//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5 
// Story: The Scent of the Sea 
// by totallynotabrony 
//------------------------------//

	Gibbs stared impassively at the blue unicorn across the table from him.  Based on the information that had been gathered, it seemed likely that NCIS could convict him for something, but exactly what remained to be seen.
“How did you know Petty Officer Wheeler?” asked Gibbs.
Telescope shifted nervously.  “We were very good friends.”
“How did you learn that he was dead?” Gibbs dropped a pair of reading glasses on his nose and began going through a manila folder on the table.  It contained Ducky’s psychoanalysis of Wheeler, with notes from Rarity on Telescope.  There were also a few photos.
“Uh, Agents DiNozzo and David told me,” said the pony.
“When was the last time you saw Wheeler?”  Gibbs’ voice sounded bored.  “Did he look like this?”
The picture Gibbs laid in front of the pony had been taken of the Petty Officer’s post-autopsy body.  Telescope looked away and said nothing.
Behind the glass, Tony said, “Sure looks guilty to me.”
There was a general murmur of agreement, interrupted by the telephone ringing.  Ziva answered it.
“Wait, slow down Abby.”  The Agent listened for a moment, her face slowly changing to a look of disbelief.  
Ziva glanced at the rest of the observers in the room.  She spoke into the telephone.  “Gibbs won’t like it, but I agree that he should know.  Thank you Abby.”
McGee burst into the room at that moment, carrying a laptop computer.  “Was that Abby on the phone?” he asked.
Ziva nodded.  “She said she got a DNA match to Petty Officer Wheeler, but—”
“You’re not going to believe this,” said McGee, putting the computer down so all could see.  “I found these pictures on Wheeler’s computer.”  
The first photo showed the man naked.  McGee had thoughtfully blurred out the sensitive areas.  He clicked through the set of photos one by one.
The last picture in the series showed a green-coated pony where Wheeler had stood.  He was smiling and had his hoof around Telescope’s neck.
“How do we know this is real?” stammered Tony.
“When Abby ran the green hair we found through the pony database, we didn’t get a match,” explained McGee.  “But we reran it and did get results from the Navy database.  It belonged to Wheeler.”
“How do you get turned into a pony and keep the same genetics?” Tony demanded.
“Magic,” said Twilight.
“The sad part is, that explanation probably makes more sense than anything else in this case,” noted McGee.  He walked over to the control panel for the interrogation room.
Gibbs had a list of rules that he expected his Agents to live by.  Number 22 was: Never, ever bother Gibbs in interrogation.
Rules were meant to be broken, and this was important.  McGee pushed the intercom button.  “Boss?  We’ve got something here that you should know about.”
Gibbs looked up at the one-way glass in annoyance.  He got up and walked out the door.  “This had better be good,” he said, entering the observation room.
McGee showed him the series of pictures.  Twilight helped explain about the spell Telescope had apparently performed.
“It takes a lot of concentration and willingness from the participants,” she said.  “It’s not something you could do to a random person on the street.”
Gibbs nodded.  His usually calm demeanor had slipped a little during the slide show, but it reappeared as quickly as it had gone.
"I'll go have a chat with him about it," said Gibbs.  The expression on his face deepened slightly.  The NCIS Agents knew that look well.  Telescope was about to get broken.
As Gibbs exited the room, Tony said, “Place your bets.”
“Forty-five seconds,” said McGee.
“Thirty,” responded Ziva.
Gibbs walked into the interrogation room and sat down.  “We found a set of photos on Wheeler’s computer.  You turned him into a pony.”
Telescope’s eyes went wide.  “He…wanted me to.”
Gibbs stared at the unicorn.  “And then what happened?  He just died, didn’t he?”
The stallion nodded reluctantly.   “I don’t know what happened.  I didn’t mean to kill him.  A couple minutes after the transformation, he said he felt sleepy and then…he just didn’t wake up.”
“Did you try to cover it up?” asked Gibbs.
“I—I didn’t want to.  I didn’t want it to look like magic killed him.  An hour or two later after he turned back, I left him in another part of the city, and hoped it would look like some other pony did it.”  Telescope looked like he was holding back tears.
Gibbs nodded.  “It’s all right, you didn’t kill him.”
The pony looked up.  “What?”
“Wheeler died from an overdose of sleeping pills,” explained Gibbs.  “You’re not guilty of murder.”
Telescope breathed a sigh of relief.
“You’re still going to jail,” said Gibbs.  “Covering up evidence is a crime.”  He got up and left the room.
“Thirty-seven seconds to confession,” said Tony.  “Not quite a new record, but still impressive."



The ponies stayed in the interrogation area.  After Gibbs had gotten most of the answers, Applejack had gone in to ask a few follow up questions.
Telescope may not be a murderer, but there was still plenty of paperwork for the RIS representatives to file.  In addition, Fluttershy was giving him emotional counseling.  She had training in how to deal both victims and perpetrators of crime.  
Back in the NCIS workspace, McGee was displaying the other, slightly less important thing he had discovered on Wheeler’s computer.
“I found this picture,” he said, gesturing to the flatscreen.
“It’s Joyce Bach,” said Ziva.
“But look at the file name,” said McGee.  “It says ‘Joyce Naismeth’.”
“Isn’t that the same as Wheeler’s commanding officer?” asked Tony.
McGee nodded.  “I checked.  She’s his daughter.  Naismeth and his wife are divorced.  A couple of months ago, Joyce changed her name to Bach, after her mother.”
“Is that related to her breakup with Wheeler?” asked Ziva.
Just then, Rainbow, Applejack, and Twilight came back.
“I’ll go over to Joyce’s place and have a talk with her,” said Tony quickly.  He got up from his desk.
“Rainbow, Applejack, why don’t you go with him?” suggested Twilight.  “It’s always good to have partners.”
Tony set his jaw, but said nothing.  McGee and Ziva traded a look.  They had both noticed Tony’s reaction to ponies.
The NCIS agent disappeared into the elevator with the Equestrians following him.  Twilight turned to the other two.
“I got in contact with RIS headquarters,” she said.  “I knew I’d heard of Cormack Observatory before.  Some stolen equipment from there turned up in Equestria not long ago.  We think it has connections to organized crime.”
“Do you think Telescope is involved?” asked McGee.
“Well, he does work there,” noted Twilight.
“We might as well go have a look,” said McGee.
Gibbs walked in.  “Ziva’s going.  I need you to meet the press.”
“Uh, what press, boss?” asked McGee.
“The ones that showed up in the last half hour asking about a pony murdering a human.”  Gibbs’ voice was harder than usual, and McGee knew what he was thinking.  Somehow, the story had leaked.
“Do you need help, Tim?” Twilight asked.
“No, I think I can handle it.”  McGee sighed.  “It’s just not going to be very fun.”
“You can come with me,” said Ziva.
“Sure.”  Twilight followed her to the elevator.
McGee prepared a few notes.  He didn’t know how the case had managed to slip out to the media, but now his job was damage control.
It was not a formal press conference, but half a dozen reporters still made McGee regret not taking more public speaking classes in college.
“Here’s what we know,” said McGee, trying to sound casual.  “Petty Officer Bryan Wheeler was found dead from an overdose of prescription sleep aids.”
“So a pony wasn’t involved?” asked one of the news hounds.
“We can’t confirm or deny that at this time,” said McGee.
“Is there any truth to the story that Wheeler was living with a pony?” asked a female journalist.
“There was no cohabitation,” McGee answered.  “Where did you get that idea?”  Are you throwing stuff out to see what sticks? he wanted to add.
Without answering McGee’s question, the reporter asked another of her own.  “Was there a relationship going on?”
“We can’t confirm or deny that at this time.”  Despite McGee’s answer, all the journalists began writing furiously in their notebooks.  He sighed.



“I noticed that you speak with an accent,” said Twilight.  She sat in the passenger seat as Ziva drove.
“I am originally from Israel,” answered the woman.
“It’s fascinating,” said Twilight.  “We don’t have very much cultural diversity in the other world, despite all the different species.  We all speak nearly the same language and have similar customs.”
Ziva turned into the parking lot of Cormack Observatory.  It was located on a little rise overlooking the ocean, so the view of the stars would be unobstructed by city light.
Twilight thought about the poem they had discovered in Wheeler’s notebook.  While she didn’t detect any particular scent from the nearby salt water, the landscaped grounds of the observatory did seem like a romantic place to bring a lover.
Ziva had arranged a meeting with the head of the observatory, a spectacled man named Benson.  “We came to talk about Telescope,” she told him.
“I heard that he was arrested.  Whatever for?” asked Benson, peering curiously at the two investigators through his thick glasses.
“We’d rather not discuss charges until we’re sure we know everything,” said Ziva.  “Now, we would like to ask about the items that have been going missing.”
“Well, it’s nothing really significant to national security, if that’s what you’re worried about,” said Benson.  “It’s just kind of expensive.  I’ve heard that there’s a good resale market for human optical equipment in Equestria.”
“It’s true,” said Twilight.
“I don’t think Telescope is involved, though,” said the man.
“What makes you say that?” asked Ziva.
“Two things,” said Benson.  “First, I knew about his relationship with Mr. Wheeler.  They thought they were sneaky, and thought I can’t see what’s obvious because my glasses are as thick as the lenses in the observatory telescopes.”
“Did you threaten to tell anyone?” Ziva said.
“No, that’s not what I meant at all,” said Benson.  “Once I told Telescope what I knew, he and Bryan both opened up to me a little.  I felt that I knew them both very well, and that’s why I doubt that he was involved in stealing anything.”
“What’s your other reason?” asked Twilight.
“Well, once I heard he was arrested, I checked back though the electronic records and discovered a few interesting things.  Every employee here has an ID card.   You have to swipe it in a reader to get in the door.”
Benson held up his own card to demonstrate.  “Now, I found that Telescope’s card was being swiped more often than usual, and at odd hours.  A few of those times occurred during a time when he went back to Equestria for a vacation.  And…” he added dramatically “…the card has been used after Telescope was arrested and in custody.”
“When did this begin?” asked Twilight.
“Only a couple of months ago, a little while after Telescope met Bryan,” said Benson.
“Do you have a security system?” asked Ziva.
“Sure,” said Benson, “but every time the card was used, the camera mysteriously went blank.”
“You didn’t notice this before?” asked Ziva, incredulously.
Benson looked embarrassed.  “Well, I never had a need to check the system until now.”
“Can I see where the camera is installed?” asked Twilight.
“Sure.”  Benson led the two of them outside to where the card reader was overlooked by the security camera.
Twilight closed her eyes and walked around in a slow circle.  She seemed to be following some invisible signal.  A few minutes passed before she appeared to find what she was looking for.
“There was definitely magic used here,” she said.  “The same spell to block the camera was used several times.  I’ve got a feel for it, and I think I could probably sense the pony who cast it if I got close enough.”
She and Ziva asked Benson a few follow up questions before getting back in the car.
“How does magic block technology?” asked Ziva.
“It’s all about creative problem solving,” replied Twilight.  “You may not have a spell to do what you want, but perhaps you can use something else.  For instance, I have no idea how to disrupt a camera internally, but I do know how to put a dark cloud in front of it.  The end result is the same—no video.”
“That makes sense,” said Ziva.  “When I was with Mossad, we had a similar idea.  The phrase ‘by whatever means available’ was practically our mantra.”
“Fascinating,” said Twilight