I studied into the evening, reading mostly medical books while a glass of tea sat nearby. I wanted to do a procedure because, due to how... old Equestrian medicine was, I was worried that the coroner might have missed something. Seeing as the library was closed to the public, I was given free range from all public books and I grabbed as many medical books as I can. I was curious to find that many of the books had alliterative titles like, Perfect Pony Prognoses and Surgical Sutra of Superior Successful Surgeries and Small Samples. At one point, the alliteration was making me a bit dizzy.
"This is going to take awhile," I told myself. I had a small cart overflowing with numerous books and none of them were of small sizes. With a sigh, I rolled it towards the nearest desk and began my research. Minutes turned to hours and soon, I had found that the sun had set hours ago. A small yawn escaped my mouth while I continued reading a book on equine biology. Now if only I had tried Equestrian riding back in college...
I heard hoofsteps to my left. They were light, obviously not a stallion.
"Mrs. Roya?" asked a familiar voice. Looking up, I saw Twilight standing there with a smile on her face. She had a small pile of books floating beside her in the familiar lavender glow. Looking down, she became a bit curious at what I was reading. "Equine Biology? Why are you reading all of this?"
"I'm going to test a hypothesis. I'm just not used to Equine biology, obviously."
"Hmm... Why is it specifically on the reproductive system?"
"It's for the investigation."
"Ok... Well, Celestia and I have made some headway concerning the spell to bring you back home. I've gotten some of the magical fielding problems fixed. Now trying to have the magic flow constantly without building up... Do you even understand what I'm saying, do you?"
"Nope." I gave Twilight a cheeky smile which made her laugh.
"To keep out an accidental runoff of magical energy. Like... overheating?"
"You mean to keep a system, such as an engine, from overheating itself. I guess too much energy concentrating in some spot would ruin the spell?"
"That's slightly inaccurate but I see what you mean. It's more of, if magic gets stuck in one spot of the spell matrix, well... bad things occur. Loopbacks and whatnot."
I simply nodded. "That sounds like something a physicist would say."
"Thanks! I guess... Well, good luck on whatever you're doing. I got an all nighter!"
"Me too, Twilight, me too." Watching Twilight walk away, I returned to my books.
Eventually, one of the Royal Guards approached me in the library, He told me the body had arrived and a room was already prepped for me. Knowing that I was ready to try my hypothesis, I collected the books and returned most of them to their proper shelves. I kept a few, only for reference purposes that I'd be using.
Following the guard with the books in my hands, we walked a good portion of the castle until we were in the military wing, a specialized portion of the castle dedicated to training Royal Guard and acting as the central headquarters to Equestria's military. At night, the Night Guard had taken over the training grounds. Bat ponies, pegasi with unique mutations that gave them predatory traits, were training with weapons specifically made for close range. One weapon looked like a wrist mounted crossbow, except it sat on the foreleg and the "trigger" was a long thin spring loaded bar that sat behind the leg. The user would simply have to fully curl their hooves, in a way not even horses from my world could achieve, to fire the bolt. To them, it was easy and probably the closest analog to a human trigger ponies could achieve. Other bat ponies used claws built into hoof cuffs while others used bladed attachments to the wings that worked well in aerial combat.
Eventually, we left the training area to reach the infirmary. The room I was given was a surgery room that had been cleared. Inside, the body was already set up laying on its side on the operating table. A tray sat next to the table filled with scapels, clamps, and other implements that I would need. Because of my physiology, the best they could furnish me was a petite size minotaur's anti-bacterial vest. It worked, though I had to use elastic bands because the arms were a bit long for me. Gloves, modified for my fingers, and a hair cap were available. The guards left me to my own devices and I turned to the body after putting everything on.
The body had been chilled and decomposition had barely started at all. Using a second tray, I placed a few of my books down before opening them to the proper pages. Slowly I made an incision from the stomach towards the crotch. Carefully burrowing my hand, I slowly moved my way through her internal organs using my books for direction. As I did, I noticed that the incisions that showed where the coroners examined told me that they only looked at some vital organs such as the lungs and heart. Considering the circumstances, they didn't think to check anywhere else.
There was no blood to worry about, all of it had pooled already to the lower areas and out of my way. Eventually, I found the uterine horn and quickly made a small incision in a specific spot. What I found inside... it made my heart ache.
I looked at the rest of Crystal's body for a moment, trying to understand my findings. Slowly, my eyes moved to her face. The coroners had given her a warm, almost sleeping look on her face.
After a moment, I noticed something about the stab wound. For one, it was located just behind her humerus. A human analog would be just sideways below the armpit towards the breast area. It had went in slightly upward, but there was something off.
Suddenly, I remembered a crucial detail about the case file. The coroner had determined that Crystal Clear had been reared up upon stabbing, allowing Blueblood to impale from below, as the wound was located. The only issue is that would have made Crystal Clear land on her back. She wasn't, rather she had landed on her side, meaning she was standing on all fours and the killer had to have ducked below before making the killing blow if they were of Blueblood's size. Any smaller, and the killer would just need to make an upwards motion.
I decided to check the wound and with my heads, I slowly looked inside. The upper portion was gorged out, like something sharp had scrapped the top. I wasn't a forensic analyst but I could test my theory. A small experiment appeared in my mind and I knew I would have to try it.
"Mrs. Roya."
Turning around, I saw one of the guards that had escorted me standing there, a little unnerved by seeing the body with its organs hanging. "Um... Did I come at a bad time?"
"Oh... Oh no! I was about to close it up. What do you need?" I asked.
"Prince Blueblood has requested to talk to you."
"At this time of the night? I guess I can. I'll be there in a moment."
The guard nodded and left the room, allowing me to close Crystal's body back up. I took my gloves and other things off before rejoining the guard outside the surgery room. "What's it about?"
"I don't know. He says it's something private."
"I think I know what he wants. I'll see him."
The trip was not long and we arrived at the jail cell. Looking at my phone, it was close to midnight. I looked in the jail cell to see Blueblood sitting in his cot, again with the dejected and sullen look on his face. Motioning the guard to leave us be, he quickly gave me the keys before leaving.
"I was told you wanted to see me?" I asked.
He nodded. Slowly, I moved over and sat down on the other side of the single cot that was furnished in the room. Then he spoke. "I-I... I want to tell you something but..."
"Talk to me, I'm all ears," I said. I talked with a calm and warm tone, a complete opposite from the way I talked to him earlier that day.
"Can this be... off the record?"
I nodded and told Blueblood that I promise this wouldn't be on an official documents and it would just be a conversation between him and I as two adults.
"When you asked what kind of relation ship I had... I... I lied. You see... Crystal Clear was... she was a special mare to me."
Giving a quick nod, I listened to Blueblood's story.
"Crystal... she was special. She saw me as who I was, a charming and handsome stallion. It stared back right after the changeling invasion. I had found her hiding away in a closet, hoping none of the changelings would find her. One of those, ugly things, did but I was there and I quickly stopped him! After that... well, it was love at first sight. The only issue was... I was afraid what the public would think, a noblepony such as myself actually fallen in love with a common pony. My career would have been ruined and I'd probably be disowned by my family! I couldn't let that happen so we talked and we decided to have a secret relationship. I'd sometime buy her gifts and she'd bring me the most beautiful flowers, even if they were artificial. She knew I didn't like regular flowers, they'd tend to leave a nasty stain and I was slightly allergic to the."
"It must have been hard, trying to keep your relationship hidden for so long."
"I know... Yesterday, right before she was.. killed. I had went to her for more than to simply have my shirtfront cleaned. She had told me that... well, she had gotten pregnant. She was carrying my foal! My foal! I didn't know what to do. One one hoof I was scared, knowing that it would be the end of me, but another part of me was overfilled with joy. I'd be a father!"
"So you told her that you'd think about it."
"Yes, I was actually contemplating of giving up my whole career in the legislation. That or try to get away with marrying her. It happened a few times before. I was still shocked, enough that when she gave me the stained shirtcollar, I didn't even care about it. I just wore it back to my room."
"Well, Blueblood. Thank you for telling me the truth."
"You.. you believe me?"
"The evidence is on your side. You couldn't have been the murderer. There's no way. She was stabbed from below. If it had been you, she'd have to have reared upwards due to your size, which she didn't because she landed on her side, not on her back. That told me she was stabbed while on all fours."
"That who? Who killed my sweat Crystals? I need to know!"
"Calm down! This means that I don't have the proper murder weapon or anything to point the murder to. Tomorrow, you'll be released once I confirm my findings and show them to Shining. The investigation will continue and we'll find who the killer was. Trust me."
"Th-Thank you Roya... I am deeply sorry for those... nasty things I said. I should have known better."
"Don't worry. I've had far worse."
"Really?"
"In my world, I'm a minority. I've had my share of degrading comments, some about my former blindness, others about my ethnicity. I don't listen to them. They're just words."
"I just... I got something in my... " Blueblood couldn't contain himself and he cried a bit. Seeing that he needed some comfort, I offered a hug to him. It helped and, after a few minutes, he calmed himself down and became a bit tired. I didn't care that my jacket was stained, hearing his story and everything was enough comfort my own mind.
"I need to go and head for bed now. I'll get the guards to bring more appropriate accommodation for you." With a warm smile on my face, I left the jail cells and told the guard to bring a few pillows and blankets for Blueblood. He would need them for the night. I went to bed after that, feeling well that I believed that the first slivers of truth had been found. Now to find the rest.