The ponies quickly lifted the wounded stallion back into the manor house, placing him on the couch, while the servants tended to his wounds.
"Will...will he be all right?" The tearful Pegasus asked, looking down at the now-bandaged earth pony. "He saved me.... he got himself hurt because he saved me..."
"The wound is deep, but I believe he will live. But it will take quite some time to heal." The servant replied, putting a healing salve on Pepperdance's side. "I do not understand how a Jaguar knight could receive such a terrible injury, Maretonia is not currently involved in any conflict."
The other ponies then all looked towards Watercolor, worried looks upon all of their faces.
"Seniorita, how the hay did this happen?" Sunny Salsa asked. "What exactly did you two get into back in the capital after we all left?"
She looked around at all of them, her face a look of utter confusion and sorrow, before she finally burst into tears, weeping like a newborn foal. All of the pain and anxiety from the past day finally came cascading down upon her, and it was just too much for the poor mare to bear.
"A murderer... the duke thinks I'm a murderer." Watercolor finally sobbed out. "They all think I assassinated the duchess, and I was arrested for killing her."
"Que!? The duchess is dead?!" Moonlight asked in horror, nearly collapsing to the floor in grief. "My lady...gone..."
"Oh no, dis is mucho terrible!" Fiesta shook her head. "I can't believe de duchess has been taken out by some evil fiend. Do the rest of you think the griffo might be involved?"
As the two mares tried to absorb the shock, Sunny Salsa began to pace back and forth nervously, as if debating what to do next. As moonlight saw his erratic movement, she got up to try and comfort him.
"Oh, Sunny, I'm so sorry. This has got to be so hard on you!" Moonlight put a hoof on his shoulder. "Your mother..."
"The duchess is his mother!?" Watercolor sputtered. "What's the prince of Maretonia doing out here at a time like this?!"
"I don't believe it." Sunny announced, turning to face all the other ponies. "I don't believe my mother is dead."
"Oh, Sunny." Moonlight sighed. "I know it can be mucho hard to accept a parent has passed away..."
"No, that's not it." The prince replied, shaking his head. "It's just alicorns are a type of pony that are extremely hard to kill... and mi madre is an alicorn."
All of the other ponies in the room simply stared at him in shock, their eyes wide and mouths hanging open. The reaction to this revelation came all at once, from each of them, simultaneously.
"QUE?!"
....
Meanwhile, back at Coltapec Castle, the duke summoned his royal advisor, the griffin Bífido Mentiroso. And he had quite a few questions for his loyal servant.
"You called me, my liege?" The griffin flapped his way into the throne room, bowing before the duke's throne. "How may I be of service to you, por favor?"
"Yes, there have been some rumors that have reached my ears, that you and your griffins haven't been dealing honest with myself and my subjects." The duke growled, narrowing his eyes. "I would hate to think my trust in you and your kind was not misplaced."
"Gran emperador, this is such a terrible slander upon myself and my nation!" The griffin replied, acting as if he were deeply offended. "Who is it that has made such a horrible acusación against us?"
"Don't play naive with me, Mentrioso! Thanks to the stallion named Fresco, I am not ignorant to your actions behind my back!" The duke replied, standing up from his throne. "My eagle warriors have witness your country's involvement in Maretonia's rising crime rates, and I am also aware of the theft of the enchanted Mirror from Canterlot university, which creates duplicates of other ponies."
"So... you seem to know what I'm scheming to do, and what I've been up to." Bífido replied, dropping all pretense of respect. "So I wonder, what is it you are hiding. Why have you not held a memorial for your beloved queen yet?"
"That is something you will never know, villain." The duke snarled, glaring at the conquistador. "Now, give me one good reason why I shouldn't call my Jaguar knights, and have you thrown into my dungeon, where I put that poor mare Watercolor you had framed for murder?"
"Oh, I don't think you'll be arresting me." The griffon smiled, moving aside to reveal the enchanted mirror. "In fact, I have a feeling your duplicate will be willingly handing the kingdom over to my forces."
"What the....?!" The Duke asked in confusion, as his reflection in the mirror began to move on it's own. "GUARDS!"
The duke cried out as nearly two dozen griffins jumped him. Raising his hooves, the duke buckled and kicked, knocking ten of the fiends out. But even though he fought valiantly, the winged monsters were able to overcome him. As the bird-like creatures shoved the duke into a large sack, a duplicate of the monarch stepped out of the enchanted mirror.
"Excelente, our little duke problem seems to have solved itself. It looks like will be having a ceremony tomorrow to celebrate the transfer of " Bífido waved a claw to his griffin minions. "As to the real duke, take that sack somewhere isolated and make sure he's never found."
....
Back at Hacienda Flair, the four remaining ponies were talking over this latest revelation, trying to decide what to do next.
"So... let me get this straight." Moonlight asked, trying to hide her irritation. "Our Duchess was an alicorn THIS WHOLE TIME, and none of us ever knew it!?"
"Only the inner circle of ladies-in-waiting know, Moonlight." The prince explained. "If you had moved into that elite group, you would have been informed."
"But why keep it a secret?" Fiesta asked in confusion. "If she's an alicorn, shouldn't the duquesa be ruling de kingdom, instead of the royal family?"
"This is Maretonia, Senorita Flair. Our royal family is descended from the god Quetzalcoatl himself. We are not going to throw the duke's bloodline off of the throne just because somepony decided to sprout wings one day." The prince replied coldly. "My mother was a unicorn from a noble family in the old Mirtanian empire, who ascended to alicornhood after saving a whole village from a river flood. The empire decided to keep it a secret, so Celetia and Luna wouldn't pressure us to put her on the throne."
"So, you hid her ascension, to keep the Equestrians out of your business." Fiesta replied, as she slowly started to understand. "But what has she been doing for the past two thousand years?"
"Being a high ranking noble mare, my mother remained a secret advisor to the crown. But when my father reached stallionhood, the two of them fell in love, and the royal court saw a way to solve two problems at once."
"They allowed your father to marry your mother, so she could ascend to the throne naturally." Watercolor realized. "But why keep the secret after that?"
"You try revealing to the ponies of Maretonia there's been an alicorn living among them for a millennia." Sunny shook his head. "We couldn't figure out how exactly to reveal it to the nation."
"Well, dat's gonna be the least of our problems." Fiesta added, looking between all the other ponies. "The real question is, with Watercolor a fugitive and the duchess possibly not dead, what are we all gonna do now?"