//------------------------------// // Does She Matter? // Story: Me and Mr. B // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// Bubbles followed the little girl for the better part of an hour, only coming to a stop on the edge of the city to find that she had vanished once again. As he stood there looking out over the edge to the land below, he waited for the inevitable desire to return to the little sister, but it never came. He let out a moan and turned to head back to the little one, but he stopped himself as he looked back out over the land. He didn't know what to do. He had no desire to return to Dinky, but it was all he knew how to do. Stick by her and protect her. But now the one thing he was certain of in his life was gone from his mind, but it only left him feeling empty. 'So what will you do now?' Bubbles eyes flashed red as he spun around to see the silver mare standing behind him. 'Sorry if I keep meeting you like this, but the radio in your head was broken in the fight and I cannot communicate to you unless it is in pony.' Bubbles started up his drill, but then he realized that he had no reason to fight her, which confused him because normally he'd feel immense wrath at any splicer like her. 'And I see that you have reins on your temper now. That is interesting. Does that mean you are finally thinking clearer now?' Bubbles said nothing, figuring that if she wasn't going to attack him then she wasn't worth his time. 'But I have something that I need to tell you,' she said as she teleported in front of Bubbles, causing him to roar at her. 'Something important about the future of this world. There is a-' "HEY! BRASS ASS!" The silver mare muttered something under her breath as she vanished into thin air, leaving Bubbles to turn to see a normally drunken mare walking towards him with fire in her eyes. "So what was all that about back at the castle? You get an operation to make you smarter and suddenly you think that you no longer need Dinky? That you no longer care about her?" Bubbles groaned at her and threateningly spun his drill, but she sneered at him. "Nice try, but I know what makes you tick and I haven't done anything to warrant attack," she said as she glared up at him. "So, after all she's done for you, you're just going to up and leave?" The Big Daddy moaned in a threatening way again and picked her up, but her face remained unchanged as she looked into his eight yellow eyes. "The princesses probably would have killed you if she hadn't stood up for you. Plus, she was the one who treated you like another living being when everypony else saw you as a monster. Does all that mean nothing to you?" Bubbles said nothing as he dropped her to the ground, stomping past her as he headed back into the city. He moaned in annoyance when he heard the pony following him, but he did his best to ignore her as he began to look around, although he wasn't sure for what. "So what are you going to do now, Bubbles?" Berry asked him as she quickened her pace to walk alongside him, much to his annoyance. "Are you going to buy a house and live a regular life? Yeah right, you might be able to think more now but that doesn't mean that you're going to fit in." Bubbles growled in annoyance, but Berry simply yawned at his attempts to intimidate her. Bubbles moved past her once again, but her words were starting to get to him. What was he going to do? He was free of the plasmids now, he knew that much, but that didn't matter. He still barely knew who he was and he had even less of an idea of what to do now. "Here's a suggestion for you, how about you head back to Dinky?" Berry suggested again, getting another growl in response. "So what, you don't like her now that you're free? Faust, talk about an egotist." Bubbles had come to the edge of the city once again, barely paying attention to where he was going now. All he was doing was walking. "Okay, that's enough avoiding me," she said with a snarl as she ran in front of the Big Daddy, staring him down despite the drill starting back up again. "I'm going to ask you a point blank question and I am not leaving until I get an answer. What does Dinky mean to you now?" Mr. Bubbles looked down at the pony that was not afraid of him with no response, simply because he didn't know. For as long as he could remember he had always protected the little sisters, always listened to his instincts. But now his instincts were gone. "Rrrrr..." he moaned as he stood looking over the edge of Canterlot, looking down upon all the land. Berry looked up at him with more rage for a moment before she let out a sigh and sat down on the edge of the city, pulling out a flask of booze and began to drink it down. "Look...Dinky already lost her father once and she never even got to know him. Because of his death though, Ditzy has had to work longer and harder to support the two of them, meaning that she isn't there for Dinky as often as she wants to be. And with her mom’s condition, she's constantly targeted by bullies and nopony wants to be friends with her," Berry began as she downed another shot. "And then you showed up, the giant metal man that everypony fears. Everypony but her. And in return for her not being afraid, you gave her a friend, something she has needed for the longest time." She finished the rest of the flask as she said this and reached inside her bag to pull out another flask, which she also began to drink down. Mr. Bubbles stood beside the pony, wondering why she was bothering telling him this. "But you became something more than a friend. You became like a father to her, even if you're a bit over protective sometimes," she muttered. "And all this time you've seen her as a daughter, never leaving her side and fighting to the death to protect her. But was all that simply because you had a goo in your head telling you to? Or do you love her like a father should?" Bubbles continued to look down at her as she said this, processing her words. Berry took another drink as she gazed off into the distance, memories coming back to her. "I made the same mistake you're making now a few years ago," Berry said with sorrow choking her voice. "Her name was Merry and she was my everything. We did so much together. I helped her study, helped her with sports. But she helped me so much as well, especially with my...problem." She took another shot as she said this and the tears began to fall from her eyes. "But then one day we had an argument, a big one. She was mad at me for doing something that I can't even remember. We said some things, tempers flared...and then I remember her storming out of the house and I did nothing to stop her." She finished off the flask and reached inside her bag again, this time pulling out a full bottle of booze. "And then the next thing I know the guards are in my house to tell me of the news, that she had caught by a pack of Timberwolves...and that she was gone. Because of me. Because I let her go for some stupid reason." She pulled the cork out of the bottle in one motion and began to chug, hiccupping twice. "And this is the state I've been in ever since. At the bottom of a bottle trying to forget the mistakes of my past. But there's no bottle that can keep from forgetting my failures. Just like the plasmids can't keep you from forgetting about the little sister that you had." Bubbles moaned at her words as he began to stand up, his head a torrent of thoughts that before today he had never even bothered to have. Berry was far to intoxicated to try and follow him this time, but she did say one last thing to him before he left her. "The reason I told you my story is so you don't make the same mistake as me, so that you don't abandon the one you care about," she said before laying her head on the ground. "Of course, I could be wrong and you could care nothing for her now that you're free. But even monsters hate to be alone." She passed out once she had said this, leaving the Big Daddy to his thoughts as he trudged through the streets. He looked around through his ports at all the ponies who were together, feeling something odd beginning to fill up his heart, which confused him more because he had only felt wrath and love before...and he began to wonder if those had been real. He let out a moan and looked towards the hospital, where he had walked away from Dinky without as much as a thought for her. But he wasn't sure if he had even loved her or if it had been the plasmid. 'Just because the plasmids are what made you care for her in the first place does not mean that the feelings are not real.' Bubbles never bothered to turn to the voice as he gazed at the hospital, trying to decide what to do. He thought of all the things he could do now that he was free, now that he had no desire to follow a little girl around and listen to her...and then he remembered Dinky's laugh and her smile and the way she always saw the best in him. She was the only one who saw the best in him. 'So then, what will you do now, Mr. Bubbles?' Bubbles looked towards the hospital with a roar of determination before he began his march towards the place, never deviating from his path as he marched on. Dinky may not be his little sister, but she had accepted him as her Big Daddy. And if she was willing to allow him to be family...then he knew he could repay her in kind. And even though she wasn't the little sister he had come to love back in Rapture, that didn't mean that he couldn't treat her as one. Once he had arrived at the hospital he threw the doors open and lumbered inside, scaring the ponies that worked there as he marched up to the counter and looked at one of them with a growl. "W-what do you want?" the pony stammered before her eyes widened. "You were the patient that the princesses brought in earlier. What are you doing...?" Her words died in her throat as he growled and pointed to the seats where Dinky and the others had been sitting. "T-them? They left a while ago and headed towards the castle with-" Bubbles turned away from her the moment her heard where Dinky was, walking out of the hospital and marching towards the palace. The guards drew their weapons on him when he approached, but one of the smarter guards recognized him as he approached. "Hold on, this is the Big Daddy," he said to his troops. "Celestia said to let him in if he came back. Stand aside." The guards did as they were told and moved to the side, allowing Bubbles to walk past and enter the castle, looking for a single foal in particular. ===K> Dinky looked out the window down to the streets of Canterlot and while she normally would have loved the view, she felt only sadness inside of her heart. Her mother sat on a bench next to her, hating to see her daughter this way but knowing that there was nothing she could do about it. "Do you think he's happy now?" Dinky eventually asked. "What do you mean?" her mom responded. "I mean now that he's free of the plasmids control. Now that he can choose where he goes and how he thinks," Dinky said with as much happiness as she could muster, but the sorrow rang through the loudest. Ditzy looked down at her daughter with loving eyes as she pulled her into a hug, looking down from the balcony that they were on. "Dinky, you were willing to give up something that made you happy for the sake of Bubbles. I don't know whether or not he's happy, but I know that I am proud of you," she said as she nuzzled her little foal. Dinky returned the gesture before looking out into the sky. "Think I'll ever see him again?" she asked her mother in a whisper. "I don't know, but there's an old saying that your father used to tell me back when we dated," she began. "If you love somepony, set them free. If they come back, they're yours." "What does that mean?" she asked her mother in confusion. "It means that if Bubbles truly loves you the way you care for him, then he'll come back to you even though the plasmids aren't in his head anymore," she said as she gave her daughter another hug. Dinky returned the hug and closed her eyes before she snapped them open again as she felt something. It was a familiar sensation and one that made her gasp. It was the feeling of the ground shaking beneath her feet, shaking caused by heavy footsteps. She turned around as a giant metal titan exited the hallway he had been walking down, letting out a moan as he saw her. "MR. BUBBLES!" she yelled as she let go of her mom and raced towards him, tackling his leg as she began to bawl. He let out a soft moan and gently patted her on her back while Ditzy watched on with a smile. When Dinky could see through her tears, she looked up into Bubbles eight eyes, all of which were a bright green as he looked down at her. "You came back." "Rrrrr..." he moaned softly as he gently picked her up and placed her on his head, turning back to the exit as he began to leave. Then he stopped and looked back at Ditzy, gazing at her a moment before motioning for her to follow as well. Ditzy smiled and walked alongside the giant as he moved through the castle, having no idea where he was going but not caring in the least. Dinky was on his head and Ditzy stood beside him. "I knew you come back...daddy," Dinky whispered to Mr. Bubbles so that only he could hear. He moaned in return as one of the doors to the throne room opened. Bubbles looked inside to see the three princesses waiting for him, so he marched on in, unafraid of what would come next.