Living in Ruinsby HegamoniaChaptersChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4: Story splitCencellationIntermissionChapter 1'don't get mad, get even Robert F. Kennedy *tick-tock... tick-tock... tick-tock...* Ah, Canterlot, the pride and joy of Equestrias industrial might, even the eco-terrorists, surprisingly, are here not to cause a ruckus and respect that this is the capital of the country. I was standing over one of the many balconies sicking out of the Hoof&Tooth apartment complex, name's Plasma Burst, and I own a significant business here in Canterlot: Plasma Tech. Plasma, in its raw form, has more energy than any other known generators in current existence, while it can be refined into different types of materials for anything ranging from simple pressure valves to immense and complex factory components, it's toxic byproducts are extremely deadly to any known pony physiology. So far the only ones who have unlocked this amazing source of wealth are me and Twilight Sparkle, who used it in her studies of nanotechnology until they were stolen from her a few months ago; the security cameras stationed in her personal lab picked up nothing, and even showed that the papers simply vanished without a trace, no prints or residues were found, as if they just grew legs and walked away. Twilights friends sometimes come to Canterlot for a visit, and her unicorn friend Rarity even started a business in fashion here, fact she was the one who designed my suit and I must say she knew exactly what she was doing, I offered up a fair amount for the tailoring but she said and I quote 'a friend of Twilight is a friend of mine, and I don't want payment from friends', certainly living up to her reputation as the element of generosity alright. Lately, the amount of suspected eco-terrorists have been going down, and nopony seems to have an answer for that, the more liberal business stallions claim they are planning to sabotage the factories here, but the law enforcement rapidly dismissed that on the basis of suicide. Everyone went about their normal days and Twilight has nearly replicated her work now, but still I feel something... off, about Canterlot, as if something big is gonna happen, and happen soon. There was a beep at the door, a solid beep followed by two synthesized notes; Twilight Sparkle was outside waiting for me, I trotted over and opened the door and allowed her to step in... *Tick-Tock... Tick-Tock... Tick-Tock...* I shook my head, hearing that same sound over and over again followed by a weird sense of dread and sadness, and went over to the kitchen to get a couple glasses and a bottle of champagne. Holding the tray in my magic, I brought it over to where Twilight was on the Balcony and poured a glass for her and myself, both of us taking a glass before I asked "So, enjoy the view?" "Yes, it's lovely" "The smoke stacks an eyesore?" "Yeah, think you could have chosen a better spot?" I chuckled "No, this was the only balcony they had up here, so what's up?" "Not much, I did manage to finally recreate my research, but starting from scratch again is slow going" "What were they so interested in anyway?" "If I were to guess, I'd say that they were a rival corporation wanting my research to make their own types of nanites" "So they hired a professional to do the work, outsource the mercenary since it would be breaking and entering on one occasion and theft on three different levels" "Yeah, sentences are high for that" "Tell me about it" "How about you?" "Nothing really, just the usual" "The usual, huh? so that little shake of your head was usual?" "You saw that?" "I wouldn't be asking otherwise" I looked over out at the magnificent view of the plains, then took a sip and said "Remember how Pinkie Pie could reliably and accurately tell when something happens?" "How could I forget?" "I'm not sure, but I think that this tick-tocking I keep hearing in my head might be a variation of it" she looked at me, wide eyes then smiled and said "If that were true then why is it only showing up now?" then took a sip of her champagne "Because I get a feeling of dread and despair after the noise" "So... in other-words, it only predicts when something bad happens, right?" "I think so" I let out a tired yawn and looked at the clock, then thought 730? that's a little early to be going to bed' "I'm getting a little tired Twilight" "What? You finally doing something not stupid?" then started laughing "Laugh it up, fuzzball, and typically I do get to bed at around 9, unlike you" "Don't remind me, by the way, who made the champagne? It tastes a little bitter" "ummm... it says here Halo Harvest, made in 2009, aged until this year" "Huh, I don't remember it being this bitter" "Could be-" *tick-tock tick-tock tick-tock* "-could be that it was made with different ingredients?" "No, Halo doesn't typically use different ingredients unless they had a shortage... or you bought bad champagne" she gave a loud yawn and trotted over to one of the couches outside, I laid down next to her, snuggling up, then said "There is a third... if unlikely... possibility" "Maybe later, right now... I just... need to sleep... maybe... a quick... nap..." "Yeah..." *tick tock tick tock tick tock* Chapter 2I woke up to the sound of a cart coming in, and some tinkling of metal on metal, the familiar sound made my eyes snap open as I remember what happened a few minutes ago; felt tired at 730, Twilight also tired, both of us went to sleep on outside couch... ah crap, the champagne was drugged. I perked my ears up when I heard a twisted, maniacal laughter, cheery like Pinkie Pie's voice was but the maniac side showing brightly through as well, then heard "Well well, what do we have here? the boys back home finally bring some proper toys this time around? Oh! and would ya look at that, they managed to capture two soon to be very famous ponies before they went big, oh, wait, I ordered scalpels, knives, saw anything with an edge! Not these syringes filled with fluid! Those are too quick for my liking, send them back and get me some proper ones" "But the higher ups insist on using these for your project" "Oh fine, but they owe me got it?" "Yes, sir" "Now then, go away and leave me to my work in peace" The room, while being lit up barely, was visible enough for me to make out some features of our captor, a middle aged unicorn stallion with an unkempt, greasy green mane and tail, pearl white makeup on his face with red lipstick covering up several nasty scars running along his mouth, pinprick pupils with red irises, and his coat was a pinkish-red color, his cutie mark had the image of the Joker in a deck of cards, with the scars reading 'why so serious?' beneath it. If there was any way to describe the look on his face I would say it would more than likely put anything Discord could have done to shame, that was the look of somepony who has completely, and truly, lost their mind to insanity. He was wearing a purple trench coat with a green vest and a violet tie, and judging by the movement beneath the coat, had something underneath that I would really enjoy to not know, a lime green flower was adorned on the coat to complete the disturbing image. He mumbled to himself for a moment before turning to me and gave a smile, one that held a twisted kindness of unsettling certainty, as if he planned my every move before I even could formulate a way out of here. Wordlessly, he pulled the cart closer to me and removed the cover, inside were about six vials with three different types of cutting utensils next to them, and two syringes, then started chuckling "hmhmhmmmm, oooh they left me with nice toys but I prefer to use what I ordered, but they insisted that I give you two what's in the vials, don't worry, I'll make sure you get something to bite down on, oh wait! You won't likely live long enough to need it, so why bother?" "What do you want from us?" "Little old me? Why, nothing, of course! The money's only a little bit of an extra incentive but the fun I get to do is what really attracted me to this" "What? Capturing ponies and torturing them to death with a triplet of liquids?" "Nah, I don't use liquid torture, at all, but the bosspony wants me to use this, so... here we are, you asking rhetorical questions, your lover mare there still out cold, and me having a good, healthy conversation with you" "Why do you do it?" "Why? Of all the questions you ask you want to know why I do this? I'm bored, your line of work has no fun in it, even Pinkie Pie has less fun than I like, and this is the only 'legal' way I can get some fun" "Your garbage who kills for money" "Hey, don't talk like them, because you're not" "You're insane!" "I'm not insane, just ahead of the curve. Your so called 'civlized' friends, you take away the rules, they'll eat each other to get some sort of order going" "There's no curve like that in existence" "You think so? You really do?" I nodded my head yes, then he pulled out a detonator and laughed "Then you must be a lot less bright than I realized, because I have wired up the canterlot cesspool of toxic waste to vent into the city, killing everyone there and intoxicating the city for centuries, why am I telling you this, you wonder. It's because you're on camera!" He stepped to the side to reveal a camera, likely stolen, mounted on a tripod and hooked to a laptop across the room, where another pony was working, a pegasus mare with a red coat but her back was to me, the laptop had something on it, more than likely he was broadcasting to every channel on TV. He said "Hello there, Canterlot, I hope I'm not interrupting your normal broadcast, but if I am, who am I to care? If you're listening up, listen real well, for I'm not repeating myself. I am going to play a little game, I want you to help these two poor saps escape from my domain, for this I am opening up a small portal for which you will put what you want them to do into, which will go into a small box and I will randomly draw a letter, put a hoof over my eyes and give it to either Plasma Stream or Twilight Sparkle, for every day that you waste watching this and not helping these two escape, I will blow up a building, and when I run out of detonators I'll go to my supreme surprise, and be quick, I only have three detonators, oh, and another thing, I hope their deaths are quick, for your sake" then he made a cutthroat action with his hoof and the feed was cut; Twilight stirred for a moment and sat bolt upright, or would have, if she wasn't tied up tighter than an industrial spring. She turned to face me and looked at our captor, gasping when she saw his face, he just cackled and brought out the syringes, then took them and put them into different vials, and put the empty vials across the tools, opposite the other ones, and plunged one into my foreleg... Author's Note For the next parts, you get to decide what happens to them. The rules are simple: A) they CANNOT die, I can't stress that enough B) to go with the not dying rule, they cannot become immortal/unkillable, but you can make them very hard to kill/live very long lives C) they HAVE to be identifiable after the three rounds of drugs are over D) it must have some sort of visual addition and finally E) be creative! ALSO: you get to tell me how they are tortured by this very familiar stallion, I already have a few ideas from playing around with electricity, specifically what happens when you put 4.5K volts on 80K amps through a copper wire that is spun around an aluminum can Chapter 3As soon as the needle exited my skin the fluid felt like liquid fire was injected into my veins, only spreading as the burning sensation made my leg go numb, I tried moving it but the muscles were completely slack, not even a twitch came from my leg. Once it moved to my head and the burn was everywhere a searing pain erupted in my forehead, mouth, and inside my chest, and if I could scream, it would definitely damage eardrums from the loudness. Blood poured out of my mouth as certain parts of my teeth fell out, grew longer and sharpened, the taste of iron quickly becoming something like eating a salt cube dipped in lemon juice, then dusted with sugar, tasting bitter and salty, but also slightly sweet with a hint of spiciness. The amount of pain was so great that I was able to shake myself and tip the chair to the point where it hit the ground on its side, giving me a good look at my life blood as it changed color from red, to yellow, to green, then finally settling on dark blue, almost black, blood. When the pain finally died down I was gulping raggedly for air, I couldn't tell where Twilight was but I could hear our captors hoofsteps echoing across the hard stone floor, to where they landed in front of me, and looking up and seeing him smile made me shiver, he picked me up with his magic and set a mirror in front of me. Half of my face was covered in blood, my eyes were now catlike pupils, but still retained their golden color, and my mouth had two rows of both blunt and sharp teeth, my tongue wasn't even close to being qualified as one, it extended about two feet out and had a second jaw in the front, which had one row of razor sharp, pointed teeth. I stared, and stared, and stared at the sight, my mind simply not registering what happened to my mouth, and my horn was twice its original size, and split into four pieces about two-thirds of the way up, where the bits separated and formed points with a ring around those separate horns halfway up, similar to a focusing lens for a laser. Everything else seemed to be alright, the most obvious one being my new horn, even though I couldn't see if anything below my neck was changed due to the chains, but he wasn't finished with me. He dragged the chair I was tied to and pulled it over to a darkened hallway, and took a right, it wasn't very long until we came upon a smallish room lit by fluorescent lighting, the harsh white light casting from the ceiling leaving no shadows, and I quickly saw several old blood stains on the wall. He let go when I was positioned in the middle of the room and he trotted over to the entrance, asking "Hungry?" I shook my head no but my stomach disagreed, heavily, he just chuckled, left the room and closed the door, the chains binding me releasing when it was securely locked. The chains were covering up a few other mutations, the most glaring was my hooves had some sort of substance on the bottom, it felt hard but malleable at the same time, as if someone had put clay on them and forgot to put it in a kiln, and when I poked it with my other hoof, it seemed to be part of me. Another one was that while my coat was still on, it was much softer and shinier, and my skin hardened into some sort of superdense metallic alloy that was soft when poked but could solidify majorly when struck. I looked down and heard my stomach growl, even though I had a full stomach minutes ago. I fell out of the chair and stood up to stretch my legs, then walked up to a wall and felt around it, or tried, my hoof stuck fast like superglue, and with a little force, came off. I experimentally put both of my front hooves on and scaled the wall, finding that it became much easier to climb around the more I did this, and practiced for a little bit before a section of the wall caved in on itself and I smelled... food, not like carrots, lettuce, cheese, tomato etc. but live meat, living, breathing flesh and bone, whatever you want to call it, to me now, it was food, and two parts of me were in disagreement, one side was saying that this was food and the other was saying that this was life, and all life is precious; I just moved toward it to (hopefully) find something to sate my hunger... (Control Center of Complex) "oooo- what do we have here?" The white stallion said, as he watched a pair of his test subjects get unleashed upon poor Plasma Stream. He eyed his first one, a well-built unicorn with a dark green coat that was given a different serum, and his second one, an Earth Pony, but mutated beyond what would be considered massive, he wanted to see if his pets would be able to subdue him or not. Plasma was strong, he'll give him that, resisting the sedative in that way requires significant brute force to pull off, something even his pets couldn't do, but he considered that and discovered that their brains, while altered into a predators, were still able to do higher cognitive functions, and for that they could ascertain how dangerous an opponent was before they fight him, but hunger can do a lot to someponys reasoning, making them desperate and therefore make mistakes or they get much smarter in order to more likely secure food. Right now, he didn't care and wanted a show, so, he sat back and said "Well, my sweet, sweet Plasma, The Joker will make sure you die with a smile on your face!" (Plasma Stream, maze) I was quickly getting to the scent, and based on the smell, it was certainly alive, and I was partially disturbed at how I knew that, but the rumble in my gut told me to head towards the closest area of food, and for a unicorn, an empty stomach is a perfect distraction for concentration. I ended up so close that I could hear it right around the corner from it; turning, I saw that it was a pony, without anything for me to just grab and go, however it was definitely not a normal farming earth pony, this one looked like he was at least eight times my size. Had I been in a more lucid mood I would have realized that fantasizing about eating him was not normal for an herbivore, but that thought was shot down by the instinct to eat, something that takes priority over all other. His back was turned to me and he was looking for something else so I sprung up onto the ceiling and quietly snuck up on him, but, fate would have deemed me unworthy and a large glob of saliva hit him right on the head, but when he looked up I was already on top of him, barely allowing a scream come before I snapped his neck and had the meal my gut was dying to have, and not one to disallow it a feast, I dined. Mutilating the body was fairly easy, since most of the pony was soft and squishy, easily being cut by my teeth, I dug through the thick skin to get at the real treats inside; the body's heart, liver, and lungs, all of which were very large and muscular, the next to go was the musculature of the body, and a quick heating spell rapidly cooked the rest of the pony for me to feast without fear of bacterial agents in the muscles, the spell also burned his coat off, leaving me with just the flesh. I looked over one of the legs and saw just how much meat was on the bone, this pony was at least eight times my size and I managed to kill him in one swift strike, but right now it didn't matter, I was still hungry. Funny thing about my teeth is that they had enough strength to theoretically grind bones into dust, or pulp as the case would be, as I dislocated the joint and ripped it out, then consumed the leg, bones and all, minus the hoof. I just ate, and ate, and ate, and by the time I felt satisfied the only visible portion of the pony was from the chest up, the stomach and intestines, the bladder and the kidneys, but the real thing that I wanted now was he head, inside the skull. I moved over to the head and cracked the cranium open with my second jaw, then used the hole as leverage to split it apart, revealing the absence of any sort of edible matter inside. I trotted over to the bloodied corpse and finished off what was left; now, it was just a head with organs below it, a pony four times my size killed and eaten in a matter of minutes, and looking myself over, it seems to have gone directly towards filling out my frame, giving me my normal appearance back, and a little bit extra. Unfortunately, the other found me first and rammed me through a wall, then stopped as I punched through another wall before hitting a third one, cracking the clay and leaving a dent in it. I pulled myself out and got slammed again, this time flying through the wall with the pony still charging before stopping and letting me fly into something metal, he backed up for a moment when I landed on my hooves and just shrugged it off. In that moment, I got a good look at him, and saw he was twice my size, unlike the other one, but was practically identical in every way. I waited for him to make a move, and did not have to wait long, he charged again but I sidestepped and threw a potshot at his gut, and never realized that it actually hit him much harder in a different location than I intended until after he was on the ground with his eyes closed, and a hoof-shaped hole in his chest and a fountain of blood came out. I trotted over and noticed that my rear left leg was mangled, several cuts along the length and it was bent in awkward angles in two places, I looked over the body, and my sto- wait, I was still hungry? After that massive pony was eaten? I must have a far faster metabolism than I thought, so I began butchering and consuming the body. This time, I found out that the pony was a unicorn with his horn chopped off, so his Fluker organ was still inside, it was filled with the pony's mana reserve, and since his horn was chopped off, he could generate it, but couldn't regulate it, so it grew to the size of my hoof, and was a sphere, so he must have been in unbelievable amounts of pain and agony, I wouldn't wish this on anypony, no matter how bad they were. By the time I finished I heard the sound of clopping hooves, but could not get a scent of whoever was coming towards me. Out of my hunger stupor I could think far more clearly, and backed up from the noise and hid in the shadows, then a familiar voice chimed out "still hungry I imagine? I want you back for this part, we're gonna have our little draw, oh! and I see your leg has healed up quite nicely, you can thank me later" Some sort of green gas flooded the room and made my vision go blurry, soon after I felt woozy and fell asleep... Author's Note first drug injection and test for Plasma, still looking for ideas on what happens to Twilight and the rest for Plasma Stream, and I changed it up so you can vote for the vials being filled with harmless liquids (colored sugar water for example) or have it give them something they will not like Chapter 4: Story split(Plan A: Story arc 1) I woke up feeling like I was put through a meat grinder then into a hydraulic press for five minutes. I heard that laughter again and snapped my eyes open, and immediately regretted that decision. A harsh white lamp was pointed at my face, making me squint in the darkness. I tried to see who was behind it but the sound of his voice told me already "welcome back to the living, Plasma boy. I hope your feeling alright, because I've decided that your pretty marefriend's face is too beautiful to ruin with the drugs, so I hope you like your new look, it'll be the last time you'll see your current one" I looked at him with a mix of shock and gladness, something he seemed to notice, as his smile grew wider. He brought out the last of the syringes and started filling them with the liquid from the other vials. Each time he drew from one another would plunge deep into my leg, the effects were almost instantaneous; my horn recombined itself and earned a serrated edge on one end and sharpened again to an even finer point. I felt something shift in my throat and let out a blood-curdling screech that a banshee would have trouble beating. My legs became slightly longer, my body significantly thinner; almost skeletal, and saw that, even though I looked like I was literally skin and bones all it did was make me a bit harder to hit. Most of my mane fell out and a series of sharp spines grew out in their place. My tail grew longer and lost most of its hair too, becoming a segmented, sharpened spike that would fit more on a dragon, with the same spines growing down its length. My cutie mark was becoming twisted, more surreal, something I never knew could happen; it was changing before my very eyes! The star with plasma being shot out was getting smaller, the plasma line becoming a tendril, connecting to many other types of stars nearby, behind them was a golden sword, halfway down the blade where the tendril first hits it, the color changed to solid obsidian black. I could tell more was happening to me but I was writhing on the floor with my eyes sealed shut, ears laid back at the wracking pain tearing through me. A pool of spittle was forming below my muzzle and I tried to open my eyes to see what was going on, but couldn't. After what seemed like forever, the pain subsided enough that I could stand and look that bucker in the eye and give him a taste of what happened, but before I could, the sounds of explosions came from above and the door leading into the chamber was broken down by various royal guards, which quickly surrounded our captor. Instead of looking scared, he just smiled and said "welcome, lads, I hope you enjoyed your stay, but I really do have to keep to a schedule, but seeing as you're not gonna let me outta here, might as well keep you away from what you were trying to 'rescue', and for both yours and their sakes, I hope they find allies soon! TOMO HIGGA! BANZAI!" He let loose an odd war cry, pulled out a detonator, pressed the button and the last thing I remember was seeing the guards tackle him before blacking out... (check back in a couple days for link to sequel to this arc) (Plan B: Story arc 2) I woke up feeling like I was put through a meat grinder then into a hydraulic press for five minutes. I heard that laughter again and snapped my eyes open, and immediately regretted that decision. A harsh white lamp was pointed at my face, making me squint in the darkness. I tried to see who was behind it but the sound of his voice told me already "welcome back to the living, Plasma boy. I hope your feeling alright, because I've decided that your pretty marefriend's face is too beautiful to ruin with the drugs, so I hope you like your new look, it'll be the last time you'll see your current one" I looked at him with a mix of shock and gladness, something he seemed to notice, as his smile grew wider. He brought out the last of the syringes and started filling them with the liquid from the other vials. Each time he drew from one another would plunge deep into my leg, the effects were almost instantaneous; my horn recombined itself and earned a serrated edge on one end and sharpened again to an even finer point. I felt something shift in my throat and let out a blood-curdling screech that a banshee would have trouble beating. My legs became slightly longer, my body significantly thinner; almost skeletal, and saw that, even though I looked like I was literally skin and bones all it did was make me a bit harder to hit. Most of my mane fell out and a series of sharp spines grew out in their place. My tail grew longer and lost most of its hair too, becoming a segmented, sharpened spike that would fit more on a dragon, with the same spines growing down its length. My cutie mark was becoming twisted, more surreal, something I never knew could happen; it was changing before my very eyes! The star with plasma being shot out was getting smaller, the plasma line becoming a tendril, connecting to many other types of stars nearby, behind them was a golden sword, halfway down the blade where the tendril first hits it, the color changed to solid obsidian black. I could tell more was happening to me but I was writhing on the floor with my eyes sealed shut, ears laid back at the wracking pain tearing through me. A pool of spittle was forming below my muzzle and I tried to open my eyes to see what was going on, but couldn't. After what seemed like forever, the pain subsided enough that I could stand and look that bucker in the eye and give him a taste of what happened, but before I could, a flood of messages came in and pushed him out of the way. He picked up about a dozen and put them into a jar, where he shook it up and gave it to me. I eyeballed him for a moment and pulled out one of the cards; I read aloud "time's up, Plasma Stream, I do hope you enjoyed your stay in The Jokers hovel, do give my regards to him for making sure he used what I gave him, and one more thing, it would be best to see what the surface looks like right now" CencellationI am sorry everyone, but I cannot come up with anything to continue this side of the story with that wont crossover into the sequel, so without further ado, this story is officially cancelled STID is going to be the next big thing after NocHySiS IntermissionBiography of current OC characters NAME: PLASMA STREAM AGE: 27 GENDER: MALE SPECIES: PONY SUBSPECIES: UNICORN SPECIAL TALENT: PLASMA MANIPULATION GENETIC DEFECTS: UNKNOWN CAUSES AFFECT MANA GENERATION, FLUKER ORGAN CHAIN LINKED INSTEAD OF DOUGHNUT KNOWN FOR: PROVIDING THE MOST AFFORDABLE ENERGY IN CANTERLOT ALIASES: TWILIGHT SPARKLE LIVE FAMILY: STORMWIND; BROTHER NICKNAME: LIVE-FIRE NAME: [UNKNOWN] AGE:[UNKNOWN] GENDER: MALE SPECIES: PONY SUBSPECIES: UNICORN SPECIAL TALENT: JOKING AROUND GENETIC DEFECTS: BRAIN UNDERDEVELOPED IN AREAS LINKING TO REASONING KNOWN FOR: MULTIPLE MURDERS, ILLEGAL EXPERIMENTS, THEFT, BREAKING AND ENTERING, WILD AND UNPROVOKED DESTRUCTION OF PUBLIC PROPERTY, SEVERAL THREATS TO PRINCESSES ALIASES: [UNKNOWN] LIVE FAMILY: [UNKNOWN] NICKNAME: THE JOKER NAME: PYSCO STABILIZER AGE: 21 GENDER: FEMALE SPECIES: PONY SUBSPECIES: UNICORN SPECIAL TALENT: PSYCHOLOGY GENETIC DEFECTS: NONE KNOWN FOR: [UNKNOWN] ALIASES: [UNKNOWN] LIVE FAMILY: CLOUD STABLE; FATHER NICKNAME: HARLEY QUINN NEW ORGANS: FLUKER ORGAN: ORGAN IN UNICORNS THAT GENERATES MANA, NORMAL SIZE IS 1.5 CM IN DIAMETER AS DOUGHNUT Author's Note I am still working on chapter 3, and put this out at school in my free time, I am planning on making this chapter larger as more characters are introduced, so check up every few chapters *EDIT: see if you can spot the reference in ch1
Chapter 1'don't get mad, get even Robert F. Kennedy *tick-tock... tick-tock... tick-tock...* Ah, Canterlot, the pride and joy of Equestrias industrial might, even the eco-terrorists, surprisingly, are here not to cause a ruckus and respect that this is the capital of the country. I was standing over one of the many balconies sicking out of the Hoof&Tooth apartment complex, name's Plasma Burst, and I own a significant business here in Canterlot: Plasma Tech. Plasma, in its raw form, has more energy than any other known generators in current existence, while it can be refined into different types of materials for anything ranging from simple pressure valves to immense and complex factory components, it's toxic byproducts are extremely deadly to any known pony physiology. So far the only ones who have unlocked this amazing source of wealth are me and Twilight Sparkle, who used it in her studies of nanotechnology until they were stolen from her a few months ago; the security cameras stationed in her personal lab picked up nothing, and even showed that the papers simply vanished without a trace, no prints or residues were found, as if they just grew legs and walked away. Twilights friends sometimes come to Canterlot for a visit, and her unicorn friend Rarity even started a business in fashion here, fact she was the one who designed my suit and I must say she knew exactly what she was doing, I offered up a fair amount for the tailoring but she said and I quote 'a friend of Twilight is a friend of mine, and I don't want payment from friends', certainly living up to her reputation as the element of generosity alright. Lately, the amount of suspected eco-terrorists have been going down, and nopony seems to have an answer for that, the more liberal business stallions claim they are planning to sabotage the factories here, but the law enforcement rapidly dismissed that on the basis of suicide. Everyone went about their normal days and Twilight has nearly replicated her work now, but still I feel something... off, about Canterlot, as if something big is gonna happen, and happen soon. There was a beep at the door, a solid beep followed by two synthesized notes; Twilight Sparkle was outside waiting for me, I trotted over and opened the door and allowed her to step in... *Tick-Tock... Tick-Tock... Tick-Tock...* I shook my head, hearing that same sound over and over again followed by a weird sense of dread and sadness, and went over to the kitchen to get a couple glasses and a bottle of champagne. Holding the tray in my magic, I brought it over to where Twilight was on the Balcony and poured a glass for her and myself, both of us taking a glass before I asked "So, enjoy the view?" "Yes, it's lovely" "The smoke stacks an eyesore?" "Yeah, think you could have chosen a better spot?" I chuckled "No, this was the only balcony they had up here, so what's up?" "Not much, I did manage to finally recreate my research, but starting from scratch again is slow going" "What were they so interested in anyway?" "If I were to guess, I'd say that they were a rival corporation wanting my research to make their own types of nanites" "So they hired a professional to do the work, outsource the mercenary since it would be breaking and entering on one occasion and theft on three different levels" "Yeah, sentences are high for that" "Tell me about it" "How about you?" "Nothing really, just the usual" "The usual, huh? so that little shake of your head was usual?" "You saw that?" "I wouldn't be asking otherwise" I looked over out at the magnificent view of the plains, then took a sip and said "Remember how Pinkie Pie could reliably and accurately tell when something happens?" "How could I forget?" "I'm not sure, but I think that this tick-tocking I keep hearing in my head might be a variation of it" she looked at me, wide eyes then smiled and said "If that were true then why is it only showing up now?" then took a sip of her champagne "Because I get a feeling of dread and despair after the noise" "So... in other-words, it only predicts when something bad happens, right?" "I think so" I let out a tired yawn and looked at the clock, then thought 730? that's a little early to be going to bed' "I'm getting a little tired Twilight" "What? You finally doing something not stupid?" then started laughing "Laugh it up, fuzzball, and typically I do get to bed at around 9, unlike you" "Don't remind me, by the way, who made the champagne? It tastes a little bitter" "ummm... it says here Halo Harvest, made in 2009, aged until this year" "Huh, I don't remember it being this bitter" "Could be-" *tick-tock tick-tock tick-tock* "-could be that it was made with different ingredients?" "No, Halo doesn't typically use different ingredients unless they had a shortage... or you bought bad champagne" she gave a loud yawn and trotted over to one of the couches outside, I laid down next to her, snuggling up, then said "There is a third... if unlikely... possibility" "Maybe later, right now... I just... need to sleep... maybe... a quick... nap..." "Yeah..." *tick tock tick tock tick tock*
Chapter 2I woke up to the sound of a cart coming in, and some tinkling of metal on metal, the familiar sound made my eyes snap open as I remember what happened a few minutes ago; felt tired at 730, Twilight also tired, both of us went to sleep on outside couch... ah crap, the champagne was drugged. I perked my ears up when I heard a twisted, maniacal laughter, cheery like Pinkie Pie's voice was but the maniac side showing brightly through as well, then heard "Well well, what do we have here? the boys back home finally bring some proper toys this time around? Oh! and would ya look at that, they managed to capture two soon to be very famous ponies before they went big, oh, wait, I ordered scalpels, knives, saw anything with an edge! Not these syringes filled with fluid! Those are too quick for my liking, send them back and get me some proper ones" "But the higher ups insist on using these for your project" "Oh fine, but they owe me got it?" "Yes, sir" "Now then, go away and leave me to my work in peace" The room, while being lit up barely, was visible enough for me to make out some features of our captor, a middle aged unicorn stallion with an unkempt, greasy green mane and tail, pearl white makeup on his face with red lipstick covering up several nasty scars running along his mouth, pinprick pupils with red irises, and his coat was a pinkish-red color, his cutie mark had the image of the Joker in a deck of cards, with the scars reading 'why so serious?' beneath it. If there was any way to describe the look on his face I would say it would more than likely put anything Discord could have done to shame, that was the look of somepony who has completely, and truly, lost their mind to insanity. He was wearing a purple trench coat with a green vest and a violet tie, and judging by the movement beneath the coat, had something underneath that I would really enjoy to not know, a lime green flower was adorned on the coat to complete the disturbing image. He mumbled to himself for a moment before turning to me and gave a smile, one that held a twisted kindness of unsettling certainty, as if he planned my every move before I even could formulate a way out of here. Wordlessly, he pulled the cart closer to me and removed the cover, inside were about six vials with three different types of cutting utensils next to them, and two syringes, then started chuckling "hmhmhmmmm, oooh they left me with nice toys but I prefer to use what I ordered, but they insisted that I give you two what's in the vials, don't worry, I'll make sure you get something to bite down on, oh wait! You won't likely live long enough to need it, so why bother?" "What do you want from us?" "Little old me? Why, nothing, of course! The money's only a little bit of an extra incentive but the fun I get to do is what really attracted me to this" "What? Capturing ponies and torturing them to death with a triplet of liquids?" "Nah, I don't use liquid torture, at all, but the bosspony wants me to use this, so... here we are, you asking rhetorical questions, your lover mare there still out cold, and me having a good, healthy conversation with you" "Why do you do it?" "Why? Of all the questions you ask you want to know why I do this? I'm bored, your line of work has no fun in it, even Pinkie Pie has less fun than I like, and this is the only 'legal' way I can get some fun" "Your garbage who kills for money" "Hey, don't talk like them, because you're not" "You're insane!" "I'm not insane, just ahead of the curve. Your so called 'civlized' friends, you take away the rules, they'll eat each other to get some sort of order going" "There's no curve like that in existence" "You think so? You really do?" I nodded my head yes, then he pulled out a detonator and laughed "Then you must be a lot less bright than I realized, because I have wired up the canterlot cesspool of toxic waste to vent into the city, killing everyone there and intoxicating the city for centuries, why am I telling you this, you wonder. It's because you're on camera!" He stepped to the side to reveal a camera, likely stolen, mounted on a tripod and hooked to a laptop across the room, where another pony was working, a pegasus mare with a red coat but her back was to me, the laptop had something on it, more than likely he was broadcasting to every channel on TV. He said "Hello there, Canterlot, I hope I'm not interrupting your normal broadcast, but if I am, who am I to care? If you're listening up, listen real well, for I'm not repeating myself. I am going to play a little game, I want you to help these two poor saps escape from my domain, for this I am opening up a small portal for which you will put what you want them to do into, which will go into a small box and I will randomly draw a letter, put a hoof over my eyes and give it to either Plasma Stream or Twilight Sparkle, for every day that you waste watching this and not helping these two escape, I will blow up a building, and when I run out of detonators I'll go to my supreme surprise, and be quick, I only have three detonators, oh, and another thing, I hope their deaths are quick, for your sake" then he made a cutthroat action with his hoof and the feed was cut; Twilight stirred for a moment and sat bolt upright, or would have, if she wasn't tied up tighter than an industrial spring. She turned to face me and looked at our captor, gasping when she saw his face, he just cackled and brought out the syringes, then took them and put them into different vials, and put the empty vials across the tools, opposite the other ones, and plunged one into my foreleg... Author's Note For the next parts, you get to decide what happens to them. The rules are simple: A) they CANNOT die, I can't stress that enough B) to go with the not dying rule, they cannot become immortal/unkillable, but you can make them very hard to kill/live very long lives C) they HAVE to be identifiable after the three rounds of drugs are over D) it must have some sort of visual addition and finally E) be creative! ALSO: you get to tell me how they are tortured by this very familiar stallion, I already have a few ideas from playing around with electricity, specifically what happens when you put 4.5K volts on 80K amps through a copper wire that is spun around an aluminum can
Chapter 3As soon as the needle exited my skin the fluid felt like liquid fire was injected into my veins, only spreading as the burning sensation made my leg go numb, I tried moving it but the muscles were completely slack, not even a twitch came from my leg. Once it moved to my head and the burn was everywhere a searing pain erupted in my forehead, mouth, and inside my chest, and if I could scream, it would definitely damage eardrums from the loudness. Blood poured out of my mouth as certain parts of my teeth fell out, grew longer and sharpened, the taste of iron quickly becoming something like eating a salt cube dipped in lemon juice, then dusted with sugar, tasting bitter and salty, but also slightly sweet with a hint of spiciness. The amount of pain was so great that I was able to shake myself and tip the chair to the point where it hit the ground on its side, giving me a good look at my life blood as it changed color from red, to yellow, to green, then finally settling on dark blue, almost black, blood. When the pain finally died down I was gulping raggedly for air, I couldn't tell where Twilight was but I could hear our captors hoofsteps echoing across the hard stone floor, to where they landed in front of me, and looking up and seeing him smile made me shiver, he picked me up with his magic and set a mirror in front of me. Half of my face was covered in blood, my eyes were now catlike pupils, but still retained their golden color, and my mouth had two rows of both blunt and sharp teeth, my tongue wasn't even close to being qualified as one, it extended about two feet out and had a second jaw in the front, which had one row of razor sharp, pointed teeth. I stared, and stared, and stared at the sight, my mind simply not registering what happened to my mouth, and my horn was twice its original size, and split into four pieces about two-thirds of the way up, where the bits separated and formed points with a ring around those separate horns halfway up, similar to a focusing lens for a laser. Everything else seemed to be alright, the most obvious one being my new horn, even though I couldn't see if anything below my neck was changed due to the chains, but he wasn't finished with me. He dragged the chair I was tied to and pulled it over to a darkened hallway, and took a right, it wasn't very long until we came upon a smallish room lit by fluorescent lighting, the harsh white light casting from the ceiling leaving no shadows, and I quickly saw several old blood stains on the wall. He let go when I was positioned in the middle of the room and he trotted over to the entrance, asking "Hungry?" I shook my head no but my stomach disagreed, heavily, he just chuckled, left the room and closed the door, the chains binding me releasing when it was securely locked. The chains were covering up a few other mutations, the most glaring was my hooves had some sort of substance on the bottom, it felt hard but malleable at the same time, as if someone had put clay on them and forgot to put it in a kiln, and when I poked it with my other hoof, it seemed to be part of me. Another one was that while my coat was still on, it was much softer and shinier, and my skin hardened into some sort of superdense metallic alloy that was soft when poked but could solidify majorly when struck. I looked down and heard my stomach growl, even though I had a full stomach minutes ago. I fell out of the chair and stood up to stretch my legs, then walked up to a wall and felt around it, or tried, my hoof stuck fast like superglue, and with a little force, came off. I experimentally put both of my front hooves on and scaled the wall, finding that it became much easier to climb around the more I did this, and practiced for a little bit before a section of the wall caved in on itself and I smelled... food, not like carrots, lettuce, cheese, tomato etc. but live meat, living, breathing flesh and bone, whatever you want to call it, to me now, it was food, and two parts of me were in disagreement, one side was saying that this was food and the other was saying that this was life, and all life is precious; I just moved toward it to (hopefully) find something to sate my hunger... (Control Center of Complex) "oooo- what do we have here?" The white stallion said, as he watched a pair of his test subjects get unleashed upon poor Plasma Stream. He eyed his first one, a well-built unicorn with a dark green coat that was given a different serum, and his second one, an Earth Pony, but mutated beyond what would be considered massive, he wanted to see if his pets would be able to subdue him or not. Plasma was strong, he'll give him that, resisting the sedative in that way requires significant brute force to pull off, something even his pets couldn't do, but he considered that and discovered that their brains, while altered into a predators, were still able to do higher cognitive functions, and for that they could ascertain how dangerous an opponent was before they fight him, but hunger can do a lot to someponys reasoning, making them desperate and therefore make mistakes or they get much smarter in order to more likely secure food. Right now, he didn't care and wanted a show, so, he sat back and said "Well, my sweet, sweet Plasma, The Joker will make sure you die with a smile on your face!" (Plasma Stream, maze) I was quickly getting to the scent, and based on the smell, it was certainly alive, and I was partially disturbed at how I knew that, but the rumble in my gut told me to head towards the closest area of food, and for a unicorn, an empty stomach is a perfect distraction for concentration. I ended up so close that I could hear it right around the corner from it; turning, I saw that it was a pony, without anything for me to just grab and go, however it was definitely not a normal farming earth pony, this one looked like he was at least eight times my size. Had I been in a more lucid mood I would have realized that fantasizing about eating him was not normal for an herbivore, but that thought was shot down by the instinct to eat, something that takes priority over all other. His back was turned to me and he was looking for something else so I sprung up onto the ceiling and quietly snuck up on him, but, fate would have deemed me unworthy and a large glob of saliva hit him right on the head, but when he looked up I was already on top of him, barely allowing a scream come before I snapped his neck and had the meal my gut was dying to have, and not one to disallow it a feast, I dined. Mutilating the body was fairly easy, since most of the pony was soft and squishy, easily being cut by my teeth, I dug through the thick skin to get at the real treats inside; the body's heart, liver, and lungs, all of which were very large and muscular, the next to go was the musculature of the body, and a quick heating spell rapidly cooked the rest of the pony for me to feast without fear of bacterial agents in the muscles, the spell also burned his coat off, leaving me with just the flesh. I looked over one of the legs and saw just how much meat was on the bone, this pony was at least eight times my size and I managed to kill him in one swift strike, but right now it didn't matter, I was still hungry. Funny thing about my teeth is that they had enough strength to theoretically grind bones into dust, or pulp as the case would be, as I dislocated the joint and ripped it out, then consumed the leg, bones and all, minus the hoof. I just ate, and ate, and ate, and by the time I felt satisfied the only visible portion of the pony was from the chest up, the stomach and intestines, the bladder and the kidneys, but the real thing that I wanted now was he head, inside the skull. I moved over to the head and cracked the cranium open with my second jaw, then used the hole as leverage to split it apart, revealing the absence of any sort of edible matter inside. I trotted over to the bloodied corpse and finished off what was left; now, it was just a head with organs below it, a pony four times my size killed and eaten in a matter of minutes, and looking myself over, it seems to have gone directly towards filling out my frame, giving me my normal appearance back, and a little bit extra. Unfortunately, the other found me first and rammed me through a wall, then stopped as I punched through another wall before hitting a third one, cracking the clay and leaving a dent in it. I pulled myself out and got slammed again, this time flying through the wall with the pony still charging before stopping and letting me fly into something metal, he backed up for a moment when I landed on my hooves and just shrugged it off. In that moment, I got a good look at him, and saw he was twice my size, unlike the other one, but was practically identical in every way. I waited for him to make a move, and did not have to wait long, he charged again but I sidestepped and threw a potshot at his gut, and never realized that it actually hit him much harder in a different location than I intended until after he was on the ground with his eyes closed, and a hoof-shaped hole in his chest and a fountain of blood came out. I trotted over and noticed that my rear left leg was mangled, several cuts along the length and it was bent in awkward angles in two places, I looked over the body, and my sto- wait, I was still hungry? After that massive pony was eaten? I must have a far faster metabolism than I thought, so I began butchering and consuming the body. This time, I found out that the pony was a unicorn with his horn chopped off, so his Fluker organ was still inside, it was filled with the pony's mana reserve, and since his horn was chopped off, he could generate it, but couldn't regulate it, so it grew to the size of my hoof, and was a sphere, so he must have been in unbelievable amounts of pain and agony, I wouldn't wish this on anypony, no matter how bad they were. By the time I finished I heard the sound of clopping hooves, but could not get a scent of whoever was coming towards me. Out of my hunger stupor I could think far more clearly, and backed up from the noise and hid in the shadows, then a familiar voice chimed out "still hungry I imagine? I want you back for this part, we're gonna have our little draw, oh! and I see your leg has healed up quite nicely, you can thank me later" Some sort of green gas flooded the room and made my vision go blurry, soon after I felt woozy and fell asleep... Author's Note first drug injection and test for Plasma, still looking for ideas on what happens to Twilight and the rest for Plasma Stream, and I changed it up so you can vote for the vials being filled with harmless liquids (colored sugar water for example) or have it give them something they will not like
Chapter 4: Story split(Plan A: Story arc 1) I woke up feeling like I was put through a meat grinder then into a hydraulic press for five minutes. I heard that laughter again and snapped my eyes open, and immediately regretted that decision. A harsh white lamp was pointed at my face, making me squint in the darkness. I tried to see who was behind it but the sound of his voice told me already "welcome back to the living, Plasma boy. I hope your feeling alright, because I've decided that your pretty marefriend's face is too beautiful to ruin with the drugs, so I hope you like your new look, it'll be the last time you'll see your current one" I looked at him with a mix of shock and gladness, something he seemed to notice, as his smile grew wider. He brought out the last of the syringes and started filling them with the liquid from the other vials. Each time he drew from one another would plunge deep into my leg, the effects were almost instantaneous; my horn recombined itself and earned a serrated edge on one end and sharpened again to an even finer point. I felt something shift in my throat and let out a blood-curdling screech that a banshee would have trouble beating. My legs became slightly longer, my body significantly thinner; almost skeletal, and saw that, even though I looked like I was literally skin and bones all it did was make me a bit harder to hit. Most of my mane fell out and a series of sharp spines grew out in their place. My tail grew longer and lost most of its hair too, becoming a segmented, sharpened spike that would fit more on a dragon, with the same spines growing down its length. My cutie mark was becoming twisted, more surreal, something I never knew could happen; it was changing before my very eyes! The star with plasma being shot out was getting smaller, the plasma line becoming a tendril, connecting to many other types of stars nearby, behind them was a golden sword, halfway down the blade where the tendril first hits it, the color changed to solid obsidian black. I could tell more was happening to me but I was writhing on the floor with my eyes sealed shut, ears laid back at the wracking pain tearing through me. A pool of spittle was forming below my muzzle and I tried to open my eyes to see what was going on, but couldn't. After what seemed like forever, the pain subsided enough that I could stand and look that bucker in the eye and give him a taste of what happened, but before I could, the sounds of explosions came from above and the door leading into the chamber was broken down by various royal guards, which quickly surrounded our captor. Instead of looking scared, he just smiled and said "welcome, lads, I hope you enjoyed your stay, but I really do have to keep to a schedule, but seeing as you're not gonna let me outta here, might as well keep you away from what you were trying to 'rescue', and for both yours and their sakes, I hope they find allies soon! TOMO HIGGA! BANZAI!" He let loose an odd war cry, pulled out a detonator, pressed the button and the last thing I remember was seeing the guards tackle him before blacking out... (check back in a couple days for link to sequel to this arc) (Plan B: Story arc 2) I woke up feeling like I was put through a meat grinder then into a hydraulic press for five minutes. I heard that laughter again and snapped my eyes open, and immediately regretted that decision. A harsh white lamp was pointed at my face, making me squint in the darkness. I tried to see who was behind it but the sound of his voice told me already "welcome back to the living, Plasma boy. I hope your feeling alright, because I've decided that your pretty marefriend's face is too beautiful to ruin with the drugs, so I hope you like your new look, it'll be the last time you'll see your current one" I looked at him with a mix of shock and gladness, something he seemed to notice, as his smile grew wider. He brought out the last of the syringes and started filling them with the liquid from the other vials. Each time he drew from one another would plunge deep into my leg, the effects were almost instantaneous; my horn recombined itself and earned a serrated edge on one end and sharpened again to an even finer point. I felt something shift in my throat and let out a blood-curdling screech that a banshee would have trouble beating. My legs became slightly longer, my body significantly thinner; almost skeletal, and saw that, even though I looked like I was literally skin and bones all it did was make me a bit harder to hit. Most of my mane fell out and a series of sharp spines grew out in their place. My tail grew longer and lost most of its hair too, becoming a segmented, sharpened spike that would fit more on a dragon, with the same spines growing down its length. My cutie mark was becoming twisted, more surreal, something I never knew could happen; it was changing before my very eyes! The star with plasma being shot out was getting smaller, the plasma line becoming a tendril, connecting to many other types of stars nearby, behind them was a golden sword, halfway down the blade where the tendril first hits it, the color changed to solid obsidian black. I could tell more was happening to me but I was writhing on the floor with my eyes sealed shut, ears laid back at the wracking pain tearing through me. A pool of spittle was forming below my muzzle and I tried to open my eyes to see what was going on, but couldn't. After what seemed like forever, the pain subsided enough that I could stand and look that bucker in the eye and give him a taste of what happened, but before I could, a flood of messages came in and pushed him out of the way. He picked up about a dozen and put them into a jar, where he shook it up and gave it to me. I eyeballed him for a moment and pulled out one of the cards; I read aloud "time's up, Plasma Stream, I do hope you enjoyed your stay in The Jokers hovel, do give my regards to him for making sure he used what I gave him, and one more thing, it would be best to see what the surface looks like right now"
CencellationI am sorry everyone, but I cannot come up with anything to continue this side of the story with that wont crossover into the sequel, so without further ado, this story is officially cancelled STID is going to be the next big thing after NocHySiS
IntermissionBiography of current OC characters NAME: PLASMA STREAM AGE: 27 GENDER: MALE SPECIES: PONY SUBSPECIES: UNICORN SPECIAL TALENT: PLASMA MANIPULATION GENETIC DEFECTS: UNKNOWN CAUSES AFFECT MANA GENERATION, FLUKER ORGAN CHAIN LINKED INSTEAD OF DOUGHNUT KNOWN FOR: PROVIDING THE MOST AFFORDABLE ENERGY IN CANTERLOT ALIASES: TWILIGHT SPARKLE LIVE FAMILY: STORMWIND; BROTHER NICKNAME: LIVE-FIRE NAME: [UNKNOWN] AGE:[UNKNOWN] GENDER: MALE SPECIES: PONY SUBSPECIES: UNICORN SPECIAL TALENT: JOKING AROUND GENETIC DEFECTS: BRAIN UNDERDEVELOPED IN AREAS LINKING TO REASONING KNOWN FOR: MULTIPLE MURDERS, ILLEGAL EXPERIMENTS, THEFT, BREAKING AND ENTERING, WILD AND UNPROVOKED DESTRUCTION OF PUBLIC PROPERTY, SEVERAL THREATS TO PRINCESSES ALIASES: [UNKNOWN] LIVE FAMILY: [UNKNOWN] NICKNAME: THE JOKER NAME: PYSCO STABILIZER AGE: 21 GENDER: FEMALE SPECIES: PONY SUBSPECIES: UNICORN SPECIAL TALENT: PSYCHOLOGY GENETIC DEFECTS: NONE KNOWN FOR: [UNKNOWN] ALIASES: [UNKNOWN] LIVE FAMILY: CLOUD STABLE; FATHER NICKNAME: HARLEY QUINN NEW ORGANS: FLUKER ORGAN: ORGAN IN UNICORNS THAT GENERATES MANA, NORMAL SIZE IS 1.5 CM IN DIAMETER AS DOUGHNUT Author's Note I am still working on chapter 3, and put this out at school in my free time, I am planning on making this chapter larger as more characters are introduced, so check up every few chapters *EDIT: see if you can spot the reference in ch1
