Project HIVE

by PurpleFire18

Chapter 3: A Change of Plans

Spark Fire used the newly found card to enter the next room without needing to use magic or destroy the panel. To his delight, the place was seemingly free of any changelings, but he was surprised to see that it was well-lit and clean. He took a look at the walls, looking for any of the changelings' green slimy substance, but found none. He walked, making sure he had not overlooked any part of the lab, and stopped near a computer screen showing the words "Please insert access card.". Spark Fire looked at the card he had taken and carefully inserted it into the machine. The screen now showed a message saying "View personal log No. 001 and No. 002?", and he decided to see what information the logs had.

A unicorn appeared on screen in a recorded message. Spark Fire noticed it was the same unicorn from the picture because of the glasses, mane and heart-shaped jewel hanging from her neck. The unicorn began to speak.

"I am Dr. White Rose, Canterlot biologist and one of the scientists behind Project HIVE. The aim of this project was to study the changelings' nature and need to feed on the emotion of love. Our colleague, Dr. Test, had been studying changelings for years, and claimed he had found a way for changelings' nature to be used for the good of ponykind. I came to this place with my husband and baby daughter, thinking we would work for the good of Equestria. I was a fool to believe this was possible, and in hindsight I should have guessed the nature of the project when Dr. Test decided to make this project a complete secret, saying Princess Celestia had no need to know of the project." Dr. White Rose looked behind, seemingly making sure she was alone. "This facility was built with the help of many earth ponies and pegasi living near this location, who were tricked into helping by Dr. Test and his promises of helping the advance of science. The farm above us was made to provide food and was run by the earth ponies, while the pegasi were tasked with helping us secure changeling subjects. It wasn't long until Dr. Test decided to ask for a 'volunteer' for his first experiment. That was when we all realized something was wrong. He never showed us what he did with the volunteer, but showed us the 'results'. The volunteer had once been a pegasus, but now...he was something else. A horrible pony and changeling hybrid, like if a pony had grown a horn, fangs and insect wings and had his legs pierced with drills many times. The pony's mouth was full of a green substance, not unlike the one that is found in a changeling's cocoon, and he painfully demanded to be fed. Dr. Test said this was an 'unfortunate accident' and put him under observation in Sector A, where he would later send all of his volunteers, or 'test subjects' to be more accurate. I fear we may have made a wrong choice with this project, and my husband and fellow scientists agree with me."

The recording ended as soon as she had said the last word. Spark Fire was disturbed to say the least, just picturing the experiment that led to such a result made him want to believe this was a nightmare that his princess of the night would wake him from. However, while he was younger than most guards, he was mature enough to realize what he was thinking and calmed down. He still had one log to see, and despite he already had information, he decided to see what other secrets Dr. White Rose would share. He sat down as the next recording started.

"The captured changelings have become more violent, and the 'new changelings' are becoming more like those monstrous shapeshifters, but are now even more dangerous than the real changelings. All the ponies that ended up as hybrids due to the 'accidents' in the experiments, and that means all of them, are mutating, transforming into changelings and not looking anything like their former selves. They seem to do this by trapping themselves inside of cocoons for a period of 5 hours, later emerging as changelings. They even acquire the same shapeshifting powers, and are now even capable of feeding on love, but this is where they are worse than the real ones. Dr. Test put an innocent pony inside of one of the new changelings' containment cells, and that is when we saw that the changeling took the form of somepony else and started absorbing the love from the pony, this was expected from a changeling, but the next action wasn't. After it had fed on the pony's love for a short period of time, it still looked hungry, and looked at the pony with a look that scared even us. Then it...ATE HIM ALIVE! From the coat to the organs, until there was barely any flesh left!" Dr. White Rose's face was pale and her voice made her fear evident.

Spark Fire paused the recording right there, shocked. He thought he would be ready for another disturbing secret, but this was too much for him to handle. A royal guard, even one young like him, wasn't easy to scare, but this information would have made any guard feel, at least, disgusted. He stood there for a moment, trying to calm down. You are one of Princess Celestia's guards, damn you! he thought to himself. He repeated those words to himself a couple more times before he was finally able to calm down. He had already heard enough, but something pushed him to hear more, and decided to resume the recording.

"Other new changelings displayed the same disturbing behavior, but some of them did not eat the ponies, and instead trapped them inside cocoons. After just 1 hour, the trapped ponies became changelings. I don't know what he did, but Dr. Test's experiment made these changelings far more dangerous in every aspect. Sector A's changelings are multiplying, and against our suggestions, Dr. Test insists on leaving them alone. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a containment breach in Sector A in the near future. I need to get out of here, take my husband and daughter and go back to Canterlot to tell the Princess what happened here, this cannot be allowed to continue!" Dr. White Rose seemed to hear something and looked to her left. "Who's there?" she asked, adjusting her glasses.

The recording ended soon after. Spark Fire now had a better idea of what Dr. Test had done, and now just thinking about that name disgusted him. He took the card back from the machine and walked, planning what to do next. He then saw a door to his side with the words "Changeling Security Device", and decided to open it.

Inside was a small storage room with 2 versions of a single device, a transparent mask that could cover the entire face of a pony, one of them had what seemed to be metal around a hole in the upper part where a unicorn's horn would fit through. Spark Fire looked at them and then saw a sign on the wall that explained what they were. The mask's transparent material could see through a changeling's disguise, while the metal parts were prototype magic amplifiers. Spark Fire thought he was lucky to have found them, and was delighted to see that the mask fit quite well inside his helmet. Now with some kind of advantage, he headed towards the lab's exit. If the changelings had captured his fellow guards and the scientists and spared them, then he would need to find them quickly before it was too late.

Author's Note:

And the 3rd chapter. Expect more action in future chapters.
Criticism welcome.

Comments

[Nopony28]

This is freaky and awesome and I have one word to say to you...
MOAR!!!!

[Subatomic Seal]

This music works.