Fluttershy and Phoenix had just reached a narrow side trail when they both heard something—or somepony—coming quickly up the path, just out of sight around a trail bend. “Do I hear galloping?” the human lawyer asked as the distinct four-beat gait noise got louder.

“It’s not me…” Fluttershy stated, stopping beside Phoenix.

“It’s getting closer…” Phoenix swallowed, still on edge.

“I can see somepony coming this way,” Fluttershy announced, and Phoenix could see indistinct movement behind the brush that hid the bend as well.

What if it’s the one who attacked me? I really hope I don’t have to fight a pony! Phoenix tensed and clenched his fists, readying to meet a charge. As the galloping pony came into sudden view, Fluttershy was surprised and Phoenix was stunned as her identity was revealed to be…

TWILIGHT!

The violet unicorn skidded to a stop in front of them, her eyes wide as saucers, the saddlebags she was carrying flying right off her back from the sudden stop. “Fluttershy? Ph-Phoenix?!” she recognized the pair in shock, breathing hard like she’d ran the whole way there.

Phoenix felt his legs go weak at the sight of her. “Uh, heya...” was all he managed to say, giving her a weak wave.

The violet unicorn didn’t answer except to pant and stare dumbly at the two of them… leaving it to Phoenix to finally break the awkward silence. “Twilight, please listen… I know you really must not like me after what I did today, but I can explain,” he bowed his head to her as Fluttershy stepped in front of him protectively, flaring her wings and speaking directly to her friend.

“Mr. Phoenix was only trying to help, Twilight. He never meant to hurt anypony,” the pretty pegasus defended him.

The violet unicorn’s eyes locked with those of Phoenix for a second, just long enough for the human lawyer to see the jumble of emotions there, anger, confusion and relief all present at once. “Let’s go back to the library; I don’t think it’s a good idea to stay in this forest,” Twilight suggested between breaths, picking the saddlebags back up with her magic and placing them on her back.

“Yeah, I agree” Phoenix said dryly, thinking he was going to forever be seeing the Everfree Forest in his nightmares… and Fluttershy in his dreams. The three of them immediately left the woods, Fluttershy behind and Twilight in the lead, the two bracketing the human lawyer like bodyguards as they went out.

Despite Twilight’s desire to return to the library immediately, they stopped by Fluttershy’s cottage after they left the forest so she could treat Phoenix’s head wound.

Once she had him inside, the pegasus pony clucked over him like a mother hen, giving him an icepack and a herbal balm which she mixed into a cup of surprisingly good tea. While she ministered him, Twilight sat silently a respectful distance away, giving the human lawyer an occasional concerned look or glower, quickly averting her eyes whenever he turned her way.

When Phoenix idly mentioned that he wished he had more of the medication he’d taken earlier, the violet unicorn got an alarmed look, searched her saddlebags and pulled out the pill bottle Sonata had given him.

Though confused as to why she had it, he confirmed he had taken two of the pills. Twilight was aghast, telling him it was not ‘aspirin’ but a heavy prescription painkiller that had a stiff dose of magic attached. It worked almost instantly, but also had side effects ranging from excessive mellowness to impaired decision-making, and she wasn’t at all happy he had taken it without consulting a doctor… or her. '

Phoenix gave her a goof grin but was inwardly chagrined. Just been one bad choice after another today. Wait… did taking that stuff affect my decision to go into the forest? he belatedly wondered, also remembering how mellow he’d felt immediately after popping the pills, having few qualms about having Pinkie’s head in his lap.

His immediate injuries taken care of, he stepped outside at Twilight’s request, sitting on the porch sipping his tea while the violet unicorn spoke to Fluttershy alone. To his surprise, a dozen or more of her animals approached, everything from birds to bunnies peering at the human lawyer curiously. A couple of the more adventurous ones even came up to him, a squirrel going so far as to sit on his knee. Enchanted, he gently rubbed and scratched its ears, wishing he had something to offer them, though he noticed a white-furred rabbit off to the side giving him a decidedly dirty look.

Ten minutes later, Twilight and Fluttershy emerged onto the front porch, Fluttershy giving him a reassuring smile while Twilight seemed to him like she was still wasn’t sure what to think. The pink-maned pegasus gave him a small care basket full of her garden-grown vegetables and some additional herbs to take with tea later on. He thanked her, apologizing again and telling her truthfully he thought she was the most kind, beautiful and wonderful creature he’d ever met. She blushed at his compliments, rearing up and opening her forelegs as if to embrace him, flaring her wings for balance. Delighted, he got on his knees to return the hug, his left hand caressing the area beneath her right wing while his right ran gently but reverently through the gloriously soft feathers of her left.

He didn’t see her eyes widen in surprise but heard her sudden, shuddering breath. “EEP!” she gasped and pulled away from him, her wings suddenly going stiff as boards. The pegasus pony stared at him wide-eyed, her yellow cheeks flushed as pink as her hair, then ran back inside her cottage and slammed the door, leaving Phoenix taken aback and bewildered.

What? What did I…? he looked at Twilight for an explanation, but the violet unicorn was likewise blushing, looking at him in a mixture of anger, embarrassment and… jealousy? “Let’s just go to the library before you get into any more trouble, okay?” she suggested with very strained patience, leading him on a very silent and awkward walk back into town.

Arriving at her library home, Twilight sat the human lawyer down on the lounge sofa and gave him a brief overview of pegasus anatomy, emphasizing how… sensitive their wings and flight muscles were and that they were not to be touched ‘without express permission’; Phoenix read between the lines and was horrified to realize that by running his hands over them, he had in effect felt the shy pegasus up.

Profusely apologizing, he played a hunch and asked her if the same held true for unicorn horns, remembering her reaction to him almost touching it in the clearing the previous night.

The sudden flush of her cheeks answered for her; she looked away in renewed anger and embarrassment as a pink glow briefly enveloped her horn. That sparked another set of memories; he recalled how her horn aura had gone pink at least twice after he had nearly touched it, and how she was acting almost flustered around him afterwards and several times that morning before and during the trial. His eyes widened—wait… does that mean Twilight…? he couldn’t bring himself to finish the thought; the two dropping the subject in mutual discomfort.

Composing herself, Twilight floated him her saddlebags, telling him she and Pinkie had caught his assailant as he had tried to exit the forest, and she had recovered his possessions and evidence then. He was very relieved to have the Magatama back, returning it to its customary place in his inner jacket pocket, not noticing the violet unicorn eying it suspiciously as he did so.

Finally, the moment he had been both praying for and dreading arrived. Phoenix apologized for his actions at the trial, explaining his reasons and rationale, detailing everything that was going through his head at the time and emphasizing how ashamed he was of himself for it. Twilight listened silently, never interrupting, sitting down on a rug in the center of the room but looking away, keeping her ears instead of her eyes trained on him.

Ten minutes later, he had reached the end of his story. “So… that’s why I did that. I know it wasn’t fair to Fluttershy, and I hated myself for doing it—I still do. But if I had just sat there and done nothing… Rainbow Dash would have been found guilty right there on the spot,” he concluded, feeling numb.

“I see…” Twilight finally spoke, still looking away, her voice betraying no emotion.

Phoenix took a deep breath, uncertain whether she had accepted his explanation or not. “So… do you still want to fire me?” he asked her directly, deciding to force the issue.

Twilight’s head shot up. “H-how did you~”

“Fluttershy told me,” Phoenix said simply, leaning forward on the couch. “Look… I can't complain if you do—I certainly deserve it after this morning. But I have to warn you… Trixie is one tough customer," he told her. “I underestimated her. Despite all my experience, she managed to trump everything I threw at her. In fact… she could have easily overruled my feather theory, since it was all just theory,” he knew, shaking his head slowly.

“Wh… What?!” Twilight looked back at him in shock.

“I have a feeling the only reason she let me to do that was to see another of your friends in jail," he nodded grimly. “She’s going to go all-out tomorrow. So if you’d like to take over… I have to warn you about that,” Phoenix informed her, giving the violet unicorn a level look.

Twilight looked visibly confused, sitting back heavily on her haunches and looking down at the floor. “I… I don’t know what I should do…” she admitted, her eyes glistening.

He felt a pang of sympathy for the violet unicorn, resisting the urge to go over and comfort her—definitely not a good idea at that moment, he knew. “Twilight… if you really want to defend Rainbow Dash, at least allow me to do one more thing for you,” Phoenix offered, opening his palms to her.

The violet unicorn looked up at him in surprise, blinking back tears. “You still want to help? Even after I brought you here against your will? Even after... nearly dying? Even after I was going to fire you?” she asked in disbelief.

He nodded, standing up straight as he answered, clasping his hands in front of him and suppressing a shiver at the memory of his close call. “I’ll do everything I can to help someone who is being accused of a crime they didn’t commit, whether that’s as the defense attorney, co-counsel, or just sitting in the gallery and offering moral support,” he told her fervently. “I know for a fact Rainbow Dash didn’t do anything wrong. And I know of a certain pony who knows a lot more than she’s letting on,” he claimed.

Twilight nodded slowly at that. “Actually, I do too…” she began, an odd undertone in her voice. “Phoenix, tell me… that thing you mixed in the evidence before the trial this morning… that wasn’t a good-luck charm, was it?” she asked, giving him a slightly askance look.

“Why do you ask?” Phoenix responded curiously, his hand going to his chin.

She watched him carefully out of the corner of her eye as she said her next words. “Let’s just say I’ve been seeing a lot of locks today.”

Phoenix gaped, stumbling backwards and nearly barely losing his balance. “Ngh... locks and… chains?” he suggested weakly, feeling suddenly faint and leaning on a bookshelf for support.

Her head shot up. “See, I knew you knew!” Twilight rounded on him. “What was that thing and what did it do to me?!” the violet unicorn demanded to know, approaching him almost menacingly, her head lowered and horn pointed at him.

Phoenix took an involuntary step backwards and held up his hands, suddenly feeling like he looking down the barrel of a loaded gun. “Okay! Okay! I’ll be honest… because if I don’t… I bet you’ll see them around me…” he gulped, going to his inner jacket pocket with a shaking hand.

“I’m listening…” Twilight sat down in front of him as Phoenix took out his relic, the tone of her voice telling him in no uncertain terms to make his explanation a good one.

Gathering himself, he held the comma-shaped gemstone in his palm and knelt down before the violet unicorn to show her.

“You see, it’s called a ‘Magatama’,” he told her, choosing his words carefully. “It’s a tool I use… to see if people are hiding deep secrets from me. But don’t get me wrong! I only use it when I’m investigating crimes,” he quickly added.

“‘Deep secrets’?” Twilight repeated, giving it—and him—a sidewise look.

He nodded. “Think of it as kind of a mystical lie detector. If someone’s keeping a deep secret or hiding the answer to a question, psychic barriers called ‘psyche-locks’ will appear in front of them; the more locks, the deeper the secret,” he explained. “If you break those locks using proof and evidence, chances are the person—or in this case, the pony—will spill the beans.”

“Interesting…” Twilight said, nodding to herself as if something suddenly made sense to her, studying the artifact curiously.

’Interesting’? I thought she’d be mad… Phoenix thought, infinitely relieved she wasn’t.

“What about black ones?” the violet unicorn asked him.

That caught Phoenix’s attention. “Black ones? What do you mean?” he asked her, hand on his chin again.

“There were…” Twilight stopped in mid-sentence as Phoenix raised an inquiring brow. “Never mind,” she shook her head. “So, do you know how that thing’s power got transferred to me?”

He shook his head, relieved she had accepted his explanation so readily—then again, what choice did she have when she didn’t see psyche-locks materialize around him? “Not a clue… It probably had something to do with the way it reacted when you picked it up,” he theorized.

Her horn flared and she cautiously picked the Magatama up, turning it over and probing it gently with her magic. It glowed a weak green within her violet aura, but didn’t flash like it had that morning. “Hmm… I’m sure I can figure out how to return the power it gave me if needs be… but I need this ability right now,” Twilight said, floating it back to him.

He nodded, standing back up and returning the relic to his inner jacket pocket. “Okay. But…” Phoenix decided it was his turn to get some answers. “Since I told the truth and apologized… I expect the same from you.”

“What?” Twilight said, tilting her head up at him.

He crossed his arms, taking on a more stern expression. “You’re not a very good liar, Twilight Sparkle. From the very beginning, I could clearly see that you bringing me here was no accident. You summoned me here on purpose, didn’t you?” Phoenix confronted her.

Her eyes widened, the violet unicorn looking away in telling guilt. She looked as if she was fumbling for a denial for a moment, only to go downcast, sitting back in defeat on her haunches as she realized there was no point. “I’m… that bad at lying, huh?” she asked, her voice wan.

“Yeah, you’re about as thin as Kleenex,” he told her bluntly but not meanly, belatedly wondering if she'd even get the reference. “I mean—’identification spell’? I know you have magic here and all, but that sounds like something a third-grader came up with. I didn’t need the Magatama to know that isn’t a real spell,” Phoenix told her.

Her cheeks flushed in embarrassment at that. “I was told not to say anything… but I suppose I owe you an explanation…” she decided, taking a deep breath as if to steel herself. “Princess Celestia herself told me to summon you and play dumb,” she confessed, looking forlorn.

Phoenix studied her, sensing she was telling the truth; her cheeks seemed to flush a little deeper under his scrutiny. “So you knowing my name, and having that badge prepared…”

She gave a jerky nod. “Yeah. She did all that. But I swear, Phoenix... I didn’t know you were going to be a human from another world!” the violet unicorn insisted, turning her purple eyes back on him.

Phoenix actually deflated at that. That’s a bummer… so I’m NOT the greatest defense attorney in the universe? Darn! I was starting to like that title… he thought in dismay, but also reflecting that he would have had to give the title right back after his poor performance that morning. “But… how does your princess even know me?” he wondered, scratching his chin again.

“I’m a bit sketchy on that detail as well…” she gave him a slightly exasperated look, which Phoenix took to be directed at the princess, not him. “I, too, found it really odd how she knew so much about you and how she was boasting about how good you were. Yet… you acted as if you never met a pony in your life before me,” Twilight recalled.

The human lawyer leaned back against a bookshelf, having yet another mystery added to his list. So how DOES this Princess character know me? I think I’d like to have a chat with Her Highness about this… he thought, idly fingering the attorney badge that had apparently come from her. If nothing else, I’d love to tell her what I think of THIS thing!

“Well, I certainly don’t like the fact I was being deceived by you… but I thank you for telling me the truth,” Phoenix said to her in relief, grateful there were finally no more secrets between them.

“I apologize; I was just doing what the Princess told me to…” Twilight closed her purple and eyes and bowed her head in contrition. “Now all of a sudden I feel really bad for lying…”

He couldn’t help but grin at that, having to catch himself from putting a reassuring hand on her withers. She seems genuinely sorry about it. If I want her forgiveness, I shouldn’t hold it against her… perhaps I should just change the subject. Going back over to the sofa, he started looking through her saddlebag, seeing what she had collected during her own investigation over the past day. “Hmm… so this evidence you found; seems you had a good turnout…” the human lawyer’s eyes widened when he found a piece of torn parchment. “AH!!!”

Twilight started. “What’s the matter?”

“THE OTHER HALF OF THE LETTER!!” Phoenix shouted, holding it in a shaking hand.

“The other half of the letter…?” she repeated, then her eyes widened and she took an almost stalking pose, staring at him from a crouch, her forelegs splayed wide on the floor. “WAIT, YOU HAVE IT!!??” she shouted back.

He nodded quickly. “Yeah, I found it with Pinkie Pie today!” Phoenix dug through the saddlebag containing his evidence until he found the matching piece he was looking for. He gave Twilight his half and let her take hold of it, the violet unicorn connecting the two pieces together with her magic as she read it:

Full Resignation Letter:

“This is my letter stating my permanent Leave of Absence. After the Equestrian 500 is over, I can no longer work with you. We made quite the team, but I can’t live with the guilt any longer. I can’t keep helping you ruin other’s lives. It saddens me beyond belief that we must part ways, but I must say farewell. Goodbye Ace; may our paths cross in the future.”

She looked up when she was finished, finding the human lawyer silent and seemingly deep in thought.

“Someone was quitting their job?” the violet unicorn asked him.

“Yeah… and I think I know who,” Phoenix informed her, nodding slowly to himself.

“Who?” she prompted.

Phoenix shook his head. “I’ll tell you once I confirm my suspicion. You said you had someone to talk to, right? Perhaps we should go our separate ways again,” he suggested.

For a moment, Phoenix thought she was going to object, but the violet unicorn relented. “You’re right. Come back here once you’re done though… you were attacked, after all…” Twilight reminded him, her voice betraying some concern for the human lawyer.

“You have my word…” Phoenix promised. Pausing only to splash water on his face and put his abused suit as much to rights as he could, he left the Library and headed for the place he knew his answers lay. For there was only one pony who could have written that note, only one mare who knew Ace Swift near or far…

His Manager…