• Published 5th Apr 2020
  • 3,389 Views, 158 Comments

Ponid-21 - Cadenzel Washington



What starts out as a simple medical trial, becomes something much stranger as the patients notice some odd symptoms like horns and wings...

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The Sixteenth Day (Truth Comes and Darkness Follows)

I stared up at the ceiling.

I just stared at the ceiling for a long time, allowing myself to be alone with my thoughts. I was starting to get accustomed to falling asleep in the facility only to wake up in Twilight’s Castle Library. It was a place that was quickly becoming like a second home to me. Well, really it should be a third home since the facility has become that second home but regardless it was becoming more familiar to me.

I was mulling over what I had learned yesterday in my mind. The entire reason we're all here in this facility and are being transformed could all be traced back to one individual; a pony named Lady Aion. If the journal she was writing in was correct, she was hopping around different dimensions basically to learn about the multiverse and all its different trappings.

“So,” I began speaking to no one in particular. “This pony came across Twilight and her world, the same world that I keep seeing more and more of here in my dreams and the two are connected because Lady Aion visited them at one point. But I still don't know the reason the patients are transforming into this ponies specifically. Damnit, I feel like I’m so close to connecting the dots here, but I’m missing the link that ties all this information together!”

I toss the facts around and around in my head but every time, I come back to that missing connection. If I could just talk to Lady Aion I’d be able to figure all this out. Sadly, there's no fusible way to make that happen given that she's encased in a fossilized rock and that's assuming she's even alive at all in there.

I yank a pillow from the couch and pull it over my face and I scream into it in frustration. I huff out a frustrated sigh and push the pillow off my face just in time to see Twilight walking towards me. I adjust myself and stand up straight. “Ah uhm, hey there Twilight. You uh, didn’t hear me just now did you?”

Twilight shook her head. “No no, I just arrived, but I did see you grab that pillow in frustration. Is there something you want to talk about?”

I sigh and pull myself upright. “Yeah. I want to know about Lady Aion. I know you said that you’re not the “actual Twilight” but I still figured that you might know something about her.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”

I nodded. “Yeah. Last time I had this dream I saw a picture of you two together and I also read about you two having met in her journal. I figured that if you knew how she interacted with you when she visited your world it might help me figure out why this is happening to all of us.”

Twilight frowns and looks away for a brief moment. “I’m sorry. While I am remembering more and more about Twilight's...about my life, the memories around her are still eluding me at the moment.”

I wave my hand at her. “It’s okay. I understand.” I stood up and moved toward the window. Outside I could see the entirety of Ponyville lying before me. The quaint little village was fully restored at least as far as this lucid dream was concerned. The world of Equestria itself however was still incomplete. The sky for example was still a colorful void where the clouds and the sun should be. The city of Canterlot and the majestic mountain she stood on was nowhere to be seen on the horizon either. There wasn't much of the world outside the city limits of Ponyville.

I pull myself back inside and sit back down. “You’re remembering more though, yeah? This might be me speculating, but I think as the world gets built more and more out there, you start to remember more and more up here.” I explain, tapping my head. "I think the village out there is a visual representation of that."

Twilight tapped a hoof to her chin. “Hmm, that seems like a plausible connection. Every day, I’ve been remembering more and more. Your body has fully changed and now I think your mind is experiencing changes too, or at least, I’m experiencing mental changes. My memories are becoming more detailed. I’m getting so close to the answers but it’s just out of reach!”

Twilight taps her head a few times and gives out a loud groan of frustration. “Argh, I’m so CLOSE! I just need a little bit more!” Twilight takes a pillow next to her and slams her face into it and yells.

“Heh, welcome to my world.” I quip, amused at her similar reaction to our mutual frustration. “Well, I’m thinking that we can either wait around and let the memories come to us or we can do more sleuthing and figure out if Hayden knows anything we don’t.”

Twilight’s eyes narrow as I mention Hayden’s name. “Do you think we can stop whatever he has in store for us?”

I grin. “Hey, with your brains and my dogged persistence, there’s nothing we can handle.”

Twilight returned my grin and trotted towards me. “Alright. Let’s do this together! I know that when friends work together, there’s nothing we can’t accomplish.”

I smile, feeling invigorated upon her saying the word “Friendship”. It was strange. There was something about that word that empowered me and made me feel powerful. Now more than ever, I knew what I needed to do. As I was enjoying this euphoric high, Twilight raised her hoof, seemingly wanting to shake my hand. I moved in to grab her hoof and-

I woke up.

The Sixteenth Day

I threw myself up and stretched my legs and wings. My pony body was now starting to become routine. It probably helped that the transformation from human to pony was gradual and helped me get accustomed to this new way of moving. Still, I knew it would take much longer for me to get fully used to this and refer to it as “normal” in my head.

I knew I had no time to waste today. Before I would have taken the time to examine my changes in agonizing detail and look on in both fascination and dumbfounded surprise at how my body had changed. I would have strutted around for a couple minutes in front of the mirror until I had finally come to grips with how the human appendage I had grown used to for over 20 years was now Equine in nature.

None of that mattered now.

I needed to get in contact with my friends. I needed to tell them what I learned and hatch a battle plan to stop Hayden. I may not know any sort of concrete detail as to what he was up to but his ill intent was nakedly apparent and I wasn’t about to let him abuse Lady Aion’s powers. Stopping him took top priority in my mind.

I exited my room and headed to do my morning routine of showering, getting my breakfast and then meeting my friends in the Magic Meeting Room. As I made my way up the hall to the showers, I was constantly running by guards and other new personnel who were unfamiliar to me. Hayden only took formal control yesterday and yet I felt the coldness of his leadership creeping into the facility as I roamed the halls. At this point, I almost expected there to be guards in the shower itself.

Fortunately, there wasn’t anyone inside the bathroom itself so I was able to take my shower in peace. As the water from the shower ran through my fur, I started to think about what I needed to tell my friends and how we’d go about beating Hayden. We would need to catch him doing something so damaging, even his most supportive allies would seek to distance themselves from him. He’s already shown that he has a very repulsive personality, though that in and of itself wasn’t illegal.

I sighed as I moved over the shampoo with my telekinesis. There was also the matter of that shapeshifter. I hadn’t heard anything about that individual for a while. Maybe they were hiding because they caught wind that we knew about their existence? Or maybe they have something more sinister planned and they’re just biding their time until they can act upon whatever scheme they had in store.

Well, I knew what I wanted to do; I wanted to catch Hayden in the act, I wanted to stop him from abusing Lady Aion’s powers and then I…

I stopped, letting the water pelt my back.

What comes after that? This whole time I was thinking in the back of my mind that eventually I’d be cured and I’d just continue my life as it was before I came here. However, I wasn’t so sure about that now. It wasn’t because I thought that Doctor Matt and his colleagues wouldn’t find a way to reverse this ponification, but it was more that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go back. I was finding myself enjoying my time with Twilight and empathizing with both her hopes and plights. I was a bit torn about what to do.

I shook my head. I’d cross that bridge when I came to it. Right now, I needed to stop Hayden and his plans. I might have been torn on the choice, but I had the feeling that he wouldn’t even give me a choice in the matter. I shut off the shower, confident that my coat was fully clean. I pulled in a towel to dry myself off as I thought about what my friends would think about the future. Maybe they were in a similar situation that I was? Perhaps they didn’t know what they wanted and were as torn as I was about changing back.

Well, I’d have the chance to tell them after breakfast. I trotted out of the bathroom and made my way to the cafeteria.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

I approached the Magic Meeting Room. This would be our first meeting ever since the take over by Hayden and I had the sinking feeling that the room was going to be a bit more somber than normal. I was already imagining their faces as I entered with glum looks all around and it being unnervingly quiet. I guess I’d better get it over with.

I opened the door and was greeted by a close up of Meghan’s face smiling at me.

“Yooooooooooou’re here! Great, now we can get the meeting started~!” She exclaimed with glee.

“Er...huh?” was all I was able to get out as Meghan bounced back to her seat. “What’s with everypony? I thought you’d all be down in the dumps because of what Hayden’s been doing.”

“Oh, we’re mad about that, no question.” Will retorted, her hooves stretching above her head. “But thanks to some good convincing and morale boosting from Meghan, we’re all determined to not let this get us down.”

Darnel gave a firm nod and crossed her legs on the table. “Yer lookin’ at a group who ain’t about to just give up because the goin’ gets tough. We’re friends...and more than that we’re like a family. Far as I’m concerned, families stick together!”

Nathan nodded in agreement. “Darling, we’re not pretending that this new situation isn’t taxing or of no consequence, but we’re also saying we shouldn’t allow ourselves to be controlled by it.”

Juan played with her soft pink mane and looked over toward me. “I...I won’t allow myself to be scared off by a big meanie like Hayden. I want to stand up for myself!” Juan stood up in her chair and she looked more confident than she ever had been before.

Meghan giggles. “So! Are we gonna prepare for ‘Spy Mission 4: The Sequel They Did Because the Main Star Ran Out of Money’ or what?”

I sighed and gave a smile to them all. “Heh. I’m glad I have great friends like you.” I moved over to my chair and sat down. “Alright then, let’s formulate a plan then!” I spoke with new found confidence.

“Okay,” I began. “We’re gonna need to find out more about what Hayden is up to. First, we should figure out what he’s scheduled to do today. If we know where he’s going, we’ll be able to keep eyes and ears on him and as long as we keep ourselves hidden and out of sight, we should be able to pick up on something that might be able to help us use against him.”

I pulled out the listening device that Franklin gave me. “We’ve also got this listening device. It’s a bug that can relay audio that I’m hearing and it’s small enough to be undetected. If Hayden says something damaging, I can record it.”

I put the small device back in my ear and continue my speech. “I think two of us should follow Hayden directly while the remainder of us try to talk to the remainder of the Pre-Hayden staff. People who we can still trust like Doctor Matt, Nurse Akai, and maybe Tyrell and Julius though I’d be careful since they tend to interact with Hayden a lot if my day spent in the lab yesterday was anything to go by. Still, we can make this work. All we have to do is keep a calm head and figure out what’s going down with Hayden. I’ve already got a general idea from yesterday but I need more details.”

Juan twiddled her hooves. “Uhm...if you don’t mind me asking, what...what did you learn about in the lab yesterday.”

I took in a deep breath and exhaled. It was a lot to take in so I needed to prepare myself for a long explanation. “I learned a lot from yesterday, so strap in for the long haul.” I explained.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

I ended up telling them everything I learned about Lady Aion; who she was, what she did, her many adventures into different realms, and how she eventually met up with a group of ponies that we’ve all become familiar with over the past two weeks. I also told them of how she ended up here or rather what we speculated happened to have her here. After I was finished I let out a big strained sigh.

“That’s all I learned.” I sighed. I moved my head around to get a good look at the reactions of everypony. It seems most of them were surprised and curious which is about what I expected. The only look that surprised me was Juan’s sense of confusion at this whole situation.

“Why do you think Lady Aion made us like this?” Juan asked. “It seems pretty obvious that it was her magic that made us this way, but I’m wondering why it was the ponies of Equestria of all things and not any of the other creatures she encountered.”

“Hmm, well, from what I learned about from reading her journal and my own gut instinct, I’d surmise that it was because they were individuals that really stuck out in her mind. She might have remembered those ponies fondly and thus they were on her mind and that had some reaction with the magic. That’s my guess anyway. I don’t have any specific proof that my explanation is absolute fact.” I finished my theory.

“Well,” Will began. “She seems like a pretty awesome pony and I’ll be damned if I let Hayden use her for some half-baked scheme!”

“Indeed.” Nathan replied, nodding her head. “I will not allow this uncouth act to go unchallenged!”

Meghan snorts and giggles a bit. “She seems like she would have been a fun pony to hang out with and I don’t wanna see anything bad happen to her body or her stuff. So count me in!”

Darnel stretched in her chair. “If he thinks he can mess with her, then that Hayden there has a ‘nother thing comin’ that’s for sure!”

“Then we’re all good to go ahead with the plan, yes?” I asked. “I’ll go seek out Hayden and the rest of you will go and talk to the other staff and try to find out more about his agenda.” Everything was looking good, now all I needed to do was to figure out who I wanted to take with me. I felt like I wanted somepony I could rely on in a pinch, someony who I felt would be able to react quickly if the chips were down and finally somepony who was loyal to the end.

“Hey Will, you mind coming with me to keep an eye on Hayden?” I asked.

Will beamed upon hearing my request and flew up a bit in the air before coming back down. “Ah hell yeah! I’m down for that! If Hayden gives you any trouble, I’ll be ready for a tussle for sure!”

“Awesome. As for everypony else, go and gather up as much information as you can from the others and then we’ll report on our findings tomorrow.” I explained as I put my hoof into the center of the table. “Together as friends?”

One by one, everypony put their hooves into the center until there were six hooves stacked on top of each other.

“Let’s do this together. One, two, three, BREAK!” I exclaimed as we pulled all our hooves up into the air.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Finding Hayden was easier said than done. The two of us had a general idea of what he got up to every day, but there was no indication of where exactly he would be at what time. Then there was the added hang up of not being able to access all the areas of the facility which Hayden of course had no problem of doing. We’d also need to be a lot more stealthy this time around because I knew Hayden would be less tolerant of our actions than Franklin was. Overall, this was going to be tough.

Will however didn’t seem too worried. “Alright, we’ve checked all the recreational areas and larger rooms. I think we need to look more into the smaller office and living quarters areas.” She explained.

I nodded. “Yeah. Probably a good idea.” I knew that we would need to be careful with Hayden. From what I’ve seen of him, he is not a pleasant human being. The last thing I’d want is to be on the receiving end of his unpleasantness.

We soon arrived down on the office level, wandering the corridors, looking for Hayden. Time passed as we moved around and there was still no sign of him. I was about ready to move on to another area when I spotted something out of the corner of my eye. I could have sworn I saw a green flash somewhere. I turned to where I thought it was coming from and soon saw a random scientist...talking with Hayden!

I nudged Will a bit so as not to make any noise and pulled her head around to see the two of them turning a corner to go into another wing of the facility. Will nodded and soon we were following after the two of them, making sure to stick to the shadows and not be caught by their stares. Eventually, they entered a room and the door shut.

The two of us moved over to try and open the door but unfortunately it was locked by a keycard and trying my own keycard on the door did not open it.

“Shoot, we’re so close!” I exclaimed in frustration.

Will tapped a hoof to her chin and looked around and saw a vent above the door. “Hey Penn, you think you could fit into this?” She asked.

I moved up to see the vent itself, trying not to overdo my wing flaps in the process. I looked over the vent and shook my head. “I don’t think so, Will. I could fit in there, but I don’t think I’d be able to turn around or move much at all. Unless...wait.” I formulated an idea in my head. If I could see around in there, I could probably use a teleport to get around in the vents without needing to actually physically move. That might actually work. “I think I can use them in combination with some teleports. This will be weird and a bit cramped but I think I can do it. Stay out here and if anything goes wrong, go and tell the others.”

Will’s smile faded and was replaced by a look of frustration. “Wha? You don’t want me to fight it out? Why not?”

“If I’m captured or subdued, I need someone to deliver that information before it's too late. Do you understand?”

Will stared at me for a while but eventually she sighed and nodded. “Alright, fiiiiiiiiine. I’ll be ready to fly if I need to, for you.”

I grinned as I moved over to the vent and peered inside. I knew I would need to keep calm and not panic while inside the narrow tubes. I concentrated energy into my horn, causing heat to build up from the base to the tip. Finally, I unleashed the energy causing me to pop from my current position to a new one inside the vent.

My limbs were somewhat constricted by the enclosed space. I pivoted my body slightly to give myself more mobility with limited success. I figured it would probably be best to get used to the tight feeling and trust that my teleports would ring true. I turned my head to get a better view of where I needed to go. I used my horn again to teleport myself.

I was now at an intersection of the vents. The entrance I had come in through was now much farther away and I could barely see the hallway. My ears perked up as they picked up a faint noise coming from the right path. I did another quick teleport.

I was now less than a meter away from a vent that led into a room. The noises I had heard earlier were much louder and clearer now and I recognized that it was two voices holding a conversation. One of them was an unknown person who I did not recognize. From the overall tone of their voice they seemed...hesitant and uneasy. Clearly whatever they were discussing was becoming uncomfortable for them. The other voice I instantly recognized as being from Hayden. He was his usual aggressive and overbearing self and he was having a heated argument with this other person.

Before proceeding any further, I tapped the bug in my ear to turn it on. A small monotone voice in my ear spoke, “Recording Function Activated”. With that step taken care of, I physically inched closer, fearing a teleport might be heard by the two inside the room. As I approached, the conversation became even clearer. Finally, I was able to move my head so I could peer out the vent slits and get a good view of the argument.

“I need you to commit to this!” Hayden gruffly stated.

“L-look, this is a lot more than I expected.” The nervous person replied. “I’m not entirely comfortable with what you’ve been asking me to do. I mean when it was just keeping an eye on people and sneaking around, I was hesitant but I did it because no one would get hurt. But this is going too far now for me.”

Hayden gave a sharp exhale and stood up, towering over him. “You’re not reneging on our deal, are you?”

The other man hesitated. “T-that’s not...no, I’m not. But I am concerned about-”

“Ah ah ah.” Hayden interrupted, wagging his index finger. “Let me go over the terms again. I told you that I would give you expedited care, money, a cover story given your situation and of course, your eventual release. You already helped me a great deal. You got Franklin tossed out and you’ve provided me with so much information and you’re incredibly helpful when it comes to creating cover stories.”

Hayden started to pace around the room. “You remember how I had found you, right? Back when this had just started, I was only able to be here as an observer because Franklin had so little faith or trust in me. You were in a bizarre state of flux, portions of your limbs were of one creature that were connected to completely different ones like some sort of bizarre, ever changing Frankenstein’s monster. But out of the goodness of my heart, I gave you an experimental stabilizing agent that allowed you to get a grip on your powers much more quickly and well, look at you now!”

I raised an eyebrow at his story. None of the other patients went through anything like that, it was all gradual changes. But according to Hayden, this guy was “ever changing” which seemed very odd to me. Something wasn’t adding up. I looked back to see Hayden moving back toward the other individual.

Hayden leaned in and got right up in his face. “But just so we’re clear, you agreed to help me with weeding out anyone who wasn't deemed loyal to me. If you’re deciding to go against my wishes, then I guess I’ll just have to tell all my scientists that I have a shapeshifter who we can experiment on.”

I stifled a gasp as I saw the other man get engulfed in a green fire to reveal a changed creature just like all the other patients. This individual had a bright green sheen and large orange horns on his head. He looked almost like a cross between a pony and some kind of insect. This new creature was clearly panicked at the prospect of being experimented on, flailing in his seat. “No no no, please don’t do that! I’m sorry, I don’t want them to poke and prod at me. Compared to the other patients, I’m a freak! I can’t let them know who I am!”

Hayden moved over near where the vent was and I pushed back, hoping that he wouldn’t see me. I was relieved when he turned his head and looked back toward the shapeshifter and continued speaking. “All I’m asking is for you to do what I need you to do. You’re the only one among the patients who has this shapeshifting ability. You can do things I cannot and some of those things are going to be messy. I told you when we made this deal that things might get hairy but you agreed to it.”

“I-I’m sorry. I’ll do it, okay? I’ll do what you need me to do.” The nervous shapeshifter relented.

“Hmm. There’s one thing to say you’ll do something, it’s another thing to actually be committed.” Hayden bluntly said. “Well, not to worry, I have a little task for you to do to prove your loyalty.”

As I wondered what he could be talking about, Hayden suddenly whipped around and threw the vent open and grabbed me by the scruff of the neck. Panicking, I tried to teleport out, but Hayden stuck something onto my horn that seemed to block my attempts at casting. With that avenue of escape out, I tried to physically escape his grasp which was easier said than done as I was much smaller than him.

“This little pony here was spying on our conversation. Now if she were to get out, she’d be able to tell everyone about our secrets, including about you and your powers. But if you help me, no one has to know what happened here.”

My eyes widened as I processed what he was saying, he wasn’t gonna kill me...was he? I looked over at the shapeshifter who looked nervous as he approached me. I looked up at him as he leaned down to face me. As he drew in closer I could hear a very quiet and muffled sentence.

“I’m sorry about this.”

A second later, a jolt coursed through my head as I felt a blast of magical energy slam me in the face. I fell to the ground, my body limp, unable to get to my hooves. I could hear the muffled voice of Hayden saying something before darkness overtook me.

Author's Note:

Well, after another month (and some change) another chapter is completed! This is where things finally start ramping up and many more questions start to get answered so I hope you're all looking forward to the next chapter!