An Experiment

by Kelvin Shadewing

TEST 00: "BEFORE THERE WERE PONIES, THERE WAS THE CUBE"

An Experiment

DISCLAIMER: This is a non-profit work of fan fiction. My Little Pony © Hasbro. Portal © Valve.

TEST 00: "BEFORE THERE WERE PONIES, THERE WAS THE CUBE"

---

"No freaking way..." I picked up the Aperture Science containment cube and shook it gently. Something was inside. I didn't know how it got here or who made it, but it looked just like it did in the game. And it was mine now.

I rushed home with the prize I found on my way from work. I didn't even know Portal had merchandise like this, but who cares? I wanted to know just what was in this box!

I opened the door of the small rural house I was staying in. I lived in a small town, kind of a loner, and rarely talked to anyone outside of work. Setting the box down, I started looking for a latch or a seam, but nothing seemed to indicate any way of opening the box.

Frowning, I took a hammer and smacked the corner of it. Immediately, the box's corner pieces popped off and the six sides fell apart. What I saw, I couldn't believe was real.

A pair of full-size metal long fall boots, and a replica of the portal gun. It even had lights on it too. "Oh man!" I said to myself, "I'm gonna look so bad-ass wearing this stuff at Comic Con!"

I pulled out the boots first, took my shoes off, and slipped my feet in. The felt a bit too large at first, but suddenly there was a mechanical hissing noise as the boots clamped around my feet and fit themselves on snugly. Gasping a bit in surprise, I took a closer look.

"OK, that's not normal. This shit must be worth thousands if someone made actual self-fitting shoes." I took an experimental jump, and when I landed, my feet felt nothing at all.

Picking up the portal gun, I looked it over closely. It too was made of real metal, and the glass parts felt strong, almost indestructible. I chuckled softly and took aim. "Yeah, what do you bet it's just a flash li--"

*PEWOIP!*

"...light?"

My jaw hit the floor. My wall, formerly tan, was now glowing bright blue. Well, an oval portion of it was, at least. I trembled hard and looked at the gun again. It's internal lights were now shining blue as well. Just to prove to myself I wasn't dreaming, I shot another part of the wall. The blue oval disappeared, and another one took its place on the other side of my living room.

My first thought was that this was a hologram projected by the gun, but shouldn't it move when I tilt the device? I looked the gun over again, and this time I found a second trigger under the first one for my middle finger. I pulled it, neglecting to take into account that I was aiming at the floor.

Before I could react, I fell into the orange ring on the ground and fell out my wall, landing face-down on the carpet.

"Oww..." I groaned, and got up to my feet, "This has got to be a dream." I stood up and slapped myself in the face. The gun was still in my hand, and there were two portals still open in my room. I shot the wall with another orange portal, and instantly saw the back of myself as I looked through it.

My eyeballs nearly popped out of their sockets. This was real. This was freaking real.

---

I drove out into the desert, into an area with lots of plateaus. Since I lacked a testing chamber, I needed a place with lots of flat surfaces to test this stuff on properly.

My body flowed with adrenaline. I'd always thought that Hollywood made movies to cover up things that were real, being the conspiracy theorist I was. I had no idea the same was true for video games, and that I'd be the one to find a piece of leaked portal technology.

This of course alerted me to the fact that any day now, the feds would show up and take my new toy away from me. Thinking on that, I decided I should have as much fun with it as I could until then.

I parked my car near a high stone wall and stepped out. First test, long fall boots. I shot a portal onto a low point, one I knew I could survive a fall from, and then one at the ground. As I jumped down into it and fell out the other side, the boots seemed to take over for my legs and corrected my fall so I landed upright. Again, I felt nothing.

So here I discovered two things: the boots really worked, but they needed a long enough fall to adjust my angle, hence why I landed on my face at home. Feeling braver, I decided to try some flinging, and nearly cracked my skull on the ground as I just barely missed my landing, or lack thereof, on the next portal. I couldn't help going for another round; the thrill of flying so fast was indescribable, and being able to simply land on my feet every time, merely skidding a few feet as friction took hold of me again, was astonishing.

I laughed out of sheer excitement and whooped, throwing my arms in the air like I just didn't care. Not paying attention to what I was doing, I accidentally shot a portal straight into the sky.

My eyes bulged when I realized what I'd just done. "Oh.. my.. god... Did I really just do that?!" I looked from the gun to the blue glowing contrail leading from the glowing sphere that was rapidly leaving Earth.

"Oh shit, oh shit, OH SHIT!" I remembered the ending to Portal 2, when Chell shot a portal at the moon. The air became a vacuum, sucking Chell and Wheatly out into space. Ironically, it was GLaDOS who had rescued Chell from becoming a Popsicle on the moon.

Thankfully, the moon was out of the way, but that only meant the other side of the portal would open somewhere else.

---

Weeks past since the incident with the portal gun. I kept both the portals open in my basement, waiting for the day when the blue one would disappear and the orange would open in some other world. Whatever came out, I was responsible, and I would be the first one to deal with it, for better or for worse.

Finally, the day came when I went down into my basement, and saw only the orange portal, looking up into the blue sky. My heart nearly stopped when I saw the sky looked just like ours. Did the beam somehow come back down to earth?

As I poked my head through the portal, finding the air was in fact breathable, I looked around at the strange new world I'd accidentally discovered.

I was in some kind of archaic-looking sandstone ruin with the occasional patch of overgrown plant life here and there. I figured it would be safe to take a look around; no one was likely to be there, and if they were, I could just use the portal gun and drop myself back into my basement.

I went back upstairs and got myself into my gear. Long black socks, so my long fall boots wouldn't get stinky (take that, Chell), an olive green jump suit, my free running gloves, and the portal gun.

Time for adventure!

I went back to the portal and took a deep breath. The portal was on the ground, so I'd need to take a running start. I ran through and propelled myself into the air, and righted myself up, then spread my legs to catch my feet on the edge of the portal.

Here I was, in a new world with only my wits, my agility and my trusty--ah, screw it! Time to take a freaking look around. The place was pretty big, and looked like the perfect place for a portal-jumping free runner like me. Too bad it was off world, I would have totally taken advantage of this place.

After some wandering around, I heard voices coming from somewhere nearby. Some melodramatic villain laughter and a woman screaming. I knew it would be dangerous, but I had to check it out. If I could help, it was my responsibility to do so. As my dad used to tell me, if you have the power to help someone and choose not to, their fate is your fault. Like hell I was gonna let him down; that'd be like pissing on his grave.

I ran towards the source of the voices, and came to the edge of the ruin where I saw my first example of this world's inhabitants.

Author's Note:

If you'd like to support my writing, please visit my site!

Comments

[Nidle]

not bad starting off pretty well.

[DelphiDovahkiin]

I thought this was discontinued? not that i'm complaining.

[Cold Spike]

Really interesting

[Tri-PonyTrouble]

So, why did you start over? I really liked the story....... But this is still good!

[Rough Boulder]

I'm going to laugh when he closes the portal back.

[Tome Turner]

fell out my wall, landing face-down on the carpet.

Ugggh... The long fall boots have an auto realignment thing. In the trailer they state that it is impossable for chell land on her head even if she tried.