So, I was back on duty, and I had a number of emails waiting for me, many with too many exclamation points and high priority tags. Ah, the bliss of an ended weekend...

"The hey is this!" Starlight was seated at her own computer, apparently also hit with missives like I had. "You seeing this?"

"I will when I read it." I started from the top, which was the newest, meaning I was working back through time, fun!

From: Theodore Svelte, VP (That was above me)
To: You

Good day,
Checking the records, you had this weekend off. Forgive the brusque nature of my last email. When you do get back, please do respond to them.

New Medicine for a Better Tomorrow,
Theodore Svelte, VP
Pi Labs

Oh sheesh. I figured skipping to the next from him specifically was likely the right course of action.

From: Theodore Svelte, VP
To: You

Eri, what's going on in there? Why haven't you replied? What are you doing?! We trust you to keep things running smoothly. Was it a mistake to invest this level of trust in someone who is also a patient? Tell me what's going on, now.

New Medicine for a Better Tomorrow,
Theodore Svelte, VP
Pi Labs

What exactly had gone down while I was away? "Shining?"

"Yeah?" He poked his head in from the next room. "What's up?"

"Has the facility been on fire to your knowledge?" I raised a white brow, trying to imagine what had set off the emails.

"Not that I know of?" He shrugged a little. "But hey, I just keep the shield up, and I didn't mess that up."

That was good news. If the shield was up, we didn't have any containment breaches.

Time to dig further into the thread. That last one was the most frantic, devolving down to questions and pokes. Finally, the first of them.

From: Theodore Svelte, VP
To: You

It has come to my attention that one of your subjects has compromised the security of our internal networks. While the exploit they made use of has been patched closed since then, other reports make it clear what information was obtained. As director, you are authorized to know this.

There are multiple facilities engaged in similar research. No two of them are precisely the same, but related enough. I am given to believe that your subjects want to visit the other facilities, and this is thoroughly unfeasible for a number of reasons. For one, their presence alone would contaminate other sensitive situations. You already know the challenges of keeping one facility straight. We're not trying to throw off another directors' efforts.

For another, each patient, every one of them, is a walking biological weapon of staggering potential. Transporting them safely is a daunting task. The only reasonable way would be in an air-tight container. This is not feasible. The safety of the public has to be considered first. (The fact that we would be liable for all damages if we caused such an outbreak certainly helps shape our stance here)

It is your duty to calm your subjects. Increased security reports imply growing instability, and we can't afford trouble at this time. Thank you.

New Medicine for a Better Tomorrow,
Theodore Svelte, VP
Pi Labs

Well, alright. I had a good idea what was going on, at least. I grabbed a phone and dialed.

"Hello?" came an uncertain female voice. "And why did my earpiece just ring? Boss?"

Ah, the privs of being a noodle. "Yep, it's me, sorry for surprising. Just read one thread of email that makes it sound like the whole place has been in a state of panic."

"You could say that," half-sang Silver. "I've been on call, a lot. Have no fear! Your equine security force has been on the task! And not just me." There was a pause. "I mean, do you remember? You were... kinda out of it, but you turned a few of us in security into ponies. Only I got input in the matter... and they've been helping. It's an awkward subject... Especially the other one you made into a foal, boy was he not prepared for that!" She laughed despite the awkward subject matter.

"Seriously, we've been, you know, bonding? Is that even the right word... Since the subjects started getting up in arms, we guards have had to band together. We're coming back together, four legs or two. It's kind of nice, like, thinking on it."

That was charming, in a way, but... "Have any actual fights broken out? Anycreature hurt, guard or patient?" What was it with everyone dropping to subject so often? They were not really subjects. We were barely studying them, which was a damn crime all by itself. "I need all the details."

"No injuries," she quickly spat out. "Just a lot of frayed nerves. Speaking of, like, exactly that. Since you're on the line and you didn't answer my email, we had a pony, Vinyl? Vinyl Scratch? She hacked the system!"

Ah, right, I did read that. "Known. What did you do with her?"

"I snatched her laptop. Networking cut her access before I even got there, guys were all over it. I told her we'd wait on any punishment until you got here." Ah, lovely, the buck had been passed on to me. Still, maybe for the best. "That was the right thing to do, yeah? We didn't hurt her."

"No! I mean, yeah, don't hurt her..." Hurting my fellow patients was really down on the list. "Tell me what's going on. Who's asking for what?"

"Give me a second and I'll be, like, right up. Easier than talking on this thing." And she hung up, which was actually surprising, as her headpiece had no such function, but it did fit with the phone start I had used. I suppose what I had started, she had ended with my own logic, so I couldn't hold it against her.

Well, time to read more mails. Ah, there were a few from here, basically saying what she told me. I clicked through them quickly to mark them as read.

I'd get a better review from her when she gave it in person. Oh, there was something new.

From: Jennifer Colte, Head of Biochemistry
To: You

One of the subjects(Twilight Sparkle) inquired on our animal testing abilities. Now, as I hope you know, animals do not contain or serve as disease vectors without specific processes that allow us to create the vaccine we are working on. As a result, I saw no immediate harm in allowing them use of a few lab mice if they followed protocols and reported on the case on a regular basis.

Still, in the interest of safety, I am writing to both inform you and give you a chance to override that decision. If I don't hear back, I'll let them have a few mice and I will keep you up to date on any noteworthy changes or issues.

I hear you have a vacation coming up,
Jennifer

It wasn't 'coming up'. I was already on it by the time that email was sent, which means the mice were probably given. But there had been no follow ups, so it went alright? I quickly jammed out a letter asking how it went. What did they even need test mice for?

I pressed a button, a soft buzz playing like an especially dull doorbell.

"Um, hello?" came the confused voice of the target unicorn. "I didn't know this thing had an intercom button, fascinating. Who do I have the pleasure of speaking with?"

"Twilight," I gushed in a friendly tone. "Eri here, the director? Do you have a moment?"

"Director, oh, of course." I could imagine, or maybe see, her saluting. "How can I help?"

"I hear you requisitioned some test mice. A curious request, and it did what curious requests do." I kept my voice gentle and even. I was not a big scary person. I was looking for a few answers. "How are they going?"

"It was a bit of a learning experience," she replied in a gust of intellectual pleasure. "Mice are much more complicated to deal with than I had first envisioned. Fluttershy heard about my efforts from Lyra and came to help, bless her. She found and corrected all of my errors and the mice are being treated perfectly. Isn't that right?" I could hear little squeaks. Was she petting one of them?

"Lovely, lovely..." I mean, it was. I didn't want to hear animals were being abused on my watch, or on anyone's watch, really. "So... what do you need mice for? You aren't a scientist."

"That's unkind, Director." I could imagine her turning up her nose. "Of course I am, a thaumaturgist! That's, uh, magic scientist. It's not superstitious if we take a lot of notes and do things repeatedly under controlled conditions. Speaking of that!" I wanted to ask her a question, but she was so excited. "I hear there are other facilities. I would like to communicate with them. Being able to conduct cross-facility trials with their magic-enabled patients would accelerate my work. I'd love to see if any of them came up with a means of controlling it as we have, and if they did, did they arrive on the same solution, or something else? The answers to that alone would be so telling! Please reach out to them, Director. You are the one that could do that, right?"

Wow, she was really into it. "I'll check on that." Exchanging emails or connecting Discords sure felt less worrying than physically transporting anyone to or from the other sites. "But about the mice. What were you doing that needed mice?"

"Mmm? Oh! A gross biological reconditioning spell." I heard her hooves clop together. "And it worked perfectly."

"It did?" I mean, alright, that sounded scary. Kind of scary as hell. "Can you define what 'reconditioning' you did?"

"Does this thing have..." I heard her hoof tapping at the camera we were talking through.

"Are you trying to show me something?" I flipped to her camera on my computer. "There, I can see you." There she was, leaning in on the camera, feeling over it. As I said that, she backed up and waved at me.

"That's better," she spoke to the camera, echoing. I flipped the camera over and muted it so she could hear me talk but I wouldn't hear her twice. "Most of the mice have reverted with a mean time of two hours and forty two minutes." She was reading some of that off a floating clip board that bobbed gently beside her. "One did not. I'm investigating what the difference is. Some reverted in as little as thirty minutes and the longest, beside the one that simply didn't, remained in the form for precisely one day."

"You were going to show me what they turned into?" I gently prompted, speaking into my phone, which echoed out the camera she was facing.

"Oh, yes." Her magic glowed, filling the screen as she took hold of the entire camera and rotated it into a new position. "I have her isolated from the others. They react erratically in the presence of altered mice. I suppose that isn't too remarkable. But a good--"

She kept talking. I was looking at that... mouse? She was a little big for a mouse, but not that much more that I could see. She had a little blue horn curving from her head and her tail had the distinct fur tufts that a kirin would have. It was no mouse, it was a mouse kirin. Mirin? "Is it alright?"

"Hm?" Twilight was startled out of her explanation. "Oh, yes. Fluttershy wouldn't forgive me otherwise. She's mildly confused at her new state, but is otherwise fine. Her diet has not changed, but she has gained the combustive abilities of a kirin, requiring extra safety measures. Her cage is fire resistant enough to hold Autumn, if she were small enough, without failure."

That was fascinating, and also more than a little terrifying. Is this what watching me doing things was like? I think it was. "What are the odds the mouse will... eventually... go back to normal."

Twilight turned in place. "Well, technically, since this is the first time we did it, I can't, in good faith, provide that." She tapped her floating pad with a floating pen. "From what little we know, she should eventually snap back. The magic did not cause any genetic change, meaning her body will continue to build mouse parts in mouse ways, not kirin parts, or in kirin ways. She either reverts, or... there may be health consequences."

She tapped at the pad. "If you're curious, she is six inches long and one and a half ounces heavy."

I did not study lab mice. "What's the usual?"

"About half again as long and twice as heavy," reported Twilight with a nod. "Fascinating. This is typical of mice who underwent this process. The only thing different, at first glance, is the duration of the effect."

While scientifically intriguing, I had no doubt... "Can we do anything to get the mouse back where it started, to encourage it along? I don't want my patients, small or large, suffering if we can avoid it."

Twilight suddenly turned entirely towards me, the clipboard going down to rest on a table. "That is actually very comforting to hear." She put a hoof at her chest. "I had a good feeling about you, Director. I hereby authorize you to continue using me as a test subject."

I had to blink. "That wasn't... Can we help?" I turned the conversation back to the not-mouse.

"I have a few ideas, but I didn't want to use them."

"Because..." I rolled a hand at the webcam on my monitor she could see me through.

"Because then we'd lose valuable data, of course. I want to see if she turns back on her own, and at what time. If she never does, that is also valuable information."

"If a scientist were conducting a similar experiment on you, I would have their head," I gruffly noted. "You're risking that mouse, you just said that. How long until it even might be harmed by this trial?"

Twilight inclined her head a little to the left. "Well, the greatest risk was immediate system shock." She inclined her head. "Near as I can see, the subject being so far removed from the target is the cause of the issue, but I'll admit that is at least somewhat conjecture. Using a pony subject, there should be less uncertainty, since it was designed to start from a pony and end with a kirin." She tapped her chin softly. "That is a thoughtful, if silly, gift."

"Pardon, gift?" What gift?! "Who made this?"

"The spell? Sunburst. You remember him, right?"

"Hard to forget." I remember him wrestling with his... girlfriend? "Wait, he made it for her?"

"To cast on him," finished Twilight. "I proposed we start with animal testing, for safety."

I wanted to shout, but... "I'm glad you did that... I would not want to start the evaluation of anything this invasive on a living patient!" I took a slow breath, trying to get a grasp on it. "I presume, then, if this is ongoing, you have not moved on to tests on any patients?"

"Correct," she half-sang, trotting in place. "I thought it would be wise to see this through to the end, so I'm monitoring little fire-squeak."

"Fire-squeak? Wait, the mouse?"

"That's the name we've given her." She reached into the cage, gently patting the mouse, which seemed alright with it. Until it wasn't, combusting in a great display of blueish fire that Twilight yanked her hoof away from. "Oops! I did mention that..."

Was I nuts for feeling bad for a random lab mouse? This was... kind of their job, but according to some people, I was a lab mouse, and so was the pony I was talking to. I refused to accept we were expendable in the name of science. "Please, return Fire-squeak to normal, gently if you can. Does that conclude your need for animal testing?"

"For now, yes. We should talk more often." Her magic pivoted the camera to keep facing her as she went to a cupboard and fetched some chemicals and a syringe. "We're making excellent progress in our studies. You are also a spellcaster, though you don't perform your magic in the same way. Comparing and contrasting the methods would be fascinating, as I was talking about earlier. If nothing else, I'd love to show it off to you. You started far ahead of us."

Started? "You're catching up?"

"It'll be a long time, if ever, before we get to the point you're reported to be at." She approached the mouse, floating syringe coming with her. "You can just... do things, which is amazing! We can't. Still, comparing could be valuable, for both of us! Director, don't be a stranger."

"I'll try not to." I didn't want to see the mouse get poked. "Director Eri, signing off."

Twilight saluted, the needle zipping forward to find a mirin as I cut the feed with a cringe.

That was one more fire put out... On to the next.

Twilight withdrew the needle as the mouse shivered and spasmed. With a bright sparkle of Twilight's magic, which had made the mouse change in the first place, the mouse popped back to normal. "A success! That's at least worth taking note of." She scribbled it down, so they knew in the future how to encourage retrogression from forced biochemical optimization. A useful fact! "Now..."

She placed the mouse back with the others, where they all seemed to eagerly greet each other and socialize. "Animal testing is over. It's time to experiment with a much larger subject." She willed the phone over, her magic pressing keys quickly.

"Hello," sang a female. "What's up?"

"Autumn! I believe it's time."

"It's always a time," laughed Autumn. "Which time are you talking about?"

"Time for you to grab your colt--" She dropped the used syringe in the trash, clapping her magic hands together. "Get over here, and prepare to blast him with the power of love, and science."

"Are you sure it's safe?"

"None of the mice died, or even got hurt," assured Twilight. "Not even one. That's pretty good! You can zap me with it if it makes you feel better."

"Twilight..." Autumn smiled into her receiver. "You're cute, and insane."

"And you like it."

"I do, nutball. I'll get him." The phone went dead, her subjects on the way.

Twilight clopped her hooves then gathered up her mouse cage. "Let's get you home." And off she trotted to get her smaller subjects back where they belonged. "You all did well, and helped advance science." They did not cheer for their accomplishment. Pity that.

"Bon Bon."

Bon Bon inclined her head. "That is my name. I was told you were out on a vacation. Must be nice." Oh, what a bitter edge she had to her voice.

"My vacation was taken in my room, behind my office." I pointed towards that door, closed as it was. "I don't leave the facility." Well, usually. Sometimes I snuck out, you know that! Still, she didn't need to hear that. "I hear you've been a bit... upset."

"Upset isn't the right word." She crossed her arms, one hoof bobbing. "Let's go over the facts. I now know, with certainty, that I am and always will be a small horse." She inclined her head faintly. "At least I am the same gender I started as." She waved over herself, not that ponies had a lot of hints, but she did have modest breasts down there. "Lucky me. I will never have hands again, I'm almost used to that... But--"

"--You want to go outside," I interrupted.

"Yes! And is that such an outrageous request?" She thumped down a hoof on the armrest of the chair. "I have family, friends, who may both think I'm dead, I get to add to the list of things I am angry about." Crap, when did that get out? "Which you knew about." She started to squint at me with a thousand accusations. "Go on, tell me a few lies."

"I would rather not." I offered a hand, though it was not taken. "I get it, I really do. I avoided being 'erased' just barely, and I only just recently found out it's a thing... I hate it, a lot. You don't even understand how much I dislike the idea."

"But here you are, working for them." She threw her hooves wide. "They keep saying that, by the way. 'Don't be angry at her, she's one of us!' But what are you doing? Exactly what they want you to do. You're just another prisoner with extra responsibilities. I pity you, but you're still not on my side." Her arms re-crossed, glaring daggers at me. "We deserve freedom."

"Let's say I agree, entirely. That's it. I'll order Shining to drop the shield. I'll order the guards to go take a smoke break lasting a week. You all walk away, done." I made a grand wave. "What happens next?"

"We go home?" She started, a brow raised high. "We start making phone calls to un-dead ourselves, and get new jobs."

"What job do you see yourself in?" I asked patiently, watching her.

"I was a clerk, a front desk clerk. At a nice hotel." She gestured vaguely. "It made good money, before covid came and ruined it. Part of why I signed up to help end it... I know how to talk to people, answer a phone, that sort of thing."

"And you imagine guests won't find talking with a small horse off-putting at all?" I put my hands together. "Fortunately, ponies are capable of typing, on slightly altered keyboards... But that's edging around the main problem."

"What's the main problem." She hiked a brow. "Are you gonna say--"

"You will be patient zero of a new wave that will make covid look like the mild flu they said it was." I sat forward. "This spreads not by your mouth, by the way, so wearing a mask will not help. People who come within about five or so feet of you for longer than about two minutes will have a good enough dose. You think you can work like that?"

She recoiled. "Five feet? Two minutes?! That's impossible, I'd have to be--"

"--constantly shedding the disease, we are." I mean, technically I wasn't, but no need to inform her of that. "You'll infect every guest that checked in. You'd infect every guest that checked out. Your boss and coworkers, doomed. You miss your fingers? You'd be sentencing them all to lose theirs, on purpose. You understand what that would make you, right?"

"I'm not a criminal!" She almost fell off her chair, landing on all fours with a clop. "Don't accuse me of that."

"Then don't ask for that. That is what you're asking for." I slid up much more smoothly, hovering in front of her. "Does it suck? Yes. I am doing everything I can to make it suck a bit less."

"So let us at least visit the others." She made a grand wave of a hoof. "Give us something. Let us out of this box." She stomped a hoof. "I'm not asking for a lot here."

"You really aren't," I gently agreed. "You aren't. I'm exploring ways for you all to get to interact with the others. The company, I don't agree with all their methods, I don't." No lies there. "But I'm doing what I can, to keep this place sane, to keep us all safe, and to keep the people out there safe." I offered that hand. "Give me a chance."

Author's Note

Would you accept this hand?

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