Manehattan Project

Manehattan Central Police Station

500 E 200 South

"Okay," Swift Vision said his hoofs still cuffed and his nose plugged. He was in the interrogation room with Sparks watching behind the two way mirror and Night giving the interrogation "I'll let you know what I know."

"Firstly," Agent Night said "why did you run?"

"I was being accused of murder," Vision said raising a hoof to gingerly touch his nose "that's a pretty big offense in case you didn't realize that."

"You know," Night said "I could break another part of your body until you give me the answers I need."

"Alright," Swift said "what do you want?"

"I want information," Night began but Swift interrupted "I thought that wasn't obvious."

"...about your recent activities in political extremist groups here in Manehattan."

"Now," Swift said leaning foreward in his chair "you would like to know that wouldn't ya?"

"Oh," Night said "we'll get that information whether you like it or not."

"Is that a fact?" Swift asked sarcastically "you know, you're not very good at this. You're not exactly following procedure here."

"Seems to me," Night said "that you've been through this before."

"Again," Swift said glowering "thank you Lieutenant Obvious."

"That's Captain, actually," Night retorted "I earned that rank unlike most ponies."

"Well," Swift said "I don't care. If you're gonna get the information that I can tell ya, then why did you drag me in here?"

"Because we want to offer you a deal," Night said leaning forward in her chair as well "you're going to get life in prison for murder."

"If you can prove it," Swift interrupted

"Which we will," Night said "but we can ease your time in prison while you're there."

"What do you mean?" Swift asked.

"I mean," Night replied "frequent family visits, holiday parole's, access to TV's, and good food. You'll be living a better life in prison than how you currently live right now."

"Well," he said "I won't say a word until I have my lawyer."

Night got up and left when the door opened. As it closed behind her she gritted her teeth and said "Sparks, that pony won't budge."

"Yeah," Sparks said "I know. Let's go see what we can glean from Ops."

They both walked up two flights of stairs and into a darkened room. Inside it was furnished as a conference room, but without a television or any visible speakers. They pushed a false panel and walked through it into the real Ops room. This was a high tech surveillance platform, every video camera, every phone, and even a DJ's speakers could be hacked and used if the agency wanted it to. A programmer in a white lab coat scooted over in his swivel chair "Sparks!" he said "good to see ya! It seems as though it was yesterday that you were in here."

"That's because it was this morning," Sparks said "what do we got?"

"First off," he said "who is the lovely mare?"

"Special Agent Pearl Night," she said giving him an icy glare.

"Now," the techie said grinning "would you like me to make a snow cone with that ice?"

"How about you use it to cool the burn?" Night retorted.

"Bristle," Sparks said gesturing with his hoof "what do we got that was so urgent?"

Specialist Nimble Bristle scooted back to his station "We have the results of the analysis on the poison that was used on the garrison members."

"Yes," Sparks asked "and?"

"It was actually pretty slick," Bristle continued "normally when looking for poisons you're looking for something extreme or rare, like Laminitis, Anemia, or Snakeroot, but this is pretty cool. I mean, whoever thought of this, was a pure genius. It was virtually undetectable by conventional methods and was actually deemed as clean by most departments, before it came to me of course."

"And you found what the poison was?" Night asked.

"Yes," Bristle said confidently "be impressed. I relish in it."

"Just get to the point Bristle," Sparks said a little agitated

"Calcium Fluoride!" Bristle declared.

"What?" Night asked "Calcium Fluoride," Bristle said as if explaining to a twelve year old colt "it's found in salt licks and is normally part of our daily mineral intake. They got sick from an overdose of Calcium Fluoride in their system. It wasn't detectable by them because they were used to ordering the same meal every time they went to Whinny Fred's and we didn't find it because the other department's hadn't looked for a higher concentration but merely for the content of the salt licks."

"Good work Bristle," Sparks said "anything else?"

"I also ran over the contents of Vision's room. Nothing really too drastic came up. I mean, he is active and has a pretty entertaining webpage but apart from that I don't have anything. The most he does that I can see is make posts to his social media page and that he's constantly on a video game network."

"How often?" Sparks asked.

"Like," Bristle said "almost every day. The guy is close to being one of the games top players. I'm sure he doesn't really have any other social life or actual real life, but maybe..." Bristle looked around behind him, Sparks and Night were gone.

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"So," Vision said smirking to Sparks "are you going to be like your bonehead assistant and threaten me with false evidence again?"

"Who said it was false?" Sparks said returning his smirk with a cold stare "we know that you poisoned the guardsman with an overdose of Calcium Fluoride. The question is...why would some pony like you wanna go through all that trouble."

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Vision said smirking even wider "Just like your mare friend, you don't have anything on me and you know it."

"We know you worked at the grill where the guardsman were eating." Sparks said.

"Big deal," replied Swift Vision "so do lots of people, even that one flopsy mare who replaced me."

"We know that you tried to enlist your co-workers in your politics," Sparks continued unphased.

"Big waste of time," Swift said "and what did I get for it? A broken nose and a slap on the wrists."

"We also know of your connections in the underground movements," Sparks went on "So call me a mole and get over with it," Swift said "you don't got anything..."

"And," Sparks said "we got your dealer." After a pause, Swift asked "My who?"

"Your dealer," Sparks said "your supplier."

"Nah," Swift said "you're bluffing."

"Am I?" Sparks said and raised a hoof to his earpiece standing up "You know, if you're not willing to talk, I know that he will."

"Alright, alright," Swift said "I'll talk, I'll talk." Sparks sat back down and placed a recorder on the table and pressed the button "Talk."

"Okay," Swift said grudgingly "that double crossing two timing cheating little dealer Haze Sundance said that if I did a job for him, than he could use his muscle to get me in the ranks of a political group I wanted to join."

"Which one?" Sparks asked "It was the Canterlot Capall. They're a bunch of freedom fighters who are dissatisfied with the way Celestia's running things in Equestria. They say that she has too much control and that she doesn't give enough of her power to ponies like you and me."

"Go on," Sparks said "I'm listening."

"I don't know everything," Swift said "but there's a plan ahoof. Something big. They had to get rid of the guards because they had to infiltrate their ranks so that they could plant something. I don't know if it was as bomb or more poison or whatever."

"Do you know when?" Sparks asked intrigued "I don't," Swift said "I swear I don't. I never got into their membership, as I said. I didn't wanna kill any pony, just get'em out of the way so that Sundance could do his bit."

"So what you're telling me," Sparks said "is that you don't know anything?"

"No," Swift said his voice rising in pitch "I promise, everything I've said is true."

"Why should we believe you?" Sparks said slamming his hoofs on the table and making it rattle "you'd say anything to save your own skin now wouldn't you? You know that we can put you away for life, and unlike you, I know what those inmates could do to ya on a rainy day, and where you're going, it rains nearly every day."

"Please," Swift said "I promise. I swear, it's true. All of it!"

Sparks left the room and banged the door shut behind him leaving Swift Vision sobbing in his chair.