Chapter one (Rewritten)

                                                          Chapter one V.2

  Names are strange things right? Some people have totally cool names like Gordon Freeman and others have not-so-cool ones like Bob and Sally an- you get the idea. For me though, I hate my name. The reason? It’s Aqua Jones. I mean it makes no sense whatsoever at all. Why, of all things would my dad call me that? On the bright side though, the company that I work for has a worse name-Transport Technologies or Transtech for short. (Although in the logo, it’s written as TransTech.) Its government funded and we have developed some pretty advanced stuff there-Zero Point Energy Field Manipulators (Or gravity gun.) Sometimes though, people think we develop stuff for the transportation industry, which is wrong but it’s more like a joke nowadays.

My job is, however, not so advanced. In fact, it reminds me of watching paint dry or something (I had watched paint dry on one occasion and believe me, it was way better than this). Basically, I stare at a screen for ten hours straight a day, making minute adjustments of numbers for some kind of portal device’s emitters and believe me, it was boring like hell. In fact, I once did complain to my boss on why they can’t just invent some robots to do my job. I mean, this is the most advanced research facility in America. And what did he say? No. To quote what he said, “We need creativity for this job.” Well, damm him. I mean seriously? Can’t they just invent a creativity app for the robots and let me do something more interesting?  But since their Klondike bars here are quite good, I’m not complaining for now. Until they run out of money for desserts, I’m not quitting (yet).

       Another thing is that almost every night, I almost always have some kind of weird dream and the next day, I have this weird feeling like I remember what I dreamt about and yet, I forgot. I did go to a doctor before but, he said nothing was wrong with me. Weird right?

                                                             ~~~~

That was until in June when things started to get interesting. It started with me messing around with the emitters. I was basically randomly typing numbers into the system until it gave me an error message saying that if I continued, the main generator thing would blow up. So, as any sane person would do, I stopped immediately. Well, at least until I was reading the data outputs. It said that somehow, I had managed to find a new universe!

   Well, that wasn’t a disappointment. I thought to myself. Sending the data to the operators in the Lambda sector, I continued my work as usual. You know, trying to look busy when what you’re really doing is slacking and thinking about lunch and whatever you’re parents told you the last time you met them.

                                                                ~~~~

  It was a month later that I knew what I really caused. It all started with a meeting in one of the many auditoriums scattered throughout the facility. There was a stout bald headed-male in his fifties, standing on the stage wearing a bow tie and some kind of suit with a beard that reminded me of the guy who invented Minecraft (Sadly, he’s dead.), whom I recognized as Greg Olsen, the administrator of the facility. Since I had only seen him a few times around the facility, this meeting might be interesting after all. Picking a seat at the back out of habit, I waited for the stream of people to stop and the meeting to begin. It took quite a long time actually.

   “Ahem. Testing one two three.” Some AV technician spoke into the microphone, startling me and making me jump up as I was just starting to doze off. The holotank behind him flickered and came to life. “Well then, good morning everyone! Sorry to interrupt your sleep at-” Mr. Olsen said, glancing at his watch. “-6.30 A.M. Now, most of you here will probably have heard of the Quantum Space Hole tunneling project or, the Lambda project.”

   “Now, I know that working on this project is considered one of the most tedious projects undergone in the facility. In fact, I had quite a lot of transfer requests due to this. Now, before you all start to blame me for missing breakfast, I’ll just let you know that today is the day that you finally get to see the fruits of your…erm work.” There was a brief moment of laughter at his mistake. Looking around though, I had notice that about forty percent of the room had dozed off. Well, not a big surprise considering that most of them, including me had to work extra yesterday due to some sort of system malfunction.

  “First up, there’s this world which, if you ever played those Valve games you’ll know what this is.” The holotank flashed for a while before the pictures came on. From what I could see, it looked like it came from a security camera-Sector D test labs to be exact. The timestamp read “22-3-2025”, three years before I was employed. The quality was pretty grainy though. I could, from this distance, see what seemed like headcrabs from Half-life crawling all around the room. There were even a few zombies too, doing what zombies do-moaning.

     “The 2025 incident. Not one that went well with the history books. We did manage to regain control after a week or so of fighting with some help from the army though.” At that exact point, the angle of view changed abruptly. “YABBA!” a zombie screamed as it clawed at the screen, the sound startling the sleeping audience. Then, the video ended with static.

     “Now, ladies and gentlemen, do not be alarmed. This happened only once due to a misfire with one of the earlier prototypes. Repeats of this are near impossible. Anyway, during the course of the project, we have found many other alternate universes or other worlds, each one more or less different than the last.”

      Mr. Olsen began forwarding through the pictures. Some of them looked quite nice, others not so. There was one that had an atmosphere of hydrochloric acid fumes and another with an intense gravity that cracked the camera lens.

     “All of these are, of course proof that Transtech has advanced science by leaps and bounds. Each of these worlds or universes has made us understand the universe better. In fact, we even managed to prove the string theory on one of them. However, we have yet to discover one for long term stay or exploration.” He did something which I couldn’t see from my distance and a new video screen popped up behind him.

    “Well, at least until this one, which we found about a month ago.” He continued.

      By now, I wasn’t really paying attention to what he was saying. Instead, I was more focused on what was playing behind him. The place looked a lot like Earth, with green grass and trees and clouds hanging in the blue sky overhead.  The auditorium burst into excited chattering except for me.

      Why the heck did I have a feeling that I know this place?

“There seems to be at least what looks like normal rabbits and other critters.” The landscape behind him changed to some snow-caped mountains and a few hills in the background. “Even better, from the probes that we have managed to send over, we are able to say that the atmosphere there is about 27% to 30% oxygen and the gravity is just slightly less than Earth’s. There’s only one problem with this world though.”

   The view changed to a bird’s eye view of a large town, with winding roads and thatched roofs. “The problem is simply put this way. There’s intelligent life here but the residents aren’t human. Show the next video please.”

    What I saw next probably just made my mine blow up. It was full of PONIES! Well, multicolored ponies that look nothing like the ones back on Earth to be exact. The other staff in here must have felt the same way as me.

      “The ponies there use tools, build things and most obviously, come in a rainbow of colors which isn’t possible on Earth, well unless their owners dyed them. Interestingly, not all of them walk. Enjoy the show.”

    The whole room exploded into chaos that almost reminded me of school, with staff members leaping from their seats, pointing, talking and shouting excitedly at one another.  I blotted out most of the noise and just focused on the feed. The ponies were pretty amazing, with some kind of winged ponies flying around and one wearing a pretty cool hat. It looked like some sort of helmet with those soda thingies. There were also some of those uni-things. You know- the ones with horns. A baby pink one was using some sort of telekinesis to read a book.

      “According to some locals, we overheard them calling this world ‘Equestria’.” Mr. Olsen announced. Unfortunately for him, it seems like no one except me was paying attention to him. “HEL-LO? I’m still talking!” When there was still no response, he turned off the video feed, causing the audience to groan in disappointment.

     “What we need now are of course, volunteers to do some research.” He said. “How do the ponies behave? Do they have religions? Do they have any kind of castle system? There’s only so much we can learn from drones.”

      It took me a heartbeat to make up my mind. Do the deskwork or go for the adventure? The answer was pretty obvious. Without hesitation, I shot my hand up.

    “Ah! We have a volunteer! What’s your name miss?” he asked me.

    “Erm… A-Aqua sir Aqua Jones.”

      “And why did you want to volunteer for this?” he asked me.

         God, I hate interviews. I thought to myself. “Well, firstly, I’m bored of staring at a screen for ten hours straight and secondly, well I’ll just say it’s for fun.”

         “Alright then” He replied. “Any other takers?”

         Over the course of the next five minutes, about five more volunteered. It took some sweet talk to get another five to go. After another five minutes though, it seemed like that was all he was going to get, no matter how much cake he was going to throw in.

          “Very well then. We have eleven brave souls, ready to explore the unknown. Everyone else, you can go for breakfast. Volunteers, please stay for a minute. Oh! And do not, under any circumstance, tell anyone else about this meeting! Doing so is a violation of-dang it. Never mind.” He muttered after noticing that the auditorium had mysteriously cleared out in two minutes.

           Making my way towards the stage, I caught the eyes of another volunteer, who was a man called Caboose. He was pretty good, except that he was usually dreaming so it wasn’t so surprising when he asked me why we had to go to meet Mr. Olsen. “You volunteered for the project silly!” I explained to him. His response was to nod and ask me what project was it.

                There were two other volunteers already at the stage. One of them was looking around idly while the other was yawning like mad. Finally, someone gave a slight cough.

              “What? Who was that?” Mr. Olsen looked around startled. He gave a small shriek as his elbow bumped into another volunteer. “Ah! But of course, the volunteers! Excuse me for screaming just now. Alright...forms…”he muttered, digging into his briefcase. “Ah! Here it is. Here you go.” He continued, handing everyone a manila colored folder with a seal on it.

              It was a standard safety seal-the ones that read ‘Do not tamper’, which I just tore open. Inside were some papers-disclaimers, a medical checklist and some other paperwork.

               “Read these over ASAP, sign them and meet me at Conference Room-” he glanced at his organizer before continuing. “49 A in three hours. Now, hurry up for breakfast. I don’t want anyone to go hungry during the meeting.”

                                                                ~~~~~~

    Conference room 49 A turned out to be located near the cafeteria. It was about the standard conference room size-twenty seats, two at the front and back and eight at each side. There were two security guards stationed at the door but they didn’t stop me from entering. There were about five volunteers already seated at the plastic table. There were also some other people at the back of the room. There was a nurse who introduced herself as Mrs. Amanda, head of medical sciences or something; some guy from the pentagon who I didn’t really; some guy from the pentagon who I didn’t really care and of course, Mr. Olsen.

     It took about ten minutes for everyone to arrive, and after they did, Mr. Olsen seated himself at the front seat. “Hello everyone, welcome back. I trust that you have signed the paper work?”

     We all assured him that we had.

   “Alright then. Please, hand them in.”  After handing the papers to him, he promptly began.

    “Before we start, I’ll just let you know that once I’ve begun, there’s no going back. Of course, you can leave the room at any time you want but if you choose so, I’m afraid we’ll have to Neuralize you.”

    At this point, a woman stood up and made some excuse before running out of the room. One of the guards poked his head in but Mr. Olsen shook his head, saying that there was no need to Neuralize her. The guard nodded and closed the door again. Honestly though, I was okay upon hearing this. My dad had taught me not to regret my own decisions.

      “Anyone else wants to leave? No? Good. Let’s begin.” Mr. Olsen pressed a button on the table and the lights dimmed. A projector at the back of the room warmed up and the pastel colors of Equestria filled the room.

         “There are a few things that we kept away from the video, mostly the wild animals there.” The feed then changed to one of a dark forest. Unlike the rest of Equestria, it looked forbidding and to some extent, scary. “The Everfree forest, as the locals call it. Home to some creatures that would make a lion look like a kitten.” The video started to show some kind of greenish chicken with a dragon’s body turning something into stone, in a fashion like Medusa turning a Human into stone, proceeded by some kind of eel snatching a wandering goat and gobbling it up whole. Looking around, I noticed that another three volunteers had left the room.  The video also showed some pretty gruesome stuff too, which for the sake of my breakfast, I didn’t watch.

       The next thing he did was to give each of us a bunch of papers to go through.  Here’s what one of them said:

“Due to the high risk of the operations volunteers have to go through, Transtech shall be responsible for these injuries only: Death, total paralysis and loss of any limbs. Any other injuries are a result of side effects and thus, Transtech will not be responsible. Examples are: Osteogenesis, blindness and deformation. Transtech reserves the right not to compensate where deemed unacceptable.”

     The other pages were about what they were going to do, like implanting sensors and a medical monitoring system and some kind of Hazardous Environment system. By now, only a handful of volunteers remained. (No guts I guess.)

    It took like thirty minutes for me to finish the whole thing. After the papers, the nurse started to talk. “Now, most of you are going to wonder what this operation is going to be. Allow me to explain-” the video changed to a presentation. “-now, what we’re going to do is going to…alter your physical form into a pony.”

   “And how do you do that?” a male’s voice piped up.

   Mrs. Amanda seemed pretty uncomfortable upon hearing this. “There are some Nano machines that we managed to capture from one of the universes and we did manage to reverse engineer them. We managed to work out all the glitches and-” she was cut off by the man again.

    “I’m sorry. This is too weird for me. I’m out.” He said. The rest of the volunteers nodded and followed after him. Well, only me now.

     “Alright, there’s only you left I guess.” Mr. Olsen said. I gave a small shrug. Unlike them though, I thought it was going to be pretty interesting, going to Equestria and all so my mind was already made up.

      “Ms. Jones, there’s nothing else I can offer. If you go, I’ll-” I held up my hand.

     “I’ll go on only one condition.”

     “Which is?”

       “If I get to be one of those winged ponies, it’s a deal.”

         “Gladly done.” He replied. “Well then, I’ll upload the necessary information onto your data pad. Go back and read through it thoroughly before next week and head to Sector D medical wing for the operation.”

                                                        ~~~~~

      Well then, time to think up of a name.