"I WAS SO CLOSE!!" Chrysalis shouted with venom as she kicked her hooves against the nearest tree. The sound of the impact echoed through the small clearing that she had taken refuge in, dual imprints of her chitinous hooves embedded deep within the tree bark. With another scream, she lit her horn and fired a concentrated beam of her green magic in a wide sweep, cleaving several trees in half at the middle, their upper halves crashing to the forest floor.

The few of her Changeling guard who had stayed to ensure her safety, quickly took shelter behind the felled logs to escape their queen's wrath. Chrysalis stood trembling with rage, her breathing heavy and her eyes furious. The only image in her mind was that of the small purple unicorn that had seemed at first to be nothing more than a minor nuisance. It took less than a second however for that image to twist and become something far more malevolent. With a start, she shook her head, trying to rid herself of the image.

"Damn her... Damn her to Tartarus..." Taking a deep breath, she finally brought herself to a seated position and raised her hooves to rub her temples. What happened? How did it end up like this?

'The plan was foolproof; take the place of the guard captain's betrothed, use the position to weaken his magic and leave the city vulnerable. How was it that one little pony could throw months of planning out the window!?' Her mind was racing as she thought back to the captain's sister. Her name had been Twilight, right? The mare didn't seem like much when she had first met her, barely worth noting even. It was only when she started to point suspicion at her that she needed to be dealt with, and the crystal caves had held Cadence for days, there was no way for a simple unicorn to accomplish what an alicorn princess could not, right?

'And yet here I am, still a week's worth of flying out from the Hive, beaten.' She snarled once more and the few changelings who had dared to peek over their barriers of wood quickly ducked back down for fear of another outburst. But Chrysalis only sighed in frustration.

'She isn't going to be happy about this...' A stray thought floated to her mind, just as unassuming as any other, but it carried with it the true weight of her failure. Her eyes widened in horror and now she felt a fear that had not come over her since the events of the wedding itself.

'Sh-she... she... O-oh... no...' With an audible gulp, Chrysalis glanced in the direction of her Hive, the dark clouds above rumbled with restrained thunder and the dark forest before her seemed to only grow darker.

"Excuse me...?" Silence was the only response to the haughty voice that spoke with the authority of somepony in an important position and feeling very insulted.

Hasty Vote stared in disbelief at the scene before her. She had just announced that the start of the Hearing would commence, only for the sound of a light snore to catch everypony's attention and draw their gaze to the now sleeping form of one Twilight Sparkle. Although the mare was restrained quite heavily and it looked to be quite uncomfortable, she slept soundly while standing on the wooden trolley covered in iron chains.

Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie had both let out guffaws of laughter at the unexpected situation, while even Celestia herself fought to hold back a light snicker. If the situation weren't so dire, she might have even indulged in the humor.

"Ahem... I said, excuse me." Hasty Vote spoke once more, her voice louder and her eyes hard. Her only response was another light snore, which brokered more chuckles from the Elements of Laughter and Loyalty. She snapped her gaze to the two of them, causing them to quickly find something else to occupy their interest, Rainbow whistling a small tune and Pinkie scratching the inside of ear at a rather impossible angle.

"Can we please get on with this?" Business Savvy asked gruffly, his irritation clearly showing on his face as he glared daggers at the convicted. A few strands of his greasy mane having come loose and dangled around his brows. He pointed his hoof to the nearest guard, making him jump to attention.

"You there, wake her this instant." The guard gave a brisk salute and made to move towards the trolley.

"Hold on now." Hasty's voice called out, making the guard pause. She gave a light smile to Savvy, who only glared back.

"This needs to be dealt with a bit more, tact. Having a guard shake her awake could make her a bit, unreasonable. How about somepony else?" She looked around the courtroom, her sweet smile still in place. As she scoped out the room however, it did not appear that anypony was willing to get within close physical contact of the convicted. Glancing to the pews behind the court railings, she eyed up Twilight's parents as a Timber Wolf would a filly out in woods alone.

"How about you, Mrs. Sparkle? Surely you could wake up your daughter without much of a fuss?" Silence met her request as both parents stared at her in surprise, before glancing to one another. Night Light held his wife a bit tighter as she trembled.

"You don't have to do this sweetie... I can wake her." Twilight Velvet only shook her head as she pulled away from him, pushing the scrying crystal of their son into his hooves.

"N-no... I... I can do this... she is still our daughter... somewhere in there..." She whispered back. Slowly she stood on shaking hooves and made her way down the pews and to the center aisle. Hasty's smile broadened as she watched the older mare approach at a sedate pace. Celestia watched the scene with great sorrow.

'A mother should not be forced to do this...' Soon enough, Twilight Velvet came to an unsteady stop just before Hasty Vote, who only raised a hoof and pointed it towards the convicted mare who slept soundly. Twilight Velvet shakily turned and glanced at the sleeping form of her daughter. With no small amount of trepidation, she approached until she stood directly in front of the trolley. The whole room was silent as they watched what would happen.

Twilight Velvet felt her tears slipping past her eyes once more as she got a closer look at what had become of her daughter. Her eyes trailed over her darker palette, and no matter how many times she tried to blink the image away, the mare before her stayed, unchanged.

"Ahem." Hasty's voice echoed from behind her, making her jump slightly. Reminded of exactly why she was here, Twilight Velvet raised her left hoof and placed it lightly on the trolley.

"Tw...," taking a moment, she fought back a choked sob.

"Tw-Twilight? D-dear?" She failed. Her sob came with a few more tears and her heart ached, she got no response, however. Swallowing thickly, she lifted herself a bit more onto the trolley, bringing her just a bit closer.

"Twily? It's t-time to wake up." Still nothing. Twilight Velvet lowered her ears as she looked back towards Hasty Vote pleadingly. The mare only shook her head and made a ' go on' motion with her hooves. Defeated, she turned back to her daughter, and nearly gasped in shock. For the briefest of moments, she saw not the mare that was in chains, nor even the grown Twilight Sparkle that she remembered before the wedding. What she saw was the small, sleeping form of a young purple filly, her filly. But as quickly as it came, it vanished. She choked out a sob as she stared at the sleeping mare before her. Climbing up onto the trolley entirety, she wrapped her hooves around her and sobbed into her neck.

"O-oh sweet-ie." she cried openly as she held tightly to the little filly that she had raised. Her mind was flooding itself with memories of birthdays and holidays, outings and celebrations that she had spent with her. Watching her grow and assisting her with her studies.

Hasty Vote took in a deep breathe and released it, a sigh of frustration. She opened her mouth, ready to reprimand the older mare, only to freeze in shock and fear as the eyes of the mare she sought to convict, bored deep holes into her own. Those black orbs glared with white-hot daggers that she could feel burrowing deep within her own soul. Twilight Velvet continued to cry into her daughter's mane, oblivious to the knowledge that she had achieved what she was called upon for.

She wasn't one-hundred percent sure as to when she had fallen asleep, but there was one thing for certain, she hadn't woken up this warm in a long time. Sure, waking up wrapped up in a comforter like a burrito was quite warm, but there was a difference in being wrapped in a blanket and being wrapped up by somepony who truly cherished you. At first, she had thought she was merely dreaming, but the weight of the chains about her body told her otherwise, this was most certainly real, and it was most certainly her mother clinging to her and balling her eyes out.

Her heart soared at this revelation. Despite how she had changed, despite what she had done, her mother still loved her, she still saw HER, not what she had become. She could feel her own tears starting to well up before the sound of someone in agitation caught her attention. Her small moment of happiness was cut short as she looked past the shoulder of her weeping mother, and into the now stunned and terrified eyes of one Hasty Vote.

It had been this mare's ceaseless droning that had initially put her to sleep if she had to guess. But now there was something else. Glancing between her mother's back and the eyes of the coated unicorn, it didn't take a genius like her to figure out what happened.

Hasty fought hard to bring herself under control, coughing into her hoof and forcing herself to give the best smile that she could in response to the convicted's harsh glare.

"That will do Mrs. Sparkle." She spoke clearly, her voice not wavering as she gained more bravado. Twilight Velvet took a for more moments of sobbing before she acknowledged what the council member had said. Slowly, she pulled back and out of the embrace that she had forced upon her daughter. Dimmed Star couldn't help the ache that she felt at the loss of her mother's warmth. The two looked into each other's eyes before Twilight Velvet shakily clamored down from the Trolley. Her husband Night Light quickly aided her off, having rushed to them the moment his wife had broken down. Hasty merely raised an eyebrow at this.

"Are we done with the pity show? Can we PLEASE Move on to the sentencing?!" Business Savvy shouted, a thick vein pulsing out of his neck and his mane even more of a mess from his stress. The other council members looked to him and after some murmuring, nodded as well.

"Yes, I do believe it is time we moved on. Mr. Sparkle, if you would be so kind as to remove the binding around your daughter's muzzle? I feel this would go better if she could speak as well." Fancy Pants directed. Night Light nodded hesitantly, before lighting up his horn and carefully taking the chains over his daughter's muzzle into his magical grip. He caught her eyes for a brief moment before he looked away and slid the chains off, letting them drop to the floor with a loud thunk.

"Ohhh, that feels muuuch better." Dimmed Star spoke quickly, stretching her jaw and yawning. Those who had not heard it were taken aback by her multi-toned voice. Ignoring them, she tried to stretch her neck, but to no avail.

"I don't suppose we could do away with all of these? It's very uncomfortable." She gave the best attempt at a pleading expression that she could, but it only served to put them off even more with her eyes. Hasty Vote coughed to gain her attention once more.

"So sorry deary, but the restraints aren't going anywhere. Now before we begin, Mr. and Mrs. Sparkle, if you would please take your seats again. Oh and Mrs. Sparkle, well done." She gave a chipper smile to the clearly emotionally upset parents, who quickly made their way back to the pews. Dimmed Star watched them for a moment, before looking back to the council, or rather, past them.

"I'll ask again, remove the restraints. Please." She spoke bluntly, her gaze boring into the Princess' own. Celestia looked over her former student carefully, her posture wasn't threatening and there was no way that she could cast magic with two magic suppression rings on. But every word of her request was laced with warning. She thought back to when she was initially brought in, the captain had stated that she was found outside of the previous restraints. She quickly began to wonder just who was in control of this room.

"Maybe we could remove a few of them-" Fancy Pants started, clearly looking to keep things civil, however, the guttural sound of a throat being cleared cut him off and pulled their attention once more to the mare who seemed determined to stay the center of attention. Hasty Vote smiled sweetly at Fancy Pants, who raised an eyebrow at her interruption.

"I'm sorry Fancy dear, but it almost seemed like you were actually suggesting that we let the prisoner out of her restraints without consulting the rest of us." Her words, though carried in a tone of kindness, felt every bit as foul as her pungent perfume smelled. Turning from Fancy without giving him a chance to respond, she trotted up towards the trolley and shook her head with a light chuckle.

"You seem to be under the wrong impression, Miss Sparkle, you are our prisoner here. You don't have the right to make requests. Now just a quick reminder, do not speak out of turn and raise your hoof if you wish to have a say... oh, well I suppose that would be a small problem for you wouldn't it." The mare smiled up at Dimmed Star who glared back in silence. Turning away from her, Hasty took a single step forward, triumph in her smile.

Until the sound of metal chains and restraints colliding with hardwood met her sensitive pony ears. She froze mid-step as hoof steps from behind her approached calmly. Everypony in the room stared behind her in utter shock, disbelief, and fear.

"You know," a dark multi-toned voice spoke from her left side, her body beginning to tremble at the presence.

"It wasn't a request so much as a demand." Slowly, she turned her head and stared horrified into the wickedly grinning visage of one Dimmed Star. Her sharp-toothed grin got wider at the look in Hasty's eyes.

"Now I'd liked to give you a quick reminder, do not speak out of turn and raise your hoof if you have anything to say... oh, well you might just have a problem with that." Hearing her own words echoed back to her, Hasty quickly looked down, only to find all four of her hooves were glued to the floor with a black, tar-like fluid that seemed to drain from Dimmed Star's own legs. Before she could exclaim her emotions, a black tentacle wrapped itself around her muzzle, keeping it firmly shut.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Already trying to break the rules? Keep this up and you'll have to be removed from the courtroom. This Hearing is only just getting started, and believe me, you don't want to miss it." Her sharp-toothed grin was accentuated by her licking her lips with her long black tongue, a hungry look in her eyes.

Steel Blitz glared at the porcelain white ceiling above her. The sound of other injured guards singing cadence to pass the time had long ago bounced on her final nerve, but she couldn't quite bring herself to tell them to shut it.

'They're just trying to distract themselves.' She told herself over and over again. Honestly, it probably wouldn't be quite so bad, if Maple Branch hadn't thrown his baritone in with the lot of them. Add in that he was a cot away from her and she was ready to tear her feathers out.

"Heya lieutenant!" And here she thought her day couldn't get any worse. Turning as best she could on the cot, she found Light Shine and his brother Emerald Haze standing next to her cot. Emerald was currently in the middle of a conversation with Maple who had thankfully left the cadence chant to the other guards. Light Shine gave her a bright smile as he brought up a small basket of fruits and a juice bottle in his magic.

"We thought you guys could use some cheering up!" He levitated the gift basket up to the small table in between her and Maple.

"You two can still eat solid foods right?" He snickered as he glanced over her bandaged form, only to receive a dead leg in his right foreleg. He hadn't even seen the lieutenant move!

"Ow! ok ok, I get it, save the jokes for post or something." Steel sighed but smiled nonetheless.

"It's good to see you guys, how did babysitting Blueblood pan out?" Light Shine shook his head grinning as he rubbed his foreleg.

"Ah you know, he whined, he made demands, we ignored him. The usual. When we got the Dragon Fire message though, we jumped ship and made our way towards the ballroom, but by the time we got there, it was over." He glanced around carefully before leaning in a bit closer.

"The higher-ups aren't telling us much and the tabloids have only scratched what I can guess is the surface. All we're going off of is that the princess's student went nuts and started murdering ponies left and right. Exactly how much of that is true lieutenant?" He whispered carefully. Steel glanced about as well, being sure that there were no eavesdroppers. Certain that all was clear and the cadence was still going strong, she faced him again.

"That about sums it up actually, although there is a LOT more to it. I don't even know all the details, and I was in the thick of it." She gestured to her injured state. He nodded an affirmative and leaned back into a more restful position, which was just as well because it was that moment that Emerald Haze decided to pop over for his own little visit.

"Hey, lieutenant!" He greeted with a cheery smile, although his greeting was much more subdued than his more outgoing brother.

"How are you feeling?" His cheerful expression quickly gave way to concern as he eyed her bandages carefully. Steel smiled softly at him.

"I feel like Princess Luna lowered the Moon on top of my whole body, then proceeded to roll it up and down from the tips of my wings to the frog of my hooves." Emerald flinched, before they all had a good chuckle, with Steel wincing due to the small painful spasms.

"I'm sorry we didn't make it there sooner, we could have stopped at least some of this." His ears dropped as he glanced about at all the injured soldiers in the medical wing. She merely waved him off.

"If you had been there then you'd be lying here with the rest of us or worse. Don't reflect on what you could have done, but what you can do now." She gave him a stern gaze, making sure he got the message. He nodded meekly in response and she sighed, it would have to do for now.

"So how long are you gonna be here for?" Light Shine asked, glancing between her and Maple, who somehow had drifted off to sleep through the singing cadence.

"The doc said something about two or three days, give or take a magical treatment. The damage in my side if mostly superficial, but it's still deep and if I try to move too much it could tear something worse than a few muscles. As for Maple..." She glanced at the large stallion's heavily bandaged chest. He had been impaled by one of the sharp tentacles that the princess' pupil had used as weapons. Though he was breathing normally now, it hadn't been so easy the night before.

"We've got a flat-line! Prepare for defib!" Doctors and nurses scrambled around Maple's cot, curtains were closed around to give some privacy, but a large pool of blood had begun to flow from under the curtains. Through the pain of her own injuries and fighting her nurse, Steel had fought to try and get to him.

"Maple!! MAPLE BRANCH YOU BETTER NOT DIE ON ME DAMMIT!!" She screamed through the taste of blood that poured into her mouth, no doubt from a torn internal injury.

Every soldier that wasn't passed out due to their own injuries or medication watched the events in trepidation.

"Somepony help me restrain her!" The nurse yelled, practically wrapping all four legs around the pegasus to keep her in her cot.

"We're a bit busy here!" A voice shouted from nearby. The sound of magickal energy charging up a defib could be heard through the curtains of Maple's cot.

"CLEAR!" Came the shout of the doctor, followed by the telltale sound of magically charged electricity being forced into a body. There was no response.

"Again! Hit him again dammit!" Steel screamed as a light blue aura wrapped around her, assisting the nurse in pulling her back into her cot where she was quickly strapped down. She fought back, of course, shaking the whole cot as she tried to force her way over.

"Ma'am you have to stop! You're gonna tear open your injuries!" The nurse yelled over the commotion, but Steel refused to take her eyes off the shadows moving through the curtains of Maple's cot.

"TO TARTARUS WITH ME!! MAPLE!! LIVE DAMMIT!! THAT'S A FUCKING ORDER!!!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, tears stinging her eyes.

"CLEAR!"

A stinging in her eyes made Steel raise her hoof to wipe away the tears before they could start. With a shaky breath, she looked back to the ceiling.

"He got lucky... He flat-lined four times before they stabilized him. Technically he was dead for a full six minutes altogether. Doc says he won't be leaving the med bay for at least a month, and that's with magic treatments. As for returning to active duty..." She sighed again. This whole thing had been just one problem after the other. Glancing over, she saw Emerald staring at Maple with shock and Light had now rested a hoof on his withers, his jaw clenched.

"H-he never said anything." Emerald whispered, his voice cracking softly. Nodding, she closed her eyes and took steady breaths.

"Of course not. He's always fought to make sure we didn't worry about him. After all, he's the strong one, he'd say." She chuckled a bit. The others began to speak again, but she couldn't quite catch what they were saying. Suddenly everything seemed foggy, even with her eyes closed. It wasn't long after that sleep claimed her, a blissful rest after all the ordeals she had been through.

Author's Notes:

Shaded: So yea, I feel like I might have rushed this one a bit, I did have a hard time dragging myself out of the writers block rut I've been in due to previous concerns I was having with this chapter, if you're in the dark about that, READ MY BLOGS! Ahem. But hey! I have my hoof in the door, that's a start right?

Twilight: Indeed it is. Now, how long has it been since the last update?

Shaded: *Starts to sweat* A c-couple weeks? T-tops?

Twilight: Uh-huh... * Pulls up Calendar*

Shaded: * Sweats profusely*

Twilight: The Tenth-

Shaded: See It wasn't that long ago-

Twilight: Of LAST Month....

Shaded: ..... Mercy?

Twilight: Never

Shaded: MOMMY!!!!!! * Takes off screaming*

Twilight: Ohhh No, I learned from last time. * Teleports Shaded back in her magickal grip*

Shaded: T_T BUCK ME

Twilight: Disclaimer, NOW.

Shaded: I DO NOT OWN MLP:FIM OR THE EQUINOX PONIES!!!

Twilight: And Just for the record, for any of you ponies who are on a Venom kick after going to see it in theaters, this story and the characters involved have absolutely NO relation to the movie or its affiliated comics or cartoons. Now then, what to do with you?

Shaded: Forgiveness?

Twilight: Not in this lifetime.

Shaded: ;_;