The Line Between Fire and Light: Parallel Stories

by Stolenalicorn

Rating: teen
Tags: Anthology, Main 6, Profanity, Mass Effect, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Human, Original Character, Star Trek, Random, Violence, Crossover
Length: 24006

Side stories that take place during The Line Between Fire and Light that wouldn't fit into the general story.

This is a collection of stories that occur during but are not part of The Line Between Fire and Light. Each chapter being a different story.
Edit, this now includes similar for A Balance of Fire and Light
If you haven't already I would like to recommend that you read the main story for the context to enjoy these stories to their fullest.
These stories may be from the perspective of other characters or are short asides and are not directly related to each other.
Other series Tags that do not show up as an option (More will be added as they are relevant): Chrono Trigger, Tenchi Muyo, Dragon Ball

I'd like to thank /u/color_blinded for their advice and providing a template to help me with my synopsis.
My Cover Image is my profile picture (made by Foudubulbe) until I can afford to ask someone to draw a family picture for me to use.

Published 2019-11-25 17:10:01 UTC
Last updated 2023-03-17 21:41:10 UTC

He's not just sleeping

Author's Note

I drew inspiration from Regidar (Dream Horse) and Aragon (I don't want to write this)
I'm nowhere near as talented as these two so go read their stories. (But be ready to get sad.)
I tried writing this in a different way and from a different perspective, just as kind of an experiment. Sorry if it doesn't really work. I thought it would be interesting to see Sara's perspective on this situation and how she muddled through it.

He's not just sleeping

He was laying on the hospital bed, his hair tied up to not get in the way. He wasn't himself though, she knew this happened in Equestria because he always took that form when visiting them. Her dad always said it was because they knew him that way but she saw something else there, in his eyes. He was worried.

Mordin Solus told her he was just sleeping, but that couldn't be true because he wasn't snoring. She'd been told that there was nothing to worry about, another lie. If there was nothing to worry about Tenyo wouldn't be helping, Washu wouldn't be coming either.

They were lying to her again because they thought she couldn't handle it. Thought she would break down because her dad was in a coma. But maybe they did it for Amber, she was so emotional. The lie had got her to stop crying, lies weren't always a bad thing.

She had been in school when Tali came to get her. Tali only said some nebulous thing along the lines of “something happened.”

Why was he there to begin with?

Because someone asked him for help. Someone was always asking him for help.

She asked her mom why he was still in that form, she just said someone was coming from the guild to change him back, but they had to research his notes first. It was going to be a few hours. It was alright, even in this form he was still her dad.

Amber was sitting on the only other bed in the room drawing something in her art book. She would always draw when she wanted to say something but couldn't.

But she only had words, and when they failed her she just got quiet.

It wasn't long until Washu got there. She was dressed in her nurses outfit, she looked like a child playing pretend. But she still knew what she was doing, no matter how silly she looked. It didn't take her long to analyze the problem and with a cocky grin announced that she had no idea.

At least she was being honest.

She didn't know why she was even there, it's not like she could do anything.

Why was he still in that form?

Her eyes burned as she looked at her father, laying impossibly still. Not reacting at all to everyone around him talking, making noise. He should be waking up! Why wasn't he waking up?!

His fur felt warm as she hugged him, if he was just faking to pull some stupid prank again now would be the right time to stop. It wasn't fun. If Airi put him up to this she wouldn't forgive her.

Her face was wet …

***

“How're the girls?” Rainbow Dash asked as she rested her wing on Sara's shoulder.

“Not well. Amber cried, started drawing then fell asleep. Sara … just hugged him until she fell asleep too. Mordin needed more scans so I had to move her.” Lucca said as she walked over to check on her daughters.

Applejack quietly walked out of the room. If Sara and Amber weren't there she could stomach it, but this place looked too much like the old Ponyville General at the moment.

***

He looked like himself again, his stupid scratchy beard, his long hair … he looked sad again. He was still too quiet to be sleeping, he's not that peaceful, why wouldn't they just tell her what's wrong. Was he dead?

The monitors said otherwise, but then why weren't they telling her what was wrong?

She gave him another hug, rubbed her cheek against that damn scratchy beard. He was still warm, he couldn't be dead yet.

“Hey Sara.” Rainbow Dash said as she walked into the room.

What was she doing here?

Rainbow Dash was trying to sound upbeat, but she could hear it, hear that she was hiding something. The pony didn't believe he was going to wake up.

She nodded before walking over to the bed she had woken up in to sit down. She just wanted to get away. She needed to do something right.

“What brings you back?” Her mom asked as she opened her eyes.

Mom's too worried to really sleep.

Rainbow Dash sat down and gave a half smile. “I thought I'd stick around a bit. I've got some time off from the Bolts and the school can get by without me for a while.”

More lies. But why?She didn't have to lie to be here.

Her mom smiled. “I see. Well, I do need to actually do some work, with James … asleep, I've got to take over for him. And I would feel better with someone keeping an eye on him. Just in-case.”

***

No matter how long she stared at her homework she couldn't even begin to read what was on the page. She hadn’t gone to school for the last two days. Her mom had been so busy lately, everything was falling apart. The page blurred as she continued looking at it.

“Hey there sugar cube.” Applejack said as she walked in to the room with a slice of apple pie. “How are you holding up?”

She didn't know what to say. It was nice that Applejack was here, nice that she cared, but what did it matter? What was going to change? All she could do is shake her head.

“I understand.” Applejack said as she placed the pie on the nightstand. “It's hard when these things happen.”

Her heart stopped at the words.

So this was how she heard it? This is how they told her it was hopeless? That her dad's not coming back this time. She didn't hear anything else Applejack said.

How can she talk so long about this?

She barely even registered the hug before Applejack left.

She was having trouble breathing. Why was the air so thick now? Or was it her? She couldn't stay here, it was too restrictive. Her legs didn't want to hold her up as she tried to get out. She had to crawl until she was finally able to breathe.

She fought back to her feet and stumbled out the door. She needed to get out, it didn't matter where, she just started running. She couldn't see where she went and she didn't care. Sometime, she had no idea when, she tripped but got right back up and kept runing. It only got worse as everything went dark.

Then there was the howling. Mud from her sleeve smeared her face as she tried to wipe away her tears. The creaking of wood marked the growl of the creatures emerging from the shadows of the deeper forest.

The timberwolves circled the small creature, easy prey.

Her eyes burned as the blurs moved around her. Their noise was bothering her, she wanted them to stop.

The largest of the timberwolves stalked forward, it’s mouth open. With a loud crack the creatures lower jaw fell to the ground.

A shrill scream cut through the quiet evening. Tears cut trails through the mud smeared across her scowling face as she stared down the wooden creature.

With another creaking wooden growl the large timberwolf lunged at her before suddenly stopping. She held it's muzzle firm and with a quick turn ripped the protrusion off, discarding it as little more than kindling.

The magical construct began to back away, but it was too late to run.

It didn't make any sense, but something inside her told her that if she could show she was strong, prove that she could handle herself that then her dad would wake up. If she could just beat these creatures her dad would come home.

She had to! It's the only thing she could do. She definitely wasn't smart enough, and she Just! Kept! Screwing! Up!

She screamed again as she lunged at the timberwolf, splintering the creature as she made contact. This was too easy. But there were other timberwolves she could fight, she could still show she was strong enough.

She charged deeper into the woods as the creatures fled, but they weren't getting away from her. They weren't going to keep her dad away!

None of the Ponies in Ponyville dared investigate the commotion in the Everfree forest that night.

She had no idea how long it had been when she could no longer find any wolves. She had no idea where she was either and didn't care.

She wiped her face again, scratching off some of the dried mud as she slumped against the tree. She wrapped her arms around her legs as she let her head fall onto her knees. Somehow, she had screwed up again.

***

The castle was silent. It's not supposed to be silent. What's going on?

This wasn't right. Dad's office is empty! Where's Dad's stuff? He's going to be furious when he gets back. I have to fix this!

Mom! She'll know where it all is.

The bedroom door opened and she was standing back in medical looking at her dad's bed, but the sheet was pulled all the way up. Why did they cover him? She didn't want to wake him up, but she needed help. If she just told him what was going on he wouldn't get mad.

Her dad's hand was ice cold. The monitors were off, she couldn't see how her dad was doing. Why were they still hiding everything?

His eyes weren't opening.

Why isn't dad moving?!

She knew why …

***

Sara didn't pay any attention to the opening door as Luna calmly walked in, she just lay crying across her father's cold motionless form.

Luna's horn glowed and slowly the apparition faded into the ether, leaving Sara alone on the empty bed in the all too sterile room. “I understand why your father's condition may frighten you Sara.” Luna said as she draped her wing across Sara's back. “And I wish I could tell you that all will be well.”

Luna sat and used her wing to bring Sara close, hugging her tightly. “But I am sorry.” A tear rolled down her cheek as she held the crying child. “It is our fault that you are kept from your father now. We asked for his help and he has never hesitated to give it.”

“I can't do anything.” Sara cried. “I can't help. And dad … and … he's.” Sara got quiet before she started sobbing again.

Luna laid her head by Sara's and silently sat with the girl.

“Please go away.” Sara quietly asked.

“No.” Luna gently responded.

“I'm not …” Sara quietly said.

“No.” Luna quietly repeated.

“I can’t …” Sara tried to say.

“You are not responsible.” Luna calmly said.

“Dad's not coming back.” Sara whispered. “I just want to be alone.”

“Your father lives Sara.” Luna said, as she gave Sara a gentle squeeze. “And as long as he lives there is hope. Do not give up on him so easily, and do not give up on yourself.”

***

Luna slowly walked into the hall where Celestia was eating breakfast.

“Would you care for breakfast sister?” Celestia asked as happily as ever.

As normal Luna took a piece of fruit from the bowl, but after a brief pause placed it back. “No thank you. I am not hungry this morning.”

Celestia's face fell as she nodded. “Rest well then sister.”

“I am leaving for the Everfree forest. There is someone there who needs my help.” Luna calmly said.

“Someone?” Celestia emphasized. “What’s happened?”

Luna looked back to Celestia for a moment. “Sara is lost. She ran there in fear for her father's life, not knowing what to do.”

Celestia put down her fork and stood. “Perhaps we should both go.”

***

The two princesses walked through the forest with no real difficulty and finding it oddly quiet, before long they found the young muddy girl curled up at the base of a tree. A golden aura surrounded her and gently lifted her from her nights cradle.

Luna spread her wings as Celestia laid Sara on her back and the two walked from the forest towards Twilight's castle and Sara's home beyond.

As they walked into Sara's bedroom Celestia lifted her from Luna's back, gently placing her on her bed. Luna's horn glowing as a sheet covered her and tucked her in. “Rest well young princess.” Luna whispered. “This will not be easy for you, but you will be stronger for it.”

Celestia looked to her sister, watching over the child. “I’ll go talk to Lucca. I’m certain she’s been looking for her daughter.”

Luna nodded and continued her silent vigil. Only leaving once she was certain that Sara's sleep would be undisturbed by her own uncertainties.

***

She kept her eyes closed as she transported to medical. She had cleaned up and changed her clothes after waking up in her bed with no idea how she had gotten there. Once the light faded she walked to her dad's room. Rainbow Dash was reading to him again. That was alright.

“Hey Sara.” Rainbow Dash was strangely calm, she was just as worried as everyone else. “How ya doing?”

She couldn't answer. Answering meant admitting she was afraid, and she shouldn't be afraid. She wasn't a child anymore, she wanted to be strong.

But she wasn't strong. She was frightened, she was sad, she wanted her dad back.

The bed had one of those weird inflating pillow-top things. Her dad told her about it once, but she didn't remember. There were a lot of odd things he had told her about and she wished that she had listened at the time. Her lip hurt as she bit it, really hoping it wasn’t too late.

Ever since Dad started working out he's been harder to hug, but he's still warm. There was a comforting thump as she rested her head on his chest.

“Please dad … please wake up.”

The Trial of Cozy Glow

Lucca never made trips to Equestria by herself beyond visiting Starlight. This time, however, was different, her husband was comatose and unresponsive to standard treatments.

Once Rainbow Dash showed up and insisted on watching over James as he slept Lucca was free to actually do some work. She was happy to find that these girls cared about her husband so much, he tended to be reclusive and didn’t often reach out to his friends and they had made a genuine effort to keep him involved. He smiled more these days.

That was part of why she came to Canterlot this day. James’s vitals showed that without their medical attention he would slowly waste away as he slept, if it wasn’t a chemical sedative then the magic must have been intended to kill him. Add to it the girls informing her that he wasn't supposed to wake again and she wasn’t going to sit around while there was at least something she could do, for catharsis if nothing else.

She wanted revenge, but that’s why all she could do was get things started. Neither she nor James could be trusted when they wanted revenge, Drizzt had insisted on their removal from the process when their own anger blinded them when James once suggested turning a prisoner over to the drow.

It really was for the best. They were the injured party, the only arguments they could make were for lenience. Specifically to prevent punishments from being unnecessarily harsh.

Two unicorn guards accompanied Lucca through the halls of Canterlot Castle. They didn't recognize her, but she had written Celestia before she came to arrange the meeting so they were expecting her.

Princess Celestia waited patiently in the throne room as Lucca walked in. She had come in her normal form as she didn’t have access to her unicorn form with James unavailable. She also hadn’t changed into her official diplomatic clothes as she considered those to be for show only, unlike her husband who just found them comfortable. She didn't need to show off here.

While Celestia and Luna were familiar with the alien creatures that had become friends of Equestria it was still surprising to the royal guard. Lucca quietly wondered why James continued to alter his form when visiting, it would take some adjustment but clearly the ponies would accept him as he was.

“It’s nice to see you Lucca.” Celestia said with her usual pleasant smile. “Has James’s condition improved?”

Lucca shook her head as she spoke to the monarch. “Unfortunately not. We only recently found that his condition was deteriorating but he is stable now. Thank you again for bringing him home.”

Celestia’s smile faded and she nodded. “I know I’ve said this before, but we greatly appreciate the friendship you and your family offer and if there’s any way we can help you please do not hesitate to ask.”

“I don’t think this will help, but I have come to ask for something.” Lucca calmly said.

“What can we do for you?” Celestia truly was happy to offer any help she could.

“Cozy Glow’s poison has put my husband into a coma and we don't know if he'll recover. I don’t know her intentions, but she still committed a serious crime.” Lucca explained. “I want her extradited to New Guardia to face a trial and sentencing for them.”

Celestia mulled over the idea in her mind. “She is already caged in Tartarus where she will not be leaving. She endangered the harmony of our land and is facing punishment for it.” She eventually explained.

Lucca shook her head at the offered compromise. “Let’s talk about this.” Lucca said as she began to consider her position to argue. “She’s committed serious crimes in both our countries, I know she's locked up here but that may just deny her seeing justice in New Guardia.”

“Is there some compromise we can reach?” Celestia asked as she considered Lucca’s position.

Lucca had to swallow her anger at the foal for now to try to find some way to get a resolution she could live with. “I would rather she be imprisoned in New Guardia, if for no other reason than the damage she could do is limited should she escape.”

Celestia nodded slowly, she could see the merit in the argument. Even imprisoned Tirek had proven a threat to Equestria and in theory Cozy Glow could as well. But she couldn’t simply hand her over. “You suggest a trial, would her punishment simply be imprisonment?”

Lucca shook her head. “I honestly don’t know. As I’m part of the injured party I have no say in her punishment. That comes down to the judges to decide.”

“How would her trial proceed?” Celestia calmly asked.

“Being tried under New Guardia’s system she would be assigned a lawyer assuming that she could not get one herself and prosecution would make their case. Defense would make any counter claims and make their argument. Now she can lie but she would be unable to get away with it as psychics would monitor her thoughts for the truth. That of course would go against her in judgment. However Prosecution must bow to the truth, even if it hurts their case as everyone involved are subject to the same psychic probes.” Lucca explained.

“If it’s determined that she didn’t intend to hurt James or that he was to only be temporarily rendered unconscious that would actually work in her favor and her sentence would reflect that. Though if she receives anything less than a life sentence she would be returned to Tartarus to finish her sentence here.”

Celestia knew that things didn’t quite work the same in New Guardia as they did in Equestria and had to get more information on what sentencing could entail. “Is there any punishment more harsh that a life sentence?”

Lucca nodded. “Should the judges decide it’s warranted they could pass a death sentence. But nobody's ever gotten that sentence and I'm sure this won't be the exception.”

Celestia baulked at the statement. Would they really kill someone as a punishment? “I’m afraid as long as death is possible I cannot agree to the extradition.” She calmly said.

Lucca once again had to resist her anger at the foal they were speaking of and reach a compromise that would see Cozy Glow in New Guardia standing trial. “While I have no say in sentencing, as Queen I can request judges more likely to forgo that option.”

“How would the sentencing proceed?” Celestia asked as she settled in to discuss this.

“The trial would go as I described, once the Judge determines the measure of guilt it’s passed to a panel of three judges for sentencing.” Lucca explained. “They look at the trial and have to come to a consensus on punishment.”

Celestia didn’t want to point out how this could be problematic but she needed to know death was off the table. “New Guardian judges determining the fate of a filly who poisoned their king.” She calmly said. “Doesn’t sound like there’s much hope to me.”

Lucca crossed her arms as she considered the point, even beginning to pace as she thought about options. “I guess to facilitate the extradition I can replace one of the judges with a neutral party, but there has to be a Guardian voice in sentencing.” Lucca said as she continued to pace. “That should be enough to take the death penalty out of the equation.”

Celestia appreciated the concession, but it was no guarantee. As much harm as Cozy Glow had done she didn’t want to consider the option of a life coming to such an abrupt end at such a young age. Even if she was to spend the remainder of her life locked up. “Perhaps a Pony judge can make up one third of sentencing judges. That assures that death is removed from the options and they are not so removed from the situation as to be too lenient.” She offered.

Lucca considered the suggestion for a moment. “Sounds fair. An Equestrian Judge, a Guardian Judge and a neutral judge to find a compromise. None have so much power as to bully the others into conceding a sentence they don’t agree with.” Lucca turned back to Celestia as she grinned. “I think we can do that. But we do need a third party that you can trust.” She’d just found the one problem in the compromise. “I’d be hesitant to use a Hippogryph, and I don’t think an Equestrian Dragon or Gryphon would be a good choice.” She adjusted her glasses as she tried to think.

Celestia didn’t know exactly what to suggest but she did have one idea. “Doesn’t James have a council that judges him impartially? Perhaps one of them.”

Lucca shook her head as she considered the option. They were all too close to James to be impartial to sentence someone who had tried to kill him. But she did know one group that she would trust to be fair. “No, but I do think there’s a good middle ground.” Lucca nodded as she turned back to Celestia. “The Vulcans are a logical race who don’t let emotion cloud their judgment. I trust them.”

Celestia had no idea who or what these “Vulcans” were, but she did know a pony she could trust to not cave on the death sentence. But she felt she should go just a little further. “If they are logical, perhaps a Vulcan should judge the trial as well.” She suggested.

Lucca had to consider it for a moment. They would already have to take time familiarizing the new judge with New Guardian Law, and a Vulcan wouldn’t have the emotional attachment that a New Guardian Judge would have. “I … believe that can be arranged.”

Celestia once again smiled as she spoke to Lucca. “Very well, given the conditions in place I have no problem allowing Cozy Glow to be taken into New Guardian custody. I’ll have my guards prepare her to be collected in three days.”

That certainly didn’t give Lucca much time to prepare to take her, but worst case scenario Cozy could sit in a holding cell until a proper cell can be prepared. She could easily have a couple security officers collect the filly.

***

Tirek wasn’t exactly chatty and didn’t like ponies so Cozy Glow often found herself trying to come up with some way to keep herself entertained. It came as an interesting surprise when a portal opened up near her and a unicorn guard stepped out along with Princess Luna. Cozy quietly wondered who could be coming, and tried to come up with a plan to befriend them.

However there was no new prisoner this time. Without a word the Unicorn lifted Cozy Glow’s cage and the three left Tartarus.

The only clue Cozy Glow got as to where they had taken her was the blank white marble walls of the room she was deposited in. As Luna walked away another Unicorn and two Pegasi stood guard over her cage, and no matter how Cozy tried to engage them in conversation they never said a word. It wasn’t until two creatures that she had never before seen entered the room that anyone other than her spoke.

They wore blue and gray uniforms and walked upright. Cozy Glow couldn't help but think of changelings as she looked on the carapace of the creature. But they were so dull in color … She'd have to learn more about these creatures.

“I take it that this is the prisoner.” One of the strange creatures said as he looked down into the cage. His voice seemed to almost reverberate in his own mouth. It was odd to listen to.

“Yes sir.” The nearest Pegasus guard said, he sounded tense. “This is Cozy Glow. She's ready to be transferred.”

The second creature smiled. “Thank you. Please open her cage so we can take custody.” The higher voice made it sound female. Cozy Glow blinked a couple times, she couldn't really tell the difference between the two.

“Ma'am?” One of the unicorn guard asked.

“Please open her cage.” She repeated before smiling down at her. “I doubt she’ll be able to escape all of us if she were to try.”

The unicorn nodded and in a flash of magic Cozy Glow’s cage was gone.

“Golly gee, thank you for getting me out of there mister.” She said in her sweetest voice, even batting her eyes for added effect.

The two creatures gave her a skeptical look before grinning. “Cozy Glow, you are being remanded to New Guardian custody to await your trial for attempted Regicide. You may remain silent, and what you may say will be recorded as potential evidence. You will be assigned council to represent your interests in and out of court. You are entitled to confidential conversations with your council. While you are free to say what you like in court you will be subjected to a psychic probe to determine the truth of what you say. You do not have the right to refuse the probe in court. While in New Guardian custody you have the same rights as any citizen of New Guardia in your situation; including but not limited to health care, humane treatment, access to nutrition and hydration as necessary.”

As one of the creatures spoke the other pulled out what appeared to be a jacket with a modified harness attached to it and wrapped her up in it as she patiently listened to them. She had to trust what they were telling her, but she was already in Tartarus. Was this really necessary.

There was a disturbing falling sensation that she remembered from the only time she had traveled to New Guardia with the CMCs and met James in his actual form.

The place she was taken had no resemblance to the castle she saw last time. This must be their jail. The cells appeared to only be open alcoves, she had no idea what kept any prisoners in. She was led down a hallway where she saw a few other creatures that she didn’t readily recognize, having never bothered learn what they were once she knew that they were outside Equestria.

Now she may just need that information.

The room she was taken to appeared like the others and had no door. Once she was inside the creatures removed her jacket and left. She noticed what appeared to her to be a magic field blink into existence before it appeared again to be simply open. Carefully she reached out her hoof and with a crackle and a sharp stinging sensation along her foreleg knew that whatever barrier it was was still very much there.

A blue creature looked over to her from her position near the front of the room. “You don’t really want to do that.” She calmly said before going back to her work.

Cozy Glow went to work putting on her most innocent look. She knew that getting out right now wasn’t going to happen, but she could still make friends and then later she could work on getting out. “Golly, I’ve never seen any creature like you before.” She said, sure to sound awestruck. “What are you?”

The blue creature looked back to what she couldn’t deny was a child in one of the cells. “I’m an Asari.” She calmly said. “My name is Tanya. I was named after my father.” She'd never known a child to be locked up here. She fell back on her training to handle children as she spoke to her.

Cozy Glow got just the reaction she wanted, now to lay on just how sweet she was. “Wow. Where I’m from it’s all ponies. There are a couple other creatures, but nothing like you. What are Asari like?”

Tanya knew there had to be some reason for this child to be here, there just had to be. As Cozy Glow talked Tanya accessed her arrest record only to find it accompanied by a criminal extradition order. Her charge was attempted murder, but curiously enough the victim’s name had been redacted. Could this child really be that dangerous? Tanya walked over to the holding cell and crouched down to get a better look at the child she was speaking to. Hopefully during a conversation she would get some hint as to why she was here.

***

Were time travel not necessary Lucca would have taken Hinako instead of the Einherriar. It was just a better ship in every way, James just liked that the Einherriar was a Federation Galaxy Class Star a speed limit in their space despite the safety enhancements Tali had designed to solve the very problems the Federation was concerned about. But she would have taken her time anyway, she needed to take her mind off things for now.

Lucca wished that she could have brought her daughters, but they needed to see their father. She couldn't stand to keep them away. Making them go to school was hard enough.

Lucca sat in the captain’s chair reviewing the latest technical information made available to them. Try as she might to keep her mind off things she always found herself thinking about her husband laying unconscious with no sign of waking up.

Their marriage was not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but they did care deeply about each other. After nearly two hundred years married they had had some ground shaking fights, but they always came through.

Lucca had to lose herself in her work right now, nobody aboard or even in New Guardia knew the situation and the ship was filled with gossips. James had insisted that nobody know when he was seriously ill or injured. Not to put on a strong front, but because he felt guilty when others worried about him.

Like Lucca was now.

“Ma’am.” The ensign at helm called back, shaking Lucca from her thoughts. “We’ll be approaching Earth in just a few minutes. They received our request and have their volunteers ready to meet us once you teleport down.”

“Thanks.” Lucca idly said. Fortunately this wasn't an unofficial function so she didn’t have to put on the show that came with her position but she still had to meet with them and formally go over what she needed from them. “Let me know when we get close or if we get haled.” They still weren’t through checking possible poisons that could have knocked James out like this.

***

“Pleasure to see you Mrs. Glastos.” An admiral said far to pleasantly as he met with Lucca outside Starfleet headquarters. “We got your message and found two volunteers all too eager to help you.”

“Eager?” Lucca asked the admiral skeptically. “If these Vulcans are eager I don’t think they’ll be able to appropriately do their job.” She commented as they walked through the grounds towards the large building and double checking the file she had brought with her. “Frankly, no judge should be eager.”

“Perhaps eager isn’t the right word.” The admiral conceded. “Intrigued probably fits better. They're both in our JAG office and have a particular interest in the laws of other cultures and New Guardia especially. Do you mind if I ask about the details of the case?”

Lucca had to tell someone. All of the deflecting meant that she could only properly commiserate with Tali and she needed to talk to someone who had an outside view of this. With a deep breath she spoke. “James was deliberately poisoned while visiting another world and is currently comatose. We extradited the perpetrator and are preparing her trial, but in the interests of maintaining good relations with the other world we had to make concessions as to our proceedings. Vulcans are a natural choice for a neutral party.”

“I see.” The admiral quietly said. “You have the condolences of Starfleet, and my personal condolences. If there is anything further that we can provide you need only ask.”

“Thank you. What I need most now is justice, and your volunteers should be able to provide that.” Lucca said with a nod. She wanted to talk about this more, but not right now.

Without further delay the admiral led Lucca to the conference room where two Vulcans waited patiently., standing as the two entered. Lucca offered them the common Vulcan hand gesture and they returned it before sitting.

“Thank you for you offer of assistance.” Lucca said as she sat down in her chair.

“It seemed an ideal opportunity to expand our knowledge of New Guardia's laws and legal system.” A Vulcan woman said as she nodded to Lucca.

“Making it the only logical choice.” Her male counterpart said, nodding to Lucca as well.

“Mrs. Glastos, Captains Tor’el and Esok respectively. Their histories include prosecution and defense and Captain Esok has had more than a decade on the bench. He nearly took a leave of absence to see to your case.” The admiral said.

“Eager?” Lucca asked as she looked to Esok.

“Curious,” Esok corrected. “and opportunity does not come often so a measure of urgency was necessitated.” He calmly explained.

“I’ve brought the standard Non-Disclosure Agreements with me.” Lucca said, satisfied with the captain’s explanation.

“Non-Disclosure Agreements?” The admiral asked.

Lucca only now realized she had forgotten to mention anything about them. “Sorry, James or one of his legal assistants usually do this. But in this situation secrecy is important as this will involve classified information. I’m afraid that the agreements are necessary.” Lucca handed the data pads to the captains for their review.

The Vulcans silently reviewed the Non-disclosure agreements. Their only real question coming from one note near the end.

“Your agreement mentions having the memories excised if determined necessary.” Tor’el mentioned as she looked sceptically towards Lucca. “What constitutes necessity for the action and how would the removal take place?”

Lucca shook her head, she really wished she had asked Mirror Pinkie Pie to suggest a lawyer to use for this. “Mostly for security and Prime Directive related issues. As for the procedure, it’s the standard one used in Juria’s universe for deportation purposes and has proven countless times to be both safe and reliable. It’s also highly unlikely to be used in this instance as you won't be exposed to any elements that would necessitate memory removal.”

Tor’el looked to Lucca a moment longer before nodding and agreeing with her thumbprint on the data pad as Esok did the same.

***

Celestia hadn’t been idle and once she had arranged for Cozy Glow to be turned over to New Guardia she went to speak with a judge she could trust. She knew that Twilight would have to eventually learn to act in the capacity but now was not the time. Fortunately there was a Pegasus in Canterlot who would be able to handle the situation.

“Princess Celestia.” Aspen Gavel, a two tone gray pegasus mare, politely said as she bowed. “It’s a pleasure to see you today.”

“It’s a pleasure to see you as well Aspen Gavel.” Celestia replied as the mare stood up again. “I apologize, but I have to ask a favor of you.”

Aspen Gavel was honored to be asked anything of Celestia, they had some interaction in official capacities but rarely as individuals. “Anything you wish, Princess.”

“Thank you. Please understand, what I’m about to tell you is still considered a secret.” Celestia urged.

“Of course.” Aspen Gavel answered. This must be important if Princess Celestia needed to keep it a secret. She could almost feel the weight of it’s importance on her back as she waited to know just what she needed to do.

“This concerns the fate of Cozy Glow. I trust you’re familiar with her, or at least her recent actions that resulted in her imprisonment in Tartarus.” Celestia began.

Of course Aspen Gavel knew of the incident, it had nearly been a week since the magic returned to Equestria. And had reviewed the specifics the moment they became available as a matter of professional duty. She needed to know what had occurred and how Celestia had decided to punish the offender.

“Equestria wasn’t alone in it’s struggle, we had the help of Princess Twilight’s students and King James; a friend to Princess Twilight, my sister and myself, and a hero who comes in secret to help us when there is trouble. He rules a land no so far off as everypony was lead to believe, rather it is adjacent to our own world.” Celestia calmly continued.

Aspen Gavel of course knew all of this. Virtually all of Equestria had seen the only known male Alicorn during his official thank you given years earlier. How he was viewed was a subject of no small debate, particularly once Princess Twilight’s friendship journal was released and everyone found out about his volatile temper.

Some were quick to dislike him seeing only his worst and not concerning themselves with the other aspects he displayed later in the journal. Others held a more balanced view, seeing him as a flawed individual and spent time trying to understand him better from what information they had. Aspen Gavel liked to believe she was in this middle group, looking at his actions and what he showed his intentions as being. Then there was the fringe group, his fans who spent an inordinate amount of time thinking about him and theorizing about him. Some of those theories bordered on the insane, others crossed that border. Though this new revelation seemed to confirm one of the theories once considered insane.

“Cozy Glow rightly thought of him as a threat to her plans and had taken steps to get him out of the way as she did with Princess Twilight and her closest friends. Her plan for him, however, was more sinister. Cozy Glow used a sleeping poison and he has yet to wake up.”

Aspen Gavel shook her head, had Cozy really gone so far as to poison someone in her scheme? She certainly deserved to be in Tartarus.

“James’s wife, Lucca, came to me to ask that Cozy Glow be sent to their world to face judgment for what she had done to her husband. We came to an arrangement that would allow her to stand trial and be punished for her crimes against them. One aspect of the arrangement was that a pony judge be sent to New Guardia to assist in her sentencing, and I would like you to be that judge.” Celestia concluded.

Aspen Gavel stood nearly dumbfounded as she thought about what was just asked of her. Of course she would accept, but there were things about this that boggled her. Cozy Glow was already being punished for her crimes, did that not somehow satisfy the call for justice in New Guardia?

“Of course you are free to refuse …” Celestia began to say at Aspen Gavel’s silence.

“No, of course I’ll go Princess. I was just considering what I knew of her current punishment.” Aspen Gavel quickly said. She would have to pack, and take time to learn about the justice system in New Guardia to appropriately perform her duty.

Celestia smiled and nodded to the pegasus. “Thank you. Once you are ready I will have a Pegasus Chariot take you to Ponyville where you will then be escorted to New Guardia.”

***

Parker Brookridge liked to keep busy and was usually found looking over the cases that hadn’t been assigned either prosecutor or defense yet and would often volunteer for the most challenging case offered. Not that he strictly had to, both positions would be filled from the Judicial Offices anyway, he just liked to pick his cases.

This day one case caught his eye for more than the defendant’s name. “New Guardia V Cozy Glow.” He tried to find out more but the charges had been redacted so he would have to be brought into the case to even know what it was. Interesting. With a couple taps of his omnitool he put his name in to be considered for either prosecution of defense.

By the end of the day he received a message containing the complete docket and several forms he was required to fill out. He had no idea what he was getting himself into when he signed up. He had been expecting some small matter concerning pirates or smugglers, possibly even something that connected to Aria T’loke. The information he was given left him speechless.

The charge was for the attempted murder of King James, and he was now sworn to secrecy under penalty of criminal charges himself. There was a notation attached to the attempted part of the charge stating that James was stable but his condition could deteriorate. As troubling as the charge itself was that he was the defense attorney. Not exactly the position he wanted at the moment, but as he read on he found it more tolerable.

Cozy Glow was already facing punishment in her own world for a connected charge, so even if he managed to get her totally acquitted she would still be locked away. Knowing that he could avoid conflict and do his job to the best of his ability.

With that he got to work, starting with requesting everything this other world had on record about her case, crimes, and current sentence. Not always a simple matter depending on the world, but hopefully standard channels would suffice this time.

He looked back to the docket and found he didn’t recognize the name of the judge involved, a search on his omnitool didn’t help either. He would have to find out who this Judge Tor’el was. The prosecutor he knew, the halfling, Allen Bitterleaf, worked down the hall from him. Another lawyer who enjoyed challenging cases which often brought them into opposition.

Settled on the basics and with his request for materials in he now only had to meet his judicial ward.

***

Cozy Glow climbed into the bed of her cell. Isn’t it night? She thought to herself as she tried to get comfortable. This was so much nicer than the cage she was kept in back in Tartarus. As she stared up at the ceiling she heard someone stop outside the opening to her cell.

“Cozy Glow?” Parker asked as he looked in at the small pony with her bouncy curls. Everything about her looks screamed innocence but he couldn't afford to make assumptions.

“Oh, golly I wasn’t expecting a visitor so late.” Cozy Glow said, continuing her innocent act. She knew that if she could make friends with everyone here she could use it to her advantage. Possibly even get herself out of trouble. She'd show Twilight just how powerful she could be.

“Late?” Parker asked as he checked the time, it was only a little past noon. “I guess you’re used to a different time than we are.” He conceded. “I’m your lawyer, Parker Brookridge. If you’d like I can have them adjust the lighting to accommodate your schedule. Though we will have to get you adjusted to local time eventually.” He offered.

“Oh, that’s so nice of you.” Cozy Glow happily said. “But I’ll be okay, you don't need to change anything for me.” She added as her voice dipped to make her sound slightly sad.

“I’ll get them to do that once I leave.” Parker said as he tapped the panel on the wall next to him and waited for the guard to open the cell. “I came to introduce myself and see if everything was alright. I only know the basics of your case for now. We’ll have a more thorough conversation when I have the discovery.”

“I hope it’s okay, but do you mind if I ask you what you are? I’ve only ever known ponies.” Cozy Glow had found Tanya a ready friend when she asked her this, maybe it would work for him too.

Parker was confused. With everything going on with this girl, and what she's already been through and she seemed more curious about him than her own situation. “I’m a human. We’re the single most common species here in New Guardia though we are a minority of the population.” It was unfortunate that this child didn’t even know the people who’s king she’d allegedly poisoned. Something about this just felt wrong and Parker needed to do his best to help this young girl.

***

The request for discovery had been answered with an odd quickness, especially given the need for translation, as a manilla envelope was delivered to Parker’s office only four days later. His curiosity only grew as the filing looked more to be a little more than in incident report and statements.

Cozy Glow had confessed her plan in anger when in earshot of three of the five princesses and more than a dozen other credible witnesses, was apprehended immediately, and was sentenced without trial and locked away in some place called Tartarus where she was serving a life sentence.

While pretty damning on it's own the only thing he found at the moment that tied his client to her alleged crime was that while she did confess to attempting to trap several people in her coup, King James among them, she never confessed to trying to hurt any of them.

He could work with that.

Among what he didn’t like was that there was no information on this Tartarus. Since she was sentenced to life in her home world and he had an obligation to work for her best interests in court and jail while he was her council he needed to know if he would be sending her back to a labor camp or some other such terrible place.

He made a request to see Tartarus as well as to speak with the witnesses, at least those that directly heard her confession. Hopefully this would be handled as quickly as his last request. In the mean time he had his client to talk to.

Parker’s omnitool informed him that she had been moved to the containment block, near the other two lifetime inmates. This was probably going to be better for her than a holding cell since it was designed with long-term incarceration in mind and as such was more comfortable with better options for entertainment and at bare minimum there was simulated interaction so she would retain her sanity.

“Hello Cozy Glow.” Parker said as he walked into her cell. It was more spacious than the holding cell and even had some real furniture. It’s connected holosuite was limited in it’s operation to certain times and only a few programs and stories, one of those programs being the simulated interaction she would have access to. Given her charges she was classified as dangerous and there was no way she'd be placed in general population until a full evaluation was done at least.

“Oh, I’m so happy to see you again Mr. Brookridge.” Cozy Glow gleefully said as she flew up to him.

“It’s good to see you too. How’ve you been doing?” Parker asked as he sat on the padded stool that served as a chair.

“Oh, I’m just super all things considered.” She let out a cute squeak laugh as she finished talking. “How have you been?”

“I’ve been going over the discovery. There's a lot, but it doesn’t seem to talk much about your case here. There’s a good chance you might not have to stay here. Though that does mean going back to face your sentence in Equestria.” Parker explained.

Cozy Glow balked at the suggestion. Even if she was locked up here at least she wasn’t caged, she could move around and even had ponies and people to talk to. She could work from in here. “Golly, isn’t there any way I could stay in New Guardia once you get this whole misunderstanding sorted out?”

Parker shook his head. “That depends on the judge. Given why you’re here you may not be able to claim asylum unless this whole thing goes away and the judge sees fit to refuse to extradite you back to Equestria.”

“Well I know you can do it, you’re just super.” Cozy said encouragingly.

Parker couldn’t help but smile at the vote of confidence, she seemed to be such a nice young girl there’s no way she could really be guilty. How did a mistake like this even happen?

***

It took a week for the request to finally get back to him. While he couldn’t be allowed to tour Tartarus he was provided a scan of it and what he saw horrified him. The creatures he could assume were animals were in cramped cages alongside the actual prisoners. This was nearly the first example of cruel and inhumane treatment he could find in any text on the subject, coming just after forced labor camps. And they had sent a child there!

Now he had a dilemma, while he could fight this like Cozy Glow was expecting and potentially win; that would be a violation of his obligations. The extradition was iron clad and only King James or his family could overturn it. He could not in good conscience allow her to be taken back to Tartarus, and he now had to convince her of that.

***

Cozy Glow walked around in the commons section, she had found it easiest to talk to the ponies here though some of them were certainly not friendly. Before now she had no idea that any ponies at all lived in New Guardia. She caught a glimpse of a unicorn she recognized and flew up to her.

“Hello Sudsy Bills.” Cozy happily said as she approached.

“Oh, hi.” Sudsy replied, as the silver mare turned to face Cozy Glow her green mane moved to uncover her ringed horn. She had explained the first time they met that the ring limited her magical ability so she couldn’t try to escape. Not that she had ever been any good at magic to begin with. “Anything new with you today?”

“Nope.” Cozy said in a chipper tone. “Just waiting to hear back from Brookridge. What about you?”

Sudsy shook her head. “Nothing yet, but my sister said she could get a couple books from Equestria in. I’m hoping to read any of the new Daring Doo books, unfortunately I’m a little behind.” She chuckled slightly as she finished.

“That sounds super.” Cozy said with a big smile. “I know professor Rainbow Dash and Headmare Twilight love the series.”

“I’m still amazed that you know the Princess of Friendship.” Sudsy said.

Cozy puffed up her chest as she spoke. “I was her right hoof mare.” She proudly said. “I even ran her school when she would run off on her Friendship adventures.” Cozy Glow doubted that Sudsy would ever actually go to Ponyville to ask as she had lived in Manehatten before moving to Truce.

“That’s wild.” Sudsy said with a smile.

“Cozy Glow!” Came a call from the (what she now recognized as) Turian guard. “Your Lawyer’s here to see you.”

“Oops. Gotta go, Sudsy.” Cozy said with a giggle.

“Good luck Cozy Glow!” Sudsy called as Cozy hurried and flew towards the exit.

As Cozy Glow left the holosuite the program saved and ended, archiving the characters to extrapolate new interactions for the next time she activated the program.

Parker was sitting on the stool looking towards the door of the Holosuite as Cozy Glow happily walked out. “Hello.” She cheerily said. “So what’s the good news today?”

Parker knew that this was going to be a hard on the young girl, but what she was facing was significantly worse. “I do have a strategy to go forward in trial … but it’s not one I would normally advise taking.” He calmly said.

“That’s okay, I trust that you’ll do everything you can to get this all cleared up.” Cozy Glow happily said as she flew over to her bed to sit.

“That’s just it. The plan is to keep you in here.” Parker hesitantly admitted.

Cozy Glow’s face changed immediately. She now showed him unrestrained anger. “No, you're supposed to do what I want! Get me out of here and keep me out of Tartarus!”

Parker was astonished at the change this girl had gone through in just a few moments she barely resembled the girls he had seem just moments ago. “The fact is that if you’re released from New Guardian custody you will be returned to Equestria and Tartarus. There’s no getting around that, it’s part of your extradition. It’s also my job to look out for your best interests, and there’s no way I can see how that place is in your best interest.”

“So you’re telling me that you’re not even going to try to free me?!” Cozy Glow practically growled at Parker.

“My goal is to free you from Tartarus now. That can only be done be keeping you locked up here as asylum in your case is not a realistic goal. It’s not ideal, but compared to what you had it’s a big improvement.” Parker explained calmly to the fuming child. As Parker watched her mood shifted again to pleasant, though not the wide eyed Shirley Temple bit she was using earlier. She looked to be calmly planning. Had it all been an act? Was this what she was really like?

“Alright.” She eventually said. “That is an improvement.” She hadn’t been wasting her time here, she had been making friends. Some friends with useful skills that could be put to use on the outside. There was no way Sudsy would be locked up forever after all. She could still do something about this.

While Parker couldn’t excuse the method of her incarceration, he felt he had just had a glimpse as to how locking her up could possibly be justified. “If you plead no contest I can make a case that your intention wasn't to kill him. Then ask that you stay locked up here. I'm certain that we can keep the worst sentences out of consideration. I don’t think prosecution will put up much resistance to the idea.”

Cozy Glow fumed as she stormed off back to the commons section. She needed to get out of this room. Parker left feeling he had only seen the tip of the iceberg with Cozy Glow.

***

There was finally some good news after a few days as Parker checked his messages. Cozy Glow’s charges would remain as attempted regicide since King James woke up and appeared to be recovering. The bit of good news spurred him on to go back and visit Cozy Glow again. While they had a plan of action he still needed to talk to her about her side of the story.

***

Given the secrecy of the trial in general they were only going to be having a bench trial. They didn't have so much of a court room as they had a conference room. There was a large conference table, the judge and witnesses would sit at the head while the lawyers and Cozy glow would sit on opposing sides. The court telepath would sit at the back of the room taking notes that would be viewable on request. The table itself housed a computer that the judge and lawyers would have access too that directly connected to the complete law archives.

The plain gray walls and flat quietening carpet gave the room a perpetually empty feeling. And the windows that looked out into the park that served to house all the residents were perpetually opaque so only light came in.

Parker arrived and for the first time was learned that Judge Tor'el was a Vulcan from Starfleet. That would explain why he had never hear of her. He and Bitterleaf both took their seats as Cozy Glow was brought in. She wore a close fitting black bodysuit that restricted her strength. While wearing it she was unable to do anything with any sort of force, having the side effect of preventing her from being able to run or fly away.

Tor'el nodded and struck a small brass bell three times before she spoke. “We now open the trial of New Guardia Vs. Cozy Glow. Captain Tor'el from the United Federation of Planets presiding. Eris Fletcher observing. I now inform you all that while you are free to say what you please the truthfulness of your statements will be recorded. Lying is not advised. Ms. Glow, you are charged with attempted regicide. How do you wish to plead?”

Cozy Glow pouted slightly as she looked to Parker once more, frustrated that she was going to have to take this route, but it was better than returning to Tartarus.

“No contest.” Parker whispered.

“I …” Cozy Glow took a deep breath she wanted it to look like she was really sad about this. “No contest.” She eventually finished. The court reporter made a note of this before they continued.

“Very well. Mr. Bitterleaf, we'll hear your case now.”

The halfling nodded and logged into this system to access his notes. His case was no less important with the no contest plea, but he knew the outcome already and that satisfied him. “I will provide statements proving the hostility of Cozy Glow and that she targeted King James specifically.” He had statements in the record and three witnesses that made it clear that Cozy Glow had not only burned her bridges, but salted and radiated the ground too. “Ms. Glow boasted of her plan to no less than two individuals. Clearly she was proud of what she had done.”

“Objection!” Parker loudly said. “Combative.”

“It's factual as my case will prove.” Bitterleaf countered. “I request that my statement be held until my case proves it.”

Tor'el brought up her screen and checked her notes. They were both right in this case. “I'll resolve this later, while the statement is combative if his case shows evidence that she took pride in a plot to assassinate King James the statement will be allowed.” She rang the bell once to signal them to continue.

“Thank you Ma'am.” Bitterleaf said. “I'll start with the recorded deposition of Tirek.” He tapped out a quick command and a screen appeared. Centered in the screen was Tirek's scowling face. “We had to ask our questions remotely as we were unable to gain entry to Tartarus to question him directly.”

Tirek's face began to move and they heard him groan. Shortly after the questions began. “Mr. Tirek …” Bitterleaf began before being interrupted.

“Lord Tirek.” Tired growled. A sigh came from the background.

“If you choose to be hostile we can revisit the agreement.” Bitterleaf threatened. “Mr. Tirek. Were you engaged in correspondence with Cozy Glow?”

Tirek let out a heavy sigh. “Yes.” He said bluntly. “We were pen pals.”

“And in the course of those letters, did she disclose to you any plans to poison James Glastos?” Bitterleaf asked, calmer than before.

“Yes she did.”

“Will you please elaborate?” Bitterleaf asked, frustrated again.

Tirek snorted. “She said that he was a threat to her plans and that she had found a poison that would put him to sleep forever.” He said, sounding especially bored.

“Did she say what this poison was?”

“No. Only that she found it.”

The next voice to chime in was Parker. “In any of these letters did she express any desire to kill James Glastos?”

“She said sleep.” Tirek said as he idly picked at one of his horns.

“Did you offer any advice or suggestions as to the poison?”

“No. Poisoning's not my thing.”

“But you do have a grudge against James Glastos, do you not? He beat you pretty badly.”

“I had no idea who he was until those fillies told me he had fallen asleep.” Tirek said with a grin.

“Do you have any of the letters she sent you?”

Tirek cocked an eyebrow, clearly annoyed. “No, I wasn't allowed to keep any letters. Even if I were, where would I put them?” Tirek's face froze as the video ended and the screen soon disappeared.

Tor'el made a few notes about the deposition quickly before looking back to Bitterleaf. “I see that you have two witnesses available. Would you please call your first witness?”

Bitterleaf nodded and sent a quick message. “My first witness is Ms. Starlight Glimmer.” Moments after he spoke Starlight was escorted in by an Asari guard. Starlight took her seat near the judge and quietly waited.

“Miss Glimmer.” Bitterleaf said. “You are free to answer however you like, but you are under psychic probe. It would be inadvisable to lie. Now will you please give us your name and occupation for the record.”

“My name is Starlight Glimmer and I'm the counselor at Twilight's School of Friendship.”

“And how do you know Ms. Glow?”

“Cozy Glow was a student at Twilight's School.” Starlight spoke clearly and evenly, despite being intimidated by the situation. She had never had to sit in court before and even as a witness she felt pressured.

“Would you please describe what kind of student Ms. Glow was?”

“Struggling at first, but after some tutoring she quickly became the best student in the school: Attentive and helpful.”

“So she was exemplary, stood out in a good way in every sense?” Bitterleaf continued.

“For a while: yes she was.”

“When did that change?”

“I can't say for certain.”

“Did she ever confess what she had done?”

Starlight couldn't help but grin as she answered. “After she threw me into her magical bubble she would gloat about beating us … a lot.”

“Hey!” Cozy Glow shouted, furious.

Tor'el rang her bell several times. “Ms. Glow. Remain quiet or I'll be forced to have you removed.” In a truly Vulcan fashion she expressed no emotion as she spoke.

“You'll have to keep quiet.” Parker hissed. “We want you in minimum security if we can get it and these outbursts won't help. Be respectful and stay quiet.”

“As she was … boasting, did she mention Mr. Glastos?” Bitterleaf asked.

“Yes.” Starlight calmly said, deciding to needle Cozy one more time. “She was gloating” Cozy glow began to grind her teeth at hearing this. “that her poison would be getting him any moment and that soon he'd no longer be a threat.”

Bitterleaf nodded. “No further questions.”

Tor'el nodded and took a moment to address the room. “It would appear that Mr. Bitterleaf's statement can be upheld and I'm releasing it to the record. Mr. Brookridge, your witness.”

“Thank you Ma'am.” Parker nodded before looking to Starlight. “Ms. Glimmer, with all due respect, as a counselor, isn't it odd that you failed to notice a megalomaniac amongst the students?” Cozy Glow quietly growled and glared daggers at her lawyer.

“My job is to help the students with their problems. She never came to me with any problems that would lead me to believe she was a megalomaniac. In fact she seemed to take a great deal of interest in helping others, even at her own expense.” Cozy Glow began to smile as she heard Starlight. “She did have an ego, but that didn't seem to be a real problem.” Cozy's smile vanished immediately.

“Did she mention something about killing Mr. Glastos? Or intent to?” Parker continued.

“She did say she had poisoned him. I had to assume it would be lethal given that it's poison.”

“Did she say what kind of poison she had used?”

“I wish she had, then we could have found a cure much faster. And I wasn't in any position to ask her either.”

Parker had spent time going through all the statements, talked with Twilight and her friends and several students. As he built his case he came to believe himself that Cozy Glow was guilty. But he still had a duty to her. He would keep her out of Tartarus, and try to get her the best set up in prison that he could.

That being true, he wasn't going to argue hard enough to get her anything but a life sentence, he just needed to establish that she wasn't a murderer. “No further questions.” He said.

Tor'el nodded. “Very well. Mr. Bitterleaf, unless you have anything further to ask feel free to call your next witness.”

“No further questions, Ma'am.” Bitterleaf said.

Tor'el turned and addressed Starlight. “Thank you for your time, Ms. Glimmer. You may leave now.”

Starlight nodded and left with her Asari escort.

Bitterleaf typed another message before speaking. “My next witness is Ms. Zecora. Before she arrives, I should mention this is her first interaction with an alien culture and we should bear this in mind during questioning.”

Zecora entered the room, escorted by an elf, and took the seat by the judge.

“Ms. Zecora,” Bitterleaf once again said. “You are free to answer however you like, but you are under psychic probe. It would be inadvisable to lie. Now will you please give us your name and occupation for the record.”

“My name is Zecora. I'm an herbalist, making medicine in the forest.” Zecora calmly said. She was decidedly composed. She had some knowledge of other worlds, and while this one was a shock at first she had decided to keep her mind open for new experiences.

“Thank you Ms. Zecora.” Bitterleaf said with a polite smile. “Both for your presence today and a personal thank you. Now, you were the one to cure Mr. Glastos, correct?”

“Yes.”

“So you're familiar with the effects of the poison used on him?”

“There is no secret to keep. The poison causes eternal sleep.”

“Was the cure one that any herbalist could prepare? A novice perhaps.”

“This medicine even I had trouble to fill. It took more than casual skill.”

“Could he have possibly recovered on his own?”

“No, if not cured then there would be tears. We'd have to try something different in many years.”

“How dire was his condition?”

“The poison was not brewed right, for his very life we had to fight.”

“But you were able to identify the poison, correct?”

“No. Death Sleep Drought, Waking's Quell. Two or three others, I could not tell.”

“So, several poisons could have been cured by your concoction. Could one of the poisons have proven fatal? If prepared correctly.”

“The potion cured eternal sleep. Curing death is too great a leap.”

Bitterleaf pursed his lips and nodded. His argument undercut by his own witness. “An intentional mistake perhaps?”

“A poor choice to misbrew. More likely it would end you.”

Bitterleaf nodded again. “Your witness.” He quietly said.

Parker smiled, had he just been handed his best argument. “Ms. Zecora, would any of these poisons prove fatal if brewed correctly?”

“No.”

“Are these poisons simple to make?”

“No, lethal poisons are much easier to make. And less likely to explode should you make a mistake.”

“And had you not cured him there would be another window of opportunity, even if it was years away?”

“Perhaps. Not to be rude, but I repeat: The poison was misbrewed.”

“I believe that will be all. Thank you Ms. Zecora.” Parker said, making sure not to smile.

“Mr. Bitterleaf. Do you have any further questions?” Tor'el asked.

“No Ma'am.” Bitterleaf said.

“Thank you Ms. Zecora.” Tor'el said before Zecora accompanied her elf guard out. “Mr. Brookridge, I believe you only intend to question Ms. Glow.”

“Yes Ma'am.” Parker said.

“Go ahead.”

“Cozy Glow, You are free to answer however you like, but you are under psychic probe. It would be inadvisable to lie. Now will you please give us your name for the record.”

Cozy Glow did her best to look scared as her Shirley Temple curls framing her face and her wide, sparkling eyes. She was sure she could win the judge over. Unfortunately for her she knew nothing of Vulcan's and their emotional control.

“No Ms. Glow,” He knew what she was trying and had even fallen for it himself once. But it made no difference with this judge. All it did was prove that she would try to manipulate anyone. “It's established that you did poison Mr. Glastos. Was this an attempt to kill him?”

Cozy batted her eyes as she answered. “Golly, no. I just wanted him to sleep for a while.” The court telepath made a note on this statement. Bitterleaf would have to bring this up.

Parker had to make an effort not to roll his eyes. “But it was a poison, that implies lethality.”

“Oh no.” Cozy said as innocently as she could. “It's only effect was to put him into a deep sleep. I was careful to research that.”

Much to Parker's relief the court telepath didn't make any notes on this. He had established that she intended the poison to only put him to sleep. “How did you know Mr. Glastos?”

“He would sometimes lecture at Princess Twilight's school. I also met him while playing with my friend Scootaloo.” The telepath made a note on the second part of her statement.

Parker's eye twitched unintentionally. “And what was your relationship, if any, with him?”

“Oh, I would help him with anything he needed at the school. He could always count on me.” She said proudly.

Bitterleaf made his own note and Parker had to repress a sigh. “No more questions.” He said, cutting his questions short, they'd given prosecution enough.

Bitterleaf smiled as he looked to Cozy Glow. “You said that you wanted him to sleep for a while. That was a lie. Did you want him to sleep forever as Mr. Tirek honestly told us in his deposition?”

Cozy scoffed, she was caught and she knew it. “Yeah.” She eventually said as she looked away.

“There's no appreciable difference between sleeping forever and death, is there?”

“Oh, there's a big difference.” Cozy said, hoping that she could salvage this still. “I didn't want him dead.”

Parker and Bitterleaf both glanced at the telepath who made no notes. So she really wasn't a murderer.

This didn't derail Bitterleaf though. “Really? A big difference? Could he, say, do his lectures while sleeping? Talk to his friends? Run his country? Be a father to his children?!” He asked with increasing venom.

Parker was furious, but not with Bitterleaf. But he had his duty. “Objection: Plea to emotion!”

“It's for her benefit, not the court's.” Bitterleaf countered.

Tor'el struck her bell several times. “Order!” She demanded. “Now, I'm going to allow this.” She calmly said. “But be aware that under different circumstances Mr. Brookridge would be right to object.” She added to Bitterleaf.

“Yes Ma'am. I'm aware.” Bitterleaf said.

Tor'el struck her bell again before continuing. “Please answer the question Ms. Glow.”

“No … he couldn't.” Cozy admitted.

“It's been established in documents provided to the court that you would use this trust you built up with others to betray them. Was this your intent in building up trust with Mr. Glastos? To betray him with your poison?”

Cozy looked around uncomfortably. She knew they could tell when she lied. “Yes.” She said defeated, hoping her tone would win her sympathy.

“You intended to betray him, you researched the poison, it was part of a larger plan.” Bitterleaf calmly said. “A plan that he was a threat to. Now, was this personal or was he just collateral damage?”

Cozy hesitated. “It wasn't personal.”

The telepath noted her statement.

“I see.” Bitterleaf said with a grin. “No more questions.”

“We'll adjourn for today and return at ten hundred hours tomorrow for closing arguments.” Her statement made Tor'el rang her bell three times, closing the hearing.

Cozy glow was escorted back to her cell while Bitterleaf and Parker left. Parker wouldn't be visiting Cozy again tonight. He had work to do.

***

The next day felt no different from the previous day. Tor'el rang her bell three times to open procedures. “Mr. Bitterleaf, if you are ready to give your closing statement you may begin.”

Bitterleaf took a breath and nodded. “We have here, with Cozy Glow, a calculating mind bereft of actual sympathy. She has demonstrated, in court even, that she will use her innocent looks and age to gain the trust and sympathy of others. Then manipulate them into complacency with actions and words so that she may get close enough to strike. She will lie, plot, and poison with calculated risks to achieve her goals. Targeting those she has a personal dislike for. In her most recent plot King James Glastos was one such target. A target she aimed to permanently remove. Her demonstrated nature suggests that she would have had no concerns had he actually died. As such she should not be granted the mercy of the court.”

Tor'el took a moment to consider the statement before looking to Parker. “Mr. Brookridge, you may give your response.”

Parker nodded and checked his prepared notes one last time. “We do not contend the charge. We accept that sleeping forever is not practically different from death. As my colleague mentioned: she is calculating, and she took the time to research what she believed to be a non lethal poison. She left the option for him to recover. She is not heartless. She has agreed to submit to the judgment of this court and is not unwilling to face the consequences for her actions. Mercy is not unwarranted.”

Parker took a breath and nodded to the judge. He felt tired and not entirely clean.

After reviewing her notes on both statements and the trial as a whole she finally spoke. “Very well, as she did not contest the charge and no evidence or arguments were introduced to the contrary I find this case settled and will now be passed onto the sentencing triad for evaluation. Does anyone here have any further statements to make before I conclude?”

Parker spoke up quickly. “I need to enter into record that Equestria specified that imprisonment in New Guardia would satisfy their requirements for her and as such I would like to request she be placed in lifetime confinement in minimum security. This is a humanitarian request.”

“So noted. Mr. Bitterleaf, do you have anything to add?” Tor'el asked.

“Only that minimum is too lenient. The only reason that this is attempted regicide is that her victim lived.” The halfling said.

“Very well. These proceedings are now closed.” Tor'el rang her bell three times and much like the day previous they all left the room.

***

Captain Esok was under no delusion that his primary purpose in being here was to reach some middle ground between the New Guardian Judge and the Equestrian Judge. Hopefully coming to some arrangement between the two emotionally burdened species wouldn’t take too long. But he didn't believe it would be the case.

The three judges watched the trial, checking the notes as they went. Aspen Gavel was having a little trouble focusing as she tried to ignore the fact that she was accompanied by two creatures she had never seen before. She pushed it from her mind and got back to work. This was more important right now.

Esok stopped the video the moment the plea was given. “According to our notes, Cozy Glow lied when she gave her plea. Shouldn’t this have been addressed?” He asked the New Guardian judge.

Aspen Gavel spoke up as she looked to the image of Cozy Glow. “It’s most likely she wished to contest the charge.”

The New Guardian Judge shook her head as Aspen Gavel finished. “Probably to try to get more privileges while she serves her time.” She calmly said.

“Is there a reason this wasn’t explored.” Esok asked.

“She’s free to enter any plea she wants.” The New Guardian judge explained. “Ultimately it’s about the truth regardless of her plea. We’ve exonerated those who’ve plead guilty before.”

“Fascinating.” Esok said before continuing the trial.

Aspen Gavel had no idea that the plea was so meaningless. If that was the case, why did they even bother with it? The whole point was so that those who were guilty could confess and show that they were ready to accept punishment for what they had done. Why have a plea at all if there will be a trial no matter what?

As they watched they came to Cozy Glow’s statement on the matter. Aspen Gavel chose to stop the recording here. “I know the record says that she lies constantly during this time. I have the statements of many other students and residents she contacted with me. And while it doesn’t shed any light about her poisoning King James it goes a long way to show her character.” Aspen Gavel brought out a large file from her saddle bag and placed it on the table to be closely inspected. “She’s a perpetual liar and manipulator, only telling the truth once everything has blown up in her face.”

The New Guardian Judge took a paper from the file and looked at it as did Esok.

“Unfortunately these papers are in a language I am unfamiliar with.” Esok said as he put the page down.

“Yeah, I don’t even know if I’m holding the paper the right way.” The New Guardian judge added.

Aspen Gavel nodded and took the papers back. “Then I’d like to read them into the record.” She offered.

“Are you certain that’s necessary?” The New Guardian Judge asked, clearly exasperated.

“I believe it is.” Esok said with all the emotion of a disciplined Vulcan. Even if the details weren’t relevant to the direct case, determining Cozy Glow’s character was part of their job and this clearly had information that they needed to evaluate.

Aspen Gavel nodded and began to read aloud.

***

As much as Lucca might like to spend time with James while he was recovering she needed to pick up the slack and she wasn’t about to use the Epoch to relive the same day over and over again until she caught up.

James wasn’t really sleeping, but he could only be barely considered awake as he half stared at the display currently showing an old science documentary he particularly liked. Lucca kissed his cheek before leaving him to enjoy his show for now. Once he was able to support himself again he’d start his actual recovery.

Lucca was analyzing pirate reports to determine counter measures when her omnitool alerted her to a message. Curiously it came from Liara, which could be as serious as another Spectre trying to infiltrate the station, or she wanted to take a break and talk for a while.

“Concerning development.” The subject line read. While it could certainly still be a Spectre or STG it didn’t bode well that she had used that term.

“I realize that it may not have been totally unexpected, but it was still very unlikely. It’s not exactly a concern for me but something like this is definitely information you want. The only reason I delayed was of how busy you’ve become since taking over James’s usual duties.” There was a video attachment with the message that Lucca downloaded.

She saw Rainbow Dash flying around James’s hospital room and land on the guest bed as she was clearly really bored. Given how active the sporty pony liked to be this seemed perfectly normal for her.

Lucca watched Rainbow Dash get down off the bed as clearly just sitting was boring her and she began to walk around the room again, eventually finding her was back to James’s bedside. Again this didn’t seem odd as Lucca had walked in on her reading to James on more than one occasion.

Rainbow Dash stood on her hind legs supporting herself with the bedside as she looked down at James. The two had a curious relationship, though Lucca would be the first to admit her hand in meddling with it given the relationship prank years earlier. She would also admit how James’s association with all of the girls seemed to help him in some very unexpected ways. He was more outgoing now though by no means was he not his usual reclusive self. His diet improved as the girls had become regular visitors and their diet restrictions curbed some of his worse eating habits.

One of the biggest changes was his new-found ability to accept compliments and how he was much less hard on himself for his mistakes. Lucca liked this change in him and really only had the far too perky ponies to thank for it.

Then Rainbow Dash started talking.

“Okay, I know already this won't work. But if there's even the slightest chance it will … Look, just … if you tell anypony I did this, I'll deny it.” Rainbow Dash said moments before she took a breath and leaned her head down.

Lucca didn’t need another angle to tell exactly what was happening and she felt her face grow hot as she watched. She was getting angry, though she found herself at least as angry at James as she was at Rainbow Dash. Lucca took a deep breath and reminded herself that James was asleep. He wasn’t responsible for this.

Lucca held her breath and even timed the kiss, noting that her’s hadn’t even been as long. She reached into one of James’s drawers and pulled out a stress ball and began to squeeze as she reminded herself that she had just mentioned that Airi would happily use a kiss like that to brag about being a fair young maiden. She didn’t know if Rainbow Dash would be considered fair but she was at least twenty five now so she was even younger than Tali and as far as Lucca knew she was still a maiden. It was possible that she had thought about that reasoning and tried. The stress ball ripped in Lucca’s grasp as she continued to think about it.

“Yeah, I mean if Lucca and Tali couldn't, there's no way I could.” Rainbow Dash awkwardly laughed as she walked back to the chair next to the bed and the clip ended.

Lucca continued to grind apart the foam with her clenched hand as she looked at the scene, the image still burned in her mind. There were lots of assumptions she could make from this video, and at the moment she was definitely making them. She nearly sent a message back to Liara to ask if anything more happened before she caught herself and rationalized that Liara would have included something about it in the message.

For the moment Lucca managed to calm herself with the thought of it being a young lady’s crush for someone she had grown close to. She had one on James herself when they were young … even after he vanished and came back to her a different man. He had literally put his life in danger on more than one occasion just to keep her from getting hurt. She’d tended to his life threatening injuries more than she would like to admit.

Tali had developed one as James spent time talking to her, taking an interest in her hobbies and culture and eventually wrestling a sovereign class Reaper to help reclaim her home world. He had this effect on women because he genuinely cared.

There was virtually nothing of the stress ball left beyond the dusting of shredded foam laying around as Lucca once again resumed grinding her clenched fist. Realizing that the two biggest examples of that “young lady’s crush” were both now married to the man they had fallen for.

Lucca had to once again try to calm herself. This wasn’t a selfish thing for the pony to do, even if she had fallen for him somewhere along the way at least her care was genuine. She gave up on the concept of the stress ball and just embedded a letter opener in the wall as she remembered that Seto had locked them up together for a month strait.

There were still some lingering doubts she needed cleared up. She brought out her Omnitool and sent a request for personnel to the Einherrier asking for the only Betazoid she could think of at the moment, Erin Sandris.

***

The last couple days had become bogged down with the judges talking circles around each other. Esok was often acting as a moderator for the other two and would occasionally take notes on them. Their emotional outbursts were quite fascinating and if allowed by the NDA he would consider writing a paper about the experience.

He had always felt that Vulcan emotional detachment would benefit any species, but for those appointed to be judges it seemed to him that it should be mandatory. Emotional responses inevitably lead to punishments that were either too harsh or too lenient. It was uncommon to find a judge compromised by emotions that could give a truly impartial ruling.

What particularly interested him was the pegasus, a considerably more emotional creature than even the human judge yet she was advocating the lesser sentence despite what Cozy Glow had done to her world. And her arguments weren’t completely without merit.

“You’re telling us that she needs to be totally isolated for the rest of her life?!” Aspen Gavel angrily said as she repeated the big problem with the New Guardian Judges proposal.

“She’d have simulated interaction, it’s not cruel. Especially if she never realizes that it’s only simulated.” The New Guardian Judge explained for what felt to her like the hundredth time.

“Simulated is not the real thing. Yes, she’s responsible and will never live outside a cell again. Isn’t that enough? Does she really have to vanish from existence? There’s just no reason to not have her on minimum confinement.” Aspen Gavel tried to argue again.

“There’s reasons!” The New Guardian Judge said. “First, while poisoning isn’t viscerally violent it’s still considered a violent crime. Second, Tirek! He was locked up in that dungeon of yours (Worse than maximum security mind you) and still managed to be a threat to your whole country. He gave Cozy Glow the instructions to become the threat she was. I’m almost surprised he didn’t give her the poison she used. We keep her in max and there’s nothing in or out, she’s no threat to anyone again.”

“She’s a foal! Max is too much. Now if you were talking about bringing up Tirek and locking him away in Max I would agree with you wholeheartedly, but not a filly!” Aspen Gavel argued.

“A foal who by every observation is a Sociopath! She is a threat and I’m just suggesting we negate that. Max is the best way to do that and once she’s processed we can actually work on the simulations more than we already have to accommodate her. She’ll know that she’s never going to be free but she’s not going to live the rest of her life suffering. Max is just restrictions and she can even get privileges for good behavior. If she’s even capable of such a thing.” The New Guardian Judge felt like pulling out her hair as she argued with the pony.

“She’d be effectively dead!” Aspen Gavel was starting to raise her voice.

“And what about in Equestria? In Tartarus she had nothing! A cage and Tirek to talk to! You put those two together and that didn’t seem like a bad idea to you?” She was beginning to raise her voice as well, not exactly something she wanted to do in front of a Vulcan but it was happening anyway.

“Princess Celestia sentenced her to that and it’s not my place to judge on that. But I am here to Judge sentencing for her in New Guardia! And I’m saying that total isolation is too much!” Aspen Gavel argued again.

The new Guardian judge had enough of this as she stood up. “And what about you Captain? You haven’t said one damn thing about this the whole time! You’re supposed to give your opinion as well!”

Esok raised an eyebrow at the enraged human nearly shouting at him. Clearly despite being the more emotional species the pony was also more controlled. “I was waiting for a lull in your argument to calmly interject my views. But if you’ll allow me to speak I will give you my opinion.”

“I’d like to know as well so by all means, go ahead.” Aspen Gavel said as she relaxed a bit.

Esok looked to them both watching him closely. “Well it seems that isolation isn’t an option, yet she cannot be allowed to freely interact with others. The life long imprisoned population in New Guardia is three so there’s not much of a solution for interaction with other inmates there. Simulated interaction is an acceptable alternative. However should one wish, for some reason, to visit her some arrangement should be able to be made for supervised interaction. I am aware that an intermediary level of restriction is available yet neither of you have chosen to explore the option. Could either of you elaborate?”

Aspen Gavel spoke up first. “Because it’s not significantly different than max.”

“And it gives her privileges she should have to earn through good behavior to build up trust.” The New Guardian judge said as she began to calm down herself.

“May I point you to the case of Anders. Another who attempted to assassinate King James, though with a powerful explosive. He was significantly more violent, planned on murdering many more yet he enjoys many perks in max that are typically only available in minimum. Was this all from good behavior?” Esok calmly asked.

“No, not all of it.” The New Guardian Judge admitted. “There was a genuine problem he intended to address. One that couldn’t be allowed to continue by nearly any means.”

“His purpose was one of necessity but means were just violent. Yet with Cozy Glow, her means were predominantly non-violent given a few key examples while her purpose was misguided. Perhaps she could be allowed a similar maximum as he, there’s clearly precedent for it. And her interaction can still be limited to simulations where her actions can be judged at a later date to determine if lifting said restriction is merited.”

“I must point out that she is still a child and may well become a more moral being later in her life. She should be given that opportunity.” Esok nearly finished his statement, but there was one more thing he needed to touch on. “And also she should be given an education, even if she is locked away for the remainder of her life it is illogical to believe that a calculating mind like hers would have nothing to offer given proper tutelage.”

The New Guardian Judge smirked. “Vulcan logic for you. No resource can be overlooked.”

Esok looked back to the judge. “I believe the human saying is “Waste not, want not.””

Aspen Gavel shook her head. “Ponies say the same thing.”

“Do we have an understanding?” Esok asked calmly.

The New Guardian judge paced a bit as she considered. “I can live with that. She still has to earn her privileges though.”

“And as long as the door is open for a possible reduction in restrictions I’ll agree.” Aspen Gavel said.

“Fascinating. The two of you vehemently argued your positions, neither making concessions one way or another, yet when offered a middle ground that you could have easily reached if you had taken the time to listen and think logically you readily agree.” Esok said as he took a couple more notes.

“Probably because we have different agendas which is why you were brought here in the first place.” Aspen Gavel said as she considered the statement. “One New Guardian, one Equestrian, and a neutral opinion to bring the two together.”

“Yes. I can see the merit of proceedings like this in certain situations.” Esok said. “Though it does seem cumbersome for general use.”

***

Cozy Glow sat on her bed looking decidedly depressed as Parker talked to her. “Well I certainly wouldn’t call this a victory, but we are keeping you out of Tartarus. Princess Celestia has agreed that keeping you up here indefinitely will fulfill your sentence in Equestria and while you’ll not be getting out you will be able to earn privileges. I suggest you work hard in school and find ways to volunteer. That will help you earn these the fastest way you can and you’ll probably be able to live pretty comfortably in here.” He looked to her again, knowing that the innocent face she wore was a front for something dark beneath. “This isn’t good, but it could have been so much worse.”

Cozy Glow sighed as he walked away, things weren’t as bad as they could be. She wasn’t in Tartarus and most of the other inmates she had met wouldn’t be in for life so she would have friends on the outside. She could make this work.

Author's Note

Just thought I'd try a court story and this seemed the natural choice. Of course that's not the only thing going on at the time.

Amber's Crush

Author's Note

Nothing serious, just thought I'd write a little something about James's younger daughter, Amber. I'm thinking that each night James does a lecture he plans a game night with the other parents he's friends with. Bow can't always show up, but he can typically get Holiday, Lofty, and Shining Armor. Lucca will occasionally join them too.
He tries, but he's not exactly a good father.

Amber's Crush

It was late at night in New Guardia as the group sat around the game table. The consensus for the game that night had been Boggle and, as expected, James was losing … badly. Shining Armor made sure to practice whenever he knew they would be playing it. He had an unbroken wining streak against James and this time was no different. However he wasn't expecting Lofty to have been so close when the final scores were eventually tallied.

“And another win for me.” Shining Armor said with a grin.

“Hah, I just let you win.” Lofty said matching his grin. “Next time I won't go so easy on you.” Holiday chuckled as she listened to her wife taunting the proud stallion.

“Little slow today James.” Shining Armor said, still grinning.

“Give me a break.” James said defensively. “I'm working with a completely different alphabet here.”

“Excuses.” Shining Armor joked.

“Don't make me invite your sister, she'll knock you down to second. Third once Lofty stops feeling sorry for you.” James said in a mock threatening tone.

Lofty laughed aloud a moment as Shining Armor blushed, knowing full well that Twilight would dominate the group.

Bow Hothoof smiled encouragingly. “You did an amazing job James! You're the only one here who even reads a second language, much less plays games with it.”

James smiled at the zealous encouragement, even though he didn't feel anywhere near as proud of the achievement as Bow. “Anyone want one last drink before heading out?” James asked as things

“No thank you.” Holiday said. “We've got to get back to start dinner before Scootaloo gets home from school.”

“Oh, that reminds me.” Lofty said as she reached walked over to her saddlebag and pulled out two paper bags, holding them with her wings. “These are for Sara and Amber. Home made cookies!”

James chuckled. “They'll have to wait for these until after their dinner tomorrow.”

Lofty scoffed and gave him a cocky smile. “Come on, they're kids. Spoil them a little.”

“I'll see you two later.” James said with his own half smile.

“Oh, right!” Holiday said as Lofty helped her with her saddle bag. “Are you and Lucca available to watch Scootaloo Tuesday?”

“Any time, with or without notice.” James said, and after a quick word of thanks Holiday and Lofty left.

“I should probably be going too. Windy and I'll be visiting Rainbow Dash while we're here. Of course you're welcome as well.” Bow said as he walked to the door.

“No thanks, it's actually getting late here. I've just got time for a drink before turning in. But I think she's coming by for her dinner in the morning.”

“Oh, Windy and I can come along too so we can visit our grandfoals.” Bow said before wishing James a good night and returning home himself.

James smiled, he had to admit that even though he and Rainbow Dash weren't a couple (despite her parents insistence) he was happy that his daughters finally had grandparents.

Shining Armor smiled as they were the only two left. “I'll take that drink.” He said with a shrug. “As much as I love being a father, it's nice to get away occasionally.”

“Were you in the same room as I was?” James asked with a laugh. “Half our conversation was about our daughters … Well, niece for Holiday and Lofty.”

“It's nice to get away from the responsibility of being a father.” Shining Armor corrected.

James chuckled as he collected two frosted mugs from the replicator, giving one to Shining Armor as they walked to the den. James took his chair as Shining Armor sat on the couch and they nursed their drinks as they idly chatted about whatever topic that came up. Eventually their conversation was interrupted by James's youngest daughter, Amber, as she poked her head in the door and smiled.

James cocked his eyebrow at his daughter as she walked in, smiling sheepishly as she did. “Aren't you tired? It's almost two in the morning.”

“Nope.” She happily said, shaking her head and making her long golden hair fly wildly around her.

“Come on, tomorrow may be Saturday but it's still not good to stay up all night.”

Amber stuck out her lip and pouted. “But you stay up all the time.”

“I'm old, I regret it, and as your father I'm telling you to go to bed.” James gently reprimanded.

She huffed a moment before putting her pouting lip away. “Okay dad.” She said as she walked over and hugged her father. She then turned and walked over to the couch and hugged Shining Armor. “Good night, Shining Armor.”

Shining Armor wrapped his foreleg around her and returned the hug, letting her go after a couple seconds as she held on.

“Amber.” James firmly said. He wasn't blind to his daughter's actions and knew right away what was going on, partially because he was looking for it in his elder daughter, Sara.

At her father's tone she promptly released Shining Armor and with a parting wave skipped off.

“She's very affectionate.” Shining Armor said with a smile.

“Yeah.” James answered uncomfortably.

“What's wrong?” Shining Armor asked.

James didn't know if Shining Armor noticed what was going on, but he saw it as clear as day. “I'll, uh, I'll have to have a talk with her tomorrow.”

Shining Armor looked to James confused. “Talk? About what? The hug may have been long but I don't see anything wrong with it.”

James shook his head. “Trust me, it's necessary. And you'll probably have to have a talk like this with Flurry some day.” He stretched as he stood up. “Well, I should probably follow suit and turn in too. Have a good day, Shining Armor.”

***

It wasn't long after returning to his world through the door that connected Twilight's Castle to New Guardia Castle that Cadence and Twilight approached him.

“So what too you so long?” Cadence asked with a smile. “Everypony else came through a while ago.”

“We were about to go looking for you.” Twilight added.

“James and I had one last drink before I left. Apparently he has to talk to Amber about something though.” He said, still puzzling about what James could have been getting at.

“Oh, what about?” Twilight asked as she walked alongside her brother.

“I don't really know.” He admitted. “Something about how friendly she is I guess. It was right after she hugged us goodnight.”

Cadence and Twilight both “ooh”ed and giggled as they smiled at the innocence of the whole situation.

“What?” Shining Armor asked. “James said I might have to have this talk with Flurry and if you know I'd like to have some idea about what to expect.”

“I think I'll have that talk with her when the time comes.” Cadence said with an amused grin.

“What's this talk?” He asked again, more confused than ever that he's the only one who didn't seem to know.

***

After breakfast that morning while Bow Hothoof and Windy Whistles were spending time with Amber and Sara, James sat down to have a talk with Lucca in her workshop.

James sighed and picked up a random component to fiddle with before he spoke. “So I could be reading entirely too much into this, but I think Amber might have a crush on Shining Armor.”

“How do you figure?” Lucca asked as she leaned forward, dropping her elbows on the schematics she had drawn up for her current project.

James nodded as his omnitool blinked to life. “Our first hints were these.” He said as he brought up an image of several paintings Amber had done. Two of which were focused on Shining Armor in a heroic pose. Another with Amber alongside Twilight, Cadence, Shining Armor, and Flurry Heart. While Sara, Lucca, James, and Tali were in the painting too, they seemed to be placed more to the left than Twilight's family which was more centered, while Amber was closest to the center with Shining Armor.

“These were over a couple months, so it caught me off guard while I tried to convince myself it was nothing.” James explained.

Lucca took off her glasses and began cleaning them.

“And then last night she hugged Shining Armor for at least six seconds longer than necessary.” He finished.

Lucca put her glasses back on and nodded. “I guess we both missed this.” She commented after a moment.

“I was not ready for this.” James sighed as he leaned back.

“Is any one?” Lucca asked as she rested her chin on her fists.

“I thought I was ready for Sara to have a crush. I'd even expected her to have one on Tenchi, everyone else seems to.” He said as he mulled it over in his head.

“I wasn't expecting Shining Armor either, we're completely different species, and morphologies. But I guess it makes sense.” Lucca offered. “She looks up to Twilight, and Twilight is really close to her brother. Amber probably wanted to emulate that too, but instead she developed a crush. She's at an age where these things start to happen. What's he have to say about it?”

“He's completely clueless.” James commented. “I'm going to have a talk to Amber later, try to let her know that what she's feeling is okay but not to get her hopes up.”

“Good luck.” Lucca said, shaking her head. “While we're on the subject, have you noticed anything about Sara? Is she just a late bloomer or do you think she's hiding something from us?”

“I'd like to think she isn't hiding anything, but we don't talk like we used to.” James said with another sigh.

“Don't feel too bad about it. I'm sure she'll come around eventually.”

“Were you ever like this with your parents?”

“For a while. It was that day when I decided to learn all I could about machines when dad and I finally bonded over something. I wish I was closer to mom, and I guess that did happen in it's own way because of that gate.” Lucca went silent as she lost herself in her memories.

***

James stood outside Amber's bedroom and, not for the first time, wished that his daughters would stay his little girls forever. But he knew how ridiculous the notion was. And how if it were somehow possible that they could remain children forever, they would miss out on so many great things in life.

He groaned and scratched the back of his head before knocking on Amber's door. “Sweetheart. I think we need to have a talk.”

“Just a minute dad.”

“Everything takes a minute.” He mumbled to himself as he waited. There was the unmistakable sound of hurried cleaning but it wasn't long before the door opened.

Amber's room was large for a child's room, but it was an average sized room for the castle. The walls were an off white and covered in sketches Amber had made and some she had colored in, most were at least partially covered by the many paintings Amber had done, and she would rotate the ones she liked to various places. Right now, above her bed was one of the paintings of Shining Armor that James had shown Lucca earlier. Her bed itself was directly across from her bay window overlooking the garden of the central courtyard. Her work desk beside the window had a sketch of several animals in the woods just beyond the castle playing with each other. In the center of the room was a banged and scratched up easel that James had repaired on more than one occasion. On it was her most recent school assignment, and she was painting the view from her window. Probably not as grand as some of the other students might get from their windows, but her rendering of the garden before her was impressive.

Her armoire had more stuffed toys than it had clothes, and her bookcase was simply a place for her to keep her art supplies and more paintings. Beneath the easel was a random smattering of colors and splotches almost akin to several works of art James had seen in his youth, but now only reminded him of how many rugs his youngest daughter had ruined.

With his view on the floor for the moment he found that the minute she had kept him out had been spent shoving the clutter beneath her bed. Amber sat on the edge of the concealing bed and smiled up at him as she pulled the covers to try to hide what she had done.

“What did you want to talk about?”

James shook his head as he looked down at his daughter. “It's about last night …” He began before his daughter cut in.

“Why can't I stay up on the weekends?” She pouted as she pursed her lips.

“It's not that. I don't mind you staying up late on weekends.” He said calmly. “Though two am is a bit late for you still. … Look, it's pretty obvious that you have a crush on Shining Armor. Just …” James sighed again as he tried to think about what he was going to be saying. “Just don't think he's going to reciprocate your feelings. He's happily married with a daughter of his own, and more than twice your age.”

“So I shouldn't care because of that?!” Amber said while scowling.

James shook his head. “No. Caring is fine, even your crush is fine. I just don't want you to start thinking there's more than that, it will hurt a lot if you start convincing yourself of that.”

“You can't tell me who I can and can't like!” Amber shouted.

“I'm not saying you can't like him.” James tried to emphasize, keeping his voice down. “It's fine that you like him, just don't think he likes you as anything but a friend.”

“What about you and Rainbow Dash?” Amber demanded. “She's younger than mom!”

James groaned and rubbed his forehead. “Rainbow Dash and I are friends, nothing more. And this isn't about my relationships. I just want you to understand that you can't hold out for Shining Armor. He likes you, but only as a friend. Okay?”

“… Okay.” Amber huffed.

James sighed yet again and walked to the door, turning back as he crossed the frame. “And shoving the mess under your bed isn't cleaning, pull it out and put it away.”

***

The Friday after next Cadence approached James as he sat in the Guildhall after his lecture. “How did your talk with Amber go?”

James sighed and shook his head. “She's been mad at me all week. I guess it's good she's talking to me still, even if it's mostly her trying to be hurtful.”

Cadence shook her head and smiled. “I was worried that might be the case.”

James cocked his eyebrow as he looked to her. “So you thought I wasn't the right one to have this talk.”

Cadence shook her head. “Not exactly. It's that you and Lucca like to think rationally, and a crush isn't rational. Did you tell her why she shouldn't have a crush on Shining Armor, or did tell her that she should be careful?”

“I told her to be careful.” James answered, not seeing where she was going.

“Uh-huh. You were trying to predict the future, and wanted to protect her from something that may not even be a problem. Did you even ask what she liked about him?” Cadence said, giving him a sly look.

“… No, I didn't.” James admitted.

Cadence grinned. “I'll have a talk with her. I might know just a bit more about the subject.” She began to walk away when James called out to her.

“How did you know it would turn out like this?”

“I was Twilight's foal sitter, and you two think just like her.” She answered easily. “She thought she could rationalize these things too. And from what I heard about her reaction to that prank you and Rainbow Dash pulled, she still does.”

Lyra's Human Hunt

Author's Note

I really like the Human obsessed Lyra. I just thought I'd put something here about that.
This takes place before chapter 44 when knowledge of what James and Lucca are is still limited to a handful.

Lyra's Human Hunt

It had taken months for Lyra to find to find the door, the portal to exactly what she had been looking for for years. She'd known since she was young that humans really existed and had joined group after group of believers. She'd been called delusional, suffered through patronizing humor. Her own girlfriend didn't believe her. Though she thankfully didn't make her feel any less for her belief in these mythical creatures.

Now she was going to get the proof! James was the key. He and Tali came from a land nopony had ever heard of, used phrases that Lyra knew would be associated with humans, and despite being friends she had never actually seen Tali. She was always wearing a suit that completely concealed her and she said she couldn't eat anything in this world.

Key phrases, odd habits and limits. These had only further convinced her that they were the key to finding humans, if not disguised humans themselves. One of the recurring theories going around the human hunting groups was that humans could magically disguise themselves. They'd have to have some kind of magic to be so elusive for so long.

But hiding from ponies like that that hinged on the angle that humans were intelligent enough to have a civilization, which was a hotly contested theory in the human hunter groups. She was on the side of intelligent humans, but knew some that disagreed with her. Right now, though, she didn't care if she was right or wrong about her pet theories as long as she got to find a human.

She smiled as she looked at the door before her. Bonbon had told her about it, having seen it when she had agreed to help James with something and mysteriously couldn't remember anything about what she had done. This had to be it, why else would there be a clock by it set to the wrong time? It had to be a be like that for a reason. She hoped to find out what it meant later, but for now she was going to press forward and begin her search.

Her horn lit up and the door began to open. Her heart skipped a beat when the door squeaked, even though she knew the castle was empty. She suddenly felt as though everyone in Ponyville knew exactly where she was and what she was doing.

With a breath she finished opening the door, just on the other side the stonework changed dramatically from a dark (yet colorful) gemstone, that appeared to be a single smooth stone, to gray stone laid like brick. The room wasn't large, only a few meters round lit by a warm electric light, across from her was a pine door with a gemstone handle.

She stumbled as she stepped through the doorway, suddenly overcome with a sense of vertigo. Her mind raced as she tried to come up with reasons for it. Maybe it could be part of some spell that hides the presence of humans. Or something to do with why Bonbon hadn't remembered working with James. She had prepared though, bringing a camera and notebook to record as much as she could. She brought out said note book and took a minute to record what she had just experienced and her ideas about it.

This was so very exciting!

The sharp click her hoof made as she stepped told her that this was ceramic tile she new stood on. She may not have the aptitude for magic that Twilight or Starlight had but she did have a few skills. Her horn lit up and a pale green light washed over her. She took one more step and didn't hear anything. She happily pranced forward and opened the door, relieved that this door didn't make any noise as she walked through.

Beyond the doorway was a hallway with several more doors, each with a placard next to it with a picture and some characters that had to be some kind of writing. She took pictures of each placard as she passed, excited as she had already found something amazing even if she didn't find any humans.

Another curiosity was the fact that even though it was midday when she came here, looking out the windows showed it was night. She only glanced out of curiosity, as interesting as this was she had an agenda of what she was looking for. She would be going out soon enough if she didn't find the evidence she wanted here anyway.

She tried several doors as she walked through the halls, most were locked, others had some kind of magical field preventing her from walking into the room, though they didn't keep her magic from opening the doors. There was nothing more she could do in here, and eventually found her way to the foyer.

Outside she looked up to see a never ending expanse of stars unlike any she had seen in Ponyville. It was beautiful. On a whim she turned off her flash and took several pictures, hoping that to share this sight with Bonbon.

Her pictures taken, Lyra forced herself back to the task before her and looked along the cobblestone road through a wall towards the forest.

She felt an immediate pang of disappointment, as she had long been a proponent of humans as city dwellers and not forest dwellers.

She took a breath and thought for a moment, she had no evidence so far that humans lived in the forest, if they were even here. She needed to calm down, her excitement at finding the portal had her leaping to conclusions.

It wasn't too long until she was out of the woods and walking through dimly lit streets. The quiet of the streets told her that whoever lived here weren't nocturnal. If there were any humans here, that shot down her theory.

She had long believed that Princess Luna had once been the protector of humans until her transformation. And it was their decline and that helped push her into becoming Nightmare Moon. But with Luna's return and fervent denial Lyra had reluctantly abandoned the idea.

The city looked fairly normal, not a point in her favor for finding humans but it didn't rule it out either. She just needed to keep searching.

At another crossroads she was about to go straight through like she had been doing so far when the faint sounds of someone singing came to her from the left. She galloped off towards the music as quickly as she could, eager to find the singer. She reminded herself that it may not be a human but couldn't shake the feeling that something amazing was waiting for her.

She froze the moment she saw it, something walking on it's hind legs like some dragons do but it had a mane! It was far in the distance and walking further away from her.

In her excitement she had trouble focusing on her magic and fumbled with her camera. She was only barely able to take a picture as it was walking outside the radius of the lamppost. After several clicks she remembered that she had turned her flash off and would be lucky if anything could be seen when the pictures were developed. She took off at a gallop once more towards where the human had been, hopefully they wouldn't have gotten too far.

Unfortunately, there was nothing to be seen or heard when she arrived at the lamppost, they had stopped singing and she couldn't even hear any steps.

She had entered a neighborhood when she began running and though she wanted to call out to find who was just here she didn't want to wake up everyone sleeping. She'd made that mistake once in Ponyville and Bonbon had made her promise to not Human Hunt in town anymore, at least not at night.

She had to check the time quickly as she needed to be back well before Twilight's classes ended. They may be friends, but it would still look suspicious if Twilight caught her walking around the castle with a camera and notebook.

She took a few quick notes on what she saw while it was still fresh in her mind, even if the pictures turned out she wanted to have more than just those. And after a quick look around the neighborhood she went back to the main road she had followed.

She knew what she had seen, but there were still so many details she needed to have. With renewed enthusiasm she chose a new direction to walk to hopefully find more evidence of humans. The next intersection she found she chose a different direction, continuing towards what appeared to be shops and not neighborhoods.
Success!

… almost. What she found instead of humans were closed stores, but hey had all sorts of human things available. Several clothing stores had mannequins, there were advertisements, there were even news papers in vending machines, although they didn't take bits. Immediately she began taking notes and pictures, she needed as much of this stuff as possible.

Had the stores themselves been open she would have likely spent every last bit she had buying as much human merchandise as possible. For the moment she had to be satisfied with pictures and collecting different advertisements. She had so many things she wanted to do here, and had to plan another expedition.

The advertisements also brought up a strange realization. These creatures didn't have muzzles, instead they had flat faces like Tirek. Were they closer to centaurs than they were ponies? It wasn't too inconceivable, the assumption that they would have pony-like features was just anthropomorphism anyway. The ads also served to provide an end to the debate about whether or not humans had tails.

She'd been here for a while now, and as much as she wanted to stay and keep looking around she needed to leave. It wasn't difficult to find her way back to the castle she had left (which she took a picture of as she approached) and easily made her way out of Twilight's castle on the other side of the portal.

***

That night, Lyra worked carefully in her improvised dark room. Her heart pounding as she silently watched the prints develop. First the night sky over the forest. The view was much better in her memory.

She was already planning her next Human Hunting trip, maybe she could convince Bonbon to join her. It's not like she could keep denying humans with the evidence she had gathered.

Several pictures began to grow dark as they developed, a cone of light near the center with a shadowy figure crossing through it.

Lyra's heart raced as she examined the photograph. It lacked some definition as the figure was vanishing into the darkness, but it had the outline! She could see it's hair, albeit barely. Grouped with the advertisements, and pictures of the clothed mannequins in the storefronts how could anyone continue to deny their existence?

She pranced in place a moment as she imagined sharing this with her Human Club meeting later that week.

***

“Yeah … I mean I guess it kind of looks right.” A pegasus stallion hesitantly said as he examined the picture. “I don't know, there's just too many ways this could be faked.”

“What?!” Lyra gasped as her jaw dropped.

“It's blurry at best, and it only kind of matches what we know about humans.” A unicorn mare clarified.

“But I've got the negatives! And what about the Mannequins and advertisements?!”

“That's what makes this so difficult.” He answered. “The mannequins actually make it harder to believe the blurry pictures are authentic.”

The mare nodded in agreement as she levitated the advertisements back to Lyra. “And these just look too weird to be real humans. I mean, where's their muzzle? And tail? And are these supposed to be human runes on this page? I can't understand any of it.”

“And aren't you the one who thought they were nocturnal?” An earth pony mare spoke up. “Shouldn't there be far more humans around then?”

“I was wrong.” Lyra said earnestly. “We were all wrong about a few things with them!”

“Isn't it just a bit too convenient that your pictures show the, quote unquote, human as living in the city?” Spoiled Rich asked as she rolled her eyes. “We've been over this, if humans lived in cities we would have found them, or at least abandoned cities of theirs, long ago. They have to live in forests, because they are forest animals. And look at it Lyra, there's no way I could have that thing as a pet.”

“Unless they aren't what we thought they were!” Lyra was getting frustrated. Of course Spoiled Rich would say that, she didn't care about humans beyond what kind of social status they could give her as either a discovery or an exotic pet. “And we wouldn't be able to find them if somepony were keeping them hidden.”

“Lyra …” The pegasus uncomfortably said. “Princess Luna has already denied any knowledge of humans.”

Now was the time to present her new theory. “I know. And I believe her, but there's another Alicorn. One from a land he calls New Guardia: Guardia as in guardian. An alicorn that nopony had ever known until he mysteriously showed up in Ponyville to introduce himself to Princess Twilight! When Twilight became an Alicorn there was a big coronation. We heard about Flurry Heart being an alicorn at the same time as her Crystaling. Everypony hears about every alicorn because it's big news!”

“But then here comes this alicorn stallion out of nowhere that nopony has ever heard of, not even the Princesses. When everypony does learn about him, it's because he was protecting Twilight. Everything about this stallion is weird. The way he talks and moves, his strange name and magic. The entire kingdom he rules was (and still is) a total mystery.”

“And you found it inside Princess Twilight's castle …” Spoiled Rich said sarcastically.

“It's a portal!” Lyra insisted. “A portal to the Human Kingdom!”

“Look, Lyra,” the unicorn gently said. “We all do believe that humans exist. But creating these … pictures, isn't going to help anypony. It's only going to make us look even more silly to everypony else.”

“I can take you there.” Lyra's voice was weak with desperation and disbelief. So many years believing on nothing, no solid evidence and half remembered stories. But she came with the very evidence they needed, what may have been proof if she hadn't turned her flash off earlier, and nopony believed her for a moment.

“Please, Lyra. Maybe you should take a little time to yourself to rest.”

“I didn't fake these!” Lyra almost shouted, tears welling up in her eyes.

“It's okay. We've all made photos to look like what we think they'd be.”

“I haven't.” Spoiled Rich huffed.

“All of us who care.” the unicorn mare whispered to Lyra before speaking normally again. “Just take some time and relax. A month, then you can come back and we can get back down to business. Okay?”

Lyra's face twisted in frustration as her horn glowed, ripping the pictures and advertisements away from the rest of the group. She had worked too hard to get these and they accused her of faking it!

***

“Lyra?” Bonbon asked as she walked into Lyra's dedicated human room. Many of the old sketches and footprint castings had been taken down and thrown into a corner. “What happened?”

“Nothing.” Lyra huffed, not looking towards her girlfriend.

“I heard about what happened at your group.”

“What, that I'm a liar and faker?”

“I know what they said.” She said as she sat next to Lyra.

“I know you don't believe any of this, but I really did find something,” Lyra admitted, clearly depressed.

“I know you did,” Bonbon assured her. “You're not a liar, and I don't mean to sound rude, but there's no way you could have faked these.”

“You believe me?” Lyra asked with a weak smile.

“Yes. There is something out there,” Bonbon admitted, nudging her girlfriend. “And it may just be a human.”

“If you believe me, then I don't care what they think.”

Bonbon kissed Lyra's cheek and looked to the pile of pictures and paper she had in front of her. “Tell me what you know and we'll see if we can figure this out. We'll have something to show everypony by your next meeting.”

Lost

James stood in front of his class at Twilight's school, he had a prepared lecture ready but changed the script when Pinkie told him about a recent disruption in her class. “I know we've gone over this before, but it's a lesson that often bears repeating.” He said, walking up to the whiteboard and collecting a marker.

“Friendships between species, like every other friendship, takes work on both sides. But there has to be communication and understanding. We always have to remember the differences and make accommodations, which we can all forget when we're so used to our friends that we just stop thinking about those differences.”

“Myself and Tali for example are so physically different that our food poisons the other. No matter where we go we have to find or even make accommodations.”

“Let's bring this a little closer to Equestria: Smolder, would you come up here?”

“Sure.” Smolder casually said with a shrug, standing and walking to join James at the front of his classroom.

“Smolder, it's true that back in the dragon lands your diet was mostly gemstones, right?”

As James spoke his Omnitool activated with a flash and began humming.

“Yeah, uhm … What's that?” Smolder asked as she looked to James, inspecting the light device.

James went pale as he examined the notification. “I'm sorry, this is an emergency and I have to leave right now.” He said moments before violently melting away.

“So-o-o-o what …” Ocellus began to ask before being cut off.

“Free period!” Glallus announced over his friend.

***

“I will break the goddamn barrier myself if I have to.” James growled as he typed out another list of commands.

James sat alone in a room approximately as large as a basketball court, and before him was a massive fabricator, printing parts and assembling them as he worked. The room didn't have the clean efficient feel of many of the locations on the station, even the cargo holds looked nice compared to the room James worked in now. The only concern for this room and the fabricator inside was assembling custom probes. In a word, the room was utilitarian.

The ponies marveled as they saw the equipment working. The contrast to the rest of the station was stark.

“What's going on?” Twilight asked as she approached the man working furiously at a console.

“It can't just be gone, I was just there!” He grumbled to himself. “I can do this.” He added in a whisper.

“James?” Starlight asked, getting as close to the yellow safety line in front of James as she dared. She couldn't get a good look at him, but it was plainly obvious he was focused in a way she had not seen him before.

“Is everything alright?” Fluttershy asked quietly.

With a swipe upward of his hand, James increased the size of the three dimensional model he was examining. Several more keystrokes and the image focused on a part near the center. The object appeared to break apart and each individual piece hovered in the air as James typed out more. Looking from his hands to the image multiple times.

“James!” Rainbow Dash shouted, hoping to get his attention.

“I'm really sorry girls.” James said with a forced calm. “But this is an emergency!”

“Yeah, Smolder told us.” Starlight explained.

“Dear, what are you doing?” Rarity asked.

“Trying to figure out what happened.” James was quick to answer.

“What happened?” Pinkie asked, completely unhelpfully.

“I don't know!” James practically shouted in frustration.

“I think she means what are you trying to figure out.” Starlight said.

“This is a technical problem.” was his only answer.

“Give us something! We might actually be able to help.” Rainbow Dash complained.

James chewed his lip as he started redesigning the image of the machine in front of him. “Alright, so I just got an alert that a universe is gone …” James began.

The ponies all gave each other confused glances as James began to explain.

“As far as anybody understands, that's impossible.”

“What do you mean gone?” Applejack asked.

“Gone. Not there. Not destroyed, not empty, not even missing, just nothing.”

“How does a universe just vanish.”

“I don't know! As far as we know, they don't. It may be some kind of strange seal we don't understand yet, but I have no information to go on.”

“And it just vanished during your class?”

“That's where it gets weirder.” James said, clearly confused. “I was there just last week to pick up a few things. So I thought I'd use the Epoch and go back to when I knew it was still there: but it isn't there back then.”

“It … what?” Rarity asked.

“Exactly!” James said, holding up his finger. “Whatever happened seems to be effecting the universe retroactively, isolating it cosmically and temporally.”

“I think I'm getting a headache.” Rainbow Dash said, rubbing her forehead.

“So what are you building? And how's it going to help?” Twilight asked.

“I'm building a probe to go backwards through time, find any opening back to that universe and get there. I'm also supercharging it's transmitter to hopefully force a connection wherever it ends up so I can reestablish a tunnel to them.”

“Maybe the answer is magical.” Twilight offered.

“I doubt it, but I'll give anything a shot.”

Rainbow Dash had sat on this question for a minute now, and couldn't wait any longer to ask. “I get it's freaky, but what about this universe has you working so hard to find it again?”

James sighed as his furious work slowed slightly. “I know some of the people there, you met one yourself. It's Piccolo's universe.”

“Regardless of why, it's important that we do what we can. What if they need help?” Twilight said, “I mean that sounds like a serious problem.” Twilight immediately formed a plan and set about giving orders. “Alright I'll search my library, Starlight, you take the sorcerer's guild. Rarity, you go through Canterlot's library.”

“What about us?” Pinkie eagerly asked.

“Ponies aren't the only ones with magic: Pinkie, you go to Mt. Eris and see what the hippogryphs may know.”

“Okay!” Pinkie excitedly said, only prevented from running off by Applejack biting her tail.

“Uhm … what are we looking for?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Anything that can help.”

“And we have no idea what that may be.” Starlight reasoned.

“Besides, universal travel is different to planar travel. You have doorways to other planes: Planes are contained in the same universe, always connected and can be slipped through. Universes are separated and have to have connections built.” James explained, “That's kind of a basic explanation, almost to the point of error. It's definitely not that simple.”

“Can't we do anything?”

“I'll happily take any help you can give me. I just don't know what that would be.”

Over the next two days James never left the room, barely even the console. There was always some new problem, or new idea. And there was always someone there to watch him.

It was on the third day that Applejack heard James sigh and quietly say “Finally” before she heard him collapse where he had been standing.

“Oh for crying …” Applejack sighed as she looked for the com panel to make a call.

***

James sat up abruptly, looking around to find himself laying in bed with one of Washu's medical unit's attached to him.

“Don't worry.” Lucca said as she noticed him sitting up. “It wasn't serious, you just worked yourself to exhaustion.”

“Yeah, yeah.” James said dismissively. “But what about the probe?”

Lucca walked over to him and felt his forehead and handed him a cup of hot green tea. “Probe's ready for launch. As soon as your vitals steady out you can go launch it.”

Lucca sat on the bed next to him, placing her hand on his shoulder, “James, I think you need to be ready for an answer you don't want.”

James sipped the tea and nodded. “That's why I can't give up yet. I need to understand what happened …”

“No.” Lucca quickly interrupted. “James, we may not be able to get an answer. We have the most advanced technology available to any universe we're in contact with around parallel universes, and we only barely understand what's going on. I'm certain there's a reason too, but we could be decades away from uncovering that reason. If we ever do.”

“But …”

“Failure is an option.”

James quietly nodded and looked back up to Lucca only to be interrupted as he opened his mouth.

“I need you to tell me that.”

“If …”

“James.” Lucca repeated firmly.

With a deep breath James closed his eyes and repeated, “Failure is an option.”

“I know how hard it is to accept that. We've both come face to face with loss so many times through our lives.”

James silently nodded. “But what about them?” He whispered.

“I'm going to believe they're alright until there's evidence otherwise,” Lucca calmly said. “The only thing we know right now is that we can't contact them in any way. That tells us nothing about how they're doing.”

“You're right,” James admitted, “but I just can't shake this feeling that something is terribly wrong.”

“You're just trying to take the blame for something you have no control over.”

“I just need to find out.”

“Of course. And I'll do what I can to help, like getting the probe in place and boosting it's power even more.”

“Thanks.”

***

James and Lucca sat in the pilots chairs of the runabout, maneuvering into sight of the probe James had spent nearly a week building. The couple wasn't alone as the ponies had insisted on joining them, and Tali was glued to the sensor readings at the tactical station.

“You really don't have to be here,” James insisted, speaking back towards the ponies.

“I know,” Twilight said “but it's something that's important to you, and even if we can't help we want to give you our support.”

“And we appreciate that.” Tali said as she adjusted the sensor to accommodate her Omnitool. “This has been more than a little troubling.”

“Alright James,” Lucca said calmly, looking at her display. “We're coming up on it now, you should probably stop now.”

“Stopping now.” James said, touching the control panel.

“There it is.” Lucca commented, looking up and out towards the cylindrical device. “Ready James?”

“Yeah.” James calmly said as he typed out and submitted it's instructions.

The pod seemed to glow blue briefly before only a single indicator light flickered on it.

“I guess it wasn't supposed to do that.” Rainbow Dash said, looking over James' shoulder.

“Not ideally,” James commented, “but that doesn't mean it failed.”

“Tali?” Lucca asked as she inspected her control panel.

“I've getting the data now.” Tali confirmed, “But it's going to take a few minutes, we're talking about five hundred years of data after all.”

“But nothing happened.” Applejack commented.

“It went back in time,” Lucca explained, “It just didn't move from this spot. At least not subjectively.”

“Five hundred is actually longer than I was expecting.” James casually said.

“Is that good or bad?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“We'll know when the data finishes downloading and analyzing.” James explained.

“Well, what was supposed to happen?”

“It was supposed to go backwards through time, checking constantly for the presence of that universe. If found it would travel over and signal us right about now if everything worked.”

“Anyone interested in a card game while we wait?” Tali offered.

There was a wave of agreement through the craft, with the only one sitting the game out being James.

“I'll just be up here monitoring things.” He offered, looking over the panel in front of him once more.

“James, my onmitool will alert us the moment the data is done transferring. And I've already got the exclusion filter operational.”

“I think I'm still better off up here right now.” James quietly said.

“You mind if I stay up here too?” Starlight asked, looking to the group.

Soon, the room was empty of all but James and Starlight.

“Will you talk to me?” Starlight cautiously asked once they were alone.

“Of course.” James answered, confused as to why she might think not.

“Why don't you tell me about the people you knew there?”

James closed his eyes and sighed. “Where do I even begin,” he started.

***

“Makes sense you'd be here.” Rainbow Dash said as she walked into the castle's bar. “Though I was thinking you would be the one drinking.”

James sat at the bar beside Lucca and Tali, the only one without a drink. “Yeah, one of us needs to be responsible.”

“Join us, we're having a toast.” Tali said, clearly having made several toasts already. “This time … to Bulma, and that bosh'tet husband of hers.”

“Here here.” Lucca said, raising her glass halfway before taking another drink.

“He was such an ax'kah … but he really cared about her. Under all that ego and pride, he cared about them all.”

“I take it asking Washu didn't go well?” Rainbow Dash asked uncomfortably.

“Asking wasn't the problem.” Tali said as she put her drink down.

“We had a literal deity helping us …” James began, frustration breaking his voice.

“Two,” Lucca interrupted, “Tsunami helped as well.”

“ … and the best answer available is: It's just gone.” James finished.

“Isn't there anything else you can do?” Rainbow Dash asked, trying to sound hopeful.

“The only option left … isn't an option.” James answered, clearly depressed.

“Why not? If it could work, you need to try it!”

“Because it won't work.” James answered, looking up at her. “All it would do is make empty facsimiles of them. Nothing more than echoes of our memories.”

“What about finding them in another world? That's a thing right?”

“Wouldn't be them,” Lucca said with a shrug. “Besides, we're already looking for one like it so we can at least continue some of our trade contracts.”

“So you're giving up?!”

“It's not giving up when you've done everything you can, and even some things you can't.” James countered.

“Isn't there anything we can do?”

With a nod, James pulled out a jug Rainbow Dash recognized as coming from Sweet Apple Acres and poured a glass of cider before pouring a second liquid in.

James gestured to the seat, nodding as Rainbow Dash joined them. “We can mourn.”

Author's Note

This actually takes place during A Balance of Fire and Light, but it's still a side chapter that doesn't fit in with the general story and making a whole new story for just this so far doesn't make sense.