Ivan wrapped his wings around Katna, enveloping her and blocking her view of the the police precinct they were in as she shuddered. The hubbub of a precinct office clammered around them as people walked by, typed away on computers—some still bound to a non-holographic screen—and chatted with one another.
“Shhhh… shhhh… it’s okay sis.” He lay his muzzle over so his mouth was right next to her ear. Between a shivering, crying filly and a pegasus sticking to her side, the two of them had been left together as Gleb was brought to a room just down the hall. “Remember, we were just with Gleb, there’s nothing else they have on us. We just have to wait.” Ivan shifted a wing and poked his head out, speaking more loudly. “It’s going to be alright, Salmon, we won’t be late on our trip because of this.” He once again concealed their heads with his wing. “You’re young, just say I was planning all of the trip to visit a family and friends in Nova Kakhovka. If they ask you anything else don’t answer, repeat that we were visiting family and friends, that you don’t understand the question, or that you want to see me. No matter what they say, do that, okay?”
Ivan pressed a hoof to her lips and stuck his head up again. “No! Salmon, please, take deep breaths. What are you afraid of?” He once again shielded them with his wing.
Katna sniffed. “Okay, don’t answer, tell them you were planning it all, I don’t understand, and that I want to see you… Iv-Cirrus… I also have to call you Cirrus... Are you sure this is what we should be doing?”
Shifting his wing out of the way, Ivan kissed Katna at the base of her horn. He positioned his wing.
“I stole potion. They find that out this is over. We are orphans. They find that out this is over. We’re almost there, Katna. We just have to get through this.”
Gulping, Katna asked, “Who do I tell them we’re going to visit?”
“If we make someone up, that could bite us later… Swift Stitch. Tell them Swift Stitch and a few others you can’t remember the names of.”
Looking up to him Katna nodded.
A door down the hallway opened and Gleb was shoved out, three police officers filing out behind him. “Come on, now you get your phone call,” the first officer said, pushing him down the hall and away from Ivan and Katna.
The second and third officers walked towards them. As they strode by the third officer pointed to Ivan and Katna. “Stay right there.”
The officers turned to a counter set into the side wall, poured themselves some coffee and set another batch to brew before continuing among the chest-high cubicles. The second man leaned against the cubicle wall while the third man removed his jacket and took a seat, obscuring his face.
Ivan focused his ears in that direction, as did Katna.
“Sorry about that, boss,” said the third man.
“The man was caught with an entire box of contraband.” The boss rested a coffee mug on his paunch sighed. “It’s going to be an open-and-shut case. At this point it’s just a matter of finding out where it came from and where it was going.”
“And I failed.” The third man rose up from his seat.
“Hey.” The boss nodded to the man. “I said it’s going to be open-and-shut. Don’t beat yourself up, Bilinski. The con was a tough nut.”
“Yeah...” Bilinski leaned back and formed a steeple with his hands. “Which leaves the two ponies they were with. Blank flanks.”
“Excuse me?”
“They don’t have their cutie marks,” said Bilinski.
Katna lowered her head as her tail curled over her flank.
The boss lifted a hand off his mug. “Man was carrying drugs, takes two ponies along with him. Two blank flanks, so... that means they’re foals.”
“Dopkil said the two of them said their names were Cirrus Stripes and Salmon Spring, brother and sister.”
Catching the twitching on the boss’s neck muscles Ivan averted his eyes before the officer looked at him and his sister. “Eh, the mane colors bare some resemblance… Bit of cyan on both. So how does it happen?”
Bilinski shrugged. “Well we do have Belarus to the north, and we know they were very angry when they found they couldn’t just wave a contract at the UN when they decided they wanted to keep a unicorn engineer in their country indefinitely to work in maintenance.”
“Trafficking? Into Belarus?”
“Not saying Belarus specifically, but hey, when someone can manipulate the weather, or fix an engine without any power tools...” Bilinski inclined his head towards the two foals.
“So we get them to tell us what happened, and we can pin this drug-runner with person-trafficking as well.” The boss drank his coffee. “I miss the old days when it was just called ‘human-trafficking’.”
“Which one do we ask first?”
“They’re both young, but we don’t know what that man’s told them.”
“The younger one then?”
“Yes.” The boss drank his coffee.
As the two men left the cubicle Katna huddled against Ivan.
Leaning down to Katna, Ivan kissed her on the cheek. “Remember, I’m Cirrus Stripes, you’re Salmon Spring. We’re traveling to see Swift Stitch in Nova Kakhovka. You don’t know anything else, and you want to see me,” he whispered.
Bilinski and the boss walked in front of them.
Crouching down in front of where Katna sat, the boss smiled. “Hi.” He extended a hand towards her. “I’m Yuri. What’s your name?”
Katna looked between Yuri’s face and hand. She extended a hoof towards his palm and lay it there. “Salmon Spring.”
“Salmon Spring...” Yuri shook Katna’s hoof and smiled. “That’s a very pretty name.” He glanced over to Bilinski. “My friend and I would just like to ask you a few questions. Mind coming with us?”
Katna glanced at Ivan, who nodded and lifted his wing from her back. Looking back to Yuri, Katna nodded and hopped off her seat.
Katna and Yuri walked down the hall. She looked over her shoulder to see Bilinski rifling through a pastry box on the counter with the coffee maker.
Yuri opened a door and ushered Katna into the room. Fluorescent lights beamed down onto a grey carpet that wafted up the scent of spilled coffee. The wall opposite them was a mirror. In front of her sat a desk pushed up against the left wall with a chair on each of the three sides that weren’t pushed against the wall. As she stepped inside the sound from the offices outside grew muted. Bilinski entered the room carrying a plate with three donuts, and shut the door behind him. Katna’s ears twitched in response to the electric hum coming from the lights.
“Well, take a seat little lady,” said Yuri. He walked beside her and tugged on her mane, guiding her to the chair closest to the mirror and furthest from the door. She hopped onto the seat and looked on as Yuri sat on one end of the desk and Bilinski sat opposite her, placing the plate of donuts between them.
“Want a donut?”
Katna looked at the donut, then up to Bilinski. “Yes, please.” Her horn glowed and floated a donut to her mouth. She bit in, feeling sweet jelly squish out onto her tongue. Her stomach growled as she bit in again, and finally popped the entire baked good into her mouth.
“Was it good, Salmon?” asked Yuri.
“Mhmm.”
Yuri leaned back in his seat. “So, Salmon, interesting name for a filly such as yourself. How’d you get it?”
Katna scanned the officer’s face, thinking for a moment. Tell them nothing but a name, who they were going to visit, and that she wanted to see her brother. She shrugged. “I never really thought about it. Maybe you could ask my brother?”
“In a minute.” Yuri held up his hand. “So can you tell me how you and your brother met Gleb?”
Katna shrugged again. “My brother said he could help us reach who we’re planning to visit.”
“Oh? And who’s that?”
“A pony in a town that’s supposed to be close, Swift Stitch.”
Bilinski shifted in his chair. “Do you know why you’re going to visit Swift Stitch?”
Turning her head to the other officer Katna blinked a few times. “We’re going to visit her, that simple. Can I be with my brother now?” Her tail twitched.
“In a minute,” said Bilinski. “I noticed you did magic. Do you like magic?”
Katna’s eyes widened and she nodded. “Yes! Very much!”
“I imagine your teacher was very proud when you started magic,” said Yuri.
Left ear turning to Yuri, Katna closed her mouth. “I guess.”
“Why don’t you tell us about your school? You like math? Science?” Yuri leaned forward in his chair, his left hand on the table.
Katna gulped at Yuri’s questions. She connected the lilt in his voice with the one Dopkil had used, and with the officer who had been shot weeks ago.
“Something wrong?” asked Bilinski. “You know you can tell us if something is up.”
“I just want to see my brother, please he’s just—”
“In a minute,” interrupted Yuri, leaning back in his chair. “Let’s talk about Gleb, what do you think of him?”
Katna shrugged and licked her lips. “He’s helping us travel. Can I see my—”
“Not right now.” Yuri clapped his hand to the table. “Did you ever talk to Gleb?”
“Not that much.”
“Not that much? Did he speak to you?”
“Can I see m—”
“We still have questions,” said Bilinski.
“Did Gleb ever tell you to do something odd? Hide somewhere from others? Stay put when you wanted to follow him?”
Katna shook her head. “No. Now please, can I—”
“Did he ever threaten to hit you?”
“No!” Katna slammed her hooves on her chair. Ears pressed against her head, her tail twitched. “I want to see my brother!”
Yuri and Bilinski looked at each other, then stood from their chairs. “Come on, you can see your brother now.”
Katna hopped out of her chair and followed on the heels of Bilinski, Yuri following behind her. When they stepped into the hall Katna trotted eagerly to Ivan. He sat on his haunches and held his fore hooves abroad to catch her as she jumped to him. She nuzzled against his chest, letting her pulse slow down from being in that… interrogation room. Lifting her muzzle to Ivan’s ear, she whispered, “Said nothing,” followed by the louder, “love you.”
Ivan tightened his hug around her. “Me too. Love you sis.”
Yuri snapped his fingers. “Alright, alright, now come on, Mr. Stripes, my friend and I have some questions for you.” He placed a hand on Bilinski’s shoulder.
Ivan placed Katna back on the ground. Standing up he nodded to the two officers. “Of course.” He walked to them, joining them as they walked down the hall and into the interrogation room.
Katna gulped as she watched the door slam shut.
“Have a seat, Mr. Stripes,” said Bilinski. “Have a donut too.”
Ivan walked towards the chair and held up a forehoof, shaking it as he shut his eyes briefly. A small smile extended on his features as he shook his head. “Thank you, but I’m not hungry. And please, just call me Cirrus.” He clambered onto his chair and looked at Yuri sitting at the chair in front of him. Ivan smiled at the officer. He looked over to Bilinski, leaning against the door, arms folded. “So how can I help you today?”
Yuri returned the smile. “We’d just like to ask you a few questions. First off, why don’t you tell us a little about yourself and your sister?”
“Oh! Where do I begin?” Ivan batted a hoof in the air. “I’m twelve and she’s eight, we came here to visit a friend named Swift Stitch.”
“Visiting? Where in Equestria did you live?” asked Yuri.
“We didn’t, we lived just past the Polish border. Our parents moved there with our uncle just before we were born. Just a small group of ponies in the middle of nowhere really. There aren’t even any phone lines near it,” answered Ivan.
“And why are you visiting Swift Stitch from all the way over from Poland?”
“She’s a friend of our uncle.”
“Ah, a friend, like the man you were with?”
“I wouldn’t be able to say if Swift Stitch and Gleb know each other,” replied Ivan.
Yuri leaned back in his chair. “So how did you end up with Gleb?”
“My sister and I needed a ride towards Kakhovka, and Gleb and his friend offered it.”
“And what was the name of Gleb’s friend?”
Ivan’s wings fluttered in a shrug. “He was really quite quiet. I never caught his name, and mostly talked to Gleb."
Yuri lifted his left hand as his eyes glanced over to it for a brief moment. “You see, that’s the issue. Your friend Gleb told Dopkil about his friend with the car that ran out of gas, but our cruisers couldn’t find any car along that stretch.”
Ivan’s ears swivelled towards Yuri. That was wrong, Gleb said the engine had conked out on the imaginary car. “Actually, that’s not right, the engine broke down. Gleb told Mr. Dopkil that.”
“Then how does a car with a broken engine just…” Yuri held up both his hands and waved them, making a whooshing sound with his mouth. “... vanish?”
“I wouldn’t know. As a pegasus I don’t know too much about spells, but I do know that at my home the unicorns loved to move things around with teleportation. Maybe this is what happened to the car?”
Bilinski’s jaw dropped momentarily, then he rubbed his forehead and the bridge of his nose while letting out a small grunt.
“You see, here’s the thing, that place is really isolated. Honestly it was just luck that Dopkil found you three out there. It wouldn’t have been hard to find the car if there was a serious effort. Plus, your friend hasn’t contacted police, which you’d think he would if three of his ‘friends’ went missing.” Yuri put his elbows on his desk, holding his hands out towards Ivan.
Bilinski coughed. “What my friend here is trying to say is that we think Gleb is lying to us, but we need your help.”
“Here’s what I’m thinking, Cirrus: Gleb threatened you and your sister to come with him and his friend, and threatened to hurt you if you said anything to anybody.”
“No, he never thr—”
“Let Yuri finish,” commanded Bilinski.
“So you and Salmon play along, thinking they’ll let you go eventually. Their car ‘breaks down’ and Gleb takes you with him rather than letting his partner share a stake. You’re really close to the coast after all. Your mutual friend finds out, manages to fix the car, and hightails it out of there.”
Yuri leaned forward. “But that begs the question, why no police reports of missing foals? Unless…” Yuri waved his finger at Ivan. “You weren’t always foals.”
Ivan scoffed. “Don’t be ridic—”
“Let Officer Yuri finish, Cirrus,” growled Bilinski. He stood straight and walked over to the other chair in the room. Leaning against it he stared at the side of Ivan’s head.
“You wouldn’t understand, but there are a lot of places in the world where they like taking young people in.” Yuri formed a steeple with his hands. “Getting them while they’re soft, turning them into laborers. They call them workers, but let’s be honest, they’re really slaves. And a pegasus and a unicorn? That’s useful. So Gleb and his ‘partner’ get a hold of some potion, doesn’t matter how, find two vulnerable looking kids, take them. And you wake up and you’re scared. You’re a different species, you don’t know what’s happening, so you agree to cooperate with them.” Yuri placed his left hand on the table. “But you’re with us now, we can keep you safe. You’ve just got to tell us the truth.”
Ivan stared at Yuri’s hand for a few moments. There was the promise of safety and a home, but he couldn’t throw Gleb under the proverbial bus for that. The country taking care of him and his sister was something hollow.
Ivan looked the officer in the face. “I have to say your story is just that, a story.” His wings fluttered. “Now, as you can probably guess my sister doesn’t like being away from me; I would like to be with her again.”
Yuri sat straight in his chair. His brow furrowed and his lip curled. He opened his mouth—
And the door swung open. A man in broad-rim glasses poked his head in. “Yuri! We need you at the front desk, there’s a lawyer on the line demanding that we stop all questioning until he arrives.”
“What?” Yuri stood up from his chair. “Gah…” He glanced over to Ivan and then to Bilinski. “Keep an eye on them, I’ll handle this.” Yuri stepped out of the room with the other man.
Bilinski stood straight, waiting for another minute before saying, “Alright, come on.” He walked to the door and held it open while Ivan got off his chair and walked out. Bilinski escorted him back towards Katna, who was looking down the hall at them, a bright smile on her face.
Trotting towards her Ivan returned the smile and jumped up on the chair beside her.
At the other end of the office Yuri took a phone from a secretary and began a stream of mollifying comments to some man on the other end of the line.
“... Yes we understand your clients’ rights.”
“Then you know that you’re not supposed to question them without a lawyer present.”
“We assure you that we at no point overstepped any boundaries in executing our duties.”
“I should hope not. Am I to understand that you’re holding the two foals for not having travel papers?”
“Yes, the charge against the foals is travelling without proper documentation...”
The conversation continued for almost an hour, a back-and-forth to which Ivan and Katna lay privy to. There were more than a few instances of eye rolls, tongue bitings and exasperated waves of the hand to some of the others in the office. Eventually Yuri nodded, hung up the phone and took a seat when the secretary offered her chair. The officer sighed, drumming his fingers on his belly. He winced hard, ran a hand through his thinning hair, and stood up.
Katna pointed with a hoof to the far end of the office, where three ponies and a man had just entered. Yuri walked up to shake the man’s hand, and nodded to the ponies.
The ponies gathered behind the man, tan and waving a metallic arm about as he spoke rapidly, scolding Yuri.
The pony for which they had the clearest view was a roan unicorn mare with a needle and scalpel cutie mark. Her deep burgundy mane reflected off the lighting of the office. Beside her a pink pegasus mare with a duller cinnamon mane. The pegasus mare’s cutie mark had a light-green ceramic jar with the lid tilted to expose a green paste inside. The pink pegasus extended a wing over the unicorn’s back.
Katna snuggled up against Ivan, who extended his wing over her in acknowledgement of the shared gesture.
The last pony was a blue pegasus with an ambulance stretcher on his flank. Ivan tilted his head, trying to determine if it was a mare or stallion. He couldn’t catch a sight of the muzzle, but the stifle, the part of the rear legs near the flank, looked a bit more toned and less inflated compared to the mares. Ivan guessed it was a stallion.
Turning his attention to the man who was talking to Yuri, Ivan focused on the conversation.
“They’re children, and you’re going to hold them for a whole day just because they lost their papers?” questioned the man, frowning. His head had a cybernetic augmentation. A third of his face, including his left eye, was covered in a chrome-like sheen that shifted to match his fleshy brow’s scornful arch. The red glow of his artificial eye dimmed as his other eye narrowed.
Yuri stood looking at the man. “They were found with a man carrying drugs. It’s fully possible the foals were entrapped in some criminal task.”
“That a fact? What kind of drugs were they?” asked the man.
“I’m not at liberty to say at this point, it’s still under investigation.”
“I think we both know—” The man pointed a metallic finger at Yuri. “—that if you really had legal quandaries about disclosure, you wouldn’t have said drugs. Besides, do you think children would even recognize drugs at that age? Equestria has been trying to crank out those PSA’s, but for kids they’re just that boring thing between shows.”
The man with the glasses from earlier tapped on Yuri’s shoulder, holding up a phone. “Sir? Chief of the department.”
Yuri grabbed the phone and held it to his ear. Cirrus focused on the electric tones coming from the other side of the line. “Not worth it Yuri, if you need a follow-up, Kakhovka is a stone’s throw away.”
The tendon’s in Yuri’s fist tensed as he nodded. “Understood.” He hung up and looked to the augmented man. “Give me a while to get the release papers filled.”
The three ponies: the two mares and the stallion, for the third had indeed proven to be a stallion, were staring down the aisle of cubicles towards Ivan and Katna. Seated on their haunches their shoulders were arched over as their tails twitched and swayed along the ground. Their expressions were knotted with concern, but with a hopeful smile, like people standing on the opposite sides of a canyon.
Ivan and Katna stared right back, held from bounding down the aisle by legal formality as Bilinski stared ahead from his seat beside them.
Yuri stepped up to Bilinski and the foals, and inclined his head down towards the aisle.
Katna’s eyes brightened. She hopped off her chair and trotted down towards the other ponies beside her brother. The ponies stood, ears perked and pointed forward. Behind them, the augmented man sat on a chair with his arms folded, smirking.
Katna stopped in front of the roan unicorn mare, and turned her head to the side. “Ummm… hi? I’m…” She caught sight of Yuri and Bilinski. “Salmon Spring… Is it normal for visits to go like this?”
The roan mare smiled. “Good evening, Salmon Spring, I’m Swift Stitch, and this is my family.” She turned her head towards the pink pegasus mare. “This is Swift Salve.” She then pointed her horn at the blue pegasus stallion. “And this is Swift Stretcher.”
Yuri snorted, then turned and walked away from the gathering.
Swift Salve walked up to Katna and held up a fore hoof. “Hey there, squirt! Ready for an awesome visit?” She winked at Katna.
Katna looked at the hoof, then to Ivan. What did she do with hooves? With humans she could let them grip her hoof and shake… Katna extended a forehoof and tried resting it on top of Swift Salve’s hoof, but the pegasus mare deftly moved her hoof to bump it’s bottom against Katna’s producing a prominent ‘clop’ noise upon contact.
Katna’s eyes widened. “Oh!” She bumped her hoof against Salve’s again, nodding as the mare giggled.
Swift Stretcher stepped forward, clearing his throat. “Well, that introduces us, little filly.” He looked over to Ivan. “And I’m guessing you’re Cirrus Stripes?”
Ivan nodded.
“Ah, I can see the light cyan stripes in your mane, it’s a good name.” Stretcher extended a wing towards the augmented man. “Cirrus, this is Mikhael Orel.”
Mikhael nodded, stood up from his chair and walked to Ivan. “Good evening. I hope this little detour in your travels wasn’t too stressful.” He extended his hand out, enclosed in a fist.
Cirrus bumped his hoof to the man’s knuckles, and nodded. “Thank you, sir.”
“Sir!? Keep using words like that and I won’t be able to put on my hat my head will be so big!” Mikhael laughed and turned around, walking towards the elevators.
Stretcher and Salve walked to either side of Katna and Ivan, extending their wings around them and ushering them towards the elevators as Swift Stitch led the way. They entered the same elevator Mikhael entered, packing in against each other.
Katna looked over at Stitch, who eyed her worriedly, then gave a half-hearted smile.
The elevator lurched to a stop and the doors opened, releasing the group into the lobby. It was quiet save for the secretary at the front desk taking calls and the line of people seated against one of the walls, a few of them tapping their feet against the black granite floor or fussing over a phone.
The group exited the building through the double set of sliding glass doors, releasing them to the streets of Kherson. The sun set among the buildings to the west.
Mikhael led them down the road.
“Are we going to have to walk all the way to Nova Kakhovka?” asked Katna.
Stitch leaned over and kissed Katna on the brow. “No, Sweetheart, we have transportation, don’t worry.”
Katna’s ears pointed forward as she blinked for a few moments, processing the kiss and the term of endearment.
“Is something wrong?” asked Stitch.
“No.” Katna shook her head. “That just caught me by surprise.”
Stitch exchanged a glance with Stretcher, a slight frown creasing both of their faces.
Katna’s stomach growled, and Swift Salve walked beside her. “Hey, we might not be walking all the way but we still have some distance to go. Wanna climb up on my back?”
Katna glanced over to Ivan, raising an eyebrow as she did. Her brother nodded and she obliged the pink pegasus mare, wrapping her salmon hooves around the adult’s neck, and hoisting herself onto Salve’s back.
“There you go!” Salve cooed.
“So…” Ivan licked his lips. “What about Gleb?”
Mikhael looked over his shoulder to glance at Ivan. “He’s been charged with drug trafficking and obstruction of justice… He didn’t have his bail hearing yet, so we couldn’t get him out. Did the police question you?”
Ivan nodded. “Yes.”
“And…” Mikhael glanced around the group at the depopulated streets of the evening. “They didn’t find out?”
Ivan looked at Mikhael, scanning the man. Even without the robotic eye Ivan got the distinct sense the man was very carefully assessing him and his sister. All of them were for that matter. At least in his opinion.
“They suspected, but they didn’t have enough to keep pushing the issue before you intervened.”
Stretcher nodded. “Impressive. How’d you do it?”
“I told K…” Ivan looked over to Katna and pursed his lips. “I told Salmon Spring what to say, plus a lot of planning on my part.”
The group turned around a corner, breaking the line of sight with the police building. Ivan blinked for a moment as he thought he saw a white flash behind him. He turned about and inspected the street. He turned back to see Katna perched atop salve, wide eyes staring at him. Her eyes were directed at his flank.
“Iva—!” Katna clamped her mouth shut and pointed. “C-Cirrus, you got your cutie mark!”
Ivan looked over, and allowed his jaw to drop. An image had imprinted itself on his flank: a canvas painting of a bird in a cage, and behind that, an image of an actual cage with the door open, and the bird flying away. If the image were viewed as a three-dimensional object, a full frontal view would have shown only the painting of the caged bird, while the actual bird flew free.
Cirrus sighed, feeling a warm tingling sensation crawl across his skin. He’d flown the coop, and earned his mark for it.