Half-Hoof: A Revolutionby Alfoals TrottenbauerChaptersI - ResonanceII - InstigationIII - ResistIV - RetakeI - ResonanceAs if nothing had happened, Ace suddenly regained sight, pulled out of the void he was once trapped in, seemingly for ages. The bright light of the sun blurred his vision, having been in a void in which light of any sort can't thrive in. He was seemingly on some sort of train station platform. A stallion with a strange outfit and some sort of unconventional gas mask motioned him along. "Move along, Citizen." He said in a mechanically raspy voice. He did as told, fearing that something might happen otherwise. Just then a giant screen turned on on the wall. It was a stallion whose face Ace seemed to remember from Black Forest. He started a lecture, it seemed. "Welcome, welcome to City 27, whether you are here to stay, by will or not, or just passing by, welcome." Ace started to turn away from the screen, when suddenly, he continued. "I've been getting letters recently, such as this one: 'Dear Doctor Bray, why is it that we cannot use our unicorn magic? Signed, A concerned citizen'. Well, be not concerned, when ponykind was still coddled in Mother Nature's arms, unicorn magic was used from fear, it was a structure of protection, power over those who had none. Now, unicorn magic does nothing but hold us down from becoming something greater than ponykind could even fathom. We are in a place those who came before us could not imagine, Our Benefactors have opened a whole new gateway to something thought previously unobtainable, that something is what we call immortality." He addressed. Ace was sickened by the thought. He moved a hoof up to his horn, finding a metal brace on it. He tried using magic, when he did, he felt a stab in his horn, he gasped at the sudden, sharp pain. A syringe!? He felt a severe burning sensation starting from his horn, going down to his head and neck, then his legs, and out his hooves. He took a moment to shake it off, then trotted on through a gate. It was now that he noticed that everypony around were wearing the exact same clothing, including himself. He came upon a checkpoint of sorts, it seemed. Another strange pony was standing at a gate with the same gas mask and uniform. He trotted over to the odd stallion, the stallion held his hoof out, as if Ace was to give him something. Naturally, Ace checked the pockets of his outfit and came across a card. He handed it over to the stallion, the stallion looked it over. Ace started to fidget with his hooves on the ground, afraid it wasn't what he was looking for. "Move on through." He said in the same mechanical voice as before. Ace did as told, he cantered to another checkpoint. He needed something to call those ponies, he thought 'cop' would do. This time, though, the cop had what seemed to be a scanner at the point. A large, staple-like metal ring protruded through the ground a was in front of the checkpoint gate. The cop ran the scanner over Ace's whole body. The scanner did not make any noise. "You need a chip." The cop droned even more unnaturally than the last two. "A... chip..?" Ace asked, dumbfounded. Without any further conversation, the ring let a robotic arm out, a needle attached to the end, it suddenly stabbed Ace in the neck. He felt something under his skin, Ace ran a hoof over it, there was something there. II - InstigationAce finally trotted outside of what was a large, columned building. Ponies outside cantered casually, all wearing the same blue clothing. There was a gigantic tower in the distance. It was disgusting to him. He felt so invaded, having a microchip injected into him and his magic restricted. He decided he was going to do something about it. He went down an alley deliberately. He looked for a rock or something heavy, finding a bit of concrete. He picked it up with both hooves and slammed it on the horn brace. After a few hits, it started sparking. He kept pounding on the brace with the rock. Eventually, it started to make a loud, shriek-like tone. Suddenly, another tone came from the tower played an alarm. A door opened in the alleyway, a orange-coated mare with a purple mane signaled him in. "Hurry, get in here! They're looking for you." She called. "What..?" He asked. She pulled him in with her hooves and shut the door behind them. "You almost got seen!" She whispered. She pushed him to a flight of stairs. "Go, I can't be seen with you, they'll kill me. The Resistance will need you." She called after him. Ace was still quite confused about what just happened. He kept climbing, set after set, until he got to the rooftops. A helicopter was flying just overhead. He needed a weapon if he were to be a fugitive. He used his magic to pull a pipe from it's place on the side of a wall. He trotted until he came to the end of the roof he was on. He backed up a bit, then took a galloping start and jumped across the gap between buildings. The helicopter landed and several cops jumped out of it. They made chase, making the same jump as Ace. They unsheathed metal rods with flared tops, they pressed buttons and the rods sparked. Ace wielded the pipe, a confident grin on his face. He stared them down. They closed in on him. As soon as one got close, Ace swung the pipe with all his might, hitting the cop, the cop falling. Another came too close and Ace did the same. One knocked the pipe out of Ace's magic. Ace charged at the cop, bucking and knocking him off the building. The last one galloped at Ace, hitting him with the rod, a wave of electricity overcame Ace. Despite the watts of electricity in Aces body, Ace tore the rod from the cop's grip with magic. He beat the cop senseless until he fell unconscious. He galloped to the end of the building and started down a fire escape staircase. Suddenly, another helicopter flew in front of the stairs. A sound of energy charging flared out among the whirring of the blades, a strong draft came from the chopper. Suddenly it fired at least a thousand bullets, the staircase held up only by a few bolts at most. Ace dashed down the stairs while they still held together, a loud screeching of metal reverberated through the streets as he was on the last flight. He jumped off at the last second, galloping to avoid the now collapsing fire escape. The flights started catching up to him, he looked behind and started to gallop even faster than he thought possible. The final flight fell just short of his tail. He galloped on, the helicopter was chasing him down still. It started charging yet again as Ace turned suddenly into a narrow space in between two buildings. The chopper lost chase and flew to the other side of the alley in wait. A door opened to Ace's left, another pony signalling him in. "Ace, in here!" He called over the gun's energy charging and the whirring rotors. He had a very dark blue mane, a light grey coat, and purple eyes. Without hesitation, Ace galloped into the doorway. "That chopper could've easily shot you down." He stated. "What's your name, and why are you helping me, anyway?" Ace interrogated, confused and now a bit annoyed. "Name's Rumble, I'm part of the Resistance, you seem to be pretty wanted, so I'm assuming you are too, right?" Rumble answered. "...I don't even know what you're talking about." Ace replied. "Look, I don't even know what's going on here, I just came out of nowhere, it's almost an entirely different world! One moment, I was working at Black Forest, then I'm in some strange dystopia." "Black forest is long gone, it was destroyed at least twenty years ago." He said, confused. III - ResistA knock boomed on the door they were behind. "Come on Ace, we gotta go." Rumble had a sort of urgency in his voice. They galloped to a drink machine, in which Rumble pressed a few buttons. "Why are we getting drinks?" Ace asked. The cover to the drink machine opened, a puff of steam escaping, the rest of the machine was hollow, acting as a doorway into a lab of sorts. They galloped in as the door shut, the sound of hoofsteps moved across the corridor to the right of the machine. "Ace! I thought you died at Black Forest!" A balding pony cantered over to them from behind a desk, the top covered with beakers and test tubes. "We should get you into the new HEMV model, my creation." He indicated toward a sort of small locker room, with the armor in a capsule, already open. Ace trotted over to the suit and put it on without asking questions. This time, the system didn't list it's readings in voice, instead, it made a ringing noise as the readings were listed on the suit's helmet itself. He trotted out of the capsule and followed the stallion to a sort of machine with a platform under it, the old stallion guided him to the machine. "This is my most recent model of the teleporter used by the Resistance, it should get you to Black Forest East, so we can get you to where the Resistance needs it most." He stated proudly. "Alright." Ace assured as he trotted onto the platform. "Did you happen to see Freemane on your way here?" He randomly asked. "Freemane?" Ace inquired. "Gordon Freemane, the One With the Free Mane?" He restated the question. "I remember seeing him at Black Forest, that's about it." He answered. The aged stallion pulled a lever, activating the teleporter. Rings spun around the machine, suddenly, he was in another part of City 27, in a cramped lab, he trotted off the platform, into a hall, papers and other trash littered the floors, He cantered out of the building. Outside, at least a hundred ponies were galloping around an open plaza of sorts, shooting at the police with gasmasks, some kind of giant spider the size of buildings crawled, firing a mounted gun below it's body. A rocket hit the spider, it made a moan-like screech as it fell. Out of nowhere, a bullet whizzed past Ace's ear. Ace galloped to a cop, wielding the rod he got off one of them with his horn. The cop shot a submachine gun at Ace, bullets denting the suit. Ace used all his strength on the blow, breaking the mask off the stallion's head, underneath was a bare skull, with wires sticking through it. Ace levitated the submachine gun, galloping over to a Resistance pony. "Ace Sparks? Glad to see you here." The mare greeted. A cop wearing a red uniform galloped over to them, wielding a shotgun. Ace aimed at the cop's snout, firing in short bursts. The policeman's shotgun flew out from his magic due to the speed at which he was galloping. Ace picked up the shotgun, stowing the submachine gun. A helicopter flew overhead. Another rocket took flight into the air, hitting the chopper. Suddenly, an otherworldly roaring sounded in the sky, a gigantic, whale-like creature with a giant rotor in it's back soared above. "We got a gunship!" A stallion called. "Get ready!" A different mare called. Shells started dotting the sky, falling through the air, some started crashing into the ground. "They're shelling us!" A stallion cried out, letting out a shout as one hit him. The shells didn't explode, however. They started opening, letting out a hiss of steam. Crab creatures started jumping out of them by the thousand. Red lasers beamed out of windows, striking a few more Resistance with sniper rounds. The mare Ace was next to started panicking. The shells kept falling, the whale ship roared, firing onto the remaining Resistance, the smart members started galloping for life into buildings, others stood and stared, and got killed quickly. Ace grabbed the adjacent mare and galloped to a building, seemingly an office. Inside was a rocket launcher next to a fallen Resistance pony. Ace picked up the rocket launcher. He started searching the body for ammo or anything that could help,finding some grenades. Ace galloped out of the building. He pulled the ring off of a grenade, flinging it at a large group of crabs. The blast flung the crabs, hitting a few others. He fired a rocket at the gunship, it making a screech as it crashed onto the plaza, crushing most of the crabs. A Resistance pony got up off the ground, a crab on it's head. It moaned as it got up next to the ship. It started to catch fire from the ship's blaze, screaming while shuffling toward Ace. Ace got close enough to hit it with the shotgun, it flew back from the shot. A red laser aimed at Ace's chest, Making a loud crash as the sniper took his shot. A large dent formed on the suit, almost penetrating the armor. Ace fired a rocket at the sniper, hitting the others around him, some fell out of the window, dropping their rifles. Ace galloped to a sniper rifle, picking it up. Resistance started flooding out of the buildings. "Wow, Ace, you're a real terror!" A pink-coated pony with a likewise mane exclaimed. "Totally awesome!" A blue Pegasus shouted. Ace said nothing, still terrified at what he had witnessed, tightly gripping his shotgun, looking around twitchy-eyed. "Not much of a talker, I see." The blue one observed. IV - RetakeAs a whole, the Resistance of the area marched into a sort of main building for the Combine, as a resistance pony called them. There were few guards since most of the local police were killed in the skirmish in the square. They came upon a switch labelled 'WITHDRAW', flipping it, suddenly, a siren blared out in the distance, A loud crashing echoed outside as a loud, baritone shockwave resounded through the air. They galloped out of the building, the top half of the citadel had crashed onto the plaza, just missing the building. Ace was suddenly pulled back into the void. The Resistance thought they had won their freedom, though the Combine still lurked in the shadows, slowly rebuilding their forces...
I - ResonanceAs if nothing had happened, Ace suddenly regained sight, pulled out of the void he was once trapped in, seemingly for ages. The bright light of the sun blurred his vision, having been in a void in which light of any sort can't thrive in. He was seemingly on some sort of train station platform. A stallion with a strange outfit and some sort of unconventional gas mask motioned him along. "Move along, Citizen." He said in a mechanically raspy voice. He did as told, fearing that something might happen otherwise. Just then a giant screen turned on on the wall. It was a stallion whose face Ace seemed to remember from Black Forest. He started a lecture, it seemed. "Welcome, welcome to City 27, whether you are here to stay, by will or not, or just passing by, welcome." Ace started to turn away from the screen, when suddenly, he continued. "I've been getting letters recently, such as this one: 'Dear Doctor Bray, why is it that we cannot use our unicorn magic? Signed, A concerned citizen'. Well, be not concerned, when ponykind was still coddled in Mother Nature's arms, unicorn magic was used from fear, it was a structure of protection, power over those who had none. Now, unicorn magic does nothing but hold us down from becoming something greater than ponykind could even fathom. We are in a place those who came before us could not imagine, Our Benefactors have opened a whole new gateway to something thought previously unobtainable, that something is what we call immortality." He addressed. Ace was sickened by the thought. He moved a hoof up to his horn, finding a metal brace on it. He tried using magic, when he did, he felt a stab in his horn, he gasped at the sudden, sharp pain. A syringe!? He felt a severe burning sensation starting from his horn, going down to his head and neck, then his legs, and out his hooves. He took a moment to shake it off, then trotted on through a gate. It was now that he noticed that everypony around were wearing the exact same clothing, including himself. He came upon a checkpoint of sorts, it seemed. Another strange pony was standing at a gate with the same gas mask and uniform. He trotted over to the odd stallion, the stallion held his hoof out, as if Ace was to give him something. Naturally, Ace checked the pockets of his outfit and came across a card. He handed it over to the stallion, the stallion looked it over. Ace started to fidget with his hooves on the ground, afraid it wasn't what he was looking for. "Move on through." He said in the same mechanical voice as before. Ace did as told, he cantered to another checkpoint. He needed something to call those ponies, he thought 'cop' would do. This time, though, the cop had what seemed to be a scanner at the point. A large, staple-like metal ring protruded through the ground a was in front of the checkpoint gate. The cop ran the scanner over Ace's whole body. The scanner did not make any noise. "You need a chip." The cop droned even more unnaturally than the last two. "A... chip..?" Ace asked, dumbfounded. Without any further conversation, the ring let a robotic arm out, a needle attached to the end, it suddenly stabbed Ace in the neck. He felt something under his skin, Ace ran a hoof over it, there was something there.
II - InstigationAce finally trotted outside of what was a large, columned building. Ponies outside cantered casually, all wearing the same blue clothing. There was a gigantic tower in the distance. It was disgusting to him. He felt so invaded, having a microchip injected into him and his magic restricted. He decided he was going to do something about it. He went down an alley deliberately. He looked for a rock or something heavy, finding a bit of concrete. He picked it up with both hooves and slammed it on the horn brace. After a few hits, it started sparking. He kept pounding on the brace with the rock. Eventually, it started to make a loud, shriek-like tone. Suddenly, another tone came from the tower played an alarm. A door opened in the alleyway, a orange-coated mare with a purple mane signaled him in. "Hurry, get in here! They're looking for you." She called. "What..?" He asked. She pulled him in with her hooves and shut the door behind them. "You almost got seen!" She whispered. She pushed him to a flight of stairs. "Go, I can't be seen with you, they'll kill me. The Resistance will need you." She called after him. Ace was still quite confused about what just happened. He kept climbing, set after set, until he got to the rooftops. A helicopter was flying just overhead. He needed a weapon if he were to be a fugitive. He used his magic to pull a pipe from it's place on the side of a wall. He trotted until he came to the end of the roof he was on. He backed up a bit, then took a galloping start and jumped across the gap between buildings. The helicopter landed and several cops jumped out of it. They made chase, making the same jump as Ace. They unsheathed metal rods with flared tops, they pressed buttons and the rods sparked. Ace wielded the pipe, a confident grin on his face. He stared them down. They closed in on him. As soon as one got close, Ace swung the pipe with all his might, hitting the cop, the cop falling. Another came too close and Ace did the same. One knocked the pipe out of Ace's magic. Ace charged at the cop, bucking and knocking him off the building. The last one galloped at Ace, hitting him with the rod, a wave of electricity overcame Ace. Despite the watts of electricity in Aces body, Ace tore the rod from the cop's grip with magic. He beat the cop senseless until he fell unconscious. He galloped to the end of the building and started down a fire escape staircase. Suddenly, another helicopter flew in front of the stairs. A sound of energy charging flared out among the whirring of the blades, a strong draft came from the chopper. Suddenly it fired at least a thousand bullets, the staircase held up only by a few bolts at most. Ace dashed down the stairs while they still held together, a loud screeching of metal reverberated through the streets as he was on the last flight. He jumped off at the last second, galloping to avoid the now collapsing fire escape. The flights started catching up to him, he looked behind and started to gallop even faster than he thought possible. The final flight fell just short of his tail. He galloped on, the helicopter was chasing him down still. It started charging yet again as Ace turned suddenly into a narrow space in between two buildings. The chopper lost chase and flew to the other side of the alley in wait. A door opened to Ace's left, another pony signalling him in. "Ace, in here!" He called over the gun's energy charging and the whirring rotors. He had a very dark blue mane, a light grey coat, and purple eyes. Without hesitation, Ace galloped into the doorway. "That chopper could've easily shot you down." He stated. "What's your name, and why are you helping me, anyway?" Ace interrogated, confused and now a bit annoyed. "Name's Rumble, I'm part of the Resistance, you seem to be pretty wanted, so I'm assuming you are too, right?" Rumble answered. "...I don't even know what you're talking about." Ace replied. "Look, I don't even know what's going on here, I just came out of nowhere, it's almost an entirely different world! One moment, I was working at Black Forest, then I'm in some strange dystopia." "Black forest is long gone, it was destroyed at least twenty years ago." He said, confused.
III - ResistA knock boomed on the door they were behind. "Come on Ace, we gotta go." Rumble had a sort of urgency in his voice. They galloped to a drink machine, in which Rumble pressed a few buttons. "Why are we getting drinks?" Ace asked. The cover to the drink machine opened, a puff of steam escaping, the rest of the machine was hollow, acting as a doorway into a lab of sorts. They galloped in as the door shut, the sound of hoofsteps moved across the corridor to the right of the machine. "Ace! I thought you died at Black Forest!" A balding pony cantered over to them from behind a desk, the top covered with beakers and test tubes. "We should get you into the new HEMV model, my creation." He indicated toward a sort of small locker room, with the armor in a capsule, already open. Ace trotted over to the suit and put it on without asking questions. This time, the system didn't list it's readings in voice, instead, it made a ringing noise as the readings were listed on the suit's helmet itself. He trotted out of the capsule and followed the stallion to a sort of machine with a platform under it, the old stallion guided him to the machine. "This is my most recent model of the teleporter used by the Resistance, it should get you to Black Forest East, so we can get you to where the Resistance needs it most." He stated proudly. "Alright." Ace assured as he trotted onto the platform. "Did you happen to see Freemane on your way here?" He randomly asked. "Freemane?" Ace inquired. "Gordon Freemane, the One With the Free Mane?" He restated the question. "I remember seeing him at Black Forest, that's about it." He answered. The aged stallion pulled a lever, activating the teleporter. Rings spun around the machine, suddenly, he was in another part of City 27, in a cramped lab, he trotted off the platform, into a hall, papers and other trash littered the floors, He cantered out of the building. Outside, at least a hundred ponies were galloping around an open plaza of sorts, shooting at the police with gasmasks, some kind of giant spider the size of buildings crawled, firing a mounted gun below it's body. A rocket hit the spider, it made a moan-like screech as it fell. Out of nowhere, a bullet whizzed past Ace's ear. Ace galloped to a cop, wielding the rod he got off one of them with his horn. The cop shot a submachine gun at Ace, bullets denting the suit. Ace used all his strength on the blow, breaking the mask off the stallion's head, underneath was a bare skull, with wires sticking through it. Ace levitated the submachine gun, galloping over to a Resistance pony. "Ace Sparks? Glad to see you here." The mare greeted. A cop wearing a red uniform galloped over to them, wielding a shotgun. Ace aimed at the cop's snout, firing in short bursts. The policeman's shotgun flew out from his magic due to the speed at which he was galloping. Ace picked up the shotgun, stowing the submachine gun. A helicopter flew overhead. Another rocket took flight into the air, hitting the chopper. Suddenly, an otherworldly roaring sounded in the sky, a gigantic, whale-like creature with a giant rotor in it's back soared above. "We got a gunship!" A stallion called. "Get ready!" A different mare called. Shells started dotting the sky, falling through the air, some started crashing into the ground. "They're shelling us!" A stallion cried out, letting out a shout as one hit him. The shells didn't explode, however. They started opening, letting out a hiss of steam. Crab creatures started jumping out of them by the thousand. Red lasers beamed out of windows, striking a few more Resistance with sniper rounds. The mare Ace was next to started panicking. The shells kept falling, the whale ship roared, firing onto the remaining Resistance, the smart members started galloping for life into buildings, others stood and stared, and got killed quickly. Ace grabbed the adjacent mare and galloped to a building, seemingly an office. Inside was a rocket launcher next to a fallen Resistance pony. Ace picked up the rocket launcher. He started searching the body for ammo or anything that could help,finding some grenades. Ace galloped out of the building. He pulled the ring off of a grenade, flinging it at a large group of crabs. The blast flung the crabs, hitting a few others. He fired a rocket at the gunship, it making a screech as it crashed onto the plaza, crushing most of the crabs. A Resistance pony got up off the ground, a crab on it's head. It moaned as it got up next to the ship. It started to catch fire from the ship's blaze, screaming while shuffling toward Ace. Ace got close enough to hit it with the shotgun, it flew back from the shot. A red laser aimed at Ace's chest, Making a loud crash as the sniper took his shot. A large dent formed on the suit, almost penetrating the armor. Ace fired a rocket at the sniper, hitting the others around him, some fell out of the window, dropping their rifles. Ace galloped to a sniper rifle, picking it up. Resistance started flooding out of the buildings. "Wow, Ace, you're a real terror!" A pink-coated pony with a likewise mane exclaimed. "Totally awesome!" A blue Pegasus shouted. Ace said nothing, still terrified at what he had witnessed, tightly gripping his shotgun, looking around twitchy-eyed. "Not much of a talker, I see." The blue one observed.
IV - RetakeAs a whole, the Resistance of the area marched into a sort of main building for the Combine, as a resistance pony called them. There were few guards since most of the local police were killed in the skirmish in the square. They came upon a switch labelled 'WITHDRAW', flipping it, suddenly, a siren blared out in the distance, A loud crashing echoed outside as a loud, baritone shockwave resounded through the air. They galloped out of the building, the top half of the citadel had crashed onto the plaza, just missing the building. Ace was suddenly pulled back into the void. The Resistance thought they had won their freedom, though the Combine still lurked in the shadows, slowly rebuilding their forces...
