He had to admit - Class Action surely had the nerve. Sometimes, the nerve was all it took to succeed in court. Blueblood had no doubt that if not for his intervention, Applejack`s confrontation with Class Action would`ve ended up in... miscarriage of justice, let`s say. The summons had been sent with every intention to deny Applejack as much time as possible. Mailed on Friday evening with the court date set for Monday - De jure it allowed the two days. De facto, the letter was likely to languish at the post office until Monday morning. It was pure luck Applejack was passing by the post office and decided to come in to procure some post stamps on Sunday. If not for that, farmer would`ve probably gotten the news in the morning mail - leaving her scant hour to make herself presentable and make an appearance in town hall.
Prince looked over the itinerary hastily provided by Mayor Mare. He felt slightly bad about dragging the mare into the office on her day off, but he needed to hedge the bets. "Book Thrower, eh..." - he muttered. Ponyville had no permanent judge in residence - normally, Mayor Mare served as Justice of the Peace for the town. In this particular issue, however, Class Action had arranged for a visiting judge. On base level, Blueblood understood the reasoning for this action quite fine - visiting judge would both deprive Applejack of an advantage of a familiar (and thus sympathetic) judge and scare everypony involved even further. As far as prince could make it, the last time the town saw a visiting judge was a murder back when Mayor Mare was but a foal without a mark.
"I daresay, this is highly irregular." - opined the aforementioned mare, adjusting her pince-nez, - "I would even go as far as to say underhanded. It`s as if all those papers were intentionally sent to arrive on the weekend to catch us on the back, as it were." Twilight nodded from the other corner of the office, where she was scanning through the thick binder. "I`m afraid it is exactly as you say." - she offered in a clipped tone, pulling another paper out of the binder - "If I were to hazard a guess, the intention was to catch us all literally in our beds and slap poor Applejack with court order before we could get our hooves on the ground."
"Speak of the..." - began Blueblood as the door swung open. Applejack walked in, holding a scrapbook in her mouth. "Now, Ah donno if that there thing`s gonna be useful or not, but..." - she began, spitting out scrapbook on the table, - "Granny Smith gone and done found all them photos we made of that confound contest." Twilight`s horn lit up, several photos floating out of the scrapbook and joining the papers she plucked from the binder. "Perfect." - she exclaimed, stacking them neatly into a separate folder, - "Civil Act, I think this is it. Big Macintosh rather diligently noted down the amount of apples "wasted" on the contest. Between that, the photos and the testimony of the witnesses, we can explain the real sequence of events in enough detail to satisfy any reasonable inquiry."
Mayor Mare and Blueblood simultaneously heaved a little sigh. "What?" - Twilight was perplexed by the reaction. Mayor Mare responded first - "Ah, the idealism of youth... Miss Sparkle. As much as I would love to live in the world where only reason and common sense decide what happens in court, we have to make do with reality." Blueblood took over - "Unfortunately, having the evidence is only half of a job. Their claim is that Applejack had an oral contract with Flim and Flam. As in, gave her word. And none of the proofs you have can be used to demonstrate that Applejack said nothing of a sort. No, this is certainly helpful for the case, but it`s not a legal cure-all you think it is."
"Ah getcha." - offered Applejack suddenly, - "But how do we nail them varmints, then?" Prince shrugged slightly - "The exact process remains to be seen. I can tell you something off the bat first, though. This Book Thrower character? I know him, a little. He has rather short patience for a judge and he tends to "throw a book" at those who in his eyes are trying to confuse or filibuster the court. So, if you have to testify... And it`s a certain thing that you, miss Applejack, will have to, mind... Well, when you are testifying, do your best to keep your answers short and clear. If at all possible, do try to behave like your brother - the less you say without prompting, the less of a chance Class Action will twist something you say to her own advantage." Orange mare nodded resolutely - "Ah`m not gonna give them miscreants the time of a day, Ah swear."
Blueblood nibbled his lip thoughtfully. "While this is a commendable sentiment, I think I need to warn you further." - he offered, setting the itinerary aside, - "You did not sign any papers, and I doubt Class Action would be brazen enough to show up with obvious forgery. No, she will arrive expecting you to be rushed to the court, and she will badger you with questions and insinuations. There`s a good chance she will do her best to get you as angry as she can - angry ponies tend to say things they don`t mean and don`t want to utter. No matter what she may be implying or insinuating, do not rise to her challenge. Ideally you should only glare at her unless me or the judge will ask you to tell the court something. We will rehearse the questions I may be asking later and I`ll coach you and the rest of our witnesses on what they should say and how. If the judge asks you something, answer honestly, but give him only bare bones answer, no more then that."
Mayor Mare shook her head slightly, proffering - "I do believe your attorney has things well in hoof here, miss Sparkle, miss Applejack. Unless there`s something else I may help you with, I`m going to bid you good day and see about getting the town hall ready for the court session tomorrow." Blueblood simply nodded to her. Twilight copied the motion, adding - "Thank you for helping us out. We`ll have this sorted out, I promise."
___
Alarm clock jumped in place... and was immediately stopped by the hoof. Prince had been awake for a good hour now, enjoying his breakfast. Today, it was an apple pie. For a food so pedestrian, it was inexplicably tender, with just a hint of piquant tartness behind the sugary tang. Apparently, there were hidden depths even to simple apples. Try as he might, Blueblood couldn`t help but compare the taste of pie to his previous experience with Applejack`s cuisine. The treats at the Gala tasted awful. Though, maybe he just wanted them to taste awful to begin with. Everything`s so subjective...
Blueblood stretched and doffed his trilby, assuming the Civil Act persona. Two minutes ahead of schedule, perfect. He saluted his mirror image sardonically and walked out. Twilight was already waiting for him, apparently, if the sound of pacing behind the door was of any indication. Normally, Twilight, Applejack and the rest of their friends would be at the town hall early... but stallion insisted they should not be there rather emphatically. "No need to show our hand prematurely." - he proffered, - "Let Class Action think she caught us belly-up. The joke`s going to be on her once we`re done."
As he predicted, Class Action, Book Thrower, Flim and Flam disembarked from the morning train and made a beeline to the town hall. Mayor Mare was already there, and her part would be to keep everypony inside the town hall. Any minute now... Aha! The door opened slightly and a pinto colt slipped out, trotting towards the library jauntily. Stallion stepped aside and pushed the door ajar slightly, letting Pipsqueak into the library. "Missus Applejack, Mayor Mare asked me to tell yew to come to the Town Hall." - little colt reported, beaming as Pinkie Pie offered him a lollipop for a job well done.
"Let`s go, everypony." - the prince proffered, smirking, - "Let`s show the guests how the laws work in Equestria."