Chris and Twilight’s Ethical Dilemma
Twilight and Velvet galloped with their utmost speed down the corridors of Canterlot’s royal castle, the latter of the two struggling to keep up with her youthful daughter. Servants and guards alike found themselves diving out of the way lest they be trampled.
“Twilight, hold your horses,” Velvet urged, inhaling deeply through her flared nostrils as she struggled to keep pace. “I’m not exactly a yearling.”
Twilight hadn’t paid her mother’s complaints any mind, considering that she was too occupied with ranting to herself while they ran. “What have I done? How could I have let this happen?” she shouted before she plowed into the lab’s door without slowing a beat, her weight and speed allowing her to rip the door from its hinges.
Velvet cringed at the sight. ‘She’s going to feel that one in the morning,’ she noted mentally, slowing her pace and entering into the lab just a moment after Twilight had.
Twilight felt as if somepony had poured ice water down her back as she placed her face against the glass of the growth medium. Its magnifying properties allowing her to see clearly what was taking place.
Twilight shook her head in utter denial, refusing to believe her eyes.
“This is impossible,” she muttered while pacing back and forth restlessly. “It’s only been four days, even deducting the five to seven day fertilization period we were able to bypass, how could it be this far along in development? It looks as if organogenesis has already begun, that would give it the equivalent of being four to five weeks into a typical pony pregnancy.”
Twilight stopped her pacing and sat on her haunches in defeat.
“I just don’t understand how this happened; the experiment was progressing at the speed we’d predicted, what could have happened in the last ten hours I was away to cause this huge leap in development?”
Velvet slowly walked over to her distraught daughter and placed a comforting hoof on her shoulder.
“I’m afraid I’m the pony to blame for this,” Velvet said, her tone sounding heavy and somber.
Twilight looked up at Velvet, confusion clearly written on her face. “What do you mean? How could this possibly be your fault?”
Velvet pointed a hoof towards four cylindrical crystals underneath the growth medium containment pod.
“The crystals we’d been using to provide the magic for the growth medium had suddenly lost all of their power last night,” Velvet explained.
Twilight’s ears twitched in attention. “They lost all power?”
Velvet nodded.
“The embryo, without warning, began using much more magic than it should have. Had this embryo been in the womb of an actual mare, she would have been in dire straits at the time from magic deprivation. In truth, I doubt she would have made it through the night.”
Twilight felt a small sense of accomplishment at having found out that morbid fact in a controlled environment. “So, a natural birth between our species is impossible then?”
“It’s still a possibility but only for select mares,” Velvet continued. “Those crystals were only meant to replicate magic at a 4.0 rating, the average for all ponies. However, I recharged and adjusted their magic output to save the experiment.”
Twilight stood to her hooves and walked over towards the glowing crystals.
“What did you increase their output too?” she asked curiously.
“Considering the highest I could power these crystals was to that of my own, that’s what I decided on, a 7.8. I believe that the sudden influx of magic is what caused this rapid acceleration in cell development.” Velvet explained. “Had I started from 4.0 and gradually increased it from there, this may have not of happened, but I well… panicked.”
“That makes sense,” Twilight reasoned before returning to the glass and staring at it with a clearer mind than she had done the first time. “Are the crystals currently still set to 7.8?”
“I slowly tapered the amount of magic in the crystals until I found the perfect middle ground of 6.3,” Velvet answered. “It seems that the bare minimum amount of magic required is no less than a 5.7. Anything less would put the mother at great risk. That makes conception between our species a rather tricky matter, not unlike griffin hens that attempt copulation with stallions.”
“We can go over the logistics of that later, at this moment we need to focus on the here and now,” Twilight said as she observed the embryo in fascination and, surprisingly enough, endearment. No longer was it an unidentifiable mass but a shape with vaguely identifiable features, unfortunately not enough to tell her if it would develop to be more human or pony.
“What are we going to do about this?”
Velvet sighed before she walked over and joined Twilight.
“You knew since the very moment you came into this room that there were only ever two options we would have,” Velvet said as she joined Twilight in staring at the embryo.
“Tell Mr. Chris and Mr. Keon what we’ve done and see how that goes. You know them better than me, but I imagine whatever friendship you’ve made with those two will be too strained to continue. No longer will they trust you or perhaps ponies as a whole for that matter, at least in the case of Mr. Chris. We’ve violated that boy in a manner no pony should ever be violated in.” Velvet said before adopting a more grim expression. “Or…we end it, sweep what we’ve done and its entirety under the rug…”
“Y-you, you two are insane!”
Twilight and Velvet turned around so fast at the sound of the voice that it was a wonder that their necks hadn’t broken.
Lyra was standing rigidly where the door had once been, looking appalled at what she had seen and heard from the two unicorns.
Twilight stared at the door that she had liberated from its hinges as it lay underneath Lyra’s hooves.
“Lyra, what are you doing here?” she found herself asking. “You should be on your way back to Ponyville.”
“I had planned on coming along with you guys by sneaking onto that air boat, and just when I was about to make my move, I saw you and your mother running from the air hangar like the changelings were attacking again. Naturally I wanted to see what the fuss was all about, so I followed you.”
Twilight subconsciously moved in front of the growth medium to obstruct Lyra’s view of it.
“There’s no point in trying to hide it now,” Lyra reasoned.
“I heard everything, I saw everything, I know what you two are growing in there.”
She pointed a hoof towards Twilight. “You’re twisted, you know that? Babies should be born, not grown in a lab, like some everyday garden plant! And now you’re talking about getting rid of it? Not on my watch. You’ve made your bed, now lay in it.”
“I intend to do just that,” Twilight said with conviction, causing Lyra to look at her in surprise, if only for a moment, before putting her mask of fury back on.
“Oh, yeah?” Lyra challenged. “How do I know you won’t try something sneaky? You’ve already proven to be untrustworthy. There’s no low you won’t stoop to when it comes to this stupid science stuff. You egghead research types are all the same, thinking you’ve got the right to do what you want to anypony you want just because you’re smart.”
Twilight felt her eyes stinging as tears threatened to fall with Lyra’s words. If a third party such as Lyra felt so strongly about what she had done, she couldn’t imagine how Chris himself would take the news.
Even though he had granted her permission to use his genetic material, but was this what he had in mind? Experimentation, sure, but conception and birth? She highly doubted it, and to make matters worse, using Chris’s reproductive cells for the fertility testing wasn’t even the foulest of her dirty laundry she’d yet to air.
Her throat became dry when she’d thought about that tidbit of information she’d been keeping from Velvet since they began the experiment.
Velvet cleared her throat with a cough. “Lyra you need to understand that what we did was necessary. We’ve already potentially saved somepony’s life here with the information we’ve gathered.”
Lyra shifted her attention to Velvet. “Yeah, I heard all the mumbo jumbo about magic levels, but where do morals, ethics, decency, and righteousness come into play? Just think about it, Twilight, you’re growing a foal in a glorified fish tank! No pony should be born like that, it’s disgusting. I’d sooner put that foal in my own belly than to let you continue to play mad scientist with it! To Tartarus with magic levels!”
Twilight put a firm hoof on the glass of the growth medium behind her and stared pointedly at Lyra. “Even if you have the magic levels to sustain its growth, I can’t allow you to do that Lyra.”
“What? Why not? I could be its surrogate...”
“Because it’s mine,” Twilight admitted, cutting Lyra off and causing Velvet and Lyra to stare at her in shock.
“My stars... Twilight, you didn’t, please tell me you didn’t.” Velvet pleaded, for the first time feeling as if their situation truly couldn’t get any worse, now that her daughter, and by extension herself, were involved on a more intimate level. “But why, Twilight?”
Twilight turned around to stare at the glass once again.
“It was Princess Luna’s words,” Twilight explained. “She said life is life, and no matter what stage of development the embryo would be at, once we aborted it, it would still be extinguishing a life. I realized that I couldn’t do something like that to somepony else if I wouldn’t do it to myself, so it would have to be my own oocyte we used for the testing.”
Velvet found herself struggling to find words. Becoming personally involved in an experiment such as this was something a scientist should never do; it went against all logic and protocols. Even so, in hindsight she was proud of her daughter for listening to her heart over her mind, even if it came at the worst possible time.
Meanwhile Lyra trembled in rage.
“YOU’RE MINE!” she shouted lividly as she sprang at and tackled a surprised Twilight.
Twilight and Lyra went rolling along the ground before they crashed into a table, sending notes, quills and ink flying through the air.
Twilight held her hooves to her head to help stop the ringing in her ears, only for Lyra to use that opportunity to spring on her once again but not before Velvet intercepted her with her magic, freezing her in midair.
“I think you need a time out and a chance to simmer down, Lyra.” Velvet said as she continued to hold the struggling mare in place. “Emotions are running high right now; I don’t want anypony to do something they may regret.”
Lyra grit her teeth and glared at Twilight, completely ignoring Velvet. “You’re the worst, Twilight, the absolute worst! You hear me!? You’ve stolen everything from Chris with what you’ve done; just wait until I tell him.”
Twilight wiped a few tears from her eyes as she got to her hooves and spoke softly. “You don’t have to, I will.”
“You will, huh?” Lyra said. “Prove it. Bring him here right now, and show him what you’ve done; show him just how bonkers you are.”
“Lyra, at least allow them to complete whatever it is they are trying to accomplish by going to Volare, before she springs this on him,” Velvet requested with hope in her eyes. “I’m sure he will be better off without this mess we’ve made looming over his…”
“No,” Twilight stated, surprising Velvet. “Ever since Chris and Keon arrived, I’ve been treating them as nothing more than something to be taken apart and studied. I’ve disregarded their trust and feelings in light of gaining knowledge. I was arrogant, believing that I could unmask everything there was to know about them and their kind swiftly and on my own, but I’ve used and betrayed them for the last time, this can’t wait.”
Twilight looked at Lyra with regret. “I’m sorry for the pain I’ve caused you. I know that, for whatever reasons, you are enamored with Chris. You must feel as if I’ve stolen something from you as well, and I’m truly sorry for that.”
Lyra’s facial expression softened while her muscles relaxed and she turned to look at Velvet. “I think I’ve cooled off, you can let me go now.”
Velvet studied Lyra carefully. “Are you certain you won’t attack Twilight when I release you, or me for that matter?”
Lyra nodded. “Yup, I pinkie promise I won’t.”
Velvet looked confused. “You pinkie what?”
“It's fine,” Twilight assured Velvet. “No pony breaks a pinkie promise, you can let her go.”
Velvet didn’t say a word as she released Lyra from her magical grip.
Meanwhile
“As a precaution, we’ve stationed two of my solar guard and two of Luna’s night guard aboard to accompany you. Although for diplomatic reasons they’ll remain stationed on the ship once you arrive in Volare,” Celestia said to Chris before they stopped in front of a stallion that Celestia hadn’t included in the guard count.
“Mr. Chris, I’d like you to meet Z. He’ll be the ship’s captain for your trip,” Celestia said as she held a hoof towards Z.
He was an older looking pegasus, sporting a flawlessly trimmed blue goatee, a windswept two-tone mane, his coat a pristine white. He had on a brown pilot jacket along with a pair of golden aviators masking his eyes.
“Z?” Chris asked. “That seems rather…ordinary?”
Z looked over the rim of his glasses at Chris. “Sorry, I know my name isn’t as colorful as what you’re used to hearing; afraid to say but my mother was a rather dull mare. Luckily, I take after my father as far as personality goes.”
Chris nodded before taking note of something he hadn’t seen thus far. An older pony without a cutie mark.
Z must have noticed where Chris’s eyes were focused because he smiled brightly and said, “I take it you haven’t come across a pony my age who’s still as blank as the day they were born.”
“Sorry if my staring was offensive,” Chris said, grinning uneasily. “I just assumed that…well, all ponies get them at a certain age, most likely somewhere around late childhood. At least, that’s what my observations would have me believe.”
Z continued to grin, obviously not bothered about his lack of a cutie mark. “Well, you wouldn’t be wrong, but you’ve got hopeless cases like me that just never find that one thing that they can brag about being really good at.”
Chris looked at Z with something akin to sympathy. He wasn’t certain but if how desperately the cutie mark crusaders wanted to gain their cutie marks was any indication, he wagered that Z at one point in his life must have been devastated once he realized he’d never find that one special thing that defined him.
“Don’t pity me kid, I sure as hay don’t,” Z stated. “Thanks to not having that brand tying me down, I’ve done more in my life than you could imagine. I don’t need some mark to tell me who I am, I get to decide that.”
Chris made to respond but found himself being sidetracked by the sudden scene of Twilight appearing in a bright flash of light and an audible pop.
“Not sure if I can ever get used to something like that,” Chris muttered to himself before addressing Twilight, making note of her disheveled appearance. “So, where’s the fire?”
Twilight looked past Chris and up at Celestia. By Celestia’s subtle nod, Twilight was able to deduce that Celestia could read the situation clearly.
Luna for her part simply stared at Twilight with a raised brow but chose not to make a statement.
“Chris,” Twilight started out carefully, “Would you mind…taking a walk with me? There’s something important we need to discuss.”
“Something important?” Chris repeated with a slight look of confusion before he turned to look at Celestia, Luna, and Z. The latter of the three looked even more confused than he had.
“Not that I want to get in your business, but aren’t we scheduled to take off soon?” Z added, having found the sudden request rather odd. “There’s plenty of rooms below deck if a private conversation is what you’re after.”
“I’m sorry that this will throw us off schedule, Captain, but I promise it’s of the utmost importance that Chris sees what I need to show him,” Twilight explained.
Z shrugged. “Whatever yah want little lady, I get paid by the hour, so take your time.”
Chris found his curiosity piqued. “You’ve got something to show me, and right before we leave? This must be good.”
Twilight chuckled nervously. “Well, it’s something alright.”
Chris looked towards Celestia and Luna. “Is it alright?”
“Of course,” Celestia answered, making sure to keep her expression neutral, though she was biting the inside of her cheek in order to do so.
Chris couldn’t help but notice Luna’s expression; she simply looked disappointed as she stared at Twilight.
Shrugging it off, Chris looked down at Twilight. “Lead the way.”
“So, what in the hay ya reckon that was all about?” Applejack asked Rainbow Dash, who was currently toying with the wheel of the air ship.
“Huh? What was what all about?”
Applejack rolled her eyes. “Ah mean Twi takin' off like a bull at a rodeo.”
Dash shrugged indifferently on the matter. “My guess would be as good as yours, but I doubt it’s anything to get your mane in a knot over.”
“Ah don’t know,” Applejack argued, the skepticism clear in her tone. “Ya see how worried the Princess looked when Twi left with her mom? Then Twi jus' shows up out of the blue and nabs Chris. Ah bet ma bottom bit somethin’s goin' on.”
“Now that you mention it, Princess Celestia did look pretty disturbed when Twilight’s mother showed up, and Princess Luna was even more so when Twilight came back for Chris,” Fluttershy agreed as she looked over her shoulder towards Celestia, who was currently speaking with Luna and the captain of the ship. “And I’ve never seen Princess Luna disturbed before, so that is rather strange.”
“Well, if it’s something that concerns us I’m sure they’d let us know,” Dash reasoned. “Now, would you stop worrying? I’m sure everything’s cool.”
Applejack frowned but didn’t say anything else on the matter, turning her attention to the bow of the ship where Keon and Pinkie seemed to be too busy pestering one of the stationed solar guards to have noticed what had just taken place.
Keon shook his head in amusement as he watched Pinkie attempt to make one of the guards show some sign of life by making silly faces in front of him.
She huffed in frustration.
“What’s the deal; I can never make one of these guards smile, or even blink!”
“Goofy faces aren’t going to work on a dude that gets paid to look mad,” Keon said as he walked up closer to the guard and stared at the gold armored stallion, who was doing his best to imitate a statue. “But I bet I could get a reaction out of this guy.”
The guard hadn’t shown any form of response to Keon’s claim.
“Oh, yeah?” Pinkie said, looking eager. “I’d love to see you pull that off, these guys are really, really good after all.”
“Alright, check this out,” Keon said as he stared down the guard who looked at him impassively.
“So, what do you call a mean tempered horse?”
The guard’s blank expression hadn’t changed.
“A nightmare. Get it? It’s funny because it works on multiple levels here.”
“I told you they were good,” Pinkie said as the guard hadn’t even blinked at the pitiable joke.
“Okay, so he’s impervious to laffy taffy jokes, that just means I’ll have to pull out the big guns,” Keon reasoned while cracking his knuckles and plastering a mischievous grin on his face.
He stuck his index finger into his mouth, pulled it out and held it in the air for a moment.
“I think you might want to stand upwind Pinkie,” he warned before breaking the mother of all wind.
Pinkie howled in laughter as she fell to the hard wood floor.
“That sounded like a flugelhorn,” she managed between unladylike snorts and giggles, while the guard remained impassive as ever.
“Damn, this guy is good. That was one hundred percent human made flatulence sounding off,” Keon said as he looked at Pinkie, who was rolling on the ground in mirth.
“At least my ripping ass made one of you laugh,” he said just as Rarity approached them from behind.
“What is that horrendous smell?” Rarity asked while eying Keon suspiciously.
Keon tried to look innocent as he pointed a finger towards the guard. “Seems this guard is a little gassy today, must have been something in his oats.”
“It wasn’t me,” the guard defended himself irritably.
Keon grinned at Pinkie. “Well, there you have it, Pinkie. I guess this guy's dignity means more to him than staying silent. If you want one of them to break character, just blame a fart on him.”
Rarity sighed.
“I see your childishness is present and accounted for this morning,” she said before turning her attention to Pinkie. “Honestly, Pinkie, how could you find somepony passing gas amusing?”
Pinkie ceased her laughing and rolled over to her haunches. “Don’t know, it just is.”
“Just think about it Rarity,” Keon said. “A fart is a gas that stinks, and it comes from your butt, plus it sounds like a trumpet…or flugelhorn I guess, if that’s not funny, I don’t know what is.”
“Putting it so elegantly has only managed to reinforce my thoughts of how offensive they are.”
“Offensive?” Keon argued. “Come on, they’re one of life’s simple pleasures that remind us that at least in some small way we’re all the same. I fart, you fart, Pinkie farts, even Celestia farts. Although, I’d imagine Celestia and Luna have perfected the art of clenching their cheeks, lest they let one slip at an important meeting.”
Rarity scrunched her nose and shook her head in disgust. “May we please cease this discussion on flatulence? That’s not what I’ve sought an audience with you for.”
Keon raised a brow while Pinkie stood back to her hooves in attention.
“Well shoot, we’re all ears!” Pinkie said.
“Actually, Pinkie, I was planning to have a private discussion with Keon about that thing we talked about. Remember, that thing?”
Pinkie squinted her eyes in thought before realization hit her and she nodded. “Oh, gotcha! I’ll just go over there,” she said before bouncing away towards Applejack and Rainbow Dash.
“So,” Keon started as he looked at Rarity with mild suspicion. “The last time we had a one-on-one it was about that card Zuri gave me, so now what’s on your mind? You never seemed to have any interest in picking my brain like Twilight.”
“Truth be told, there’s quite a lot I’d like to pick your brain about, mostly why you are the way you are; however, that can be saved for another time.”
“Hm, so it’s safe to assume this isn’t really about me then but something more general?”
“Yes, it’s really just some hypothetical musings I’ve been entertaining,”
“Well, if it’s nothing personal, ask Chris, he’s the smarter human, remember?” Keon said as he made to walk away.
Rarity positioned herself in front of Keon, impeding his path. “Actually, I need the open-minded human, not the smart one.”
“Fine,” Keon mumbled as he stuffed his hands into his pockets. “So, what are these musings you’ve been having?”
“Remember to keep in mind this is all hypothetical; however, let’s say for whatever reasons a mare was interested in courting a… human. How exactly would she proceed in such an endeavor? What would be her approach? What are some things to do and not to do?
“That was about as subtle a gynecologist wearing a gas mask,” Keon jested, grinning at Rarity like an idiot. “You wouldn’t happen to be coming on to me?”
Rarity looked appalled. “What!? I…of course not, that’s absurd! How could you even entertain the thought? We’re anything but compatible, I’m a lady and you’re just so uncouth.”
“Jeez, you don’t pull your punches, do you?” Keon said with a faked sadness.
“I...I'm sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you,” Rarity squeaked out in a panicked tone. “I mean, you have your moments of being charming, however sporadic they may be.”
“Sporadic. Funny, I can’t recall doing anything charming since I’ve been here,” Keon said while stroking his chin hairs in thought. “In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve been downright unpleasant, just ask Nightmane.”
“You defended Pinkie's and my honor against Blueblood and even stayed outside of her door for an entire night, rather gallant of you,” Rarity pointed out.
“I guess under all that junk there’s a sliver of decency in me,” Keon decided. “But since this doesn’t involve you being head over hooves for me, haha, I made a funny, I’m guessing that Pinkie is that hypothetical mare you were talking about then?”
“Whoever said that?” Rarity asked, keeping her expression passive. “As I’ve stated before, this is merely a hypothetical question, which has nothing to do with you, I’m just curious. Our worlds could soon be meeting, and potential courting between our species is something that’s interesting to muse over.”
“Let me get this straight,” Keon said while holding out his hands to stop Rarity where she was.
“Out of all the things you could wonder about with the potential meeting of two worlds, your mind is on bipedal, alien primates getting it on with equally alien equines? I would have never guessed you had such a dirty mind.”
Rarity’s cheeks tinted pink.
“I…uh,” Rarity fumbled over her words. “It’s not like that. I was just, um… oh, for heaven’s sake, you can be so infuriating at times! It’s like trying to hold a conversation with a preschool aged colt.”
“Sorry, you ponies are just too easy,” Keon said with a laugh as he leaned back against the railing. “But fine, let’s get down to what this is really about.”
“Whatever do you mean?”
“Rarity, no need to dance around this, we aren’t in grade school. If you think I didn’t notice Pinkie’s little crush, you might believe I’m a bit dumber than I actually am. I know you’re the lovey-dovey type, so you’re trying to secretly play matchmaker, but I'd rather we be direct about this, besides you’re way too terrible at being subtle.”
Rarity stared for a moment before she relented with a sigh. “When did you become aware of her feelings towards you?”
“Somewhere around the reception party.”
“And…”
“And what?”
“What do you think?”
“I think Pinkie is co co for cocoa puffs in more ways than one, that’s what I think,” Keon answered.
“I beg your pardon, I thought we we’re being direct with each other,” Rarity said with small frown. “You’ll simply have to forgive me when I say I do not understand that cryptic lingo of yours.”
“Fine, here’s a hot dose of the truth, Rarity,” Keon said in a serious tone. “I think I’m about as open-minded as they come. Having said that, Pinkie is funny, nice, and just hella cool, in a dorky, pink pony kind of way. I’m not about to get into the whole, 'Oh my god, but she’s a horse!' discussion with you, because frankly I think that would be an insult to your species to say something like that, and honestly, I’m not even turned off by the fact that she has more facial hair than me. But regardless, I’ve got to keep my priorities straight and that’s finding a way out of Alice’s rabbit hole. I’m sure you can connect the dots for why getting involved with Pinkie in any kind of way isn’t something I need to be worried about. It’s just too low on my list of things that should matter right now.”
Rarity reared up to her hind legs and placed her forehooves on Keon’s chest and studied his face carefully. “You aren’t a changeling are you?”
“A what?”
“I just wasn’t expecting a mature response from you, or even a well thought out one,” Rarity said before she returned all four of her hooves firmly to the ground. “I’m impressed, if admittedly a little disappointed.”
“Disappointed?”
Rarity sighed.
“As you’ve said, I’m the lovey-dovey type. And you and Pinkie make such a, dare I say...”
“I’d rather you not say it,” Keon cut Rarity off. “I don’t want to hear that me and a pink pony make a cute couple.”
“Actually, I was going to say unique, l wouldn’t go as far as to say cute,” Rarity said with a satisfied grin. “Like you said, you’re a bipedal alien primate. You humans are not exactly hard on the eyes, but you won’t be winning any Mr. Stallion pageants either.”
“I think I can live with that,” Keon said while nodding. “Sorry I disappointed you and your weird thoughts of forbidden romance between me and Pinkie. As a matter of fact, I should probably nip all of this in the bud before it gets out of hand; she already tried to kill me with that cannon-wagon-surprise thing.”
“Please don’t resort to that just yet,” Rarity requested, enticing a raised brow from Keon.
“Pinkie just has such a delicate psyche,” she continued. “Even if you let her down gently, she’ll question what it is about her that you don’t find desirable, and that may lead to worse things than having false hope.”
Keon shrugged. “Your call, I’m sure you have what’s best for Pinkie in mind.”
“Of course I do, darling, she’s a dear friend after all,” Rarity said as she watched Keon nod before walking away.
‘As if I’d give up on love so easily,’ Rarity thought, sporting a small grin. ‘I’m not through with this matter, not by a long shot.’
Meanwhile
Chris and Twilight walked in silence down a flight of stairs. The sound of hooves and rubber soled shoes on stone echoing throughout the halls.
Chris looked around before settling his eyes on Twilight. She’d been acting strange since they began their trek to wherever she was leading him. He noticed she looked conflicted or nervous, maybe even sad. Even with facial expressions strikingly similar to humans, he really couldn’t tell for certain.
“So, I couldn’t help but notice me and you do a lot of corridor walking together…” Chris started out lamely.
Twilight had made no acknowledgment of having been addressed.
Chris smiled uneasily.
“You know I really hate awkward silence. I mean, what’s eating at you, Twilight? Normally you’d be picking my brain about my world right now. Usually something about it that’s completely trivial to me but fascinating to you.”
Twilight was hesitant to speak, afraid that her voice would crack if she did.
“We’re almost there,” she managed in a voice as quiet as Fluttershy’s.
‘Alright, now I’m getting kind of nervous,’ Chris thought before taking notice of the room coming up ahead. Spotting the broken door on the ground, he quirked a brow. “So, leading me to a basement room that looks like it had its doors recently torn from its hinges doesn’t exactly bode well.”
Twilight once again chose not to respond, but kept her attention focused on the door ahead of her as though it would disappear if she looked away from it.
Entering the room, Twilight found Velvet animatedly scribbling down notes in a book they’d been documenting the experiment in. She looked focused yet excited. Her previous erratic state had seemingly been lifted.
Lyra for her part was staring at the growth medium with a childlike fascination on her face, reminiscent of kid at an aquarium or zoo.
Chris stared around the room, taking in every detail. The room had to be the most cliché looking laboratory he’d ever seen. From the absurd amount of beakers to the oddly shaped test tubes that could have only served the purpose of letting people know that science was taking place here.
Chris's eyes then trailed off towards Lyra, who hadn’t even noticed his arrival, obviously too fixated with whatever she was staring at in the large container of viscous fluid.
The question of why she was even there he decided to put on the back burner in light of studying the container she was engrossed with. The key feature he noticed about it was four shimmering crystals underneath it. He guessed they were some type of power source.
“What is this?” Chris finally asked. “What have you been doing down here, Twilight?”
Lyra and Velvet’s ears both perked up at the sound of Chris’s voice, both of them turning to stare at the new arrival.
Lyra’s expression was something he couldn’t quite place as there seemed to be too many conflicted emotions swimming in her eyes. Velvet on the other hand simply looked resigned.
Twilight took a deep breath and released it.
“Where do we even begin?” she asked herself more than anyone else.
Chris pointed his index finger towards the growth medium, “We can start with, 'What is in that container?' Yeah, that’s probably a good place to start.”
Twilight bit her bottom lip nervously, struggling to find the proper words. ‘Why’d he have to ask that of all questions?!’
“It’s an embryo, a pony and human hybrid,” Velvet said in a professional manner after noticing that Twilight looked ready to bolt out of the lab. “Your hybrid embryo to be precise.”
Chris raised a brow in curiosity.
“An embryo,” he repeated to himself before realizing what Velvet had said after. His eyes then widened and his mouth hung open.
“You’re joshing me, no way, no freaking way,” he said in excitement as he all but ran over towards the growth medium and positioned his face inches from the glass.
“This is unreal.”
All three mares were thrown off by Chris’s response. Each had expected varying degrees of righteous fury from the human; none, however, expected excitement.
Twilight furrowed her brow in confusion. “Wait, aren't you angry? Surely, you should be angry.”
Chris looked over his shoulder towards Twilight.
“Why would I be angry?” he asked.
“I assumed you wanted to try some type of fertility and compatibility testing when you asked for sperm samples. Admittedly, I expected simple petri dish experiments, nothing on this level. But then again, I suppose us human and ponies would have different priorities.”
“Why is that?” Velvet asked.
Chris went back to staring into the container as he answered. “If the situation was reversed and a couple of you showed up on my planet then compatibly testing on our species would have been pretty low on the list of things to do.”
It was Lyra’s turn to ask, “Why would you ignore that possibility? Some ponies have breed with griffins and dragons, so why not humans?”
“They have? That’s news to me,” Chris said while trying to erase the image of a dragon and pony copulating from his mind. “And these hybrids, I take it that they’re sterile?”
“Hippogriffs and Kirin are rare, but they both are a fertile species,” Velvet answered.
“My god, human scientists are going to lose their minds if they ever get to this fantasy planet.”
Lyra tilted her head in slight confusion. “How come?”
“Because in my world most of what I’ve seen and none of what you’re telling me right now is a possibility… this,” Chris gestured towards the growth medium, “flies in the face of biology. It doesn’t follow the most basic of principals of our world, as a species we’re just too far removed from each other. In fact, I’m sure every biologist back on my world’s head just exploded. Hell, mine is close enough, and I at least have seen what magic is capable of.”
Chris turned to face Twilight, deciding she’d be the one with all the answers. “This embryo looks like it’s no less than seven weeks into development, how’s that even possible? You couldn’t have been doing this for any more than five days.”
“Seven weeks!” Twilight and Velvet shouted in unison.
Chris nodded. “Well, in human development, that’s where I’d place it.”
“Are you certain of that?” Velvet asked.
“Ma’am, zoology is just a branch of biology, this is what I know and do,” Chris reasoned. “And, from what I can tell, this embryo looks to be developing more similar to a human than a pony. Well, a pony from my world, I don’t know anything about Equestrian child development. But that still leaves me with the question of why it's this far along.”
Twilight and Velvet joined Chris and Lyra in front of the growth medium.
“…Well, that’s the problem,” Twilight began. “There were some complications last night. I wasn’t here to oversee the experiment considering I was resting up for our trip today and…”
“I overloaded the crystals, the power source for the growth medium,” Velvet cut in. “The sudden increase in magic may have acted as a growth stimulant on the developing cells of the embryo.”
“That so?” Chris said while nodding his head up and down in vague understanding.
Lyra narrowed her eyes. “Okay, that’s enough, why are you being so cool about this?”
Chris turned his head to face Lyra, who was looking at him with concern.
“It’s just an experiment,” Chris said bluntly. “I’m sure they plan on ending this soon enough, they’ve had to have gotten all their answers by now, actually probably more than they ever hoped to get, thanks to a screw up.”
Lyra took a step back from Chris, her eyes widening. “End? You mean,” Lyra looked towards the growth medium. “You’re actually okay with something like that? Just throwing it way?”
Chris sighed. “Where I morally stand on the matter is neither here nor there as a man that’s able to face the cold hard truths of apparently both our worlds, I know what needs to be done. And I assume Twilight and Velvet know as well, considering they’re the ones that signed up for this.”
Twilight cleared her throat and spoke nervously. “You’re right, when we first started this experiment we were ready to face the dirty deed we would have to commit, but it’s gone beyond that stage now, we can no longer end it. I’m sorry, but we have no choice but to see this through to the end.”
Chris was quiet for a moment as he let what Twilight had said sink in before finally speaking in a flat, quiet tone. “You can’t end it? Just what do you mean you can’t end it?”
Twilight turned her head and stared at the floor. “Chris, it’s too far along, you know as well as I do that the embryo has neurological and brain activity now and most importantly a heartbeat. We can’t do it. No, I won’t do it.”
“You know something, Twilight? Hybrid embryo testing isn’t uncharted waters for humans either. Although our experiments in those murky waters are to find cures and to further scientific understanding, not create lives, but we have rules set in place to keep everyone happy. By law, any human-animal hybrid embryo has to be destroyed within fourteen days.”
“This is a little more complicated than that,” Twilight argued. “We aren’t talking human and animal cell splicing: This is the fruit of two sapient, intelligent species.”
Chris chuckled to himself and shook his head in hysteria.
“You’ve got to be shitting me. After thinking you could play god, you now decide that morals and ethics have a place in your Frankenstein lab? You threw all of that out the window the moment you started a genetic experiment of this grade. You can’t back out now just because you realized you were in over your head.”
Twilight found herself struggling to find words at Chris’s response. He was speaking with an anger that sounded out of place coming from someone she’d come to know as very mildly tempered.
“I mean, where is Celestia and Luna in all this?” Chris said while looking around as if expecting to find the two Alicorns lurking in a corner. “Actually, that doesn’t even matter, if you don’t have the guts to end this I will,” he stated flatly.
Lyra threw herself between the growth medium and Chris and stared at him firmly.
“What are you doing, Lyra?” Chris said as he frowned down at her. “Do you understand what’s going on, and why we can’t let this go on any longer?”
“No! I’m not smart like you three, half the mumbo jumbo you say just go in one ear and out the other, but I don’t need to be smart to see that what you want to do is wrong.”
“Wrong?” Chris echoed, having to restrain himself from sarcastically laughing at the sentiment.
“You wanna know what’s wrong, fine I’ll tell you what’s wrong. Having a life brought into the world like this,” Chris said while pointing his hands at random things throughout the lab.
“This is a bastardization against nature, I’m tempted to quote Dr. Ian Malcolm here. Truthfully, I don’t fault Twilight for asking the question or even trying to answer it herself, but having my own flesh and blood grown to fruition in a tank is where I draw the line. How do you explain that to a child? How does that conversation go? 'Yes, son and/or daughter, you are the product of a human and pony that was grown in a fish tank full of viscous fluid in a lab somewhere on the basement level of Canterlot’s royal castle.' That’s all assuming this conversation even takes place. The embryo could very well fail on its own before it even reaches the fetus stage, or maybe we beat these untested odds but what we get isn’t what you expected.”
“Not what we expect?” Velvet repeated.
Chris nodded. “I meant what I said about the embryo appearing more human, but I didn’t mention the abnormality in its hip development.”
“Abnormality?” Twilight recited.
“It’s deformed, like there’s something attempting to grow there that shouldn’t be there. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Chris explained. “It’s still too underdeveloped, but whatever’s taking place will only become more prominent or problematic as it grows. I suppose that went over your head due to the lack of knowledge you have in human child development or the freaking out about this whole situation had something to do with it.”
Chris looked back up towards the container. “Why is this even up for discussion? My genetic material was used, I’m technically the father, so it’s rightfully my call and I say…”
“Your DNA wasn’t the only used here,” Twilight suddenly spoke up, countering Chris’s point.
Chris turned to face Twilight and raised a questioning brow. “True, it takes two to tango, but unless the anonymous mother shows up to combat me on this matter then…”
“She’s here, and I don’t agree with your decision,” Twilight said in a tone brimming with conviction while firmly planting her hooves into the ground as if preparing for the human to charge at her in rage at that very moment.
Chris was quiet as he looked from Twilight, to Lyra, and to Velvet in utter disbelief for the better half of a minute before finally walking towards a sink. Grabbing an empty beaker off a table on the way he filled it with water.
He wasn’t entirely sure how to process the new information. He didn’t reasonably believe he could fight them on the matter at hand, not with Twilight having as much or more likely more say than he had. Given that his only option would have been to involve the princesses and hope that they would rule in favor of aborting the embryo. He held no delusions that they would side with Twilight on the matter, considering that, judging from Twilight and Lyra's reactions, destroying the embryo at the stage they were in now would be viewed as cold-blooded murder and nothing more to them.
“You guys are just full of life alerting surprises today, aren’t you?” he said almost jokingly before taking a large gulp of the water and wiping the accumulating sweat from his brow.
“I mean, it wasn’t like this situation wasn’t convoluted enough, am I right? You just had to add the cherry on top of this shit sundae. Now you’re telling me I’m tethered to this world and…” Chris paused as he looked at Twilight. “And to you in ways I never wanted to be?”
Lyra couldn’t help but feel a small victory at Chris’s last statement to Twilight, despite the hurt look in Twilight’s eyes.
“Tell me, Twilight, have you picked out any names yet? Are you planning your baby shower too? I’m sure the other girls will rejoice to hear you’re expecting,” Chris said in obvious sarcasm before turning to Velvet.
“Hey, Velvet, or should I call you mom? I’m just dying to know, is this how you envisioned you would become a grandmother? Oh yeah, you wouldn’t happen to have kept Twilight’s old baby crib? I hear getting a new one is murder on the wallet…”
“That’s enough!” Velvet shouted, causing Chris to momentarily shut up. “I know you’re upset, and rightfully so, but if you’re going to berate us do not do it in such a demeaning manner, Celestia forbid this descends into petty name calling next.”
Chris grit his teeth, but felt Velvet made a decent point. At the rate he was going he was sure he’d be calling them names soon enough, and that wouldn’t help the situation.
Twilight’s ears flattened.
“I’m so sorry it turned out this way, I’ve just made so many mistakes,” she said with her head held low. “Even if you’ll never forgive me, I will make this right somehow, I promise.”
Chris frowned, not seeming to care much for how downtrodden or remorseful Twilight appeared.
“You want to know something interesting?” Chris continued his tirade, albeit more calmly, the red in his face was beginning to dissipate.
“Some people say the biggest arrogance of men is believing that nature is in our control, but I can tell you that whoever made that claim hasn’t met an Equestrian yet, because you guy’s take the whole damn cake.”
“I’m going back to the ship, in spite of all this we’ve still got a job to do,” Chris said while placing the now empty beaker down.
”As for making this right, don’t bother. You said I didn’t owe you anything for saving my life, but I pay my debts.”
Chris began to make his way towards the door.
“A life for a life right? You have my consent to do what you want with…” Chris paused as he looked at the container for a moment before continuing, “your science project, but in exchange for me turning a blind eye to this, consider us squared. There’s just one thing I want to know.”
“Anything,” Twilight quickly answered.
“If it wasn’t yours, would you be so firm in your stance against me?”
“Of course I would,” Twilight said without hesitation. “Even if I didn’t have a personal stake in this it wouldn’t change things from what they are now.”
“At least that makes one of us that isn’t only thinking about themselves.” With that, Chris exited the lab with not so much as a glance in their direction.
“Chris, wait!” Lyra shouted as she made to follow after him.
“Lyra, don’t,” Twilight advised her. “He clearly wants to be left alone, we can grant him that much.”
“Besides, I imagine there’s a lot he has to consider,” Velvet added.
“Consider?” Lyra repeated. “What’s there to consider? Didn’t he just leave everything in your hooves?”
“It’s not that easy for him,” Twilight answered.
“I know Chris well enough. Despite how he may feel about me, he’ll see it as his obligation to be involved in the… child’s development. That’s what angers him the most; he knows that even if he manages to find a way home that he won’t be able to simply leave things here as they are. That’s what he meant by being tethered to this world and…me in ways he never wanted to.”
“He has a good moral character,” Velvet said with a nod of her head. “He could have fought you harder on the matter, but he didn’t. I suppose there’s a piece of him that didn’t want to go through with it either. Had he brought this to Princess Celestia’s attention she would have sided with him in order to not strain relations with humans before they even truly begin. He would have to have realized that.”
“Princess Celestia would have sided with Chris, of that I don’t doubt, but Chris would have thought differently,” Twilight reasoned.
“Why so?” Velvet asked curiously. “He seems rather bright to me.”
“Because of his predicament,” Twilight explained. “He’s one of only two humans on our entire planet. Despite how everypony has made it clear that they are welcomed here, in the end he believes that he can only truly rely on himself and Keon in a world that isn’t their own, and I’m afraid that my recent actions won’t have done anything to dissuade him of that thought.”
Twilight sighed as she looked at the growth medium. “I don’t even know where to begin in making amends for this.”
“I think you do,” Velvet stated matter-of-factly. “But don’t tear yourself up over it; take some time to think over what needs to be done. In the mean time, focus on what you need to accomplish in Volare, at this moment that is your concern. I’d also suggest you keep this from your friends for the time being. It wouldn’t do any good for their minds to be concerned over this as yours and Chris’s are.”
Twilight nodded her head in simple agreement before her eyes widened, and she began to dance frantically back and forth on her hooves. “Oh no, we’re terribly off schedule now, I need to get back to the ship immediately or the others will start to worry.”
Twilight turned to face Velvet, her mouth opening before being interrupted.
“Before you ask, I’ll be fine overseeing this on my own until you get back,” Velvet stated before Twilight could get a word out. “Besides, I don’t think it’s possible for me to mess things up any more than I already have.”
“Better than that, I’ll be here to make sure everything stays a-OK,” Lyra added in.
“I’m not sure that’s such a good idea, Lyra,” Twilight said as she looked at her mother for support on the matter, which she didn’t get. “Besides don’t you still intend to, um…sneak aboard the airship?”
Lyra shook her head back and forth. “Nope, it wouldn’t be sneaking now that you know about it.”
“But what about Bon Bon?” Twilight pressed on. “I’m sure she’ll think…”
“That I went along with you guys,” Lyra finished Twilight’s statement.
“It’s alright, I could use the company,” Velvet assured Twilight, giving her a subtle wink. “It get’s rather lonely down here without you, and what harm could it really do to have her observe with me? She’s already privy to what’s going on.”
“You’re right, it couldn’t hurt,” Twilight said with a resigned sigh, having understood that Velvet simply wished to keep Lyra close to prevent her from spilling the beans about what was going on.
Celestia forbid such a scandal became public knowledge so soon. Twilight couldn’t even fathom the outrage of it. She realized they’d have to device some plan for damage control of the situation. Unfortunately, the only one that could pacify the general public was Chris and that was something she felt she didn’t have the right to ask of him.
“I’ll figure it out,” Twilight whispered to herself, “somehow.”