//------------------------------// // Subject 70: Demolition Seniors // Story: Interviews With Equestrians // by Jmaster49 //------------------------------// The plan was simple, as much as any other. Flurry Heart was disappointed when she found out they had ‘cancelled’ her little charity performance due to ‘unforeseen’ circumstances. Truthfully, I understood why her parents kept it from her. It was something very dangerous, and the emotionally driven alicorn wouldn’t exactly be subtle in her approach. When the evening drew near, I arrived at the retirement home at the quieter side of the Empire. Ity was a nice little place filled with adorable, elderly crystal ponies. I could only imagine the sheer amount of wonderful stories they had to tell from their time being alive. But no time for that. The first thing was simple: change of plans. I’d enter the retirement home, and arrive at the front desk to speak with the secretary. “Excuse me?” I leaned onto the desk with my hooves. “Hm? What’s up?” the green crystal stallion behind the counter responded to me. “Flurry Heart can’t make it,” I explained, “Something to do with an incident up North involving the Yaks. I have someone who’ll be taking over her little charity show at the request of the Princess herself.” Thankfully, he bought it. The guy behind the desk had the ‘I don’t get paid enough for this’ look in his eyes. I even felt bad. “Sure. So long as you can make it entertaining for the old-timers, doesn’t matter who it is.” Okay, that was surprisingly simple. Now I just needed the next part of my plan to work. I trotted into the nearby stallion’s restroom, and tapped a device I had in my ear. “You’re on.” Then I poked my head out. As expected, Tempest made her way inside. Though now, she was in a more casual outfit. A green polo with leaves on it to be exact. This was my ace in the hole. Somepony that no one really knew around these parts. “Hi there,” she said as she walked up to the secretary stallion, “I’m here for the--” The crystal pony pointed a hoof to the right. “The stage is in the back room. You got ten minutes before it starts.” She shot me a wink as she trotted past the front desk, and left for the room that was further within the facility. “Yes,” I muttered to myself. Now all we need to do was get everything ready, and continue as planned. The first step was already in motion. Now I just needed to locate, and disarm the explosive before anything could occur. “Excuse me, sonny,” I heard a hoarse voice call out to me. Turns out, I had blocked the way to the bathroom by accident. “Hm? Oh, sorry.” I held the door open for the old stallion, and continued on my way. Next, I had to search for optimal places to store an explosive. To kill an optimal amount of ponies, the individual must have known in advance about Flurry Heart’s arrangement for her little show that she intended to put on. Luckily, she would be avoiding that. So that left me with the fact that the explosive was likely located in the showroom where the elderly folks would be gathered. So I headed there first. I pushed the door open, and I could see attendant ponies set up chairs for the crowd to sit in. Tempest was in the corner to my right. Her eyes as cold as freshly cut metal as they scanned the room. “Find anything yet?” I asked as I walked up to her. “Nothing. How about you?” I tipped my hat. “It’s only a matter of time. I suspect our subject will have already set up what they wanted by now.” She sighed, “Are you sure evacuation is off the table.” “Not entirely. If it comes to that, we’ll just have to be quick about it. Sweetie Drops wouldn’t drop this on me if she knew I couldn’t handle it, though. Plus, the last thing we need to do is jolt a bunch of...aged ponies who have weak hearts and can’t withstand the shock of a teleportation spell.” “Well...this situation is dire, so I hope you know what you’re doing, Mr. Vestige.” I put on a smile to hide the fact that I wasn’t one-hundred percent confident. “Relax, Ms. Shadow. Everything will fall into place. Right now, I just need you to get ready to start up your show. Speaking of which,” I tilted my head, “what exactly do you have planned?’ For the first time since I met her, the mare with the broken horn laughed. “Haha! You shouldn’t worry about all of that,” she used her magic to levitate a flashlight, and turned it on beneath her chin to illuminate her face for dramatic effect. “I have loads of ways to keep them occupied. Ahahaha!” Part of me wanted to tell her that scary stories alone wouldn’t work, but I was interested in seeing what she had planned for her approach. So I chose to leave it be. “Heh. If you’re sure. I’m gonna go out and do some investigating. Good luck with the show.” “Oh I won’t be needing any luck, ehehehe…” I left Tempest be. This room was wide, but to place a bomb in plain sight would be obviously dumb. No. It had to be more discreet, more hidden. I looked up. The vents? No. It would be out of reach and wouldn’t cause any major damage. The walls? Not likely. I would be able to see a disturbance in the paint plastered over them. So that left one option. I looked down at the floor. “Hm…” It hit me. I knew exactly where to go next. First, I had to get ahold of one of the crystal caretaker ponies. “Excuse me,” I approached one of the mares who had been getting chairs set up, “Do you perhaps know where the cellar of the facility is located?” She pointed outside, “Head out the back door, and make a right. You can’t miss it,” she replied as she looked me over. “Is there something wrong, sir?” “Hm? Oh no. I’m just checking on something. Carry on,” I replied, and pranced towards the door. I stepped outside, and walked along a cobblestone path. There was a nice little pond, several benches, a tennis court, a gazebo, and a garden. Very helpful to keep the older folks relaxed, I’d say. I turned to my left and saw the cellar doors connected to the side of the building itself. I went over, and opened them. Yup. This is exactly where I needed to go. Why? It was a matter of time. I walked down the stone steps, and shut the doors behind me. It was dark as heck, but thankfully, a light switch wasn’t too hard to find. Sadly, the light was a bit dim, and only gave me enough vision to see past a small area. Fortunately, my eyes soon adjusted to the darkness and I could see vague outlines of stacked boxes all around the cellar. “I’ll have to remind them to replace the light source down here,” I mumbled as I wrote that tidbit down in my notes. I kept going along a set path of boxes and other items that lined the cellar. I guess the workers had a certain way that they chose to go about storing their items. I couldn’t hate them for it. After all, I--and many others--did the same thing. It was an uneventful little walk I had. I saw chairs, tables, holiday decorations, and various little items that could be used to entertain or cheer up an elderly pony. My ear flicked. From above, I could hear ponies moving into a room, and being seated. Tempest’s show was about to begin. But wait, the noise was coming from a specific part of the cellar. Could it be? I needed to get a visual, so I climbed atop one of the towers of boxed supplies. “Ngh…” It was probably foolish, to do a thing like this. But it was my best bet. I did my best to scramble up there, and walked across the boxes in a precarious sort of way. My ear was right next to the ceiling which connected to the floor of the building. Okay then. I was almost there. I just had to keep listening. Beep. Beep. Beep. And there it was. I crossed a few more sets of boxes. My legs flailed, and I had to knock over a few just to get there. Was I out of shape or was this stuff just heavy? Anyway, I finally arrived, and found it. “Hot damn…” There it was. A little black box with a beeping red light on the side. With my back lying on a tower of boxes, I was able to slide right underneath it in order to get a better look at the device. I was no slouch when it came to bomb defusal, so this wasn’t exactly going to be hard. But then, I noticed the time it had left. 5:00….4:59….4:58….4:57… Five minutes?! Okay. That was a problem, but I knew I could more or less deal with such a constraint so long as I was able to focus. Just needed to t pop the rear casing off, and...yup. Wires everywhere. Whew. I had my work cut out for me today, that was certain. So I got to work. It was actually surprisingly simple. Such an elementary C4 design. It couldn’t be set off with magic or anything. Only a remote detonation. That being said, rendering it harmless was fairly simple once you knew what to cut apart. It was almost too simple, in fact. I didn’t snip that wire just yet. I removed the bomb from its place on the cellar ceiling, and got off the boxes. “Alright, come on out, whoever you are,” I called out while I looked into the darkness at the end of the underground room. “This was far too easy to come in to deactivate and leave it at that.” POING! A dagger whizzed past my head that I just barely managed to dodge in time. It lodged itself in the stone wall behind me. “You catch on fast, Blood Viper,” a mare’s voice called out to me. She appeared before me in a completely black bodysuit and mask. Only a set of orange eyes were visible, and nothing else. “I’ll make this quick, and simple for you to understand: Defuse that bomb, and Svengallop’s entire gang will know where you are the second it's put out. You’ll be surrounded with no escape. Or…” she started to walk around me in a circle. A classic scare tactic, “You can cover the blast with your own body, sacrifice your own, meaningless life, and save everypony above you. No confrontation.” I weighed what she told me, and almost laughed it off. So this was the level that the bastard and his little entourage intended to stoop to just to accomplish their goals. How sickening. But if I were to die now, it would be the worst possible time to do so. Cozy Glow would lose the first pony that actually took time to care for her. And I would not dare choose to selfishly abandon her and Cheerilee. “Heh…” I took a look at the timer on the bomb. 10...09...08… “Just how many ponies would arrive if I were to defuse it?” The masked mare replied, “At least thirty. Choose wisely, Viper boy.” I chuckled, and clenched my teeth around the wire. I ripped it out, and tossed the defused, harmless explosive on the floor directly in front of her. I refused to tolerate such harassment any longer. If they wanted a fight, I would give them one they would never forget. “Those odds sound extremely unfair...for you.”