"You make sure he's real comfortable now," Orrin declared.
One of the brawny stallions who'd made up the posse, whose coat was as green as grass and his mane slightly darker, shoved Starswirl through the doorway and into an earthen storage room in the town hall's basement. As the wizard regained his footing on the compacted dirt floor, he shook his head to clear it. They'd taken his hat away, saying it didn't fit the decorum of a court appearance--although not in those precise terms--so he had been expecting something slightly nicer than his present environment.
"Well," Tin asked. "What do you have to say now, eh?"
With a huff, Starswirl looked around the stone-walled room and the wooden shelves and stacks of crates, all lit by a single sickly lantern hanging from a hook on the ceiling. When he had taken the environs in, he turned back to Orrin and the brawny stallion, who both stood just inside the room, in front of the heavy oaken door with a rusted iron pull ring.
"I appreciate the hospitality, of course," the wizard said, "but I must confess I was hoping for something with a little bit of a view. Still....I'll give you six bits per week for the room, although I insist I be allowed to bring a pet in."
"One day," Orrin said, "that mouth of yours is gonna land you in some real hot water." He pulled the thick door closed halfway, then turned to the brawny stallion. "The folkmeet ain't for a few hours, so's you stay here and keep an eye on our--heh heh--guest."
Starswirl called out, "Wait."
Orrin Tin reopened the door. "What do you want?"
The wizard cocked his head. "If you're so convinced I'm a serious threat, what with the powerful magic I have at my disposal, what's to stop me from simply hexing him and walking out? You see? Logic dictates there is absolutely no reason to keep me locked in here when I'm free to leave anytime."
The brawny stallion looked at Orrin, who stared back with worry dawning on his face.
Ten minutes later, after they had bound all four of Starswirl's legs with a rusted set of manacles and left him to lie on his side on the earthen floor, the wizard thought to himself, I really shouldn't have said that.
He sighed.
I suppose it was worth a try, although it would behoove me not to let them know I could easily undo these padlocks with my magic. I shudder to think what fate would befall me then.
Starswirl raised his head as far as neck would allow, although his vision was skewed because of his awkward position. He glanced up at his only other companion, the brawny green stallion, who stood in front of the impasse of the locked door with an equally impassive look on his face. When the wizard spotted the three pine trees on his flank, he realized it was the same stallion he'd seen when he first came into town.
"Even if you do bring my bags," Starswirl said gravely, "I do not foresee a healthy tip in your future."
The earth pony took a menacing step forward and snorted aggressively. With considerable menace, he muttered, "You trying to use your magic on me?"
"No, no," Starswirl said, shaking his head rapidly. "No fortunetelling, none at all, er....I'm sorry, what was it? Edwin?"
"Ettin," said the stallion as he stood upright and stared down his snout at the wizard. "Ettin Arcadia."
"Well....Ettin....you can rest assured, there will be no magic on my part. Unless, that is, you consider the mastery of rhetoric to be magic, which I might be inclined to if it will save me from....from....Say, just so I know, what is going to happen next?"
The brawny stallion thought deeply and stoically for a moment, then said, "Folkmeet's gonna figure out what to do with you."
Starswirl forced a beaming smile onto his face. "Yes, thank you for that, but how are they going to do that? Is there, by any chance, a book of your town's laws I could peruse while I'm....laid up? Such as right now?"
"Ain't no such thing."
"Your town has no laws? None whatsoever?"
"Only law is, the folkmeet decides what to do with you."
"And the folkmeet is....?"
"When the folks meet."
Starswirl squeezed his eyes shut and let his head fall until it thumped to the hard dirt. "Thank you. Thank you very much. Is it all the townsponies who will stand in judgment of me?"
"No," Ettin said. "Anytime there's something important needing doing, folks elect three to get it done."
"Do you think you could you at least tell me who the townfolk are most likely to elect?"
Ettin put a hoof to his lower lip and tapped it as he thought long and hard. Finally, he said, "Well, the ponies it's most likely to be are Orrin Tin...."
Starswirl nodded. He'd expected that, naturally.
"Lockhorn Plenty...."
The wizard shrugged, because of course.
"And Jack Apple."
Naturally, Starswirl thought, then, Wait. His ears picked up as he raised his head and asked, "Jack Apple, you said?"
"Oh, yeah. He's real popular round town."
Tavern owners, I find, so often are. Well, this is good. With Jack Apple on my side, I might stand a chance. And since Lockhorn Plenty and Orrin Tin are at each other's necks, it's not inconceivable Lockhorn would vote against Orrin, simply to spite him.
And here I am, disparaging the wondrous power of a personal vendetta! It might just see me through this yet....
Wait, what am I missing? Orrin Tin is not a fool. If a pony such as Ettin Arcadia, whose mental acuity pales in comparison to his physical strength, can deduce the most likely choices, surely Orrin can as well. He wouldn't be so confident if he weren't equally confident about the outcome.
"Are you sure the townsponies would elect Jack Apple?" he asked.
Ettin frowned in deep thought. "Don't see why not. He's usually voted on, unless somepony can prove he ain't fit."
Ah, so that's it. Orrin Tin will claim, since Jack Apple was so 'entranced' by my Foucolt's Pendulum, that obviously he is under my spell, and unfit to preside over my trial.
"Now, just theoretically--"
"What?"
Starswirl grumbled softly to himself, then asked, "What if they didn't choose either of the Apples? Who would be the next likely choice?"
"Hmm....probably Pasture Allfields."
"This pony, this Allfields, what is he like?"
"He's a smart pony, and a good, honest pony, too. We're all good, honest ponies except when some unicorn comes along and starts hexing us--"
The oaken door creaked open and Orrin Tin entered again. He said sharply, "Ettin, I told you to watch him, not strike up a conversation. Now, Starswirl, I've got me some good news. Aha, good news for me, that is."
Starswirl grinned. "You've decided exactly how it is you're going to get Jack Apple eliminated from your triumvirate of judges?"
Orrin Tin's mouth opened as he started to smugly correct Starswirl, then the wizard's words finally hit his brain, and his lower jaw hung open for a moment. Then he snapped it shut and communicated a scathing reproach to Ettin entirely by glower. Once Ettin had borne the full brunt of Orrin's silent rage, the mining magnate turned back to Starswirl and coolly appraised him where he lay on the dirt.
"You think you're so smart....as a matter of fact, I was going to tell you we figured a way you ain't have to be wearing those manacles."
"Oh? Do tell."
Orrin Tin smiled. "Hemlock."
Starswirl could scarcely believe his ears, and in that moment he knew with full certainty his connection to the Harmony had not yet been wholly repaired, because what he heard chilled him to the bone.
Just to be absolutely certain, he asked, "Hemlock?"
"That's right," Tin said with a nod.
Again, to be absolutely certain, Starswirl asked, "The poison?"
Orrin Tin waved a hoof. "That's only in big doses."
"I'm so sorry to have to correct you, but as it's my life in your hooves, I think I should have some say in the matter. Hemlock is only poisonous in tiny doses. What some would laughably consider a 'safe' dose is just slightly less than that."
"Well, that's what you're getting," Orrin sneered. "We figure if'n you're under sedation, then there's no way you'll be able to use your little horn and jinx us all so's you can get off scot-free."
And to make me appear as if I've had a few rounds at the Cider Horse when it comes time to present my defense, Starswirl thought bitterly. I'm sure that crossed your mind as well, Orrin Tin.
He scoffed, which he tried to pass off as an amused laugh, then said, "While I would never suggest you would deliberately try and put me out to, er, pasture in the interests of a fair trial, could I perhaps have the opinion of somepony else before I take a herb that could charitably be described as highly toxic?"
"Now, don't you worry none," Orrin said in a worryingly gleeful tone. "Our village herbalist has done this plenty of times. He's an old hoof at medicinal hemlock."
Starswirl shut his eyes and bit his lip as he searched through the memories of all his old alchemy and chemistry studies, looking for something, anything he could use to work his way out of this. Finally, he hit upon the solution and, straining against his manacles, looked up at Orrin.
The wizard sighed theatrically, to demonstrate that he had accepted his fate, and said, "If you must, but I have a favor to ask."
Orrin's smile dropped. "Oh, yeah? What's that?"
"On the rare occasions I have taken hemlock for its, ha ha, medicinal qualities, I have found the taste most disagreeable, even in an allegedly 'safe' dosage. Could I perhaps have something to wash it down with? A cup of tea, perhaps? And I don't mean mixed with the tea, as that ruins the taste."
They won't allow it, he thought, preparing himself for disappointment. Surely they'll know that stimulants like tea counteract the effects of hemlock?
"Fine," Orrin said.
"And I want it delivered by Carmine. He knows how I like it best."
"Fine then. I'll be back down here in twenty minutes with your hemlock and your....tea."
I'll be waiting, Starswirl thought.
With that, Orrin Tin turned on his hoof and left, slamming the oaken door behind himself with a resounding boom that was deafening in the cramped room.
After a moment of stony silence, Starswirl asked Ettin, "So, how about this fog?"