Half-Hoof: A Revolution

by Alfoals Trottenbauer

I - Resonance

As if nothing had happened, Ace suddenly regained sight, pulled out of the void he was once trapped in, seemingly for ages. The bright light of the sun blurred his vision, having been in a void in which light of any sort can't thrive in. He was seemingly on some sort of train station platform. A stallion with a strange outfit and some sort of unconventional gas mask motioned him along.

"Move along, Citizen." He said in a mechanically raspy voice.

He did as told, fearing that something might happen otherwise. Just then a giant screen turned on on the wall. It was a stallion whose face Ace seemed to remember from Black Forest. He started a lecture, it seemed.

"Welcome, welcome to City 27, whether you are here to stay, by will or not, or just passing by, welcome."

Ace started to turn away from the screen, when suddenly, he continued.

"I've been getting letters recently, such as this one: 'Dear Doctor Bray, why is it that we cannot use our unicorn magic? Signed, A concerned citizen'. Well, be not concerned, when ponykind was still coddled in Mother Nature's arms, unicorn magic was used from fear, it was a structure of protection, power over those who had none. Now, unicorn magic does nothing but hold us down from becoming something greater than ponykind could even fathom. We are in a place those who came before us could not imagine, Our Benefactors have opened a whole new gateway to something thought previously unobtainable, that something is what we call immortality." He addressed.

Ace was sickened by the thought. He moved a hoof up to his horn, finding a metal brace on it. He tried using magic, when he did, he felt a stab in his horn, he gasped at the sudden, sharp pain. A syringe!? He felt a severe burning sensation starting from his horn, going down to his head and neck, then his legs, and out his hooves. He took a moment to shake it off, then trotted on through a gate. It was now that he noticed that everypony around were wearing the exact same clothing, including himself.

He came upon a checkpoint of sorts, it seemed. Another strange pony was standing at a gate with the same gas mask and uniform. He trotted over to the odd stallion, the stallion held his hoof out, as if Ace was to give him something. Naturally, Ace checked the pockets of his outfit and came across a card. He handed it over to the stallion, the stallion looked it over. Ace started to fidget with his hooves on the ground, afraid it wasn't what he was looking for.

"Move on through." He said in the same mechanical voice as before.

Ace did as told, he cantered to another checkpoint. He needed something to call those ponies, he thought 'cop' would do. This time, though, the cop had what seemed to be a scanner at the point. A large, staple-like metal ring protruded through the ground a was in front of the checkpoint gate. The cop ran the scanner over Ace's whole body. The scanner did not make any noise.

"You need a chip." The cop droned even more unnaturally than the last two.

"A... chip..?" Ace asked, dumbfounded.

Without any further conversation, the ring let a robotic arm out, a needle attached to the end, it suddenly stabbed Ace in the neck. He felt something under his skin, Ace ran a hoof over it, there was something there.