//------------------------------// // Chapter 8 // Story: Experiment: GENESIS // by Typographical Error //------------------------------// Chapter 8 A few minutes later, they were all sitting in Twilight’s kitchen. Rainbow Dash stared at Dual and the rest, Twilight watching her, standing in the doorway. She was biting her lip, extremely nervous. Rainbow stared for a few seconds more, then turned to Twilight. “Are you going to explain this?” she asked, eyes flashing between Twilight and the Gens. Nodding, Twilight took a deep breath. “From the beginning?” she asked, walking over to sit next to Blue. Rainbow nodded. “OK...well, you know that I got a job at the lab twenty years ago, right? Well, what I didn’t tell you, is that I do genetic research and engineering.” she said, not looking at Rainbow. “It started out as mapping the Equine Genome, simple as that. But once we finished that, well...they wanted more.” She got up and started to pace, giving Rainbow a solemn look. “They felt that if they could....change.... the genetic sequence of our DNA, we could become....better...than we already are. These five are the result of that.” She smiled at Dual and the others, who were just staring, rapt. “I was in charge of this project, and, naturally, did most of the work. I was the pony who found out how to break apart DNA and replace parts of it. I am also the pony who brought you into existence.” she said, turning to look at them. “When I found out how to change DNA, we tried, unsuccessfully, to grow new ponies with the DNA.” Her gaze dropped to the floor, bottom lips trembling. “None survived. It was impossible to have zygotes with the changed genetic structure. We needed a living cell. So, I did the natural thing, and took a tissue sample.” “From whom?” Rainbow asked, looking at Twilight with a mixture of interest and pity. “Myself.” she said, sitting down again. “I took a sample from my own hoof, removed the DNA, and inserted the new genes into it. After, we put the new cells into a compound that would stimulate growth into a natural, pony form. You grew with no problems, surpassing all of our standards.” She turned to the Gens, who were still staring at her. “Your very first cell, which has long since died, came from me. Your very genetic structure was designed by me, and built by me. We share no blood, no genes at all, but I still consider you my children.” “But, why?” Rainbow asked, standing up. “Why were they created?” “The scientists wanted to see how advanced we could make ourselves, how fast we could speed up evolution.” She turned and pointed at Dual, his four wings folded on his side, his muscles flexed even though he was sitting. Eyes showing intelligence, anger, and love all at the same time. “Obviously, we could speed it up plenty. But, something we don’t know, is what all this did to their lives. We have no idea how long they will live.” She turned to Dual and Blue, the oldest in the group. “We thought you wouldn’t live past fifteen, but you did.” “Why did you bring them back here?” Rainbow asked. “They escaped, two years ago. I thought they would never be found again, but they were. They were recaptured and brought back. They were experimented on even worse this time.” She dropped her gaze again, closing her eyes. “I could have prevented it, but I didn’t. Finally, I knew it was time to get them out of there, bring them back home.” “How?” Rainbow asked, counting them up. “You can’t teleport that many ponies.” Twilight nodded. She looked down, noticing that she still had her lab coat on. She pulled it off, unfurling her wings slightly as she did. She flapped them a couple times, then they settled in on her sides. Rainbow just stared at her. “How did...how long have....WHAT?” she sputtered, galloping over to inspect her wings. Now that Blue could see a normal pair of wings, they looked almost exactly alike, but Rainbow’s were a few inches shorter than Twilight’s. “How did this happen?” “Remember that spell I used on Rarity all those years ago?” Twilight responded, flaring out her wings for Dash. “Well, I got it to work right. This is how I got them home.” “You FLEW them home?! Twilight that is a new one, even for you!” she said, laughing. “How long will they last?” “I would say a few days, maybe a week.” Twilight said, folding in her wings. “But that is not what I want to talk about.” she said, pointing at the chair. Rainbow sat back down, curious. “You have seen them, and that is fine. I, however, don’t want you to tell anypony about this.” Twilight said, sitting down across from Rainbow. “This was an unauthorized, unsupervised genetic experiment. If Celestia were to find out, before I am ready to tell her, then I could go to jail, or worse. So please, please, don’t tell anypony.” Rainbow took a deep breath. “I will keep the secret, you can trust me. But when are you going to to tell Celestia? And when are you going to tell Applejack and the rest? I think they have a right to know.” she said, crossing her front legs over her chest. “I am going to tell them, I just want to wait for the right time.” Twilight said, not looking at her. “When this whole thing settles down, then I will tell the others.” “Well, it better be soon. I don’t want to have to sit on this for more than a month.” Rainbow said, standing up. She stretched her wings, then jumped into the air. “I really have to go. It was great seeing you again! I will tell the others you are back in town.” “Thanks Rainbow, and it was good to see you too.” Twilight said, opening a window for her. “I will see you tomorrow. Meet at Sugarcube Corner for lunch?” “Definitely.” Rainbow replied. “Well, it was good to meet you guys.” she said to Dual and the rest. Then she turned tail and flew out the window. Twilight shut it behind her, then turned to look at them. The Gens were staring at her, not knowing what to say. Twilight sighed and sat down across from them, avoiding their gaze. “You probably hate me.” she said, voice soft. “Why would we hate you?” Blue asked, walking over to her. She put her hooves around her neck, hugging her. “You gave us life, you saved us. There is no reason for us to hate you.” “You went to all that trouble, trying to make us better than we could be.” Dual said, eyes softening. “You made us who we are, and that is all that matters.” Twilight sniffed, wiping at her eyes. “Thank you. I am sorry you had to go through what you had to. I didn’t want any of that to happen.” “We know.” Green said, standing up and hugging Twilight as well. “It isn’t your fault.” Twilight glanced up, seeing the moon rise in the sky. “You guys should probably get to bed. We are going to have a big week ahead of us.” Dual nodded, then walked out of the room, the others at his heels. But Blue stayed behind. “I will be there in a couple of minutes.” she said when Dual looked back at her. He nodded, then left. Blue sat down next to Twilight, chewing her tongue. She was trying to think of a way to phrase the question that was yelling at her. “I think that you were....lying to us.” she said, looking Twilight in the eyes. “I think you know how long we will last, and are just not telling us.” Twilight looked surprised, and slightly angry, but dropped the act soon after. “I do know.” she said, holding Blue’s hoof in her own. “I just didn’t want to say it.” “How long?” Blue asked, her heart racing. Twilight took a deep breath. “At best, I would say you will live to thirty. By then your DNA will start to unravel, and you will die.” Blue felt her heart sink, it was worse than she thought. “So I have...” her voice trailed off. Twilight looked up, her violet eyes tearing over. “Less than fifteen years.” Twilight answered, embracing Blue. “And Dual has even less than that, maybe eleven or twelve.” “Will you stay with us until then?” Blue asked, feeling helpless, like a child. Twilight nodded, expression dead serious. “I will stay until the end.” she said, standing up. “I should really get to bed, I have a lot of excuses to make up tomorrow.” she said smiling. She nodded at Blue, then left the room. Heart still pounding, Blue followed Dual and went to their room. As she stepped inside, she saw Dual had tucked the younger ones in, and was just slipping under the covers of his own bed. Blue smiled at him, then walked over and got in her own. She could see the moon rising over the hills through the window above Dual’s bed. She watched it until her eyelids forced her to turn away. Finally, she slept, thinking of her new life. ***** The next morning, Dual woke, warm and comfortable. The sun was rising just outside his window, and he watched it undisturbed. He felt calm, which was in stark contrast to their past week. When the sun had risen higher in the sky, he started to walk out of the bedroom. But he stopped in front of Blue’s bed. Looking down at her sleeping form, he smiled. She was curled into a tight ball, her hind legs almost touching her chest. Slow, deep breathing raised and lowered the sheets. A blue mane, so like his own, hung down in front of her eyes, which were closed tight. Her lips opened slightly, then shut with each breath she took. One of her hoofs twitched slightly, and she rolled over, settling instantly. Dual smiled again, then walked out of the bedroom. Twilight was already up. Judging from the tired way she said, “Good morning”, she had been up for a while. Her saddlebags rested on her back, and a couple paper bags floated in the air in front of her. Dual walked over and plucked the bags out of the air, carrying them over to the table in the middle of the room. Twilight smiled at him, and began to unpack the bags. “When out first thing this morning. I didn’t know what you like to eat, so I just bought whatever they had.” she said, chuckling. Dual watched as she pulled out bags of oats, baskets of wildflowers, apples, carrots, and much more. He could feel himself starting to drool, but sucked it up. “Any of that would be fine.” he said, grabbing an apple for himself. Living off stale bread and moldy apples for his whole life had taught him how to not be picky. He bit into the apple, closing his eyes as he savored the sweet, juicy taste. Twilight smiled, then walked over to the bedroom. “Not awake yet?” she whispered, looking inside. “Not yet.” Dual whispered back as Twilight shut the door. “I don’t think they will be up for a while. It was a big couple of days for them.” “It was the same for you.” she said, raising an eyebrow at him. “Shouldn’t you be in there too.” “I am the oldest. I have to look out for them.” he said, looking happily at the door. “If that means I have to lose sleep, oh well.” Twilight nodded. “OK, I didn’t see any of my friends on the way there or back, which is good. I didn’t want to make up any excuses for all this food.” she said smiling. “But I will have to see them today. Do you think you will be alright for a couple hours by yourselves while I am gone?” “We spent two years alone in the mountains. I think we can handle a house with food.” he said playfully, grabbing a handful of flowers from one of the baskets. Twilight rolled her eyes, then nodded. She pulled a small purse off one of the shelves. Dual could hear it jingle slightly as it floated through the air. “Can I ask you something?” Dual asked as she put the purse into her saddlebag. “I think you just did.” she relied playfully, trotting over to the door. But, yes you can.” “Why did you make us all Pegasi?” he asked, looking at her horn. “Why no unicorns or earth ponies?” Twilight sighed. “It was because of your genetics. Pegasi have a more stable genetic structure than any other ponies. We feel that, maybe, all ponies were Pegasi in the past, and the unicorn and earth pony genes were just a mutation, a hiccup in the meiotic cycle of your gametes.” Most of that had flown over Dual’s head, but he kept listening. “We decided to use Pegasi because we felt that we had a higher chance of success, and we were right.” She looked out the window, then back at Dual. “Anything else?” “No, that was it.” he said, not really sure what to think. Twilight nodded. “I will be back in a few hours. If you want to fly, please do it over the forest, and try to stay out of sight while you are. Don’t fly too near the castle, that would just lead to problems.” Twilight looked nervous while she said that, but shook it off. “Have fun.” she smiled, then was gone. Dual watched her go through the small window on the door, then turned back to the food. He wanted to eat more, but the younger ones would need most of it. He sighed, grabbing one more handful of flowers, then sitting down on one of the stairs. He waited for the others to wake up. It was about noon when they started to wake. The first up was Blue, who cantered out of the bedroom and over to the pile of food. She nodded at Dual, then started to walk the mass amount of books. “What are you looking for?” Dual asked as she seemed to get more and more frustrated. “Something that I can actually read!” she said, exasperated. She pulled a heavy volume off the shelf and carried it over to Dual. She pulled it open and shoved it in his face. “I mean, look at this!” Inside there were lines and lines of characters and symbols, none of which Dual could get the slightest bit of sense out of. Blue let out a frustrated sigh, then carried the book back. She continued to search, mumbling to herself as she did. Next out was Green, who shuffled over to the food. She let out a small grunt of greeting to Dual and Blue, which was better then most times. She was definitely not a morning, or in this case, afternoon, pony. She watched Blue as her search turned up nothing, smiling slightly at her anger. The others filed out shortly after. They all ate, the sat down, looking for something to do. Normally they would fly, but Dual did not want to risk it. he looked around at the multitude of books, which none could be read. He sighed. It was going to be a long day. ***** The next couple days passed in the same fashion. Twilight making up excuses for why she had been gone all this time, why she had wings, and why she had to stay at the house for long periods of time. Nopony seemed to think anything of it, completely believing her lies. But, three days later, Twilight knew she had to say something. She called all her friends over, telling them that she had something extraordinary to show them. They all came, not wanting to miss whatever it was. But they could not have what was waiting for them inside. For their credit, they took it in stride. They accepted them as friends, and even had Pinkie throw them a “Welcome to Ponyville” party. They were slightly angry at Rainbow for not telling them that she knew, but quickly forgot as the party continued. By about midnight, they had all left, leaving Twilight’s library trashed. Smiling, she teleported all the streamers and confetti away, leaving the library spotless. “Well,” she said, turning and smiling at them, “I think that went well!” “They accepted us.” Blue said, confused. “I can’t believe they accepted us.” “Why wouldn’t they?” Twilight asked, turning to clean up some spilled punch. “It doesn’t matter where you came from. All that matters is--” She stopped mid-sentence, a confused look on her face. She looked at Blue, panic in her eyes. Then she fell to the side, screaming and writhing in pain. Dual rushed to her side, followed by Blue. The others hung back, not sure what to do. Bands of magic ran up and down her body, electricity crackling in the air. “Twilight!” Blue yelled, afraid. She opened her eyes, tears of pain falling down her face. “Get back!” she warned, pushing her weakly away. “I don’t want you to get hurt!” Dual pulled Blue away from her. A glow started to surround Twilight, bright and white. The crackling increased, the hairs on their backs standing straight out. The bands flowing down her body, the same color as her magic, flowed faster. The glow grew brighter, until it was hard to look at. The whole time, Twilight was screaming at the top of her lungs. Finally, the glow grew until they couldn’t even look. Closing their eyes, all they could hear was the sound of electricity and her screaming. Then, with a shock wave the pushed them onto their backs, and the sound of a thunderclap, it was over. The electricity faded, and the screaming stopped. But it was replaced with labored breathing. Blue slowly opened her eyes, looking at the pony on the ground. Her wings were gone. A scorched black circle surrounded her tence, curled up form. Tears coated her face, eyes shut tight against the pain that was no longer there. Her sides rose and fell with the deep, pained breaths she needed, and wanted, to take. She shivered with every breath she took, slight whimpers escaping her lips. Slowly, Dual took a step forward. He knelt down next to her, gently pressing his hoof against her own. “Twilight?” he said, quietly. She responded slightly, opening one eye. It’s violet iris looked up at him with a mixture of fear and gratitude. “Are you alright?” He didn’t want to ask the stupid question, but there was nothing else to say. She nodded slowly, opening the other eye. Dual helped her to her hooves, steadying her when she couldn’t stand alone. “Thank you.” she said quietly. Dual helped her into their room, sitting her down on a bed. “That was...unexpected.” she replied, shaking her head. “I didn’t think that the effects would be that....extreme.” “Hadn’t you used this before?” Blue asked, sitting down next to her. Twilight nodded. “I did. But like I said before, I perfected it since then. The old wings were made of dew, and evaporated.” She took a deep breath, moving her shoulders as if she still had wings. “These were better, so the effects were much more profound.” “Do we need to call a doctor or something?” Yellow asked, poking her head around Dual’s legs. Twilight smiled at her. “No, no. I am fine.” she assured her. With a grunt of pain, Twilight stood up. She wobbled slightly, then started walking out of bedroom. “See, I am fine. Nothing to worry about.” As soon as she said that, there was knock on the door. “Probably just somepony who heard the noise.” she said, limping to the door. She reached it and opened it with her magic. None of them had noticed it, but a storm had moved in. Rain was pounding the windows, and thunder rang out every once in awhile. The door opened, and Twilight gasped. She skittered back a few steps, falling over herself. Dual rushed forward, instantly flaring out his wings. He looked out into the rainy night. What he saw made him lose his rage, wings folding back into place. Blue followed his gaze, heart dropping. Out of the rain and darkness, standing out garishly against the black, was pair of luminescent, orange eyes. Blue just stared, unable to take her eyes away. She stared until the eyes closed, then Orange himself fell, unconscious, to the floor.