//------------------------------// // Surfaced Past // Story: Me and Mr. B // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// Dinky was woken early the morning a few days after the party by a loud knocking at the door, one that caused her to fall out of bed and walk down the stairs still half-asleep. She grumbled about it being way too early for this as walked by Bubbles, who stood up to follow her to the door, which she opened to see the princess of the day and the princess of the night both standing there. "Luna...Celestia?" she grumbled tiredly as she rubbed her eyes, looking at the two serious faces before moving to the side to let them in. "What brings you here so early? Or in Luna's case, so late?" "Remember when we told you that we had found something very important? The building?" Celestia asked with airs of worry as Ditzy walked down the stairs to see what all the commotion was, before she rushed to the kitchen to grab the princesses something to drink. "Well we now know what is in it. Near the city of Mareiland, about fifty kilometers north of the city, there was a building full of splicers. Since we have...dealt with them, we now need your help. Care to guess what's inside?" "Is it another Big Daddy, because I only want this one," she said with a yawn, still not fully awake. Luna smiled at the little one before getting up to go help Ditzy with the drinks, allowing Celestia to finish what she was saying. "No. It was filled with items," Celestia said, still not getting much of a reaction from the sleepy filly. "Items from Rapture." That snapped Dinky out of her sleepy state and both her eyes widened in shock as the news hit her, with even Bubbles giving Celestia a stunned moan. "We do not know when it surfaced, but Luna says the designs on it match the buildings she saw within Bubbles mind. Plus, certain parts of the building look like something we have in the book on Big Daddies, so we are certain that this building came from Rapture." "How can this be?" Dinky asked herself before looking up at the princess. "And you have a book on Big Daddies and you didn't tell the only filly with a Big Daddy?" Celestia thought that she might have made Dinky mad at her, but the filly then smiled at the princess with excitement. "Can I see it when you're done with it?" "Maybe another time," Luna said as she and Ditzy both came into the living room, Luna carrying the drinks despite Ditzy's protests. "Right now though, there is something more important that we need to talk to you about. In the building, there is a door that is locked insanely well, so well that our magic cannot force it open or blow it apart." "So what could I possibly...oh, you want Bubbles to see if he can get through it," Dinky said with realization as she looked up at him. "Yeah, I think he could do it. I'm free today anyway." "You have school," Ditzy reminded her, causing Dinky to grumble while the princesses looked to the mother. "This is a matter of great importance. I am certain she could miss a day," Luna suggested. Now it was Ditzy's turn to grumble, but she didn't want to go against the princesses...and she knew that Bubbles might be the only way in to get whatever was in there. "How important are we talking about here?" she asked the princesses. "Remember the Big Daddy that attacked town the other day" Celestia asked, waiting for her to nod before continuing. "There could be hundreds of those in the city of Rapture. We need to get down there and stop them." Ditzy sighed and figured that there was no point in try to stop Dinky, since she was the only one Bubble's completely listened to. "Alright, just bring them back before dinner," Ditzy said with a defeated look, putting her drink down and heading back up the stairs. "I'm going to bed and sleeping this off like a bad dream. Bubbles, keep her safe." Bubbles let out an assuring moan as Dinky and the princesses all got to their hooves, Dinky bouncing for the exit with Bubbles right behind her. "Alright Dinky, hop on," Luna said as she knelt down so that Dinky could hop onto her back. "You're going to be flying with royalty today." Dinky let out a squeal as she hopped onto Luna's back, which turned Bubbles eyes yellow as Celestia out a barrier around him to carry him. "Alright then, let's go!" The four of them took to the skies, with Dinky yelling with excitement as they flew off. ===K> "It's much bigger than I expected," Dinky said with awe as she looked at the outside of the building. Once the group had landed, Celestia had released Bubbles from the bubble and he had immediately taken Dinky off of Luna's back and placed her on top of his head. A number of guards had been stationed around the building, but they parted once the princesses walked by and straight up backed away when Bubbles walked by. "This is the entrance," Luna said as they walked up to a sigh that said welcome. Despite having washed up on shore, the building was miraculously staying up right. The four entered and Luna told them to expect the worse, which only took a few seconds for Dinky to see why. There were bodies of what she assumed were humans everywhere, some of them looking like they had been ripped apart. "This is the way to the door. Please do not fall behind." Dinky looked around in both horror and amazement as she looked around the rooms they walked through, seeing all of the interesting things that humans had created back in their time. Then to her surprise she saw a dead Big Daddy lying in a puddle, its eyes having gone out. "Is that what happened to you?" she asked Bubbles, who said nothing as he walked right by it without any indication of caring. Luna walked the three to a door that was much larger than the others they had seen and looked to be reinforced heavily. "This is the door," she said as she banged her hoof on it. "Can you open it with your drill? Maybe one of those plasmids?" Bubbles looked at the door for a few seconds before he walked to the side and knelt down next to a small box on the wall, tearing the cover off of it to show a number of small tubes. He fiddled with those for a few minutes, occasionally getting zapped, before he stood back up with a moan of approval as the giant door swung back. "How did you do that?" Celestia asked him as he walked by her and into the room, looking around it to see that it was a command center of sorts. The ponies followed him in, but they were so engrossed by the room that they never saw Bubbles turn to leave, not that they would have been able to stop him from following the yellow haired girl. Celestia had been investigating a machine that dispensed drinks when a crackling could be heard and a suave voice could be heard in the room. "Hello...horses," it said to them with no warmth in the voice. "Finally I am able to speak with the creatures that now...temporarily...rule this land." "Who are?" Luna asked as she scanned the room. "By now you are probably trying to talk to me, but this is only a recording that I set up in here when I...decided that I no longer needed this buildings or the splicers inside," the voice continued on, Celestia and the others listening carefully in case there was more than just a voice. "I set up this recording to tell you that your time is limited. Humanity will soon take back what belongs to them." "Does he mean the surface?" Luna asked Celestia, who shushed her as the voice started talking again. "You might be wondering how we have survived these thousands of years and I while I normally don't speak to the dead...I have spent most of my time down here being lied to and I will tell you the truth, not that it matters. You see, thanks to a certain wench with powers to ignore all rules of reality, I obtained a plasmid that allowed me to freeze my city, my utopia in time while the irradiated world above burned, waiting for the right time to strike. And all I had to do was give her one man's head. I have sent my spies to the surface and I have seen your best, so I do not expect a length battle. The rest of the splicers in the city are under my rule now. As well as the Big Daddies down here, what few that remain. Did you enjoy the one I sent you?" The voice began to chuckle slightly at the statement. "Soon my forces will swarm your shores, taking back the land that our fathers foolishly abandoned for this sunken death trap. If you are wondering why I have told you this, it is because we have developed new weapons to fight against your magic and my splicers are many. Do not worry though; I will make sure that all of you are...taken care of. You have my word. And Ryan never breaks his word. Farewell." The voice cut out there, leaving three dumbstruck ponies sitting in the center of a silent room. "He means to start a war with us," Luna whispered to her sister, who nodded with fear as well. "But just Mr. Bubbles alone was enough to fend off you and me. How are we supposed to defeat an army of them?" "I do not believe that the others are like Bubbles," Celestia said with a grim face as she stood up. "But we must head back to Canterlot and summon Twilight. Quickly." Bubbles on the other hand had heard none of what was going on, but he had followed the little girl to a small room with two beds and drawings of little Big Daddies all over it. On one of these beds sat a little girl with yellow hair, who looked up at the Big Daddy as he entered. 'It's almost time to come home Mr. Bubbles,' she said to him with a smile. He reached out his hand to touch her, but then he remembered what happened the last time he did and hesitated. The little girl smiled at this and jumped off the bed, running to the window that showed the sea. 'It's almost time to be with me again. All you have to do now is find your way back to the city.' Bubbles let out a moan and she turned around with another smile. 'Oh don't worry Mr. B., getting back to the city is easy. As easy as taking a bath.' Bubbles wondered what she meant before she took off running again, making him chase after her. He quickly found that she had vanished again, leaving him alone until the ponies found him. "Sightseeing or looking over your old home?" Celestia asked him as she placed him in the bubble again. "Now is not the time for that. Now, we are at war." ===K> "Are you sure that we are at war, princess?" Twilight asked with worry as she looked at Celestia from across the table in the room filled with the human tech. This is where the ponies had gathered after they had returned from Mareiland and Celestia had told her everything that had been learned while they were in the building. "Certain," Celestia said in her most serious tone, eliminating any thoughts to the contrary. "The voice spoke to us directly and while it may have been a recording, there was no mistaken that it was recent." "So what do we do then?" Twilight asked. "We're going to attack right? Strike first and all that." "We would, but there are two problems," Celestia said with a sigh, a sigh of a pony who had been in this situation before. "The first is that we do not know where the city is to strike. It could be anywhere in the entire ocean and by the time we find it the splicers could be already at our door." Bubbles looked around the room before his eight eyes rested on the bathysphere and then he knew what his little sister had meant by taking a bath. He walked over to it and slammed his drill onto it, gaining himself the attention of all the ponies in the room. "What's the matter Mr. Bubbles?" Dinky asked as she walked over to him. Bubbles hit the sphere again and then walked over to the map Celestia had placed on the table, driving his drill into the center of the ocean. "What is he saying?" Twilight asked as Luna's eyes widened in shock. "He's saying that the sphere can take us to Rapture," she deduced as Bubbles moaned in approval. "But we could never get it to work...right; the newer one might be able to return." "Alright, that obstacle out of the way, so what's the other one?" Twilight asked, causing Celestia to sigh. "The splicers are far too gone to be reasoned with," Luna said for her sister. "I fought one and tried to enter its mind...and it was gone. All it was concerned about was Adam. Not lives, not what it had to do to get it. Only Adam. What my sister is trying to say is that they are too dangerous to leave alive. That they have to be-" "That is not what I am suggesting," Celestia said in her defense, but Luna gave her a look before levitating an item out of the tech that had been recovered. "Then why did you ask this to be brought to us?" Luna asked her, pointing at the small item. "You know that this is one of our most powerful weapons and could probably wipe out Rapture completely. With it they would lose the war before starting it." "You're talking about wiping out a species," Celestia said. "We do not have the authority to do that!" "We've done it before," Luna reminded her calmly. "And these ones will be even worse." "That was different! Those were monsters that only sought to wipe us out!" Celestia yelled back, before she realized what Luna was telling her. "Still, these are sentient beings. As rulers, we should only have to do this as a last resort and I will not be the one to-" Bubbles slammed his fist onto the table to interrupt the princesses, all of whom turned to him as he paced his hand on the weapon. He had been listening long enough and had sided with the one called Luna. Celestia figured at what he was suggesting, but she still couldn't believe it. "Are you certain about this Bubbles?" she asked him. "This is your race. If you do this, the last of them could be completely wiped out. Can you do this?" Bubbles looked from her to Dinky at his side and knew that it was no choice at all. Celestia saw how he was looking at Dinky and knew what he was thinking. "Very well. But only if you are certain. I will have my scientist repair the bathysphere and then the three of us will..." Bubbles growled at her and pointed to himself, telling her that he would do it alone. "Very well." "I will escort you out of here," Luna said as she walked Dinky and Bubbles out of the room, leaving Twilight with Celestia. "My sister hates to do this. When we were just young rulers a species that consumed everything in their path attacked the land. They could not be reasoned with and would only stop if killed. It broke my sister’s heart, but it was the only way to stop them...just like now." "It's sad about what happened to the humans," Dinky said. "But aren't there at least some that might be nice?" "I'm fairly certain that the only nice one left is standing next to you," Luna replied. "But if there are, they were probably killed by the splicers long ago. And the splicers cannot be reasoned with; they only seek Adam and will wipe out everything in their path to get it. That is probably how Ryan managed to get them on his side, by bribing them." Luna placed Dinky on her back before placing Bubbles within a sphere and flew them back to Ponyville, looking up at the noon sun, amazed at how fast the day had gone. "Get some sleep. We will come for Bubbles when we are ready." She took off as she said this, leaving Dinky and Bubbles to enter the empty house alone. Dinky lay down on the couch and Bubbles sat down beside her, where she crawled onto his lap with a sigh. "I wish we didn't have to do this," she said sadly. "But you've fought the splicers before, so I guess if anypony knows how dangerous they are, it would be you. Are you going to be okay going down there alone?" Bubbles let out a moan to comfort her and placed his hand on her head, gently ruffling her mane. Dinky closed her eyes while Bubbles looked off into the distance, knowing why he had to do this alone. He had to see her again.