Caramel Treat’s Lunch!
by
De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)
© 2014 by Glen Ten-Eyck
10019 words
Cover Art by Rainbow Flashover
Brightmane was fussing over the preparations for her filly’s first day at Miss Cherrilee’s school. She was packing Caramel Treat’s lunch with great care. There were the usual sandwiches of clover sprouts in spread and an apple from the famous Sweet Apple Acres farm. There was also a banana from Banana-Pie’s almost equally famous Banana Shop that sold the only bananas actually grown in Equestrian lands.
There was one other item. A small, narrow necked, bulbous potion bottle of bright, warning red. The filly smiled at her mother’s care. She offered, “I already know, Mom. Eat the lunch at noon and then take 5 ml. Take another 5 ml at afternoon recess. I will be careful.
“It would not do, to let the Poison Joke change me on my first day of school.”
Brightmane smiled at her filly. “I know, dear. I also know that you can control the change without the potion if anything should happen to it. It is an important precaution, that is all. I wish that the school board would let us continue your schooling at home. They have required that you go to their school and just bring your medicine along.
“With Zecora and Nurse Fields supervising, you have been up to three days without changing. I am just a worry-wart. You are too precious to me to not be.”
Nurse Fields emerged from her room of the cottage. “Brightmane, you forgot to wake me up for breakfast. Besides, I wanted to see our little filly off to school.”
Fussing in her own way as much as Brightmane, Nurse Fields was checking Caramel’s shoulder bag. “Let’s see, parchment, your reader, and that Rom writing kit that we got at the last fair from that nice old donkey …”
Caramel looked up with a grin and filled in, “Marchhare. That was his name. Some of the other Rom, called him the Ghost Who Guides(* For details read Incident on the way to Mareimont Fair). He knew what I am as soon as he saw me. When I asked him how he knew what I am, he said that he was a snoopy old donkey.” She giggled at the memory.
She added the lunch bag to her shoulder pack and, watched over by her mother and the nurse that had been with her since birth, she trotted confidently out the front door, past their garden and into the Everfree forest while they waived anxiously. This was, after all, Caramel Treat’s first trip alone into Ponyville.
They need not have worried. Even a small pony is far bigger than a wolf. Caramel’s very sharp senses, sharper than those of a wolf, actually, spotted the three wolves that were trying to stalk a lone filly almost at once.
She turned to face the three, bracing her forehooves. Her snout lengthened and got narrower as her mouth filled with huge fangs that had no place in any pony. Her ears had gone pointed with tufts at the tips. She gave a piercing stare at each of the wolves that thought themselves concealed. She curled her lips up to show her fangs and let out a thunderous growl of challenge.
The wolves sensibly ran. They wanted no part of whatever that monster might be. In the Everfree, wolves do not live long lives by challenging strange monsters.
Giggling at her prank, Caramel Treat swiftly changed back to an ordinary filly. In appearance.
She emerged from the forest and passed around the foot of the hill where the Duchess of Red Hoof had built again the Great Hall of Red Hoof after an absence of over three thousand years.
The Ponyville area had an interesting history for those who were interested, and Caramel Treat was.
Soon she was into the town proper, filled with many ponies going about their business or trades. Finally, she came to Miss Cherrilee’s schoolyard.
She bypassed the colts and fillies who were staying out of class as long as possible and entered the shady halls of the school proper. Finding the office, she went in without fear.
Miss Cherrilee looked up from a desk and smiled. “Hello, Caramel Treat. I have been expecting you. The reports that I have from your mother, Nurse Fields and Zecora are most favorable. Can you really read at your age?”
Caramel pointed to a book shelf and asked, “May I?”
Miss Cherrilee smiled again and replied, “Help yourself, dear.”
Caramel promptly took down a thick tome with the title, “Fortress Canterlot Days and the Knights of Justice.” She opened it and said, “I really like the tale of Sir Sunrise the Arrogant.”
She found her place and began, “The first snows of Winter were making small flurries as the Knights of Justice gathered to their places at the long table. The Twin Princesses of the Day and Night, Celestia and Luna, entered the hall with their foster father, the old blue unicorn, De Writer.
“As they were taking their places, Sir Sunrise whispered loudly enough to overheard, “That old pony has no place among us. We are the strength of the Princesses.”
Miss Cherrilee interrupted with a delighted smile. “That is wonderful! There aren’t even any pictures in that story. Most of my students have only read that tale to pass a test. Almost none read it for pleasure. It will be a delight to have you here!”
Caramel Treat smiled and replied, “I can add and subtract too. Mommy Brightmane and Auntie Fields are teaching me to multiply but I really don’t quite get how that works yet.
“I have memorized the tables but why they work the way that they do is what I don’t understand.”
Miss Cherrilee patted Caramel on the head as she reached for a hanging rope in the corner of the office. The teacher pulled the rope and three clear peals of the bell up in its tower announced the beginning of school.
Colts and fillies began to go to their classes with all of the grumbling that was expected of the young. Watching the youngsters file past, in the hallway, Miss Cherrilee asked politely, “I understand that you have a potion that you need regularly. Zecora was quite concerned about it falling into the wrong hooves because it can be quite unpleasant if taken by mistake.”
Caramel Treat looked up trustingly at Miss Cherrilee and said, “It certainly could be. It is based on Poison Joke. That means that it is very unpredictable and dangerous if you are not already afflicted with Joke, like I am.”
Miss Cherrilee nodded solemnly as she replied, “I remember the scandal.(**note: for details read Brightmane’s Foal) I think that you should let us keep it here in the office and come here to take it.”
Nodding, Caramel Treat gave the bright warning red potion bottle and a smaller green one to Miss Cherrilee who put them on a high shelf before going on, “I read the warning sheets that your mother sent the school. She was trying to get an exemption from the school board about special needs filly and colts ruling. They still ordered them to come to school but with their medications if needed.
“We really do not need another Manehatten Biomedical Laboratories disaster here in Ponyville. The board, led by that mean Mister Sawnax, would not listen.
“I am sorry to say that there are some bullies who steal lunch-bits or bag lunches. With your medication that could be very bad. We try, but we can’t always stop them. I do not want any student of mine hurt, even one like Jaret.”
Caramel surprised Miss Cherrilee by asking, “You mean Sawnax’s colt? Daphne told me about him. He and his father are the only ones barred from the Starvation’s Night Feast at the Hall of Red Hoof. They are both trouble makers.”(***note: for details read both Hearthwarming Eve / Starvation’s Night and The Coming of Tam O’ Canter and Heather Bloom O’ Red Hoof to Ponyville)
Sourly, Miss Cherrilee agreed, “Rich trouble makers.”
Brightening, she said, “Let’s get to class. It would not do for us to be late.”
A good sized magenta colt stuck his head in the door and snickered, “I heard that shit. Trying to suck up to the teacher with a bit of memorized story and a brag. It ain’t gonna work, you yellow bellied blank flanked book worm. ‘Sides, you is bringing poison into the school! I seen it. That bottle is red!”
Caramel retorted, “How poison are you, Jaret? You are just a darker red, that is all! Lots of medicines are dangerous if they are taken wrong.”
The big colt shouldered his way into the office and curled a lip. “What did you call me, you blank flank yellow book worm?”
It did not have the desired effect. Caramel looked at him as if he were an interesting bug. An ugly but interesting bug. She calmly replied, “I was only wondering if you were too toxic to make good garden compost. That is why I asked how poisonous you are.”
Magenta or not, Jaret purpled in rage. He knew that, with Miss Cherrilee here, he had lost this round. He whirled about and left the office. Caramel and Miss Cherrilee followed more sedately.
A smiling Miss Cherrilee introduced, “Class, we have a new student. Her name is Caramel Treat. Caramel, please tell the class a little bit about yourself.”
Caramel stood up and confidently said, “I am Caramel Treat, Filly to Brightmane Treat. I enjoy reading, writing some, and playing in the woods near my home.”
Jaret sneered, “You live in the Everfree Forest. You like to play there? I knew it. You are nuts.”
Caramel looked at him patiently. Her stare went on and on.
The other students could see how uncomfortable Jaret was getting. Finally, squirming under her stare, he demanded, “What are you looking at, you blank flanked Bookworm?”
Caramel smiled. “I was waiting to see if you could manage to say anything intelligent at all. Apparently not.
“Now, as I was saying, I also like to help my Auntie Zecora in her herb garden. She has been teaching me how to dry and preserve herbs for both cooking and medicines. She even lets me help her to make her famous herb bread.”
She curtsied to the class and went to an empty desk.
Jaret promptly grabbed up his shoulder bag and took the empty desk next to Caramel. She looked up and smiled.
He rudely demanded, “What you got in your bag? Let me see it right now!”
Caramel, still smiling, replied serenely, “No. My bag is mine and you have no business in it at all. You are holding up the class. Miss Cherrilee has lessons for us.”
Jaret simply made a grab at her bag. Caramel appeared to simply put out a hoof to stop him. Jaret let out a groan of agony as his whole foreleg fell limply to his side.
Miss Cherrilee simply asked, “Is he hurt badly, Caramel?”
Caramel frowned as she said, “No. Should I? Hurt him, I mean? I thought that was against the rules.”
Miss Cherrilee actually smiled widely and nickered in amusement as she said, “You are right, it is against the rule. How badly did you hurt him?”
Caramel gave a shrug and said, “Not really at all. His leg will be fine in about five minutes. It was just a simple nerve point jab.”
Miss Cherrilee nodded and turned to chalk board and wrote across the top of it, “What you do not know CAN hurt you.”
She added, “Please take out your readers and turn to page 31. We will be reading a short tale that illustrates this exact point. It is the story of Sir Sunrise the Arrogant from the days of Fortress Canterlot when Equestria was a newly independent Principality.”
Among the slow dragging out of books and the dull, slow rustling of pages, one quick thump of book to desk and fast flutter of leaves stood out. Caramel’s book was open to the place.
Miss Cherrilee smiled brightly at the class and turned back to the board. She added three questions:
What was Sir Sunrise’s first mistake?
What was his second mistake?
Why should he have known better than to make either of the mistakes that he did?
She turned back to the class and asked Jaret, “I am sure that you follow the Equestrian National Han Fu championships, Jaret. How common a name is Treat? Brightmane Treat is the name of the only Second Dan Han Fu Black Belt in Ponyville. Caramel Treat is her filly.” She pointed again to the line at the top of the board.
Jaret curled a lip in frustration and pretended to read.
The whole class saw Caramel dig into her bag and remove her writing kit and a sheet of parchment. Her pen, a mounted quill tip in a neatly crafted holder, was quickly busy. Before any of the others had finished reading, Caramel had neatly cleaned her pen and and put away her writing kit.
Pointedly gathering the kit back into her bag, she shouldered her bag and stepped up to the teacher’s desk. Most of the colts and fillies could see that her writing was a neat cursive as she hoofed in her assignment. It was not the block printing used by the rest of the class.
Miss Cherrilee took the paper and said, “My goodness, that was quick!” Scanning it, she wrote neatly at the top of the page, folded it and handed it back. She added, “Please keep it folded until the others have given me their papers.” Eyeing the classroom clock, she asked, “It will be a while before the others are done. What would you like to do?”
Caramel considered and asked, “Do you have something that might help me to grasp WHY the multiplication table works like it does?”
Jaret made a rude noise, blowing through his lips and snorted, “Teacher’s Pet!”
Caramel turned to him and blew a raspberry of her own and said, “Better liked by those who know what you want to know than to be a friend to a fool who will just drag you down!”
Miss Cherrilee tapped Caramel’s flank to get her attention and said, “This book may help you, Caramel. Use your time wisely.”
Caramel went back to her desk with the book. She was starting at the beginning when Jaret made another grab. Not even appearing to look up, Caramel’s hoof popped out under his reaching hoof and flipped up, making Jaret miss his grab entirely. In a single smooth extension of her move, she shot her hoof directly into Jaret’s shoulder joint, not stopping for about six inches past contact. Jaret was blasted right over his desk seat and onto his side in the aisle.
From his sudden and unexpected vantage point on the boards of the floor, he squalled, “No fightin’! Fightin’s against the rules!”
Caramel looked up from the book for the first time and replied calmly, “Fight? What fight? How did you wind up on the floor like that? Why play at being Sir Sunrise and making foolish mistakes? Wouldn’t it be more sensible to simply sit at YOUR desk and keep your hooves to yourself?”
Jaret made a menacing whinny, deep in his chest.
Miss Cherrilee snapped, “Jaret! That will be quite enough! You started each of these events. Caramel finished each one and did not go beyond simply stopping you.”
She turned back to the board and pointed to each word as she pronounced it. “What. You. Do. Not. Know. CAN. Hurt. You. What you did not know about Caramel Treat should be obvious to you by now.
“Her mother, Brightmane Treat is a well known Second Dan Black Belt Master of Han Fu. She has trained Caramel, her filly, in Han Fu. You have experienced it twice. I let her deal with you because I have tired of trying to talk to you about your misbehavior.”
The bell rang. “Lunch recess!” exclaimed almost every filly or colt.
Miss Cherrilee went to her desk and said, “Those who have their assignments ready, please bring them here. Those of you who were distracted by the recent events, write the answers to the same questions, substituting Jaret for Sir Sunrise.
“Jaret, for trying to steal Caramel’s paper, you are failed.
“Do not bother with a paper.”
It was Caramel who looked up in surprise. “My paper? Oh. I thought that he was after my bag again.”
Jaret sneered, “What do the teacher gotta care about where the answers come from? All what matter is that they’s right!”
Caramel replied before Miss Cherrilee could. “That is not true, Jaret. The purpose of the questions is to see what you know and how well you can think.
“If you steal the answers, then the teacher can not help you properly. In the end, the only one that you cheat is yourself.”
Primly, Caramel packed her bag, shouldered it and walked out of the room while Miss Cherrilee looked after her in approval. She pointed out, “Some students do understand what we are here for, Jaret.”
He blew a raspberry at Miss Cherrilee. “Save it. It done be my lunch hour!” He stomped out.
Miss Cherrilee smiled secretively as she watched Jaret leave. Muttering, “You really should have paid attention to the lesson today, Jaret. I picked it just for you,” she slipped out to the play yard to watch things develop.
She was surprised to see Caramel Treat emerge from the office and go to sit quietly under a shady tree, laying out her lunch to eat. She was apparently ignoring Jaret and two of his sycophants approaching.
Miss Whinly, the teacher on playground duty was just about to intervene when she felt a hoof on her shoulder. Miss Cherrilee said softly, “Let it go, Whin. That little filly is full of surprises. She has already stopped Jaret twice and embarrassed him on three occasions.
“She did not even seem to notice him reaching for her bag, right there in class. She stopped him with a nerve jab the first time and the second time, knocked him right out of his desk without looking up from her book.”
Miss Whinly sighed and said, “Thanks, Cher. I was not looking forward to trying to stop the three of them.”
The two of them watched as the three toughs approached the helpless little filly under the tree.
Caramel looked up with a smile and said, “Jaret! I see that you have some friends. Spread your lunch cloths here and we can make a picnic of it! We could even share some of our lunches. I do have to warn you not to try my sandwich though.”
Jaret stood back, out of reach of her hooves and sneered, “You don’t get it, do you? You is sittin’, we is standin’. They is three of us, all bigger than you! We gone have our picnic with YOUR lunch! Got it now? Clear off!”
Casually beginning to peel her banana, Caramel replied, “If you are going to be rude, I shan’t share any of my lunch with you.”
Jaret snapped, “Thorny! Take that there banana from her for me! You kin have the apple. Frost! Grab her shoulder bag! I seen a writin’ kit in there what we kin sell! I gonna get the sanwich. It clover sprouts. I loves clover sprouts!”
The dun called Thorny started to reach for Caramel’s banana. Without leaving her sitting position, Caramel poked at the single foreleg bearing all of Thorny’s weight as he leaned forward. He landed, face in the dirt, with a shocked look and began to struggle to rise.
The pony called Frost, a silver tipped black, did grab her bag while she was dispatching Thorny. Caramel was after him on the instant. A leaping sweep kick took his hind legs out from under him. She landed on top of the fallen pony and began to box his ears, right, left, right, left.
She accompanied the very public trouncing with, “NEVER steal anything of MINE again! Got it?”
While she was dealing with Frost, Jaret took her sandwich and ran, gobbling it down on the fly.
Very uncharacteristically, Caramel simply watched him go. With a broad smile. Recovering her bag, she looked at the two fallen ponies and said mildly, “Oh, my. Jaret stole my sandwich. I told him not to do that.”
She finished off her fruit and gathered up her cloth and the peels. Sparing a glance for the still struggling Thorny, she said casually as she left, “Don’t keep trying to use your right foreleg. You can get up easily enough if you put your weight on the left instead.”
She strolled over to where the two teachers were watching. She glanced over across the play yard to where Jaret was sitting, polishing off the remains of her sandwich. Speaking to Miss Cherrilee, she said quietly, “I told him not to take my sandwich. I fear that before the day is out he will be needing some attention. The clover sprout sauce is part of my medication. Nothing serious or I would never have allowed him to get it. All that it does is help my potion to work faster. I will be fine without it.”
Miss Whinly said sternly, “Why didn’t you stop him if you could do it?”
Caramel replied, “I was teaching him the lesson of Sir Sunrise the Arrogant. He thought that he could pick on an old blue unicorn. He was wrong. So is Jaret. I hope that this teaches him something.”
Miss Cherrilee suddenly smiled. “Not serious, you said? What should we be prepared for?”
Caramel shrugged expressively. “If I was in your place, I would have some warm tea brewed. At least two pots full. After the projectile vomiting is over, it will help to settle his stomach. That is what happens to me, if I don’t get my potion pretty quick after the sandwich.
“Speaking of which, may we go and get my potion? It is time for my noon dose.”
Miss Cherrilee lead Caramel away toward the office. “Caramel, I know that he broke the rules. At least out in the play yard, I also know that you set him up. Normally, I would never say such a thing, but that was well done. He has been a problem since he came here.”
She was surprised when Caramel replied, “He still will be for a while. We get ones like him in Mom’s dojo sometimes. They always need several lessons before they settle down. If they DO learn, they can wind up some of the best that you can get. If they don’t, well, they stay what they are.”
Miss Cherrilee looked back at her surprising student and asked, “Brightmane has a dojo? I did not know that.”
Shrugging as she reached up for her potion bottles, Caramel replied, “It is private. She has to teach to maintain her black belt. We have it set up in one of the Red Hoof barns.”
Reaching into her shoulder bag, Caramel produced a small burner, some matches, tongs and a small metal dose cup. First, she lit the burner and then carefully measured some from each potion bottle into her cup and stoppered the bottles.
Miss Cherrilee watched in concentration as Caramel followed what was obviously a routine. She took the whole dose, even licking out the inside of the cup. Then she clamped the cup in her tongs and held it in the flame of the burner.
The room filled with a sweetish flowery scent as the cup heated almost to red hot. Satisfied, Caramel waved the tongs and cup to cool them. Then she neatly capped the burner and packed everything away carefully.
Miss Cherrilee watched carefully all that Caramel was doing. She asked, “Wouldn’t it be easier to just wash out the cup?”
Caramel looked at the teacher and smiled. “Easier, yes. Very dangerous too. This IS Poison Joke that we are dealing with. This potion, even in quite dilute form, like the cup washings can still cause unpredictable, unpleasant and potentially dangerous effects. It can be inhaled, absorbed through skin or even the frogs of hooves.
“Burning it away is the best practice.”
Giving her teacher a carefully studied look, with some real respect, Caramel added, “How come you are asking me these things instead of trying to tell me how to do them?”
Miss Cherrilee did not even hesitate. “You have been doing this for years. You were taught by Zecora and Nurse Fields. I do not know anything about Poison Joke except to know it by sight and stay well away from it.
“I prefer to learn from others who already know what to do, rather than make an easily avoided mistake.”
A harsh voice from the office’s door snapped, “You already done made a severe mistake! Some worthless little filly done poisoned my Jaret. I was call here from putting up a big building timbers order!”
To the complete surprise of Caramel, Miss Cherrilee did not even miss a beat as she retorted, “Oh, really? Who were you cheating this time, Sawnax?”
“The Townshi … Ain’t none of your business who the order is for! I come because some brat of a filly done poisoned my Jaret!”
Miss Cherrilee, showing a side that students rarely if ever saw, replied instantly, “That is a lie, MISTER Sawnax! I saw the whole incident and had the message sent. Your colt Jaret was warned NOT to touch that sandwich. He STOLE the sandwich out of the filly’s lunch and ate it.
“By ignoring both school rules about theft AND the warning given him by the filly in question, your Jaret poisoned himself!”
The frustrated Sawnax stomped hard enough to rattle the office window in its frame. “That there is crazy talk. I just spoke to Jaret in your infirmary! He spewin’ his guts out and the nurse ain’t send him to the horsepital! He say that filly give him the sandwich! That make it a lock!”
Miss Cherrilee retorted, “Your colt is a liar and you know it. He has been suspended for it before! Besides, there were TWO teacher witnesses and most of the classes out for lunch recess saw it happen.
“Careful inquiry has shown that the sandwich contained a portion of her medication for a chronic condition. That is WHY he was warned not to steal it. We have not sent him to the horsepital because, other than a period of vomiting, he will suffer no ill effect from it.”
Writing quickly on a form, she handed it to Sawnax. He stared at it in disbelief. “You can’t do this! My colt Jaret was the victim here. Why he gettin’ a ten day suspension?”
Miss Cherrilee snorted, “If you could take the trouble to actually READ what you are given, IT IS FOR THEFT witnessed by TWO teachers! One more such infraction and he will be EXPELLED. Is that clear enough for you?”
The big and angry earth pony, nearly as large as Big Mac, glared about the tidy school office and at the frowning secretary unicorn who was pulling down a big loose leaf book from a shelf. His irritation at not getting his way led his eye fall on the green and red potion bottles. He made a wild grab, knocking over the red bottle and sending the green one flying. “Got it! Here the proof that my Jaret was poisoned! Red bottles is poison! Got no place in school at all!”
The secretary saw the red bottle go over and frantically shuffled pages of the book. Pressing open one, she read for only seconds. Her magic made a grab at the chain bell pull of the school’s big, deep emergency bell. The powerful peal of the emergency bell drowned out all else.
She paused the pulling and her magic sent out a call throughout the school’s buildings. “This is NOT A DRILL! EVACUATE THE SCHOOL! Teachers, count your students and report evacuation to me by Magic Net. I repeat, NOT A DRILL! EVACUATE THE SCHOOL! Get your students as far from the office as possible!” The deep powerful clangor of the Emergency Bell resumed.
Tears of fear in her eyes, the quivering secretary stayed by her desk, her pen recording the evacuation reports. Miss Cherrilee’s own shock was broken by Caramel pushing her toward the door. “Get your class out, Miss Cherrilee! That is my medicine. I know what to do. Go!”
Even Sawnax realized that something was terribly wrong. He was raising a hoof to smash the offending bottle when Caramel caught him with a hoof jab. His attempt missed, bouncing the bottle across the floor.
Caramel, leaping for the bottle, yelled to the secretary, “GET OUT! NOW!” The secretary fled.
Caramel landed between Sawnax and the bottle. She was in a well known Han Fu defensive position.
Sawnax, feeling the pain of the full force hoof jab, paused long enough to demand, “Get out of my way! I just gonna empty that poison and take the bottle fer proof my Jaret be poisoned. Why you in my way? I just gonna pound you, you don’t move!”
Caramel replied as calmly as she could, “I am trying to save your life. I don’t really care about it, but not doing it will destroy the school.”
Outside, the different clangor of the bells of the Ponyville Fire Department Pumper Wagons could be heard. Even though holding her place to defend the red bottle, Caramel blanched. “Dear Celestia, Please! Not Water! Not on this!”
Sawnax finally realized that there were only the two of them left in the school. Outside, the calm voice of Battalion Chief Flashover could be heard saying, “We can’t see the fire, ma'am. Calm down and tell me where it is.”
There was a short pause and the pegasus’ voice called out for all to hear, “Clear the pumpers out of here! FULL Hazmat for everypony! We have a Special Procedures 26! I repeat, Special Procedures 26!
“Konik! Get ALL SCHOOL WATER SUPPLES SHUT DOWN NOW! We can’t allow any water near the spill!
“Morgan! Send back to the station for the backfire flame throwers!”
Sawnax shook his head. “What the heck they yappin’ about? Make no sense. That just a little bottle. I smash it or empty it out and take it. A little water and soap clean it all up. No big deal.”
Behind him the somewhat muffled voice of Battalion Chief Rainbow Flashover, speaking through her Hazmat suit’s helmet, said, “No, Sir. A VERY big deal.”
He turned and saw the almost surreal looking Fire Battalion Chief Flashover in her full Hazmat suit with the oxygen tank secured between her wings. She had a bare fire ax in her hooves, ready to strike.
As Sawnax saw the ax held in a combat stance he realized that he might be in far more difficulty than he thought. The safety suit clad Rainbow Flashover ordered, “You are safe now, filly, clear out. I won’t let him hold you hostage any longer.”
Caramel replied, “He’s not holding me. I am stopping him from killing a lot of ponies. He wants to smash the bottle behind me. It has 95 ml of concentrated Poison Joke pollen extracted with Joke root sap.
“The Manehatten Biomedical Laboratories disaster was caused by dropping about half this much of this potion while it was undergoing testing. It is medicine for me. Deadly dangerous for pretty much anypony else. You have to have chronic systemic Poison Joke affliction like I do to take it or handle it safely. I can. Not many others can. Right now, we only have a few drops spilled. I have the equipment here and know how to handle a small scale spill.”
Sawnax promptly made a menacing gesture at Caramel. The fire ax slamming into the floor boards in front of him stopped him in his tracks.
Wrenching the ax out of the floor, Rainbow Flashover stated bluntly, “One more step toward the filly OR that bottle and I will put this ax in YOU.
“Please step away from them. You are risking the lives of every pony around here except for those in protective suits. That means you, in particular. That potion is deadly unless we can clean up what you have already spilled.”
Sawnax did step back, eyeing the ax in the Battalion Chief’s competent hooves. “None of this make any sense. See, I just want that there bottle to prove she done poison my Jaret with it. He been spewin’ his guts out.
“That a red bottle. Poison. Jaret poisoned. That it right there. I just dump out the poison and keep the bottle. You slosh on a bucket of water and some soap. That what soap is for. Clean it right up.”
Chief Rainbow cocked her head and said, “Please be quiet a moment, Mister Sawnax.
“Magic Net! Battalion Chief Flashover here. How is the downwind evacuation going? We have a serious situation in here. So far only four drops have spilled. I am informed that this is containable at the moment.
“The perpetrator is threatening to empty the remaining 95 ml of toxic biomaterial. Worse, he is threatening to add water to the spill. This is over twice the amount released in the Manehatten Biomedical Laboratories disaster.
“On my authority, extend the downwind evacuation area all the way to the river and widen it to at least ten blocks.”
Outside, the big emergency bell in the town hall could be heard pealing its disaster call.
Hearing the Town Hall bell added to all the rest, Sawnax began to try sorting out the idea that something like half of Ponyville was being evacuated. Caramel Treat lunged forward.
Her trained hoof strike to the side of Sawnax’s neck dropped him like a sack of oats. She followed with a pair of further strikes at his forelegs. She stood over him, quivering.
“Forgive me for breaking the school’s rule, Ma'am. I couldn’t let him hurt that many ponies.”
Chief Flashover, looked at Caramel in puzzlement. “Hurt ponies? How do you mean, young lady?”
“The wind is changing, Chief. One effect of the Poison Joke on me is extremely heightened senses. I can hear the change happening. The wind shift will take any fumes right to the crowd out there.”
Chief Rainbow did not even hesitate. “Magic Net! Battalion Chief Flashover here. We have an emergency! Get pegasi up now! The wind is changing. We have to keep those spectators safe! Make sure that the pegasi hold the wind steady and stay upwind of the school!
“Get Coudsdale Emergency Response on the line and inform them of our SP 26 situation. They need to secure our weather pattern and make absolutely certain that we do not get ANY precipitation before we issue an all clear.”
Caramel was tugging frantically at the fallen Sawnax. Chief Rainbow came to help, saying, “Why such a flutter, youngster? You took him down, just about perfectly.”
Caramel looked up, trying to hold back tears. “I may have killed him by accident. He fell on one of the drops that he spilled!”
Rainbow’s actions and grip became sure. Voice calm but authoritative, she reached for a foreleg while saying, “Take his hind legs. Cross them to the right, toward the door. That’s it. When I tell you to, twist them so that he will roll over to the right. Doing fine, there.
“Now, twist his legs on the count of three. One. Two. Three!”
The big pony rolled over, toward the door. A largish red, raw area was revealed. The hair and hide around it were fuming slightly.
Seeing the ghastly effect of the potion just from contact, Rainbow promptly called again, “Magic Net! Battalion Chief Flashover here. Konik! We have a spill casualty! Prepare a victim pulling harness with a fifty foot pull rope and a victim transport bag. I will meet you at the front door.
“Do not touch my suit for any reason. My Hazmat fume sensor is reading 4.5 PPM. That is injury levels for this toxin.
“On my mark, have the victim pulled to the porch. Bag him for transport according to full isolation procedures. Then burn the harness and rope by flame thrower. Scorch the ground where it was. Do not delay that. It will be contaminated beyond safe cleanup.”
Done with the orders, she turned to Caramel and asked with more than simply professional concern, “Are you going to be OK there, Filly? I have to step out and get the harness. I will be right back.”
Still shuddering a little from seeing the extent of Sawnax’s injury, Caramel replied, “Yes, Chief. My name is Caramel. Caramel Treat.” She paused for a shaky breath and added, “I will set up my things for the small scale clean up while you are busy. Don’t worry about me. I can handle these vapors just fine.”
Taking the word of the filly, Chief Flashover walked out of the room. There was the sound of a fairly brief exchange of muffled voices out at the schoolhouse door.
She returned to the room,trailing a stout metal cable cored pulling rope and carrying the awkward bulk of the victim harness.
She saw that Caramel had set out her little burner and had got out her writing kit. It lay open, revealing a narrow metal tube that had a right angle bend in its end. Caramel was openly weeping.
“I am going to lose my writing kit and my book bag. It is all ruined with the Poison Joke fumes. I can smell it on them.”
Not pausing from carefully securing Sawnax into the harness, Chief Flashover said thoughtfully, “I think that the community can afford to buy you a new kit and book bag. If they won’t, I will. You have real guts, Little … Caramel.
“I am wondering a different thing though. How are we going to decontaminate YOU?”
Caramel gave the Chief a sideways smile and finished lighting the burner before answering, “You won’t have to. I have Joke in every part of me. I can’t live without it. All that I have to do is change and all of the Poison Joke on me will be absorbed.
“You just hit the spot where I was standing when I changed with a flame thrower and it will be done. It might be real hard to change back to a pony, though.”
Chief Flashover’s eyebrows could be seen rising behind the face mask of her Hazmat suit. Instead of saying anything further, she called, “Magic Net! Keep this call open until the victim is secured for transport to Ponyville General Horsepital. Be certain that they understand the protocols for an SP 26 isolation. We don’t want anymore casualties.
”Konik! Victim harness is secure. Begin removal. He is going to be heavy and we need to maneuver him through the office door. Should be a straight pull from there.
“What? The other civilian is presently safe. I am seeing to her continued security on my authority.”
The bulky form of the fallen Sawnax was levered through the door to the hall but it took both Battalion Chief Flashover and Caramel to manage it. Chief Rainbow followed to the front doors to be sure that all went as it should with the rescue.
When she returned, she saw that Caramel had stood the deadly red bottle up. “What are you doing, young … Caramel?”
Caramel looked up and chewed her upper lip before she answered worriedly. “We need a new 100 ml bottle, Chief Flashover. Sawnax has cracked this one. If I am careful, I can transfer this without losing more than a drop or two.
“If we don’t secure this potion in the bottle, it will be a horrible mess.”
“I see, Caramel. Call me Rainbow, by the way. How bad is the container situation, exactly?”
Caramel studied the bottle for a second time and looked at the floor boards around it. Then she watched the clock for a bit. “We are losing about one drop a minute, Chi … Rainbow. I tried different positions but it keeps on leaking. The crack is a sort of spiral around the bottle. The stopper is damaged too.”
Rainbow nodded and called again, “Magic Net! Battalion Chief Flashover here. We have a containment problem. We need a moderate sized ceramic bowl and a new 100 ml Dangerous Potion bottle with stopper system. The spill is continuing at a rate of about one drop per minute. My suit sensors are now reading over 6 PPM and climbing.”
She paused to listen and replied, “Yes, Sir. The civilian is safe. Among other things, she is an expert in Poison Joke decon.”
Turning to look at Caramel again she saw that the filly was wiping up spilled potion and the outside of the bottle with papers that had scattered when the secretary fled.
Caramel saw her watching and explained, “We can burn the paper easily and safely. I am keeping these leaking drops from getting into the floorboards.”
Chief Flashover thought for only a moment an sprang to her feet from where she had been intently watching. “Wait right here, Caramel! I have an idea! I will be right back!” She left the room so fast that, if her Hazmat suit permitted it, she would have been flying.
She returned the same way, the traction soles of the Hazmat suits boots skidding some on the bare floorboards as she rounded the doorframe, coming back into the room. She had a ceramic soup bowl from the school lunch room in hoof.
Caramel grinned when she saw what Chief Flashover was handing her. Indicating a place next to her on the floor, Caramel began crumpling papers to make a soft absorbent nest for the damaged bottle. Handling it very carefully, she set the cracked bottle safely into the papers.
Rainbow noticed that Caramel had taken the small bent metal tube from her writing kit and moved the now lit burner to the floor. It was next to the stain where the bottle had been laying on its side. She commented, “That is more than a couple of drops, Caramel. Can we take care of it?”
“Sure, Rainbow. These boards are pretty dry. That kept it from soaking in too deeply. Would you please tilt the burner over about a third of the way toward the stain and hold it there?”
Rainbow, taking care not to get in Caramel’s way, tilted the burner so that the flame was close to the stain. She watched intently as Caramel took a breath and blew through the long end of the tube. The smaller, bent end was next to the flame and pointed at the stain. The draft of air caused a small, narrow, precise jet of very hot blue flame to wash down on the stain. Wood charred. It glowed a little at the edges around the flame.
Caramel directed the flame all around the outside of the stain first. She then worked her way inward until all of the stained area was glowing char.
Looking up, she smiled and asked, “May I have your ax for a moment, Rainbow?”
Wordlessly, Chief Rainbow handed over the ax. Caramel industriously scraped the charred wood away, carefully gathering up the bits and adding them to the bowl. She sniffed deeply over the deep divot in the floorboards. Nodding to herself, she pronounced, that one is safe now. It was the worst, I think.”
They moved to the next spilled drop and repeated the procedure. It only took a few moments to be safe as well.
The third drop, up on the counter, went easiest of all.
Chief Rainbow was beginning to relax. They began working the drip that Sawnax had fallen on. It charred like the rest. Scraping and cleaning with the ax seemed routine. Caramel sniffed.
“We may have a problem here, Rainbow. It still smells strong.”
Chief Rainbow examined the boards herself. “No wonder. When he fell, he sprang the floorboards apart a little. Some must have gone between them. We are going to have to char all the way through about here.” She pointed with an expert hoof.
Caramel nodded and looked around the damaged office. The situation hit home and she shuddered, “My first day. What a mess. What will the teachers say?”
Rainbow had seen this sort of reaction before at fires and other bad situations. She stroked down Caramel’s mane to help calm her by contact. “What they are going to say is that you are a hero. I think you have saved the school building. We will know once we get through this floor. We have to find out how bad the situation is down there under it. Trust me, this is really minor damage.”
Taking a deep, steadying breath of air deadly to any ordinary pony, Caramel said, “I hope that you are right, Rainbow. Let’s get this done.”
Patting the filly one more time, Rainbow exclaimed, “That’s the spirit! Let’s get it done, Caramel!”
Using the burner and blowpipe, they chased the strong scent right through the boards. The charred hole was about three inches across. Putting her nose to the hole, Caramel said, “There is some down here. Not much. How do we get at it? It is a foot and a half to the ground.”
With a grin visible through her Hazmat mask, Rainbow said, “This is something that I know how to do really well!” She raised the ax and struck. It took a surprisingly short time to have a good sized hole in the floor.
Caramel watched with admiration at Rainbow’s obvious professional skill with the ax. “I think that is big enough, Chief.”
Curious, Rainbow asked, “What happened to Rainbow?”
With a return smile, though still a bit shaky, Caramel replied, “You are holding an ax!”
Giggling, they checked the ground under the hole. It took a few minutes of maneuvering to get a good position but they were able to char the musty soil to Caramel’s satisfaction.
Sitting on the edge of the hole in the floor, Rainbow called, “Magic Net! Battalion Chief Flashover here! Konik! Where is that bottle that we need?”
She listened carefully. “Did the reporter know that we have a deadly emergency going in here?” Listening only a moment, she added, I will be waiting at the front door for the bottle. Put that reporter under arrest for deliberately interfering with Public Safety during an ongoing emergency.”
Turning to Caramel, she said, “You going to be OK? I need to go get the new bottle. As a matter of curiosity, you said that you can change for personal decon but it might be hard to change back. What do you change into?”
“Yes, Ch … Rainbow. I will be all right. I usually switch to a wolf, a great big wolf. They call it an Everfree Ridgeback. I am safe. It is only my body that changes. Not me, if you get it.”
Thoughtfully Rainbow muttered, “The biggest kind of wolf that is known to exist. I do get it Caramel. Leave things to me.”
“Thanks, Rainbow. Go get the bottle. Leave my burner going. We will need it later, to do … you called it decon? On the old bottle and the bowl, not to mention burning the contaminated papers.”
“Got it, Caramel. I am on my way.”
There was a quiet exchange of voices at the front door.
When she returned, she had a new red potion bottle.
Caramel looked up, brow furrowed with worry. “What was that you were saying about volunteers, Rainbow?”
Chief Flashover startled a little and the replied, “Oh. Right. You heard the wind changing from in here. Greatly heightened senses indeed. What I was doing was arranging for you to do your change away from public view. I let Konik know what is going to happen and asked for volunteers to help us. Poison Joke levels on us will be dangerous for them.”
Caramel nodded, brow smoothing. She took the new bottle and expertly opened the stopper seal. She put her narrow metal tube into the new bottle so that it stood up several inches above the neck.
Working very carefully over the soup bowl, she lifted the cracked bottle and worked gently on the damaged stopper. It came free with a tiny “Ping!” Part of the bottle’s pouring lip fell into the bowl.
Biting her lip in concentration, Caramel touched the damaged pouring lip to the tube and began to tip the damaged bottle. Potion, thick as syrup, oozed out, touched the metal tube and flowed down the outside of it, disappearing into the new bottle.
When she could get no more, Caramel set the old bottle down in the bowl. With a tiny “plink!” it fell into three large pieces.
Chief Rainbow let out the breath that she did not realize that she had been holding.
Caramel held the metal tube by the safe upper end and heated it to near red in the burner flame. Then, as soon as it cooled enough, used it to direct and intensify the burner flame to burn the papers, scorch the inside of the bowel and carefully fire wash the broken bottle.
Thoughtfully, she hefted the now filled and sealed new bottle. “Rainbow, I think that this is light. It might just be me worrying though. It feels like we have a fair amount that is not here.”
In a matter of fact way, Rainbow nodded. “You are right. I have been getting reports over the Magic Net. Some was vaporizing from the cracks, I guess. We have an airborne plume of contamination downwind from the schoolhouse.
“We do have Hazmat suits that allow pegasi to fly. Their sensors are showing varying amounts of fumes from 0.5 to 2.1 PPM. If it helps, the level in here is falling pretty fast. We hit 8 PPM in here for a while. It is now down to 4.6.
“We have done all that we can here. Time to get you out and changed. OK?”
Trustingly touching a hoof to Rainbow’s, Caramel took one last look around the schoolhouse office. She saw the disarray of books and papers laying about, the dangling chain of the emergency bell, the scorched and scraped places where drops of her potion had fallen and the big pony-sized hole in the floor.
Rainbow saw her look and said with pride, “If you hadn’t kept your head when everyone else was panicking this would have been a disaster. The whole schoolhouse would have had to be burned down to keep the town safe. Ponies would have died. Maybe a lot of them. You are a heroine.”
“ I really don’t feel like one. I am afraid of what the other ponies will say.”
Rainbow, led the way out of the office and down a hallway lined with cork boards filled with student art and other projects pinned to them. Going toward the back of the school, she said over her shoulder, “Real heroes never do feel like heroes. They just do what is needed when it is needed and don’t take time to count the cost.
“Here we are. Back door. Steps are stone, easy to decontaminate and a gravel path, ditto. Konik has the volunteers out here with big fire blankets to screen us from the watchers and contain the possible contamination.”
Opening the door, they were met by a solid screen of large fire protective blankets designed for use in industrial fires. The hooves handling them were all in Hazmat gear.
As they were starting to emerge into the ring of blankets, they heard the sound of hooves charging their way. A deep voice called, “Equestria Daily! What are you up to? I heard that there is nopony left in there, so the emergency is over, if there ever was one!”
Before Chief Flashover could respond by ordering the reporter away, there was the sound of more hooves, in stout boots. That was followed by the thud of a pony being knocked to the ground. There was a crunch from something that broke as it hit the ground.
The deep voice called frantically, “My camera! You broke my camera!”
A section of blanket sagged slight as Konik let go of it. They heard him speaking to the reporter like he was a nearly newborn colt.
“Sir, you are under arrest for violation of a Public Safety Disaster Declaration signed by both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. That leaves no room for any appeal. You have entered a clearly marked Hazardous Material danger zone. It is a near certainty that you are now contaminated to the point of needing professional care.”
Caramel, speaking from behind the blankets directed, “Mister Konik? Would you give me a reading from your suit sensor, please?”
Sensing that his Chief had not stopped or contradicted the young filly, promptly replied, “1.25 PPM, Ma'am.”
“Now, Mister Konik, please hold your sensor about one inch from his nostrils and have him exhale on it. Force him to exhale if necessary.”
The somewhat grinning Caramel looked at Chief Rainbow, who nodded and whispered, “You are doing great!”
They were interrupted by Konik’s call of, “2.4 PPM, Ma'am!”
Caramel nodded to Battalion Chief Rainbow and said, “You know what to do from here, Chief.”
Grinning inside her Hazmat suit’s mask, she called, “I am Battalion Chief Rainbow Flashover. On the authority of a Joint Disaster Declaration by their Highnesses, the Princesses Celestia and Luna, Sir, you are being transferred to a Hazmat incident transport suit. You are contaminated with a nerve toxin derived from the contact of an already deadly Poison Joke potion with moisture.
“At Ponyville General Horsepital, you must follow orders exactly if you wish to live. That slight scent of flowers that you smell is the first symptom of your potentially lethal poisoning.”
In a very subdued voice the reporter asked, “Do I have the time to ask what happened here that a few drops of a filly’s potion could trigger such a massive response?”
Rainbow responded, “That will be up to our decontamination expert. She will be out in a moment. In the meantime, please cooperate with the Hazmat team in readying you for transport.”
Turning to face Caramel inside their near tent of silvery fire resistant blankets, Chief Rainbow said, “I have an idea about how to handle your changing. We WON”T hide it. We will say that your heightened wolf senses are what saved the school and a lot of Ponyville.
“No building or home can be moved into until you clear it in wolf form. That should help the situation a lot.”
Caramel smiled as she thought it through. “I like that. Ponies won’t be afraid of me that way.” She crouched and turned to the flame thrower ponies in their suits. “I will need a minute or two to change. Then I am going to spring right over your heads. Burn the spot where I was. Then fire bath the Chief and hit the insides of these blankets. Track us back to the school door and that should do it.”
Change completed, she leaped. The inside of the ring of fire resistant blankets flared up like a bowl of fire with Battalion Chief Rainbow Flashover still inside. It looked like a monster wolf arose from a cauldron of flame.
She landed neatly, next to the reporter. He was staring up at a wolf larger than any that was to be found in any Equestrian zoo. Its fur was dark gray tinged black at the tips. Its long pointed ears had tufts at the ends. It had a black ruff framing its head. There was a standing ridge of stiff black fur from ruff to tail. Its yellow eyes had a narrow ring of blue in them. Its huge jaws opened, revealing two and a half inch canines nested among razor sharp fangs.
It said in Caramel Treat’s little filly voice, “I am sorry that you got hurt but it was your own fault for breaking the rules.” Turning to the other members of the Ponyville Fire Department, she wagged her tail and said, “I need to sniff his breath. Would you please undo the hood for a moment?”
She sniffed deeply. Turning back to the suited Hazmat team she said, “Close him back up. We can give him about fifteen minutes if he signs off to take responsibility for the delay.”
Chief Rainbow strolled up in her now thoroughly toasted Hazmat suit and said, “I heard that. Konik, has he signed off?”
“Yes, Chief Flashover, he has. We are timing from the original assessment.”
` In answer to many keen and penetrating questions, the reporter actually developed a clear understanding of the whole event. He ended up by summarizing, “So, as head of the schoolboard, Sawnax required the special needs students to come and bring their medicines. He ignored warnings about yours, Caramel, from both your mom, your nurse, and the fire department’s Hazmat team.
“At the school, his colt got into a minor emetic, and Mister Sawnax jumped to a conclusion about him being poisoned. He then knocked over the dangerous bottle, damaging it and causing the direct incident. He still does not appear to grasp that this is the same potion that was the cause of the Manehatten Biomedical Laboratories disaster.”
He paused and looked up at the huge wolf towering over him and said, “It has been a pleasure to meet you Caramel. You are a heroine. Your quick thinking and fast action prevented a enormous disaster.
“I want to come back and spend some time to write up your remarkable story, if I live through my mistake here.”
Caramel laid a big paw on his shoulder and replied, “It would be an honor, sir. You should make it through the treatment just fine.”
As stretcher bearers carried away the reporter to a waiting ambulance, Battalion Chief Rainbow reached up to lay a hoof on Caramel’s tall shoulder and said, “Really well done. Now we have to go through the same drill with Mayor Mare and the Council. They need to meet the one who is going to be clearing over a fourth of Ponyville for re opening and moving back in.”
Two weeks later, the school bell rang to call the students to class. It broke up the game of Dodge Wolf on the playground.
Jaret took the same seat next to Caramel Treat that he had before. He leaned over and whispered, “I think that cutie mark is really sharp. Potion bottle and Joke flower?”
Caramel said, “Yes. We noticed it while I was talking to the town council with Chief Rainbow.”
Jaret hung his head. “I’m sorry about the way I treated you. I really screwed up.”
Caramel smiled at him and replied, “Yes, you did. I see that your reading and writing scores are way up now.” She took out her writing kit.
Jaret looked at it and said, “I thought that you lost that in the mess that my dad made.”
Caramel smiled softly and replied, “I did. I was more upset at that losing that writing kit than anything else. Two days ago, a Rom caravan wagon came through town. Old Marchhare was pulling it with his wife Hoof Dancer and his daughter Black Lotus. They stopped long enough for him to find me and give me this one.
“I asked how he knew that I needed it and he said that he was a snoopy old donkey.”
--The End–
