The Little Lab Rat

by Yellowtail


Log 73: The Experiments Are Fine

Log 73: The experiments are fine. So far, it took about fifteen trials, but now they can move! It’s amazing! To think, just a year ago, we didn’t know if any of this was even possible to begin with! However, as Princess Celestia has said, we’re going to take it slow. Although deadlines are coming up, money isn’t important in the long run. Let’s just hope these words hold true.


I grunt as I crawl in the vent. It’s really dark cold in here, but I believe that is to be expected. Suddenly, I feel my hand fall further than the floor all my other appendages stand on, and I almost fall forward. Thankfully, I catch myself from falling and look down to see an orange glow of some kind from the vent below. It also feels strangely warm. “Uh, TIA? What’s this?” I ask, pointing the camera at it before looking at the screen.

I believe that’s one of the many vents that leads to the incinerator. It seems this vent is the closest one. I propose the idea that you shouldn’t go down there.

“Yeah, that uh, that sounds smart,” I say, nervously going over the cubed hole. I look up to see two directions to go. One goes ahead, which I feel a stronger breeze from, the other one goes right. I look at TIA for help. “Uh, do you know which way I’m supposed to go?” I ask.

We should go right. The path ahead leads into a fan.’ I nod and go right. After a small while of crawling, I bump into a grate-like wall. Crap. I feel around it before noticing how shaky and loose it is. “... I might have to kick this down,” I mutter to myself. Suddenly, my watch vibrates, making me look at the screen.

No! That is a bad idea! The monster will hear you! There is no guarantee that you will survive this course of action!’ TIA says.

“Do you have any better ideas? I’m open to hear them because as far as I know, the incinerator back there is our only other choice,” I say.

With the lack of ideas established, I awkwardly shuffle around until my feet face the vent's end. I pull them back and kick out with all my might. I also suddenly remember the fact that I don't have any shoes on. The opening comes off and clatters to the floor as I bring my legs up to be able to hold my feet in pain. J quietly give a string of curses as I realize how stupid of an idea this was.

After I stop writhing in agony, I crawl out slowly as I look around. It's a long corridor, but it's much more lit up than the previous rooms. The walls have marks, the floors have blood splotches and some other dark and dried up liquids. The vent I came out of was on the left wall. On the right wall, I see three doors, some cabinets, a couple tables, and lots of scattered paper. I can see syringes, weirdly shaped devices, and even vials still containing chemicals. Some look smashed or slashed through. My eyes land on another computer, which has a cracked screen. I'll check it out in a bit. On the left side, I can see a pair of doors leading into a single room. In the back, I think I can see some sort of punch-card station for clocking in. I stop and ponder how perplexing it is that I know these things, but I don't know my own name. My watch vibrates, making me look at it.

'Jack, just so you know for future reference, refrain from making loud sounds. My calculations indicate that the monster may have sensitive hearing..' I nod in thanks and look at the computer. I walk towards it and tap a couple of keys. The menu doesn't pop up, instead I see a strange list.

>Testing in Progress since [ -ERROR- ] .

Testing room 1: Bubble Mass. Subject: Subject # 34: [DECEASED]. Experiment: Virus #1475.

Testing room 2: Acid Rain. Subject: Subject # 35: [ACTIVE] Experiment: Confidential.

Testing room 3: eyr kdylcw xp dpqp. Subject: #[ERROR]. No Experiment Indicated.

I quirk an eyebrow at the screen as I read it. Viruses? An active subject? "Hey, uh, TIA, what were the test subjects?" I ask, looking at her screen. She doesn't say anything for a minute.

'... My files are missing on the matter. However, I can gather that at most, they were not supposed to exist or used in such a way.' I frown at that. This place gets weirder and weirder. I look at each door. Each one has windows, but the second room's window is covered in something red. Obviously blood. I decide to check the left room first and go up to it. I peek in and see a skeleton of a pony sitting in the corner. Some bits of its flesh is still clinging on to its bones. "Mm, welcoming," I mutter. I back away and go to the room on the far right. I peek into the window and almost yell in surprise. Inside, there's a tall, human-like creature that's glowing a soft blue. It's glaring right at me. It's wearing an orange jumpsuit, much like mine. Its form is thin and boney, with no hair on its head. The eyes are nothing but a black, empty socket. I don't know why, but I feel like I recognize it. TIA vibrates on my arm, but I can't seem to tear my eyes away from the thing in the room. Finally, the creature starts walking towards me. I pull myself away and back off, bumping into the wall since I can't seem to stop myself. I look around quickly, trying to figure out what to do. However, when I look back up, it's gone. I creep back to the door and nervously look inside. Nothing. Just an empty room with a table. I back away again, and turn to go to the double doors as I look at TIA's messages.

'Jack! Are you alright!? What happened!?' I look back at the room and shudder as I can still feel the glare on me.

"Uh, there was some sort of glowing blue dude," I say quietly. "I think he's gone."

'... Curious, maybe such creatures were deleted from my records as well. I strongly advise you to not contact them.'

"Didn't think about it," I mutter as I open the doors.

Inside, there are loads of computers sitting on top of desks, but the majority of them seem to be broken. Screens are cracked, some are knocked down, as well as some desks. I can see a small pool of dried blood next to some broken wooden desks. I him in interest as I see that at least one computer is intact. I quickly go over to it and tap a few keys.

>Menu

Inbox: 2*
Outbox: 1
Trash: 1
Logs: 3,237
Off

I check the inbox first.

From: [ERROR]

When will you be coming home?! I'm worried sick! Please! I didn't mean what I had said, you're a good scientist, please come back!

Marked Read at: 3 Years ago.

I frown as I see the message. I go to the next one.

From: Management

We can't afford it anymore Acid Rain, we need to stop. It was bad enough we were doing it to the ponies, but this?! We don't know what would happen if we messed this up, magic is not natural to them. I know you want this place to survive, but the Princess has decided that this is far enough, it's not worth it anymore. We're stopping at 34 before this goes out of hoof. We’ll release the alpha today, and you better pray to Celestia he isn’t smart enough to put any of this together!

Read at: 3 Years ago.

I squint my eyes at the screen. They seem to just love the pronoun game. Thirty four of what? I'm assuming test subjects, but they also mentioned how it was bad enough they were 'doing it to ponies'. Are there other races here? Wait, are they experimenting on their own people!? I feel disgusted as I reach to the realization. "Hey, TIA, what kind of test subjects did they have?" I ask her.

'Normally willing civilians are used for medical trials, but ponies placed on death row are the only viable candidates for dangerous experiments.’ I shudder as I see that before looking at my jumpsuit with a bit of worry. That might explain the choice of clothing I was given. Wait.

“Hey, TIA, do you know why these clothes were in that other room?” I ask.

... What “other room”?’ She asks.

“You know, the one across from yours?”

... Ah, that one, yes... I don’t know. I do not recall anyone visiting for the past three years.’ I frown at that answer and sigh.

“Right, welp, I’m going to check out a log or two, alright?” I ask. TIA doesn’t respond, so I take it as a yes. I go to a random log and see what it holds.

Log 2774:
I am unable to find which one is more fascinating, the supposed ‘super growth’ of this tissue, or the mending it can accomplish! Combined with the duplication process, it could grow or regrow an entire heart in days! Imagine what could happen if I reproduced such finds with an entire hoof, or arm! But for now, I’m not allowed to do such things, it’s not agreeable amongst every pony. However, they’ll see the beauty of it one day, I’m sure.

Oh, and I shall be using a different terminal for a certain set of experiments. I am sure that there are too many prying eyes already.

I hum in interest. I’ll have to be on the lookout for those terminals. As I look around, I freeze as I hear a loud clang. This was not echoey or distant, I look at the door leading into the room. I carefully walk over and peek my head to see the door to the second testing room is open. Wide open. I quietly look out, into the other room, only for my eyes go wide. Inside the room, from what I can see, is a single pony's skeleton, ribs are broken, skull is smashed, and not a single bit of it is in one piece. I find it concerning that I have mixed feelings about it, but I also realize something more important as I look around. I look around the corner, and freeze as I see something at the end of the hall. There, standing in front of the vent I crawled out of, is a large, boney and grotesque monster. It's skin is a bit of a paler color to mine, and it stands on two legs, but that's all the similarities I can find. It's head looks elongated, it's black eyes seem to bulge from their sockets. A few strands of hair rest in its head, which has large, sharp teeth in its mouth. They're yellow and jagged, with obvious signs of use. It wears a ripped shirt and jumpsuit like mine. Its torso and legs are boney and thin, which is a stark contrast to its large and bulky arms. At the end of each arm, is a large set of thick yet boney fingers with long nails. Actually, they kind of look like claws. Either way, the creature is obviously not something I want to run into. I slowly bring my arm up to show TIA as I walk back out.

'... That's horrifying.' She replies.

"What do I do? Where are the stairs?" I ask her quietly.

'We need a key first before we go back to the other side of the hallway. Quickly look for them please.' I look at her with a bit of malice.

"I think you should have said something like that sooner," I mutter.

'Truth be told, I did not expect the monster to actually be alive! It had no food source for three years after all!'

"Still, probably should have mentioned it earlier," I mutter, looking up. The creature is still staring at the vent, with unblinking eyes. Actually, now that I think about it, I don't even know if it has eyelids to begin with. Well, no time like the present to look around. I look at my hands and remember the heavy wrench I'm holding. Well, it could probably do well enough against that thing. I look around the room, quickly walking past desks and chairs, finding literally everything except a single God damn key. I sigh and remember the rooms I have yet to check. The testing rooms. I frown and look out the door. It looks like I have a bit of time to check them out

I carefully peek my head out to see the monster is crouching, looking into the vent. Then, suddenly, I hear a small chuckle. Not a humorous one, mind you, but a chuckle that sounded slightly joyful. The monster's mouth almost seemed to tighten upwards, into some grotesque version of a smile. Oh great, it's probably smart enough to think. Suddenly, the monster's head swivels and faces my direction. I quickly pull away from the door, catching myself from saying 'oh shit' out loud. That's not good. I can hear the slow clapping of its feet, making its way to the room I hide in. Shit. I look around and quickly dive over to a desk. I'm practically hugging a short wall, but this is better than nothing. I look over the desk and freeze as I see a large claw gripping the doorway as the monster looks in. Its gaze seems distant, like it's not really trying to look around, so much as get a good view of the room.

it's looking to see if anything's different.

The monster starts walking in, slowly and meticulously. I notice a vial on my desk and grab it. Time for a distraction. I aim for the other side of the room, away from the door, and throw it. It sails through the air, and I hear it crash against a wall. The creature's attention snapped to the wall and starts making its way. That'll give me some time. I quietly sneak out of the room, keeping my height low to the ground as I do so. I get out of the room and look at the three doors. Welp, might as well go to the second one since it's already open. I walk over and peer inside. Well, there's blood, blood, bones, and more blood. I frown and leave. I look at the other two doors and sigh. Guess I'll try to-

Suddenly, I hear crashing and smashing, as well as a loud roar of some sort from the room I snuck out of. Shit. I don't think he's gonna be patient anymore. I dip out and randomly chose a door to quickly go through. I open it and close it quickly, which deafens the sound of crashing. I breathe out a sigh and look around. The skeleton I had seen earlier is here, which means I chose the left door. Absolute luck right there. I look around and spot a small brown key in the corner of the room. Yes! I start to grab it, but I then see a small bone. Suddenly, I get an idea. I quickly get down and grab both items before going back up to the door. I open it and slam it closed before rushing to the vent. I practically dive in and scramble to rush through. My wrench is making it harder and harder to maneuver, but I'm sure I need it for later. I quickly get to the fork in the vents and throw the bone as noisely as I can down the vent going towards the fan. I quietly start moving back the way I came. Hopefully, that'll buy me even more time. The bone will hopefully trick the monster into going towards that fan TIA talked about. I smile to myself as I pass over the incinerator's vent. Let's hope I have more time than I think.

I crawl out of the vent, passing the pony corpse I had moved earlier. I walk out of the room and start rushing around to try and find a door I haven't opened yet. Thankfully, when I come up to the desk at the end of the hall, I realize that there's a metal door to its left. It's also off its hinges. I quickly wonder why the hell I needed a dn key in the first place until I see that there's another metal door inside the small hallway. I step last the fallen door and unlock the second one. It opens to reveal another stone staircase, making me smile in joy. With a hurry, I rush up the stairs, ready to put the monster behind me.


I stop to rest at the top of the staircase, next to the door. I clench my wrench with a bit of adrenaline coursing through me. Suddenly, I hear screams from downstairs. I snicker to myself, knowing what that might mean. However, it's probably pissed now. I get up and walk towards the door. I need to be quick. As I open the door, I glance at TIA.

'That was not smart. In fact, I calculated the risk of that coming back to bite us, and it stands at a 67.93%.'

"You worry too much," I say.

'This is serious Jack. I may not remember the day everypony died, but I do remember the fact that they died to this thing that you're infuriating.' I drop my smirk at that, and sigh.

"Sorry," I mutter. I look up to see that I came out of a metal door behind a white desk. It's smashed, along with various bits of paper. The room is wide, with a hallway to the right in the wall ahead of me. Two separate doors are on the left, one of which has a lock on it. It's metal and about the size of my hand. On the wall to the left, there's a big window that stretches from one end of the wall to the other, which is broken with glass shards on the floorm. There are tables set up, with notepads and small devices set on them along the window. Two of which are smashed and turned over. I look at the rubble of the desk in front of me and try to quickly rummage through it. Broken wood, metal, and some paper, but nothing of immediate importance. I sigh and go to the hallway. Down the hallway, I can see multiple rooms with glass windows beside the doors. I think I see about five total. One door doesn't have a window next to it, which makes six rooms. I can see that some windows are smashed into, and some have bits of blood splashed on. I frown and go to the window I had passed. The window leads into a big room I can look down to. There are claw marks and three skeletal corpses at the bottom. The skeletons are all wearing some type of armor. One of the skeletons is missing a skull. Of course, there's a lot of blood on the ground. However, I notice something strange about one pony. It has a horn. I hum in interest and move on. I'll ask TIA about that later.

I walk down the hall, passing various windows and doors. I look into each one quickly as I pass by. They all seem to have a table, and one had another skeleton belonging to a pony. As I pass the last room, however, I freeze in place. In the last room on the right, stands a human-like figure. It's like the blue one I found, but it has different deformations. It's eyes are bloodshot, and it's skin has black strings all across its body. It's skinny, but not like the last time. It's clear it doesn't have much meat on its bones, but it wasn't like last time. It states at me with a sort of painful, yet angry expression. It almost looks like jealousy.

Welp, I'm not waiting to see if it Luke's chatting or not. I quickly force myself to move on and go to the last door. I open it and find myself in a small corridor, which leads to a huge room with desks, chairs, and a few whiteboards on wheels. Most of these things are broken or turned over, but I spot a single computer across the room from me that doesn't look broken. I quickly contemplate just moving on to find the exit, or snooping through some dead person's stuff. I give a small grumble, but I decide to do some snooping and quietly rush to the computer. I quickly tap a couple keys and the computer springs to life.

>Menu
Inbox: 1
Outbox:
Logs: 12,954
Trash:
Off

I quickly check the inbox.

From: Light Blaze

Hey, Dusty, can you fax me the conclusion forms again? Management wanted to see some progress for our project, and I couldn't find a single sheet we did yesterday. I don't want to go all the way back down to CDT's floor, it's creepy as Tartarus and the test subjects are unnerving. Heck, I don't know why you're fine with their blank looks, it's unnatural. Also, TIA said something about needing a carton of eggs for Dr Hooves. I think they're doing something good with that... thing. Just, check on them please?

I hum in interest as I move to see a random log.

Log 11,231: I like these new subjects. They're living examples of perfect test subjects! Reactive, non-emotional, obedient, and best of all: living. We've only used ten or twelve, and they're already advancing our medicine and knowledge of disease by fifty years! Imagine if we had hundreds of these! The only problem is, they take a long time to stabilize. The prototype-

I lean back with a frown as I read this, already deciding that I don't want to look into it anymore. At least, not for the moment. I get off the computer and look around again. The whiteboards, upon closer inspection, seem to have lines goin in zigzags or diagonally up. Various forms of equations are scribbled on, but faded due to the test of time. I move on and look around the room again. I spot a door on the wall to the right of the entrance to the room. However, this time, there's some sort of panel with a hole in it. I go up to it with curiosity.

"Hey, TIA, what's this?" I ask, showing her the device.

'Oh dear, that's a magic-essence-scanner. Are there any unicorns around? You'll need their horn, it contains magic needed to leave.' I look at the door in confusion.

"... Why is there a lock on this side of the room?"

'It's a measure to make sure anything that's dangerous here doesn't leave.'

"Uh, that sounds ominous as hell," I say. Before I could continue, I hear a distant clang, followed by a chuckle. I feel my eyes go wide as I recognize that chuckle. Shit. I quietly rush to the door and try to open it. I pull with all my might before cursing at it for being so God damn sturdy. I hear the chuckle again, which makes me realize that J don't have much time before I'm spotted. I quickly crouch down and look at my wrench. It looks like I'll need to use it soon. I grab it with my other hand and keep a tight grip. I look over the desk to see the terrifying creature, already poking its head through the doorway and looking around. I immediately duck back down and plant my back against the desk. Oh hell, what am I going to do!? This is crazy. I look at TIA for help.

'Jack, please, don't try to fight it. Just run!' I feel panic as I see the unhelpful advice. Where the hell can I run to!?

Suddenly, I hear the creature chuckle. Not a second later, I hear the creaking of an old desk moving. After a small pause, a desk flies right into the wall in front of me, crashing and bursting into chips of wood and metal. I cover my head to shield it from the falling debris as I hear another desk getting picked up. I need to move, now! I peek over my desk to see the monster's back is to me. Feeling terror, I get up and take the chance to start running for the exit. I pay nothing else any attention as I just make a beeline for the door. I can hear a grunt before feeling the heavy impact of the desk crashing right behind me, missing me. "Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!" I tell, running out and making a sharp right turn. Where the hell do I go!? I feel myself go into autopilot as I start running to a random room. I jump into the air, through an already broken window. I collided against the wall and just barely manage to stop myself from groaning in pain as I quickly roll to be under the view of the window, against the wall. As I finally establish a sense of what's going on, I finally notice that a glass shard is in my arm. The adrenaline is probably helping with the pain, but I need to pull it out fast. I use a finger and a thumb to grab the edge of the shard and slowly pull it out. The pain's starting to register, it hurts like hell to say the least. I finally pull out the last bit and suppress a yell of pain. The shard is now covered in blood, but it's not as big as I thought it was. It's about an inch or an inch and a half long, I think. I toss it to the side and clutch my injured arm as I wait to see what fate has in store for me. I can hear the steps of the creature, coming closer and closer. I wipe the tears of pain from my eyes as I try not to think about said pain. I look around and see my wrench is right beside me. I grab it with my uninjured hand and hold it close.

Yep, now I can really feel the pain. However, my hands are still shaking with adrenaline. I squeeze my eyes shut as I hear the steps top. I hear the monster breathing, as it gets closer to the window. I crack an eye open and look up to see the long snout above my head. I trail my gaze down to see that a set of claws longer than my forearm resting next to me, on the windowsill. I feel the color drain from my face, noticing how close it is. If it moves just a bit to the left, I’m screwed. I squeeze my eyes shut, hoping that I won’t be this creature’s dinner in the next minute. I wait in agony, until finally, the creature backs away from the window, releasing the window sill. I hold my breath nonetheless, until the monster starts walking away. I give a quiet sigh and peek over the window. The monster's back is turned, revealing a faded number on what remains on its tattered jumpsuit. I try to squint my eyes, but it's no use. I inwardly sigh and just wait for it to leave. It looks around, peering at the windows before walking over to one. It chuckles as it hops the window and into the dark room across from me. I take this opportunity to quietly hop out of the room I was in and quickly walk to the bigger room at the end of the hall. I remember seeing a unicorn in that room with the big window. I carefully walk to the edge and look into the room to see everything as it was before. Some corpses with armor and a huge blood splat. I grip my wrench tightly as I jump down and land with a thud. Crap. I feel panic go through me as I go to the armored unicorn's body. Crap crap crap. I feel absolute disgust as I realize that I'll have to take the skull with me since I'm sure the monster heard my landing. I grab the skull, which is sticky, as yank it off the spine with a sickening crack.

"I am so sorry," I say quietly to the body as I turn to look at the door. It's at this moment, I suddenly remember. The exit's locked. Shit. I panic as I look around. All I have is the wrench in one hand, and the skull in the other hand. I pace quickly as I try to think of how to get out of here. The window's too high for me to jump, and I know I can't force open a metal door. I feel nothing but fear as I realize I'm gonna die. I squeeze my eyes shut, feeling tears stream down my face.

Behind me, I can hear the heavy thud, followed by a chuckle. I turn around and quickly back up as I see the monster, its mouth is open, revealing two or three rows of jagged yellow teeth. I swear I can see a fling of sick joy in the bulbous black eyes it has. It raises an arm to strike me. "Wait, please! Don't kill me!" I cry, stumbling onto my ass as I fall over a skeleton. The creature slams the set of claws down as I roll to the side, barely missing me. I get onto my feet and run to it with my wrench. I don't know what I'm doing, my body is pretty much on autopilot at this point. I try to swing the wrench as hard as I can into the monster, managing to strike its face. It stumbles a bit, but quickly regains its stance before rushing up and slamming an arm into me. I fly into the air, barely toughing the ceiling as pain shoots through me. However, I see the top of a windowsill pass me before I land on the concrete ground. I groan in pain as I try to figure out what's happened. I roll on my side, slowly getting up. I think the creature just bashed me through the window. Holy shit that's lucky. I quickly look to see if I'm still holding the unicorn skull. I grimace as I see that half of the skull was destroyed, but the horn is intact. I look over to see the monster growling at the bottom of the room, getting low to the ground. Oh shit, it's about to jump! I don't waste any more time as I quickly rush down the hallway to the room with desks. Behind me, I hear the loud thud and sliding of thick skin. The monster roars unnaturally as it starts to give chase. I turn into the room of desks and continue sprinting.

I get closer and closer to the door, feeling a small amount of relief wash over me. However, it's short lived when a desk crashes in front of me. I instinctively duck as the body of the monster flies over me, landing in front of me with a heavy thud. As it turns around to face me, the floor around it cracks. It turns to me, ready to pounce again, but I throw my wrench at it in panic. It collides with its head, making it stumble a little as the floor finally gives way.

The ground opens up, revealing a glowing room beneath this one, where the monster falls in with a roar. I slowly walk over to see the room is nothing but constant fire, where the monster is screeching as its flesh Burns and melts. "Shit," I say with surprise. I kind of stare after the monster in shock before deciding I should move on.

I go around the hole and to the door, taking the skull and poking the horn into the hole for the door. A sort of whirring sounds before the door slowly opens. I immediately go through, letting go of the horn as I rush to the stairs. I want to get away as fast as possible now.