Chapters Twilight let out sigh, another day of experiments with nothing but the same results. While the results themselves were great for the company, they were becoming so redundant to the point were she began to secretly hope something would go wrong so that she could at least do something different for once.
Deciding to through the data files of all experiments that was recorded within it, seeing what new experiments she could preform using energy from the chaos emeralds and the master emerald.
'To think, those emeralds were found in an ancient echidna temple located on Angle Island.' Twilight thought to herself, 'While their names were discovered through ancient echidna text, it was only when one of the men who found them came into contact with them was it discovered that those emeralds could give power to both people and technology (being how he had robotic arms). I'm still astonished how the lead director managed to convince King Acorn to allow the Hypersonic Association for Rejuvenating Mobian Organic Needs and Youth (or H.A.R.M.O.N.Y.) to have them and conduct experiments with them.'
"I see you're as busy as ever, Twilight." A voice said, pulling the mobian unicorn out of her thoughts.
Looking towards the source of the voice, Twilight saw another mobian unicorn who was light grayish heliotrope in color and wore a lab-coat similar to hers.
"Hey Starlight." Twilight greeted the mobian unicorn now known as Starlight, "How'd your experiments go?"
"Like they usually do." Starlight responded, "The subject gains a large boost in physical abilities until the chaos energy is extracted out of them. What about you?"
"Practically the same as you." Twilight said before adding, "But out of all of them, subject 76642 seems much more accustomed to the energy than the others, being how he exhibits signs of extra speed and strength even after he is cut off from the chaos energy."
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say his body is actually keeping some of the energy we give it, instead of allowing the energy to leak out of it like the others." Starlight said, "Speaking of him, where is subject 76642 currently at?"
"He's in my lab's stasis pod." Twilight responded.
"Planning to do another experiment on him?" Starlight asked.
"Of course, when it comes to having a test subject for project chaos, he's the best one to use." Twilight responded.
"Mind if I tag along?" Starlight asked, "I'm currently on my break and I don't know what to do right now."
"Sure, I don't mind, just don't touch anything unless I ask you to." Twilight said.
After nodding in understanding, Starlight followed Twilight to her lab.
Upon entering the lab, the two mobian unicorns saw a yellow mobian pegasus wearing a lab-coat in front of a stasis pod (that was concealed by a force-field that was impossible to see through), tapping at control panel in front of it.
"Hey!" Twilight called out, "Who the heck are you!?"
Twilight's yell caused the mobian pegasus to jump before turning towards the duo.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize you would come so soon!" The mobian pegasus apologized, "My name is Fluttershy, and I'm here to check subject 76642's mental state."
"Fluttershy, Fluttershy." Twilight quietly said to herself before asking the pegasus, "You're that psychologist who was hired to help keep the test subjects calm, right?"
"Oh yeah." Starlight said, "Word has it that you have the ability to speak to others through their thoughts. Is that true?"
"That's right, due to several test subjects becoming aggressive as of late, I was hired in hopes of calming them and keeping them calm during your experiments." Fluttershy said.
"Now that you mention it, some test subjects have been showing increased signs of anger and aggression lately." Starlight said, "And whenever the chaos energy exits their bodies, it comes out all dark and negative, which earned the name, dark chaos energy."
"Before we get too sidetracked, I think I'll prep subject 76642." Twilight said before making her way towards the stasis pod's control panel.
After typing some commands, the force-field powered down, revealing the blue mobian hedgehog within.
"So that's subject 76642." Fluttershy said to herself, "He looks like any other mobian I've ever met."
"He looks like any other mobian, but he's usually quiet and while he does interact with the other subjects extremely well, he tends to keep to himself." Twilight said.
"Is he shy?" Fluttershy asked.
"It's more 'I'd rather be alone' type of tends to himself." Starlight said, "But he will interact with others if necessary."
"Before we get too distracted, I suppose you should tell Subject 76642 that we're about to start testing." Twilight said to Fluttershy.
"I'll try my best." Fluttershy said before turning towards Subject 76642.
Closing her eyes, Fluttershy concentrated for a moment before suddenly opening her eyes again, only her eyes were glowing white now.
Fluttershy found herself in a dark void, with nothing but darkness as far as she can see.
Although she was nervous, Fluttershy walked around for awhile, but she stopped in her tracks when she heard a voice say, "So you people have decided to raid my mind as well, huh?"
Confused, Fluttershy responded by saying, "I don't know what you're talking about, I've only come to tell you that they're about to start some tests and that you should be ready."
"How can I be so sure I could trust you?" The voice asked, "After everything you people have done to me, I know you'll say just about anything to make me put my guard down!"
Not liking the direction the conversation was going, Fluttershy cautiously said, "I can't speak for everyone else, but I assure you that I mean no harm to you. I only want to help you in any way I can."
Everything was silent for a moment until Subject 76642 appeared before Fluttershy (but was facing away from her).
"...I don't know what you're saying is true, BUT, I'll take it into consideration." Subject 76642 said coldly, "The only thing is, if you go back on your word, don't expect me to give you a second chance."
Although she was hesitant, Fluttershy said, "I promise."
"Good." Subject 76642 simply said before adding, "Now, I'd appreciate it if you can get out of my head now."
Nodding in understanding, Fluttershy closed her eyes before suddenly being enveloped in a bright light.
The glow in Fluttershy's eyes began to fade away until she blinked (her eyes turning back to normal when she did so).
"He's ready." Fluttershy said, turning towards Twilight when she said so.
"Good." Twilight said before typing a few commands on the stasis pod's control panel, "Attaching control collar now."
As Twilight said that, a robotic arm holding what appeared to be a bit of black metal entered the stasis pod before lowering towards Subject 76642's neck. Once there, the arm put the black metal against Subject 76642's neck, causing the metal to expand around his neck and allowing the robotic arm to detract.
"Control collar appears to be operational." Starlight said as she monitored Twilight's process on a nearby computer.
"Good." Twilight simply said before typing some more commands and saying, "Now to deactivate the restraints and to drain all of the water out of the stasis pod."
With that said, the metal clamps that were holding Subject 76642's arms, legs, and tail in place opened before retreating into the stasis pod itself, allowing his arms to steadily fall to his sides. After that, the water began to slowly drop as it was being pumped out of the stasis pod (with the air mask removing itself off Subject 76642's mussel and retreating into the stasis pod).
Satisfied with what she saw, Twilight said as she types in more commands, "The only thing to do now is to open the stasis pod and allow the control collar to do the rest."
After typing in the last command, the stasis pod let out a hiss as it began to open (doing so by retreating into the floor).
With the stasis pod opened completely, a beep could be heard coming from the control collar, followed by Subject 76642 suddenly opening his eyes, slowly straightening himself after doing so.
"Subject 76642, it's time for your daily experiments." Twilight said as she took out a tablet out of her lab coat, "You already know the drill, let's get to the testing area and get started."
Instead of answering, Subject 76642 let out a humf before walking off, having a distasteful frown on his face as he did so.
"Shouldn't he wait for you to lead him?" Fluttershy asked.
"No need to worry, we let out subjects go to the testing area themselves so they don't feel pressured to do so if we were to accompany them." Starlight explained.
"And there's no need to worry about him doing anything bad while he's on his way." Twilight added, "He knows exactly what would happen to him should he choose to disobey us."
"And what would that be?" Fluttershy asked.
"There's no need to concern yourself about that at the moment." Twilight replied, "For now, we should catch up with Subject 76642."
Although she didn't like the response she was given, Fluttershy nodded before following Twilight and Starlight out of the lab.
The trip to the testing area was uneventful, the only thing that was worth mentioning about the trip (to Fluttershy that is) was seeing other scientists work with their respective test subjects.
Upon reaching the doors to the training area, the trio saw Subject 76642 leaning against a nearby wall with his arms crossed, staring at them with an expression that basically said, "What took you three so long?!"
Ignoring the stare, Twilight approached a control panel that was besides the door before typing in a code, which caused the panel to let out a beep before opening the door.
Not wasting any time, Subject 76642 stood up straight before making his way through the door, prompting the trio to follow him.
Once inside, Fluttershy saw that the room was filled with cube-shaped machines that she couldn't even guess what their purpose was. Out of all of them however, the one that stood out the most was what appeared to be a giant ray gun that was in the ceiling.
"W-What is that thing?" Fluttershy asked, intimidated by the large device.
"That's the chaos infuser." Starlight responded, "It's a device that allows us to infuse chaos energy into our test subjects using chaos energy we've siphoned out of the chaos emeralds and the master emerald."
"How do you direct the chaos energy into your subjects without accidentally infusing energy into yourselves?" Fluttershy asked.
A small smirk formed on Twilight's face before the mobian unicorn proudly explained, "Well, that's when the control collars come into play. You see, originally, we used to put our subjects into a machine that's like a stasis pod, only it infused them with a large amount of chaos energy that would slowly exit their bodies as time went on, but most of our earlier subjects weren't able to control themselves with all of the energy within themselves and would go out of control. Fortunately, with the help of some of my first test subjects, I was able to create the control collar. The collar itself helps stabilize the chaos energy inside our test subjects while also posing as a magnet for chaos energy, allowing us to continue testing for as long as we want."
"Although, due to how several subjects turning chaos energy into dark chaos energy, we now retract the chaos energy out of the subjects bodies before infusing them again every fifteen minutes." Starlight added, "And should a subject produce dark chaos energy, all testing on that subject is to be put on hold until it's assured that the subject has been calmed."
While keeping what Starlight said in mind, Fluttershy asked, "If they help stabilize the chaos energy within the test subjects, why are they called control collars?"
"They also serve as restraints by allowing us to paralyze the wearer should a test subject try to attack any of the researchers." Twilight responded, "When I had the lead director look at the schematics, he said he added a few changes to improve it's performance. Although he didn't say what those changes were."
Fluttershy thought that sounded suspicious, but decided to keep quiet about it for now.
Just then, the group heard footsteps making their way towards them. Upon turning towards the source, they saw a pink mobian hedgehog who was being followed by a light yellowish-grey unicorn who wore a lab coat that was similar to the ones Twilight and Starlight wore.
The hedgehog wore a red dress, red boots that had a white stripe down the middle, white gloves, and large rings on her wrists, she also had a control collar around her neck and wore a depressed expression on her face.
"Moondancer, I see you've brought subject 269 for testing." Twilight said.
"I was planning to do so earlier, but I had few issues that I had to take care of." Moondancer said.
"What kind of issues?" Starlight asked.
"Having to filter this out of the main chaos tank." Moondancer replied as she pulled out a small glass capsule that was full of what appeared to be black colored energy.
"Dark chaos energy?!" Twilight and Starlight both said in shock.
"How did that end up in the main chaos tank?!?" Starlight asked.
Moondancer let out a irritated sigh before responding, "Apparently, Tixie didn't completely separate the dark chaos energy when she transferred the chaos energy she used back into the main tank. And because I was the closest person who had certification to operate the main tank, I had to spend the last hour filtering every bit of chaos energy just to make sure no dark chaos energy was left uncollected."
"Sheesh, talk about a workload." Starlight said.
"Don't worry, the lead director found out about this and put Trixie on dark duty for a month." Moondancer said.
Hearing this made Twilight and Starlight shiver.
"While I understand it's out of pure irony, putting Trixie on dark duty seems a little harsh." Twilight said.
"At least it beats being fired." Moondancer said, making the other two mobian unicorns nod in agreement.
As the three mobian unicorns had their conversation, Fluttershy watched as subject 269 slowly make her way to subject 76642 until she stopped right in front of him. The two mobian hedgehogs stared at each other for a moment before subject 76642 uncrossed his arms and spreaded them apart like he was offering a hug.
Almost immediately, subject 269 hugged subject 76642 and stuffed her face into his shoulder, where tears began to stream from her eyes. Deciding to comfort her, the male mobian hedgehog returned the embrace with one arm as he began to pat her on the head, almost as if he was trying to tell her that everything was going to be okay.
The two mobian hedgehogs remained like that for half a minute before they separated, with tears no longer escaping subject 269's eyes.
Subject 269 smiled at subject 76642 before giving him another hug, prompting the blue hedgehog to return the embrace before they quickly separated again.
Although it was hard to tell, Fluttershy swore she saw a small smile form on subject 76642's face during the second embrace.
"Anyway, we should get started on our experiments." Twilight said before pulling out her tablet and began typing in some commands.
Suddenly, sparks began to form on the tip of the chaos infuser before spreading throughout the whole machine.
"Commencing charging sequence." Twilight said before typing in one last command that made all the sparks build up at the chaos infuser's tip, creating a large ball of energy.
The ball of energy grew in size for a moment before suddenly shooting two beams at subject 76642 and subject 269 (which the two of them making no attempt to dodge the beams).
When the beams hit the subjects, they were surrounded by a green aura for a moment before it retreated into their bodies.
"Looks like everything went off with a hitch." Twilight said, "Now we can begin the experiments."
"I was thinking the same thing." Moondancer said before pulling out her own tablet and typed in some commands.
Once she entered the last command, the machines in the room let out a hiss before they began to expand and shift (think of it like transformers whenever that change from their vehicle forms to their robot fprms and vice versa), until some of the machines took the appearance of workout equipment.
"Workout equipment?" Fluttershy asked, clearly confused about the machines.
"The main thing we test here is how chaos energy helps inhances a mobian's physical abilities." Starlight said, "And the workout equipment is the best and easiest way to do just that."
"Of course, the equipment is much more strenuous that those found in normal gyms." Moondancer added.
"We should get started already." Twilight spoke up, "We've already spent too much time explaining things, it would be best if we didn't get off schedule too much."
Seeing that Twilight had a point, Starlight and Moondancer looked towards the two subjects and gestured them to make their way to one of machines, prompting them to do just that while Fluttershy watched.
The testing itself was fairly basic as far as Fluttershy could tell. The three mobian unicorns recorded how much they could lift, how fast they could run, how much stamina and endurance that had, etc. (Although Fluttershy was surprised that subject 76642 was able to run 15,345.4 miles per hour. She was surprised even more when she was told that he could run at half that speed when he doesn't have chaos energy infused himself)
After fifteen minutes of testing later, the two subjects stopped what they were doing and stood underneath the chaos infuser.
"Alright you two, it's been fifteen minutes, are you ready for the chaos extraction?" Starlight asked.
Subject 269 responded with a nervous nod while subject 76642 made a face that said, 'what do you think?'"
With confirmation to proceed, Twilight typed in a few commands on her tablet, causing sparks of form on the chaos infuser. But instead of building up energy, it made a trail of sparks between it and that two subjects before all of the chaos energy within them was extracted out of them and absorbed into the machine.
"Looks like they didn't produce any dark chaos energy." Twilight said, "That means we can reinfuse them gain."
With that said, Twilight typed in a few commands on her tablet, only for read text to appear on the screen that said, "Warning! Chaos Extraction is still in progress. Do you wish to proceed?
Confused by this, Twilight typed in "yes," which made energy form on the tip of the chaos infuser.
However, before the chaos infuser was done charging, Moondancer let out a yelp when she felt something jump in her lab-coat before hearing the sound of glass shattering.
Looking towards the source, Moondancer was horrified when she saw that the glass capsule of dark chaos energy was what made the noise, especially when she saw that dark chaos energy get sucked into the chaos infuser.
Acting quickly, Moondancer typed in a command to prevent the subjects from behind infused with the now corrupted batch of chaos energy, but found that she was only able to prevent subject 269 from being affected.
"Twilight!" Moondancer exclaimed, making the mare in question jump in surprise, "The chaos infuser absorbed the dark chaos energy I had! Turn it off now!!!"
Upon hearing that, Twilight tried to stop the chaos infuser as fast as she could but was too late as the machine shot a beam of dark chaos energy at subject 76642.
When the beam made contact, subject 76642 began to scream in pain before he began to trash around, destroying some machines in the process.
As Twilight tried to make the chaos infuser stop, Fluttershy tried to link her mind with subject 76642, attempting to help calm him down.
When the connection was made however, all Fluttershy heard was subject 76642 scream, 'IT HURTS! MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP !!!'
After a few more moments, Twilight managed to turn the chaos infuser off, making the beam disappear.
However, the damage was already done as dark chaos energy sparked around subject 76642's body, making his quills sharper while making quills form on his wrists, ankles, shoulders, upper legs, and the ends of his muzzle.
Acting quickly, Twilight set the chaos infuser to extraction mode and extracted the dark chaos energy out of subject 76642.
Once all the dark energy was out of his body, subject 76642's body collapsed onto the floor, prompting subject 269 to run by his side with much concern on her face.
"What are his vitals?" Starlight asked Twilight.
Twilight took a glance at her tablet before saying, "He's alive. While is heart rate is high, it isn't life threatening."
Just then, several mobians in hazard suits came into the room with a stretcher.
"A large amount of dark chaos energy was detected here, which subject produced it." asked one of the suited mobians.
"He didn't produce it, but subject 76642 was accidentally infused with dark chaos energy," Moondancer said before adding, "but we already extracted it out of him."
"That's all we needed to hear." The suited mobian said before subject 76642 was placed on the stretcher and carried out of the room, "We'll check if the infusion had any negative side effects. You will be informed once they are done."
With that said, the suited mobian made his way out of the room, leaving Fluttershy, subject 269, and the three mobian unicorns in the room.
"So...What do we do now?" Starlight asked.
"Obviously we'll have to postpone testing until subject 76642 is declared okay." Twilight said as she began to make her way out of the room, "Let's just hope it doesn't take too long."
Deciding to follow Twilight's example, the other four mobians followed her out of the room, unsure as to what they should do next.
That night, we find Twilight, Starlight, and Fluttershy in Twilight's lab as they watched subject 76642 While he was in his stasis pod (aside from all the quills, he was declared okay and was placed back in Twilight's lab).
"Poor subject 76642, that experience was absolutely terrible." Fluttershy said.
"I'll say." Starlight said, "That was the first time he came into contact with dark chaos energy. And considering that it was infused into him, he's lucky that it didn't negatively effect him in any way. By the way, have you tried talking with him yet?"
"I have, but he doesn't respond." Fluttershy said, "No matter how much I call out, he won't say anything."
"I'm not an expert on the subject, but maybe he needs to rest mentally before you try talking to him again." Twilight said, "Anyway, I don't know about the two of you, but I think I've had excitement for today. I'm going to call it day and go home."
While they were concerned about subject 76642, they couldn't help but agree with Twilight, which led to the trio making their way out of the lab.
As they left, Twilight thought about how the dark chaos energy altered subject 76642's body and was intrigued about it.
'It certainly is interesting.' Twilight thought to herself, 'I think I'll look into it tomorrow.'
The next morning, we find Twilight and Fluttershy in Twilight's lab, with the former deactivating the force-field around subject 76642's stasis pod while the latter watched.
"Are you sure it's okay for me to do this?" Fluttershy asked.
"If I didn't, I wouldn't of asked you to do so." Twilight replied, "Look, considering what happened yesterday, subject 76642's might have been crippled by the dark chaos energy infusion and he would be deemed useless as a test subject if that were the case. That's why I need you enter his mind and see if he's mentally stable or not."
"I'll try my best." Fluttershy said before asking, "How long do you want me to do this?"
"For as long as you think is necessary." Twilight responded, "Anyway, I'm going to run some scans on subject 76642. While the medical team deemed him completely normal, I'm going stay on the safe side do an analysis on him myself, just to make sure that there wasn't anything they may have missed."
"If you say so." Fluttershy said before pulling a nearby chair in front of the stasis pod and sat on it, "And if you don't mind me asking, what's subject 76642's real name."
"That's something I don't know myself." Twilight said as she began running scans on a nearby computer, "In fact, nobody, not even the lead director, knows the names of all the subjects. And considering all the things they go through, it's better that we didn't, just so we don't end up connecting with them on a personal level."
While not liking the answer, Fluttershy felt that Twilight kinda had a point, despite how it goes against her own morals.
Shaking those thoughts away, Fluttershy closed her eyes and began concentrating. After a moment of this, she opened her eyes again, only for them to be glowing white.
Once again finding herself in a dark void, Fluttershy wasted no time and began wondering around, hoping that she could find subject 76642.
As she was about to call out, Fluttershy heard a voice say, "I see that you came back. Where you asked to come here, or did you come here on your own terms?"
Deciding to not lie, Fluttershy replied, "While I was asked to come here, I was planning to do so anyway, considering what happened to you yesterday, that is."
"I see that you've given me an honest answer, can't remember the last time I've had one of those." Subject 76642 said.
"What do you mean by that?" Fluttershy asked.
"That's not important." Subject 76642 said before bluntly adding, "Now that you know I'm fine, you could leave."
"Actually, I was hoping that we could talk to each other for a while." Fluttershy said, "And that you could answer some questions for me."
Subject 76642 remained silent for a moment before saying, "Fine," and appearing in front of Fluttershy (but was facing away from her and had his arms crossed, along with his appearance matching how it looked outside his mind), "What do you want to talk to me about?"
Smiling at subject 76642's cooperation, Fluttershy replied, "Well for starters, I would like to know your name."
"You already know it." Subject 76642 said bluntly, "The researchers you were with yesterday told you my name."
"I meant your real name." Fluttershy clarified.
Upon hearing that, subject 76642 tensed up for a moment before replying, "Sorry, but that's something I plan on keeping to myself."
"But it would make addressing you much easier." Fluttershy insisted.
"Just drop it." Subject 76642 said, a mixture of anger and annoyance in his voice.
"But-" Fluttershy tried to say.
"I SAID DROP IT!!!" Subject 76642 yelled angrily, causing the black void to shake at the power of his voice.
Feeling that she may have pushed a little too far, Fluttershy in a slightly upset tone, "I'm sorry."
"No, I should be the one apologizing." Subject 76642 said before hesitating for a moment, "So much has been taken away from me already, I simply want to have something that I could keep to myself that I could use as a beacon of hope that'll help me believe that my life could change for the better one day."
While understanding it might be a sensitive topic, Fluttershy hesitantly asked, "What do you mean? You did volunteer to undergo all the chaos infusions, didn't you?"
Instead of answering the questions, subject 76642 replied with a question of his own, "How long have you worked in H.A.R.M.O.N.Y?"
While confused about the question, Fluttershy replied, "This is my second day."
After hearing Fluttershy's response, subject 76642 let out a humf before saying, "That means you don't know."
"Don't know what, exactly?" Fluttershy asked.
"It's better if I didn't tell you, for your sake." Subject 76642 said before changing the topic,"Now, is there anything else you wanted to talk to me about?"
Although she had questions about what he meant, Fluttershy calmly replied, "Of course."
Meanwhile in Twilight's lab, said mare was looking over the scans of subject 76642's body when she heard footsteps approaching her.
Turning towards the source, Twilight saw that it was Starlight.
"Starlight, what brings you here?" Twilight asked.
"I just arrived and as I was making my towards my lab, I figured that I would check up on you and subject 76642." Starlight responded, "Speaking of which, how is he anyway?"
Motioning towards her computer, Twilight replied, "I took some scans on subject 76642's body and found what the medical team said was accurate, the only thing that changed about him was the fact that his quills became sharper and that he grew more quills on his body. While that itself isn't too interesting, I find what happened yesterday as the complete opposite."
"What do you mean?" Starlight asked.
"Remember when subject 76642 was trashing around while he was being infused with dark chaos energy?" Twilight asked, earning a nod from Starlight, "Well, one thing that caught my attention was that he was able to destroy some of the machines in the testing room, and you know fully well that those machines were made to withstand our strongest subjects when they are infused with chaos energy."
"Now that I think about it, that is fascinating." Starlight said, "But what exactly are you trying to say?"
"What I'm saying is that dark chaos energy gave him a stronger boost in strength that normal chaos energy." Twilight responded, "We always thought that dark chaos energy was just as powerful as normal chaos energy, but it would seem that we were wrong."
"Even so, considering that dark chaos energy is made when subjects become aggressive after being infused with chaos energy, it's safe to say that everyone would cautious about that stuff." Starlight said before nothing that Twilight appeared to be deep in her own thought, "I know that look, what are you planning now?"
"First, I what to know if you can help me with something." Twilight said
"Well, sure." Starlight said, "What is it you need help with?"
"All I'll say is that I need to call the lead director and ask if he could have a few things arranged for me." Twilight replied, having a confident smirk on her face, "We're about to do something that no scientist in H.A.R.M.O.N.Y has ever done before."
Back inside subject 76642's mind, the subject in question and Fluttershy continued their conversation.
While did exchange information about themselves to each other, Fluttershy was doing most of the talking since subject 76642 would refuse to answer some of her questions.
Deciding to take a different approach, Fluttershy began to see what subject 76642 likes.
"What's your favorite food?" Fluttershy asked.
"Chilldogs." Subject 76642 answered simply.
"Favorite hobby?"
"Running."
"Favorite instrument?"
"Guitar."
"Favorite outdoor location?"
Upon hearing that, subject 76642 tensed a little, having been taken completely off guard by the question.
"I'm sorry if that's a sensitive topic." Fluttershy apologized, noticing subject 76642's discomfort.
"No, it's fine." Subject 76642's insisted, "It's just... it's been a very long time since I last been outside."
"Too nervous to go outside?" Fluttershy asked.
"No, that's not it." Subject 76642 responded.
"Then why haven't you gone outside?" Fluttershy asked, becoming concerned.
"It's best if I don't tell you." Subject 76642's said.
"Well, when was the last time you've been outside?" Fluttershy asked.
"Years." Subject 76642 replied, with a small bit of sadness (so little it's hard to notice) in his voice.
"I see." Fluttershy said, not sure what to say after that.
Noticing Fluttershy's discomfort, subject 76642 hesitantly said, "My favorite outside location is a place called green hill zone."
"I've never heard of that place." Fluttershy said, "Can you tell me where it is and what it's like?"
Subject 76642 took what sounded like a sigh of nostalgia before saying, "Green hill zone is located on south island, as for what it's like, paradise is the only thing that comes to my mind. Lots of large, green fields with plenty of space to run in, beautiful blue lakes, large waterfall vistas, palm trees, flora in various colors, and the list goes on." Subject 76642 then let out a depressed sigh before murmuring to himself, "If only I could go there again."
"What was that?" Fluttershy asked, hearing the mumer, but wasn't able to understand what he said.
"It's nothing." Subject 76642 said before asking, "If there anything else you would like to know?"
Fluttershy thought about it for a moment before replying, "No, I think I that's it."
"I suppose you'll be leaving now?" Subject 76642 asked."
"Of course." Fluttershy responded.
Subject 76642 remained silent for a moment before saying, "I suppose I'll be seeing you once it's time for my testing."
Fluttershy nodded before replying, "Yes, I'll see you then."
With that said, Fluttershy closed her eyes and began concentrating.
Before she could leave however, subject 76642 suddenly said, "Wait."
Opening her eyes, Fluttershy asked, "What is it?"
Staying silent for a moment (almost as I he was reconsidering something), Subject 76642 finally said, "It's Sonic."
"What?" Fluttershy asked, confused by subject 76642's words.
"You asked what my name was, and my name is Sonic, Sonic the hedgehog." Subject 76642 clarified.
Upon hearing this, Fluttershy smiled before saying, "It's nice to meet you, Sonic."
Sonic turned towards Fluttershy (revealing a small smile on his face as he did so), before saying, "I trust that you'll keep all the information I told you to yourself."
Fluttershy nodded before replying, "I will."
"Good to hear." Sonic said before adding, "It would be best if you leave now, wouldn't want to keep Twilight waiting."
Fluttershy nodded in understanding before closing her eyes and began to concentrate. A moment later, she began to glow white before the glow illuminated the dark void.
The glowing in Fluttershy's eyes began to fade away before she blinked (her eyes becoming normal once they opened again).
"How did it go?" a voice asked.
Turning towards the source, Fluttershy saw Twilight and Starlight next to her.
"It went along great." Fluttershy responded as she stood up from the chair she was sitting on, "How long have I been out?"
"For about an hour now." Twilight replied before a serious expression formed on Twilight's face, "Now, how's subject 76642's mental state?"
"It's completely normal." Fluttershy said, "I only recommend waiting until tomorrow for any testing you want to do on him, just to be safe."
"Speaking of testing, I already have something in mind." Twilight said, "I only need to wait for the lead director to tell me when he'll have what I requested ready."
"You still haven't told me what we're going to do." Starlight said, "I can't exactly help you do something that no other scientist had ever done in H.A.R.M.O.N.Y if I don't know what that something is."
Before Twilight could respond, a phone on Twilight's desk began to ring, prompting the mare to go and answer it."
"Hello?" Twilight asked once she picked the phone up, "...Doctor! I didn't expect you to call so soon! ...Yes. ...By tomorrow? ...That's perfect! Thank you sir! I'll try not to disappoint!"
With that, Twilight put the phone done, ending the call.
"Who was that?" Fluttershy asked.
"It was the lead director." Twilight responded, "While you were inside subject 76642's mind, I spoke with him and asked if he could have some things arranged for me, and he just called and said that they'll be ready by tomorrow."
"While that's great to hear, can you know explain what exactly you want to do?" Starlight asked, clearly tired of waiting for a response.
"I'll tell you tomorrow." Twilight said as she began to make her way out of her lab.
"Wait a minute!" Starlight exclaimed, "Why do I have to wait until tomorrow?!"
Upon hearing that, Twilight turned around with a smirk on her face before replying with confidence in her voice, "Let's just say that this experiment could lead to the biggest breakthrough H.A.R.M.O.N.Y has ever seen."
With that said, Twilight exited the lab, prompting Starlight and Fluttershy to exit as well.
'I've got a bad feeling about this.' Starlight thought to herself as she and Fluttershy exited the room.
'Hopefully subject 76- I mean Sonic isn't harmed by whatever experiment Twilight has planned for him.' Fluttershy thought to herself, clearly concerned about the mobian hedgehog's wellbeing.
The next day, we find Twilight, Starlight, Fluttershy, and Sonic (who now wore "bulkier" gloves and sleeker shoes that had outsoles that were made of metal) inside a large lab that had more advanced equipment than those found in Twilight's and Starlight's labs.
"Twilight, you always seem to amaze me when it comes to getting anything you need." Starlight commented.
"Well, aside from the lead director himself, I am the top scientist here in H.A.R.M.O.N.Y, so it makes sense that I usually get what I want." Twilight said, almost as if she was boasting.
"So everything we need is in this lab?" Starlight asked.
"Almost everything." Twilight corrected, "A few more things are being brought here as we speak. While we wait for them, we might as well get subject 76642 ready."
With that said, Twilight pulled out her tablet and typed in a few commands, causing a nearby stasis pod to open.
"Alright Subject 76642, step inside the stasis pod and prepare for stasis." Twilight said.
Without saying a word, Sonic made his way inside the stasis pod before lifting his arms above his head and separating his his legs. Once in position, titanium clamps closed around his hands and feet, holding him in place.
With Sonic in strapped inside, the stasis pod closed, releasing a gas that made him fall asleep before an air mask was clamped onto his muzzle, followed shortly by water that began to fill the stasis pod.
Pulling out her own tablet, Starlight checked Sonic's vitals and smiled at what she saw.
"Everything went off without a hitch." Starlight said.
"Good, now all that's left is the things I asked for." Twilight said.
As if on cue, Moondancer entered the lab while carrying a large box in her arms.
"Good, there's one of them." Twilight said when she saw this.
"I have no idea what you're planning to do with these things, but you better be careful." Moondancer said as she placed the box on a table next to the stasis pod before exiting the lab.
Smiling, Twilight approached the box and opened it, revealing seven colorful gems within.
"The chaos emeralds?" Starlight asked, a hint of surprise present in her voice, "What do you plan to do with them."
"You'll see." Twilight said, "Now all we need to wait for now is-"
Before Twilight could finish, a blue mobian unicorn entered the lab while pushing a cart that had a tarp over it.
"Trixie does not know what you could possibly want with something so vile, but you're the one using it, not Trixie." The mobian unicorn said before leaving the cart next to the stasis pod and exited the lab.
Curious about what Trixie meant, Starlight made her way to the cart before removing the tarp, revealing several canisters that were labeled D.C.E.
"Dark chaos energy!" Starlight exclaimed in shock (along with a hint of anger in her voice), "Twilight, are you out of your mind! How could you even consider using this stuff after what happened two days ago?!"
"Come on Starlight, we didn't have any control over what happened at the time." Twilight argued, "Besides, now that we're aware of what's happening, we could monitor the amount of dark chaos energy within subject 76642's body and find out what amount is too much for him to handle."
"That doesn't change the fact that this is a bad idea." Starlight argued back, "Due to our lack of understanding of that stuff, there could be a lot of things that could make the entire process go south."
"Come on Starlight, you're overreacting." Twilight said, "As long as we monitor everything very closely, the experiment should go smoothly. Besides, what could go wrong?"
'Famous last words.' Starlight thought to herself about Twilight's last comment, before hesitantly saying, "...Fine, let's get this over with. But expect an "I told you so" if something does end up going wrong."
"Whatever." Twilight said as she rolled her eyes, "Let's just get everything set up."
A couple minutes later, the chaos emeralds and one canister of the dark chaos energy was connected to the stasis pod Sonic was in while Twilight, Starlight, and Fluttershy where at a nearby computer.
"Do you mind running me by the whole process again?" Starlight asked Twilight, "I want to be a hundred percent certain as to what's happening."
Twilight let out an irritated sigh before saying, "Okay to explain how the process goes, AGAIN , the dark chaos energy will be siphoned out of it's canister and poured into the chaos emeralds, making them produce even more dark chaos energy and allowing us to save the rest of the canisters for later experiments. With the chaos emeralds acting as an endless supply of dark chaos energy, we will use the stasis pod's built-in chaos infuser to infuse the dark chaos energy into subject 76642's body similar to how we would in normal tests, except we'll put half of what we normally would inject. After that, we could begin testing to see how much more powerful he is when infused with dark chaos energy compared to normal chaos energy. And once that's done, we can start infusing dark chaos energy into other subjects and further advance our research here in H.A.R.M.O.N.Y."
"...I think you're planning too ahead there, Twilight." Starlight said, "Even if this experiment turns out to be a success, it'll be a long time before any of that could happen."
"Then it would be best to start now so we could make it happen sooner." Twilight said before turning to Fluttershy, "Okay Fluttershy, tell subject 76642 that testing is about to begin."
Nodding, Fluttershy closed her eyes and began to concentrate.
However, before Fluttershy could enter Sonic's mind, Twilight suddenly said, "Oh, before you create the link, know this, you mustn't tell subject 76642 that we're going to infuse him with dark chaos energy."
Taken off guard by this, Fluttershy turned towards Twilight with a confused expression before asking, "Why shouldn't I? It would allow him to be prepared for the pain he may have to endure."
"If he knew that we were going to infuse him with dark chaos energy, he could become panicked, making him more prone to negative effects." Twilight explained, "For his sake and our own, it's best that he doesn't know about this."
Although she didn't want to, Fluttershy nodded before closing her eyes and linking her mind with Sonic's.
Yet again finding herself in a dark void, Fluttershy was about to wonder around when she heard a voice say, "Let me guess, testing is about to begin?"
Although she was a bit caught off guard by the statement, Fluttershy nodded before responding, "That's right. Are you ready?"
"As ready as I'll ever be." Sonic replied as he appeared in front of Fluttershy, "Is there anything I should keep in mind during the experiment?"
Fluttershy hesitated for a moment before finally replying, "...No, nothing at all."
"If you say so." Sonic said, "Well, it's best if we get this over with."
Nodding, Fluttershy closed her eyes and began to concentrate.
However, Fluttershy stopped before the link was broken and exclaimed, "Wait!"
Surprised by the sudden outburst, Sonic said, "What is it?"
Fluttershy hesitated again (she was deciding whether to go through with this after all) before finally saying, "...They're planning to infuse dark chaos energy into you as the experiment."
Hearing this caught Sonic's attention.
"I know that I was told to not tell you this, but you have the right to know and I shouldn't take that away!" Fluttershy exclaimed before lowering her head in shame, expecting Sonic to yell at her for lying.
What Fluttershy didn't expect was to hear Sonic chuckle.
"Looks like it really was a good idea to trust you." Sonic said.
"Y-You're not mad?" Fluttershy asked, confused by the hedgehog's response.
"Of course not." Sonic replied, "Seeing how you were willing to risk getting in trouble for my sake is enough to show me that you actually care about us subjects, unlike everyone else that works here."
"Unlike everyone else?" Fluttershy asked. While she did (in a way) understand why he would say that for Twilight, she could speak for all the other researchers since she hadn't the chance to get to know them yet.
"That isn't important right now." Sonic said, "For now, you should go tell them that I'm ready. Wouldn't want to keep them waiting."
Although still confused about Sonic's earlier statement, Fluttershy concentrated before suddenly being engulfed in a bright light.
After regaining her senses, Fluttershy turned towards Twilight and said, "He's ready."
"Perfect, now we can begin." Twilight said
With that said, Twilight typed in some commands in the computer.
Soon after, dark chaos energy began to make it's way towards the chaos emeralds through a series of tubes before making contact with the gems. The gems themselves took a slightly darker hue as they began to pulse with dark energy.
Simply seeing dark infused gems made Fluttershy shudder. Although she wasn't entirely sure why, she got an incredibly bad vibe from the dark gems and had to resist the urge to get as far away from them as she could.
"Step one is now done, and without no issues whatsoever." Twilight said, "Now to step two."
After more commands were typed in, dark energy was extracted from the chaos emeralds before going into a series of tubes that led into the chaos infuser.
Once there was enough of the dark energy inside the chaos infuser, the machine sparked with dark energy as a sphere of dark energy formed at it's tip.
When the chaos infuser had enough energy, it fired a small beam (about as wide as a pencil) at Sonic, making a dark aura form around his body.
"Chaos reading are steadily rising." Twilight said as she observed Sonic's vitals, "A bit erratic at times, but steady."
This continued for five seconds before Twilight typed in the stop command, halting the entire process.
"Why'd you stop it so soon?" Starlight asked.
"According to the reading, subject 76642 already has reached half of what we would normally infuse with normal chaos energy, in terms of pure power that is." Twilight responded.
"What?!" Starlight excaimed in shock, "Compared to normal chaos energy, we hardly put that much dark chaos energy into him!"
"Just goes to show how much more potent dark chaos energy is compared to it's uncorrupted counterpart." Twilight said before taking a look at Sonic.
The dark aura that surrounded the mobian hedgehog lingered for a moment before retreating into his body, revealing that his entire body was now a shade darker than it normally would be.
"Should his body be like that?" Fluttershy asked in concern.
Twilight took a look at the computer before replying, "His vitals are completely normal. It's probably just a side affect from the dark chaos energy. That aside, it's time for testing."
Turning back to the computer, Twilight typed in some commands before turning towards the stasis pod.
The pod itself opened it's clamps that held Sonic's arms and legs in place before draining the water. (The air mask detaching itself once his head was out of the water)
Once all the water was drained, the stasis pod opened, followed by Sonic opening his eyes (revealing that they were now darker in color like the rest of his body) before he stood up strait.
Not a moment later several parts of the floor behind the pod opened, revealing some of the fitness equipment that would normally be used in testing raise up until it was leveled with the ground.
"Now for the real testing to begin." Twilight said, "First up, we'll test strength."
Without saying a word, Sonic walked up to a machine that had what appeared to be a large red button with a screen above it the read "0000." Sonic simply raised a fist, reared it back, and struck button as hard as he could.
Completely smashing the machine with enough force it was nearly uprooted from the floor.
Seeing this shocked Twilight and Starlight. Never once did something like this happen before. Not even subject 58625537, who's known to be their stongest subject in terms of pure strength, couldn't damage the machine.
"T-That's not possible!" Starlight exclaimed, "The strength measurement device was specifically built to resist all forms of blunt damage!"
After regaining her composure, Twilight cleared her throat before saying, "Well then, that just means we'll need to further reinforce it so that it could be used in future testing. Now then, it's time to measure Subject 76642's speed."
Exactly one second after Twilight said that, Sonic somewhat rushed towards the treadmill and got on it, getting himself in a running position as he waited for the device to start.
Fluttershy was initially confused by this action at first, but quickly remembered that Sonic mentioned that he enjoyed running a lot.
Rolling her eyes at Sonic, Twilight turned towards the computer before activating the treadmill.
Rather than starting off slow like a normal treadmill, the machine instantly began at a thousand miles per hour, a speed Sonic was easily able to keep pace with.
Sonic then began to build up his speed, making the speed meter raise rapidly by doing so.
Seemingly uninterested, Twilight began to stare out into space when she suddenly heard beeping. Turning towards the computer, she was shocked to see that Sonic's speed had already reached well beyond what most mobians could comprehend. Taking a good look at the numbers, she was absolutely shocked to see that he was moving beyond light speed, and that the speed was still raising.
"Subject 76642, stop!" Twilight exclaimed, "You're overloading the speed meter!"
Despite not wanting to just yet, Sonic jumped off the treadmill, allowing the machine to try and stop itself.
However, the speed was too much that the machine could handle and it ended up exploding due to both overwork and overheat, yet again leaving the the researches in awe.
Everyone remained quiet for a moment until Starlight said weakly, "...Looks like we know what else needs reinforcement for future testing."
After some more testing along with more equipment being completely destroyed, we find Sonic inside the stasis pod, fastened inside and in stasis.
"I have to say Twilight, you've proven me wrong." Starlight said, "Despite the fact that Subject 76642 wrecked practically all of the equipment we got for him, he didn't go on a rampage like he did a few days ago."
"It's like I said Starlight, by monitoring how much dark chaos energy is used, we could prevent such outbursts from occurring." Twilight said.
"I'll say." Starlight said, "Maybe dark chaos energy could advance our research if all of our tests are like this."
Hearing this made Twilight somewhat prideful, but it made Fluttershy thoughtful.
'While I'm happy things are currently well, it shouldn't be this well.' Fluttershy thought to herself, 'Considering how bad of a reaction Sonic had when he was first exposed to dark chaos energy, there's no way he should be this calm and collected in such short time. While I hope I'm wrong, another outburst should happen again at some point.'
"Now then," Twilight said as she turned towards the computer, "Time to take the dark energy out of him and save it for later use."
Once the commands were typed in, the chaos infuser came to life again, only now it was set to extraction mode.
However, after running for a moment, the mobian ponies saw that absolutely no energy came out.
"That, doesn't seem good." Starlight commented.
"Perhaps the suction isn't strong enough." Twilight said before typing in a command, only to find the result to be unchanged, "What the?!"
"That shouldn't be possible!" Starlight said, "The energy should of been extracted by now, just like it was before! What could of changed?"
As she analyzed the situation, Twilight thought back to when they initially removed the dark chaos energy two days ago.
Believing she found an answer, Twilight said, "I think I've got it. It's risky, but it should work."
"Just from hearing that, I'm afraid to ask what you've got planned." Starlight said.
Ignoring what Starlight's words, Twilight said, "We're going to put more dark chaos energy into him before immediately putting the chaos infuser back to extraction mode. With there being a somewhat continuous stream of dark energy acting as a connection, the chaos infuser should be able to use it to pull out the dark energy out of subject 76642, similar to how it was done two days ago."
"...While I would argue that plan is incredibly risky, I can't think of any alternatives that would be less risky." Starlight admitted in a somewhat defeated tone.
"Should I attempt to communicate with subject 76642 and attempt to keep him calm throughout the process?" Fluttershy asked.
"It's probably best you didn't." Twilight replied, "If there's even a small possibility the dark chaos energy could be transfered through your mental link, it's risk we cannot take."
'That's what's she isn't willing to risk?!' Starlight mentally exclaimed, 'While Fluttershy is turning out to be very valuable to our research, It's ridiculous how Twilight is willing to put our most important subject at risk but isn't willing to risk something with incredibly low odds!'
With there being nothing else to say, Twilight activated the chaos infuser.
After taking a moment to power up, the machine began to pump more dark energy into Sonic. Thankfully, there didn't appear to be any negative effects upon doing so.
Seeing that there wasn't any issues, Twilight set the chaos infuser into extraction mode.
Within milliseconds, the dark energy's flow went from going into Sonic to exiting him.
Almost as soon as the extraction began, a warning popped up on the computer, saying that Sonic's heart rate was rising. This was accompanied with Sonic occasionally twitching, seemingly in pain.
Noticing this, Fluttershy asked, "Should we be worried about this?"
"I don't believe so." Twilight responded, "This usually happens to new subjects that aren't used to the extraction process. With dark chaos energy being so different from normal chaos energy, it may take Subject 76642 a few tests before his body could-"
Before Twilight could, the computer began to loud bleeps.
Instantly turning towards the computer, Twilight was horrified to see that Sonic's heart rate had reached dangerous levels. Things got worse when she saw that the dark chaos energy was somehow fighting the chaos infusers' pull and forcing it's way back into Sonic.
"Th-That's not possible!" Twilight exclaimed.
Noticing the readings, Starlight yelled, "Twilight, turn it off now!"
"We can't!" Twilight yelled back, "If we do that, we'll end up having a repeat of what happened last time! While it'll cause him some pain, we need to remove the dark chaos energy from Subject 76642's body by any means necessary!"
Also though she didn't like it, Starlight knew that Twilight was right.
"...If that's the case, then do what you need to do." Starlight hesitantly said.
Without saying anything else, Twilight set the chaos infuser to it's highest extraction level.
It was at this point that Sonic began writhing and screaming in pain, (although his screams were muffled by both his air mask and the water that surrounded his body) as the dark chaos energy was forcibly pulled from his body with great force, causing dark sparks to surge around him and the machine.
Clenching his eyes and teeth, Sonic could only think about how painful this entire experiencing is, and how he wanted it to be over already.
However, this led to him think back all his previous experiments he was forced to endure and how many of them caused him a great deal of pain as well.
The more he thought about it, the angrier he became, and this continued until only one thing was on his mind.
'I'M GONNA BURN H.A.R.M.O.N.Y. TO THE GROUND!!!'' Sonic yelled mentally.
Almost as if in response to his thoughts, Sonic's entire body began to turn jet black as he suddenly stopped his struggling.
Sonic the let out a roar as he effortlessly broke the clamps that held him in place, startling the three scientists.
Once free, Sonic let out another roar, this time causing a dark aura to extend out of his body with enough force to destroy both his stasis pod and the chaos infuser, along with vaporizing his air mask and his control collar.
Absolutely terrified, the three scientists huddled together as they watched Sonic straighten his body.
Without saying a word, Sonic turned his head towards the scientists before opening his eyes, revealing that they were completely white.
Author's Note
Wow, I've been slacking for quite some time now. That aside, I'm happy that I at least released an update. Feel free to give some feedback, I would greatly appreciate it.