Birth of Equestria
Prologue
As the needle pierced the embryo and injected the final engineered DNA code Ryan relaxed. It had been a long year with the all sorts of crazies on both sides making his work hard. The government had said that genetic engineering was ok as long as it was not used on humans, with the exception of the military applications that they wanted to use it for. This was going to make his company rich and his bosses promised him a percentage of the profits if he could do it.
When the word had been giving that they could engineer any sort of animal they wanted, a toy company had come to Lunar Technologies, and commissioned them to make them a special breed of ponies. They wanted to be able to sell live versions of their popular toy line, but they need them to be close to what the show had depicted them as. So, over the past year Ryan had worked day and night to fulfill the contract.
Ryan stood about five foot ten inches tall. His stature showed he was well fed, but he carried himself in a way that gave the impression he knew how to handle himself. He had shortly cropped blonde hair, and green eyes. He always had a slight smile on his face like he knew something no one else did, and his face showed signs that he enjoyed laughing.
At first he worked in the main labs, but that turned out impossible once it leaked what Lunar Technologies had agreed to. First, came the threats from religious fanatics and those that felt such research was immoral. Then came the constant inquiries from the fans of the show asking about the progress of the new pets. If this had been the extent of it Ryan would have been able to continue working the main labs, but one day something happened that forced the company to relocate his work to a secret facility.
The tragedy made headlines throughout the world. Ten people were found dead in the main labs of Lunar Technologies, and none of them were employees. It seemed that a group of five religious fanatics and a group of five overly dedicated fans had broken in to labs looking for Ryan’s work. The fanatics planned on destroying everything and possibly blowing up the whole lab to make sure. The fans just wanted to see if any ponies had been made yet and steal them. When both groups came upon each other it turned into a brawl and one of the fanatics accidently set off one of their explosives killing everyone.
The relocation wasn’t all a bad thing for Ryan though. It gave him access to the research the company was doing for the military. He saw the chance to make his ponies even more like the show than he originally thought possible. He could actually make unicorns with the ability to move small objects and pegasus ponies that could actually fly. He got permission to do these things as long as he kept it on a small scale, because the military scale of these abilities was massive. They had started to unlock the ability to allow humans to use all of their brain at one time without causing them to go into convulsions from sensory overload.
Ryan looked down at what he had created, and felt a sense of pride in the fact that he had managed to make a whole new species. He placed the embryo into the growth chamber that had been designed to accelerate the growth of the creatures to allow rapid production. He then filled out his paperwork and set everything up for night. He knew tomorrow all his hard work would pay off.
She stretched out her legs and felt an odd sensation throughout them. It was the feeling of blood flowing through them for the first time. She felt something else warm pressing against her. She opened her eyes for the first time, and the low light from the lab seemed like staring into the sun. She looked down to see a small black pony cuddled up next to her. The black pony contrasted against her white coat, but other than that they were the same. They both were ponies with wings and unicorn horns. She saw her sister open her eyes and look upon her, and knew she would do anything to protect her little sister.
Suddenly the lights got brighter and her sister cowered into her closing her eyes against the brightness. She had already gotten use to light so it didn’t bother her as much. She saw a strange creature walking towards them on two legs. She stood up on shake legs and placed herself between the strange creature and her sister.
Ryan looked at the two creatures in the maturation chamber and couldn’t believe his eyes. How was it possible that there were two, and yet they weren’t identical? He had placed one embryo into the chamber. He watched as the white one took its first wobbly steps to place itself between him and the black one. Looking at the white coat of fur, with wings that actually seemed useable, and the impressive horn, he knew he had succeeded. These would be the prototypes that would allow them to spawn any of the three variations they would need.
He looked at what he had done and felt a sense of accomplishment. He had created a new life form. He went to the control panel for the chamber and checked the vital signs for both ponies. They both appeared to be in good health, and their brain activity suggested higher brain functions. He looked into the eyes of the white one and spoke aloud, “I shall call you Celestia and your little sister will be known as Luna. I wonder do you understand what I am saying?”
Celestia looked at the human, yes that is what it was, she wasn’t sure how she knew but she did. She looked at him and responded in halted speech, “I-I c-can un-understand you, b-but I am not s-sure how. W-Where are we?”
Ryan looked surprised he knew it was possible, but he didn’t expect it to work this well. When he had been trying to find a way to make it possible to mass produce these new creatures, he had to find a way to speed up their mental development. He had found a research that had been forgotten, and decided it might have merit. The ability to clone a human with genetic knowledge to decrease its need to be taught, the military had Lunar Tech look into it. It had been abandoned when the UN declared human cloning to be illegal. Ryan knew that he would have to incorporate human DNA into the mixture to give them human level intelligence, and knew that there had to be a way to at least give them a basic education at birth.
Ryan took a second to recover and smiled. “You are the first of you species and shall help create many more. You are special and should always remember that. You, Celestia shall be our show pony, and as for you Luna you shall provide the necessary genetic samples to create more of you.” he explained in a cold calculating voice. He walked over to another human and talked to him in a hushed voice and then came back over with him. “Celestia you shall come with me as I introduce you to the board of directors, and Luna you will go with Eric here as he has some tests he needs to run on you.” Ryan than opened the door to the chamber to let both fillies out.
Luna looked at Eric he was shorter than Ryan and had a scruffy beard starting grow, he looked to be skinny as his clothes didn’t quite fit as well as Ryan’s did. He wore faded grey slacks, with an off white button shirt with the top button open, and the required lab coat. He had medium length unkempt brown hair and a permanent sour expression on his face. Luna looked to Celestia “S-sister I d-don’t wish to go with him.” She pleaded looking at Ryan “C-can’t I go with y-you and Celestia?”
Ryan gave Luna an annoyed look, “Look you will do as I tell you to do. You have no say in what happens around here. You are the sole property of Lunar Technologies, and we can do as we please with you. Now GO with Eric.” He turned without looking back to see if Luna followed his directions. Celestia gave her sister a sympathetic look and then trotted to catch up with Ryan.
Luna turned looking at Eric, “H-hello, my name is Luna. Are these tests going to hurt?”
Eric gave her a strange look between annoyance and anticipation, “Well, my dear little pony they aren’t going to tickle. But since we ended up with two of you instead of one, like we thought we would, it will make things easier. Now be a good girl and follow me to the other side of the lab.” He turned and seemed to walk with a lighter step than before. It almost seemed as if he was looking forward to conducting the tests.
Ryan could hear Celestia walking behind him and smiled, he was going to be rich and these little ponies would be the reason for it. He had finally managed to get himself out of the middle class. He felt a small twinge of guilt as he thought of what Luna would have to go through, but the price of progress had to be paid. He looked down at Celestia and noticed her looking at him with a worried look. He smiled and said in a gentle voice “Don’t worry she will be alright, but these tests need to be done. There is no reason to make both of you go through them. I promise Eric will do all he can to make the tests as painless as possible.”
“You promise?” was Celestia’s reply.
Ryan stopped for a second and looked Celestia in the eye “I promise that all will be done to make sure she isn’t hurt.” Ryan turned and added in a quieter voice barely a whisper “Too badly”.
Celestia didn’t hear the last part and with no reason to distrust Ryan, just smiled and followed him to the meeting. They headed through a decontamination room and into the main office area for the building. Celestia looked around everything was new to her, but felt familiar at the same time. The hallway had white linoleum tile, the walls were painted a light blue, and the office doors were made from a deep brown wood. She could hear her hooves clop on the tiles and the light smacking sound of Ryan’s shoes as they walked down the hall. They passed a few people who stopped and stared at her. As they passed a few congratulated Ryan on a job well done, but Celestia couldn’t relax. Something didn’t feel right about all of this, but she couldn’t place her hoof on what it was. Ryan lead her into down a few more hallways and into a large room were more humans were sitting around a large table. Ryan treated these humans with more respect than she had seen him treat the others. And they held themselves with an air of superiority.
All head turned towards Ryan and Celestia as they came through the door. The room was a large room equal in size to roughly four of the offices that Ryan and Celestia had passed by. The room was dominated by a large mahogany table with plush black chairs around it. The far wall had a large bank of display monitors used for teleconferences and presentations. There various humans there, of different colors and genders. The man at the head of the table seemed to be in charge. Ryan turned his to face the man, and said in a very respectful tone “Mr. Burns, I have finished development of the prototypes.”
The human Ryan referred to as Mr. Burns was an older gentleman with a frail looking build, and a few inches shorter than Ryan. He was bald with blue eyes. His eyes narrowed as soon as Ryan finished speaking. “I only authorized the development of one prototype, Mr. Ingles. Would you care to explain to me why it sounds like you disobeyed my orders?” Mr. Burn finished the statement with a sneer in his voice.
“Mr. Burns I would never disobey your orders sir. I can’t fully explain it until I have a chance to run a few tests, but the one embryo I used to develop the prototype split into two. So, we now have two for the price of one. I left the other with Eric to have test run on right away so we can isolate the different genetic codes we will need to produce our product line. They both appear to be identical expect for the color of their coats and manes.” Ryan rushed through with a slight panic in his voice.
“Very good, Mr. Ingles, it appears you have out done yourself. Not only have you provide us with the prototype for what will be our most lucrative civilian contract, but managed to produce extra product without extra cost. I see our faith in you was not misplaced.” Mr. Burns replied in a shrewd voice.
The meeting went on with all the humans ignoring the fact Celestia was there unless they want something from her. They had her perform a few magical tricks like lifting a pen, and asked her to raise herself off the ground with her wings. Celestia could feel it inside herself that when they had her perform magic that there was more inside her than that. Ryan kept saying the minor tricks were the extent of her abilities, but she knew he was wrong. She didn’t understand anything about how she was created, but from the way he talked she got the feeling things weren’t quite the way he expected. Celestia could only hope that Luna was okay, and wasn’t dealing with the boredom she was.
Luna cried out as the needle was jabbed into her flank. She had been poked and prodded everywhere she could imagine, and other places she wasn’t aware of until they stuck her in it. Eric laughed slightly at the sound of Luna’s scream. “Don’t worry that shot should numb your whole leg as we take a sample of your bone morrow. We need it to study and dissect your DNA.” He said with joy in his voice.
She watched as he placed the vial of liquid he had just injected into her back on the table. She could barely read the label. It stated that he had used something called saline solution on her. Her leg didn’t feel numb she just felt more burning from it. She had been strapped down to a table in a spread eagle fashion which was very uncomfortable to her. Eric came back a few minutes later with a smile, “Well, your leg should be numb now. Let’s begin.”
He grabbed a large needle off the table in front of her and her eyes went wide. “Please, don’t use that on me. Please I will do anything just don’t hurt me anymore.” Luna begged with tears flowing from her eyes. Her coat was matted in several places where Eric hadn’t bothered to place a bandage after extract blood or something else he said he needed. He had forced her to go through all of it without anesthesia.
Eric just grinned at her and said, “I gave you something to numb your leg, so you won’t feel a thing.”
“B-but I can still feel my leg. I-I don’t think it worked.” Luna answered him, her eyes pleading with him to listen.
“Silly pony you are just imagining it. Trust me you won’t feel a thing.” With that last statement he stabbed the needle in all the way to the bone. Luna cried out as loudly as she could, he leg felt like it was on fire. She couldn’t even think to beg him to stop. She couldn’t do anything, but scream. Just as she thought the pain couldn’t get any worse Eric shoved the needle into her bone to extract the morrow. Luna screamed louder than ever before, and then passed out from the pain.
“Damn, pony passed out. I was hoping to her it scream some more. I guess I will just have to make do with what I got.” Eric complained to himself. He particularly enjoyed the idea of waking Luna back up and perhaps cutting a few pieces off no one but she would miss, but he couldn’t do that in case someone did miss those parts. He would never cross Mr. Burns. The last person to cost Mr. Burns money intentionally was now homeless.
Eric finished the tests as fast as he could now. There was no use being slow about it now, since Luna was unconscious. He knew Ryan would be done soon himself, and if he didn’t have Luna back before hand Ryan would come looking for her. Eric finished extracting the bone morrow he need and placed all the samples he had taking into a refrigerated container. He then he undid the straps holding Luna down, and let her slide unto the floor with a thud. He then found an intern to help him carrying her back to her cage.
The cage was big enough for an Alicorn to stand up in, and give it a little room to walk around in. It contained found and water with some bedding in the corners. It was really only meant for one, but since they had two it would have to do for now. Eric and the intern placed Luna gently onto some of the bedding. When they intern Eric looked down at the Alicorn and smiled. “I will see you again soon my little pony.” Eric looked down at his handy work; Luna’s matted coat and mane from all the blood, and smiled to himself.
Ryan got back with Celestia just as Luna began to wake up. Celestia took one look at her sister and cried out, and stared at Ryan with hate filled eyes. “You told me she wouldn’t be hurt, but she is covered in blood. What did you people do to her?”
Ryan looked on with a slight disgust at what Eric had done. He knew the guy could be slightly sadistic, but this was over the line. “I swear I knew nothing of this. He was to treat he well, and do the test in the most painless manner possible. I will have a talk with him right away, but first I will get someone in here to clean her and bandage her wounds.” Ryan replied with a hard edge in his voice. As he turned his eyes narrowed, there was no way he was going to let some half-wit ruin his work now. Ryan walked to where the medical facilities were and got a nurse to take a look at Luna. Then he tracked down Eric who was in the break room laughing with a few of the other employees.
Ryan walked into the break room with an expression of anger on his face. The people that saw him come in could see murder in his eyes as he walked straight to the group that Eric was in. Ryan walked right up to Eric without stopping, and Eric never saw as Ryan brought his fist up his waist. Eric had started to say something to Ryan, but was caught off before he finished the first word. Ryan’s fist struck Eric square under the jaw.
Eric felt as his teeth slammed shut, but luckily he had managed to avoid biting his tongue off. Then next thing he knew he was being lifted into the air and thrown backwards from the force of whatever had just hit him in the jaw. He flew back a few feet and then his back felt like it was on fire as he fell in the edge of a table. Then the table began to lean with his weight and he slid down to the floor with a thud. The table having received the majority of the force from Eric’s fall flipped over on top of him. Eric felt a sudden sharp impact in the top of his head as the table came around and slammed into it. Blood began to drip down onto Eric’s face from the spot the table had split his head open. Eric looked up through the blood at everyone else and could see several other employees holding Ryan back. Eric could see in Ryan’s eyes his own death if he didn’t leave right away.
Eric picked himself up with the help of a few others and left the break room straight away. He headed towards Mr. Burns’ office. This could be his chance to get Ryan fired and take over his project, but first he needed to use the restroom to try and control the bleeding.
Ryan watched as Eric left and knew where he was heading. Ryan had known from the start Eric was jealous that he wasn’t put in charge of this project. Ryan shrugged the people off holding him. They were more willing let him go now that Eric was gone. Ryan headed out the door and made his way straight to Mr. Burns’ office hoping he could get there before Eric caused too much damage. Ryan round a corner just in time to miss Eric stopping in at the restroom and so he hurried past it on his way to Mr. Burns’ office. When he finally reached the outer doors of Mr. Burns’ office his secretary looked up at him. “Mr. Burns is not expecting anyone at this moment how can I help you Mr. Ingles?” he said with a polite tone.
“Please inform Mr. Burns that I need to speak to him right away about the project. It seems we may have a problem, and I am sure he would like to know of it.” Ryan said as calmly as he could.
“Certainly Mr. Ingles, please have a seat right there as I tell him.” The secretary stood up and walked into the office. Ryan could hear muffled voices, but not much else. A minute later the secretary came out with a blank expression on his face. “Mr. Burns will see you now. Go right in.”
Ryan walked into the office. It was a large office that took up the whole northwest corner of the building. It had plush blue carpeting, with a bar set into right far wall with an assortment of fine liquors. The left wall held a couple of bookcases full with books, and in the middle of the room sat a large cherry wood desk. Mr. Burns looked at Ryan with dispassion in his eyes as he hung up his phone. “I already know about your scuffle with Mr. Langfield, Mr. Ingles. What confuses me is why you would come here and tell me secretary it was an urgent matter about your project.” Mr. Burns asked in a matter of fact voice with slight amusement creeping into it. “Perhaps if you can give me a good reason for that I won’t out right fire you.”
Ryan turned a few shades whiter than he was before. “Sir, Mr. Langfield was unnecessarily damaging the second prototype. He used the most brutal techniques he could find to conduct the test, and didn’t even give the poor thing anything for the pain. Luna is down in the Lab right now having the blood washed off her, and her wounds tended to. This not only might cause psychological harm to the product, but will cost us time and money in her recuperation. I admit I could have handled the initial confrontation with Mr. Langfield better, but I was furious with him for costing us time and money.”
Mr. Burns felt a smile creep onto his face and couldn’t help but let it stay there. “My boy as reasons go that is probably one of the best I have ever heard. Now, let see….” Mr. Burns was interrupted as Eric Langfield walked through the office doors. “Ahhh, Mr. Langfield I was expecting you. It would seem you have been caught damaging my property, and costing me money. Do you know what happened to the last employee who tried to cost me money?” Mr. Burns looked at Eric menacingly. “Security, come get Mr. Langfield, and escort him out of my building and off the property.”
Eric just sat collapsed where he was standing. He was ruined, and it was all the smug Ryan’s fault. If he would have just not made a big deal over some test tube pony none of this would have happened. Eric looked up as he heard the security coming through the office doors, and debated trying to throttle Ryan before they could stop him. Then suddenly just as he built up the nerve to do it, the security guards had a hold of his arms and were dragging him out of the office.
Back in the labs Celestia was trying to comfort her sister after the nurse had cleaned and bandaged Luna. Luna was being stubborn though. “Celestia you let him take me away and do horrible thing to me. How can I trust anything you or that human Ryan says again.” Luna said with a mixture of pain and anger.
“Luna, please understand I didn’t know. Ryan told me it wasn’t going to be painful, and I think Ryan didn’t know either. Please dear sister we have to do what they say. We don’t even know anything outside of where we are.” Celestia pleaded with Luna, in a calm and gentle voice.
“Fine, I will give them another chance, and I believe you sister” Luna said, and then her tone got darker “But if it happens again I will do everything I can to make them suffer as they made me suffer.” As she looked at Celestia back up a step. Luna’s eyes had become completely turquoise with a dragon like quality to them.