10 Days, 3 Adventures - Part 2 - "Manehattan Crime Story"

by TP Night

Chapter 21 - Interrogation

The next day, just as Celestia raised the sun over Equestria, Gun Point entered the police
station, still not fully awake. He made himself some coffee, greeted the night guard
as he left the station, and then sat down with the daily piles of paperwork.
Later today, He’d have the interrogation, and finally find out what those two zebras
had been up to all this time... He was looking forward to that. Professionally, because it
meant the case would hopefully be over soon. And personally, because of simple
curiosity. Today, he would get his answers.

* * *

A few hours later, Rarity, Pinkie, Trixie and Erlen entered the station, and was
met by Gun Point in the lobby. “Welcome back, all of you.” he greeted them,
and they all replied.

Then, he pointed toward a door. “Interrogation Room’s over there. We have them
both in there already, Storm Feather is keeping them guarded. Just a heads-up before
we all go in there... One of them is pretty calm and honestly, almost friendly.
The other is, well... Let’s just say, less satisfied with the situation, and might try
to insult or aggravate you. If she does, just ignore her.”

Rarity smiled. “No worries, we’re all professional, we can handle some unfriendly
comments. And, I assume the friendly one is Manyzia, the one you and I caught
at the show hall last night? And the unfriendly one would be...”

“Zamynia.” Gun Point replied. “Even their names are similar, and they look
almost identical. You’ll see. Eye color, a necklace, and their personality are the only
differences I’ve noticed.”

“Fascinating. In any case, should we begin?”

“Yeah, better get this done.” Gun Point said, opening the door and letting them all in.
Inside, they found Manyzia and Zamynia with their hooves chained to a table,
and Storm standing next to the door leaning a bit toward the wall.
Manyzia barely looked up, but Zamynia looked at them all, clearly annoyed.

“Shall we get straight to the point, ladies?” Gun Point asked as he approached them.

Manyzia nodded calmly. “Very well. You ask, and I shall reply.”

Zamynia grunted. “Why are you so friendly with them? They’ll only get in our way
even more than they already have! We’ll never get it back if they lock us up!”

“Silence, Sister. Trust me. This is for the best.” Manyzia said, still calm.

Zamynia was silent for a moment, before she spoke again. “....Fine.”

Gun Point cleared his throat. “Hrm. So, let’s start with...hmm...” He began.
“Let’s start with what Zamynia just said...’get it back’. Get what back?”

Manyzia took a deep breath and started talking. “To answer that, I must first tell you
a little of our origins. We come from the south, deep in the jungles. Many years ago,
our tribe was visited by stallions from this city... They claimed to be tourists and
explorers, and said they were there to research local wildlife and plants...
However, when their visit was over, they stole something from us.
A tribal artifact. To them, it can’t have had any value, it is a wooden statuette,
about the size of a soda can. But to our tribe, it is a priceless heirloom from our
ancestors. It has been in our tribe for as long as anypony can remember.”

“So you came here to steal it back from whoever stole it from you?” Rarity asked.

“Exactly.” Manyzia replied. “We spent the last few years tracking and searching,
and we are finally getting close.. So we came here to this city, because this is were
the thieves live and work.”

Gun Point asked, “So what about the crimes you committed? All the identity frauds,
robberies and pick-pocketing, the scams you’ve been running? You’ve been at it for
weeks now, what’s the point?”

“When we first came here, we spoke to officers from a different precinct. They told us
they could do nothing to help, and did not care about our problem, since we were not
citizens and the Idol was stolen years ago. For them, there was no case.
We tried to find jobs, but nopony would hire us. We became desperate, and resorted
to crime in order to get money. Money we needed for food, supplies, hotels...
We realized we were really good at it, and kept going. Meanwhile, we searched for
the ones who stole our Idol. After some time, we finally got on the right trail.
We discovered that one of the thieves now own and run that building in which
you caught me last night. I was there to search his office, hoping that maybe he
had the Idol there, so I took the identity of a janitor for easy, unsuspected access.”

Gun Point held up his hoof to stop here for a moment. “Hold on. That’s another thing
you’ll need to explain. That potion of yours.”

“A tribal recipe, from our Shaman. She taught us how to make it, since we are
Shaman apprentices, and one day we will take her place when she gets too old.”

“So you used the potion for your scams and to sneak in to the show hall.”

“Yes, as you already know. And now you know where we learned to make it.”

“What I don’t get is, why did you only ask in one station?”

“At that time, we did not now that you had more than one, and before we discovered
that, we had already began the scams and robberies. I wanted to try again once we
found out about the other stations, but my sister disagreed. I was Unwilling to argue,
so instead I let it go, and we continued the scams.”

“And I’m guessing you did not find your Idol in his office, since you do not have it.”
Rarity noted.

“Correct, it was not in his office. He did however have a picture of himself and
a group of others. I recognized them, they were indeed the ones that visited us
in our village, confirming that he is the correct pony. I assume he has it in his home,
since it was not in his office.”

“You do realize you’ll most likely be locked up for this, right?” Storm Feather asked.

“We do.” Manyzia said. “Personally, I accept our fate. I know Zamynia does too,
deep within herself.”

Zamynia sighed. “...yes... I do.. It’s just... We came so close to retrieving our lost Idol...
How can we explain this to our family once we get out of jail and return home?
We failed in our mission...”

Gun Point scratched his chin. “You know, you should have come to us weeks ago.
At this precinct, we would gladly have helped you. In fact, I think we can come
to an... arrangement.”

“What do you mean?” Manyzia asked, a hint of curiosity in her voice.

“Well, you two are still gonna have to take your trial, and sentence, for your crimes.
However, while you’re in prison, me and my officers can open an official investigation,
and turn this into an actual case. IF we find and obtain the Idol, we’ll keep it in our
evidence locker until you two get out from jail, and give it to you.”

Manyzia looked at Gun Point. “You... You would do that for us? Despite all we have
done?”

“Yes. Yes, I would.” Gun Point said. Storm nodded. “Sure, I’m in.” he said.

Manyzia smiled. “Thank you. I mean it.”

Gun Point smiled back. “You still have to serve your sentence, so maybe
you shouldn’t thank me too much. I mean, based on all you’ve done, we’re looking
at a minimum of two years in medium-security prison. Storm, your thoughts?”

Storm nodded. “Yeah, I’d say two, maybe three years.”

“Like I said, we both understand, and we’re willing to serve our time.
All we really care about is getting our Idol back to the village.
There is one thing I would ask of you though...” Manyzia said, looking at Gun Point.

“And what would that be?”

“I wish to send a letter home to the tribe, tell them of the situation. They need to know
why we are not coming back for some time, otherwise they will get worried.
I’m sure you understand...”

“After we’re done here, we can arrange for that. Be aware though, we will check
the letter carefully before sending it, just to be sure.”

“Again, Thank you.”

“Now, if you’ll excuse us all... Ladies, Erlen, come with me.” Gun Point said,
waving at the others. “Storm, stay here and keep your eyes on them.
I don’t think they’ll try anything, but we do need to follow standard protocol.”

Storm nodded and mumbled something that Rarity assumed was “Sure, I’ll stay.”

Everypony except Storm left the room.

“Now what?” Trixie asked.

“Now, I’m afraid I must ask you all to leave. The investigation is over.”

“And thus, you won’t need any help from us anymore.” Rarity said.

“Exactly... There is one more thing though, A small sign of gratitude I’d like to give
you all, so if you’d please wait in the lobby while I go get it...”

They all nodded and walked out to the lobby area.

“What do you think it is?” Trixie asked.

"Maybe.. candy?!” Pinkie said, bouncing a couple of times.

“I very much doubt that, Pinkie.”

“aaw...” Pinkie replied, and stopped bouncing. “I wanted something sweet...”

“Well, we could always go get something after we’re done here.
Which reminds me, I still need to find something for Sweetie Belle...”

“Sweetie Belle?” Trixie asked.

“My younger sister. I believe you’ve met her, white filly, pink and lavender mane.”

“Rings a bell, Trixie has vague memories of such filly, yes...”

“In any case, I promised her to get her a gift from Manehattan when I get back.”

“There is a candy shop that sells candy replicas of famous landmarks and buildings.
Would that be sufficient?” Trixie asked.

“Hmm.. maybe...”

“Ooh ooh, I know that place!” Pinkie said. “Sweetie would love their candy,
very fruity and sweet!”

“Well, I suppose a rock candy statue or something would be a nice gift for her...”

“Yes!” Pinkie bounced again. “I’m gonna get some too!”

As they talked, Gun Point returned. “Thank you all for waiting.
Now then.. As thanks for your services to the station, and the city of Manehattan...”
He said, opening a wooden box. “....I present to you all, these silver medals.”

In the box was a row of silver medals, shaped like large coins with the police emblem
engraved in them, along with some text - ‘For Outstanding Services’.