Burning, stabbing, constricting, pain. Your ribcage feels like it has been torn open and then haphazardly slapped back together. You take in a deep gasping breath, the increased pain causing you to almost pass out again. You manage to keep yourself conscious but the pain is still as strong as it was before. You try to open your eyes but they are already open. You look around blearily, trying to get your bearings. You can't see anything at all, the room is completely black. "Hello?" you yell, your mouth dry. "Anypony there?" you ask, hoping for an answer. Your voice echos hollowly. You wait patiently and are soon rewarded with an answer.
"Good morning, Patient Alpha Iota Nine," says a pleasant sounding mare's voice from the darkness, honey dripping from every word. "Do you have a name?"
You try your best but all you can remember before waking up is hate. Hate for something unknown. "Wh-what's my name?" you ask hesitantly. "I can't remember anything," you say, keeping your feeling to yourself.
"Good," she says, seeming satisfied. "What do you remember Patient Alpha Iota Nine?"
"I already told you; I can't remember anything," you say. "What is my name? Where am I? Who are you? What is going on?"
"Your name is Patient Alpha Iota Nine, this is Facility Zero Zero One Three, who I am is not important, and you will find out soon enough," she says, the pleasantness of her voice soothing any conflicting thoughts you might have about her shady answers. "You are lying to me, Patient Alpha Iota Nine," she says suddenly, completely emotionless besides what now seemed like faked pleasantness.
"But—" you start, before being cut off.
"Goodnight, Patient Alpha Iota Nine," says the mare.
"Hello?" you ask, "Are you still there?" You question is met with silence.
Hours have passed since the mare left, you have discovered a collar around your neck attached to something below your hooves. The collar is made of a soft leather and reinforced with metal. Now that you know that it's there, you can't stop thinking about it, tugging at it. The chain is made of a cold, hard steel, and the links disappear into a small hole in the floor.
You try calling out again. "Hello? Anypony there?" Your voice is hoarse from shouting. "Can I get some water?" you ask with a burning in your throat. Thinking about your thirst make you think about the hunger gnawing at your stomach.
You are dehydrated, you are sure of it. You don't know how long it has been since you woke up. It feels like days, weeks, months. But it can't have been, that would mean you would be dead. Right?
"Good morning, Patient Alpha Iota Nine, how are you feeling today?" came the same, pleasant mare's voice.
"Thirsty, hungry. Water..." you croak, your voice rasping out through your teeth.
"Good, good," she says. "Now hold still."
You are too weak to move so you just lie there, waiting for her to do whatever it is she wants to do. You couldn't even stop her if you wanted to. You feel a sharp stabbing in your hip, right above your cutie mark. That thought makes you pause for a moment. Do you even have a cutie mark? ...On that note, what is a cutie mark? All you can remember is a vague feeling of desire whenever you think about those two words.
"Wha di you doto meee?" you ask, your voice beginning to slur.
"Goodnight, Patient Alpha Iota Nine," says the mare.
You wake up. You feel fine, amazing. But you still can't remember anything beyond the first morning.
"Good morning, Patient Alpha Iota Nine. How are you feeling today?" asks the mare.
"I feel amazing!" you shout, ecstatic.
"Very good. Now hold still," says the mare, her pleasant voice giving you no desire to disobey her.
You patiently sit still for a short while, a contented smile on your face. You really weren't lying when you said you felt amazing. You feel in peak condition, better even. Like you could run up a mountain and not be out of breath. You are distracted by the sound of something heavy whipping through the air. It smashes into your left foreleg, shattering your knee, blood spewing everywhere. You scream in agony for what seems like hours, writhing in pain.
"Goodnight, Patient Alpha Iota Nine," says the mare when you pause for a breath.
You answer her with screaming.
You wake up. You are not sure when you went to sleep, but you are now fully awake. "That was a crazy dream," you mumble, rubbing your knee that you thought was broken. If you concentrated enough you could even feel some scars.
"Good morning, Patient Alpha Iota Nine," says the same mare, but this time there was spite in her voice. "You have failed them," she spat.
"What did I do?" you ask, mystified and nervous.
"You are remembering. Remembering is forbidden and punishable by death," she continued.
"But—" you start.
"There are no excuses, no exceptions," she hissed. "No ways out," she said with a sad undertone. "Not even for me..." she says, fading off into a whisper.
"What is going to happen to me?" you ask, more than a little worried now.
"Rest in peace, Patient Alpha Iota Nine," she says, spitting out each word like a curse.
"Mare? Mare! Hello?! Mare!?" you call, hoping for an answer.
You see a small door open up high above your head on the wall. It's not really even a door, it's just a pony-sized square of dim light with water pouring out of it. Massive amounts of water are flowing into the room and it is beginning to fill with water. "Help!" you yell, struggling against the chain. You collapse in defeat after a minute off futility. You are suddenly struck with a random thought: don't ponies have different abilities depending on their species? What kind of pony are you? You don't even remember that. You carefully feel around your head and back. You feel...
>A protrusion from your forehead.
>Extra limbs on your back.
>Nothing out of the ordinary.
Voting is now closed.
No more votes for this chapter please.