Hope lay on his bedroll, looking up at the ceiling as he let out a soft sigh. He looked over to Stark, who was clutching his stomach and gagging slightly. Hope then turned his head to Flash, who was sleeping on his own bedroll. Hope looked back up and sighed, not really being able to sleep. He was worried about what would happen to them. If Twilight would keep to her promise that, if they acted and behaved well enough, they’d be free. But the tests seem terrible, he had no idea if he would be able to go through with those. Stark was still complaining about what he had to endure and he didn’t feel good at all. Hope looked back to Stark, who gazed back into Hope’s red eyes.
“This is your fault...” Stark muttered, sniffling. Hope’s eyes went wide and he sat up, his breathing increasing in speed. “You told us to go inside...In that cottage... Look where we are now..” Stark grumbled as he slowly stood. “Now we’re test subjects... We’re objects in their eyes and if they succeed, we’re the key to figuring out how they can defeat the hive, defeat our queen...” Stark told Hope, approaching him. “You red-eyed bastard... Flash always told me you were something special, but no. You’re just a defect egg!” Stark yelled, his hoof suddenly raising and slamming across Hope’s face, causing Hope to yelp and roll over, quickly standing up.
“Stark, stop!” He yelled, backing away from him, but he stumbled on the sleeping Flash and fell over him. Flash woke up and glanced around, rather confused.
“What’s happening?” He mumbled, looking over at Hope, then at Stark.
“This is all your fault!” Stark yelled. He grabbed Hope’s hind legs and dragged him closer, raising his hoof again. The hoof punched down on Hope’s nose, causing the red-eyed changeling to scream in pain.
“Stop!” Hope yelled, receiving a smack across his cheek. Hope covered his face with his hooves, looking over to Flash, who was just watching with a confused stare. He whimpered as Stark pulled on his hooves, making Hope’s face free. His hoof raised up again...and rushed down.
“Don’t!” Hope yelled as he woke up, jolting up from his bedroll. He panted heavily, sweat dribbling from his forehead as he looked around in panic. Stark was in the corner, clutching his stomach and squirming in pain. Flash got up and frowned.
“Hope, are you okay..?” He muttered. Hope merely nodded, thanking Chrysalis the whole thing was just a dream. They both looked over at Stark, who was trembling in the corner. Hope approached him and placed a hoof on his forehead.
“You’re cold..” Hope whispered. “Yet sweating...” He added. With a soft sigh he lay down next to Stark. he gazed in his eyes, Flash approached from behind to check on Stark too.
“She fed me raw chicken and raw eggs, Hope...” Stark said, gulping. “It’s natural that I feel terrible right now,” He told him, looking back at Hope. Flash sighed, staying silent. They just sat there, watching each other. Flash looked around and moved to the bars, inspecting all the walls.
“No clock...How do we know if it’s night or not?” He mumbled. he looked back to Stark and Hope.
“Twilight said she feeds us at 1300 and 2000. The only way we’ll actually know what time it is, is when she feeds us.” Stark said. But he suddenly stood up and frowned. Hope looked up at him, looking rather worried as he knew what was about to come. “I’m going to throw up...” Stark muttered. Flash looked over at Stark, wide-eyed.
“What? Where! There’s nothing to throw up in!” He yelled in panic. Stark shook his head and rushed over to the other side of the cage, poking his head out of the bars and gagging slightly. Hope covered his nose as Stark released his sick. The sounds of splashing and Stark gagging made both Hope and Flash wince. Flash grabbed the bottle of water given to them before, which was already half empty. He walked over to Stark, fighting the stench of Stark’s sick as he gave the bottle. Stark mouthed a soft “Thank you” before taking a large gulp of water, coughing slightly. Both Flash and Hope were still holding a hoof in front of their noses. Stark flew up slightly and started flapping his wings fast, trying his best to send the stench into another direction.
“Why did she even make you eat that stuff?” Flash asked with a disgusted grunt, turning away from the vomit and walking over to where Hope was, the other side of the cage. Stark took another sip of water and snorted slightly.
“Because she sees us as a completely new species.” Stark replied. “She never heard of changelings until now. She doesn’t know what we do or how we work. She thinks feeding us everyday household edibles will have big effects on us, while it doesn’t.” Stark replied, coughing slightly.
“How do you know?” Flas asked, sitting down next to Hope.
“I guessed, judging by her actions...And I also had a bit of a peek on her clipboard when I could,” Stark explained, staying close to the bars and still flapping his wings. “And you two...especially Hope... Don’t talk to her.” Stark grumbled.
“She said that if we work with her, she’ll let us go.” Hope said, looking up at Stark.
“That’s exactly what she wants, Hope. She wants us to tell her everything, so she can scoop out our weak points.” Stark said. “We’re giving ourselves away to the enemy. Flash was revealing there’s a flight academy inside the hive! Next time she’s down here, you say nothing to her!” Stark yelled. Hope sighed and nodded, while Flash simply leaned back against the cage. Stark stopped flapping his wings now, still clutching his stomach as he joined his two friends. Flash took a good look around the room, memorizing what was inside it. Tables with tools and vials, the large metal table in the middle. But only now he noticed that there was a cabin in the corner, not far from the door that leads out of this room. He started wondering what the cabin could contain. He also started wondering what the time is, again. With the lights constantly on, he had no idea if it was midnight or eight in the morning, and he hated it. He didn’t like having no awareness of the time at all. Flash kept looking around the room, examining everything. The metal arms, the vials, the tools. Surely , this lab had been used before their arrival?
Flash sighed and stepped back from the bars, sitting down on one of the bedrolls. He wanted to go back to the hive, but then again, he was pretty sure Hope and Stark had the desire for the exact same thing. Flash looked over to them. Hope was just playing with his own hooves, sunken in thoughts, while Stark was also just looking around, one hoof resting on his stomach. He slowly brought the bottle back to his lips, taking a sip, before looking back at Flash.
“I’m going to try and get some sleep.” Stark said. “My stomach’s better...slightly...” He added, crawling on to one of the bedrolls. He lay down and sighed, closing his blue eyes in an attempt to sleep. Hope gazed at Stark and sighed, but he smiled slightly as Flash sat down next to him again.
“What did you dream about?” Flash whispered, gazing at Stark. Hope gulped and also looked at Stark.
“I...Nothing...” Hope whispered softly. He rubbed his hooves over each other, occasionally rubbing the tip of a hoof over one of the holes in his leg. He wondered why those holes were there, really. It wasn’t really practical, they can get stuck easily and it slows them down while flying. It bothered Hope to the account where he suddenly lifted his hoof and asked Flash why they were there. but Flash saw this as an attempt at changing subject, so he slowly pushed Hope’s hoof down and sighed, asking again what his dream was about. Hope sighed and gulped, staring at Stark. He seemed to be asleep while letting out grunts every now and then.
“I...” Hope muttered. “Stark was getting mad at me... He was blaming me for this whole situation and then he started beating me up and you didn’t do anything about it...” Hope muttered, letting out a slight whimper. He sniffled and looked at Flash.
“Stark wouldn’t do that... And this is not the fault of any of us...” Flash said. “Stark realizes that, and we all know that if we want to get out of here, we’ll need all three of us.”
Hope stared at the slightly smiling Flash, merely nodded and sighed, going back to examining the holes in his hooves. He was rather bored, in this cage. Even though it wasn’t the main problem, Hope would like something to keep himself busy. But he suddenly gasped and looked up, blushing slightly.
“Uh...” He muttered. “I...uh...”
“What is it?” Flash asked with a frown, noticing how Hope is shifting and squirming slightly. His hooves went down hold themselves on his private area.
“I need to...pee...” He whispered. Flash groaned and slapped a hoof on his face, a bit more painful than intended.
“We don’t have anywhere to dispose of it..” Flash whispered back. Hope gulped and squirmed. “Can’t you hold it in?” Flash whispered.
“For how long? I don’t know when she’ll be back...” Hope replied as he bit his lip. He gulped slightly as he held his hooves on his crotch. “T-The bread was in a bowl...” Hope said softly. Flash frowned and looked over to their food. Half a loaf of bread was left and it was indeed resting in a bowl. Flash moved over to pick it up, lifting the bread out of it.
“Is it going to be big enough?” He asked, showing the bowl to Hope.
“I sure hope so.” Hope said, grabbing the bowl and moving to a corner. He sighed and looked at Flash, blushing slightly. “Can you turn around please?” Hope said sheepishly. Flash sighed and turned around, while Stark was still asleep. The sound of a stream of liquid splashing in a bowl and filling it up echoed through the room. Flash sighed, but frowned as he heard Hope squeak. Once the sound of the stream stopped, Flash turned around. His eye twitched slightly as he saw most of Hope’s urine had spilled over.
“This cage is getting unsanitary fast...” Flash mumbled. “Now she’ll think we’re dirty animals.” lash sighed. Hope blushed and looked down to the bowl.
“It’s really hard to aim in that...” He said softly, walking back to Flash. Flash sighed and sat down.
“Lets just hope she’ll clean this mess up tomorrow...or today... Well, ever.” Flash grumbled. They were only stuck for a few hours but the limitation of having no knowledge of time was driving Flash crazy. He couldn’t bear it. It was so annoying for him that he started tapping his hoof on the floor nervously. It created a rather annoying tick. Hope wasn’t really bothered by things like this, because he mostly keeps himself distracted and busy. Stark, on the other hand, is quickly annoyed with repeating sounds. This time was no exception. The ticking made him wake up and he grumbled.
“Flash, will you stop it? I need sleep!” Stark complained. Flash sighed and stopped the ticking with his hoof, glancing around once more. Stark sniffed slightly and looked over to the bowl, grunting.
“Who pissed in our food bowl?” Stark sighed, looking over to Hope and Flash. Flash pointed to Hope, who on his turn gained red cheeks and made himself a bit smaller, letting out a rather nervous chuckle. “Hope, for Chrysalis’ sake, did you really piss on the bread?” Stark yelled.
“No! Flash took the bread out.” Hope said, while Flash waved half the loaf of bread in the air. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t keep it in.” Hope muttered, sighing as he dragged his hoof over the floor slightly. Hope felt rather embarrassed that she had to perform such things in front of his friends. Stark sighed and lay back down, trying to resume his sleep.
And then the silence came again. Each changeling was minding their own business. Stark was asleep, Flash was inspecting the room and Hope had resorted to counting how many holes were in his body. But the room started getting rather cold and Flash was the first one to start shivering from it. Then Hope felt his body cool down and soon the cold woke Stark up.
“It’s getting really cold in here...” Hope muttered. Flash and Stark nodded. “Maybe if we get close, we can warm each other up?” He suggested. Flash and Stark gazed at Hope, both frowning. Hope blushed slightly. “It’s just an idea...” He muttered.
“Alright then...” Flash mumbled, not sounding too enthusiastic as he moved close to Hope. Stark sighed and did the same, and soon the three were snuggled close against each other, with Hope in the middle. “Hmm...this actually works.” Flash said, smiling slightly.