Patriots of Equestria, Part 1

"Do you understand what you have done?" cried Starlight Glimmer as Instant Justice walked past her and the others, not even acknowledging their presence. "You should have let him at least given him a chance to speak, you know! You really didn't have to go and kill him!"

But, Instant Justice didn't listen and instead walked past them without acknowledging their presence or their questions. In fact, everyone was aghast upon seeing what the Minister of Justice had done and as they watched Instant Justice walk away, they all came over to Hopper's dead body. Looking down, the body was riddled with holes and a huge line drew in his chest, signifying the mark where the killing blow was made in Hopper's heart.

"Why? Just why?" sighed Starlight Glimmer. "Why did you have to do what you did, Hopper? If you had only stayed in the hospital like you were supposed to…"

"He was too far gone to listen to any reason, Starlight," remarked Sunset. "You know it and I know it. In fact, we all know he wouldn't have come out of this alive. What worries me is if there is going to be any repercussions from all of this."

"You are right," sighed Thorax. "I didn't want this to happen, but it did. Nothing is going to make Chrysalis furious than hearing that Hopper was murdered. This wasn't justice, this was murder and that's all there is to it."

"It makes you wonder how Twilight and the Princesses are going to react to what he did," added Starlight, sighing heavily. "They are certainly not going to be very happy when they hear what Instant Justice did. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Hopper's death would bring Chrysalis back for even more revenge than before."

With those words, they set about giving Hopper a proper burial deep in the Everfree Forest. Once he was buried into the earth of Equestria, they placed a large stone marking the spot where he was buried. Yes, Hopper was a killer who caused an attack on Equestrian royalty, but not even he deserved to suffer a fate of this magnitude.

"May the Gods of Equestria have mercy on your soul," whispered Starlight as they all left the newly freshened burial site, containing the body of a killer.

So, the walk from the Everfree Forest back to Ponyville was a long walk for Starlight and her friends. Not even the joyous atmosphere of several ponies celebrating Hopper's defeat could brighten their spirits. But, nothing was compared to what they saw Instant Justice doing as he spoke to a small crowd of journalist ponies that were gathered around him.

"You will tell your peers that they shall all sleep with clearer minds tonight," Instant Justice announced to the pony media. "The bombers who instilled fear and terror throughout this great land of ours are no more. They have been killed by their own hands because they feared for their very lives."

"What?" asked Moon Dancer, feeling very dumbfounded. "They didn't die by their own hands, Hopper killed Thumper and then Instant Justice killed Hopper! He's lying to them in order to gain publicity to himself!"

"This is wrong," cried Thorax, who couldn't help but feel a sense of anger building inside of him. "Even Chrysalis wouldn't do anything like this to anypony, whether they were on her side or not. It makes me want to…"

"Wait," cried Starlight, using her magic to restrain him. "We can't just barge in without evidence to back up our claims. We need to find something that can prove what Instant Justice did to Hopper."

Using her magic, Starlight managed to retrieve the blood stained knife that Instant Justice used to finish off Hopper. She then wrapped the knife in a cloth to hide it from Instant Justice's viewpoint.

"Now what?" asked Sunset.

"We show this to Twilight and the Princesses," answered Starlight. "They will start to see that the pony who is supposed to protect us lawfully broke his own rules for his own gain."

…

With those words, they all boarded the next available train for Canterlot which was still pretty much empty as many ponies had not known about Hopper's death. Soon, they arrived back in Canterlot as they made their way back to the hospital. The princesses were slowly getting their strength back to the point where they could be walking out of their beds, but their progress was interrupted when Starlight and her friends returned.

"Starlight, Sunset, Moon Dancer, Thorax," remarked Twilight as she noticed her student while she struggled to flex her wings. "We were just thinking about you all. What's wrong?"

"There is something all of you need to know," said Sunset, firmly as Starlight produced the cloth covered knife. Unwrapping it, they revealed the blood stained blade to the princesses and they carefully studied it. "This is Hopper's knife, but I can assure you that we saw Hopper killed by this knife."

"We see it," remarked Luna. "But, how can you be certain that Hopper did not take his own life? You all know very well that these were desperate Changelings who would not be willing to be taken alive. Instant Justice told us in a recent scroll."

"That scroll was nothing but a bunch of lies on paper," replied Starlight. "After Hopper was hit multiple times, we saw Instant Justice tower over Hopper and personally slayed him with this very knife."

Almost immediately, Twilight could sense that something was up. The behavior of Starlight and her friends brought back memories of Chrysalis' invasion of Canterlot during the Royal Wedding and how she was coldly turned away when trying to warn her friends about Chrysalis.

"Starlight, we can't be certain unless more evidence comes forward," said Twilight, walking over to take the knife from Starlight's grip.

"But, Twilight," Starlight protested. "I can show you all exactly what we are talking about. Watch."

Starlight then produced a screen that showed a moving picture of when Hopper had been shot multiple times. Carefully watching what was in front of them, the princesses saw Instant Justice walk over to Hopper and picking up the knife with his magic. Almost immediately, they all saw that something was wrong with this picture.

"What's he doing?" whispered Twilight, her eyes widening with shock and disbelief. "He should have said that Hopper was under arrest."

"I'm going to offer you one last chance to save your pathetic life," he whispered, knowing that even though Hopper was mortally wounded, he was still going to be defiant. "Surrender yourself to Equestria and beg the princesses for their mercy."

Before Hopper could say another word, Instant Justice grabbed the knife that Hopper was using and dangled it over him, twisting it around.

"Well?" asked Instant Justice. "Well?"

Hopper coughed up a little bit of blood and rather than wait for an answer, Instant Justice took the knife and struck it into Hopper's heart, fatally wounding him as Starlight and her friends, especially Thorax, watched with disbelief.

"It is finished," he said to the ponies that faced him, blood from the dead Hopper on his hooves. "Come, we must leave at once and don't even bother about taking the body. Let the Timberwolves deal with this dead body of a monster."

With those words, Starlight turned off the screen, leaving the princesses speechless and disgusted by what they had just witnessed. In fact, Cadence was so shocked to see this that she started to silently cry.

"How could you?" whispered Celestia, her eyes scowling. "How could you do such a thing, Instant Justice? You killed him before he could plead for mercy and worst of all, without my permission."

At that moment, the door opened and Shining Armor entered the room, taking off his helmet and sighing heavily.

"Shining Armor, where is Instant Justice?" she demanded, her voice filled with fury and anger. "I want to talk to him about what happened in the Everfree Forest!"

"He is on his way now," replied the Prince of the Crystal Empire as he sat down next to Cadence and began to comfort her. "I can assure you that what we did was lawfully carried out, Princess Celestia."

"What you did was lawfully done," said Luna. "It was what Instant Justice did was not lawfully done, Prince Armor."

No sooner did Princess Luna say those words did Instant Justice make his way into the room, smiling proudly before saluting his superiors. The cold looks on their faces made him realize that they had caught onto what he did in the Everfree Forest.

"We need to talk, Instant Justice," said Celestia, crossly. "Do you understand what you have done?"

"I ridded Equestria of a monster," replied Instant Justice. "Now, everypony can sleep soundly tonight with the news that he has been eradicated."

"You did," she said. "But, in doing so, you did something much more badly, Instant Justice. By killing the accused Changeling, you have greatly endangered the risk of Equestria being attacked again by Chrysalis and the rest of her loyal Changelings because of what you did!"

Instant Justice realized that he was about to get the chewing out of his life for doing such a thing…