Chapter 1

Bzzt, bzzt, bzzt, bzzt.

“Quick, administer the serum! We don’t have long!”

Countless times. Experiment after experiment failing. Thinking it is so close, yet slips through our hooves, my hooves, again and again.

“Sweet Celestia its loose! Quick, get ready to initiate emergency protocols!”

Celestia. Once the proud ruler of Equestria, worshiped by some, admired by all, now reduced to a shadow of her former self. Some feel she abandoned us during our time of need, others thought she was not suited for times of war. A thousand years of peace, broken as suddenly as her announcement that she would be handing over leadership of Equestria to her younger sister, Princess Luna. The same princess, who despite her best efforts to lead this land, escalated this war by her mere presence. But without war, there would be no advancement. Without advancement pony kind would not be able to better ourselves. I didn’t hate the princesses. I did not even hate this war. I just hated failure.

“Get that damn animal under control! I don’t want another repeat of last months debacle, that put us weeks behind!” I finally roared across the lab when it was apparent that my assistants seemed more bumbling then usual.

I did not hate my assistant, although they do occasionally get under my coat, they do a good job, especially when push came to shove. Unfortunately it seems that I was the only one here that seems to do the pushing and shoving. I had under my wing (figuratively speaking) some of the best unicorns that have been transferred to this facility. I was always the first one to snatch up the good candidates. I had too otherwise somepony else would have. I needed to have the best. Without the best, failure was almost guaranteed. Did I mention I hate failure? I mean really despise it. Despise is so much that I realized that I am talking to myself. Again.

“Lucky Shine, grab the serum. Dapper Darling, go grab the tranquilizers. I want to make sure that if this is another failure, that we can at least get some decent data so this doesn't happen next time! And remember, no magic! I do not want any arcane influences to taint this stage of the experiment.”

Thankfully when I gave an order, it was followed. I did not know if it was out of fear or respect, and I did not care. As long as they did their job I was happy. Don’t get me wrong, I am not purposely unkind to them. I may lecture them after a failure, but I do not punish. And after every success they are rewarded. I guess I do take after my namesake, if only a little.

Kindness. I really do hate that name. When I was born, the Elements of Harmony had already chosen their bearers, and my mother was infatuated with Fluttershy, the bearer of the Element of Kindness. She was always telling, well, everypony that kindness was the key to life, that if your kind to others, they will be kind to you. Even after the war started, she knew that if we were only kinder to the Zebras, none of this would have happened. I think that's why she named me Kindness. In her heart, she probably felt that it would make me kinder than others, that I could change the world and make everypony like Fluttershy. I think it also broke her heart when I got my Cutie Mark. She was hoping for some variation of Fluttershy’s butterflies to confirm that I was the second coming of kindness. Instead I got a laboratory flask with a DNA helix on it. I am really glad there were no butterflies, yet my mother still insisted she could see them somewhere in it.

“Doctor Ness, I think the serum is finally working! Shall we hold off on the tranquilizers?” Dapper Darling shouted from behind an overturned table.

“Yes, it looks like the rage is subsiding. Wait another minute and see. But if any more heightened aggression is witnessed, tranquilize it immediately. There has been no injuries yet this week, and I’d like to keep it that way.”

I could have changed my name. There were many times I wanted to. I hated Kindness, but Ness? It had a certain, ring to it. I always avoid using my full name, even on my applications and transfer forms, my name was referred to as Ness. The only ones who ever used my full names were my parents. Although at times I think that even my father had disapproved of the name, then again, he did always want a son rather than a daughter.

“Alright, it looks like it has calmed down. Put it back in the observation chamber and make sure it’s secured this time” I ordered as I looked around at the havoc the creature caused. Broken lab equipment, over turned tables and chairs, who knew that a small rabbit could cause so much damage. “And if you don’t mind cleaning up before leaving. I don’t want ponies to think that all this gray fur was from me. I may be under some stress, but not that much.”

I left my assistants to take care of the mess as I headed back to my quarters to look over these notes. Today had not been a total failure. Sure the animal got out of control, and the injections did not show the results I had planned for, but at least the counter serum was working. If the serums and the tranquilizers had proven ineffective, we would have had to euthanize the creature. It was getting harder and harder to get test subjects for our work. Shortly after the war began, experiments started to pop up using animals as test subjects for measuring the effects of balefire radiation, finding ways to cure it, and other biological experiments. Of course when Fluttershy found out about this, she was outraged. A ban on using animals for biological tests that were not related to the medical field was created. Of course that did not stop most of the research facilities. Some started small hidden farms to breed genetically selective test subjects, and others, like this facility, had to get them smuggled in. Due to this, there was a limit to what we could use and how many can be delivered at a time. Loosing a subject could amount to days or even weeks of lost work while waiting for a replacement to be procured. But it was for the betterment of all pony kind. It was necessary, whether Fluttershy liked it or not.

Once I got to my quarters, I shut and locked the door. My quarters were fairly small. A bed, dresser, bookshelf and a desk. Connecting to the main room was the bathing facilities. I did not have much in the way of personal possessions. Mostly my books and my work. My dresser consisted of lab coats and one off-white dress, decorated lightly with colored gems. A gift from my parents. I think it was their way of telling me ‘go and have some fun and relax, maybe find a nice stallion you can settle down with’. Like that would ever happen. Sure there have been a few males here that have turned my head once or twice, but it was nothing more than a distraction. A small distinction that can turn into a larger, work destroying distraction down the line. I’ve seen it before. A young upcoming scientist in the bio-magical field was nearly finished with a project that may have helped protect ponies from indirect radiation effect. Then one day she closed the project and went to Baltimare to elope with her apprentice.

I removed the dress from the dresser and held it up against me in front of my mirror. There were times that I wish I had a reason to wear it, that some stallion would come and sweep me off my hooves. But this dress also brought back memories, memories of my mother. It was not long ago when the Zebra’s got a hold of the mega-spell matrices. Rumors quickly escalated how they had gotten Equestrian made technology in their hooves. Rumors that had included treason. Rumors of a certain yellow coated Pegasus. It was known that Fluttershy and her Ministry were working on mega-spells to be able to heal large amounts of wounded, but that it would effect friend and foe alike. None of the other Ministry mares were as dead set to end the war peacefully as her. My mother told me that if any pony would end the war, it would be Fluttershy and her kindness. If the rumors were to be believed, then kindness may end up being our downfall.

Unfortunately, my mother did not take the news of these rumors lightly. She denied them so intensely, believing that Fluttershy would bring about peace, that she started to change. Every time somepony talked bad about Fluttershy, she would snap at them, at some points violently. Because of this, she lost her job, her friends, and even my father was afraid to be in the same room as her at times. These rumors, whether they were true or not, were driving her insane, all the while babbling on and on about how Fluttershy and her kindness will save the world. Eventually my father, afraid of her safety, along with the safety of those around her, decided to commit her into the Equestrian Mental Therapy Center south of Baltimare. My mother was sent to an insane asylum, and where was I? Working on a project. My work consumes me so much, that I had gotten irritated when I got the news, interrupting me in the middle of an experiment. Don’t get me wrong, I love my parents, but sometimes I think I love my work more. I promised my father that I would visit my mother when I was between experiments. That was four projects ago. Every time I finished one, I was so hyped up for the next project I could not think of anything else. This time will be different. I have some unused vacation time that I will be using (or should I say, forced to use by the higher ups), and I plan to visit my both my parents once this project is done. It has been a long time, and part of me is not looking forward to it. Maybe I will wear this dress when I visit her.

I carefully put away the dress and took my lab coat off and tossed it in the pile with the others at the foot of the bed before proceeding to run myself a nice bath. When the bath water was at a nice level and temperature, I slid myself into the sudsy water until it covered my body up to my neck. I lifted my fore-hoof and brought up today's experiment notes and results on my Pipbuck. It seems that today was a better day than I thought. Give another month with few errors, this project might actually be close to completion. I already had a dozen different ideas for new projects once this one was completed once I got back from my vacation. Maybe I will let my assistants get a head start on this while I am away, they have been showing eagerness to work on an experiment themselves. Already in a better mood, I decided to take my Pipbuck off and just soak here for a little longer. Despite what everypony says, I actually do enjoy a little relaxation. I think I will just close my eyes, for just a few minutes.

***
Knock, Knock, Knock.

The noise startled me awake. I was still in the bath, but how long was I out? The water was much cooler than I remembered. Grabbing my Pipbuck I realized that an hour had past since I got to my quarters. Crap. The reports! I jumped out of the bath and used my magic to wrap a towel around myself to dry and proceeded to open the door. Outside was a bright yellow coated earth pony stallion dressed in a black uniform, symbolizing that he was from the administrative offices.

“Doctor Ness, I am here for this weeks reports on your project. You typically have them uploaded to the server by now, and we tried to ping your Pipbuck and terminal but after not receiving a reply, I was sent to make sure everything was alright.”

“Sorry I am almost done with them, I wanted to get clean first and lost track of time. I will finish them up and submit them within the hour.”

“We will be looking forward to seeing your results. Have a good evening ma’am.”

As I closed the door and thought came to my head. How come every time a cute stallion comes to my quarters, its all business. Sure, I did not have flights of fancy about finding Mr. Right, or even having a relationship in general, but somewhere deep within me, my hormones yearned for something more. I’ve learned to ignore them, putting my research and experiments as top priority in my life, but this mare’s body eventually expresses its needs, and often I find myself fulfilling them alone. While the urge was striking me now after that brief visit, I needed to finish my report and have it submitted. Then I can have some me time.

Author's Note

The first chapter of a story that came to me while playing Fallout 4. While this will be full story, it is also a writing experiment to help me flush out styles for an original novel I am writing so I would appreciate the feedback!

*Edited it because I realized that I gave Ness the wrong Cutie Mark that I intentionally planned.