"You will either become a mindless beast or a pacifistic paragon."
I sat in the chair reviewing my options. I had my guns loaded and I was preparing to tear this place apart and plunge everything on it into the cold void of space to find my friends. I asked Mundas for a map.
"Listen kid, your in the living equivalent of hell. But I think you and I can scratch each others backs, well, if a potato had a back."
Came the voice of a stallion instead of the melodic monotone of Mundas.
"Who are you?" I asked the voice.
"The names Spud, which is ironic since I'm in a potato."
Well, I wonder if a side effect of The Eye is going insane.
"Did you just say you are in a potato?" I asked. Hopefully, since these voices where in my helmet, no one would hear me and figure for me a crazy bucker.
"Yes, and yes I am. Damn Equilibrium, putting my in a root."
"Listen, we can dive into insanity and potatoes once you and I have done the deal I have in mind. I'll send a harbinger to escort you to the inventions wing."
"What is a-" As to answer my question, a large earth pony lumbering in a metal suit with smoke bellowing out of a canister hanging from its helmet with a single eye on its massive helmet came out with two miniguns on its saddle bags. Meanwhile in my mind a small hold tone sounded and a voice in my mind said "Well sorry Maelstorm, looks like your sanity is out to bucking lunch!"
"Behold the H-3.14 harbinger, this ones name is Pi. Play nice now, if you don't, he'll smash your skull in with his hooves." I creature looked at me through the security booth and gave a loud roar.
"Hello?" I said as I raised a hoof in greeting. Pi motioned with a hoof to follow him. Since I didn't feel like angering a pony thrice my size with dual miniguns and full metal armor, I followed him. I could feel the vibrations from his hooves as I walked ahead of him.I felt myself almost wishing for some of the drones to attack this thing just to see what it could do. Well later I got my wish. a group of drones, three of them, encountered us in one of the chrome hallways. The monster gave a great roar and with that revved up his miniguns. My ears where filled with the scream of the guns and the screams of the drones a Pi crushed. I watched in awe as a massive creature threw off three drones and then smashed their bodies with his massive steel horse shoes. Soon they all lied dead in a pile and the chrome hallway was covered in blood. We continued on until we reached a doorway next to a window that overlooked the ruins of Equestria from its orbit. Again I was ensnared by both the beauty of it and the ruin it held. The sound of a mechanical door opening snapped me out of my trance and I followed Pi thought the door. I was in a room with red carpet along steel walls. Placed through out the room where several glass cases with devices placed in them. At the end of the room was a large window that overlooked space, and part of this window was covered by a large computer with five screens, and on the dashboard of it was a glowing potato hooked up to the machine.
"Well hello kid, Spud, at your service." The voice said in his helmet.
"So wait, your an actual potato?" I asked.
"Well I was a pony, up until Quantum put me in a potato for trying to tell the world of the Celestial Equilibrium. Do you know what it feels like to be a potato?"
"It huts?" I responded.
"Yes, yes it does, but I'm also blind, well until Pi took pity on my and hooked me into the machine. Now I have access to all of the cameras and speakers of this station. Hell, all of this started from a pony discovering that a potato had energy!"
Like I said, things are getting stranger and more insane by the minute.
"Its funny since for years ponies studied magic and science. When the war began, a pony discovered the power of a potato. It then spread to discovering many things. Pi, for example, is a harbinger, a pony who has been through a large amount of surgeries and is a strong soldier that was built to be an idiot and a tool of war. For some reason he's peaceful until provoked."
"I saw that when he smashed several drones into dust."
"And I am now the potato that started this entire thing. Even your friend Mundas is a product of this realm, and your friend 13, he's part of Fallback."
"What do you mean by Fallback?" I asked.
"Project Fallback, the first and final solution to winning a war. It involves capturing several ponies, breaking down their biological material, and then reassembling it into a clone of a single pony. He was known as 1. I think that the total number is up to 100117. Fallback was what we where working on when hell was let loose. 13 escaped, and in the process of his escape, had his memory wiped. Now the Equilibrium want to use Fallback to reclaim the remnants of Equestria. With them at the helm, all of creativity will be strangled out of the population and they wont stop till all of Equestria is a mindless beast under their control. Now, I want to stop the Equilibrium, and you want to find your friends. I can help you and them off of this station, if you do a little job for me.":
"Whats the job?" I asked.
"You take a little space walk and disable the external security connections as to blind the Equilibrium for me, and in return, I'll give you the keys to the Equilibrium's command center. Sound like a deal?"
"What do you mean by space walk?" I soon felt that I was going to regret that question.
"I mean that, with the aid of a sealed space suit, go out into space." I gave a mental sigh at the notion of going out into space. Well at least it was a road to getting back.
"Okay, I'll do it." Well I guess I'm now beginning to question my own sanity.
"Great, Pi will escort you to one of the air locks. There you'll find a space suit that should fit you. If it doesn't, then you'll be screwed."
"What?" I asked before the door closed in my face and Pi guided me to the air lock. Inside was a space suit sitting on a booth. I took off my helmet, which had caused my mane to sweat in the heat of it, and my current armor. I then took off the 45. auto and put it aside to clip onto the suit. I looked into the reflection of the suits visor and came across my Eye. I had grown use to it in the small time I had had it and I was enthralled by the depth it seemed to radiate over me. I snapped out of the trance the Eye induced and I continued to put the suit on and I put on the two air tanks then hooked those to the helmet of the suit. It felt tight and I was afraid that it would rip and thus kill me in the void of space. I picked up the 45. auto and clipped it to the belt of the suit and I swallowed my fear and I looked at the array of buttons on a panel next to the door. I pressed the largest and the door behind me closed. The one in front of me revealed a flight of stairs lit by a flashing red light at the top of it. I opened the door at the top of the stairs revealing a cat walk in space that overlooked Equestria. I felt enthralled at the wretched beauty of the landscape. It was interesting to see the planet in space. I would have stayed longer if the fact that I was running on limited oxygen didn't hit me next.
"Hey Spud, how do I know what the external security connections look like?" I asked, hoping that he wound't see it as sheepish.
"Two large cabled wires hooked with a large green coupling, how your going to get them apart, I have no idea."
"Wait, how am I talking to you when I'm not wearing my helmet?" I asked, confused on the mater.
"The helmet of the space suit has a transmitter, that's why I can speak to and you to talk to me, now get your vandalism on and we pretend no one saw nothing." I was beginning to think of a notion by which I drive myself insane so that way the wasteland would make more sense. I put this notion away and surveyed the flat section of the station where I had a view of the lower sections and several pillars leading up to a large dome like room connected to a large rectangle made out of steel. I walked up to one of the pillars and found the large cable wire Spud was talking about. I levitated the 45. auto and aimed it at the coupling.
Sadly I had to learn the transition of force the hard way. I pulled the trigger and was shot back, almost off of the station. After I recovered from the shock and cursing the gravity of space and my poor decision to shoot the coupling off, I called Spud.
"The couplings out, now, for your part of the deal." I said as I clipped the 45. auto to my belt.
"Okay, I'm initiating one of the teleporters in the A wing to teleport you from there to the command center." At the single word of teleportation I froze.
"No, whatever you do, do not, I repeat NOT teleport me." I screamed. But just as Spud was about to speak I felt the familiar agony of teleportation.
I opened my eyes in the same excruciating pain I had the first time. I lay there, sprawling on a cold metal floor and my last sight where three ponies standing over, my vision blurred and I went into unconsciousness.
" Well Quantum, what are we going to do with them?" The voice of a stallion greeted me back into unconscious.
"We can always use more test subjects." Came a reply to the first voice. I slowly opened my eyes and saw three ponies standing a group with their backs to the table I was strapped to. They all wore white lab coats and for some reason, light seemed to flicker off of their heads. I turned my head as far as I could and I saw Calypso asleep on a table beside me. Her small frame was bruised and had several cuts along her abdomen.
They turned towards me to see that I was awake.
"Ah, your awake. Good, I'll have more fun slicing you up while your awake." One of them said. I panicked to think of something quick. Teleporting was not an option. I was about to think of more options until the lead pony added another word. "Well since it'll be the last sight you see." He said, walking up to my table.
He wheeled it over to a glass window over looking a massive room filled with tubes. "Behold, Fallback." He said with pride. I looked down and saw 13 in one of them. I was filled with rage at this. "This will be an ample force for us to take back Equestria." He added. He turned the table to me. I looked him in his cold, soulless eyes. "What are you?" I asked. " I am the brain of a pony placed in a machine that resembled my old body, as have my associates." He replied.
I kept my eyes on his. I felt the same spark of rage welling up inside me. Soon I saw somewhat of a spark of fear in his eyes. Soon I felt so angry that this bastard had tried to kill me and my friends that it felt like welled out of me. I also felt like my Eye was burning. I looked back into the ponies eyes. They where alight with fear. "What in Celestia's name are you?" He whispered, still paralyzed in fear.
"An angry mother bucker." I whispered back and let more of my rage flood out. Along with this came an intensification on the heat of my eye. "Bloodstone." He whispered back in awe. I felt, for some reason, powerful, like I could break through these bonds. I tried it, and I heard them begin to snap. "You better start running." I said to him.
I heard the other two scientists beginning to run. The first just stood there, still paralyzed. At this point I could feel the burning power of my Eye come to what felt like a fire raging in my eye. I shrugged off the pain with my new found strength. I stared back at him.
I gave a devilish smile, and snapped through the restraints. The first I did was slam down on his body with my hooves. I found that it was made out of hard plastic. When I was sure he could no longer do me harm, I used my new strength to levitate him onto the table. I then held him in place with my magic and went over to a small table with surgical tools on it.
I took up a scalpel. I turned to him, the same insane grin on my face. By this point his face was a contorted mask of horror, like he knew what I was going to do. I levitated the scalpel up to his right eye, and I stabbed it into it. Shards of glass and electronics went everywhere.
He screamed in pain. "That's right, bucker, scream!" I yelled to him with a little more than eerie satisfaction in my voice. Next, after I had it pried out the scalpel, I levitated it to the other eye. "Do you know why I do this?" I asked, the scalpel a inch from his eye. He shook his head nervously. "I do this because I want to see you suffer." I whispered to him, and stabbed it into his eye.
He screamed again, and I met that scream with a smile. Next I put down the scalpel, and I took what looked like a tool designed to crack a rib cage. It had a hammer on one end and a claw like machine on the other. I slammed the hammer down on his chest to hear the plastic cracking. I hit it again just to clear everything away.
Than I put the claw in the circuits and wires that where placed in there. Once I had a good bit of it in the claw, I yanked it out. The scientists screaming stopped, I had killed him. I had no idea why but next I gave a horrible, spine chilling cackle. I felt devoid of all pity and mercy, something I had never felt before.
I turned to Calypso. She was awake, and she had her eyes full of fear like the scientist. "Maelstorm? Is that you?" She asked timidly. I what I felt next was regret. I looked down at my hooves. They where bloodied and dirtied, and then I searched my mind.
I felt like I had become a monster then.I fell to my knees, has the wasteland changed me this much in the short amount of time I had lived in it? Had the Eye, the wastes disturbed some dark side within me? I had, for a period of time, been a merciless, pitiless monster. I was overloaded with emotions. I gave a sad chuckle, and I fell to the ground, blacked out.
This time, surprisingly, Bloodstone did not come to me. Well I couldn't blame him for being ashamed of me. Here I was, most likely the last of a family of ponies who could use an Eye, and I had become a complete psychopath almost a few hours after using it. When I woke up, I was going to have to answer alot of questions, most of which I would have no answers for.