A room. A humongous, dark, sterile room. It smelt of blood and other bodily fluids and emanations. This "room" was as big as three hangars, both in height and size. It was arranged to have several small segments separated by fences connected to strong metal poles. Each segment was extremely tiny, and each held a pony. However, to the unknowing, something seemed strange here. There were only two types here, but there were hundreds, if not thousands of the same one. Some had small modifications, such as sizes or colors, but the majority were similar. The different ones were dragged away by bipedal creatures in dark blue suits lined in mint green. The only way to access these containers were by the only doors lining the only exits, and these doors were protected each by two other bipeds in armor of the same color. These armors looked pointed and made up of segmented plates, but with a black protective fabric underneath for body temperature regulations. They all held a strange assault rifle unknown to many, and their yellow visors looked like three horizontal lines of glowing torment to the subjects closest to the doors, as if the exits themselves weren't torturous enough.
Each segment had its own door as well, and on these doors sat an electronic display tablet showing the name of the subject within it. Every now and then, a few bipeds with the mint green on their suits would pass by with another wearing a white lab-coat. Sometimes they had hair, sometimes they wore a type of metal cap over their heads. Whenever they came by, their imposing nature frightened the closest subjects who would scurry along the floor to the farthest location possible of these entities. When one would turn to face a shaking subject, and remove their arms from their backs, the future victim knew what this incurred, and would fight their captors with all their might, with nothing achieved but delaying the inevitable.
One of these segments held a single pony, as per all of the segments, but this one was special. On the cage was displayed:
Subject E1058.
Survival period: 3675 days
Defects: Perfect anatomical structure within comparison to original. Zero percent destabilization.
That was it. Nothing more. This pony's coat was of a serene night blue, with specs of dirtied up and non-maintained pieces litered here and there. Her mane and tail were of a bizarre, indescribable appearance. They seemed ethereal and with form, but they had the exact appearance of the night, although they too were somehow poorly kempt and did not flow like the new subjects who were tossed in their cells. She sat on her dirty mattress, rolled up into a ball. She could not see anything but the dark horrors around her, so she preferred to cuddle up into a corner and drift off into her imagination, dreaming about being in a forest full of beautiful flowers. The faint sunlight just giving a perfect combination of darkness and light. The serene beauty of the green trees flowing in the wind and the crispy grass brushing against her legs was so enjoyable! Even better were the blue flowers with a delicious smell around her.
*SLAM*
Subject E1058 was awoken from her dream so suddenly and poked her head up to look around. She had briefly forgotten the crispiness of her dirty fur. The only sounds of ambience in this place were screams of terror, screams of refusal, and the sounds of instruments sawing into bodies. Occasionally, and this was rare, a new specimen would look at their body and tremble. Their throats only producing wisps of restrained air, and scream out at what happened to them. The response was always the same: a mocking chuckle. Soon, they would perish too, but E1058? Oh. She had been around longer than anyone in this place. Longer than any can remember. She wasn't one of the first, oh no. It's simply that the numbers of the specimens nowadays would range to the hundred thousands despite the millions that existed. She didn't quite understand how this system worked, but it was linked to letters and symbols. There WAS another who lived longer than her, and she was thrown back into her own cell in front.
E1058 waited for the creatures to go away, shying and averting her gaze as one turned to look at her. When they were far away, she hurried up to her weak hooves and gallopped to the cell directly connected to hers and locked her face at the white entity, her own face on the bars. This white one was in an even worse state than 1058. Her fur was mainly gray and brown, and her mane and tail had turned into a gooey red glob. Despite these, she got back up to her hooves easily and turned around looking at her neighbor, smiling. 1058 gave out a sigh of relief.
"What did they do to you this time?"1058 asked.
"They tried mixing my dna with some creature from another world. It got rejected. Then they tried adding in some mechanical parts. I did see some new ones being brought in."
"Nothing new then?"
"I'm afraid not."
1058 sighed. The pony in front of her, just like all the rest, had a horn and wings which served no real purpose. As for the age difference, this pony was called F535. Ever since 1058 got into the facility, she had met this pony and both formed a friendly relationship that had yet to die away.
"I believe they're coming again."
"Hm?"
Like usual, another group of four suited bipeds came with a scientist between them. This one was called "Doctor" by the members of the facility. He had a mechanical arm and wore strange glasses with lenses that would be switched by small robotic arms placed on the support of the glasses. They arrived right in front of 1058's cell with a dead silence. Everyone in that block was silent. Right in front of E1058's cell was specimen C185002. She had 535's body, but she was...black, with holes on her legs and a crustaceous black exoskeleton. Her mane and tail were like algae in swamp waters, and her horn was crooked and holed. The Doctor spoke in a semi-whisper, semi-raspy voice:
"Ah. I see. You were taken from that dna batch. You seem to have properties of another species as well. One who can modify their bodies." he chuckled."Take her away." he said as he snapped his fingers.
The black pony screamed in horror and charged her way out of the cell, slamming the four suited bipeds against the solid fences, barely making them stutter. Doctor simply moved out of the way, his face devoid of emotion, and his arms crossed behind his back. The two guards prepared their guns and aimed for the fleeing pony creature.
"No!" she yelled, tears streaming across her face."I need to go home! I want to get back to my mother and father! I don't belong here! I have my family to get to! Let me g--"
Several flashes of light, sounds of continuous thunder, and the pony was on the floor in a pile of blood. Tears still trickled down her face, and the other specimens gasped in horror as they stepped back. Doctor walked towards the corpse and gently kicked it, assuring the limpness of the body. There was still a bit of life, so this creature knelt down and whispered in the dead pony's ear:
"You think they would accept you like this? You think they would still care about you? No one would care about you anymore, and no one would ever love you. We destroyed your future, because you already had none."
The black pony gave a quiet stutter as more tears ran from her face until nothing but a faint expelling of air came from the body. Doctor stood back and sighed.
"Tch. Pity. He was going to be a perfect test subject. So much could have been accomplished. Such a waste. Take her body to the extraction chamber to reproduce this dna and perfect it, then send the body to the incinerator." he told the guards.
They nodded and dragged the body away into the clean, white room beyond as two new guards took their place. Doctor scratched his chin a bit and walked back to the two eldest specimens. He gave a quick smile.
"Anytime you are willing to 'croak', as some might say, just tell me."
"Hmph. You'll never break us. Your first specimens had already failed and were let loose in the original world of these bodies."
His eyes widened.
"Oh yes. We know a lot about your efforts in the tower. I wonder how?" the white mare falsely questioned and looked sideways with a smile while tilting her head.
Doctor's hands cracked, and he bared his teeth."You best watch your tone, F535. Past mistakes were caused because we knew not what we were doing. Now we have a proper procedure. All has been going to plan, I assure you. All these deaths are leading to the perfect models." he boasted proudly.
"Tcheah. Like that's going to ever happen. You're at what...your billionth try? I bet 'Blueberry' and 'Rasberry' would have been great to still have." 1058 mocked, her face scrunching up.
"...Come to think of it, you're next on the list, 1058. You're up for muscular tension enhancer. I hope your legs don't rip off."
Doctor reached in and shocked E1058 with a strange tesla rod he hid in his coat pocket. This was enough to incapacitate the poor pony and drag her away. She had been here many times before. This place had clean air, plants, light that blinded her powerfully. The trail of blood from before was there as well. While she was going through the left doorway, the trail went to the right. 1058 faded out for a moment, only to find herself attached to a metal bench. Several bipeds wearing masks and goggles surrounded her table, and Doctor was there as well. This room had cabinets and strange metallic crates everywhere. Doctor when to grab a syringe and a strange tool and alarmmed the free side of his fists onto the table.
"Time for some experimentation. Let's start with your eyes, shall we?"
The needle slowly came closer and closer, and 1058 couldn't close her eyes which were being held open by the others."NOOOOO!"
1058 was tossed back into her cell, her entire body twitching uncontrollably. 535 noticed and stopped batting a piece of fluff in the air to crawl towards the fence and rest her head on her hooves as if holding her cranium up and still smiled.
"Are you going to die now?"
"N-no!"
"Then get over your spasms!"
"I...can't..."
"Nonsense! If I could overcome a defect that was eating away at my flesh, then I think you can get over your simple spasms."
"Hnnngh. You're...right...I'll start...by breathing in calmly."
1058 did just that, and little by little, her body began to relax and the convulsions slowly ceased to nothing. E1058 let her breath go and started gasping for air.
"There you go."
"Thanks a lot. I don't know what I would be without you."
"You'd be dead." she laughed.
"That's not funny."
"Sure it is. They can't kill us, and the grim reaper won't come. Oh! Please excuse me. Urgent business calls."
"Oh. Okay. Sorry." 1058 stuttered and averted her gaze.
To keep the subjects in basic health levels, the facility created small toilets and bathing "pots" in the ground. They weren't very clean, but they allowed to keep the precious test subjects from dying of some mundane thing like disease. If they had to die, it would be from the experimentations. Another scream, another subject dragged away. These were the typical happenings in the pit of darkness. No love anywhere. No comfort anywhere. No happiness.
"How about you go to sleep now? They should bring the food later on."
"Sure. I'll just go back on my mattress."1058 slowly wobbled her way back to that filthy mattress and fell asleep in almost no time at all.
535 simply gave another heartwarming smile. She might have been rough, but she only cared. They were the eldest in that facility, and if she didn't do anything, then they would perish, and she had seen enough death. 535 lied down on her magic and began to pat at the same ball of fluff from before like a cat.
1058 suddenly awoke from her slumber by the screams of 535. E quickly got up and ran towards the cage wall to see her friend being tied up and placed in a straight jacket. She was struggling against her oppressors. Doctor was there, an evil smile on his face.
"What are you doing?! Leave her alone!"
"SILENCE you worthless pile of garbage. You do not have a say in this. The higher ups have deemed her as obsolete."
"W-what?!"she yelped as she saw her friend getting a muzzle.
535 began to cry and was trying to reach 1058, who promptly slammed her foreleg through the somehow indestructible barrier and grabbed hold of her friend's extended foreleg. This didn't come without consequence, as the blue pony's leg was cut up very badly to the point of profusive bleeding, but she didn't care. She held on tight, and was capable of holding 535 in place despite the four bipeds holding on and pulling on their side.
"LET HER GO!" E1058 shouted, her voice echoing of the walls, but barely attracting the attention of the other subjects who had long since abandoned hope.
Doctor slammed open the cell door and turned his tesla rod up to maximum effectiveness. 1058 was literally blown from her spot and ejected against the solid wall. Incapable of moving, she could only see her friend and her muffled screams as she slowly faded from consciousness. 535 clawing desperately at the floor before disappearing within the white nether would be 1058's last memories of her long time friend.
535 was sitting in her cell, her mane and tail a colorful pastel and her face still vibrant as ever despite the predicament. Another friend had died in the experiments.
"Yet another. Who is next?" she thought.
At that moment, a blue pony was dragged out of the doors and violently thrown into the cell next to her. A new subject to test on.
"Subject E1058. Beginning timer." a suited biped spoke before leaving.
The pony was crying as she held herself. She just lost everything, and even if she got out, she would never be recognized. 535 felt pity and went close to the fence, her eyes still as warm as ever.
"There there. Calm down. Everything is going to be alright."
"H-how can it be alright? Look what happened to me! They knocked me out when I was with my date, then they dragged me here. I was cut up by buzz saws while I was still awake, then prodded, then twisted into this thing after they stabbed me with a huge needle."
"I know. I had the same thing happen to me."
"How long have you been here? Are we going to die?"
"Well, I've been here for thirty years, I believe, and yes. Everyone dies eventually."
"Then I want to die in a forest, surrounded by trees. Is that too much to ask?! Let me out!" she screamed.
"Quiet down. They won't listen. They never do. You want a retreat to nature? Come close to me and I'll hum you a tune I was taught by my grandfather."
"Like a HUM is going to help me." the pony spat out. She curled herself up even more.
"Well, it's either that, or you can continue to hear those buzz saws digging into bone and the victims screaming as they suffer."535 smiled, knowing full well what the reaction would be as the newbie looked around in horror as she realized what the sounds were.
"Okay! Okay. Please."
535 gestured towards the fence, which the newbie reluctantly moved towards, but soon lied down next to this new face, and slowly found herself drifting away into a beautiful shaded forest as 535 hummed her tune.
"Thank you."E1058 thought as she silently cried in her corner.
She was alone again. Alone. Forever. Never dyeing. The others were too far and too broken to be of any help, so 1058 found herself staying on her mattress and dreaming her dreams, until she heard someone new get thrown into her friend's cell, which angered her. She paid no heed to this newbie until she heard:
"*sniffle* Nobody left. What did they do to me? I'm a pony, and a female at that. My family'll never take me back. I've got nothing left."
E1058's ears perked up, and she turned herself around to face the crying pony, who looked just like F535 but much cleaner.
"Perhaps I could help?"
"And who are you?!"
"Oh...just a long time inhabitant." she said with a smile.
The newbie walked towards the fence, which Doctor saw from the observatory at the very top of the chamber. He only grinned.
