It was a couple hours before dawn when Twilight got up and headed to Manehattan. Venom was buzzing with barely contained excitement as she teleported, arriving near the docks. The area was already bustling, ships pulling out piled with cargo or coming in to be unloaded, ponies rushing about calling orders to keep each other on schedule as they moved supplies.
Twilight approached one of the empty piers, which was cast in darkness due to its lamps being either off or broken.
As she got closer, she began to see rows of patiently waiting royal guards, standing quietly. She nodded to them, and they acknowledged her with salutes.
“Princess Celestia is waiting for you,” one of them said.
Twilight walked past them, finding Celestia on the pier, gazing out toward the distant island. “Celestia?” she asked quietly.
“Good morning,” Celestia replied. “Are you ready?”
“Ready as I’ll ever be.” Twilight felt a sort of fluttering in her stomach and giggled. “Though Venom’s rearing to go.”
“I’m sure he is.” Celestia smiled. “How are you doing, Venom?”
He stretched his neck out. “Wonderful, Princess! I’m ready to give Blazing what he deserves and free my people!”
“Good. We’re just waiting on Luna and Cadance now.”
“I’m here, sister,” Luna called, landing next to her. A dozen of her own bat pony guards flew in with her, lining up next to Celestia’s.
Celestia nodded. “Alright. Have you seen Cadance?”
“She should be here soon, she's traveling with some of her crystal guards,” Luna replied.
“Very well. We'll wait for her.” She continued looking across the water. “I was able to find the blueprints for the center. It consists of three stories. The two above ground are for labs and offices, including where their security officers report to. Blazing Aura has an office on the second floor as well. But the underground level is our target. The original plans said it would be used for storage and additional testing areas if needed. But according to Twilight, they've retrofitted it with cameras, holding cells, and their most advanced scientific equipment. That is where the symbiotes are being kept, and that's where the most vulnerable ponies are being tested on.”
“I see.” Luna stepped up next to her, resting a wing over her. “You had the area watched all night, right?”
“I have. I made sure it was monitored, just in case Blazing decided to move his patients. But there was no activity but the usual employees entering and leaving.”
“Alright then,” Twilight said. “Everything I saw should still be there. This all ends today.”
A few minutes later, Cadance arrived with her guards. She greeted them, and after briefly gathering to discuss their plan, the princesses headed to their waiting boat. It was fairly large, as they had to be able to transport everyone across in one trip. Luckily they had been able to secure a military boat to get the job done.
“How are you doing?” Cadance asked Twilight, who was sitting toward the starboard side with her forelegs crossed over the rail.
Twilight shrugged. “I'm alright.”
“This is all pretty crazy, huh?” Cadance sat next to her, watching as they approached the island. “Aliens, unethical experiments... it's pretty wild. But you know what? We've dealt with plenty of bad situations, and this is just one more. We've got this.”
“Yeah, we've got it,” Twilight agreed. “I just wish we had found out about all this sooner.”
“I know. But better late than never. Now we know, and now we can finish this.”
They didn't talk much more, just waiting for the boat to reach the Life Aura Center's dock. Even Venom was fairly quiet, just keeping to his thoughts. But despite his silence, she knew he was there. He was a steady warmth somewhere in the back of her mind, a kind of gentle sensation pooled in her spine, and his presence was comforting.
The boat bumped gently along the pier and its driver hopped out, going to tie it off and then gesturing for everyone to disembark. They got out and headed up the path. The princesses took the lead, and their guards marched in orderly lines right behind them.
Twilight found it strange being back here without being invisible. She glanced at Celestia and Luna to her right, and they gave her curt nods. She looked left, and Cadance smiled, then looked forward at the guard shack.
It was a different stallion on duty this morning, and Twilight hoped the one she had gotten by wasn't punished too severely. He quickly aimed his gun at them, then paused when he recognized them and lowered it. “Oh, what can I do for you, Princesses?”
“We would like to enter,” Celestia said, reaching back to accept a scroll from one of her commanders. “We are here to make an arrest, and by order of the crown, you must allow us through.” She unfurled the scroll, and he scanned it. His brows knit together, but he nodded and hit the button to open the gate.
“This is quite the force for an arrest,” he commented. “You expecting trouble?”
“It doesn't hurt to be cautious,” Celestia replied. They kept going.
The guard watched them all go through without a word, and closed the gate behind them once they were through. Then he picked up his radio. “Life Base, this is Alpha Post.”
“Go ahead, Alpha Post.”
“We've got four crowns, I repeat, we have got four crowns, over.”
“Copy that, Alpha Post.”
Twilight began to feel unsure as they got closer to the door. “You need a keypad to get in, do you think they'll unlock it for us?”
“If they don't, we have alternate ways to unlock a door,” Luna replied. Twilight didn't miss how she limbered up one of her back legs, and smiled.
But once they were close enough, a security guard stepped out and held the door open for them, letting them all through. He watched them with sharp eyes but didn't speak.
Once all of them were inside, he closed the door and stepped away. Everyone stopped their work, staring curiously at the princesses and the small army they had arrived with. Despite how early it was, every desk had an employee and the door to nearly every lab was open, scientists peaking out inquisitively at them.
Celestia stepped forward and cleared her throat, before spreading her wings wide and calling, “Blazing Aura, please step forward.”
For a few moments, there was no response. The building's security stood tensely nearby and no one dared get back to work. Then a calm voice replied, “My, what is going on here?” Blazing Aura descended the stairs, looking at them curiously.
Everyone parted to let him through, and once he was in front of them, Celestia said, “Blazing Aura of the Life Aura Center. You are under arrest.”
He lifted his brows. “Under arrest? Why?”
“For your illegal and callous disregard for proper medical practices, for torturing those you claimed to be helping, and for the abduction and subsequent wrongful imprisonment of no less than ten individuals.”
Murmurs spread throughout the crowd of watching employees. Several scientists began to look uncomfortable, and the security members began shifting their guns ever so slightly into a more ready position.
Blazing looked around, his posture tense, and for a moment Twilight thought he was going to order his guards to shoot or make a run for it. But then the tension was gone and he chuckled. “Excuse me? That is quite an accusation, Princess Celestia. My company has done nothing of the sort. I won't deny that we've had some unfortunate injuries and even deaths, but all of our test subjects sign up for our treatments with the knowledge that they may not survive. They're willing to make those sacrifices in the hope that we'll find effective cures. I assure you, we cause as little pain as we can to our patients. As for abduction and imprisonment, I'm afraid I don't know what you're referring to. Everypony here, whether they're an employee or a patient, is here willingly.”
Twilight marched forward. “You can drop the charade, Blazing Aura. We know what you've been doing here. Do the symbiote experiments sound familiar?”
She could see flickers of anxiety on some of the employees' faces, but Blazing just gave her a befuddled look. “I can't say I have.”
“Really? Symbiotes?” Twilight pressed. “Creatures from another world, which you brought here to use in experiments to cure ponies due to their healing abilities?”
He just gave her a polite smile. “That'd be quite marvelous, but we have nothing like that here.”
“You wouldn't admit it if you did, since they're sentient creatures and you're imprisoning them. But we know they're here.”
Celestia stepped up next to her. “We sent an agent to investigate some rumors,” she said. “What they found was very disturbing.”
Blazing stared. “You sent somepony to snoop around?”
“Don't take it personally, your company isn't the first we've had scoped out,” Luna said. “Think of it as more of... an unannounced inspection. We've all heard of businesses sweeping things under the rug before announced visits, after all. Sometimes, snooping is the best way to get the truth.”
Blazing looked between them, and said, “I see. So, you say they saw something. Something that prompted all four princesses, and their guards, to come after me. And this something, if I'm understanding Princess Twilight, was aliens. Then where are the photos? Videos? Documents taken from us, perhaps? I mean, surely you have physical evidence if you're going to arrest me.”
“The agent only witnessed things, sh- they didn't have time to collect evidence,” Twilight said. “That's why we're here.”
“Seems like a strange way of conducting business. But fine. If you find proof of your accusations, I'll come quietly.”
Twilight wasn't expecting that. She glanced at the others, and Cadance said, “We're going to search the entire building. All three floors, including the basement. Along with interviewing some of your employees.”
“Be my guest,” Blazing replied. “If it'll put you at ease, and let us all get back to work, do what you need to.”
“I don't see why our agent would lie,” Celestia said. “So if you have anything to confess, we would prefer you did so now.”
He just sighed. “I have nothing to confess to. At least, nothing relating to your accusations. As for your agent, maybe they have an agenda. There are still ponies who cling to the old ways of using magic to cure all our problems, and they don't trust the advancements of science and technology.”
“Your work speaks for itself, I doubt anypony would have a problem with you choosing science over magic,” Celestia said. “Any experienced magic user would tell you the two go hoof in hoof. Well, Twilight? How should we proceed?”
Twilight frowned, wondering how Blazing could remain so calm about this. But it didn't matter if he didn't want to confess. They weren't walking out of here without getting the truth. “I want to check the basement,” she said. “Cadance, how are you with computers?”
Cadance glanced at the desks and nervously said, “Not at all?”
“Ask some employees to help you, but I would like if you checked some computers for anything suspicious. Ask to see financial spreadsheets, product orders for incoming and outgoing supplies, interoffice memos, anything like that pertaining to their operations here.”
“Alright, I'll see what I can do.” Cadance approached the nearest desk, and its employee helpfully gave her the mouse and showed her how it worked.
“I'll search the labs on this floor and talk to some workers,” Luna said.
“Sounds good,” Twilight replied, and Luna headed for the first lab she saw, which she was politely invited into. Twilight turned to Celestia. “Could you go talk to some of those guards? Maybe ask to see security footage from two nights ago? See what you can find out about that break in they told you about.”
She nodded and went to do so.
Finally, Twilight asked the guards to stand watch in the atrium and make sure no one entered or left. Then she turned to Blazing. “Please come downstairs with me.”
“Certainly.” He led the way.
“Celestia will be able to check the footage from those cameras, right?” Twilight asked as they went down the stairs, pointing out said cameras.
“They're transmitting live at the moment,” Blazing replied.
“But you save the footage, right? In case something were to happen?”
“We maintain up to a month on tapes in our building, before sending them to storage. We've been having problems saving them lately though, we're using this new software that-”
“How convenient. Either way, I wanna see those tapes.”
“Of course.”
They stopped once they were in the main hallway, and Twilight took a closer look at the doors. The one she had tried getting into before was open, but it only seemed to contain boxes of extra lab equipment and supplies. She explored the room anyway, looking through cases of vials and packs of hypodermic needles. Nothing stood out as particularly egregious.
Venom hissed quietly in her mind. Don't like the needles. Sharp.
Twilight assured him that he was okay and they'll never hurt him again. Once he relaxed, she kept looking around. She picked up a microscope and noted it seemed to be the same brand as the ones in the symbiote lab. She placed it back and gave the room a final scan. This really did just seem to be storage.
But there was one room she knew would contain all the evidence she needed. She smirked and walked back to the hallway.
“Is everything to your liking, Princess Twilight?” Blazing asked.
“For now. But there's one more place I want to check.” She trotted past him, heading for that large lab he had unwittingly dragged her to two nights ago. Unaware of who she was and how he had incriminated himself. This was it, she was going to find her proof and he was going to be leaving this facility in hoofcuffs.
She swung the door open, shouting, “Everypony stop what you're doing-” She immediately closed her mouth with a startled squeak, staring into the room in shock. The lights were low, but she could tell the cells were empty, their doors open and monitors off. The tables were stacked with supplies and a faint scent of disinfectant hung in the air, but there were no scientists or symbiotes to be found. “What the...”
“Ah, we're expanding into this room soon so we've been getting it ready,” Blazing said. “Quite spacious, isn't it?”
Twilight walked in, going to search through the few folders on the tables, but they were all empty. “This is where everything was.”
“Princess, we haven't done work in here since building the facility. It was used as storage until recently, but it'll be a while until we're ready to use it as a lab.”
Twilight felt anger rear up in her. Mostly Venom's, but it incensed her too. Another piece of evidence occurred to her, and she spun around, searching the ceiling until she found where she had broken through to the first floor. “Hah! What happened there?” She pointed to it. It was boarded over and marked with a tag, and she could see a pile of new tiles waiting nearby. So it wasn't fully fixed yet.
“Roof caved in, we had a leaking pipe that caused enough water damage that, well...” He whistled as he mimed the roof crashing down.
“Uh-huh... we can check the cameras for that one too. And it sounds like a safety hazard so you no doubt wrote up a report on it, which I expect you to show me later.” Twilight looked around at the vacant cells, and found herself drawn toward the one Rock Break had been in. Venom hissed again, and she comforted him as she ran her hoof along the monitor. “What'll these be used for?”
“Oh, it's a state of the art system! It emits this sort of... aura, I suppose I could call it, that interacts with your body and returns information on several vitals. It works with a spell of my own design, I think you'd be quite interested in it actually, being practically a connoisseur of the magical arts.”
Twilight was somewhat interested, but she had more pressing matters to attend to. She could find his notes on that later. “Really? So then, they're scanners. Not meant to keep anypony in.”
“Theoretically we could hold somepony there for extended monitoring, but they would of course be provided a bed and other necessities and can open the door from the inside. They won't be trapped.”
“I see.” Twilight touched the door, giving it a firm tap. “This doesn't seem to be glass.”
“Well, no. It's a much stronger material.”
“Why does it need to be so strong?” Twilight closed the cell and turned her back to it, giving it a harder test kick. It rattled loudly but still didn't break. “Seems like it is meant to keep somepony in. And why wouldn't you use glass in a laboratory setting? Biologicals are best held in glass containers after all, and that's what you primarily deal with here.”
“Patients can get violent, if somepony starts kicking while in one of these, we wouldn't want it to shatter on them, now would we?”
Twilight snorted and turned around, opening the cell again and leaning down to examine the obvious hoof scuff marks on the door. Meanwhile, Venom seethed, his body seeming to broil just under the surface of her skin. Excuses! All excuses! Twilight, what are we doing? No one came down here with us, let's eat him!
We can't, she replied. There are cameras! Plus, now we need to find where he took everyone! If they're not in the facility somewhere, and we dispose of him, we might not ever find them!
The other employees can tell us! But fine! Interrogate him then!
What should I ask him?
You're the smart one, now ask him where he took them!
Twilight took a calming breath, and said, “I'm going to be honest with you. We know you're conducting research with creatures you call symbiotes. You've used them to advance your technology and come up with all these breakthroughs. While I'm sure we all appreciate the contributions you've made to the medical community, I can't let you continue with your current methods. You're infesting patients with aliens against their will and then letting them die painfully when the aliens start eating their organs to survive. Don't deny any of it.” She stepped up close to him, staring into his bold yellow eyes, daring him to argue.
His eyes widened, and he took a cautious step back. “This is ridiculous, we aren't-”
“I told you not to deny it!” Twilight shouted, wings flaring out. He tripped over his own hooves in his haste to get away from her, landing roughly on his back. She stepped over him, keeping him on the floor as she kept yelling. “Our agent saw everything and they've always been reliable! We'll get our evidence one way or another, so you better confess right now! Tell me where you took the symbiotes!”
She realized she was letting too much of Venom's anger affect her, and told herself, and him by extension, to relax. But it was no good. Her teeth were bared and her back itched as he caused the fur to rise all along her spine.
“I have no idea what you're talking about!” Blazing insisted. “You're losing your mind!”
“All this lying is going to come back to bite you in the ass when you're on trial and we prove what you've been doing!” she yelled. “Not only are you an immoral monster who tortures ponies in the name of progress, but you've also lied to a princess on top of that! I can't wait to see you in prison!” Twilight had to struggle to keep Venom from covering her, sensing how much he wanted to join in with her screaming.
Blazing scrambled out from under her and ran for the door. “That's it, I'm talking to the other princesses about your attitude, this is so unprofessional!”
“I don't care about being professional, I care about getting the truth out of you!” She used her magic to slam the door shut and keep him from leaving, advancing toward him. “And the other princesses will back me up! You can't hide all this forever!” She began to feel a familiar pressure behind one of her ears but didn't think too much on it, just giving it an annoyed flick. “We won't leave until we find proof!”
He abruptly stopped trying to open the door and stared at her. Or rather, at her ear. “What the...” He stepped closer, brows furrowing, and she realized the pressure was Venom manifesting from her skin. She quickly slapped her hoof over him, ordering him to hide. He growled but did so.
“What?” Twilight asked, scratching the spot until she was sure Venom had disappeared, at which point she put her hoof down.
Blazing kept staring at her. “I thought I saw... Never mind.” He shook himself and turned away, trying the door again. Twilight released her magic, and he swung it open. “I'm going back upstairs.”
“Go ahead,” she replied. “I'll be up there soon.”
He hurried out, and Twilight stood there until he was out of sight. Then she asked Venom what he was doing.
I'm sorry but he was pissing me off and I really wanted to yell at him myself!
He saw you!
I doubt he recognized me!
He's been working with your people, he probably did! But ugh, whatever, we can deal with that later. Let's keep searching this level. There's got to be something left behind, there's no way he moved everything that quickly.
Hell yeah. Lead the way.