//------------------------------// // Unforgivable // Story: Born of Sin // by Unholyheaven //------------------------------// The orange Pegasus filly stood inside of a large and long chamber. Across the chamber were five doors. Beside the filly was a box. The filly stood tense, unmoving, her eyes fixated on the box beside her. She was on two legs while wearing a set of precision gloves. She was five and a half years old now, and had spent most of her time on two legs, so she was perfectly balanced in her stance. The voice of Stedson Cog came over an intercom to announce her instructions. “This will be a live fire test 522. When the bell rings, you must assemble your weapon and hit the five targets. There is a soft timer involved, so make sure you move fast.” The orange filly smiled up at an observation room where she could see Stedson looking down at her. Beside him was Upper Rear Admiral Day, who was here to view the progress of the Iron Feather unites. She held her smile and shouted, “I won’t let you down daddy,” before looking back down at the box again. “Daddy?” asked Happy. “Well… they are still fillies sir. It’s only natural they’d try to label an adult as their parental figure,” explained Stedson. “It’s nothing you should worry about. Just enjoy the test, I’m sure you’ll be pleased with the results.” He was confident in 522’s abilities. So far every single unit in today’s inspection had performed well. A bell went off, and the box beside the filly opened revealing a number of weapon components. Across the room the five doors opened, and five zerglings were revealed. The monsters were dog like creatures, with razor sharp claws and teeth, as well as an exoskeleton instead of fur. In addition to four legs, they had two more scythe like arms coming out of their backs. As soon as the box and doors opened, the filly quickly began gathering weapon parts and started assembling a rifle. The five hungry zerg, seeing fresh meat in front of them, quickly took off sprinting at full speed. The filly felt the sweat running down her fur as she frantically raced against the “soft timer” that Stedson had mentioned. After the weapon had been assembled, there were still five bullets left in the box, along with a magazine. 522 quickly loaded the bullets into the magazine, then inserted the magazine into the rifle and prepped it to fire. As the filly looked up, the five targets were but ten yards away. Due to the filly’s age and small stature, she was only rated for a small rifle befitting her size. The zerg creatures she was facing however were quite resilient to injury, and with a low caliber rifle, only a head shot would guarantee a kill. Anything else would simply anger them. She aimed in and fired four rounds, quickly bringing down four zerglings. She turned to the fifth zergling, now mere feet away, fired, and successfully landed a head shot. Unfortunately as it fell to the ground, its scythe arms were already extended towards her. One of the scythes fell on her, impaling her rear right leg through the center. As the creature fell, the scythe fell with it, making its way down her leg and splitting the bone down the middle. The filly shouted in pain and fell over, the scythe still shoved through what was left of her leg. “522!” shouted Stedson. He quickly ran out of the observation deck towards the lower chamber. Upon entering, Stedson ran towards unit 522 to see her leg was effectively crippled. She would likely never walk again. “I’m sorry daddy, I wasn’t fast enough,” she said with tears in her eyes. It wasn’t so much the injury that was getting to her, as much as the fact she had just let Stedson down. Stedson wrapped his hooves and right wing around the injured filly. “It’s ok, it’s ok. You did very good 522. I’m very proud of you.” “Really?” asked the filly as she smiled, despite the pain she was in. “I’m glad I could… make you happy daddy.” The filly started panting and finding it difficult to breath due to the blood loss. “Get a medic in here!” shouted Stedson. Stedson stood in front of the maimed Iron Feather unit as she lay in her hospital bed. Happy was busy inspecting the remaining units, so Stedson had been left alone to comfort the filly. It was a sad sight seeing his once perfect creation in this state. Half of her rear right leg had been amputated, effectively ending her career as a soldier before it could begin. Stedson brushed 522’s purple mane gentility. While an unfortunate fate, he was grateful she was still alive. “Doctor, you know as well as I do that thing won’t ever walk again,” said Happy as he entered the room. “We can’t sell bad merchandise, and we’re not wasting funds maintaining a damaged IF unit. Get rid of it,” demanded Happy. “Sir please, she’s just a child!” replied Stedson. Happy raised an eyebrow. “That’s a rather disturbing statement Doctor. I’m afraid all the time spent on this station has taken its toll on your state of mind. Perhaps we need to relieve you from this project,” suggested Happy. “Sir no! I assure you there is nothing wrong with me,” replied Stedson. “Then get rid of this IF unit,” repeated Happy. “Sir I’ll… I’ll pay for this unit!” said Stedson. “For that thing?” asked Happy. “Well… looking at the damage I guess you’d buy it cheap. The problem is we don’t pay you. You’re dead remember?” “I’ll… I’ll…” Stedson had to think of something to say. He couldn’t just let Happy throw her into a waste bin. “Actually I have a better idea. I think she’ll be more useful to us alive after all,” said Happy. “Thank you sir. I promise I’ll find a way to put 522 to good use,” said Stedson. “I’ve already thought of that. I have a contact in Consortium space who is always looking for test subjects. They’re always doing some crazy experiment or another, but finding willing candidates is always an obstacle. I’m sure he’ll find a use for this damaged IF unit,” said Happy. He looked down at the damaged product and thought about how much money had been poured into that thing. “If anything, it’ll help offset set the medical expenses of keeping it alive this long.” “Sir we can’t do that!” argued Stedson. “If you hand her over, she’ll just be a lab animal to them. They’ll dissect her, expose her to diseases, test weapons on her!” “And?” asked Happy. “And… we’ve invested too much into this unit just to throw away like that,” argued Stedson trying to appeal to his sense of logic. “It’d be a waste of a unit.” “Doctor I appreciate your concern for the project, but we still have 998 functional IF units. One unit will not be missed,” said Happy. “This failure aside, most of your test subjects performed admirably today Stedson, so keep up the good work. I’ll be back in six years, though expect to see other inspectors periodically. As always, cause any trouble, and the guards will put you down.” Happy started walking out of the medical bay. Before the doors closed behind him, he turned around and shouted, “Six years Stedson, don’t screw this up!” Stedson looked down at 522, who was still passed out. He bent down and wrapped 522 in his hoofs. He couldn’t begin to imagine the kind of horrors in store for her as a lab animal, but he knew he couldn’t let that come to pass. Stedson began going through the medical supplies, looking for a certain bottle. 522 had finally awoken, though she was still very weak. “Daddy… I can’t feel my leg,” she said. “Can you fix me daddy?” Stedson filled a syringe with a lethal dose of sedative and approached 522. “Daddy is going to fix you. He’s going to take you away to a better place now. You won’t ever have to do any of these horrible things ever again.” “Where am I going daddy?” she asked. “Remember what happened to unit one?” he asked. He was refereeing to the Iron Feather unit that was given to Vincent and Sarah Iron feather as payment for their dead son’s genetic material. “She went away to live with another mommy and daddy. You said they gave her a name and were going to take care of her,” replied 522. “You said she was adopted. “That’s right honey. You’re about to be adopted. You’ll have a new daddy, and mommy too. You’ll be given a name, and you’ll have a nice house to live in. You’ll be happy there,” lied Stedson. He hated lying to her face like this. He’d also have to tell her sister’s the same lie when they started to ask him where 522 went. 522 smiled as her eyes filled with tears. “Thank you.” she said. “You’ll still visit right?” “Yes… I’ll always visit you 522,” assured Stedson. Finally he injected the weakened filly with the sedative. “Daddy… I feel… sleepy,” she said. “Go to sleep 522, it’ll all be better in the morning,” promised Stedson. 522’s eyes started to close. She got out one last sentence. “I’ll... miss you… daddy.” 522 finally went silent. Stedson began to cry as he heard those words. “I’ll miss you too. I’m sorry,” he said as he bowed his head in front of the motionless filly. He wasn’t sure if he could ever be forgiven for what he had been forced to do.