Screams. Cries for help. Shrieks. These sounds echoed throughout an unending darkness. Movement. What is movement? Surely there isn't a way to do it. Speech. Is speech something too? It's probably an impossible task to try. But wait, what's this? A... a light. No, not a light. An angel? Her hoof is reaching out! What is she saying? Something about coming back. Is she talking directly to somepony? To me? Is this a vision? It's too blurry to make out. She’s leaving... wait, come back! It's cold... dark... so lonely.
A frightened gasp came from a small filly with a dark greenish-blue coat. Her mane was short and black with a dark grey stripe down the middle. Her eyes shot right open, and she shuddered in fear when she realized she was surrounded by strange beings—tan, brown, and pinkish tall creatures wearing white jackets.
She was confused and scared. The creatures grinned and wrote something down with some sort of pen, on what seemed to be a clipboard, after each and every move she made. What were they doing to her? She began to try something. Using her pink magic, she levitated a nearby pencil to see how they would react. The creatures gasped, and one dropped their clipboard and pen. The tallest one was a brownish tan color. He ran towards her, grasping her with his claws and raising her in the air, shouting with what sounded and looked like anger to the small filly.
Shocked by his actions, she started bawling in fear of him. Suddenly their grins went away, but they continued to write. The medium creature stepped up to the tall one, performing what appeared to be scolding. It was brown and a bit skinny.
"Professor, stop! You are scaring her!" it cried out.
The unicorn filly was surprised to recognize the words being said. Her eyes were still filled with tears as the tall-sized creature passed her on to the medium-sized one. It softly stroked her mane, trying to calm her down.
"Sorry if Professor Diaz scared you a bit. He means no harm," it cooed.
The filly spoke between soft sniffles. "You, can, talk?"
"All of us can talk, dear."
Still a bit shocked, the filly thought of her next question. "What are you?"
"Humans." It smiled. "We're humans."
"Wait, aren't humans just an old pony tale?"
"Just like talking unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies are for us." It chuckled.
Stunned and unsure what to say, the filly said the first thing that came to her mind. "Um, breakfast! I'm pretty hungry. Do you happen to have something to eat?"
Breakfast? Really? she thought. Well, I guess I am pretty hungry.
"Of course! It's brunch for everyone anyway."
The two left the room to head to the cafeteria while the other creatures argued about taking notes on the filly. It was a bit of a walk, but hey, it was healthy.
"Do you have a name?" the filly asked.
"Yeah." It said. "Destiny. Destiny A. Sanders."
"Ah, so you are a girl!" The small unicorn exclaimed. "And all this time I thought all you humans were colts."
"Colts?" Destiny chuckled. "Don't you mean boys?"
"Uh yeah, whatever you call it."
She had just met Destiny, and she was already feeling pretty close to her. Her brown eyes, the way she spoke, her black hair... she felt so motherly and kind. Almost as if she was her mother.
"Now, what about you?" Destiny smiled. "What's your name?"
The little unicorn opened her mouth say something but was silent. She thought for a moment, but nothing clicked in her mind.
After a long pause, she stuttered, "Well, uh you... you see, I don't know."
"Well, why don't we come up with one for you?" Destiny chimed. "Let's see...well, you're adorable. That’s a fact."
She giggled and blushed at Destiny's comment.
Destiny beamed and snapped her fingers. "I've got it! Have you ever heard the story of black beauty?"
The filly shook her head sideways. "Who's that?"
"He's one of my favorite childhood book characters. He's brave, smart, adventurous, and fairly handsome for a horse. I forgot what happens in the story, but I remember it always has a happy ending."
"Oh cool! But, what does he have to do with me?"
"Isn't it obvious?" She smirked. "That's your new name. Black Beauty."
"Black Beauty... I like it!" Beauty clapped her hooves together in excitement of her new name.
Once they made it to the cafeteria, they stepped in line for the food. Beauty was expecting a mean-looking lunch lady and sloppy food, but instead got a sweet-looking wrinkly one with pretty brown eyes who was serving different varieties of oats, hay, vegetables, and sweets that made her mouth water.
Destiny let go of her new buddy and put her on the ground.
"You go ahead and choose what you would like to eat. I am going to go to a sushi bar to eat. You're gonna love that stuff! I'll be back in 30 minutes. Enjoy your food!"
Beauty waved to Destiny as she walked out one of the exits, then walked up to the counter where the lunch lady was. She was a human, like Destiny and Professor. Her hair was grey and white, and wrapped up in a hairnet. Unlike the humans she had just seen, this one was a bit wider, had green skin, and smelled like apples.
"Howdy there young'un, my name’s Granny Smith. You must be the new filly ‘round here. Would'ya like to try one o’ these hayburgers?"
"No thank you, Ms. Smith. I'm just here for the brunch."
Picking up a bowl of apples, Granny Smith chuckled. "Now dear, you don't have to be so formal. Here at Discovery Corp Laboratories, we're all family. You can just call me Granny Smith, or granny if ya'd like."
Beauty smiled. "You’re much nicer than the last lunch lady from my old school. She always demanded you called her Mrs. so and so."
"Is that so? What was the name of this lunch lady of yours?” Granny smiled, fixing up some French toast.
Black Beauty's smile faded away just as quickly as it had blossomed. "I can't seem to remember. And. Discovery Corp Laboratories... what do they do to us here?"
Handing Beauty her meal, Granny Smith shook her head. "I'm just the regular old lunch lady that comes here on Mondays, Wednesdays, Friday, and Sundays. I don't know what goes on 'round these parts. But don't worry, you can ask me anything any time ya see me, ‘kay, young'un?"
"Okay, then...." the unicorn replied. She thanked Granny Smith for the meal and looked for a place to sit.
Suddenly, she saw something. It was a white pegasus with spiky blue hair. He was probably about her age, but there was something about him that caught her eye.
She cantered to where he was seated and blurted, “Do you mind if I sit with you?"
The pegasus seemed unfazed. “Sure, grab a seat," he offered, patting the seat next to him, which Beauty thankfully took.
Introductions first. “I don’t, um... remember my name, but I guess you can call me Black Beauty. Destiny called me that. What’s your name?”
“It’s William, but you can call me Will.” He smiled casually, easing Beauty slightly, before digging in to his meal.
"So, Will, what are we supposed to do here?" she asked anxiously.
"Well," Will spoke with his mouth full, "here at D-she-L, the humansh do teshtsh on ush to she how we react and how they can help dah other humansh. Shometimesh dey do it jusht for the intel and dah reshearch. I hear onche you get yer cutie mark, they begin to do more teshts on you."
“That’s, um... great.” She only understood about a third of what he’d said. Something about tests on mares, she reckoned. “Thanks for letting me know.”
"No prob!" Will replied, finally swallowing his food.
There was an awkward silence as Will became absorbed in his meal. Black Beauty found she wasn’t immensely hungry all of a sudden, simply picking at what she’d been given. There was an incalculable sense of dread resting in the pit of her stomach. She decided to talk, if for no other reason than to stop worrying so much.
"Say, what do you want to do when you grow up?" she asked, taking another bite of her apple.
Wiping the food off his mouth, Will replied, "I want to be fast... like Rainbow Dash."
Black Beauty paused for a moment. "Who is Rainbow Dash?"
Will smiled. "Dash is another human. She's a pro soccer player at Canterlot High. She and her little sister Scootaloo come here sometimes to help the scientists with their experiments."
Beauty stopped eating. "Experiments? I thought you said tests... maybe I just didn’t hear you right. You did have a lot of food in your mouth."
Will shrugged. "Tests are for ponies our age. Once we get older, they'll start doing experiments. "
“How old, exactly?”
Another shrug. “A few years, probably. The experiments aren’t bad, anyway. You can’t even tell with most ponies.”
"Ah, I see."
A loud beep echoed throughout the cafeteria. Ponies started getting up and putting their leftover food in the trash, then went into different rooms in a hallway.
"I gotta go, I'll see you later Beauty." Will got up from his seat. "It's testing time."
"Wait, Will, can't I come with you?"
The pegasus turned around to his friend. "Since you're a newbie, you can't join me in testing hour yet. Sorry. I'll see you later, though, beauty."
Beauty's ears flopped down. "All right then... see you later."
"Oh, and Beauty?" Will turned around again with a smile and a wink. "That last sentence, I wasn't calling you by your name."
The filly blushed crimson red as her friend walked away. She then heard Destiny calling her from the hallway over. She got up from her seat and ran towards the scientist, giving her a big hug.
“Why can’t I go to testing with Will yet?”
“There’s a few good reasons. You can’t be identified yet, we still have to enter you in a few records, we’re not even sure which class to put you into... we’ll figure it out. Oh, and who’s Will?”
“A pegasus I just met. He seems really nice.” She blushed slightly, the color mostly hidden by her coat. “Well, since I can't go to testing yet, what am I supposed to do?"
"You are going to have to get a tag clipped to your ear so we can keep track of what testing number you are."
"What!? Won't that hurt?" Beauty exclaimed.
Destiny patted her head. "Don't worry, it'll only sting a second. Just like getting your ears pierced."
Destiny and Beauty walked into an office. The sign said 'Sanders,' which Beauty assumed was the other half of Destiny’s name. Beauty had been expecting something like Manifest Destiny or Destiny Blossom... not Destiny Sanders. Maybe she smoothed out destinies? While Beauty entertained herself by spinning on an office chair, Destiny was busy browsing through boxes and files for some papers and a stapler.
"Okay, ready?" Destiny held up a special stapler and a purple tag.
Beauty's eyes widened. She gasped and tried to run out the office.
Destiny counted down. "5... 4... 3... 2... 1..."
Two scientists walked in office, holding the little filly who was struggling to get away, her eyes still spinning from the chair that had been the cause of her downfall.
"Ear tag?" the scientists asked in unison.
Destiny nodded.
"Don't worry, we'll hold her down," the first one said.
They pinned down the squirming unicorn filly as one of the scientists put the stapler close to Beauty's ear.
"YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE!" Beauty yelled.
It was too late, however. With one click of the stapler, Black Beauty let out a loud cry that echoed through the hallways.
Beauty and Destiny headed towards a room through more hallways. Once they finally made it, Destiny gave the unicorn a keycard to the room. Beauty slid the card in the slot and the doors slid open. Destiny waved goodbye and left Black Beauty on her own.
Beauty walked in the room. There was a bed with purple sheets and blankets. The walls were a cyan. The floor was carpet, and there was a closet and a mirror. Two windows were on the opposite side of the room. It had the perfect view from the sky. Green grass was down below, there was a park and trees, and people were shocking ponies. Nothing too out of the ordinary.
Wait, what!? Beauty looked back down. There was nothing there. She was just seeing things. Right? The young filly walked towards the mirror and look at herself. The numbers 642 were printed on her ear tag. 642... what did that mean?
She jumped on her bed and fell asleep from her long morning. She could tell there were some big days coming up; she needed to be prepared for every single thing, and she couldn’t very well be prepared without proper sleep.
