The group of four had approached the building further, and the three new to it were currently inspecting the white dome. The dome itself, it appeared, was made out of separate panels, positioned in such a way where an illusion of circular shape was given off. The dome rose a good length into the air, possibly as high as Canterlot Castle, and those who had been there before, such as twilight, where aware it stretched endlessly farther underground. Rainbow hovered not too far above the air, inspecting the building from a higher view. Ascending a bit, she came close to the logo painted in pure black paint on the dome. Dark letters read Equestrian Science Innovation Laboratories, and the said title was extending out from a horseshoe painted horizontally at the beginning of it. If Rainbow had circumnavigated the dome, it would have become apparent to her that the same logo was painted on each side.
To Applejack, the building had been even more impressive. She had grown up in Ponyville, and, save the Manehatten incident, had stayed there for most of her life. The Canterlot Castle was probably the largest thing she ever saw, but this dome was far more impressive. She stood and gawked at the building, completely overwhelmed by it. Twilight used some magic to close the surprised cowpony's jaw, as it had hit the floor unrealistically.
Midsummer stood in the same awe. She had seen a lot of places and impressive buildings, but this facility took the cake. She didn't drop her jaw, as she had learned to remain unfazed in the face of such things. She shifted her weight from side to side. She bit her bottom lip. Truth be told, it's sheer size terrified her.
Twilight shot glances at the other three, grinning smugly. "Impressed, much?" she asked. The two grounded mares nodded in unison, and Rainbow soon landed to join in the nod.
"So...Awesome..." Rainbow muttered to herself, bright eyes wide.
AJ nodded. "Ya can say that again." She grinned. "Ah ain't never seen a buildin' so big!"
Twilight's right eye twitched at her friend's bad grammar, but she had come to live with her accent and way of speaking. "So," she said with a grin, "who wants to knock?"
The other three stared blankly at Twilight.
Before the other two could step forward to try, Midsummer stepped up and knocked with one hoof. That was out of character, Twilight thought. The resulting boom resounded through the huge dome, echoing on for a immense time. After about thirty whole seconds, the sound stopped. A dome itself shook to life slowly, and a few panels in the front began to move and provide an opening. Behind sat a cylindrical elevator. The three newcomers gulped, and were led into the shaft by Twilight. The panels moved back into place behind the group, and the elevator began down.
The elevator raced down a mechanical shaft, the sound of machines working all the while. While the inside of the cylindrical tube was filled with machine parts, buttons and dials, the outside of it was made of glass, allowing it's passengers to watch the facility race by in front of them. The three who hadn't been there before took in every detail of the passing rooms, from the familiar white panels to many buttons and switches and what appeared to be bridges made of pure light. As they got close to the lowest level, the testing tracks began to melt slowly into offices and meeting rooms. Why these were kept at the bottom, the world may never know. The elevator's descent became slower and slower, and soon all the testing tracks had disappeared. The sound of machines vanished, and were replaced by the sound of talking workers and what appeared to be soon-to-be-testers.
"I should tell you," Twilight started, "that today is the start of a big project. They're finally showing the public the two AIs that have been running the facility in celebration of their anniversary, so they raised the pay of paid testers and sent out invites to athletes, famous scientists, royal guards, and other ponies of the such to test. Past testers and new ones were also encouraged." She looked to her friends. "That's why I chose today! There's going to be a big conference before the tests start, and the CEO will be making an appearance to introduce some new products."
Her friends nodded as she spoke, smiling a bit. "New products?" Rainbow asked curiously. "What kind?" Excitement was in her voice, and a hopeful glint lit up her eyes. She felt her headache being soothed by the smooth sound of the moving elevator, and the soft chatter of ponies outside.
Twilight shook her head. "Not sure. But they wanted some more testers for it, so it's probably some new tool." She looked out the front of the elevator as it came to a halt, stopping on what appeared to be the bottom floor. The white panels made a comeback, speckling the room here and there. A few rails ran across the ceiling for robot arms and AI cores. The bottom floor appeared to be a lab as well, taking on the appearance of a large office combined with a testing track. A circular door could be seen at the back of the room, with the company's logo printed on it, but shortened to say, "Equestrian Science." The elvator opened up, and the four walked into the room.
"Mighty fancy," Applejack muttered, looking around. The four let their eyes wander, taking in the entirety of the room. Midsummer was fascinated by the machine parts that ran across the walls and ceiling, and that the panels scattered across the room seemed to rustle slowly like they were alive. She swore she saw robotic eyes glaring at her from behind them. But one eye...no, it was a pair of eyes, unlike the others, and appeared distinctly pony-like. The eyes blinked at her slowly, right eye starting before the left, and Midsummer blinked back. When she opened her eyes, the panel had closed and the other pair had vanished.
"Odd," she said. She looked around again and followed AJ's gaze.
The panels seemed to be a point of interest to her, but Applejack was surprised at everything. She'd grown up on a farm where this kind of machinery was unheard of! She looked at robotic parts laid out on tables behind glass screens, and scientists and workers behind the screens working. Two, in particular, caught her attention. Two tall cream colored unicorns, each with red hair. She only caught a glimpse of their backsides as the walked out a door of the lab and disappeared into another room, robot parts carried above them in a green magic grasp.
Rainbow looked around eagerly, jumping with joy rather than gazing silently at everything like the other two. Everything look so awesome! She looked at tables set up with chemicals and robot parts on them, and she caught view a robot hitting itself in the head with a frying pan. Two scientists were trying to calm it down. She chuckled at it. Her gaze moved slightly to a room behind glass, wherein a gold unicorn was talking to an orange pegasus. She couldn't see either very well, as the unicorn had his back to her, blocking out the view of the pegasus. They seemed to nod to each other before the pegasus turned and walked out a door behind her, grabbing an orange and white jumpsuit on the way. New tester, maybe?
The gold unicorn turned towards the group and smiled brightly. Using a bit of magic, he opened up the door in the wall and walked out to greet the group. "Hello!" he said in a cheery, yet deep and solemn voice. "You must be new testers!" He bowed to them, oddly enough. "I can't thank you enough for simply being here! Welcome to Equestrian Science!"
As if on cue, some of the panels moved back, trombones and strobe lights emerging out from them. A brief fanfare played, accompanied by a light show in a spectrum of colors wider than Rainbow's mane. The golden unicorn stood in a majestic, extravagant position during said fanfare, with his chest out and legs spread out, front right hoof in the air. The fanfare ended shortly, with the trombones and lights retreated back into the wall. When it was done, the unicorn returned to standing in a normal position.
Twilight now got a better look at him. The pony wore large glasses with a thick black frame and thin lenses, and had a mop of an unkempt black mane, with neon green highlighting it. His tail was long and swept back, black with the same green highlights. He had blue and red megaphone for his cutie mark, angled upwards with a depiction of sound-waves protruding from them. He had deep blue eyes, and was now using magic to lift a comb to his mane and brush it gently.
"I'm taking you're the CEO?" Twilight said, cocking her head and raising and eyebrow. The stallion was certainly extroverted, and seemed more like a spokesperson than a CEO. But she had seen him talking to that test subject a second ago, leading her to believe otherwise.
"Why indeed I am!" He said cheerfully, the same solemn tint in his voice. "My name's Loudspeaker, Equestrian Science CEO, Co-founder, chief scientist, and widely-known author!" He stood in the same extravagant position as before, flipping his mane this time and raising his eyebrows
"Loudspeaker?" Twilight asked, bewildered. "Loudspeaker as in the guy who wrote The Art of the Sandwich? " She was absolutely amazed. A sandwich maker ran this company? How?
"Yes! That's the one! Didn't think anyone even read that...so outdated. You should read The Sandwich: And Anthology of Artistic Methods. Much better." He chuckled. "But that one was good, too."
Twilight stared at him, jaw dropped. The other three followed suit. He ran this company, and still had enough time to write huge books on sandwiches?
"Now!" Loudspeaker bellowed. "Let me show you around. Follow me!" He turned and walked over to the circular door at the back of the room, then turned back and looked at the group. "Well? Come on!"
"I...I'm Twilight Sparkle, by the way," the lavender unicorn added. "and these are my friends, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Midsummer." she nodded towards each mare as she said their names.
"Nice ta meet'cha," Applejack said.
"A pleasure," Midsummer muttered.
"Same here," Rainbow said.
"NOW!" Loudspeaker hollered, true to his name. "Let our tour begin!"
The door opened, and a grey pegasus mare with lazy eyes walked over to the door, wearing a lab coat, to greet the newcomers. "Hi!" she said, cheerfully. "You must be new subjects!"
Rainbow stared, wild eyed, at the mare. "Derpy?!" She yelled, incredibly surprised. She fell backwards onto the ground.