| Crusading for a Turnabout - Part 7 | |
|---|---|
 ~By Fair Means or Foul~ | |
| Date added | September 17, 2022 |
| Duration | 1:28:35 |
| Transcript | Available |
| Part of | My Little Ace Attorney: Elements of Justice |
| ⇐ Crusading for a Turnabout - Part 6 |
⇒ Crusading for a Turnabout - Part 8 |
In the courtroom lobby on the second day of the trial, Athena relates to her friends the conversation she had with Princess Luna in her dreams the night before. When Sweetie Belle arrives, the group notices her acting strangely calm and confident about the trial's outcome, but Athena senses she still does not fully trust her or Twilight. Private Eye then arrives to give Athena a sample of Royal Order's blood per her request, with Private Eye even confirming that he was able to obtain the sample secretly.
Athena explains to her friends that, having learned to stop trying to solve everything on her own, she went to Sonata for assistance, having her request the blood sample from Private Eye and look into the blood-covered trees between the Nightmare Moon statue and the Everfree Forest clearing, the source of the anonymous tip that led to Turning Page's arrest, and one of the Royal Orders' missing guard armor.
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Court is called to order, and Luna summarizes the findings of the previous day's trial: the victim Royal Order cloned himself via Mirror Pool, whereupon one was killed in the forest clearing and his body transported to the bridge near the castle, and the other was killed at the statue and his body eaten by timberwolves. In addition, two ponies' blood were found at the statue: Royal Order's and Sweetie Belle's.
In order to determine how the second Royal Order was killed, Luna calls Private Eye to the stand. Private Eye theorizes that Royal Order attacked Sweetie Belle, forcing her to defend herself, and her small stature coupled with Royal Order's poison joke-afflicted state of having weak knees caused him to stumble and get impaled on the statue, making his death an accident. Athena firmly believes in Sweetie Belle's innocence, but Sweetie continues to exercise her right to remain silent. To substantiate Private Eye's theory, Luna calls to the stand both Fair Devotion and Sugar Stamp, who claim to have witnessed the murder themselves.
Fair and Sugar testify that they were in the statue's general vicinity at the time of the murder – Sugar flying overhead, and Fair looking for her husband on the ground – when they were drawn to the sound of fighting and witnessed Royal Order getting accidentally killed. During her cross-examination, Athena notices Fair Devotion leading Sugar Stamp in her testimony. Believing Fair went into the forest for a reason besides looking for her husband, she presents Royal Order's travel case, in which Sugar Stamp's love letter to Royal Order was discovered. With Royal and Sugar's affair exposed, Fair and Sugar start to argue on the witness stand, but Athena does not detect any actual surprise or anger in their voices.
An unsurprised Luna points out an entry in Royal Order's planner indicating his intention to clone himself so that he could be with his wife and mistress at the same time, thus giving Fair Devotion an ulterior motive for following her husband into the forest. However, Athena points out another entry in the planner stating Royal Order and Sugar Stamp had arranged to meet up at the clearing before the murder at the statue, meaning she was not a witness to that murder. Athena requests further testimony from Sugar Stamp to recount her true actions that night, especially considering she confessed the day before to killing Royal Order in the clearing.
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Sugar Stamp testifies that when she met with Royal Order and learned of his plan to leave her with a clone of himself, she killed him in a rage with the letter opener, removed his armor, and moved his body to the castle ruins. On her way out of the forest, she saw Scootaloo crash into the other Royal Order and moved the scooter and wagon to further shift blame away from herself. During Athena's cross-examination, Sugar elaborates that, before stabbing Royal in the head, she first kicked his side; her hoof connecting with Royal's armor caused the clanging noise that other witnesses have testified to hearing. When Athena presses Sugar on other details, Fair Devotion steps in to lead Sugar in her testimony like before.
Athena asks Sugar about the letter she was to deliver to Zecora's hut, and Luna presents the letter's empty envelope. Sugar claims she delivered the letter after killing Royal Order, moving his body, and putting the bloody letter opener in her bag. Athena objects; if Sugar did all of that in the order she claims, Zecora's letter should have gotten blood on it, but it did not. Luna suggests Sugar simply got mixed up and delivered the letter before killing Royal Order, but Athena asserts that is not possible based on the movements of Zecora herself; the letter could only have been delivered after Zecora left for the police station.
Based on that and the envelope not having any blood on it, Athena concludes that the letter opener did not have any blood on it after Royal Order was killed, meaning it may not have been the murder weapon. This casts considerable doubt on Sugar Stamp's entire confession, and Luna calls Private Eye back to the stand to clear up the matter.
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A visibly nervous Private Eye retakes the stand, and he testifies that the blood on the letter opener was a match to Royal Order, indicating it must be the murder weapon. In addition, the shape of Royal Order's stab wound and the hole in the helmet found at Froggy Bottom Bog also match the letter opener. In Athena's cross-examination, Private Eye asserts no one could have planted the helmet at the bog because it was sealed off after the previous trial.
Athena objects, suggesting Private Eye himself had access to the bog since he ordered it sealed off in the first place and thus had the opportunity to plant the helmet (hidden from his fellow officers in Royal Order's travel case) in order to support Sugar Stamp's testimony. In the face of this accusation, Private Eye falls silent. When Luna asks how Royal Order's blood got on the letter opener and helmet if they are in fact fabrications, Athena presents the blood sample Private Eye gave her earlier, which he confirmed he obtained in secret.
Athena theorizes that, while he and his team were arresting Sugar Stamp in Canterlot, Private Eye went to where Royal Order's body was being autopsied, he put the helmet on the body and "stabbed" it with the letter opener, thus creating the false evidence needed to support Sugar Stamp's confession. When Luna brings up Royal Order's planner, Athena calls that into question as well; Private Eye previously claimed he confirmed Royal Order's writing personally, but that has not corroborated by any forensic team. Thus, when Athena has the planner re-tested, the writing inside is found to be a match for Private Eye.
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Private Eye is now found to have fabricated multiple pieces of evidence to support Sugar Stamp's confession, but before the judge can get an explanation out of him, Fair Devotion interjects. With a much colder demeanor than before, she offers to explain the inconsistencies in Sugar Stamp's story. She suggests that the traumatic events of that night affected Sugar Stamp so deeply that she cannot remember all the details with 100% accuracy, and that Private Eye fabricated evidence to ensure that Sugar Stamp face justice for Royal Order's murder. Both Sugar Stamp and Private Eye agree with every word.
With the trial more or less back where it started, Luna reminds Athena that they are here to determine Sweetie Belle's guilt; everything related to Sugar Stamp was just an unrelated tangent. Luna suggests going back to Fair Devotion's original testimony about why she was in the Everfree Forest, and Fair predicts Athena will name her a suspect in Royal Order's murder because of the affair. After consulting with Twilight, Athena believes hearing from Sweetie Belle to be the best course of action, but Sweetie still refuses to speak.
Determined to get to the truth one way or another, Athena makes a bold gambit: she announces that she is stepping down from being Sweetie Belle's attorney. Everyone in the courtroom is shocked by Athena's sudden decision, especially since Sweetie will almost certainly be found guilty thanks to Sugar Stamp and Fair Devotion's testimonies. However, she agrees to stay on as Sweetie's attorney if she testifies. Trusting in Athena's judgment, Luna puts the decision to Sweetie Belle. Sweetie, pushed into a corner, finally agrees to testify. The judge orders a 20-minute recess for all parties to prepare, and court is adjourned.