Capture the spy

Shield nodded. His mind worked overtime, trying to process all of the information he was finding, but he was having difficulties remembering it all. He was now both less sure and more sure than he'd been thus far.

In response to Teddy's rant, he said: "Yes, I was thinking that too, but we have to use what we have. What can we do besides try? Keep your mind on the task at hand, and forget about all the hopeless thoughts crowding around it. They won't help you a jot."

He looked at Teddy, an almost indiscernable look of resignment on his face. "This is hard for me, too. I am used to having real evidence, logical evidence, FACTUAL evidence, in order to determine the results of a problem. Here, all I have are facts that are hard as air. But, we have to do our best with what we're given and not waste our time complaining about the circumstances we've been thrown into. Wishing our situation away isn't going to work here. In fact, I take comfort from knowing that our situation is a hard, solid fact. At least we know the rules of this...game. It's better than nothing."

 

Aima's ears perked up in both shock and curiosity at what she had just heard. Casting aside the newly arisen developments of Teddy's suspicions of her, she spun around and studied Cal for a moment as she formulated her thoughts.

He's found himself in similar circumstance prior to today? Just what sort of confidential occupation does this fellow hold? A mere DJ wouldn't find himself trapped in a twisted spy game on multiple occasions and even afterwards one would naturally become paranoid to avoid a similar fate. However, that's not what's peculiar about this idea. Why is it now that we're only hearing about this advantage? He has past experience regarding imprisonment and suspicion based mind games, why has he not broken the mirage apart already or at least attempted to guide us through the required steps?'

The thoughts swirled around in her head before something inside of her gave way to her curiosity and rage, allowing it to spill forth without thought of the future. She approached Cal and with a begrudging smirk and placed a stern hoof underneath his chin and raised it slightly so as to bring his gaze to a level matching hers.

"You've been imprisoned before, left to figure out the identity of your captor among groups of possible victims and an incognito mole? No... Such circumstance isn't commonplace enough to occur more than once to the same individual, yet the importance of my curiosity still stands strong..."

Her grip tightened around his chin causing his cheeks to puff out slightly as the pressure became directly preportional with her ever growing wrath. A viscous look swept across her and the cybernetic eye implanted in her skull shined a sharp, glaring red.

"Why are you only now telling us of this?! Your assistance may have prevented the death of the others! WHY DID YOU WAIT UNTIL NOW!" she bellowed.

 

Shield, alarmed and worrying that the situation may dissolve into violence, quickly separated them using magic.

"Aima, please calm yourself." He said this in his usual tone of voice, sounding and appearing completely calm even though he was sick with nervousness. "Yelling will not solve anything. All it will do is make ponies clam up."

He released his hold on both of them. Pacing, but otherwise showing no signs of being on edge, he said, "I do not think he meant that statement literally, Aima. He likely meant that he had been in times where all hope had seemed lost, or something like that." He grimaced at the corniness of his own words.

"Think about it," he whispered, taking her aside. "That kind of statement would obviously incriminate him. And yes, I know he could be faking it, but taking things as they are, does he honestly seem like somepony with the..." He searched for words that weren't too harsh. "Does he strike you as a pony who could do that sort of thing convincingly? It was likely a case of saying without thinking."

 

Aima grit her teeth as her eyes shot daggers at Cal, but as Shield's words sunk inter her the intensity of her stare vanished. A large wave of breath escaped her lungs and she fell onto her flank and stared hopelessly at the ground.

"You're right, there's no point in jumping on such menial details in hope of uncovering something new. I guess I'm only getting desperate the longer I'm held in captivity..."

She looked over at Cal with clear sympathy in her eyes.

"My apologies, Cal." she turned over and looked at Shield. "Thanks for that Shield, had you not intervened the situation may have degraded into something far worse."

She slumped in her seat and hung her head, the hope slowly began to fade from her ever more.

 

"listen listen listen i've been in situtions much like this but not a spy game like this i used to work in the mob i got captured a few times and I was forced to stay in a inclosed space with some people from other fams and we would wait for our Comrades to save us or we had to kill one another in till one person stood victorius understand and i accept your apologies and if you want me to prove it i'll tell ya some of the stories i remeber"

 

"No no, that's quite all right, Cal," said Shield, not wanting to hear the gristly details. "We believe you. Well, at least, there's no reason we shouldn't, and I doubt that telling us stories will help."

He looked over to Aima and noticed that her willpower seemed to have been broken. Or perhaps it was just that she was female; he never could understand them. Furious and terrifying one moment, and then passive and depressed the next.

He sighed, exasperated that everypony around them was letting the hopelessness of their situation get to them. "Everypony...listen." He waited until he had their attention, then continued, though he was uncomfortable with speaking at length to groups. "Sitting around and crying," he gestured to Rex, "Or complaining," he added, looking at Teddy, "Will not get us anywhere. I know it's hard, but we need to concentrate. Concentrating on our task will get us through this with our sanity intact."

 

"alright then Comrades i'll try to calm Rex down the best i can he seems very upset at the moment"

 

Shield blinked. And ponies wonder why I'm so quiet...look what I've gotten myself into...

Keeping his voice level, he said, "I didn't say I knew how to escape...I said that we need to keep our wits about us. We can't keep letting our predicament distract us like this when we have more important things to do, like figuring out how to get out of here." He said this last part a tad more forcefully than his usual mode of speech, returning Teddy's stare.

 

"hahaha Rex don't worry i'll protect you from any mobsters that try to make you sleep with the fishs but yes we can be friends after we get out Comrade"

 

"don't ware it out Comrade"

 

"who exsactly are you talking to Comrade because there's a few people trying to keep others calm"

 

Shield looked at Tyro. He was dissolving into hysterics, and was completely missing what Shield had been telling him. "No, this is not 'unwinnable'. It is a very difficult, unfair, ridiculous, twisted, sick game, but it is not unwinnable. If you would like to know how I know this, here it is: I can tell just from the fact that we were put in here in the first place to play this idiotic 'game' that whoever did it is probably mentally unbalanced. I'm sure you will agree with me, nopony would just go and round up a bunch of random ponies and stick them in a room together, possibly for the rest of their lives, if they weren't mentally unstable.

"Now, I've read a few books on this sort of stuff, although I never studied it in school. Ponies like this often like to feel like they have power over everything. It gives them a sick sort of pleasure to be able to toy with things, or ponies. If he gave us no route of escape, it wouldn't be worth watching. He might as well kill us. Therefore, he gives us one very difficult way to escape, one that's unlikely to ever work. It's more entertaining to him that way.

"However, it is still a way out, no matter how unlikely it is that we will make it. Therefore, it is winnable, if my feelings are correct. If, by 'unwinnable', you mean the very fact that the chances are slim that we will escape, then let me tell you again: Looking at the situation that way WILL NOT HELP US. NOT EVEN A TINY BIT. The only thing that WILL help us is actually TRYING to figure out who the spy is!! And keeping everypony calm will help us do that, BECAUSE PONIES THINK BETTER WHEN THEY ARE CALM!"

Shield had unconsciously been growing louder and louder as he lectured Teddy. After his last sentence was shouted out, he realized what he was doing, and the irony between that and what he had been saying, and instantly recomposed himself. "Ahem...er...sorry."

 

Shield saw where this was going. He sighed inwardly, deciding that feigning ignorance about it would be the easiest option right now.

"That is correct. Without any concrete, direct evidence, there is no way to prove beyond the shadow of a doubt who the spy is. But with circumstantial evidence gained from the actions of other ponies, combined with a basic knowledge of how those ponies think, we can glean some sort of insight into who the spy is. And 'glean some sort of insight' is better than 'sit here and gripe about how we'll never escape'."

He said this in a matter-of-fact tone of voice.

 

Shield looked at him, a slight interest showing on his face. "No, I can't say that I have. How does it go?"