Half-Life : A World Beyond

by Random Gamer

1 - Requiem

You know how you work hard for something and when you finally have it, it's not longer the thing you wanted in the first place? For me, this was being a surgeon. Don't take my wrong; I have a lot of respect for the equines that have this kind of job, but not so much for myself. My hooves would just always shake like mad when I was supposed to be doing something important, like a bypass. To make that stress go away, I started taking pills per the maintenence guy's recommendation.

At first, they made me better, but then, they made worse.

How bad exactly? I walked out of a surgery because I couldn't keep my scalpel glued to my hooves. The older surgeon that went in to save the day wasn't very angry, but he wasn't very happy either. Still, after he saw how down I was, he offered me at least one day off. Students were supposed to arrive on the next day and he pretty much told me to buzzer off and not touch anything on my way out. Said he didn't need a wimp in addition to newbs and with just one year of experience, I figured that he was right. I nodded, silently packed my stuff and headed straight home.

I spent the most of the night thinking about what I'll do the following day. One plan was to get the guys together and just jam 'till it sounds like a song, but they loved all-nighters and with their three-day work weeks, they could afford them. Or I could just practice, alone and be mediocre without anything. With at least some simple plans for tomorrow, I feel asleep.

---

On the next day, I woke up with a headache. By turning on my bedside lamp, I could see the time on my alarm clock. I had to admit, I'd never slept so bad that I woke up at two in morning. The calendar I had on nearby was also a bit strange. Fifteenth of May was blank, even though I remember crossing it out just the night before. Off days were rare and I even remember doing it.

So why was it blank? Tired and slightly confused, I set the alarm clock to wake me up at seven, turned the lamp off and fell asleep. I swear, if I wake up at twelve, I'll hurt someone. Bad.

After waking up for the second time, I wanted to take a bath, but something was wrong with the water. I could hear it running down the pipes, but that was it. Was there an unplanned maintenance? If so, then darn, no one told me. Well, at least I still have stuff in my fridge.

Or not.

I filled it with food, so where'd it go? No salads, no pies, not even one can of beer. What in Celestia's name was going on? Was this supposed to be some sort of prank.

"Very funny! Your parents would be proud of you!" I shouted, pretending that there was someone in my house that sabotaged everything. "Now give me back my water and food! Please?!" There was no response.

What was I thinking? No thief would actually stay in a place they were robbing. That wasn't me talking, it was hunger.

Argh, to Tartarus with it! I'll buy something on the way and angrily eat it on my way to the studio. That'll show 'em. Maybe I'll even send a very strongly-worded letter to the mayor.

After opening the door, I saw a town which had little to no resemblence to Ponyville.

Tall, dark blue, metallic watchtowers were dominating the rooftops and an enormous building could be seen in nearby background. There were also numerous blue lights scattered on the streets, which somehow negated the darkness produced by the sky. It was a monotonous repeating pattern of gray, with little to no changes as far as the eye could see. Did Celestia forget to raise the sun or was this another elaborate joke orchestrated by pegasi with too much time on their hands? No matter which of those two were responsible, it was wrong.

Without any further sightseeing, I went out on the street and saw it blocked on both sides by metallic structures, with some sort of transparent blue walls in the middle. The door behind me closed shut and I had instinctively approached the structure on the left. As far as I remember, this was the right way to the clinic. I approached the transparent blue wall and a small, camera-like device emerged from the structure. It made it a few sounds reminiscent of a normal camera, blinded me with its flash and had its lens lit up. The lens changed color from orange to green and the transparent wall appeared to be even more transparent. Afterwards, I moved closer to and wanted to cross it to get to the other side.

Just moments before I could have done so, an unusual pony walked though it and approached me. It wore a black and white west with dark green pants, black boots and a white mask which completely covered its head.

"Move back, now!" said the pony with an artificially modifed voice and took out out a small, handle-shaped device.

"What, why?" I took a few steps back. "I didn't do anything, I'm just on my way to the clinic."

"This is your first and final warning, move back now!" The pony pushed some sort of button on the device and took aim at me.I figured attempting to push through would be fruitless, as I saw more of them on the other side, along with some unknown vehicle of sort. I took a few steps back and turned around. The masked ponies chuckled at my effort to get to the other side and the one who approached me walked back to them. I wasn't sure what was I supposed to do now, but felt a bit of joy when I found out I'm not the only one on the street. A bald blue mare walked out of the nearby apartment and was heading towards the other mettalic structure.

"Hey!" I approached the mare. "You there!"

"We're not supposed to be seen together, sorry." She uttered and continued on to the structure on the left, going a bit faster after she saw that I followed her. As the structures barred ponies from entering certain areas, I assumed they were barricades or even checkpoints. Whatever they were, they appeared technologically superior beyond anything I've ever seen.

"What do you want from me?" she asked nervously.

"Could you turn around please?" My eyes opened wide when I saw her face.

"Trixie? Is that you?"

"Yes, it's me, you fool. Did you forget how to get to the town hall again?"

"Oh, right, the town hall. Yeah, I forgot. Could you help me get there? I can't seem to get through these walls." She sighted and had an annoyed expression on her face. Another way to the clinic was through the street alongside the town hall, though it was much longer than the shortcut I used. Seeing as I couldn't find the right way in this maze-like excuse for a joke, having someone to get me there was nice.

"Fine, but if I get into trouble again for helping you, I'll just leave you there." After she led me through various streets and what I assumed to be security checkpoints, we finally arrived at the town hall. It was no longer the town hall I knew and instead, it was the enormous blue-ish building I saw earlier, with no apparent doors or anything for us to get inside. Then, I saw a large rectangular screen mounted at it's front, held in place by various wires.

It was a good three or meters above us and below it, the town's whole population was bowing. Multiple masked ponies were making sure everyone is respectful and did not hesitate to strike those who were not.

"What the-" I let out in confusion. I've never seen anyone bow for any particular reason and my curiosity advised me not to, for the sole purpose of getting to know what will happen if I don't.

"Bow down" whispered Trixie and bowed.

"Why?" Trixie kicked in one of my hindlegs and after seeing them going my way, I bowed immediately. Without getting an answer, I nervously waited for what would happen next. A loud static was heard and a familiar voice started speaking.

"Good morning City 9." I lifted my head slightly to see who was speaking and was frightened when I found out it was Nightmare Moon, looking exactly the same as she did in the newspapers. She shouldn't even exist, let alone speak!

"Congratulations for reaching the last place for beatings per month. Sadly, you were just two hundred beatings behind City 1, formerly known as Canterlot. But don't worry, all of you will collaborate with the local Civil Protection to raise these numbers until I am satisfied with them, which, depending on whether you like being good or not, may take days or even years. In other news, to further increase loyalty and the amount of coal and metal ore mined, the daily amount of rations will be reduced to three pounds per citizen or two per a registered couple. If caught as a couple illegally, the rations will be further reduced to one pound. Water is permamently cut off for lower class citizens and miners as a motivation to work harder, not smarter. Small bottles of reserve water will be given to each lower class citizen instead. That is all for today. Be safe, be smart, work hard and remember, you're doing this for the greater good and your queen rellies on you." The screen then showed a blue claw with a moon in the middle before being turned off. What was that supposed to mean?

"Back to work!" said one of the masked pones. I and Trixie stood up from the ground and saw one of citizens, a stallion, standing up with with his face red in anger, wielding a pickaxe.

"How long do you want to tolerate her despotical rule?!" shouted the stallion at the crowd. The guards took out their weapons and aimed at him.

"I have a priority 2 anti-citizen in Sector A," said one of them, again as if speaking through a radio transmitter.

"Rise brothers and sisters, rise from the ashes and-" Before he could finish his speech, he was interrupted by a shot in the head and fell to the ground. The others looked in fear as they saw him being killed, yet stood still as if nothing happened. Then they started leaving, one by one. I too, was taken by this act of cruelty.

"Let's get out of here," said Trixie."Before they force us to." I didn't need any more convincing and followed her. I did, however, took a sneak-peak and saw his body being dragged across the street and put into one of the dumpsters, leaving behind a trail of red. Ultimately, we reached an opening in the ground

"Can we talk now?"

"Not yet. This way," she whispered. I followed her into the mines and saw others mining coal with multiple guards and cameras monitoring them. Upon reaching one of the walls in an unguarded area of the mine, she signaled me to stop and looked around to make sure no one saw us. Then, she approached the wall and touched it at some specific parts.

"What are you doing?" She didn't answer me and shortly after, the wall opened.

"Get inside."

"Why?"

"I'll explain later." I went through the opening and appeared in a small dirty room with a wooden door inside. The wall behind me closed and upon further inspection, it had a vault-like mechanism and was fully supporting the rocks which were used as its disguise. A clever contraption indeed.

"Now we can talk."

"Finally I wanted know why-" I stopped when I saw a bunch of cameras scanning us. I tried to make sure they didn't see me, but they did anyway.

"Easy there, Random. Those are on our side. I hacked them myself."

"Our side? Hacked?" So far, this was the most insane, good-looking, early halloween costume party. Even the blood looked real.

"Let me show you something," She let out and opened the old wodden door. Immediately, I went through it. The room I entered was a crude, yet effecient-looking lob, with many contraptions, complete with a geeky scientist with even geekier glasses. Trixie went inside as well and greeted him.

"Well, we're here doc," she said happily, smiling.

"Excellent. Sorry to hear about your punishment, Trixie." Trixie was quite annoyed and sighted after she heard the scientist's remark.

"I didn't mean any disrespect of course," objected the scientist. "You could have gotten yourself killed and I'm glad you're alright."

"Can someone tell me what's going on?" I asked. "Because, she just keeps telling me to ask later."

"I found something very strange while scanning you with my scanner, Random." said the geeky scientist and gawked at me. "Something very unusual." Apparently, I missed out on April Fools. It's called being a 'working-class' pony and not paying attention to silly traditions.

"What exactly did you find?" I asked. "White guy in labcoat?" I wasn't sure about his name and so, I made one up just like that.

"After comparing yesterday's scanned DNA and the one I did a few minutes ago, they aren't a complete match." answered the geek. "Only a small percentage was off, but nevertheless, it was not a complete match."

"Oh come on, doc." objected Trixie, looking at me with a faint smile. "Don't make any conspiracy theories from a few percents missing. This equipment is old."

"It may be old, but it is the most precise scanner, unheard of in any other cities. None of them has a scanner that is so-" I interrupted him, fearing that he would go on about the scanner for hours without end. Scientists and their toys.

"Could you please tell me what's wrong with my DNA instead of boasting about your scanner?"

"Oh, right. Sorry about that, I got a little carried away," he apologises, taking a copy of the scanner log. "So, the thing that's wrong is the very last part of the DNA, a small piece of code if it can be called like that. If broken up into binary, it the final number must be zero. Your DNA ends with one. That's the problem."

"What does this mean?" I asked in confusion. "Numbers jumbled up?"

"Well, according to the few books which weren't burned and are about theoretical science, you're from a parallel universe or an alternate reality." said the scientist, reading through the log and then looking at me through his glasses. "But it could be a faulty scan of the scanner, too."

"Oh please, stop scaring Random with that nonsense. He was always a daydreamer who kept forgetting things. Right, Random ?" said Trixie and looked at me with a smile. "Right?" Well, I suppose I should tell them the truth.

"Well, the truth is... to be perfectly honest, I wasn't lost because I forgot," I answered her question. "I was lost because I didn't recognize Ponyville. Halloween is quite far, but you guys really went over the edge with this one. Dead bodies, blood, weird buildings - just perfect." Both of them gasped and started at me, eyes wide open.

"T-this isn't a halloween decor. This is real! But if you don't recognise any of it that means you're- Oh my," said the scientist, shocked. "I can't believe it!" Trixie was completely petrified, unable to say anything other than 'Oh no', Implying that she probably knew the other Random.

"But you still know who I am, don't you?" she asked, curious about how bad it was. "Don't you?"

"Of course I do," I said in a steadfast attempt to save the situation. "I saw you performing as a showmore in Ponyville, but that's it. We never spoke. Ponyville is much different back where I'm from. All of Equestria, too."

"Alright, let's try to use science. What does your reality not have in common with this one?" asked the scientist and judging by his tone, he was very serious when it came to theoretical sciences. "It's very important."

"Celestia banished Luna, not the other way around. She took her responsibilities and raised both sun and moon. There weren't any of those weird structures, ponies didn't wear masks and kill without reason." The scientist raised one eyebrow, as if he was expecting to hear more. "Also, there weren't any handle-shaped things that could kill."

"Is that all?" he asked with a frown.

"Look, I studied medicine a lot, not theoretical physics. I'm really sorry if you expected to hear more, but that's pretty much everything that describes my universe."

"Those are guns, Random. They propel small pieces of metal at great speed." lectured me Trixie and sighed. "With the regular Random gone, the fact that this is a parellel universe — something we hoped wasn't true — is true after all. And with what you said, it's only logical for Celestia to return."

"The chance of that happening is... extremely unlikely. Less than zero. Pieces from nearly-erased data of her presence show her status as 'evaporized'." said the scientist and walked to some sort of screen, pushing a small button to turn it on. Suddenly, a pony could be soon on the screen, greeting him by waving its hoove. It was monochrome, but at least worked.

"Sorry for the delay," apologized the geeky scientist. "What is it that you wanted Euclid?"

"Express delivery. Need to drop these really quickly." said Euclid quickly and images of worthless blueprints flashed, along with a single frame of a very long mathematical function containing only symbols.

"Replay and stop at frame 33."

"You're welcome. Euclid Vans out." said Euclid and short static was heard before returning back again.

"Oh, and I heard your little conversation." uttered Vans. "She wasn't evaporized but 'suffered a fate worse than torment' which, after the guy in the back's appearence, is confirmed to be banishment."

"True, but let's not forget about the prophecy." Said the scientist and a some sort of poem appeared at the screen.

"What prophecy?" I asked, still full of confusion. "Mare In The Moon?"

"Light faded, yet there is still hope, for when there's darkness in sky, from times inverted, an outsider will wander in this land, alone," said Dot, reciting the poem. "That's what Celestia supposedly said to one of her followers before her defeat by Nightmare Moon."

"And you guys think I'm the one who's involved in the prophecy?" I asked, believing the prophecy is nothing more than just an old pony tale, just like aforementioned Mare In The Moon. Wait a second, isn't that what Twilight read through when all hell broke loose?

"Precisely," said the scientist. "We were starting to think you'd never show up."

"I doubt Celestia alone would be enough to heal the damage Luna has done to Equestria. She needs help," said Trixie and added "our help." Me, a hero? Oh come on, a frozen turtle glued to a table has a bigger chance of completing such feat. I'm just a post-graduate, not any of those fancy engineers.

"Umm... and... uhm... what do you guys... ehm... plan to do?" I asked sheepishly. Perhaps the plan doesn't involve me.

"The Novum Prospectu prison is our best choice if we want someone to help us. It houses many prisoners, rebels like us included. Freeing them could turn the situation in our favor," replied Trixie and a huge map of the coast appeared on the screen, with the prison highlighted. "Here."

"But that's impossible to escape!" said Dot, not believing his own ears. "You can't be serious!"

"Yeah, but it's still easier to sneak in than to break out." She said in a daring tone.

"I'll give word to the other outposts and inform them that you are coming. They don't have much, but they'll help you reach Novum Prospectu. In the meantime, I'm heading for Vans's lab. I wish you good luck." Trixie left the lab through another way and entered a small room. I followed her, curious on what she's actually planning to do.

Author's Note:

This chapter is in the process of being de-selfinserted (I made that word up). Basically, all traces of my self-insert will be erased and the character will instead be nameless.

I barely touched this chapter in three years and could barely go through without being angry at myself. Send me hate mail if you think self-inserts should be a thing.