//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 // Story: Experiment: GENESIS // by Typographical Error //------------------------------// Chapter 6 They stared at Sparkle, none of them moving. She just stared back, her eyes wide. Silence fell over the room. It was only broke by Dual laughing. “Follow you?! Oh that’s a good one.” Still laughing he started walking around the room. “Why the hell should we trust you? You have done nothing to help us, only hurt us.” Sparkle’s eyes fell. “I understand, but you have to trust me.” she said, her voice forceful. “You want to escape, right?” Blue stepped forward. “Of course we do. But we are NOT going to trust you. You are the one who brought us in here.” Twilight nodded, biting her lip. “I know I did, and I am sorry for that. But you need to trust me! I can get you out of here, but we need to go now!” Her eyes were pleading, almost as if it was hurting her to have them refuse. Dual stepped towards her, eyes boring into hers. Black against purple. “Give us one reason why we should trust you.” he said, deathly quite. Sparkle shrunk back, her eyes trying to escape his. But they would not release their grip. It was silent for a whole minute, but then she spoke. She was so quite they almost couldn’t hear her. “Because I created you.” she said, her eyes finally leaving Dual’s. Blue felt her legs go numb when she heard this. Was that possible? Was she telling the truth? She looked at the unicorn standing in front of them. They had always wondered who actually made them. But now, they just didn’t believe it. Dual stepped forwards again, his eyes closing to slits. He looked like he was going to kill her. “You’re lying.” he said, voice filled with hate. Three of his wings were flared out behind him, their height almost tripling his own. The forth wing hung limply at his side, still broken. Sparkle looked at this, trying not to meet his glare. She closed her eyes, her horn starting to glow. A space about a yard off the ground started to glow with the same purple aura. Blue watched as the aura slowly too shape, forming something that was metal and plastic. With a small pop, it fully came into existence. She slowly floated it towards Dual, who shied away from it. But the aura surrounded him as well. His wing was stretched out, causing him to gasp in pain. Slowly, his wing folded back into place, held against his side by Sparkle’s magic. The metal object floated over to him, wrapping around the side of his body. His wing was completely covered, wrapped inside the metal jacket. The aura faded, and Sparkle opened her eyes. Dual tried to move his wing, but the brace, as Blue now realized that it was, held it in place. Dual looked up, surprise obvious in his expression. “Why did you do that?” he asked, suspicious. Sparkle cocked her head slightly, looking at his as if he was stupid. “Because I hate to see my...children....hurt.” she answered, pausing before she said ‘children’. The more Blue thought about it, the more it seemed to be true. This unicorn, the one who had re-captured them, was their creator. Their mother. Blue just stared at her, then started to walk slowly towards her. Sparkle stood there, eyes wide and trusting. Blue looked directly into them, looking for any form of lie or deceit. But she found none. “I think we can trust her.” she said quietly, turning back to the others. Dual stared at her, unbelieving. “What!? She just walks in here, claims to be our ‘mother’.” he said the word as if it was acid. “And you want us to trust her?” Blue nodded. “It’s all we can do.” Blue responded calmly. “It’s not like we have any other choice.” She turned back to the unicorn. “What do you want us to do Sparkle?” Sparkle blinked when she heard the name. “Please don’t call me that. They only call me that in the lab.” She held her hoof out to Blue. “Call me Twilight.” Carefully, Blue took the hoof in her own. She smiled as she did. When she let go, Twilight returned to pacing. “We are going to have to fly out.” She looked at Dual, who was still staring at her with distrust. “You are going to feel awkward with the one wing held in place. But since you have four, you should be fine.” She looked them over as one. “You were given extreme strength and stamina, so you should be able to fly where we need to go without to many stops. As for me...” her voice trailed off. Suddenly, Blue noticed a problem. “How are you going to fly?” she asked looking at Twilight’s horn. “I mean, unless we are going to have to carry you...” Twilight laughed. “No, no. I have a plan for this.” she grinned, and her horn started glowing. “I have only ever tried this once, so I hope I do better this time.” She closed her eyes, her expression changing to one of extreme concentration. Out of her horn burst a ribbon of blue. Slowly it grew, longer and longer, twisting as if it had a mind of it own. When it reached a certain length, it broke. Still twisting in the air, it started to descend towards Twilight. Wonder on her face, Blue looked at the other Gens. She could see the same look of amazement, and the ribbon reflected in their eyes. It dropped down to Twilight’s level. Slowly, it started to encircle her, covering her in blue. She rose off the ground, the ribbon carrying her towards the ceiling. It crawled up her body, until just her face was visible. Then, that too disappeared. Bright, white light started to erupt from the cracks in the cocoon. Blue stared until her eyes started to water, then she looked away. She heard what sounded like an explosion. When she next looked, Twilight floated in the air, but she was changed dramatically. Huge, purple wings had sprouted from her back. Slowly, they beat up and down, keeping her aloft. A huge smile had spread across her face. She looked over her shoulder at the wings. A laugh spilled from her lips. Blue had never heard a more delightful sound in all her life. Like bells ringing out. Full of life and hope. She looked down at them, her face covered in a smile. “I have only done this once before, and it didn’t turn out to well.” the smile slipped slightly, but it came back almost immediately. It wasn’t the creepy smile she had always worn, but a softer, kinder smile. A smile that brought you in, not repelled you. Twilight looked over her shoulders, taking in the new wings. “Amazing, real bones and feathers.” She moved the wings up and down a little faster. “New muscles as well. I wonder how long the spell will last this time...” She shook her head. “Never mind. We need to focus on you.” She started pacing, in mid-air. “I am going to have to sneak you past the security system. I don’t know how I am going to do that. Unless....” She looked up at the ceiling. Embedded in the concrete, was a small grate. Blue could fell a slight breeze blowing out of the slats. Twilight flew up to it, still unfamiliar with her new limbs. She pulled the grate away from the ceiling, revealing a hole large enough for a pony to fit through. Twilight smiled and looked down at them. “Do you know what I am thinking?” Dual launched himself into the air, stopping next to Twilight. He flew slightly lop-sided because of the immobile wing. But he soon righted himself, flapping the front right wing faster to keep balanced. He looked Twilight dead in the face. “You want us to go through there?” Twilight nodded. Dual looked at the hole, then slipped inside, his white fur disappearing into the ceiling. Blue could hear metal groan as he started to crawl. “How is it going in there?” Blue called. She heard a laugh. “It’s a regular vacation spot.” he said sarcastically. “Now get up here!” Blue signaled for the others to follow him. One by one, they flew into the hole. Metal groaned and popped as they crawled. She looked down at Twilight. “Are you coming with us?” she asked, worried about her. Twilight shook her head. “I will go back to the lab. Get a coat to cover these beauties.” she flapped her wings, smiling again. “Then I will meet you outside.” she said, turning back to Blue. “All these vents lead to the outside. Just follow your nose, and you should be out in no time.” She reached out and hugged Blue. Surprised, Blue just hung in the air, her wings keeping them both aloft. When Twilight let her go, her eyes were fogged over. “Good luck.” she said, then dropped down onto the floor. She walked back over to the door, the was gone. Blue stared after her for a few seconds, then flew up into the vent. Metal. Tubes of metal met her vision. She crawled along, hearing the metal groan as her weight pushed it down. She could see the dark blue tail of one of the Gens, probably Red. It was pitch black, unless they passed by another grate, which gave them light and a view of the rooms bellow. Twists and turns. She had no idea where they were going, but she trusted Dual. She knew he would get them out. Eventually, after what seemed like a half hour, she heard a triumphant yell. Then she heard the sound of metal hitting concrete. She could see the others jumping into air. Fresh air, she realized. A smile spread across her face, and she picked up the pace. She dove the last three feet, opening her wings when she hit the air. Fresh air, filled with the scent of plants and life, filled her nose. She turned around, looking at where they were. Trees grew tall and green. the sun was high in the sky, their shadows directly bellow them. Twilight was standing there as well, beaming up at them. She launched herself into the sky, stopping when she reached their altitude. Dual was smiling, but his eyes showed distrust. “What now?” he asked, turning around. He was trying to figure out where they were, but he had no clue. Wind was ripping at Twilight’s mane, and she had to yell to be heard. “We need to go that way!” she pointed towards the northeast. “My home is about two days away. We should be able to make it without being spotted. We just have Canterlot to deal with...” she stopped talking, shaking her head. “We will deal with that later.” She started to fly in the direction she pointed. “Come on!” she called. Blue looked at Dual, who nodded. He started to fly after her, the others on his tail. Blue watched them go, then turned back to the lab. She looked down at it. She tried to remember the path they took to get outside, trying to find their room. But she couldn’t remember the path. Her eyes instead turned to the observatory. The place where they first escaped from. She could see new glass in place of the glass they broke. But something caught her eye. She focused on a small, dark spot in the center of the observatory. The spot became a shape, and she shape became a Pegasus. Orange stood in the observatory, waving up at her. Against her will, she raised her hoof and waved back. She looked down at him for a moment, then turned and flew off. She didn’t know if she would see him again, or if she would want to. ***** After the first couple hours of flight, it was obvious that Twilight was not used to this type of physical exertion. Every half hour or so, she would drop altitude, breathing hard. They would have to stop and wait for her to catch up, which put a damper on their escape. By the time the sun was setting, they decided to stop for the night. They made camp in a small clearing in the woods. Dual had no idea where they were, but they were away from the lab. That was all that mattered. When the camp was made, Blue flew off towards the treetops. Dual knew it was so she could watch the sunset. twilight watched her go, then turned back to the others. “We have about a day and a half before we reach my home. I will have to find a way to sneak you past Canterlot, but it shouldn’t be that hard.” She pulled something out of her lab coat. A small, plastic rectangle. She flicked the end and a small flame burst out of the top. She touched it to a pile of leaves and sticks that she had them find. The flame burned until they had a roaring fire. Twilight sat down in front of it, the flames reflecting off her irises. The sun had set and Blue dropped back down onto the ground, a small smile on her lips. Twilight sighed. “If there is anything you want answered, ask me now.” she said, avoiding their eyes. Dual looked around at the others, then turned back to Twilight. “I should probably ask a more important question first but, what was that drug that we were injected with supposed to do?” Twilight looked up when he asked that. She took a deep breath. “It was supposed to create a happy scene. Something you like, or want. Then it was supposed to take that scene and create something terrible out of it. Something that would hurt you on an emotional level.” she paused looking around at the circle of ponies. “I was completely against using it, but we were forced to.” She bowed her head. “I hope you don’t think that I wanted it to be used.” No pony spoke. Blue was lost in her own thoughts. It was meant to create something that the user would like or want? That would explain the butterfly with the colors of the sunset. But what about Dual? He had seen her in the hallucination. Did that mean.... She could feel herself blush. She turned away from the group. When if faded, she turned back. “Ok, I have another.” Dual said. “Why were we created?” Twilight nodded. “I am surprised that you didn’t ask that first.” she said, looking around at the Pegasi. “when it was proposed, we thought it was crazy. Creating a new breed of ponies. Ones stronger and faster than those in existence.” she paused, realizing that she was drifting from the question. “You were created to be the next generation of ponies. Ponies that would be able to survive if something happened to our race. Heightened senses, increased endurance. You were supposed to have a good life. You were supposed to be able to live free. But instead, the Director decided that you needed to be hidden.” Her gaze dropped, the fire casting a shadow over half of her face. “You were supposed to have a life....” Blue watched as Dual stood up. Twilight shied away from him, but he just launched himself into the air. Blue watched him as he went, still wondering about his hallucination. Twilight walked away from the group, the darkness absorbing her dark violet coat. Slowly, the others fell away, sitting by the fire or under the trees. Blue walked into the forest, then launched herself into the trees. She perched herself on top of one of the tree. She curled up on a branch, settling in for the night. But she would not sleep. She would be waiting for Dual. The moon slowly rose, it’s light casting a blue glow over the tree tops. She wondered if Orange was watching it rise. He probably was, this was his favorite time of the day. The wind was pulling at her mane and tail, burning her eyes. Was Twilight telling the truth? Was she really taking them away, hiding them somewhere? She hoped do, she had had too many disappointments in her life, she didn’t want to add this to the list. But what if she wasn’t telling the truth? Where were they going? But if she was telling the truth, would they be accepted? A million questions ran through her head. But the one that popped up the most was; What was up with Dual? For that, just like with all the others, she had no answer. But she would when he got back. And she was going to stay awake until he returned. Looking down, she could see the Gens crowding around the fire. Further off, if she focused, she could see Twilight flying through the forest. She still looked unnatural, slightly tilted to the side. But her expression was one of concentration. She was thinking about something, but Blue didn’t know what. The moon had already risen past the mountains, the whole forest bathed in blue. She could feel her eyelids growing heavy. Just to wake herself up, she jumped off the branch and flew around the tree a couple times. Her muscles had started to ache from the amount of flying They had done in the past week. But she ignored the pain and continued flying, her blood warming up her wings and legs. A smile spread across her face. When she landed back on the branch, she was warm and happy. But the wind was fast sucking away the heat. She hoped Dual would get back soon, or else she would have to go down to the fire, and she would loose her chance to talk to him. Far off in the distance, she could see a small white speck. It slowly grew until it was the size of a pony. Dual ungracefully flew towards the camp, a look of annoyance on his face. Blue waved him down, and he turned and flew towards her. He landed next to her, a small creak escaping from the branch. He wasn’t facing her, but instead looking back the way he came. He turned and saw her looking at him. “What is it?” he asked, curious. Blue Opened her mouth, but then decided something. “It’s nothing.” She turned back to the moon. Dual put an arm around her shoulder, puller her closer. They watched as the moon rose over the land, together.