Phoenix Flight: Ace Attorney: Welcome to Turnabout!

by Magic Step

The First to Snap

Shocking Snap must have borrowed a cart used to move chairs; even though she definitely could have used magic to push it, she insisted on draping her forelegs over the handlebar and pushing it so she could wiggle her rump as she crossed the courtroom floor.

The device sitting on the cart was nothing Phoenix had ever seen before. It looked like a fishbowl on a metal pole, except instead of having a single wide opening the glass bowl had two small, bottle-neck-sized openings on opposite sides. The pole was in one, and a rubber stopper with a fork stuck through it was jammed in the other. The glass bowl was badly cracked.

“What the hay is that….?” Phoenix asked the defense bench in general.

“I’ve never seen that in my life,” Twilight Sky said, looking baffled.

“It kinda reminds me of a magic wand but it’s too huge to wield,” Faerie Dust said.

The judge looked just as baffled. “What’s this now?”

“This was in the back alley behind the donut shop,” Shocking Snap said. “Youse all ain’t telling me youse don’t know what this is?”

The courtroom cricket chorus performed their hit single.

“Youse are all clueless,” Shocking Snap huffed. “This is a lightning wand. Pegasi in Las Pegasus use them as weapons.”

“Pegasi only?” Phoenix Flight said, feeling alarmed.

“Well… not every unicorn is as special as me,” Shocking Snap said, “but yes, youse need a lot of lightning manipulation to make one of these.”

“What about the Electric clan?” Faerie Dust asked. “They’re unicorns with hereditary lightning powers.”

“OBJECTION!” Cross Examine screeched. “Don’t drag any more random ponies into this! You’ve wasted enough of our time!”

“But fine, fine, there’s a small hoofful of nonpegasi who can make something like this,” Shocking Snap said. “Wow, what a great use of our time.”

“S-sorry,” Faerie Dust whimpered.

“But how do you make one of these….? What it is?” Phoenix continued.

“Youse fill the glass sphere with lightning,” Shocking Snap said, running a hoof gently over the cracked globe. “The metal pole is to hold it while you fly around.”

“What’s the fork for then?” Phoenix asked.

“That’s the fun part,” Shocking Snap said, smirking. “It’s also the hard part. I didn’t want to damage the evidence by taking it apart to show youse so youse’ll just have to follow my explanation closely. Youse take a rubber cork and cut it in half, and youse take a fork and cut it in half. The handle sticks out one half the cork and the fork sticks out the other half. Then youse take a little bit of lead welding and use this to stick the two corks halves back together. Youse use this to plug the glass globe up. The lead means youse don’t get the lightning magic just bleeding out, but it’s a conductor of electricity. So when youse stab the fork into somepony they get a couple thousand volts pumped into their body.”

“Yikes!” Faerie Dust said.

“You mean it’s lethal?” Phoenix Flight said.

“Oh yes.” Shocking Snap grinned. “And this baby is what caused the lightning that orange hick saw. Twilight Sky brought it to the restaurant with the intent to kill!”

The crowd started murmuring to each other.

“OBJECTION!” Phoenix Flight shouted. “Haven’t you heard, Shocking Snap? Look at the autopsy report with me. The victim died of a blow to the head—”

“From a pipe. Uh-huh,” Shocking Snap said. “Cool youse jets, I’m getting to it.”

“I’m getting sick of her shutting me down so hard…” Phoenix muttered grimly.

Faerie Dust patted him on the back comfortingly, which only made him feel worse.

“So as youse can all see, the handle’s made of metal,” Shocking Snap said. “There’s a little bit of rubber on the end to keep that from being a totally stupid idea, so it didn’t conduct electricity. But it still conducted heat something fierce. Twilight Sky must have realized it was too hot to handle and dropped it and that’s how the glass bowl broke.” She ran a hoof over the cracked sphere. “So that murderer improvised with a pipe. Then a few minutes later all the lightning escaped from the cracks, and that’s the zap youse little witness saw. Not me. Nuh uh.” Shocking Snap beamed at the judge. “That explanation good enough for youse? Can I go home now? I’ve worked so hard to clear my good name…”

That last sentence sent the crowd into a roar of fury. Phoenix glared at her too. That monster had no good name to save.

“Order! I said ORDER!” Judge Sterling Scales pounded his gavel on the table. “Well, Mister Flight? Do you wish to object to the witnesses’ explanation?”

“I most certainly do, your honor!” Phoenix Flight said. “If what you’re saying is true, why did no one find the weapon except you? How did it get behind the restaurant when the zap was seen inside?”

“How do I know?” Shocking Snap said. “I guess he picked it up between when AJ saw the lightning and when she got inside the donut shop. It would’ve cooled down by then and I guess he wanted to get rid of evidence. They were running all around; he might have managed to circle behind the joint. Anyway, not my problem. Long as it’s possible it’s a longshot better than your stupid ‘maybe another pony was there’ bit.”

“Is she right?” Faerie Dust asked. “Is her story more plausible than yours?”

Phoenix studied the judge’s face. He has his eyes closed and his expression was neutral. “I can’t think straight right now,” Phoenix admitted. “But I don’t want to take any chances. I need to think of something to shoot this crazy theory down right now. Something solid.” He closed his eyes and focused.

“As far as the weapon goes, it really does seem capable of making that flash…” Faerie Dust said.

“That’s not what I’ll cast doubt on,” Phoenix said. He looked at Twilight Sky, then jolted, his eyes wide. “I’ve got it! OBJECTION!” He whirled around to point at Shocking Snap. “Shocking, your explanation is totally faulty, and I will give irrefutable proof why!” He pulled Twilight Sky over, making the stallion squawk in surprise. “Look at all these tattoos! Do you know what these are?”

“Marks of a vengeful cellmate?” Shocking Snap said, tossing her mane and trying to look nonchalant. “I dunno; I’ve never seen those before.”

But despite the nonchalance in her face and voice, a sweatdrop rolled down her temple; even without Phoenix’s powers it wasn’t hard to see she was lying.

“These are special tattoos that were all the rage when Twilight was younger,” Phoenix said. “They have a very special property. They’re heat sensitive tattoos.”

“H-heat…?” Cross Examine asked.

“Sensitive?” Sterling Scales asked.

“Tattoos!?” Shocking Snap shouted, panic in her eyes.

“I see you all know what I’m getting at,” Phoenix Flight said. “These tattoos are invisible until they’re activated by strong heat, like a hot summer day or a sauna… or touching something too hot to handle. The arresting police and everypony else on the scene will testify that there were no pictures on Twilight’s fur the night of the incident! They didn’t appear at all until a run in with some shock shackles! Once they’re activated they won’t disappear for days!” Phoenix slammed on his desk. “So it’s inconceivable your version of events happened, Shocking Snap!!”

The crowd gasped and murmured. Shocking Snap sat jaw-dropped.

“Ha, rendered that brat speechless for once!” Cross Examine cackled.

“Isn’t she your witness….?” Faerie asked her.

Shocking Snap shook her head so hard that sparks flew off of it. “Look, maybe he didn’t touch the thing and just saw the sparks and got scared or something! I dunno! I wasn’t there, okay!? And I found this thing and it demands an explanation, so what story have youse got to explain why it was there, Phoenix Flight?”

“That’s a good question,” Judge Sterling Scales said. “Well, Phoenix?”

I better think this through carefully… Phoenix thought. Did Twilight Sky have it? Was there for a reason unrelated to this case? Or is this evidence….

Phoenix slammed on his desk, to try and gather confidence for another wild guess. “Your Honor! This evidence is nothing but a fake!”

The crowd murmured apprehensively. Someone shouted “I knew it!”

Judge Sterling Scales slammed his gavel down, just once this time. “A fake? Who made it?”

“Who else but the witness, Shocking Snap herself?” Phoenix said.

Shocking Snap bent over the witness stand, apparently relying on a seductive pose to distract from how sweaty her brow was. “Y-youse don’t know nothing! Why would I bring fake evidence?”

“It’s obvious,” Phoenix said. “You knew that a witness had seen lightning at the crime scene, and that it couldn’t have come from a cloud. That flash tied you inescapably to the crime scene, unless you could convince everyone there was another explanation.”

“W-w-well… prove it, lawyer!” Shocking Snap said.

“Proof should be easy to get,” Phoenix said. “All we have to do is… aura trace analysis.”

The crowd murmured in approval.

“…Um, what’s that?” Twilight Sky whispered.

“It’s like hoofprint analysis, but for a unicorn’s magical aura,” Faerie Dust whispered back. “It’s way more accurate and precise than hoofprints, because everyone’s aura is as unique as the souls of the ponies who cast them. The downside is the traces are only detectable for a few days after and if another unicorn picks it up in their aura, it completely overwrites any other aura traces.”

“Ha,” Shocking Snap laughed, weakly at first, then building to a wilder cackle. “That thing’s got my aura traces all over it ‘cause I’ve been carrying it around to use as evidence!” She grinned at the judge. “Sowwy I’ve been such a bad girl, Youse Honor. I didn’t know it’d be an issue…”

“That was really unfortunate,” Sterling Scales said, shaking his head.

“I’m not giving up this point yet!” Phoenix Flight leaned over the bench to examine the lightning wand more closely. “If I’m right, and Shocking Snap assembled this object with her magic, as opposed to just carrying it with her magic, there must be a piece of this that has her aura on it that wouldn’t if she’d only been carrying the completed wand!”

He studied the wand. The rod, the glass bowl, the cork, and the fork broken in half. The rod obviously would have been in the magic aura; so would the glass bowl. The fork was sticking outside…

No, wait. He recalled Shocking’s lecture on how it was made. The fork looked like it was whole because the cork was hiding that the fork was broken in half. And between the halves…

“Your Honor,” Phoenix Flight said. “The defense requests forensic analysis of the fork handle! The handle is separated from the rest of the fork, and the outside of the wand, by a film of lead! If Shocking had only been holding the wand from the outside with her aura, her magic would never have touched the handle inside, but if we find her traces there anyway, it’ll prove she encountered this wand when it was in pieces, making her story bogus!”

“Your logic is flawless, Mr. Flight,” Sterling Scales said, eyebrows raised. “Bailiff, if you would please…”

“N-no… no!” Shocking Snap shouted, suddenly lunging at the lightning gun. “Don’t do that!!”

Justice Bright leapt out from his seat next to Twilight Sky and landed squarely on Shocking Snap’s tail, causing her to halt in place with a yelp of pain. “Sorry to intervene so suddenly, but I must ask you to leave the evidence alone,” he said firmly.

“Why so nervous, Shocking Snap?” Phoenix asked, sure his smugness was all over his face and knowing it was wrong but unable to help it. “You are innocent, right?”

“Th-this… youse… youse can’t….!” Shocking Snap flailed as the bailiff started to wheel the cart away. “I-I ain’t ever got caught for nothin’ in my life!! Nothing, youse weak little scrappy little wingless little FLIIIIIIIIIGHT!”

Shocking Snap whirled around, glowing white with electricity, her eyes suddenly pupilless. The courtroom darkened as wild electrical energy surged in a crackling ball around the blue unicorn. Time moved in slow motion as she leveled her foreleg straight at Phoenix. It felt so surreal that by the time Phoenix realized his life was in danger, he was too frozen in fear to move.

Then, something white blocked his field of view, and a terrible scream filled the courtroom. The lightning flash blinded Phoenix. As he tried to blink away the red spots in his eyes, he heard the crowd gasp.

“Y-you…!” Shocking Snap panted. Her words were hard to make out, because she was struggling for breath. “Stupid… martyr…”

Then the loud thump of a fainting pony.

Phoenix’s vision cleared to see Shocking Snap slumped, unconscious, over the witness stand, the crackle in her mane gone. Then he looked down at the floor and screamed.

Mechanical Flight was sprawled on the floor between his bench and the witness stand, twitching, his pale fur burned along the chest.

“Medic!” Phoenix Flight squeaked as he climbed over his desk to be next to his brother. “Someone, please!”

“Shh-shh-shh,” Mechanical Flight said, reaching out to push Phoenix’s hoof away. “I said… it’s all right… for me…”

A cyan unicorn with a red cross badge swooped in and chased Phoenix back before teleporting the injured couple away, with a promise they’d be cared for and kept in separate rooms and a close eye would be kept on Shocking Snap and yes of course Phoenix could visit but didn’t he want to stay until the end of the trial?

Phoenix was left staring at the empty space they’d been, trying not to cry.

“Well…” Judge Sterling Scales said. “You’ve done admirably for a rookie, Mister Flight.”

“Thanks, Your Honor,” Phoenix said hollowly.

“We all were so caught up with the obvious none of us thought to look past that to anything deeper,” Judge Sterling Scales mused, closing his eyes. “You showed… unusual diligence in pursuit of the truth.”

“Please, Your Honor, I need to see my brother,” Phoenix pleaded Don’t cry in front of everypony don’t cry in front of everypony don’t prove Mystic right you can do this…

“S-sorry. We’ll conclude this trial tomorrow once the forensic results come in and you’re ready, Mr. Flight. Court dismissed.” Sterling Scales banged his gavel with finality.

The customary confetti showered over the defendant’s table, a holdover from the earth pony court system and its rather weird traditions, but no one cheered. Everypony seemed to know this was a somber moment.

Phoenix was out of the courtroom doors the minute they swung open. He pushed his way through crowds of ponies in suits and ponies in civilian clothes. If anyone followed him he didn’t notice or hear.

***

By the time Phoenix made it to the hospital, Mechanical Flight was on his way out. The two entered different sections of a revolving door and started when they made eye contact.

“Oh! You… you’re fine!” Phoenix said, feeling his cheeks redden, like he was now stupid to have been so worried.

Mechanical Flight didn’t even look injured anymore, a mere furless patch where the burn used to be. “I told you I knew how to make it heal faster,” he said, looking mildly annoyed. “I even had some medicine and healers this time. It was bound to get patched up soon.” His voice was muffled by the glass of the revolving door.

“I… I see.” Phoenix waited. Was that really all Mechanical Flight was going to say? After all that had just happened?

“…Could you let me leave?” Mechanical Flight asked.

“S-sorry.” Phoenix stepped out of the revolving door. As Mechanical Flight pushed through to the outside, Phoenix continued, “So… um. What will you do with your life now?”

“Go back to my job, where I always am.” Mechanical Flight’s voice sounded hollow. “Then in a few months when she’s out on a technicality she’ll probably summon me back and want to punish me and-”

“Oh, for crying out loud!” Phoenix said. “Will you stop being such a gloomy donkey about this!? You’re always expecting the worst, but what if you’re dead wrong and nothing bad happens, and you’re just bracing yourself for an impact that never comes!?”

Mechanical Flight didn’t seem to be listening. He pointed at a filly playing with a pinwheel. “What’s that?” he asked.

“Uh…” Phoenix stared blankly at Mechanical Flight. “That’s a pinwheel. It’s a child’s toy.”

“That’s it?” Mechanical Flight wryly pointed at his flank. “As soon as I first got this thing I started seeing tons of things that normal ponies need rulers and machines to measure. I see wind velocity, centripetal force, wheel and axle ratios, coefficients of friction, all just by looking. And it’s getting stronger. Now I don’t just see what’s happening at any given moment. I see what’ll happen if the wind picks up or dies down or it starts to rain or the child drops it or someone jostles her…”

“That sounds exhausting,” Phoenix Flight said.

“And if I had to deal with that stupid emotional rollercoaster you put yourself through, going from idealistic to suicidal in seconds flat, I’d lose what sanity I have left,” Mechanical Flight said, his bitterness returning. “The one thing I don’t have to calculate because I can always depend on it is that things will go wrong. Everything. Goes. Wrong.”

Phoenix didn’t know what to say to that.

Mechanical Flight’s expression softened. Now he just looked tired. “I shouldn’t be like this. Y-you… you risked a lot, and helped me even though we've both tried our hardest to ignore each other…” He turned away, and looked like he was blinking tears out of his eyes. “I-I should get back to the Rainbow Factory. If anypony died because I wasn’t there I’d never forgive myself…”

“Ponies don’t die there much anymore, do they?” Phoenix asked.

Mechanical Flight closed his eyes in pain. “I’m not the mechanical genius our dad was. I try to put them back together exactly as he had them but somehow they just still don’t run as smoothly as when he was with us. So I add all these failsafes and most of the time when something goes wrong the machine just stops and we lose some hours, but when the failsafes also fail and things blow up or ponies are ground between the gears it’s just ghastly….” He cringed visibly. Then his eyes snapped open. “Y-y-you don’t need to hear about that…” He shuddered. Then, softer, sadder, “I still miss him. It’s been more than a decade but I still miss him, because I’m just that weak…”

“I miss him too,” Phoenix said, fully aware of the trap he was walking into.

“You are also weak,” Mechanical Flight said.

Phoenix laughed half-heartedly. “Um… before you go back… can we get coffee?”

“…what, like, friends?” Mechanical Flight asked.

“I… I know I’ve not been very nice to you, and I’ve let you suffer alone so long…” Phoenix scuffed his hoof on the pavement. “But… we can only change the future.”

Mechanical Flight’s expression was very blank.

Then, slowly, he said, “Sure. Let’s try it.”

Author's Note:

I've certainly kept y'all waiting long enough~

Just an epilogue to wrap all the plot threads up neatly and my first installment in this series will be done.

Thanks to everyone who's been with me on this special journey!

Comments

[Fluffy-Boi]

Ooooo!! This Chapter was...'shocking'~

[A_Storyteller]

It was worth the wait. :)