It was Monday morning in the bustling streets of Manehatten. Thick sheets of rain pelted the concrete pavement and tarmac roads, soaking anypony not willing to wear any protection. One such an individual was standing motionless on the pavement, not caring that her fur was drenched as her mane and tail lay flat against her body. The mare gazed at the imposing structure that loomed overhead, stretching high into the clouded grey sky. The sign above the door was written in a bold font, proudly stating 'Manehatten MediTech' and below this was the company's slogan, 'Bringing you the future of science and medicine today!'.
Next to the door, upon a small laminated sign read 'Help wanted, apply within'. Sighing, the mare trotted up to the doors of the facility and gently pushed the door open. Closing the door behind herself, she found herself to be in a foyer of some kind. The walls were painted blue and white, with a small potted plant of some kind in the corner, a single purple flower on its stem.
"OK, here goes nothing..." She muttered to herself reassuringly. At the desk was a middle aged mare, who was looking at some papers on her desk. She was a sandy yellow with a deep brown mane, cut very short with one long braid trailing down the right side of her neck, laying against a lanyard wrapped around her neck. There was a small card at the end with her face and her cutie mark, a black rectangle with three circles inside connected by a series of white lines.
"Um... Hello, I'd like to apply for a job" she said quietly. Pausing, the mare behind the desk looked up at her, a smile on her features that fell a little as she saw the state of the mare in front of her. "Oh dear, you're absolutely soaked! You'll catch your death being that wet!" Lighting her horn in a dull blue aura, she picked up a towel from behind her, narrowly avoiding the computer monitor. "I was saving this to towel off from the gym later, but I see you need it more than I do." Taking the proffered item in her fore hoof, she rubbed it through her fur and mane, feeling a little more comfortable as her body no longer dripped water excessively onto the ground. "Thank you."
"Your welcome dear, now, about that job you asked about, I'm assuming that you were referring to the sign by the door, yes?" Nodding affirmatively, she glanced to a mirror on the wall behind the desk, and took a look at herself. Her aquamarine fur was still damp, but it would dry in the warm of the building. Her light green-blue eyes flicked up to her messy mane, the long emerald green hair splaying out this way and the other. Eyes flicking back to the desk mare she nodded. "Well I have to give some disclosure on the whole thing, you know, legal reasons and such." Pausing as she dropped down to open a cabinet below her, she pulled out a manilla file and drew some sheets out of it.
"OK, the ad refers to the use of test subjects to observe the effects of new products on actual living sapient beings. There's only so much computer modelling you can do, which is where ponies like you come in. The tests they subject you to are most likely life changing, in fact some of the experiments conducted will either have potential side effects and some will completely alter you in the nature of the test. If you want to back out now you have every right to do so. However, if you are unable to properly look after yourself after the test due to any complications that may arise, you are free to be accommodated here so we can look after you."
Placing the sheets in front of herself, the yellow mare pulled out a quill and ink jar. The blue mare tapped her hooves together as she processed the words the reception pony had mentioned. "I want to do it." A smile graced the mare behind the desk. "Well, if you're happy, then we can start to fill out these forms for your application." Dabbing the nib of the quill in the ink as she held the pen in her magic, she began her line of questioning.
"Name?"
"Lapis Lake" she replied, followed by the scratching of the quill on the paper. "That's a nice name" the receptionist paused for a moment. "My name is September Taurine, though you can call me Sept, or Tau, either or really." Dipping the tip back into the ink, she brought it to the box below.
"Age?"
"28." Another pause, with Sept turning the page.
"Place of residence, including street, building complex, and apartment number, assuming you live in Manehatten that is."
Lake tapped her hooves together and avoided eye contact for a couple of moments. "Well you see... I kinda, don't have a home..." There was a short gasp as Sept clasped a hoof to her mouth. "How long have you been without a home?"
"Oh, only a week. I've fallen on bad times as of lately. Only really had enough bits to subsist on the barest minimum of food, then my business kinda got punctured when the landlord jacked up the price for rent. I sold off my meagre possessions to try to pay it off, but ran out of things to sell, so I scraped together enough bits and I have been staying at a hostel quite close the here."
"That's, that's awful." Sept mumbled, small tears in her eyes. "So you decided that coming to Manehatten MediTech was your best option? Surely there was something better?" Shaking her head. "Not really, I only really had the skills to be a sole trader, working as an amateur Sodium Eel salespony was not the best use of my skills, I mean, I doubt it was my special talent, I don't even have my cutie mark yet, so I doubt it was the best use of my time."
"Sodium Eel salespony?" An incredulous look on Septs muzzle. "What did that entail." Sept was just jotting a couple of notes down on a separate sheet of lined paper. "Well, it's exactly as it sounds, selling Eels and Sodium. Oriental Ponies love the Eels and you get some demand for Sodium from various individuals. Now the trick is to isolate the Sodium from the Eels, otherwise the store may have burned down." Pausing, she took in a deep breath.
"That wasn't my first job either, I tried amateur budget seamstressing, I tried freelance painting, I tried being a tour guide. I've tried everything really."
"Well, why didn't you apply for work?" Sept probed, already knowing the answer.
"Who would hire a cutie markless individual? It doesn't matter what grades you got at school, if your cutie mark doesn't match your profession, then you don't get given the light of day." Lake spat out moodily, glaring down at her legs.
"Well, cheer up, because I have a small proposition for you. You know how I said that some tests may result in permanent residence at the facility." Lake gave a nod. "Well, I'll recommend that you are to be subjected to one of those, if you'd like. You don't have to pay for meals, accommodation is free and you will have plenty of staff and other subjects to get friendly with. So, what do you say?" Lake tapped the corner of her mouth, briefly, before her eyes snapped to the paper. "I'm in, where do I sign?" Sept smiled and flipped the paper around and gestured to a couple of boxes at the bottom of the page. Eagerly, Lake grabbed the quill in her teeth, scribbling her signature in the indicated boxes.
Horn lighting with magic, Sept clipped the paper to a wooden clipboard, the company name printed on the back in its signature blue and white. Opening a panel on the side of the reception desk, she exited it and trotted over to a small black box on the wall, which she pressed a hoof against after placing the small card she had on her lanyard against a scanner. "Can you send somepony down to reception? I've got a new test subject to take up to processing." Sept spoke into a small microphone on the side of the device. "Yes, yes, sooner rather than later would be preferable, thank you." Walking back over to Lake, she gestured it a hoof towards a pair of double doors. Together the two of them set off, Sept holding open a door for Lake to follow through.
Past the doors, everything was much less cheery. It still was a bright white, and had the occasional poster referring to cleanliness or some other subject. However, it just had the slight feeling of unease around it. Maybe it was the one flickering overhead light, or maybe it was that Pegasus stallion on a gurney who had muscles larger than most bodybuilders. Passing down the corridor, Lake noted the large number of other individuals going about their business. Mostly the ponies working the lab itself, with a number of lab coated individuals darting in and out of doors, carrying various instruments of some type. Glancing towards her guide, she noticed that they had stopped in front of a beech wood door, a metal plaque with the words 'processing' stamped on the middle. Pushing through the door, they entered a small room, well, small due to the amount of equipment in the room constricting walking space. Some of the kit was recognisable, such as a large scale, and a rack with various lengths of tape measure. However, some of it was simply unrecognisable to the ex Eel salespony as she sat on an exceptionally wide chair, easily large enough to fit almost three of her side by side.
Just then, the door was pushed open and an individual entered the room. He was another unicorn, light grey fur on his body, his lanky figure stretching up towards his dark grey mane, cut short in a professional looking manner, slicked down against his head. "Ah good morning September, how are you doing? I understand that you have procured a new hopeful for some testing, yes?" Trotting over to the doctor, she passed over the clip board with Lake's details. "How many times have I told you, Lab Set, call me Sept. You're my friend, you can drop formalities." Lab Set chuckled, a small glint of mischief in his eyes. "You know why? It's because you get flustered every time, and I think that it's cute." Placing a hoof over her mouth, Sept tried to cover a growing blush.
"Now, Miss Lapis Lake, we are going to take some measurements to gauge a baseline for any subsequent test. Please step onto that pad over there, if you could kindly do so." Standing up from her chair, Lake trotted to the pad, a 4 meter by 4 meter square metallic square sunk almost entirely into the ground. Stepping into the middle, she watched where Lab was tapping away at a small terminal. Sept gave her an encouraging smile as there was a flickering of the fluorescent overhead lights. A dull whining of electricity was heard, gradually being replaced by soft beeping sounds, finished by a short 'bip!' as it announced it was ready.
"Ok, this whole process will measure you in most aspects, your health, any injuries, your weight and other such useful data. Just try to remain as still as possible and this should be over fairly quickly." Just as he finished speaking, a metal arm covered in wires rose into the air, from this a thin red light shot out onto her legs. 3 more joined this on her back, head and stomach, and began moving backwards and forwards across her form, taking in every inch of her person. After a couple of minutes, the lights faded.
"What was all that?" Lake finally spoke, eyes darting around the retracting arms as they folded up against the wall. "That was a full body scanner, utilising some of the best Magi-Tech to give us a deep analysis of your body's composition. Now step off the plate and come take a seat." Lab gestured towards the overly massive chair. Carefully leaning back into the comfy padded seat, she expectantly looked at Lab, who was holding a small print out in his magic.
"Well, in terms of being healthy, you are perfectly fine. No sort of viral, bacterial, or fungi infections present. Aside from a few deeper burns and scars on your fore legs, you are in perfect health." Eyes flicking upward, he gave her a friendly smile. "How did you get those anyway?" Letting loose a nervous chuckle, she met his eyes. "Well, the burns are from when I got one of my first shipments of pure sodium and I decided to inspect it in the alley behind the shop. A clumsy handling of the jar the sodium was in, a spot of rainwater from above and yeah, it caught fire. The scars are just from when I was trying to sew. I mean, it's really hard controlling a needle to thread the thread with your mouth, try actually having to hold down fabric and then sew."
"Well anyway" Lab said, trying to steer the conversation back on topic. "In terms of fitness, however, you don't quite have a clean bill. You weigh 103 lbs, and have a BMI of 17, which classes you as being underweight." Tapping a pencil against the sheet, he thought for a couple of seconds, before picking up a clipboard on the wall. "Hmm, right, we are going to be, as September mentioned to you before, doing a test which means you most likely will never leave the facility." Flicking through the pages, reading through a few details, Lab placed the board down on the wall. "This test will involve the application of a new drug we have formulated in order to counteract the effects of obesity."
"What, like, being fat?" Lake guessed. "No no, we're talking about the issues that come along with being fat, high cholesterol, heart issues, breathing problems, hormonal issues. Essentially this treatment will remove all the issues that come along with obesity, extending the lives of overweight individuals to that of a normal average weighted individual and enable a more comfortable life for them." Lake stared at him like he had two heads. "Why would you want to develop a drug like that, just saying, wouldn't it be better to just make a weight loss drug?"
"Well, someponies for whatever reason enjoy being fat, and exercise is not really something they wish to engage in, for obvious reasons." He paused, fixing Lake with a hard look. "In the nature of this test, you will have to gain considerably in size and weight to properly be able to test it. Just think, you can spend all day sitting down, doing nothing strenuous as you eat and eat, packing on the pounds, the only thing important will be the recording of your progress, how high your blood pressure is, your weight and any other tests to measure your health and fitness."
There was a pause again. "All right, I guess I don't really have much choice, do I?"
"Not really, believe me, this is probably the best one for you, the other ones have, potentially unsavoury consequences." Lab carefully worded. Gesturing to Lake, the stallion pulled open the door, holding it open to allow the other two to exit. "Alright, next stop, a quick trip to the medical room, then to your testing suite." Trotting behind the Lab, Lake turned to Sept. "So, I'm guessing that the medical room is where I'm getting the drug?" Nodding in confirmation, they turned the corner and walked down another corridor. "Of course, then after that's over you can get settled in, then we can get right to the gaining. Won't that be fun?"
Lake could hardly wait.