//------------------------------// // Subject 226: Corruption Interruption // Story: Interviews With Equestrians // by Jmaster49 //------------------------------// In the second room with Pumpkin Cake and Corkscrew… “Come on, there has to be some way that you can get more support if you need it. The world isn’t going to kick you to the curb just because you have a difficult situation on your hooves.” “They won’t accept it,” she replied with a pessimistic groan, “I should never have led myself to believe that I could grow up to do what I want…I’m useless...nothing will ever go the way I want...leave me alone...” This caused my blood to boil. Not because of her defeatism--though that did annoy me--it was more due to the fact that Grogar would stoop low enough to take advantage of somepony’s deepest secrets and amplify them for the world to see. What a freakin’ coward. The second he showed his face, I’d beat him down so hard. Wait a second, that was it. “Get out of her head!” I shouted in vain towards the ceiling, “Come on, you bastard! You wanna hide behind a thin veil of mind control when you know you’re afraid of my crew and I! Show your ass! I might just be a bit more merciful when kicking it!” Naturally, Pumpkin Cake looked at me like I had gone insane with her eyes wide as she backed into one of the corners of the room. “W-who are you yelling at??” I felt the air shift beneath my wingtips. Did it work or had I actually lost my mind? Who knows. So far, all it did was cause her to become even more afraid. Pumpkin crouched into the corner even further, and started to mumble...strange words. “Chanuballi. See-dee-bellai…” “Wait a second…” I turned my head down to take a better look at her. “You’re speaking--that’s--!” There was no time for semantics. I immediately kicked the table over so that I could take cover behind it. I’d do so until she finished her crazed chants. “...devius--marcellus--CHRONUS!” she screamed at the top of her lungs before she suddenly came to a stop. Then the room became quiet. So quiet that I couldn’t hear a thing from outside. Had I just been transported to hell? No, my eyes were closed. But still. It was beyond creepy. At least, I opened my eyes, and looked in front of me. The interrogation room floor was still there, and so was the table behind me. Alright. Everything was still in its place. But what about Pumpkin Cake? “...Ms. Cake?” I called out in a quiet sorta way as I poked my head out over the makeshift table shield. And what I saw was...rather mundane, actually. Her body was limp and lifeless upon the floor. The only logical conclusion is that she likely chanted some sort of mantra so something could escape her body. But what...what could there be? Gah, this was too complicated--I needed the help of an expert. I set the table upright, and opened the door to the interrogation room. Just my luck. Things were just as kosher on the other end of the hall. That was to say--not at all. Once Cork and Quick finished their interviews, I’d allow Lyra to go ahead and investigate exactly how their bodies were taken over. Unfortunately, when I got back over there, both of them burst out of their respective interrogation rooms where I could see lifeless bodies of both Pumpkin Cake and Octavia Melody behind them. “Boss!” Corkscrew shouted, “We got a problem!” “Same here,” Quick Draw said from her end of the hall. Vinyl Scratch was behind her with the dazed Octavia on the unicorn’s back. “Vinyl and I tried to reason with her before she started to blurt out weird things and set off some sort of pentagram.” Cork flew up to us with cautious anxiety. “T-that’s what happened here too! It’s like she had lost her mind or something!” Pound Cake poked his head into the room, and bit down on his hoof. “Oh man, oh man...sis. Please be okay.” Yeesh. This situation had started to veer a bit out of my league. I turned to Lyra for a recommendation. “Heartstrings? What’s our next move?” “I think--” she was about to answer, but was interrupted when one of the ponies that worked with her tapped her shoulder. “Hm?” I watched as she levitated some notes in front of her face, and took note of how sporadic her eyes traveled across the page. Her expression slowly turned from tense to concerned, to afraid in about three seconds. “...Aw damn.” My crewmates and I all turned to her with bated breath. “...What’s the matter, Lyra?” Quick asked. The green unicorn put the notes off to the side, and took a deep breath before she gave us the rundown. “Haaaa. Alright, listen up. This is going to be very hard for me to explain, so I’ll give you the gist of it. Essentially, what we’ve found within Suri Polomare is a curse with a timer of sorts.” “A timer?” Cork commented with a tilt of his head, “So it’s like, delayed for when they--OH! I get it. He knew what move we’d make…bringing them here.” Lyra nodded. “You got it. And uh, as a result--you know that little old attack I warned you about earlier, Pale?” she pointed outside with a nervous twitch in her eyes. I swallowed my fear, and responded with a bit of hesitation. “...Yeah? Why?” “...It’s coming early. Like, within the hour.” Both Cork and Quick cried out in disbelief. “WHAT?!” I froze. We had no time to prepare for this. But it was indeed now or never. After some mental gymnastics, I saw it as an opportunity. An opportunity for change. “Let’s go, everyone,” I said calmly. Corkscrew flew over to me with terror upon his visage. “Boss! Are you sure?! How are we gonna beat an unknown threat?!” “...You have a crazy ass plan to fight back, don’t you?” Quick trotted up to me with a sarcastic quip. I pushed Cork off of me, and cleared my throat. “No actually. I expect everypony else to.” Lyra raised a brow. “Seriously? What makes you think civvies are gonna jump in out of nowhere?” “I don’t think,” I replied with a cocksure grin, “I know.”