//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: Bioshock Equestria // by Dawn Flower //------------------------------// Chapter 4 Shining Armor and Twilight were now standing directly in front of the Canterlot Prison. The atmosphere was eerily quiet. The Canterlot Prison is very isolated from the rest of the city. The prison is situated on top of a plateau, built into the side of the mountain, high above the city below. The palace is directly across from the prison area, on the other side of the city, on top of another raised platform, above the rest of the city. From up on the high plateau, you can see the entire city between them. The prison area consists of the building itself, the gondola station that connects the prison to the rest of the city and a small stairway that connects the two. The prison itself is just one big building. The prisoners are all held in cells, where they stay all day long. Their meals are brought to their cells and there isn’t any exercise yard for the prisoners to go out into during the day. The prisoners here never leave their cells. Shining Armor opened the door to the prison and they both stepped inside. --- Shining Armor and Twilight were now inside the Canterlot Prison. Shining Armor looked around at his new surroundings. The prison was quite dark, with only faint streams of light, filtered in through the windows. The prison consists mostly of one massive room that makes up most of the building. Just to their right, there was a steel, ridged gate to a small room on the other side. The gate is locked down right now and it looked like it opened up somewhere else. Just ahead of them, the walls on either side of the massive room jutted out from the wall, which is where the prison cells were located. The prison cells were built into the walls and were lined up in rows of ten. There is about fifty feet separating the sets of cells on both sides of the room. There are five different levels of cells on either side, built on top of each other. On the upper levels, both sets of cells are connected by two steel walkways between them, at the front and back of the line of cells. At the back of the room, there is a small set of metal stairs that lead up to the steel walkways and the higher levels of the building. Directly across from where the two of them were standing, at the very top of the room, was the warden’s office, which overlooked the entire prison. As Shining Armor was looking around the room, he was suddenly interrupted by somepony calling out to him. “Captain?!” Shining Armor snapped back and looked over to the first cell on his right and he saw a unicorn motioning to him with his hoof, through the bars of his cell, to come over to him. Shining Armor quickly galloped over to him, with Twilight following close behind him. When they were both standing in front of the cell, Shining Armor got a good look at the pony who had called him over. This pony was one of his unicorn guards. He was the exact opposite of Celestia’s guards. Whereas Celestia’s guards are all white pegasi, Shining Armor’s guards were black unicorns. They wore the same gold helmet, boots and armor with the blue star shaped gem on the front as the pegasus guards did, but the hairstyle on their helmets and tails was white instead of blue. The guard’s facial expression was also less stoic than the pegasus guards. He also looked slightly confused at seeing Shining Armor. When Shining Armor was directly in front of him, the guard snapped out of his confused state and gave him a salute. Shining Armor saluted back to him and stated simply, “At ease soldier.” He then lowered his hoof again. “What’s the situation?” The unicorn guard then lowered his own hoof and took a breath before he proceeded to speak. “Sir, the situation here in Canterlot is critical. Our oaths to protect the ponies of Equestria are in jeopardy. Princess Celestia’s orders now include ordering us to attack civilians. Many of us still remain loyal to you and your teachings. We refused to carry out those orders given to us, and for that, we have been locked up.” After the guard was finished speaking, Shining Armor quickly looked behind him and he noticed that several of the cells were empty. He then turned back around and asked this guard why this was so. The unicorn guard responded, “Sir, Strong Steed has taken control of the prison. He has released all of the soldiers that were in his division, but kept the rest of us locked up.” Shining Armor’s eyes went wide and he took a step back at the mention of that name. That was a name he was not expecting to hear again. Before he could think about this further, there was suddenly a noise over a loud speaker that seemed to be coming from everywhere. “That’s right, Shining Armor,” the voice said over the prisons intercom. It had been years since he had last heard that voice, and it sounded a bit muffled over the intercom, but Shining Armor still recognised it immediately. “Strong Steed!” he shouted out to nowhere in particular. Strong Steed continued to talk over the loud speaker. “So, you still remember my name? Not many ponies in all of Equestria can still say that; even after all I have risked and lost for them.” “Strong Steed. I just want to free my guards and take them with me.” “And I shall give you what you want, Shining Armor. But only after you have given me and my men what we want.” Shining Armor winced for a moment, trying to wonder what that means. “Celestia’s puppets are coming for us, but we will not die or be taken prisoner by the likes of them; not after everything they have done. YOU are going to give them the deaths that they deserve.” Shining Armor barked back at him. “I have no quarrel with these men. I don’t want to kill them.” “You don’t have a choice if you want to free your guards. My soldiers are going to be coming for you, and I have given them an ultimatum: Either die at the hooves of a mindless puppet, OR A REAL SOLDIER!” The transmission cut off, and suddenly, the steel door over on the right opened up and three soldiers came running out. The soldiers were all grey earth ponies with short black manes. They were all clod in grey, light armor, which provided better speed and manoeuvrability at the expense of protection. They all immediately charged at them, two of them clutching steel swords in their teeth, the other wielding a bow. As soon as they began charging towards them, Twilight immediately ran behind Shining Armor to get out of the way. Shining Armor turned around to face them and he immediately summoned power into his horn. His horn began crackling with blue electricity and he quickly shot a bolt of blue electricity at the approaching earth pony guards, hitting two of them. His horn then began glowing in a pink aura and he shot a magical bullet at one of the two guards, killing him instantly. Before he was able to do the same thing to the other guard he hit, the one that he missed had loaded an arrow and fired it at him, dealing some damage. Shining Armor winced in pain as the arrow hit him; however, he remained standing on four hooves. Shining Armor turned to face him. He then charged up a fire ball in his mouth and quickly shot three of them at the pony, roasting him alive. He then turned back to face the one remaining pony, who had managed to recover from being shocked; however, before he could move, Shining Armor shot lightning at him to stun him again. Shining Armor’s quartz supply was running dangerously low now. “Shining Armor, I found some geodes,” Twilight called out from behind him. He turned around to face her and she threw a jar of geodes at him. Shining Armor reached out with his hoof and grabbed it. “Thanks.” He then very quickly used his unicorn magic to take the lid off, raised the jar up and swallowed the contents. He then turned back around to face the stunned earth pony and quickly fired a single magic bolt at the exposed part on his head, just under his helmet. He died instantly. As soon as the three ponies were defeated, there came a noise from the loud speakers again. “You see that, little filly? That’s what a real soldier is like. You don’t have to give him orders and expect him to blindly obey; just put him in a life or death situation and he’ll do whatever it takes to survive. They don’t make soldiers like him anymore. That’s what a real soldier is like. Remember the Battle of the Hive, Captain?” Shining Armor barked back at the voice that was coming from all around them. “Strong Steed! I don’t want to fight these ponies! I just want to free my men and get out of here!” “And I will give you what you want; but first you’ll have to give me what I want. Come; find me in the warden’s office. Let’s finish this.” As soon as the transmission cut off again, Shining Armor immediately turned towards the back of the prison, and he and Twilight started walking along, in front of the cells on the right side of the room, making their way over to the narrow, metal stairway that led up to the next level. Twilight was walking behind Shining Armor, her face a mixture of different emotions. She then suddenly decided to speak up. “Shining Armor? What’s all of this about? Who was that pony talking over the intercom just now? What was ‘The Battle of the Hive’?” Shining Armor glanced back at Twilight as they made their way along. He gave an exasperated sigh before speaking. “It all happened about ten years ago, during the changeling’s first invasion of Equestria. They had established a hive in the west, just passed Los Pegasus, and they had foalnapped a lot of innocent ponies.” Twilight had a confused look on her face after hearing his explanation. “That’s so strange. I studied everything there is to know about Equestria’s history, and I never heard anything about that.” “You wouldn’t have,” Shining Armor responded immediately. “The whole thing involved a lot more bloodshed than Equestria’s used to. So, Celestia decided that the whole thing would be covered up. Soldiers from every branch of the military were sent in to attack the hive; I led the unicorns, Wedge led the pegasi and Strong Steed led the earth ponies. Every soldier was sworn to secrecy, and we were forced to kill every living thing in the hive…” Shining Armor let out a brief sigh. “… And that included captured ponies.” Twilight visibly recoiled in horror at what she had just heard. “That’s awful.” “Orders were orders.” Twilight simply scoffed at the response. “And you think that justifies the murder of innocent ponies?” she stated bluntly, her angry expression deepening. Shining Armor kept walking forward as he spoke, his serious expression not falling for a second. “When orders come down from the ruler of the country, you don’t get to speak out against them. You don’t question orders, you simply follow them. That’s what it means to be a soldier.” Twilight harrumphed. “And I suppose everypony was rewarded handsomely?” She asked in a sarcastic tone. “Yeah, that’s right. After the battle, Wedge became Celestia’s personal bodyguard, and I became Captain of the Royal Guard.” “What about Strong Steed?” she asked; her angry expression had fallen, and now she was legitimately wondering. “He suffered serious injuries in the battle, and since the whole operation was covered up, he was removed from active service and stripped of his rank as Captain. Nopony heard from him after that.” Just as Shining Armor and Twilight were approaching the stairs, a door just up the stairs and to the right suddenly opened and two more earth ponies came running out. One of them stopped at the top of the stairs and aimed a bow and arrow at him, while the other marched down the stairs, clutching a spear in his teeth. Shining Armor quickly snapped back into his fighting position, and focused on the pony coming right at him. He quickly charged up electricity in his horn and fired a bolt of lightning at him. At the same time as this pony was struck by a bolt of electricity, the other pony had shot Shining Armor in the side with an arrow. Shining Armor moved just in time to have the arrow graze his side instead of piercing him. He elicited a grunt of pain, but he tried his best to ignore it. He then activated his horn again and it began glowing in a pink aura. He then fired a beam of magical energy at the stunned earth pony and killed him. He then quickly turned to face the other pony, who was reloading another arrow. Shining Armor quickly opened his mouth and fired three fireballs at him, killing him. His scorched body then fell backwards, over the railing, on to the ground just ahead of them. When they were both dead, Shining Armor quickly charged up the stairs, turned right and entered the room that the two earth pony guards had come from. He was now in another small room filled with big crates. Another earth pony poked his head up from behind one of the crates and quickly fired an arrow at Shining Armor. He caught him off guard, and he was hit square in the chest, again causing him to grunt in pain. Shining Armor’s horn began glowing pink again, however, the earth pony quickly ducked back behind the crates before he could fire. Shining Armor was now feeling a bit weak and he fell down a little on his left side, but he remained standing on all four hooves. He then ducked behind a crate on his left and pulled the arrow out of his chest. The wound wasn’t that deep, and it only bled a little. Twilight finally caught up with him and knelt down beside him. Shining Armor’s horn started crackling with electricity and he poked his head up again. The earth pony across the room also poked his head out, but before he could fire another arrow, Shining Armor released the electricity that he had been storing and hit him square in the face. He then immediately fired another magic bullet and killed him while he was stunned. Shining Armor then stepped out from behind the crate and took a quick look around the small room to make sure that there weren’t any more soldiers. “I found some more geodes,” Twilight called out from behind him. He turned back around and she threw the bottle of geodes to him. He grabbed it and quickly replenished his quartz supply. Shining Armor then turned back around and decided to search the room for anything else that he could use. The room was incredibly cramped and full of large crates. All of the crates were sealed shut except for one. Shining Armor trotted over to it and looked inside. The only thing of value that he could find was a recording crystal. Shining Armor picked it up and played it as he made his way back out of the room. Strong Steed Princesses I was just contacted by Princess Luna. Apparently she has now turned against her sister and become an enemy of the state. She’s sticking up for the pegasi, saying that all ponies deserve equal rights and that there shouldn’t be any fighting, and yet she has already allied with the Shadowbolts, and is now outright defying her sister’s own military in open combat. She’s still lacking in a proper army and simply needs more bodies in order to rival her sister; and she thought that with how much I despise her sister, that I would just hoof her the lives of my men, to use as pawns to further her own goals. How stupid could one pony possibly be? A princess even? I’m not surprised though; they’re all alike. Luna tries to pretend that she’s different from her sister and simply wants peace and equality for everypony, but in truth, she’s no different from her sister. She simply wants her out of the way so that she can be on top. She is a politician after all; she’s well versed in manipulating others and telling them what they want to hear in order to sway them. She’s even had over a thousand years in order to perfect her skills; and yet she’s still being so blatantly obvious that it hurts. But she can’t fool me; I can see right through her deceptions. When it comes down to it, the only difference between Celestia and Luna is how you spell the name. All of the Princesses are the same. Celestia, Luna, even that new princess that’s in the up and up; they’re all alike. It must be in the wings. Naturally, I told her she could go buck herself. That’s the sad truth of the world we live in: There are no true rulers in this world. When the recording crystal ended, they were walking down the first metal walkway, in the direction of the front door of the prison. To their left, there were the rows of cells for this level of the prison. Some of the cells were empty, while others held more unicorn guards. Suddenly, two earth ponies ran down the stairs from the level above on the walkway on the opposite side of the room. Shining Armor didn’t want to have to use more of his quartz supply; so instead, he simply summoned his unicorn magic into his horn and shot three magical, purple bullets at the enemies on the other side of the room. One of the bullets that he shot had missed, but the other two struck one of the two earth ponies, the force of the blow knocking him over the railing, on to the ground below. The force of the blow and the fall caused him to die as soon as he hit the ground. The other earth pony stopped and shot an arrow right at Shining Armor. Shining Armor quickly tilted his head to the side at the last moment and avoided the attack. He then summoned magic into his horn again and shot at him three times. Every shot hit him and he fell over dead. Shining Armor was now feeling very weak after using up so much energy. He continued walking along the walkway and made to the end and turned to walk over to the walkway on the other side of the room so that he could go up to the next level. Shining Armor looked over at the cells on the other side of the second level of the prison. Most of the cells held his unicorn guards; ponies that he had fought alongside with before. Several of the cells were empty, most likely belonging to the earth pony guards that Strong Steed had released. They were from his division after all, so they were still loyal to him, even after Celestia had stripped him of his rank; just like Shining Armor’s unicorn guards were still loyal to him, and Wedge’s pegasi were still loyal to him. Loyalty is a funny thing sometimes. Loyalty may be an Element of Harmony, but it can also be dangerous if it’s just blindly followed. Twilight looked ahead at Shining Armor, with a worried expression on her face. He was looking very weak and she hated seeing him like this. She then looked around, trying to find something to help him get his strength back, though she wasn’t really expecting to find anything like that just lying on a steel walkway in the middle of a prison. It was just wishful thinking; nevertheless, she continued looking. Suddenly, there was a crackle over the loud speaker and Strong Steed started to speak again. “Do you see how these soldiers fight Shining Armor? They fight using nothing but their bare hooves and the tools that they create themselves. These earth ponies are real soldiers. They are born without magic, they fight without magic and they die without magic. These ‘Quartz’s’; this special magic that anypony can use is just another machination of the tyrant Celestia and her puppets. We will fight without her help just as we always have. Celestia may be the one who points the army and shoots, but she has never actually fought on the front lines like we have. She knows nothing of fighting for honour and death.” Shining Armor just yelled out at him. “Strong Steed! I don’t have any reason to fight these ponies. Just release my guards and I’ll leave with them.” “Reason? A reason to kill someone is just an order to carry out like a mindless puppet. That’s what Celestia is doing to these ponies. She is taking away their ability to think for themselves. That’s what makes you and I so different, Shining Armor. We kill to survive, not because we’re told to; the way a pony should act, and to Tartarus with how we are told we should act.” “I’m nothing like you!” Shining Armor shouted out. “Oh, no?” Shining Armor turned to look up at the warden’s office, where Strong Steed was watching from. He then opened the window and threw a Molotov cocktail down at him. Shining Armor quickly backed up and just missed as the area in front of him caught on fire. The steel prevented the walkway from catching on fire, and the flames died down quickly. Shining Armor held his hoof to the side to protect Twilight. He then looked back up at the warden’s office, several floors up from where he was. Shining Armor’s eyes narrowed as he caught sight of Strong steed again. The earth pony then withdrew back into the warden’s office again. Shining Armor then faced forward again and rushed up the stairs to the next level of the prison, with Twilight following closely behind him. --- Shining Armor and Twilight continued fighting their way up the steel walkways of the Canterlot Prison. Twilight found plenty of supplies in the open, empty cells to keep her brother strong and rearing to go. Many more earth pony guards attacked them as they made their way up, but Shining Armor cut through all of them. It was just like Strong Steed had described; he needed to survive, so he killed anypony who tried to kill him. Twilight still wasn’t quite sure how she felt about that. When they had reached the fourth floor and all of the guards had been dealt with, Twilight finally asked her brother what she had been thinking about ever since she first saw him kill somepony. “Shining Armor; why do you kill?” Shining Armor turned his head back to face her. “Simple; I don’t want to die.” He then faced forward again and continued making his way along the steel walkway. Twilight hung her head down and simply followed after him, in silence. “Also,” Twilight suddenly perked up. “Because there’s something I have to protect.” After a moment, Twilight smiled a bit and continued walking behind her Big Brother Best Friend Forever. They eventually reached the warden’s office, at the top of the prison. Shining Armor opened the door to the warden’s office and immediately turned to the right. Strong Steed was lying, injured against the control console. He was a very large earth pony, almost twice as big as Shining Armor. He had a dark pink coat and a grey mane and beard. He had multiple scars on his face and all over his body. He was wearing an eye patch and he was also missing a piece of his right ear. He was obviously Shining Armor’s senior by a several decades, and his many wrinkles clearly showed it; however, despite his age, he still looked very strong. He was currently wearing a Captain’s set of military barding that covered up his cutie mark. He had his head down, clutching a big wound across his chest with his right front hoof. Shining Armor walked over to him. When he was standing directly in front of him, he then looked up at the control console and reached out a hoof to open all the cells. Suddenly, Strong Steed woke up and jolted upright. He immediately grabbed Shining Armor by his horn and forced it right up against his forehead. “You’re not done yet, soldier! You have to finish it!” Time seemed to slow down for Shining Armor as he tried to decide what he should do. On the one hoof, Shining Armor didn’t want to kill him and he had no reason to. He has already defeated all of the soldiers in the prison. He can just open up all the cells, free his unicorn guards and leave. Strong Steed is wounded and is too weak to come after him. He also doesn’t want to kill somepony who can’t fight back; that’s just not right. On the other hoof however, Celestia’s guards are on their way here right now to take him prisoner; something he clearly doesn’t want to happen. What should he do? As time seemed to return to normal, Shining Armor suddenly put all of his energy into his head and… He pulled his horn away out of Strong Steed’s grip. Strong Steed immediately shouted back at him, “You’re a puppet now! A PUPPET!” Strong Steed had pulled his hoof away from his open wound when he grabbed Shining Armor’s horn, and after physically exerting himself after screaming at him, he fell over onto his side, clutching his chest in pain. Shining Armor looked down at him briefly and then turned back to face the control console. He walked over to it and pressed the release switch. Shining Armor then stepped up to the window so that he could look out over the entire prison. All of the cells opened up and the unicorn guards all stepped out. Shining Armor turned back around faced Twilight. Her face was currently a mix of emotion, but when he nodded to her that they should leave, she simply nodded back at him. As they were leaving the room, Shining Armor stole one final glance at Strong Steed, as he lay there. He then turned back around and made his way out of the warden’s office. Twilight also glanced back at the earth pony as they left. She didn’t know exactly how to feel about Shining Armor’s decision, given the circumstances, but she was still happy that he had decided to spare his life. She then turned back around and followed her brother out of the warden’s office. Shining Armor and Twilight made their way back down to the ground floor of the prison. All of the unicorn guards had been released from their cells and they had all gathered on the ground floor alongside them. When everypony was together, Shining Armor opened the front door of the prison and they all stepped outside. --- Shining Armor, Twilight and all of the unicorn guards stepped out of the prison one by one. Shining Armor walked over to the edge of the plateau and looked down at the city below in thought, while the rest of the unicorn guards were coming out. After about five seconds, he then looked up into the sky and his eyes immediately widened at what he saw. The sky was filled with dozens of pegasus guards flying towards them. It looks like Celestia’s guards finally managed to catch up. “Sir.” Shining Armor turned back around to face one of his unicorn guards. “You get out of here. You’ve already done enough here. Leave this battle to us.” The unicorn guard then lowered his head and his horn started glowing in a green aura. Shining Armor felt a spell being used against him; however, before he could ask this guard what he had just done or react in any way, the unicorn guard suddenly raised his head again, lifted up his two front hooves and pushed Shining Armor off the edge of the plateau. Shining Armor started falling off the plateau, hurdling towards the city below. The Canterlot prison was becoming smaller and smaller as he fell further down. After about ten seconds of falling, he finally hit the ground. However, strangely, he was not dead and the fall didn’t even hurt him. Shining Armor rolled over on to his stomach and he picked himself up on to his four hooves again. As he stood back up, he tried to figure out how he had just survived that fall. He lifted his front hoof up to his face and he saw that his hoof looked ghostly and ethereal. “What the hell?” He then looked down and saw that his whole body looked that way. After a few seconds of trying to figure out what was going on, he suddenly realised that that unicorn had cast a ‘Become Ethereal’ spell on him so that he would survive the fall. After a few seconds of just staring at, or rather through his hoof, his body returned to normal as the spell wore off. Shining Armor suddenly heard a thump from beside him. He turned his head to see what it was and he saw Twilight lying on her back, in the middle of the street, with an ethereal appearance as well. Shining Armor was glad to see that his sister was safe and with him once again, however, he was also a bit angry at the thought that somepony had just shoved her off a cliff. After a few seconds, the spell wore off and Shining Armor helped her back up on to her hooves again. Twilight rubbed her head and smiled back at him. She then asked, “What do we do now?” Shining Armor looked back up at the prison area, high above them. He was able to make out the figures of ponies fighting. He then turned his head back down, glanced quickly at Twilight and then faced forward again. They were now in the middle of a street with small, stone buildings on each side, and the cliff face of the plateau right behind them. He then looked out at the path in front of them and he was just able to make out the docked airship far off in the distance, behind some buildings. Shining Armor then turned back to face Twilight. “We upheld our end of the deal; now it’s time for Luna to hold up her end. We’ll leave the fighting to the Shadowbolts from here. Let’s just make our way to the airship and leave this city.” Twilight looked back at him, smiled and nodded. “Alright, let’s go.” They then both faced forward and started walking along. To be continued…