also liked" collumn works.

Also... the dissapearance of an entire nation ((as i talked about this with a friend of mine)) is an asspull so far and I'd like that explained.

She really should be guarded a lot more that's for sure. Also... Equestria on Earth? Really small? Really? Okay that is plain unbelievable to me. Equestria isn't just the map Habsro let us you know? I know of at least one instance where more of it is shown.

Last but not least as it was said before after this incident her security should be a gazillion times greater and Shining Armor should have at least been removed from his position or at least his reason for letting her "go" per say ((hypnosis)) questioned.

[Dan The Man]

5424640
1. Count me in. Though, it's probably some kind of complicated keyword or tag comparison process...

2. Well, if the 'nation' is rather small, and remote, and nigh-inhospitable to life, and isolated/unpopular to a point that most sane and peaceloving ponies would steer clear of it at all costs, and situated in a pseudo-medieval world without phone or sattelite coverage (not yet, at least), it's really not as contrived as you might think.

3. Planet Earth is pretty big. And Equestria, at least in this story, contains the pony nation itself, plus a few bordering ones (just like in a hundred EoE stories before). Even if it were 'just' the size of, say, Turkey (which is an enormous country, by the way), it would still look rather miniscule on the world map if it were an island somewhere in furthest-flung corner of the Pacific. Needless to say that for a medieval society such as Equestria's, it's still a lot of space.

4. What if he never told anyone? Plus, I refer to my previous comment.

[nioniosbbbb]

5426262 I dont believe a nation the size of Turkey can go unnoticed by humans for so long and b EoE stories make absolutely no sense consideconsidering lots of things.

You also havent quite said what age Equestria is in and i doubt its medieval. That also throws a gazzilion of questions about how much you can cooperate with a nation that is eons back without synchronizing them with current events.

I also dont know and cant understand why Equestrian government would give away Chrysalis. Thats something no nation would do.

Also last but not least the changeling kingdom is south through the Appaloosan mountain range and on to the forest of Leota as indicated by the comics. Just a fun fact through the comics. The area around it doesnt appear inhospitable. That area is also beyond the Equestrian map Hasbro gave which means that likely this area is outside Equestrian jurisdiction.

[Dan The Man]

5426297
Now, first of all, I never mentioned how long Equestria even existed on Earth before being 'discovered'. I suppose they were thrown into that universe á la 1632 at some point, but that isn't exactly relevant to this story. This is a fairly well-situated setting in MLP-fanfiction, so I was neither the first, nor will I be the last to set a story there.

"That also throws a gazzilion of questions about how much you can cooperate with a nation that is eons back without synchronizing them with current events."
Well, that's exactly what they're trying to do - synchronising them to modern standards and principles, by incorporating them into the world community.

Now, I think I delved into Equestria's motivations behind the cooperation with humanity in the Radio Debate.

Also, are the comics even canon?
The actual show couldn't answer a lot of things about the changelings, like if a Changeling Kingdom even exists - changelings could just as well be a travelling people and we wouldn't know for sure. So I admit that, of course, a good portion of the story relies on my head-canon and some general fanon consensus rather than 'hard facts'.

[nioniosbbbb]

5426342 They were discovered at that time or just popped into existance? Either way they should have done something by now. The air I am getting is that we discovered ponies some decades ago.

And the comic are considered b canon. Meaning they are canon only if the show doesnt contradict them.

It would have been perfectly fine if portals were used.

[Dan The Man]

5426383 Well, if you insist... then yes. Equestria popped up on Earth through metaphysical happenstance barely a year before the story, and was discovered only days after.

[nioniosbbbb]

5426423 Well that certainly solves some questions and raises others i just dont know exactly how Equestria on Earth works. Plus there are some questions about Zebras and Crystal Empire correlating to Equinox and poles but i will satisfy myself to a link to the general fanon theory.

[Dan The Man]

5426436 With all due respect... I think you have more of a problem with the EoE genre in general than with my story.

[nioniosbbbb]

5427455 Well that is the reason why I request somewhere I can look upon this theory. I want to be able to see how someone who justifies it looks upon this world. That is all. Which is why I am requesting your help.

[Dan The Man]

5427685 I see.
Now, I could suggest Ponies In The Real World and Human In Equestria as two excellent places for detailed EoE stories (as both groups have dedicated folders for it).
And for more committed political and/or technological themes that may be linked to EoE, there still are Global Politics Is Magic and Technology VS Magic.

[Cakebomb]

'Hard enough to smash cement to bits?'

Yeah, no. I refuse to believe she can SMASH FUCKING CONCRETE WITH NO HARM TO HER BODY.

[Operatorchan]

5548034 It was probably the battery, and plastic.

[ssokolow]

5548034

Rats and ants can chew through concrete in real life. What's so unbelievable about a magically-reinforced equine-insectoid hybrid being able to chip away at it?

[Bahamuttone]

Hm Celestia -> raising Sun, what happened? Is she STILL raising the sun? Is anyone aware of this?
Additionally ALL the security is just a battery slapped there hapzardly? what happens when it discharge? what happens if hitting the wall she manages to dislodge one of the wires?

[Earthpatriot117]

I can tell there will be much frustrating reading in the future.
She's guilty, no matter what, the court is simply to argue out the severity of the punishment. If by some evil miracle she gets away Scott free at the end of this.
Interesting story none the less, don't know any other like it. Xd

[Marker]

"...And the Equestrian island, which is where you come from, is..."
He tardily lowered his finger,
"all... the way... down... there. Barely in the lower right corner of the map. That must be about 8500 miles. Wait, no, nautical miles. That's even further away. About 16,000 kilometres, I believe."

i.imgur.com/NaSuRuv.png
Ah, Point Nemo, also known as the furthest spot you can get away from any landmass on Earth.

Used by Lovecraft as the location for the sunken city of R'lyeh. And by satellite operators as the spot they try to aim for when deorbiting old satellites. No doubt Equestria's sudden appearance there caused quite a few headaches for space agencies around the world, not to mention a new wave of conspiracy theories.

[Atomic_furry]

9034247
Cthulhu ftagan

[Atomic_furry]

8929085
Oh yeah shes guilty of AT LEAST genocide, systematic spiecies based slavery, and other war crimes. But the human courts may drop some of the charges.

She still gonna get life