Silicon Chip never imagined his day would end up like this. Well, a good sized portion of his conscious did. The vast majority of it told him this would happen. Sooner or later his choices would bite him in the butt. Sooner or later, he would be sitting in an interrogation room with a blinding, hot light aimed at him and Celestia Fuastsend staring directly into his eyes. Not the soft kind of eyes that she usually carries, either. No, these ones will be red hot steel-like organic devices that belong to someone who has seen some shit and does a great job of keeping it buried unless she wants to scare someone. And that eerie prediction has come true, and not even his deodorant can stop the sweat from darkening his blue dress shirt.

Then there is Celestia, herself. Her staring is unfazed, her hands are clamped tightly in front of her, and laid out for both to see is every bit of information about Silicon's work history, bank records, payments and emails. It is enough to fill up a coffin, and he is certain that she has a shanty one picked out for him.

“Do you have a defense?” says Celestia firmly.

Silicon swallows dryly. “I have explanations, ma'am.”

Celestia's eyes narrow. “Are they a defense?”

“I needed the money.”

“I see,” Celestia slides her finger down the list of bills. “All of these bills are easily manageable with your pay grade, including your movie sites and porn subscriptions.”

Silicon's muscles petrify to solid rock, and Celestia nods slowly.

“Yes, I know what they are. I checked,” says Celestia. “Your vehicle is paid off, your apartment rent, your utilities, your internet, your phone and cable, all of it is easily manageable. Yet here we find you not only failing to meet these dates, but are also getting more money in your account than what your paycheck is normally. A whole lot more. You withdrawal most, if not all, and make little payments here and there, but the rest of the money... Gone. What is your defense?”

Silicon's eyes flick from the damning files to Celestia's red eyes, and when the Principal starts taping her fingers very... very... very... slowly, up... down... up... down... up... down, he opens his mouth. Then he closes his mouth and wrings his cuffed hands together. After some very long seconds he looks at her again, shaking his chair and sweat dripping from face.

“I needed the money,” says Silicon meekly.

“I am well aware of your claim. Tell me why,” says Celestia, her finger now glowing like the tip of a blowtorch.

Silicon hesitates. “I gamble. I gamble a lot and I go to those underground casinos and I lose a lot. Eventually it got to where I couldn't pay, so the guy in charge hooked me up with some people that would help me pay him off. All I had to do was help them out with some stuff.”

“Such as blocking or falsifying satellite feed.”

Silicon nods. “Right. I don't know why they wanted me to do it, but they paid me to do it, but the guy I owe keeps upping the payments and I can't get out. For immunity I can testify against him and he can bring you the ones who want all this mess.”

Celestia's now smoking finger stops moving and her lips curl into a deep frown as her eyes glow brighter. Silicon shrinks in his seat and looks at the one way mirror for any signs of help, but all he sees is himself trapped in a room with the strongest Huntress in the Equestrian arsenal.

“Your actions have led to the deaths of many civilians, soldiers and hunters, plus almost cost me sixteen students and my sister,” says Celestia, her tone thirsting for blood. “You're going to have to do a lot better than giving me an illegal casino owner if you want any mercy from me.”

“I don't know their names or what they look like,” stammers Silicon. “They always wore masks when they talked to me, but one called herself Lamia, and there was always two disguised people with her. One male, one female. The male was called Mammon and the female was called Lilith.”

“Where did you meet them?”

“Under the Celestial Bridge at night. They came on a speedboat. It was black with a purple stripe and was driven by another person. They were short and also had a mask.”

Celestia stares at Silicon, and even when she blows out the flame on her finger her fiery eyes are staying on him. He looks down, swallowing and shivering, and when he looks up again, Celestia is putting away the files and stacking the folders. Once done, she slides them off to the side, folds her hands on the table and zeros in on Silicon.

“Silicon Chip, as of now you have two choices,” says Celestia. “The first is you face fifty years in prison without parole for everyone that has died because of your activities plus an additional fifty one years for almost killing my students and sister. Believe me when I say that I can make it happen.”

Silicon pales and squeaks. “But-”

Celestia's hand snaps up, silencing him, and she speaks a few seconds later.

“Or, we can go with option two,” she says. “You go undercover for us, work your way into whoever these people are, report back to me with everything you find, and what you give me will determine whether or not you get immunity. Are we clear?”

Silicon nods his head at neck breaking speeds. “Yes. I'll take choice two.”

“Excellent.” Celestia pushes a buzzer on the table and the metal door slides open, allowing a pair of the full armored, gold plated guards with single horns on their full faced helmets to take Silicon away in glowing cuffs, and as he passes her, she speaks. “We'll discuss more of the arrangements tomorrow. As for now, you get a night in the dungeons.”

“The dungeons!? But I'm cooperating with you!” cries Silicon while wrestling the guards with futility.

Celestia stands up, places her hands behind her back and follows the guards out.

“You should not have put my sister in danger in the first place,” says Celestia. “Captain, put him in isolation. Make sure no other prisoner sees him. We'll begin the process tomorrow.”

“Yes, ma'am,” says one of the guards.

“Wait, can't we talk about this?” says Silicon.

“We talked enough,” says Celestia coldly, now walking in the opposite direction of Silicon and the guards.

“But you can't do this to me! I'm an Equestrian citizen! I have-”

Silicon's voice is suddenly muffled, and when Celestia enters an elevator she turns and sees a black bag over the traitor's head and his body being jerked out of sight. When the door smoothly slides shut, she closes her eyes with a deep inhale, and when she opens them her pupils are back to being purple, and a flame in her clenched fists is extinguished.

A moment later, the elevator dings and slides open and Celestia smiles brightly at an old man with receding gray a thick mustache and tiny glasses perched on his nose. In his possession is a day planner and a pen, and as is the usual case with him, he is also wearing a red suit jacket with gray cuffs, gray pants and a white dress shirt.

“Hello, Kibitz. Its a nice day isn't it?” says Celestia.

“Good evening, Celestia. The day is nice but I need to inform you that your hearing on the White Tail Woods Incident is set to start in thirty minutes,” says the old man as he hands her a locked briefcase with a sun stamped on it. “With the time it takes to get to the vehicle, get through traffic, find a parking spot, get inside the building and get to the correct room that only leaves us with a two minute window.”

Celestia pats him on the shoulder as she walks past him. “Well, we best act quickly, then.”