//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2: Blast 
// Story: Shadows of Eden 
// by RoccoRoccs 
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I had just woken up from one of the best naps I could have ever hoped to have. How long had I been out? Days? I haven't felt this well rested in... well I can't remember when. The room I was in seemed to glow and pulse from the walls in a soft, dim amber light. The bed I was laying on felt like I was sleeping on a cloud of feathers and even the air had a sweet, refreshing feeling when I would breath. I was slowly beginning to see how a pony could find something like this intoxicating, I was already feeling sad that I might not ever get to sleep here again. 

As much as a very selfish side of me wanted to roll over and enjoy this just for a moment longer, I was feeling so relaxed and awake that I wanted to get up and do stuff. Granted there was little to do, but I felt guilty for not being more active give how much energy I was feeling. I stood and began trotting around the room, touching my hoof to each corner as I tried to burn off some of my excess energy. Giving each of the walls a little 'tap' with the tip of my hoof, I began making laps around the room. But my fun was cut short with a tap at the door. 

"Ah, Dingy. You're awake. How are we feeling today?"

"How long was I out for? I feel like I have slept for days!" I said trying to work up some sort of anger I felt I should be feeling, but I just couldn't. I was in a good mood.

"Would you believe me if I told you that you have only been asleep for an hour?"

"There is no way in h-"

"Please... Refrain from obscenities, there is no need for them. Allow me to fill in the details to your puzzle. What you have just experienced is what we call ARS, or Accelerated Rem Sleep. We use pure oxygen molecules bonded with isotopes from the defensive spray of the Knocklet Vine. Normally the plant's toxins would cause coma or even death, but when bonded to pure oxygen on a molecular level it can give you the best sleep of your life."

Oh, hello guilt, anger, animosity... When did you all get here? Oh just now? You are here to remind me that I just used a product that I had fought to keep from coming into existence? What's that? You say I'm a hypocrite? Oh, you have no idea.

"I-I didn't sign up for that! I was not told that when I was brought here!"

"Ah, well, you must not have read the paperwork very thoroughly. It states rather clearly that you submit to any and all testing including, but not limited to..."

"Yeah... I remember the form. But I was told I was-"

"You were what?  Were you briefed without our knowledge?"

"I... No. I wasn't" I was lying. I knew why I was here, but something inside me felt wrong to just... out Dr.Wolfbain for sharing what was to come of my trial. Looking back I'm sure he did so to make me feel more at ease, but at the same time he seemed excited and possibly encouraged to pursue change by the way he spoke to me. That whole bit about how we could pursue common goals... It had stuck with me more than I had thought it would. 

"Ah, very good. As you can imagine, information is quite restrictive here. We like to keep ourselves open to the test subjects but transparency only goes so far. Many of the tests we are looking into performing are sensitive in nature and would be sought out and duplicated by our competition given the chance. Surely you can understand this yourself."

"Yes, I can." I said, feeling rather defeated... Again. 

"My apologies. My name is Dr.Egress. I will be your medical adviser, but you can think of me more as your very own medical and magical concierges. I will be filling in the details of your procedure, answering any questions you may have and even showing you around so that you can feel more at ease during the tests. I will also be the supervising unicorn during your trial." She said with a soft, lovely tone with words as smooth as her pulled back sky blue mane. If she was meant to come here to put me at ease... it was working.

"What am I doing here? I mean, what exactly have I signed up for?" I asked as I began pumping all of my nervous energy into tapping my hind hoof on the floor. 

"You are here for a new experimental procedure that we are calling BLST, or Blast. Contrary to what you may think, you will not be blown up. Blast, or Broken Line of Sight Teleportation, is a concept that we are trying very urgently to make a reality. It could be the key to unlocking so many advancements in our research and quite possibly forge into a new and exciting magical era! To quote the finer details in a brief script, Blast will allow us to send a pony to any point in time if done correctly to retrieve an item lost to us at any point in time as well."

"So... Time travel? I'm sorry, but how do I fit into all of this?"

"Not exactly. Think more like... shopping on line. The thing you need will be located somewhere out there in the world, but you have no idea where it is. What we are working on here is something like the internet in this example. Much like the internet, with this experiment we hope to create a vast network map of timelines and paths to points in our history. Items, spells and even ponies that have been lost to us forever, we could have access to them and further our research. Every item, every artifact that has ever been is connected through a pathway that grows weak over time, but is never gone for good. WE, wish to map this." She said, taking a glowing pen from her coat as she begin to draw in the air right in front of me. 

"We are the shopper and the items or knowledge we need are the items we are shopping for. But we have no way to find them. We have an idea where or when many things are, sure, but even more are lost to us. Blast will be to us as the internet is to many. With the power to go anywhere and anytime, we can locate more of these things we need. We can also progress our knowledge by rotating information back to a given point in time and compounding upon it over and over again. Of course, the latter is speculative as such a thing has never been done, but we are eager to try all the same."

"So I will be a time traveling delivery mare..." I said in a state of pure confusion.

"In a way, I guess you could say that. I like to think of it more as a magical net. Once you are to where we send you, a device we send with you will gather any and all data it can. It has a spell matrix that will take in details like temperature, humidity and general weather but it will also gauge varying barometric pressure and topographical land lay out of an area. It will keep track of where you go and what you encounter along the way. Think of it like a personal assistant and Pony Positioning System. It will be what allows us to bring you back. We have found the network of paths that connect everything, but we can only see what is here and now. This device has the ability to map and log these paths, but it has to in the exact time frame to do so. Otherwise we just see dead end connections. " 

"Uhuh... Has anypony made it back? I mean have you tested this yet?" I asked with a touch of fear in my voice. I expected to come here, drink some weird glowing goop and leave with superpowers. Now I'm a time traveling delivery pony. This was really starting to get out of hoof all too fast. 

"I understand your apprehension, but know that you are not the first for us to try this with. We began with Pegasi but learned quickly that they were not viable candidates due to their magic needed for flight conflicting with the spell. As it turns out it takes far more magic to teleport a being that is meant to cover great distances through magical flight. We then tried the logical option, unicorns. This was met with mixed results... With unicorns it was impossible to fully engage the spell due to their bodies amplifying the spell cast upon them and it shoots out of them at random. We ended up sending one of our interns to another country by accident. They were fine, mind you, but they were less than thrilled about sudden teleportation. Oh, to see the look on her face when she went from using the bathroom to the center of our facility in  Trottingham."

"That's terrible!"

"Well, I guess when you spend weeks down here your sense of humor changes quite a bit. But you are missing the point, she was an earth pony. It was clear to us that a earthpony was the only viable being to undergo this test. Lacking the ability to do magic yourself or fly for that matter, the spell does not interact with you exactly, but rather the space around you. And to answer your next question, yes, the toilet she was setting on was sent with her."

"Ok, I think I understand how I fit into the box you need to check, but why me? Why reach out to me with the letter and offer me this position? You understand my stance on this kind of stuff, Dr.Wolfbain even mentioned that you knew about my time as a conservationist. Why me?"

"This is were much of what I say will be non-questionable. Meaning you can not ask further details for what I say next. I'm sure you are familiar with our product Equaal?"

"Yes. Extensively. It is why I went into conservation in the first place! What you all do to create it is nothing short of extermination of plants and animals."

"Ah, I would expect you to say as much. So it is safe to say you have never used this product?" 

"Never! I refuse to use a product like that!"

"Very good. You see, what you know of Equaal and what it actually does, long term that is, are two completely different things. Equaal amplifies any attributes you already have and can be engineered to give you those that you do not. That much is apparent and yes, it is magical extraction from plant based organisms. But not animals. That is a false rumor. But what you do not know is that over time the flux that is used to deliver Equaal can accumulate within the body of the individual using it. It's harmless overall, there are no long term issues from it being there, but it accumulates magical energy over time. Subsequent doses of Equaal will heighten this effect of magical retention syndrome, or MRS.

This means that any candidate we source for this test specifically can not have used Equaal... even once. We have not tried it, but we speculate that the results could be disastrous in nature. Being that the flux binds with your being on a cellular level, it could in fact harm the test subject. We are not willing to risk the attempt." She said as she pushed the door open to my room and lead me out.

"What... They would explode? Or something?"

"More than likely, 'or something'. Since the Flux retains magical energy over time, the spell would act on the individual directly. They could have only part of them sent to a location, I don't have to explain that to you, I'm sure. Even worse is the possibility that they could in fact overheat from the magical build up. Basically they would cook from the inside out."

"Stop me here... But why are you telling me all of this?" I asked with wide eyes and suspicion burning a hole between my ears. 

"Well... because you asked?"

"No... This all seems rather... restricted. Need to know kind of information? Why would you just share it with me?"

"Honestly, I am telling you because as the test subject, it is your right to know these things. It was in your contract in fact. We expect you to forget much of what happen, what you hear and what you see here after your trial is complete. The gag order helps too." She said in a bubbly tone as she swiftly trotted to the double glass window to the side of the hall. "AH! They are starting the Rapid Area Boundary Teleportation trial! I worked on the team that developed the serum for this! Come! Come! Watch!" She said in absolute glee as her beckoning hoof guided me to the crystal glass.

"Rapid... Area... It's called Rabbit isn't it?" I said flatly.

"YES! R.A.B.T! I came up with the name myself!" She said with pride. It was no longer a shock to me who it was that named my trial Blast... " Rabbit allows a pony to rapidly jump in and out of the denominational plain from one location to another nearby with minimal magical energy! Usually a unicorn would experience burnout after at best 3 jumps, a unicorn with exceptional magical prowess, maybe 10 or 20. But with this, they can milk the effects by casting one spell and simple side stepping. To us viewing, they are moving from one end of the room to the other in a blink! But to the caster, they are at best taking a few steps!" 

I watched as the bright yellow unicorn drank a fowl green looking liquid with a grimace, drinking quickly to avoid the taste I'm sure. She then stuck her tongue out as if she had just tasted something fowl... I bet it tastes pretty good. She then passed the empty beaker off to a labcoat wearing buck and stepped into a large empty room. 

"TEST SUBJECT R-4, PLEASE REVIEW THE INSTRUCTION BEFORE YOU AND COMMIT THEM TO MEMORY. YOU MAY THEN PROCEED." A loudspeaker boomed into the enclosure. 

I watched as she studied a folded piece of paper closely, still shivering off the effects of the drink she had been given. After several moments... she was gone! Where did she go!? I was just looking at her and... over in the corner of the room she stood waving before she was gone again. I watched in awe as she popped in and out of existence second by second. each time in a new location. She was so fluid in her movements, looking to not even break a sweat at something I had been just told would cause magical burn out in 3 or 4 pops. 

"Amazing isn't it?" 

"Amazing..." I said as I watched in... well, amazement! She was moving so quickly that I could not keep track of her.

*Thump!* 

"Whoops! Guess she got a little excited."

The dull thud of soft, fluffy unicorn impacting double wall glass right in front of me nearly made me pee myself. She gave a timid wave as her body squeaked its way down the glass as she slid before collapsing into a dizzy and swaying heap on the floor. Soon after a team of labcoats came running to her aid, helping her to her hoofs and out of the room beyond my sight. 

"We are still working out the bugs... Though they seem to be more user error than chemical at this point." She said as we pressed on, deeper into the lab.

All in all, the underground lab was rather dull in comparison to the stories I had been told. There were frightening looking contraptions, sure. But the dark grey walls marked with bright yellow and purple felt more hospital like than super secret lab. I had expected bright white rooms with ponies dressed in sterile clothing and masks. But everything here was just like any other hospital I had been to in my life. Ponies in lab coats, ponies in medical gowns... The only thing that separated it from a general hospital was the lack of smell and the fact that everypony seemed healthy. 

"Ah... The Testing Wing! This is were all our ideas culminate into a viable experiment! Put simply, this is where final products are tested for consumer use and where we push the very limits of our tech and knowledge!" She said, clearly drawing my attention from the wing to our left. With a large sign that read "Floria Extraction & Genetics Lab".

"What's down there?" I asked, pointing to my left.

"That is... Well...". She stumbled over her words. 

"Where you suck the life out of plants and animals?" I said rather curtly. 

"How CRUDE! We would never suck the life out of anything! We extract, transform and manipulate genomes into viable flux! At any rate your experiment will involve no such 'sucking' and as such is of no interest to your test."

"I'm sorry, did I hit a nerve?" I asked with a smirk.

"Yes, you did. We take our work very seriously here. If by 'suck the life out of' you mean extract? Then yes, that is what happens there. But know that we know exactly what we are doing and by labeling it in such a brash connotation is not only insulting to the brilliant minds that work there, but is also very disrespectful to the 'lives' that are removed there, by your own logic that is." She said far more sternly than I had expected from the bubbly mare I had come to know.

"Sorry... Just... Sorry." I said, this time with more sincerity.

"It is ok. I know your background, I can understand that much of this is difficult for you and I can not express my gratitude enough for what you are doing for us. We would never express negative sentiment towards you for it, please pay us the same respect?"

"Sure. I'm sorry." If this were a game, I just lost. She was good, too good. I would almost say that her emotions were genuine in nature by the sound of them. So much for playing my cards close to my chest. 

"Very good. As I was saying, this is the Testing Wing, this will be where we spend the next few hours together." She said as she swiped a card over the reader and unlocked the doors before us. 

Inside I was greeted with a vibrant glow of blue from hidden lights in the ceiling that felt like they were pulsing. Not seemed to be pulse, but actually felt like a soothing cool pulse that radiated all throughout the room. With walls of light gray and blue floors that seemed to fall into a abyss below me, the room felt... I don't know. Happy? Productive? I could not put a hoof on it exactly, but I had an urge to work. I felt creative and even excited by the idea of participating in a test that could in someway help with the work they are doing here. My star struck expression was not lost on my tour guide as she leaned over to me and stopped me in my tracks.

"The sensation you are feeling is something new we have put into pre-production! It's a product of my very own design meant to help ponies work harder and think deeper through the radiant glow magical radiation. Now, I know what you are thinking, but no, you wont get sick! This in non-ionizing radiation, specifically, it merely accelerated particle injection."

"So what... Like a shot?" 

"Yes, but instead of an invasive injection daily, think of this more of millions or even billions of tiny shots all the time! So small that you can't even feel them! With it we can administer doses of b12, Ginko isotopes, and even pure oxygen enriched vitamins to help ponies be more productive and stay focused. Rapid Administered Dose could be the key to noninvasive Chemotherapy and other long term administered medicines. It could even be used to treat multiple patience at once! Imagine having the ability to cure plagues, administer antibiotics or even dose out vaccines in moments!"

"RAD... You named it RAD?" 

"But isn't it... RAD?" She asked biting her lip, stifling laugh.  

"Really? This could help sick ponies?" I asked as I looked directly into the blue glow. 

"Ponies, animals... HECK, even plants! We are still testing the effects on horticulture, plants and ponies are two completely different things, but it is showing great promise as a means for vitamin and mineral enrichment. Who knows, with a few tweaks, maybe this could help wipe out blights in the banana fields. I believe that fits your narrative field?"

"That would actually be something I would be interested in, yes."

"Did I mention that this tech is plant and animal testing free?" 

"That's awesome... But if you all make stuff like this, why even bother with magical enhancement at all? It seems like this is something the world needs more."

"Ah yes... a question I have been asking myself more and more... On one hoof something like this could help millions, if not more... but without Equaal something like this would never exist. It was the Cognitive serum that helped me and my team work through the complex equations and sleepless nights of studying to make it happen. In your case, think of it as turning a negative into a positive. We are here now, might as well use it to our advantage." She said as we navigated the rows of desks and lab stands to the backroom. 

I was guided out of the blue glow and into a room that felt more like an office. Inside lay a large desk made of metal and glass and two chairs before it. It was rather spartan in terms of decorating, something you would expect from a multi-billion bit company's lab directors office. Apart from the computer, the nameplate on the desk and few chairs, there was little more to the room. But my eyes fell on the window that looked out onto a beautiful green lush garden that seemed to stretch on for miles. It was like outside, above ground, but far more clean, pretty and green? I felt myself drawn to it like a moth to a light as I reached out with a hoof to touch the glass, but my hoof with through the image as if it did not exist. 

"Holographic dreamscape, dear. It's just a picture." She said as she sat behind the desk and opened up her computer. 

"It's beautiful. Galloping Gardens?" I asked as I took in the beautiful marble buildings and cobblestone streets. 

"Close, Canterlot. Circa 2018. Sure, Canterlot now is pretty, but nothing compares to the grandeur of the past. Buildings carved by hoof, plants and flower all cultivated by hoof... there is a certain magic to it all, even if magic were not involved at all. There is a certain beauty to it all, somewhat of a purity, something I have not seen in a very long time on this planet."

Interesting to say the least, if not for the fact that the resolution was so clear and perfect as though it were taken by a modern camera, then by the sentiment she displayed. She spoke of the location as if she had been there at the time when the picture was taken, almost going misty when she spoke of it. I had taken her for just another corporate drone, buzzing her life way on catchy terms and neat ideas, but it felt like she had something more to her now. For some reason I felt more aligned in her pursuit. I looked up, no weird glowing roof, no strange smell... I guess it's safe to assume the feelings I was feeling were real.

"You don't strike me as the type of pony I expected to meet here... None of these ponies do. My whole life I had seen this place as something like a ghoul, a monster. But the more I see, the less scary it all seems. I still don't agree with what this company is doing, I don't think that will ever be something that changes with me. Places like that picture used to exist, they could still exist if it were not for companies like this, even you have to admit you see that much." I said, pleading for common ground with her. 

"Yes... I do agree with you in that respect." She said as she punched in a few things on her keyboard and sighed. "Dingy, you are not here for the betterment of Spark, you are not even here for product development. I requested you here. I was the one that sent out the letter in hopes for a willing candidate." She said turning her monitor so that I could see that she had a file with my name on it pulled up. 

"You have a file one me? What do you mean by 'I'm not here for the betterment of the company'?"

"I mean that you and I may seem as different as night and day, but nothing could be further from the truth. We both want the same thing, we both want to see that place come back once again, we both want to change the world. Just in this case we both find ourselves at a crossroads and rather than splitting off, we are meeting. Dingy, if this works, we could find a way to reverse 300 years of neglect to our planet and keep the things we have found, maybe even build on them. My team and I work for Spark, sure, but we work as contractors. This project is funded by Spark but we are the ones steering the ship."

"So you are saying that you picked me specifically? But why me? What about that load about magical flux retention and junk?" I asked waving my hoof through the picture on the wall.

"That was all true. We didn't lie to you, we just didn't tell you everything. Even now there are things that we wont tell you out of fear of skewing the results. All you need to know is that from the moment you entered the exam room till now you have been under the supervision of my team, not Spark's. There are monsters, but you are not working for them. You only saw a small portion of our lab here, this place goes on for five more levels above us and each is easily 10 times the size." She said as she opened a drawer to her desk and retrieved a small box and placed it before me. 

"Why do I get the feeling we are doing something wrong if you say we are doing something good then? None of this makes sense." 

"Not everything will make sense, Dingy. Sometimes you just have to go for it and see what happens. Being timid and cautious is for the wealthy, when you have nothing left to worry about, you go for it." She said as she opened the box and pulled out a large, sleek apparatus made of stainless steel and carbon fiber. With a large circular screen in the center, it looked like a overgrown watch if nothing else, but all the various wires and sensors lead it to being low level space tech. "This little guy we affectionately call the Cuff. I wish I could say we have a snazzy acronym for it, but with the number of functions it is capable of... lends it to being hard to name."

"This is the first thing you have shown me with a normal name, you know that right?" I said as I looked it over. "What does it do?"

"What doesn't it do... It gathers atmospheric pressure, surveys land and topography, reads the host's vitals in terms of hydration, health and well being based off of saturated o2 levels, it even can dispense antibiotics to a limited amount if it detects infection. But most importantly it works as a sort of gps but more so in sense of time rather than location, but it can also work as a functional gps... but only if you have been there, depending on when you are." She said gesturing for my hoof. "You will need to have this if we want this to be a success. I wish I could say this is not going to hurt, but it wont hurt much." She said as she placed it over my right front leg and latched the 3 small clasps closed. The Cuff then tightened down to the point where I was about to scream before backing back off.

"That wasn't so ba- OW!" Two sharp stabs into my leg changed my mind in an instant. "What the hell!?" 

"Yeah... sorry. The Cuff uses two probes inserted into the leg to take measurements and gather energy through thermal contact with peltier chips as well as motion charging. It might not look like much, but there are sometimes when it is working that you would think the thing is nuclear powered by the consumption of power."

I looked it over on my leg. It was light weight, kind of stylish in a weird sci fi kind of way, but otherwise kind of neat. I used the tip of my hoof to play with the dial around the large circular screen and was met with a very cathartic click with every small movement. Each time the device would click it would shift to a different screen. Weather said cloudy and 68*, topography was offline, health was monitoring as good but it had a small slash next to it that read 'stressed'. It really was a interesting device to say the least. 

"Double tap the screen." Egress said leaning over the table.

With a short few taps, the screen seemed to zoom out to show an array of different functions. Gps, weather, health, bio scan, help, SOS, return, map, music... This thing can play music? She really wasn't kidding when she said 'what can't it do', it was like the latest phone with all the apps it had, but these all felt more... important maybe? When zoomed out the click wheel functioned to scroll up and down through the long page of applications. At the very bottom was one labeled 'Connectivity' with a little headset on a round blue icon. 

"Oh! Tap that one." She said as she dug back through the box and pulled out a little headset and reached to put it on me. I recoiled, not wanting to be stabbed again, but a 'really' look from Egress set me back to calm with a glance. "You will need this if you wish to take notes or to send one way memos back to us. Think of it like texting but you never get a reply."

"Yeah... I know a thing or two about that." I said as I bowed my head and she affixed it to my right ear with little clamps. It felt secure enough, very small and light weight as well. With a three toned beep a little voice came through saying 'paired to cuff'. Now when I would move the click wheel I was met with a dull chirp signifying movement. "I hear stuff!" 

"Good! That means it's working. Now, just sit still for a moment, I'm going to run some diagnostics to make sure everything is functioning at 100%." She began pounding on her keyboard as I watched and listen to the little devices that had been strapped to me come to life. Pops, whistles, read outs and vibrations all began happening as it did it's work. after what felt like only a moment it finished saying 'host viable for egress'. I snickered. 

"What? What happened." She said as she began looking over the monitor. 

"It said... I'm viable for you." I laughed, trying no to. 

"Oh, silly. That means you are ready to go! It doesn't mean that you and I... I mean, I like bucks." 

"I know, it was just funny."

"Well I guess I could see that as amusing. I'm going to fire whoever programmed it to say that." She said with a smirk. "Well... Dingy. This is where I brief you on what happens next. Normally I would pass you a waver, you would sign it, I would tell you what was going to happen and boom. Off we go."

"But this is not what we are doing?" I asked in confusion. 

"Yes and no. We are doing that but you need to know your options first. What you are going to be doing is far beyond that RABT experiment you saw. This has a level of danger involved with it that I feel the need to offer you the chance to back out."

"So I can just leave... no consequences?" I asked, taken aback by the sudden sternness in her voice.

"You can leave, yes. I will even see to it that you get paid for being here. I want to be 100% honest with you and show you that some of us are not bad, some of us want to see the betterment of Equinity. What you will be doing, nopony has succeeded in before, there is a chance that it might not work and we won't be able to locate you. If that happens then you would be lost to us."

"Whoa now... I could be lost to you? That means dead right?" I said in shock.

"No... lost and dead are two different things. There is little chance you will die from the experiment. But there is a chance that you are sent somewhere, somewhen and we can't locate you. But Dingy, we obviously do not want that, nopony does. This is that whole, you have to trust me thing I was telling you about. Trust that we are doing this to do something good, to set things back right."

"Where am I... When am I going?" I asked as she got up from her desk and stared at the picture on the wall.

"10 years from now. We want to see what the world will be in 10 years going at the current rate. Spark has been made to believe that we are doing this to snuff out competition, but we are doing it to show them just how bad the world will be if they don't curb their habits. For me it will be to see if the tech has improved to a point where we can use a noninvasive treatment for nerve damage repair as that is my current project. For you it will be to have a chance to change history."

"So this is my call then... I get to decide if I go or not?" I asked, trotting around and getting a feel for the apparatus.

"Yes and believe me when I say you are pretty much the only pony we have found in over a year that is viable. I can't say more than what I have, I have already said too much, but just know that I have nothing but the best of intentions here. I want to see this work, I want to see this all through." 

She seemed almost pleading in her voice, like she was trying with everything she had to be honest as she could be about what was going on while all the while begging me to say yes. I could leave right now, collect my bits and pay my rent. I could walk right back out the door I hated walking into with nothing more than a smile and never having had helped them. But the opportunity that was being afforded to me felt far greater than I could imagine, a real chance to show the world just how bad things were if they didn't stop. It was, for all my wishful thinking, exactly what I had been doing in conservation. 

Everything within me was screaming for me to leave. Even if she had somehow fostered trust in me with her sentiment, this was still Spark, this was still the very company that set all this in motion. I had read in a old friendship book when I was little that you always give ponies a chance to do good, but you always do good by your own mark. By doing this, I was trusting that they wanted to turn over a new leaf and do right, I was trusting that they wanted to change the company they have been working for. I was trusting blindly and I hated it. But what option did I have?

"If... I do this for you ponies... I want more than the 2000 bits I was promised. My life is worth more than that to me." I said shakily.

"Dingy, I will personally see to it that you are paid well for this. But the rewards will be far greater than anything I could ever pay, I assure you." She said with a hoof to my shoulder.

"Ok... I'm in. Just don't kill me."