"Switching to pod frequencies. Casting to: all subjects."
Eclipse suddenly gasped, a loud thump against the side of the pod waking her from her slumber. Her pod's lights were still dimmed, making it near impossible to see too far outside.
"Okay, subjects. Today is not following our usual schedule. Instead, we'll be doing our experiment first, then a research period, and finally you can relax." The doctor noted. "Subjects #001 and #002, you may want to hold onto something solid inside your pod."
Before Eclipse had any time to react, the pod suddenly flipped onto its front, sending her crashing into the already weakened glass and metal panels that had kept the pod somewhat intact from her assault on it the previous week.
"Can't say I didn't warn you." The doctor laughed. "Now, get your body off my pod, you'll smear the glass," he added.
"Buck you..." She pushed up against the metal panels, using her teeth to rip a small hole in the top of it. Eclipse slipped her right wing into it, contracting it as she pulled herself up, managing to slip the left wing in to get some extra grip on the sheet. Thankfully, the vinyl sheets had been sewn into the edges of the pads of the pod.
The pod door slowly began to open, the gears squeaking as it opened halfway, just enough for Eclipse to fall out if she were to let go.
"The computer will automatically open it a little bit more every fifteen to thirty minutes. It'll continue until either the pod door is fully open or one of you falls."
"So?" Alto Volare's voice could be heard. A panel to the right of Eclipse lowered, showing Alto and his pod in his room. He had slipped into the glass door of the pod, holding onto his own sheet. "A fall from this height won't kill us."
"That's where the floor tiles come in."
Eclipse looked down to them. Nothing seemed to be different or wrong about them... but she couldn't see them very well since she was so high up.
"They look normal. At least try to seem convincing when you know you're bluffing." Alto claimed. The doctor exhaled.
"They're not. I mean, you can choose not to believe me, but if you want to find out for yourself, let go."
Alto glanced down to the floor. He was almost certain the stallion was lying. Almost. And the prospect of trying it out himself to see if he was lying or not wasn't very likely.
"What's wrong with them?" Alto asked. The doctor didn't respond. "Hey!"
"Disconnecting from pod frequencies: Subjects #001 and #002."
Alto snarled, kicking the pod door. "Son of a--" "Alto!"
He glanced over at her. "Oh, what do you want?" Alto replied, clearly not happy to see her after everything the doctor had told him.
"You need to calm down."
"What the hay do I have to be calm about?! You're a pegasus; you can fly out of this! I don't have wings!" Alto exclaimed before the pod door shook again, sending a gasp through him. Eclipse internally screamed as she released the sheet, flying between the narrow slit between the pod and the door, hovering in place in front of the open panel. She reluctantly went towards the open panel.
"Fine, fine. I'll just--" A sudden zap of electricity went through her hooves. Her wings suddenly gave out as she fell.
"Eclipse!" Alto called. Eclipse opened her wings, managing to recover a few feet before hitting the tiles. "You had better be okay!"
"Ugh..." She groaned. "I'm fine!" Eclipse called back, although she wasn't entirely sure that she was. Her wings were tingling from the electricity.
"Switching to single room frequency. Connecting to: Subject #002.
"Forgot to mention, Subject #002, you'll be shocked if you try to make physical contact with his room. As I said, this ends only when you or he hit the tiles. Subject #001 is just going to have to rely on his own strength, and you're going to have to rely on your own ability to fly. Good luck."
"Horseapples!" Alto cursed under his breath.
"Switching to all room frequency."
"Well, what the hay are we gonna do now…?" He said quietly.
"We can figure this out, don't worry." Eclipse ascended higher, returning to the open panel. She inspected over the edges of it, focusing on anything that looked out of place or weak. "Look at the panels around the opening. See if anything's changed. If we're lucky they might have left something for us to exploit."
"We'd better hurry then."
Nova looked around his room, contained inside his own pod. He had gotten into a habit of waking up earlier than anypony else since he had awoken to Rarity's screams a few days ago. That's weird... The doctor hasn't let me out yet. Maybe he's just running late?
"Switching to single pod frequency. Connecting to: Subject #004."
"Computer, power off all lights excluding the interior and exterior pod lights," the doctor ordered. "Lucky you. Since you're awake the earliest, I get to experiment with you first without having to focus on anypony else. Aren't you excited?" He said with a morbid, yet giddy joy.
"Just leaping with joy..." Nova sarcastically said. He was dreading it.
"The Administrator has ordered that I run a specific experiment on you. Hey, she might be in it herself, I dunno. I'm kinda... Well, left in the dark for lack of a better term." He chuckled. "Ooo, they're here already!"
"Who?"
"You'll see."
The hiss of pistons sounded outside the pod as a battalion of hoofsteps trotted up to the back of Nova's pod.
"Well, well, well... What do we have here?" A mare's voice questioned, before chuckling quietly. It was a different one than the one that had visited them in the previous days, "What do you guys think? I think this one'll like us! Not like all those other, boring ponies. About as fun as a bag of dirt."
A roar of laughter began to erupt as the banging of hooves hitting the metal of the pod filled the inside. Nova rattled inside, fear running through him.
"All right, all right, go easy on the pod. I'm on a budget."
"Oops- sorry doc." The mare's light hoofsteps trotted around the pod. She stepped to the front of the pod, revealing her pink coat, clad in black, padded armor, strands of pink stitched across the chest and down the hooves. Her puffy pink mane rolled over her shoulders and hid her ears, almost making them invisible. She stood in front of the pod door, revealing both her dark blue eyes and the black metal bat to Nova. One of her servants followed her, wearing similar but lighter armor, as well as a bat with a black grip and a white tip. His head tilted askew, confused by why the unknown mare was approaching him.
"Oooo, you're the newbie!" She chimed in excitement.
"Um..." He suddenly jumped, a small smile stamped on his face. "You're Pinkie Pie! The Element of Laughter!"
Oh?" She tilted her head slightly. "You already know me?"
"Of course! You're an Element of Harmony, who doesn't?!" Nova chuckled, giddy. "I always wanted to meet you and your friends, but I never would've imagined it'd be-" His movements came to a screeching halt, suddenly realizing that this was still an experiment.
"Wait... what are you doing here? Why are you working for that mare?"
"Well, let's just say that I sorta, kinda, owe her a looooooot." Pinkie Pie admitted although she didn't seem too sad about being indebted to the mare. "Anyways, why don't we get started? Doc, open the door already!"
"Gotcha." Legacy replied with the click of a button. The pod door hissed as it opened slowly. Pinkie Pie slipped her forehoof under the door, forcing it up. She smiled widely, tilting her head slightly as the group of stallions crowded behind her. "Don't worry, we're gonna have a lot of fun today!" She took a step back, the smile still plastered on her face as the stallions yanked Nova to the floor. The squad of stallions began to unsheathed their bats, one by one, beating him mercilessly.
"Well, at least, I will..." She whispered, watching with a smile.
Rarity blindly followed the forehoof leading her. She had been blindfolded by Nurse Cura once again before being pulled out of her room. The hallway was filled with different voices to her left, chattering on about scientific statistics, how bad the coffee was, or experiments being performed as she passed by clicking and tinkering of machines to her right, busy recording data, alerting scientists to new information, and buzzing overhead of the ventilation system kicking in.
"I hope I don't need to tell you where we're going."
"No, no, darling." Rarity knew too well of where she was going; the Administrator's office.
"I'm not your darling." Nurse Cura replied coldly. Rarity wanted to give her an angry glare but was obviously inhibited. She withheld her discretions for the moment.
"Stairs up ahead. " Nurse Cura warned. Rarity followed her up them with little problem, A door opened, before Rarity was pushed inside. She barely managed to get her tail in before it slammed behind her, propelled by dark purple magic. The blindfold was quickly removed by the same magic.
"Sit," the Administrator ordered from her leather chair, pointing at the chair, which Rarity had become somewhat accommodated to. At least, as much as she could be, knowing that something horrendous would follow. She sat down in it reluctantly.
That monitor... Does she have it in use? Rarity questioned in her thought, just noticing that it had still been turned on, but without the red bar and her heart rate.
"We feel like today, you could use another break. We've pushed you hard so far, and we don't want you breaking before our fun has begun." The Administrator's magic gently strapped the leather bindings over Rarity's hooves. "So, here's all you have to do." She leaned up from her chair, flipping the monitor's power switch on. The monitor suddenly cut to a four by four square of security cameras. The top left had a picture of an earth pony stallion, hanging from his suspended pod by a white sheet, and the top right was a pegasus mare, hovering around an open panel to the previous stallion's room. The bottom left was static, and the bottom right was green, as the night vision feature of the camera had kicked in. There were at least five or six stallions surrounding something on the floor, with a lone figure watching in the distance. "You watch their experiments."
"Why? It is not like I am going to freely follow your every whim."
"We don't want you to, but perhaps we could offer a trade?"
Rarity raised an eyebrow, intrigued. "You've captured my attention..."
She grinned from under her mask. "We thought that would." the Administrator leaned forward. "We're willing to give you a chance to stop their experiments early."
Her intrigue quickly shifted to confusion. "And precisely why would you do that? What would you attain from permitting me to stop your sick experiments?"
"You're getting ahead of us." The Administrator stood, trotting past her desk. "You may stop all these experiments at once, on one condition."
"And what might that be?"
The Administrator kneeled, allowing Rarity a full view of her masked face. "Tell us, who do you think we are?"
"How am I supposed to know with all certainty?"
"You aren't supposed to. That's the point. Think of it as a memory test. You've met us before." She sat back, but just close enough to her head and face to in the light.
Rarity stared at her, squinting as she tried to decipher any other unique facial features under the mare's mask.
"Queen Chrysalis?"
The Administrator chortled. "What reason would she? She's made peace with her former enemies, try again."
Rarity's attention was suddenly turned back to the screen, where a large red button was flashing in the top left corner. The earth pony's sheet had begun to tear, and the pod door had opened a little further, destabilizing him. The group at the bottom had dispelled, leaving an alone pony standing in the middle of the room with...
"Nova?"
"Oh, we guess that our task force was blocking your view. Yes, that's him."
"Why are hurting him? What has he done?"
"He's shown something... special about him. We want to drive that out, see what he's really made of. But if you're uncomfortable with that, you can stop it at any time." The Administrator chuckled. Rarity turned her attention back to her, trying her hardest to sort through all the bad ponies she had met in her lifetime to see if she could get a match.
Eclipse worked quickly, trying to find something-- anything that would allow her to slip through. Time was quickly running out.
"What the hay is taking so long?!"
"Shut it!" Eclipse ordered as she hovered to the side of the open panel, trying to push it to the side to see if the stallion had perhaps forgotten to extend it to that one. It wouldn't budge, even for her strength.
"No-- My sheet is ripping! You need to hurry!" Alto barked as he wrapped the sheet around his right forehoof.
"Why should I?" She stopped, looking back to him. Her dam of anger had finally broken. "What makes you think that I wanted to be saved?"
Alto suddenly stopped, his mouth hanging ajar as he turned to her. His eyes were filled with regret.
"What... Eclipse..." "No, let me speak. Let me speak because I have been holding this in for months- years." Her voice was filled with hatred. Alto inhaled a deep breath before nodding.
" When I saw my house on fire, I- I wanted to fight. So hard..." Her voice shook. "I wanted to save them... e-even if I knew it was a long shot... I thought that everything I had- everything was gone. M... Maybe..." Eclipse's voice broke as she continued. "Maybe I wanted to join them... b-but you wouldn't let me..."
"Eclipse!" Alto called back. She didn't care for his pitiful attempts at feigning his remorse.
"I-I had no idea--" "Shut up," Eclipse ordered. Alto stumbled over his words before becoming silent.
Nova’s breath was rapid, barely able to catch it after the vicious attack. His right eye was black and swollen shut from the assault, not to mention his aching hooves and bruised ribs.
"You're a tough cookie, aren't you?" Pinkie leaned down with a chuckle, staring at him. "I looooooove tough cookies. Especially the little crunch that they make once you bite through them. I wonder if you can make that sound too." She giggled maniacally. "Don't worry though, we still have a lot of fun in store!"
"Why..." Nova sharply inhaled, trying to catch his breath. His chest felt so tight. "Why are you doing this? Y- You're an Element of Harmony..." He wheezed. "You're supposed to be a symbol..."
"Because the Admin tells me to. Besides, it's so much fun!" She winded up the bat with her hoof. Nova winced, lifting his forehooves to protect from the imminent strike. A sudden buzzing interrupted her. She released her bat before hopping up, pressing her freed hoof against her right ear.
"Yello?" The buzzing became louder as she turned, a black, circular earpiece in her ear. "Ah, okay. All right." she giggled aloud, certainly tickled by whatever the pony was saying. "Got it. Thanks for the info." Pinkie turned back to him. "That was the Admin, and she just had an amazing idea!" She knelt down, retrieving her bat. "Wouldn't it be fun if your big-sis joined in on the fun too?!"
Nova held his tongue. He knew it was just a ploy, he wasn't going to allow it to get to him. Not yet.
"Just imagine what we could do!" Her right forehoof pressed against the earpiece. "Can she come in the next cycle?! Can we?! Pleeeeease?! She lives in Canterlot, right?" she released it, turning to Nova. "In your grandpa's old house, right? Or at Ms. de Lis'?"
She's just trying to get to me... don't listen to her... Nova reminded himself, trying to steady his breathing to try and control his anger.
"Oh... you look angry?" Pinkie knelt down, resting her bat down at her side. A quiet buzzing preoccupied her for a moment. "Ooo, home right now! Why don't we go get her?"
That made him snapped. His sister was in imminent danger, he couldn't sit idly by while she was in trouble.
"C'mon, let's go!" Her right forehoof came forward, going for Nova's right shoulder. He slapped it away.
Pinkie smiled widely. "Now you're starting to join in on the fun!" she stood. "But don't get too busy yet, we still have to pick up Static-" "You aren't doing that to her!" he barked. Nobody would threaten his sister. Nobody. She giggled loudly, excited by the prospect of picking up his sister.
Nova grunted as he forced himself up, in spite of his injuries. "Stop it!" he trotted up to her while casting an irate scowl at her. Her laughter slowed to a stop, her curled lips slowly straightening. "Oh... you're that one out of the group. You gotta be a party-pooper."
He stepped towards her, yet the pink mare held her ground. Her mane slowly began to deflate, resting on the right side of her face. A stallion stepped towards her.
"Ma'am--" "No, I'm fine. He's mine." Pinkie stopped the stallion who had stepped up, allowing Nova to stay momentarily.
"Well, since you're gonna be a grumpy-grouch, maybe your sister'll enjoy my party." She turned away from him, pressing her hoof to her right ear. He quickly grabbed it, pulling her away. Pinkie turned back to him with an annoyed glare. "Why are you doing this?! You already ruined my fun!"
"Ooo..." Legacy watched in awe, the tapping of a pen following him.
Nova looked at Pinkie, it taking everything for him to resist hurting her. She smirked at him, before nodding. "Alright, that's how you wanna be then?! Fine!"
He fired a bolt of magic at her, only for her to jump to the side, dodging it. It burnt a hole in pads, deep into the metal. "All right, we have what we need." Pinkie Pie stated. Her task force quickly galloped to Nova, taking him down to the floor.
"Let me go!" He pushed up against them, his previous timidness completely gone, replaced with rage.
"No, no! We need more results! Keep going!"
"Don't worry doctor, we'll get what you need since this stallion doesn't like me anymore." She walked up to her group of stallions. "Lift him up. Make sure he can't move his hooves." Pinkie ordered. The stallions did as she said, one of them holding him up as four others spread out his hooves to assure he couldn't move them.
"What exactly are you gonna do if I go get your sis, huh?" She asked, stepping forward. "We'll have a lot of fun together and I won't invite you!"
"You won't get your hooves on her!" He kicked at her. She sidestepped it and slugged to his stomach. Nova grunted, folding inwards.
"We could've had a lot of fun today, but noooo. You had to ruin it." Pinkie added, still clearly bitter. Nova's stomach and chest crumbled, his head following. The wind had been knocked out of him, almost along with his lunch.
"Get him back in the pod," she ordered. The stallions lifted him up and threw him in. Nova tried to shove his way out, only for one of them to return, holding him in. "Legacy, lock it down for a while. He'll need to cool off, y'know?"
"Mmhm. Already ahead of you."
The pod began to slowly shut. The stallion waited until the last moment to let go of Nova. Nova rushed for the pod door, but it was already shutting. "Thanks, doc." Pinkie added, some of her enthusiasm returning to her voice. Nova grumbled quietly, kicking the pod door.
The bottom right screen cut to black. All that was left was the top right and the top left.
"King Sombra?"
"You're just guessing at this point." The Administrator exhaled aloud. "Do we sound like a stallion?"
"Well, if you would be so kind enough to remove that mask... perhaps it could aid me."
"No, we can't make it too easy for you. Although we can tell you that we're somepony you've met before. Now, continue."
Rarity looked downwards. Suddenly, a name came to her head. "Princess Luna? Nightmare Moon?"
"Ah, now you're inching closer. We've been with her before. Alas, things worked out terribly for us, so she cannot go unpunished."
"So she knew you? You were friends- perhaps you were even a servant of hers?" Rarity questioned. The Administrator simply smiled under her mask, remaining silent.
"Oh, looks like our next experiment is about to be over." She pointed to the top left square. The sheet had ripped in half. The stallion was barely hanging on. "Better hurry, we think his grip is starting to fail him."
"Eclipse..."
She ignored his calls. Honestly, she could care less about him right now. She was hurt, and it was because of him.
Alto huffed with a sigh. "I didn't want to lose you, okay?"
Eclipse's head rose, suddenly interested in him. He pursed his lips, before sighing.
"I... I didn't mean... " He paused and cleared his throat. "I didn't let you go because you would have died, 'Clipse." Alto confessed. "Look- I- I don't have anybody. Not since you left. Not even Ma understands.." He confessed. "I know it's selfish... b-but I'd be all alone in this world if you were gone." His voice shook slightly, tears stinging his eyes. "I need my best friend back. I am so sorry if I hurt you, but please, if this is really it, I don't want to leave you on bad terms."
Eclipse, with a quivering smile and tears in her eyes, quickly hovered back up, coming into Alto's line of vision.
"Eclipse?"
"I'm gonna get you out." She pushed against the right panel, trying to break through.
"Eclipse... We both know it's hopeless."
"N-no--" Eclipse pushed against it harder
"I'm relieved we could end this on good terms." Alto smiled. Eclipse looked over to him, only a small bit of the sheet left, and his pod door was fully open.
"No-- I can get you out!"
"It's not going to happen, Eclipse." He looked down to the tiled floor, awaiting his fate. Eclipse's mind raced. I could use the blanket as a rope-- No, too short. Try to reach through-- I'll get shocked. Buck, buck! Her mind raced as she tried to find something to save him. Then, there was one small detail she had remembered.
"This ends only when you or he hits the tiles."
Eclipse looked down to the floor, then up to Alto.
"There's still one way." She turned back, flying down.
"Eclipse?" Alto called back as she flew down towards the floor. "Eclipse?!"
Eclipse closed her eyes as she slowly glided down to the floor, waiting for something.
The two top squares cut out to a black screen. Rarity gasped, just having witnessed both the mare and the stallion fall.
"Time's up."
"Please-- Please tell me they're okay!"
The Administrator shrugged her shoulders. "We have doctors if they're not. But let's move on to more important things." The Administrator leaned forward. "You've got one more chance. Tell me who we are."
Rarity gulped nervously. If she were the pony she had been thinking of, this would get ugly.
Rarity chewed her bottom lip. "P-Perhaps you're Princess Cadence?"
The Administrator's face lightly brightened under her mask. "No... no, we wish we could be like her. Kind, caring, helpful... She's the good one." She spoke warmly of Cadence.
"The good what?"
"The good alicorn. What other is there?"
"Princess Celestia and Luna-" The Administrator slammed her hoof against the desk, causing Rarity to jump in the middle of her thought. "Don't speak of them. They're no heroes, there no saviors, they're two cowards who were lucky enough to be born into royalty. They send their officers and soldiers to do their dirty work for them. As if they're above the rest of us... as if they're not ponies too." The Administrator spoke with utter disdain for the pair of rulers.
"Whatever do you mean?"
She growled, removing her hoof. "What do you think happens to the ponies you defeat after Celestia or Luna get their hooves on them? They're tossed into dungeons or locked them away for months, years, sometimes centuries at a time like Discord. They've even banished ponies from their own world like poor Sunset-" the Administrator paused suddenly, realizing the information she had just disclosed.
Rarity blinked, reviewing over what she had just heard to make sure she had heard her correctly. "'How would you know about Sunset Shimmer?"
"We should finish this." The Administrator grunted as she stood.
"No, wait, you answer me this instant!" Rarity demanded as if she were in a dispute with her younger sister. The Administrator stared her down, killing any defiance within Rarity.
"It will all become clear soon. Just remain patient."
The Administrator's horn brightened, slipping over the front of the mask to the back. It slowly slipped its way across the string, going back behind her head. The magic quickly undid the strings, pulling them to the sides. Rarity stared at her as she waited for the mask to fall--
Click
The door squeaked open. The Administrator gasped, not expecting somepony to be coming in. Rarity glanced back looking for the pony.
"Oh. P." She said, relieved as she tied the strings of the mask back behind her head.
"Hiya, Admin. I've got my status-" Pinkie Pie stepped to the desk before noticing Rarity, as lively and enthusiastic as ever. She sat a folder on The Administrator's desk before turning to Rarity, her mane puffy. "Oh, Rarity! You're the last one, aren't you?!" She turned to her. Rarity was breathless.
"P-Pinkie?" She questioned, horrified to see that her friend had become caught in this web too. "W-What do you mean, 'the last one'?"
"You're the last piece of the puzzle! We'll finally reach the end of our game!"
"What game?!"
"The game, silly!" Pinkie giggled. "How can't you know about the game?!"
"Don't worry P, she'll know what her purpose is soon enough." The Administrator said. Pinkie nodded. "Don't forget, you and A are supposed to experiment with her tomorrow."
"Oh-- right! Almost forgot!" Pinkie turned to Rarity with a morbid excitement, leaning close to her face. "I can't wait to toy with you! A'll love it!"
"Pinkie, please. Consider what you're about to attempt--" "Nope, nope, nope! Not changing my mind, Ms. Fashionista! It'll be fun anyways, you'll enjoy it!" She rotated back towards the door, trotting away.
"And once we start with you, you'll be begging for mercy in minutes." Pinkie said, any sort of joking manner leaving her voice. She chuckled lowly, growing into laughter as she trotted out of the room. Rarity gulped nervously, turning back to the Administrator.
"Please, don't--"
"Release."
Rarity gasped, returning to unconsciousness with that spell.
Nothing came. No swift swipe of a blade, no shock to render her helpless, no toxin pumped into her room to choke her... nothing.
"What...?" She opened her eyes, looking around. Nothing had changed. Everything was exactly the same as before. "Oh, you have to be kidding me..."
"Eclipse!"
"It's safe! Drop down!"
"What?!"
"Switching to single room frequency. Connecting to: Subject #002."
"Oh, come on. Did you honestly think I'd kill you? I may want to experiment, but I have some morals."
"You're bucking jerk, you know that?" Alto said as he dropped down.
"Aww-- I'm sorry I used some of the tension between you. But look on the bright side, you two lovebirds are on good terms now!"
"We're not lovebirds." They replied. The doctor laughed. "Sure, sure... Now, let's get onto the research period and you'll be done."