Dissident Corruption "How long does it take for one to lie? Easy, all it takes is one phrase, four words. "I didn't do it." Yet how long does it take for one to tell the truth? A whole investigation and a lot of guilt." Croix Calvert,
Another week had gone by, and Saturday loomed in the distance. And yet was he going to do anything he normally did? Was he going to hang out with friends, talk to people, go visit Ponyville to get a cake at Sugarcube Corner? No, he wouldn't... His sister had just passed away leaving him and his parents. She committed suicide by jumping off one of Canterlot Castle's towers, and they had witnesses that testified of her placing all four of her hooves on the ledge, and jumping off. She was the happiest person in the world, she had friends, family, a future. They lied, they were lying. This wasn't true, yet he could hear his parents arguing and hoofs trotting hard on the floor just below his room.
The CCPD came to the door, their faces solemn. One mare and another colt, the mare was the one to tell his mother about the discovery of what happened to their previously missing child. He didn't hear the news until he heard his parents sobs. Sadness overwhelmed him and so he ran up too where he currently is. His mother couldn't take it and neither could his father. Even the police ponies were crying, and trying to comfort them downstairs. But they have long since left, and they were yelling in vicious agony.
They were screaming at each other again, and he was hiding in his room. Her name was Dustwind Epitaph, and now she was nothing but a memory. No, she wasn't dead, she couldn't be. He reassured himself that she would walk in through the doors any moment now, that she would comfort him and apologize for what she had done too him. Come climb into bed with him and tomorrow everything would be back to normal. The screaming subsided as he instead heard deep mourning coming from both his parents. He turned in the sheets towards the door, hoping that his elder sister would come in through the door. That his parents had started crying with joy because of the return of his sister, but he found that this wouldn't be true.
He thought of bargaining for her back, maybe a plea with death? He would beg Celestia or Luna to help him get his sister back, even they said it wasn't possible he knew they would be lying. Everyone was lying, everyone was telling him that his sister willingly took her own life, but why? Why would she do this? But she wouldn't, it wasn't her. Duskwind wasn't the kind to give up so easily, maybe she wouldn't give up on him. She wouldn't willingly step on the edge of one of Canterlot Castle's towers, and jump off into the grounds below which would have almost meant certain death. She must just be pranking us, maybe if he called for her she would come. But he knew, that she wouldn't, no matter how badly he wanted it to be so.
He buried his head inside his pillow with tears streaming down his eyes, he sobbed. The decor around the room of, "The Wonderbolts", the old action figurines of the princesses and the Elements of harmony was now locked away in the chest. A model of Canterlot Castle which he had built all by himself had been covered up. He was incredibly sad, and now he wanted nothing more then his sister in his arms when only yesterday he had swore at her and told her to leave, and never come back. It was his fault... all his fault that his sister was gone.
Why was he so mean to her, why didn't he show compassion for her? Why did he instead even let her go to visit Canterlot in the middle of the night. She was gone for a whole day after that, and only now did he hear of her fate. Fate was cruel, unforgiving, fate was heartless. Fate is the reason for his sister's demise, not him. He doesn't even remember what they argued about he just wanted all this talk of his dead sister to stop. He got up real quick, and turned towards his replica. He pulled off the cover and found the tower where his sister had jumped off, as the CCPD described it. He took a swipe with his hoof and it broke. It wasn't loud enough to attract the attention of his parents, but loud enough to satisfy his hatred for fate. Then he remembered about that stupid argument they had.
The tears turned hot in a white hot rage. He screamed into his pillow bargaining with death to take him instead. He looked towards the window and saw the full moon's ivory rays penetrate the glass veil. He thought he heard death calling to him, saying that in exchange for his life, death would return his sister safe and sound. He made no thought, no noise, no sound even though tears still swept across his blackened face. He remembered what he wanted more then anything, and now he could get it back. He walked across the carpeted floor and opened the window. He stepped onto the roof, and in relief he thought of how happy his sister would be to see her parents again only at the cost of his life. He climbed up the roof, towards the top of the slanted bricks. Once he reached the top, he peered over. He took no thought where he was, and he looked down below towards the concrete sidewalks and asphalt streets. He closed his eyes and let go of the world behind him, he fell down towards his fate. And as he well knew, fate was cruel.
He awoke with a start, now in his mind racing. He had had nightmares and dreams like that before, but never so intensely. His birthday was today, so he pulled off the sheets and set his hooves onto the cold carpeted floor, like had done so many years ago when he lost his sister.
Episode one premieres December 21st, 2012
"Give me the worst description of a liar, and you will find yourself talking about everypony around you. Everypony lies, its just a fact." Croix Calvert,
[Begin log:]
The computer screen was showing himself, a rather well groomed though looking rather frazzled colt. The computer shined a silvery blue light making him contrast with the outside darkness. Dr. Glowstone Epitaph had a grey coat coat, and a dark brown mane. He was wearing a suit, blue and black striped tie, and a white undershirt. He looked like he worked at a day job selling office supplies. He had orange eyes, and a square face. He looked at himself and began to speak to the computer.
"Right now it is 9:54pm. Today is Thursday the 15th of June." His voice was low, serpentine, and fluent. He sighed as he spoke again, "My name is Glowstone Epitaph, founder of the Epitaph Case Firm, and my assistant Mrs. Rose Hearth suggested I begin these logs." He grabbed a red folder with Celestia's insignia on it, and opened it. He turned a few pieces of paper over and exclaimed. "Ah, here it is. The case file from today, which I am still working on." Dr. Epitaph was sitting in a leather chair, behind him was a window which in poured street lights. There was a desk strewn behind him will documents, file bins, and papers all across the surface. It had office supplies such as staplers and pencil sharpeners on the sides in danger of falling off.
He sighed and then spoke again starring straight at the camera. "Dissident even until the very end. I suppose it shouldn't be a surprise that she would leave some details out, after all today's case was rather uncomfortable and quite disturbing." He ran a hoof through his hair, and leaned back in his chair. A silver keyboard was in front of him, with a mouse on a black track pad to the side of it. "Tuesday, June 13th this week at 12:40 am a little filly was murdered in front of Sugarcube Corner in Ponyville. The CCPD couldn't ascertain a suspect, so they hired us to see if we could get some results." A smug look appeared across his face. "Needless to say we did, though..." The smug grimaced and was replaced with a look of distant frustration, "...we couldn't ascertain the criminal. We did manage to find a few suspects, by interviewing the witnesses and such."
His eyebrows were concave to the bridge of his nose, and his mouth curled towards the left. This was an obvious sign of anger. He took of his suit jacket and loosened his tie, while placing the jacket on the back of his chair. He breathed heavily while running another hoof through his mane. His face relaxed with his eyebrows returning square to the top of his eyes. "Oh well, I suppose since this is a log I should start from the beginning." He breathed heavily again, and sat bending towards the screen. He had his hooves crossed and lifted on up as he began to speak. "Today is my birthday, and I woke up this morning with quite a start."
I woke up with cold sweat from the nightmare I was having. My room was in an apartment complex, with jungle green carpeting and beige walls. Last night I dreamed yet again the night of my sister's suicide, still vivid after so many years. My sheets were silver, and I pulled them out from underneath me to reveal a white under sheet. I put two hooves on the floor and looked at my nearby end table with a blue lamp and a black alarm clock. The alarm hadn't even gone off yet, and the numbers read 7:22am. I had it set for 8:00, I woke up a half our early. There was sunlight streaming from the window, near a white, square framed door. On the other side of the bed was a mirror closet holding a few boxes and suits on hangers.
With all four of my hooves on the carpet, I rubbed my eyes. I clicked the alarm on the clock, and it reset. With the faint light that was coming through the curtain, I sighed and headed towards the door. I felt for the doorknob, and twisted it open. "SURPRISE!" A small group of ponies had shouted. I jumped back in shock, resulting in boisterous laughter from the group. My living room was decorated head to toe with paper cut outs, showing different facial expressions. My coffee table had a coffee maker brewing up, "Celestia's Golden Brew" coffee, my favorite brand. There was pastries on the back counter of the kitchen, and a cake, with dark violet frosting. Decorated with light yellow rock candy, making a lined pattern along the edges. It had 39 candles on the top with red icing spelling, "Condescending Birthday Glowstone...".
I then laughed in response to seeing this. "We'll, how long did it take you to do thi?.... Ms. Hearth." The group turned to face a scarlet pony, with a dominantly orange mane, striped with yellow. This was Ms. Rose Hearth, and She had a cutie mark of a silver fire, with gold tips. She was sitting on the couch when she spoke, "Took me about 20 hours to get everything planned, ready, decorated, and you in a deep sleep so you wouldn't wake up." She smirked, and then laughed. The others did so lightly, except for a gryphon who began to speak, "Happy Birthday, though its not really my thing." The gryphon was named Gilda, who is the most recent addition to our firm. She left from Ponyville recently rather distraught, we found her in an alley behind the firm looking solemn. Marks were on her feathers from when she was just previously crying. We gave her a job working at the firm, and a place to stay just a few doors down from my apartment.
"Gilda, you sure do know how to make a colts birthday part one of a kind." I grimaced, and the rest of the group laughed. "Heyo boss, I would like to stay but me and the mrs. have plans." It was an orange pony who spoke at this, and his name was Orange Kindheart. He unfortunately has a medical condition where he cannot tell a single lie without great difficulty. In fact he tells the truth so often, we don't even have to read his face to tell whether or not he is lying. This has some major downsides, and this was demonstrated when Gilda retorted, "Plans? What plans could you possibly have?" This was the worse question she could have asked. "Well first we were going to drink some wine, then sleep with eachother, then maybe eat some leftover potato salad." He was speaking as if this was an every day thing.
Me and the rest of the group except for Gilda were laughing at this. "Okay... too much information." Gilda said while waving a claw in the air. She was standing right next to my sofa, and Rose. Orange himself had a silver shield cutie mark, with a sun encrusted upon it. He had an orange coat and a brown mane, with red irises in his eyes. He questioned, "What? What's so funny? She did ask a question." He looked confused, and this was met with a retort from me. "Its nothing Orange, but why in my apartment? Why not in my office or..." I was interrupted by Rose. "Well you see Glowstone, I figured it would be more fun for you to have just woken up, and for us to see you outside work for once." I snarled, "I assume you find it highly amusing then?" She replied, "Of course I do? Glowstone, I though you knew me better?" She stated sardonically while putting a hoof to her chest and gazing outwards as if offended. I laughed, though still slightly irritable.
"Anyways, can we eat now?" Gilda inquired. "Gilda, you have the grace that Celestia herself would have approved. But yes, let us eat!" Rose exclaimed. Gilda looked confused, clearly unable to detect Rose's sarcasm. But then she just moved on to eat some chips, grabbing some with her claws and shoving them in her beak. "Um... Happy birthday... Glowst..." A yellow pegasus had spoken. This was the first time he had the entire time, as apparently he was hiding behind the couch. This pegasus had a golden mane and maple irises. He had a golden coin for a cutie mark, with a picture of a certain pony as its insignia in the center. He had wings, as most pegasi do, but he could not use them. Well, he could its just that he was always so scared to, and he couldn't fly.
"Um... great party... I really like the, um..." He paused for a moment, looking down and rubbing a hoof on the carpet. "The cake looks good..." I replied, "Yes, yes it does. Thanks for coming Golden Cream." Golden Cream was actually one of the best readers we have. He has helped solve more then his fair share of cases, but he always was so shy. He never actually. "No problem Glowst..." He never actually said my full name, as he apparently is afraid of me. This always humored me and I found it a great source of amusement. His head was hung low, his eyes avoiding my gaze, and his mouth was shaking a little. He showed clear signs of fear, but I must commend him on the effort he was showing. "Well, lets go have some cake then shall we?"
Golden looked up a bit, then replied, "That would be nice... And, what did Orange mean by sleeping with his wife? Do they go to sleep together?" I laughed, much to Golden's shock. Golden was only a teenager, but he lived with Orange. He had fled from Ponyville, the same place Gilda came from. Gilda tells me she wasn't from Ponyville, but none the less that is where I consider her origins lie. "Hey Golden!" Yelled Orange from the kitchen. Golden jumped, and went to hide behind me. After a few moments he came out from behind me. "Yes Orange..." He said softly to Orange. "Come on and try this cake! Its amazing!" Orange was stuffing his face of the cake that Glowstone had actually been looking forward to.
