My Little Portal: Testing is scientific advancement

Many months after the previous chapter...

Star Whistle trotted lazily down the stairs to the kitchen and prepared herself a small breakfast of hay and oats as she looked out of the window into the rolling acres of land, she had moved into a small house a few miles outside of Ponyville, nopony lived nearby and the views were fantastic. There had been no funeral for Dark Cloud or Freedom and nopony had believed her stories of the large facility under the everfree forest and the situations she was faced with and even when she had a meeting with Princess Celestia after months of waiting she denied ever knowing a company named “Neigh Science” and had refused to admit the existence of anypony named “Dark Cloud” or “Freedom” although she admitted that Dark Cloud was an old ponies tale used to scare fillies and colts. And upon inquiring if she could examine the older economical records of Equestria to verify that there was once funding for Neigh Science Laboratories she was immediately refused any and all access to any historical document in Canterlot regarding previous funding or birth and death records.

On top of all of this she had to face the fact the nopony would organised or go through with a proper funeral for Dark Cloud and was forced to make her own small gravestone and had to engrave it herself placing it in the small garden she had made, she even made a stone for Freedom despite all he had done to her she decided it would be horrible of her to ignore that she had been responsible for killing Dark Cloud who in turn killed Freedom with her assistance.

Sighing and finishing her breakfast Star Whistle began her daily walk to the Everfree Forest. Of course the evening she had escaped everypony had gone to investigate but somehow the Princesses Royal Guard had managed to show up before everypony else could and also removed Star Whistle from the immediate area. The memory of that day was not one she enjoyed having and after figuring out what Dark Cloud had managed to say only pained her more when she engraved it upon his gravestone as his final words, she glanced at the gravestone with no dates except the current year and names with a small phrase at the bottom of either the first reading

“Dark Cloud” and beneath it “I’m sorry for everything” while the other one read

“Freedom” and beneath that “I am Freedom, for that is what I shall give you”

Despite everything that had happened Star Whistle had tried to remain strong after the loss of Dark Cloud she was taken in by Ponyville’s resident animal caretaker Fluttershy who listened to everything she had to say and comforted her during her time of grieving.

As Star Whistle approached the everfree forest she trotted along the faded dirt pathway which was covered in leaves, the season was Autumn and the leaves were gently falling off of the trees covering the pathways in a beautiful pattern of orange and red. The large crater where the facility had exploded was never entirely fixed and to was covered in the pattern that the path had staring distantly into the crater she sighed deeply and sat down and produced a small notepad and pencil and began drawing the scene. This had become somewhat of a tradition to her when the area had a noticeable change she would sketch it to pass time seen as she had nothing much to do the leaves which had covered the facility was also another reason she had decided to draw that day, they made the scene seem so peaceful as if the crater had always been there and as if nopony had died. A good 30 minutes passed and the sketch was nearing completion as the light Autumn rain began to fall around her, she glanced up to see a Pegasus with a rainbow mane positioning clouds. One of the only downsides of living so far from Ponyville was that she never got any weather schedules so she had to estimate the weather, sheltering the notepad  as she began to trot away after taking a final look at the crater. The scene was ominously quiet despite the weather team shifting clouds everywhere above her, blocking out the sun and leaving a lack of lighting in the everfree forest.

The crater was then avoided for the rest of the day, as Star Whistle walked away there was a slight crackling beneath the leaves and rubble as a faint and crackling transmission played through a worn out loudspeaker which failed to create any loud volume and instead produced what seemed like a murmur

“This is an emergency broadcast” Began the robotic voice “The Neigh Science Laboratory has an alarming lack of subjects and is willing to pay a high salary to anypony willing to throw themselves into near death situations, no health insurance included, so if you’re interested....”the recording began to distort and crackle

“Listen, this is an important message” Said another voice “The Southern wing of the facility is still operational and I am trapped there, I need help. If anypony is listening, anypony at all then send help I need help. I repeat, I am alive and I’m not sure how much longer I can hold out under here. There is hope still, I am Dark Cloud and I need help”

Authors note;

So, SO sorry I didn't get this out quickly, I went on holiday a few days after the last chapter and forgot to put this up.

So anyway! Thank you to everyone that has bothered to thumbs up this story, comment on it and generally read it and I hope you've all enjoyed reading this as much as I have writing it. It's my first fic so it's a learning experience for me c:

Thanks once again!

• Skull