//------------------------------//
// Act 3, Scene 3 
// Story: Doctor Horrible is Adorable 
// by Scarlett Haze 
//------------------------------//

	"No turning back," I thought to myself, ready to look up and see the clone of myself. As my eyes rose, the visage of my own human form was not looking back at me.

"Robo... Horrible..." the creature standing in front of me chuckled. It was similar to the pegasus form I had already seen multiple times, but it didn't just have wings. "Perhaps you don't understand who I am?" The sharpened bone that protruded from his head shone in a deadly flash, conjuring images of unicorns.

The doors shut again as the hench ponies surrounded me, each flexing and giving threatening looks to my small form.

"I, am DOCTOR Horrible." His voice authoritatively snapped, his teeth also as sharp as the horn that he had. "I am... was the man that killed Captain Hammer."

Each of the ponies that surrounded me leapt up to trap me, making me frantically move out of the way, just barely missing being sacked by them.

"I, am the brightest and most dangerous monster that you will EVER face!" He yelled, chest puffed out as his wings opened wide, shadowing over me. "I, am your new god!"

As his words finished, his horn pointed to me and blasted a red ray that nearly hit me. The ground that the blast hit smoked with the intense heat that it caused. "All thanks to you, by the way."

A whimper of confusion went across the crowd, every eye now pressed on me, making my breath short as I shook in panic.

"If you hadn't shown your lovely little face on my blog, then maybe this series of events would not be unfolding before you now," Robo-Horrible continued. "How did you do it? It wasn't by simple means, I've tried to follow the signal back manually but it was almost... beyond comprehension."

The hench ponies that tried to jump me had started to gather from behind before a raised hoof of Robo-Horrible let them stop in their place. "Before I fry you in front of everyone here, tell me how you did it."

The squeaks and squirms that I gave stopped. For once, I was in total control. No voices. No phobias. No fear. My eyes looked up at this abomination with determination, a spark in my eyes as I spoke.

"It all started in a place like this," I began. "A braggart had an entire city in his hand, believing every word he said. Meanwhile, I was given a choice, eliminate this pompous fool or be eliminated myself."

The past came back to me, freezing Captain Hammer in place, causing panic in the auditorium, pointing a death ray at the prone body that was in mid-note. Now, I had a chance to change history, but in a different way. "That was when I made the choice to focus on myself, no one else around me. Instead of killing the one I wanted to eliminate, I destroyed the one person that cared about me, not as the face that I wore every time I donned the coat and goggles, but as me. As Billy."

The confusion in the room seemed to continue on, and the last words I had said shook Robo-Horrible from his confident stance.

"You would know that same feeling, right? After all... I made you. You have the memories that I put into your head."

The alicorn reared up and angrily whinnied as I felt an energy surround me and sent me across the room, bashing into a wall.

"Kill her!" Robo-Horrible screamed at his hench ponies as they fumbled for their own weapons.

"No!"

On my side, I could only watch as Rainbow Dash took a swipe at Robo-Horrible, her speed combined with her punch nearly rocking the alicorn. Another roar of anger came from Robo-Horrible as more of the red blasts came from his horn.

"Dashie, get away!" I yelled out.

Despite Robo-Horrible having wings, he wasn't using them, instead standing where he was as he pointed his horn in every direction towards the blur of rainbow colors.

"Why- can't- you- stand- still?!" Robo-Horrible punctuated with every blast he made. The auditorium kept getting weaker with each blast, soon groaning under the strain that the burned pillars were trying to hold up.

"Everypony out!" Sunset Boulevard screamed as parts of the ceiling began to crack.

Though the doors were blocked, the stampede of little fillies were no match for the hench ponies as they were overrun and stomped on.

Moist tried to help me up, despite being so small.

"Warm up the transmatter ray," I coughed. "Set it to liquid."

The battle seemed to go for a while until Robo-Horrible stopped, not seeing the blur of color in the air. "Where did you go, you little twerp?!" 

A hench pony approached Robo-Horrible as a small piece of the ceiling fell. "We've got to get out of here, Doctor!"

Robo-Horrible focused his energy into the hench pony and lifted him up. "Not until I destroy her!"

The hench pony continued to argue, "She's just a little filly, what could she do anyway? You have the power to do anything!"

Robo-Horrible brought the hench pony close to him, "If you want to run, fine! I'll do it myself! I don't need anyone!"

By this time, I had managed to stand up and notice that Dash, Robo-Horrible, and myself remained. Bringing the transmatter ray that I had cobbled together up, I took aim at Robo-Horrible and (in my mind) crossed my fingers.

With a resounding pulse, the transmatter ray fired and struck Robo-Horrible, causing him to flinch in surprise, dropping the hench pony as he rushed out the door. His eyes looked to me as he began laughing.

"Is that a transmatter ray?" He howled, still laughing at what had happened. "Did you just try to liquify me? You ignorant little creature, transmatter rays only work on inanimate objects!"

As he continued laughing, a smirk of my own began to form. What would synthetic skin fall under in the category of animate or inanimate objects?

His laughter soon stopped as skin began to droop over one of his eyes. He touched the skin and felt the weight of it as it continued to fall, causing him to panic. The skin and fur slowly oozed off, showing the metallic frame of bone and circuits that was hidden inside.

"No, no, no, no!" Robo-Horrible continually repeated. "I'm not a robot! I'm Doctor Horrible! I'm Doctor Horrible!" The robotic alicorn's glowing eyes turned to me, half enraged and half confused. "What have you done to me?!"

My own eyes locked onto those lights and felt a powerful rush of focus as I peered into it. "I told you before, I made you. You were never Doctor Horrible, just another one of his creations. But, I'm not Doctor Horrible, I'm better." I began stepping forward towards the bot as it began sparking, processors slowly overloading from the intensity that was being transferred to it only by the eye contact. "I got to see the other side, the better side. The side that shows that focusing only on yourself may get you what you want, but it will make you lose everything else."

Robo-Horrible began twitching, more sparks flying from it as it tried to fight against looking at me. "Wh- Wh- Wh- What- t- t- t- are y- y- y- you?"

Our faces were so close, I had barely noticed that I had used my wings to meet the alicorn eye-to-eye. "I am the only pony with a Ph.D. in Adorableness!"

As the ceiling finally began to fall, my face pushed into Robo-Horrible's with the last words that it would ever hear.

"I am, Doctor Adorable!"


***


Outside of the auditorium, the camp watched the auditorium collapse, causing cloud dust to kick up and spread before it settled again.

"Fluttershy was still in there!" One filly screamed out.

"So was Dashie!" Another yelled.

Sunset Boulevard, Snowflake, and the rest of the camp counselors began uprooting as much as they could of the ruined auditorium, hoping to find any sight of Fluttershy or Rainbow Dash.

"Everypony, stop where you are!" An authoritative voice yelled out.

Multiple ponies in black suits and sunglasses filled the camp in seconds as they assessed the situation.

"Getting readings of recent tears in the universe borders!" One pony yelled out as he held an odd box device that had a radar spinning rapidly.

"We got some of the jumpers!" Another yelled out, dragging the hench ponies that had came with Robo-Horrible.

The activity halted as an alicorn stepped forward, black cap and sunglasses donning her head. "Begin a Level 4 containment and rebuild on the campers here, we don't need them to remember what just happened."

The unicorns in the group nodded as they began to build magical stalls that surrounded the large group.

The alicorn approached the destroyed auditorium and knelt down, using her own horn to detect something. When she felt a pull, she stopped the spell and used her magic to lift up a piece of the auditorium. Underneath the broken piece was the destroyed Robo-Horrible, a small yellow pegasus wearing a lab coat and goggles, and a cyan pegasus with rainbow mane, trying to reach for the yellow pegasus.

"Found the troublemaker," the alicorn yelled back before turning her attention to the fillies. "Also need some of the medical crew to fix up these little ones, we don't need to have to make these kids remember that somepony died."

Her horn continued to react as it pulled to the yellow filly.


***


When I awoke, the first thing I saw was the black-suited alicorn. Her stern expression made my eyes shut, not wanting to confront her.

"Who are you?"

I cautiously peeked out from an eyelid, not seeing her expression change.

"You aren't really from Equestria, or at least part of you isn't."

My eyes finished opening, forcing myself to talk with this creature. "And you would be right."

The alicorn nodded, still no change in her expression. "Makes sense, choosing a filly that has a history of mental disorders due to the stress of losing a father. No one would question the minor alterations in her personality."

I straightened up, feeling defensive. "But I didn't really change personalities at all! If anything, I couldn't act like myself if I had tried!" My hooves went to my mouth, hoping to stop the words before they escaped.

The alicorn kept looking at me, almost trying to understand something. "I've never seen or worked on something like this before," she murmured. "Almost one hundred years since I began this organization, since the first dimension hopper, I have never encountered something this fascinating."

She got up and briefly paced before continuing. "You were... a human known under the alias of Doctor Horrible. You accidentally killed the one person in your life that had feelings for you and you for her and then proceeded to throw away any concept of love, hope, or even care." Her pacing stopped at that as she turned to me again, "Until now."

I only nodded, allowing her to continue.

"One accident. An accident that should not have happened, but did. You and Fluttershy became one. At first, it was a struggle for the both of you; Fluttershy, not wanting to do anything remotely dangerous or harmful in any way, and Doctor Horrible, so used to having power, so used to being feared, now lost in a world that centers around the things he had thrown away."

"Who is this alicorn?" I wondered, still transfixed on how she was piecing things together.

"Both of you fought and fought, until something that you could connect with was revealed." She lifted the picture of Penny, making me quickly pat my pockets in a panic and attempted to reach for it. She pulled the photo back, "In a moment, still working things through..."

She scrunched her face, still attempting to piece things together. "That filly, Rainbow Dash, why did you feel a connection with her?"

I was surprised, this alicorn was hitting all of the right areas to talk about, only adding more of a mystery around her. "I... liked her mane," I quietly explained. The answer didn't seem to resonate with her so I continued thinking about it. "She was somepony that seemed to be the opposite of me. Me, being so timid and mild, I couldn't even be able to look at others directly without having to shift away after a few seconds."

The alicorn then smiled, the first sign that she was capable of emotion. "Like Penny was to Doctor Horrible. Doctor Horrible only thought for himself and his work, but Penny was his equalizer. She was kind, giving, not wanting anything for herself.

"Right," I unconsciously agreed.

"The events... that took place before Doctor Horrible's turn... they're similar to what happened here," she lightly thought, turning away from me as she continued to think.

"I think... I understand what happened..." she finally said before turning back. "I don't do this, really I don't, but, I just need to check something."

The alicorn removed her glasses and hat, allowing her mane out that was lightly colored in its own rainbow and blew by an unseen wind. My eyes grew wide as stories of a princess that rose and lowered the sun and moon filled my mind, making my heart leap close to my throat.

"Celestia," I breathed out, trying to collect myself.

The princess stamped once and gave another smile, much wider than before. "Bingo, exactly like I thought." She placed her cap and glasses back on, again hiding her identity. "Your mind, Billy, has been integrated with Fluttershy's. In other circumstances where I've met situations like these, the minds are entirely separate, easily taken out and capable of being able to be sent back to where they were." She rose a hoof at this, "But you, you've done something else, you've accepted Fluttershy as a part of you, and she the same with you."

A silence followed as I tried to think of this revelation. "Does that mean that going back to Earth is impossible?"

Celestia gave a hiss as she breathed in with her teeth closed. "Not really, but it could tear up both you and her much worse than before. I'll send you back, no memory of what happened here, and you'll go back to what you've been doing. The only problem is, you'll always have a regret hanging with you." Celestia placed the photo of Penny beside me, "Or another one..."

"And Fluttershy?" I quietly asked, carefully picking up Penny's photo.

"She'll still be quiet, timid, and afraid, but because of what has happened here, she'll no doubt be a recluse. She'll never leave her home again."

The words cut deep, making me feel worse about the situation that now faced me.

"The other way," Celestia continued. "Is that I finish stitching up what's already happened in your mind."

My eyes rose up to meet hers as she continued, "You will live as Fluttershy, and Fluttershy will live as you. No thought confusion, no fights over what needs or doesn't need to be done, just Fluttershy living a life all her own. I would need to make some other alterations to your mind to insure that none of this-" she waved a hoof around herself and the tent. "-will be remembered. Not even the attack that the robot made will exist."

It felt like the right decision, but that small piece of me still looked back at the accomplishments of evil I had done. Could I really let them go?

"I won't influence your choice, but I will need to know in a few minutes. We can open a portal back to where you were and none of this will have ever affected you." Celestia said, opening the flap and stepping through.

With the flap shut, I was left with my thoughts...

Our thoughts.


The final song!


Here lies everything, the world I've wanted
At my hooves! My jo-urney's complete!
But which one will sting? (Chorus: Everything you ever..)
Arise and si - ng!

I left the bed, approaching the flap to the outside.

I'll leave it behind, but right here I have a voice,
and now to make a choi - ce,
Which world is mine? (Chorus: Everything you ever..)
Will I be fine?

Exiting the door, I got to see the camp all out there, watching me as I watched them. I took a deep breath and stepped forward.
Each step led me through another year. More animals to care, more friends that I met, more in tune with what I felt was the right decision.

Now the nightmare's left! Now Dr. Horrible is gone!
So don't you quake with fe - ar,
We're done with this ordeal! (Chorus: Everything you ever..)
And I will feel...

Now older, I wore a much longer and more versatile lab coat than before, still wearing the box-like goggles that I had scrounged together all those years ago.

Loved.