20th day of Frostfall
454 Years after the Defeat of Discord by the Sisters

“He’s to be executed at high noon,” Morning Glory reported, to the assembled group. Bianca and Wind Dancer gasped, while Pallas’ eyes merely narrowed at the news.

“That doesn’t make any sense. Why would he be executed for minor theft!?” Pallas kicked the wall in frustration, the stone cracking under the force of the blow. “I’m getting him out of here if I have to go down there and drag him out myself!”

“He was arrested once already,” Morning Glory sighed. “The brand on his leg is proof of that. He’s a bandit.”

“Was a bandit, maybe,” Wind Dancer muttered. “He’s not anymore. He’s a good pony. He turned his life around.”

“Maybe, but that doesn’t mean anything right now.” Morning Glory looked back the way he’d come, towards the cells. “With that brand, it means that if he’s caught again for any reason, he’s to be put to death for his crimes.”

“That’s horrible!” Bianca gasped. “Why would the Princesses mark a pony for death like that?”

“It was supposed to be a method of giving them mercy for their crimes,” Princess Celestia said, bowing her head to fit through the doorway.

“Your Highness,” Morning Glory said, bowing. None of the other ponies bothered. Celestia’s expression was impossible to read as she glanced around the room. Pallas realized she didn’t know the Day Princess well enough to know if she was annoyed that they hadn’t abased themselves, if she understood that there were bigger worries at hoof, or if she simply didn’t care.

“It was a compromise Luna and I agreed to. Both of us knew that keeping ponies prisoner was untenable in the long run, especially with war looming on the horizon.” She looked back. “Luna wanted to extend the death penalty to more crimes, with the hope that it would scare others into line. I wanted to pardon all those who had not done serious harm. We met in the middle when she agreed that simply changing their sentence and executing them was unfair to them and those that might care for them. We released all those we could, and those whom had committed repeated crimes were branded as a reminder to them that this was their last chance.”

“So the brand was… basically a deferred death sentence,” Pallas mumbled.

“That’s not a bad way to think of it,” Celestia admitted. “It was perhaps the best compromise we could have reached. No doubt there are many who carry that brand who have decided to turn their lives around rather than risk death for even a minor crime.”

“The problem is, Zudah didn’t do anything,” Pallas said. “I know it.”

“Do you?” Celestia asked. “Are you aware of the things he did before he joined Luna’s guard, and perhaps even while he was part of it? He was a bandit, preying on other ponies. While he never killed directly, many ponies lost their livelihoods and life savings because of him. Even under the old laws he was going to spend many years in prison, if not the rest of his natural life.”

“That doesn’t matter,” Wind Dancer said. “He’s… he’s a decent pony.”

“And no doubt circumstance forced his hoof to do some of the deeds he’s done. Perhaps he even regrets his old life,” Celestia frowned. “But there are rumors that it continued, and that he participated in illegal looting on the battlefield.”

“The whole army took supplies from the griffon camps we captured,” Pallas stated. “They were spoils of war-“

“Perhaps you should ask him about his collection of gold teeth,” Celestia suggested. “Few would call those supplies, and as griffons have no teeth, it makes one wonder just where he got them.”

“Princess, if I may be so bold?” Morning Glory asked, rising. Princess Celestia nodded. “Those are, in the end, just rumors, and while they may be valuable as insight into who he is as a pony, they don’t answer the question at hoof. Did he, or did he not, steal Duchess Golden Showers’ purse at the ball?”

“I’m surprised you’re considering taking his side in this,” Celestia smiled. “Usually you’re all too eager to assume the worst about anypony. It’s a welcome change.”

“I stand on the side of justice, Princess,” Morning Glory said. “And I find both the timing and the circumstances to be extremely suspicious.”

“E-excuse me, Princess Celestia?” Bianca asked, looking up. “Where’s Princess Luna? Shouldn’t she be helping, since Zudah is part of the Night Guard?”

“My sister is handling the negotiations with the griffons,” Celestia said. “They’re at a critical stage and we can’t simply put them on hold, even for this. Many lives are at stake. She thinks I would be too soft on them.” Celestia paused. “Which is also likely why she trusts me to handle this. My sister likely thinks I will simply pardon her soldier.”

“Sounds like a good idea to me,” Pallas shrugged.

“I can’t,” Celestia shook her head. “Not when formal charges have been brought against him. As a Duchess, Golden Showers has enough authority to order his execution on her own. If I simply pardon him, it will go against centuries of precedent and law on the power of the nobility. I need evidence in order to dismiss her claims.”

“Then we’ll get it,” Wind Dancer said. “We’ve got… a few hours, at least.”

“I will assist, your highness,” Morning Glory said. “If a member of the Solar Guard formally presents the evidence, it will bear more weight than if his comrades and commanding officer simply find it.”

“Good luck,” Celestia said, stepping aside to let them pass.

“Okay, where do we start?” Bianca asked. They’d assembled in the ballroom. The festivities were over, but servants had been told not to start cleaning yet, in case the group needed to find evidence of wrongdoing.

“I think the best evidence would be a confession,” Pallas said. “I’ll go find Golden Showers and hit her until the right words start coming out of her idiot mouth.”

“Please don’t suggest assaulting the nobility in front of me while I’m on duty,” Morning Glory sighed. “Not even the ones who deserve it. Right now, it’s her word against his, and the Duchess’ word carries much weight because of her position and responsibilities. The Golden family controls the mint, and as such has considerable standing and funding.”

“Why would Celestia put such an awful person in charge of the mint?” Bianca asked.

“Her father was a career criminal. Celestia knew he would be clever enough to solve some of the more pressing issues the mint was having at the time. She simply made sure he knew he was being watched very closely, and that the success or failure was a matter of life and death for him.”

“It makes a crazy kind of sense,” Pallas muttered. “He probably knew about all the ways ponies would try and steal from him, because he’d tried doing it himself.”

“Something like that, yes,” Morning Glory agreed. “He died under mysterious circumstances and the body was never recovered. There are all sorts of conspiracy theories, naturally, from assassination to simply running off with a large amount of bits. I’m of the mind that Celestia probably found a new use for him.”

“You think she’s using us to find the truth,” Bianca said, ears perking up.

“She always does enjoy seeing how ponies perform under pressure,” Morning Glory agreed, with a smile. He looked around the ballroom. “This is a very open room. There had to be somepony who saw exactly what happened.”

“We don’t have time to interview everypony that was here,” Pallas said. “Assuming they’d even tell the truth.”

“I was with him practically the whole time,” Wind Dancer muttered. “He never did anything!” She flew up, circling the cleared tables like a vulture. “The only time I left was when I was asked to dance by a nice young colt. Not really my type, but he did have a decent suit, so I thought it was worth a shot.”

“The better question is why she had bits in the first place,” Pallas said.

“A reasonable question, but there are alibis,” Morning Glory said. “She might have simply wanted to have money with her at all times. Maybe she had the bits to tip the palace servants.” He looked around at the raised eyebrows. “It’s not that unlikely. While she may be unpleasant, she is supposedly quite generous to her servants.”

“So she’ll have an excuse for it regardless, is what you’re telling me,” Pallas sighed. “Wait a minute, I’ve got a better idea. There has to be some kind of spell or something that can… I don’t know. Replay events? I’ll even take a spell that forces ponies to tell the truth.”

“We’ll need to find a unicorn for that,” Morning Glory said.

“’Lesson Thirty-Four: There are two steps to being a successful wizard. First, never reveal everything you know.’” Silver Tongue flipped the page to find the next one blank and frowned, then flipped back. “Oh, I get it. Cute.” He smiled a little. “I think some ponies at the Academy have that down to an art. It’s unfortunate that they’re teachers.”

“Silver Tongue!” Pallas barked, as she walked into the library. She was met with a chorus of hushing sounds and one yell for her to be silent. Her ears folded back and she seemed to shrink as she looked around the room.

“Be careful,” Silver Tongue said. “It may look deserted, but among these bookshelves lurk the most desperate and cunning of all ponies, the terrible creatures known only as grad students.”

“Remind me not to come back,” Pallas grumbled.

“Come now, I’m sure we can find you a good book to eat,” Silver Tongue snorted. “Now please state the nature of the magical emergency.”

“How did you know there was an emergency?”

“You ran into a library to find me. The only reason you’d set hoof in here is if there was a problem you couldn’t solve with an unreasonable application of violence.” Silver Tongue raised an eyebrow. “Am I wrong?”

“I probably could solve it with violence, but it would be… probably something the Princesses would disapprove of.” Pallas looked around at the shelves. “Zudah was accused of theft. We need some spellwork done to prove he’s innocent.”

“The one thing he isn’t is innocent,” Silver Tongue retorted. “But we’ll see what we can do.”

“You’re sure this will work?” Morning Glory asked. Silver Tongue was drawing an ornate glyph on the floor in chalk, placing candles and lines at seemingly random intervals as he spread it across the room.

“It’s a proven technique. Since it happened less than a day ago, not only will it work but we’ll get a reasonably sharp image out of it.” Silver Tongue bumped into a wall, frowned, and paused to consider before shrugging and drawing a line straight up the wall for a few paces. “Since you don’t know the exact spot where it happened, a larger glyph will give us a better idea of the area.”

“Should we get one of the Princesses?” Pallas asked.

“Not until we know for sure that the evidence will clear him,” Wind Dancer said.

“What will you do if the evidence proves he’s guilty?” Morning Glory asked. “He is a known thief. It’s entirely possible he either considered Golden Showers an easy target or picked her pocket for other reasons.”

“Maybe she insulted him,” Silver Tongue commented, as he fixed a candle to the wall.

“We’ll burn that bridge when we come to it,” Pallas shrugged. “We need to know the truth either way to proceed, and somepony doesn’t know any truth spells!”

“I already explained that truth spells come under mind-controlling effects, and those are in the restricted section of the library. As I’m not in good standing with the Academy, I don’t have access to it. I’ll ask for permission once somepony is awake.”

“The sun is already up,” Bianca noted, looking out a long window. “We don’t have that long.”

“What’s taking you so long, anyway?” Pallas asked.

“A spell takes time if you want it right. And since somepony’s life is at stake, I’m going to try and give us a clear image. I’m almost done anyway, and we have hours to spare.” Silver Tongue stepped back to look at his work, then put a small crystal ball at a focal point, his horn glowing for a moment. Four lines radiated from it, and he marked a small rune at each point. “We’re ready to begin the procedure. Everypony please stand back.”

Silver Tongue waited until the rest of the ponies had retreated and sent a beam of magic into the carefully-placed crystal ball. It split like sunlight in a prism, and shapes were projected into the air, outlining unseen ponies in various colors.

“These are the residual magical auras of the ponies that have been through here in the last twenty four hours.” He rotated the crystal ball slightly, and they started to come into focus. Wind Dancer and Zudah slowly appeared, monochrome in different shades of gray. “There are you two…”

“Why are they naked?” Pallas asked.

“Their clothing doesn’t have a magical aura of its own, so it doesn’t appear at all in this.” Silver Tongue explained. “If it was enchanted, like the armor the Dragoons wear, we might have a chance at imaging that, but not normal clothing.” He drew a quick arc in the diagram, then rotated the ball more, Wind Dancer and Zudah staying in focus while other, random ponies started appearing out of the chaos of visualized auras one at a time.

“That’s her!” Bianca gasped, as Golden Showers appeared, her aura highlighted in gold.

“Good,” Silver Tongue said, making another mark. He spun the ball, the rest of the auras blurring and fading into near-invisibility. “Now, let’s see what happened.”

The images came to life. Pallas watched as Zudah was dragged away by a blur of auras that had to be the guards, and Golden Showers walked to the edge of the diagram and vanished.

“We need to know what happened before then,” Pallas frowned.

“That’s not a problem. We simply reverse the flow…” Silver Tongue narrowed his eyes, the images walking backwards at an accelerated rate, a blur of motion.

“Too fast!” Wind Dancer complained. “I couldn’t see what happened!”

“Hold on, hold on,” Silver Tongue muttered. “This isn’t a spell I use a lot! Moody Blues’ Aura Visualization Enhancer is not exactly simple magic, you know.”

The images froze, then returned to the normal flow of time, slowing to the actual speed of events. Golden Showers walked in from behind Zudah, they bumped into each other, and she walked away. A few moments later, she started screaming silently.

“What happened?” Pallas frowned.

“I’m not sure,” Morning Glory frowned. “Can you rewind it again?” Silver Tongue rewound until just before they bumped into each other and froze it there. Morning Glory walked around the lines drawn on the floor. “I can’t make it out from here. I’d have to be right on top of it.”

Silver Tongue drew something, and set the spell to play back those few seconds in a loop. “Don’t get too close or you’ll disrupt it. Your living magical aura is a lot stronger than the traces left behind here. This is essentially an illusion spell crossed with psychometry.”

“You say that like I’d understand,” Morning Glory said. “They did definitely collide. He could have used that moment to pick her pocket. Or she could have used it to plant the purse on him.”

“It has to be the second,” Pallas said. “She bumped into him. On purpose.”

“We can’t prove that she did it on purpose, and this isn’t clear enough,” Morning Glory frowned. “Especially not without their clothing or the purse in question.”

“This whole thing is silly,” Pallas growled.

“I suppose we’ll have to resort to truth spells after all,” Silver Tongue muttered. “I don’t have time to learn them, but I’m sure somepony already has them mastered. I’m sure Zudah, at least, will agree to it since his life is on the line. Once he’s proven innocent, we can worry about finding the guilty party.”

“Can’t we force Golden Showers to admit she’s framing him?” Wild Dancer asked.

“No. Equestrian law clearly states that mind affecting spells are only legal if used with the permission of all parties involved. Just because we suspect she’s framing him for theft doesn’t mean we can use them on her, even with his life on the line.” Silver Tongue shrugged. “Trust me, I know. I was accused of using suggestion and glibness spells to advance my position in the Academy. That’s not a court I want to be in, though it did give me cause to memorize the laws.”

“Fine. We’ll get Zudah to swear he’s innocent under a truth spell, and that should at least be enough for a stay of execution, right?” Pallas asked, looking at Morning Glory.

“Yes. That should also be enough to allow us to get permission to interrogate Golden Showers,” Morning Glory agreed.

The doors to the ballroom opened. Quel walked inside, his ears folded back.

“Call off the investigation,” Quel said. “The Duchess moved the execution time. I only heard about it after the fact. They already strung him up. Zudah’s been dead for almost an hour.”