//------------------------------// // A Rose By Any Other Name - Part 2 // Story: Shattered Worlds // by Midnightshadow //------------------------------// The CONVERSION ►Bureau ═════════════════════════════════════ Shattered Worlds A Rose By Any Other Name Part 2 ═════════════════════════════════════ An MLP:FiM Fanfiction by Midnight Shadow Rose stood outside her owners' mansion, huffing and puffing as she recovered from her pell-mell dash through the streets. her new boots were scuffed and worn and sweat drenched her sides, steaming. She dropped the saddlebags and placed them under a bush, doing her best to comfort them. The poor things were traumatized, echoing distress calls that rang in her head that caused her teeth to hurt and her mane to stand on end. Worse, the chatter from House had gone disturbingly quiet. It made it easier to think, but to actually be alone in her own head was worrying. The gates swung open easily when Rose hesitantly pushed them with a hoof. They'd been broken somehow, and didn't seem to be listening when she asked them how they were. The gates were supposed to be locked, they were always locked to strangers. Something was very wrong. There was nothing for it. Rose steeled herself, and moved cautiously up the driveway, her hooves crunching on the pristine gravel the only sound other than the thudding of her heart. The first strange thing she noticed was the beaten up orange car parked outside the mansion, the front doors and boot of which were open and the engine was off. Poking her head in, Rose discovered It was an old key-operated device, with no 'puter of its own. It belonged in a museum, or a scrap heap. The thought occurred to her that that was where the occupants had got it. She reached in, breathing ragged and fast, and snatched the keys with a deft twist of her mouth. She spat them out and ground her hooves against them, then shrunk back in fear. The house had so many windows, any one of them could contain whoever had arrived in the archaic vehicle. The windows suddenly seemed like mercilessly-staring eyes, and Rose shook in terror, doing her best to hide behind some bushes. Breathing heavily, from fear instead of exhaustion this time, she calmed herself. Nobody had come charging out, so they hadn't seen her. She could wait and do nothing now, she told herself, and it would have been enough. She shook her head, angrily. What sort of pony was she? A mare, or a mouse? She would stride right in there and show whoever it was what for! ...And then she would ask them to leave. Politely. A squeak escaped her lips as her new-found brashness failed her. Her mind was made up, though: she would go in. Maybe they were gone, she told herself, and it would all be nothing. Yeah, she would probably be laughing about this later in the afternoon... With ears flat against her skull, she trotted hesitantly up to the steps, eyeing the front door. It was open. The front door was never open. She was also never allowed through it, but desperate times called for desperate measures. She gulped and trotted up the steps, nosing the door wider. "H-hello?" she called. The lights were off, and the walls were dark, with scattered blocks of black and white appearing in random places. Something was very wrong indeed. The waves of emotion she'd been feeling from home when she was at the pony-pedi spa had vanished, replaced with random bursts of mixed feelings which made no coherent sense. She could barely hear the robots, and when she could, they were crying out with fear and almost entirely lost, like a piece of them was gone. A big piece, a house-shaped piece. "House? A-avatar? House-Pony?" Rose's voice echoed oddly, despite how quietly she uttered the words. The walls next to her exploded with static, and then suddenly cleared. Words appeared in bright white, repeated at regular intervals, and she struggled to read them. "re... starting?" she said to herself, brow furrowing in thought as she entered the kitchen. The kitchen was a mess, with drawers open and crockery smashed on the floor. The hoover was cowering under the sink, and the repair spiders were nowhere to be seen. It all seemed so senseless, what had happened here? It was like the intruders were looking for something, but had no idea what. She left the kitchen no wiser and, treading carefully, poked her head down towards the panic room. That was empty too. Surely, they had gone. Sudden noises above her made her duck under the stairs. Whoever it was really was still here. Footsteps turned into rhythmic, heavy pounding. Then a door shattered, and the previously-muffled sobs of the children turned into screams of fright. Rose gave a gasp, and leaped out from her cover. Her foals! Not thinking, not hesitating, Rose galloped up the stairs, slamming bodily into one dark form in her haste. Whoever it was, was sent flying, to crash against the wall further down the corridor. Not sparing a glance for the intruder, Rose barrelled into the childrens' bedroom. Another intruder stood holding an arm back, ready to strike at William, a hand around Mary's face to keep her quiet. "What the fuck," a male voice said, "a fuckin' pony?" Rose blinked. Rose saw red. Nopony, but nopony was allowed to hurt her foals. With a most un-ponylike screaming neigh of rage, Rose reared up on her hind legs, bounded forwards and body-slammed the intruder. Kicking viciously with her forehooves, the man was thrown backwards against the window, which shattered. He screamed for a split second before a metallic crunch and a shattering sound indicated he had struck the abandoned vehicle. Mary, who had been thrown clear, started wailing, and William joined her. Rose broke out of her stupor at the sound, racing to comfort the pair. She gathered them up, kissing them and nuzzling them. "It's alright now, it's alri-" "Nana! Bad man!" William shrieked, pointing. Rose turned her head, and instinctively kicked out as a shape closed in. Her hooves connected, and there was a sickening crunch of bone at the impact. The second man was thrown clear again, he rebounded off the far wall and cursed. Rose wasn't about to let him have a third chance, and she whirled about and chased after him. On thunderous hooves of justice, she trampled over the man, striking down as hard as she could. Snorting, she turned around and pawed the hallway carpet before charging once more towards him. Ducking her head low and bringing it up high, she flung the man along the hallway and down the stairs. The man bounced down each step like a ragdoll, and came to a complete and fatal stop at the bottom. Rose fell to her knees, suddenly tired. She blinked at a strange feeling of warmth in her chest. Looking down, something seemed very wrong. There was a wooden handle poking out of her sternum. Rose blinked at it for a few seconds, then realized she couldn't stand up. "Oh," she said simply, and fell sideways. The fall down the stairs didn't hurt, much. She slid more than tumbled, as she was rather big. She landed heavily on the still form at the bottom, which cushioned her fall. It was getting hard to breathe though, so she had to think fast. "William! Mary!" she called breathlessly. "Nana... Nana has hurt herself, loves... you have to... you have to come here." "Nana owie?" asked a meek voice at the top of the stairs. It was Mary, peeking over the top step. "Will-Will help Nana. Come, Ree-Ree!" said William, bossily, as his head appeared next to his sister's. He stood upright and walked down the stairs, one step at a time like a big boy. It made Rose smile, even through the light-headedness. For her part, the younger Mary turned around and came down feet and butt first, crawling. Rose picked herself up as best she could, stumbling against the walls. She slowly but steadily llimped down the hallway, towards the basement,... and the panic room. All around her the wallscreens were flashing odd colours, but the lights had come back on and she could hear the robots waking up. She prayed to Celestia that it meant what she thought it meant. "Come now, my darling foals... we have to go on... a magical adventure. It's down here." "Nuh-uh," said William, shaking his head, having caught up to Rose. He held onto her mane with a tight grip. Rose coughed, stumbling, "Please, William. Mary's not scared, are you love?" Thankfully Mary, who stood on Rose's other side, shook her head. At that bold-faced lie, William stood up straighter and walked down the basement stairs all by himself. It was everything Rose could do to stay upright, but she grit her teeth and made it as she followed. The door to the panic room swung open at the touch of a hoof, and Rose pushed Mary and William through it, before joining them. Then she closed the door as best as she could, and leaned against it. Slumping down, she resigned herself to just breathing and waiting. In the dark, Mary and William started sniffling with fear. Silently, Rose pleaded with all her heart... and finally her wishes were answered. With a loud clunk, the door locked and the room came to life. The dark room lit up, and then faded away to reveal a meadow at the edge of a square of floor. Blurrily at first, a shape trotted towards them. Looking up, squinting as her vision faltered, Rose smiled. "House Pony!" she gasped. "I apologize, Equine Rose. My systems were compromised and my eigenstate had to be recovered and re-initialised. I was unable to prevent your injury. I am here now though, House is fully operational. All safeguards are in place, the aborted general alert has been resent and now all that is left is to see to your needs." "Can I... can I see the ponies again?" Rose asked feebly. She coughed, and noted with resignation the blood on the floor. "Of course, though before that, is there anything else?" "House is a pony?" asked Mary, mouth wide as the pony-shaped simulacrum trotted closer. The pony-shaped avatar nodded, seemingly quite anxious and insistent, "I am House. I am here to fulfill every need. What is needed? Human medical services have been summoned, equine medical services have been summoned, but it is not clear they will be in time to prevent bodyloss." Rose frowned. There was something she wasn't getting. Some little tidbit... then it struck her. "William, love, what do you want House to do? He can't do it unless you order him. Tell him... tell him what you want for me, from him." "Help Nana!" shouted William, glaring at the House Pony as he bent to shake Rose, who was fading fast. Avatar the House-Pony smiled. "Your wish is my command, young master William. Overriding safeties, downloading equine bio-schematics. Uploading medical knowledge to house repair robots. Synthesizing: medical tools, painkillers, blood plasma, thread. Syncing repair robots, summoning first aid and trauma units. Stand back, please..." Rose started to laugh, but it hurt. She had to be dreaming; repair robots were swarming around her brandishing sharp little plastic knives, pincers and thread. As darkness claimed her, her only regret was that she hadn't seen the ponies in the basement one last time. *** Wherever she was, thought Rose, it was very white. The light was bright and the breeze was warm, and she seemed to be floating. It almost felt like a cloud. Maybe it was. She'd been told back at the Centre that in olden times, ponies could fly and sleep on clouds. Maybe she was dead, and she was on a cloud, like those pictures the humans had of a place they called 'heaven'. She was warm, she didn't hurt... in fact she couldn't feel much of anything. She had to be dead. She started to cry. She would miss them all so much, even Master and Mistress. "Hey, hey now," came a soft female voice, "you're alright now, everything's going to be alright." It had to be one of those humans' angels, reasoned Rose. Maybe these days, ponies went to human heaven too? "Rose?" asked a strangely familiar female voice, "What's wrong?" "I m-miss my humans. I'll never see them again." "You miss us? Even after we--" Rose blinked, and then struggled to sit up as her foggy mind started to clear. In moments, nurses and orderlies descended upon her, urging and ordering her to be calm. Slowly, her struggling ceased, and she began to take stock of her surroundings instead. There were two child-sized lumps, nestled between her fore- and hind-legs, and two people sat on either side of what turned out to be a bed. The two lumps smelled strangely familiar, even through the tube sticking out of one nostril. "William?" she asked, "Mary? Mistress Martha? Master Stephen? Y-you're so... and I'm... I'm not dead? And you're... are y-you going to s-send me away?" Stephen and Martha stiffened, and looked down at their children, who had woken up at the commotion and had proceeded to hug - gently, at the insistence of the orderlies - Rose around her barrel. "You're..." Stephen began stiffly, as he and Martha looked at each other. "We're sorry," said Martha, motioning for her husband to be quiet. He clenched his teeth, but nodded. "We've treated you just awfully. You didn't deserve that, from any of us. We... we bought... no, we brought you in to help our family. And we treated you like dirt. And then, when those awful, terrible, evil people tried to kidnap our darlings, you were there." "Indeed," Stephen added, "we've had to do a lot of soul-searching, Rose, both of us. And we didn't like what we found there. Can you..." Stephen cleared his throat, as if unsure of his words, "can you forgive us?" "I-I'm sorry I burned the toast, and-and I'm s-sorry I dragged the children onto the floor, and--" Martha and Stephen shared a look, and Martha laughed. Even Stephen, normally so dour, had his mouth turned up in the hint of a smile. Turning carefully, Rose looked from one to the other, and realized they were blushing. "I burn the toast far more than you Rose, and... it's only toast." "And you have no idea how hard it has been to get the little ones to sleep, and then up in the mornings, without you. And don't even mention the sleepness nights when they wake up, scared of the dark." "But that's all behind us now, Rose. We've sorted out all your stuff for the move." Rose's heart fell. "You are getting rid of me!" "What?" asked Stephen, his mouth falling open. "I've been so useless..." "We've sorted out your things, Rose, as you are moving rooms." Martha glared at Stephen. "From now on, you will be sleeping with the children, at least until they are older. They can even sleep on the floor with you, just as long as they at least start in their beds. You may keep your former room as a dressing room, if you like. You can share it with the rest of the staff if you wish, but you do not have to." "You're moving me? Wait, th-the rest of the staff?" Martha nodded, clapping her hands with glee, "Oh yes! There's Belle and Sweet Pepper, they're an item, one does gardening and the other cooks, and then there's Lacey, he's just a darling around the house. Stewie and I sold the cars." Martha glared at Stephen, who fiddled with his jacket awkwardly. "That was the first and last time we will be held prisoner in our own vehicles. It's the hansom from now on, with a special one just for you to take the children to daycare in, when you're better of course. We're all waiting, the children especially, for you to come home. We'll feel much happier, and it's... just not the same without you. Please come back, Rose?" Even Stephen looked contrite. "Please?" Martha asked again. Then she leaned closer, "I hear there's this soap-opera with ponies in it, and they partially use Equestrian, would you--" "You mean Fetlocks in the Fall?" Rose asked, putting a hoof to her mouth. "Oh, I love that one! I used to watch it all the time at the centre!" "Then it's a deal. Ready to come home, Rose?" "Yes, Mistress!" "Nana Wose all better?" asked Mary, eyes wide and hopeful. "Not yet, Poppet, but I will be. I promise."