Chapter 5: Getting things done

It’s the morning of a new day, and Luiz is, as expected, enjoying a nice cup of coffee while reading his latest work. The night before, after he and Habeas arrived back at the hotel, was spend in pushing their work forward. When they finally decided to sleep, they had finished a considerable part of the first set of documents.

Thinking about all that, the Frenchman couldn’t help but to chuckle when regarding the taxes section. From the total of eight different taxes and tariffs involved in this process, six of them were dedicated to “Friendship and Harmony”. He decided to ask about that to his pegasus companion, once she came back from delivering her own work to the local administration.

Luiz continued to enjoy his breakfast for a few more minutes, until something caught his attention. Standing near his table, was an earth pony mare. She had a light purple coat and white mane, her sapphire eyes were locked into his face. The pony had an expression of worry and refused to stop staring at him, no matter for how long he pretended to ignore her. “Why the fuck is she looking at me?” The man thought to himself. Yes, humans were not exactly common around here (or even in all of Equestria, as a matter of fact) but it shouldn’t be something surprising by now.

Maybe it has something to do with his features? As far as he knew, most humans in Equestria were from the US, so perhaps his Algerian appearance might draw some curiosity from her. However, her expression clearly lacked that kind of motivation, the way she looked at him was the same way someone would look at a gravestone.

“You know what? Screw it, I might as well just ask,” Luiz decided, getting more and more annoyed by her stare. Leaving his cup and papers on the table, he turned a little and regarded the mare with cold eyes. “Is there something wrong, miss?”

The mare moved a little, as if she didn’t expect his answer. She opened her mouth and attempted to speak, but what came instead were a series of incoherent murmurs and whimpers. Before Luiz could realize what was happening, the mare began to cry, a lot. Suddenly, the man became uncomfortable, trying to understand what was happening.

The purple mare continued to cry, drawing attention from everyone in the same room. “I’m… I’m sorry miss, what’s going on?” The man asked, hoping to end this awkward situation. The mare tried to speak a few more times, but whenever she began to form concrete words, sobs and tears would overwhelm her. Luiz frenetically tried to think of something. All around him, other ponies looked at the strange scene. “Uh… well… You need a hug or something?” As expected, the mare was not capable of respond.

“I’ll just go with a hug…” The man said, seeing no other options he could use. He stood up from his chair and carefully approached the crying mare. He awkwardly wrapped his arms around her and tried to comfort her. “Hey, calm down, everything’s fine now,” He said. Honestly, he didn’t really meant what he said, but it’s the best he came up with.

Amazingly, the mare seemed to calm down a little with his actions. Eager to have more progress, the man continued to hold her. After a few moments, the purple mare became quieter (much to Luiz’s relief), her outburst reduced to a silent sob on his right shoulder. Eventually, the two of them just… stood there, awkwardly hugging each other. Figuring that it was all okay now, Luiz slowly stood back up, regarding the mare with apprehension. Fortunately, the mare seemed perfectly fine now, with the exception of the clear signs on her face of what had recently transpired.

“Would you might explain what’s going on?” He asked. This time, he tried to sound calm and friendly.

“I’m… I’m sorry, it’s just…” The mare began, clearly struggling to form proper sentences. “Are you the lawyer from the human embassy?” She asked.

Luiz raised an eyebrow at that. Why would she be looking for him? It’s unusual for the embassy to assign more than one case for him to deal with at the same time, especially something as extensive as what he was currently working with. Then again, they don’t really have a lot of lawyers like him and Habeas available.

“That would be correct,” The man answered. “Why do you want to know?”

The mare looked away. “They told me you were the one I needed to look for…” She replied. The mare then proceeded to take a few papers out of her saddlebag, offering them to Luiz, who accepted them. I quick look at the papers revealed just what he expected, another case to solve. This one seemed to be about a… divorce of some sort. He hated this kind of case…

Luiz took a few minutes to look over the whole thing. Apparently, this mare, called Sweet Roses, got romantically involved with a man called Antony and were now breaking up. However, it turns out the guy’s actually already married, and the mare is part of a herd… great, just what he needed, he knew this trip was becoming too easy. The problem here is that this… affair… if you can call it like that, had created some very big issues. Antony’s wife had discovered their relationship and was now asking for divorce, likewise, Sweet Roses was having some trouble with her herd, for not informing them about her new relationship.

“Okay… this is quite a case you got here…” Luiz said, lowering the papers. “Why don’t you seat with me and ask for some coffee, we have a lot to talk about”. That’s exactly what they did, spending the next hours discussing just what the man was dealing with. As Luiz had predicted, they ended up spending hours there, going through every bit of information.

-x-

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, a pegasus mare, Habeas Corpus, was almost finishing her current task. She moved through the crowded streets of the central district, hoping to reach the town hall as soon as possible. Normally, this could be easily done by simply flying there, however, because of the narrow streets and high number of ponies that went through this district daily, flying was forbidden during the main hours of the days. Despite the small setback this caused, the mare figured it was better than to risk accidents.

She felt happy. After so many hours writing these documents, she would end a considerable part of the job, and if Luiz manage to get his part delivered by sunset, they would be practically free by the next days, until the negotiations began again. A few more minutes of walking, and Habeas spotted the building.

“Great, now I just have to deliver this!” She thought to herself. Soon she could go back to the hotel and have a good time with Luiz. “And hopefully make him forget about what I said yesterday…” Ugh, how could she let that slip? First, there was the awkward talk about herds in the train, and now this. She should really be more careful when around him… yet deep down the mare knew she couldn’t really help herself… He had become a good friend during the last few weeks.

Going inside the building, the pegasus quickly located the room destined to legal affairs. With a vague smile on her lips, she trotted there and placed her documents on the balcony. A few questions later, and it was all good. Habeas almost jumped in joy as she left the building. Finally, they were getting things done.

Author's Note

Sorry for the small update... and the time it took. I'm currently busy writing a new story, so I don't have much time to spend on this one. However, I didn't want to leave you people hanging, so I pushed myself to write this small section. Once again, thank you all for reading this. Leave a comment and point out any mistakes, if you can.