Beep… Beep… Beep… The digital alarm clock rang out through the small bedroom where a sleeping lavender pony and a baby dragon lie. The purple pony, more specifically unicorn, turned on her side, mumbling something about cake along with it.
Chocolate… Vanilla... Strawberry… Oh Celestia! It’s like heaven! What’s that Mr. Rocky Road? You want me to eat you next? Sure! Wait…What’s that beeping sound?
Twilight Sparkle awoke in her bed, mouth watering, images of cake floating around in her mind. She slowly started to regain all of her senses, hearing first. Mostly in her left ear, she could hear a distinct beep resound from, what she presumed, was her alarm clock. Next was taste. Her taste buds frantically danced around in her mouth, the images of cake overwhelming them. After that, came touch. Twilight reached a hoof up to her mouth and wiped away the stray saliva that had managed to make it’s way out of her mouth. Finally, came sight and smell. Twilight opened her eyes a bit, still adjusting to having been woken up from her dream so abruptly.
Deciding she had gotten annoyed at her alarm clock, she turned over on her side to face it. She lazily guided her right hoof over to the general area of it and began slamming it against the top of the clock. After a few miss-presses of different buttons, Twilight finally managed to stop the incessant racket. She turned only halfway in her bed so that she could face the ceiling of her room before sighing and slowly lifting off her bed covers with her magic.
Gonna’ have to get up eventually anyway…Twilight thought to herself. She placed her back hooves over the edge of the bed and unceremoniously slid off. She would have fallen flat on her stomach, had her front hooves not landed first and supported her weight. She steadied herself, then yawned, still not fully awake. She trotted slowly around the base of the bed until she came to a small basket on the floor in front of the bed. Inside she could see a small, scaly head poking out, the rest of his body covered by a blanket.
Twilight nudged the baby dragon a bit with her left-front hoof. No reply. She nudged a bit harder. This time she got a grumble out of him.
“C’mon Spike, get up! We’re gonna’ be late!” Twilight used her magic to levitate Spike’s blanket off his body and set it on a nearby chair. Spike searched the nearby area with one claw for his blanket while also trying to keep up his sleep. After being unsuccessful, Spike turned over and tried to go back to sleep. “Give me a minute…” He mumbled.
“Nope! Up-and-at-em’!” Twilight encased the small basket in her magical aura and lifted it a foot in the air. Focusing on it, she flipped the basket upside-down, her intentions being to get Spike out of it.
“Ah!” Spike yelped, not expecting to be thrown to the floor so suddenly. He now lay on the floor of the bedroom, back sticking up. “Jeez Twilight, I’m getting up!” Spike climbed to his feet, still tired.
“Sorry Spike, I just don’t want to be late. You know how Black Mesa is.” Twilight could remember the day she left for the Black Mesa Research Facility. It was a sad one, but at the same time, a happy one.
Twilight and Spike stood in front of the train that would take her away to Black Mesa, where she and Spike would work from now on. Her five closest friends, or the other five element bearers, also stood in front of her. Princess Celestia stood with them. One-by-one they all came up and hugged her, wishing her good luck at her new job. By the end most of them were in tears. As she stepped into the train her friends gave her one last wave goodbye before the train’s doors closed, locking her and Spike inside. She trotted over to the window to see her friends sad-smiles greeting her. She couldn’t help but adorn one herself. She kept looking through the window as the train exited the station and until she couldn’t see them anymore.
Coming out of the memory, Twilight came back to her room, a small living space, adorning a bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen. It wasn’t the best home they had had, but it was better than nothing. Twilight turned and trotted over to the door that lead into the bathroom. Pushing it open with her right-front hoof, Twilight was greeted with the same thing as every morning. An even smaller room, having a sink to the left with a mirror hanging over it, and a small shower on the right. In the shower, there were three bottles of liquid, one for shampoo, one for conditioning, and one for the body. Next to the shower sat a toilet, a few rolls of toilet paper nearby.
Twilight trotted over to the sink and encased a brush of hers in her magical aura, not having to focus much. She used the brush to toy with her hair a bit, just putting it in different styles to see if anything worked. Deciding that her normally straight hair was better, she set the brush down and worked with the toothbrush next. Doing the same with the brush, Twilight picked up the brush and the toothpaste. She could easily multitask with her magic, after all, magic was her special talent. She unscrewed the cap of the toothpaste and applied pressure to the tube, the paste covering the bristles of the toothbrush. After deciding what was enough, Twilight screwed the cap back on and wet the brush with water.
Twilight brought the brush to her mouth and started cleansing her teeth, going up and down, side to side, even diagonally. After a minute of vigorous brushing, Twilight brought the brush to the sink and rinsed it off, then tapped it on the sink to ensure it was mostly dry. She then used her magic to grab a nearby plastic cup and fill it up with the tap water. She downed the water and swished it around in her mouth, trying to get the rest of any germs out of her mouth. She swallowed, and then threw the cup in the trash.
“Ahh… good.” Twilight said to herself. She got out of the bathroom, letting Spike enter so he could freshen up himself. Twilight slowly trotted over to her wardrobe, where all her clothes were. She opened the doors using her magic once again and viewed her wardrobe of different outfits. Picking out her standard white lab coat, Twilight lifted it down to herself. Using her magic, she slipped her hooves through the sleeves until she had it fit nicely. She left the lab coat un-buttoned, as it was more comfortable. Twilight turned around and trotted past the bathroom, where Spike was finishing up. She turned around and glanced at the clock. 6:45 AM. 15 minutes to eat before we get on the train. Perfect. Twilight then turned back around and headed into the kitchen to make breakfast.
Upon arriving in the kitchen, Twilight had quickly observed the small room that she saw every morning. It was about the same size as her bedroom, with a stove on the right side of it. On the left, there was a small refrigerator, with multiple cabinets containing food next to it. In the middle of the room, there was small table with two chairs, one for Twilight, and one for Spike. Finally, on the back wall, there was a closed, sliding, metal door that could be opened with a nearby retina scanner. Black Mesa was a top-notch research facility with the highest technology known to Equestria. It was here that Twilight took the place of one of the top scientists at the Black Mesa Research Facility, specializing in theoretical physics. Spike, like back in Ponyville, was still her assistant.
Twilight trotted over to the cupboard and opened it using her magic, then looked to see what was for breakfast. There wasn’t much, but there was enough to keep them going for about one more week. After seeing what the cupboard offered, Twilight decided to go with just a simple daisy sandwich. As she was getting out the lettuce and daisies, Spike came out of the bedroom.
“So Twilight, what’s for breakfast?” Spike inquired. He took his usual place at the table.
“How about some nice rubies?” Twilight offered. Because Spike was a dragon, his teeth were as sharp as nails. While most ponies would think gems taste like hard metal, or rock, to dragons they are like tasty fruit.
“Mmm… Sounds good!” Spike licked his lips in anticipation of his breakfast. Upon hearing his agreement, Twilight opened the cupboard again and quickly browsed through what was there. On the middle shelf, there laid several assortments of gems, sapphires, emeralds, and rubies! Twilight grabbed about 3 rubies and levitated them over to Spike, who, in turn, grabbed them and proceeded to dig in.
After giving Spike his breakfast, Twilight continued her quest to complete her daisy sandwich. She brought two slices of bread to her place at the counter and then adorned them with her lettuce. In addition to the lettuce, she put the main ingredient of the sandwich, the daisies, on top of them. Confirming that her simple, yet filling, sandwich was complete, Twilight levitated it over to her place at the table and took her seat.
Twilight got comfortable in her seat, sitting in the normal pony style. For some reason, she got a quick flashback of Ponyville. In it, she saw the sea-foam green unicorn, aptly named Lyra Heartstrings, sitting on a park bench. Twilight gave a quick laugh to herself as she saw her sitting that weird way she always had, where her legs hung off the side of the bench. Pushing the old memory out of her mind, Twilight instead decided to focus on her current eating situation.
After several minutes of enjoying their breakfast, Twilight and Spike were ready to go. Twilight approached the retina scanner and put her eyes to it. The scanner took a second to recognize her before allowing the door to open. Twilight then sidestepped away from the scanner so she could exit the room.
“Ready to go, Spike?” Twilight asked Spike.
“Aw, c’mon Twilight! We still have five minutes!” Twilight quickly glanced at the clock that was on the wall in the kitchen. It read 6:55 AM.
“Well, you know what they say, Spike: Better to be early than late! Now, c’mon!” Sighing in defeat, Spike decided that it was futile to argue anymore.
Twilight exited the small formation of rooms that she and Spike had come to call home. On the opposite side of the wall there was another retina scanner, used for opening and closing the metal door from the outside. Twilight once again let it scan her before the door closed. Happy that everything was, so far, going according to plan, Twilight smiled a bit before turning to face Spike. For some reason though, Twilight suddenly got this, sort of, knot in her stomach. Spike noticed Twilight’s sudden change.
“Twilight, is there something wrong?” Spike asked cautiously. Twilight swallowed a bit of saliva.
“Huh, what?” Twilight stuttered. “Oh, it’s nothing Spike, just, got this, feeling. Like something bad was going to happen today. It- It’s gone.” Spike was still a bit cautious.
“Alright… Just, if you feel anything like that again, tell me.” Spike told her.
“Sure.” Twilight was trying to reassure Spike that nothing was wrong, when in reality, she wasn’t sure herself.
What was that? I’ve never felt something like that before.
Twilight decided that it was more important to focus on getting to the main facility of Black Mesa, where they would be conducting a major experiment today. She looked past Spike, down the hall, where about 20 feet away, laid a corner turning right. Twilight and Spike started to walk down the hallway, passing several doors with retina scanners next to them. Black Mesa gave every worker a living space almost identical in every way to Twilight and Spike’s place. The only thing that is different is what the workers buy for their place. Black Mesa also had this complicated transit system for anywhere you want to go. They have their own little restaurants, Laundromats, and the different facilities.
After a few moments of walking in silence, Twilight and Spike came to the corner. They rounded it, and came across another corridor. They started down this one, passing other doors where the different workers resided.
After only a minute of walking, the hall they were currently in opened up into a larger room, where on the other side, they saw a small train, door open. Twilight and Spike looked at each other, nodded, and then got on board the train. As soon as they were both on it, the train’s door automatically shut itself, effectively locking them both in. Then, it started down the track.
