The six mares and Spike arrived at Luna's apartment in no time, only to find her temporary servant inside, and to be pointed towards a Coffee Shop in downtown Canterlot. They also learned that Luna left there this morning to meet with Cadence, and that she didn't get much sleep in the last days and needed coffee to resist. When they had arrived at a nice café facing a park, they found out that the servant did not lie at all. They saw only Luna inside, drinking a cup o'coffee all by herself, but the dark circles under her eyes pointed towards a lack of sleep from her part.
"Wow. I didn't look like that since I walked through the dangerous wastelands outside Equestria to search for my dragon brethren! The swamps and the forests out there are so dangerous that I couldn't sleep a moment in them…" stated Spike in a somehow obvious attempt to impress some unicorn.
"Oh, poor little Spikey! That's what happens when you don't listen to your friends and leave us for the wilderness!" Said Rarity stroking the little dragon's head without any reservation, although he was the one pleased about it.
"Ok. We should go inside. She'll probably be happy to see some friendly faces!" noticed Twilight without knowing how many truth lied in her words. Many fancy ponies passed bye with their monocles and toppers in the rain, but none of them stopped in the coffee shop. Even the ones who were already there moved to the other side of the main room just to avoid Luna. She was feared again. The wind carried the "Equestria Daily" through the air with its wet pages or the scared voices of the ponies who red it, both of them warning about Luna's possible involvement in the assassinate and the unsuccessful cleansing of Nightmare Moon. The rain wasn't just commemorative for Luna. She was said, she was alone, she had lost the mare she loved the most in this world since she was cleansed by the elements of harmony, and, even worse, she was suspected of murder complicity and the queendom had fallen into the hands of Goldengem, whom she knew really well. It was raining outside, just like it was raining in her world, and although she was the princess of the night, now the grey wet atmosphere and the lead-heavy silence enveloping the streets did nothing but empower the pain she was feeling and deepen the limitless depression she was falling in.
The drops of water would just hit the old cobbled roads over and over again on a sluggish manner outside, and the whispering voices inside would never stop making quiet remarks of fear about her, solidifying the air she was breathing, and turning it into a mentally suffocating atmosphere of lead, along with the depressing yellow colour of its precipitates. There seemed to be no light at the end of the tunnel, no oxygen to help her get past the clouds of tireless and infinite work, no hoof to be lend to her for resisting the greedy ambitions of Goldengem and the hostile popular vision, and for completing the chores of bringing both day and night. When she saw Twilight Sparkle and her friends, it was indeed a relief.
"Twilight Sparkle? We did expect thou here! What is it what thou wishest to speak of?"
"Hello there, princess Luna. My friends and I would like to wish you condolences for the death of your sister and our beloved queen, as we didn't get to talk at the ceremony."
"Yes. The death of Princess Celestia pained us greatly, and it probably did even more so in the case of your serene highness, so we would all like to express our deepest compassion for you and her royal majesty in these troubled times. We know you are not responsible for the terrible occurrences at the palace, and, as the civilized members of equestrian society we are, we wanted to share our thoughts." Added Rarity to make the message more suited for a royal heir in her opinion.
"That's exactly what Twilight said…" muttered Rainbow Dash for herself with a sense of boredom as she got carried away by Rarity's speech.
"Thank ye all for thy concern, but something tells us that this is not the sole purpose of thy visit. Are we right?"
"Yes, you are right princess. We are here because we have serious reasons to suspect duke Goldengem of being the stallion behind Celestia's murder, and…"
Princess Luna's anger was visible when Twilight brought up the subject, and she couldn't keep herself from interrupting the Magenta unicorn in the end.
"Of course Goldengem is the stallion behind the crime! He got absolute power over Equestria because of it, and ye don't know how hungry for power he is! Back in Horsingham, while we were banished on the moon and controlled by our darker side, he ruled with an iron fist. He took all the lands of the peasants in the kingdom under his feudal domain and turned them into serfs. He used the guards to appease them and destroyed their houses to extend his maize and wheat fields, so that he would get more wealthy and live in a luxurious castle which could rival Celestia's. Peasants were forced to live in tents, work all day long, and die of exhaustion or military appeasement sometimes, and that was all at the countryside! In the town of Horsingham, he had imposed huge taxes on artisans and merchants, so that they would be all replaced by big workshops or trading companies mostly owned by the lords. He would also kill everypony trying to report to Celestia, and for decades, he ruled as a tyrant, despite the fact he was just a governor. Peasants and craftsponies lived horribly alike, as he only favoured the elites! When 'Lestia found out about him and banished him to Eqvancashire, he defended by saying he "made the county richer", and now he's doing it all over again!"
"You mean'e just got over with'it? If Ah were Celestia, Ah would've banished'im to the moon for so much injustice'nd evil!" said Applejack angrily.
"'Lestia already had resentments about our exile, orange one! He was family as well, so she forgave him. We do understand thee though, as we would've done the same from 'Lestia's position! She was too forgiving!"
"That was awful! I wonder what did he do to the poor critters who lived in the houses and the fields… I bet they suffered just as much as the ponies." Said Fluttershy with a saddened expression of her face.
"But even if he didn't, such a horrible lord is certainly not worthy of the name! He may have royal blood under his coat, but he certainly doesn't have a royal etiquette or a generous heart!" said Rarity while still being in shock
"And the way he stabbed Celestia in the back after she made him governor and trusted him… He deserved to be banished for insubordination! Princess Luna, you are the rightful heir to the throne, and we will be loyal to you if this two-faced murderer unleashes his terror again!" said Rainbow Dash, agreeing with Applejack on the matter from a different motive.
"Yeah, he was a big big MEANIE! I bet nobody made him extra-sweet delicious heartwarming magnificent mouth melting ninth cloud taking perfect CUPCAKES!" said Pinkie Pie emphasizing the last word with a loud scream. "If somepony did, I bet he wouldn't have been like that! HEEEEEYYY! I know what needs to be done. Everypony wait right here!" The pink mare had disappeared in a cloud of smoke and burst through the doors of the café's kitchen, followed by a chef's scream and many colliding pots and plates.
"I'll go fetch her before she scares the cute little mice in there… I'm on my way." The yellow Pegasus almost whispered these words, but the silence in the almost empty room helped her friends understand.
"I'd worry more about somepony kicking us out because of that" noted Spike in an attempt at a joke, but the fact that he saw two big stallions kicking Pinkie Pie out of the kitchen and approaching their table made him swallow his tongue. Yet, the two stopped before advancing any further, and looked at Luna with their facial expressions slightly changed.
"The boss didn't say the crazy pink pony is friends with Nightmare Moon! What should we do?" Asked one of them almost in desperation
"You should run and never look back again, because Nightmare Moon is going to catch you!" said Pinkie Pie scaring them, and then going back to the kitchen with Fluttershy trying to stop her.
"Huh, we can't take this anymore, Twilight Sparkle! Thou witnessed the reaction of ponies when they saw us. Everypony fears us now, and it is all the fault of the manipulating duke!"
"About that… I never got to finish that last sentence regarding Goldengem and his complicity in the murder. You see, we could expose him if" but Twilight got interrupted again by the screams of a certain pink pony.
"Come, Pinkie Pie! This is not the Sugar Cube Corner… We can't bake cupcakes here." Fluttershy told Pinkie Pie as she was dragging her back to the table.
"But I have… to… make… my… extrasweetdeliciousheartwarm ingmagnificentmouthmeltingni nthcloudtakingperfect CUPCAKES!"
"How I was saying, we could expose him with a magic-erasing spell from Codex Tenebrarum, but the pages with the old-equestrian incantation were missing, and we thought you could remember it, since you were… Nightmare moon when the book was written." Twilight knew this was a delicate topic, so she tried to sound as polite as she could.
"Codex Tenebrarum? We're sorry Twilight Sparkle, but we can not help thee with this issue! We were Nightmare Moon back when we took part in writing that vile book, so if thee needest a spell listed there in thine investigation, we should look for it in Nightmare Moon's memories, which are lost deep in our subconscious."
"So, is there no way you would remember it? It is one of the only ways to expose the duke." Twilight insisted.
"We couldest remember it, but Nightmare Mood wouldest posses us again if we were to search unto her memories without power, and we are exhausted now! It is way too dangerous to help thee Twilight Sparkle! We hadest to bring about both day and night, and our magical powers art consumed! We didn't sleep for days, and although princess Cadence offered to help us now with the night watch, those dark memories are still too strong!" Princess Luna finished the phrase with a saddened look on her face, as she remembered now the cruel unspeakable things she did in the past.
"We understand. Thank you for your time, princess! Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, let's go! We'll eat lunch in a nice restaurant and meet Shining Armor this evening!"
"Yes, it was a most pleasant conversation, your highness, and let me assure you that we will do everything in our power to serve justice and give your majesty her rightful throne! Especially if your majesty could give us just a tiny little title like"
"Rarity, what the hay? Ah think we're done here! We can't wait for'ya until 'ya'll be a duchess or somethin'!" Applejack hurried the blue-eyed unicorn before she could trigger Luna's Canterlot voice of enragement, (or at least that's what she was thinking, as, after all, Luna had just told them that she detested Goldengem for being a greedy Machiavellian pony, and Rarity's desire for an aristocratic title was greedy) and the six ponies trotted their way out of the café.It was dark outside. A fool moon stood graciously at the epicenter of a mosaic of illuminating stars, in a heavenly picture which seemed to honor the goddess of the night as she walked towards her room for some rest. The whole sky resembled a strange modern chandelier, shining asymmetrically in all directions and guiding the lonely path of the almighty princess of the night – the strongest alicorn of all Equestria. It was somehow ironical that Nightmare Moon had craved for that impressive title for centuries, but it brought only sadness to Luna.
24 hours had passed since the funeral, and this was the reason which caused the commemorative rain to stop and the sky to look pure and bright again. Princess Cadence made her way towards the watch tower in the cold night air, accompanied by her husband, with whom she parted ways on the castle walls. Shining Armor entered a small guest room, where 6 other ponies and one baby dragon already waited.
"Sorry for being a little late guys, but I waited for Cadence so that we would go to the castle together."
"No problem BBBFF. What's important is that you are here now and we can begin! First things first, we need to recapitulate the facts" said Twilight happily.
"Oh boy!" exclaimed Rainbow Dash as she expected a very long boring speech from her friend.
"Hey, every detail is important guys! This is the murder of," Twilight stopped letting out a sigh, and then proceeded "Princess Celestia after all. Every lead is important and you should pay attention to my clues, as you might have new ideas!" She finished the sentence with a hint of anger in her voice, and silence now reigned over the room. Everypony knew how important Celestia was for the magenta unicorn, and Rainbow Dash herself seemed to be interested now.
"Good. First, we found out that the time travelling spell had been stolen as well, which means only that the assassin wanted to make sure his plan couldn't be stopped by anypony from the future, as theft is very rare in Equestria and it is very unlikely this was a coincidence. Second, when I arrived with Shining Armor in the imperial bedroom, I noticed that although the broken glass was very close to the body, there was no fragment of glass and no drop of wine on Celestia's coat, while there were plenty in other directions, which could only mean that the glass had been dropped there when the princess was at a bigger distance. Sure, this could have meant that Celestia tried to put the glass on a table after she drank some wine, and as soon as the poison kicked in she failed to levitate it any longer. In her last moments, she could have crawled accidentally towards the broken glass, but the other clues led me to believe something else. Third and fourth, there were the discoveries made by Pinkie and Fluttershy – that some ponies at the palace, like the messenger they followed, worked for Goldengem and that Trixie, a powerful magician, performed a task for the new king."
"Yay! Hear that Fluttershy, we've got two clues! TWO! Nopony's a better investigator than Pinkie Pie!" The pink mare started bouncing around the room while repeating the phrase "we've got two clues!" in a cheerful way and making Spike dizzy with her fast circling around, as dragons were naturally slower and lazier creatures than ponies, mostly because of their size but also because of their reptilian genes. Still, the intervention of a certain beautiful mare whose voice could just carry the little dragon to the highest depths of the sky without learning to flap his wings replaced the dizziness with blushing and many antagonistic feelings such as compassion on one side, and a broken manly pride for not standing up for himself on the other.
"Pinkie Pie, stop! You're positively knocking the little fellow of his feet! Isn't that right, spikey-wikey?"
After a little chuckle, the dragon answered hesitantly with a quick "Sure!". He was at a loss of words afterwards, at least until he finally managed to look the mare in the eyes and answer with a much warmer, profound and somehow passionate "Thank you, Rarity!"
Spike didn't know where this new tone of his voice came from, but he felt a warm sensation coming from deep within as he kept starring at Rarity, and even Twilight seemed to pay more attention to the baby dragon now. His feelings for Rarity where known to Twilight since the first time she arrived in Ponyville, but she mostly neglected them as they resembled an innocent childish crush. Regardless, things had changed since Rarity saved him from becoming a rampaging dragon. He started thinking more about her, paying more attention to his looks, reading a few romantic novels and even poetry while he was supposed to help Twilight from time to time, and now this mature different voice? Her little assistant might really be in love, and this thought concerned Twilight a bit. If Goldengem was to remain King, and if Luna's description of his goals was real, then he might just want to get rid of them because of their "dangerous" investigation, and a mature enamoured dragon would do anything to protect his love, and might even turn feral if something would happen to Rarity. Twilight loved her friends more than everything in the world, but she also felt responsible for Spike as he grew up with her, and the thought of not being able to protect him from danger because of his strong affections sent shivers down her spine. No, she could never cope with that, and there weren't many prospects for a bright future in her mind. If Shining could convince the other chief investigators that Goldengem should be labeled suspect, then she would have nothing to worry about, but she did not have a great lot of evidence or witnesses on her side, and the picture of a world like the one Luna described at the café was sticking in her head.
"Very well. Where was I? … Right, the fifth clue. There was this witness who saw Lightningrose, the main suspect, go back to her room about 10 minutes after she served Celestia the drink, and Lightningrose told us that she had heard hoofsteps in Celestia's room. Sure, she could have lied, but I checked with that witness today, a young tailoress named Peachy Blossom, and she confirmed Lightningrose's statement about the hoofsteps."
"Maybe, but it still doesn't make sense sis. There were hoofprints only between the body and the door. There's no way the princess could've moved only a few yards in 10 minutes!"
"Exactly! But she moved much more than a few yards. In fact, she was probably still alive. Why? Well, my sixth clue was the fact that the only spell which could reverse hoofprint erasing spells disappeared too, and theft is extremely rare in Equestria, so it is most plausible that the assassin needed it gone. Now, if Lightningrose was the killer, why would she need to steal that spell, as she is a Pegasus and she couldn't have erased hoofprints in the first place? So, somepony else did it, and that pony needed to be a unicorn or an alicorn. Then, there comes the fact that Trixie performed "undercover work" for Goldengem, who had gained the most from both Celestia's death and framing one of Luna's sevants, and needed to disappear unseen as fast as possible. We have two witnesses for that, and they are, after all, elements of harmony, so the investigators should believe them. And even if they don't, Goldengem would still be a suspect, as he could have done it himself. A powerful unicorn like Trixie could use a teleportation spell without much difficulty, and as the authorities concluded that the bottle of wine Lightningrose used wasn't poisoned, we can deduce that the princess wasn't poisoned at all by the glass of wine, but by an infiltrating Trixie after she drank it and fell asleep."
"After she fell asleep? But it doesn't make sense! Why were there drops'o'wine on the floor if… Twilight, ar'ya' suggesting that the 'hole scene was set to frame Lightningrose, an'then the hoofprints erased?"
"Precisely! Think about it. Why else would hoofprints erasing be necessary? The killer fooled us all. One of Goldengem's ponies saw Lightningrose pouring the wine, the message reached Trixie, and then she used the same type of wine to poison Celestia in her sleep, as I can't imagine anypony defeating Celestia otherwise. Afterwards, she broke the empty glass, poured drops of poisoned wine on the floor, took Celestia's body to the middle of the room and erased any incriminating hoofsteps so that the blame would go to Luna. Her only mistake, which actually gave me this idea in the first place, was that she had broke the glass and poured the wine before she actually moved the body!"
"Wow, Twilight, it all ads up! I would've never suspected you coming with such a good theory in only one day of investigations!" Shining Armor took his sister in a tight hug after he said these words. Despite the fact he didn't admit it, Twilight had helped him a lot, and this was the brotherly way he could show his appreciation. He then proceeded with a more worried tone "The only weakness of your theory is that it relies upon the fact that the pages from Codex Tenebrarum couldn't have been stolen by somepony else, and Goldengem's supporters may use it as an excuse."
"Well, they might, and that's why I was desperated to reverse the hoofprints spell and get solid proof… You should at least persuade the investigators to consider it, and Goldengem will already by a suspect!"
"I'll try, sis. All I'm saying is most of them are rich high-ranking officers, and although many of them trust me, some might support the new king."
"Yeah, we all 'now Canterlot's full o'stuck-up'onies, but what Ah don't understand is why woul'Trixie kill for money! Ah mean, she was boastful'n'all, but she was a simple travellin' magician in the end! She was an'artist, a selfish'owmare who performed to make a livin', not a killer!" Applejack could imagine Goldengem doing everything conventional pony society would regard as evil from what she had seen herself and heard from princess Luna's description, and maybe partly out of disgust. Lies and unfairness were two of the things Applejack rejected the most, and Goldengem was defined by both of them, and the things she loved most on this world were her friends and her family, which might be both endangered by him considering the investigation and how he treated peasants! She was ready to do everything to protect her friends and her family, and she always desired a fairer and better Equestria for all the hardworking ponies she knew, while Goldengem seemed to be her pure opposite. He could commit any kind of atrocity for power, but not Trixie. Sure, Applejack didn't like the blue unicorn at first, and she believed her friends wholeheartedly, but she couldn't understand why Trixie would do it. After the blue mare left the town sad and with all her gear destroyed by the Ursa, she somehow pitied her sorry fate. Sure, Trixie tried to humiliate her, but the fact that they left Trixie with absolutely nothing gave her bad feelings of guilt and resentment several times.
"Yes, she was a big meanie to everypony, but she was alone and she didn't have a home… I don't know if I could be friendly if somepony took me away from my home, Angel and all my cute little animals. She was just mean, but she wasn't a bad bad pony! And even yesterday in the alley, she seemed sad to me." noticed the shy yellow Pegasus.
"Well, maybe it was just a coincidence! Maybe that two-faced traitor was the murderer, and he paid Trixie for something else, like teaching him hard eggheadish spells." Replied the other Pegasus.
"It's not totally impossible, but it is pretty improbable. Also, as I forgot to tell you, I discovered that Goldengem has a winery at his estate and Eqvancashire, a bottling factory in the port of Zanzebra, which is in the eastern Zebralands, and is one of the main suppliers of wine for the Canterlot palace, so he could easily get both the wine and the poison.'
"Well, let's just hope it will be enough Twi!"
"Yeah, we'll give the throne to a 100% cooler pony, a pony who deserves it!" replied Rainbow Dash with enthusiasm.
Everypony inside Twilight's room was now pretty excited about the possibility of giving Luna her rightful throne, maybe with the exception of Twilight who still dreamed to find Trixie and get back the time spell to save her tutor. And there was another pony who was unhappy about making Goldengem a suspect - a certain general by the name of Ironfist that secretly listened at the door and was now heading towards the throne room with an evil smile on his face…
Author's Note: Ok, this is all for now! More chapters are coming soon, but don't forget to comment or favorite the story if you like it. How I said in the prologue, I will appreciate every review!