Interviews With Equestrians

by Jmaster49

Subject 175: Sky Mission Part VII

Meanwhile, onstage…

I finished my performance with what little energy I had left.

“And when the chips are down, we’re gonna come around--”
“To fight the hate and make each other proud!”

Not bad for a bunch of things I pulled out of nowhere. The crowd went nuts for it, and thankfully, there were no more performances scheduled to come after me. So I would be able to make use of the free time to investigate behind the closed curtain. And hightail it after Pale so that I could assist him. I wasn’t going to allow the same thing to happen like last time.

That’s when the weirdness started to really kick in.

Two pegasus ponies appeared to me from the dimly lit area behind the stage. One was a shade of burnt gold, and the other orange. Wait a minute...how did they know I was here?!

“Mom? Dad?” I asked with a nervous flutter of my wings, “What are you doing here?” I couldn’t believe it. No, it was impossible. Just how and why would they come all the way here? There was just no way.

My dad spoke first. “Well, we heard you were in the neighborhood and we wanted to drop by and check up on you. Isn’t that right, dear?” he looked at my mom.

“Mm-hmm,” she nodded, “Your sisters are all off living their own successful lives so we wanted to see if you were finally doing the same. And seeing you onstage like that is just what we hoped for you!” she put her hooves around me in a hug.

I was initially confused. Didn’t they already know that I worked as an officer of the law? “Erm...I thought you guys hated the fact that I chose what I wanted to do for myself.”

My dad pried me off of mom. “Oh no. We hated the idea of you playing second fiddle to somepony else. Even if you are good friends with this Mr. Vestige or what have you, you were ultimately still in his shadow. That’s why your sisters are all so successful as doctors, lawyers, and archeologists. They have taken what they wanted for themselves and we’re happy that you’ve finally done the same, Cork.”

“Um…” I didn’t know exactly how to say what I wanted to say in that moment. I was afraid of utterly disappointing them, so I ended up rubbing one hoof against the other. “Well…”

Mom looked at me with a judgemental glare. “Cathartic Corkscrew, don’t tell me that you are still working under somepony else.” She took a step closer to me, her aura was powerful enough to make me sink into the wooden boards beneath me. “Well? Are you? Don’t lie to me.”

“I…” I swallowed my fear as sweat ran down the side of my head, “...I...no. He’s my partner. I don’t work under him. I work with him. I thought you guys would support me through my life like my sisters. But you’re just...being so judgemental!” I stomped my hoof to add emphasis.

And instead of bothering to support my decision, they actually chastised me for it. That’s when I could tell that they absolutely were not normal.

“Hmph,” my dad rolled his eyes at me--something he never did, and turned away, “Guess we wasted our time coming up here, then. Go back to doing your job or whatever. See if you end up the favorite at the next family gathering.”

And my mom didn’t say a word. Which was also extremely out of character. Hold on. Hold the entire phonebook. I may not exactly be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I was perceptive enough to make the distinction between who my parents were and who they weren’t. So I made the choice to test it out to see if my theory was correct.

“What occupation does my little brother want to get into when he gets older?” I questioned them to see if they could back up their crap.

And then came a pause in the air. I could almost overhear them attempt to make up an excuse. “He’s going to--”

I didn’t have a brother. I was the only boy in the family. This was a crock of heapy nonsense from some complete fakers.

Or more specifically, Mimics.

I didn’t want to attack my parents. It was a mental roadblock that just felt weird to me. But I knew what I had to do. I couldn’t let my emotions get in the way of my job. My parents and Pale would chew the heck out of me for it. I charged at them both, and tackled them to the wall. “Give it up. I know that you aren’t who you say you are.”

As expected, their disguises wore off when under a lot of pressure. They reverted to the disgusting treasure chest monsters that they were, and started to hiss at me with rows of gnarly teeth and saliva that was thick enough to look like elastic.

They pushed me away with the combined force of their tongues, and I had to shake myself off. “Yeech. So what’s your plan with all of this, then? Taking the forms of other ponies? Changelings can already do that you know. Not very creative,” I chided them for being so lame.

The chest-like monsters didn’t speak anymore. I guess they couldn’t imitate speech patterns in their true forms. But I had to wonder, was that all they were really capable of? Grogar’s monsters always had more to them than what you made out at first. So this didn’t exactly add up.

“Hmph…” There was no time to think about semantics. I needed to get through them as fast as possible and reunite with Pale. If I had to get through some gross--though cool-looking--monsters to do so, so be it. “I’ll take you on...let’s go!”

It wasn’t that hard of a battle, though I had to admit that I did suffer one, two, okay ten injuries. Those teeth were sharp, like beyond dragon levels of sharp. Fortunately for me, it didn’t take too much effort to bring them down. When one tried to chew on my hoof, I punched it into a nearby glass stagelight. When the other tried to chew on my wings, I flew up, backwards, and slammed my back into the floor to shake it off. Then they both tried to assault me at once. Luckily, I was totally prepared for that.

I flew up, down, left right--all around the room in the shape of a star until they were mixed up in a miniature hurricane that swept them both into the air and cut them up with deadly blades of wind. What did I call this move?

“ASTRA!”

Badass. I know. And it worked. The treasure chest freaks were blown to bits, and practically disintegrated. Though I didn’t walk away unscathed. I had a few cuts and scrapes on my wings and limbs, but otherwise I was fine. Now that that was over, I needed to find my boss.

I flew down the hallways and heard lots of noise from Jackpot’s room. I knew something had to be up! Well it was then or never.

“FREEZE!” I shouted as I flew in which knocked the door off its hinges. When I got there, I saw Pale lying down on the floor, borderline unconscious with what looked like a leash around his neck. “My man!” I came to his aid, took that disgusting thing made for dogs off his neck, and checked his pulse. His breath was steady, but there was something else wrong. “...What happened here?”

The gray stallion pointed to the end of the room. There, I could see a mare laugh and berate a restrained Jackpot. “Wh--did she? What did she do to you?”

For the first time in a long time, Pale hesitated. His yellow eyes were full of sorrow and shame. The worst part is that he didn’t have to explain what happened for me to understand the full story. He was out of breath, covered in sweat, could barely move, and looked to be in a load of pain. Clearly he had been subjected to torture this entire time.

And I wasn’t about to let that fly.

“You rest up, bud...I’m gonna smoke her ass.” I let him down gently, and rose into the air. I called out to the mare to get her attention away from Jackpot. “Hey you filthy cow! Over here!”

“...and that is why you’re going to suffer for leaving your family behind you worthless, deadbeat, son of a--!” she cut herself short. Then the mare turned to me with a fiery grimace of hate. “Hm? What do you want? Trying to play hero or something, boy?”

My mind was made up. I pointed at her head and shouted, “I’m not here to ‘play’ anything! But you? You’re about to be six feet under arrest. If you keep on trying to resist, I'll rip that horn clean off your head, you bitch!”

Comments

[Neo4K]

For the first time in a long time, Pale hesitated. His yellow eyes were full of sorrow and shame. The worst part is that he didn’t have to explain what happened for me to understand the full story. He was out of breath, covered in sweat, could barely move, and looked to be in a load of pain. Clearly he had been subjected to torture this entire time.

😟 Damn, he was tortured? Did he reveal Cozy's location under that kind of pressure before Cork got there?

[GamePlayer64]

I didn’t have a brother. I was the only boy in the family. This was a crock of heapy nonsense from some complete fakers.

Or more specifically, Mimics.

I guess Mimics evolved during their time.

“FREEZE!” I shouted as I flew in which knocked the door off its hinges. When I got there, I saw Pale lying down on the floor, borderline unconscious with what looked like a leash around his neck. “My man!” I came to his aid, took that disgusting thing made for dogs off his neck, and checked his pulse. His breath was steady, but there was something else wrong. “...What happened here?”

The gray stallion pointed to the end of the room. There, I could see a mare laugh and berate a restrained Jackpot. “Wh--did she? What did she do to you?”

For the first time in a long time, Pale hesitated. His yellow eyes were full of sorrow and shame. The worst part is that he didn’t have to explain what happened for me to understand the full story. He was out of breath, covered in sweat, could barely move, and looked to be in a load of pain. Clearly he had been subjected to torture this entire time.

... You know what; I'm not going to ask.