My Little Pony: Twilight's Requiem

by Pika53

Chapter 6

Chapter #6:

As they exited the elevator for the umpteenth time, Twilight sighed and wondered how many more of these silly tests they would have to go through. They’d already traveled through eighteen or nineteen of the things; Twilight had lost count. She was starting to feel exhausted. Pinkie Pie meanwhile, was her usual, cheerful self. Twilight rolled her eyes and shook her head; wondering how the earth pony managed to be so lively in such a disturbing place.

An unseen speaker hissed in a familiar, cold voice just as they reached
another ante-chamber door at the top of some stairs; making her jump.

“The Enrichment Center wishes to congratulate you on making it this far. Once
the testing is over you will be… missed. After all, you’re all so very… ‘special’.”

Twilight's face twisted in annoyance; keenly aware of the sarcasm in the artificial voice. Pinkie Pie however, was quite immune to the subtle hint and kept bouncing in place as the door whooshed open.

Stepping through the entryway, the ponies could do little more than gawk at the sight before them. The test chamber they’d entered was less of a room and more of an auditorium. Except for a few portal-sticking walls placed in precarious locations, most of the chamber was empty. It’s remaining walls were coated in a mixture of gray and white and the room was wider than the previous hallway had been.

“Rarity would have a field day with a place like this.” Pinkie remarked.

Twilight merely nodded; knowing what the seamstress in question was like.

The only portable surface at ground level was six feet ahead and to their right and was connected to the opposite wall by a strange blue beam of light; hovering just a foot off the ground. On the opposite side of the chamber from where they stood was a large, red button on the floor. On a suspended platform some fifteen feet in the air and to the side of the button was another door that was closed. A portal-sticking wall sat adjacent to the sealed door with another suspended platform running along the left wall beside it. At the end of this platform was a pole about Twilight's height with a small red button on top.

“Hey, Twilight what do you think this thingy does?” Pinkie Pie asked, walking toward the blue light beam.

“I don’t know, Pinkie.” Twilight replied as she also approached the blue beam.

Out of curiosity, Twilight stepped on the beam and noted that it was very hard, warm to the touch, and easily supported her weight.

To their left, Twilight could hear the sloshing of liquid. Turning and looking down, she saw that the water in a nearby pit was a nasty, swampy-looking concoction which smelled of acrid vomit. Shaking her head, Twilight was pretty sure she didn't want to end up in it. Another pit was located next to the large, red button on the opposite side of the chamber; and below the exit door. Twilight noted that a path of orange squares led from the floor button to the sealed round door above.

Looking up, Twilight noticed a large, funnel-like object. It seemed as though something was supposed to come out of its tip. Twilight could see a cube stuck inside the large tube. A row of orange lights led from the tube to the button-on-a-pole on the opposite side of the room. Quickly trotting over, Twilight stood on the large floor button, and the door out of the area opened. As soon as she set hoof off of the button however, the door slid shut.

Twilight sat down. This would take some thinking.

The only things they could currently reach were the blue beam of light and the floor button. Obviously, the button needed to be held down to open the door. Perhaps the cube stuck in the funnel could work? But how would she get the cube? Something in her mind clicked and her eyes widened as the plan suddenly came to her. Moments later, she galloped back over to Pinkie and the blue beam of light. Turning, Twilight planted a cool portal on the wall in front of the blue light beam. Whirling around, she fired a warm portal at the wall adjacent to the suspended platform with the button-on-a-pole.

The blue beam immediately stretched out across the room beside the platform and extended to the wall beside the entrance; covering the area directly beneath the funnel. Feeling jubilantly brilliant, Twilight held up a hoof warning Pinkie Pie not to follow than made her way across the bridge to the button-on-a-pole. Sure enough, when Twilight pressed the button the tube opened and released a cube. However, just as she made it halfway to the cube, most of the lights in the room mysteriously cut out and the bridge she was standing on suddenly vanished; causing Twilight to drop to the ground with a yelp and land rather ungracefully on her flank. From her position she was clearly able to see the cube drop into the fetid water with a splash however, and Twilight watched in horror as it burned away in the acidic substance. She reminded herself again that she did not want to touch that water.

Over the sound of Pinkie Pie’s startled yelp, Twilight heard GLaDOS's surprised reaction over the speaker.

“What’s going on? Who turned off all the lights?”

A hole suddenly opened in the portable wall that the blue beam of light had been hitting earlier and a large sphere with a blue optic appeared. Twilight vaguely remembered seeing it a few times in some of the previous test chambers. However, she couldn’t recall if the sphere had a name… or what that name could be.

“Hey, buddy…” the sphere said in a truly atrocious accent.

“Hiya!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed.

“I’m speaking to you in an accent that’s beyond her range of hearing.” it continued, ignoring Pinkie completely.

“I know I’m early but we have to go right NOW! Walk casually toward my position and we’ll go shut her down.”

“Okey-dokey-lokie!” Pinkie said, trotting toward it.

As Twilight slowly picked herself up off the floor she heard an unmistakably sigh over the speaker as GLaDOS spoke up.

“Metal ball I CAN hear you.”

“Run! I don’t need to do the voice! RUN!” the sphere shrieked.

Moments later, the wall opened up and the light beam shot out into a much wider place. Twilight wasted no time in ushering Pinkie Pie across the bridge and crossing herself as the sphere shouted at them to run. The sudden hissing of air and a sickly-sweet smell were more than enough motivation. The area the ponies found themselves in next appeared to be some sort of access tunnel as grated walkways and pipes seemed to stretch out in all directions. As they ran along the twisting path, Twilight noted that the sphere seemed to hang from a cable and got around that way.

“Ok, quick recap… we are escaping. That’s what’s happening now… we
are escaping. Good job on the running by the way.” the sphere remarked.

‘Thanks for restating the obvious.’ Twilight thought to herself, rolling her eyes as they continued running.

“Where do you think we’re going?” Pinkie asked over the sphere’s incessant babbling.

“I don’t know!” Twilight snapped a bit more forcefully than she’d intended.

Reaching the end of the current walkway, Twilight noted that the access tunnel they were in seemed to expand. Beneath them was another larger, much sturdier, platform that seemed to go on forever. To their left a short distance across a nearly-bottomless darkness, Twilight saw another large boxy structure that she assumed was another test chamber. Grated walkways, pipes, and various other things meanwhile, seemed to spread out in all directions. This place was huge.

“The irony is you’re almost at the last test. Hear it is. Why don’t you just do it?” sneered GLaDOS’s vile voice through a loudspeaker.

A section of wall along the side of the nearby test chamber quickly retracted and another light bridge extended across their platform… and into infinity.

“Trust me; it’s an easier way out than whatever asinine plan your friend came up with.” GLaDOS continued as the trio reached the light bridge.

“Oh, what? How stupid does she think we are?” the sphere asked incredulously.

‘No comment.’ Twilight thought to herself as she stepped on the bridge and slowly edged closer to the room; trying to get a better view of what was inside.

“Oh, wait where are you going? Where are you going?” the sphere asked again.

Twilight ignored the sphere as she peered inside the room. She saw yet another simple and stark chamber with another funnel-cube-and-button setup. This one really did seem too simple. Suspiciously so. There was even a cube conveniently placed on the button, opening the door to the area beyond. Twilight could see vines and large fallen plants just past the door.

“Oh, look a deer… and it’s eating all your cake.” GLaDOS spoke up suddenly.

Pinkie Pie screeched in fury and tried to pass Twilight and enter the room.

“You probably can’t see it… come closer.”

Twilight snorted and rolled her eyes. As if she would trust that. Pinkie however, continued
to struggle to reach the nearby room. Twilight meanwhile, struggled just to hold her back.

“PINKIE! Something’s not right! We have to go!” she roared, shoving the earth pony in the opposite direction.

With some effort, Twilight managed to get Pinkie moving in the right direction and they resumed their mad dash to safety. However, after only a minute or so of running, the bridge they were on suddenly vanished; causing the pair to drop onto another grated walkway below in a painful heap.

“Wowie! Even my Pinkie Sense didn’t see that one comin’.” Pinkie murmured, clambering back to her hooves.

Twilight merely groaned in reply; uncertain how it was that she always ended up on the bottom.

“Ok, this way! Come on!” the sphere spoke up a short distance away.

The ponies exchanged glances as Twilight struggled back to her hooves and followed the eccentric
metal sphere once more. They hadn’t traveled very far when Pinkie suddenly began twitching wildly.

“What’s going on?” the metal sphere asked, blinking curiously.

“My Pinkie Sense's all a twitchin’!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed.

“Uh oh!” Twilight muttered, eyes searching anxiously for signs of the impending calamity.

As if on cue, a heart-stopping tremor and a protesting shriek of metal announced that something very big was moving. Turning to her left, Twilight’s jaw dropped as she saw another enormous boxy structure moving their way. She gulped. No, they couldn't possibly have just been standing on...

“She’s moving the test chambers! RUN!” the sphere shrieked again.

Twilight didn’t need to be told twice as she bolted down the walkway in
front of them. Pinkie Pie somehow managing to stay three steps ahead of her.

“Quick! Over here!” Pinkie yelled; pointing at something nearby.

Rounding a corner, Twilight spotted a large elevator, unlike anything she’d seen before, on a distant wall. She didn’t need to look back to know they had to hurry. The relentless shrieking of crushed metal was more than enough proof that time was against them. Summoning all the strength she could muster, Twilight followed Pinkie Pie in a mad sprint toward the object of their salvation; desperately hoping they’d reach it in time.

“Quick! Get on the elevator! I’ll take this track and meet you on the other side!” the metal sphere called out before disappearing into a nearby hole.

‘Just a little further, you can do this! YOU’RE ALMOST THERE!’ Twilight repeated to herself as she ran.

Moments later, something slammed into the walkway; almost knocking Twilight off her feet. Closing her eyes, she focused on teleporting to the lift. Nothing happened. Still running, Twilight tried again.
This time, she managed to arrive at her destination with a gasp and immediately collapsed to the floor beside Pinkie Pie as the elevator slowly began to ascend.

The sounds of two large objects colliding nearby were a testament to the rather crushy fate they’d just managed to avoid.

Both ponies lay beside one another, silently catching their breath, as the lift continued its ascent.

In what felt like too short a time, the elevator came to a halt. Pinkie turned to her with another look and Twilight responded with a nod and a groan as she slowly climbed to her hooves. Exiting the lift, the pair stumbled down a nearby hallway. They didn’t travel very far when a now familiar voice stopped them.

“Hey, how’s it going?”

Looking up, Twilight saw the metal sphere that had just helped them gliding up. She sighed.

“I see you made it out of there.” the metal sphere said.

“Yep. We’re okey-dokey-lokie!” Pinkie chirped cheerily.

“Ok, let’s see if we can find the door that leads out of here. The name’s Wheatly by the way.” the sphere continued.

Twilight stared at the metal sphere, her mouth twisting in confusion. She rolled her eyes, shook her head, and recalled something Jaden had mentioned earlier about bunnies; wondering what would happen next. As the trio continued walking, they reached another open area overgrown with vines and large fallen plants. Turning to her left, Twilight saw another ante-chamber door at the top of a nearby ledge.

“Oh bugger. Ok, I’m going to need you to catch me.” Wheatly said as a large root blocked its path.

Wheatly than spent the next few minutes babbling about whether or not it wanted to drop or not. Twilight huffed in exasperation and turned away; searching for a way to traverse the ledge since they didn’t have anywhere else to go. Stepping back, she noted that a portal-sticking panel sat adjacent to the sealed door on top of the ledge. Another portable wall was to the right of the room they were in. Just as she lined up a shot at the panel on top of the ledge, Twilight’s concentration was shattered when a screaming metal sphere suddenly dropped in front of her. Taking a moment to compose herself, Twilight fired a cool portal to the panel above and a warm portal at the wall to their right. Without missing a beat, Pinkie Pie trotted through; carrying the sphere with her. Twilight followed them.

Twilight had barely got her bearings straight when her sadistic, cruel voice purred from the speaker on the opposite wall.

“Ah, there you are. You know, we’ve only got another fifty or sixty years remaining so, please slow down… and… savor the testing.”

Twilight's right eye twitched as she followed Pinkie Pie through the doorway.

Much like the previous test chamber Twilight noted, this one was enormous. They’d entered on an upraised platform with a portal-sticking panel a few feet to the left. Another button-on-a-pole stood across from the panel. Beyond that was what looked like a dimly lit corridor; though Twilight could easily see the silhouette of a tube far in the distance where a cube could drop. What intrigued her the most however, was a strange-looking panel on the floor at the end of the platform they were on.

Twilight quickly put a warm portal on the panel to her left; just in case. After all, it was always best to be prepared! In this crazy place, there was no telling what could happen. Looking past the platform, she could see another strange-looking floor panel was positioned beneath the distant tube. Approaching the platform’s edge, Twilight could see a pit full of acid below. At the very end of the chamber, Twilight saw a round door with a bright “EXIT” sign above. She sighed in relief. Simple enough; if their only obstacle was the acid. She decided it would be a good idea to test the button but, accidentally triggered the floor panel with her front hoof instead.

The panel suddenly shot up underneath her, launching her screaming in surprise, through the air and giving her a nasty slap on the flank in the process. After traveling six feet, panic gripped Twilight as some loud thing smashed just behind her back. Did the wall just… Another six feet was followed by another swift breeze and another thunderous pound. Twilight slammed into the second strange panel and the process repeated itself before she crashed head over hooves by the exit door with a groan.

That thing sends things flying. Good to know.

“Ooo, my turn next! My turn next!” Pinkie exclaimed bouncing excitedly.

“PINKIE!” Twilight roared, clambering to her hooves and holding her fore-hooves up in an attempt to stop the hyper pony.

Moments later, she gave an involuntary shutter as she watched plates attached to pistons
retract themselves from the wall. Large plates. With spikes. Sharp, dangerous spikes.

Glancing to her right, Twilight saw another small platform in the far corner; lower than the one she stood on and surrounded by acid. On the platform was a floor button; an orange trail leading from it and snaking all the way to the exit door. Next to the exit platform, far below, she saw a floor panel where a portal could be placed. This would be her way back to the launcher and the evil spike plates.

At first, she thought about jumping down, throwing a portal as she fell, and getting back up to the launcher platform that way, but her earlier experiments with trajectory told her the possibility of her ending up in the acid was incredibly high. Instead, she jumped down, the impact of her fall thankfully softened by her strange boots. She placed a cool portal on the floor and carefully crawled through to the launcher-and-button platform.

Twilight took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She could expect the crashing panels this time. No problem. All she had to do was catch the cube. Pressing the button, a timer ticked three seconds before releasing the cube. Twilight watched the cube endlessly bounce up and down for a moment before launching triumphantly into the air. The first plate crashed. She didn't flinch. The second plate thundered. No problem. Arriving at the second launcher, she lost sight and collided with the cube; sending it hurtling off into oblivion while she tumbled backward only to be catapulted forward yet again. After picking herself up off the floor and shaking the lights out of her eyes, Twilight made her way back to the other platform.

No sooner than she stepped through the portal, Pinkie squealed. “No problem Twilight, I’ve got this!”

She then turned and smacked the button.

Twilight blinked than raced for the launcher. Soaring through the air, she looked up to meet the cube and… didn't see it falling. Realizing she'd launched too early, Twilight quickly twisted her body around just in time to catch the cube as she almost flew past it. She watched the third spike plate smash viciously into the wall, and her heart almost failed her. She was that close to it the whole time?

Her back slammed into the wall beside the exit. The cube, still gaining momentum, collided into her shortly thereafter. These cubes were really starting to lose their charm. She could only hope that whoever made these horrible things was very pleased with themselves. Staggering to her hooves, Twilight gasped and shoved the cube aside and almost tumbled back to the ground again as a shrieking metal sphere smacked her in the face.

“Hello luv, did you miss me?” Wheatly stuttered.

Twilight merely groaned and shook herself. Moments later, panic gripped her once
more as a certain pony chose that moment to shout. “HereIcome!Twilightcatchme!”

Twilight had no time to react as Pinkie bowled her off her hooves seconds later. The pair then spent the next few minutes trying to untangle themselves; managing to do little more than kick each other in an attempt to right themselves. Once free, Pinkie Pie had turned to Wheatly and began babbling about cherries while it babbled about being on the floor. Twilight meanwhile, groaned as she slowly sat up and caught her breath.

After sufficiently recovering, she spotted a portal-sticking surface on the ceiling above the floor button. She shot a warm portal on it, remembering the cool portal that was still on the platform below. It was pretty clear, now, what she had to do; drop the cube onto the button. However, the wrong angle could send the cube flying off into the acid, which also meant that she would have to fly past the spike plates again to get another one. Twilight held the cube over the edge, aiming as carefully as she could with the big cube
blocking her line of sight. She let go. The cube flew swiftly through the portal and landed on the button with a very loud and very satisfying bang. The exit opened.

“I’ll give you credit maybe you are listening to me. But for the record, I didn’t mean go THAT slowly.” GLaDOS's voice purred from a hidden speaker.

Spotting a nearby camera, Twilight gave it a stare of disbelief before turning her attention back to the door in front of them.

“Now… waddle over to the elevator and we’ll continue the testing.” the cold voice continued, dancing with sadistic pleasure.

A series of strangled noises and half formed words spilled out of Twilight's mouth. Before she could go into full blown rage mode, Pinkie chirped cheerily “Come on, silly-filly! Let’s go see what other cool stuff they’ve got here!”

It took a colossal force of will for Twilight to calm herself and follow Pinkie Pie through the open doorway.