//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1// Story: Illusion
// by XerX//------------------------------//
———————————————————
//////———————————————//////
//////———————————————//////
———————————————————
The day grew dark, and in a secret underground laboratory, something amazing was going down. Four scientists gather around a small table, putting together the final touches on their newest project. What they were creating was something never done before...
Artificial Life. Sure, there were robotics done before, but this was different. The life they were making was all too real, yet it wasn't real at all. Something really different.
"Did you make sure everything is set up correctly?" One of the scientists called out.
"I'm absolutely positive! Nothing can go wrong." Another says. He types vigorously on a large keyboard, his hooves moving at lightning speed.
"Systems are go." He states. One of the scientists nod and trots over to a large button protected by casing. He looks back at the other three, waiting for their approval. As if by cue, they all nod at the same time, and he lifts the case and hits the switch.
Lights start to go off, and sirens could be heard all around the room. All of the scientist ponies step back and watch the two large metallic orbs hanging from the ceiling form bolts of lightning, which shoot down and start to form a ball of electricity on a table underneath. Everypony watches in awe as the ball starts to form into a peculiar shape, the shape of a pony.
"It's going as planned!" One scientist shouts. They all agree in their minds. The form on the table starts to create shape, and creating the illusion of a real pony. The texture of the coat, the mane, everything, down to the finest detail. The process then completes and the machine starts to shut off, before a lone bolt of lightning shoots randomly, which hits a generator, causing the power in the building to die. The room is dark, the lights have died along with the sirens and any other machinery in the building, except for the mass on the table before them, which sparked with excess electricity and glowed dimly. Not expecting this result, the scientists were completely caught off guard by this surprise. They all approach the new pony cautiously, and they form a small circle around it.
The pony stirs, fluttering it's eyes open. It's eyes also glow, but only for a second before they fade into normal looking eyes. It looks around at the scientists surrounding it sheepishly. One scientist sticks his hoof out, and the electric pony flinches, staring at the hoof. The scientist backs down and looks towards the other scientists.
"Do you speak?" One asks the pony. It just looks towards him and blinks. The scientist gives a look of disappointment which quickly disappears as the pony does speak. At first it makes a garbled noise, then tries again.
"...Yes, I can...speak." it says shyly. They all grin and nod at each other. One scientist lights a candle and starts taking notes with his magic grasping a pencil and notepad. "Can you state your name?" Another scientist calls out. The pony looks at him confused, as if it didn't understand what he said.
"...Name?" It asks dumbly. The scientist chuckles lightly. "Yes, your name...what you call yourself by." He re-states.
The pony takes this question into thought, tapping its hoof thoughtfully on its chin. "I do not know..." It merely says.
The scientist smiles weakly. "Well, what would you like to be called then?" He asks. The pony goes back to thinking. It looks itself over in the process. It's coat is glowing, but underneath the glow it's pitch black, it's mane is fairly long, blond in colour, same with it's tail. Sparks of electricity jump around on it, yet it feels no pain. It's gender...seems to be a colt. He looks up at the scientist and smiles.
"You may call me Flash." He says. The scientists all smile broadly, the one with the notepad taking the notes down.
Flash looks around, moving his limbs slowly. The scientists have returned the power to the building, and have moved Flash into another room, this one completely white with a clear table in the middle. He looks around, confused about the situation. "Where am I?" He asks. A voice reverberates through the room, coming from the large megaphone in the corner of the room, right beside a small camera.
"You are in our examining room. We are going to take some tests now. Please just sit still until instructed otherwise. Understand?" Flash nods in response.
He sits there for a few minutes before a different pony, a unicorn in particular, brings in a peculiar box, and sets it on the table. He opens the box and pulls out curled wires with tongs on the ends. Flash watches with interest as the unicorn pulls out all of the wire, but then flinches when the unicorn turns towards him, clipping the tongs onto Flash with magic. The unicorn then hits a switch on the box and leaves.
Before he knew it, Flash was shocked with electricity. Surprisingly, it didn't hurt him, but it scared him nevertheless. The box before him continued to feed him electricity, each time being more powerful than the last. It was at the second highest setting when it actually hurt. The electricity surged through Flash's body, causing him to fall to the floor, writhing in pain. He proceeded to get up before getting hit with the strongest surge, knocking him out unconscious.
"I think we are done here."
"I agree, but what do we do with him?"
"We certainly cannot allow him to interact with the outside world. He might be dangerous."
"So, you propose we lock him in a cell and leave him there?"
"I don't care! I don't need him anymore. Just...get rid of him!"
...
Flash awakens in a dark cement room. He rubs his eyes and sees a cage door on one end and an barred window on another end. He gets up and tries to head towards the door, only to be pulled back by a chain bolted to the wall behind him. He grunts angrily, and turns his head towards the door.
"Hey! Why am I chained to a wall?!" He yells. No answer was given to him, which frustrated him more. "HEY! HELLO?! Anypony there?!!" He screams. The bang of a door is heard, followed by hoofsteps. An earth pony in a officer uniform appears, an expression of annoyance plastered in his face.
"Shuddup!" The guard yells. Flash growls angrily at the guard.
"Hey! What's the deal? Why am I chained?" Flash asks.
"Your useless." The guard responds.
Flash's expression changes quickly from anger to distress. "W-what?" He asks.
"You heard me! Your useless! Nopony needs you anymore so you've been disposed of in here!" He growls, then leaves the room with a louder slam of the door. Flash sits there, at a loss for words.
"...Useless...?" He sobs.
//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2// Story: Illusion
// by XerX//------------------------------//
———————————————————
//////———————————————//////
//////———————————————//////
———————————————————
"Hey Bon-Bon! Whatcha doing?" The cyan unicorn named Lyra asked her roommate. Bon-Bon looks up from her book and turns towards Lyra. "I'm reading, can't you see that?" She says.
Lyra groans and dramatically falls onto a nearby couch. "Ugh! Why don't you do anything fun? It's always reading or cooking and stuff. How come you never do anything fun anymore?" The unicorn pouts.
The cream coloured earth pony sighs, putting her book down. "Fine, Lyra. What do you call 'fun'?"
"Well, we could do one thing..." Lyra says, moving over to Bon-Bon and smiling seductively. Bon-Bon immediately nudges her back, turning her head away looking flustered. "Lyra, you know I'm not into mares!" She says. Lyra pouts in front of her.
"You never know until you try!" She states.
Bon-Bon shakes her head. "It doesn't work like that Lyra."
"Well, what about that one time when you kissed me and were..."
"I was drunk, Lyra!"
"Bon-Bon, come on!" Lyra whines. Bon-Bon remains still, her forelegs crossed and looking at her friend annoyed. "Lyra, how many times do I have to say it."
Lyra frowned heavily and turned her back to Bon-Bon. Then she turned her head, sticking her tongue out at her. "You're no fun!" The unicorn says.
Bon-Bon sighs and goes back to her book. Lyra fiddles around with her hooves, then she jumps onto the arm of Bon-Bon's chair, holding her while caressing her mane. "Why don't we go out then, Bonsie?" She asks.
'Bonsie' groans. "You know I don't like that name, Lyra!" Lyra giggles at her friends anger. "Where do you want to go then?" Bon-Bon asks in an annoyed tone.
Lyra's face lit up. "Let's go and see some science-y stuff at the new laboratory that was built in town!" Bon-Bon only groaned.
Bon-Bon's expression changed drastically as soon as they had arrived, from bored and annoyed to completely interested. Lyra skipped over to the doors and went to push on it, only to find the doors locked. Bon-Bon's expression returned to annoyed.
"Lyra, are you even sure we are allowed in there?" She asked. Lyra pointed to a nearby window. "Give me a boost up there and I'll open the doors!" She exclaimed.
"But Lyra, the doors are locked--"
"Please?" Lyra said rather dramatically. Bon-Bon rolled her eyes and gave up trying to convince her friend to leave. She trotted over to the window and got into a sturdy position. "Hurry up then..."
Lyra quickly climbed onto Bon-Bon's back and hoisted herself onto the ledge of the window. She used her magic to undo the latch from inside and let herself inside.
The room she climbed into was a lounge, fitted with tables and chairs and a mini fridge. Eyeing the fridge, Lyra opened it, only to find beakers of liquids she couldn't identify. She shrugged and closed the fridge. Lyra proceeded to go and open the front door for Bon-Bon. It was a simple task, the halls were empty and the stairwell was just down the hallway. She arrived at the doors and opened them, to be greeted by a familiar face.
"Took you long enough." Bon-Bon huffed. Lyra just rolled her eyes and giggled. They both retreated back into the building, examining the hallway.
"Now what, Lyra? This place feels eerie. Are you sure it's been around for a while?"
"I never seen it before, so..."
Both stared into the inky darkness of a hallway, the lights either off or not working. Lyra searched the wall for a lightswitch, but found none in her view. Bon-Bon did the same on the opposing wall, only to end with the same result. Bon-Bon shuddered.
"I-I think we should go now Lyra. This place looks...boring anyways..." She gulped loudly.
"Aww come on Bonsie, where is your sense of adventure?" Lyra mused. Bon-Bon didn't feel like commenting on the name use again, but only took a step backwards.
"Lyra, I don't want to be here." She said shakily. Lyra frowned, and approached her friend. "Bon-Bon, there's nothing to be afraid of. I'll be right here the entire time. I'll even light the way."
"...Promise you won't leave my side...?"
Lyra smiled. "I promise."
Lyra smiled as she proceeded to use her magic to illuminate the dark hallways, and moved forward. Bon-Bon followed right behind. The hallway was very barren, no decorations, windows or doors. The two adventurers reached the end of the hall, which continued down a set of stairs. Bon-Bon gulped again and Lyra's smile grew wider.
"Let's see what's down here, Bon-Bon!" Lyra exclaimed, immediately heading down. Bon-Bon didn't notice until the light of her friends horn grew dim and she quickly followed after her.
At the bottom of the stairs was a large iron door, which looked old and rusted. Lyra examined it closely while Bon-Bon repeatedly looked behind her.
"Got it!" The cyan unicorn squealed. Bon-Bon turned and was about to question what she got before she heard the creaking of the metal hinges.
The room behind the door was completely pitch-black. Not a single ray of light existed in the room. Lyra proceeded into the room, but stopped and squeaked in surprise when her magic light went out.
"Lyra! W-What happened? Are you okay?!" The cream earth pony yelled, blinded from the inky darkness.
"I-I'm fine, Bon-Bon!" The unicorn responded. "This room must have an anti-magic field surrounding it."
Bon-Bon didn't like that sound of that. "Maybe we shouldn't be in here then..." She said.
"Maybe your ri--" Lyra was cut off from a crackling sound beside her. She froze with fear and shuddered.
She looked around the room, never moving herself from her spot when she saw two yellow orbs gleaming in a corner. The orbs then blinked and a static charge pulsed around them, illuminating the shape of a pony. Lyra never took her eyes off the pony, and Bon-Bon stood at the door, also frozen in fear.
The orbs grew closer to Lyra, and before she knew it, the pony was right in front of her. The pony stared and huffed loudly at Lyra. She took a cautious step backwards then as fast as she could, scrambled towards the door. She bumped into Bon-Bon, who yelped and squinted her eyes, to find Lyra trying to push the door closed.
"W-Wait..."
Lyra continued to push on the door, Bon-Bon now helping her.
"Wait...!"
Both mares stopped and peered around the half closed door. The pony approached them, but was stopped by what sound like chains. The pony tripped and fell with a audible thud followed by an "oof".
"I-I will not harm you..." It spoke. Lyra, now intrigued by the pony, and not as afraid, stepped out from behind the door and illuminated the area she was in outside the room. The pony slightly came into view, still on the ground looking up at them.
Bon-Bon, still behind the door softly spoke. "Who are you...?"
The pony struggled to sit up, but after a few attempts it succeeded. It looked down wearily. "I do not remember..." It said. Bon-Bon moved to stand beside Lyra, but Lyra moved towards the pony, her light fading again. She searched the ground for something, succeeding in finding the chains attached to the pony. She proceeded to tug at them as hard as she could, but to no avail, the chains remained bolted. Lyra stomped her hooves in frustration.
"Lyra, what are you doing?" Bon-Bon asked.
"I'm trying to free this pony, Bon-Bon." Lyra huffed. She tried again, pulling at the rusted chains. This time, one link cracked and snapped, freeing the pony from it's bindings. The pony immediately sped forward and up the stairs as fast as it can. Lyra sat there, grinning ear to ear. Bon-Bon on the other hand, was against the wall, heart pounding from almost being run over.
Lyra returned to the stairwell and faced Bon-Bon, illuminating her horn again. "Lyra, why did you free it? Don't you think it would be chained up in there for a reason?" Bon-Bon yelled. Lyra shook her head, still smiling. The earth mare groaned. Lyra then proceeded up the stairs, Bon-Bon right behind her.