Chapter Eight
Interrogation
“Aideen’s Audiolog. February 16, 1247. Going above the cloud cover is a bad idea...”
Craft talked me into... no, Craft suggested I make breakfast for the three of us. I am deliberately trying to gain Cirrus' affection, but I’m quite sure I am not going to act on anything. I like her, and when I think about it I might even like the idea of having a relationship with her. But that’s it, only the idea. While I figure that mares are a temporary option for me If I survive long enough to settle down I’ll need a stallion.
Craft’s plan does not involve staying up here or taking somepony with us; a long-distance realationship with a pegasus in the clouds is absurd, and I am not spending a long time up here. Hmm... Cirrus needs honesty from me. “Ahh... Cirrus? I need to tell you something”
She looked up from her salad. “Yes?”
“After I’m out of here we will never see each other again.”
Craft, who has long ago stole something from the kitchen, and was now lolling around upside-down on Cirrus’ couch, glared at me. The way she frowned signalized clearly I shouldn’t say anything stupid.
“Oh...”
“In case you were wondering why I blocked you yesterday.”
“I don’t quite understand, is it because of the Enclave? I’m practically a member, so...”
“There is no way you would get the clearance required to be allowed to know my existence.”
“Is that supposed to make you less interesting?” She smiled painfully; she knows it’s over. “It’s okay.”
Knock, knock, knock
For a second I wondered how it’s even possible to knock at a door made of clouds, but immediately discarded the thought again because I saw and felt a lot of solid surfaces made of clouds already. Cirrus, probably happy for the interruption, stood up, nodded to me, and walked out of the kitchen to answer it.
I was alone with Craft again. “Craft, I don’t want to press this more, but the Enclave is scheduled to arrive this afternoon, we have six hours at best, just tell me if we let them see us or if we go first.”
“We let them see us, that’s the whole reason why we came up here. What exactly will happen I’ll improvise, but don’t worry, I have a few scenarios planned out. Additionally our escape plan is foolproof.”
“If the escape plan is foolproof then why aren’t you telling me? You said I’d ruin it if I’d know.”
“I did say that, didn’t I?” She smiled in a very evil way. “I lied, I think you won’t like it, and while I think you would approve... You understand I can’t have you acting nervous when we need it.” Craft’s voice is getting increasingly faster as we heard. “And our time alone together just isn’t long enough for me to comfort you.”
“Yesterday evening you had plenty time to-” I stopped as Cirrus was to close again for me to be comfortable to speak.
But of course she has heard us. “What were you talking about?” She said that although she already knew we won’t answer truthfully, if at all.
“Ma’am, you are not authorized to receive such information.”
“Craft.” Cirrus paused, as if she wouldn’t know how exactly to say what’s on her mind. “You know you’re strange right?”
“Yes! Yes I am aware of that.” I didn’t expect any other answer from Craft.
“Anyway, I’ve got to work now, and you are still officially locked up, so would you please come to the office with me?”
“Of course.”
*** *** ***
About half an hour later Craft was bored out of her mind. “Hey Cirrus, you are sighing continuously, hard case are you working on?”
Cirrus sighed again. “Series of thefts turned deadly when the owner of the apartment was still home sick. Not really any workable leads except that a gun was used, they are be hard to come by and can simply be dropped, and the fact that the murderer was wearing a yellow raincoat.”
“So there is an eyewitness?” Is Craft planning on solving that murder?
“You want to help?”
“I have nothing better to do, so yes I’ll help.”
“Sergeant.” The older one of the two policemen spoke up. “May I speak freely and say that the trust you hand out is already too much, and we can’t let anypony compromise our investigations.”
“I don’t exist. Ponies that don’t exist can’t compromise any investigations.”
“It couldn’t hurt to let our err... non-existent guest here help, can it?” Cirrus turned the folder around so that Craft and I were able to read it.
“Crime scene photos first...” Craft changed flipped through the attached photos. Pegasi, gunshot-wound; the cause of death was no mystery. “Toothbrush?” Craft mumbled along what she saw. The victim had toothpaste foam in his mouth and a toothbrush lying next to him, that was weird. “The apartment was very thoroughly searched... Where is the witness statement?”
“In the notes... wait...” Cirrus turned the pages. “There.”
“Thanks.” The statement was only a paragraph and Craft read out loud parts of it. “Heard gunshot – went out – saw yellow raincoat – nothing else. Huh...” She turned back to the pictures. “This doesn’t add up.”
“What do you mean?”
“Either the neighbor is lying, or... hmm...” She tilted her head, and turned pages again. She was certainly searching for something, and seemed to already know what exactly it was she is searching for. “I can solve this case before the Enclave arrives.” What?
“What?” Hey, get your own train of thought, Cirrus!
“You don’t get a lot of murders out here, do you?” About 100 Pegasi in this settlement, yes, a whole percent of murderers running lose is a lot. Sure, nothing compared to the percentage of ponies capable of killing others in the wasteland, but still... “It’s not your fault you have no experience when it comes to this. Let’s go knock on some doors.”
“You can’t just... ‘knock at some doors’, I mean... You don’t exist, right?”
“Hmm...” Craft smiled. “I guess we have to play dress-up then.”
I don’t like where this is going...
*** *** ***
I liked where this had been going, and from Craft’s expression she loved it. We got to wear an officer's uniform. Craft probably only liked mares in uniform, but I liked the uniform for its traits, bullet- and energy-proof to a certain degree. My barding-evaluation algorithm got updated from the MAS-OS; It recognized the barding's stats and gave me a general overview of its capabilities.
Cirrus’ old uniform had been too big for me and the one I wore now was too small. There is still the mentality of not trying to look good, but I’m trying to change, so I have no problem with a tight uniform that emphasized my curves. I could feel their gazes on me, because yes, I’m sexy. Is it considered vanity if I start to take a liking in my appearance? After all I have an entire police station looking at me with lusty eyes, and there is still the deal with Nightmare Moon wanting me.
Nightmare Moon... My thinking leads me to the strangest places. Was my reaction to moonlight yesterday normal? I remember clearly how I investigated my foreleg... when I was in sunlight I never had the urge to do something like that, although the light was way brighter and I could have take a way better look at it. I could only reason that my reaction to moonlight has been so strong because of Nightmare Moon.
I remember what Watcher said about demons probably needing an allowance to enter a body, so was Nightmare Moon showing me the advantages that came along with being host to a demon? The feeling when standing in moonlight was certainly good, but you know what I like more than the feeling of standing in moonlight? Having control over my own body. “Aideen?”
“Hmm...? What? Yeah!” I snapped out of my train of thought. I wasn’t even sure who has said my name.
“I think we lost you for a moment.” Cirrus had an quite concerned expression.
“Yeah, I was really lost in thought for a moment.” Was that a viable explanation? I certainly can’t tell them the truth of what I thought about. Better hope nobody asked why.
“That was more than a single moment; you stared at your mirror image for a ten seconds flat.”
“Anyway, I look good, don’t you think?” Did I just force her to make me a compliment?
“Oh yes. You look good.” Please don’t add ‘you look good no matter what you wear.’ “You’d only need wings now.”
“Oh, is that all? No problem.” Don’t gloat, Aideen, first you need to ace the disguise-spell. Celestia had used it to make herself smaller and hide her wings, I could make myself a some. Concentrate... Huh... It was amazing how easy it came to me after I had paid attention at Spellfield's perception of her spell. “They are only artificial.” Cirrus stared at me in disbelief. “I can’t move them or anything.” Now I only need to get my horn away and I’d pass as a regular pegasi. Concentrate... ouch, I should have done so at the same time I did make myself wings. Aaaaand it’s gone.
Cirrus hadn’t been the only one to stare, the same policemen who concealed his doubts about letting us join an investigation spoke up. “I didn’t know unicorns can do that.”
“Well, most unicorns can’t.” I looked over to Craft, who was now a pegasus too. What the..? How would she know THAT spell? Wait... she KNEW it, but made me figure it out by myself. “Spells like this one are very hard to learn. I’m not a good teacher.” Seriously Craft? That is how you are talking yourself out of this? “And, no offense, but your a pegasus, I doubt you could understand flows of magic even if I would try explaining it to you.” Oh we are going to talk about this. I know you have some fucked up explanation, but you need to answer some of my questions. Craft answered my glare with a happy smile.
“Doors are in need of being knocked at.” I tried adjusting my uniform one last time. “We should go, if we actually want to solve this case before the Enclave comes.”
*** *** ***
Cirrus truly has hardly any experience when it comes to murders. I’d like to think she believes in the goodness of every pony and denies the possibility that the pony in front of her might be a killer. It made her innocent compared to the depths of evil that truly lurk in this world and I actually felt envious. I knew Craft could kill raiders in cold blood, and I knew that this stallion had carefully planned and killed his friend. I was sitting with both of them at a table and it didn’t bother me, what does that tell about me?
Craft has hinted me enough information so I had been able to piece together how the murder happened. Question was: Why isn’t she saying anything? He even almost admitted he had a grudge on the victim and no alibi. What is she waiting for?
Craft noticed that I started paying increased attention to her behavior while I should watch our suspect. When we made eye-contact she nodded in his direction. She wanted me to arrest him? Can I do that? I can do that! “Mr. Clyde. Thank you for your cooperation. I think we have heard enough.” He showed relief. Amateur. “Just one last question, and maybe a follow up question, okay?”
He tensed again. “Uhm.. yeah sure.”
“I mean I know the answer already. Good police-work, you know. But I’d like to hear it out of your mouth, and study your facial expressions and gestures when answering. I happen to be good at spotting liars.”
“Okay...”
“You see...” I presented him the file with all dates. “January 4th, that’s when he started to not show up for work anymore and called in sick, and January 4th, that’s the date of the first theft. Fun coincidence, right?” I turned to a photo of one of the robbed houses. Drawers were ripped out and emptied on the floor. “Normally thieves don’t want to attract attention, this one here made the mistake of being messy, made it easy to pin down when exactly the house got robbed. That made me think he wanted us to know when it happened.”
“I don’t understand...”
“Don’t worry. I’ll explain.” I presented a photo of the victim’s apartment. “That’s pretty messed up too, right?” I showed the witness statement and read the important part out loud. “Here. ‘I heard a shot and immediately looked outside to see what happened, I saw a pony covered by a big yellow raincoat flee.’ But that is not possible, is it?” I put the photo up again. “She immediately went out. Nopony would have had time to search an apartment like that in the time the shot was fired and her seeing this somepony flee.”
He gulped, he saw his mistake now.
“The murderer searched the room before he shot him. I take it when somepony is searching your room and makes a horrible mess of it nopony would just stand idly by and brush his teeth, right?” I lifted a photo of the toothbrush. “No, he simply let you do it. He felt guilty, of course. He messed up and owes you a good amount of money.”
It’s over and he knows it. The expression he has wasn’t guilt though... it was shame.
I put out the victims tox-screen. “There is a little something that is weird, could be of the medication he took. “Now my question. Did you poison him to get sick?”
Cirrus and the two policemen stared, Clyde sighed. “I thought you were only eye-candy when you came in. Guess I was wrong.” He leaned back. “Yes, I poisoned him.”
“Sir, I take that as a confession.” Cirrus stood up and walked around the table to cuff him. “You are under arrest.” He didn’t even try to resist. “You don’t even show regret.” Her expression showed disgust.
*** *** ***
“I always thought I’d use this when we solve a hard case.” Cirrus has brought a bottle of some sparkling wine. “You cracked it within three hours. What a shining example of a police officer am I?” she popped the bottle open. And made a mess on the floor when foam tripped down. “Anyone want to celebrate with me and this fancy-ass champagne?”
“I never say no to fancy-ass anything.” Okay, that was funny. I should give Craft more chances to be funny. A little fun could not hurt in my life situation.
“Thanks Sergeant.” – “Oh, by all means.”
“You too, Grumpy?” Craft said to the elder officer. “You’d like to drink with ‘me’?”
“Well, I believe you deserve my trust now.” Ouch. Somehow it hurts hearing them say they trust us. I mean it is nice, sure, but after all we ARE fooling them and don’t really deserve their trust.
When Cirrus filled glasses for each of us I just had to point out the obvious. “You don’t seem to be in any kind of celebration mood, and it doesn’t have to do with me solving that case. What’s going through your head, Cirrus?
“It’s just... err... he didn’t even show any guilt. He was ashamed that he got caught, that’s all.” I know what she meant. “How could you even kill somepony?”
Craft said to me I’m too soft for the wastelands; what is she going to say to Cirrus? “I had to kill three ponies.”
Cirrus stared at her “Craft?”
“Only last week.” Craft added then. “It was a matter of survival. I had to make a decision: me or them? I estimated my life more valuable than three others. It actually came easy to me.” So I saw. “And you are asking how can you kill somepony else? It’s simple: you only have to want to kill them. Don’t get started on how the situations are different, killing is wrong, no matter what the situation is.”
I need a drink on that. I have never had any fancy drink like this champagne. Being used to way harder drinks I couldn’t say I liked it, but on the other hoof it wasn’t bad.
“I... What are you saying?”
“Murder is easy. Ponies do it when they want to, otherwise it would be manslaughter. There are one way to kill somepony, you lower your own morale to say: this pony deserves to die. The space of time in which your morals are lowered doesn’t need to me long; 10 second are enough. It behaves like a muscle, the more often you do it the easier it gets. It’s only one act, and you don’t need to work out to do it. Even I am surprised to see how easy it comes to some ponies.” Craft downed her glass. “Maybe I’m just rationalizing my own kills so I don’t go insane, or I’m insane already, and I’m in denial.”
Nopony said anything for a long time, they were just sipping at their champagne. Craft didn’t ask for permission to refill her drink, but simply did it. I doubted Cirrus would speak up because of it, speaking would mean to continue any kind of conversation.
“He killed because of revenge. Tragedy is like an itch you can’t make go away, because you keep scratching. But if there is someone who caused that tragedy you can make the itch go away. Taking a life because of revenge is a sign of weakness, taking a life because of survival on the other hoof is merely natural order. Survival of the fittest, or something, I don’t know.”
I had to break Craft's melancholy-thingy, she gets creepy when she is like that. “So, what do you guys eat for lunch usually? I don’t know about you, but I'm starting to get hungry.” They stared at me as if I had interrupted something of utmost importance.
*** *** ***
When the Enclave arrived, Craft and I quickly escaped into a cell to let the ponies we came to like seem like they were doing everything according to protocol when picking up unicorns without a valid ID. Our dear murderer was in the cell next to us, and although he thankfully couldn’t see that the police-officers who arrested him a few hours earlier were now in jail too, we weren’t able to talk freely.
The fact that the Enclave doesn’t immediately come into the prison-wing worries me. They are getting ready for something. Maybe even telling Cirrus at this very moment that Craft and I are liars. I know it’s going to happen but the thought of disappointing her saddens me.
I probably shouldn’t need to mention that I am getting increasingly more worried by the second, so I just had to have a confirmation again. “Your exit-plan better work.”
“It will work.” Craft wasn’t carelessly saying that. She was clearly paying attention and trying to listen to what‘s going on outside.
I sighed, just how were these three words actually able to alleviate me? No sarcasm here, for some reason it truly helped.
Then the doors opened and three new pegasi walked in, Cirrus was right behind them. The one with the fanciest uniform was fairly muscular, had a brilliant spring green coat and pale turquoise mane. “Good Afternoon.” Wow, I didn’t expect him to be friendly. “I’m Major Turbulence, I’m sent here to find out whether or not you are who you imply. But thankfully there is an easy way to prove that. What’s the password?”
“Trick question, and a bad one at that. There are ponies listening in.” Craft looked at the others. “Let’s go somewhere private.”
“Not bad.” Major Turbulence nodded, and turned to Cirrus. “You have a proper interrogation room I take it?”
“Yes, of course.” Cirrus opened our cell. “Follow me.”
“You let your prisoners walk around without cuffs?” There had not been time to think about cuffing us when they had arrived, we had to act fast.
“If they have proven to be cooperative over and over again, yes.”
“Fair enough.” He let me and Craft pass to walk after us.
The interrogation room is right next to the prison, there was a table and chairs there, also a big mirror. “Did you know that there is no such thing as a one-way mirror. Only high-reflective glass, as the other room is very dark there is no light passing through from it and we can’t see what is on their side. However they can see us as we have a very bright room.”
“Is that so?” Turbulence seemed to have found the perfect comeback for any random information Craft spurts out. “Please take a seat.”
Craft and I took place opposite of the one-way mirror, or high-reflective glass, like Craft called it. “Is two versus one really fair?”
“It’s not about fairness I believe, and...” He gestured Cirrus to go.
“I’ll leave you.” She nodded to us and left the room, like announced.
“So...” He took his place opposite of us. “What can you tell me about the Equestrian Wastelands, the settlements there, the Crimson Company, Red Eye’s Army, and especially about this Goddess.”
“You’ve done your homework. Red Eye’s Army wasn’t exactly my assignment. We are here at Mt. Mustang, so I was Crimson Company. And I have gathered quite some intelligence. Red Eye and the Goddess are only working together, they are waiting for an opportunity to stab each other in the back.”
“That’s good to know.”
“Both have flying forces; Red Eye has a lot of griffins; the Goddess has alicorns. They recognize the Enclave as a threat and will launch an attack soon.”
*** *** ***
Footnote: You have reached Level 8!
New Perk: Some Assembly Required (1): You gain +5 points into Projectile and Energy Weapons. You can modify Weapons to deal 10% more damage!
Spell update: Well Crafted Disguise (2)
Description: You can disguise yourself better now!
Magical Drain: medium, only initially high
Quest complete: Murder investigation!
[X] Read the file.
[X] Find new clues.
[X] Find the murderer.
Quest: Above the clouds
[X] Gain the trust of the pegasi of Cloud Nine-Two.
[ ] Wait until Craft uses her exit plan.