Prince Blueblood, distant but traceable blood relative of Princess Celestia, lives as a tool of Equestrian society. He views his very existence as a debt he must pay, with few career options other than civil service. Fortunately, an attorney's duties suit him.
He believes in Equestrian society, for better or for worse. In his opinion, changelings rank among the "worse". So when the commander of the Wonderbolts accuses one of murdering Rainbow Dash, he sees his involvement as foreordained, especially once a Princess signs on to oppose him with revenge on her mind.
He is also widely seen as an extreme narcissist, only tolerated because of his link to Celestia. But many things are not as they seem.
Chapters (7)
Putting into read later, not often seeing a multiple chapter story published as complete. Most condense into one chapter. Breaking it up chapter wise leaves nice break points to move away for a bit without losing your place. Nice to see.
6761574 I'd considered releasing this chapter by chapter, since it is a mystery, but I try to have my stories at least mostly written (and somewhat edited) before submitting.
But not only does this make for easier reading, it helps me organize my writing. In this chapter these characters are present and this set of facts have/have not been revealed yet; in that chapter there's another set. It also prompts me to have enough content for each scene: a 500 word scene may feel ineffably short, but a 500 word chapter is more obviously lacking. (It can be pulled off well, but it's easier for me to just add more imagery and detail.)
I give you my like because this story was a puzzle I thoroughly enjoyed putting together. I love stories like these.
This was a very nice fair-play mystery and a very interesting take on Blueblood.
Man, Blueblood's character voice in this episode...something about it just tickles at my fancy the way you write him, with the only respite from the way he acts being his envy of pegasi for their ability to fly and sit on clouds.
Well, it's pretty obvious who the 'attorney from Ponyville' will be, the only real question is if she has wings or not and if she does how much of a dynamic that plays in the courtroom
. Of course, since Blueblood's Cutie Mark prevented him from signing, he'll get in the next day and find out the role of prosecutor's already taken so he'll have to be the defense attorney.
Twilight seems rather a little dense at times. I'm a bit surprised she doesn't want to get up so early, though I suppose she usually stays up late anyways.
Either that transfuser will be the key to breaking the case open entirely, or it's one giant red herring.
Welp, I'm going to assume that Rainbow Dash got her hands on Twilight's transfuser, which had a spell set on it that somehow backfired and turned Dash into a Changeling, scrambling her memories. The spell's incomplete, thus she keeps coughing up her own feathers, but Ling's blood is identical to Dash's blood (and it was said earlier that Ling was bleeding but never stated what her blood colour was), thus all the 'evidence'. Now it's time for Blueblood to go all Ace Attorney and put the evidence together. Twilight will still have a major guilt-trip about inadvertently threatening her friend with a death sentence.
On that note, ponies blood IS red all the time, just like any species with hemoglobin-based blood. It merely turns a lighter shade of red when oxygenated, but even deoxygenated blood is only a little bit of a darker red.
I guess the punching slate Spitfire got is what formed the actual crater they were talking about, as opposed to any crash?
Looks like I got most everything right, though I did miss the bit about the disinfectant causing her feathers to come off.
And done.
If it weren't for them needing to be seen in public, Twilight could have just long-distance teleported Blueblood to her own castle and gotten Spike to make them a meal at a fraction of the price
6762497
6763479 Thanks much!
6802419 Thanks! Part of the inspiration was seeing Blueblood as a public servant, which got me wondering if even his snobbishness was for Equestria. Someone could even write him as a more-social less-action secret agent. If I follow up with this characterization, I may have to have him teamed up with or opposing investigator-Rarity, though I'd need to find a way to write that much social fu well.
6802458 Yeah, no mystery about the other attorney. The guard wouldn't necessarily know at that point, but she's in the story image and character tags.
6802475 My headcanon notes that Twilight's the type who stays up well into the night reading, while her mentor is literally up with the dawn every day, and wonders what effect years of that had on Twilight growing up.
6802521 Actually, Ling's blood color is stated, though I'll admit I tried to make it seem like an unimportant detail. Carefully reread where she meets Prince Blueblood in the first chapter.
Though deoxygenated blood looks blue, last I checked. That's the origin of the term "blue blood". Just look at your own veins; on most people there's at least one visible somewhere around one or both wrists.
That guilt trip is part of what A Scholastic Awesome is about, though it felt better as a separate story instead of another chapter here.
And...I was trying to write Blueblood as more Edgeworth than Wright, but that is the series I was thinking.
6802542 Nah, it was the crash. But "can punch hard enough to chip rock" is enough strength that I felt it best to establish this detail; it's only a given for the Pie family.
6802570 Teleporting across town is one thing. Teleporting straight from Canterlot to Ponyville, while bringing friends along, appears to be beyond what even alicorn Twilight is capable of (as of the latest season when I wrote this, anyway). Also, she didn't know just how expensive the restaurant would be.
Wow! This was such an amazing story and I was really intrigued by what had happened to Rainbow Dash. I also really liked Blueblood, how he handled the case and the last chapter was so funny! Keep up the good work!
But one thing:
I was wondering, is that supposed to be Muhammad (P.B.U.H) prophet of Islam? Because if it is, please remove it. I'm saying this because Muslims are sensitive on how their prophet is portrayed, and having him depicted as a cow is regarded as very disrespectful. I know that you probably didn't know this and didn't intend to make fun of Prophet Muhammad. Seeing as this was a really good story and I enjoyed it a lot, I would hate for it to be ruined because of a little misunderstanding.
Thanks.
6840512 I keep hearing about that, but...y'know, the ones who complain about that don't seem to speak for all or even most Muslims. Kind of like how a certain armed faction in Syria and Iraq claims to be establishing a Muslim state but their practices violate what most Muslim clerics preach. Most Muslims I know would recognize that the intent is to honor the prophet, by acknowledging his influence with as close a representation as is possible in this context, and take it as honor instead of insult.
And that's the final piece I needed to crack the case.
Hmm, or perhaps there's a bit more going on that I originally suspected? Color me intrigued.
Anytime Blueblood speaks in this story, this guy pops into my head.
vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/aceattorney/images/6/6a/AAI_Miles_Edgeworth_Pointing_2.gif/revision/latest?cb=20130630180606
From what I've read so, I'm going to say that Rainbow Dash is an idiot.
6943892 Probably because Blueblood-as-Edgeworth was part of my inspiration.
6944136 Rainbow Dash would not traditionally be labelled as the smartest pony around, in particular when it comes to handling situations she would rather not accept. (Though I'm thinking of doing a sequel to the sequel that touches on her particular form of genius.)
6802521 I'm guessing a similar thing, namely that Ling is Rainbow Dash. I never thought to try to connect the transfuser with it, though.
This is a pretty good story, but it could have been a bit longer to further deliver into how Blueblood sees himself. But at any rate, this story deserves more views than it is currently getting.
6965657 Thanks. I'm not sure how to promote it, though. Equestria Daily won't take it (they didn't like how fast the case is resolved, and that we're seeing things through Blueblood's point of view instead of through omniscient narrator), and I'm under the impression that an author promoting their own stories through groups (as opposed to readers doing so) is seen as bad form.
Ve4ry impressively done. Dash felt a bit off in terms of not owning up to her mistakes, but then again if this is an earlier version of Dash, it does fit nicely.
Definitely going to follow up as I really adore your BB.
That would make for an awesome alternate ending, although I guess the story would then need a Dark tag. Fun to imagine though.
EDIT: By which I mean actually writing out an ending in which Rainbow is executed.
7022882 Actually, Spitfire's follow-up lead into a short sequel and didn't need a Dark tag.
Though that's with the help of leaving some things off-screen. Some things are best left to the imagination. Feel free to picture exactly what happened between this story and that sequel in as much detail as you care to.
7031808 I meant an alternate ending in which Twilight and Blueblood actually didn't solve the case. Not just Rainbow picturing the events, but them actually taking place.
7031936 Ah. Well, again, imagine that if you wish. Rainbow Dash certainly did. (As did Spitfire, and Twilight Sparkle in her nightmares.)
That's an interesting twist, having the defendant actually be the victim with amnesia! And I like Blueblood's speech about the greater good to Twilight at the end.
My only concern is Ribbon Wishes and those other merchants. I hope they do pursue some kind of civil action against Rainbow Dash. Being a changling shouldn't be a crime, impersonating a changling with the goal of scaring away customers from someone's shop? I believe that is a crime, and I hope they dock RD's paycheck for damages.
7101171 RD's paycheck is likely to be docked to pay for the police and road crew work she caused. Beyond that, Celestia might rule that nearly dying and nearly causing Twilight to be her executioner is punishment enough for her prank.
Remember, Celestia's trying to push for harmony for all who would accept it. This presumably includes any changelings not causing trouble (of which there has been at least one in the show, at a certain wedding in Ponyville). Hatred of someone for what they are instead of what they do is logically something she would wish to stamp out. Merchants who cater to such hatred, and file suits against those who harmlessly (save for temporary lull in customers) rub this catering in said merchants' faces, may well find those suits lost in a sea of red tape. (Or perhaps pink tape, given what we've seen Pinkie Pie and certain other pink ponies do.)
7115135 I wasn't talking about extra punishment, I was talking about fees paid compensate the businesses for loss of income. A temporary lull in customers can be a big deal to businesses, you never get all the lost sales back, and time is money.
I'm imagining Rainbow Dash showing up in, say, a teenage dragon costume on Cider Day at Sweet Apple Acres, and scaring the entire line of ponies away. Applejack probably won't lose the farm, because most of those customers will eventually return and buy cider on different days, but I doubt when she sues Rainbow Dash for civil damages, she wants to get turned down by Princess Celestia and instead lectured on showing more tolerance for dragons.
7115275 Depends on how she scared them away, though. A rampaging dragon is one thing, and might be what you're thinking. A dragon just waiting in line is another.
RD did the latter type of changeling: no scary face, no intimidation, literally nothing more than just pretending to be a changeling attempting to peacefully shop like anypony, perhaps acting confused when ponies ran away on sight or shooed her out before she could buy anything.
I see what's happened, here. You cleverly transformed Blueblood into an Edgeworth-like character (Phoenix Wright reference); basically, he's pristine, but unlike the episode (and more like the aforementioned character) he tends to be very elitist and refined, rather than easily-spooked and feeble. This has the potential to be quite interesting, and I didn't notice any errors as I went through – an achievement in itself.
Well, then. Let's see how the rest of the story goes.
Not a lot happens in this chapter, and I did notice some grammatical errors, but it does flow nicely and give us a good look at Blueblood's attitude and behavior. His rapport with the guard is also amusing.
So now we have an explanation for why Blueblood's behavior is so different from his first appearance, and an established rapport between the primary characters. It's been a very gentle, slow-build story thus far.
6802521 My impression thus far is exactly the same. Transfuser, incomplete spell, Dash is Ling.
"All are equal under the iron fist of the law."
Probably my favorite compromise between philosophies in all of life.
That was nice.
I love how you made Blueblood out to be a total in-control badass!
Like and fav!
7721289 As 7333180 noted and as otherwise noted above, part of the inspiration was Blueblood-as-Edgeworth. Edgeworth often is or tries to be in control of whatever life throws his way.
7526570 7721832 Thanks!
"Whether we win or lose each individual case is ultimately less important than that justice is served."
This is one of the best statemens about why we need a law system.
And I can't give you enough praise for this characterisation of Blueblood
7888035 Thanks! (Now if only more in RL would see it this way...)
This is the point at which all available information has fallen into place. Now doubt the following chapter will describe everything I'm thinking.
Ohhhh... I forgot about the transducer...transductor...thing. My theory was that Rainbow had been a changeling her whole life, and in the end the rest of the cast would be stuck facing the ugly truth of their prejudices.
Welp, good mystery.