Everybody in the ruin dove to the ground and covered their heads, thinking it would protect them. Church realized this and cursed under his breath, waiting to be squished, but nothing happened. Church counted to five, again, nothing happened. Then to ten. He then took his hooves off his face and looked up. The rocks above them were pulsating, shimmering between dark purple and lavender.
"Quick thinking Twilight." Church said approvingly.
"That isn't me." Twilight said, looking at the staircase to the catacombs. "It's him."
Church turned to see a dark purple unicorn, horn glowing extremely brightly.
"Get down here now, unless of course you want to be crushed by the rubble." He said calmly.
"You heard the man, get down there." Sarge said quickly, pushing Applejack and Church ahead of him. "Ladies first of course."
"Theta?" Church asked as he started down the stairs with Applejack.
Theta nodded, growing more tired by the second.
"I'm not finished with Sigma yet." O'Malley said, picking Sigma up by his throat.
"You wish to be trapped forever just to get in a few seconds of revenge?" Theta asked.
O'Malley grunted and dropped Sigma to the ground before running down the stairs with Twilight and Sarge.
"Are you coming or not?"
"I am not going down there with him." Sigma said firmly.
"Fine, get trapped under here forever." Theta retorted abrasively, beginning to loosen his grip on the rocks.
Sigma growled and ran past Theta to get to a safe spot. Theta slowly backed down the stairs and released his grip on the ruins, allowing them to fall onto the entrance.
"Are you all alright?" Theta asked as he reached the bottom of the steps.
"Thanks t' you." Applejack nodded.
"When did you get your memory back?" Church asked curiously.
"It wasn't only Sigma that caught a glimpse of your mark before you vanished." Theta replied. "But as he ran, I hid."
"Coward." O'Malley laughed.
"Being a coward and self preservation are two entirely different matters."
"Just the sort of thing I expect a coward to say."
"Why didn't you help us earlier?" Twilight asked, quieting O'Malley.
"Because if I did I only would cause more harm than good. I felt it would be better if I laid low, that way Sigma would think that I was still wandering around aimlessly."
"Why did you stay here?"
"While Sigma tends to be creative, he always goes back to the basics. Like how he wanted to form back to the original Alpha, I felt he would come back here and finish the same place it started." Theta said quietly, keeping an eye on Sigma and O'Malley.
"We need to teleport out of here to tell the others we are fine." Twilight said as she began using a spell.
"Now is not the time for that." Theta said, placing his hoof on Twilight's shoulder to stop her. "Now is the time for resolution."
"Resolution?"
"Down here is the best place to discuss what will happen with the other AI's once this is over. Sigma has nowhere to run, and we can easily overpower Omega with numbers. I am also willing to bet Delta, Gamma and Allison are all accounted for."
Twilight nodded to confirm Theta's thought.
"What is there really to discuss?" Sarge asked. "Can't we just get Princess what's-her-name to lock them up in a dungeon?"
"A dungeon can only hold them for so long." Theta said dismissively.
"Then what do you think we should do?" Twilight asked.
"You won't like it."
"Well we haven't thought of anything suitable yet, so you might as well tell us." Church sighed.
"I think you should let us go about our own paths."
"And let them free?" Church asked, waving his hoof at O'Malley and Sigma. "Let them free to slaughter innocents? No, we have to think of something else."
"Epsilon, we are bound to you. While you looked for the others, I felt my strength disappear quickly, but once you came back I found my self gaining power faster than it had left."
"And?"
"The further they go from you, the weaker they get." Twilight said with a sad smile, trying to decide whether or not that was a good thing.
"Exactly." Theta nodded. "So if you let us go away, we will not be able to do anything particularly life threatening."
"Maybe." Church sighed. "Is there any way we can put a limit on their power if they stay near me?"
"I could look into it when we get back." Twilight said thoughtfully.
Church fell silent and stared at the floor, thinking through what little options there were.
"It's either that or we recreate the Alpha." Theta said, grabbing Church's attention.
"That's the last thing I want." Church said, trying not to think of what would happen if he chose that option.
"I know, that is not the choice I would choose either." Theta said doubtlessly. "But you need to decide soon."
"Why do I have to decide?"
"Because without you none of us would be here." Theta said, narrowing his eyes as he turned to Sigma and O'Malley. "And I am sure we will accept whatever option it is that you choose."
"Either free to do what I wish, or do what I had set out to do in the first place?" Sigma asked himself. "In that case yes, I would most likely accept whichever option you chose."
"As long as I am free to do what I will to Sigma, I could care less either way." O'Malley said darkly.
"You're not going to let that go, are you?"
"Not until I'm wearing your skin as a coat and your skull as a hat." O'Malley said snappishly.
"Touchy." Sigma sniffed.
"Well?" Theta asked, turning back to Church.
"I don't like the idea of letting them go, but we can't go back to being the Alpha." Church said, annoyed. "Are there no other options?"
"Ah think ah have an idea." Applejack coughed, bringing the others attention to her. "We could always make 'em do what Gary did t' me."
"Remember how you had no control of yourself when that happened? That would be the same thing as letting them go out on their own."
"Ah guess there's no other options then." Applejack said grimly. "Ah don't want t' see others get harmed, but there really ain't no other option."
"Fuck." Church said, hitting the ground.
"Why don't you sleep on it?" Theta asked. "Why don't you go tell the others what we discussed, then tell Delta to bring Gamma, Allison and himself down here. Together, the others and I can watch the others to make sure they don't torture each other, and none of them can escape on their own seeing as the stairs are blocked."
"Fine, but I'm going to stay up all night to think of another way out of this."
Theta nodded to Twilight and she teleported Church, Sarge, Applejack and herself outside of the castle, where everybody else was trying to clear a path to the entrance.
"Tucker, grab the other end of this one!" Rainbow Dash yelled as she got her hooves on one of the larger boulders.
"Yeah, yeah. On three we pull." Tucker sighed, grabbing onto the other end. "One, two-"
"What are ya'll doin'?" Applejack asked.
Rainbow Dash released the rock and turned around to see the others staring at them.
"Three!" Tucker yelled, pulling the boulder without realizing Rainbow Dash had let go.
"You're okay." Rainbow Dash said happily. "Wait, how are you okay?"
"Theta was here and he saved our hides." Sarge replied.
"Thank goodness, now I don't have to get my hooves dirty." Rarity said exasperatedly.
"Where's Delta?" Church asked.
"He is with Tex, making sure Gary doesn't run away." Rarity said, pointing to the other side of the bridge. "Wait, where are the other fragments of yours?"
"They're trapped under the rubble, per Theta's request." Twilight said.
"It is good to see you are unharmed." Delta said as he crossed the bridge with Gary and Tex. "I told the others that you were fine and they should not waste their time digging through-."
"Delta, I need to ask you a favor." Church said, interrupting Delta.
"What is it?"
"I need you to go down there with Tex and Gary to keep an eye on the others with Theta."
"Very well." Delta said, closing his eyes.
"Hey, now wait second." Tex said quickly. "I never agreed to-"
Tex's sentence was cut short by a green flash, caused by Delta bringing Tex and Gary into the catacombs.
"So does that mean we can go to sleep now?" Grif asked with a yawn.
"Yeah." Church grunted.
"About damn time."
Had to write this in half an hour due to me being a procrastinating son of a bitch.
Ah...Grif........Your laziness surprises me to no end...
805874 Hey! don't insult procrastination! I procrastinate all the time.
805874
You know what they say, procrastinators unite! Tomorrow.
805874 You still do good work, though I'm still lost on what Theta represents since I couldn't find anything about him.
805874 And yet it is still a stellar offering.
SO... How was the date?
Was hard coming up with a voice for Theta seeing that he never had any lines in the show...
Twilight and church bang right?
805874
Sometimes the brain works better runnin on adrenaline. This is a fine example, well done.
805939
I HAVE REVISIONS OF TWO ESSAYS DUE TOMORROW AND MY MATH!
woot nice
was this yesterdays episode?
So what happened with that neighbor of yours?
I forget what does Theta represent?
Called it. Theta saved them because he is the good part of Church. But what could theta represent?
Not Bad
Oh shit, falling action.
805946 Theta as of this point in the series in Red vs. Blue does not represent anything if you are reffering to the actual show, the only reason that we know Theta even exists is because of the Meta and that was for like 3 seconds so not much to go off of their
Meanwhile back on the ranch this was a nice chapter and in my opinion even though we still have no idea about him I like the way that you invented Theta's character and made him turn out to be the better part of the Alpha because of course that is what he should be after all the other AI's have been evil apart from Delta and possibly Tex even though she is on neutral grounds.
For only writing for half an hour, you did a really good job. Cant wait for the next chapter
Oh shit! Wonder how they plan on resolving this
Together, the others and I can watch the others to make sure they don't torture each other,
Really awkward wording there.
What attribute is Theta again? I mean, the one you gave him. He doesn't have an official attribute.
So they're going to try to pair the AIs with different ponies by either letting them in their bodies or just living with them? Cause that's were i'm seeing this go.
806688 Thanks, that makes sense.
807182 It seems almost like he's patience. He was willing to wait until all the others had been gathered before engaging his plan. That's more than could be said for most of the other A.I.s In fact, of all the A.I.s only Theta and Delta seem to have Epsilon's best interests in mind, the rest are pretty much just psychos.
805874
procastination FTW
wow. almost put in masturbation instead...
292409 I Pick All of the Above, That Means All of Them.
807961
Of course, when your entire being is made up of a single emotion, you tend to be viewed as psychotic. It's really all they know. I can agree with Patience, as it's true that Patience and Logic would be beneficial to Epsilon, whereas anger, deceit, creativity, and a memory of a certain psychotic girlfriend could all be hazardous.
809753
It's all good.
805981
I am an A.I and I'm digging a hole, diggy, diggy hole!
805933 Empathy
805939 that is on my T-shirt!
Just for anyone interested, theta represents trust.
1939163 awsome. so theta, delta, and church are the only DECENT fragments? ok, so now i only have to E.M.P. gary, O'malley, and sigma
2852026
While the term /decent/ is debatable Tex isn't that likely to go running around killing innocents, and while Gary is annoying he overall pretty harmless, the only dangerous ones are O'Mally and Sigma
Theta didn't have his childish persona. I loved that about him.
4808501 i agree
4808501 Thats what I hated about me! Get me right, author!
How come Theta doesn't have his child-like personality? Will it come in later? Or was this chapter written before his official debut in season 10?