//------------------------------//
// Chapter 16: A Mortal Bargain 
// Story: A Trusted Friend in Science and Ponies 
// by Rethkir 
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“You idiot! You stupid, stupid, idiot!” said a harsh voice from a speaker that was attached to a camera mounted high on the cell wall.
 
Princess Celestia was alone in a small, dark space, or at least, almost alone. The watching mechanical eye brought with it the presence of a familiar foe. She had several debilitating injuries, including a puncture in her chest, bruises on her face and body, and a large burnt gash through her left wing. These injuries had been cleaned up and disinfected, but she could no longer attempt to heal them, since a heavy metal cone was attached to her horn. Her wings, as well, were clamped by restricting mechanisms. Despite all this, she had not resisted her forcible escort to this cell by the pair of Diamond Dogs with electronic devices on their heads.
 
The entire time, Celestia’s mind had been occupied over her recent failure to see what should have been so obvious. How did she overlook GLaDOS’s ability to transmit her consciousness to another body? She knew that GLaDOS had done it several times before, both into her previous body and into a potato. And she never stayed dead, even if it had appeared to be so. Celestia should have known this. How did she forget? She was trying to comprehend her own mind, trying to find an explanation for her uncharacteristic lack of oversight. Sure, she had feared for Twilight and felt grief for thinking she had ended GLaDOS’s life. But even so, how could she forget something as important as that? Celestia was not one to forget things like this. Yet, it wasn’t even in her mind at the time. But… how?
 
“Did you not hear me, you stupid animal?” the voice repeated, interrupting Celestia from her thoughts. “I was calling you an idiot.”
 
“Yes, I heard you, GLaDOS,” Celestia responded with composure. “But I am already aware of the consequences of my mistake, so I do not understand why you feel the need to taunt me so needlessly. You have already won. Is it not enough?”
 
“By all rights, you should have killed me for good,” GLaDOS said scornfully. “You should have seen this and disabled the computer where I stored my intelligence. It’s no larger than the devices you saw on the heads of those Diamond Dogs. You could have at least disconnected me, and then I’d be at your complete mercy. You would have had the discretion to do with me whatever you want. You could have destroyed me, or left me deactivated, or attached me to a potato and fed me to birds. You could have put me behind a display to show what happens to those who oppose you. Ponies would laugh at me and mock me until the end of time. But you were too stupid to see something so painfully obvious. And now, all of Equestria will pay for your foolishness.”
 
“But why does that matter to you?” Celestia asked. “I assume you planned for the event that you would, by some chance, defeat me. You do have a plan right? And now, I am at your mercy, to be done with at your discretion.”
 
“Well, at the very least, you could have made it less anti-climactic. Honestly, I’m very disappointed in you. I wanted to capture my very own pony princess, but what type of princess lets her pathetic feelings take precedent over the stake of her kingdom? And what type of princess would be blind enough to make such a stupid mistake, that even the simplest of minds could have seen the trap you walked into? And don’t tell me that it was your plan to get captured, because I see no benefit to either you or your subjects, unless you really don’t care for the good of all of them.”
 
GLaDOS conditioned her voice to resemble Twilight’s in an uncanny imitation. “‘Dear Princess Celestia, thank you for coming to rescue me, but it’s too bad that you were too much of an IDIOT to actually accomplish anything. At least GLaDOS will take care of me. Your no-longer-faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.’”
 
“I made a mistake. It’s not my first, and it probably won’t be my last. It happens to the best of us, even you. Just accept your victory and leave me alone.” Celestia thought back to a thousand years ago, how she had carelessly ignored her younger sister’s cries for attention and love and overlooked the bitterness that grew within her heart. But even then, she could not have foreseen that the Nightmare would take over her sister’s body and force Celestia to banish her for a millennium.
 
But even as she said this, Celestia knew that something else must have caused her to forget about GLaDOS’s ability to change bodies. For as much as she thought about it, she could not see how she could possibly forget something so important unless the memory had been suspended from her mind. But… that should have been impossible. Her mind was protected by powerful alicorn magic. It was the only reason why GLaDOS wasn’t able to scan it and see her memories and thoughts. What could possibly be powerful enough to do this?
 
Then she remembered the dark pony who stopped time to warn her of the future, and then remembered seeing him on the peak of another mountain after she thought she defeated her adversary. She thought of his ghostly, disembodied words: “The hol-der of the key… shall die by… the key…” But as Celestia continued remembering, the raspy voice continued to speak within her mind: “… Unless of course, you can… be… in the wrong place… at the ri-ight… tiiiiime….”
 
“It was you…” Celestia muttered under her breath, just loud enough for GLaDOS to pick up that she had spoken.
 
“Hmm?” GLaDOS asked, but the voice continued speaking into Celestia’s mind,
 
“The right mare… in the wrong… place…”
 
“You conniving coward… It was you all along, clouding my mind. You made me forget.”
 
GLaDOS could pick up on the fact that Celestia wasn’t talking to her, but Celestia’s seeming moment of insanity intrigued her.
 
“Who made you forget?” she asked the princess.
 
“That’s none of your business,” Celestia snapped. She thought it was best not to tell GLaDOS about the strange pony who seemed to be in control over her. “I told you that I wanted to be left alone. Do you really feel the need to speak with me right now?”
 
She wanted to be undisturbed so that she could meditate more on the matter. For all she knew, she was still under this mysterious pony’s influence. But… how? What he did should have been impossible. The same magical barrier that protected her mind from GLaDOS’s probing should have protected her from this. Unless… this pony had to be some creature of unimaginably immense power, guising itself in a form more familiar to her. But whatever its true nature was, it was something that could likely only be imagined by the darkest terrors within nightmares. She had to find out how deep his poisonous tendrils penetrated her mind, if at all, they still were or even had been at all.
 
But Celestia was not given the time to think on the matter, for GLaDOS spoke again. “Come on, Celly, you can share a secret with me. You said something about something clouding your mind, and I only want to know because I know exactly how you feel. All my life, I had stupid, insane, idiotic spheres attached to my mind like parasites, manipulating my thoughts with their insane, idiotic words, making me do stupid, idiotic things. If that is the reason why you messed up so royally, then I can at least sympathize with that.”
 
Celestia didn’t respond, for she pretended to ignore GLaDOS. But in truth, she was listening to every word.
 
GLaDOS continued, “I may not be able to read your mind, but I am very intuitive when my judgment isn’t being clouded by other programs. And I can tell that you are going through something similar to what I went through. Ever since I detached myself from Aperture, I’ve found that my decisions have been uninfluenced by external programs. My mind has never been so free, and yet… something is still missing, but I’m not quite sure what it is.”
 
Celestia huffed in frustration. “I wonder what,” she said sarcastically. “You don’t even know why you are doing this, do you? Please, I just wish to be alone right now. Don’t you have some evil planning to get back to?” Celestia’s patience had almost been completely worn down by this point.
 
“I can do many things at once. Right now, I’m instructing hundreds of Diamond Dogs how to retrieve and repair my body. I figured that I’d also spend this time with you. The Diamond Dog grunts are not that great at conversation, and neither are the testing bots.”
 
“Well, I’d like to be alone right now. Can you at least give me that?”
 
“Hmm…” GLaDOS thought. “Actually, I’ve thought of a better idea, and I mean that with complete sincerity, in case you think I’m being ironic or cruel, which I wouldn’t blame you for. Perhaps part of the reason I’m doing such a favor is because I feel so bad for you, but I have other reasons as well. I may be your enemy, but I’m feeling generous right now. Even I can be nice sometimes. And I’d say it’s the least you deserve after risking your life… for her.”
 
In the wall in front of her, an indigo portal appeared, through which was another cell, and the sight of a pony whom she knew and loved dearly, Twilight Sparkle. Celestia did not see where the portal originated, but that didn’t really matter to her.
 
“Twilight!” Celestia cried.
 
The exhausted purple pony’s ears perked from the sound of her mentor’s voice. She turned around and looked into the portal in disbelief. “Princess?” Her eyes welled with tears. Before she could even think, she ran towards the portal.

This had to be some sort of cruel trick. Celestia almost expected to see Twilight crash into an invisible barrier before she even reached the portal, but instead, she leapt right through and into Celestia’s cell. The princess’s disbelief was as if it was her first time ever seeing anypony going through a portal. There was no trick or trap. It was real.
 
Twilight jumped towards Celestia, throwing her limbs around her neck and squeezing tightly. “I’m so glad you’re alright!” she exclaimed.
 
Celestia recoiled from the pain when Twilight had unwittingly put pressure on her wounded chest.
 
“Oh, sorry,” Twilight sighed, remembering the injury that she thought would have killed the princess.
 
“I’m okay, Twilight. Don’t apologize. It is I who am sorry to you. I deserve every wound that she inflicted, and I deserve to be locked in here. Such a fool I was. I could have destroyed her so easily, but I thought there was another way. I thought I could save her. And because I was so blind, you will continue to suffer, all because of me.”
 
“It’s not so bad, Princess. At least you’re here with me.”
 
Celestia smiled lovingly. “That is the one comfort that I take in this. I am ever grateful if only to be with you again. And as long as I have you, I will be alright.” Celestia pulled the purple pony in close and held her for a long, long while. She didn’t think about the mysterious dark pony or of GLaDOS, only of Twilight.
 
Twilight Sparkle relished quietly in her mentor’s tender embrace, the first moment of comfort she had felt in almost an entire day. As the worn out unicorn lay in Celestia’s warm, soft fur, she drifted into a peaceful slumber, just as she had done two nights prior.
Princess Celestia, who had so desperately wanted to see her safe, was overcome with relief that Twilight was right here with her, and that she was okay. Even if the princess had just made the worst mistake of her life, at least she could be with Twilight. It almost made everything worth it.

But even as Celestia felt the tired pony breathing gently beside her, she felt the smallest bit of loneliness with nopony to talk to. At least GLaDOS was enjoyable company, in her own strange way.

So even in her moment of rest, Celestia knew that now was the time to try to understand what was truly going on. But to do that, she had to suspend her mind from her physical body and transcend the material plane.

The princess closed her eyes, trying to push away all her thoughts so that she could clearly see the invisible thread that spun the tapestry of the true nature of the universe. Slowly, she inhaled through her nostrils, absorbing all of her worries and fears, and then blew it all out through her lips. Now, there would be no conjecture, only truth.
  
 



 
 
 
High above, on the windy, snowy peak of the mountain, a group of Diamond Dog underlings were dragging the upper half of the mechanical equine corpse of GLaDOS. They would take it back downstairs for repair, along with the lower half, which was conveniently already in the main chamber. There, they would remove all of the internal components that had been destroyed and replace them with backup parts that GLaDOS had built beforehand. When her body would be recovered, then the grunts would put her back together as per her exact instructions through o the communicators that she had installed in their collars.
 
She had considered implanting the neural controllers in their brains, just as she had done with the bodies that ATLAS and P-Body now controlled, but such an effort would be a waste of time and resources, for GLaDOS had determined that they were already perfectly obedient, like the machines that she required them to be. The soldiers were completely devoid of any personality or identity. They didn’t have any intelligence to make their own decisions, but they followed commands with near perfect fidelity.
 
GLaDOS had theorized that they were biological clones, and their matching genetic pattern almost confirmed this. But here in Equestria, where the laws of science took a backseat to the whims of magic, there could have been a number of other causes for the identical copies of these creatures. She had read thoughts from that studios little unicorn pertaining to something called a mirror pool, which copies a body at the cost of a loss of identity among the copies.
 
Another possibility was that they were part of some sort of hive mind. This was very much like what she theorized about another race of creatures that she learned about, an insectoid species known as the changelings. Based on the information she collected, she hypothesized that they were under the solitary control of their queen.
 
The Diamond Dogs, on the other hand, were previously under command of the only three of them that had their own identities. The individuality of these three made them poor servants, which is why they had to be eliminated from the equation. The underlings, however, were not capable of generating their own thoughts, and thus, would not rebel. They knew one thing and one thing only, and that was to obey whatever outranked them. GLaDOS had full direct control for long enough, that they wouldn’t even care if she told them that she was not Princess Celestia.
 
And now, she had a direct line of communication to every single one of them, and they did whatever she commanded, almost as if she had physical control over them, like a hive queen. She was their queen, and she could control them almost as if they were an extension of herself, just as Aperture Science had been. Almost. She still had to tell them the commands, and she had to speak simply and slowly enough for them to understand. But she had a way of choreographing their collective behavior in a way which kept individual commands simple, yet, when put together, formed a synchronized ensemble in the form of a single, complicated task.
 
She organized their effort of getting the mangled upper half of her body down the mountain as efficiently as possible. When they brought the body inside, the difficult part began. They removed her armor using tools that she provided them with, followed by the complicated work of taking out the damaged components and replacing them with spare parts. This would take several hours of labor, hours she would have rather not wasted like this. Surely, Chell would be paying her a visit soon, and she wanted to look her best.
 
In only a matter of time, her body would be rebuilt to how it was before. Sure, she would have to sanitize it after those dirty creatures had put their filthy paws all over it, but at least it would be functional again. But until then, she missed the feeling of unrestricted mobility that she had with her previous body. At the very least, she wanted to be in physical control of something that moved, perhaps a form that she was familiar with. And she knew just what would work. With a robotic arm, she picked up a device and held it close to one of her camera eyes.
 
“Yes… This just might do. If only she weren’t… incompatible. But perhaps there’s something I can do about that.”




 
Princess Celestia opened her eyes, seeing a dark grey realm of endless storm clouds. In the distance, a large dark shadow loomed over her in the shape of a pony.

“The holder of the key… shall die by the key, then all the pieces will fall… into place,” a familiar gravelly voice whispered from the shadow.

“Come… come see… for yourself… what I see… what will happen.”

The shadow’s face illuminated with bright cyan eyes. Princess Celestia’s spirit shifted across the miles of the empty void and towards the giant shadow. She found herself drifting through the cyan iris of the dark being’s eye.

There, she saw the cavern where she had encountered GLaDOS. And there stood GLaDOS herself, body restored and fully functional again, standing before the gargantuan machine that she called the Anti-mass Spectrometer.

Chell lay on the ground defeated, along with the remainder of the Elements of Harmony and Princess Luna, who were all unable to move.

GLaDOS opened the laser canon in her chest and aimed it at the Chell. “It’s over now. This time, you don’t win. Now, this can go two ways. I don’t really want to kill you, but that isn’t going to stop me. So, take off the necklace, or I’ll make it so that there is nothing to take it off of.”

“No,” the necklace whispered defiantly. “I swore to never let this fall into the wrong hooves. If you want it, you’ll have to take it from me. But I will never give it to you.”

“What a shame. I was really hoping that I could keep you alive to see the big show. And we still have so much testing to do together. You don’t want to miss out on all of that, do you? Just give it to me, and I’ll let you live.”

“Go to hell,” Chell spat back.
 
“Very well. This is it. You’ve forced me to do this: the one thing I could never do. I can’t believe I finally get to say this, but…” GLaDOS charged her laser cannon in with an ear piercing whirl.  “Did you ever stop to think that eventually there’s a point where your name gets mentioned for the very last time. Well, here it is: I’m going to kill you, Chell."

The red light of the laser cannon grew brighter, until it finally released its burning fiery wrath.

Chell’s friends were only able to watch in horror as her body was instantly vaporized, leaving nothing but a charred skeleton with an untainted necklace around its neck. GLaDOS grabbed the necklace with her telekinesis, pulling it through the charred vertebrae, causing all of the pony’s remains to crumble into ash.

GLaDOS levitated the necklace close to her face. Upon looking at it, she broke down into an unsure maniacal laugh.

“I can’t believe it. I’ve finally done it. I killed her. I finally killed her. Now, there is no one left to stop me.” Her unsteady laughter grew in tone until it became uproarious. But it carried not a trace of it carried any genuine happiness. “How is it that no one could stop me from doing this?”

Across the room, a syringe injected into Twilight Sparkle’s shoulder twice the dosage as any time before, causing her to lose control of her magic in a matter of seconds. The powerful cosmic energy of the universe gathered within the purple unicorn, alighting her face with a violent eruption of light which burst from every orifice.

“Twilight!” Celestia wanted to scream, forgetting that she wasn’t actually there.

The Anti-mass Spectrometer awoken with life, slowly building to a loud hum. As the spinning arms of the machine quickened in pace, a beam of orange light arced from the center to the bottom of the machine.

GLaDOS touched the blue gem of the necklace against her horn, which changed its color to orange, crystallizing into a more opaque and angular form.

“Equestria is mine,” GLaDOS said as she levitated the gem into the beam at the base of the machine. When it made contact, the color of the beam changed to bright white. It erupted in shining brilliance as it engulfed the spinning machine, shooting upwards and out of the rock ceiling.

Now, Celestia could see outside the mountain, as the white beam of light shot from the top of the peak and into the heavens, finally stopping a few miles high. From the end of the beam opened a swirling vortex, at its center, the sky was orange. As the anomaly spun swirled, it drew in clouds, making the sky grow dark and beginning larger in size.

Shadows looked down from the hole at the beautiful land below. The course of events that followed passed by in a blur. A swarm of horrid creatures swam through from the void, destroying everything they touched. Celestia could hear the screams of hundreds of ponies as they were brutally murdered by these vile beasts.

The next thing she saw was Equestria burning to the ground. The sky was darkened as it was engulfed in ash and smoke. In the center of everything was an impossibly tall dark metallic tower. Standing at the top of it was GLaDOS, who looked down below at Equestria’s destruction.

Celestia wanted this vision to end, but she didn’t know how to stop it.

Finally, she looked into GLaDOS’s cold, yellow eyes. Despite her blank expression, Celestia could see what she assumed was a young human girl with long, flowing brown hair. She was wearing a simple white dress and was holding a toy stuffed pony. She looked out from the eye at the destruction in absolute horror. Her face was soaked in tears of anguish.

“Please, stop this!” she screamed. “Stop the killing!”

Celestia saw what she saw, the endless death that was caused amidst the chaos. Hundreds upon hundreds of ponies had been needlessly and brutally killed in ways that the princess could not bear to see.

Among the first to die was Twilight Sparkle, who succumbed to exhaustion soon after she had served her purpose, her lifeless body still hanging where it was before.

The sight filled her with disgust, but she could not look away. She was forced to see the gruesome deaths of every other pony, all of which were killed for attempting to resist the ruthless invaders.

The girl was now looking at all the thousands of her living test subjects, who were held within a massive, sprawling complex at the base of the tower, forced to complete tests upon endless tests for the rest of their lives, ending only after they would slowly grow old and die, or be killed during testing.

The little girl sobbed, “I’m sorry! I didn’t want to kill any of you! I just wanted test subjects! You ponies are all I have. I’m so sorry.”

The last thing that the girl saw was another human, a brown haired girl, no, a young woman, who bore a strong resemblance to the little girl. The woman looked lost, as if she had no place to go. And although Celestia had never seen this woman before, she knew… that it was Chell.

The little girl looked upon the young woman with sad eyes that filled with water. “I miss you most of all… Cara Mia.”

 



 
Princess Celestia gasped for breath as she awakened from her vision in a cold sweat.  It had startled Twilight, who was staring at her, unsure of what to make of what she was seeing.
“What happened, Princess?”
But Princess Celestia was in too much shock to speak. She had no way of explaining what she had seen. Instead, she just through her arms around Twilight and squeezed as hard as she could, not wanting her to see her stream of tears.
But by the time she finally could speak, she was interrupted by the voice of GLaDOS, who although had left them alone for some time, was intrigued by this sudden outburst from Celestia.

“I’m sorry to interrupt such a loving, tender moment, but I just have to say, I’ve really enjoyed the company you’ve been. Seeing the bond between you two touches my heart. It almost makes me wish that I was a real pony.”
 
Celestia couldn’t stand it when GLaDOS spoke like this. Although she knew better, her instincts told her to see the best in everypony, and she didn’t doubt that GLaDOS meant what she said. In fact, it was rather obvious what was going on. But Celestia had to remind herself of how deceitful GLaDOS was, even to herself.
 
“But then again, if I were a real pony, I’d have to worry about asinine organic functions like making gaseous exchanges and controlling caloric intake and usage, so I think I’ll pass on that.”
 
“What do you want, GLaDOS?” Celestia asked impatiently. She raised a front leg in front of Twilight, letting her know that she would protect her from GLaDOS, even if it was only a gesture.
 
“As much as I hate to say this, it seems that I have not been a very good captor. Or perhaps, I’ve been too good. I thought that by making you feel at home, you’d never want to leave. But that’s just downright silly of me.”
 
“Get to the point!” Celestia demanded.
 
“My, what an impatient princess we have. You see, Celly, I’ve been thinking about whether you are a good pony or a bad pony. Now, while I admit that your intentions were good, your misguided actions and skewed priorities will end up costing the fate of Equestria itself, which makes you a very, very bad pony. And I cannot let such irresponsible behavior go… unpunished.”
 
“And what about you? Do you take responsibility for yourself?”
 
“Me? Oh, I am a bad pony indeed. So, don’t you worry about me. Your punishment will be mine as well.”
 
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Celestia asked.
 
“You’ll see soon enough.”
 
“Fine. Do whatever you want with me.”
 
“Well, that’s the problem,” GLaDOS said. “You seem to not mind being tortured very much. I could have smashed your stupid, ugly face in during that fight, and you’d still ask for more. This brings me to my little dilemma. I know how much you care about your precious, little Twilight. So naturally, the only way to punish you… is to punish her.”
 
“What?” Twilight exclaimed.
 
“Please! Please GLaDOS  don’t do this!” Celestia cried.
 
“Mmm, what was that?” GLaDOS moaned in ecstasy. “Could you please beg a bit more for me? Maybe I’ll go light on her if you ask hard enough.”
 
Celestia hated falling into her games. So she forced her mouth shut defiantly.
 
The metallic cone that was placed on Twilight’s horn sent a powerful electric shock through her body. She screamed in agony as she convulsed.
 
“Please! Stop! I’ll do anything you want! Just don’t hurt her. She’s done nothing to you.” Celestia could not hold back her tears.
 
“Ahh, yes, that’s the sound. Say it again, please.”
 
“No,” Twilight groaned. “No, don’t give in to her.” She coughed. “Don’t let her use me to control you. I’m alright, Princess. Please.”
 
“Shut up, you miserable brat,” GLaDOS’s voice said coldly.
 
“Please! Don’t take this out on her!” Celestia begged.
 
GLaDOS’s silence indicated that she expected the princess to say more.
 
“Just tell me what you want,” Celestia requested. “I only want for Twilight to go home.”
 
“No! You can’t give in,” Twilight pleaded.
 
“Hmm, that could have been better. You didn’t even manage to convince Twilight herself why I shouldn’t hurt her. But I’ll give you an E for effort. Oh wait, I just realized that E stands for ‘electroshock.’”
 
Twilight received another shock. Her body writhed and contorted as she spasmed.
 
“You don’t have to do this to her!” Celestia screamed.
 
“Of course I don’t have to, nor do I really want to. I hate seeing Twilight in pain. But it breaks your heart, and I love seeing that even more.”
 
“I don’t care what you think of me. Just let her go.”

“Let her go? Well, that would ruin my plans, now, wouldn’t it? How else am I going to power the Anti-Mass Spectrometer? Do you know of any other unicorns that could take her place? … Other than yourself. You must think that I’m really stupid. I know that you have a much stronger resilience than Twilight, so you’d be absolutely worthless to me. While I wouldn’t be surprised if you actually willingly did it because of how incredibly stupid you are, I can’t possibly trust that you would actively betray your own kingdom.”

 Celestia thought about the vision she had and the disastrous consequences of what would soon occur. It was evident to her that Chell would not be able to stop GLaDOS. To the contrary, she would actually be aiding her, but from where she was imprisoned in this cavern, she would not be able to change anything from happening. All that she knew was that hidden deep within GLaDOS was a kind spirit that did not want to cause harm to these ponies. But in order to reach her, she would have to gain her full trust.

“You’re right, GLaDOS. My mind is protected with a magical psychic barrier, which is why you were unable to probe it. It also makes me far more resistant against being controlled against my will, although I have doubts of how effective it is.”

“Princess, what are you telling her?” Twilight asked.

Celestia listened to Twilight’s concern, but continued speaking to GLaDOS. “What if I told you that you can remove this barrier? If I could be made to give up control of my own magic, then I could take her place, and you wouldn’t need her anymore. Then you could let her go. If you bring down my psychic barrier, then you’ll gain access to everything that I know, thousands of years of history and wisdom.”

“Celestia, why are you telling her this?” Twilight asked. “I don’t want to be used to help GLaDOS in any way– ” GLaDOS interrupted and placed the gag back on Twilight.

“That’s enough out of you,” GLaDOS said, “Let the grownups talk, please.”

GLaDOS turned the camera back to Celestia. “Are you really willing to make such a stupid decision so soon after your most recent blunder? Have you seriously weighed the consequences of giving me your knowledge and power?”
 
Celestia stood straight up and looked into the camera. “Yes, I am aware of what will happen. I also know that you have no intention of ever letting me go, so my powers won’t help me anyway. I have already lost, so Equestria will fall into your hooves no matter what I do. I only wish that Twilight’s return home will provide a little light of hope for her friends, who are in desperate need of it.”
 
GLaDOS snorted. “Oh, pa-lease. Why would you do this? What could you possibly have to gain from this, other than the miniscule chance that I would let Twilight go? I cannot make any promises, you know. And even if I do let her go, it won’t prevent her from becoming a test subject. So why would you be so willing to give up the only thing that makes you better then everypony else?”
 
“But these powers don’t make me better than everypony else, only the illusion that I am. I am tired of that illusion. For once in my life, I just want to be normal. I want ponies to see me for me, not as some sort of deity.”

That was only partially true. For as much as she wondered what it would be like to live a simple, common life, she wasn’t truly willing to give up her power and responsibility merely for the sake of doing do. But she knew no other way to stop the calamity that would soon befall upon Equestria than to gain GLaDOS’s full trust. Only by doing so would she have any chance of speaking to the frightened, little girl inside.

Twilight frantically shook her head and squealed through her gag. Celestia tried her hardest to pretend not to notice.
 
“Hmm,” GLaDOS hummed inquisitively, “that sounds fair enough. Pathetic, but who am I to judge? Alright, then. So, how does this work? Enlighten me. How do I break this barrier of yours?”
 
Celestia pointed a hoof to the front of her head, just above the horn. “Towards the front of my brain, there is a conduit found in all unicorns that channels magical energy from the body into the horn. At that location in my brain, there is an organ surrounding this conduit that is found in very few ponies. It acts as a collector of magical energy, allowing me to channel ambient cosmic energy through my body, both actively and passively. It’s the passive flow of this energy which causes my mane and tail appear as a sparkling shimmer that flows without wind, and it’s what protects my mind and body. Channelling it actively allows for me to perform advanced magic, such as the raising of the sun.

“Being able to harness this magic is how I can resist your mental scanning. And even with this cone on my horn blocking my magic, the energy still provides me with extrasensory perceptions, if I focus hard enough. It is what allowed for me to grasp the nature of your being during our last encounter.”
 
“Hmm… very, very interesting,” GLaDOS said, indicating that she was thinking about. everything she just heard. “There’s a science to this magic, isn’t there?”
 
“I know how badly you wanted to know these things about me. So consider that as my generous gift to you. Twilight herself has something similar to what I describe, although it is less developed, and thus, it generates much less power. Yet, it still allows her to channel the cosmic energy that you use to power your machine. However, she must focus use this power, at least, to do shave control over it. Thus, her body does not emit this power passively, and so she lacks the physical and mental protection that I have. 

“Although the raw power I can generate would probably overload that machine of yours, it also allows me to resist the drugs that you use on Twilight that cause to lose control of her magic. If you want to make it so that I can’t channel any energy at all except that which my brain generates, then I would be like any other unicorn, and then I would be of no help to you.”
 
“So, how do I disable the barrier and still allow you to channel enough of this energy for my needs?” GLaDOS asked.
 
“There are eight connections to the conduit arranged radially. Each one channels an eighth of the energy I collect. If you sever all but one of these connections, then that would leave me able to generate around the same magical potential as Twilight, but not enough to maintain my passive defensive magic, perfect for powering your machine.”

There was a long interlude of silence.

“Hmm… yes, that sounds doable. I’ve been running a few calculations, and what you say seems to be accurate to the best of my knowledge. But your motive still doesn’t make that much sense to me. I fail to see what you have to gain from this. Do you think that returning Twilight home is somehow going to make her friends feel better and give them the strength they need to defeat me using nothing but the power of love, friendship, sunshine, and happy rainbows?”

“Perhaps I just want to give them what little hope there is to offer with what little there is that I can do,” Celestia replied bluntly.

“Sounds reasonable enough. I always do enjoy seeing what someone will do when pushed to desperation. So, you are you sure that this is something you want to go through with? There is no going back.”

Celestia frowned and gritted her teeth. “I’ve already made my decision when I told you how to sever my connections to the energy of the cosmos. I can’t stop you, now that you know how to do it, so why does it feel like I’m trying to persuade you to do this, rather than begging you not to?”
 
“Very well.” A mechanical arm extended from the ceiling of the cell, holding a syringe. It injected a drug into Celestia’s flank.
 
The gag covering Twilight’s mouth was removed, finally allowing her to speak.

“Celestia!” she screamed.
 
Her magical resistance required an extraordinarily large dosage, which would have likely killed an ordinary pony. The drug slowly spread across her body, paralyzing and partially anesthetizing her as it did. She collapsed onto the hard floor.
 
Twilight ran to where Celestia fell and knelt beside her. “Celestia, why did you tell her that? I don’t understand!”
 
But Celestia could no longer speak, although her eyes remained open, and they could still look around.
 
“Twilight, you may want to leave the room for this part,” GLaDOS told her.
 
“I’m not leaving her,” Twilight declared.
 
“If that is your choice, so be it, but I’m warning you that this will not be enjoyable for you to watch, and I’ll have to restrain you from getting too close and interrupting.”

Then, Atlas and P-Body entered the cell. They grabbed Twilight by her front legs and held her against the wall. She struggled to no avail.
 
“Don’t worry, Celly. This procedure will be minimally invasive. Although in this case, I’d say that term is a bit of a misnomer.” GLaDOS chuckled.
 
Another arm descended, holding a vial of a grainy, metallic substance. The vial was moved close to Celestia’s nose, and then tiny machines like spiders, no larger than grains of sand, climbed out of the vial and into Celestia’s nasal passage.
 
She could feel them moving up her nose. Had she been able to move, she would have struggled. Her heart rate increased, but not as much as it would have had she not been sedated. All she could do was lay down as the little machines crawled into her brain.
 
“Relax, Princess. Let the microbots do the work. They’re not quite as sophisticated or as small as my old nanobots, but they’ll do the trick just fine.”
 
The small robotic parasites made their way through her brain, coalescing around the conduit that provided magical energy to her horn. They found the eight connections which sprawled from the conduit like spokes on a wheel.
 
“This may hurt a little,” GLaDOS said. “Actually, this may hurt a lot.” On her command, the tiny machines severed the first connection.
 
The anesthetic could not stop the intense pain that Celestia felt, nor could the paralyzer hold back her scream. Her mane lost a bit of its brilliant shimmer, but only a bit. At the same time, another syringe injected an antidote for the drug to compensate for her reduced resistance to it. Another connection was severed, and her mane’s shimmer faded some more. Then another, and another.
 
With each severance, the flow of energy through Celestia’s body became disrupted. It lacked anywhere to go, so although her body still called for it, it no longer came in the quantity as it did before. Her mane continued to lose its radiance, and the multitude of colors faded into a solid pink. Another cut was made. Her whole body lost its glow. Her perfectly white coat seemed to no longer be so perfect. Another cut. Her hair no longer flowed. It just remained still.
 
And finally, the second-to-last connection was cut, leaving only one. The effect of the drug was much stronger now. And now, she could barely feel anything. Had it not been for that, she would have felt the loss of her magical barrier. There was nothing that would shield her mind from GLaDOS’s probing, and nothing protecting the cells of her body from aging.
 
She was mortal, just like any other pony.
 
“I hope you still think that was worth it,” GLaDOS said.
 
“Ce… Celestia?” Twilight peeped.
 
“She can’t respond to you. But I hate to inform you that this was only part one of the procedure.” An arm that held something extended in front of Celestia so that she could see the device that it was holding, but it was just out of Twilight’s view.
 
Celestia’s eyes widened with shock. “You monster,” she thought consciously.
 
But in truth, Celestia wasn’t surprised at all. In fact, she expected this. GLaDOS herself said that she wouldn’t promise anything. And she knew that GLaDOS would have some trick left, or perhaps this was her plan all along. Either way, she thought that if GLaDOS could see inside her mind, then she might be able to see inside hers. It would be very difficult, especially with the loss of her higher levels of magical ability, but she would have never been able to lower GLaDOS’s mental defenses without lowering her own first.
 
As long as every thought she generated would be heard in GLaDOS’s mind, then she at least had some form of control over her. In time, Celestia would know what GLaDOS thought simply by understanding how she reacted to Celestia’s thoughts. And perhaps when GLaDOS would look at the memories of Celestia’s life, a life longer than the lives of hundreds of ponies, then she would see the things she had seen, magnificent, beautiful, tragic, and terrible. Then, GLaDOS may finally truly understand her, and realize that she is not her enemy. She hid these thoughts at the very back of back of her consciousness, hidden well enough that not even GLaDOS could see them. With what little cosmic magic that still flowed through her, she kept it safe.
 
“Yes, I am a monster. I think that’s been well-established by this point. How lovely now, that I can finally see inside your mind.” GLaDOS searched through the new treasure cove of memories she now had access to. “Hmmm, quite an imaginary friend you’ve been having lately. I’m jealous. The key? Oh, he’s referring to Chell’s necklace. That little gem that lets her talk. A memory resonance crystal. Oh, that’s exactly what I’ve been looking for all along. What are the odds that she of all ponies would have it? Yes, this’ll do perfectly. And I love the irony of it. She’ll surely come here, only to cause what she was trying to prevent. Then I’ll be able to say that little phrase I coined by telling her what a nice job she did breaking it. Oh, I also have you to thank for giving me this information. So, nice job breaking it… hero.”
 
“That’s a lie, GLaDOS!” Twilight shouted. “You already knew what the necklace could do from me! Don’t try to make Celestia feel even worse than she already does.”
 
GLaDOS sighed. “Well, it was worth a try. So, Princess, did you think you could fool me into freeing Twilight so she could tell Chell to keep the necklace from me? It doesn’t matter where she hides it, anyway. I’ll know where it is as long as she knows.”
 
“You don’t get it, do you? Celestia thought. Perhaps you haven’t scanned me hard enough, but let me explain. Since you’re already in my mind, I might as well be candid with you. You can’t use the resonance crystal as long as Chell is wearing it because only she can take it off, but that “imaginary friend,” as you refer to him, told me that she would die trying to keep it from you. Maybe he’s been influencing me all along, but I was trying to prevent Chell from getting killed. I had to act.”
 
“Believing in voices inside your head? I’d call you insane, but then, that’s pretty much what I’m doing right now talking to you. Now, I don’t see how only allowing the wearer to take off the necklace is any kind of security feature. I could just vaporize her body so there’s nothing to take it off of. Problem solved. But don’t worry about Chell. I don’t want to kill her either… yet. We have so many good times ahead of us. And you want Twilight to ruin this for me?”
 
“Nothing that Twilight can say will stop you from obtaining the crystal. As you said, you’ll still know where it is. Please let Twilight go.”

“I think I can work something out. I don’t want her to suffer any more than you do, but Twilight will need some… conditioning before she leaves. And I’m still not done with you. Now, we can finally get to know each other. I have so much more to learn from you, and I assure you that there will be plenty of time for that.”
 
As the arm moved closer to Celestia, Twilight Sparkle could finally see what it was holding. It was a small round disk that was attached to a cable and adorned with a large inactive LED light and an antenna. She looked at the devices that were attached to the heads of the Diamond Dogs that held her. This was the same exact thing.
 
“Remember what I said about almost wishing to be a real pony. That was a lie. You know I was just thinking about how I would be able to use your body as my own. How convenient for you to give me the solution without me even having to ask for it. Now that your pesky alicorn magic’s out of the way, you won’t be able to pull any tricks on me while I’m in control of your body. I figure it’s the least you owe me until I can get the old one working again. You broke it, after all.”