“This is going nowhere.” Bandit grumbled behind the see-through mirror as he looked at Rocky, who was sitting in the only chair in the poorly-lit room.
“He’s a fanatic. Devoted. Zealous. Corrupted. He’s not going to cooperate until he’s rotting in a landfill.” Doc tapped a syringe in his hand, “Perhaps another dose is in order?”
Bandit shook his head. If this pony wasn’t going to cooperate with Doc’s cocktail of “truth-serum”, then he didn’t know what else to do.
“I’m getting tired of this fucker. I’m going to get my car battery and give him a jump-start he will never forget.” Bandit turned towards the door, looking back at the pony, “Things like that pony make me sick.”
Then, the door opened before Bandit could exit. Standing in front of him was a very well-dressed elderly man who looked past Bandit.
“The prisoner is in here?” the man asked.
“What are you doing here, man? This area is restricted. In fact, this entire building is restricted.” Bandit narrowed his eyes through his balaclava.
“Rainbow Six had called me in. He knows me.” the man nodded.
“Popov, is that you? What are you doing here?” Doc broke away from viewing the pony and walked up to the familiar Russian.
“I was called in by Clark to help interrogate the prisoner here, considering my background.” Popov tightened his sleeve.
“KGB. Fantastic. Only thing worse for interrogation would be the CIA.” Bandit shook his head.
Popov chuckled a bit, “I’m afraid shocking him with your car battery wouldn’t have made him very reliable in anything he spilled.”
Doc looked over at Bandit, “He wasn’t really going to go get it. This... ‘pony’ has been a frustrating one.”
Popov then looked over the subject in question. Taking a deep stare at him through the one-way mirror. He looked over his physique, and the way he sat. He stared back at the mirror, as if he knew that he was being watched, and seemingly exactly where each human behind it stared back at him.
“How long have you had him?” Popov questioned.
“About a week by now. Nothing yet.” Doc replied.
“Drugs? What about that?” Popov asked another question.
“His physique and body seems to resist them pretty well. This thing is very sturdily built.” Bandit admitted, “Not to mention, with how much he spews on about his ‘male-lead vision’, I don’t think he’s in any place to betray those who nearly helped him make it come true.”
“Funny. The White Masks would have just fucked him off after that.” Doc mentioned.
“We could use that against him.” Popov noted, “These sorts of people, or in this case, ponies, the ones that are full of themselves and what they believe in should be slowly put into uncomfortable situations… you have to keep making them more and more surrounded by the opposition, and slowly make them become it.”
“I don’t really follow.” Bandit popped his neck by tilting his head.
“We should first try and tell him that he was abandoned, forgotten, all part of some scheme that would have turned out bad for him in the first place. Then, we make him a bit more uncomfortable. Get him a stable. A horse belongs in one. Saddle, bridle, bit, and maybe some saddle bags. He should get welcome to what we see in a horse.”
“And if that fails?” Bandit asked Popov.
“Ever heard of a sensory deprivation chamber?” Popov looked back at the German.
“Plenty.” Doc nodded.
“What is that?” Bandit asked.
Popov began to explain what the chamber was, “A wonderful technology it is… it’s a pod that can surround your body in water, and more or less, intoxicate you so you can achieve what many people call a ‘perfect hibernation’. It’s often used for therapy, but I’ve heard that Japan had used one to interrogate a criminal, and the information they got was very accurate. And besides, even the KGB has used them in the past, and we were pretty successful.”
Then, Popov spoke again, “Not to mention, the criminal in Japan was a foreigner detained abroad.”
“Well, I’m sold on the pod, then.” Doc nodded, “But they cost a fortune to transport.”
“That’s why we will start from the ground-up and use the pod as a last resort.” Popov looked back at the two men, “Shall we set forth the plan?”
“Let’s try it.” Bandit nodded, “I’ll tell Jäger and Castle to construct a stable. They’ve been having a lot of free time lately.”
“Good. You…” Popov snapped his fingers, trying to figure out the French operator’s name.
“Gustave. But call me Doc.” the medic patted his medic insignia on his shoulder.
“Alright. Doc, I’ll be getting a chair, and fetch me a polygraph. I’m going to talk with the prisoner.”
“Good luck, mon amie.” Doc nodded and watched outside of the mirror.
“Spasibo.” Popov thanked him.
“How does that make you feel?” Popov asked the subject in question. The pony only chuckled.
“It feels good, because you simply don’t know what the White Masks are capable of. Right now, they are getting together to come right over here and slaughter you all like the shit you are…” the pony smiled.
“I wouldn’t count on that. You obviously know the ‘deal’ they had with the Taliban? What about the one with with the IRA a while back?” Popov leaned back in his chair, “Well… they got the guns, ran with the money, and returned to shoot them all up.”
The pony looked back at him, not at all convinced.
“What about you? You get those hostages secure and you clear out that town you took them in, and what happens next? I’ll tell you, they will come in, kill you and your friends, then just spread over Equestria. No pony will rule, male or female. Only the White Masks will.” Popov kept talking.
“You don’t know shit about them.” the pony grit his teeth.
“I know more than you do, my friend.”
“Stop calling me that! Fuck that word! Fuck everything that word stands for in Equestria!”
Popov looked back up. It would appear that he had found a trigger.
“Interesting… I hope you would tell me more, but I’d like to know your name first.”
“My name is: Up your ass.”
The polygraph scribbled its needle around, indicating the fib. Not that Popov would have needed that,
“Alright, ‘ass’. Let’s start from square one again.” Popov smiled again. He had been doing this for the past five hours.
Then, Doc came in with a glass of water for Popov.
“Here.”
“Thank you.”
Popov’s noticeable adam’s apple bobbed as he downed the glass. The pony kept looking at the glass and the water as it disappeared down Popov’s throat. He could obviously tell that the pony was thirsty.
“Would you like a glass?” Popov asked the pony.
He didn’t respond.
“Tell me your name, and I’ll fetch one for you.” Popov offered. Again, there was no response from the subject.
“Silent treatment. Classic.” Popov nodded to Doc, who exited and still monitored the two behind the mirror.
The stable had been finished, and painted pink for the extra measure.
“Hello, we got something for you here.” Popov walked into the door where the stallion still was. He could easily tell that he was getting tired of seeing his aged face and hearing his thick accent.
Then, the door opened, and a tiny stable was wheeled in, partially disassembled. Jäger and Castle screwed in the planks so it was fully assembled inside.
“Seeing that you are a horse in our world, which are often utilized as old-fashioned transportation, or as a pack animal, we thought that you should feel a bit more comfortable as one. So, some of our wonderful soldiers here have built you a shelter.” Popov explained.
“Are you fucking kidding me? I’m inside a room.” the pony clearly and too obviously voiced his discomfort.
“It’s the thought that counts.” Popov smiled.
At that moment, Rocky was about to object to the pink coat of paint on the stable, but kept his mouth shut.
“Don’t be shy.” Popov ushered him towards the back.
The pony didn’t move.
Then, Popov pulled out his Makarov handgun, and pointed it at his head.
“Get in.”
Rocky slowly trudged on inside, and watched as Popov locked the door in place, his pistol trained on Rocky the whole time. Then, he turned away and exited the door.
“Goodnight, friend.”
Rocky exhaled heavily, trying so hard to keep his rage hidden inside of him. All of this was unbearable to him.
He never revealed it, but he wanted to get out of the stable. Those humans probably didn’t know, but stables only existed for prostitutes back on Equestria, with how they were presented…
And here was Rocky, of all ponies, inside one of them.
He was getting tired of this. He lost count of the days already, because the Rainbow Team would put more things to add on top of the stable should he damage it in the slightest, even by carving days in the wood. However, they fitted him with a saddle, and placed a bridle in his mouth - lingerie! - all by gunpoint anyways.
At this point, he would have prefered to have been waterboarded or beaten, something that he was sure these humans would do. He was called things such as “sick” and “demented” before, but to him, these humans deserved that title more than anything else.
Rocky wasn’t even sure if this was an interrogation anymore. He kept having this nagging thought in the back of his head that they were just abusing him in the best ways they could…
He was forced to wear make-up, and kept having this song played in his quarters, something called the “My Little Pony Theme Song”, over and over again. It was ear-grating, and for some reason, had voices that sounded eerily similar to the Elements of Harmony…
That singing drove him insane. He wanted this to end.
Perhaps, a bit too much.
“Hello, my buddy. Shoot… I’m sorry, what was your name again?” Popov asked as he sat down in front of the stable.
“R-Rocky.”
Instantly, Rocky looked up at Popov. The Russian easily knew spilled beans when he saw them, and the polygraph failed to detect a lie.
“Well… we are off to a fantastic start, Rocky.”
Rocky slunk backwards into the stable.
“What’s the matter, Rocky? All of this too much for you-”
“Fuck you! Fuck all of you! Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you!” Rocky crawled to the back of the stable, shivering, and having his voice muffled by the brittle in his mouth.
Popov shook his head at the sight before him, and left.
“It’s arrived?” Clark asked.
“Yeah, the pod has been delivered this morning, and we’ve placed it in the second storage unit. We cleared it out, and currently, we got Bandit filling in the water. It should be ready for use in a few minutes.” Ding replied, putting his tablet away, “We should go get the prisoner. He really is a sight to see…”
“Oh, I know.” Clark nodded as he walked down towards the lower levels of the compound. One of the cells, the largest one, held Rocky inside of it. He just kept staring down at the floor as the men observed him behind the mirror.
“Wow, Popov. You’ve really done work.” Ding took a closer look.
“I have. Recently, I managed to get ahold of who planned the mission. Shabir Assad. Wanted terrorist mastermind in the Middle East, ex-ISIS and Al-Qaeda. He was identified as one of those killed at the building in Afghanistan by two of your operators.” Popov went off.
“That checks out. The photographs that Valkyrie and Blackbeard took confirm plans of invasion using the portals.” Clark scratched his chin, “What else?”
“Tells us that most of the weapons were from the IRA. How he would know that beats me, but that could be a clue that he knows far too much for the White Mask’s own good.” Popov chuckled, “Think about it. All of this information would be useless to the ponies. But the White Masks never would have suspected that we would stop their plan in Equestria of all places, let alone, catch a stallion.”
Clark nodded, “He must be filled with so much secrets. Oh, and the chamber has arrived. We were planning on using it now.”
Popov turned around, “I have done a lot here to break him. He’s in a prime situation to be subjected to the sensory deprivation chamber. Maybe insert a bit of drugs into him afterwards, and we should be able to get what we need.”
“Exactly. Let’s get him out right now.” Ding opened the door, and unlocked the front of the stable.
“Alright, let’s get going, "Buttercup". We’re gonna take you somewhere where you can forget about all of this.” Ding took a rope that was attached the the brittle and tugged him along like some donkey.
Rocky just kept having this blank stare in his face. He knew they were going to kill him now. To be honest, he was thankful for that.
He was lead blindfolded through the headquarters for a fairly long time. He knew that others were watching him, seeing what he was wearing, seeing how he had been locked up.
Then, he heard a door open, and he was brought inside.
They made him walk up to something. He couldn’t tell what it was, until his blindfold was removed. Before him was some sort of white pod, completely smooth to the touch.
Then, Clark pressed a button, and the pod opened up to reveal water inside, with an eerie blue light making the water glow inside.
“What is this?” Rocky asked, a slip of the tongue.
“You’re going to take a bath. This is how our bathtubs look like here.” Clark spoke up. Rocky hadn’t cleaned himself in a very long time, he must have figured.
He had no other choice, anyways. He climbed in, and got affixed with a specially designed breath mask with a tube attached to it. So drowning him in it as an execution seemed to be out of the picture.
When he climbed in, he noticed that the water was salty. He laid back, and the water encased him everywhere, except for his face.
“Get clean.” Ding spoke as the door was lowered, trapping Rocky inside of the pod.
In the initial closing of the pod, Rocky’s heartbeat began to accelerate, and thumping was heard on the inside of the pod.
“He’s attempting to break out.” Doc noted, who was at the controls of the machine, “Beginning accelerated sleep.”
Then, Rocky started to feel… elated. It was if all of what had happened earlier just seemed to disappear into an aether. The water felt… soothing. His breathing slowed down. The machine didn’t hum inside. The glow slowly died down in the interior, calming every muscle and putting his mind to rest...
“He’s going to hibernate. We will give him two hours max, and we will bring him out.” Doc stated as he worked the controls on his tablet, “Wow, his dopamine is off the charts.”
Rocky felt at ease through this.
For once in a very long time, he felt good.
“Alright, time’s up.”
The pod’s door came open, and Rocky had his mask removed. He was brought out of the pod, and laid on a medical stretcher that was brought for him.
“Alright, let’s get to work.” Doc injected him with all sorts of drugs, and shone a light over his face.
Ding then spoke up to him.
“Hey, Rocky! It’s me! Weights! Dude, it was incredible. The White Masks came in and killed all of those fucking humans!” Ding used the name of one of Rocky’s friends, another name that the pony had slipped out of his mouth.
“Uhhhhnnn… Weights… you have to make sure the portals are okay… our dream is so close…”
“Not anymore. I’m afraid that you are the only one that knows where they are now. The humans’ military has taken control of them, but they’re scattered and unorganised. We can strike back.” Ding kept talking.
“Fuck… I feel so wasted…” Rocky mumbled.
“Rocky, we need to know where those portals are. They hunted down the ones that knew, and you’re one of the very few left. The option to mount a counteroffensive is with your knowledge!”
Then, Rocky moaned.
“The one in Afghan was destroyed… Weights, you know this too…”
“They knocked it out of me, those human bastards. I managed to escape. Come on, remember. For our dream of those Princesses to be thrown away like the trash they are.”
“Okay… there’s one in Canada aboard the abandoned luxury yacht in the icefields… there is also one being operated inside the basement of that meth house in Oregon... “
Clarks’s tablet was recording, as well as the other operators.
“Ugh… the one in Brazil… in that compound outside the west borders of the capitol…”
Rocky had spilled the names of at least five portal locations.
“Is there more? We have to know!” Ding asked again.
“That’s all that I know… but I know a lot… heh…” Rocky laughed a bit at himself, and Ding gave the thumbs up to Doc, Clark, and Popov.
Ding laughed as well, placing his hand on Rocky’s shoulder as he was showing signs of slowly regaining his senses.
“You’ve done Rainbow Team a good service, Rocky.”