"It is six o'clock everyone!" yelled a female voice,"Time to get up" Her voice was loud and authoritative. So loud, in fact, that it was able to rouse even the deepest of sleepers. The doors to each dragon's holding cell slide open and three simultaneous groans were heard.
Garble huffed as he rolled out from his top bunk while Jet forced himself to climb down the ladder. The white dragon stumbled to stand upright. It seemed that while the dragon himself was awake, his legs were not. Spike just hopped out of bed as if he wasn't having any problems being awake so early in the morning.
"Whoa," said the white dragon, "Who's the kid?"
"New roommate... came yesterday... too tired... need coffee." Jet answered. He soon slumped against Garble. A few snores were heard from the dark purple dragon before Garble groaned and knocked the younger dragon to the floor. A snort could be heard as Jet awoke from his short trip back to dreamland.
"Name's Spike," stated the youngest of the four, "What's yours?" He extended a hand towards the older dragon who almost shook it before recoiling back.
"Is that... natural?" he asked. Spike looked down at his claws and was met by the sight of darkened scales. From his elbows down, his scales were a dark shade of purple with only a couple small patches of his natural scale color showing. This was one of the side effects that he had grown used to during his time as a test subject.
"Not really, but it's not contagious if that's what you're worried about," Spike spoke blankly. The white dragon look towards Garble for some kind of confirmation.
"Just shake the squirt's hand so we can go get some grub." He commanded. The albino dragon shakingly extended his hand towards Spike's and quickly shook his hand.
"F-Fizzle." The albino dragon finally answered Spike's question. Spike gave a small smile.
To many, Spike seemed as though he was tired and bored at the moment. While the former was correct, the latter was far from the truth. He was surprised to see the cafeteria where all the test subjects were having breakfast. He was even more ecstatic when he found what was on his plate.
It was just a bowl of oatmeal, some eggs, a piece of toast, and a glass of water. A normal breakfast in terms of pony standards, but, for Spike, it was a meal he would have gladly killed for. Garble, on the other hand, didn't share the baby dragon's sentiments.
"Again with this pony food," he nagged,"When are we going to get some real food, like meat!?"
"Ha!" exclaimed Jet, having just finishing chugging his mug of coffee. "The day I see a pony cook meat is the day I stop drinking coffee!"
"Speaking of which," Spike started. "Why are you drinking that stuff? Everyone else is drinking water." Jet turned his attention towards the small dragon.
"I'm part of a thing they got going. They're seeing if this thing called 'caffeine' has any effect on dragons. Apparently, this thing is in a bunch of stuff. They've got this kid about your age drinking... soda? I think it was. The little bugger can't get enough of the stuff." Jet answered.
"Are they fill in tah methical ward?" asked Fizzle, his mouth filled with toast.
"They went to the medical ward?" asked a confused Spike, "What happened to them?"
"Oh you should have seen it!" exclaimed Garble. "The little devil was just chugging down dozens of sodas and before we knew they were bouncing all over the walls and was running through the whole cafeteria with the guards chasing them. It was so funny I couldn't stop laughing for hours."
"Yeah it was funny," Jet admitted, "Before they got their leg broken."
"Guards?" asked Spike. It wasn't too hard to realize the implications he was making. To which Fizzle was the one to quickly dismiss it.
"No, no, no." he quickly spoke. "They eventually ran out of here and jumped off the top landing of the staircase."
"Oh," said Spike. His eyes ever so slightly widened. "Well then."
"Yeah, but they're a tough little dragon. A broken leg won't keep them down for long," spoke Jet. He finished off the last bits of his meal before continuing. "If I had to bet, I'd say they'll be around and about by tomorrow."
"You gonna hold up to that bet?" asked Garble. To which a sinister smile began to spread across Jet's face.
"Depends. What are you betting?"
"Winner gets the loser's dessert for a week."
"Two weeks and I'm in."
"You got it!" Garble and Jet shook hands, sealing the deal on their little bet. Both Fizzle and Spike rolled their eyes as they finished the rest of their breakfast. As they did there was a ringing sound throughout the entire room. The dragons quickly rose from their seats and proceeded to exit the cafeteria. Spike quickly followed his roommates as they descended the staircase and into a giant spacious room with five walls.
There was a second floor above them that consisted of metal walkways on the perimeter of the room. There were four hallways on the upper level that lead to the rest of the building and, most likely, the testing rooms. On the walkways were pony guards fully clad in armor, of course. 'How many guards do they even have?' thought Spike. A lavender unicorn in a white lab coat trotted into the room from one of the second-floor hallways.
"Good morning everyone," she said. She had same loud and authoritative voice from before. While everyone else groaned and booed at the mare, Spike just stared at her with surprise. The guards and other soldiers were normally the ones who addressed the test subjects when in large groups rather than the ponies in lab coats. So to see this lab coat pony address them personally was quite the surprise. "Enough of your groaning, we're on a tight schedule and I didn't write down a time slot for groaning." The dragons soon quietened down and let the purple pony continue.
"Good, now on to the schedule," she started. She looked down at her clipboard that she held in her magical grip. "The schedule is the same for most of you. D-0456, D-0519, D-D0500, and D-0626; you have been assigned to Building 3, Test Room B-12 today until lunch. D-0256, D-0630, D-0723, and D-0724; due to certain... complications... you've been assigned to Building 2, Test Room C-5." There was a loud 'ooooh' that came from the crowd.
Spike looked around and found many dragons wincing or looking away. His eyes soon landed on two of his roommates, Fizzle and Garble. The former of the two leaned against the latter as if his legs decided to not function as they were supposed to. Garble himself was shaking with what Spike assumed was either fear or rage. He really couldn't tell from where he was standing.
"That is all the changes for the original dragons of my facility," the mare finished. She flipped the page and cleared her throat before continuing. "All test subjects who arrived here yesterday stay where you are, the rest will head to their respective testing room," she commanded.
The room started to become less crowded as most of the dragon test subjects made their way up the stairs that led to the second floor. "Come on, Fizzle." Spike heard Garble say.
"No!" Fizzle yelled, "I don't wanna have my insides removed! I like them where they are!!"
"Your insides are gonna stay where they are if you hurry up and stop acting like a hatchling!" yelled the crimson dragon. He struggled to drag the kicking albino dragon up the stairs. "Who knows, maybe they'll give you a nice big sapphire when they're done." The shouting of the two dragons was soon drowned out as they went further away from the main room. The remainder of the once massive group of dragons were in the mid-twenties. That was Spike's guess at least.
"Okay, now that we're alone. I'd like to formally address myself. I'm Twilight Sparkle, the director of this research facility." she started. "Now, you'll find that my facility is much different from your old one. What differences are there? I'll leave that for you to find out during your first day of testing. But don't be misguided in thinking that just because we're different that we'll let any aggression towards the faculty here go unpunished." The last bit of that sentence made a chill run down Spike's back.
"On to the scheduling," she spoke. Twilight gestured to the white unicorn mare on her left. "D-1019 through D-1030 will follow Luitenant Swift Wind and company to Building 2, Test Room A-12."
She gestured to the bronze pegasus stallion on her right. "D-1031 through D-1041 will follow Private Brass Works and company to Building 1, Test Room B-7."
"D-1042 and D-1043 will be joining me and Private Moondancer in Building 4, Test Room A-11. All testing will continue until lunch at twelve o'clock and will resume at one thirty in the afternoon." Twilight finished and the remaining dragons soon made their way up the stairs to follow their perspective ponies to their test rooms.
Spike and another baby dragon found themselves walking with two unicorn mares. One of them being, of course, Twilight Sparkle. Who was currently flipping through the papers on another clipboard she had been holding. The other was a cream colored mare clad in silver armor. A few streaks of purple ran through the sea of red that was her short mane.
A quick glance to his right and Spike was able to see the other baby dragon that accompanied him. Her scales were in a limbo of orange and red. Her pale blue hair and back spikes stuck out from her rustic scales. A few sparks of electricity flew off of her back spikes as she fidgeting with her collar. Her vibrant teal eyes locked onto Spike's cold emerald ones.
"What's wrong with you?" she asked. A great look of confusion was plain to see on her face.
"Nothing," replied Spike.
"You look like you're about to die."
"Yeah, I get that a lot. Name's Spike by the way. What's yours?" Spike extended his hand to his female test-mate. To which she looked at his different coloration of scales and had her confusion run deeper.
"How in the name of Bahamut did this happen?!" the she-dragon pulled Spike closer as she inspected his darkened arms. Spike shrugged at her question.
"Don't really know. Pony magic is weird. Scales didn't really change until spell 589. That was a fun day." Spike gave a weak smile. "Still didn't get your name though."
"Little Fang," the blue-haired dragon stated. The two unicorn mares listened to the two dragon's chat as the group continued to walk to the testing room which didn't take too long. Within a few minutes, they were outside test room labeled 'A-11'. Moondancer gestured to two baby dragons inside first.
The room was very small. There was enough room for a small desk and a couple of chairs. On the desk were many instruments that neither of the dragons knew the functions of as well as a few small mountains of paper. A big window allowed whoever was in this room gaze into a larger pale white room. A large metal door to the right of the desk was the only entrance to that room. Spike felt a tingling sensation around his neck. He looked down to see that his collar was glowing in a light purple hue. Little Fang's collar also was glowing in the same light purple hue, but unlike Spike, who still wore his bored expression, Little Fang let out an ear bleeding screech.
"Calm down!," commanded Twilight, "I'm just editing the dampening enchantments on your collars so testing will go smoother and safer for both parties." After a moment, the hue dissipated and both dragons' felt the tingling sensation stop.
"Could you give a dragon some warning you know!" yelled Little Fang. Her yelling, however, fell on deaf ears.
"Okay, D-1043. You're going in first. D-1042, you stay here and don't move a muscle." Twilight said as she opened the metal door leading into the large pale room. She gestured the young purple dragon to go in first. To which he did, giving Little Fang a wave before he crossed over into the other room.
Once inside the room, the lavender mare closed the door behind her. A series of clicking sound emanated from it.
The room itself wasn't as barren as Spike thought it was. There were a few boulders in here as well as a few target practice dummies. Each looking as if they had been thoroughly used.
Twilight soon stepped a few feet away from the dragon. Her horn flashed briefly as a white aura covered the pony. The aura soon faded while Twilight looked over the notes she had written. Spike had seen that spell cast too many times to not know what it was. It was a magic protection spell that, of course, protected its user from a variety of magic attacks. It was a safety precaution when ponies dealt with removing a dragon's collar for testing and recording their abilities.
The mare soon took out a small machine from one of her lab coat pockets. From what Spike had gathered, it was called a 'tape recorder'. Ponies spoke into it and it recorded whatever they said for listening to later. "Commencing D-1043's magic and behavioral observation in three, two, one." The moment the last word left Twilight's mouth, the same tingling feeling returned around Spike's neck. Which then led to a heat that Spike had forgotten he even had returned to him. He could feel his body warming up and his strength returning. His eyes widened with shock and amazement.
"D-1043 please use your elemental ability on the equipment provided," Twilight commanded. There was no need for Spike to be told twice. The little dragon took a deep breath before going down on all fours and releasing a torrent of emerald flame onto the nearest boulder. Spike kept spewing his flames until he had to stop for another breath of air. Looking at the boulder, he was reminded of the power he had held before his time as a lab rat.
The boulder was glowing hot. A few pieces of it even melted off and burned their way into the white tiled floor. There were a few scribble sounds before Twilight spoke again. "Impressive for a baby dragon. Now, use your ability on me this time." Spike looked at her for a moment, completely in shock, and then quickly shrugged.
She had cast a spell that was protecting her from most magic. Spike was sure that his fire breath wouldn't have any effect on her. Besides, she looked confident enough and she wouldn't have said to do so if she wasn't. Also, he was not going to pass up the chance to blast the lavender pony. He wasn't going to get another chance again or with anyone else.
As Spike took in a breath to unleash his emerald fire, something in him stirred. Then suddenly, the voices returned and in greater volume. They screamed inside Spike's head, bringing him to his knees as he clutched his head in pain. He tried to block them out. He tried to stop their constant yelling in his head but to no avail.
"fREE! FReE aT lAsT!!v"
Spike could feel his arms growing hotter and hotter by the second. The heat was intense as if the very sun was now trapped inside his arms and was slowly crawling its way through his body. He soon felt his collar tingle again and the voices shouted from within. He turned his head to face the purple pony who seemed to be trying to say something, but no words came from her mouth. Her horn was aglow and the voices grew louder.
"No!!! NOooo!! NOooOOo!! FrEEEdomm! so close. PuRple PONNNnnnnyyy!! must. DiE!!"
With one last breath and tears in his eyes, Spike bellowed out a torrent of flames. Though these flames were not his trademark emerald flames. They were a haunting purple. They engulfed the scientist as well as a fourth of the room. As the flames died out, Spike fell to the floor. His mental and physical energy spent.
Twilight stood above the unconscious baby dragon. Not a single hair on her was touched by the dragon's purple fire. She had reactivated the dragon's collar's dampening enchantment just before she was blasted with dragon's seemingly new found ability. There was a click as she brought out her tape recorder again.
"The observation of D-1043's magic has ended at roughly fifteen minutes after the starting point. Observations are as followed. When faced with using his full capabilities against a boulder provided to him, test subject's emerald flames performed as well as when he was first captured. When faced with a pony as a target, something in him seemed to change. Abnormal patterns are as followed." She went on listing her findings both in tape recording as well as looking over Spike's records that she had obtained a few days prior to his arrival.
Every detail in her findings brought many things. It brought up questions that Twilight was more than eager to find the answers to. It brought roadblocks that Twilight knew she would dread getting over. It also brought forth a feeling of empathy for the poor baby dragon, but she quickly dismissed it and added another tally mark to the back of her clipboard. She could drink her guilt away once her research was done. After finishing her recording, she lifted the baby dragon onto her back.
"You really outdid yourself this time, Director Starlight," Twilight said to herself as she walked into the smaller observation room.