Five tubes. Five isn't a really big number, now is it? Well maybe when you think about it, it is, but the number of them didn't really matter. What was inside them mattered, considering that the tubes were quite large, something big must be in them. Something about as big as, a pony maybe?
From across the room that the tubes were in you would be unable to see what was inside them, but as you go closer you would be able to something odd. In each tube, there was a pony, one in particular being an orange mare, with a distinctive blonde mane. Her eyes were closed and she had a peaceful expression on her face, making her look like she was sleeping, yet she was incased in ice that filled the tube, not counting the space that she filled up herself. In the front of her glass tube, there was a glass door, rounded so it would be able to simply slide to the back of the tube when opened.
Speaking of being opened, the tube began to blink a bright red signaling that the tube was heating up and the ice that surrounded the orange pony began to melt, basically making it's most effecting move near her back hooves until it reached her head. When the water had done so, brilliant green eyes burst open as she inhaled the water then suddenly grasping her throat with her hooves and struggling around. Punching and kicking the glass repeatedly until it finally sprung a leak. With one last blow to the tube's progressing wound, it burst, the pony spilling out with the water and shattered glass onto the floor.
She laid there for a moment, unmoving, not breathing. Yet a spontaneous mussel spasum sent her eyes shooting opening as she then randomly hit herself in the stomach and hurled out clear water, except for the bits of spit and mucus that accompanied it. After that she lifted her herself up with her forehooves and coughed horribly until she could cough no more. Then picked herself up off the floor, brushing the bits of glass off her, some being too lodged into her flesh to shake off though.
She seemed alone. Except for the walls and four other tubes that accompanied her, but those things weren't to talkative, and weren't too much fun to be around either. She looked around, hoping for a mean of escape, when a latch opened from the ceiling and she spun around just in time to see some fancy machine descend from it. A hanging flat-screen TV. There was no true image on it, just fuzz, making that strange static-y noise that they always did when the fuzz showed.
What'in tarnation? The mare thought and took a few steps forward to see what it did, and of course nothing changed, just the same old, same old fuzz. She narrowed her green eyes at the strange machine, trying to think back. What could it be? Ironically, she couldn't. She couldn't think back I mean, just blankness. Nothing. She merely shrugged and kept staring, until the fuzz slowly began to straighten out, making the image of another of her species.
This mare on the TV looked like her, but only barely. She had a yellow body, and an orange mane streaked with more yellow, making her mane resemble flames. The mare looked like she was staring off in space as she spoke, most likely being a recorded video, "Hello pony. You've managed to escape a watery death, I hope, and if you didn't... this video is playing for no reason what-so-ever. Hopefully I'll see you soon, you just need to pass a few more tests if you want to be let out alive, and they shouldn't be too difficult. We hoof-picked the best of the best for our community, and hopefully no more will go to waste." And with that the screen turned back to fuzz for a moment, before going completely black and sliding back into the ceiling.
Now that the TV was gone, the mare didn't have a clue what to do, just sit here and wait until the test that the fire-maned mare had spoken about? She guessed so, and turned her back to where the TV once was, only to hear something else come down from the ceiling with a robotic chuckle.
She spun around once more, only to be greeted by a robot hanging from the ceiling. It looked mainly like another pony, but had cords coming from it's back which were coming from the ceiling and soulless black eyes, rimmed with neon red. She felt herself grit her teeth and pull back her mouth in a snarl as she got into a fighting stance, ready to leap into action at any moment needed. But the bot was tricky and unfair, like most things in the world that now existed. It extended a hoof towards her, and with some swift and sudden movements, the hoof had a hole in the center of it, a neon red light slowly growing inside it.
She was too quick for the bot though, and as soon as the laser shoot from it's hoof, she dodged, leaping forward towards the bot, just skimming above the hot-light beam, making the bot watch in awe as she soared towards him. She adjusted her body in midair, so she was diagonal and heading straight for the center of his face.
One loud clank could signal that the mare had made contact with the robot, and indeed making a denting in it's face, also making one of it's eyes pop from it's sockets to land with a metallic clang. She grinned as she assumed the robot had been slain, the thing falling to the ground on it's side. Though she was quite surprised when the cords hanging from it's back unexpectedly tightened and pulled it up and back into the ceiling, it's one good eye watching her as it was whisked away.
She scanned the ceiling carefully, slowly backing up until she hit the wall behind her gently. This, thing, was going to attack her, but from where exactly? That question was answered soon, as she heard another panel open from above her, but before she could look upwards she felt something crash down upon her, and she let out a yelp of pain.
Her back felt if it was about to snap in half as the machine stood on her, trotting in place. She laid there for a few moments before she had a burst of anger surge through her and she threw it off her back simply. Thrusting her hips upwards while she kept her forelegs on the ground, making her look as if she was stretching.
It hit the floor with a thud, pulling it's cords along with it as it slid to a halt once it had hit the floor with an eerie screech. As the robot was busy gathering itself the mare charged forward, and before it could even glance at her she leaped into the air and grabbed the black cords that emerged from the robots back in between her teeth and ripped them, sparks flying everywhere. As the sparks showered down over her and the robot, along with smoke, she looked at the robot as it looked back at her, red eyes growing duller until they blinked out.
She sternly looked at the robot, now finally defeated, and, too make sure the job was done, raised her hoof over it's head, then with all she could muster-up, brought it down upon it with a sickening crunch and some added zaps n' zizzes.
She heard another panel open and looked up to see the TV directly above her. She backed up a few spaces so she'd be able to see the screen, and when she was able to, the yellow mare was back, grinning this time though.
"Congratulations rookie!" She said proudly, "Since you've finished off that robot, you just need to finish your final test and you'll be on your way out of here. Speaking of out of here, that's your final test." She said with a curt nod, "To find a way out of this place, and into the labs!" She finished with another curt nod to her and saluted before the screech turned black and disappeared through the ceiling.
She raised an eyebrow. How that hay was she supposed to get out of- Ah, there's an escape route! She thought as she watched the sparking cords dangle from the ceiling, above where the robot used to stand confidently, sure that it was going to kill her. Boy-howdy was it wrong.
The mare calmly trotted back over to the cords, and squatted, readying to leap up so she could grab hold of the cords with her teeth. When she did so, she carefully took two different pieces of cord and wrapped them around her hooves, getting burned by the sparks from the cords every so oft- who am I kidding she was getting zapped every two seconds.
Eventually she made her way up the cords and to her desired destination, the ceiling. This is where she could access an air-vent, in which she could navigate herself to a lab. She didn't know which one, so she'd choose the first she saw.
It was a bit dark up in the ceiling, it had nothing in it except walls, dust bunnies, cobwebs, and herself. To add to the coolness of this place, she could fall through it any second, noticing she was leaving dents in the thin metal. She was pressured now, thinking she could easily fall through and began to sweat heavily as she made her way to what she hoped was an air-vent. She gulped hoping it was, or she'd have to go all the way across the ceiling again.
Thank Celestia it was.
She felt the wall, putting a dent in it when she hit it so she knew it couldn't have lead to the outside world, or be a dead end because it'd have to be a wall. She smiled nervously and wiped her brow as she took both her forehooves and began to pound the sheet of metal. With three hits she had made a hole big enough for one of her hooves to slip into. That wasn't going to work.
Thankfully something clicked inside her as she rolled over onto her back, and placed her back hooves to the air-vent. She then pulled her back hooves into her chest before letting them go in one swift and strong motion, shifting all her weight to her back hooves. The move paid off well, making a large gape in the vent.
She turned around then rolled herself back onto her stomach, and simply crawled through the hole in seconds. Once she was fully through the gape she had a difficult decision to make. Right, left, or straight? She gulped, wondering what if she took the wrong path, what would she do then?
With regret as soon as she took the path on the right, she wondered what lied ahead. The yellow mare had mentioned making her into a Genetically Enhanced Super Pony... Whatin tarnation was that supposed ta be? She thought with a raised brow as she moved through the air-vent. I don't know any ah that fancy stuff... maybe it'sa somethin' fancy? She suggested to herself with a slight nod and decided that that must be the ticket. It'sa gotta be. She concluded.
===================
Celestia this was getting really annoying.
She must have been crawling in the vent for about an hour now, and hadn't even seen a glimpse of light yet, not to mention the cobwebs. She grumbled with annoyance, wishing she had took the left path now, when suddenly, she heard something through the vents. At first it sounded like a machine, shifting around it's various parts. Then it sounded like a voice, a quiet muffled voice. Slowly it became clear, the voice was talking about her
"Hm. Wonder how the rookie will escape the room." It was a mare speaking, well at least it sounded like a mare, and strangely, the voice sounded familiar. She shrugged it off and kept listening intently.
"Oh? She defeated the Ropony?" Another pony asked, also sounding like a mare. No, this one definitely had to be a mare, she was sure of it.
"Yeah! It would've been so cool to watch!" The pony said brightly, added by the scrape of a chair being pushed out.
That was all she needed, this conversation wasn't too interesting either, to confirm that they weren't figments of her imagination. She laid down on her stomach with a thump, denting the vent and surely making the ponies look up at the air-vent. She then lifted herself up and let herself fall multiple times to break the vent, until it finally busted and she fell with a hollar from the air vent.
She landed on something with an 'oofe' and rolled herself back onto her stomach so she could stand straight. She pushed herself up with her eyes still blurred from hitting her head a bit too hard. She blinked a few times and rubbed her noggin with a moan. She looked from side to side, to see two ponies sitting across from each other on each side of her. She was standing on their table, and their food.
"Ah-Ah'm so-" She tried to apologize, but before she could she was cut off.
"Well hay there rookie." A rainbow maned cyborg said, extending a metal hoof full of multicolored buttons towards her, "Welcome to the Herd."
