Part 15 - A Fresh Start
With the psyche-locks broken, the ethereal chains that surrounded Rainbow Dash retracted and disappeared from Phoenix’s vision, leaving her heart’s secrets exposed and, more to the point, her willing to reveal them.
“You’re right, Nix. Ace was blackmailing me to drop out of the Equestrian 500,” she admitted wearily and with no small amount of shame, finally opening up to him.
Phoenix nodded in satisfaction and relief, reminding himself to thank Maya and Pearls again for the artifact that had assisted him in so many cases already. “And when did it start? Just recently, I’m guessing?” he wanted to know, returning the Magatama to his inner jacket pocket.
Rainbow Dash took a deep breath, as if steeling herself before she began her story. “Yeah. Just two days ago, when I got home and found this letter on my doorstep,” she told him, producing a folded note that had been tucked under her wing and then passing it through a slot at the bottom of the partition.
“’I’ll tell everypony your secret if you don’t drop out of the Equestrian 500. Meet in the Everfree Forest clearing at 8:35 PM for negotiations’,” Phoenix read the note aloud, wondering if she’d been keeping it under her wing for the past two days.
Rainbow waited for Phoenix to finish before she continued. “At first I didn’t know what secret it was talking about. But attached to the message was one of those pictures…” She cringed anew at the memory.
Against his better judgment, Phoenix decided he had to ask. “About those pictures. Why are you—?”
Dash didn’t let him finish, rearing up and slamming her hooves into the partition again at Phoenix’s chest level. “IT’S A HOBBY, ALRIGHT!? I BET YOU HAVE SKELETONS IN YOUR CLOSET TOO, MISTER-20-SOMETHING-WHO-PLAYS-WITH-TOYS!” she yelled at him, eyes livid.
“Okay, okay! I won’t ask about them anymore!” Phoenix promised, holding up his hands in placation. Wonder if she’d feel better if I told her my secret—that I support myself by playing poker on the sly in disguise? He briefly considered the idea, only to discard it, deciding he didn’t need anyone in either world thinking he was shady. “Do you have any idea how he got them?” he then asked, reflecting that he did indeed have a skeleton or two of his own.
She shook her head violently, still riled up. “I have no clue! My best guess is that jerk was stalking me; trying to get dirt on me!” Rainbow snorted hard as she glared at a nondescript section of the wall to her right, flushing slightly in the cheeks. Phoenix realized that it was the first time he’d seen an actual equine mannerism similar to the horses he had known in his own world.
“Rainbow Dash…” he began, knowing it was time to broach a difficult subject.
“Yeah? What is it?” She looked up at him, sitting back and taking on a surprisingly human-like lounging pose with her hooves behind her head.
“I want you to know that I trust you, and I’m going to need you to trust me when I ask you these next series of questions.”
“Huh?” She tilted her head at him.
“You may be scared the answers will make you look guilty, but don’t worry—I know you’re innocent.”
Rainbow’s ears perked up. “I-I’m not scared!”
Phoenix gave her a level look, knowing his next question would severely test that statement. “Why did you move that cloud to the crime scene and set it off?”
She froze for a moment, her tail twitching and eyes darting. “B-but… I-I… I didn’t…” she tried to deny in a weak and shaky voice.
Phoenix almost went for the Magatama again, but realized there was no need—all she needed now was a gentle nudge; nothing more. “Please, Rainbow Dash. You can trust me. I swear I won’t think any differently of you in light of what you tell me. I know you didn’t kill him, but in order to defend you, I need to know exactly what you did do there and why,” Phoenix reassured her.
Rainbow let out one last heavy sigh before relenting. “Okay. You win again, Nix. I’ll tell you,” she decided at some length, sitting down on her haunches as Phoenix took out his notepad and clicked his pen open, listening attentively. “I admit it—I did move the cloud there and I did set it off. But I didn’t do it to kill him! I just wanted to give him a scare, that’s all!” she hastened to add.
“A scare?” Something clicked inside of Phoenix’s head. “Wait—so you really did preposition the cloud over the forest clearing?” he asked, scarcely able to believe Trixie had actually been right about that. If you’d told me that before, Rainbow, I could have defused that little bomb before she set it off and blew up my entire DEFENSE! He suppressed a brief moment of anger.
Unaware of his thoughts, Rainbow nodded, looking with some interest at the thing he was writing with—it wasn’t a quill, and she didn’t see him dip it in ink, so how did it work? “Yeah. As soon as I saw the requirements of the blackmail letter, I knew it was Ace, and that all those rumors about him were true—he’s a blackmailing cheater! So, I set up the cloud over the meeting site earlier that day with the intent of declining his little offer,” Rainbow Dash proclaimed through narrowed eyes and gritted teeth, pawing angrily at the floor with her hoof.
Phoenix was surprised, halting his writing for a moment. “So you weren’t going to drop out in spite of him threatening to release those pictures?”
Rainbow looked up sharply at that. “NO WAY!” she shouted, taking Phoenix aback and causing the room guards’ heads to turn, all present expecting another round of verbal abuse to be aimed at the human lawyer, wondering if they were about to hear another quoteworthy rant. “I’m not gonna let some loser have his way with me, even if it meant those pictures getting out! I have way too much pride for that!” she told him, flaring her wings and thumping her hoof to her chest. “I’ve been waiting to enter that race my whole life! It’s my ticket to stardom and the Wonderbolts, and no two-bit cheater with a camera is gonna keep me from flying it!”
Phoenix couldn’t help but smile at that, deciding the cocky and occasionally obnoxious pegasus mare had some redeeming features after all—the courage of her convictions not least among them. “I find that really admirable,” he told her with an approving nod. “Win or lose, you’re a true competitor and have the heart of a champion, Rainbow Dash.”
She blushed a bit, having a sudden urge to kiss him right through the partition. “Heh… thanks, Nix! This is my first year competing in the race; I just reached the minimum age to participate. I’ve been waiting for this forever and I’m way too anxious to just drop out! R-B-D spells VIC-TOR-Y!”
He couldn’t help but smile again at that. “You sure you can take 500 miles? I admit I don’t know what kind of stamina you pegasi have, but it sounds like a really long way to fly,” Phoenix mused, curious to know if she was built for that kind of distance or had trained for it.
She looked surprised by his question, but answered. “Oh, it is; no question. The race is a daylong affair. It consists of five separate hundred-mile legs involving various weather and airborne obstacles with just a twenty-minute break between each. There’s checkpoints along the track set up so the racers can get some rest and liquids between legs—we’re allowed approved energy replenishment potions only—but that’s a little problem I keep having. There’s no doubt I’m fast, but even with the potions I tire out along the way. I’m just not used to flying that far, even in stages,” she admitted.
“In races like these, you should pace yourself accordingly. Don’t go fast right from the start; save your energy for the home stretch of each leg,” Phoenix told her, drawing on his own experience from his high school track team and the occasional 10k race he still ran. “Kind of like how I don’t present all my proof right away. I start slow so I can save my best evidence and arguments for later,” he further noted, remembering bitterly that Trixie had used that very tactic against him by withholding her most damning evidence until the very end.
Rainbow turned thoughtful as she considered his advice. “I’ll try to keep that in mind.”
Phoenix was starting to think that when—not if, but when, he forcibly insisted to himself—he got Rainbow Dash acquitted, he might want to stick around to watch the race, having noted during his earlier walk to the Courthouse that pony construction crews were in the middle of building a giant grandstand structure not far from Town Hall. “But let’s get back on topic, shall we? I’m supposed to be your lawyer, not your coach,” he reminded himself as much as her.
“Right,” Rainbow Dash said, nodding. “Anyway… I wasn’t planning on killing him; I just wanted to give him a scare! You know… kick some dirt in his face for messing with me?” she explained somewhat wanly, waiting for Phoenix to nod his understanding before going on. “The cloud shoots a lightning bolt directly under it when activated. I mess around with ponies by scaring them with small clouds containing weak bolts all the time, but I got an extra-powerful one in his case, to make the sound as loud as possible,” she added. “I guess it was a little dangerous getting one that big…”
Phoenix kept to himself the thought that it not only was, but it made her look all the worse for it. Still, at least I can buy her explanation—she’s clearly not a pony to take something like this lying down! “Forgive me, but I have to ask: could it have accidentally hit him when you set it off?”
“NO! I made sure it wasn’t over him!” she swore quickly, and Phoenix believed her when he couldn’t hear any hint of hesitation or evasiveness in her voice. “Yeah, it was dark out like you said in the court today, but I knew where he was. I made sure he didn’t step directly under it by standing there myself! He was like fifteen feet away from me when I flew up to trigger the cloud, and I could see everything clearly when the flash of the bolt lit up the clearing—it didn’t even come close to hitting him; it just made him scream like a little filly and left a really sissy look on his mug!
“Aw, you should have seen it, Nix; he just about peed himself! It was priceless!” Rainbow remembered, now laughing. “Then I said something like ‘Smell ya later, sucker!’ and just hightailed it out of there as fast as I could.”
That’s probably when Fluttershy saw her, Phoenix noted to himself, the dots starting to connect in his head. “So why didn’t you tell anyone about this blackmail earlier?”
Her expression dropped again. “I didn’t want anypony to know about the blackmail because… you know… then they would wonder what he was blackmailing me with…?” she trailed off meaningfully.
“I see.” Phoenix nodded slowly to himself. And then those pictures would have gotten out anyway, he realized, starting to understand how trapped she must have felt.
“You believe me, Nix? I didn’t kill him; he was absolutely fine when I left, I swear!” Rainbow Dash said to Phoenix, tearing up again and all but begging him to say yes.
Phoenix didn’t hesitate. “Yes, I believe you,” he reassured her, locking gazes with his client’s rose-colored eyes to let her see it in his brown ones for herself. “Although, more questions arise from this,” he told her, scratching his chin and tapping his pen on his notepad.
“More questions?” Rainbow asked, tilting her head at him again.
He nodded. “Questions like—if the first bolt didn’t kill him, then how did he end up dead directly under the cloud?” Phoenix wondered aloud. “I was trying desperately to convince the court that it was the second bolt that killed him. That would make this all an accident, since you had no control over it. But then we have that ‘lightning doesn’t strike the same place twice!’ thing that Trixie was talking about,” Phoenix said in a deliberately bad imitation of the showmare’s voice.
Rainbow’s eyes narrowed, swearing she’d get back at the mare magician for all her insults if it was the last thing she did. Even if I have to do it from the SUN! “As much as I don’t wanna admit it... she’s right, Nix. It’s a failsafe pegasi at the Cloudsdale weather factory use when they create storm clouds. If you’re caught under one, you just avoid standing directly beneath it, wait for the first bolt to hit there, and then move to where it struck. Since lightning from these clouds can’t hit in the same place twice...” she trailed off to let him finish the thought.
“The safest place becomes directly under the cloud where the first bolt hit!” Phoenix realized in wonder. “That’s really something. The weather can’t be controlled where I live; our lightning can and does strike the same place twice,” he reflected, thinking of the unpredictable weather patterns back home—he’d gotten soaked by a surprise summer storm while walking to work without an umbrella the previous week; he still wasn’t happy about the dry-cleaning bill for the mud that got splashed on his suit by a passing car.
She looked wistful at that. “Wild weather, huh? The Everfree’s like that too. Sometimes I kind of wish it worked that way here in Ponyville; I’d have a lot more free time on my hooves so I could perfect my ’Sonic Rainboom’ or my ‘Fantastic Filly Flash!’” Rainbow Dash pumped her chest in pride as she announced her signature moves.
Are those dance moves or something? Phoenix wondered, his mind going in some decidedly odd directions over the second name she gave. His eyes widened at one such image, which he quickly purged—he’d clearly been hanging around these ponies too long if he was thinking things like that! “From what I hear, you’re also a shift leader of the Ponyville Weather Patrol. I need some information regarding how the lightning here in Equestria works,” Phoenix stated, flipping over a page of his notepad, vowing a rush order on his favorite wine when he got back home.
She looked at him curiously, putting her hooves behind her head again in a lounging pose. “What do you need to know?”
Phoenix couldn’t understand how she could hold that pose on just her two hind legs. “Well, is it true the bolt causes the noise?”
“Yeah, it is,” she confirmed, falling back to all fours and putting on a thinking face, her eyes tilted towards the ceiling as she tried to remember things she normally never thought about. “I don’t know how it works exactly, but I’m pretty sure when it touches the ground or anything attached to the ground, like, say, a tree… it sends out vibrations which makes the ‘boom’.”
Phoenix had a hard time accepting that. I’m no meteorologist, but I’m pretty sure lightning doesn’t work like that! Then again, I keep forgetting that I’m in a land full of magical talking ponies who can manually change the weather! “Is there anything that could prevent it from making a sound?” he asked next.
She tilted her head again as she thought about that. “Rarely, you get these dud bolts that don’t hit the ground; they just fizzle halfway there and there’s no real sound then. So if a small bolt hit something in midair that was close enough to the cloud? Yeah, it wouldn’t make a sound. And I know what you’re thinking, but Trixie’s right, Nix—that couldn’t have happened with Ace,” she anticipated his next question.
“Why not?”
“That itchy racing suit,” Rainbow said, grimacing and making scratching motions with her hooves.
“Oh, right—I remember that being brought up. That’s that lightning-proof suit you pegasuses wear for the race, right?” Phoenix prompted.
“The plural is ‘pegasi’,” Rainbow corrected before going back on topic. “Yeah, it is. It may look all sleek and good on me, but I totally hate wearing that thing! It’s itchy and stuffy and really hard to get in and out of, and don’t get me started on how it rides up!” She shifted her hindquarters uncomfortably, causing Phoenix to grimace. “But for all that, it works—it’s aerodynamic and while you’re wearing it, you’re pretty much invulnerable to lightning.”
“Weren’t there some exposed parts on it though?” he asked, remembering what Twilight had said during the trial, suddenly seeing her tear-streaked face again.
“Yeah, there are. But while you’re in the flying position, those parts are covered up. They’re only exposed while you’re on all fours and grounded,” Rainbow detailed. At Phoenix’s request, she drew a rough illustration of the suit in the flying and walking positions on a piece of notepad paper he passed her through the slot, showing how a small ring of the neck just above the shoulders was exposed when grounded.
Phoenix was surprised—and a little put off—that she held his pen in her mouth as she drew, while Dash marveled at the fact that unlike a quill, she didn’t have to dip it in ink; it just drew a continuous line as long as she kept it pressed down… and best of all, it didn’t leave pieces of feather in her teeth! This is REALLY cool! I wonder if he’d be willing to give me this?
The sketches complete, she passed the pen and paper back to him, only for her mood to become despondent once more. “This is sounding more and more hopeless for me the more I think about it,” Rainbow realized, a single tear running down her cheek.
Though mildly annoyed at the saliva and toothmarks on his gold-inlaid burgundy-colored ball-point pen—a very treasured token of respect given to him by his friend and prosecutorial rival, Miles Edgeworth—Phoenix’s heart went out to her at that moment; he realized that for all her confidence and cockiness, Rainbow Dash was genuinely scared of what would happen to her. “Don’t worry, Rainbow. I’ll find out the truth behind Ace’s death and get you out of here!” Phoenix promised, wiping the pen clean with his handkerchief and making Rainbow smile a bit.
“Thanks, Nix,” she said, feeling a little better and putting her hoof against the glass partition, deciding that despite his odd appearance and his poor trial performance, the human lawyer was okay.
Phoenix had seen other ponies greet and say goodbye to each other with a bump of their hooves on the walk over, and he guessed she wanted to do the same. “Okay, Rainbow Dash, I’m gonna go do some more investigating in light of this new information. I’ll try and visit you before visiting hours are over to tell you what I found,” he promised her, pressing his fist against the partition opposite her hoof.
Rainbow smiled at that, sensing that after his rough start, Phoenix was beginning to catch on to things. She was even starting to genuinely like him, and found herself hoping she’d have the chance to show off some of her aerial moves to him later. She couldn’t yet do her Sonic Rainboom on cue, but she could at least perform her Fantastic Filly Flash—bet he’d really like to see THAT!
“Alright, catch you later,” she said as Phoenix started to turn away, but then—
“Oh! One more thing,” he remembered, stopping in his tracks to turn back to her.
“Yes?” Rainbow asked, looking up at him again.
“I bumped into a pony named Pinkie Pie after the trial. She said she was a friend of yours? She meant to cheer you on in court today, but she arrived too late,” Phoenix noted. He wasn’t sure he should say more, but decided he had to ask: “I have to know; is she always that… uh… loopy?”
Rainbow gave a sad but knowing smile, wishing her earth pony friend was there to cheer her up with her endearing antics and delicious sweets—all except her pies, anyway!—wondering if she’d ever again have the chance to enjoy her parties or just plan a prank with her again. “Heh. Yeah, that’s just Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie,” she confirmed with a chuckle. “I admit she takes some getting used to, but give her a chance, Nix. She grows on you.”
Phoenix doubted that, but kept the thought to himself. “Okay, just wanted to let you know. Well, goodbye, Rainbow Dash.” He was about to leave again, when—
“Oh! WAIT!” Rainbow Dash suddenly exclaimed, nearly making Phoenix jump out of his suit. “Sorry, Nix, I almost forgot.”
Geez, I just can’t leave this place! “Yes? What is it?” he asked, turning his attention back on her.
“Here, Nix. Take this,” Rainbow said, passing Phoenix an odd-looking and rather oversized key through the slot.
“A key? What is it for?” Phoenix asked, picking it up, thinking it looked like a house key from a century past. And where the heck were you hiding this? he wasn’t sure he wanted to know.
Rainbow didn’t reply right away, giving Phoenix a very mischievous grin. “Ace’s hotel room,” she told him with a very smug look, tossing her head and running a hoof through her multicolored mane.
Phoenix gaped. “W-WHAT?! When did you get this?”
“Right after I got the blackmail letter! I thought he was stalking me, so I snuck into his hotel room while he was out to find dirt on him! The room key was under the welcome mat! What a stupid place to leave it, huh?” She snickered.
Phoenix fell silent, his mouth still agape. “Yeah… stupid place,” he agreed weakly. Note to self: Put key to office in different hiding spot! he resolved, slipping the key into his inner jacket pocket.
“So there you go. I wasn’t able to find anything good in there, but maybe you can!” she fervently hoped.
He nodded, not about to question his good fortune. “I’ll do my best. So where’s the hotel?”
“Oh! Right. Guess you kinda need to know that,” she noted with a chuckle, a bit sheepishly. “He was bunking at the Hay and Stay Hotel along with the other out-of-town racers while he was in Ponyville. It’s a little past Sugar Cube Corner,” she told him, waiting for him to finish writing it down. “It’s not far. Just have Twilight show you where it is!”
Phoenix’s expression dropped at her mention, and his pen stopped scratching on his pad. “Twilight…” he said forlornly, remembering clearly the hurt and sorrow in her big violet eyes, not understanding why her rejection hurt so much. I let her down… no matter how I arrived here, I promised I’d help her but I let her down…
Recognizing his suddenly sad look, Rainbow Dash tilted her head. “Huh? Hey, what’s the matter, Nix?” she asked.
Realizing he was starting to brood again, Phoenix shook it off before turning back to her. “Oh! Nothing, sorry. Thanks, Rainbow; this will really help my investigation!” Phoenix remarked, pocketing the key and trying to refocus on the task at hand—at hoof, he quickly corrected himself again, vowing to find out what really happened in the forest clearing and prove Rainbow Dash innocent. Well, even if I don’t have Twilight to guide me, hopefully I can get some passing pony to point me towards the hotel?
“Goodbye, Nix! I just know you’ll find some super awesome evidence this time around!” Rainbow said expectantly, pressing her hoof against the partition again.
He returned the gesture. “I promise I’ll get you and Fluttershy out of this mess,” he vowed, swearing to himself again that he would make everything right and apologize to both Twilight and Fluttershy before all was said and done.
Her expression darkened. “Fluttershy? I told you; I don’t care about her!” she said with a grunt and scowl.
She’s still really angry about that testimony Fluttershy gave, Phoenix recognized, hoping she’d be able to forgive her friend in time. Hoping Fluttershy and Twilight would forgive him in time, or he’d never be able to forgive himself.
With a parting fist-to-hoof bump through the clear partition, Phoenix left the Detention Center with some fresh leads, ready to begin his investigation anew. Still don’t have that much to go on, but at least there’s some new places I can look now, he reminded himself, patting the pocket that held the key to Ace’s hotel room.
Don’t know what’s there, but I know there’s answers to how Ace died somewhere. And before this day is out, I swear I’m gonna FIND them!
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478839 I've already seen it
it's so good! 
-Glassed
479010 I know! The Part were The locks needed to be broken was Fucking awsome! BUt i can't belive Ace Swift Went as far as BlackMailing her! And That Byatch at the end Sonata? Well, Phoenix is right! He does have Proof, He's got the letter, the Pictures, He's Got Rainbow on his side for Damn sake!
Herself!!!!!!!!!!!
And Trixie can go
What a Twist!
t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSX6su8G8fW05W8P006bmWMAdWLX1csTXfc8y2zDbmjKpu7RBvlBw
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand...Ace is pain in the goddamn flank!
Oh Rainbow...at least you were brave enough to tell it now
. Now we wait for Phoenix to fix things up...and hopefully be awesome enough to get out of this BIG mess.
Also, note to Phoenix, key under the mat is obvious till hell freezes, now and forever
. Great chapter dude! See you on the chapter!
480321 now that I saw it... That is so wrong in so MANY ways!
i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/234/016/314.jpg
Really that is an awesome read.
503065 Why do you think it her and Big Mac? and besides, she said it was just a hobby so... does that mean she's a nympho or what?
503077 For some reason I have a feeling it's this:
http://manateemckenzie.deviantart.com/art/Ballerina-Dash-295947250
504649 thats... ULTRA LAWL!!
wait... 
Dash: MY LIFE IS RUINED!!!
505172 So THAT'S why she might dress up, we know she doesn't like ponies touching her hooves although she was afraid of losing her daredevil licence as well, no wonder she wouldn't want her friends to find out she'd be humilated.
And Phoenix do yourself a favor when you get back and hide the key to your office in the one place you know they'll never look, don't ask me what that is because it's your office key not mine!
I barely know anything about the game you used as a basis and suddenly I have a strong desire to play them...all of them
Damn you......
4227412 dammit me too!
I think Dashie is like the pony equivalent of a brony, except she's keeping it a secret.
4227412 I'm getting the same thing just grin reading this
Hopefully Phoenix can fix his mistake ...
I am curious now. Obviously she wasn't just sitting alone in a room dressed up like a girl. What exactly was she doing!?
You bet she can take 500 miles and she can take 500 more!
Doesn't it, though? The Everfree has no problem making its own weather. I kinda figured ponies just really loved to micromanage things.
This being Ace Attorney, we can forgive this particular plothole.
504649 can you post another link to this picture? That account is deactivated as of now.
Words?
8732674
Dammit. Fixed.
Adding Season 7 canon compliant details into fics from 2012? Now that's some impressive stuff.
9959321
Thanks! It helped that I’d just seen season seven as I was going into the major editing pass...
That line from the original always confused me. I mean unless people from season one really thought Rainbow Dash was a teenager
10097445
Or maybe the minimum age for racing in such a difficult and high-profile event was 21 or more? I can clarify this with a couple added sentences in the chapter if you want.
10097488
I always guessed that the minimum age for entering the Wonderbolt Academy was 16, which is only 2 years less than our military boot camps, and considering the kind of society the ponies have that would let them set out and be independent at a younger age than us. . .
Am I the only one who wants to know what that "hobby" was...?