Aftershock
Celestia wiped a tear from her eye as she looked over Ponyville, newly devastated by the completely unanticipated changeling attack. The sun princess knew that the evil Queen Chrysalis would be returning at some point, but not in this fashion and without this sort of brutality. The death toll so far was thirty-seven, mostly ponies that fought back and fell to the might of the invaders. Celestia looked and saw a filly, no older than Scootaloo, the one kidnapped. She was being held back by a Royal Guard as her father's corpse was covered with a sheet and taken away from her. The mother merely sobbed where she sat, unable to do anything else about it. The last fire was put out an hour ago, but the burned buildings and rubble littered the town, changing the feel and look of the town from love and happiness to horror and devastation.
"Guard!" Celestia said suddenly, attracting the attention of one of the guards.
"Yes, Princess?" He replied, giving a quick bow.
"Have any more been found to be slain?"
"Yes, your highness. Two." He said to the princess. "They were...a young couple. Killed in their home." Celestia's heart broke in her chest. A young love extinguished so harshly and so suddenly...they never had a chance to live their lives together. It made the Sun Princess hate the Changeling menace even more.
"And what of Princess Twilight?" Celestia asked.
"We've searched through her library." The guard said. "It is too soon to say, but we're running out of places to look. She hasn't turned up yet."
"If she's not here, then Chrysalis has taken her." Celestia barked. "And in that case, we immediately attack the changelings to get her back."
"But Princess, didn't Chrysalis say that Twilight would turn herself in to save miss Rainbow Dash?" The guard inquired.
"Chrysalis is a master of deception." Celestia responded. "She could still have kidnapped Princess Twilight without us knowing. Keep looking until you are absolutely certain that the princess is not here."
"Yes, your highness." He said, giving a quick salute before running off to resume his search. Luna and Discord flew down from the sky and landed next to Celestia, breathing shallow, quick breaths.
"Sister. The changelings are gone. They just...disappeared." Luna said, raising her eyebrows as if she was still in disbelief.
"How can you just lose a small army of changelings?" Celestia asked her sister, raising an eyebrow. "There's absolutely no trace of them?"
"I trust that you know how strong the noses of my bat-ponies are. They're gone, and you know just as much as I at this point." Luna said.
"Even I don't know where they went." Discord said, raising an eyebrow at Celestia. "Why don't you just take it easy? We did our best, even in the horrible deathly circumstances we were given. You would know all about that."
"I'm not in the mood for your games, Discord!" Celestia said angrily. "Why did you not follow them more quickly?" Celestia said, agitated that her sister failed to follow them.
"At least we tried to do something." Luna said, becoming angry as well as her sister. "You've just stood here and looked at the wreckage. You haven't done a thing." Celestia prepared to rebut, but saw that her sister was hurt by what she had said.
"Luna, I'm sorry." Celestia said. "I didn't mean to snap at you. I'm just...I'm just worried about Twilight."
"Twilight Sparkle is one of the most resourceful mares we've ever known." Luna said comfortingly, laying a hoof on her sister's shoulder. "We will find her. I am sure of it."
The princesses and the Draconequus looked to see thirty Royal Guards struggling greatly to lift the corpse of the dead ursa minor away from the library.
"I'd better go help with that." Discord said as he flew over and employed the help of a small tree to assist with the lifting. The corpse now looked as if it had always been a normal ursa minor. The poor creature had been possessed by the changelings and forced to do the evil Queen's bidding. The copious amounts of blood had formed a rather large puddle. The large holes made by the steel behemoth's drill showing the inside of it's head. Celestia, remembering how easily and brutally the protector slaughtered the bear, felt a chill go up her spine.
"That...creature..." Celestia murmured, barely out of earshot of Luna. "The pure power it possessed...I've never seen anything like it."
"My patrol and I saw it, you know." Luna replied. "Whilst searching for the changelings. It was just wandering around the Everfree Forest...it seemed to be looking for something. It's roar...I can still hear it."
"I just thank the heavens that it is following the changelings and not staying here." The sun princess sighed. "Who knows what it could do if it rampaged through a place like this."
"I know it'd make what the changelings have done here look trivial." Luna replied before witnessing yet another corpse being moved. "That is most certainly not to say that this isn't absolutely horrible."
"I just..." Celestia said, her voice breaking slightly. "I never thought...so many...so many lives lost. We've done nothing but love others. We didn't deserve this...They didn't deserve this."
"Princess Celestia...Princess Luna." They heard Elizabeth say from behind them. The woman had a sorrowful look on her face as she addressed the Princesses. "I am so sorry this happened."
"If it was not for that thing you sent here..." Luna replied. "It would have been much, much worse."
"That's good to know." Booker said as he joined his companion's side. "Because we're gonna stay and help you guys out."
"Wouldn't you wish to just take the Big Daddy back to where you came from and leave?" Celestia asked, raising an eyebrow.
"There's somethin' about that Big Daddy that I haven't told you about, yet." Booker said to the white alicorn, raising an eyebrow. Curious about what the human meant, Celestia approached him and nodded. "See...there's."
"Princess Celestia! Princess Luna!" A royal guard cried frantically, sprinting up to the princesses. "Come with me immediately! It's an emergency!"
_____
Twilight awoke on the floor of her basement laboratory with a massive migraine. She groaned deeply and struggled to get up, but the pain in her wing had shot down to that entire half of her body. She wondered for a moment how exactly she came to be in the position she was in before she finally remembered. She had reset her badly broken wing and passed out from the massive amount of pain. Accompanying her migraine was a significant pain in one side of her skull. She brought her hoof up to the center of the pain and brought it back in front of her face to behold a bit of dried blood. The princess most likely hit her head hard after passing out. She groaned...or she attempted to groan, failing miserably due to her incredibly dry throat. She was very dehydrated.
Twilight hadn't had anything to drink for at least the last twenty four hours. She had come straight to Sweet Apple Acres after hearing about Scootaloo and hadn't had a drink since hours before she left. The dreadful thoughts of what might have happened to Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash filled her mind, nearly making her vomit...if she could. The alicorn couldn't make a single sound other than a sort of croaking hack. Her wing still hurt, on fire with an incredible amount of pain. Despite this, she attempted to stand. She had to stand. She needed water, badly. It took a minute or two, but she finally came to her hooves, her legs feeling incredibly wobbly as she began to take small steps around the incredibly dark room. Her vision distorted as she moved and she nearly fell several times, catching herself on lab tables. She looked around the room and remembered with dread that she had no water source in this room.
She had to get out. Now.
The princess began to walk toward the steps leading up to the main atrium of the library, but a sudden rush of dizziness caused the princess to fall on her side. The impact grazed her newly-set wing. The pain was excruciating, but the princess couldn't make a sound. She merely contorted her face into a scream of agony and let out a small croak. No tears welled in her eyes, even further proving her dehydration. She struggled and rolled back onto her belly and looked back at her wing, which luckily didn't look to be broken again.
Twilight Sparkle, summoning an awful amount of willpower, made herself stand once more before continuing toward the stairs. She stumbled a few times, but was able to make it to the first step before collapsing completely. Twilight groaned as she began to pull herself up the steps, one by one. She felt as if three fifty pound weights were attached to her back. The pieces of furniture obstructing the door had to be moved if she was to escape from the basement. She feared that she wouldn't be able to move the furniture at all, and that she'd die of dehydration in this laboratory. She began pushing the pieces of furniture out of the way one by one, slowly coming toward the door. Each piece of furniture felt as if it weighed one hundred pounds, and she struggled harder and harder after each one. Eventually, her muscles gave out and she fell onto the steps, struggling to breathe. The alicorn princess could barely move. She tried to move some with magic, but failed miserably, as her body couldn't keep up with the strain. Princess Twilight merely laid on the stairs, breathing heavily in shallow breaths.
This was it.
She saw no other option.
She was going to die.
Twilight couldn't hope to move the rest of the furniture, and even then, she wouldn't be able to get out past the bookcase blocking the door. Her last and final hope was that Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie and Fluttershy would return for her. But judging from her rate of dehydration, she didn't have much time left. The alicorn wished she could cry...but her body could not produce any more tears. She merely laid on the steps, her ears laid back, unmoving. Waiting to die. Her ears perked up, however, as they registered the sound of hoof falls from inside the house. Someone was there, possibly looking for her!
With a newfound strength, Twilight pushed her muscles to the limit as she stood and continued to move the last of the furniture out of the way. A certain elation filled the alicorn's stomach as she finally got to the door and began to weakly pound on it. She struggled to speak as hard as she possibly could.
"he...hel...heeelp..." Her voice cracked as she continued to pound on the door. It seemed to go on forever, the pounding. Coupled with the effort of her trying to speak tearing her voice box up was excruciating. "help me..." It went on and on for what seemed like hours to Twilight. She had to keep trying...keep pushing. There was no other option. The princess fell at the doorstep, breathing heavily. She had failed in her final attempt at survival of this horrific ordeal. No one was coming to save her. She was going to rot down in this basement.
How would Equestria react to her sudden and horrible death? Would her friends be accused of forgetting about her?
These thoughts ceased as her head fell to the ground and the door opened to reveal a blinding show of light.
_____
Ten Minutes Earlier
"Ah...Ah think it's over." Applejack said, looking out of the window of the farm house. The sky appeared to be completely clear of the force field, and while Ponyville looked to be devastated, the chaos looked as if it had faded. "Ah think we can go back now." Rarity moved up to the window, limping from the large cut in her leg. She gasped and turned away from the window, putting a hoof over her mouth. Sweetie Belle approached her sister, worried.
"What's wrong, Rarity?" Sweetie Belle asked her sister.
"Nothing is wrong, Sweetie Belle." Rarity said through tears. "Go...go and sit next to Applebloom." The unicorn filly nodded and went to her friend. Rarity looked at Applejack, surprised and sorrowful.
"I...I can't believe it." Rarity said.
"Well, believe it, sugarcube." Applejack replied. "We barely escaped that."
"Nothing like this has ever happened before." Pinkie Pie said as she moved her still straight mane out of her eyes. "I...I..."
"We need to go help!" Fluttershy said. "There could be a lot of injured ponies out there." Applejack, elated by Fluttershy's determination to go help others, looked at her family.
"We're gonna go." Applejack said to her family.
"Ah'm comin' with ya, sis." Big Mac said as he stood up.
"Who's gonna protect Granny Smith and the fillies?" Applejack asked. "Ah need ya here."
"But sis-"
"Please, Big Mac." Applejack interrupted him. "It'd mean a lot to me." The red stallion nodded and sat down next to Granny Smith.
"Y'all be careful." Granny Smith said. "Ah don't want ya takin' part of any trouble, ya hear? Even if it seems like ya need to."
"Don't worry, Granny." Applejack said with a small nod. "We'll be careful." The mares left the farm house and walked together. Not a single one of them spoke. None of them could take their eyes off of the damaged and destitute Ponyville. Smoke billowed from several of the buildings and an occasional high-pitched scream was heard. The stark contrast from it's usual look had each of the approaching mares feel sick to her stomach. Wondering if any of their lives would be the same again, the four ponies entered the town.
The royal guard toiled away to clean up the mess. They moved lumber and rubble out of the town, away from the wreckage so proper repairs could begin. A mare laid in the embrace of her husband, sobbing at the sight of their destroyed home. Blood that had yet to be cleaned up stained the ground in several places. Each of the mare's blood ran cold in their veins.
Murder.
The concept was so unheard of to them. The only death any of them had ever witnessed was purely natural. Fluttershy's eyes filled with tears at the brief sight of the royal guards loading a corpse into a wagon, wrapped in a sheet, most likely to be delivered to the coroner. The changelings had attempted to destroy everything. Luckily, Sugarcube Corner stood relatively unscathed, Mr. and Mrs. Cake standing on the porch. Pinkie Pie let out a small sob and sprinted toward the two of them and wrapped them in an embrace.
"Oh, I'm so happy you're both alright!" Pinkie Pie cried.
"We were so worried about you, Pinkie." Mrs. Cake said. "We hadn't seen you anywhere."
"Did you find a good place to hide?" Pinkie asked. The last three words of Pinkie Pie's query struck a chord in Applejack. She looked at Rarity in horror before tapping her.
"What?" The white unicorn asked.
"Twilight." Applejack said grimly, her eyes wide with worry. The two mares sprinted off at top speed, leaving Fluttershy behind. They moved toward the library as quickly as they could, passing many scenes of horror that they wished they could stop and help with, but their primary concern was the princess they had left to hide in a basement. The two mares ran through the front doors of Golden Oaks Library past two Royal Guards.
"He-Hey! You can't go in there!" Cried the guard as they tried to stop Applejack and Rarity, failing miserably. They broke into the main atrium, followed by the guards, and pushed the bookcase out of the way. The guards were stunned to see the door to the basement. Applejack yanked the door open to behold Twilight, laying motionless on the floor.
"Quickly! Help us!" Rarity cried out as Applejack lifted the limp alicorn from the ground. "She needs to get to a hospital!" The guards instantly jumped into action and lifted Twilight's body up with their magic before sprinting out of the room with her. Applejack and Rarity followed them to see Princess Celestia standing with Luna and Discord, frantically asking the guards if she was alright. After receiving an ambiguous answer from the guards as they placed her in a chariot and immediately flew her toward the hospital, Celestia looked toward the ground in sorrow.
"Princess!" Rarity cried. "What has been happening?"
"Rarity, Applejack!" The sun princess said, a temporary tone of relief in her voice. "Thank goodness you're both alright. How are Pinkie and Fluttershy?"
"They're fine, Princess." Applejack said before realizing in horror that she hadn't seen Rainbow Dash since she'd returned to Ponyville. "Princess, where's Rainbow Dash?" The sun princess seemed to hold back a sob and looked toward the ground, making every effort to remain composed.
"Rarity, Applejack..." Celestia said. "Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo have been abducted by Queen Chrysalis... I don't think Rainbow...I think she might be..." The princess could say no more as she held back more tears and sobbing. Discord lowered his head and nodded, a rare showing of sadness from the Draconequus. Luna placed a comforting hoof on Celestia's back and addressed Rarity and Applejack, who were wide-eyed in disbelief.
"Rainbow Dash's vital energy was extremely faint." Luna said. "So faint in fact that I could barely register it at all. She showed no signs of life when we witnessed her in Chrysalis' grip. Now it may be too early to say, but-"
"NO!" Applejack nearly screamed out, interrupting Luna. "Ah don't believe it! She can't be...there's no way she's...dead." The word tasted bitter in Applejack's mouth as the farm mare teared up and sobbed quietly. Rarity placed a fore leg over the shoulders of her friend and looked up at Luna, who stood solemn and grim.
"Why?" Rarity asked, sorrowful over the awful news. "Why now? Why...Why Ponyville?"
"It's the changelings." Discord spouted spitefully, throwing a claw into the air. "They're not happy unless they're killing something."
"Neither I, nor my sister know for sure why the Changelings chose to attack at this particular time and place, but Equestria is preparing to go to war." Luna explained to Rarity. "It will not be a very large amount of time before it truly escalates to that level. This offensive by the Changelings is absolutely not something to be overlooked." As Luna finished speaking, Booker and Elizabeth approached the princesses.
"All the bodies are loaded up." Booker said, wiping the sweat of his brow. "There's really nothing else we can do at this point." He looked at Applejack and Rarity, who stared at him and Elizabeth wide-eyed.
"You have no idea how many looks like that we've gotten in the past forty eight hours." Elizabeth stated with a sigh.
"I assume you two are familiar with the big metal thing that killed that big bear?" Booker said, pointing a thumb back at the corpse of the ursa minor, waiting to be hauled away. Applejack and Rarity nodded. "That thing's from our world. We're getting it back, that's all you need to know."
"We must go to the hospital and get an update on Twilight's condition." Celestia said to Luna, who nodded at her. They moved toward the hospital before Celestia stopped and looked back at Booker and Elizabeth.
"Come." Celestia said to the human, who raised an eyebrow at her.
"Why?" Booker asked. "Haven't we proved that we can be trusted yet?"
"You are to stay within the sight of my sister and I for as long as you're here." Celestia said. "We don't want anyone panicking at the sight of you."
"Sounds to me like you're out of luck, Jack." Discord said to Booker, appearing behind the human's head.
"I've been in that position longer than you know." The detective replied as he and his companion approached Celestia.
_____
"Thankfully, there is no terminal damage, but she is very dehydrated. If you hadn't found her, she'd have been dead of thirst by this time tomorrow." The doctor said to Celestia, Luna, Discord, Applejack and Rarity. "Her wing is severely broken, and will take quite some time to heal. Thankfully, it was set when you arrived here. Which of you did it?" The group looked at each other, but none of them had performed the procedure.
"It was none of us, doctor." Luna said. "We found her as she is."
"Then that means she set the wing herself." The doctor said. "Incredible. It must have been excruciating."
"How long until she recovers?" Celestia asked the doctor.
"We'll need to keep her here for the next two days to watch over her and make sure she stabilizes correctly. After that, we'll put a cast on her wing and she'll be free to go." The doctor said. "Now, is there anything else you needed, princesses? I apologize, but I have many other patients to attend to."
"Please go." Celestia said. "Don't let us keep you." The doctor nodded at them and rushed back into the ICU.
"Lemme take a look at her." Discord said before instantly disappearing and reappearing before the group. "She seems to be doing alright. They have her hooked up to an IV, but she'll definitely pull through. She set her own wing...huh, I'm impressed." Discord nodded to himself.
"That is a relief." Celestia said with a small nod.
"Princess." Applejack said to Celestia. "Are you going to be attackin' the Changelings soon?"
"Yes." Celestia said. "We must eliminate the threat as soon as possible."
"Then let me come." Applejack said almost immediately.
"Applejack, I don't think it is the right thing to do." Celestia responded.
"Please, Princess, Ah...Ah need..." Applejack stopped herself and breathed deeply. "Rainbow Dash. If there's even a chance she's still alive, Ah wanna help save her and Scootaloo. Now Ah know my front leg here is banged up, but Ah can still fight. Ah promise." Celestia looked at the farm pony and sighed quietly before straining herself as she casted some sort of spell on Applejack's leg. The farm mare let out a shout of pain as her knees buckled from beneath her.
"Ahh...What was that?" Applejack asked, her eyes widened.
"I mended your bone." Celestia said, a tired look in her eyes "I don't normally do this, but you have a fire in your heart I really think will be useful." Applejack looked at Celestia. The farm mare bent her front leg and shattered the splint, her leg as good as new. Applejack nodded at Celestia. Discord scoffed momentarily and appeared beneath the farm mare with a small broom and dustpan.
"Oh, messy..." Discord grumbled before teleporting to a trashcan and throwing it in, dustpan and all.
"Now, you say you're going to be attacking the changelings, right?" Booker said as he approached the ponies. "Sorry. I couldn't help but overhear."
"Yes we are." Luna said to the man. "Why do you ask?"
"Because I think that big steel lug running around in the forest right now could be a hell of a soldier for us." Booker explained, smirking widely.
"Could you elaborate?" Celestia said. "It looked to me to be completely uncontrollable."
"Elizabeth, come here." Booker said as he looked at the woman sitting across the waiting room. He turned back to the ponies. "Where I come from, there are these things called plasmids. Here, let me show you." Booker snapped his finger and produced a flame in front of Celestia, Luna, Discord, Applejack and Rarity, stunning them all.
"That's amazin'!" Applejack said.
"Now plasmids give the user special abilities. They were developed in a lab back in my world. A plasmid was being developed for use by the security force in Rapture. It was supposed to let you control a Big Daddy to fight for you. They were only gonna use it in special situations. If I were to get ahold of that plasmid..."
"We could use the Big Daddy to fight the changelings." Celestia said with a smile. Booker looked at the princess and nodded.
"Bingo. But there's only one problem."
"And what would that be?" Luna asked.
"The plasmid was still in early development in Rapture. It hasn't even been made yet. I know how to get ahold of the ingredient list and directions to make it, but unless you ponies can travel through time, we're going to have to make it here. And I don't suppose any of you have a master chemist at your disposal?" Rarity approached Booker and nodded.
"I know of one." The unicorn said. "Her name is Zecora."
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...Couldn't Booker just use Possession?
3718494
This version of Booker never went to Columbia, and therefore never obtained Possession.
It would be interesting to see ponies able to use plasmids. I think Earth Ponies would love the idea of shooting fire or ice from there hooves.
3718541
All of the Vigors from Columbia exist in Burial At Sea as Plasmids in Rapture.
The story is slightly simplistic so far in my opinion. Red vs Blue stories never did strike me as very entertaining.
I thought in booker and Elizabeth's world Columbia they were called vigors and rapture was called plasmids
3718948 This takes place in the "Buried at Sea" DLC, hence the Big Daddy.
3718629
Having just finished Burial at Sea, I admit I was wrong about the plasmids/vigors. However, spoilers!
The Big Daddy you fight at the end was immune to Possession.
Anyway, this is AU, so author fiat trumps all canon.
I do wonder if the Rapture in Burial at sea is the Rapture from Bioshock, or a parallel of Rapture that is closer to the Infinite Universe?
Get on with the big daddy killing all the changelings!
I don't dig all the changeling racism, but I get where they are coming from.
3718825 this is bio shock not rvb!
3814028
3718825 Could you tell me why you find this story to be simplistic?
3830841 it's purely a personal opinion based on the way it seems very "good vs evil" thus far. (in respect to changelings and ponies)
3841372 As opposed to...?
3913685 Well, the Big Daddy isn't necessarily a soldier, seeing as how he'll kill anyone who tries to take Scootaloo, including the mane 6, Celestia, Luna, Booker and Liz.
4356300 yeah, BUT HE'S STILL A BADASS!!!!
