//------------------------------// // P.O.M.A. Chapter 1 // Story: Fallout Equestria: Ruins of the Present // by weirdjed //------------------------------// > by weirdjed > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > P.O.M.A. Chapter 1 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The feeling of dread surrounded me. It drowned me in its ethereal glow like so many others. I am-no- was a pony. I felt hollow as I stared at my reflection. A small part of me laughed as I remembered a filly song that I used to sing back when I was a colt. But my cutie mark sure wasn't telling me anything besides that what I saw was wrong. This....... THING....could not be me. Yet, no matter how hard I tried to shake the image out of my head, it kept very much alive. I stared harder at my reflection. I was falling into it and yet the cold sting was welcomed. My hoof touched the mirror surface and it turned to liquid, quickly enveloping my arm. I thrashed about and used my hoof to try and stop the flood of silvery substance. It crawled higher and higher until it leaked into my mouth. I was suffocating. I am not a machine-I turned away from the truth because it hurt. I am a pony- I turned away because it was easy. I....am...say it. A…..coward. ……………………….. My head was cloudy and throbbing as I shot out of bed. I quietly held myself as I whispered a mental line over and over. "I am a pony. I am a pony" I looked at my hooves in fear they would resemble the thing that I saw in my dream. They weren't. "Good" I said as I turned away from my hooves to stare blankly at the alarm clock. It was being dutiful as ever to wake me up at 8AM every morning. The blaring of my alarm clock indicated my hourly day job. I stared forward not giving into the alarm clocks resonance but soon found the grinding, piercing notes snapping my trance. My hoof swung in the direction of the snooze button and my body followed it unwillingly out of bed. I hit the floor on my side and the remnants of a rough night took me over. I grudgingly pulled myself up and swayed as the vertigo took hold of me once more. I tried placing a hoof on the table that sported the alarm clock in order to stabilize myself only to have it slip away. My face let itself impact the ground with a solid “thunk”. “Grooooan”, I mumbled into the floor as I tried to deal with the pain that erupted from my skull.'The alarm clock laughed maniacally as it stared down at me. You win this time' I thought. I think I'm gonna just lay here for awhile. ‘What was that dream? It felt so real. Ugh, It's probably one more item to add to the infinite problems my brain has caused me over the course of these months. I’ll probably end up being the first person to die from a dream.’ I thought. Besides the anger I felt towards that dream, it was more likely to be blamed on Luna the monarch. The princess probably had something strong before weaving my dream. Stupid Luna. ‘Actually'-I did a quick scan around my room-'good, no Nightmare Moon or her sister Princess Sunbutt.’ I shifted my attention to the items I had eaten the day before. ‘Maybe It was the eggnog I drank with my hay sandwich last night? Either way, a dream can't hurt me in the real world. Nope! Not at a- what is that buzzing?‘ I rolled my head to the side and noticed the phone that I had placed on the table was now laying next to me face down. ‘Greaat,' I rolled my eyes and gently lifted my head to get a definitive position on the phone .My vision doubled itself as I strained to focus on the small black object. I groaned again as I picked my body up and felt sick again. It passed after a few moments but the buzzing on my phone also stopped before I was stable enough to pick it up. I rested my hoof on the alarm and then bent down to pick up the phone. Honestly I never really questioned my ability to pick things up as an earth pony but many; those that were a lot smarter than I, were working out principals for why it happened. I believe that the last discussion I had with my friend Involved him discussing a sort of magic that only earth ponies possessed. I honestly didn't care that much since I was busy playing with the early version of the pip-buck that was recently released by Robronco. ‘It had everything you needed and more so!’ Even though I spent all my time on it only playing the assorted games that were on it. ‘BUT in my defense, I do know there is more to them than just that. I just don't care.’ I flipped open the pad that covered the screen and read the messages that were new. ‘Oh, wait. It wouldn’t be a message would it.’ I did a mental face hoof and checked my voicemail. Scrolling past the random announcements, I found the voicemail and played it. " Hello, Mr. pixel! Welcome to a new day in technology! I regret to inform you that the test we had scheduled for you this ‘Thursday 6.23.2.074' has been moved to ‘Wednesday. 6.22.2074,' The tumor treatment that has been scheduled will be performed by ‘ Dr. Tape on the, as before mentioned, date.. Please inform your blah, blah, blah; " The automated voice droned on and my already dazed mind latched onto a few words here and there but, all in all, it was just bad news. I snapped the phone shut after it reminded me for the fourth time this week to ‘take the D.I.F. before going to the test.' I hated the setup but it's the only help I got. The ponies over at the ministry of peace left me with some pills for the pain and diagnosed me a due date on my life. I was just another number and prognosis in the long list of half-dead soldiers that flocked into the same building I was in. I remember the news and the feelings of powerlessness..Then Robronco came along and offered me a cure. Elated, I quickly signed up. Now I just wanted to get the treatment over with so that Robronco can mess around with one of those ministry mares instead of focusing all of their resources on a stupid experiment for me. ‘Nothing like being a guinea pig in the name of science!’ I thought. It wasn't the fact that I wanted to die. It's just a feeling that you get when you tired of dealing with the world. I turned away from my phone and looked around at my apartment. The room was small for its price, and the neighbors less than friendly, but what can you expect in Hoofington? I trotted over to the table that sat by one of three windows that my dreary room contained and set my phone down. The wooden table seemed to be too bright compared to the phone but that could just be the ‘disease in my head' causing the distortion. My eyes focused on the door to my bathroom and I trotted over to it. The bathroom was also not much to talk about due to it having just enough room for a toilet, shower, and sink in the confines of what was basically a closet. I had made it homier with a small cabinet mirror that housed my medicine and an even smaller photo of my parents that sat on top of the sink counter. I missed them, but not to the point that I would want to return. Seems a bit rude and lonesome but its just how I've lived my life for the past ten years. ‘Man, ten years.' if you had told me I would've chosen to be stuck in this city for this long, I would've laughed in your face and continued onward. 'I guess that says a bit about my character.’ I chuckled at that, then turned my attention to the cabinet. My mane was a bit scruffy from last night so I licked my hoof and tried to pat it down. I might as well have had attempted at unicorn magic since my efforts just managed to make my hair look more like it was startled. "I've been blessed by Celestia with Mane-iac's evil hairdo! Whatever will I do!" I said to myself in the mirror with a hoof raised to my forehead in a sarcastic play at drama.. A small part of my brain berated me for doing something that might be considered crazy and preceded to scream bloody murder as the rest of my head stomped that small part into oblivion. I opened up the cabinet and snatched the orange liquid. The cap gave resistance as I turned it and unscrewed it with the vice grip of my own two hooves. ‘Seriously why do they have to make these things so dang resilient?’ I tugged some more at it before the cap snapped in half and I struggled to balance the solution inside. I sighed at my own clumsiness but held the liquid to my lips regardless. "Down the hatch and hopefully not back up!” I said, as I poured it down my throat. It had the consistency of Rad-Away (you do NOT want to know how I know how that tastes) mixed with Sparkle-cola but its taste was coppery. Not bad but I definitely wouldn’t sell it as a commercial item that’s for sure. I threw the bottle towards the trash can and sighed in dismay as the bottle hit the edge once, twice, then fell out. I trotted over and set it inside the trash can before turning back towards my room to get some breakfast. I sifted through the random cabinets to find some cereal and grabbed a bowl with my mouth. With a tug I yanked out a box of oatmeal, along with (to my dismay) paprika, a can of beans, a carrot, and a random empty bottle of Sparkle-cola. They all hit the ground beside me and I clenched my eyes shut as the sound of glass breaking erupted fr00om below me followed by soft thumps. I slowly opened one eye and aimed it at the mess. Yup, I’m going to have to take care of that when I get back home. I stepped carefully over it with my bowl of oatmeal balanced on my nose, and sat in a chair at the table closest to the window. I took the bowl off my nose and inched closer to the window while I munched on the crispy flakes of oatmeal. Hoofington was before me in its resplendence and chaos. The streets busied itself by holding cabbies that zipped this way and that, whilst the sidewalks beside it carried the sophisticated class of ponies or diamond dogs that worked at the excavation sites or mines close to here. I never got why they were so sad all the time, but as a low-business class citizen, it wasn’t my ‘duty’ to care. I sometimes felt bad about that fact. I often reminded myself on some more lonely evenings that my job in this war was to be a news analyst. I mattered and that is all that held me together. How can watching the tolls of death on the side of the zebras and ours be enjoyable? My job tasked me with “modifying” ,as they put it, information into lies that tell the ponies of this city that the zebras are losing more of their own than us, but, in reality, it's just proof of the pointlessness of this war. The no pony land outside of Hoofington eats more souls in an entire week, that belong to us, than the actual war front near Manehatten and Roam does in an entire month! This war threw ponies like Big Macintosh into the battle only to send them home in a body bag for a little dispute over coal and jewels. It wasn’t fair and I couldn’t do anything about it! I flung my hoof down in frustration and it hit the edge of my bowl casting flakes onto the side of my head. I snapped my head to stare at the bowl as if it defied me but I soon realized it wouldn’t do anything besides retaliation for what was done to it. What a perfect line to define my life. You won't and can't do anything unless someone gives you a bone or punches you in the gut. I sighed and scraped the flakes that stuck to my fur onto the floor and grabbed the now empty bowl towards the sink. I trotted around the glass carefully and stuck my bowl into the awaiting rack that sat in a foot of water that I had filled past Monday. I then trotted towards the door and grabbed my coat and phone that sat together on the table. I pulled the coat over myself and stuffed the phone in a pocket near the front of the coat, before grabbing the doorknob and heading out of my apartment. The decrepit walls of the apartment building greeted me like an old friend followed by the smell of cats. I headed across the hallway towards the stairs while looking out for my friend. He always greeted me on my way out but not in a friendly way. I would either find him hiding in a trash can that the landlord kept near the front entrance or behind a door that someone left open. It became a kind of tradition for him to attempt to scare me every morning but right now I did not need the extra heart attack. I saw a black tuft of fur poking out from behind a chair that sat at the end of the hallway. I lowered my body as I neared and prepared to pounce and release a guttural scream before I heard a yelp from behind me. Confused I turned around to see Shadow standing with a hoof raised in victory. I pulled myself off the ground and looked around the chair only to find a piece of fur crudely duct taped to the side of chair. “ Well at least your getting more clever. Sad to say you didn’t get me.” I said with a sympathetic smile. He slumped as he sat down and muttered “I thought I had you this time. It’s not fair that you can't be scared.” I looked him up and down noticing details that I had missed the last time I had seen him. His matt black fur lined a golden spike that shot with fiery vengeance into a mane that was just as black but with golden stripes in it. He kind of reminded me of a changeling sometimes due to the teeth he had, but after the whole incident in Canterlot I have been easy on the teasing. “Any news I may need to know about Shadow? Please tell me Ms. FineShine is getting rid of one of those infernal cats.” I said to him. His eyes perked up and he stood resolute as he said;” Sadly no, but, she may be pitching some of those old records she keeps. I’m thinking about nabbing her Elvis Ponley collection if she throws that out. Have you seen the prices those things can rack up? It’s like,50 bits for an intact record! Each!” I nodded,” Thanks but I think I’m going to keep my hooves clean of the dust and dirt those things have probably accumulated over the years in her possession. There isn’t a single thing in her apartment that doesn’t have kitty litter or dust on it.” I shuddered to emphasize my point. “Anyways I have to go. Do you need anything before I get back?” He shook his head ”Nope! I’m just going to hang out around here till something interesting happens!” With that he saluted me, trotted down the stairs and disappeared from sight. I swear he could watch paint dry and find it interesting. I trotted down after him and walked out of the apartment door. The streets of Hoofington were bustling as always and I soon found myself forced along with the crowd towards the center of the city. I allowed the crowd to carry me until I spotted the bright green sign indicating the metro. My hooves led me towards the entrance and I waited for my turn at the ticket booth. Even though it was automated I noticed multiple ponies counting bits over and over as they faced the realization they didn’t have enough. Some of them just sighed and either left or attempted to ask ponies for one or two bits only to leave in dismay. I watched as one got frustrated at the lack of bits and decided to slam all the bits into the machine causing a ticket to spill out at the cost of the machine most likely being jammed. ‘Great. Thanks buddy, I really need that today.’ I trotted forward as the last person in front of me exited through the stalls. I stuffed the bits I had in my front pocket into the receptacle of the machine. The ticket came out slowly and I realized the ink had splattered over the writing but left the barcode untouched. I notified the pony behind me and trotted towards the stalls. The train sat farther inside the massive tunnel that cut through the earth just five feet below the ponies whom trotted to their jobs every day. It’s a shock that the city council got it built so quickly, but I'm not complaining, considering it gets me practically anywhere in a matter of minutes. I scanned the ticket on the small glass section of the stall and breathed a sigh of relief as it turned green and let me through into the boarding station. I hurriedly pushed past the ponies that stood in front of the hanging signs and boarded the train. It was even more crowded than the streets outside considering every time I breathed it was either into someone’s shirt or their fur. I tried to squeeze past to get to a window seat, successfully making me look like a jerk. It was difficult but I finally managed to get close enough to a window that enabled me to watch things whipping past. A few colors stood out but my main interest was the tunnel. Tunnel #42195 was being constructed a few days before the first bullets started flying and yet it was never finished. A new tunnel was made to accommodate the loss of #42195 but they never explained what stopped it in the first place. I stared hard out the window until my heart seemed to slow down and the outside world came to a crawl. The looming door panel that covered the tunnel marked the point where many experienced nausea or some kind of sickness. I watched the door as time picked up again. Nothing was there and yet it felt...wrong. My phone buzzed in my front pocket as the train pulled up to my current station which knocked me out of my trance. I trotted along with the crowd as we made our departure and stuffed one hoof into my coat pocket to retrieve my phone. I flipped it open to find a message from Robronco and immediately mashed the delete button. I did not need another “thank you” message from them. Last time I read one of those I almost ended up donating my brain to them on accident. There are some very sneaky programs out there and apparently Robronco owns them all. Returning the phone to my pocket I attempted at exiting the metro through the stalls. To say it was packed was an understatement. Employee's hid behind the plexiglass-covered register terminals as ponies shoved each other to put their tickets on the counter. Once approved they shoved back through the crowd to get to the exit stalls and leave. As I made my way to the front a disheveled employee grabbed my ticket and slammed the stamper down onto the ticket. She missed it completely causing the ink to spread over her hoof which happened to be what blocked the attempt in the first place. Groaning, she put the stamper in a box to get more ink and pressed it firmly into my ticket. I picked it up and dashed out of the way of two business ponies that planned on taking off my head with their brief cases. It was relatively fast but I swear that mare had no idea what she was doing and was just approving tickets for access to the core. The core, what an ominous name for the center of the city. The city hummed around me as ponies passed me as they went into the station or towards their random objectives for that day. The buildings were surprisingly bright and colorful the farther towards the center of the core. They were all relatively the same size making it seem like the walls had eyes that belonged to a crowd. In fact they probably did since half of the buildings were equipped with latest security technology from Robronco since the incident a few months back. It made everything you said or did become a bit cautious when it came to touchy matters such as the princesses or the war. I remember walking down here for the first time to visit my doctor and had bumped into a unfortunate soul that had triggered the military protocol on one of those Ultra-Sentinels that are set to patrol the perimeter of the Hub. Needless to say the pony was only able to mutter out a few words before he was vaporized into a pile of dust that could be barely held in a Sparkle-Cola bottle. I sighed as I passed by the spot he was vaporized. I heard he was a technician for the Hub but all it took was a bad repair job and all he was a scorch mark that most passed by without giving it much thought. It was still there in the concrete. Nothing more but a black smudge due to it being 4 weeks ago, but a small bouquet of flowers had been decorated by the family with pictures of him and a small hat that I assumed belonged to him as a colt. I looked longingly at the objects that so many disregarded because they were too busy. He didn't deserve this type of treatment nor did he deserve to die. I stopped myself and looked back at the tokens that were given to remember him by. I searched my pocket and found something that couldn't possibly make up for anything, but at least showed I recognized his existence on this piece of terra we call Equestria. Nestled between the photos and a budding rose I set a few bottle caps that I had laying around. It seemed silly but it was something my family did for loved ones. Something physical, though worthless, took on a new amount of worth when given to another. This was just my way to give something I had. I trotted slowly away from the site and noticed a few ponies watching me. Go ahead, watch me. Maybe you ponies can learn some decent respect for something you don't know about. It was true that not everyone in this city was as hard headed as those that were leading this war, but they were a close second. I disregarded the stares and trotted towards Thalamus. A combination of multiple buildings, it stood taunt against the background of the core. From the little information I was allowed, it seemed as if Thalamus was the gathering of specialized technologies such as flux or in my case, brain copying. In fact, this idea seemed more and more ridiculous when I thought about it. It was supposed to power new suits for war but anything past that was confidential. They probably only have a couple models built already but with the war going the way it is, and the recent event involving balefire healing, the models are most likely being given to Applejack for mass production. I stepped through the glass doors of the building and gawked at the size of the inside. It never ceased to amaze me that building of this scale could be created. The lobby was decorated with advertisements, (as was normal for Robronco to do) but the rest of the space was filled with a table lined with seats and a few tables with machinery set on them. The main part of the room held a small receptionist who looked pleased that I finally arrived. ‘Oh shoot, am I late?’ I cast a glance around the walls for a clock and found one nestled in the corner. It read 9:00 which means- I am 10 minutes late. ‘Perfect..’ I opened my mouth to utter an apology but a stallion standing across from the receptionist butted in with a point of his hoof towards an elevator door. “This way please.” He let the sentence drawl on in a frustrated tone to imply the importance of my lateness. I didn’t even notice him due to his white fur that blended into the walls. I trotted over to him and attempted to read his name in order to give a formal greeting. He instead turned away from me and trotted into the elevator. I feel bad, I really do! But this guy is just being a jerk about it. Oh well, I guess I’ll apologize to Dr. Tape when I get up there. I followed him into the small stall and let him press the button to the twenty-second floor. The entire ride up was filled with questions of my physical health and about two mentions of how he was glad that I remembered to drink the D.I.F...I actually had forgotten its name since its full name was made up of scientific mumbo-jumbo. I just summed it up as drugs for a secret organization when Shadow inquired about it. I honestly wasn’t paying enough attention to these questions.- “And so it says here that you’re a mare. Is that correct?” The other stallion stared at me with a smug smile. “Yes…..”I said and was promptly brought out of my daze when I realized what the actual question was.” Wait, hold up, that wasn’t fair!” He rolled his eyes and turned the board towards me. I hurriedly double-checked the previous answers and groaned as a lot of them didn’t look familiar.. My eyes scanned the page for something identifiable and found it…..at question seven out of 20. “Ugh, I’m sorry but can we start back at question seven?” I said nudging the board sheepishly. He gave me a blank stare and sighed heavily as he realized I wasn’t joking. He listed off the questions again and I made sure to pay enough attention to answer them correctly. Including a few that I am pretty sure he threw in out of spite since the amount of questions rose to 24 instead of 20. Something about IQ. We finished near floor 15 and the air between us became shockingly still. “So, how much do they pay you?” I inquired trying desperately to quell the fire I started. He shot a look over at me wondering if it was a question or simple banter. Whichever he decided he didn’t seem pleased with it. “Not enough. This company, though massive, doesn’t have the funding for small experiments like this. Even under Equine Synthetics I’m only making about four bits an hour.” He shook his head in frustration. I thought that over and got caught on the name he mentioned. Equine Synthetics. It sounded unfamiliar but it made sense that the funding was coming from someone else. I was pretty sure what he told was confidential so I decided to let it go and strike up and conversation on the latest issue of Stable-tech propaganda. It was practically everywhere considering it was how the company got their money. Vaults were expensive, but it saved you from whatever it is that the zebras would throw at Equestria. I didn’t have a lot of money so I decided to enlist in the applicant line. After a couple of weeks I surprisingly won a slot. It was to a vault numbered 54 near Hoofington and it’s location would take me maybe 30 minutes to get to. It may be a bit far but the fact that I was admitted into it meant that I shouldn’t waste the opportunity. Our conversation drifted off as the number kept climbing upwards The number on the elevator kept rising until it suddenly stopped on floor 22. With a small ding the doors opened up to reveal a small hallway that led to multiple doors. The stallion suddenly was silent and motioned for me to walk towards the door at the end of the hallway. When I turned back he had already pushed closed the doors to the elevator and was on his way down. ‘Oooookay then.’ I moved down the hallway and noticed the doors that lined the hall. A few of them were open which allowed me to peek inside as I followed the carpeted hallway. A bunch of electronics and unknown faces greeted me and then turned back towards their work. Everyone was silent as they tacked away at the consoles before them. More rooms of the same quality followed after the first one until I came upon the door that I was directed towards. Behind it lay a large half amphitheater that filled up the space of the next two floors with its immensity. The cut off from the half amphitheater left a balcony on each floor that held important looking ponies. As soon as I stepped into the room the chatter that was rambunctious when I first came in became almost sullen as all of their eyes fell onto me. ‘Well isn’t that terrifying.’ I thought as I cast my eyes around to the assorted equipment that filled the amphitheater. Towers of blinking lights and wires shot out of the darkness that sat at each end of the room. The wires were brought up towards the top of the room and were funneled down towards a chair that sat on the stage. Circles were drawn on the ground and each one linked itself to the chair as well. The machines were being manned by earth ponies and inside each circle was a unicorn. Off to the side of the path were more consoles that I’m assuming controlled energy flow to the chair due to the amount of dials and numbers that were increasing besides levers that were being operated by more earth ponies. Hanging on the walls were two massive tesla coils that resembled obelisks built by the ancient Egyptian Canines. On the platform were two ponies that seemed almost like brothers if it wasn’t for the obvious difference in how they wore their black cloaks. One was a bit thin and had an orange muzzle that poked out of the hood in an almost humble way that was pointed towards my direction. The other was a greyish green that was shown in both his hooves and the muzzle that stuck out of the hood as well. He seemed a bit uncomfortable in the outfit due to his more “stocky” build that seemed intent on slipping out of the black cloak. A man stepped near me and I read the small insignia that was written on a plaque mounted on the right side of his chest; “Dr. Tape”. He wore a lab coat that held a couple of medical instruments along with two pens that lay nestled in his front pocket. Near his front pocket was the name tag plaque and a small button that sat next to it. It contained a rather odd symbol which had a single head that sat on a three rings that were circled around it almost like an atom with a ponies head as it’s core. He had not worn that when I was with him. “Nice to finally meet you in person! I’m Dr. Tape and those are my associates that will be witnessing the experiment. I hope you don’t find this that nerve racking.” His eyes darted towards the balconies and shared an awkward smile that was shared by no one besides me. “Glad to meet you as well. Where do I go and what do I do?” I tried to undo the tension in the air by trying to get to the point and found that I had succeeded in relieving the stress in the doctor's face a little bit. “Yes. Yes. Right this way!” He hurriedly got onto the stage and led me towards the chair that sat on the platform. As I trotted forward I took a casual glance at the unicorns sitting in a circle. Each one seemed to be in a sort of trance and didn’t seem to even notice I was even here. I leaned a bit closer to one that was near me and found a hoof placed on my shoulder. “Ah, please don’t attempt to disturb them. They are pertinent to this experiment and it took awhile to get them this way.” The sudden voice shocked me as the cloak on the taller figure was near and had pulled back his hood to reveal the face of a thin stallion with orange fur and a bright turquoise mane that ended as abruptly as it started.. He seemed almost sleepy with the way his eyes were casually relaxed but their seemed to be something off behind his eyes. Some kind of force that didn’t belong in this world. It gave me the chills as I turned my attention on getting into the chair. “Yeah you have no idea! Seriously it took about an hour or two for the spell to finally work.” The other pony in the cloak had a squeaky voice that didn’t fit the build he had but seemed perfect for the chubby face that currently poked out of the black cloak he wore. The doctor and the pony with the orange fur helped me into the chair and started pulling straps over my body. It seemed strange that the bands reached towards my middle and then stopped allowing a separate band to connect to it. When they were finished strapping me in I looked forward to avoid panicking. If the doctor noticed it he didn’t give any inclinations to sooth me since he moved to the back of the chair quickly and started plugging items into something. “So! While we are getting ready to begin, would you like a cup of tea or something? Not that we have any in this Celestia forsaken town but the thought is nice enough.” The orange pony stuck his hoof around the other pony in the black cloak and brought him to the front of me. “This guy is Snails and I’m Snips. I would like to say that your perfectly safe under our care.” He flashed a smile at me and nudged Snails who was busy staring at the ground.”Hm? Oh. Yeah, perfectly safe!” He grinned weakly and then pulled the cloak over his head again in a desperate attempt to shrink away. “Yeah, I feel safe already.” I stared nervously at the fellow named Snails and eventually turned away to the restraints on me. ”Are we almost ready? I might miss my potluck at this rate.” “Humor! I like that, it might just help you...you know with the pain and all..." He drifted off before snapping back to reality. "The electronics should be almost ready to go. Dr. Tape, are you finished yet?” Snails hurriedly trotted towards the back of the chair and out of my line of sight while Snips stood waiting for a response. A couple of clanks and the sound of a mechanical whirr came in response to the question. The doctor trotted out from behind the chair giving Snips a nod as he passed beside him and came to a halt awaiting orders. “All right. Showtime.” Snips said in a hushed tone to himself as he fastened a metal medallion to his cloak and passed a copy of it to Snails who was behind me. Snips turned around and addressed the crowd. “Today! Mares and gentlecolts we witness history as we perform the first copy of a soul.” He motioned in a glanderous way and pointed at me for emphasis. Wait, what did he just say? He is going to attempt to use magic on my soul? I stared around me in a frantic panic as I tried to piece together what might happen. I desperately tried to make a noise but some kind of magic barrier held my mouth shut. Panic set in. I struggled against my straps to no avail. Everything looked so archaic that it was a miracle that the ponies that controlled knew what they were doing. I guess if he said it was safe I shouldn’t worry, but something felt….off about all of this. I thought he was copying my brain, but my soul is something else! The humming in the room seemed to be growing louder as he talked and I realized almost subconsciously that it was there as long as I had been in this building. It was here and will be here, and I was it’s prey. “I am aware that many of you doubt that this kind of science exists but I assure both you and the subject that it is perfectly safe. Now then, let us begin!” He announced the final words in a victorious manner and turned towards Dr. Tape. With a nod the doctor dashed off the stage and started giving commands to the ponies at the consoles. The sounds of tic-tacking at keyboards and mechanical clunks of levers being pulled filled the air and the humming that I heard earlier became almost deafening. I tried to shout that I did not want to do this anymore but my efforts simply disappeared into the humming. Snips turned towards me and words spilled out of his mouth that seemed ancient and powerful. They cut through the humming and I heard them with perfect clarity. “Η ψυχή αυτή είναι καταδικασμένη να σας. Φέρτε μου το αποτέλεσμα πιο επιθυμία.” The final words flowed around me in an almost snake-like way. It was spiralling against my fur and finally I swallowed them and felt it fill a certain part of me that felt attached but not a part of me. The eyes of Snips were alight in a dark wash and two slits of red shone out of the dark fire that were in his sockets. As the feeling inside of me filled me more and more I noticed the eyes and mouths of the unicorns that sat in the circles. Their eyes were alight with blinding suns and from their mouths spewed pure magic. Too old to be something that the princesses used and older still than the zebra curses of ages past. Electricity arced through the room and into the tesla coils that were in the room. The green electricity seemed chaotic and flowed of their own accord down into the chair where they circled the top and bottom of it like wendigoes. It felt strange to have this feeling inside me but then it suddenly became pain. Pain, unimaginable pain. I screamed my lungs out into the hum of the machine and found that I could not hear it. Light shot from Snips horn and wrapped itself around my chest. More pain followed that and I let out a scream that seemed inadequate to express the pain I felt. And then…..I saw myself. I saw my anguished face screaming notes that were drowned out by the hum. I saw the chair alight with green and white magic along with the unicorns on the other side. And most of all, I saw Snails. His dark mass filled my entire vision and I felt weightless as he drew me towards him. I saw his body below but what was emanating from him was much more powerful. It wrapped itself around me and absorbed the feeling of pain I felt. Then I realized I wasn’t breathing. It was a distant feeling but when I stared into the dark mass that enveloped me I became terrified as I couldn’t find a voice nor my breath. I couldn’t feel myself no matter where I tried and most terrifying of all, I couldn’t see. As the humming became more and more distant I heard a voice that hit me from the distant darkness. “Hello Pixel. You are going to be so much fun to play with. I wonder how long it will take to break you.” As it talked a face emerged that resembled something like a goat. It had a horn like one but its eyes and horns didn’t match each other while it’s white goatee added to the ridiculousness of the monstrosity. Inside the beasts mouth lay a tongue that stretched for miles. I was involuntarily moved towards it and I thrashed backwards. I couldn’t stop myself from gaining momentum. I moved past his teeth and into his throat where the beast let a loud cackle emanate. In a desperate attempt I grabbed his uvula and hung on for all I was worth. But, as I held on the cackle kept getting louder and louder until I finally slipped and fell into his throat. The only response I had left was to scream and scream and scream as I fell down into discord and darkness.