Day 4: Trial: Age Inappropriate.
February 15, 9:30 PM
Ponyville Courthouse
Defendant Lobby
This is it. The final day of the trial. Twilight thought.
The time for the third day of Pinkie's trial had come. In accordance to the justice system's procedures in Equestria, no matter what goes on in the courtroom, the judge would have to decide whether or not Pinkie Pie was guilty or innocent. Everything that Twilight worked hard for built up for this day.
But she wasn't alone. There with her, right on time, were the two ponies that had been helping her more than anypony: Sweetie Belle and Star Cestus. Twilight could tell from the look of their faces that they were just as anxious to get the trial over and done with.
"I can't believe this will be our last chance to protect Pinkie Pie." Sweetie Belle said.
"I can't believe that I might lose my job for over this." Cestus said, who quickly realized that he said something rather inappropriate. "Oh, and to prove that Hope is full of crap."
"Yeah, so let's beat the crap out of him." Sweetie Belle, not minding her language.
Well, at least they're motivated.
On one hoof, Twilight was thankful for Sweetie Belle and Star Cestus's attitude since they were ready to storm into the courtroom and physically beat Hope Ray into submission, something that one of them was more than capable of actually doing. Surprisingly, the one who ws bringing the mood down was Pinkie Pie herself.
This time around, she was brought in to witness the last day of her trial, but whereas she was cheerful and talkative the day before, she had been completely silent throughout the entire morning. In fact, Twilight recalled how silent she was once Hope finished discussing his and Pinkie's connection to Masquerade. It was all too clear.
Twilight didn't want to see any of it. "Pinkie..."
But Pinkie didn't answer. She kept quiet. Fortunately, Cestus gave her a little slap and Pinkie reacted immediately. "0001!" Pinkie shouted, much to her embarrassment. "Oops. Please ignore that guys. That's my PIN number."
Good thing she didn't scream that during court. Not a good thing that she has such an easy-to-guess number though. Twilight thought as she felt both relieved and scared. "Pinkie, you haven't been yourself. What can I do to put a smile back on your face?"
Pinkie didn't give a reply right away. She didn't have a proper answer to the question. "Can you use that time travel spell of yours and make the day end already?"
Twilight gave a light laugh. "He he. I wish it was that easy. The best I can do is try my best to end the trial as quickly as possible. Just try and hang in there. It's almost over."
Once again, Pinkie resumed her silence, looking down on the floor to avoid eye contact as she returned to her thoughts.
Twilight let out a sigh before entering her own thoughts. I guess that's all I can do for her until we get the judge to say not guilty. It's high time I get ready. This will be our final battle. Feeling pumped and ready to go, Twilight was willing to put the nervous part of her aside. She felt as ready as she would ever be. "Ready to go in, Sweetie Belle?"
"You bet. I'm going to be there with you until the very end!" Sweetie Belle answered.
"And I'll be in the gallery, keeping a close eye on the kids." Cestus said. "If I pay more attention to the ponies, maybe I'll even spot Masquerade."
With Cestus and Sweetie Belle both there for moral support, Twilight knew that she had everything she needed. "As long as you're both there with me, that'll be more than enough. Let's go!"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 15, 9:59 AM
Ponyville Courthouse
Courtroom 2
The trial hadn't even started, yet the entire gallery was restless. It was hard to blame them though, since the results of this trial would decide on whether the town's favourite party planner would be locked away forever. Tension was high.
Twilight looked up at the gallery from the ground floor. She recognized all of the ponies in the gallery, yet there was no Masquerade. There was, however, her closest friends watching, including Applejack, was sitting next to Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, who in turn were next to Apple Bloom's doctor, Auto Ratchet. Applejack stood out the most though since she was by far the most worried pony in the entire gallery. Applejack made Twilight feel like her life was also on the line.
It wasn't even just the gallery. Both Twilight and Hope were both making last minute preparations to ensure that they were ready. The Doctor even gave them an extra minute to prepare. In any case, the trial had to begin.
"The trial of Pinkamena Diane Pie shall now resume." The Doctor stated. "Is everyone of you ready?"
Twilight and Hope had a stare down from across the room. They both knew the answer.
"The prosecution is ready, your honor." Hope answered
"So too is the defense." Twilight stated.
The Doctor gave Twilight and Hope a nod. "And so am I. Let us get started. First, the opening statement from the prosecution."
"But of course." Hope said wasting no time to get started.. "As we all know, the defendant is accused of being a serial killing. I've provided evidence to argue that she's the killer, but Princess Twilight Sparkle has made numerous strong counter-arguments for the first two murders, as well as the attempted murder of Apple Bloom.
Had I proved she didn't commit those murders with certainty, we would've won. Twilight thought with regret.
"While I can no longer prove that Copycat and Shepard Pi fell by the pony accused today, what I can prove without question is that she killed the third victim, Time Charm. That will be my goal today."
The Doctor nodded, prepared to hear him out, "Very well. Enlighten us all then."
"But of course. I will now call for my witnesses to take the stand."
We're off to a good start at least. Twilight thought. I happen to already know who his witnesses will be. Sweetie Belle certainly does too.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As the two witnesses for the case entered the courtroom, the tension was so great that you could cut it with a knife. No pony were happy with what was going on, including Hope, who called them in. No pony, except Sweetie Belle, who was very excited.
The witnesses were newly made friends of Twilight and Sweetie Belle. The white unicorn stallion with a black mane and goatee, dressed fashionably with a top hat and a black vest, and a completely black earth pony filly with pink streams in her mane and tail, riding on the other's back. Given the circumstances, the two ponies were surprisingly laid-back.
"Witnesses, please give us your names and occupations." Hope requested.
There was a pause. The stallion and the filly gave each other a stare and a smile. After they nodded at each other, they assumed their positions. The stallion picked up a guitar and stood up on his hind legs, and in turn, the filly stood on his flank while taking out a violin. And then, after the unicorn turned his fur black and ignite his eyes with fire...
Fillies and gentlecolts of the courtroom,
We've come to greet you all with a boom!
Coltaire the alcoholic,
and the Pony of Doom!
We sings our songs together as one,
Like sirens in the eye of the storm!
But tis not until, you come to us,
That music is truly be born!
There was an awkward silence. There had been many crazy shenanigans going on during this trial, but no pony ever expected a witness to burst into song. Funny enough, there were a few ponies who gave some weak clapping.
"Oh, come on! The sick kids in the hospital cheered louder than that!" The Pony of Doom said.
The Doctor, much like the rest of the gallery, appeared confused by what he just witnessed. "So let me make sure I got that right. You two are musicians named Coltaire and the Pony of Doom?"
Coltaire answered. "That we are, Judge. Together, we are the Jersey Devils, a father and daughter-duo. But today, we came in because we know things you may need to know about."
"We're important witnesses!" The Pony of Doom said cheerfully. "By the way. How much do we get paid for this?"
I swear, this kid's cutie mark is going to be a business-type one if not for music. Twilight thought, fearing the filly.
"That reminds me. Twilight, can I borrow those ten bits now so I can buy that record?" Sweetie Belle asked.
She's already getting into MY wallet!!!
As everypony were about to get off topic, The Doctor kept things on track. "Alright now. Order in the court. So now I know you two are a band, but I would still like to know what you two have to do with the case?"
Coltaire answered. "Well, as you probably already know, two of the murders took place at concerts. Sadly, both of the shows were mine. Worse yet, my daughter saw one of them happen."
"It made my top five most horrifying things I've ever seen! Number four to be specific." The Pony of Doom claimed.
"I see." The Doctor said. "Then I'm sorry if this will cause any harm to a child, but I would like to hear a testimony about what this little one saw."
"Sure thing, buddy! Want me to talk about how much blood I saw pore out, or how many times he got stabbed?"
I think I'm already more traumatized than she'll ever be. Twilight thought, disgusted by the filly's choice of words.
At this point, Twilight expected Hope to try and pressure her not to be hard on a young child, but it's been made very clear out of everypony in the courtroom, The Pony of Doom had the strongest stomach. Twilight was in for a very disturbing ride from a very warped child.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--testimony: Watching the third murder--
-In between shows, I was taking a little walk around the concert hall we played at.
-During that walk, I saw auntie Pinkie grabbing this green guy.
-And...I...saw her taking stabs and him from the corner.
-Which is impossible, since Pinkie Pie was with me at the time.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It sounded like a very solid testimony, but there was a very odd detail that everypony noticed about it. The Doctor, being the judge, spoke up first. "I'm sorry, but what was that last bit about? That seemed to have contradicted with the rest of the testimony."
"Oh, sorry your honor." Coltaire said. "That was me. We were sharing the stand, so I thought I could contribute to the testimony too."
"Well, the trial is unorthodox as is, so...what exactly did you mean?"
"As I told the guy in charge of this case, at the time that my daughter claim to have seen Pinkie Pie, she was with me in my dresser room, hanging out with me. I'm an alibi!"
The turn of events got the gallery riled up as expected. Two witnesses came in together, but each have a different story. It seemed like a self-defeating testimony.
Weird. Hope usually has these testimonies done perfectly. Did he not expect Coltaire's outburst? Twilight asked herself. After seeing an good opportunity to speak up, Twilight took it. "These witnesses are unreliable. They can't get their stories straight."
OBJECTION!
"Not true. The child is the one who's reliable. The father has nothing to back up his claim." Hope stated.
OBJECTION!
"Both of them gave us nothing but their word. To prove one is right and the other is wrong, you'll need to provide us with evidence that--oh, you son of a changeling."
"Your honor, I would like to submit this photo as evidence. It will prove my point entirely."
Murder Photo was added to the evidence.
"That's...pretty damning evidence." The Doctor admitted. "Not only do we see the defendant and the third victim together, but we can even see one of our witnesses right there."
OBJECTION!
"And to address the elephant in the room, yes, the defendant does have a unicorn horn in this picture. However, as the artificial horn has been addressed yesterday, this is no oddity."
Well, that saved me a hopeless objection to save for later. For now I have a few issues I need to sort out. Let's begin this.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--Cross-examination--
-In between shows, I was taking a little walk around the concert hall we played at.
HOLD IT!
"How big was this concert hall?" Twilight asked.
In turn, the Pony of Doom answered. "I guess it's pretty big. Why do you ask?"
"From what we can tell, you were only taking a peak from the corner. Couldn't you have mistaken Pinkie for another Pink mare? I made an argument the other day when the first vic--"
OBJECTION!
"Even if she could only see the crime from the shadows, the photo that has all three of them is clearly the defendant, and even if it isn't, one who looks identical to her." Hope reminded.
And now, my hopeless objection didn't go to waste. Twilight thought, sweating bullets for forgetting a very obvious fact. Before she could embarrass herself further, she allowed the Pony of Doom to continue.
-During that walk, I saw auntie Pinkie grabbing this green guy.
-And...I...saw her taking stabs and him from the corner.
HOLD IT!
"I know if this would be an insensitive question to ask a filly your age, but...can you remember the exact details?"
"Yeah. I remembered being impressed by the stabbing technique that somepony like her was using."
I...uhh...I'm really worried about this kid. Twilight thought with grief. "Be serious. was there anything unusual that you noticed about Pinkie Pie?"
"You mean other than her killing a guy? Well...hmm...I suppose she did sound quite different than she usually did."
Ah ha! This could mean something. Twilight thought. She then decided to pursue the topic further. "How so? What made her sound different? Her voice? Her attitude?"
OBJECTION!
"The idea of a baker going on a killing spree is already suspicious." Hope argued. "Stick with what's relevant."
"B-b-but nothing coming out of this kid's mouth has been helpful. At least give me SOMETHING!"
The Doctor thought about Twilight's request carefully. "Miss Sparkle, I suppose I could let you continue, but I wouldn't unless you're very confident with your defense."
But I'm NOT confident! I've been given nothing to work with from the Pony of Pain-in-my-butt. It wasn't even the Pony of Doom alone that was bothering Twilight. The testimony she had to give was so simple and one-sided that no argument could be made against it.
"Take it from a kid, Twilight. You can't beat her." Sweetie Belle said. "We don't know all of the fancy words you adults use and only say what we can remember."
It's sad how that's the best legal advice that I've gotten during both of my cases as a lawyer. Twilight thought. "You're right. Putting my focus is what Hope wants. My real witness...it's Coltaire. If he really can vouch for Pinkie, then I'm going to make him"
-Which is impossible, since Pinkie Pie was with me at the time.
HOLD IT!
"Coltaire, can you tell us why we should trust you that Pinkie was with you and not your daughter?"
As Twilight asked the question, both Coltaire and the Pony of Doom became nervous, each shifting their eyes left and right, each time facing the direction that the other set of eyes were looking.
OBJECTION!
"The witness I intended for this court to listen to was the child. The singer is only here to act as her morale support."
Hope tried to object, but The Doctor shook his head in disagreement. "We have two ponies on the witness stand, so we will listen to them both. Mr. Coltaire, please go into more detail about your claim."
At last, Coltaire's odd comment could be addressed, but again, he hesitated to answer. "Well...like I said, at the time of murder, Pinkie Pie was with me in my dressing room. We were discussing...matters."
"Such as?" Twilight asked.
"Nothing relevant to this case. That much I can assure you. The fact that someone died there was purely coincidental. But what's important is that I'm an alibi for Pinkie, so that should prove that she's innocent."
The Doctor disagreed, shaking his head to the testimony. "Your daughter is also a witness, and evidence was provided to backup her claims. You must also do the same."
This is getting bad. I need that evidence. But how can....hmm...I think i have an idea. Twilight thought, having a hunch on how to get Coltaire to speak up. "Your honor, I'd like for our witnesses to give us a new testimony."
"A new one? What do you want him to say?" The Doctor asked.
"We've already established that Pinkie Pie and the Jersey Devils know each other. What I'd like to know is how they know each other. Perhaps learning about their history can shed some light on this mystery."
"Indeed it could, Miss Sparkle. Perhaps they do have a history." Hope spoke up. He followed the outburst by slamming his hoof on his table. "Or perhaps this whole thing is a big waste of our time. Since our witness has already given us outstanding evidence, I move to dismiss the stallion's new claim."
"Denied." The Doctor said without even thinking about it. "After what happened yesterday, I will not turn down any testimonies regarding the ponies involved in this case, especially since this will be the last day. Nice try though."
As Twilight was given permission to explore Coltaire's history with Pinkie Pie, he and his daughter became nervous. Coltaire started to strum his guitar while sweating up a storm while the Pony of Doom's eyes shifted left to right. Meanwhile, Twilight was calm and collected for once.
"Twilight, why are you making them talk about Pinkie?" Sweetie Belle asked. "We already know that they have a history with her."
"No, this is great. A lawyer should always know the answer to questions that they ask."
"Then why have you been spending half of your investigations IN the courtroom?"
"I have my reasons." Twilight said confidently, but mentally, she was wrecked. And that reason is that our law system is a load of crap. On the bright side, I'm now in control of this trial for the time being. But it's not just going to be their history with Pinkie I want to share. I know that their real fear is with their connections with Shepard Pi. Finding that connection will be our key to victory.
While it became a slow process, Twilight was still confident that they could find the proof needed to end the trial once and for all. The next lines of testimony will be what'll unravel it all. It should've been the easiest part of the trial so far, but there was one thing that bothered Twilight.
During the entire time, even when The Doctor approved of Twilight's request, Hope Ray never lost his cool. He appeared to have still been confident after all that happened. He hardly even gave Twilight a fight. He simply sat their with the exception of a few objections. What bothered Twilight was that he clearly knew something.
Also LikedSimilarAuthor
- Animegx43 · 55k words · 107 12 · 5k views
- Dapper Guy · 28k words · 23 0 · 1.4k views
- Paradox Theory · 11k words · 19 3 · 964 views
- Leo Archon · 3.4k words · 85 8 · 5.9k views
- TheBronywiththeBowTie · 41k words · 82 6 · 6.6k views
- RaginCroissant · 7.2k words · 101 5 · 1.7k views
Stats
Page generated in 0.042 seconds
Total duration
919 users online
697,583 hits today, 2,814,898 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Oh yeah, I remember that part. Glad I don't use that code to log into my computer. It's 7952. What? I actually liked Apollo Justice. I don't see a lot of people talk about it as much.
Am I the only one wondering why a stallion called Time Charm has 2 X's and a checkmark as his cutie mark? Possible connection to him as the third victim?... Also, I thought they established that the horn was mechanical in nature...is it supposed to be her skin tone?
Too many unanswered questions...Please write more soon! (Though I know writing these things takes time as I'm currently outlining my own Ace Attorney Equestria case. Don't rush, but write more soon!)
6467042 Hopefully one of the characters here doesn't end up being a surgeon turned noodle salesman
6467784 I was cruel when making Time Charm. His entire character is basically a joke just for this story.
You know the phrase "Third time's a charm", right?
Please have somepony point out that the horn on 'Pinkie's' head is part of said head and not a mechanical device that the artificial horn is.
That photo IS pretty damning, wonder how Twi's gonna turn it around. Also the Doc is in top form here, actually cutting Twilight a break, and being a total snark to Hope, I LOVE IT!
6469248
Clever clever....did he just get his cutie mark right when he was stabbed?
Would it be weirder if the victim of the recent murder was actually alive, but turns out it was Masquerade? Can anypony do a horn shuriken spell? It would be more accurate because it's like Dual Destinies Case 5: Turnabout for Tomorrow, where Simon Blackquill threw his sword and it revealed that the Phantom or "Bobby Fulbright" was revealed from the slice of the mask.
Also,
IGIARI! (Translate: OBJECTION!)
Whereas. It's one word.
too
Missed a closing quote.
Everypony, and you missed an endquote.
Something involving music and coins and parchment, maybe? The song of gold, perhaps?
Borrow
Heh.
Also, changeling
Missed a starting quote.
So, are we to believe the peeking pony is PoD?
6481947 Ty for the fixes as always. And to clarify a few minor things.
I actually put in the effort to have The Doctor say the usual "everyone" or similar words. I find that it works better with his character that way.
And yes, that is the POD. I suppose this is the first time she's visually appeared. I sometimes forget and get sad that I've never actually drawn Cestus yet, especially since future plans will require me to do that.
Aaaaand...I'm rambling.
I really like this story. You have a true talent, even if you don't have the best grammar (but neither do I so who am I to judge). Anyway, this story is impressive (as was prequel). But I wonder, how can Masquerade change into other ponies? Was one of his parents a Changling?
6820673 Let's just say the evidence will speak for itself.
6820942 Fair enough.
7024010 She could've if it she took the selfie at a completely separated day.
can you work on the next chapter now please
7732055 The story is sort of, kind of, but I don't want to, on a hiatus due to a creative block. I REALLY want to finish it, so I don't actually want to put it on hiatus officially.
So to answer the question: I don't know.
C'mon!! We want Masquerade brought to justice!!!
Aw man, I'm really into this! I hope you can get this finished in the future, I'm definitely hooked!