Caramel sat opposite of the chief in the chief’s office, Mayor Mare seated next to him. Caramel’s case file was among the papers and ornaments on the chief’s table top. The office had a couple of bookshelves, each having three levels, with each of those levels filled with books regarding philosophies of ponies Caramel had never even heard of. The other bookshelf had equally unattractive books. Beside the chief’s chair were a couple of metal cabinets containing various cases from the past. Behind Caramel, a couple of potted plants flanked the door out like Sparky and his brother had flanked the meeting room doors.
“So Caramel,” The chief spoke up, breaking Caramel’s gander around the room. “ I invited you here to discuss your case.”
“Regarding the location of where I escaped?” Caramel raised an eyebrow.
The chief nodded, “You see, we believe that wherever it was you escaped, we might be able to link the location with our current case.”
“You mean the one with ponies disappearing?”
“Well of course!” the chief spoke, a bit louder than what he wanted to sound, but Caramel didn’t seem to notice the difference. “You see, we suspect that the ponies going missing, or rather ponynapped, were brought to the same place you were brought to when you were ponynapped. But then again, it’s only a suspicion. So we can’t actually do much until we have further evidence.”
Caramel set his forehooves on the table. “Just give me a couple of minutes, I’ll try to remember the location.”
The chief held a hoof up, stopping Caramel before he closed his eyes. “But don’t you think it would be easier if you just recall the whole thing instead of just the location? At least Mayor Mare would know what’s going on, or at least have a clue to where you were.”
Caramel merely shrugged. “Well, I guess so. But that’ll take a couple of minutes as well.”
There was a knock on the door, but Caramel nor the Mayor turned. The chief nodded as Sparky came in, bringing in a couple of water bottles for Caramel and the Mayor. Caramel thanked Sparky and gave him a pat on his back before letting the junior officer leave the room.
Caramel unscrewed the cap of the water bottle with his teeth, and proceeded to drink. As Caramel lifted the bottle to his muzzle, the chief could see a couple of old lacerations on Caramel’s hoof. Setting the bottle down and whipping his muzzle with his other hoof, he started recalling.
“I woke up in a rectangular box....”
The rectangular box wasn’t that high, just high enough to fit Caramel and a series of opaque boxes with a small opening in them behind Caramel, arranged in a 3x3 cube fashion. “If I had to guess I’d say it was roughly 6 feet by 3 feet.” Caramel added. Caramel awoke to the sound of trotting around him, albeit a much hollower sound compared to the usual trotting he hears. Either that or his hearing was just messing with him again. He got up and rubbed his eyes with one of his forehooves, trying to squint into the darkness surrounding him. He reached out with his free hoof, only to feel a barrier separating him between the inside of his glass box and the freedom of the outside world. He tapped on the glass, wondering how he had gotten in there.
A stray light source was making its way through the darkness, seemingly approaching the glass prison in which Caramel was in. Caramel tapped harder on the glass, hoping to catch the attention of whoever was bringing the light around. His efforts paid off when the stray light stopped for a moment, and shined brighter than before. Caramel shielded his eyes as he tried his best to make sure his eyes could adjust to the brightness change in the room. The trotting got closer and slowed down, the light intensifying with every hoofstep Caramel heard. Caramel moved the hoof shielding his eyes and analyzed the figure standing in front of his prison. He couldn’t identify much, the glass being close to opaque. The only thing he was sure of was the shape of whoever it was being on the outside of the box. “It was a mare. A unicorn had somehow found me.”
Caramel knocked on the glass and, without receiving any response, continued rapping on the glass, hoping against all hope that whoever it was on the other side could hear him. He tried to shout, but his throat felt dry. Very dry. He could only croak as he strained his throat in an effort to release a sound. He coughed a couple of times as he watched the figure move around the room, pausing to check on something Caramel couldn’t quite identify. Caramel examined this glass prison, only noticing the opaque boxes behind him. In semi-darkness, Caramel couldn’t see what it was that was inside the boxes, but didn’t want to find out. The glass was rather thick, with a couple of pipes sticking in from the top of the box.
A voice was heard, and Caramel perked his ears up. The mare had spoken. The voice was somewhat Canterlotian, but at the same time, sounded much softer than the usual arrogant Canterlotian accent. The unicorn’s horn glowed as she spoke, making Caramel suspicious as to what the mare was planning.
“Hello Caramel.”
Caramel drew back, head nearly hitting the opaque boxes behind his head. He fell back onto his rump as he tried his best to find out how the mare knew his name. Adrenaline started pumping through his veins, and he found the lubrication in his throat enough to enable him to speak.
“Who are you? And what the buck am I doing in this thing?” Caramel sounded more like he was demanding than asking. Well why shouldn’t I be, I’m trapped in this thing, and Celestia knows what she might be planning. Caramel heard a snicker on the other side of the box before it spoke up again.
“Who I am is of no importance. But know this, you are here because of the wrong you have done that could have worsened the hunger in rural areas of Equestria.”
Caramel was confused. He had no idea what the mare meant by “rural areas”. He wasn’t even sure what rural meant. And he sure as hell did not know anything about hunger anywhere else but his own stomach.
“You see, you actually thought that no one would notice your attempt to sabotage the Apple Family crops during Winter Wrap Up? Sure they were only grass seeds, but without grass, there would be nothing else around to retain water for the apple trees to grow.”
Caramel was bewildered. What was this mare talking about? He hadn’t sabotaged the Apple Family crops! He never would, and never will! The mare must have been crazy. And if there was no water around, the pegasi would still bring rain around whenever the rain is needed.
The glow on the unicorn’s horn intensified as she spoke, “Even thought that crisis was averted, a crime shouldn’t go unpunished now shouldn’t it?”
Caramel was outraged. He started banging on the glass of the box. The mare merely snickered before speaking. “Bang all you want, there’s nothing much you can do about it. Now was I....Ah yes, your punishment.”
Caramel shouted aloud, hoping to make sure that the mare wasn’t going to make a very big mistake. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, and I know you must be crazy enough to make up a screwed up theory like that!”
The mare laughed at those words. “Theory you say?” The mare snorted. “How would you like to explain the loss of the grass seeds? You knew how important those seeds would be, and that the earth ponies could not be able to depend on the pegasi all the time. You, of all earth ponies, SHOULD know that.”
Caramel gave up trying to talk sense into this mare. He sighed, and prepared to take whatever it was the mare would do. I mean, what’s the worst she could do since she was outside?
“The box you are in now is what I call the drowning hole.” Caramel shifted in his place upon hearing the name. “The box will slowly fill up with water until it pours out of the hole that has the pipes sticking in. The only way out is to stick your hooves into the series of boxes behind you, and press a couple of buttons in order to activate a sledgehammer, which will swing down from the ceiling and smash the glass box.” Caramel turned around, and almost stuck his hoof in when he noticed something. Needles. The light illuminating from the unicorn’s horn was just enough for Caramel to notice the needles in the box. “Though you wouldn’t be off that easily. Inside the boxes, are needles, and to reach the buttons, you’ll have to make sure you get past the needles, which won’t be that easy.”
“Either way, you either get out with your hooves riddled with holes, or drown in the box. In exchange for freedom, are you willing to comply by the rules set by others? Or much simpler, are you willing to get hurt to get yourself free? The choice is yours. Let the game begin.” Before Caramel knew it, the mare had reached over to the side of the box and pulled a lever. At first nothing happened, and then suddenly, Caramel could feel wetness pouring all over his mane, before the water cascaded down his face and chest. The mare gave a maniacal laugh and disappeared as the glow from her horn dissipated.
By the time the mare had disappeared, the water had reached his horseshoe level. “Not that I was wearing horseshoes at the time anyway.” Caramel didn’t waste time, turning around to look into the opaque boxes. He had managed to see which one of the boxes contained the buttons, which reduced the number of boxes to two, which was enough for him. He tested out out of the boxes by sticking his hoof in one of the boxes with the buttons. The moment he stuck his hoof in, he knew it was a mistake, but he continued anyway. The first needle that grazed his hoof was not felt as he was determined to get out. But when he felt the second needle prick his hoof, he slowed down, but sped up, believing that the quicker he gets this over with, the quicker the pain will be gone.
However, when he was in range of the button, a needle, right above the button, pierced right in the middle of his hoof. He hadn’t noticed the needle, seeing that a needle, head-on, is almost unnoticeable. Caramel didn’t even seem to notice until the searing pain of the needle told him that his hoof could still respond to stimuli, but by the time he did notice, he had already reached the button.
By the time the pain had set in, the water level was almost reaching his hock level. Maintaining a hoof on a button, he struggled to reach his hoof over to another opaque box, roughly a foot away from the first box with the button. He didn’t even think his move over before shoving his entire hoof into the box, ignoring the piercing pains of each needle within the box. And to his surprise, he couldn’t feel the circular button on the inside of the box. Just the pricking pain of the needles embedded in his hoof.
He moved his hoof around the inside the box, further piercing the already-deep needles, but he didn’t seem to care. He just continued pushing his hoof in, hoping to locate a button, a lever or anything that could get him out. That’s when a possibility struck him. What if this was the wrong box? No, it couldn’t be. Caramel had seen with the limited light that only two boxes had buttons, so it was virtually impossible for him to miss the box with the button.
Then where the buck is the button?! The water level had risen to his neck level, and the first three opaque boxes that didn’t contain the buttons went under. Caramel withdrew his hoof from the box, convinced that the box didn’t have the button, despite knowing that he had seen a button inside the box earlier.
Cringing at the pain for the first time, Caramel couldn’t avoid having water intensifying the pain of his wounds. He was about to give up as the second line of opaque boxes went under. He had remembered something Twilight had often mentioned to Applejack whenever a barrel of water couldn’t be open. Why bother opening a barrel of water when you can just buck it open and still get what you need? He wasn’t sure what sort of sense Twilight was making when she said that, however, one thing she explained got through. Or at least, he hoped it got through.
If the pressure coming from the outside is greater than the pressure on the inside, then the barrel would just implode, so to speak. But Caramel was inside a box, slowly filling up with water. If he were to even try bucking the glass, the best he could do was create cracks on the glass. He was never that strong. But then he remembered something else Twilight had mentioned, something that would save Caramel’s life.
As the pressure within a certain area builds up, the pressure acting on the surroundings would increase as well, making things break easily should the pressure continue. Caramel took his other hoof out of the opaque box and prepared to test out Twilight’s idea, hoping to Celestia that he had enough force to buck through the glass and get through. The water level had risen to his jaw level by the time he had raised his rearhooves and bucked at the glass.
The water had slowed the impulsive force on the glass, but it was enough to make a crack in the glass big enough for water to leak out. However so, it wasn’t enough for Caramel. The water may be leaking out, but he will still drown if he doesn’t make sure more leaks out. He raised his rearhooves one more time, trying his best to ignore the stinging pain in his forehooves, and bucked at the glass.
What had been a spiderweb of a crack on the glass box, now exploded outwards as the combined force of his bucking and the pressure on the glass paid off. Shards of glass sprayed out in a wide area, the water carrying the sharp hazardous ones away before Caramel inched out of the box. The water from the pipes were still flowing, and that was when Caramel had forgotten about one thing.
The sledgehammer.
In a flurry of motion, Caramel rolled to his right, cutting himself several times as he rolled across the glass, just as a sledge hammer swung down from the ceiling, completely smashing the glass box to pieces. Caramel cringed a second time at his wounds as he bit into the glass that had cut into him before spitting it back out.
Well, at least this isn’t as bad as drowning and getting smashed to pieces. Bleeding, but not dead, Caramel started finding a way out of the room. Several lockers nearby had been left open, but all Caramel could find were several bottles of water and some disinfectant. He bit into the bottle of water, completely crushing it as the water travelled not only down his throat, but all over his face as well. He left the disinfectant alone though, not knowing how to use it himself.
Careful not to step on the glass shards that went with the flow of the water still flowing from the pipes, Caramel followed the way he had seen the mare come through. As he walked through the hallways, he could hear the other voices of ponies, screaming, crying, pleading. He could smell the death all around him, the only recognizable one being burnt flesh. He felt like throwing up immediately, but he didn’t want to make his presence known. So he didn’t. Not long after he found a side door that didn’t look like it was secured. Glancing around, he trotted over to the door and opened it. Caramel cringed again for a third time as the sudden blast of light filled the hallway he was in, blinding him temporarily. Caramel recovered quickly though, and proceeded through the door.
Caramel looked around his surroundings. Several of the glass shards earlier had managed to scratch his face up a bit, but the blood was already drying off thanks to Celestia’s sun. Caramel was disorientated, not knowing where he was. He had a nagging feeling like he’d been here before, but at the same time the place he was at looked foreign. He had just left what seemed to be some sort of factory, the screams coming from the inside muffled behind the thick factory walls.
He trotted straight. He didn’t know where he was going, but he knew he should get away from the place. Caramel wasn’t even sure how long he had been gone, or how he could have gotten here in the first place. After walking for several minutes, he came upon a gravel road, and decided to turn right, hoping that he was going the right way.
“Then I was just trotting. Next thing I knew, somepony picked me up from an intersection.” Caramel took his bottle of water by the neck and started drinking the cool liquid down. The chief nodded as he scribbled some notes down.
“Sounds like you’ve gone through some shit there.”
Caramel almost did a spit-take. He swallowed, coughing in the process before looking up at the chief. “Are you kidding me? That was worse than some shit! If you were there, you’d know that what went down there was not just some shit.”
The chief nodded, much to the annoyance of Caramel. “Very well then, you wouldn’t happen to remember where this worse-than-some-shit thing went down wouldn’t you?”
Caramel opened his mouth, attempting to fire back an insult, believing that the chief was not taking his story seriously, before giving up. He sighed. “I don’t remember. The only thing I remembered was trotting straight for probably an hour, maybe two before I got picked up. So that’s pretty much it.”
The chief, stretched his neck a bit, analyzing the young stallion’s words. Satisfied with what he believed was what happened, he spoke up. “Well Caramel, this is more than enough to help us progress with both your case and our case. You’re free to go now, but please, feel free to come back whenever you feel that you have something useful to tell us.”
Caramel nodded, and left the room.
Once Caramel had left, Mayor Mare started asking the chief questions. “You seem pleased with what he just said earlier. You found something?”
The chief just shrugged, before answering. “He said he was walking straight on a gravel road for around an hour or two right?”
Mayor Mare nodded.
“Now, noting his injuries and his disorientation at the time, what seemed to him like an hour or two might have in fact been longer.”
Mayor Mare tilted her head sideways. “I’m afraid I don’t follow.”
“You see, ponies that are disorientated tend to be, well, disorganized, so to speak. When he said an hour or two, it might have either been longer or shorter than the time frame he described. Stay with me here. Now judging by his tone when he said that what he saw and heard and smelled was worse than some shit, I can safely conclude that he was going through the early stages of trauma. Either trauma or disorientation can lead to false information. Even if he said he walked straight on a gravel road for an hour or two, he might actually have been tumbling around a dirt path for 4 hours straight.”
Mayor Mare nodded. She caught what the chief meant. “So what do you propose now?”
“Even as one goes through disorientation, descriptions of certain objects are rather accurate compared to time and other factors. So let’s assume that we really did walk on a gravel road, after turning right from a warehouse. The time frame I would say around half an hour or more. He couldn’t have gone on longer than that, given his lacerations and what not.”
“So right now, I propose that we inform Cloudsdale to help us do a little recon work over the path between Sweet Apple Acres and Manehatten, or anywhere nearby. Shouldn’t be too hard to spot a warehouse near a gravel road now shouldn’t it?”