Sirens sounded in the distance. The crash of falling metal echoed dully.
Images flashed, as by a dream, hazy and undefined. A beam of green light. A flash. An eye looking at her, insect-like...
Twilight lifted the lids of her eyes. There was no strength in her to move anything else. Grayness stared back. Hard. Metallic. Unyielding. So close she could have reached out and touched it. She stared at it a while, letting her eyes adjust as the blurred distortions clarified into something solid.
She willed her neck to turn, concentrating on making her muscles work again, hardly taking in what was in front of her. Slowly, she started to get her bearings.
She was lying on her side, close to the indented walkway. More images flashed in her mind: A cart pushed down the pathway. A strange rock. A pain in her horn.
She looked mildly around the chamber, her thoughts still slow and methodical. The whole room was lit again with that same artificial golden light that was there when she had first walked in. How long ago was that? Twilight bent her neck slightly to look up at the ceiling, trying to make out something above her. She could hardly make any sense out of it: it was just a litter of gray shapes and colors. Her eyes were still adjusting, becoming more focused as she regained consciousness.
Struggling with every ounce of energy she had, she forced her body to move. Her body responded with pain. Shooting. Searing. Tearing. Every muscle protested, every inch of skin burned, every bone cracked. She would have screamed, but there was no energy left to scream with. She collapsed, panting, feeling a dull throbbing all over her body.
She tried again, forcing her joints to bend, and her muscles to contract.
And slowly, little by little, she worked her way up again, rolling onto her stomach with a loud crunching sound against the debris. She looked down, focusing her eyes on the floor below. It was now riddled with shattered glass, and sharp pieces of metal debris. Another image flashed: a beam breaking out from the center, striking a metal wall. An Explosion. A shower of sharp material, like shrapnel. Her eyes focused on her hooves, immune to the shards, covered in the glove-tight rubber fittings. All up and down the arms of the suit were dents and scrapes where the debris had hit her. Had she not been wearing it, her hide would have been shredded raw!
She moved each limb independently now. Prodding. Testing. Pressing lightly on the ground before pushing down hard enough to support her whole weight. As she worked her way onto her left hind leg, a dull tight pain shot up right through the bone. She collapsed on the ground again as a message rang out from the suit.
Minor Fracture Detected.
Twilight rolled her eyes.
"Thank you, Captain Obvious," she croaked back to the suit. Her throat protested every word.
She struggled up again, this time ready for the pain, but still wincing with a loud gasp as she put weight on the leg, feeling it strongest at the bottom of the fibula.
Morphine Administered, the suit rang out.
Twilight felt a small sting somewhere on her side just in front of her flank followed by an immediate lessening of the pain around her leg. She sighed loudly from relief as the pain continued to decrease.
"Well, suit," she whispered jokingly, "I don't think you'll be hearing me complain about overspending again."
She chuckled lightly, feeling a tightness in her chest that she was sure would have been painful a moment before.
She looked up, and finally studied the room proper, taking in everything her now-focused eyes could handle.
Damage didn't begin to describe what she was looking at! She searched through her memories for the best word to fit the situation. Many came quickly to mind.
Destruction.
Devastation.
Disaster.
Twilight had learned all these words... had seen pictures... had read books. But nothing quite fit what was around her now. None of them quite captured the realness. Comparing the difference between what she had read about and what she saw was like the difference between a scab and an open wound. This whole place was still bleeding, and calling out for help!
Something gnawed at her from the back of her mind. A thought more painful than anything her body had experienced. A worry that had been creeping up ever since she first opened her eyes. Had she not been so weak, she would be running frantic right now!
And, at the same time, a guilt: deeper—much deeper—than the worry, but still present.
More images flashed as she tried to remember what had happened. Spike had climbed the ladder in the back to start up the machinery. Had he been up there all that time? No. No, he had come down. Down where? Down here! With her! He was next to her when the cart went through. She had been with him. Had he run off? No. She remembered now. She had grabbed him. She had protected him. She had held him tight.
But then, why wasn't he here?
"S-Spike!" she croaked, the pain of his memory shooting through her. "Spike! Are you there?"
Silence answered back. Twilight swallowed hard against a lump in her throat and started walking around. Glass cracked beneath her hooves with each step she took, glistening among the scattered metal and wounded structure. She stared around her, taking in the damaged organs of the Test Chamber: dangling ventilation tubes, loose wires, shapeless hunks of metal perched like boulders. The contraption in the ceiling had been reduced to a stump, its rotary mechanism exposed and torn, weeping tears of static in small electric arcs. One of the fingers of the giant hand had been severed, laying defeated on its side next to the palm.
"Spike!" she projected again, feeling her throat coming back to life.
A horror slowly overcame her as she remembered. Perhaps she had passed out already? She couldn't quite make out the details. But Spike had NOT been with her the whole time. She remembered now: her scream tearing her throat apart during the disaster, calling for him. Her body went cold as she realized the possibilities. Part of her was afraid of finding what she was looking for now. Afraid of what she would see.
And sooner—much sooner than she expected—she spotted it. A small glimpse of purple amid the gray. A shot of adrenaline ran through Twilight's back as she ran over, praying with every last breath that he was still there—still the same—still the Spike she remembered.
Just sleeping, she told herself as his curled body came into view. Just sleeping.
The platform Spike had climbed during the experiment had collapsed onto the balcony area during the turmoil, taking with it nearly every guard rail and contorting the entire platform out of shape. But it was grated, and Twilight could see through the platform to the balcony underneath. She could see him there, Spike, her little baby dragon, curled up on his side, trapped underneath. Twilight slowed as she got close, reaching up and placing her muzzle right up against the metal so she could see through.
Okay, Twilight. Logical. Signs of life. Just... look. Don't think. Just look...
Twilight held her breath, heart pounding as the purple form of the dragon lay before her. Her mind was numb, her thoughts focused on that single tiny body beneath the wreckage. Waiting. Staring. Hoping. She was aware of every breath she took. Every beat in her chest. Every quiver from her body. And finally—
And she saw it!
The sign she had been hoping for. A tiny flicker of expansion. A breath!
He's alive! she thought, lighting her horn.
Putting up with the pain shooting into her skull, she forced her magic upon the platform, driving it with everything she had. Seconds passed. Minutes rolled by. Her energy dwindled, her muscles gave out, but the platform remained right where it was.
She breathed harder as she let go of the platform. Adrenaline was quickly pulling her into a panic.
"Oh no... oh no..." she muttered, trotting restlessly around the chamber. "Find help... need help."
"Heeelp!" she yelled out louder, finding her voice coming back to her as she raced around the room. "HEEEEELP!"
She was running up to the entrance where the two blast doors used to be sealed. Two-foot-thick metal doors, and they had been bent back, forced into the walls around them, leaving an opening large enough for Twilight to fit through easily.
"HEEEELP!" she yelled out again, jumping through the doors into the anti-chamber, and suddenly found her hooves slipping out from under her! She slid around catching her balance before looking down at what she was standing on.
A large part of the floor had been pasted with a thick gelatin, striped with different shades of red. Looking around for the source, she felt nausea overwhelm her as she found the remains of the two scientists who had given her the briefing. Their bodies were still whole, but their flesh had been torn up by the flying debris, leaving streaks of blood leaking all over their bodies.
"Oh... dear... Celestia..." she quivered, her hoof raising towards her mouth.
Looking around, she saw the plain metal door leading out into the hallway, slid open a few inches. Twilight stepped carefully through the slippery filth now covering the hooves of her suit and peered through.
"Hey!" she yelled out, seeing a dark-magenta scientist with her back turned just outside the door. "Can you help me?!"
The pony was kneeling over something, surrounded by the red rotating warning lights flashing on the walls. Twilight moved to get a closer look, and saw the head of another pony laying on his back, unconscious. He wasn't dead: not yet at least. The kneeling pony was busy resuscitating him, with small spasms that Twilight guessed were chest compressions.
Twilight was torn. She knew the pony was in the middle of a life-critical procedure, but the tightness in her heart begged her to shout out anyway—to tear her away from the activity she was performing and attend to the only thing that really mattered.
To me, she reminded herself. Matters to me...
Twilight continued to stare, watching as the pony bent over to breathe life back into the victim's lungs. There was no telling how long she had been at this. Part of Twilight was holding her breath for the poor pony.
A cough. A sputter. A cloud of spit. The resuscitating pony backed up, reaching a hoof out as the victim looked around, now coughing violently. As she moved aside, Twilight noticed the guy on his back flipping onto his side, trying to get up, revealing a brown-coat body garbed in black vest and uniform. A security guard! Twilight's eyes went to a large laceration on his hind leg, running from his flank roughly down to his knee. It was still mostly open, but was no longer running freely.
Twilight banged on the metal door. "Hey!"
This time, both ponies looked around, seeing Twilight's face through the small opening in the door. The magenta pony—unicorn, female—stifled a gasp as she headed up to the opening.
"You're ALIVE?!" she said. "How is—"
"I don't know," Twilight answered, quickly getting to the point. "Listen, I need your help. There's someone else in here. I need help getting them out."
The security guard was now crawling onto his hooves, wincing every time he moved his hind leg. The unicorn glanced back at him before looking at Twilight.
"I'll... I'll see what i can do. Can you get this door open?"
Twilight looked at the odd angle the door was sitting at, wedged into the wall.
"I'll need some help," Twilight said. "Together?"
"Sure."
Both of the lit their horns, Twilight's emanating a dull pain through her scalp. The searing migraine was gone now, but she could tell her magic wasn't at full strength yet.
The door jolted in spasms, breaking through tiny barriers of debris as it forced its way further into the wall, making a loud clunk with each move. It was difficult with two horns, and impossible with one. Twilight couldn't have escaped without her.
"That's good," Twilight said. The opening was around two feet now. "Can you get through?"
"Easily," said the unicorn.
Twilight stepped back, letting the scientist into the anti-chamber, hearing her cry out as her hooves pressed into the mass of congealed blood on the floor.
"What... oh dear Celestia, what HAPPENED?!"
Twilight watched her horror-struck face pass over the red masses in the corners of the room, the remains of the two scientists, darting back to Twilight, and then catching a glimpse of the wreckage beyond the blast doors.
"Come on," said Twilight, "I'll clear a space for your through the debris."
Twilight's whole body was screaming at her to hurry. It was everything Twilight could do not to reach out and drag the other pony with her by the mane!
Stepping carefully over the bottom blast door, Twilight lit her horn, creating a small burst of air on the ground in front of her. Shards of metal and glass were pushed aside as she stepped down the path to the platform. She could sense the scientist following close behind.
"He's under here," Twilight said stopping the wind and turning to look at the scientist. She was staring wide-eyed around the chamber as she walked down the path. "We'll need to lift this."
The unicorn pony simply gazed around in total astonishment.
"Dear Celestia..." she whispered, "what have we done..."
Twilight's impatience was overwhelming her.
"Hey!" Twilight yelled out, indicating the platform with her head with a scowl.
The unicorn blinked.
"Oh, sorry. Right. This... this... wait, the entire platform?!"
Twilight gave her a sarcastic, almost cruel look.
"Well, unless there's a way to break it apart, yes! The entire platform!"
She continued staring past Twilight at the massive structure, mouth slightly agape.
"ARE YOU GOING TO HELP ME OR NOT?!" Twilight burst out, unable to control herself anymore.
"I..." she said, now thoroughly shaken, "I... yes, just give me... yes... yes of course."
"Okay, then! Let's light 'er up!" Twilight said, floating her own magic towards the platform.
The other unicorn joined her and soon the platform was moving, lifting, squelching off the metal surface, shifting debris, knocking metal rails and poles onto the ground which clattered loudly.
"OVER!" Twilight shouted, shifting a portion of her magic horizontally. Second by second the platform moved, like a cargo ship departing at sea, tearing away from the other hunks of metal around it. Both ponies were straining now, sweat forming at their temples.
"ENOUGH!" Twilight shouted, easing up on her magic until the platform came to rest. She had waited until the purple form was fully exposed, and was now jumping onto the balcony, crashing through the shards of wreckage.
"Spike," she groaned, gently lifting the form of the dragon in her hooves. Her anxiety lessened as she felt his warmth against her face—felt his breath—felt his body expanding and contracting with each breath. She could now feel it quite easily. It was very fast now. Almost hyperventilating.
"Is that..." the unicorn next to her whispered, peering over at the baby dragon.
"Spike, are you okay?" Twilight said, turning the dragon over in her hooves.
She let out a cry as she looked at his face. His eyes were wide. His pupils dilated. He looked positively horrified!
"Spike!" she yelled out, shaking him slightly. "Spike! You're okay! You're alright! We're here!"
"He's hurt," came the voice of the unicorn next to her.
"What?"
The unicorn approached her now and pointed at Spike's right side. Spike was on his back now, and her hoof brushed Twilight's chest as she pointed.
"Bring him out here," she said. "I have a medical kit laid out. I'll see what I can do."
Twilight's breath completely escaped her. She couldn't comprehend what she had just heard. Spike? Hurt? Spike couldn't be hurt! His scales... they would have protected him!
"Hurry!" the scientist said, her purple tail disappearing around the corner of the blast doors.
Twilight lit her horn, elevating the limp form of her baby dragon and running through the doors, carefully hovering his weakened body through the small openings.
Twilight stepped out into the hallway, taking in a new set of wounds that the facility was suffering from. Red lights flashed in the distance, the security pony was now leaning with his back against the wall on the left tending to his wound, and Twilight now noticed the large metal medical container laying open on the floor.
"Set him down right here, on his back. That's it."
Twilight lowered him right next to the kit, watching his body convulse some more in hyperventilating breaths.
"What's happening to him?" Twilight asked, unable to take her eyes on him.
"He's starting to go into shock. If we address the wound quickly enough, it should sustain him long enough to find help."
Twilight never thought she would hear those words out loud, used in such a serious manner. They felt so much more real than when she read about them in stories.
She bent down with the other unicorn to watch what she was doing.
"See?" she said, pointing her hoof at a place just above Spike's hip. "There's a gash right here, on his side."
Twilight looked at where her hoof was and saw a small but thick red streak going length-wise down his side. Part of his front was red, remnants of the fountain that had pored from the wound when it was more open.
"He's lost a lot of blood. It looks like it's healing quickly, but I can seal it up a bit better. I'll see if I have some tape in here. Come over here and hold this."
Twilight walked around to her left. She wanted nothing more than to hold him close to her—to whisper to him—to feel his warm body close to hers. Sitting still and having to watch him lying there like some doll in a classroom was simply cruel.
Twilight knelt down next to Spike.
"What did you want me to hold?"
She touched her hoof on the right side of Spike's stomach.
"I need you to apply pressure around the wound. It's still slightly open, and we need to stem the bleeding as much as possible. You can use magic if you want to."
Twilight felt down with her hooves, running them against the rough scales of Spike's body, one above and one below the gash. Lighting her horn, Twilight compressed the side of Spike's body, feeling some of the arteries pinch off, and watching as the gash closed a bit.
"That's good," came the unicorn. "Hold him there for me."
Twilight sat there in tension, holding her baby dragon together like some sort of broken package as the unicorn next to her tore off large strips of white medical tape, worming them around Spike's torso. She could feel her face scrunch up as hot tears melted from her eyes watching the process of her dear Spike having to be taped up. Was it really this bad? Had it really come to this?
"Okay, that should hold for a while," she said. "You'll need to get him to the emergency medical room upstairs. They'll have better equipment for this kind of thing. And hey!"
Twilight was now breaking down, sobbing into Spike's side, tears glistening into the tape wrapped around his body. Her own body was convulsing as she cried out, reaching her hoof under Spike's head like a pillow, resting the other on his chest.
A hoof reached under her, pulling, hoisting, tearing her away from her dragon. She felt her head roughly turned. The unicorn had forced her up to meet her gaze.
"Hey. Hey, listen. Listen to me," she said, brushing some of Twilight's tears off her cheeks. "Calm down. It's not over. Not yet. He can still be saved."
Twilight couldn't control herself anymore. She wanted to say something, but all she could do was let out a stifled cry as more tears streamed down.
"Look," the unicorn said, "all he needs is more medical attention. We can get him that! But time is critical here, and I need you to cooperate with me. Do you understand?"
Twilight forced a nod, trying desperately to hold back more tears.
"Okay. You're gonna be alright?"
What kind of a question is this? Twilight thought.
Again, Twilight forced another nod.
"Okay. Follow me."
As the scientist got up, Twilight took a shaky quivering breath, letting it out as smoothly as she could. She could still feel fluid dripping from her eyes, but the compulsive sobs had stopped. Lighting her horn, she picked up her wrapped baby dragon and followed the scientist.
They rounded the corner, bringing more damage into view. One of the large computer servers had detached from the wall and had scattered more debris around it as a red rotating warning light flashed overhead. The scientist followed Twilight's example from the Test Chamber, magicking a small wind to push aside the rubble. She led Twilight to the left, into the hallway with the large red stripe and the words "Test Lab" on it. Twilight grimaced as the memory of Spike yelling after her down the hallway flashed through her mind.
The wreckage was much worse down here. The end of the hallway was now host to half-a-dozen metal rods, each the size of a small tank on the back of a tanker truck, stacked length-wise down the hallway. There were more still attached to the ceiling, where they had fallen from, and some had broken through the glass of the doors leading to the elevator.
The scientist in front of her turned.
"Can you get over these?" she said to Twilight.
Twilight nodded, noticing her tears starting to dry. Focusing on travel was helping to take her mind off Spike.
She walked forward, following the guiding hoof of the scientist now pointing towards the elevator.
Climbing over the pipes was much more difficult than she had expected. She had needed to place Spike gently on top of one of the pillars so she could use her horn in the navigation process. She wasn't particularly strong, but she could use levitation to aid in places where her muscles were weak.
She activated the elevator, resulting in the door on the right swinging open, and then turned back to the scientist.
"Aren't you coming with me?" Twilight asked, seeing the scientist turning around.
"Oh," she said, turning her head, "I'm going to help out the security guard some more. I might catch up with you later."
"Oh," Twilight said. She wasn't expecting this. She didn't want to be alone. "Okay!"
She watched the scientist round the corner before levitating Spike inside the elevator with her. She pushed the button, forgetting that this was the elevator that spun and was surprised to find that it wasn't as dizzying as the first time.
In fact, she was feeling much better altogether! True, she still had a large lump in her throat, with dried tears and possibly blood crusted on her face, but her body felt surprisingly nimble and pain-free again. Even her fracture wasn't bothering her.
This. Suit. Is. AMAZING! she thought, wiggling her hind leg and noticing how comfortable it was now. Could it be healed already?
The doors hissed open smoothly as she re-entered the Ionization Chambers waiting for her at the top. The room was much as she remembered it. Just... darker, as if a light or two had burned out. She was about to look around when a loud voice startled her.
"TWILIGHT!"
Dr. Whooves had slammed into her, knocking the wind right out of her! For a moment, she nearly dropped Spike!
"Twilight! You're ALIVE!"
She could hear his voice cracking at the end, turning into sobs. She looked around uncomfortably as he started crying into her shoulder, finding a corner next to one of the ionization cores where she could rest Spike for a few minutes. She brought a hoof up and ran it slowly down his neck, brushing down his mane.
"It's... it's alright! I'm okay!" she said, noticing that her own voice was sounding much better. "And... you're alright!"
Dr. Whooves backed up, his face soaked and contorted. He shook his head at the floor, as if shaking the tears off his face.
"Me?" he said, looking up. "Nah, I'm not the important one here. I'm just some old guy," he continued, backing up a bit before popping his head up again.
"But you! You're so young! And right in the middle of it all."
He was looking at her much more carefully now. His eyes were squinted, as if finding a new discovering of science that was hiding in Twilight's eyes. She watched as he walked up to her for a closer inspection.
"What... happened to your face?" he said, getting right up close to her and reaching his hoof up to her right cheek. Twilight recoiled slightly, not expecting the strange sensation as the hoof brushed gently down her hide. It didn't feel like skin anymore: almost like scales, or a massive callous.
"I have no idea," Twilight said, trying and failing to recall what might have happened. "I haven't got a chance to look at myself yet."
He was looking quite worried now, his eyes now widening.
"It's all bloody. You should really have someone take a look at that."
"I..." Twilight started, bring her hoof up to feel her cheek. It didn't hurt, but it didn't have the texture that a normal hide should have, even from the little she could feel through the rubber of the suit.
"And... you!" Twilight spoke up again. "You're not hurt?"
Dr. Whooves shuffled his hooves a bit, looking almost embarrassed.
"Well, no," he said.
He looked up, and Twilight suddenly saw a nervousness surface that she had sworn was there all along.
"At least, not yet."
Dr. Whooves indicated his head over to the glass chambers against the left-hand wall: the three that Twilight had looked at with the balls of electric current. Twilight followed his lead as he turned to walk out in front of them. Something red flashed in her peripheral vision, but she turned away from it.
"That!" he said, pointing at the inside of one of the glass tubes.
Twilight saw it as soon as he pointed at it. Something green was sitting inside the chamber. Something... alive!
She walked up slowly, entranced as a foal would be at the zoo.
At first glance, it might have looked like a blob of green jello—only more opaque, and much slimier. But on closer inspection, there was a fleshy texture to it, almost cloth-like. Had it been perfectly still, it may have looked tempting to use as a pillow!
But there was an uncomfortable movement to it: a resonant throbbing, as though enormous veins were pumping all around just below the surface. Small legs supported it as it hovered slightly above the ground, which it swayed on restlessly. Twilight recognized it as a hunting stance. She had read about similar poses in some of the carnivorous creatures of the forest. Twilight felt uneasy staring at it, and backed up slightly.
"What is it?" she asked, keeping her head facing the strange creature.
Dr. Whooves walked up and peered through the glass with her.
"That's what I'd like to know," he said. "This thing wasn't here before the experiment. And something makes me doubt it's the only one."
Twilight tore her eyes away from the creatures to look back at Dr.Whooves.
"You think the experiment brought these things in? How could... what process... what kind of science..."
Dr. Whooves shook his head, looking as dumbfounded as Twilight felt.
"There's no telling what horrors have been brought about by all this. Remember, those samples don't come in from our lab. That's all lambda! And the things I've heard about that place—"
He stopped short, contemplating a bit before finishing.
"Well, let's just say I wouldn't be surprised if this isn't the strangest thing you see before the end."
Twilight looked back at the creature. It looked like it was facing her, turning in its glass confinement to prepare for its next victim.
"So you think I'll see more of them when I leave here?" she asked.
Dr. Whooves shouted out, startling her again.
"Leave?!"
Twilight turned to see him slightly surprised—almost downright worried!
"Twilight, I don't want you going beyond this room. You've seen the damage! You've seen the possibilities! This creature—"
He stopped short again. Twilight walked up to him, suddenly having an urge to comfort him as she did Spike.
"Dr. Whooves," she said, "I can't stay here. I have to save—"
"Sure you can!" Dr. Whooves said. "Help will come, I guarantee it! Someone will call for help! You'll see!"
"But Spike!" she said, and was surprised to see Dr. Whooves go completely silent. She waited for a response, but none came. He just looked at her.
Twilight finally lit her horn, and brought forth her baby dragon, still wide-eyed, but not breathing as fast as he was before.
Dr. Whooves let out a breath that sounded like a wounded cicada.
"Wha... oh. Dear. Celestia...."
Twilight set him gently between them as Dr. Whooves continued to stare.
"He's going into shock," Twilight said, remembering the terminology. "I need to find help. And fast."
Dr. Whooves walked up slowly, crouching down to lay a hoof gently on the dragon's body. He was leaning his head down next to the dragon's, and stroking his body lovingly as though it was his own foal.
"What has this place done to you?" he quivered.
Twilight looked down at him, but didn't move.
"I need to go out there. And I need to do it now," she said.
Dr. Whooves continued to stroke the dragon's body, but looked up to meet her gaze.
"You realize what you could be facing," he said, shaking his head slightly. "You realize that by going out there—"
Dr. Whooves had a horrible tremble in his voice now as he got up. Backing up slightly, he turned to indicate something in the corner. As the red that Twilight had glimpsed before came into focus, Twilight doubled up in sick, trying hard not to hurl.
A body was laying there: the remains of the other scientist that had been in the room. The redness she had seen turned out to be a carpet of blood, painted as though someone had tipped a large vat on its side. The pony itself was on its side, hooves facing her. There was a gash length-wise down his middle, and there was something... something... sticking out...
"Ah! Oh, Celestia!" Twilight screamed out, turning away and trying to force the image out of her head.
"That's what you'll be facing, Twilight," Dr. Whooves said next to her. "That's what's out there. I watched him die, Twilight. I was here when it happened. Death. Destruction. Decay. That's what's waiting for you out there."
Twilight was turning back towards the glass chambers, trying not to hurl. It was too much! She lowered her head at the floor as the creature behind the glass came back into view.
"Are you really willing to go through more of this?" Dr. Whooves asked. "Because, if you are, I'm not coming with you."
Twilight was having trouble focusing her eyes. There were no tears—only horror. She couldn't quite grasp what she had just seen.
Dr. Whoove's voice resounded behind her.
"Twilight?"
She heard him move around in front of her. He was standing between her and the glass now. She could see his hooves on the floor.
"Twilight?" he said again.
Twilight swallowed, glancing over at Spike. He was still breathing, a large patch of red invading the whiteness of the medical tape. She swallowed hard.
And then she looked up, meeting his gaze with her own eyes. Solid. Marked. Resolved.
"I'm going out there, Dr. Whooves. I have to. And whether you're going with me or not is your choice. For me, however, it's not. I have something I need to do. I have someone who's depending on me. And if you think I'm going to—to sit here, and—"
She stopped, trying to find the right words. She had been doing so well!
Dr. Whooves rested a hoof on her shoulder.
"I can't stop you, Twilight," he said. "I can only prepare you. I can only show you what's out there. Just know that if you leave here, you will never see me again."
Twilight looked at him and saw his eyes: Cold. Harsh. Yet, ironically, warm. A rugged warmth that reached invitingly into Twilight only to twist and push in ways Twilight was afraid to explore.
She pulled her gaze away from him, searching the room. The poised creature behind the glass. The gruesome scene in the corner. And finally down at Spike. A resolve was overcoming her, driving inside of her.
"Yes," she finally said, looking up to meet his eyes again. "I'm going out there."
Dr. Whooves smiled, almost painfully. And yet, there was something else.
And as Twilight finally saw it, she thought the perfect word for what she saw in his eyes.
Pride!
=========================================================
A few ticks sounded as Dr. Whooves worked the retinal scanner. He turned to look at her as the acceptance chimed, swinging the door open. His face was reserved.
"If you find help while you're out there," he said, "remember to send them down here."
"I will," she said, forcing a small smile. "You'll be alright here?"
"So long as that thing back there doesn't escape," he said, indicating his head towards the glass container.
She glanced back for a second. Then they both turned towards each other again, their eyes meeting in the middle. For a moment, neither of them knew what to say.
Then, walking towards each other, they embraced, burying their faces in each other's shoulders, feeling the comfort of each other's grasp—the feel of hide touching hide—the feel of warmth and closeness.
And then it was over. They were parting. Dr. Whooves was moving out of the way so Twilight could approach the door.
Twilight walked over and peered into the control room. Sirens could be heard streaming in from the Test Chamber. Three bodies lay strewn around the room, a few of them torn up. The door at the opposite end had been blasted apart during the experiment.
Twilight looked back at Dr. Whooves, and for a moment, they shared one final moment. She considered for a moment what she wanted to say, but nothing seemed appropriate. This is how she wanted to remember him: just standing there. In silence. With her.
She watched as the tiniest flicker of the smile crested him face. Then, lighting her horn, she lifted Spike, parted her eyes from his, and walked through the door.
The blast shield on the right-hand wall had been partially destroyed, showering light on the opposite wall from the Test Chamber. Part of Twilight was tempted to look through the opening and see the wreckage again: one last reminder of what she had just been through. Mild splatters of blood lay on the floor as she walked, the majority being plastered on the walls from the explosion. Twilight kept her head down, eyes away from the bloodshed.
As she passed through the blasted opening at the other end, magicking Spike carefully through with her, she became very aware of her solitude. The narrow green-lit hallway surrounded her now, and memories flooded back of the three scientists peering expectantly at her through the door from the control room. She remembered this as being the sinusoidal hallway, jogging step-wise several times. Each hoof she brought down took her closer to, and finally around, a different bend in the stairway-shaped hallway. Each bend was the same. Creep up. Peer around. Take notice. Observe that it's clear. Continue.
At last, half-a-dozen bends later, she found an opening into an actual room. She noticed the two octahedron-shaped containers in the left-hand side, and recognized them as the "plasma cells" she had looked at earlier. She looked around the chamber.
This whole room was a wreck! One of the containers had broken open, and was leaking the blue-glowing liquid, no longer glowing as it seeped to every corner of the floor. The doors in the right-hand wall in the back were blocked off by a pipe as long as the entire room, and thick enough that Twilight may have been able to squeeze her entire body through, if she cared to try.
She looked around carefully, entering the room as she considered a way to get past the large pipe. If she was careful, she might be able to walk on top of the pipe, and avoid the spilled fluid on the floor.
A sound cried out behind her as something hit her from behind. She could feel it strike her through her suit. It couldn't have been much larger than a tennis ball.
And it was still there! Still on her! Crawling! She tried looking around at it, and felt it creeping along her body, on her flank, on her back—
Twilight cried out and moved, hastily setting Spike down as she rolled onto her back, trying to crush it. The creature was crawling around her side, onto her belly, up towards her face—
She swatted at it with her hooves, lifting her head up. She saw it! Just a glimpse. She rolled over on her stomach again trying to crush it beneath her. The creature: the same kind as the one in the glass chamber.
She rolled back and forth, hoping to smash it like a bug, but it was already on her side, her back, her neck—
Lighting her horn, she picked it up, and threw it across the room. It hit the fluid on the floor with a small splash, jumping around in pain as it slid straight to the back of the room. Twilight got up, looking around quickly, feeling her breath gliding quickly and deeply through her lungs.
Is it dead? Did I kill it? Is it—
It wasn't dead.
Twilight wanted to escape—to simply climb over the pipes—but the creature was turning around, and Twilight was suddenly fascinated by its actions. It was tapping the walls, feeling out with its feet—claws—tentacles, sticking them, grabbing onto—
Oh, no! she thought, watching it ascend above the ground.
It was walking up the wall! Literally! Walking! Straight up the wall! Twilight couldn't quite imagine how such a large creature could pull it off, but it was there! In front of her! Walking! And then—
Twilight screamed out an ducked. The creature had just flown! Wait, was it flying? Catapulting! Like a wingless grasshopper!
Without thinking, Twilight rolled onto her back, and kept going straight onto her belly again, hearing the creature thud weakly on the ground next to her. The creature turned towards her again, and Twilight was back on her feet, running! Running to the door! Sliding to the door—slipping—falling—
Her hooves had completely slid out from under her as her belly slammed into the spill on the floor, her whole body ramming into the wall on the far side. She couldn't get up. She couldn't move! The creature was jumping again, flying the entire length of the room to land on the wall next to her. Twilight lit her horn again, starring up at the creature, watching her magic surround it, levitating it away from the wall. For a moment, she simply considered it: a green blob of an organism suspended in a light purple haze.
Then, she slammed it into the wall.
The creature let out a cry of pain, but still flailed around. She rammed it again, feeling its flesh compress like rubber against the steel wall. Another slam. Another. Another. Bash after bash, and the creature kept flailing. Twilight yelled out with each one.
Why. Won't. You. Just. Die!?
Twilight felt her magic start to give out. The creature was very weak now as she let the cloud dwindle, hearing the large green insect collapse on the floor just next to her. It was struggling to roll on its front, but couldn't quite manage it.
Twilight's curiosity prompted her to look at the creature again. She had never seen it when it was on its back like this.
She knew there was going to be some defense mechanism underneath, and expected some sort of mouth or sting, but nothing like this! There was almost no flesh underneath. The entire bottom of the creature was nothing but mouth! Red, swollen, permanently open, exposing what appeared to be a beak inside the gaping hole. If it wanted to, it could probably swallow an entire hoof or head in a single bite.
Twilight reached her hind leg into an awkward angle and pushed against the back wall, feeling her body slide effortlessly across the floor. She reached out with her foreleg now, and clawed at the dry floor, hoisting herself away from the sea and struggled back onto her hooves. Spike was still in the corner, cradled in the fetal position with his back towards her. Could he move now?
She lit her horn levitating the dragon over the pipe and setting him down just in front of the door. She used a similar technique to help herself up on it, keeping an eye on the creature still struggling on the floor. She had little strength left in her horn now, but lit it again just to smash the creature into the floor a few more times anyway.
Just how resilient are these things?! she thought, smashing it for the third time.
Twilight breathed a sigh of relief when the doors swung open. They still worked! She could see the small stretch of hallway before her. She had to be close to the elevator by now!
She levitated Spike into a corner of the hallway before cautiously stepping out herself.
A cry behind her shot a chill through her as she ducked, hooves over her head. The creature had just leapt right through the door, landing opposite her in the hallway, turning to prepare for its next leap. Twilight didn't think. Glancing over at Spike, she kept her head down and charged head-long down the hallway. She could hear the creature behind her. She lifted her head and looked back at it as she ran—
—and felt her head suddenly explode.
Wave after wave of pain flooded down her scalp, throbbing, pulsating—her brain was tearing apart as her body collapsed. Her throat burned as she filled the hallway with a piercing scream, pressing her hooves into her temple to try and hold herself together! She felt around frantically: the top of her head, her hair, her horn—her horn!? Part of her horn. Half of her horn!
She let out another scream as the pain kept flooding, praying for it to subside—to at least diminish—to give her a chance to catch her breath.
The creature was on top of her now: the tiniest sense of feeling on the small of her back amid the rush of pain pouring from her head. She couldn't light her horn: not in the state she was in. She rolled onto her back again, and kept rolling, turning herself around so she could roll frantically down the hallway, leaving the poor creature to run crazily around her body.
A voice rang out from the suit.
Weapon Detected.
Twilight stopped and looked around. The creature had managed to fall off in the fray of rolling. And behind her, she could see what had caused the damage to her horn. The laser canisters that spanned the entire wall of the hallway had broken, shooting a beam straight across the center, like a glowing trip-wire suspended a few feet in the air. Rubble was spread all over the floor: burnt computer chips, wires, pieces of metal and glass, and... something else.
She crawled over to it, still grimacing from the flood of pain now leaking into her neck and into the rest of her body. She pushed her hoof into it, and found that it stuck! Did the suit know?
Twilight didn't care anymore. It was a long piece of metal, and it felt heavy. Satisfyingly heavy. She looked over to see the creature preparing the jump again. She lifted the bar, daring it to jump. To try!
With a loud cry, the creature leapt into the air as Twilight swung the bar, and missed spectacularly. Twilight got up, forcing herself onto her hooves, feeling her muscles work, feeling her hooves dig into the rubble-infested floor. Invigorated. Vengeful.
For a moment, she stared at the creature with its back still towards her. Then, leaping on it before it could prepare its next jump, she smashed it with the bar, piercing it on the end of the crook like a skewer. She brought the bar up to her face, staring at the flailing creature upside down on the end. She wanted to watch it suffer. She wanted to watch it die. Slowly. Painfully. She wanted to hear it scream as it slowly bled out on the end of the rod.
But then she came up with a better idea.
Carrying it back down the hallway, she leaned the bar carefully up to the laser beam, and a few seconds later there was no more creature. The entire organism simply melted into a puddle on the floor. The end of the bar had turned red-hot instantly, but cooled rapidly back to the gray metal texture of before.
It was over.
She wanted to drop the bar, but the suit wouldn't let her. It just clung to the end of her hoof like some extension of her foreleg. At least she could still use it to walk.
She ducked carefully under the laser and back over to Spike, still lying in the corner. He seemed to be hanging on, but was certainly in no better shape.
Oh, Spike, she thought. Will I still be able to carry you?
She put her head down and tried lighting her horn.
Pain seared down her scalp again, raining down her neck. It wasn't quite agony, but the sensation was extremely uncomfortable. She could see small glimpses of sparks raining down in front of her, as if her horn was bleeding from the tip.
Finally she stopped, deciding that magic would only make things worse. She had learned at some point from Celestia herself that horns had special healing powers. Of course, that had been in relation to internal damage from a spell. She had no idea if a horn had any ability to actually regrow.
Walking over, she whispered a small apology to the seemingly sleeping dragon, and then clutched the spines on his head firmly in her mouth.
He felt much heavier than he did when she used magic. And much more awkward. His limbs dangled, and she had to be careful that they didn't sway into anything. The laser was particularly tricky, as she had to bend over so far that part of his body dragged along the debris-strewn floor. She could feel her neck becoming stiff and sore very quickly as her muscles screamed out. She wasn't an Earth Pony. She didn't used her mouth to carry stuff that often.
She laid him down as she reached the end of the hallway, reaching the doors that were next to the four colored stripes on the wall. She walked up to them hopefully but they wouldn't open. She considered using magic, but decided it wasn't worth the pain. Raising her hoof up with the metal bar still attached, she simply smashed the glass in the lower-right corner.
Satisfying, she thought. I could get used to this.
Now came the tricky part, though. She had a choice. She could either use magic to levitate Spike through the opening, or she could drag him through, and risk him getting cut up by the jagged edges of the glass.
Thinking a moment, she came up with a better solution. Using the metal bar, she scrapped harshly along the edges of the glass frame, ripping out as much of the glass as she could. Then, using her hooves, she pushed all the large chunks out of the way, leaving only the smallest of the pieces still sitting on the metal floor. It took some work, but what she was left with was a relatively clear path to drag Spike down.
And "drag" was exactly the word for it. She didn't even bother lifting him as she forced him along the floor fitting herself flank-first through the opening.
The next hallway contained the elevator at the end, and was largely undamaged. Twilight was amazed at the variety of destruction she had witnessed so far! Picking up Spike all the way off the ground, she ran right up to the elevator, slamming her hoof into the button.
Of course, nothing happened. She had done it more for the satisfaction of pressing a button, and for the slight, hopeful chance that something still worked around this facility.
With the doors not opening, she followed suit, smashing the lower-left pane of glass, clearing out the shards around the edges, and pushing them away. She forced herself through the opening and looked around.
The elevator shaft was felt very empty and hollow now. The platform she stepped onto was short, and had nothing to stop her from stepping right off the edge and down the shaft. Again, the entire area was lit with that same sickly-green light.
She looked up, expecting to see the elevator stuck at the top. But there was nothing there! All she could make out was a cable dangling from the ceiling.
Creeping right up the edge of the platform, she peered down. The shaft extending a ways further, and at the bottom was the remains of the elevator. She recognized the top, with a portion of the cable still attached. The rest was strewn around in parts throughout the bottom of the shaft. She couldn't see any blood. Hopefully no one was inside at the time.
Looking around some more, she noticed the red ladder to her left extending to the top. And above her—way above her—was the small platform at the top that the ladder led to.
For a moment she just stood there, thinking. She imagined herself with Spike in her mouth, climbing hoof-over-hoof up the rungs of the ladder. Imagined her hooves slipping out from under her. Imagined her muscles giving out half-way. Imagined the ladder breaking. She started to some to a conclusion.
No, she thought, shaking her head. This isn't going to work. There has to be a better way.
She forced herself out of the opening and looked around the hallway.
"What kind of building doesn't have stairs!?" she said out loud, hearing her own voice resonate in the silence.
She had already come up with an idea, of course. She was just taking her time preparing. It wasn't exactly going to be pleasant.
"Okay, need to put it to the test. Need to test out the theory. Okay, testing, here we go..."
She lit her horn, feeling the dull pain as sparks flew out the end. Spike was engulfed in a cloud of purple and lifted up.
Okay, she thought. Not too bad so far...
She lit it further, feeling the magic engulfing her own body. The pain was much clearer now, resonating down her skull. She stayed focused and pushed further. Her body was becoming lighter, but her head was exploding again. It was becoming much more difficult to concentrate.
With one last push, she felt her own body lift entirely off the ground. As soon as she felt this, she let go, dropping herself and Spike back on the floor with a dull thud.
"Ow," she said mildly, cradling her head weakly in her hooves.
Well, at least it works, she thought.
Horns were very strange instruments. If she had tried that exact same maneuver back in the ruins of the Test Chamber, she couldn't have pulled it off. There was a weakness then that she didn't have now. And somehow, that weakness was independent of outright physical injury. It was as though her own bodily fatigue was connected to her magical performance. She had recovered much energy now, and could perform much more powerful spells now, albeit very painful while they lasted.
She hated to have to use her horn like this, as injured as it was. She knew that using it would do nothing more than make it worse. But there wasn't much choice in the matter. It either this, or face the long grueling struggle of using her own hooves.
She brought Spike into the shaft first, carefully placing him to the side with her mouth before crawling in after him. She tried hard not to think about how high the shaft was as she lit her horn. For right now, she put all thought aside of her injury, and concentrated only on putting as much force and effort into the spell as she had.
Seconds later she and Spike were surrounded by the glowing orb of magic. She could feel their bodies rising as she levitated them carefully towards the center of the shaft. She didn't want their heads striking the top platform and distracting her into letting go.
The sensation was similar to gripping a rope as you're dangling off a cliff. Your hands stay still, your muscles grow stiff, but you never let your grip lessen. Your thoughts concentrate only on gripping tighter, even as you lose the feeling in your hands from the circulation cutting off. So it was with Twilight, except it was like having dozens of needles penetrating your hands while clutching the rope, knowing they would stop if you just let go.
In fact, Twilight was so blinded from concentration and pain that she hardly noticed the platform slipping past her, and had to descend a bit before she landed. A shaky convulsive relief swept through her as she stopped the spell, lightly setting Spike down on the ground. She took a few steps out into the "O"-shaped hallway that wrapped around the elevator shaft before collapsing onto her stomach on the ground, going into small fits of spasms as she relaxed her muscles.
Her head was spinning. She swayed it a bit as she tried to get her bearings, hardly noticing the two forelegs of another pony standing just in front of her.
"Hey!" said a voice above her. "You alright?"
She looked up, and found herself staring into the eyes of a security pony. Male. Brown. Earth-pony. The same one she had seen activate the retinal scanners into this area. He appeared to be mostly uninjured. He reached his hoof out towards her which she grasped with her own, letting him hoist her up.
"My gosh! Is it really... Twilight?!" he said with a wide-eyed stare. "Twilight Sparkle?! THE Twilight Sparkle?! Who I sent down to the Test Chamber?!"
He gave her a good look, taking her in. Her bloody face. Her suit. The bar attached to her hoof. And finally, her horn.
"Well, I'll say that suit is certainly paying for itself now! Of course, your face has seen better days, and something tells me there used to be more of you... up there."
He indicated his hoof towards her head.
"Um, thanks," Twilight said. "Hey, listen. I could use your help. My dragon's hurt, and I need to get him to Sector B. There's an emergency medical area in the back. Could you help me get there?"
She led the security pony back to where she laid Spike, just in front of the elevator doors.
"Not a problem. He definitely needs help, I can see that. Just gimme a sec."
Twilight admired his strength as he grabbed Spike by the spines with his own teeth and swung him on his back as though he were a stuffed doll. How did he balance him so well on his back like that?
"Stay close," he said. "There are... things... walking around here."
"I know," Twilight said. "I killed one of them down below."
The security pony walked out in front at quite a clip, but still conversed with her politely.
"Really? You killed one?! With your own bare hooves? Er, I mean—"
He had clearly remembered the suit, but Twilight knew what he meant.
"I found a crowbar," she said, jolting his memory of the metal shaft attached to her right hoof.
"Ah! A natural at adaptation I see!" he said, rounding the corner towards the doors. "You know, if you get out of here alive, you might consider getting into the security business. We could use more ponies who know how to look after themselves in these kind of situations."
Twilight felt a tiny sliver of pride as a smile flickered across her face.
Twilight noticed the guard step over more bodies as he led her down the hallway back through the doors. There was less blood than the large carpet she had seen in the Ionization Chambers, but it still stained the floors all around the deceased. Twilight averted her eyes the best she could, but still felt an uneasy twinge in her stomach each time one of them came into view.
"So," she heard the guard pipe up as they rounded the corner, "a scientist down in the Test Chamber. You were obviously there when it happened. Any idea what went wrong?"
"Well, actually—"
"Wait! Hold that thought!"
They were back in the hallway with the same blue-tinted metal grate as the entrance to the labs. Most of the lights were out, but there was still plenty to see down the hallway. And at the end were two ponies. Scientists. Upright. Walking. They appeared at first to be survivors! But both Twilight and the security guard could tell that these were not conscious living ponies. They didn't move like normal ponies. And their faces—
"Stand back," said the guard. "I saw a few of these back in the other hallway."
Twilight jumped as the guard let out a few shots of the pistol mounted on his shoulder. She had never heard a gun before! They were never even allowed back in Canterlot! She was amazed at the powerful sound it gave off, satisfyingly reverberating around the hallway, stinging her ears with each shot.
The ponies at the end of the hallway collapsed, one after the other. She starred in the distance, trying to make out what was different about them.
"What, were they—?" Twilight asked, feeling more uneasy by the second.
"Well, come take a look for yourself," he said, trotting up to the end of the hallway.
Part of Twilight would rather have simply stayed back and have the guard cart the bodies off into a corner, where she would never see them again. But there was another, more curious part of her that needed to know.
"Yep. This place is really making me glad I got all that target practice," the guard said as Twilight caught up with him. "These poor ponies... It would've been better had they just died."
Twilight looked down at the nearest pony and immediately recognized the round green insectoid resting on the pony's face.
"I know these things!" Twilight exclaimed. "One of them jumped on me down in the lower level!"
The guard chuckled next to her.
"Heh, you're lucky you're a unicorn!" he said. "These things feed on cerebral tissue, apparently. They connect to a host body through the scalp if they can, and use it to seek out its next victim."
He looked up at Twilight, who was astonished at the guard's terminology.
"Not my words," he said. "One of the scientists described it to me... while he was alive."
The guard continued walking up the path, leading Twilight back to the "I" junction that lead to the central "C" hallway. Twilight followed him, glancing back at the two ponies on the ground before trotting forward to catch up.
"So!" the guard started up again, "You were telling me what happened down there. What went wrong?"
Twilight thought a bit as they rounded the corner into the shaft of the "I".
"I have no idea! It was just... this rock. They had me push a strange rock into an analysis beam. And then... boom! Explosion! Chaos! ... This!"
The guard turned to the right down the "C" hallway.
"So, no idea then? Not even an inkling of a theory?"
"Nope," Twilight responded automatically. "It all just happened so suddenly."
Both of them stopped short as they rounded the corner that led into Sector B, dumbstruck by the massive obstruction in front of them.
"Speaking of suddenly," the guard started, "what in the name of Equestria happened here!" the guard started.
Twilight couldn't quite believe what they were seeing either! Was this the right place?
As far as Twilight could tell, the entire ceiling had caved in! There wasn't even a gap between the pile of massive concrete blocks and the ceiling at the top! It was all just piles of concrete and rubble. Mountainous. Impenetrable.
"An avalanche?" The guard said.
"How... where..." Twilight struggled to comprehend all of this. "The medical station must be on the other side of this! How are we going to get through?!"
Twilight looked back at the guard as he turned back towards her.
"We'll find a way. Here, follow me. We'll see if there's a connecting route through the lobby."
"The lobby?" she said. "I've already been in the lobby! It doesn't go through!"
Twilight could see more red flashing warning lights on the walls, emanating from just around the corner of the "C".
"Well, it didn't before!" the guard answered. "But if that thing could shake up this place bad enough to block a path, it might have done enough damage to open one!"
Twilight watched as the guard turned to walk down to the corner of the hallway.
"Wait!" Twilight said, following after him and stopping at the door to her right. "This hallway wraps around some kind of central room! Maybe there's a way from there! Here, can you get this door open?"
Twilight turned towards the door on her right: plain and metal with security code buttons on the side. It had been blasted crooked during the cascade, and now sat wedged inside the wall at an odd angle.
"That door's going nowhere," the guard said, walking back to Twilight. "Or at least, not without a lot of trouble."
Twilight could see through some of the small cracks and crevices between the wall and the door. There were more flashing red lights and warning sirens going off inside.
"Can you at least try to get it open?"
The guard let out a sigh, reaching his mouth behind him and dragging Spike off his back so he could set him safely in a corner.
"Fine. I'll need some room, though," he said simply, dredging up when looked like a monument of energy. "Stand back."
Twilight retreated to where he had lain Spike, kneeling down so she could comfort him. The guard had backed up a ways, and a moment later charged straight at the door.
Twilight jumped a bit as his hind-hooves struck the door. A small dent formed, but the door remained. A retreat. Another charge. Another crash. A bigger dent.
She watched as he struck the door a third time, whacking entire door hard enough to give way a bit. It was now arcing inside the room a bit, but still stuck.
"One... more..." the guard said, charging head-strong.
And with the last solid strike, the door caved in entirely and landed on the ground inside the room with a loud clang.
"Amazing!" Twilight said, admiring the strength it must have taken to bend a steel door.
The guard was breathing heavily, but was not off balance or anything.
"They don't have us go through training for nothing!" he said.
He looked down at Twilight bending over the small form of the dragon.
"How's the little guy doing?"
Twilight reached over her hooves and felt around his body, his heart, his forehead, his breath—
"He's still warm," she said. "Very warm! Like, hot!"
Twilight kept her hoof on his forehead and felt worrying thoughts creep through her head.
"Let me see if I can get you through the barrier in here," he said, walking into the door.
Twilight watched as the front-half of his body disappeared through the door only to come back a moment later.
"You're in luck!" he said. "There's a ventilation opening in the side. It looks like it goes through the wall on the other side of the barrier. I'll see if I can knock one of the server computers over for your to climb up. Come on in."
Twilight glanced back at Spike as she stood up and walked into the room with him.
This was one of the most chaotic rooms she had seen by far! It was covered in what used to be large shelves filled with black computer servers. The place looked much like a library, but much smaller, and with electronics instead of books. Some of the free-standing shelves had tipped over, breaking wires and short-circuiting many of the systems. Some of them had caught on fire! Many of the lights were blown out, and the room was hazed in smoke and red warning lights.
"There!" the guard said, pointing up at the wall on the right.
Twilight followed his gaze and noticed the rectangular opening high-up in the wall, close to the ceiling.
"How am I supposed to get up there?!" Twilight shouted amid the alarms and flames.
"Hang on," he said, stepping up to one of the shelves on her right.
He reared up on his hind hooves, resting his forelegs on the shelf to give it a hard shove. It tipped over easily, crashing into the wall well before hitting the ground so it was leaning at a steep angle.
"Can you climb this?" he shouted, pointing at the make-shift ramp leading roughing up to the hole at the top of the wall.
"I think so," she said. "Let me go get Spike."
Twilight was not expecting the security guard to walk out with her, and turned around when she noticed he was trotting right up to her.
"Before you go," he started, "I want you to have this."
He bent his head down into one of the lower parts of his uniform and flipped out something small and black, catching it on an outstretched hoof. Twilight looked at it as he held it out for her.
"A pistol?!" she shouted, surprised. "Ooooh, no! I don't think you want me using that thing!"
"You're gonna need it!" he said. "I hear that hazard suit you're wearing is built for using weapons!"
Twilight backed up, shaking her head.
"No... no, no, no, nonononono! That's... I'm a scientist! I'm not... trained... for that kind of thing!"
"They didn't have a target range during your hazard course training?"
Twilight was at a loss for words.
"That was... but... we're not... PFFT!" she spit, completely perplexed. "You really expect me—Twilight Sparkle—scientist—to just pick up a gun like some... some grunt! And go shooting things?!"
"You wanna keep smashing things with a crowbar?" he said with a sly smile. "Be my guest! But take the firearm with you anyway."
Twilight just looked at him with a crazed face, peering back and forth between his face and the pistol.
"You really wanna face those zombie ponies we saw back there with your own bare hooves?"
Twilight scowled, almost angry at how good his argument was. Finally she gave in.
"Fine. I'll take it," she said, "but only as an emergency tool! I'm not going to use this thing!"
"That's fine!" he said, turning to head back into the room as soon as Twilight had lifted the device with her magic. "Just don't come cryin' to me when one of those headcrab thingys finds a way to attach itself over your horn!"
Twilight could feel an annoyance creep over her as she mantled the gun, slipping it into the holster on her shoulder like she was shown during the hazard course before reaching for Spike.
"You need any help?" the guard said as Twilight finished dragging Spike into the room with her.
"I can manage."
The guard watched as she worked out how to most easily get up the ramp with Spike.
"I'm not coming with you, by the way."
Twilight lurched forward from surprise, nearly dropping Spike!
"What?! Why?!" she said, putting him down on the floor.
The guard shrugged.
"More civilians. Gotta keep watch for more ponies like you, coming up that elevator shaft."
He winked. Somehow she got the feeling he was being somewhat facetious.
"Will I ever see you again?" she asked, knowing the answer.
The guard turned and walked towards the door, clouded slightly by the haze of smoke. The flames of the computer in the back were starting to spread.
"Don't count on it," he said.
And as he walked out, Twilight turned back to Spike, still injured, still burning up on the floor.
Fine, be that way, she thought. I'll manage on my own.
"Come on," she said to Spike, just before hoisting him up to the vent, "Let's get you some help."
=========================================================
"GET BACK!"
Twilight jumped at Dr. Yursa's crazed voice as she entered the medical room. He was backed into the corner, holding out a scalpel between his two hooves pressed together. His eyes were wide, and he was shaking violently.
"It's okay!" Twilight said. "I'm not one of... of them."
Dr. Yursa looked at her funny, as if he thought she might have been a hallucination.
"Twi... Twilight?" he said slowly.
She walked slowly up to him, making him hoist the scalpel higher in front of him.
"Calm down! It really is me! I'm not going to hurt you!"
She watched as Dr. Yursa slowly lowered the knife, still shaking.
"H-h-h-h-how?" he said, wonderingly. "How did you survive!? This... this whole place!"
"I know, Doctor. I'm amazed I'm alive too. But right now, I need your help."
Twilight had struggled a bit with how to get down from the ventilation duct. It had been very high above the ground. She had ended up jumping down herself (discovering that her fracture hadn't entirely healed), and then levitated Spike the rest of the way with her.
She was now standing inside a somewhat darkened room. Most of the lights at least still worked in here, and the equipment didn't look too shaken around. Things were looking promising.
"H-h-help?" he stuttered. "H-h-how can I help? I just... well... look at me! I'm a wreck!"
As an answer, Twilight stepped back out the door, and dragged her baby dragon into the room, stopping just in front of him.
"He's hurt," she said simply. "The lady on the bottom floor said he's going through shock. Can you help?"
He starred at the creature in front of him, taking in his injured body, eyes still wide, wrapped in white, stained with red, looking terrified.
"Wha... I..." he said shakily, "Well I... guess... yes! Yes, we have stuff here for that! That's—" he swallowed roughly, "—that's exactly what this place is for!"
He let out a nervous laugh, sounding almost relieved at being presented with something he actually knew how to handle!
"There's a table we can prop up in the closet over there. Unfold it and set it up in the center here."
"Why can't we use that thing in the corner?" she said, indicating the leather bedding she had noticed the first time she was in here.
Dr. Yursa glanced at it before looking back at Twilight.
"That's just for resting on. We need something to operate on. That's what's in the closet," he said, indicating his head impatiently behind Twilight.
"Okay," Twilight said, walking to the right to a tall white cabinet against the wall and magicking one of the doors open, "this one?"
"Should be in the front."
Twilight pulled out what looked like a long metal sheet as tall as the entire cabinet, discovering a couple legs folded underneath. She figured out the mechanics and snapped it open with her horn.
"Good, good," he said, "Put it here in the middle. That's it. Now, help me get something to clean it with. It should already be sterilized, but we need to be sure."
It took Twilight and Dr. Yursa around 10 minutes to get everything setup. The table was scrubbed, special sheets were laid down, and a few instruments were set onto a second table.
"Alright. Set him up here," he said at last. "Easy! That's it!"
Twilight strained her horn to ensure he was set down in just the right way, feeling awkward about the rough way she had been handling him so far.
"That's it. Now," he said, bending over to look at him, "the first thing we need is to treat the shock. I have some fluid here that'll help."
He indicated the large clear bag suspended from the poll next to him.
"Now, normally there's a unicorn here to assist me with this stuff, but I'm not sure where she got to, and I doubt we'll get a hold of her. It looks like you'll be doing a lot of the handy work."
"I'll... do my best?" Twilight said, not knowing how she felt about this.
Yursa was already indicating the first step.
"Now the best way to do this is to find a vein. I think I can do that much. Let me see..."
He bent over and started feeling around the dragon's arm.
"This is so much easier on ponies," he muttered. "These thick scales... I'm just not used to... wait! I think I got something."
He looked at Twilight.
"Sterilization first, Twilight. There's some peroxide on the table over there, and some cotton balls. All it needs is a dab."
Twilight worked as quickly as she could, trying hard not to spill anything. Her horn was feeling much better now, and simple things like this hardly hurt it, but it was far from what it used to be.
"Good, good," he said, "Now the needle. Sterilize the needle."
He indicated with his head to the end of the tube dangling from the bag. Twilight picked it up, rubbing it thoroughly with the cotton ball, trying not to think about what was coming next.
"Okay, okay. That's good. Just one rub should do it," he said, noticing how distracted she was getting. "Now, just put it here, right where my hoof is. You should be able to feel it with your magic. It's just a small pulse."
"I," Twilight said, starting to bring the needle up to the scales, "I don't think I can do this."
"It's alright! He won't feel much pain. It's just prick. Just make sure it goes in the right place."
Twilight brought the needle up with her magic again and noticed she was shaking now.
"Are you alright? Do you need some water?"
He indicated towards the emergency shower in the back.
"No, no! I can do this. I just... need to concentrate."
She thought about Spike, and how important this was, putting her mind straight to where his hoof was. She took deep breaths to calm herself as she brought the tip right up to a small pulse she sensed with her horn. It was subtle.
"That's it," he said. "You're gonna need some pressure to get through the scales now. Just... get through the dermal tissue and feel it just on the other side."
Twilight pushed forward, trying not to feel light-headed as she felt it worm through the skin. Less than a quarter of an inch in, she could feel a small tube with the tip.
"Ahhghh!" She yelled out, letting go. "I can... feel it!"
"Don't stop! You were doing great! You found it! Just—"
"Okayokayokayokayokay! Just be quiet! I can do this."
She felt back with the tip, resting it right against the tube, and without trying to think about it, she pushed it lightly in.
She let out a breath.
"It's in!" she said, stepping back from the table and relaxing all her muscles.
"Great. Just switch that knob at the top. It'll do the rest," he said.
Twilight did what she was told, feeling the fluid start to drain from the plastic pouch.
"And some tape would help," he added, indicating his hoof still holding the needle in place.
"Oh. Right. Yes."
The tape at least was an easy part. Once the needle was secure, she stepped back to talk.
"How long until he recovers?" she asked, looking at Spike's body still laying stock still on the table, eyes still wide, pupils still dilated, watching his chest rise and fall gently with each breath.
"Depends," was all he said, moving around until he was right up next to him. "Right now, we need to address the wound itself. It looks like a relatively decent job was done applying pressure. Did you do all this?" he said, indicating the wrap of tape around his body.
"Some of it," she said, "mostly it was another scientist who helped. Another unicorn."
"Magenta?" he asked, and suddenly Twilight knew what he was referring to.
"Heh. Well, I guess that explains where your assistant went," she said. Yursa smiled weakly.
"Alright, so," he said, turning back to Spike, "that should take care of the shock. If all goes well, he should be back to a somewhat stable mental state after a while."
He reached up and started feeling carefully around hid body now, studying the redness of the tape.
"Can you lift him up now? I'd like you to unwrap this for me so I can look at the wound."
Twilight wanted to turn away as she worked, but knew that magic didn't quite work that way. She lit her horn and levitated him an inch off the table, peeling off the layers of tape wrapped around his body.
"That's it," he said as the last of it came off. "My! That's..."
He and Twilight starred at the open wound. Or, at least, Dr. Yursa stared at the open wound. Twilight was going back and forth between glancing at it, and turning her head in the opposite direction.
It was not as she had remembered it. Back outside the Test Chamber it had been so... clean! Now all the scales around it were reddened and puffy and... oozy...
"What... what happened to it?" Twilight asked, finally settling by staring at the floor.
She couldn't see Dr. Yursa from her downward gaze, but she guessed he was quite perplexed.
"Did you..." he started, "did you even try to clean it before you wrapped it up?!"
"I... don't know," Twilight said, thinking back to the nurse.
Dr. Yursa sighed deeply.
"Nevermind. It's not your fault. Let me see how bad the damage is."
He turned to Twilight.
"Sorry to have to keep asking difficult things of you, but I'm going to need you to spread it open a bit for me. Very... very gently."
Twilight glanced at the wound again before looking up at the ceiling. She lit her horn again and felt his flesh in her thoughts pulling open, just slightly.
A smell slammed into her: Putrid. Damaged. Invading her nostrils, tearing into her brain.
"Oh, Celestia," she said, turning her head away with her hoof to her snout.
"That's it," he said, "keep it right there, that's good."
Twilight thought she was going to be sick. She brought her thoughts to poor Dr. Yursa, having to endure the smell close up. Perhaps he had dealt with things this bad before?
"Well, it's a relatively clean cut," he said, peering in close, "definitely a sheer laceration. No really rough edges or anything, but..."
He peered further in.
"Could you come over here and shine a light for me?"
Twilight held her breath, keeping her head turned away as she approached the table and lit up her horn like a flashlight.
"Thanks," he said. "Also, I think your suit comes with a flashlight if you'd rather use that—"
"I'm fine!" she said, tense from her magical usage and lack of oxygen.
"Well, from what I can see, the foreign body is still in there. It's definitely sheet metal, broke off during the experiment. Normally I don't like to remove things like this, but—"
He was glancing around inside at different angles, studying the way it was lodged in the wound. He finally came away shaking his head.
"I'm not going to take it out. Not when it's that deep," he said.
Twilight could sense him turning his attention away from Spike's side.
"I think the very next thing we need to do is clean the wound."
Twilight let her magic dwindle as the opening sealed back up. Dr. Yursa went to the cabinets on the right and started fishing around.
"I have some saline over here we can use. We don't want the peroxide. It's too much, especially for something this deep. Plus the bubbles can get into the bloodstream and... well, nevermind."
He turned around holding a large piston syringe that Twilight was relieved to see didn't have a needle at the end.
"This part should be pretty straight forward," he said. "It's just some simple irrigation. Help flush out the wound."
Twilight looked at the full syringe in his hands, then at the wound, then back at the syringe.
"I'm going to squirt that... inside the wound?!"
"That's the idea, yes," he said, quite calmly. "It's a bit like basting. Do you cook?"
Twilight didn't quite know what to make of this, and ended up giving a small snicker that sounded like a cross between a retch and a cough.
"Okay, bad analogy," he said, "but you get what I mean. Just be sure to give it some pressure, and be sure to get all around the entire area."
Twilight lit her horn, mumbling to herself.
"Why oh why didn't that unicorn come back with me?"
She grimaced as she opened the wound again, holding her breath as the stench came flooding back. Levitating the syringe, she placed the end mildly inside and pressed down the plunger, trying not to think about what she was doing.
The table exploded! Twilight jumped as Dr. Yursa ran around the other end of the table.
"Hold him! HOLD HIM!" he yelled out, slamming his hooves over Spike's body, pinning his writhing body to the table. Twilight had shrunk back.
"Keep going!" he yelled. "I got him, keep going!"
Twilight kept pressing down the plunger, hating herself as she felt the fluid strike the top-inside of the wound, gliding it clockwise around the inside.
"All around, that's it," he said, holding down the struggling figure. Twilight tore her eyes away from him, trying to block out the whimpering cries.
"That's good. You're doing great! Halfway there!"
Twilight grimaced as the spray struck the metal inside, splashing slightly onto the table. Spike was now letting out a long consistent sob getting louder by the second. His convulsions had stopped, but every muscle was tense, pressing harshly against Yursa's forelegs.
The process was taking forever! She could sense the fluid leaking out onto the table as she brought it around the bottom of the wound. Spike was trying desperately to flail his arms, still pinned to the table.
Twilight felt the last of the fluid squirt out and immediately dropped the syringe, letting it clang loudly onto the floor. She was shaking violently.
Spike's cry was now loudly filling the room, sounding so unlike is usual voice: like some kind of Everfree creature screaming into the night. Twilight wasn't sure her ears could take it.
"That should do it!" Yursa said over the screams, leaning forward to look at her in concern. "I can handle him for now if you want to go to the other room until he calms down."
"I'm not leaving him!" Twilight said shakily. She could feel a quivering weakness in her stomach as she leaned up to the pitiful figure on the table. Her hoof went to his cheek as she stroked it, feeling a heat resonating off the scales. His mouth was slightly open, and his eyes wide. He looked so confused!
"It's okay," she whispered, Spike's cries lessening into a whimper. "It's okay, it's over!"
She continued stroking his cheek, leaning her head forward until it was just over his face, and she could tell: Spike could see her—could hear her—
"It's okay. I'm here," she said quietly, bringing her hoof up to rub against his forehead, feeling a blistering heat radiating from it.
Dr. Yursa was now backing up, no longer holding him, amazed at Twilight's ability. For a while he was still, silent, watching, as Twilight continued to comfort the figure on the table.
"He doesn't look as bad now," Twilight said after a while, looking over at Yursa standing in the corner. "His eyes look better."
Indeed, Spike's pupils were no longer dilated, and his lids were not as wide.
"Remarkable!" Yursa said, walking around the table. "You're... it's like..."
He walked right up to Twilight, very curious now.
"Did you... did you raise him yourself?" he asked.
Twilight was somewhat taken aback. She had never exactly considered the bond between her and Spike in quite that way before.
"Yes," she said at last. "Well, sort of. He... I hatched him when I was very young. It was... academic. At least, it was at first."
They both turned to the dragon now lying remarkably still now, but breathing hard. His wound was still leaking the clear fluid, but somehow looked much better—much cleaner.
"I'm really sorry," he said at last, turning back to Twilight grimly. "No pony should have to go through that," he added slowly.
He opened his mouth to say something else, but fell silent. For a moment they both watched Spike laying peacefully on the table. He looked as though he was falling asleep now! Twilight could feel a small warmth inside her, comforting her as she watched the calm figure, lessening the distress that had been clouding the back of her mind.
"I think," Yursa said quietly after a while, "that we should probably do something about your face."
Twilight had completely forgotten about the crustiness on her cheek, and felt her hoof subconsciously reaching up to feel it again.
"What about Spike?" she said, turning to look at him again.
"Oh, he'll be alright. I'm going to leave the wound exposed to the air for a bit and dress it up later. We'll of course have to work out what to do about the infection, but—"
Twilight thought she glimpsed the tiniest bit of sadness in his eyes for a moment, but it passed quickly.
"Come on. Let's get you cleaned up."
=========================================================
Twilight picked her head up off the ground, lifting her hoof wearily to her cheek to feel the gauze taped to the large cut on her face.
How long have I been out? she wondered.
Looking around from her place on the floor, she remembered why she had woken. She had heard something... something important! She stood up slowly, seeing the metal folding table still sitting in front of her in the slightly darkened room, with Dr. Yursa in the corner resting.
"Twi-" came the sound again, "Twilight?"
Twilight's ears perked. It had been ages since she had heard that voice! In a heartbeat she was on her hooves, racing up to the table.
"Twilight?" came the voice again as she put her hooves carefully up on the table and leaned over.
Spike was lying there, completely calm, his eyes droopy as if he had just woken. The tiniest flicker of a smile crested his face as he looked at her.
"Twilight, is that you?" he said quietly, a curious, hopeful look in his eyes. She could tell he was still adjusting to the light.
"Yes," she said half laughing, half crying. "Yes, it's me!"
She leaned in and wrapped her hooves around his face, placing her lips gently on the dragon's forehead before lowering it to rest sideways against his body.
"So," Spike continued at almost a whisper, "you didn't leave me?"
A warmth engulfed Twilight as she listened to his voice.
"No, Spike. I'm still here," she said. "I would never leave you."
She lay there for a moment before lifting her head to look at him again. Spike was now turning his head and looking around.
"What happened, Twilight?" he said, "Where are we?"
"We're with Dr. Yursa," she said smiling. "You remember Dr. Yursa, right?"
Spike was adjusting very slowly, still very out of it, like a wakening coma patient.
"Yeah," he said at least, "yeah, I remember him! He's the one that touched me in places back in the lab!"
Twilight's smile flickered as she glanced over at where Yursa was still resting. She turned back to Spike.
"How do you feel? Are you alright?"
As an answer, Spike reached back with his arms and struggled to sit up.
"Whoa!" Twilight said, "Easy! Careful! Take it slow."
"I'm alright," he said. Then, reaching down to his side, "But it's really sore, like, right here."
Twilight had done a descent job dressing and bandaging the wound at Yursa's instruction. He had joked with her about putting in stitches, but explained that they weren't really appropriate for something this inflamed.
"Well, don't touch it," she said. "It'll heal on its own."
Spike continued to stare around the room, taking in all the equipment and refreshing his memory of where everything was.
"This place looks different," he said. "Did something happen?"
Twilight thought for a moment, and decided to be honest.
"Yes, Spike. Something happened," she said.
A small pause as Spike's memory slowly came back. Then,
"Did the building blow up?"
Twilight's eyes almost went wide before cracking a huge smile.
"Not... quite!" she said.
"But almost?" Spike said, starting to sound more like Spike again.
Twilight couldn't help it. She let out a small laugh and felt herself leaning in to embrace him, holding him tight.
"Ow," he said lightly as she brushed against the wound.
She felt his own arms reaching around her neck and for a moment they sat there, holding each other, Spike's warm body pressed into hers. Very warm in fact. Almost too warm.
"Well, look who's awake!" said a voice next to her.
Twilight let go to look at Dr. Yursa standing next to the table, walking up to check on Spike.
"You, Mr. Dragon, caused quite a stir! Had miss Twilight here going nuts! You should be feeling very lucky right now."
Spike blushed, looking around his body and finally poked a bit at his side some more.
"You're gonna want to leave that alone," he said. "It's still very tender."
He turned to Twilight.
"Could I, uh, speak to you outside for a moment?" he said.
Twilight didn't like the sound of those words at all. Her smile had faded almost instantly as she gave the tiniest of nods.
"Sure."
She stepped out the door behind Yursa as they departed from Spike, letting him lie back down to rest a bit. As she stepped into the other room, she could see through the window into the darkened hallway of the research area. She was in the room where the business pony had been earlier.
"Listen, Twilight," he started as the door closed behind her, "there's something I need to—"
"It's about the infection, isn't it," Twilight interrupted him. For a moment they stared. Then Yursa finally gave a small nod.
"I tried to stem it. I spent a long time after you went to sleep looking into it. It's working very rapidly. I don't think I've seen anything work this fast!"
Twilight tried to comprehend what she was hearing. Her brain heard and understood, but the rest of her didn't want to.
"By the time you got him to me, it had already spread over most of his body. He's very hot right now. Very sick. I wish I could say there was something I could do, but—"
He took a breath and swallowed.
"I really don't have the tools, or the medicine to deal with something like this. He needs more serious medical attention, and we simply don't have that in these labs."
Twilight looked at him dumbfounded, not wanting to believe what she was hearing.
"What are you saying?" she said, not even trying to hold back her frustration, "You're just gonna let him... just gonna do nothing?!"
"I already did everything I could do!"
They stared a bit longer, and for a moment she actually felt sorry for him. His head bent down, and she could tell this was extremely difficult for him.
"I'm sorry," he said at last.
Twilight's blood boiled beneath her skin as it was pounded through her body from her chest.
"Sorry?" she whispered, almost deathly. "Sorry."
Yursa didn't say anything else, keeping his head bent down.
"No," Twilight said, shaking her head. "No, this isn't over! I didn't go through all that just for this! I'm not going to just sit here and—"
Dr. Yursa was simply shaking his head.
"I know how hard this must be for you."
"NO!" she shouted. "YOU DON'T! YOU HAVE NO IDEA! YOU JUST... YOU..."
She leaned into the floor and let out a loud yell at the window. Yursa had backed up a few steps, but didn't lose his composure.
She turned to him again, shaking, trying to think. Her thoughts were racing around, and she fought hard to control herself.
"You say there would be a chance if he got more help," she said again. It wasn't a question. It was a statement.
Her gaze was piercing but he didn't shrink back.
"I don't know," he said calmly. "They might have something to help him or they might not."
More thoughts raced. Her head was swimming with ideas, plans, scenarios, each one crazier than the last, and none of them the least bit sane. She breathed deep to calm herself, finding it to work only partially.
"I'm going back out there," she said.
She watched Dr. Yursa, expecting him to retaliate.
"That's your choice," he said simply.
Twilight was somewhat taken aback.
"And I'm taking Spike with me," she said, clarifying her statement in case he hadn't understood.
Dr. Yursa said nothing. Twilight kept going.
"I can do this," she said, "I can find the surface. I can get out of here. I can find him help!"
"And I wish you the best of luck in your endeavor," he said in return.
Twilight was getting frustrated again. She wanted to argue with him. She wanted him to think she was crazy! Why did he have to be so calm!?
"In fact," he continued, "I'm beginning to think that's the best option right now. It's the best advice I could ever think to give. It's certainly better than staying here."
Twilight was at a loss for words.
"You... you..."
"Come on back inside," he said. "I'll get you patched up."
"Patched up?!" she said, half-confused, half still frustrated with his demeanor.
"Twilight," he said, turning around again, "the transit system is completely shut down. There's only one way out of these labs, and that's through Sector B. Do you have any idea what's in Sector B?"
Twilight waited for his answer as he continued.
"Raw sewage! That's what!" he said. "Your wounds are going to need a lot more protection than they already have if they're to get through that! Now come back inside."
Twilight kept standing there, wanting to shout out, wanting to scream! This wasn't at all what she had expected!
She walked over to the wall next to her and bumped her head roughly into it.
What am I getting myself into? she thought to herself. What am I doing?
Dr. Yursa was waiting for her inside, standing next to Spike who was carefully pulling out the IV.
"What's going on?" Spike asked as he handed the needle over to Yursa. "I heard yelling."
"Can you walk?" Twilight asked.
Spike thought for a moment, letting the question seep in.
"I... think so," he said.
He swung his legs over the side of the table and swayed a bit before pushing himself off and landed on the floor. His knees bent for a bit before straightening back up, staggering for a few moments.
"Whoa," Dr. Yursa said. "You alright? Can you stand straight?"
They watched as Spike slowly regained his balanced, finally taking a few steps towards Twilight and grabbing onto the front of her body. Twilight instinctively reached a hoof up and pulled him in close to her.
"Looks like he should be okay," Yursa said. "Come on over here in the corner with me. I'll get you fixed up."
"What's going on?" Spike asked, looking up at Twilight.
She let go of him, watching him balance on his feet before walking over with Dr. Yursa.
"We're leaving," she said.
=========================================================
Twilight's preparations flew by so quickly she hardly noticed that they were already out the door! Dr. Yursa hadn't had much to say, but tried to fit in everything he could in the little time they had, preparing her the best he could for Sector B.
They were walking down the darkened trashed hallway with the two large glass windows on either side, coming up on the L-Bend entrance to Sector B. Spike was actually walking now, but Twilight didn't know for how long. He wasn't exactly energetic. And she was trying not to think about what his reaction would be to some of the more gruesome things she had seen.
"I don't understand," Spike said trying to keep up with her. "Leaving where?"
"Out of this facility," she said. "We're getting to the surface, and we're high-tailing it back to—"
She stopped for a moment. She wanted to say "back to Canterlot", but that was a long way! Surely she didn't have time for that! Perhaps there was a hospital in Appleloosa? Oh, she didn't know!
I'll work it out as we go, she thought.
"We're just getting out of here!" she finished, picking up the pace again.
And all too soon, the L-Bend spit them out into an anti-chamber to Sector B, filled with two bodies: one dead, one undead. Part of Twilight wanted to put her hooves over Spike's eyes but she realized how impractical this would be if she did that for every body they came across. He would need to get used to it, just as she had
She prepared herself.
The room itself was nothing special. There was a medical kit on the wall that the security corpse had obviously attempted to use, and a diamond-plated floor that lead to a vestibule spanned by two black open-frame doors with X-bar reinforcement beams. The rest of the room felt very concrete in comparison with the rest of the lab.
"Twilight?"
The fatigued but scared sound of Spike came from behind her as the bodies came into his view.
"Try not to look," she said back to him. "This is just the way things are now."
As Twilight entered the vestibule through the crooked left-hand door, she noticed a large metal fan spinning slowly in the ceiling. The area was hardly large enough for her and Spike.
"Can I ride on your back?" Spike asked, leaning against her side hopefully.
Twilight had hoped he wouldn't ask this. She had prepared herself for another headcrab encounter, and had removed the safety from her pistol... begrudgingly. She didn't want Spike tossed around in case things got ugly. Before they lad left, Dr. Yursa had also pointed out a clever aspect of the suit! A hook on the side that she could slip the crowbar into when she wasn't using it. She was feeling much more prepared now.
"Sorry, Spike," she said. "Maybe when we're away from the facility."
Twilight pushed a small green button on her left, swinging the doors open. Or, almost swinging the doors open. One door stayed closed. The other one oscillated between open and closed.
"Well, glad to see all the doors are still in order!" she joked, trying to lighten the mood.
Spike wasn't smiling.
"Just time it right. No problem," she said, preparing for a couple seconds before dashing through. Spike hesitated, but made it through too.
"Now," she said looking around at her new surroundings, "We're ultimately looking for an elevator. Something to get us to the surface. Follow me."
She was in a much larger area with massive sheet-metal plates tiling the walls, each one framed with rivets. A few blue-painted pipes stuck out of the ground here and there, traveling thickly to the ceiling.
There was only one path from here, which she led Spike hastily down. She could hear running water in the distance, and the hissing of pipes. It wasn't exactly the most habitable place.
"Are you sure this is the right way?" Spike asked. "This looks kinda rough!"
"Well, at least all the lights are working in this area," she said. "We can see what we're doing."
She walked around a corner to the left, leading Spike around the only path through the area, round again to the right down a small set of stairs. She noticed a balcony on the wall in front of her as she descended, and looked up to see a pony standing there. She perked up.
"Hey!" she shouted.
The pony turned, revealing formal attire, walking off to the right and out of site.
Twilight stood and stared a moment longer.
No! she thought. Not him! Not again!
"Who were you shouting to?" Spike asked, catching up to her.
Twilight shook her head again, putting the image of the business pony out of her head.
"No one, Spike. It was no one."
The new area she descended in was much larger now! The ceiling was higher to accommodation the catwalk, now on her right. She could see the path jog to the left a bit up ahead, and there was an opening in the wall just before the jog covered by glass, not much larger than a window, but close to the floor like a door.
She could still hear running water far away with a few new sounds: A fan rotating, some wind blowing lightly, a few dogs yipping—
Wait, she thought, dogs... yipping?
Twilight turned to Spike.
"Do you hear that?" she asked.
Both of them jumped back as the glass in the opening crashed, broken by a large watermelon... with legs... and eyes... and—
"What is that thing!?" Spike yelled out as it turned and bounded towards them, it's entire front covered in a circle of hundreds of complex eyes!
"Get Back!" Twilight yelled at him as she tried to remember how to work the gun. The creature was already at her, taunting her, squealing at her.
A sound went off like a gun. Next thing she knew she was flying through the air, limbs flailing, slamming painfully into the wall behind her and sliding to the ground, the wind knocked out of her. For a moment she forgot where she was. Her head was dazed. She looked around for Spike and saw him now at the top of the stairs, safe for now.
She saw the creature running up to her again, yipping excitedly. But she was equal to it, already righting herself. Her hoof was already slipping out the crowbar, raising it behind her as the creature leaned into the ground for another wailing attack.
With a whipping motion of her hoof, the bar made contact, and now it was the creature's turn to go flying! It lightly hit the wall on the other side of the wall, bleeding puss as it collapsed dead onto the floor.
"Wh-hoa!"
Twilight turned to see Spike staring out in amazement, apparently forgetting his fatigue.
"Now that was cool! What was that thing!?"
More yipping. Further away. Twilight strained her ears and could tell this was a lot more than just a tiny group.
"Stay back, Spike," she said, walking slowly towards the sound. "It sounds like we may have woken the pack."
Spike jumped up, half worried half eager, looking around frantically as if one could come at him from anywhere. He ran down the steps and hid away in one of the corners where he had a good view of all incoming directions, prepared for a show.
Twilight was somewhat dazed from the impact, but pushed passed it with a new set of nerves. There was something about having that bar in her hands—the gun at the ready—Spike behind her to protect. It was invigorating! It was a high!
The yipping echoed around, and suddenly got much louder as she heard them round the corner. One... three... seven... how many were there!
Pressing her hoof into the ground, she felt the switch in the tip—felt the mechanism—felt the trigger compress.
A shot rang out, splitting her ears apart! It clanged against the ground too far to the right. Twilight compensated, turning, firing, and hit the first one in the side just next to the eyes. It recoiled back, stumbling over in puss-colored blood.
Twilight felt it! The bullet striking it! It was a feeling that required no magic to sense. It was like she was right there with it when it made contact!
She brought her hoof down again, feeling another bullet crack out of the muzzle and pin one of the creatures in the eye. Spike was now cowering in the corner in awe.
Again and again she snapped the trigger, striking another two... three... four...
And then they were on her, barring into the ground, wailing. Lifting her hoof up, crowbar shining, she whipped it through the air, feeling it penetrate a thick skin, skewing one on the end before raising it up, creature and all, and whipping it off and into the wall with a satisfying splat. Another wail as she brought the bar from its height, slamming it back-handed into another creature. The blood was flowing now as she brought it down a third time, whipping it into creature after creature, making some of them hesitate and fall back.
Twilight jumped forward, letting out a scream! An instinctual war-cry! Intoxicated with adrenaline! Many of the creatures jumped back a bit. She took this opportunity to bring her hoof back down, letting bullets fly out in a series of bangs until she heard the click at the end of the clip.
Only two creatures remained now. She swung back her crowbar, but the they were already running off, scampering back down the hallway in whimpers.
Twilight holstered her crowbar, breathing hard as she turning back to Spike. His hands were clutching the bottom lip of his gaping mouth, shaking from excitement.
"That... was..."
Twilight walked up to him, leaning over to grasp his body and rest her hoof against his forehead.
"How are you?" she asked quickly. "Still hanging in there?"
"That was INCREDIBLE! Where did you learn to do that!?"
Twilight got up, looking at the pile of alien corpses littering the floor.
"You'll want to save your energy, Spike. We have a long haul ahead of us," she said. "Oh, and watch your step. I don't know where these things have been."
Twilight watched as Spike stumbled forward a bit. His youth gave him energy, but he was far from well. Had they been back in Canterlot, Twilight wouldn't have allowed him to even sit up, much less walk around. But that was then.
"Stay close," she said, walking around the jog. The ceiling lowered back down in this area, and Twilight noticed the air getting thicker... and nastier...
The hallway split at a "T". The left was blocked by a giant ventilation fan that took up the entire wall. The right was also a dead end at a further distance, again with another fan. All up and down the "T" were steel barrels about as tall as Twilight, all emitting a putrid toxic odor. A dumpster sat at the very end of the right hallway, hidden away in a nook.
Twilight walked to the right and noticed another path that she hadn't seen from the split. It went off to the left, but was blocked by crisscrossing metal bars. Even Spike couldn't quite fit through those openings.
"Well, Spike?" she asked. "Any ideas?"
Twilight turned around, looking for her dragon companion and noticed him a couple dozen feet away holding his stomach and limping.
"Spike!" she yelled, trotting up to him. "Spike! Are you alright?"
Spike grasped Twilight as she approached her, leaning into her for support.
"I don't think this smell agrees with me," he moaned.
Twilight got down on the floor and felt his burning forehead before letting him climb onto her back. He struggled to get to the top.
"Don't worry, Spike," she said, getting up and walking carefully back to the bars, "I'll find a way out of here."
Even Twilight herself was getting nauseated from the smell. She needed to get out of here, fast.
"There's a hole in the floor here," she said, noticing a place where a square manhole had been removed just in front of the gate. "There are more drains on the other side. We should be able to worm our way through here."
Spike moaned softly in response, not moving much.
Twilight peered down through the hole and looked around. The hole itself was very shallow: only a few inches thick. The other side hosted the inside of a massive drainage pipe with some fluid inside. The smell was nearly unbearable.
"I wish I could say things were going to get better, Spike," she said as she raised her head, "but it looks like the worst is yet to come. You might want to hold your breath for this part."
As an answer, Spike leaned over the left side of Twilight's back and hurled. Twilight stepped to the right in surprise, trying to dodge the putrid acid and bile as it hit the floor and splashed onto to suit.
Oh, Celestia!, she thought, looking at the pipe she was about to traverse. Why do I have to do this?
She magicked Spike onto the ground, carefully resting him on his back in a corner close to the hole.
"Stay here," she said, walking up to the opening. "I'm going to take a look around."
Spike stayed on his back, staring blankly up at the ceiling trying to hold back the remaining contents of his stomach as Twilight approached the hole. She had an idea of how to pull this off without magic.
Placing her forelegs in front and hind legs in back, she carefully lowered each back hoof into the hole, feeling her flank descend as she held on with her forelegs. She was able to descend almost down to her snout before letting go with her forelegs and slamming into the ankle-deep wreaking fluid below.
She stood up, feeling pain in her stomach every time she breathed in. She looked around the bronze tint of the large pipe around her. It may have been a sewer! Except that there was no fecal matter, replaced instead with some kind of clearish-yellow toxic by-product. It might have been urine, except for the putrid odor that went beyond anything she had smelled in a public restroom.
She tried to keep to the side of the pipe, where the curve to the side brought the floor above the surface of the fluid, walking swiftly around while keeping a mental picture of how the small labyrinth was laid out. Within five minutes, she had found a short route around a U-Bend that led straight underneath one of the drainage hatches, which she popped open with her horn.
The next part was tricky, so she prepared herself before starting. Lighting her horn, she lifted Spike from his position just above the pipe and flew him quickly through the opening and into the pipe. She worked quickly so his time inside was limited, worming his body around the bends and back out the other end, setting him back down on the floor on the other side of the gate.
Twilight had been in the pipe so long now that she herself was about ready to retch! Lighting her horn and switching her magic to uncomfortable levels, she levitated herself through the opening, crawling out to join Spike.
The gate had blocked off the center of an "I" junction, leaving Twilight a non-choice of left or right. A non-choice because the left was blocked by yet another fan.
The smell was much worse on this side of the gate, and as Twilight magicked Spike's body down the tunnel she saw the source. One of the pipes on the wall had broken, and was leaking the yellowish toxic chemical onto the floor where it seeped down into one of the drains in the floor.
Twilight quickly stepped past this and entered a large chamber at the end, roughly half the size of a basket ball court. To the left of the brightly-lit room was a cargo lift setup to descend into the floor, which took up half the entire space on the floor! Hugging the wall around it was a raised platform with ramps for getting up to the top, and a massive lever in the back which Twilight assumed activated the lift.
Spike sputtered and retched again, spitting up bile through his nose as well as it leaked down his face and neck and onto the floor. Twilight lowered him to the ground, where she tore off a bit of the gauze covering her face and used it to dry the vomit off his cheeks. He was looking quite bad now.
"Twi-light?" he stuttered.
"No no no no, don't say anything," she whispered, "save your energy."
He was breathing hard again, but not from disease. Fear was taking over the poor dragon as he lay there burning on the floor.
"Twilight, am I gonna die?"
Twilight kept wiping his face, her hoof now shaking a bit.
"No, no, no, don't think like that, Spike. Don't think like that. I'm gonna get your help. We're gonna get out of here and I'm gonna find help. You're gonna be fine."
She glanced back at the cargo lift, wondering if it was the only way.
"You're not just- *gulp* -saying that?"
Twilight stared back into his eyes, at a complete loss of words. She was hard-pressed not to just hug the poor creature right there in that room until all her strength gave out and she couldn't hold him anymore.
"Spike," she said leaning over, searching for comforting words. There were none that she found particularly appropriate. All of them were outright lies: the worst thing Twilight Sparkle believed you could say to someone in times of distress. Spike deserved better.
"I," she started, and then proceeded to tell the truth, "I can't guarantee anything, Spike," she said at last, "except that you will never see me leave your side until the bitter end. No matter what that end may be."
Twilight was surprised at his reaction to this. His expression was so... complex. She simply couldn't read it. Was that content? It like some kind of strange peace, like all the lies had been some kind of poison of fear she had suddenly drained. It almost brought a flicker of a smile on her face, as some kind of small agreement was being exchanged between them that needed no words to be spoken. She could see a similar flicker flash on his own face.
Having nothing else to say, she lit her horn and carried him over to the cargo lift, setting him down in the middle while she went to the end to peer down at the long descent. There was water at the bottom, and some kind of moving machinery inside the water, but beyond that she couldn't see.
Twilight lit her horn again and hoisted the large lever in the back. It was very heavy and stiff, as if it had never been used.
As the lift traversed the the guides reaching like massive arms down to the bottom, Twilight turned around and caught a glimpse at something in the back of the room: A vent opening, a fan being exposed, a mass of green behind it, a massive number of—
Tennis balls? she thought confusingly.
They were all rolling out, falling in clumps onto the floor, invading the room. There were so many of them.
One of them got just close enough she could see it sliding toward her on the floor, just as the lift descended past floor height. She recognized it! And suddenly she was pulling out her crowbar, looking up expectantly as she watched the floor rise up away from her.
Headcrabs! she thought, a chill flying through her body.
She lit her horn, dragging Spike right next to her. She wanted a close eye on him when the shit hit the fan.
The lift descended at a slight angle, forming a very steep ramp. This would have worked much better had it been a straight drop, causing enough damage to the headcrabs from the fall to end their lives before they had a chance to attack. Instead, she watched as the first green blobs above her slipped over the edge and slid down the steep ramp, landing injured on the lift, but not dead.
The first few simply hit the lift and rolled to the end, pulled by the forward momentum of the ramp and toppling over the edge. For a moment, Twilight was hopeful that she could simply dodge these things and let them fall to their own demise!
But as more and more got pushed over the edge, many of them started colliding with one another, and some of them remained on the lift, dazed by their descent, many of them upside down. Twilight ran up to some of them and started kicking them like green playground balls, sometimes two or three at a time, feeling the blood rush come back each time her hoof contacted their flesh.
As many turned to dozens, she started using her crowbar as a golf club as well, whipping it into large piles and scattering them over the edge. Some of them were jumping around now, trying to get on top of her. She glanced back at Spike, noticing some of the crabs considering him. Running back, she skewed them on her bar one at a time, flinging them away from Spike. And then—
They were on her. Jumping on her from behind. Crawling on her, over the suit, up her legs, down her back. She lit her horn, picking many of them up and slinging them away from her, trying to keep her head straight as horror flooded through her veins. She had remembered, back before her horn got damaged, she used to be able to pick up massive numbers of items at a time. But now, things were different. She had to struggle just to pick up a half-dozen.
This would have worked well, except that they were jumping on her faster than she could pick them up! Dozens of them were now fighting their way to her scalp, many of them getting to her neck before they were flown off. She hovered Spike above her, shaking off the few crabs clinging on to him.
One of the crabs tickled her horn, shocking her into a jumping scream! Thinking of the only thing she could do, she collapsed on the floor and started rolling, pressing the crabs sickeningly into the ground, using her levitation in reverse to press herself into them until they popped like water balloons. Above her, she flailed the crowbar, slamming it into the ground all around her, killing many of them along the way.
Rolling to the edge of the lift until she nearly fell off, she looked around, peeling many of the crabs off her face so she could see. They were at the bottom now!
Without thinking, she turned and ran carrying Spike with her, picking the crabs off her body as she went, grunting from exhaustion. In front of the lift was a small stream of sewer water running through the wall to get processed. To her left was a brown-concrete passage that led away—somewhere—
There were so many of them: dozens of crabs that had slipped off and landed alive on the passage floor all eyeing her as she ran. Dozens of them were crawling towards her, ready to jump.
The passage turned to the right, leading to a floor-less chamber with an L-shaped catwalk. She ran for it, trying to get to the catwalk so she could round the corner into the next passage when fireworks shot off. Green. Electric. Loud. Coming from nowhere! And out from the electric storm dropped a creature she had never seen before, slamming into the corner of the catwalk and tearing it off its base and killing the creature at the bottom of the pit. Twilight stood horrified at the sudden collapse of her escape path!
"WHAT HAPPENED!?" she shouted out loud, completely baffled at the unexplainable phenomenon.
She looked behind her, noticing many of the crabs rounding the corner after her. She needed to act, and fast!
Increasing the strength of her horn, she jumped off the edge into the pit of the room, catching herself with her magic and levitating her body into the air. She was almost blind from her effort, going by feel instead of sight, guiding herself and Spike roughly into the next passage.
She landed running, utterly exhausted, shaking from fright, but still going. This area was some kind of massive maintenance area, having the look and feel of a warehouse, only dirtier. The lights were dimmer than the other area, and the ceiling was arched like a train tunnel.
Reaching the end of the passage, she screeched to a halt, trying to comprehend the new scene in front of her.
The tunnel had spit them out into another sewage-stream in a multi-level room. Twilight was standing on the second level, peering out at a broken catwalk that had spanned the sewage stream flowing orthogonally below. On either side of the deep stream were sidewalks on either side, hugging the walls and following the direction of the flow.
Lighting her horn again, she levitated herself across the gap, smelling the disgust of the running sewage below. She was very weak now, and struggled to hold both of them up.
Reaching the other end, she collapsed both of them to the ground, panting on her side. She barely had any energy to continue, and for a moment she considered simply closing her eyes and giving up. But there was still a touch of adrenaline left in her, pushing at her, forcing her up. Every muscle was now protesting, pushed to their limits.
Lighting her horn, she carried Spike around the corner—
—to a dead-end.
Oh, no, she thought, seeing the blank wall in front of her. No, no, no, no, no...
She walked up slowly and rested her hoof on it, just to be sure it wasn't some trick of the light, and saw something flicker to her left. Something shining. The wall! The wall itself was shining! Why was the wall shining?
Turning her head to look at it dead-on, she felt her heart skip a beat!
Doors!
Metal Doors!
An Elevator!
For a moment she thought she may have been hallucinating or dreaming, the way you see water in the desert. But these doors were close—physical—she could feel them! They were solid! And for the first time since she had left Dr. Yursa's office, she smiled.
"We made it!" she said out loud, feeling jubilation rush through her. "We found it! An elevator!"
A warmth drove through her body, making her forget about her fatigue.
"We made it!" she said, turning towards Spike, almost jumping from her excitement. "WE MADE IT, SPIKE! WE MADE IT!"
She ran up and prodded Spike, wanting so badly to see his reaction at the good news.
"Spike!" she yelled out at him again. "Spike, we found an elevator! We're getting out of here!"
She tapped him a few times with her hoof.
No response.
"Spike! Wake up! We're here!"
She nudged him a few more times playfully, expecting at least a small shudder. A flicker. A blink.
Nothing.
"Spike!" she said, slightly less energetically, leaning in to look at his face. The excitement was draining fast as she looked at him closer.
"Spike?"
Spike was no longer moving. His eyes were staring at the ceiling unseeing, his mouth baring a strange weak expression. It might have been a smile: a remnant of his expression back at the cargo lift.
Twilight bent down and nudged him again.
Again, no response.
She sunk down onto her stomach on the floor, bending over him so she could look into that face, taking in every last scale, every dried tear, every stain of sick, remembering...
"Spike," she whispered, leaning in very close. "We're gonna make it, Spike. We're gonna reach the surface."
She reached a hoof up and starting gently stroking it down his body.
It was cold.
Twilight shook her head, unbelieving.
No, she thought. Not now! Not when we're so close!
Twilight couldn't think of any more words. All her thoughts were jumbled and confused. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't move. All she could do was stare at that creature on the floor. Cold. Indifferent. Empty.
She sat there a few moments in silence, her mind blank, her feelings dwindling, her hope gone.
She whispered his name one last time, hearing it echo around the room.
And then her muscles gave out as her head collapsed onto his body. She could feel tears streaming, but was barely conscious of them as they leaked onto his body. And in that cold hallway tunnel, she sobbed quietly into his scales as the world collapsed around her.