Transcription of Session 14: Verdant Vines, Head Investigator
Date: May 3rd
Time: 5:46 p.m.
Interviewer: Doctor Blue Sky, PhD
Miss Vines provided me with a copy of her conversation with the pony on the other side of this journal claiming to be Twilight Sparkle an hour before we began the session, along with some of her personal comments. References to the conversation in general and specific were made during our conversation and I’ve provided notation where needed.
Blue Sky (BS): Good evening, Miss Vines. It seems you had a productive day from the looks of this interview.
Verdant Vines (VV): I feel I did, Doctor. I don’t think we can definitively say that this is Twilight Sparkle, but it is certainly more likely than I originally suspected.
BS: At the same time, I’m as worried as you seem to be about Miss Sparkle’s mental state. If her claims are correct—
VV: Two years. She’s been alone for nearly two years.
Miss Vines leaned her head back, taking several deep breaths.
VV: Can you even imagine that?
BS: The journal Pendant found seems to chronicle Solace being alone for months. I haven’t dealt personally with ponies who have spent that long in isolation, but I have read one or two case studies. One stallion survived in the Frozen North, separated from an expedition and thought lost forever. He wandered back to civilization after nine months. It took a doctor a year to get him adjusted to communicating with ponies again. By comparison Miss Sparkle seems much more cognitive. If she’s been doing research on this place as she claims, it could be the mental activity has kept her—I hesitate to say sane, but sharp.
Miss Vines had closed her eyes, still taking deep breaths, but she opened them and looked back at me after I had finished speaking.
VV: It’s possible, yes. Clearly there’s some loss from her writing style and sentence structure, if I can even call what she wrote sentences. I wonder if she’s been writing whatever she’s researched down. From the speed of her responses it seemed like she drew it all from memory. Then again, I’m not sure how long the gaps for me were for her.
BS: I’m hesitant to say how reliable her account of events are, given we’re equally unsure of her mental state. Still, she was able to recall events, names, and places. While she may have trouble articulating what she was trying to say in her explanations, she was able to differentiate between what she did and did not know for certain. The talk of whispers and others does concern me; it could denote a sense of paranoia. Given the message you included from a transcript that seemed to be from her, it’s likely that she’s been in fear of being found or discovered by these creatures for... all this time.
The message in question was a ciphered one found on a transcription of Applejack’s journal from Sweet Apple Acres. Translated, it reads:
“I’m still here. Still alive at least. I hope this is alive. I was so foolish to give in, but it didn't last forever. I feel clarity now. I found out how to break free. I found out how to move, quietly and unseen. I found out how to speak, to you, whoever you are, without them knowing. It's like static to them.
I'm trying to find the others, to save them. To snap them out of it. Maybe together, we can fix it or at least make sure it doesn't happen again.
They're preparing for something. I don't have much time.
Wish me luck, but you'll need it more.”
VV: And in that message she talked about hiding what she said from someone. Yet now she’s able to talk to us without any ciphers at all. I don’t think we can rule out the possibility of a ploy or subterfuge, so we’ll need to be cautious moving forward. Speaking of, Clover confirmed your movement to my team. I only got the paperwork officially an hour ago, but her letter with the news arrived this morning after I started talking to Twilight.
BS: Then you’ll want me involved tomorrow?
VV: Yes, but I don’t expect you to speak to her, Doctor. She seems welcoming of an observer, maybe because she knows anypony could open that journal, but if she is paranoid then we should take it slowly. Maybe some extra ink color would be helpful. It could differentiate which of us is talking if there’s some need for a rapid change of interviewer. I’ll see if we have something. Should I assume blue for you?
Miss Vines’ posture had relaxed and she gave me a smirk. I do admit I laughed.
BS: Whatever will be fine, Miss Vines.
VV: Any other insights you can give?
BS: There is one peculiarity. It’s the odd circumstances when she wrote Fluttershy’s name in response to your questions. The hesitation could mean a few things: anger, regret, confusion. Without any actual quill indentations on our end, it’s hard to say. She did show some hesitation with the name when providing basic information. Maybe it’s her emotion tied specifically to the betrayal she likely experienced?
BS: Actually, there is another. She’s referring to you as Vines instead of your full name after some time. It seems like an attempt to open up and become closer with you. I wouldn’t say it’s malicious though. If anything it’s a positive that she’s not withdrawing after so long without any direct contact with other ponies.
Miss Vines stood up, but instead of leaving as I might have expected, she walked over to the small stove I had set up. She then set a kettle on.
VV: Did you sleep well last night?
I chose to leave the recording running.
BS: Yes. Yourself, Miss Vines?
VV: Fine. I told you I never have dreams, right? Rarely, I suppose.
BS: I recall it from our first meeting, yes. I apologize again for pestering you with questions.
VV: It’s fine, Doctor. I guess I do enough of it for a living that being on the receiving end was jarring.
BS: Right. You were saying though?
VV: Well, I had one last night.
The kettle began to hiss. Miss Vines took it off the stove and carried a tray with cups over. I selected a chamomile and she a daisy and rose blend. I offered to pour the cups.
BS: Do you want to discuss it on the record?
VV: I do.
There was a long pause as Miss Vines lifted her cup and took a few sips.
VV: I was back in Canterlot. Clover and I were at this place called the Candle Cafe. We sometimes stop by there after cases to catch up over coffee. It isn’t even really the best you could find. This stallion named Flickering Wick runs it out of his candle shop. His talent was making candles, but he just loves brewing coffee, and some tea now and then. He even sells pastries, though he just buys them from the baker across the way and charges half of what he paid. Clover was born and raised in Canterlot and I guess it’s her special place, so she invited me while we were still on the same team.
Throughout recounting this, Miss Vines was smiling, though it faded as she continued.
VV: In the dream we were talking. I couldn’t hear about what. It was all muffled from what I can remember, but I assume it’s a case. We always talk about them there before we move on to private things. I look out the window and I notice it’s night, but when I look back Clover has stopped talking. She’s just looking… not at me, but toward me. I think it’s at somepony over my shoulder, so I look behind me and the place is dark, like all the lights were out in the blink of an eye.
Miss Vines took a second to sip her tea.
VV: When I look back to Clover, the coffee’s gone and there’s just a candle between us. We just stare at each other. I think I was saying something. I felt my lips moving at least. Then she shakes her head, puckers her lips, and blows out the candle. The rest of it was nothing.
BS: You don’t think it’s important after that?
VV: No, it was nothing. Just black, darkness. I felt something, though. Calm, maybe, but also cautious and tense. Like the calmness wasn’t permanent. Yet when I woke up, I swear it was the best night of sleep I’d ever had.
BS: I’m sure you might already know where my thoughts are going.
VV: The dreams in the first journal, yes. I didn’t hear any whispers. Like I said, I couldn’t hear anything. Maybe it’s just rereading and focusing on these things over and over and over again that’s getting to me. Especially after what happened to us.
I took the moments of silence to finally sip my own tea.
BS: Maybe. I hope Lantern and Pendant’s conditions improve. I assume Miss Clover will send any relevant reports on them to you?
VV: Yes. I also asked her to visit them, but I assume she has her hooves more full than she’d like.
Miss Vines took a final, long sip of her tea, and then got up, packing her copy of the documents we reviewed.
VV: Sleep well, Doctor. I think I’ll be turning in early after writing a letter and getting these copies sent off.
BS: You as well, Miss Vines.
I was left alone with my thoughts for some time: Twilight's state, Miss Vines' dreams, and my own reaction to events. While I've yet to have a dream similar to what was in these journals, I can't stop thinking about them. My faintest worry, that I'm sure Miss Vines must share, is that these events will come to pass again.
I can't deny that it grows by the day, with every little thing I become privy to.