“So, Vinyl, weird question but are those sunglasses, or is that actually your face?” Kyle asked the unicorn as they lounged around the lab. “I mean no judgment, but I can’t really tell. Maybe you're a cyborg-unicorn. It wouldn’t be that much weirder.”
Vinyl perked an ear at Kyle. "Neither." She put her hooves to the side of her head, pushing the goggles forward. "Goggles. When you're in the dark and the music's thumping and the lights are blaring, these can really save your tail." She let them slap back into place. "Though I still wear them because I think they look hella spiffy."
Kyle leaned back in his chair, eyeing the pony in the room. "Huh, I can respect that."
Vinyl suddenly hopped up into Kyle's lap. "It's time to experience the wubs. You ready?" She wasn't waiting, already reaching with her magic to move her headphones off her own head onto Kyles'.
“Heh, sure show me what you got.” Kyle grinned, consuming three gummy bears.
“You gonna share those?” Vinyl asked accusingly.
“Not if I wanna keep my job.” The human laughed back. “So lay these so-called ‘wubs’ on me!”
Vinyl popped the headphones over Kyle's head, her eyes on his the whole time as she looked for reaction, approval, any sign this was working as intended. As the music blasted forth, she felt Kyle tense, his hands closing tight, squeezing her legs uncomfortably.
She straddled one of his legs, flexing in time to the beat she could only distantly hear. "Feel it, all through you. That's a real thump, yeah? Feel the energy?"
“I bet it’s amazing through some big venue speakers.” Kyle grinned, bobbing his head to the beat of the wubs. “I've been to some industrial shows like that. The whole point is to feel the music through the big speakers, ya know?”
"Yeah, totally, it's like the waves of the music just hit you, slam you." Vinyl flailed her hooves in the air, smacking into Kyle's head once or twice, which she didn't notice, or if she did, she didn't care. "I told them to get some real speakers in here and they were all, 'We don't need that for our current project', lame."
As if conjured by her words, Herrington came striding in with determination. "Vinyl, I'd like to do some examinations on you. If I can borrow you?"
“She’s not wrong, ya know?” Kyle chuckled at his boss. “If I bought some good speakers, would you let us hook ‘em up? You don’t pay me that cheap. I got speaker money.”
Herrington's attention flicked from Vinyl to Kyle with a sigh. "I'd need to review it with Legal. Even so, this isn't exactly the most conducive location for a booming stereo, no matter how good." He pointed to Vinyl. "Technically, any music we played for you would be music we're 'using' for our experiment. There is red tape. Now, examination?"
Vinyl approached with a wry smile. "Yeah, yeah, I'm coming." With one ear up and the other to the side, she hopped onto a chair near Herrington. "Check me out."
“Okay, I’m going to the break room.” Kyle rolled his eyes. “I may get paid enough for speakers, but I don’t get paid enough to sit in while a girl gets a physical.”
“Afraid you might see something you like?” Vinyl waggled her eyebrows under her goggles.
“More like afraid I’ll see something I can’t unsee without more alcohol than they’ll let me have on the job.” Kyle shook his head as he left the room. “I’ve been the night janitor here for a while now. It’s only your first rodeo, filly.”
Herrington waited for Kyle to depart before he drew a blood pressure cuff and slid it around Vinyl's arm. "This will feel like it's squeezing you, but it won't hurt you promise." He got right to taking her vitals and making notes on it. "To be clear, you are a sapient creature, experimental or not. We will do nothing without your informed consent. Right now, I'm getting your vitals; blood pressure, pulse, weight, height, and so on. Do you understand?"
Vinyl stayed still, sitting and looking around in various directions as the human did various measurements and checks on her body. "Well, as long as you're not doing anything without me knowing, that's fine." She shrugged with a little smile. "You seem to be on the up and up so far."
"Who is Kyle?” Vinyl suddenly asked.
“His resume lists everything from simple nightclerk, to amature video game design. He can be trusted.” The Doctor replied as he checked her vitals. “And he’s going to be very cross, he would say vexed, with you if I show him the video of you taking three of his gummy bears. He takes the sanctity of his food very seriously, Miss Scratch.”
Vinyl colored swiftly. "You're not mad?! I thought you, um, might be, with me sneaking food." She hesitated, realizing something about Herrington's comment that bugged her. "Wait. You have a video of me? Did you ask first if that was okay? What happened to informed consent?"
Herrington pointed up to a camera in the corner, than to another near the center of the wall, and another on the opposite side of the room. "This entire lab is monitored. None of us can escape it. Monitoring experiments, or when things go wrong, is the only way the people who pay the bills avoid legal troubles. I've gotten so used to them, I didn't think of it. My apologies." He started putting away the vital tools, her chart completed. "As for the gummies, they're mostly sugar. I did watch for any reactions to the flavoring or coloring, but you are reacting well."
“Okay, I had thirteen gummies! Now I have nine!” Kyle stormed back into the room. “I know Harrington ain’t done nothing as strong as coffee. Chang ain’t been in the room! I’m down four gummies!”
“Four?” Doctor Harrington rapidly mathed the video he’d just watched.
“Vinyl, I like you and we cool, but don’t mess with my food.” Kyle stormed out as quickly as he stormed in. “They can literally get you better in the name of Science!”
Herrington closed his eyes and let out a soft groan before looking back at Vinyl. "See what I meant? Kyle is very particular about his candy." He picked up the tablet with Vinyl's data on it and tapped it thoughtfully. "Now, I need to know more about how you came into being. That was recorded too."
Vinyl began clapping excitedly. "I want to see that! That sounds way better than the usual birth video." She made a face. "I wouldn't want to see that. Um, sorry about the gummies, Kyle. They were tasty, if that helps?"
“Yeah, give it an hour.” Kyle grumped. “I kept the pack on my person, not my fault. She’s super sneaky.”
Herrington guided Vinyl away to a different desk, waving at a platform as they went. "That's where you, what's the word, manifested?"
Vinyl craned her head back to look upwards. "Yep, I can see where the glass jar came down. Why'd you have me in a jar anyway?"
"We didn't plan on you." He settled into a new computer chair. "We were hoping to materialize a few flecks of what could, if one looked quite generously, be called the start of life. A few amino acids, a few proteins, nothing more remarkable than that." He opened a folder labeled Vinyl Scratch. "What we got was a pony. A pony with a personality, a will, a history of events no pony on Earth should be able to know, and the ability to communicate."
Vinyl laughed tensely. "Yep, that's me. I can and have all of those." She circled the platform curiously. "Where'd that glass come from, though?"
"Glassware." Herrington gestured to the laboratory as a whole, pausing to stare at the pony, but resuming after a moment. "Our world is very industrialized. Glass is something anyone can get, with money."
“Was there a flash of light?” Vinyl stared at the glass chamber barely large enough to contain her. ”Was there background music? Please tell me there was background music!”
“There was a flash of light, like lightning in a literal bottle.” Doctor Chang spoke up as she entered the room. “And a loud snap like a circuit shorting out. Also did you really eat four of Kyle’s gummies?”
“How much sugar can they possibly have?” Vinyl grinned dopily.
“Sugar?” Chang raised an eyebrow at Herrington.
The doctor quickly stammered, “Technically it’s a glucuronic!”
Chang shook her head. "It's just a sugar." She smiled at Vinyl. "It won't be a glucuronic until your body does things to it, perhaps. That is, assuming you are a mammal, which we can't."
"Hey!" Vinyl whined playfully, sticking her tongue out at the woman. "You didn't seem to have an issue with my mammary glands." Her expression grew uncertain.
Chang coughed at that. "You have them, that's all we need to note there, but are you an earth mammal, or something else entirely? You are the first of your kind, with no proper genetic parents. You could be almost anything."
“I’m pretty sure ponies don’t lay eggs.” Vinyl rhythmically wobbled her stool from side to side as a low pitched thump came from her horn in glowing pulses. As she held her hooves to her face. “That’s a thing I one hundred percent know about ponies! And I know that we are totally mammals! And I know that you have little squiggly fingers and I have absolutely huge hooves!”
Herrington took hold of one of those hooves. "Fascinating organs on their own, they are not horse hooves. I'd like to get a peek inside. Inside all of you, really. Let's do an MRI."
Chang held up a hand quickly at that. "It is loud and slow, but very good at getting a look inside our patients."
"Um, what does it do?" Vinyl tapped her hooves together nervously.
Herrington explained slowly. "It will create detailed pictures of you, as if your skin wasn't there. Do you know what an X-Ray is?"
"Oh, sure." Her horn glowed, conjuring an image of herself with just the bones. "Makes pictures like that, right?"
"It's more involved than that, but that's the basic idea." He scratched his chin thoughtfully. "I do need to make sure you're healthy and if you are a unique organism, or a new type of thing we already have."
Chang gently pat Vinyl's shoulder. "We'll see the parts inside, not just the bones. It's quite remarkable as these things go. Now, you just lay down and enjoy the noise. You like loud noises, hm?"
"Hm?" echoed Vinyl, following them to where the big machine that would preform the MRI rested. "I mean, yeah, music, but, what kind of noise is this going to make?" She eyed the machine dubiously before laying down with a grunt.
"Try not to move while we do this." Herrington secured her as best he could, cushioning her head and torso to help encourage her stillness. "And here we go." He clicked a button, setting the scan underway.
The sound of the MRI started, a heavy droning buzzing hum that rattled Vinyl's brain like a snowglobe. But, as requested, she remained in place as she waited for it to finish, the monotonous drone and vibration slowly lulling her to sleep.
"Right then." Herrington muttered softly to Chang. "This is the second test showing her as being far more unlike a normal horse than anything we have." He waved as the images came up, showing slices of her body. Some parts were certainly equine-like, but others defied easy explanation. "She is not a horse, miniature or not."