//------------------------------//
// Reversal 
// Story: The Dark Ones 
// by Snake Staff 
//------------------------------//


++Astropathic Choir Intercept ZY007, Kyne’s Fury 3.717.873.M39++
++Message to Inquisitor Tas Rovini++
++ Transcript Appended++
Thought for the Day: Ruthlessness is the kindness of the wise.


My Lord,
The xeno is beginning to regain some of her nerve. It appears that the earlier phenomena were at least in part a reaction to psychic imprints left on her home planet by the genocide of her species. She grows somewhat more relaxed the farther we go from it, though I stress this is a relative term. She has also demonstrated a greater level of courage when in realspace, despite the fact that she doesn’t consciously sense the difference (or at least doesn’t tell me if she does). If not for the current streak of bad luck (another Ork attack, a pirate raid) afflicting the Imperial planets with which we have attempted to rendezvous, I would have given her a prolonged interrogation in the Materium rather than continued our work while in Warp transit. Now that we are some distance from Equis III, it is my hope that she might soon prove up to recalling useful intelligence within the comforting confines of natural reality.
Our work with her world’s cultural objects seems to back up my theories on the origin of the xenos species. They used primitive tools such as hammers, saws, forks, and other such things with little to no modification from the way mankind creates them, in spite of the manifest unsuitability of these objects to their fingerless bodies. Much of “their” culture appears to have been directly appropriated from a backwards human society. When questioned about this, the xenos seemed more interested than offended. She commented that the idea sounded fascinating, and that she wished to participate in these studies. For the first time, she requested to be let out of her cell. I denied the request, of course, but she does not seem to have given up. It is in this context that the below interview should be taken.


++Interrogation the Fifty Eighth++


Setting: Cell 59XBA. Cell remains brightly lit. Xenos is batting game pieces around on the table absentmindedly.
Kylara: Hello Twilight.
Twilight Sparkle: Hey there Ky. What’s up?
K: Oh, nothing too much is new. How are you?
TS: Fine… Fine… Don’t worry about me, I’m just peachy in here! 
K: You’re not feeling well, are you?
TS: Too much?
K: You’re not very good at subtlety.
TS: Maybe I need to work on that.
K: Perhaps. Now tell me, what’s wrong?
TS: It’s just… All this… is great and all. But I’m just… I’m just… getting tired of this place. I’ve been in here for one month, one week, five days, fourteen hours Equestrian time. I know it’s to help me, but why can’t I go out? I can help you. I’d like to meet your scientists, talk with them about their theories. Who knows, maybe our species did meet before. Maybe we did borrow stuff from you. I’d like to get out and do something again.
K: Really?
TS: Yeah! I can learn about you and teach you more about us! And we can go out and see other planets and catalogue what we find and everything! [I have understandably been reluctant to let her know what my actual profession is. She has been led to believe that we are more of a group of explorers and scientists.]
K: Very well. 
K walks up to door and inputs access code. TS claps hooves in a manner suggesting excitement. The door opens momentarily.
K: Go on.
TS walks up to doorway, looks outside.
TS: NO! NO PLEASE! Please, make it stop! They’ll get you! They’ll get me! HAVE MERCY!!! [Just as anticipated.]
K: Coming? 
TS screams incoherently. K seals door behind herself.


++Interrogation Ends++

++Thoughts++


My Lord, this is becoming unacceptable. The xenos is increasingly asserting her own wishes into my attempts at interrogation. I may have dissuaded her from leaving her cell at this juncture, but my instincts tell me it will not be long before she simply requests more light out there, and then freedom. Her mind, as best I understand it from prolonged interaction with her, is too sharp to be fooled by any obvious lies about inadequate ability to light up the corridors. She has at least a basic understanding of our technological levels, if not much of one of our society.
If I give in to this, she will start asking for more and more. Thus far I have declined to reveal official Imperial policy on xenos, due to the strong sense of betrayal and moral outrage this would almost certainly cause in the xenos. If she learns that the Emperor commands us not only to never befriend the xenos, but to actively seek out and exterminate all who will not bow unconditionally to humanity's will, her reaction is likely to be severe. She would immediately turn against us, out of both self-preservation and moral indignation. In the best case scenario, she would clamp up and refuse to speak to me any longer. In the worst, she could become outright violent, lashing out with her not-inconsiderable psychic abilities. As I noted before, we may not win such a confrontation.
If even the best case scenario were to happen, all my work at “befriending” her would almost certainly be for naught, and I would be forced to start from scratch with a much more hostile subject. As before, torture might simply destroy what is left of her sanity altogether, making her worthless except as a subject for dissection. On the other hand, a refusal to allow her out might also cause her to lose faith in me. She might believe (correctly) that I am conspiring to keep her in the cell for reasons beyond her own good. This would similarly make my efforts thus far in vain. Now that she believes me her friend, she is expecting certain things from me.
Of course, I will admit that I was the one who fostered this idea in the first place by my attempts to use more gentle persuasive techniques. I now question my own methodology in this case. Have I inadvertently spoiled the xenos so much that she will refuse to talk until she gets what she want? In such case, I may be forced to break her the old fashioned way. Gaining the information on the menace to our Imperium is too important to leave to the whims of a pony seemingly out of some inane children’s animation. Still, you have given orders to preserve her if at all possible. Beyond that, there remains the risk of destroying her mind in the process and making interrogation of any kind utterly untenable. Despite all our efforts to acquire one, we have no backup specimen to speak to. If this xenos dies, any chance of learning about the dire threat you have spoken of dies with her.
Therefore, Lord Rovini, I must seek your guidance in this matter. Do I have your permission to go to more forcible methods if she does not crack soon? I request a response as soon as you can.


Your servant,
Interrogator Kylara
++Message Ends++