A Stallion of Law

Lawton was sitting in a chair next to his client, the prince of the Crystal Empire, Shining Armor. He was looking around the waiting room frantically, but who wouldn't, he was accused of murder. Lawton was forcing himself to stay awake, he hadn't slept in two days. When Lawton asked his standard questions to the two royals, he was quite surprised that this case began a week ago. Apparently, Canterlot has a delay in news from the Empire, but after this fiasco gets out, Lawton is sure that will change. He wanted to question why the rulers didn't contact him sooner, but he believed a similar reasoning was behind that.

"U-um." stammered Shining Armor "Do you usually wear a scarf on the job?"

Lawton looked down at his his neck to look at his black and purple stripped scarf. He let out a half smile when remembering how he got that scarf. During his time as Twilight's playmate, she had made him a scarf to commemorate their friendship. The only problem with the scarf was that it was a little bit too big, but Lawton grew in to it.

"A good luck charm you could say." he replied. Shining Armor gave a worried smile, still shaken up about the trial he was being put in.

"You don't look so good." said Shining Armor.

"I've been up for two day's since you hired me trying to pick apart these accusations." yawned Lawton.

"O-oh, um, do you think-"

"I'll be fine Prince Armor, I usually lack sleep when I deal with a case."

"How do you stay awake?"

"Vodka."

Shining Armor gave Lawton a horrified look

"You drink before you go to court?" he said.

"Well, in all consideration, there really isn't any law against it... it's just not highly recommended." Lawton replied

Shining was at his wit's end, first he was framed for murder, now he's trusting his fate to somepony that drinks. Suddenly, a loud voice was broadcast-ed through the room/

"ALL PARTIES FOR THE MURDER OF CHANCELLOR KRYSTAL BALL PLEASE ENTER COURTROOM C-1." boomed the voice.

Lawton levitated a small canteen that held his precious cherry vodka and took a swig.  Shining Armor was still hesitant to go meet his fate. Lawton put a comforting hoof on his shoulder.

"Don't worry Prince Armor" said Lawton "I promise to set things right."

Shining listened to Lawton and went to the courtroom.

Loud noises and many conversation's were going around the courtroom. Shining Armor was standing still on all four's at the podium with his lawyer, Lawton, on his left.

Lawton looked at all the notes he had gathered from his two day's there and was confident he could reveal the truth. Of course, this would be hard to look at with the whole courtroom being made of crystal, even the jury were sparkling. Lawton was very confident about this trial, considering he may be the only one with evidence. Just then, a regular green coated pony with a curled mane entered the room and used his magic to bang his judicial hammer.

"ORDER IN THE COURT!" the old judge pony shouted.

Everypony grew silent, this judge was well known in many places and he was not a pony to mess with.

"I am here today on a most important issue." the judge began "The court shall recognize that this is the trial of Prince Shining Armor of the Crystal Empire, who is charged with murder of the old and wise Chancellor Krystal Ball. Now, as according to the traditions of Equestrian law, the prosecutor will show his side of the argument at hand. Mr. Emerald Shard, if you would please."

A green crystal pony trotted up to the stand

"Thank you your honor" said Emerald Shard "Ladies and gentlecolt's, I am a Stallion who strongly supports the royals and their endeavors into restoring this once great empire. However, when my client came to me with this news, I knew that this needed to be put to justice."

Lawton nearly spat, he knew when lawyer's were just saying things to get the crowds favor and he defiantly knew this Emerald Shard was one of them.

"I'd like to call my client, Rose Thorn, to explain the horrific events she saw and show the main piece of evidence that proves the Prince as a killer." Emerald ended his speech and left the stand. The mare that took his place had a dark brown coat with a red mane. Her cutie mark was a rose with plenty, and i do mean PLENTY of thorns. Lawton could already tell this was going to be easy.

"Please Ms. Thorn, tell us what happened." asked the judge, clearly not impressed so far.

"W-w-well." Rose Thorn began "I-I was walking from the florist shop at 4:00 pm last Tuesday when I turned left  to an alley way to see-" she stopped, but after a short pause she began again "I saw P-P-Prince Shining Armor cornering the late chancellor... He levitated a knife to his t-t-t-throat a-a-a-a-and...." Rose Thorn was shaking profusely, shed plenty of tears.

"Please Ms. Thorn, that is quite enough for now." said the judge. Rose Thorn took a seat next to Emerald Shard, who was patting her on the back.

"Your honor, in place of my client,  may i present the picture?" asked Emerald Shard

"Of course." replied the judge.

Emerald Shard levitated the photo and used a spell to enlarge it. The picture showed the late chancellor with a slit throat and the accused Shining Armor looking down at him sadistically. Everypony started murmuring to themselves while Shining looked like he was about to be strangled right there and then. The judge looked uninterested while Lawton was simply yawning, much to Shining's dismay.

"Your honor." exclaimed Emerald Thorn "I would like to end my prosecution by calling the head of the investigation team of the Crystal Empire's police department."

"Proceed." sighed the judge.

Another Crystal Stallion, blue this time, came up to stand.

"Your honor" the stallion began "We at the C.E.P.D have looked at the scene and have found the murder weapon and the body of the chancellor, freshly dead."

"Oh my." said the judge sarcastically "Then could you please present the court with the weapon in question."

"Can't do your honor, the higher ups want the weapon secured in case of any form of hexes." said the blue crystal stallion. Lawton smiled at that, now he was definitely certain.

"Alright, that's enough... now to the good part" said the judge turning his attention towards Lawton.

"Mr. Law" said the judge "I suppose you already have a counter argument for all the information displayed." The looks on Emerald Shard, Rose Thorn and the Blue crystal pony's expression diminished from the judge's words. The judge knew Lawton very well, he was the judge of all of Lawton's most prominent cases. Lawton trotted up to the podium and put on his reading glasses.

"Your honor, the jury, and the court." Lawton started "I have been a lawyer for plenty of... as the nobility of Canterlot would put it... low class ponies in my five years of work. However, I would have never expected that a pony such as myself would be asked by Royalty itself to defend them. I am sure that plenty of you... VERY shiny ponies know that I have no love for snobby, rich nobility. But, Prince Shining Armor was and still is a common everyday pony like the rest of us. I understand that we all tend to distant ourselves as lower than the royalty, but Shining Armor has proven that he cares a lot for us as he does his royal duties. I have never taken any client unless I know he or she is truly innocent. Shining Armor, captain of the guard and devoted husband to our Princess Mi Amora Cadenza, is one of those clients."

Lawton looked directly at Shining. "Mr. Armor, where were you at the time of 4:00 pm when the murder took place."

"I admit, I wasn't in the castle at that time, but I wasn't anywhere near the flower shop." said Shining Armor with a new confidence thanks to Lawton's speech "I was out renting a book from the library, which is quite a long distance from the flower shop."

"Thank you Prince." said Lawton in a calm tone

"Now to Ms. Rose." he averted his attention to the dark brown mare "From what I understand you took this picture that implicates my client. I would like to ask why you had a camera and how you managed to take such a well lined photograph without notice."

"W-w-w-well, um, I... used my magic to levitate the camera to that angle." stuttered Rose Thorn confidently.

"Hm, Ms. Rose, you do know your an Earth Pony correct?" chuckled Lawton. Rose Thorn hesitantly looked up at her head to see a lack of a horn... something she should have known she didn't have.

"W-w-w-w-w-w-w-well, I-I-I-I-I-I-I-"

"O-OBJECTION" shouted Emerald Shard "M-my client is being pressured by the defense."

"Objection overruled Mr. Shard" exclaimed the judge "Your client still needs to explain how she got that photograph."

"Actually your honor" interrupted Lawton "If you wouldn't mind, I like to show the court a special... property about that picture."

"Proceed"

Lawton levitated the picture and used a spell on it. Lawton had a keen eye for suspicious details and took plenty of lessons in magic, so when a case required some magic, he could provide it. The picture's color oozed away, revealing a green Earth Pony in place of Shining Armor.

"As you can all see, the picture in question is actually the front cover of the acclaimed and controversial book A Class Divided." Lawton explained.

The Jury was in awe, such confidence and craft from a pony in a different environment. The judge was lightly smiling, glad to see that Lawton hasn't lost his touch. Shining Armor was trying his best to close his gaping mouth from how well Lawton was doing under this kind of pressure. The court watching the spectacle... well they were sleeping.

"To add on to the argument, I would like to review a rule in-placed in every courtroom linked to Equestria's Hierarchy. The number one rule before a case can begin clearly states that each party involved in the case must swear to tell only the truth. So, Mr. Head of the investigation team of the C.E.P.D, did you swear to tell only the truth?"

"Y-yes." said the Blue Crystal Pony.

"Unfortunately for you" Lawton pulled out his lawyer badge "I have certain permits that allow me to investigate crime scene's. Since I was hired to work on this case, I decided to look at the crime scene itself. What I found was the murder weapon and the body both in their original places."

Lawton levitated The knife in the air for the jury to marvel at and placed it down.

"I would have done an exception of the body, but when I approached it, it imploded on itself, revealing it to be nothing more than paper mache."

Once again, Lawton levitated a stack of colored, tattered paper to the jury, with their mouths wide open.

"And, to further disclose this argument, I found a certain chancellor knocked out in a garbage bin. You may come in Mr. Ball."

An old grey crystal pony walked in the courtroom, earning gasps from many of the jury members. He walked up to the stand and shook Lawton's hoof.

"*Sigh*... some of you may know me as Krystal Ball, Chancellor of affairs. Most of you think I was dead... but clearly that is untrue. It pains me to admit this to a bunch of strangers and even some of my closest friends, but to put the true criminals behind bars... I must. I am a very lonely stallion, so imagine my surprise when out of nowhere, a dark brown mare with a rose cutie mark comes up to me and asks for MY company. Being lonely and very inactive, I followed the mare to an empty ally were this blue crystal pony knocked me out. Before I passed out, another crystal pony, green this time, muttered something about 'a sacrifice for his dark lord Sombra'. Strangely enough, they looked exactly like those three."

Chancellor Ball pointed his hoof at the three to his right, the ponies trying to accuse the prince of an empire for murder of a well chancellor. The three were shivering, knowing that they have lost this little debacle.

"Well, jury, do you have a verdict?" asked the judge.

The jury began whispering to each other until one member spoke up.

"Your honor, we the jury find the prince of the Crystal Empire Shining Armor... not guilty."

And just like that, The trial was done.