Author's Note
Enjoy.
--Deceased Walrus
The Doorway to Science
I stood amongst the fog, watching the bloodshed from afar. Yes, the sight was sickening, but there was no way to redirect my eyes away from this massacre. The ponies were in front of me, dying in unimaginable ways. They marched single file up to the fenced gate. They were checked in. Then, they were slaughtered.
This is how the world of Equestria is nowadays. One by one, the ponies entered the facility, clueless of what they would be used for. But I knew. I knew far too well. I had escaped before, after all.The ponies were to enter the testing lab. Then, a scientist would give them very explicit instructions on their test.
If they succeed, they move on to the next test. And then the next. After a decent amount of tests, they die. Just like that. If they don't finish a test, they simply are starved to death. Once you enter the testing facility, you aren't allowed to leave. Ever again.
However, a few select ponies manage to trick them. We are able to escape, and because of this, we are considered criminals. Yes, it is considered a crime against ponykind to escape death. Why? Because Princess Twilight said so. I don't care what she says. I don't care what anypony says. I wasn't going to die. I made that decision a year ago.
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I woke up, gasping for breath. Water rushed across my fur as I swam up. I was in the bottom of a lake. I couldn't remember why. My back two hooves were tied, and it was proving very difficult for me to surface.
It was over. I could tell. I tried my best not to breath in water as I continued to push my way up. Something wasn't right about this lake. The water seemed too... Clean. Pure. There were no fish, and the water wasn't murky.
I looked around. There must be some way to get out. I seemed to be falling... Upward. I stopped attempting to swim. I was still accelerating forward through the water. What was going on?
I finally surfaced and, coughing out water, I flopped over on the white tiled ground. After taking a short rest, I stood up. My back two hooves were still bound together, so this was quite challenging at first.
After I managed to get myself standing, I walked over to the square pool of water. It seemed incredibly deep. Every few seconds, a large fountain sprayed on me. I must have been shot up by the fountain. But what was this place?
I surveyed the room. It was all white tiling, with one metal door in the middle of the room. Not on the wall, but actually in the middle. I approached it curiously, and slowly opened it. After the door opened, a beam of light formed a corridor around the door, creating a completely new room.
Confused, I decided I'd enter it anyway. After all, there wasn't anywhere else to go. The inside was absolutely freezing. I shivered as I continued down the violet-lighted hall.
A speaker on the wall gave some feedback, making me cover my ears with my hooves. After it ended, I released my ears and a voice came on.
"Oh," it said, clearly a female speaking, "you've made it!"
"Sorry?"
"I can see you through the camera. I assumed that movement of your jaw and lips meant you were attempting to speak. Unfortunately, the microphones for these cameras have not yet been configured. Audio is not transmitted."
I looked at the walls and located the camera, then proceeded to mouth "who are you" to it.
"Like I said," she chuckled, "no audio. Oh, and I can't read lips. So don't try that. Anyway, I'm sure you're wondering what's going on?"
I nodded at the camera.
"You, along with a few hundred thousand more, have been randomly selected to participate in this scientific research project. We have wiped your memory, so you probably don't remember, but you were extremely excited about this!"
What the hell is going on? My memory? They didn't wipe my memory! I still know who I am! I'm... Crap.
"Now," she stated, "you will be a major contribution to science whether you live or not, but I would highly suggest the survival route. During this experiment, we shall be running you through several tests. On completion of these tests you will be rewarded." She then, in a happy tone, said, "If you fail to accomplish the task, you will be executed immediately and used for corpse experimentation."
Oh no. Not gonna happen.
After hearing the last part, I panicked and started galloping down the corridor. The energy beam creating the hallway continued to extend in the direction I was running. After getting tired, I twirled around. I appeared to be the same distance from the door as I had been before I started running. It had also swung closed. I ran for the door and gave the handle a good tug, but it wouldn't budge.
"Please note that I control the tests," the voice said, "and you cannot leave any of them until further notice. You have thirty minutes to complete this test. Welcome to Sparkle Sciences."
The speakers gave more feedback before cutting out completely, leaving me panicking. I was now facing a test. A test which meant the difference between life and death. My memory was also gone, meaning I hadn't the slightest clue of what was going on. I had to finish the test, or I was done for.
I looked at the walls carefully. There must have been some way to shut off the flow of magic energy. But how?
I decided to start running again. Of course, it had the same effect. After completely exhausting myself again, I had realized half of my time had already been wasted. Hurriedly, I tried to think. How could a magic beam get shut off?
Only a few things I knew of made magic. Living beings and artifacts were the only possible causes right now. Whatever it was, it was concealed very well. I wandered back and forth, watching the wall. I tripped several times as I did this over an extra tile. Perhaps I had to do something with it?
I picked up the tile and threw it at the beam. It simply bounced off, as if it were a normal wall. Frustrated, I smashed the tile as hard as I could, breaking it into pieces. A diamond-shaped amulet flew out of the rubble. An artifact! They were hiding it in the tile! I took a hoof and raised it over the amulet before crushing it to pieces. The walls around me disappeared, leaving me in a large, gray room.
A clock on the wall was counting down. It was at 4:36. The speakers made some static noise, and then the same voice echoed in the room. "Congratulations," she said. "See the clock? That's how much time you had left."
I was pretty close. A little bit longer, and I would've been used for some sort of corpse research.
"There is one of these at the end of every test," she explained to me, "so the faster you finish, the longer you'll have to rest."
Rest? How can I rest in an empty gray room?
Finally, I spotted a bed within the room. Just how long was I supposed to be down here? And why was I down here?
I walked over to the bed and started to lie down, causing the mare to speak once again. "That's not a good idea," she said, "you barely have three minutes left."
She was right. I didn't want to lose any time, so I hopped back up. Why would she even put a bed in the first room if I didn't have time to sleep?
I just paced around the room, my hoofsteps echoing throughout the gray room. One light, dangling from the ceiling, lit the entire room. It creaked as it swung back and forth at a steady pace, with no force actually making the motion. How was it moving on its own? Magic?
I attempted to study this light further, but I was interrupted by a loud siren. I covered my ears as the high-pitched tone wailed about. After the tone ended, a male's voice spoke over the intercom.
"Test one complete," it said. "Test two in three."
After a few seconds, the floor beneath me vanished. I screamed as I plummeted downward. If only I had been a pegasus, or even a unicorn, I could've done something to escape. But sadly, I was neither. I couldn't stop the fall.
My eyes were drying out from the rapid gusts of wind. I had to have been falling for at least a full minute now, and there was still no sign of an end. It was just an endless drop with gray walls. By now, I had stopped screaming. It was useless.
The speakers echoed into the hole. The female was back on. "The second test is now beginning. We at Sparkle Sciences would like to kindly advise you to hold your breath.
Wait, what?
I finally saw a small, glittering light in the distance. I closed my eyes, preparing for impact. When some time had passed, and I still hadn't hit anything, I opened my eyes. I was headed up, not down. I was being propelled by magic.
I reached the white light, and flopped over on my stomach. On the ceiling.Magic was a strange thing. The spell must have saved me from the painful landing. The ceiling was the floor again. I was so confused. I fell upward to the ceiling, which became the floor...?
Underneath me was the familiar white tiling of the previous testing room, as well as some grates. One of them had been opened. The instant I peered my head inside, I was blasted with water. I coughed and gasped for breath as I was sent flying into the air.
A few more spurts of the liquid, and I was completely underwater, swimming upward. I remembered this scene vaguely. It was from the first test.
Do they really have to start every test like this?
Finally, I surfaced, able to breathe and relax as the current pushed me up the rest of the way. I was nearing the tiled edge of the pool. I was getting so close. Even closer. Really close...
I placed a hoof on the edge and rolled over it, panting. That fountain took a lot out of me. I looked around the room as I lay there, noticing absolutely no changes from the first room. It was exactly the same. Just a door.
I stood up and opened the door. It was a maze. A mirror maze. The door shut behind me. And the walls started closing in on me.
"Hello," the female voiced boomed, "welcome to the next test! You have as much time as you need, given that the walls don't kill you! Please note, Sparkle Sciences would never, EVER, kill anypony. The tests do it for us. Good luck!"
That was it. I was in a mirror maze, with walls that were attempting to crush me. The mirrors weren't made of glass. They bent as the walls started moving them, like some sort of reflective elastic.
I stared through the maze. My brown coat was reflected all over the room, my own panicking face taunting me, . I was so done for. I started to frantically run about the room, any tiny bit of hope being smashed by the walls. The mirrors were everywhere, as was I.
I smacked into the mirrors several time as I attempted to turn corners. My head was getting bruised by the amount of times I had collided. This was no fun.
Finally, I found it. On one of the mirrors, there was a small red button. To my left, I could see a large wall of mirrors moving towards me. If I didn't act soon, the button would be destroyed. I placed my hoof on the circle and forced it to click. The mirror flipped inside out, revealing a large ladder. I climbed up, an intense heat rising in my face. I pulled myself over the edge, and I was met by a second floor.
It was the exact same thing again. The walls were reset, but they started to move the instant I stood. There was, however, one difference: several mirrors were loosened, meaning I could move them. This was probably going to be useful, as there were now hot lasers being reflected all over the room.
I sighed. There was no way I'd get to the button again. It was close enough the first time. I looked back down the ladder. Sure enough, the ladder didn't exist. The hole was replaced by the walls below.
There was a small chance I could do it. I noticed a laser that wasn't being reflected. It was being shot out of the corner of one mirror. The mirror across from it, however, was not reflecting it. The angle should have caused it to make a diagonal shot across the room, but it was doing nothing. As I looked closer, it appeared a few lasers were like this. They were darker than the others.
Cautiously, I stuck the tip of my hoof in the laser's path. Nothing happened. The darker lasers were obviously not going to do anything to me. Paying attention to this, I was able to make it around three corners.
The next hallway had no lasers, and the button was at the end. However, the moving wall was already touching the button. It was going to be squashed, along with me.
I galloped over to it and slammed my left hoof on it as hard as possible, causing all of the mirrors to liquify. The clear fluid drained into the white tiles on the ground before the walls completely collapsed. I was in the gray room again. The clock was a big "X".
" I think you're getting it," said the female. She then chuckled. "Guess its time to start the REAL tests."
