Princess Celestia's Side Trip To Aperture.

by Powerdrainer


Unexpected Company

Edited by Slayerseba, Halusm, and Clawder.

Unexpected Company

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For a full five minutes the unrelenting, deafening sound of machine gun fire shook the room. The numerous flashes of light produced, were creating a telling shadow play on the walls, featuring her royal highness Celestia, in all her perforated glory.

Then, as loud and as bright as everything was, everything plunged into darkness and crushing silence, only broken momentarily by a loud metallic snap, then the uneven clip clopping as Celestia stumbled past a corner, looking absolutely miffed.

Breathing heavily, a wheeze escaping through a few bleeding, but closing holes in her chest, she continued onwards without sparing the infuriating machines a second glance.

Silence.

"Hey… Hey, Jimmy!" one of the bulky, black turrets, lying flat on the ground, called out.

"... What!?" came an irritated groan from another of the devices. This one, too, toppled over.

"Ya still kickin’?"

"What does it looks like to ya?!" he snapped.

"Like we got stomped down by a horse!"

"Gee, thanks capt'n obvious," another of the turrets yelled from within a broken crate, it's foot still poking out past the wood.

"Nothing compared to what the boss 'll do when he finds out," a fourth turret complained with nervous fright, its foot broken off.

"When he finds out?" the only machine identified by a name, Jimmy, called out. "The boss got bluetooth. He already knows!"

A slow, metallic scraping sound made them all freeze up. Those able, turned their laser towards the source of the sound, seeing a platform suspended by a ceiling mounted rail, move towards them as it smoothly slid into the room.

The sound of metal scraping could once again be heard, louder, this time accompanied by a slight whirr and sparks lighting up the room.

"Gentlebots, it saddens me to see you like this," the boss spoke, sounding as if voiced by Al Pacino himself, his deep red laser cutting through the dimly lit room with slow, methodical sweeps from left to right.

Then the ceiling mounted lights flared, basking the room in harsh orange light.

Now able to see their boss, (when not obstructed by the inside of a crate, or lying optical visor flat on the ground), the tilted turrets felt a cold trickle of oil run down their casings.

Now, the exact science behind this is murky at best, but it works and that's all we really need to know, as far as it goes for the inner workings of these turrets.

The boss, slightly larger built than those lying defeated below it, slowly spun its left ammo drum, pressing it down onto the personalized companion cube by its side with affection, some sparks shooting away from the metal grinding over metal.

"Now, explain to me how a horse managed to beat all of you!"

And as they recounted the events of only a few minutes ago, the boss continued to 'pet' his companion cube with sparks flying around.

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With a strenuous grunt, Celestia pulled herself through the long, poorly lit passage.

She wanted to stop, rest and heal from her latest injuries, but did not desire to remain in that room. Mere seconds after she'd stomped down those infernal machines and something else presented itself.

Not wanting to stay and find out what, and risk running out of luck, and dying through the actions of killing machines, after having just survived an attempt at her life by a group of killing machines, after having survived a severe attempt at her life by a killing machine named Glados, she had reached a point where she had to say: enough is enough.

The only positive spin to this otherwise continuing disaster was that she could feel her magical strength increase bit by bit with each step she took. Indicating that she was nearing the end of the suppression field's effective range. Though, considering the difficulties she still faced at present, the field still held a grip over her and she had no idea for how much longer. Additionally, if this passage turned out to be a dead end, or if it forced her to follow its path leading her back deeper into the field, her chances of escape would dwindle with each step, instead of increase.

But for now, at the very least, several metallic pings followed in her wake as her body expelled the projectiles those machines fired at her, while an itching pressure from the remainder of her severed leg distracted her enough to not notice the projectiles still lodged inside of her, shift and move as they were pushed out.

For a long time she followed the path before her, passing all kinds of rooms, their doors welded shut, crossing several bridges spanning across pools containing clearly hazardous liquid, its foul smell wrinkling her nose in disgust as she hurried across.

At one point, after having stumbled for what might have been the hundredth time, the portal gun fell from Celestia's back and towards the murky depths of one of these toxic baths.

Purely on instinct, she lit her horn. It wasn't until she stopped to think that she remembered the suppression field made it impossible for her to use her magic for anything more than to push a button.

The fact no splash could be heard and that the somewhat damaged device gently bobbed in the air just a scarce inch from the deathly waters, revealed her magic was freed enough from the field's grasp for her to levitate objects again.

Smiling in earnest at this discovery, Celestia pulled the portal gun back to her side and continued onwards, humming a pleasant tune.

She stopped mid humm, however, when an unexpected sound reached her.

Ears twitching, then swiveling around to find the source, she slowly found herself guided towards one of the many sealed doors. This one, however, revealed itself to be unsealed and standing slightly ajar.

Again, her ears twitched when the sound passed through the crack. It was a familiar sound, though. One she made herself just a moment ago.

Someone was humming.

Intrigued, but cautious, Celestia pushed open the door; flinching from the awful wail produced by the rusted hinges. Surprisingly, though, the humming didn't stop, which caused a sliver of worry to grab hold over the solar princess.

Was this another trap set out for her?

Who was it that was humming? Why are they down here? And why didn't they respond to the sudden loud noise produced by a door pushed open?

Stopping for a moment in sudden understanding, she looked behind and around her.

What she saw was a place in ruin, with evidence of structural collapse here and there.

She did not know how long this individual had been here, but they might have been long enough to chalk up the sudden interruption of her pushing open the door as just another piece of this complex breaking apart.

Pondering over this possibility while looking back into the area beyond the door, she decided it might be worth the risk. Who knows, if this was a trap, at least she had some of her magic back to assist her. But on the off chance there was somepony else down here, somepony who had possibly spent enough time here to know a way out. Or, at the very least, could help her with finding an exit out of this place.

With her mind made up, she stepped through the door and into the dirt smeared passage leading to some other part of this immense, and confusing complex.

Slowly stepping forwards, portal gun held in front of her, Celestia followed the sound. It was a pleasing tone, she realized after a moment; happy and joyous, though there was a tone of sadness woven into the tune as well.

Intrigued, she pressed onwards, stepping into a hallway lined with even more doors on both walls; most of them, too, welded shut. Several stood open, though. And when she looked inside she found claustrophobic chambers filled with all manners of alien and fear inducing equipment. She quickly decided to not enter any of them.

Fortunately the humming didn't come from within any of those rooms and as she stepped closer to the open door from which it did, she was surprised with what she discovered.

The room itself was large. At least, compared by the few others she had seen down there. There wasn't much of any kind of furniture, nor did the floor allow for anything of significant size to stand on it as it angled down on all sides towards the center; rising up high to form what appeared to be a stage of sorts, with thick wires aglow with some kind of energy lying in a complete jumble on top of it, unconnected and unknown what they were for.

Though, this was not what captured Celestia's interest, as nestled within these wires lay a orb. A white, metallic orb which was humming.

Slowly circling around, walking on the tips of her hooves to move with as little sound as possible, she studied the strange object. It wasn't a perfect sphere, she quickly noticed the numerous grooves, lines and protrusions, as well as the two perfectly cut holes on either side allowing her to see the strange, intricate construct held within.

Nearing the other side, she spotted a large, pink glowing circle comprised out of numerous segments held within a glass lense in which she could see the reflection of her magic's glow.

Stepping closer, she reared up, stumbling a bit on her one leg until she braced herself by grabbing the edge of the stage with her fore hooves. Stretching her neck, she moved in closer until she could see her own face in the glass surface, pondering over what this strange device could be, or why it was humming.

Wait.

With a start she realized the humming had stopped. And as she stared at her own reflection in the glass lense, she realized the sphere looked back at her.

Celestia fell back, the portal gun slamming to the floor as she and the sphere yelled in fright.