Chapter 10 – The Griffins are Bad at War

Chrsyalis woke up with a horrible pain in her head. What had happened? Also, something felt… missing. She reached up to feel her twisted horn, and felt

nothing. She felt ever more frantically. Still nothing. She screamed in frustration. "Oh, shut up," a female voice said on the intercom of the chamber she

was in. Chrsyalis narrowed her eyes. This was not the male who normally tormented her, nor the female blue pony that she met shortly before testing.

"This is Sara. New to the whole 'testing' thing, but that doesn't mean you get any slack. "Why don't you come over here and say that to my face?"

Chrysalis said slyly. There was a long pause on the other said. "…Do you think I'm stupid?" the new voice responded. "No, but it was worth a try,"

Chrysalis replied. A door opened in her chamber, and she calmly and serenely walked through it. No more getting angry, or scared, or insulted, she

thought to herself. She would face whatever this hell had to throw at her with the dignity and poise that befitted a true queen.

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As she entered the next room, she heard a faint "Are you still there?" She looked up at a camera that was affixed to the walls. "Aren't you not supposed

to use bullets for your turrets?" she inquired. To her surprise, 'Sara' answered. "No, we can't. That's the fun part," she smugly replied. Chrysalis arched an

eye. The fun part? Well, better go figure it out. She looked around. A cube was resting on a spinning panel, and she attempted to grab it. The panel

moved away from her teasingly before finally giving up its prize. Chrysalis looked around for a button, and found on… on the ceiling? How was she

supposed to do this? Would the room rotate somehow? She found her answer in a blue funnel of churning liquid directly below the button, apparently

defying gravity. She placed the cube in, hoping something would happen. To her slight surprise, the cube was carried by the funnel up to the button,

where it stayed. She sauntered off to the next part of this long room. Or, she would've, but she jumped back when a dent appeared, literally out of

nowhere, right in front of her. She looked up, searching for the source of this, and found a turret behind her on a high ledge, where she couldn't have

seen it from the other way. It opened its casing and began firing at her, but no visible bullets could be seen. Suddenly, Chrysalis felt as though a

sledgehammer had hit her on the head. She collapsed to the ground, and the last thing she heard before she blacked out was "Goodnight."

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"It works! Yeah!" Sara spun around enthusiastically as Josh watched. "Bullets made of sound," he chuckled. "Brilliant. I hope you'll modify the existing

turrets as well as those on the battlefield already?" Sara stared. "How do we do that, recall all the turrets?" Josh shook his head, walked over to the

computer next to the Aperture Science Red Phone, and typed in a few commands. A schematic of a turret was brought up, and he zoomed in. He kept

zooming, past the gears and wires, until all that was visible were a bunch of small, rectangular bug-shaped things. "Nanobots," he said cheerily. "We put

them in everything, and if someone comes up with a more efficient design than what we have, everything can be changed at a moment's notice. Just tell

all the nanobots in all the turrets to copy the new master-turret, which you can take from that chamber once Chrysalis is done with it, and the nanos will

do the rest!" Sara blinked. Nanobots. Of course.

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Shane was discussing the finer points of quantum physics with Trixie and Twilight, though Twilight was absolutely lost on the discussion (though she was

taking notes). "But then why would effects happen before causes?" Shane was questioning. "It's one of the many quirks of the quantum dimension,"

Trixie explained. "Like quantum foam bubbles, and the Higgs Boson, and all that…" Twilight zoned out. The duo (and Twilight) continued discussing the

strange world of the quantum level all the way back to the facility, where they saw Josh laughing hysterically. "S' up with you?" Shane questioned, a smile

on his face already. "Look at this!" Josh said, handing a letter over. "Griffin Embassy would like to negotiate a peace agreement with Equestria and

Aperture Science Industries. Signed by… I don't know who these griffins are." Shane read. Trixie levitated the note over to her. "These are members of

the royal council over there," she stated blandly. "They control the legal stuff, the king does the rest." Shane raised an eyebrow. "Well, that's good if they

want to end the war." Josh rolled his eyes in response. "They started it, they're probably just now realizing the mistake they made." Nevertheless,

preparations were made. Trixie and Sara stayed behind to guard the facility, while Josh, Shane, and Twilight got ready for a trip through griffin country.

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While Shane and Josh were packing in their respective rooms (Shane had been given temporary lodging at Aperture), Josh came in and tossed a backpack

his way. "Nice, but I already have one." Shane said. Josh shook his head and thrust the backpack at Shane. "Try putting a few things in it, you'll see how

useful it is." Shane shrugged and tried it out. He put a shirt in. When he looked in the backpack, it was gone. "What kind of prank is this? A bottomless

backpack?" He really liked that shirt. In fact, he wanted it back immediately. He reached in and was surprised to find that it had reappeared just as rapidly

as its original disappearance. "What…?" Shane said confusedly. He moved all his stuff, including what had been in a suitcase he'd found, into the

backpack, finding that it all disappeared when he removed his hand from the backpack. Even better, no matter how much stuff he put in, it never gained

any weight. "Man, I could hike a mile with a house in this thing!" he thought out loud. Then he remembered; Black Mesa had a similar system. That they

probably stole from Aperture. He popped into Josh's room, and held up the backpack. "You guys invented this thing, right?" Josh laughed. "The backpack,

yes. The concept, no. That was actually Black Mesa if I remember right, so the security guards and HEV operatives could carry all their guns and crystal

samples and stuff." Shane raised a fist in triumph. "Yes! Black Mesa actually did something original!" Josh grinned. "Well, they discovered Xen too," he

said.

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Twilight, being the punctual student that she was, was sending a letter to Princess Celestia and the embassy at the same time. "And that we will do our

best to negotiate a peace agreement with the griffins so that we may resume in cordial relations. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle." Spike finished

writing and looked up. "…Was that for the letter to Celestia or the griffins?" Twilight groaned. "Well, it's not easy writing two letters at the same time, I

keep getting all mixed up!" Twilight reviewed the two letters in her head. "Alright," she said, attempting a smile, "let's start again. Ready? Go. Dear

Princess Celestia…"

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A/N: What an absurdly long hiatus! This chapter isn't quite up to snuff, I think, but it makes for a good bridge for when they actually Meet the

Griffins! Lots of action there. And now, to go back on hiatus! :D