The Old Warehouse
Friday
7:22PM
5.848 inches

Norman Jayden was not having a good day. Hell, he hadn’t had a good day since he arrived in this hellhole of a city. Goddamn Origami Killer, he thought, I’m ready to catch this asshole, save the kid and be done with all of this.

He crept through the shadows of the abandoned warehouse. He was running out of time. Christ, Shaun Mars might be dead by now, I’ve got to hurry! Creeping closer to the centre of the room, he could overhear two men talking.

“All those murders, just to find a father capable of saving his son?” It was Ethan Mars, the father who Lieutenant Blake, and pretty much everyone else in the department, thought was the killer. The man Jayden had broken out of the precinct, all based on a hunch and gut instinct.

“Just to find a father?!” Wait a second, I know that voice. Jayden poked his head from behind a concrete pillar and spied on a large man wearing a brown long coat, his grey hair balding at the top. Goddamnit, it’s the private detective, Shelby! He recognized him from the newspapers a while back. He had told them he was personally investigating the case of the murders himself. Goddamn lying snake.

“Do you have any idea how it feels to be a worthless nothing in your father’s eyes?” Shelby continued, “Believe me, I’ve suffered! Just as much as my victims.”

Ethan stared Scott in the eye. There was no doubt about it, the man was completely insane. “I’ve finished your damn trials, now give me back my son!” he ordered.

Scott pointed to a well behind him. “He’s there. All you have to do is open that grate.” Ethan stared at him for a moment, hesitant, before scrambling onto his knees, trying to force the grate open.

From the shadows, Jayden saw Shelby pull out a gun and train it on the father. Shit, I’ve gotta move now! Without thinking twice, he leapt from his hiding place and pounced onto the killer, sending them both tumbling over. Recovering quickly, Shelby got to his feet and began to flee up a nearby set of stairs, heading for the roof. Quickly checking to make sure Ethan was okay, Norman gave chase.

Scrambling onto a ladder that led up to the warehouse’s roof, Jayden lost sight of the killer. Pulling himself up, he reached the top and drew his gun. The Origami Killer was nowhere to be seen. Goddamnit, where’d he go? Edging out onto a balcony, he scanned the drop below him. He was above some sort of conveyor belt that led towards a trash compactor. I wanna stay as far away from there as possible.

Paying too much attention to the levels below him, looking for any signs of Shelby, Jayden was caught by surprise when the private eye tackled him and took them both off the balcony onto the moving conveyor belt below. Pain aching throughout his worn-out body, Norman struggled to climb to his feet. Noticing Scott in a similar way, he shook it off and charged straight towards him. Unfortunately, Shelby blocked the attack and pushed Jayden back as they both lost their balance and fell over again.

Undeterred, the killer pulled himself together and charged towards the FBI agent, grabbing him in a stranglehold. Struggling to resist the man’s powerful grip, Jayden cried in pain as he was lifted over Shelby’s shoulder and violently thrown back down into the conveyor belt.

Agitated, Shelby picked up some large pieces of trash running along the conveyor belt and began to throw them at Norman, who was still recovering from the brutal assault. Norman barely managed to dodge the continued onslaught. Grunting, Scott picked up a huge steel plate and threw it straight at his head. Unable to duck in time, Jayden was knocked out cold as the force of the throw blew him off his feet and onto his back.

Sighing with relief, Scott Shelby climbed onto an adjacent platform and watched in silence as Agent Norman Jayden’s unconscious body reached the end of the conveyor belt and fell into the grinder below. Wincing slightly, he climbed down a nearby ladder and began to make his escape. He took one last glance at the trash compactor. Jayden's body was nowhere to be seen. He had vanished without a trace.

“What are the orders, sir?” A voice crackled through Carter Blake’s radio. The lieutenant rolled his eyes. He’d been through this a million times back at the station.

“When Mars comes out, we arrest him. If he tries anything funny, then we shoot him. That too hard for you to understand?”

“No sir.”

“Good.” He sighed and shut off the radio. It had been a long day. He noticed his fellow officer, Ash, approach from a nearby police car. “Hey Ash. How’s the girl?”

“Ah, she’s pissed off, but we’ll talk to her later.”

“Yeah, fine by me.” Blake returned his attention to the door of the warehouse. “Fuckin’ journalists.”

“So what do we do now?”

“Now, we wait for this asshole.”

I’ve done it. I’ve finally done it. No more trials, no more letters for the hangman. I’ve finally saved my son.

Ethan Mars carried his son, Shaun, in his arms, heading towards the exit of the warehouse. All he wanted now was to get back to how things were. He was never going to let Shaun forget how much he loved him.

Reaching the door, he set his son down. “Dad,” Shaun murmured, his voice as weak as he looked, “Don’t leave me.”

Ethan smiled. “I’ve gotta push open the door if we’re gonna get out of here.”

“I never want you to leave me alone again, Dad.”

Ethan kneeled down and embraced his son. “I promise I never will Shaun. I promise.” He walked back over to the door and, with a bit of a struggle, managed to push it open. Glancing back at Shaun, he breathed in deeply and stepped out into the pouring rain to face the armada of police cars before him.

Clutching his broken rib, Ethan was blinded by the light from a chopper overhead. He turned around to shield his eyes, clutching his ribs as the pain intensified. As he turned back around, beginning to raise his arms, he heard one of the officers shout.

“Open fire!”

It happened so quickly. In less than a few seconds, every officer in the area had fired upon the father, believing that he had been drawing a weapon. His body riddled with bullets, Ethan Mars collapsed to the floor, his mind embracing the light that was engulfing him. The last thing he heard was his son crying over his body.

“Dad! Wake up, don’t leave me alone! Please Dad, wake up...”

The light enveloped Ethan, and he closed his eyes.

Ponyville General Hospital
Tuesday
4:15PM
0.028 inches

“Thank Celestia you’re here, Twilight.” Nurse Redheart was stressed. More stressed than usual. The past few weeks had been a living nightmare.

“Is it another one, Nurse?” the unicorn asked fearfully.

Redheart nodded solemnly. “She’s the third victim this month. Fluttershy found her wandering through the Everfree Forest about an hour ago. Physically, she’s fine, but, like all the others, she’s changed.”

Twilight sighed. “I’m going to go talk to her; ask her what happened.” Trotting past the white mare, she made her way to the third floor and into Rose's hospital room.

Lying in the bed, gazing out of the window, was Rose, the town’s floral specialist. She was normally bright and happy, always with a smile on her face and a fresh bunch of flowers to sell. A few days ago she had gone missing. Now she had been found, but something was wrong. She wasn’t smiling. In fact, she didn’t appear relieved to be out of her ordeal at all. Her eyes still darted about, as if she was looking for something outside. She was anxious.

“Hey, Rose,” Twilight said gently. The earth pony tore herself away from the window and looked up at the lavender unicorn. “Are you feeling OK?”

“I’m fine, Twilight, thanks.” Rose avoided eye contact. The tell-tale sign of a liar.

“I just want to ask a few questions,” Twilight continued, “About what happened.”

Rose nodded but kept silent.

“Tell me about the day that..." She paused, wondering how to handle the situation gently. "It happened.”

Rose sighed. “Well, it was a pretty normal day. I had a fresh batch of orchids, but I only had one customer. A stallion. A pretty strange one, now I remember.”

Twilight nodded, jotting down a few notes. “Can you tell me more about this stallion?”

“He had a jet black coat and a grey mane. He didn’t say much, just paid for the flower and walked off. I didn’t think much of it. But come to think of it, he did look pretty nervous and shifty. He was constantly checking over his shoulder.”

"Anything else?"

Rose shook her head, still avoiding eye contact.

"Can you tell me what happened to you over the past few days?"

Rose looked back out of the window. "No, I'm sorry. I can't remember."

Twilight smiled. "That's OK." She stood up and went to leave. "I'm gonna let you get some rest. Don't worry, you'll be back up and running your flower stall again in no time."

Rose sighed. "I'm not sure. I've been thinking about getting out of the flower business."

Puzzled, Twilight nodded and left the room. "That's strange," she whispered to herself, "Rose has always loved picking and selling flowers..."

Closing the door gently, she headed for the stairwell. These ponynapping cases are getting out of hoof, she thought, I've got to get to the bottom of this.

Outskirts of the Everfree Forest
Tuesday
4:05PM
0.029 inches

Aw, Jesus Christ, I'm dead. Never thought it would end like that. The bastard. Norman Jayden's eyes fluttered open.

Wait a minute, where am I? Is this some kinda afterlife? Maybe something to do with those goddamn glasses... He managed to sit up and take a look around. He appeared to be lying on the edge of some sort of forest.

He looked down, checking his body. Strangely, he was wearing the same clothes that he had worn to the old warehouse - a grey suit and black overcoat - but they appeared to be in pristine condition, as if they'd been through no conflict at all.

Wherever he was though, it was still raining. No matter where I go, I can't seem to fuckin’ escape it, can I?

He heard a pained groan from beside him. Turning around, he saw Ethan Mars, lying there. By the looks of it, he was still unconscious. Jayden was confused. What the hell is this place?

It took a moment, but Norman managed to stretch his aching bones and stand up. Taking a quick look around, he pulled a strange pair of sunglasses and a rubber glove from his coat pocket. He stared at the glasses for a second, before sighing and slipping them on. He blinked as the miniature screens inside the lenses of the glasses lit up.

Jayden sighed again. “Video memo recording,” he said out loud, “Agent 47023, Norman Jayden, Friday October 7th, 2011. Time is...” he paused. “I have absolutely no idea.” He took around. The Added Reality Interface glasses scanned any item that came within his view, but there was nothing of interest. “ARI, pinpoint GPS location,” Norman instructed.

“What the...”

Turning his attention back to the forest, he noticed a well worn trail through a line of trees. With nothing else to do until Mars woke up, he decided to investigate. Reaching the trail, Jayden waved his hand in a small motion, and ARI did a scan of the surrounding area, that bought up two results.

Kneeling down, he investigated the first. Footprints. Or, more specifically, hoofprints. “They appear to be equine in nature,” the FBI agent muttered, “Too small to be a horse, so either a donkey or a pony. I wonder if anyone’s been riding through here recently...”

The second made him suspicious. “Orchid pollen...” he murmured, “Could it be? The goddamn Origami KIller?” No, Ethan saved his son, I’m sure of it. This has gotta be one hell of a coincidence.

Feeling the start of a nasty headache coming on, Jayden removed the glasses and went back to check on Ethan. To his surprise, the father was awake and had sat up. For some reason, he was staring at his hand in awe.

“Ethan?” Jayden walked closer. “You okay?”

“My finger...” Ethan whispered, “It’s grown back! I had to cut it off yesterday morning, but it's back!"

What the fuck?

That couldn’t be possible. Wherever they had been transported to, the powers that be had been kind enough to remove any sort of injury that they had incurred. Well, I suppose I did fall into a trash grinder, so I should be amazed that I can even think, talk or breathe in the first place.

“Right...” Jayden couldn’t think of anything else to say. “Ethan, tell me, did you save your son?”

Ethan snapped quickly out of his stupor. “Yes, yes, he’s fine.” A smile appeared on the man’s face, but it quickly ran away again. “But, where are we? All I remember is being shot, and then...” He looked up quickly at the profiler. “Oh God, we’re dead, aren’t we? I’m never going to be able to see my son again!”

Probably. “I don’t know, Ethan, but one thing’s for certain: you are definitely gonna see your son again, I promise. But for now, we should see if there’s any kind of settlement nearby. We can’t live in the forest forever, y’know.” Norman managed a chuckle. Ha, haven’t done that in a while.

Ethan smiled. “Yeah.” He breathed in deeply. “Yeah, come on then.” He tried to stand up, but clutched at his chest. “Looks like my ribs haven’t healed up as well as my finger has,” he muttered light heartedly.

“Right, then we’d better get you to a hospital, I think you’ve been putting it off too long.” Jayden put Ethan’s arm around his shoulders for support, and they set down the trail towards the edge of the forest.

Ponyville General Hospital
Tuesday
4:20PM
0.028 inches

“Great weather, huh?” Jayden and Ethan had managed to find the nearest settlement. Luckily, they had noticed signs for a hospital, and had wasted no time in setting off down the small dirt trail that led up the the sterile white building on the outskirts of the town. Strangely, there was no one around.

“Don’t joke about that shit Ethan, I don’t know how you live with it.” Jayden smiled. Some things never change. Nearing the entrance, he stopped to stare at the welcome sign. “Welcome to Ponyville General Hospital...” he murmured, “Well, I can honestly say I’ve never heard of this place, but I know for sure that whoever named it wasn’t exactly in the best frame of mind.”

Inside, the reception was empty, but at least it was warm. No one was set at the desk, so Norman let Ethan take a seat and rang the bell for assistance. He turned back to to the father.

“Geez, that thing looks a bit small,” Norman commented, noticing the size of the chair.

“Yeah, feels it too,” Ethan grunted, trying to get comfortable, “Who the hell designed this?”

Turning his attention back to the desk, Jayden rang the bell again. This time, there was a response.

“Coming!” came a female voice from behind a door.

What stepped through the door was the last thing the two men expected, but in hindsight, it probably made sense. A pearl white horse of sorts trotted through the door with a clipboard in its mouth, its pink hair tied up in a neat bun. The moment she laid eyes on them, her jaws dropped and the clipboard fell to the floor.

Jayden froze in shock. Lost for words, his mind formulated the only response it could.

“You have gotta be shittin’ me...”