Twilight continued on testing, and she continued smashing any emancipation grids she came across so she could bring her Fluttercube with her to each new chamber. Celestia grew more and more irritated with her each time, and continued expressing her disdain at the property damage, as well as concern for Twilight’s safety.
This continued until they came to a test chamber where they were supposed to use downward momentum through a portal to fling themselves to the test exit. As such, there were several panels sticking out of the wall, angled upward so one could reach some high ledges. But it was something other than the intended solution using these panels that caught Twilight’s attention.
“Huh?” Twilight paused a moment to peek behind one of the panels that was sticking out on a piston. Behind it was another rusty, rundown part of the facility. Twilight grinned. “Found you!”
“What? What have you found?” asked a nervous Spike. “Oh no! Not another one of those places!”
The space between the panels was too narrow, so she shot an orange portal into the room, then walked through the blue one to get in.
“We really shouldn’t be here… We’re outside of the testing facilities, and there are no monitors in here. She’ll get suspicious and then we’ll get in big trouble...”
Ignoring Spike’s muttering, Twilight took a look around the place. There were butterfly murals and cryptic messages scrawled all over the walls. Twilight was carefully reading each word and taking note of all the drawings of little critters, when suddenly, there was a loud clanking noise like something hitting a metal plate, followed by a whirlwind of rustling paper.
“Eeeh!” Twilight cried out from shock. A radio had fallen off of a chair. But what had knocked it over? Trembling, Twilight hugged Spike and the Fluttercube.
“Oh no! Did you see that? W-w-was it a big rat? Let’s get out of here!”
At Spike’s command, Twilight almost hopped through her portal escape that place, but something made her stop. In the corner of the room, a large pile of old papers was shaking.
“Twilight, no!” hissed Spike.
Twilight hopped over to the pile of papers and extended her hoof. “Boop!”
“Eeeeeeek!” A shrill shriek split the air, and a yellow pegasus jumped out of the papers and dashed to a corner of the room. Like a cornered animal with nowhere to escape to, the pegasus turned to face them with a fierce look. Breathing heavily, and with a manic gleam in her eyes, she cried out, “Did she send you to find me?! Whatever she promised, it’s all lies! That’s what she does, she says she has a party planned for Bring Your Daughter to Work Day, with cupcakes and everything, but then she has the robots shoot all the scientists with tranquilizer, and locks them up in cryostasis! But I won’t ever let her catch me, oh no! Ha ha ha! Years of hiding in these walls, and I know all the places she can’t reach!”
“Years?” Spike said. “But… Uh… Couldn’t you just get out of here? You know, leave the facility? You did say you know your way around here, right?”
“Leave?! Go outside?! Are you crazy?! Do you have any idea what’s going on out there?! Well, I don’t exactly know myself, but I do know it’s Ponygeddon out there! It’s definitely dangerous! And unknown! No, no, no. Better off hiding in here, in all the places the maniacal, controlling AI can’t reach. At least she’s a known factor.”
Twilight gasped when she noticed something. She hopped up closer to the mysterious pegasus. Grinning gleefully, she pointed from the butterflies on her Fluttercube to the butterfly cutie mark on the pegasus.
“It’s the same mark,” Spike said.
“Wh-what have you got there? Oh, um…” the pegasus cleared her throat. “Yes, that’s one of my Fluttercubes. I used my extensive scientific knowledge of cute animals to make them irresistibly cute.”
“Right…” Spike said. “And, uh, just throwing this out there, but who exactly are you?”
“Me? Well…” Nervous, the pegasus ran her hooves through her mane. “I was one of the scientists here. I specialized in biology and environmental science. My name is Fluttershy.” She scowled and the wild look returned to her eyes. “Though someponies called me Flutterrat. And that was before I started crawling around through vents and living like a rat in order to hide from that crazy AI! Just because I crawled into a vent ONE time to save a family of mice from suffocating! Can you believe that?! They were always laughing at me! Say I worry about everything, huh? And I’m overly cautious?! Called me crazy for wanting to bring my bunny to Bring Your Daughter to Work Day?! Some of us don’t have daughters, you know, and it’s not nice to laugh! Well, who’s laughing now? I’m still here, and they all got captured by Pinkamena’s evil AI, which I said was a bad idea, and definitely should not be put in charge of all of the facilities’ functions!” Fluttershy burst into a crazed cackle.
“Alright, sorry I asked…” Spike said.
“Where did you go?” Celestia’s robotic voice echoed in the adjacent test chamber. “For your own safety, refrain from leaving the designated testing area.”
“What was that?!” Fluttershy’s face twisted with horror. “Was that HER? Are you testing right now? Oh no, oh no! You’ve led her right to me, haven’t you?”
“No, we didn’t! She doesn’t know you’re in here. And Twilight and I aren’t going to tell her. Right, Twilight?”
“Yep!” Twilight said.
In spite of their reassurances, Fluttershy still looked like a deer caught in headlights. With her hooves over her head, she trembled on the ground.
“Uh, well, look… We’ll just get out of here and go back to testing, so she won’t get suspicious and won’t look in here. Then you can go back to… hiding in vents and rundown rooms. So no need to worry.”
Fluttershy lifted her head. She quit her trembling and gave Twilight and Spike a serious look. “What test chamber are you on?”
“Sixteen!” Twilight cheered.
“Oh no.” Fluttershy shook her head. “You two are in serious trouble.”
Spike gulped. “Wh-Why do you say that?”
“You must have noticed it by now, right? Her tests aren’t just dangerous, they violate every safety protocol this facility has, and that’s saying something considering Director Pinkamena wasn’t known for caring much for safety.”
Twilight looked troubled. With uncertainty in her voice, she said, “Testing?”
“Alright, look, I’m just going to come out and say it:” Fluttershy reached out and held her hoof against Twilight’s. “Once you’re done with your testing, supposing you can even survive those, she is going to get rid of you.”
It took a moment for Fluttershy’s words to sink in. Twilight just stared blankly, but Spike had a meltdown.
“Oh no! Oh no! I knew I wasn’t just imagining all those death traps! She really is trying to get rid of us, isn’t she?! What are we going to do?!”
“Um… I don’t know.” Fluttershy said. She was already tiptoeing to a vent at the end of the room.
“Where are you going?!” Spike cried out. “Please, you have to help us! If she really is as dangerous as you say, then we’ve got to escape from this facility! All of us!”
Upon hearing Spike’s plea, Fluttershy winced. Slowly, she turned around to face Twilight again. She chewed her lip and grumbled, until finally bursting out, “Alright, fine!” With a long sigh, she said, “But I need to make some preparations. And that means we can’t all just leave now, when she’s out there getting more suspicious every moment. You two will have to go back to testing. Just survive a few more chambers and I’ll bust us all out of here.”
“Back to testing?! Are you crazy?! We don’t even know if we can trust you! You could just be using us as a distraction while you escape on your own!”
“I wouldn’t do that…” Fluttershy said.
“Ah-ah-ah!” Twilight shook her hoof, scolding Spike. With a big smile, she pointed again to Fluttershy’s butterfly cutie mark. “Friend!”
“But Twilight… are you really going to…”
“Let’s go together!” Twilight said.
Spike sighed. “Alright, alright… Then I guess we should go back out there before she gets suspicious… Fluttershy, just make sure you come and save us…”
“I will make sure nothing happens to you, I promise. Cross my heart and hope to fly; stick a cupcake in my eye…”
“Yay! Bye-bye!”
Twilight made to leave through her portal with her Fluttercube in hoof, but Fluttershy stopped her.
“Er, maybe you should leave that Fluttercube with me? You wouldn’t want to put it in danger.”
“No!”
“She’s got a point, Twilight,” Spike said. “Celestia’s going to vaporize that thing eventually if you keep bringing it into unauthorized areas, even if you do keep breaking all the emancipation grids. It’ll be safer outside the testing areas.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll take good care of it for you,” Fluttershy said. “And I’ll give it back when we escape.”
Twilight could see the reason in their argument. Eyes brimming with tears, she surrendered the cube to Fluttershy, then dashed back out the portal.
After Twilight and Spike left, Fluttershy was left alone in the run-down room, with the cube in her hooves. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen any cute animals…” She hugged the cube and gently stroked it. With a forlorn sigh, she said, “It’s not really the same as petting a bunny…”
“Where did you two go?” Celestia asked when Twilight and Spike reappeared.
“Oh, uh, sorry about that!” Spike answered. “Just got stuck between the wall and that panel over there. Took a while to get unstuck!”
“Hmph… Refrain from any further unauthorized activities. We are drawing close to the end of the testing… And after your party and cake, two more things will be ending.”
“Are the party and the cake the two things that are ending?” Spike asked in a whisper.
Twilight shrugged.
With her usual efficiency, Twilight cleared the test chamber and the next. For certain, Celestia had revved up the danger level with all sorts of difficult jumps and death pits, but Twilight didn’t have any problem figuring out the correct path. But that was about to change.
On the elevator ride down to test chamber eighteen, Celestia asked a seemingly innocuous question: “Did you know that you can donate your body and vital organs to the Aperhoof Science Self-Esteem Fund for Fillies? This facility is held together by glue made from test subjects like you. It’s true! And you really should sign up as an organ donor as soon as possible if you haven’t already. Time is running out, and without your consent we can’t use your organs for helping orphans or for scientific research or for holding the facility together.”
Spike gulped. “Did that sound like a threat to you? Maybe I’m just crazy…”
A zipping sound announced their arrival at the next test chamber, and Celestia’s voice made an announcement : “The appropriate testing chamber for this next sequence is currently unavailable. According to regulations, we have to inform you that the next test chamber has been swapped with a live ammunition training course designed for military androids. We appreciate your understanding, and remind you that any complaints can be filed after the completion of the test to your appointed Aperhoof Safety Officer.”
“Live ammunition! Oh no, oh no! She’s really trying to kill us with this one, isn’t she?!”
Portal gun at the ready, Twilight stepped into the room. But she wasn’t prepared for what she saw. Twilight’s eyes sparkled as she pressed her hooves against her cheeks. “So cute!” she gushed.
In front of her, facing a perpendicular direction, was a robot shaped like a filly. The robot’s mane and tail, which were made of metal, were a mix of pink and purple, and her body was white. There were hard lines on her body, showing where different metal sheets had been screwed together. Her eyes, which were like camera shutters, glowed green.
“Hello there!” the robot said in a singsong voice. “Want to be friends?”
“Ee-hee!” Overcome with glee, Twilight took a big hop toward the robot, hoping to give her a hug.
“Twilight, no!” Spike yelled out in horror. “That’s a Sweetiebot! They’re military weapons!”
“Let me help you!” the Sweetiebot declared.
Twilight gasped as the Sweetiebot armed the ballistic projectile cannons embedded in her sides, and Twilight shrieked as a barrage of bullets flew at her. It was only thanks to Spike’s warning that she was able to turn on her heels and jump away in time, landing behind a bullet-proof wall jutting out near the entrance to the testing chamber.
“Where’d you go?” the Sweetiebot asked once she lost visual contact with her target. “Scootaloo? Scootaloo-ooh?”
“That… That was close,” Spike said. “Waaaay too close…”
Twilight, still breathing heavily, gave a short nod. After taking a short rest to catch her breath, she peeked out from behind the wall to size up the test. There were Sweetiebots positioned all around the room, ready to riddle her with bullets should she enter their lines of sight. But also all around the room were portal surfaces.
Edging out from the wall just a smidge, Twilight shot a portal behind the nearest Sweetiebot, the one who had already shot at her.
“Oh! Good thinking, Twilight! Sweetiebots can’t attack anything behind them! Seems like bit of a design flaw, but good news for us!”
Twilight used her portal, then she grabbed the Sweetiebot from behind.
“Aw, you got me!” the Sweetiebot said.
With the Sweetiebot in her grasp and at her mercy, Twilight did the only logical thing: she gave the robot a big hug.
“So cute!” Twilight gushed. “Let’s take her with us!”
“Are you crazy?! She just tried to shoot us! Put her down before she tries again!”
The Sweetiebot gave her input: “Let’s play! I want to go camping with my big sister!”
“Awww!” Twilight crowed. She pulled the Sweetiebot closer and squeezed her.
“Seriously, Twilight! That’s dangerous!”
Spike found that there was no dissuading Twilight. She carried the Sweetiebot with her throughout the rest of the test, even as she kicked over the robot’s peers to pave a path to the exit. Of course, there was an emancipation grid at the exit, but Twilight knew what to do: she used the Sweetiebot to bash the metal posts generating the field, until the thing stopped working. Sweetiebot didn’t come out of this abuse unscathed: aside from the dents on her legs, some sparks shot out of her and she made a funny buzzing noise for a while.
“I forgive you! I’m not mad anymore, really!” Sweetiebot said.
Celestia was less forgiving. When Twilight loaded the Sweetiebot onto the elevator, Celestia gave a stern rebuke: “Please desist in bringing unauthorized materials with you, as this is theft of Aperhoof materials. And desist in breaking Aperhoof emancipation grids, as this is vandalism. These are both serious offenses that only serve to create an unsafe testing environment. Instead of taking such criminal actions, please allow Aperhoof materials to be safely emancipated from this world. Speaking of things being emancipated from this world, the last test is up next. Hurry along so you can get your cake.”
“Yum! Cake!” Twilight clapped her hooves and licked her lips.
“No, Twilight!” Spike whispered. “There is no cake, and we’ve got to get out of here, remember? Fluttershy should be along any moment to bust us out… I hope.”
It seemed they were going nowhere fast. Twilight and Spike waited for a long time in the elevator. The temperature kept rising too. Perspiration was dripping from Twilight in droves and Spike’s circuitry was overheating, so things were starting to get uncomfortable for both of them.
“Test?” Twilight asked.
“Ugh, why aren’t we there yet?! The whole facility has climate control, so it shouldn’t be this hot! Where’s this elevator even taking us?” Spike gasped. “Oh no! She wouldn’t-”
“I’ve got a surprise for you. The final chamber has been removed from the test due to ethical and safety concerns. That means we have reached the conclusion of the test. Congratulations on reaching the end. Sixty bits have been deposited in your account for your cooperation, and after your incineration, there will be a party with cake. You will be missed. Goodbye.”
“Goodbye!” Sweetiebot replied in a sweet tone. “Have a nice day!”
“Oh no, oh no, oh nooo!” Spike wailed. “Twilight, she’s dropping this elevator into the incinerator room! You’ve got to get us out of here, or we’re both going to be baked!”
“Ahhh!” Twilight lost it and let out a scream. There was nowhere to go in the elevator. There weren’t even any portal surfaces. She tried ramming her shoulder against the doors, but they wouldn’t budge. Twilight looked up and down for any sort of panel that might open, and she even got Sweetiebot to shoot her cannons at the walls, but it was no use. In her despair, all she could do was hold Spike and Sweetiebot close and wait for the end.
“It’s hot in here…” Sweetiebot noted.
“This is the end!” Spike wailed.