Doctor Stable’s house was in a rather nice section of Ponyville and was one of the few two-story houses in the entire town. On the outside it looked rather plain with a simple oak paneling and a roof made with a combination of standard tiling and a thatched-straw cover. A few steps led up to a shaded porch and a set of double doors with fine brass handles. Revenant Wings also noted that there was a spare door off to the side.
Doctor Stable trotted up to them and greeted them all in turn at precisely ten minutes after nine.
“Thank you all for coming,” he said quietly but cleanly. “Please come inside and make yourself comfortable.”
Doctor Stable opened the door of the house and invited them all inside. The inside was almost as surgically clean as the outside with spotless floors, a neatly-cleaned and organized kitchen that led into a large sitting room with an equally large fireplace, and finely-upholstered couches that he invited them all to sit on. Revenant Wings had the feeling that he could drop a piece of food on the floor and it would still be clean enough to eat.
“I’ll open the room in a minute,” Doctor Stable said. “I would like to do the interview first. Perhaps the interview may leave more clues than an empty room.”
Watchful Eye nodded and sat back in a chair, waiting.
Revenant Wings took out a voice recorder with a blank cassette tape and placed it on the coffee table in front of him. Garnet Heart took out a pencil and a pad of paper and looked attentively at Doctor Stable. The Doctor himself sat in an armchair across from Revenant, his eyes focused on the pegasus and his hooves together in front of him.
When he was sure Garnet and Doctor Stable were ready, Revenant Wings leaned over and pressed the ‘record’ button on the voice recorder. The tape began to emit a small whirring noise as Revenant settled himself back in the chair and began to speak as clearly and as directly as he could.
“Thank you for agreeing to do this interview with us, Doctor Stable. I promise you we’ll use whatever information we can get from you to return Caramel back safely.”
“Thank you,” Doctor Stable said. He kept a stoic expression on his face. Garnet Heart’s pencil was steadily scratching on his pad as Revenant Wings continued.
“First of all, when was the last time you saw Caramel?”
Doctor Stable closed his eyes and slightly bowed his head in thought for a moment before looking Revenant in the eye again. “The last I saw him was the day after yesterday, on the morning of the twentieth, shortly before I left for work at seven.”
“What were you both doing at that time?”
“I was making sure that Caramel was awake. He’s a bit of a heavy sleeper, and so I went to go wake him up. He got up, had a bowl of cereal, and was cleaning the dishes when I was leaving.”
“What time does Caramel normally leave for work?”
“Last I heard from him, he had a pretty average day. He leaves here about eight-thirty, works from nine to five at Sweet Apple Acres, then comes home about five-thirty in the evening.”
“How long has he been working at Sweet Apple Acres?”
Doctor Stable gave a long sigh. “I’d say about three years now. He occasionally complained about it. Said he went to Canterlot University for an Environmental Science degree for five years and got stuck farming. But he’s on friendly terms with the whole family, and occasionally hangs out with Big Macintosh.”
“Did he have any other friends?”
“Well... none of which I knew about. Caramel never exactly had what I call ‘friends’, merely a series of acquaintances that he tagged along with on occasion. Big Macintosh maybe counted as a friend, but he never really talked about anyone else.”
“Were you and he on particularly close terms at all?”
“Of course. I let him live here, he pays me fifty bits of rent a month, and is fairly good about the upkeep. I lend him money if he absolutely needs it, but he’s been pretty independent; just never really got out on his own.”
Revenant Wings must have paused too long before his next question, because Doctor Stable spoke up again.
“You must think me somewhat impassive or that I don’t care with how I’ve been taking this,” he said. He sniffed and Revenant Wings saw him close his eyes again. “The truth is I’m very worried. I really am. I’ve gone everywhere I knew he’d gone and looked for him, asked around to see if anyone’s seen where he’d gone. I love my brother and it would pain me very much to see him harmed.”
Doctor Stable suddenly seemed very upset. As he talked, his voice became louder and faster until it had quite nearly broken towards the end. He stopped himself before he could break down completely and took a few deep breaths; when he opened his eyes again, he had calmed down somewhat though Revenant Wings could see his eyes were shining.
Doctor Stable took out a small handkerchief in a golden magic aura and gently wiped his eyes with it, then wiped his glasses. “Forgive me,” he said. “I did not mean to burst out like that.”
“It’s okay,” Revenant Wings said. “We’re going to do whatever we can to bring Caramel back in one piece. I assure you.”
Doctor Stable offered a small smile and motioned for Revenant Wings to continue on.
Revenant Wings nodded. “Now, when did you first notice Caramel was missing?”
“Two days ago, about six o’clock, I noticed that Caramel hadn’t returned home yet. He’s normally rather punctual and so I figured something strange had happened and he would return home any minute. I knew he was going to get some of the sweet blueberries he rather likes, and so I factored that into when he would get home. But as it got on to seven o’clock, Caramel had not come back.”
“You said you thought it was due to him being out with friends. Yet you recently said that Caramel had no friends aside from Big Macintosh. Mind explaining this train of thought?”
“I thought that Caramel had somehow made some new friends and did not tell me. I thought it good for him, as he is somewhat often shut up in his room. But as it came on to ten and eleven and the streets became quieter and quieter, I began to worry because even if he had been out with new friends, Caramel normally returns home by nine o’clock.”
“What did you do when Caramel did not return home at eleven o’clock?”
“I wondered if something happened to him. But I work early and so at eleven o’clock, I started getting ready for bed and decided that if I got up at six o’clock and he wasn’t home and in bed, I had a real problem. It was not easy to sleep that night, and I ended up not really falling asleep until about midnight or one. But I didn’t hear knocking on the door or anyone coming home during that time.”
Revenant Wings nodded. “So, what happened when you woke up the next morning?”
“I checked Caramel’s room and bathroom. But everything was as he’d left it the previous morning. I went about my business but he didn’t return home by the time I left, so I wrote a note and set it on the counter. It said: ‘I have gone to work. If you get home before me, I will be back home at the usual time.’ That was it.”
“Upon returning home, you received two messages from Applejack. Can you tell me the contents of the two messages?”
“Of course. The first was asking where Caramel was since he was late. She sounded slightly irritated at that one. The second one sounded a little more concerned and said that if Caramel was sick he was supposed to call and let her know.”
“You said to our guard Night Watch that you called Applejack back. Can you give me the details of the call?”
“Of course. I called up Applejack’s house as soon as I got home, at about five eighteen in the evening.
“Applejack picked up the phone. ‘You’ve called Sweet Apple Acres. My name is Applejack. May I ask who’s calling?’
“I answered her and said: ‘Applejack, this is Doctor Stable. I am Caramel’s older brother and I wanted to talk to you about Caramel.’
“‘Well, what’s he been up to now?’
“‘That’s the thing, I haven’t seen him since yesterday. I was wondering when the last time you saw him was.’
“That took her by surprise a bit and the line went silent for a long while, likely because she didn’t believe me. She finally came back on a minute later and said ‘I ain’t seen him since he left here yesterday, ‘bout five in the evening.’
“‘Did he tell you where he was going?’
“‘Said something about a patch of sweet blueberries he found in the Whitetail Woods. Seemed a bit eager to go, too; soon as we let him go, he bolted there faster than I’ve ever seen him run.’
“‘And you haven’t seen him since?’
“‘Not a lick of him.’
“And that was that, aside from a polite goodbye and if they saw him again to call me and let me know.”
“What did you do when the call was done?”
“I first went to the hospital to see if anyone had seen Caramel come in and ask for me. When they said no, I went out and checked Caramel’s usual hangouts. I tried Sweet Apple Acres again, but they still hadn’t seen him. I tried Sugarcube Corner, the local bar, the fountain area, the restaurant, the train station, but no one had seen any sign of Caramel in any form.”
Doctor Stable was having trouble and breaking down again. He choked and coughed a little bit and had to stop to take a deep breath again. Revenant Wings let him calm himself down and waited until he seemed ready to speak again before asking him another question.
“What time did you return home?”
“About ten o’clock. I searched every nook and cranny of Ponyville and found no traces of him. I ended up eating leftovers and going to bed early that night. When he did not show up by the time I had woken up at five o’clock like usual, I called the police department.”
“Have you received any word from him between your call and our arrival?”
“None.”
“You said that Applejack told you that Caramel was acting a bit eager to go to the Whitetail Woods. Had you seen any strange behavior similar to this from Caramel prior to his disappearance?”
“As a matter of fact, yes. About a week ago, Caramel had gone off after work to go get the sweet blueberries, but did not return home. I worried about him then, but when I woke up at five he was in his bed sleeping like normal. But it seemed a bit heavier if restless sleep, as it took longer to wake him up.”
Revenant Wings was about to ask another question, but Doctor Stable held up a hoof to stop him.
“There is more. He suddenly became rather panicky and flighty. I asked him if something went wrong and he would tell me nothing. Finally that evening he allowed me to check him over for any damages, but he was clean and without any marks or bruises. I told him not to go back to Whitetail Woods for a while in case something had tried to attack him, but he wouldn’t tell me anything about what happened.
“He became almost obsessed with the Whitetail Woods. I caught him at times mumbling to himself that he wanted to go back, he needed to go back, but he wouldn’t explain to me what it was. But, even stranger, he wouldn’t eat the berries he brought back, and he loves them. I ate them, but I never saw him eat them or them go down when I wasn’t looking. I wondered if he’d tried to eat one without washing it and gotten sick, but nothing.
“And then, on the day he disappeared, he suddenly became very calm. He prepared himself to go to Applejack’s like normal, and woke up like normal, and calmly went about his business. And... in truth, the normality of the situation scared me more than the possibility of him being hurt and his strange mad ramblings about the Whitetail Woods. It scared me because whatever fear he had vanished, as though he was never even scared to begin with.
“But fear doesn’t just vanish. When someone experiences an anxiety attack of any magnitude, there is a cool down period where one realizes that nevermind, they are in control of their circumstances and that things are okay. But it almost seemed as though Caramel went to bed afraid as though for his life, then woke up without fear. After a week of being afraid, it should have taken longer than a few hours to go away.”
Revenant Wings made sure that Doctor Stable had finished completely before speaking up again. “Okay, I think that’s enough. Thank you for your time on the interview. Watchful Eye will perform a quick scan of the room and take photographs for us to take back to the office. We would appreciate it if, until we find Caramel, that nothing gets moved in or removed from that room.”
“Of course. I will let him take as many pictures as necessary. Thank you.”
Revenant Wings was about to turn the voice recorder off when Doctor Stable started speaking again.
“Do you know much about the rumors that are floating around?” Doctor Stable asked.
Revenant Wings shook his head. “No, I don’t believe I have.”
“They say something is in the Whitetail Woods. Whether pony or beast I have no idea. But I have the slightest suspicion that whatever it is has Caramel. I do not want to assume the worst and I do not want to believe it, but something tells me that whatever it is is behind Caramel’s disappearance.”
Revenant Wings looked at Doctor Stable intently but strangely. But Doctor Stable said no more and looked like he had composed himself rather well.
Doctor Stable got up. “Watchful Eye, is it? Come this way; I’ll show you to Caramel’s bedroom. I’ve kept it locked up.”
“We’ll be heading back to the police department in the meantime,” Garnet Heart said. “If you need anything more, call or stop by.”
“Of course.”
Garnet and Revenant packed up their things and left Doctor Stable’s house. They walked along the streets of Ponyville towards the offices of the local Guard.
Revenant Wings was ready to review the interview, but before he could step inside Garnet Heart suddenly laid a wing on his shoulder and turned him aside from the door. They walked around to the side of the building where there were no windows and Garnet Heart stopped leading Revenant along.
“Why were you looking at him as though he was mad at the last thing he said?” Garnet Heart said. “Make no mistake, I saw you.”
“It only sounded mad. But all things that Doctor Stable said right now point towards that patch of blueberries in the Whitetail Woods. Someone needs to go there and do an investigation.” After a moment’s thought, he added: “And preferably not alone.”
Garnet Heart was suddenly looking at him as though he was the mad one. “Oh, bloody heck, you think something’s really in there, don’t you?”
“I won’t lie the thought may have crossed my mind,” Revenant quietly admitted. Too many things have happened within a week surrounding the Whitetail Woods to not be suspicious of something. There’s my... my odd dreams, the rumors spreading around, Caramel’s sudden disappearance and his odd behavior surrounding it. There’s something at work here, and I don’t like it one bit.”
“I read the signs,” Garnet Heart said somewhat forcefully. “Doctor Stable is a pony who is holding himself together rather well but is otherwise somewhat maddened by grief. And I don’t blame him; we’ve never had this happen in our lifetimes. But this rumor is just a rumor.”
“Doctor Stable does not seem to me the type to be spreading around rumors if he doesn’t think it applies,” Revenant Wings said. “He is a doctor. His is supposed to say everything he knows about a situation and what he thinks can help. If he mentioned the rumor and thinks Caramel may have disappeared somewhere around the Whitetail Woods, then I think there’s something to it.”
Garnet Heart took a step backwards but said nothing.
“Look, we got no leads about friends from Doctor Stable. The one lead we may have gotten will have probably be interviewed by Hoofprint by the end of the day. The Whitetail Woods is, in all likelihood, our next stop.”
Garnet Heart opened his mouth like he wanted to say something, but closed it and shook his head. “You’re right,” he said after a moment’s thought. “But we’ll do it this way. We’ll start by seeing if Fluttershy knows anything. We can visit her cottage near the Whitetail Woods and see if she’s seen anything strange going on. But we won’t go in to Whitetail until later.”
“That’s all I ask.”
They both turned at the sound of hoofsteps; Watchful Eye was returning at a brisk trot from Doctor Stable’s, camera and black-light in hand.
“Come on,” Garnet said briskly. “We’d better get inside and review the pictures he took.”
Revenant Wings nodded and they went around the building and back into the Guard offices.
Watchful Eye was in the back room of the office that served as the forensics laboratory, in all likelihood working on developing the photographs taken of Caramel’s room at Doctor Stable’s house. It would likely take the whole of the lunch hour before they could look at the photos.
For lunch, Revenant Wings checked in the tape with Doctor Stable’s interview and went to Garnet Heart to see where to head to lunch. After very little debate, the two headed out to a small sandwich shop around the corner from the Guard offices, Grinder’s Subs, and ordered sandwiches and potato chips and fresh lemonade.
“Do you suppose Fluttershy knows Caramel at all?” Garnet Heart asked.
“No,” Revenant Wings said. “All I know is she lives outside the Whitetail Woods. If we can talk to her, maybe we might get something. And she can talk to animals, can’t she? Perhaps we can ask her to see if she can’t send an animal or two out to see if they can’t find anything related to Caramel.”
“It’s as good a shot as any,” Garnet Heart mused. He took a bite of his sandwich and chewed it thoughtfully. “You’d have to talk with the Captain and make sure he approves, though.”
“I kind of prefer he goes over the tape first,” Revenant said. “I have a hunch and Doctor Stable has some evidence in that direction, but we shouldn’t go forward without talking with Iron Shield first.”
“Well, before that, what did you think of the good Doctor?” Garnet asked. “You say he seems pretty reliable.”
“Well, his testimony matches exactly what the Captain gave us as a synopsis,” Revenant said. “Either he’s telling the truth or he has a very well-rehearsed cover-up story. But you say he’s mad with grief.”
“He broke down at least twice. That gives some credence to the story because he seems emotionally invested in it. I also seemed to read some signs of shock; it came as a surprise to him and so he doesn’t know what to think. That doesn’t sound like a cover-up.”
“So we put Doctor Stable on the back-burner but leave him as a possible suspect. But if Doctor Stable did have something to do with the disappearance of Caramel, what do you think he would do?”
“Beat him up? Cause him to run away? Doctors face a lot of responsibility and it wouldn’t be surprising if Doctor Stable suddenly snapped due to his work. But he seems young and Ponyville is small, so it would take more years than he has to crack.”
“And he’s got a pretty good record, too. A few surgeries, at least a quarter of the patients who visit the hospital, and a published paper or two on anatomy with regards to magic is nothing to scoff at.”
“I’m almost inclined to leave him out entirely if it weren’t for the fact that he called thirty-six hours after the disappearance. If he was getting messages and already knew Caramel hadn’t been sighted by the time he got home, how come he didn’t phone Night Watch then? Why wait for morning?”
Revenant Wings nodded thoughtfully, but replied no more.