//------------------------------// // 5) Torture // Story: The Experiments // by SapphireRose87 //------------------------------// Cora walked with Jade down the hallway looking at her reflection on the cold silver walls. They reached a door and Cora typed her access code. They entered the chamber where the experiments were hanging from the ceiling. “Are they asleep like I asked?” Cora asked.  Jade rolled his eyes, “Yes, yes they are! I did have a little bit of trouble with Experiment Henry but I just upped the voltage. It stopped his heart and he flatlined but he’s back now. I can assure you of that, honest!" Cora stared at the experiments hanging motionlessly and doubted Jade's reassurance.  “He better not be dead!” Cora said. “Or I’ll kill you next! Got it?” Jade gave her a smug look, "Good luck with that." Cora snarled at him and then shifted her attention to Agent Rarity. “Agent Rarity?” Cora said. “Yes?” Agent Rarity said. "You have the magic to check and see if someone still has their life force.” Cora said. “Can you see if Experiment Henry is alive and will come to?” “Yes ma’am!” Agent Rarity said. She then lit up her horn to check Experiment Henry’s life force. “He’s alive alright!” Agent Rarity said with her horn blinking at Experiment Henry. “Although his life force is very faint, he’ll come around, I think.” “Agent Jade!” Cora said. “You went overboard this time! Agent Rarity can you check Experiment Aria?” Agent Rarity lit up her horn and gave her a pissed off look. “She’s barely alive!” Agent Rarity said. “Just like Experiment Henry! Oh the poor things!” “I can see with my own eyes,” said Cora, “that the other experiments are fine. Agent Rarity please escort Agent Jade to a holding cell before I decide what to do with him!” “But Head...“ Agent Rarity said. “Agent Jade,” said Cora, “you’ve gone way too far this time! If Experiment Henry and Experiment Aria don’t pull through, then your death sentence is sealed! Take him out of my sight!” “Yes ma’am!” Agent Rarity said. * * * The next time I opened my eyes, my heart felt it ready to jump out of my chest. I was laying on a bed and had wires attached to me, and they weren’t a surge projector box but some sort of machine that allowed a person to hear my heartbeat. I could tell because I could hear the machine myself. There was also a mask on my face that had air going in and out of it.  I heard someone press a button and the door slid open. I immediately recognized this person from Lab 14 because it said so on their uniform. I also realized who the person was standing over me, it was Cora. “Oh good,” said Cora, “Experiment Henry you’re awake. You and Experiment Aria pulled through but just barely! We’ll keep you hooked up to the EKG monitor to see how your heart is doing. That’s until we can release you back into the Experiment. Unless there's other things that need to be done. Don’t worry, we won’t reprogram you or that other Experiments either! That’s not going to be until we shut down the Experiment, so you’re just as you were. And shutting down this Experiment won’t happen yet. You won’t be shut down for good because you’re the most valuable Experiment we have! That means you’re not a sacrificial pawn like the others! Do you understand a word I’m saying?" I tried to say something and realized I couldn't talk. Cora gave me an sinister smile. "That's right, you can’t talk at the moment. So just shake your head for no and nod your head for yes.” I nodded yes. “Oh,” said Cora, “and the reason why you can’t talk right and it’s because we took your voice box out. You can’t even make a sound even if you wanted to! So I wouldn’t try to escape, that is if you want your voice box back!” I remembered the last time Cora had done this to me. Cora just loves to find creative ways to inflict torture. One thing she loved to do was somehow she was able to take out her victim's voice and turn it into a box. This box could then be removed or put back in at any time. When the box is removed from an experiment then that person couldn't talk or make any type of sound period. Getting the box put back in isn't pleasant either.  I guess Cora thought this was one big joke because she walked away laughing like a psycho. * * * As soon as Henry’s friends were released into a forest outside of Lab 14 as part of their continued experiments, Milton and Sarah were the main ones that wanted to go back and save Henry. Martin and Jane weren’t quite so sure on doing that.   “We have to go back to save Henry!” Sarah said. “No way!” Martin said. “He’s the one who wanted to walk us into a trap! We need to save ourselves and escape from Lab 14.” “No,” said Sarah, “we all agreed to go save Aria! She’s not a lab rat and neither is Henry!” “He was there when I first woke up!” Milton said. “Your point?” Jane said. “He was the one who wanted to save us from Lab 14!” Milton said. “And given what we just went through I don’t trust Lab 14 at all! Not to mention he helped save me from those two creepy weirdos Willow and Ada!” Jane pointed behind Milton, “Are those the creepy sisters?” Milton turned to see two women standing in front of him. “Look at what we have here Ada,” said Willow, “four of the five Experiments working together! Looks like today's our lucky day!” “Damn it!” Milton said.  "What should we do?" Martin asked.  Milton replied, “I know what Henry would always do when we come across those two…" "What?" Martin said. “...run!” “Oh no you don’t!” Ada said. ”I think it’s time we use our special weapons! Don’t you think Willow?” Willow gave a menacing laugh. “Um… Milton?” Sarah said. “Why aren’t we running?” “There’s something in my leg!” Milton said. “What the heck?” Sarah said. She looked down to see a wire had shot through her leg and wrapped around her thigh.  “You’ve got to be kidding me!” Jane said. “Oh,” said Willow, “but we’re not kidding around are we sis?” “Nope!” Ada said. “What do we do now, Milton?” Martin said. “Me?” Milton said. “Why me?” “You’re the one who wants to save Henry!” Martin said. “I think you’re the second in command here!” “What?” Sarah said. “I’m the one that got more shocked than him!” “Will you shut up!” Jane said. “In case you didn’t notice, we have other problems to worry about right now!” “Aren’t they adorable!” Ada said. “Lab 14 really made them so cute this time!” “Hey that’s it!” Milton said. “Martin, do you still have your pocket knife?” “Yes I do,” said Martin, “oh I see where you’re going with this! But this is going to hurt! What are the chances that a pocket knife would be one of our most important items!” “I hope Henry still has his hat,” said Sarah, “he’ll probably be freaking right about now!” “Hello!” Jane said. “We’re getting closer to them!” “Ouch!” Milton said. “We’d better hurry up and do this, Martin!” “Okay,” said Martin, “1,2,3  ow!” Milton and Martin cut their rope and tossed Jane and Sarah the knives and they shrieked because of the pain after they cut their ropes. “There’s one thing you didn’t know about these ropes,” said Willow, “no matter how many times you cut them, they’ll grow back!” “Looks like we have them this time,” said Ada, “don't we sis?”  Sarah, Milton, Martin, and Jane couldn’t do anything as Willow and Ada pulled them closer and hog tied each of them with their own ropes. Willow then pulled out a small radio, and pressed the button that was on top of it. “This is Codename Tree,” said Willow, “reporting to Codename Black Cat, we have four of the lab rats from Lab 14. They are Experiment Milton, Experiment Martin, Experiment Sarah and Experiment Jane we’ll bring them as soon as we can!” The radio then had three green light blink on it and Willow nodded. “Looks like we have confirmation to take them back to Star Labs headquarters.” Willow said. “Then we’d better get them there and soon,” said Ada, “hopefully they won’t drop any f-bombs on us!” * * * Cora kept me in a part of Lab 14 that I knew very well. I was in the room that I had grown up in. It looked like a normal young adult room would have. My hat and my music box were sitting on the dresser beside my bed. I couldn’t get to them because I was tied to the bed. Because I refused to cooperate with Lab 14 and any of their stupid tests! I couldn’t care less if I ever got my voice box back and I didn’t give Cora the satisfaction of me showing her fear or any type of pain that I was experiencing. That’s because that psycho Cora decided to cut my arm down the side of it and it was on my right arm! If you ask me I think Cora needs to be reprogrammed herself! She called this her 'data gathering.' I remembered this all too well because Cora just loved to inflict as much pain as she possibly could on me and other experiments because to her we were nothing but rats. Since we were rats in her eyes then she was a predator and we were the prey. Once Cora had caught her prey then she could do whatever she wanted with it and right now, I was the prey that she had just caught. I knew that none of the coworkers that were standing there helping her wouldn't stand up to her because they were afraid of her. Because everyone that worked at Lab 14 was afraid of Cora, she ruled over Lab 14 with an iron fist. I guess Cora decided that giving me pain and taking my voice box bad away wasn’t much of an incentive to cooperate with her. For some reason Cora decided to pay me a visit to my room. I can only assume it was to reason with me to cooperate with them. As if I would do that! “Oh come on Experiment Henry,” said Cora, “the sooner you cooperate, the sooner you get your things back and you get released back into the Experiment and reunited with your friends! Isn’t that what you want? You really should answer me this time!” I didn’t dare shake my head no or nod for yes. I just gave Cora the dirtiest look I could and stuck out my tongue. “Fine then!” Cora said. “We’ll get answers from you one way or another! I have my ways and no I won’t flatline you like Agent Jade did. Like I said, you’re too valuable to lose! I think we should step up thee torture a little bit more, won’t that be fun? Thanks to the Experiment guidelines we can’t reprogram you until the Experiment is shut down! Until then, have fun being tied to the bed Experiment Henry!” Before the door closed I could hear Cora tell her co-worker to start up the torture again in two hours. * * * Milton was the first one to wake up. He looked around to see he was in some sort of jail cell. He noticed that he was tied to the ceiling but this time it was by his ankles. What is with people and tying us up? Milton thought. And to the ceiling!  Either way, it’s starting to piss me off! “Is anyone awake?” Sarah called out. “I’m awake!” Milton said. “What about the others?” Sarah said. “I’m awake!” Martin groaned. Jane groaned, “I’m awake also!” “Well,” said Milton, “looks we’re in a real pickle!” “Yeah think?” Sarah said. “Oh crap! My hat, I can’t reach it!” “Forget about the hat Sarah!” Milton said. “We need to find a way out of here so we can save Henry!” “No!” said Sarah. “I’m not complete without it!” “Okay,” said Milton, “geez, we’ll find a way out of here and then you can have your hat! Just stop freaking out okay?” “Stop talking!” They heard a voice roar. Milton, Martin, Jane and Sarah immediately shut up and turned to see who the voice was coming from. In walked a pony that was dark blue and had blue hair and she also had wings and a horn. “You look a lot like Princess Celestia!” Milton said. “I thought I told you to stop talking!” The pony hissed. “Who died and made you God?” Milton snapped. “You sure got a mouth on you!” The pony said. “If you want to know my name, it’s Princess Luna.” “Do all you tall ponies have to be Princesses?” Milton said “We’re classified as Alicorns,” Princess Luna said. “And yes, if you have wings and a horn you’re a Princess! I take it you’re Experiment Milton. Are you the leader of this group?” There are other groups?  “This group?” Milton said.   “Yes, this group,” said Princess Luna,“ there are other Experiments that have been released for other reasons all in the name of science! Your group is classified as group A because you’re the first group of Experiments to be released!”  “Okay,” said Milton, “and where are we?” “That’s for me to know,” said Princess Luna, “and for you to never find out! Oh in case you didn’t notice, you all have colors around your necks. So you couldn’t escape even if you wanted to! Goodbye for now Experiments!” “We’re not some damn Experiments!” Milton yelled. Princess Luna scoffed at Milton and closed the door to the prison that they were in. “You just had to talk for us!” Sarah said. “Hey,” said Milton, “you guys are the ones who made me the leader! Unless you want the job? Cause if you do I would be happy to give it to you!” “No way!” Sarah said. “Well then shut up and follow my lead!” Milton said. * * * Cora was having fun doing her 'data gathering' and laughing like a psycho while doing so.  “You know Experiment Henry,” said Cora, “you don’t have to be a tough guy! Although I wouldn’t expect anything else coming from you. It doesn’t matter, you’ve already given us some good data with one finger cut! So let’s see what we have next!” I was really getting tired of being tied up to stuff whether it be a ceiling or anything else. I was tied to a medal table this time. Cora seemed like she was having the best of times cutting my fingers one by one, she probably thought that cutting my arm didn’t give her enough of whatever results she wanted. “Too bad Experiment Aria wasn’t able to give us some good data,” said Cora, “she did just wake up after all. She was released back into the Experiment, she’ll be finding your friends soon, provided the two sisters Willow and Ada didn’t find them first.”  I rolled my eyes and shook my head.  “Oh now you want to respond!” Cora said. “I’m not asking questions now am I?” Cora then put some of my into a test tube and put it in the machine. While she did this a bright light shone into my eyes, blinding me. Of course my body's response was to close my eyes and there was nothing I could do about it. “Wow Experiment Henry!” Cora said. “You’ve been through two forest and a city! And the second forest was when you met Experiment Aria! And you’ve been around a black lab. I can only assume that’s Princess Celestia’s assistant! Okay that’s enough 'data gathering' for today! We put stitches on your arm already because that didn’t give us enough data. But I’m glad that didn’t work because this is a lot of fun! So we’ll give you stitches for your fingers for now. We might have to reopen them later! I wonder how much pain you’ll go through to you to cooperate with us! Oh well...” Once again, the light was shined into my eyes. I then felt the prick of a needle and once again I fell asleep. * * * As Milton was trying to figure out a plan to get him and the others out the place that they were in. Sarah snapped him out of his thoughts with a very rude comment. “So what's the plan,” said Sarah, “your highness!” “Will you shut up and let me think?” Milton said. “And don’t call him your highness Sarah!” Jane growled. “I wonder if one of my two most important things would help?” “For what?” Milton said. “For getting out of the colors,” said Jane, “the ropes not so much.” “Great,” said Milton, “Thank you for that useless information!” “Hey,” said Jane, “I was just trying to help!” “Will everyone just shut up!” Martin said. “Let Milton think, I’m sure he can figure something out!” Okay Milton think  Milton thought wait a minute, I recall getting out of something like this back at Lab 14! How I remember this, I don’t know! Milton then pulled on the restraints on his hand as hard as he could. The restraints were starting to budge but not much. “Hey Sarah!” Milton said. “Yes, what?” Sarah said. “Do you remember playing that finger restraint game?” Milton said. “Yes,” said Sarah, “but I don’t think that’s what it’s called but, yeah I’ve played with them why?” “Do you remember how we got out of them?” Milton said. “Hum,” said Sarah, “you push them forward and pull them back! Wait a second, I think I know where you’re going with this!” “I think we’re going to have to play that game with these restraints!” Milton said. “Because that’s exactly what they feel like!” “Let’s see here,” said Sarah, “push forward and pull back! Hey, I’m out!“ Milton then did the same thing that Sarah had done, Jane and Martin followed. “How do we get out of the ankle restraints?” Sarah said. “I don’t know,” said Milton, “I think it’s going to be just like when we cut that rope. Let’s hope they’re not tied to our thighs!” “Oh boy,” said Sarah, “I really don’t like that type of pain!” “Well,” said Milton, “you do want to save Henry don’t you?” “Okay!” Sarah said. * * * Princess Luna was sitting in her computer room watching one of her monitors as the experiments from group A freed themselves. “I’m impressed with these four!” Princess Luna said. “They broke out of my hand restraints in no time at all! I guess teaching them that Chinese finger trap game came in handy after all!” “Should we go in there and stop them?” Willow said.  “Oh no,” Princess Luna said, “this test was designed just for them! Who’d thought that Experiment Henry would walk into a trap just to save Experiment Aria! Although I would expect nothing less from him! Princess Celestia did tell me that he is a very special young boy. I hope I get to meet him one day.” “Oh we didn’t get to know him,” said Willow, “we didn’t even get to capture him!” “Let’s just say Lab 14 makes their Experiments so adorable!” Ada said. “Especially Experiment Henry! He’s a total hunk! I hope I can get my hands on him again!”  Princess Luna did a face hoof and groaned, “Ada get your head out of the gutter! When it comes down to Experiment Henry, you’ve been obsessed with him ever since he was fifteen! Good lord woman!” “That’s because we were released on the first Experiment! That was when we were about the same age!” Ada said. “It’s too bad that Lab 14 captured him and reprogramed him! So he probably doesn’t remember me now! I completely regret leaving him behind. That was my fault! My goal right now is to get him and somehow  make him fall in love with me! Hopefully that will happen when he remembers me!” “Uh-Huh, “ said Princess Luna with a raised eyebrow, “that's a nice fantasy to have and all but let’s work on getting the other children away from my sister and Celestia. We’re going to be the ones returning them home!” “So where exactly are we going to be returning them to?” Willow said.  “This set of Experiments are going back to Equestria,” said Princess Luna, “and the next set are going back to earth, everyone will be returned right back to where they belong!”