It was no secret that Twilight Sparkle was curious.
Everything new was an opportunity to expand her knowledge, and she always researched the latest discoveries in Equestria. Even if she was just out walking and heard something interesting, she would stop to listen and see what she could learn.
So when Celestia quietly asked her to investigate a research company based out in the ocean near Manehattan, she was more than happy to do so.
“Be careful,” Celestia said, touching her shoulder to stop her from just immediately running off. “I have a bad feeling about this company.”
“Really?” Twilight asked, tilting her head. “But I’ve kept up with the Life Aura Center’s work for years, they’ve done so much to advance health science in Equestria.”
“I know. But I have reason to believe their methods are unethical. I just can’t prove it. I’ve visited many times, as has Luna. They always take us to certain areas that are clearly set up for our arrival, while saying the rest are off limit. There’s a threat of contamination. They don’t want us getting sick, as they experiment with different biologicals. But something about their attitude while we’re there… we’re sure they’re hiding something.”
“Well, I always believe you should trust your gut feelings. Why not insist they let you go into other areas? Have you don the necessary protective gear if needed, but you really want to see everything? I mean, you're a princess, you can order them to.”
Celestia sighed. “I could do that, but how does it reflect on me if I order them around and then find out everything is fine? At best I'll look paranoid and at worst, tyrannical. That's not the kind of impression I want to make. It could shatter their trust in me.”
“I see. Well, you've always been really good at reading ponies. If you feel like they're hiding something, they may be. I can look around for you.”
“Thank you. But be careful.” Celestia hesitated, looking toward the door, then leaned in and said, “There’s a reporter from Canterlot that asked them a few too many questions, tried a little too hard to get into the restricted areas. They died in a house fire a few days later.”
Twilight swallowed. “Oh. Surely that’s just… a coincidence?”
“Maybe. But maybe not.” Celestia paced. “They have their own police force. Their own doctors and lawyers. They’re a powerful company. Please, be careful while you’re out there.”
“Of course. I’ll see if they’re up to anything illegal. You can count on me.”
“Thank you. And good luck.” Celestia watched her head for the door, and said, “One last thing.”
Twilight glanced back.
“Don’t let them recognize you.”
Twilight nodded. “Got it. I’ll get back to you with everything I learn. See you soon.”
She left, and Celestia sank into her throne, sighing. “I just hope my suspicions aren’t correct…”
Twilight wasn’t going to check out the center yet, though. She was going to wait until night, when it’ll be easier to hide. Until then, she was going to research their latest discoveries and see if she could find anything questionable.
She collected various old newspapers and magazines, and the latest scientific journals. She cut out everything relating to the company and organized it by date, reading through. The company rose to fame rather quickly, but that wasn’t unheard of. They quietly worked on pharmaceutical production, until their small research department made a sudden breakthrough that effectively doubled the chances of survival for late stage cancer patients. After that, they poured more resources into research and shifted their focus to finding cures for all of the chronic illnesses that plagued the world.
They’ve made great progress in both scientific and magical fields, providing a variety of medicines and spells that could treat illnesses that were once considered a death sentence.
Twilight didn’t want to think of such a great company as behaving unethically, but if they were, she was going to find out.
She pondered over a recent news article. Life Aura often took volunteers to test their experimental procedures. There have been deaths, but each volunteer signed up with the understanding that they may not survive. The ones who recovered helped the company refine their treatments, and once they had enough success they would pass along the new treatment to hospitals.
Twilight understood the necessity of pony test subjects. You could only get so far using mice and pigs. Eventually they had to test their procedures on ponies to make sure they would work. As long as the volunteers were willing and weren’t being coerced…
She picked up another article, about a mother who tried to sue the company over her daughter’s death. She claimed her daughter was confused, didn’t fully know what she was agreeing to and the risks hadn’t been properly explained before she signed. The mother had lost the case. All the details were in the paperwork, her daughter had signed saying she understood, and there wasn’t much more to it.
Twilight frowned. It was true, sometimes they recruited ponies who were desperate, perhaps not in their right minds. But at what point did an adult pony's agency end? Who got to decide who was incapable of understanding a waiver and who could? It was a decision only the individual themselves should really be able to make. Even someone who was confused could certainly understand a document telling them they might die, right? The company intentionally targeting the sick certainly sounded bad, but then, what would they accomplish by testing on the healthy?
Well, she probably wasn't going to learn much more like this. She stood, stretching and carefully filing everything away in a binder. The Sun was setting. She might as well head out now.
She left the library and found Spike, telling him she was going for a walk around town. Then she pulled on a hooded coat that covered her wings and headed out.
She teleported to Manehattan, and pulled the hood up. To passersby she would look like just another unicorn. Though her cutie mark might give her away. She glanced back at it, and went into the first clothing store she saw, buying pants. She really didn’t care for these, but they would cover her flanks and that’s what mattered.
Once better disguised, she headed for the ocean.
Manehattan had several huge piers that ships were constantly pulling in and out of, many of which were closed to the public. She chose to walk out onto one that was open, squinting into the distance. She could just barely see the island off the coast that the center had been built on. The building only seemed to have a few stories, but she’s heard that it had underground labs. Its lights gleamed just bright enough to be seen, but if she was just casually looking at the horizon it would be easy to miss.
She trotted back to land. There was a small port that was built solely to ferry employees out to the island. It was her best bet.
She approached it slowly, sticking to dark areas and checking her surroundings every so often. A few times she considered just teleporting over, but she didn’t like trying to teleport to areas she hasn’t seen in detail. She didn’t want to appear in front of a security guard or get stuck in a tree or something.
Once close enough to see the guard shack for the port, she stopped to examine the area. A small pier with a few boats, and the shack, which was manned by one guard in tactical armor who seemed to be holding a firearm.
Twilight couldn’t help but tense. Very few ponies used guns. Maybe Celestia was right, maybe they were up to something illegal.
She watched as a few ponies in scrubs walked up to the shack, and the guard sat forward, alert. They showed him ID cards, and he nodded, gesturing for them to go to one of the boats. Twilight now realized it had already had a driver, who had been dozing in his seat. He sat up now, greeting the passengers and starting the boat. It drove off across the water, and the guard went back to relaxing.
So the employees had badges. And from her understanding, guests were only allowed in during the day and left from a different port.
Perhaps she could just use an invisibility spell and hop onto the next boat out. Or levitate over to the island. Starlight has taught her a lot about self-levitation and she was confident she’d be able to get across to the center.
She watched for more employees, but no more showed up. From her research, she knew that the center had a night shift, but very few ponies worked that shift. That was likely the last stragglers heading in.
Levitation it is. She looked around to make sure she wasn’t being watched, then closed her eyes and focused, casting an invisibility spell. She opened her eyes, checked herself over, and nodded. Now for the difficult part. She lifted herself with her magic.
It was still strange floating without using her wings, but she’s practiced this enough to be confident with it. She flew over the water, and soon she was over the boat. She followed them in, considering whether or not she wanted to disguise herself to look like one of them. She could swipe one of those badges, maybe. But she would need to change her own appearance. She was far too recognizable.
Twilight decided to just stay invisible and explore that way. She flew past the boat, going to the dock and landing gently. She looked around, checking where all the guards were. Then she hurried up the road toward the building. It was surrounded by a high fence, and judging from the wires going along it, it was electrified. The road led to a reinforced gate with a guard shack right outside it, manned by a single stallion. The road was lined with bushes and flowers, and there was a sign boasting a large logo of a leaf surrounded by a halo of light, with 'Life Aura Center' written under it. She decided to stop near the guard shack, waiting for the employees to show up so she could follow them in.
She was waiting for a while. That boat was going slower than she expected. She watched the shack for a while, but the guard was uninteresting, just sitting in his chair reading a magazine. After several minutes, she went back toward the water to watch for the employees. They were nowhere to be found.
Twilight stared. They should be right there, she could see the dock they left from! Where was the boat?
She levitated back up, looking around for them. She finally saw them going around the side of the island, disappearing into a tunnel she hadn’t paid attention to.
Twilight flew down to it, but a grate was swung shut before she could get to it. She stopped, hovering there as she examined it. So the employees came in through here. Was the gate a decoy, then? Or perhaps it was just for visitors.
She went back to the fence. She could fly over it, but she got the feeling it was protected against that. Time to test it.
She grabbed a rock and threw it. It got partway over, then slammed into an invisible forcefield and bounced off. Okay then, she wasn’t flying in. Teleporting, maybe?
She tried to teleport the rock just past the fence. It disappeared, but instead of appearing on the road inside the fence, the rock just reappeared shooting toward her. She narrowly dodged it, and gave the building a much more interested look. They had anti-teleportation magic in place too. They really didn’t want anyone sneaking in.
Maintaining this invisibility spell was starting to tire her out. She needed to get in, fast. She examined the guard station. Perhaps if she distracted the guard, she could hit the button to open the gate. Or she could just be more direct and pull him out, hold him a safe distance away, and then hit the button. But that would probably be reported the moment she set him down. No, a distraction would be better.
Twilight retrieved that trusty rock, and bounced it off the station. The guard sat up, staring outside.
“Is somepony there?” he asked.
Twilight looked around, then rustled one of the bushes with her magic.
The guard aimed his gun out the window. “Hey! I know you’re there, come out!”
Twilight almost laughed. Only a young pony could actually hide in such short bushes, but she got the feeling these guards were trained to not take any chances.
The stallion got up and came outside, grumbling with irritation. He clearly didn’t think there was anyone there, but had to follow procedure.
Twilight hurried past him, going into the guard shack and looking at the panel he had sat in front of. There was a huge red alarm button, and near it were the controls for the gate. She clicked the open button and heard the gate move.
She didn’t waste any time, sprinting back outside and through the gap.
“Ugh, again?” The stallion groaned and turned around, after giving the bushes a few kicks to make sure nothing was hiding. Then he headed back to his post, and Twilight waited to see if he suspected anything. But instead he just closed the gate and then grabbed his intercom, saying to someone, “The gate’s broken again, somepony needs to get out here and fix it! It keeps opening on its own!”
Well, that was lucky. Apparently the gate has acted up before. She quickly went the rest of the way to the building, stepping out of the way so a couple ponies in vests and hard hats could pass her, going to examine the fence.
She began to realize just how high tech the company was as she approached the door. You needed a key card to get in, and the windows and doors all seemed hooked to alarm systems. She wouldn’t be breaking in, and she wasn’t going to risk teleporting. She was already lucky they didn’t have an anti-invisibility magic spell up. Then again, very few ponies were proficient in that sort of magic. They probably didn't see a need to devote energy to a detection spell for it.
Twilight decided to just sit down and wait for the construction workers to come back. She did her best to watch the proceedings through the window in the meantime.
Ponies in scrubs and lab coats walked around, going in and out of different rooms, most of them going downstairs while the first level seemed dedicated to offices. The employees who weren’t walking around were simply wearing lanyards with badges and working at desks.
Twilight leaned in closer. They all had typewriters, but some were using a much newer sort of technology, consisting of a sort of screen on a box. Were those… computers? She thought those were still experimental!
Then again, if anywhere had managed to perfect them, it would be a research center like this. Interesting.
Twilight really wished she could write some notes, but doing it out here would be too risky. She’ll get inside, find a place to hide and drop her spell, and then take some notes. Then she could keep exploring.
One of the construction workers was coming back. She snuck behind him, matching her hoof steps to his as he approached the door. When he unlocked it and went in, she quietly slipped through after him.
Okay. Time to investigate.