//------------------------------//
// It's a Long Story 
// Story: Where There is Shadow 
// by firesoxs 
//------------------------------//

Chrysalis and Sombra laughed silently trying not to alert the elderly pony of their presence. Skittish wasn’t really one to poke fun at others misfortune, but the aged stallion was such a nuisance that he allowed himself a muffled chuckle. The elderly equine on the other hand was in no laughing mood, in fact he was furious. He flew into a rage blaming every youth within shouting distance for his grievance. He shook his cane and stomped his hooves, and used language that prompted mares to cover the virgin ears of young fillies and colts. This continued until a pair of guards came to remove him from the building. Once the path was clear the trio was able to leave the premises with no fear. The pony who threw the pie was never identified, but on his way out Skittish did see a rather shifty looking youth leaning against the wall of a nearby doughnut shop.
Now that they were in the heart of Canterlot, Chrysalis and Sombra wasted no time in making their way for the heart of the capital. Soon Sobmra realized that Chrysalis wasn’t leading him to the castle. “Where are you taking me?” he demanded clearly annoyed that he had no control over the situation.
“Well you said we needed to usurp the position of a court member didn’t you. The best place to do that would be at home.”
“So who are we paying a visit to then?”
“Miss Fairchance, she’s the retired Minister of Justice. She may not be an active official but she is still a trusted friend of both princesses, and she is just the sort that would suggest freeing Discord.” 
As they walked through the streets Skittish took time to look at the colorful buildings as they passed by. There were cake shops and cafés, shoe stores and dress shops, doughnut shops and wig stores. There were Museums and art galleries, concert halls and opera houses, there was also a massive park with a zoo and apiary and even a topiary garden. Of course Skittish never saw the zoo or garden, he only knew of there existence because he trusted the signs posted outside the main entrance of the park. 
As they continued towards the residential side of town the buildings became less colorful, mostly because they did not need to catch the eye of would be customers. Of course that isn’t to say that they were uninteresting, many of the buildings were a half-timber style of construction. Meaning the building was constructed of a timber frame and used other materials such as brick and mortar or plaster to fill in the gaps. Many houses constructed in this style had the frame visible from the outside, and these were no exception. Of course if everypony was able to see the frame of your house, why not make it nice to look at. Many of these houses were indeed gorgeous, the crisscrossing timbers made a nice contrast with the white plastered infill. Many of the beams were adorned with ornate carvings of playing ponies and various flora and fauna. Almost all of the houses had colorful flower boxes placed in the windows. In the countryside many ponies kept gardens, however living in the middle of a tight packed city left many with no yards to plant in. as a result they were forced to settle for much smaller window boxes and pots.	The house of Fairchance was a very small and modest cottage that seemed to be squeezed in between two much larger ones. Despite the fact that it had two stories the narrow house looked like it probably consisted of nothing more than a kitchen and a bedroom or two. The outside was very similar to the other houses on the street, only this one had had a set of scales worked into the timbers above the door. “Well this is the place.” Said Chrysalis as she stretched out her hoof to use the gavel shaped door knocker. “Just a minute.” said an old and shaky voice. Chrysalis and Skittish stood waiting for several seconds till they heard the voice again, “I’m almost there.” A long discontented sigh came from under there feet. Skittish looked down to see Sombra’s eyes glaring angrily at the door. “Hold on.” Sombra didn’t say a word for fear of being over heard, but he did roll his eyes. After another long pause they finally heard the old mare say, “Oh forget it! Just come in.” Having been invited in Chrysalis opened the door and entered. The house looked slightly larger on the inside, it was still very narrow but it was long. The kitchen was located at the back of the room and the rest was a sort of sitting area with a small fire place a few pieces of furniture. There were a few book cases and pictures along the walls and a shelf with a gavel and some awards for public service. There was a staircase just to the left of the door that led up to the second story which was assumably the living quarters. About halfway down the stair case was a very old lavender unicorn with a grey mane and a cutiemark identical to the scales over her front door. She was struggling to climb down the steep steps holding onto the railings for dear life. “Well don’t just stand there somepony help me!” she said. Both Chrysalis and her shadow looked at Skittish, nominating him for the task.
Skittish hurried up the staircase and helped the elderly unicorn down the remaining four or five steps. Once they reached the bottom she took a blanket from the back of a chair and put it around her shoulders. “Thank you Dear I can take it from here. I can walk just fine I just wanted a strong stallion like you to help me out.” She chuckled as she walked towards the kitchen. “Would you like some tea?” She didn’t even wait for an answer as she used her magic to take down some tea cups and start the water. “So who are you, and what are you doing visiting an old pony like me?” 
“You’re Miss Fairchance right, the former Minister of Justice?” Chrysalis asked.
“Oh please call me Chancy, I’m not that fair anymore.” replied the old mare, laughing at her own joke.
“I’m Justice, and this is my friend Longarm. We’re Students in law school and we would like to interview you for an assingment.” Chrysalis said, trying her best to sound polite.
“Oh, of course you can. What is you’re project on?” She asked, clearly excited to help two young ponies trying to make their way in her former profession.
“Well with resent events, our assignment is to ask whether or not our laws and punishments are enough to discourage further incidents.”
“I would be happy to answer any of your questions. Tell me is old Hardtime still there?” Chancy asked as she poured the now boiling water in the teapot with a few tealeaves, and set it on the table to steep.
“Yes, in fact he gave us the assignment.” Chrysalis lied.
“He gave you the assignment? Last I checked he was the dean.”
“Well… you see. We’re conducting an independent study on the pony condition and the impact it makes on society, he’s only our supervisor. Longarm’s dad went to school with Dr. Hardtime so he insisted on giving him a leg up.” Chrysalis said trying to save there cover.
“Isn’t that just like him trying to poison our countries youth with his corrupt notions.” Chancy grumbled under her breath. “No matter, you’ve come at just the right time. I was expecting a friend at any minute who will make the perfect surprise interview, if you don’t mind that is.”
“Not at all, but what was that you were saying about Hardtime.”
“Oh nothing, just be warned that any favors from him should be treated with extreme caution. You can put as much sugar as you like in a glass of poison but that doesn’t make it any less deadly.” She said in that tone that the elderly usually take whenever they address a serious matter.
“Sounds like you have a bad history with him.” Chrysalis said.
“Oh, you don’t want to hear an old mare like me tell a long story like that.”
“We’ve got some time to kill waiting for your friend, indulge us.” Chrysalis leaned in with faux anticipation.
“Well it started in law school, we both started the same year and for awhile we hardly noticed each other, we shared a few classes and that was it. One semester we were partnered up for an assignment and after we passed that class we continued to study with each other. Eventually our relation ship became romantic and after a year of courting he proposed to me, I said yes, but on the condition that we wait till after we had a steady career to get married. 
We graduated at the top of our class and started work as prosecutors, mostly small cases but we were thrilled to be doing our part for society. After several months Hardtime got a seemingly small case that turned into a high profile murder trial that became national news. He won the case, but after that he was never the same he became more concerned with winning cases and making friends in high cases than the truth. He wasn’t the Stallion I remembered and I couldn’t bear to look at what he had become. I had to break off the engagement for both our sakes. He didn’t take the breakup very well, he fell into a deep depression and started drinking. He got back on his feet a few months later but he was diferent, he was even more determined to make it big and climb the ladder, he wanted show me that he didn’t need me to be happy.
After I left Hardtime I tried my hardest to be as fair and just as I could in my cases, eventually my superiors took notice and offered me opportunities to make a real difference in the world, and when I couldn’t reach my goals my peers would offer me a boost. Meanwhile Hardtime took a darker approach to politics, he lied to, cheated, or stepped on anypony who got in his way. He double crossed backstabbed and blackmailed his way to the top whenever he got the chance to hurt me. Eventually I made it to Minister of Justice and he cashed in whatever favors he had left to get a position at our alma mater. Having failed to best me himself he now tries to get his students to do what he never could.” Chancy seemed sad as she finished he story, although she had been hurt by Hardtime she still seemed to feel sorry for him and hope that one day he would see the error of his way.
“Well that took forever. You’d better do what ever it is you’re going to do before her friend shows up.” Sombra whispered.
“Well you supposed to grab her while I had her distracted.”
“What was that Dearie? I’m a little hard of hearing.” asked Chancy pointing at her ear.
“Nothing, I was just thinking out loud.” Chrysalis said, trying not to betray he deceit.
“I thought I herd your friend say something but I didn’t see him move his lips.” Skittish was sweating bullets as Chancy looked him up and down, so much so that he worried that the hoof polish in his coat would start to run. There cover was blown he was sure of it. at first Skittish thought that it would be a good thing to get caught because he would finally be rescued, but then he thought harder and realized that even if Chancy did manage to alert the authorities he would probably end up as a hostage. Hostage situations usually ended in the hostages favor but somehow he didn’t think it would if his current captors were involved. 
Chancy looked harder and harder at Skittish and opened her mouth to say something but before she got a word out she was interrupted by a knock at the door. “Oh, that must be my friend at the door! No need to get up I’ll get it.” Skittish breathed a sigh of relief as Chancy got up answer the door.