The Aurora Project

by Twinleaf

Rating: teen
Tags: Dark, Alternate Universe, Adventure, Random
Length: 2983

The story of four ponies in their life in a secret facility deep underground in the Everfree Forest

Nightlight, Day Fire, Dusk Drop, and Dawn Star awaken in a secret facility, remembering barely anything of their past. They go on with their lives, slowly remembering their dark past and the truth about their superiors.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-03-19 18:14:05 UTC

Prologue

Night galloped through the forest. Her flank bleeding from the deep gash she received from her pursuer. She glances back and curses, for the stallion is gaining on her. She trips and tumbles in the underbrush, cursing and grunting as she comes to an abrupt halt when she hits the trunk of a large oak. The pursuer grinds to a halt in front of her, smiling grimly down at her.

"So... You thought you could run?" He hissed, his eyes glow red. Night looks up at him, glaring at him with extreme rage.

"What, you thought you'd just... Run off with that little stallion and have a family? HA! Well, you didn't think about ME!" He rears up and Night's world goes black.

Now that you've seen this... Allow me to explain somethings... One, our hero isn't dead... Because what kind of story would that be? and secondly, she isn't as she seems... She isn't your average run-of-the-mill mare, oh no no no! She is somewhat of a 'test subject' in an odd facility in the depths of the Everfree forest... So, as you may have guessed, she has somethings that are different about her... For one, her mental capabilities are extremely higher than that of a pony you would find in Canterlot or Manehatten. She has a special ability as well, she can become invisible at will. And now you probably ask 'Well why couldn't she become invisible and lose her pursuer?' Well, I can't tell you that much because I wouldn't want to spoil the story for you! And believe me, you won't want me to spoil it for you, oh no... You're in for quite a treat! I hope you find our little tale an interesting one!~

Awakening

Our story begins with a mysterious beginning, for it begins deep in the Everfree Forest far under the ground. The room where it all begins is dark and cold. Four beds line the walls of the large room, each of which have something in them. This is where we meet our heroes.

Night stirs in her bunk, her eyes slowly slide open. She looks to her side, Day and Dusk are still fast asleep, though Dawn is sitting on the side of his bunk. Dawn, not accustomed to the darkness, just sits there, waiting for the lights to come on just like every other day. Night sits up, looking around drowsily. The room was quiet, though a little commotion comes from out in the hall. Day sits up and yawns, her orange and yellow mane crazy. Dusk, the only one not awake, snores and rolls out of his bed, hitting the floor with a thud. Which startles Night to the point of her squeaking quietly. Dusk fumbles around in the dark, wondering why he was out of his bed.

"Dusk... You alright?" Day asks sleepily. Dusk replied with an affirmative grunt as he lays back in bed. Once he does so the room becomes flooded with bright, fluorescent light. They all blink a few times and get up and head to the bathroom. Once Day sees herself in the mirror she squeals with terror and immediately begins to brush her hair and style it. Night brushes her teeth and rinses and heads to the shower. In the boy's bathroom, Dusk sits in an aromatherapy bath as per the doctor's orders. Dawn looks at himself in the mirror and giggles at the crazy hairstyles he can make with his long blonde hair. Night is the first out and she walks to the gym as she always does on a monday. She signed in at the terminal next to the gym's door and the door opens with a beep. She strolls in and smiles at the attendant, Buck. He is really nice to her.

"The usual, Night?" Buck asked, smiling. Night smiled back with a blush.

"No, I feel like hitting the range today. May I have the shotgun course?" Night says happily. Buck nodded and he guided her to a door with a shotgun shell on it and a warning sign that read 'Warning, Eye and Ear protection required beyond here' and had an arrow pointing to a rack on the wall that had ear muffs and ballistic glasses. Though some were missing, and there is hardly ever any missing. Night reluctantly grabbed her normal set and once inside the door she grabs her favorite type of shotgun, the semi-auto short barrel. She smiles and gallops to the starting gate, once there she sees another pony in the place next to her. He looks over to her and laughs

"A mare?! Hah! This'll be fun!" He cackled. Night frowned and thought to herself that she was gonna show this jerk up... The starting bell beeped and Night burst from the gate, firing at the first target and hitting her mark, she shifted to the right, taking out two more and she looks up and shoots the extra points marker that only a few ponies know about. Buck had told her about it one day. The stallion is struggling to keep up, taking looks over to Night, amazed by the fluid movement of her as she takes the targets down. Night is like a machine, aim, shoot, repeat. She finishes and looks back at the stallion, he struggles with the more cumbersome pump action twelve gauge. Once he finishes, he walks over to her and smiles.

"You're amazing..." He grins at her and she blushes, not used to get complements, let alone from cute stallions. "Who are you?" Night blinked, she had just realized she had never met this pony. He was completely new to her, and that's unusual. She knew everypony who lived here. But he was an anomaly.

"M-My name's Nightlight... A-And you?" Night replied shakily. He smiled at her.

"I'm Delta! Nice to meet you, miss!" He seemed younger than her, though he was mature.

"H-How old are you...?"

"Well... I turn 19 in a month or two..." He's older than her, yet he seemed so young. She stared at him, feeling an odd attraction to him. He just smiles warmly and does the same.

"W-Well... w-where did you come from?" I asked, wondering why she had never seen him before.

"I was born here... Why?"

"Oh... J-Just wondering..." They just stand there in an awkward silence for what seemed like minutes, then Delta breaks the silence.

"Do you normally come around here?"

"No. I normally go through the flying track today..."

"What's your fastest time?" He says, spreading his wings and smiling.

"2-2:53..." As she says this, his wings droop and his jaw drops in amazement.

"You're that Nightlight?! The one with the track record?!"

"Y-Yeah, I guess..." She blushes and smiles. What happens next surprises Night. He hugs her, his fur warm and greeting. She awkwardly wraps her hooves around him. She blushes deeply, she had never been hugged. Ever. Period. But she never wanted this to stop, it felt so nice and warm. Delta finally broke the hug with a blush.

"Well... I gotta go... Bye, Night!" He gallops off, a little skip in his step. She notices that an immense amount of time went by, seeing that it was 8 PM. Night trotted out of the range and went back to the room, she was met by a shrieking little brother of hers.

"AAAAIIIIIEEEEEEE!!!!" Dawn yelled as he ran around the room, his mane on fire. Day sits in the corner, cackling at her handiwork.

"Day... Seriously...? Th'hell is wrong with you?" Night looks at her, who just now noticed her sister.

"Uh... oops..." She looked guilty.

"Fix him..." Day nodded and got up, grabbing Dawn and extinguishing the flame. Day apologizes and walks to her bed and lays there. Dawn shuffles to his bed and lays there, shivering and mumbling something. Dusk was already in his bed, hiding under his covers shaking. Night walks over to Dusk and hugs her little brother, who looks up at her and whimpers.

"It'll be ok, hun... Just sleep and have sweet dreams..." She gets up and lays in her own bed and slowly drifts off to sleep.

Not-so-average ponies

You know how I explained Night's special "talents"? Well, her whole family has what you would call superpowers... But they try not to use them in front of other ponies, unless dire circumstance do they go against this. And, without too many spoilers, I think they are going to have more than enough dire circumstances very soon. Anyways, back to what I was going to tell you. Where was I... Ah, yes. Their "superpowers"... Well, as you could guess, Day Fire is an elemental pony, she has the power to control fire. She demonstrated that with Dawn last night. Dawn Star can bend reality, like Discord. yet he has hardly any control over it and he isn't very powerful. Lastly, Dusk can change his form at will, normally staying animal forms, but he isn't limited to that. All of them have a way of communicating via their thoughts

The next day, the four of them were woken by somepony pounding on the door. Dusk stayed huddled under his covers. Dawn looked around sleepily. Night was out of bed, staring at the door. Day dragged herself out of bed and walked to the door.

"Oh would you just hold on?!" She yelled at the banging. She entered her code as the lights came on and the door slid open. Delta stood there, smiling and holding a box under his wing. He looks scared now, seeing the different pony answer the door.

"Um... Does Night live here...?" He asked worried that he had the wrong door. Night's eyes shot open and she ran to the door, knocking Day out of the way.

"Hi! w-what are you doing here?" Night said happily, slightly nervous. Delta retrieves the box from below his wing and hands it to Night. She looks at the box in surprise.

"Open it!" He says eagerly. Night pulls the top off of the box and looks at it's contents. Her jaw drops and she looks up from the box to Delta's ecstatic expression and back to the box. A blade lay in the box, only a small dagger. Though it's blade was the shape of a thunderbolt. She looks back to her cutie mark and gasps. It is just like her mark. She retrieves the object from the paper and wood shavings. What she held in her hooves looked as though a master craftsman had forged it from a lightning bolt itself. It's intricate engraving was amazing. She opens her mouth to say something but she finds herself without the power to even whimper. She looks up, tears in her eyes.

"Th-This... Is..." is all she could say before an urge overpowered her, She dropped the box and wraps her hooves around him and kisses him passionately. Delta stood there, shocked by her reaction, though he kisses back after he realized what had happened. After what seemed like minutes, Night broke the kiss and blushed heavily, picking the blade and box up.

"W-Well... Y-You wanna come in...?" She asks, still flustered and blushing from the kiss.

"Um... Sure! If it's ok?" He said, trying to be polite. Night nodded and rushed off to her bed, putting the box and blade under her covers. Delta walks in, looking around. He walks over to Night, glancing at Dusk's bed, which is shaking.

"Who's that?" He asks looking at Dusk's bed.

"Dusk Drop, he isn't good with ponies he doesn't know well..." Night replied while looking at Day, who was grinning and walking slowly over to the two of them.

"Oh Night~ Who's your friend?~" Night tenses up and her face turns a bright crimson. Day extends a hoof to Delta and smiles.

"I'm Day Fire~ Nighty's twin sis~" She giggles as he shakes it and smiles.

"Delta... Are you all new here? I've never seen you around here..." Night and Day exchange confused glances.

"No, we've been here since... well since we can remember..."

"Oh... Well then... You wanna meet up sometime? I mean, besides now..." Night giggles and smiles

"Sure, I'd love that..." She hugs him and kisses him. After a little while and extreme conversing about trivial matters, Delta leaves with a cordial goodbye. Night sits on her bed and smiles dreamily, thinking about Delta. And I would be lying if some of those thoughts were a little dirty. But that's for another story... She lays in her bed and drifts off to sleep.

Strange Happenings

"I can't stop the bleeding! It's too big of a cut!"

Night's head shoots up, she whirls her head around and looks at the clock... 3:30 in the morning... It's four hours till she actually had to wake up, but what was she dreaming about... The dream slowly faded from her mind, though the thought still lingered... Who was it... she found herself back in the dream before long, she was laying in the dirt, two blurry forms of ponies stood over her, one was obviously a mare... she couldn't make out the other. there were voices but they weren't the ponies over her, they were in front of them.

"I knew you were pathetic little weaklings... GUARDS! Take them back... and run them through mental cleansing..."

She felt like she was being dragged away as the dream started to deteriorate... Night awoke again, this time to the sound of shouting.

"NIGHT! WAKE UP YA DITZ!" Day yelled in the now bright room, she was dressed in her uniform, which meant that it was inspection day. The day when some stooges in suits come and look around and ask too many questions. Night got up and galloped lazily to her dresser and throws on her uniform and fixes her mane and such. She lined up next to her sister and waited for the inspector.

A mare trots into the room, her deep blue, nearly black mane combed to the side and up in a bun. Her grey coat shines in the bright, artificial light. Though her cold, grey eyes bore into the four ponies in front of her.

"You, purple... You come with me first..." She addressed Dusk in such a manner for him to squeak and fall over. The mare merely rolls her eyes and points to Dawn.

"You then... Come with me... You two, revive him..." Night and Day help their brother up and lay him on his bed, Day fanning him gently. Dawn follows the mare out of the room. Night and Day look at each other.

(What is going on...?) Day projected her thought to Night, a way of speaking that they learned here. It was good for keeping secrets.

(She's not the normal agent...) Night looked at Dusk, worried.

(Yeah... Hey, you ok?)

(Ye-... No...) Night looks at the floor, a tear comes to her eye.

(Wanna talk about it?) Day walks over to her and nuzzled her sister.

(T-The dream I was having, when you woke me... I feel... I feel like it was more than a dream...) Night looks at her sis and the tear falls down her cheek. Dawn is thrown in through the door and the mare walks back in.

"Next! You, Firemane..." She points to Day, who doesn't acknowledge the mare. This wasn't the best of ideas, for the mare gallops to her and tackles Day, pinning her down to the floor. Day growls and glares up and the agent.

"I said move..." She said, Day only glared more. "MOVE!"

Day got up and walked with the mare to the door, which slid shut as they passed it. Night looked at her frightened brother, her melancholy expression held tears in her eyes. She hated when her brothers and sister s were scared. She sat next to the lump under the covers and sang a lullaby...

"Dear little foal, don't you fret now, for it will be alright for mother is here.

Dear little foal, please don't cry, the evils have gone.

Dear little foal, your mother shall protect you, so sleep now in peace..."

As Night went on singing, Dusk slowly pulled the covers off of himself and hugged Night, whimpering slightly. Night embraced him and let her tear fall.

"P-Please, don't cry..." Dusk said in his quiet, whisper of a voice. Night looked down to him and smiled.

"O-Ok." She answered, wiping the tears from her eyes. Night reached down and gave Dusk a small peck on the cheek. The both of them sat on the bed, still hugging, until the mare comes back and says the inspection is over.

"I got enough from those two anyways... you may return to your regular activities..." And she left. Day flopped onto her bed with a grunt.

"Day... What happened?" Night asked as she looked at her sister. Day lifted her head and looked over to her, her expression a mixture of bitter fatigue and rotten hatred, with a pinch of tart sadness.

"Why do we have to stay here...? We've nothing to do but the same, boring things day after day..." Day finally replied after a minute or two, the passionate words peppered Night like the buckshot from a shotgun.

"I-I... I don't know... I-I never thought about that..." She says with a hurt tone. Then, her expression changed from the hurt little puppy, to a realization. She had never been outside if the complex. only straying from her routine once, and that was yesterday. Her only knowledge of the outside world came from the immense library in the facility. Night lay her head on the soft pillow, Dusk still wrapped around her dozing slightly. The lights went out and Dawn fumbled around in the dark trying to get to his bed as Night drifted off into a dream.