A dripping noise echoed through the chamber as the silver liquid of the recently defeated E.Q.U.I.S. dripped down onto the floor, returning back to its original starting state like all other E.Q.U.I.S. units before her. In most cases like with the others, she would have no recollection of who she was before reactivating, but unlike all the other times before this time was different.
* * *
She slashed through another E.Q.U.I.S. unit as she returned to the main room that held the portals to the upper and lower levels. When she reached it, she activated the portal that took her to the final guardian E.Q.U.I.S.’s chamber. But as she stepped out toward her final opponent, a question entered her mind, one that left her metallic lips as she stared at her final foe.
“What are you guarding?”
The guardian looked confused, but it answered her all the same “I am guarding the true meaning of our existence from being discovered.”
Confused, she tried questioning the Guardian again, but her question was only met with a blade to the gut. She fell to the ground then, and watched as the guarding pointed her left arm at her, energy building in the barrel as it prepared to fire. The Guardian stared down at her, and before she fired, a sad look entered her eyes as it spoke to her.
“It’s really a shame, to climb so high only to fail now, I pity thee Celestia.” and then her vision exploded into a world of light, and then faded to total darkness.
* * *
The E.Q.U.I.S. unit jerked up as the memory concluded, breathing hard as she tried to process the information. She knew from her programming that she should not be remembering what had happened before her “death”, any of it, all memory was purged when an E.Q.U.I.S. unit died. Then there was what the Guardian had called her, it hadn’t called her by her chosen name, instead it had called her by another.
“Celestia…”
As she spoke the name aloud she looked herself over, noting the changes that had happened during her unconscious state. Her metallic skin had taken on a white sheen, and the normally colorless energy fields that represented the mane and tail of all E.Q.U.I.S. units were now multi colored and expanded beyond standard parameters. She sifted to examine her hips, noting the sun shaped markings that adorned them…another unusual sign; she should not have a mark any more. She slowly rose from were she had been sitting, standing up on two legs and flexing her fingers as she looked around. She had been in this room before; all E.Q.U.I.S. started out in rooms similar to this one…a place where they could reform before heading to the first floor to begin fighting. She longed to fight, longing for the feeling of her sharp hands punching through the metallic skin of others like her and take from them the tools that would allow her to keep on fighting. But as she stepped toward the portal that would take her to the first floor she stopped, a question wracking her mind. Why did she want to fight…what was the purpose behind it…what purpose did it even serve? She looked up at the ceiling above her, remembering the guardian E.Q.U.I.S. that had sent her back down her. That guardian had the answers she sought, and she would have them, no matter how many times the guardian forced her back down here. She then turned and walked into the portal; vanishing from the room and leaving nothing behind save for the haunting stillness of time.
* * *
She re-materialized in a chamber, examining her surroundings to get a feel for the room. It had been recently built, she could tell that much, and it was built solely for her. Every E.Q.U.I.S. unit got their own room with which they could recover and replenish their ammunition and energy reserves. She glanced towards the large machine in at the back wall, grimacing at it as she walked toward it. The machine was there to help with upgrades and attaching weapon nodes to her body, which would allow her to mold her skin into the desired weapons.
At the moment she had no nodes, so therefore she could not form any weapons at this time, but that wouldn’t stop her from at least seeing how all her systems were doing. She stepped up to it, tensing up as it opened and the mechanical arms reached out toward her, plugging in to her and causing her eyes to go dark for a second. She remembered that she had hated this part, bracing herself for the inevitable head spin as screens started to appear, showing her vitals and all her operating systems. As she glanced at the screens a particular screen caught her eye, it was her message center, and it held four active messages waiting to be read.
This struck her as odd; she should not have any messages, at least not yet. In some rare cases E.Q.U.I.S. units formed alliances with each other to survive, giving each other special discs that would help identify each other as allies. She remembered that she had some allies in the past…but she had lost touch with them when she had reached the final floor, she had assumed them dead. She opened the top message first, her curiosity piqued.
Hello Celestia
If you are reading this then you managed to keep you memory from before your demise, and you have started questioning certain things and brought up other memories that you probably didn’t even know you had. I want to give you answers, but alas I cannot, not yet any way. If you want answers, you must once again fight your way to the top where I am waiting. As a token of faith, I have left these five nodes for you to use, for they belonged to you from your first life cycle.
Hope to see you soon
T.S.
Enclosed with the message were the said nodes and her eyes widened when she examined them. She could not believe it, these nodes were powerful, some of the most powerful weapons that could be obtained. She entered the command to have them integrated into her system, and then went up to the next note.
Hey Sola
You…you may not remember me yet, but we knew each other from our last cycle…gods this is so strange. I can only guess you’re having a similar experience to my own…this just feels so weird, remembering everything before dieing…and remembering dieing. Any way I will be looking for you on the battlefield, I already have your disc oddly; it was disclosed in an anonymous message in my message center along with your new name. I have disclosed mine as in this message, just make sure you stay alive long enough for me to find you kay.
Your Fellow Crusader
Sweetie Belle
Another shocked pause, Sweetie Belle was alive, and she had her memories from her last cycle. Immediately memories of her fellow fighting companion and the others who had fought along side them filled her mind, bringing a small smile to her lips. It could be fairly said that E.Q.U.I.S. who managed to form alliances with others among the vast number of other E.Q.U.I.S. fared far better mentally then most others, for it was common for an E.Q.U.I.S. units mind to become animalistic, becoming dominated by their need to fight and kill other E.Q.U.I.S. units. It was when that happened that they usually died, for they lost all sense of combat strategy and tactics, fighting madly in an urge to kill whatever came across their path. She had to admit that she had been going that way before she had run into Sweetie, she had been being attacked by another E.Q.U.I.S. unit, and she had been visited by the urge to attack it rather then use the situation to her advantage and blast them both. When she had finished with the first assailant she and Sweetie had squared off, but instead of attacking her, Sweetie had held up her hand in a sigh of truce. After a quick conversation about the benefits of teaming up and ammunition exchange, Celestia had agreed to partner with her, and had given her her disc as a sign of allegiance as per programming none of them really understood.
She browsed the last to messages, and found that they were from the other E.Q.U.I.S. units that Sweetie had been with before meeting her. They had similar stories, and had enclosed their discs to her as well. She closed the menus then exited the machine, sighing with relief as her vision returned to normal and the arms pulled away. She grabbed the three discs from one arm, sliding them into the slot in her left wrist and letting their data encode into her memories banks once again, marking them as allies. Then she closed her eyes and activated the recently acquired nodes, letting her skin ripple as they began to form the desired weapons.
She thought in the back of her mind that this was probably the closest thing that any E.Q.U.I.S. unit could ever feel to the concept known as pleasure, for she had no other word to really describe the sensation that ran through her body as her skin rippled and changed. When the sensations stopped she opened her eyes, looking over herself and examining the parts in the mirror provided by the machine. Her form had stayed relatively the same, though certain parts had changed to incorporate the new weaponry. In her palms were blue circles, which she knew from experience would gather energy into her hands and to be flung forth as bolts, scorching whatever they hit. Her legs and hooves had changed as well, her legs had become smooth and skinny and her hooves had formed into clawed feet that could be used as weapons of their own if she so chose, but could also be used to run along walls and other surfaces. The torso changed as well, a golden glowing orb in the center of her chest, resonating with power that she knew could unleash a deadly shockwave if need be, and a pair of wing like appendages sprouting from her back. These “wings” served a dual purpose, one was to allow her better movement and even some temporary aerial maneuverability, the other was that they could be reconfigured to act as energy cannons, giving her another weapon in her already formidable arsenal. The last weapon was a horn situated at the top of her forehead, the lines etching into it glowing yellow as energy pulsed within. The horn was capable of firing a dense ray of light at her intended targets, and could also be used to move objects and create temporary force fields to deflect potential harm from her which would come in handy in some of the latter floors.
She smirked inwardly, the first few floors were going to be cake, for most E.Q.U.I.S. units on the first four floors were always armed with shoty equipment and most would barley armed to begin with. It would be the floors after that that she would have to start being careful, for that was when some of the heavy duty hardware started getting introduced into the field. Happy with her set up she turned to the lone door leading out of the chamber, charging up her weapons and walking toward it.
She could barley contain her excitement.
