Lex Divisia - Chapter 2: Prosecutorial Discretion

“You have to understand, if I tell you anything they’ll kill my whole family!” The unicorn stallion shouted, exasperated. This particularly distressed unicorn’s name was Red Ledger and he’d been up for over 16 hours being questioned relentlessly by two gruff constabulary detectives and one mean, unflappable crown attorney.

“Why are you protecting the Sicklefin Gang?” The grizzled detective to his left growled into his face, “they don’t care about you; they’ve left you in Ponyville to rot! If you don’t start singing now, you’ll end up in Federal custody!”

“No way! Tartarus!? I’m just an accountant! I only helped moved some funds onshore, nothing I even did was technically illegal!” Red Ledger stammered, visible sweat now pouring down his brow and soaking his wrinkled shirt collar.

The younger of the two detectives pushed his partner back and put a sympathetic smile on his face “listen Red, if I can call you by your first name… we know that you did nothing wrong, you know that, heck even the Sicklefins know that. But how do you think that’ll play for a jury?” He put on a falsetto voice, “oh I’m so sorry, I didn’t know those bits would be used for ill-intent! I thought the Sicklefins were looking to donate to the Hoof and Mouth Disease Foundation…” He slammed his hoof down and resumed his gravelly tone, “we both know that won’t fly buddy…” He stood up and paced around the table, stopping behind Red Ledger’s back and giving him a shoulder rub. “Heck, I bet our Crown Attorney, The Honorable Mr. Amicus Curiae here would rather spend his time going after the real criminals…”

Both stallions looked over at the only other unicorn in the room, seated comfortably in the corner, wearing a perfectly pressed tie and collar. His gaze was implacable and unreadable, staring right through Red Ledger as though he was an inanimate object. A half-beat of dead silence filled the room in which the stillness of the scene was only belied by the wafting fumes of a half-finished cigarette sputtering in the ashtray on the interrogation room table.

“Ahem,” the detective cleared his throat and pressed on awkwardly. “So why dontcha make this easier on all of us and just say into our little recorder here who wired the money over from the Emerald Isles?”

As he completed his pitch, he adjusted what looked like the horn end of a trumpet (more specifically the bell of a trumpet) with a prominent ON/OFF toggle welded to it. Running from the narrow end of the device was a small rubber tube that ran over to a mirror adorning one of the walls.

Red Ledger had seen enough cop dramas to know that there was a recording device on the other end of the tube, capturing every word that was being spoken. As he shivered at the thought of how the smallest slip of his tongue would ruin his life, the bright red font of the ON/OFF switch seemed to throb in his vision.

“I-I can’t! I want to help you, but my accounting license prevents me from divulging such confidential client information.” He gulped and pulled at his tie, trying to get more oxygen, before going on. “Plus I’ve seen what happens if you cross the ‘family’... you end up like swiss cheese: shot to pieces while still alive! Then they bring your family in front of you and bleed ‘em slow, so you go out knowing everyone you loved is dead.” He shook his head violently, as if trying to fling the horror out of his mind.

“No gentlestallions, before I could even think about assisting you I’d need to know you could provide protection for me… and maybe a little incentive.”

At this last word, a grin crossed his lips as he thought about how lucrative he might be able to turn this situation to his favor. He’s always been an enterprising sort, and who knows how much Celestia’s government might be willing to pay to bring down the Sicklefins.

What he didn't notice as he became lost in his pecuniary reverie, was the twinkle that appeared in the stoic attorney’s eye after his feeble attempt at extortion. It would cost him. Dearly.

“Thank you, officers” Amicus Curiae said, rising suddenly. His voice was an odd mix of the cultured and educated dulcet tones of Canterlot’s prestigious schools, along with the harsh, brusque staccato pace of a foal raised in the slums of Manehattan. “I'd like a moment alone with Mr. Ledger. Take a brief break, and we’ll pick it up in 10, huh?”

A moment later the door sounded a loud *clunk* as it closed behind the two departing detectives, leaving Red Ledger alone with the stolid attorney.

Amicus Curiae stood up and walked to the mirrored wall, drawing the curtains shut with a faint glow from his horn. Before Red Ledger could ask what he was up to, Amicus reached across the table and switched the recording toggle from *ON* to *OFF*. The toggle made a satisfying *click* as it snapped downward.

“W-what are you doing? You’re not gonna beat me up are you?” The meek accountant mewled, preemptively wincing from the blow he expected to rain down on him from the well-dressed blue-green unicorn with a well coiffed chocolate mane.

“Police brutality? Clearly you must think everyone has the same thug qualities as the usual characters you associate with...” he said tapping the recording horn as if to ensure that the device was off. “No, I just wanted to have a chance to speak with you in private... For what I have to say, overly eager ears could be detrimental to the both of us.”

A frown crossed the accountant’s face. “Just what do you mean?”

Sighing and shaking his head, Amicus addressed the meek stallion “Mr. Ledger have you ever stopped to consider just why your letters to the Sicklefins asking for legal assistance have gone unanswered? Or why Exit Wound was fast tracked to a cushy facility on a bogus insanity plea?” He stopped walking and sat down at the empty chair across from Red Ledger, staring at him across the table.

“What do you mean? I don’t follow you…”

“A family that runs into as much legal trouble as the Sicklefins would benefit from having a brilliant young attorney working as a Crown Prosecutor on the payroll wouldn’t you think?”

The question hung in the air for a moment as Red Ledger eyes went wide… “Y-you mean… you…. you work for the Sicklefins? You’re on the take?”

*Sigh* “What do you think, Mr. Ledger?” Amicus mused with a hearty eye roll at the accountant’s disbelief.

A giant smile crossed the face of Red Ledger as he realised he had a chance to escape this nightmare. “Oh thank Celestia, I knew the Sicklefins wouldn’t leave me dangling. I know too much… I hope you realise I would never have sold out the family… I just wanted to lead those coppers along, obfuscate and delay… you realise that, right?” He vacillated, realising that he had nearly betrayed the Sicklefins right in front of one of their lawyers.

Amicus let a frown of displeasure creep across his muzzle. “I’m not so sure about that, Mr. Ledger. Nor do I appreciate you thanking… that mare.” His word dripped with disgust. “But I’ll tell you what… I won’t tell the Emerald Isles about your little ‘offer’ if you help me out with a little information… we need to know who authorized and funded Exit Wound’s little Ponyville excursion… it seems she didn’t have permission from on high to go on her little adventure and I’ve been tasked with digging out just who helped her to do so.”

Red Ledger gulped loudly, “o-of course! I didn’t realise that she wasn’t authorized, I just laundered the incoming funds and converted them into frangible goods and bits to hire some local muscle. You’ll help me get out of this jam right? I never really signed up for this.” He nervously buried his head in his hooves.

“I’ll make sure you get where you belong, just give me a name and the account… something I can pass along to my superiors.” Amicus pushed a pad and quill across the table. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure I take good care of that paper.”

Red Ledger began to scribble on the pad as he mumbled “Golden Horseshoe Securities, Manehattan Branch. Account 407535403-001. Transactions 15 through 26. The wire came in from Emerald Isles Imports from a Mrs. Pearl Pursestrings.” He scribbled the information down.

“Could you sign and date that?” Amicus pointed at the bottom of the blank page, encouragingly.

“Of course!” Red Ledger did so absent-mindedly, accustomed to doing so with his day-to-day accounting work. As soon as he had, Amicus snatched the paper away and pushed back his chair, standing as he read the note. Once he had, he turned to Red Ledger with a smug grin on his face.

"I knew you were an idiot, but honestly, you've broken new ground in the field of stupidity. Seriously, I'm in awe. It's like being in the presence of one of the great masters of the moronic arts."

“W-w-what do you mean?” Red Ledger asked, confused.

“Tell me, Mr. Ledger, what do you think that this switch does?” Amicus said, flipping the switch up and down rapidly. Red Ledger’s eyes began to open wide in fear. Amicus lifted the switch effortlessly away from the recording bell, the spot it had once occupied now revealed to be completely unconnected to the device in any way.

“Or for that matter, don’t you think that this curtain is a bit thin?” Amicus said, holding some of the fabric to the light, the sheerness of the material betraying its nearly transparent nature. Amicus went further, pulling the curtain back to reveal the mirror in its ‘off’, transparent state, the two detectives who had left the room standing on the other side of the window smiling, a recording device behind them, taking down every word being spoken.

“I mean seriously, I know this is your first time being questioned, but even a two-bit pursesnatcher wouldn’t have given me a signed confession willingly.” He said, dangling the paper with Red Ledger’s own handwriting in front of him with his magic.

A horrible feeling of terrible anxiety washed over Red Ledger as he struggled to compute what had just happened. “B-b-but you lied, you said you worked for the Sicklefins… you said you’d help me…”

“I did no such thing, and I’d be happy to provide you and your counsel with a transcript of our interview today to prove the same.” Amicus said, knowing that he had skillfully avoided any lies to the suspect, a procedural no-no in Equestrian law.

“I… I DON’T HAVE A LAWYER… YOU’VE PROBABLY BEEN BLOCKING MY LETTERS REQUESTING ONE FROM THE SICKLEFINS!” Red Ledger began to shout, his frustration boiling over as he realised how badly he’d been played by the slick unicorn.

“Now, Mr. Ledger, I would advise you not to add libel to your growing list of offenses. I personally saw to it that your letters were handed directly to our local mailmare: Ms. Derpy Hooves. If anything happened to them after I left them in her excellent care, that’s between you, her, and the Ponyville Mail Service Complaint Department.” The smirk on his face had grown into a grinch-like evil smile. The detectives behind the glass were laughing aloud.

He was utterly defeated, crying, sobbing. “Y-you win, you got what you wanted. So please just help me and my family.” He sniffled, wiping the tears from his eyes.

“Why would I do that? You have nothing left to offer me. This information is more than enough to investigate all of your accounts held in trust for the Sicklefins, and to tie the family to their disgusting activities in Ponyville.”

Red Ledger eyes now went wide in terror. “Y-you can’t! They’ll kill my mares and foals! I’ll die in Tartarus… I can’t do time in that federal hell-hole. I’m just a white-collar criminal. What you did was completely unethical! I’ll tell Celestia what you did!”

At the mention of Celestia, the smile fell from Amicus’s face and he boiled over in rage for the first time in the entire interrogation session. His magic gripped the panicking stallion by the throat, slamming him against the wall and pinning him to his chair. “Tell Celestia? Go right ahead, scumbag. I don’t give a buck what that two-bit whorse thinks, she’s almost as lawless as you and your ilk.” He was almost frothing as he went on, his face pressed right into that of Red Ledger’s.

“Criminals like you don’t understand just how many ponies you hurt, you never think about the consequences of breaking the social contract. Sure you were just pushing bits around, but at the end of the day ponies died and an innocent human was tortured. You’re scum… but don’t worry about Tartarus... No, I wouldn’t trust you to the Princesses’ Federal jurisdiction… All those bleeding hearts are good for is imprisoning monsters and supervillains, and sometimes not even them!”

Amicus paused and leaned in close. “No, normal ponies like you, they'd probably pardon you after a few months." No my friend, you’ll stay in the Ponyville system, maybe be a part of a prisoner exchange with Stalliongrad. They eat paper in their gulags just to survive you know? Cooking the books will be helpful there for sure!” By the end of his rant, his glee had returned as he realised his prey was completely defanged.

“P-please sir, don’t! My family is innocent! Mercy!”

Amicus spat on the floor, “don’t worry, I’ll let those Sicklefin bastards know you didn’t squeal, and your prison time will convince them of that. They’ll be protected. I don’t hurt the innocent. Unlike you. I’m done with you, and so is pony society.” He walked coolly to the door and looked back on the snivelling mass that had once been Red Ledger. He sneered imperiously and added a parting shot: “you’re a disease Red Ledger. But the justice system is the cure. Do your time you bastard, and maybe… maybe… you’ll be cured too.” He slammed the door behind him.

The scream of anguish reverberated through the hall as Amicus was joined by the detectives.

“Great work boss… just… just make sure you’re careful when it comes to using your magic on any subjects in custody.” The older detective stammered, rubbing his head meekly.

Amicus glared at the detective and continued down the hall, “noted.” The younger detective did not immediately leave, as he stammered to get the attorney’s attention. “What is it?” Amicus asked, reviewing Red Ledger’s confession note.

“Well, I didn’t want to bother you, but I got a tip from my buddy who works security at Ponyville Hospital… you won’t believe who’s come back to Ponyville. Word is she hurt someone too.” He passed over a photo from a file he was carrying.

Amicus nonchalantly took the photograph, but a grin peeked through his features as he saw the blue and silver colors of the unicorn mare on the glossy security camera photo paper in his hoof.

“She came back huh? Well I’d love to make sure she never leaves…”

He looked up at the two detectives.

“Let’s get to that hospital boys.”

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Lero stretched back in his chair, a gentle yawn escaping his lips as he stretched and flexed his toes and fingers, trying to be more comfortable in the hospital room chair. He’d been camped out in the small but pleasant room for over 6 hours now. Prior to that he had been sleeping in a bed in a side room at the hospital. The girls had encouraged him to head back to the library to sleep, but he wanted to be sure that he would be present for Jacob’s awakening.

Lyra was camped out on his lap as well, the odd cartoonish snore escaping her snout as she snuggled into his chest. It was all he could do to resist smothering her with hugs when she was being this involuntarily cute.

It had been nearly 2 whole days since his herd had spilled into the emergency room, only to be lectured by Luna on the importance of keeping this arrival of a new human to Equestria a secret. Lero thought back on the events of the previous day.

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Luna had quickly retired to the waiting room where the remainder of the hospital staff and exposed visitors were holed up. Luckily, aside from the doctor on call and the nursing staff, no one had really seen what all the initial commotion had been about.

Removing themselves to a more secluded, private part of the hospital, the group had endured a stressful wait in silence as Celestia and the surgical team worked on Jacob’s injuries.

Rarity and Rainbow had used the opportunity to return to Golden Oaks library to update Spike and Scootaloo on the situation, and to assure them that their friends were OK.

Speaking of which, Lero and Twilight had dropped in to see Sweetie Belle, who was being attended to for severe MFS (magical fatigue syndrome). Twilight was able to reassure Lero that this essentially amounted to a form of mental exhaustion, but it was no surprise to see that Applebloom refused to leave her friend’s side while she recovered in a hospital bed.

The tension had finally broken the previous evening when Celestia and the chief surgeon, Doctor Vital Signs came out of the surgical theatre with smiles on their faces.

“Good news!” Doctor Horse had began, addressing Lero, Twilight and Luna, “it appears that, thanks in no small part to the assistance of the Princess, our friend in the operating theatre will be likely to pull through.” He looked down at his clipboard, his tired and puffy eyes betraying how stressful the surgery had been.

“The patient had significant damage to the right cheekbone and maxillary structure. Unfortunately for him, it seems that humans share a similarly complex nerve and muscular structure that proved difficult to repair, especially with the fragments of his jawbone as dangerously razor sharp as they had been.”

“Still… and I must commend the princess on her exceedingly delicate touch… we've managed to put things to rights. A little bit of perhaps, pre-emptive and less than effective magic may mean that the final healing will be delayed slightly: there is some scarring.”

Princess Celestia straightened her neck to look at Lero…”I am so sorry My Little Human. I would not have wished this introduction to our world on even the hardiest of creatures. He is resting peacefully now.”

A small sob came from the corner as Trixie overheard the diagnosis and outlook. She’d had the opportunity to slip away, to make her way back as quickly as possible to her caravan and escape this town, never to return regardless of the terms of her Royal punishment (mandating that her community service show tour make one stop in Ponyville a season). However, she could not leave without knowing the fate of the human she’d injured. Despite appearances to the contrary, Trixie was not heartless; not callous enough to resist the disregard she would need to feel in order to walk away without knowing if her actions had more dire consequences.

Hearing the Princess apologise for having failed to sufficiently protect this innocent creature from her recklessness, from the damage she caused, broke her heart. She hung her head for a moment before steeling herself while affixing a stern look and saying aloud: “w-well Trixie knew that he would pull through, the precision of her hoof strikes is above reproach.”

She sniffed and turned to re-enter the side room where she had been waiting, saying “p-please let Trixie know of any other updates… not that Trixie is worried or concerned of course!” Her tattered cloak flapped about her, the blood stains and grime still smeared across its star patterns.

Rainbow Dash was about to rise up to shout at Trixie muttering: “Why you stuck up, conceited, uncaring, b-” When she was stayed by Lero’s hand on her back.

“We all react in their own way Dash” Lero said, pointing toward a spot on the floor where Trixie had been standing, a few pitter-patter spots of wetness left behind that could only be from surreptitious tears shed by the unicorn magician, which had been hidden by her cape.

Dash paused at the revelation.

“What are we all moping about anyway?” Lero said, ruffling Dash’s mane, “the princess did a great job, he’s gonna be just fine.” He let out a nervous breath, “if anyone should be freaking out it should be me… I’ve got to find some way to introduce him to Equestria without making his mind explode.”

Princess Celestia chuckled, “you have always been strong of spirit Lero… and I have no doubt that you will prove an able guide for Jacob when he awakens.”

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Hours later, Lero still awaited Jacob’s awakening. He jolted up as the door to Jacob’s room opened, allowing two nurses and one of his herdmates entry to the room. He knew of these two nurses, one from longtime experience (and repeated hospital visits).

Nurse Redheart was the Chief Nurse on the ward, and Dr. Horse’s right hand mare.

The other nurse was a young unicorn mare, with a light green coat and flowing blue locks. She introduced herself as Nurse Mint Glow, and also mentioned that she had only just recently left the nursing school to join the rest of the staff at Ponyville General Hospital.

Seeing as how Mint Glow was the only nurse on staff who had no experience whatsoever with human physiology, she was accompanying Nurse Tenderheart on every available opportunity to receive as much experience as possible, especially considering Lero’s predilection for getting into trouble.

After her curt introduction, they went to Jacob’s bedside. Jacob was separated from Lero’s chair by a thin privacy curtain, but this did nothing to stop Lero from overhearing the lecture Nurse Tenderheart began to give.

So it was that Lero couldn’t help but listen in as they began to go over Jacob’s body parts in what was obviously nurse Redheart giving an anatomy class directly to her subordinate Mint Glow… via a sorely needed sponge bath.

“Now you’ll see here that the roots of his hair are a bit less firmly implanted than those on ponies’, they’ll also tend to have a good deal of sebaceous glands so you really need to make sure that you get down to the scalp.”

“A black mane? I thought all humans had the copper color that Lero has?”

“No, and our only other guest actually had different color entirely as well. He had more of a muddy blonde color. And they don’t call it a mane my dear, just hair.”

“Interesting! I suppose that makes sense as they have so little hair covering their bodies… though they do have a good deal of hair under their arms,” she mentioned as she lifted the arms of Jacob to run the sponge down from Jacob’s hand to his armpit.

“And that’s not the only hairy spots dear, as you’ll see when we reach the interesting bits.” Redheart said with a giggle as she bumped Mint Glow’s rump with her own.

Lero gulped and continued listening to the almost rhythmic sound of the two tittering nurses wringing excess water from their cleaning sponges while working together to identify and name the major muscles and parts… pectorals, lattissimus dorsis, trapezius…

He successfully stifled the competitive and aggressive masculine side of him that said that he should feel some jealousy as one nurse or the other commented on the size or strength of any particular muscle. Apparently Jacob had been in good shape prior to his little transportation. Mint Glow did mention that he was still a bit more wiry than your average Ponyville stallion however.

“Ok let’s move the covers and gown back.” Redheart mentioned as she peeled back the hospital linens.

“Oh my, how interesting!” Minty Glow beamed. “The sheath isn’t attached to the torso at all!”

“No dear, it hangs down freely when they stand... Do be gentle with the sponge though, they are just as sensitive as any stallion... That’s it, good! Now gently grasp here at the base with your magic… well done... and retract the flap of skin like you would with a stallion, but more gently... you should see the glans now and that little thin elastic bit there is the frenulum, you can see why you needed to be gentle!”

Lero blushed as he realised that the only way Nurse Redheart would have such information would be from prior inspections on him or Gus.

“Now make sure you get under the ridge of the mushroom… very good! Just so you know one of the humans we treated actually didn’t have that flap of foreskin for some reason, it seems to vary from person to person.”

Lero pondered explaining the human rituals and cultures around circumcision to the nurses, but then he knew he would be exposed for eavesdropping, and he couldn’t come up with any way to bring that up in idle conversation.

His thinking was interrupted by Mint Glow speaking in an embarassed unsure way: “Uh, Nurse Redheart... is that… normal?”

“Perfectly dear, sometimes as you manipulate things, you’ll get an involuntary erection.”

“Ah, I just wasn’t sure if it was the same mechanism.” Mint Glow responded.

“Just like a stallion dear… speaking of which” Lero heard Redheart giggling.

“Professionalism Nurse Redheart!” Mint chided facetiously.

“Oh, hush… you sound like Ms. Harshwinny, that old nag…. my is that… three testicles!?”

At this Lero couldn’t help himself and murmured “What!? Really?” The edge of the curtain pulled back and a grinning Redheart looked back at Lero smugly: “Kidding! Though its not polite to eavesdrop Mr. Lero.”

Lero blushed as he saw Mint also chortling behind a hoof. Seeing that he was being played with, Lero decided to extricate himself.

“I think I’ll give you ladies and Jacob some privacy… c’mon Lyra let’s find a bed somewhere and stretch out properly.”

Lyra groggily yawned and hopped to the floor as Lero extricated himself from the chair he’d been riding for hours now.

The nurses continued their soft giggling right up until Lero shut the door with a sigh.

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The quick reaction force (QRF) of the personal protection detail of the Royal Guard was cream of the Equestrian military force. Its members could be entrusted to rapidly deploy anwyehere across the country to protect and provide for the Princesses with limited notice and support… They were not hospital security.

Brazen Buckler was just about to open his mouth to tell his partner that maintaining the quarantine on this wing of the hospital was beneath the capability of two highly trained members of the Royal Guard such as himself and Tempered Edge. He’d been holding back this opinion for the past couple of hours, as he tended to be something of a jinx when speaking up about such things.

“This is such a babysitting assignment, I can’t even be-” before he could even start griping properly, the ward’s doors at the far end of the hall burst open, and what appeared to be a very serious looking unicorn strode toward them, flanked by a pair of local town constables.

“HALT Citizens” Tempered Steel thundered, stepping in front of the newly arrived group, wings spread wide in preparation to move suddenly and quickly, his knees braced as he half prepared to draw the deadly edge which hung at his side. His very voice shook dust from the light fixtures and windowsills.

The constables faltered and slowed to a halt.

The rumours of how quickly Royal Guard pegasi could move, how their blades were so light and fast that you would only see a flickering flash, and then feel a strange sensation of warmth as a limb or wing slid from your body to the ground in a fountain of blood, had spread even to Ponyville.

The determined unicorn, however, did not slow at all as brazen buckler repeated his partner’s command and drew his blade with a menacing ring which signalled impending death.

“Holster those weapons!” The unicorn sternly growled. “Guardsponies, you are in direct violation of two laws by your illegal interdiction of an officer of the Equestrian court!”

Brazen Buckler was stunned for a moment, but did not let his guard lower one bit, as he prepared to subdue the madman still advancing on him.

“One: pursuant to section 11-3 of the Equestrian Criminal Code: except in a publicly declared state of emergency Royal Guards may not restrict access to public health facilities not on federal lands or within the city limits of Canterlot.” Tempered Edge draw his blade as well, closing in on Brazen’s left flank to provide him with a defensive option in case this assailant tried to tumble into his blind spot.

“And two: from the Unification Act, our founding legal document, an officer of the Equestrian courts of law, in good standing, may not be inhibited by the military in times of peace from executing his duties.”

The unicorn was fully upon the two guardsponies now, his face pressing into theirs, daring them to act. “And seeing as how I am the Crown Attorney for Ponyville, in pursuit of a dangerous felon who has violated their probation…” his voice dropped in volume and tone, but maintained its fierce intensity “move”.

Brazen and Tempered stood still, like the blade of a guillotine poised above its victim, although your average security force might kowtow to such impassioned and articulate demands, they were the personal guard of the princesses. They would risk dishonor and death before allowing any threat near their Majesties.

The tension was incredibly thick. A moment of time passed at first, before the constables regained their focus and slowly began to advance on the blockade. Time was running out for the guardsponies, very shortly they would be outnumbered and likely forced to use violence to defend their charges. Though they knew they would win against such amateurs, the question would be whether they could do so without bloodshed.

Brazen prepared himself. A quick blow to the head of the unicorn before he tries to cast, he thought, then take to the air and get over top of those two constables. Tempered would take care of the rest while he rained blows down on them. If he caught flak for attacking officers of the court he would let Celestia punish him later… he could not afford to play 20 questions in an era of changelings, chaos gods, and assassins… all of whom could disguise themselves as local law enforcement.

His hoof shot out from his side so quickly it seemed to disappear, only to halt inches from the unicorn’s horn at the commanding shout of “HALT!” from behind him.

Celestia walked up to her two guards, a smirk evident in her demeanor.

“Well now Amicus, I’m not so sure about the ‘in good standing’ bit, but otherwise what you’ve said is true.”

Celestia could see Amicus was taken aback at the appearance of the radiant and tall alicorn. Most ponies would be, even if not seeing her for the first time, but Celestia knew the difference between when that look was one of awe or one of disgust.

She did not need to guess in Amicus’s case, as he nearly spat while muttering: “Celestia.”

Now that things were defused, Celestia couldn’t help but tweak him a little bit in retaliation for the scene he caused. “Come now Amicus, why all the bluster? Wasn’t it Conhoofcious who said ‘it is the smallest cock which crows loudest’?”

Amicus’s face turned red as he realized Celestia’s implication. “Still dropping the names of your old acquaintances to prove just how senile you truly are Celestia...? Don’t bother, your age was apparent to all before you spoke a word.” One of the guard’s swords twitched in anger before Celestia smiled.

“Charming as always Amicus, but let’s take this little tete a tete to somewhere more co-”

“Princess! He’s waking up, we should be able to speak to him in a few minutes!” a voice called from down the hall.

Amicus’s eyes narrowed.

“Thank You! Speak no further!” Celestia shouted immediately, without turning back. She took a deep breath to compose herself and refocus on Amicus.

She then stepped aside, motioning toward a room on her left within the ward, a frown now on her face because of what Amicus had heard. “As I was saying, it would appear we have much to discuss.”

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Author's Note

Hello All!

Sory for the slightly longer delay between Chapter 1 + 2, I'm trying to pace for a Chapter every fortnight, but we'll have to see how that holds as life gets busier and slower.

Enter Amicus! I actually had a lot of fun writing him, especially when he gets passionate about Celestia's rule. Hopefully he comes off as a 'too rigid' law and order type. One of my favorite tropes from Fantasy fiction was the lawful good type character who could ultimately do great harm by trying to do the right thing too well. This won't be the end-all be-all for this character, though, but seeing him clash with the forgiving and forgetting nature of the Princesses and the mane six will be a blast.

As promised, I will continue to mix in the odd bawdy bits here and there for my own fun. There will be the occassional clop chapter in the future as well.

Next chapter will be all about Jacob, I promise! I've been trying to scope out what that first conversation between Jacob and Lero will be like.

Also, I am super pumped that I am getting editing help from not only Mike Teavee, but Rikmach as well... both of whom should have great fame from the DR series. Any improvements in the writing are in part due to their assistance!