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Meet the Chief2,794 words
Donut Break2,514 words
Meet Your Client2,687 words
Justifiable Property Damage1,714 words
Other Duties As Assigned2,211 words
<Deleted>1,885 words
Be Prepared For Anything1,843 words
The First Testimony2,078 words
The First Cross-Examination3,021 words
The First Crime Scene Investigation2,213 words
The First Channelling1,597 words
Workplace Drama2,636 words
Hidden Contract Terms2,098 words
The First Culprit2,730 words
The First to Snap3,223 words
Epilogue1,209 words

Meet Your Client

Phoenix and Faerie Dust had only made it one block closer to the office when they heard sompeony shout. A grey pegasus swooped out of a nearby alley, only barely able to save himself from smashing into a wall by kicking off of it. Then a lariat, nearly invisible in the night, ensnared one of the pegasus’ wings and tightened, yanking the pegasus downward. Something snapped and the pegasus cried in pain as he hit the ground.

Phoenix gasped and hurried to the side of the gray pegasus. It was the one from the park. “Are you okay?” Phoenix asked.

“Whadda youse think?” he shouted back, but there was fear in his eyes. His sides were heaving after the fast flight.

“Don’t waste yer pity sugarcube,” another voice called from down the alley.

Phoenix looked up to see an orange, blonde-maned mare wearing a cowmare hat step out of the alley. She walked over to the downed pegasus and planted one hoof on his back.

“What’s the big idea!?” Faerie Dust demanded of the mare.

But Phoenix was wide-eyed and a little star struck. “You’re… you’re Applejack.”

“Reckon so,” Applejack said.

“I… I’m a huge fan of what you’ve done,” Phoenix said.

“Aw, shucks, what we did with the elements t’weren’t nothing…” Applejack started to protest.

“I meant your apples, but, um, y-yeah, that other part was cool too,” Phoenix said, rubbing his spikey mane and blushing a little.

“And why did you assault this random pony then?” Faerie Dust said.

“Citizen’s arrest. Fetch a cop before Ah’m his next victim,” Applejack said.

Faerie Dust opened her mouth to argue.

“Dusty!” Phoenix said. “Do it. Somepony was clearly in the wrong here.”

Faerie Dust glowered at Phoenix. “But I-”

“The quicker you go the quicker you’ll be back asking questions. Just go. I’ve got this,” Phoenix said, though what he ‘got’ he wasn’t sure.

Faerie Dust’s expression softened and she sped off.

“Y-youse can’t,” the grey pegasus said, squirming in an attempt to get away.

“Lie still you murderer,” Applejack said, pressing down harder on his back.

“Murder?” Phoenix said, whirling around. “Here? Now?”

“…Not here. Back a little ways at… at the donut shop.” Recalling the location seemed to trigger bad memories for AJ; her eyes widened slightly and her gaze became distant as her jaw slackened a little. “M-mind holding him down for me?” she asked, shaking.

Phoenix gently pushed the orange mare over to a wall. “Sit down. It’s okay. It’ll be okay.”

“Thanks, sugarcube…” Applejack sunk to the floor and stared ahead at nothing, eyes moist.

The grey pegasus struggled to his hooves and started leaving.

Phoenix walked over and stepped on the loose tail of the lariat, putting pressure on the pegasus’ injured wing and making him yelp. “Stop running away. Did you really kill somepony?”

“No!” the pegasus protested, looking panicked. “I never hurt anypony! I just found the body. Youse gotta believe me!”

“I do,” Phoenix said reassuringly. “You didn’t seem the type. ...It’s funny, but I never asked before: what’s your name?”

“No time; gotta run,” the pegasus continued, eyes darting around in search for an escape. “Youse know they have jails here? If they catch me I’ll be gone forever…”

“No, no, that’s not how it works here.” Phoenix put a foreleg around the gray pegasus’ shoulder. “You’re from Las Pegasus, right?” The strange pegasus nodded. “You’re not used to a legal system are you?” Head shake. “Then I can explain. My name is Phoenix Flight; I’m a defense attorney. When ponies are wrongfully arrested, it’s my job to help free them again. As long as you’re not guilty you should have nothing to worry about. This should be over in a few days and afterwards you’ll be able to keep living in Canterlot. If you leave now you’ll have to stay on the run and you’ll never be able to prove you never murdered anypony. Understand?”

The grey pegasus’ eyes narrowed. “Sounds too good to be true. Youse freed ponies from jail many times before?”

Phoenix winced visibly. “Um. No. Not personally. Never been to trial. B-but there’s lots more defense attorneys in Canterlot and they all do this lots of times. The point is you don’t have to keep running. Okay?”

The gray pegasus sat down, sighed heavily, and draped a forehoof over his face. “I’m so… tired…” His breathing grew ragged, like he was fighting tears.

Phoenix sat beside him and put one foreleg around the pegasus’ shoulders. “It’ll be okay. I’ll do whatever it takes.” A moment later, he said, “So… you know my name. What’s yours?”

The gray pegasus seemed more in control of his emotions now. “Sky. Twilight Sky.” He took his hoof away from his face.

Alright… Phoenix thought to himself. If I’m going to have anything to offer him, I need information first. Luckily I have two witnesses right here…

“So can you tell me what happened, while the memories are still fresh?” Phoenix Flight said.

“I’m not even completely sure what happened yet…” Twilight Sky said. “But I’ll do my best. I was walking home from my job when a policemare suddenly shouted ‘Hey, follow me, I need help over here!’”

“A policemare…? What did she look like?”

Twilight Sky started into the distance. “Um… in uniform. Grey I think. It was dark; the streetlight was out.”

Phoenix nodded. Right, the power outage Shocking Snap had started probably affected the nearby streetlamps.

“Then what happened?” Phoenix Flight said.

“She ran into the donut shop… I was a bit behind her. It was completely dark inside. When I followed her in I nearly tripped over something, so I bent down to pick it up and…” Twilight Sky swallowed and stared down at his hooves. Phoenix hadn’t noticed, but they were lightly stained with blood. “It… it was her. She was… already dead…”

“Stop. You followed the policemare inside, and then she was dead on the floor when you walked in?” Phoenix Flight said.

Twilight Sky nodded numbly.

“Just how long did it take you to get there?” Phoenix pressed.

“Just a few seconds,” Twilight Sky said, shaking his head. “It was all so fast…”

Phoenix chewed his lower lip. Well, that didn’t seem likely, but Twilight certainly wasn’t lying. “And was there anypony else in there?”

“It was dark, so I guess anypony could have been hiding in there,” Twilight Sky said.

“But did you hear or see anypony or anything that might have indicated how she was killed?”

Twilight Sky shook his head. “Not that I can remember…”

“Okay. Sit tight. I’m going to talk with Applejack and get her side.” Phoenix Flight stood up and started walking over to the orange mare.

Twilight Sky stuck a hoof out and stopped Phoenix. “Sh-she’s wrong. I swear I didn’t kill nopony.” His eyes were full of fear.

Phoenix felt nothing. He didn’t feel ill or disgusted at Twilight Sky’s words. If his intuition meant anything, it meant that Twilight Sky was as honest as a pony could be.

“I believe you,” Phoenix said. “One hundred percent. But if I’m going to help you I need all the information I can get. Okay?”

Twilight Sky slowly nodded.

“Don’t worry. I’ll do whatever I can,” Phoenix Flight said.

He crossed the alley to sit by the side of the shivering, glassy-eyed mare. “Hey. How are you?”

Applejack shook her head without looking at Phoenix.

“The police are going to want a statement from you, which will be important in getting the bad guy caught. Might want to collect your thoughts.”

“Ah know what Ah saw,” Applejack said firmly.

“Could you repeat it to me?”

Applejack looked up and pulled her lips back in a snarl. “You think Ah can’t hear what’s happening less than a holler away? Ah may be country educated but Ah’m not stupid. Ah heard you plan on getting that good fer nuthin’ murderer off scott free.”

“It… it’s not like that,” Phoenix said.

“What is it like?” Applejack snapped. “Ah know what Ah saw. Ah saw that monster holding up that poor girl. Ah saw nopony else in the whole entire restaurant.”

“Nopony? You’re sure?” Phoenix said. “Not under the tables or in the corners or anything else?”

“Ah wasn’t sitting there gaping or nuthin’. Right after that Ah charged in to capture the murdering varmit… though Ah did a poor job of it and he ran a ways away. But while Ah was chasing him we ran all the way around that place and there weren’t nary a soul.”

Again, Phoenix felt nothing. This mare wasn’t disgusting him. If anything, she was beautiful.

And Twilight Sky had testified to the same thing, at least as far as the empty restaurant and timeline went. But he was insistent he hadn’t killed anypony, while Applejack insisted he had.

Phoenix couldn’t detect whether ponies were saying things that were factually inaccurate per se; his instincts only seemed to center around whether the speaker was intentionally speaking something other than what they believed was the truth. Neither Twilight nor Applejack were intentionally trying to mislead him, but one of them had to be mistaken. And it was more likely that AJ would be mistaken about this than Twilight Sky… right?

“Freeze, lawbreaker!”

Phoenix Flight barely had time to turn around before he was slammed into the ground, his hoof twisted behind his head and held in an iron grip.

Faerie Dust cried out somewhere out of his field of vision. “No! That’s my friend! The murderer is the grey one!”

“….Oh.” Phoenix’s attacker instantly released his hoof and hopped off.

“Ow ow ow ow…” Phoenix whimpered to himself, rubbing his ankle. He looked over to see Angel, the cop from the donut place, pounce on the terrified Twilight Sky and cuff his hooves and wings together faster than seemed equinely possible. Twilight Sky howled in pain as she roughly cuffed his injured wing.

“Oh, stop whining; I didn’t hurt you, you crybaby,” Angel said. To Twilight Sky she said, “You have the right to remain silent; anything you say can and will be used against you in court.”

This possibility caused Twilight Sky to look wildly between Angel and Phoenix.

Phoenix scrambled to his hooves and limped over to the pair. “Stop ow stop, I’m his defense attorney s-so you have to talk to him through me…”

Angel Star wheeled around so fast Phoenix had to duck to avoid getting smacked in the muzzle. “Take a hike you scumbag lawyer!”

“Angel…” the other cop, the tan stallion dressed in white, stumbled over, panting heavily. “You’ve gotta stop dashing off like that… We’re supposed to be partners…”

“You’ve gotta start acting faster!” Angel Star screamed at him. “If you weren’t such a slowpoke maybe poor Cinder would still be alive!” She turned and dug her forehoof into Twilight Sky’s neck. “Although we know who deserves the real blame for that…”

“Angel Angel Angel stop stop stop you can’t torture criminals no matter how mad you are or the case is going to get thrown out and right in front of his attorney too…” Goody Shoes whined ineffectually.

“I hate Canterlot!” Angel Star shouted, turning away from Twilight Sky to punch a building instead. “I hate so many laws and I hate lawyers and I hate bureaucracy and I h-hate that she’s gone…” She slid down to sit on the ground, sobbing.

Goody Shoes looked from the still-rattled Applejack to the hoofcuffed Twilight Sky to his sobbing partner and then gave Phoenix a lost look.

“Don’t look at me,” Phoenix said. “So… the victim was Cinder, a policepony?”

Goody Shoes nods. “So, um, are you going to make trouble? Because I need some space to process everything…”

Phoenix Flight took a step back.

“I mean like do paperwork,” Goody Shoes said. “You can stop by the detention center in… oh… You might have to wait until the morning…”

“Just don’t hurt him,” Phoenix said.

“Not unless we have to,” Goody Shoes said wryly.

“Can I have a moment to calm him down?” Phoenix asked.

“If you can,” Goody Shoes said.

“You can come with; I’m not going to whisper secrets to him,” Phoenix said.

The two stallions walked over to the squirming Twilight Sky.

“Hey,” Phoenix said, “I’m sorry this has happened to you but I’ll do my best to end it fast…”

Twilight Sky met his eyes. “Thank you. It means a lot…”

“But…” Phoenix swallowed. “I… I have to leave for now. You’ll be with Officer Goody Shoes and he won’t let Angel hurt you again.”

“I’m more angry for youse’s sake than mine,” Twilight Sky said, looking at Phoenix’s hoof.

“Ah, I shouldn’t whine about this,” Phoenix said, blushing. “A-anyway, I’ll see you in the morning. Don’t worry.”

“Okay. I’ll see youse then,” Twilight Sky said.

“Take care of yourself.” Phoenix turned to Goody Shoes. “And make sure you explain how jail works. Every part of it. He’s from Las Pegasus where jail isn’t a thing; don’t assume he has common knowledge…”

“Okay, okay,” Goody Shoes said.

“I mean it; even if you think he’s a killer…”

“I don’t mistreat criminals; that’s sinking to their level,” Goody Shoes said. He helped Twilight Sky sit in a more comfortable position. “Guess I’ll be seeing more of you then, Ace Attorney.”

“Aw, shucks, no, I’m not that yet…” Phoenix said, blushing and rubbing his spikes.

“We’ll see,” Goody Shoes said.

Phoenix only realized then that Faerie Dust didn’t seem to be around. “Hey, where’s the girl who fetched you…?”

“The dusty-brown one?” Goody Shoes looked around and sighed. “Dang it… she reported the crime so we’ll need a statement. Mind finding her and sending her our way?”

“Okay, fine,” Phoenix said, having no idea where or how to start. Dusty wasn’t the type to wander away after shiny things; if she left it was because she had something she needed to take care of, like…

Oh, duh.

“Which restaurant was the crime scene?” Phoenix asked.

“Pony Joe’s Donut Shop…” Goody Shoe’s eyes widened in horror. “Oh no oh no oh no please tell me she wouldn’t….”

“She may. I’ll hurry.” Phoenix galloped off.

Even a few blocks made him exhausted, but as he stumbled up to the darkened restaurant, panting, he could make out a short, plump pony silhouette wandering around the building.

“Wh-what are you doing!?” Phoenix asked, stumbling up.

Faerie Dust turned to him, her horn lit. “I need to find her…”

“You can’t break into a crime scene or do magic on a crime scene!” Phoenix said. “What happens if they find your magic trace in the area? They’ll be arresting you for murder next!”

“But I have to find her,” Faerie Dust said, tears in her eyes. “It’s my duty as a Faerie. To ensure the dead are heard.”

Phoenix gently folded her into a hug. “I… I’m sorry… but you know…”

“Yeah, I know… Dead ponies aren’t allowed to testify anymore… “ Faerie Dust said. “But if her soul hasn’t moved on yet, she’ll be cold, lonely, powerless, and… and I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t check…”

“We’ll come back tomorrow and find her,” Phoenix said.

“But she’ll be alone all night. If you’d ever been a disembodied soul you’d know how mean it is to make her wait.”

“…Incidentally I have but that’s a story for a different time…” Phoenix said. “But she’ll be fine. Cinder was a cop. She knows how to endure for duty’s sake.”

“Ok.” Faerie Dust turned and shouted over her shoulder, “Hey, Cindy, hear that!?”

“My ears…” Phoenix whimpered, backing out of their hug.

“Nick and I are going to be back tomorrow for you, so hang on! We’ll get you justice!” Faerie Dust turned to Phoenix, smiling again. “Thanks, Nick.”

“And thank you,” Phoenix said as they started to head back to the office.

“What for?”

“Not creating a major incident with law enforcement that would damage my case if not get me tossed out of the legal world completely…”

Faerie Dust booped Phoenix’s nose. “You worry too much.”

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