While I ultimately didn’t agree with Cozy’s decision, I had to respect it. After all, she was a fully grown mare by this point and had a much better grasp of the world at large. Even if I did feel a sense of regret that overwhelmed me. Should I really allow her to stay here? Then again, our friends were stronger than what we gave them credit for. As long as we stuck together, we could do anything.
Blech. Now I sounded like Twilight.
Anyhow, I made my way back to the agency, but Corkscrew was nowhere to be seen. “Huh?” I turned my head to find Quick Draw trot down the hall towards one of the interrogation rooms. “Oh hey, QD. Have you seen--”
“He’s currently in there, dealing with one of our witnesses,” she pointed out, “I’m letting him handle Pumpkin Cake because he apparently can relate to her situation.”
Distinctive. I’d have to make a note of that for later. “Alright, and what about Suri?”
“The information she was able to give out was somewhat limited. Don’t think she’ll be of much more help here, unfortunately.”
Of course. Not all witness accounts would be a hundred percent accurate. But we still needed to search for answers wherever we could. “Alright, alright. She can go once she’s been cleared. We’ll have to heighten the security of our protection program in the meantime. Oh! Have you notified-”
“Yes,” she answered before I could finish my sentence, “Lyra is on her way now with her crew so we can detox these folks.”
My ear flicked as I processed what she had just told me. “Wait, Lyra’s involved in that group now? Since when did she become an expert in the anti-curse arts?”
Quick shrugged her shoulders. “Beats me. Anyway, while Cork handles that first subject, do you wanna handle the last one...or should I?”
Another sense of dread washed over me in that moment which caused my mane to fritz up just a little bit. After what I had experienced, it would be a while before I was prepared to do a direct confrontation--at least on my own.
“Erm…” I shuffled a hoof against the floor to avoid the question.
“Oh…” Quick must have caught on rather quickly because she approached me with a rare, tender visage in her eyes. “Look, man. Don’t worry about it. I’ll handle her. You can keep watch from out here, alright?”
To be quite honest, there were a few more things that I felt disturbed by at that moment. But on the job, there was no time to worry about emotions. I stowed it, and allowed her to make her move.
“Alright. Thank you, Quick,” I replied with a smile, “I caught a glimpse of Octavia and she’s...not doing too hot. So keep your wits up, alright?”
“Hmph.” The yellow mare rolled her eyes and flicked her tail with a scoff. “I have nothing to worry about, boss. You and I both know what we’re capable of.” Right before she entered the interrogation room, she stopped, and turned to look at me. “Oh and if you could do me a favor and let Lyra in when she arrives?”
“What am I, a bellhop?” I tried to throw in a joke to lighten up my own mood, and laughed at myself as a result. “Haha...but sure. I can do that. Once we’re done for the day, let’s all go get some poutine. Sound good?”
“We never really get enough of that stuff, do we?” she let out a very small, barely audible giggle, and went inside the room. I guess she had a sense of humor after all, huh?
And so...I waited. With not much else to do, I made sure that everything else was alright nearby. Vinyl and Pound Cake were still at the end of the hall on the bench. They spoke to each other which likely eased the tensions and calmed them both down so they wouldn’t stress out as much. All very well and good.
About ten more minutes or so had passed before I heard a knock at the door to the agency. I went to answer it, and found a familiar green unicorn there along with some of her friends. Curiously enough, Sweetie Drops wasn’t in sight.
“We heard your signal and came as soon as we could,” Heartstrings laid it out to me, “So we are dealing with a Class 6 situation. Do you have the ponies that are being afflicted with the demonic plague under containment?”
I pointed them in the direction of the interrogation rooms. “Oh of course. But uh, do you think that we’ll end up with more cases of this? These three happened out of nowhere.”
“Yeah, I can’t say for sure,” Lyra replied as she stepped inside, “But only time will tell once we get ahold of them. You just do your side of the work, alright Pale? We’re gonna need all the help we can get if we wanna make it out of this alive.” She levitated some sort of sonar device in front of her, “By our calculations, he should be attacking between tonight and tomorrow.”
Amen on that. Like her, I too had someone I had to live for.
Wait a second, what did she just say?!