His coat of blue was but a simple blur when he spun around to face her glare. Orange clashed against crimson for naught but a second before her spare hoof ripped through the empty void separating their frames. The black foreleg connected with his muzzle, forcing his unprepared body to jerk to his right. Her form tumbled onto his own, her added weight pushing him off balance. The pair crashed to the hardwood floor underneath.
She was the first to regain her composure. Her hair whipped around in his hazed vision like hungry tentacles hovering overhead. With her two front legs, she pinned him against the ground, sitting comfortably against his belly. Her charcoal colored fur rubbed up against him while her hind legs secured her position above him. Her brow furrowed as she lowered her body close enough for their noses to touch.
"I don't think you understand my disposition here," she spoke in a thick, terrifying tone that contradicted everything he had ever known concerning her.
'How...why,' his thoughts pumped through his head, 'I never picked up on this before.'
A chuckle croaked out from the back of her throat. With a quick flick, her throbbing horn dimmed all of the lights in the room to nothing stronger than a filly's night light. Her coat made her almost disappear into the setting, but her heavy breathing could be felt from the distance she controlled between the two of them.
"It's never been an issue of how I felt about...her. There's just no correlation," though seemingly impossible to him, she managed to shift close enough that he could feel the air being sucked in through her mouth. His heart remained bold, a steady beat indicative of the control he'd honed over his body through the many years of working at the Agency.
"It's just a matter of how much I care about the entire problem, boy."
"Huh?" he replied, clueless about the meaning behind her words.
"It's not too difficult once you really think about it," she continued, "There are so many different types of ponies in this world."
Her grip on his useless limbs tightened as she lowered herself further. Her hair draped over his forehead as her nose pushed up against his own. "Ponies like you, Amy, and to an extent, even him. You have all taken responsibility for the lives you have carved out since your birth. You've worked hard and honed your skills, learned from your mistakes and strengthened your mind to prepare for the hardships ahead. Ponies like you...you've prepared for the future the way everypony has done for eons."
"Then you have her kind," her icy voice hissed viciously into the surrounding darkness. "I respect her skills, and how far she's come, given her unfortunate circumstances. However," she stopped once more, her voice trembling with fury, "she's not like you."
"What the hell are you going on about," he snapped back, his eyes flaring to life at the end of her sentence.
"You don't understand. I figured you wouldn't," she seethed with bitterness. "The reason I don't care for her kind is because...I can't respect her."
"Watch your tongue," he threatened.
The pressure on his body increased with another flicker of her horn. "Her kind. Born with a silver spoon in her mouth, with every which resource she'd ever need in her very hooves. Ponies like her, who've NEVER had to take responsibility for their actions and decisions because of some idiotic, fantasy that can't even be so much as proven!
"You're telling me, detective, that someone like her is free from these things just because of her condition?" her voice dragged wickedly. "You're telling me that I should respect someone who hasn't, for one day of her life, truly been what defines a pony as a pony?
"To love a machine. What a moronic ideology."
"Then why the charade!? And what about St-"
"The boss!?" She dramatically cackled at the mention. "Don't you know who the hell I am, detective!? I know everything about that colt's life. Down to the very last detail.
"I don't give a single damn about what becomes of this case, or anypony invovled," her voice echoed coldly through the office. "While we sit here and bicker senselessly about what you feel is just, the Agency is out there, wasting precious resources on something no different than the "oddities" of the Everfree Forest! Do you not understand what I'm talking about!?"
The entire compound was silent as the reality of the situation sunk into his mind. His eyes flashed against the weak light, giving the mare a perfect glance, if only for a split second, of the betrayal blanketing his face.
"...wasting resources," he muttered loud enough for her to hear. "That's how it's always been? Money, authority, immunity, and only excercising your duties on those you feel are worthy?"
"...no," she flatly replied. "It's not about wasting resources. Everypony deserves a second chance. But," she paused, "what she is...whatever she represents is not what a pony is."
"How can you say that, considering the cir-"
"I've considered the circumstances, detective," she spat at him, "but you should know above everyone else that not everything has a happy ending. Not everything that has happened here was deserved, but it doesn't change a single, god damned thing.
Not a single thing."