The pegasus guard named Clarity strode purposefully towards the throne room, looking confident and strong - but on the inside, her guts were full of boiling concern. As she reached the large doors, she drew in a deep, calming breath - Princess Celestia was patient; she had nothing to fear from the solar princess.
Just before she opened the door, it swung open from the other side. She hurried to one side to allow six ponies to pass - when she recognized them as the elements, she instantly inclined into a slight bow. They were walking slowly, too - couldn't they just go a little quicker? She had very important news to share!
"Thank you for your time, Twilight," said the voice of Princess Luna through the doors. "We shall be looking forward to the results of Fluttershy's interrogation. I believe you have set her up to be very successful!"
She pushed the doors open and poked her head through. "Your highness?"
"Yes, Lieutenant Clarity?" replied the voice of Celestia. Looking towards the throne, she could see the princess stand up gracefully with a smile on her face. Luna was in the process of returning to her respective throne, but had turned to observe the tidings the guard had brought.
"The human still hasn't eaten anything," she said in a quiet but desperate voice. We've thrown some of our best delicacies that would seem to suite him, just as you ordered - but he hasn't even touched them!!"
Celestia froze, the smile falling off of her face. "None of it?"
Clarity shook her head. "None of it, your highness. It's clear he's doing it on purpose, too - he simply turns over the plates if they tempt him too much."
Celestia and Luna exchanged an alarmed look.
"Sister," Luna said in an urgent voice, trotting back up to the throne. "Twilight's hunch was correct - something is definitely wrong with Toby!"
"But I thought you detested him?" Celestia asked curiously.
"Do you seriously not recall the conversation we had a couple days ago?" Luna deadpanned.
Celestia thought for a moment, then blushed. "Oh! That. My apologies, sister - but you are right. Something here is off - the seriousness of the issue has yet to be discovered, and I hope Fluttershy can break through."
"Sister..." Luna said at a whisper. "You don't think - Twilight told us that Toby mentioned a war he had been in - you don't think...?"
Celestia's pupils shrank to pinpricks. "I haven't seen that sort of thing in hundreds of years - if that is what's happening here, I fear you and I have made a grave mistake - his safety may be in danger..."
"Of course, we are in the midst of our own speculations..." Luna put in reasonably.
"Be that as it may, we need to be on our guard nonetheless," Celestia replied concernedly, dismissing Clarity with a nod.
For what it's worth, I think you're harmless.
Toby called bull. There was simply no way any pony here could truly have any respect for him. Therefore it was nonsense to believe that a princess that was suddenly entered into the picture would have a suspiciously sudden sureness of who he was.
Of course, he had plenty of time to reflect upon this, being confined to his cell around the clock. The only things distracting him from thinking were the hunger pains in his stomach, which were getting sharper by the day. He was still determined not to eat, however - he would not give these primped-up ponies the satisfaction of knowing that their V.I.P. (Very Important Prisoner) was healthy.
On a different note, he had been informed by his guard that he was going to be pulled in again for questioning that day. He just replied like he usually did - a blank stare. After making sure his morning meal became one with the floor, of course.
He already knew about his questioning, being told by Twilight the day before. He wondered whether or not the pony interrogating him would try and butter him up for some answers.
He sighed as he heard the sound of hooves echoing up the chamber towards his cell. They were literally going to put him through the same stupid process for a week - the guard comes to wake him up noisily, he waits for them to get him, he gets interrogated, then back to his cell for the rest of the day. Just to figure out whether he was dangerous or not.
So here he was, waiting to be escorted off to his third interview... three down, four or more to go (if the interviews stopped after a week, of course - he didn't trust anything here).
... He'd rather die then put up with all of this. It wasn't worth the trouble... what would he even do when he gained freedom? He could starve himself, but if he thought the hunger pains he were feeling that moment were bad, he couldn't imagine how painful it would be to die of malnutrition. So he would have to take a hard pass, unless these ponies kept him here - in which case he would definitely do it.
Get as far away from these ponies as I can, he thought to himself, letting the pleasurable thought churn around in his head. He imagined himself living in an isolated cottage built by his own blood and sweat, in a quaint little yard on a mountainside somewhere. Complete peace...
CLANG!!
Then again... death may be able to give him peace. All it took was a small bit of pain in return, if he did it correctly - right?
The guard walked in, uninvited as always, and performed the usual routine of binding Toby's wrists together. The two left the room, one functioning on automatic duty, the other on his brooding thoughts.
Fluttershy had been waiting in the interrogation room for the past five minutes, and she was starting to get extremely nervous - and when paired with her other feelings of excitement at meeting a new, sapient creature, she could hardly sit still.
She was so ready that she jumped when the heavy iron door clicked and swung open, revealing a pegasus guard and... the human.
She held back a gasp - were humans supposed to look that skinny - almost skeletal? Her motherly instincts longed to shove food down his throat, but her shy side counterbalanced that impulse. She had seen what malnutrition looks like before, and she was sure that - humans, or whatever he was - were not supposed to be that skinny.
Clarity finished binding the human to the chair, then took a position in the corner of the room as she always did, watching with interest.
Fluttershy swallowed an urge to hide and looked up at the human carefully. "What's your name,?" she asked softly, remembering what Luna had told her before she had entered the interrogation room.
"Remember - you are the one who's asking all the questions. You have every right to ask him what you please, despite what he may think."
Toby looked up at Fluttershy, feeling a little startled by the mare's soft, controlled tone. He looked up at her and regarded her - she looked very shy, but there was something else - was it determination?
He drew a deep breath. "Toby..." he said in an awful voice that didn't sound like himself.
Fluttershy jumped at the sound of his voice. "Goodness! Have you always sounded like that!?"
Toby shook his head slowly.
"What happened to you?" the mare asked with a concerned edge to her tone.
Toby shrugged in reply. Was she trying to lure him into a false sense of security? He would not play her games.
She stared at him long and hard, then sighed. "My name is Fluttershy... it's nice to meet you, Toby."
Toby looked at the butter-colored pegasus incredulously. If she was trying to win him over, that was a seriously lame attempt.
"I can see you don't want to talk... and I won't push for any answers," Fluttershy said, picking her words carefully. "I'm sure you know why I'm here..."
Toby did not say anything. Instead, he chose examine the table.
"Twilight mentioned something about a war, and that you were in it," the pegasus continued quietly. "Then Princess Luna told us that you had said that you never wanted to be a part of it."
Toby looked up at her and shook his head earnestly.
Fluttershy put a hoof up to her mouth suddenly, as if she had just discovered something. Toby quickly averted his eyes back to the table again.
"Oh, my... Toby, please look at me..."
For some reason, he felt his eyes peel away from the table and slowly look into Fluttershy's deep blues. They were extremely pretty. There was only one other pair he had seen with as pretty a blue as these eyes - no, prettier... of course, the owner had treated him like bilge, so whatever. But these eyes - they were filled with compassion and - sympathy?? There was no mistaking it - this 'Fluttershy' seemed to genuinely give a damn... but only time would tell...
Things were way worse on Fluttershy's end, however - for she had the oddly remarkable ability to see the reflections of a creature's past in their own eyes. In some circumstances, she would gladly trade this trait in exchange for almost anything else. The moment she looked into his eyes, she wanted out - but she couldn't pull her gaze away. She had to get answers.
She found herself in a whole different world - less vibrant in color than her own, but it held its own beauty. In front of her sat Toby, leaning up against a tree alongside another pretty human - a female with long brown hair.
"You promised to return, remember?" she said in a cute feminine voice. "Tobes, you even promised. Besides, it's our last night out before your plane leaves - enjoy yourself!"
Toby shifted his weight and looked at the pretty female. "Listen... war promises nothing but few things, Marietta - and you would know of some of them because of school..."
"Tobes... don't be like that..." the girl named Marietta whimpered.
The scene began to change in a swirl of color. Now she was surrounded by massive tropical trees, sizes of which she had never personally seen before. It was extremely creepy here, and the air seemed to be thickening with unbearable tenseness.
At her feet lay Toby, who was clearly trying to stay motionless among the bushes. Something was different, however - this Toby was decked out in a camouflaged outfit that was clearly meant to keep him hidden. He lay there, drawing in deep, shaky breaths as he stared straight ahead. Judging by his expression, he was listening with all his might, holding some sort of wooden stick with a long metal pole sticking out from the front end.
Then the sounds of footsteps came rustling through the bushes, as if they were trying to be quiet but held enough confidence to not worry about it. A troop of humans, slightly different in their facial appearances, came marching into the area where Toby was hiding, all wielding similar sticks - were they weapons? As they reached the bush where Toby was, the human in front held up a - thing (well, it wasn't a hoof, so she couldn't exactly call it that) and motioned for the others to stop.
At this point poor Toby was practically shivering. His eyes were scrunched up as he muttered something silently to himself - probably a prayer of some sort...
The man who had stopped his troop from advancing peered around the opening suspiciously, letting his hand fall to a small mechanism. He was clearly going to kill anything out of the ordinary. Now, Fluttershy was no mechanical genius, but she instantly recognized the mechanism on the man's stick as some sort of trigger.
After a very tense moment, the man and his troop moved on. Toby shakily sat up slightly, watching the men disappear into the forest.
The scene changed again. Toby was cowering in a foxhole as explosions rained down on him from all sides. The starry sky above was painted red and orange with the fiery waves of death that rained down on him from above, and the sounds of the rainforest were drowned out by the sounds of the apocalyptic scene.
Then, once more, the scene changed. Toby was sitting on a sofa with his face hidden in his hands as an older version of himself loomed over him, clearly beside himself with anger.
"You what!?" Toby's father cried out. "No son of mine would intentionally hurt himself to leave the line of duty! That was a COWARDLY thing to do, Tobias!"
Toby looked up, revealing his red, puffy eyes. "Dad, I - I couldn't - you don't understand -"
"Get out of my sight..." he growled, pointing to the door. His son followed the command dejectedly, trudging out of the room. An old woman, probably his mother, watched the son go with a sad glint in her eyes.
"Dear... I don't think you had to be so harsh," she said quietly. "You should be grateful he's alive and well. Not all parents with enlisted children can share that privilege."
The father grunted rudely in reply, slumping down into a loveseat that sat on the other end of the room.
More and more scenes flashed by - Toby driving around some strange mode of transportation, Toby hiding in a forest while experiencing horrible things nopony should ever have to, Toby alone and looking depressed...
She finally pulled herself out of Toby's world, and the interrogation room came back into focus. She looked at him as if he were in a whole new light - she knew some of his dark secrets, and they had barely exchanged even a few words.
They sat in silence before Toby stuttered, "Wh-what did you do, miss?"
Fluttershy closed her eyes and drew a shaky breath. "I'm s-so sorry, Toby... you had to go through so much..."
What is she talking about?? he thought to himself. She's making no - wait. No - she can't know -
He looked up at Fluttershy and could see that she was on the verge of tears. He then experienced a sensation similar to feeling a bowling ball drop into your gut.
"You don't know, right...?" Toby asked quietly, hoping against hope. When he saw the look she gave him in reply, he shook his head. "No - NO! I don't need your sympathy! I don't need anyone's sympathy in this stupid world! You ponies, acting as if you understood, acting as if you could know who someone is by just looking at them - I'm over it!! I'm sick of ponies, and I've only been here for, like, five days!!"
Fluttershy recoiled. Toby, recognizing his blunder, simply looked back down to the floor. That was it - he had yelled at one of them. He was surely sentenced for life now. Then the sound of Fluttershy's voice startled him back to reality.
"Um... Toby, please tell me... have you been eating?" she asked in a timid voice.
Feeling a pang of deep satisfaction, Toby shook his head slowly.
"Oh - okay," she said in a very quiet squeak. "I guess I'll - I'll go..."
She practically bolted out of the room, leaving Toby and Clarity in silence. Clarity moved from her post automatically to take him back to that stupid cell.
"Alright, Toby," she said in a dutiful tone, "You know the drill. Back to -"
"My cell, yes, I know," Toby grumbled quietly. Clarity paused for a moment, since Toby had never spoken to her before, then proceeded with her task.
As Toby was led out of the room, her swore he heard a sad sigh from behind him.
Celestia paced the length of the throne room, watched anxiously by her sister as well as the Elements. They were all eagerly awaiting the results of Fluttershy's questioning, as all of them believed that it would provide serious answers.
That's why everyone jumped when the throne room doors opened, allowing Fluttershy's entrance.
Celestia smiled. "Fluttershy - excellent. Did you get anything from him?"
Fluttershy looked up at the solar diarch, and the look on her face wiped the smile off of everyone else's/
"Oh - I see," Celestia said, looking disappointed. "Just because you weren't successful doesn't mean you didn't help -"
"No - I got answers," Fluttershy said quickly, slightly hiding behind her mane. "But... um... ajnflksbdhbf..."
"Er - sorry, what?" Luna asked walking over to the timid pegasus.
Fluttershy took a deep breath. "I said, I have answers, but you're not going to like them."