Justice, Integrity, and Service

“The nerve of him,” Braeburn huffed. He paced the room while Daring sat idly in a chair, facing the map. “He ought to stand up with his deputies, not ridicule them.”

The pegasus said nothing. There were feelings churning inside of her, feelings that she had tried to keep suppressed for years now. Feelings of confusion. Of failure.

She couldn’t have failed, she told herself. She was Daring Do! The best Deputy Marshal in all of Equestria!

Well that was a fat lie, she scoffed. If she truly were the best this wouldn’t have happened.

“Are you listenin’ to me?”

Daring blinked and looked up to see Braeburn standing in front of her.

He sighed, his anger softening. “Hey, I don’t know what’s up with Earp, but it ain’t your fault.”

“It is,” Daring replied. “He’s right. I could have handled that a million other ways.”

Braeburn stomped his hoof and shook his head. “I’m not hearin’ any of this. You did what you needed to do in that moment. We had to arrest her and we did. If she hadn’t tried to resist and slam the door on us, you wouldn’t have had to knock it in her face. You followed the protocol and that’s that.”

She opened her mouth to protest, but Braeburn cut her off again.

“That’s that, Darin’. Don’t beat yourself up over this, okay? The court will rule in your favor, I’m sure of it,” Braeburn said reassuringly. He gave her a confident smile. “Everythin’s going to be okay.”

The pegasus found something reassuring in his smile. It was nice to know that someone believed in her. She returned the smile and nodded. “Okay. Everything’s going to be fine.”

“You ever been to a trail?”

Bon Bon nodded. “Several.”

“Well it’s a whole different experience when you’re the one on trial.” Daring shook her head in disgust. “Everyone’s eyes boring into you, judging you, trying to decide if you’re a monster.”

The Canterlot Courthouse was tall, grand, and amazingly boring in design. There were large paintings hung out in the hallway of very famous and very ugly lawmakers who had long since passed. Daring had plenty of time to take in every excruciating detail as she paced the hallways again and again.

The proceedings dragged on and on, from one day to the next. Daring testified and told her story, standing by her point that she thought the suspect was fleeing and threw open the door to stop her. The prosecutor had drilled her with questions during an intense cross examination that left her unsure of everything, even her own name.

Earp was called to the stand and asked to explain why his officers lacked the body cameras that had become standard issue in the RIS. He explained rather impatiently that he could barely afford enough vests for all of his deputies, let alone whatever newfangled device the RIS was currently using. He then delivered a canned testimony that said he stood by his deputy’s actions.

Braeburn was called by Daring’s defense attorney, and he delivered an admirable speech about how he had worked with Daring for years and trusted everything she did and every judgement she made. He spoke easily and with confidence, sneaking glares at the prosecutor every now and then. He held up find during the cross examination until the prosecution ceded the fight with a
‘No further questions, your honor.’

It brought her a little joy to watch as her defense attorney, a fiery mare in a suit, dismantled the suspect mare’s argument, pointing out plot holes and posing questions to the jury. The court then broke for a recess, leaving Daring pacing the halls of the courthouse.

Braeburn had found her and offered support, but she quickly excused herself, saying she needed to be alone. And that was how she found herself wandering the halls, feeling all the more out of place in her brown jacket and tan Stetson hat, alone in a sea of ponies in suits and ties.

Eventually she settled down on a marble bench, looking down at the polished tiles, holding her hat in her hooves. She sighed remorsefully, taking a second to gather her thoughts.

In truth she couldn’t explain why she was so conflicted. She never had room for doubt in her life. Doubt wasn’t what got her to where she was, she would tell herself. Yet it was there. It had been there during her college years. It had been there when her father passed away.

It was always there, she realized, nagging away in the back of her mind. While on the outside she would act rashly, without worrying about consequences, the doubt was still there. Doubt that she was a faker, a liar, a cheater. A fraud who had lied their way to the top. A liar who had managed to fool her boss into thinking she was amazing, who had fooled herself in thinking that she was above everyone else, but worse of all, who had fooled Braeburn into thinking she was his friend.

She paused. Was that stretching it? They were friends, weren’t they? Was it all built on some sort of terrible lie? She rubbed her chin in thought. The only lie should could think of was that she was a good pony. She wasn’t. She was a fraud, a liar, a cheat, a-

“Excuse me.”

Daring was interrupted from her mental tirade by a low, gravely voice. She looked to her right to see a maroon unicorn in a black suit standing next to her. “Seat taken?”

She blinked and shook her head.

The stallion nodded in appreciation and settled down on the bench. “Thanks.” His amber eyes flicked at the hat in her hooves and a knowing smile came upon his face. “Tough time?”

“You could say that.”

The unicorn let out a low chuckle. “Ah, you’ll be fine. The judge likes your agency, and I don’t think the jury is full of idiots this time.”

“You know about my case?”

“I know a bit about everything. And that’s not a boast, it’s just my job.” He extended a hoof, which Daring shook. “My name is J. Edge Hoofer, Deputy Director of the RIS.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Uh, I’m Deputy Marshal Daring Do, but I guess you knew that already.”

“I’ve known who you are for a while, Miss Do, and I must say you’ve got our attention. Marshal Pinkerton had quite a bit to say about you. He holds you in very high regard.”

“He shouldn’t,” Daring muttered under her breath.

“Well why shouldn’t he? You have a very good record in both offices that you’ve worked at. You seem to be well liked by your co-workers and you have more courage than most of the higher ups in the RIS.”

She scoffed. “Like Blueblood?”

“Blueblood cares about himself and himself only,” Hoofer declared with a dismissive wave of his hoof. “Good riddance to him. I’m glad he left, he wasn’t doing us any good. But I didn’t come here to talk about him.”

“Why are you here then?”

“To talk to you. You see, the director of the RIS is set to retire soon. And if all goes well, that job will soon fall to me.”

“Congratulations,” Daring said, wondering why she was expected to care.

“There’s a lot of ponies out there who wouldn’t mind having the director of the RIS as an ally,” Hoofer said nonchalantly.

“And you’re feeling generous?”

“Possibly. I do want to help you, Miss Do. You have potential. We could use ponies like you in the RIS.”

Daring raised an eyebrow, giving him a sideways glance. “So you came out here to offer me a job?”

“I came here to tell you that the RIS has your back on this one. But trust me when I say that your skills have gotten our attention. You should know that when this all blows over we’d be happy to have you join our ranks.”

The pegasus let out a low chuckle. “I’d think you’d be making this offer to Braeburn. He’s better at this than I am.”

“Oh please, that drunkard?” Hoofer rolled his eyes. “That poor soul wouldn’t last a day. But that’s what you get when you let Earp deputize whoever he wants.”

That statement made Daring frown. “What are you talking about?”

“You don’t know? We’ve had our eye on your office for awhile now. There were some… concerns with the ponies Earp was hoofpicking for his office. The RIS decided to keep some tabs on them. And those concerns were well founded too.” Hoofer shook his head sadly. “I mean he could have picked anyone, and he ended up with a dentist and a drunk farmer. And we offered to run them through our academy, but the idiot insisted he’d train them himself. It was only a matter of time before he lost someone.”

Daring scowled at the last sentence, but something else was bothering her. “Why do you keep saying Brae’s a drunkard?”

“Deputy Marshal Braeburn has had some… problems in the past. Problems that would usually serve as an automatic disqualifier if he applied by traditional methods. He started his fair share of bar fights back in the day. I’m quite sure Earp knew about it too, but what possessed him to give him a badge is beyond me.” Hoofer stood from the bench, cracking his neck. “But that’s that. Please do think about my offer, Miss Do. I think you have too much potential to be wasted on where you are now. Besides, Earp may not be your boss for much longer.”

“What-”

“All I can say is that the good marshal is facing some rather intense pressure to, shall we say, get his house in order.” The unicorn levitated a business card out of his suit jacket and stuck it in the brim of Daring’s Stetson. “But I suppose you have enough to worry about at the moment. The best of luck to you on your case.”

With that, the unicorn nodded, turned, and trotted off down the hall, leaving a very confused Daring behind.