Revelations

Celestia banged the gavel. "Order! Order in the court room!" She yelled loudly. The room settled and all eyes turned towards the new comer. "Time Turner, I suppose you have an explanation for your outburst?"

"Well yes, several actually." He turned towards Starstrike. "For one, this mare's story has not been truthfully told by Chief Mighty Maille."

"How dare you accuse me of sullying the truth!"

"Quiet." Celestia snapped at him before turning back to the Doctor. "Continue."

"Thank you Princess." He cleared his throat. "Twilight, if you don't mind, I'd like to take over."

She nodded. "By all means."

Star shifted again, uncomfortably.

"Miss Star, will you please take the stand?"

Slowly Star got up and made her way, trying hard to ignore the glares from the Selle ponies. She settled in the chair and got sworn in.

"Miss Star is it true that you left your home on the night of your birthday, two years ago?"

She nodded. "Yes."

"Now, why did you leave exactly?"

She looked down. "I was unhappy."

"Unhappy. But didn't Chief Might Maille say your parents were nothing but good to you? Or is that not true?"

She shook her head. "No. They weren't good to me. They saw me as a burden and never hesitated to tell me."

"I see, so as a filly did you ever get any sort of affection from them?"

"No."

"No? Strange." He put a hoof to his muzzle. "Star, you were born in Ponyville correct?"

"Yes. My parents were visiting Ponyville while my mother was heavy with me."

"December 21st?"

"Yes."

"Ponyville General then?"

"Yes."

"A lot of foals were born that night weren't they?"

"I don't know, I guess so?"

"So, isn't it possible that there could have been some kind of mistake?"

"A mistake?"

"With so many foals born isn't it easy to mistake one for another if say the foals are unnamed and similar in color?"

"I would guess so." Star wondered where he was going with this.

"When a unicorn foal is born, the horn is small and can easily be hidden in the mane, but it is hard to hide a nice set of wings, such as the pair you have. So a pony would have to find a foal similar to you in order to change who went to who." He turned his attention to the Selle side. "Isn't that right Snow Drifter?"

The room looked around, whispering and muttering things as they turned towards Snow Drifter.

She shifted in her seat. "What are you getting at? This isn't my trial. It's that Alicorn's."

"Ah but that's part of my point. Snow Drifter, were you not angry at your husband Cloud Heart for having a daughter with Sapphire Sparkle, the ponyville jewler, who is also your twin sister?"

She stiffened. "That's not relevant here."

"More than relevant. Miss Star, you can step down, Defense would like to call fourth Rainwing to the stand."

Star stepped down and went back to her seat.

Snow Drifter grit her teeth as she watched Rainwing stand and make her way up, suddenly things didn't look so good for her. How the hell did she get found out? She fixed a cold gaze at the mint colored pony.

Rainwing sat and was sworn in.

"Rainwing yes?"

She nodded.

"You're one of the founders of the amazing Wonderbolts and distant cousin of Princesses Celestia and Luna?"

"Yes." She looked toward Celestia, who nodded.

"You had a foal on December 21st yes?"

"Y...Yes. I did."

"A bouncy baby pegasus?"

She sighed softly.

"What's the matter?"

"Yes and no."

"Yes and no?"

She sighed again. "We went home with a handsome little colt."

"A colt, what's wrong with that?"

"There's nothing wrong with it. But from how my stomach sat while I was with foal I should have had a girl."

Star shifted and looked at Twilight who was just as curious as to where this was going.

"A filly then. But you had a colt instead?"

She nodded.

"But that's not all of it right?"

"On our son's fourteenth birthday, my mother... excuse me, Snow Drifter, revealed to me that I did have a daughter."

"What? How could that be possible?"

"She snuck into the hospital and switched foals."

"Now why would she do that?"

"I don't know, anger, jealously? She never liked me even when I thought she was my mother."

"I see. So payback?"

"Yes."

Snow Drifter glared towards the stand.

"Why would she do that?"

"She and my father could never have children of their own. My real mother had offered to have a child for them. But she resented them for it because my father had been in love with my birth mother."

The Doctor nodded. "Did you ever look for this foal?"

She nodded. "We did, Jet and I. Of course we still loved Thunder and our feelings never changed for him. He was still our son regardless if our blood ran through his veins or not."

"So essentially you raised a foal that was not yours while yours was being raised by another pair of parents some place else."

Rainwing looked at him for a time before her gaze fell to Starstrike.

"During the birthing, you were unable to see your foal afterward correct?"

"Yes, it took a lot out of me."

Jet thought back on that night, the power had gone out when their foal was born due to a strange power surge that to this day no pony had an explanation for.

"The power went out too?"

She nodded. "Yes, no pony knows why it happened. But that didn't really seem too important at the time."

"The power likely went out because of a surge of power going through the building." He turned his attention to Celestia. "When your sister was born, was there anything strange that happened?"

Celestia thought on it. "Yes. The moon came up as if willed by her birthing."

"And now she brings the moon up on her own. Interesting." He pulled out some papers from a bag he carried. "Before December 21st, there were only three constellations visible in the night sky in Ponyville. On the night of the 21st, suddenly residents were seeing four constellations. Princess Celestia, is it possible that this sudden showing of a new constellation could be because an alicorn was born?"

She nodded. "Quite possible."

"Objection! Where is this going and what does this have to do with that criminal?" Chief Mighty Maille growled out as he slammed his hooves into the table.

"Yes Time Turner, what are you getting at?" Celestia inquired.

"Ah yes, my point. The point is essentially that Starstrike was raised by the wrong family."

Rain locked eyes with Star.

Star stared at her in return, frozen in place.

"But what does this have to do with this trial?" The Chief yelled again.

"Ugh fine, you want to ruin all my fun. I'll get straight to it then. Starstrike couldn't possibly have murdered her parents, because one they aren't even her parents and two, those two aren't dead."

"What! You're calling us liars! We saw their bodies, utterly decayed."

"Yes, that's exactly what I'm calling you lot. Princess Luna, if you could ever be so kind."

Luna came into the room then followed by the magically detained Petal Dancer and Dusty Flint. She dropped them in the center of the court room in front of the judge's stand.

Star stood up and stared at them, neither one looked crippled or injured, in fact they looked like they were in perfect health.

"You see, Petal Dancer and Dusty Flint, hated Starstrike so much that they faked being ill and crippled just to force her into further servitude, but when she ran off, they came together and got a good bit of the town behind them in the plot to make her suffer more. And that's when they were contacted by Snow Drifter, who told them where Star was and reported that she was living a peaceful life in Ponyville. Of course, Petal and Dusty couldn't have that could they?"

The two in question struggled to get free.

Star stood up and went to them, even though they hurt her, she helped them get freedom. "Why... why would you do this?"

Petal slapped her down the moment she was free. "Why? Because you're a disgrace to us, an alicorn. If you were born normal we wouldn't have had to return home in shame."

Star winced just as the Ponyville side erupted from what just happened.

Celestia pounded the gavel again for order.

The Doctor continued. "But why oh why would Snow Drifter tell them anything? Because she kept more than enough good tabs on Starstrike and her situation. She knew who she was, in fact there's even a paper trail." He looked to the two earth ponies. "You've been receiving very generous donations from an entity known as SD for some time, the only thing they wanted in return was pictures of the filly. You never questioned the motives, but you did what you were asked because the money was just right for two very greedy and self-centered ponies. You were so closed-minded in your beliefs that you didn't see the real gift you had in front of you."

Celestia stared coldly at the Selle village ponies. "As this trial has been based on cruel lies, I declare Starstrike not guilty, as for you Chief Mighty Maille, Petal Dancer, Dusty Flint and Snow Drifter." She began to speak but was cut off by Star.

"Princess." She went to the stand and shook her head. "Let them go. They wanted to make me miserable and it failed, I think that's punishment enough for them."

Celestia stared at her for a time before sighing. "Very well. Thanks to the kindness of this mare I will let you go."

The Doctor went to Star's side. He gave her a goofy grin.

She made a face. "You had me worried there."

"Sorry, took a bit longer than I wanted to, but the time had to be right."

"You purposely dragged this out didn't you just so you could have a dramatic moment." She didn't look amused.

He laughed nervously.

She hit him.

He rubbed at his muzzle. "S...Star! Don't be cross with me." He almost pouted.

She rolled her eyes at him.

As the court room was dispersing, a few ponies remained.

Thunder felt ashamed at the sort of parents he really came from, he was glad that he had grown up with Rain and Jet, but he felt bad for their actual mare. To have grown up with his birth parents must have been horrible. He went towards the group with Jet in front of him.

Jet and Rain were both hesitating to go forward to Star.

The Doctor hadn't actually noticed that they were slowly being crowded around, his attention was all on Star. He moved a bit closer and opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted.

"Starstrike... was it?"

Star turned to the voice and looked at Rainwing and Jet Breeze. She felt warmth radiating from them.

Jet turned to the stallion known as the Doctor. "Was all that true or just a way to get her out of trouble?"

"Oh no, the whole lot of it was true I assure you." He grinned.

Jet contemplated the situation before turning to Rainwing. He nuzzled her and motioned for her to get closer.

Rain took in a deep breath and went towards her, honestly nervous, of course what mother wouldn't be? Would her long lost child accept her, want to know her?

The Doctor butted against Star.

She stumbled forward a bit and looked back at the Doctor, who only grinned and nodded reassuringly.

Rain looked the mare over, she was far more beautiful than she could have ever imagined.

The two surrounded her, gently and slowly touching her mane, feeling her face. Star felt the tears well up in her eyes as the others left the room, giving them time to acquaint themselves.

Once outside the Doctor looked in on the family and felt his hearts sink. "Good bye Starstrike..." He whispered softly as he made his way off.

Twilight watched him go.

He made his way to the TARDIS. Star's life was going to be for the better now, no reason for him to stick around her now that she had found her place. No use getting emotional now, they all leave you in the end don't they Doctor? He smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes as he entered the TARDIS. He trotted to the console and started finding his next destination. Giving a long look at the door, he shook his head and pulled the lever, sending himself to another great adventure.