//------------------------------//
// Collision Course 
// Story: Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot 
// by Equimorto 
//------------------------------//

"Aren't you excited, Star? Another round of work, another chance to feel the thrill of constantly being in a life or death situation. Doesn't all this adrenaline make you feel alive?"
The stallion slumped down into his chair. "I'm pretty sure that's the coffee you're feeling, not the adrenaline. And in five minutes it'll be gone and you'll be just as happy as I am."
The mare rolled her eyes. "Why do you always have to be such a downer?"
"We're expected to take an experiment that in all likelihood succeeded only out of sheer luck, one which we couldn't properly measure, devise an updated version that produces better results and then replicate it dozens if not hundreds of times. And if we fail, we'll most likely be the next test subjects. Remind me again why we should be happy?" He looked up at her from his position.
"We haven't failed at that yet, for one," she replied.
"I thought failing at what we were trying to do so far and killing someone as a result was bad enough. Then I realised succeeding means we still in all likelihood mentally killed the pony on that table, but instead of a pile of rotten goop we've put a monster into the world. Oh, right, did I mention we've killed ponies?"
"Shut up."
"What? Suddenly unhappy with-" 
"Shut." The mare placed a hoof in front of his mouth, and spoke again, her tone down to almost a whisper. "I think I hear something."
The stallion perked up his ears. "Is it coming from the lab?" he asked, also whispering, a sudden frown on his face.
"Seems so. Are these hoofsteps?" asked the mare, carefully beginning to walk towards the door to the next room.
"No one's supposed to be there." The stallion got up and quietly followed her.
The mare put an ear to the door. "I think I definitely hear something. And not just machinery creaking. Are these..." She lit her horn and levitated the door's key from the table. "It almost sounds like voices in there."
Then the alarm went off, alongside an unmistakable sound of something exploding and glass shattering. Both unicorns jumped back in surprise, and the mare fumbled with the key before finally managing to push it into the lock and turn it.
The door opened, and they both rushed inside, just in time to see a tall, black and green figure running out of the nearby room, shoving aside a purple alicorn who turned to follow her a moment later. The machinery hanging from the ceiling, now reduced to hundreds of fragments on the table and floor, had been the evident cause of the alarm.
"What the fuck was that?" asked the mare, while the stallion teleported both of them on the other side of the glass wall. Carefully stepping around any particularly jagged chunk of broken magical equipment, the two made their way into the corridor the intruders had left through. They both dashed to the door at the end of it, in the direction they'd heard the others run towards, but once inside they found the bedroom empty.
They both paused, panting for breath. "Well. Sure am feeling that adrenaline now, Sun," said the stallion, as the alarm still looped on its sound in the laboratory they'd come from.