//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: The Higgs Field Manipulator // Story: Half-Life X MLP: The Lost Timeline // by GordonFreebrony //------------------------------// “Ungghhhhhhhh……. Wha….” The sound came from a very strange-looking human, dressed in an orange and black suit that covered most of its body. The human’s head had a shock of brown hair on top of it, with a brown, mouth-hugging mustache and beard. He also wore square, black-rimmed glasses. The human slowly shook off the last dregs of sleep, sitting up slowly. His chest ached and his head pounded. He looked around, taking in his surroundings. “Where am I?” he asked himself out loud, recoiling in shock at his voice. “I can talk,” he said, raising a hand to his neck. “Why is that so surprising?” He was in some sort of library, with concave walls, and bookshelves everywhere that there was space to put them. As he looked around, he saw unfamiliar words mixed in with the more familiar library names for sections. For instance, there was a young adult section, but next to that, where the kid’s section would normally be, was a sign for a ‘foal’ section. There was even an ‘adult’ section, but it was labeled in two, one side called ‘Older Mares,’ and the other ‘Older Colts.’ The man continued to look around, giving the strange room a frustrating stare. He did not know why, but he knew this was not where he belonged. He missed a small, purple and green dragon slip out the front door, but he did catch a flash of dark blue coming from a half-open door with stairs leading to it. The man began to investigate… _______________________________ “This is very troubling,” said a large, white Alicorn mare, “There has only been one other instance of creatures similar to this Gordon, and that was long ago, when I was a young, more adventurous mare.” She was speaking to Twilight and her friends, and the Princess’s tone was enough to even quiet Pinkie, something that Twilight had been attempting to do since she arrived in Ponyville. They were sitting in Rarity’s living room, as her Boutique was closest to the Library. “It was in the first few hundred years of my reign, I had heard of a large, bright light seen on the horizon of the Northern Border, coming from the direction of the Great Desert. I decided to investigate myself, and headed out immediately…” ______________________________ Young Celestia was flying through the clear sky of Equestria, her Pegasus Guard spread out behind her. She paid them no attention however, watching the tan and orange strip of land in front of her growing larger and closer every second. She had become bored with the affairs of state back home, and decided that this adventure was just the thing she needed to get her mind off of it. She was surprised at the progress she had made. If she had taken the royal sky carriage, It would have taken her twice the time to cover even this distance. She was following the train tracks leading to Appleloosa, the farthest outpost right on the edge of the Great Desert. That had been where the urgent message had come from, apparently everypony was panicking about it. As she neared Appleloosa, a very small outpost consisting of about three or four buildings and a station, she noticed that there were no ponies in the street, or even in the small orchard to the West that the town was named for. She finally landed, her guards landing behind her, heads drooping. Celestia looked back, concern in her eyes, but they recovered soon. She turned her eyes back to the town, noting the fact that nopony was visible. Her guards were beginning to get nervous, uneasily digging their hooves into the ground. As she scanned around the ghost town, she spotted something on the flat horizon, something that looked completely out of place. She turned to her guards, telling them to follow, and then took off. As she neared the object, she realized it was a building of stone, completely square. It looked like it had been torn from the ground, as all but the roof was a darker color, with bits of reddish rock sticking to it and pipes jutting out. On the roof, a creature stood, its coat a dark blue except for its head and forepaws, which were a pale white. Its mane was jet-black, and it stood on its hind limbs. In the right forepaw, a gray box was being carried. As she took note of it, it turned around, walking into a small door connected into the building by a small room whose roof sloped down slowly. Celstia could not shake the feeling of something wrong with the creature; almost sinister, and definitely dark. She turned to her guards, asking them about the creature, but none of them had seen it. She shook her head, thinking it had just been her mind playing tricks. She landed on the building’s roof, her guards right behind her. She walked over to the door and opened it with a quick burst of magic. Two of her guards walked in first, despite the princess’s objections. The guards had sworn their lives to her, and would not let her walk into danger first. The guards came back a moment later, telling the princess that the coast was clear. The princess ignored everything they said after that, bursting through the door. It opened into a dimly lit staircase, made of metal. She went down two flights, where a cave in blocked the rest of it. There was no other way into the building visible from the outside. The princess cursed, causing her guards to jump at her language, then used magic to blast apart the rubble. Behind it was a door, which the princess opened with yet another burst of magic. Once again the guards walked forward, but the princess walked in directly behind them. The door opened into a long corridor, with two strips of color running along it. One was red and had the words “Experimentation Chamber” written onto it, the other was green and had “Observation.” They walked down the corridor, noticing the red lights pulsing slowly along the whole room. The first “door” they came across was mad of two solid blocks of metal, and the princess could not open it. The other door led to a room filled with… __________________________________ “… bodies of these creatures, which I now know are called humans,” the princess continued her story, “Most of them were dead, leaking blood onto the floor. The skin on their faces and hands seemed to have been melted, as if they were made of wax. My guards and I all gagged simultaneously, but I continued forward, seeing movement ahead. There were three other humans that had survived, barely. They were probably scared out of their minds by whatever had happened, and now me arriving had driven them over the edge. They were speaking gibberish, almost completely incomprehensible. After a while, when I had moved them into the hallway, and attempted to calm them down, with limited success, one of them finally handed me a sheaf of papers and box. The paper was covered in small, uniform letters spelling out many words that I did not, and still do not, understand. Upon giving me theses things, the remaining scientist died, his last words being to only give those items to only another of the science team. After that I…..” She was cut off by a loud, animal scream coming from the direction of the library. All of the ponies jumped, than began to rush towards the library. ___________________________________ The man walked up the stairs, entering what looked like a bedroom, still filled with bookcases. There was a small bed alcove, and a basket bed near it. A mirror stood against one wall. The man looked around, searching for whatever could have made the flash of blue, seeing nothing, and no other way out save for the door he had just entered. The man, after standing around in confusion, walked slowly around the room, stopping in front of the mirror. He looked at his reflection, not remembering anything. As he studied himself, he spotted the crowbar hanging on his side. The tiniest of sparks of recognition fired in his brain, and he picked up the crowbar, studying himself once more. Then, memories began flooding back. His name was Gordon Freeman, a 27-year-old scientist with a PhD in Theoretical Physics. He worked at Black Mesa, a top secret research facility in the deserts of New Mexico. He was still working in the ‘intern’ style jobs, except that he had to don the HEV suit he was wearing now in order to enter the test chambers to pull levers, push buttons, and move carts. His last experiment ended with… he stopped, puzzled for a moment, than clutched his head as his mind suddenly received all of the information at once. The Resonance Cascade, the struggles, the teleporter accident, all of it. An animalistic scream tore from his lips, he attacked the image in the mirror with his crowbar, turning wildly and causing havoc with everything in reach. When the door opened, allowing 6 multi-colored ponies and an Alicorn to enter, Gordon turned and threw the crowbar, unable to determine friend from foe. With the projectile heading towards them, the two unicorns and the Alicorn all attempted to stop it simultaneously, the power of their magic sending back towards Gordon, who took it in the chest, flying backwards and hitting another bookcase, causing even more books to fall upon him. An audible crack rang out through the room, and then the suit began talking. “Major Fracture Detected,” it said, “Morphine administered.” Gordon pulled his eyes up slowly to the beings in front of him, all of which were staring at him in anger. The insanity in his eyes slowly disappearing, the information in his mind finally being organized after order was knocked into him. Gordon raised his eyes once more, only standing after the morphine took affect. He began speaking, still surprised at his own voice. “I.. I’m sorry, I d-d-don’t know what came over me.” His voice was warbly, still not being accustomed to using his voice again. The alicorn in front of him, the name took a moment to surface, Princess Celestia, that’s right, began to speak slowly. “That particular spell I used sometimes causes temporary insanity, it is understandable. I’m actually somewhat surprised it worked, due to the, differences in your anatomy.” The princess paused as Gordon seemed to get his bearings. “I brought something that I believe you will want, I am not certain exactly what it is, but it was given to ma a long time ago, specifically only for the ‘science team.’” Again she stopped, this time her horn glowed, bringing forth a box and a large pile of yellowing papers. This she gave to Gordon, levitating it until Gordon grabbed it. “Twilight, I have important business to attend to back in Canterlot, inform me of any and all developments if possible. I hope you can learn more about these humans and this object than I was able too.” With that she turned around and left the library. The ponies again turned their gaze upon the strange figure before them, seeming to hold their breath as he stood there. Gordon looked at them for a minute, noticing their curiosity with the box. Gordon sat down on a nearby chair, looking at the papers. It took him a few seconds to realize what it was. “I can’t believe this,” he said quietly to himself reading through the old scientific notes. One of the ponies, the purple one named Twilight walked up to him, glancing curiously at the papers. “What is it?” she asked. Gordon looked up, seeing the curiosity written upon the other ponies’ surprisingly human-like faces. “It’s the Higgs Field Manipulator Prototype,” Gordon said, patting the box on his lap, “This was lost about two years ago, before I joined Black Mesa. They were attempting to disprove half of the laws of physics, while simultaneously creating a machine that allows telekinesis, among other abilities. Their first prototype was a complete success, except for the fact that they needed more power for it to be useful. They finally decided to attempt a large-scale version and to feed it with nuclear power. A catastrophic failure lead to them disappearing, and according to these notes,” he said, shuffling through them, “they had a containment breach, killing most of the staff. Only three scientists survived, one of them writing the last of the notes, unable to do anything else. The last page of notes ends in a rather large bloodstain. Poor devils. The radiation must have been terrible.” As Gordon finished the tale, the ponies looked at each other, puzzled. “Umm, Gordon,” said Twilight, “The Princess found these over five hundred years ago. Just how long is two years on your planet?” Gordon looked at the ponies, trying to decide how to explain it. “Well, I live in another dimension,” Gordon explained, going slowly, “Theoretically, these dimensions line up at only certain times and places. In my home dimension, no more than a few nanoseconds will have passed, where as here, quite a few hours have passed. In fact, it seems a whole day has. You see, the timelines only coincide sometimes, allowing for temporal anomalies like this to happen.” Gordon knew he finished in scientific terms, but he could simplify it no further. “Tempa-whoosies?” said Pinkie Pie, “is that some sort of super-hot oven? Did you know I bake things in ovens? Do you bake things in ovens? I can always show you the cookies I make. Do you have cookies in your world? I would love to Mmmmpphh mrrphh munmmm nummbbll mumphh muff…” Pinkie continued talking, despite the fact that a piece of what looked like duct tape appeared over her mouth in a haze of purple light, which Gordon connected to Twilight, since her horn had also glowed the same purple when it appeared. “Well, ummm…” Gordon said in surprise, “you can create things out of thin air. That’s… not possible.” Gordon said. “No, I am just transmuting the bits and pieces of it in the air. They are already there, I just move them about a little.” Replied Twilight. Gordon almost gagged. “You can manipulate the atomic structure!” he exclaimed, “But the suit should have detected a radiation signature. You can’t just do that, the laws of natu…..” He trailed off, having seen the box on the ground. “Unless…” he said, almost to himself. He removed the lid to the box, releasing a cloud of dust. Underneath it was a large, user-manualish book. Gordon tossed it to the side, never having even read the manual to his suit. Nestled in the protective foam, glistening as if it had just been polished, was the strangest device Gordon had ever seen. It looked like a solid steel remote, with more buttons on it than he could imagine. Almost every surface was a button. On the front of the remote was a piece that looked like the end of a crescent wrench, except it was jointed halfway down the ends. Gordon picked it up, looking more closely. His suit beeped loudly, almost causing him to drop the remote. It then proceeded to talk. “Higgs Field Manipulator Upgrade detected. Neural Interface Upgrade Detected. Please insert device into slot above 9mm holster. Upgrades will automatically download.” Gordon did not even bother to check the manual if there was a health risk, he just plugged it into the slot that the suit had indicated. An immediate change in the suit was observed. “Upgrade is compatible. Suit lockdown system engaged for user safety. Mild sedative administered for user safety. Upgrade will begin when user unconsciousness detected.” As it said this, the suit forced him to stand up, locking into place. Gordon immediately began to fall, caught by Twilight’s magic. He felt a small prick in his backside. Immediately, he began to feel very tired. He had to fight to keep his eyes open. “Wha….” He managed to say before his head went limp. The rest of his body was held in place by his suit. Twilight lowered him to the ground. Looking at her friends, Twilight realized that she wasn't the only one who was wondering what in Luna’s mane was going on.