From Catamite to Conquerer

The Canterlot Court, the largest court on the planet. A place where only the vilest of criminals were tried, often given life imprisonment, banishment to Tartarus, or worse. Today, a trial for one such criminal was starting. The gallery of the building was full of ponies, mostly, but there was the odd member of other races, such as Gryphons and Elk.

Sitting at the judges stand, were Princesses Luna, Celestia and Twilight Sparkle. They would be the ones rendering the sentence of this war criminal after hearing all the evidence. The prosecutor was an elderly elk, with white fur and large branching antlers. He wore a loincloth, a leather hauberk, and two pauldrons that consisted of two skulls. While this did raise a couple of red flags in the audience, many just chalked it up to the fact that he was a primitive tribal chieftain and that this was his culture. They assumed that the skulls were from some beast he slew or weren't even real.

Celestia suddenly cleared her throat, bringing the muttering in the room to a close.

"We are now ready." She spoke simply, directing her eyes down the central aisle of the gallery towards the room's main entrance. "Bring in the defendant."

The double doors swung open, and a single figure bound in chains walked into the room. He was soon accompanied by armed Equestrian Guards. Sudden murmuring suddenly returned to the crowd. When they had heard mention of a notorious deer warlord who committed war crime after war crime against the primitive elk, they expected a tall, burly grizzled monster, covered in scars and wearing armor. They expected him to march in with an evil smile, or to skip in like a madman singing about his evil deeds.

What they got was a small deer, at least a head shorter than everyone else in the room. He wore nothing aside from a small suit with short sleeves and short shorts, and thigh-high pink and white socks, alongside shoulder-high gloves that had the same color. He walked in with a visibly blank look on his face, but they did see hints of sadness in his eyes.

He slowly walked into the room and silently took his seat, head lowered as he awaited a verdict.

The murmuring persisted. Why was it that the war criminal looked less evil than the people persecuting him? How could he be a war criminal, he looked like he was barely in his twenties. How could it be that someone so feminine and thin-looking could be a monster?

Celestia cleared her throat to continue the trial. "Now then, we can begin the trial now."

Luna was the first to speak, pulling out paperwork. "Thicket of Cervus. How do you plead to the claims of war crimes, including but not limited to, executing prisoners, executing civilians of both the upper class and nobility, ransacking of Elken cities, razing of Elken cities, and more?"

"What do you mean 'how does he plead?'" The elk prosecutor said walking forwards and pointing at Thicket. "He is guilty. Charge him and be done with it!"

"I am sorry, Harku, but here in Equestria we do things much differently than in Elken. We believe that the defendant has equal rights to defend-" Twilight started before she was cut off by a somewhat feminine voice.

"Guilty." Thicket said standing up, looking at his judges. "I will not deny that I committed uncountable wrongdoings, but I would like to take time to explain why I did it if you'd allow me?"

Harku, the elk, stared at him with pure hatred in his eyes, before sitting down as Twilight, Celestia, and Luna shared glances at each other.

"Very well. You may..." Luna said quietly.

Thicket walked into the center of the room and cleared his throat. "To put it bluntly, I am fine with any sentence you give me. It cannot be a worse hell than what I have already gone through at the hands of Elken." He said loudly.

"I object!" Harku said rising to his feet. "Elken did nothing to cause any kind of hell!"

"Overruled," Twilight said, staring daggers at Harku as Thicket continued speaking.

"Since the birth of my homeland, we have been at the mercy of Elken. They were bigger than us, stronger than us, and more powerful than us, so they treated us like prey. For thousands of years, the elk massacred us deer, invading us time and time again, slaughtering our people, pillaging our homes and burning our farmlands." Thicket said, slowly pacing. "That ended when you two came to power. The elk became afraid of the idea of us deer going to you and Equestria for aide, so they came to our king at the time and offered a compromise."

Thicket stopped and pulled down his shirt, revealing a metal collar, permanently welded shut around his neck. "Ten bucks a year, each barely older than a fawn, to be delivered to the elk chieftains to become personal playthings. Their lives were short, brutal and merciless. I would know, as I was one of them."

Shouting suddenly emerged from the gallery, as outraged ponies suddenly raised their voices, and elk repeatedly cried the word 'liar'.

Luna pounded her gavel upon her stand. "Order! Order!" She shouted.

Twilight looked to the elk prosecutor, who nervously cleared his throat.

"Harku, is this true?" She asked with narrowed eyes.

"W-well," The elk spoke slowly. "Yes, deer and elk relationships have been... contentious for almost our entire history, and yes, Elken did implement a system of tribute in the form of Catamites, but those bucks we took were exclusively above the age of eighteen and we treated them well! I will not have this criminal talk down our ancient traditions!"

"Treated well?" Thicket cried suddenly turning around and pulling off his shirt, showing off a massive, crisscrossing network of scars that obviously looked to be from a whip rather than any form of combat. Twilight covered her mouth with a hand as Celestia and Luna looked on in shock.

He turned around showing it to the crowd as well, "Does this look like I was treated well?" He asked.

Further outrage sparked in the crowd. Harku slammed his hands on his desk and stood up. "Those wounds are obviously self-inflicted you lying white-tailed coat rack!"

Thicket stared up at his judges, ignoring the elk's outburst.

"If you would allow it, my princesses, I would like to tell you the story of how I came to become the deer you see before you. Then I will accept any sentence you give me without any hesitation!"

Celestia nodded down at him with a gulp. "V-very well. Please begin."

Thicket nodded up at her and walked back to his seat. He sat down and placed his hands on the desk.

"It started 5 years ago..."