//------------------------------// // Coming Out of It // Story: Me and Mr. B // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// Twilight had never been to the Canterlonian hospital before, but she had read and heard that it was not a place that a pony wanted to end up. This was where ponies go when they were struck with an injury or affliction that was severe, so severe that only the best of the best medics could hope to cure them. So as she and the princesses walked through the rooms filled with the sick and dying, it didn't take long before she began to get worried. "Where are they taking Bubbles?" Dinky asked Twilight, a look of worry on her face as the two princesses in front of her levitated Mr. Bubbles through the room. "Hopefully to someplace that can fix him," Berry said as she staggered along behind them. "What do you know of this place princess Twilight?" Twilight shook her head as she looked around the room, seeing all the sick and wounded that she had no idea had been in here. Bubbles let out a small groan and Dinky ran over to the sphere that the princesses were keeping him in, pressing her face against the shield. "Don't worry Mr. Bubbles, I'm here," she said to him as he tilted his helmet to look at her, his five remaining eyes becoming green as he saw her. The two princesses walked up to a wall and placed their horns against it, opening the wall to reveal a large staircase that went down into the darkness. "Um, Princess Celestia? Where are we going?" Twilight asked her mentor. Celestia looked back at her for a moment before they continued down the stairs, waiting until they got to the bottom of the stairs to answer Twilight's question. "This is a place that we have rarely come to in the past thousand years," Celestia said as she placed her horn against another wall at the bottom of the stairs, backing up and allowing for Luna to do the same. "But if there is any place that can save and repair Bubbles, this will be the place." "Um, where are we Princess Celestia?" Dinky asked as the wall opened again. Celestia looked back at her with a smile as she and Luna walked in. "This...is where we kept every single piece of human technology and artifact that we have unearthed over the years," she said with a smile as they walked through the room, Dinky and the others gasping at what they saw inside. Giant machines that had treads on them, weird metal birds with glass heads and so much more met their eyes as they walked into the room. "It is amazing how impressive the human’s tech was, but we still don't know for certain what happened to them." "Princess, why is all of this technology under the hospital?" Twilight asked as they walked through all the relics. "Shouldn't these be in the castle under lock and key?" "Twilight, after what happened with Chrysalis and Sombra, I highly doubt that castles are the safest place to hide anything anymore," Luna said with a chuckle. "Sunset Shimmer stole your Element right out from under our noses as well, so my sister and I agreed that we should hide these relics in a place that nopony would think to look." "Under a hospital?" Berry asked as they reached the room Celestia and Luna had been walking towards. It was a massive room filled with even more advance looking pieces of technology, but in the center of the room sat a massive table with a number of operating tools sitting on it, with five scientist ponies waiting around the table for the patient. Celestia placed the Big Daddy on the table, where he groaned and tried to get up, forcing Dinky to place a hoof on him to comfort him. "And the only way to repair something created by the humans is with technology by humans," Luna said as she brought out the journal on Big Daddies out and placed it on the table before she told the scientists to go grab some material from certain piles. "Now then, we will use our magic to place Mr. Bubbles into a state of sleep. Dinky, please keep him call while we do this." Her horn began to glow as she said this and Bubbles eyes immediately turned yellow as he struggled to get up, but once again Dinky comforted him. "Don't worry Mr. Bubbles, it's going to be alright," she said to him with a smile. "They're just going to help you feel better, so please get some rest." Bubbles eyes turned green as he looked at her before they dimmed a bit and he went limp on the table. Luna let out a sigh as she continued her spell, surprised at how much magic it took to put him to sleep. "Berry and Dinky, would the two of you please go wait back up in the waiting room in the hospital?" Celestia asked as the scientist brought over a number of supplies. "This room is still off limits to regular citizens, which mean you should go. If Bubble's comes to and tries anything, we can go grab you if needed, but for now..." "I understand princess, just make him feel better," Dinky said sadly as she looked down at the resting Bubbles. "He means a lot to me." Berry and Dinky left the room so that the princesses could begin repairing him, Berry collapsing into a chair in the waiting room while Dinky paced back and forth. "You're really worried about him, aren't you?" Berry asked, Dinky nodding as she continued to pace. "Why is that? I know that I haven't asked this, but I really want to know why you care for him so much. He's not exactly the nicest of ponies." "Because he's the closest thing I've ever had to a father," she said with a sigh as she sat down next to Berry, hanging her head. "He was also my first friend, even though I had no idea what he was at the time. But he's always been nice to me and protected me...and it's just so nice to have somepony like that, who listens and doesn't judge me or my family." Berry wrapped an arm around her little niece as she said this, pulling her into a hug. "Dinky!" Ditzy yelled as she burst into the room, looking around until she saw her daughter and ran over to her. "Oh Dinky, I heard the news and came here as fast as I could. Is it true that a Tatzlwurm was spotted in Ponyville?" "Yeah mom, but Bubbles dealt with it," Dinky said as she hugged her mom. Berry walked up to Ditzy and hugged her as well. "But Bubbles is hurt and the princesses are trying to heal him." "But none of you were hurt?" Ditzy asked as she looked over her daughter for any sign of injury. "You're safe?" "Yes mom, he saved all of us. None of the foals were hurt," Dinky said. The three sat with each other for a few hours, Dinky trying to talk with her family but she kept looking back at the door ever few seconds. After the third hour, the doors opened and Luna walked out, a nervous look on her face as she saw Dinky running towards her. "How is he princess? Is he alright?" "We have repaired the damage done to his suit and his body, but...there is more damage done to him, from when he walked around with the humans," she said with some hesitation. "What kind of damage?" Dinky asked. Luna sighed as she looked up at the ceiling, not wanting to tell her this. "Dinky, do you know why Bubbles attacks anypony that gets close to you or will do anything that protect you?" Luna asked her. When Dinky looked at her in confusion, Luna sighed and looked at her with sympathetic eyes. "Because he's programmed to. Because the humans went in and did something to his mind to make him think that way. He doesn't really have free will and he can only follow what he has been programmed to do. Now some of the...things used to make him this way slipped a bit when he got here, hence the reason he hasn't been as brutal as the book on him says he should be." "Wait a minute...so that's why he has been following me around?" Dinky asked with realization. "Yes, the humans created Mr. Bubbles to protect little human girls who possessed a...power within them," Luna said with a sad shake of her head. "They were called litter sisters and Bubbles was created to protect one that looked a lot like you Dinky, if you were a human." Dinky wondered about what she'd look like as a human, but then a thought came to her. "What happened to that little sister?" Dinky asked. "What happened to her and Bubbles?" "Bubbles...failed to protect her," Luna sadly said. "A human eventually killed him and the little sister. I have no idea how he got here, but I do know that the first thing he did was seek out his little sister...and then he found you." "What are you implying?" Ditzy asked, causing Luna to sigh again. "He cares about you Dinky, which is why I wanted to ask this question. We can remove the plasmid that is affecting his brain to free him from its control," Luna began. "But what we don't know is what he will do once the plasmids are removed. He could be the exact same or he might be a completely different being." "So what...are you asking my niece to do?" Berry asked. "I'm asking her to choose," Luna said with an emotionless face. "Do you want us to remove the plasmid and free Mr. Bubbles? OR do we keep it in and keep him the way he is? And I am asking you this because Mr. Bubbles has always gone along with what you have said, so I figure that he would be happy with whatever you choose." Dinky lowered her head as she began to think, wondering what the right answer here was. She liked Mr. Bubbles being around her and enjoyed having another pony...person that was a good friend for her and a guardian for her. But... "So he's been a slave to this...plasmid...for as long as he's been a Big Daddy?" she asked Luna, who nodded. Dinky thought about it a bit longer before she looked up at the princess. "Get rid of it." Luna nodded again and walked back into the room, while Ditzy and Berry looked at Dinky with confusion. "I know what you're going to ask," she said with tears in her eyes. "And I know that he might not be the same once the plasmids are removed. But...he's been so kind to me, patient with me and kept me safe in dangerous situations. But he's been trapped by this plasmid for years and he has suffered so much in that time. I want him to be free." "But he may not be the same once they do," Ditzy said with worry. "He may not be your guardian anymore." "Maybe. But he'll be free of the plasmids that made him fight for so long. I just want him to be at peace and no longer have to always worry about keeping me safe," Dinky said with a smile. "Because I love him, so I have to allow him to be free." Ditzy walked over to her daughter and pulled her into a hug before the doors opened, Princess Celestia walking out to see the three of them looking at her. "It is done." That was all she needed to say for Dinky to jump off the chair and rush down to where Bubbles had been. She came to a stop when she saw him and let out a sigh of relief. His armor had been patched up (not to mention looked cleaner than it used to be) and he was spinning his drill perfectly, but his repaired eyes were yellow and they remained yellow even once Dinky had run up to him. "Mr. Bubbles!" she yelled as she tackled his leg, hugging him with relief at the fact that he was safe. Bubbles then picked her up, but placed her on the ground in front of him instead of on his head. The princesses stayed to the side so that Bubbles wouldn't focus too much on them while Twilight watched from the background, waiting to see what would happen. "I'm so glad to see that you're alright. I was so worried after the worm hurt you." Bubbles said nothing as he looked down at her before he looked past her to the exit, where he let out a moan and began to head towards it, stepping over Dinky as he did so. "Mr. Bubbles? Where are you going?" she asked him. He didn't even turn around as he headed to the exit as Ditzy moved to the side to allow him to pass, but Berry stood in front of him with a look on her face. "So that's it, huh? Now that you're free you're going to simply walk away without saying anything to her?" Berry asked her. Bubbles said nothing again as he pushed past her and headed up the stairs. He exited the hospital and looked around at all the ponies on the streets with slight confusion. He was confused, unable to figure out what he was supposed to do. For the first time in his life he felt neither need to follow a little sister nor the need to fight off all the ponies that he saw on the street. And he didn't care. He could feel the thoughts racing through his head, able to finally choose whether or not he would rip apart the ponies in front of him or he could just leave them alone with no thought. But he still felt empty, but he couldn't think about it long as he saw the same little girl that he saw a few days ago standing at the end of a road, beckoning him. 'Come on Mr. Bubbles. Let's go play together.' Bubbles let out a moan and began to follow her, but by his own choice.