Web Animation / Turnabout Storm

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TurnaboutStorm_Cover_350p_2400.jpg
Twilight Sparkle: Hey! You're a human aren't you?
Phoenix Wright: Yeah, I'm a human... *beat* WAIT, WHAT!?

"Just when you thought the Layton crossover was weird."

Turnabout Storm is a fan crossover between Ace Attorney and My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic by NeoArtimus; uploaded to PWaaMLPfim. This fan work, instead of using a written format as it was first conceived as, shows itself as a movie using the Visual Novel style the Ace Attorney series is known for, with the addition of voice acting for all characters.

Rainbow Dash, best flier in Ponyville, is accused of murdering the Pegasus Ace Swift, the favorite to win an upcoming race called the Equestrian 500 that Dash is also set to compete in. Now that she faces punishment for what would be the first murder in a long time during Celestia's reign, one of her best friends, Twilight Sparkle, sets out to find a lawyer to represent her. After all of her attempts to find one end fruitless, she makes one last try by casting a spell to summon the greatest defense attorney in Equestria, but she accidentally calls for the greatest defense attorney period, and said attorney turns out to be a confused and non-equine Phoenix Wright � At least, that's what Twilight claims to be the reason how Wright ended up there.

Now Phoenix finds himself stuck in a strange world, one where candy colored talking hors... err... ponies are the norm of the day, and the creatures of myths are just some other species � Yet one where justice still must be served, where the innocent can still be punished, and where they still need the light of someone who trusts and believes in them, someone ready to do whatever it takes to save them.

Thus starts Phoenix's journey to adjust to this new world, and search for the truth behind this strange new mystery he's been wrapped up in. Trailer here. Series here. note  Please be warned that all the parts are very long, clocking in at around 9 hours of content. Beware of an Archive Binge.

"I will submit the eviden... ehh... examples, your Honor":

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    A-C 
  • Acceptable Breaks from Canon: Inevitable.
    • The series was already fully written before the airing of Season 2 of Friendship is Magic. Thus, there were bound to be some contradictions between the canon of the show thus far and what's in this series. That said, it also manages to avoid this at times: Trixie's overall behavior is eerily similar to her demeanor in the season 3 episode "Magic Duel".
    • Dual Destinies establishes Apollo Justice's habit of insisting that he's fine to people � which was poked fun at in Part 3 � Phoenix with Phoenix himself repeatedly yelling that to himself � to be something he did with a childhood friend that turns out to be a murder victim in that very game. Of course, the scene in Storm where this gag happens may also be somewhat inconsistent with case 1-1, "The First Turnabout", and who's to say it isn't somehow coincidentally also on attorney training videos?
  • Accidental Misnaming:
    • Phoenix unintentionally calls Fluttershy Butshersty, Flutterscotch and Firefly at 3 different times. The latter two happen to be names of ponies of previous generations.
    • Lenora keeps referring to Twilight as "Twilight Sparkler" for some reason.
  • Accuse the Witness: Phoenix accuses Fluttershy of the murder just so he can buy more time. He isn't proud about it... not that this would be the first time he's ever done this.
  • The Ace: Ace Swift, naturally. He's won every single athletic competition he's ever competed in, but there are rumors that this might have less to do with actual talent and more with underhanded tactics. Ultimately subverted. His success wasn't due to his athletics but due to blackmail.
  • Actually Pretty Funny: In-universe. After the trial, Sonata admits to Phoenix that during their encounter in her hotel room, all the times she cringed at Pinkie's eccentricities were actually attempts to hold in her laughter.
  • An Aesop: There are two major ones: One about to friendship, naturally elaborated in Twilight's friendship report; and one about justice, or rather, about the power of the truth; something Sonata came to realize thanks to Phoenix.
  • Afraid You Were Going to Say That:
    Phoenix: (Oh please don't tell me this is going where I think it is�)
    Twilight: You see� I'm in need of a really good defense attorney.
    Phoenix: (And it does go where I think it is...)
  • All Crimes Are Equal: Phoenix is worried for a while that this might be the case in Equestria after learning about the extreme punishment for murder. This is brought up when he takes part in breaking and entering during his evidence hunt.
    Phoenix: (I really hope I don't get sent to the Sun for this!)
  • Alliterative Title: Twilight's Super Spectacular Stupendous Spontaneous Summoning Scripture Signals and You.
  • All Part of the Show: After it turns out Phoenix Cannot Tell a Joke, Pinkie Pie instead cracks up at his Equestrian Attorney badge, assuming he was just softening her up for it.
  • Alternate Continuity: As far as the Friendship is Magic side of things is concerned, since this was written before its second season aired, thus changing a good few of canon events.
  • Always Murder: Yep, even in a Sugar Bowl, Phoenix still can't avoid having to defend somebody accused of murder. Subverted. Ace Swift's death was an accident.
  • Always Someone Better:
    • Surprisingly, Trixie was this to Sonata. Sonata admits Trixie's powers were much stronger then hers, but she feels Trixie is wasting them by just showing them off.
    • Trixie's real beef with Twilight. She uses the Ursa Incident as a cover, but in her conversation with Phoenix after the trial she lets slip it's really an inferiority complex and wanting to prove she's the better pony. An earlier clue to this is that she get noticeably peeved when Twilight tells that Phoenix is still continuing as the defense attorney in Part 4.
  • Angrish: Phoenix, right after falling square into one of Trixie's traps.
    Phoenix: B-but-she-stole-I-ah-uh...
  • Animation Bump: Whenever the series shifts into the courtroom scenes, the characters are animated almost as they would be in Ace Attorney, whereas in Investigations and Lobby scenes, they are mostly static vectors. Oddly when Phoenix says his goodbyes before returning to his world, they use the former.
  • Appropriate Animal Attire: Played with. After Nick damages his suit jacket while on an evidence hunt, he grouses that it'd look unprofessional to come in to court with his only suit of clothes ripped. Pinkie Pie points out that he could always just show up without a suit; since clothing is strictly optional among ponykind, she utterly fails to comprehend Phoenix's horror at the thought of being in court naked.
  • April Fools' Day: Played with.
    So this is the part where I would say Part 5 is canceled... and you all would be like all "OH NOEZ" and I would be like "APRIL FOOLZ", then you would be like "obvious AFD joke is obvious" or "U got me lol". But I think I've teased you enough, so let's just pretend I did that :)
  • Arbitrary Skepticism: By Phoenix after he gets told why lightning makes the sound when it hits the ground in Equestria. He himself is the one that notes how he just pulled this off.
    Phoenix: (I'm no meteorologist, but I'm pretty sure lightning doesn't work like that. Then again, I keep forgetting I'm in a land full of magical talking ponies who can manually change weather...)
  • Art Evolution:
    • Any appearance of an Ace Attorney character uses sprites from the series proper. For the latter half of the series, the characters started using the HD sprites from the iPad versions of Ace Attorney whenever they are compatible.
    • The second day of the trial features much smoother animations for the ponies.
  • Art Shift: The explanation of the mechanics of teleportation is accompained by a small animated sequence done in the simplistic "pointy pony" style. This style returns without animation during the credit sections of the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue.
  • Asshole Victim: Ace was trying to blackmail Rainbow Dash into dropping out of the race, and her case is hardly the first or the worst. With Rainbow Dash, he just threatened to spread embarrassing pictures around. With Cruise Control, Ace threatened to have his comatose little sister pulled off of life support. It's more than implied that anyone involved in the Equestrian 500 had their lives ruined by him. And if that wasn't enough, Sonata confesses that he was about to kill her to keep his blackmailing from getting out. Furthermore, it turns out that he brought his death on himself by accident.
  • The Atoner: Sonata after her Heel�Face Turn. She's fully aware it will take a long time to compensate for all the suffering she has caused, but is fully willing to do everything in her power to do so, including making sure that Cruise's sister gets the medical care she needs.
  • Audience Murmurs: The pony courtroom audience murmurs just as the human one would do, except when they are laughing at embarrassing pictures.
  • Audience? What Audience?: Phoenix's flabbergasted reaction to Pinkie's script comment.
  • Bad Liar:
    • Twilight and Rainbow. Phoenix can see right through them when they lie, even without using the Magatama.
    • Gilda lies constantly, and never stops to consider if she's contradicting previously established facts. Even Trixie gets fed up with it.