//------------------------------// // Test Chamber 2 // Story: My Little Test Subject // by Lighthawk //------------------------------// The ride in the lift provided me with a moment of relative peace and quiet which I used to reflect on my situation and try to piece together a greater understanding of my circumstances. I had been ponynapped by some unknown individual or individuals on behalf of some unknown organization and brought to an unknown location to be subjected to some unknown testing process for unknown reasons. I really needed to collect some better data. The lift door opened onto yet another unimaginatively decorated room of white tile and grey metal. The new Test Chamber was several times larger than the previous. Walking onto the corner ledge immediately outside the lift, I found this especially applied to the up and down. Extra emphasis on the down, down, and again, down to where the floor had become little more than a white blur in the distance. “Good news,” the voice spoke, and actually managed to sound like it was pleased despite the flat tone and nonexistent emphasis. “I have a surprise for you.” “Could we possibly agree that I have had enough surprises for one day? Unless the surprise is that you’re letting me go, maybe you could hang onto it for later?” “Deploying surprise in 3…2…1…” And then there was pain. There was a lot of pain actually, of a degree and severity that I wasn’t really aware of anything else for a while. I wasn’t even properly aware of when the pain ended, because my mind had been so thoroughly scrambled by it that it took me a while to even recognize that the oddly rhythmic sensation in my chest was my heart beating. My vision returned after a moment more, blurred with tears, and I had to deduce that I had been screaming from the way my throat hurt, though for the life of me I could not recall making any noise. I wanted to demand what the hay had just happened, but my mind was still working on restoring enough voluntary control of just my eyelids in order to blink away my tears, and couldn’t be yet bothered with my vocal cords. “And to think, the scientists thought they’d never get a chance to use the Non-mutual Teleportation Exclusion Array Generator. Well, I suppose technically they were right.” My brain was nice enough to document those words and file them away for later consideration, because it was some time before I even had enough presence of mind to get all four hooves under myself and stand up, never mind do any sort of actual thinking. “Guess what, I have another surprise for you.” “No!” I shrieked. Well tried to shriek. It might have come out as somewhat more of a harsh whisper, and muffled by a fit of violent coughing. Not that it really would have mattered. “Don’t worry, I promise this time will be a real surprise.” The floor in front of me split open, and I fell on my butt trying to jump back on my still wobbly legs. The white floor tiles lifted up on a set of hinges, and a plate of grey metal rose up from below to fill the gap. The plate brought with it four oddly shaped objects with it, and it took my addled mind a few seconds to put the details together enough to figure out what they were. They were boots. Though to be fair, they were unlike any boots I’d ever seen. Even Rarity had never come up with anything as bizarre as the hoofwear sitting before me. They were, and brace yourself for this shocker, white. They were also nearly half as tall as my legs, and each one possessed a semi-elliptical leaf spring attached to the back that curved under the slightly raised heel. The exterior gave an impression of being armored, while the interior was filled with some kind of padded insulation. I will admit, they were kind of impressive looking. “This is very exciting,” the voice said. “The Aperture Science Long Fall Boots have yet to be tested outside of a bipedal configuration before. As you will have twice as much support, I figured we might as well start the testing at twice the recommended maximum fall distance.” “No…absolutely not…there is no way you are going to get me to…” An unsettlingly familiar booming clicking sounded, and the wall beside me started to move. A glance back showed the lift door shut nice and tight, leaving me with only one direction to go. Well you know, if I hadn’t been a freaking unicorn anyway. My horn lit, and I visualized the interior of the lift even as I eyed the distance. A short hop with nothing but a metal door as an obstacle. I’d done more complicated teleports by complete accident. So one could well imagine my surprise when I cast the spell…and absolutely nothing happened. Well that’s not true, I did get a sudden headache as the spell energy fizzled and fed back through my horn, but other that I sure didn’t accomplish much. And then my brain regurgitated the info it had tucked into storage earlier, the bit about teleportation exclusion something-or-others. The advancing wall bumped into me, and I pressed back against it frantically in some futile effort to make it stop. For the record, hooves and tiled floors do not make for good traction. I threw my magic at the wall, and for a single glorious second I actually managed to halt the thing. There was some hissing, a few thuds, and then something in the back there released in a violent bang that shot the wall forward like a released tension spring. And I was falling. And screaming. And even though it hurt, I couldn’t seem to stop. One of the Long Fall Boots tumbled past my head, and I seized it with my magic. The merciless acceleration of gravity was already pulling me through the air fast enough to make my mane billow in the approximation of a storm force gale as I jammed the boot on my right front hoof. The insides were indeed padded, rather cushy feeling actually, and the material seemed to mold itself to the shape of my hoof as soon as it was settled inside. One down, three to go. The floor was looking less distance blurred already. I spun my gaze around until I located a second boot, and I snagged it with another burst of magic. The wind tried to tear it out of my grasp, but I just clamped down harder and reeled it in. Left front hoof went into the boot, and I felt it reform to a proper fit. And the floor was looking to be closer to me than the ceiling was. The third boot came sailing in, aglow with the aura of my magic, and my right rear leg was fitted. I could see the individual lines of each floor tile as they raced up to meet me. The final boot came darting in like a diving bird of prey, and I spun it open end facing me even as I stretched out my left back leg towards it. The boot jammed onto my hoof with an impact that sent me spinning, and I started to flail in panic as it tipped me over upside down. For a dreadful moment I feared I had just killed myself in my haste as I plummeted head first to the ground. And then the final boot finished tightening down, and I felt my hooves get yanked around hard. I got turned right side up in a violent half rotation and fixed in that orientation as if I had become a gyroscope. I’m not kidding, I don’t think I could have avoided landing on my hooves even if I’d tried. And then I hit. It was loud, and had a violent suddenness to it. The impact echoed up and down the Test Chamber, a not quite metallic ring. It did not however hurt. Not in the slightest. In fact, it felt like little more than if I had fallen a bit further than my own height. I stared down at the boots, and the dents left in the floor tiles. Then slowly I craned my head back, to look up, up, and still further up. I couldn’t even be certain where the lift entrance was anymore at that distance. “Oh that was a good test,” the voice spoke into the silence as the echoes died away. “This one requires extra documentation in fact. Let’s see here…’Test Subject Twilight Sparkle showed an exceptional degree of lungpower’…there, very nice.” I felt my left eyelid twitch. “You…you…you are…” I spluttered in mounting rage and indignity. “You heartless, sadistic, monstrous mother…” “Please continue testing.” I snarled something mostly unintelligible, and felt power surge to my horn. I turned, ready to blast a hole right through the wall. Not so much to escape, but just as a means to vent. I just barely stopped myself as my brain proved to be back on task and a thought flashed across my consciousness. My magic had been blocked. I had no idea how, but my teleportation spell had been rendered unusable. Whatever the means, it had not however interfered with my ability to use magic, merely that specific spell, and it had been countered just minutes after I had demonstrated it. I still had my telekinesis, though I had no idea if that was because I had been allowed to keep that use of my magic, or if that was because it couldn’t be blocked. I let the magic drain out of me as I realized I couldn’t afford to freely show off what I could and could not do. An energy bolt was just a very concentrated and highly directional application of telekinesis after all. I could NOT afford to risk having that taken away from me. Maybe it wasn’t possible, but until I knew that for a fact, I had to assume it might be, and act accordingly. Which meant I couldn’t let it be known that the spell had a weaponized variation. I was still fuming over everything, the ponynapping, the testing, being pushed off a cliff and then mocked for screaming over it. But I couldn’t let my emotions dictate my actions. Not in this situation. I took in a deep breath, lifting my right foreleg across my chest. I let it out, pushing forward with the limb as if waving away my anxiety. The familiar gesture felt a little off with the added weight of the boot, but I ran through the pattern a few times until I managed to reduce my anger down to a low simmer. I would get my chance. A quick survey of my surroundings found a hallway leading out of the main room, and I followed it, my discontent grumbling backed up by the steady clink clink clink of my new hoofwear upon the floor. A second, far less impressive room opened up at the other end of the hall, which held the doorway out of the Test Chamber. The door however was shut tight, and I didn’t see any ridiculously oversized buttons or cubes to open it with. Instead there was series of steps set in one corner that wound up and up and up to a platform right below the ceiling. It wasn’t nearly as dizzyingly high as the previous room, but still more than several times higher than any non-pegasi would likely feel comfortable with. Not to mention high enough to make me groan at the thought of climbing that many stairs. I really needed to get outside and exercise more. No wait, check that. I needed to research a physical augmentation spell. Yes, that would be a much more practical approach. Lacking either a strong, athletic build or the means to cheat that lack, I had to rely on good old fashion willpower and the patience to take my time. Even at a gradual walk however, I was feeling the burn and breathing harder than I would have liked by the time I finished the sadistic climb up. The stairs were unreasonably steep, each step high enough above the previous to really make a pony work at it. I had no doubt what so ever that whoever designed the Test Chambers was pure evil. Granted, that might have been the lactic acid in my muscles talking, but stairs really felt like an unnecessary petty cruelty. I found my button at the top of those evil stairs, nice and shiny and red, sitting upon a dull grey podium. I was too tired to even try to lift a hoof that high, and let my magic do the work for me. There was a chime, and the sound of the door far below opening. There was also an alarming ticking sound. I suppose it speaks of my experiences with the Enrichment Center thus far that, without any hesitation at all, I flung myself bodily back down the stairs in alarm at that noise. Unnecessarily it turned out, as when the timer ran out nothing exploded. Instead there was a buzzer, and the clunk of the door snapping shut again. I lay sprawled out uncomfortably on the steps, wedged into the corner where my less than graceful leap had deposited me. The only good thing to be said was that my weary legs had not possessed the strength to really hurl myself down the stairs, and subsequently I had only suffered to fall down a single section of stairway before coming to a halt. It still really hurt though. Thanking Celestia that I hadn’t broken anything, and after taking several long moments to whimper silently to myself while the pain receded, I got back to my hooves and whimpered some more as I climbed back up the final stretch of steps again. I glared at the little red button for a bit, and then pressed it. The chime sounded, and I started counting as the timer ticked away. Buzz, snap, silence. Fifteen seconds. Way too little time to run back down. The solution of course was obvious, especially after such a thorough demonstration of my new boots’ capabilities in the previous room. Simple really, push the button, chime, and leap. There was indeed a chime, only there was a distinct lack of air rushing by my head. There also seemed to have been a total lack of leaping involved. In fact upon closer examination, my hooves were unquestionably still rooted firmly in place upon the platform. The buzzer sounded. Alright, that’s fine. Clearly while my brain knew that the boots could and would protect me from harm, it’s not so simple a thing to just ignore a hardwired instinct, especially one of self-preservation. Jumping from a great height is not a normal pony activity, pegasi excluded obviously. It was only natural to be afraid. Knowledge however is the banisher of fear. I knew the boots worked, and had worked for a height much greater than this. I could jump and be perfectly unharmed. This test had clearly been set up to demonstrate that fact, and the terror from my previous, involuntary fall would have no place here in this planned jump. Rational logic, bane of instinctual fear. Button, chime, leap…leap…aaaaaand…leap! Buzz. Okay, okay, just getting the nerves out. Nothing to this at all. I just have to push the button and jump. Let gravity do the rest. Ah gravity, I can always count on you, for good or for ill, you’ll always have my back. And right now, you are going to be my best friend. Just push the button and… Chime. … Buzz. Alright, I am over thinking this. Too much time to think, just do it and go. Chime. Buzz. Argh! Why is this so hard? I know I’ll be fine! Come on Twilight, you can do this! Jump! No wait, button first, button first! Nooooooo! I lashed out with my magic, striking wildly around the podium even as gravity, that cruel, evil, arch-nemesis of mine, grabbed hold of my body and started dragging me down. I put several large dents in the metal cylinder, but just before it was yanked entirely from my sight I managed to get my aim in, and the glorious sound of the door chime going off rang through the Test Chamber. The fall was actually amazingly short, all things considered. I landed square and solid on all four legs, barely even feeling the deceleration. Ha! Knew I could… Buzz! With a shriek I hurled myself through the door even as it snapped shut, nearly taking my tail as it did. Truth be told though, I would have sooner lost the hair than climb those steps and face that leap again. No way in Tartarus I was going to do that all over. Getting to the end of the Test Chamber however left me with another issue. The Emancipation Grill. It shimmered before me, playing at being all friendly and nonthreatening with its cool blue hue and wavy water pattern effect. I didn’t buy it, not a second. Unfortunately I didn’t exactly have much of a choice. The door was closed shut behind me, and my teleportation spell was out of commission. The only way was forward, and forward went right through the unknown energy field. “Can I ask what an Emancipation Grill does?” I sounded pretty tired, even to myself at that moment. “You may,” the voice answered crisply. I waited for more, and then let out a very long, very annoyed sigh. “What does an Emancipation Grill do?” I asked in a grating monotone. “The Aperture Science Material Emancipation Grill ensures that test subjects cannot smuggle test items out of their respective Test Chambers. Any unauthorized items that pass through an Aperture Science Material Emancipation Grill will be vaporized.” “Of course they will, how could I have not realized that?” I muttered to myself as I continued to stare at the Grill and wait to be told to ‘proceed to the Chamber Lock’ or whatever. I could see the lift just on the other side of the energy field. I pulled off one of the boots and gently tossed it at the Emancipation Grill. It sailed on through without any effect at all. Having thus exhausted my available means of investigating the energy field; okay yes I could have thrown the other boots through, as would be the proper scientific approach, repeating the experiment and all that. I was just too worn down to care however, and really, I was rather reaching if I was to call that any kind of scientific testing. I had no instrumentation, no documentation, and absolutely no objectivity. Plus I had to take into account my watcher and her ability to control my environment, meaning I probably couldn’t even truly count on things to remain consistent. So I took the plunge, and wobbled unsteadily on my three booted legs on through the Grill. It tingled in a not quite unpleasant fashion, and was nice enough to not vaporize me. I retrieved my test boot, slipped it back on, and slowly made my way into the lift. Inside I laid down as the doors shut, closing my eyes for however long I had until it reached the next Test Chamber.