It is always disconcerting when you fall asleep in the comfort of your own bed, only to wake up in a completely different bed. It would be even more concerning if you woke up and found someone else sleeping next to you. And what would be especially concerning is if the room you woke up in was somehow floating in the middle of the ocean.
Normally, when two people awake to such a circumstance, they would naturally panic, scream, and flail about like headless chickens. However, these two occupants are not normal people nor are they any type of chicken. They are, in fact, Twilight Sparkle and Flash Sentry; college students at Ponyville University, now marooned on a boat. Or at least, they assumed they were on a boat.
Truth be told, Twilight and Flash were trapped in a room. A ridiculously small room at that. A twin-sized mattress bed could be found in the far back of the room. On one side of the room was a minifridge built into the wall. Beside it was a small stove with two stovetops and a vent above it, along with an overbite of a counter connected to it. Parallel to the appliances was a doorway leading into a bathroom with all the basic things a bathroom holds; toilet, shower, sink, mirror, etc.
With all telltale signs, it became pretty obvious that the two were on a boat. That much was clear from the gentle sways that occasionally rocked their room and from the telltale design of the interior of the room. However, what was most alarming to the two, was that there was no door or means of exit for the two.
There was no sign of an entryway or any way in or out of the room. Suffice to say, the two were trapped.
Twilight, being the problem solver she is, decided to gather all of the facts. “Okay…” Twilight nibbled on her thumb’s fingernail. “Let’s recount everything that happened before we ended up here.”
“Right…” Flash rubbed his chin as he recalled the previous night. “I was finishing up some homework for my criminology class last night, then Tempest called me over to her apartment to hang out. I went over, we hung out, talked about her doing…stuff.”
“She was discussing that ‘snuggle session’, between you and Shimmer,” Twilight corrected, using air quotes for the wording that Tempest had used. Flash looked at her with bewilderment before she explained, “The walls are thin in my apartment; it doesn’t take much to overhear. Besides, we need to be completely accurate in order to keep our facts straight.” She added, in an attempt to alleviate Flash’s embarrassment.
Flash's cheeks were tinted a slight crimson. He cleared his throat, “A-anyways…we were discussing…that, and then it started raining like bullets outside, so Tempest offered to let me stay the night. I crashed on the couch, then I woke up here with you.”
“Okay,” Twilight acknowledged. “As for me, I came back after a night out with my study group, then…” She trailed off, doing her best to recall what happened afterward, only to draw a blank, “…I can’t quite recall what happened afterward. The last thing I remember was sleeping in my bed.”
“Same here.” Flash nodded. “Er-, I-I mean sleeping back in my bed. Not yours,” he quickly corrected.
There was a sudden sound of heavy footsteps above the two. Drawing their attention, they both looked upwards at the ceiling where they had heard the steps coming from.
“So… guess we’ve got our captor,” Flash said, silently thankful for an opportunity to change the discussion.
“Seems that way.” Twilight tore her gaze away from the ceiling and onto Flash. “Why do you think they kidnapped us?”
“Huh?” Flash looked bewildered. “What makes you think I’d know?”
“Come on, humor me,” Twilight said. “Bounce some ideas off me.”
Flash rubbed his chin, pondering the motives behind kidnapping two completely normal, non-magical, college students.
“Well…my family doesn’t have enough money, so they couldn’t have kidnapped us for a ransom,” Flash stated.
Twilight nodded. “Same with my family. Not to mention they didn’t chain us up or give us any information.”
“Maybe they want to question us?” Flash suggested.
“About what?”
“You know…” Flash shuffled awkwardly, “about magic?”
The footsteps moved away, trailing off to who knew where. The two were silent for a moment before Twilight looked back to Flash. Twilight shifted uncomfortably for a moment; the topic of magic was still something she found rather…touchy.
“Actually,” Flash spoke up, noticing how uncomfortable Twilight was, “forget I said that, it’s probably not magic since…” he trailed off.
“Yeah,” Twilight agreed, hugging herself, “If It was about magic, they’re about three years too late.”
Silence once again, the two looked away from each other, scanning the room. Both as a way of finding a way to escape the room and from their current awkward situation. Alas, their situation became even tenser when Twilight’s stomach made a loud gurgling sound.
*CLUNK*
Flash and Twilight turned to a noise that came from the fridge. At first, they remained unmoving, but slowly their curiosity got the better of them. Flash made his way towards the fridge. Gripping the handle tightly, he very slowly opened it, peering through the crack. He said nothing, just observing the wonder before him.
“What is it?” Twilight asked, unable to see over Flash.
Flash opened the door fully, revealing that the fridge was now full of food items. There was a small carton of eggs, a package of hash browns, seasonings, shredded cheese, slices of bread, berry jam, and a bottle of orange juice. Everything needed to make a healthy breakfast.
“Well… that’s convenient,” Flash said.
They wasted no time making themselves breakfast. After half an hour of cooking, the two sat on the bed with a plate full of scrambled eggs, hash browns, toast and jam, and glasses of orange juice. The two ate in silence until Flash thought of something they could discuss.
“Hey Twilight,” he started.
“Hmm?” Twilight mumbled, giving Flash her attention without opening her mouth full of scrambled eggs.
“How did they get the food in the refrigerator?” Flash asked.
Twilight pondered for a moment; it was certainly a good question as there was no way for the food to have just magically appeared inside. Unless of course they somehow teleported into the fridge, but that was impossible. There must’ve been a reasonable and logical way for the food they were eating to have entered the fridge.
Putting her big, genius brain to work, she formulated an answer. “Clearly,” she pushed her glasses up, “our captors noticed that we were hungry and stocked the fridge via a secret compartment in the back of the fridge.”
Flash thought for a moment before agreeing. “…Yeah, that could be it.” He set his plate to the side and approached the fridge. “In that case,” He grabbed its handle and tried to pull it open, but the door refused to budge. “Hrrrrggggg!” The young man grunted as he pulled and pulled with all his might, but it was to no avail as the door remained shut. “Dang! It! Won’t! Budge!” Flash said, releasing the handle.
“You gave it your best shot,” Twilight did her best to give any kind of moral support.
“Thanks,” Flash said, walking away from the refrigerator. “Although… there’s still one thing that doesn’t quite make sense to me.”
“How so?” Twilight asked.
Flash turned to face her, “Why give us ingredients instead of fully prepped meals? Not to mention, they left several tools and pieces of equipment that we could use.” Flash stated, referring to the kitchen utensils, pots, pans, dishware, and various other items.
“Yeah…” Twilight agreed.
Flash looked over to the wall, he approached it and gave it a tap. There was an echo, indicating that it was in fact hallow.
“Hey, Twilight,” Flash pointed. “This wall is hollow here. I think we can break it down.” Flash backed away from the wall and readied himself. In a swift motion, he raised his leg and kicked at the wall, like a cop trying to break open a door. This ended poorly as Flash’s kick didn’t leave so much as a scratch on the wall. But it did leave a pulsing pain through his foot.
“Ow! Ow! Ow!” Flash hopped on one foot, nursing his injured foot as best he could through his boots.
“That was stupid.” Twilight rolled her eyes.
“By all means—ow—feel free to do—ow—better,” Flash gestured, still rubbing his foot.
Twilight, after finishing her breakfast, put her dishes aside and walked over to the kitchen. She grabbed one of the pans and approached the wall Flash had kicked. She raised the pan and struck the wall.
*SNAP!*
The battle between wall and pan was over in an instant, so much so that one would call it a slaughter rather than a fight. The moment the pan made contact with the wall, the base of the pan had been severed from the handle. The body of the pan ricocheted off the wall and was flung directly towards Flash. It smacked him right on the head, bouncing off of him with a cartoonish ‘plonk’ before dropping to the floor.
Twilight could do nothing but cover her mouth to suppress her shock, her eyes wide with horror. “Oh my gosh! Flash, I’m so sorry!” Twilight quickly rushed over to inspect her companion.
Flash held a side of his head, groaning in pain. Twilight brushed his hand aside and cringed upon seeing the small bruise on his temple start to form. On the plus side, however, his foot didn’t hurt anymore.
*CLUNK*
Another sound from the minifridge. Twilight wasted no time, quickly rushing over. She threw the door open where there was an ice pack wrapped in cloth sitting on one of the shelves. She grabbed it and walked over to Flash.
“Wait, wait! No!” Flash shouted in vain as the refrigerator door swung close and locked itself back up again.
Twilight realized that she had missed her opportunity to see if there was in fact a secret compartment at the back of the fridge, having been too preoccupied with treating Flash.
“I’m sorry,” was all Twilight could think to say.
“No, it’s okay,” Flash reassured, taking the ice pack from Twilight and placing it over his bruise. “That door has to open up again eventually.”
Twilight assumed that what Flash said was correct. Eventually, the fridge would unlock again sometime for them to have lunch or dinner. However, this was nothing more than mere speculation.
“Flash, stay here,” She guided him to sit on the bed, “I’ll take care of everything.” With that, she took up the handle from the pan and started bashing it against the wall like how an amateur sculptor would chisel away at a block of marble.
Suffice to say, her efforts proved futile. After she took a breathe, she looked down to see that it was the handle that was being eaten away with every swing she took.
“Ugh!” she groaned in frustration. “What is this wall made out of? Mithril?!”
“You’re doing great! Keep it up!” Flash cheered, doing his best to keep Twilight’s spirits up. Twilight couldn’t tell if Flash’s sudden goofy attitude was because of his personality or because of the rush of blood starting to swell around his head.
The genius scientist didn’t give up. She kept hammering away at the wall, her strikes becoming more aggressive and frantic.
“Uh… Twilight,” Flash reached towards the woman as he noticed how panicked she was becoming.
“Twilight,” he repeated, getting up from the bed, he made his way to her.
“Twilight!” he yelled, grabbing her wrist, he stopped the young woman from her pointless beatdown on the wall.
Twilight looked up to Flash with scared eyes on the verge of tears. She was breathing heavily, as though she had run a marathon. Flash recognized the fear and desperation behind her eyes and he knew that she was having a panic attack. Although he wasn’t well versed in calming people down, he knew the first thing that should happen is to get her breathing back to normal. “Twilight, slow your breathing,” he suggested, moving his grip to her shoulders, doing his best to calm her down. “Repeat after me,” he took a deep inhale for three seconds, holding up three fingers for each second that passed. Once three seconds passed, he exhaled for another three seconds.
Twilight took deep breaths in the way Flash had demonstrated, keeping a steady rhythm of a deep exhale and deep inhale until she got her breathing under control again. Finally, after one last exhale, Twilight was breathing normally again and looked much calmer.
“Better?” Flash asked, making sure that Twilight was okay before he released his grip.
Twilight nodded, “Thank you, Flash. I’m feeling much better now.”
Flash removed his grip from her, “Okay, ” he looked around again. “suffice to say, we’re not gonna be able to use anything in here to break us out.”
“What do you suggest?” Twilight asked.
“Best guess?” Flash rubbed the back of his head, “I suppose we just chat until the fridge unlocks again.”
Twilight sighed. It wasn’t the best plan, but it was better than anything else, “Okay…what do you want to talk about?”
“Well… I haven’t really seen or spoken to you in a couple of years,” Flash stated, "How've ya been?”