Interviews With Equestrians

by Jmaster49

Subject 312: Rights' Tale Part 3

“And as if that wasn’t bad enough,” she went on, “Both cities officials started to become so distracted by trying to take out the other, that it messed up their trade relations with other cities. Namely...Thrace.”

Oh my goodness. This story just got juicier by the second. Thrace was a lovely region that still held onto its history.with King Thrace and his Father, Zeus. Diomedes was the current king, and his daughter Swift Foot had nearly caused discourse among the Young Six many years ago. So I was curious as to how that region played a part as well.

“Thrace?” I asked, “Just how many places were involved in this conflict?”

Rights turned away from me, and sighed. “More than you would think, son.” She put her hooves behind her head. “Anyway, Twilight wanted metropolitan cities like Chicoltgo, Vanhoover, Manehattan, New Horseleans--she wanted them to start establishing trade with the more rural city of Thrace so everyone could learn from each other. But of course, since two of those cities were still in conflict…”

That being Chicoltgo and Vanhoover.

I finished her point. “...Things came to a screeching halt before it could get started. And let me guess--it started to make Equestria as a whole look bad if two of its cities couldn’t even get along.”

“Bingo,” she replied with a nod, “No one wants to do business with cities that can’t even cooperate with each other because they’re too busy worrying about the relationships of their mayor’s children. So this gave me a grand total of three places to manage while I was away from you…”

My god. The workload surrounding that sounded so intense that I couldn’t fathom it. Ms. Rights was a real trooper for doing whatever she could to keep everyone safe.

“...So is that why you left that weapon in my possession?” I asked, “And sent as many letters as you could?”

“Ah, you got ‘em.” Rights looked rather relieved to hear that. “That makes me happy. And yes, that’s essentially what I did to make sure I stayed in touch with you. Not sure if you kept the letters, though.”

I nodded. “I did. Though about your weapon…” I thought about it for a moment, and concluded that I would be better off explaining that later. After all, she was still in the middle of a rather juicy story of her own. To throw her off the topic now would derail the answers I had searched for. “Ah, I’ll tell you later. For now, tell me what happened with the cities. Did things get worse or better while you were there?”

“Worse…” she mumbled, “Much worse...the main root of why I stayed there for so long came about when Maple’s family accused Sky Scraper of sexual assault claims on their daughter.”

I froze. Those sorts of accusations were damning to the point where one’s entire reputation could be at stake if it went public. But at the same time, it was a serious situation that I imagine had to be looked at very carefully lest they miss an important detail.

The anxiety killed me. I started to nibble my hoof as a result. “Wait...f-for real? Was he innocent, or--?”

Rights pat me on the head to calm me down--which admittedly worked. “Don’t worry, kiddo. I’m getting there. Anyway, once we caught wind of these accusations, we had to separate and keep both families from going public about any of this info as we investigated it. Innocent until proven guilty, after all. We made sure to find as much evidence as we could--down to asking Maple herself and...surprise, surprise…”

“She admitted that there was nothing wrong?” I ventured.

“Exactly, Pale. Once we realized that our time had been wasted, we placed her parents under arrest for defamation and an abuse of power--sentencing them to what Sky Scraper would have suffered for nearly ruining his life. No one is above. Not even government officials.”

As awesome as that sounded, I’m sure it didn’t happen overnight.

“And about how long did it take for you to reach that conclusion?”

“...A good year at least,” she replied with a grumble, “Bastards were good at covering their tracks and maintaining what looked like a clean record in the process. Moreover, we still had to deal with the regular bouts of crime that went on in Chicoltgo and Vanhoover at the same time. Gang activity never stopped.”

I was too curious, so I had to ask. “...What about Maple and Scraper? Did they ever get back together?”

Comments

[Neo4K]

Ooooh, dear, the utter intrigue and mystery of it all. Much better than the Shadow Spade books I've read. You must tell me more, darling. I NEED MORE!!

Neo: Hey, easy, Rarity. Jeez, give Miranda Rights time to collect herself first. (clears throat) Sorry about that. Continue Ms. Rights.