My Little Investigations: Marehunter

by Metool Bard

Confrontation: Gilda (S)

"Hang on, ma'am. I see Captain le Grand and Gilda just below us. They're heading in our direction."

I did a quick scan of the ground below and saw that Rainbow Dash was correct. Pierre and Gilda were heading up the walkway towards the library. While I do question this on some level, it at least saves us the trouble of going all the way back to the staff building. I let out a sharp whistle to get Pierre's attention. When he noticed us and flagged us down, we came in for a landing.

"This is quite a coincidence, Capitaine Spitfire. We were just coming to fetch you and le Griffon Magistrat," said Pierre.

"I see," I said, taking a quick look around. "Um, where's Drake?"

"Back at the crime scene, watching over things," said Pierre.

I nodded. "Smart move. So, what did you want to tell me about?"

"First thing first," said Pierre, clearing his throat. "We actually managed to find the key to Professeur Kierra's office. Believe it or not, she was using it as a bookmark. I had no idea she was so worried about forgetting things."

Well, there goes my theory about the key being stolen. That means we still have no idea how the culprit got into that room to dispose of the evidence. My best guess now is that it has to do with Pan's Music Code, but that's not exactly something I can prove.

"It appears there's a lot about Kierra we didn't know before," I said with a shrug. "Anyway, anything else to report?"

"Indeed," Pierre said with a nod. "We complied a list of the passages that Kierra had bookmarked. All of it has to do with some kind of magic, though I still don't know why she'd be researching this. Here, take a look."

He handed me a few pieces of scrap paper containing bulleted lists of all the books and passages. I quickly skimmed through the list to see if there was anything interesting. Like Pierre said, most of it was relating to magic. The psychological effects of dark magic on unicorns; general magic theory; the Kurama Tengu; even a brief essay on ponunculi. The specifics were a bit too complex for me to get my head around, but one thing was certain. Kierra believed that Gypsy Moth was either up to something or in danger.

"Thank you, Captain le Grand," I said, giving the scrap paper back to him. "I'll be sure to take a closer look at it later."

"You can keep that copy, Capitaine Spitfire," said Pierre. "I had Drake and Privé Gilda take notes as well."

"Yeah, and it was a major pain in the rear," Gilda groaned, rolling her eyes.

Pierre shot Gilda a sharp look, to which Gilda shrugged. I probably don't need to tell you this, but her attitude has really been grating on my nerves. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who feels this way, either. Even so, I can't let something like this drive a wedge between us. We have to work together, whether all of us want to or not.

"Well, thank you again, Captain le Grand," I said with a bow.

"The pleasure is all mine, Capitaine Spitfire," Pierre replied warmly. "So, have you found out what's on that cassette tape?"

"We did," I said, turning to Gilda. "Which is why I want to ask you some questions."

Gilda raised an eyebrow. "Huh? Why me?"

"Out of all the things Professor Kierra was looking into, one of them was Nemean Correctional Facility," Rainbow Dash explained. "Seeing as you were a warden there, you might have some deets on the place and prisoners."

Gilda scoffed. "Sorry, can't help you guys there. A lot of the inner workings of Nemean is kept on the down-low. We don't just kiss and tell."

"The Griffon Magistrate has given us permission to investigate Nemean due to one of the prisoners being a possible suspect," said Misty Fly.

Gilda tilted her head. "Who?"

"Gypsy Moth."

Gilda snickered. "Y-you're kidding, right? I already told you; that old geezer can't hurt anybody."

"You seriously believe that?" Blaze snarled. "We know what she's capable of."

"What she was capable of, maybe," said Gilda, crossing her arms. "There's no way that's the case now, though."

"But—"

Blaze opened her mouth to protest, but I interrupted her with a stern glare. She clammed up, but not before snorting in frustration. I understand how she feels, of course. Honestly, part of me feels the same way. But baseless conjecture is not going to help anyone, and she should know that.

"Sorry about that," I sighed, turning back to Gilda. "Look, you might be right about this. We don't know right now. Still, I feel it's best that we have some form of confirmation."

Gilda chortled and shook her head. "Trust me, Captain Spitfire. You don't want to waste your time flying all the way over to Nemean if you're planning on catching this Mare-Do-Well guy. Gypsy Moth's got nothing to do with anything, and I can prove it."

"You can, huh?" said Rainbow Dash thoughtfully. "Alright, G. Lay it on us. It could end up saving us the trip."

"Not freaking likely," Blaze mumbled under her breath.

Gilda leered at Rainbow Dash. "You think brown-nosing me like this is gonna change your flip-flopper status, Dash? 'Cause it's not."

"I'm not trying to brown-nose, you, G," Rainbow Dash insisted. "I just—"

"Save it," Gilda interrupted.

Rainbow Dash heaved a great sigh and backed down. While I can't help but feel bad for her, Gilda kinda has a point. We shouldn't get off-track like this.

"Let's not waste any more time on this," I said. "Private Gilda, we'll gladly hear you out. But just so you know, it's gonna take quite a bit to convince me that Gypsy Moth's on the level."

Gilda gave me a complacent sneer. "We'll see about that."

She really seems confident about this, and to be fair, it might be for a good reason. However, I can tell that she's not going to make this easy for me. That's okay, though. I deal with proud hotheads all the time at the Academy. This shouldn't be much different.

"Gypsy Moth has changed a lot since you took her out all those months ago," said Gilda. "She's been getting therapy, and while I'm no shrink, it appears to be working. Plus, her cell is outfitted with state-of-the-art anti-magic fields. The only place she can use magic is within the confines of that cell. So, yeah. She can't be involved in that egghead's murder."

I can't say I completely disagree with Gilda here. On the surface, it sounds like Gypsy Moth has a good alibi. Nevertheless, I still have my doubts. I don't think Gilda's lying; it's just that there might be a few things she's not aware of. I'll press her on a few points, just to make sure.

"You mentioned before that you've talked with Gypsy Moth," I said. "I didn't know a high-security prison like Nemean allowed wardens to do that."

"Normally, they don't," said Gilda. "But Gypsy Moth's one of our special cases."

"How so?"

"At the behest of Princess Celestia, Gypsy Moth was given a more lenient punishment than she would've gotten," Gilda explained. "You ponies wanted us to focus on rehabilitation, and while the Griffon Magistrate disagreed, she made a compromise that she'll spend the rest of her days in Nemean while getting help."

"And you think that help is working," Rainbow Dash mused.

Gilda shrugged. "Seems to be. She's actually quite nice when you get to know her. She could never get my name right, though."

"Yeah, I remember she was pretty bad with names," I said, knitting my brow. "What did you two talk about, exactly?"

"This and that," said Gilda indifferently. "She really didn't have all that much to talk about. She was always busy with that little alchemy setup of hers."

"Whoa whoa whoa!" Blaze shouted. "They're letting her perform alchemy in there?! Are they nuts?!"

"Hey, you guys wanted her to be rehabilitated; don't blame this on me," Gilda snapped. "'Sides, she's never made anything dangerous. We made sure of that."

I immediately remembered something that Kierra said on the tape. I need to pursue this further.

"How exactly did you go about doing that?" I inquired.

Gilda blinked. "What, making sure she's not cooking up something dangerous? That's easy. We make a note about all the ingredients she asks for and her recipes. She can't get anything by us, and she hasn't tried."

"I see," said I. "Well, what has she made?"

Gilda smirked. "You're not gonna believe this, but one time, she helped restock Nemean's medicine supply. The ingredients she asked for did raise some eyebrows, but at that point, we knew she wasn't gonna try anything."

"That doesn't sound like the Gypsy Moth I know," grumbled Blaze.

Blaze's comment aside, I can't help but feel that she might have a point. This setup definitely feels off.

"What ingredients are we talking about here?" I asked.

"Well, for one, there were the toxic truffles," said Gilda. "I honestly have no idea what those things are, but any idiot could tell you that they don't sound safe. Still, lots of poisonous stuff is used in medicine, or so I heard. So, we gave her a pass on that one. Just that one time, though."

Nope, still doesn't sound right. This must've been what Kierra was talking about when she said that they were giving her dangerous toys. This won't be pretty, but I'm gonna have to bring this to Gilda's attention.

"I have to say, Private Gilda. That's a pretty blatant oversight on Nemean's part," I said, pressing my hooves together.

Gilda's eyes narrowed. "You mind repeating that?"

"Perhaps I should explain," I said. "I happen to have experience with toxic truffles. They taste like chocolate, but they're absolutely lethal. There's no reason Nemean should give Gypsy Moth something like that. Especially not since she used it before to try and poison a member of my team!"

"H-hey, that doesn't mean anything!" Gilda barked back. "She said she was using them for medicine, and she used 'em for medicine! That's it, end of story!"

"Really? Because Professor Kierra might disagree with you there," I said, pulling out the cassette tape. "According to this, she was really concerned about Gypsy Moth for a variety of reason. One of those reasons was that you guys were giving her hazardous material to play around with."

"Still doesn't mean anything," Gilda snarled. "Maybe that egghead's just wrong. Ever think about that?"

"Well, she clearly wasn't doing all this research for her health," growled Blaze. "She knew something was up with Gypsy Moth. The research clearly shows that."

"And why was she researching this to begin with?" asked Pierre.

"Mare-Do-Well," I responded without missing a beat. "Our vigilante friend met her and warned her about this. Then she found that defaced bookmark Misty Fly discovered and started putting things together."

Gilda sighed and shrugged her shoulders. "Well, maybe Mare-Do-Well was wrong. You can't prove otherwise, can you?"

Okay, this really isn't getting anywhere. If I'm going to make Gilda budge, I have to spell out a scenario where Gypsy Moth could be the murderer.

"Alright, aright," I said. "Let me pose a hypothetical situation. Let's say that Gypsy Moth did want to kill Kierra. She already has access to the toxic truffles. All she needs to do is smuggle them out in some way, right?"

"Ha! Easier said than done," Gilda laughed. "If she tried to pull that on us, her precious privileges would've been revoked faster than you can blink."

"Tch."

I winced slightly. Gilda's right. Nemean wouldn't make it that easy for her. This might be a bit harder than I thought.

"W-well, that still can be done," I said, clearing my throat.

Gilda crossed her arms. "Oh yeah? How?"

"You just said Gypsy Moth has privileges," I said. "Couldn't she exploit those in some way?"

Gilda arched an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Like, I don't know, sending a package to Kierra claiming that it was something it's not?"

Gilda tilted her head. "Wait, what kind of package?"

"I, can't really think of anything off the top of my head," I said. "But Kierra mentioned getting a package from Gypsy Moth in the cassette tape."

Gilda's brow furrowed. "And, when did she say she got this package?"

"I believe it was two days ago," said Misty Fly. "Why?"

"Well, I delivered a package to her two days ago. It was my last job at Nemean before I joined the Proud Pride."

Suddenly, my hypothetical situation doesn't sound that hypothetical anymore.

"You mean you've been here before?" said Rainbow Dash. "It kinda would've been helpful to know that, G."

"Look, Gypsy Moth's still not relevant to anything, alright? I'm sure of that," Gilda growled defensively. "She wouldn't pull this kind of crap on me."

"How can you be so sure?" Blaze said darkly.

"Um, I talked to her for several months. I think I know what she's like," Gilda snapped.

"No need to get snippy there, private," I said sternly. "Still, I want to know about that package."

Gilda snorted. "You just can't get it through your head, can you?"

"Just humor me for now," I said. "There might be something you're not aware of."

"I could say the same about you," Gilda retorted. "Alright, fine. If this is what it takes to convince you that your little witch hunt is leading you in circles, I'll tell you about the package."

"Trust me, Private Gilda. I know better than to start up witch hunts," I said.

"Sure, whatever," said Gilda.

She was trying to sound indifferent, but her body language told a different story. Call it mare's intuition, but I can't help but think that she's worried about something. I can't imagine about what, though. Well, only one way to find out. But rest assured, it won't be pretty.

"Like I said, Gypsy Moth asked me to deliver this package to her old friend Kierra a couple of days ago," said Gilda. "Packages from the prisoners have to be cleared by the wardens, so this fell under my job description. I didn't have to do it, but I figured it's my last day; she's a nice pony; why the heck not? Took me forever to figure out who to deliver it to, though. Y'know, what with her being bad with names and all."

"You okay there, G?" asked Rainbow Dash, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly. "You seem kinda, I dunno, uptight."

"You're uptight!" Gilda spat.

I hate to say it, but Rainbow Dash might be onto something. The more Gilda talked, the more nervous she seemed to become. Resorting to schoolyard taunts wasn't helping her case, either. Now I know that something's making her uncomfortable. Time to find out what.

"What did Gypsy Moth say this package was?" I inquired.

"Some of that home-brewed medicine I told you about," said Gilda.

"Why? Was Kierra sick?" asked Blaze.

"Heck if I know. She didn't look so hot when I gave her the package," said Gilda with a shrug.

"That's because of her research," I said flatly. "She really was driving herself crazy trying to figure this stuff out."

"Well, I didn't know that at the time," said Gilda defensively. "How could I have? I don't hang with eggheads, in case you haven't noticed."

"No, we noticed," said Blaze sardonically.

"Stow it, Blaze," I growled through gritted teeth. "This is not the time."

"Okay, okay. Sheesh," said Blaze with a pout. "You really are a hard-dock sometimes, Sis."

"Only because of ponies like you," I countered, turning back to Gilda. "Anyway, let's get back to the package. What was the nature of this medicine?"

"I-I dunno. Some kinda powder you mix with water," said Gilda. "That's how Gypsy Moth described it, anyway."

Oh, boy. I think I know why Gilda's panties are in a bunch right now. And honestly, I don't blame her.

"You're not gonna like what I'm about to say here, Private Gilda," I said.

Pierre tilted his head. "Why so ominous, Capitaine Spitfire?"

"I think she knows," I said, giving Gilda a look. Sure enough, beads of sweat had materialized on her brow.

"L-look, I know what you're trying to say, but that's just not possible," she said. "I-it just isn't."

"Okay then. Let me ask you this," I said, pressing my hooves together. "Do you know what Kierra was drinking when she died?"

Gilda's eyes darted every which way before she shrugged.

"It was hot cocoa," I stated plainly. "And seeing as we've been talking about toxic truffles for the past few minutes—"

"YOU CAN'T PROVE A THING!"

Gilda let out a loud roar, cutting across my train of thought.

"Whoa, hey. Chill out, G," said Rainbow Dash, sounding rather worried. "What's your deal?"

"I didn't screw up!" Gilda bellowed. "I couldn't have! Sh-she would never do something like this, I swear!"

I furrowed my brow. "See, I don't think you really believe that, Private Gilda," I said. "After all, we're talking about a pony who tried to sabotage our diplomatic relations and conquer our lands. You have every right to distrust her."

"B-but she's changed! She has to have changed!" Gilda cried. "If she's still a psycho, then, then..."

"Then you would be blamed for helping a known criminal commit murder from the safety of her jail cell," said Misty Fly, completing Gilda's thought.

"N-no! No, that's not it!" Gilda protested.

"It's not cool to lie, G," Rainbow Dash scolded, folding her forelegs and looking Gilda in the eye. "And don't try to say you aren't lying; we can all tell that you are. So, for your sake, just drop the act and be honest with us."

"Dash, I... But you... GRAAAAH~!"

A loud screech echoed all over the campus as Gilda slumped over in defeat.

"Alright, y-you got me," she murmured. "I-I knew something was up ever since the Griffon Magistrate conducted that autopsy report. I mean, I wasn't lying about Gypsy Moth's therapy; I did think it was working. I still do. But, there's still something about her that rubs me the wrong way, y'know?"

"Why didn't you mention any of this, Privé Gilda?" Pierre said, staring down as her in disappointment.

Gilda threw her talons up. "What do you want me to do, man? If I told the Griffon Magistrate that I delivered poison to the victim, I'd be on her suspect list!"

I sighed. "Look, this is really all just speculation. You're right, we can't really prove any of it. The only way to find out is if we go see Gypsy Moth herself."

Gilda let out a bitter scoff. "Don't even try, man. I see the writing on the wall. I know I'm hosed."

"G, even if it was true, we all know you're not the bad guy here," said Rainbow Dash. She then walked over to Gilda and placed a hoof on her shoulder. "Look, I'm not trying to say you're blameless. What you did was wrong, and you have the good sense to realize that. But if you think I'm gonna let you take the fall for someone else's crime, you've got another thing coming."

Gilda blinked. "Dash, what're you talking about? There's no way you can convince the Griffon Magistrate to take it easy on me."

"No, she's right," said Pierre somberly. "Le Griffon Magistrat may be overzealous and eager to prove herself, but she is fair. If she knew the full story, your punishment would not be that harsh. But you have to tell her the truth, Privé Gilda. It's the only way."

Gilda sighed and smirked at Rainbow Dash. "You're really getting a kick out of this, huh Dash? Seeing me down and out like this."

"Can't say that I am," said Rainbow Dash, shaking her head. "In fact, I'm very disappointed in you."

Gilda snickered sadly. "What are you, my dad?"

"No. Just your friend."

Gilda stopped laughing. After a pregnant pause, she got up.

"I'm gonna go tell the Griffon Magistrate everything," she said. "You guys head on over to Nemean and get the truth out of that bitch Gypsy Moth. And don't let her sweet-talk you, either."

"Oh, trust me. That's not gonna happen," said Blaze firmly.

Gilda grunted and turned to Rainbow Dash. "You really are something, Dash. I can't decide on what you are, but you are something. Take that however you want."

Rainbow Dash smiled. "Alright, I'll take that as a compliment then."

"Yeah, you would," Gilda sniggered. "Give her what-for, Dash. I'm counting on you."

With that, she headed off towards the library.

"Well, that happened," said Blaze. "I take it she's not going to be in the Proud Pride much longer."

"That all depends on le Griffon Magistrat's reaction," said Pierre, folding his arms and furrowing his brow. "Personally, I don't think it would be fair to let her go that easily. I remember when my actions were far from forgivable, but I was still given a second chance."

"That's because your military structure is focused on redemption, though," I said, raising an eyebrow. "Last I checked, the Proud Pride isn't part of the military anymore."

"That may be true," Pierre mused. "However, I must admit that I see a lot of myself in Privé Gilda. Which means I might be the one to turn her around."

I can't say I agree with that. I understand that Gilda's case isn't black and white, but if she was under my command, I'd be more hesitant to let her stay. Some things just aren't that easily forgotten or forgiven, especially when lives are on the line. But, I'm not her captain. Pierre is. And if he wants to keep Gilda around, let him. It's not my business.

"Well, I think we've done all we can here," I said. "Captain le Grand, you think you could take us over to Nemean?"

Pierre tapped his beak in thought. "Well, normally it's not wise to approach Nemean without prior notice, but I figure after Privé Gilda informs le Griffon Magistrat on the situation, she'll let them know you're coming. Alright, I'll take you. But only as far as the prison itself. Once you get inside, you're on your own."

"Noted," I said with a nod. "Alright, Wonderbolts! Let's fly!"

With that, we took off into the air and formed up behind Pierre as he led us away from Epiphany University. Looking over at Blaze, I could clearly see the fierce determination in her eyes. She must think we're getting close to the endgame. Honestly, I'm still not that sure. I know Gypsy Moth is involved somehow, but I can't say for sure how. Even Kierra didn't figure that out, and she was researching this for a week. Sure, we have evidence that she might be behind all this, but it's not the same thing as proof. All in all, I have no idea what to expect from her.

Then again, that isn't really something that has ever matter to a Wonderbolt. Unexpected or not, I still have to be ready for it.