Night Eye closed the journal, still no wiser than when he had opened it, the golden rays of the afternoon sun creeping across his desk. He hadn’t found anything that he hadn’t already read or deduced himself so far. And yet, there was a little nagging voice in the back of his head that kept telling him he had missed something…
Little references throughout the journal of things done in the past, but never mentioned. A certain phrase that had initially caused him to think nothing more than ‘obsessive-compulsive,’ but after thinking about it, seemed to be indicative of something else. He knew that the days following the end of the journal were missing. What if there were others?
He hadn’t paid too much attention to the dates of each entry, aside from the first one. He knew the rest of the necessary dates by heart. Fluttershy, found dead on May 28th, forensic spells indicating she likely died in the early hours of the 25th. Junebug, found dead on June 2nd, likely died early that morning. Applejack killed overnight between June 5th and June 6th. Lyra killed early morning June 10th. Rarity attacked early hours of June 13th, and Rainbow Dash attacked early hours of June 15th.
Skipping back to the beginning of the May 12th entry, he flipped through each one, concentrating on the date of each entry. Making a small note every time a date was missing, he came up with three missing entries: June 3rd, June 8th, and June 14th. He stopped where the June 14th entry should have been, and looking closer at the binding of the book, noticing two thin strips of paper still attached to the binding. It looked as though Twilight had carefully sliced out the pages holding that entry. A quick check of the other two missing dates revealed the same strips of paper.
He sat back, staring at the thrice-damned journal, rubbing his fatigued eyes. Twilight had the answers he needed. He was going to get her to talk, one way or the other.
He was just heading down the hall towards the interrogation room, journal back in his pocket, when Sharpshot stepped out of that very room, a concerned look on his face. Drawing up short, Night Eye called out to his partner. “What’s going on, Sharpshot? Anything happen?”
Sharpshot started, wings flaring slightly, and looked over at his partner. “Night Eye! I didn’t see you there.” He turned his gaze back to the door leading into the interrogation room and continued speaking. “Nothing’s happened. That’s what’s bothering me. She doesn’t seem to have moved much at all since you left her.”
He glanced sharply at him. “She’s still alive, right? Didn’t use her magic to kill herself or anything like that?”
He shook his head. “No, I can tell she’s still breathing. She’s just… numb, is probably the best way to describe it. I even offered to move her to a waiting room so she would be more comfortable, but she just ignored me.”
Night Eye considered this new information, hoof softly tapping the hallway floor. He had to do something to shake her out of her stupor. His mind raced as he considered possible methods of approach, turning them over and over before discarding them, until he hit upon what he thought would be the easiest way to get a rise out of her.
Smiling to himself, he turned towards the interrogation room, calling orders to his partner as he approached. “Sharpshot, I’m going to get answers. On the off chance she doesn’t talk, get a message to the boys at the library: They are to tear the place apart looking for” – he paused as he tallied up the number of pages he was looking for – “four hoofwritten journal pages, all in Twilight Sparkle’s writing. It’s more than likely they’ve been destroyed, but just in case, I need to see if she hid them instead. A bonus to whoever finds them and a box of Donut Joe’s donuts for the group when they’re all done. “
Sharpshot threw him a salute and dashed off to the front of the station. Night Eye, confident that his partner would get the message sent and be back into the observation room in a flash, opened the interrogation room door and slipped in.
The first thing he noticed was that Sharpshot’s observation had been accurate. The interrogation room was exactly as he had left it hours ago. Twilight hadn’t moved a muscle, even when he entered the room. For a moment he thought that she had fallen asleep, but the ghost of a sob floated to his ears, and he saw the hitch in her breathing as she silently cried.
Hardening his heart as he began to put his plan into action, he approached the table separating them once more, his hoofsteps echoing in the tiny room. Once more, he stood there, looking down at her, his face expressionless. However, instead of waiting for her to look up at him, this time he slammed the journal down on the table without any preamble.
“I think I’ve figured you out, Twilight,” he said in a callous voice. “The reason you didn’t say anything was that you wanted your friends to die, correct?”
He knew he had gotten through to her when her ear twitched, swiveling his way. He continued speaking in that harsh tone, needling her. “Like I said, I read your journal. I even read between the lines. You couldn’t care less whether those so-called friends of yours lived or died, could you? It was obvious the way you refused to warn them of the possible dangers, even when you were almost absolutely sure of who the killer was.”
Her head perked up to stare at him, bloodshot eyes looking out at him from a face that was puffy and swollen from crying. There was a hardness in those eyes that hadn’t been present before as she spoke in a soft, choked voice. “My friends are the greatest ponies ever. They are the best friends any pony could wish for, and I care deeply for them. Don’t ever insinuate otherwise, Mister Night Eye.”
Night Eye’s face remained impassive, despite the fact that she was glaring daggers at him. “So you finally decided to rejoin the present?” he replied, leaning forward slightly. “If that’s the case, I have quite a few questions for you, Miss Sparkle.”
She lowered her head, but before she could drift back into her well of grief, he reached out and lifted her chin to look into her eyes. “I need the answers,” he said, speaking as emphatically as he could. “The only way I’m going to be able to be certain this case is truly closed is by you giving me those answers.” His face softened as he considered her situation. “I understand what you’re going through, Miss Sparkle. It’s been a difficult time for all of us.”
He remained silent for another moment, then asked, “Will you tell me what happened?”
She stared into his eyes. He could see the doubt, the fear, the relief, and every other emotion he could think of cross her face as she contemplated his request. Finally, she broke their gaze and nodded, staring down at the table. “I’ve kept this to myself too long,” she replied softly. “I’ll… tell you what I can. I’m probably the only pony who really understands what happened, anyway.”
Night Eye continued to maintain his stoic demeanor, but inside he was whooping for joy. “Thank you,” he said as he stood, moving towards the mirror. “Give me just a minute to get someone in here to record your story.” He gestured to his unseen partner, who appeared in the room a moment later. He gave Sharpshot the orders, then turned back to Twilight after his partner left. “While we’re waiting, can you answer me one question? Why did you remove those pages from your journal?”
She looked up at him, the expression on her face giving him the impression that she was struggling with whether or not to tell him the truth. Finally, honesty won out over deceit, and she hung her head with a sigh. “I was afraid,” she replied.
“Afraid?” he asked.
Still staring down at the table, she nodded. “Yes. I was afraid that if anypony read that journal and those pages, they’d realize what I’d known. What I’d kept from everypony. And I – I would…” She trailed off into silence, and Night Eye nodded in reply.
“You were afraid of being blamed for the deaths,” he finished for her. She nodded once more. “Well, from what I’ve read, you are almost as responsible for them as the actual killer was.”
Her face flew up, the look of horror obvious. He began to tick off the offending points, and with each one, he saw her ears fold back further and further until they were almost flush with her scalp. “You interfered with an official investigation, your vigilante wanderings probably disrupted more than one nighttime patrol, you ignored my orders to leave the case to me while withholding information that could have been useful, and I’m pretty sure the time you chased the killer into the orchard directly lead to the death of your friend.”
He paused for a moment before throwing her a lifeline. “However, your diligence in your searching probably resulted in the killer being caught much sooner than we could have hoped, and it sounds like whatever spell you cast has all but assured that the killer will not return. Given that you are willing to provide us with your full story and hopefully tie up the loose ends, I will not be pressing any charges against you. Cooperation tends to go far in my book.”
His eyes narrowed dangerously as her ears perked up slightly. “However, do not think that this gives you a free pass. If I ever catch you interfering with one of my investigations again, Princess’s protégé or not, so help me…” He left the threat unfinished as she nodded mutely, her emotions having been rubbed raw over the course of the day. At that moment, Sharpshot returned with one of their unicorn technicians, who was carrying a tape recorder. Night Eye gestured for the two of them to enter, and the technician set the recorder down on the table.
Night Eye looked over at Twilight Sparkle, who was staring at the recorder apprehensively as he pushed it across the table towards her. He cleared his throat, and her gaze slid to him. Pressing the button to start the recorder, he leaned towards the receiver and spoke clearly. “This is the statement of Twilight Sparkle, as related to the killings referenced in case PV2539, as received this date, June 17th, year three of Luna’s Return. Twilight, are you ready? Speak as clearly as possible.”
“Yes,” she replied.
“Very well. You may begin.”