Crashlanded Phoenix

Object C-04 "Rex"
Location unknown

"Is it still down?"

"Has been since yesterday. Are you sure it's not dead? I haven't noticed it move at all,"

"Do you want to go in there and find out yourself?"
"..."

"That's what I thought, now go turn the valve and help me aim this thing,"

PSSSHHHHTTTTTT

My eyes shot wide open the moment I felt a heavy stream of water wash over me. "GAH!? WHAT THE FUCK?! "GLGGBLBBLLBBB" I shouted with my eyes closed, then had my mouth filled with water, drowning out my shouts. I struggled to get away from the stream which moved all over my body, but found myself unable to properly move my wrists and ankles.

"That's enough, turn it off!" Someone shouted in a male voice. Was I... kidnapped? Captured?

I heard the sound of a slightly rusty valve being turned and the water stopped shortly afterwards. My mouth opened instinctively to let all the water in it out while I coughed a few times. That was an awful way to be woken up, certainly not a five star experience I'd recommend to anyone. Can't say that whoever did this wasn't effective though. I opened my eyes to the sight of my feet being shackled to a stone wall, I also noticed pieces of my shoddy genital covering on the stone brick floor. At least I was...cleaner than before. I coughed one more time and slowly turned my head up.

"Dear Celestia....it's looking up..," A different, younger male voice spoke.

My eyes widened even more at the sight of what stood in front of what looked to be prison cell bars. Two horses, no, two ponies. They were too small to be horses and if I were to measure with my eye, they were about as tall, maybe slightly taller, as the insects I encountered from earlier. Both of them had horns on their heads...does that mean those are unicorns? That's.... surprising...but not the weirdest thing I've ever seen in my life. Both of them had some sort of golden armour on them and were staring back at me. Better make a good impression, those must be the guards after all.

"Step back, we don't know what it is capable of," The less scared pony guards said.

Hmpf, I must seem like some sort of nightmare monster to them, I suppose they aren't that far off, they must not have heard me scream over the sound of the water. Not even people back home looked at me like a human. This does give me an idea as to how use their fear to my advantage, maybe even talk to whoever their leader is and turn this situation around. Time to put on a convincing show. I grinned at the guards, staring straight at them while they slowly backed away.

"W-we should have waited until the others were here-"

"Don't panic, you'll just piss it off. Slow steps,"

Now's my chance. I began to wiggle my usable limbs in the shackles, pushing against the cold steel keeping me captive. The guards were on the other side of the jail by now, they looked too intimidated to try and intervene as I tried to free myself. The metal creaked and bent, giving my hands and feet more wiggle room to apply physical force. A single bolt fell to the ground, followed by my synthetic arm freeing itself, as the shackle holding it gave in.

"I'll go call for help!" The fearful guard galloped out, leaving me alone with his friend.

One on one, just him and I, I liked those odds much more. I kept my eyes on him as my left foot and subsequently leg freed themselves from their restraint, the now broken shackle clanging against the stone floor. Shortly after it was time for my right leg and arm to join the liberated limbs, as the guard grew more anxious from my actions. The two remaining shackles holding my non-functional arms were doing the heavy lifting right now, keeping me suspended above the ground all on their own. They were no match for me either way, as my upper hands tore them off and tossed to the ground. I fell a small distance to the ground and landed on my feet in a slightly crouched position. My exoskeleton readjusted itself after what must have been hours of restraint at the same time as I straightened myself up.

My bare feet stepped on the wet, cold stone of my cell. I moved forward slowly, yet steadily, accompanied by the sound of moist footsteps and the barely audible shaking of the armoured pony. For every step I took forward, he took one back. The clopping of his hooves reverberated through the prison as he backed away. Once I got close, I gripped the steel bars with my hands and held them tightly. A faint sound of creaking metal could be heard, enough to startle him further. I could break out right now, but that wasn't my plan. I was going to convince them or at least him that I was no mindless monster, a mindless monster would have torn him apart after all. On top of that, I didn't know their intentions , so a "little" intimidation could be of great benefit to me.

I put my face close to the bars and looked straight at him. He was backed up against a wall, yet with every step I took it seemed more and more likely that he'd straight up force himself through it, good thing that I had no steps left to take then. I grinned at him and spoke. "Good day to you too. Quite a nifty place you have here." I said in a soft tone. His eyes widened in r- Damn, his eyes are really big, now that I look at them closely. Bigger than those of our horses by quite a lot. Couple seconds later I released my hold on the cell bars and turned around, there was a cot to my right. It didn't have a mattress or even a blanket, but I'm not gonna complain. I walked up to it and laid down on it, now all I had to do was to wait.

Investigative Officer Shadow Watch
Office Nr. 87
19.06.1012

Changeling autopsy reports filled the space on my desk and I spent the better part of my morning reading over them, trying to piece together some information about the Guard's latest monster catch. I could barely stomach my food after reading every single tiny detail included in the folders and it was of little comfort to read that their deaths were quick. Good thing that the Guard caught it before it stumbled upon a village, who knows how many would have died before we'd have the chance to get to it. It boggled my mind as to why it kept one of them alive, especially after slaughtering the rest. Now the poor bastard is in a hospital under close observation.

Logically it should have killed him alongside others, but perhaps there's something more to this that I'm not seeing quite yet. I adjusted my glasses and sipped some herbal tea to calm myself down, soon I'd have to go down there and attempt to interrogate it, if that's even possible. Then I'd have to review the notebook that was found on the slaughter scene, it ought to contain clues regarding the purpose of those changelings.

The door to my office burst open. "W-whoa!" I fell back with my chair while mid-sip, spilling my tea all over myself.

"S-sir?! Are you alright?" A voice called out to me.

I groaned and got up from the floor. "Would you mind knocking next time?!" I angrily exclaimed while wiping my glasses with a cloth. "You are lucky I didn't damage the reports, you twat! The department head would hang me up on his wall for that!" I put my glasses back on and sighed as I looked in the direction of the voice. "Oh, you are one of the prison guards! Apologies for my outburst, I'd really appreciate it if you knocked next time though,"

"S-sorry sir, but this is urgent," He responded with a shaky voice.

"News regarding our resident butcher I presume?" I asked while picking up the chair. "I'm all ears, guardsman," I picked my cup up and sat down on my chair. Hopefully something happened that will push our investigation a bit further, right now all we have is guesswork regarding the changeling captive.

"It-" He stopped mid-sentence and wiped his forehead with a hoof. "It broke free from its shackles!"

I jumped up from my chair and looked at the guard as if he had just said something crazy. "You're talking rubbish, you don't mean to tell me it just-"

"It did sir! Just like that!" He cut me off, for which I glared at him with an annoyed expression, which quickly changed to an angry one.

"What are you doing here then, go get the guards and pacify that beast! We can't let it get out of the castle!" I shouted at him and pulled my revolver out of my desk. If there's a monster roaming the castle, then I might as well go in prepared for a fight. I put a few pre-loaded speedloaders into the pockets of my jacket and headed for the door.

"Sir, wait!" The guard moved in from of me. "I ran here instead of the guard station because it didn't attack,"

I raised an eyebrow at that. If it broke the shackles that held it in place so easily, then why wouldn't it also force its way out of here? This was quickly becoming quite an interesting case altogether. Perhaps the Everfree beast was smarter than we initially gave it credit for? I went back to my desk and gathered a few writing supplies. "Take me to its cell," I spoke to the guardsman. I knew it was a stupid idea, exposing myself to danger like this, but other than my thirst for information, I cannot deny that I wish to satisfy my own curiosity as well.

"I'd love to sir, but we can't risk you provoking it," He briefly glanced at my revolver as he spoke in a somewhat calmer voice. "I'll-" He swallowed before continuing "I'll ask a few guards to move it to an interrogation room,"

"Ugh, fine, fine, you do that," I lowered my head and turned to my desk. There was some truth to the guard's words, that room would be much better suited for this. It annoyed me that my chance for some answers regarding the dead changelings would have to wait a bit longer. "I'll wait for it there, I need to grab a few things first," I picked my wallet, badge and a pen up from the desk then turned back to the guard. "Just don't get yourselves killed, we don't need more corpses in the autopsy room," The guardsman nodded nervously and left my office in a hurry.

Object C-04 "Rex"
Prison cell, location unknown

I stared up at the ceiling in my cell while laying on the surprisingly comfortable cot in my cell. It was a nice change of pace to have a proper place to lay down on, even when the surroundings were less than...comfortable. I put my hands, including the currently non-functional ones, on my torso and just waited. Waited for something to happen, for someone to come and thought a bit while waiting. I was mostly dry by now and the guard that I scared the living fuck out of is sitting across from my cell, at least he wasn't shaking anymore.

I must have been in this cell for a while, since all my wounds from that camp fight were gone. Hmm, what time was it exactly right now? I couldn't tell since for some reason there was no window out of my cell and all the light came from a few small lightbulbs, which flickered every now and then while gently swaying.

The lack of communication with fellows back in Abakon or even my overly cautious superiors in Wenkwort began to slowly chip away at my confidence in ever being found and "rescued". I had no orders, no guidance, no direction. What was I going to do if not follow orders, it's all I really know how to do other than fight and kill. At least in that weird forest jungle place I had a sense of direction as to what to do, but now this was way beyond me..

My train of thought was interrupted by the sounds of many hooves clopping against the stone floor. I got up from the cot and looked out of my cell in the direction of the noise, meanwhile the guard I intimidated earlier got up and trotted away in its direction, presumably to join his colleagues. It was safe to assume that my plan at least partially worked. I smiled and took a few steps back, just to give my soon-to-be visitors a bit more maneuvering room.

As expected, a group of armour-clad ponies entered the prison and approached my cell. I did a quick headcount in my thoughts and counted 8 of them, including the guard who ran out towards them, one of them looked like the pony who ran out to "get help" too. A few of them had horns and I saw one of them having wings, does this mean pegasi and "regular" ponies were present too, if so, what other equines are here? They formed a semicircle in front of my cell and brandished their truncheons while closely observing my moves, looks like they want me alive after all. The guard who ran out earlier, approached the door to my cell and opened it with a key.

He entered the cell, followed by a guard who stood in the middle of the semicircle. He gave his truncheon to a guard on my right just before entering and now stood in front of me, with the guard I intimidated earlier. Whatever they want, resisting now wouldn't benefit me in any way at the moment, cooperation seemed like the better choice right now.

"Listen up, Everfree monster. This guy beside me says that you apparently can talk, but I don't believe him one bit. I'll be generous though and assume you can understand us," He looked up at me with a slight expression of scorn on his face, or should I say muzzle?

"You'll be doing latrine duty for the rest of your days if you are wrong about this..," He said to the pony by his side. He responded with a single, yet audible gulp.

"Now be a good prisoner and put your... whatever they are out. Those grabbing things," He pointed with a hoof to my hands.

"Those are called hands sir, like the ones minotaurs have," A guard from the back spoke up.

"Right, hands," He nodded in response and took a pair of handcuffs out. Normally, those handcuffs wouldn't be much of a bother for me, but they felt a bit tight due to my exoskeleton frame. It wasn't as uncomfortable as those shackles at least.

I put my upper hands in front of myself and they were promptly cuffed. Why did they even bother with that though? Didn't they know I easily broke out of those shackles? Hmm, I suppose it makes them feel a bit safer and in any case, breaking those handcuffs does make some noise...

"Good, so you do understand us. Now the other pair," He was handed a pair of handcuffs by the guard who came in with him.

Yeah...not happening, as it turns out, those arms and subsequently hands, were still unresponsive. I shook my head and then turned my torso left to right, causing the defective arms to sway slightly.

"He's refusing," The guard without handcuffs spoke.

"When did you become an expert on animal language? I can tell that," By now it was safe to assume that the guard with cuffs was his superior.

"I think he can't move those other arms. Should I-"

"Be careful," The guard with handcuffs cut him off. "Just hold his arms out and I'll cuff him,"

The other guard nodded and slowly approached me warily. I followed him with my eyes and from up closer I could see some sweat go down his forehead. I stood still as his hooves touched my unresponsive arms and held them out in front of me, in fact I couldn't even feel him touching them. They were cuffed with the second pair of handcuffs and let go of, after which they flopped down, as expected.

The two guards let out a sigh of relief and left my cell.

"Come outside, slowly." The guard who cuffed me commanded. The other guards instinctively held onto their truncheons tightly as I moved step after step towards the cell door. I walked out and stopped in front of the guard semicircle.

"Two steps more." He said and I obeyed, after which he nodded approvingly. "At least this thing is willing to work with us..." Ouch.

The shuffling of armour and clopping of hooves filled the prison as the guards moved into some sort of formation. There were two guards in front of me, one on either side of me as four behind me. This certainly meant that they planned on moving me somewhere, but where? One of the guards in front of me was the one who I marked in my head as everyone else's superior.

"Attention, squad. Prepare to march out, stay vigilant on the way," He cleared his throat and shouted. "March out!" I felt myself being prodded in the back with a truncheon the moment the guards in front of me began to move. I groaned audibly and followed without further complaint.

"You fools back there, don't agitate it! None of the castle staff wants to clean your guts off the walls!" The commanding guard shouted and I bet the others rolled their eyes at that.

Huh, castle staff. This meant I was in or somewhere near a castle, hopefully belonging to someone important.

We proceeded to walk up a flight of stone stairs, their hooves clopped against their surface while my feet made mostly "floppy" sounds, as to be expected when barefoot. I had to bow down slightly to avoid smacking my head against the arch of the door that was at the end of the staircase, hopefully that won't become the norm in the near future. Sapient ponies and equine insects are already big enough changes for me and small doors would just be torture.

Once we went through the door, my eyes were greeted with much more pleasing surroundings. My attention was first caught by the huge windows in the walls and a red carpet going through the middle of the hallways.. The windows let lots of sunlight into the hallways, sadly I didn't get the chance to look through one of them as I had to keep moving. As for the walls and hallways themselves, they seemed to be built out of some sort of light pink-ish, perhaps purple-ish bricks, at least that's my guess.

I looked down at the carpet underneath my feet, it was quite comfortable to walk on. It felt a bit coarse, yet soft and a bit fluffy, on top of that it was a little warm. Quite a massive improvement compared to the bare stone floor... Lastly, the floor on which the carpet rested. It looked pretty similar to the walls and I bet it was made out of the same material, though it consisted of tiles in various shades of aforementioned colours. Surprisingly they had no distinct patterns on them and could safely be called "blank". Judging by this all, this was a pretty fancy place.

We approached another door, this time it was a proper doorway and not some shabby wood door leading to my prison. Luckily, it wasn't too small as had I previously feared.

"Halt!" The commanding guard shouted and everyone, including me, stopped. He then proceeded to walk ahead, opening the doorway upon reaching it and returned to us afterwards. "Resume march!" He shouted and we promptly began to move once more.

The march continued for a good 10-15 minutes. They led me down a few flights of stairs, turned into a different hallway a couple times and opened some doors. In the end we stopped by a single door. A pair of guards from behind me moved in to stand on either side of that door, while the rest, including the still handcuffed me, went through it. There were two doors inside, one on my right side and one on my left side, right in front of me.

The two remaining guards who marched behind me had now moved to stand guard by the door on the left side. At the same time their superior approached and opened it.

"Go," He said to me and pointed inside with his truncheon.

I sunk my head slightly and went in. The door closed behind me and I heard it being locked, to which I responded with a sigh. In front of me, right in the middle of the room I now found myself in, stood two metal chairs and a wooden table. Above the table hung a single fluorescent strip light, the faint buzzing of which filled my ears.

With nothing better to do, I walked up to the chair facing towards the door and pulled it back with my cuffed hands. I sat down on it at the table with my still naked ass. As expected, the chair was rather cold to the touch. Normally I'd be embarrassed by being nude while around so many pairs of eyes, but those weren't "people" as in humans, so it didn't matter too much to me. I looked straight ahead, keeping my head high, then stared at the door while waiting for something to happen.

Investigative Officer Shadow Watch
Interrogation room

Around fifteen minutes ago I had left my office with saddlebags containing autopsy reports of those dead changelings. I also grabbed some pens and an empty notebook, I figured those things could be useful, assuming that monster thing is smart enough to know how to communicate with us, yet isn't able to "talk". I doubted it could speak Equish anyway. I adjusted the collar of my coat and walked through a doorway, now I was a mere straight hallway away from the interrogation room.

I had to admit, I was getting a bit nervous at this point. I haven't seen it yet, but from what I've read in the reports regarding all the injuries it caused, it had to be huge and very muscular. Probably measured at around 3 metres tall at least, and all I had on me was a simple revolver, but what wouldn't I do to successfully close a case? Few things to be honest. I wiped the sweat off my forehead and approached a pair of guards standing by the door to my destination.

"Good afternoon, guardsmen," I greeted them with a slight smile on my muzzle to mask my nervousness. They nodded in response and made space for me to enter through the door. I was now confronted by two familiar doors. The door on the right led to the observation room, separated from the interrogation room with a one-way mirror. I presumed there were ponies inside already, judging by the two guards standing in front of the other door. The door leading to the room with the Everfree beast inside. The guards stepped aside and I entered the room, not wanting to keep myself waiting much longer, despite the potential danger.

It was there. In front of me. It sat on a chair and stared right at me. I took a deep breath and approached the table. I...I expected a much more imposing figure, something closer to a bugbear, but this thing... It had no fur, no claws, no horns, no fangs and it didn't look particularly muscular. It looked quite tall, but not as tall as I had imagined. How could something like this obliterate a changeling camp? I didn't know that yet, but I'd make sure to find out one way or another, if it helps the investigation. Perhaps it had something to do with the weird metal "frame" attached to its limbs and that....metal arm. Either way...I still felt a bit afraid around it.

Object C-04 "Rex"
Interrogation room, Location unknown

A pony in a jacket and a pair of glasses on his nose entered the room and walked up to the table. This pony had no horn nor any wings, so this must be a "regular" pony. He carried saddlebags on his back which were stuffed to the brim with something that looked like folders. I could see him shake a little as he set them down beside the table, followed by a deep breath. He took his jacket off and hung it on the chair, revealing his dark purple coat and onyx mane.

I watched him closely as he sat down at the opposite side of the table. He reached into his saddlebags and confirmed my assumptions about their contents by pulling out a bunch of folders and placing them on the table. I wondered what was inside them...were they related to all the bugs I killed in that camp? Who was I kidding, why else would he have come here?

I noticed him looking at me once more and heard him clean his throat. "You probably do not understand me, but an introduction is still in order. I am-" He stopped mid-sentence and took a deep breath. "I am Shadow Watch and there's something we have to take care of before we proceed,"

I looked at him with a raised eyebrow. What did he want to do? He reached with a hoof into a saddlebag and took a notebook and a pen out. Hmm, he was probably going to write a protocol or some notes for himself, nothing out of the ordinary. He looked towards me and pushed the pen and notebook to me. "If you are able to, draw or write responses on the paper, either is fine," He spoke while pointing at the notebook with a hoof.

I put my working cuffed hands on the notebook and leaned forward a little. "I do not believe that's going to be necessary, sir," I responded to him in a calm tone.

His face turned from that of slight worry to utter and complete shock. "G-gah!? Wh-what the fuck?!" He jumped up and fell down to the ground with his chair. "Ow!" Yeah...it also sounded like he smacked his head pretty hard.

"Is everything alright down there, mister?" I asked with genuine concern. "I didn't mean to shock you that much," I noticed in the corner of my eye that a revolver and some ammo fell out of one of his jacket's pockets.

He stood up while rubbing the back of his head with a hoof and groaned in pain. "Unghh...I'll...I'll be fine...," He picked the chair back up and sat down on it. "Just give me a moment to process this...," I leaned back in my chair in response to this and remained silent, meanwhile he adjusted his glasses.

A few minutes had passed before he spoke up again. "You can talk...great...a beast from the Everfree that can talk, that's definitely something we needed here," I frowned a bit after being called a beast, though in their and his eyes I definitely was one. He took a deep breath and looked at me straight in the eyes. Those ponies look a bit cute, I gotta admit that.

"Let's just begin. The sooner we get this over with, the sooner I'll be out of here, away from you and analysing other evidence." He said to me. Evidence, huh? I didn't expect whatever country I'm in to investigate and interrogate a "beast", this must be a bizarre place to live in. Time to present my condition then.

"Understandable, however there's one thing I want before you ask me anything," I leaned forward and spoke in a serious tone. "I want an audience with whoever is in charge here,"

He looked at me with a titled head then shook it. "You bastard....I'll be damned... Fine, but only if you cooperate, answer all questions and behave. I'm agreeing only because you know things we don't and even then I can't guarantee anything,"

I nodded and responded with a slight smile on my face. "You have my word, sir. I'll provide you with all the information you need," I didn't expect that to work out at all, but that's great. Maybe they'll help me get back home, to the Empire, or at least tell me were I am, but this was probably just wishful thinking. At least my feeling of having no set direction had subsided for now. As a sign of goodwill, I pushed the notebook and pen back to him.

"Thank you," He said as he opened it then picked the pen up. How did they even hold these things? I didn't think I wanted to know. "First question. Who or what are you?" He pointed the pen at me as he spoke.

Before I knew it, I instinctively responded to him. "Object C-04, Codename "Rex"," He wrote things down as I spoke.

"C-04, that's an odd name. Next question, what were you doing in the Everfree Forest?" He once again pointed at me with the pen.

"The Everfree Forest?" I asked confused.

"That's the name of the forest near where you were captured. I'll repeat, what were you doing there?"

Huh, that's a pretty nice name for a forest and jungle in one. "I was trying to get out of it, I couldn't stay in it for long in order to survive," I had to try and avoid revealing information about my ship, even if I had to bend the truth a little.

"Makes sense, that Tartarus forsaken shithole is unliveable." He chuckled a bit and wrote my response down. "That being said, how did you get there?" Fuck, that's a question I really didn't want being asked.

I lifted my hands up and rubbed my chin with my mechanical arm. "I think I had a really bad accident, I don't know the details,"

He narrowed his eyes and looked at me. "Sounds plausible enough to me, we've had ponies disappear there a bunch of times. A serious question now, why did you kill those changelings?"

"Changelings? Do you mean those bugs, sir?" I asked him, to which he responded with a nod. I thought for a moment and was immediately reminded of the three bugs I murdered before stumbling upon their camp. My head sunk and breaths grew deeper. "I...," I swallowed the spit in my mouth and tried to compose myself. "I...I couldn't let them find my resting place...I didn't want more attention and when I found the camp...I had to defend myself..." I conveniently omitted the fact that I ate one of them, even thinking about it made me feel sick again. Besides, this guy probably had enough just from reading the reports.

He looked through his folders and pulled two of them out. "Hmm, deep in the Everfree, death by blunt trauma. Two corpses. Is that correct?"

I frowned and nodded. "Yes..,"

He closed the folders and put them aside. "Moving on, how did you reach their camp? Changelings are quite good at hiding, finding it must have been quite hard." He questioned.

I took a moment to collect my thoughts and to push away my remorse for now. I shook my head and spoke. "Not at all, I followed their foot- I mean hoofsteps, then hid in a bush once I spotted it,"

"That explains the corpse near a bush, you hid in there and were spotted,"

"That's right, sir,"

"Both of us know what happened next, but there is something that boggles my mind. You killed all of them except one, a changeling officer. You spared him and took him with you. Although kidnapped is a more apt word for this." He put his pen down and rested his chin on his hooves.

"I intended to extract information from him about where I was," I looked down at my handcuffs then back at the interrogator.

"So you didn't know where you were at all, interesting. Did you find anything out while hiding in that bush? Did you hear anything?"

"I'm afraid not, at most I can tell you that they looked like soldiers, well prepared soldiers,"

"I figured as much, probably infiltrators," He sighed. "Those bloody bastards...," He closed his notebook got up. "I've heard everything I wanted to hear. You'll have to wait here for a moment, I'll be back," He said while collecting everything and putting it back in his saddlebags.

"Not going to ask if I found anything there?" I looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

He shook his head and adjusted his glasses. "We already searched the camp and found what we were looking for," He began heading for the door out of the room, but stopped for a moment to pick his gun and ammo up and stuffed them in his jacket's pockets. "Bloody hell...," I heard him say quietly.

"If you did, then why bother interrogating me?" I asked, slightly confused.

"Because going through what we found would take an awful amount of time and be a pain in the arse and as I mentioned before, you knew things we didn't, so might as well get this over with first," He then left the room and closed the door behind him.

Investigative Officer Shadow Watch
Interrogation room

I took a deep breath upon leaving the room and wiped my forehead with a hoof. The interrogation went surprisingly smoothly and I was glad fo have it behind me now. I didn't learn many new things regarding the changeling camp from it- him, but at least our current findings were confirmed. Now I had to get him that audience he wanted, it'd be a matter of time until Celestia wanted to talk to him anyway.

I took off my glasses for a moment and wiped them clean against my jacket, then put them back where they belong while walking towards the other door. That door led to the observation room and I bet the guards there were shitting their pants while watching, heh. I opened the door and stepped into the dark room.

Inside I found two guards, one of them an officer. They were talking about something, but I couldn't quite hear it as they kept their voice down, so I got closer.

".... that thing didn't rip his head off," I heard the officer say once I got within hearing range,

"Whose head wasn't ripped off?" I asked after approaching them.
"Ah, Officer Watch, we were just talking about how your interrogation went," The officer said and the other guard nodded.

I rolled my eyes in response. "You shouldn't doubt my abilities,"

"Why- I would never!" The officer exclaimed loudly.

I shook my head. "That being said, I felt like my heart was going to jump out of my chest. It was hard to remain calm in front of...him,"

The guard patted my back with a hoof while the officer spoke again. "Eh, he was cuffed, nothing would have happened to you. What are we going to do with him now?"

"Give him what I promised, an audience with the Princesses or just Celestia," I said and smiled at the guard who patted my back.

"I'm afraid we cannot do that, t-" He said while scratching his right cheek with a hoof

"What do you mean we can't do that? We'd just be delaying the inevitable!" I interrupted him, slightly angered.

"Because s-" He tried to speak, but I interrupted him once more.

"Don't you try to talk horseshit about "it's for safety reasons" or "because he's a danger to the Princesses." You and I know well that they can take care of themselves, no matter what," I looked at him with a scorn expression, I wasn't about to let him ruin my plan and harm the investigation.

He looked down to the ground and- Ting, ting, ting. What in Tartarus was that? I turned in the direction of where that came from, which just so happened to be where the one-way mirror was. "Oh fuck," I said to myself and noticed the guards looking at the source of the sound with me. C-04 got up from his chair and now stood in front of the mirror, poking it.

"Was it not supposed to be concealed by magic to look like a wall by any chance?" I asked turned my head back to them.

"He must have heard us somehow," The guard who so far was quiet said.

"Let's go and cart him off to the Princess," I said and moved towards the door. I looked behind me and saw that the guards were occupied with looking at the handcuffed biped. "Come on, you twats! Hurry your asses, I don't have all day!" I shouted at them, which made them jump up slightly and run up to me. "Hmpf, you'll have enough time to stare at him later," I said and left the room with them.

Object C-04 "Rex"
Interrogation room, location unknown

I tapped the wall with my finger again. It looked like a wall, yet it felt like glass to the touch and made glass sounds. On top of that, I was almost certain that I hear some voices behind it... Perhaps this was some sort of advanced illusion? Based on what I had seen so far, their technology is quite behind the Empire's tech, but this is something really unique. I put my palm on it and sure enough, it did feel like glass. It had to be a mirror or a window of sorts-

"Be careful or you'll break it," My train of thought was interrupted by the voice of Shadow Watch addressing me, he must have entered the room while I was distracted. I obliged and removed my palm from the wall, then returned to my seat. I sat down and looked at him and noticed two guards standing beside him. They seemed to be slightly less happy to be in the same room as him.

"These two fellows behind me will take you to your audience," He spoke and briefly glanced at them, one of them I recognised as the commanding guard who brought me to this room. "I'd love to do it myself, but I have other things on my head to handle," I watched as he approached the table and put his packed saddlebags onto his back. "Remember, should you step out of line, then you'll end up back in that cell and our deal is over," He spoke in a slightly harsher tone, to which I nodded in response.

"Glad that we got that cleared up," He smiled briefly and walked past the two guards, then presumably got away from here as far as he possibly could. The two guards meanwhile exchanged some looks and stepped deeper into the room. "

You've heard the man, get your ass up and get moving," One of them said to me and closely observed my movements as I stood up, facing them. "Now leave the room and walk out into the corridor," The other one, the higher-up, said.

"Yes sir," I said to them and proceeded to leave this less than pleasant to the eye place. I heard their hooves clop behind me as I walked, which made me sigh. At least I was getting somewhere right now, assuming I didn't get tricked at any given point during the interrogation and wasn't going to end up in that prison cell again. I went through the door leading into the hallways, then one of the two guards moved in front of me, while the other walked behind me. I looked down at him and followed him.