//------------------------------// // 1. Prologue // Story: Metroid Equis II: Duality // by Flammenwerfer //------------------------------// We see her wounded eyes, and remember the child we found so long ago... a fledgling orphaned on a savaged planet, did a warrior's pulse already beat in her veins, filling her with righteous fury?... We shall do all that we can to aid her, for she bears our legacy as she bears the ancient armor and weapons of our people. -Chozo Lore Metroid Equis II: Duality Section 1 Prologue   [The Everfree Forest | ~1.5 Years after the Phazon Conflict]   [Suggested Ambiance]   The air in this particular, foreign section of the Everfree smelled wet and earthy, owing to the perpetual rainfall it was currently experiencing, unadulterated by weather pegasi. The sky above the forest canopy was an unbroken expanse of grey and white, pouring out its torrential fury on the ground below. The natural fauna, undisturbed for centuries, had retreated into their homes, rendering this stretch of forest silent save for the rainfall. The mist, born of the constant downpour, reduced visibility to mere meters; yet, a sense of primeval peace existed there, underscored by the breathtaking natural patterns of the local flora. The aforementioned peace was soon broken by the light and sound of four long-range teleportation spells as four ponies broke the long silence. Four sets of hooves sank slightly into the saturated ground. Their owners: four unicorns clad in distinctive silver, full-body armor with bright-blue T-Visors on their full-face helmets. Said armor was emblazoned with G.F.M.C., with a smaller font inscription E.S.F. directly below it, on both sides of the torso. In lieu of nametapes, the armor bore the images of their wearers’ cutie marks on the flanks,  and the Galactic Federation insignia was placed on both sides of the helmet right under the exposed ears. Tails flowed freely out of precise openings of the armor (whereas manes were concealed), and horns protruded out of an aperture in the forehead of the helmet’s outer shell.   The group’s armor was already streaked with the mud and dirt of the forest, the rain beginning to cut through it, while at the same time impairing their vision.   “Alright, this is the place. It looks like we made it, then,” a female voice broke over their short-range radios, exuding command. The owner of the voice, the unicorn at the head of the formation; her cutie mark identified her as Captain Constant “Constance” Function.   “Roger that. For the record, I still can’t see shit,” Lieutenant Radiance Emeralda remarked, doing her best to shake the water off of her visor, though that was proving difficult. The rain storm was quickly replacing water droplets on her visor faster than the helmet’s environmental control unit could evaporate them.     “Oh, so you’re allowed to complain and I’m not?” Corporal Starry Night interjected sarcastically.   “The difference is that you’re really annoying when you open your mouth,” Radiance shot back with equal humor, earning a harsh body-check from Starry. The two mares were the best of friends and banter like this was constantly ongoing.   “Come on,” Corporal Windfire Galeforce, the final member of the squad, exhorted. “The sooner we get this done, the sooner Starry can get back to her coltfriend.” Windfire’s helmet concealed his smirk, and his experience kept it out of his voice.   “Oh shut up.”   “That’s enough for now, guys. The structure’s this way,” Constance shushed them before leading on, her three friends and soldiers falling into step behind her. The four magically unslung their Equestrian-made Assault Rifles and held them at the low ready. Their visor systems, recognizing that the weapons were held ready, brought the targeting systems online. The jungle was dead silent, save for the steady patter of the rainfall which served to mask the sound of their approach. With all the fauna being gone, the group’s motion trackers were clear, save for each other.   “Windy, you still got the Item?” Radiance asked Windfire through the radio, referring to a magical relic—known simply as “the Item”—that the group had to pick up on a detour through Nightshade Temple. After careful searching with Princess Luna, the group was able to find it. According to her, this item had been recovered, then lost, by the Hunter during a previous mission.   The male unicorn gave a gentle shake of his flank, the glowing ‘ball’ of foreign magic being strapped to his hips and contained within an opaque, enchanted vial. The vial tapped against his hip a couple of times, signifying that it was indeed still there.   “Yup. Hope the Princess’ hunch was right, though…”   “It would suck to be all the way out here and this doesn’t work,” Radiance mused, everypony else agreeing wholeheartedly. It would be disheartening for their massive trip to be for nothing, but Princess Luna had rarely been wrong before… they just hoped that this was not one of those rare cases. Silence took over once more as the four of them continued trudging onward. A few minutes later, Constance put her hoof up to stop her squad’s advance.   “Structure’s up ahead. Fan out,” she ordered. The other three responded affirmatively and complied with her instructions, spreading out along the treeline. They laid low with their weapons ready to fire as Constance scouted ahead, ensuring their path was clear. While Constance was doing that, the other three attempted to ascertain the structure ahead of them. Unlike Starfall Fortress, a grand, imposing Chozo edifice, this installation looked like nothing so much as a simple warehouse. It seemed to be designed to blend in as much as possible, though the Chozo markings along its walls betrayed its origins.   “R-Really? This is it?” Windfire spoke up, expressing his doubt at the sight before him.   “I… I guess so,” Starry answered, echoing a similar sentiment through the uncertainty in her words.   “Far cry from Nightshade or Starfall, but orders are orders. Come on, let’s get inside,” Constance added, breaking through the treeline, her companions falling into step behind her. The squad kept eyes in every direction, senses alert for threats that might make themselves apparent as they approached. The jungle, however, remained stubbornly quiescent, motion trackers continuing to read clear and rifles having no targets.   The warehouse entrance stood before them, unfettered by door or any other hindrance. With silent hoof gestures, Constance ordered her squad to stack up on either side of the entrance, then quickly peeked inside. Nothing revealed itself to her but darkness and, dimly, the far wall of the structure. Satisfied, Constance ordered her team inside. [Suggested Ambiance]   “Aaaand there’s nothing here…” Radiance stated, the four soldiers having turned on their helmet-mounted flashlights. The added light revealed only strange symbols, glyphs in the Chozo language, their purpose unclear. Starry started experimentally stomping the ground.   “Yeah, even the ground feels completely solid,” she observed, nothing seeming to be flimsy or giving way. Constance joined Starry in examining the floor of the warehouse. It was as solid for her as it was for her subordinate, and this fact led her to wonder why this structure existed at all. It housed nothing, and the floor was so unmarred that it likely never did. Things did not add up, and it appeared, at first glance, that this mission was already over.   Windfire, however, was even more suspicious, and this suspicion prompted a closer investigation. Looking from the floor to the walls, he noticed that the floor, or at least sections thereof, appeared newer than the rest, as if it had been torn up and replaced.   “Scan the floor with something else. I wanna see past the stone itself,” he commented. “Anypony know a decent spell we can use?”   “Maybe… how about this?” Starry asked, charging up her horn and aiming it at the floor. Releasing the spell, a small sphere of pure magic slowly fell earthwards, diffusing into the massive slabs of concrete-like material as easily as a drop of water into a sponge. The magic suddenly highlighted the perimeter of the entire building… but what was interesting was that the spell did not return merely the perimeter of the floor… but a giant, perfectly circular hole, clearly the start of a shaft, that laid a few feet below.   “Knew it…” Windfire remarked proudly.   “Well done, Windfire. At least this structure isn’t just a random building,” Constance praised. The next step was actually accessing this secret passageway. “Now, did anypony happen to bring one of those new breaching charges?”   The four looked at each other and shrugged. None had expected to have to brute force an entrance, though in hindsight, as Special Forces, they realized that they probably should have planned for such a scenario.   “Alright, then we’re doing this the old-fashioned way. Starry, cast that spell again so we can see exactly where the entrance is. The rest of us are going to cut a hole in the floor,” Constance ordered, everypony immediately moving into their appropriate positions around the target area. With one curt, affirmative nod from Constance, Starry cast the spell and illuminated the hidden entrance underneath the slab of flooring. Slinging their rifles to their backs, the other three charged their horns and fired continuous, concentrated beams of hard magic at the floor beneath them and began slowly walking around in a circle as said beams pierced through. With the ability to see the quite large hole below, they used its circumference as a guide to cut through the flooring, which happened to be over a foot thick.   Once a full circle had been completed, the circular section of floor sank an inch or so into the ground. Constance moved cautiously onto the platform and jumped up and down, trying to knock it loose. Fortunately, perhaps, the platform couldn’t be dislodged this way, stubbornly holding firm. After a couple of attempts, Constance moved back onto solid ground.   “Alright, let’s take this a bit farther. Radiance, set a grenade in the center. I’ll put a shield over it which will focus the force of the blast downward,” Constance softly ordered yet again. “You got it, Cap,” Radiance replied, magically fishing a grenade off of her belt. She held it level with her eyes, shooting a questioning glance at her commander. Getting a final, approving nod, she pressed the primer, the spherical explosive lighting up as the fuze entered standby mode. “Fire in the hole, I guess…” she added with a lack of enthusiasm, placing the active grenade in the center of the cut flooring. Constance immediately conjured the shield in place around the grenade, preparing herself for the onslaught. In the event that her shielding failed to hold for whatever reason, she wished to ensure that only she took the punishment. “Everypony, shields up, just in case.” The grenade went off right as everypony encased themselves in their own spherical barriers, but Constance’s plan went off without a hitch; the powerful blast was fully contained, the force directed downward, blowing apart the massive piece of flooring that they cut out.   “Alright… that did it. Now, how deep does this go?” Starry asked, peeking her head into the shaft entrance that they had created. “...Not sure. Switch to night-vision,” Constance instructed. Wordlessly, four pairs of visors switched into night-vision mode; however, even with their newly-enhanced sight the shaft still faded into blackness. Again, it appeared that the group was going to have to proceed the hard way. “So… what now?” Radiance chimed in. “If this is like other Chozo structures, my guess is that this shaft won’t go deeper than two hundred feet. Let’s rappel down for as far as we can,” Constance said. Everypony sounded off in the affirmative, readying their rappel systems (located in their right forelegs), anchoring the piton into the floor at the top of the shaft, then harnessing themselves in and stepping over the shaft’s edge. All four of them leaped and pushed off the walls of the entrance shaft in perfect synchronization as they continued downward. Their night-vision served to correct for the nonexistent light but what was more interesting was that the shaft’s walls were completely smooth, indicating the technology level of whoever dug this out. Interest quickly turned elsewhere when a small problem reared its head: Vector Squad only carried so much rappel line, and now they were literally at the end of their rope. “Well… how’s it hangin’?” Radiance asked, earning an annoyed, almost pained groan from everypony else. “Just… shut up,” Windfire said, face-hoofing his visor and shaking his head. Starry similarly chided Radiance for her terrible, completely unoriginal pun while Constance turned to face the darkness and switched on her flashlight, sweeping the beam towards the bottom. As luck would have it, her night-vision permitted her to see the bottom, a smile worming its way onto her muzzle. “Guys, looks like about another forty or thirty feet to the bottom. Lock your armor and we’ll drop the remaining distance.” “Won’t we, like… die?” Starry asked. “Not if you do as I say and lock your armor. The impact will be redistributed, but you may be a bit sore though,” Constance replied with a warning, and though everypony else looked at each other with some trepidation, they knew full well to trust their squad leader with their lives. She was the best there was in the Magickakorps and she was the best there was now in the Equestrian Special Forces. That, and she was their good friend, if that meant anything at all. Thus, they did as they were told, and after a few magical commands, their armor was now rigid and ready for any impact, encased by a light sheen of golden energy. “Ready.” “All set.” “Let’s get this over with.” “Alright,” Constance spoke once more, readying her armor for impact. “Detach the rappels in three… two… one… NOW!” All rappel lines disconnected simultaneously and all four bodies plummeted for about two seconds to the solid ground, their armor and underlayers absorbing all the impact as they struck the bottom of the shaft with frightening force. After waiting a few seconds to give internal forces time to dissipate, Vector gave their armor suits the command to disengage their armor locks, allowing their limbs motion once more.   “Ugh… my head. I almost landed on my damn horn,” Windfire spoke, gently shaking his head clear and stretching his body as much as he could. “My ass though…” Starry whined, trying to massage her armor-clad haunches against the unforgiving floor. “Mine too,” Radiance chimed in, sympathizing with her best friend. Constance, though as sore as the rest of her squad, merely rolled her eyes. “Time sure hasn’t changed you three at all. Seriously, none of you stop complaining… ever since basic it’s always ‘whine, whine, whine,’” Constance admonished with good humor, but not without a thread of seriousness lacing her words. She shook her head, sighing as she got to her hooves and began walking through the only path available to them. This path happened to be an entrance to an even larger compound, as evident by the size of the ancient, trapezoidal arch that was at least five times their heights; also covered with more Chozo glyphs. The other three quickly fell into formation with her, rifles at the ready. “Yet you love us all,” Radiance added endearingly, Constance huffing but ensuring she did not betray any humor. “I’d sell you all to Tartarus for a single chocolate bar,” she deadpanned. “Hey, that’s better than last time! Movin’ on up!” The next room beyond the arch was but a straight corridor, with no side passages or alcoves in sight. The massive hallway was flanked on either side by Chozo Statues and obelisks at irregular intervals, serving to intensify the already-ominous atmosphere. Chozo writing was beautifully engraved on almost every section of the walls, though there were certain portions that appeared set off from the rest, speaking to some inherent significance. “Windfire, scan these for later analysis. The Princess wanted as much lore to decipher as possible,” Constance ordered as they passed the writing, the group never slowing. Windfire did as he was told, using his visor to snap pictures of the glyphic writing as he went. The group’s hoofsteps echoed off of the corridor’s walls, the only sound to break the silence of the perfectly preserved corridor. The group’s attention was torn away from a closer examination of their surroundings as they continued on, however, when their motion trackers suddenly blipped, highlighting six contacts ahead of them. “Rifles up!” Radiance shouted, suiting action to words. “Contacts fr—” She was interrupted when all motion trackers went blank as abruptly as they were populated. The four held position, rifles fully drawn as they fanned out, two looking ahead and two looking back, ears pricked forward and listening for the slightest noise foreign to their surroundings. All that sounded was the group’s collective heavy breathing, and nothing made itself visible.   “Ooookay then. Everypony, be on your guard. We’ve been this far in life together without major injuries and I don’t want it happening now,” Constance spoke. “Ahem,” Starry replied, clearing her throat and calling attention to the memory of the downed Space Pirate Frigate. “Oh, right. You all know what I mean, though.” She then noticed that their path came to an end in forty or so feet, where it doglegged to the left. “Starry, you’re on point. Check around the bend.” “On it.”   As Constance, Windfire, and Radiance advanced at a steady pace, Starry broke ahead of the group and approached the blind corner, stacking up against the wall and poking her head quickly into the next part of the path. Spying nothing but more of the same darkness, she looked back toward her CO. “Looks clear for now, Cap; I’m scouting farther ahead,” Starry reported, leading with her rifle around the corner and disappearing from view. “Solid copy, just don’t go too far ah—” Constance was cut off when a deafening, ghastly hiss rang through the corridor, followed by a shrill scream from Starry. Four rifle shots sounded in rapid succession before Starry came bolting back from around the corner in a full gallop back towards her friends. “NOPE! NOPE! Chozo Ghosts!” Starry exclaimed, ceasing her gallop and executing a less-than-elegant equivalent of a smuggler’s turn, rejoining her comrades with her weapon aimed. Her allies followed suit. “Alright everypony, prepare to engage!” Constance ordered. “Just like with Alicorn Spirits… augment vision, now.” With a little extra magic, four sets of eyes glowed brightly from behind their visors. Their newly-augmented vision would permit Vector to track the ghosts’ manifestation energies, instead of relying on visible light, which is unreliable given the ghosts’ propensity to fade out of sight. [Suggested Ambiance] After another ghastly hiss, two hulking Chozo Ghosts phased out of the corridor walls and dropped to the ground, their hands glowing brightly as they channeled energy in preparation for their attack. All four unicorns opened fire, their rifles spitting golden hardlight projectiles directly into the chest of the left-hand ghost. The combined firepower of the four rapid-fire weapons nearly instantaneously defeated it, its body floating and disappearing from the mortal realm. Windfire and Radiance broke ranks, rolling in opposite directions to evade the remaining ghost’s attack, a twinned energy blast that would no doubt have found its mark in each of their chests. With the left spirit taken care of, Vector turned its rifles on the remaining entity, loosing a joint burst that punched holes in the Chozo spirit’s ethereal form. One final, painful-sounding hiss and the Chozo spirit’s ‘life’ was ended for good. Though the immediate threat had been dealt with, the four barely had time to slow their breathing before a haunting chorus of ghostly wails sprung up from around them. The ponies backed towards each other, rifles ever ready for more action. Constance, however, was having none of it: “We’re not getting bogged down here. Radiance, cover our asses. Starry, with me in front. Windfire, middle. Move out!” The four took off and began moving without another word, maintaining formation as they slipped around the corner. Radiance risked a glance over her shoulder, only to see more and more Chozo Ghosts phasing out of the statuary as they passed, helping to further populate their motion trackers; a perfect incentive to keep moving. The corridor continued the intermittent statuary, and like their brothers, started dispensing Chozo Ghosts as well. The forward element lit up immediately, a fusillade of hardlight fire streaming forth from the formation; enough to force the Chozo Ghosts to break off, warping away to reposition. This cleared Vector’s path forward, permitting them to continue ahead. However, ghosts began showing up in droves, spawning at a much higher rate than the unicorns could dispatch, especially with the sheer volume of attacks headed their way. Keeping their rifles levitated was quickly proving a liability; the ponies couldn’t adequately defend themselves while their attention was occupied. Suddenly, Radiance let out a strangled cry as a Chozo Ghost’s energy bolt struck her right in the chest, forcing her to faceplant into the ground. Her entire body coursed with energy, characteristic of being nailed by a Chozo Ghost’s attack. “Radi!!” Starry called out, but Radiance had already scrambled back to her hooves, shaking off the hit and rejoining her squad. “I’m fine! Keep going!” “Everypony, switch to horns!” Constance ordered. With the precision afforded by well over a year of practice, the squad slung their rifles in almost perfect synchronization and began charging their horns. This allowed the four to use offensive magic as well as cast shields for active defense without fear of dropping their rifles; a much more effective means to battle in close quarters. Using their magic as a weapon per se would drain their magic reserves at a much faster rate as opposed to casting a constant, low-power levitation spell for a rifle, but the increased power draw was an acceptable tradeoff for tactical flexibility. Training dictated when to use both approaches. Hardlight rounds were replaced with hardmagic and Vector renewed their advance, erecting shields when necessary to absorb any incoming Chozo attacks that could not be evaded. Constance trapped a Chozo Ghost in a spherical barrier of pure force and began shrinking it, collapsing it into a singular point before it imploded on itself completely, shredding the ghost trapped within. She then quickly turned to assist her beleaguered squadmates, who were all busy fighting off multiple enemies. Radiance was back-to-back with Windfire, keeping ghosts off each others’ backs and dancing away from their foes’ attacks. All the while, Constance witnessed Starry take two energy blasts to her left side and haunches before getting tossed into the corridor wall, lacing the hallway with spallation by the sheer force of her impact. The captain did not have to intervene, however, as Starry set off a massive force-spell that rudely shoved the ghosts well out of her personal space, affording her the chance to go back on the offensive. Despite overwhelming enemy numbers, Vector continued to advance, just as they were trained. Constance dispatched another Chozo Ghost—one that was threatening Windfire—with three rapid bursts of hard magic fire. The six other spirits that remained phased out of existence and into the walls to regroup, and most likely counterattack. “Come on! We don’t have long before they come back!” Constance spurred the group onward, everypony falling into step with her as they galloped forward, sprinting down the corridors like bats out of Tartarus. “They sure as hell… don’t want us… near… whatever’s here,” Radiance gasped as she ran, nobody stopping as ghastly howls and wails resounded, as if emanating from the very stones themselves. For what seemed like miles, the squad galloped, their hoofsteps beating out a backdrop to their headlong flight, a flight hurriedly checked by the looming presence of a flat wall blocking the way forward. On closer examination, however, the wall appeared more like a tremendous door, intricately inscribed with pictorial inscriptions and inscrutable writing. “Looks like we’ve reached the end of the line… dig in and prepare to re-engage,” Constance ordered calmly, her voice not betraying an ounce of uncertainty; only the confidence of a seasoned combat officer in its purest form. Vector began charging their horns, each member bathed in the radiance of their own magical aura, their bodies quivering in anticipation. However, when the Chozo Ghosts melted out of the walls and took form once more, the dimly-lit Item on Windfire’s hip began pulsing brightly. In what could have been a lethal moment of distraction, the squad spared the vial a glance. When they looked back up, however, they were startled to see that the Ghosts hadn’t moved, and in fact, seemed almost transfixed. They lay suspended in the air in front of them, ‘staring’ at them. The only sound in the corridor was the group’s ragged breathing and the ethereal notes of magic at full charge; the tension in the atmosphere was slowly becoming overwhelming. Without warning, the Ghosts melted back into the walls without attacking, leaving the four alone for the first time. [Suggested Ambiance] “Wait...” Radiance began to muse as the squad’s attention was drawn back to the vial. “Could we really have avoided that if we just flashed them the Item?” “It was on display the entire time… though the vial is kinda opaque,” Windfire added. “Whatever the case, we don’t have a fight on our hooves anymore… now we just have to get through this wall,” Constance muttered, joining the rest of her squad in facing the silent sentinel in their path. However, Windfire was much more preoccupied with the Item, which was now moving within the vial and jerking harshly, as if trying to free itself. “Whoa… this thing’s starting to act up,” he remarked. “It’s tugging towards the wall!” “Should we let it out?” Starry asked, anxiously looking at the Item trying to break out of the vial and lighting up more luminously than any of their charged horns could become. Constance shrugged. “Doesn’t look like there’s much else we can do,” Constance admitted reluctantly, walking it from one side to the other. “This thing’s too thick for magical cutting or any explosives.” She explored the joint between one side of the door and the wall. “Yeah, this thing looks almost...like it’s part of the tunnel itself. Let’s hope this is the part where Princess Luna is right…” “Alright, Windy… do it,” Radiance urged with a curt nod. With no disagreement from the rest of the squad, Windfire used a bit of his magic to unseal the vial at the top; almost instantly, the Item shot out and moved , as if by its own volition, directly in front of the obelisk-like wall, hovering in place as its luminosity began to dim. Without the shroud of ethereal light, the squad could see that the object itself was cyan in color and segmented; its pieces roughly describing two concentric circles, which rotated gyroscopically about each other. The seemingly random motions left Vector in a hypnotic state as they watched the scene unfold, but they were quickly brought back to reality as the object broke apart, each individual piece slotting into its proper place on the glyph wall. With all the pieces of the once unified Item in their proper positions, all inscriptions on the wall began pulsing a bright, golden light. The pulsing never ceased, and the floor beneath the squad’s hooves started rumbling ominously. The four unicorns immediately backed off and were on their guard as the rumbling and shaking continued; their collective gaze not leaving the wall as cracks began to spider across its surface. Piece by piece, the once mighty barrier between Vector and their object slowly began to whittle away, crumbling under its own weight until it was naught but a massive layer of rubble in front of them. The clatter of rock on rock died away, followed eventually by the subterranean rumble of the seismic activity diminishing to nothing. Their path was clear once more. “Welp, she was right again,” Radiance broke the silence after the tranquility was restored. Nopony else elected to say anything, especially when Constance took point once more and beckoned her friends to fall back into formation. The squad unslung their rifles and held them ready as they moved into the space beyond the door; not the continuation of a corridor, but the beginning of a vast, new chamber of sorts. This chamber, somehow magically illuminated (albeit dimly) was distinctly different from any others that the group had encountered, namely due to the extensive amount of piping and ancient, but very well-preserved glassware that had held no contents for who knew how long. Haphazardly strewn across the floor were fragments of stone that bore inscriptions, remarkably similar to the Chozo writing the squad had seen prior. As the four unicorn soldiers advanced further, they noticed that at the far end of the room, a section of wall had been replaced with a glass pane. Regardless, taking in the sights for a bit longer, all four of the occupants came up with the same conclusion: “Is this… a laboratory?” Starry asked. “So I wasn’t the only one thinking that…” Radiance agreed. She advanced ahead towards the end of the room while the others continued to drink in the sights around them. “I was thinking the exact same thing, but everything barely looks a few decades old!” Constance iterated. “This place was supposedly unused for thousands upon thousands of years.” “It’s a damn strong anti-degradation spell,” Windfire reported, having taken the time to scan several of the objects in the area. “It’s completely throwing off any form of dating capabilities, too...at a guess, this stuff’s going to last at least as long again.” “E-Everypony?” Radiance called from the end of the room, her voice uncharacteristically uncertain of herself. “Come here…” Constance, Windfire, and Starry immediately broke into a full gallop to the end of the room, and after linking up with Radiance, all of them found themselves staring into a gargantuan stasis chamber, one which could best be described as an oversized aquarium tank. A deep-hued red light permeated the entire tank and what rested at the bottom was like nothing that any of the four had ever seen. “Oh, sweet Celestia, what in Tartarus are those? ” Windfire moaned, utterly disgusted. Under their helmets, all of them held identical expressions of revulsion. The objects of their attention: dozens of seemingly animate, various-sized, gelatinous-looking creatures that were slowly but surely moving about at the bottom of the tank. Constance tapped on the surprisingly thick-sounding reinforced glass and all the creatures seemed to wake up further, the beige-colored blobs floating into the air and sticking against the wall of glass. All four seasoned unicorns took a few steps back, almost as one. “T-They’re alive!” Starry stated the obvious, though nopony seemed to believe it themselves. “Ugh… look at the way they move and…” Radiance couldn’t finish her sentence as an involuntary shiver wracked her entire body. “Hey, there’s a plaque over here,” Windfire pointed out, drawing attention to just below the glass of the tank. On a small podium centered on the window, there indeed rested a rectangular plate of metal. Windfire moved forward again to investigate. “Probably nothing we can read,” Constance added, being realistic. This was a Chozo structure, after all. “Yeah,” Windfire nodded in confirmation. “There’s like, five weird runic glyphs of sorts but then there’s a wide space and what looks like an ‘X.’” “Huh?” Starry asked, not entirely understanding what he meant. Constance trotted over to him to see for herself. “He’s right. The only thing I recognize is what looks like a capital letter ‘X.’” None of them could decipher what it meant, but the looming mystery certainly didn’t stop them from gazing back at the stasis chamber where the living, multi-globular organisms continued to float around and press themselves against the glass. “Windfire, contact Princess Luna,” Constance ordered grimly. “She needs to see this.”