Baxter's work place was outside Ponyville, around a little known mountain surrounded by hills. He had just gotten off work and was going back home to his little house on the other side of Ponyville.
As he entered Ponyville, Baxter decided he would go through the park. He liked walking through the park, it brought him a sense of peace. A very welcome sensation in Baxter's life, for he wasn't an ordinary pony anymore. He was a test subject. He had needed money to look after his little sister after their parents disappeared almost 7 years ago.
Baxter was looking forward to his stroll through Ponyville park, he hadn't had one for a while now. But he can't be too long, his little sister wanted to tell him something when he got back. She said it was very important. Baxter Dash smiled to himself as he imagined what could possibly be so important to an 8 year old pegasus filly, it could be that she found another bird's nest in the oak behind their house, or maybe she had found another way to try and guilt him into buying her a ticket to the Wonderbolt's next show.
That one made him smile a bit more. As he had already bought them both tickets to it, as well as his friend's sister, Terra.
Rainbow Dash and Terra were practically sisters. Baxter had been looking after her for a few weeks now, as his friend Malak had gone a little bit mad as a side effect of the testings he undertook with Baxter. Baxter wondered why his friends modifications were suddenly doing this now, they had received them a few years ago together and Baxter was showing no side effects as of yet. Maybe it was because Malak had received different modifications to Baxter. Malak had undergone the testing that had originally been designed to make ponies a bit stronger. "That could be it too," Baxter said to himself as he passed a little orange filly, oh what was her name again? Ah yes Applejack Apple, yes that was it. Baxter looked around for Applejack's big brother. There he was, beside that tree, he was standing next to Granny Smith talking to her about something.
Applejack and Macintosh's parents had disappeared around the same time as Baxter's own. "Hey Little Mac!" called Baxter to his friend, who had still not had his growth spurt as of yet, so Baxter was a good 6 or 7 inches taller than him at the moment. Macintosh was going to be the last one of their friends to get his growth spurt, and so he was dubbed Little Mac due to lack of creativity in their group.
"You are going to be so big when you finally get that growth spurt of yours," exclaimed Baxter as his friend approached.
"Ah' sure do hope so Bax," replied the red earth pony with a thick country accent, grinning as he approached Baxter.
Baxter went to reply but as he opened his mouth to say something, he noticed a familiar figure talking to Granny Smith.
"Uh, I'll have to talk later sorry Mac, I just remembered I had to go do something." Baxter said hurriedly, before rushing off the way he came.
"Alright then, talk to you later," was the reply Baxter heard from his Earth Pony friend, as he galloped off towards his workplace.
He had to tell his team that Malak had escaped the premises...
As he arrived at the containment area, Baxter noticed something odd about the afternoon. It was quiet, too quiet. Normally subject 37 would have been wailing like a banshee about now, yes as he thought, it was high noon, it was normally about now. Baxter tentatively walked into the guards chambers. Not knowing what to expect Baxter tentatively poked his head around the corner, his eyes greeted with the sight of his two work mates splayed across the room. Their spines shattered in multiple places, jutting out all over their backs. A spear shaft stuck in ones neck, the other's throat having been slit by what appeared to be a very primitive weapon.
He backed out of the room, turned around and found himself looking at Raslan the facilities top scientist, a dark grey unicorn usually with a bland look on his face, like he just doesn't care about anything anymore. Baxter was shocked to find that Raslan wasn't as bland faced as usual, in fact, he looked like he had seen something that he would never be able to forget for the rest of his life.
"What happened here?" asked Baxter. Raslan just stared past him at the wall covered in his comrades blood.
"Raslan? Are you alright? You look you have seen a ghost!" Baxter stated as calmly as possible, but by the splatters on the wall and the way his comrades bodies had slumped, Baxter was pretty sure he knew what was wrong.
"They came from the hills and..." Raslan trailed off.
"And?" said Baxter plainly.
"They released the subjects,"
"The subjects?" asked Baxter, confused as to what their motive was..
Raslan just looked down and slowly nodded.
"Which ones?" asked Baxter, a hint of annoyance in his voice.
"All of them" stated Raslan.
"Oh for the love of Luna!" Baxter exclaimed in an exasperated voice.
"Who came from the hills?" Baxter asked Raslan slowly and purposefully.
"The boss and his lackeys, they took some of the test subjects with them, but left the rest to run rampant.
Baxter turned as he heard a slight noise come from inside the building. A grating noise.
"Raslan, get back." Baxter hissed at the unicorn, drawing his longsword from its scabbard and standing ready.
"What is it?" Asked Raslan as the sound grew louder and louder obviously coming to the door.
"Only one of our subjects makes a grating noise as it walks Raslan! Subject 71!" Baxter hissed back hinting to be quiet.
"You can't possibly hope to fight 71 Dash! Don't be ridiculous." Raslan added urgently.
"I stand a better chance than you do old friend! Remember magic is almost nullified by the armour implants." Baxter said raising his voice a little and steadying his form. Realising that 71 was going to come out of this door no matter how quiet he was. At least he had one thing over 71, speed, 71 was rather sluggish, it was supposed to barbaric killing machine that could only be killed physically, magic wasn't supposed to effect it at all. But the testings went a little wrong as most did.
Baxter's muscles tightened momentarily at the crash of the door being knocked off of it's hinges by a large, dark green earth pony, it's skin peppered with iron sheets of armour. Apparently they had done more testing on 71 without his knowledge. he was a good 12 inches taller than Baxter.
Regardless, Baxter's muscles loosened once more and before 71 could even see where his opponent was, Dash was off like an arrow from a bow, his sword already coming through with a sidelong sweep, slicing shallowly across the subjects right flank, glancing off the armour on it's way through and rendering the tail from the body.
A guttural cry of pain was heard from Baxter's opponent, as the pegasus came back around for another assault. However this time, 71 was expecting it and met Dash mid sprint with a hoof to the chest, sending him sprawling backwards. As Baxter tried vainly to regain his footing, blood oozing out of the wound on his chest, a big bloody hoof-print, the subject began to charge at him.
"Bax roll left!" Yelled Raslan as he charged a spell "Buy me some time!"
Baxter did just that, rolled to left and swung his sword vigorously at the hind leg of his attacker. Immediately seeing the results of his efforts, a bone deep slash all the way along the rear right leg. The subject faltered for a moment, regaining his footing surprisingly fast. However not fast enough as Bax had flown above the dark-green pony and was coming down for an overhead. As soon as he made contact, Baxter knew the strike was true. His sword cleaved through his opponents front left leg, flesh and bone alike. the leg falling to the ground with an audible *thud*, and Baxter Dash rolling to the side just in time for Raslan's spell.
Baxter watched as Raslan finished his spell and the iron sheets all throughout 71's body began to shudder, gradually shuddering more and more, until they pulled inwards towards the centre of his body, crushing his organs immediately. Baxter continued to watch as the light slowly drained from the subject's eyes.
"Right now explain why you think the boss decided to attack his own facility..." Baxter said frankly, turning to Raslan as though had happened.
"Well my theory is that when we started the work on your sister..." he started but was immediately cut off by an enraged Baxter Dash.
"You did what Raslan!" Baxter said with an air of complete and utter horror.
"Well the boss thought he could make her the fastest flier in Equestria, which we did, but..." Raslan trailed off, not wanting to finish the statement.
"But what Raslan?" Baxter said urgently.
"There were some, unpredicted, side effects..." Raslan finished slowly.
"Like what!" Baxter began angrily.
Raslan blinked at the stallion in front of him. "Well the other scientists said something about empowered wings of some sort, that's when I found out the boss had ordered some of our strongest unicorns, Tranea and Dante, working with dark magic in the bone structure of her wings." Raslan stated calmly.
"I am going to rip the limbs of that little shit." Baxter Dash said with a malicious tone.
"Who, the boss?" Raslan asked, again with that damn near creepy tone of calm.
"Yes Raslan. Renin will be the first and then I will go for Tranea and Dante for agreeing to such an idiotic plan!" Baxter said loudly.
"Perhaps I can help you there..." said a deep voice from the path coming in.
Baxter turned slowly to see his fellow head guard standing there with a spear laying next to him cracked and splintered with black blood coating the whole thing, shaft and tip alike, thickly making the weapon look almost ebony in craftsmanship.
"Where are your men Maliki?" Baxter said slowly.
"They didn't make it out, only Svengal and I survived the attack on the west ramparts..." Maliki said stiffly.
"Raslan?" Baxter said without even looking at the unicorn.
Raslan glanced back at the pegasus at the sudden mention of his name.
"Yes Baxter?" he said quickly.
"How many of the other scientists survived the attack?" Baxter continued.
Raslan was intrigued to the stallions reasoning of why it was so important how many survived. "Just me." Raslan said calmly.
Baxter raised an eyebrow incredulously. "Ok then..." he said slowly. "Maliki." Baxter continued.
"Yes sir?" Maliki responded questioningly.
"I need you to go get Svengal and meet me at my house outside Ponyville." Baxter said as he started towards the gate out with Raslan on his heels.
"Yes sir we will be there shortly, I sent Svengal to check for more survivors." Maliki stated.
"Good." muttered Baxter as he was walking off, "We will need as many men as we can get.".
As they arrived at Baxter's house, Baxter suddenly pulled Raslan into the bushes near the door.
"What the..." Raslan didn't get to finish his statement because Baxter hissed at him to be quiet.
Raslan did as he was told and was shocked to hear movement inside the house. "Who in Tartarus could be inside at this time?" whispered he whispered to the Pegasus.
"I think I know..." started Baxter slowly, before being cut off with a large crash from the house. Baxter looked back at the door to find it in splinters with a faint trail of rainbow leading out and up. "You weren't kidding when you said it worked." whispered Baxter.
"No it was more of a success than we had planned..." whispered Raslan back. "I should be able to get rid of the dark magic in her bone structure if i can get close enough for long enough, but she will won't be completely back to normal...." Raslan trailed off.
"How abnormal would she remain?" Baxter said after a while, standing up and making his way inside and through all the debris of his front room.
"Well she won't be able to remember the testing for one thing, or even a few other things. It's rather unpredictable what else really, but she should be back to normal except she would be a lot faster then before, not this fast mind you, but fast none the less." Raslan calmly stated.
"And you're sure this will work Raslan?" Baxter asked softly, like he had damn near given up on life.
"It's our best hope Baxter." finished Raslan.
"Very well, I should be able to subdue her for just long enough for you to get your spell off." said Baxter quietly. "But I will not hurt her!" he said, his tone suddenly becoming harsh before softening again, "Not again....." Baxter said.
"I understand Baxter..." muttered Raslan, in an attempt to calm his old friend.
"I suppose you should know, now that we will probably have to worry about it, all of our failed experiments, including Rainbow Dash..... have escaped." Raslan said slowly.
"I figured as much..." said Baxter equally as slowly as his companion.
"All of them, including Malak..." said Raslan in almost a whisper.
Baxter suddenly remembered why he was going back to the Containment Areas.
"Yes. I noticed he was out." Baxter said in a voice so quiet Raslan almost didn't hear it.
"I'm sorry that the tests didn't work as well on him Baxter, I really am. I had no idea what would happen if you tried altering a changeling's bone structure, I know now that changeling's bodies don't appreciate being forced to change against their will, that's why Terra was a success..." Raslan said, mentally hitting himself for mentioning Terra.
Baxter turned around at such a speed that Raslan was sure they had altered his bone structure in the same way as they had with RD. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO TERRA!?!?!?" Baxter said in a sudden uproar that almost took the unicorn off of his feet.
"Ah yes, Terra, the boss had her collected at the same time as Rainbow Dash, and much like you and Malak... one worked fine and the other... too well." Raslan stated in calm voice that didn't even sound forced.
That made Baxter surprised.
Raslan looked like he was going to have a heart attack a second ago, how did he... oh well, not important right now.
"I'm going to guess this time it was on my side of the family that it worked out too well Raslan? Am I right?" Baxter said, a challenge in his voice.
"Well yes..." Raslan said.
"For Celestia's sake Raslan, I promised Malak I would keep his sister safe no matter what happened!" he said with a voice that sounded on the verge of breaking up.
"If Malak knew..." Baxter was cut off.
"If I knew what Baxter?" said an angry voice from the front door.
Malak had arrived.