Chapter 7: What the Hell?
Corporal Adrian Shephard sat with his hands on his head, talking to the orange-suited scientist Gordon Freeman and the blue-uniformed guard Barney Calhoun. They had told the six ponies and the dragon to give them some privacy so they could have a ‘meeting of the minds.’ Gordon was barely holding in his laughter, and Barney wasn’t fairing much better.
“You like a show meant for little girls?” Gordon had asked incredulously, just after sending the ponies away, “and now we are stuck inside the universe depicted by said show?”
Shephard looked up, his face still a bright, cherry red. “Yes, alright? I do. There is nothing wrong with that. I was put on the show by my niece. I don’t have a daughter. When you are stuck in the military, being forced to kill for a living, you have to cope in any way possible. I used that. The show was so peaceful, so idyllic… I’m not ashamed of it, but we are going to have to come up with something to tell the ponies. Oh, and watch out for Applejack, she knows when someone is lying. Element of Honesty and all that.”
Shephard felt a weight lifted off of his chest as he confessed. He had held on to his secret for so long, he had almost convinced himself that he didn’t like the show, and only watched it for his ‘daughter.’ It nullified the taunts of his squad, they themselves having daughters or sons that asked them to do some silly thing to feel closer to them.
“I’m going to pretend that I understood that whole element thing. Here’s one. You are part of the military, so we can say that you got information from your commander. Let’s say he had spies in the town or something. If they don’t buy it, let’s tell them that the time-stream continuum will be broken. Or something. They’ll probably buy it.” Gordon reasoned, trying to think of someway to dig Shephard out of the shithole he jumped in.
During the whole conversation, Barney was muffling the large, raucous laughter that was trying to escape from his throat. Finally, they figured out a plan, and walked back over to the camp. They were surprised to see a large tent set up, seeming to be two stories tall. A fire had also been built, and was cackling brightly in front of the tent. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie were sitting by the fire, roasting marshmallows.
“What the hell? How… I don’t want to know.” Gordon said, seeing the grin appearing on Pinkie’s face. Gordon turned towards Shephard, seeing him put his mask back on. Gordon took off the helmet he had ‘borrowed’ and clipped the strap onto another hook on his suit. A soft, yet demanding cough came from the orange earth pony. Gordon sighed, and turned towards the sound, seeing a stern expression on the surprisingly human-like face.
“Ah want an explanation, and thar ain’t no way in Tartarus ya’ll are gonna get outta givin’ one.” She said, her thick country accent shaping her words.
“Ok, look, Shephard here,” Gordon said, pointing to Shephard, ignoring his comment of Corporal, “got some information from his commander involving you. That’s.. ummm… how he knew you guys.” Gordon said, realizing that it sounded like an evasion almost immediately.
“Ah warned ya’ll about lying to meh. Ah hope ya’ll ain’t gonna do that again. Ah want the truth, or so help me, Ah will buck you so hard ya’ll be seeing last week’s stars.” Applejack rumbled dangerously, lifting her well-toned back legs up in an unmistakable gesture.
“Oh, Applejack, you’re silly. They can’t tell us, or the world as we know it will break. The reason they can’t tell you is the same reason no one can figure out me!” The unexpected interruption came from the small, bouncing, pink pony. She turned her marshmallow over the fire one more time, then swallowed it in one bite.
Applejack, Gordon, Dash, and Shephard facepalmed (and facehoofed) at the same time. Barney looked around in confusion, having not yet encountered the infamous ‘Pinkie Sense’ or any of her other ‘abilities.’
“Ahlright. Ah guess ah can believe ya Pinkie. But ah want an explanation by the time ya’ll are done here.” Applejack said, walking into the tent. Pinkie offered the group marshmallows, which they each took gratefully, savoring the extra-sweet delectables.
Rainbow Dash finished her marshmallow, and walked over towards the three humans.
“Why are we trusting him?” She asked, her hoof punching into Shephard’s chest. “Isn’t he with those other things that tried to kill us?”
“Look here, Dash,” replied Shephard, “I would never harm you or your friends, got me? You may not know it, but you helped to keep me sane during my tour of service. I won’t bail out on you guys.”
“Yeah, whatever. Like I told him,” she jerked a hoof towards Gordon, “I’ve got my eyes on you.”
Shephard sat silently for a moment, bemused by Rainbow’s brashness. The four of them sat around the fire, the silent night surrounding them in folds of darkness. Finally, someone spoke up.
“We should get some rest, from what I’ve heard, we have a long trek ahead of us.” Barney said with a yawn, “Although we should be careful. We should set a guard. Who wants to take the first shift? I’d say tonight we would have about eight hours left, so if we each take a two hour shift, and let the others sleep, we could have a nice, peaceful little night.”
“I’ll take first watch,” Shephard said. “I’m used to night ops anyway, and I’m the one with the night vision.”
“Fine by me,” Gordon said, stooping into the gargantuan tent. From the sounds above, the other ponies were upstairs, already asleep. Gordon wanted to contemplate how the whole contraption was physically possible, but his body betrayed him, dragging him over to a nearby couch before he even had a chance to look around. The moment he laid his head on the pillow, he was out.
The rest of the night passed without incident, Shephard waking Barney, who woke Rainbow, who woke Gordon when their respective watches were over. When dawn broke, the ponies broke down the camp with a bit of magic, the tent somehow packing down into one saddlebag. That morning, there wasn’t much talking, each person and pony reflecting upon their own misfortunes. The smoke from Ponyville was visible above the trees that surrounded the path. The group had a quick breakfast of bread and pickles, then continued walking.
“Are we there yet?” Barney spoke up from the back of the group, his eyes constantly scanning behind them.
“No, Barney,” Twilight said for the umpteenth time. They had been walking for most of the day, only stopping with the occasional ambush of aliens. They had still not seen a single soldier, which sent both shivers and relief down the human’s spines. After the fourth ambush, Rainbow Dash began to scout ahead, staying just in sight above the trees, looking around for any instance of ambush. At one point, Rainbow zoomed ahead, a streak of colors forming behind her. The rest of the group began to rush forward, thinking there was a problem.
They rounded a bend in the road, only to see Dash panting on the balcony of an abandoned house. It was empty inside, covered in dust. They walked upstairs to meet the confused rainbow Dash, Twilight forced to remove a large amount of collapsed roof debris before entering the room that dash had been peering into.
“Dash, are you ok?” Twilight said, concern in her voice as Dash continued to search the windowless room, seeming to search for another way out.
“Yeah,” Dash said shakily. “I could have sworn I say some human with a blue suit. It had something in its right hand. Some sort of gray rectangle. I watched him walk into here, but when I got here, the place was empty. He couldn’t have just vanished!” Dash was near panicked, her eyes wide a she searched.
Gordon laid a hand on her back, trying to calm her. Her reactions reminded him of something he remembered, but he couldn’t place where. His mind worked furiously, trying to connect the blue-suited fellow to the corresponding information in his brain. He was sure that he had it this time. The last time I saw that guy, I—
His line of thought was shattered by the sudden sound coming from Shephard’s suit’s radio.
”Target Sighted. Engaging now.”
Gordon wheeled around, seeing Dash on the balcony, leaning over the edge and looking towards Canterlot.
“DASH, GET IN HERE NOW!” Gordon shouted. Dash turned and flared her wings at the sudden noise. She realized what he said and jumped in towards the door….
Just as a huge, repetitive pounding struck into the balcony behind her. Gordon whispered a prayer to whatever deity existed in this world, thanking them for Dash’s escape. At least, until he saw the explosion of blood and feathers from Dash’s right wing. She collapsed to the ground, crying out in extreme pain. Gordon rushed to the balcony, throwing a grenade over the edge towards where bullets had come from. He heard ”Grenade!” over Shephard’s radio. Gordon peaked over the edge, seeing the two soldiers jump out of the way as the grenade blew up. He raised his MP5, gunning down one of the soldiers. The other yelled “you’ll pay for that,” over the radio. Gordon dodged the return fire, and killed the other soldier.
When he walked back into the room he saw Dash surrounded by her friends. Her wing was a bloody mess, and she was surrounded by blue feathers. Fluttershy was slowly extending the injured wing, trying to gauge the damage. Twilight had brought out a bottle from one of her bags and was slowly dolling out a set amount of powder onto a piece of paper and feeding it to Dash. Shephard and Barney were nowhere in sight.
Some time later, Shephard and Barney returned, bogged down with extra ammo and a few more grenades. They split the lot between themselves and Gordon, giving concerned glances at the crying cyan pegasus in the corner. Out of the corner of his eye, Gordon saw Shephard pulling out a familiar bottle from one of his pockets. Gordon pounced on Shephard, knocking him to the ground and grabbing the pill bottle. He pointed his 9mm at Shephard, holding the bottle in his left hand.
“Why the hell do you have my Oxy… I mean anti-depressants? And why did we hear the soldier’s radio chatter on YOUR radio?” Gordon said, menacing Shephard. The other ponies looked up, curious to hear Shephard’s answers, but not knowing the significance of the bottle.
“Hey, hold on. I found that bottle in the locker I was trapped in. I was looking for anything to help me get out, and looked in the Thermos. And secondly, I had left the audio on for the radio, but turned the mic off. I figured that it would be best to give us a warning before we get ambushed. I thought it would be best if we didn’t have a repeat of earlier.
Gordon thought back to the incident Shephard had indicated, fingering the new groove in the neckpiece of his suit. The soldiers had appeared out of the woods, shooting wildly. The group had to beat a hasty retreat, Gordon loosing his helmet in the process. He had found that that had been the only helmet that would fit his head, most being far too large, the rest a tad too small.
“You have a point, but still, I’m keeping the… ‘Anti-depressants,’” Gordon said, helping Shephard up. They walked over to the corner Dash was in, noticing her now tightly-bound right wing. Dash slowly got to her feet, grimacing in pain.
“Let’s get out of here before more of those soldiers show up.” She said, determination burning in her eyes and voice. Gordon shrugged, slowly pulling the rest of the group along.
Twilight eyed the mountain in the distance, mentally doing some calculations. “At out current speed, “she said, talking to Gordon as everyone left the building, “We should be in Mareia by tonight.” She nodded her head a few times, beginning to walk again. Then she stopped and facehoofed. “Oh Tartarus, why didn’t I send a letter to the Princess already?” She pulled a quill, ink, and paper out of her bag, writing out a quick letter to the princess. She explained their current situation, trying not to go into too great detail. Finally, she rolled up the paper, putting the ink and quill away, and handed it to Spike, who proceeded to send it to the Princess.
The group continued on the road, keeping a vigilant eye on the surroundings. Fluttershy wad convinced to fly a few feet above the heads of the group and act as a lookout. It had been over an hour since Twilight had sent the letter, and an uneasy feeling had settled on the group. Gordon’s eyes constantly scanned from side to side, Barney in the back doing the same. Shephard was with Pinkie in the center, trying their hardest to cheer up Dash.
Gordon was feeling very paranoid at the moment. Nothing had attacked in the past hour, and everything was silent. Too silent Gordon thought, his eyes narrowing. He pulled back to talk to Barney, waving Twilight forward. Shephard saw the change in the line, and walked forward to take point.
“Do you hear any birds, or any animals at all?” Gordon asked Barney.
“No, and frankly, I could care less. I’m always attacked anytime I venture NEAR a forest. I like this change.” Barney replied.
“The silence is why I’m concerned. I would rather be attacked by an all-too-easy to kill bear rather than whatever has scared EVERYTHING off. Something is wrong.”
“You worry to much, everything is going to b—“
“Fuck”
They stopped their conversation, looking up at the huge, rearing dragon in front of them. It spewed fire into the trees. It was being attacked by a large horde of headcrab zombies, most of them ponies of various sizes and colors. The strange thing was, the dragon wasn’t touching the zombies. It was attacking, moving its arms in scything motions, but it never actually came into contact. The zombies kept attacking it, somehow yet they, too, were nor touching the dragon. All of a sudden, the dragon disappeared, pushing the zombies back a half step. In the center of the newly cleared circle, a small, dark blue unicorn attached to a small wagon. She appeared weak, and was shaking from exhaustion.
“The Great… a-a-and Power.. powerful Trixie… commands you.. to… leave…” she said with huge gasps. The zombies ignored her, closing in like vultures. Trixie began to scream, the zombies extracting a great toll upon her body. Gordon launched in an M40 round, a large chunk of the zombies dying instantly. He charged into the breach, followed by Shephard and Barney. The trio made short work of the zombies, filling the whole road with yellow-green blood. The dark-blue unicorn lay in the center of the gore, blood pouring down in sheets from her side. Her horn was snapped in half. Her wagon was overturned, spilling the contents out. Twilight rushed over, pouring a large amount of the same powder she had given Dash into Trixie’s mouth.
“Not even the lowliest of ponies deserves a fate like this,” she said, bowing her head as Trixie’s breathing slowed. The pain drained from her face, and the sparks shooting out of her horn lessened in intensity.
“Trixie… Thanks.. you… may Trixie… know… her.. savio……” She died before she finished her sentence. After a moment, Twilight moved the body to the edge of the road, burying it and putting the wagon over it.
She turned to the trio of humans. “She once caused a rather large….” Twilight searched for the right word, “ruckus in Ponyville a while back. She got her just reward, though. She did not deserve this.” Twilight gestured to the large mess in the road. Gordon looked around, seeing the grim determination beginning to set into the faces of the ponies. Gordon knew that expression. It was the same one he had had shortly after escaping Sector C. He now had a force of six ponies and two heavily armed humans at his side. He grinned, an evil, manic smile filling his face.
“We’ve got work to do!” He said, charging down the road. The ponies followed, as did Shephard and Barney. The horrors they had all seen only bolstering their efforts to reach Canterlot.
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Is Gordon addicted to heavy antidepressants?
I like to think Gordons voice is Ross Scott's voice. Shepards voice is KrimsinYT's voice, and barney's voice as IRAMightyPirate's voice.
For some reason. owell.
2297523
I have the vague feeling I wanted that to happen... Hmmm... IDK why...
2297403
No, no, They're... prescription... I swear...
OK, fine you caught me. I've been sneaking Oxycondone in... Don't tell anyone..
Oh... wait...
I'm going to look at this one chapter at a time.
Before reading this, my first impression is of the wall-of-text description filled with parenthesis, brackets, a bold "Please Note", and a spoiler alert. WAAAAAY too much for just a description.
Descriptions are best when they are brief. They exist to quickly capture the interest of the reader. Keep in mind, many people on here will be browsing through stories, and won't even be able to see all the words due to space limitations in the story browse section. They'll see the start of it, and be very confused. You literally have a scene in your description, and readers might think you pasted the first chapter into the wrong text area or something.
A better place for this would be in an entirely seperate chapter, placed in the beginning of the story. As much as I'm against such things as prolouges and prefaces, it's better than having a scene with dialog, etc, in your story description.
2318023
Well... I guess I did ask for this...
To start off:
I see your point with the opening scene, and will probably fix that in some way. Thinking back, It was not the smartest idea to do that.
All your grammatical pointers will be taken into consideration and most likely fixed as well.
As for the bits about the weapons, the game never really goes through HOW he fits all of these weapons onto a suit designed to protect scientists in radioactive areas. The pistol is understandable, but a Rocket Launcher? If I owned a suit like that that had a spot for a Rocket Launcher AND ammo, plus all the other weapons, it would take a long time fro me to get over the fact. I also added it for later use in how he appears to the ponies.
Secondly, Gordon just walked through Black Mesa and bits of Xen, was attacked by inter-dimensional creatures, and has single-handedly killed over a battalion of US troops. I think that he has had quite a few cracked ribs and legs during that time. Also, it's not a transition, its an introduction. The ________________ indicated a shift of scene and/or POV, therefore it was an introduction to Fluttershy.
Thirdly, I admit I went a little OOC for the characters, but the whole 'pun' thing was just for fun, whereas Twilight has just met a new species. Twilight, being the studious bookworm she is, has witnessed Fluttershy walk up to it and back unscathed, and has found out it is intelligent, wants to study him. Therefore, bring him back to the library and get all of the answers she can.
Fourth(ly?): I did place the speech verbatim. I did that for two reasons: one, most of the readers probably don;t know the speech, and two, it felt awkward to go from "The suit turned on, its female voice speaking out the normal introduction procedure, To the part about Gordon's injuries.
Fifth(ly?): I know what a run-on sentence is, and that is not one. If you pay close attention, The sentence is split with Gordon's own thoughts.
Sixth(ly?) I guess I do abuse the A/N. I should probably stop that.
Seventh(ly?): Gordon's weapons weren't known about until AFTER they reached the treehouse, until then he seemed a peaceful, if alien, sentient being. Twilight was burning with questions, though the fire was dampened after the incident with Pinkie. If you notice, however, Gordon does not bring out his weapons after the incident, at least until the forth chapter. On top of that, I can't write Celestia very well, so being OOC for her is the most likely case when it comes to my writings, although I've been reading a lot of material recently and have begun to understand her character better. As for taking him back to the library, forgetting what I've already written about curiosity, the ponies are naturally trusting by nature in the show, therefore, unless someone does something to upset that trust, they would most likely be accepted or given the benifit of the doubt.
Finally: I apologize for the comma'd run-ons, but they make sense to my mind. Blame constantly nestling If/Then's in C++ and Basic and Java etc. I will try to take your advice in the future chapters. Also, I got an editor for the sixth chapter and beyond, so hopefully the story gets smoother after that.
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I understand. I will do better in future chapters... And as before, I can't write Celestia well, though I am slowly building up a better grasp of her character.
2319018
WAAAHHHHHHH 
Two things:
One: How can you ever write someone as random as Pinkie OOC? LOL.
Two: My story is... ridiculous?
2319512
Well, I ain;t shakespeare, and I aint never gonna be as good as dickens, but Is allways bes writing whats I can...
And yes, my internal Grammar Nazi is starting to kill off my concentration... camps ... for the previous statement, and this one as well.
Thousands of tons of armour and guns, making it's way through the sand! Our panzer battalion is back for revenge; artillery sweeping the land!
First strike is ours; no mercy is shown! There's rivers of blood in our track. Breaking their waves of defence with our tanks, infantry watching our back!
Blow their SAM sites, clear for air strike! Ready for the storm; minefields swept there's no surrender! Feel our napalm burn!
Be happy, you got two verses. Mainly because I'm running out of chapters to fit the whole thing.