Spike found himself laying on a warm stone floor. His eyes disobeyed his commands for them to open, but he didn't mind all that much. He would have a chance to get some much-needed sleep at least. But sleep did not come easy for the baby dragon. Instead, he found himself teetering on the edge of the waking world and the dream realm. After many failed attempts at claiming the sweet slumber he craved, Spike settled with just resting in his cozy little spot.
A sudden shift could be felt to Spike's right as something pulled him closer to it. The warmth emanating from of the being was more than comfortable for the small dragon. Spike snuggled up to the being who provided him with more heat. He heard a giggle coming from somewhere. It was followed by a soothing voice that Spike could only hear fragments of.
"Hey....ey..... hEy.... Br...er.... Wake...Up"
With a sudden jolt, Spike found himself awake in an off-white room. He was laying on a bed with only a thin sheet to keep him warm. To his left were other beds, though some had curtains drawn to keep their occupants from the prying eyes of others. "Oh good, you're awake," said Twilight, who Spike didn't see on his right. "Are you okay? Anything out of usual?" she asked.
Spike took a moment to figure out what he was going to say. He was groggy from just waking up and already his eyelids were already trying to close themselves. "I... I'm fine," Spike stated.
"I heard a pause in your statement," objected Twilight, "Are you sure you're okay?"
"I'm fine!" Spike nearly shouted. The sudden loudness caused Spike to wince in pain as he grabbed his head. A sudden throbbing pain in his head caused tears to start to pierce through the baby dragon's tight-shut eyes. "I-I just got a headache that's all." He opened one eye to look at the lavender pony. She was flipping through the vast amount of paper in her magical aura.
"Hmmm... I'll give you some aspirin to relieve the pain," started Twilight, "Also, after the... incident, you will be part of a project that I have just started." The gears in Spike's head stopped for a moment before rewinding to what happened prior to him falling unconscious. The extremely loud voices that shook him to his very core. The blazing heat that sought to burn him from the inside out. The feeling of unknown rage as he sought to use that same heat to burn Twilight nothing more than ash.
The little dragon griped the bed sheets even harder as his mind began to race, trying to figure out what was wrong with him. Thoughts on top of thoughts piled in his head, weighing him down with the weight that each of them brought. He was so wrapped up in trying to find an explanation as to why he did what he did that he didn't even notice his darkened scales glowing an eerie purple. Nor did he notice the lavender pony jotting down more notes.
"Updating D-1043's condition at approx. eight forty-five p.m. He has awakened and is seemingly trying to cope with what transpired during the incident. This evidently has caused him to be severely stressed and it would seem that when under stress his darkened scales glow like they did during the incident. Later testing may be needed to fully prove that stress is a trigger for this phenomena." Twilight quickly wrote. Every now and then she took a quick glance towards Spike. The glow in his scales grew more bright by the second.o
Spike's breath began to grow more rapid and sharp. His pupils darted every which way as if trying to look for something. An answer maybe? Twilight didn't know. But what she did know was that if she didn't step in now to help the little dragon, they would have a lot more trouble in the long run.
"Spike," Twilight spoke, snapping the dragon out of his trance. "I don't know what thoughts are running around in that head of yours. But I know how it feels to be in a situation like this. Something happens to you and you have no control over it. That feeling of helplessness never goes away really. It sticks to you for a long time before you can get over it and to be so young and experiencing that... well, I can't say I envy you." There was a moment of silence between the two. "But I do want to help you. If you leave everything to me, be cooperative, just be patient, and in the end, I'll make sure you get what you want."
To say Spike was surprised, was an understatement. It was the biggest understatement of the year. Not once had Spike heard words with the caliber of kindness that Twilight had given him. She even called him by his nickname! All these emotions that swirled in Spike began to rush towards the surface. More tears began to sting his eyes as he gave a quick sniffle. He quickly wiped them away and gave one last sniffle before his blank expression and a weak smile returned once more.
"D-do I even have a choice in this?" he asked. Both of them knew the answer to that question. Spike knew he was stupid for asking it, but he had to get it off of his chest. He had to hear it straight from the pony's mouth that he was trapped here until they let him go.
"... No, you don't." admitted Twilight,"But you're in good hooves now. I promise." Another chuckle escaped from the baby dragon. "Anyway, it's almost time for dinner. Moondancer is right outside the door. She'll take you to the dining area."
"Okay." Spike obeyed and quickly found his way to the door. He opened it and hastily exited the room, leaving Twilight alone.
With a sigh, the lavender unicorn levitated out a drinking flask that she had been keeping in her inside lab coat pocket. A quick swig of the flask's contents and the unicorn shuddered briefly. She could see that the road ahead was going to be a long and difficult one. She took out her tape recorder and pressed record.
"Date, July 19th, 2019. Time, eight fifty p.m. Test Subject D-1043 seems to be experiencing mental and emotional trauma. It would appear that subject's collar has also been fitted with an 'emotion inhibitor'. The reasoning for such an enchantment is unknown nor is it anywhere within the subject's files. It may have been more damaging to the test subject to have disabled it fully so soon. Schedule testing for the full scope of this 'inhibitor' tomorrow." Twilight groaned as she took a long swig from her flask. The burning liquid that rushed down her throat made her shudder again.
"This will conclude testing for today. End of recording."
"Don't you dare scare me like that again!" Little Fang yelled. A current of electricity flowed through her pale blue hair. "Here I am being worried sick about you for an entire day and what is the first thing you come and say to me?"
"Hey?" answered Spike.
"You got some nerve to just walk up to me and say 'Hey' like it wasn't a big deal. I thought you were seriously hurt or something!"
The two sat at a table eating their dinner; a bowl of soup and a slice of bread. The surrounding dragons could be heard giggling at the rustic dragonette yelling at her male test-mate. Spike could hear some of them gossiping about the two. He could have sworn he heard the words "cute" and "couple" used in the same sentence, but his mind was a bit preoccupied with Little Fang trying to pummel him at the moment.
"Why do you even care that much anyway? We only met this morning," complained Spike as he took another soft punch from Little Fang. To which the dragonette stopped her assault of punches that equaled the strength of pillows.
"Why wouldn't I care?!" retorted Little Fang, "We're all dragons in a land filled with ponies that have captured us with these... things!!" She tugged at the metal collar around her neck. "Whether we like it or not, we're in this together. If one of us gets hurt, or worse, we should at least care a little. After all they won't care at all." Little Fang shot a glare at one of the closest ponies that stood guard by one of the exits. Her hair stood on end as arcs of electricity flew off the dragonette in quick succession.
Spike could only gaze at the dragonette. Pure rage was present on her face. If looks could kill, the pony guard that she was looking at would have been killed a thousand times over. He looked off into open space for a moment, thinking about what Twilight had told him a few minutes ago.
"Also," started Jet. The two baby dragons nearly jumped out of their scales at the sudden appearance of the dark purple dragon. "You're the only other baby dragon around here besides Terrus, but I don't think you two have met them yet." He finished. He sat down across from the two younger dragons and began to slurp up his soup. "So, I take it you had a rough first day?" asked Jet.
"You could say that." Spike joked as he too slurped up his soup. There was a chuckle heard from Jet and a 'hmph' came from Little Fang. "By the way," Spike started as he looked around. "Where's Garble and Fizzle?" Jet froze for a moment before placing his bowl down.
"Haven't seen them after breakfast. They're probably in the Medical Ward by now," he answered. This gained him a confused look from the two baby dragons. "Oh yeah, you two are new here," Jet groaned. "I guess I'll have to tell you before you figure it out the hard way. Come closer kiddies and let Papa Jet tell you the story behind Test Room C-5."
The two sat and listened to Jet explain the test room that seemed to have everyone worried and they had every right to be. All testing buildings had three floors. The top floor was labeled 'A', the ground floor called 'B', and the basement floor titled 'C'. It would appear that building two Test Room C-5 had its name shortened to and remembered as "2C-5". Test Subjects in the past went in, but few left the room unscathed. Some came out missing an eye. Others came out dumber than they went it.
But the number of dragons that survived couldn't even hold a candle to the number of dragons that laid dead because of 2C-5. When the facility originally started, the place used to be much bigger to occupy its one thousand dragon test subjects. That number had dwindled down to a mere tenth of what it was as the months and months of testing gone wrong and other accidents went by. It wasn't until the Twilight Sparkle was assigned as the new director that things started to change.
"What kind of changes were there?" asked Little Fang.
"A lot. But the most specific change was that there wasn't any testing in 2C-5 for a while. So when big boss lady put Garbles and Fizz in that room this morning. You can understand why we all get a little unnerved." Jet answered.
"Did you ever go into 2C-5?" asked Spike.
"Nope!" quickly responded Jet, "And thank Bahamut I didn't! I'm not sure Garbles could have lived without me." Jet place an arm on his forehead as he said the last sentence dramatically. A small chuckle spread throughout the table. Spike and Little Fang did their best to keep their smiles under control but failed in doing so. The nearly pitch black dragon's cheese theatricals were just too much for them. Though if anything, they did appreciate the teen dragon for lightening the mood a little.
"I get the feeling you're leaving something out," Little Fang spoke.
"Just leaving out the gory bits," admitted Jet, "Don't want the wee little babies having nightmares." Little Fang huffed and scrunched her face. The dragons at the table gave another chuckle before a ringing sound echoed throughout the room.
The dragons were soon returned to their holding cells for the night. Since they didn't have much to do in terms of entertainment, the dragons quickly went to sleep. The voices in Spike's head decided to leave him alone for tonight and he was left in near silence. The only sounds coming from Jet's soft snoring overhead. Spike laid in bed still contemplating on what the director had said to him earlier.
"... I'll make sure you'll get what you want," she said, to which Spike chuckled.
"What I want, eh? What do I want?" he asked himself before rolling over and falling asleep for the night.