> Daring Do and the Judge's Gavel > by Ice > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Chapter 1: Court Notice > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1 Daring Do had always seemed to have a bit of bad luck, be it that the store had just run out her favourite honey oats; she lost her favourite hat, again, while exploring some sort of ancient tomb with treasures that would keep her well fed for years.... had she not been found by a certain group of mares which lead to a mass media outbreak about her the author of "Daring Do" was indeed Daring Do herself. So after many trips to several different: towns, villages, cities, beaches, deserted islands etc, she finally managed to set up shop in the sweet, little, cynical, huge city of Manehatten. Unfortunately, when singing the lease for her apartment the names A.K Yearling and Daring Do were synonymous, meaning her fans and any other individuals who wanted to keep tabs on her merely had to look to the newspapers. So we join our great adventurer just as she gets back from... adventuring? * * * "DARING, DARING, DARING WE LOVE YO-" *SLAM* went the door as Daring walked into her small apartment, throwing a bunch of letters onto her food stained table as she land on her couch as she tried to block out the noise of her "loving" fans. Truth was she never really enjoyed the attention from being able to go on these wild adventures of hers, there was always something special about people thinking your exploits were merely some sort of fairy-tail. As though it put her on a sort of plateau above the other adventurers who made it very clear the existed. Groaning, she shifted herself into an upright position as she looked through the bundle of letters. "Lets see here, fan mail, fan mail, more fan mail, rent notice, I'll talk to Mr Pickyhooves about that later, fan mail, cour.... COURT NOTICE!" she screamed dropping all of the other letters as she quickly tore open the envelope and read the letter inside. "Dear Mrs Daring Do/ A.K Yearling, Your (mandatory) attendance at the "Manehattan Civil Court of Law" has been requested on Tuesday the 23rd of April, 4:25pm. A guard escort will come to your current lodgings to ensure your safe arrival at the courthouse, you can expect them between 3:00 and 4:00pm. Failure to comply will result in you being detained until a date is set where you will be brought to court with a fine of four-hundred bits for failure to comply with local authority. Signed, The Manehattan Civil Court of Law." *Bang, bang, bang* "Mrs Do, are you alright? I hear screaming," came a concerned voice from the hall. ".... Uh... oh uh yeah Mr Pickyhooves, I just got a... surprise in the mail," she replied weakly. "Yeah, sorry about that, the goverment is putting taxes up so I need to put the rent up," ".... I really hate Tuesdays," she thought as she began sorting out the rest of her mail. * * * One week later 23rd of April 3:56pm *Knock knock* "Coming," called Daring as she headed to the door, quickly adjusting her tie and suit, opening the door to reveal two guards in darkish blue tinted armor, one of which was holding a scroll. "Mrs Do I presume you are ready?" asked one of the guards. "Yeah I suppose so, just let me grab my keys," she said walking towards the window. "Hey quick question," she said placing both of her hooves on the windowledge. "... Mrs Do, we really advise agai-*smash*... ugh," sighed one of the guards as Daring leaped out of the window heading down towards the curb. "... Maybe this wasn't such a good idea," she thought as fear began to kick in as the ground rapidly approached. "Just about there," she heard a voice shout as a carriage pulled up right below her. "What the?" she thought as the top of the carriage slide open to reveal a cushioned flooring. With a slight "oof" she noticed the carriage get darker as the roof slid back into place. "That'll be fourteen bits," chuckled a voice as she felt the carriage begin to move. "Yeah, yeah, how was I suppose to know she'd be crazy enough to leap seven stories down?" said another. "Anyways, we'll head straight to the courthouse then to the bar for some cider after," said the first voice again. "How you holding up in there ma'am?" asked one of the voices. "My neck hurts, I'm going to court and I'm wondering when the guard got so creative when it came to capturing criminals." "Well, they'd all be your fault, the captain thought we should come up with better ways to catch some more of the loopy or athletic criminals we came across, so naturally we came up with a plan for those that would jump out of a window," chuckled the guard. pl Sighing, she leaned back, trying to get comfortable, as she began to revise her defense for her case. "Contribution to several fields, helped save lives, famous, I help the government, I donate to sever... yeah this isn't going to help me, is it?" she thought as the carriage began to slow down. * * * "I SWEAR, I DIDN'T HIT HIM!" screamed a mare as she was dragged out of the courtroom by several guards. The waiting room was rather spacious, with several seats, a radio, books and even some boardgames, probably for the gangs. Daring chuckled as she saw several mares and stallions go in looking like they were respectable members of society only to come out acting like a monkey that had, had its banana stolen. "Hey guard, how come this is called a civil court if it covers stuff that should be in a Justice of the peace or a High court?" she asked. "Well, it's one of the only courts in Equestria that gets used, so they just crammed them all together, pretty counter intuitive if you ask me," said the guard. "How s-" "Mrs A.K Yearling," called a voice. "And that's me," she thought as she went up to the stallion that called. "Are you ready?" "Sure," she replied, trying to avoid any sarcastic comments. "In you go then," said the stallion. "Thanks," she said as she entered the courtroom, "Okay, it's just a small thing, you can get out it if you jus..." she stopped muttering to herself as she looked up as her look of surprise was met with a glare. "Oh Celestia anybody but her..."