//------------------------------// // Day 2: The Trial Part 2: A Not-so Handy Guard. // Story: Twilight Sparkle, Ace Attorney: The Royal Turnabout // by Animegx43 //------------------------------// October 10, 10:42 AM Canterlot District Court Defendant Lobby Wow. I can't believe how messy I've made this. Twilight thought. After a short, but wild start to Rarity's trial, Twilight was given a chance to calm down and reconsider her approach to her case, but all she could do was think about her slip of the tongue which caused everypony in the court to think that she though Rarity committed the crime. "Come on, Twilight. You just made one small mistake." Spike said. "Just go back in there and take it back!" "Easier said then done, Spike. I just made a very bad impression in there, and from what I've read in my law books, a charismatic and confident lawyer is strong, and I highly doubt I'm either one." Twilight explained. "You can say that again, Twilight Sparkle." Overhearing Twilight and Spike, Discord approached the two and barged his way into their conversation. His appearance alone filled Twilight with anger. "Discord..." Twilight said as she was ready to lose it, not being happy with the stunt Discord pulled. "There there, my little pony. I understand. It's not your fault that you're trying to get a killer off death row." Discord said with a smug smile. "She's not a killer!" Twilight said in a raised tone. "Oh, that's right. This was attempted murder, wasn't it?" During the ten minute break, rather than preparing his case, Discord decided to harass Twilight, making it harder for her to get ready for the trial. Seeing Discord appear in court was already the last thing she wanted to see. "You really are something, you know that?" Twilight asked. "Why thank you. I do my very best to help ponykind at your expense." Discord said. "Help ponykind? You've done no such thing! So far, you've been making everypony think Rarity tried to kill a prince, humiliated me in front of an equestrian court, and just a minute ago, I saw you through a window, throwing a port-o-john over the roof." "Yeah, I couldn't open that weird blue, metal box, so I got angry at it. I think it belongs to the judge." Discord explained. "Anyway, it's not my fault that this is happening. I'm just--" "Yes, it IS your fault that this is happening!" Twilight interrupted. "If I recall, the reason my and my friends freed you from your stone prison was so you could benefit ponykind, but you clearly still don't want that!" "What do you mean, Twi?" Spike asked. "Oh, come on, Spike! It's obvious that he wants to get rid of one of us so we can't use the Elements of Harmony on him again. It's the only thing he has to gain from all this!" Discord was stunned by Twilight's outburst. He almost couldn't think of anything to say afterwards. After a long, awkward silence, Discord became crossed with Twilight, and since everypony knew how powerful Discord was, seeing so much as a frown on his face can be dangerous for all. Twilight quickly regretted snapping at Discord. "As it so happens, my dear Twilight, Princess Celestia personally asked me to be the prosecutor." Discord said. "I even tried to turn it down since Rarity is a friend of Fluttershy, so she resorted to bribing me to do it! All I have to gain from this, whether I win or lose, is to get my own room in the palace." A room? That's all he's doing this for? Oh boy, have I done it now. Twilight thought with embarrassment. "On second thought, I'm going to enjoy winning this trial. Give your last goodbyes to your friend, Twilight Sparkle!" With the snap of his finger while still being upset, Discord disappeared from Twilight and Spike's sight to prepare for the trial. "You've really done it this time, Twilight." Spike said. "Yeah...I guess I did." Twilight said with sadness. "But it's nit important now. What's important is that we get Rarity acquitted and not fall for another one of Discord's tricks." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- October 10, 10:50 AM Canterlot District Court Courtroom 1 "Court is now back in session!" The Doctor said as he banged his gavel. "Miss Sparkle, are you ready to continue?" With the break over, the defense, the prosecution, and the audience returned to their seats and the trial was back on its way. "The defense is ready, and I assure you that I still plan to prove that my friend is innocent." Twilight said. "Very good then. How about the prosecution?" The Doctor asked. "Indeed, I am ready." Discord answered. "Now then, to pick off from where we were last, I suggest you hand down your verdict, your honor!" "Oh, yes, that seems to be the best route to take, now isn't it?" OBJECTION! "That is not where we were before the break." Twilight stated. "We were talking about how the attacker broke through a window to reach Blueblood." "Yes, and even you said Rarity was the one who did it." Discord said. I guess it was too much to hope for everypony to forget that. Twilight thought. "It was just a slip of the tongue, but it does still raise an interesting question, Discord. If Rarity was the one who broke in, then how did she do it when the room was on the fifth floor?" The audience went into a small uproar and began talking to one another since Twilight brought up a good point. After all, it's physically impossible for a normal unicorn to simply fly up unless they were masters of magic. "Order! Order in the court!" The Doctor said after banging his gavel twice. "Oh, Twilight. So loyal to your friends that I wonder why you're the element of magic." Discord, wagging his finger at her. "Sadly, it closes your mind off to the way for anypony to reach the fifth floor of a hotel room." I've got a bad feeling about this. "I present to the court this stepladder." Discord said as he snapped his fingers, making a ladder appear out of thin air. "This was found out side the Gilded Horseshoe. I'll give you three guesses which room it took you to." The Doctor nodded at the new evidence. "Very well. The court will except the stepladder as evidence." OBJECTION! "You can't accept that evidence just yet." Twilight said. "The court should know that that's not a stepladder, but just a ladder." OBJECTION! "Ladder, stepladder, whatever. They're the exact same thing." Discord responded. "Wrong. A stepladder is a folding ladder that can be freestanding. A ladder isn't straight and needs to be leaning on something. To be more specific, this is an extending ladder." Twilight explained." "You know Twilight, if you focus less on ladders and more on the trial, you might actually win. Let me guess, you've read five books about ladders, right?" Maybe I shouldn't tell him that the fifth book won't be out until the 24th. Twilight thought. The Doctor banged his gavel three times to get the attention of the defense and prosecution. "Order! This court does not care about the difference between ladders and stepladders. Whatever you call this thing, I'm accepting it as evidence." After a short debate between ladders and stepladders, the ladder was accepted as evidence and the trial continued. Unfortunately for Twilight, the new evidence wasn't a good for her. "At any rate, this ladder was found leaning on the window of Prince Blueblood's room." Discord explained. "This and the broken glass proves that somepony climbed up, smashed the window, and entered to attack the prince. Since there was only one other pony found, it's safe to say Miss Rarity was the one." "Agreed." The Doctor said. "I feel I'm ready to hand down my verdict right now." OBJECTION! "I have to disagree. Rarity was in the very same hotel as Blueblood. That said, why couldn't she of just knocked on his door and get invited in?" Twilight asked. "If you ask me, that would be must simpler than breaking in." Discord gave a confused look to Twilight, but after thinking what she said over in his head, he began to smile with confidence. "Twilight, I don't know what your friend told you, but Rarity was never in the hotel." "W-what?" Twilight asked. "I've checked the names of everypony who had a room in the hotel that day. Heck, I even managed to get the names of everypony who checked in that month. And guess what. Rarity's name was not on the list, which means only one thing." After whipping his tail at the wall behind him, he said with confidence..."Your friend has lied to you about her crime!" Twilight was in shock when she heard the news. "Wha...WHAAAATT!!?" An uproar occurred once again after the new information was brought up. It seemed as if Twilight's confidence in Rarity's case was completely drained once again, and this cause the entire audience to start talking loudly.. "Order! Order! Order!" The Doctor said as after banging his gavel three times. "I will have order or I will clear this courtroom!" Twilight had to think very fast. With no record of Rarity being at the hotel, yet being at the crime scene anyway, it wouldn't take much more evidence to give her a guilty verdict. Her only hope was for Twilight to keep the trial going until she could figure something out. "Discord!" Twilight said as she banged her hooves on the table. "I'd like to see these names. I want to know beyond a reasonable doubt that Rarity didn't have a room at the hotel." "If I must." Discord said with a smug smile. "I'd like to submit this check-in list to the court." The court accepted the list as evidence and a copy of it was given to Twilight to study. She gave the list a long read, hoping she missed Rarity's name, but as Discord said, her name didn't show up. Right as Twilight was about to lose hope, she noticed something odd about the list. "There? Happy now, Crylight Sparkle?" Discord asked. "C-Cryslight Sparkle? Was that suppose to be an insult?" Twilight asked. "I think Twilight Snarkle would've been funnier." Spike said. "You're all wrong." The Doctor said. "Her name should be Uptight Snootle. Err...I mean, order! Keep the insults to a minimum please. Why is even the judge making fun of me. Twilight thought, but she disregarded it after remembering what she had to say. "Anyway, I have some questions about these room arrangements. More specifically, the top three floors." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Floor 6: Filthy Rich, Gold Digger, and Diamond Tiara. Fancy Pants and Flashy Skirt. Floor 5: Prince Blueblood and Giant Hand Floor 4: Sapphire Shores. Fluer Dis Lee. Soarin and Spitfire. Rapidfire and Fleetfoot. Photo Finish. Hoity Toity. Jet Set and Upper Crust. Gustave Le Grand. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Anypony notice anything odd?" Twilight asked. "Because I've noticed three things on this list that may interest the court." "Some Wonderbolts went on what seem like double dates and Blueblood's name literally is Prince. So what?" Discord asked. "Since the sixth floor is the top floor, then that would make them the penthouse rooms. If that's the case, why didn't Blueblood, a pony with such high standards and tastes, would settle for anything less than the very best?" Discord wagged his at Twilight for asking what he thought was a silly question. "Obviously, the rooms already booked by two very rich clients. Since the top floor only has two rooms, he had to settle for the next best thing. Nothing suspicious about that." Discord made a good argument. Twilight recognized Filthy Rich and Fancy Pant's names and remembered they were very wealthy ponies. For that matter, she recognized every single name on the list. Regardless, she had other points to make. "Fine, but can you explain to me why there are fewer ponies on the fifth floor than on the fourth and sixth? And if that isn't suspicious, then who's this pony that's sharing a room with the Prince?" "Hmm...that's a good question." Discord said as he scratched his head. Then, after snapping his fingers... "How about we ask him?" "Ask him?" Twilight asked. "You're honor, I'd like to call my next witness to the stand to completely crush the last bit of hope in Twilight Sparkle and her friends." "That sounded a bit mean-spirited, but I agree. Bring in the next witness." The Doctor said. Twilight didn't think there would be another witness for Discord to bring in, and because of how unexpected it was, Twilight didn't come completely prepared for what happened next. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A minute later, the next witness entered the court. He was a very large and bulky grey pegasus with what looked like a stone hand for a cutie mark. He wore armor similar to what the Canterlot royal guard wore, only his was customized to be a dark brown with orange trimming . He wore a large helmet with a green crest on top. The helmet covered his head almost completely, hiding everything but his eyes. "Witness, state your name and occupation, now!" Discord ordered. "I am Giant Hand. The 106th captain of the royal guard." The witness said in a deep, serious voice. That's sort of an odd name. Although, I guess Twilight Sparkle isn't a common name either. Twilight thought to herself. "Mr. Hand, can you please tell the court what you were doing on the day Prince Blueblood got attacked?" Discord asked. "Twilight Sparkle would also like to know why you two were the only one's on the fifth floor of the hotel." "Very well." Giant Hand said as he began to share his story. "I was the prince's bodyguard that day. I was ordered to watch out for him during the day as he doesn't feel comfortable without having a royal guard. As for why we were the only ones on that floor, it's because the prince convinced the hotel's manager to let him have the floor all to himself since he couldn't get one on the top floor." The audience of the court all agreed with Giant Hand's claim as it answered the question perfectly. "So the reason there were so many ponies on the fourth floor was because they got downgraded?" The Doctor asked. "Yes. The manager was afraid of somepony of royalty to give him trouble, so he pulled some strings and got everypony on that floor to a lower floor for a discounted price. The only reason he couldn't do the same for the top floor was because they had more money and power than the Prince." So it's possible for non-royalty to outclass royalty? That's amazing. Although it could just mean that Blueblood is a lousy prince. Twilight thought. "Hang on. If you were watching him that day, then how did the prince get attacked?" "I believe he will need to testify about that." The Doctor said. "Witness, please explained your story about what happened at the time of the attack." With a new testimony, Twilight was given a new chance to find contradictions to help Rarity's case, but she knew that if she couldn't find one, the trial would may as well end. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --Testimony: Bodyguard duty-- "Prince Blueblood prefered to be by himself or with others of his kind, so I was never actually in the room. Instead, I stood out in front of his door for the day. Throughout the day, I saw no other ponies on the floor. It wasn't until Star Cestus of the police arrived that I realized something happened." --End of Testimony-- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The doctor and thought about the testimony, then smiled and nod at Giant Hand. "Yes, that seems to be a solid testimony. Nothing seems out of the ordinary aside from the attempted murder." "Does this mean you can announce your verdict now?" Discord asked with hope in his eyes. "Not until after Miss. Sparkle cross-examines the witness. You may start now." Alright, Twilight. Don't screw this up again. She thought to herself. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --Cross-examination-- "Prince Blueblood prefered to be by himself or with others of his kind, so I was never actually in the room." HOLD IT! "But isn't it possible for you to go in at all? Surely you had a key to the room as well." "The prince asked for only one key to the room for himself. I was stuck with being outside for the trip." That's cruel. I better remember not to treat any guard I myself may get so poorly. Although this does mean he couldn't get into the room. I guess I can't try and pin this mess on him. "Instead, I stood out in front of his door for the day. Throughout the day, I saw no other ponies on the floor." HOLD IT! "You saw nopony else? Are you absolutely sure of this?" "Yes. The prince made it very clear that he and I would be the only ones allowed on the fifth floor. From when I was tasked to watch the room and until Star Cestus arrived at the crime scene, I didn't see, hear, or even smell anything." While cross-examining Giant Hand, Twilight noticed that Spike had a strange look on his face. She didn't realize until then that this whole time, Spike was trying to find some kind of hole in the case as well. "Something wrong, Spike?" Twilight asked. "So...he didn't see OR hear anything?" Spike said, being confused. Twilight didn't get where Spike was going at first, but after repeating after Giant Hand out loud, she finally figured something out. "If you're so confident about what you just said, can you add it to the testimony?" Discord shook his head in shame. "Oh my dear Twilight. Forcing the witness to repeat himself. Desperate to make this last as long as possible I see." Nonetheless, Giant Hand agreed and amended his testimony for twilight. "I saw, heard, and smelt nothing wrong until the police arrived. OBJECTION! "So you honestly didn't hear anything happen?" Twilight asked. "Not even the actual crime?" "No, I didn't hear any...Ahh!" Giant Hand said as he realized what he said. "So despite being several feet away from the crime, you didn't hear Prince Blueblood's struggle, or even the sound of the window breaking when the attacker broke in the room!" Giant Hand's eyes practically shot out of his helmet after Twilight's discovery. There was no reason for him to not hear anything when standing out at the door, which meant only one thing. He was lying. "Explain yourself!" The Doctor said. "How can you not hear your own boss and the attacker?" Although he was wearing a helmet, even the ponies on the upper floor could tell that Giant Hand was sweating up a storm. He had an answer, but he clearly didn't want to give it. "Come on! Your captain of the royal guard and are under oath." Twilight said. "If you don't give us an answer, we'll be able to cast suspicion on-- OBJECTION! "And I think you have nothing, my little lawyer." Discord said as he wagged his finger at Twilight. "Captain, I'm really disappointed in you. I thought you were going to come clean." Come Clean? Twilight thought. "Your honor, I would like Captain Giant Hand to make another testimony. One that explains this inconsistency. Once he does, you'll understand why he didn't hear the moment the window broke." "Well, my job is to hear everything, but is your witness willing to say everything?" The Doctor asked. Giant Hand was quiet and nervous after learning that he needed to make a new testimony, but because he was at risk of being a suspect himself, he knew he had no choice. "I'm...ready to speak." Twilight thought she was close to winning Rarity's freedom, but it became clear as crystal that the trial would go on for a while longer. Because of this, Twilight also started to sweat bullets. I don't know what Discord has up his sleeve, but know that Rarity didn't do anything and that this witness is mighty suspicious. Whatever it is he has to say, I'll be certain to tear it a new one. I've got to.