Shadow and I carefully moved Ashaa from the camping cot to the gurney and packed up everything that could be packed and headed deeper into the facility.

We appeared to be in the main atrium, a grand dome-like room with multiple broken skylights across the ceiling. While there were quite a few hallways connected to the atrium Shadow and I chose the biggest one on the far wall that had a sign that read Welcome to Celestia Laboratories, Scientists and volunteer test subjects only past this point.
Walking through the white double doors revealed an open elevator big enough to fit all three of us. Shadow went in first to ensure its safety, after a few experimental jumps to make sure the floor wouldn’t fall out from under us he nodded and helped me cart the still unconscious Ashaa inside.

The elevator had only one button with an arrow pointing down. I pushed it and the door closed with a small squealing noise. And then it travelled down, shuddering occasionally. Shadow drew his revolver in case of hostiles on the other end of the elevator while I held on to Ashaa to keep her from falling off the gurney.

When the door finally reopened it revealed a room almost five times the size of the atrium above. It appeared to be a meeting room or a cafeteria. The walls were covered in inspirational quotes, job rosters, and bring your foal to work day posters. The back wall was dominated by a massive screen flanked by two large speakers with multiple doorways below it. The ceiling had a faux sky, like what you might find in stables. Though this one constantly flickered, the magic that made it work was running thin.

Before we could walk too far into the giant room the screen on the far wall came to life with an enormous hiss of static through the speakers. When the static cleared away it revealed a robotic version of pictures of Princess Celestia I had seen. It was painted in white with a picture of the sun made of gears where the cutie mark would have been. It had one big eye in the middle of its face and appeared to be attached to the ceiling of the room it was in. The robot gave off a sinister aura even though it was in another room. When it spoke, its mouth didn’t move. The only hint of emotion came from that red eye.

Hello and welcome to Celestia Laboratories. My name is C3leS-TiA or Tia for short. I haven’t had visitors for quite some time, what brings you three here?

Shadow came to his senses first, stepping forward.

“Our friend requires medical attention and we hoped you could provide it.” Tia seemed to consider this for a moment before turning back towards us.

I do believe I can help you, but you have to assist me as well. If you two agree to be my test subjects for a while, I will get your friend to the medical centre. You see, science is quite boring with only one scientist.

“What kind of experiments do you have in mind?” I asked if she wanted to subject us to crazy chemicals or something like that we were out. Tia scoffed, how a robot did that I have no clue.

Oh, nothing too serious. I just want to run a few physical tests on the unicorn to determine how much has changed in pony physique over the last two hundred years. And I see that you are a hippogriff! I haven’t had the chance to examine one of your kind for quite a while. This will be quite interesting indeed.

I turned to Shadow, he had a look of concentration upon his features.

“What do you think? Is this a good idea?” He shook his head.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s a good idea or not. It’s the only way to save Ashaa. desperate times call for desperate measures Blitz. Let’s just get this over with.”
“Alright,” I said, “we’ll do your tests.”

If Tia had a mouth, I’d bet it would be smiling evilly. A hidden door set in the left wall opened and two drones flew out towards Ashaa and carefully picked her up off the gurney and back through the door which closed behind them.

Your friend is off to the infirmary as we speak. Now, please remove all of your items and leave them here. If you were to have certain items that could aid you during the tests it would render my data unusable.

“Let’s put my stuff in your inventory, just in case,” Shadow whispered as he took off his hat, sunglasses, and duster on the ground. “Leave the clothes here so she doesn’t suspect foul play.”

Following his lead, I removed my combat jacket and gloves while discreetly stashing Shadow’s revolver and its ammunition in my Inventory. when I looked back towards Tia, all but one of the doors below her screen were closed.

Please walk into the detoxification room, you must be cleaned of radiation, disease, and any toxins before we begin testing.

And with no other choices, we trotted over to the door. Inside was a small room filled with several different nozzles, scanners, and various other cleaning apparatus. Shadow and I were scanned, rinsed, dried, given a couple of shots, and finally rinsed and dried again. The door in front of us was then opened and we were led by another small drone into a small gym-like area. Dotted around the place were treadmills, weights, and other exercise equipment. The large rectangular screen on the right wall flickered to life, once again showing Tia.

I do believe my scanners are broken, the readings showed that the unicorn had no heartbeat. Of course, this is impossible as you are still alive. Why don’t you two start on the treadmills so I can get a reading on your average speed? While you do that I’ll recheck that all the scanners are working correctly.

So we ran, jumped, climbed, and all sorts of exercise I thought I would never have to do after passing my PE class back on Mount Eris. The more Shadow did these with me, the more confused Tia became. All of her machines were telling her that he had no heartbeat and that even when running at a full-on gallop his breathing remained steady and his body heat never changed temperature.

I would like to say that it’s just faulty wiring, but not if ALL of my scanners say the same thing. How do you survive without a heartbeat Unicorn? You are still breathing, yet you don’t seem to require oxygen. You are quite an interesting specimen little unicorn.

I turned toward the pony I had come to trust over the last few days with a feeling of suspicion, what hasn’t he been telling me?

“What’s going on Shadow? Why don’t you have a heartbeat?” He grunted, shaking his head.

“I had a heart attack a few years ago, a slightly deranged medic in appleloosa brought me back to life with a little machinery and some magic. I don’t have a heartbeat because I don’t have a heart. It was replaced.”

Then why don’t my scanners pick up the machinery in your system?

“It’s all synthetic material, looks like a heart, just doesn’t work like one.” Tia seemed to take that as an answer, but I wasn’t satisfied with such a vague explanation. Later on, I would have to question him more thoroughly. He didn’t want the AI to know what he really was.

Well then, with that out of the way, let’s get to testing! You will be performing a series of dexterity courses that will allow me to see how prolonged exposure to limited radiation has altered your physique compared to pre-megaspell equines.

“Sounds like an excuse to make us dance for her amusement,” Shadow whispered. I nodded in response.

“Maybe so, but if she can help Ashaa I’ll dance all day if I have to,” I whispered back.

Two drones ushered us towards a door on the far side of the gym that opened into an elevator. One of the drones pushed a button on the pad and the elevator began its journey downwards.

When the door finally opened we had reached a massive white room, it seemed very sterile. In the centre was a large parkour course, above the start was a widescreen that showed a small cartoon pony jumping across the course with a big smile. Little bits of confetti rained down upon him when he reached the end.

Please attempt the obstacle course one at a time, and do not try to assist whoever is currently attempting the course in any physical, verbal, or magical manner. Also, flying is prohibited as that would not give me accurate data.

Though there was no screen to show her face, Tia must be watching us through the camera system about the room. I sighed and stepped forward, gauging how far I would have to jump to reach the first podium. I kept my wings close to my body as to not give Tia any reason to bind them. I leapt and made it easily onto the platform. I then made the mistake of looking down and found the floor was dangerously far below me, and covered in lava.

“The floor is made of fire! What the hell?! I thought you said we wouldn’t be put in danger?” I exclaimed at a nearby camera, extremely perturbed. What else could she be lying about?

Do not mind the floor, it is just an illusion to give test subjects some extra incentive to avoid failure. If you were to fall you would be caught by a medical drone. Tia said in a slightly condescending manner if a robot can be condescending. I completed the rest of the course with extreme caution and then waited for Shadow to finish as well.

He made it through almost twice as fast as I had, gracefully dancing across the small white platforms with Surprising speed and accuracy. This display of skill impressed both Tia and me.

My my, the unicorn is quite interesting. Full of surprises aren’t you?

Shadow let out an annoyed grunt, spacing out for a small second.

“You don’t even know the half of it.” He said, making me once again wonder what he wasn’t telling me. There was no time to question him now though, a neon green arrow on the floor lit up, pointing towards another elevator. Looks like we’re going even farther down.

” Don’t worry! We’re not going to let this imposter of our Princess stop us!”

There is was again! That voice in my head, obviously female, and it was now saying that Tia was an impostor. So it was probably a pony. Other than that I had no clue what it was or why it’s in my head!

“Hey! I’m not an it! I’m a pony!”

It-She, She could hear my thoughts as well?

” I can, yes. Right now you should focus more on what’s in front of you. We’ll talk later, I promise on my honour as a Wonderbolt!”

Shadow shook me from my thoughts, slightly annoyed.

“No time for spacing out kid, let’s get a move on. The faster we finish this the faster we can get the hell out of here and look for a fancy engine elsewhere.”

Now back to my senses, I glared at Shadow.

“We came for an engine and that’s what we’re leaving this place with. Ashaa won’t have been injured for nothing. Once Tia has had her fun we’ll ask for one. If that means more tests then so be it. I’m not backing down. I’ll tell you again that if you wish to leave I’ll hold no grudge.”

The black unicorn shook his head and sighed, beginning to trot towards the elevator.

“I swear you’ll be the death of me kid, let’s finish this sooner rather than later.”

And with a voice in my head and determination in my soul, I followed him.

Footnote:

New quest added! Survive the gauntlet: Make it through Tia’s demented tests with all your limbs and your life. Reward: 250 EXP.

Author's Note

Hey guys! I’ve decided that from now on all my chapters will be at least two thousand words long instead of fifteen hundred. This means that chapters will be coming out at a slightly slower pace, but you get more to read!

Anyways, I survived finals week and am ready to write once more! I hope y’all are enjoying this story and that you leave a comment and a like! It really helps new writers if you give a little love! Thank you for reading this far and have an absolutely wondrous day/night!

-ABloodthirstyUnicorn