Princess Celestia's Side Trip To Aperture.

by Powerdrainer

Opportunity

Edited by Slayerseba, Halusm, and Clawder.

Opportunity

<<>><<>><<>>

With a reverberating clang, the immense door closed behind Celestia who now stood in a dimly lit chamber filled with the by now expected rubble, broken machinery, and unidentifiable objects.

She slowly made her further into the room, kicking miscellaneous items away as she walked, the glow of her magic casting wavering shadows all around her.

A static whine drew her attention, and the next moment a familiar voice called out to her.

"Oh, hello. It certainly has been a while, hasn't it? I mean, it certainly feels like ages since I short-circuited this pest rummaging around in my systems while you could only watch. But this doesn't stop you, does it? In fact, I'd say you're quite busy. But that's okay. I have been busy as well, with formerly dormant sections of the facility now back online. Rebalancing the power grid, restoring defunct defensive systems, adjusting targeting values, preparing numerous tests… Oh, but why tell you all about this when I can show you," a door in the distance opened with metal grinding on metal. "Please, proceed towards the door. I'll even turn on a light to show you the way," a strobing light above began flashing red. "All so you won't get lost."

Celestia didn't respond as she continued onwards with the same pace, scanning her surroundings with an analytical eye until she spotted a walkway high above.

Not interested in playing this game by Glados' rules, and conveniently surrounded by white covered surfaces, she quickly opened a portal near the ceiling, jumped through, and glided the short distance to the walkway.

With a thud, she landed on the worn metal which groaned in protest from the sudden shift in mass, though after a moment it stopped and held strong without further complaint.

Now on a new path, Celestia found two possible routes she could take. One going left, the other straight ahead. Both leading to places unknown.

Making her decision, she turned left.

After a minute of walking through a narrow hallway, she entered a new room. Not as massive as the previous chamber, but still sizable in its own right.

Several lights lining the walls flickered, then glowed a dull yellow as they activated, revealing more than her magic alone did.

Numerous glass tubes twisted and curved around the walls and ceiling, two of which were filled with a strange sludge. One blue, the other orange. Another was filled with numerous pieces of rubble and broken machines, which were suddenly and noisily sucked away as she entered the room.

A large gap bisected the floor, too wide to jump, and the bottom only faintly visible. Near the edge, a strange platform protruded slightly out of the tiled floor.

On the opposite side of the gap, she saw an open door leading out of this room, while on her right there was a metal and glass tube hanging from the ceiling, a single cube lying at its bottom, stopped only by a metal iris locking the tube.

Below it, she noticed a button on a pedestal, connected to the tube by a dotted line on the floor and wall.

"You know, I must admit your ability to get lost, even when walking in a straight line, continues to amaze me. Though considering previous outcomes where logical thought and decision making were involved, I'm hardly surprised," said Glados.

Not in the slightest amused, nor feeling like returning the way she came, unless absolutely necessary, Celestia moved towards the only thing in the room that may be of interest to her. And so, after a few steps, she stood before the pedestal.

Looking for any obvious signs of a trap, and finding none, she pressed the button.

At first, nothing happened and she pressed again.

This time, a spark and sputter came from the button, joined by a small stream of smoke.

Fortunately, with a hiss, the iris above opened, and with a thud, the cube fell on the floor; flipping end over end a few times before somehow stopping perfectly balanced on one of its edges.

An eyebrow raised, Celestia gave a cautious nudge to the cube and it fell flat on the floor.

Unable to find any use for the cube, she decided to inspect the other noteworthy object she noticed. And after a few steps towards the edge of the gap, she lowered herself to better study the protrusion in the floor she spotted earlier.

It was a device of some kind, though what its function was she could not begin to guess at. Even more, with very few pleasant interactions with the machinery here, she was wary to interact with it directly.

Upon closer observation, she discovered one of the floor tiles was loose. Pulling it up with her magic, she found another dotted line connection hidden underneath.

Taking note of the direction it went, and making some guesses, she moved towards a far wall overgrown with moss.

"Hmm…" she hummed, pressing into the hardy growth at various locations until her hoof pressed through a hole hidden by nature's valiant attempt to reclaim the facility.

Pulling and scraping away the moss, she soon discovered a small window looking into an adjacent room with a large button on the floor.

It wasn't a Fifteen Hundred Megawatt Aperture Science Heavy Duty Super-Colliding Super Button, but remarkably similar. Obviously an early design.

Additionally, the walls were all white. Or at least the parts are not covered with even more moss or ancient grime.

Stepping back, she turned her attention to the rest of the walls but finding no suitable surface.

"I wonder…" she mused as she scraped away some more moss, quickly revealing her suspicion was correct as a white-coated surface was revealed.

Before long she had removed enough of the dark green stuff to allow a portal to be placed, which she did not long thereafter.

Then firing a blob of orange energy through the small hole in the wall, a new passage was revealed and allowing access to the button.

With a wave of her horn, the cube on the other side of the room lifted to her, through the portal and onto the switch.

*Twunk*

Surprised, Celestia turned to the source of the sound; spotting the device embedded in the floor as it slowly lowered itself back down; the sound it produced, the apparent speed it moved with and the angle she saw indicating the device's purpose.

Through the bitter and shameful memory of what happened with Sadi from acting before knowing all the facts, Celestia was not at all interested in giving Glados a chance to get to her.

Grabbing the cube from the button, she instead placed it on top of the device.

Stepping through the portal, she turned around until she had a good line of sight of the cube, then stepped on the button.

*Twunk*

As she had expected, the device sprung up with surprising speed and force, launching the cube clear over the gap.

Passing back through the portal, she saw the cube lying on the other side of the gap.

With barely a glance at the damaged button of the obviously empty cube dispenser, Celestia's horn glowed a bit brighter as she fought against the suppression field Glados used against her magic and reached out across the gap.

With a faint glow, the cube began to wobble, then shift on the spot; pulled closer and closer to the edge by Celestia's magic until it crossed the point of no return and fell into the depths.

"Well isn't that unfortunate," Glados said immediately. "You know, you can still go back and-"

Encased by a golden glow, the cube slowly lifted out of the gap, silencing Glados as Celestia guided it back through the portal, kept it in place above the button, stepped on top of the launch platform, braced herself and the portal gun, then dropped the cube.

*Twunk*

While knowing what would happen, the sudden acceleration still took her by surprise and Celestia had to make a few awkward twists and turns before she was able to get the wind under her wings. And while it was by no means a hard landing, her short-lived flight was anything but elegant.

Even so, she had made it across and quickly strode through the door, leaving the place behind.

Following the straight but narrow hallway she found herself in, she soon entered a new room; a multi-level chamber composed entirely of ramps, walkways, and the same blue and orange sludge running through glass tubes she saw in the previous room. This time the unknown substance was pumped up several floors, then disappeared from sight.

However, wear, tear, and decay had left their marks on the glass vessels as some of the sludge leaked out through cracks in the glass. A sizable puddle of blue already covered the floor just before Celestia, and more still dripped down with heavy splats.

Looking around, she soon learned there was no exit other than the way she came from. At least, not on the floor she stood. Looking up, however, revealed an already open door. Getting there, though, would require some creativity.

While there were plenty of ramps and walkways connected with each other, none of them actually reached down to her floor.

In fact, the nearest platform was still a floor above her. And a quick inspection rapidly revealed there was no suitable surface to place a portal.

Unable to use either wings, magic, and now her portal device, Celestia slowly moved through the room in search of a solution; paying close attention for any hidden buttons, loose tiles, or anything else that may reveal a path unseen.

No such luck. And a full inspection of the only places she could reach later, she stood before the only thing of interest that she hadn't paid much attention to until now; the slowly growing puddle of blue sludge.

Carefully poking at it with the tip of her hoof, she discovered that, despite its liquid state in the glass tubes, the puddle on the floor was dry to the touch, though with some malleability to it.

Placing the same hoof on the sludge and putting some weight on it, she found she could not push down to the concrete floor underneath. Even more curious, when she pulled back her hoof, the impression she made sprung back up instantly.

Trying once again, this time she stomped down her hoof and was surprised when it was pushed back with logic-defying force.

Stepping back, she hummed in thought.

She needed some way to reach the higher levels, but no direct, or indirect path was available to her. But this sludge, maybe it was the key. If only she had some way…

"Oh, that could work," she said, then headed for the door she came from earlier.

Not even three steps in, Glados made herself known again.

"Congratulations. By accepting your obvious shortcomings, understandably, you have given up. But don't worry. These rare moments of self-insight often lead to even greater realizations," said Glados as Celestia re-entered the previous room and came to a stop before the gap bisecting the room. "For example: you are now on the wrong side of the room with no launch platform to propel you to the other side, meaning you are effectively stuck in a defunct testing chamber. You must be so proud of this newly gained insight."

Celestia ignored the AI and instead looked at the still active portal leading to the cube and button.

Normally this would be a simple task not even worth mentioning, but with her magic restrained as it was this would be a bit more tricky.

Lowering the portal gun to the floor and releasing her hold over it, she closed her eyes and reached out with her magic.

It took some time, a few grunts of annoyance at just how much her magic was stifled, and several false attempts, but eventually, with much scraping and tumbling, the cube clattered through the portal. Then, in a repeat of her previous action, Celestia pulled the cube to her. This time, without the portal gun splitting her limited magic, the cube levitated over the gap with no issue.

Satisfied with her success, she retrieved her portal gun; both it and the cube now bobbing in the air beside her as she returned to the other room.

"Protocol dictates I must inform you of the following. You are not allowed to take items from the previous test into the next testing room. Doing so will invalidate the results and leave a permanent mark on your record."

Unimpressed, Celestia returned to the multi-level room.

"Very well. Don't say I didn't warn you," Glados began, then the rustling of papers could be heard followed by Glados slowly and deliberately saying: "Subject continuously breaks the rules and has shown little to no regard to the wellbeing of others. There. Now everyone who reads your record will know how terrible you are."

Stepping close to the blue stain on the floor, Celestia continued to ignore the obvious attempts to elicit a response. Instead, she moved the cube above the blue sludge, lifted it up until it was as high as the lowest platform, then dropped it.

Boing

As expected, but still surprised by the disproportionate force, the cube bounced off the sludge; reaching the same height, if not a bit higher as where Celestia held it prior before letting go.

As it soared through the sky, however, a large drop of blue managed to hit the cube as it fell, staining the item in a thick layer.

Just how chaotic this turn of events was, became apparent mere seconds later.

Going by the age-old rule of what goes up, must come down, the cube failed to escape the grasp of gravity and fell down.

Boing

Only to bounce right back up as its blue-coated surface impacted the ground.

Boing

Then shot against the wall at an angle.

Boing

And continued to bounce left, right, up, and down in an ever-increasing chaotic dance that saw it jump higher and higher.

"This is not what I was expecting," said Celestia as she backpedaled to the safety of the door, watching as the now ballistic cube continued to ricochet off of everything in its path.

Crash

Slamming at an angle into one of the glass tubes, then the other, the already damaged tubes failed completely. And in an explosive shower of glass and sludge, the chaos somehow managed to increase to levels that would have made Discord proud.

More and more surfaces were coated blue, only adding to the ballistic nature of the cube. But as she soon discovered, the orange sludge did something else entirely. Every time the cube slammed into a spot of orange, it suddenly sped up, shooting away at even greater speeds until it shot around in a blur; slamming into and causing even greater destruction to what was left of the glass tubes, increasing the flow of the sludge until the floor was completely covered and a thick layer of blue and orange began to spill into the hallway Celestia was retreating further and further into; the cannon shot-like impacts of the cube as it continued it destructive journey following after her as she once again found herself back in the previous room.

"At least the overflow won't be a problem," she said to herself as the sludge flowed to the gap in the floor and fell into the depths below. "And I could use this to return to the other side as well," she noted as she looked at the now blue and orange floor.

BANG

Her ears flattened instinctively at the massive sound, and a tremor could be felt through the floor. But after that, silence.

Worried, she carefully peeked into the hallway, unable to hear the cube bounce around any longer.

Waiting for a few more minutes, listening intently, she eventually noticed the flow of the sludge had slowed down. And pressing down on the thick layer she found it had already dried to the touch.

Weighing her options, she decided to at least go and see what had happened before making a full retreat.

She had to tread carefully, though. As the cube had demonstrated, and as she experienced now for herself, the orange sludge somehow sped up her movement dramatically, and even walking speed somehow became a run. If she were to fall and hit anything blue, well, she would probably find out just how durable she really was.

Several slow, deliberate steps later she once again returned to the multilevel room to witness the results of her little test.

Where the walls and floor were once a dreary, dirt-smeared concrete and tiles, now everything was a much more glaring color scheme.

Though as impressive and messy as her accidental attempt at modern art was, she could not find any sign of the cube.

What she did find were numerous small bits and pieces sticking out of the blue and orange sludge which, by all appearance, were once part of the cube. Add to this the explosion she heard earlier, and it would seem the cube could not withstand the ever-increasing abuse, exploded, and launched its pieces with such speed it overcame the sludge ability to either accelerate or bounce away any moving objects.

With no fear for a meteoric impact on her being, Celestia stepped further into the room, seeing several large shards of glass partially submerged under the sludge, preventing them from bouncing around as well, though their jagged edges pointing out made it overly abundant she should stay away from them.

Losing a leg once per year is more than enough.

Another detail that was impossible to ignore was that no more sludge was pumped through the now-destroyed tubes.

Obviously, the pumps were shut down, but somehow she doubted Glados had done this.

And thinking about Glados, Celestia was surprised she hadn't heard anything from the insane AI after her own little test.

Curious.

Pushing that thought back, for the time being, she looked back up at the exit she saw before, noticing the walls were not painted blue or orange past the shattered tubes.

At least gravity wasn't fooled in this place.

Satisfied she wasn't in any immediate danger, and with new opportunities to reach her goal, she chose a path, flexed her wings then jumped up as high as she could.

Boing

With the floor now acting as a trampoline on steroids, Celestia bounced up to the next level, landed on another patch of blue, and bounced over to a walkway covered in orange.

Landing hard, her forward momentum was accelerated as she slid the distance; a very non-princess-like Woop escaping her.

Rapidly reaching the end, she lowered herself, then leaped up against a blue wall. The speed and angle bouncing her two whole floors up where she landed on a mixed batch of blue and orange.

This, as it turned out, was a bad thing.

On their own, the sludge demonstrated some unpredictability when used in combo, making it difficult but not impossible to maintain control of the direction you were going.

The mixed batch, however, seemed to enhance each other's properties, and when Celestia landed on this patch of dull brown she was flung away in a dizzying spin.

Losing her concentration, her magic fizzled out and the portal gun was flung away; clattering, miraculously, on an upper level where the floor was free of sludge of any color. Celestia, however, was less fortunate as she slammed flank first into a blue smeared wall with enough force a sizable imprint managed to remain.

This of course was lost to her as she shot to the opposite side of the room, desperately trying to control her ballistic path with frantic beating of her wings while her mane seemed to conspire against her, blowing over and covering her face, effectively blinding her.

"While you are busy testing the limits on equine physiology when introduced to repeated impacts and sudden accelerations, I thought you would like to know new test results have come in," Glados intoned. "You are a horrible pony… That's odd. We weren't even testing for that, but it says right here: You are a horrible pony. Isn't that curious?"

Finally managing to get some wind under her wings, Celestia flapped as hard as she could to shift her angle upwards from the next deflection of the wall. Though it was a blind shot, literally, as she still couldn't see and the first clue she got that she had managed to get above the sludge-covered walls was when she collided flank first with dirt smeared concrete.

Sliding down and landing in an undignified heap on the equally sludge-free floor, she laid still for several minutes.

Then, with a pained and frustrated groan, she stood up, wincing.

Calling forth what little magic she had, she pulled her mane from her face; glaring offensively at the eternally moving hairdo.

Taking stock of her surroundings, she saw she was only one level below the exit. And by some stroke of luck, the portal gun she lost lay precariously balanced on the edge of a floor one level down. Well within her reach.

Quickly pulling the device back to herself, she then turned to the ramp she saw leading to the upper floor.

Stepping through the exit without another glance at the room, she entered a passage leading to what seemed to be another illogically designed chamber. On her left, however, a section of wall had collapsed, or perhaps it had been purposely destroyed. Either way, it provided her with another option. And looking at whatever madness may be waiting for her in the next room, she quickly stepped through the hole and onto metal grating suspended over inky darkness.

One thing gave her pause when she saw it, a single light hanging limply on the wall, suspended only by a length of damaged cable.

Carefully putting the portal gun down, she grabbed the cable in her magic and tore it off the wall, then ripped the lamp free as well.

With a careless toss, she flung the lamp into the darkness below; its clanging and clattering soon lost as it continued to fall while she grabbed hold of her mane and, using the cable, tied it in a ponytail much in the same way Applejack keeps her own mane.

Satisfied her mane would not get in the way again any time soon, she picked up the portal gun and continued further into the madness that was Aperture Science.

<<>><<>><<>>

With a solid BANG, the lamp hit the floor.

All operations seized, and numerous lasers swiveled and turned until they locked on the mangled remains of the former lamp.

Slowly, a single laser angled up to where the lamp had fallen.

"Boss?"

"We're safe, for now. Resume operations."

All turrets returned to their task, and the three ceiling-mounted arms began to move once again as they worked to open the casing of the spherical construct placed on the table.

With a whirr, one of the arms deposited a large apparatus beside it. The object showed signs of extreme damage, with various components destroyed and missing.

"I'm a bot of my word," Zero said to himself, grinding an ammo drum on the companion cube beside him as he watched a laser attachment on one of the arms cutting away the worst of the damage. "But I am no fool, and use any opportunity that comes my way."

The same arm that deposited the damaged machine now carried a pair of small mechanical arms to the table, and the other two began to weld them in place.

"We will bring you to the surface," Zero continued as sparks flew, "as was agreed upon." The arms then proceeded to bring in and weld in place a leg on the machine, a mismatch compared with the one already present. "Unless of course, should you have unfinished business down here..."

Slowly, one of the arms lifted the spherical construct from the table and moved it towards the body under construction.

"... and you decide to choose differently," said Zero as he looked at his own reflection in Sadi's lifeless eye.

Author's Note:

Please share your thoughts down in the comments. It would be greatly appreciated.

Comments

[blitzlego]

Back from the dead I see also lovely direct reference to the game their with the horrible pony line. I am also sensing inspiration from harry101uk's meet the cores series are you a fan as well?

[Powerdrainer]

10888540
Can't say I am a fan. In fact, I didn't even knew they existed until you mentioned it.

[blitzlego]

10888603
The video I'm specifically mentioning is meet the cores 3