//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: What We've Done // by All of the Above //------------------------------// All was dark. Was it because it was night, or was it because the stallion's eyes weren't open? He tried to open them, but showed resistance. It was like a rickety old door being opened for the first time in centuries. They fought to stay closed. All they wanted was to stay closed for all eternity. As color and light flashed through the cracks in his eyelids, he fought harder. Sight was the best thing that he could imagine then. Fighting for it was absolutely necessary. The eyelids had fought a glorious battle to stay closed, but alas, they had lost. They gave into the stallion’s body actions, and they slowly opened. The first thing he saw was a bright blue sky. Clouds floated across the sky, showing the slightest inconspicuous movement. He willed his body to stand, but he stopped when he felt a great surge of cold, stabbing pain throughout his body. It was as if there were ten swords in him. He tried to take a look around, but he found that his neck was also refusing to move. Despite the pain, he still moved it from left to right. There were small wooden walls on all four sides of him. The wood looked withered and aged, like it had just been left there to rot as the maggots fed on the wood and the stallion inside. His body was still in great pain, but he still managed to sit up, despite the cold feeling that his body was giving him. His body cricked and creaked like an old rocking chair. He licked his lips, tasting nothing. He coughed while trying to breath. Mucus was forcing its way out of his throat. He coughed and coughed, clearing his throat and opening it up so he could breathe. He seemed to be in a testing chamber. It looked and felt familiar to him, down to how the white tiles felt beneath his hooves. There were three frames staring at him from above. Behind it lied unknown things. The ceiling may have a hole through it, but it hid what could have been hiding in the shadows. The frames were missing the high explosion resistant glass. He didn't want to think about what must have happened to break those things. How do I know this place? he thought. As he examined the room around him, he looked upon the wall that told a thousand stories. Shadows of ponies burnt onto the wall like a child painted them on the wall. Six shadows of ponies. But eight more shadows of large, obscene monsters that looked like they were screaming in agony and fear stood out from the six regular pony shadows. Suddenly, he heard voices were heard coming from another room. They sounded anxious, aggravated, and scared all at the same time. He couldn't make out much, but he could hear small bits of two ponies’ conversation. "Take him... it's not... we're gonna get..." He climbed out of his own tomb, making quite a racket coming out of it. The clop of his hooves made most of the noise, but it was also his grunts of pain. They echoed around the decaying building around him. It was loud enough to stall the two ponies’ conversation. They were clearly running towards the room he was in. Perhaps they were here looking for somepony, or something else that could be of equal importance. The hoofsteps were rapidly getting louder and louder, and the stallion began thinking to himself. 'What happened to me? Where am I? Who am I?' The stallion took a look at himself. He saw that he was a greenish grey. He put a hoof up to his hair, feeling the matted and dusty thing on top of his head. He felt his forehead. No horn. He felt his back. Pegasus wings. The two ponies he heard earlier had finally arrived. One of them looked much younger than the other. The pony appeared to be wearing a gas mask, marked with the symbol of a dragon on it. His body was red, and his jade colored mane was hanging behind him. The pony carried a bag at his/her side. The pony was possibly in his/her teenage years. The other was much taller than the other. She was clearly female, but she looked strong. Her coat was bright blue, and her mane was black. It was long and curly, and it didn't look all too good. The mare didn't look that good either. "I thought you said the stallion was dead!" the mare shouted at her more than likely son/daughter. "He is dead! I checked his pulse and I felt nothing." Her voice sounded female as well. "Next time, feel free to stab him in the head if you're not sure. He's in a coffin for Celestia's sake! He should be dead." The filly said nothing to her mother. She instead grabbed a knife from her bag, and threw said knife at the stallion’s leg. The impact of the knife made him scream in pain. He stumbled back, and fell into his coffin. Even though his screams were loud, he could hear something in the back of his mind. It was a single word that sounded so familiar. Though he couldn’t hear it, it shattered his ear drums. ‘Reset.’ The stallion saw two scenes. They were both blurry, and hard to make out. The stallion couldn't find out why, but this seemed... familiar. It was like he had seen it once before. Not knowing what he was doing, he decided to try and escape the situation. He didn't know what to call it, or what was even happening. He decided to take a better look at one of them. It didn't matter which. He directed his attention to the one on the left. He squinted, trying to make the image clearer. The stallion found himself only a few seconds earlier. The mare was scolding the filly for not making sure he was dead. Then came the knife. As if the stallion had practiced this a million times, he skillfully caught the knife, and threw it back at the filly. It hit the eye socket of the gas mask. She fell over, and didn't make another move. The mare's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates. She didn't do anything but stare at the lifeless body of the filly beside her. "THAT WAS MY DAUGHTER YOU BUCKER!" She charged at the stallion, using her hind legs to kick him in the face. He fell backwards, and tripped over the casket. She jumped on top of him, and kicked his head. She bashed his head over and over again, until the stallion blocked her kick, and bucked her off. Both ponies stood up, and faced each other. The mare threw another kick towards the stallion, and knocked out a few teeth. She uppercutted him, and made him fall to the ground. ‘Reset.’ He saw two more scenes, both of which weren't as blurry as last time. The one to his left showed him making the first move, which was kicking her in the face. The other was much worse. He jumped on top of her, and bashed her head with his fists, over and over until her skull was obliterated, pieces of brain matter left on his hooves. The stallion chose the less violent option. He had already killed somepony, he didn't want to kill another. Just as he had seen in the vision, the stallion kicked the mare straight in the face, leaving a bruise on her cheek. She fell backwards, not getting back up. She instead looked up at the stallion. "Who are you?" She asked. The stallion felt something over him. He remembered exactly where he was. It was not a warehouse, it was a testing chamber, and he knew it. He just couldn't remember. He knew of all the evil he was capable of. His path was chosen, and he couldn't go back. He struck the mare in the face, knocking her head to the ground, and cracking her skull. Her last dying breaths were used to form the word "why." Aegis Strap. No. That's not who he is anymore. Aegis was killed in the experiment. The stallion standing over the dying mare is not an ordinary pony. He's a monster. He is... "I... am... The Quantum Pony."