Part 60 - Drop the Bass!
Chapter updated as part of a major editing pass and story overhaul on October 15, 2018.
Welcome to the Final Four, folks! No, not the college basketball tournament, but the final four chapters of Turnabout Storm. It's been a long road but the end is finally in sight. As always, thanks to Leo Archon for the suggestions and help—he'll be writing part of the next chapter again—and to Raven for letting me have the keys to the story. The author's notes are up front this time to deliver a content warning for at least one suggestive scene. The Twilight/Phoenix romance remains a subplot, but not one I'm going to neglect—in fact, I'm going to tease it pretty mercilessly in these final chapters. 
Oh yes... and a special shout-out to Raistlin, whose joke in the comments section a few chapters back was just too good not to use. Sadly, I didn't realize the reference until I was told it.
Ponyville District Court
Courtroom No. 3
June 14th, 9:55 AM
Seems like we were just here... Phoenix thought as he stood behind the defense bench waiting for court to begin, Twilight at his side and most of her friends in back to cheer them on amidst another full house of spectators, regular ponies and press alike coming in expectation of more legal fireworks and unlikely turnabouts.
It’s deja vu all over again! he chuckled in an effort to master his nerves, knowing he’d be hard-pressed to equal his accomplishments of the previous trial. Especially since a not guilty verdict isn’t possible here!
He glanced to his right, where a subdued but stoic Sonata Tarot occupied the defendant’s seat where Rainbow Dash sat before. The two mares had swapped places, with Rainbow now a mere spectator to the first of two trials her original one had spawned, sitting in the stands in back of the defense bench along with the rest of Twilight’s friends—save one.
Applejack was not there, explaining she’d been away from her farm chores for too long, though she’d told Phoenix privately that the real reason she wasn’t going was because she couldn’t wish Sonata or his defense well. “Not ‘n mean it after what she did to Rainbow,” the country mare added out of earshot of the others, to which Phoenix nodded his understanding.
Element of Honesty or no, she’s not going to cheer for somepony she doesn’t want to win. Can hardly begrudge her that!
The previous day had been a whirlwind for Twilight and Phoenix alike. With courtroom #2 heavily damaged and out of action after the magic duel between Trixie and Twilight, the entire court schedule had to be reshuffled, bumping several trials including Trixie’s, which was now penciled in for early afternoon the following day. Got lucky there, he knew—if her trial had been held within two days as was normally the case, it would have been impossible for him to defend both her and Sonata.
The day had gotten off to a rocky start, beginning with a very restless night’s sleep for both Twilight and Phoenix in the wake of their talk. The latter’s dreams alternated between Twilight and memories of past cases that seemed to mix in with his current set, including a particularly odd one where he’d been defending Pinkie Pie for the murder of Russell Berry facing a finger-tapping Miles Edgeworth, while beside him, Maya channeled Twilight.
He’d had one bona fide nightmare when he later dreamed he was in court defending Rainbow Dash and Maya simultaneously, facing not one but two prosecutors, having done no investigation or study and finding himself so unprepared he looked down to realize he had even forgotten his pants.
He was forced to rise as court was called into session, revealing his lack of clothes to a laughing pony audience and an enormous, disapproving judge looming over him like a legal deity. At that moment there was a bright flash as a pair of prosecutors teleported in, revealing… Franziska von Karma riding Trixie, the pair arriving in a flourish of magic.
“Prepare for trouble!” a particularly evil-looking Franziska announced gleefully from Trixie’s back, her whip cracking dangerously near his barely-covered body.
“And make it double!” An equally sadistic Trixie grinned toothily, her teeth sharp and eyes glowing blue as she summoned up a blizzard and fired a lightning bolt at his feet.
He’d woken up in a cold sweat, sitting bolt upright, his heart racing. Nope, nope, nope nope NOPE! was all he could think as he stumbled downstairs to the library’s public washroom, splashing water on his face and then putting his mouth to the spigot to gulp some down, ignoring Owlowiscious’ questioning hoots as he passed by.
Mental note: never EVER put those two together! he warned himself, so badly shaken he never noticed his lack of clothes until he woke up the next morning and found his t-shirt and boxers lying on the floor beside the bed. Huh? he blinked, trying and failing to remember removing them during the night. Must have been during one of the dreams with Twilight, he reasoned, recalling an uncomfortably vivid one where he’d been holding and caressing her only to have her abruptly disappear from his arms. Guess that explains why Owlowiscious was hooting at me!
After breakfast and a good stiff cup of coffee from Sugar Cube Corner—one that an equally bleary-eyed Twilight decided to partake in as well, to his surprise—their first trip had been to the Detention Center to offer Phoenix’s services to Sonata, who had been planning to represent herself. She was very surprised by the offer, initially saying she couldn’t accept after all he’d already done for her. But Phoenix insisted, reminding her that “a mare who represents herself has a foal for a client,” leaving a surprised Twilight wondering where he’d heard that particular saying.
She finally relented after Phoenix reminded her that he’d offered ‘to take care of her’ during the trial, and that he didn’t like leaving loose ends in his cases. “Let me defend you, Sonata. I can’t get you off, but I can get your sentence reduced,” he promised her, the two going on to discuss trial strategy for the better part of the morning; Sonata relating all the information she had on the blackmail schemes she’d orchestrated in an effort to preempt any surprises the next day.
While they discussed tactics, Twilight returned to the library. She was feeling uncomfortable around Phoenix again despite—or perhaps because of—their talk, especially after she’d had several bad dreams of her own the night before. Worried by his suggestion that she might be magically influencing him, she’d not only dreamed she’d gotten angry and accidentally immolated him, but she’d later woken up with a start to find herself in Phoenix’s bed, snuggled up against him, having no memory of how she’d gotten there!
She didn’t sense a teleport trail, so all she could conclude was that she’d somehow sleepwalked there and then climbed into bed with him, perhaps during a dream where they recreated the cover image of Cloverfields, lying in a meadow together. N-Now what? H-He’ll NEVER believe I didn’t do this deliberately! she thought, rising panic warring with an overwhelming urge to stay.
An urge that was only redoubled when, as if sensing her presence and thoughts, Phoenix shifted in his sleep to wrap his arms around her. Her breath catching as his hands began to move freely over her, it had been all that a turned on but terrified Twilight could do to remove herself without waking him, trying hard to focus enough to teleport out without taking him along for the ride. To her relief, she’d succeeded, except she’d been so careful about excluding him from her spell that she’d forgotten it was more than just him—she’d taken his clothes and blanket with her, finding them stuck to her side after she’d re-materialized!
Cringing at her error and praying he hadn’t awoken from the teleport flash, she crept back downstairs in the low light of her horn, entered his room and blushed hard at what she saw, the hue of her aura turning bright pink again as his blanket and garments fell with a soft whisper to the floor.
She’d seen him without clothes from the back, but never from the front!
Certain that the Sun Goddess herself was toying with her and realizing her resolve would only weaken the longer she stood there staring at him, Twilight shakily draped the blanket back over his naked form and moved his garments to the side of the bed, hoping he’d wake up thinking he’d removed them himself during the night as she went back to her own room, the remembered touch of his embrace and fingers causing her to stumble twice along the way.
She’d slept little more after that, fearful (hopeful?) of a repeat performance and worried that she was going to have to watch herself around him, wondering if she’d even be able to look him in the eye the next day and deciding it would be best to stay away from him for a bit.
At this rate, might even be best to put him up somewhere else entirely! she fretted, wondering if she could convince Applejack or Rarity to take him in.
Fortunately, there was plenty of work for her to do, and she made sure to lose herself in it. While Phoenix remained with Sonata, Spike and Twilight did research at the library, looking up the side effects of the painkiller medication and legal precedents for medical and magical incapacitation defenses. Spike seemed disappointed that his ‘help’ was limited to doing what he normally did—helping Twilight study—until Phoenix returned at lunch and offered to take him along as he went to the hospital and hotel to interview the doctor who had treated Sonata’s injury, and some of the racers in town for the Equestrian 500.
Though the doctor had been helpful, agreeing that taking as high a dose as Sonata said could well cause sociopathic behavior and offering to testify to that fact, the racer interviews had been a mixed bag at best. Many simply did not want to talk to Phoenix, saying they would never help him defend Sonata despite the fact he’d helped end the blackmail scheme, while others were evasive and denied they’d been blackmailed at all.
He saw psyche-locks more than once but made no effort to break them, having been told each racer’s secrets in at times too much detail by Sonata that morning. In this instance, better to leave the locks intact and expose their lies in court!
Spike, he was pleased to see, was a genuine help, his eagerness reminding him of Maya on more than one occasion. He took notes and got a couple autographs, kept him in constant contact with Twilight via dragonfire messages, and helped Phoenix find one possible piece of evidence when he identified what appeared to be a small ruby in the alley behind the Hay and Stay just by tasting it, touching his tongue to it.
“It’s a gem button off a suit. Not one of Rarity’s, though,” he pronounced, making a face. “Too flawed and tainted a ruby for Rarity to ever use. All her gems are flawless—and delicious!” the baby dragon took on a dreamy expression as he made a slightly disturbing slurping motion with his forked reptilian tongue. “This overpriced garbage had to have come from Canterlot. From one of Rarity’s main rivals, the Empress Emporium, if I’m not mistaken!” he announced with the exaggerated air of a book detective.
He’s really getting into this! Phoenix couldn’t help but grin, thinking the scribe looked more cute than tough despite the gumshoe airs he was taking. Hell, Dick Gumshoe himself would probably find Spike adorable. If nothing else, he’d certainly make a better police mascot than the Blue Badger!
While Phoenix and Spike worked, Twilight rested, deciding that for the time being it was safer to sleep when Phoenix wasn’t around. The needed nap did her wonders and she awoke to tackle her remaining research with gusto, completing it in time to join Spike and Phoenix for a quick dinner at the diner before heading back to the detention center to review their findings and proposed defense with Sonata.
Having completed his interviews and heard what Twilight had found, Phoenix recommended a potentially risky strategy that, while not getting her off scot-free, stood a decent chance to reduce the number of charges and get her a much shorter sentence on the remainder if successful.
“It’s a little out of my comfort zone, but I think I can pull it off, depending on the quality of judge and prosecutor tomorrow,” he told her, wondering who he’d be facing this time. Well, they could hardly be more flamboyant than Trixie! he thought as a visibly troubled and worried Sonata gave her assent, asking only that she ‘could take part in it’ when the time came. Phoenix wasn’t sure what she meant by that, but he didn’t worry about it too much—she hardly struck him as somepony apt to sabotage her own defense.
Satisfied they’d done all they could, Phoenix had Twilight fire another text to Maya before the pair bedded down for a fresh night’s sleep. The latter found sending the message nearly as taxing as before, though she at least could walk upstairs under her own power afterwards. Afraid to say anything out loud, she left Owlolicious a note asking him to watch over Phoenix and make sure she didn’t sleepwalk again, drinking some of Fluttershy’s herbal tea before bed to try to quiet her restless mind and prevent any more dreamtime escapades.
To her relief, it seemed to work. As near as she could tell she slept through the night and Phoenix had as well, leaving her feeling more at ease around him as Owlolicious reported neither she nor Phoenix had left their respective rooms during the night. In fact, to Twilight’s relief, he looked just as rested and happy as she felt the morning of the trial, noting at breakfast that he finally seemed to have settled into Equestria.
Phoenix agreed he had as they completed the same morning routine they’d used on the second day of Rainbow’s trial. He did wonder why he’d woken up again with his boxers and t-shirt seemingly tossed aside, but he also found himself in too good of a mood to care. Good gym, good friends, good massages, good food and coffee plus Twilight? You know, maybe I SHOULD open a law office here! he thought half-seriously, wishing again he could show Equestria to Pearls and Maya as the clock struck ten and the back door to the courtroom opened.
Ponyville District Court
Courtroom No. 3
June 14th, 10:00 AM
“All rise,” the head unicorn bailiff directed—the same bailiff mare that had been at Rainbow’s trial two days before, Phoenix couldn’t help but note as a robed pony entered through the back door, taking his seat behind the bench. “Ponyville District Court is now in session for the trial of Sonata Tarot. The honorable Due Process presiding.”
“Please be seated,” the blond-bearded tan unicorn stallion called out, rapping his hoof on his bench in place of a gavel to call court to order. “Are both sides ready?”
“The defense is ready, Your Honor,” Phoenix acknowledged with a nod, Twilight at his side. Gonna be weird arguing a case in front of any judge but my usual one!
The stallion judge gave him a nod back. “It is truly an honor to have you in my court, Mister Wright. And the prosecution?” he called to the opposite bench, which sat strangely empty.
“Uh… is the prosecution ready?” Due Process called again.
As if in answer, the courtroom lights went out and a slow but steadily building beat and pink glow coming from the direction of the prosecutor bench began to make itself known. Suddenly, there were a series of strobe light and laser-like effects from the courtroom ceiling lights that Phoenix had last seen when Maya tried to drag him to a rave.
He blinked hard when a spotlight washed over him, and when his vision had cleared again, the lights had come back up and the prosecutor’s bench had been magically transformed into a DJ table complete with speakers and sound equipment against a backdrop of flashing lights, which Phoenix finally figured out was coming from the horn of a white-colored unicorn mare with an unruly electric blue mane, a two-note cutie mark and a pair of magenta-tinted sunglasses that hid her eyes completely.
“DJ-PON-3 is in da HOUSE!” she announced with a blast of sound from her speakers that made Phoenix and Twilight wince.
“Vinyl Scratch?” The latter’s jaw fell open. “You’re the prosecutor?”
“Hey, Sparks! So what can I say? I’m a mare of many talents, but I’m also a girl with an eye for advertising! And going against The Phoenix there is the perfect chance for some free publicity and to demo my latest mixes to an adoring crowd!” she said, playing a few seconds of a record that consisted of what Phoenix could only describe as a brief but intense dubstep sequence.
“Besides, why should Octy have all the legal fun?” she further asked, looking up at a gray-furred earth pony mare with a white collar and pink bow tie in the first row, receiving a disapproving scowl in return. “She’s the one who suggested having a backup career in case I ever hit a creative dry spell!”
Phoenix didn’t know who ‘Octy’ was, but rolled his eyes all the same. A disc jockey prosecutor? How unrealistic can you get?
“I’m getting a headache already,” Twilight announced as the heavy beat continued, rubbing her forehead with a hoof. In the stands, half the spectators were likewise covering their ears while the other, mostly younger half were bobbing their heads in time to the beat, enjoying what Phoenix could only loosely describe as music, though he did acknowledge that Maya would probably love it. In the stands behind them, Rainbow Dash and Spike started playing air guitar as Pinkie began miming drumming, putting on shades of her own while Fluttershy cringed and Rarity materialized a pair of earmuffs for her, though she surprisingly seemed to be nodding to the rhythm herself.
Due Process clamped his hooves over his ears as Vinyl’s amps continued to pump out the beat. “Ms. Scratch!” he shouted in a magically-enhanced voice, trying to make it heard over the sound of the heavy bass. “This is a court of law, not one of your wild parties! I will thank you to advertise your wares elsewhere, and at another time!”
“Fuddy-duddy,” a disappointed Vinyl Scratch replied, stopping the playback with a flare of her horn though she never lost her smirk. “Then let’s get this party started!” There was a loud sound like a warbling guitar strum as she launched into her opening statement, punctuated by occasional heavy drumbeats and turntable scratch sounds, reciting Sonata’s long litany of crimes and blackmail, ending by proclaiming the case “more closed than an exclusive DJ-PON-3 rave!” as she put on her new album. The fresh blast of magically-enhanced bass hit Twilight full in the face and made her hair stick out straight backwards as if in imitation of Phoenix, causing Rainbow to burst out laughing in the stands above.
A shoulder-slumping Phoenix had encountered odd attorneys before, but he decided Vinyl Scratch completely took the cake. Fine. I’ll lose my law license before I let some wannabe rock star prosecutor get the better of me! he promised as he stood back up straighter and stole some of her thunder by announcing a partial guilty plea, throwing off Vinyl’s headbobbing rhythm and causing a particularly loud turntable scratch as she flipped up her magenta shades to stare at him, revealing a pair of deep red eyes.
Due Process was likewise stunned. “Did I hear you correctly, Mister Wright? Your client is pleading guilty?”
Phoenix flinched slightly at the sight of Vinyl’s eyes—do they glow in the DARK? he wondered—but plunged ahead as Twilight passed a sheet of scroll paper to the Judge and Prosecutor. “Yes, Your Honor. The defense pleads guilty to five blackmail counts involving the seven racers noted in this document,” he said with a glance at Sonata, who nodded. They had agreed the previous day that they would not contest the charges she was unquestionably guilty of, but instead, concentrate on establishing extenuating circumstances in an effort to limit her prison time.
“I see...” The unicorn judge looked as surprised as anypony in the courtroom, a low murmur of conversation making itself known. “Ms. Scratch, is this acceptable?” He turned to his right.
“Dude…” the DJ prosecutor looked at a complete loss for words as she scanned the document. “I was hoping you’d contest all the charges! I mean, if I ran the table on you, my next album would go gold for sure!” She looked strangely let down.
Phoenix rolled his eyes. “Sorry to disappoint, but I’m not going to claim my client’s innocent of these charges when she’s clearly guilty.”
“Ms. Tarot? Do you agree to this strategy?” Due Process turned to Sonata next. “You realize that if given the maximum penalty on these charges alone—never mind the other two dozen counts of blackmail, fraud, assault and crime scene tampering—you face a massive fine and upwards of twenty years in prison?”
“I do, Your Honor,” she replied, but couldn’t quite keep the tremor from her voice. “Mister Wright has my full support.”
Phoenix gave her a reassuring look. I know what I’m doing, he promised her with it, though in truth he wasn’t entirely sure of himself. Representing a guilty client was a new experience for him, defending Matt Engarde under duress aside, and it required a slightly different set of skills than trying to prove a client innocent. It’ll be okay. The objective here isn’t to get her acquitted; it’s to get her punishment reduced. Just need to show the judge that she’s not a bad pony, and that she wasn’t herself after Ace was killed…
After a ten-minute recess for Vinyl to quickly reorganize her case and witness list, she gave a new opening statement, promising she would “prove the defendant guilty on all charges!” and asking for the maximum possible penalty to “deter other ponies from cheating and restore the reputation of the Equestrian racing league.”
Phoenix shared a look with Sonata, who rolled her eyes in response. They’d had a long talk the previous day about how corrupt the National Equestrian Racing Federation truly was, and how endemic cheating had been before she and Ace came along. And still is, he reminded himself, knowing that was going to be an integral part of his defense as Vinyl began calling witnesses, giving each a DJ’s welcome with a series of visual effects and theme music, taking the opportunity to play different tracks from her album.
She also had an annoying and slightly painful habit of “Dropping the bass!” when she objected, doing so with a blast from her speakers that hit Phoenix square in the face with sheer force of sound, ruffling Twilight’s mane and leaving his ears ringing. You know, I’d almost prefer being hit by Franziska’s whip! Phoenix couldn’t help but think.
Regardless of Vinyl’s attempts to intimidate him, he persevered, sticking to his strategy and guns. Some witnesses—like Lenora or Hurricane Wind, the air elemental unicorn who used a magical disguise and went by the alias of Attack Angle (call me “Aang”, she requested) in order to race—he declined to cross-examine, knowing they were sympathetic figures, and there really was no excuse for blackmailing.
Others, however, he took great pleasure in exposing, including several racers who Sonata informed him had been taking various performance-enhancing potions and two others who had artificially and illegally enhanced their wings. In accordance with her desire to take part, Sonata occasionally passed Phoenix notes during their testimony to aid him, once or twice even asking questions herself.
You know, if she really IS this world’s version of Mia, she’d make a really good defense attorney! Phoenix couldn’t help but note. With her help, he tore apart the testimony of three other racers, two ponies and a griffon, who Sonata had not blackmailed simply because they weren’t good enough to beat Ace, but were trying to claim they were anyway to get publicity and be paid damages. Once Phoenix proved they were lying, they were slapped in manacles on perjury charges and the blackmail counts regarding them were dropped.
After that, Vinyl sheepishly announced that all her remaining blackmail witnesses had fled the courthouse, apparently not wanting to face Phoenix and have their lies or wrongdoing exposed. Her face flushed hard when she heard some derisive laughter from the audience; she turned and cringed when she saw the lethal look the bowtie-wearing earth pony mare in the first row of the stands was giving her. This in turn left Due Process little choice but to grant the defense motion to dismiss the blackmail counts involving those racers as well, leaving only a third of the original charges intact.
Phoenix then requested that the head of the racing federation himself testify about the state of affairs in the racing league. Vinyl’s “Bass Cannon” blasted out her latest objection, the DJ prosecutor claiming such testimony wasn’t relevant to the case at hoof. Resisting the urge to clamp his hands over his ears, Phoenix countered that it was relevant since Sonata was in effect doing the job he wouldn’t, exposing wrongdoing and keeping cheaters at bay.
“My client did more to keep the race league clean then he ever did!” Phoenix asserted with a finger pointed across the courtroom pit. A novel defense. Let’s see how well it works!
The head of the racing federation was a pegasus stallion named Jet Stream, who came in wearing ruby-tinted shades and a gem-studded racing suit that glittered so brightly it put anything Redd White wore to shame. He first insisted the league was “completely clean”, but even Vinyl rolled her eyes at that assertion. Phoenix quickly pointed out that ‘clean’ was hardly the right word, given Ace’s fraudulent wins and all the additional cheating Sonata and Ace had been capitalizing on.
“The charges my client pled guilty to were for blackmailing honest racers. It’s sad to say, but it looks like only those seven could truly be called clean.” He went on to recount the litany of misconduct and lawbreaking he’d already exposed from previous witnesses; for just a moment, Phoenix felt like he’d become a prosecutor like Miles Edgeworth and found himself reflexively taking his rival/friend’s pondering/impatient pose, crossing his arms and tapping a single finger against his upper arm. “So you’re insisting, in the face of all this evidence and my client’s own admission, that the league—and you, as its head—does not, in fact, tolerate rampant rule breaking?”
Jet Stream instantly assumed the air of the grievously offended. “To think, such a low-class lawyer would impugn my unimpeachable integrity. I am a stallion of high station, and I act as such!”
Phoenix was still considering his response when another note written by Sonata suddenly floated into his hand. He scanned it quickly and gave her a startled look; she nodded once in response, suddenly wearing a sly smile. “Unimpeachable, are you?” He smirked and put his hands on his hips. Time to bluff! “Then would you mind telling this court exactly what you were doing in the alley behind the Hay and Stay at 11:30 PM two nights ago?” he asked pointedly, then leaned over his bench to fix the stallion with his fiercest gaze. “I mean, surely a pony of your unimpeachable quality would have nothing to hide?” he mocked, crossing his arms and wearing a knowing grin.
He knew the question had hit the bulls-eye when the stallion suddenly broke out in a nervous sweat, but was given no chance to reply before Vinyl objected with another blast of bass that made his ears ring. “The Phoenix should put up or shut up if he’s got any evidence of such a meeting!” she said while scratching one of the records on her turntable.
In response, Phoenix brought out the ruby button he and Spike had discovered during the previous day’s investigation, explaining it had been found in the same alley. “You wouldn’t happen to be missing one, would you, Jet Stream?”
Vinyl “dropped the bass!” on Phoenix again, making Phoenix think he was going to lose his hearing before all was said and done. “With as many gems as he’s got sewn on there, it’s only natural he’d be missing a few. ‘Sides, there’s no way you can tell if any one gem belongs to him!” she tipped her glasses up again to try to intimidate him with her deep red eyes.
After Twilight and Trixie, it’ll take more than your red irises to scare ME, Vinyl Scratch! “I beg to differ!” Phoenix grinned and invited a gem expert—namely, a surprised but delighted Spike—to come down from the gallery and sample a few gems right off the stallion’s suit.
The baby dragon tried one of Jet Stream’s ruby pocket buttons and immediately spit it out. “More… cheap… Empress… JUNK!” He gagged, hurriedly running to the defense bench to grab Twilight’s glass and rinse his mouth out with water.
He then took the stand to explain that the gems clearly came from the same gem cache since they all had the same impurity, which he could taste. “Same cache, same store, same suit,” he summed up succinctly, causing another loud and painful scratching sound from Vinyl’s turntable. “And by the way, those baby blue sapphires on your collar are just glass. You got royally ripped off, dude,” he couldn’t help but add, leaving Jet Stream and Vinyl Scratch stunned as he retook his seat beside a gleeful Rarity, who took great delight in seeing one of her competitors discredited so publicly.
Quickly backing down, Vinyl tried to say that they’d only established Jet Stream’s presence in the alley, not what he was doing there, but Phoenix simply laid out in exact detail who he was seeing and why, accusing him of taking a bribe from another racer Phoenix had already exposed. Shocked at his uncannily accurate reading, Jet Stream broke down and confessed everything, even though all Phoenix had actually done was read off the note that Sonata had passed him.
Didn’t even have any direct evidence of it! he thought with a chuckle as the federation head was slapped in manacles and led away. And if you were a better attorney, you would’ve demanded proof before he confessed, Vinyl! Neither Franziska von Karma nor Miles Edgeworth would ever have made such a rookie mistake!
The blackmail counts dispensed with in dramatic fashion, they moved on to the assault and evidence tampering charges following a lunch break. Vinyl apparently thought twice about summoning Phoenix to the stand, but she did call Cruise Control, who was looking far better kempt and happier than he had before, clean and well-groomed, rarely losing his smile.
At a guess, he’s been making up for lost time with Lenora! Twilight couldn’t help but grin, belatedly realizing their relationship had been the secret behind the single psyche-lock she’d seen on the eagless when they first met.
After Cruise had detailed his meeting with Sonata and her instructions to ambush Phoenix as a cost for keeping his sister in Canterlot Hospital, Twilight took over the cross-examination at Phoenix’s request, citing his own conflict of interest as the assault victim. Under her questioning, he admitted that Sonata didn’t seem herself when she ordered him to attack Phoenix. Vinyl objected again, saying that the witness had no frame of reference for what constituted normal for Sonata; Twilight retorted that he in fact knew her quite well, having been blackmailed by her for the better part of five years.
Cruise immediately backed Twilight’s statement. “I knew it was her and not Ace from the get-go because I actually saw her take the blackmail pictures of me and Lenora! She teleported out before we could catch her!” he explained, giving Sonata an angry glare that caused her to look away. He also revealed that it had been Sonata who had given him instructions on the manner in which he was to lose each individual race, since Ace refused to “sully himself” by associating or communicating with a “hen-humper” like him, and several of those meetings had been face-to-face.
Sandbagged again, Vinyl let him go but insisted her “guilt on this count was as clear as the sound from my stage!” she said with another blast from her stereo that, rather aptly, was actually quite scratchy, sounding like she’d just blown a speaker.
Phoenix then requested to call two witnesses of his own in rebuttal, seeking to establish a mental incapacitation defense. He opened with the doctor he’d interviewed before, having him testify on the effects of the painkiller drug he’d prescribed for her fractured horn, and what a triple dose would do. “A pony definitely wouldn’t be themselves after taking so much. They’d lose all empathy and sense of right and wrong,” he said, causing another loud scratch from Vinyl’s turntable.
Next, he called Twilight herself to the stand, asking her to testify about what she saw and felt while inside Sonata’s head. Vinyl immediately “Dropped the BASS!” on Phoenix once more, the force of her stereo blast blowing his papers and tie backwards, trying to make up with volume for what she lacked in strength of arguments as she objected that secondhoof memory playbacks amounted to hearsay and were not admissible.
Putting his suit back to rights and reorganizing his papers, Phoenix immediately countered that he wasn’t introducing the playback; he was having Twilight testify about what she saw inside Sonata’s mind. “It’s not hearsay if she directly witnessed my client’s memories and mental state, Your Honor!” he pointed out. Uncertain, Due Process called a recess to look up legal precedents but Twilight saved him the trouble by citing a relevant Equestrian Supreme Court decision, floating him a legal case record with a bookmarked page, her legal research from the previous day coming up quite handy as the slightly stunned unicorn judge scanned the ruling and then overruled Vinyl’s objection again.
Twilight proved as cagey a witness as she was an investigator. Under Vinyl’s direct questioning, she emphasized the terror and genuine fear for her life the other mare had felt during her ordeal, and that the emotional trauma she’d suffered from Ace’s attack and from believing she’d accidentally killed him was very real… as was her guilt and shame over her crimes.
When an increasingly flustered Vinyl suggested that she had motive at the time to present Sonata in a more favorable light in order to help Rainbow, a visibly annoyed Twilight silenced Phoenix with a glance and pointed out if that were the case, she would have modified the memory projection to make Sonata look more guilty, not less.
“And that’s assuming I could modify her memories and present believable images coming in cold, which I can’t. Or is the prosecution seriously suggesting I could have come up with this on the fly?” Twilight asked pointedly, projecting a sequence of Sonata’s replayed memory where she’d fired the electric stun spell at Ace. Due Process agreed, bringing his hoof down hard to overrule the objection and causing another of Vinyl’s speakers to blow.
The damage done, Phoenix wrapped up the defense case by summarizing Sonata’s state of mind and the effects of the painkiller pills, painting a picture of her—an accurate one, he truly believed—as a mare in pain and denial, hiding from her actions and anguish by resorting to magical means to ease her own suffering; the side effects from a triple dose of the painkiller combining with his first visit to her hotel room leading directly to the orchestrated attack on him.
Sensing the bulk of her case slipping away, a now-sweating and considerably less confident Vinyl objected again with a bass blast from her half-broken bass cannon that sounded less like a subwoofer and more like a whimper, pointing out that Sonata had gone against doctor instructions to take such a large dose.
Phoenix replied by dryly offering to have Sonata plead guilty to drug misuse—a misdemeanor—in place of the assault charge, causing the crowd to erupt in laughter again and one lens of Vinyl’s glasses to crack as her eye visibly twitched.
In the immortal words of Maya—you got served, Vinyl Scratch! he told her with his thoughts and a grin, which quickly dropped as he felt his eyes drawn upwards, towards the stands behind the DJ prosecutor, where the earth pony mare Vinyl had referred to as “Octy” was giving him a steady, even steely look. He felt the challenge implicit in her gaze and realized only that she was a prosecutor as well.
And something tells me she isn’t even remotely a pushover!he thought with a shiver as court recessed and the Judge went to consider his verdict.
An hour later, Due Process returned and announced his decision: not guilty on the assault charge by reason of mental incapacitation, guilty but only time served plus restitution for evidence tampering and framing Rainbow Dash, who broke out in a huge grin as the unicorn judge announced a substantial sum of damages to be awarded to her, and guilty on eight separate counts of blackmail.
“The question of sentence is a difficult one,” he went on to say, explaining that he did not believe a full four-year sentence for each count was just in light of her apparent remorse and the massive cheating and corruption scandal she’d helped expose, “but at the same time, I cannot ignore the pain and suffering you caused many innocent racers, and your punishment must reflect your crimes.”
Phoenix and Sonata held their breath as he went on to split the difference, announcing a two-year sentence and stiff restitution for each of the eight blackmail charges, consecutive terms for the five counts she’d pled guilty to but only concurrent ones for the remainder in recognition that the remaining three blackmail targets were engaged in serious wrongdoing of their own.
Ten years… Phoenix winced. That’s a lot less than it could have been, but not a slap on the wrist by any stretch.
Due Process finished by noting she could get time off for good behavior, thanking Phoenix and his defense team for uncovering the rampant wrongdoing in the Equestrian Racing League, hoping that this would be the end of the “Dark Age of Competition” Jet Stream’s clearly corrupt leadership had caused.
With a final rap of his hoof, court stood adjourned, and the spectators rose to applaud Phoenix with clopping and stomping of hooves once more.
Ponyville Courthouse
Defense Lobby No. 3
June 14th, 3:08 PM
It was a new experience for Phoenix being handed a guilty verdict, and he found himself feeling subdued as he met with Sonata one last time before she was taken to prison.
“It’s alright,” Sonata told him after he offered to appeal her sentence to the Equestrian Supreme Court, giving him a brave and grateful smile. “I’m satisfied. It’s punishment I deserve, and leaves me plenty of life left to live afterwards. I promise I won’t squander my second chance,” she told him, and Phoenix had no doubt she meant it. Sensing his disappointment over her sentence, she reared up to give him a heartfelt hug again. “You took care of me like you said you would,” she reminded him. “It’s rare that a stallion takes care of a mare, but you’re all the more special for it, Phoenix Wright.”
His cheeks warm, Phoenix watched her be taken away. I’ll visit her again before I leave here, he promised himself, letting Twilight lead him out to meet the media and his growing ranks of fans.
They found Twilight’s friends waiting just outside the door along with two additional ponies, one a two-tone blue pegasus mare and the other the dark-furred, fire-maned unicorn stallion he’d first seen sleeping on a library couch after they’d gotten home from Rainbow’s trial.
Is something wrong with him? His cheeks looks swollen, Phoenix couldn’t help but note, also remembering the pair had been in the gallery, and apparently taking some notes.
Twilight warmly greeted them. “Phoenix? Got some friends for you to meet. This is Chrome Regios,” she said, indicating the blue pegasus. “She runs an alchemy shop I occasionally use, and Spike and Applejack say that she was the one who found my copy of Sonata’s spellbook and matched your picture to the page in Rainbow’s trial.”
“Oh!” Phoenix blinked, offering his fist to her. “It’s an honor to meet you, then. That book arrived just in the nick of time. So thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” she acknowledged with a bow of her head, bumping her hoof back. “The honor is mine, Mister Wright. But you should also thank Firesight here.” She motioned the stallion forward. “When we got the emergency message from Spike, I was going to fly over but he got me there instantly with a teleport instead—which he actually wasn’t supposed to be doing!” She and Twilight gave him an admonishing look; the stallion replying with a rueful nod. “But as it turned out, guess it was a good thing he did!”
“Well then, thank you very much.” He turned to the fire-maned stallion and offered his fist in turn. “Noticed you two were writing in the gallery?”
“You’re welcome,” he said in a slightly muffled voice that sounded like he was speaking through his teeth. “And yes—we’re both amateur writers, and after we heard about your exploits, we thought it might be fun to collaborate on a novelization of them,” he explained, giving a close-lipped grin. “We’re titling it Turnabout Storm. Hope you don’t mind.”
Phoenix inwardly cringed at that, knowing the hash some tabloid reporters had made of his previous cases. And what’s this weird obsession with titling my cases ‘Turnabout’ anyway? “Oh, uh... that’s fine, but all I ask is this: no embellishment.”
The two looked at each other and then grinned. “Okay, promise. No embellishment,” Firesight agreed, giving a smile Phoenix could only describe as sly while behind him, Pinkie giggled.
Somehow, Phoenix wasn’t reassured.
“Dude! You wiped the floor with me!” a familiar voice broke in as the other two departed. Phoenix turned to see Vinyl Scratch, her shades off and shock of electric blue mane hair looking even more frazzled than normal as she walked in the door, a bevy of reporters and the bow tie-wearing earth pony he’d seen before following her. “But never let it be said I’m a sore loser. Congratulations!” she said, offering him her hoof, cameras flashing to capture the moment.
“You did fine,” Phoenix replied, taking note of ‘Octy’ again behind the DJ as he bumped his fist to her hoof. “I do this for a living, after all. But you just do it as a sidelight.”
“Yeah, well…” She rubbed the back of her head. “No way my new album’s gonna sell now. Who’s gonna buy dance mixes from a loser DJ, anyway?” she tossed a badly scratched-up record in the nearest trash can.
“No?” Phoenix grinned, giving Twilight a wink. “Just tell them you’re one of only two prosecutors who ever went up against me and got a guilty verdict. You got a ten-year sentence, after all,” he reminded her, deciding to leave out the fact that it all came from counts Sonata had already pled guilty to. Though to be fair, that was a longer sentence than I was hoping for...
Her deep red eyes lit up and her horn flared to materialize her trademark magenta shades, her confidence instantly restored. “Dude, you’re right! How many prosecutors can say they’ve beaten The Phoenix?” she said with a triumphant glance back at the earth pony mare, who said nothing but whose eyes kept flickering to Phoenix. He found his attention repeatedly drawn to her in turn, taking in her elegant figure, white collar and bow tie, lavender G-Clef cutie mark and matching eyes which were somehow both soft and piercing, betraying an intensity of focus and strength of character he’d seen from precious few humans or ponies before.
“Well done, Phoenix Wright,” she told him in a quiet but strangely commanding voice after Vinyl had departed, giving him a short nod and a bow. “A virtuoso performance, even if your competition was somewhat lacking. Perhaps one day, your mettle will truly be tested,” she suggested in an odd tone as she turned and strode gracefully out the door, the picture of culture and dignity in marked contrast to Vinyl’s brash nature. “Until that day, be well.”
“Twilight? Who was that?” Phoenix wanted to know as the unfamiliar earth pony mare departed, leaving him wondering why the sight of her was sending a chill down his spine.
Twilight looked surprised by his question. “Oh, her? Octavia Melody. She’s a cellist and classical musician of some renown. She performs in Canterlot quite frequently. She lives in Ponyville when she’s not on tour, and she’s roommates with Vinyl.”
“Roommates?” Phoenix repeated in disbelief. I’ve heard of opposites attracting, but THOSE two? He shook his head, unable to imagine how they got along well enough to live together. Still… I can’t seem to shake this odd feeling about her, he thought as he stared at her retreating form.
“Phoenix?” Twilight nudged him, making him realize he’d just zoned out. “Something wrong?”
“Oh! No, nothing,” he assured her, tearing his eyes away even as his thoughts refused to leave the strange mare.
Octavia Melody. Why do I have a feeling we’re going to meet again…?
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Oho, yes! Vinyl as a prosecutor = golden! I imagine she and Klavier Gavin would get along well. XD
Also, Phoenix and Octavia meeting again? Intriguing. I'd love to see them duke it out in court.
the ending........ MUST DO RESEARCH!!!!!
First Trixe, and now Vinyl Scratch. Man, after Dual Destines let a murderer become a prosecutor I think it's safe to say that within the realm of Phoneix Wright, they'll let anyone be a prosecutor under the right circumstances.
I just hope that never happens in real life. "Kangroo Court" doesn't even begin to describe how wrong that would be.
I kind of doubt she's going to be better than Edgeworth, or Manfred von Karma. Maybe Franziska, definitely better than Payne...
4984192 Yeah, both Paynes in fact. Winston, and his son Gaspin.
4984242 Gaspen is Winston's younger brother, not son.
Alright, so "Phoenix meeting Octavia again" clearly shows that she's a pony version of an AA character Phoenix meets after Justice for All. So...who is it? Is it Athena? Thalassa? Iris? Juniper? My bet's on Thalassa.
Also, could Jet Stream possibly be ponified Damon Gant? They remind me of each other. They don't really act the same, but neither do Sonata and Mia. But in that case, I guess Phoenix would've recognized him. Unless you don't count Rise From the Ashes as canon, which doesn't really make that much sense anyway. I have noticed a lack of references to Rise From the Ashes characters. Not even Ema, who appears again in AJ and the Gyakuten Kenji games. The GK games have also received hardly any attention in the form of blatantly obvious meta jokes, too.So...this is a bit awkward, but have you actually played Rise From the Ashes and the GK games? I can understand not wanting to spoil anything, especially for GK2, but for the others it's pretty common knowledge about what happens.
Holy crap. Ace Attorney really does send me off on a tangent.
Good chapter. Vinyl and Octavia are two neat side characters.
good chapter. and that ending bit with octavia? fantastic!
4984327 Uh... you DO realize that the characters in this universe's Equestria aren't actually the AA characters in pony form, right? They're merely ponies given bigger roles (or OCs).
4984420 I'm well aware of that. I was referring to the fact that some characters in this story represent certain Ace Attorney characters, which Phoenix recognizes. Mia and Sonata, Lotta and Applejack, etc. I was only speaking hypothetically that some OC characters in this story might be part of that trend. But if I really sounded that stupid, then I can delete my comment.
The.... references.... So... MaNY REFErENcEs...
4984453 Didn't mean to imply you were stupid. You were just making connections where none exist. Sonata is an OC, and an expy of Mia. Applejack has a distinct accent, and Phoenix mistook her for Lotta at first because of it. As for Octavia... she's her own pony. More on her later.
4984327 With his gaudy clothing and general attitude, Jet Stream seems more like Redd White.
4984261 My mistake. The point still stands, he's a terrible prosecutor. When danger rears its ugly head what does he do, he runs like a yellow bellied chicken!
4984607 The sad part is, I think he's actually a bit more competant than Winston. Certainly more villainous.
4984622 True, but Winston was past his prime when he fought Phoneix. He was never the same after his loss to Mia Fey.
Q: did you know there's a YouTube Version (It's in five parts) of this story by PWaaMLPfim, RavenRegios?
or are you PWaamLPfim?
P.S.
I would like to read it but, A. I find the story to long (that's my option) B. I found this story After I saw the YouTube Version. (So I thought this story said the same thing.)
Vinyl Scratch (my favorite background pony), a prosecutor? That was funny.
Also, that ending with Octavia, man! Something tells me that Octavia and Phoenix will duke it out in the court room in the future. That will be something to behold by the implications that this chapter foreshadowed.
All in all, very good chapter (especially the Twilight and Phoenix not sleeping well part), and I look forward to the final three chapters.
~ Super-Brony12
She'll probably be defending trixie, or blueblood or somepony else
Since it hasn't been called, I will bet that Octavia will be the one prosecuting Trixie, and she's going to give Phoenix a whole new level of hell compared to Scratch. She reminds me of Edgeworth, with the whole cultured upper class thing she's got going on.
So...many....new comments...
4984759 This is a 'novelization' of that series.
4984327
Sorry to disappoint, but there was no conscious association on my part between Vinyl or Octavia to any Ace Attorney character.
I chose Vinyl as prosecutor because I thought she'd be a fun choice and so we could foreshadow some future events regarding Octavia. Ditto for Jet Stream, who's just there to fill a temporary role, though I'll admit I was thinking of Redd White a bit while writing him because of the outfit he wears. Damon Gant he's not, as Gant was a lot smarter than Jet Stream and wouldn't be trapped so easily.
I've seen a walkthrough of GK1 but not GK2, but since I think of those as being in the future of Phoenix Wright canon and having nothing really to do with him (I believe he appeared just once in the background of GK?), they're much harder to reference in the course of this story. I've also seen a walkthrough of Rise from the Ashes, but no, I haven't really referenced that case except briefly when Phoenix once noted he'd faced both prosecutors and police chiefs who'd committed murder. Do kind of wish I'd found a place to reference Ema, though. Maybe I still can.
In other words, it makes you *think*. That's the mark of a good universe.
4984146
Thanks! And careful what you ask for. You may get it.
4984398 4984410
Glad you thought so! I actually had some reservations about using Vinyl at the start, but now I'm glad I did.
4984546
Bingo! That's exactly who I was thinking of at the time, though I wasn't actually trying to imply Jet Stream was Redd White's counterpart.
4984899
Thanks! Though I am a little surprised there hasn't been more mention in the comments of Twilight and Phoenix not sleeping well.
But if that was overshadowed by the trial and Vinyl, I'm okay with it. 
4984759
The authors of this work (myself included) did not author the videos, which came first. This is an unofficial novelization of the videos, which adds new scenes and subplots and takes an alternate route to the ending.
It starts out pretty much the same but you'll see additional description and dialogue creeping in as you go along. Eventually you'll see whole new sequences and chapters added, meant to flesh out and fill in the blanks of the story (like what Twilight and Phoenix were doing the morning before the second day of trial, or what happened to Fluttershy when she fled the courthouse after Rainbow dumped on her.) So it's not a line-by-line retelling; it's got enough new content to make it fresh. Give it a try.
4984635
Well, certainly his hair was never the same...
4986272
OK I will, thanks for the info.
Of course you're going to meet her again Feenie, it says so right here in the sequel!
She looks really tough though. You're really going to have to step up your game if you want to win the next case. Good thing Pinkamena Diane Pie is on the job!
4987784
Okay, now that's scary.
yesssssss. Octavia! and prosecutor vinyl is
. twilight certainly got an eyeful, though, didnt she.
abusing that subplot, arent u? 
what did the text say?
anyway, i enjoyed this chapter quite a lot. and i agree, franziska and trixie should never be permitted within the same world, let alone the same room.
putting urselves in there was a nice touch. phoenix doesnt have to worry, u portrayed him very well. although one does have to wonder, how do u know anything about twilight and phoenix's sleeping "problems"? 
So we are almost there. Well it has been a fun ride but all good things moist come to an end.
Great job with the chapter as always.
i have a feeling 'octy' will be the one to prosecute in trixie's trial... that should be good.
ZOMG FORESHADOW.
4989053
Just slightly.
And I may abuse it even more before all is said and done. Oh, who am I kidding? I *will* abuse it, quite happily. 
You'll find out in the next chapter.
Good to hear you enjoyed it! And thankfully for Phoenix, it won't happen... at least, not in *this* story.
I'm, uh... pleading the fifth.
Vinyl, huh? I like that idea of her being a prosecutor. Those electronic devices along with those shades makes me think of another prosecutor.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2013/5/27/334877__safe_solo_crossover_vinyl+scratch_magic_parody_dj+pon-dash-3_coffee_ace+attorney_phoenix+wright.jpg
4991376
well, im not complaining.(yet)
now im even more curious!
good, good- wait. not in this story?!
we're doomed. 
the fifth?
4994213
http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Plead+the+Fifth
4996269 thanks!
Aang. Air bending unicorn. I see what you did there.
As for the Team Rocket intro in the dream sequence, that was golden. To quote Dash: "I love this story!"
This was a great chapter. Had some good references and Vinyl as a prosecutor
Also this: Franziska von Karma riding Trixie,
4999437 5005942
Thanks!
But credit where credit is due--the Team Rocket/Franziska/Trixie joke didn't come from me. It came from Raistlin a few chapters back: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/6177/58/phoenix-wright-turnabout-storm/part-57-riddle-me-this-whats-black-and-blue#comment/4550035
It was too good not to use. Sadly, I didn't know it was a Pokemon/Team Rocket reference until I was told.
5006718 Guess you didn't watch the anime at all then XD
5008155
It's a safe bet.
I have watched some anime series, but Pokemon was never among them.
4993253 Ah yes, Godot. The defense attorney turned prosecutor who famously said "The only time a lawyer can cry, is when it's all over." And by the end of Trials and Tribulations, he was right.
5006718
What can I say? I have my moments
4984177
My guess is Equestria´s crime rate is so low that prosecutors must find an extra job to pay the bills.
Couldn't help but scream 'YES!" a few times seeing who was getting involved there, it was rather astounding and more to the point, amusing.
I also gather that while Phoenix may have met some challenging prosecutors on earth....they're about to become outclassed in multiple ways..
*Sees title* Yep. Vinyl is in this chapter.
*Sees Phoenix get Wubbed* HAVE SOME OF MY BASS CANNON!!!
It occurred to me recently that while Vinyl may have been the second to have scored a guilty verdict...she is the first to have earned it legitimately, with no trickery or cheating.....unlike the Shelly de Killer case.
I wonder how things will go after Sunset reforms, and she and if Trixie met again.