Detective Fluttershy drifted through the hospital so quietly one might have assumed she was a ghost. Her eyes slid from point to point, taking in as much information as they could.
There are relatively large hallways that provide lots of space for a large number of ponies to mobilize at once. It also means there’s very little cover for sneaking around, but I don’t think that’s intentional. There aren’t very many ponies watching the hallways right now; it’d be easy to gain access to a place like this if one could get past the front desk.
She’d been to hospitals before, but it was good to be in the habit of absorbing information. Lax ponies were dead ponies. Fluttershy stopped in front of the room she’d be summoned to and listened at the door.
Only one pony inside. Excellent.
Slipping inside, Fluttershy made sure the door was closed behind her and took the patient in. The older stallion was covered in burns and bandages, making it almost impossible to tell anything about him. He wasn’t in pain, at least; whatever drugs the doctors had given him appeared to be doing their job. Reluctantly, Fluttershy turned to the chart for help.
Let’s see… his name is Doctor Fantastic. Admitted with severe burns to the face, chest, and forelegs, as well as internal injuries. If it weren’t for magic, he’d have died several times by now. No attempts have been made to revive him, or at least won’t be made until the burns have healed more. Hm, it also says that they’ve gotten odd magical readings from his brain.
Fluttershy frowned. Unknown magic generally ended up being the most dangerous kind; she’d proved that herself time and time again.
Speaking of which, Fluttershy’s ears twitched as she heard the doors at the end of the hallway swing open. They rotated, changing angles to get the most sound as she closed her eyes and sorted through the ambient noise.
His heart's beating awfully fast for the pace he’s trotting at; he must be nervous. I can’t smell very much through all these disinfectants, but there’s some strong coffee on his breath. He’s slowing down and checking the rooms, so he probably doesn’t know which room he’s looking for. I bet that he’s the pony that asked me to meet him here.
Fluttershy smoothly replaced the chart and sat down. She adopted a slight slouch in her posture and allowed her eyes to drift apart as she stared off into space. There was no reason to be here earlier, and she was probably allowed to read the nurse's chart, but any knowledge that you had and others didn’t was a potential weapon, no matter how small it was.
A Unicorn with a blue mane and white coat that immediately made Fluttershy think of toothpaste nervously trotted in. “Hi, there! My name is Shining Sparkle, Director of Sunburst industries. I hope I haven’t kept you waiting long.”
“Oh, it’s no trouble,” Fluttershy said easily. She smiled, glancing over the pony and absorbing more data in a second than most could from a comprehensive background file.
He’s a little pudgy, but working on getting into shape, likely because of his new marefriend. He forgot to shave and his suit is so wrinkled it looks like he slept in it. He keeps looking at Peachy all worried, so either they’re more connected than my files on him let on (unlikely) or he takes a personal concern in his employees. His general exhaustion also indicates whatever I’m being hired for is a large concern. Good. It’ll be nice to do something important for a change and the pay will be nice.
She extended a hoof. “Please, sit down. You look tired.”
Shining nodded, barely shaking the offered hoof before collapsing onto the bench beside her. “You have no idea. This whole mess has been…” His voice trailed off. “Well, it’s a mess.”
Fluttershy nodded sympathetically. “Please, start from the beginning.”
“The beginning… Good grief.” Shining rubbed a hoof against his face as he closed his eyes and tried to organize his thoughts. “I guess it all started a few months ago when we hired a new scientist named Trixie. She claimed to have a Mark that helped her work with others but she proved to be difficult. Eventually, she had to be let go. She had to be dragged from the lab, swearing revenge. That’s not even the worst part.”
Fluttershy raised an eyebrow. “Is that why we’re in a hospital?”
Shining ears lay back, but he nodded. “She was working for this pony, Doctor Fantastic. They were experimenting with a form of magic called Psychomagia.”
No...
Fluttershy immediately sat up straight. Time seemed to slow as her brain went into overdrive, memories rising to the surface and threatening to consume her.
Heknows killhimkillhimkillhim beforeitstolate kill…
Fluttershy allowed the fear to rise to the surface and breathed it out. She had no reason to assume that Shining knew about her magic, or that this was any kind of trap. She should hear the rest of what Shining had to say before deciding whether or not to deal with him. Besides, the last thing Fluttershy needed was the attention of the Royal Guard.
All of this had flashed through her mind in an instant. Shining, unaware of how much danger he’d been in, continued. “Now look, I know it’s something of a crank theory, but he’s been right about a large number of other unlikely ideas in the past. His Mark lets her deal with seemingly fantastical forms of science and magic, so I let gave him pretty much whatever he wanted.”
“And what did he want?” Fluttershy asked. “In, uh, layponies terms, please.”
Shining frowned. “Well, simply put, he wanted to remove and store emotions to help ponies dealing with emotional trauma. Psychologists already use spells that extract emotions for the duration of a session, but those effects are temporary. Something like this could replace medication and help thousands of ponies— no, thousands of people all across the entire world!”
Fluttershy’s voice was utterly flat. “What went wrong.”
Shining shifted uncomfortably. “Well… You see, Doctor Fantastic had said that the machine didn’t work. He’d wanted to melt it down and move on to another project. We didn’t have a reason to think that the facility needed extra security.”
“It was stolen.”
Shining nodded. “Trixie is the most likely culprit. There’s no telling what that machine can do.”
Fluttershy turned to face the unconscious pony, frowning. “Did he have a history of paranoia? Why keep it a secret?”
Behind her, Shining shifted uncomfortably. Her wings twitched, and her earlier worry was looking more and more justified. “Thing is,” he said slowly, “some of our investors can be… short-sighted. Just because something can make us money in the short-term, they ignore any long-term problems.”
“He kept it a secret because somepony would have actually used it. I know, that’s pretty clear.” Fluttershy turned back around and affixed Shining with a glare. “But why not trust you with it? This is your job.”
Shining sat up straight, his front hoof stamping against the ground with a loud bam. “I don’t know, alright? Maybe he thought I needed plausible deniability or maybe he was telling the truth and Trixie’s just crazy! Look, I realize that this was not handled properly, but complaining about that doesn’t help us right now, does it?”
Fluttershy glared for a long moment, before sighing and appearing to let the matter go. Or maybe he’d planned to use it for something himself. Or maybe you did and it’s all spiraled out of control. I can’t trust anything right now. “When was the theft? Please be as precise as possible.
Shining carried on glaring at her for a few seconds, before collapsing back onto the bench. “We’re not sure. The fire was reported around five by some pedestrians. We’re at a loss. Trixie has the machine. All things considered, it works, and there’s no telling the havoc she could reak. If you don’t help us, it’s a catastrophe!”
It’s already a catastrophe, Fluttershy thought to herself. She refrained from pointing it out; as negligent as Sunrise Industries had been, antagonizing them wasn’t useful. She stood, remembering to stretch her wings as if she’d been there a while. “Don’t worry, Director. I’ll do my best to destroy the machine and capture this pony. I just have a quick appointment to make this morning, and I’ll be by to check the crime scene later.”
Shining frowned. “I’m sorry, but there’s a deranged madmare on the loose with whatever that machine can do! What could be more important than that?”
“Princess Celestia summoned me,” Fluttershy answered simply. “I’m late as it is. With any luck, it shouldn’t take too long.”