Half-Life: Equestria

by Ganymede

Anomalous Gemstones

A blue glow wafted around the short expanse that Twilight led Spike down. She could feel the stenciled holes carved into the metal grate against her hooves, and peered down at the intricacies of the pipework below. Spike stayed close behind her.

At the end of the hallway was another metallic doorway, identical to the one at the entrance. Twilight heard the now-familiar sound of the metal pistons sliding out from in front of the doorway. The solid sound of metal crashing into metal as the bars slammed fully open made Twilight jump slightly. The reverberation in this enclosure magnified the effect, which echoed uncomfortably around her ears.

The doors swept open, revealing a well-lit bright metallic lobby area, complete with island front desk, chairs for waiting, and a large blue outline-map of Equestria covering the opposite wall. For a moment, Twilight stood staring at all the activity. Scientists dawning lab coats meandered around the room. Some of them were paired or grouped, discussing their hopes for that day, or lightly conversing about something new in their personal lives, all preparing for the day ahead of them. A grey security pony stood at the floating island desk in the center, studying a computer screen.

Twilight glanced down at Spike.

"Do we just... walk right in?" she wondered quietly.

Twilight looked up again, and saw that the security pony had noticed them. For a moment, she stood there, as if waiting for a cue. Eventually the pony gave them a look, as if trying not to roll their eyes, waving over at them.

"Well, come on!" she finally said.

She! Twilight thought. Not that Twilight was against females taking on dangerous and aggressive roles in society. She just never quite considered running into a female security guard so soon.

Twilight stepped up nervously as the doors slammed shut behind her. The pony at the desk looked preoccupied again at the computer, her round helmet glistening from the overhead fluorescent lights. Again, Twilight glanced at the firearm resting casually on her shoulder.

The pony turned to look at her again.

"You can come closer, you know. We don't bite."

Twilight walked right up to the desk, looking around for some kind of paperwork or sign-in sheet. The desk was almost entirely blank, save for a few sheets the pony herself was using for notes.

"Now, you must be Twilight Sparkle," she said, touching the computer screen nonchalantly with her hoof as she talked. "Looks like you'll be getting some fun down in the Test Chamber today." She stopped and turned towards her. "That's always fun."

Twilight blushed slightly, wondering what that could mean. The guard must have noticed.

"Ah, it's just something all the newbies have to go through. They always have you guys pushing switches and pulling levers for the first few weeks. You just wait 'til the next new guy gets here. It'll all be worth it," she continued.

"Now!" she said, turning back towards the screen. "I believe you have a guest with you, is that right?"

Twilight thought for a moment.

"Oh! You mean Spike?"

Stupid, stupid, stupid, she thought. Who else could she mean?

"Well," she responded, "if that's the name of the baby dragon you've brought with you."

For a moment they looked at each other, Twilight getting the sense she was expecting something.

"Um," the mare finally spoke, "can I see him?"

"OH!" Twilight said, suddenly backing up. "Oh, sure! Yeah. He's right here."

The security pony smiled slightly as she peered over the desk.

"My!" she said. "That really is a baby dragon, isn't it! Isn't he just adorable."

Spike was not smiling.

Twilight rested her hoof on his shoulder as the pony turned back to her computer.

"He'll need to be checked over with a physician before he'll be allowed in the test chamber with you," she said. "He won't need an environment suit, of course. Dragon scales are an armor in-and-of-themselves. Plus, they repel radiation!"

Twilight widened her eyes at this. The pony seemed to notice, because she turned her head to follow up.

"That... hasn't been fully tested. It's just a theory, from what I've heard."

Twilight walked back up to the desk, peering around to try and see what she was doing on the screen.

"So, to give you the rundown," she started again, turning back to face Twilight, "you'll be taking... is it Spike? You'll be taking Spike around the corner near the entrance to Sector B. There's a room right around the research area where he'll be checked over. Don't worry," she added, seeing the worried look on Twilight's face, "they don't do anything that could harm the guy. It's just some observations, that's all."

She shifted a bit as she continued.

"You, on the other hand, will have to put on your Hazardous Environment Suit. They're stashed in the locker rooms just past the break room. There should still be one sitting in the center hub. I think the others are out of commission for now. I'm assuming you've been through the Hazard Course?"

"Yeah," Twilight answered, hardly believing they were already relying on such ridiculous training. What exactly did they expect her to have to do in this experiment?

"Alright, then. You should be good to go. If you get lost, feel free to ask anyone around here. Just tell them you're new. They'll understand."

"Thanks," Twilight said, feeling a bit better now that she had an idea of what they had in store.

She looked around the room a bit as she wandered towards the hallway on the right. This place was very different from the cold darkness of the tram tunnels. There was a warmth to it—even more so than the dormitory lobby. The multiple scientists walking and conversing casually added activity and social comfort as well. In fact, had the walls been marble instead of metal, she would almost have been able to pretend she was back in Canterlot!

She reached the hallway on the right, this being the only noticeable exit from the lobby, and saw a number of colorful stripes marking various locations throughout the labs. Each stripe was labeled with a different section, traversing the walls towards the destination they had described. Twilight read them out loud.

"Research... Development... Personal Facilities..."

She looked down at Spike. "Looks like I need to take you to the research branch. That's the red stripe on the wall," she said, more to herself than anything.

Twilight was liking this place more and more as she thought about how well this navigational system worked. She followed the stripe as it wormed its way down the brightly-lit hallway, very aware of the curious looks ponies were giving Spike. The hallway she was following was in the shape of a "C", wrapping around some central room sitting just behind the lobby. Twilight noticed a small, non-obtrusive metal door in the hallway opposite the lobby that must have served as the entrance into the central room. For a moment, Twilight toyed with taking a peek inside, but decided in the end that it just wasn't her place to poke around too much.

The Research stripe lead all the way to the end of the "C", and out along a straight hallway extending orthogonally from its tip. Windows lined this new hallway on either side, peering into two main rooms on opposite sides. As Twilight reached the top of a ramp at the end of the "C", the first thing she saw through the window opposite her made her stop short.

A scientist was arguing heatedly... and the pony he was arguing with was a business pony.

The same business pony.

The one she had seen on the train, just before they had nearly crashed into the robot.

How did he get here? she thought.

She wanted another witness. She wasn't crazy. She couldn't be.

"Hey, Spike," she said, peering down at the dragon and pointing towards the window. "You see that pony in the business suit, right?"

She looked up.

He was gone!

Standing where the pony used to be was another scientist, continuing the heated conversation.

"Huh?" Spike said. "Why would there be a business pony? This is a laboratory, isn't it?"

Twilight felt slightly faint, walking lightly over to lean against the wall on her left.

"N—nevermind, Spike," she said, regaining her composure, pushing the thought of the pony out of her mind.

She stepped into the hallway proper and looked around.

"This... looks right," she said. "It's certainly the research section. And there's Section B down at the end! But, I don't see anything marking where I need to take you..."

A metal door had glided open at the far end of the hallway as one of the scientists walked out, a unicorn hovering a clipboard in front of her.

"Excuse me!" Twilight said as they walked by her, grabbing her attention. "The guard in the lobby said there's a physician's office around here. Do you know where that is?"

The pony stared at them for a bit. She was a green pony, her matching green hair done up in a bun with crescent glasses tipped on her nose. She looked confused.

"Physician?" she said. "I'm not sure what you're referring to..."

Twilight looked around, hoping there was something obvious that screamed out that she was in the wrong place. Nothing jumped out at her.

"Well," she continued, "she said that Spike here needed to be looked over before he'd be allowed much further. They said there was a place somewhere in the research section for that."

The pony was clearly thinking, and quickly coming to a conclusion.

"Well, technically we don't have any place like that. I think what they were really referring to was the small makeshift emergency room in the back. You'll find it around that room right back there," she finished, pointing through the window where the business pony had been standing.

"Thanks," Twilight said. Then, while she still had her attention, "do you know who I might talk you about it?"

The pony thought a bit more.

"Most likely they wanted you to speak with the person in charge of emergencies. His name is Dr. Yursa. I don't know him that well, but if the lobby guard told you about it, he'll probably be expecting you."

"Thanks," Twilight said. The pony complemented her farewell and departed with a smile.

So friendly! she thought as she watched her round the corner. I could get use to this!

======================================================

"Dr. Yursa?" Twilight said, stepping into a back area occupied by a single pony. He was a brown pony with a black mane, dressed slightly more formally, but was by no means an outright physician. She didn't notice any medical equipment.

The pony turned around.

"Ye— AH!" he said. "Yes! You must be Twilight Sparkle!"

Twilight smiled awkwardly as she looked around the room. She recognized a lot of the equipment from some of her laboratory classrooms back in Canterlot. There was a medical kit on the wall to her right... slightly more elaborate than the one she was introduced to in the Hazard Course. On the far wall was an eyewash station... what appeared to be a metal sink basin, but with two rubber-tipped hoses situated where one's eyes would be. Connected to it was an emergency shower. She had remembered learning about these in the classroom, but had thankfully never had to use them. A small stack of fire blankets were folded neatly in a glass cabinet. The wall on the left was lined with leather bedding, for serious injuries where the patient could no longer stand.

"It's not much," he said, looking around the room with her. "I'm sorely disappointed that we couldn't get this place any closer to the development area. Every week I find myself filing requests to get this place moved. Most of our injuries occur in the test chamber, and its simply impractical to expect them to walk across the entire lab to get the help they need!"

Twilight felt an uncomfortable twinge when she heard the words "Test Chamber". She imagined herself walking in here with severe burns or a damaged eye, complaining about how far she had to walk.

"SO!" the pony said, "is this the guy?"

Twilight looked around. She had almost forgotten about Spike!

"Oh, yeah. This is Spike," she said.

"My!" he said, walking over and leaning down. "Aren't you just the cutest little thing!"

Spike was crossing his arms with a scowl.

"This shouldn't take too long, Miss Sparkle. Just a quick look over," he explained. "I should be done by the time you're suited up for the experiment."

Twilight blushed nervously.

"Oh..." she said, not wanting to leave just yet. "I was kinda hoping I could stay with him for this. You know..."

The pony smiled.

"Perfectly understandable, of course, but there's really nothing to worry about. Just a few quick tests, that's all!"

Twilight stood there, looking down at Spike, who looked up embarrassingly.

"I'm fine!" he said.

The pony jumped. He apparently wasn't expecting the dragon to be able to talk.

"Ah, see? Even better," he said, leaning down towards Spike. "How are you feeling? You doing all right?"

Spike rolled his eyes, making a face at Twilight that pleaded with her to go away.

"Okay... so..." she said, "I... guess I'll just leave you two alone!"

She stood there staring a bit longer. Both of them looked at her.

"I'm... I'm going now!" she said again. "Just... turning around! Walking out the door! Yes! That's... that's what I'm doing!"

Twilight stepped out of the room, meandering back into the hallway. She hadn't quite expected it to be that difficult to leave Spike alone like that. She knew there was nothing to worry about... but her body was still protesting.

"Okay," she thought, switching her thoughts around to the impending experiment. "Hazard Suit. Need a Hazard Suit..."

She re-traversed the "C" back to the stripe origins and read through the section names again.

"Personal Facilities," she read off the green stripe. "That sounds about right."

She followed the "C" around again, keeping an eye on the stripe, and noticed a hallway extending off to the right just opposite the door into the central room. She followed the green stripe down this new hallway, and discovered it to form the shaft of an "I", leading her to a split junction in a new area of the labs. The blue "Development" stripe lead off to the left. Twilight followed the green "Personal Facilities" stripe to the right, following a path that lead her through an opening into a smaller, cozier hallway with a black-and-tan tiled floor.

Turning to her left, she walked down the narrow hallway, stopping to explore a small break room on the right. There wasn't much here. Just a few tables on the left and a counter on the right with a microwave that was currently in use. Two vending machines sat next to the counter at the far end of the room. Twilight considered getting something for Spike at the machines, but decided it could wait until after the experiment.

Heading further down the hallway, she ran into a metal door on the side of a small L-Bend that lead into a small locker room. Four benches populated the brown-tiled floor of the square room, with lockers situated all around. Each locker had a name embossed in the metal: something Twilight noted must be very expensive. The back of the room housed two other areas. On the right, there was a small lavatory with a couple stalls and taps. She also noticed a medical kit on the wall. On the left, there was a darker area that Twilight couldn't quite make out. However, she assumed that had to be where the suits were kept.

A single gray pony was busy putting on his lab coat near one of the benches. He was obviously one of the older scientists, his mane almost entirely white by now. He looked up as she came in.

"Oh! Haven't seen you around here. You must be the new pony!" he said cheerfully. "Always nice to see some new faces around here."

Twilight smiled, about to ask where the suits were when he continued.

"They put you in the Test Chamber?"

Twilight nodded.

"Ah, of course. They always do that do the new guys. Almost some sort of silly hazing game they play around here."

He stepped around the bench and casually rested his flank against the wood.

"You heard about the system crash they had a few minutes ago?" he said.

Twilight spoke up now.

"System crash?"

The pony smiled.

"Probably nothing to worry about. The front desk says they lost quite a few files, though. Even the guys down in the Test Chamber said they were having some trouble."

"Bah!" he continued, seeing Twilight's concerned face. "Don't let it worry you. These things happen. My guess is, they'll have it all worked out before you get down there."

He got off the bench and walked over to one of the open lockers.

"You get yourself a lock yet?" he asked, indicating the door to the locker. Twilight felt a pleasant streak of pride as she read her name at the top. "They don't give away locks unfortunately, but you can buy one at the shop. It's not too far from the dorms. I'm assuming you live on campus?" he added.

"Yeah," Twilight said, "I rode the train here from the dorms this morning."

"Quite a ride, eh? We get a lot of newbies saying how much they like the tour. This place is a lot bigger than many ponies realize!"

"You're telling me!" Twilight said, finally finding something to talk about. "I was surprised at some of the stuff they just have lying around the train path! I mean... a satellite rocket? Really?"

The pony looked around a bit before turning back to her.

"This place isn't exactly the strictest when it comes to security," he said. "I'm assuming you've heard about the administrator?"

Twilight was now becoming sincerely interested in this conversation.

"No one's mentioned him yet, no," she said. "Why?"

The pony looked around a bit more before getting up close to her.

"Well, you didn't hear it from me, but there's rumors of a conspiracy," he said. "Not sure what they're planning, but there are ponies who say they've seen a strange pony wandering around here. Some guy in a business suit. Think he's conspiring with the administrator. No one's been able to get any information about the guy. He's mysterious. Many think he's here for more than just business..."

The pony backed up, speaking normally again.

"Me? I don't see it. Bunch of codswallop! Rumors will get you worked up about anything. I've been working here too long to let these things bother me anymore. Of course," he gave Twilight a look, "that doesn't stop be from following them all. Great entertainment! Keeps old guys like me from dying of boredom!"

He let out a laugh that sputtered into a cough. Shaking out his mane, he walked towards the darkened area on the left.

"I suppose you're here to suit up, eh?"

Twilight wanted to hear more about the rumors and conspiracies, but decided it would be best to move on.

"Yeah, thanks. I had a feeling they might be back in this area."

The aged pony lead her around into the nook to the left, where she now had a clear view of the place.

The first thing she noticed was the black control-panel desk sitting just in front of her. She guessed from the three suit-shaped glowing icons that this controlled something that had to do with the Hazard Suit she wanted.

Peering over the panel, her suspicions were confirmed. Three cylindrical containers stood at the back of the darkened room, sitting on a sunken floor. Each one emitted a light; Each one had a set of stairs leading up to it; Each one was controlled by one of the buttons on the control panel. Two of them were empty, emitting a red light with red icons on the panel correspondingly. The one in the middle was closed with a green icon, and contained a suit in the shape of the pony reared on its hind legs.

Twilight approached the control panel.

"So I just..."

The gray pony walked up next to her and pushed the center button. The green icon turned red as a glass shielding raised up to expose the suit.

"Uh, thanks," she said.

"Need any help?" he said. "You know, these new suits can be tricky sometimes."

Twilight remembered putting it on the Hazard Course. It had taken her a whole 15 minutes the first time!

"I think I can manage," she said automatically.

"Suit yourself!" he said—then chuckled lightly at the bad pun.

The pony walked out of the locker room and back to work, leaving Twilight alone with the suit. She turned to see a small stairway leading down to the sunken floor. Taking a deep breath, she descended the stairs, and up to the suit waiting for her in the chamber.

======================================================

"You two should be all set!" said Dr. Yursa.

Twilight was standing in the small emergency area wearing her Hazardous Environment Suit. Spike had had a giggle fit upon first seeing her. Apparently fashion was not the suit's high point.

The whole thing felt very mechanical, like she was wearing some sort of super-hero outfit. She felt very subconscious about her appearance, and it didn't help that the whole thing was bright orange, contrasting horribly with her purple hide. The good news was that she didn't have to feel the cold hard floor anymore, since the suit came with glove-tight black rubber ends that wrapped around her hooves.

The thing had to be one of the most expensive pieces of equipment in the entire facility! The stuff she had learned about it in the Hazard Course alone lead her to believe that the military would willingly give up half their men just to have one of these things! Overkill didn't come close to fully describing the insanity of this suit's contraptions, and she couldn't imagine the degree to which Pony Mesa could improve this lab had they put their money to better use.

"So, I'm assuming you know the way to the Test Chamber?" Yursa said.

Twilight remembered the blue stripe leading to the left from the "I" junction and nodded. "Yeah."

"This little guy checked out just fine. Healthier than most of the scientists around here!" he said, rubbing the dragon affectionately on the head. "You two look like you'll make a great team!"

Twilight blushed as she motioned Spike by her side.

"Thanks, Dr. Yursa. We'll be fine."

Twilight turned and walked out the door, wondering if she should have said anything else before she left.

"So, you're fine, right?" Twilight said to Spike, leading him towards the "I" junction. "Nothing hurt? Nothing was uncomfortable?"

"I'm fine!" Spike said. "Let's just get to the experiment already."

"Okay," Twilight said, rounding the corner and down the shaft of the "I". Then, leaning down and speaking quieter,

"They didn't touch you anywhere... inappropriate, did they?"

"TWILIGHT!" Spike screamed out, making Twilight look around quickly. A few scientists had looked up curiously.

"Okay, okay! I'm just... it was just a question, that's all! Just a question..."

Twilight lead him around to the left, following the blue stripe that wormed around a right L-Bend. Twilight recognized the blue glow of the pipes beneath the floor grate: the same kind that was in the lab's entrance tunnel. There were a few large server boxes lined against the walls, each one larger than she was. A few of them looked like they had tape reels!

Just how old is some of this stuff?! she thought.

She passed a few more scientists along the hallway, finally rounding a smooth U-Bend and finding herself at a door guarded by a security officer. The brown pony seemed to he expecting them.

"Twilight Sparkle!" he said, seeing them. "And wearing the infamous Hazard Suit, I see! Looks like you're in the barrel today, eh?"

A set of doors blocked the passage into the next area, each with a set of glass windows forming an interesting design. A strange device was bolted next to the doors, looking like some strange box with a computer screen on the front. She assumed from the black elongated rubber stretching across the top that this had to be some sort of scanner.

"I guess I'll be seeing you two after the test. I hear this one's got the people down in the Testing Area pretty excited!" he said, walking over to the device on the wall.

He leaned over, resting his muzzle against the screen as the black rubber extended out and wrapped around the top of his head, just around his eyes. A few ticks later the computer chimed an acceptance, snapping the doors unlocked as they hissed open. Twilight noticed a magnified image of a retina displayed on the screen of the device.

The must be what they meant by retinal clearance, thought Twilight.

"You're good to go through!" he said.

Twilight walked Spike through the doors, thanking the guard as a second set of identical doors hissed open as well, revealing a "T" junction.

The area they had just entered felt different than the rest of the lab. Visually it looked about the same, but the air was stiller, and there were no scientists walking around. Twilight peered to either side of the "T".

"I wonder which way we need to go?" she said to Spike.

"Uh... split up?" Spike suggested.

"Uh... how about not," Twilight responded. "Come on, we'll try the left."

An announcer sounded above them, deep, cold, almost electronic.

Miss. Daisy. Please. Report to. Sector. B. For. Contamination. Prevention. Analysis.

The wall to their right hosted two rotary screens: a contraption Twilight had never seen before. At first, she thought they were still pictures until they flipped to show a different image. She stopped to study the way they worked, concluding that they consisted of two horizontal shafts one above the other that each had rotating rectangular prisms.

No. Not two shafts. Four! she thought. Fancy!

As they rotated, the sides of the prisms would line up to show an image. Ironically, only two pictures were displayed for each rotary image. Twilight thought this odd, since rectangles typically had four sides. Again, a missed opportunity, probably the cause of more lack of planning.

Twilight and Spike watched a few moments at some of the pictures. They appeared to be advertisements, or perhaps motivational posters. There was one for "Teamwork" showing some scientists walking around, and one for "Technology" showing the same spider-like contraption they had nearly run into on the train. There was another one showing a large hydro-electric dam with some small writing she couldn't read, and another one showing off a military helicopter. Twilight felt uneasy again as she remembered the live helicopter they had seen on their way to work.

Twilight. Sparkle. Please. Report. To. Anomalous. Materials. Test. Chamber. Immediately.

Twilight jumped upon hearing her name. Was she late? Was she in trouble? Were they looking for her?

"We should hurry up and get to the test," she said to Spike.

======================================================

The split junction, as it turned out, was not a "T" so much as an "O", wrapping around what Twilight discovered to be an elevator shaft whose entrance was at the far end of the "O". Twilight and Spike were now nearing the bottom of the dark green-lit shaft, taking in the intricacies of the metal structure before them. Unlike a typical elevator, this elevator was not fully enclosed, having no door and hardly any walls. It didn't even take up the entire shaft, allowing Twilight and her dragon companion to observe every detail of the green-lit maintenance shaft as they descended, including a red ladder spanning its entire length.

"Just what I'd hoped for," she said jokingly. "To go even further underground."

The elevator reached the bottom, lining up with a short platform between the edge of the shaft and the elevator platform, prompting Twilight to lead Spike through the doors (identical to the ones the guard opened) into the next area.

This section of the lab had a more mechanical, engineering feel about it. Two scientists stood at the far end of the hallway, next to what looked like some sort of electric generator situated against the wall. At least, that's what Twilight assumed it was. All she really knew was it was some semi-circle of grated metal surrounding an electrical rotary device of some kind, with a few pipes extending away from it embedded in the floor.

Twilight led Spike to the end of the hallway, through another set of doors on the right. As she entered the next hallway, she stopped to observe a new set of navigational color-coded stripes on the wall. Again, she read the descriptions aloud.

"Control Room... Test Lab Access... Plasma Cells... Ionization Chambers..."

"Well that's pretty obvious," Spike said.

"True. It would certainly appear we want to follow the path to Test Lab Access," she said, peering down the hallway. "Not that there's much of a choice of paths, that is."

Twilight followed the four stripes (orange, green, light blue, dark blue) as they rounded the hallway to the right. On the left, more large square server computers covered up parts of the four stripes as various scientists stopped to observe the readouts on their front panels. On the right were two enormous pipes that spanned the length of the hallway, marked all down the side multiple times with the words "Laser" and "Caution".

"What exactly do they need all this stuff for?" she asked Spike. "Plasma Cells? Ionization Chambers? Lasers? I thought this would just be a bunch of rooms with beakers and Bunsen burners!"

Twilight turned to the left, noticing another security pony standing next to the set of doors.

"Twilight Sparkle?" he piped up as she came into his sight. "Test Chamber's right around the corner! They're looking forward to meeting you."

Twilight thanked him, heading through the doors into the next room.

"Well, these are obviously the Plasma Cells!" she said, looking around the room and noticing that the light blue stripe was now missing.

It was a relatively uneventful room, completely metallic and machined like every other room she had been in. Some pipes lined the ceiling, and there was a little shape built into the walls on the right. However, the most interesting sight was the Plasma Cells themselves. Two metal octahedrons, each with a glass stripe down the center revealing some sort of blue acidic fluid, each connected via pipes both between them, and connecting them to the walls on either side. What they had to do with plasma was beyond her. She didn't see anything heat related about them at all!

Stepping past them, she walked into a small opening at the far wall and down a green dimly-lit hallway that wound around sinusoidally like large sideways steps. She took note of the red digital sign just before the door at the end.

"Control Room," she read. She looked through the glass door, feeling her face flush and body tingle from nervousness at the sight of three scientists looking out through the glass at her expectantly.

"Stay close," she told Spike, walking up the door and letting it slide gracefully out of the way.

She stepped cautiously into the room. This place was obviously some sort of nexus for development and experimentation. It wasn't very large, around the size of the locker room—maybe a little smaller. To her left, she could see a long window mostly covered by a thick metal blast shield, on the other side of which was (from the little she could see) a vast chamber.

The Test Chamber, she thought to herself.

Other ponies were standing around in lab coats, observing various computer readouts and displays situated around the room. However, the three she was now looking at were standing in a semicircle around her, and seemed more interested in her and her dragon than in the experiment itself!

"Ah! Twilight Sparkle," the pony on the left said, a blue male with what obviously used to be a long flowing mane, before it was hastily cut. He was obviously relatively new. "Good to see you made it! Any trouble finding us? It's a pretty decent-sized lab and all."

"No," she said, stifling a nervous laugh. "No, no problems. You have a pretty nice direction system thing. You know... the stripes on the wall and everything."

"Ah, right!" said the pony on the right. "I'd forgotten about those."

She was a light-grey pony, quite a bit older than the one of the left. Obviously more experienced.

"Well, we should probably get started here," said the pony in the middle, a brown pony, older than the left, younger than the right, but obviously holding more seniority in this department than the other two. "Has anyone told you much about the experiment you'll be helping us out with?"

Twilight shook her head. "No pony has said anything!"

"Typical," he continued. "We really need more communication on the upper floors. Anyway, what we're running here is a materials test on one of our latest crystalline substances! We don't exactly know where it comes from—those bastards down at lambda lab never tell us—" he mumbled this part more to himself, "but basically it's a new find on their part. And very pure! Everyone I've talked to says they're very excited about it! You should feel privileged to have this be your first experiment with us!"

Twilight thought about mentioning the system crash, but assumed that they would tell her if it was of any major concern.

"So, if you'll come over here for a moment," he said, leading Twilight over to the observation window, "you'll be able to see out into the chamber you'll be working in."

Twilight peered through the window, her eyes suddenly overwhelmed from the multitude of sights. For one, there was the sheer size of the chamber! The entire lower part of the lab clearly revolved around this room. It was basically a cylindrical brown-metal shaft, but many times larger around than the elevator shaft she had ridden down just earlier. She guessed she could fit the entire Canterlot Library inside it pretty easily!

For two, there was the contraption at the top. Twilight had to stare at it for a few seconds before she realized what she was looking at. At first, she thought it was the base of a giant laser beam! And in the end, that's basically what it was. But the tip was much larger than a traditional laser emitter, and there were three barrel-shaped emitters surrounding the central tip. The bottom of the chamber was setup to contain something. There was a round hole surrounded by metal walls, and three large metal arms opened like fingers on an open hand, waiting for something to be placed in its open palm. Twilight had to almost stick her head out the window to see it, but there was a catwalk-like indented path leading up to the center of the hand for depositing.

"What you see here is what's called an anti-mass spectrometer," the brown pony said.

"Anti-mass spectrometer," Twilight said. "Anti! Mass-Spectrometer. Like... anti-matter. Not matter. Anti-matter."

The brown pony looked at her. Twilight couldn't quite read his expression.

"True, it's more a whimsical name. It's not exactly your average mass spectrometer. It's had a few... er... modifications to make it a bit more versatile. We had to improvise a bit to get something that can take readings on materials of this special nature."

"Special nature?" Twilight repeated.

"Well, again, we don't really know the true nature of what we're measuring. We just take what they give us and measure it."

Twilight rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, you're right. This place does need work with its communication."

"Anyway, you'll be helping us out with some of the equipment. It's pretty straight-forward. Mostly you'll just be turning stuff on and adjusting the carrier as we see fit. It's not the most interesting job, but it needs to be done."

Twilight turned around as the gray female chimed in.

"There will be a couple ponies waiting for you at the chamber entrance. They'll give you a little more advice before you go in."

She turned and walked to the end of the control room, bending her head down to another retinal scanner. It clicked and chimed like the other one as the door slid open.

"You should be good! Don't be afraid to give us a shout if you're having any problems," she said.

Twilight walked up to the open door, looking at the ponies smiling around her. Did they even think to ask how she felt about this? Oh, but no! They had already had so many ponies go through this routine, they probably didn't care anymore.

The door lead into another room similar to the one with the plasma cells—perhaps a bit larger. Twilight noted how the dark blue stripe disappeared as she rounded the corner, and assumed this had to be the "Ionization Chambers" she had read about earlier. Three structures sat on the ground on the right-hand side of the room, looking like massive vacuum tubes, or maybe the tops of Light Houses. It was difficult to describe some of the bizarre equipment in these labs sometimes.

Twilight stopped by to look through the glass casing of one of them. The large yellow spark glowing inside was entrancing! It reminded her a bit of electric static, if someone were to roll it up into a ball. Again, she couldn't imagine what this had to do with "Ions"... or, for that matter, anomalous materials! Again, probably just a mass of funding no pony knew what to do with. At least they looked pretty, though.

Two ponies were at the end of the room, conversing. The one facing her was a gray pony, almost as aged as the one in the locker room. The other one was brown, with a dark brown mane and looked very... familiar...

Twilight walked around to see him from the side and jumped up.

"DR. WHOOVES!" she yelled out, startling the brown pony who turned to see who the offending pony was.

"Who is... wait... Twilight?! Twilight Sparkle!"

Twilight trotted up eagerly to join him, completely forgetting Spike was by her side.

"Dr. Whooves! You're here! I had no idea... You said you'd gotten a job in a research facility. I had no idea it was here!"

Dr. Whooves had been one of Twilight's fellow students back in Canterlot. He was much older than Twilight, a result of waiting so long to get into the field. His wife had birthed a daughter just before his announcement. Twilight remembered fondly of the time he showed her off during his final class. A proud parent indeed!

"Yeah," he said, responding to Twilight's excited delight at seeing him, "it was here alright. And what about you! I haven't heard from you since I got hired! What's happened? Anything new in Canterlot?"

"Nothing much. Same old same old."

"Still Celestia's prize student?"

"Well, not anymore of course. You can't exactly call me a student anymore."

They looked at each other a bit, thinking of how to keep the conversation going.

"Nice suit, by the way," he said at last. "Really matches your color."

Twilight blushed.

"Got you working the test chamber, do they?" he continued. "I got out easy, of course. Age will do that. Not that I would have cared."

He glanced down and caught Spike lingering around Twilight's hind leg.

"And... WHOA! They let you take that guy with you!? You lucky swine..."

He walked over and rubbed his hoof solidly into the dragon's head.

"Yep!" said Twilight. "He's my little helper! Forever and ever!"

"They're not..." he starting, "they're not gonna let this guy into the Test Chamber with you, are they?"

"That was the idea," she said.

"Whooooa!" he said, turning to Spike with a huge fake smile: the kind new proud fathers are best at when they want to make a kid feel special. "Well, aren't you just the lucky one here!"

Now it was Spike's turn to blush.

"Oh, please," he said, turning away a little. Then, turning back slightly with a small pause. "Go on."

Dr. Whooves got back up to talk with Twilight.

"You're not nervous are you? Your first big day and all?"

"Well, maybe a little," she said. "This place is full of really nice ponies. I've been chatting my way all the way over here!"

"So you're liking it here so far!" he said. "That's... that's really great."

He paused.

"Yeah, it took a little bit for us to get situated," he continued. "It's tough moving to a new place when you're married. Especially with a fowl. Of course, it doesn't seem like Spike has had too much trouble adjusting."

"He's actually been just fine, really," Twilight said. "Hey, listen, I really gotta go. I've been here way too long. They're probably all looking at their watching wondering what's taking me so long!"

"Oh, yeah! Absolutely! I won't keep you waiting."

Twilight looked around and found the door to the elevator that led out of the hallway.

"I'll see you after the test!" she said, waving as the doors swung open.

Dr. Whooves waved back, resuming his conversation with the other pony as Twilight got on the elevator.

The elevator she was on now was shaped like a small metal gazebo, hovering over a circular hole in a small square room. She was really getting tired of all the green lights by now. Why did every elevator and smaller hallway have to be lit the color of sick?

She looked around, finding the down-arrow button on the wall to the left. No sooner did she depress it than the elevator started spinning, causing her to lose balance and grab onto the side railing to stay upright. She held on, trying not to be sick as the elevator rotated down the shaft, hitting the bottom with a dull clunk. Twilight held onto the rail a bit longer, trying to stabilize the fluid in her inner ear.

"Come on, Twilight!" Spike said, walking through the hissing opening doors.

Letting go of the railing and stepping through the doors, she emerged into the hallway shaking her mane a bit. This hallway was much the same as all the other hallways she had walked down so far, except that the entire side of the wall to her right was plastered with a single red stripe labeled "Test Lab", complete with arrow pointing away from her!

"This has to be the single longest journey I've ever gone on in a single section of a single building. I feel like we're miles away from the lobby by now!"

"Come on," Spike said again. "We're almost there!"

Now it was Spike's turn to lead Twilight. They were so close now the little dragon couldn't keep himself still from excitement! Of course, it was every kids dream to run a massive fancy experiment. It was on par with getting to work with construction equipment!

Twilight followed Spike to the T-Junction at the end, turning right to follow the red stripe before slowly bending off to the left and to a dead-end. Well, almost a dead-end. There was an uninviting blank metal door in the wall that made Twilight feel uneasy about. In fact, had it not been for the luminescent sign that read "Test Lab", she might have considered turning around and heading back!

"Do you... should we knock?" she asked Spike.

As an answer, Spike walked right up to the door, reaching out his fist to hammer on it. However, the door didn't need any contact, and slid open automatically as Spike got close enough. Spike stepped through immediately, with Twilight reluctantly forcing herself through after him.

"Twilight! There you are!" came a voice to her left as the heavy metal door swung shut.

She was now standing in some sort of anti-chamber. It was less than a preparation room: more of a closet than anything else—darker, and less inviting than any of the other rooms she had been in so far. In fact, it was so metallic, so... raw... that if someone had told her it was used as an execution chamber, she's be hard-pressed to refute it.

Two ponies stood in front of a massive blast-door, close to identical with the entrance doors to the labs, only without the cylindrical beams. The ponies looked anxious, and Twilight couldn't tell whether it was from excitement, nervousness, or fright! The yellow pony on the left spoke up again.

"So, basically, this is just going to be some pretty standard stuff. You'll be able to hear what's going on through the loud speaker the whole time, so if you get confused, we'll help you out. We're not going to ask anything too much of you of course—mostly just flipping a few switches on the inside."

The red pony on the right turned to the left.

"Has the sample already been sent?"

"They sent it down a few minutes ago," the yellow pony responded, turning back to Twilight.

"Anyway, this is all pretty straight forward. We'll probably be turning the spectrometer up quite a bit higher than usual, but it shouldn't be a problem."

"Couldn't that cause a phase distortion?" the red pony said.

The yellow pony was getting agitated.

"Yes, technically it could. But the chances of that happening are so small that—"

"You don't think there's a possibility that... you know... with such a pure sample..."

Now the scientist on the left was clearly trying to hold back his annoyance.

"Look," he said, "I know your concern, alright? But we've been over this already! The chances of a Resonance Cascade are so diminutive that the idea of such a thing happening in a routine test is laughable! By bringing it up, all you're going to do is cause an unnecessary stir!"

"What's a Resonance Cascade?" Twilight asked.

Both ponies looked at her. The red one looked positively mortified. The yellow one looked perturbed.

"It's... well... it's really nothing you should worry about. But I guess it's always good to know about these things. Just... don't let this worry you during the experiment. This has always been a possibility for the last thirty years, and has yet to show up even on the smallest scale!"

Twilight watched as he breathed deep to calm himself and the situation around him.

"Our equipment has... well... it's been modified a lot lately. And, with those modifications has come some... er... instability."

The way he stressed the word instability clearly showed his intention of it to have a whimsical interpretation. It wasn't instability. It was "instability".

"Now, should all the variables be set just right, and all the sources point to just the right place, and the planets line up, and hell freezes over, then maybe, just maybe, there's a possibility of the system going into an infinitefeedbackloopandimplodingonitself."

He spoke these last words so quietly and so fast Twilight could barely make them out.

"Going into a what now?" she said.

"It means the whole facility blows up," said the red pony.

"THANK You Captain Drama!" said the yellow pony. "Now, this was a very interesting conversation, and we're all completely worked up and agitated now, but if you don't mind, I think we should remember where we are!"

The red pony turned back to the yellow pony.

"We're standing just outside the chamber that will spell the doom of us all?"

The yellow pony nearly lost it. He was gritting his teeth now, and barring his hooves into the floor.

"Can. We. PLEASE! Just run the Test!"

At the very least, Twilight felt very entertained by the two ponies. She wasn't quite sure how much of this to believe, and a small part of her was a bit worried, but for the most part she wasn't letting any of this bother her.

"Okay, fine, fine. Be that way," said the red pony. "But don't say I didn't predict it when it happens."

Both ponies turned away from each other to operate two retinal scanners on either side of the chamber. The clicking from either side intermingled into a frenzied mechanical sound that Twilight was thankful was so short lived. A moment later, two chimes of acceptance rang out as the blast doors swung open. For a moment, Twilight looked at the two ponies, expecting some last words, but they apparently didn't want to say anything anymore.

Twilight walked through the doors into the Test Chamber, looking up with a gasp! The sheer size of the room and the contraption on the wall was dizzying from this angle. She forced herself to look down to prevent herself from feeling light-headed. She turned towards Spike, who hadn't said anything for a while, hearing the blast doors slam shut behind them.

"You're not worried about anything those ponies back these said, are you?"

Spike jumped up excitedly.

"Are you kidding?! This thing could blow up the whole building! That's AWESOME!"

Twilight wanted to believe in his enthusiasm, but she could see he was trying hard to fool himself with fake excitement. There was an anxiety behind it, and Twilight felt a sudden urge to hold him close and comfort him in this massive chamber.

Everything inside was deathly still: a massive cave home to a sleeping demon just around the corner. The silent whir of the conditioning system threatened insanity in its victims who listened to its monotony for too long, and the glowing yellow lights bathed the chamber in a false warmth, a poor imitation of true source created by Celestia herself.

Twilight looked at the massive alien hand in the center of the room, poised as if to reach up and rip out the contraption in the ceiling. It's three metallic fingers were open, a venous trap scaled to proportions that would consume herself and Spike comfortably if they were to willingly walk into its grip. The indented catwalk was just to its left, a runway casting the aura of a green mile, leading directly into the jaws of the contraption.

The silence was broken by the squeal of the loud speaker, the speaker adjusting the feedback to zero.

"Test... Testing!" a voice said. "Testing! Everything... everything in order? Good? Good!"

Twilight looked up and spotted the blast shield on the wall to her left, marking the window into the control room. She walked around the chamber to the right with the hopes of seeing inside, but the window was simply too high. All she could see was the ceiling.

"Alright, Twilight! It looks like we're about ready to begin," came the voice of the brown pony from the control room, sounding very different through the loud speaker. "Before we get started, I'm going to have to ask you to switch on the rotors. There should be a switch on the upper platform that controls that."

Twilight felt very much out of control. There was no way for her to respond, or ask questions. All she could do was look around.

Thankfully, the platform was pretty obvious. It was on the exact opposite side of the chamber from the control room window, and had a ladder leading up to it starting from a small balcony area.

"Spike?" she said. "You want to do the honors?"

Twilight would have gladly done this herself, but hooves don't work well with ladders. Spike's hands were perfect for that kind of thing.

"Will do!" he said with a histrionic salute.

Twilight watched with pride as her baby dragon ran around and up the steps of the small balcony, jumping up the rungs of the ladder. They were a bit big for him, but he was managing quite well. Nevertheless, she found herself subconsciously walking up the stairs to standing below him just in case.

Spike disappeared above the platform, echoing metal clunks with each running step he took. Twilight heard his voice emanate from somewhere up above as the footsteps reached the end.

"I think I see it!" he said. "Is it the big red one?"

"I don't know. Try it!" Twilight said.

Just how many buttons could there be?

A moment later there was a loud thunk as something slammed into place. Something was moving above her now, like a massive fan or windmill. She stepped down the stairs to get a look at the ceiling, but couldn't see anything rotating. She assumed it had to be inside the base of the ceiling contraption.

As the machine finished whirring to life, the brown pony chimed in again.

"Excellent! Looks like that dragon is useful after all!"

There was a small chuckle from the other scientists in the room.

"Alright, Twilight. We can take it from here."

Twilight looked up at the platform.

"Spike! You can come down now!"

Twilight saw the small head of Spike peer out through the guard rails.

"Hey, Twilight! You gotta see this! I can see everything from up here!"

"That's alright, Spike! I'd really, really feel more comfortable if you come down from there though!"

Images of Spike slipping through the guard rails haunted her thoughts for a moment.

"Oh, come on Twilight! Just a few more minutes?"

"NOW, Spike!"

There was a loud groan as the head disappeared. A few moments later he was hopping down the ladder rungs, jumping down from the second one to land on the metal surface with a dull ringing thud.

"This isn't a playground, Spike," she said as he walked down the stairs. "There's dangerous stuff in here!"

"I know," he said.

Twilight looked up and gasped at the contraption in the ceiling. The whole thing was coming to life now! The barrels she had seen surrounding the central laser were now rotating, a clear electrical current arching between them and the center.

That can't be safe, she thought.

The loud speaker came on.

"Power up emitters," said a voice; Twilight couldn't tell which one. "Phase One. Three... Two..."

The central stub turned on like a flashlight, blinding Twilight into looking away.

"... One..."

A moment later the entire chamber lit up. It was... beautiful! A golden beam had descended from the tip of the ceiling contraption straight into the palm of the hand, glowing divinely. The chamber was now filled with a light that danced subtly on the walls.

"Whooooa..." came Spike's voice. "Now that... is... cool!"

Another announcer spoke.

"Phase 2... activating... now..."

Twilight mouth was now agape. Each of the three rotating barrels were arching their own beams angularly into the palm of the hand, so they all met at the same spot. The beams were much more complex and convoluted. Twilight could only stare in wonder.

"Increasing overhead capacitors... 1... 0... 5... percent..."

The brown pony's voice sounded over the speaker again.

"Okay, Twilight. It looks like we have the system fully up and running now. The sample should be arriving any moment now. When it does, we're going to ask you to push it into the analysis port in the center."

Twilight assumed he meant the massive metallic hand in the center. She was feeling less and less comfortable with this as the minutes rolled by. The beams were letting off a lot of heat, and Twilight could feel herself starting to break out in a sweat.

"Don't get too close," she said to Spike, backing away from the beams slightly.

Spike's eyes were wide, his mouth agape, his fingers twitching. She could tell there was some sort of braingasm going off inside of him.

A hissing sound to her right made Twilight turn towards the indented walkway, where she noticed the floor in the back sliding into the wall to reveal a pit. Rising out of the pit was another floor, identical to the one sliding into the wall, but with a strange contraption sitting on it. The brown pony sounded over the speaker again.

"Okay, Twilight. If you would make your way to the carrier, you should see the sample waiting for you now."

Twilight followed Spike over to the grocery-store cart contraption. Well, not quite a grocery cart. There was no basket. Instead, there was some sort of orange body with arms extending out, holding on to—

"What is that?" Twilight said, peering at the strange material being held out by the arms of the cart.

Spike's gape had turned into a drool as he looked at the crystalline rock in front of him.

"Don't. Even. Think about it," she said, seeing Spike's mouth get dangerously close to the rock.

The brown pony could be heard again.

"Go ahead, Twilight! Push that thing right on in!"

Twilight looked down the runway and blink away again. The place where the beams met was so bright she couldn't look at it.

"Okay," she said, looking down at Spike.

Lighting her horn, she rolled the cart gently down the runway. It wasn't too difficult. The wheels were well greased, and once it was started, it practically rolled itself! She could sense with her horn how close it was to the beam, and slowed it down just before it entered.

A searing pain flew through her horn just as it hit, making her scream out! A terrible ear-shattering scraping sound ripped through the chamber, accompanied by strange lights flying up from the hand. The fingers of the hand were closing in to grip its prize.

"Twilight!" sounded the announcer. "Twilight, get away from there!"

Twilight watched as the central beam grew and widened, forming a tornado of light blaring sound around the room.

"Spike!" Twilight yelled, looking around to find him still by her side. She got down and held him tight.

"What's going on?" she heard him say.

"I don't—"

An explosion rang out above them, deafening in the reverberation of the steel room. Twilight looked up as another one rang out. Then another one. The central beam was splitting out uncontrollably, striking the walls as debris rained down. Twilight put her head down as more scientists could be heard over the system amid the chaos.

"Why aren't you shutting it down?! Get that thing shut down!"
"I'm trying! It won't—"
"Just hit this button! You need to—"
"It's not going!"

Twilight yelled out as the chamber continued to tear itself apart.

"UNDER ME!"

She was on top of Spike now, almost crushing him under her own body, wrapping her hooves tightly around him and ducking her head down.

The brown pony could be heard now.

"Cut all power! Cut all systems! I want—"

Twilights ears exploded. A pain rang through them, tearing at her brain. Her eyes had closed shut tightly at the bright light that had shined behind her. She was deaf. All she could hear was a persistent ringing. She opened her eyes, looking around and trying to get a sense of what was going on, but her vision was blurred. All she could make out was the beam, dancing brilliantly green in front of her. She blinked, trying to clear her brain, her vision slowly coming back to her. The entire chamber had been dimmed, the beam now splitting out in all directions. Twilight forced her head up to look at the control room window and saw flames billowing smoke into the chamber.

The ringing in her ears was dying down as the turmoil of the chamber danced slowly back into her head. She felt her hooves reach up to Spike's ears. His body was expanding and contracting with breath beneath her. She could almost feel his heart pounding against her own body. Next to her, she could hear a sound overpowering the other forces of the chamber. A force pulling in towards a center... growing... expanding... emanating...

A train smashed into her. She was knocked out of balanced, out of mind, out of thoughts. An overwhelming darkness surrounded her as she tipped over the edge into insanity.

Where am I? Where's the chamber? Why is everything black? Am I dead? Is everyone else dead? Why can't I feel the ground? Why can't I speak? Oh gosh oh Celestia oh gosh oh—

The chamber flashed before her again. She was lying on her side now, debris flying, lightening scattering. She tried to get up, feeling a hunk of metal slam into her temple just below her ear, streaming pain through her body and blurring her vision again. She forced herself on her feet, frantically looking around.

"SPIIIIIIIIKE!" she screamed out until her throat was on fire.

Another flash as she was plunged into what she could only describe as a hallucination. The entire chamber had been reduced to a strange green landscape, with alien flora and fauna dancing bizarrely in front of her. She blinked, trying to make it go away, or clarify into items she remembered in the chamber, but they simply became more defined alien structures. She closed her eyes tight.

I'm not crazy I'm not crazy I'm not crazy I'm not crazy...

She opened her eyes again, finding herself face-to-face with creatures, each with a single red eye, each looking at her. Twilight's heart was exploding in her chest now. She could see the creatures advancing on her... see their arthropod eyes... feel their breath...

Her mind gave out as she passed out entirely, the darkness enveloping her, taking her away from her nightmares on a blackened sled of panic. Everything disappeared into darkness.

Comments

Who gets to be John Freeman who was gordon Freemans brother

[nullvariable]

Holy fuck. This is good.