Twilight ran through her mental checklist as she gazed up at the monolithic building looming in front of her. It was a nearly featureless pillar of whitewashed metallic material, four sides that seemed to stretch overhead to scratch at the sky. It was lucky that subject 'Mechromancer' had decided to set up shop on the fringes of town, as it was it would be a nuisance for any pegasi flying in the nearby area. Thankfully Fluttershy seemed to favor sticking close to the ground.

One. Go the the residence of subject 'Mecromancer'.
Two. Convince subject 'Mecromancer' that she was there to take her up on her offer.
Three. Infiltrate subject 'Mechromancer's' inner sanctum. Acquire as much information regarding subject 'Mechromancer's' plans, tools, fortifications, and any other pertinent information as possible.
Four. Find out, extort, or otherwise acquire password to disable null magic devices.
Five. If unable to find out password, figure out some way to trick subject 'Mechromancer' into giving up said password
Six. Relay all experiences to a containment memory crystal. Have Spike send containment memory crystal to Princess Celestia via dragonfire 'mail' spell.
Seven. ...
Wait for reply.

Twilight looked at the physical copy of her list, wincing as she realized she had skipped forty seven steps in her hurry. It was just so... exciting? Not exciting. If she qualified it as 'exciting', that might taint further impressions. Exhilarating? No. It just made her... anxious.

If she wasn't careful, she'd end up making everything worse. The mechromancer had for some unknown reason given her permission above any other ponies to enter her stronghold. If she could just convince her to give up her evil ways, everything could go back to normal. But if she made a misstep...

Twilight swallowed back a gulp, sweeping a hoof from her chest outwards with a deep breath to banish her tense thoughts. She'd succeed. She had to. Princess Celestia trusted in her, she couldn't let her down.

With an extended hoof, she tentatively knocked on the only ornament of the tower. The door. It was a tall rectangular groove on the southern face, with the words 'Front Door' inlaid in bright blue letters directly above it.

A square about four hooves by four hooves lit up level with Twilights face, the words 'intercom' appearing within it.

"Ooh! Twilight! You're late! Hurry up and get in here, I was just getting ready to leave, I almost left without you!" Gaiges voice called out through some sort of invisible speaker.

The door slowly hissed open, sliding into the wall next to it as Twilight stared into the depths of the tower in mild confusion. The subject had been expecting her? She was late? She was never late! That was the same as being tardy! That was horrible! She might send her back... to...

Twilight repeated her breathing exercise, slowing her heart rate. The 'Mechromancer' wouldn't send her back to magic kindergarten. She didn't have the authority. She probably didn't even know about magic kindergarten. So she wouldn't even know about magic kindergarten to be able to send her there. Still, being late was nothing to dismiss. If everypony was late, then nothing would ever get anything done!

Twilight stepped inside, the door sliding shut behind her. She was left in complete darkness, stumbling over her hooves for a few steps before a line of lights flashed into being underneath her.

It was a series of flashing arrows, leading her deeper into the cavernous building. It didn't make any sense, there weren't any compartmentalization type magic arrays woven into the building. There was barely any magic in the tower, it was almost as if the entire place was a magical dead zone. So how was it so large? It seemed that she had already walked at LEAST three lengths of the tower.

Another minute passed, Twilights only companion being the echoing clops her hooves made upon the floor. She was beginning to think something might have gone wrong.

"What the... seriously?" Gaige's voice echoed around her, catching her off guard as she tried to figure out where it was coming from, "C'mon, I told you to start up the holochamber as soon as she came in, how long has she been sitting in the dark in there?"

"The file was corrupted," a different voice answered, also echoing through the space around Twilight. "I have been trying to distract princess Twilight while I attempt to recover the original file." Twilight wasn't sure, but the voice sounded... wrong. It didn't sound like anypony Twilight knew, and it also sounded weirdly... androgynous. She couldn't for the life of her definitively latch either a female or a male identifier to it.

"First, Twilight isn't a princess," Gaiges voice admonished the first, "Second, how the hell did the file get corrupted? Screw it, whatever, I'm already running late, just salvage what you can and give her whats left."

"There is not much to-" the voice started.

"Zip it Querty! Just do it so we can get going!" Gaiges voice called out harshly.

"Yes, mistress," Quertys hollow voice acknowledged.

The flashing yellow arrow vanished from underneath Twilight, leaving her in suffocating darkness. A pinprick of light appeared on the 'wall' in front of her, slowly growing as a static white noise crept in around her. Twilight closed her eyes against the growing glare, wincing as she threw an arm in front of her eyes to protect them.

"Welcome!" Gaiges voice called out, emanating from directly in front of her. Twilight glared at the source of the voice, silently trying to scrutinize past her bleary vision as her sight returned to normal. When it did, she almost wished it hadn't. Gaige the mechromancer was standing in front of her... but it wasn't her. It was some form of illusion, one that appeared to be poorly put together. Every time she moved, parts of her disappeared and reappeared at seemingly random, and every time she talked her skeleton slipped through her her skin, as if they had been cast as different illusions and attempted to mesh them together.

"Welcome to -BZZT- Tower!" the voice of the subject declared, and Twilight realized abruptly that something had gone wrong with her voice. It was almost like she had skipped past part of her own conversation, and even her body seemed to teleport randomly in place. "You can pretty much -BZZT- where in the facility, but be careful of the -BZZT- seriously, don't go anywhere near the -BZZT- I'm serious, this could be a matter of life or death, don't -BZZT- And that's the safety taken care of, so just remember, have fun, be safe, but don't -BZZT- ddle Arabia. I've got an appointment with the -BZZT- we'll just be there for the day, so don't worry. If you have anything you had planned, please inform me at your earliest convenience. I might just have to leave you behind if you can't come -BZZT- exits are here, here, and here on the craft," she declared, pointing at a blueprint that suddenly appeared in the air before Twilight. Except part of her hand was missing, and the finger that pointed at the blueprint hung freely in the air unconnected from her hand.

"-BZZT- just remember, under no circumstances should you -BZZT- but don't worry, as long as you follow the comprehensive safety protocols I've described, you should be perfectly fine!" her voice happily stated, sending a cold line of dread through Twilights mind.

"Wait, what?! No! You skipped steps, you skipped steps!!!"She cried out as the floor opened up underneath her. She fell for a few hooves, before a sloping surface made contact with her hooves. She realized she was on some sort of slide, but she was hard pressed to figure out the exact dimensions as she slid on in relative darkness. She couldn't even properly tell which way the slide was going, seeing as at one point she could have sworn she was sliding upwards.

A hatch suddenly opened up underneath her, sending her sprawling into an admittedly comfortable seat. As Twilight tried to regain her bearings, she slowly shook her head. Finally her surrounds swam back into vision around her, showing her that she was in the seat of some sort of enclosed carriage.

"What?! Where?!" Twilight squawked, trying to blink her sudden nausea away.

"Keep up, Twilight," the subject admonished her from a seat next to hers. "Like I said in the training vid, you went down the G.G.E. , now you're in my departure bay. Inside a dragonspy -mark III respec-, but you already know that from the training video, good god listen to me ramble, you already know all this I'm just so excited to finally be able to talk to you since Celestia never let me before..."

Outside of two bug eye like windows, a large metallic ring filled Twilights vision. Her eyes grew wide with surprise as a weird energy slowly crept over the opening of the ring, transforming it into a sideways pool filled with glowing light.

"Ground gate, my own design. Well, I based it off of star gates, but this is faaar less powerful. Had to work with the materials I had, but it seems to work well enough."

Twilight felt a spike of fear as she stared ahead, her gaze uncomprehending as she slowly recognized what she was looking at. It was impossible. It was theoretical. There was NO freaking way the subject should have been able to create something like this, ESPECIALLY without magic!.

"That... that... that," she stuttered, lifting a hoof to point at the ring of certain death their craft was slowly edging its way towards. "Thats... an event horizon..."

"Yep!" Gaige responded gleefully, seemingly unaware of their immanent demise.

"That... that'll destroy us!" Twilight yelped, looking over to Gaige with worried eyes, "It'll rip all of our molecules apart!"

"Well, yeah," Gaige admitted with a bored tone, looking at Twilight in confusion, as if something were wrong with her. "How else would it transport us?"

Before Twilight could even release her pent up scream of terror, the craft leapt forward with a sudden jerk. There was an almost titanic roar as some sort of non magical propulsion device turned on, shooting them forward through the glowing circle of light.

Author's Note

G.G.E. Great Glass Elevator. I like Willy Wonka, alright?

Short as heck chapter because I'm trying to figure out how I write this arc.

Crimsoin Sun asks;

Questioning for Gaige? Alright I'm game.

First off, how old are you, game wise. I never got while playing borderlands 2. And did Celestia really just say 're didn't do anything to you' or something like....Damn Orochi would flip if he heard that. I hesitate to ask this last one, because I think it would come off as annoying (paranoia curse you!) but think you can do a crossover over with The Beating Of My Heart, I'm sure you'd like Rin.

Oh, btw, you're my favorite for you're abilities in the game, Kreig is also because of the things he says and that rampage is fun if a bit suicidal. That's all I got, mind telling the author he is doing well, and I hope to see more soon.

Well... thats kinda hard to answer. Partly because what you're asking is about seperate parts of me. I guess the answer would be that I was sixteen? And the other part of me was twenty three? I guess? Sorta?

And yes, she sure as heck did. Screw 'er. Who exactly is Rin? Jack never told me about her...

Awwwww, thank you hon!~ Is the author a he? I honestly never met them face to face, I've only conversed with them via some sort of 'Charlies Angels' intercom, with a digitized voice to boot. I guess 'he' never said 'he' was a male or a female... 'He' kinda writes like a girl, but 'he' talks like a guy... Ehn, I just call the author a him anyways... Yo, Author!

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A reader thinks you're making me look good! Keep it up!

ER... yeah. Sure. As always, leave a question for Gaige, or her newest companion Twilight!