Bounty Hunters 3: Genesis

by Jasper77W

Chapter 46: Across Realities

"Do you.... Ever have those times where... You just want to sit down and cry?" Val asked, her head resting on a hand as she leaned on her throne.

Blithy looked up. Did she really just hear that from Val?

The sun shone down behind them, over the COLOSSUS itself. The floor in front of them was tinted yellow from the massive star, long shadows cast across the throne room from the two mares. Blithy and Val were the only two in the room, with no one else present.

Val sighed, and Blithy smiled and nodded to herself.

"What?" Val looked up, her expression slightly annoyed.

"Nothing. Just wasn't expecting to hear anything like that from you, is all."

"Right." Val said, closing her eyes and leaning back into her throne.

Silence slowly settled in, as both mares waited for each other to say something.

"Have... You done anything you regretted?" Blithy asked, turning to Val.

Slowly, the Empress of the Science Faction opened her eyes.

"Yeah." She said, and Blithy nodded. "I'm thinking... Maybe I shouldn't have killed mom and dad."

That made Blithy freeze. This didn't make any sense- just a few hours ago she was blabbering on about how mom and dad deserved every bit of it. Val seemed to notice her confusion, and sighed again.

"I'm not saying they didn't deserve what they got. They did- every bit of it, and I still stand by that. They deserved to die, but I don't know if I should've enforced it..." Val stretched a hand out in front of her, raising it out of the shadow of her throne. It caught a glint of golden sunlight and shimmered. "I've got all this power... I can pretty much do anything I want. I can eliminate anyone I don't like. I can get whatever I want. I control everything. And yet..." She let her hand drop and her finger curl into a fist. "Who is there to notice? Maybe if mom and dad were here... Maybe if they could see me... Maybe they could still be proud." Then she laughed, and shook her head. "Look at me... Acting like a bucking foal. Wanting to impress mom and dad. Ha!" She continued laughing, but slowly it lost its purpose and faded away into a dull meaningless snicker.

There was a long pause that Blithy didn't dare interrupt. Val was revealing a side of herself she had never known existed before. A side she experienced as her own... A side she thought that purely belonged to her. But as different as they were.... They were still the same mare. The same foolish and childish mare.

"Blithy..." Val said, eyes dull as she stared miserably at the ground. "I miss mom and dad. And I miss home."

Blithy felt a part of her die. She didn't want to admit it- she didn't want herself to be any part of what Val was. But she missed those things too.

"I miss the ignorance of being small. I miss the cans of spray paints and the smell they would bring in the morning." Val continued, shaking her head slowly, seemingly lost in her own thoughts.

Blithy chuckled.

"What?" Val looked up.

"I just never ever expected to see this moment. This side of you... That no one's ever known about." Blithy said, lying down on her back. The cold metal tingled her skin, but she didn't care. She put her hands behind her head and used them as a metal pillow. She sighed, and smiled up at the ceiling and its yellow tint from the sun. "Quite ironic, if I do say so. This other side contradicts you completely."

"The greatest of us have our secrets." Val said, staring at something distant in the shadows. "I'm sure you would know yourself. You always act so strong in front of the crowds... You know you're in charge." At this point Val could no longer tell whether she was talking to Blithy or to herself. "But what really happens when no one is watching? No one ever sees the air, but it's still there. Same with many other things." She sighed.

"You know, I think I like this side of you better. Is this the better side of you?"

"Don't get me wrong..." Val said, standing up. "I'm still going to carry out my plans without a doubt. Because I believe in their purpose."

There was a soft whir as a secret compartment opened from the left arm of her throne, and something popped out and flew towards her. She turned around, and caught it in a hand.

"I'm sure you remember this." She said, holding up an old rusted metal cylinder.

"I do..." Blithy said, watching as Val turned the can of spray paint around in a hand.

The very can, still full of paint, that mom and dad had left them before abandoning them on that rooftop. The descriptions printed on the can could no longer be read due to the amount of dust it had gained over the years. But the cap was never breached, and the paint inside should still be fresh.

But then Blithy's eyes widened as she realized something. In her reality... She had dropped the can down the side of the building before following it. She remembered watching the blue paint splatter onto the ground, marking where her own blood would soon follow.

"How...?" She frowned at the can, still sealed and in perfect condition. But this wasn't the can she dropped- it was still the same one, from a different reality.

From this reality- Valkyrie's reality.

"You... Aren't a part of me..." Blithy wasn't quite sure she understood herself as she spoke. "You're.... Another me... From another reality?"

There was a pause between them.

"And yet the same thing happened to the both of us in the our own realities. Except we met different ponies.... And made different choices." Val said. "I don't know where you jumped off.... But I jumped off the roof of Valhalla's central security tower. My parents were just citizens of the capital, but the government at the time stripped us of our property because they couldn't earn enough money to pay taxes. Then the only possibility of my recovery was taken away as well since it was government funded. We were practically left to die by then. And so I was."

"And you survived... Took on a new identity... And overthrew the old government... But why did you kill your parents then?" Blithy shook her head, sitting up.

"Because they deserved it." Val said, placing the can of spray paint on her throne and laying a hand on it, staring out at the shielded sun and its brilliant light. "They went on to take care of their own lives after I 'died'. I was going to go back to them to show that I was still alive... But I saw the great lives they led after I left. I saw them cheering, with warm food on their plates and a nice roof over their heads. A life I never experienced, because I supposedly weighed them down. All this time I was watching from the cold, whereas they enjoyed their life in the warmth."

"Same as me again, huh..." Blithy sighed. "Revenge."

"Correct." Val said. "Different choices... And yet we still end up the same. I didn't use the can of spray paint because I thought one day I might come back as a ghost to get it... And look at me now..." She said, staring at her own reflection on the false window before her. Not a pony anymore- something different. The metal covering over fifty percent of her body gleamed in the sunlight, her left eye glowing a soft blue along with several LED indicators on her robotic implants. "...what am I but a ghost of myself?" She sighed, picking up the can of paint again.

"So we're still different, slightly. I never expected myself to come back to get it... So I just threw it down the building." Blithy laughed. "Oh, this is weird. I thought your part of me didn't exist in me anymore... But now that I know the Valkyrie in me is still ready to kill at any moment, I really don't know what to think anymore."

"Well, aren't you in charge of yourself?" Val said. "I know I am. And bloody hell, I am not letting that wimpy little Blithy out of me."

"Oi!" Blithy yelled, annoyed. Val only chuckled.

"The two sides of us... Valkyrie, me; and Blithy, you-" Val said, still staring out into space. "We both have them. We just made different choices as to who to be. Funny though, isn't it... I can endure pain and you can't."

"I understand how you do it... But I wouldn't dare just in case the Valkyrie inside me comes out."

Val nodded. "Pain is just an illusion. Same as vision, smell, sense- if we choose to not perceive them, the world would no longer exist to us. Put us on a roller coaster and we won't feel a thing."

"And that's why I'm afraid to choose to ignore pain. Pain makes my existence feel... Real. Choosing to ignore a critical sense may mean choosing to ignore other things as well..." Blithy said.

Val had a stone cold heart- maybe because she chose to ignore the warmth of love and harmony. Choosing to ignore was why killing was so much easier. Choosing to ignore was why ponies become ghosts.

"You never changed... Because there wasn't anyone there to change you. Rainbow Dash... She wasn't here in this reality, was she...."

"The elements of harmony were never complete..." Val said. "The element of loyalty was always missing... Thus I had been searching- to destroy one last threat." She sighed, and yawned. "There is a tombstone in Ponyville... With hundreds of names on it. Those were candidates for the elements of harmony.... More specifically, the element of loyalty."

"And you killed all of them?" Blithy took in a sharp breath.

"I did, in hopes of finding the real one. But finally I did..." She laughed. "Oh, how that was a waste of time."

Suddenly the phone implanted in her head beeped, and she accepted the call with her mind.

"The key card is missing. The pirates gave it to a griffon- possibly magic faction. Pirates have been annihilated." Eclipse reported.

"Everyone?" Val asked.

"Not a single soul." Eclipse replied.

Val chuckled. "Good." She said, and hung up. "Well... This is inconvenient." She said, slumping back into her throne.

"What is?"

"I was transferring a key card via a convoy... But it got taken by pirates and sent to some griffon." Val sighed. "Although... From what I've learnt over the years..." She chuckled, and pressed a button on her throne. Another compartment opened, and she took a small object out of it. "It's always better if you have one extra card than your opponent." She said, twirling the ace between her fingers, blue lines pulsing along its surfaces.

*

Rainbow slammed EDI's door shut as she got in the car.

"Everyone buckled in?" She asked, peering behind her. "Although... I don't think you need to." She added as the sheer amount of ponies in the backseat was enough to keep them wedged in place.

"Let's go then. Off to Haven!" Octavia cheered, plotting a course for the Crystal Empire. EDI started up the engines, and Octavia started driving- leaving the forest and its dusty clearings behind.

"Rainbow." Rainbow heard Spitfire say through her mic set.

"Captain?"

"We've got a gunship en route to meet up with you. Just beware of that- it's been through a rough battle and isn't exactly in good shape." Spitfire said.

"Copy, we'll keep an eye out." Rainbow said, and the connection broke.

"Well?" Octavia raised an eyebrow.

"We've got pickup, but they aren't exactly close. Just keep heading towards Haven- we'll meet up along the way." Rainbow said, sighing. Shouldn't be long till they reach the damn place now.

They exited the dark forests and out into bright sunlight, once again in the vast plains of the wasteland. The canyon ran alongside their path as they continued their journey, the river beneath constantly splashing at them.

Rainbow rested her forehead on the passenger side window, almost drifting off to sleep in sheer boredom. Then something in the sky caught her eye- and she looked up.

Cloudsdale... There it was, its weather factories long destroyed. It didn't have its usual cloud pumping abilities, and the rainbows had long faded away. It still had its waterfalls though, the water slowly drifting down from the City of the Pegasi and fading towards the bottom as it started dispersing.

Then the city blew apart in one loud boom, the shockwave sweeping across the plains. The city started collapsing in on itself, water splashing as valves and gates were popped and broken open. Chunks of solidified clouds flew everywhere, and the dimensional anchor that held Cloudsdale in place failed its job as it was destroyed. The city started falling down towards the ground- the pride of all pegasi, the pinnacle of magic innovation- crumbling down towards a place where it was never meant to be- earth.

Cloudsdale had overlooked Equestria from the highest possible point within the Earth's atmosphere, a place where earth ponies and even unicorns alike looked up upon with jealousy.

And now it was gone in a puff of smoke in the far distance.

Rainbow felt an odd emptiness inside her as she watched it disappear- the last place she'd been with Octavia in the last reality. At home.

Suddenly Magnum screamed, reacting violently to something in her head. She clamped her hooves over her temples, screaming as memories poured back into her head.

"Shuck! EDI, keep driving- I need to check on our passenger! Mind doing a quick scan and analysis?" Octavia asked, slamming a button.

"Copy." EDI said, activating automated driving and performing a diagnosis on the Magnum that was being held down by the other ponies.

Octavia's seat turned around so she was facing the chaos in the passenger compartment.

"Hold her down damnit!" Daring yelled, both her arms wrapped around just one of Magnum's- and she was still barely holding her side down.

Magnum's legs were kicking around as she screamed blindly, her brain being overwhelmed by memories that were flooding in.

"Damnit Magnum- snap the hell out of it!" Rainbow cursed, catching her by the ankles and holding them down.

"EDI! Put her to sleep!" Octavia yelled, Dainty and Lily curled in a corner and watching with terror as Magnum continued her blind struggling.

"Commencing." EDI said. "She needs to be still though."

"Come on girls! HOLD HER DOWN!" Daring used her back legs to restrain Magnum's. Babs was holding down the other side, preventing her from moving too much. She was missing a limb anyway- so it was slightly easier.

"Octavia, the sedatives are ready!" Rainbow yelled as a socket popped open on EDI's display.

"Well then stab her!" Octavia yelled, holding down her back hooves.

"Here goes-" Rainbow ripped the canister out of the socket and stabbed it into Magnum's neck. She screamed even harder as the sharp needle punctured her neck, sending the sedatives into her bloodstream.

Rainbow held it there, ignoring her friend's cries. But then those cries slowly faded away as the sedatives kicked in, slowly knocking her out.

"Zealo... I'm sorry... Zealo..." Magnum muttered, her eyelids already drooping down. Daring felt the strength drain from her, the struggling ceasing. She let go, and sighed.

"Buck. What the hay was that!?" She exclaimed.

"Memory surge. I'm guessing that several important events occurred in Cloudsdale? If it became a second home for her, it's possible that such a link between realities triggered an effect that caused her to regain memories directly linked to both realities." EDI said.

Rainbow sighed. "I guess, then." She said. Magnum had lived with them for about a year on Cloudsdale, since she had acid poured on her eyes back then. She was recovering, but she must've been more grateful than what she showed- her friends also must've meant a lot more to her than she thought herself or showed anyone else in her actions. She always seemed so dismissive... But maybe, she really did care a lot.

Now Magnum was snoring in her seat, slumped down and knocked out. She seemed so peaceful... And for the first time, like herself. When she didn't remember anything, she was always cautious of what was around her. Always keeping a watchful eye, not trusting anyone. But now...

"Good thinking EDI." Octavia said, her seat turning back to face the front. "Rainbow... You alright? Daring?"

"I'm fine." Daring said, shuffling up to a more comfortable position after the struggle. "I only lived in Cloudsdale for a short period. Didn't spend much time there."

"It means nothing to me." Rainbow said, surprising both Daring and Octavia.

"How so?" Octavia raised an eyebrow. "When Canterlot fell... Well, you've seen me. Come on Rainbow, you don't have to hide anything."

"No, it really doesn't mean anything. Cloudsdale is just a place." Rainbow said. "But it's my friends that matter." She smiled. "As long as all of you are here, I think even the wasteland is a good enough home for me. Plus, it's just another game Val's playing- and I will not oblige."

Author's Note:

I just wanted to explore a different side to Val in this chapter, and it's either going to make her a better antagonist or ruin her character.