Deception
Twilight Sparkle limped into the medical wing of Canterlot castle. Looking back she saw her in commision friends walking after her, Rainbow, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack and Spike. The only one missing was Pinkie. The mare they were going to visit. She continued dragging herself down the hall.
Rounding a corner, Twilight turned into a new corridor. ‘Room 238... here’s 232.’
She limped her way down the hall, counting all the numbers on the right wall ‘234, 236... 238.’
Twilight stared up fearfully at the door frame. The door wasn’t particularly intimidating, it was exactly the same as the rest of the doors within the castle; wooden, large and heavy. Nothing special,( for Canterlot anyway). The unicorn’s real fear came from what lay inside.
Pinkie Pie.
One of her closest friends, and bravest ponies Twilight had ever known. Her and Spike’s random appearance had saved the small group of friends, but not without cost.
Twilight Sparkle took a steadying breath, and glanced behind her. Seeing her friends gave her a small amount of comfort, but not enough to thaw the lump of ice that had formed in the pit of her stomach. She gulped, then shakily, Twilight raised a hoof and pushed open the door.
The mare hobbled into the dimly lit room. The curtains were drawn, and the place smelled of rubbing alcohol. Pushed up against the far wall was a large princess sized bed. In the middle, under sheets upon sheets of fabric lay Pinkie Pie, soundly asleep.
The mares and dragon made their way across the room, taking extra care to be quiet. Twilight stared down at Pinkie, covered in bandages, and gauze. Watching the injured mare sleep was saddening.
‘Why would that creature do something like this?’
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
The creature in question was, at the moment, sitting in his jail cell, thinking hard.
‘What is it?! Why can’t I remember? I know I’m supposed to do something but, what?’
So far, Corvo had spent the majority of his two days of imprisonment thinking and remembering what had happened before he had come here. He had had limited success. Out of all the things that had happened, he remembered how he got the mark and what it did. He also had remembered who had given him the mark, but Corvo couldn’t remember the most important thing. The “why”, the reason he had been given the mark nor could he remember what he had been doing the whole time he was here, or back home.
He continued staring at his hand, attempting to remember what he had been done with such terrible power. More importantly, he wondered. What should he do now? His mind raged, warring with itself. One voice told him to abide by the rules and play along, the other was telling him to escape by using his powers.
Sighing Corvo decided to take a break from his mental self torture. He looked up out of the bars of his cage.
‘Same boring wall, same boring guards. It’s all the same.’
Getting up, Corvo walked to the cell door. Picking up a small chunk of wall that had broken off, Corvo lightly threw it at one of the guards to get his attention. The rock found its mark, bouncing of the back of the pony’s helm.
Without turning around the gold clad soldier shouted a command. “Stop that.”
Corvo grew somewhat excited at the reaction. The last time he had attempted to get the guard's attention had gone horribly. He had shouted, teased, and pestered the pony, but had received no response the entire time.
Corvo picked up another pebble.
Clang.
“Stop that.”
Clang.
“Stop that!”
Corvo picked up another pebble, but didn’t throw it. “When do I get out of here?”
He received no response. “Hey. Can I get an answer?”
Silence.
Corvo whipped the rock, this time with as much force as he could muster. It hit the pony’s armour, with a considerable amount of power, enough to make a small dent in the soft metal. The guard turned around and glared at Corvo.
“Return to the back of your cell! Now!”
Corvo picked up another pebble and prepared to hurl it at the guard. Before he could, a liquid like voice interrupted them.
“Excuse me, what’s going on here?”
Corvo turned his attention down the hall. It was the mare that had showed up at the library after the explosion. The political leader, Princess Celestia, as he had been told. The Princess walked down the hall, her hoof steps echoing off the hard crystal of the caverns.
Stopping outside Corvo’s cell, she looked expectantly at the guard, who bowed his head in shame. “The prisoner was throwing rocks at me, your majesty...I apologize for my outburst.”
Celestia smiled. “I understand, but please, next time try to ask him nicely. He may be a prisoner but that doesn’t mean that he shouldn’t be treated with respect.”
‘Even if he hurt my student and her friends...'
The guard gave a nod. “Of course. A thousand pardons, Princess.”
“It’s fine. Now, I have things to discuss with the prisoner. Please, leave us.”
Both guards looked to each other, then to Celestia. They thought about protesting, but realized it would be a mistake. They could hear the masked frustration in her voice, and they both knew that disobeying an irritated princess was a bad idea.
Both ponies bowed and departed.
The princess turned to Corvo and opened her mouth to speak. Before she could she felt a sharp pain on her forehead.
Corvo had thrown the rock at her.
"Ouch... What was that for? She said, restraining he anger.
“I don’t like you.”
The sun goddess’s eyes widened. Then shook her head. “You assaulted my student and her friends, blew up part of a library, and almost caused mass panic in the rest of the town. The feeling is mutual,” She deadpanned.
Corvo examined the ground. Then he looked up suddenly. “Where are my things?”
Celestia gave a sigh. “We’ll talk about that later.”
“Fine.”
Celestia was taken aback by his sudden cooperation, but she didn’t let any of her surprise show though her mask. Giving him emotions or feelings to work with would have broken the ‘All-Powerful Goddess’ illusion. Sighing, Celestia sat down her haunches. “Sit.” She said, pointing a hoof at the ground.
Corvo remained standing, and giving her a steady glare, he replied. “Where are my things?”
‘This is going to be a long talk, isn’t it?’
Before she resigned to her fate of an uncooperative conversion mate, she remembered a compromise she had always made with her sister during arguments, and decided to test out the little trick.
“How about this? Let’s take turns. I’ll ask a question and then you ask a question. Deal?”
Corvo stood still, and after an awkward silence, slowly nodded.
Thinking back, Celestia thought of what to ask first. She couldn’t ask anything too intrusive yet, it would break his trust, if he had any at all, and make him even less inclined to cooperate. She quickly had yet another brilliant idea.
“How are you healing?”
Corov blinked in surprise. ‘Is she asking about my injury? Is this a trick?’
Deciding it wasn’t Corvo slowly answered attempting to divulge the minimum amount of information possible.
“Fine.”
Celestia smiled. It wasn’t a great answer but it was more than she expected.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Twilight held on tightly to Pinkie’s hoof, and gave a quiet sigh. The pink mare was still asleep on the large bed, wrapped in blankets and bandages. So far, she hadn't made a single move, except for the steady rise and fall of her chest.
Twilight picked her head up and looked to her friends. Most of them seemed sad, but out of them all Rainbow Dash was taking it the worst. The two mares had become very close in recent months due to the excessive amounts of time they spent pranking the entirety of Ponyville.
Twilight looked from Pinkie to Rainbow. She wasn't openly weeping, like Rarity, or tearing up, like Applejack and Fluttershy, rather she was standing at the foot of the bed just staring at Pinkie’s banged up form. The blue pegasus’ face was void of emotion.
Slowly she looked up at Twilight. “You think she’s gonna be OK?”
The purple mare turned her gaze down to the mattress.
“She’s going to be fine.” Replied a tired voice.
Everypony turned their attention to the door. Standing in the frame was a heavily built unicorn stallion with a magnifying glass cutie mark. He had bags under his eyes and
looked as if he hadn’t slept in days.
“Hello,” He sighed as he walked in. “I’m captain of the investigation division of the royal guard.”
The stallion put on a small smile, “As I said, your friend is going to be just fine. Most of the shrapnel that would have hit her was deflected.”
The girls looked back to Pinkie sleeping in the bed. They could hear her softly snoring. Twilight turned her attention to the bandages. ‘What would have happened if the shrapnel hadn't been deflected? What deflected it, anyway?’
The stallion walked up to a small cushion on the floor. Pulling it up next to the bed he sat down. “We found the shrapnel that would have hit her next to a few purple dragon scales.” Everypony slowly turned and looked at Spike. The dragon shrugged.
“I did lose a few scales in the explosion. Kinda hurt, but the doc said I’d be fine.”
Twilight looked from Pinkie to Spike. Grabbing the small dragon she pulled him into a hug.
“Gha-Hey! Twilight, cut it out!”
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Corvo stared at Celestia. The silence was crushing. They had been playing their question game for a good half hour now, and the assassin hadn’t given a single straight answer to Celestia. Other than what he was and where he came from, the princess knew nothing.
At the moment, it was Corvo’s turn, but the assassin wasn’t asking a question. Rather, he simply stared at the princess across the hall and stood in the shadows of his cell, unmoving.
Celestia returned his glare, calmly, waiting for the question that, by the looks of it, wouldn’t come anytime soon.
The princess narrowed her eyes in suspicion as she tried to extract any useful information from Corvo’s “statements”. She still could piece nothing together from his circular answers and pointless ramblings.
‘Does he really think he can pull this off? I know what he’s doing. I do the same thing to get the nobles to shut their traps. What is he playing at?’
Corvo coughed and Celestia snapped her attention to him. “Yes?”
“When will I get food?”
Celestia shook her head in confusion. “Food? What does that have to do with anything?”
“Food,” he repeated. “I haven’t eaten in awhile.”
The princess rolled her eyes “Once we’re done here.” She deadpanned.
Corvo nodded. “Your turn.”
‘That was nothing like his usual questions. But food is important... ’
Celestia thought back to what he had been asking ‘He has been asking about magic. He has also been talking about gods and shrines and about his weapons and other items. He’s planning something. I don’t like it.’
“What are you planning?” she whispered to herself.
Across the room Corvo chuckled, but gave no other indication he had heard anything.
Celestia looked up confused, then she slowly raised a forehoof and pointed at Corvo’s hand. “The mark. What is it?”
Corvo walked to the cell door and gripped the bars. “Not important.” He sniffed the air “Have you been touching my things?”
The princess cocked her head to the side. “Not really, judging by what happened at my student’s library, I’d rather leave whatever you had with you alone... Why do you ask?”
“You smell like trans.” the assassin replied.
Celestia cocked her head. “What’s that?”
“One of my tools. What are you?”
Celestia stood up. She was thoroughly frustrated. Another, vague answer.
“An alicorn. You didn’t answer my question. In fact, you’ve yet to answer any of them!”
Corvo stared at the princess, but made no move to deny her statement. Slowly he nodded. “You are correct.”
Walking to the cell, she magicked it open, and looked at Corvo, observing the man top to bottom. It was time to take a more direct approach.
Corvo took a step back. “Excuse me. Personal space.”
Celestia looked up. “Why won’t you cooperate?” she asked herself.
The man laughed again.
She met his eyes, and he stared back. The princess could tell something was troubling his mind, she could also tell he was hiding it away from her. From his point of view, the creature was just defending himself. He was doing what he thought was right.
‘His moral compass isn’t broken, rather, his definition of wrong and right were skewed.’ Reasoned the goddess.
Backing up Celestia, sat back down. She didn’t even bother closing the door, rather choosing to stay inside the cell with the assassin.
Taking a deep breath she spoke in a tone of forced calm. “Please, sit.”
Corvo did so without complaint, but all the while, he kept a wary eye on the sun goddess.
Celestia sighed “I know you assaulted the library. I have witnesses, a magic detection team and a playback spell all working on the library. I know exactly what happened.”
Corvo ground his teeth in frustration, but held his tongue. The ex-protector knew that arguing would get him nowhere. In all honesty, he was beginning to doubt his own story. Originally Corvo had been adamant about his innocence, but after his talk with the princess about magic, he was beginning to have his doubts.
‘I didn’t do it. I know I didn’t... and magic doesn’t exist. But, she showed me magic, she said I can do it too. Not to mention she is a talking horse...I just don’t know what to believe anymore.’
The assassin was beginning to get nervous. “What happened?”
“After my student captured and her friends captured you, you attacked them. The fight went on for about ten seconds, and then you disappeared. When you had come back, Rainbow Dash, the blue pegasus, had been knocked out. You fought for a few more minutes and then, you threw something at Pinkie’s party cannon, as a result, the thing exploded.”
Corvo tried hard to remember, again he had limited success. He could only get hazy flashes at the memories. Slowly the assassin looked up. “I think... I can remember...”
Celestia perked up and stared intently. “Yes? Please, tell me.”
“I felt like I was falling at one point...”
Celestia put on a small smile. Everything was going well. Removing the bars between them, creating a friendly atmosphere, and generally making things more easy going had worked wonders. The creature was finally leaving his shell, and now he was beginning to remember parts of the fight at the library.
“Can you remember anything else?” She whispered
The princess watched him concentrate, remaining silent and waiting intently. She took extra care not to move or make noise, as if doing so would scare off the memories.
“I was really angry.” his face darkened. “I felt... ” Celestia watched as he struggled for words. “bad.”
Celestia, taken aback by his forwardness, in a whisper she asked “Why?”
The man shook his head. “False accusations... ” He trailed off, deep in thought.
The sun princess felt like prying, she needed answers, but she understood his feeling and thoughts now, and that was enough to work with. Celestia knew that calming atmospheres and friendly conversation was the best way to get into his mind.
She also understood that all his statements of “Not important” were really a defence mechanism. In actuality, he couldn't remember what the answer was.
Deciding to lighten the atmosphere again, and hopefully bring him out of his trance, she gave a smile. “You were hungry, right?”
The man looked up and slowly nodded.
“Alright. I’ll send something down.”
Princess Celestia stood up and opened her wings. “Thank you for your cooperation...”
“Corvo,” he said absent-mindedly.
“Corvo.” she said with a smile.
The man grunted in response; he was still deep in thought.
As Celestia walked out the door, she closed it, but didn’t bother engaging the lock. She did feel slightly unsafe leaving the door open, but an explanation for chaos magic bursts was a lot more important than an unlocked door.
‘If this was what is necessary for his cooperation then so be it.’
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Twilight continued squeezing a protesting Spike. “Come on, put me dow- OW, my back!” She finally released the irate dragon. “Geez, what was that all about?”
Twilight gave a small smile. “You saved her. I can’t believe you’d do something like that for her! Aww Spike!”
Spike gave a sheepish smile, normally he would have encouraged more praise and thanks, but between Pinkie being injured, his fatigue and fear of Twilight’s bone crushing hugs, he choose to cut his losses and took what he could get. “It was nothing.”
Everypony gave a sigh of relief as the tension in the room was cut. They basked in the moment. Pinkie was going to be fine, the creature had been captured, and everything was going to be OK.
They spent a few more minutes in silence. In that time, the captain had moved himself over to the far wall for a smoke. Suddenly there was a cough from the bed, and the tension snapped to the breaking point again. Everypony rushed to the large cot and huddled close, to stare at its occupant. Pinkie Pie slowly opened one eye, then the other. The party pony blinked and slowly smiled as she saw her friends crowding around her.
Fluttershy gave a whisper. “Hi Pinkie... How are you feeling?”
The pink pony frowned at Fluttershy. “My tummy hurts.” The tension increased, then she gasped incredibly loudly, breaking out into a huge grin. “...Is this a get-well-soon party?!”
The tension suddenly snapped. The girls burst out in relieved laughter, and fell over, even the sleepy guard's captain chuckled a bit. Rarity, being the first to recover, giggled out an answer, “Of course darling, this can be a get-well-soon party if you want,”
Pinkie’s grin widened to an impossible size, “Really? Great! So, what’d I miss?”
Twilight and the girls got back to their hooves. “We got the creature, and now we’re in Canterlot for medical attention.”
“Canterlot?” the pink pony looked at Spike, “We could go to that Doughnut Joe’s again!”
Spike gave her a grin, “Yeah!”
The rest of the afternoon was full of giggling, and catching up. The captain left about halfway through the festivities, claiming he had work to get back to. About an hour after his departure, the nurse ended up kicking Twilight and her friends out, claiming that Pinkie needed her rest.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Corvo slowly chewed the bread, and stared at the crystal walls of his cell. He gave a twisted smile at his reflection. Swallowing hard, he picked up the small bowl of stew and drank a sip. As he ate, he began remembering what he could.
Over the course of the few hours that had passed, he had concluded why he had been angry and, working with that one piece of information, had gotten a solid chunk of his memories back.
Out of all things that he remembered, Empress’ death was the most prominent in his mind. When he had remembered the way she had been brutally murdered in front of him, he had felt so much rage and pain that he considered simply killing himself. The only reason he didn’t was little Emily, and the fact that he needed to save her.
But to do that, he needed to get home. Unfortunately the only way home was by completing the Outsider’s task... He needed a shrine, he needed more information.
Corvo carefully began formulating a plan. This one was a cut above his usual plans, which normally ended up being “murder all targets and hope for the best.” This plan involved deception, and trust.
It was horribly brilliant.
___________Note_______
Next chapter, things are going to pick up. Also, it may not be posted for a bit due to a whole bunch of stuff that has started to happen in my life... Yes. Corvo has most of his memories back...but the ponies don't know that. *Insert evil laugh here*. As always thanks for reading. Shout out to this guy for editing.