The child and the past
Onyx woke with his head throbbing in the infirmary. He hoisted himself up only to be knocked down again by his friends.
“Onyx, are you alright?”Derpy gave him a concerned look, or as concerned as she could with her eyes. “You have been unconscious for two days.”
Onyx dismissed her concern with a wave of his hoof, “Yeah, yeah I’m fine, just a headache.”
“So you’re not hungry or anything?” Soarin asked cautiously.
“Nope,” Noticing the fear in his movement. “What happened?” He asked quickly.
The all looked at each other nervously, Sapphire finally spoke up. “It’s a little inaccurate, but you went into a primal rage, though you were still intelligent, attacking a scientist and Luna.” She quickly backed up from Onyx after her explanation.
Onyx sat there thinking and looked back at Sapphire. “Anything else?”
“You kept saying something about our technology and us being weak.” A voice explained. “Also about how you will bring ponies back to being strong.” A scientist came up next to Onyx looking him in the eye.
Onyx returned his gaze, “So I’m guessing you were the one I attacked?”
“Correct, but now we know how to control you when you get like that.” He turned to leave.
“You do know he will be prepared for it next time, if there is one.”
The scientist stopped and turned around, “What do you mean, and why do you say him?”
Onyx chuckled, ‘First off, I have no control over that creature. Second off, he is an intelligent being, he will overcome every obstacle to reach his goal, be it living or not.”
The scientist stared at him for a moment, “I will inform the others. The rest of you leave him to rest, besides its after curfew.”
“Yes Sir!” They all answered and walked off to their rooms. The scientist turned back to Onyx, “When you are feeling better you may return to your room.”
“Thank you sir.” The scientist smiled and left Onyx alone in the infirmary.
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Onyx awoke again with a nagging feeling in the back of his head. He felt like something was pulling him somewhere. With a start, he got out of the bed and walked out of the infirmary, into the eerily quiet hallway of the facility. He shivered from fear of the unnaturally quiet hallway and looked around. There were; no guards, no late night mailmares, nothing, just silence. He thought for a moment and came to the conclusion Abbaddon was just messing with him.
“Okay Abbaddon, you got me, you can stop now.”
~What are you talking about, I was sleeping.” Abbaddon grumbled, the drowsiness apparent in his voice.
Onyx’s eyes widened as he heard Abbaddon say that. This wasn’t a hallucination, something was wrong here. The feeling returned and tugged him towards the left hallway, being powerless to stop it, he walked towards it. The invisible guide led him around the facility going into corridors Onyx never knew about or even heard of. He stopped in front of a metal grate that controlled the temperature of the facility.
“Are you sure?” He whispered to what he believed was nothing. Sending another shiver down his spine, he felt a presence nod.
He removed the grate from the wall and crawled in, making sure to reapply it to cover his tracks. Crawling through the vents the presence guided him past other subjects and scientist’s rooms, he was stopped over a grate inside a pitch black room. Adjusting his vision, he peered through the cracks in the gate to see the tanks lining the walls, along with something floating inside them. He felt the presence urging him on and he reluctantly opened the grate. As soon as he was out of the vents a light turned on illuminating a desk at the end of the room. He walked towards the desk, afraid of what he would find in the stacks of papers the covered it. He stopped halfway to the desk and stared at it, trying his hardest not to go back to the infirmary.
“Don’t stop.”
The whisper terrified Onyx as it came from nowhere yet everywhere, and echoed in the room. Obeying the voice, he walked the rest of the way to the desk and stared at the papers.
“Read.”
With a shivering hoof he picked up the closest one, and read
[Subject 153 failed, instability within lung caused a rupture and made her drown. Subjects; 154, 159, and 157 still live, will proceed with extra caution on next tests.]
Onyx fear fled as he read the paper and questions started forming within his mind. Who was subject 153? Why has he never met 154 and 159? He picked up another paper and started reading.
[Subject 157 has grown at a phenomenal rate, we had to move him to a larger capsule to support his size. He is as big as Luna now. Sadly 154 awoke too early and broke his capsule. Could not survive without the nutrients and died moments later.]
[Subject 157’s eyes opened today, Luna was here to see them. They were strange, the outsides were black and there was only the Iris’, adding on they were red. We must keep a close eye on him.]
[159 still has not grown from a foal, 157 will not listen to the command we hardwired into him, and to add on to that the scientists are going mad saying there are ghosts. The initial test was a failure but maybe we can train 157 naturally.]
Onyx moved the papers aside and saw photos underneath. He picked up one that said “157-5 weeks.” It was him and he was floating inside a tank, he didn’t look any different than what he looked like now. The computer monitor on the desk turned on in front of him and it showed a scene with him and some scientists.
“157 commands, test one.” The scientist announced, turning to Onyx, “Battle, no response, Raise the flag.” A flag came out of the center of the room. “Defend this flag, now Starlight, take it from him.” The mare with him walked over to the flag, took it out of the ground, and walked back. The Onyx with them stared confused. The scientist sighed, “Shut down the camera, this is a failure.” The monitor shut off.
Onyx stared at the blank monitor dumbstruck, “Was I supposed to be a pawn for them to order around on a whim?”
“Yes, just like the rest of us”
He turned around to see semi-translucent ponies standing around him. One stepped forward and looked at him happily. “You are what we truly wished to create, a living being that can think for himself. Luna, however wished to create soldiers so she could have revenge on her sister. 157, we ask one thing of you.” He turned to one of the capsules and a light turned on from under it, showing a small floating filly. “Take this child, I believe she will not be as lucky as you were. Give her a chance to live like a normal pony.
Onyx stared at the small filly in the capsule, and imagined how she would be if she became a slave to Luna. “Everyone deserves a life of freedom, even artificial creations.”
The pony sighed happily, “Thank you 157, we will always be with you.”
Onyx returned the old pony’s smile, “It’s Onyx.”
“Alright Onyx this child is now your daughter, treat her as one and let her live her life.” He started to fade, “We will watch you.”
Once all the spirits disappeared Onyx went to work trying to release the filly. He twisted the valves to drain the water and unlocked the capsule. He reached in and cradled the sleeping filly in his hooves. Turning to leave he heard voices coming from the door, narrowing his eyes he went back into the air vent and reapplied the grate. Instead of leaving quickly, he stayed and listened to the ponies that entered the room.
“Are you sure there is still hope for 157, that change in him might be dangerous.”
“I never thought we would be able to program 157, Luna believed she would be able to train him as a loyal soldier.”
Onyx felt anger at being called a number and the thought of being controlled. He latched onto the voices with blood magic and drained the oxygen from them, effectively killing them. Satisfied, he made his way back to his room is the rest wing. Setting the child on the bed he took a better look at his now adopted daughter. She was a dark brown, with a light green mane. He covered her in his blanket to keep her warm and sat to digest what he learned. So far what he learned was; he was not supposed to be alive, his intention was to be a mindless slave, Luna was trying to create an army. But for what? He looked back at the child as she let out a small sneeze. He had a new purpose now, he was not going to let anyone become a slave, especially the child.
~You’re joking right, tell me you’re joking?~ Abbaddons voice pierced his thoughts.
“What’s your problem now?”
~You must have had the cheesiest thought have ever known. Wait, no, there was that one guy… never mind the second.~ Abbaddon sounded on the verge of laughter.
“And what makes you think I can’t?” Onyx was annoyed.
~Well first, you have a child to take care of now. Second, how can you guarantee that the people you free were slaves and not just, say, paying off debts?~ His form appeared in front of Onyx. ~Besides, not like you are going anywhere anytime soon.~
Abbaddon had a point, Onyx had no way of leaving the station. His stomach rumbled, breaking his thoughts.
~I got it, don’t want to murder your new daughter now.~ Abbaddons form smiled slyly.
Onyx was about to say something when his stopped growling. Surprised Onyx looked at Abbaddon, “Have you always been able to do that?”
~Yes.~ He smiled slyly.
Onyx was about to yell at him about not doing that more often, but thought against it. Abbaddon had ways of weaseling his way out of conversations and he wanted to sort out his newly discovered past.
~Really? You are going to think about that train wreck?~ Abbaddon said, reading his mind. ~The past is the past, get over it.~
“Says the one who is literally part of sin.” Onyx shot back at him.
~Hey now, it is not a sin to be scared.~ Abbaddon stated. ~It just allows me to get stronger off your torment….~
Onyx just stared at him, “So to the ponies back on Equis, I am, and in likewise you, are a living manifestation of Sin.
Abbaddon slumping his ethereal shoulders in defeat looked at Onyx. ~You win, so what first?~
“Well first we need to find a way to get her food.” Onyx said looking at the filly, “And give her a name of course.” Just after he finished the alarm went off in the facility.
-ALL PONIES IN FACILITY, LUNA HAS MORPHED EARLY, EVACUATING ALL PODS BACK TO EQUIS-
Onyx felt his pod shift as it was rocketed out of the facility back to the planet. He looked at Abbaddons form, “Impossible, its too early, she was supposed to be imprisoned for 1000 years.” Abbaddon just shrugged and continued looking bored.
“Could you at least put some cushions around the filly, I’m a little stuck at the sudden lack of gravity” Onyx asked him.
~Oh my you do have a heart~ Abbaddon remarked sarcastically, putting a small shield around the filly.
“Thank you.” Onyx said and tried to gain foothold as they fell into orbit.