"So I see that you have returned to Dinky after all," Celestia said with a small smile as Bubbles walked into the throne room, Luna and Twilight looking down upon him next to Celestia's throne with their own smiles. Bubbles let out a moan in return as he knelt down so Dinky could hop off of his back, where she stood beside her mother while looking up at the princesses.
"You knew that he would do so?" Dinky asked her in confusion.
"Yes, my little one. Or rather, Luna knew that he would," Celestia said as Luna stepped forward. "With her ability to enter the memories and dreams, she can tell what a pony is like due to their past and what they dream about."
"But it was a bit different with Bubbles," Luna began as she walked down the steps toward the Big Daddy, who watched her closely as she approached him. "His past had been completely wiped from his mind, leaving only the programming that the humans had placed within him to make his personality. But that is where I came to see that he would return. He cares deeply for you and once I was in his mind I saw that there was no threat that he wouldn't face to keep you safe...with or without plasmid." Dinky smiled up at the Big Daddy as she said this, but then Luna's face took on a more somber expression.
"But that loyalty is not to you alone," she said, gaining back the fillies attention. "He still longs and misses his first little sister, the once that he had defended for years before a human finally got the better of him. Despite the plasmids still being gone, he still cares for her and feels guilty over her death."
"You mean the human killed him," Dinky said sadly as she looked up at him, Luna nodding in response.
"But doesn't he know that she's gone?" Ditzy asked. "I understand what it means to lose one that you love, but now that he's free of the plasmid, can't he decide to move on...like I have?"
"He does have the choice to move on, but he doesn't," Luna said before turning back to the other princesses. "However, that is not a talk for today. After discussing with my sister and the princess of Ponyville, we have decided to tell the three of you information that we have kept quiet for as long as we have been in rule." Dinky and Ditzy looked at each other nervously while Bubbles continued to look ahead at the princesses. Before they could speak, the doors to the throne room opened once again and a certain mare staggered inside of the room.
"Hey...brass ass...why'd you go and leave me passed out there?" she slurred as she stumbled into the room. "Yeah, it's not the first time it's happened, but it was still rude all the same." Berry then noticed that he was standing next to Dinky and Ditzy, a smile spreading across her drunken face as she put the pieces together. "So, I guess my words did manage to strike a chord with you after all. Glad to see that your feelings were your own." Bubbles ignored her as Celestia left her throne and walked down to the group, motioning for them to follow her as she walked out of the room. Berry collapsed when she tried to walk out and Ditzy lifted her sister onto her shoulders, helping her out as the four walked out of the room. Luna and Twilight followed closely behind them, as they headed deep into the castles basement.
"Where are we going princess?" Twilight asked Celestia as they descended into a dark section of the castle that Twilight had not been into.
"We are heading to the science wing," she responded as they reached a large chamber where a number of ponies in lab coats were doing multiple tests or experiments, some of them being done on very weird looking devices. "This is where we explore all of the more interesting inventions made throughout equestrian history. Some of these items were created by Star-Swirl himself." Twilight's eyes grew huge at these words, but Bubbles eyes were locked onto a single item that sat in the center of the room.
"I figured that would interest you, Bubbles," Celestia said as she walked over to the machine, the ponies studying it backing away while slightly bowing and allowing the princesses to get closer to the machine. It was a goldish color and had a strong lock on the front door with a small window that allowed Bubbles to see into a red leather room on the inside. He let out a snarl as he figured what it was.
"Princess, what is this?" Dinky asked as she looked over the machine.
"This is what we've come to know as a Bathysphere," Luna said, smiling slightly when Bubbles let out a moan at the name. "This was what the humans used long ago to explore the sea. It is in bad shape and we cannot get it working, but we know how it works to some extent and some of the materials used to make it have interested us. But until recently, it was just a piece of manmade tech."
"What happened princesses to make it so interesting?" Twilight asked as she looked over the machine with interest.
"He showed up." All of the ponies looked to Bubbles, who continued to gaze at the bathysphere with memories coming back to him, ones that he didn't like to see. "My sister and I compared the material of the sphere to the material that Bubbles wears and we found that it is exactly the same, designed to withstand the pressure at the bottom of an ocean."
"Wait, are you saying that Bubbles and this sphere came from the same place?" Berry asked, having recovered some of her sense.
"That is exactly what we are implying," Luna said as she looked at the sphere. "And thanks to Bubbles, we now know of what that place was called. Rapture."
"What's Rapture?" Dinky asked.
"Rapture was a city that the humans built at the bottom of a great ocean," Celestia explained, causing all of the ponies to gasp. "I admit, I did not think it was possible for the humans to do this either until Luna shared with me some of Bubbles memories with me. He was a protector of his little sister in the city of Rapture, even once it had fallen into chaos."
"Wait a minutes, this could be the biggest find since the ruins of Atlantis!" Twilight exclaimed as she looked up at her mentor with excitement in her eyes. "There have only bee traces of human cities for the longest time, but one at the bottom of the ocean might be where it remained untouched by time! We need to get looking immediately!"
"Calm yourself Twilight, I am fully aware of that fact, but my sister and I have already tried," Luna said calmly. "But the seas have risen since the time of humans and the city was at the bottom of the sea in their time, which means it is even deeper down now. Not even our magic can withstand that much pressure and even if it could we have no idea where to look. We had no idea it was called Rapture, but do to legend we were vaguely aware of a sunken human city. But without somepony who knows exactly where it lays, we cannot find it."
"What about Bubbles?" Dinky asked. "He lived down there and maybe he knows where it is?"
"That would work if his memories of his time as a regular human weren't all but erased," Luna said with a shake of her head. "I could barely look at the memories of who he was before a Big Daddy and even then they were shaky. Any further than then and I doubt I would see anything. And he does not care for Rapture any more now that he has found you."
"So we're just going to give up on one of the greatest finds in all of Equestria?!" Twilight practically shrieked, not being able to fathom the idea. "Think of all the items that could be down there! The technology, the art...the books!" Celestia chuckled to herself at her former student’s words before looking around the room.
"We have ponies out looking for anything that might lead to Rapture, but we don't expect to find anything for a few lifetimes," she said before looking at Bubbles with a look of interest. "At least, that's what we thought a month ago."
"So why show us this?" Ditzy asked as she looked around the room.
"Because you now have within your family a piece of the forgotten human culture, something that many ponies who study the past would love to have," Luna said. "And we wished to show you so that if the day came that we needed his assistance, you would know why. My sister and I found out the hard way long ago that not preparing for the future ends badly for everypony."
"Then what are we supposed to do while waiting for the call that may never come?" Dinky asked.
"That is simple my young one. Go and live your life, enjoy spending time with your family," Celestia said as she began to lead the ponies out of the chamber. "And try to show the new Bubbles to the ponies of Ponyville. They need to know that he is not a monster to be feared." Dinky and the others began to follow Celestia, all except for Bubbles, who continued to gaze at the sphere from his past.
'A man chooses. A slave obeys.'
Bubbles let out an angry moan as those words echoed through his head as he turned to leave, knowing that he was no longer a slave to any man. And he would never be ever again.
===K>
Dinky and her family took the train back to Ponyville, the sun setting behind them as they slowly rode the rails to their city. They had a bit of trouble getting onto the train since the conductor refused to let the Big Daddy onto the train until both of the princesses had vouched for the tin daddy and even then he only let them sit at the back of the train.
"Ugh, I'm not looking forward to school tomorrow," Dinky said with a small yawn as she gazed out the window at the forest below her. Bubbles sat beside her on the floor, having broken two of the benches in the trains already. "I haven't done any of my homework due to all the Bubbles problems. Cheerilee's going to have me in at recess for a year."
"I'm sure my sister will understand," Berry said from underneath her pillow of ice packs. "And if she doesn't, do you really think that she'll say no to you with Mr. Bubbles standing over you? I know my sister and she has always had a fear of monsters since she was little."
"Berry, we're trying to show that Bubbles isn't a monster anymore," Ditzy said with a groan, tired of having to be the responsible one all the time. "And Dinky, I'll stay up late with you tonight to get your work done."
"But you have work in the morning and your boss says you're already on thin ice," Dinky said with concern, making Ditzy wonder how her daughter knew all of this. "It's okay; I can get it done on my own."
"Will it be pass worthy?" Ditzy asked, knowing her daughter all too well. Dinky avoided her mother’s eyes while whistling to herself, causing Ditzy to sigh as she placed a hoof into her face. "I don't suppose that you know how to do fourth grade math, do you Bubbles?" Bubbles let out a moan that she figured meant no and sighed as she sunk into her chair.
"Keep it down sis, the voices hurt," Berry muttered out from under her ice pillow. "Anypony got a drink?"
"For the last time, alcohol is not what you want when you have a hangover," Ditzy said with a growl.
"Of course it is. Makes the pain in my head go away." Ditzy and Berry began to argue amongst themselves while Dinky looked at the both of them with loving smiles, before giving Bubbles the same smile.
'I love my family,' she thought to herself as she let out another small yawn and curled up on her chair, the soft snores that came from her a moment later let Bubbles know that she was asleep. He gently picked her up without waking her and placed her in his arm, watching her as she slept.
"Attention passengers, we've reached out destination," a voice over the intercom said. "All who are getting out at Ponyville need to get out now." Ditzy had to help Berry off of the train while Bubbles destroyed one of the doors onto the train as he exited, the conductor growling as he left. Bubbles picked up the staggering drunk and placed her on top of his head, walking alongside Ditzy in silence as darkness began to descend upon the land.
"Thank you," she said, causing Bubbles to move his body to het here within most of his eyes. "For coming back. I know this might not mean much to you, but Dinky never knew her father and she's had to live without one all her life. And with me trying to provide for the both of us, I haven't really thought about dating or being with Dinky as much as I should. But you filled the role for her perfectly and now...she has the father she so desperately needed." The four of them had reached Ditzy's home and they all entered, Bubbles dropping Berry on the couch before gently giving Dinky to Ditzy.
"And as much as I hate to admit it, you're part of this small family now," she said with a smile as she placed her daughter on her back and walked up the stairs. "Big Daddy." Bubbles sat down in the corner he had generally sat in whenever he rested for the night and looked out through the window across the land with questions. How did a bathysphere survive all these years and did it have a connection to why he was seeing his little sister again? And why did he have the suspicion that Rapture wasn't as dead as the ponies implied it was?
He let out a small moan before leaning up against the wall, dimming his eyes slightly as he rested, needing to be at his best for when Dinky needed him.