Teddy clears his throat into a hoof before reciting the riddle: "Two identical Canterlot Guards stand before two identical doors. One door leads to heaven while the other leads to hell and these guards won't let you anywhere near the doors. The only way to figure out which door leads to where is to ask the Guards about it. One guard will always tell the truth while the other will always lie. You can only ask one question to each of the guards to try and figure out which door is which before opening one and entering wherever it leads." Teddy begins to pace back and forth in front of them as he explains. "Now, I thought I'd try and apply this riddle to this situation as it was the closest fit I could come up with. The answer is to ask which door the other guard would say leads to heaven. The truth of a lie is a lie, and the lie of a truth is a lie. While the honest guard will give the truth, the liar will always say the opposite of the truth. As a result, both guards will point us towards heaven as the honest guard tells us that the liar is actually likely to say and the liar will tell us the opposite of what the honest guard says and point you to hell, also. So, you go for the opposite door and get to heaven. But I hit a snag. A series of snags:" He stops, turning to face Shield. He sits down and raises a hoof. "One! The guards know which door is which, which allows them to either lie or tell the truth. We have no idea who the agent is in here except for the spy, who will always lie about being the spy." He raises a second hoof: "Two! The honest ponies that don't know as much as the agent here cannot help us win the same way as they may accuse anyone of being the agent. The agent my change tactics because I'm telling you all about this!" He suddenly realises that he has no third hoof free so drops the hooves back on the floor and carries on. "Three! We have four doors that lead to hell and only one that leads to heaven in that we have four innocent ponies and one guilty party. We might have two chances but that's still odds that are not in our favour. When we aren't able to just throw ponies at the problem for fear of sending them to a world of hurt, it puts a great strain on all decisions." "So..." He adds, hopeful and a little short of breath. "Does any of that help?"
"Er," said Shield. "No offence, but I don't see how that helps us. I mean, you pointed out the reasons it didn't help us yourself." "But," he continued, "it's a start. Keep thinking like that, and we're bound to find the spy soon." Or at least an innocent pony who's only a suspect, said the back of his mind with some despair, but he ignored that thought. Positive thinking could get them through this, and as long as there was hope, there was room for positive thinking. "Now, I've been trying to notice subtle things about how everypony has been acting. I won't share any of my potential evidence yet, because once I say it out loud, the spy will be alerted to exactly what I am watching for, and will tread all the more carefully around that because of it. But, I assure you, I am trying to piece this together." Shield wondered if all his observations were merely results of overanalyzation. He hoped not; in his mind, at least, they were piecing together quite nicely. There was just one more thing he was confused about.
thinks a moment 'this is getting us no where... time for something crazy' "hey I just had a thought what if there is more then one spy. Oh hey what if we all turned out to be the spy. That would be a strange twist huh?"
Shield shook his head. "No, that wouldn't be possible, because...uh...because..." He blinked. "Okay, so maybe it is possible. But still...I doubt it."
"of course it's possible thats why." pauses a moment 'forgive me shieldy' points his hoof at Shinning Shield "I accuse you!"
"NOT SO FAST! then how would the spy know to keep "the mysterous voice" informed of our actions. do remember and I quote mr. mysterous 'One of you are a part of the staff here, a spy of mine, who will be keeping me updated on the happenings in the room and will be doing as I command' The spy knows he is a spy!"
Aima glared at Rex as he spoke. His sudden confidence gave way to her suspicions and only raised her curiosity ever more. "Something is amiss here, something truly fundamental. Rex raises an excellent point, the spy knows he is a spy, bough their method of maintaining a feed of information on us may just be a simple misdirection to fuel our paranoia, though this is obvious. The thing that piques my interest is your recent change in personality, Rex. Just a moment ago you were a shell of a pony; sobbing in the corner as our hope began to dwindle. Before that you said not only to me, but to our entire group that you had placed your trust inside us, yet now you not only accuse Shield, you are now implying even more of those whom who've placed trust in are working against you..." She sighed before finishing off her rant. "Rex, I believe you're the spy. Your personality hasn't maintained a firm stance since we awoke; swapping between accusitative to hopeless in the blink of an eye. Not to mention you're the only one here who lacks a background for some odd reason."
"I agree with Aima," said Shield. He wasn't at all insulted or shocked that Rex had accused him; he had suspected Rex for a little while now, but he had honestly been surprised that he had been accused so few times. Now he was just getting what he had expected would happen in the first place. "Although I don't think the background has anything to do with it, your personality seems to fluctuate, sometimes discreetly, sometimes not so much. This is the most suspicious thing about you, to me."
"Oh so it's my change in personality that makes me suspicious. Well I got news for you I figured it out. You know it. now you are trying to shift the blame to me for a silly reason to cover your tracks. Well it's not going to work! not everyone here is a fool"
Aima cuffed a hoof around her face "This outburst is only demeaning any sort of defense you may have put up. The reason we suspect you is rooted from the fact you have done the same thing you now accuse of us of doing, well not truthfully. It's the reason we're now open about it."
"I need no defense, I know what I'm a doing. We both know what your doing and it's not going to happin this time."
Aima stared at Rex, a clear displeasure apparent in her eyes "You're being overly hostile for one who was crying just a minute ago."
"I WAS NOT CRYING! ohh... um anyway whats wrong with being hostile the spy doesn't care about us so why should we care about him"
Shield looked over at Teddy and Cal. "What are your opinions? I myself, if I am being honest, am not completely sure of Rex's guilt, and even if it wasn't the socially correct thing to do, we should hesitate to condemn him to..." He paused. "To such a fate, if he isn't the spy, without making sure that everypony else shares our feelings." He directed this last bit at Aima.
"i don't know what to say he is.He could be over emotional for all we know no offence Rex.So im undecided on this one Shield.
Teddy looks from Aima to Shield to Rex and shrugs. "I dunno. I got largely nothing. I'm not trained for this." He said. "But if Rex is innocent then he wouldn't be so defensive about putting his innocence to the test, now would he?"
"It is apperant no one is willing to accuse another pony of being the spy without hard proof. that means we need hard proof if we are to get out of here. However on this situation it is impossible to find had evidence. An odd thing though... Why did the spy agree with Shinning Shield. Wouldn't he not care who was being accused?"
Turning a blind eye to Rex's antics, which continued to make him ever the more suspicious, Shield addressed everyone in the room. "All right everypony. Let's put this to a vote. Everyone, including Rex, will vote once. Let's decide whether or not most of us think that Rex is the spy. "I, for one, believe that there is a reasonable chance of our pegasus friend here being the infiltrator." He looked at Rex. "I'm sorry Rex, but you have been acting very suspicious, especially of late. I vote yes."
Teddy had all but entirely given up at this point, if you haven't noticed. He'd sat, watching the unfolding argument like he was bored in the audience for a tennis match. His eye-lids lower as his head bounces back and forth from Rex to Shield. He settles on Shield as he asks for a final verdict. Rex...Rex did seem all over the place for whatever reason. It really wasn't normal to zip around emotionally for long periods of time but it could be just a quirk of his. Or it could be appalling acting. Would a spy really be this poorly trained? Furthermore, they needed to thin down the numbers in here. The bickering was getting them no-where and they'd wasted so much time already with all this hoof pointing. They needed something solid to base ideas on. "I vote yes." He said. It got wheels rolling and, well, even a negative is a result.
