//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5 - Dinner 
// Story: Iron Eyes 
// by Dramaro 
//------------------------------//

Dinner was going to be served soon and I was invited to dine with Princess Celestia and other members of royalty. I had learned that the room where the murder occurred was the room assigned to me, which meant I had an hour of waiting for a new room to be assigned. After finding a new room, I flopped onto the nicely sized bed. It was so soft, I could sleep here for days! Taking my jacket off to reveal my white blouse, I relaxed for a bit.

        “Blueblood... Why? Why would he kill her?” I asked myself. “He's a pompous jerk but not an evil one.... Maybe that was the last straw. He couldn't handle things not being perfect... Maybe. People, and now even ponies will kill over the simplest things. I’m still going to need to interrogate him.” I said to myself.

I should have kept my mind off for the moment. Even I needed relaxation. Pulling out my phone, I brought up the picture of my husband and our two daughters. Seeing them made me a bit happy, but also saddened me that they were probably worried about my current whereabouts. I could already hear the news across the Sol-Net. "Missing detective disappears in Dubai!"

I turned to a side desk the room was furnished with. Sitting on top was a small, mechanical hot plate that, to me, looked like it came straight from the 1900's. Old looking as it was, this one was pretty new and was powered by gas via a simple and small tank built into the side. I had already asked earlier if Celestia could furnish me with some ingredients and supplies to make a certain kind of tea called chai. Using the hot plate, I was able to prepare some for myself with ease. I flopped back in my bed after the first sip of tea, enjoying the familiar sweet yet strong taste. The tea back at Twilight's didn't even compare. The sound of a hoof rapping at my bedroom door caught my attention. and I quickly placed the cup of tea on a desk nearby before opened the door. Standing there was a tall pink alicorn with a sweet smile.

“It’s Princess Cadance, Shining Armor’s wife.” she introduced herself.

I was a bit curious to learning that Shining was married. Quickly opening the door, gave Cadance a warm smile. “Al-salamu 'alaykum.” I greeted with a long handshake. With a smile, she came into my room and I closed the door behind her. “Come in! So, is there something you need?” I was a bit curious to her appearance. She was an alicorn, just like Celestia, but shorter. She was still tall, slightly taller than her husband, but she didn’t have that vibrant glow like Celestia. Her mane was in multiple streaks but it wasn’t flowing, rather it was like a regular mane. A picture of a blue heart made from crystals was emblazoned on her flanks.

“Yes, I was curious about you, really. Shining Armor mentioned you and I wanted to pay a visit before dinner.” she said while shaking my hand.

        “Well, then. let me introduce myself. I’m Lt. Roya Sayid of the Homicide Department of Novimus City and, I guess, the only human of Equestria.”

        “I’m Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, you can call me Cadance!”

        “Roya is fine. Especially since my police rank does not matter here in your land.”

        “Your accent, I just noticed it.”

        “Yes. From where I’m from, the language we’re speaking now would be called English. My father actually taught me it. My main language is Arabic, though.”

        “Oh, that’s quite interesting!” She gave me a nice smile but it looked like she felt something. “Um... May I ask... Not to be rude, I but I had this feeling you were... reminiscing about somepony. You see, I'm the alicorn of love so, I kinda can sense when ponies, and other beings think about loved ones.”

        I nodded. “Yes, my family back at home. I’ll show you.” Taking my phone off the bed, I brought the picture up to Cadance. She was fascinated by the phone but she kept her focus on the picture. “Are these... your children?”

        “yes, and that is a picture of them with my husband.”

        Cadance looked at me for a moment. “You seem a bit sad.”

        She was right, I couldn’t hide my feelings about it. “Yes... It’s only been two days but before I was even brought to Equestria, I was away from home on a trip. I’m worried that I might be missing in my world. I don’t want my family to have that fear and stress in their lives.”

        I looked at Cadance to see her frowning a bit. “I understand that must be hard for you. I bet your husband and your children love you a lot.”

        “That they do. Everyday, I stop criminals from hurting others and pay for their crimes. It’s what I do to keep the world safe for them. My own personal struggle of good versus evil.”

        “That is courageous. Shining was a bit worried that you were distant or something.”

        “Oh that? That was my work ethic. When you’re on the job, you cannot be blinded by emotions. That and I’m used to the dead. They tell me what happened and I find out who killed them. It’s what we homicide detectives do.”

        “Hmm... You must live an interesting life.”

        I chuckled a bit. “That I do...”

        “Anyway, I was just wondering... Shining told me what happened today. Especially about you. I was wondering... Have you ever killed somepony before?"

"If you mean another human being, yes. I have killed someone before, but it was in self defense. Sometimes, we are forced to make tough decisions and the choices we make can cost us. I know murder is wrong, that's naturally ingrained in all of us, be it human or pony, but sometimes... you need to take a life if other lives are to flourish."

I looked up to see Cadance simply nodding in acceptance. "I... I understand what you mean."

"May I ask, is there a reason you asked me that question?"

"It's just... I'm just a bit worried about my Shining."

I noticed she was slightly worried when she mentioned her husband. "Did something happen?"

"Well it was an incident... Actually, nevermind. It would be rude to talk about Shining behind his back."

I left it at that. We talked a bit more on different topics until I noticed the time. "I guess I'll see you at dinner."

        “See you there as well and thank you for the girl talk."

        "You're welcome. It's nice to talk with a fellow married woman sometimes." With a friendly smile, I watched Cadance leave. Seeing that I still have an hour or so before dinner, I went to the personal bathroom the room came with and took a nice hot shower.

It didn’t take long and, after the shower, I quickly brushed my hair and made myself presentable. Wiping the dirt off my clothes, I checked myself over before heading downstairs to the dining hall.

Again, like the rest of the castle, the place was enormous and well kept. Now that the moon had taken over, the moonlight gave the place a more silver glow in comparison to the golden style of before. I stared at the table for a moment to see it set up and waiting for the food.

Sitting down, I looked around to see Twilight, Princess Celestia, Princess Cadance, and Shining already seated. Sitting across from Celestia was a third alicorn. She had a deep blue coat and a simmering mane with sparkles in it. The mane was like Celestia’s in that it waved in a non-existent wind. She wore similar regalia that was a deep midnight blue with silver inlays and had a silver crystal shaped as a crescent moon, just like the one that sat on her flanks.

Celestia smiled at me. “Good evening, Roya.”

“Good evening, Celestia.”

“I presume you’ve already met Twilight and Shining. This here is Princess Cadance and this is my sister, Princess Luna.”

I turned to the nightly alicorn and smiled.

“So you’re the human my sister told me about. It’s nice to finally meet you, even after these... troubling times.” said the lunar princess.

Understanding she was talking about the murder, earlier, I reassured her that everything was under control. “Captain Shining Armor, is Blueblood being detained properly?”

“Yes, we’ve detained him in the castle jail until we can begin questioning him.”

“Good. We can discuss later after dinner.” With a nod from Shining, I turned to Luna, who was staring at me. “Is there something wrong?”

She quickly shook her head and I could see her blushing a bit. “No! I’m sorry for staring, it’s just... your eyes. I’ve never seen anything like that before!”

“Yes. I’ve been a bit curious about your eyes, though I didn’t want to cause any trouble by asking,” Celestia commented.

I gave a little smile before answering them. “Well, let me tell you why my eyes are as they are. You see, I was born with a genetic condition called Retinitis pigmentosa. Since I was born, my vision slowly went away until I became virtually blind when I was 8. After that, I spent the rest of my childhood and my teenage years disabled, relying on touch, sound, and someone to help me function through my daily life. I tired gene therapy, replacing the bad DNA in my eye to restore my vision, but it didn't work. When I had finished High School and started planning for college, a teacher of mine, a very nice man, was able to help my family get me cybernetics. Without him, I wouldn’t have been able to see, really. I still wonder who that man was, I never learned his first name.

The ponies looked at me with sad eyes but also had warm smiles on their faces. “That’’s a very powerful story, Roya. It must have been amazing when you first got these... cybernetics.”

I nodded. “Yes, it was... unique.”

“How did you read things if you couldn’t see?” asked Twilight.

“I know both Arabic and English braille.”

“Braille? What is that?”

With a smile, I brought my fingers up and pulled out something from my inner jacket pocket. It was a small tourist guide book I had bought made in English Braille. Slowly, I placed the book down to reveal its pages with numerous raised dots across its surface. Closing my eyes, I ran my fingers the same way I would read a regular book. The book just talked about Dubai and the United Arab Emirates, mostly mentioning shopping places and well known restaurants, I began to notice I was sounding like some tourist adviser or something reading from a script.

Finishing my short read, the ponies at the table stared at me in awe. “How... How did you do that?” Twilight asked.

“Well, braille works by indented dots in cells. Each cell, with its own dot configuration, represents a letter of the English, or your case, Equish alphabet and also includes punctuation.”

“Wow! That’s amazing! So you use touch to read?”

I nodded. “Is there a different system you ponies use?”

“We have an echolocation spell and, with indented letters, ponies can read with them.”

“Really? Echolocation sounds pretty useful. I’ve heard of blind men and women utilizing echolocation, though in loud environments like a city, it doesn’t help much.”

With a smile, Celestia turned to the food. “Why don’t we start eating now?” Hearing that, some of the waitresses who were standing by quickly brought out food for us. All of it was vegetarian, with a majority containing hay, flowers, or other things inedible for human consumption. The ponies began eating and I quickly picked a few dishes out that I knew wouldn’t give me a stomach ache. For the most part, they were similar to many American dishes I had seen and eaten before. We ate and conversed for a while until we eventually finished our meals. Most of the topics were either questions about me or humans in general, or were me asking them.

“Thank you for the dinner, Princess Celestia. May I be excused?” I asked.

Celestia nodded and I quickly slipped out of my chair before leaving the dining hall. I returned to my room a moment and after a few minutes, I heard a knocking at my door. Opening it up, I saw Shining Armor, wearing his purple chest plate.

“Come in, Shining. Is there anything you might want? I have tea available.”

He declined and I simply made a cup for myself. My room had a small table set up and he had already sat in the chair when I turned around.

“Mrs. Roya, you wanted to talk to me after dinner?”

“Yes. It’s about Blueblood. Where are you going to specifically interrogate him at?”

“Well in his holding cell, of course.”

I shook my head at the idea. “Hmm... It’s not what I’d call a proper interrogation room but it suffices. I’ll just need a table and three chairs.”

“Why?”

“Trust me, Shining. I know what I’m doing. Now, I need access to Equestrian law books.”

“I presume it’s because you’re not familiar with how our system works?”

I nodded. If anything, I could assume Equestria followed common law such like the United States. If that was the case, my job would be a bit easier since the Mars Republic worked under that system as well. “Did Blueblood contact his lawyer?

Shining nodded. “Hey may be a jerk but he’s not dumb. Right when he gave him his Mareanda Rights, he said he wanted a lawyer.”

“Hmm, that might make it a bit harder.”

“Yes it will. He keeps on saying that he didn’t do it.”

“Really? KInda hard when both you and I saw him flee the scene. Plus, we already have the murder weapon, it’s stuck to his skull!”

“True. I don’t know how he’s getting out of this. I just wonder why.”

“I wonder that too. Maybe it was out of spite but... that doesn’t really sound like him.”

“Really? Have you actually been around him?”

I nodded. “For a little bit and I’m happy it wasn’t a second more.”

“Well, you’ll be seeing a lot more of him. This is going to shake the Noble court like crazy!”

I raised my brow at Shining’s statement. “Noble court?”

“Even though both Princess Celestia and Luna run the country and have a majority of power, all legislative is done by the noble court, an upper and a lower. Celestia and Luna sign laws into power or veto them.”

“Just like a parliament... I see. So this Noble House is separated into two branches, am I wrong?”

“Right. The Upper Nobles can trace their lineage back to before Equestria was formed while the Lower Nobles are titles bestowed upon for service to Equestria.”

“Which one is Prince Blueblood in?”

“With a title like that, obviously the Upper Nobles. He’s related to the Platinum bloodline, which is distantly related to Celestia, hence the Auntie business.”

“Great... I got political tape to deal with. What kind of trial will it be?”

“A petit jury of 12 peers. Because he’s a noble, his peers will be as well.”

I shook my head and felt a headache coming on. “Really?  If he truly is innocent, which I’m doubting, this is just a one way ticket to get the maximum punishment, whatever it may be. The nobles are going to eat him up without a second of remorse.”

“Yeah, you got that right. Blueblood has been a decisive player in politics. He actually is intelligent if you notice him. He’s just...”

“Narcissistic, egotistical?”

“Among other things. Many Nobles have tried to get his position either through discrediting him, blackmail, and at one point, assassination!”

“How did he survive?”

Shining sighed for a moment. “He’s spot on clean being a single young stallion with thousands of mares flaunting for him... until they actually meet him that is. Also, as all Upper Nobleponies are, Blueblood has had substantial military training and even contested against me for my position!”

“Well, we need a prosecutor soon.”

“We’ll meet them tomorrow morning. Right after the interrogation. Currently, the media hasn’t caught onto this but by tomorrow, I doubt this will stay quiet.”

I quickly looked at my phone for a moment to see that it was already getting late. “We’ll continue this discussion tomorrow.”

Shining nodded and quickly left, leaving me alone to get ready for bed. I eventually went off for Celestia, who brought me to the local library, though she already cleared it out so no pony could see me. I spent the next few hours of non-stop research of Equestrian Law. I learned that Equestria's government was unique. For one, the alicorn princesses were both judicial and federal with Celestia having power to declare war, and make alliances with other nations. The difference was that federal branch either shared or split powers between them, though this was something recent. Though during peace, Celesta was commander of all military forces, Princess Luna would take over if Equestria were ever to go to war. At the same time,  they shared the veto power, meaning both of them must agree to veto. The princesses also acted as liaisons to the noble houses, leading the day and night courts, which were public venues for citizens to lodge complaints and suggestions. 

Being the two supreme judges, they had the power to elect judges below them and it seemed that, except for serious cases brought to them, the Underthrone Judges were usually the highest judges a case could reach. After that, Equestria's judicial system was like the United States in which there were federal districts and it broke down from there. Now the legislative branch was similar to some legislative branches of governments I knew about.  While the Upper Nobles are made of ponies of royal bloodline, that is royal families from before Equestria's formation, they were elected by their peers to a seat. The Lower Nobles were elected by the general population of Equestria, but they had to be titled citizens, which is achieved through showing some service to Equestria, be it in the humanities, the armed forces, or through courageous acts that catch the princess' attention. They were still called nobles because, when one earned a noble title, their family was elevated with them, meaning a sibling or other immediate family could run. This also meant that they were risking their title, not to mention reputation, while elected. If ever convicted of a felony or did something negative during there term, they would risk having their title stripped and, with that, their whole house disowned. This was also the case for the Upper Nobles, or what I learned, were called the Old Bloods, and for them, they were in the house of Nobles for life.

Prince Blueblood was a member of one of the most prestigious bloodlines in Equestria, being a direct descendant of the former ruler of Unicornia. Being that, it had placed him in a strategic seat that almost every other Old Blood vied for. His opinions mattered in the political arena and if he agreed with a law to pass, many others would follow. This also meant he had gotten numerous enemies from other Old Bloods. 

I read more into judicial proceedings and what I was allowed and not allowed to do. Pretty much it was the same, so I wasn't going to have any problems. Calling it a night, I returned the books to their locations and went to bed. I would dream that night about my family.