"Sooo… what were you two doing?" asked Nox, looking at his pegasus friend and the mare on his back.
"Nothing. We weren't doing anything." Growled Cobalt Rain, rolling his eyes.
"Come on, tell me, you know I won't judge you." Snickered the unicorn. The pegasus just mumbled something while walking. Nox chuckled, before casually turning his head behind, attracted by a glint of light. One of his ears was suddenly cut off.
The the unicorn's cry of pain echoed through the corridor, as Nox raised a hoof towards the bleeding stump of his ear. Cobalt turned, looking fearfully at his friend, while Silver Image jumped off from his back: in front of them, on one of the wall of the corridor, was the shadow, one of his hindlegs raised, a long black claw poking out from it.
"Run!" shouted Cobalt Rain. Gizmo Fidget had told him about the shadow that killed Gear Box. The mare sprinted towards the suffering unicorn, sliding under him and placing him on her back, before starting to run behind the pegasus. The shadow screeched, and began following them, sliding on the walls.
"We have to lead that thing away from the infirmary!" shouted the pegasus, flapping his wings to help his running.
"Then where?" asked the scared mare, that even with a grown unicorn on her back had managed to reach Cobalt Rain.
"Don't know! Just run!"
"We have to get in a dark place quick!" squealed Nox, trying to stop the bleeding from his ear.
They ran through the corridors, with the costant screech of the shadow behind them. Suddenly, the passage in front of them opened, showing a walkway suspended over a sea of darkness, while in front of them there was only a little platform, where there were a couple of elevator doors built into the wall. One of them was open, showing the little elevator cabin, lighted by a little bulb. In front of the elevators there was the lifeless body of a mare in a lab coat.
"In the elevator!"
"That's not such a good idea, I think…" murmured the mare, while running over the metallic walkway.
The pegasus darted inside, followed by the mare, who harshly putted down the unicorn before slamming the doors shut. Cobalt flapped his wings, rising towards the ceiling of the elevator, and slammed his hooves against the bulb. With a rain of sparks, the elevator went pitch black.
There was a hiss from outside, and the door began to open. The three ponies held their breaths, when suddenly there was a screetch, and the door closed again.
"See…? It was a good plan. He can't enter into areas without lights." Cobalt exclaimed proudly in the darkness
"Yeah…that's true… we have met that thing before, you know?" sounded the voice of Nox, who was trying to catch his breath. "Buck, that's hurting…" he murmured, probably pressing a hoof to his ear.
"I wasn't talking about that…" answered the mare. "I was talking about closing ourselves in a sealed cage suspended over nothing."
The three stayed silent for some seconds, when suddenly they heard above them a low screech and the noise of wobbling metallic cables.
"Oh, come on! No no no no…" pleaded the pegasus, before the elevator trembled and suddenly dropped down at high speed.
-oOo-
"We coudn't find them." Stated Broken Jinx, looking at the mare. "Blaze and I have searched all over the nearby corridors. We just found this." He said, raising a ear lobe with his magic grasp. The mare bit her lips, rubbing her forehead.
"So what, we have to assume that the mare went crazy and killed them?" she asked, dropping her head on her pillow.
"No way. Silver Image is fine, and if they didn't try anything sneaky, Twisted Reflex wouldn't have any reason to come out!" exclaimed Mister Moneybags.
"Even if I'm sure you all think like me that the opinions of a pony like Moneybags have to be taken really lightly, since his IQ…"
"Throw yourself under a train, monster!"
"… I think that his diagnosis is correct. Silver Image is a pony sane of mind, except for the parasitic personality that she can't control. But from what I can say after analyzing her, she would only be a threat to those who are a threat to her original personality. So, if Cobalt Rain and Nox didn't do anything stupid…"
"Ok ok, I got the idea… any other ideas?" growled the mare.
"Maybe hounds…?" asked scared Gizmo Fidget, remembering his previous experiences with the modified diamond dogs.
"We would have heard their barking. And also, there were no such tracks… honestly, there was no traks at all." stated the unicorn guard, tapping his chin. "The problem now is that we lost our doctor… prisoner 188018…"
Twisted Soul huffed, annoyed by his prison's code.
"…Is unable to perform complex operations."
"What about you alicorn? Can't you use your fancy magic?" asked the mare to Blaze, who was standing behind the group. The alicorn blinked, seemingly surprised to have been addressed.
"I'm an infantry unit without a specialization, ma'am. I've been implemented with four basic spells: two offensive spells, one for single target, one for damages over areas, a shield spell and a generic healing spell. It's good for everything, from poisoning to broken bones. But since it's so generic, it's also weak. I can help units on the battlefield, but I'm not of the medic breed."
"What the hay is an alicorn doing here anyway?" asked the mare to no one in particular.
"He is the only survivor of a military project. Did you hear about the changeling attack against Canterlot, some months ago?"
"I heard rumors. So?"
"The Princesses authorized the creation of soldiers to use in an eventual war against the changelings. Those alicorns are created with genetic materials coming from pegasi, unicorns and earth ponies, and also griffins, maximizing all their qualities. The labs managed to create three healthy breeds of alicorns, after a great number of failures. But with the jailbeak… all the samples are gone, except Blaze, the only full generated one."
"Next question: why the hay do you know all of that stuff while I, one of the overseers ofthe facility, don't know that?"
Broken Jinx shrugged.
"Ok… now… changing the subject… you said that Crystal Horn was searching for our magnetic cards?"
"What magnetic cards?" interrupted Gizmo Fidget, looking at the mare.
"The magnetic card that was given to every of us overseers. Together, they are supposed to open the door to the three last levels of the labs, the storage area…"
"So…this Crystal guy is searching to enter one of the most secured levels of this place, to get access to only-Celestia-know what?"
"Basically, yes." Nodded Smooth Heart. "This sucks. We have to contact the outside, ask for help. I can't believe this…"
"How? We can't go up to the office of the first level, the doors are closed." Stated the red stallion, scratching his head.
"We can try with the asylum radio station. After all, the elevators are working." Said Broken Jinx.
"The elevators are what now? Wasn't there supposed to be a blackout?" exclaimed the mare, darting her gaze to the unicorn.
"Well… yes…"
"I give up!" groaned the mare, pressing her muzzle into her pillow. "Let me sleep a little more. We'll see what to do later, considering that McGash has to recover."
"I don't know why… but I have a bad feeling about all of this…" murmured Mister Moneybags.
-oOo-
"Uh… son of a manticore…" growled Cobalt Rain, moving out of the elevator. The cabin had emergency brakes that had worked wonderfully to slow the fall, probably saving their lives, even if now the cabin was ruined.
"Are you two still in one piece?" asked the pegasus, looking back.
"We are ok…" muttered the mare. "But I think your friend here was knocked out." she said, dragging out from the debris the unconcious body of Nox.
"He's alive, just fainted." Said the mare, looking at the pegasus's face.
"If we are in the asylum, there must be some rooms for the doctors, right?"
The mare nodded. "Yeah, they have all a room in the first floor. They spoke about that during the sessions." She said, grabbing the unicorn and putting him on her back. The pegasus nodded and began walking, followed by Silver Image. After a few minutes, they arrived in a long corridor, with doors on both sides.
The mare managed to smash one door with a kick, revealing a small, simple room.
"We'll stay here." Stated the pegasus, while the mare put the unicorn on the bed. "When he's recovered, we will figure out what to."
"Ok…" murmured the mare, sitting on a big, green sofa on the other side of the room. The pegasus sealed the door closed with some forniture, before joining Silver Image. The mare looked at him in a strange manner.
"You know… we weren't doing anything strange, in that cell…" she mumrmured, looking at the pegasus.
Cobalt Rain looked at her, raising an eyebrow. "Yes. I know, I was there too."
"I…I mean… that's strange, isn't it?"
The pegasus blinked. Suddenly the mare pinned him down on the sofa, covering both of their faces with her mane. The pegasus tried to struggle, to no avail. The strength of the mare was overwhelming.
"I mean… because there are some needs that a mare needs to satisfy, once in a while…and closed in here, it was impossible…"
The pegasus blinked in realization. "Oh…" His wings opened with a "sproing" noise.
-oOo-
Deep down beneath them, in front of an enormous console, there was a zebra, tapping on a keyboard She was looking at a central monitor, where there was, enlarged, the view of a security camera. The enormous black pegasus behind her was looking at the monitor too.
"We have to record that, too?" asked the zebra, without moving her gaze.
"We have to record everything that could be useful for Crystal's experiment, Zira, but I'm sure he will allow us to make some copies for ourselves."
"Yeah…" muttered the zebra, looking at the monitor. "What kind of position is that?" she asked to the pegasus, pointing a hoof towards the image.
"The twirled typhoon. Only pegasus can do that." answered the bored the black pegasus.
"That's cool…" murmured Zira, looking at the monitor, as if hypnotized.
"Enjoying yourselves?" asked Crystal Horn, walking towards them.
"Yup. Some low quality porn." Huffed the pegasus, turning towards him. The unicorn looked at the screen, scratching his chin.
"Mh… It's not desperate, as they are going to die in two hours, and plus one of the two is a sexually-repressed prisoner. So yeah, good old low quality porn." The zebra mumbled something, her eyes glued to the view.
"I can do better than that." huffed the black pegasus.
"Problem is that you do that only with fillies. That's why you are here, isn't it Plea?" asked the unicorn, placing his eyes on him. The pegasus flinched a little under his gaze.
"It's not my fault they're so cute…." He mumbled, looking at the floor. The unicorn just huffed, before moving his gaze toward the metal door: a loud screech was heard, and the shadow slid under it. With a swirl, it crossed the floor and placed itself under the unicorn, connecting its legs with Crystal Horn's. The unicorn smirked: his shadow was back.