Iron Eyes

Chapters

Chapter 1 - Contact
Chapter 2 - Library
Chapter 3 - Royalty
Chapter 4 - And I Must Scream
Chapter 5 - Dinner
Chapter 6 - Range
Chapter 7 - Interrogation
Chapter 8 - Off the Record
Chapter 9 - Experimentation
Chapter 10 - Testimony
Chapter 11 - Effondrement
Chapter 12 - Lost Caverns
Chapter 13 - Pretender
Chapter 14 - Changelings and Griffons
Chapter 15 - Revealing
Chapter 16 - Smashing the Party
Chapter 17 - Astronomy

Chapter 1 - Contact

Looking into the sky, I could feel the wind brush against my light brown skin. My blonde hair was kept in a bun while the rest of it was let down, covering the back of my neck in doing so. The sound of birds was inviting and I stared at the sky, wondering where my home was.

I had been called to take a business trip to Earth, the planet I was born on. Now calling a terraformed Mars my home, I found it strange that my family lived on a different planet. Looking down I looked at my phone for a moment. Today’s schedule was mostly empty. Just meetings with other officers and whatnot. I had been called as a consulting detective to help the city's police department.

The trees around me were thin and well adapted to the desert heat. Looking down, I could see well maintained flowers blooming, flanking the cobblestone path I was walking through.

I closed my eyes to allow the scent of the desert flowers to fill my lungs. The smell reminded me of my childhood, even though my home country was many miles away up north. Looking around, I saw normal people moving to and fro with some local women were wearing the traditional headscarf called a "hijab." Many were decorated with beautiful hand woven designs like flowers and swirls. I was out of place per say by not wearing one, but to them, I probably looked like a foreigner with my western styled clothing. The park was well kept and was like an oasis against the desert biome in the distance. From time to time, I'd notice a bird or two flying from a branch.

“Roya?” said a female voice in English.

I turned around wondering who said my name. Nobody seemed to be paying attention to me, which was strange. The voice was feminine, calm like how I spoke to my children. Deciding I was only hearing things, I looked back at my phone and pulled open a picture of my two daughters. Their cherub like smiles warmed my heart and behind them stood my husband. I already could feel their warm love against my chest. With a smile, I returned the phone to my pocket and began walking back to the hotel. Maybe a stop for some Middle Eastern Tea wouldn't hurt.

Walking, I noticed that the sun’s glare had made seeing anything of bright colors hard. The white facade of most buildings would reflect the sunlight and straight into my eyes. It was to the point that I had to use my hand as shade just to even see anything in front of me.

Suddenly, the sunlight got brighter and I became blinded. How ironic, considering my condition. It was the last thing I remembered before closing my eyes and somehow entering a deep sleep.

A weak moan painful sound came out of my mouth while my mind began waking up. I opened my eyes only to force them shut by painful direct sunlight. Strangely, the wind was cool instead of caring a sort of warmness that I had remembered. The cobblestone that had been beneath me had been switched to just plain old dirt. The sound of leaves, many of them, caught my attention. I slowly sat up and looked around. Trees, too many of them were encircling my clearing. They were different, being trees from the north. Thick and barky, they were tall and created a thick canopy.

“How... How did I get to the Americas?” I asked myself. It was a strange sight, turning from thin Arabian trees to thick North American woods. Some of them had their own symphony of flowers and their scents were a bit overwhelming to my nose.

I checked my phone only to notice that I had no signal. It was the most jarring thing I knew. Pretty much almost every single inch of land on Earth was within the range of some cell tower, that or satellites would have connected. Bringing myself back onto my two feet, i dusted myself off and checked that I had everything. I was wearing a pale white blouse under a dark green jacket. I was a Lieutenant of a police department back on Mars and my badge was still clipped to my waist. Whatever happened, I was unscathed. My skirt was only slightly ruffled but otherwise, I was fine.

Making sure no one had robbed me, I checked to see that I still had my pistol in my hip holster under my skirt. I was authorized to carry one due to my occupation. With a sigh of relief, I quickly took out a pocket mirror to see that I still had my makeup on. Thick green mascara and dark midnight blue lipstick were on my face. I always tried to be presentable, it’s important in any business to give off a positive professional image.

Putting the mirror away, I began my walk through these woods. It didn’t take long to find a well beaten dirt path and I knew that it would lead to somewhere. Following it, I found myself entering into some sort of orchard. Trees filled with white and pink apple blossoms were kept in orderly rows. I noticed that they were being tended by butterflies and bees. Eventually, I noticed a horse in the distance. Hoping that it meant a farmhand was nearby, I began running towards it.

“Hello? Can someone help me?” I shouted in English. I tried again, this time in Arabic.

I apparently spooked the thing because it looked at me before jetting off. I found myself trying to catch my breath. Next to me was a cart of some kind, filled with farming equipment. I was curious for a moment until I noticed... a rainbow streak flying through the sky. It was quite strange and I thought that maybe someone was making a love message or something. Americans sure do love being open about their thoughts.

The sun wasn’t as hot as before, something that would be normal for the climate of America. Looking back down, I began walking forward until something pushed me. Whatever it was, it was strong and I flew a good few meters before landing. Being attacked only made me do what I was trained. Within a blink of an eye, I had pulled out my pistol, turned the safety off and aimed it, but what I was aiming at confused me.

Standing there was a small bright blue horse with wings, at least, I thought it was a horse. It was not tall and gangly and the word pony was more appropriate. With big emotional eyes, that were glaring at me like daggers, I could tell the thing was intelligent, yet my mind was having a hard time accepting that fact.

“Who in the hay are you?” it yelled in American English. Its voice was feminine, though very rash. Having a rainbow spectral hair, it was kept in a tomboy style.

“Don’t move or I will shoot! You got some death wish attacking an armed officer!” I yelled. Whatever she was, she didn’t respond to my gun. Mostly, she ignored it, not caring that I had a deadly weapon in my hands. I kept my trigger finger against the trigger guard, hoping I wouldn’t need to actually use it.

“Officer? You’re not even a pony! What are you? Some sort of hairless monkey?”

How rude? It didn’t seem to understand the idea of respect but I digress. I couldn’t just keep this at a standoff and the pony wasn’t armed, not like she could even shoot a gun if she had one. Slowly putting my gun back in its holster and turning the safety on, I kept my left hand out with my fingers splayed. “I’m sorry but I didn’t mean to scare anyone. I’m... I’m lost, ok? Where am I?”

“Why should I tell you? I should just buck you straight back to where you came from!”

“Because. It’s obvious this is a misunderstanding. Look, I’m quite afraid and worried how I moved all the way from Dubai to America within an instant and more confused that you’re a talking.... pony of all things.”

“What? You’ve never seen a pony before?”

I shook my head. “Where I come from. Humans are the only things that can talk...well, that and parrots but the latter are just trained. I guess... I’m not in America, are I?”

The rainbow pony nodded. “You’re in Equestria.”

“Equestria? Like... Equestrian? That’s a rather punned name. Wait, have you never seen a human before?”

The pony shook her head. “So... that’s what you are, huh? A human?”

I nodded. “I just want to get home.”

“Rainbow Dash!” a voice called out. Suddenly, I noticed a strand of rope entering my vision and in an instant, the rope tightened around my arms and chest, pulling me back to the ground. Felling onto my side, I looked back to see an orange pony with long blonde hair kept in elastic bands standing over me. The end of the rope was in her mouth and clenched in her teeth.

“Let me go! I didn’t mean to harm anyone!” I yelled while struggling. She was quite good as the rope was taunt.

“Why should ah?” she asked. Her voice was in a Southern American accent, some that I rarely heard. Fittingly, a deep brown stetson, complete with a few stains of hard work and labor, was sitting on her head, unhindered by her ears.

“A pony wearing a cowboy hat... Well I’ll be damned..” I gave a weak smile.

“You can let her go, Applejack. She’s harmless.” said the pegasus called Rainbow Dash.

This Applejack mare did what Dash said and I quickly dusted myself off after getting the rope out of the way. “I’m sorry for this misunderstanding. I’m just confused right now. Being plucked from my own country, and possibly, my own universe can do that.” I straightened myself and hoped that everyone was calming down.

“What in the hay are you, anyways?”

“Homo Sapian, better known as a human. My name is Lieutenant Roya Sayid.”

“Roy-ya Sai-yid? That’s a strange name.” Her accent really got in the way of properly pronouncing my last name, with a heavy stress on the y. It was given since they probably have never heard of Arabic names before.

“Excuse me but, where am I specifically in Equestria?”

The question had out a smile on the cowmare’s face and she quickly pointed, in a way a pony could, to the trees. “This here is Sweet Apple Acres! Ah’m Applejack! Ahm mighty sorry ‘bout ropin’ you and all. Got a bit worried you were some creature from the Everfree Forest or somethin’.”

“Don’t worry, I understand your rationale. I’d probably do much worse than tie up some monster if one ever attacked me or my family.”

“Heh! Yeah... Maybe Twi might be able t’ help your predicament. She knows a lot about magic.”

I looked at the mare in curiosity to this magic. Did she mean like... fairy tale magic? Incantations and wishing? For a moment, it started to sound like some of story that a little girl would die for. Maybe this is punishment for not buying my eldest daughter that pony she asked for when she was six.“Uhh sure... May I ask, who is this “Twi” girl?”

Applejack gave a hearty smile and began walking. I began following her as did Rainbow Dash. “Twilight’s one of my best friends and Princess Celestia’s student! She’s really good at magic, it’s her special talent!”

While Applejack spoke, I noticed that on her flanks were a trio of apples. Looking behind, Rainbow Dash had a stylized cloud with a rainbow lightning bolt coming from it. The marks caught my curiosity but I was afraid that it might be a rude topic to ask. “I presume Princess Celestia is the daughter of your land’s ruler?”

Applejack gave a hearty laugh. “Nah, Princess Celestia rules Equestria with her sister, Princess Luna. You really must be from some far off place! Can I ask, why are ya wearin’ clothes? Goin’ to some fancy party or somethin’?”

I looked down at my attire for a moment before shaking my head. “Well no. I was on a trip for business. Besides, we humans always wear clothes. We find the lack of it to be indecent and rather embarrassing.”

“Really? Ah bet Rarity would love ya’ll! She’s a friend a mine and runs a fashion shop or boutique or whatever the hay she likes to call it. Makes fancy clothes for ponies, especially the elite in Canterlot.”

“I guess clothing is an optional thing here, huh? Where I’m from, clothing has unique connotations. For example: Unlike most women, I don’t wear the traditional hijab, a head scarf. You’d be surprised how many more conservatives people tend to look at me weirdly for it.”

“Why would anypony be bothered by what ya wear?”

“Religion is a part of our culture and it calls for women to be modestly dressed. More so than what many foreigners think is appropriate by their standards. Those who adhere to older, more orthodox ways, see the lack of the hijab to be indecent and an offense. It’s not a bother to me, really. I haven’t had anymore bother me about it.”

“That just sounds strange and ah don’t get it. Who in the hay cares what the pony down the street is doing? As long as they aren’t botherin’ me, ah don’t mind.”

I simply nodded and allowed Applejack to think for a moment.

“Can I ask you something? Um... Ah noticed that yer eyes... they’re mighty unusual.”

I understood what she meant. Applejack was trying not to be insultive and, with a smile, I answered her. “I don’t have natural eyes. When I was little, I went blind due to a genetic condition. After years of being blind, I was eventually able to get cybernetic implants. Now, I can see with them.”

“So that’s why they were glowin’ green n stuff. That’s... kinda futuristic, like one of em’ sci-fi books Big Mac sometime reads.”

“Really? Where I’m from, it’s quite common. Actually, there is this one girl who had lost her arm in an accident. She now has a cybernetic one.”

“A cybernetic foreleg? Hey, Roya, can you see like x-ray vision or something?” asked Dash.

“No, Dash, I cannot. I can see as well as any normal person.”

Noticing the two stop for a moment, I looked around before noticing a town in the distance. The houses were classical yet colorful thatched roof homes. Many of them contained multiple floors, usually up to three. Very few houses I had ever seen looked like these. It gave a sort of rustic feeling, like if I was dropped back a century or two in time. Looking carefully, I could see more ponies, all ranging across the whole color spectrum in coat and mane.

“Where does Twilight live?” I asked.

Appejack pointed to a tree that stood out amongst the buildings. I quickly noticed that the tree contained windows and balconies, telling me that it was hollowed out into a home. “Is there a problem?”

“Yeah... We can’t have ya seen through town. Let’s jsut say... Ponyville isn’t used to strange things,” said Applejack.

Dash blew a raspberry. “That’s the understatement of the century! If we go into town with her, nothing against you, I bet everypony’s gonna attack her or something. We already had changelings to deal with!”

“Yeah, you’re right... Ah got an idea! Can you carry Mrs. Roya here to Twi’s?”

“What? You want me to carry her through the sky?”

I smiled weakly, hoping that it wouldn’t come to that. The two bickered a bit more until they decided that it was the only course of action. The library was in the middle of town, meaning there was no way they could simply walk around town. “I really don’t think flying is my thing...” I said weakly.

Dash sighed. “Just hop on or I’ll pull you. Whichever it comes to.”

I hesitated for a moment. This wasn’t safe in any way, shape, or form but it was the only way I could reach this Twilight girl and maybe get home.With trepidation, I slowly swung my leg over Dash’s back, making sure to not hit her wings. Even for a pony, they were big enough that my feet wouldn’t touch the ground if I kept them up a bit.

“Grab my mane... just don’t pull too hard.” Dash ordered.

Seeing that it was the only thing to keep me from falling, I grabbed some of Dash’s mane. I was surprised to find how soft it was. I had never ridden a horse before so this was a strange way of trying it out.

“Ready... Hold on!” Closing my eyes, I felt Dash jump up into the air. The wind picked up instantly and my heart began to race. Slowly, the wind died down until it wasn’t hard enough to warrant forcing my eyes shut. I looked around to see clouds around me. It was... strange yet beautiful! Looking to my sides, I noticed that Rainbow’s wings shouldn’t be able to lift her, given their size. Unfortunately, looking at her wings only allowed me to see how far up we were. Ponyville was not unrecognizable dots on the ground. In fear, I wrapped my arms around Dash’s neck and held on with a vice like grip. She didn’t seem to mind. “Dash... How long will this be?”

“We’ll be landing right now! Let’s do this!”

Her verbos way of telling me about the descent wasn’t a good sign. Suddenly, we began to drop and I found that Dash was flying towards the ground! Her wings were held to her sides, giving her a more aerodynamic profile. With my heart beating fast enough to make an engine cry, I closed my eyes and held my head against Dash’s mane, screaming at the top of my lungs in doing so.

“Shut up! Are you trying to get everypony’s attention?” Dash yelled.

I stopped and opened one eye to see that we were on the ground again. Applejack had already got to the library before we did and was confused to see me shaking there holding myself in fear. Slowly, I unwrapped my arms and shaked a bit more before getting off. “That... was... scary.”

“What are you so afraid of? That wasn’t even at high speed.” Dash commented.

“Let’s just go inside please. I rather not think about that...”

Chapter 2 - Library

When Rainbow, Applejack, and I entered the library, I realized something. The tree was still alive! Somehow, maybe through magic, the tree was left unharmed by its conversion to a home. Books of numerous kinds were kept neatly in shelves that ran around the the circular room. I looked up to see that small crystals in light fixtures served to illuminate the room as did natural sunlight.

“Twilight! We need ya down here!” Applejack exclaimed.

Hearing the sound of hoof against wood, I turned to see a uniform mare with a lavender coat walking down the stairs. Her mane was kept in a angular style with bangs that covered her forehead, leaving her horn to poke through and separating a pink band that ran its length. She was a bit smaller than Applejack and Rainbow Dash, and unlike the two, she didn’t seem to be muscular like them. Unusually, she reminded me of a young Indian girl who works at the police department I work at.

“What in Celestia did you two bring here?” Twilight asked.

Applejack was the first to speak it. “This here is Roya Sayid. She seems to bit in a bit of a jam.”

“What are you?” Twilight asked me.

With a weak smile I quickly explained who I was and what had happened. “And then I ran into Applejack here... I was hoping you might have some sort of way of bringing me back home.”

Twilight’s ears dropped and from the look of her face, I knew that she didn’t have what I was looking for. “That’s ok. I guess I’ll look for someone else...” I said. I began to walk away towards the door, dejected at the realization that I would have to search again.

“Wait!” Twilight called out. “Maybe I can be of some help.”

“How?” I asked.

“Maybe Princess Celestia can bring you back! The spell to send you home is probably really powerful, powerful enough that I’d be high strung to do it. Princess Celestia probably has the spell on hoof and she can easily cast it.”

“How so? Isn’t she a regular pony like you and your friends?”

Twilight shook her head. “She’s an alicorn, a pony with the traits of all three races. She moves the sun itself.”

I looked at Twilight in bewilderment and curiosity. Did she just say Equestria’s ruler controls the sun? “You’re making it sound like your princess is some sort of... god.”

“Well, that wouldn’t be that far from the truth. In fact, Celestia was revered when she first appeared over three millennia ago.”

“That’s... actually good news. Thank you Twilight. Maybe your Celestia can help me get back home.”

A smile appeared on her face. “So, who moves your sun?” Twilight asked.

“The sun.... well it doesn’t move.”

“Doesn’t move?”

“The Earth itself orbits the sun as do the other seven planets. It’s all done naturally, due to gravity.”

“So you’re saying the same force that keeps us on the ground is the same force moving your sun...err planet around?”

I nodded. “Yes. In fact, the only exception is graviton generators but they’re only used to make gravity in smaller applications.”

“Gravi... How?”

I sighed and slowly began explaining human technology; that we had discovered a way to bend space itself so to move starships at speeds approaching light itself. “We also have cybernetics, as are my eyes, and every household across the solar system is powered by electricity.”

“How... How are you able to do all this?”

“Fusion. We learned at first to break atoms apart and now, we can form them together. We can create its opposites, antimatter, and annihilate the two for power as well. There’s a quote I remember. ‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic’.”

“So... You are able to make... miniature stars for power yet... you don’t have magic?”

I nodded. I was afraid these facts might have been a bit jarring to Twilight but she became understanding. “Do... you have anything on you?”

I thought for a moment before realizing my phone. With quick fingers, I pulled the phone out of my pocket and turned the screen on. “This is a cell phone. It’s a mobile device that allows me to communicate with other people and can do other things. Have you ever heard of a computer?”

Twilight nodded and I was surprised ponies even had the technology to produce one. “Um... We do, but nothing that small. The smallest computer I know of is the size of a large room and they use crystals to store magic in a form of logic gates.”

“We do something similar. Originally, we used electrons via electrically conductive metals. Now, we use light itself. They call them optronics and are extremely small. My phone alone is more powerful than anything you currently have.”

My phone suddenly turned off and realized that the battery had died on me. For a moment, I thought of it was nothing until I remembered a very crucial detail. My own eyes. “This isn’t good...”

Applejack frowned. “What’s the problem, Roya?”

“My eyes... My eyes are cybernetics. Basically an optronic chip allows my eyes to work with my brain and allow me to see. They run on batteries and, just like the phone, they won’t last much longer.”

“How long?”

“I don’t know... Usually an indicator will pop up to tell me but it doesn’t last long. My eyes have to be recharged every now and then. I have the recharging mask... but I can see that there’s obviously no socket for me to plug in.”

Twilight frowned and stared at me for a moment before realizing something. “I know! Can... Can I see your recharging mask?”

I was curious to what she was planning but, understanding that it wouldn’t hurt, I pulled the black cloth covered device out. It was shaped like any sleeping mask but with a cord running out of the band. It connected to a plug that I kept wrapped up.

“How does it recharge your eyes?”

I pointed to a spot near my temple. “Under my skin is a cable running to my cybernetics. The mask wirelessly recharges my eyes.”

Twilight understood what I said and I held the mask up to her. I watched her close her eyes and suddenly, her horn began to glow with a violet color. Slowly, sparks began to form around her horn until they jumped onto the mask. I was surprised to see the small LED on the side beginning to turn on. Eventually, Twilight finished the spell and I gave her a hug, thankful for her gift.

“Thank you!” I said.

“No...problem...Ca’nt... breathe!”

“Oh, sorry.” I quickly released Twilight from my painful grasp and stared at the mask. The charge would last me a good few more days. “Could you do it with phones?”

“I don’t see what not. As long as I don’t overload it, it should be fine.”

I allowed Twilight to recharge my phone and again, I was grateful for her help. Noticing that Applejack and Dash were still here, I turned to them. “Thank you, both, for helping me! I doubt anyone else would have done the same.”

Applejack smiled. “Aw shucks, yer makin’ me blush!”

“No problem!” exclaimed Dash. “It’s the least I could do!”

Suddenly, Applejack jumped up looking like she had realized something. “Ah forgot! Ah havet’a pick up Apple Bloom! Sorry t’ cut this short but ah gotta go!”

I nodded. “Then let me say something from home. Ma'a salama” I smiled and, even though none of the ponies understood the language, the message was still understood. “Thanks and ah hope to see ya soon!” With that, Applejack quickly left. I said my thanks and good-bye to Dash as well, and, with an exit, she left through flying. I turned around to see Twilight standing there with a notepad and a quill floating within her magical grasp. “I have a few more questions!”

I chuckled a little and decided to pass the time by answering a few questions. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt.”

The day quickly passed without a thought. I had been talking with Twilight, explaining things about my world and learning a bit about hers. For one, Twilight was one of these “Elements of Harmony” which were powerful artifacts of magic. Apparently, she and her friends had used them to cure Luna, Princess of the Moon, of a corruption and Stopped a chaos spirit from changing everything into his image. They also had helped thwart the plans of Queen Chrysalis, head of the changelings. It was then I told Twilight, that in my world, there were demons called succubi who lived on love, or rather, lust of men, and that changelings were also mythical creatures of humans, though not like their changelings.

We continued to talk for a moment and Twilight even made tea for the both of us. It wasn't as good as chai but it was tasty enough. We went through numerous topics ranging from culture to even religion, though that was rather one sided.

“So... Who is this.. God you mentioned?”

“Well, we don’t have physical gods like Celestia and Luna so humanity has developed different theological ideas. For example, the most well known religion in my world is Christianity. They believe in a singular infinite being who created all things, good and bad. Apparently, he had sent down his only begotten son as a sacrifice for the sins of humanity. Though some may not believe what I’m about to say, I do consider the god, Allah, from my religion to be the same god Christians believe in, though I think of Jesus as more of a holy prophet, not the son of God.”

“Really? Is there any way of contacting this God?” Twilight asked.

I shook my head. “Nobody knows if he truly exists or not. The Hindus believe in millions of gods and then, there are people who don’t believe at all. It may seem strange, and it has, in fact, caused thousands of wars and strife, sadly. But it has also brought peace and harmony across the world. Christians are called to be selfless and help those in need. We, Muslims, are called to follow specific rules and live a way of life. Hindus believe that, at death, they get resurrected in a new body and that, depending if they lived a good or bad life, they go to a higher form or fall to a lower form.”

“That’s... That’s beautiful! There must have been thousands of stories for these religions!”

“Yes, there are. Now, may I ask, are ponies the only beings, besides changelings, in this world?”

Twilight shook her head. “There’s cows, donkeys, griffons, dragons, and many more! What about your world?”

I frowned and shook my head. “No. We humans are alone. We’ve checked all other planets in the solar system and the closest we have ever found was simple marine life in deep oceans. Still, none show intelligence.”

“Really? So, who governs your world?”

“We are not united, Twilight. Humans live in many countries that range from the size of a city to being three giant planets alone. I, for example, was born in a northern country in the Arabian Peninsula on Earth, while my friend Aethra, was born on the planet Mars.”

“Mars? How... How was she born there?”

“Didn’t I tell you? We humans have colonized other planets. Mars is the only terraformed planet. Literally, we changed it to become Earth-like.”

“Wow! How?”

“You’d be surprised what simple algae and plankton can do.”

Twilight simply looked in awe before writing what I said down. Suddenly, the familiar sound and the rumbling of my stomach occurred. “I guess I’ve forgotten the last time I ate.”

With a smile, Twilight went to the kitchen for a moment before returning with two sandwiches. Levitating it down in front of me, I noticed that it had a few daisies in it. I stared at it for a moment before picking it up in my hands with a frown on my face.

“Is there something wrong?” Twilight asked.

I nodded. “I can’t eat this...”

“Too much lettuce?”

“No, it’s the flower. We humans can’t properly eat extremely fibrous plant stuff like hay.”

“Then what do you humans eat?”

I paused for a moment. “Humans are... omnivorous. We eat fruits, vegetables, and meats. Though we can eat starches and some grains.”

“Did you say... meat?”

I could tell Twilight was disturbed by the idea. Being a herbivorous species, it would be understandable that meat eating was taboo for them as was the consumption of unclean or unusual animals in many human cultures. “Yes Twilight... We humans need meat to survive, mostly for protein and iron and other thing, though there are vegetarian diets.”

“Do you... eat meat?”

I nodded. “I do but I can only eat certain kinds and depending on how it’s prepared. It’s religious dietary laws.”

“Could you... not eat meat while you’re here?”

“Yes. That would be for the best. It’s not like meatis the only thing we eat.”

Twilight sighed a bit before taking my sandwich back. it didn’t take long for her to prepare a new one, this time edible by human standards. Taking a bite, I noticed that it was quite delicious. I gave Twilight a reassuring smile and she seemed to calm down.

We continued to talk, this time more on recent events in Equestria. In urn, I told Twilight events in my world, such as the United States getting a new president, the king of England visiting other countries, and other things.

Standing in the dark and moist cave was a dangerous creature. It was a mixture of equine and insectoid with hard chitinous exoskeleton. Its legs contained numerous holes while a jagged and ugly horn protruded from its forehead. Unlike its companions, this one changelings did not have pupiless blue eyes and stood taller than its children.

“My children. We may have been hurt and scattered across the winds but we’ve regrouped and are growing strong!” It shouted. It’s voice was strange, like if a hundred voices were talking at once. “The scouts have discovered something... interesting.”

The changelings before the leader cried in joy with their wings buzzing furiously.

“A creature said to grant wishes. A creature of pure fire! This... jinn, as some call it, will give us the power to defeat Princess Celestia and take all of Equestria! We will feast until the end of times!”

The crowd went wild with only a few curious about what this jinn creature was.

The Queen of the changelings, Chrysalis smirked at seeing all her children jumping with joy. It had taken them months but they had recovered and regrouped. Constantly, changelings would infiltrate small villages and ponynap loved ones to feed on the. Their fear and love for home with their significant others fueled the hive like never before. It was one to passively consume love but forcefully taking it was intoxicating and more efficient. Ponies could be contained and act as continuous batteries until they withered away as emotionless husks. After that, they’d be thrown out or their bodies turned into organic materials to construct organic buildings, weapons, and tools.

Feeling the joy of her children through the hive mind, Chrysalis could pinpoint any changeling out of the swarm just by thinking about it. Suddenly, she felt the voice one of her scouts speaking to her.

“Have you secured a proper path, scout?” Chrysalis internally spoke.

“Yes. This... jinn is hiding in a cave within the bordering areas of Saddle Arabia. It won’t take much long to travel. There is only one problem...”

“What? We cannot delay!”

“The jinn... it’s sealed away. The writing on its container states only a “human” can unleash the jinn.”

“What is a human?”

“A strange bipedal creature of another dimension. The libraries here have a few ... fictitious ideas about them. Lacking real magic, they utilize unique contraptions and machines to do their bidding. These machines are powered by their own kind of magic that we cannot even begin to understand.”

“I’ll be arriving there soon. Make sure you are not found and report to me personally on any updates!”

The scout understood and quickly disconnected himself from the hive mind as a safety precaution. Turning back, he stared at the strange golden trimmed box. A large flat opaque glass sat on top of it. “We need to find a human...”

Back at the central hive, Queen Chrysalis relaid the message to all changelings to the far reaches of the world. “My children! Our plans call for a powerful strange being. It is a bipedal ape like creature with little to no hair. Find it, and bring it to me!”

The changelings responded with an affirmative and began moving out. Some would temporarily break the connection while others stayed. Each one was loyal to the very end and knowing this, Chrysalis knew she’d find the human one way or another.

Chapter 3 - Royalty

The first night of this strange world was quite comfortable. Twilight had given my a spot on the second floor where her private collection of books were. She had given me a blanket and pillow, which I was grateful for, even if they were a bit short on me. That night, I dreamed of sitting back against the beach, hoping for a day of relaxation.

The morning eventually came and I was woken up by something pushing my shoulder. Slowly, I opened my tired eyes to see a reptilian green one looking back me. I recoiled back in fear, swatting at whatever it as as I did so.

“Ow.... What did you do that for?” the reptile asked.

I stopped for a moment, realizing I had hit a child or something. It was male, though still young. “I’m... I’m sorry. I thought you were some wild animal that had sneaked in.”

“Who or what are you?” the reptile asked.

To me, he looked like a small chubby reptile of some kind. He had purple scales and green spines and side fins. He also was bipedal, walking in an upright position and using his tail to balance himself with.

“My name is Roya Sayid. I’m a human.” I told him.

“Roya... sounds like Roses. What are you, some kind of mutant monkey or something?”

“Spike! Don’t be so rude!” Twilight shouted.

Both of us looked to see Twilight coming down the stairs from her room. Her mane was slightly disheveled, meaning the rule of bed hair still applied. I was in the same predicament, with my currently let down blonde hair in need of being brushed.

“What? She looks like one!” exclaimed Spike.

I simply held my hand up. “It’s not a problem, considering I’m not from this world.”

“I guess so. Spike, can you make breakfast, please? Also, no hay or flowers for Roya, she can’t eat them.” said Twilight.

Spike gave a proud salute before heading downstairs, vowing to make the best breakfast ever.

“He seems very helpful.” I commented,

Twilight nodded. “That he is. He’s the number one assistant and the best assistant I’ve ever had!”

“What is he anyways?”

“Spike’s a baby dragon I hatched from an egg.”

“You mean Spike is a fire breathing, dragon?” I was surprised to hear that the little, and admittedly adorable, ball of scales would grow up to be a ferocious fire breathing creature of legends.

“Yes. Why don’t you get ready and come downstairs?

“Sure, is there a bathroom I can use?”

Twilight quickly showed me the bathroom and left me to my own devices. After taking a good warm shower, I brushed my hair and wrapped it back up into the bun style I liked. I always kept my makeup in a compact mirror and so, I was able to apply everything without an issue. After putting my clothes back, and noticing that they had gotten some dirt on them which annoyed me, I went downstairs to the kitchen to find Twilight and Spike already waiting for me so they could eat. The table was set up for us three and Spike had decided to make pancakes, something I seldom had.

“So, when will I get an answer from Princess Celestia?” I asked.

Twilight quickly finished swallowing a piece of pancake before speaking. “Soon. I sent the letter yesterday and Celestia told me she’ll look into it. She also wants to see you at some point but not right now.”

“I understand. I’ve been in the mix of politics before. My job has me communicating with lawyers, among other things, all the time.”

“That reminds me, what do you do for a living?”

I stopped with a bit of pancakes just nearing my mouth. For a moment, my mind went blank until I had to remind myself who I was. “I’m a homicide detective of a police department. I oversee cases and, when we catch the criminal, I compile everything so the District Attorney can build a proper case for the courts.”

“A homicide detective? Do you really have specialized officers just for that?”

I nodded. “Yes. Cities with over millions of people can’t be protected by just a do everything police force. There has to be specialization to deal with specific crimes. Anti-Drug and Organized Crime Division. Robbery Division. It’s a necessary thing.”

Spike looked at me with that look. It was like how a child would react if a superhero were to walk up to them. “So you catch evil bad guys and fight em, right?”

I chuckled a little. It was adorable and I couldn’t help myself. “Sure but there’s a lot of paperwork involved. Actually, mostly we use leads, talking to people, and collecting facts and evidence to solve crimes.”

“How do you deal with a criminal who fights back? I don’t see a sword or spear on you.” Twilight asked.

I noticed Spike excusing himself for a moment, apparently about dealing with PeeWee, whoever that was. With only me and Twilight around, I explained to Twilight what we humans use. “Sword and spears are ancient weapons where I’m from. I do carry a gun on me at almost all times. You’d be surprised how many criminals want you dead for putting them away.”

“What’s a gun?”

Curious that they never heard of a gun, I quickly took my pistol out before taking the magazine out and cycling the bullet out of the chamber. After making sure the gun was harmless, no bullet in the chamber, I held it up for Twilight to see.

“This is a gun. It’s a device that works by propelling an object, a bullet specifically, at supersonic speeds using combustion and the resulting forces.”

“That sounds... dangerous!”

“It is. That is why only trained people can use them. Like any weapon, it needs to be respected. I presume that only trained ponies handle spears and/or whatever your kind uses. I cleared the chamber so that no one could get hurt.”

Twilight nodded. “My brother is the captain of the Royal Guard and he always tells me that weapons, like a spear, are to be respected, never used willy nilly.”

“He is well minded. A gun can do far worse damage than a spear because all it takes is a simple pull of the trigger. We seldom use it, thank goodness.” I quickly slapped the magazine back in and realized that, since I was in a world without guns, there wasn’t a reason to keep a round hot for a just in case situation. I quickly placed the pistol back in my holster right before Spike came back.

“What were you two talking about?” Spike asked.

“Girl stuff, you wouldn’t like it,” I lied.

Suddenly, Spike began to hack something up. For a moment, I thought he had started choking but then, he spat out a scroll. I stared at him, confused to why he did that.

“Sorry... They kinda come up unexpected,” said Spike.

Twilight quickly levitated the scroll and began to read it out loud. “Dear Twilight Sparkle. Thank you for informing me of Roya. It is of importance that she arrive to Canterlot immediately. I’ve already sent a carriage out a moment ago to pick you up. Your faithful and loving teacher, Princess Celestia.”

“Well, at least we don’t have to wait for red tape.” I commented.

Hearing a deep thud from outside, Twilight quickly went outside. I was curious and followed behind to see a pair of large white pegasi guards flanking a chariot. It was made out of gold, or at least was plated in gold, I doubt a full on gold chariot was able to move or even be affordable.

The guards stared at me for a moment, but kept a stoic face. I presumed it was not just me being a bipedal creature they had never seen before, but also that to them, I had strange glowing green eyes.

“Mrs. Sparkle. Is this the human Celestia wanted us to bring to Canterlot?” one of them asked.

Twilight nodded and I quickly got onto the chariot. I still wondered how I wouldn’t be seen. The chariot didn’t have a canopy so there was no chance of hiding me. Watching the two guards, I noticed that it took them seconds to hitch themselves to the front.

“Twilight... How are we going to get to Canterlot without me being seen?”

“We fly.”

“F-Fly?!” I shuttered at those words. Last time’s flight had already shaken me a bit.

Without any warning, the two pegasi went into a full gallop and the chariot bounced around, throwing me onto the floor in doing so. Feeling the front of the chariot lurch, I slowly got up to see that we had already went airborne. Stifling a shout, I quickly sat back into the seat while holding on for dear life.

“Don’t worry, Roya! Everything will be fine!” I knew Twilight was trying to be reassuring but it didn’t help.

It was one to fly a comfortable and safe plane or a starship but an open chariot with the wind in my face was another thing entirely. I kept my eyes closed and simply sat there, pray that everything would stop.

After minutes of the wind roaring in my ear and me mumbling numerous prayers in Arabic, I felt the chariot land and the wind died down.

“Did we... Did we arrive?” I asked. Looking up, I was surprised to see a large and beautiful castle. It was almost pure white with golden trimmings and golden topped towers everywhere. Looking to my left, i noticed that the castle sat on a cliff overlooking a large, yet, classical city. Around me, numerous guards were staring, wondering what I was and why I was even here.

“Come on, Roya! Celestia is waiting!”

Noticing Twilight walking towards the gate. I slowly got out of the chariot before finding my two feet back on the ground. With a sigh of relief, I quickly caught up to Twilight. Ponies can really walk fast.

Inside was just as beautiful with glass windows here and there to allow the rooms to be lit up naturally. Plants and other decor were placed around the area, yet were sparse enough to keep the halls giving a large amphitheater feeling. Walking around the corner, something quickly obstructed my vision and I tried to move out of the way, only to find myself head first into something.

I fell down to the ground with a painful bump. “Agh... Sorry.”

“I would expect the personal student of Celestia herself to keep her pets on a short and controlled leash! I don’t want my beautiful coat ruined!” said a rash and quite pompous voice.

I gritted my teeth in anger at such an insult. Looking up, I saw a tall stallion unicorn with a pale white coat. His blonde man was oiled back, enough that my nose stung by its smell. He wore this thing called... I think was called a dickie. He also wore a blue bow tie and had a white flower pinned to his black collar. “I’m sorry sir, I didn’t mean to...”

“You better be... whatever you are. I don’t know why Auntie Celestia would allow a creature such as yourself walking around the castle.”

Hearing his insults just made me angrier but I was resilient and didn’t show my anger. Now was not the time to do anything rash.

On the other hand, Twilight was through with Blueblood and prompt stepped in front of him. “Look, Blueblood! I’ve had enough of your disgusting and pompous insults to my friends! You treated Rarity, a fashion designer and close friend of mine, at the Grand Galloping Gala with disrespect and behavior unbecoming of any stallion worthy of calling themselves related to Princess Celestia! You also called my hard working friend, Applejack, some low-life commoner! I, for one, am deeply ashamed of your behavior and I shudder at the thought that you may, one day, find some poor mare loose enough to continue your family lineage!” To add insult to injury, Twilight had hacked up a spitball and shot right at Blueblood’s pristine collar. I actually smirked a bit at Twilight’s mini-triade. Unfortunately, Blueblood was simply appalled more by the spit.

“Leave it to a commoner to resort to commenting on the bedsheets, I expected my aunt her personal student to be of a higher class, I see I was wrong! Now I have to get my collar cleaned because of you and you’re degenerate ape!”

I was through being nice. “Wow, you actually can tell which biological family my species is categorized in! Your mother must be proud.” I added a slow shameless clap to add a bit of flavor.

Blueblood simply snorted and walked away with a haughty step in his trot. Disappearing around the corner, I turned to Twilight and she smiled, happy that he was out of our hair.

“Thank you Twilight. I can't believe the nerve of him! Talking down like that! Doesn't he know any manners?" I asked.

Twilight shook his head. "All Blueblood cares about is himself. We've had a history going but I will not let him hurt or attack any of my friends!"

"Really? No wonder you blew up in front of him. I presume he bothered you as a child?"

"You mean when I was a filly? Yes, he was even pompous back then."

We continued to walk through the castle corridors, passing by maids and other service ponies to the castle until we arrived at a pair of large doors. Looking up, I noticed that a picture of a stylized sun was emblazoned on the door. A pair of guards, identical to the pegasi ones from before, were stationed at both sides. Each of them carried heavy looking and powerful spears within their forelegs. Their armor was probably gold plated, with numerous etch work put into it. Maybe they used magic to enchant them? I didn't know.

“Princess Celestia is waiting for you Mrs. Sparkle and Mrs. Roya,” said one of the guards.

I thanked him and allowed the two to open the door for us. The next thing I saw was breathtaking! The whole throne room was massive with beautiful with solid different colored windows. The floor was a glossy clear white, waxed enough that I could see my reflection. Look around, I noticed the walls transitioning from white tp a cool, not outlandish, pink towards the ceiling. Eventually, I followed the red carpet up to the throne and standing there was a large and beautiful mare.

I presumed she was Princess Celestia with golden regalia that had intricate engravings and a purple gem in the middle of the necklace and crown. Unusually, she was a combination of a unicorn and a pegasus with her wings and horn twice, or maybe three times the size of normal ones. She had a pure white coat and a following multi-spectral mane that billowed in a non-existent breeze. Looking carefully, I noticed that a dull sunlight was emanating from her coat and mane! The same matching stylized sun was also stamped on her flanks, crediting my guess.

“It’s nice to see you, Twilight Sparkle! I do hope the ride here was comfortable.” She spoke with a soft and cool tone, the same way I would speak to my own children. To me, it was obvious she was a benevolent and caring ruler who wished only for peace and prosperity. Strangely, it sounded a bit familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

With a smile, Twilight gave a quick bow. I was a bit confused to if I should bow. Surely, I obviously didn’t pledge allegiance to her nor Equestria, but I also didn’t want to cause a cultural faux pas.

She had noticed my trepidation and simply nodded. “There is no need to bow, Mrs. Roya. I am just glad you’re here safely.”

“It is an honor to meet you, Princess Celestia. Rarely, have I ever met royalty.”

“Twilight has told me a good bit about you. You say you’re from a different world and that you’re looking for a way back home, is that correct?”

“Yes. I don't want to impede on your day to day lives, nor do I want to bother any of you. I just want a way home."

Celestia nodded. Don't worry, you are no such burden, Mrs. Roya. Well welcome you humbly to our world. "Now then, why don't we take a small walk?" The alicorn ruler slowly got up from her throne before using her powerful wings to fly down to us. I was surprised how tale she was. With probably the height of a regular horse, minus wings and horn, she dwarfed even the guards around her.

“Princess Celestia! Before Roya goes, is it ok if we talk about some of the notes she’s given me?” asked Twilight.

“I don’t see why not, Twilight. Is that ok with you, Roya?”

I nodded. “Sure. It wouldn’t hurt.”

The three of us began to walk. The two door guards quickly allowed us into the hallway and we began discussing a few things, mostly about the notes Twilight had taken down.

“So, Mrs. Roya, what are humans like?”

“Well... We’re an adaptive species that can surv...” The sound of a loud and painful scream caught all of our attentions. It made my spine shiver and, within an instant, pony guards left their posts and began heading towards the scream’s source.

Chapter 4 - And I Must Scream

Hearing the scream die down, I quickly pulled out my pistol, keeping it pointed towards the ground and against my torso. I turned the safety off and cycling a round into the chamber, all within a simple flourish. “Stay here! I’ll join the others!” I shouted. I noticed guards running towards the scream’s source.

Without even hearing Celestia or Twilight’s insistence for me to stay, I ran off through the hallways, following the royal guards in doing so. They all had their spears ready and the group began forming around a large door. Getting myself to the front, I quickly found the one in charge, a stallion unicorn with a two tone blue hair and a white coat.

“I’ll lead!” I exclaimed.

The guard looked at me, confused to why I was trying to take charge. “Ma’am, or whatever you are, I’m the Captain of the Royal Guard!”

“And I’m a Lieutenant of the Novimus City Police Department. I’m fully trained for this situation.”

He hesitated for a moment before noticing my pistol. “You’re unarmed? What if it’s an assassin?”

“Don’t worry. I am armed....” It was then he realized that my pistol was a weapon, though nothing like a spear or a sword.

Suddenly, the doors flew open, pushing me back. A white blur and a familiar blonde mane ran off out from the room. Seeing my opportunity, I gave chase. Being a human, I was obviously not meant for speed and the stallion was gaining some distance from me. We both passed a maid, who jumped and dropped her cleaning supplies. Suddenly, the stallion I was chasing turned around a corner. For a moment, I thought I saw a small glare but turning around the corner, I only saw another corner that he had probably turned, creating a full U shape. My feet carried me over and when I turned around the second corner, I found him.

“Freeze and get on the ground!” I ordered. My pistol was aimed straight at him but, he was obviously unarmed. It was Blueblood and he stared at me, confused to what was in my hands and why I was yelling at him.

“What are you doing?” he demanded in anger.

The guards, leaded by their captain, quickly appeared from behind me and tackled Blueblood.

“You’re under arrest for murder!” exclaimed the captain. Blueblood struggled for a moment under the pony pile. It didn’t work and Blueblood calmed down, confused and.... scared? He had a look of fear on his face, puzzled to what was happening. The captain turned to me. “Thank you Mrs?”

“Roya. Lt. Roya Sayid. What happened back there?” Noticing that the guards had already cuffed Blueblood and slipped some sort of ring around the base of his horn, I quickly placed my pistol back in its holster with the safety back on, seeing that everything was under control now.

The question made him frown. “A maid... She was found dead.”

“Take me.”

“What?”

“Take me to the body. I need to examine it.”

“I’m sorry but that’s enough being hero for one day.” He raised his hoof for a moment.

Knocking it away, I gave him a stern look. “I’m a Homicide Detective. It is my job to look at the crime scene make a proper judgement.”

“But we have the suspect. Both you and I saw that Blueblood fleeing the scene!”

“Well, you’re going to need to properly build a case. Even I have to find out why everything occurred, even with the killer standing over the body.”

The Captain sighed, understanding that he wasn’t going to stop me. “Fine. Come with me.”

I followed the captain back through the hallways to the door. Already, two guards were covering it, making sure nopony could see inside. Celestia and Twilight were already there, both confused to what had just happened.

“Can you tell us what happened, Shining?” Twilight asked.

Noticing some similarities, Shining looked quite similar to Twilight, minus the color scheme. “I can’t. Official Royal Guard investigation.”

“What about her?” Twilight pointed a hoof at me.

“I’m a police detective. I’m trained for these things.”

Celestia looked at me and Shining for a moment before speaking up. “Then I’ll let Roya help with the investigation as a secondary detective consultant. Shining, she is your responsibility. Please make sure she is welcomed temporarily and give her the resources necessary to complete this investigation.”

“Yes, your majesty.” Shining turned to me with a slight smile. "I guess we'll be partners." I gave him a smirk of my own. He seemed decent and, from how he acted, he obviously took his job seriously.

“Can you tell us what happened?” asked Celestia.

“A maid was murdered by a fleeing suspect. Both Roya and I saw who it was and we identified him as Prince Blueblood.”

The name was out of left field for both Twilight Clestia. I could see how surprised both were. Lost for words, I waited for them to calm down. Twilight was quite horrified while Celestia looked deeply saddened “We still need to find motive and currently, Blueblood is in custody. It will take a few days but a case should be built soon, assuming you have a proper judicial system in place," I told them.

Celestia nodded but was visibly disturbed by these events. “That we do. Please continue your work. It hurts deeply that this occurred but justice must be brought in a proper and orderly fashion.”

With a nod, I turned to Shining.

“Follow me.” he said.

Both of us walked towards the doors leading to the crime scene. Seeing that I was going to be working with the captain, I decided to properly get his name. “Is Shining your whole name?”

The captain shook his head. “It’s Shining Armor. I’m Twilight’s older brother.”

“Older brother, huh? Your sister has been of great help to me.”

“Yes. I’ve heard of you from the letter. You’re a “human,” right?”

“That is correct. I am a bipedal nearly hairless creature under the great apes.”

“I guess we’ll be working together, huh?”

I nodded before noticing the maid from before. “Get a guard to talk to her She’s a witness and her testimony will prove valuable.”

With a nod, Shining quickly barked an order out and a guard went over to the maid, making sure not to frighten her. The two of us entered the room and the first thing we saw was the lifeless body on the ground.

She had been making the bed, and was caught off guard. Turning to Shining, I noticed that the sight of the body made him nauseous. “Are you ok?”

He held back a small blob of bile down. “Yes... Just not used to this.”

“Really? I thought you had jurisdiction over Canterlot. Wouldn't you have seen plenty of bodies in your career?”

“I do but murder isn’t something you get everyday.”

“Hmm... I get a new case almost every few days back in Novimus City.”

“What? How?”

“The city holds over a million people. That and you’d be surprised what some people kill for.” I continued looking at the body for a moment. “I need gloves.”

“Gloves... I don’t think we have any... in your size.”

Realizing that he was right. I thought for a moment before remembering about magic. “Shining, could you lift the body a bit? I need to give it a closer examination.”

With a swallowing of his throat, he nodded and began levitating the body a bit, making sure not to ruin it. Oh how I wished I had a forensics team at the moment. The unfortunate mare had a pale white coat that was spotless, except for the blood from her wound. Her name tag read the name "Crystal Clear" and her cleaning uniform was heavily stained by blood. It was still fresh, leaving me being weary where I stepped less I get blood on my shoes. The stab would was large, as if something sharp but cone shaped had pierced her. Even though normally I'd rely on forensics to check the stab wound, I was limited and I examined it myself. "Shining, can you expand this wound for a moment?"

He reluctantly did so, keeping his gaze away as blood erupted from the wound. Looking carefully I could tell that the weapon had penetrated deep, piercing a lung and the heart. It even pushed ribs out of the way, meaning the weapon was stiff and strong as or stronger than bone, with sufficient driving force. She must have went to shock and died when her brain starved. “Stab wound... Impaled by something sharp like a horn. Broke a few ribs before piercing a lung and the heart. She didn't have a chance.”

I backed off a bit and allowed Shining to put the body back. From how he acted, Shining was deeply disturbed at seeing a poor mare murdered, something I would have assumed he was more understanding about. He turned me and sighed before giving me a slight scowl. “I need to ask, how are you so calm about this? She was just murdered and yet you treat it as if it was nothing.” he exclaimed.

I shook my head. “I don't see it as nothing but I also know that there’s a time and place for mourning the dead. Right now, there’s a job that needs to be done and I cannot allow emotions to blind me. Every body leaves a story, and we are the ones who need to put the puzzle pieces together.”

Shining was silent for a few moments but he spoke up. “I...I guess you’re right.”

“Good. Do you have cameras in Equestria?”

“Yes, why?”

“Records. I need every square inch of this place have a picture taken before we even begin to touch anything. The crime scene cannot be disturbed until then.”

“Right. I’ll get a few hard stomached photographers to get records.”

With a nod, I looked around a bit more. Looking over to the cleaning cart, in which the maid had kept her cleaning supplies. I noticed that a wad of cleaning paper was on the ground, covered in blood. “Well, there’s a reason why Blueblood’s horn was clean. He wiped it off before running.”

“Look, His shirtfront collar.”

“Yes... It’s the one Twilight spat on.” The collar had been folded and placed on the cart, probably so the maid could get it cleaned. The flower that was in the collar had been removed and placed nearby, revealing to be a simple fake one made of fabric; an accessory it simply was.

“Twilight? What do you mean?”

“Earlier, Twilight and I... ran into Blueblood. Let’s just say, it was less than savory. Nothing bad, just a simple stain.”

“Well, this just confirms that Blueblood was the one who murdered her.”

“I need an ID on the body and all names of her coworkers and friends. We still need intent, and motive would be very helpful for the jury, if there is one.”

“Got it... Wait, why am I taking orders from you?”

‘Because, I’m the one who specializes in homicides and, assuming you follow similar rules, I’m the one you want to listen to if you want a solid case. Make sure Blueblood is detained in an appropriate area. No unusual or painful punishment. He’s only a suspect, not guilty yet.” I tried my best to not make it sound insulting, I only want to explain it. If he wanted to, I would work with him his way.

“Anything else?” Apparently Shining had silently agreed to the idea that I could give some orders.

“That should be it. We'll interrogate Blueblood tomorrow, but for now. We can rest a bit. The day has already got hectic and I think every needs some time to calm down.”

“That sounds fair. Thank you Mrs. Roya.”

“Just call me Roya. We’re partners, remember?”

With a smile on his face, we left the room with the guards ordered to keep watch so that no one would touch the scene. Knowing that everything for today was done, I returned to Princess Celestia.

Chapter 5 - Dinner

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.

Chapter 6 - Range

The next morning came rather quickly. All it took was the sound of my alarm going off to wake me off. Slowly getting up, I took in surroundings while the mask was still on my face. The sound of shuffling hoofsteps from the hallways was easily heard, as was the numerous birds flying around their perches. I stretched and yawned before taking the mask off. Finding that I could see, I gave myself a mental note to thank Twilight later.

My morning routine was normal. Shower, brushing and fixing my hair, and putting on my makeup. I stared at my clothes from yesterday, which I had kept out. It was a bit annoying that I didn't have a second set of clothes to change in, but seeing that I had no choice, I put them on. After checking everything, including pistol, I left my room after having some tea and went downstairs to the dining hall. As I did, I noticed more and more ponies, all of them officials of some kind judging by their business attire, moving about.

I heard the sound of a crowd from the foyer and Shining speaking to them. Arriving at the foyer, I had found him finishing an announcement.

"Any questions?" asked Shining.

"How long will Blueblood be detained?" asked a reporter.

"Under Equestrian law, Blueblood will be detained until his trial, which is set for a few days from now. Until then, he is under custody of the Royal Guard."

"Is this a political attack against Blueblood?"

"We don't believe so but it has not been ruled out. Please do not go into crazy speculations. I am heading this investigation and we will find out the truth through proper legal action."

"Captain Shining, I got one more quesiton!"

"You may speak."

"There have been some rumors that a strange creature has been brought to Canterlot just before the murder took place. They believe that this creature is tied with the murder, is that true?"

"I will tell you now that those are baseless fabrications made by fantastical imaginations. There is no strange creature in Canterlot. That will be all for today and I thank you for coming to this meeting!"

The crowd slowly dispersed and Shining quickly came towards me, making sure no one could see me. "I see you handled them quite well."

"True but that last question was really out of left field. Who would have seen you?"

"Hmm... I don't know. The maids are sworn under secrecy, right?"

Shining nodded. "Yes, as are my guards. Nopony outside this castle knows you exist."

It was understandable. A strange new species walking around would easily cause panic. "Can you interview the maid? She's our witness. Just ask here some simple questions and we'll have that as proper evidence."

"Already on it. I sent a guard to pick up a statement from her. Now about that meeting with Blueblood... His lawyer has already arrived."

I sighed in a bit of annoyance. "Let Blueblood consult his attorney. He'll be with Shining during the interview this evening."

The two of us walked a bit more. Right when we turned around a corner, we stopped to see Celestia standing there, complete in her regalia.

"Good Morning Captain Shining and Lt. Roya."

I smiled but raised my hand. "It's only Roya here. My rank doesn't mean anything, technically."

I noticed Celestia smiling and she pulled a small box that was balanced on her back. "Actually... I wanted to see you about that. Considering you're helping with the investigation, I think it would be appropriate if you had some authority to do your job correctly."

Surprised at what Celestia was telling me, I slowly took the box. For a moment, I simply stared at it until Shining and Celestia both motioned me to open in in front of them. Inside was a badge shaped as two triangles joined at the base, forming a sharp silver diamond. Looking at Shining, I noticed a silver four pointed star made of two of these triangles stamped onto the collar of his purple breastplate. Below the narrow diamond shaped insignia in the box was a badge, shaped as a heater shield with the stylized sun in the center and a moon inside as well. The heater shield was flanked by a pair of feathered wings while two crossed horns topped the whole thing. Spread across the top and bottom was "Lieutenant, Royal Guard of the Harmony Crown," in bold lettering.

"You are now an official Lt. of the Royal Guard during this investigation." said Celestia. I was deeply honored by such an action, though curious to how I could switch from a police rank to an actual military rank. "Though normally an officer of the Royal Guard would need to wear a uniform or assigned armor when on duty, I'll make an exception to you."

I nodded in agreement before taking the badge and pinning it to my breast pocket. I still kept my Novimus City Police badge clipped to my waist, even though it was useless currently. "I'm deeply humbled by your actions, Princess Celestia."

"Good. I think the two of you have a job to complete. If anything is needed, I'll be in the throne room. I'm already getting numerous ponies wondering what will happen to Blueblood and his seat in the Upper Nobles. It's sad to hear what happened but I am certain that both of you, together, will bring proper justice."

"Excuse me, Princess, but I just want to know, does Twily know about this investigation in detail?" asked Shining.

Celestia shook her head. "No, for her safety, she knows as much about the investigation as the public media. I don't want her to see the crime." Celestia quickly turned to me after that. "Lt. Roya, about the spell to bring you home. I've found one but it is incomplete. Twilight has volunteered in trying to finish the spell. We expect that it will only take a few days, probably finishing after this whole investigation. I just want to let you know that everything is accounted for and that you need not to worry about getting home."

I nodded before feeling a tear fall down my cheek. "Thank you Princess Celestia. Again, this is a lot more than is necessary but I accept it."

"Now then, I shouldn't be stopping you two. You are both dismissed."

Celestia quickly left after that, leaving Shining alone with me. I turned to him with a question ready. "Shining, where's the morgue, anyways?"

"It's in Canterlot General Hospital. I know you wanted to check any findings so I collected the documents earlier and brought them here. They should be in your room at some point."

"Thank you Captain. Considering Blueblood's interview isn't until later, I guess we have some time."

Shining nodded and quickly looked at my waist for a moment. "That thing you had, what was it?"

I thought for a moment until I remembered my pistol. "Well.... do you have an open secluded area? "

"Yes, there's the hedge maze. We still have it closed, on account of a certain draconequus... Follow me."

The walk was a bit long with a long route but we arrived at the entrance to the maze. There was a nice park built in the front, complete with numerous statues and fountains. One statue caught my attention. Standing on a pedestal was this strange serpent like creature made of a haphazard collection of different creatures. Goat, horse, lizard, bird, lion, they all seemed to have been thrown together like what Dr. Frankenstein would have done. The creature was in a pose of surprise with fear sculpted into its face, as if bracing against some invisible force.

"That's Discord, Spirit of Disharmony," said Shining.

"Wait... Twilight told me about him... That's what happened to him? He was turned to stone?"

"Yup. Princess Celestia has something planned for him but I don't know the details. All I know is that the gardens are closed until we know what to do with him. If any serious amounts of chaos were to occur around him, the spell binding him could falter and he would be free again."

"That sounds a bit dangerous."

"Yeah... Some rumors said all it took was a few fillies getting into an argument, but back then, Discord's spell had weakened considerably, though I doubt it was actually little fillies who almost doomed Equestria."

"Do you have something like an old tree or even a test dummy?" I asked.

Shining thought for a moment. "I can get some, be right back."

I waited a few minutes for Shining and he eventually returned with a few test dummies in his magical grasp. Asking me where I wanted them, I told him to place them at certain distances from a spot I marked by standing over. The first was a simple 10 metres away from me. The next was 30 metres, another at 50 metres, and finally one at that was a good 80 metres away.

After placing the last straw dummy down, Shining quickly went back to where I saw. "So, what are going to do with them anyways?"

Without hesitation, I quickly pulled my pistol out of its holster. It was, what some would consider, an ugly looking pistol but I actually liked it. It had a half octagonal slide and a thumb safety. It followed the specifications given to us in Novimus City, meaning it was chambered to the .45 ACP and was fitted with an under barrel flashlight. Since we have to furnish our own sidearms, the I bought a pistol that had a wide grip, allowing the use of double stacked bullets and giving me a larger round capacity. Looking at Shining, I noticed how curious he was when I quickly removed the magazine before cycling the round out of the chamber. Catching it in mid air, I held it up for Shining to see after making sure there was no round in the left.

"This is a bullet, a piece of metal with packed propellent behind inside the casing. In the back is a primer, a sort of combustible charge."

"Err it's kinda small..."

I nodded a bit. "It's not the size that matters." I placed the magazine away in my pocket for a moment before holding my empty pistol out. "This is a semi-automatic handgun. When I pull the trigger, the hammer, this part in the back, is pulled back before springing back into position. When it does, it hits a firing pin which strikes the back of the round, called the primer."

"Uhuh... What happens next?"

"Well, when the primer sets off, it ignites propellant behind the bullet. After that, gases fill behind the bullet, pushing it out of its casing and shooting out of the barrel at high speed. In this handgun, the recoil, because of Newton's Law of equal and opposite reactions, the slide is pushed back and the spent casing is ejected, allowing a fresh new round to be brought into the chamber, with the hammer cocked back and ready to strike again. It's basically like a gunpowder cannon, only efficient, fast reload, and compact."

I saw a surprised and whimsical look on his face as he stared at my gun. "That's... that's amazing! How did you humans even do it?"

"Well, when you're part of a species in which you're always afraid that your own neighbor might want you dead, it becomes logical to make a better weapon than what they have."

"I can see why Celestia would be scared if she learned what human weapons can do. We use our weapons only as a last resort, it's the policy of Equestria to never use lethal force unless all other options are wasted or it is the only option available."

I nodded in agreement. "Yes, that is something I'd agree with. We only carry our guns with us because, in Novimus City and the rest of the country, all citizens have the right to own firearms themselves, not to mention many criminals have illegal firearms. Other countries I know of, don't have their police carry lethal guns on them, instead the officer has to call a request for a gun or the citizens have numerous red tape and permits to even carry only certain firearms."

"Really? So, can you show me it in action?"

I nodded at Shining. "Yes but... the only issue is that I'm limited on ammo. It's not like I can simply find a store and buy new ammo."

"Maybe I can fix that. Twily showed me an item duplication spell. All I need is something to go by."

I thought a moment. It would be an easily solution but I was a bit weary on giving potentially deadly technology to Shining. What if someone decided to reverse engineer it? If that happened, I would be responsible for a rapid advancement in weapons... and I doubt Equestria understands what that would bring. "I don't know Shining... Can you make me a promise?"

He nodded. "Sure. Just tell me what it is."

"You promise that you, no, no one will ever try to reverse engineer this? That you will destroy any information about this? I can't stress how dangerous this could be if it falls into the wrong hands or hooves or whatever!"

Shining thought for a moment before giving me a simple nod. "I promise, as the Captain of the Royal Guard, I'll make sure that this is not misused nor taken for purposes of creating new weapons."

"Good." I gave the bullet to Shining, who quickly hide it within a pocket that was built into the side strap of his breastplate. Taking the magazine from my pocket, I quickly slapped it into the grip before cycling a round in and keeping my pistol down towards the ground for safety. "Do you have ear protection?

Shining nodded and levitated a few rocks over. I didn't really understand until they popped with a visible blue glow. When the glow dissipated, was was left were two pairs of ear plugs. With a quick flourish, a pair of them landed into my hands. I stared at the pair Shining gave me for a moment "Is this safe? I don't want them to turn back into rocks while shooting."

Shining shook his head. "Relax, the matter morphesis spell will last only a good two hours."

Turning back to the ear plugs, I decided to give them a try. It wasn't a comfortable fit, seeing that human ears were structurally different than pony ears. It took a moment but I was able to get them in.

"Shining!" I yelled. "The area is cleared any everyone, right? I don't want to harm anything."

He was able to hear me over the plugs and gave me a reassuring nod.

"Stand back and watch." Slowly, I brought up my pistol and locked my arms. In a proper stance, I lined my sights before pulling the trigger. The resulting cracking sound caught Shining off guard and the first target, the closet dummy was a hit. Without a moment, I transitioned to each target, going farther and farther after each shot. I went backwards once I reached the farthest dummy until I exhausted the 10 rounds my magazine would hold. Noticing the slide locking back, I pressed the mag release and allowed the magazine to drop onto the ground while I took another magazine, stashed in some of the specialized pockets I had in my jacket, and slamming it into my pistol. I went through a second magazine before calling that enough and flipped the safety back on before returning the pistol to my holster and picking up the empty magazine. Turning to Shining, I saw that he was staring at me with his eyes wide, a little bit surprised at seeing a gun in action. We both took out the ear plugs before walking to the dummies.

Inspecting the dummies, I had landed most of them on target. Only a few in the middle I had missed. At the same time, I kept my eye out hoping that the obvious loud sound of gunshots had not caught anyone's attention. The rounds I used were hollow points, which I explained to Shining meant that they crumpled upon impact. We used them so that we wouldn't risk over-penetration or ricocheting. It also meant that the damage was focused on the area of impact, assuming the target wasn't wearing any armor. He was surprised and a bit troubled at how efficient we humans were at the dark art of killing.

"So that's your weapon of choice... I can say that if you had to, you could deal with any pony without much danger to yourself. Staying at a range keeps you out of enemy's reach."

I nodded. "Yes, that is true. But where I'm from, it's either we shot first or risk being killed ourselves."

"Have you ever... you know, killed somepony before?" I was caught off guard by the question. Truth be told, I did but I had accepted the fact that it was the only choice I had.

I took a deep breath before speaking. "Yes, Shining. I have taken a life before, but only because it was for the greater good and for the safety of others."

"What happened, if you're ok with telling me?"

"A man had been murdered by his, formally, best friend, just because his girlfriend cheated on him. When we about to catch him, he had went into a mental breakdown and had pulled a gun out and taking the girl hostage. I remember standing there, ordering him to just come peacefully. I didn't want anyone to get hurt. Suddenly, that girl... she kicked him in the shin, getting herself a chance to run away to safety. Seeing that as my opportunity, I tried to move in but he brought his weapon to bare at me. At that point, I knew I had no other choice. it was him or me. He died at the hospital due to the gunshot wounds."

Shining simply nodded. "That must have been... hard. It reminded me of... well..."

"What is it?"

"It's nothing... What time is it?"

I quickly pulled my phone out to see that it was about lunch time. "Time to eat."

"That's good. I've been getting kind of hungry."

"If anyone asks, you were trying a new kinetic spell."

"Heh, I already have a cover story just in case."

Chapter 7 - Interrogation

We quickly ate before noon at the dining hall. Shining was right about the alibi for my little... shooting range tryout. A guard hand wondered what it was and Shining dismissed it as a "kinetic combustion spell." He was right, except for the spell part.
Continuing business, I followed Shining to a special "command center" area of the castle that he and the rest of the Royal Guards had set up. It had been originally an auxiliary room to the castle. Now, desks and other office equipment filled the spacious area with guards in semi-formal uniforms working away. While we walked, I noticed that some of the royal guards would stare at me. I assumed it was because they had never seen a human before, let alone one that now outranks them.

"When was this HQ established?" I asked before taking a sip from a glass of tea I had brought with me.

Shining quickly gave me a short version of the changeling invasion. Apparently, after the creatures had been forcefully ousted out of the capital, thanks to Shining's spell, numerous reports of abductions, murders, and identify theft had surfaced, all of which was changeling activity. Apparently, they had become more desperate. The command center was established shortly after the wedding incident, which had occurred about three to four months ago. They dealt with the processing of hundreds of papers of data concerning changeling activity, intelligence, and even non-changeling data. In all, it was like a mixture of a military outpost and a police precinct, considering the Royal Guard also acted as the defacto policing force of Canterlot.

Because I was still technically a state secret, I was only shown the back area of the command center. There was a lobby setup in another room that concerned citizens were waiting at and I understood that it would foolish, not to mention completely ignorant, of me to enter the public area.

"Let me first debrief Blueblood's lawyer about... you."

With a nod, I watched Shining walk around the corner before noticing a silhouette of a mare against the wall. I closed my eyes and listened in the conversation.

"Now, please understand that we need you to swear oath that you will keep what you see a secret, understand?" asked Shining.

The silhouette nodded. "I swear by the Royal Crown of Equestria and by the courts that I with withhold this information and keep it from being divulged to the public."

"Good, now you'll be meeting Lt. Roya Sayid. She's our consulting homicide detective working with me on the case. Do not be afraid or confused by her appearance, she is a fully trained police officer."

"I understand. My client is already knowledgeable about this Roya mare?"

"Actually, yes. The two have already met but... Roya isn't a mare."

The guard standing near me motioned for me to move and I walked out into the open. Standing in front of Shining was a young mare with a vanilla yellow. She was a brunette with her hair kept in a short style that was straight and squared. Freckles dotted her muzzle and she had a stoic yet calm look on her face. Wearing a woman's business outfit made for the equine anatomy, she looked like a young lawyer who just finished the bar exam, though for the record, I can't really tell age easily. A briefcase was strapped to her side in a style that some of the ponies called a "saddle" bag.

"So you're Lt. Roya Sayid, I presume?" she asked.

"Yes. It's a pleasure to meet you." I gave her hoof a firm shake in our greeting.

"My name is Mrs. Tipping Scales. I will be representing my client, Prince Blueblood of the Platinum bloodline."

"I am familiar with your client. One of the most well known Nobles in the Legislative Branch. He has been serving in there for over four years yet has gained a lot of reputation."

"Yes, my client is a very important stallion. I was briefed earlier about the current charges against him. Murder and evading arrest?"

"Yes. Yesterday, a scream was heard by everyone in the castle. The wing had been closed off mostly with little guard patrols. Both Shining and I had arrived at the door leading to the crime scene only to have the suspect barging out. We both identified him as Blueblood and we have a witness. The chase only lasted a minute but the suspect had stopped after turning a corner where he was apprehended by the Royal Guard."

"Hmm... That sounds like a pretty solid case."

"It is but a proper investigation must be done. Now then, shall we meet your client?"

Mrs. Tip gave me a nod before we followed Shining to a detention area. I was surprised by how... humane the Castle Jails were. The cells were spacious with spartan accommodations. One cell, which Shining had designated for us, had been set up with a table and a few chairs. The other cells were empty, except for Blueblood in one.

Noticing the white stallion, he was simply sitting on his bed with a dejected look. Shining opened the door and calmly told Blueblood to follow us. The way he walked... it was almost like a scared animal... no, more like a scared child. Each hoofstep Blueblood took was uncertain and shaky.

Noticing this, I couldn't help but frown a bit. We moved to the "interrogation" room we had setup. I sat down with Shining on side while Blueblood and Mrs. Tip sat on the other side, away from the cell doors. The Royal Guards, who had kept watch over the cells, left the holding room. It was soundproof so there was no fear that anyone outside would overhear us. On the table was the case files set up for us. I already had reviewed them earlier but it was always good to have a refresh, just in case. I quickly placed my glass down before looking up at Blueblood and Mrs. Tipping Scales.

Shining was the first one to speak. "We're here to talk to you, Blueblood about the crime that we believe you have committed."

"I didn't kill that mare if you're going to ask that," said Blueblood in a calm manner.

"Really?" I asked. "It's kind of hard to say that when Shining, a maid, and I all saw you run from the scene of the crime. Can you tell what you were doing right before the crime?"

Mrs. Tips quickly intervened. "My client does not have to answe..."

"No, it's fine. I was returning my room, having given Crystal Clear my shirtfront that somepony has ruined. I took a simple nap before putting on a new shirtfront and leaving the room. Suddenly, some guard was rude enough to run into me! That nerve of him! Then you showed up... Mrs... whatever you are."

"It's Lt. Roya, and for the record, I'm a human. So you say a guard ran into you before I appeared?"

Blueblood nodded and I looked over at his lawyer. She was getting a bit worried about Blueblood being open to speaking his view of the events.

Shining was confused for a moment until he spoke up. "If you were in your room... Blueblood, your alibi doesn't hold up. We saw you run from the scene!"

"It wasn't me!" Both Shining and I were caught off guard by the slight outburst but Blueblood quickly apologized.

"Blueblood, we're not the enemy here. Is there any way you can prove that it would be impossible for you to be at the scene of the crime? Witnesses? Testimonies? Did any guards see you that we could ask?"

Blueblood frowned for a moment before giving us a weak shake of his head. "No..."

"Then we shall move on to the next agenda. Motive. Did you know Mrs. Crystal Clear?"

"Y-Yes. Though, like many of the maids, she can sometimes mess up in keeping my room spotless for such a Noble like myself, she was one of the few maids I trusted with cleaning my shirtfronts. They cannot be simply wished willy-nilly! A proper procedure of..."

"Blueblood, please. We're not here to discuss cleaning techniques. So, you knew of Crystal Clear before. What kind of relationship did you have?"

"A simple business one. Mrs. Tips can vouch that, as an Upper Noblepony, I make sure that I don't fall into numerous rift raft that would get me on the cover of tabloids."

"Shining, is that true?" I asked. The Captain of the Royal Guard gave me a reassuring nod. Blueblood was an asshole, that I learned the hard way, but he knew what not to do, considering his occupation. I turned back to Blueblood and sighed before thinking for a moment. As I did, I noticed something about Blueblood's current shirtfront. For one, it had a slight pinkish hue, the signs that it had been accidentally thrown with colors. The black collar was slightly crumpled and instead of a white fake flower, a red one had been pinned. "Did you and Crystal Clear have an argument of some kind?"

"Why do you ask that?"

"Your shirtfront... It's stained. Maybe she had messed up this one time, and being a stallion such as yourself, you only expect nothing less of perfection," I said in my own haughty tone. I could see that my trick was working. Blueblood was getting riled up and he furrowed his brows at me. I smirked. "I see it now... you were angry. She had ruined your clothes and you simply snapped! Charging at her, you impaled her, am I wrong?"

"I did nothing of the sort!" Blueblood yelled.

I opened the case files to look at the photos of the medical examination. Blueblood couldn't bear to look at them while Mrs. Tips simply looked away nonchalantly. "We had medical examiners look at the body and a short run was needed to produce the sufficient force to pierce her lungs and heart while breaking ribs. Alicorn, the substance your horn is made out of, is sufficiently hard enough to do just that, not to mention that filling one's horn is a sign of proper hygiene and body image."

"I did not kill her!" With all that anger, Blueblood was unable to contain himself. Jumping up, I was surprised at how easily he moved the heavy table we had by a half a decimetre or more. Even Shining almost jumped back, ready to hold Blueblood back. I had quickly grabbed my glass of tea, hoping it wouldn't spill.

"Then who was is, Blueblood? Dd you really think that you'd get away with killing a simple maid, a commoner?"

"No! I'm telling the truth! I did not kill her!" This time, Blueblood's anger had dissipated slightly. I could hear a slight sound of fear. It was strange, really. Normally someone in his position would have gotten angrier, especially with an ego such as his. "I can't go to jail! I'll lose my title! My name! My family will be ruined!"

"You're more worried about your family's honor? What about jail time?"

With his anger all gone, that dejected look had returned to his face. He simply looked down at the table. "I didn't kill Crystal Clear..." he murmured.

Shining sighed. "We'll give you two a moment to think about a plea bargain, is that okay?"

Mrs. Tipping Scales simply scowled at the both of us before nodding. This wasn't going to be a case she would get Blueblood out of cleanly and right now, the evidence pointed straight to him. Seeing Blueblood in his self-wallowing state, the idea that he did the crime seemed a bit less realistic, for some reason. His temper was obviously short but would he really kill over something so simple?

"Thank you for time, Mrs. Tips and Mr. Blueblood. We'll schedule a meeting with the prosecutor if you wish for a plea bargain," said Shining in a calm tone.

"That would be best."

Giving her a simple nod, I followed Shining out with the case files under my shoulder. Closing the door behind me, I gave a deep sigh of relief.

"You were a bit harsh on him," Shining told me.

"Sometimes, you have to be. But... I don't know about Blueblood actually being the murderer."

"Really?"

I gave Shining a small nod. "His temper is there but... something wasn't right. When I pushed him on, he backed down, almost like if he saw it as a lost cause or that there was something more... Is it possible you can get the body back for me? I'd like to try my own medical examination."

"Your own? What for?"

"Maybe... Maybe Blueblood was in his room."

"Really? But you were there, with me! We both saw him run!"

"I know. Let me think, it won't hurt to try, ok?"

Shining stood there for a moment, contemplating my request. "Fine... I'll get the coroner to bring the body back."

"I'll be in the library if you need me."

Giving a salute, Shining returned the gesture and watched me leave the command center.

Chapter 8 - Off the Record

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.

Author's Note

Thanks to Voidchicken for helping me.

Chapter 9 - Experimentation

Morning came and I quickly ate breakfast before heading out to find Shining. He was at the command center, talking with another lawyer pony, this time the DA. She was a tall pegasus mare, a bit shorter than Shining. With a pair of thick rimmed glasses sitting on her muzzle, she had tailored her attire and appearance to fit a studious look. I guessed that she was my age, if these ponies aged at the same rate as humans. Just like Blueblood's attorney, she had a briefcase attached to a side belt that sat under her outfit and behind her wings, as to not ruin the whole ensemble. On her flanks was the image of a small earth pony mare wearing a toga and a blindfold around her eyes. In her teeth was the well known scale of justice. When she stood, it was balanced but when she turned her leg, the scale would alter a bit.

Shining quickly noticed me. "Oh, let me introduce you to our consulting detective, Lt. Roya Sayid."

"Oh! So this is the Lt. Roya I've heard about. I've already been briefed about your predicament here in Equestria. My name's Guilty Verdict, Crown Prosecutor of Canterlot," said the attorney mare.

"The pleasure is mine." I shook her hoof and gave her a warm smile. "I wanted to talk to you and Shining about Blueblood. I've found some important evidence that will change this case."

"Really?" Do tell."

"Back where I'm from, we have our own specialized forensics team and coroners. They would be the ones collecting evidence and the crime scene and determine how the murder took place. Now, normally as a detective, I'd follow leads and whatnot, but sometimes I'd look at the bodies myself to have my own opinion. I had requested the body to be brought back and I checked something. Apparently, the coroners had concluded that Crystal Clear was stabbed while standing on her hind legs."

"Yes, that's what they have thought. Blueblood charging upwards and killed her."

"That's not the case. Both Shining and I had found her body on its side which meant she was standing on all fours when she was impaled. Because of Blueblood's height, if he had murdered Crystal Clear, he'd have to aim downwards, not upwards."

Both Shining and Guilty Verdict were surprised at my explanation. They looked at each other before Guilty asked me an important question. "So the murderer is still out there and now we have no weapon?" asked Shining.

"Not quite. I wanted to try a test actually. I just need a few things," I told them.

"What do you need?"

"A slab of meat. Different piercing weapons... and a horn or something to emulate one."

"What?"

"It's a stab test. I'm going to strike the meat slab with all of them and compare the wounds they create."

Guilty Verdict thought for a moment. "That actually... sounds reasonable. I'll get Blueblood released and get this processed. Just do that experiment and find out what our murder weapon is and who could have been able to do that yet make it look like Blueblood was the one who ran. Shining, check every guard that has a natural white coat and a blonde mane."

"Yes, Mrs. Verdict!" Shining gave a quick salute before leaving.

"Thank you Lt. Roya. I'm surprised that you found this out. How did you do it?" asked Guilty Verdict.

"Blueblood's responses in the interrogation were what threw me off. Normally, if I continued accusing the suspect of doing the crime, and they had a history of short tempers, I'd have an outburst reaction no matter what. Blueblood only reacted the first time, but he wasn't purely angry... The second time, he became deeply saddened by something."

"So his emotions showed you the way... If you were a pony, I'd wish you were working for us full time."

"Thank you for the compliment, Mrs. Guilty Verdict. I should head off and get that experiment set up. Considering that you ponies are herbivores and the fact that many animals, that in my world would be consumed, are sentient and thus protected, I presume my chances of getting a slab of meat are pretty low."

I was surprised to see Guilty Verdict shaking her head. "This castle receives numerous ambassadors from other countries, including members of the predatory races, such as griffons. Because of that, we keep a storage of meats for them so to respect their customs and not have any diplomatic incidents on our hooves. We also hire griffon chefs to cook them."

"That's good news. I just need a meat that can emulate pony flesh. Chest muscle would be the most appropriate."

"I'll send a word in to the chefs to bring one out. The horn... may be a problem."

"A drill would work too, or even a simple cone with a spiral etching."

"I'll look into that.... Actually, get one of the guards."

"What? That's... kind of a strange question."

"Trust me, they'll help you."

I returned to my room for a moment and drank some tea before mentally preparing myself. Heading back downstairs feeling ready to take on the day, I found Shining standing in front of the doors leading to the kitchen.

"Good afternoon, Lt."

"Same to you, Shining. So, is the test prepared?"

He gave me a firm nod. "We've set up a rack of pig flesh or what griffons call "pork" and got some weapons you requested, among other weapons. Spearhead, pike, anything that pierces. We were also able to find a horn, an actual unicorn's horn."

"Who donated it?"

Shining shook his head, which confused me for a moment. "A guard will be volunteering for us."

"Really? Kind of strange, volunteering to ram your forehead into a slab of meat, especially if you're an herbivore."

"Don't worry. He'll be fine."

I followed Shining into the kitchen, where a unicorn chef was levitating the slab of thawed meat out for us. I was the only one indifferent to seeing the meat, which was natural. The chef quickly moved it to a rack originally meant for spears with hooks. With a powerful movement of his magic, the chef quickly hooked the slab quite nicely on the rack. It was rib meat, so it curved quite well and the chef had been spot on, giving us the perfect angle to strike.

Turning around, I saw Shining move a cart towards me. On it was an array of weapons we were testing. The first was a spear, which I allowed Shining to try. Grabbing it with his magic, Shining quickly brought his spear to bear. He concentrated for a moment before giving the spear a powerful thrust. The spear did its job and impaled into the pork. Pulling it out, he returned the now bloody weapon to the tray.

The next weapon was a rapier. It looked just like ones I had seen in museums, including the handle. I was confused why ponies would even invent a sword with a handle if they had nothing to grasp. I scratched my head on confusion until Shining demonstrated what it was for. Instead of using his magic, he grabbed the handle in teeth and held it firmly, almost like a skilled swordsman would with their hands.

Given a running start, the immobile slab was skewered by the rapier and slide out with relative ease. I noticed that Shining was squirming upon hearing the sword shred the meat with ease. Once the rapier was cleared, Shining slowly placed it back. I fear for anyone stupid enough to actually fight Shining, now.

"You can do the rest... that really tired me out."

I gave him a nod. "That would be best."

Watching him walk away, a young unicorn stallion with a pale brown coat entered through the doors at the same time. He wore the golden plate armor of a royal guard, minus the helmet. I was curious to see a royal guard that wasn't either a dark grey or a pure white color.

"Are you... the 'human' Shining told me?" he asked.

I gave him an affirming nod. "That I am. The name is Lt. Roya Sayid. I am a consulting detective."

He examined me for a moment until he noticed the badge pinned to my jacket. Instantly, he snapped to attention, treating me as a superior officer, complete with salute. "Private Comedy Mask, ma'am!"

I sighed. "At ease. You're just here to help me as a volunteer, not a drill. Besides, I'm not military, rather I'm a police officer."

"Isn't that... the same thing?"

Again I sighed. "No, Private. Well... not where I'm from. Anyways, I'll be needing you to charge at that slab of meat for me."

Comedy Mask stared at the meat for a moment before getting a queasy look on his face. "Ma'am... Is that what I think it is?"

"Yes, it's a slab of pig meat. I am fully aware."

"Um... may I ask why you're not bothered by it?"

"Humans are omnivores, meaning we eat both meat and plants to a certain extent, though my beliefs are very strict in certain kinds of meats. Swine is off limits for me."

"So... You want me... to run horn first... into that?"

I nodded before speaking with a rousing charismatic voice. "I just need to see how a horn impaling wound would come out as. This is important research, private. You'd be making Equestria proud!" My little words of encouragement seemed to work and he became eager to run head first into the thing. "Before you go... I need to..." Too late, he had already went into full gallop towards the slab while screaming at the top of his lungs.

"For Equestria!" I looked away a bit, hoping I wouldn't see a glory blinded colt crash head first into the wall after piercing the slab. Luckily, he stopped right when he impaled the thing. Unfortunately, he got stuck.

"Um, ma'am? Could you kinda help me? Pretty please?"

I could only allow my face to meet my hand. With haste, I walked over to him and grabbed his collar before pulling as hard as I can. It took some finesse but after some struggling, I was able to dislodge his horn. He fell onto his rump, rather comically, and gave me a weak smile.

"Let me get you a towel." I grabbed a wash cloth that came with the weapons and wiped the blood and pig flesh off his horn. He was grossed out by it, but after making sure I got into the grooves, he seemed happy that he at least helped to "Serve Equestria."

"Thank you, Private Comedy."

"You're welcome, ma'am!" He gave me a firm salute, which made me smile. I dismissed him so he could get a proper shower, hoping to thoroughly clean his horn properly. With a sigh of relief, I returned to the cart to try the last weapon. This was wasn't a normal standard issued weapon, rather it was a museum piece of some kind. I didn't really know why Shining would give me an artifact that belonged under a glass case instead of inside a pig's side.

The "dagger' in question was some sort of large black thorn or something. Flicking it, I noticed that the top portion was quite sharp, ending at a sharp hook point. It reminded me of a horns on bugs like beetles or something. The thorn or whatever it was had been bonded to a handle and guard with string and some metal clamps, turning it into a dagger.

Seeing that there was nothing else, I quickly put on a pair of gloves before handling the dagger. It was light in my hand, with most of the weight coming from the handle itself. I walked up to the abused slab of pork and looked for a spot. Seeing a clear area, I pulled my arm back before giving it a powerful thrust with a slight uppercut. The dagger went in cleanly. I pulled the now bloody dagger out and quickly cleaned it, hoping I didn't damage it.

After placing the museum piece on the cart, I returned to the meat and began my examination. The spear had created two slice marks opposite of each other, which meant it wasn't a spear. The sword was too thin and made a slit, not a circular wound. The horn was close but it lacked the top gorging line.

I moved to the last wound and examined it with a detailed eye. The wound was circular, given that the dagger had a thick cone like fuller. Upon exiting the dagger had pulled some flesh, which gave the wound the characteristic top gouging mark I was looking for.

Satisfied with my findings, I quickly used a notebook nearby, probably to remind chefs and whatnot, and wrote them down. The sound of the doors opening caught my attention and I turned to see Shining, looking better than before.

"Did you finish everything?" Shining asked.

I nodded. "Yes. What dagger is this anyways?"

"That would be a changeling dagger. It was made from the broken horn from one of those... things." Shining didn't seem happy to mention the name of those creatures. It was like he had a grudge against them.

"I see... Well, it's the dagger that passed the test."

"What? Don't you know what that means?"

"Yes. A changeling had killed Crystal Clear and.... wait..." Something clicked in my mind. Changelings were natural shape-shifters, able to morph into the perfect image of any pony they see and can imitate their voice and even behavior after observation. When I had first met Blueblood... he had a white flower on his collar. The next time I saw him, his collar had a red rose, which was what probably caused his shirtfront to be pink. What about when Blueblood ran out of the room? "Shining! Where's the maid that saw us chase Blueblood?"

"You mean Squeaky Clean?"

"Whatever her name is, I need to talk to her."

"Hmm, I'll get a schedule report." Shining leaned over a bit to look at the meat slab. "What are you going to do with that? Eat it? I know you humans eat meat."

I shook my head. "No. My religious beliefs state that I cannot eat swine." Shining raised his eyebrow at me, confused to, what probably sounded to him, were strange belief structures. I shrugged. "Who's going to deal with the cart?" I asked.

"I'll get somepony to do that. Come with me."

The two of us left the kitchen and went to find this Squeaky Clean mare.

Chapter 10 - Testimony

We quickly found a signing sheet used to tell when the maids were on duty. The task of finding this Squeaky Clean was a hard one. The castle had numerous towers, which meant we had to search each and every one of them. The only clue to her whereabouts was being in the north wing, apparently towards the chambers belonging to the two princesses.

Eventually, we found her, cleaning Luna's room. The room itself was beautiful in its own right, as if in an eternal night style. The ceiling had a display of stars and whatnot, apparently being the real things via enchantments to show the night sky at any time. Nearby was a fireplace and a cushion, no doubt a comfortable spot to read a good book at.

The mare of our searches was a young mare, with what I guessed was in her early twenties. She had her hair in a neat little bun wrapped by a hair net. Wearing the normal clothes of a domestic maid, which was rather early 21st century style. On her flanks, which the uniform kept visible, was a picture of a spray bottle against a shiny wooden table, complete with stylized sparkles. She was an earth pony, using her mouth to handle her cleaning equipment.

"Excuse me, Mrs. Squeaky but Roya and I want to ask you a few questions," asked Shining.

Squeak turned to us before giving an inaudible sigh. Placing the spray bottle on a desk nearby, she moved towards us, wondering why we were here. "More questions?"

She was a bit annoyed about us even being here, probably tired from a good day's work. "Yes," I told her. "But it won't be long. May we ask, when Shining had fled the scene of the crime, did you notice the flower on his collar?"

"Oh... that... Yeah, I can remembered clearly what flower he had. A white lily. He wears specific flowers, though they're all fakes. Apparently, he can't stand the smell of real flowers and he hates when they wilt."

I turned to Shining to discuss this revelation with him. Squeaky shrugged and returned to her work. "So, we have one of these Changelings as our suspect."

"Worse," Shining said firmly. "We have one hiding among our mist. Come with me, I'm going to need to do a whole inspection of the Royal Gu..." All of us were caught off guard by a loud "woomph" explosion. It was enough that there was a slightly noticeable shake. I noticed the night sky of the ceiling shimmering a bit. The stars would shift for a moment before returning to their normal state. Without even thinking, I had already pulled my pistol out and had it ready in my hands. "What in Celestia's name was that?" Shining shouted.

Getting back up from the ground and looking around to make sure everything was okay, I returned my pistol to my holster. "I don't know, Shining..." I turned to see a telescope perched on a balcony connected to the room. "Maybe that would help."

The three of us walked up to the telescope. Shining was the one to check it and he quickly brought it down to look at the surrounding area. "Nothing looks damaged... But there's a cloud of smoke or something coming from the hills nearby. Look for yourself."

Shining allowed me a view and I quickly took a glance. In the distance was a plume of something. Looking carefully, I turned a rather large dial on the side to zoom in. At the base of the plume was a building. "Shining, there's a collapsed building, I think. Can you get emergency response there?"

Turning away from the telescope, I saw Shining giving me a firm node. "Follow me, maybe Celestia might know what it is."

We arrived at the throne room to see numerous ponies talking to Celestia. Shining kept me away and out sight for the moment, noticing that some were reporters and whatnot.At the side, I saw Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and three other mares standing there, confused and worried about what just happened. The one that was worst off was a butter yellow pegasus with an extremely long pink mane. She had simply sat on the ground shivering and using her mane like a security blanket.

"I need to speak with my advisors on this. Please come later for more questions." Even though Celestia spoke calmly, I knew she was probably worried about the plume in the distance. It wasn't something you could simply hide. The reporters quickly left, and after making sure none of them were hanging around, Shining and I came out of our hiding spot and walked up to Princess Celestia.

"What happened, Princess?" Shining asked.

"I don't know but it seems some sort of building has appeared in the hills. Apparently, it had been teleported there, enough that the air that was displaced had made a powerful shock-wave. I need you and a handful of guards, especially ones with magic, to investigate this."

"What about Roya?"

Celestia looked up at me for a moment. "She can come with. The Elements too. Just make sure nopony sees her."

"Got it."Without even thinking, Shining had already left the throne room to complete his orders.

Noticing Twilight there, I began speaking to Celestia. "May I ask, who these other three ponies are? I know about Applejack and Rainbow Dash."

"Yes. Might as well start introductions. This is Rarity, Element of Generosity."

"Thank you, your majesty." The unicorn Celestia was referring to was a mare that seemed to hold a veil of elegance around herself. She had a heavily stylized mane of purple curls and her coat was a pristine white. Even her way of speaking was upper-class and she wore as much makeup, if not more, than I did.

"This is Fluttershy, Element of Kindness."

A simple "eep" was the only thing to escape the poor mare's mouth. I only saw a scared face poking out from her mane. It seemed as if she wanted to just crawl in a hole and let everything blow over.

"This is Pinkie..."

"Hi! What's your name? What are you anyways? You remind me of a minotaur but not so tall. Or even hairy! That makes me wonder, why are you bald except for your head? Your eyes look funny, why are they like that? Do you like parties? What kind of party do you like?" The pink earth pony with a pink cotton candy looking mane had forgo any form of appropriate behavior or even the idea of personal space. I couldn't even register how fast she moved and went straight into my face. For a second, I was about to fall down in surprise.

"Pinkie, please, darling! Don't you know the idea of personal space?" scolded Rarity.

Pinkie Pie quickly stopped her motor mouth and moved back a bit, just enough to not warrant the ticket of invading personal space. "What's your name?"

Giving a sigh of relief, I began my introduction. "I am Lt. Roya Sayid. A human from Novimus City."

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Roya. It's a very beautiful name and your jacket, it so matches your eyes, darling!" exclaimed Rarity.

I smiled at the complement. "Thank you. I try to keep a very professional yet beautiful look going." I shook Rarity's hoof. "If you're wondering, my eyes are cybernetic, hence why they're a bit unusual."

"Cybernetic? I don't follow."

"They're not real. Rather, they're um... how do I put this? Like cameras wired directly to my brain."

"That sounds... rather painful."

I shook my head. "It wasn't and it helps me see now. I was blind as a little girl."

"Oh my, I'm sorry to hear that!"

"Don't be. It just meant I had "seen" the world in a different way. May I ask why you and your friends are here?"

"Yes, you see, darling. As the Elements of Harmony we personify six traits. Twilight and Princess Celestia wanted us to come here about using them in some sort of spell. I don't know about the details but I think it's a spell to move... from dimensions or something?"

"Yes, that would be it. it's for me, specifically. I'm not from Equestria, or even this universe. For now, I've been helping Shining on an important investigation."

"You mean the Blueblood case? I knew something like that would happen. He would snap and do... that to the poor mare." I dunno why but she Rarity showed anger towards Blueblood. Then I remembered Twilight's tirade. Blueblood must have really insulted Rarity over something at whatever the Grand Galloping Gala was."

I shook my head at Rarity. "Actually, Blueblood is innocent. As any investigation, I am not allowed to reveal how but new research has proven this."

"What? But... But how?"

"I said I'm not allowed to reveal. I can only state what is released to the public. This had been revealed a bit earlier today."

Shining quickly returned doing a full set of armor now. Other Royal Guards were moving behind him, apparently ready to head out. "A chariot has been readied for you, Princess Celestia."

With a nod, both Celestia, the Elements of Harmony, and I followed.Shining to a larger chariot outside. At first, I wondered how it would even hold us, but then I noticed a second one nearby.

"Roya, Fluttershy, Rarity, and I will take the first chariot. The others will follow," said Celestia.

We got onto our respective chariots. Knowing full well that the ride would be hundreds of meters in the air, I got myself a spot in the middle, hoping that I wouldn't fall overboard.

I was a bit calmer then last time while flying, though still finding the whole thing unnerving. Looking around, I noticed Rarity and Celestia talking. I turned to my other side to see Fluttershy in her seat, a bit uneasy, though more so.

"I'm surprised you're scared a flying, seeing that you're a pegasus," I said.

"No... it's not that..."

"Is there something wrong then?"

"Well... It's your eyes. They're a bit... creepy."

I sighed. It wasn't a reaction new to me. Many people who had never seen cybernetic eyes before would find them strange. "It's ok, Fluttershy. Think of them like a crutch or a peg leg. I have them so I can function."

"I guess... May I ask, what do you humans eat?"

I was a bit worried at the question. She seemed fragile and I was afraid that telling her the truth would scar her. "Well... how do I put this... We humans... are omnivores. Now don't be alarmed, it's not like we go around on horrible murdering sprees. We just... have to eat animals to survive. I already took a promise of no meat while in Equestria, especially considering one of the few meats available is against my beliefs."

"Um... May I ask... why?"

"Well... " I gave Fluttershy a very short and terse overview of my religion's dietary laws. No blood, pork, or carrion meat. I was surprised to see her more accepting of me being a meat eating creature. In return, she told me about the numerous animals she took care of, even full on meat eaters like eagles and other omnivores such as bear, though she told me they were very friendly and would never heart any of her other animal friends. I was curious and a bit confused to how other animals to fight against their own natural inclination to well... continue the circle of life.

"Excuse me, Mrs. Roya or Mrs. Sayid," said Rarity.

I turned around to her. "Either, or is fine. Is there something you need?"

"Yes, may I ask, do you humans always wear clothes?"

I nodded. "Clothing is important to all humans. We find the lack of them to be indecent, more so in my own and other cultures. Why do you ask?"

"Well, I'm a fashion designer back in Ponyville and your clothing gave me some ideas. Can I see your jacket?"

"Sure, I guess." I slowly took it off and handed it to Rarity. She felt it and was curious to what it was made of. "What kind of fabric is this?"

"Synthetic. Most clothing is made from some kind of synthetic. Natural fibers are a bit on the expensive range."

"Synthetic? You mean, you humans can copy natural fibers?"

I nodded. "Yes. We don't seem to work well with nature, always changing the environment to our own needs. It didn't hurt at first, but eventually, we almost destroyed everything. Luckily, conservation efforts are paying off and natural habitats are being restored. Even species we though were extinct are coming back."

"Wow, that sounds... so strange, and a bit dark."

"We humans are a strange bunch, indeed. Constantly fighting yet still working together sometimes. You could say, we are as varied as a mixed up rubik's cube."

"What?"

"Some sort of annoying puzzle. You won't understand."

"Hmm... May I please make some clothing for you, darling? I'd love to try making clothes for your body structure. I can already think of hundreds of designs!"

I gave Rarity a nod and a smile, which made her sequel in glee. Turning to the landscape, I looked to see whatever making the plume now visible. We began descending towards the structure and I became a bit worried at what I was seeing.

Chapter 11 - Effondrement

Looking carefully, I could make the partial structure of a parking garage. Landing on a clear area nearby, I was confused to why such a structure was even here in Equestria. They didn't seem to have automobiles of any kind, nor did they have architecture that was bland like the building was. The plume had dissipated to a decent degree, enough to reveal that part of the garage had collapse. Even the original entrance was covered in debris, enough that not me or any pony for that matter, would be able to get inside.

Guards quickly got out of other chariots while pegasi guards kept watch from above. Seeing the second chariot land, the rest of the group came out and Shining rejoined us.

"What is it?" Shining asked.

Celestia shook her head and stared at the structure. "I don't know... It's not Equestrian, that's for certain."

I had to speak up once I realized the architecture. "It's human. A parking garage, well most of what's left."

"What is a parking garage?" Celestia asked.

"It's a public place to store cars while you're out at work, shopping, or anything else that would call for a trip in to town."

"What's this car you speak of?"

"Oh right. Well a car is like a self-propelled carriage, except it goes way faster. It's powered by electricity stored in capacitors and allow what would make an hour trip for walking at a human pace to being a short stretch that would take minutes or even seconds, depending on the route you take."

"That's rather efficient, especially for a "slow species" such as yourself. Nothing against you or anything."

"That's fine. Horses, or ponies as you are, were used as the major form of transportation before automobiles were invented. We even at first called them the horseless buggy."

"Yes, you told me about the fact that your species is the only sentient ones on your planet."

"Now, how do we get inside?"

The next thing we all heard had gotten us by surprise. "Dans le parc de stationnement." Rarity suddenly said. We all turned to her, confused to what language she was even speaking. She simply stared back and shrugged. "What? Am I the only one who speaks Prench?"

The looks on our faces already answered for us. Turning away, annoyed that we didn't even know any Prench, she simply stared at the garage and pointed to a small sign on the side of a part that was still standing. Indeed it had the Prench, or rather French, title of the garage on a board for all to see.

I turned to Celestia for a moment. "Is it safe to go inside?"

Shining was the one to answer. "I'll get my unicorn squadron to use their magic to keep the building stable and make an entrance. Be warned, we can't keep it up forever."

Celestia nodded and told that I would have to be accompanied by a unicorn pony for protection. I and Rarity were with Shining, while Twilight served to lead the others, along with a unicorn guard. Celestia, being the equivalent to a goddess followed us alone.

I watched the guard squadron use their magic to rip apart an opening. It was large enough to fit us through without hindrance, thankfully. Finding proper footing proved to be hard. We had to dodge rebar, metal, and concrete chunks to get inside. It was dark, except for areas where light was able to sneak in. Eventually, we reached the ground floor of the part that was still standing. Cars, with their round curved bodies, were all parked in there spots. Some had been moved a bit during the "collapse" with most of their windows broken into a million small round pieces. Others were lest fortunate, having chunks of concrete ranging from softball to even cars from other stories falling on top of them, crushing the others upon impact. I wondered if their insurances covered trans-dimensional teleportation...

Some ponies would get close and one pegasi was close enough that he decided to give the car a firm buck. The results was the sound of a blaring horn, which spooked all of us. I even had to cover my own ears, less I wanted to need a hearing aid with my eyes.

"Khalass! Turn that blasted thing off!" I shouted.

Not knowing what to do, he simply kicked it again and again, hoping it would stop. Reminding myself that I was the only one who could stop it, I quickly ran over and reached my arm inside to grab the handle once I noticed the window was down. The door opened and I quickly sat in the driver's seat before turning the alarm off. It was a relief that the dreadful alarm was gone and I began nursing a slight headache that had formed.

"Why in Celestia's name did that happen?" asked Rarity.

"Anti-theft alarm. Cars are expensive and people tend to leave things in them." I told her. I looked around to see that the car was mostly empty, except for a few things like a music player still connected and an unopened bottle of soda. "Well, no doubt someone's going to be very unhappy once they find out their ride home is missing."

"Can you turn the car on? Maybe we can see how they work."

I shook my head. "No. I don't have the key to the vehicle. Besides, there's no road to drive them on and only some of the cars here are worthy of off road driving, not to mention there's no way to get it out of the garage."

Getting out of the car, we continued our search around the garage. Eventually, we reached the still surviving corner of the garage where the elevator and stairs were. None of the ponies wanted to try the stairs, seeing that they wouldn't accommodation their quadruped structure.

"I guess we'll turn back until we can be sure the second floor is safe," said Celestia.

We continued to look around for a few more minutes. The rest of the ground floor was like everything else. Cars, crushed cars, and a few motorcycles as well. We went back outside to allow the unicorn guards that were holding the structure up to rest. Indeed it had been tiring on them as many simply allowed their legs to fail and they flop on their stomachs after releasing their magical grasps. Some wound pant while others went to some water flasks that had been brought within a few hidden compartments on the chariots.

"Roya, how could something from your world arrive in ours?" Celestia asked.

I thought for a moment. There were some theories to what would happen when an object within a pocket of space was to achieve 1.0c, the speed of light. Maybe cross dimensional travel would be possible then, but these were immobile structures. There was also the fact that I was simply walking through a park in Dubai before coming here. A few other theories appeared in my head but only a few few actually seemed plausible. "What's the most technologically advanced thing you ponies have done currently?" I asked.

"A few years ago, we did achieve nuclear fission in Chicolt. Arcane logic crystals can be achieved to a decent size, allowing arcade cabinets."

"So you have maybe basic computers and you've only recently achieved nuclear fission for peaceful research purposes. That wouldn't be enough... What's the fastest speed achieved by any pony?"

The sound of someone's throat being clear caught our attention. We both turned to Rainbow Dash, who was standing there with her wings out in some sort of pose. "You hold the fastest record?" I asked.

Dash gave a confident nod. "Nopony can out-fly me!"

"She is right. Rainbow Dash has achieved mach two before. No other pegasi has reached that speed and very few can even achieve mach one or even do a Sonic Rainboom," Celestia commented.

I sighed. "Mach two isn't much and it shouldn't be possible by biological means anyways."

Dash seemed offended at my comment. "Oh yeah? What do you humans have?" I noticed that her wings flared even more in response. It was obvious she took my statement as an attack.

"Not counting Sling Drives, we have jets that can hit mach 4, though it's not common. With Sling Drives, we can achieve .01c or 1/100th of the speed of light itself in space."

"What? That's not fair! You're using egghead stuff!"

I sighed for a moment and simply stood there thinking. "Sling Drives seem to be the only answer... but the closest test Sling Drive I know off was at the edge of Dubai, in a properly contained and protected facility."

"Could it be an accident a the facility that caused this?"

"I-I don't think so. The garage is from France, which is thousands of kilometers away. Not even a Sling Drive can affect anything in that dista..." I was cut short by a Royal Guard pegasus with a scroll in his mouth. He quickly landed in front of Celestia before giving a proper bow.

Taking the scroll out of his mouth, he began to speak. "Princess Celestia! I have news from Princess Luna in Canterlot!"

"Let me see. We'll talk about this later, Lt. Roya." said Celestia. Taking the scroll, the solar alicorn quickly skimmed it before giving it back. "We'll have to talk about this later, we're needed back in Canterlot. Shining! Keep a detachment here to guard the place. Human technology cannot be left unattended."

With a salute, Shining quickly barked out the orders. I began following Princess Celestia to the chariot before Shining stopped me for a moment. Turning around, I noticed something in his magical grasp. Within the familiar blue aura was a handful of unused rounds for my pistol. Giving me a reassuring smile, I plucked the rounds from out of the air and placed them in a pocket of my jacket. "Thank you Shining." Giving a salute, seeing how appropriate it was, I quickly returned to the chariot and we soon were heading back Canterlot to deal with whatever the scroll had pulled us too.

Chapter 12 - Lost Caverns

The queen of the changelings stared at the "cave" walls. They were strange, seemingly made of finished metal and not rocks. The small corridors of the place were unlit, meaning she was forced to use her magic to see. Doors were broken, and panels were sometimes found removed from where they once stood, revealing a mess of wires and tubes. In all, it was strange and not natural. Even the light that allowed her to see was unnatural, done by strange tubes above them that flickered faster then she could count. They even made an annoying hum that crawled underneath her shell.

"My queen! Scouts have reported that a human with dark skin is in Canterlot!" exclaimed a high ranking drone that followed her.

"What is this human's name?"

"Roya. She seems to be within Canterlot Castle and was put on an investigation after one of our changelings... panicked and killed a mare."

The queen scowled at the thought that one of her highly trained spies had been so foalish to kill without reason. It would have been easier to simply knock the mare out and hide her, feeding on her love. Still, it was better than having a whistle blowing filly ruining her plans. "Keep a watch on this human female for now. First, show me where the jinn is."

"Yes, my liege."

Queen Chrysalis and her drones moved through the tunnels until they reached a large chamber of some kind. A large door, easily three times the size of normal hallway doors the place had, sat in front of them. Unfortunately, it was the one thing they couldn't break into. The doors seemed to resist plasma spells nor did any changeling, or even herself, had the strength to pull it open. Looking down, the queen noticed the box like device sitting in front of the door. It was tall with a glass surface on the top.

"Is this the jinn?" Chrysalis asked.

The drone nodded. "Yes. The jinn is contained within this metal box. Magic won't coax it to give us its gift... but a human can."

"How?"

"It seems this cave is rather, a structure of some sort built by humans. The box's alien magic, the like we have never seen. It will only respond to a human touch."

"How long do we have?"

"Not long. This human magic that gives the jinn life is finite and if we delay even by a few weeks, the magic will run dry and the gift will be lost forever."

"Hmm..." Slowly, the queen brought her hole ridden hoof out and hovered it above the glass top of the box. With a simple tap, the glass sprang to life. Her and the changelings moved back in surprise while fire made of light floated above the surface. Slowly, each particle moved around until a coherent image appeared.

Standing before the queen was a jinn, taking the form of a uniformed man with a slick dull grey uniform made of a simple shirt with numerous angular lines and patching pants. With blue and golden trimmings, it held a heavily streamlined, almost military look. It reminded Queen Chryaslis too much of that one stallion. She spat to the side upon seeing the mental image of Shining. A voice spoke from the jinn's mouth but it was heavily garbled and unnatural, just like the building they stood in. "Captain... Passcode needed..."

"A passcode?" The queen asked herself. "Where can I get a passcode?"

"Cerebral....implant..." The jinn stuttered. Its image flickered before disappearing, the particles making up its structure breaking apart in a chaotic blast before simply losing existence.

The queen thought about what the jinn said. The word cerebral was understood but implant... It was a strange idea. Could information be stored within the mind of a being without the being even knowing? Such strange magic it must have been. Knowing this hurdle was a simple puzzle she turned to her changeling drone. "Scrawl this place and look for anything like the remains of a human. From the looks of it, they're ape like. Bring whatever you find!"

"Yes, my liege!" the drone saluted. using the hive mind, the drone spread his queen's orders and every drone within the structure began their search.

"Once we find this "cerberal implant." the gift of the jinn with strengthen all of us and we'll take back Canterlot. Then, all of Equestria!"

I watched Shining in curiosity on how a proper regiment examination was done. Sometimes, the military caught my curiosity in how they worked. Shining was wearing just the purple harness or breastplate, I didn't know which term was more appropriate, and was levitating a check board in front of him. Cadance was with me, watching her husband as well.

With a sigh, I took a sip of the tea I had made once I came back to Canterlot. Each time Shining moved to the next guard, they'd take off their helmet, removing the enchantment and showing their true appearance. The enchantments came in two flavors and had different gender versions. Each guard would sound off their name, rank, and age to make sure they were the real person and not an impostor. Because changelings needed to observe their targets before impersonating them, the enchantments meant that a changeling wouldn't have proper knowledge of who was under the helmet.

"Okay, that should be it. You are to return to your duties for the evening!" Shinting ordered. A frown appeared on his face once he finished. No changelings were currently within his ranks.

The Royal Guards gave a loud salute before leaving formation.

"Well that was a bust," said Cadance.

I nodded in agreement. "It is. You'd think it would be easy to root out a changeling."

"Yes. I suppose it should be. Well, I'm going to head back for lunch, if you need me, I'll be in the dining room."

"Araki fi ma ba'd!" I said when Cadance left. With a sigh, I got up myself and began heading down to see Shining.

Most of the Royal guards had left but when I arrived, I noticed Guilty Verdict arriving as well, walking with the gait of a true business woman, ready for anything.

"Good evening, Lt. It's nice to see you," said Guilty.

"To you as well. Is there something you need?"

Guilty nodded. "Yes. I was wondering if you two have found the changeling yet."

Both Shining and shook our heads. "No, not yet. Shining's the one with experience in these things."

Turning to Shining, he quickly explained our predicament. "It's safe to say that the changeling in question is quite shifty, and there's the issue of its disguise."

"What do you mean?" I asked,, confused to what he meant. I had thought changelings disguised themselves based upon a pony they saw.

"Changelings normally just copy the appearances of other ponies, but if a changeling were to be trained carefully, they can essentially create their own new identity using bits and pieces of different appearances."

"So a mix and match, you mean? That would make everything harder. Why not use the... um, flank symbols you ponies have?" I asked.

"The term's cutie mark and I've tried that. Unfortunately, there is the slight chance two ponies with similar talents gaining matching cutie marks, not to mention that, among our registry, none of the troops before had a cutie mark that wasn't there."

"Like an ID. Back in Novimus City, people carried ID cards or driver's licenses. Because of this, we had a basic database to search up identities such as victims, missing persons, or even criminals with repeating offenses, not to mention we had technology to match people just by facial recognition alone."

"That sounds rather helpful."

"But we don't have that luxury. What's the closest thing to an ID?"

"We have ID's that show cutie mark, name, age, and current residence."

"I presume warrants are needed to start scanning ID's?"

"Not for my guards. By law, and threat of court martial, all Royal Guards must produce ID's to superior officers on request."

"That's helpful. We'll need to setup a checkpoint system around the castle, especially in areas of high traffic for advisers, non-military personal, and other persons. We'll have to be careful. Is there some sort of changeling checking spell?"

Shining sighed. "There's one in experimentation, but the issue is that changeling magic is rather strange. No mages within Canterlot can use it properly and then, there was that one incident..."

"What happened?"

"I-I don't want to talk about it."

Seeing Shining a bit unnerved by the mentioning of whatever it was, I left the question alone. "So we'll have to make a test of some kind. Ask general questions only a pony would know. Military lingo, their back-stories, and even if they know the names of their friends. That should give us a proper filter so we can get trustworthy guards for these checkpoints."

Guilty agreed with me. "This would be your department, Captain Armor. I'll get it approved and we'll start the process"

Agreeing to the plan, we left to deal with our parts and I quickly stopped at the throne room. This time, the princess was talking with ponies wearing silver armor. On the collar portion was a symbol of a crest of some kind. It was the crest of the State Militia, the national state police of Equestria. With the exception of Canterlot, they were the ones to police the rest of Equestria. Knowing that it meant I couldn't be seen by them, I kept myself hidden and simply waited.

After a few minutes, I saw the militia pony leave and, after making sure no one would see me, I went to the throne room where Celestia was. She gave me a simple nod, unusually without her warm smile I had started associating with her.

"Good afternoon, Lt. Roya. Are you working well with Shining."

I nodded. "That I am. May I ask what the problem was?"

"Why do you think there was a problem?"

"State Militia ponies don't answer to you unless it's something serious, something that would be about internal security."

With a sigh, Celestia quickly dismissed the Royal Guards of her throne room and came down from her throne. I was surprised to see that Celestia's normally pristine white coat had a few blemishes here and there, not to mention her mane was darker. It didn't even flow normally in its non-existent wind, as if the wind had died down a bit. "You know that garage and how it came from your world?"

I gave Celestia a firm nod. "Yes, but I don't know how."

"Well... at the same time, a few groups of ponies and buildings they were in had disappeared at the same time. I originally was thinking changelings but they disappeared en masse. Changelings only ponynap my subjects one at a time."

"Wait... So because the garage from my world came here, ponies from your world were brought to mine?"

"That's what I hope. Location doesn't seem to stay constant so there are numerous chances that... they didn't end up in a safe place."

"Not to mention many areas on my planet are covered in bustling cities, ones that would dwarf Canterlot ten fold. I don't know what my species would do if they find them. There are numerous outcomes and many of them aren't good. But... If they land somewhere where people speak English, them just speaking will easily get civilians to defend them, arguing that they should automatically be given the same rights as any human being. Not to mention, I doubt you could hide a whole group of ponies." I sighed for a moment. "Let's just pray that they landed safely I have faith that we won't make the dumbest decision ever and attack a defenseless species."

Looking at Celestia, I noticed she was a bit worried about my guess. I reassured her that it won't come to worse and she calmed down a bit. "Roya... May I ask you something?"

"Yes, though there's not much reason to ask me anything. You know way more than I do."

"Yes, well... Considering that parking lot, by default and logical conclusion, is technically under your authority. I must ask you if we may take some of those cars and research them, obviously for peaceful purposes. Some of our mages and researchers want to learn more about human technology. To see how it works and maybe ways to integrate it into our own."

"That's... that's a hard question, Princess Celestia." I thought about it. All of them were powered by high energy capacitors, I assumed. There were people who still owned the older petrol engine vehicles, but they were very few and far between. The optronics in them wouldn't be an issue either. Slowly, I tried to think if any portion of the cars could be directly weaponized but none came to mind. With a sigh, I decided it wouldn't hurt. "I'll allow a few of them on one condition that no weapons of war or any other technology made to harm comes from this. If any weapons are found, I want them as soon as possible. I will not allow human weapons to fall under anyone's hands, including your species'."

Celestia gave a firm nod, understanding my reasoning. "That is an admirable way of thinking, Roya. I would have done the same thing. If the technology can serve to better the lives of my ponies, then it will utilized, if not, I shall make no use of them. Now, on another topic, we're getting close to finished the spell. Once it's finished, the Elements, Luna, and I will send you back home."

"That would be best." I sighed a bit, thinking about my family back home and their faces once they find me safe and sound.

Celestia was able to read my face and quickly made a comment. "You miss your family, don't you."

I nodded. "Yes, I do... It's very hard to sleep sometimes when you realize that your family has no clue where you are. For all I know, I could be pronounced dead back in my world and they're at a funeral with an empty casket."

"Sometimes, it is best to stay away from negative thoughts."

Celestia was right. If I continued thinking so negatively, I wouldn't be able to function properly and unneeded stress was obviously bad for my health, even if I was as healthy as a horse, as many would say. Giving myself a second to relax, I took a deep breath and calmed down.

"Now, I think there's a certain designer who wants to make you a new set of clothes. I know you've been stuck wearing the same outfit since you arrived," said Celestia.

I felt a bit embarrassed and I could feel my cheeks heat up. With a sigh of relief, I thanked Celestia and began leaving the throne room until Celestia stopped me for a moment. "Oh, and Roya... I already know about your weapon. As long as you use it only as a final option and you uphold your own moral code, I will allow you to keep it." I was a but surprised to how Celestia found out, but then I realized she probably had found the spent casings and concluded that it was my pistol. Even though it was supposed to be concealed, any one with a good eye..., or even a mind scrying spell, would know that I was carrying a deadly weapon, obviously for safety reasons and due to my profession. With a nod, I thanked her for the understanding.

"Thank you, Princess Celestia. I promise as a police officer and a human being that I will bring no harm against your ponies. Never except when in self defense or the defense of the greater good."

With a simple nod, she dismissed me and I returned to my room." I fond Rarity standing there at the doorway, apparently she had waited for me. She was happy to see me, with her measuring tape draped around her beck and a pair of orange angular glasses sitting low on her muzzle. With a simple smile, I followed her into my room and offered her some tea.

"Thank you, darling! It has been awhile since I had a nice glass of tea." Rarity took a sip and smiled in joy at the sweet, strong flavor.

"You're welcome. Tea is a very popular drink where I'm from. Now, Celestia told me you wanted to see me about my clothes?"

"Yes, darling! She told me you've been stuck in the same outfit and I know that it fits you well but you can't be seen in the same clothes day to day. It's just... boring."

"I rather wear my clothes then wear none."

"Yes, I remember what you said back on the chariot. When I heard that, I just became ecstatic! I bet human fashion is so lovely and everything! Already your clothes, even with the stains and dirt they've accrued, show me that my guess was right. I've also noticed you humans have a thing for adding functionality to your clothing."

I smiled a bit before taking another sip of tea. "Thank you, though I don't really consider myself one to follow fashion. I'm middle aged anyways so I don' follow what the newest generation's taste."

"Really? I thought you were younger! Though I don't know what a young human looks like, I would have guessed you were maybe young thirties or something!"

"Thank you for the compliment but I'm 47. My oldest daughter just started college."

"Really? Do you have a picture of them?"

With a warm smile on my face I quickly fished out my phone from my pockets and turned it on. The battery, thankfully, was more than half way empty. Pulling up the picture, I showed Rarity my eldest daughter, Lena. She was a young woman with a slender build. In the picture, she had her deep brown, to almost black, hair was long and curly, down a bit past her shoulders in length. Here deep brown eyes accented her lighter brown skin. In the picture Lena wore summer clothing, consisting of a pink loose blouse, a thin denim jacket, and jeans. Behind her was the college she was attending. I remembered that day. I was so happy for her and she had the goofiest smile I had ever seen.

"She looks lovely, darling! Such a beautiful young mare, or whatever the term would be."

"Woman but I understand. My younger daughter, Minnah, is still in highschool. She somehow got my wheat golden hair, kinda funny when I learned that my hair color is recessive." I laughed a bit with Rarity.

"Now, why don't I start getting your measurements?"

With a simple nod, I quickly got and took my jacket off before standing in front of a mirror nearby. It took a bit, with Rarity trying to get every minute detail of the human body shape. I was curious to how she would do it. For one, unlike ponies our arms came out of the sides, not from the front like their forelegs did. There was also the fact, that I had breasts and human breasts on women were enlarged, in comparison to other mammals, though I was decent. Not too big, but not small.

Then I reminded myself that, unlike ponies, we humans wore clothing for everything, so functionality was a major part. The few times I saw clothing on ponies, I noticed that many lacked pockets usually. After Rarity finished measuring me, I turned to her and quickly told her that I still needed functionality. She simply gave a reassuring smile and nod and thanked me before leaving.

Right when Rarity left, Shining appeared at the doorway. "Want to help me with picking the guards for the checkpoints?" He had a simple warm smile on his face, probably spending his time with his wife.

With a smile, I nodded. "Sure." I quickly grabbed my jacket and placed it back on me while following Shining down the hallway. "I presume you and Cadance are doing well?"

Shining smiled and blushed a bit at the topic. "Yeah, her and I are doing fine. Why do you ask?"

"Just curious. Have you ever thought about children?"

The topic made him flustered and I couldn't help myself but chuckle at his reaction. "Ch-Children? That's a bit... early, don't you think?" he stammered.

I gave Shining a pat on the back. "I'm just playing with you. I remember when my husband brought the topic up."

"That reminds me, what do you think your family's doing?"

The question made me stop and think for a moment. It already had been but a few days but they were enough to scare them. I became dejected again at the thought that I was currently a missing woman back on my world. "I just hope I can see them soon. Everyday I stay in Equestria is another day I am away from them." I quickly wiped a small tear from my eye.

"I'm sorry for asking. I forgot about your circumstances. Sometimes, I forget that you're not even a pony let alone an Equestrian."

"It's fine, Shining. I presume the documents for this selection are ready?"

Shining nodded. "Yes. I've prepared them and we'll go through each one and ask the guards questions pertaining to them. Each paper tells out their history and back story. Any serious mistakes with bring up flags so we can investigate them."

"Hmm. I have to thank Guilty Verdict for getting this to go through."

"Don't worry, it won't take long at all." We walked into another hallway before noticing Blueblood standing there admiring one of the numerous paintings. Seeing that he was released, I told Shining I'd catch up and he left me alone in the hallway with Blueblood.

"Good evening, Blueblood," I said nicely.

Chapter 13 - Pretender

I smiled before noticing how Blueblood paid no attention to me. Raising an eye brow, I tapped Blueblood's shoulder to get his attention.

"Oh, sorry. I was just admiring the picture."

The painting was a portrait of a middle-aged, or as I presumed, mare with a platinum colored mane and a light purple coat. The inscription gave it as Queen Platinum of Unicornia and I presumed she was the ruler of the nation before Equestria was established. "Her name fits her well." I commented.

"Why are you here anyways?" said Blueblood with a rather haughty attitude.

I was confused to why he was acting... like before. Didn't I just cleared his name? "Blueblood? Are you okay?"

"Yes I'm fine! Why do you keep on pestering me?" he snapped.

Backing up for a moment, I wondered why he was being so annoyed at me. It took me a moment before a question popped in my head. "What about Crystal Clear?"

"What about her?"

That answer wasn't right. Blueblood wouldn't give me such a cold blow off... unless it wasn't him. "You're not Blueblood..."

The impersonator went bug eyed and suddenly was consumed in a volley of green fire.. Using my arm to keep the fire out of my vision, I looked to see a black equine like insectoid standing before me. Its pupiless blue eyes stared at me in anger and its curved dagger like horn glistened under the light. The wings on its back buzzed constantly in anger.

Seeing me staring it him, or it, the changeling quickly turned tail and shot off. I quickly went into a full sprint with my goal to catch the creature. The changeling was quick, and as nature was, being a biped meant I was slower. As I gave chase, the distance between me and the changeling became larger.

Suddenly, the changeling stopped and turned around. I was surprised to see its horn shrouded in a sickly green glow. With a powerful flash, the changeling shot out a powerful beam of green energy from its glowing horn. I leaned to the left just enough for the beam to miss me and it struck a panting behind me, burning a hole straight through it and into the wall.

The changeling hissed at me. Without hesitation, I grabbed my pistol and trained it on the creature before firing a shot. I just grazed its chitin shell, leaving only a harmless scratch. The changeling shot its deadly beam back at me. I was able to move of the way enough that only a small portion of my jacket got singed. Finding myself behind a bust for cover, I looked back to see the changeling turning around to run again.

I took two more shots. One quickly struck the changeling in the leg, cracking its chitin armor a bit. It didn't stop him and the second bullet simply took out a bust sitting at the end of the hallway. The changeling quickly took a left turn and I quickly followed.

I heard a shriek of fear and upon turning around the corner, I saw the changeling with a poor maid in its magical grasp. It's horn dangerously close to the mare's throat. I kept my gun trained on the changeling but I was fearful for the maid. She shook in the changeling's grasp and was sweating profusely.

"Let her go!" I shouted. "You don't want a second murder under your belt."

The changeling growled. "Don't even make a move!"

I kept my ground. Looking down, I noticed that the changeling's back right leg was indented and kept raised off the ground. The bullet hadn't pierced but it did cause internal bleeding or some form of damage. The changeling slowly walked backwards with the mare in tow, keeping his eyes trained on me. Each step he took with his hurt leg made his face contort with pain.

"Good. I'll take take this mare and return to the hive!"

The mare screamed in fear. "You know I can't allow you and besides, there are guards everywhere! There's no place to go!" I shouted. Looking carefully, I noticed something behind the changeling.

"Not if they don't know. I already got away with killing the last maid!" In the same flourish of green fire, the changeling took the image of Shining Armor and even copied his voice. "The Queen will be surprised to hear what weapons you humans have. Such power would be a great addition to the... "

A sudden bolt of lavender magic quickly struck the Changeling in the back of the head, knocking it out and allowing the maid to run to safety. The changeling automatically reverted back into its black chitinous self. Looking up, I noticed Shining walking towards the changeling.

"Thank God you arrived!" I said in relief. I quickly placed my pistol back in its holster before walking up to the changeling. "Ugly bug, isn't it?"

"Yeah. Try a thousand of them ruining your wedding day."

"That would be a problem. You heard the whole thing?"

Shining nodded. "We have our killer. I'm surprised we caught the thing alive. Normally they use some sort of loopback spell that literally fries their own brains."

"Like cyanide."

"What?"

"Suicide capsules soldiers and spies have used throughout history. Dead men tell no tales."

"Ugh... Let me take this changeling into custody. Maybe he can give us some knowledge on Queen Chrysalis' whereabouts."

I nodded and watched Shining lift the changeling onto his back. "I'll go and tell Celestia. We'll probably have to check every personal in the castle just in case," I said.

With a smile and a nod, Shining left the hallway, probably to have the changeling's horn severed and to find it a comfy home for the evening. Noticing the time, I retired to my room for a bit to do some prayers before heading to the throne room.

I stopped at the doors of the throne room. The guards had told me that Princess Celestia was dealing with some guests of some kind. The guards told me to wait a moment and I watched one peek inside. After a few moments the guard turned to me. "Celestia is waiting for you. You seem to be popular."

I raised my brow at the comment but simply ignored it. Waling inside, I was surprised to see griffons standing at the feet of Celestia's throne. Each one wore thin leather armor with light chain-mail underneath. A sword was sheathed around their hips and, in all, it gave the griffon guards a very classical European look.

Celestia looked at me for a moment before smiling. "This is Lt. Roya Sayid. She's the human that arrived a few days ago and has been of great help with our Royal Guards."

The griffons watched and stared at me for a moment. The one griffon that caught my attention was a tall one, wearing leather armor under a well made tunic of expensive fibers. Around his neck was a large golden chain necklace with a centerpiece showing a symbol of office. He had a middle aged look in his face, with a well worn out beak accompanied by numerous scars. A second scar ran the side of his neck, revealing that he was probably a veteran solider or maybe even an officer.

"Where's your armor?" the well clothed griffon said.

"I don't wear armor. Where I'm from, the police force is separate from the military. Not to mention, we don't wear armor unless necessary, such as a raid."

"Strange... what if someone has a sword?"

I couldn't help but smirk a bit. "We don't use swords anymore."

"Strange... no swords? Doesn't that seem a bit... backwards?"

This time, Celestia decided to step in. "Excuse me Sir Sideclaw but Roya is from a different world. In fact, her world's technology is very advanced."

"Hmm, what kind of species are these humans anyways? Predatory? Prey?"

I sighed. "We're a predator species and the most successful of our world."

Sideclaw simply stared at me for a moment before turning to one his guards. The two stared at each other and suddenly began chuckling. "Really? You got those puny things you call talons, no fur, and you're small failure of canines is laughable! Not to mention, with two legs like that, you'd probably run as fast as I can throw a sack of bread."

I was getting a bit annoyed, and seeing Celestia she had the same reaction. With a sigh, I ignored the offhand comment. Fortunately, Celestia was more vocal about it. "Excuse me, Sir Sideclaw, but you shouldn't disrespect the current ambassador for her species. Besides, there are things about these humans that you would best not to find out..."

"Sorry, my apologies. It was rather rude of me. Anyway, Celestia has told me of your recent exploits. Though, I would have expected more."

"I accept the apology, Sir Sideclaw. People tend to make the mistake of making an opinion in haste. Now, is there something you wanted to see me about?" I asked.

"Yes. You see, we recently had reports of strange.. machines appearing within our borders. We have no clue what they do but we immediately contact Equestria about the. Princess Celestia told us that these machines were "cars" or some sort of ponyless carriage of some kind. We are simply here to ask if they're dangerous."

"No, they're not. Human cars are simply forms of transportation. May I ask, did any other humans arrive?"

Sir Sideclaw sighed for a moment. "One did but it... errr he or she, I don't know which, died shortly."

"Thank you for telling me this. Can you bring their body and belongings here?"

"Currently they're in Griffony. I'll request them to be transported here as soon as possible."

"Thank you."

"Before you go, may I ask.... I don't to be rude but, why are your eyes... like that?"

"They're cybernetics. Simply put, they're mechanical ones that are directly connected to my brain to allow me to see. I went blind as a little girl."

"Oh... You humans must be masters at magic."

I smirked and shook my head. "Not magic. Just pure technology." I turned to Princess Celestia who seemed to have calmed down a bit. "I wanted to tell you that Shining and I have apprehended a changeling spy. Plus, he was the murderer of Crystal Clear."

"How do you know?"

"He flaunted it like it was some sort of trophy when he tried to take a hostage. Gave Shining an opening to knock him out. The changeling is currently in custody as we speak."

Celestia nodded. "Good. Shining will take control of the case now. Changelings of Chrysalis' hive are currently enemies of Equestria thanks to the wedding incident."

"I know. I'll be retiring to my room for the evening. Thank you for the introductions and everything. Celestia and I will try to arrange a proper burial for the person who died upon entering your country, Sir Sideclaw."

He simply nodded. "I'll be unable to attend the diner but my superiors will be there to speak with you. Thank you, Celestia, for introducing me to Roya."

With a smile I gave my thanks and left before heading to the command center. Shining and I have an "interview" to do.

Chapter 14 - Changelings and Griffons

Changeling Cricket gritted his teeth in pain. His leg wasn't doing so well thanks to that human. That fire launcher she used somehow had eviscerated the insides of his lower back leg while leaving a nice indent of his shell where it impacted. He didn't know how that thing worked, he just knew that with a weapon so powerful, the ponies could be unstoppable and the queen's campaign would be utterly ruined. Then it hit him. If the changelings were to obtain such weapons, the ponies would be easy taking. Love would be easily stolen.

Cricket stared at his surroundings. The room was a simple grey box with nothing but a tattered cushion in the corner. He had his legs bound by iron locks and his horn had been severed. Unlike ponies, changeling horns could be simply regrown, given time. It just meant that he couldn't use the lethal loopback spell. Queen Chyraslis had ordered all covert spies to use the spell as a last defense if captured. The Royal Guards were even thorough enough to clip his wings so that he was grounded. Cricket muttered a few curses under his breath until he noticed his cell door opening.

A Royal Guard quickly entered his cell before closing the door behind him. He was alone but he had a spear in his hooves. Seeing the guard, Cricket scowled. "What do you want?"

The Royal Guard simply looked back for a moment before turning to Cricket. "I see your horn has been severed... Cricket."

The captured changeling smiled. The guard in front of him was another changeling, disguised probably to keep as eyes and ears for the Queen. "Do the others know of my failure?"

The guard/changeling shook his head. "Not yet, Cricket." Slowly, his eyes traveled down to the broken leg Cricket kept off the ground. "What happened?"

"The damn human...She has some sort of fire stick she carries with her. Powerful weapon, didn't even need to penetrate changeling armor to do damage! Instead, the insides of my leg spalled. Maybe... maybe we can somehow get one."

"That won't be possible. She probably keeps it with her at all times."

"What about the Jinn? Did the Queen find a way to get the Jinn's treasures?"

"Yes... But it will take awhile. The Queen has asked for me to keep an eye on the human while she tries to open the treasures. If we can utilize them, Canterlot will be an easy campaign... I have to go. Shining and the human will be "visting" you soon."

With a simple nod, Cricket watched the guard leave his cell, only to see the despicable Captain and his human flunky waiting to see him.

Later that day, I visited Shining at the command center. He had just gotten finished dealing with some things and was about to visit our little shape shifting friend. We arrived shortly at a holding cell, one specifically made to hold captured changelings. Shining was happy it was actually being used. The changeling inside simply sat in his cushion, keeping his injured hind leg out. Two royal guards were stationed to keep watch and none reported any activity of the changeling trying to escape or anything. I watched Shining walk over to the changeling and I simply leaned against the wall.

"Ugh... The human..." The changeling's voice was like I had remembered, very harsh and from the throat with the voice reverberating.

Shining quickly looked at me for a moment before turning back to the changeling. "I see you and Lt. Roya have meet before. How's the leg doing?"

"Go away, pony... I don't want to listen to your dribble."

"Really? You're just making this harder for yourself. It would be easier just to tell us what the queen is planning."

"I said, go away! I won't tell you a thing!"

Shining sighed. "Really? Let me ask, why did you go and kill Crystal Clear? Did she find you undisguised?" The changeling simply looked away as Shining continued. "She must have freaked out when she saw a changeling roaming around the castle. You freaked out and did the quickest thing you could do. You stabbed her. Realizing that your cover would be blown, you noticed Blueblood's shirtfront and disguised as him, hoping to pin the murder, am I wrong?" The changeling simply growled at the explanation before slowly nodding. "That clears that. Now why were you in the castle?"

"Grrr... Go away!"

Shining sighed before turning to look me at me. I was curious to why but Shining quickly returned to the changling and began channeling his magic into his horn. The changeling quickly closed its eyes in fear. Slowly, Shining brought his horn down until it touched the changeling's head.

The whole little silent deal confused me but with a sudden burst of lavender light, Shining stumbled back. "Are you ok?" I asked.

"I'm fine... This guy won't be talking for awhile."

I looked to see that the changeling had went... asleep? He simply had dropped his head and was snoring quite loudly. "What did you do?"

"A mind scrying spell. Technically illegal without consent but a changeling doesn't get that luxury. The only issue was that the changeling was mentally prepared, not to mention a changeling mind isn't like a ponies. Both of those gave me a painful magical loopback." Shining accented the explanation with a nursing of his horn.

"Did you find anything?"

"No. The only thing I did was put him to sleep.

I stared at the drooling changeling and sighed. "Well, I guess dreams are a way to escape the harsh reality."

"I'll make sure he's always under watch. I just need to head to the nurse's office."

"You do that. I got a dinner in an hour with some delegates. Apparently I'm the lone ambassador to humanity now."

"Good luck with that, heh!"

I smiled and walked with Shining to the infirmary. After that I left for my room to get ready. I was caught a bit off guard upon finding Rarity in my room, complete with an ensemble of different outfits folded on my bed.

"Good evening, darling! I was hoping you'd arrived sooner or... Sweet Celestia, what happened to your jacket?"

I stared down at the corner of my jacket for a moment before shrugging. "Just a simply burn left by a changeling. Nothing dangerous."

"Dangerous? It's damage! Let me fix it!" Instantly, the corner of my jacket became surrounded in a blue aura. It took a moment but the spell Rarity was using slowly made the burnt black fade until the familiar olive green returned to my jacket.

I was surprised at the repair and quickly had to thank her. "That was wonderful and thank you!"

"It's nothing but it won't last long. It's just a temporary cover up I learned after a certain noblepony ruined my last formal dress... Anyhow, I tried my best and thought of different color palette's to fit your skin and mane color!"

I watched Rarity levitate the different dresses towards me. They all featured more quiet colors. "They're very beautiful Rarity I can't thank you enough."

"Don't worry darling and don't even think about paying me. I just couldn't keep my hooves away from trying a whole different body type! I was thinking of functionality so I kept a few inner pockets for you. I was thinking of a short train but I remembered how you humans walk with that rolling motion, which would be dangerous when you think about your bipedal stance. Nothing against you humans but you're simply top heavy and a simple stumble is asking for a fashion accident!"

I nodded and was surprised by how Rarity thought through this. "Is it okay if I try a few on?" Rarity nodded and I quickly began undressing before trying the first dress was a beautiful pitch black one that ran a bit past my knees. Embroidered around the dress in a sash style was an artwork of vines and flowers. To add to the whole dress, Rarity made a contrasting white neck scarf with the same flower and vines artwork with the addition of real flawless gemstones to boot. I found it wondrous and was a bit awestruck at my reflection in the mirror. "It's beautiful!"

"I knew you'd love them! I even made some working clothes for you." With a smile Rarity brought over a more clothes before noticing an envelope sitting on my bed. "It seems you have mail."

"From whom?"

Placing my new dresses back down, Rarity too the envelope and quickly opened it. Inside was a golden ticket. "You are cordially invited to the... Grand Galloping Gala!"

"What's the Grand Galloping Gala?"

"It's one of the, if not, the most extravagant ball in all of Canterlot. Though my friends consider it the most boring event ever to occur in history, I find it enjoyable."

"I would assume so for you. Let me guess, most of your income is through these pampered showponies?"

Rarity nodded. "Though there are some ponies I rather stay away from... Unless you like what my friends consider a boring lifeless joke of a party, I suggest you try to make an excuse to not go."

I shook my head. "It wouldn't be a bother for me."

"Really?"

I nodded. "I'm the supervising detective of a whole homicide unit. Attending fundraisers or other major events are pretty much mandatory for me."

"I'm one of the few who can stand going to events like the Gala but your job sounds really drab, nothing against you or anything. Being around dead bodies to catching horrible lowlifes? I rather hogtie myself and became a disgusting pig before that happens."

I chuckled a bit at Rarity's statement. "That sounds fair. Being a homicide detective isn't something most people consider a dream job outside of law enforcement. When is this Gala, anyway?"

"Tomorrow, darling. I'll be there, since well... It's one of the few chances I can get of showing off my work. Anyway, I should head out now. It was great chatting with you, Roya!"

"Same with you, Rarity. Oh and before we go, may I ask for your skills to make something for me?"

"Sure! Ask away!"

I nodded and quickly told her my order. She was a bit confused by it but simply shrugged. With a smile Rarity quickly left me to prepare myself for dinner.

The time arrived and I found myself in the familiar dining room donned in a decent outfit not unlike my normal clothes that I came to Equestria wearing. Sitting down at the table, I noticed that the table had already been laid out with numerous meats ready to be eaten. Looking around, I couldn't tell if the princesses were disturbed by the sight of things that were once alive. Truth be told, I presume they were acting, which meant that anyone would be best to never try poker against them.

The griffon ambassador and a few other well dressed ones all watched me sit down. Princess Celestia was the first to speak. "It is nice to have everybody together at the table. Now, let me introduce everyone. This is Lt. Roya Sayid of Human-Earth, as Twilight and I have dubbed it. She is a police detective from her world." With a smile Celestia turned to the griffons and introduced me to each of them.

The first was a young looking griffon with a very sharp beak clear of any scratches. He had tan plumage and his top "hair" feathers were slicked back, complete with a streak of grey feathers going symmetrically down his head. Wearing a blue uniform with a silver and black sash, it was obvious he was either a military officer of some sort or of royalty. "This is Sir Silverstreak, of the Flocken providence of Griffony."

Celestia moved to the next griffon. This one was like Silverstreak in plumage but was an older griffon, easily passed his prime. His beak was very hook like, with the tip being black like a falcon's. With a stoic look, he kep his chest puffed out like he was at attention. "This is Silverstreak's father, Archduke Edgewind."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, ma'am," said Edgewind with a deep commanding yet respectful voice.

I smiled and bowed my head a bit from my side of the table. "The same to you. It's not everyday I meet royalty."

"And it's not everyday I meet a whole new species, especially one such as yourself."

I smiled with the flattery and allowed Celestia to continue. With a smile Celestia moved to the next griffon. This one was a girl, or maybe a hen if the term was appropriate. She was a lithe griffon with large wings and had white plumage against grey. The tops of her "head" feathers were grey as was her eagle like beak. "This is Captain Javelin of the Grand Knights. She is the daughter to the Kaiser."

"Good evening, Roya," Javelin said dryly.

"The same to you," I said with a smile. Look at Javelin, she didn't really seem happy to see me. I simply ignored the look and looked at the next griffon.

"This is Sir Hawkeye, Silverwing's younger brother." The griffon in question had a similar pallet to Silverwing, a bit younger though with a more jovial attitude going.

"So you're the human Sildeclaw told me about. He didn't mention your eyes, though. Do all of you humans have eyes like that?" the young griffon asked.

I shook my head. "They're prostheses. Think of it like glass eyes, but I'm still able to see you."

"Ah... That's some new magic that I've never seen before."

I smirked a bit. "You could say it's magic..."

Celestia nodded and moved to the last griffon. He was a young griffon, about Silverwing's age. With a more golden brown plumage, he wore a navy blue officer's uniform with a few medals. "Our last guest is Lt. Mustang and a trusted friend of Silverwing."

I smiled at Mustang. "That's a peculiar name."

"I'm an orphan. Don't know why they gave me the name."

"Where I'm from, mustang is also the name of a famous plane, a sort of flying vehicle."

"Really? Huh, I guess even across worlds coincidences still occur."

We both turned back to Celestia, who was happy that the dinner started on a high note. "Well then, with that settled. Let's begin!"

The griffons quickly began to eat while the princesses began setting their plates up with whatever was available to them. I slowly got my plate ready, keeping it vegetarian as I promised. A few minutes of idle conversations passed until Hawkeye began looking at me in curiosity.

"Is there something wrong about the food?" he asked.

I stopped for a moment and shook me head at him. "No, everything's fine."

"But I thought you humans were omnivores. I don't see anything wrong with the food."

"We humans cook our meats and most of the meats here are raw, not to mention, I already promised to stay on a vegetarian diet to be respectful for now."

"Strange... I wouldn't being myself so low for that."

"You may see it that way but I see it as a sign of respect," I retorted.

Hawkeye simply scoffed at the idea and returned to his food. I continued to eat a bit until I noticed that Edgewind wanted to speak to me. "Yes?" I asked Edgewind.

"These "cars" you told Sir Sideclaw about, how does one even work?"

I took a sip of water from my glass before answering. "Simple. Electricity. A large battery system powers motors that, in turn, power the wheels."

"Really? So you humans have harnessed thunder itself for your usage?"

"You could say that."

"I was wondering this because some of us griffons were wondering if we could maybe keep a car or two. Currently, we're keeping the existence of such machines hidden, for safety."

I sighed a bit and thought for a moment. If the swords were any indication, griffons wouldn't even have the technology capable of understanding how to build most of it let alone even begin making materials for larger parts. Give a shrug I gave my answer. "For now, I'll allow a few cars for you to use as you wish. No more. Would that satisfy your government's curiosity?"

Edgewind nodded. "I understand. It would be foolish to allow us to do as we please. I presume Equestria is under the same limitations?"

"Yes, I am not worried as long as only peaceful technologies are gained. My only fear is that I start an arms race. This whole scenario was something I'd never expect, actually."

This time, Hawkeye clamored in. "A few? Are you telling us griffons that we to not be trusted?" He was livid over my decision, enough to pound the table with his talons and make it shake. "This is dishonorable! Your human technology landed in Griffony proper and thus it is under our total ownership! We have the right to do with it as we please!"

"You shall hold your beak, son!" Edgewind shouted. "Roya knows full well what even a simple piece of human technology can be. This is the exact reason why I am with her decision! War is not the goal we are here for. Peace is what our goal is and she is already generous enough to even allow us to see how her people's technology even works, let alone consider it our own property."

"But father!"

"Say one more word and I'll close that beak myself! I may be old but I'm still kicking!"

Hawkeye scowled a bit before returning to his seat, unhappy at his lose. Edgewind quickly turned to Celestia, back with his calm attitude. "I apologize for my son's actions. As you know, some griffons have opinions that they should learn to keep to themselves. As an ally of Equestria, I want no ill harm to come between us."

Celestia nodded. "Your apology is accepted. Roya is the sole human currently known in our world, and as such, she is the current ambassador for her species."

"That I already knew." Edgewind turned to me for a moment. "We griffons are a strong clan of warriors yet we can also be civilized. Without peace, we would still be roosting on the cliffs of mountains. Sadly, even though we are united in name, the providences of Griffony tend to feud from time to time. But, I digress. It is not the proper place to speak of such pointless talks. Let's just enjoy our dinner in peace."

I nodded in agreement and we all continued our dinner. While I ate, I noticed that Hawkeye kept his eyes on me. I wondered why. Maybe he didn't see me, or us humans, as a species capable of such feats like cybernetics or Near Light Speed travel. I decided that ignore him for now would be best.

Author's Note

For the record, Roya has never gambled before, she just knows how poker is played.

Chapter 15 - Revealing

That night before the Grand Galloping Gala, I had a strange lucid dream. I found myself standing in front of a decent house. It wasn't big, but it wasn't horrendously small either, instead it was just in the middle; comfy and relaxing. I stared at the windows, noticing that the lights were on. I couldn't see inside but I could hear the familiar chatter from inside.

I slowly walked around the front yard, looking at the other houses in the neighborhood. It was peaceful,with the only sound the slow wind that cooled the desert night. I slowly looked up to see the night sky. It wasn't the real thing. There were too many stars, almost like it was overflowing with them, but it was still beautiful, just like how my father described them. Even the moon was enormous, dwarfing everything else.

"Your night sky... it's beautiful," said a familiar voice.

Surprised, I turned around to see a tall pale white woman with hair that reminded me of the night sky itself. An ebony tiara sat on her head and the familiar large necklace was around her neck. She wore a simple midnight blue dress, complete with star like sparkles, and light blue bracelets. Seeing the crescent moon on a black splotch on the hip of her dress, I knew who it was.

"I'm surprised to see you in my own dream, Princess Luna. I guess you can enter others' dreams?" I said.

Luna nodded and looked around in curiosity. "I could have sworn there'd be some cacti around here."

I chuckled. "Cacti don't grow naturally where I grew up or any desert outside of the Americas in my world. The only place you'll find cacti here are in home gardens."

"Your night sky... it's so... different."

"It's not my world's night sky. It's the one my father always told me. He would say it was like an overflowing sea filled with an endless bounty of lights with a giant white orb low towards the horizon."

"Your father has a way with words. Can I ask, what is this place?"

I sighed and stayed silent for a moment. "This is Qarya, the village I grew up in."

"It's a nice place. A bit cold but nice."

I nodded. "That it is. I'm curious, why are you in a human form anyways?"

Luna smiled a bit. "It's how you perceive me. You see everypony around you as just another person. In your mind, we are not any different from you humans."

"I don't see why I should see differently. You ponies act like us humans. The same emotions, the same ambitions. We love, we hate, we cry, we laugh, ponies and humans are no different as two different kinds of the same fruit. We just look different on the outside."

"That's a very unique way of seeing things... I suppose you're still worried about the dinner last night?"

I nodded. "Yes, that's been on my mind lately. I don't want to be rude and I'd love to see human technology help but... I fear that there might be people...err griffons and ponies who might want to use it for ill harm."

:"I see that could be a problem. I suggest trying to get your mind off of that issue and focus more on the Grand Galloping Gala."

"I guess you're right... How is Celestia even going to reveal me to the public? The whole idea doesn't seem simple, really."

Luna thought for a moment. "That I do not know. I just trust she has something planned."

"I hope so. I don't want to be the cause of mass panic. The girffons seemed to think I'm some strange... thing."

"Griffon culture values strength and cunning. To them, you appear as some lanky ape who claims to be a predator. Most griffons would think of that as some sort of empty boast."

"That's... unique. So why do they respect ponykind? To them, you must appear as strange intelligent prey."

"It's true that ponies and griffons have been natural enemies, our ability to control our environment, and the fact that it depends on our intervention to even work, griffons see us as a tolerable enemy. A "frenemy" if you could say... Not to mention when Celestia and I both control celestial bodies, that tends to put fear among them."

"Hmm, remind me, don't let me get on Celestia's bad side."

Luna laughed a bit before continuing. "This year, the Grand Galloping Gala will be also a summit for all of Earth's leaders to come to. You'll be revealed not only to Equestria, but to the world."

I stared at Luna with a bug eyed expression for a moment. "Th-The whole world?I guess Celestia's going all out."

"I trust you have some sort of dress for the event? Many of Canterlot's nobles will be there, not to mention the dignitaries."

I nodded. "That I'm already prepared for. An image is a very important asset."

Luna simply nodded and stared at the night sky for awhile. "It's still a wonder to me how you humans call, not just your version of Earth your home, but the sky above as well."

"Next millennium, we might be among the stars."

With a smile, Luna said her good-bye and the dreamscape slowly faded away. Eventually, I would wake up.

With a sigh of relief, I took a sip of some tea. Turning my head forward front he right, I slowly got up right when I heard the door open behind him.

"Am I... coming in on a bad time?" asked Rarity's voice.

I turned and smiled at her. "No, everything's fine. Is there something you need."

Rarity smiled and quickly levitated what I had asked for her to make out of her bag. It was a simple, leather like strap with a "holster" or rather what sufficed as one.

"I still wonder what the thing was for, darling."

I simply took the holster belt Rarity made and quickly put it on to find it a perfect fit. Getting my pistol with its holster, it sat snugly in the holster strap. Rarity simply looked at me, confused to what I just did. "Thank you, Rarity."

"What.. is that, anyways?"

I looked at my pistol for a second before thinking of quick excuse. "A weapon to protect. Like a crossbow, just faster."

"Oh... Anyway, I was able to aquire my own ticket, so I hope to see you there."

"Didn't you ruin yourself at the last?"

Rarity simply rolled her eyes. "That was because I tried to court that obnoxious stallion named Blueblood. I'll be going alone this time, and I plan to dodge seeing him."

"I'm telling you, he's a changed man. Though he might still be an ass at times."

"Whatever you say, darling. I'll take that info with a grain of salt for now. So, what will you be wearing for the evening?"

I turned and stared at the small folded clothes that sat on top of my dresser. One dress caught my eye. It was a performer's tunic, sheer lime up top and black below, separated by curling floral 'sprays' in white. Small sparkles decorated the "sprays" using what I believed were rhinestones. Jet black stones were embedded in the collar, matching the black portion of the tunic. Looking nearby, I noticed a matching black pencil skirt, with the same lime green now at the bottom. This time, a round green gem sat on the hem, completing the whole set. I lifted them both up before holding them in front of me for Rarity to see.

"That's a splendid choice, darling! I made it to match your eyes and the swirls are just magnifique!"

I smiled. "Thanks! I guess I should start getting ready. Hair, manicure, all that stuff will take awhile."

"Really? We can spend the whole day, together!" said Rarity in glee. With a smile, I agreed to the arrangement. Sometimes, a girl's day out can really relax the nerves.

I shouldn't have accepted Rarity's invitation but it would have been rude of me to decline. The hours were quickly spent on numerous luxury treatments within the castle, that frankly, were a bit to much for me. Rarity would go on about numerous topics. Some ranged to gossip of the nobles, others were about romance novels. It was obvious now that Rarity was a socialite. At least she wasn't rude or... well as brain dead as socialites I've met back in my world. The time we spent was enjoyable at least, and soon, Rarity had to leave to finish getting ready for the gala.

Staring at myself in the full length mirror, I gave myself a smile. My hair was curled and let loose to cascade over my left shoulder, reaching my collarbone in length. The tunic accented my shoulders, just like a business suit would. Still, I had an hourglass figure, as I always kept in shape. I slowly moved to a desk nearby before fitting on earrings Rarity had furnished me. Again, they were green, to match my eyes.

"Here I go..."

I left my room and began walking towards the foyer before being stopped by Shining himself. He was wearing a red officer's ceremonial uniform, complete with a sash and a badge with his cutie mark on it. His hair had been combed and brushed back, keeping it neat and tidy. With him was Princess Cadance, wearing a light pink dress. With her crown, her hair was curled up, ready for the event.

"You look beautiful, Roya!" exclained Cadance.

I smiled. "Thank you. Rarity made it for me."

"She knows how to make a dress, and I'm surprised of her results with your body type."

"Yeah. So where is Princess Celestia?"

Cadance raised her hoof and pointed to the lower steps of the foyer. There, Celestia was standing wearing a full white and gold dress. Her aura-like hair was somehow kept in a low ponytail. Standing nearby was Luna wearing a silver and blue dress with her hair wrapped up in a neat bun. I wonder where she got that idea...

Celestia looked at me for a moment before nodding and turning back to the crowd. I looked to see numerous ponies and other beings making up the crowd. There were zebras, minotaurs, griffons, deer, moose, rams, and even dragons! Many were wearing dresses and suits, each of which showed off their different cultures.

With a nod, the crowd calmed down and Celestia began to speak. "Good evening, everybody and welcome to Equestria's Grand Galloping Gala! This year, we've opened the Gala to the world and numerous citizens from across Earth have come to enjoy the evening! I welcome Shamaness Nuru of Zebrica, Sir Edgewind and his sons of Griffony, Thane Macscruff of Woolland, Earl Inferno of Draconia, and Archon Strong Arm of Minocrete!"

The titled guests got applauases eveyr time Celestia named them. After a few moments of clapping, or clopping, I didn't know which term would be appropriate, the crowd settled back down.

"... But most of all, I want to welcome a new guest to our world. Currently, she's helped Equestria tremendously, especially with the recent events in the passed few days. I want to welcome, Lt. Roya Sayid, detective and de facto ambassador for humanity."

Seeing my cue, I slowly walked up, with my arms behind me, standing high and at attention. The crowd was silent when I walked up to Celestia, curious to what I was and probably baffled. I shook Celestia's hoof before turning to the crowd and saying my speech. Nearby, numerous presses had already begun taking pictures with their large cameras. It was strange from the camera drones I was used to.

"I am deeply humbled and thank you for inviting me. As you can tell, I am unique among your kind but I am thankful that you've already accepted me and have treated me with equality," I said with a warm smile on my face.

Celestia stepped forward and finished her speech. "Thank you, Roya. Now, let's start the evening! The Grand Galloping Gala has begun!"

The crowd cheered before dispersing. Right away, ponies from the media began asking me questions. I tried to keep my face going and slowly answered them one by one. Some were questions I expected, such as what I was. Others were a bit more curious sounding. Eventually, the press decided to move on, hoping to ask me questions later.

With a sigh of relief, I walked out to the open gardens in which the gala was taking place. The guests were chattering away, talking about topics I wouldn't even begin to understand. The music was a classical overture, or something similar, with only some of the guests, mostly nobleponies, waltzing to it. Some nobleponies and diplomats would come up to me and ask a few questions, many of which were usually about my eyes. Over and over, I had to explain that my eyes were cybernetics, or rather give them an analogy they'd understand. The best one I could think of was an enchanted glass eye, without the magic.

One of the guests that wanted to talk to me was white unicorn stallion with a sky blue mane. It was swept back, and well managed, and he even had a small mustache, which confused me. Wearing a penguin suit, he had a monocle and his cutie mark was a trio of crowns.

With a smile on his face, he quickly took my hand and kissed it, just like the stereotypical chivalrous gentleman would. I simply smiled and thanked him.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Roya! The name's Sir Fancypants, of the Fanticimal House!"

I was surprised to hear his accent, which seemed to be a strange mixture of American posh with a stereotypical British accent. For a name such as "Fanypants," he didn't seem to be wearing any sort of fancy pants. I simply gave him a smile back and thanked him. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"So, what brought you to Equestria?"

"Well, I didn't have a choice in the matter and frankly, nobody really knows."

"Hmm, that's odd. Do you have a way back home?"

I nodded. "Yes. Celestia and her student, plus her friends, are trying to develop some sort of "spell" to get me back home. I'm new to magic, but I have faith that they can."

"May I ask, if it they can't?"

"Excuse me?"

"What if you're stuck here? I don't want to play Discord's advocate but there is the possible chance that you'll be stuck here in Equestria."

I frowned a bit and thought about it. "I-I don't know... I have family back home and it would break my heart if I was never able to see them."

"There, there. I'm sorry for bringing that up. I'm sure, Celestia will get you home."

"That's okay. I just need some time to rest for a bit."

Fancypants nodded and I quickly walked to the food and drinks that were being served. Leaning against the table was Rarity, who was simply drinking from a wine glass, apparently enjoying the party quite well. Seeing my distraught look, she quickly walked up to me worried about why I was sad.

"What happened, darling?" Rarity asked.

I sighed. "It's just... just something small."

"Tell me."

"Well... Fancypants asked a troubling question. Nothing against him, but it made me think... What if I am stuck in Equestria? I won't get to see the face of my children or my husband ever again. What if they're already attending my funeral, with an empty casket?"

"Don't think of those things, darling! You're just hurting yourself!"

"I guess you're right... But it still worries me."

"Roya, trust me. I believe they're still looking for you. How much do you love your family?"

"A lot. I wouldn't want anything bad to happen to them."

"If there's one that I know, it's that love knows no bounds. I know you'll find a way back home. There's no other way about it, darling."

I smiled weakly. Within an instant, Rarity had wrapped her forelegs around me. Even I wasn't immune to my own emotions. "Thanks, Rarity."

"It's was friends do."

She was right. Friends always comfort each other in their time of need, and I was in need of help. Now out of my depressive state, I felt a bit better and was ready to continue the evening. Too bad it was about to be cut short.

Chapter 16 - Smashing the Party

The sound of a loud bang had startled everyone. Whatever impacted the table had quickly thrown its contents everywhere. Both Rarity and I were luckily untouched by food or anything, though for me, I didn't really care. The next thing I heard quickly pulled me out of my stupor.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" The loud high pitched scream of Rarity's deafened my ears. Slowly look up, I saw what Rarity was screaming at.

The table had been crushed but the body of Duke Edgewind, was still intact. His eyes were half lidded, which meant he had been killed recently. I quickly got up and looked up to see something duck back into the tower window.

"Shining!" I shouted. Quickly, he noticed me and ran up to the scene. "Watch the crowd! I'm going to intercept the suspect!"

"Got it!"

"Sorry for this, Rarity." Without hesitating, I quickly took a knife that had fallen on the ground and ripped my pencil skirt in a way that would allow me to move better. I don't know why, but Rarity, upon seeing what I did, fainted. Taking my pistol out, I quickly got through the crowd and ran into the castle.

The whole castle had been emptied of anyone. Pretty much any staff or guards were at the gardens, dealing with the Gala. It was worse when I found myself in portions of the castle that were unlit. It was a good thing I had an under barrel flashlight.

I quickly found the hallway to the hallway to the tower that sat over the gardens. Just my luck, the killer had just arrived at the bottom and he was standing there. I couldn't tell if it was a griffon or a pony as they wore a thick and heavy looking cloak.

"Freeze!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. Raising my gun, I noticed that even with a flashlight shining into their face, it was just a black void with a pair of yellow eyes staring back. Slowly, the killer raised their cloak. "I said freeze!"

I suddenly saw something rush towards me and quickly I pushed my weight onto my right leg. It was just in time for an arrow had just grazed my face, creating a deep gash across my cheek. I fell onto my side and quickly looked to see that the killer had begun trying to flee. Without hesitation, I had already brought my sites on just before firing a few shots. I cursed at myself to see that they all missed.

"Damn it!" I quickly got up and ran around the corner. When I turned, I noticed a door nearby closing. Right away, I ran up to it before bringing my pistol, ready to enter the room. Opening the door, I slowly walked in, making sure I didn't have any blind spots. "I know you're in here. Just give up and no one will get hurt!" The room was empty, save only bookshelves, a desk, and a lit fireplace, bathing the room in an orange glow.

An invisible force suddenly pushed my arm away. I tried to resist and was able to knock my attacker into the wall with a loud thud. I quickly tried to bring my gun to bear, but it was swatted out of my hand. Now unarmed, the cloaked assailant tried to pounce onto me. I quickly rolled out of the way before getting back up.

"You really are hard headed, aren't you?" I taunted.

He or she didn't talk back and just ran forward on its hind legs. Still, I couldn't identify who it was, the cloak was too obstructive. The cloaked attacker threw a cloaked punch that I dodged skillfully. Ducking down, I gave them my own uppercut, which made them stagger for a moment.

I dodged their own uppercut before being scratched by something. The wound it created wasn't deep enough to put me down thankfully, only enough to make a cut across my shoulder.

I kept my stance going and closed some distance before attacking with my own punches. Suddenly, I heard the sound of metal against leather and ducked down once saw the glint of a one sided dagger. The attacker tried to swipe at me but as they did, I rolled onto by mack before using my momentum and my feet to launch them over me and behind.

The fight wasn't over still. The attacker quickly recovered and lunged at me. I didn't react fast enough and I was knocked into the desk, throwing wood and papers everywhere but I at least wasn't stabbed. They didn't stay for a second and quickly ran off.

I quickly got up and grabbed my gun before giving chase. "Another one?" I asked myself. Running out of the room and into the hallway leading towards the rest of the castle, I found that the cloaked assailant was gone. I had lost him.

Anger filled my veins and I couldn't help myself but punch the wall nearby, bruising and almost breaking my hand in doing so. I searched a bit more until I ran into Shining and a small squadron of guards.

"What happened?" Shining asked, surprised to see the wounds I have received.

I sighed for a moment before speaking. "We need to lock down the castle. Check everyone and don't let anything out."

Shining gave me a silent nod before turning to his guards. "Do as she says. Lock the castle down!"

"Yes, sir!"

I sighed and re-holstered my weapon for the time being. "What did they look like?" Shining asked.

"Tall, cloaked. I wasn't able to really get anything but considering they scratched me like this, they're armed. Would there be an obvious reason someone would want Edgewind dead?"

Shining shrugged for a moment. "Well....He was a major proponent of peaces and treaties, some of which are controversial in Griffony, such as giving some islands that have been disputed between them and other countries."

"So maybe someone or even a griffon who doesn't agree with his opinions. We'll need to make a profile of every guest and personal, especially those who would be against Edgewind's policies."

"That might take awhile... Have your guards secured the tower Edgewind fell from?"

"We are doing that as we speak."

"Best to see them as soon as possible."

Following Shining Armor, we arrived at the top of the tower Archduke Edgewind was staying in. The room seemed to be in a bit of a mess, suggesting Edgewind didn't go without a fight. Papers and documents were strewn across his desk while feathers littered the floor. I stared at the whole scene for a moment until i began walking towards the desk. Right then, a commotion occurred and I turned around to see griffon guards and Javelin pushing there way through.

"Why are you here, Javelin? Are you here to help in our investigation?" I asked.

Javelin shook her head and scowled. "No. We're here to secure all important documents belonging to Edgewind."

"I'm sorry bur I'll have to ask you to leave. Those documents could be evidence in this investi..."

"Evidences-shmevidence! Those documents are part of the Griffony government! I won't allow them to be seen by Equestrians... or a human."

"Javelin! Do you not care how Edgewind died? What if those documents reveal who killed him?"

"Those documents are sadly more important then Edgewind! It would be a disgrace to Griffony if I were to give them away!"

Without hesitating, Javelin began walking towards me. Standing in front of me, she easily dwarfed me be a good meter or so. I held my ground.

"Move out of my way!" She demanded.

"No."

"You dare say no to a griffon? What are you going to do? I see no weapon on you and I'm wearing armor! Now out of my way!" Her first mistake was putting her claw on my shoulder.

Easily, I grabbed her foreleg and twisted it while swiping her other foreleg from under her. Caught off guard, she fell to the ground and I quickly pinned her there. "Keep this up and I'll arrest you for interfering with a criminal investigation!" I shouted.

"I hate you humans...."

"I don't care! Shining, take Javelin away until she can calm down! We got work to do!"

The other griffon guards were smart enough to not interfere and simply watched their officer leave, being escorted by a few of Shining's guards. After that small altercation, Shining and I collected the papers before looking around a bit more. The wooden furniture features numerous slash marks, evidence that a small fight had occurred, probably with swords. Most of the furniture had been thrown out of the way, allowing the center of the room to be open for movement. Small splotches of blood were thrown around, but none seemed to be in large amounts, meaning Edgewind wasn't thrown out of the window. Shining quickly took note of the open window nearby, the one that Edgewind had fallen through.

"Get photos of this place. Let's move on to where the body landed," I said.

With a serious nod and a small smirk, Shining brought me back downstairs. Most of the guests had been properly escorted off castle grounds, leaving only the ones that were supposed to be staying at the castle. None of them were in the gardens where the body had fallen and guards stood guard, no doubt to keep any sensational reporters from seeing the scene.

I stared at Edgewind's body for a moment. He was a large griffon and was wearing an elaborate suit, no doubt ready for the gala. That made me wonder, why wasn't here there at the beginning? A large stab wound was visible with a large pool of blood around it.

"What do you think, Shining?" I asked.

"From the looks of the wound, I guess he was stabbed while he was standing in front of the window. The weapon must have slowly slid out while he staggered backwards, surprised that he lost the short fight... or maybe who attacked him."

"So he slid off the weapon before falling out of the window?"

Shining nodded. "That's right. Griffons use short swords within towns and walls, easier to use in confined areas. It also meant that it didn't pierce through so there was no blood trail at the edge of the window, not to mention Edgewind's sheer size."

"This reminds me of some old plays. Anyway, we'll have to question our guests. Get photos of his Edgewind's body and a more qualified medical examiner."

"That, we'll do. Did cases come up this often in your world?"

I sighed for nodding lightly. "Usually I'm overseeing multiple cases... though I've only dealt with the death of a politician only a few times."

"Why don't you look over the body more? I'll get everything else set up."

With a nod, I watched Shining walk away before turning to the body. Slowly, I opened Edgewind's suit to find a small notebook stained a bit by his blood. Inside were numerous schedules. Meetings, day to day activities, this was a scheduler of some kind. I continued to browse through the lists until I noticed my own name written in a spot. Surprised by this fact, I looked at the time of our cancelled meeting. "An hour after his death, huh?"

Something tapped my shoulder and I turned to see a night guard standing before me. Not having enough time to look for other dates within the scheduler, I slapped it shut. With a simple nod, I asked what they needed. Apparently Luna wanted my audience for something. Looking at the scheduler in my hands, I gave it to the night guard and asked her something. "Could you please bring this to the command center? This is evidence for the investigation."

She nodded and placed it in a small compartment in her armor before escorting me into Canterlot Castle.

Chapter 17 - Astronomy

Being escorted through the castle after what happened was a bit uneasy to me. Whomever it was, they could still be roaming around. Still, having two night guards escorting me was somewhat comforting. The castle had more strict patrols with the guards employing leg crossbows since our killer had a crossbow of their own.

We walked to one of the towers, the same room that Shining and I went to when we wanted to talk with Squeaky Clean. Standing there was Princess Luna and Shining's little sister, Twilight Sparkle. Luna had a worried look and her face and she was trotting in place, a bit uneasy about whatever she wanted to talk to me about. Twilight, on the other hand, looked rather tired with visible bags under her eyes. She was unable to stand straight and I was worried that at any moment, she'd collapse from fatigue. A small pile sat nearby on a desk. The escorts left us and Luna began to speak.

"It's nice to see you, Roya," said Luna.

"Likewise. Is there something you need?" I asked.

Luna nodded and turned to Twilight before poking her shoulder to get her attention. "Twilight, can you explain what is happening?"

"..."

"Twilight!"

"Oh, sorry," said Twilight once she fell out of her dazed state. "Mrs. Roya. Can you look up for a moment?"

I was confused but I decided to do it anyways. Looking up, I could see the whole expansive night sky, without any hindrance like light pollution or anything. "I don't see anything unusual."

"Look more carefully. Do you see the Pegasus Constellation?" asked Luna.

Noticing the familiar stars, I nodded. "For us, it was named after a winged horse from Greek Mythology. Child of Medusa and Poseidon. god of the sea."

"For us, it was named after Sir Pegasus, a famous warrior back before the unification of Equestria. He founded the Pegasi Republic back when they were small warrior clans. He is also where the name of the race came from."

"So, is there something unique about this constellation?"

Luna shook her head. "No. Twilight and I believe it is the same as your version, except for one thing... Its location. Look at the other constellations. Many of them are strange to me. You see that really bright star?"

"Yes. The North Star, the one we humans have used to navigate for thousands of years."

"It shouldn't be there."

"What do you mean?" I looked at Luna with my brow raised, confused at what she meant. From what I had gathered, Equestria had large similarities to my world with only a few differences but I never thought about the alignment of stars as one of them.

"We have two polar stars, always moving in circles around each other. We call them the Stars of Harmony. Now they're gone, replaced by your single North Star."

I looked more carefully at the constellation and was curious to name multiple constellations. "Orion the Hunter, Taurus. I see the constellations of my world all here." Suddenly, the night sky flickered and within an instant, the position of the stars changed before returning to normal, or rather the normal of my sky."W-What happened?"

Twilight was the one to speak. "I think... our worlds are shifting."

"Shifting?"

She nodded. "I think maybe this might help. You said you're from Mars, right?"

"Well... I live on Mars, yes. We humans terraformed it so it's like Earth now."

"Look at this." Twilight quickly levitated a book into my hands. Inside was a picture of Mars, one taken through a decent optical telescope. In the picture, it was mostly an orange dot with a white spot on the bottom, no doubt the southern pole. There were small hues, the plateaus and whatnot of Mars. "This is Mars of our world."

"Barren and inhospitable. Same as ours a century ago."

"Now look through this telescope. I've added a few enchantments to help the image."

Nodding to Twilight, I walked over to the telescope on the balcony and looked through it. Sure enough, there was Mars, but as a blue marble I knew it of. It was translucent, which was abnormal to say the least."

"Oceans shouldn't be there, Roya."

"Not unless your hypothesis is right. The Mars I live on now has oceans. If we can see my world, shouldn't they be able to see us?" I asked.

Twilight shook her head. "Not really. They don't physically exist in our universe... Rather, you're seeing a dimensional shift of them. Luna and I noticed that, every so often, the sky would flicker, shifting to your universe and back."

"Wait, if our dimensions shift, why don't cities on Earth appear here in Equestria?"

"Because we're not exactly where your Earth is. Where should Mars be at this time of the year?"

The question was a good one and it made me think for a moment. I didn't really know so I quickly took out my phone, which had a simple astronomy app that my eldest daughter insisted I get. Using data from before I was sent to Equestria, the app told me Mars should be.... opposite?

"What does it say?" asked Luna.

"Mars should be... on the other side in accordance to the sun... That means, this version of Earth sits opposite of my Earth, behind the sun."

Twilight nodded. "That's why when dimensional shifts occur, we are not locally affected. There's nothing in your universe to shift on our planet. Only a few times local shifts occur... and when they do..."

"... they get transported, like myself."

Luna nodded with my realization. "We believe the first serious dimensional shift is what brought you here. Still, we don't know the mechanics behind why this is occurring. That garage building was the second serious dimensional shift."

"So, if that's the case, what should we do?"

Luna spoke up. "We can't do anything for now, but this shouldn't be happening for no reason naturally. These... Sling Drives you once mentioned to my sister, what do they do?"

I sighed, trying to muster as much little knowledge I had on that subject. "You're asking someone who knows little about them... but I do know that they distort space using massive amounts of energy. They stretch the space behind a ship and shorten the space in front of a ship, creating a "bubble" of some sort before "slinging" it to the destination point."

"That shouldn't be powerful enough to do all this... unless somehow, one was... maybe overcharged?"

"Overcharged? Possible but no one knows what that would do. The city of Dubai, where I was before being brought here, did have a sling drive testing facility but... The garage from France shouldn't have been affected. If we were to put this Earth in the same system as my Earth, they'd be two AU away from each other since one AU is equal to the mean distance of Earth to the sun."

"Strange... Is there a way we can detect the effects of a sling drive?" asked Luna.

I shrugged. "I wouldn't know."

"Well, this also means we can't directly send you back. The dimensional shifting is a completely new variable that the multi-dimensional spell wasn't made for."

I nodded. It was sad to hear that my time in Equestria was extended but it was something that nobody had control over. "I understand." I pray that my family is okay... My eldest daughter must be really worried.

"For now, I suggest focusing on the murder of Edgewind. Twilight and the others will try to deal with this variable... but I also worry what will happen if this continues."

"Does Celestia know about this?" I asked.

Luna nodded. "She has already given orders to the State Militia to report any more occurrences of humans or any portions of your world coming to Equestria."

"That's good to hear. I'll be returning to my room before rejoining with Shining Armor and the investigation."

"That sounds best. Thank you for talking with us, Roya. Also... maybe you should visit the nurse about the cut on your cheek."

I poked my cheek for a moment, only to find out the hard way how it was. Receiving a sharp spike of pain told me to know better and let it heal by itself. Surely the infirmary had some ointments and whatnot to heal it. At least it wouldn't leave a scar... I hope.

I looked up at Twilight and noticed that she had become increasingly tired. Suddenly, she simply feel asleep, standing up like horses back in my universe.

"Twilight... wake up!" prodded Luna.

"Wha...oh... Did I fall asleep again?" Twilight said with a weak voice.

I nodded. "How many times did this happen?"

"I-I guess maybe four times today."

"Anything besides fatigue?"

"Well... my hind legs have been sore since I woke up."

"I guess you've been up too long reading, perhaps? Best to get some sleep."

Luna quickly commented as well. "I believe Roya is right. Let me show you back to your room, Twilight"

The two left and I quickly returned to my room and began writing down all of what occurred today. After finding some yarn and pins, I got a maid to bring me some cardboard and I hastily built a pin board for me to use. It took a few minutes for me to set everything up, but I had an outline of what had transpired.

"During the Gala, Sir Edgwind of Griffony was found murdered by a stab wound into the heart, nearly instant death. Upon being stabbed, he fell out of an open window and landed into the entrees of the Gala... Right away, I found the murderer, but no identification was possible. The murderer was cloaked but well armed with a crossbow, sword, and a dagger or maybe the dagger and sword were one weapon. They got away, and had scratched me..."

I told myself the events over and over but nothing seemed the same. "Edgewind had a meeting planned with me after the gala, but... wait, why were there no guards posted outside his door? Every official would have some security detail."

Realizing this, I quickly wrote them down and began walking to the command center. Maybe Shining could help me.