//------------------------------//
// Twilight Awakens 
// Story: Think in Ponies 
// by Silver Arctic Wolf 
//------------------------------//

“Ack! Oh no, oh no! Not good, Spike! She needs test subjects! Now! But you had to go and forget to run diagnostics and maintenance! Wait, vitrified? What does that even mean? Well, I did NOT vitrify the test subjects, I just gave them vitamin water, then I put them in cryofreeze, like the manual said! Must be some kind of prank. What’s all this other stuff mean? I can’t read that fast. Ugh, no telling if any of them are even fit for testing the portal gun!”
In a giant, white-tiled facility, filled with rooms on conveyer belts, a spherical robot hurried along on his service rail. After checking a terminal and getting some funky warning messages, he searched for where he’d put the test subjects. He found the area, and logged in to another terminal.
“Ah, here they are! Let’s see…” Pictures of ponies, and data on life signs flashed on the terminal. “Big Mac… No, he’s got weak life signs… Discord… Well, he’s not even in one piece… Maud? Reacted badly to her scheduled art appreciation and smooth jazz… Twilight Sparkle? Hey! She looks like she might be alright, and she’s got a good testing record too. Well, here goes nothing…” 
At Spike’s command, the conveyor belts picked out one of the thousands of relaxation rooms and carted it out of the vault. Spike moved himself into the room, even as the cranes and belts moved the room in the direction of the testing center. For a room housing a pony in cryosleep, the place was unnecessarily cozy. It was furnished with a bed, carpeting, a toilet, and an impressionist painting. And in a corner of the room was a white cylindrical pod wherein the subject slept.
“Um… wakey wakey.” Interfacing with the pod, Spike began the sequence to open it. “Oh, please be alright, please be alright…”
The pod opened, and awoken from her long slumber, a purple unicorn emerged. Feeling dazed, she blinked a few times. 
“Oh, hey there, Twilight Sparkle!” Spike said. “Good, good, you’re alive! Definitely alive!” The robotic sphere cleared his throat. “Ahem! Alright, I, uh, don’t want you to be alarmed, but… You were in there a long time, and uh, somepony might have forgotten to run mandatory checkups and periodic physical and mental wellness exercises… And so, you might have… just a bit of brain damage. Nothing to be worried about, I’m sure. Might even recover in time. Maybe…”
Twilight tilted her head. And as she did, her left eye drooped out of position.
“Ew! What’s up with your eye?! Er, I mean, look at that. It looks like you’ve got a bit of lazy eye too. I’m sure that’s also nothing to worry about.”
Twilight opened her mouth and just gaped at Spike.
“Um… You’re not saying anything… Do you understand what I’m saying? How about you nod if you understand what I’m saying? Do that now, if you understand.”
Twilight grinned and hopped around as she chanted, “Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake!”
“Er… What? Alright, you know what, I’m just going to assume you’re alright. Mostly because, if I don’t deliver a test subject for testing right away, she’s going to have me shut down.”
“Oooh!” Twilight beamed as she clapped her hooves together. “Testing! I love testing!”
“That’s the spirit! Come on, we’re going to get through this together! No need to worry, testing chamber’s right ahead! Wait, was that wall always there?” Peeking over the top of the moving room, Spike squinted his LED matrix eyeball at the path ahead. “Oh no, we’re headed right for it!” In a panic, he looked to Twilight, but saw that she was just sitting there with her head tilted. She couldn’t see outside of the room, after all. “Don’t panic! Don’t panic!”
The room smashed into the wall, creating shockwaves that knocked Twilight off her feet and made Spike swing like a pendulum. When Twilight got back up, she screamed and ran in circles.
“Eaaaaahhh!” 
“I told you NOT to panic!” Spike yelled. “Don’t worry, alright? The testing chamber’s on the other side, so I’m just going to do a manual override of this wall.”
Spike swung the chamber like a battering ram against the wall. This did not help Twilight’s panicking, and she continued to run around the room and scratch at the walls with her hooves. Then Spike broke everything: the wall was smashed in, the room crumbled into dust, and Spike’s service rail detached. Twilight and Spike ended up falling into a deep void.
“Eaaaaahhhhhh!” Twilight shrieked. 
“Aaaaaaahhh! Twilight, help!”
Hearing Spike’s cry for help from beside her, Twilight grabbed the orb and hugged him to her chest. Still falling and still trembling, Twilight took a glance around at her surroundings. She saw white-tiled chambers hanging as far as the eye could see, but on the outliers there were also rust-colored areas. Before falling into a chute, Twilight thought she saw some pink butterfly graffiti on the wall, along with some words that went by too fast to read.