Spliced stared up at the large imposing building that would prove to be the place where her fate would be decided and did her best not to wince at it. It was busy with countless reporters seeking to catch a glimpse of her, although they were being held back by slew of police officers and anti-riot automatons acting as a barrier between the official court attendees and the crowd.

“How are you doing, Spliced?” Legal asked her, casting an appraising look over her. They had quickly established a first name basis for one another over the past two days, working close to prepare her case. Despite that, Spliced was still nervous of something going wrong and ending up being unable to fix what she had broke or worse, being sent back to the moon.

“Well enough,” Spliced replied, straightening the suit provided to her. It was not as good a fit as one of Rarity’s designs and the thought of the mare brought back the fact that none of them were here. It hurt her deeply but her mind was screaming at her that she deserved this, so she did her best to put it out of her mind and focus on her upcoming trial. It was harder than she would have thought as she could still hear all of the questions shouted by the countless reporters from across the galaxy. Even without her universal translator, she would have been able to understand what they were asking her if she could just focus on one voice.

“Don’t worry, they won’t all be allowed into the courtroom,” Legal said, flashing a comforting smile at her. “Only a select few and they’ve been thoroughly warned not to interfere in any way.”

“Thank you,” Spliced whispered back, the knots in her stomach loosening up ever so slightly. “Well, let’s get this started.”

With that, the two of them pushed open the doors and found even more highly armed officers and automatons creating a funnel for them, leading up to a courtroom surrounded by S.W.A.T. officers, each of them wearing face-obscuring visors and carrying various weapons all aimed at her. She was tempted to remind them that all they needed to do was make her unconscious as killing her was pointless but it was obviously not worth creating a scene this early. Legal and Spliced waited for the one resting against the door, a griffon in full body armour, to open it before stepping inside. The room was already packed with the entire gallery filled with countless ponies and other species, and judging by the various recording equipment they had on or hovering around them, about a third of those present were the approved news reporters. Past the gate were two short tables with a long table directly in front of it with three judges sitting on the other side. All three - a griffon on the right, an alicorn in the center, and a windigo on the left - had very serious expressions on their faces, and she knew that their impartialness was just on a degree compared to the other judges, not a fact of themselves.

Casting her eyes to the prosecutor, she saw that he was an extremely confident looking alicorn stallion shooting such a smug look at Legal that made Spliced think of all the diseases that she could create that could melt it off his face. Shaking her head, she tried to get rid of that thought - I’m here to make things right, not worse, she reminded herself, but it persisted.

The bailiff walked into the room and started to clear his throat. “All rise. The Supreme Court of Hesturland is now in session, the Honorable Judges Balanced Scales, High Tree and Schneehund presiding."

Spliced watched and listened carefully as the court went through its opening procedures before Due Justice, the prosecutor, was called up to give his opening statement.

“Your honours, we stand before you to see that justice is served. In the case of the State Vs. Spliced Genome, known mass murderer and convicted war criminal, we intend to prove that she did willingly violate the terms of her sentence, and is now using this claim of realization of what she had done wrong as a means to lessen her own punishment that she has had not yet served fully. We will prove all of this was a calculated ploy on her behalf to bring forth her undeserved freedom and unleash the same evil that nearly wiped out society in the entire galaxy.”

With that, Due Justice was done and now everyone’s attention was on Legal.

“Miss Preview, your opening statement,” Balanced Scales, the alicorn in the center, said in a tone that made Spliced frown but Legal seemed undeterred…

“Your honours, when a life is created-”

“Miss Preview, we asked for your opening statement, not some rambling,” the judge’s interruption clearly threw Legal for a loop, causing her to mumble and look very panicked. Snorting in anger, Spliced stood up with the sound of every gun being primed and no doubt pointed directly at her.

“Are you three that idiotic?” she snapped at them, ignoring Legal’s widening eyes of horror. “I’m already a known criminal who has no chance ever getting paroled that is hated across the galaxy for my war crimes and yet you three feel the need to attempt to rig this court into a verdict of your own choosing in a very clear manner.” She heard some of the armed figures stepping towards her but with a wing snapping upwards, they all halted in fear of what she might do. “If you keep this up, in several hundred years some stupid kids on a moral crusade could take your joke of a trial and say that I didn’t get a fair trial and may even get me set free because of your actions. For a trial that you don’t even need to put in effort in getting me reconvicted. Just make sure everything is done right and you won’t be remembered as the three judges who were responsible for setting me free but the three who made sure I didn’t get free because of some technicality of a rigged trial.”

The judges paled at this and huddled together, only cementing Spliced’s claims of a rigged trial before Balanced Scales coughed and said, “Miss Preview, please have your client sit down. Miss Genome, please note that another outburst like that will not be tolerated, and should it happen, you will be held in contempt of court.”

I have nothing but contempt for this court, Spliced thought disgustedly, but kept it to herself with her face hardened in anger and more than ready to call them out if they tried it again.

“Thank you, your honours,” Legal said, giving Spliced a grateful look. “As I was saying, when a life is created, it does not stay as an infant. It grows, changes over time. We are all products of both environment and nature, changing us into who we are today. Spliced Genome is no exception to that and is even the best example we have to date that we all can become better people with nearly three hundred years of recorded data showing her reformation from the mass murderer she once was to a mare who every expert agreed showed zero signs of hostility if unprovoked - to which we saw when one of the jailers performed an unauthorized termination of my client after all standing orders were to leave her be - to her current state; an escaped convict who voluntarily turned herself in despite being in a foreign land that would have given her asylum. A mare that is more than willing to right the wrongs of her past. She is not asking for time reduced, she is not asking for her to be outside of her prison. All she has requested is that she be relocated to where there is life around her. My client here has changed for the better, and I intend to prove that she has earned this second chance.”

Balanced Scales then looked at Due Justice and said, “You may present your first witness.”

“Thank you, your honour,” he said with a smile on his face, looking at Spliced. “As only one of us are blessed with longevity, I call Spliced Genome to the stand.” Spliced had been told that this would happen; she was the only witness that either side could get due to everyone she knew either being long dead or staying in their own dimension. She was ready for this, however, as they had gone over nearly everything she could think of and Spliced wasn’t afraid to taunt them with her intelligence. Walking over to the witness stand that was beside the judge’s bench, Spliced saw the bailiff trot over to her with a book in their hooves.

"Do you solemnly swear that you will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, under pains and penalties of perjury?"

Spliced nodded. "By the most powerful oath from the dimension I escaped to, I do so swear," she said, making the gestures. "Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."

"Ms. Genome, you have already been warned once," the head judge said, eyeing her. "No. More. Foolishness."

"Your Honour, that wasn't foolishness," Spliced replied. "That really is the most powerful oath they have. Nopony breaks a Pinkie Promise without severe consequences."

The judge eyed her again. “And do you have positive proof of this?”

“I have the sworn testimony of Princess Twilight Sparkle herself as to what happened the last time somepony broke one,” Spliced replied. “It’s not something I ever want to see happen, let alone be on the receiving end.”

That caused a murmur from the judges and Spliced knew that their information of Twilight already being established as a highly credible source was correct. “In any case,” the judge to the right of Balanced Scales cleared her throat. “Mr. Due Justice, please present your case.”

“Thank you, your honour,” Due Justice dipped his head before he pulled out sheets of laminated paper and a booklet which Spliced recognized instantly and a sense of dread sunk in. “Miss Genome, do you recognize these items?”

Leaning into the mic, she spoke clearly. “I do. Those are the morality test I had to take in order to get my license to become a full biochemist, and a copy of my answers to it.”

“And this?” he asked, holding out another sheet of laminated paper.

Spliced bit back a sigh before responding. “That is a copy of my professor's evaluation of my test,” she answered.

“Can you tell us what it says?” Due Justice asked. “The highlighted parts, please.”

Spliced nodded, and began to read. “Resident Spliced Genome, innate connection to biochemical researches, has displayed very little in regards to basic standard of ethical responses to other people; is deeply entrenched in mindset of expediency of medical procedure and experimentation over safety for patients; extremely focused on the long term gains rather than immediate recovery.” Spliced paused before she looked at the last highlighted part. “Board decision is unanimous: denial of promotion to full doctorship.”

“All of that, and you still got denied?” Due Justice said with a chuckle that just got Spliced to scowl at him. She kept her calm though.

“Yes, I was denied, and given what-”

“Thank you,” he cut her off, causing Spliced’s coat to bristle in anger. “Your honours, as we are all well versed in how exactly intelligent Genome is, and according to these papers that should have stood as a warning, how incredibly crafty she is. She may not have proper social interactions according to the well credited source materials from Doctor Clear Sight’s book Look into madness: the inner workings of war criminal Spliced Genome that everyone in college reads but she is one of the most intelligent people in the galaxy. After all, it has been four hundred years and the very best biochemists have only scratched the surface of what they call her most simplistic diseases in their attempts to counter them.”

“Objection, prosecution is going off on a tangent unrelated to previous questioning,” Legal called out.

“Sustained, please get to the point,” Schneehund said causing Due Justice to stumble on the spot, with him licking his lips in surprise. After a moment, he recovered, clearing his throat and looking over in Spliced’s direction, before turning back to the judges.

“Very well,” Due Justice said. “Spliced Genome is intelligent to the point where we cannot truly say that all of this is not some sort of long laid plan of hers for has us to lower our guard and have her escape into some other place. She has done this once before and it would be foolish of us to let it happen again.” He then turned to Legal Preview and nodded. “Your witness.”

“Thank you,” Legal said as she got up and held a much beefier set of documents. “Your honours, I would like to present you all with recorded documentation from several Princesses of Equuis, along with other sworn accounts of Spliced Genome’s actions.” She placed several copies of the documents in front of each judge before turning to face Spliced. “Upon meeting Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, diarchs of the lead nation, what was your first action?”

Spliced blushed. “I asked Princess Celestia where her parents were, because I assumed that if she was a Princess, there had to be a ruling King and Queen. I didn’t know until she explained it that Princess was the highest rank in that nation.” Spliced then blushed a bit more. “After that, I had learned I was planetside for the first time in nearly four hundred years and was desperate to breathe actual air again. To which I… broke Princess Celestia's nose, because she was between me and the outside. After running into Princess Luna who brought me outside, the matter between me and Princess Celestia was cleared up, I fixed the damage I’d done and apologized for my violent reaction, and a dinner was arranged for the three of us.”

“During this time, did you ever reveal who you were to them?”

“I gave my name right after I fixed Princess Celestia’s nose,” Spliced replied. “And yes, I revealed I’d been a war criminal during our dinner.”

“Now why did you do that? What would you gain from that?” Legal asked her, feeding her exactly what they practiced last night,

“They asked why I’d been on the moon for four hundred years,” Spliced replied. “I told them I’d been sentenced to a thousand years in prison for my involvement in a war, and that was the location of my cell.”

“That is not the full answer to my question, Genome,” Legal pressed.

“It was a simple exchange of information to satisfy our curiosity about one another,” Spliced replied. “They asked about me, I asked about them, and we both learned something.”

“And were you hoping to gain sympathy from them?”

“No, I was not,” Spliced replied. “Nor did I get any. Shortly afterwards, I was sent to Princess Twilight Sparkle for closer examination. According to what information I had gathered, the Princess and her friends had a reputation for reforming previous threats to their world, and they felt she would be best at determining whether I was a danger and in need of reforming.”

“If you could all turn to page twelve, section six, we can see accounts of Spliced’s first day in the town of Ponyville,” Legal said, pacing across the room. “You interacted with one Spike, adoptive son of Princess Twilight Sparkle. What were your thoughts of him?”

“He was a nice kid,” Spliced said. “A little behind in maturing for his species, but a nice kid nonetheless.”

“Let the record show that Spike is not a pony, but a young dragon, hatched by Princess Sparkle when she herself was several years younger,” Legal said. “Also included the record is Spliced Genome’s thesis paper on the biology of dragons, entered as proof that she does in fact know a great deal about them. Now, I understand that you demonstrated concern for his growth rate?”

“I did,” Spliced said. “I could tell he was approaching the age when he would undergo the molt that all dragons do, but he still had the mindset of a much younger member of his species, lacking the hoarding desire of a typical dragon that age. I explained this to Princess Sparkle, and how important it was that he develop the proper mindset before he entered puberty.”

“And how did she react?” Legal asked her.

“She objected to some of how I worded myself, but in the end, she agreed to work with me in helping him. She also made it clear what would happen if what we were doing caused him harm in any way.”

“And did it?”

“No, it did not. The last time I saw him, he was growing properly, and I expect he’ll be hitting the molt in a matter of months.” Spliced sat up straighter as she said it, the voices in her mind softening ever so softly.

Due Justice peered at the papers before he lifted his head up. “If I may interject?”

Legal gave him a narrow glare before she nodded her head. He stood up and walked back in front of Spliced. “Miss Genome, I was wondering if you could tell us what you told Princess Twilight about your reasoning to help her.”

Spliced frowned at this but she knew that this was more than likely going to happen. “I told her that I was doing this for my own benefit as I had felt if they would be angered if I did nothing to help Spike.”

“That’s very self serving of you, Miss Genome,” Due Justice said before reaching out for another section of the documents. “And here is the stated records of your treatment of one Snöflinga was highly inappropriate and aggressive to the point you were nearly escorted out of the city-state. Am I correct?”

“Yes, but he is a windigo, and their species feeds on hatred and aggression,” Spliced pointed out, gesturing to Judge Schneehund. “My negativity was exactly what he needed to help heal.”

“And I am sure that Judge Schneehund can attest that the levels you went to were excessive, is that not correct?” Due Justice asked him with the windigo looking sharply at Due Justice.

“Due Justice, a windigo’s emotional needs differentiate between the sub-tribes; some do better with aggression while others do well with jealousy and others with fear,” Schneehund said, leering at him. “Furthermore, Snöflinga was in a comatose state at the time so even basic levels of negativity were necessary to help bring him out of it and if I am reading this correctly, it worked.”

Due Justice looked ruffled at that but shook his head as Legal Preview stepped forwards. “If I may ask my client a question now?”

“You may,” Balanced Scales said, waving Due Justice back to his seat.

“Thank you, your honour,” Legal Preview said. “Miss Genome, can you please state who this is?” she asked as a holographic image of young orange coated pegasus filly appeared.

“This is Scootaloo, a young filly from the other dimension I was in,” Spliced stated. “She had a magical - what we’d call thaumatical - imbalance in her wings, but it was correctable with the right injections, and she had fully recovered by the time I left.”

“And what part, exactly, did you play in this?”

“I had met she and her friends and informed them that I was a researcher,” Spliced began. “She asked me if I could figure out why she couldn’t fly yet. I observed her attempts at lift-off, and determined that it was most likely a problem with her thaumatic flow. I later spoke to one of the doctors in the Crystal Empire about it, and he agreed to set up a meeting for her with another doctor who specializes in helping young ponies. I did share my observations with them, but the locals handled all the actual work when it came to physical testing and then curing her problem.”

“And why did you do this?” Legal Preview asked. “Is Scootaloo related to any of the Princesses?”

“Not biologically,” Spliced replied. “She’s honorary sisters with Rainbow Dash, a close friend of Princess Twilight Sparkle. However, I was unaware of this at the time I met them.” She took a deep breath. “Scootaloo and her friends met me when I was on my way to visit with another of the locals. Along the way, the three of them offered to be my friends, and I found them surprisingly easy to get along with, what with their innocence and exuberance… it was unlike any ponies I’d really met before. So when Scootaloo asked me to help, I agreed. And I admit, I found her problem fascinating, but I chose to help her. Not for scientific reasons, but because she was… a good kid. And I couldn’t bring myself to disappoint her by turning her down, not after they’d so genuinely offered me friendship.”

“Thank you,” Legal Preview replied. Consulting her notes, she looked up. “There is another case, involving a stallion by the name of Lughead. According to witness accounts, he was working on a machine when it began to malfunction, and you leaped between he and it. Why?”

Spliced blinked in surprise. “I just did,” she said. “I don’t remember even consciously thinking about the consequences, I just moved between he and it.”

“And as a result, he escaped injury,” Legal Preview noted. “Whereas you received a large chunk of metal straight through your eye.”

Spliced shuddered at the memory. “Yes.”

“What brought you to this place at the time?”

Spliced sat back. “We - myself, Princess Twilight Sparkle, her apprentice Starlight Glimmer, and Spike - had been called to talk with somepony about the development of an array that would let them track the thaumatic signature of a known criminal from that world, one who had proven a serious threat in the past and had escaped them more than once. Lughead was in the process of testing the array when it suddenly went haywire.”

“And this array was one of your design, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, actually,” Spliced replied. “Though I’m honestly not sure what went wrong with it.”

“Did you warn them of possible hazards involved in its construction?”

“I’m not sure I did, actually,” Spliced said as she thought back. “I do know that the company specialized in experimental technologies and were aware of the hazards involved in such. Before he turned the array on, Lughead said that explosions were among the things they made regularly.” Spliced blinked before leaned close to the microphone. “Also, they produced refrigerators.”

“I see.” Legal examined her notes. “And this criminal you’d agreed to help find, what was their crime?”

“She was the former Queen of a hive of Mimics, who had purposely kept herself and the rest of her followers in a weakened state,” Spliced replied, ignoring the loud gasps from the gallery at this last part. “According to the head of their guard, she’s the only one of their kind to remain in that form, with the rest of them having gone to full-fed forms since she was overthrown and a new King took over the hive. Prior to that, she had attempted to use a combination of infiltration and military force to seize control of Equestria and other nations on multiple occasions, and despite being offered a chance to change her ways, has refused to do so and instead sworn revenge on those who thwarted her.”

“And the array was for the purpose of tracking her and nullifying her ability to blend in, so that she could be brought to justice and tried for her crimes?”

“Yes.”

“Your honours,” Due Justice suddenly spoke up. “Is there a point to this tangent?”

Judge Balanced Scales gave a slight frown. “I will admit, this seems a bit far from where you started, Miss Preview.”

Legal Preview bowed. “This is relevant, your honours. It is further examples of good acts that my client has performed while in the Equuis dimension.”

“Understood.” Balanced Scales sat back. “However, there is a lack of foundation on the matter of this… Queen.”

“Very well.” Legal Preview straightened herself. “Miss Genome, when did you first learn about the former Mimic Queen?”

“The day after I arrived,” Spliced replied. “Princess Celestia had decided to send me to Ponyville to stay with her former student, Princess Twilight Sparkle, and had decided to share some of Equestria’s history with me. During that talk, she mentioned Equestria’s former animosity with a hostile hive of Mimics - Changelings, they call them there - and especially with the former Queen Chrysalis and her attacks on Equestria. I later met with the head guard of their hive and learned more about how she was overthrown.”

“And when did the subject of an array come up?”

“During that first conversation,” Spliced replied. “She said that Chrysalis was very good at not being found, so I immediately described a means of finding her, something I remembered from this world. It took me a while to write out the blueprints, but I did.”

“Very well.” Legal Preview consulted her notes again. “One more question miss Genome,” she said, holding out a hoof. “How did you convince Princess Celestia to return you to Ponyville when she had begun to take you to Canterlot?”

Spliced winced but she knew that this was the most important part of her defense. “During Nightmare Night, a festival in that dimension, I had confessed the full extent of my crimes to the princesses and I was to be taken to the capital when Captain Comet’s ship appeared in the sky. I then threw myself at her hooves, begging to be taken back to Ponyville as I knew that the ship in the sky would have ability to trace my thaumic residue and that would lead them to Ponyville and I could not let them go after the ponies there.”

“Why not? You were clearly putting yourself in danger of being recaptured and being within Canterlot, the capital of Equestria, would be the most secure location for yourself and being their prisoner, you would have been able to stay there more than likely,” Legal said, pacing in front of her.

Spliced bowed her head. “I couldn’t let them hurt the locals,” she said. “I had had an epiphany earlier that night, on learning the origins of the festival, and it made me realize what kind of monster I truly was. The last thing I wanted was for those I had come to care about to be made to pay for my sins.”

That caused a murmur of voices and Spliced felt herself starting to be able to breathe slightly easier now.

“Okay, Miss Genome,” Due Justice said, walking over to the witness stand holding a terminal in his magic aura. “I’m convinced; Miss Preview has proved to me that you are an empathic mare that truly cares about others.” He paused, ear flicking. “Almost that is. All that you need to do is just one thing to completely convince me. One action and then I will personally work to ensure that you serve the rest of your time on some five star beach resort with all the stallions or mares you want.” He ignored Spliced, Legal Preview and High Tree’s glare. “Give us the cures to your diseases.”

“What?” Spliced jolted in surprise with her heart racing.

“If you truly do care about other people, you will have no problem giving us the cures, right?” Due Justice asked her, leaning in close. “You do care about other people, yes?”

“Ye-es,” she stammered, trying to keep her eyes on him but it was hard.

“Then you wouldn’t mind doing this, right?” he asked loudly, leaning in closer to her. “This would be the ultimate gesture of your so called reformation, so you should have no issue in giving us the cures. You have proved that you can do it with Captain Comet. So Genome, will you give us the cures now?” he asked, leaning in very close, with Preview and and the judges shooting him angry glares, but Spliced couldn’t focus.

“N-no,” she panted out, the choices in her head screaming so loudly now.

“Why not‽” he shouted at her with ponies moving to take him away.

“Because I’m scared of you!” Spliced shouted, slamming her hooves onto the table with tears running down her face. “I’m scared that the moment I do, you will take my memories away again and leave me to rot back in that hellhole station on the moon! Do you think I want to hold onto these cures‽ I want to give them to you but my fucking cowardness is stopping me! I know I don’t deserve any of this, the damn voices in my head screaming at me that I deserve worse are yelling at me to do this but I can’t! I’m too damn scared but I know that I need to and I-I-” Spliced couldn’t continue, hiccuping too much and her eyes were full of tears.

“ORDER!” Balanced Scales shouted, slamming his gavel against the table. “Preview, Justice, to the bench. Now!”

Tilting her head to the side through her sobs, Spliced saw that a privacy screen had been enacted from the gallery.

“Due Justice, you are inches from being found in contempt of court and you are being fined five hundred credits for this stunt,” High Tree snapped angrily with the stallion looking sullen.

“Legal Preview, why were we not informed of miss Genome’s mental status?” Schneehund asked just as angrily.

“I am not trained to psychoanalyze anyone and arranging to have one evaluate my client within a two day period would have been near impossible,” Legal Preview replied harshly, causing the judges to wince guiltily for a moment before they returned to how they were before.

“Back to your seats; we will have closing statements before we will decide on our verdict,” Balanced Scales said, lowering the screen to the gallery with Legal helping Spliced back to her own seat. “Due Justice, your closing statement.”

“Th-thank you,” Due Justice said a bit uncertainly before he cleared his throat. “Your honours, let us cut to the basics. This is Spliced Genome, the Viral Maniac. Her diseases have caused unaccountable damages and ruined trillions upon trillions of lives. Look around; maybe only one out of every twenty or so here are without any augmentations or mutations.” That was true, and the sheer sight of it caused Spliced to wince over in pain and guilt. “That is not taking in account of those outside these doors, those who are in the grave right now, those suffering because of her. What about their rights to see that she never sees the light of day again? Are we really willing to sell out all of their suffering and pain just to give her a measure of comfort while she spoon feeds us the answers to a galaxy’s worth of problems?” He turned to look at the gallery before shaking his head. “No I say no, and I hope that you will see reason to never let that mare out ever again.”

He turned around sharply and went back to his seat with the gallery muttering behind her and Spliced was doing her best to keep her wings under control as all she wanted to do was just run away at this point, either that or curl up and some-.

“Preview, your closing statement.” Balanced Scales said with Legal giving her a discrete pat on the back before standing up.

“Thank you, your honours,” Legal Preview said before looking at Due Justice. “As you said you were getting to the basics, so will I. The actual basics,” that earned her a glare from Due Justice. “My client here is a criminal, there is no denying that. She has committed heinous crimes in the past, crimes that have seen her sentenced to enough life sentences to last a thousand years. During her incarceration, she had escaped our attention for several months before we were able to locate her. But before any action could be taken against my client, she had turned herself in and stated outright her desire to make up for her crimes, asking for only one adjustment to her sentence - a change in the location where she was being incarcerated. She has not asked to be let off, she has not denied her guilt.” Legal walked closer to the judges. “This is the basis of our prison system; to have criminal reformed and contributing to society. That is what my client wants to do and all that she requests in return is that she be placed somewhere other than her original cell.”

“Thank you both for your work,” Balanced Scales said as the three of them stood up and walked off to a private room with the privacy screen going back up and security guards directing Legal Preview and Spliced Genome to one room while Due Justice walked off to another room.

“What if I-”

“As I said before, don’t you dare,” Legal snapped at her with Spliced feeling slightly better at the words. They had been waiting for over an hour for the judges and the voices in Spliced’s head were screaming to her to withdraw her request for a change in her prison.

It was easier to have someone like Legal to keep her from doing so but it was still very hard. Half of her mind was screaming at her to go to the judges while the other half was screaming at her to stay quiet or she’d be stuck back on the moon forever without her mind again. The only way she was able to keep herself from falling apart was the knowledge that if she broke down again, they wouldn’t let her fix her mistakes and she couldn’t live with that.

“Right, right,” Spliced said, trying to get her breathing under control but it was easier said than done without resorting to just killing herself to reset her body. “It’s just-”

“Spliced,” Legal held her hoof up. “Please, just wait for the verdict to be given. We can move on from there.” She grimaced. “Of course, what I’d really like is for Due Justice’s legal license to be dumped in some black hole after what he pulled, but I doubt it’ll happen.”

Spliced gave a faint smile that showed the faint tremors in her body. “Thanks, Legal. I need that.”

Legal just smiled brighter at her before looking at the door again with her eyes darting to the chronotracker hovering above the door, displaying the Hesturland standard time, which was the universal measure of time along with the local times of several other planets flashing by. Spliced found it fascinating that while she knew a lot of them, several were brand new to her though the possible reasonings for it disturbed her and made her feel even worse.

Before she could fall into that hole, there was a chime singling that they were to return to the courtroom. Standing up, the two mares walked through the door and down the hallway with guards flanking them and leading them through the doorway and back into the noisy courtroom.

Once everyone had taken their seats, the bailiff stood and approached the judge’s bench. “Your honours, have the judges reached a verdict?”

“We have,” Judge Balanced Scales replied. “In the case of the State Vs. Spliced Genome, we hereby readjust her sentence as follows. She is to cure all of the viruses and diseases she has created, following standard medical procedures in doing so, with both parole and release upon completion, her thousand year life sentence null and void. She is also to undergo psychological evaluation and attend mandatory therapy.” He raised his gavel but before he could bang it, there was a commotion at the door with the guards raising hooves and talons to their helmets. “What is going on?” he demanded angrily as the doors slammed open and new guards stormed in with a team of lawyers in the middle of them, all wearing badges of the intergalactic alliance on their uniforms.

“Sorry, Judge Scales but the intergalactic tribunal has already reached their decision regarding Spliced Genome and we’re here to make sure justice is done for the entire galaxy.” The lead lawyer said holding out a long sheet of papers in their hooves before tilting his head towards Spliced. “Take her.”

Before Spliced could react, she felt needles being shot into her with tranquilizer darts sticking out of her side. Already she was woozy, barely able to make out what Legal or the judges were shouting angrily before she passed out.

Spliced sat upright in the bed she was in and her heart plummeted as she saw the same four prefabricated walls of her old room in her prison on the moon.

With her heartbeat thundering in her head, Spliced could only utter one word.

“no.”