The doors to the United Nations burst open as a new crowd came rushing in, drawing all eyes back towards them. They were dragons, seemingly all of them by the sheer number of them. At their head was Ember, a cocky grin on her face and the symbol of her position held in her right hand. "I come bearing gifts," she shouted as she descended the stairs towards the stage.

The justice slapped his gavel down smartly. "You are interrupting the proceedings."

"Yeah, no." She turned and pointed into the crowd of dragons with her scepter. They parted without a word, revealing a thick knot of tied up soldiers, bovine and otherwise. "These jerks tried to do with us what they did with the rest of you." She snorted softly, her smirk unabating. "They just failed."

Murmurs spread through the crowd. What had happened exactly? The dragons that made up Ember's crowd all seemed to be sharing in the pride of the moment, even if no one entirely understood the sequence of events.

Queen Novo stood, pointing to Ember. "I recognize you, Dragonlord Ember. Though your lack of etiquette remains vexing, I will assume you have come for good reasons. Tell us the reason for your prisoners and how they came to be."

"Sure thing." She made a gun motion with her fingers at Novo. "These jerks thought they could tunnel under us, and they did. They managed to not fry themselves on lava, good job, jerks." She rolled her eyes softly. "So they came rushing out of their holes..."

The sudden cracks of automated fire rang out over the dragon lands. Some dragons sat up, curious about the noise. They had heard guns before. "Someone practicing or something?" asked Garble with a shrug.

But that wasn't what was happening. They had emerged and began firing wildly on any dragon they could see. Unlike ponies, unlike lutrai, and unlike humans, dragons were never without armor. The first they had targeted roared with fury, wings going wide and flames licking the air from their toothsome grimace of pain, but not death.

At first they were allowed to engage with singular dragons, each dragon proving a formidable foe, but had it continued like that, it would have gone poorly. The smaller dragons could be brought down with enough concentrated fire in a short moment of effort. It could have been bad.

But the dragons had been learning lessons. Ember arrived on the scene and rallied them all to action. What had started as heroic, in their eyes, struggles against individual dragons soon became a landslide of draconic flesh. Their armor did very little against sharp claws and fearsome teeth. Their armor did nothing at all when they were set on fire.

The human justice twirled his gavel. "Flamethrowers are illegal for use in war situations."

"Bite me," was Ember's eloquent reply. "We are flamethrowers. If they didn't want them used, they should have thought a little harder before attacking us. So, as I was saying..."

Once roused, the dragons would not be stopped, scouring their country for any signs of their attackers. The tunnels they had come through were found and explored. As it turned out, they weren't half bad, so some dragons got some sweet new houses out of the trouble.

Ember lifted her shoulders. "We lost five." She held up five fingers. "Pity that, but compared to what I hear, we basically lost nothing." She hiked a thumb at the soldiers behind her. "Now, see, if it ended there, I wouldn't even be here. The way I see it, no grown dragon except maybe Spike, is a 'civilian'."

She turned to the soldiers. "But you guys just couldn't be happy crossing claws with dragons, could you?" Ember crossed her arms. "These are the special ones. They tried to smash our eggs. Now if that ain't 'civilian', what is? Seriously, like an egg can fight back. Bring 'em forward!"

The other dragons closed ranks around the captors and hefted them up all at once, bringing them forward towards their leader.

Ember turned back to the judges. "So I was hoping you could take care of these people like you've been doing with the other ones."

The judges shared looks. The female bull was the first to raise a hand. "We will gladly pursue justice, but that requires that both the prosecution and defense have time to investigate things properly. I move that we enter a recess while the captives are given time to speak with defensive lawyers. Evidence should be turned over to the court for review and disclosure. Witnesses... should remain closeby, yes?"

The human justice nodded. "Yes, that is the right of it. I second this motion. Defense team, do you accept?"

"We stand ready, Your Honors." Already defense lawyers were starting to approach enemy soldiers.

Novo clapped her taloned hands. "Very well then, we are in agreement. Court is in recess. Charged with crimes or not, we will assume innocence and provide some basic rights. The accused will be allowed to confer with legal aid and information gathered, so we may proceed properly."

Ruddertail softly clucked her tongue, speaking softly, that only the other judges might hear her, "Few dragon guards may be wise idea..." How things might have gone differently if she had a few of them scattered through her nation. "Dragonlord Ember!" she called far more loudly. "Not leave, talk after."

Ember gave a thumbs up and the court began to dissolve, going into recess.

Chrysalis was no longer in a cage. They had placed her in a far more secure cell, with the other guilty people of the trial, all awaiting their day to die. She glared at the bars, trying to figure a way past them, to freedom.

"At least you'll die with us," mocked a bull from across the hallway.

She hissed, forked tongue dancing as she gathered pow-- Electricity struck in a powerful jolt, sending her back with a wince as her tormentor laughed at her expense. "Curse the lot of you..."

Celestia waved a hoof, bidding the massive doors open. "Let's get him secured."

Human and ponies moved unison to heft up Tirek's cage and carry it inside. They were all going on a merry trip to Hades. "This was for your own good," warned Celestia as she walked alongside them. "We live in a new world."

"A new world, you say?" He hiked a brow as the scenery moved without his input, his cage carried along. "It would seem to me that you've lost your touch."

"Have I?" She scowled into the cage. "The Equestrian Friendship Coalition is the most powerful alliance this world has seen." She moved ahead of the others, intercepting Cerberus as the canine came to investigate them. "Who's a good boy?" She gently rubbed him under his chin. "We're just putting this one back where he belongs. You'll keep him there, hm?"

Cerberus woofed in triplicate, looking ready to do his job.

"Good boy..." Celestia turned back to Tirek. "Put him up there." She pointed to where he had started. "And banish your notions of world domination. They won't tolerate it, and they are willing to be perfectly violent to assure peace. A curious contradiction, perhaps, but effective at times."

"How long until they decide your little ponies aren't in their vision of 'peace'?" taunted Tirek as he was carried back towards his resting place.

One of the humans helping with the task snorted at that. "They're fucking little ponies."

Celestia shrugged softly. "Crudely put, but there you are." She was not above enjoying her people being cute. "They have comported themselves well, and I will look forward to many moons of peace with this terrible affair behind us."

Tirek made no signs or pleas of reformation, and they left him there, to stew and consider what he had done wrong. The heavy grinding of stone on stone announced the door closing, locking him inside, weak and with few options. "Hm..."

The first of the dragon's captives was placed on the stand. They were a curious middleground between the human captures and the pony cared. Most looked more irritated than anything else.

The prosecution approached. "Did you or did you not attempt to inflict harm on the dragon eggs?"

Defense's hand raised, but the human justice shook his head. "Please answer the question."

"My job was to 'inflict harm' as much as possible." He lifted his shoulders. "And now here we are so you can 'inflict harm' on me, but it's alr--"

"--Refrain from adding more testimony beyond the question asked," ordered the justice with a scowl.

"Yes or no," pushed the prosecutor.

"I saw them, so yeah."

The prosecutor half turned away. "You are aware that eggs pose no threat? Even should they have hatched, dragon hatchlings are helpless immediately after emerging."

"Didn't matter," grunted the soldier. "Inflicting harm was my damn job."

"The prosecution rests." He returned to his seat, a confident smile on his lips.

The defense was far less confident in appearance, considering how he could salvage the situation. It was his job to try. "Tell me, how many eggs did you personally harm?"

"Zero."

Murmurs spread through the court. "Not a single one?" pushed the defense, his expression becoming less gloomy.

"Never had the chance. They saw me headed that way and I was buried under dragons."

The defense gestured at him. "He never committed the crime for which he is accused. He is clearly innocent."

The prosecutor slapped the railing in front of himself, standing up. "He's still very guilty of attempted murder."

"And, while dire, that is a far lesser crime," countered the defense.

Ember waved her scepter at the two arguing lawyers. "He better get one charge for every egg on that field!"

"Order!" The justice struck his gavel. "The audience will refrain from speaking or be removed. I advise the other judges to disregard that statement."

Novo raised a talon to point towards the lawyers. "Please, proceed."

The prosecutor straightened his tie. "I will remind that this is attempted murder of babies, the very definition of a non-combatant. I urge the judges to bare that in mind." He took his seat calmly, hands on the rail in front of himself.

The defense nodded towards the accused bull. "You were aware of your target, I presume?"

"The dragons?" asked the soldier with a shrug. "Yep. Drew the short straw."

"You knew how strong they were then?" he pried. "I presume you were aware of their culture. In the dragon lands, there are no noncombatants, as their leader proclaimed in this very court just minutes ago."

The bull nodded. "Yeah, hard not to know. Dragons know how to fight. They're built for it. Why?"

"I'll ask the questions, thank you. So you came prepared to enter a true battle situation, soldier against soldier, both armed and ready to die, correct?"

"That is correct." The bull watched the defense lawyer, confusion on his face.

"And your plan, I presume, was to win. That was the goal?"

"That is correct." He nodded softly. "We failed."

"The eggs. Did you see them at the start of the conflict?"

"That we did not." He sat back. "Some of us noticed them as we were getting our back ends caved in and we made a dash for it."

The defense gestured at the accused, his eyes on the judges. "This was not premeditated. I motion that my client's crime is that of second-degree attempted murder."

The defense returned to his seat as the audience shared astonished murmurs. He had potentially saved his client from a life imprisonment, after already sparing him from a noose or equivalent.

The prosecutor rose, no longer as restful as once he was. "How many bullets did you have left when you were captured?"

"In the gun?"

"On your person, ready to use," the prosecutor guided with a roll of the hand. "Ten, twenty, fifty? Hundreds?"

"I was already fighting... I don't remember."

The prosecutor turned away. "We were told the personal effects of the accused, including their weapons, were stored securely, with their name. If it pleases the court, I would like a full accounting of the accused's remaining munitions."

The murmurs grew in volume. What was the prosecution pushing towards?

Author's Notes:

What is that lawyer aiming at? Can you tell? I'll be eagerly reading comments for your theories.

Join the special community of folks who like my stories here at atreon!

Join my discord to chat!