Ace galloped at full speed into the tram right before the door closed, throwing on his labcoat and fastening his tie. He was 30 minutes late. It seemed he wasn't the only one, though. A stallion stood in the tram. His mane was styled into a ponytail, a pair of glasses rested on his snout. His cutie mark was the ancient human letter Lambda. He had on a labcoat and tie, his name tag said: 'G. Freemane'. The tram droned on about precautions and hiring. One thing caught his ear.
"A reminder to all Black Forest personnel: regular radiation and biohazard screenings are a requirement of continued employment in the Black Forest Research Facility. Missing a scheduled radiation checkup is grounds for immediate termination. If you feel you have been exposed to radioactive or other hazardous materials in the course of your duties, contact your Radiation Safety Officer immediately! Work safe, work smart. Your future depends on it."
Ace had almost forgotten about that. Unfortunately, he wanted to keep it like that. After what seemed like hours, the tram finally came to a stop. The security guard trotted over, taking his sweet time. He had a cutie mark of a badge.
"Looks like you're running late, you two." He said leisurely.
He opened the tram door.
The intercom rang across the facility.
"Dr. Sparks, Dr. Freemane, come to the anomalous materials lab immediately."
Ace quickly cantered into the locker room.
He opened a capsule containing an HEMV suit, standing for Hazarous Environments Magical Vestment. It listed it's readings and stats. Two specifically caught his attention.
"Defensive weapon selection system activated. Ammunition level monitoring activated."
Why thehaywould anypony need an ammunition counter in a research facility? He continued down to the lab, as he did, the doors slammed behind him and the other pony.
The yellowish-orange room was giant, a large aperture was in the middle, four spiked arms rested on the diameter. An arm of four sections hung above the aperture. The intercom blared microphone feedback. A feeble-sounding stallion was on the mic.
"T-testing... " He cleared his throat.
"Everything seems to be in order," He stated.
Another one took over the microphone.
"Alright Gordon, Ace, your suits should keep you comfortable through all this."
"If you'd be so kind as to start the rotors, we could start before the specimen arrives." He gestured.
The stallion beside Ace trotted over to a red button and pressed it. The arm above the aperture started rotating rapidly. A yellowish laser started forming, reaching across from each segment of the arm to the aperture.
"I'm seeing predictable magical rays." Observed one of the ponies behind a screen.
"Stage two magical emitters activating... Now." The other said.
A more powerful yellow laser shot across the aperture.
"Gordon, Ace, we cannot predict how long the system will last without the insertion procedure, please, work as quickly as you can." One stated worriedly.
"Um... It's probably not a problem... Probably... But I'm showing a small discrepancy in... Well, no. It's well within reason..." The feeble-voiced pony interrupted himself.
"I've just been informed the sample is almost ready." The more confident one noted.
A sickly green crystal was elevated into a cage, the cage lowering. Without hesitation, Ace pushed the crystal into the aperture. They weren't allowed to use magic on the crystal as it might taint the sample with unicorn magic.
A booming electrical noise sounded as a sickly green portal opened.
"Oh, Celestia! Ace! get away from the beam!" One shouted.
"Shutting down!" The other said urgently.
"It's not... It's not shutting down!" One yelled desperately.
Explosions started occurring around the room.
The beam started shooting everywhere, it hit the screen the ponies were behind. They screamed as they exploded from the sheer electrical power.
Horrible creatures arrived from portals as the beam continued to dart across the room. Ace galloped at full speed towards the door. He tried to open it with magic, though it didn't budge.
A laser hit him and teleported him to a strange place. Large ribbed spires towered out of the ground, a horrifying creature conducted electricity from it's hands as Ace teleported back into the lab. The laser hit Ace a second time, this time he was underwater. A shark-like creature swam towards him, starting to close it's jaws over him just as he teleported back.
Ace galloped to the door again, he slammed his hoof into the scanner, adrenaline taking over his body. The doors opened from the scanner breaking. Ace jumped past the doors.
He galloped through the corridors. He saw dead ponies everywhere. He dashed through puddles of blood. He forced open another door. All he wanted was to escape. A strange crab-like creature appeared from a portal. It jumped for his head. Ace swung a hoof into it. It flew to the side like a ball hit by a bat.
He galloped to a dark corridor. Lasers shot from a pipe. A dead security pony laid on the floor got split in half by one. Ace ducked past them. He saw a crowbar on the floor, without hesitation, he picked it up with his horn and shattered a glass door. He dashed towards an elevator shaft, the elevator was stuck in place, filled with ponies from the science team.
"H-help! I don't want to die!" A mare said, Ace could hear her shaky breath.
"Calm down... Somepony might come." A stallion tried to reassure.
Suddenly, the elevator started creaking as Ace went into the shaft.
"N-no..!" The same mare almost screamed.
He made it to the ladder when the elevator started slowly descending, sparks flew from the wheels. The mare climbed out through a ventilation grill. She jumped out onto the platform of the shaft. Ace was already at the door of the second floor. The mare climbed up the elevator shaft's ladder. The elevator below started falling at full speed, the rest still inside, screaming as the elevator came crashing into the bottom of the shaft. Ace shattered the door and jumped through.
Ace heard the sound of gunshots. He slowed down, not wanting to startle whoever was shooting. He rounded the corner, slowly. It was a security pony.
"Ace! Is that you? What the hay are these things?" He shouted.
It was Barney Ironbuck. They didn't know each other too well, but enough for them to cooperate. Ace didn't have time to catch up, however. He dashed left, that was when he saw what Barney was shooting at. A monster in a science team uniform, the crab creature on it's head. It galloped over to Ace, swinging it's gnarled clawed hooves. Ace ducked past it, and swung the crowbar at it's back, a thunk as the... Thing fell forwards.
It finally occurred to him... What the hay kind of facility was this? It didn't matter, though. More of those monsters were in the room he went into.
Ace couldn't possibly kill them all, so he tried evading them. He galloped past the first one with ease, the second swung it's gnarled, spiked hoof, hitting Ace's suit, leaving a large gash in the armor. Ace swung the crowbar, hitting the alien in the head. It fell over. Ace ducked and weaved past the rest.
Ace burst through the door, the next room was seemingly an office hall. It was so dark Ace could barely see two inches in front of him. He turned on the suit's flashlight, as he rounded the corner, a dead security pony lay on the ground, a small pistol beside him. Ace picked it up with his magic, stowing the crowbar away in the suit. Ace saw something hanging from the ceiling, a thick rope of mucus hanging from it. A crab creature jumped at Ace, only to be caught by the mucus rope, being pulled up. The object directly on the ceiling started eating the crab, chunks falling on the ground as the crab made it's screeching noises.
Ace trotted past the two. He came upon a large light fixture on the ceiling, broken. A crab made it's way toward Ace, it shot across the room as a bolt of electricity hit it from the fixture. the fixture continuously shot these bolts, a vent right out of range of the electricity. Ace took a chance and jumped in before the bolts arced at him. He crawled through, the whirring of a fan sounded in his ears. He almost stood up, the vent came to a clearing. He looked up just before, realizing a fan almost took off his head. He continued further into the vent until it came to an end.
Finally outside of the vents, he cantered over to a door, knocking it open with the crowbar. A science team pony stood on the other side. He galloped over into a branch off the main hall.
"Thank Celestia you're here! Get us out of he-" A gunshot interrupted the stallion, an audible thump of him collapsing.
Ace rounded the corner to see him dead, a stallion in full military uniform, levitating an assault rifle. The soldier noticed him. Ace backed around the corner, the soldier dashed toward him, firing wildly.
Ace waited for him to round the corner, aiming his pistol. When the stallion did, Ace fired directly into his snout. The soldier fell. Ace took his gun, stowing the pistol along with the crowbar. Another elevator shaft waited, the doors wide open this time. A cable hung on the other end of the shaft. Ace backed up, needing to get a galloping start. He counted to three, then dashed across the hall, jumping at the last second. Ace hung onto the cable by his teeth, getting his hooves onto the cable, inching up slowly. A mare followed behind him. This was the first time he noticed her. She was a light purple, her mane waved out over her shoulder, black but with a purple streak in the middle. Twilight Sparkle, a renown figure in the sciences. However, Ace didn't have time to talk with her. He finally made it to the top, bucking off the wall, swinging from the cable into the doorway. He felt like crying out like a jungle pony.
Five more soldiers came from a hall, firing their assault rifles at Ace, a few bullets hitting his suit. Ace fired wildly at them, gritting his teeth. He probably looked like he had gone mad. Four fell, the other one ran back behind the corner. Ace took out his crowbar and galloped to him. He swung the crowbar, blood flying and covering his suit. He had gone mad.
Once he was dead, Ace took his ammo. He made his way toward an uncovered platform elevator, clearly labeled 'SURFACE ACCESS' .He jumped onto it, thinking he was finally free. The elevator made creaking noises as it went up. Sunbeams shined up the shaft. The sound of a helicopter's rotors echoed in the air. As soon as the elevator reached it's destination, he dashed off. The room he was in was a cargo area. Soldiers were amassed just outside. An osprey was in the air, explosions echoed outside on top of the roof.
They were bombing the facility. Ace galloped outside, firing blindly at the soldiers.
"Ah! Medic!!" One shouted as he fell.
There were far too many for Ace to fight, a door was on the opposite side of the area. Ace shot over to it, galloping as fast as he could. Grenades and other ordinances exploded behind him. He bucked open the door, bursting into the room behind. A huge ventilation shaft was on the other side, Ace jumped into it, landing on a narrow platform, a fan just below. Soldiers rappelled down on ropes from outside. Ace quickly crawled into a duct.
Ace crawled for a seemingly endless time, finally meeting an end to the duct. He jumped out, landing on a concrete floor. A loud, alien moaning boomed through the walls. He trotted down a hall into a room behind a broken glass screen. It seemed a rocket silo. A science team pony stood towards the back of the room. Suddenly a giant green spiked tentacle broke through a window, stabbing into the mare's torso, dragging her into the silo. She clawed at the ground, trying to get away.
"Help!! Please!!" She screamed at the top of her lungs. She was pulled out of the room. Ace jumped out the window after her, stumbling into the hole in which the tentacles protruded. He yelled as he fell into it. He rolled down several bends in the tunnel, the tentacles thrashing about. He landed into water, the monster the tentacles were from looked him in the eyes. Ace jumped out of the water, trying to get away. He came across a revolver. He picked it up, dropping the rifle. He fired into the giant eye of the monster. The recoil made Ace almost hit his snout on it. The monster screamed in pain as the muzzle flash lit the room, the sound of .357 caliber bullets firing echoed.
Ace stowed the revolver and picked up the assault rifle. He jumped into the water, swimming past the now blind monster. He started losing his breath, sucking in water as he started to drown. He finally surfaced, gasping for air while at the same time rejecting water from his lungs. It occurred to him that he hadn't said anything since he came to work.
"Why is everything trying to kill me!" He shouted to nopony.
What he was really asking was why were they trying to kill him, instead of succeeding. He dived back down into the water, looking for a way out. He looked up, seeing a clearing where the wall in the room stopped, leading to an opening. He swam up there, gasping for air yet again. He got out of the water, finding he was in what seemed a radioactive waste processing plant. He looked over the concrete platform he was on. A literal river of toxic waste was flowing, yellow barrels with universal signs on them drifted by. To his right was a tall ladder. Without thinking, he trotted over to the ladder and started climbing. As he went higher, the river of waste came to a glowing green waterfall. The Geiger counter in his suit went wild. He finally got to the top of the ladder. A pipe dangled just next to the catwalk Ace was on. There was no way but up, so he jumped on top of the pipe. He cantered along the pipe carefully. He made sure not to slip, or he may have just become another horror in this world.
Eventually the ceiling came to a decline to where Ace was crawling across the pipe. A hole in the rusted pipe was just big enough for him to fit. Without hesitation, he jumped in. The pipe was large enough in diameter that he could trot through. He rounded a turn and was a little ways away from the end when the segment he was on started creaking. Screeching metal started collapsing, it came crashing through the ceiling of another room. The segment dumped Ace over a table, breaking it. He got up so as not to have the pipe, suspended only by the already broken ceiling, fall on him. He rounded a corner to hear assault rifle fire. He quickly readied his rifle.
They weren't firing at him. No, what they were firing at was much, much larger than Ace.
The soldiers were dwarfed by what it was. A blue colossal exoskeleton, a single glowing, red eye. The soldiers were firing everything they had. The monster was shooting fire from it's arms. a security pony was in the back, shooting at the soldiers from a window in a control room, they shot him and he fell behind the wall of the room. Ace galloped past them, the soldiers started shooting at him, a few hitting the suit, the others grazing his mane and tail. He found stacks upon stacks of concrete dividers blocked the way. Ace took no heed of the dividers, he started climbing over them, jumping off on the other side when he got to the top. He found he was in an underground railway system of sorts, an electric rail was clearly labeled in the middle.
He galloped without noticing, directly on top of the rail. He started to notice his suit was getting heavier. He looked over at his power, he saw it draining with every instant. He jumped off the rail, feeling his hooves burnt. He still galloped on, despite the whole megawatts of electricity in his body.
He rounded a corner, A bullet whizzed past his ear, a squad of soldiers and a mounted gun opened fire. Ace hid behind the corner, waiting for them to stop. When they did, he jumped out again and fired into the group. He ran out of ammo for his assault rifle, so he switched out for his magnum.
"Eat. Led. Go. To. Tartarus. Maggots!" He yelled as he fired, punctuating every word with a bullet.
The mounted gun eventually stopped firing, he looked down, noticing the dents in his suit from the gun. He noticed one on his chest that had a hole in it. He felt the bullet in his chest. He continued at a trot. He eventually dropped his magnum, redirecting his magic onto the bullet, pulling it out. A 7.62 caliber bullet, covered in blood. He tossed it aside, picking up his revolver. He took ammo from a fallen soldier.
He galloped along, coming across some spraypaint graffiti. He read it: 'YORE DEAD SPARKS'. He eventually came across another one, saying: 'SERENDUR SPARKES'. "Talk about eye candy." He joked to himself. He considered that he'd gone crazy, talking to himself. He cantered along the rails. He rounded another corner, a rocket launching echoed across the system. Ace shouted and dashed back behind the corner. More missiles shot by.
"What the hay!?" He asked, the soldier actually responding.
"This'll teach you, Sparks!!" He yelled.
"What is your problem!?" No response.
The soldier finally ran out of rockets.
Ace jumped around the corner Sylvester Stallione-style and fired whole clips from his rifle, shouting.
He was long dead before then, a faint silhouette jumped from behind the launcher. In seconds a hoof came flying at Ace's snout, blood trailed with the hoof. He wiped his snout. Somepony bucked his face, they were going to pay. Ace tossed his gun to the side, it's sliding echoed across the tunnel system. He popped his neck. He swung at the silhouette, breaking it's snout. It swung back, Ace dodged. Ace swung upward, practically jumping up into the silhouette's lower jaw, teeth flew out. The silhouette fell. He realized it was a mare with balaclava on. Ace picked up his gun again. He galloped on.
He finally came to an end of the rail system, a light shining through.
Ace dashed out of the rail system, almost jumping off the side of the cliff face. A sniper fired, the bullet hitting the wall next to Ace's head. Ace carefully aimed the magnum and fired, scattering the sniper's brain on the rock face. Ace galloped along the narrow ledge. The ledge broke into gapped segments. Ace took no heed and subconsciously jumped across the gaps, adrenaline overtaking his thoughts. The place was crawling with the Equestrian military. He galloped past everything from grenades to mounted gun rounds.
An attack helicopter flew overhead and started shooting at Ace too. A soldier with a rocket launcher aimed at Ace. Ace fired his assault rifle, filling him with holes. Ace picked up the rocket launcher and fired it at the attack helicopter. The chopper fell into a tailspin knocking into a tank, blowing them both into bits, launching soldiers left and right off the canyon.
Ace kept galloping until there were no more soldiers. He came upon another segment of Black Forest. A van with the Black Forest logo on it was about to drive off. Ace signaled the van to stop. A security pony and two science ponies were inside and let him in. Suddenly, everything went black, he found himself floating in an empty void...
