Those Thirty Days

  Following the impressive results and knowledge gained through project 'Ghost Town', the team has felt a renewed sense of purpose and energy, a welcome change from the atmosphere of pessimism and near desertion resulting from our continual stream of failed progress. The next test, dubbed project 'Solitaire' plays off of the same basic idea we tested in project 'Ghost Town', and to a smaller measure, project 'Illusions'. The subject will, however be subjected to slightly more extreme conditions. While as 'Ghost Town' replicated the test subjects home neighborhood in a state of vacancy, 'Solitaire' will place our subject in a confined chamber measuring ten by ten by five meters. The room is padded with standard issue insulating, cushioning pads, used primarily in mental institutions, though ours have been custom ordered to be colored white, instead of the standard pale yellow. The room is fitted with a sink and toilet, which are both operated by buttons, instead of levers, and are built into the wall, so as to minimize the possibility of self inflicted injury of the subject. The utensils are also painted white, so as to continue the sensory deprivation of the subject without the need of a constantly sustained spell field, which would not only be costly, but ineffective for our purposes. Another difference from 'Ghost Town', is that 'Solitaire' will not even allow animal interactions with the subject.

  The test is designed specifically to ensure that the pony will have no contact with anypony outside the walls during his stay, much less be aware of the outside. Food will be delivered via teleportation; the unicorn selected for this task having been selected for the fact his magic is nearly a pure white, meaning that the residual magical spark the object will cast off will be invisible against the tiles, ensuring the subject will have to be extremely observant to even notice the signs of teleportation. As for medical security of the subject, he will be fitted with a sub-dermal injector of an extremely potent sedative, which will render him unconscious within three seconds with little warning to the subject, as wells as maintaining him in a state of unconsciousness for a minimal laps of time of three hours, to a maximum of seven hours, depending on the dosage used, allowing us to aid him in any way that he might require while also ensuring he doesn't notice any of us while we do so, ensuring the results of the test are untainted.

  Keen lifted her gaze from the paper, staring out her window, not looking at anything particular. She was already beginning to form some opinions on what might be what her client wanted her to investigate. She had barely gotten through the first page and already there were several things that stuck out to her. Apparently the F.R.I was in to some rather messed up things, and that was just with her knowledge of the three projects mentioned in this paper. Ghost Town and Solitaire seemed to be cases of what might constitute mental assault or even illegal use of test subjects, depending on what the full story was. And then there was Illusions, whatever it was, though apparently it had dabbled slightly in isolation of subjects, which would more than likely psychologically scar anypony.

  "Hey, Keen Eye," Keen suddenly shot her head up to look at her door at the unexpected visitor, "Just wanted to remind you that the building locks up in five minutes, so you might want to pack up any nonessential and take the rest home with you." Keen blinked a few times, looking over at her wall clocks, surprised to see how much time had passed already.

  "R-right, I'll be packed up in a minute." Keen replied quickly, already putting the tape player into its box with a hoof. "Just getting ready to head out anyway." She finished with a smile. The pony nodded, closing the door as he left, his silhouette moving down the hall. Keen quickly put everything away into her saddlebags. She looked over to the window, seeing that the rain was still on going outside as the droplets smacked against the thin pane glass. Keen quickly slipped her bags on, trotting over to her coat rack, taking her yellow rain coat, throwing it on, making sure it went over her saddle bags before taking her wide brimmed hat her cousin had bought her during her vacation to Dodge Junction. Galloping down the hallway and then the stairwell, she soon reached the front door of the building. She gave a quick wave to the pony behind the desk, who returned the gesture. Keen pulled her hat down further , covering her eyes before charging out into the rain soaked streets of Fillydelphia. The street lamps flicker ominously in the nighttime storm, the streets seeming quite calm, much calmer than she could ever remember during her life in Fillydelphia. A few ponies galloped this way and that, and the few taxis that were on the street flew by so fast there would have been no chance of catching one. Keen, not being one to like to stand out in the middle of a street when it was raining, broke into a gallop towards her apartment building.

  The sound of something hitting the mic came through the tape player's small speaker, which gave a surprisingly high quality representation of the sounds as the final knocks ended. The sound of mumbled speaking from beyond the microphone's range could be heard, along with the sound of rustling pages nearby.

  "This is day one of project Solitaire. Test subject had been placed in cell, which has been sealed in accordance to previously listed protocol." A cool voice of a mare stated. "Subject is still unconscious, but should awaken at any moment. Recovery team is certain that the subject was unable to see who they were. We are hoping for some very promising results from this project, Celestia knows how many bits the company had to put into it for this whole thing to work. Anyway, end of morning researcher notes, switching to in room audio feed." A sharp clink echoed from the speaker, and just as the first signs of motions began to come from the machine, Keen pressed the pause button, looking back at the papers before her. A diagram of the cell was included, along with how the recording system had been hidden. The cell had the toilet set into the western wall, while the sink was actually built into the same system, the sink's operating system placed right next to the toilet's. Everything the researchers could've thought of to allow the pony inside normal functions without being able to go outside was in place. The cell made it impossible to receive or transmit signals unless through a direct connection, much as the internal audio feed had.

  "These ponies aren't amateurs... they are..." Keen shook herself before she finished the thought. These ponies, above all else, were dangerous, and not just that, dangerous and SANE. Their methods were methodical, well organized, and above all else, devoid of any obvious flaw. Keen put the diagrams back in the folder, putting them back in her saddlebags before she walked into her bathroom. She set the player on the sink, with the folder beside it. Keen pressed the play button once more as she turned the faucet in her tub on, letting the warm water fill the porcelain receptacle. From the tape player, she could hear the sounds of motion, as the subject began moving about, only just awaking from his drugged slumber.

  "W-what... where... ah, my head." The stallion began. Keen could hear the pain in his voice, more than likely an after effect of the drug that had been administered to him so that he could be taken to the facility with ease. The sounds of the pony pushing, then smacking the cushions could be heard as Keen shut off the faucet. "What's going on? H-hey, is anypony there? I'm trapped! P-please let me out, what's going on?" The subject continued to move around the cell, pushing against every wall, probably looking for a door. Unfortunately, Keen knew that the only access to the cell that could be opened was in the roof, a very good design choice in the interests of keeping this pony inside, unless of course this pony was a unicorn or pegasus, which, considering all the other precautions these researchers had taken, was highly unlikely. Suddenly, a click sounded from the tape player, and the sounds of the pony in the cell beating against the wall was replaced by another pony speaking clearly.

  "Subject, as expected, was resistant to his new confinement, having beaten on the walls and yelled as loud as possible for several hours. The pony's state seemed to settle for a moment, but quickly returned to a frenzied state as food was teleported inside. The pony seemed to then realize what was happening, and began to call out, asking what we'd have of him, and offered us a substantial sum. All offers were met with silent, as per protocol, and the subject seems to have calmed down a substantial amount, or at least has tired himself out from his constant moving and shouting. Either way, this concludes night researcher notes as well as day one for project Solitaire." Another click sounded out as the recording ended. The player automatically began rewinding the tape until it finally reached the beginning of the tape, were it gave yet another click as the lid popped open. Keen thought about putting the next tape in, but decided instead to take her bath and then continue with the investigation after she had a few moments to organize her thoughts.

  Stepping into the warm water that filled the tub, Keen gave a sigh or relief as she left herself sink almost the entire way into the water, leaving only her snout out of the relaxing water. It had been a stressful day, even for how dull it had been until a few hours ago, but now she was home and could continue any investigation plans in a setting of greater relaxation. Rising above the water, she took the bottle of conditioner and squeezed a bit of it into her right hoof before setting it down again and running her now soapy hoof through her wet mane. The pony who had been trapped in the cell, what he had gone through must've been beyond compare. Keen didn't even want to imagine being stuck in a room for how ever long that stallion had without any sign of outside life. She thought about not seeing any of the girls, her mother, even her brother, no matter how annoying he could be at times; she just couldn't think how she'd keep sane for all that time, then again, she didn't know if the pony in question had actually maintained his sanity. If he hadn't, that only raised the question who had brought the case to her. Maybe it had been one of the researchers breaking their NDA because of an incessant conscience, or maybe somepony related to the pony used as a subject who found out one way or another and now felt it better to give it to a more qualified pony so that they didn't make a mistake.

  Keen rose from the tub, taking a towel from the nearby rack, making sure her mane and coat were at least mostly dry. Looking into the mirror at her brown coat and light ten mane, she began to tussle out the knots that had former in her mane as best she could, though not being an earth pony who couldn't levitate objects around certainly put a damper on her efficiency. After finishing with her brush, she returned to the living area with her things, quickly taking out the folders. She hadn't actually finished the first page of the document, having instead flipped quickly through all the papers for any sign of something interesting, or worthy of any note, which led her to the diagrams. Taking the first page back out of the mess, she set it on her coffee table and began to read where she had left off, but quickly discovered that she had basically read everything of interest. The rest was protocols in case of certain situations, methods which could be used to purchase items for the test without attracting too much attention, thing even she could probably do without too much trouble.

  Setting the papers to the side she began to look over the rest of the folders contained in the plastic folder holder. She felt an urge to rip them all out and spread them across the table, but as the clock in the kitchen gave ten chimes, she felt it would be best to turn  in for the night. She'd get back to her office in the morning with more to do than just read the paper. She'd have a more awake mind that would be, and much to her name's implication, keen to the details that otherwise might slip by. With a sigh, she placed the objects back into her saddle bags, picking them up in her teeth before moving to her room, setting them down beside her bed. As she went to turn off the lights, in the reflection of her photo that sat right beside it, she saw the form of a pony, looking at her from her window. Quickly turning to face the pony, she watched as the lasts traces of a tail flickered by the window. Rushing to the window, she threw it open, but saw no pony in the alleyway below. Keen gave a smirk as she shut her window, moving back to her bed. Already the case on its own merits had peaked her interest, but now things were different. Now, things were getting interesting.