Chapter VI : Equalize
The stink was just awful.
Curled up in the fetal position on the damp floor, Fluttershy held her slight frame perfectly still. She was utterly paralyzed with fear, so much so that she wasn’t even trembling. Unmoving, unblinking, she waited; for what, her frayed mind wasn’t even sure of.
Maybe my friends will come and find me? The thought bubbled to the surface of her mind. It was comforting, though not very encouraging. She was horribly lost in a strange place, and nopony knew where she was. How can something smell so bad? she wondered, unable to process the dire hopelessness of her situation.
Though her head and eyes remained locked in place, Fluttershy was able to take in bits of her surroundings using her peripherals. She appeared to be on a round floor that circled an elaborate elevator shaft. Numbered doors dotted the walls, leading to what she assumed were offices. At the top edge of her vision, she could see one of the lifts a few floors above on the other side of the open shaft. Though tarnished now, the cage seemed to be made of interwoven lengths of gold; as were the tracks that it clung to. A shower of blue sparks rained down from beneath the cage, crackling to life every few seconds with a static popping.
More banners like the ones in the lighthouse hung around, bidding readers to “Unbind thyself from the chains of fate” proudly, and compounding Fluttershy's fears beyond her capacity to cope.
And so, she remained lying still and waited, trying to ignore the overpowering stench surrounding her. It wasn’t the same wet, moldy smell the rest of the stagnant city produced. It was the organic smell of rot and decay, and it stemmed from a partially-rotten corpse lying a few feet in front of her frozen form, locking her in place with an open-eyed stare.
The dead pony laid on his stomach with his legs sprawled out in every direction and his chin flat on the ground. He wore fine clothing; complete with a wilting flower pinned to his lapel and a square handkerchief still tucked in his breast pocket. A tattered, brown bowler hat sat next to him in a puddle of his dried blood. Light from the sparking elevator glinted off a serrated knife jutting out of his back.
Fluttershy stared directly into his glossy eyes, unable to look away. And they stared back, cold and unseeing.Though she wanted to run, or scream, or call for help, she couldn’t. The blank face of death had glued her in place.
It always made Fluttershy sad to find deceased animals on her various walks through the Everfree Forest or Whitetail Woods... But this was different. This was a pony, and he had been murdered.
“Monsters...” The tiniest of whimpers escaped Fluttershy's tightly closed lips.
The deathly stillness of the shaft was suddenly broken by the sharp, grinding sound of a door opening, then a gravelly voice from within. “...and when Deco tried to run, we hit ‘em with a Swarm. I swear, those bugs ate half his face off before he hit the ground! It was hilarious!” The voice was followed by a bout of laughter that degenerated into a hacking cough.
“You twit, I was bloody there!” A smoother voice replied. "You need new stories..."
“Ha, oh yeah.”
Somepony was out there on the same floor as Fluttershy and heading her way. Survival instinct tried to illicit any sort of self-preserving reaction, but it was drowned out by the pair of dull eyes before her. She didn't move a muscle as the stallions neared.
“What about that one time in the Gardens when I stabbed...” The pair casually trotted into view behind the corpse and instantly spotted the helpless pegasus cowering on the floor. They came to an abrupt stop, and after swapping surprised glances, the Splicers looked down on their easy prey with vile, toothy grins.
“Well, well, well, would ya' lookit what we got here, Spade,” said the owner of the less gruff voice.
“Ooooh, looks like one that’s dead, and one that thinks it’s dead.” The other chuckled, a sound not unlike rubbing two bricks together. “Whatcha think Ace, should we finish the job then, give ‘er skull a good bashin’?”
Ace shook his head at his boorish companion, “Now, that’s no way to treat a lady. Watch and learn.” He straightened his filthy vest and flattened his greasy, black mane, then approached the comatose mare. “G’day, Love, my name is Ace, and this troglodyte here is Spade. How may we be of service to you on this fine evening?”
No... please go away... Fluttershy tried to say, but only managed a quiet, terrified squeak.
“What’s the matter, eh? Catfish got yer tongue?” Spade teased, leaning casually against a cracked wall. “Say, we outta call you Chicken Wings!”
“Button it, you ruddy hooligan.” Ace kneeled on the floor next to Fluttershy and spoke softly. “Now, you just tell ol’ Ace what’s wrong and he’ll make it all better, Love. Scout's honour!"
“I- I...” She tried again, the words catching in her dry throat. I'm waiting for my friends...
“Whazzat? Didn’t quite catch it, Chicken Wings,” Spade chided from the side.
“I thought I told you to BUTTON YER BLOODY TRAP.” Ace roared at his uncivil companion.
Fluttershy flattened her ears and closed her dry eyes, finally blocking out the macabre image in front of her. A tear rolled down her yellow cheek as she quickly whispered, “I- I just want to go home!”
“Home!” Keeping her eyes clamped shut, Fluttershy listened as Ace stood up and trotted nonchalantly back to his friend. “She wants to go home!”
They laughed heartily for a moment, then Spade removed something from his grubby blazer. It clunked heavily against the floor. “I just so happen to know a shortcut... of sorts,” he croaked, dragging the heavy instrument along the floor towards the prone pony.
“Now, you just hold still, Love. It’ll all be over soon.” Ace snorted from behind the advancing Splicer.
Spade came to a stop, looming over her now, yet Fluttershy was still unable to move or even open her eyes. “Please... I want to go home!”
“And I want a golden lou, but that just ain’t in the cards, is it?” Spade sneered.
“What is wrong about wanting to go home?”
What? Who said that? Fluttershy’s eyes flew open. The voice did not belong to either of the ponies she saw standing in the small hallway. It was heavily accented with a musicality that would sound odd coming from any pony's mouth.
“Yeah, what’s so... huh?” Spade looked back a Ace, lowering the hammer he had raised in the air, “What did you just say?”
“I didn’t say nothing.” Ace looked around the hall, but saw no others. “Who’s there? Show yourself, ya coward!” he shouted, pulling a sharp pair of scissors out of his vest.
“Forget it,” Spade turned his attention back to Fluttershy on the floor. “Now where were we?”
He brought the hammer up again, only to have it fly out of his hoof’s grip and embed itself claw-first into the peeling wallpaper to his left.
“What the f-” His vulgar outburst was interrupted by a heavy thud.
Fluttershy watched with bleary eyes as Spade stumbled to the side, fighting to keep his footing as a trickle of blood ran down his split cheek. What... what's going on?
“How does one who attacks the helpless dare call me coward?” the voice from before asked. Fluttershy was sure it came from close by, but all she saw was the two confused Splicers and a dead body on the ground.
Spade wiped the blood off his face with a sleeve, then yanked his hammer out of the wall. “Where are ya? I’ll smash your damn head in you son of a-” He was interrupted again. Not by a strike, but an ominous bellowing. From back the way they had come, a deep, rolling moan came forth, rattling Fluttershy’s bones and freezing the blood in her veins.
The two stallions’ eyes widened to their utmost. “Big Stag!” Spade cried, his anger instantly turning to fright. “W-We gotta get outta here!” Without waiting for a reply, he dropped his hammer and bolted away as fast as his legs would take him.
“You craven, yellow, COWARD!” Ace called after him, still scanning the rounded floor for their unseen attacker. Heavy footsteps echoed up and down the derelict elevator; shaking the walls as it drew closer. Ace's hooves carried him backwards slowly, “You got lucky, Love,” he said, pointing his scissors at the unmoving Fluttershy, then he wheeled about and took off after his fleeing comrade. “Or maybe I should say unlucky.” The words echoed down the hall, mingling with his crazed laughter and another, horrendous moan.
Fluttershy was alone with the corpse once again, with a slowly approaching monstrosity.
“Pl-Please... I just, I just want...” Her breath quickened as her gaze flicked around the end of the passage and fell on the reeking cadaver. She felt a scream clawing its way up from her lungs to her throat. Her eyes closed and her mouth opened to let it out, but a hoof clamped over it just before it could escape.
“Quiet. Make no sound, make no movement.” It was the accented stallion who saved her from the Splicers! Fluttershy opened her eyes to look upon her saviour, but found she was still alone.
“Don’t. Move.” The voice came from the thin air above her head to the right.
With a muffled gasp, Fluttershy made to pull away from whatever was holding her, when the stomping monster stepped into full view.
Though Fluttershy couldn’t see the limb covering her mouth, it was the only thing that held back the loudest, shrillest scream her lungs could muster.
Applejack and Pinkie Pie cautiously trotted through the strangest garden they had ever seen. Sure, Canterlot had a beautiful greenhouse and a sprawling maze of flower beds and hedges perched on the side of a mountain, but building one under the sea? Even to the well-traveled mares it seemed a little far-fetched.
“Ooooooh, it’s so pretty!” Pinkie beamed, admiring the overgrown flora as her hooves crunched on fallen leaves. The garden was in a chaotic state of neglected upkeep, but the lofty trees and unfamiliar flowers were still a nice change from dim, metal hallways. “I wonder if any animals live here? Oh! I bet Fluttershy would just love this place!”
Shuffling along next to the excited mare, Applejack nearly stumbled at Pinkie's sentiment. Worry instantly replaced her budding fascination with the sunken garden. “I sure do hope she’s okay...” she muttered drearily.
“Don’t worry, Twilight said she was fine! I’m sure Rainbow found her, they’re probably on their way to find their Elements right now!” Pinkie chimed hopefully. She had been trying to lift the overtaxed farmer’s spirits, something she used to be quite good at, but her best efforts just weren't cutting it. Applejack continued to sulk, staring at her hooves as she trudged through the amazing garden. If the bags under her eyes were any indication, she looked about ready to pass out.
When Pinkie's optimism got no response, she tried again. “Soooo,” she began in her cheery, party-pitched voice, “why do you think they built and tilled and planted and grew a garden like this here, AJ?”
Her mopey friend lifted her head to glance at the surroundings from under the edge of her damp stetson. “Ah reckon they needed some source of oxygen... Not ta mention food.” Applejack inspected the plants, noticing several apple trees bearing fruit the size of a pony’s head. That... just ain’t natural.
Giant fruit aside, there was a lot on Applejack’s mind at the moment. She had experienced more craziness in the last 12 hours than the last 12 years. There were still many questions she had no answers for, all of which spun around in her head like a swarm of fruit bats. Why was Twi’ really down here? And what does Celestia have to do with it? Summer Rain sure seemed to have a problem with her... But why? And if she loves her city so much, why'd she let it fall inta such bad shape?
“Uhhh, Pinkie Pie to Applejack, come in Applejack...”
Applejack snapped out of her thoughts to find Pinkie staring her in the face, matching her pace while walking backwards.
“Oh! Sorry Pinkie, just... thinkin’...” Ah may not be able to get answers from Twilight... but maybe Pinkie knows something. “Say, can we talk about what happened to ya back on the Endless Horizon? Ya got all snarky on us... It wasn’t like you at all."
Pinkie’s bright smiled faded at the mention of the memory. “I don’t really know...” she responded timidly. So much for making her feel better... With her attempts to lighten the conversation failing, Pinkie fell in line beside AJ, stepping over the wild bushes and onto a barely visible stone path. I guess I'm really out of cheering-up-AJ practice. With no better ideas, she began replaying the disaster out loud. “I guess, well, when I found out about Rainbow’s plan to leave early, I was so disappointed... But I tried to keep it inside ‘cause I wanted this reunion to be PERFECT! But then everypony was mad at each other and Rarity just left Fluttershy behind and I just... I couldn’t hold it in anymore. It was like a little voice in my head was telling me to be angry, even though all I really wanted was for everypony to be happy. I got mad enough and it kinda took over.” Now it was Pinkie’s turn to hang her head. Losing herself to anger was not something Pinkie was proud of doing.
Applejack nudged the pink pony with her shoulder. “Hey, Ah understand. Ah wanted everything to work out, too... But what about this place? Ah’m not blaming ya anymore or nothin’, but ya did kinda did bring us down here... How’d ya even know what that thing was? What’d Twi call it... a ‘Bathysphere’?”
Pinkie smiled, thankful for Applejack's emptathy, then she placed a hoof under her chin, “Well you see... there was another voice in my head too, a really quiet one, but friendly and... real. It told me to go to the bottom of the lighthouse and pull that lever when everyone was on board. I don’t know why, and I probably could have ignored it, but it felt like things would work out okay if I listened, so I did. Plus it was better than listening to the other voice, and being mean to my friends.”
“Voices in yer head? That’s why we’re here?” Applejack asked, raising an incredulous eyebrow.
“And that Bath-o-tub!” Pinkie laughed at her pun, her high-pitched giggles echoing off vine covered walls. The thick green tendrils were everywhere, snaking up support beans and spreading over the ceiling.
Despite her anxiety, AJ chuckled along with her old friend, though at a much lower volume. More Splicers could be lurking around anywhere after all, and she wanted to avoid more fighting if she could. And what if we can't avoid it? She sighed to herself. It seemed her list of questions with no answers was still gaining length.
“Hey, look!” Pinkie charged ahead, leaping over an unkempt hedge with budding purple bulbs to a doorway completely covered in a tangle of thick vines.
“That must be the way to the Garden's irrigation system,” Applejack deftly noted, remembering the instructions they’d received over the Talk-box. “Accordin’ ta Twilight, that’s where one of the Elements is hidden, but we can’t get in withou-”
“Without burning up these vines with the super-fireball-magic-SUPERpower!” Pinkie finished with a shout that resounded through the whole the garden.
In the blink of an eye, Applejack yanked her low to the ground and forced her mouth shut, listening for any sign of movement in the dense grass. After several tense seconds of silence, she released her grip on Pinkie’s muzzle and got back to her hooves. “Would ya mind keepin’ yer voice down!?” Applejack whispered harshly.
“Sorry! I’m just really excited... and, kinda scared too, hehe,” Pinkie admitted, joining AJ by the hefty vines that blocked their way. “Are you still positively positive you don’t want me to use the plasmid?” She grinned hopefully.
Applejack dropped the vine she was examining and stuck Pinkie with the sternest look her face would allow. It was colder than ice, colder than dry ice; a stare even the stare-master Fluttershy would be proud of. Pinkie’s resolve staggered and buckled under the sheer weight of the gaze.
“Fine! I’ll stop asking...” she relented, crossing her forelegs and plopping her rump down on the damp soil.
“Glad ta hear it.” Applejack softened her features and looked around the rest of the wild garden. “So, we’re lookin’ fer a red needle looking thing. Twi said it should be somewhere 'round this here doorway, in a kind of... dispensin’ machine.”
“OVER THERE!” Pinkie cried as loud as before, earning another hard scowl from AJ. “I mean... over there,” she repeated with less enthusiasm, pointing off into the dense foliage where a pale, pink light shone through the leaves of a gigantic fern.
The two explorers warily made their way over to the light and pulled back the plants obscuring it, finding an odd machine with two plastic fillies smiling happily at its sides. Sitting in its receptor slot was a large needle, similar to the blue one Noir had used on himself, only this one was filled with a weird red substance.
“Ooooh, you think that’s it?” Pinkie gawked at the strange cartage. She extended a pink hoof towards it, which was promptly slapped away by Applejack. “Hey! I just wanted to touch it...” Pinkie winced.
“Sure ya did. Ah thought we had an agreement.” Applejack rolled her green eyes, then reached out and carefully lifted the luminous object.
“Applejack... are you sure you're okay with this? Like, really, REALLY sure? What if it's dangerous?!”
“Twilight said it would be fine... and we need this if we wanna get to that Element...” AJ repeated the unicorn’s words, convincing herself more than Pinkie.
What are you getting yourself into, Jackie? Harvest Moon’s voice said in her mind, drowning out all the swirling questions. In truth, she wasn’t sure herself, but she knew it would help her friends. They may have their differences, but they needed her, and that was motivation enough.
“Well, here goes nothin’.” Not wanting to wait, the orange mare jammed the syringe into her left foreleg and pressed the plunger all the way down.
“STOP SHOOTING AT ME!” Rarity screamed at the top of her lungs.
Chunks of splintered oak rained down around the unicorn, blown loose by speeding projectiles a strange chair-mounted machine launched in her direction. The thunderous booms it produced with every shot turned the deserted restaurant it occupied into a concert hall of ear-splitting noise.
With both ears plastered to her skull, Rarity covered her flowing mane with a hoof as the sentient, and apparently malicious office chair destroyed the finely-crafted countertop she hid behind. It wasn’t clear to her what it was using to do so much damage, but it was obvious they could badly injure a flesh and blood pony. Maybe even worse.
In her other hoof, Rarity clutched the glowing ADAM needle she had found in the restaurant's kitchen, shut away in a freezer. Twilight had promised it would help get Rarity through the city as long as she stayed stocked with blue EVE 'hypos', then left abruptly to help Rainbow Dash without explaining what that meant. Not long after, she stumbled into her current predicament.
It had been a very close call; after entering the eatery, the machine pointed itself in her direction, almost like it was studying her. The second she moved again it had fired, and only the large number of tables and furniture between her and it had shielded her. Rarity tried to use her magic to knock it over, but it was too far away, and she refused to expose herself to the relentless barrage long enough to get a solid telekinetic fix.
And so, Rarity remained hidden under heavy fire, clinging to her mystery plasmid, but not daring to use it. Her eyes flicked to it now and then, only to turn away each time. Twilight had been in such a hurry, she failed to mention what it would actually do to her when injected; only that it was very powerful, and would help her defend herself.
Rarity’s thoughts ran over what she did know, recalling the fight from before. That earth pony was throwing magic fireballs... will this give me the same power? What if it does something entirely different? What would that kind of heat do to my hair! Imagine the split ends!
Suddenly, the chair-turret fell silent, ending its unprovoked barrage with a metallic whine, and leaving the battered restaurant in an uneasy quiet.
“It... stopped?” Cautiously, Rarity rose to a crouch and peeked over the mangled countertop. A thin trail of smoke wafted off the machine’s barrels, but it made no motion to attack.
Rarity let out a sigh of relief, taking a step out from behind the bar. “Thank Celestia, and here I thought it-”
The second the shaken mare exposed herself, she heard a noise that made her grind to a halt. The machine came back to life with another whining churn of gears and mechanisms. Lifting its iron barrels, it pointed them right at Rarity’s head.
The fashionista’s eyes widened and her pupils shrank, but the rest of her remained frozen out of fear. That’s not good... The thought was immediately followed by the reawakened roar of the chair-mounted machine’s unconventional weaponry.
The once-elegant diner was again alight with a spray of bullets and muzzle flashes. Glasses from the shelves shattered and sent their sharp remains scattering across the bar and floor.
Rarity dove back behind her severely damaged cover, only just avoiding the hot, flying bullets. She felt a pull at her backside, and immediately feared the worst. I’m hit! Oh Celestia, I’ve been shot!
As soon as she was safely behind the thick bar of the rundown establishment, Rarity fearfully inspected her precious posterior. A stream of smoke rose off her purple tail. She found several frayed and singed bits where red-hot bullets had passed through the delicate hair’s immaculate form. Her response was swift, and appropriate. “My tail! My beautiful, perfectly-styled tail! You-! I-! How could-!” She cried, completely ignoring the roaring gunfire that entirely drowned out her words. “Oh. That is it.”
Raising the glowing needle, Rarity held out her foreleg and slid it gingerly into its soft tissue. After a moment’s hesitation brought on by the sting of the pointed instrument, she forced the plunger down with her magic. Rarity screamed out over the surrounding ruckus at the initial pain of the drug entering her system. It quickly spread across the unicorn's entire body; her vision blurred and she shook violently, trying desperately not to sick-up.
Frantically, Rarity pulled the needle out and threw it to the floor, breathing heavily as her body protested the foreign chemicals coursing through her veins. The room soon began to sharpen in definition and the pain subsided, lingering slightly in the puncture wound and the flesh surrounding it. Rarity held the trembling leg up to her face and gasped in amazement at what she saw transpiring before her wide, blue eyes.
A delicate lattice of ice crystals was spreading from where the needle pierced her skin. Rarity watched as it slowly covered her whole leg in a thin layer of glistening frost. She was captivated by the beauty of it, until a series of icy spikes burst out of her flesh. Blood tried to pour forth, but was instantly frozen around the wounds.
“BY TARTARUS!” The mare cried out at the sudden, intense pain; holding the frozen limb steady. “H-How is self-mutilation supposed to help me?!” The pain in her leg was already numbing from the cold it produced, though the horrible protrusions remained.
Hoping to shake loose the unsightly things, Rarity waved her hoof around in the air. “Oh, get off! Twilight, how could you do this to me!?” The spastic motion sent a stream of ice at the cash register sitting on the bar above. A second later, it was encased in a thick layer of ice. A stray bullet from the overactive turret collided with the newly made ice sculpture, smashing it into a thousand tiny shards.
Rarity gaped at the destroyed register, then at her disfigured leg in amazement. Still, she couldn’t help but wince at the ghastly sight her body had become. From behind, the machine stopped shooting again, bringing strained silence back to the large dining room.
The panicked unicorn took the momentary ceasefire as a chance to settle her nerves. “Well,” she breathed out in a sigh. “This certainly is powerful magic, just as Twilight promised, and I can see how it could help us alright...” Her eyes and lips drew themselves down into a concerned look at her poor foreleg, before growing more determined. “And that wretched machine certainly deserves a good dismantling after... after,” she glared at her charred and disheveled tailed mournfully. “This travesty!”
The last straw had been pulled from the Crystal Empire headdress, so to speak. Rarity pushed herself over the destroyed bar and leaped onto the pock-marked countertop.
Time for some payback!
The machine whined and whirred to life once more as its magic sensors detected movement. It settled into shooting position, locking its cross-hairs on the target before it.
“Not this time, chair!” Rarity shouted at the machine, then shoved her hoof in its direction. A gust of icy wind flew through the warm air, freezing the hateful thing solid before it could get off a single shot. Ethereal motes of frost glittered in the light, creating a cold mist around the deep-chilled turret.
Cracks began to spiderweb through the machine, even as Rarity hopped off the bar and casually walked past the spiteful contraption. She stopped to look at it disdainfully, then prodded it lightly with a rear leg. It slowly tipped over and shattered on the ground just as the cash register had done. A smirk perked her lips up at the sight.
With the diner now empty of any threat, Rarity admired her frozen leg again. It wasn’t totally hideous, she decided. Upon relaxing, the icicles retracted back into her skin, the puncture wounds freezing over and closing as they went. She gasped in shock, but maintained her cool, in more ways than one.
“W-Well, this should prove very useful indeed, if a tad unrefined...” Rarity was glad the spikes were gone, but the leg itself remained cover in a thin layer of ice. It was numb and shaky as well. I suppose I can live with this for now... Hopefully there is a way to reverse the effect; I’d hate to go back to the office like this... What would Madam Chichi think?
With the area cleared of hostiles, Rarity pushed away the thought and decided to look around for any useful supplies, recalling the blue substance the fire-wielding pony had used earlier to refuel. That must have been one of the ‘hypos’ Twilight mentioned... however briefly. I’ll have to find some; wouldn’t want to run out of this... 'EVE’ stuff.
After exploring the diner for a few minutes, her tenacity bore fruit in the form of a glowing, blue needle found under an overturned table. Rarity quickly fashioned a saddle bag using a white table cloth and carefully stored the pointed item inside. “It’s not really up to my standards... but it will have to do I suppose.” Until I can find a sewing machine and some decent fabric, at least.
On her way out, Rarity spotted another curious device sitting on a table in the back. Thankfully, this one wasn’t of the death-dealing variety. It kind of looked like a phonograph, only all the components had been compacted to fit onto a small, portable device and the horn was missing entirely. She trotted over to it for a closer look and saw a vinyl record was still inside it, labelled ‘The Rapture Dream - Summer Rain”.
Hmmm, some sort of recorded diary perhaps? Rarity lifted the device with her un-frozen leg. I suppose it couldn’t hurt to learn more about this crazed mad-mare. Her hoof hit the button on the front and the disc inside began to spin. A moment later, Summer Rain’s smooth voice filled the vacant eatery.
‘The Rapture Dream’
By: Summer Rain
I’ll never forget the day I received my cutie mark. All the other fillies at school were so excited to get theirs, but mine only filled me with dread. ‘Don’t fret,’ Mother told me, ‘There are plenty of weather ponies in our family; you’ll get used to it.’ I was revolted! Get used to it? What if I didn’t want to be a weather pony? Did I not have any say in the matter? It was her words that ultimately drove me away from my supposed fate, all the way to Canterlot’s Royal Council. I was the only pegasus in a sea of pompous unicorns, who repeatedly shot down my so-called ‘radical’ ideas for progress in Equestria and openly mocked my heritage. Like my Mother’s words, they only fueled my desire for change. I pushed on, my years of hard work eventually earning me a meeting with Celestia herself, and how does our mighty ruler repay my diligence? By calling my life’s work a ‘risk to the Equestrian way of life.’ The same way of life that would smother a filly’s dreams and lock her in a future she despises? I’ll never forget that day either, for it triggered the beginning of the Rapture dream. I removed my disdainful mark and left the capital that very night. I need only look upon these scars on my flank to see the very blueprints of Rapture, as clear as the dark storm clouds that had once been in their place. I do so often... and I smile each time.
Rainbow Dash’s muscles spasmed again and again as bolts of electricity sprang into being and danced across her nerves, then down through her veins. She closed her eyes tight and tried not to scream as the empty ADAM syringe fell from her grasp and rolled down a flight of broken stairs, landing with a plunk in the half-drained floor below.
“What’s... happening!?” Rainbow forced the words out from behind clenched teeth. It felt like she was being struck by lightning. Repeatedly.
“Calm down, Rainbow! It’s just you’re genetic code being rewritten.” Twilight spoke from somewhere beyond the veil of pain.
Gee, that’s comforting...
As quickly as the agonizing pain had come, it suddenly dissipated. Rainbow blinked in confusion, then lifted herself carefully off the floor. Her breath was heavy and rapid, working to restore metabolic balance. While her senses gathered themselves, Rainbow reaffirmed her surroundings.
She was back in the welcome center on the upper level. A large portion of the room was on fire, and the floor below was flooded with several inches of seawater, but her friends were long gone. Instead, only the likenesses of two plastic fillies stood before her, smiling from ear to ear like Pinkie Pie after a good pranking.
“Uuugh, what the hay Twilight? I hope I just electrocuted myself for a good reason...” Dash turned away from the creepy statues, lifting a hoof to sooth the splitting headache she was developing. As she did, Rainbow found her multi-hued mane frizzed up at the slightest touch. “What in the- WOAH!”
Snapping the appendage as far away from her face as she could, Rainbow stared at it bug-eyed. Beneath her cyan coat she could see a patchwork of veins and arteries, all glowing bright blue and crackling with electricity.
“That was the electro-bolt plasmid, Rainbow,” Twilight explained from the Talk-box on the floor below, “As long as you keep your EVE levels high enough, it will allow you to create a static discharge that will stun enemies and-”
“You mean I can shoot lightning!?” With two powerful wing beats, the excited pegasus flew off the upper level, landing before the Talk-box with a splash. Small flashes spread to the water, arcing in every direction in short bursts.
“Not exactly, it’s more like releasing the built up electricity your body's naturally generat-” Twilight was cut off again when Rainbow accidentally zapped the ornate box with a blue bolt. The crystals inside exploded with a hiss and a plume of smoke rose out the top.
“That. Is. AWESOME!” Rainbow cried out, admiring her leg with new-found excitement.
“Rain...ow, wha... you do?” The destroyed Talk-box sparked and smoked, reducing Twilight’s question to a garbled mess.
“Huh? Twilight, you’re breaking up... oh.” Tearing her gaze away from her amped up limb, Rainbow finally noticed the damage she had inadvertently caused, “Ummm, oops? Hehe, sorry Twi.”
“I can’t bel... do something like....! Oh no...” The laboured voice cut out, leaving only a low static hissing.
“Hey, can you hear me? Everything okay in there?” She approached the fried Talk-box and tapped it with her non-electrified hoof. "Did something happen to the others!?"
“Splicers!” Twilight cried through the static. “They... coming!...hind you!” And with that, the box cut out completely, the residual glow of the crystals faded and the hiss died out.
“What?! Twilight! Come in, Twilight!” She hammered in the burnt-out box, but got no reaction.
A raspy stallion's voice echoed up to Dash’s ears. “Huh? Did you hear something?” it asked. He was close, somewhere below in the docking bay she’d arrived in.
“Sounds like our runaway fishies came back,” a mare’s voice replied. “Maybe Noir won’t let ‘em get away this time...”
“Like you two dimwits were any help!” another stallion snapped back at the mare.
Oh no! Them again! Rainbow frantically scanned the burning room for any means of escape. The main exit was sealed with water tight doors, and the walkway beyond was flooded, so that was out. That left two options; go back down the dead-end hall she came from, or...
Dash inspected her hoof again, feeling the power surging through it. A roguish smile etched itself onto her face and her foreleg crackled with anticipation.
They’re the ones who attacked my friends, Rainbow reminded herself. Without a second thought, she flared open her wings and took off down the stairs, back to the catwalk overlooking the docking bay.
Moving in her direction, Dash found a group of Splicers in the warped hall leading to the welcome center above. She didn’t hesitate; as her eyes struck them, she dove forwards with a burst of speed. Her wings grazed the catwalk before she barreled into the stallion wearing a bird-shaped mask in a streak of multicoloured light. Her cyan shoulder buried itself into her target’s gut and slammed him into a wall before he could even register what had happened.
The Splicer crumpled to the floor, leaving a large dent in the crumbling plaster. The commanding figure of Rainbow Dash hovered over him, ready to kick some serious flank, her empowered leg buzzing and sparking. She turned to the others, the shock of their companion’s savage beating already fading.
“Well, looks like one of our little fishies came back after all...” the other masked stallion said, crouching low and circling around Dash defensively.
“A filthy pegasus, no less.” The unicorn mare said from behind her bandages, mimicking her partner and adapting a defensive stance. "Time to buzz off, horsefly!"
Rainbow leveled her foreleg, switching between the two moving targets. If she was angry before, she was furious now. "Hey, I'd rather be a pegasus than a murderer! You tried to hurt my friends!” She roared through bared teeth, remembering what Twilight told her about their short fight. The thought served to fuel her growing rage. “There’s no way I’m letting you get away with that!”
Suddenly, the rabbit-faced stallion lunged for her side.
Acting on instinct, Rainbow aimed her newly acquired weapon at the attacker and released the charge it held. With a clap of thunder, a blue bolt arced directly into his masked face.
His wild scream rang off the bay’s high ceiling and glass windows as the electricity spread across his head and torso. Once the ribbons of high-voltage lightning ceased, he fell to the floor hard, twitching as it continued to zap him internally.
Rainbow watch him convulse with triumph, her blind rage and adrenaline working to block out any immediate feelings of remorse or guilt. She panted heavily, amazed at the plasmid's efficiency. Wow, I wish I had this in flight school...
The mare charged in next, galloping at full speed with her horn trained on Rainbow’s neck.
Snapping her attention back to the fight, the pegasus loosed another bolt at the unicorn without missing a beat.
With a cocky smirk, the charging mare fired up her horn and raised a tiny magic barrier that easily deflected the concentrated energy. Dash fired twice more, gliding back as she did, but her efforts did nothing to slow the frenzied Splicer.
Dissipating her shield, the unicorn lowered her head and dove, shrieking like a maniac.
Rainbow shot upwards at the last second, clearing the crazed Splicer and sending her crashing into the cracked wall next to her fallen companion.
Flying through the air like the professional stunt performer she was, Rainbow twisted her agile body around and landed behind the stunned foe on three legs, the fourth raised and pointed at her opponent’s bandaged face.
“Feel the thunder!” Dash taunted, then released a bolt into the horn that almost flayed her. Or at least, she tried to. Sparks hopped daintily off her cyan hoof, and the pulsing veins that had ran beneath its fur tapered out. “What the? Where’s the thunder?” She shook her hoof in frustration, beating her wings to back away from her stirring enemies.
“Ha! Short on EVE, are we?” The stallion in the bird mask chuckled, dusting off the remnants of wall plaster from his torn suit. Still wincing from his prior date with the wall, he reached into it and removed a blue syringe. “That’s quite careless of you, after picking a fight with all three of us.”
He jammed the syringe into his leg, which erupted in a flourish of fire.
“You’re in for it now, you little tart,” the mare said, cringing as she stood and advancing with the flaming stallion.
This is not how I pictured this fight going, Rainbow thought as the electrocuted Splicer also lifted himself slowly off the ground, his fur and clothes still smoking.
“TEAR HER APART!” Rabbit-mask bellowed at his companions.
With a thrust of his plasmid-infused leg, Bird-brain sent a fireball flying across the hall at Rainbow.
Well, that’s just great. Backpedaling her wings vigorously, Rainbow flung herself away from the inferno, which exploded in front of her and set the tight hall on fire.
“Woah... ha! You missed me! Is that the best you got?” she jeered at the stallion, letting her competitive side get the best of her, despite the extremely close call.
He responded by reaching into his jacket again and pulling out several more full hypos. “There’s plenty more where that came from, sweetheart.”
Dash’s confidence waned at the sight; she needed EVE, and that meant finding more hidden among Rapture’s ruins or stealing some from Bird-brain.
Dodging the flames as she flew haphazardly through the air, Rainbow smiled, a plan beginning to form in her head. From this position, the Splicer’s continued assault was easy to avoid, and soon enough, he needed to refuel.
“Out already?” Rainbow scoffed while he injected himself again, “Your aim is worse than a blindfolded filly playing pin the tail on the pony!”
“I’ll show you- huh?” He tossed the empty hypo and aimed back at his target, only to find the air space she once occupied empty.
“Over here, Bird-brain!” Rainbow called, hovering halfway up the staircase up to the welcome center. “You’re gonna have to catch me first, jerk!” She zipped back up and hid on the second floor in ambush. From the sounds of angry cursing and rushing hoofsteps, she knew he'd fallen for her trap.
Ha! This’ll teach you to mess with Rainbow Dash!
An instant later, the disheveled pony appeared below, holding his burning forelimb out of the residual flood water. “Alright, you little chicken, come on out so I can roast you.”
With a roll of her eyes, Rainbow silently leaped off the broken steps and angled downwards into a perfect swan dive. She closed her wings, stuck out her front hooves, and took the stallion unawares for a second time. She slammed into his back, causing him to crumple into the ankle-deep puddle he stood in with a huge splash. A wave of steam hissed off his fiery leg as it made contact with the frigid ocean water.
Before he could recover, Dash dug into his tattered clothes and swiped all the hypos she could hold. The other two Splicers were tearing up the stairs towards them both, so she sprung off her incapacitated victim, took a deep breath and dove into the billowing, black smoke gathering above.
“Noir! What happened? Did you lose another one?!” the mare yelled as she entered the burning room.
Noir coughed and sputtered as the others lifted him out of the water. Above, hidden in the building smoke from multiple fires, Rainbow pumped her leg full of EVE, reigniting its inner electrical glow.
“She’s- she’s up there!” Noir coughed, shaking the water off his foreleg. It re-lit with a bright gout of orange flames. He raised his arm up as quick as he could and launched a fireball into the smoky blackness the pegasus had disappeared into.
His target, however, had once again moved while he was distracted, and took the opportunity to flank her foes.
“Hey, jerk-wads!” Rainbow’s raspy voice called out from behind. The three marauders wheeled around to find her floating above them with a smug smile on her face. “This is for hurting my friends.”
The thunderclap was ear-splitting. Rainbow Dash unleashed all the electricity in her limb, sending it arcing into the three ravenous lunatics below. They screamed out in pain as the puddle they stood in lit up; coursing with blue bolts that blackened their coats and sent them into spastic fits of flailing limbs.
Rainbow watched with gleeful vindication from above as the three shapes dropped into the conductive water one by one.
“Yeah! Take that you psychos, not so tough now, huh!” She mocked, landing once the charge surging through the water subsided, “How’d ya like a taste of your own medicine?”
Pretending to blow dust off her electrified hoof, Rainbow waited for a reply, but heard nothing but quiet sizzling.
“Uhh, hello? What’s the matter, you clowns got nothing to say?”
Again, there was no reply.
The acrid smell of burnt hair reached her nose.
As the adrenaline wore off, realization slowly set in. Rainbow dropped onto her haunches, raising her hoof and fixing it with a look of horror. The room continued to fill with smoke as it burned around her and the three ponies she’d killed.
“What... what have I done?”
The hulking beast loomed over Fluttershy as she wheezed into the invisible hoof clasping her muzzle.
Between living beside the enchanted Everfree Forest and her time spent as an Element of Harmony, Fluttershy had seen some truly frightening monsters of all shapes and sizes; manticores, timberwolves, hydras, and worst of all, dragons. But what currently stood above her was more terrifying than all of them; solely because she had never seen anything remotely like it before.
It must have been a deer at one point; it stood on four slender legs and a pair of antlers jutted out from the large, metal diving helmet it wore. The rest of its tall body was covered by a thick rubber suit. The uniform was dotted with armoured metal plating and secured to the helmet with heavy bolts and welding. A large oxygen tank was slung on its back, next to a mounted turret holding two barbed harpoons. A yellow light shone from within the helmet itself, flowing out of three barred portholes, two at either side and one in the front.
The thing moved with slow purpose, positioning itself behind the dead pony with heavy hoofsteps that shook the crumbling hall. The piercing, yellow eye behind the front porthole fell on Fluttershy, and the giant creature groaned in a long, ghoulish note.
Fluttershy whimpered, unable to look away from the towering monstrosity.
“Not a sound,” an accented voice whispered into her ear. Fluttershy obeyed, forcing her lips together under the unseen restraint covering them.
The 'deer' made no move to attack, it just stood there passively; wary of her presence, but otherwise uninterested. After inspecting the rest of the area, the harpoons on its back lowered with a click and it groaned softly back the way it had come. Fluttershy heard smaller, softer hoof steps patter swiftly across the slick floor.
“Did you find an Angel, Mister Dee?” a tiny voice asked. Whatever was approaching, it sounded like it belonged to a filly.
Sure enough, a young unicorn skipped up beside the lumbering monster a moment later. She wore a filthy, old-fashioned dress full of poorly mended holes, with a matching bow tied in her mane. The little thing skipped around the deer's legs in apparent excitement. She would have looked like any other foal her age, if it wasn’t for her clammy, gray skin and alert eyes, glowing with a strange orange light.
“You found two of them! Oh, you’re the best, Daddy!” There was something unsettling about her voice; it echoed out of her mouth and somehow sounded close by, but far away at the same time. She stood on her short hind legs and gave the encapsulated deer a loving hug, then lit up her horn with a smile and produced a pump-like device with a sinister needle from the folds of her tattered dress. Levitating the device above her, the filly approached the well-dressed stallion’s corpse and stabbed the sharp point deep into his back, right next to the knife that killed him. She hummed softly as she worked.
E-Even the children are monsters here! Fluttershy was unable to stifle her gasp this time. She tried to squirm away, but was held firmly in place.
Her muffled whimper immediately drew the grotesque filly’s attention, “Look, Mister Dee! This Angel is still breathing.” She locked Fluttershy in place with her bright, pupil-less eyes as her pump did its job of extracting a luminous, red substance from the body and filling a glass tube on its opposite end. When the tube was half full, the flow stopped and she tore the pump from the dead stallion dispassionately. “Maybe we’ll see her later?”
The filly giggled and tucked her instrument back into her dress, then hopped up and onto the Stag’s back behind his turret. He groaned once again, in a way that implied a deep affection, then they slowly lumbered off and out of sight.
“See you later!” The small unicorn sang back as the heavy steps moved further and further, fading into a distant thudding.
The hoof covering Fluttershy's mouth was gently removed, and she let out the deep breath she’d been holding.
“One would be wise to take more precaution.” The accented voice of Fluttershy’s rescuer cautioned as it floated away towards the elevator shaft.
“W-Wait,” Fluttershy called after it. “I wanted to say... th-thank you.” She tried to stand and follow, but her legs were shaking too much and she fell over. Her eyes fell on the corpse again, and the new, gaping hole in his back; still oozing residual drops of that strange, red liquid.
The events of the last few minutes repeated themselves in Fluttershy's mind, finally sinking in now that the coast was clear. Th-That pony had a hammer! He was going to k-kill me!
She covered her face with stained, yellow hooves and she weeped deeply into them, “I- I just want to go h-home!” She sobbed and blubbered, wishing to both Princesses that she had never came to such a horrible place.
“Get up.” Her saviour’s voice came from the left. “You need to move. With Big Stag gone, Splicers will come.”
“Wh-What was that thing? And that filly, her eyes were s-so...” Fluttershy sputtered as unseen arms helped her up onto her unsteady hooves. “And, wh-who are you?” She added fearfully. So far, nothing in this awful place had been friendly; who was to say this invisible pony was any different?
“That thing is one of this city’s unholy creations. An obedient slave, made to protect Little Fillies, with its very life if it must.”
Fluttershy tried not to look as she was lead past the deceased stallion. She focused on the pony’s voice, his deep accent made him a little hard to understand, but she realized she recognized it. She used to hear it all the time back in Ponyville. “Are you a... Zebra? Who are you?” Fluttershy asked again. Her closest neighbor, Zecora, was a zebra. She lived inside the dense and dangerous Everfree Forest, and spoke with a very similar accent. Though Zecora only ever spoke in rhyme, unlike the invisible zebra escorting her. “Wh-Why can’t I see you?”
“The pony asks many questions...” the zebra mumbled as they left the hallway. “I cannot tell you my name, but you are correct, I am a zebra. I came here to steal secrets, for who I may not say. You cannot see me because it makes my task much easier. I am meant only to observe and relay.”
“You’re... a spy?!” Fluttershy gasped. She'd never met a real spy before ...But aren’t they supposed to keep being a spy a secret? “Why would a spy tell someone they're a spy? Unless, unless they’re not a spy!” She wasn’t usually so untrusting, but this place, it was bringing out her inner skeptic.
“I am the greatest operative in all the kingdoms, little pony,” he boasted. “I tell you only because doing so poses no threat to me or my mission.”
“Oh,” Fluttershy said, casting a despondent glance down the gilded elevator shaft. Though the zebra’s remark was somewhat insulting, he did have a point. “Then... why did you rescue me? That wasn’t part of your m-mission, was it?”
“Of course not, I was not to reveal myself to anyone, and in the nineteen months I’ve been here, I have not...”
Fluttershy looked to where the voice came from with confusion, “Then... why? Why me? I don’t understand...”
“Because of what you say, little pony.” Two hooves grabbed hold of Fluttershy's shoulders, making her grimace. “You see, we want same thing. I have been trapped in this mad-house too long. I crave open air, and the smell of home. Tell me, you have friends here, yes?”
Fluttershy gasped again, “How did you kno- I mean, n-no, I’m here alone...” Oh, I'm no good at this...
A deep chuckled came from the thin air before her and the weight of the zebra’s hooves slid off Flutterhsy's shoulders. “Do not lie to me, I have been following you since you arrived in Bathysphere. You have no idea how disappointed I was to find it broken. The one who spoke on the Talk-box was Twilight Sparkle, yes?”
“It-It was...” Fluttershy didn’t know what to say. She wanted to trust him, but how could she? He did save me from those monsters, and he wants to go home too. Even in a place like this, not everything had to be evil... surely? “Y-Yes. She is an old friend. We’re g-going to help her fix this place up.” She had decided to go with the truth.
The voice laughed again, this time with a distinctly mocking tone. “That is tall order, as there is much wrong here. You will need the help of one who knows this place well, one such as myself.”
“Y-You want to help me?”
“I am willing, for you will not last long alone. I ask only one thing in return...”
The zebra’s invisible hooves grabbed hold of Fluttershy’s cheeks, holding them in place. She winced uncomfortably at the exceedingly odd sensation, staring ahead where she guessed his eyes would be.
“When you leave this forsaken city, you take me with you.”
