Lyra Heartstrings: Ace Attorney
Turnabout Orchestra
*****
“I’m sorry, Octavia, but the members of the orchestra have been chosen.”
“N-no! Please! I’ve been practicing really, really hard these past few months! Give me another chance!”
The musical instruments were perfectly aligned in the corner of the music hall. After all, they needed a good rest. The concert earlier that night surely was long, yet a great success. Cellists, bassists, drummers, trumpeters. They all did a magnificent job in their performance.
“I know you’re very talented, darling. You were even selected to play for Princess Celestia’s royal symphony concert last month. However, I’m afraid you don’t meet the requirements to join Ponyville’s Blue Moon Orchestra. I’m sorry.”
“B-but why!? Y-you even said I’m very talented! Please! It’s been my dream to join this orchestra!”
“How about next December? Let me remind you that we let members go and pick new ones each six months. You could try then.”
“N-no! I-I’ve been waiting a lot for this. I can’t...”
The raindrops outside struck like little pebbles against the concert hall windows. That pleasant night blew a gentle, cold breeze across the room. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning struck, illuminating the dark hall for a brief moment.
A unicorn lay on the floor, in front of the row of instruments. The life she once had within her body was now long gone. The only living soul in that room was a speechless, light gray mare standing right in front of her.
No! Please! You have to believe me! I didn’t kill her! It wasn’t me!
*****
“Oh, boy… I hope nothing bad happens today.” Vinyl was sitting on one of the lobby couches, breathing faster than normal. She couldn’t help but shiver on her seat. After all, it was her sister who was about to be sentenced for murder. She ran a hoof through her mane, messing it up even more. She was up almost the whole night trying to contact a lawyer to defend Octavia. The fatigue and anxiety was not a good mix for her. At least, for her own image, she could hide her weary eyes from public behind her shades.
“Uh, excuse me?” somepony said.
Vinyl raised her head and looked at the pony in front of her. She noticed the pony’s light aquamarine coat along with her pale cyan mane. It was Lyra Heartstrings, the defense attorney that was going to defend her sister. “M-Ms. Heartstrings!”
“Good morning, Ms. Scratch,” Lyra said, greeting her with a warm smile. “How are you today?”
Vinyl wasn’t sure why Lyra was in such a good mood, despite the fact that the trial was just minutes away. “Uh, I’m… I’m fine, thanks. I had a cup of coffee and a soda this morning before arriving to the courtroom,” she replied. That way, at least she could have the energy to witness the whole trial.
“That’s great. We’ve gotta keep up the good spirit,” Lyra cheered. She took a quick glance around the room. “So, where’s Ms. Octavia? Isn’t this the defendant lobby?”
“Oh, uh, I think she should arrive here soon. She was at the detention center this morning,” Vinyl said, looking at the lobby front door. The trial was about to commence and she was nowhere to be found.
“Well, it’s all right,” Lyra mumbled, taking a seat next to Vinyl. “She is charged for murder, after all. I’m sure her questioning took some time.”
“M-Ms. Heartstrings! My sister, she-she wouldn’t do something like this!” Vinyl removed her glasses and rested them atop her horn, revealing her worn, teary eyes to Lyra. The lawyer raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Tavi would never hurt anypony!”
“I know she didn’t do it, Ms. Scratch.” Lyra waved a hoof around. “I’m a defense attorney, and it’s my job to believe and trust my client until the very end. If Octavia didn’t do it, then I’ll do my best today in court to prove her innocence!”
Vinyl could feel her heart warming up a bit. She was touched by the attorney’s words, which clearly showed confidence and determination. No other lawyer in Ponyville agreed to help Octavia. The case appeared to be very simple, so they weren’t risking to lose. “Th-thanks, Ms. Heartstrings.”
“Heh, you can call me Lyra, if that’s fine with you.” She was an attorney, so she was used to formality. However, around her clients, she preferred to lighten the tension in the air. “So, do you have any details about the case?”
“Uh, yeah, Ms. Lyra,” Vinyl said, “I researched a little about the case before coming here. Apparently, the victim was a unicorn mare named Minuette.” Pausing, she bowed her head, before raising it once more. “But! It wasn’t Tavi! Honest! I don’t even know why they suspect her!”
“Okay, okay, I see you’re quite informed,” Lyra replied. “I myself don’t know why she became the suspect either, but I guarantee everything will become clearer at the trial.” As soon as she was done talking, the lobby front doors slowly opened, revealing three ponies on their way in. Two of them were Royal Unicorn Guards. The third pony, their prisoner, was the defendant Octavia.
“Tavi!” Vinyl exclaimed, jumping from the couch and running towards her. Her heart almost broke when she saw her sister wearing a pair of hoofcuffs on her front legs. The chain was long enough to let her walk small steps, but short enough to let her move her legs at will, thus, preventing her from running away.
“Hi there, Vinyl,” Octavia greeted her sister with a forced smile. She was devastated and scared in the inside, but she didn’t want to concern her with her own feelings. She was wearing her usual pink bow tie, and her mane and tail were perfectly combed. She cared about her own image. “How’s going?”
“Ugh! You had us worried! We thought you wouldn’t show up!” Vinyl nagged her, quickly gaining back her composure. “Eh, sorry, I got carried away… heh. You were being held in custody. Of course you’d show up.” Octavia only giggled, being joined by her sister.
Lyra stood up from her seat and walked towards Octavia to formally meet her. She recognized her. She was a somewhat famous cellist that would occasionally play in Canterlot orchestras. “Greetings. You must be Octavia, my client. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Lyra Heartstrings, defense attorney and your… well… defense attorney,” she introduced herself, extending one of her hooves to greet her client.
“The pleasure is all mine, Ms. Lyra,” Octavia replied. She tried to extend her hoof, but the hoofcuffs forbade her from doing so. “Um, gentlecolts?” She turned her head and looked at the guards. Their horns glowed and the hoofcuffs around her hooves opened. One of the guards levitated them and placed them away. “Thanks.” She extended her hoof and shook Lyra’s.
“Well, perhaps we should start with you telling us what happened that night,” Lyra suggested, looking at Vinyl, who had put her shades back on.
“Uh, yeah. What happened, Tavi? Why would they arrest you for?” Vinyl asked. That was a question that was still bothering her.
“Well…” Octavia sighed, taking a few steps forward. “It happened last night at Ponyville’s Auditorium.”
“Ponyville’s Auditorium? What were you doing there last night?” Lyra asked.
“I went to meet with Minuette, the Blue Moon Orchestra conductor,” Octavia replied, “I talked with her because I didn’t get chosen to be the cellist for the Summer Orchestra.”
“I see. The Summer Orchestra, eh?” Lyra tapped her hoof on her chin. It seems like Octavia had a reason to kill the victim after all. Apparently, she didn’t get picked to be the cellist for this orchestra.
“The Summer Orchestra is a set of boring orchestra concerts that the Blue Moon has from July to December,” Vinyl interrupted, immediately receiving a cold glare from Octavia.
“Vinyl! The Blue Moon Orchestra is NOT boring!” Octavia exclaimed, with a frown on her face. If there was one thing she hated, it was Vinyl calling her music boring every time. “I don’t call your noisy ‘music’ boring, do I?”
“No, but you call it ‘noisy’, just like you did right now!” Vinyl replied back, clenching her teeth. If there was one thing she hated, it was Octavia calling her music noisy every time.
“Ladies, ladies, please… we can leave the musical arguments for later, okay?” Lyra stood between the two sisters, trying to bring back the order in the room. “Right now we were listening to what Octavia was doing the night of the murder, so please, continue with your story.”
“Thanks.” Octavia cleared her throat. “As I was saying, I was there. But I didn’t murder Minuette!” she assured, taking a quick breath. She was starting to worry. Right now, she had nopony in her side but Vinyl and Lyra.
“I know you didn’t kill Ms. Minuette, dear,” Lyra said. However, the most important question wasn’t solved yet. “Then, why are you the suspect? Why did they arrest you?”
Just when Octavia opened her mouth to answer Lyra’s question, the bailiff in the lobby interrupted her. “Excuse me. The trial is about to commence. The defendant is requested to get in the courtroom.”
Lyra grunted. Shucks! Now we’ll have to wait for the trial to know what happened. But if Octavia said she didn’t do it, then she didn’t. I just hope things don’t get ugly.
“Okay, Tavi. Good luck! I’ll be rooting for you!” Vinyl cheered her, with a smirk on her face. Octavia was now in Lyra’s hooves. Now it was up to her to find the truth to what happened that night.
“Thanks, Vinyl… I know everything will be alright.” She turned her head and looked at Lyra. “Okay, Ms. Lyra, I’m counting on you!”
Lyra nodded, with a confident smile on her face. “Let’s go. I promise to get you a not guilty verdict or else, I’ll turn in my attorney badge!”
*****
The courtroom was filled with all kind of ponies, who were going to witness the upcoming trial from their stands. They were split in two stands, one of each side of the room. The judge stand was at the bottom of the room, standing taller than the public stands, with Celestia’s emblem right in front of it. In front of each public stand, there were the defense and the prosecution table, facing each other for the upcoming battle.
The murmurs and whispers that came from the public were soon cut off by Celestia’s gavel, striking with might against the sound block of the table. Immediately, all eyes were fixed at the Princess of Equestria, who was going to be the judge for the trial.
Sitting on the defendant chair, was Octavia, the suspect. She was still nervous about the whole thing. She had been in courtrooms before, but she never expected to find herself in the defendant chair. Meanwhile, Lyra was already set at her table. She had some papers and envelopes scattered all over it. Vinyl was right next to her, since she let her be her co-counsel, so she could witness the trial from a better angle.
The prosecutor, on the other side of the table, had her own papers and envelopes perfectly fixed, unlike the defense attorney in front of her.
“Court is now in session for the trial of Ms. Octavia,” Celestia informed, breaking the silence generated by her gavel of justice. “I must ask, are both sides ready?”
“The defense is ready, Your Honor,” Lyra affirmed. She had the necessary items for the case already. Files containing profiles, reports and such. She knew more evidence and reports would come up later at the trial.
“The prosecution is ready, Your Honor,” a pale cream-colored earth pony informed. She ran her hoof through her pink and blue, curly mane. “And it’s ready to prove the defendant’s guilt.” She shifted her glance at the attorney in front of her. “I hope you’re ready to lose, Lyree.”
“Tsk, you just love to call me by my pet name, don’t you, Bonnie?” Lyra chuckled, looking at Bon Bon with a smirk on her face. “If you’re gonna use pet names, I’ll call you by your own, then.”
Bon Bon let out a faint snicker at the sound of her own pet name. She swiftly cleaned the smug on her face and replaced it with the toughest of looks. “Fair enough.”
“If both sides are done with their idle chat, I’d like to commence the trial,” Celestia interrupted, looking at the two mares below her. She was a princess with a lot of prudence and patience, but the trial had to start. “Well, Ms. Bon Bon. Your opening statement, please.”
“Of course, Your Honor,” Bon Bon said. She opened a folder on her table and checked its contents, giving it a quick read and closing it with her hoof. “Now then, I’d like to proceed with a summary of events on the day in question.” Her voice emanated confidence from it. “The incident occurred on Ponyville’s Auditorium. The murder victim was Ms. Minuette, the conductor of Ponyville’s Blue Moon Orchestra.”
“Ah, the Blue Moon Orchestra. I never missed a single concert. It’s a shame a tragedy like this happened,” Celestia commented. She was already invited to the next concert the orchestra was going to give.
“Well, yes,” Bon Bon said. “Anyway, next, we have a photo taken at the scene of the crime.” She searched around her pile of documents for it. Finally, she found it and showed it for the court. The photo showed the victim, lying on the floor with a small puddle of blood around her head. There were several chips of wood from big to small sizes scattered all over the floor and her body.
“Very well then,” Celestia said as she enveloped the photo with her magical golden aura and retrieved it from the prosecutor’s hoof, placing it on her desk. She looked at the photo and nodded. “The court accepts this photo to the record as evidence,” she confirmed, giving the photo another look. “Hmm… I can’t quite tell the cause of death from this photo. All I see is the victim lying there with many pieces of wood all over her.”
“That’s where I was going to go next, Your Honor,” Bon Bon claimed, looking around her pile of folders once again.
Lyra was quietly looking to what Bon Bon was bringing to the table. I assume the cause of death will now be revealed. I only hope that it doesn’t incriminate Octavia even more.
“Here. This is the autopsy record given to me by the police,” Bon Bon said, flashing a sheet of paper. “The time of death was last night exactly at 23:05. The cause was instant death due a blow to the back of the head with a blunt object.”
Celestia levitated the sheet and hovered in front of her to read it. “I see. A single strike… hmm… a horrible way to die. So, what was the murder weapon?”
“Ah, yes, Your Honor. If you read further, it clearly shows that the murder weapon was the defendant’s own cello,” Bon Bon said, pointing her hoof at Octavia, who gasped in surprise.
The public began to mutter after that last claim. It seemed like the defendant was guilty. After all, the murder weapon was her own instrument. The mighty sound of Celestia’s gavel echoed through the room, silencing the murmurs once again.
“So Tavi’s cello was the murder weapon. Now I see why they arrested her!” Vinyl commented, gazing at Lyra with a worried look on her face. The courtroom didn’t allow ponies with shades, so she had to take them off before entering. Rules are rules, after all.
“This is looking bad for us… very bad,” Lyra grunted.
“We can all assume that the defendant struck the victim on the night of the murder with her cello,” Bon Bon assured. She looked at Lyra with a smirk on her face. “Well? Does the defense has any comments?”
“Actually, the defense does,” Lyra claimed, slamming one hoof against the table with might. “What reason would my client have to do so? Why murder the victim in the first place?” It was a valid question. After all, in a trial, the motive is a fundamental reason. Surely the murderer had a good reason for his or her actions.
“Heh, that’s where I’m going next, Lyree,” Bon Bon chuckled, shifting her gaze at the Princess. “The defendant HAD a motive for murdering Ms. Minuette.”
“And what would that motive be?” Celestia asked, curious about the matter. Murder was a rare event in Equestria, so she was expecting a very good motive for it.
“Apparently, the defendant wasn't chosen to become a member of the Blue Moon Orchestra, which was directed by the victim, Ms. Minuette. She was hoping to enter as cellist, since that’s what she plays, the cello.” Bon Bon paused to check on more of her files. “The reason? It’s quite obvious. Filled with resentment, Ms. Octavia grabbed her cello and assaulted Ms. Minuette with it.”
“Hmm… I see. So the defendant had a reason after all.” Celestia looked at Lyra with a puzzled face. “This isn’t looking good for your client, Ms. Heartstrings.” She shifted her gaze towards Bon Bon. “Very well then, the prosecution may call its first witness. There… is a witness, right, Ms. Bon Bon?”
Huh? A witness? I should’ve seen this coming. Lyra bit her lower lip, awaiting for Bon Bon’s answer. The case was looking pretty bad right now, and with a witness, it could only get worse.
“That’s correct, Your Honor.” Bon Bon nodded. “If it pleases the court, the prosecution would like to call Ms. Octavia to the stand.” She looked at the defendant, inviting her to do so.
“What? The defendant herself? Would that be alright, Ms Heartstrings?” Celestia asked, raising an eyebrow at her. Normally, the defendants would not be called to the stand as witnesses.
Lyra looked over at her client, biting her lip and thinking. “Absolutely, Your Honor.”
Vinyl tugged on Lyra's leg. “Are you sure that's a good idea?” she whispered, looking up at her.
“I need more information if I'm going to piece together what happened that night,” Lyra replied, watching Octavia rise and walk to the stand. “Your sister is innocent, so the best way to prove her innocence, is by finding out what really did happen that night.”
“Very well then. The court calls Ms. Octavia to the witness stand!” Celestia struck her gavel.
With that, Octavia stood up from her seat and walked across the room to take the witness stand, which was right in front of the whole courtroom. She glanced around the room, fidgeting with her hooves behind the old oak stand, which had a reflective finish. Right now, it was the moment where she had to be the strongest ever.
“Witness, state your name and occupation for the court, please,” Bon Bon requested. One of the formalities of the prosecution is to always ask those two fundamental details to any witness who takes the stand, and Octavia wasn’t the exception.
“M-my name is Octavia, and I-I’m a cellist,” Octavia stuttered, looking at the prosecutor with concern on her face. She didn’t know what was going to happen next.
“Ms. Octavia. You do realize that you’re suspected in the murder of the conductor Ms. Min—”
“B-but I didn’t do it! I’m innocent!” Octavia exclaimed, immediately regretting her sudden outburst. She didn’t intend to yell, but she was tired of everypony accusing her of doing such a terrible act as murder.
“We’ll decide that at the end of trial. Right now, you’ll testify about what happened that night,” Bon Bon ordered. She had the most serious look Octavia ever saw on her life.
“I agree with the prosecution,” Celestia commented. “Witness, please tell us about what happened last night.”
“Y-yes, Your Honor…” Octavia mumbled. This was it. Everypony was going to know the truth once and for all, or at least, that’s what she was hoping for.
Witness Testimony
“Yes, I will admit that I was there. But, I didn’t murder Ms. Minuette! All I did was talk to her that night. After a while, I found her dead body lying in front of me. I was panicked, so I blacked out. When I woke up, the police had arrived, so I was immediately arrested.”
Princess Celestia took a few seconds to meditate the testimony in her head. “Hmm… so you were there, and you even interacted with the victim. Yet, you claim you didn’t murder her, is that right?” she asked.
“Yes! I swear I never touched anypony that night!” Octavia exclaimed. The murmurs echoed once again around the courtroom. They were quickly silenced by Celestia’s gavel.
“Of course, that’s just a pack of lies,” Bon Bon claimed, with a smile on her face. “But it’s not my job to expose the lies in a testimony, right, Lyree?”
“Tsk, your arrogance will cost you this trial, Bonnie,” Lyra claimed. “I’m aware of what I have to do next, and believe me, I’m not very comfortable with it.” And why would she? She was about to cross-examine her own client. She only hoped that she could find anything to turn this case upside down.
“What do you mean with that, Ms. Lyra?” Vinyl asked, completely oblivious about how the court worked. “Expose Tavi’s lies?”
“Something like that, Vinyl. After every testimony, the defense does something called a cross-examination, where we press on the testimony and check for any lies or inconsistencies,” Lyra explained. “The witness repeats his or her testimony in order to let us press or present evidence. In this case, I have to see if Octavia’s testimony is accurate. Usually, defendants are not called to the witness stand, so it bothers me to do it.”
“Ah… I see,” Vinyl responded, amazed by the loads of new information that she had received. “But, Tavi wouldn’t lie! Would she?”
“Of course not,” Lyra assured. She wouldn’t… right? She wouldn’t do this to me.
“Alright, Ms. Heartstrings. Please, commence with your cross-examination,” Celestia requested. It was about time to begin with the first cross-examination of the trial. The truth was about to be revealed.
Cross-Examination
“Yes, I will admit that I was there. But, I didn’t murder Ms. Minuette!” Octavia repeated her testimony.
“Hold it!” Lyra exclaimed. “You say that you were there? But why? Why would you be there?” she asked. It was a question that was answered before, but more details wouldn’t hurt.
“I went there because I wanted to see if Ms. Minuette would let me join the orchestra. There were auditions going on, but… I didn’t make it,” Octavia explained.
“So, what happened next?” Bon Bon asked, indicating her to proceed with her testimony.
“All I did was talk to her that night. After a while, I found her dead body lying in front of me,” Octavia repeated herself.
“Hold it! You say that ‘after a while’ you found her body. What exactly does this mean? Did you leave the room at some point of the night?” Lyra asked. That seemed like a good reason to cast away suspicion from her, at least for now.
“Well, after she told me that I didn’t make it for the orchestra, I left the room, crying,” Octavia said, recalling the events from last night. “Around ten minutes after I left the hall, I realized I had forgotten my cello.” She paused and looked at the floor. The next part was something that would haunt her forever, regardless if she were found guilty or not. “When I came back, it was when I saw her lying on the floor…”
“So you left the room? How convenient, eh?” Bon Bon said. Those kind of testimonies were easily interpreted as lies. “Common lie somepony would say to escape of a jam.”
“Please, Ms. Bon Bon, let the defense handle this,” Celestia requested, receiving a simple shrug from the prosecutor. She rolled her eyes and indicated Lyra to proceed.
“Wait, what were you doing in those ten minutes before you went back to the crime scene?” Lyra asked.
“I was crying on a couch on the other side of the auditorium. I was really crushed, you know,” Octavia replied. She still remembered what seemed like the ten saddest minutes of her life. Her dreams and hopes were reflected on the tears of last night. “I was about to leave, but I realized I had forgotten my cello back at the hall, so that’s why I went back.”
“Okay, and after going back, you saw the body of Ms. Minuette, right?” Lyra guessed.
“Y-yes… well, not right away…” Octavia took a moment to recall the scene in her head. “The lights in the hall were on when I was talking to her. After I left and came back, the lights were off, so I couldn’t see a thing,” she said.
“There was a wicked storm last night. Maybe there was a blackout?” Vinyl asked. She felt her morning coffee was losing effect, as she began to feel more and more tired as the minutes passed. However, she had to stay strong, for Octavia’s sake.
“So, if you couldn’t see a thing… how did you see Ms. Minuette lying on the floor?” Lyra asked once again.
“Ah… it was because a lightning struck and illuminated the whole room for a brief moment. That’s when I saw her… and my cello…” she paused for a few seconds, taking a deep breath to continue. “My cello was shattered in several pieces. They were right next to Minuette’s body,” she muttered. She was still crushed that she lost her valuable instrument. But a chunk of wood and strings were not important, at least not now.
“The prosecution can confirm that there was a blackout in Ponyville’s Auditorium around that time. In fact, I have the record right here.” Bon Bon looked through her files and withdrew a file from an envelope. “The blackout occurred exactly at 23:10 on the night of the murder. And the lights were out for a whole hour. Strangely enough, only the lights of the main hall, the scene of the crime, went out. The rest of the auditorium was fine.”
Celestia retrieved the record from Bon Bon and looked at it. “I see. The autopsy can confirm that the victim died at 23:05, and the blackout in the main hall occurred just five minutes later.” She took a few moments to think about it.
Bon Bon nodded, confident that she had the case in her pockets. “So, as you can see… the defendant murdered the victim and proceeded to leave the room—”
“Objection!” Lyra yelled, slamming her hooves against the table with determination. “My client says she returned to the crime scene. If you recall her testimony, she said the lights were off when she returned. Now then, if she really committed the crime, why would she go back? What reason would she have?” Lyra asked. That was indeed an interesting point.
Bon Bon cringed, completely taken off guard. This time, the murmurs from the public grew stronger as they discussed what really happened that night. Celestia’s gavel roared across the room, claiming for order.
“This is a valid point, Ms. Bon Bon! Why would the defendant go back to the crime scene?” Celestia asked. Finally, it seemed like the case was starting to switch sides.
“W-well, plenty of reasons, Your Honor!” Bon Bon claimed, a bit concerned. Even she didn’t see that one coming, and it was her own evidence the one that backfired at her. “Maybe she realized her cello was the murder weapon, so she went back to clean the evidence!”
“Objection!” Lyra exclaimed. “If that’s true, then why would my client faint? The police can confirm that she was unconscious when she was found last night! She had no reason to—”
“Objection!” Bon Bon replied, with the same voice strength as Lyra. “If the lights were off, the murder would have occurred in the dark. Seeing her victim's body or her blood, may have been enough to make her faint”
“Tsk.” Lyra ran out of comebacks. She couldn’t deny the fact that a sudden burst of light, combined with a crime scene, would shock anypony. However, she refused to think that Octavia was guilty.
“This… this looks bad for Tavi,” Vinyl mumbled. She was still concerned about the new evidence that kept coming up from the prosecutor table.
I know there has to be some explanation to this, but I think Octavia has told us everything she knows. After talking with Minuette, she left the room. Crushed, she cried on a couch outside the main hall. Ten minutes later, she went back to retrieve the cello, only to find out the tragic scene, thus, fainting. Lyra recalled Octavia’s testimony in her mind. She still needed more information.
“Plus, the analysis made on the cello revealed that the defendant’s hoofprints were all over it,” Bon Bon commented, reading one of the papers on her desk.
“Well, of course my hoofprints were on it! It’s MY cello after all, I was playing it that night at the auditions!” Octavia claimed. She wasn’t still quite sure why hoofprints were relevant. Somepony with a little bit of logic could figure that out.
“A good point, Ms. Octavia, yes,” Bon Bon said, running her hoof through her mane. “However, that’s the problem. That only your hoofprints were on it. If anypony else did it, naturally, their hoofprints would be all over your instrument!”
“Ah!” Lyra cried. Things looked very, very bad right now. Bon Bon was going to get a guilty verdict, and she was determined to do so.
“So that’s even more reason to suspect the defendant!” Celestia said, closing her eyes for a bit to think about the matter. “I think I can hand down my verdict right now.”
“Not yet, Your Honor!” Bon Bon exclaimed. “The prosecution has one more witness. A witness that was at the main hall the night of the murder!”
“W-what!?” Lyra gasped, surprised by what Bon Bon just said. A witness? If the case was bad enough, a witness who was in the main hall wasn’t going to help much. “Witness you say?”
“Indeed, Lyree,” Bon Bon chuckled, looking at Celestia. “Your Honor, the prosecution calls Ms. Twinkleshine to the stand!”