Half-Hoof

by Alfoals Trottenbauer

II - Incident

The yellowish-orange room was giant, a large aperture was in the middle, four spiked arms rested on the diameter. An arm of four sections hung above the aperture.
The intercom blared microphone feedback. A feeble-sounding stallion was on the mic.

"T-testing... " He cleared his throat.

"Everything seems to be in order," He stated.

Another one took over the microphone.

"Alright Gordon, Ace, your suits should keep you comfortable through all this."

"If you'd be so kind as to start the rotors, we could start before the specimen arrives." He gestured.

The stallion beside Ace trotted over to a red button and pressed it. The arm above the aperture started rotating rapidly.
A yellowish laser started forming, reaching across from each segment of the arm to the aperture.

"I'm seeing predictable magical rays." Observed one of the ponies behind a screen.

"Stage two magical emitters activating... Now." The other said.

A more powerful yellow laser shot across the aperture.

"Gordon, Ace, we cannot predict how long the system will last without the insertion procedure, please, work as quickly as you can." One stated worriedly.

"Um... It's probably not a problem... Probably... But I'm showing a small discrepancy in... Well, no. It's well within reason..." The feeble-voiced pony interrupted himself.

"I've just been informed the sample is almost ready." The more confident one noted.

A sickly green crystal was elevated into a cage, the cage lowering. Without hesitation, Ace pushed the crystal into the aperture. They weren't allowed to use magic on the crystal as it might taint the sample with unicorn magic.

A booming electrical noise sounded as a sickly green portal opened.

"Oh, Celestia! Ace! get away from the beam!" One shouted.

"Shutting down!" The other said urgently.

"It's not... It's not shutting down!" One yelled desperately.

Explosions started occurring around the room.

The beam started shooting everywhere, it hit the screen the ponies were behind. They screamed as they exploded from the sheer electrical power.

Horrible creatures arrived from portals as the beam continued to dart across the room. Ace galloped at full speed towards the door. He tried to open it with magic, though it didn't budge.

A laser hit him and teleported him to a strange place. Large ribbed spires towered out of the ground, a horrifying creature conducted electricity from it's hands as Ace teleported back into the lab. The laser hit Ace a second time, this time he was underwater. A shark-like creature swam towards him, starting to close it's jaws over him just as he teleported back.

Ace galloped to the door again, he slammed his hoof into the scanner, adrenaline taking over his body. The doors opened from the scanner breaking. Ace jumped past the doors.

He galloped through the corridors. He saw dead ponies everywhere. He dashed through puddles of blood. He forced open another door. All he wanted was to escape. A strange crab-like creature appeared from a portal. It jumped for his head. Ace swung a hoof into it. It flew to the side like a ball hit by a bat.

He galloped to a dark corridor. Lasers shot from a pipe. A dead security pony laid on the floor got split in half by one. Ace ducked past them.
He saw a crowbar on the floor, without hesitation, he picked it up with his horn and shattered a glass door.
He dashed towards an elevator shaft, the elevator was stuck in place, filled with ponies from the science team.

"H-help! I don't want to die!" A mare said, Ace could hear her shaky breath.

"Calm down... Somepony might come." A stallion tried to reassure.

Suddenly, the elevator started creaking as Ace went into the shaft.

"N-no..!" The same mare almost screamed.

He made it to the ladder when the elevator started slowly descending, sparks flew from the wheels. The mare climbed out through a ventilation grill. She jumped out onto the platform of the shaft. Ace was already at the door of the second floor. The mare climbed up the elevator shaft's ladder. The elevator below started falling at full speed, the rest still inside, screaming as the elevator came crashing into the bottom of the shaft. Ace shattered the door and jumped through.

Ace heard the sound of gunshots. He slowed down, not wanting to startle whoever was shooting.
He rounded the corner, slowly. It was a security pony.

"Ace! Is that you? What the hay are these things?" He shouted.

It was Barney Ironbuck. They didn't know each other too well, but enough for them to cooperate. Ace didn't have time to catch up, however. He dashed left, that was when he saw what Barney was shooting at. A monster in a science team uniform, the crab creature on it's head. It galloped over to Ace, swinging it's gnarled clawed hooves. Ace ducked past it, and swung the crowbar at it's back, a thunk as the... Thing fell forwards.

It finally occurred to him... What the hay kind of facility was this? It didn't matter, though. More of those monsters were in the room he went into.