Interviews With Equestrians

by Jmaster49

Subject 143: Classified Info

That absolutely did not go as planned. I completely underestimated just how strong she was. Despite being a fictional character, Mane-iac had overpowered us all, and now we were at her mercy. Forced to follow whatever strange whim she decided to thrust upon us. And what was it that she made us do?

Allow her to escape. It wasn’t a joke either. Apparently, now wasn’t the right time to confront us directly according to her higher-up.

“I’m going to...give you helpless maggots another chance since you utterly disappointed me the first time around. It’d be too easy to stomp you out here and now. So come to Hollow Shades in the next three days…consider this a declaration of war.”

My eyes shot open. After I finally managed to recover, all I could say was, “Wait, what?!”

Before we could say anything else, Mane-iac used her hair-limbs to crawl along the walls and the ceiling akin to a spider. “See you around, little ponies!” she said with a cackle before she took off through a hole that was above us.

Absolutely embarrassing. But things could have gone much worse than they did. For now, all I could do was recover Luna and--wait a second. Where did Elytra go?

“Oi, boss!” Flash Drive called out, “We got an injury!”

Guts and I walked over. At the corner of the room, we saw the former changeling queen lay half-dead on the ground as she bled out. She had become so frail that one strike had caused her to suffer severe damage.

Guttersnipe looked at me. “What should we do, boss? She is our enemy, and there’s no guarantee that she’ll be cooperative. Even if we do save her.”

Indeed, she had a point. There was absolutely nothing that would ensure her cooperation with us, given that she claimed to be our sworn enemies and how we treated Chrysalis in the past...yeah. It seemed absolutely pointless to try and reason with someone like this. On paper, one should cut their losses, and move onto a more reliable source as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, we had no other source.

As a result, I made a conscious decision to keep her alive. “Let’s get her out of here. We can’t afford to lose her.”

The red pegasus tilted her head. “... Are ya sure? There’s absolutely nothing stopping her from just bailing out on us the second we get her some help.”

Flash Drive sighed as he lifted the changeling up, and cleaned the blood off her via magic. “As much as I disagree with the decision, I agree. We have absolutely no choice right now, and losing her would throw a wrench into this case. She’s currently our only source of info regarding Mane-iac and her employer.”

Don’t get me wrong. It absolutely hurt my soul, but now wasn’t the time to lose my head again. Did I want to leave her for dead? If it was just me, then absolutely. But there was far more at stake here, and I couldn’t afford to leave something be.

Not anymore.

“C’mon, we need to hurry before she bleeds out. Drive, keep her vitals in check. Guts, clear a path for us.”

The pegasus mare saluted, “On it. Gimme five minutes and I’ll find us a way out. What are you gonna do, boss?”

“I’m gonna look for Babs.” I looked at the jet-black unicorn, “ Drive. Secure Luna. I’m gonna go make sure Babs is okay.”

Once he made sure that Elytra was stable, he pointed to the cage that Luna had been held in. “Mate, I don’t think you’ll need to search very far.”

I looked over and saw both Babs and Luna entrapped within the same cage. Both equally unconscious. While that did make things a bit easier, it still concerned me. So I went over and used all of the strength that I could muster to bend the bars apart and get inside.

I placed a hoof on the sides of their necks to check for vital signs.

“They’re alive,” I called out as I picked them both up, and slid them onto my back to carry them, “But barely. They’re going to need a complete evaluation once we get back.” I sighed as I stepped out of the cage and approached Drive. “Argh...just what could she be after, doing something like this?”

He shrugged. “Beats me, bruv. Trust me. The last thing I wanna deal with is a multi-national act of modern warfare.” He looked off to the side with an annoyed glare, “Seen enough of that destroy my father’s birth home. If anything happens to the foals here, I swear on my honor--”

I put a hoof on his shoulder. “Hey, there’s no need for that. We’ll take the precautions to make sure that everypony is safe and is never involved in any sort of armed conflict. If possible, I’d like to resolve this peacefully if I can.”

There was fire in Flash Drive’s eyes. One that wasn’t so easily put out unless action was taken. But my words must have come through to him in this instance. “Alright mate,” he looked me in the eyes, “I trust ye.”

“Hey guys!” I heard Guts shouted for us from the end of the room, “I was able to nuke a hole to the surface! Come on!”

---

I couldn’t exactly disclose where we were, but the nearest major city was Canterlot. We hurried back there as fast as we could, and dropped both Babs and Luna off at the hospital in the Kingdom’s Capital.

From there, we immediately went to Twilight’s castle. Celestia had been there as well since she had been on a hectic search for her sister. As soon as we let her know that Luna was in the care of the hospital, she raced off to go see her.

That left Twilight with myself, Guttersnipe, and Flash Drive. We all stood in a row as we explained the situation.

“...so she’s claiming that somepony else is behind all of this?” Twilight asked as she paced her throne room back and forth. “Everything from Neighsay’s experiments, the Nightmare Night curse that turned everypony into their costumes, Svengallop and his entire mob, the gargoyle that sprouted from Fleur-De-Lis, and the recent avalanche at Sire’s Hollow. You’re saying that all of this is the work of a higher power. Somepony even more devilish than Mane-iac?”

“Indeed,” I replied first, “Ultimately, an act of war has been declared. Though just how official it is is dubious at best.”

To my left, Flash Drive was next. “Even so, a threat is a threat. We can’t simply stand idle twiddlin’ our damn hooves until something bad happens. By then, it’ll be too late--and the defenseless foals will be the ones most affected.”

On my right, Guttersnipe spoke up. “Listen, Twi. What they mean is that we need to take immediate action. She claims that she’s going to be waiting in Hollow Shades and after three days, she’ll attack.”

Twilight put a hoof to her forehead. I couldn’t imagine what sort of thought process she had in that moment. It was a lot to ponder, I knew that much. But after a moment or two, she finally thought of something to say.

“Alright, everypony. Listen close,” she turned to face us as she explained, “My friends and I have dealt with Mane-iac in the past, and it sounds as if she’s far stronger than what she used to be.”

The three of us nodded in agreement.

“For sure,” Guttersnipe groaned, “It was like we had no chance against her no matter what we did!”

“Exactly,” said Twilight, “That is why, I’m going to give you all the ability to--”

But just then, she was interrupted with a violent slam of her throne room door.

WHACK!

“Flash Sentry?” Twilight paused mid-sentence to look at the tired pegasus guard, “What’s the matter? Is everything alright?”

After a few winded huffs, the pegasus stallion spoke up. “I’ve just received a report that Cozy Glow’s home has been broken into!”

That’s when I flipped my lid. “WHAT?!”

Comments

[GamePlayer64]

“Everything from Neighsay’s experiments, the Nightmare Night curse that turned everypony into their costumes, Svengallop and his entire mob, the gargoyle that sprouted from Fleur-De-Lis, and the recent avalanche at Sire’s Hollow. You’re saying that all of this is the work of a higher power. Somepony even more devilish than Mane-iac?”

Make you realize all your accomplishments were all for naught.

“Alright, everypony. Listen close,” she turned to face us as she explained, “My friends and I have dealt with Mane-iac in the past, and it sounds as if she’s far stronger than what she used to be.”

And yet, not one is asking how Twilight and her friends have battle a comic book villain?

After a few winded huffs, the pegasus stallion spoke up. “I’ve just received a report that Cozy Glow’s home has been broken into!”

That’s when I flipped my lid. “WHAT?!”

Now, that means war.

[Neo4K]

“...so she’s claiming that somepony else is behind all of this?” Twilight asked as she paced her throne room back and forth. “Everything from Neighsay’s experiments, the Nightmare Night curse that turned everypony into their costumes, Svengallop and his entire mob, the gargoyle that sprouted from Fleur-De-Lis, and the recent avalanche at Sire’s Hollow. You’re saying that all of this is the work of a higher power. Somepony even more devilish than Mane-iac?”

I'm calling it. Either it's the real Grogar or somepony from Pale's past. Likely the former.

After a few winded huffs, the pegasus stallion spoke up. “I’ve just received a report that Cozy Glow’s home has been broken into!”

That’s when I flipped my lid. “WHAT?!”

😟 My thoughts exactly. Didn't Twilight had security cameras watching her house?! 😠 Now they just made this personal.

[Jmaster49]

10610912
It could be anyone...

And that's a good point. Hopefully the cameras weren't tampered with...