Walking across the courtroom was the hardest thing for Starshine to do. Between all the stares that followed her and all the whispers that echoed past her ears, she could already feel what little confidence she had dwindle.
'Just get up there,' she told herself, 'just get up and get it out.'
As she passed the defense's table, she didn't even dare to glance at who was sitting there. She could feel his eyes on her, and it was practically burning through her coat. But, she didn't squirm under his gaze. She couldn't let him think he had an inkling of control over her, like he had that fateful night.
She tried not to wince as she recalled a snippet from it.
Starshine looked up to the judge, the one to have called her to the stand in the first place. His eyes were kind and sympathetic to her, but the rest of his features were stoic and emotionless. Perhaps to keep from looking biased, she didn't know.
She warily stepped into the stand and sat down in the seat, her gaze going across the packed courtroom. Reporters were there, ready to chronicle the trial, as were spectators, some supporters of Starshine, others for her assaulter.
Her gaze flickered over to him briefly, and she immediately wished she hadn't. He was glaring at her like his eyes were daggers, and Starshine was thankful that looks couldn't kill.
"Miss Starshine?"
She jumped slightly, then immediately felt embarrassed as she looked at the prosecutor. He held no emotion in his features, but that didn't irk Starshine. He was meant to help her, right? To put away the stallion who tried to hurt her?
"Yes?" Starshine replied, quiet and timid. She hadn't a voice left, she realized.
"Do you swear to tell the truth and nothing but the truth, so help you Celestia?" a stallion from beside her asked.
She nodded, then added verbally, "Yes."
"Would you care to tell me what happened on the night in question?" the prosecutor asked, "Don't leave out any details, ma'am."
Starshine almost flinched. She had never been addressed as a "ma'am" before that moment in time. "I was on my way home from work," she started slowly, "I had just left and I was going to stay in for the evening."
The prosecutor gave her a sympathetic look when she paused to take a breath. "Take your time. I understand that these things can be difficult to talk about."
Starshine felt a pinch of relief, but it was short lived when she found it in her to speak again. "It was dark outside. It usually is, around that time of night." She took another breath. "But nopony has ever... bothered me, before that night."
"Care to explain the nature of this bothering?" the prosecutor asked.
Starshine felt a rock in her stomach, but she continued on. "It was sudden. One second I was walking, another I was being pinned to a wall." She took a very ragged breath. "I tried to scream, but-- but my mouth was covered. And, then, I felt a knife get pushed to my throat."
"Did you fight back?"
Starshine almost scoffed out loud. "Yes, I fought back. I thought I was going to die!" She winced as she realized the volume of her voice. "Sorry."
The prosecutor waved a hoof. "It's alright. It's never easy recalling these things."
Starshine took another breath. "I was so scared... I told him that I didn't have any money to give and asked--" She shook her head. "No, I begged for him to let me go." She took another deep breath. "And then, I looked up at who was pinning me and saw that he was... smiling." She closed her eyes. "That's when I realized what he wanted."
"And then a stallion managed to get him away from you before he... went too far?"
Starshine nodded, no words needed to further clarify her answer.
The prosecutor turned to the stallion who sat at the defense table. "Is that the stallion who attacked you?"
Starshine nodded. "Yes." She felt her voice crack.
The prosecutor backed away from the stand. "No further questions, Your Honor."
The judge nodded, then turned to the attorney next to the attacker. "Defense?"
The attorney stood up, then walked over to the stand with a stone-cold face. Starshine spared her attacker a glance and she felt her heart skip a beat.
He was smiling.
'What does he have planned?' Starshine wondered, a pinch of fear flickering in her mind.
The attorney stepped up to the stand. "Miss Starshine, on the night in question, you say that you've never been bothered by anypony, correct?"
Starshine hesitated as she looked at her attacker, then turned back to the attorney. "Yes."
He nodded. "And why do you think that is?"
Starshine furrowed her brows. "Because not everypony wants to take advantage of mares when they're alone." She frowned at him. "What are you trying to say?"
The attorney propped himself up on the stand. "Do you consider yourself attractive?"
Starshine blinked in surprise. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"Defense," the judge said crisply, "stay on point."
"I am," the attorney stated, "it is essential to the case."
Starshine set her jaw, the loosened it enough for her to get out, "What are you trying to say?"
The attorney looked back at his client, AKA, her attacker. He nodded at him, to which her attacker nodded back, a smile on his face.
Starshine felt a cold sweat break over her neck. They had something big planned, something that was going to utterly destroy what she had said.
'He's going to walk free,' Starshine thought fearfully, 'he's got something that's going to make him walk free.'
The attorney leaned in, much to her disdain, and he scanned her over. "Miss Starshine..."
Starshine swallowed hard, her heart thumping like a kettledrum and she closed her eyes to brace herself.
"...What were you wearing when you were attacked?"
Starshine's eyes popped open and her jaw went slack as she looked at the stallion before her. She glanced at her attacker, who was just as, if not more surprised than she was. It would seem his attorney hadn't told him of his plan.
"I'm sorry, what did you just ask me?" Starshine questioned.
The attorney sighed. "What were you wearing when you were--"
"I heard you, I heard you," Starshine interrupted, holding up her hooves, "It's just-- why would you ask me that?"
The attorney arched a brow. "It's no secret you're an attractive mare. Were you wearing anything that could be considered revealing or seductive?"
Starshine glared at him. "I wasn't wearing anything!"
"Oh?" the attorney questioned.
"Neither are you, you idiot!" Starshine snapped.
"Your Honor!" her attacker exclaimed.
"That's quite enough, Counselor!" the judge told him, "That question is completely and utterly ridiculous!"
The room buzzed with agreement, which caused the judge to slam his gavel down several times to regain order.
"Your Honor, I would like to apologize," the attacker said as he stood up, "I had no idea that he was going to pull something like this."
Starshine looked at the attorney with the utmost annoyance. "What in Equestria does what I was wearing have to do with what happened to me? I was attacked and nearly taken advantage of!"
"But-- But it couldn't have been his fault!" the attorney exclaimed, "It had to have been what she was wearing! Why else would he do something like that?"
"Because I felt like it!" the attacker shouted.
Starshine threw her hooves into the air. "Saying that what I was wearing is why I was attacked is like saying a stallion not wearing any protection is why somepony kicked him in between the legs! It's absolutely ridiculous!"
The attorney turned towards his client. "But-- But you had to have been asking for it somehow! Maybe a smile or a wave?"
Starshine snarled. "I don't appreciate the insinuation that I asked for this sort of behavior!" She stood up in her seat. "I don't appreciate the insinuation anypony asked for this sort of behavior!"
The courtroom was abuzz again, but it took more than a couple slams from the judge's gavel for anypony to settle down. Finally, the judge put a hoof to his face and he sighed in the most apathetic manner. "Counselor, I think it's safe to say that we're done here."
The attorney gaped at him. "Your Honor!"
The judge ignored him and he turned to face the reason for their being in the courtroom in the first place. "There will be a day in which your punishment is settled, but I can say that bail is not an option without any doubt." He slammed the gavel. "I'll see you tomorrow." He sighed. "Now, I'm just going to go to my chambers."
Starshine felt a wash of relief go over her. So he wasn't going to walk free. His attorney had made sure of that, she knew. She climbed out of the stand and she walked down the aisle, not even bothering to glance at her attacker.
He couldn't hurt her anymore.
As she left the courtroom, a flurry of reporters following after her to ask her about what happened, the attacked sighed and smacked a hoof to his head. "I really gotta stop accepting attorneys appointed by the court."
