Twilight could feel her insides flip upside down after arriving in an extremely large hall, only lit up by dim blue lights scattered across the floor and walls. The Chief materialised next to her, appearing in the middle of a set of yellow lights shaped as rings. Both of them staggered from the transportation they were unwillingly put under. Despite her experience with teleportation spells, she still felt sick from this experience as it was a non-magical means.

The spherical robot, 343 Guilty Spark if she remembered correctly what it called itself, appeared behind her, humming as he flew to the Chief's side. The Chief's reaction: empty half a magazine of his Assault rifle on Spark, with no effect other than a verbal response.

"That was unnecessary, Reclaimer", it spoke in an bemused and condescending manner, its business like tone still present, "I suggest that you conserve your ammunition for the effort ahead."

"What task ahead?" Twilight asked, attracting the attention of Spark.

"Ah, I see that the equine is fully sentient." It hovered near her, its eyes intently looking over her entire body with too much enthusiasm for Twilight's liking. "How wonderful! I am most pleasantly excited for the opportunity to study a creature such as yourself that can manipulate Neural Physics."

Then, tilting its body forward as if to mimic the emotion of disappointment, it moved slightly backwards.

"Alas, that must come later, for we have a momentous journey ahead of us, with a much more higher priority than the possibility of..."

"Hold on there, pal", the Chief interrupted, evidently annoyed. "Where are we and what task ahead?"

"The installation was specifically built to study and contain the Flood." Spark replied.

'The Flood', Twilight repeated in her head. 'So that's what those things we fought are called. And what is Neural Physics? Does he mean magic?'

She was brought back to reality as she noticed that Spark continued to speak.

"Their survival as a race was dependent on it. I am grateful to see that some of them survived to reproduce."

Twilight felt her anger rise at the mentioning of him being glad as the Chief spoke out once again, his voice louder than normal. "'Survived'? 'Reproduce'? What the hell are you talking about?" he demanded.

Spark ignored him, flying off ahead. "We must collect the index."

"Its rude to leave somepony's questions answered!", Twilight shouted at the robot, following it with the Chief. "And who in Tartarus are you anyway?"

"And what's your function?" the Chief added in.

"I am 343 Guilty Spark. I am the Monitor, or more precise, a self-repairing artificial intelligence charged with maintaining and operating this facility." Twilight could already feel her curious side reawakening with a passion, her excitement rising until the Monitor added, "But you are the Reclaimer-so you know that already."

It was blatantly obvious that he was talking to the Chief. Twilight walked over to the Chief, totally confused about what was going on.

"Are you ever called 'Reclaimer' by other humans?" she whispered to him. He shook his head.

"No, and the Covenant don't either", he whispered back before raising his voice again. "So, refresh my memory", he told Spark, playing along. "How long has it been since you were left in charge?"

"Exactly 101,217 local years", the Monitor replied in a cheerful manner despite the implications of his statement, "many of which were quite boring. But not anymore, now that you have arrived, along with the equine! Oh, how I am going to enjoy the next few days! Hee, hee, hee."

Twilight was taken aback, not only by the giggle from the machine, but also because of the fact that the Monitor was over 90,000 years older than Celestia and Luna! A certain fact popped into Twilight's mind, one that Cortana and other humans had told her: Machines don't need to rest like organics. This means that the Monitor would have been alert and active for the entirety of the period he was in charge. Not even Celestia could endure 1,000 years without sleep. She would go insane. And from the way the Monitor giggled randomly, he probably is insane.

"Um, excuse me?", Twilight spoke out, interrupting the Monitor's chattering about "effecting repairs to substation nine". "You didn't answer where we are and what did you..."

"Why, we are in the Library of Installation 04, where all of the archived information, research facilities and most importantly, the index, is located."

"L...L...Li...Library", Twilight's eye began to twitch uncontrollably. "Th...This is a LIBRARY!"

"Why of course." Spark replied, oblivious to Twilight's deteriorating mental state.

"Then...", she took a deep breath before shouting at the top of her lungs, her entire face in a hyperventilating expression. "WHERE ARE ALL THE BOOKS! YOU CAN'T HAVE A LIBRARY WITHOUT BOOKS!" She started to pant uncontrollably, much to the Chief's concern. "HOW WILL YOU GET ALL THE KNOWLEDGE WITHOUT BOOKS!"

Whatever the Monitor was going to say as a reply and Twilight's tantrum was interrupted by a horrifyingly familiar growling sound. Twilight immediately stiffened in fear.

"Oh, no", she said, hoping for a miracle that what she heard was just her imagination. "Please, sweet Celestia, not them!"

Her fears were realised as she turned around and saw an entire horde of Flood approaching them. The all too familiar scenario began to play out, with Combat forms rushing forward, either unarmed or armed with a firearm and Infection Forms following them or in some cases were in front. Twilight also noticed that there were passageways high up within the walls where the Flood were emerging from, quickly surrounding the group of three. Then, Twilight saw something new move through the Flood horde.

It had the height of a human, but was severely misshapen, the flesh being stretched constantly at different points and in motion, as if multiple things were moving underneath the skin. It had two stubby tentacles on its sides, and was shuffling quite quickly towards her. Soon, more emerged from the shadows.

Fortunately, Twilight still had her Assault Rifle and fired a dozen rounds at the new Flood Creature, only to look on in both shock and horror as is it exploded, spewing out dozens of Infection Forms. She couldn't help but be reminded of bacteria using an infected cell as a carrier to continue its infection of the rest of an organism. Carrier forms, a fitting description.

She was forced to mop up the Infection Forms as the Chief finished off the rest of the Flood Carrier Forms first after discovering that their explosions took out other Flood in close proximity. Thus a strategy developed around this: deal with the Carrier Forms first, then mop up the surviving Flood afterwards if possible. It was over in what felt like forever, but Twilight knew that it would have been a few minutes at most.

Ignoring the stench of rotting flesh, she made her way up to the Chief, who stood there, feeding shells into his shotgun while looking right at the monitor, the glare obvious even with a helmet on.

Then, in a very infuriating manner, the Monitor simply stated to the both of them "There's no time to dawdle! We have work to do."

"Work!?" Twilight shouted. "We were doing all the work killing these Flood and you have the nerve to hover there and..." but the Monitor had already flown ahead, leaving her stewing in her anger. She was about to grab it with her telekinesis when the Chief put his hand in front of her, shaking his head. She relented and watched as the Chief tried a different approach.

"What work do we have to do?" he asked, only a trace of the anger he was feeling verbally present in his tone. The Monitor gave a hum of delight and twisted in mid-air to face the Chief.

"To retrieve the Index", the Monitor stated, "which is contained within an energy field above us. I only require you to help me retrieve it, as you are a reclaimer, but the equine may follow as well."

Twilight scoffed at that, mumbling under her breath.

That is, until a Combat Form jumped down from an alcove and landed on top of Twilight, quickly wrapping its tentacle arm around her neck, knocking her to the ground while draining her magic. She tried to roll around in an attempt to use her momentum to get the Combat Form off, but was too heavy.

She heard the groaning and growling of more Flood as the Chief tried to help her, but was stopped by a new horde of Flood that leapt out of the shadows. She saw the shadow of the free arm of the Combat Form grow, indicating a strike, but stopped and lowered, like it decided that it was content to just drain her magic.

Then, out of nowhere, the Combat Form was hit with a bright beam, simultaneously knocking it back and burning it to a crisp. Twilight got onto her feet, and found her saviour, one of the floating machines from the swamp, hovering above her. It turned around and began attacking more Flood forms, as more robots arrived. Twilight couldn't help but cheer in joy as Flood after Flood was burnt down.

"These Sentinels will assist you and your Equine pet", the Monitor stated to the Chief, with Twilight too distracted watching the carnage to hear his term for her

It wasn't all one sided however, as Twilight soon found out when she witnessed a Combat Form leap into the air, slashed its tentacle across the body of a Sentinel, damaging it enough for it to crash to the ground and explode. There was also the fact that more Flood were coming.

She turned to comment to the Chief, but was stopped by an explosion going off in front of him.

The Chief groaned as he hit the Floor, sent back by the explosion. He got back onto his feet, tracked the origin of the explosion and witnessed the horror of a Flood Combat Form in the distance holding a Fucking Rocket Launcher. It held it one hand, displaying tremendous physical strength.

The Chief raised his Assault Rifle and fired an accurate burst at the arm of the Combat Form, cutting it off with the bullets. Despite the Combat Form now disarmed, more Combat Forms started to arrive, some of them armed with more Rocket Launchers.

"Shit", the Chief groaned out, the Combat Forms too far away to be accurately hit with an Assault Rifle or shotgun, but he was well within range of being shot by a rocket. He noticed a flash of light, saw the incoming rocket and leapt to the side, clambering to his feet as the rocket collided with the ground where he was, the area of the explosion depleting his shields.

All he could do was throw his last Grenade far into the air, hoping that it would fall at their feet and was rewarded with the sight of exploding bodies in the distance. However, one of the Combat Forms had shot one last rocket before it died.

The Chief ran to the side, out of the range of the explosion and ducked as a Combat Form swung its tentacle at him. He pressed down the trigger of his rifle, spewing out bullet after bullet right into the chest of the Combat Form, literally tearing it apart from the force of the bullets at that range. Even as the Combat Form fell apart, the pieces still falling to the ground, the Chief was already aiming at another target, this time a Carrier Form that was trying to sneak up to Twilight from behind, causing it to explode a fair distance away from her and finished off the dozen Infection Forms that emerged from the misty explosion.

He heard a blast from behind him, turned around and saw a Combat Form fall from being blasted by one of the machines flying in the air, a Sentinel if he heard the Monitor correctly. He nodded in thanks, but it had already flown off, attacking another Combat Form, with many more Sentinels joining it. The Chief couldn't help but feel relieved that at least something on this Ring wasn't trying to kill him or Twilight.

Not yet anyways.

The Flood was soon dealt with from the combined efforts of the Chief, Twilight and the Sentinels. The Chief reloaded his Assault Rifle, noticing that he had used up most of his ammo for both weapons, proceeding to scavenge from the corpses of the fallen Combat Forms as they had captured UNSC weapons and gear with them. He acquired seven magazines of ammo for his Rifle, fifteen shells for his shotgun and five grenades, two of which were plasma grenades. He handed one of the mags to Twilight, which she accepted.

The Monitor flew further down in front of them, before flying into a small, corridor to the side. The Chief followed, blasting a Combat Form apart, since it was in the way. There seemed to be no end of the Flood horde and they appeared to have the ability of appearing out of nowhere. At least the Covenant had realistic means of transporting to different areas, with dropships or gravity lifts. For the hundredth time in the last hour, the Chief desperately wanted to fight the Covenant again.

They arrived at a large, circular platform that had a half dozen Carrier Forms waiting for them. Since the Carrier Forms could only rush towards them, it was easy for the Chief and Twilight to kill by themselves, as the Sentinels stayed back in the other area, much to the Chief's annoyance. The Monitor led them to another doorway to the side, and into another large area similar to the first one. Unfortunately, they were quickly swarmed by the Flood, in what would become a repetitive process that would last for a significant period of time.

After dealing with the Flood in the immediate area, the Chief and Twilight quickly ran after the Monitor, who had paused a significant distance away from where the two of them had fought. However, as soon as they approached, it turned and continued to fly away, leading them into another ambush.

'Is this thing intentionally trying to kill us?' the Chief thought to himself as he fed a new magazine into his Assault Rifle before smashing it into a charging Combat Form, only stunning it. 'Or is the Monitor just that insane, or oblivious, that he leads us to these areas where the Flood are?'

He finished off the Combat Form, began to walk away, saw the red blip on his motion sensor, pivoted on the spot, shot the resurrected Combat Form, waited a moment to see if it was going to rise up again and walked away, firing at another Combat Form.

Twilight was also in the middle of fighting several Flood at once, mainly infection forms who leapt out at her with the intention of draining her magic. The Chief recalled what the Monitor had said about Twilight, especially what it meant about 'Neural Physics'.

'That must be what his creators call magic', the Chief deduced quickly before bringing his focus back to the fight occurring in the present.

After the last Flood Form was at last killed, the Chief returned to the subject from before. 'So, that is why their structures are magic proof. They were defending against the Flood, though in what capacity? From what I have seen so far, the Flood haven't used magic in any way. Maybe this is just the beginning of what the Flood are capable of.'

They arrived at a huge door, which looked like something out of a fortification, except ten times bigger. Whoever built this Ring World, they definitely didn't play around with small things.

"The security doors are locked automatically", the Monitor stated. "I will go access the override to open them." It then flew off through a small opening, with the Chief hearing as it grew further away its giggles.

"You are a pain in the ass", the Chief muttered to himself, just before a blip appeared on his motion sensor, followed by more.

"We got company", he informed Twilight, just as a Combat Form ran past the corner, spotted them and led a new swarm towards them. Within seconds, another firefight had broken out, with the Chief and Twilight having to put their backs to the door because they were pushed back by the amount of Flood.

After the last Flood form fell, the portal opened, with the Monitor appearing.

"I am a genius", it said before facing the weary Chief and Twilight. "Please follow closely. This portal is the first of ten!"

The Chief heard Twilight groan at this statement, even as he heard the screams and growls of more Flood coming their way. Deciding that it would be better to leave the area so they can complete the Task that the Monitor said they needed to do, so he moved on.

However, he couldn't help but say "More doors, I can hardly wait."

What surprised him was that Twilight said the same thing, at the same time. They looked at each other with bemused faces, though she couldn't see his.

Twilight dropped down to the floor, panting as her tired legs gave way. She looked over and saw that the Chief wasn't in a better position either, with his legs trembling from fatigue. They were surrounded by dead Flood forms on all sides and still the Flood could be heard in the distance, relentless in their need to kill any living thing.

The two of them had followed the Monitor through eight other huge doors, separated amongst three different stories within the library. Within every second of time spent within the library, they have been hounded by the Flood, who just keep on coming out of nowhere. It doesn't help that the Sentinels, who Twilight thought were going to help them, kept on leaving in certain areas just before the Flood attacked. The Monitor blamed this on the 'sentinel backup computers being corrupted' but Twilight was having a hard time buying it.

Another thing going wrong was that she was down to her last mag of ammo for her rifle, for the fifth time in the last hour. The Chief's ammo supply was in a similar way to hers, though he ended up having to get rid of the shotgun because he ran out of shells. Instead, he has a plasma rifle, which is the most effective Covenant weapon to use against the Flood as Twilight has noticed, comparing how both the Chief and her have experimented with different weapon combos to find the best way to survive.

It was undoubtedly the Shotgun with an Assault Rifle, but unfortunately they couldn't use that combo at the moment.

"This..." Twilight panted out, "is the worst...thing that I...have ever done..."

"Tell me about it", the Chief responded as he too collapsed on the floor for a breather. "There's no stop to the onslaught, and rarely any opportunity to reload without an Infection Form or Combat Form trying to knock you down when you're distracted." His fist clenched tightly as Twilight watched.

She turned to look up at Spark floating above them as he began to speak in an admonishing tone.

"Reclaimer, you should not rest at this time. Even as we speak, the Flood spreads across the installation. If we want to contain this outbreak, we must retrieve the index now."

"Then why not teleport us there?" Twilight asked, getting annoyed at the machine.

"That would be against all procedures", the Monitor replied. "And there is a barrier that prevents any kind of transportation through the teleportation grid and neural physics. It can only go offline if the index is removed. This is to stop the Flood from ever getting the index."

"So far, it hasn't worked", the Chief noted as he looked at Spark.

"I admit, the infestation has progressed faster than estimates would place. It would appear that the conflict across the entire installation is granting the Flood access to vast quantities of biomass. I hope that it is not too late."

"Too late for what?" the Chief asked, his tone serious.

But the Monitor just flew away, leaving them there to ponder what they just heard.

"What could he mean?", Twilight asked.

"I don't know", the Chief replied, "and I don't want to find out."

He stood up and looked around. Then he looked straight at her.

"We should move. Despite everything, he's right. We need to get to the Index as fast as we can."

Twilight sighed.

"I know", she said as she stood up as well, "I can't believe these words are coming out of my mouth, but I HATE THIS LIBRARY!" she screamed out the last part in anger directed both at the situation and at herself.

They moved on to the next door, but found, much to their surprise and horror, the corpse of a dead Marine, barely recognisable. The Chief walked up to it, and knelt before it, all the while searching for something on the body before pulling out a set of dog tags.

The Monitor flew next to Twilight as she strode next to the Chief, who was now standing as a sign of respect for the fallen.

"Ah, the other Reclaimer. His combat skin proved even less suitable than yours."

Twilight looked at Spark with a sense of disgust at the way he nonchalantly spoke about the dead Marine, but the Chief simply looked over his shoulder.

"What do you mean?"

"Is this a test, Reclaimer?" the puzzled tone seemed genuine, "I found him wandering through a structure on the other side of the ring and brought him to the same point where the two of you started."

"You mean you put this poor soul through the same torture you put us through!" Now Twilight was having a hard time keeping her anger in check. She could already feel her mane start to steam from anger.

But it soon quickly fell as she heard the Chief start to speak, but not to her or the Monitor.

"I didn't know you, Sarge, but I sure as hell wish I had. You must have been one hardass son of a bitch."

Twilight's head lowered as a sign of respect before raising her hoof to the Chief's hand, which he squeezed lightly as a sign of gratitude and acceptance.

They stood there for a minute more before they had to move on.

Thankfully, they only had one more portal to go through before they reached an open area, where a platform stood in the middle, suspended in mid air on top of a circular chasm, only connected to the main structure by a single bridge. In the middle was a beam of light, with Twilight spotting a green object in the light.

"I guess that's where it is", was all she could say before the Flood came from all angles, armed with all manners of weapons and objects, from crossbars and drills to Rocket Launchers and snipers. To get to the platform where the Index was, both the pony and the human had to fight through wave after wave of Flood that kept on coming, making their way step by step as fast as they could, but being slowed down considerably.

It was after fifteen minutes of constant fighting that they finally reached the platform and a massive wave of Sentinels, along with two massive machines with shields on the front and rocket launchers on the side emerging from the chasm to fight the Flood. Then the platform made a hollow sound as it moved downwards a long way before finally stopping.

"Are you kidding me?" Twilight said, frustrated. "We went all those stories up and then this thing takes us all the way down again?!" The Chief nodded in agreement.

The Index, an artefact shaped like the letter T and had glowing lime green lines engraved all along it, fully materialised out of the light and the Monitor flew beside them.

"You may now retrieve the Index, Reclaimer", Spark stated to the Chief before turning to Twilight. "Not you, I'm afraid. Protocol dictates that only a Reclaimer can remove the Index from its location."

The Index popped out of its shell as the shell rotated and spun downwards. The Chief took hold of the device and pulled it out. Both Twilight and the Chief began to examine the Index before a grey beam lanced out of Spark and pulled the Index out of the Chief's grasp and into a storage chamber within the Monitor's body.

"What the hell are you doing?" the Chief demanded with Twilight lighting up her horn in response to the action.

"As you know, Reclaimer, protocol requires that I take possession of the Index for transportation." The monitor swooped and dived in front of them. "Your biological forms render the both of you vulnerable to infection and from witnessing your clashes with the parasite, Equine, the Flood can drain you of your neural physics pool. The Index must not fall into the hands of the Flood before we reach the Control Room and activate the Installation."

"The Flood is spreading! We must hurry."

Twilight felt a familiar feeling, then realised last minute that she was being transported away like before and soon her vision was filled with gold light before blanking out.

She came too back in the Control Room of the Ring, though it was quiet and Cortana didn't seem to be anywhere in the console. The Chief seemed to notice too as he stopped and looked around. The Monitor recognised the Chief's worries as notable and asked as it hovered over his head "Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing", was the response the Chief gave, and the Monitor happily accepted it.

"Splendid. Shall we?"

They made their way forward to the console, which was still inactive and bare of Cortana.

'Why isn't she showing herself?' Twilight wondered to herself.

"My role in this particular endeavour has come to an end", Spark said as it hovered above the control panel in a supercilious tone, "Protocol does not allow units from my classification to perform a task as important as the reunification of the Index with the Core."

"That final step is reserved for you, Reclaimer", it said as he then zipped to hover at the Chief's side, in between him and Twilight.

"Why do you keep on calling me that?" the Chief asked, but Spark kept silent.

Twilight watched as the Chief accepted the Index that the Monitor was giving him and insert it into a slot in the panel and waited. The console only shivered and groaned. The Monitor tilted slightly as if confused.

"That wasn't supposed to happen", it stated.

It was at this moment when Cortana reappeared as she suddenly towered over the panel, looking pissed.

"Oh, really?", she said as she gestured and the Monitor fell out of the air, hitting the platform with a clank.

Twilight gasped as she bore witness to this and the Chief started to speak before Cortana interrupted him.

"I spent hours cooped in here watching you two today about helping that...thing get to slit our throats."

'What? What is she talking about?' Twilight wondered as the Chief spoke again. "Hold on now. He's a friend."

"Oh, I didn't realise", Cortana said as she brought her hand up to her mouth in mock surprise. "He's your pal, is he. Your chum? Do you have any idea what that bastard almost made you do?"

"Yes", the Chief stated patiently, even as Twilight gaped at the language Cortana was using. "Activate Halo's defences and destroy the Flood. Which is why we brought the Index to the Control Center."

"And we had to fight through the endless waves of the Flood", Twilight added, "which you could have told us about beforehand."

This seemed to calm Cortana down slightly and she turned to face Twilight.

"I am sorry about that, but there was very little time. If there was a chance that you two could contain the Flood, I had to take it, though I admit I only scratched the amount of information about them when I sent you there. But this...this is an entirely different manner!"

Cortana plucked the index out of the console, even as Spark's eye fluttered on and he hovered just off the floor.

"A construct in the core?" it stated in a furious voice. "That is absolutely unacceptable!"

Cortana's face scrunched up in anger once more at the sight of the Monitor reanimated. Her eyes glowed as she bent forward slightly, her mouth bent into a half sneer.

"Piss off."

"What impertinence!" Spark flew up higher. "I shall purge you at once."

"You sure that's a good idea?" Cortana inquired before making the index disappear into her hand. Twilight noticed that more data seemed to scroll on her surface.

"How...How dare you! I'll..." Spark spluttered out before Cortana interrupted his rant.

"Do what? I have the index. You can float and sputter."

It was at this point that both Twilight and the Chief decided to intervene. Twilight used her horn to produce a bright flash of light, distracting the two AI while the Chief stepped between the two of them, his hands held up.

"Enough!', he shouted, his voice the most annoyed and frustrated Twilight had ever heard. His voice lowered as he turned to Cortana. "The Flood is spreading. If we activate Halo's defences we can wipe them out."

"And stop them from escaping the Ring", Twilight added but felt her face fall as she saw Cortana shake her head, sorrow and pity written all over her face.

"You have no idea how this ring works, do you? Why the Forerunners built it?" Twilight felt her gut get heavy as she saw Cortana's grim expression.

"Halo doesn't kill Flood—it kills their food. Human, Covenant, Ponies, whatever. You're all equally edible. The only way to stop the Flood is to starve them to death. And that is exactly what Halo is designed to do. Wipe out the galaxy clean of all sentient life. You don't believe me?", Cortana stated before pointing at 343 Guilty Spark. "Ask him!"

Twilight really felt cold and dead on the inside as she processed what Cortana just said before turning to face the floating Monitor. Beforehand, she felt that it was just annoying and misguided, but now. Now she felt horror and betrayal from it.

"Is this true?" the Chief asked.

"More or less", Spark said in a direct manner, contrasting to his previous tone of voice. Those words echoed themselves within Twilight's mind, even as Spark began to describe in detail, back to its obnoxious self.

"This installation has a maximum effective radius of twenty-five thousand light years, but once the others follow suit, this galaxy will be quite devoid of life, or at least any life with sufficient biomass to sustain the Flood. It is also capable of shredding the structures of Neural Physic Constructs, rendering them non existent."

"But you already know this", now Spark seemed genuinely puzzled. "I mean, how couldn't you?"

"Left out that little detail, did he?" Cortana spoke out.

"We followed outbreak containment procedure to the letter", Spark said as if trying to justify that what they've done means that they have to follow through to the end with this evil deed. "You two were with me each step of the way as we managed this process."

"Chief", Cortana interrupted, "I'm picking up movement—"

Twilight heard something approaching from underneath the platform before she saw a huge machine appear from the side from her peripheral vision. She then found herself caught in a beam of light, paralysed, being lifted off of the ground.

The Chief swivelled in surprise at what was happening to her, raising his rifle at the machine even as the Monitor kept on talking.

"Why would you hesitate to do what you've already done? Last time you asked me: If it were my choice, would I do it?", the Monitor continued even as a flock of Sentinels appeared from the chasm below. "Having had considerable time to ponder your query, my answer has not changed. There is no choice. We must activate the ring."

"Get. Us. Out. Of. Here", Cortana said through the radio as the Chief quickly inserted her back into his head.

"Let Twilight go!", was all he said.

"I'm afraid I can't do that", the Monitor said. "Protocol dictates that all specimens with the ability to manipulate Neural Physics must be studied by any means necessary. Her dissection will undoubtedly lead to important breakthroughs in methods of containing the Flood further." Twilight's eyes widened at this as she realized what the Monitor was going to do to her.

"If you are unwilling to help—I will simply find another", Spark continued. "Still, I must have the Index. Give your construct to me or I will be forced to take it from you."

Twilight could only watch as the Chief's head moved around slowly, studying the amount of machines arrayed around him. He raised his rifle up at the Monitor. "That's not going to happen."

"So be it", Spark said wearily, before commenting directly to the Sentinels.

"Save his head. Dispose of the rest."

Author's Note

Hi Everyone,

So, the Library has been tranversed, painfully and now the Truth has finally settled. Betrayal is in the air and Twilight now finds herself being a subject for dissection. What a time to be an alicorn.

This was a quicker chapter than before because...its the god damn Library! However, its a good mission to do with a friend on the MCC with infinite ammo on Legendary. I find it quite therapudic watching the Flood get blown up by infinite grenades. I recommend it.

Next time...I'm torn between continuing Two Betrayals or focusing back to Equestria. Please post your preferences in the comment section.

Till next time,
dalek117