//------------------------------// // 2. Awakening // Story: Legend of the Skunk Mare // by Shakyboi //------------------------------// Chemie stared at the incubator’s tank with a look of utter despair, her jaw hanging open. The mare could not believe what she saw. The project that the group had been working on for the last year and a half, that had just been saved, was now essentially over. Words tried to come to her, but she just couldn't speak. She was completely broken and speechless. The mare suddenly dropped to her knees and hung her head. “This…can’t be happening…” She said in a voice that was barely over a whisper. “Everything has gone wrong with this project. We were so close to finishing it.” Behind Chemie, Violet was being consoled by a few of the team, but that was practically impossible as she was in complete hysteria. She had been tasked with watching over the embryo and something went horribly wrong via a Draconequus that no one had known about. She had been apologizing profusely to everyone when they came back in. She just held onto another stallion, quietly sobbing into his chest as he gently patted her back. It was just a very depressing moment for everyone who had invested so much time into this ordeal only for it to come crashing down. “I believe you, Violet…” Chemie said after a few moments. “You have given me absolutely no reason to not believe you… I just…” The mare said before slowly getting to her feet. “I just don’t know who this Draconequus is, and trying to prove it to the board may be the true issue…” “I’ve told you…” Violet sobbed as she pressed her face into the stallion a bit more. “No one is going to believe me, and this is all my fault…” Chemie spun around, looking at her friend with wide eyes for a moment before waltzing over to the mare, pulling her away from the stallion, turning Violet to face her, and putting her hands on the other’s shoulders. “Listen to me, Violet. This is not your fault at all. You had no way of preventing this nor do you have the power to cause it. It is not. Your. Fault.” Ms. Herz said in a stern, but reassuring tone. “Perhaps there is some way to fix this. I just…need to think, but please for the love of Celestia, woman. Pull yourself together! We all need to keep level heads for now!” She snorted before letting go and stepping away. Violet squeaked a bit in surprise as she was pulled away from the stallion and was spun to face her boss. Through teary eyes, she watched and listened to Chemie’s pep talk. There really wasn’t much for her to say, so she could only nod at the end of it. “I will try…” She said in a hushed tone, going quieter than a church mouse. The brown-furred mare slowly stepped up to the vat and placed a hand on the glass, and the other balled into a fist as it settled on her chest, just above her breasts. She stared at the little filly that was floating in the liquid and just stayed silent. The whole team stayed silent and unmoving as they watched Chemie, who started to pace around, thinking to herself about what to do. After a solid five minutes, she threw up her hands in frustration. “The only thing we can do at this point is to continue the project. Despite this setback, I believe we can fix this. It most likely won’t be easy but I think we can pull through. I am most likely going to have to fight the board over this, but we will continue the project regardless!” Chemie said with a sudden burst of confidence as she turned to the team. “Let’s make this work! We can do this!” “Yes ma’am!” The team responded with just as much fervor as their boss as they started to move back to their stations. For the first time since she awoke from the slumber that Tranquility put her in, Violet gave a soft smile. She looked at the little one in the tube. “Don’t worry. I won’t let you down, little one. I promise.” At that moment, the eyes of the filly inside opened, prompting Violet to gasp and step back. Chemie and the team looked up at what the commotion was. The figure in the tank began to flail as she opened her mouth, trying to breathe. “Drain the tank now!” Chemie ordered as she rushed over to a console to begin inputing a series of button. Violet looked at the tank, knowing that there wouldn’t be enough time to drain the vat before something happened, and while everyone began frantically moving around to get the tank drained, she looked over her shoulder and saw a fire man’s axe in an emergency case. Without thinking Violet ran over to the case and with a swift punch, she shattered the glass containing the tool, grabbing it. The fire alarm started to blare, drawing the attention of the team. “Violet what ar-“ Chemie started to piece things together. “Wait, you can’t shatter that! It is the last one we have!” She reached out to stop the mare. Violet was in mother mode and was just reacting, so when Chemie grabbed her arm, she immediately pulled away with a force that was much stronger than what Chemie could stop. The filly in the tank began to flail around as she started to choke on the fluid inside, and she started to go limp, and Violet reacted. Taking a planted stance, Violet swung the axe at the base of the tank, cracking the glass. Going into a full-on panic herself, she tightened her grip and swung again. “GAAAAHHH!” The mare bellowed as the axe head collided with the glass again and shattered it, causing the fluid inside to begin flooding the floor, and the filly inside started to fall. Still going on her motherly instincts alone, Violet dropped the axe and rolled forward, catching Lelannie in her arms as the hybrid began to cough, sputtering out the liquid that filled her lungs, “Come on, little one! Hang in there!” Violet said, spinning the filly around and applying the Heimlich maneuver to help clear her airways as well. Soon enough, the filly coughed up all the fluid she inhaled, and Violet held her close in her arms, coddling her like a defensive mother protecting her offspring. There was collective sigh of relief from the team, and Chemie approached the two, laying her hand on Violet’s shoulder. “Good job, Vio…” She said with a shaky tone. “S-Sorry I thought about the equipment over the subject I-“ “Lelannie…” Violet said, gently tapping her hand on the back of the filly. “She isn’t a test subject anymore. She’s a filly, and her name is Lelannie Darkmane.” Her body was still in overdrive, and she wasn’t about to let Lela go. “…” Chemie stared down at Violet in a state of shock for a few moments but knew that Violet wasn’t going to let that go. “Alright… I should have thought of Lelannie before the equipment…” She stepped back too look at the team. “Alright everyone. Let’s get everything cleaned up.” “But what about th-“ A stallion started to say but a look from the leader shut him down. A few of the team members grabbed some mops and brooms to mop up the area around Violet who hadn’t moved since she grabbed Lelannie. She just sat there, holding the filly and patting her back. Everyone just let her be after the ordeal she had been in the last 24 hours. A silence fell over the room as the team continued to clean. No one knew what to say, nor did anyone know what to say but eventually Violet got up, still holding the young hybrid. She slowly moved over to a chair away from the mess and settled down onto in, moving Lela so that she was facing the mare. A small smile appeared across Violet’s face as she gazed down at the smaller one’s visage. “Hi there, gorgeous. You are safe now. Nothing is going to hurt you ever again.” The filly looked up at Violet with a neutral expression as she spoke before starting to giggle at the other’s words. Chemie walked over and put her hand on Violet’s shoulder again as she moved behind her and looked at Lela with a smile. “You are adorable as a button. I hope we can turn you into a delicate young lady.” She beamed at that. Lela looked up at Chemie with a confused look before giggling some more and her large tail slowly raised up into an S shape. The two mares looked down at her in awe at that bushy appendage. “That’s definitely not a tail that a normal pony would have… I wonder what this Draconequus did to her…” Chemie said, thinking out loud. “It…looks like a skunk tail…” She said, reaching out to graze it with her hand. It brushed through the soft fur and she retreated in a bit of shock. “Wow…that’s like velvet.” “It doesn’t really matter what she is and what she looks like. She’s perfect as a little girl.” Violet said just overjoyed by the bundle of joy that was sitting on her lap. “Aye. I guess that’s fair. No need to dwell on that.” She said before wincing at the realization of what Lela was really here for. “Ah, well. There is the problem of what we are here for, Vio.” The mare was about to snap back at Chemie, but she remembered that fact too and she looked back at Lela with a bit of a disappointed look. “Ah, yes. There is that. We don’t need to work on that for a long time, will we?” She asked, looking back up at Chemie. “She has time to be a filly, right?” “That depends on what the boss wants. I don’t have the say in what happens after we finished incubating her.” Hertz shut her eyes, shaking her head before stopping to think. “However, we are ahead of schedule to a degree that she may have time to be a filly.” She said before the sound of the fire alarm finally started to register in everyone’s minds again. Quickly running over to the wall, she pressed a button and a panel popped out and she entered a code and it went silent. “Least that’s over…” “That was loud…” A voice rang out and the entire room fell silent as the source wasn’t apparent. “Violet? Was that you?” Chemie said as she turned to look behind her at the mare who was now looking at the filly in utter shock. “Lela did you just…” Violet started to say but couldn’t find the words to finish what she was saying. “What? Should I not talk?” Lela said looking between Violet and Chemie. “Am I dreaming right now? What is going on?” Violet said in utter shock. “N-No…you most definitely are not, Vio.” Chemie said as she slowly approached the two. “How on Equestria do you know how to talk already, Lela? You were just technically born like five minutes ago.” The filly gave a shrug at that. “Guess I just can.” Chemie went quiet for a moment. “What is two plus three?” “Five?” The filly said without thinking. “I really have no words for what is going on.” Chemie said moving over to a chair next to Violet and looking up at the ceiling. “This has just went from zero to one hundred then to one thousand in a heartbeat…” She sighed with a huff. “I wonder what age this makes her…” Violet thought out loud. “She looks like she’s seven at least…” “Oh dear.” Chemie said, realizing that the team was in a very weird position. “Ah, this just complicates things even further. I don’t know what to do now.” “I suppose the best thing to do is to let her find herself and then go from there.” Violet said before looking down at Lelannie again. “How do you feel over all? Are you hurt?” “No?” Lela answered with a small nod. “I think I feel fine. Just a bit of pressure in my butt…” She pouted with a huff, crossing her arms. Both Chemie and Violet’s blood went cold at that. “You don’t think she is actually a…” Chemie whispered to Violet. “Honestly, I don’t think I want to know… We should just act like she is a normal filly…” “A normal filly?” Lela asked. “Am I not a filly?” Violet scrunched up her face for a moment, unsure how to answer that question. “W-Well, your physical features are of that of a normal filly, but your tail and back…” Lela looked behind her at her tail, grabbing it and holding it in her hands as she curled her fingers into it. “I don’t get it…” “We are trying to figure that out ourselves… You look like a hybrid of a pony…and a skunk…” Chemie tried to explain. “We think it’s just markings and nothing else.” “What’s a skunk?” Lela asked, looking at Chemie. “Don’t worry about that for now. We need to get you cleaned up and clothes on you.” Chemie responded and started to say something, but a voice cut her off. “Well my, my, my. What a mess we have hear.” Someone chuckled and everyone turned to look at the entrance. Standing in the doorway was Princess Celestia in all her glory. “Now, please. Someone tell me what’s going on.”