Interviews With Equestrians

by Jmaster49

Subject 252: Detective Deception

I climbed in one of those air vents, and snuck right through. It was more spacious than I had initially figured--guess movies portrayed these types of maneuvers accurately.

I kept going until sounds of both Pale and Neighsay grew louder and closer. That’s when I knew I’d be above the room in which he had his hostages stationed. Including Sweetie Belle.

Yeech. I couldn’t believe the fact that my prized pupils who were once innocent little fillies had become swept up in this ugly, disgusting ‘war’ of sorts. It pained me to even think about it, and I knew their parents would be just as upset.

Of course I knew that they were (almost) fully grown ponies at this stage of life and should be free to fight for whatever they wanted, but the overly-protective side of me that yearned to keep my students safe regardless.

But this situation? How would I approach it without further putting Sweetie and the others in more danger? I hated to admit, but it honestly seemed like a good idea to wait and listen to the words that Pale exchanged with Neighsay. Maybe that could give me a clue as to what they’re all in this containment unit for.

---

I waited for what seemed like forever for an answer. At long last, Neighsay would respond. “Do you really want to know the truth behind your mother joining my experiment? Why you believe she became hostile afterwards?”

“From what I know, it’s because of your horrible tests which resulted in my family being chewed up, and spit out through the horrors of your system,” I stared into his soul with narrowed eyes of disdain, “But I assume you’re going to tell me otherwise.”

“The truth is that she never loved you in the first place,” he went on to explain, “You were the result of an unhappy pair that wanted to see if a child could repair what didn’t work. And even then, it only drove them further and further apart. To the point where Memento came to me with a plea of desperation…”

I grit my teeth, and almost started to foam at the mouth. What had I just listened to? How did any of it make sense? As much as part of me thought about the possibility, I still wanted to deny it.

“You cretin...you speak as if my life wasn’t my own!” I shouted hard enough to put force on the restraints that I had been in. “You don’t know anything about how I grew up or why?”

“Don’t I?” he asked rather casually, “It’s painfully obvious why you’ve wanted to stand by Cozy Glow since the beginning. You were just like her--but not in a way that you may realize.”

Between the remarks and the verbal assault on my senses, I had almost forgotten about the mares that were in captivity nearby. I needed more information--as much as I could get in order to understand why things happened the way they did.

So I asked a simple question. “What do you mean by that?”

Neighsay took a step back, and looked outside of the nearby window. “You were both pawns in a game that you never realized. We all are, to a fault really. Her fate was sealed the moment her parents abandoned her. She became smarter, faster, stronger than anypony could have predicted. To the point where she was a danger to all of society. That was her fate.” Then he turned around to face me again. “You? You were the same way. Your parents wanted a child to ease the pains of their miserable marriage. That didn’t work, and they resorted to other means of satisfaction. For your mother it was willingly volunteering to become part of my experiments. Your father? Well, I’m sure we know how that went…”

I couldn’t believe this. Did this man really try to preach to me about fate? Of all things? Who was he to speak about things such as that when he too was in a game of chance.

“Do you genuinely believe what you’re saying?” I retorted as calmly as I could, “That everyone is a victim of some grand, undisclosed scheme as soon as they’re born?”

“Not entirely,” he replied, “It’s more along the lines of the fact that we are all products of our environments. But I seek to defy that fact by changing the landscape at which we fight our battles. Just look at those mares over there for example: Trixie’s parents didn’t raise her well at all. Her mother barely took care of her and her father was never around. Starlight’s parents were in a similar situation except that her father was the one who took care of her, yet became so overbearing that she wanted nothing to do with him as she got older. Her mother is suspiciously absent also.”

I said nothing. I simply grumbled to myself. His points did have sound reasoning even if I disagreed with them. Nevertheless, I allowed him to continue.

“Tempest as well. There are no records that indicate her parents truly cared about her at all,” he raised a brow at me as if he wanted me to think harder about it, “Why else would she default to the idea of abandoning Equestria after her horn was broken and her friends left her behind? Because she too was abandoned.”

“And what about Sweetie Belle?” I questioned, “Why is she here among them?”

“Do you really not recognize the theme here?” Neighsay glared at me as if I had asked him what two plus two equaled. “Are you serious? Isn’t it obvious? Her parents were never around either. All of the things she wanted to learn about that had to do with magic and her singing--she either hand to learn it on her own or from her overworked sister.”

The more and more he talked, the better I started to understand just how warped his sense of reality was. The sad part is that--as I said before--I did comprehend his perspective. The parenting in Equestria wasn’t exactly the greatest. Even without his influence, I could still see numerous examples of folks who grew up with a severe lack of parenting to help guide them properly. Scootaloo, Sunset Shimmer, Gilda, Ember, Thorax--the list went on.

“...So what is your goal? What do you hope to gain from all of this?” I asked, hoping for a concrete answer this time.

“...To break this cycle of poorly handled fate. And allow everypony to become strong enough to make their own decisions. That way we won’t become our worst enemies--as certain individuals have already proven to be the case,” he subtly looked towards Trixie, Starlight, and Tempest with that statement. Then he walked over to a button that was placed on the floor nearby, and connected to the containment unit by a magical cord of sorts. “This is for the greater good. My last chance to finish what I started…”

“WAIT! WAIT!” I yelled out to get him to stop.

Comments

[Neo4K]

...Cheerilee, please get in there and kill that demon.