//------------------------------// // 9) Unknown Motives // Story: The Experiments // by SapphireRose87 //------------------------------// “Where do you think he went?” Sarah said after Henry disappeared. “I think I have an idea,” said Derek, “but like Moria said, I would stop asking him that question if I were you.” Moria nodded satisfied with what she had done with her lecture. “Okay then,” said Moria, “now that's out of the way, I’m going to go back to chasing chickens. And Derek, since you leave food out for me, I won’t kill any of them! I assume that’s why you leave the food out for me now?” Derek laughed, “Of course you silly dog!” “Hey!” Moria barked. “I’m out of here! Just don’t pop up by the chicken coop without warning next time!” “I can’t say we’ll make any promises,” said Sarah, “but I might just do that as a prank!” Moria narrowed her eyes and growled. “You wouldn’t dare!” Moria said. “If we have magic,” said Sarah, “then we should practice using it. It definitely will help when we’re running from Lab 14! Don’t worry we won’t go outside of the barrier.” “Good then,” said Derek, “as long you don’t go beyond the barrier you’ll be safe for now.” * * * Princess Celestia looked at the screen to see the location of every tracking device. She saw the tracking device for group A through F, aware of the upcoming release of another set of experiments. But probably not until Experiment #6 finished and shut down. Hopefully the experiments that were out now for Experiment #6 would be safe. Unless that the two sisters Willow and Ada get them first. Princess Celestia hoped she could keep them away from Lab 14 and her sister's lab, Star Labs. Princess Celestia felt happy that group A through 'F' were okay. She could do without Discord popping up constantly and today was no different. She felt Discord’s presence and groaned. “What do you want Discord?” Princess Celestia snapped. “You know,” said Discord, “I always get that disrespect every time I come around. Nobody else gets that treatment, so why should I be any different?” “Because you call yourself the Lord of Chaos!” Princess Celestia pointed out. “Yeah so what?" said Discord, “you pop up more than I do! And nobody says ‘what do you want Princess Celestia’ not to mention I have more power than you do! Just because you’re high in the status quo doesn’t give you the right to treat me any way you please!” “Okay, okay,” said Princess Celestia, “fine then! Anyway, I'm done talking about that. I'm looking at all the experiments that they sent out on Experiment #6. Look at the traveling pattern of these groups. If anyone of them meets up that will be bad news! Just look, Group F is traveling to the same destination as Group A. Group E is traveling to the same destination as Group B. Group D is traveling to the same destination for Group C.” “Is there a problem with that?” Discord said. “Oh yeah,” said Princess Celestia, “if any one of these Groups meet up, that would produce bad results. And that doesn’t sit well with me and I’m sure it doesn’t sit well with Lab 14 or Star Labs either! The fact that these groups are traveling to the same destination as each other could only mean one thing…” “What would that be?” Discord said. “My sister's up to something!” Princess Celestia growled. “But I thought,” said Discord, “that it would throw off the results and that wouldn’t sit well with Star Labs either!” “Now that you think about it,” said Princess Celestia, “even though the groups meeting up would throw the results off, that would be just like Luna to do something like this! It might look like that wouldn’t sit well with Star Labs. But, knowing Luna she always has her own agenda with stuff like this!” Discord looked at the screen. He had an evil smile on his face that gave Princess Celestia the creeps. “What’s that look for?” Princess Celestia said. “That’s for me to know,” said Discord, “and for you to never find out! So if it makes you feel any better I’ll stop bugging you for the moment! This is goodbye for now!” Discord snapped his claw and disappeared. * * * Eleanor looked at her files while she listened to Cora talking to the tracker cats. “Ezra,” said Cora, “have you come close to finding Experiment Henry?” “Not even a whiff!” Ezra said. “We’re trying hard to find him but we only caught a whiff of him in Nightdale. And not to mention that we’ve been through a couple of cities but no luck!” Cora let out a long sigh and bit the inside of her cheek. “Fine!” Cora said. “Just give me an update on what you find!” “Yes ma’am!” Ezra said. “Okay,” said Cora, “I’m signing off now!” Cora strangled the nearby railing as she heard this information. Eleanor, unphased by Cora's typical anger, cleared her throat to get her attention. “Yes, Eleanor?” Cora said. “I was thinking,” said Eleanor, “maybe we should try a different approach?” “What approach are you thinking about?” Cora said. “I was thinking Experiment Henry’s a lot older now,” said Eleanor, “he’s bound to become sexually active sooner or later.” Cora smiled at this and looked like she had a light bulb go off in her head. “I see,” said Cora, “maybe we should send a sexy experiment after him? That might do the trick!” Eleanor stopped herself from rolling her eyes. “So who are you thinking of sending?” Eleanor said. “I was thinking Experiment Rose would be perfect for this!” Cora said. "What if he doesn’t prefer women?" Eleanor said. "In that case, Experiment Sebastian would make good backup! Especially with his powers that he has! He can change into an adorable woodland creature and then pop up as a sexy young man!” Cora said. Eleanor practically gagged on what Cora had just said. “There’s one more problem that needs to be figured out.” Eleanor said. “Yes, yes I know,” said Cora, “we have to figure out where the experiments from group A are. We dropped group F off around the same area that group A was dropped off in. It is unfortunate that Excitement Sebastian wasn’t able to bring Experiment Derek to us. And I hate the fact that his mother stepped in to make a deal so we wouldn’t take him! And due to the guidelines of the experiments, he’s too old for us to take him!” “How old is he?” Eleanor said. “He’s Nineteen!” Cora said. “Even though our magic would still work on him the guidelines say he has to be twelve years or younger to be taken! And we almost had him at the age of nine! But no, his mom just had to step in!” Cora sounded like a schoolyard bully that lost her favorite toy. Eleanor tried not to laugh. It disturbed her to think that in some demented way Cora seemed to view Experiment Henry as if he were her son. Eleanor assumed Cora's fondness of Experiment Henry came from their incomparable differences in strength. It was funny because Cora came to Lab 14 at the age of 25. Had she come sooner she might’ve been one of the experiments herself. Eleanor often wondered how Cora embraced the previous head of Lab 14's evil ways so fast. There were rumors going around about Cora's past. People say she used to kill animals for entertainment. The rumor actually made sense to her because Cora didn't have a kind bone in her body. Eleanor had half a mind to interrogate Cora about her story but she was too scared. The previous Head of Lab 14 was worse than Cora. Eleanor heard plenty of stories of what the previous Head did. Eleanor's coworkers told her the previous Head came up with the technique of taking a person's voice and turning it into a box. That's who Cora learned it from. The previous Head made himself famous for his sick and evil tests. One of them was to push an iron rod through an experiment's chest and yank the rod from the side. The rod would burst from their side and leave a gaping wound behind. Afterward, he did the same thing to another experiment. He would actually pit the experiments against each other and see who came out alive. No one knew the backstory of the previous Head of Lab 14 and why he was so evil. When Cora became the head of Lab 14 she kept most of the previous head's standards. All except pitting the experiments against each other. She didn't seem to think that it was the best way to get the results that she wanted. It looked like she was correct on that one. Because of doing that she was one step closer to finding the cure for death that she had told everyone at Lab 14 about. To Eleanor, it was a way for Cora to get a thrill out of harming people. It was chilling to think of what the Head of Lab 14 would do to get results on their experiments. She crossed her fingers and prayed for the day that the next Head of Lab 14 would be kind. But that was wishful thinking. Eleanor stared off into space as if Cora were background noise for her thinking about nothing at the moment. A tap on her shoulder by one of her coworkers snapped her out of it. They handed her a file. Eleanor looked at the file, snarled, and shook. “Head Cora!” Eleanor snapped. “Two of your experiments have died!” That was enough to snap Cora out of her ranting. That’s because Eleanor threw the file at her. Cora looked at the file and rolled her eyes. “Oh well,” shrugged Cora, “that means they belong in the trash with other unfit ones!” “Are you serious?” Eleanor said. She wanted to take a rope, make it into a noose, and hang Cora with it. “These are the standards that Lab 14 has set!” Cora said. “If you don’t like it you can hang yourself or go in front of the firing squad." "Why would you say something so extreme?" Eleanor said. "It’s because of the knowledge you have of Lab 14! Unless you want to die, shut up and do your job!” Cora said. Eleanor bit her tongue and didn’t say a word. She turned around and went to her office. She hated the testing they put the children under because it often killed them. * * * For the last two weeks, I've worked at the Inn as Earnest's assistant while the others worked in the barn. I spent most of my free time with Derek. My life had begun to resemble what one could call normal for once compared to the chaos of Lab 14. I retired to my bedroom after a long day. I was about to close the door when I heard Discord and Earnest talking through the crack. “How’s Henry doing?” Discord said. Earnest sighed, “About as well as he could be doing. He’s only been sleeping a half-hour here and a half-hour there. He’s probably waiting for the day when he has to run from Lab 14. That’s the only thing he can do right now. Getting him to show us what happened at Lab 14 was like pulling teeth!” “Makes sense,” said Discord, “I broke him out of Lab 14 and he doesn’t trust me either. He doesn’t know who’s friend or enemy. Is Derek finally getting Henry to open up to him?” “I’m not sure,” said Earnest, “I don’t agree with the fact that The Higher had to flatline him to deliver the message. He did the same thing to me!” Discord looked concerned about Earnest's anger. “Calm down before you flatline yourself!” said Discord, “If The Higher has delivered the message then there’s nothing we can do about it.” Derek tapped Earnest on the shoulder. Earnest turned around startled. “Um… dad?” Derek said. “You might want to take your argument somewhere else or you might wake up Henry and the rest of the children. Although I doubt Henry’s asleep right now.” “Sorry Derek,” said Earnest, “we’ll take this somewhere else!” “But-“ Discord said. “Discord you’re really a pest you know that?” Earnest said. “Me?” Discord said. “A pest? Unbelievable!” “Hey,” said Earnest, “I’m just saying what everyone else is thinking! Come on!” As soon as Discord and Earnest left, Derek came into the room to see me wide awake. Derek sighed, “It’s the middle of the night. I knew I'd find you awake." I shook my head, rolled over, and looked away. Derek sat down on the bed and tapped me on the shoulder. I rolled back over to see what he wanted. He always did this every time he caught me awake when I broke curfew. As Earnest said, I was waiting for the day that Lab 14 would find me, forcing me to flee the Inn. Knowing Derek he would probably come with me because he was my protector. "If I didn't know any better I'd say dad's right, you're afraid of the day you have to run from Lab 14 again. Is that why you won't sleep?" Derek said. I rolled my eyes, nodded, and gave him a look to say 'duh'. Derek laughed, "I knew it! Henry, I think I know what will help. If it doesn't, I won't do it anymore." Derek pulled me into his arms and I lowered myself onto his lap. It came as no surprise because every day this week Derek had been making excuses to be around me. Earnest would let him do things like help me sort things out as it was all sorted by color. Colorblind remember? Anyway, every time I turned around, I caught Derek gawking at me. Which gave me full permission to gawk at him. I took full advantage of it. I looked forward to things like this. Derek would even kiss me whenever Earnest wasn't around. Feeling Derek holding me in his lap, I didn't want to move an inch. It calmed me down. I fell asleep. * * * The next day Discord wouldn't stop popping up. I felt the same way Earnest did about him. Nothing but a pest. Derek would save me from the pest of Discord by making out with me whenever he popped up. I mean Discord did break me out of Lab 14, but as he said earlier I don't trust him because he worked for Lab 14. To me, anyone that worked for Lab 14 was no friend of mine. “Oh for goodness sake!” Discord said. “Would you two come up for air long enough to talk to someone? I guess I caught you two at a bad time! And for the third time today. Honestly you two! I guess that’s to be expected since you two can’t seem to keep your hands off each other. At least when I’m around. If I didn’t know any better I’d say you two are doing this to try to get rid of me! I’m not that bad! Fine! I’ll try again later!” When Discord snapped and disappeared, Derek continued to kiss me. We heard someone clear their throat. I looked to see Sarah grinning at us. Derek let go of me. "What do you want?"  “Wow Derek,” said Sarah, “Moria said Henry trusted you but I didn’t think he trusted you this much!” “Does it matter Sarah?” Derek said. “You’re just as bad as Discord!” I pulled Derek back into my arms and glared at Sarah. I did that to keep myself from stomping on her foot like I did to Milton every time he made me angry. “Why are you glaring at me?” Sarah said.  “I think he wants you to go away,” Derek said. “I knew you said it was mating season,” said Sarah, “but I didn’t know it was mating season for you two!” “Excuse me?” Derek snarled at her. Derek let go of me and tackled Sarah. He balled his fist to punch her but he stopped himself. He got to his feet leaving Sarah lying flat on her back. Sarah got to her feet and growled, "Fine then! I'm gone!" She then pointed one finger in the air and disappeared. * * * Princess Luna stared at her computer screen and smiled. She had a habit of screwing up things in the experiments for shits and giggles. But she was looking for the same thing that Celestial labs and Lab 14 were looking for: the cure for death. She relished the thought of her sister pacing back and forth, staring at her computer screen in fear. She laughed at the thought when Discord popped up. Princess Luna looked up from her computer screen, “So how’s Experiment Henry doing?” Discord stroked the hairs of his beard, “Excuse me, I think he goes by Henry! But he’s doing just fine. It seems like he might also have a boyfriend now!” "Who?" Princess Luna said. "It's the son of the guy who works at the place where Henry and the others are," Discord said. “When did that happen?” Princess Luna said. “I don’t know,” said Discord, “but it reminds me of Fluttershy and I when we were dating! They’re a great couple if you ask me!” When Princess Luna heard, she fell over on her back laughing. “What’s so funny about that?” Discord said. “Oh it’s nothing,” she said, “at least Henry’s found real romance for once in his life! Instead of it being forced! Yes, I want to find the cure for death too but I think there's a better way to go about it. I just haven't figured it out yet. Trust me, once I do I'll give Cora and my sister a suggestion although I doubt they will take it. Even so, that'll probably make me look equally as bad for doing the testing in the first place. But it can't be helped, it has to be done. ” Discord sighed. He looked as angry with her as he was with Princess Celestia and Cora. “The fact that I had a hand in the forced relationships disgust me!” Discord said. “Lab 14 is nothing but pure evil! I’m glad I broke the contract with them! I’m sorry I didn’t do it sooner!” “At least you broke Henry out of there first!” Princess Luna said. “I do have a question but I’m sure if I’m going to like the answer.” Discord said. “What is it?” Princess Luna said. “Why do you feel the need to put the children through that maze?” Discord said. “Oh,” said Princess Luna, “the maze is to see if the different groups of children will work with each other without their leaders.” “How do you know which ones are the leaders?” Discord said. Princess Luna pointed a hoof at the computer where she was watching the tracking devices on. "Look at the screen here. Do you see the biggest red dots in the groups? That is how I can tell who the leader is!” Princess Luna said. “That’s interesting,” said Discord, “what about the collars? Is that really necessary?” “Yes,” said Princess Luna, “that’s the gentle way to do the 'data gathering.' Lab 14 and Celestial Labs treat the children like punching bags. They’re not punching bags! They're children and I won’t stand for it!” “I see,” Discord said. “You have Group D in there now. You should probably go greet them.” Princess Luna snickered, “This should be fun!”