Catch Me Now, I'm Fallin'
Sunset was running on fumes.
She had given up on keeping track of the time. She was powering through the tests as quickly and efficiently as she could, trying to keep GLaDOS's attention focused on her, and it was working. Or, at least, it seemed to be. The primary failing of this plan was that she had no way to contact Penn or Isis. She could only hope they would catch up with her soon. Despite the fact that the tests were getting more and more difficult, GLaDOS hadn't tried outright killing her again.
Maybe she was telling the truth about being bored? Penn said she has a compulsion to keep testing, and it looks like I'm the only test subject she has left.
Sunset took a deep breath, looking over the chasm she needed to cross for the moment. There was a barrier across the center preventing her from simply shooting a portal to the other side, unfortunately meaning that she would need to jump it. She craned her neck upwards, spying a portal-able wall about four stories above her. It was a gut-churning distance to think about falling, but...
If I put a portal up there and another one on the floor, I can fall all that way to build up momentum. Then, when I fall into the one on the floor again, I'll be able to fly across the gap.
She swallowed loudly, shooting a portal onto the portal above, then pointing the gun down at her own feet. She was only going to have one shot at this. She hopped up and down on her boot-clad foot, readying herself for the impact when she landed on the other side. WHEN she landed on the other side. Not if. Totally not if. It wasn't as if she was just eyeballing this without taking the time to work out all the proper calculations, right?
You know, adult horses have been known to weigh as much as or even more than one ton. Imperial, not metric. That's the heavier one.
"I'm sorry, what?" Sunset asked, spinning on her heel to glare at the nearest security camera. Was that supposed to be a jab at my WEIGHT?
Just a fun fact. I'm certain you share very little in common with an ADULT horse.
Sunset glared for another second before sighing and refocusing on the floor. She took a deep breath, gritted her teeth, and fired the portal gun at her feet.
The entire world shifted and fell away, revealing a new perspective from the top of the room, gravity shifting to suit her new position. Sunset's heart flew up into her throat as she found herself falling from a probably-fatal height, the ground quickly rushing up to meet her. Her initial trajectory had been off, and she was going to miss the portal on the floor. Just as she was about to hit the ground, she shot again, slipping through a corrected portal without an issue. The next thing she knew, she was soaring through the air, up and over the chasm...
But not high enough. She was falling faster than she had expected.
Sunset's chest clenched as she realized that she was going to be cutting it close on her landing. She leaned back, placing her booted foot forwards. This landing needed to be PERFECT if she was going to survive. She held her breath, time seeming to slow down in the crucial moment.
Salvation was just in front of her, certain death below. Sunset watched as her foot planted itself on the nearest piece of solid ground: the corner of the ledge. True to its function, the boot cancelled all of her impact... leaving her teetering on the edge of oblivion with no forward momentum.
"W-woah- WOAH!" Sunset cried, pinwheeling her arms rapidly in an attempt to throw herself forwards. The nearly-forty-five degree angle she had landed at, however, had other ideas, and Sunset felt herself beginning to fall back. "NononononoNONONO!"
All at once, Sunset felt a hard shove at the small of her back and the flutter of feathered wings. She didn't have time to worry about the source, however, as the rest of the world came back into view and the balance tipped back into her favor. All pretense of grace forgotten, the moment she had both feet on solid ground Sunset blissfully collapsed to her knees.
AH! BIRD, BIRD! Where is it? I heard it, I know I did!
Sunset ignored GLaDOS's uncharacteristic panic, turning around to look for her savior. When there was no sign of anything flying around the test chamber, she risked a glance down into the pit. There was nothing there, either.
That was a close one!
Sunset snapped to attention, feeling some kind of presence behind her back. She spun around again, trying to catch a glimpse of the voice's owner. But there was nothing there. No visible owner.
Sunset sighed, pressing her palm to her forehead. I think the exhaustion is starting to really get to me... She moved her hand down to her aching chest, her heart only just beginning to slow down after her brush with death. As she gently clutched the area above her heart, her hand brushed up against her breast pocket. She slowly reached inside, retrieving the copy of The Ghostrick Angel of Mischief that Penn had given her.
"Guess Penn was right to give me a good luck charm," she muttered. After a second, a detail of the picture jumped out at her that hadn't before: her wings. The little girl in the illustration sported a pair of black-and-white wings, a pattern of feathers matching the keys on a piano.
Well, I checked the entire facility, just to be safe. There are no signs that any new, awful birds have gotten in. Please continue testing knowing that we are both safe from those dinosaur descendants. Unless they're invisible. Invisible birds... now THAT is a nightmare.
Sunset's eyes widened.
"Wait, you heard that, too? I wasn't hallucinating?"
There was a short pause.
And I suppose that rules out an auditory malfunction. Note to self: begin searching for possible invisible birds. High alert.
Sunset had another theory, though she had to admit that it felt just as probable. She glanced down at the card again. Was it just her imagination, or had the illustration changed which eye was winking?
"Thanks..." she whispered, giving the card a gentle stroke with her thumb before depositing it in her pocket again. The idea she had been saved by a trading card was absurd, but... reality as she knew it was broken, and she was being held captive by an AI in a secret underground facility. At this point, she knew better than to take a gamble based on something being "impossible."
The card didn't respond, of course, but Sunset couldn't help feeling like someone or something was hovering just over her shoulder as she stepped through the door to exit the test chamber.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunset staggered her way out of the elevator, barely able to see straight. She needed to sleep. Her whole body was shutting down from exhaustion, she could hardly put one foot in front of the other.
"I... I need a break..." she muttered, half to herself and half to the nearby security camera.
Oh. I forget sometimes how needy you humans are. You have to waste at least a third of your time recharging. What next? Food and water? Fresh oxygen? I can tell you right now that you're certainly not getting ONE of those things.
Sunset sighed. Of course a computer wouldn't be able to comprehend the idea of exhaustion. She picked out a corner of the room and sat with her back to the wall, slowly sliding to the floor. Immediately, her eyelids felt ten times heavier, and she was barely able to keep them open.
"Just... just give me some time to catch my... breath..." she whispered, already settling into a comfortable position.
Penn? Isis? This would be a great time for that "catching up" you promised... she thought hazily as she drifted off to sleep.
Stats
Page generated in 0.042 seconds
Total duration
1,017 users online
2,173,141 hits today, 2,561,572 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
So GLADoS is scared of birds... huh
9544070
Yes! In Portal 2, GLaDOS's AI was placed into a potato battery, and at one point the player actually rescues her from a bird that is pecking apart the potato! For the rest of the game, she demonstrates considerable fear towards other birds.
Although, given Wheatley's reaction... I have to wonder if it's a running issue with Aperture AIs.
66.media.tumblr.com/5003894fab21adb0089ea7c68daed373/tumblr_orq2uqkBkQ1roqvn3o1_400.gif
9544089
Knowing Aperture, something tells me that this is not an mistake but a design decision, after all: “why the hell no?” Is basically the line of thinking that dominates every design Aperture ever made, so I don’t faint it hart to believe that this was delivered done (or maybe it was done so the employees could get some entrepreneurial out of the AIs, after all Aperture has made worse things with out any decent kind of justification)
9544089
Who know, maybe the person that made GLADoS and the AIs had a secret phobia of birds and that somehow passed onto the robots
How long until Penn and Sunset realize their Yu-Gi-Oh! cards are magically functional, that they had an arsenal in their pockets the whole time?
9544381
Next arc. Pretty much as soon as they're out of Aperture. ;)
So... When is the next chapter scheduled for?
9781072
I've been a bit busy with school as of late but I should be in the swing of things soon! I don't want to give a definite date but I've been working in short periods to work on what comes next in bits and pieces!
Ok, first of all, GLADoS, Sunset is a pony, not just any horse, meaning she's less than 14.2 hands at the withers so she should weigh less than an adult horse.
Second of all, Sunset is a little pony, meaning she's probably less that 12.5 hands high, so she weighs even less.
Finally, and most importantly, she's currently a teenage girl right now, so that factoid was irrelevant.