I decided it was a dark and stormy enough night for my tastes, once the clock hit ten til eleven. The extra crews of pegasi I’d called in for the rush job had knocked up a real good blower. Lightning flashed in the skies above the castle with an infrequent sort of regularity and the rain was beating against the walls at a dangerous angle somewhere near horizontal.

I told Celestia, before she retired for the evening, that the rose bushes in the garden looked like they could use the extra water. She and I both know the real reason for the hosing I’d summoned up on short notice. Blueblood.

That ponce of a nephew of mine had taken a new interest recently in being known among the elite houses as an approachable royal. He threw massive parties at the castle with only the richest and most posh of nobles and hottest celebrities invited for night-long revelry and debauchery. He had but the thinnest permission, and regularly overstepped his bounds only to turn that leering grin of his on his aunts and play dumb.

Celestia hoofwaved it away. She let him play. It was no shin off her elegant nose, so long as the castle was spotless again come the dawn.

Who did she think made sure it was spotless? I’m the one that has to hear him out there. They call it ‘schmoozing’ these days. But it’s the same thing it was in my day and always will be, so there’s no need in being polite. Blueblood kissed ass with the best of them. He wheeled and dealed and gambled, all under the roof of the castle and behind closed doors.

They call me dark. Blueblood was shadier than my night could ever be.

And there were the mares! How many had it been last time that I had to chase out from the rafters and from under each couch and bed before dawn? I can’t even remember. ‘Suave’ and ‘debonair’ are not words I would use to describe my nephew’s technique with the ladies. He was always the type to flash some bits and title drop at every chance. Even the little fillies from the upper houses got big eyes and touchy with their hooves if you tell them you have the ear of the Princesses and live in the castle.

How they can stand to swallow their pride and let him get touchy back, I’ll never understand.

I do understand that I like my nights better when they are quiet and serene. Not loud and noisy and full of ponies that should know better than to act such as foals. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good party with friends, but Blueblood’s crowd were not my friends. His ideas about being social are alien to me. His taste in music, if you can call it that, sets my teeth on edge and while I’m on the topic of annoying ‘modern’ concepts, who decided that a party wasn’t a party until a carriage had to be crane-hoisted out of the pool in the morning?

So, that’s why the rain and the lightning. To rain out that simpering dunce of a stallion and his equally simpering friends. To have my night be quiet and mine.

But alas, it’s not to be, is it? I can hear the approaching sound of hooffalls out in the hallway. Too heavy to be a maid, too fast just to be a patrolling guard. Any second now, my door is going to burst open and I will laugh at my poor drenched nephew. Maybe this interruption from Blueblood will at least be entertaining.

I put down my drink and pick up my latest distraction. I’ve been diving back into reading recently, devouring the written word like a starving mare at a all hay buffet. I started with the history books, but those bored me to tears, so I moved on to fiction. Right now, I’m into these modern crime stories and dramas. Ponies living on the fringes of society, scraping by with nothing but their wits and strength of hoof. I like to think that it gives me a peek into the minds of my less well-off citizens. That, through these tales of woe and tragedy, I can catch a glimpse of how they see the world.

The hooffalls are slowing down as they close in on the door to my lounge. Blueblood’s rain-streaked face is going to be within mocking distance, so I snuggle into the chaise lounge a little deeper so I can fix him place like an insect with my righteous annoyance at his disturbance.

I kept my eyes on the open book in front of me when the door opened. I could hear the guards at the door speaking in tones too hushed to make out the words, but I could still hear the worry in those whispers. I fought the urge to grin.

When I did look up, though, I got a surprise. No wet and surly prince stood before me, dripping rain off his spotless white coat and ruined coiffured mane. Well, the dripping wet stallion part was right, at least. One of my night guard came to a halt a few feet away and snapped a quick salute. He was breathing hard, his face flushed from running in the damp armor that sagged on his back.

“You may speak.”

“Princess, I have bad news.” His face tells me that the bad news isn’t just about Blueblood’s party’s unexpected closing time. “Prince Blueblood has been found dead, ma’am.”

I swear I didn’t time it, but lightning flashed outside the windows and thunder competed with the boom of my exclamation. My book dropped into the chaise lounge, suddenly unimportant. “What do you mean, ‘dead?’”

“He was found a few minutes ago, your Majesty, in a guest suite, in the East Wing. I was dispatched to notify you immediately.”

This...this is not good at all. My mind reels at the implications. Can it be true? A royal, in name only, but a royal no less, dead in the castle? Celestia would flip when she found out.

“What happened?” I’m honestly a little surprised I’m not shouting. “How did this happen?”

“I don’t know, ma’am.” The guard pauses for a moment to turn his head and cough. “He was found by a regular patrol, the room door was ajar and when they looked inside, the found the Prince. He was obviously dead, from what I was told, but beyond that, I don’t know.”

Time to do my duty. I grab my book again and set it on the table next to my drink before I stand up and try to look commanding. The night guardsstallion follows me out silently. I issue orders on the move when I pass the pair at the door. Lockdown starts now and lasts until we get to the bottom of this. No one is to wake my sister, yet. There is no need to involve her if I don’t need her.

The storms builds outside, the wind starting to howl through the eaves and the windows rattle with the thunder from above.
The gallop over to the East Wing guest hall takes me and my panting companion a good five minutes. There are guards everywhere now, blocking doors and halls, restricting movement of the partygoers and staff. The rooms that line the hallway should all be empty, but the cluster of mildly nauseous guards zero me in on the scene. The quiet chatter died once I got into hearing range, the proud stallions coming to attention with neutral expressions that only hinted I was about to fight my own last meal from coming up.

I stopped just short of the room. “Report.” The ranking guard, an old sergeant, snapped a quick salute at me and fumbled to compose something sensible. I could just imagine the gears behind those steely eyes whining to speed.

“Majesty, we found Prince Blueblood...dead...in this room about 10 minutes ago. I had the wing closed down and sent him to summon you.” He pointed at the guard behind me that was still gasping to get his breath back. “Since then all the rooms on this floor have been searched and nothing else seems to be out of the ordinary, though we did find one pony in the stairwell. One of the party guests, I believe. Otherwise, no one has been sighted anywhere nearby.”

I raised my eyebrow at the mention of the partygoer in the stairwell. “Any idea who the pony is?”

“Oh, yes, ma’am. It’s Miss Rarity of Ponyville.”

I filed that away for later and pushed on. “Has anyone touched the Prince’s body? You are sure he’s dead, and not just in some sort of coma brought on by too much wine?” Gods Above and Below, I hoped that was the case.

The stallion’s face grew pale and his eyes picked a spot just to the side of my head to stare at. “No, your highness, no pony has touched the Prince. If he’s asleep, I’m a bouncing, pastel-colored Crystal Kingdom sheep.”

I frowned. I’d wanted him to just tell me what had happened to Blueblood. I didn’t want to look, but it seemed that the fates were not going to let me out of it. I swallowed my growing dread as best I could and took that last step to the door’s edge. I’ve seen the dead before. Being an immortal surrounded by mortals, it comes with the job. But I didn’t like it, and I could count the number of times that death had been the result of violence and not reach double digits.

I held my breath and leaned around the frame to look inside. The room was not, as I had imagined in the last second, a disaster area, the furniture overturned and destroyed. It all looked so normal and removed from the scene on the bed. Everything was clean, in it’s place, and even a little dusty. The bed...the bed wasn’t dusty. It was a mess and Blueblood...he...he was…

I closed my eyes and gave my mind a moment to process what I’d seen. I could fill my bile rising and I clamped my mouth shut. I was not going to vomit. I’m a Princess, I have standards to live up to.

After a moment, I opened my eyes again. Blueblood was gone. Some other pony...thing in his place. If I thought about it like that, I could look at it and see what had been done to him...to it in its last moments. Could another pony do this? Could somepony have this much hate in them?

I didn’t linger. I didn’t want that image burned into my mind anymore than it already was now. I spun on my heel and addressed the guards. “I want him cut down and body cared for as befits a royal. No one is to leave the grounds until we have figured out what’s going on here. No pony is to discuss this with any of the guests or staff that have not seen it already. Is that understood?”

I got nods all around. “Good. Now take me to see Miss Rarity. I want to get to the bottom of this.” They jumped to action and my companion guard, now breathing normally, lead me to the far end of the hall and the door that lead to the stairwell.

“We’ve detained her here, your Highness.” He pushed open the door for me and we stepped out onto the full landing. Three more guards were waiting there and they looked up and shot to full attention as soon as they saw me. I paid them little heed and focused on the mare they were holding instead.

Rarity of Ponyville looked like she had had better nights in Canterlot. She was a vision of perfection, that one, all white coat and deep purple hair that glistened in the overhead lights. She was wearing a black, slinky dress that cut up her side and let just a hint of her cutie mark peek through. Her mane was up in a complicated bun and held there with a rose pin that looked like it was carved from a single ruby. The only part of the mare that wasn’t perfect was her make-up. She was wearing a blue mascara and it ran in fading rivulets down her cheeks and muzzle. Her eyes had a tinge of red to them, at the edges.

She stood by the wall, as far from the guards as the landing would allow, looking at the floor until I entered. She licked her lips and I could see a tremble run down her spine. She was a mare that had seen something. My very first impulse was to hold her in a tight hug and tell her everything was going to be alright. I fought that back down. I had to remain clear headed and not let anypony distract me from this.

That might be harder than I thought, though. I needed to know what Rarity knew. “Has she said anything?”

“No, your Majesty.” The trio of stallions saluted and one stepped forward slightly. “Other than asking us what was going on. We found her in here, crying.”

I looked at Rarity directly. “Crying?”

“Well...I..I was…” She sniffed and her eyes started to get wet. “I mean...I don’t...I…”

I flicked a wing back at the door and told the guards to leave. They gave me a look and I assured them Rarity wasn’t going anywhere. Once they were reluctantly out of the stairwell, I put a wing gently over her shoulder and stepped in close. Most ponies know me as the more abrasive sister, quick to retort and temper. That’s true, but Rarity wasn’t most ponies. Certainly not to me. I counted her and the rest of her friends from that little village my very best friends.

“Tell me what you saw, please.” I smiled at her as gently as I’m capable. “What happen here?”

She sniffed again and her horn glowed as she pulled a crumpled and stained hanky from inside her dress. Rarity dabbed at her eyes and then blinked those huge baby blues at me. “I…” she began, “I came up here from the main party to escape the noise after the weather drove us inside.”

“You were at Blueblood’s party?” I raised both eyebrows at that. Rarity was the mare that had insulted Blueblood at the Gala years ago and set back his standing with his elite cronies. She nodded and looked away, back at the floor.

“He keeps inviting me. I kept turning him down. I think...I think it became a game for him. If he could get me out here, he’d win...or something.” She dabbed her eyes again. “I was in town this time, as it happens. Visiting a potential business partner. She was invited too, and I warned her against coming, but she does need to network with influential clients if she wants to make it big in Canterlot. So...I came. As a chaperone, I guess. But I thought, if I talked to Prince Blueblood, that he might stop sending me all the invites and forget that bit of business at the Gala.”

Rarity stopped, her voice growing a bit hoarse. She cleared her throat and looked back at me. Something in that look told me she was scared, but if it was for herself or something else, I couldn’t say.

“Blueblood, he went upstairs after we all came in from the rain. He was soaked, so I assumed he was getting himself cleaned up. We didn’t talk much before that. He was always surrounded by other nobles but he kept looking my way when he thought I wouldn’t notice.” There is a flash of that confident smile I’ve seen Rarity wear so well before. “As if I wouldn’t notice the eyes of the most influential pony in the room on me.”

I grin along with her. I can imagine the scene easily. “What happened at the party?”

“Coco...that’s my business partner. I met her in Manehatten several months ago and she’s starting up a new branch of her fashion business here in Canterlot. Anyway, Coco was talking to him by the pool while I waited by the bar. I couldn’t hear them speaking, but I saw the conversation grow heated. I feared that would happen. Blueblood can be...well, you know him.” There was a hint of that smile again, but it vanished a moment later and Rarity sniffed. “She didn’t want to talk about it and then the rain started. We came in with everypony else. The Prince, he was last in, insisting on saving his cheap martini. He was livid, though. You should have seen the look on his face. He was yelling about the storm...he made some very loud comments about pegasi, but you’ll have forgive if I don’t repeat them.”

I nodded. Blueblood is...was an ass. A king among bigots. It still surprises me to think that the old prejudices of ages past still hang on in some places. That it still has its claws in my home city makes my blood run cold. “I understand, Rarity. Blueblood was something of an embarrassment to me and Celestia, as I’m sure you know.”

She didn’t say anything and just kept those blue eyes locked somewhere between the floor and my face. She leaned into my shoulder slightly and I could feel her gathering herself to continue.

“I lost sight of him while we at the bar with...with the other guests. I wanted to give him a piece of my mind. Somepony has too.” She shivered and her back tensed under my wing. “I hated him. I hated him so much in that moment. He’d upset Coco somehow. He was being this huge racists and no pony was saying anything about it. Some of my best friends are pegasi and he said those things...I just couldn’t stand it.”

She looked back up at me and her eyes were hard and cold. “I left Coco at the bar and I asked around. I found out he had headed up here and I followed him. I went down the hall and I found the door open. I was going to yell at him. Really let Blueblood have it. And then...I opened the door and I saw him. He was strung up like that...I...I ran, Luna! I was so scared! I ran and I came back here and the next thing I know there is a guard coming through the door and I get held here! I didn’t do anything! I just wanted to yell and tell him off...nothing else, I swear!”

I could see the conviction in her eyes. When she’d mentioned yelling at Blueblood I’d seen the will in her to do a lot more than just yelling. Something else was up. I’m not sure what made me suspicious, but she wasn’t telling me everything. I didn’t think she was guilty either. Then again, I never thought my sister would banish me for a thousand years. Second guesses were in order, and I needed more information.

“Ok, let’s go talk to this Miss Coco.”

---

We headed downstairs, Rarity, the guards and me. The party ponies were located mostly in the main ballroom and the surrounding spaces. They all gasped at my unannounced appearance. I expected to be rushed by the crowd and get bombarded by questions, but as soon as the first jittery looking noble took a step my way, a wall of pony flesh in the form of royal guards sprung up in a half-circle. I could see more than a few familiar faces in the crowd, all of them weaing a mask of confusion and suspicion. Glares and glances bounced off the guard like so many small stones off armor and I decided to take action.

I walked up to the line, trying to look as regal as my sister when she handles the crowds, but I wasn’t feeling that confident as I got closer to the sea of ponies. Old habits die hard so I opened up with the full Royal Canterlot Voice. “GREETINGS, MY LITTLE PONIES, EVERYTHING IS UNDER MINE CONTROL AND COMMAND! YOU MAY SOON LEAVE THIS PLACE FOR YOUR HOMES, BUT FIRST I WISH TO SPEAK WITH CO...er...Co…”

I turned back to Rarity, who was on the floor with her hooves over her ears. “I say, Rarity, who am I looking for again?” She flinched at her name and opened one eye to look up at me for a moment before she climbed back to her hooves and cleared her throat.

“Uh, Miss Coco Pommel, of Manehatten.”

I nodded and turned back to the crowd. “BRING ME MISS COCO POMMEL OF MANEHATTEN! I SHALL SPEAK WITH HER PRIVATELY!” There was a lot of groaning coming from the collected nobles and nuevo rich business ponies but a mare with a short bob-style manecut stood up and stepped forward. I had the guard clear out one of the side rooms and then directed them to, y’know, stand guard while I interviewed the mare in question.

The room lacked a proper table to glower across at Coco, so I settled - regrettably - on facing her in the center of the room, surrounded by empty coat racks. “Miss Coco, I need to know what happened here tonight. Tell me about your interactions with Prince Blueblood.”

She looked at me in numb silence, her eyes growing large. I cleared my throat, but she didn’t react. “Please?” That got her to blink at least. Rarity chose that moment to step over and put a hoof on Coco’s shoulder. She leaned in close to the other mare ands whispered into her ear for a moment. That got the mare shaking and she whimpered.

“We do not have all night, ladies. I need to know what was said between you and Blueblood.” I tapped my hoof against the floor for some emphasis and the mare finally opened her mouth and started talking in the nasally accent of true Manehattenite.

“I...that is...we only talked briefly. The Prince was interested in my business as a possible investor for the expansion here in Canterlot. He asked me to meet him tonight at the party and other potential investors would be here. When Rarity said she had an invite too, it seemed like a good idea to go networking.” She coughed and Rarity patted her gently on the shoulder. I could see the tears forming in her eyes as she continued. “Rarity did warn me. She told me he was...not the easiest pony to deal with. But...when I spoke to him, he didn’t seem interested in talking about business anymore. He...he asked me if I’d ever...you know…” She sat back and moved her front hooves vaguely. I’m not fully caught up on the changes these modern times have seen, but the gesture was one I was familiar enough with. “...with an unicorn before. The Prince just wouldn’t stop. I got upset. I apologize for that. I said some things that were not kind and I really shouldn’t have said it to somepony like him.”

Coco trembled and Rarity continued to silently comfort the filly. “I wanted to leave then and there, but then he told me if I didn’t stick around until after the party he would...would see to it that difficulties...regulations would be placed on my expansion here. He threatened to contact the council in Manhatten and have the same done there. It would kill my business! Everything I’ve worked for would go down the drain, unless I went down on…”

The mare burst into tears and Rarity pulled her into a tight hug. I frowned and it occurred to me I was going to be doing a lot of that. “Ok, let’s skip that part. What happened after the storm started?” The fillies held on to each other, but to her credit, Coco pulled her muzzle out of Rarity’s mane and hit me with a snarl that a timberwolf would be proud of.

“I left that good-for-nothing in the rain! That’s what happened! Too bad he didn’t drown in it. I came in and went to the little fillies’ room. I wasn’t too wet, but there were no towels there, so I went to find some. When I came back, I met up with Rarity and we went to the bar with...well, we sat there for a while, nursing mimosas until Rarity left to track down the Prince. Apparently he said some racially insensitive things when he did come in from the weather. It’s a shame he wasn’t struck by lightning.” She blinked and I could see the realization of who she was snapping at crawl across her face like a slow-moving wave. “Oh...oh! I’m sorry, Princess! Prince Blueblood is your nephew, and I should have realized sooner...I’m so sorry for your lost!”

That set off all sorts of warnings in my mind. I trolled the conversation in my head again. Unless somepony was being sloppy, I didn’t recall ever telling Coco that Blueblood was dead. I opened my mouth to ask her about that when the door to the room opened up and the ranking sergeant stepped in.

“Your Highness, we have a development.”

“What is it?” I pointed at mares. “I’m a bit busy here.” He bowed like id was an afterthought and stood at attention.

“Sorry, ma’am, but you’re going to want to take this one. We found another pony upstairs.”

That was news. Questions jumped in my mind; who, where, how did we miss them earlier? The stallion answered me before I could voice them.

“We found him in one of the adjacent guest rooms. He had a shield up around him that blocked our scans and made him completely invisible. The spell must have been too much to keep up for long and when we were...taking care of things...we heard movement in the room.” The sergent tipped his helmet back and wiped at his brow. Now that he had my full attention, I could see he was winded and the sheen on his coat wasn’t from the rain outside. “We found him with a weapon too.”

“Where is he now?” Rarity and Coco flinched again when the weapon was mentioned and I told them to stay put while I headed out with the guards. We left the room with the two mares and headed over to the bar across the ballroom. The guests had more or less split themselves into two primary groups and no one dared to approach as I stomped my way past. The bar was surprisingly empty, all things considered, with just the old bartender and a single mare at the bar itself. In the back corner of the room, where the lights were dim, four more guards stood near a booth and I could feel the tension coming off them from the door.

When we got close, I could see why. The pony sitting in the booth was their former captain, and now Prince himself, Shining Armor. Rather morbidly, there was a wicked looking blade, sparkling in the low overhead lights. It looked as deadly as it was clean and it the sight of it made my throat hitch. Shining Armor looked up at me when I drew close and his eyes shared that same wicked look.

“Luna.”

“Shining Armor.” I nodded at the blade on the table and I lit up my horn. Now that he was a royal sworn to another country than Equestria, mishandling this situation could take this from tense to worst in a hurry. “May I relieve you of this?”

“Go ahead.” His voice sounded disconnected, disinterested in the events around him. Sort of shell shocked. “I don’t need it now.”

I took the thing carefully in my horn-grip and lifted it away from the table and passed it to the sergeant. As soon as he took it, I took a seat opposite of the white stallion and looked him dead in the eye. Shining looked bad. His mane was a little wild, there were bags under his eyes, he was coat was mostly dry after a deep soaking. I could even hear a hint of a rattle in his steady breathing.

“What’s this about? Why did my guards find you, in a empty room, with a giant knife?” He held my stare for a long time. No flinching or looking away. He just sat there in silence until I was about to speak again when he opened his mouth.

“Tell them to back off. What I have to say is for your ears only right now.”

I nodded slowly and my guardians stepped back to the bar and gave us the room at large. Shining Armor was a skilled captain in his day, well-regarded and rightly revered for his magical prowess on the battlefield. I was...mostly sure I could take him, if the need arose. He leaned forward and his face became a twisted sort of mask. When he spoke, it was in a hushed tone.

“Princess Luna, I came here tonight to right a long ago wrong. I’m glad it’s you here, and not your sister. I think you might be better able to understand me. I came here, to kill Prince Blueblood.” He raised his hoof before I could say anything. “But I didn’t get the chance to. Somepony beat me to it. So, that’s why I’m here, why I had the knife and why I was hiding in the upstairs guest chambers.”

I admit, I stared at him dumbfoundedly for a good minute or so before I could talk. “Wait…why did you want to kill Blueblood? That makes no sense! I know you, Shining, you’re a good colt and a good husband. What could ever entice you to murder?”

Shining Armor shrugged and leaned back in the booth. “Same thing as most ponies that aren’t starving or destitute; love.” He watched my face for a moment and then flicked an errant strand of his mane from his face. “Love sent me here to kill a pony, Luna. Did you know that Cadance has been seeing a counselor? Somepony she could talk out her problems to? They’ve been helping her with her foalhood recently. Her feelings about leaving her family in Cloudsdale behind, the pressure of being a princess and fitting in with the other royals.”

Shining’s eyes narrowed and his voice got quieter and all the more angry. “Royals like Blueblood. You weren’t here at the time, so let me give you the short version. He abused her. He beat her a few times, called her names, was aggressive, dismissive and a few other ‘-sives’ too. He did stuff to her that she never told anypony else about. And I know he’s been at it again. I was the captain, and I couldn’t do anything to stop it, but now, I’m not. We were on equal terms and I planned to put an end to it. But somepony beat me to the punch. I waited outside, under my shield, waited for him to be alone. Then the storm broke out and I had to sneak inside. I lost him for a while but I knew Cadance had said he liked to use the guest rooms for things, so I checked there and there he was.”

“Was he alive when you found him?”

“No.” Shining Armor paused and looked thoughtful for a moment. “Well, he might have technically still been alive. But the way I saw it, even if he was, he deserved it. I was about to leave when I heard the patrol coming through. So, I hid and left him there.”

“Well that’s a fine story, Shining.” I grinned humorlessly. “I’m finding there seems to be no shortage of ponies that wished my nephew harm. I cannot even say I blame them for it. He was a ponce, an ass and a bigot that mistreated those around him. But even if you say to me that you didn’t do it, you still admit to the intent and I have a dead nephew now! The courts will throw the book at you if we can’t find the truth. This is going to cause an international incident!”

While we were hissing back and forth to each other, I didn’t notice the sergeant approach until he was right on top of us. I jumped a little and glared at him but then I noticed he was being trailed by the mare at the bar. In the weak lighting, with her back to me and the long red dress covering her cutie mark, I hadn’t noticed that the mare was in fact, Applejack.

“Excuse me, Princess, but this young mare says she has important information you need.”

I looked back and forth between Shining Armor and Applejack for a moment. “Ok?” I make room on my end and Applejack slid into the space next to me at the booth. Shining Armor stared at the sergent until he backed off again and I turned to the blond. “Applejack, this might not look like it, but this is actually an important meeting between me and…”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” Applejack tossed her hair over her shoulder and looked at me with those green eyes of hers and raised an eyebrow. “I know about the body that’s cooling upstairs too.”

“How?”

“I saw it. I know how Blueblood died.” My jaw didn’t literally hit the table, but I tried. The earth pony shrugged and set a glass of scotch on the table I did realize she’d been carrying. “You can stop looking for a murderer. There ain’t one. Sad as that is to say. Blueblood did that all to himself. He ain’t just a piece of trash, he was a kinky one too. Rarity ain’t the only girl from Ponyville that he’s hit on or insulted. Though, she’s a unicorn and has a business, so maybe he wasn’t so kind as to insult her tribe and profession all at once.” She paused to take a sip of her drink and both I and Shining Armor leaned in for her to continue. “He hung himself up, tied the knots with his own magic while I was supposed to ‘get ready to be useful to my betters for a change.’ I was putting on the lipstick when I heard him slip. It was an accident, plain and simple. He knew his knots too. Sudden yank and all the slack was gone. I heard his neck pop like a cork.”

She downed the rest of the drink. “It was all an accident.” She didn't sound like that was a relief. Applejack tossed the glass onto the table and it rattled loudly. "I hate to add one more pony to the list of those that had an interest in doing your nephew harm, but I didn't care for him none. I was planning on blackmailing him with his elite buddies. I don't reckon that they'd let him live down sleeping with a hick earth pony mare anytime soon. Teach him a thing or two about how it feels to be looked down on. Keep Rarity out of his hooves at thje same time. Two birds with one stone and all that."

"So..." I struggled to frame all of this in my mind. "You're telling me that Blueblood hung himself like that in the room, and died when he slipped and fell?"

Applejack nodded. "He was into that auto-ertotic choking thingimagig. Said he needed it to help himself get off witha pony like me." She leaned back in the booth's padded seats and looked up at the dark ceiling. "He invited me to the party, it wasn't the first time either. Ever since the Gala, he's had it in for us. Couldn't take the embarrassment, I guess. I came this time cuz I knew Rarity was going to be in Canterlot at the same time and she has a harder time resisting this sort of thing here than when she's way out in Ponyville. I didn't want him making a move on her and her glamour-blindedness to get her into trouble. I showed up early and I got close to Blueblood and made it clear to him, if he wanted me, he could do anything he wanted, no strings attached, so long as he didn't touch my friend. Told him I'd meet him up in the room. I waited and when the rain started and everyone came in, I thought he wasn't going to show. But...he did. I put on this dang dress and the stockings he liked and he go into the sheets. Thought it was going to be an old do and done sort of thing but he got freaky and started doing the whole suspension act."

"Where he sets up in the swing so you can do a lot of different positions?" Shining Armor asked for me. She nodded again and then he looked at me and shrugged. "What? I have a wife that likes things that I'm learning way to much about recently."

I shook my head and filed that away for later. How did this all fit together? I spaced out the time line in my mind. "Ok, so, the rain started, Blueblood comes in saying something awful about pegasi and then heads upstairs where he meets with Applejack. Meanwhile, you," I point at Shining Armor, "are sneaking in and making your way upstairs and Rarity and Coco are meeting at the bar for mimosas."

"They weren't very good mimosas, honestly." Applejack interrupts me.

"You were here?"

"Yeah." She shrugs again. "I had no reason to stay there. Right after it happened, I heard hoofsteps coming and I slipped down the stairs. Met Rarity and Coco on the way out and we got drinks. Then Rarity left for some reason. Said she had to powder her nose or something, but she looked really mad."

"So then that must have been Shining you heard, he just misses you." I smiled as the dots all fell in line. "Then he finds Blueblood, hears the coming patrol, hides, Rarity comes up, is missed by the patrol when they go to fetch me, catch her coming back down, then I arrive, then Shining Armor's shield spell runs out and the guard finds him and now..." I spread my hooves over the table. "...here we are."

"Tidy." Shining Armor scoffs at me. "I like that."

"I'm still short a nephew and I don't like that. Explaining this to Celestia in the morning it going to be hell." I grumbled and looked over at the bartender. "Bring me a scotch and leave the bottle. I am so done with this night."