...And we, Widow and I, passed-by the Armory Ghost and I had holed-up in earlier. I paused for a moment, stopping to take a look at the slightly ajar doors to the treasury of mass destruction, then dashed after Widow so I wouldn't get left behind.
"What were you looking at?" Widow asked me, looking over her shoulder as we ran.
"Nothing, just...forget it." I replied, flashing a bright grin behind my visor out of habit. In reality, I had a feeling that I'd be back in there soon, but I was hoping I wouldn't have to so I just didn't voice it...
"C'mon, one more charge to place!" Widow cheered, "Right inside this room." We came sliding to a halt before a somewhat large set of sliding doors and waited for them to open. After pressing the button multiple times to find that they just wouldn't budge, Widow kicked the base of the doors in disdain, grunting, "The heck?"
"Can't we just forget about it?" I asked, "I have a bad feeling about...something..."
"No, this room is unmarked on the map." Widow pointed out, to which I quickly checked to confirm that she was being truthful, "So I'm sure whatever's in there is important, too important for even some of the workers here to know about. We HAVE to be sure whatever's in there gets destroyed." She then proceeded to kick the door again, "How are we ganna get it!?"
I sighed, gently pushing her aside, "Here, lemme show you how it's done." I rolled my neck until hearing a somewhat painful, yet relieving crack, then slowly shifted into a battle-ready stance, unclipping Undertaker and letting her fall behind me. I took one more, easy breath before spinning and round-house kicking the large double-doors in, FAR in. So far in, in fact, that both doors proceeded to fly quite a few meters into the room.
"Well...remind me never to be on the receiving end of your hooves." Widow commended, clapping me on the back as she stepped inside, "What the hell?"
I peeked in myself and immediately noticed what she had: a single pedestal was all that was contained in there. On the pedestal was what appeared to be some kind of computer. Aside from this, though, there was absolutely nothing in there. Why was this so important?
Then that voice creeped into our ears, from our own headsets, too, "Looks like I caught a couple BUGS!"
The voice was so loud and sudden, I yelled and threw my helmet off immediately, my eyes and ears twitching, "THE BUCK, MAN!?"
Widow, who was recovering from the assault on her ears, responded to the new voice, "Who are you and how did you get this line?" she demanded coldly while I grudgingly made my way to my helmet.
"I am what you see right in front of you, my dear insects." the voice responded, "I am the AI incarnate of apparently the last Prophet of the Covenant!"
I kneeled down to pick up my helmet, a bit confused by what the voice emanating from it's speakers said, "So...that's why this place was shut down..." I muttered, picking my helmet back up, "Because you went insane." I looked my helmet over, recalling the stories Washington told me about Alpha, AI, and The Meta, "And the staff knew what would happen, so they shut you down." I motioned for Widow to begin approaching the computer in the center of the room, slowly, "But our forces prevented them from leaving before shutting this place down for good, so they were completely obliterated by the bio soldiers." Widow and I slowly and cautiously approached the supposed center of control for this AI Prophet, hoping he wouldn't notice while I distracted him, "I was wondering why we never found any bodies."
"Hmm...you have very good deduction skill..." the AI complimented, "What little good that does, though, for you are, from here on out, MY new test subjects! With control over the entire factory, I have nothing to do, you see, but experiment and test for new and better technology!"
I nodded to Widow, silently unclipping a grenade and waiting a moment before chucking it at the computer, "Right, whatever, goodnight!" I shouted before we dove and covered our heads.
"What? What're you do-!?"
His voice was cut-off by the explosion, so I figured we destroyed him, but as I was lifting my head, grinning triumphantly at Widow, something suddenly wrapped around my torso and lifted me off the ground.
"Whoa! The buck is this!?" I dropped my helmet as my body left the ground and the room spun in a blur. Upon stopping, I saw that some kind of robotic tentacle had slithered out of a hole in the wall to grab Widow and lift her like another had apparently done to me.
"Simple minded Vermin!" the AI mocked, it's voice now emanating from everywhere, "I saw your ploy. I saw EVERYTHING!" he took a moment to chuckle, "From the moment you fools switched me back on...I kept an eye on you all. This was why you were constantly petered by my bio warriors!"
The realization hit me like a brick...why didn't I realize this sooner!?
"Grrr...GET OFFA ME!" Widow shouted, straining to break free.
I looked to the computer to find it unscathed, and with a scorch mark plastered in front of it on some kind of clear, yet obviously very dense and tough material. It wasn't even cracked!
"Tch, cheater..." I muttered, ignoring the slight warm feeling I was starting to feel as the mechanical tentacle tightened around me...what? I like what I like!
"I was simply using my resources, Vermin." the AI countered.
"Heh, that's what I say whenever I cheat." I laughed, then grunted as the constricting continued, "Ermf...trying to break me in-erg, half...?"
"I'm thinking about it. I do want to TOY with you a bit more...I have never encountered...creatures such as you." I felt my body go into motion again as the tentacle lifted me higher to an apparent camera attached to the ceiling while Widow shouted at the AI to leave me alone, obviously to no avail, "You are...very different indeed. Your body appears to be very soft and tender..." as if to prove his point, the tentacle tightened and began to bend my back a bit farther than what was comfortable, eliciting a sharp scream from my throat and an obscene shout of anger from Widow, "Yet obviously built with power. It will be fun to experiment in you! Yes, that is vey apparent."
As my body straightened out again I huffed, groaning as the pain subsided, "How long do you intend to fondle my body?" I asked somewhat monotone, "Cuz soon enough, and I might report you for sexual harassment."
"What the hell, Artemis!?" Widow shouted, only to be drowned-out by somewhat sadistic laughter from the AI.
"You are indeed a very...eccentric specimen. I will ENJOY toying with you."
Only because I figured I was going to die anyway, I decided to continue to play my sex-joke card and responded with, "Oh baby, sounds hot."
"Seriously, Artemis, WHAT THE HELL!?"
Suddenly, the tentacle around me shook before going limp and letting me fall about thirty feet to the ground. I hit, grunting and dropping into a roll so as to take most of the pressure off my legs...still hurt quite a bit, though.
"What!? What did you do!?" the AI shouted, apparently not intending that to happen.
"What COULD I do!?" I shouted back, looking around with narrowed eyes at the multiple tentacles which were now appearing from the walls and ceiling, "I was completely restricted." I paused to look at the now limp tentacle which had restrained me and saw something small and worm-like wiggle it's way out of a slit in the mechanical appendage, "Ah! Sluggy! Was wondering where you slithered off to!"
"What!? One of MY OWN creations!? What is this...this DISSENTION!?"
I cringed at the volume resonating around the room from the obviously upset AI, then caught Sluggy in a hoof as he fell off the tentacle, "You're just a mean jerk and Sluggy likes me better!" I teased, sticking a tongue at the camera I was held up to earlier.
"Hey Artemis...if, you know, you're not busy...COULD YOU GET ME, PLEASE!?" I looked back at Widow, who was still stuck in her binds, and saw that MORE of the tentacles had started to wrap around her, slowly smothering her entire body.
"Hehe...sorry!-WHOA!" I quickly had to duck as one of the tentacles rudely tried to make a swipe at me, "Hey, ya prick! I was having a conversa-BUCK!" another tentacle made a swipe at me, AGAIN, rudely cutting me off and forcing me to jump to the side so I wouldn't be crushed, "JERK!"
That word was practically shoved back down my throat, though, because I received a pretty heavy smack to the gut from yet another tentacle and was propelled quite a ways back. By the time I was able to plant my hooves on the ground again, I was back out in the hallway. Luckily for me, though, I ended up near my beloved Undertaker. Grinning from ear to ear, I started to sprint for my hefty and oh so lovely rifle. Without wanting to pause to pick it up, I simply dove for it, landing almost on top of it, grabbed it in my fore hooves, then rolled back to my rear hooves, checking to make sure she was fully loaded.
"Full five bullets. Nice." I carefully planned my attack in the few moments I had before re-entering the room...and by carefully, I mean not at all...and by PLAN, I mean I was just going to wing it. I was never one for prior planning, and it always seemed to work just fine before!...usually, "Oi!" I shouted, grabbing the AI's attention again.
"You are resilient!" his voice shouted, "But I'm sure you have a CRUSHING point!"
I sprinted fully into the room, catching sight of about seven different tentacles flying at me from every which way. I'm sure there was more, but I just focused on the one's I saw in front of me, and the ones holding Widow. The first tentacle to make a swipe attempted a similar strike to the one that hurled me out of the room, but I was prepared and quickly slammed a hoof down, throwing all of my momentum into an aerial tuck-and-roll of sorts. The wind tear left behind the swift strike was very apparent, almost knocking me off my landing. Almost.
"DIE, VERMIN!"
Immediately upon landing, I was back to sprinting for Widow, more tentacles swarming around me. I again saw another swipe heading for me, but this one was aimed a bit higher, so instead of vaulting over it, I threw all of my speed into a slide, dropping onto my flank with Undertaker held above my head. The tentacle swished by, blowing my mane around wildly as I continued to slide. Oh it was so exhilarating! And the adrenaline was really kicking in then...my heart was thumping so hard, my chest felt like it would burst! And my mind, eyes, ears, and even SMELL, were all just skyrocketing into a united overdrive of the most lovely and epic proportions...being a lover of the art of battle, myself, this was one of the moments that I practically lived, and died, for!
Everything went slowly from there. The tentacles seemed to glide only half as fast as before, my speedy power slide was now more like a turtle crawl, and the sparks which had been shooting out behind me as my armor dragged across the metal floor looked like...Uh...hmm...looked like...you know what, it just looked really damn awesome in slow motion. Beautiful descriptions is NOT my thing, you know.
With everything in this hyper state, I now had the chance to formulate an ACTUAL way to get out of this mess. I always think better under pressure, I believe. There was a total of three tentacles ensnaring my leader, and a WHOLE LOT more attempting to turn me into a messy stain on the floor. I guess he just was too mad to consider keeping me as a lab rat anymore. My slide continued, and the tentacles started closing in. I knew that, soon enough, I would be overwhelmed and beaten to a pulp. That is to say, unless I didn't provide some retaliation!
My eyes dared around, taking note of every last possible threat to me in the room within a fraction of the time it takes somepony to blink, then my mind quickly created a multitude of action plans, quickly ruling-out each one that ended with my death until either one succeeded, or I just plain ran out of options. Luckily, one plan of action seemed like it would work.
"Eat shit!"
Everything suddenly zipped back to it's normal speed, a grin already plastered on my face, as I fired one, semi-braced shot at one of the three tentacles which trapped Widow. It hit, but practically stopped my slide entirely, leaving me open for attack. Of course, I already knew this and had already predicted which way to go in order to avoid the metal and wire appendage which was bearing down upon me. With what little momentum I had left, I shoved myself up and planted my right rear hoof on the ground, spinning a full one hundred and eighty degrees while letting Undertaker slide in my grasp until I held her firmly around the tip of the barrel with both fore hooves. I had predicted an attack from behind...and as I swung my rifle like a baseball bat I was proven correct when the tentacle was bashed aside. Not wanting to waste any momentum, I twisted a bit more threw myself to the side and bashed another tentacle out of the way.
'So far so good...'
Before that last tentacle could retreat back up, I grasped it in one hoof and allowed it to carry me up quite a bit before letting go and drifting upwards a few more feet. Once up, I shifted my hold on Undertaker again so I was primed to fire at another of the tentacles binding Widow. As soon as I had the shot, I fired, the recoil knocking me slightly higher and slightly farther back. Of course, I had planned for that, grinning as another tentacle swished by, moving the air in the spot I was moments ago. This, coupled with the sight of the second of tentacle holding Widow falling to the ground, brought a wider grin to my face.
"You slithering, little, rodent!" It was obvious my evasiveness was enraging this AI...this only made me smile even wider.
Without wasting time to mock the angry construct, I flipped and twisted so that I could see the remaining tentacles swarming upwards to attack me, as I had correctly predicted. Gripping Undertaker tightly, I started to fall towards them, waiting for the right time to move so as to not alert them which way I would go.
"Wrong move, Vermin!"
The tentacles stared zipping upwards at me, trying to just go and impale my guts. I waited until the first one was right upon me before shifting to the right, arching my back as it missed by less than an inch. With a solid object beside me, the rest of the dodging would be easy as cupcakes!
"No, that's EXACTLY what I wanted to do!" I retorted, twisting again and grabbing onto the vertical spire which had just missed so I could pull myself out of the way of another attack.
This movement sent me spiraling down, swirling around the tentacle which I held onto until I started to reach the section of the tentacle which had curved upwards. There, I let go of it with my fore hoof and began to slide down the rest of it's length on my rear hooves. More attacks were already making their way towards me, but each time a new appendage made to impale or swipe at me, I simple kicked off and landed on a different tentacle to continue my evasive movement. Of course, my predictions were becoming less exact as I went along and I had to improvise when one of the tentacles I had been grinding across suddenly ended and I soared off of it's tip into open air again.
"Now I have you!"
As I was unable to avoid it this time, I quickly brought Undertaker up into a firing position and aimed at the deadly mass of metal which was spearing straight towards me. I figured I had one bullet to spare anyway, so I pulled the trigger and watched as the tentacle exploded, beginning at the tip and quickly making it's way down like a shockwave as my bullet tore it to pieces.
"Wrong again!" I mocked, beginning to fall back to the ground from a pretty reasonable height.
With my predictions now fully useless, I decided I had to end everything there and aimed my last bullet at the remaining tentacle which held Widow. I didn't have long, for more were already close to snatching me, but I luckily managed to hit it and was able to see Widow fall to the ground, land on her feet, and start running for the door. With that done, though, I now had to figure-out how I was going to escape myself...
"It was fun, Vermin, but now...DIE!"
-------------
--Meanwhile...in the real World...--
Luna flew high into the sky, a couple miles, in fact, before pausing to look back at the ground. She realized she had just left Aerowin probably a but too hastily, but was a bit too far up to turn around.
"Sorry..." she muttered sheepishly, even though nopony was around to hear her, "Now...Discord..."
The Goddess turned once more towards the sky, the Earthly sun already on it's way below the horizon while it's silver companion was on it's way up. As she took note of the moon, she felt a pang of melancholy sadness. While the raising and lowering of the moon was always considered a chore to her, she still loved it. I mean, it WAS her home for a couple thousand years after all. Yes, it was still there, floating around the ruined Equis sadly, but her duties now required her attention on Earth, and the trek there would take up far too much of her time.
"Discord, Discord, Discord..." Luna muttered to herself the Spirit's name, "He really could be anywhere in the entire universe by now...but he still loved the ponies, if only as subjects of his mental games." Luna, once she had exited Earth's atmosphere, felt the cool sensation of nothing against her coat, though took no real note of it. She had felt this feeling of "nothing" for so long, it didn't really affect her any more. One of the upsides to being a Goddess in an intergalactic war was the ability to ignore the lack of Oxygen in space, "So I am sure he is either on Earth, or with somepony, somewhere."
The midnight blue Alicorn finally came to a stop, turning to look back at the spherical rock which still tried to pull her to it, even at that distance, "Let's see if we cannot find you on the entirety of Earth first, hmm?"
Luna continued to push herself away from Earth with an equal amount of force which was trying to pull her to it. She needed to remain in about the same spot as her magic began to flare up in her horn, prepared to begin it's search of any kind of magical signature which was similar, in any way, to that of Discord's. As it would take quite a while, and a decently large amount of magical energy, to scan the entire planet, Luna required a lot of preparation time, both physically and mentally.
"I'm sorry, everypony, but I will not be appearing at the New Year's Party..." Luna whispered, closing her eyes and taking a deep, oxygenless breath, "I never understood how that worked..." she wondered momentarily before returning her focus on the meditative preparations.
-------------
"So what is it you had in mind, Pip?"
Pip had led Cross, along with little Sluggy, to the very room which he had been watching for the past few days. He had a hunch that his little worm knew something, about somepony, which it was just dying to tell. Seeing as the worm didn't have a way of communicating it's voice, though, Pip had to find somepony else that was good at communicating with the uncommicatable, and since her arrival, Diana had successfully communicated with two Jackals, one Drone (of all things), and a Skirmisher...the Skirmisher, though, really did not seem too happy to be there, even though it had chosen to defect to the UNSC of it's own accord.
"Pip...? Hello?"
Pip shook his head, jumping out of a strange dreamy state. He thought he heard Luna apologize for something, and became distracted by an odd feeling of being looked at and examined, inside and out.
"Er...sorry." he apologized, grinning sheepishly, "Uhm...Luna won't be a' the par'y tonight." he stated somewhat out of the blue before stepping up to the door and knocking with the same hoof Sluggy was wrapped around.
Cross merely shrugged after a couple moments of unsuccessful contemplation, then waited beside her admittedly odd coltfriend while sounds of shuffling, some bangs, and two obscene shouts of anger and pain emanated out to their ears.
"Uhhh...who are we visiting, again?" Cross asked, even though Pip never told her to begin with.
Finally, as the sounds of loud movement ended just on the other side of the door, Pip answered, "Diana."
Cross gulped, stepping slightly behind Pip for fear of this eccentric pony. Artemis was a bit creepy, yes, but this Diana was just plain antisocial. At least Artemis was fun to hang around...or so she heard. She never actually met the mare. The two waited patiently as a couple unbolting and unlocking sounds clicked and clanged, until, at last, the door started to slowly swing open, the sound of VERY LOUD music slamming into their eardrums. It was a wonder that they didn't hear it before the opening of the door! Slowly, something black and cloth-like started to poke it's way out from behind the door, seemingly in beat with the building music which Pip had recognized as a popular song by some human group by the name of Innerpartysystem. The song was called "American Trash," if he remembered correctly, and he had to admit, though, that it fit this odd mare nicely. Soon, her entire head, more or less, was visible, and it was from the look in her oddly orange eyes that she was very upset at being bothered.
"Well, if it isn't my little Stakler!" she exclaimed, not even attempting in hiding her annoyance in any way, "What brings you and your fuck-buddy to my doorstep, hmm?"
Cross's eyes twitched as her face burned bright red, attempting to hide even further behind Pip so as to hide her anger...you could practically see the steam billowing from her ears!
Pip eyed his secret assignment for the first time at a close range as she stepped fully out of her room, of course, on just her rear legs in a similar fashion that Artemis would. Unfortunately, almost her entire body was covered by black cloth. Her face was entirely wrapped-up, even her muzzle, save for her eyes and ears. Her mane was even concealed by a black cowl which seemed to be part of the same material which wrapped around her, though a black or red strand or two would sometimes poke it's way out. Not only her face was covered, either, for the cloth wound it's way down her body, crossing each other and making an X at her chest, then coming back together at her waist and thighs to cover everything about her cutie mark and groin. Either she was very conscious of her body, or she was hell bent on concealing something.
"I need ya t' ave a quick chat with me bu'y here." Pip explained casually, "An' don' tell Halsey 'bout this."
Pip lifted his hoof to Diana and waited for Sluggy to make his move. Diana watched, with seemingly total disinterest, as the little worm wiggled to life, slithering up Pip's leg until it was right at he tip of his hoof.
"Well...looks like somepony is breaking regulation." Diana scoffed, though the fabric around her muzzle shifted position slightly, betraying her cold stare as Pip realized that she had smiled.
"So can ya do 't?" Pip asked hopefully.
Diana seemed to stare at the slug in thought...and it seemed to stare back. This went on for about five minutes until finally Diana stepped back and opened her door for her guests to enter.
"C'min. Don't want listening eyes and watching ears to get this."
Cross looked to Pip with a face that asked a mix of, "Do we really have to...?" and "What the buck...?"
But Pip merely nodded sternly and led her inside while Sluggy slipped firmly back around his owner's hoof. Once inside, Pip clearly recognized the music as what he had previously guessed it to be. He also realized that Diana was a pretty bad slob when it came to keeping her sleeping quarters clean. Papers, books, magazines, cloth, and pieces of armor were strewn about in a manner and abundance that rivaled the room of Pip's DJ pony friend, Vinyl, who was known for her messy lifestyle as much as her music.
Pip almost laughed at the fittingness of the song currently playing, 'American Trash, indeed.' he thought smugly, noticing the formidable stereo system which took up all the space of the far wall. He dreaded hearing the speakers at full volume and dearly hoped he never would have to.
"Tell me, fillies, what do you know of the mischief spirit, Discord?" Diana asked, flopping down on her bed, which had a multitude of stains and tears on it's splayed and disheveled covers and pillows.
Pip and Cross looked to each other in confusion, hoping to find the other wasn't caught off guard by the sudden question. They were both severely disappointed.
"Uhm, excuse me, Miss Diana..." Cross spoke-up first, clearing her throat to get the mare's attention, "Why the hay do you need to know?"
Diana rolled onto her side, propping her head up with a hoof and flicking her unkempt ebony tail as she delivered a formidable and mocking stare, "You'll see. Just answer my question, please."
Cross furrowed her brow and frowned in annoyance, but complied none the less, "Okay...he was the Spirit of Disharmony and Chaos, right?" she started, "He was also probably destroyed in the glassing of Equis, since he was stuck as a stone statue after being beaten by the Elements of Harmony...right?"
Diana's eyes seemed to glow in mischief before she suddenly sat upright, staring straight at Sluggy on Pip's wrist, "Now see...everypony thought you were dead! Now you can stop whispering in my head, and let's talk...face to face, hmm?"
Pip and Cross were about to ask the seemingly deranged mare what the hay she was going on about, when a blindingly white flash blinded them, centered at Pip's wrist.