Intimate Interrogations
Massive head aches brought about by dehydration and bacteria were never fun, especially when someone wakes up to them. Sin made this grievous mistake and worse yet was shivering from head to hoof. His body felt cold yet hot at the same time, and felt soaking wet for some reason
He couldn't figure out if he was wet or just felt weighed down, but then again, his mind was so fogged over and disoriented he couldn't think much at all. His head hurt, last night's dinner was threatening to come up and his body was beside itself trying to figure out if it was in a sahara or a tundra.
He heard a voice next to him call out his name and tried to respond that he "was fine" but all that came out was a low, wordless groan. He felt something lightly touch his side and immediately pulled away, followed by quick clopping. Unsure of what to do, the stallion attempted to lift his hoof and gain a bearing, trouble was that it felt like a giant lead block occupied his frog and kept it from movement.
Next thing he knew, Sin came to understand vertigo as he was lifted from the bed, gagged to hold back the contents of his stomach and placed onto another bed and felt himself moving. The other bed must have been a gerny, judging by the squeaking, or maybe that was just his breath. Hard to tell, really.
The world passed in a blur of voices, sharp pinching sensations and beeps as he laid there in the bed, almost wishing that death would just take him already.
Sin awoke with a start and sat up, immediately wishing he hadn't. He fell back with a grunt as a familiar spike drove itself between his frontal lobes.
"Sin, sin. Calm down, everything's fine." Uppity's voice soothed over a machine that beeped faster and faster. "you're in the hospital wing."
Hospital wing? How'd he get here? When did he get here? What was going on?
It was then his head cleared enough for him to recall the events that lead up to this. The infection must have been worse than he thought to put him in here, considering his immune system. He's lucky he lasted as long as he did, who knows? It might have actually been the thing that finally killed him.
'Convenient of you to forget it during your trip to the badlands, eh?'
Yea, if only he'd been the one who'd forgotten about it.
He felt a light imprint of something soft upon his side and shifted away from it. He was weak and vulnerable, and nothing put him more on edge than that.
Slowly but surly the head ache subsided, leaving the stallion to brave another open eyed glance at the world. Though, this lead to another problem, there was a distinct lack of tinted glass before him. When questioned about where his goggles were, Sin was informed they were in the room, and he had no need of them at the current time.
Irritated that he lacked his eye ware, the oaken Federalist resigned himself to silence as he tried to gather his full wits about him. The sickness was still interfering with his brain, but after a while his headache subsided to the point he could think somewhat clearly.
"The doctors said you'll be fine, in case you wanna know."
"Thank you for informing me." Sin groaned, the beeping of the heart monitor slowly edging his already frazzled nerves.
"They umm. Also had a few questions for you. About your wings?"
Yea, there it was. The reason he didn't want to be brought here.
"My wings are fine, Ms. Uppity." He smiled, attempting to be pleasant, and failing miserably.
Uppity looked at him as if he'd just said the sky was red and the ocean was made of killer bees. "Umm, no. You're wings are not fine. The doctor said that they're underdeveloped from lack of use with no sign of breakage and is wondering why you had them bandaged." She finished with the quirk of an eyebrow. "And I'd like to know too."
It was a sensitive issue. His wings. He didn't like talking about them, or his lack of a cutie mark. He had his reasons, was the reply he gave anyone who asked, and that's the reply he gave her.
Uppity, thoroughly irritated uged in frustration and stomped. Next thing he knew he felt her breath against his snoot as she put her face mere inches away from his. "If you think I'm going to drop this because you're being stubborn, than I've got news for you. You're dead wrong."
Sin didn't open his eyes, but he did feel an alien mix of irritation and something else when considering her proximity. He lifted his hoof and attempted to push her away, but was still to weak to do so. "Is there anything else?"
Uppity answered in the negative and sat down. She contemplated prying a bit more, but decided against it. She'd been psychoanalyzing the stallion ever since she'd met him and found that his secrecy wasn't anything personal against her, but something more about emotional independence. Poking at it and being patronizing had only worked for that one day, after he'd just shrug it off or say things like "sure, why not?"
"How long do you have to play baby sitter?" Sin asked completely out of the blue. "Can't be too much fun watching a prisoner who'd humiliated you in front of your mentor."
Uppity with held her scoff of indignation, she knew his game and allowing him to get under her skin would be her loss and his victory.
"Actually, I wanted to thank you for that." She declared, relishing the look of shock on his face. "Celestia wanted to see how I'd react to such an impossible situation, and you showed her that I could handle it and uphold the law. So, in a way, you didn't humiliate me; you actually helped me become a better lawyer."
"I see." Was the oaken pony's only reply. He'd been used to farther her own arguing abilities and prove her worth and will. "So I was a pawn even before I agreed to my sentencing."
"Don't look at it that way." Uppity declared. "Think of it as you helping out somepony who needed it. To become the best they could be and fulfill their dreams of upholding the law. Besides, because of you, Celestia opened multiple investigation on jail and prison wardens all over Equestria. Surely you can find some good in that."
Time to see how he'd react to that. See if Sin was just out for himself or if he was out to make other pony's lives better.
"Maybe." Sin admitted, causing Uppity to smile in triumph. "Though, there were better ways of going about it than subjecting me to this nonsense."
Uppity quickly pointed out that Sin agreed to the terms, silly as they were. The stallion pressed his lips and nodded, he had little to complain about. Besides, it's not like they were abusing him. He was getting medical treatment and being kept relatively comfortable.
'Yea, on the tax payer's dime.' His inner voice pointed out. 'Or have you forgotten about the fact everything you're enjoying right now was taken via theft?'
No, he hadn't forgotten that. How could he? Just the mere thought of what he was currently doing was enough to make his skin crawl.
A parasite.
Stuck on a bed with his injuries incapacitating him, how much were others paying for him to get this medical treatment? How much for the room? How much for the food he ate? How much for this baby sitter? The trial? His one time payment from the Crown?
He felt himself shake with rage as his fetlocks weakly contracted. What right did he have to take what others worked for? What had he done other than become a lap dog for Celestia?
The heart monitor began to speed up faster and faster, he ground his teeth and his breathing quickened. It was one thing to be out in the woods, at least he wasn't a leach, but this? This wasn't just an assault on his pride, this was full on disgraceful parasite!
"Sin! Sin, what's wrong?" Uppity said in concern, making the grave mistake of prodding the pony's shoulder.
"DON'T TOUCH ME!" He declared, attempting to swat her hoof away, his weakened forleg barley making contact with her hoof. His now open eyes though froze Uppity to the core.
She'd never seen such blank and hateful eyes before, constricted orbs that hardened in malice and loathing, but as the two of them sat there, noiseless save for the constant beeping and his slow, shaking, calming breaths the stallion huffed. She could tell that those hateful, hurt-filled eyes weren't for her, but for himself.
To her, such a thing was heart breaking. She wanted to hug him, to tell him to let his anger go, but she knew it would be futile. Sin was a grudge holder who hated government, and he hated himself for being part of it.
"I'm sorry." She sniffled, looking down as tears began to fill her eyes. "I- I didn't mean to make you upset."
A sharp pang of guilt hit the stallion's chest like a knife as he watched the mare before him begin to cry.
'Good job, jerk.'
What? He didn't mean to make her cry, but thinking about what he was doing just made him furious. Not only was he at the complete mercy of others and dependent on them, but he was consuming the fruits of other ponies' labor. How could he not feel completely disgusted with himself?
'You, you, you. Always about you, isn't it?'
Ears splayed back, Sin's anger gave way to guilt and he made an attempt to apologize for the way he'd acted.
"I get it." Uppity said, wiping her eyes. "You dislike working for Celestia, you don't want to be here. But being angry wont make things any easier for you. I know I said Celestia assigned me to you, but I volunteered because I wanted to help you."
He closed his eyes and reclaimed his pragmatism, she was right. There was no point in being angry but he didn't want to be a reliant or parasitic. He needed to figure something out to be free of this aid, but he knew he wouldn't be able to leave the castle. He was being held for threatening a royal guard, after all.
Fact was, he was stuck no matter how much he didn't want to admit it. And even though he was stuck, he was receiving aid from someone who'd gone out of their way to help him, despite the work she could be doing to farther her own studies and career.
"You're right." He said, swallowing his pride. "It was wrong of me to be angry with you. You're only trying to help and... I do appreciate it." He opened his eyes and gave his best half, quazi, barely existing smile.
Uppity's face lit up at the acknowledgement and before he could stop her, Sin found a pair of orange forelegs around his neck as she embraced him in a gentle hug. Causing the stallion to blush furiously and garnering a semi annoyed semi grateful smile.
"Sin it's time we- Oh... Uh..." He heard Shining Armor stumble over his words. Sin wanted to open his eyes and see just how incriminating the situation was but Uppity had already moved. Shining Armor told her to wait outside for a moment while he ran a quick questioning session with Cadence and Sin. Uppity protested, claiming that the injured pony had the right to his attorney present during such inquiries, but Sin himself insisted that she wait outside.
"Sorry, Ms. Uppity. But this is really going to have to be a private conversation."
Before long, both Shining and Cadence were at his bedside, he supposed they were both looking at him questioningly. "You wanted to ask me something?"
Shrugging off the strangeness, Shining Armor skipped the pleasantries and asked why Sin had threatened his wife to be.
"I told you then, I'll tell you again. I didn't threaten her, she wasn't the pony I was talking about."
"Then tell me who you were talking about." The white stallion demanded calmly. Sin tried to explain that the situation was still delicate and that the pony in question was still in danger if word got out. Though, the stallion wasn't having it. He had numerous mind control spells at his disposal and was more than willing to use them.
"Ha! Good luck." Sin declared with a grin. "I was a politician back in my country, Occlumency is one of the required courses to ensure mind control never happened to us to make us vote one way or the other."
Shining took this as a challenge and before Cadence could stop him, cast a spell that would force the stallion to answer his questions. A few pained grunts of resistance eventually lead to a calm and smooth breathing from the Sin. Seeing his efforts amounting to nothing Shining gave up and rubbed his head, his fiancee nuzzling him in concern.
Resigning himself to defeat, Shining Armor grunted and evaluated the pony before him. "Is it an issue that threatens national security?"
"No."
"Does it involve one of the princesses?"
"Yes."
"Can you tell me which one?"
"No."
"Why?"
"Because, if you tell anyone else about it, there's a chance the organization involved will get wind." Sin turned his head to look at his questioner. "And I don't want to see her get hurt anymore than you do."
"You're talking about Luna, aren't you?" Cadence interjected. "I was wondering why she's been acting so strangely as of late."
Shit, might have said a bit too much.
Cadence then began to explain Luna's strange mannerisms, how she'd look around as if she heard something and had been complaining about frequent head aches and appeared sleep deprived. All indications of paranoia.
Sin didn't know why that would be, Triple M agents were always careful about contacting their targets. If she'd worked with them before, than there was really no reason she should be paranoid.
"Alright, what did Shade have to do with all of that?" Shining asked, much less aggressively.
Sin bit his lip, if he could play this right than maybe... "Shade was the one they targeted, according to him and Discord, they wanted Shade in particular there. Why? I'm not sure, and neither is he. Discord knew that he wouldn't be freed without the Element of something or another, so it was just his statue that they wanted there."
That really didn't make much sense. Bring a chaos god's statue out into the middle of the desert to have a bunch of worshipers camp around it for a few days? What possible purpose could that have served? A revolution perhaps? No, the invitation was a closed party with roughly 30 in attendance, maybe less. Planned assassination? Took their sweet time.
"Did he teach them anything? Tell them where any artifacts were or anything?" Asked Shining.
Sin shook his head. It was a complete mystery to him. The questioning and hypothesizing continued on for a good thirty minutes until finally it began to wind down. Which was a good thing, considering the only piece of the puzzle the two were missing was the name Triple M. Shining and Cadence both made for the door but neither left before Sin got the last word in.
"Captain." He called. "I know it's frustrating, but trust me when I say that I'm not being cryptic to get you riled up. I'm... sorry I pointed my cross bow at you, but understand that I did what I did to keep Luna safe. She's become involved with some very dangerous ponies. Ponies who will do whatever they need to in order to accomplish their goals." He turned his head to look at them. "They aren't above bringing your country to ruin to achieve what they want."
He heard the stallion exhale and begin walking out of the room, though a word from Cadence stopped him. She whispered something to her husband to be and he left the room, closing the door behind him.
"You know." Cadance said in a knowing voice. "It's not hard to tell how Uppity feels about you."
"Kid's got no sense to her." Sin replied dismissively, already knowing where this was going.
"I've known Uppity for a few years now, she's always been clingy with new friendships." The Alicorn replied calmly. "We've talked and she thinks very highly of you. Nopony else has ever interested her like you have, intellectually or otherwise."
"Can't be that smart, if she was, she'd find someone who didn't live in the woods and get attacked by Timberwolves." He emphisized pointing lazily at his chest.
" Maybe." She conceeded sagely. "Or maybe it's time somepony stopped living his life away from others and opened up his heart to something a little more valuable than freedom."
And with those words, the Alicorn of love stepped outside of the room to follow her husband to be.
Sin smirked to himself: 'More important than freedom,' there was no such thing.