Chapter 6: The Interrogation
One Week Later
The once spring-like empire was buried under mounds of snow. The Crystal residents didn’t seem to be bothered too much by the sudden cold weather and did their best to keep snow from building up in front of doorways. The ponies from Equestria on the other hoof, were huddled inside desperately trying to stay warm. They were running out of things to burn, but fortunately the library wasn’t a very popular as a tourist location and was safe from the freezing ponies.
The worst part was the almost hourly searches by the most scary looking pegasi anypony had ever seen. They wore dark purple flight suits similar to the Wonderbolts, which had magic enchantments to keep them warm in the cold weather. They were mean, and agitated--they had been at it for the entire week straight! They were clearly searching for somepony, but weren’t given any information as to what was going on. All they were told, was that nopony was allowed to leave until they said so. On top of that, they had taken quite a few ponies in for questioning, but nopony has seen them since.
They said they were apart of the Wonderbolts but nopony know if they were telling the truth or not, for there was no other sign of an authority figure to confirm it. But among the most paranoid a whisper flouted around: ‘Shadowbolt’.
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Cannon Fodder stood on the balcony of the Crystal Castle, looking out over the city watching his squadrons fly here and there still searching for the trouble-making unicorn for over a week now. The situation was bad and growing more desperate by the second. He hated the situation they were in. He hated Trixie for putting the lives and safety of everypony in the Crystal Empire in danger. He hated his stallions who he himself hoof-picked for not being able to find her in over a week, but most of all he hated himself for letting it happen in the first place.
It didn’t take long for him to notice a familiar pegasus to appear in the distance flying towards him at a very fast speed, and it only took a few moments for her to reach Cannon Fodder. Fleetfoot landed next to her commander with her wings falling to the ground, franticly trying to catch her breath.
“Fleetfoot, what have you to report?” Cannon said turning his blind eye to her tiredness and lack of following proper protocol of saluting him on arrival.
“I told … the Princess … like you told me … and princess … Mi Amore … Cadenza … will be here … soon, also … her new highness … Twilight Sparkle … will be accompanying her,” she struggled to get out.
“Of course she is,” he said with distain. “How much longer would you estimate their arrival time?”
“I would imagine within the hour. Sir.” Fleetfoot said, finally catching her breath.
“Wonderful,” he said sarcastically, “That doesn’t give us much time.”
“Speaking of time, I think it’s about time to interrogate our only witness,” said a voice from behind Fleetfoot and Cannon Fodder. It was Cannon Fodder’s Second in Command, Lieutenant Nightflower. She was a bat winged pegasus with a dark grey coat, light blue hair, and yellow catlike eyes. “We finally got her to cooperate.”
“Good, then we should go. Maybe we can get some information out of her before the Princesses get here.”
“Wait. I think I missed something. What’s going on? What witness?” Fleetfoot asked.
“We captured a pegasus named Lightning Dust. She is the only lead we have to where Trixie might possible be, but she wont talk without a lawyer,” the Commander explained. “She didn’t seem to know much at the time so I gave most of my attention to the search parties. To be honest I pretty much forgot about her, but now it appears she’s the only place left to turn. Speaking of which, how did you get her to start talking?”
“We found a lawyer. Turns out there’s only one in the entire empire, and he’s not too popular either,” Nightflower said.
“So there’s an actual lawyer involved? Great that’s just going to take up more of our valuable time isn’t it.” Cannon Fodder had never been a fan of the bureaucratic system. It only served to slow things down.
“Perhaps,” Nightflower added. “But at least he seems more cooperative then the normal palace guards.” The crystal pony guards where uncooperative feeling very suspicious of the nearly hostile tack over by these shadow like pegasi.
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Cannon Fodder entered the questioning room where they had been keeping the witness. He had noticed Lightning Dust mumbling to herself, but his attention was on the new Crystal pony in the room. He wasn’t like the other crystal ponies. His main body was opaque and soapy like instead of clear and crystalline, and his mane and tail were jet black with a grease like luster to it. He wore a suit collar and tie that matched his crimson red eyes.
“I assume you’re this lawyer I’ve heard of?” Cannon Fodder asked.
“How observant of you,” The lawyer remarked. “My name is Pro Bono and I will be representing Miss Dust.”
The Commander then took notice of this stallions cutie mark being a sealed scroll with quill. “What exactly is your special talent if you don’t mind me asking?”
“The Law, and from what my client has told me you and your ponies have broken it. Several times. When proper rule is reestablished, I assure you we will press charges against you.”
“My apologies, and I’m sure I will pay for said crimes when this is over and done with, but right now time is short and I need answers and your client will be giving them to me.”
“Actually,” Pro Bono added. “She doesn’t have to give you anything or comply with anything you say, because your ponies did not give or read her rights. Therefore, I demand that you release my client Miss Dust immediately,” Pro Bono Said. Lightning Dust then gave him a hoof bump for pointing out that technicality.
The commander sat there with a blank stare in his eyes for several seconds trying to process what he had just heard.
He then turned to Lightning Dust to say, “I don’t think you quite understand the position you are in right now. An act of treason has been committed and thousands of ponies’ lives are in the balances unless we capture the culprit who we believe to be Trixie. Right now you are the only pony that even might know where she is right now because you where there when it happened. So until I have reason to believe that you don’t know or have anything to do with it, I will assume that you do, even to the point that you might be an accomplice. So to answer why you weren’t read your right when we captured you was because right now you have no rights.”
“That’s ridicules, you can’t do that!” Lightning Dust slammed her hoof against the table.
“Actually I can do that. You weren’t arrested by the police, or the guard, or even the royal guard. My forces have the authority to strip ponies of their rights for the greater good when the scenario calls for it. The only reason you have been treated like a normal prisoner so far was part courtesy, part negligence, and part we didn’t have the pony power to spare to interrogate you. But right now I’m out of options.”
“Objection,” Pro Bono slammed his front two hoofs on the table. “There is no protocol in the Crystal or Equestrian law that can give anypony, not even the Princesses, the authority to deny another pony their rights as outlined in our constitution.”
Cannon Fodder tilted his head in Pro Bono’s direction and two Pegasi in purple flight suits lunged out of the shadows and pined him against the table not letting him move.
“W-what? What’s going on?” Lightning Dust jumped away from the table and backed her self into the corner of the room. But before she could say anything else she was pined up against the wall by Cannon Fodder.
“I don’t have time for games.” He pressed his for leg up against her throat. “You will tell me where Trixie is or I will torture that information out of you.” His other hoof came close to her face reveling a hidden blade that pocked her cheek drawing a small amount of blood.
Lightning Dust’s eyes started to water up as she looked into his eyes. “I don’t know. I don’t know anything. I only meet Trixie that day! I didn’t know she was going to steal the Crystal heart. I was just at the wrong place at the wrong time, I swear.” Her throat was raspy as she was on the verge of crying.
The commander then let her down and Lightning Dust fell to the ground, “Now, was that so hard that you couldn’t have just said that earlier and saved all of us some time and trouble?” He signaled to the other to pegasi, and they let go of Pro Bono, and the three of them left the room.