The dining hall had been co-opted, and members of the Guard stood at the door, at the makeshift stand wherein was seated the accused criminal, Fimbulwinter, and besides the seat in which sat Patience, the judge for this occasion. Her face was grim, as befitted the situation.
Lodestone and Breccia finally arrive, not really sure what to expect. There wasn’t much either could contribute, but without anything else as interesting to do they could watch at least. Hopefully this would end well. Patience seemed like a reasonable mare.
Fimbulwinter groaned slightly, shifting his weight on a few hooves in order to plant his face in one of his front ones. Patience was hardly the pony he would have prefered to be the judge, and the distinct lack of Spinneret’s presence was starting to wear on him.
He put down any last-ditch “web-the-guards-and-flee” plans when he saw Lodestone arrive. Bugger this, the entire fortress was probably now in the dining hall. Running away and causing...something nasty involving rocks was out of the question when he was surrounded on all sides by ponies, most of whom were bigger than him.
As the dining hall was getting more and more crowded, Dirge decided to just hover above one of the back rows of ponies.
Kat, having needed to take care some business earlier finally made it to the trial. And the whole darn place is already crowded! That doesn’t phase the Batpony however, She just gently pushed ponies aside to make way for her, Afterall, she’s the Commander of the Guards and Militia, it’s her duty to guard everypony. And putting herself between them and the Dangerous Criminal.
Fimbulwinter was wrong. Apparently, his...jailor was just arriving, looking at him like he was caught eating a foal or something. He gives Patience a tired look.
Spinnerette arrives, looking a bit haggard. She had considered not showing up... but she couldn’t do that to Fimbul. Her tardiness keeps her from a good seat, but she can still pull up a bit of wall. She just hopes Fimbul will be alright.
“Fimbulwinter,” began Patience, “you are on trial for the deliberate or accidental inundation of the fort. Please note that your committing the events for which you are on trial is not in doubt. Also note ignorantia iuris non, in this case. In short, the purpose of this trial is not to determine your guilt; that is not in question. This trial is to determine whether the act was accidental or deliberate. Will you enter, for the sake of this court’s record, a plea of accidental or deliberate. Please note that entering a plea of deliberate will prima facie decide the court’s res iudicata as deliberate, and you will face...” She looks directly at Fimbulwinter, and continued “...sentencing. If, however, you plead accidental, you will have a chance to make your case. How do you plead?”
Fimbulwinter curled his small legs close to his sides, and attempted his best puppy-dog face he could. Hopefully, the crowd could be swayed by a pony with a upper body little larger than a foal with the face of a beaten red-haired mule pleading “Accidental,my lordess”.
Patience nods. “Very well,” she says, “then you may make your case. I will decide if it is proof sufficient.”
Fimbulwinter gives a exaggerated shake and quiver, as if the room was as cold as his namesake. “I would like to say that, while I did indeed dig into the water hidden into the rock, I was not the pony who first started that tunnel. Rather, my fellow senior miner, Mal Men, was digging the shaft, but asked for me to finish it as she needed to go elsewere. I....I trusted her enough that I continued to dig into the rock even as I felt wetness from below. I will take my punishment for my misplaced trust, but I refuse to take the blame for a sabatoged attempt on my reputation! “
“Ah, an acceptable defence. Can you prove it?”
Fimbulwinter gazed blankly at the Princess. “I knew where I was. “
He then gives a quick glance to the crowd.
“Actually, where is Mal? Has anypony seen her lately? She never visited me. Did something happen to her?”, he said to nopony in particular, slightly dazed-sounding.
Lodestone gave a small smirk and nod as it looked like Fimbulwinter would be proven innocent after all. Mal Men’s absence was a bit surprising too. Perhaps there was something to this.
“Hmmm. Well, I’m sorry, Fimbulwinter, but without that proof, your defence is invalid.”
Fimbulwinter looked sullen. “Surely you understand that I request for Mal to undergo at least a brief questioning. Why, I simply am asking for a single mare, or anypony who remembers that day clearly, about her location during the unfortunate events that happened.”
Fimbulwinter watch’s as the crowd talks and a small smile spreads across his face.
“Please, if anypony knows where she is, speak up.”
Patience snorts. “Fimbulwinter, you should know that absence of evidence for your innocence is evidence against your innocence. And I have no doubt Kat is ready to enact justice in this case.”
Fimbulwinter looks at Patience, and then at Kat, a small smile on his face.
“Surely there is some amount of reason to at least question my fellow miner, no? As the only pony who could stand in this room who could claim to have seen me before the time of the accident, surely it’s reasonable to ask her a few questions?”
Patience shakes her head. “She will be questioned and her own crime - if any - will be investigated following the conclusion of this trial. Do you have any other defence?”
Fimbulwinter gave a little snort.”Please, my dear, live up to your name.” A small gasp of shock filled the hall from many of the onlookers at Fimbulwinter’s impropriety. “And while it is apparent that, considering my plea for a single pony to take the stand has been denied , in fact, I do. For the sake of conforming the...incident was not pre-planned on my part, I wish for my dear Spinneret to take the stand.”
Spinneret almost falls off the wall in surprise, then tries to make her way to the front so she can be heard. Her mind races as she does, wondering what she could possibly do to help her dear Fimbul.
Fimbulwinter, in a act of boldness, leans over to Spinneret to whisper. “My dear, please, do not be afraid. Just calmly state what you know and how I could simply have not planned this dreadful event, and that, as a member of this fort and the one who is closest to me, you would have reported with great haste about any pre-planned disaster.”
Spinneret blinks and then nods. She tries to clear her throat before speaking. “Um... Fimbul couldn’t have planned to flood the food stockpile. We’ve been spending a lot of time together... I would have noticed something like that. And if I had... I would have told somepony. For the greater good.”
Kat snorted and tighten her grip on her crossbow for only just a second. She have been less than amused to how Fimbulwinter have been acting towards her lady. “Are you sure that you’ll notice something like that, Spinneret? I am very sure Fimbulwinter does not normally act as if he’s wanting to be smacked in the head like this and you don’t seems to notice that.”
“Um... pretty sure?”
Fimbulwinter tried to stay calm, but failed in hiding his general disgust at Kat’s words in the form of shooting a hateful glare in her general direction. Neverless, he quickly recomposed himself and gave Spinneret a supporting smile.
Kat narrow her eyes and gave Fimbulwinter dagger stares when he glare in her general direction. A silence warning of ‘tread carefully else you’re getting the whack’
“Very well. Is that all the witnesses you wish to bring, Fimbulwinter?” asked Patience, stony-faced.
Fimbulwinter just responded with a small smile, making a point to let the gathered ponies see him being the one smiling. “Why no, actualy. Giving that the pony that my defense revolves around a pony who is currently missing, and the words of my other witness hold no sway, I myself would like to defend myself, seeing that the only other pony with a connection with the incident has decided to not attend this trial, therefore making any words I myself would say questionable..”
Frankly, Fimbulwinter had no clue if that could be done. But, what the hay, it’s not like the damage has not been done. Mal’s handy vanishing act from the mandatory meeting will bring questions, and with questions bring doubts of guilt.
“Go ahead,” says Patience.
“First and formost, I would like to make note of Mals seeming vanishing act. As the pony who was, as noted before, left her shift early, she not only left me with the responsibility for a faulty tunnel but also with all the blame.”
Fimbulwinter’s eyes widened for a moment, and then he sighed. “But, of course, this defence could only be proven if Mal herself was present, for she is the one who....”
Fimbulwinter gave a exaggerated sniff and attempted to make himself look smaller under Patience’s baleful gaze.
“You know this meeting is optional. Mal is not the only pony absent,” enunciated Patience. “Her absence is no more innately sinister than theirs.”
Kat tapped her hoof impatiently as she watch the trial goes.
Fimbul gave a sigh. “But she is the only other pony who was connected to the event, and one with a viable motive to leave, at that. For the sake of justice, Patience, may I ask of Mal Man has been questioned at all about the events that she can be provably tied too?”
“That is not an affair for this trial. Your continued attempt to stall this trial can and will be noted,” said Patience, a hint of anger beginning to make itself known.
Fimbul’s eye’s widened, and gave a little exaggerated gasp. “But surely a thorough investigation into who was working near there was done prior to this trial?”
Fimbul watched as ponies began to chatter away. He could only hope that it was talk regarding how badly Patience screwed up, and that yes, he should walk out of the room a free stallion.
I mean, that’s how mistrials ended up working in his last home. Frankly, Fimbul has no idea about how the legal system works here. Was there a jury?
“I am the judge here, Fimbulwinter, as you should well know. I know full well the legal procedures that will be undertaken after this trial,” said Patience, with a hint of a snarl. “You do not need to remind me.”
Fimbulwinter just smiled. “Excuse my ignorance, but is that a no? Out of curiosity.”
Again, a wave of chatter. Hopefully, it was of the ponies in the room discussing how he should be free, not about how they will bind his legs together.
Patience forced herself to calm. “If you have no further defence, then this trial is over. Kat, reprocess the prisoner, if you would be so kind.”
“Of course, mi’lady.” Kat said with a respectful nod before walking over to Fimbulwinter, grabbing hold of his chains and lead him away.
Fimbulwinter just kept smiling, to the crowd, to Kat, to Patience, but to Spinner most of all. He let Kat drag him oh-too roughly, making a effort to make it seem like the mare was forcing him to move in so-heavy chains, and Fimbul knew that just from going by the hushed whispers going around in the gathered members of the fort, with some smiles in his general direction and some glares at Kat, he knew that unpopular actions were never inforced for very long.
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Topic: Tacticssmile, the Rainbow Fortress (Community Fort) (Read 5610 times)