That Time I conquered Equestria... As A Colt

The Ponyville courthouse was presented with a rather unusual case that day. Not only was this a case between the Elements of Harmony, but the accused was nopony else than Twilight Sparkle, the princess’s personal student and Bearer of the Element of Magic. To make matters even weirder, she was accused of the highest crime in pony society: murder and triple at that.

Judge High Crime entered court with a very bored expression. He was the go-to stallion for murder cases in Ponyville and surroundings, which were far more numerous than one might think. Although, usually it was just some kind of dispute between couples or groups of friends that somehow escalated too far. These kinds of cases then always followed the same path: the defendant pleads not guilty, the judge asks the prosecution to present evidence and usually it ends here, as usually there isn’t any.

“I call for order! Court is now in session!” He shouted when he reached his seat, hammering his gavel onto the table before him. He then put the hammer down and looked through a stack of papers.

“Alright, today we have the case ‘Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Rarity against Twilight Sparkle’. The defendant is accused of having murdered the three sisters of the present mares. Defense, how do you plead?” He asked.

Twilight’s ears folded back and she looked miserably to the ground, while answering: “Guilty, your honor.”

“Alright, then we shall—wait, WHAT?!” The judge shouted in surprise. Nopony was crazy enough to plead guilty on a murder case, especially not the princess’s personal student! “Miss Sparkle, I am sure you are aware that you will serve a life sentence in prison, if you’re convicted, are you?”

“Yes, your honor.” Twilight answered miserably.

“So, do you still plead guilty?” He asked again.

“Yes, your honor.” Was her answer.

Judge High Crime sat back in his chair for a moment and gaped at Twilight, before shaking his head and nervously continuing: “Uhh, alright. Ahem, the prosecution may now present their evidence.”

“What?!” Rainbow shouted. “You just heard her! She pleads guilty! Why would you want us to present evidence if she herself says she’s guilty?!”

“Because that mare looks like she is in distress, which to me means that she might’ve been pressured into pleading guilty. Now Silence! Unless you have evidence to present!”

Rainbow, Rarity and Applejack glanced at each other. They didn’t have any evidence, only a filly and a zebra who could act as witnesses. However, if they were to call Diamond Tiara to the stand, they would run the risk of getting it known that she was undead and Zecora already had enough problems with the town, just because it was Frosty who had made first contact with her.

“Euh, no evidence, your honor.” Rainbow said after a while.

“Ah. I see. Well, we shall now retreat to discuss our verdict. Court stands adjourned for one hour.” High Crime said, before slipping through a door right behind him. The Jury followed closely and all of them took a seat on a table on the other side.

“So, what do you think?” High Crime then asked.

“I think we should go for a guilty verdict. She admitted to the crime, did she not? Granted, there was no evidence, but she seemed deeply ashamed of herself back there, so at least she did something wrong. It is not our job to find out, what exactly that is.” One of the nobles from the jury said.

“I agree. Miss Sparkle may not be a type for murder, but nopony really is and some do it anyways.”

A row of nods followed that statement.

“Yes, I know what you are getting at, but I feel like we should go for a ‘Not Guilty’ here.” High Crime said. “I mean, law here or there, I really don’t want to convict Princess Celestia’s personal student for a crime without evidence. We saw what she did to that Necromancer-colt back then and I don’t think that any of us are strong enough to survive a blast by the princess.”

Suddenly everypony in the room seemed quite sweaty. Some were adjusting their collars, while others were casting nervous glances to each other.

“I-I see. I mean, you do have a point. Convicting somepony without evidence is certainly not what we swore to do.” A mare from the jury said, gaining a round of nervous nods from her colleagues.

“Alright. Then, I think we all agree on a ‘not guilty’ verdict?” High Crime asked, earning him a round of nods as well.

An hour later, court resumed. High Crime hammered on the table again and when everypony had calmed down, he announced his verdict.

“With the power bestowed upon me by Princess Celestia, I, Judge High Crime, hereby declare the present 'Twilight Sparkle’ NOT GUILTY!”

“WHAT?!” Twilight shouted. “But your honor, I pleaded GUILTY!”

“I know that, but that does not force me to declare you guilty in any way.” High Crime said back. “Besides, if I had declared you guilty, the Jury would’ve just overruled me and given you the not guilty anyways.”

“But… But…”

“Listen, you mare: I do not know, why you wanted to be declared guilty for such a high crime, but I have already made my judgement and it won’t change. The trial is over, go home!” High Crime said, before finally leaving the court.

Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow did the same, leaving Twilight alone in the courtroom.

She remained seated, even an hour after she had won the trial… and started sobbing. She wanted to get a guilty verdict, she wanted to get punished… but she didn’t. The guilt she felt was crushing her heart and soul, driving her deeper and deeper down into depression and would likely have driven her insane, if it wasn`t for a certain white Alicorn to show up.

“Twilight, dear, what happened? How did you end up in a trial like this?!” the princess asked in concealed shock, though Twilight had known her long enough to see through her mask.

“Oh princess, I’ve… I’ve commited murder… I murdered the sisters of my friends!” She cried and then rushed over and buried her snout in the princess’s chest.

“Well… that sounds like there is a story waiting to be told. Why don’t you tell me what happened and we can work something out together?” Celestia offered, sitting down and letting Twilight lean into her chest for comfort.

“Well, you see… my friends found out where Frosty was hiding, so they came to me and wanted to get me to meet with him. However, while they went to apologize, I went to destroy him.” Twilight started.

“Oh Twilight, that’s not something you should be put in jail for! You simply did what was right.” Celestia ensured.

“Y-Yes, I know, it’s just… Their sisters ran away together with him and—and when I finally found him, I immediately charged a spell and shot at him, but… but I missed and I hit them instead!” She cried, burying her face in Celestia’s fur and leaving a darkened spot in it.

“Oh dear Twilight, you’ve done nothing wrong.” Celestia said.

“W-Wha--? What do you mean?” Twilight hesitantly asked.

“Twilight, please think for a moment. If the girls fled together with Frosty, then he must’ve had them under his influence, long before he was even discovered.”

Twilight looked up from Celestia’s chest, up to her face. Her eyes were sore from her crying and her cheeks and snout were wet from the tears she had shed.

“R-Really?” She asked hesitantly.

“Yes, really. Don’t worry, dear Twilight, you haven’t killed them. Frosty has.”

“But… but my friends… they’re so angry at me. What am I gonna do?” Twilight asked nervously.

“Well, since they’re likely under the influence of Frosty as well, it is no wonder that they are. Think about it, why else would they have wanted to reconcile with somepony who is clearly a threat to Equestria as a whole? Rainbow Dash in particular has been acting far out of character, since she so utterly betrayed Equestria, even though she bears the Element of Loyalty.” Celestia explained.

Twilight, in her state of distress, soaked up the princess’s very word like a sponge soaks water. A being, so flawless and benevolent like Princess Celestia would never lie, after all. Right?

With every word Celestia spoke, Twilight’s sobs grew quieter and quieter, until they were completely gone. Her cheeks slowly dried as the flow of tears subsided and her face showed an expression, no longer of sadness and despair, but of mild bewilderment and determination.

“So that means that Frosty is the core of all evil after all.” She concluded.

“Exactly. The only way to finally stop this madness is to eliminate him.” Celestia stated calmly and motherly, as if she was just giving her some parental advice. “Your friends will certainly go back to normal once his influence subsides.”

“So I’ll just have to find and kill him! Oh thank you, Celestia! I will immediately go and save Equestria… save my friends from this monster!” Twilight said cheerfully, before hugging Celestia once again and running off towards the exit. “You’ll see, princess, I will make you proud!”

“Oh, yes. I am very certain that you will.”

Meanwhile on a road in southern Equestria:

Frosty and his gang were still on the march. No wonder, as it was quite the trip down to the Dragon Lands and they had to avoid the busier routes. Luckily for them, undead don’t need any nutrition, except for a bit of Necromantic Energy from time to time. However, even if nutrition had been a problem, it wouldn’t have been the biggest on the list.

Their biggest problem at the moment was, that they still had no idea, how to get the dragons to attack Equestria.

“Maybe we could steal some gems and hide them in Canterlot?” Scootaloo offered.

“I doubt that ‘Some Gems’ would be enough to get the dragons to declare war, never mind actually stealing them undetected.” Frosty shot her down.

“Then maybe we should foalnap a few a’ them hatchlings an’ hide ‘em all over Equestria?” Applebloom offered next.

“From what I’ve heard, the current dragon king doesn’t really care about his people that much, especially about the weaklings. If a few hatchlings were missing, then he would probably just ignore it and claim they were too weak. The only results we would have then, would be a few angry mothers.” Frosty said.

“Dontcha underestimate tha wrath of an angry mom!” Applebloom cautioned jokingly, eliciting a small round of laughter from the group.

“Oh no, I’m so scaaaared.” Frosty played along. “Really though, we need a solid plan before we enter the dragon lands, or else we will waste too much time.”

“Hey, doesn’t the King himself have a hatchling?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Umm, to my knowledge, he has a daughter, about the same age as me.” Frosty answered.

“Then why don’t we just foalnap her?” She offered.

“Hmmm, yes, that’s going in the right direction. The only problem I have with that plan is that once he found her, he will likely return home.” Frosty thought out loud.

“Then why don`t we just… eat her?” Sweetie Belle offered, causing the whole group to adopt sinister looks and lick their mouths.

“Ooh, a very good idea, Sweetie. Yes, a very good idea indeed… and I think I even know how to realize it already…” Frosty said, as the last Guard Base before the border appeared on the horizon.

Frosty may have experienced a minor setback, but the end was nevertheless fast approaching…