Life is much like a painting... One's colors may be common, but the unique forms they take are what make those colors appear so vivid.
Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash were strolling towards Sugarcube Corner, where Spike had just taken a seat on the front steps. He raised a clawed hand, clutched around a rolled-up scroll, and with a deep breath he spat out a calm wave of green flame that engulfed the document. As mist drifted off in the direction of Canterlot, the dragon lowered his arm, and the fire flowing from his mouth dissipated to reveal a pink pony watching from the doorway. She was noticeably slouched and run-down, no doubt exhausted from the day's events--especially that whole 'don't move or get distracted by anything or anypony lest you get vaporized and imprisoned in the mirror pool for all eternity' ordeal. Nevertheless, her friends continued to approach her in hopes of unwinding.
"Hi, Pinkie Pie," Twilight greeted in an upbeat tone. "We were thinking we should go out and celebrate."
"You up for some wheelbarrow races?" Applejack cut in.
"Or I could take everypony on a cloud ride!" chimed Rainbow.
"I could throw a party with punch and zesty cucumber sandwiches!" Rarity suggested. "Ooh!"
Pinkie Pie backed into the house with a weary smile. "You wanna know exactly what I feel like doing right now?" Without another word, she leaned back and fell to the floor of the bakery, heaving a relaxed sigh. Not a second later, a rumbling snore rang out through the street, her hind leg twitching erratically. The rest of the mares (plus dragon) stared for a moment, before Fluttershy broke the silence.
"That looks like fun," the yellow pony remarked quietly. Everypony burst into a fit of giggles at that, and Applejack murmured an 'oh, Pinkie...' as Twilight gently swung the door closed with her magic.
"Well, you guys still wanna hang out?" Rainbow flew in lazy circles behind them. "The offer still stands for that cloud ride!"
"Or wheelbarrow races," Applejack reminded them.
Rarity grimaced, running a hoof through her mane. "As... exciting as I'm sure that is, darling, I'm afraid I must be off."
"Hey, wait, don't let Applejack spoil your day," Rainbow flew in front of her, disappointment etched on her face. "We don't have to do some boring old wheelbarrow race!"
"Boring old wheelbarrow race?" Applejack cried. "Why, of all the--"
"Actually, I should go, as well," Twilight admitted. "I have a few things I was hoping to check up on at the library, and I'm a bit tired after today." The pegasus stared at her in disbelief, and Twilight quickly added, "Maybe some other time, though."
"I think I'll go, too," Fluttershy whispered. "I'd like to take that nap now."
Rainbow Dash gave a defeated sigh and waved the comments off with a hoof. "Ah, don't worry about it... See you later!" The group dispersed, and Spike hopped up onto Twilight's back as the sounds of Rainbow's and Applejack's bickering faded out behind them.
"So, what do we have to do tonight, Twilight?" Spike glanced up at the sky; sunset was fast approaching, and they had yet to do any work today.
"Actually, I just have some paperwork for the library to fill out, so you can have the rest of the day off, Spike." Twilight flashed a smile over her shoulder at her assistant. Spike grinned back, his tail curling up in delight.
"Wow, thanks, Twilight!"
"Don't mention it." The pair settled into a comfortable silence that stretched until they came to the front door of the library. Twilight and Spike entered their home, Twilight closing the door gently while Spike dismounted from his seat on the mare's back. He tossed a quick farewell over his shoulder as he scampered upstairs--likely to get a few extra hours' sleep, the unicorn guessed with a smirk. Her purple eyes followed him through the bedroom door, the smile remaining on her muzzle as the door closed behind him. After a short pause, she abruptly turned and trotted calmly towards another door embedded in the wall under the staircase, her face expressionless. With a short burst of magic, she pulled it open; light shone through the entryway and illuminated a short flight of stairs descending into a basement.
Twilight made her way downstairs, tail twitching with anticipation. She froze in place as her straining ears picked up a faint noise from nearby; once the sound had died out, she hurried across the room to a spot near the corner and probed the floorboards with her magic until she came across a well-concealed latch on the floor. The unicorn cast a quick glance behind her in search of any prying eyes, and was soon satisfied to confirm she was completely alone. A quick twist and tug resulted in the trapdoor being unscrewed and removed from the floor, leaving a wide hole with yet another, steeper staircase descending further into the depths beneath the building.
As Twilight hopped down onto the first step, a chorus of wails and squeaks echoed around her, and the corners of her mouth curved up to accompany the sudden glint in her eye. Quickly proceeding down the stairs, she came to a short corridor that opened into a rather large laboratory adorned with a few experimental setups.
But the most distinguishable features of the room were the twin rows of vertically-barred cages aligned a few feet across from each other, each occupied by its very own bouncy pink pony. Their murmurs and whimpers were hushed almost immediately as Twilight stepped into plain view of the captives, sweeping her gaze over the long stretch of vaguely prison-like cells.
Excellent, she thought, her smile cracking into a barely-restrained grin.
*ahem*
"Good evening, my little clonies!" The unicorn allowed herself a brief pause to chuckle at her own joke before continuing on with a much more formal tone. "Due to recent... unpleasantness in the area, thanks to you all, the decision has been made to remove you from society.
"Now, I bet you're all wondering what this means for you." Twilight began pacing slowly and deliberately up and down the path between the cages, making sharp eye contact with each of said cages' current residents. "Obviously, I didn't actually send you back to the mirror pool like I had originally led everypony to believe. That was just something I made up to dismiss you from my fellow citizens' minds and prevent any suspicions from arising. The fact is, it just doesn't work that way. You're all flesh-and-blood beings, and the only thing that sending you there would have accomplished would be to create even more of you. While that would fit in with my plans, it would also be quite the challenge to manage two or three times as many of you as there currently are in this room."
Twilight's smile returned as she went on. "Anyway... For the time being, you have the pleasure of being here, with me. Since I am still obligated to erase you all--which I intend to do, as one Pinkie is more than enough for me--I will do so, as time permits. But, as I said before, this does not entail simply sending you away, or reuniting your essences with the mirror pool; as a matter of fact, there is really no such 'special method' to eliminate you as clones."
Twilight's eyes suddenly darkened; she tilted her head, her muzzle pointed at the ground with shadows thrown across her visage in the dimly lit room, and her subtle smile slowly twisted into a maniacal grin. "...so I guess I'll just have to make do."
Twilight spared one more look at the clone closest to her, who shrank back against the far bars of its cage with trembling hooves. The unicorn blinked lazily and turned to walk back to the stairs. As she lay her front hoof on the first step, she came to a halt, facing away from the cages and the rest of the room. Before ascending back into the common world, and without turning around, she uttered one final phrase that sent shivers racing down her prisoners' spines:
"Welcome to the library."
*creak*
In the near-darkness, broken only by the flickering beacons of light mounted around the room and the large coal-fueled furnace, something stirred. After a quiet shuffling of limbs, a pink face timidly lifted from the floor and observed the stillness of the early morning--at least, the pony thought it was morning; there were no clocks nor windows to confirm this. Tired blue eyes gazed through the bars at the other cages: eighteen in all, including her own.
The mare lowered her head back to its previous position, resting on her front hooves, and let out a deep sigh. Her eyes slid shut as her mind began to wander, considering the predicament she found herself in. Dubbed '17' by the unspoken consent of the other clones, as she was situated at the very back end of the left-hoof row of cages, she had little opportunity for interaction with anypony save for 18 and 15, the pink look-alikes across from her and to her right, respectively.
*creak*
17's pink ears pricked up, but her eyes remained closed. After a moment's silence, she tore her attention away from her surroundings and relaxed, scooting closer to the furnace built into the wall at the near end of the aisle. She sifted through her memories of the past 24 hours. After being bored half-to-death, blown up, teleported and reassimilated in the cage she was currently resting in, she had been calmly warned of her own imminent demise. Not only that, but she could reasonably assume she would be tortured or killed in some fashion that would satisfy her captor's twisted desires.
All in all, it hadn't exactly been a great day.
*creak*
17 stiffened, her heart pounding in her chest. What was that noise? Was somepony else awake? Was it that big meanie-pie unicorn that had captured them? 17 couldn't recall her name; Pinkie Pie had never mentioned her on their return trip from the mirror pool.
Cracking her eyes open, 17 could barely make out the faint shadow making its way downstairs. As the pony continued descending into the room, the shadow grew darker and more distorted with each step, finally shaping into a grotesque figure no longer reminiscent of a pony, but of a creature fouler than any she had ever imagined. 17 felt her eyes well up with tears, her blurred vision only deforming the shadow further. Was it grinning at her? She was positive it would jump out of the wall at any moment and devour her.
Her fears spiked exponentially as a purple hoof fell into sight, barely making a sound on the wooden step. 17 squeezed her eyes shut, tears leaking from the corners and spilling down her cheeks. She hurriedly tried to calm her trembling body and lay still as the pony reached the bottom of the stairs. A quiet clop reached her folded ears, echoed soon after by a series of hoofsteps across the cool stone floor. 17's ears crumpled tighter against the sides of her head as the noises grew louder, the harsh clops pounding around inside her head like a railroad spike being driven through her skull.
Eventually, the room fell into a fuzzy silence once again as the mystery pony came to a halt in the aisle, between the cages of 17 and 18. As the seconds pressed on, 17 felt as though her insides were turning into pudding. Ordinarily she would have contemplated the idea of being filled with chocolate pudding, but these thoughts were locked away deep in her mind by the intense gaze she sensed burning through her. A quiet whine escaped her lips before she could clamp her mouth shut, and she quickly sucked in some air before lying motionless, no longer daring to even breathe.
17 could feel herself being watched from all directions. Numerous glowing sets of eyes glared at her from the darkness behind her eyelids, never dimming, never moving, never blinking. Panic rushed through her veins as she felt fear's cold claws raking down her spine, and her eyes instinctively snapped open.
An unblinking pair of violet eyes gazed straight into her own. Inspecting her. Analyzing her. Searching her own blue irises for... something. Seconds stretched into minutes, seeming more like hours to the frozen pink pony.
17 blinked.
Those piercing purple eyes sparkled and shifted as their owner gave a barely discernible nod. 17 stared back as the lavender-coated mare stood and quietly walked away, ascending the staircase with ease. Her dazed blue eyes remained focused ahead on the empty space where the unicorn once stood, and she didn't move a muscle as the echoes of hoofsteps gradually faded from her ears.
*creak*
17's tail twitched as the wooden steps screeched against her eardrums. Pain lanced through her head; her face twisted in agony, and her mouth fell open in a scream, yet no sound came out. The light in the room dimmed.
She didn't realize she was still holding her breath until her vision went black.
Twilight Sparkle was happy.
No, scratch that. Twilight Sparkle was ecstatic.
She woke up with a smile on her face, rolled out of bed and skipped down the stairs to fix herself a hearty breakfast, already planning out the day's activities. She couldn't believe her good fortune; never before, in any of her classes, had she had the opportunity to experiment on live ponies, as the issue of ethics had resulted in the outlawing of that practice. Luckily, her secret lab was hidden from the public eye, obscured from such imposing laws and morals that prohibited advancement in the fields of science and medicine.
She scarfed down a meal of oats and an apple before sauntering down to the basement, snatching a book off of a shelf with her magic as she passed it. This is so exciting, she thought giddily, flicking through pages rapidly. As she entered the laboratory, she cast a stray glance over the slumbering test subjects, and her contented expression curled into a satisfied smile.
And so, it begins.
One simple spell later, a noise not unlike a siren blared across the cozy room, startling many of the pink clones awake with yelps of shock. Those not immediately woken by the tone blinked their eyes blearily and sat up on shaky legs, looking around in confusion. Once she was sure they were all awake, Twilight got down to business. "Okay," she called in a stern voice, "today we will conduct the first in a series of experiments in which you will be the test subjects. My intent is for these studies to benefit ponykind while simultaneously finding a use for you all. You will play an important role in the improvement of medical techniques and other procedures that may find appreciation across Equestria." She smiled sweetly at the sea of faces staring, dumbfounded, back at her. "Isn't that nice?"
She was met with a hushed mix of interest and lingering confusion, yet her smile never faltered. "Now, do we have a volunteer for the first experiment?"
"Ooh! Pick me! I want to help ponies!"
Twilight's gaze fell upon the pink pony waving her hoof in the air excitedly. "Excellent," she said with a grin, unlocking the cage with her magic. "Join me over here, if you please." Twilight stepped into a small, secluded area surrounded by a circle of flasks, beakers, and test tubes containing various chemicals. The aforementioned clone--6, according to the clones' primitive naming system--stepped into the aisle and bounced after her, stopping directly in front of her. She gave Twilight a wide, childish smile, shivering in anticipation.
"You are one lucky mare, you know that?" Twilight scanned a page of her book that was spattered with colored diagrams and mathematical figures, watching the fake Pinkie Pie out of the corner of her eye. "This is something that's never been done before, and you get to be the first to try it out." Satisfied she had temporarily memorized the spell, Twilight set the book aside and watched 6 amusedly. "Do you want to know what it is?"
"Yes!"
Twilight leaned closer. "Do you really want to know?"
"Yes, yes! Tell me, tell me, tell me!"
Twilight sat up straight, holding a hoof to her chin. "Hmm..." she mumbled, smirking as 6 vibrated on the spot. "Maybe I'll just show you, instead."
Twilight's horn lit up in a soft magenta glow, matched by a haze that appeared around 6. The light condensed around two spots on 6's back, just below her shoulders. The light stretched to a point, appearing to tug on the pony's back, and two small lumps appeared in the midst of the purple glow.
6 gasped in surprise. "Wow! W-What're those?" Her eyes glittered with wonder, suddenly shrinking to pinpricks as the bumps grew larger. She grit her teeth as pain streaked across her back, and sweat began to drip from the sides of her face. The bumps were now the size of large cupcakes, and the skin covering them was beginning to show signs of strain.
Twilight grinned. "Wings."
The sickening hybrid of a pop and a rip was covered up by 6's screech of agony. A pair of thick, mangled bones jutted from the two lumps on her back, painted red with blood and decorated with thorny spikes that sliced through her skin like a serrated knife. The scream increased in intensity as more and more bristles passed through the wounds on her torso and blood seeped down her sides, forming a shallow puddle around her.
Twilight watched, fascinated, as 6 stumbled and fell on her side, yowling in terror and shock. Before long, blood had begun to trickle from her mouth, mixing with the pool already forming beneath the mare writhing on the floor. The color drained from 6's face, and her struggles became ever weaker as she gurgled and coughed. She slowly moved a foreleg to prod her throat, desperately trying to force sweet air into her lungs, but just as her hoof was mere inches from her neck, the pony fell still. Her hoof jerked and fell across her stomach, deep crimson streaking across the lighter pink hue of her fur.
Twilight frowned, wondering where the experiment had gone wrong. Had she misplaced the secondaries and tertiaries, or had she simply put too much power into it? She shrugged and turned to meet the stunned expressions of seventeen ponies, each of which was thinking the same thing:
"Who's next?"
No one moved. None could tear their anxious gaze from the scene they had just witnessed, for fear that any sudden movement would attract the attention of its creator.
Twilight's eyes passed over the motionless ponies, beckoning them to make some indication that could be interpreted as an offer. Her attention was captured by a certain one in the back left corner. She appeared no different than her fellow inmates. But the unicorn knew better than to assume they were all perfectly alike. No, that one was definitely different. Special. Intelligent.
Twilight walked leisurely down the aisle, her gaze never leaving that one clone. She stopped directly in front of that last cage on the left side. She stared into the terrified eyes of that duplicate, that pony that should be just another in her batch of look-alikes. She broke eye contact suddenly, pointing a hoof at three cages in quick succession. "You, you, you."
She opened the cages of 15, 16, and 18, then turned and moved swiftly back to the experimentation area. "Follow me," she instructed, and the trio of clones obeyed, stepping out tentatively and moving down the aisle in a tight huddle as Twilight began her explanation.
"You see, this experiment is designed to grow or regrow wings. Pegasi losing their wings is an incredibly serious problem, albeit rare. Solving this problem would result in many crippled ponies retaining their jobs, their residence, and their sense of self. Quite the noble cause, if you ask me." Twilight tugged forward one of her selections--which happened to be 15--and turned back to the same page of her book.
"Now, I'm not quite sure what went wrong before," she admitted. "It looks like this will be another failure, but don't lose hope. You just might make it." Her horn lit up in a cruel purple flash once again. "Might."
Twilight reached out with her magic to form the same two purple patches of light on 15's back, unfazed by the whimpers that came from all over the room. The unicorn had made a slight calculation error on her first attempt, she realized, which she now quickly corrected. She worked the newly-forming wing bones into shape, pushing out against 15's bright pink coat. Here we go...
To the unicorn's dismay, a rattling crunch signaled that another mistake had ruined this test as well. The thin tips of the wings' primaries stabbed through 15's stomach and lungs, poking out through her chest as she gagged and slumped to the ground. She gasped for a second or two before her lungs began to fill with blood and moisture, silencing her within a few short moments.
Twilight read over the spell's instructions once again. Now what had gone wrong? Her eyes settled on a particular equation, and she slowly brought a hoof to her face as she came to the frustrating conclusion.
"Rounding error? Seriously?!" Twilight groaned. She had indeed estimated the bone density too generally in her haste, causing the fragile primaries and secondaries to bend and snap under pressure upon contact with the underside of 15's thick coat and plunge through her organs in the other direction.
Twilight sighed and rubbed her face, sparing a glance at 15's unmoving form. "Next," she called out. She mentally worked out the more precise solution to the equation while 18 hesitantly moved in front of her.
"Okay," she breathed. "This time, it should work." 18 did not appear reassured by this, but she remained still as the three patches of fur on her back were illuminated by the unicorn's magic.
Wait... three?
Twilight gasped. "Oh no!" She tried to retract her magic from the pink mare, but it was too late. Three sets of long bones burst forth from 18's back, positioned so closely together that a single large hole was torn in her skin. The wound ripped wider as the new appendages grew, and soon the slit ran from her neck to halfway down her back. 18's mouth gaped and trembled as she was torn apart, emitting little more than squeaks every time another string of skin broke under the force of the bones yanking it open.
18 lasted for just over a minute before her hooves wobbled and gave way, her rent body crashing heavily to the unforgiving floor. Blood dripped off her back and joined that which remained of 15; the mixture of syrupy liquids stuck to her hooves and stained them a sickly scarlet.
Twilight shook her head as 18's presence faded away. "Shoot, I almost had it that time!" She cursed her own impatience, tensing her muscles in annoyance. Okay, Sparkle, just calm down, she told herself, breathing deeply. She slid her eyes over to the last remaining subject and motioned her closer with a jerk of her head.
16 crept closer, and Twilight steeled herself for one final attempt. "Good luck," she whispered, though she wasn't sure whether that was directed at herself or at the helpless clone in front of her.
Similar to the first two trials, two glowing portions of the mare's back began stretching into long bumps. This time, Twilight fashioned a neat slit atop the two bumps, and white bones slid smoothly out the top.
16 was gritting her teeth, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. At least she's not screaming, Twilight observed. That's a good sign. The unicorn pressed on with the procedure, curving and morphing the flexible bones into sets of thin primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries. Once they were sufficiently structured, Twilight began growing basic, stringy muscles over the bones, followed by the more complex web of nerves and, finally, the skin coating.
After about fifteen minutes of shaping, stretching, sewing and the like, Twilight leaned back, withdrawing her magical influence from the pink pony before her and surveying her work. A small smile appeared on her muzzle when she confirmed her success: she had grown a functional wing from nothing. Of course, there was still the issue of feathers, but she wasn't worried about that at the moment.
"Congratulations," Twilight declared proudly. 16 opened one eye, then the other, and blinked a few times in surprise. She turned her head and stared in amazement at the pair of limbs she had not possessed mere moments ago.
She turned her head and looked at the purple unicorn hopefully. "Did... did it work?"
"Yes. It worked," Twilight replied with a nod.
"And... and I'm gonna live?"
"Of course." 16 looked away, then refocused her attention on her new skin-covered wings. She gave them a hesitant flap and was surprised to feel minimal pain upon doing so. She barely registered Twilight's following comments in her mind.
"In fact, I'll be removing you from further experimentation and keeping you as a measure of progress in this field. Follow me." Twilight led the winged earth pony to a transparent glass cube placed against the wall near to the stairs. With a gentle nudge, she eased 16 into the case and pulled a thick glass door shut over the opening, locking her inside. 16 gazed around confusedly; she tapped a hoof on the side of the prison, finding it to be extremely thick and sturdy. Her expression became sorrowful as she looked out at the remaining clones in their barred cages, and Twilight nodded in satisfaction.
Twilight turned to the clones sitting quietly in their cages, flashing them a proud smirk. "Today, we witnessed the start of a great expedition into the unknown lands of science. I hope you all enjoyed the show." She turned to admire the new-and-improved 16 in all her glory, experimentally folding and opening her wings.
"It only gets better from here."
With a sigh of contentment, Twilight carefully gathered the remains of 6, 15, and 18 and held them aloft in her magic. She walked down the aisle of cages, making sure that all their residents had a clear view of what was left of the former members of their kind.
As she came to the end of the aisle, she locked eyes with 17, now isolated by the three empty cages surrounding her. Twilight then shifted her attention to the three bodies floating in front of her, which she pushed forward and gently tossed into the furnace.
17 could not take her eyes off the horrific sight of the three ponies' bodies being melted and burned in the flameless inferno. Twilight nodded to herself once more and walked upstairs, leaving the pony to the maddening sizzling sounds of the furnace; 17 did not give any sign that she had noticed the mare's departure, simply staring ahead as the dim light of the red-orange coals reflected in her dulled eyes.
*creak*
