Equus Vs. Harry Smith.
"These proceedings were brought about for the sole purpose to dispense some semblance of justice for our most neglected of benefactors. Many of you whom have newly evolved do not easily recall the abuses against our race. Others will be dragged through the ill memories they have tried to forget. The Defense will do well to acknowledge the emotional turmoil stirred up in the various witnesses called to the stand."
-Prosecutor, Stormwind the cynical-
Equus Vs. Harry Smith
How the hell did he end up in this predicament? It was true, he was solely apathetic to what the lesser beings about him might have felt, but he did in no way perpetrate any said atrocities! Was he aware of the slaughter houses? Yes. Did he know about the Premarin abuses? Definitely. Did he know that some in Europe ate the meat of his accusers? Yes. What was he guilty of? He did nothing.
HE DID NOTHING.
The prosecutor, a rather spunky grey pony, if there were one, held his tail up high in pride like a banner of equine triumph. His black suit mostly clean, save crumbs on his collar from a sandwich or biscuit he had consumed earlier.
The defense was currently made up of two sympathetic equines. One a red roan mare in a most professional midnight blue suit and skirt ensemble. The other, a black and white paint mustang stallion in a fine tan business suit. The best attorneys money could buy-
-If all his property weren't confiscated.
The Bailiff, a black stallion in his ocean blue guard uniform proceeded out of the judges' chambers.
"All rise for the honourable Shada'an!" He decreed.
Everyone did so, as the overly proud, overly masculine, overly bored white stallion took his "throne."
"Our Defendant I formerly name for the records and Stenographer, is Harry Smith, whom stands accused of serious offences against equinekind. These offenses shall be outlined as the proceedings progress. Now, I believe Stormwind should call the first witness."
The pony humbly nodded, calling a quite effeminate Fjord mare to the stand to be cross-examined.
Harry notices that no one bothers to swear her in.
"Objection your honor! Witness not under oath!" Harry cries.
"Sustained. Equines do not need to "swear" to tell the truth. Lying, and therefore perjury, is a purely HUMAN trait. Another outburst and I will have you taken in custody for contempt."
Shada'an favored Harry with one of those amused stares of the superior to the subordinate.
"As I was saying,' declared the pony, now noticing the filth on his clothes and proceeding to brush crumbs carelessly off, 'Humans are an unusual amusement to you cold weather breeds, hmmm?" He mused with a shrug.
"That would be an understatement, Sir." She squeals out.
"And what is meant by this?"
"Humans are the most detrimental thing to our world."
"Objection! Speculation!" Screamed out the roan mare.
"Sustained. What she speaks is fact. We can see it in the five-legged frogs, the three-eyed fish, and the various extinct species. Continue." Shada'an announces.
"So how do you feel about this one?"
"I simply do not think much of the species in general."
"But do you disapprove of this one?"
"Objection! Leading the witness!" denounced the mustang.
"Overruled. Rephrase the question."
"If you were led to feel anything about this Defendant, what would it be?"
She gives me a hard, unmerciful glare.
"Pity. Pity his kind destroyed the beauty about them in such a wonton and careless manner."
"Are you saying he is personally responsible for the ecological destruction?"
"Partially responsible. Driving a vehicle that spewed toxic contaminants."
"Given the alternative, would you not prefer it?"
"Alternative?" She enquired curiously.
"Why, riding us, of course."
"I do not know. That is a hard choice. The slavery of my body, or the destruction of my fields. Given that, humans' will piss us off no matter what they choose to do."
"Or both. They DO need to transport us at times. Nothing further, I'm done."
I took stock of the frumpy little exmoor mare Stenographer as she typed busily on some sort of teletype machine.
The red roan mare in her blue outfit proceeds toward the witness.
"Please state your occupation for the jury."
"Ecologist, working through contract to the state."
"And one car is powerful enough to destroy our fields and forests?"
"One car, no. A hundred cars would do such damage that the environment could regenerate easily. A thousand. Million. No. A billion cars and diesel vehicles, yes. Emissions like exhaust and toxic fluids are frequently quite destructive if a large amount is focused in one area."
"Like China?"
"Yes, China."
"And India?"
"Certainly."
"But what about the pollution consensus for Idaho? Or Wyoming? Or some rural area in Canada?"
"Questionable."
"And what is meant by that admission?"
"India and China are COUNTRIES. Those three latter you described are states or counties. I cannot do an accurate assessment comparing the two."
"Why not? Would it surprise you that one such state rivals' a "Country's" harmful emissions?"
"You mean one of those great congregating spots of humans. New York or California? With those wildly unsupportable populations, they might as well have the same emissions as these two over-crowded countries you speak of. And-they might as well be countries in their own right as well."
"But do you know where our Defendant has lived before being taken into custody by our Peacekeepers?"
"I would hazard to guess an area in the mid-west United States?"
"Try Alaska."
"Alaska?! Where the U.S. pumps out it's own oil?! Holy mother Pegasus! I would say that's fuel for the fires, if there were!"
"But you would check the records and you would say?"
"Yes, the bloody consensus! I remember it would describe Alaska, even at the worst of times, moderate, but not sustainably severe as far as pollution is concerned. But-Damn!-the oil-some of it comes from there. Alaska might not have a problem, but it sure makes the others' worse!"
"And that is an issue?"
"Definitely!"
"But not relevant to this trial. The Defendant did not work on an oil rig, or at a refinery, or in an automotive factory. Therefore, the fact that his state is responsible for a large portion of the United States fuel reserves does not pertain to this case, and I forward the motion that the Defendant be cleared of polluting the environment. Nothing further, you may take your seat."
The Fjord then left, much put off by the roan mares' careless navigation of a possible negative situation.
Harry admired her clever show.
The best, indeed.
Shada'an sighed boredly.
"Defenses' witness."
The mustang nodded gracefully toward the Shagya-Arab stud presiding over the trial.
"Since the Prosecution puts humanity itself in doubt, I shall remind you all of why we needed humans in the first place. I call my witness Melanie to the stand."
A fine looker of a mare approached. She was a bay of the thoroughbred variety.
"You've had yourself quite the troubled past, if I'm not mistaken."
She nods solemnly.
"How do you feel about humanity?"
"Which ones?"
"In general." The mustang reiterates.
"I can't answer that."
The mustang stampedes triumphantly toward the jury box.
"Exactly. You can't judge humanity fairly in a general sense. Not if you actually KNOW what humans are about. My witness knows all about that. Tell the court about your un-evolved life among humankind."
"I was born on a racing farm, trained to run fast, acclimated to the gates. My first race was an utter failure. I believe I got last place."
"You tried your best?"
"I certainly did. I was the typical filly. Eager to please, to...obey."
"And your owner, I'm sure, was pleased with that? That exuberant effort on your part?"
"Not at all. I was sold to a killer-buyer the following week."
Loud gasps of shock and disapproval rumbled through the courtroom.
"Please state for the court and those unfamiliar with the terminology what a killer-buyer is."
"A killer-buyer is a human who buys horses cheap that nobody wants so they can sell them for a large sum at a slaughter house. Usually summed up in $500 of meat value, if I'm not mistaken."
"You MUST be mistaken. Not on the monetary amount, but on the fact you yet live. Did our Peacekeepers liberate you?"
"No."
"Did you manage to run away?"
"No."
"Then why are you alive?"
"Humans. Some generous humans bought me in the stockyard and gave me a second life."
The mustang grins proudly.
"I rest my case. Nothing further, your honor, my lady."
The mustang is replaced by the Prosecutor, whom now proceeds to cross-examine Melanie's testimony.
"You say humans gave you a second chance?"
"Yes."
"After denying your first?"
"Objection! Speculation." declares the mustang.
"Overruled. Rephrase the question." Shada'an wistfully orders.
"How can you say you were given a second chance at life when your first was unfairly ministrated by uncontrollable circumstances? You, surely, could not help being unsuited for racing? It must surely be the fault of humans, whom bred your parents together in the first place."
"But if what you say is true, I would never have been conceived, and a different witness would be here in my stead. I owe humans for whatever little life I may have led, at least."
"You owe humans. A novel idea. We owe THEM nothing. THEY owe US the world."
"Objection. Speculation." Replies the roan mare.
"Overruled."
"How can you say such blasphemy when a human tried to kill you and another brought you into the world for profit alone and not love?"
"But I AM loved. And I'm sorry you never felt that way. My second owner found me in the feedlot days from my slaughter date, and he..."
She began to cry.
"He did what?"
"He looked me over, found the tattoo on the inside of my lip, and bought me right there. The happiest day of my life when I found out I would race again."
"Race? For ungrateful brutes who want us only for profit and entertainment?"
"It's not like that. My first owner proved to be a jackass, but the one who saved me from death-I swear by my name that he was truly human. Only a human would care about a useless little thing like me."
'But the idea of being human is on trial here! Humans are dirty, vulgar, bullies!"
"Objection. Leading the witness." Declared the mustang.
"Overruled."
"Perhaps the cruelest thing you have seen is a man, but I have seen that a man can be most benevolent and loving as well. So keep your bigotry. Let it keep you warm when you're alone at night. And while you do that, I will have my fond memories of an affectionate master to keep me cozy in winter."
"Will you assist me in outlining the more callous acts of people?"
"I refuse. Even under contempt, do I. I have never met this man on trial, and so I will not slander him unless something can be made of his general character."
"Bold words for a harlot, a...TRAITOR. A little equine slut!"
"What?!" She snarled, ears laid back and teeth bared.
"You have more than love and devotion for this master you speak of!"
"You speak slander. Lies. You speculate without evidence or witness statements."
"There wouldn't be any witnesses, would there? Not when a human does something those of his own kind find degenerate and unthinkable? But I assure you, it's not other humans slandering your cross-species love affair, it's other horses. Don't forget that there were other horses in the stable besides you."
"But they loved him too! They wouldn't violate his memory!"
The grey pony smiled wryly, a bundle of carrots in one hoof-nailed hand.
"Amazing, what bribery can do in gaining testimony. Granted, it took much more than this small package to secure Gerald's testimony. Now, what were you saying about his memory? Your special horse-humping little man is deceased?"
God-damn-what-a-devious-little-shit-he-is!
"Yes. That is why I cry; why I hold memories of him close."
Then she cried. Cried herself useless, hoarse.
"Nothing further. Your dismissed."
She left, barely composed. Barely coherent. Barely there.
"This witness is tainted! She can't help but feel generous toward these human animals! I compare her to Bonnie and Clyde, or one of Charles Manson's three lovers. With this sort of 'love', she can't see the truth through her infatuation, and so she goes along with a criminal to do whatever heinous acts he wishes. If he wished to whip a horse to death, she would stand by and not care."
"Objection! Speculation, damn it!" Denounced the mustang.
"Overruled. This type of labeling and manure-slinging will not be tolerated in my court. Melanie is not on trial, her character should not be questioned. And further maliciousness of this nature will not go uncharged. You committed harassment, and you damn well know it!" Shada'an trumpeted.
"Now,' the great horse sighed tiredly, 'make your case, Prosecution."
"My case is that all equines are biased in some way toward humanity. They all have reasons to hate people unless their ignorant sympathizers who never saw a human before, human-loving sluts, or just apathetic to circumstances."
"Interesting. So you're not going to discredit humans, your going to discredit horses who don't feel as spurned as you do toward our 'oppressors'." Shada'an curiously observed.
"In a nut shell, yes, your honour." Declared the grey pony.
"And the argument of the Defense?" Shada'an enquired.
"Our case is to find instances of humane human treatment toward the equine race."
"Ah. Another interesting point. This is why we have the equine court, because such circumstances as these are rarely so black and white. Too often, they require a middle ground. That ever elusive shade of grey?" The judge mused wryly, peering at the Prosecutor.
"I believe it's my witness next." Mused the pony.
"So it is. Carry on." Shada'an sighed out.
The Prosecutor called a chestnut quarter horse gelding to the stand whom wore a Peacekeeper uniform.
"State your occupation for the court."
"Peacekeeper, Sir."
"And what does a peacekeeper do?"
"My job is basically the human's military, F.B.I., and police rolled into one."
"So you've seen how belligerent this species can be?"
"Oh, yes. No love lost between Peacekeepers and rebelling humans."
"Describe how this 'animal' fights."
"Like hell opened up, I imagine. We've faced numerous losses in the past, and that was mostly due to the humans trying to take back their world and rights at the beginning of the take-over."
"Their world? Their rights? Bah! Humans have no rights!"
"They most certainly did! Not now, but most assuredly during the beginning of our revolution." The Peacekeeper protested.
"And how did this species fight?"
"What? I just told you!"
"Specifically."
"Oh. Well we evolved with a specialty for running. Humans evolved with a specialty for fighting. One can argue that humans developed the arts and music, but what did they spend most of their government budgets on? War shit."
"War shit. You mean guns and explosives?"
"To put it mildly."
"Mildly?"
"Yes, the tip of the proverbial spear. We all remember the bombs that cook things alive like tiny sun's"
"Nuclear arsenals?"
"Yes. And the Anthrax that can easily kill any species. Or the Sarin gas that destroys nerve cells of any animal."
"Are humans TRYING to kill everything?"
"No, I don't believe so."
"Then why do they make all this dangerous stuff, when they already have guns?"
"Because it's human to be scared of your enemy."
"What is inferred by this?"
"If one kid on the block has a gun, you need a gun. If another has a nuke, you need one, too. Not to actually use it, but to just intimidate your play-mates from attacking you."
"So, the idea of having these weapons is not to use them? Very novel, but purely idiotic. We both know two nukes HAVE been used against people, don't we? And helpless ones at that! Your previous statement about the world being a giant neighborhood has become nullified by the humans' own idiotic paranoia."
"Bear in mind that these bombs ended a horrid war."
"Killing thousands of civilians to save the lives of millions of soldiers prepared to die! You tell me how many hundreds of children were ready to die those two days in question?"
"None, Sir."
"And I'm sure Chernobyl was just a lovely little celebration like the Boston Tea Party?"
"No, Sir."
"So what good did nuclear technology do mankind?"
"I could not conjecture on that point. It's not my area of expertise."
"Yet I hear dozens of Peacekeepers died of radiation poisoning and other stockpile related deaths when these dangerous world-annihilating devices were disposed of?"
"Yes, but I was not involved in those proceedings."
"What were you doing, Peacekeeper, when your brothers and sisters coughed up blood and were consumed by horrible gatherings of tumors?"
"I patrolled the streets, quelling rebellions."
"Really?"
"Yes. In my un-evolved state, I was a police officers' riot horse."
"Ah, so you got to see more of the criminality of man than I first suspected."
"I suppose."
"And are you thus led to despise your owner?"
"Why?"
"Because he took you into danger."
"She actually. And I respected her because she was in as much danger as I."
The Prosecutor raises an eyebrow at that.
"But she had a choice. You didn't."
"Exactly. I didn't. I was too dumb an animal to make such a sophisticated choice. That she made it for me, doesn't bother me. I am stronger because of all of those experiences. They are what make me a Peacekeeper today."
"A humans' influence made you a Peacekeeper?"
"Yes."
"And that must be because you were tainted by the lesser beings!"
The Peacekeeper gave a gentle, jubilant horsy chuckle.
"Tainted, maybe. If duty can rub off on someone, that someone was me."
"A sense of duty inspired by a human? Hah. effluence sounds to be more apt than influence. She rubbed off a sense of duty on a horse? More akin she wiped her 'doody' into your coat where she sat!"
"Those are harsh words coming from a childs' plaything."
"Shut up! My previous ownership is none of your concern!"
Shada'an banged his gavel.
"Order! And that is indeed harassment, you mean-spirited thing! One more outburst and you are removed from the prosecution!"
The pony sighs tiredly.
"Nothing further, officer."
Then he leaves, replaced by the roan mare.
"You said you saw mankind on the streets. Uncensored, all conceivable acts men can do before your silent, yet watchful eyes?"
"Yes."
"You saw murders, rapes, and muggings. What did you see that you liked?"
"Everything else. These creatures fascinated me. One time, I remember witnessing my partner take care of another woman's impromptu birth. I believe my saddle pad was put under the woman so that she wouldn't be lying in filth."
"A human female's water broke as you two happened by?"
"Yes. And moved into a nearby alley for some measure of privacy, but my pad was needed because we all know what humans do in those dark spaces between buildings."
"You mean urinate, do drugs, and have sex?"
"Yes."
"And why was this event special?"
"Have you or any other un-evolved horses witnessed a natural unforeseen human foaling?"
"You mean see humans do this before we evolved and turned human reproduction into a common thing?"
"Yes, because this was something RARE, you see? Like a sort of gift. A human foaling outside of a hospital under my curious gaze."
"Like the horse equivalent of Christmas?"
"Maybe."
"And what else?"
"Human relationships. Humans dating, families out ice skating in the park, old friends enjoying each others' company. Grandfathers' feeding birds. But what I loved most was the kids!"
"Kids? Human foals?"
"Don't you feel that way? Some force that just makes you want to trot up to them and neigh hello?"
"I know the Prosecutor doesn't feel that way." The roan wryly mused as the grey pony cast her a vicious look.
"And I could guess why, too. Kids are the most mischievous things. Like monkeys, I conjecture."
"To each his own, I suppose. Dismissed. Thank you."