Explinations and cigarettes
“Well looks like you’ve got some explaining to do tiger…” The mare sitting down across from me at the table said. “…Someone else ID on you, being in a restricted area of an already off-limits building, and refusing cooperation to work with the royal guard. Things aren’t looking too good for you right now, Mr. Wolf…” She said as I looked down at the table where the ID of this Bigby Wolf guy sat in front of me. “…So how about you just make this easy for both of us. You come clean, you do a little bit of time or a lot of community service, and then we can all go home happy.” She said as she folded her hands together and rested her chin on top of them. I looked into her eyes and she stared back at me, my mind coming up blank since I found myself in this tiny room.
“Look ma’am, I don’t even know who you are or where the hell I am, so how about we start there first. I have rights don’t I?” I said, trying to keep myself calm and not to freak out and make it look like I was mentally ill. The mare sighed a bit before answering me.
“My name is investigator Shield, I work with the royal guards in the form of an interrogator for certain cases. You’re in the ponyville police station, interrogation room if that wasn’t obvious already.” She said before giving me a disgusted look. “No smoking here.”
“Okay, I don’t smoke, so why tell me not to smoke?” I asked before coughing as I struggled to inhale air for some reason, the smell of a cigarette filling my nose. After nearly coughing up a lung I look down to find a light cigarette in one hand and a lighter in the other.
“Are…Are you okay? They said you hit your head when they tried bring you in. Do you remember anything before now? Is your vision blurry? Does your head hurt?” The mare asked, her voice turning from a stern and collected one to one of concern as I cleared my throat and stomped on the cigarette and picked up the butt to throw away later.
“Ahem, my vision is fine, my head doesn’t hurt, but…” I sighed heavily. “I can’t remember a damn thing…” I finally admitted and the mare sat back with a sigh. “Sorry, but I don’t think I can help you get any answers…”
“It’s fine, for now let’s get you to a doctor and make sure you’re only suffering from a mild case of amnesia.” She said standing up and picking up the fake ID up off the table and she offered me a hand which I took, standing up slowly. Before either of us could say anything the door of the room opened up, standing on the other side was another mare with purple hair a set of wings on her back and a horn on her head.
“That won’t be necessary Mrs. Shield. I’ll be taking over his investigation from here.” She said and Shield seemed to straighten up the moment she opened the door.
“Your majesty!” She exclaimed before saluting the other mare.
“At ease, there’s no need to be so formal with me.” The other mare said smiling at Shield before turning to me with a smile. “Mr. Wolf was it? My name is Twilight, I’m one of Equastria’s four princesses. Would you mind coming with me?” She asked, gesturing out the door with her hand.
“A Princess? Did I do something really bad?” I asked worriedly, Twilight chuckled a bit and shook her head.
“No, nothing like that, you’re not in any trouble at all. I just want to help you, that’s all.” She said smiling at me, I turned to Shield who only gestured to go with her and decided I didn’t have much choice and walked out the door and into the hall way with Twilight.
Twilight lead me out through the hallway and out of the police station, the sun’s light hitting my face, causing me to cover my eyes at first. When my eyes adjusted I looked around to see a busy little town, ponyville if I remember what Shield said. The place was surprisingly busy for how small it really was, ponies were out and about doing their own thing while Twilight lead me through the town and towards one of the most out of place buildings in the town, a castle that seemed to be made out of crystal. She walked up to the front door and opened it up, motioning me to follow inside, which I did. Leading me through a few short hallways I soon found myself standing in what appeared to be a round table room, minus the table. There were six thrones, all but one having a pony sitting in them, all of their eyes locked onto us the moment we showed up.
“There you are Twilight, we were getting worried about you. Who’s he?” One of them said, her hair a bright rainbow and a pair of blue wings on her back.
“I’ll explain in a minute Dash, just give me a sec.” Twilight said looking at the rainbow mare before turning to me. “Mr. Wolf, would you mind taking a seat in the smaller throne next to mine?” She asked and gestured to a smaller throne that I hadn’t noticed before behind the empty one which I assumed was hers.
“Umm, sure…” I said nervously as moved to take my seat as the princess instructed and Twilight took her own seat, looking over the other mares in the room.
“Thank you girls for coming, I know it’s really short notice but this is very important.” She said and the mares only seemed to smile at Twilight.
“Aww shucks Twi, what are friends for if you can’t rely on them when you need ‘em?” An orange mare wearing a cowboy hat said.
“Still, thank you.” Twilight said before taking a deep breath. “Well I’m just going to jump right into everything. Do you all remember when those two buildings near the outskirts of ponyville appeared yesterday?” She asked and all the mares nodded their heads.
“It’s hardly simple to forget something like buildings coming from nowhere in such a short time darling.” A white mare with a horn said.
“Well when those two buildings first appeared there was a massive surge of magical energy at the spot they appeared and they seem to still give off a strange magical feeling. Well this young man…” Twilight said as she turned to me and all of the mares turned to look at me “…For now he’s Mr. Wolf, he was found in one of those two buildings this morning, but when the guards tried to take him in for questioning he hit his head, leaving him with amnesia.”
“So what? The royal guard keeps records on everypony in Equestria, just run him through the files and you’re bound to find out who he is.” The rainbow mare said and Twilight sighed.
“Rainbow if it were that simple we wouldn’t be having this conversation.” She spoke up and looked over the mares in the room. “To put simply, Mr. Wolf does not exist in any of our files, no photo ID, no finger print matches, nothing.” She said, the group of mares gave out a ‘huh?!’ sound in reply.
“But that’s impossible! Any filly or colt born in Equestria or comes into here has to go through that process, even little Applebloom has thumb prints till she gets an ID!” The mare in a cowboy hat said and Twilight nodded.
“I know Applejack, but let me finish.” Twilight said and the mares listened intently to what Twilight would say next. “When we found Mr. Wolf there, it wasn’t because a guard was posted there in the building. It was because there was another surge of magic that came from the exact spot where they found him. And just like the buildings, He gives off a very unique and strange magical energy, leading me to believe that he and the buildings are connected.” She said and all eyes in the room feel upon me, to say I was feeling uneasy by now was an understatement until a mare with wings and pink hair spoke up.
“Um, excuse me, Mr. Wolf, but um, you know that’s bad for your health right?” She said quietly and I raised an eyebrow up at her.
“What’s bad for my health?” I asked before I began to cough as my lungs filled with smoke from a cigarette that somehow managed to find its way into my hand just like before. “Oh you’ve got to be kidding me!” I exclaimed as I stomped the stupid thing as I finished coughing up the smoke that made its way into my lungs. “I hate cigarettes…” I grumbled as I picked up the butt off the ground to throw away with the other one.
“Mr. Wolf…” I heard Twilight say my name and I turned to see her pulling out a folder from the inner side of her throne and held it out to me. “These are…”
“Pictures of these two buildings that suddenly appeared, you want me to look over them and see if they can jog my memory and see if I know anything about them or why they’re here and maybe how they got here.” I just blurted out suddenly, not knowing where it came from but it just felt like I was speaking what my brain was thinking, the mares seemed to stare at me dumbfounded.
“You figured all of that out just from listening to me just now?” Twilight asked and I sheepishly nodded my head as I took the folder from her.
“I, I guess I did…” I admitted before opening the folder and was greeted with a picture of building with the sign “Freddy Fazbear's Pizza” on the top of it. The place didn’t ring any bells and as I flipped through the pictures the many rooms didn’t jog anything in my memory, the last one in the pile being of three robots that looked like animals, a bunny, a chicken, and a bear. The next set of pictures seemed to show a different building called "Fazbear's Fright: The Horror Attraction", looking through the pictures of the many rooms nothing seemed to catch my eye. With a sigh I put the pictures back into the folder and closed it, handing it back to Twilight. “I’m sorry but none of that looks familiar to me…” I told her and she nodded.
“That’s perfectly okay Mr. Wolf.” She said as she took the folder from me with a sigh. “Well, back to square one I guess.” She said and I spoke up.
“Well we should start with the land owners of where these two building appeared. Do they have a strong enough magic to make these buildings appear and are using the sudden appearance for gaining people’s attention and to gain their patronage? If not did they have the land ready for a different purpose? Do they have an enemy that might want to cause them trouble by adding costs of having the buildings removed? Or was there someone else who wanted the land for their own but the current owners beat them to it and they decided they wouldn’t wait till they had the deed to make these buildings?” I started, going on and on with listing possible suspects for who it could have been almost effortlessly while the mares stared at me in a mix of amazement and awe.
“You’re, really good at investigating…” The white mare said, pulling me out of my little run. “Is your special talent crime solving?” She asked and I gave a shrug.
“I guess it is.” I said as I looked over to Twilight. “Anyways, do we have any info on the land owners?” I asked and she snapped out of her amazement.
“Oh right! Um, I’m sorry to say that we know everything there is to know about the owners. It’s the Flim Flam brothers, they’re over the top sales ponies who would sell off the most random things and make them look like the greatest thing in the world. They don’t have access to the type of magic to make the buildings appear, and from what they said when they bought the deed to the land, they had planned to open up some type of shop. However when these building appeared they decided to open up the places as their own, even going so far as to hire staff to run the place. And while they’re not exactly liked by the ponies in ponyville for past events, they’re not exactly hated, more like straight up ignored.” She explained as I leaned back in my seat.
“Hmm, does it look like the building might be sabotaged in any way? Something that would make the Flim Flam brothers look bad?” I asked and she shook her head.
“No I’m afraid not. Before the brothers got a hold of the buildings they were investigated and everything seemed normal, though the technology they use in the buildings is very out dated. The brothers are saying that they plan to throw most of it out and replace it with new and better equipment.” She said and I thought hard about all of the things she was telling me.
“And they can do this? Your royal guards can’t deem the buildings closed for further investigation?” I asked and she shook her head.
“I’m afraid not, because they own the deed to the land the buildings are on. We can’t act unless we have their permission to do so under law.” She said and I thought for a minute.
“You said they are planning to throw out all the old equipment in the buildings, by that means it is trash that will be collected and deposited into a dump or landfill, which will be on different land and under a different owner’s jurisdiction. Find out who they are, and request they hand over all of the trash and outdated equipment that the brothers toss out. I doubt that if their princess asked them in person that they would be stupid enough or rather cynical enough to deny her request.” I said and Twilight looked at me curiously.
“Why would you want the equipment that the brothers throw out?” She asked and I leaned back into the throne I was in.
“Because if I am connected to these buildings like you think I am, there may be a data file or a hard cover file of me being a previous employee or owner there. It’s at least worth looking into that’s for sure.” I said as the clicking of a lighter rang in my ears and I once again found myself with a cigarette in my mouth and a lighter in my hand lighting it. “God damn it…” I grumbled as I gave up trying to fight this subconscious urge and took a few puffs.
“Well, I don’t see any other choice of action, I suppose it’s worth a try. I’ll write to Celestia about the current situation and then we can go to the land fill to get the trash. In the meantime Mr. Wolf, I must ask that you stay with one of us until this all gets sorted out.” Twilight said as she reached into the side of her throne and pulled out a scroll and pen and began to write on it.
“I understand.” I said as I took another puff from the cigarette and let out an exhale into the air before looking over the mares who were all looking at me. “So, whose place can I stay at?”
