//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5: A Door That Opens Both Ways... 
// Story: The Adventures of Test Subject SP-1K3 
// by Dedion 
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During Twilight's memory viewings of Spike's life, she found that some of his memories were 'locked' away. They were buried deep within the baby dragon's mind, and someone took extra care to make sure that the would never see the light of day again. Twilight took this as Starlight's attempt to hide even more details about 'Project: Black Dragon'. To which, she was correct, but she didn't anticipate the fact that other things were there too. Somethings that were meant to be locked away and forgotten. Due to this oversight, Spike soon rediscovered a memory that would have been better left forgotten.

He had been cornered by a cream-colored female guard with a light brown mane. Spike quivered as countless imaginings of what she was about to do to him ran through his head. When he felt the touch of her hoof on his face, he flinched out of habit. There was a chuckle from the mare as she gingerly placed her hoof under Spike's chin and brought his eyes up to meet her's. Cold emerald danced with fierce cobalt as the two stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity. Her eyes seemed to glow with a passion that Spike did not understand. A soft smile spread across her face. "Ya know," she started, "those researchers aren't the only ones that can do experiments."

"W-what do... do you m-mean?" stuttered Spike. Every fiber of his being was telling him to run away, but his back was already pressed against the wall. There was no escape route for him to go and fighting was out of the question. The earth pony mare was incredibly strong and could easily break one or two of Spike's bones. The little dragon was just going to have to endure whatever this pony had in mind for him.

"Ah've heard dragons have an interesting tongue." purred the mare. "Let's put those rumors to the test." She brought her face closer towards Spike. Their lips connected and the mare's tongue pushed its way passed Spike's defenses. The little dragon's mouth was filled with the taste of apples. Something stirred in Spike. A growing heat spread throughout his entire being. There were a few flashes of purple flames before everything burned away and Spike found himself lying on the test room floor. A screaming Twilight barely registering over the roaring purple flames that enveloped his arms.


"Bad POnY. ShoULdn't be snOOping wHeRe yOU don't BELoNg~"


The voices spoke again. The purple dragon tried to stand, but a hoof firmly pushed him back down onto the ground. He felt the collar around his neck start to tingle. The haunting purple flames soon began to die and flicker until there was nothing left. Spike felt confusion like he hadn't felt before.


"BOoooOoo. IT was jUst GEttINg FUn."


"Are you okay, Twilight?" asked Moondancer. She took her gaze off the baby dragon under her hoof to check on Twilight's physical condition.

"I'm fine!" hissed Twilight, her horn burning with intense pain. "I'm fine."

"You don't look fine," stated Moondancer. She turned her attention towards Spike, who was still under her hooves. "What did you do!" The shouting mare's only response was a flinch from the baby dragon.

"I-I didn't try to do anything," he protested.

"Don't lie to me!" Moondancer's horn ignited and Spike could sense the spell being cast. A lightning spell that he himself was a test subject for. Spike quickly scrambled for words to speak in his defense.

"I'm telling the truth, honest!" he pleaded, tears in his eyes. The spell was ready to fire and Spike screamed as he prepared for the pain to course through his body as it had the many times before. But it never came.

Twilight had placed a barrier between Spike and Moondancer. The dragon and pony guard were both stunned at the sudden interference. Twilight proceeded to walk towards Moondancer. "When I say I'm fine, that means I'm fine!" hissed Twilight, "I appreciate that you're doing your job, Moondancer, but scaring an already terrified test subject isn't going to get us anywhere." Twilight gestured towards the shivering mess of a dragon behind her barrier. Moondancer sighed. She tried to correct her actions, but Spike was not listening. The fear had taken its hold and was not letting go.

"...Come on D-1043. It's should be lunch time by now." Twilight said as she opened the metal door into the observation room. Spike still trembled as his body followed the two ponies at a distance.





Spike clutched an apple in his claws. The fruit's glorious red skin practically shined in the light. By all accounts, the apple was a prime candidate for consumption. However, the young drake could not bring himself to eat the fruit. Its sweet juices that had once brought a moment of happiness to the lilac baby dragon now served only as a reminder of her.

The memory played back again in all of its devious details. The mare toyed with him in ways he didn't know possible. It brought back other memories of experiments. Each and every time he felt the same helplessness as before. He was just a ragdoll being passed from pony to pony. A ragdoll that was to be pushed and pulled as much as his owners wanted to and he was to endure it all, but he had endured it. He endured things that no baby dragon should have been put through and has been enduring it all again. 

Something stirred in Spike once again. Only this time it was more powerful. The burning sensation grew again and his body began to grow hot enough that the apple in his hand began to wilt from the heat. A deep seething hatred that had been slumbering for a long time was starting to awake from its long slumber. How much longer was he going to keep being a plaything? How much longer would Spike have to wait for his freedom to arrive? He didn't know and the fact that he didn't know made him all the angrier. A purple fire with a green outline erupted from Spike's arms. The apple in his claws burned in the flames.

The dragons and guard around him took notice of the sudden eruption of flames from the baby dragon. At first, they didn't see it as much seeing as to how other dragons used their dragon abilities as well from time to time. Although, that changed when they say that the apple in his hands was now nothing more than a piece of large charcoal at this point. The baby dragon was soon knocked out of his trance as he was bombarded with questions about how he was able to burn something at all. Little Fang and Jet being included. 

The guards soon dispersed the crowd and quickly took Spike into their custody. Spike gulped as they took him away to somewhere in the facility. 

The day couldn't be over quick enough for Twilight. She had just settled down for lunch when the guards came in with Spike in tow. Twilight, after being informed of Spike's ever-growing strength with his abilities, took it upon herself to check his collar. To her surprise and horror, the enchantments on the collar were on their last legs. It was no doubt that the dark magic in Spike's body had something to do with it. Another outburst or use of his draconic abilities and the enchantments were as good as done. And while trying to reinforce the enchantments, Twilight ran into another snag that had been left behind by none other than Starlight. It was the emotion inhibitor. It was about to go out and there was nothing Twilight could do to fix it. She tried multiple things to give herself a larger window of time to work with, but almost everything she did seem to weaken it more.

She sighed as she looked down at the purple dragon. The things she had put him through, the things her kind had put him through, were things that couldn't be taken back so easily. Especially that one mare. Twilight could feel her teeth grinding together at the mere thought of her. To think that a mare would do something like that to a child made her shiver in rage. Though is she thought about it, Twilight wasn't that much different that mare. The only difference was that they had a different goal in mind. While her's was to obtain some sort of pleasure, Twilight's was to obtain knowledge. But both of them were doing the same thing, using children in fiendish ways to get what they wanted. 

While Twilight was berating herself, she didn't catch on quickly enough to see that Spike was shaking rapidly. He was sitting on a bench and his hands were firmly squeezing his knees. At first, Twilight had assumed that the inhibitor had given out faster than she had calculated and the ticking time bomb in front of her was ready to explode. It didn't take too long for that thought to leave her head and a new one to come and take its place. Moondancer had left due to family affairs and Twilight had stationed the guards outside the room. Spike was alone with another female mare. He was probably scared out of his little mind. Twilight groaned. She wasn't drunk enough to deal with this situation. 

Twilight sighed as she stopped the flow of her magic. "Wait here," she commanded. Spike nodded before Twilight disappeared in a flash of light. Spike had seen multiple unicorns do that before. They called it teleportation. It was a neat little trick that Spike wished he could use. Before he could even think about missing the purple pony's presence, she popped back into the room with two bottles of red liquid in her hooves. She sat next to Spike as she uncorked the first bottle. She placed the bottle opening to her lips and proceeded to drink a decent portion of the bottle's contents. She gasped as she stopped for air. She passed the bottle to Spike who looked questionably at the bottle. "Come on, drink up, relax a little," she said. 

"W-what is this?" he asked. 

"Cheap red-wine," Twilight answered quickly, "Got it for my twenty-fifth birthday. Never really was much of a drinker back then so I never opened these darn things. Figured I'd let you drink this since is smoother than most of the stuff I drink."

"Isn't alco... alcohol dangerous for me to drink?" Spike asked.

"Don't worry," Twilight said. "A couple of sips won't hurt you any more than we have." Spike looked at the bottle again. He closed his eyes as he brought the opening to his lips and took a sip of the crimson liquid. 

Spike felt good. He felt more than good. He felt as if he could reach and touch the clouds. Now only if he could remember what a cloud looked like. The baby purple dragon was a giggling mess by the time he and Twilight finished the first bottle and was even more of a mess by the time he finished the other half of the bottle. He wore a stupid smile on his face as he laid in Twilight's lap. The purple pony above him looked down at him with sympathetic eyes. He felt like talking to her, but the words had trouble coming out of his mouth. "Heeeeeeey, Twiiiii..." he eventually said.

"What Spike?" she asked.

"... where are we?" he replied.

"We're at the testing facility," she answered.

"No... no. Where is the testing fa... fa... testing place on the map?" Spike asked. Twilight finally understood what the dragon was trying to say. 

"We're just a couple hundred miles south of Equestria," she stated.

"Any trees around here? I like trees."

"No. It's mostly plains of tall grass for a good hour or two by train. It'll take at least a day or so to get to the nearest town by hoof." Answered Twilight. She took the last few swigs of the red wine before doing a few last tweaks to Spike's collar. She estimated that she had a whole two days before the inhibitor gave out. A solid forty-eight hours were all that she had to find out a fix for this. She prayed that the report she had sent to the princesses got there on time. 

She looked over at a wall clock and found that time had flown by. It was nearly time for dinner. "Come on Spike, time for dinner," she said.

Spike replied with a soft "Wooooooo." The two of them headed to the cafeteria. Upon arrival, the whole place was cheering. The crowd was dense and Spike couldn't see who they were cheering for until he heard Jet yell for everyone to go back to their seats. The crowd grumbled a bit before dispersing slightly and he was able to see who they were crowded around. Fizzle and Garble had returned. Spike's body moved on its own accord as he walked towards the duo. A large scar spread its way across Fizzle's mid-section. Another scar could be found on Garble's throat. The two of them looked mentally exhausted to Spike.

"Oh, hey," said Fizzle, he tried to put up a smile. "Spike was it? Haven't seen you in a long time. How've you been?"

"Decent for the most part," Spike said, he sat next to Fizzle. "Buutt, I don't want to bore you with the details. So I'll cut straight to the point. What do you know about teleporting, Fizzle?" The baby dragon's question left the albino dragon with a confused face.

After a Fizzle shortened the long explanation about teleportation and the magic behind it, Spike felt as if he had a grasp of the concept. "So, you're saying that I have to picture the place in my head. Then I would use my magic to force my body to be there?" assumed Spike.

"That... is an oversimplification of it, but yes," Fizzle said as he took a bite out of Spike's most hated fruit."Though it takes an extreme amount of magical power to do that. Even more when you're considering teleporting multiple people or going long distances."

"... What if you had dark magic?" Spike asked, causing the alabaster dragon to nearly chock on his apple. 

"Where are you getting these questions from?" Fizzle asked in return.

"I think this is what they call 'alcohol talking'," Spike replied. Fizzle looked stunned at the baby dragon. He opened his mouth to ask how Spike came into contact with alcohol, but Fizzle decided it was probably better if he didn't know.

"Well, dark magic is more potent than normal magic. With some practice, normal magic can teleport you at miles away. Using dark magic will get you twice or three times that distance. Most ponies don't use dark magic because it's illegal and it has the drawback of corrupting your mind." Fizzle explained. Spike tapped a claw on his cheek as he closed his eyes in thought. Fizzle gained a worried look. 

"Y-you're not planning on doing anything rash are you?" Fizzle asked worriedly. 

"Depends. How bad do you want to get out of here?" Spike retorted with his eyes closed. Again, the baby dragon managed to leave Fizzle speechless. The albino dragon tried to retort only to find that the baby dragon was sleeping. A light snore emanated from the little purple dragon. Fizzle was left confused as he would ever be.







Dear Twilight Sparkle,
This letter will be brief as, you can imagine, my schedule has me very busy these days. I have received your report and am... interested in this test subject and this 'Project: Black Dragon'. As to how you acquired the information for your report, we will debate that at a later date. My sister and I have discussed the subject multiple times and we are sure that you will be able to find a solution to whatever Starlight Glimmer has done to him. If Starlight still had her mind intact, I would have her right the wrongs she has committed. However, what is done is done and we can't change the past. Keep an eye on him Twilight and make sure he doesn't harm himself.

Signed,
Princess Celestia