Control Group

by Waterstealer

Rating: teen
Tags: Slice of Life, Dark, Sad, Tragedy
Length: 3108

Emotions are a powerful thing in equestria. With little power left, emotions are harvested in labs.

in a dark laboratory outside manehattan, scientists and wizards of high stature discuss the failing supply of power in a futuristic equestria where technology is king and the power of magic is dwindling. using the same principles of the elements of harmony, ponies are put into scientifically enhanced cells where they are put under intense circumstances to produce the purest of emotions. among those being pain, sadness, boredom, pleasure, and contentment.
one pony, however, is kept in a cell to himself. he has been put under no tests and no scientific or magical enhancement. he lives out his days in the isolated cell, only occasionally hearing stories of the others in the facility. over time, he ponders why he is where he is. why are they keeping him?

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2012-06-24 05:56:33 UTC

Exciting Backstory: Explain

Exciting Backstory: Explain

Nurse Redheart had been caring for P254 (Excitement) all day and was exhausted. She really riled her up, and all she wanted was a nice cup of coffee and to go back home. Maybe visit the kids. But that wouldn’t happen till next week, and she still had P255 to deal with. He always depressed her. She really wished she hadn’t been selected. Ah well, at least it was Friday, dandelion sandwiches were on the café menu.

She missed home.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Moving back about 63 years, Equestria was the same happy place we know and love.  Ponyville was still bustling, the sun and moon sisters still ruled and Canterlot was still recovering from the damage caused by the wedding invasion. Otherwise the world was content. However, the representatives of Manehattan and Hoofington had begun to see the danger constantly waiting in the shadows. A conference was held.  The mayors of each city were summoned to royal court discuss what Equestria could do to further protect its inhabitants.

“You’re all mad,” said the mayor of Baltimare, “There’s nothing wrong with Equestria dammit! We’ve survived perfectly for hundreds of not thousands of years! Why should this be a problem now?”

“And what exactly was the report of changeling sightings in Baltimare, Sir Williams?” retorted the mayor of Ponyville.

“That’s completely irrelevant. The recent changeling sightings have only been due to the fact that SOMEONE couldn’t kill all the changelings instead of simply forcing them out of Canterlot!” he gave a look of disdain toward the recently wed Shining Armor, who was trying to keep himself from losing his cool while on highest guard duty for the princesses.

No one had really liked the new mayor of Baltimare; he was a new candidate and had used heavy mudslinging and bribery to get to his position, although he’d never admit it. He was a stately red unicorn with a blonde mane and polished hooves, which was rare for a stallion to have. He had a vendetta against change and progress, and was often the cause of the discouragement of technology in Equestria.

“While I’m sure Sir Williams would take much enjoyment from the extermination of ANOTHER race I think it’d just be best to keep a lookout for any imposters.” Stated the laid back mayor of Las Pegasus.

“There’s still the matter of national security.” Said the representative from Canterlot “We can’t put the royal guard into every town, and the changelings have started to become hostile.”

“What about the elements?” came a voice in the back of the room. it was the Mailmare from Fillydelphia, Swift Wing, who had brought a message to the mayor of the town. He was a curious blue Pegasus with a black mane.  He had overheard the conversation and decided to make an input.

“Dammit we can’t just rely on the elements of harmony for every emergency we have in Equestria!” yelled Sir Williams, thinking the comment came from one of the other mayors.

“That is true,” stated the mayor of Ponyville, “The bearers do have lives of their own, and are quite inaccessible for emergencies in other cities.”

“Now hold on…” an unheard voice came from the far side of the room. It had an accent with remnants of a dead language. “The elements are powered by emotions, no? Then why don’t we simply find a way to use those emotions in every city?”

“That’s insane.” Inputted Princess Celestia. “I cannot be responsible for that kind of magic being used by the public.”

“Aha, not magic, Madame…” a cloaked figure revealed himself to the court. He removed his hood to reveal a somewhat cybernetic face, half gray unicorn and half blinking lights and clear plastic to reveal his inner workings.

“Technology!” he shouted happily. The majority of the court was shocked at his appearance, some questioned his motives under their breaths. Celestia didn’t bat a royal eyelash. She calmly inquired as to how he planned to solve this predicament.

“You see Madame; I have done extensive research on what you have dubbed ‘the magic of friendship…’”

This actually shocked Celestia. Twilight sparkle was the only one of her students she had even mentioned the subject to. As he rambled on about how he had done research on how to use the power of equine emotions to power certain technologies, she wondered how he had even known the concept of the magic of friendship. She listened closely.

“…And if we can simply find enough pure emotions in the inhabitants, we can potentially power a city!”

“One question, mister…” said the mayor of Ponyville, who was cut off abruptly.

“Ambroise. My name… is Ambroise.”

“…Mister Ambroise. How do you plan on converging the emotions of the masses into power? Surely it would require some type of machine, would you have this court suggest putting a large piece of machinery over every town?”

“Aha, no. the recipient city of the emotional power will require a length of special wire encircling the city, which can easily be buried and forgotten.”

“That didn’t answer my question.”

“Yes, of course! I would be honored to be the first to introduce to you…” he had a black earth pony roll something covered by a curtain into the room. It had a suspenseful air to it. It made Swift Wing move closer to the court floor out of curiosity. When it was by Ambroise, he unmasked it.

“The Emotitron 7004!” it was a glass container with many intriguing attachments to the top and a screen and monitor on the front. A panel on the side could be slid to gain entrance to the chamber.

“YOU THERE! With the mail bag!” Ambroise pointed to Swift Wing. He was surprised he was going to be included in something. “Come closer so that I may demonstrate the power of technology!”

Being ushered toward the contraption by the royal guard, swift wing was only more amazed at its complexity. There were at least 20 different contraptions attached to the top. He felt a little claustrophobic, but it was easy to move into the chamber. Ambroise moved over to the screen at the front. He typed in commands with tiny mechanical hands protruding from his neck, while the contraptions on top began to fidget. After about 2 minutes of prep, Swift was struck with many harmless bolts of multicolored lightning, some staying attached to him. He panicked at first, but he got used to the feeling of light. By the time the bolts had ceased Swift had felt no different. He exited the chamber to find Ambroise holding a vial to the court, who was oohing and aahing over it.

“This, mares and gentlecolts, is a pure emotion! It is the emotion of curiosity! The one most prominent in this colt who has been ever so helpful.” The vial contained a light green liquid. Swift was having mixed emotions right now. Curiosity, as to what the heck this “pure emotion” does, embarrassment, since being curious isn’t exactly the best quality to have when you handle people’s personal letters and belongings, and sheer amazement because they just TOOK IT OUT of him and he didn’t even feel anything.

“I move we integrate this new machine immediately!” shouted the mayor of Hoofington.

Roars of “I second!” flooded the court.

It was the dawning of a new era…

__________________________________________________________________________

Dearest reader, I would love to tell you the story of how the evil behind Ambroise’s plans was put to silence by the wielders of the elements of harmony and how peace was restored to the world, but that is a story for another time.

No, the story you are about to be told is one of sadness, darkness, tragedy, and the unfairness of life. It begins 60 years from this meeting. Ambroise has taken control of the world’s power. It hadn’t been enough. With civilians avoiding the machines in protest, ponies were bred in order to meet the requirements.

A pink earth pony and a yellow earth pony were forced to mate. They created a joy power source. A brown unicorn and an orange earth pony were bred to produce an honesty power source. A white Pegasus and a cyan colored Pegasus were bred to produce a confidence power source and so on.

The story begins in a laboratory outside Manehattan. Many ponies are bred for their emotions. One, however, had been there for the longest time and had no idea why. He was a gray earth pony with a messy black mane and a short tail. He hears the stories of the others kept here, called mainly by their names of emotions, some called lust, sadness, anger, etc.

These are their stories.

And the story of the one pony.

He called himself Gray.

That was the only name he’d known.

Chapter 2: Lust

Chapter 2: lust

Gray listened through the crack. 2 workers were talking about Lust and Pleasure. He was no pervert, but he never missed a chance to hear about the most famous synthetic lovers in the world.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Box stacker had been in charge of observing Lust and Pleasure. The shift changed constantly, he just got lucky. His brown mustache tickled his grinning mouth while his short mane began to produce droplets of sweat that dripped on his orange skin at the sight of the 2 in the room through the 1-way wall. The dark red fluorescent light, the deluxe queen bed, and the array of sex toys and erotic clothing scattered across the room.

Lust was a dark red colored Pegasus mare with a dark purple mane. She was lying comfortably in a spoon in front of Pleasure. Pleasure was a dark blue unicorn stallion with a dark red, almost black mane. They both woke. Pleasure slowly sensually rubbed his hoof along Lust’s stomach. Lust moaned and giggled as she turned and twisted at the feel of the warm hoof along her belly. Pleasure reached her flank. He rubbed it even more softly than he had done her stomach. She moaned slightly softer, turning to kiss his lips but only reaching his shoulder. He rubbed against her flank, causing her to gasp and smile. She rolled and faced him in the deluxe bed made for the 2. They embraced. For a good 5 minutes they did nothing but kiss. Then they started to lick each other. She licked his horn sensually, stroking and curling her tongue around it. He nibbled her wings, causing her to moan loudly and lose her focus on his horn. This made him smile. They then collapsed into a heap. They panted, facing each other. He looked down at her and she looked back at him. They had the look. That “go” look. She got on top of him. She let him enter her. They embraced as she did all the work, almost screaming and going faster, while he started to moan himself. Faster, faster, until she stopped abruptly, moaning contentfully. Pleasure was asleep within the minute. She got off him, smiling. She kissed his cheek.

At that minute, Box Stacker had remembered that he had a job to do. He turned to the monitor and inputted some calculations. The room started to fill with lightning. Lust took no notice of it, (she had seen the lightning many times) and was drifting off into slumber. The 2 ponies were struck and engulfed in it, the bolts turning violet around Pleasure and light red around Lust. Once the lightning ceased, 2 vials of light red and violet liquid appeared in the room by means of 2 chutes that came from the ceiling.

Box stacker sipped up his trousers.

“Not as crazy as I thought they would get. Usually they break the sound barrier with their moaning.” He said as he collected the vials and grabbed a newspaper.

“Hey Clip! You’ve got Lust and Pleasure next!” he called out into the hallway of the laboratory.

“Sweet! Hey, what’d they do today?”

Gray listened.

Chapter 3: Anger

Chapter 3

Had Gray slept and longer he felt he may never get back up. He did a lot of napping lately. He figured if he slept long enough maybe time would pass him and he could leave faster. It was only until he felt the vibrations coming from Anger’s room that he felt how hard this was to do. He headed over to the wall crack and decided to listen in. the employees happened to be discussing Anger.

Gray listened.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Anger was just as his name suggested. Rage in pony form. It was a wonder he didn’t die of an aneurism or high blood pressure years ago. Luckily his room was one of the soundproof rooms, so his screams of rage were deafened. But it was the job of one sad worker to keep tabs on him. Today it was Buck Silver. His shiny grey coat was his key feature and the thing that made him the ladies’ stallion of the workplace. He saw the observation as dull and became desensitized to them, albeit the nature of this pony in particular was spectacular to watch.

Anger had damaged the room severely. In his unbridled rage he had gained the strength of a pony that could topple castles with a single buck. The walls, ultra-reinforced titanium with a special one-way transparent aluminum window, had sustained surprising damage. Many dents were present. The only thing Anger ever heard was the sound of his own voice, screaming. A never-ending yell, a battle cry toward an invisible enemy. Is red skin and even more red short mane were constantly giving off a heat that could fry and egg. When the lightning came every day it had to be modified to render the pony unconscious for a certain amount of time. In that time, the walls had to be repaired and Anger was given medical attention and injected with medicine designed to keep him stable in his fits of rage. The first Anger died of a heart attack after 12 hours of bucking and screaming. He had no discernible thoughts. He never wondered why he was there, where he came from, or what the lightning was. He was a vessel. Like all the others. But he would never know that. All he knew was that he was certifiably pissed at anything and everything. Even the blank room he was in made him angry enough to kill. His hooves were scarred. Some of his bones were broken in his legs and ribs, but he had no concept of pain. The fact that he could move less only made him madder. He comes to the verge of self-destruction during every fit of rage he goes through.  When he had become incapacitated through injury and he was on the verge of distorting time itself with his cacophony of screams, the lightning surrounded him. He hated the lightning. It made him even more angry. As it encircled him, he felt a soothing sensation wash over him. Like he didn’t have to be angry anymore. His head fell to the floor. Everything became dim. his blood red emotion was harvested into the vial. He always was just as angry the next day, but when he was unconscious, a single name always stuck in his mind. He didn’t know this person. He never would. But he knew the name.

Jennifer.

Anger had a lifespan of 13 years. There was no funeral. He was tossed in the furnace. He never knew Jennifer.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

But someone did.

Gray listened. The workers had caught the name on a brain scan. The workers seemed to be familiar with her. So much so that they felt no need to go into detail about her, much to the chagrin of Gray.

But he still listened…

And he heard crying.

Chapter 1: Gray

Chapter 1: Gray

He woke up.

The blinding, poorly installed fluorescent light above his head made him squint immediately. He rolled out of his bed or “cot” really. The sink in the corner provided his daily drink of water. He was always so thirsty. The flap under the wall gave him his food. It was a daisy salad today. He loved the daisies but hated the cherry tomatoes. It was comforting to know he at least knew something about himself.  The little he knew was that he had always been here. Any type of memory he tried to have had been something he couldn’t understand. Every day.

He finished his salad and laid back down on the bed. There was nothing else to do. What is there to do in captivity? He was very skinny, on the verge of underweight, and he seemed to be in good physical shape, judging by his broken reflection in the mirror. It was a chore to keep himself optimistic. Maybe they would let him go one day. Maybe he just had to wait.

One thing that kept him sane was a crack in the wall. He knew he wasn’t being monitored, so he could intrude on conversations without fear of redemption. Most of the rooms, he had learned, were soundproof, but a crack in the wall had let him listen in on some of the conversations of those who worked here. Some were incredibly humorous. Joy and Laughter2 were some of the most pleasant to listen about. They were some of the lucky few who could interact with the staff. There was less security for some ponies because there was no danger of escape or emotional scarring to the employees. Yet here was Gray. Stuck in a windowless room, cement walls, a cot, a toilet, a sink, and a one-way flap in the bottom right corner of the room. What a life.

He hoped he would be able to tell someone one day. About the things that happened here. He had every page of the book he would write about this place in his mind memorized. Not a day went by that he didn’t add a page to his book. Without meeting anyone he had made protagonists, antagonists, background characters, love interests, and a happy ending.

Then there was everyone else.

Each pony in captivity, name reduced to a mere emotion. He bled for them. He shuddered at the thought that he might be the only one who was conscious of where he was. He was the only one who knew why he was here.

Why was he here?

He had no excessive emotions as far as he knew. Why was he here?

The light flickered. He rolled on his side. He had thought too much today. Time for sleep.