Trials

The day was finally here!

After two weeks of nagging, pushing, and using every legal loophole available, Rainbow and her friends had managed to get Shadow his lawyer, and more over, managed to get a hearing. Well, it was supposed to be a hearing, but it seemed it had become a full blown trial.

Rainbow was nervous, she hadn't seen Shadow since that night, and she had not even spoken to his lawyer yet. Looking herself in the mirror, she made sure her mane was neat, and she looked presentable, something did not usually care about, but this was an important day. A knock interrupted her. "Yeah?"

She called, and it opened, revealing her friends, and Twilight. "Rainbow, darling, it's almost time to go." Rarity said, looking over Rainbow's mane to make sure it was okay.

"What are you guys doing here? Thought we were meeting at the courthouse?" Rainbow tilted her head.

"Uhm, we were, but we wanted you to meet Silver Scribe." Twilight said, stepping aside to reveal a light grey stallion with a white mane and tail. He wore a light blue suit, and had a scale as a cutie mark. "He is Shadow's lawyer."

Rainbow frowned, the stallion looked a little young, but she had been told he was quite good. "Uhm, nice to meet you."

He shook his head. "Miss Dash, there is a few things I like to go over before we go to court.."

"Uhm, okay?"

He went over and closed the door to the room before facing the group. "I'll be honest with you all, proving Mr Bolt is innocent is going to be hard.."

Rainbow frowned. "W-why?"

"Because he is guilty, and was witnessed by Twilight Sparkle, who named him, you, and the rest of your friends. One is the element of honesty. If I try to disprove he is the Ranger, they just call you girls up to the stand, and you have to answer honestly if you know that Shadow Bolt is The Ranger. How would I be able to disprove the element of honesty herself?" He asked, gesturing to Applejack.

"So.." Rainbow took a deep breath. "Isn't there something we can do..?"

Silver Scribe sighed. "As you know, the best chance for him is to get a pardon, but the chances are slim, I fear they will use every trick in the book and make his crimes seem worse.. And they hardly need it for that matter.. What I can do however is make the court aware of his treatment, trying to gain some sympathy, but to be honest, he will be in danger the whole time.. If word of this trial goes back to prison, well, we might never get a verdict.."

"What are you saying?" Rainbow Dash asked, afraid there was no hope at all.

"I am saying, you should prepare for the worst.. I will do all I can, but the system is working against me.. And unfortunately, he is at the mercy of his guards.." Silver Scribe would not waste time with useless words or promises, he would tell it like it was so his clients knew the full the picture.

Twilight tilted her head. "So, you are going in thinking you might loose?"

Silver Scribe shook his head. "There is no 'might' about it, I will loose the case, but we are not going in there with the intention of winning. If that was the case we would not need a pardon. We are going in there hoping to convince the jury and judge that Shadow Bolt should be pardoned."

"Can't he just plead guilty?" Rarity asked. "Then we could skip the trial, right?"

"If we did not count on a pardon, then yes, we could skip the trial, but we want a pardon, and to do that, we need to go to trial." Silver explained, making most of them frown, and Pinkie Pie scratched her head.

"This law stuff sure is complicated.." Pinkie mumbled. "But on the bright side, when he's free, we can have a big party!" She cheered, then looked at Rainbow Dash, calming a bit down, as if afraid her cheerfulness would upset Rainbow.

She however just smiled, and gave her a nod. "Yeah, that sounds good.. I'm sure he'll like that." Pinkie smiled a bit more, but did not bounce around. It was amazing how serious and down to earth she could be when it really counted.

"We should get going." Silver said. "Not good to be late on the first day."