"That was, like, only one of the craziest things I've ever seen," Dr. Herrington declared. The lead scientist at the Borealis Technology and Applied Innovations Lab—the "Brain Trust"—took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "The question now is what do we do with it? We haven't gotten government approval for this kind of creation, and while we're not currently under any rules about artificial lifeforms, that might change pretty quickly after word gets out."
Dr. Chang raised her hand from behind their computer. "I'm still waiting on confirmation about how our research fits into the update." They deflated suddenly. "Nevermind, no. This doesn't fit anything." She leaned off to the side to look at the curious equine in the glass jar before them. "Can you hear us?
"Sure can." Vinyl Scratch pushed her goggles up on her snout. "Not sure how I got here, but I am. Cool." She looked from scientist to scientist. "What are you?"
"We're scientists, and we just created you. Can you tell me what year it is?" Herrington closed his arms, folding them as he studied their creation.
Vinyl turned around on a swivel platform that had been put in for her to stand on. "I don't see a calendar, so no. What year is it?"
Herrington groaned audibly, closing his eyes to keep from looking at the creation they'd made without government approval or oversight. He knew if anyone found out about this, the team would be blacklisted from doing any kind of scientific work under government purview; He brought his hands together. "Let's focus on the important parts."
"One," called Chang. "She knows what time is, and can clearly communicate in english. Can you speak Mandarin? 我能和你说中文吗?"
"That sounds like something somepony said to me once..." Vinyl thought back for a moment. "Oh! Ohh!" She shuddered with realization. "Wow, that is great." She reached out and tapped the inside of the jar she was held in. "What are you again? Not your job. I'm a pony." She pointed a hoof at herself. "Mare."
"Two, she does not speak that." Chang made notes on her computer busily.
Herrington crossed his arms. "Since you can talk, let's just talk. I am Doctor Herrington, a human. How do you know you're a pony?"
"I just do?" Vinyl squinted at Herrington, her eyes mostly concealed behind her goggles. "Human, neat. So, can I come out?" She tapped on the glass around her with a hoof. "I'm not a monster or anything."
Chang, however, shook her head fervently at Vinyl. "Don't say that kind of thing, please."
Vinyl didn't seem to catch Chang's warning tone and kept tapping at the glass. "I'm just a pony." She gave a big smile. "The worst you have to fear is I'll re-arrange your music collection from least to most bass dropped."
Dr. Herrington opened his mouth to answer when he was cut off by Dr. Chang. "Vinyl appears to have retained memories of our experiments prior to being put in the Petri dish." She moved closer to the jar Vinyl sat in, continuing to make notes on her tablet.
Vinyl inclined her head. "Sure? Explains how we're talking. Not like you two taught me. Or maybe you did?" She shrugged. "I felt like I was talking before now." She resumed tapping the glass. "Lemme out."
"If we do, can you promise not to move around?" Chang asked, pointing her stylus at Vinyl. "I need to take pictures, anyway, for research purposes, so it isn't like it matters where you are for now."
Herrington grabbed Chang's shoulder roughly. "Do you think this is a good idea?!"
"What's the alternative?" She shrugged him away. "She is being perfectly friendly. As biological specimens go, I wish they were all so well-behaved." She took a slow breath. "And she's too large. I don't know how we made something that size, and that smart, but she's too large to be kept in that jar." She turned to the other scientists. "Even if I don't trust her fully yet."
As Chang and Herrington spoke to one another, Vinyl made a face and stuck her tongue out. "Seriously, do you have a boombox or a stereo around here?"
Harrington paused, turning to Vinyl. "How do you know what either of those are?"
"I'll settle for a walkmare?" She pointed a hoof at her large headphones. "I just can't live without some music going on."
He narrowed his eyes as he considered the pony's question, and the ramifications of the request. He looked down at Chang and shook his head. "Alright, fine. If you're going to be in the lab, I suppose we should at least make an effort to make you comfortable."
"Darn right you should." Vinyl wiggled her eyebrows with a smile on her muzzle.
Chang pulled out her phone. "I'll shop for that, later, but first." She put the phone aside and started pressing buttons. "Let's get you out of there. Promise you'll be nice, and you don't have any lethal illnesses we should be worried about?"
"The first one." Vinyl inclined her head with a snicker. "Technically, I have to be just as worried about the second one, but eh, life is already too short. Lemme out."
With a loud hissing crackle, the glass slid up, slowly, on its track. Chang looked around Vinyl carefully, checking for reactions, and stepped back several times when Vinyl simply slipped off her little dais and set both hooves on the ground, standing up tall, the top of her mane barely reaching Chang's stomach, if that.
Vinyl spread her hooves wide, cracking her shoulders, then her hips, and then her neck. "Ahhhh, that's so much better! Y'all need to look into doing whatever makes these joints pop, because that's the best feeling." She hopped up without warning onto one of the desks, allowing her to look at her human hosts far closer to their eyes. "You are all kinda huge, just putting that out there."
Herrington approached, tapping a pen against his clipboard. "Fascinating. You called yourself a pony. Where did that name come from?"
"It's the word for this shape." Vinyl ran her hoof down her equine body, not pausing until she got to her tail and pulled it forward. "Sort of a midway point between horse and donkey." She frowned. "I couldn't tell you where I heard that first, but this is me, pony."
"Amazing." Herrington took notes busily a moment. "And your name was?"
"Vinyl. Vinyl Scratch. The illustrious DJ Pon3!" She did a little dance into an action pose, holding it with a cocky grin. "If you're bored and hook me up with some musical supplies, I could put on a show. Tell me you have a mixer around here somewhere."
"I want to avoid giving you anything dangerous or otherwise that you can use to escape or injure the staff." Herrington waved his hands to make her stop. "Thank you. For the offer, but let's take this slowly to start."
"Aw." Vinyl sank to her haunches. "Slow is boring, but fine. Get to know me. Then, when I have your trust, bang! I'll hit you with music that'll blow your socks off, and you'll be sorry that you didn't trust me to start."
Chang smiled at the antics. "You are a breathtakingly adorable little disaster, aren't you? Look, you being here means a lot may change for us, and the lab we're in." She directed a pen at Vinyl. "A lot of people will have a lot of questions. But first." She reached with the pen and poked Vinyl on her horn. "Most equines don't have horns. None, that come to mind. But you do."
"Not my fault you made me wrong." Vinyl closed her eyes and raised her chin up at Chang's poking. "Mmm, that is pretty nice, though." She leaned against the pen, guiding it to rub along her horn in the right places.
"Interesting." Chang scribbled a new note, denying Vinyl the pen rubs. "Let me ask a subjective question. Vinyl, what do you think of us, and what we are? Not what we are, we told you that, but what do you think of what we are, compared to yourself, or anything else you are familiar with? What are you, compared to us?"
Herrington brought down a fist lightly on the other open palm. "Brilliant question. Please, do tell us."
"Uh, so." Vinyl looked around, thinking a moment as she put her hooves together. "So, you are huge. Bigger than the biggest animal I've ever seen, even if the proportions are kind of weird." She studied both of them. "Skinny. You have hands." She reached out a hoof. "I do not." She lowered the hoof. "But I have a tail." She shook her bottom, tail flicking. "You do not. Unless you're hiding them in your clothes? Another thing you have that I do not." She tapped at her goggles. "We're all sporting wicked eye covering. 10/10 there." She held up a hoof, holding it there a pregnant moment. No high-five was returned, and she lowered it with a huff.
Herrington twirled his pen at Vinyl. "All very good, but just what you can see. What do you think of us, identity wise? You do have an identity, and a name. You appear to have a sense of self, hm?"
"Me." Vinyl pointed at herself. "You." She pointed at Dr. Herrington. "I am a pony, and you're a human. I hope we can be friends. You guys do listen to music, right? Please say yes."
Herrington gently smiled at that. "You know what a friend is, and you'd like one."
"Yes, and yes." Vinyl tapped her hooves with each count. "So, how about it? You didn't put me here just to not be friends, right? Not sure why you'd go through all the trouble." She paused, new thoughts bubbling. "Or did you make me to be, like, your pony combat machine? Wow! Your machine's off-kilter if that was the goal. I only slay beats."
"I assure you, Vinyl, we have no such sinister goals in creating you." Herrington tapped the end of the pen to Vinyl's forehead, just before the horn. "To be perfectly honest, you're a mistake." He folded his arms. "But, the greatest discoveries in science were mistakes. So far, this is showing that this is one of the good ones."
"Hay yeah!" Vinyl reached out, swatting his hand, forcing a high-five, even if only he had five to give in return for her one hoof. "So, music? Gonna tell me? I really can't finish saying what I think of you without knowing what kind of music you like."
Chang raised a hand, pen folded against it. "I prefer smooth jazz while I'm working."
"Mmhmm." One could almost see the wheels turning in Vinyl's head as she looked to Herrington. "And you?"
"I enjoy opera, when I am not listening to the news, or radio shows." He rubbed his chin slowly. "I am curious, do you only have interest in music?"
"Music is the top, but sure, I do other things." Vinyl rubbed her hooves together. "Smooth jazz and opera, I can work with that, sure. Now, me? I prefer some house beats with a thumping beat." She danced to the tune she imagined. "Oontz, Oontz Oontz. Yeah, just like that. Seriously, either of you have a sound system? You haveta or how would you enjoy your soft music? Also, you're both super mega nerds. That's okay though."
Chang covered her mouth to stifle a giggle. "Oh my god, this is fantastic."
"Right?" Vinyl grinned with a big nod. "This is just so exciting!" Her eyes fixed on a computer. "What is that?" She trotted along the desk and hopped down beside the computer and its monitor. "Is that magic? It smells like magic. Tell me how to use it! Can music come out of it?"
Herrington stared dumbfounded at the dancing creature as she got on the table beside Chang's computer and began examining it, sniffing at the screen. "Ah, we're going to need to establish rules here."
"Okay." Vinyl touched her nose to the computer monitor, bouncing back a moment later before her next touch was tentative and far more gentle. "Why is this thing humming?"
Chang returned to her computer, and the pony exploring it. "I will gladly show you what this can do, but first, as Doctor Herrington suggested, a few rules. We want you and us to be happy, and neither to be hurt, right?" She sat in her chair and reached up to gently pet her new pony, to Vinyl's clear approval and almost purrs. "Can we keep her?"