A diamond dog, in the fresh clothing of being pony-held, was on the stand. "Just do what told."

"And what were you told?" encouraged the prosecutor. "You already don't deny them. They would have caused the deaths and injuries of an entire city's population, with displacement for any survivor therein. What exactly were you told?"

He shrugged softly. "Just have to dig supports, get more gems than ever see before. Simple job. Simple job, good pay. You mad, yell at bull who ask."

The prosecutor raised a brow. "Could you identify what bull did give that order?"

The diamond dog leaned forward. "Sure, if let go."

Dissenting murmurs spread through the crowd at the bold request.

The dour mare of a judge raised a hoof. "I move for a brief moment to discuss with my fellow judges."

A recess was called. They would resume in 15 minutes.

"The diamond dogs are stupid," she stated plainly in a side room to the others. "Punishing him won't make the world better. I'd rather have the identity of who gave that order. That person, whoever they are, deserves our fury. They would have to be one of the key architechts of this attack that left us all hurt and bleeding."

Novo raised a brow. "This stupid dog almost murdered two princesses and came within inches of demolishing your capital city. You have no desire to see that punished?"

Ruddertail snorted softly. "I bet she wants hug him and tell him all alright."

The mare scowled. "I would see him punished, as he deserves, but we can lessen it. He speaks, and we don't murder him as the rest of you would surely push for."

The justice nodded softly, familiar with the idea of a plea bargain. "Provided you're alright with it, as Equestria's represenative, I have no objection to that."

Novo raised a finger. "I beleive our equine peer brings forth an excellent point. If we show that those who provide valuable information are treated in kinder lights, others may let slip information they would otherwise have held in confidentiality to the grave. It is in our collective interest that the truth be revealed."

The bull maiden had been largely quiet, but nodded in agreement with Novo's words. "Better to know than to enjoy a brief moment of revenge."

The judges returned to the court room, all eyes on them and what they would say.

The justice stood tall, not taking his seat yet. "We have decided to accept the testimony in return for a lessened sentence. Speak truthfully, as was already sworn, and the full weight of your crimes will not be applied." He sat as the others, and they did not object to his words.

Chrysalis paced back and forth in her jail. "The lot of them! I will make them pay... First, I'll--"

A billyclub tapped against the bars. "Stop making noise in there," advised her guard. "You won't be doing anything but waiting to die."

Chrysalis scowled at the man. "I'll be free and gone long before then."

"Yeah, how do you plan to do that?" Not that he had any confidence she could, but she seemed to like saying things a sane person wouldn't, so...

"Oh don't you worry about it.... I can't be held in any mere cage." She ran a hoof along one of the bars. "My powers are too vast for your puny jails."

"Yeah? So why are you here at all?" He shrugged lightly. "You sure seem to be trapped."

She hissed and turned away, considering her jail. All she had to do was become small enough to simply fly through the bars. Foal's play. She envisioned the form of a breezie and all became pain. The entire jail lit up, crackling fitfully as she was sent to the ground twitching.

"I doubt your little buddies will get much better."

A changeling sat on the stand, black and predatory in appearance.

"We've already heard the words of your leader, Chrysalis. What part did you play in her actions?"

"I am her guard," he stated with pride. "I don't let others get close to her if she doesn't want them there."

The prosecutor nodded as he paced. "And as a guard, I imagine you were aware of many of her plans."

The guard tilted his head, looking baffled. "She doesn't talk to me. I am her guard, not an advisor or planner. Why would she?" He seemed entirely clueless to even a reason why Chrysalis would consider it.

"So you were never charged with other activities?"

He raised a hoof to his chin, considering with a squint. "She sometimes sent me to get coffee for her. Most exciting thing was stopping all of you when you charged in at us. That hurt..." he rubbed his eyes were they had been sprayed, still fresh in his memory.

It was becoming clear that the largest crime that particular changeling was guilty of was fighting with the FBI agents, but he had failed to even do much more than briefly menace them before being taken down in the raid.

Novo pointed into the crowd. "I motion that this changeling be assigned to Thorax for therapy and re-education. He seems clearly innocent of any crime we are here to punish."

The other judges nodded with easy agreement across the panel.

The changeling hissed and complained the entire way, but was soon seated beside Thorax, with a brighter future ahead than those found guilty.

"I was a gatherer. I gathered," explained the female sounded changeling.

"And what manner of thing did you gather?" prompted the prosecutor with a raised brow.

"Many things." She shrugged softly. "Love, snacks, sometimes big heavy things."

"Big heavy things?"

She nodded quickly. "Worst in swamp, big and heavy." She spread her forehooves wide. "Big! And we had to be underwater the whole time. Not sure what it was for."

That was the pattern with the changelings. None of them were told more than they needed to hear, and in Chrysalis' eyes, they needed very little.

The defense gestured at the changeling. "Were you aware you were handling a radioactive device that could have been hurting you? I presume you were given no protective gear for the job?"

The changeling blinked with confused eyes. "What? What even is... radio--oh! Oh! Wait..." She suddenly frowned. "That was radioactive?! Like a bomb?! I was holding a bomb!" She had learned such things from her time as a human. "That... makes too much sense. I was holding a bomb!" She put her hooves to her head. "She didn't mention a thing, and I didn't think to ask."

From the crowd, Thorax waved a hoof wildly. Pharynx, just beside him, was scowling with renewed vigor.

That changeling was far from alone. Thorax would have many to reform, but the crimes they were guilty of were not, themselves, war crimes. The worst of them had broken alarming American laws, but they had been called there to see war crimes be punished. Ultimately, they were given over to Thorax to reform. The changelings who could even possibly have been related to the bomb they had set off were either already found guilty, or were destroyed when the bomb detonated.

"Please state for the court what your position and responsibilities were."

The bull frowned softly. "I was a tactical planner, first division." He gestured to his medals, still shining. He was captured by ponies. "It was my responsibility to plan attacks, and I am neither deaf nor dumb. I already know I've been pointed out." He slammed his hands on the trial, leaning forward. "You're just here to kill me. You won the war, do what you want."

The prosecutor raised a brow. "What was the plan that you helped create?"

"The circus continues," he grumbled indignantly. "I am the one that thought to hire the dogs as mercenaries. Chrysalis disclosed to us how useful they had been in munitions retreival. It was a natural step to put them to grander uses." He waved a hand angrily. "And had we won, I would have been celebrated as a genius, but history is written by the winners."

The justice slammed a gavel. "Please limit your answers to the scope of the question."

"Yes, well, you have your guilty creature." He gestured to himself. "Do you need anything else?"

The prosecutor gave up the stand, his job done for the moment. The defense approached. "What decided what was a valuable tactical target and what wasn't? You only had so many soldiers, this is a truth all tacticians face. You couldn't be everywhere."

"Truth," grunted the bull old enough to have gray around his snout but young enough to still have fire. "Some nations were easier to pinpoint where we needed to strike. Had Canterlot fallen, for instance, Equestria would be effectively removed as a threat. Their population and production are not seperated, so we targeted population centers besides that."

The mare scowled. Canterlot had suffered no lethalities, but the other 'population centers' had suffered as no other single catastrophe before it. Only Cloudsdale and Ponyville had been spared.

"The otters were plain. Kill their leader and the fight would have been punched out of them."

"They would have charged over my dead body!" suddenly screamed Ruddertail. "I would not even be buried until your people were ash!"

Novo put out a hand, but Ruddertail would not be quieted. She charged to the edge of the judge's platform. "You send your best. I live. You here. What good are your plans?!"

The justice struck his gavel smartly. "Please return to your seat, Queen Ruddertail. We have entrusted the lawyers to ask these questions."

She glared at him, seething, but she did withdraw with a loud grumbling, settling back into her seat.

"As I was saying... The humans were the hardest to target. We had assumed they were much as our own. Their factories would reside where their people live. To attack them, you had to go where the people are, and that is what we did."

The prosecutor nodded softly. "I see, but why did the men on the ground have the orders to attack anything and everything instead of focusing their efforts on the infrastructure if that was your goal?"

The bull leaned forward, eyes on the lawyer's own. "Because it was impossible."

"Impossible?"

"We were given an impossible task, to bring America to heel. But the command had been given, and I would not accept less than the best I could give." He crossed his arms as he sat back. "Force said to make them surrender. The best I could do was bring them to their knees, to know a taste of the bitter tears that we had tasted. Equestria could have been brought low. The Lutrai could have been decapitated, but America was beyond my means. They pummeled our people, we would return the favor, and we have."

The dour mare stood up but did not immediately speak. She waited patiently for the prosecutor to quit the stand before she addressed the bull on trial, "if you intended to remove Canterlot and remove the will to fight from Equestria in one strike, why was Manehatten attacked? What did Baltimare do to deserve attention? What did Somnambula do to even appear on your map?"

The determined look on the bull's face showed its first crack. "Hm? Those... weren't in my plans. What did they do there?"

"They killed!" snapped the mare, clopping a hoof on an armrest she didn't need. "They burned. They were a sudden angry horde descending on us. Ponies who had never known the meaning of war were suddenly being killed in the streets. You claim to have no knowledge of this?!"

He was suddenly on his hooves. "Is this a joke?! My plans are right here." He dug out a notebook the ponies had never taken from him. "Equestria was to get a single division. Canterlot was the target. Any other actions were not my idea."

Author's Notes:

The truth slowly emerges. Today is the last day of Everfree Northwest. I'm having a good and hectic time, as had been asked. Tomorrow, I head home!

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