As the scream tore out the air from my lungs, I instinctively tried to blast the grin with my magic. The power that flowed out of me was like nothing I had ever felt before. It was like it was trying to burn a hole through my skull, coming out where my horn was. I collapsed, both from the agony and shortness of breath, my eyelids closing over my already unseeing eyes.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

When I woke up, my first thought was ‘Who is using a flashlight against my face!’, then, when I opened my eyes, the entire world was glowing. Every surface in the office was shining as the keyring had earlier, but with an even stronger light.

Strangely enough it was still not hurting my eyes to look at things, no matter how bright they were. I looked around the room muttering ‘this is most definitely new’ to myself. It took me a while until I remembered why I had been knocked out in the first place.

When I remembered, my head snapped toward the window, only to see the same room as before, but partly illuminated now. The eyes were not there. Had I imagined them? The stories about the ghosts of Manehattan I had heard from the traveling merchants suddenly popped up in my mind. Both me and Treasure Chest had laughed at the time, but I ended up having nightmares for days after the first time I’d heard those stories.

Just thinking of my friend made me calm down. She was probably looking for me right now, worrying as she usually did. I smiled and all my worries seemed distant as I just sat there, remembering. After a while I stood up, looking through the window again. Still there was nothing on the other side, except what looked like a medical lab.

I sat down again, feeling exhausted. I didn’t know for how long I had been out before, but my body needed rest. I laid down and let my eyes drift close, almost immediately falling into a deep sleep.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“Fairysong! Wake up! You need to wake up!”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

I stirred awake, looking at the unfamiliar surroundings. A sudden stab of pain through my horn broke me out of my daze and the memories came flooding back in. I lay there groaning for some time, just wanting to get back into my dreams.

After a while my side started to ache from lying on the hard floor, so I stood up. The room was shining just as brightly as before, which felt wrong for some reason.

I looked around the room, avoiding looking at the two skeletons. Finally I spotted something that fit what I was looking for; a small pencil which was glowing as brightly as the rest of the room. I tried lifting it with my magic, but all that happened was a searing pain from my horn. I glanced up at it, noticing that the tip of it was actually black, as if something had burnt it. I groaned and picked up the pencil with my mouth instead.

As I started heading toward the door I remembered that I’d forgotten the key ring, so I turned back and walked over to the desk again. While putting down the pencil and picking up the keys I glanced at the screen and noticed something moving at the edge of it. An eerily familiar sound started playing through the speakers. It felt like my entire coat was standing on end as I watched something tear Flower apart, one piece at the time. I was suddenly very grateful that the light in the room had been busted by the quake.

I hurriedly deposited the keyring in my bags and picked up the pencil again, rushing out the door and closing it behind me. Once outside I sank down leaning against the door, my heart beating like I had run a mile. Once I’d calmed down I stood up and started walking towards the corridor with the elevator in it, but instead of heading for the elevator I turned right.

As I walked down the broad corridor my light suddenly reflected on something on the walls further ahead. I quickened my pace a bit and soon saw that there was a window on each side. I walked up to the right one and looked inside. It faced into the same room as the one in the office and I could still see the light coming from the right part of the room. There was still no trace of the eyes or the grin, so I thought it must just have been my imagination. I turned around towards the other window, and froze. The light had reflected on a pair of green eyes. As soon as I saw them they were gone, leaving only a spooky afterimage.

I was frozen in terror and when it’s icy grip finally let go of me I did the only thing I could. I screamed and ran, and didn’t stop until I ran head first into a wall. Groaning, I shakily stood up and glanced behind me. Far down the corridor I could see my pen lying and giving of a weak light. I fed magic to my horn to make it light up. Doing so caused a spike of pain through my skull, but it gave of a faint glow. I had still not recovered from lightning up the entire office earlier.

I was in another T-intersection with the left road blocked by a mound of rubble, not unlike the place I had fallen into, but walking up to the mound revealed no hole in the roof.

I sighed and turned around, glancing down the previous hallway. My pen was still lying there, giving of its light, but it was weaker now. I hurried into the right turn in the intersection, feeling uneasy about the dimly lit corridor. The other corridor was very short, ending almost immediately. There was, however, four doors on each side of the corridor. I walked up too the first one and it looked like it was a really reinforced door with a sliding window. I stood up on my back legs to look through the window.

The little part of the room I could see, looked like a cell from a comic that Treasure had lent me once. All except the skeleton on the bed. I took a step away from the door, feeling a sense of gloom settling in. Suddenly I noticed the sign next to the door. It was labeled ‘Z1’ and as I glanced at the other doors I saw that they were all reinforced like this one. I walked over to the next door, which was labeled ‘P1’, opened the hatch and saw the same sight as in the last one. This skeleton was slumped against the sink.

Continuing like that, the doors were named ‘Z1’ ‘P1’ ‘U1’ and ‘C1’. The other side were the same but with twos instead of ones. The ‘Z2’, ‘U2’ and the ‘C1’ cells was empty and the ‘C2’ had what looked like a pony-shaped insect shell. The last one seemed to be lifeless, but I still didn’t dare going into the cell. Not that I entered any of the rest either, I mean what could I possibly find inside a cell?

I walked over to the intersection and peeked out. Only the faintest glow remained of my pen and most of the hallway was filled with shadows. I slowly started sneaking down the hallway. After a little time a passage appeared to the left. I must have passed it in my panic earlier. When I got to the mouth of the passage, my light reflected of something further ahead. I realised it was the windows from earlier. My panicked flight must have been shorter than I had thought.

I turned into the new hallway, not wanting to pass by the windows again. The corridor wasn’t very long and it turned right after only a few meters. As I neared the end of it I felt the pain slowly returning in my back leg and once again I started limping. As I reached the end, the corridor turned to the right and revealed an even shorter corridor with a door on the right side.

I walked up to the door, pushing the control panel to get it to open. It did so with a groan of long-unused metal. Inside was the medical room again, still being lit up by the window on the far left. One wall had a bunch of cans stacked against it, one of them lying tipped over and open. There were also three medical beds with metal straps on them, as well as lots of medical equipment. At least I thought it was medical equipment; some of them looked more like torture tools.

There was also a desk with a terminal on it, with a chair in front. Thankfully, there were no skeletons in here. I moved over to the terminal only to see it logged on with a note open reading, ‘Remember emergency password is “Splicing”’. I made a mental note to remember just that. When looking around in the terminal I found loads of audio logs, a lot of them corrupted. I clicked to play the first one, while sitting down in the chair.

“This is Doctor Splice’s audio log, entry one. I have been requested to record one of these each day to verify my findings. I have been given the great opportunity to practice my specialized version of medecine by a pony going by the name Mirth. I am suspecting that it isn’t his real name, but I don’t care that much. I may never have an opportunity like this again! I will spend most of the day getting used too the equipment down here and tomorrow I will start with the testing.”

I reached out and started the next log while I sat down in the chair, resting my throbbing leg. It felt great to be relaxing a bit and I almost doozed off.

“Doctor Splice’s audio log, entry two. I met the test subjects for the first time today. They all looked like the criminals they are and left me with no regrets that my tests may be lethal to them. After all, they were all sitting on death row anyway, so nopony will miss them. This way they may serve Equestria one last time before they die. I only did some minor tests today, mostly checking their conditions.”

I felt a cold shiver down my spine, snapping me fully awake. What had happened here two hundred years ago? I reached up too push the next log, but just as my hooves were about to press the button it started playing by itself. I raised an eyebrow at that but then leaned back in the chair, while listening.

“Doctor Splice’s audio log, entry forty-seven. All the original test subjects have died, though I did manage to get some very interesting results before they perished. My biggest success was E3 who could actually use his new horn for telekinesis. Too bad he used it to slice his own throat open with a scalpel. I will need to inform the guards that even the subjects that have shown no magic ability before need to be equipped with magic suppression rings.”

I stared at the terminal for a bit, feeling slightly numb. His new horn? I lifted my left hoof to touch my own by instinct. The edge of it was still blackened. Where could he possibly have gotten a new horn from? Also why would he kill himself like that? My ears started drooping as I sat there and the next log started.

“Doctor Splice’s audio log, entry one hundred fifty seven. I received some very interesting research materials today. Apparently MoM was gonna silently execute some zebras, but Mirth managed to get them to hand them over to him instead. So now I can finally see if zebras could use magic if they had a horn.” A short giggle came from the recording. “But enough about that. Let’s get testing!”

“Okay that’s enough”, I said, my whole body shivering and my ears lying flat back. I tried to reach out to shut off the recordings, only to realise I couldn’t move my hoof. I looked down on it and gasped in shock. The edge of the hoof was completely jet black and I could see how the blackness was slowly spreading upwards. I let out a shriek and tried to pull myself away from it, resulting in me tumbling off the chair and onto the floor. The hoof felt like it was a lead weight, making a loud thump as it hit the ground.

I let out another shriek as a sharp pain shot through me. I glanced under my blackened limb and saw a fucking medical knife lying there in a spreading pool of blood, having cut deeply into my leg. I used my left hoof to lift my unresponsive right hoof away from the sharp tool. When it was at a safe distance I used my horn to tear another piece of fabric from my jumper. Wrapping it around the cut, I was reminded of my headache which flared up at even this small use of magic.

“Doctor Splice’s audio log, entry one hundred ninety nine. I have to be extremely careful with my more exotic materials. After all I don’t think I will be able to get my hooves on another alive zebra. Some of the staff have been complaining about my work being, in their terms, evil. Some ponies have no appreciation for my genius! Mirth told me that he was gonna send something even more interesting than the zebras for me to use soon. He has never disappointed before and I would be surprised if he started doing so now. That means I will most likely have to clear one of the storage rooms of its occupants. It’s been so long since I’ve had to intentionally kill somepony but that way many new things can be found!” A deep laugh was heard before the recording shut off.

After calming down a bit I prodded my blackened hoof. It felt cold to the touch and very hard. It also felt like it had at least doubled in weight. I tried standing up but the only leg that was steady enough to hold my weight was the blackened one and that one felt like an anchor.

“Doctor Splice’s audio log, entry two hundred forty six. As a reward for the good results that came from testing on the zebras, Mirth gave me a very special gift! Not only did he replace the one that perished from testing, but he also have gotten his hooves on something called a ‘changeling’. I have never heard of them before, but if I can ‘unlock’ its secrets my research would benefit greatly!”

I slowly dragged myself back towards the terminal, feeling an urge to shut off the cursed recordings. Just as I reached the chair I feel some cold against my flank making my entire body shiver.

“Doctor Splice’s audio log, entry two hundred fifty. The changeling tests are progressing slower than anticipated. Despite our similar appearance, the changelings’ magical signature is completely alien. The Ministry of Morale would be very unhappy if it got out, but zebras and ponies are very similar. It’s almost as if the zebras were a fourth pony tribe. The changelings are like nothing I have ever seen before. When I reported my slow progress to Mirth he didn’t get angry, he only looked me in the eye and said he would find something to get around it. He also ordered me to take the two next days off from work. I haven’t had a vacation since I started here.”

As I look down I see myself sitting on what seems like a big blotch of black paint. The same kind of blotch that was on the door earlier. The same one that I touched with my now blackened hoof.

“Doctor Splice’s audio log, entry two hundred fifty one. I am back after my vacation and Mirth has held his word. He acquired some cans of magical experiments from the Ministry of Arcane Science. It’s almost like this thing was made to fit with my magic! It temporarily releases the magical bonds of the being it’s used on, making splicing so much easier. It even makes it possible to do it without risk for the test subjects life! Today I will perform a special experiment. I will see how well the splicing works between changeling, zebra and a unico—” A loud distant rumble suddenly filled the recording. It was then followed by a clang of a large can hitting the floor. “No!” Painful shrieks from several sources came through, but after a while they quietened down. After what felt like ages of silence a raspy voice could be heard. “This wasn’t supposed to happen. I wasn’t supposed to be a test subject.” With that the recording turned off, leaving the room in deep silence.

As I quickly dragged myself out of the paint my body began to shiver. As soon as I moved of it, my eyelids fell down and I was washed away into darkness.

Notice!
Level three attained.
New quest perk unlocked! Corruption. Your body is slowly being corrupted. Getting higher corruption will give corruption perks. You can not get XP while being corrupted.
Current corruption level 5%
Corruption perk unlocked! Hardened hide. Your corrupted parts now have 8 DT and have their weight tripled.

Author's Note

So yeah... I'm a horrible writer who can't focus for shit! Well here is part 2. I make no promises but part 3 should probably take shorter time to get out.
Also please leave feedback! I don't care if it's bad.