I ignore any other blue-eye I meet on the way. It’s pretty easy, since they’re not paying attention to me. They’re mostly running by to get the one guy out of the boxes. They’re not going to stop me from getting to Eureka.

After snaking through a few more corridors, going up a couple flights of stairs, and stepping out of the way of other Blackwatch goons, I make it to Eureka’s door. It’s a nice double door, dark wood, brass handle, and no gaurds here to bug me. It’s just me, the door, and the scientist behind the door.

The doctor better take walk-ins, because I’m not scheduling an appointment.

The door opens with a loud squeak. Someone needs to oil the hinges. The room behind the door is long, and very cluttered. There’s tables covered in books and science equipment. Behind the equipment are paintings similar to the ones in the lobby, hanging on well decorated walls. All of this is lit up by fancy chandeliers from up above.

There are a few alcoves on one side of the room, and after taking a few steps in, I notice the alcoves lead to an open area. I take a peak outside and I find a huge stage three stories below me. Ah, I see. Eureka set up his office in the hallway behind the top balconies of the main auditorium. I can see why he set up here, this place has an excellent view of the operations going on below.

The seats of the auditorium are gone, and in their place is a sea of science equipment, tables with body parts on them, and blue trashbag ponies walking around. Blue-eye goons are walking around the perimeter and are standing by the entrances. Blackwatch turned the theater into a big research lab, and Eureka has a perfect view of chaos.

The big center piece is on the stage, where Blackwatch has a big, giant monster chained up center stage. Son-of-a-bison, they got the monster I fought earlier chained up for the main event! It's yanking at its chains and biting at anything that it thinks looks tasty, but it's locked up tight. After I gave it the nip, I don't think it'll be happy to see me again.

“Miss Punch, I’m glad you came!”

I nearly jump off the balcony thanks to the unexpected voice. I turn around and find a yellow earth-pony grinning at me with the biggest smile I’ve ever seen. He’s got a neatly-combed white mane, thick glasses that make his eyes twice as big as they really are, and a slight tremor that seems to be coming from his excitement. He’s wearing a blue trashbag suit like all the ponies down below are wearing, just without the helmet.

“Damn it Eureka, you shouldn’t sneak up on a soldier like that,” Fruit Punch says. “I’ll break your neck and throw you over the ledge.”

“Oh, it’s just a little case of the jitters, you’ll be fine,” he says in an almost sing-song kind of voice. “So have you reconsidered my offer? Are you interested in my secret little project?”

Hmm, I am here to ask him where Rainbow Dash is. However, this is a mad scientist. I may have to stop him if this secret project of his might destroy Manehattan, and my sconeshop. Agent Born Possible is on the case! “What else do you think I’m here for, lunch? What do you have to show me, Doctor?”

Eureka squeaks in joy. Crap, is he the Pinkie Pie of science? This might be unbearable if that’s the case. “This little project of mine is going to blow you out of this world. But first,” his smile flips over and he rolls his eyes, “Command wants me to tell you this before we do anything.”

There’s a little bit of venom in the way he says Command. “What is it?”

He groans, clears his throat, and lays it on me. “By accepting this position, you agree to treat this project as a top-tier secret unless instructed otherwise. Once you join, you are not allowed to leave your designated areas, and all attempts to do so will be met with extreme punishment. Revealing information about this project will result in immediate termination of both your job, and your life. This is the last chance you have to walk away.”

Okay, I can see why that one blue-eye was freaking out about me agreeing to this. This sounds like super-evil organization stuff right here. But that’s okay, Agent Born Possible doesn’t need to stay for the experiment. She just needs a little info. “Sounds good to me.”

Eureka’s ears perk up. “Really, you’re doing this? You’re actually doing this?”

“Eh, I got nothing better to do.” Except finding Rainbow Dash.

His big, fat grin returns to his face. “Goody! I was actually getting worried this project would get iced if no one volunteered. A couple of your other buddies came in too, but they ran away like chickens when I gave them that speech.”

I don’t blame them. I wouldn't let this crazy mad-scientist even check my heartbeat. “Don’t worry about that. I’m made of tougher stuff. Now tell me what in Celestia’s damn green earth did I just sign up for.”

“Something big. It'll change Equestria forever. Follow me!”

The doctor leads me through his lab. This guy has a little skip in his steps. He’s hopping like a jackrabbit as we walk along. So he is Science Pinkie Pie. Sci-Pie. I’m probably going to strangle him before this is over.

"This project is a modification of a previous one before the Blacklight outbreak. The original purpose was to regenerate damaged tissue and bones when conventional medicine can't do the trick, but I've made some changes for it to do even more. I have a basic outline written on a chalkboard."

Sounds like the thing Rainbow Dash roped herself into. Did he turn it into something evil? I bet he did.

We stop in front of a large chalkboard with all kinds of squiggles and lines that I can’t make heads or tails out of. It’s got a tiny pony with arrows pointing to a large pony, and weird circles and words floating around them. It resembles what a kid would make after playing with his food.

“Here it is,” he says. A few giggles leak out of him. Guess he’s really excited about this. “Just look at this beauty. It’s simple, elegant, and the diagram gets the point across. It represents my most impressive achievement yet!”

The chalk lines blend together in my vision. “Is this the project then?”

“Yep. I can hardly believe it myself. Don’t worry, you can tell me how great it is later.” This pony has one heck of an ego. Hope he keeps it in check, or I might strangle him.

My head tilts to the side, but looking with an odd angle doesn’t help. “So, is this supposed to be the meaning of life or something?”

Eureka frowns. “You’re kidding. You got to be kidding. Everything here is self explanatory. Even an infant could read this and come up with a master thesis. It’s micromanabiology one-zero-one!”

I shrug. “I skipped that class.”

The doctor’s hoof smacks his face. “Freaking Luna, schools aren’t teaching you kids what you should know these days.”

Yeah, I’m probably going to strangle him. It’s fifty-fifty at this point. “Then why don’t you explain your project so someone without a highschool diploma can understand it.”

“Very well,” he grumbles. Eureka pulls out a long stick and slaps the chalkboard with it. “Just so you know, this is the greatest discovery since the invention of fire. Pay close attention, because I’m going to test you on this later.”

I’m strangling him before he gives me the test. “I’m not going”-

His stick slaps on a drawing of a bunch of circles. “This is the Blacklight plague. It’s a little tiny organism, many times smaller than the point of a needle. Normally organisms like these are absolutely harmless, in fact you got trillions crawling inside and outside of your body.”

He's kidding, right? This pony is off his rocker. There’s no way I got trillions of anything on me. Maybe I got trillions of feathers. How big is a trillion?

“Blacklight is different. Apart from turning ponies into blood-thirsty monsters, Blacklight has the ability to mutate itself and the cells around it at an incredible pace. It mutates so rapidly, once it infects a host, it will take control over the host’s cells and force the host to produce copies of itself, and ultimately take control of the entire host in mere hours.”

“That sounds bad.”

“It sounds fascinating,” the doctor says, giggling. “Never have I seen a parasitic organism take control over a body so effectively. I’ve calculated that once a host is infected, there is only about seven and a quarter minutes to administer a cure before a cure becomes ineffective, if we even find a cure. Outside of that seven and a quarter minute mark, the plague would have taken over too much of the host’s body and removing it would be fatal.”

There’s something about the way he’s smiling that irks me. “I’m not sure that’s something to be happy about.”

“Oh it’s not pleasant for the host, but it’s fascinating to watch how fast the plague works. The fastest I’ve seen it in action was with a little filly named Sea Salt. She had boils around the infection zone at twenty seven seconds and was a raging monster at thirteen minutes and twelve seconds. What a sight to watch. I still have her head to remember the occasion.”

He points at a jar sitting on a table- Sweet Grover on a Spike that’s a floating head! It’s the head of a small filly, cleanly decapitated, bobbing up and down in a thick, green fluid. Her hair’s drifting apart in a spidery web. Large boils are pressing against the glass. Her eyes are staring dead ahead.

What the heck is wrong with this guy?! Why does he have this on his desk?!

“The strange thing is her mother almost had the record for holding out the longest. Twenty seven hours, six minutes, and forty five seconds. Impressive, but not the longest, but a notable difference between mother and daughter. I think Blackwatch used the mother for target practice after she turned.”

No, I’m not strangling this guy. Once he tells me what I need to know, I’m ripping him up into tiny ribbons. He’s got a kid’s head in a jar. I think he infected the kid too! Give me a reason why I shouldn’t kill this guy!

The doctor waves a hoof. “Enough of that business, back on topic.”

Crap, his project is something messed up, I just know it. Glad I’m here to stop him before he goes anywhere with it.

“Blacklight is highly mutative, but we can use its mutative properties to our benefit.”

Ah, using a deadly plague for science. This won’t end well.

“We’ve figured out how to manipulate a dose of Blacklight so it won’t kill a patient, but benefit them. Originally we could use it to regenerate flesh and bone. And with our latest batch of modified Blacklight, we’ve successfully increased the muscle mass of test-subjects by three-hundred percent.”

He probably tested his project on kids. Wait a moment, he tested this on Rainbow Dash! His demise will be slow!

“And this is where you come in,” he says, pointing at me. “I believe we can distribute this modified Blacklight to our forces in Blackwatch to increase their strength and power. With it, you and anyone else who signs up will be able to tear through the hoards of infected and establish peace through force. You will be super-soldiers!”

Eureka rears up and throws his forelegs in the air, tossing his stick aside, which plinks off the head-jar. “You will rise as gods, become all mighty and powerful! You will reach a new level pony kind has never seen before. You will be Project Orion!”

The dork throws his head back and laughs like crazy. Son-of-a-bison, Blackwatch hired this guy. They hired a crazy pony who makes crazy science experiments and puts kids’ heads in jars and puts deadly plague viruses in my friends!

“No need to applaud,” he says, coming back down on all fours. “I can sense your gratitude radiating like Celestia’s sun. Now, we’ll begin administering small doses to you every twelve hours, then double the size in three days, and by then you should see a significant increase in body”-

I hold out a hoof to shut him up. “I’m not going to allow this to happen.”

Eureka looks at me, and then laughs. “I’m afraid you don’t have a choice. Your chance to leave has come and gone. There’s no way for you to get out of this now.”

“You misunderstand me.” I walk up to Eureka until my muzzle is almost touching his glasses. Turns out Fruit Punch is a good bit taller than the head scientist of Blackwatch. “I’m going to stop you. Period.”

“I, uh…” Eureka shrinks back. Sweat glistens on his forehead. He still has that big, goofy smile on his face, but it’s shaking now. “I don’t know what’s troubling you, Miss Punch. Whatever it is, we can talk. Are you hungry? I can get you more rations, fresh fruit even.”

“I suppose I’m a little peckish.” The worms slither and shift, and I morph back into my old griffon self. My shadow completely engulfs the doctor. “Got anything to eat?” I hiss.

Eureka’s eye shrink to pinprinks, then he collapses on the floor and sputters out. “I… I… I… I…” he keeps on repeating. I hope I haven’t broken him yet. He still needs to tell me where Rainbow Dash is.

My griffon claw wraps around his head, and I pick him and hold him at eye level. “Here’s the deal. You’re a monster. I don’t like monsters. I’ve been dealing with monsters all day. I’m not in the mood to deal with more monster crap.”

All that comes out of the doctor’s mouth are wheezes. This guy is hyperventilating, but I don’t care much about that.

“You’re going to answer my question, just one question. No bullshit. You got that?”

I shove my beak in his face. He coughs, almost hacks up a lung. The guy might die of a heart attack before I get anything out of him.

“Where is Rainbow Dash?”

“Infected… you're infected…,” he mutters.

My monster claw comes out and I bring a talon up to his throat. “Where. Is. Rainbow?”

“You… You can shapeshift.”

“Forget that,” I snarl. “Answer my question.”

His mouth turns back up in his spazzy little grin. “This is… Fantastic! Amazing! You can shapeshift! This is exactly what I’m studying, but more sophisticated than I ever thought!”

He squeaks when I put a bit of pressure on his throat. “Shut up and answer my”-

Before I finish, Eureka breaks free of my hold and streaks across the room. “This is incredible,” he squeals. “Your cells mutate with such a rapid pace that you can change your form at will! Most shapeshifting specimens use magic or lighting tricks to change their appearance, but you use the mutative properties of the plague to do so at a more effective degree. This is beyond what I though was possible!”

Eureka digs through his tables, throwing around books and science doodads before leaping up with a big needle in his hooves. “But there has to be some magic behind your transformation. The Blacklight can’t just create mass out of nowhere, unless it’s storing extra mass inside you”-

I lunge at him. Without looking, he ducks out of the way and picks up a clipboard from the floor. He doesn’t flinch as I go crashing into a table full of science gizmos.

-“and uses it to grow. Mind if I get a sample?”

I get up from the ruble and shake of the science trash. “You can get a face-full of pain if you don’t tell me where-ACK!”

Eureka shanks me in the throat with the giant needle. It’s cold and sharp, and it’s sucking me like a straw. Red and black fluid fills up the metal tube at the back of the needle, and the doctor scribbles something on his clipboard.

“And those claws, those claws felt as sharp as a sword. Your cells must harden as fast as they grow to achieve such results. How can I replicate these effects?”

I yank the needle out of my neck and smash it on the ground. “I’m done with this crap. Tell me where Rainbow is, or else!”

Eureka frowns. “Can you please behave. I can’t collect results if you don’t cooperate.”

How dense is this guy?! I ball up a fist and knock him under the chin. Eureka croaks as smacks into the floor. I’m not putting up with this crap anymore!

“Ack! That wasn’t pleasant.” Eureka groans as he rubs his chin. “Backlight still turns the most stable of hosts into an aggressive killing machine. Should’ve seen that one coming.”

He tries forcing himself up on all fours, but I stab his back leg with a monster talon. It drives through flesh, bone, more flesh, and then into the carpet in the floor. Eureka shrieks in pain. It’s time to end this crap.

“You have one last chance,” I hiss. “Tell me where Rainbow is.”

He looks up at me, his eyes are watering. His mouth opens to say something…

The sound of cracking wood breaks my attention. A plume of dust falls from the ceiling, followed by a green blur falling and a high-pitched yelp. The green blur lands on Eureka with a dull thud and the doctor kicks out, tearing his leg away from my blade with a loud squish.

The green blob rolls off the doctor and groans. “That didn’t feel too good.”

Wait, I recognize this blur. “Iffy?”

The little pegasus looks up at me with a big grin. “Hiya Gilda, how’s it hanging?”

“I… what?” This is unexpected. Iffy hit Eureka on the head, so the doctor’s unconscious now. Damn it Iffy, he was about to tell me where Rainbow Dash is!

At least Eureka can't scream bloody murder over losing a chunk of his leg. Oh sweet mercy, his leg is bleeding all over the carpet. The music hall ponies paid good money for this carpet!

“Wow, you tore his leg off!” Iffy squeals. “Oh hey, it’s over there!”

Iffy points under the table, where Eureka’s missing leg chunk is sitting. Good to know where that is. “Why are you here?”

“I wanted to watch you kill Blackwatch,” Iffy says with glee, a little too much glee if you ask me.

My claws shrink back to griffon claws. Crap, that’s a lot of blood coming out of Eureka. If he dies from losing a leg, he’ll never tell me where Rainbow Dash is. “I’m not here to kill Blackwatch.”

Iffy’s tilts his head. “But you already killed that one bitch.”

Did he… Nah, I got better things to do than wash out a kid’s mouth. Eureka must have a first aid kit in this lab. He’s got be crazy not to have a first aid kit in a room full of sharp objects and deadly chemicals. Wait, he is crazy.

“So you saw that?”

Iffy nods. “Yeah, you were badass. It almost looked like she would win, but you chucked that pipe at her throat and she bled all over!”

“Have you been following me this entire time?” I ask. First aid, first aid, first aid… Screw it. I grab a book and a roll of tape I see in between a massive pile of science clutter. I’ll have to juryrig this.

“Yep, there’s a empty area with vents and pipes in the ceiling, and I’ve been crawling around in there to follow you. There were a couple times I thought they’d find me, like when I kicked a pipe loose and it fell on that pegasus’s head, or when I broke through the ceiling and knocked that pile of boxes over. You can thank me for that later.”

Well that explains the building falling apart and knocking out Blackwatch by coincidence. As if knowing about that matters. I rip out a few chapters worth of paper from the book and shove it against Eureka’s leg. Blood seeps through the first layers, but some extra paper padding is enough to patch it up. I push hard on the paper, then wrap it tight around the leg with the tape. There, makeshift bandage. Maybe that will help.

“Why are you helping him?” Iffy asks. “Should you cut him into tiny pieces?”

I check over the bandage just to make sure I did it right. Nope, no blood leaking out. I think the doc will hold out. “As much as I would like to fillet this sick bastard, I need answers. He has the answers I need.”

“Oh, so you’re going to interrogate him.”

“Later, but right now, I need a different question answered.” I look down at Iffy with a frown. “Why did you think following me was a good idea?”

Iffy shrugs. “I wanted to see you do some damage. It’s not like I’d be in any danger. I do this all the time.”

“You do?”

“Yeah. I come in and take pictures of what Blackwatch does in here. But Doctor Heart took away my camera after I came back after curfew. She’s nice, but she can be mean sometimes.”

Wait, Iffy sneaks around and takes pictures? I wonder... “Where you the one who took those pictures Pinkie has?”

“Depends, does she have pictures of Blackwatch scientists experimenting on ponies?”

I nod.

“I guess so. I don’t know why she has those pictures. Doctor Heart must have given them to her.”

And that’s another small, insignificant mystery solved, and it wasn’t even the one I want to solve. “It’s great that you can get here on your own, but you shouldn’t be here right now. If Blackwatch finds out I’m here, they’re going to kill me, and you might find yourself in the middle of a nasty battle.”

Just as I say that, the door creaks open and a purple unicorn walks in. He’s got a brown jacket on and dark circle glasses covering his eyes. “Good evening Eureka,” he says, “I hope you have that report ready. Prince”-

The stallion freezes once he sees the monster griffon and the pegasus colt standing over the unconscious body of a mad scientist. Or he could be freaking out about the head in the jar. I know I still am.

I wave at the unicorn. “Hi.”

The unicorn looks at us for a moment before adjusting his glasses. “I suppose you must be Gilda.”

“That’s me,” I say. This might turn out bad. “That’s a nice jacket.”

“Why thank you,” he says, brushing off some dust from his sleeve. “I got it in Moroccolt a couple decades ago. It’s served me well over the years.” His dark glasses flash in the light as he looks at me. “Now, are you going to come with me quietly or are you going to fight it out?"

My monster claws grows out and my beak twists into a snarl. “What do you think?”

“I’m thinking we could finish this without bloodshed. I suppose it’s just wishful thinking. Nice to meet you, though.” He steps back into the hallway and points to me. “Kill her.”

Four blue-eye goons storm the room when the unicorn gives the order. Two of them are unicorns with orange-glowing horns, while the other two are massive earthponies with the metal plates for armor. Fun fact, the metalheads are about as tall as me. These ponies are huge!

I glance down at Iffy, who is crouching down and has his wings spread out. Props to him, he’s a brave little kid. “You should get out of here,” I say to him, “It’s going to get messy.”

Iffy shakes his head. “Don’t worry about me. I can take them all!”

Or he’s just cocky. “Iffy, get the fuck out of here.”

Author's Notes:

"What? Sure, I respect you as an individual and not as a walking guinea pig. Now be quiet and drink this."