For Friendship, You Monster

by grox

The Cold Hoof

-Chapter Two: The Cold Hoof

Celestia woke up from a dreamless slumber. She found herself in a small glass square room with a bed and a toilet and wearing an - itchy - orange jumpsuit.

"You have been in suspension for -2 weeks-." The announcer said.

"Ah, you're awake." Said the metallic voice of Twilight Sparkle. "You are ready to begin the testing."

"Where am I, and why did I sleep so long?" Celestia said, with a slight hint of anger. She tried her hardest to pull the sleeves on her front legs up, even if the burning fabric simply dug deeper into her shoulders.

"You are at the Aperture Science Enrichment Center." Twilight replied smugly. "And you had to sleep so long because... well, to be honest, I needed to clean all those test chambers - skeletons left over, you know - because everything needs to be," her voice caught a little over the speaker, almost hauntingly, "p-p-p-p-p-perfect." The speaker went silent with a small beep.

The announcer spoke again. "The portal will open in 3...2...1." An orange portal appeared on the wall with a short fizzle.

Celestia carefully examined the odd portal. She lifted a hoof, slowly going through. Once she knew that the portal was safe, she walked through it.

Twilight spoke again. "Please, follow my voice to the first test chamber. And sorry about the jumpsuit. It looks... well, not that horrible on you. The facility's been down for a while, and I really don't know the environment in half of them. So... if you're dropped into a sub-arctic wasteland with turrets in it, roll down your sleeves."

Celestia nervously trotted after the crackling speakers down the tunnel.

-----

"This is our first test. Cube and button tests are the simplest tests. Please, put the Aperture Science Weighted Storage Cube on The 1500 Megawatt Aperture Science Heavy Duty Super-Colliding Super Button." The sarcastic speaker went silent again.

Celestia tried to levitate the cube on the button, but the box didn't shift. "Why isn't my magic working?!" Celestia yelled up at everfollowing camera.

"Oh, yes. I forgot to tell you every test chamber has a magic dampening field. Try levitating the cube at closer range." Twilight snickered back.

Celestia trotted up to the cube and levitated it over the button, recieving a satisfying clunk when it dropped. A door opened.

"Good. You have mastered the easiest test. Could have been a bit faster, but this isn't a time trial." Twilight drawled sarcastically. "Just wasting your life. Please move to the chamberlock after completing each test."

Celestia trotted through the emancipation grill and up to the elevator. After waiting for the shaft to clear out all of the debris, she stepped in.

^----

While Celestia was waiting in the elevator, Twilight rebooted the internal speaker. "You are a horrible pony. That's what it says. We weren't even testing for that."

Celestia flattened her ears and surpressed a growl.

-^---

Celestia stepped out of the elevator, immediately being greeted by the cold and emotionless voice of Twilight.

"This next test contains Thermal Discouragement Beams and Weighted Pivot Cubes."

The Sun Princess walked into the second test chamber, seeing a small cube sided with glass and a big, dangerous-looking laser.

"What is the purpose of these devices?" She asked calmly.

"I designed this test chamber to see how test subjects react when locked in a room with deadly lasers."

"Well, I don't exactly see how that answers my question." Celestia muttered while levitating the Pivot Cube to the laser. She easily redirected the laser through a round hole in the wall.

The door to the elevator opened. Celestia waited for the elevator to come down before she stepped in.

Twilight spoke again. "You know, I want to apologize for that horrible pony thing, so I'm going to put something nice in your file, just in case somepony ever reads it. Did well. Done."

Celestia was now really getting depressed from Twilight's constant disapproval.

--^--

The elevator stopped and the door opened.

"This next test contains the Aperture Science Aerial Faith Plates. They act as very powerful trampolines. Oh, I almost forgot. I have a surprise for you at the next test chamber." Twilight said, almost giggling.

Celestia walked out of the elevator and into the test chamber. She saw large - and deep - pool of green water, and in the middle a faith plate bouncing a cube up and down.

She stepped on the faith plate located before her. It launched her into the air, as it was meant to. She prepare to grab the cube with her magic, but she missed and kept falling.

Before hitting the the ground, she automatically unfolded her wings to slow her down, but they didn't seem to be working. When she hit the ground, she collapsed, her legs bending unnaturally.

"HELP ME!" She yelled at the camera. "I think I've broken my legs!"

"Wait, stay there, don't move." Twilight said, panicking.

A long, pointed device came out of the wall next to her, the tip directing towards Celestia's hooves. It began to glow, and Celestia felt her legs heal.

"W-what i-is that t-thing?" Celestia stuttered.

"It is an artificial unicorn horn. It can emit magic and even perform the most advanced spells." The artificial horn began to glow again, and with a flash it materialized four strange white horseshoes next to Celestia.

"Here, put those on. The metal bands will prevent you from breaking your legs. Or anything else."

Celestia stood up and stepped in the horseshoes. She jumped on the faith plate, this time timing it so she could grab the cube on her way past.

With the cube in her magical grasp, she flung herself to the other side again and put the cube on the button.

The door opened and Twilight began to talk again.

"You will get your surprise at the next test chamber." Twilight said, again giggling. "Oh...yeah...uh... well done."

Celestia walked to the elevator and stepped in.

^--^-

Along the way to the next test chamber, Celestia thought of what the surprise might be. For some odd reason, she kept thinking of cake.

The elevator stopped in a small office room decorated with ribbons and balloons. In the middle of the room stood a table with a big wrapped present.

A big tv screen slid out of the wall. It flickered on with the image of a strange silver - albeit slightly rusted and dark - metal ball with what looked like a big purple-tinted camera for an eye.

"SURPRISE!" Twilight cheered, while a single confetti cannon exploded.

"What is the meaning of this?!" Celestia yelled. "Who are you?!"

"This is my new body. I copied my memory and downloaded it in this personality core."

"Where is the real Twilight." Celestia growled angrily.

"I am the real Twilight, but if you mean the body, don't worry, she's safe." The screen changed to a large pod that held an almost frozen Twilight.

"See? She's completely safe in this Aperture Science Cryogenic Slumber Party Pod."

"YOU - you let her go!" Celestia screamed.

Twilight ingored her. "You know what's interesting? The technology used in these pods was originally found on the moon. You should ask your sister if she saw a big building while she was-"

"You let her go NOW!" Celestia interrupted her, straining not to use the Canterlot Voice again.

Twilight zoomed in on the frozen body to taunt the already angry Celestia."Why don't you open your present?"

Feeling defeated, Celestia trotted to the table with the present. She used her weakened magic to levitate the present and bite off the paper. Inside was a pale white oval, with three black prongs extending from the sides to almost meet at the tip. It seemed to be important. She lifted it with her magic, trying to figure out how to use it.

"Pull the trigger." Twilight drawled.

The resulting effect was a small blue ball shooting out of the tip, between the prongs, and smacking into a wall. A blue ring appeared, filled with a similar-hued smoke.

"Oh, good. You can make a portal. Moving on."

"Please trot to the next test chamber."

Celestia magically lifted the gun again and rebelliously cantered to the next chamber.

-^--^

Celestia entered the test chamber, waiting for the room to assemble itself.

"Oh, I am sorry, I didn't finish the test chamber. I was distracted by your little rage moment." Twilight said, annoyed.

When the chamber finished building itself Celestia heard a thunderous explosion.

"Oh no, not the Poison Joke gas generator again... please, just wait here and play a bit with your new present until I come back." The voice of Twilight disappeared with a small crackle, leaving Celestia alone in the test chamber.

Celestia pulled the second trigger of the strange device. It shot a small orange ball, not unlike the blue one before. Where the ball touched the wall, an orange ring appeared. Looking trough the strange ring, she saw the office room with the decoration. Understanding how the device worked, she shot an blue portal at the ceiling, and a orange one on the wall. She stuck her head in the the orange portal and saw herself. She found this very amusing.

After some time of playing around with the gun, Celestia noticed a loose plate. She shot a portal on a white wall behind the loose plate and walked through the portals. Celestia was now standing in a long corridor with a few doors on each side. With her magic, she closed the plate and walked down the corridor. She checked every door to see if they were open, but all of them were locked. She kicked the last door, but it didn't move. Celestia kicked it one more time out of anger when she heard a male voice.

"Hey, who's there?"

The door opened, and a rusty metal ball with a green eye popped out, looking a bit shocked.'

"Well, hello there, you pretty... uh ... horse ... lady." He said, a bit confused. "My name is Rick, and I am an Adventure Core!" Rick boasted. "And what is your name?"

Celestia hesitated with a nervous chuckle first before deciding that it couldn't hurt. "My name is Princess Celestia." She answered, equally proud.

"Well, nice to meet ya, your Majesty." He said, while making a bow-like dip on his management rail.

Celestia returned the bow politely. "Do you know how we can escape from this place?" Celestia asked.

"I have been here for lord knows how long, and I memorized the place quite well," he said, still boasting, "just follow your trusty Adventure Core.''

--^--

After a long time of wandering around, Rick suddenly stopped. "Wait... where are we going?"

Celestia facehoofed. "I thought you knew where you were going."

Rick stared blankly at Celestia. Suddenly, a bright light flashed from the eye of the small metal ball. "Ah, I remember again. Just keep following me."

Celestia followed Rick around for another insanely long time - hadn't they seen that odd white turret before? They stopped at a metal door with a large sign.

Keep Out: Genius At Work

"Put me into this Core Input Receptacle." He dropped off his rail, and a weird device appeared out of the wall. Celestia levitated Rick and plugged him into the wall. "You can look if you really want...heh heh." He laughed.

The door opened and Celestia walked in, levitating Rick with her.

The walls of the room were filled with blueprints and a small desk with a big radio. Celestia dropped Rick and levitated the radio to her, closely examining it.

Rick rolled his eye. "Press the button," he said annoyed.

She pressed the button that Rick was staring at and the radio started playing. It was some kind of recorded diary from Dr. Ununpentium.

^---^-

Entry 2

"It'z been three weeks since my failure at the Fillydelphia experiment, but it only encourages me to find better ways of unicorn-less teleportation. The zebras at ze Der Riese ruins finally gave us permission to investigate the Bell artifact. I hope ze artifact will be the answer."

Entry 3

"Dr. Atmos," the radio went static for a moment, "has made a breakthrough with the artifact. They have managed to teleport a small gem to ze mainframe, but zhey are still trying to teleport living organisms."

Entry 4

''The scouts from ze Cloudsdale facility have discovered another ruin, this one is located in buffalo terratory. whe cannot eccess becouse those buffolas think it is holy ground.''

Entry 5

"I hope if we sell ze moon metal we have found at the buffalo ruins we can pay ze taxes. Those greedy zebras... they just kicked us out of the Der Riese ruins."

Comments

[Misty Nights]

Moar pleeeaaassseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee~

[grox]

182254
Hello, this is the editor.
There is a new chapter on the way, and I think I speak for grox and myself when I say your positive input is greatly appreciated!

[rexpup]

Keep up the good work!

[grox]

194842 thank you it realy means alot for me when people say that