The Parliament of Dreams

by Wheller

Chapter 28

Chapter 28
Three months later

‘With Parliamentary elections around the corner, this should prove to be an exciting election year! The Conservative Party has promised that it will “win back seats that are rightfully theirs”, this being a response to the surprising election of 95, where many minor parties gained an unprecedented number of seats in Parliament... more on this after the weather’.

The holographic display of the news closed as hoof waved across it. Kelso leaned back in the seat at her desk in her office. It had been a long three months. She’d resigned her position as a member of the Ponyville Police Service, and she had not seen DCI Auditore since that fateful day in the hospital. Good thing too, because Kelso wasn’t sure how she would react to seeing her former boss again, but she was pretty sure it would end with a bullet in one of their heads, probably Guv’s.

She’s intentionally ignored the activities of the Serious and Organised Crime Group. DCI Auditore had declared that she had wanted to change, though Kelso did not believe her, she wasn’t going to get her hopes up and go and check. She wasn’t concerned with them anymore; all that mattered to her now was making sure the rent for this office was paid and that she got enough to eat.

Kelso was a private investigator now, strictly small time, she took jobs that required detection, but those who hired her were either unwilling or too inept to figure things out on their own. A wife might hire her to find out if her husband was cheating on her, only to have the husband turn around and hire her to see if the wife was cheating on him.

That had been an interesting case. Turned out both husband and wife were cheating on each other at roughly the same times. After Kelso revealed this to both of them, they would later go on to renew their wedding vows.

Say what you will, Ponyville was a weird place, and the way Kelso heard it, it had always been like that.

Kelso glanced up from her seat; she heard the door to her office open and watched as someone trotted inside. She was a unicorn, a pink coated mare with a plum coloured mane, and she could tell from the look in the mare's amber coloured eyes that she was going to be trouble.

No! Kelso stopped this line of thought immediately; she was not going to break into an interior monologue. She may be a private investigator now, but she was not going to fit the noir stereotype. That would just be silly, and she was better than that.

'Ana Kelso?' the unicorn mare asked.

'Who wants to know?' Kelso asked. Damn it! She had just told herself that she was not going to fit the noir stereotype not five seconds ago!

'That's not important who I am', the mare said simply. 'I have a job for you'.

'Yeah, sure, listen, drop the act will you? People that come to me are people who want me to find their lost dog or find out if their spouse is cheating on them, so if you're not going to bother, then stop wasting my...' Kelso was interrupted by a large bundle of paper hitting her in the face and then plopping down on her desk. It didn't hurt, but it certainly wasn't something she was expecting. Now she was angry, and was ready to throw this mare out of her office, until she looked down on her desk and noticed what was sitting on it. It was a large bundle of twenty pound bank notes. Kelso looked up at the mare in interest. 'You have my full attention, Miss Smith'.

'Like I said, I have a job for you. Do you remember the Discovery One incident?' the unicorn asked.

'Of course, it's kind of fallen out of the headlines, what with the election coming up, but I remember, yeah', Kelso said with a nod.

'I have discovered a conspiracy surrounding the incident, FutureTec and the Republican Military are burying the true cause of the incident, which I believe to be massive computer failure, and I want you to prove it', the mare said simply.

'Question: if you've discovered that this conspiracy exists, what do you need me for?' Kelso asked.

'Simple: I know the conspiracy exists, however I do not know the full extent of it, and I have been given a direct order to drop my own investigation. You, however are not subject to anyone but your pay cheque, and I pay very well', the unicorn mare said. 'I've done most of the work for you', she added, opening up her bag and levitating a small object out of it, setting it on the table for Kelso to look at. Kelso studied the object before her for a moment and then back up at the mare before her.

'An MIP?' Kelso asked.

'A FutureTec issue MIP', the unicorn said. 'Configured with the access permissions of a junior systems analyst assigned to the Discovery One ground control group'.

'Do I want to know how you got that?' Kelso asked.

'No. Don't worry about it', the unicorn said simply. 'It will get you into the Whitetail Industrial Complex and into the files that you will need to find the answer’.

'So, let me get this straight, you want me to use this to infiltrate FutureTec's Whitetail Industrial Complex, which also happens to be heavily guarded by an army of private security contractors, and uncover some conspiracy about computer failure?' Kelso asked, and flinched as another wad of bank notes hit her in the face.

'Is that an issue? Miss Kelso?' the unicorn asked.

Kelso looked down at the second brick of bank notes, and then back up at the unicorn mare. 'Not in the slightest!' she said.

'I had a feeling', the unicorn said as she turned to leave. 'I'll contact you at the end of the week to see how you're doing'.

'Miss Smith? I've got to ask, what's your angle in all this?' Kelso asked.

'My reasons are my own, you're getting paid to ask questions of others, not me', she said. 'Rest up Miss Kelso, you have your first day at your new job tomorrow'.

…

A feeling of grogginess over took her. Sparky opened her eyes slowly, and began to panic instinctively. She didn't know where she was, and she could barely move. Her vision was fuzzy and she struggled to focus as a dark shadow passed over her eyes.

Sparky continued to blink as her vision came into focus. Her ears were buzzing and she heard a muffled voice speak to her, though she could not understand what it was saying. 'What?' she cried out at the top of her lungs, or, at least she tried to. She started to cough, feeling as if her lungs were filled with fluid. She pulled herself up and immediately vomited on the floor.

Her hearing had stabilised, though her vision was still blurry. The room she was in was very loud, as if there were many people clamouring to wake up.

'Ty v poryadke?' a voice asked her.

Sparky looked up and watched as a shadowy figure before her came into view. She blinked several times and realised that it was DC Hopely. 'Hopely, I can't understand you', she added.

DC Hopely looked at Sparky in confusion, and then realised that she had been speaking in Cossack. 'Oh... I am so sorry; I'm just... so used to speaking in Cossack. Are you alright, Sparky?'

Sparky nodded her head in agreement. She began to remember now, she was aboard the Anatoliy Leninov, and it must have been three months, because DC Hopely had woke them up. Sparky looked around the room to see all of her friends had too risen from their slumber. She looked over and watched as Dizzy climb out of her hibernation pod. It was funny, because this was only the second time that she'd seen Dizzy out of her riot barding. 'Hey Dizzy!' Sparky called out.

Dizzy looked over to her, clearly disoriented by her return to consciousness. Sparky gave her a wink, thought it was a few moments before Dizzy realised that she was naked. Her face turned bright red and she scrambled to pull her barding out from where she had tucked it before going under, and haphazardly throwing it on. Sparky couldn't help but giggle, Dizzy was so cute when she was embarrassed.

She looked back to DC Hopely and offered her a smile. 'How are you Hopely? Have you gone over to the dark side?' she asked with a chuckle.

'It's worse; I've started thinking in their language!' she said with a smirk. DC Hopely looked quite different from the way Sparky remembered her. She'd grown out her mane, and now, the strands of teal and green extended to neck length.

'You need a haircut', Sparky said as she climbed out of the hibernation pod and used her telekinesis to pull her FutureTec utility vest from its resting place and slipped back into it.

'I know, it's awful', DC Hopely said. 'But I didn't trust Korolev or Marusova to cut it'.

'I always cut my own mane, I'll be able to help you out with that', Sparky said with a smirk. She looked over and watched as Amarilla climbed out of her pod, she couldn't help but laugh, her fancy mane style had completely collapsed during their sleep. 'Or I don't know. Maybe Amarilla can help you to style it', she said with a smirk.

'Very funny, puta', Amarilla said coldly as Juan Carlos helped her to climb out of the pod. Sparky noticed something else interesting as she looked at Amarilla.

'Amarilla? Do you dye your mane?' she asked.

Amarilla froze. 'What? Why?' she asked in return, as she glanced at her chocolate coloured mane.

'Well... your roots, they've grown out, and they're blonde...' Sparky said.

Amarilla looked nervously at Sparky. 'I... I may, but that is none of your business!' Amarilla said defensively.

DC Hopely looked at Amarilla and discovered that what Sparky said was true. 'Wait, your hair did grow! It's not supposed to do that while you’re in hibernation! Why does every piece of Præsidium technology suck so much?' DC Hopely asked as she kicked one of the pods in frustration.

'I need to fix my hair...' Amarilla said as she trotted off towards one of the ship's wash rooms.

Sparky watched her as she walked away. She had only suspected before, but now she knew for certain. Señora Amarilla de la Manzana was hiding something.

Comments

[Solayan]

That was fast! And so much content in one simple chapter!
(Note to self - Don't depend on dyes when it comes to hiding stuff.)

[DreadedCandiru2]

Darned right she's hiding something...the fact that the colour of her mane isn't the only thing that comes out of a bottle....sugarcube!!

[Spiffers]

Good stuff. Onto the next one

[Themaskedferret]

Awesome stuff! Aww poor dizzy being so cute and blushy.

[SCaitan]

So much for Amarilla being Rarity - that never made sense. AJ 's here to buck some serious apples.

Well done on the Noir part.

PS: But they are worried about "being naked" again? They are basically small horses for christ's sake!!

[PsyBomb]

514403
Nudity is societal. If their culture states that clothing is not optional, then there is a nudity issue. If not, then not.

[Mikkillerib]

Seems like it is Applejack after all acting as a hispanic

[Low-quality memes]

1st off: is it wierd that i think of L.A. Noire every time i see 'kelso'?

2nd: So ah'm shure er'pony er'e know who armarilla is.

3rd: Brace Yourself, dark revalations are coming.

[Macon Mixx]

Excellent time jump. I was wondering how you'd handle that since they first mentioned cryopods. Some authors botch it. You did very well. Though, for hair to grow... The tech would have to suck so much they'd all be dead! Either that, or this is not a cryopod in the way it's typically defined. I guess we'll go for that. ha!

[ConsciousHaze196]

>"Ty v poryadke?"
After hearing that when waking up in a rocket and from a pony, space should suddenly have atmosphere.
Absolutely decent.

[TwilitLightning]

Oh no.
Oh HELL no.

"'Configured with the access permissions of a junior systems analyst assigned to the Discovery One ground control group'."

Isn't that what Sparky was/is?
Uh oh, this ain't gonna end well.

--TwilitLightning

[Thespurgin]

725743 Well, it's obvious to me at least who the mystery unicorn contracting Kelso is.

[Cpt Celti]

745082 Rear Admiral Dula Heartstrings

And I too am getting the give that Amarilla is Applejack and she found the immortality ponds

[Lucky424]

Señora Amarilla de la Manzana was hiding something.

I still don't think it's AJ.....maybe she has a cutie mark??