Introductions are in order
"You're saying you found something in the depths of a broken and abandoned facility outside of Ponyville?" A real woman's voice called out. Princess Celestia, who had just been awoken abruptly by some small mare who said it was of urgency that she saw this for herself. Beside the princess of the sun, was the princess of the moon, Luna, Celestia's sister, who was wide awake, and befuddled by what type of urgency could've been so important for them to be dragged away from their duties.
"Y-Yes, Princess! I found several tapes that look to be similar to a video log. I saw the emblem for the royal family on one of these tapes, and I was hoping for some kind of explanation." The mare said, excitedly, and slightly worriedly. The mare herself was not someone anyone heard of. Her name was Amethistle, probably due to the Amethyst purple Thistle branch cutie mark on her flank, or her Amethyst purple mane coinciding with her ashy gray coat. She was a pegasus, but she also had a bit of an odd thing with her eyes, as they looked to be snake-like, not that the princesses wanted to pry, since their attention was focused on the big TV hooked up to view a set of tapes, each one stacked up in chronological order.
"Do you wish you continue with this business, miss Amethistle? Let's make it quick, we're due for a visit with the Elements of Harmony about something strange." Luna stated, wanting to get right to the meat and potatoes of the tapes. Amethistle grabbed the first tape and popped it into the VHS as the TV turned on.
"Is this blasted thing on?... it is? fantastic. Ahem. Hello to anypony or any creature that happens to discover these tapes. I am Stable Sorcerer II, formerly known as Dr. Sorcerer, one of the top biologists in Manehattan, as I quit to fulfill my true purpose in life. Genetic studies. With the news about Flurry Heart, a natural born Alicorn being added to the royal family, I decided to try and go out of my way to get fundings for this project by the princesses themselves. Unfortunately, while this place was not my first choice, it was close enough to the local neighboring town of PonyVille. It's through these many experiments, I'll be looking into the possibilities of what types of combinations of creatures can truly exist in the next few millennia when we are all gone. Currently, I'm about to create the first artificially grown embryo of a normal creature with no modifications to its genes. A Changeling. I definitely took some liberties with altering the genes a bit, splicing the sample of an unreformed changeling and the sample of one of the reformed changelings together has created something rather interesting... something that shows that we don't understand Changelings, or other non-pony creatures that well yet on a genetic level."
The stallion, who brushed his hair out of the way, revealed a unicorn horn, as he used his magic to turn the camera to one of the tubes, showing a small bug-like pony embryo growing, some parts of it had holes in its body, while also taking on some traits of the reformed counterpart.
"As you can see, Practice Subject is currently growing well, even after a quick hour in incubation, it's already begun to develop physical traits of both unreformed and reformed changelings. A few of these changes might become prominent when they start developing in maturity, but I'll have to wonder if Chrysalis or Thorax will pick up on this changeling as either a part of their hives, or not. Questions for another day, I suppose. I'll make another video documenting the growth of a spliced Changeling, see if it hungers for love, or requires a dietary substitution."
The video ends as the tape slides out of the VHS. Celestia and Luna, are understandably shocked, astonished, and speechless at what they had just beheld their eyes on. Amethistle chuckled nervously as she frowned and grabbed the second tape from the first stack.
"Would you like to see-" Amethistle could barely finish her question until Celestia barged out of the room, while Luna seemed to remain. The sounds of Celestia's screaming could be heard throughout the castle, while Luna was just calm and curious.
"It's obvious my sister can't withstand these tapes, no one could, but I'll continue to view the tapes, Miss Amethistle. I'm quite curious about this 'Stable Sorcerer' stallion and his creations." Luna calmly remarked. Amethistle popped in the second tape, and it began to play.
"Do I look like I give a damn if this is corrupt?! This is for all of pony kind, all of creature kind, we have to push the limits you daft fool! Can't you see?!"
The two mares were perplexed by this sudden outburst, until the video cut out and cut back to the stallion, who was more visible to the two viewers. The Stallion was a pitch black stallion with gaelic marks on his coat and deep blue eyes. His hair and mane were a vibrant pattern of dark green and pale faded blue, cut short and tied back as to no longer obscure his vision or his face. he wore a lab coat and a brown sweater underneath, his cutie mark was a bit more visible, showing a blue DNA Helix in a background of a type of explosion.
"Day 1 of study. I can happily confirm that the spliced Changeling has survived Incubation, and has grown to maturity. It's currently in the testing chamber, and is unaware of the fact that it's being watched and recorded. In the meantime, I managed to study the concept of love as a food source, and I was able to study my own perceptions of who and what I love genuinely, and by concentrating these thoughts, I managed to actually contain them and with enough preservatives, I've turned my own love into a food source for my artificial changeling subject."
The camera's view switches to a glass window, showing the changeling in question. It's stature is half way to being taller than your average pony, but not nearly as tall as a full grown alicorn. It's black body shifted to a dark and lustrous magenta color, the tips of its wings are of a collage of oranges, yellows, reds and scarlets, almost making it seem like the wings were made of the fires of progress. It had stag beetle mandibles on the side of its muzzle and glowing Aquamarine blue eyes, it's tale was like an unreformed changeling's but with a cleaner and more detailed ember and fire based color, like it's tail was replaced by a consistent stream of never ending fire.
"He seems to understand the concept of consuming love to survive, as per his unreformed half, but due to his reformed half, he seems to be... avoiding eating it, almost like it knows something bad will happen if he does. He'll constantly sniff at it and poke it with its stag beetle mandibles, but it seems to not crave love. If the unreformed genes were taking over more, maybe it would've at least taken a nibble. But aside from being a physical and mental mixture of its two counterparts, it can do everything a normal changeling, reformed or not, can do. though it's new jagged and torn dragonfly wings make it seem more intimidating. Further studies will be required before trying to *CRASH* Oh for Tartarus' sake, you daft moron!! Stop breaking things!... YES I'M TALKING TO YOU, WHAT OTHER DRAGON WOULD I BE TALKING TO RIGHT AT THIS MOMENT!?"
The footage cuts out and the video tape slides back out of the VHS. Amethistle was too lost in the beautiful design of such a strangely hybridized, but almost perfected artificial changeling, until the crashing noise in the video brought her back to reality. Luna was even more intrigued by the subject of these tapes, and knew she had to learn more on this before debating with Celestia on what to do about these findings.
"Next tape. I wish to know what goes on from here." Luna calmly stated, curiosity being obvious in her tone as the pegasus mare grabbed the third tape from the stack, and pushed it in. "I must know more." Luna added.
"Day 2 of study. We have our first sign of individual thinking. A bit late for that due to development being more than rapid, so it's possible the mental state of this artificial insectoid creature might be a bit slower than others. When it comes to letting it roam around the lab, I had to give it restrictions as I could not let it damage or taint any of the other samples with accidental physical contact. My assistant, a curious dragon named Skorab,
The camera is turned towards a tall, thin, but still very well built dragon, clad in silver scales with smoothed over red fins on his body, and a noticeable lack of wings, and a lab coat with goggles. the dragon sneered and waved pitifully at the camera before returning to work on something else.
has been working with me constantly to help provide more samples of dragon DNA, generously donated from his own body, as a scale can comprise of nearly 1/12th of pure Draconic DNA. With these samples, I'll be sure to properly introduce these soon-to-be Draconic hybrids to both of their kinds, Dragon and whatever I merge with it. Though some meticulous planning has already determine the several starter hybrids I have in mind will involve getting creative... in the most logical way possible. While my dragon assistant helps familiarize and teach the Changeling, I'm going to resume work on non-sapient or non-sentient hybrids, as to play god, on advanced mode."
The camera feed cuts to the sound of whirring machinery, and the sound of laughter, maniacal laughter. A bright light shines in the corner of the screen, and the sound of a squelch can be heard as something has Stable excited, as the camera rose to his face, his smile was normal, but the look in his eye was anything but that.
"Behold, my most genius work yet. By focusing in on the avian DNA that makes a Phoenix so bird-like, while also carrying its recessive genes for pyrokinetic ignition, and merging that with the DNA of a Gryphon, I have made the first ever known, Phosgryph."
The camera turns to a quadropedic animal. It's talons were white, burning the tough rocky ground beneath it, it's back paws were singing away at the fluids it was created from. It's brown feathers had noticeable streaks and wispy patterns in oranges and reds. It's eyes were as gray as ashes, the tips on its head, burning with a yellow and blue flame. The tail on its flank had now a blistering red flame at the end of it. It's beak was comparable to one of a parrot's, but that seems to be due to the stunted lack of physical variety in the gryphons of now.
"I'm rather impressed by how beautiful it looks. It carries over traits of both species. The mammalian backside, the avian front, and it adapts the pyrokinetic ignition from the Phoenix. I find it most difficult to try and re-introduce this hybrid to the gryphons, but it'll be much more difficult to introduce it to the phoenixes that its fire magicks came from. Now I have to be extremely wary, Gryphons are known to be aggressive, and can be a bit much... that Gilda the gryphon is an obvious example... good thing these samples don't retain memories or consciousness, otherwise, I feel bad for the gryphons who cross this hybrid."
Luna and Amethistle, were incredibly impressed by these hybridizations, but Celestia, who was now watching from the doorway, was just more distraught if anything. She wondered why her pet Phoenix was missing, and I guess this explains it. Celestia would've had half a mind to go down to that abandoned lab and banish this scientist to the sun, moon, or even one of the most out of reach stars to teach him a lesson... if it wasn't, well, abandoned... and there was no sign of anypony or any creature at all, so that raised a question in Celestia's already distraught mind. What happened to this unicorn, what was his fate after this horrendous crime against everything natural of a project?
The camera focused on the Phosgryph, it wandered around, observing the room, and then shifting its eyes towards its creator. The Phosgryph growled as a black smoke escaped its beak, but soon calmed down as it suddenly wandered into the testing chamber. All the while, surprising the scientist unicorn a fair bit.
"Immediate update... I think the Phosgryph has something most gryphons aren't known for... patience. Interesting, I'll have to study this further. In the mean time, I'll check if the Changeling is properly educated from time to time, and we'll see how they react to ponies, besides myself, of course." *CRASH* "Stable, the changeling's looking a bit yellow in the face... is that normal?" "Absolutely not! Get it to the medical ward, I'm looking into this. And WHY IS THERE BROKEN GLASS EVERYWHERE!"
The video ends as the tape slides out of the VHS, leaving Amethistle, and both of the princesses wondering what just became of that changeling. Of course, Amethistle turned to the Moon princess, and asked simply.
"Next Tape, your highness?" She asked. Luna nodded, still taking in the information as she thought about everything she just witnessed on the tape. the 4th video played, and it showed the Changeling, on life support, the artificial love being fed to the creature through a thin tube as it rested. The princesses, and Amethistle, were understandably shocked. The Changeling's dark slick green face was a pale yellow, gurgling as it looked dazed, and ill.
"Minor setback: Changeling: Sick. the creature had consumed some artificial love before, but its body is starting to refuse to use natural love as energy for the creature, as natural love seems to act more as a poison, or in this insectoid's case, a pesticide. This may be a genetic hinderance in both counterparts of changelings, reformed and not. It's possible this changeling can't take love the natural way, so in order to properly consume it, it has to be artificial. That's a major mental note I'll have to keep in mind if the plan to send it to PonyVille is still viable. Just have to remind it to consume artificial love, and not natural love... if it lives long enough for that to happen."
The camera cuts to the stallion and the dragon, Skorab, having a conversation.
"Skorab, if you're concerned with my well-being, then don't. It's like you told me when we agreed to work together on this. Dragons don't do friends. We are work colleagues, and nothing more. And as for my mental state, I underestimated the Phosgryph's physical strength, but it definitely could've sunk a claw or two into my head, if given the chance." "Says the unicorn who can't do anything on his own. It's because of your royal highnesses, we got the perfect project to bring every creature together, by exploring the benefits, the pros of what could happen if we just come together. And yeah, I did say dragons don't do friends, but that little purple dragon with the princess of friendship is no ordinary dragon, and I for one, am tired of being labeled as a dumb firebreathing brute. So what's say you, you wanna give this friendship thing a shot, or do you want to perish alone, with only your work to keep you company?"
It seemed like things were getting friendly between these two workers, up until that last bit by Skorab. The video ends there, and there's 6 more tapes in the first stack. And there were 3 stacks of 10 tapes in total.
"One more tape for now. I need to gather this tape's information and gather my thoughts." Luna stated to Amethistle. The pegasus nodded, putting in the 5th tape, which started off in a way unlike the first 4. In the start of the video, it was a small and quiet scene of Stable and Skorab taking a break, playing paper hoofball, and discussing something that got a genuine laugh out of the both of them, despite the audio being missing. The footage cuts to the Phosgryph, codenamed Solara, who was reading the latest Daring Do book, and not much would happen in the first few minutes till the footage cut to the slowly recovering Changeling, now codenamed Morphius. The face was less yellow, and he could get up more at most of the time. But the strangest thing was what didn't seem to happen at all.
The video ended abruptly, escaping the VHS as Amethistle looked towards Luna, and seemed a bit surprised by something that caused the pegasus to shiver. Luna, who wasn't feeling anything abnormal about her, looked at herself in a mirror, still seeing the same Luna that woke up in the middle of the night for an urgent summons. Amethistle decided to then call it a night and left the tapes in the room, while Celestia and Luna returned to their rooms. As Celestia went to sleep, Luna continued her duty to watch over the dreams of many, even as she felt an unexpected nip in the air.
