Subterranean Freedom

Chapter 7

The Truth

(Canterlot Corplab 10F)

It’s been two hours since the trio made their way into the Canterlot Corplab. Compared to Ranger HQ and other sectors of the underground Equestria, The Canterlot Corp was the second cleanest place in the underground. Regent HQ was at the top of the list of clean sterilized places to live in...but also the hardest place to live in given the requirements to become a Regent. As Sunset and Adagio were resting against the wall of the floor they were on, the door that led to the next room opened as Aria walked out.

“You find anything?” Sunset asked as she noticed an uncomfortable expression on the siren’s face. “Something wrong?”

“Huh? Oh, it’s um...nothing.” She said before clearing her throat. “Found the colt in charge of this place. His room is at the end of the hallway. What luck huh?”

“You think we’ll find out what we need to know from the pony in charge?”

“We should...at least I hope we do.” Aria said as she motions for them to follow her. “Come on. We don’t want to stay here for too long. Less we have to fight more Rangers or who knows what.” Sunset and Adagio nodded as they both stood up and began to follow Aria down the hallway.

“You seem a bit...saken. Is something the matter Aria?” Sunset asked as Aria simply said nothing as she was lost in her own thoughts. “Hey, Aria. You okay?” she asked only for silence to be her only reply. It was when Adagio placed a hand on her sister’s shoulder that she was snapped out of her own thoughts and looked over at Sunset and Adagio.

“What? Something you want to talk about Adagio?” Aria asked as Adagio shook her head and pointed at Sunset.

“Are you okay? You seem...off. Like you’ve seen something that you weren’t supposed to look at?” Sunset said as Aria let out a sigh of annoyance.

“I...May have accidentally walked into the lab where the guy works...let’s just from what I saw in there...it’s something I wasn’t expecting the rangers to do.”

“What do you mean by that? What did you see?”

“....Body parts.” Aria answered as Sunset stared at her in confusion. “And I don’t mean just arms and legs from ponies. It’s like a bucking museum of different animals.”

“...What are you saying?” Sunset asked as she tried to put the pieces together in her head.

“It’s...best for you all to see for yourselves.” Aria said as she turned her attention forwards and continued to lead them to the lab. Sunset and Adagio looked at each other for a moment before continuing to follow after the siren to the lab. The trio soon stopped in front of a large red door as Aria turned her attention towards the unicorn and older siren.

“Let me be clear. What you’re about to see will not be that pleasant...I am so sorry for what you’re about to see.” She said before taking a step forward as the door opens. Aria entered the dark room after motioning for Adagio and Sunset to enter. Once they entered into the room and their eyes adjusted to the dim light in the room, they were taken by surprise by what was inside the room. Body parts of different ponies that are being preserved in a strange liquid substance in a jar, ranging from organ, feets, hands, arms, torsos, eyeballs, brains, the list goes on.

Sunset’s face turned green upon seeing the content of the room, while Adagio simply stared in uncertainty for a while before seeing a small room with a blood covered medical bed in it. This caused the older siren to shiver in fear as she slowly backed away from the window that was showing the room.

“Mother of Celestia…” Sunset said as she was about to walk up to one of the jared limbs, only to stop upon hearing the door off to the side open. The group turned their attention towards their right to see a blue unicorn colt entering the room with a somewhat shocked expression on his face.

“Can I help you?” he asked as he walked over to Sunset and was about to say something to her, only to notice Adagio as he turned his focus to her. “The experimental genic! Didn’t we ship that out already? Was there a malfunction?”

“Genic…Shipped?” Sunset asked as the colt walked over to Adagio who was shivering in fear upon seeing the stallion walking towards her. Once close, his eyes widen upon seeing Adagio’s wings colored black and purple instead of their usual vermillion red color.

“Oh! No, no! The ventilator’s filthy!” He said before turning his attention onto Sunset while adjusting his glasses. “You’ve got to take better care of these.”

“What are you talking about?”

“What am I talking about? You have to understand.” The stallion stretched a hand onto Adagio’s head as it somewhat caused her to settle down a bit, but not a lot. “I spent a lot of time making this one. I cloned lung cells, grew the filter organs. This is a top of the line anti pollutant model.” He said with a confident smile on his face. “My best work so far, I might add. Entirely designed to suit your needs. Was there a problem?” Sunset stared at the stallion for a good few seconds as she felt unbridled rage building up inside her.

“What?” She said as a flaming red aura developed around her body as her calm demeanor was slowly breaking.

“But I must tell you.” The stallion said as he turned his attention onto Adagio. “The lungs are at a terminal stage. We can’t replace them either-” Before the stallion could finish, he was sent falling backwards onto the floor by Sunset punching him in the face.

“What are you talking about!? Adagio isn’t a thing you can treat like she’s an animal! Adagio is a pony like you and me!”

“Siren to be accurate.” Aria said which caused her to flinch back from seeing Sunset glaring at her. “Just correcting you on that. Not agreeing what this asshole did to my sister.” She said as Sunset turned her attention back onto the stallion.

“What the hell have you done to her!?” The Ranger asked as the scientist simply said nothing but stared at Sunset due to the aura around her body. Sunset gritted her teeth as she walked to the stallion with her katana unsheathed and pointed at the scientist’s throat. “Answer me!” As she did this, Aria decided to chime in on the conversation as she walked over to the scientist to ask him something.

“Care to explain what’s going to happen to Adagio?”

“T-The prototype wasn’t designed for durability. It’s only a matter of time before the filters fail.”

“What if I took her someplace where the air is clean?” Sunset asked as she stallion scoffed at her question.

“Good luck trying to find a place with clean air in this place. The air gets worse and worse everyday. If it stays any longer in this environment, she’s a goner I’m afraid.” He said as he flinched back from seeing her sword getting closer to him.

“You...you ponies are sick! How the hell can you do something like this!?” Sunset yelled as the aura around her body flared up even more and caused the room to shake from the force building up within the ranger’s body. The sword in her hand began to shake due to how visibly angry Sunset was getting and was about to thrust it into the stallion’s throat, but was soon stopped due to feeling Adagio latching onto her as a means to stop her from doing something she might regret doing. The aura that was around Sunset vanished as she turned her attention onto Adagio who was looking at her with a melancholy expression on her face.

“....We should go.” Aria said as she walked over to Sunset and Adagio. “We got what we came here for. Now we know what to do.”

“Yeah…” Sunset said as she turned her attention onto the stallion. “Does this place have a changing room?”

“Y-Yes...though the door I came out of...w-why?” He asked as Sunset ignored his question. The Ranger turned her attention towards Adagio as she patted her on the head and walked through the doorway that leads to the changing room.

“Hard to believe pony kind would go this far just to survive.” Aria said as the stallion turned her attention onto her. “Not that I blame you for doing something like this. But it’s sad to see how far they’ll go just to survive.”

“...We didn’t have much of a choice. With how this system is set up, we needed something to lessen the suffering of the ponies in the lower sectors. We knew what we were doing was wrong. But in times like this where there’s little to no hope in this underground hell, I wanted to give the citizens some kind of light in the darkness.”

“Aren’t we all.” Aria said before hearing the door open up. The group turned their attention onto Sunset as she was wearing a black shoulderless long sleeve shirt, baggy grey colored pants, her Ranger coat tied around her waist, Her katana placed on her back with the holster strap around her chest, and shoes that covered most of her feet but left her hooves visible. “Are you ready to go?”

“Almost.” Sunset said before tossing her ID card over to the scientist as he catches it. “You can tell the folks at Ranger HQ that I quit. I’m leaving this Celestia forsaken place and going to the surface.”

“....You girls really are going to the surface aren’t you?” he asked as Aria nodded. “You do know that they’ll come after you if you do that?”

“Yeah, I know. I kinda figured that much when I had to fight off some ponies that were after me. But I don’t really have much of a choice in the matter. If we’re going to save Adagio, then we need to get out of the underground and reach for the sky.”

“Is there even anything up on the surface? How do you know that it’ll be safe?”

“I don’t know...but there’s only one way to find out.” Sunset said as she walked past the scientist. “I’m going to save her, even if it kills me.” She said as Adagio and Aria quickly followed after Sunset as they left the lab, leaving the scientist alone with his thoughts and his research.