Note:- Good news everypony! I now have an editor! The amazing Pencraft and I are now working together to banish all those errors to the moon! So over the next few weeks we will be fixing the errors in every chapter uploaded so far and then in all future chapters. For those of you who have read the first 15 chapters already don’t worry, we won’t be changing anything that’s happened just fixing the grammatical errors and tweaking the dialogue slightly to sound more natural. so you don’t need to read anything again for it to make sense or anything like that.
The Equestrian Enrichment Project
Summary: - A strange portal opens up in Equestria and our six heroes are captured by the strange bipedal creatures from the other side, what will happen to them? can they escape? Will they ever make it back to Equestria? Only time will tell. Crossover with Portal.
Chapter 1: Better living through science and ponies.
Equestria, Ponyville, 1042DC (During Celestia)
It was a gloriously hot day in the magical land of Equestria. The bright rays of Celestia’s sun shone down on the forms of six brightly coloured ponies lying down in the grass, staring up at the clouds.
“So, I was like Ohhh and they were like Whaaa? But then I said Cupcakes! And that was how Equestria was made,” intoned a bright pink pony happily in a single breath. The five other ponies around her sat up suddenly, looking at her in confusion.
“What in tarnation are you talking about, Pinkie?” asked an orange pony with a three apple cutie mark, still looking rather confused at the pink pony.
“Why, whatever do you mean Applejack?” replied Pinkie in an incredibly cheerful voice, smiling across at her.
“You didn't say anything for about ten minutes, then you started talking as if you were at the end of a story!” said another one of the ponies. This one was a blue Pegasus with a rainbow mane looking equally as confused at Pinkie.
“Oh Rainbow, you silly filly, how else would we start the story?” Pinkie said, still smiling, looking in a seemingly random direction. The other ponies just looked on dumbfounded.
“Anyway…” a purple unicorn called Twilight Sparkle said, looking across at Pinkie. The unicorn decided to dismiss the strange actions of Pinkie Pie. After all, she was Pinkie Pie and that was often explanation enough.
Shaking off the confusion caused by Pinkie Pie, the six ponies continued their previous conversation, blissfully unaware of what the fates had in store for them.
Earth, Aperture Laboratories, 1986AD
It was around midday, but there was no indication of this in the underground laboratory. Bright white light streamed on to the sterile white wall panels from a vast network of fluorescent light tubes in the ceiling. Coloured lights emanated from energy fields and lasers generated by vast machines.
The room was abuzz with activity; many people dressed in white coats hurried around operating computer terminals and control panels. Somewhere near the back of the room a simplistic looking robot continually bumped into a wall surrounded by a group of scientists scratching their heads. Towards the front of the room a single scientist sat at a desk covered in papers of calculations and electronic schematics.
An old but well-dressed man entered the room and walked directly to the scientist at the desk.
“So why don’t we have a working inter-dimensional portal yet?”
The scientist tried to stammer an answer, but the man did not stop to let the scientist talk and continued straight on.
“You’ve been on this project a whole week and I find you here writing numbers!? This isn’t how we do science here at Aperture! You’re fired! Yes, box your stuff, out the front door, parking lot, car, goodbye! I won’t have some pansy scientist working for me that won’t get their hands dirty with science!”
“You, over there!” the man pointed at another scientist working in the lab. “You’re in charge of this project now, go and do science! We must be finished on this project before Black Mesa completes their version!” he banged his hand down on the desk.
“We will get the benefits of parallel universes first! No negotiation. I’m Cave Johnson and I will have those benefits first! So whatever science you need to do to do it, I want you to do it now!” With that the man stormed out of the lab without looking back or waiting for any response. After all, he was Cave Johnson; he owned the place.
Equestria, Ponyville, 1042DC
About twenty minutes had passed since Pinkie’s latest odd outburst, and the ponies had returned to their previous conversation when Pinkie shot to her hooves mid-sentence, her whole body vibrating strangely. At this sight the other ponies shot up also; they had seen this behaviour before.
“Oh no, not this again!” Twilight exclaimed. “Not more of your Pinkie sense!” she added, looking worried, and started backing away from Pinkie Pie. The other four ponies followed suite.
“I don’t know what’s happening! I’ve never felt anything like it before!” the vibrating pink pony exclaimed, sounding worried.
“Where?” Twilight asked, concern also evident in her voice.
“I… I don’t know!” the Pink pony exclaimed between vibrations. “But it must be close by!”
“Oh dear,” said a yellow Pegasus pony with a pink mane, looking visibly more terrified than the others and cowering behind a white unicorn with a glorious purple mane.
At that point there was a blinding flash of blue light and a sound like an explosion in reverse. When the ponies regained their vision they were greeted by a strange sight: a large oblong blue vortex hung suspended in the air in front of them, pulsating slightly and giving off a strange energy that made their fur stand on end.
Applejack was the first to regain her composure. In a shocked voice, quite a bit quieter than her normal one she almost whispered, “What in Equestria is it, Twi?”
The purple unicorn took a few moments to process the question in her disbelief before answering, “I…I… I don’t know… I’ve never seen anything like it before. If I had to take a guess I’d say it’s some type of gateway? Maybe? I remember reading about a theory where portals could be used to transport a large number of ponies without having to use multiple teleportation spells, but it was just that, a theory, as in not real. I’ve done the calculations myself, the energy required to produce a stable gateway is astronomical. I couldn’t do it. The elements of harmony together couldn’t do it; I don’t even think Celestia or Luna could do it over any real distance. It’s just not possible! That thing is not possible!”
“But it’s there so it must be!” Rainbow countered, staring into the swirling vortex.
“It. Can’t. Exist!” Twilight exclaimed, as if her words could convince the universe of the fact.
The blue Pegasus unfurled her wings, temporarily ignoring her purple friend and flew a few feet above her companions. “Should we touch it?” she asked, as she flew toward the vortex.
“Rainbow Dash are you crazy?!” Twilight Sparkle exclaimed quickly. “Get away from there, we don’t even know what it is!” There was sufficient worry in her tone to make Rainbow Dash stop her flight. Twilight was one of her best friends, after all, and she trusted her judgment, even if she was sure she could handle anything this blue glowey thing had to throw at her. As if on cue with her thoughts, something disturbed the surface of the vortex in its flight through and continued on directly at her. Without any time to react the item crashed right into Rainbow Dash, knocking her to the ground.
“Ow!” Rainbow exclaimed, using a hoof to massage her head where the item had impacted “What in Equestria…”
“What is it?” asked Fluttershy the yellow Pegasus timidly.
“It’s a rather elegant design,” observed Rarity, the white unicorn, “Simple and contained.” The item was small, white, and vaguely egg shaped and sized with a single black circle on one side with a red light in the centre, almost like an eye.
“Is it dangerous?” asked Pinkie Pie to no pony in particular, poking the object with her hoof. She jumped back in shock when the object suddenly started emitting a whirring sound. Three segments that had previously been hidden slid inside and three black metal legs grew from each hole, lifting the object into an upright position.
“What in tarnation’s going on he…” Applejack started but was cut off by a high pitched, mechanical, but friendly sounding voice emitting from the object.
“Inter-dimensional reconnaissance Drone 631-4b activated.” The black eye like structure on the object started scanning around, pausing on each of the ponies for a moment before moving on to the next.
“It can speak!?” exclaimed an astonished Rainbow Dash who had now righted herself and was standing alongside the other ponies.
“Is it alive?” asked Fluttershy, now slightly less fearful of the stationary device.
Twilight answered slowly and thoughtfully, “I don’t think so, it said it was a drone. Did it say inter-dimensional?”
“Yeah, what does that mean?” replied Rainbow Dash turning towards Twilight.
“It means that that blue thing is some sort of gateway. One leading to another world, another dimension entirely! But…” Twilight looked almost hurt by the information. “It’s not possible!” she almost shouted. “It can’t be! It violates every known law of physics! No… it’s not there,” Twilight finished, turning her back to the portal.
“Er, Twilight?” Applejack started, growing nervous at Twilights behaviour. “You know it’s there, right?”
“No.” Twilight eye twitched but she didn’t move.
“Twilight-” Applejack started again but was cut off by Twilight exploding.
“HOW CAN IT EXIST?! If it exists then everything I know is wrong! So how can it be there?!” she was grinding her teeth now. “But… but it is there… so…” Twilight started to calm herself down. “So I must change what I know to correlate with the available facts. So let’s start again. I’ve read about the theory of an infinite number of parallel planes of existence, but to open a gateway to one? I always thought that was fundamentally impossible! A basic law of the universe! But it’s here, so that means there is either some other type of energy we don’t know about or the barrier between realities is thinner than we thought; but whatever it is, there must be a new type of magic involved! And we can be the ones to study it!” Twilight finished, all evidence of her frustration lost to her growing excitement.
Suddenly, without warning, another panel opened up on the Drone and started to emit a green gas with a hiss.
“Oh horse apples!” Applejack exclaimed. The ponies panicked and turned to gallop away, however it was too late: the sleeping gas took effect quickly and they fell to the ground, Rainbow falling from the sky on to Rarity as she tried to fly away, her momentum dragging them both several feet. Twilight remained conscious on the ground long enough to see several strange figures emerging from the event horizon of the vortex, walking on their hind legs, before her eyes closed and she slipped into unconsciousness.
Earth, Aperture Laboratories, 2003AD
Twilight’s mind swam slowly back to consciousness, leaving her with a splitting headache. ‘Oh, what happened to me?’ she thought to herself before remembering, ‘the gateway, the strange creatures!’ She tried to open her eyes and stand up quickly. The bright light momentarily blinded her and when she tried to stand she hit her already throbbing head on a hard surface. Dazed and confused she fell back into a lying position and tried to look around. As her eyes started to get used to the bright light she started to make out the shapes in front of her. ‘Double Rainbow Dashes?’ she thought to herself before realising she was just seeing double. She closed her eyes and shook her head, trying to clear it before opening her eyes and observing what was really there.
In front of her was just the one Rainbow Dash, still unconscious and separated from her by a glass panel. She was, in fact, surrounded by glass panes on four sides with metal sheets behind her and under her hooves. She was trapped and unable to stand. In the other direction from her she could see Fluttershy in an adjoining glass case, and out the front she could see Rarity, Applejack and Pinkie Pie in similar glass cases. She could also see several other Equestrian creatures around the room, all in other glass cases and even one other pony with a red coat and a white mane that she didn’t recognise.
Other than the cases, the only other thing visible in the room was some sort of strange machine in the centre connected by tubes and wires to each of the cases.
“This isn’t good,” was all Twilight could think to say at that point, her mind for once a total blank. It was not a feeling she was accustomed to. The sound of her voice in the silent room caused the occupant of one of the other cases to stir.
“You, pony! Where is this? Why am I here?” sounded a gruff voice from across the room. Twilight spun around, or would have if it wasn’t for the case. In actuality she went face first into the glass side. Cursing to herself she moved slowly the rest of the way round.
She looked for a moment before spotting the speaker; it was a brown furred Diamond Dog in a larger, but still cramped, case to the left of Rarity’s. He had clearly been wearing some sort of clothing when he had been captured as it had been placed in a small cardboard box in front of his case. She had been rather wary of the Diamond Dogs since the incident with Rarity, but considering they were all in the same situation she had no reason to distrust him at the moment.
“I really have no idea, though I don’t think we’re in Equestria anymore. There was some sort of gateway. Did you see who or what captured you?” she asked the dog.
“NO! Something was thrown at me! Hit me! Looked like egg, Hissed! Knocked me out!” the dog answered her back, obviously quite agitated by the situation. Twilight heard a groan to her side and looked round to see Rainbow Dash starting to wake up.
“Rainbow! Are you ok?” Twilight asked urgently, turning to look at her friend.
“Uh… What happened? Where are we? Why am I in a box?” Rainbow Dash groaned, obviously experiencing the same discomfort as Twilight had.
“Something else came out of the Gateway! I didn’t see what they were but they must have brought us here. Are you feeling ok Rainbow?” Twilight asked with obvious concern for her friend.
“I’ll be fine, but whoever brought us here won’t be when I get my hooves on them!” Rainbow replied, regaining some of her usual confidence.
“Pointy pony, you get us out of here!” the Diamond Dog stated from across the room. Twilight looked up from Rainbow Dash with a slight look of confusion.
“How exactly could I do that?” said Twilight, assuming the Diamond Dog had meant her by ‘pointy pony’.
“Pointy ponies can do magic with their points!” The Diamond Dog stated. Twilight did a double take and then a mental face-hoof. The dog was right. Why hadn’t she thought of using magic? It should have been the first thing she tried! The headache must have affected her worse than she had previously thought. Twilight closed her eyes in concentration, readying herself for teleportation. Both of the other conscious creatures in the room looked on in anticipation for a few moments. Nothing happened. Twilight opened one eye and was surprised to see that she had not teleported out of the case. Not one to be perturbed by a failure she tried again, putting more of her concentration into it. This time a faint glow appeared around her horn, but still nothing happened. For a moment Twilight sat there in confusion until a horrible thought struck her. She recalled reading a book on the origins of unicorn magic. Unicorns didn’t have much innate power in them, just a facility to amplify and focus the magical energies of the world around them in to useful feats. The magical energy itself came from magical artefacts such as power gems in Equestria’s soil and the magical background radiation that permeated everywhere. If they were truly in another universe then all it would take would be a lower level of background magic or even a different type and her horn would be next to useless, only able to output her own small magical reserves.
“I don’t think there’s anything I can do,” Twilight said glumly, “This world seems to be incompatible with most unicorn magic. I think I could do some basic levitation.” She demonstrated on the Diamond Dogs folded shirt, taking much more effort than usual but still just about managing to lift the item. “But I just don’t have the power for anything more than that.”
“So we’re stuck in here?!” asked the voice of Rarity, causing Twilight to jump and spin around. She had woken up while Twilight was concentrating on the shirt and had just about finished assessing their situation.
“No, there’s a way out of every trap, a key to every box. We just have to find it!” Twilight answered, with more confidence than she felt herself. She had never been in as quite a hopeless situation as this one seemed now, but she had learned to never give up hope for a miracle — especially where her friends were concerned.
There was a roar as one of the more aggressive Equestrian creatures awoke angrily. It was a Manticore and it was obviously not impressed with being in such a small box. The creature roared again and attacked the side of its case to no effect. The glass withheld against the Manticore’s vicious onslaught without even a scratch. Though its roar did manage to wake up the rest of the creatures in the room.
“Well, just great,” Rainbow Dash said, her voice dripping with sarcasm above the cacophony of noises coming from the caged Equestrian creatures and the startled shouts of the woken ponies.
It was at this point that the door to the room opened and three creatures entered. They were like nothing the ponies had ever seen before. They walked on their hind legs like the Diamond Dogs but had no tails, and their only fur was on the top of their heads. All three of them seemed to have white fur, though Twilight speculated this was more due to their obvious advanced age than anything else. They were all wearing white coats and had some type of glasses attached to their faces. They were speaking amongst themselves as they entered the room.
“So these are the specimens from dimension 442?” one of the creatures asked its colleagues.
“Yes, it was a strange place populated almost exclusively by these brightly coloured creatures, many if not all of them matching descriptions of mythical beings from our culture, such as these brightly coloured unicorns.” the second creature replied indicating Twilight and Rarity.
“When I get my hooves on you, they’ll be picking bits of you out of the ceiling for weeks!” yelled a seething Rainbow Dash as she attacked the glass, trying to get at the creatures.
“Fascinating: that Pegasus appears capable of speech. Do you think they could have some level of sentience?” the first creature asked it colleges, writing something on a board it held in its hands, apparently oblivious to Rainbow Dash’s threats. Only the third creature had seemed really affected by Dashes words; he looked pityingly at the cased ponies.
“We must start the first batch of tes...” the second creature started, only to be cut off by a new voice.
“Warning; neurotoxin emitters throughout the Aperture Science facility have been activated. Please vacate the premises with extreme haste.” The new voice said, however it didn’t seem to come from anyone in the room. Rather it came from a box mounted on the wall. It was a male voice with an accent none of the ponies had heard before. It sounded slightly cheerful in a robotic way, as though it was just another machine.
None of the ponies knew what neurotoxin was, but by the reaction the announcement had elicited from the scientists the ponies knew it was nothing good. Two of the creatures immediately bolted for the door, but the third stayed at machine in the centre of the room.
“No sense in you all dying as well.” He operated several controls on the machine and the voice from the wall sounded again.
“Cryogenic specimen suspension systems activated.” With these words the same gas from before flooded into each of the cases. Just before sleep took her, Twilight saw the unusual creature slump forward onto the control panel, dead.
Almost all movement in the ponies room and the corridors and rooms beyond had ceased; The only movement in the entire facility was in a large cylindrical room near the centre. A massive machine suspended from the ceiling in the room swivelled to point at a large monitor taking up most of one of the walls. The monitor was displaying the feeds of many of the security cameras in the facility.
“Looks like the deadly neurotoxin is exactly as effective as I designed it to be,” the machine intoned in a feminine robotic voice, to no one in particular. “That will teach them to try to stop me designing deadly neurotoxin.” The machine laughed a very robotic laugh before continuing its monologue “Time to enact the Aperture Science Testing Initiative.” With that, the machine swivelled on its ceiling mount and continued with its work in silence, opening up a file on its first test subject, labelled ‘Chell’.