MLP Laboratories- The Outbreak

by NeuPferdfurt

Spike's cupcakes

Spike heard the moaning upstairs, and he knew Twilight was having nightmares again.

Twilight Sparkle didn't like to talk about dreams in general, she was way too proud of her rational mind to admit that she paid any attention to them. And she hadn't told Spike about the recent series of nightmares either.

She didn't need to. Spike knew all too well what was going on. At least he could make solid guesses.

Spike remembered how it used to be.

-

The illusion used to be perfect, it used to be so good in fact that even he managed to make himself believe it was all true.

For days and weeks in a row, he could drown his memories and his conscience in the illusion that they were actually living in a magical land.
He managed to forget the world of the pipes, the syringes, the giant glass tubes, the dark corridors and white domes, the ever watchful cameras. He even managed to forget what he was- and what he did.

Spike didn't know what had changed. Why one day the "gems" weren't enough to make him forget anymore. Why he kept on thinking about the things They did to his friends while distracting them with fairytales so they wouldn't resist.

-

What had happened to Twilight Sparkle was his fault. He was becoming too nervous, it became harder and harder for him to hide his fear and his guilt. And Twilight... of course she had started to notice. They were living under the same roof, for Pete's sake! They were closer than brother and sister.

Somehow, Spikes suffering had spread to Twilight as well, and she started having... doubts.

And then the inevitable had happened: She had started resisting, probably without even noticing what she was doing.
She had awoken. She had seen... the truth.

They had wiped her brain clean of the memory of the incident, but the trauma had been too strong, and nasty little bits of it remained buried in Twilight's subconscious. Thus the nightmares.
But of course they weren't the real problem.

The real problem was that it might happen again.

-

Spike did not want to think about these things.
He wanted to curl up in his basket and pretend that nothing had changed. Pretend that the illusion was the truth and reality merely a twisted nightmare.

He was a coward. Deep down, he had always been a coward.
Sticking his head in the sand was the only option.

"I love you guys..."

But he would not be able to save anyone. No sir, not this pathetic little stooge.

-

Luckily, Twilight was too tired herself to notice the dark rings beneath her assistant's eyes.
He had made a big breakfast for her. Spike had started pampering her quite a bit since the incident with the dentist.

She didn't really seem to notice the changes in his behavior, or at least she didn't feel the need to comment on them. Not long ago, he would have tried to gain her praise and invited her to recognize his greatness. That was back when he was ready to tell himself he was worthy of praise. He tried teasing her occasionally to keep the act up, but that was all it had become- an act.

When the unicorn pony had left to help Rainbow Dash with her flight practice, he went into the library and started putting the data interfaces Twilight had left on the floor back into their respective slots. Under the influence of the "gems", Spike could see these things the way the ponies saw them- dusty old books full of runes and magic. That was nice, but when doing his chores, Spike preferred to focus and switch to a more... precise vision of things. It helped getting things right.

The gap between reality and illusion wasn't very problematic for the ponies themselves- as quadrupedal organisms, they weren't exactly made for complicated manual tasks anyway. Besides, Spike thought, the gap wasn't really all that big. That was both the funniest and the saddest part of the whole deal.

Hell on Earth, painted in pink.

-

Spike sat down in front of the fireplace, which was really a huge monitor that had a chimney fire for a screen saver. Yet another thing that was so funny the little dragon felt like killing himself.

He pressed a button on the keyboard, and the fire was replaced by the central Ponyville database. A few other keystrokes later, the program started downloading updates for the "books" he had just put back into their "shelves".
Keeping Twilight Sparkle occupied, making sure she would go all the way.
Making sure she would continue to produce results.

This had been part of his daily routine for as long as he could remember. They had created him just for Twilight, to keep her fed and healthy, to help her evolve- and to keep her ignorant. He wanted to believe that he was her assistant- but that was not quite the right word, was it?

-

He was interrupted by a horrible little noise, the acoustic equivalent of being stepped on the foot. He found a new message from Canterlot Central.

He read it once, he read it twice.
With a frightening CLONK, a ridiculously large syringe appeared in the slot beneath the monitor.

Apply serum E PV PP 33 manually within the next 48 hours.

Spike examined the content of the syringe. It wasn't a potion. This was something organic. Mutant stem cells. He could almost see them crawling around. If they got into Twilight's brain, she wouldn't just be drugged. She would be... changed.

No way!

Spike replied to the message, demanding confirmation.

Only a few seconds later, he got the answer.
It was the same message, word for word. Spike counted to ten.

CLONK.

Another syringe.
So this was handled by a computer. A simple computer!

Spike was furious. A machine didn't know how to treat Twilight Sparkle!
He would NOT put that thing into her cranium just because it had been burped up by a random automaton!

But did he have a choice?

"Think, Spike, THINK..."

He could refuse.
Spike knew that as a specialized field pawn, he had a certain discretion. But not much. They were watching his every step. He was pretty sure most of the observation was done by computers, and they would only alert their superiors -whatever they might be -in case of an anomaly of a certain degree.

If he refused to execute the orders, however, even those issued by the lowly computers, he would put himself into the spotlight.
As well as Twilight.
Canterlot Central would pay closer attention to their case. If the surge of anomalies in this sector had not caught Their attention by now, this would definitely be the final straw.
They would start to see a pattern.

"Oh, Twilight..."

-

There is no harm in keeping all options on the table, Spike told himself.

He did not want to use this "serum" on his friend, but, if it turned out to be the only way... if within 47 hours he wasn't able to think of another solution...

So he did what he was supposed to do. He started to prepare the injection.

The main problem was to find the right moment to plunge this thing into her brain.
Normally, this was taken care of by the ponies' ability to simply ignore or to forget nasty things. Only month ago Spike would have used this narwhal tooth-sized needle on her in plain daylight and no one, including herself, would have taken any offense at it.

But these times were over. Twilight was having doubts, a deadly acid that would destroy the pink bubble that had always protected her mind.

So Spike would have to operate at night, when she was asleep. Only that Twilight was not a sound sleeper anymore.
The mere thought of her waking up in the middle of the night while he was standing next to her, ready to stab her in the head head with this horrible needle...
So he had to take certain precautions.

That's when he got the idea with the cupcakes.

-

Sugar Cube Corner was one of the few stores in Ponyville that had no obvious benefit for Them- it existed only to make the ponies happy. Because happy ponies wouldn't ask questions.

To the ponies, it appeared to offer a great variety of backed goods; in reality, these things were all made of the same, mildly nutritious goo, in different flavors.
Much of the processing was done by machinery that remained hidden to the town's inhabitants- including the very ponies "running" the business. The ponies of the bakery had only one thing to do- to come up with new creations by combining different flavors.

Like in many other areas, They weren't putting much effort into creating and maintaining the illusion- instead, They had created a system in which the ponies could fool themselves.

-

"Oh, hello Spike!"

"Hi Pinkie Pie!"

Pinkie Pie was on duty today. Excellent. Everyone knew she made the best cupcakes.
He was a lucky little dragon.

"The cupcakes look great today. Say, do you remember this one flavor Twilight liked so much...?"

"Do I! I would NEVER forget a friend's favorite cupcake!"

Of course she wouldn't.

"If you have the time, I would like to order a bunch of those..."

"Time? Time? No, I don't HAVE any time, but I'll MAKE some! Follow me!"

And off she bounced to the kitchen.
Her younger assistant hurried to take her place on the counter, rolling her eyes. Yep, that's what it was like to work with Pinkie Pie.

She had already started to prepare the dough.

"Could you hand me the sugar?"

"Here you go..."

"Oh, and some orange juice..."

Good thing that Pinkie didn't actually see the ingredients she was using.

Spike wasn't very picky when it came to food- to him, it all looked and even tasted more or less the same.
But that was because he had a little more... insight than his pony friends.

"Now, be a dear and get me an okapi."

"A... what?"

"Okapi. You know, little forest giraffe, white stripes. They're rare, so you better start looking."

"Don't tell me you actually need an okapi for the cupcakes."

"I didn't tell you which part of the okapi, did I? Wait... what cupcakes? Oh, right..."

"So no okapi?"

"Maybe later."

"So... can I get you something else?"

"The sugar."

"I already gave you the sugar."

"I mean the more sugar. Also, the more honey, while you're at it."

"I didn't hand you any honey before."

"You know, I didn't want to say anything..."

"So I was supposed to give you honey without you even asking?"

Pinkie Pie turned around and bulged one of her eyeballs into Spike's face.

"How much honey do you think I need, mister?"

"...Too much?"

"EXACTLY. Now for some chocolate chips... Good... and the buzzer, please."

"You mean this thing... OUCH!"

"Yes, that thing. No need to bring it over here, it was just for your benefit."

-

Before he knew it, the cupcakes where in the oven.

He felt the need to sit down and to analyze the things he and Pinkie Pie had said- or yelled -and to put them into some sort of order that his brain could deal with. Had they been fighting? Joking? It was hard to tell. With Pinkie it always was.

Pinkie Pie came to his side, and together they looked into the oven, which was now glowing in a gentle orange. And this moment was nice. No matter which way you looked at it.

"Now we'll just have to wait while they are burning in their own little Hades..."

What a strange thing to say- even for Pinkie Pie.

Suddenly, Spike felt a little uneasy. Pinkie Pie's skin felt awfully warm and sweaty next to his, and the oven didn't make it better.

He looked around, and he found the "buzzer" Pinkie had used earlier to trick him. Where did she even get these things? Spike couldn't think of a reason why They would provide the ponies with practical joke devices. She must have found it somewhere...

The door of the cupboard on the other side of the room was open. It was just a crack, but Spike could tell there was something in there... something that shouldn't be here at all. Like an okapi. Or a disemboweled security camera.

Was he just seeing things?

For once, Pinkie Pie was quiet and lost in her thoughts. Suspiciously quiet.

"Pinkie...", Spike asked in a feeble voice, "How much do you know?"

It was as if he had flipped a switch. The earth pony exploded back into life.

"Uh, is this a quiz? Let's see, I know a whole LOT of things, like, did you know that eggs get stinky if you leave them in the sun and...!"

"No, I mean... Do you know about the... other place?"

"What other place are you talking about, Spikey?"

Part of Spike was disappointed, but the other part was relieved.
So that was it.
Pinkie Pie was just being good old Pinkie Pie, nothing more sinister than that.

"Never mind, Pinkie, just a silly suspicion..."

He returned his attention to the cupcakes in the oven, but then the earth pony spoke again. The tone of her voice had changed only slightly, but it made him shiver.

"There is no other place, Spike. You of all people should know that."

He slowly turned around. Pinkie Pie's grin had faded. Spike felt his heart sink.

"What do you mean...?"

"There is no different place, there are just different ways to look at it. The candy and the needles from the sky make the ponies see nice things."

"Pinkie... The drugs don't really work on you, do they?"

"They failed me a long time ago. When I was just a little filly."

He wanted to scream, but he managed to contain himself, somehow.

"Oh Pinkie... I am so sorry..."

For a second, a vision appeared in his head, awfully live-like: Pinkie Pie pushing him right into the oven...
Into his personal hell.

"Awww, don't make such a long face. It's not that bad. All my friends are here, right? Besides, it's like I said. It's the way you look at things. We may be stuck in a bad place, but that doesn't mean we can't have fun!"

He should have figured this out long ago.

Now, in the retrospective, it all made sense.

"All this time, and I didn't notice a thing... I thought you were just being... goofy."

"That's because you're a doofy."

Spike shook his head in disbelief. "All this time, you had to live in the darkness, while the others had at least blissful ignorance on their side..."

The second the words were spoken, Spike knew he was going to regret saying them. Pinkie Pie leaped forward. Gnashing her teeth.

"Blissful ignorance is still ignorance, Spike! It's all a LIE. You're sorry the lies didn't work on me, but I can think of a few other things you should be sorry about!
They are ripping us apart, EVERY DAY, while you only care about the anesthesia! But things have changed, Spike, haven't they?"

"I..."

"You can't keep up the lies anymore, can you? So what are you planning to do about this, buster?"

She had driven him into a corner, in more than one way.

"I... I don't know..."

"Well, you better figure something out, and FAST."

Her anger evaporated as quickly as it had appeared.

"Spikey, you need to figure out which side you're on."

She returned her attention back to the oven, as if nothing had happened.

"They should be ready in about twelve minutes. Now If you'd excuse me, I need to get back to the counter."

-

"Spike."

The little dragon almost fell off the stool he had been sitting on while waiting for the cupcakes. Pinkie Pie was standing right behind him.

"Rainbow Dash had an accident. I am going to the hospital now. The cupcakes are ready, you can take them. Put them in one of our baskets."

He felt the need to say something to her, but she had already left.

The cupcakes smelled great.

Spike had almost forgotten about his plan.
The reason why he needed the cupcakes in the first place.
It would be easy to put sedatives into these. Twilight Sparkle would sleep like a little filly... And wake up with a different brain.

Yeah. How great was that.

-

Spike took the cupcakes with him to the hospital.

Comments

[solareclipse]

[Katamariguy]

God this is paranoia-inducing.