Bill Neigh rounded the corner from the main lab room and walked swiftly down the long hallway to his boss’s office. He ran his eyes down the list of numbers on his clipboard one more time, and frowned. He hadn’t seen Dr. Bridge in nearly a week, but the deadline for submitting graded final exams was today, and she would HAVE to come in.
Then she would be able to explain this.
Dr. Bridge had done some odd things before, but he couldn’t figure out for the life of himself why she would consume the lab’s ENTIRE remaining budget on something not recorded on any of the books.
She was a pony of science, driven by curiosity. It’s why he looked up to her. She had taken funds for strange projects before which yielded amazing breakthroughs, but it had never been off the books. He sighed and entered the door.
“Dr. Bridge, if you have a moment...” He trailed off when he looked up at the scene in front of him.
Her desk was surrounded by a pool of gently burning... was that blood?
Oh.
Oh, sweet sun above.
The charred husk of a pony sat in her chair, wearing a gold-trimmed spiked peytral of some sort. Small spikes of black crystal grew from the skin, and fire and dark blood oozed from every orifice of the corpse.
It was at that point the smell hit him: the acrid smell of burning phosphorous combined with the sickeningly rich smell of charred flesh. His eyes began to water, but he couldn’t look away. His blurry vision was drawn to the one patch of color left on the body: a small patch of unsinged mane just above a blackened and cracked horn. Rose-colored mane.
The room began to spin as he tried to back away.
He vomited, then passed out just inside the doorway.