The Sinner of Equestria

Operation Five

Royal Challenge

"So…this is how Trixie's life ends…She knew she would end up imprisoned on the moon, but at least she'd have a nice view of the planet." Trixie said before pulling out a piece of paper and began writing.

"What are you doing?" Luna asked.

"Writing Trixie's will. Pretty sure somepony will find my belongings, so might as well tell them where they are so they can do something with them." She answered as the dark alicorn deadpans at her before looking at Adelle and Gilda.

"Is she always this dramatic?"

"Seems like it…then again, she is a traveling magician, so I'm pretty sure it's her default personality," Adelle answered as the griffon nodded.

"I see…rest assured, you will not go to prison anytime soon. So long as you don't do what you did in Ponyville."

"Technically, she didn't do anything wrong if you think about it," Adelle said as Luna, Trixie, and Gilda looked over at Adelle. "From what she told us, it was due to two kids that brought that cosmic bear to Ponyville," She said before noticing Luna's blank expression. "Celestia's student did inform you both about that, right?"

"No…no, she did not. Or at least my sister didn't give me that little information in great detail."

"...So do you just listen to everything your sister is telling through Twilight's letters, or do you investigate the situation personally or have someone do it that does a good job?"

".... You're an odd pony for someone as young as you. I take it you've been in trouble with the law before?"

"No, but my parents were law enforcers before they passed away."

"Hm, interesting." She said momentarily before eyeing the bat pony before looking at Trixie. "I would like to have a word with you after the meeting of my sister and Adelle. If you don't mind?"

"O-Of course, Trixie means it's not that she has anywhere else to go or trying to run away would land me in the dungeon!" Trixie said while trying not to have a mental breakdown.

"Way to keep a level head, Trixie," Gilda said sarcastically before looking at Luna. "Can we go now? Because I'm pretty sure we're keeping Princess Celestia waiting too long."

"Of course, everypony, gather around me if you will?" Luna asked as Adelle, Trixie, and Gilda moved close to the alicorn. Once they were close, the horn on Luna's forehead lit up as the alicorn instantly teleported the group to the throne room of Canterlot Castle. Upon appearing in the throne room, the bat pony was surprised by the room's architectural design. She had only seen ruins and pictures of designs like this in the archives of New York's digital library, but she had never seen them up close in person before. It would be impressive if she were into that kind of thing, but Adelle's attention was focused on the throne to see a white alicorn in an elegant white dress, and around her were Twilight and her somewhat injured friends.

"Of course, they would be here," Adelle said before noticing the shocked expressions on the girls' faces.

"What are they doing here!?" Rainbow Dash yelled as she was about to charge at her, only for Applejack to stop her with an arm stretched out in front of her.

"They're here because I asked Luna to bring them here," Celestia said as she stood up from her throne and teleported before Adelle. She eyed the bat pony up and down momentarily before looking at Luna.

"If you're wondering how she came to be like this, ask Twilight and her friends about it." She said, which caused the white alicorn to look over at Twilight and her friends, who were looking away to avoid eye contact or in shame for what happened to the bat pony.

"The letter did say there was a fight between you and my student, but I didn't think it would be like this," Celestia said before hearing Adelle speak up.

"For the record, it was that rainbow-haired jerk that caused the damage to my chest. Were it not for Trixie and that spell she learned to fix her wagon, the blade that was in my chest would've caused me to bleed to death." She said before showing Celestia the metal covering her chest.

"Mother of me," Celestia said as the bat pony covered her injury with the bandages. "Luna, take her to the medical wing, now. We'll hold off on this meeting once she's recover from her-"

"I don't need help, especially given how angry I am. Now I came here because you couldn't bring your fat ass to me for some stupid reason, and I would like to get this over and done with before something else happens. Will we have this conversation about the dead dragon and your student attacking me or what?"

"While I can understand your anger, you need medical-"

"I'll get medical attention later; right now, we have more important matters to attend to involving my conversation with you about the dragon that I killed," Adelle said as Celestia looked over at Luna for a moment as she nodded. The white alicorn sighed as she took a few steps from the bat pony.

"If you insist, but should you show signs of bleeding or passing out, then I will cut this conversation short and bring you to our hospital, agreed?" She asked as Adelle nodded. "Okay, now. I would first like to apologize for the mistreatment at the hands of my student and her friends. While I can understand why they would try to detain given the letter she sent me, it's no excuse for such excessive force."

"Yeah, excessive force is an understatement. I say mindless order without so much a proper containing plan is a more accurate way to put it."

"Indeed, again, I'll speak with them after this. But would you explain why you killed that dragon atop the mountain?"

"We ended up on the mountain due to Trixie's failed teleportation spell. We planned on leaving, but the dragon wouldn't let us, so he attacked us. We didn't have much choice but to attack him in self-defense."

"That's a lie!" Applejack yelled. "Y'all attacked the dragon because y'all wanted his treasure!"

"Have you any proof of that?" Adelle asked, which caused Applejack to flinch. "Going by your word isn't enough, especially given the damage you girls caused me. Or did you forget what your rainbow friend did to me?"

"Hm, she does make a valid point. From what I've gathered when I went to look at the damage to the dragon, there wasn't anything inside the cave." Luna added before hearing Gilda chime in on the conversation.

"Yeah, where is your proof that the dragon had any gold inside the cave?" She said before noticing a glare from Applejack and Rainbow Dash.

"I'll consider that, though. Couldn't you have teleported out of the situation with Trixie's magic?" Celestia asked as Adelle shook her head.

"Unlike Twilight, Trixie is just a performer. She only knows performance magic and Illusions, not top-level magic like you can."

"Yet that didn't stop her from almost getting Ponyville destroyed!" Rainbow Dash yelled. "She boasted about being able to take down an Ursa Major, and look how that turned out; it wasn't even an Ursa Major but an Ursa Minor."

"If I recall from what Trixie had informed me, it was a pair of children known as Snips and Snails that brought the Ursa Minor to Ponyville, was it not?" Adelle asked as Rainbow Dash was about to reply but stopped due to being unable to come up with a counterargument. "So you blame a show pony who was just doing her job of showing off her magic and not reprimanding the two children who caused the problem for Ponyville?" She asked before noticing mixed expressions on her and her friends' faces.

"Yeah, it was their fault that Trixie lost my home!" Trixie said in anger while crossing her arms. "Do you know how hard it is to get a job as a show pony when your reputation is ruined by you, jerks?"

"Hey! It's not our fault for you boasting to be the great and powerful." Rarity said. "If you haven't been boasting about who you are, things mightn't have ended up as they did. You only have yourself to blame."

"Why you stuck up little-"

"Enough," Celestia said, which caused Trixie and Rarity to go silent. "We're getting off-topic on the main issue here."

"She's right; there is a dead dragon in Equestria, and somepony has to pay for said crime," Luna said as the white alicorn nodded.

"There's that and the use of weapons on my student and her friends," Celestia added. "From the letter, you can materialize weapons out of thin air like magic." She said before eyeing the black rectangular boxes hanging from the bat pony's straps. "Something like this is unheard of and would be dangerous to be left alone. I can only assume that the black box is the source of the magic, correct?"

"And what if it is?"

"Perhaps a trade? I'm willing to pardon you of your crimes." She said, which took everyone by surprise.

"Forgive me for saying this, but are you crazy!?" Twilight yelled in disbelief. "You can't let somepony like her go and wander around Equestria."

"Yeah! For all we know, she could do the same thing she did to the dragon or some pony else." Rainbow Dash added before taking a step forward. "I say we take them down now-" Just as she was about to rush the bat pony, Celestia extended a wing in front of Rainbow Dash as the white alicorn continued.

"As I was saying, I'm willing to pardon you of your crimes, but in exchange for the foreign box and the name of the pony who made it. I don't know where you got it from or who made it for you, but a magical item that can create weapons on the spot is too dangerous for a child to hold onto. Rest assured that it will be put to good use to the royal guards, for they have more-"

"I refuse."

"...Excuse me?"

"I said I refused. You expect me to hand over my gear to some poor excuse of a leader? Sorry, but I'm refusing the deal."

"...You do realize what you're saying, right? I'm giving you a pardon for the crimes that you commit in exchange for your weapons, child."

"Oh, I do, and like I said, I refuse the deal. I'm not handing over my stuff to someone I only met today. So far, you're not someone I'm willing to trust with my life, let alone my gear. So you can take your offer and shove it up your-" Before Adelle could finish, Trixie and Gilda quickly made their way over to the bat pony and covered her mouth to silence her.

"E-excuse us; we must talk with our friend here in private," Gilda said as Trixie's horn lit up and a dome appeared around them. The moment the dome appeared around the group, the two released their hold around Adelle's mouth as they glared at her.

"Are you insane!? Trixie knows you come from a different planet with different rules and whatnot, but you can't just say no to somepony like her!" Trixie yelled as Gilda nodded in agreement.

"She's right; even I know not to poke a sleeping bear without a means to escape, " she said before motioning to Adelle's body. "Look at the state you're in. You think you can take on two princesses that can move the sun and moon?"

"I'm not handing over my gear," Adelle said sternly. Doesn't this place have some rule or something that would pardon us for any crime other than the princesses?"

"You think if Trixie knew we would be here? Trixie can't teleport us out, seeing how the Princesses will be able to track her magic." Trixie stated. "Look, I know you don't like this, but handing over your weapons might be our only chance to get out of this."

"...I mean, she could always challenge Celestia to a duel," Gilda said as Trixie looked at the griffon with a dumbfounded expression. "What? Page one-thousand two-hundred and fifty-five of the equestrian law states that anypony can challenge anyone to a combat duel. It's an old rule made one thousand years ago, but it should still apply to this day, seeing how they haven't changed a lot over the years."

"...Okay, how do you know this?" Trixie asked.

"What? I get in trouble with the law from time to time. Gotta cover your flank if you want to avoid jail time."

"While Trixie is impressed, you know this, but you must be joking, right? You can't expect her to win a fight against Celestia?" Trixie asked as the griffon shrugged.

"She doesn't have to challenge them now. They could give you a two-week preparation period before the fight. She can even use her chest injury to extend it even more if possible." She answered before looking at Adelle. "How long would it take for you to recover?"

"Well, if I boost the healing augment to one hundred percent, I can recover within four days to a week, depending," Adelle answered as the griffon grinned confidently.

"Perfect, then we got ourselves a plan."

"... It's like Trixie dealing with a bunch of crazy ponies," Trixie said while pinching the bridge of her snout. "Even if this plan works, how will you win against her?"

"That's for me to know and you to find out. Can you please lower the magical barrier you made?" Adelle asked as Trixie sighed in defeat before making the dome disappear.

"Are you finished?" Celestia asked as the bat pony nodded. "I can assume you're going to surrender the black box that you have?"

"No, but I do issue a challenge. If the rules of combat still apply from what Gilda informed me, then I'm allowed the right of a pardon by combat, no?" She said as the motherly smile Celesta had dawned quickly vanished to that of a disappointed frown. The atmosphere soon changed as Celestia shook her head before speaking.

"Trying to get you to understand your predicament has failed." She said before standing up from her throne. "Perhaps spending a day in the dungeon will make you see things more clearly and have a better mindset then-" Before she could finish her sentence, Adelle summoned a revolver into her hand, aimed it, and fired a warning shot at Celestia's face as a means to stop her from leaving.

"If you think that I'm going to prison, then you're sadly mistaken," She said before cocking the hammer of the gun. "Page one-thousand two-hundred and fifty-five of the equestrian law states that anypony can challenge anyone to a duel. That includes those of royalty like yourself."

"...She got you there, Celestia," Luna said with a smirk. "Nice to see that rule is still in place even after my banishment." She said before hearing Celestia letting out a sigh of annoyance.

"Youth these days. Thinking that just because they're young, they can do just about anything." Celestia said, sitting back down on her throne. "I'll play along with this little game of yours, but it should be obvious that you won't win."

"I wouldn't underestimate someone you have little information on," Adelle said before making her gun disappear.

"I should say the same thing, my little pony," She said before crossing her legs. "If I win, you will hand over your weapons, and you will have to learn the meaning of friendship from my faithful student and her friends."

"And if I win, you will pardon us of any crimes we may or may not know we committed and give Trixie a new mobile home. Do we have a deal?" she asked, and Celestia, in turn, nodded.

"Our battle will take place within a week."

"Two weeks."

"One week."

"Two weeks."

"...Is there a reason why two weeks?" Celestia asked as she noticed the bat pony pointing towards her chest.

"Think of it as an apology for what your rainbow-haired idiot did to me, or did you forget how I almost died from blood loss."

"...That is fair. For now, you and your friends will be staying in Ponyville on the Apple family farm, seeing how they have extra room for you three, so you can apologize to Twilight and her friends."

"Wait, what!?" Applejack said as she stared at Celestia in shock. "You can't be serious about that. You expect them to live with us on the farm."

"Considering the excessive force you used on…" Celestia quickly looked over at Adelle. "I'm sorry, I never got to ask you for your name?"

"Adelle Topaz," The bat pony said as Celestia nodded.

"Right, thank you." She said before returning her attention to Applejack. "Considering what happened, this is the least you can do. It can also help you better understand her and the others. Perhaps you can even forgive each other and become friends?"

"The day we become friends with them will be the day pigs learn how to fly," Adelle said as Gilda and Trixie nodded in agreement.

"We shall see. Now, I believe you are meeting with one of my doctors." Celestia said as she motioned for Luna to take her to the medical wing of the castle.

"Yeah, let's get this over with so I can rest."