The Experiments

by SapphireRose87

11) Journey

{Discord}

“You’ve got to be freaking kidding me!” Princess Luna said as she paced back and forth in front of her computer screens. I looked at her and smiled because I knew what was wrong with Group A's tracking devices and she didn't.

“What’s wrong?” I said. Trying to act like I didn't know anything. I wasn't sure if I was convincing or not.

“There’s no signal coming from Group A at all!” Princess Luna said. “Not even from Henry!”

I didn't hide my laughter. My laughing was part of the lie and everyone knows that I can lie like it's my job and not even feel sorry about it, that is unless my emotions didn’t get involved. However, my emotions almost came into play when it came down to Henry. That is because I really did view Henry as a son. But I knew Henry would never be my son. Although I felt a connection to another child in Group A. Her name was Jane. She looked very familiar to me but I don't know why.

I remember that me and my wife Fluttershy had adopted an adorable little filly that was an earth pony. We adopted her six months after she was born. We named her Bubblegum and I felt devastated when I came home from work to find her missing from her crib. The broken window to her room was the only evidence of what happened. The police never found where she went. This happened right before her third birthday.

I was furious when I found out that a lot of my friends had similar stories about their kids being stolen. Princess Twilight was depressed when her two twin boys were taken. Even though she had sadness in her heart she pushed on and did her job as ruler of Equestria.

I also found out that Lab 14, Princess Celestia’s lab, and Princess Luna had a hand in stealing children from their cribs and possibly stole my child from me. I decided to start working behind the scenes to help get their children back. Unfortunately, when I first started working for the labs I didn’t have any luck recovering the children.

Once I saw that my laughter had gotten Princess Luna's attention I stopped laughing.

“What’s so funny Discord?” Princess Luna said.

I decided to maintain my smile. “Don’t you get it you fool!”

“Get what?” Princess Luna said.

“There’s no signal coming from Group A,” I fake cried, “because they’re all dead!”

Princess Luna rolled her eyes as I started crying for real. I pulled a handkerchief with my magic out of thin air and blew on it. I was able to bring them out by the memory of when I said goodbye to the children the other day. I knew Derek would protect them to the best of his abilities.

I also knew that Derek was in love with Henry so he would definitely protect Henry with his own life. That’s why I agreed with The Higher’s decision to send Derek to protect him.

“Oh, those poor, poor children!” I sobbed. “They were eaten by those horrible tracker cats! Oh, the shame!”

Princess Luna raised an eyebrow at me because it looked like she didn’t know what to say. I hoped my fake tears looked convincing enough to fool her. Her radio buzzed and we heard Willow’s voice.

“This is, tree to black cat,” said Willow, “please come in! Over!”

Princess Luna pressed the button on her radio to talk to Willow.

“This is black cat to tree,” Princess Luna said, “what’s the status of Group E and Group A? I’m not getting a signal from any of them.”

“Well Group E,” said Willow emphasizing the letter E, “Group E is dead! I had to stand by and watch as Ada killed all of them! And did I hear you correctly? You asked about Group A too?”

“Yes,” said Princess Luna, “I’m not getting a signal from their tracking devices either!”

“You think I care about that?” Willow screamed.

“Calm down seriously!” Princess Luna said.

“Don’t you tell me to calm down black cat!” Willow snarled. “I’m done with Star Labs! I’m breaking my contract! As far as Group A I doubt they’re dead but if they are, may they Rest In Peace! I’m breaking this damn radio and I’m getting this tracking device out if it’s the last thing I do! Goodbye black cat and don’t bother to respond!”

Princess Luna and I didn’t have to turn off the radio to know that Willow was gone because all she heard was static noise.

* * *

{Henry}

It was another day of traveling and we had set up camp again and this time since it wasn’t raining I took a blanket and laid on it outside the tent. I heard Derek’s voice coming from around the corner and he didn’t sound happy.

“Gee I knew you two trusted each other,” said Derek, “but I didn’t know it was that much!”

“And I care about what you think because?” Sarah said.

“If I were you,” said Derek, “I wouldn’t say anything about Henry and me anymore because I could say a lot about you and Aria!"

“Oh yeah?” Sarah said.

Next, I heard Milton’s voice, “Would you guys shut up! And I would like to know what you and Aria were doing!”

“Nothing,” said Sarah, “nothing at all!”

“Gee I knew you said it was mating season for Henry and I,” said Derek, “but I didn’t think it was mating season for you two!”

“Excuse me?” Sarah said.

“How does it feel Sarah?” Derek scoffed. “I’ve said all I need to say. I’m out of here!”

Derek came around the corner and sat down next to me. From Derek's smug expression it looked like he got payback on Sarah.

“You heard that didn’t you?” Derek said.

I rolled my eyes and gave him a look as if to say the word ‘duh.’

"I don't know who Sarah think's she is but I think she needs to grow up," Derek said.

I smiled and nodded because I knew Derek was absolutely correct.

* * *

Derek thought it was best to travel by night for some reason and Milton became curious as to why. I wondered about that too.

“I was wondering,” said Milton, “why are we sleeping during the day and traveling at night? Although it is much cooler at night so I don’t mind.”

“That’s because all of the tracking animals that might be after us are blind!” Derek explained.

“What?” Milton said. “They’re all blind? How do you know?”

“That’s because my dad and I did autopsies on the ones that we killed from each lab. They all have markings on them that show what lab they’re from! That’s what the barrier at the Inn was for! But it only holds up for so long.” Derek said.

“What?” Moria said as Milton examined her looking for a mark.

“How come you didn’t get zapped?” Milton said.

“That’s because I’m not a tracker,” said Moria, “I was an assistant. As you can see I left my collar behind and threw it in the river at our last stop. It was a tracking device given to me in case yours didn’t work. I used it for communicating with Princess Celestia and to update her on the progress of the experiment. It wasn’t until I saw how evil she was with her last conversation with Milton. I vow to never work with another lab as long as I live! If I break this vow Henry can cook me for dinner! I say that because I know that’s what he’s been wanting to do since day one!”

At that comment, Derek and Milton fell over laughing hard. Derek stopped laughing and gave me a look. I raised an eyebrow.

“Did you really want to do that Henry?” Derek said.

I rolled my eyes, nodded, and stuck out my tongue.

“I knew it!” Moria barked. “I swear I’ll never work for another lab ever again! I hope you will all forgive me one day and I will do whatever I can do in my power to get you back home! I swear it!”

* * *

The next night we were traveling, I saw that Derek was looking at his map again.

“What is it?” Milton said.

“We’re supposed to be meeting two Agents from the Resistance right around here!” Derek said. “Oh no.”

“What’s wrong?” Milton said.

“I have a feeling of who they sent!” Derek said.

We looked at the nearby bush and we heard a strange sound coming from it.

“My name is Snips!” Voice one said.

“And my name is Snails!” Voice two said.

“We have no sails so we wave our tails!” Snips said.

“I’m so hungry I could eat an orange!” Snails said.

“Well,” said Snips, “eat an orange yo!”

When we heard this everyone went into a fit of laughter except for Derek who rubbed his temple and groaned.

“Everyone,” said Derek, “meet Agents Snips and Snails. Agents Snips and Snails meet everyone.”

“Hey, hey, hey,” Snails said, “that’s not a proper introduction child Derek!”

“I do believe I’ve moved up to Agent status now!” Derek snapped.

“Sorry about that Agent Derek!” Snips said. “Now please give us a proper introduction. We would like to know who we’re escorting.”

Derek growled at Snips and Snails.

“This is Henry,” said Derek, “these are twins Milton and Martin, this is Aria, this is Sarah and this is Jane and the dog here is Moria!”

Snips and Snails looked at me with curious looks on their faces.

“Why are you guys looking at him like that?” Derek said.

“There’s something funny about Henry,” said Snips, “he looks like he’s laughing but there’s no sound coming from him!”

“Don’t you dare Agent Snips!” Derek said. “We already know what’s wrong with him! I wouldn’t do that if I were you or so help me!”

“Huh?” Snips said. “What did you say, Agent Derek? Because I didn’t hear you!”

“Agent Snips don’t-” Derek said.

Derek couldn’t pull me away from Snips fast enough. Snips lit up his horn and a flash of light forced its way into my mouth. It felt like he was trying to pull my throat out. After a moment he stopped his spell and I fell over backward choking.

“Agent Snips I swear when Leader Felix hears about this-“ Derek said.

“Derek stop!” Milton said and he stood between Derek and Snips before they could come to blows.

“I think it’s best that we arrive at The Resistance in one piece!” Snails said. “And don’t you think it would’ve been better to ask everyone what was wrong with Henry first? Agent Derek said he already knew what was wrong with him! That was the most impolite thing I’ve ever seen you do! Now let’s get going! We don’t have much daylight left!”

“Fine by me,” said Derek, “I can kill you later Agent Snips!”

* * *

Once again I was having another memory with just voices but no faces attached to them. It’s funny because every time I remembered something from Lab 14 the memory came back clearly. The other memories that I had were very fuzzy. I wondered if Lab 14 intended it to be that way. It wouldn’t surprise me if they did. I also remembered the strange voices that were in them. There was voice one with the weird accent to it. Voice two was just plain weird. The high pitched voice was definitely female.

“Awe,” said a high pitched voice, “just look at him! He looks so adorable with that hat you gave him darling!”

“Yeah, the hat doesn’t fit him yet,” voice one said, “he’s still a toddler!”

“Yes darling,” voice three said, “but it’s just cute the way it keeps falling off his head! Star looks adorable in that hat too and it keeps falling off her head!”

“You know,” said voice four, “Crimson and Star are about the same age as Yellow Strom and Cloud Sweeper. They might be princes but I'll keep them around Crimson and Star as much as possible. Who knows they might even become friends one day! And the twins might also bear an Element of Harmony!”

Voice one laughed, “Element of Harmony? I wouldn’t go that far! Besides which twin would get the Element of Magic?”

“Hmm,” said voice four, “maybe the element could be split?”

“I’ve never heard of that being done before,” said voice one, “anyway, have you given them their gotcha day presents yet?”

“Oh yes,” said voice four, “a pocket watch with my picture in it so they always know that their mother is always with them. And a pocket knife for protection you know because they’re princes. But the gifts will go with them wherever they go because they both have their names written in pony language on them!”

“Hey!” Voice two said. “No one said anything about my gift yet!”

“Oh yes darling,” voice three said, “excellent choice! The music box with Equestria’s national anthem in it. You know, music boxes like that are very hard to come by! The fact that you were able to get two of them makes them even luckier!”

“Yeah I know,” said voice two, “that means they’ll be able to return home no matter where they are! Let’s hope they grow up here where they belong!”

“Uh-huh!” All four of the voices agreed.

I could hear my voice in the memory.

“Ma-ma!” I said.

“Awe!” All the voices said.

“That’s right kid,” voice one said, “I’m your mother! It might not be by blood, but I adopted you and I’m still going to raise you and protect you with my life!”

“I’ll protect you too!” Voice two said. “I’m awesome and I save anypony who gets in trouble!”

Voice one sounded really annoyed with voice two.

“Fine, fine,” voice one said, “you know you’re really narcissistic sometimes? That gets on my nerves!”

“But your kids are so adorable!” Voice three said.

“You know,” said voice four, “you’ve been gushing over our kids all day! Why don’t you adopt?”

“Oh no darling!” Voice three said. “I’m too busy running my fashion empire! Speaking of that, I have a meeting in Yakyakistan. I’m going to see Prince Rutherford to get a rare blue-dyed fabric. It will go perfectly with my new spring line! I have no idea what I’ll name it. I’m pretty sure Sweetie Belle will give me a good name for it. Well, this gotcha day party has been fun but I must get some sleep so I can catch the next train in the morning! Goodnight to all of you and Pinkie Pie that cake was divine! It was your best one yet!”

The rest of the voices said goodbye to voice three and that was when I snapped back into reality.

Something tells me I thought that this memory is revealing who my family is. But I still can’t put faces to the voices. I hope I get to meet them one day.