Blood Diamonds

Chapter 5: The Interrogation

“Thank you again for letting us stay over, Darling,” Rarity said to Twilight for about the fifth time this evening.

“Yeah, yeah, I already told you it was no bother. I just wish I knew why.”

“I’d like to know that too!” Sweetie said, frowning. “Why can’t we be at home?”

“Sweetie, I already told you that it’s for your own good.”

“I wanted to go crusading, but then you came and closed me in here!” Sweetie waved her hoof around the library and grimaced like she was describing the darkest crevices of pony filth. “No offense,” she added, when Twilight threw her an ugly look. “I just want to know why I can’t go outside like any other day!”

Rarity sighed before she kneeled down and took Sweetie’s head in her hooves, staring her right in the eyes. “Listen to me now. This is not something I wanted and if I could, I’d go back home right away. But I can’t and you neither. I wish I could tell you why, I really do, but it’s not possible at the moment. Just please trust me when I tell you it’d be really, really dangerous for us both if certain ponies saw you outside.”

“Is that why we took such a long detour on the way from school?”

“Yes, precisely. I promise it’ll all be over soon and everything will go back to normal again, but for now you have to stay put. Can you do that for me?”

After a short pause, Sweetie nodded. “But just for today, alright? I can’t fall behind on my cutie mark schedule!”

“I suppose that depends on Twilight.” She looked at the mare in question. “How’s it going, Darling?”

Twilight furrowed her brow and looked at the large pile of books on her desk. “Slowly. You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to find a noble when you only know the name, but not the house.”

“A noble?” Sweetie lifted her brow. “Are you looking for a coltfriend again, sis?”

Blood rushed into Rarity’s cheeks. “I have no idea what she’s talking about.”

“Well, you know, that time you took the big book of Canterlot family trees, looked over the pictures and sa– hmrphmmm!”

“And said ‘I better learn all those names If I want to fit in among the elite,’ precisely!” Rarity gave Twilight a very unconvincing grin while pressing her hoof on Sweetie’s mouth.

Twilight rolled her eyes and smiled. “Whatever. I have a bed for you two upstairs, but it probably won’t be as comfy as you’re used to. I mean I saw your bed, Rarity. Celestia herself would have problems matching that.”

“Thanks, I suppose?”

“Spike should have the basement spruced up soon now, so you can come look at my... experiments later tonight.” When Sweetie’s face began to lighten up, Twilight quickly added, “Very boring, numerical experiments, I mean! Nothing interesting for a filly like you. It’s full of math, and geometry, and... other boring things.” She winced when the word ‘boring’ left her lips.

“But I like math.”

“Not this kind of math.”

Sweetie frowned. “But why did you even mention it then?”

“Because... maybe Rarity could use it for... sewing?” It looked like Twilight herself had a hard time believing she’d just said that.

Rarity facehoofed. “What she means is that I wanted to make her a dress as a reward for taking care of you yesterday, and that I figured some of the more complex geometrical objects could serve as ornaments, right, Darling?”

“Yes! Yes, that’s exactly what I meant.”

Sweetie shook her head. “Weird... I guess I’ll go help Spike a bit, seeing as how there’s nothing else to do.”

“Sure.” Twilight smiled. “Or you could try some reading.”

Sweetie didn’t even bother with a reply.

Twilight waited until the basement door shut behind her, and turned to Rarity. “Anyway, as I said, the interrogation will begin at around midnight, right once we carry him here. I bet you don’t want to miss that.”

Rarity nodded. She sure didn’t.

———

The door creaked as Rarity walked in, slamming shut behind her. In the middle of the basement was a large, pink cupola, under which lay the body of the unfortunate vampony. He seemed just as motionless as the last time she saw him.

“Is he alright?” she asked, looking at Twilight and Pinkie, who both stood right beside the blob.

“Yes, it’s just a sleeping spell. I put it on him so that he wouldn’t thrash around while we carried him.”

Rarity cocked her brow. Such a spell was illegal to use on a pony, and Twilight knew that. “Was it really necessary?”

“You probably don’t see it,” – Twilight frowned – “but under my fur, there’s a black eye. So yes. Yes, it was necessary.”

“Enough with the chit-chat!” Pinkie said, staring daggers at the lying figure. “Let’s get this over with as quickly as possible.”

Twilight and Rarity both nodded and approached the bubble. Twilight’s horn then momentarily lit up, and the vampony started to shift, blinking.

“Who are you? Who sent you?” Pinkie asked, scowling at him.

“Wha?”

Pinkie’s scowl grew even more scowl-y. “What are you doing here?”

He shook his head and looked around his prison. “Being held captive, it seems.”

“What do you want in Ponyville?” Twilight asked, beginning to circle around the pink wall.

“Right now? To get out.”

“Listen here, Smarty!” Pinkie glared him in the eyes and leaned against the magical barrier. “Stop fooling around and tell us what we want to know, and I promise we won’t hurt you.”

He smirked. “And if I don’t, then what? Will you beat me up again? Don’t forget you’d have to get in here first.”

“We’ll just leave you there to starve.”

He laughed. “Fine by me. My friends will find me long before that happens.” He stared back at her. “It’s only a matter of time.”

“I wonder” – Rarity began circling the prisoner too – “whether you’d be more talkative if we bound you.” She, sadly, couldn’t fulfil that threat. She was quite sure that Lord Prism wouldn’t appreciate her breaking vampony laws by stealing a bound servant – seeing how vampony trials went, he could well end up being bound himself for allowing her to do that – but that didn’t mean she couldn’t bluff.

His smirk vanished. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“You think? Twilight here happens to be an expert when it comes to magic. We could even do without a sacrifice. Why, yes. Yes, it seems like the sensible thing to do. Right, Darling?” She turned to Twilight.

“I guess?”

“Of course,” – she turned back to him – “if you told us what we needed to know, it wouldn’t be necessary.”

“But... but I can’t!” His face was paler than parchment.

“If we bind you, you’ll tell us everything we want, maybe even more. I wonder which one of your orders is stronger – not to say anything, or to keep serving your master?”

She could practically see the magic acting. His hooves started bashing against the pink wall, his eyes darted around the room, and his mouth kept opening and closing, as if it couldn’t decide what to do.

Just a few well placed questions and arguments, and–

“This is so cool,” a voice from behind the stairs said.

Twilight’s head, along with everypony else’s, turned towards the sound. “Who’s there?”

“Oh crud,” the voice said again.

Pinkie and Rarity both slowly approached the source from each side, Rarity’s horn lighting up and removing some crates that blocked her vision. “Sweetie Belle?”

Twilight gasped. “Spike?”

“Scootaloo, Applebloom?” Pinkie stared at each of them. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m sorry, Twilight!” Spike dropped to his knees, holding up his arms in a begging fashion. “They blackmailed me into giving them the spare key.”

“Blackmailed you?”

“They said they would tell everypony about how I... like... you know.” His face turned redder than a ripe tomato.

Twilight rolled her eyes and turned to her friends. “What do we do now?”

“Twilight,” Applebloom said, “Why do you have that stranger in your basement?”

“What does ‘binding’ mean?” Scootaloo asked.

Sweetie’s eyes were wide like plates. “Were you going to experiment on him?”

“What? No!”

“Yes!” the trapped stallion called out. “They wanted to dissect me; they’re crazy! Go get some help, girls, quick!”

Applebloom shook her head. “I don’t think Twilight’s wantin’ to dissect you; she just asked you some questions. But why?”

Rarity cleared her throat, putting on a menacing frown. “Sweetie, I am deeply disappointed in you. Twilight was generous enough to let us stay over, and you repay her by skulking around her house like a thief?”

“But–”

“Applebloom, what would your sister think if she saw you like this? Breaking into Twilight’s house without permission and spying on her!”

“But–!”

“And Scootaloo. Do you know what would Rainbow Dash have said if she were here?”

Scootaloo nodded. “Yeah, she’d say this is awesome! When a pony crosses you, just put him inside a bubble he can’t get out of until he apologises. What did he do to you?” She pointed at the stallion, who was now busy punching into the pink wall surrounding him. Without batting an eye, Twilight lit up her horn and put him to sleep again.

“He acted like a big meanie-face!” Pinkie huffed. “He tried punching me, and who knows what he had planned next.”

Sweetie leaned her head to the side. “Why?”

“That’s what we were trying to find out.” Rarity smiled. “Why would anypony try to hit Pinkie, of all ponies?”

“So, what y’all are sayin’ is that when somepony tries to hurt us, we should lock him up in our basement?”

“Well...”

“I’ll have to ask Applejack ‘bout that. It doesn’t seem right.”

“No!” the three of them cried in unison.

“You absolutely mustn’t!”

“Why?”

“Because... We’re keeping him here because it’s dangerous to have a maniac like him running on the street, punching ponies. I know Applejack would want to help, but we’ve got it all handled, so it wouldn’t be necessary. Plus... Plus he could memorise her face and try attacking her once he gets out! We can’t have that.”

“Why are you keeping him here in the first place?” Scootaloo asked. “I mean why not hand him over to the Guard?”

Rarity could feel the sweat forming on her forehead. “Because... because... um...”

“Because I thought I could cure him.” Twilight said with a smile. “I thought that maybe if I used the quadratic propulsionate magnetic syntax on his cognitive neural areas, perhaps it could cure his mania. So, in a sense, I was about to experiment on him.”

I’d bet my left hoof on her making up half those words.

“Isn’t it dangerous?” Sweetie asked with her brow raised.

“No. Perfectly safe. No risk whatsoever. I really just needed a test-subject to prove it, and one doesn’t find a willing psychopath often. It’s really completely safe – the worst thing that can happen is that it won’t work and he’ll stay crazy – and will save me a lot of paperwork.”

Spike tapped his chin with his claw. “Why were you interrogating him, if you just wanted to put quadri... quadro... whatever on his something?”

“That was just because I needed his mind to be at its peak. And when are you more conscious of your surroundings than when in danger?”

When no more questions were raised, Rarity stepped forward. “Now that you know what happened, why don’t you go back upstairs? I suppose we can let this spying slip this time, seeing how you were concerned about another pony’s health. Of course, only if you don’t tell anypony; Twilight could get into problems for that. What do you say?”

The Cutie Mark Crusaders plus Spike huddled together and whispered something, until Sweetie came forward. “So... no punishment whatsoever?”

“None.”

“And it’s really not dangerous?”

“It’s really not dangerous.”

Sweetie smiled. “In that case, we accept.” Then, throwing several more glances on the sleeping stallion, they all moved towards the exit.

When the minors were out of the room, Rarity turned to Twilight. “Shall we continue?”

———

“Let’s try this again,” Rarity said, sighing. “Who sent you?”

“Sir Graybond.”

“What was your mission?”

“To attack the pink pony.”

“Why?”

“I can’t say.”

She shook her head. This has been going on for hours. She managed to get some little vague info off him, but nothing she didn’t know already or what was relevant. And neither her promises, nor threats mattered; the magic just stopped him from divulging the significant bits.

“Oh, come on!” Pinkie slumped down from the crate she was sitting on. “This is going nowhere.”

“Do you have a better idea?”

“Yeah, we could bind him like you’ve been threatening for the past four hours over and over again!”

“Come on, Darling,” Rarity whispered, laying her hoof on Pinkie’s side. “You don’t mean that.”

“And why the hay not?” Pinkie shook the hoof down. “You said it yourself that we don’t need to kill anypony, and this guy’s already serving somepony. Why shouldn’t that somepony be you? I’m sure he’ll do less harm working for us than for that ‘Graybond.’”

Rarity cringed. She couldn’t argue with that logic and she knew that, but the magic in her body simply wouldn’t allow her to comply. But perhaps figuring out what’s going on was more important than the law, perhaps this is what Prism would’ve wanted... But she couldn’t be sure. She’d have to go ask him, and that was half a day of travel. She couldn’t leave Sweetie alone for so long! She’d just have to find out what she needed differently. “Pinkie, enslaving ponies is wrong. I refuse to play any part in it.”

“But he already is a slave! And if you bind him, you might be able to release him afterwards somehow.”

Rarity shook her head, looking downwards.

“Fine, if you won’t do it, then I will!” Pinkie scowled and started marching towards Twilight, who was now fast asleep.

“Pinkie, no!”

“Why not?” Pinkie didn’t slow down in the least.

Because if they find out their member was stolen by a rogue, they’ll kill you on spot!

“Because he... he could tell somepony! Lyra said that one could find loopholes in orders!”

“That would mean his death, and he didn’t hit me as suicidal.”

Pinkie approached the sleeping mare and shook with her. “Wake up.”

“Ugh...” Twilight yawned, stretched, and blinked at them. “What, did he speak?”

“No, Darling, he didn’t. Pinkie just needs explaining just why we shouldn’t try to bind him.”

“I was actually wondering about the same,” Twilight said, scratching her head. “I mean it’s a very demanding spell that I wouldn’t want to risk if we could avoid it, but it doesn’t seem like we have any alternatives.”

‘A rogue and the Princess’s lapdog stole our member!’ Rarity could already see the headlines. Well, if vamponies had some kind of newspaper, of course.

“There has to be some other way! We can find out what we need differently.”

Twilight frowned. “By digging through heaps upon heaps of books, hoping against odds to find a relevant information? I’m sorry, Rarity, but I think this is the one instance where books just won’t cut it.”

“But... but... the danger and moral implications...”

“You don’t have to be here if you don’t want to. Pinkie, could you bring me some chalk and the blue potion in the lowest drawer?” She pointed at some sort of alchemical contraption in the corner. “I have to draw the glyphs.”

“But you can’t!”

Twilight rolled her eyes and scowled at her. “Lately, there seems to be quite a number of things you ‘can’t do.’ Well, that doesn’t apply to me. Get yourself together, Rarity.”

Pinkie pulled out a blue bottle and a box of chalks.

No. No, they’ll kill you both! Rarity ran towards her, locking the potion in her gaze. Then, she tugged at it with her magic.

“Hey, what are you doing? Stop it!” Pinkie still held the brew and didn’t seem like she was about to let go.

“I’m doing this for your own good!” With a mighty pull that caused her horn to hurt again, she got the bottle out of Pinkie’s grasp. Unfortunately, the pain ended her grasp as well, and the potion continued in its arc, hitting the pink barrier and breaking.

Twilight watched it all with her pupils dilated. “Rarity... what have you done?”

The wall flickered, and then disappeared. Just like that. The stallion smiled at them, showing his fangs. “See you all later; I’m looking forward to it.” Then he shot towards the door, ramming through them, and ran into the night outside.

With her face contorted and her brows furrowed, Pinkie slowly turned towards the transgressor. “What they hay Rarity? What. The. Hay?”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to–”

“Rarity, what were you thinking?” Twilight asked, still staring at the ruined door the earth pony left through. “Why would you do something like that?”

“It wasn’t supposed to–”

Pinkie was fuming. “You let him out. He attacked me, and you just let him go! Why? Why? If I didn’t know better, I’d think you wanted him to escape. Who knows? Perhaps it was you who sent him after me! Is that why you didn’t want me to bind him? So that he couldn’t tell us all that you were the one he served?”

“Now that’s just ridiculous.”

“Oh yeah? Then tell us where you’ve been yesterday! And no stroll nonsense. You should know better than to lie straight into my face!”

“I won’t tell you that; it’s none of your business. But I did not send an assassin after you! It doesn’t even make sense.”

Twilight finally got her eyes off the entrance. “She’s got a point there, Pinkie. Why would she want to harm you?”

“How should I know? But even if she didn’t, that guy will tell everything to his pals. We’re all in danger thanks to her!”

Rarity cringed. “That wasn’t my intention.”

“Oh yeah?” Pinkie approached her and tapped her hoof on her chest, uttering a word full of venom with every nudge. “Then. Why. Did. You. Do. It?”

Rarity remained silent.

“Just... Get out!”

Rarity bowed her head and, slouching, walked out of the basement and into her bed upstairs.

“Sis? Sis, what happened?” Sweetie was staring at her, covering under her blanket, while Spike was already out of his basket and scouting the library. “I heard a loud bang and then something broke down the door. And then I heard you arguing.”

With a sigh, Rarity sat beside her sister, laying her hoof around her neck. “Something bad has happened, Sweetie. The stallion you saw... he ran away.”

“Ran away?” Sweetie gasped. “But you said he’s dangerous!”

“He is. Very. And it’s my fault he got out.”

“Your fault?”

“Yes. I got carried away and did something... rash.”

“We have to tell the Guard! And the town! He could hurt somepony!”

Rarity smiled. She and her parents raised Sweetie good. “Of course we will. The girls will go to the barracks first thing in the morning, of course not mentioning the ‘experiment’ part. It wouldn’t be right if Twilight had to pay for my mistakes.”

“Do you think they’ll catch him?”

Of course they won’t.

Rarity started lifting herself and moving to her own side of the bed. “Of course they will. It’s their job, after all.”

Sweetie nodded. “So everypony’s safe?”

“Yes, Dear. Now, go to sleep.” Rarity used her horn to blow out the candle, hissing when the following pain reminded her of her horn’s current state, and slipped under the covers.

Sweetie, you’ve never been less safe than now.