For the first time in a while Twilight got to sleep in an actual bed. The bed wasn’t the most comfortable one she had ever slept in, but it was an improvement over the cell that she had been forced to sleep in for the past few nights. Compared to that, the hospital bed was perfect.

Despite this, Twilight still couldn’t get any sleep. Everything that she found out yesterday was swimming through her head. It wasn’t that Twilight had a difficult time understanding what Dread told her, or that she thought that the information had some kind of hidden meaning that she was trying to figure out. No, the information that Dread had told her was meant to be taken at face value, Twilight was sure of that. And yet she could not stop herself from going over every last detail in her head, as though she was trying to figure something out.

“How can this be?” Twilight asked Dread shortly after he had shown her Fluttershy, “How can she be alive? Didn’t Pinkamena rip her to pieces?”

“That is correct, Miss Sparkle,” Dread answered in his electronic voice, “Miss Pie did indeed tear Miss Shy apart, but she did not kill her.”

“But how could Fluttershy have survived that? Ponies have died from less than what Pinkamena did to her!”

“Indeed, many ponies have died from less serious injuries. In fact it is purely by luck that Miss Shy survived.”

“But how did you save her?” Twilight asked, “I mean judging from just how bad she was hurt, Fluttershy should’ve died shortly after you tore Pinkamena off of her. Even if you went back for her after Pinkamena was locked up, the time that it would’ve taken you to get back to Fluttershy would’ve been too long to save her.”

“After Miss Pie had been safely locked away I returned to where she had attacked Miss Shy to clean up the body. To my surprise, her heart was undamaged and still beating. I placed her as gently as I could on the cart that I use to transport cadavers and rushed Miss Shy to the facility’s emergency room. Once there I contacted Dr. Layne and asked for assistance.”

“I imagine that he wasn’t thrilled with the idea of helping some pony,” Twilight said.

"Miss Sparkle, I am shocked that you would say something like that,” Dread said, “What gave you the idea that Dr. Layne was opposed to helping ponies?”

“Well he’s not exactly the nicest pony around.” Twilight said, “I mean he called me vermin!”

“Dr. Layne has a tendency to be irritable, but that does not mean that he’s against helping ponies.”

“Could’ve fooled me;” Twilight muttered.

In her bed, Twilight opened her eyes. It was no use: she could not get herself to relax. Using her hoof, Twilight turned on the electric lamp that sat next to her bed. After a moment’s thought, Twilight climbed out of bed. It had been at least four days since Twilight had read a book, and that was an issue that needed to be remedied.

Twilight exited what was now technically her bedroom. Twilight smiled, the very fact that she was able to go looking for a book when every pony else was asleep made the alicorn happy. Ponies often take things like walking around for granted, and now that Twilight had spent the past couple of days in a cramped cell, the simple act of walking felt luxurious.

It wasn’t perfect however; Dread didn’t have the right tools to remove the substance on Twilight’s horn which prevented her from using magic. Twilight hated the fact that she was unable to practice magic. Before Sleipnir, Twilight made sure to spend at least one hour of every day practicing various spells, excluding days when she was helping one of her friends with something. Twilight’s wings were also still tied shut, although this didn’t bother Twilight as much, since she rarely ever used her wings even when they weren’t bound.

Twilight continued her quest for reading material. At the moment the biggest obstacle barring her from finding a book was the lack of light. It wasn’t that Twilight couldn’t see where she was going; there was just enough light for Twilight to make out vague shapes in the hospital; but if Twilight was going to have any luck in finding a book for herself, she would need some kind light to identify what it was she was seeing.

"If my horn wasn’t covered in this gunk,” Twilight muttered to herself, “then this wouldn’t be a problem.”

As she spoke to herself, Twilight noticed a flashing light in the corner of her eye. When Twilight turned to locate the strange light, she saw that it was coming from the laboratory. Curious, Twilight went to investigate the light.

As she walked, Twilight’s thoughts turned once more to Fluttershy, and what Dread had told her.

"It wasn’t easy to save her, Miss Sparkle.” Dread said after a short argument about Dr. Layne, “I never studied surgery, much less organ repair, so I have no doubts as to Dr. Layne’s responsibility for Miss Shy’s survival. Even so, we did not have the proper tools to safely repair Miss Shy’s body. We had no access to proper needles for stitching together her wounds, so we had to make do with standard sewing needles. Any blood that we had on hand was either the wrong type or spoiled, therefore we finally risked using samples of Type O blood that were a month out of date. But perhaps the most obvious place where we had to take risks was with her skin. If you’ll look you will see that there are multiple sections of her fur that are the wrong color. I took the skin off of a recently deceased pony and used it to repair areas of Miss Shy’s body where her own skin had been completely destroyed.”

"Why would you take so many risks?” Twilight asked, “You knew that you didn’t have the right tools to fix her, so why didn’t you just…?” Twilight did not want to finish that question.

“Because, Miss Sparkle, I would not have been able to live with myself if I had simply put her out of her misery.”

After a moment of walking, Twilight found the source of the flashing light; or rather she found the room that it was coming from. A door stood between her and the strange light. For a moment, Twilight stood before the door, wondering if opening it was the smart thing to do. Twilight didn’t know what was casting that light, or if it was safe to be around. It was very possible that the door that Twilight stood before closed intentionally to prevent any pony from blundering in and hurting themselves.

On the other side of the coin however, what if whatever was behind this door wasn’t dangerous? What if it was some strange new machine that Twilight had never had the pleasure of using before? This was a laboratory after all, and laboratories are meant for learning. Whatever was behind that door was almost certainly a device used to study something.

What exactly the machine was meant to study, Twilight didn’t have a clue. Twilight hadn’t completely done away with the possibility that whatever was behind the door was potentially dangerous, but curiosity had clouded her better judgment.

Eagerly, Twilight opened the door to see what was beyond it. What she found surprised her. What Twilight found was not some new machine used for science or something that was obviously dangerous. Behind the door was a room with four rods that had round, saucer-like objects on top of them. The rods were placed so that if one were to draw a line connecting them, it would form a perfect square. Twilight quickly found out what was causing the flashing light. Somehow these rods were producing an electric current between them, connecting at an oddly shaped object at their center. Upon closer inspection, Twilight saw that the object resembled a metal pony.

Twilight’s heart began to race. Realizing exactly what was at the center of these strange rods, Twilight began frantically searching the room for a button or switch; anything that could deactivate those weird columns. After some time, Twilight found a small red button with no label.

Without hesitation, Twilight pressed the button. Rather than turning them off however, pushing the button seemed to increase the voltage that the rods were producing. The room became almost blindingly bright from the electricity. Twilight pressed the button again, and this time the rods did shut off.

“Dread, are you alright?” Twilight called, her heart still racing. The android didn’t respond.

Twilight rushed up to the robot and began looking for a sign: something to assure her that her friend was okay. The first things Twilight inspected were the red lights on the android’s face, but they were producing no light. Twilight then checked the android’s metal casing. It was burned in places and hot to the touch but otherwise perfectly intact.

Twilight then began to search for a way of turning Dread back on. It was entirely possible that the electricity had only switched the android off. Yes, that had to be the answer! Dread must’ve been deactivated when he accidentally blundered into this high voltage area. All Twilight had to do to save her friend was find a button on him and press it.

Except that there was no ‘on’ button; or if there was one, Twilight was unable to locate it. After a moment, the truth of what must’ve happened began to dawn on her. The electricity produced by those rods had fried Dread’s circuits. Twilight’s metal friend was, for all intents and purposes, dead. Twilight had lost a friend.

Twilight grabbed at the lifeless clump of scrap metal that was once her friend. Tears began to form at the back of her eyes as she mourned.

“I’m sorry Dread.” Twilight said softly.

“Miss Sparkle?”

“You didn’t deserve to go like this. I am so sorry,” Twilight continued, the tears beginning to fall down her face.

“Miss Sparkle, could please get off me?”

Twilight blinked the tears out of her eyes.

“D-Dread?” She asked, as if to convince herself that she wasn’t hearing things.

“Yes, Miss Sparkle?”

“You’re not dead!”

“Was I supposed to be? If so then I am sorry to disappoint you.”

“But-but you were being electrocuted by those rod things! When I turned them off you were burned all over and you wouldn’t respond to anything I tried to do! I thought you were dead!”

“Well, I believe we’ve established that I am alive, Miss Sparkle.” Dread said, “Now, could you please get off of me?”

Twilight released the android.

“What are you doing up at this hour?” the android asked. “And, while we’re on the subject; why are you in my bed chamber?”

“This is your bedroom?” Twilight asked, looking around at the small enclosure. “There’s nothing here but those electric rod things!”

“They are called Tesla coils, Miss Sparkle.” Dread said.

“Excuse me?” Twilight asked, blushing slightly beneath her fur.

“I said Tesla coils, Miss Sparkle. It is two words; ‘Tesla’ and ‘coils’.”

“What are these ‘Tesla coils’?” Twilight asked, the words sounded alien to her. “And for that matter why do you have four of them in your bedroom?”

“A Tesla coil is a device that produces a high voltage electro-static discharge, as you probably saw when you entered my bedchamber.” Dread answered. “I don’t know the entire history of the device, but I’ve read files that claim they were invented by an otherworldly being, though I highly doubt that they were.”

“Okay. Why were you shocking yourself with these Tesla coils?” Twilight asked, slightly interested in finding out more about this otherworldly being.

“I…” Dread paused for a second.

“Well?”

Dread continued, “I… I use them to recharge my battery at night. Yes, unlike ponies I do not sleep in the traditional sense of the word. Instead, I place myself at the center of these Tesla coils. They shock me for a few hours, then I go on my merry way.”

“That seems like a terrible design choice.” Twilight said.

“Yes, well I wasn’t designed by the most logical of ponies,” Dread said. “In any case it does not matter, so please do not bring the topic up again.”

“Why? What’s wrong with discussing Tesla coils?” Twilight asked, not liking the idea of being forbidden from asking certain questions.

"Nothing, Miss Sparkle,” Dread answered, “I was referring to the way I was designed. It is a sensitive subject for me and I do not wish to talk about it.”

“Alright then;” Twilight replied.

She hadn’t thought about it at the time, but Twilight had probably insulted Dread when she said that something about him was designed poorly. Perhaps Dread was self-conscious about the way he was designed. There was also the possibility that Dread saw his creator as a filly saw her mother, and Twilight’s comment had hurt him in that way.

“I’m sorry.” Twilight said sincerely, “I shouldn’t have made that comment about your design.”

“I asked you to not bring it up anymore,” Dread replied. “But I accept your apology. Besides, there are more important issues that we need to address, such as why you are in my bedchamber right now.”

“Well I couldn’t sleep, so I got up to look for something to read. That’s when I noticed a light coming from somewhere…” Twilight explained the order of events that led her to turning off the Tesla coils.

“I see,” Dread said. “Well if it is reading material you want, I’m sure that I can find you something in my office. You don’t mind reading science reports, medical journals, or psychology text books do you?”

Twilight smiled. “That sounds perfect actually.”

Twilight walked with Dread to his office.

“Feel free to look around. Let me know when you’ve found something that interests you,” the android said when he had opened the door.

Twilight carefully scanned the bookshelves that lined the walls of Dread’s office. There was no shortage of interesting reading material; from books on pony psychology to books on rare plants that could only be found in specific caves. There were so many books that Twilight was having trouble picking one that interested her more than the others.

There was one book that stood out from the rest, however. It was a children’s book that was bound in an odd sort of fabric and had edges lined with lace. The book was decorated with various stickers that resembled hearts and flowers. The title on the cover read, ‘The Best Party Ever’.

Twilight looked at the book for a moment, curious as to why Dread would have a book that was clearly written for little fillies. There didn’t seem to be anything special about it, other than the fact that, for whatever reason, some pony felt compelled to cover it in cheap stickers. Twilight was about to ask Dread about the book when she realized that it wasn’t her business what books Dread liked to keep.

As Twilight continued looking through the various books, an envelope fell out from one of the shelves. Twilight examined the envelope. There was nothing particularly unusual about the envelope aside from what was stamped onto it. In bold red lettering, the words ‘TOP SECRET’ were written on one side of the small packet.

Twilight looked at where Dread was standing. The android was not paying attention to what she was doing. Instead he appeared to be scratching the burnt part of his casing.

Twilight turned her attention back to the envelope. Carefully, she opened it and removed its contents, spilling a folded piece of paper onto the floor. She knew that what she was doing was wrong and that Dread probably didn’t want her snooping through his stuff, but Twilight couldn’t stop herself. It felt as though her body was acting against her mind’s better judgment, or was it acting against her own morals? Either way, Twilight wanted to see what could be so important that it would be labeled ‘TOP SECRET’, but not so important that nopony bothered to put it somewhere other ponies couldn’t easily stumble upon it.

Twilight unfolded the piece of paper and began to skim through what was written on it. The page was titled ‘Sanguinam Venenum Iocum Test Log Twelve’. The first paragraph gave instructions on how to perform a sort of experiment. The experiment seemed to be designed to study a subspecies of Poison Joke.

“Dread!” Twilight called, outraged.

“Yes, Miss Sparkle?” The android replied.

Twilight went up to the robot and pressed the experiment log up against his face.

“Care to explain this?”

The experiment described in the instructions that it required for live test subjects to participate, specifically the experiment called for pony test subjects. To make matters worse, the ponies who had been forced to undergo the experiments suffered horrible fates while the scientists overseeing the tests watched and recorded what was happening, ignoring the ponies’ pleas for help. The lead researcher was none other than Doctor Layne.

“Well?” Twilight demanded.

“I give you my word, Miss Sparkle; I had no part in the experiments,” Dread said.

“But you knew about them?”

“Where did you find this file?” Dread asked. “It’s not supposed to be in here.”

“Don’t try to change the subject! I want to know what the HAY Sleipnir did before the appearance of the Administrator, and I want to know NOW!” Twilight was shouting by the end of the second sentence.

Dread was quiet again.

“Well?” Twilight demanded.

“Have a seat, Miss Sparkle,” Dread said. “This is going to take some time to explain.”

Twilight did as instructed, sitting on the sofa that she had used during her previous visits with Dread.

Dread began. “I’m not going to be able to tell you all of Sleipnir’s original goals or purpose, as I myself do not know them. But what I can tell you is that my first description of Sleipnir was… inaccurate. You see, most of those working for the facility were told that tale as a means of keeping the more sensitive researchers from becoming biased in their work. In truth, I do not know what Sleipnir’s goals were back when it was functioning, but from what I am able to guess based on the information I have been able to get out of Dr. Layne, Sleipnir was an organization designed to contain, study, and eventually terminate anything that the founder deemed a threat to pony society.”

Twilight nodded. “That makes sense for a pony to create a group just to help ponies, but that doesn’t explain the experiments on them.”

“You are correct, Miss Sparkle, there is nothing wrong with an organization that seeks only to improve pony life,” Dread continued. “I don’t think that Sleipnir was founded with the experiments in mind. I believe that when it was first organized, Sleipnir was a benign research facility that, over time, became corrupted with its own self-righteousness.”

Dread continued. “As to what initiated such a change, I can only guess. What I think caused it was the discovery of the multi-verse, and with it the three viruses of corruption. I believe that the original staff of Sleipnir saw the viruses as a form of evil that might threaten pureblood ponies and as such they began looking for ways to eliminate the threat.”

“Wait a moment,” Twilight said, irritated. “You mean to tell me that the researchers of Sleipnir would go around looking for ways to destroy things that scared them?”

“No, Miss Sparkle, that is…” Dread tried to say.

Twilight interrupted. “So whenever they found something unusual that was potentially dangerous, they would immediately begin looking for a way to destroy it?”

“I don’t think that it was that simple, Miss Sparkle…”

Twilight interrupted. “If that’s how they’re going to use their research, then why don’t they destroy all sharp objects? Those are potentially dangerous. Or water?! Water can cause ponies to drown, and that’s dangerous! I mean what good is it to study something when you could just destroy it instead? If something’s dangerous then it can’t possibly have any redeeming qualities! If it’s dangerous then it has to go; aren’t I right Dread?”

“Miss Sparkle, that isn’t what I was trying to say,” Dread said. “I wasn’t trying to imply that Sleipnir was some sort of Knights Templar that sought to destroy everything that they did not understand. Please forgive me if that is how I made the organization sound.”

“Alright,” Twilight said, calming down. “What did you mean to say?”

Dread responded, “Give me a moment, Miss Sparkle, it has been a long time since the facility was operational and my memory is not the best.”

Dread stood silently, occasionally making an odd ticking noise somewhere in his body. Twilight was beginning to fear that the android had run out of battery power when he finally gave his answer.

"Keep in mind, Miss Sparkle: my perception of what Sleipnir was is most likely inaccurate, and you would probably get a better answer from Dr. Layne. He was more involved in the organization than I ever was, and had several more years of experience than I had. ”

“Get to the point Dread,” Twilight said, growing impatient.

“Very well, Miss Sparkle,” Dread said, the android’s voice shifting slightly as if to simulate annoyance. “I am not going to contradict my previous statement that Sleipnir was a research facility, nor will I contradict my statement that Sleipnir was above destroying that which it saw as a threat. I will however say that Sleipnir was not as destruction-oriented as I had previously implied it to be. In fact, I have only ever seen the researchers of Sleipnir attempt to destroy one thing.”

“Which was?” Twilight asked.

“Never mind, Miss Sparkle, it isn’t important,” Dread said quickly. “As I was saying, my statement that Sleipnir was in constant search of things that destroy other things was a gross overstatement. Sleipnir’s primary goal was research.”

“Okay,” Twilight said. “I get that Sleipnir was a research institute, but there is a big difference between researching something and using pony test subjects. Why don’t you just explain that part?”

“As you wish, Miss Sparkle;” Dread responded, “As I have told you, Sleipnir was a research facility. Often what Sleipnir researched involved the effects of various materials on ponies. I’m not sure what the exact method of selection was, but all of the test subjects were infected with at least one of the three viruses of corruption. It is my guess that the original members of Sleipnir saw the infected ponies as inferior and expendable. That is probably where I got the Knights Templar idea into my head.”

“Okay,” Twilight said, trying to keep Dread from going off topic. “So Sleipnir used ponies for certain experiments… I could’ve guessed that from reading over the test log. What I want to know is why Sleipnir felt the need to run such experiments, and why they couldn’t find an alternate source of test subjects.”

“Well, Miss Sparkle, this might be me exaggerating again, but while Sleipnir was in operation I got the impression that researchers considered the infected ponies to be an alternate source of test subjects.”

“So what you’re saying is that Sleipnir saw infected ponies as something other than ponies?” Twilight asked.

“I did not pull my Knights Templar statement out of thin air, Miss Sparkle,” Dread replied.

“Why? How does a disease make some pony less of a pony?” Twilight asked.

“It isn’t that much of a stretch, Miss Sparkle. Ponies suffering from anthropromorphia are heavily mutated, turpus equus causes ponies to engage in sexual behavior outside of what is normal for a pony, and with sanguinam ungollum … let’s just say that you and Miss Pie are unusually nonviolent for ponies with that disease.”

Twilight’s eyes narrowed. “You think I’m infected with sanguinam ungollum?”

“No, Miss Sparkle, I know that you are infected,” Dread said.

“But how could you know?” Twilight asked; her heart beginning to race.

“The second time that you visited my office I took a blood sample from you to see if I could find the source of your headaches. I believed at the time that it was the virus that caused them, but I found no evidence to support this claim… In any case, I saw the virus in your blood: a standard infection, nothing unusual. I thought that you would have figured that you had the virus on your own. My apologies, Miss Sparkle.”

“B-but that can’t be right!” Twilight stammered, “I can’t have the virus! I don’t think about doing bad things! I’ve never hurt any pony, so how could it be that I have the virus?!”

“It was no accident that you were sent to Sleipnir, Miss Sparkle,” Dread said. “Even if you are unable to remember your past actions; that does not mean that they did not happen. You did something cruel enough to warrant a sentence here. What that action was, I have no idea; but you are by no means innocent.”

Twilight was silent while Dread’s words sank in. Her heart, which had been almost vibrating a moment earlier, seemed to have slowed down to a near halt. Twilight’s heart felt like it had been replaced by a cold chunk of ice: a chunk of ice that threatened to pull her down so that she may never get up again.

“I think we’ve talked enough, Dread,” Twilight said. Her voice was shaky. “I’d like to go back to bed now.”

“What about your book, Miss Sparkle?” the android asked.

“I think I’ll be fine.”

Dread accompanied Twilight back to her room, leaving only when Twilight was safely tucked beneath the covers. After the robot had gone, Twilight lay awake, wondering what she could’ve done that she can’t remember. She wondered what unspeakable acts the virus had led her to do.

Eventually Twilight’s eyelids began to grow heavy, and the lull of sleep began to pull her. In the distance, the insane mare was laughing somewhere in the halls. As she fell asleep, Twilight thought that the mare sounded louder than usual.

Author's Notes:

View test log here: http://fav.me/d76gj9q