Twilight Sparkle, Ace Attorney: The Royal Turnabout

by Animegx43


Day 3: Pre-Trial: Royal Psych-locks.

October 11, 9:22 AM
Canterlot District Court
Defendant Lobby

The day finally came. The trial that would decide Rarity's fate. Twilight had found some evidence the day before, but found nothing that made it clear that Rarity was innocent. She arrived at the courthouse early. It was an important day and she didn't want any excuse to be late.

"Oooh, so much evidence, yet I don't know which is still needed anymore." Twilight said as she started to freak out.

"When in doubt, keep it all. You're very organized anyway." Spike said.

As Twilight and Spike prepared for the trial, they saw that another pony had arrived fairly early. Chief Commissioner Star Cestus was seen walking around the courthouse, who looked almost as worried as Twilight.

"Commissioner Cestus!" Twilight called out.

"Ah! Princess Twilight. Wait, am I late for the trial?" Cestus asked.

"No, we're just a bit early. I had a hard time sleeping last night and could barely rest. I just had too much to worry about."

Cestus sighed with sadness. "I can't really blame you. We never were able to find that scrying crystal."

Yup. This is going to be a long day. Twilight thought. Then, she turned her attention to a basket Cestus had with him, which contained some gems. "Wait, then what's that you got there?"

"Huh? Oh, I remembered I promised your little dragon friend I'd bring him something since he couldn't eat important evidence." Cestus answered, referring to the scrying crystal they found.

"Oh, great! I didn't get a chance to eat breakfast." Spike said as he walked to the basket, but he lost his smile after looking in the basket. "Aww, they're only cheap quartz. That's disappointing."

"Spike, he's giving you a gift. Don't be rude." Twilight said angrily. Especially when its a gift from somepony who can only effort cheap quartz crystals.

"Alright...I'm sorry, sir." Spike said. "I'll gladly accept your gift."

"Haha. You're a good kid. Enjoy."

As Spike grabbed the basket and went to a nearby bench to eat, Twilight continued to talk with Cestus privately in regards to the trial. Due to the lack of decisive evidence, both were at wits ends.

"So did you hear more about this witness Discord is going to be bringing in?" Twilight asked.

"All he would tell is that she's somepony from Ponyville. I could hardly talk to him because he's been spending the day yesterday getting her ready to take the stand. We may be in trouble, pal."

Sounds like Discord is really confident with his case. Maybe too confident. Twilight thought, hoping she could find an advantage. "Ponyville, huh? That's where all my friends are. I hope they aren't worry about me and Rarity being gone."

"We've all been worried." A pink pony said.

"Well, sorry about that, Pinkie Pi---IIIGH!"

Twilight flew up to the roof in shock of the pink pony's appearance, falling back to the ground after hitting the roof. After calming down, Twilight realized that it was her friend, Pinkie Pie, and was actually very happy to see one of her friends who wasn't behind bars.

"Pinkie!" Twilight said as she hugged Pinkie. "What are you doing here? How's the others doing? I'm sorry for not saying anything before I left."

"To see Rarity's trial, but I guess I came early. They're here in Canterlot too and will be watching the trial. It's okay, because we still love you." Pinkie Pie said, answering all of Twilight's questions in the same order.

I should feel bad for not telling my friends where I was going, but it's just too nice to finally see one of them. Twilight thought.

As Twilight was happy to see her friend, Cestus had a very surprised look on his face as he was looking at Pinkie Pie. "I'm sorry, but you're friends with Pinkamena Diane Pie?"

"Oooh! I remember you!" Pinkie said with excitement. "It's great to see you again! Sorry I couldn't get a party ready when I met you and your friends those times before."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Twilight said, interrupting Pinkie and Cestus. "You two know each other? How?"

"Sorry, Twilight. He made me promise not to say anything." Pinkie said.

Cestus was silent after Pinkie made it clear they couldn't say anything. Curious to see how deep their secret was, Twilight began to channel her lie detecting spell on Cestus, causing darkness and chains to surround him, causing a total of five psyche-locks to appear in front of him.

Yeah, I really don't have time to break these locks. Although, speaking of psyche-locks... Twilight thought as she canceled her spell. "Princess Celestia is supposed to watch these trials too, isn't she? Have either of you seen her?

"Actually, she has her own special room to watch the trial upstairs." Cestus said. "Not sure if she's here yet or not, but it's where she'll be."

"Good. Pinkie, do me a favour and watch Spike for me? I need to talk to Celestia before the trial starts. And, umm...tell the others I'm sorry for not telling them about what's happened."

"Oki Doki Loki!" Pinkie said. "And make sure you win! I've got a party cannon full of confetti that I want to launch after you do!"

Shacking her head, yet smiling at Pinkie's silliness, Twilight left the group to see if she could find Celestia before the trial got ready. She had very little time left and hoped to have a question answered before she had to defend Rarity.

"By the way, how did you know about what was happening here?" Cestus asked Pinkie.

"Oh, that's actually a good story." Pinkie said. "You see..."

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October 11, 9:40 AM
Canterlot District Court
Celestia's Private Seat

After a short search, Twilight found the room where Celestia would watch the trial, which had a bird's-eye view of the court room. It was very high up, but she could still see where the judge, defense, and prosecutor would stand. The only thing she couldn't see was the princess. All she was able to do was wait and hope Celestia would show.

There's so little time left. I guess I'll give her another five minutes before I leave/ Twilight thought.

"Excuse me, but this is a private room." A male voice said.

After turning to the door, Twilight finally got a break and saw that Princess Celestia, as well as the royal guard, Giant Hand, had arrived. While Giant Hand was annoyed at first when he saw somepony in Celestia's private room, he quickly backed off after seeing Celestia herself being happy to see Twilight.

"Twilight Sparkle, what a pleasent surprise." Celestia said happily. "Captain, could you please leave us alone for a few minutes?"

"Yes, your highness." Giant Hand said, bowing to both princesses before he left.

He's clearly more loyal to Celestia than Prince Blueblood. Twilight thought.

"Now Twilight, tell me what brings you here. You should be getting ready for the trial."

"As a matter of fact, I want to ask you a question that you didn't answer yesterday." Twilight said as she began channeling her spell. "Why is it that you made Prince Blueblood a member of the Canterlot Council?"

Just as the day before, Twilight's question triggered the darkness and chains to appear around Celestia, causing four psyche-locks to appear on the chains.

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--Secret: Why Blueblood?--

Celestia laughed when Twilight asked the question. "This again? It's because he's my nephew. I know him well. Not only that, but I know that even other ponies respect him as an important stallion."

"I have to disagree. In fact, ponies have a good reason to not like him."

TAKE THAT!

As Twilight took out a list of names, Celestia gave her an unhappy glare. "Twilight Sparkle, it's not like you to raise your voice like that at me."

"Uhh...sorry, it's actually something I've been doing a lot lately." Twilight said as she felt embarrassed. "But I still argue that Blueblood isn't very popular. He abused his power to force ponies at the Gilded Horseshoe to lesser rooms for his own comfort. Even then, he couldn't get the best room, so his influence over others have some very obvious limits."

Twilight brought up a very valid point, making Celestia rethink her argument. Unfortunately for Twilight though, she didn't make any psyche-locks break.

"Actually, you're right. Blueblood isn't as respected as me, Luna, or even you." Celestia confessed. "Suffice to say, he's a prince and everypony in Canterlot looks up to him and are loyal."

Must...not...laugh. Must not...

While Twilight resisted, she couldn't help but laugh at what Celestia said. Celestia wasn't pleased, but Twilight couldn't stop. "I'm sorry, Princess Celestia, but I can name two ponies off the bat who would disagree with you."

Then, from outside of the room, Giant Hand's voice was heard. "Actually, while I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but now that you mention it..."

In responds, Celestia used her magic to quickly open and closed the door, causing a thud to be made as the door hit the guard. While a little mean-spirited, Celestia had a playful smile when she did it.

"That's right. The captain of the royal guard itself isn't loyal to the prince at all. Part of the reason the whole crime happened at all is because of it. In fact, I remember him saying that none of your guards are that loyal to Blueblood."

"Yes...I've actually made it so those who work for my nephew get paid better." Celestia reluctantly admitted."

After making her confession, one of the four psyche-locks shattered. The Princess was finally starting to break, but Twilight still had some work to do.

"Even the police, like Commissioner Star Cestus, hates the guy." Twilight said. "Especially because of this little thing they're he's trying to pull."

TAKE THAT!

"You can't be ignoring proposition G3. This was made with nothing but greed in mind. You can't argue with me anymore, you know that having him do this was a bad idea."

Being thrown in an even tighter bind, two more of the psyche-locks shatter, leaving Celestia with only one left before she had to spill the beans. After getting her back to the wall, she began to escape the conversation.

"I know what you're trying to do." Celestia said. "You're trying to a secret out of me with the magatama spell."

"uhh...wh-what?" Twilight said nervously.

"The green horn on your head is telling me your using Star Swirl's lie detecting spell." Celestia said. "The spell inspired by the traveling tanuki, Magnus Tenma, who had the talent of seeing through lies, hence the name, the magatama spell."

EEK! She knows! Twilight thought. "But...but that means you ARE hiding something! Tell me why such a troublesome pony is made to be so important!"

"I have my reasons and I'm standing by it. I'm proud of it and I know that it's not as bad as you're making it sound." Celestia said, who denied everything Twilight said. "Unless you can prove to me that it was a bad idea, of course."

"Oh, that's easy. This here proves that Blueblood not only has tarnished his reputation, but yours as well..."

TAKE THAT!

As proof that Celestia wasn't as beloved as she thought, Twilight showed Celestia Star Cestus's punching bag.

"A giant pillow of me?" Celestia asked.

"No. This here is a punching bag I...ahem...barrowed from a friend." Twilight said, although she didn't mention that she stole it. "You don't seem to be that popular either. This thing has Princess Luna's seal of approval on it, so that means even she knows some ponies don't like you, and that's really saying something because she's been out of touch with Equestria."

Celestia was silent. She felt hurt that Twilight had shown her such a thing. Twilight was sad with what she did, but she knew it had to be done.

"This whole time, I've been trying to convince you that my decision wasn't hurting anypony." Celestia said. "Why should I have tried when I couldn't even convince myself that."

As the Celestia finally acknowledged her mistake, the final psyche-lock shattered, which caused the chains and darkness to retract and disappear.

--Secret Unlock Successful--
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After a long battle of wits, Twilight had finally broken down Celestia. Neither of them didn't feel good from it, but it had to be done.

"So? Why is Prince Blueblood so special?" Twilight asked.

"As I said, he's a nephew of mine. He's part of a bloodline that's been going on for more than a thousand years. In fact, he's the only family member of his generation. That said, he's one of the very few who's directly related to me and my sister."

"So I guess that sort of makes him like a favourite child, right?" Twilight asked.

"More like the only child, Twilight. Since that branch of my family is so narrow, I have very little room on deciding who can and have more royal power in my land. On top of that, while I can simply choose who can and can not be a prince or princess, family is still family, and mine happens to be quite small."

"And since your family is so small, you don't want to take it for granted." Twilight said as she finally started to understand Celestia.

"Exactly. But..." Celestia said, who felt bad for feeling the way she did. "I knew I need somepony better to help me. He certainly made it easier for me to make ponies like you and Cadance princess. Neither of you have ever tried to abuse the power I entrusted you."

I guess she doesn't know that I used my power to talk to Fancy Pants.

"I guess I have given too much power to him and not enough responsibility. I just never thought it would get this out of control." Celestia said.

"Isn't there a rule book for something like that?" Twilight asked.

"Sort of."

With her magic, Celestia summoned a charter of some form and handed it over to Twilight. Twilight gave it a quick read over, finding that it involved royalty.

"What is this?"

"The Declaration of Equality." Celestia answered. "A treaty that me and Luna wrote a long time ago to make sure that while we are the rulers and leaders of Equestria, that only in a few specific instances are we to be treated above others and that we are no mightier than any other in Equestria."

Twilight had a question, but a part of her knew the answer to it already. "You mean like if somepony tried to kill you?"

"Yes, I'm afraid that it doesn't make attempted regicide equal to simply attempted murder. Rarity's sentence will still come to pass if she is guilty."

Well, I wasn't expecting Celestia to just hand me evidence anyway. I think I'll still keep this though. Maybe I can find a loophole or something.

After keeping the copy of the charter for herself, she turned and noticed that ponies had been entering the courtroom, getting ready to watch the trial. She even saw Discord was getting ready for his case.

"Uh oh. I better get down there." Twilight said. "I'm glad we had this talk, Princess."

"Me too, Twilight Sparkle. It's been hard for me, but it feels good admitting my own guilt. Still, I feel like I could've avoided this whole thing if I had didn't spoil my nephew."

"True, but at least you were trying to be a good aunt. Heck, if Cadance and Shining Armor ever have a baby, I'd probably spoil it and drown the poor foal with books."

Finally saying something a little more carefree, Twilight and Celestia were able to share a laugh. Even better, they were able to leave on good terms.

"Good luck, Twilight. Prove to them that you're a princess for a good reason."

"You can count on it. Watch closely as I get Rarity her acquittal!"

With the trial about to start and having the answers she wanted, Twilight jumped off from Celestia's private room and flew down to the actual courtroom where Spike had waited for her to arrive. She didn't get anything new to help her case from Celestia, but it did leave a question that bothered her answered.