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// Chapter III: Aristocratic Power Play 
// Story: Sunset Over Equestria 
// by Vict0r1994 
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Author's Note: Some of you might wonder why cameras are huge in this story, or why there is no TV/Radio like in other fanfics. The answer is, because I find the MLP: FiM universe to be historically set somewhere between the late Victorian Era, (1880-1890) and WW1 (1914-1918), as there are no cars, land transportation is based on steam trains and carriages and the Canterlot clothing resembles 19th century fashion, but there are still cameras, which point to a more recent timeframe than the 1880's!

Shining Armor didn't provide the salvation the six mares and the dragon hoped for, and they were already on their way to Canterlot. They were still sad about what happened and scared about what could happen, so the voyage was mostly pleasant and quiet, as the beautiful equestrian landscapes they could see around the railway helped them relax and forget about their problems.

Pinkie Pie intervened from time to time attempting to cheer up the rest of the group, with remarks such as "Don't worry Fluttershy! Now you'll get to see your animal friends once again, and maybe you could adopt Philomena and we would all have not only birthday parties, but also rebirth parties!", "Aren't you excited about seeing your BBBFF again, Twilight?", "Isn't it exciting to meet another member of the royal family, Rarity?", "I bet that those Canterlot party ponies will simply love our cheering up Apple pies Jackie!" or "Come on Dashie, if this duke is really a bad pony, it'll be duper-duper-cool to play him some of our classic pranks!". She managed to get some smiles from her friends, but nothing more. Deep inside, even she was still horrified by what had happened only yesterday.

Twilight was endlessly thinking about the murder and making up her mind on what to ask or propose to Shining Armor in the little time they would get together. Spike looked through the window and listened patiently to the sound of the wheels of the train on the tracks in order to forget about his fears, but he kept peeking on Rarity once in a while. He had a powerful urge to talk to her about his feelings before it would've been too late, but the comforting sound of the wheels on the track and the beautiful forests, along with his fear that she would most probably refuse to accompany him in Canterlot because of her friends and business, thus breaking his heart, kept him from doing so.

Raibow Dash could not think about anything else other than the treacherous pony who killed the princess, and how she would imprison even a member of the Wonderbolts with no resentment if he/she were the traitor.

Applejack always felt Celestia could have done more for the poor ponies of Equestria, but she did her best to repulse those thoughts now that Celestia was dead. Still, despite the fact that she didn't realize it, deep in her soul, she felt frustrated that her cousins had to drag huge plows over crops tirelessly to earn their bread, or that her grandmother worked an entire life, having to face the dangers of the wilderness quite often, just for a modest living, while the Canterlot elites surrounding Celestia eat caviar in their luxury mansions without working for a day.

Applejack loved to work in the orchards, to feel the wind on her coat and the warm sunrays on her mane, and to do something productive with her time in general, but she found it unfair that Lords, Dukes and other Royal family members lived in opulent luxury because of the taxes imposed on poor independent farmers, or because of the wealth created by the equally poor industrial workers of Mane-Hattan, Beerlin, Livelpoor or Celestgrad. Those thought were hunting her constantly, as she was the element of honesty and couldn't lie to her friends about how she felt. "No. Ah'm not lyin'! 'Lestia was a wise leader and Ah always 'preciated her. Ah just didn't agree with all the things she did, but Ah respect'er! Ah really do!" She kept telling to herself, and she was right after all! She appreciated Celestia's care for all the ponies and animals in Equestria and her peaceful manner of governing, but, for some strange reasons, she felt that she was hiding from her friends something inside of her. Something which was better left unspoken off, and this feeling of lying tortured her mercilessly.

The journey continued in a contemplative atmosphere, and as they arrived at the Canterlot train station, an apparently strong stallion approached them, "Are you the wielders of the elements?", he asked.

The group answered affirmatively, and the stallion proceeded with the introduction "General Ironfist of the Equestrian armed forces at your disposal! I have direct orders from the duke to escort you to the palace and ensure your safety on the way!", said the stallion with a very serious and somehow authoritarian expression.

"Ah'm sorry, but ensure'ur safety? We can take care of ourselves! We're the wielders of the elements after all." said Applejack, pretty annoyed by the officer's attitude. The general told her that since the murder Canterlot is overcrowded with soldiers, as public safety has been proven to be very low by this tragic event, and thus his assistance was necessary.

They followed him to an already prepared carriage, and left towards the palace. They found out that Ironwill's words weren't an exaggeration at all, as they could see soldiers on every single street their carriage passed through. Fluttershy was scared by the general's facial expression, the fact that a cold-blooded criminal was in the city and could be anybody, including him, and the waves of marching soldiers so much that she cowered under the carriage's bench and, while shivering violently, said to herself in a low register "This is all just a dream Fluttershy! It's all a bed dream and you'll wake up with Angel and your friends! You aren't scared by all these armed guards who could be the evil killer! You aren't scared… You aren't scared… You aren't scared" She continued shaking her head while repeating this phrase, while her friends struggled to make her feel safe.

As they arrived at the palace main entrance, they were greeted by a black Alicorn with a sapphire-blue mane and a shining pile of golden coins as a Cutie mark "How wonderful to finally meet you, Twilight Sparkle! It is unfortunate we were brought together by such a tragic occasion, but I hope this mutually undesired circumstances won't set our relationship to a wrong start! I am Duke Goldengem of Eqvancashire, and it is a great honor to meet you and your friends. Poor Celestia always talked about you…"

Goldengem sighed in a nostalgic manner before Twilight replied "Thank you for the invitation! You don't have what to worry about sir. No matter how tragic this event is, we won't direct our anger towards anypony."

As Rainbow Dash muttered a short "Stuck-up annoying snob…", Rarity added immediately "Oh my, how could you imagine something like that, dear sir? Rest assured that such petty behaviors are below us, and we will do everything we can to honor princess Celestia in this harsh times. By the way, my name is Rarity, and it is an honor to make your acquaintance!"

Goldengem turned towards her and replied with a short "It is a pleasure to know you too, milady, but I have other guests to welcome as well, so please excuse me! The Commander is waiting for you in the throne room."

Spike threw him a mean look as he left towards a carriage, and saw him gritting his teeth and muttering something he couldn't understand. "Hmm, I guess he doesn't like formalities as much as he pretends to." Said Spike while scratching his head. Initially, he thought that this fancy rich Alicorn was trying to impress Rarity with his royal manners, but his hidden reaction seemed a little bit awkward to Spike. "Maybe you are right to suspect this pony, Pinkie Pie! I definitely don't like him." said the purple dragon.

As they walked through the halls, Pinkie Pie replied with an expectable "Of course I'm right! Told ya! Pinkie sense is neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeever wrong!", but the others rolled their eyes as they knew Spike's real reason for not liking the duke.

The six mares and the baby dragon trotted to the throne room, where they saw a tired-looking Shining Armor writing something on a notebook with his magic, and talking to some other guards in the same time. "Brother?"

As Twilight called him, he stopped from his activities, turned around, and ran towards his beloved sister so that he would hug her. "Oh, Twi, you can't believe how happy I am to see you here! This investigation is very tiresome, and I do certainly need a break!".

"Tiresome? Are there really no clues?" Twilight asked with a concerned expression on her face.

"On the contrary! It all seems to add up too easily! After I interrogated everypony who was in the castle that night, no more than 4 sources point towards a maid as the assassin, and her plan seems too naïve for a royal assassinate!" added Shining Armor.

"How so?" asked Twilight intrigued. "

Well, four ponies saw her giving Celestia the same glass of wine which was found broken in her own room that night, she wasn't seen by anypony while she poured the wine, all the evidence in the room suggests Celestia died immediately after drinking, as there are no hoofprints anywhere else except the door handle and some parts of the carpet which lead to the body, and it happens that the maid is the only suspect until now and one of Luna's employees, which arises even more suspicion towards her, as many Canterlot residents still have a fresh memory of Nightmare Moon." said Shining Armor. "Yet, if she really was the killer, she wouldn't have been stupid enough to let four ponies see her, and the fact that the time spell from the palace's library has been stolen in the same night gives her a stronger alibi, as one of the witnesses saw her go to her room for sleeping after she gave Celestia the glass, and we have confirmation from the librarian that the time spell was still there at 11 o'clock sharp, and the events concerning Celestia happened about an hour earlier!" continued the commander of the royal guards.

"Sir, the chemical analysis of the wine is complete, Sir!" a soldier told Shining Armor.

"Roger that, private! Report your findings!"

"Sir, yes sir!" yelled the soldier so loudly that Fluttershy rolled on her back. "The Chemists have diagnosed the wine to contain a deadly quantity of jellyfish venom, identical to the one used by the tribes in the eastern Zebralands for defense. The Scientists said that given the proportion of poison introduced in the liquid, she should have died in approximately 40-50 seconds from ingestion with no external bleeding or vomit. She was also incapacitated to speak or walk towards the door due to the painful effects of this venom, which contains both poison and allergens. That's all they said, sir! Here's the detailed report!"

"You're free to go soldier!" said Shining Armor after taking the report, and then he turned his head towards Twilight again. "Do you see what I mean by this? It all fits perfectly with the suspect's profile! Two weeks ago, princess Luna went on a diplomatic state visit to the Zebralands, and Lightningrose, our suspect, was one of the few servants to accompany her!"

"So you're saying the case is too easy to resolve for a royal assassinate, so it must be an intelligently designed setup. Interesting… Then, your most important question should be – who would be the most advantaged pony by both the death of the princess and the maid?" replied Twilight.

A veil of silence enveloped the group for a few seconds, until Pinkie Pie decided to speak up "This means we shouuuuuld… INVESTIGATE!" She got her detective hat and her magnifying glass just like in the train ride towards the deserts contests, and, just when the rest were about to ignore her, she continued with a suggestion in a cheerful tone. "We should interrogate the suspect and see if anybody would want to harm her!"

"I'm afraid that's not possible! She is already held under custody on account of the suspicions and only the guards are allowed to question her! Maybe I'll get you there with me tonight, as everypony will be distracted by the funeral, but until then, we'll have to cope with the current information we have. I shouldn't even be talking to you about this." said Shining Armor without attracting any attention towards them from the rest of the guards.

"Speakin' of the funeral, don't'ya think you can lead us to… see 'Lestia for one more time before she is going to leave this world 'rever? Ah think we 'serve to see'er after what we did together for Equestria." Said Applejack with sorrow.

"What the hay are you talking about? Can't you see Fluttershy is already scared over the limit about this? We can't let her see Celestia's body!" answered Rainbow Dash angrily. Rarity intervened in an attempt to cool down the spirits. "Ladies, please! This is not a way to behave while we are invited at the very building Equestria has been ruled from for more than a millennium! Fluttershy is mature enough to make a decision for herself. Would you mind seeing Celestia darling?"

"No… I wouldn't! I would like to say goodbye to her!" said Fluttershy while letting a few tears drop from her eyes.

"See girls, this is not a proper reason to argue as a lady. And Twilight, based on the books I red about royalty in other kingdoms, assassinations occurred quite often for taking power, so in case this Lightningrose is not guilty and somepony indeed set her up, then that pony could have done it to discredit Luna, and thus be able to take the power." continued the white unicorn.

"That was exactly what I was thinking, Rarity! Brother, who would be the next successor to the throne after Luna?" asked Twilight confidently.

"Well, that would be Goldengem. And now that I think of it, the law states that as long as the first successor to the throne is suspected to be guilty of a crime, the second successor will gain the power at least until the first one is proven innocent!" said Twilight's Brother with amazement at the discovery. "But the only problem with that statement is that Goldengem wasn't even in Canterlot that night!" he stated afterwards.

"That is indeed a problem, but as an Alicorn, he could both fly and use teleportation spells, so we should definitely keep an eye on him." his little sister told him.

Pinkie Pie ended the conversation with a loud "I TOLD YOU" , and then Shining Armor led the group to Celestia's body, which seemed to be sleeping rather than dead. The bedroom was crowded with huge cameras from different local and national newspapers, and the dreadful scent in the air made the scene even more horrible than anything they witnessed before, including the chaotic Equestria Discord once created.

Still, something different from the horrible sight caught Twilight's eye. "Brother, is there no spot of wine on Celestia's coat? This was red wine after all, and although she broke the glass near her front hoofs, there is no crock of glass in her skin and not a single drop of wine on her coat! A very unlikely scenario…".

"We noticed that ever since we started the investigation, but it's not even nearly strong enough evidence to prove Lightningrose is innocent." Twilight nodded, and tried to continue her analysis of the scene logically, although it pained her a lot to see her mentor dead.

The shocked and pained expression in Celestia's eyes, the unchanged bedroom, her starring at the ceiling with no life force inside her – it was all too sick for the six mares, who didn't resist too much time in the room, and left a few seconds after Twilight's remark.

Later, Shining Armor took them to their rooms so that they could rest a little bit until the funeral, which was about to take place in the evening. He thanked the six mares for their kind assistance, and said he will try to keep an eye on the duke in the meantime. He also expressed concern that the media wrote every available detail about the progress of the investigation, and the possibility of Luna's guilt was already causing some stir throughout the Equestrian capital, but this time the six mares and the small purple dragon couldn't do anything. They had to sleep after a tiresome journey, and then think about a way of discovering the criminal and recovering the time spell –which weren't easy tasks at all.

The Equestrian senate could decide right in those moments to make Goldengem prince, while he could've been the killer himself! It was all a mystery for now, but Applejack, Fluttershy, Twilight, Spike, Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Pinkie Pie were determined to find out who was behind this murder and serve Equestria justice.