Der Metzger Herr Messer

A man with a gun holstered against his side sauntered around the room. "You know you're lucky Equestria doesn't have a free speech law...." He flipped through a packet of notes and wandered about the boring grey room. "Brought me in from Trottingham, just to deal with this." He tossed the packet down and looked me over. "Vigilantism and Tresspassing."

I held my thumb in my hand and tapped the table with my wrist. I looked up at him and shrugged.

The guard shook his head. "He was a bad person, and if you'd called the guard he would have been rotting by now."

I shrugged. He was rotting.

The guard pulled the chair across from me out and scratched his nose as he sat down. "You're going to plead guilty?"

I nodded.

The room went still as the man leaned back in his chair. "You're looking at house arrest with forced civil service, or a year in a detention facility." He rubbed his face. "A year.... You killed a man and they want to give you a year...."

I tapped my finger against my tattoo. The guard look at it and huffed. "That doesn't make it better. If anything that means it could have been premeditated."

I shook my head softly.

The guard sighed deeply. "You don't even regret it, do you?"

I shook my head slowly.

The clock in the corner of the room filled the empty time with ticking. The guard sat there, hunched over and annoyed. "Let you off of a murder.... Ridiculous."

I shrugged again. I was completely expecting execution or imprisonment for life, but loopholes presented themselves and the little white mare was playing lawyer quite well. I looked to the door.

The guard ran his fingers through his hair. "I suppose it doesn't really matter. That house, those ponies, all that mess would have been buried if you hadn't come in, but you still dropped the ball fairly hard."

I shook my head. I'd only done what should have been done years ago.

The guard leaned back and pulled a sticker from his pocket. He set it down between us. "I really don't know if I should scold you or praise you." He tapped his finger against the black swastika. "Sixty ponies were tied in this, and it was growing. Preaching anti-pegasus, anti-alicorn, anti-unicorn, anti-thestral, anti-pony really...." He rubbed the bridge of his nose. "You know, I suppose I'll settle for watching you pay it back." He stood up and turned to the door. "We're done here." He spoke in clear, German-tinted English, and for the first time in a long time, I understood it.

I watched as he walked out and turned to face me at the door. "Thirty minutes." He stepped out and held the door, letting Aryanne walk in. I watched the little white mare stroll slowly in, her mark laid bare. A simple heart with a ribbon across the center, yet it still bore the stunted coat where the cross had been. The guard stepped out and the mare walked in.

I stood before her and watched as she walked up to the guard's chair and settled down. She stared at me and slowly set a hoof on the table between us. I shifted in my seat slightly before reaching out and gently clasping her hoof between my hands. I bowed my head and looked down at the table as I ran my thumb across her soft coat.

"You knew him, didn't you?"

I nodded.

"...Did you mean to kill him?"

I nodded again.

Aryanne let out a short sigh. "...Did he deserve it?"

I looked up at the white mare. I pointed to the scar on my throat and traced it across my shoulder. I dropped my head back down and sighed. "Paper." As I spoke a drop of blood dripped from my lip and onto the table. I wiped it away and cleaned my mouth.

Aryanne sighed and pressed her lips against my head. "... I'll be back soon." She nuzzled my crown as I bowed before her. "You'll explain...then perhaps I will too."