I knew I was in shock over what I had done. I had cried when my dad had to kill a rabbit that was still alive after we’d hit it. That had felt bad, but this, this felt even worse because I had to do it. There hadn’t been any choice; if it had lived more ponies would have died. I felt myself tearing up and tried to hold it together. I needed to give a report to The Marshals, to explain what happened. Then when I’d made sure Rosy was physically unhurt I could have my breakdown, not before.
“I’m sorry.” I whispered to the corpse “I’m so, so very sorry. I had to. If…if I didn’t you would have killed them. I had to do it, to protect them.” I kept repeating it till one of The Marshals tapped my leg.
“We were told to expect you but...I didn’t think you’d be so…tall.” It was Ironclad, I recognized him from Friday. “I can tell you’re a little shaken up but could speak Equestrian for me? I don’t speak…um…whatever language it is you’re speaking.” He smiled sheepishly
I blinked “I am.” That didn’t sound right “Testing one, two, three? What? Shut up.”
Not English, Japanese. I tried again, Swahili. I cycled through Spanish, Italian, German, and six other languages before I finally started speaking English again. It made sense in a bizarre way. When you panic, which is what I was essentially doing, you lose some of your reasoning ability. Somehow that made me start speaking languages that I knew little to nothing about. The reason that part made some sense was because Digimon are digital data given new form and life and while all that was interesting it only briefly distracted me.
“Rosy and Golden Wonder are they alright?
“Physically, yes, psychologically? I don’t know. What about you?”
I felt the first tears roll down my face and I sniffed “I’m fine for now.”
He raised an eyebrow “Are you sure?”
I sniffed again as I started crying “Maybe, sniff, maybe I’m not completely okay. B…but I d…don’t want Rosy see me c…crying.”
I saw Rosy hug my left leg “It…its o…okay Inaba, you c…can cry t…to.”
I guess the cat was out of the bag at that point. I still tried not to cry with partial success, as in crying silently. I don’t want to kill anything; I’m fine with beating it into submission so long as I don’t kill it unless I absolutely have to and even then I’d still rather not. I don’t know how long we stood there, me mourning the death of something that had killed one pony and had tried to kill two more. Rosy, because she knew she could have died and instead had bear witness to the rather gruesome death of another creature. Our group made its way to one of The Marshals local dispatch buildings where I was lucky to find a hose so I could clean myself up.
“Um, we have a slight problem.” Ironclad said
I took a deep breath “Just give me a sec to make sure I’ve cleaned all the blood off and check for damage.”
I started taking off my armor “Wait! Warn somepony before you start stripping.”
He had turned bright red as a spun an about face “Sorry, where I’m from nudity isn’t as common so I thought nopony would mind if I just, you know took if off.”
Rosy seemed fascinated by the fact that my armor was NOT part of my natural body. After removing everything I checked my pants and cuirass for any damage. The pants had some feather fluff stuck to the one leg but that was it. The cuirass was, unsurprisingly, completely undamaged. Not even the tiniest of scratches, at least that I could tell. I redressed and with a thought became Lopmon again. Rosy’s eyes became huge, I owed her a lot of answers, but they’d have to wait until I didn’t feel like a piece of shit.
“You can turn around now.”
“Wha? Bu? How?” the look on his face, priceless
I smiled, normally I would’ve laughed but again I felt like shit. “Sorry Guns, its classified.”
“Okay?”
The inside looked exactly how you would expect a police station to. Officer at a desk in the front, The Marshals painted on the front of it. Visitor’s bathrooms on one side, a door on the opposite wall lead us into the offices. Ten desks and ten filing cabinets and a door on the right side with a glass window marked as Captain. The place was lit with same lighting as The Mancers HQ so it was nice and bright. As we neared the Captains office I heard voices.
“So we’re just gonna let the parents handle them, but you’ll have to deal with your operative.”
“I understand. But you know it’s really none of our faults.” That was Sunny Smiles
A sigh “Yeah, I know. It’s the damn city council and their stupid ‘official procedure’.” I could almost hear the air quotes “I swear it’s like trying to get a bill onto the agenda of The Barn of Lords sometimes.”
“I know Wilily.” She sighed “I know.”
Ironclad knocked as he opened the door to Wilily’s office. “I’ve brought them sir.”
Wilily was a middle aged stallion with hazard orange fur. He had a crew cut brown mane and a beard that reminded me of Gordon Freeman. His desk was plain with a few framed pictures of friends and family. His green eyes and smirk put me a little more at ease.
“The other filly is being taken home?” he asked
“Yes, sir. She had passed out so Bastion is carrying her.”
A nod “Thank you Sergeant. Go ahead and get started on your report.”
With a quick salute the door closed behind us. "My name is Wild E, I'm Commissioner or the Marshals and most folks just call me Wilily instead of Wild E"
"Can I just call you Commissioner?" I asked
"If you want."
“Alright then Commissioner, are we in trouble?”
He paused“Hmm, yes and no. Blue will deal with punishing her daughter and Sunny is in charge of yours. But before I send you off I want some answers from you.”
“Ask away sir.” I wiped my nose
He hesitated “Have you been crying?”
“Yes.”
He blinked, guess he was expecting a lie “Why?”
“I killed a living creature. I’ve never killed a living a creature. Do you have any idea how horrible I feel right now. I know in my head that it had to be done but. But in my heart I still wish it didn’t have to be done by anyone, least of all by me. My brother is the one who went through BCT, not me.”
“Sunny, you can take your granddaughter home; I’d like to speak with Ms. Inaba alone.”
She blinked but didn’t protest as she dragged Rosy out of the room. I listened carefully; they didn’t leave, just stopped next to the door to the front of the station. I looked down at my feet. I guess he wanted to punish me or something. I was expecting, well, I don’t really know what, maybe to be hit or something. I was surprised when I felt a hoof gentle place itself on my head.
“Inaba, look at me.”
I had started crying again, this always happens. I try to do something good and get screwed over by it.
“Please.” I did, he had a sad smile on his face “What you did tonight was incredibly brave. A bit reckless maybe but undoubtedly one of the bravest things I think I’ve ever heard of. Sunny’s filled me on the important bits about you and I gotta say I’m impressed.” He sighed “You’d have made one hell of a Marshal with instincts like those. Almost makes me sad The Mancers snatched you up first.” His smile was happy now “But from what she’s told me you’ve probably done more good in a day working for them than you could’ve done in a year working for us. Now then, I doubt Sunny’ll punish you but I’m going to.”
“Right, I’ll spend the night behind bars.” I said dismally
He laughed “For breaking a curfew? No, at least not under the circumstances, I just want two things from you; an incident report on your encounter with that...thing and I don’t want you to keep beating yourself up about this. I know it’s hard to believe but eventually you’ll feel better.”
He went back and rummaged through his desk returning with a sack of clinking bits.
“I know you’re not on the force, but I think you’ve earned this.” He hoofed it to me. “200 bits, we had a pool going on as to whether or not your little speech to Blueblood had any truth to it. The money was to go to whoever could prove it one way or the other within the confines of the law.”
I shook my head “Speaking of, I haven’t had time to familiarize myself with the laws.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure nopony can drag you in on trumped up or false charges.”
“What about at the national level.”
His smile turned into a smirk “We have primary jurisdiction here because there is no Guard detachment. So I can make sure they get bogged down in so much red tape that it’s less trouble just to forget the orders and drop the charges. The only way they could really take you in would be on an order from one of the Princesses and even then I could still pull out some red tape to slow them down, if only long enough to warn you.”
“Good, I get the feeling Blueblood might try to pin the death of his guard on me. Gods I wish I could go run.”
“Why?”
“I am, well was, an athlete. Long distance running was my sport. Whenever I felt upset I usually went for a run to clear my head. I would push myself and run this loop I had as fast as I could.”
“Wanderlust eh? Sunny was in here talking about a ‘ping’ she got, ask her about.”
“I will, and I’ll get that report written ASAP.”
“Just make sure I get it before next Wednesday.”
I exited the office and joined Sunny and Rosy. We left the building and made it most of the way home in silence. Rosy kept glancing over at me as I walked on Sunny’s opposite side. Finally she couldn’t seem to contain herself anymore.
“Are you really an alien?” she blurted out
“Rosy, that’s rude.”
I shrugged “Its fine. Yes, I’m from a planet called Earth.”
“Are you really twenty years old?”
“Yes,” she seemed crestfallen at my answer “but don’t think I didn’t enjoy the sleepover. I haven’t been able to be a kid for about ten years, that’s when I started middle school and my parents told me I had to ‘grow up’ and stop being so childish. Oh, Sunny, I was told to ask you about some sort of ping you got.”
She smiled broadly “Yes, we’ve had reports of strange break-ins in Ponyville coupled with somepony saying that they could get into any building or storage facility in the town.”
THAT perked my interest “You think they’re using something that came through from somewhere else.”
“I do, is there anything you can think of that might allow that?”
“Maybe, is there any sign of forced entry?”
“No, all the locks have been picked but no damage was done to the windows or doors.”
“Then, there are a few things it could be. One of which I really hope it isn’t for reasons I’d rather keep to myself.”
“Can you at least give me a hint about it?”
“It’s called the Skeleton Key. It belongs to a god like being known as a daedra. Specifically it belongs to Nocturnal one of the Daedric Princes. The less you know about The Key, the better.”
“Is it really that dangerous?”
“No, but its potential is.”
We reached the house and were shepherded to bed. I slept badly that night, dreams of giant birds and blood. They were chased off by the same girl from my last dream. When I woke up I wrote the report as quickly and thoroughly as possible. I had stuck the sack of bits in my Mancers bag when I did my ears. In the study I digivolved into Antylamon and back as an experiment. My ribbon stayed put, more importantly it was undamaged and hadn’t been on me when I was Antylamon. At least I wouldn’t have to hold my bag when I ran.
I was given a stipend to cover travel, food, and lodging expenses. I was allowed to keep whatever I didn’t spend which would probably be most of it. Normally they would’ve told me not to make myself noticeable but since nopony there had ever seen a Lopmon before going unnoticed would be impossible. I would have to avoid Pinkie Pie, parties are nice but they’re not my thing.
Rosy insisted on walking to the south gate with me. I had my Mancers bag on. Inside were both bags of bits, duck tape, my mechanical pencil, my moleskine, my iPod, headphones, and some sandwiches Grey Main had made for me to snack on in an emergency. Rosy wasn’t allowed to go outside the gate so we stopped for a bit.
“Thank you for guiding me to the gate. I don’t think I could’ve found it so quickly on my own.”
I was suddenly swallowed up into a tight hug “Thank you, for saving me. I didn’t say it last night. I was so scared, even when we got home and I knew I would be safe. Those blades they”
I wrapped my ears around her neck hugging her back “Shh, its okay. I’d never use them to hurt you or anyone else I care about. If I can manage to then I don’t want to kill anything ever again.”
She sniffed “Promise?”
“Promise. Remember even if I don’t look the same on the outside, I’ll still be me on the inside.”
“How will I know?”
“A sign of friendship.”
On that cryptic note I gave a gentle squeeze with my ears before I let go. The train station was twenty minutes walk outside the gate. I was supposed to pick up the earliest train they had to Ponyville. The schedule said it would take three days for the train to arrive in Ponyville and when I asked about ticket prices the clerk gave a rather convoluted answer that basically meant he wouldn’t sell me a ticket unless I paid three times the normal price of a first class ticket for one in the lowest class. Being a usually frugal person I told him no. It looked like I was going to get my run after all.
You shouldn't dwell on the past, but you should learn from it.