The Police Commissioner had been standing patiently before the band of students. As expected, none of them were feeling particularly sociable. Swift Order wasn’t bothered in the slightest, however. Just like with Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo, they would all crack sooner or later. It didn’t matter how long they gave him the silent treatment; he was a patient man.
“We don’t have anything to say to you,” one of the students finally said. Swift Order studied the speaker for a moment. Judging by his burly physical build, he assumed that the teen was an athlete. If he recalled correctly, the other students referred to him as Dumbbell. He also took notice of a relatively large bump on the back of his head, as if he’d been struck multiple times.
“Here’s the thing, big guy. This isn’t my first interrogation. As a matter of fact, I’ve been at this job since probably before your parents even reached adulthood.” Swift Order folded his arms, never once breaking eye contact. “And one of the things that I’ve noticed, especially with young people like you, is that when someone says something like, “I ain’t tellin’ you spit,” then it almost always means that they know something. So here’s my question, tough guy.”
The Police Commissioner tapped a finger on one of the pictures of Sunset after she had been tied down and beaten. “Are you guilty, or are you innocent?”
Dumbbell’s mouth stayed shut.
“Fine, be that way.” Swift Order began pacing around the table in his usual manner. “The thing is ... I already know that each and every last one of you participated in the attack. I have witnesses who named all of you. They told me everything.”
“Oh yeah?” Gilda blurted out while giving Snips and Snails a death glare. “Well if someone told you that I sprouted wings and turned into a Griffon, would you believe that too?”
The Commissioner suddenly stopped his pacing. “As long as there’s enough evidence to support it, I’m willing to believe just about anything. Which reminds me.” He then walked towards Gilda and carefully began to examine her face. “Did you know that there’s a dark spot just below one of your eyes? I find that a little odd.”
Gilda shifted away from the Commissioner. “I slipped on some ice yesterday. Big whoop.”
“Slipped on some ice you say?” Swift Order started smiling at her. His smile combined with the lack of respect for her personal space made Gilda feel more than a little uncomfortable. “Did you know that one of the people who attacked Miss Shimmer supposedly got hit in the face with a cell phone? Even more curious … the area where your face made contact with the “ice” matches up pretty well with where that particular assailant got hit. The attacker got blasted near the eye yesterday. Yesterday you slipped on some ice and injured yourself just below the eye in the same location. Isn’t that a funny coincidence?”
“Get out of my face,” Gilda snapped.
The smile never left the Commissioner's face as he walked away and resumed his pacing. “Alright children, I’m gonna get straight to the point. Unlike those three little girls from before, I don’t need any of you to actually say anything. The pieces that you all left behind will tell me so much more than you ever could.”
No one at the table spoke a word, so Swift Order continued with his ramblings.
“I know what you’re all thinking. What pieces did we leave behind? Well, I’ll be happy to enlighten you. First of all, there’s the scar on that girl’s face from where she “fell”, the bandage on Lightning Dust’s nose, and the bump on the back of big man’s head over there. All of your injuries look recent, which fits up nicely since the attack happened last night. Secondly, there’s the victim. The beating that she suffered was a pretty violent one. That’s bad news for Miss Shimmer but wonderful news for Canterlot City’s Forensics Team.
“When you come into close contact with someone, a little piece of them can rub off on you, figuratively and literally speaking. For the students who attacked Miss Shimmer, pieces of her skin might have gotten lodged under their fingernails. A stray hair or two might have gotten embedded in their clothing. She was repeatedly stomped on as well, so we might get lucky and find some dried blood if we checked the cracks beneath your shoes. Another interesting fact, I heard that Sunset’s phone was destroyed using brute force. In addition to blood, one of the attackers might have a few computer chips stuck in their apparel.”
The other students were now beginning to show increased signs of unease, and Swift Ordered loved every minute of it. They were almost ready to break; he just needed to push a little further.
“Sadly, we can’t snatch you guys up and pad you down like that without getting a warrant. And by then all of that good evidence might not be around anymore. But that’s not a problem. While you're all in school, I could round up the Forensics Team, have those two young men over there show us the way to the factory where this picture was taken, and then dust the area for fingerprints. If that doesn’t work, we could always search the terrain for shoe-prints and tire tracks. And after we get our evidence, the next step will be to get an Arrest Warrant.”
Suddenly, a large mischievous smile spread across the Commissioner’s face. The smile was so impossibly wide that it could have given Pinkie a run for her money. “You know what? Wait right there for a moment!” he walked over to Rarity and outstretched his hand. “Excuse me Miss, but may I please borrow your copy of that picture for a moment?”
Rarity was happy to hand it over, honestly not caring if she ever got it back. Swift Order nodded in thanks and then turned towards the Principal.
“Hey, Celestia, quick question!” the Commissioner shouted from across the room. “If this picture was taken by students, then what would you say the odds are that it was taken on a phone?”
The Principal didn’t respond at first. After thinking carefully about what it was that she was being asked, her eyes lit up in realization. “I’d say that it probably was,” she replied while shooting a glare towards Gilda’s table.
Swift Order nodded and began making his way back towards the band of students. “If I were to seal off all of the exits in this room, and confiscate all of your phones right now, what are the odds that I’d find a photo, or a video, or something else that would be self-incriminating?”
No one said a word as the Commissioner drilled the other students beneath his steely gaze.
“That’s a damn shame.” The Commissioner paused for a moment before continuing. “Picking up from where I left off earlier, the next step will be to take you all before a judge. Would any of you all like to take a guess at how many years you could spend behind bars for Attempted Murder? If you get charged in the First-degree, then some of you will probably be looking at a Life Sentence with the possibility of parole.”
That was the straw that broke the camel's back. The students erupted into a symphony of outrage and despair. The conductor of the fearful musical, was Swift Order.
“That’s not fair! We weren’t trying to kill her! We were just trying to teach her a lesson!” shouted an enraged Gilda.
“Oh, is that right?” the Commissioner questioned. “I’m going to paint you a picture, and by the time I’m done I’ll let you guess whether or not a Judge will see it the same way you do.
“Fact, you lured Miss Shimmer into CHS with the intention of causing her physical harm. Fact, the beating that you gave her was so vicious that she lost consciousness. Fact, you threw her into the trunk of a car, and then proceeded to drive 15 to 20 miles outside of Canterlot City and into an abandoned factory - which, might I add, was a restricted area, which means that you can automatically get charged with trespassing. Fact, you then tied and bound Sunset to a pole and left her there, presumably with no intention of ever coming back. If those two young men hadn’t have had the good sense to set her free, I have no doubt that she would have died back there. Now, I don’t know about the rest of you, but that sounds an awful lot like attempted murder to me.”
The three girls who were guilty of framing Sunset, Rarity and her friends, they all shared the same looks of shock and disgust while Gilda and her table had been rendered speechless. Some of them had even broken down into tears.
The Commissioner, satisfied with his handiwork, signaled for one of the other officers to step forward. It was the same woman who had recorded the previous confession about Anon-a-Miss. “Everyone, I’d like you to meet my daughter, Officer Hunt. In her hands is a tape recorder. She’s going to pass it around to each of you, one by one. You will then speak your name, age, where you go to school, and what you are guilty of. If any of you fail to comply, or if you give false information, then I’ll turn this into an official case, round up all of the evidence that I’ll ever need, and then have each and every last one of you in cuffs by this time tomorrow morning.”
Officer Hunt handed the recorder to Gilda. At first the hot tempered teen didn’t say anything. She was finally spurred into action by the cold expression on the Officer’s face.
“My name is Gilda, I’m 19, I go to Canterlot High ... and I’m one of the students who beat up Sunset Shimmer.”
The recorder was shut off and passed over to Dumbbell. “You’re next,” the Officer stated.
***
Swift Order had returned to his seat next to Celestia and Luna and had been quietly observing while the confessions were being recorded. It had been almost 10 years since he last got the chance to interrogate anyone. He had gotten rusty in his old age, but in the end he was still able to get the job done.
“Well, this was a nice exercise,” the Police Commissioner said to the Principal and Vice Principal. “I’d say it’s about time to put the final nail in the coffin. What do you think?”
Celestia nodded in agreement. “Of course, but I’d like to say something to the rest of them first.”
“Go for it. I just spent the last half hour making a room full of teenagers mess all over themselves. I need a break.”
Shortly after the final student had been recorded, Principal Celestia stood before the center of the cafeteria. All eyes were on her as the students awaited further scolding. She sighed sadly before speaking.
“We’re just about done here. But before you’re punishment is given, I would just like to say that I’m very disappointed in all of you for different reasons.” Celestia turned towards the three girls who had ruined Sunset Shimmer’s already unstable reputation. “Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo. I’m still somewhat unclear about what your motives were and, quite frankly, I don’t care. You not only turned the entire school against an innocent girl, but you also hurt hundreds of your fellow students along the way. Was all of the damage that you caused worth it?” The three girls lowered their heads in shame.
Celestia then turned towards Gilda and her assembled team. “I’m absolutely appalled by what all of you did. Instead of coming to me, my sister, your parents, or anyone else, you resorted to violence. You allowed yourselves to get so worked up that you beat another person within inches of her life. The ironic thing is that in the end it just might cost you yours. And that hurts me deeply, because I know that you’re all good kids at heart. Good kids who made a really poor decision.” Some of the students had been reduced into a sniveling mess. Others maintained a look of indifference.
“And then there’s you four,” Celestia said while focusing her attention on Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie.
“Why are you mad at us? We didn’t do anything,” Rarity said in confusion.
“Actually, we did,” Fluttershy countered in her usual soft tone. “Sunset tried to tell us that she was innocent. She tried to tell us … but we didn’t listen.”
“Yeah. If we had just given her a chance, then maybe things wouldn’t have gotten so wacky. We didn’t do anything mean, like whip CHS into a frenzy or beat her up when no one was looking,” Pinkie Pie shivered at the image of Sunset in the photograph, “but we’re still guilty of abandoning her when she needed us the most. Twilight was counting on us … and we let her down.”
Applejack shook her head sadly as she recalled the way she and the others shoved her away back at Sugar Cube Corner. “We really messed up this time. If nothin’ else, we owe that girl an apology. I reckon the entire school does.”
Celestia’s sorrowful expression suddenly hardened and became stern. “I’m glad you feel that way Applejack. Because you’ll be getting the chance to talk to her very soon. She’s here on school grounds. And even now as we speak, she’s listening in on all of this.”
The students in the cafeteria had once again been struck with disbelief, Dumbbell in particular. “What? After the clobbering we gave her last night?”
“We were surprised too. We tried to tell her to go get medical help, but she insisted on being here today,” Snips admitted, having finally joined in on the discussion. “That’s our boss for you. As soon as her mind's made up, there’s almost no keeping her down.”
“She’s in one of the squad cars outside. She’s been eavesdropping thanks to this.” The Police Commissioner reached into his coat and pulled out a walkie-talkie.
“Oh, and there’s one little thing that we should probably mention,” the Vice Principal chimed in. “Sunset Shimmer requested that she herself be the one to decide your punishments. The Commissioner, my sister, and I all agreed to honor her request. Whatever happens next, your lives now rest in the hands of the very girl that you all tried to destroy.”
There were a series of surprised murmurs throughout the cafeteria. Rarity suddenly felt a weight pressed against her side. She looked down and saw Sweetie Belle clutching at her with fear embedded on her face. “Rarity … what’s gonna happen to us?”
“I … don’t know,” Rarity answered while placing a protective hand around her little sister’s side.
Swift Order raised his communicator towards his mouth and pushed a small button on the side. “Young lady, are you ready? Over.”
There was a brief pause, and then a clicking sound could be heard from the other side.
“Yeah. I’m on my way now. But before I go, bring Rainbow Dash back into the room. I don’t want her to miss out on a thing. Over.”
Sunset gave the walkie-talkie to one of the Officers who had been tasked with keeping watch over her. She opened the car door and stared out at CHS. For two weeks straight it had been her against the entire school. Her friends, the other students, and even some of her own teachers had all turned against her. It was a tough road, but it was almost over now. She uttered a single phrase as she made her way towards the imposing structure.
“It’s time.”