Doozy
Chapter XI : Doozy
Grimy, bronze walls were just barely visible in the dim compartment Pinkie Pie had confined herself too. She glared contemptuously at the blank wall with damp eyes filled with unshed tears trying to force their way out. But Pinkie wouldn’t let them; she wanted to be angry, and bawling like a foal would only make her feel sad.
On the other side of her sealed-off retreat, the depths of the ocean groaned and bubbled dully, as if to remind her exactly where she was. And why she was there. Still, Pinkie did her best not to think about it; as it would distract her from being mad. She had purposefully separated herself from the others to avoid snapping at them again. As mad as she felt, she knew taking it out on them wouldn’t make her feel any better. It certainly hadn’t during her last episode, back on the Endless Horizon.
The trip to Summer Rain’s personal office wasn’t a very long one; it was in a nearby district of Rapture called ‘Minerva’. Not that Pinkie actually gave much of a hoot about that, as far as she was concerned, the whole city could be swallowed up by the ocean and disappear forever.
I hate this stupid place, with its stupid mad scientists and its stupid... stupid art-deco aesthetic... Pinkie brooded to herself.
“Yeah! That’s the right idea!” someone replied in the darkness. “Forget about this rotten place, and that no good Twilight Sparkle. She’s a trickster, she is; a twisted trickster I tells ya!” The voice came from the seat next to where Pinkie steamed by herself, where a white first aid kit sat. “You should march out there and give that nosy-noser a piece of your mind!” it said, flapping its lid wildly to speak. An unspooled roll of bandages flopped around inside like a linen tongue.
Pinkie made no reply; she was in no mood to hear the opinion of some inanimate object, and a first aid kit that wanted to hurt somepony clearly wasn’t worth listening to. She kept her glare locked on the bronze wall, wishing it at least had wet paint on it she could watch dry. Any distraction was welcome from the angry thoughts storming in her mind.
“Daa, she doesn’t deserf a friend like yoo,” agreed a corked bottle of vodka sitting up on a high shelf, speaking in a Stalliongrad accent. “I think yoo should drink me up, den smash dis bottle on her silly purple head. Dat is vat I would do.”
On the same shelf next to the bottle, a dusty sea captain’s hat popped out of its box and laughed heartily. “Wait, you’d drink yerself? Now that I’d like ta see, Comrade.”
“Stop,” Pinkie said quietly over the growing collections of voices in the small space. Is a little alone time really too much to ask for?
“Yarr, Pinkie my dear, ya need ta listen ta Kitt and I,” the hat said, turning away from the vodka. “Yah need ta get out of here and ditch these bottom feeders pretendin’ ta be yer friends.”
“Admiral Hatty is right! Listen to us, we just want to help you get out of here,” flapped the med kit.
“Nyet! Not vithout getting glorious vengeance first!” protested the vodka, jumping for emphasis and nearly tipping over the high ledge.
“Well duh, how else is she supposed to get control of the sub?” shot back the first aid kit.
Admiral Hatty barked another deep round of laughter. “Great idea, Kitt! I always knew ya had it in ya, ya bloody pirate.”
“Stop,” Pinkie said again. I just need some quiet time to calm down...
The assembled objects ignored her and continued their mutinous plotting. “First, ve take out ponies. Den, ve take sub to surface. Den ve have party happy-times!” said Comrade Vodka, clear liquid sloshing around inside excitedly. “Is bulletproof plan!”
Kitt’s lid curled up in a evil grin, “So long as purple goes down first.” The others chortled in malicious agreement.
Something inside Pinkie snapped. Her whole body started to shudder and the small room was filled with a red glow, emanating from the gem in her artificial Element of Harmony.
“I said STOP,” hissed Pinkie. She tore her gaze from the wall, only to find normal objects of the non-talkative variety littered around her cramped hiding place. She also found herself panting heavily as her tears finally rolled down her cheeks. With a sigh, Pinkie turned her attention back to the wall, her body trembling all over.
“I am so sick and tired of hearing voices in my head...” she murmured quietly.
It took all of her concentration just to keep her mane from straightening out.
Up in the Bathysphere’s cockpit, Twilight also found herself excluded from the rest of the group. Sitting in the comfy captain’s seat with a heavy bronze tiara on her head, she listened to the rhythmic sonar pings and watched the ocean floor slip by below. She deftly steered the craft towards Minerva, keeping low under the city to minimize the risk of detection.
Scattered about the submarine, behind the tall back of her chair, were the friends Twilight had placed in harm’s way by luring them out on to the ocean, and into the range of Rapture’s defenses. More than anything, she wanted to sit with them, to laugh with them, and reminisce about days gone by... but there was no way she could do that now.
So, she focused solely on steering, pretending the quiet shuffling behind her was being made by some other ponies, and ignoring the stiff metal joints of her ‘wings’ poking into her back.
Somepony in the hold muffled a delicate sneeze, shattering Twilight’s mental illusion. I bet that was a Fluttershy sneeze! Actually, no it was too lady-like, could it have been Rarity? She bit her lip, fighting the urge to take just one quick peek back at her old friends. But she couldn’t, she didn’t want to see them look back at her in anger, or disgust, or worse, pity. The sonar pinged, and she used the minimalistic controls to move the sub away from the dangerously close ocean floor.
Another sneeze came from behind. Okay, that was definitely Rarity...
It was torturous; like being imprisoned all over again, only worse because they were all so close. Unable to resist, Twilight risked a glance back down the length of the sub. In a quick scan, she saw Rarity rubbing her muzzle on the floor, busying herself with sorting the additional supplies Twilight had stored in her security hub. Rainbow Dash was sprawled across a padded bench, snoring loudly. Cuddled up to her was Fluttershy, sleeping soundly despite the grating noise. Applejack was sitting upright with her legs crossed and her hat pulled down over her face. She sat as far from Rainbow’s snoring as she could, also trying to get some sleep, though the distance did not appear to be helping her to that end.
Pinkie Pie was nowhere to be seen.
Taking in the scene with a mournful smile, Twilight suddenly noticed a pair of green eyes peering at her from beneath AJ’s hat.
“Eep!” Twilight cried, spinning in her seat so fast her metallic wings tore into the chair’s padding. “Oh for the love of Celestia...” she muttered, trying desperately to force the stuffing back inside. The movement had the duel effect of shooting pain up her shoulders; pain she hardly noticed any longer.
From her position on the bench, Applejack frowned. As bad as she felt watching Twilight struggle with her wretched situation, she was reaping the seeds she’d sowed. She had been for a long, long time. Twilight's a big girl. She made her bed, Ah don’t gotta feel bad watchin’ her sleep in it.
Closing her eyes and tuning out Rainbow’s zealous log-sawing, AJ refocused on getting some well needed shut-eye. Another rip came from the front, followed by another and lowly muttered cursing. Cracking an eye open, the apple farmer noticed Twilight had managed to tear out some of the yellow stuffing from her chair and was now trying to preen it out of her iron wings and shove it back in while controlling the sub at the same time.
“You’re always there to help anypony in need...”
Twilight’s words from forever ago floated across Applejack’s mind. It was applebuck season, shortly after the Nightmare Moon incident; and she’d bitten off more than she could chew. In an act of bull-headed overconfidence, the younger farmer vowed to buck every apple tree on her own, and proceeded to work herself to exhaustion. Twilight was the only one trying to help her. Even after she’d repeatedly told the unicorn she didn’t need help. It was only when she stopped being so stubborn and accepted that help did she manage to finish the harvest.
Doesn’t change what she’s done since then, Applejack reminded herself. Another image surfaced in her mind: Twilight alone and mutilated in a jail cell, crying out for help.
“...maybe you could put aside some of your stubborn pride?” Finished the echos of Twilight’s words in Applejack’s head.
Dangit all, Applejack sighed and pushed her hat back up onto her head. It ain’t like Ah’ll be getting any sleep now, anyhow...
With a disdainful glance back at Rainbow, Applejack slid off the bench and made her way to the front of the submarine. She slipped quietly into the seat next to the winged unicorn, and Twilight jumped in surprise at the sudden company. They both stared out the front window in silence; neither knowing what to say, or even where to begin.
Clearing her throat, Applejack threw caution to the wind and pointed out the figurative Manticore in the room. “So, do those wings... hurt at all?”
The hopeful look in Twilight’s eye died, and AJ pointedly buttoned her big mouth. Nice going AJ, way ta ease into the conversation, she thought, kicking herself mentally.
Though she couldn’t hide her grimace, the possibility of talking was enough to draw Twilight out of her shell. “They do... sometimes. And I really don’t like it when they touch things,” she replied in a hushed whisper, as if openly discussing them made them more real. Not wanting to inspire any undeserved sympathy, Twilight quickly added, “I’m pretty much used to them by now, though.”
Applejack nodded slowly. It was all she could do. What happened to Twilight was just plain wrong, even after all the things she’d done...
The pair fell into another awkward silence, AJ shifting uncomfortably while Twilight pretended to concentrate on steering. She glanced to her left every few seconds; watching the earth pony, hoping she wouldn’t leave again.
As the quiet quickly became unbearable, two questions formed in Twilight’s overactive mind. She hypothesized at the likely answers, but there was only one way to know for sure. With a deep breath, she forced herself to speak, “Did- is what I did... to bring all of you down here... was it really so unforgivable?” Twilight asked helplessly. Of course it was, you selfish monster, her brain instantly chided. She wished AJ would yell at her for even asking, or buck her in the face over and over like she deserved.
The farmer, however, did neither. She contemplated the question calmly and gave the honest answer, as Twilight knew she would.
“Yes, Ah think it was.”
The response didn’t seem to surprise Twilight. If anything, she just looked tired, even more so than the sleep deprived ponies around her. With a slight nod, she turned back to the window and the green-blue sea outside.
But AJ wasn’t done. She’d had some time to think on it, and now that she’d started to vent, there was no stopping short. “Look, ya got ta understand that you crossed a line,” she began, doing her best to keep her voice low and even. “Not only did you sink a whole ship full of ponies to get us down here, ya tricked us into it instead of just asking for help. And now, we’ve all got a pile of regrets hanging over our heads that we ain’t never gonna get rid of. Not after what we seen and done here. You’ve seen it in us, in Rainbow. Guilt is gonna follow her around forever, and as for Pinkie...” Applejack trailed off. There was no telling how Pinkie would come out of all this. She’d had it the worst by far, used like a puppet by a voice digging at her very thoughts.
“Regret, guilt... The walls of Rapture are comprised of equal measures of the two,” Twilight said weakly, her eyes locked on the city above. As much as she wanted to, she was unable to bring herself to check back where Pinkie had shut herself away.
“And what about you?” said Applejack, asking the question at the forefront of her mind. “Do you feel regret, or guilt?” In her mind, she pictured a huge tree wreathed in flames. “Doctor... Petal Blossom. Yess, that’s who I was...” it whispered, then cried out in agony as the flames spread along its branches
“More than you could possibly imagine,” Twilight replied with a heavy sigh.
The words sounded genuine, but Applejack could feel a burning anger flare up inside her. “Oh really?” she hissed, her foreleg sparking to life with yellow flames. “Tell me. Where was that guilt when you were slicin’ up ponies?” The leather armrest bubbled as the heat around her hoof intensified. “Did the regret come into play before, or after ya tinkered around in Pinkie’s noodle?”
Twilight finally turned to face the orange earth pony, her own anger rising, “She was my only chance to escape and make things right! My only source of hope! How would you-” as quickly as it came, her rage faded. She knew there was no excuse for what she’d done, nothing that could actually justify what she did to her friend. She slumped low in her seat. “I just needed her so badly...”
Another flash of anger hit Applejack like a whip. She turned to lay into the sick fraud disguised as Twilight, but that was not what she saw sitting in the chair next to her. Piloting the sub was a broken husk of a pony, a shadow weighed down by an endless stream of increasingly bad choices that would take several lifetimes to properly atone for.
The flames slowly dissipated as Applejack regained control of her fury. She watched the city above drift by. Twi’s wrong; this place ain’t made of regret or guilt. It’s poison, and it turns good ponies bad and bad ponies worse. AJ sighed, and decided to return an old favor by helping the broken unicorn. “I want you ta listen to what yer sayin’ Twi; you needed her. So you used her. Like you used those ponies for your horrible science experiments, and look where that gotcha.”
“I- it wasn’t like that...” Twilight stammered, though she didn’t look too sure. “I was so alone, how else could I get help?”
Applejack lowered her voice to a sincere whisper. “Ah understand why you did it, really Ah do. Loneliness is like a sickness you just can't get over." She thought about the day Twilight left Ponyville. Then Rarity moved away, then Rainbow, then Pinkie... "But that just ain’t how you ask fer help, especially from your friends.”
Twilight shied away. Friends... The word brought her second question to mind. The big one. She had a probable answer for this one too, and it absolutely terrified her. “Do we- Do you think all of us could ever...” Twilight began, meeting AJ’s piercing gaze. She faltered and had to look away. “Could we ever all be friends again? Is there even a remote possibility of things going back to the way they were?”
No words came out of Applejack’s open mouth. She’d wondered the same thing many times since that pink letter appeared in her mailbox. Harvest Moon thought they could do it, and it had always been her hope things would work out. There were times when it even seemed possible. Through all the hardships Rapture had thrown at the group of old friends, they had somehow managed to regain some of what they’d lost over years of separation.
But even if they accomplished their quest and saved the city, they still had their lives to return to on the surface. Rarity still had a fashion line to produce, Dash was still a Wonderbolt, Pinkie still had her growing party business, Fluttershy still had her school, and Applejack still had her family...
She rubbed her belly tenderly with a warm hoof, and she realized the harsh truth she’d been trying not to think about. “To be honest... Ah don’t. There might have been a time when that was possible, but Ah think we’ll be more keen ta forget about what happened down here. We’ll go back to our lives... and that‘ll be that.”
If Twilight looked broken before, she now looked completely shattered. “You r-really think there’s no hope at all?”
“At least, not till we can forgive ourselves, and each other,” said Applejack with a wave back at where Pinkie was hiding. “Till then, we should focus on doing what we got to and gettin’ the hay out of here. What happens after that? Well, Ah suppose we’ll just have ta see.”
Without another word, Applejack left the partially melted chair and made her way back to her spot on the bench. Rarity quickly went back to her supplies, pretending she hadn’t been listening while the others slept. Her damp eyes betrayed her feigned ignorance.
Alone in the cockpit once again, Twilight thought she’d be fighting back tears as well, but there were none to shed. Applejack’s words resounded in her head, but only confirmed what Twilight already assumed. The loss of her friends didn’t make Twilight feel sad, or even depressed. She simply felt numb.
The sonar pinged again and recalled Twilight’s attention. She grabbed hold of the control stick and leveled out the bronze craft with a blank expression. In the murky distance, a castle-like structure jutting out of the ocean floor came into view. Minerva; the private workshop and living quarters of Summer Rain. The water around the miniature Canterlot was tinted a deep red by the pollutants it expelled, giving the beautiful work of architecture the feeling of a forsaken fortress.
Well, this is it. Looks like my plan worked out, thought Twilight as she mechanically steered towards the castle's docking port.
All it cost me was my friends.
I really don’t want to be here...
Fluttershy followed a line of former friends as they approached the intimidating undersea castle. It was the exact opposite direction she wanted to be going. Though, as much as she wanted to wait in the Bathysphere, Fluttershy knew that just wasn’t an option. It had been many years, but she found herself the Bearer of an Element once again, and even if it was artificial, she still had a job to do.
The bronze Element hung heavily around her neck. The blue gem set in its center had gone dark, taking away any elegance the jewelry once possessed. In fact, all the Elements had gone dark, save Pinkie’s which glowed with an eerie red light similar to the surrounding waters. Rarity had noticed as well, and was eyeing the plain metal band she wore contemptuously, like she was one glimpse at a mirror away from tearing it off.
Fluttershy was more concerned with the ominous light shining all around her through the glass tunnel walls. The sea water here looked angry. She felt like it was actively trying to get in at her, and glass panels just weren’t enough to keep it at bay.
I really, really don’t want to be here...
Pinkie seemed to be thinking something similar. “How much further?” she growled, sulking behind Fluttershy at the very back of the group. Though she was trying to hide it, it was hard to miss her trembling body. She hardly even seemed to be walking, the shakes were bad enough to propel her forward on their own.
Poor thing, she must feel so betrayed... Fluttershy thought. If anypony had the right to be somewhere else, it was Pinkie. Fluttershy could hardly imagine what she’d gone through. Somepony’ else in my head... telling me what to do. The rattled pegasus shuddered as well. As much as the unsettling water worried her, it had nothing on the unicorn leading them.
“It’s not much farther now,” Twilight said without looking back. It was the most words the two had exchanged since they set out to from the Pony Plaza.
In front of Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash stomped along with enough force to crack the ceramic tiles under-hoof. “Oh, when I get my hooves on that featherhead...”
That was another reason Fluttershy couldn’t stay behind. She cleared her throat and Dash’s snide grin vanished. If it came down to a fight, she wondered if there would be any way of holding back the unpredictable pegasus.
“Is this way safe?” Rarity butted in, trailing an oddly quiet Applejack. “Most despots take extra care with ensuring they’re safe as they cower in their fortresses... no matter how pretty the fortress may be.” Her gaze wandered up the sleek, grey sides of the underwater castle’s walls while she spoke.
Twilight replied in a monotone voice devoid of pride. “There is a secured defense system in place, but I rigged it to shut down when prompted. I can switch it offline from any control panel hooked into the power grid.” The others made non-committal replies as they were lead towards the end of the glass gangway.
“Wh-What about Spike? Will he... is he okay for now?” Fluttershy asked quietly. Just the thought of the little dragon alone in a place like this made her skin crawl.
“He’s... stable,” replied Twilight. She could feel the questioning eyes burrowing into the back of her head, so she carefully added. “He’s being kept in stasis in the main ADAM production labs. He’s not in danger; they need to keep him alive or the slug they implanted in him will stop producing-”
“WHAT!” Rarity shouted, breaking the delicate quiet in the tube and making Fluttershy jump out of her crawling skin. “Twilight, how can you let them use him like that! I insist we go to him now! This very instant! Rain can wait,” the white unicorn said, literally slamming a hoof down and cracking more of the expensive-looking tiles.
Twilight stopped with a sigh and lowered her head. “We can’t. The doors are sealed with the most sophisticated lock in all of Rapture. A safety precaution to keep out ravenous Splicers. You need a special key encoded with Summer Rain’s genetic information to get it open.” She spared a glance back, catching the look of horror Rarity wore. The others shared similar expressions. Her point made, Twilight sighed again and continued down the tunnel.
“Like I needed another reason to hate her guts...” Rainbow muttered, falling in line with the rest.
“He’s basically in an induced sleep state,” Twilight continued in what she hoped was some sort of consolation. “As soon as we deal with Rain, we can wake him up and get that... thing out of him.”
The objections at the forefront of Rarity’s mind where forced into silence. As much as she wanted to help the little dragon, there would be a time for that later. It was just one more crime Rain would have to answer to.
The group came to the end of the glass passageway, where a sign that read ‘Welcome to Minerva’ was mounted over a sealed metal door. On the left side was a deactivated Talk-box, its crystals dark, and on the other side, a sealed control panel. Twilight promptly went to the panel on the right side of the door and removed its covering with her magic, then began fiddling with the electronics inside.
The Talk-box suddenly sparked to life. It released a squeal of static that interrupted her work, followed by a familiar, sly voice. “Trying to break into my home, are you?”
“Rain!” shouted the four mares at the front of the group. Fluttershy fell to the floor at the sudden sound, covering her eyes. Pinkie hardly looked interested, scowling out the window at a group of fish that she decided were simply too orange.
The silky voice of Summer Rain chuckled. “I suppose breaking and entering isn’t much of a stretch for traitors, thieves and killers such as yourselves. But a mare’s home is her castle, quite literally in this case, and shall be defended as such.”
Rainbow’s wings snapped open and she dug at the ground with a sparking hoof. “We’re coming for you Rain, you hear me?! You’ll pay for threatening my friends!” She snorted, her Element regaining a fraction of its lost illumination.
“Oh yes, well in that case, it appears you have me beaten,” Rain’s soft voice teased through the Talk-box’s crystals. “I suppose I should just give up then. Here, allow me to get the door for you.”
“Everypony get back!” Twilight cried suddenly, abandoning the panel. “The defenses are still active!”
With a hiss, the large metal door retracted upwards. The room beyond was a destroyed entrance foyer, with two rows of marble columns reaching up to the high ceiling. Broken statues of ponies lay between the columns, and defaced paintings of Rapture's founders hung from the walls or lay smashed on the ground. The remains of several bodies lay scattered on the polished floors. At the far end was another heavy door, flanked on either side by a pair of active turrets mounted onto armoured desk chairs. Their targeting spotlights instantly focused on the mares and turned from green to red.
Four guns opened fire simultaneously.
“Move!” Twilight shouted, wrapping her iron wings around her body and stepping in front of the stream of bullets. “Now!”
Hot lead ricocheted off her artificial wings as AJ and Rarity dove to the left side of the opened doorway for cover. Rainbow, Fluttershy and Pinkie fled to the right, where they were joined by Twilight once they were clear.
With their targets no longer visible, the guns fell silent, and Twilight immediately went back to work on the opened control panel.
“L-Looks like we have to go back...” Fluttershy sputtered while the unicorn tried to hack the defenses. Getting shot at was still a new experience for the skittish pegasus; one she never wished to repeat as long as she lived. Fluttershy turned back down the red tinted hall, but felt a tug on her tail before she’d made it two steps.
Rainbow Dash yanked her back and spit out a mouthful of dirty pink hair. “We can’t just leave, Fluttershy!” Her foreleg crackled with blue electricity as she peeked around the door frame. “If that’s where Dumber Rain is hiding, I’m not gonna let some stupid chairs stop me from getting in!”
“Rainbow, don’t!” Twilight cried a second too late as they resumed shooting immediately, hardly taking a second to aim. Dash pulled her head back as the bullets narrowly missed lobotomizing her, then smashed through the glass walls behind them. Several streams of water sprayed through the fresh bullet holes.
“Leave them to me!” Rarity chimed, readying her own plasmid. “I had a run in with these awful contraptions already; one quick burst of ice should do the trick.”
Twilight shook her head, “No! Rarity, these are specialized turrets designed by Summer Rain herself; they can find targets and lay down suppressing fire in three-fifths of a second!”
“Then I shall have to freeze them faster than that,” Rarity replied with a confident toss of her regal mane. “Plus, I can use a magic shield to protect myself; I held off an ocean with one, after all.”
Twilight looked far from convinced, but their position wasn’t improving. A trickle of cold water touched her rear hoof and she reluctantly nodded across the deadly gap.
Rarity smiled and enveloped herself with a shimmering field of magic. With a deep breath, she stepped into the line of sight and lifted her icy leg. The turrets were already shooting by the time she unleashed a freezing torrent of magic at the machines to her left. Two of them froze solid and fell silent, but the others were too fast, and Rarity’s protection spell wasn’t strong enough to hold back the steady bombardment.
The faint glow of her Element went out completely as she aimed at the second set of gun/chairs. The shots connected and her barrier of magic shattered. Rarity let out a cry of pain and fell to the floor, three holes on her side turning her elegant white coat crimson red.
“Rarity!” Applejack jumped out of the safety of her cover to pull her injured friend back out harm’s way, leaving a bloody smear across the floor. Rarity wailed like a banshee while AJ quickly fished a medical kit out of her supply sling. “Fluttershy, Ah need yer help ta patch her up!” Applejack called across to the yellow pegasus, curled up as small as she could on the other side of the door. Ice shattered in the other room, telling them that both of the frozen turrets were back up and running.
“I- I can’t...” Fluttershy stammered, her legs unwilling to move. Rarity was bleeding badly, but to help, she’d have to step out into the path of the turrets! A sharp crack echoed from behind; more holes had opened in the walls of the tunnels and red sea water surged in avidly.
Twilight noticed the increased flow and gasped, “Girls! We don’t have time, if the gangway collapses then we’ll all be- GAH!” Her warning was cut short when Rainbow shoved her against the curved wall.
“Listen up, egghead. Rarity was just shot! We ain't’ moving till she’s been patched up, got it?”
“Not helping, Dash!” Applejack said as she dumped the medkits contents onto the floor and began unrolling gauze. She tossed the empty kit to the floor, where it stared up at Pinkie with a smug grin.
“Now’s you chance to get out of here!” it whispered to her. “Use one of these chumps as cover and make a run for the sub!”
“N-No...” Pinkie whispered, glancing back down the way they came. It really isn’t that far...
Twilight struggled in Rainbow’s grasp. “There’s nothing I can do! I’ve been locked out of the system!”
“Then unlock yourself out and shut the door!”
"That’s not how hacking works!” Twilight rolled her eyes, flapping her metal wings wildly.
“Do it! Do it! Do it!’ chanted the med kit.
“RAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! I’ve had ENOUGH!” Pinkie cried from the back of the group. Her eyes flared with an anger she could no longer keep bottled up. “I don’t want to watch ponies get hurt anymore! I don’t want to see my friends argue, and I really don’t want to be used!”
Around her neck, the bronze Element flared with a fiery red glow that mirrored the look in her eyes. Pinkie barred her teeth and hopped past the others into the opulent deathtrap, crushing the empty medkit under-hoof as she went.
“Pinkie get back!” Applejack called, dropping the gauze as the guns roared back to life.
“Nopony gets to control me anymore!” Pinkie screamed. A immaterial glow distorted the air in front of her, and the four streams of hot lead seemed to weave around it, missing her entirely. “I don’t like being told what to think, not by the meanies in my head, not by ponies who’re supposed to be my friends, and certainly not by dusty old hats!”
“...Hats?” Rainbow repeated, releasing the pressure on Twilight’s neck.
Pinkie broke into a charge, fueled by her unbridled fury, and telekinetically lifted the four super turrets into the air as they fired wildly in vain. “If I want to feel mad, then I’ll feel mad! But I will not give in and let someone tell me how to feel!” and with that, Pinkie crumpled the death machines into metal balls of whirring motors and sparks. She effortlessly tossed them at the reinforced office door, where they exploded on impact in a fireball that dented the door inward and tore it from its hinges.
Clicking gears, spraying water and labored panting filled the quiet that ensued as the rest of the group dared to peek into the smoky room. Fluttershy ran over to Rarity and Applejack. Calling on her years of experience treating injured forest animals, she began to clean and dress the wounds. Twilight cautiously stepped in and approached the pink mare trembling by herself in the empty foyer.
“Pinkie? Are you... alright?”
“No,” Pinkie said without looking back. “I’m still mad. At you.”
Twilight stopped, halfway in. “Yes. As you should be. I’m so sorry for what I did to you Pinkie. I... I should have found another way.”
The pink mare made no reply, standing alone and trying to reign in her anger. With Rarity being taken care of by somepony more skilled than her, Applejack ventured into the foyer behind Twilight.
“She... stopped the bullets?” the confused farmer asked, observing the matching collection of smoking bullet holes on either side of the entrance. “How did she do that? Rarity’s shield couldn’t even stop ‘em, an’ she’s a proper unicorn. No offense, Pinkie...”
“It was her Element,” Twilight said morosely. “They are powered by strong emotion, just like the original Elements, though they're exclusively activated by the bonds of harmony and friendship.” She removed the tiara from her head and stared down at her creation with sad eyes. “These Elements are most sensitive to strong friendships, but they can react to other emotions too if they are strong enough, including... anger. That’s how they wanted them to work...”
She put the regal piece of technology back on with a resigned sigh. “What I did made Pinkie upset enough to supercharge her plasmid with the Element. The amount of pure rage she’d need to do that is... I- I’m so sorry I betrayed your trust Pinkie.”
The pink mare sighed heavily, finally getting control of her shaking. “Is Rarity okay?” she spat.
“...I’ll be alright,” the white unicorn said weakly, leaning on Fluttershy and Rainbow for support as she entered the bullet-riddled foyer on unsteady hooves. White bandages were wrapped expertly around her torso, and she clutched a bottle of painkillers tightly.
“You really shouldn’t be moving around like this...” Fluttershy grumbled under the weight of the injured unicorn.
“I’m fine,” Rarity assured them, earning a hard glare from the usually diminutive pegasus. “Well not fine fine, but we’re far too close for me to rest up now. Summer Rain is just beyond that door after all, and... being very quiet, actually.”
“You don’t think she made a break for it?!” Rainbow cried as she darted forward, dropping Rarity to her knees. “Oops, my bad, Rare!”
Twilight eyed the broken doorway cautiously. “The only other way out of there is by Bathysphere, but ours is the only one still operational.”
“Well then what are we doing out here?” Rainbow asked as she helped Rarity back to her hooves. The unicorn gave her a contemptuous glare. “What? I said I was sorry....”
“Let’s just get this over with,” Pinkie grumbled, sitting up and trotting over to the damaged door. With the added power of her Element, she easily swept away the twisted metal and sparking turrets. Peeking into the office beyond, her full body shakes returned in full force.
Applejack noticed the odd way Pinkie was moving without walking, and was struck with another memory from long ago. “Uhh, am Ah the only one who thinks the way she’s bouncin' around looks familiar?”
Rainbow looked up, but the jittery mare had already disappeared into the office. “Doesn’t she always do that?”
Twilight also vaguely recognized the erratic movement, but couldn’t quite recall the context relating to the last time she’d seen it. “I think AJ may be right. Wasn’t it... Something to do with her Pinkie sense, but...”
“Guys! Get in here NOW,” Pinkie called from within, ending all speculation on her erratic behavior.
Leaving the others to help Rarity, Twilight rushed into the spacious office. “Pinkie, what’s wrong, did you find-” she came to a full stop next to the friend she had so greatly wronged, her eyes going wide with shock as she took in the sight before her. “R-Rain?”
As with the rest of the grandiose city, the office of its creator was decked out with all the finest luxuries of excess. Safe from the increasingly psychopathic citizens, the workspace had retained much of its former glory; from the intricate frescoes running around the ceiling to the well stocked bookshelves and polished golf clubs in the corner.
Only two details insinuated that something was amiss; the first being a layer of dust that had settled on every surface, something that would be absent in a room under constant use.
The second was draped over a wide, mahogany desk and giving the stale air a foul smell that Fluttershy recognized the moment she entered the office with the others. She nearly fainted when she located its source.
“Is that her?” Pinkie asked Twilight, pointing at the decaying corpse of a pegasus mare sitting alone at her dusty desk.
“Well, this is just PERFECT!” Rainbow Dash laughed, throwing her forelegs into the air. “I can really feel the closure here...”
“R-Rainbow, just try to c-calm down...” Twilight said as she draped a blanket over the half-rotten body.
Rainbow laughed again, “Calm down?! You really must have lost your mind if you think now is the time to be calm.”
“Dash, please,” Rarity implored, resting on an exquisite rug from Saddle Arabia, and getting blood all over it. “Twilight didn’t know about this... isn’t that right?”
Twilight slowly shook her head. “I... no! It doesn’t make any... how can she be dead?!” She lifted the blanket and checked the dead mare’s flank. The scars were a perfect match to the ones Rain had self-inflicted.
“Funny, I was wondering the same thing,” Rainbow said, turning away from the grisly sight. All I wanted was to make her pay for hurting us... That doesn’t make me the same as Lightning Dust, does it? She pushed the thoughts away as fast as she could. What did it matter anymore? Lightning Dust was dead, and apparently Rain too.
Applejack shouldered past the brooding pegasus and got as close to the seated cadaver as she dared. “Twilight, what the hay is going on here?”
The sad unicorn gave an almost imperceptible shrug and looked away.
“I’ll tell you what’s going on,” Rainbow piped up again, pointing a hoof at Twilight. “She just wanted the Elements for herself! I mean, we’ve been here for what, a day and a half?” In a flash, she flew across the room and tore the covering off Rain’s decaying remains. “That doesn’t happen overnight. So there never even was a Summer Rain! Not while we were here, just Twilight getting us to do her dirty work so she could escape this dump! All we did here... All I did... Oh Celestia.”
Twilight flinched backwards in shock. “Rainbow! You know I- I would never...” betray the trust of my friends, she was going to say, but the words caught in her throat when she realized they weren’t true. Instead, she began breathing faster, panic and uncertainty beginning to set in.
Slowly, Fluttershy trotted over the the body. She picked up the blanket and re-covered Rain, noticing her skull had been violently caved in by something heavy. “Twilight, please... tell me Rainbow Dash is wrong.”
Twilight swallowed hard and forced her hyperventilating to an end. “She’s wrong, Fluttershy.” She looked the kindly mare in her relentless teal eyes and hoped beyond hope she would be believed. “I swear to you, on the friendship we once had, on whatever good is left inside me, on all the books in all of Equestria! I did not know she was dead! I didn’t know!”
Rainbow scoffed, pacing back and forth before the desk. “You said all we had to do was find the Elements, take care of Rain, and then we’d get out of here. Now it turns out we’ve been chasing a ghost this whole time!”
Someone laughed delicately in the back of the office. “And oh, what a merry chase it was.” It was the same smooth voice they'd heard many times, only only this time, there wasn't a hint of Talk-box static or distortion.
“Rain!” Rainbow ripped the covering away again, only to find the same dead mare as before underneath. “She’s... still dead? Then... what? I’m not the only one confused here, right?”
“There! Look!” Pinkie shouted, pointing at a shimmering shape moving out of a dark corner of the room next to a disused chemistry lab.
“Rest assured, she is quite dead, unless that foul thing has a pulse,” the invisible pony said as it neared the group.
“Then who does that make you? Show yourself!” Rainbow demanded, placing herself between the specter and the others.
Behind her, Pinkie’s shaking restarted with renewed strength. “I-i-i-it-t-t-t’s-s-s, it-t-t’s-s...” she tried to speak, but her chattering teeth turned her words into garbled gibberish.
“...Galt?” Fluttershy asked, noticing the obscure glimmering of an invisibility spell. “It can’t be!”
“That infuriating spy? I should think not,” Rain’s silky voice said, then its owner removed the invisibility spell. "And here I thought I'd killed him months ago." A mottled, brown earth pony appeared in the center of the office. He wore a smart, pinstripe blazer, and a strange silver contraption was clasped around his neck. The stallion smirked at the floored mares and slicked his short, black mane off to the side, “How nice to- Oh, just a moment,” he said with Summer Rain’s voice, then flicked a switch on the silver device and spoke again in a deeper tone more fitting a male. “Ah, that’s much better. How nice to finally meet you, face-to-face.”
“D-d-d-do-oo-ooo-z-z-z-eeee! D-d-doo-z-z-eee...!” stuttered Pinkie, her shaking reaching a fevered pitch.
“It... it’s a doozy!” Fluttershy gasped, finally recognizing Pinkie’s shakes for what they were. None of the others seemed to noticed, their attention focused solely on the new arrival.
Twilight was the first to shed the stupor his sudden appearance had caused. Her wings drooped and her eyes went wide, “Chicane? But, you’re the one who’s supposed to be dead! Rain blew up your Bathysphere when she banished you years ago!”
Chicane held up a condescending hoof. “Ah! Correction, you saw a Bathysphere I was supposed to be in explode,” he said with a smug smile, removing a red playing card from his jacket. “Any magician worth his weight in salt will tell you the importance of sleight of hoof.” With a wave of his hoof, the red card became black, and was neatly deposited back into a coat pocket.
“So, it's been you this whole time?” asked Applejack as she began to piece it all together. “Settin’ them Splicers loose and separatin’ us up? The one who shot at Pinkie?” She could feel a familiar heat rising in her foreleg, one she wouldn’t be able to contain much longer.
The dapper stallion seemed nonplussed by her fiery display. “Well, it certainly wasn’t the ghost of Hearth’s Warmings past over there,” Chicane replied, waving a hoof absently at what was left of Summer Rain.
“But, why? Why would you do this?” Twilight asked, her own temper rising. “She trusted you, Chicane! Took you in when you had nothing and gave you a chance to build the life you’ve always dreamed of!”
“You speak so highly of her,” the stallion rolled his eyes, trotting over to the golf clubs lined up on the wall. “I must say that’s odd for a traitor like you. And for the record, locking you up was her idea, that and those silly letters,” he said, levitating out a club and swinging it casually. “I wanted to simply toss you out of an airlock. But then that was the difference between her and I; action.”
“Wait, what letters?” Rarity asked, trying to follow everything that happened from her rug.
“My letters. I've been feeding lies to the Princess ever since her little spy showed up. Not to mention you lot.” Chicane replied evenly, “Have you not received the various tales of 'Twilight Sparkle’s world-wide adventures'? They're some of my finest works of forgery. Not to toot my own horn but... toot toot.”
“Well, yeah. Several actually,” Rainbow said, never taking her eyes off the smug earth pony. “I never gave them much thought, and then we came here... I assumed she’d been lying to us again.”
Twilight looked away, as if she had been struck.
Chicane’s smile grew. “Nope, that was all me. Rain wanted to make sure no outside interference would be involved. No cavalry coming over the horizon. Looks like she failed on that front, too.”
Twilight scowled and marched right up to the stallion. “I... She was many things. As insane as her visions for Equestria’s future are... were, I respected her!” she said, jabbing Chicane’s chest with a hoof. “She was a mare of substance, unlike you and that sadist Hoofhardt.”
“Oh please, you're no better than either of us.” Chicane swatted her hoof away with the club, then floated out a handkerchief and wiped the dirt off his dress shirt where Twilight had touched him.
“I came here to bring Summer Rain to justice,” Twilight said with a sharp edge to her words. “You bashed in her skull.”
“You make me sound like some common killer!” Chicane spat back, “You think I wanted things to end this way? She forced me to do it! There were none in all of Rapture who shared her ‘insane’ vision more than I, but she was too cowardly to make her own future a reality! We had everything we needed, but she was too weak to carry through with it. She got soft, she did nothing, and the city fell apart. Wanted to stay down here. But where she failed, I will succeed! Mark my words, Equestria will have its revolution, and I will lead the way to freedom!” He shouted, tossing the golf club across the office where it landed in place with the others.
The group fell quiet as Chicane’s speech ended. His eyes were filled with a righteous hatred that left no doubt weather he’d go through with his conquest. In the ensuing quiet, a new noise became prevalent, that of rattling teeth. All eyes turned away from the angry maniac to the trembling pink mare by the door.
“H-h-he-he’s-” Pinkie tried to say, when her violent shaking came to a sudden stop. She blinked in confusion, “Huh, guess he’s not the doozy then.”
Rarity raised an eyebrow, “Whatever are you talking about?”
“Oh, I guess you weren’t at Froggy Bottom Bogg that one time,” Pinkie said as she examined her steady limbs. “Neither was Dash, actually. You guys really missed out on a big adventure!”
“It’s her Pinkie sense,” Fluttershy explained. “Last time this happened we were attacked by a hydra!”
“Of course!” Applejack said, amazed she could forget such an insane afternoon, “But, if she’s sensin’ a doozy, and it ain’t Chicane-”
“Uh, I’m still here you know?” he cut in, drawing the attention of the room back to himself. “Don’t mind me though, feel free to keep reminiscing while I plot a hostile takeover...”
“Right, I think we’ve established that this dude is the bad guy,” Rainbow said, charging up her plasmid. “If we’re all done talking, can we please just zap this jerk and be done with it?”
“Hold up. Something about this ain’t right...” said Applejack. First Rain turns out to be dead, then this guy shows up and Pinkie senses a doozy? What're we missing here?
Rainbow gestured at the dead body and the pony responsible standing a few feet away. “No kidding! So let’s harmony-blast away till everything is fine! Twilight, turn these knockoffs on already, will ya?”
Chicane lept back so over-dramatically even Rarity had to roll her eyes. “Oh! How could I forget about the Elements! Looks like this is the end for me; no more cards up my sleeves, no sleeves at all now!” There was a poof of magic, and the sleeves on his jacket vanished. A whole deck worth of cards fell to the floor, all of them aces. “Guess you’d better do what little miss ants-in-her-pants says and fire away!”
“I’m not even wearing pants!” Rainbow snapped before she could think up a proper comeback.
“Girls, get in formation,” Twilight ordered. She closed her eyes as the others fell in behind her. Her tiara lit up with a brilliant white magic which spread to the dull gems around the necks of the other Bearers. “Chicane; as punishment for your grave crimes against the Royal Crown and all of Equinity, I find you to be guilty and thus sentence you to-”
“Oh get on with it,” he interrupted, “I have important things to do today. Regicide isn't something you do half-assed.”
“Twi, please, Ah’m telling you something is wrong here!” Applejack couldn’t shake the nagging feeling, and Chicane’s indifference in the face of what should have been certain defeat wasn’t helping.
“Yeah, and he’s standing right in front of us!” said Rainbow, glaring at the would-be tyrant.
The glowing intensified and the six mares lifted gently into the air. One by one, the Elements added their power to Twilight’s tiara. A faint blue light sparked off Rainbow’s, Rarity’s and Applejack’s, but a red one arced off Pinkie’s. It didn’t seem to add much to the overall light, if fact, it appeared to diminish it! Fluttershy’s Element remained dark, adding no spark of its own at all.
“Goodbye, Chicane.” Twilight opened her eyes, her pupils matching the brightness of her tiara. She tilted her head back and released the harmonic energy, firing a beam of raw power at the stoic brown pony.
The rainbow that was loosed from her crown was not what Twilight had been expecting.
Unlike the other times she and her friends used the real Elements of Harmony, the beam was off-colour and badly faded, like something out of an old photograph. It spread lethargically across the office, where it collided into Chicane’s raised shield spell and was repelled, leaving him completely unharmed.
“Hey, isn’t he supposed to turn into stone or something?” Rainbow pointed out as the white light dissipated and she returned to the ground.
“You think you lot are the only ones with plasmids?” Chicane chuckled as the magic swirled around him and coalesced into a ball of energy in the pit of his hoof. “I invented the things you know; always wanted to do magic as a colt, but had to settle for cheap tricks.” He focused his own synthetic magic on the ball, changing it into a crimson red. “And now, I believe it is my turn.”
He thrust his hoof forward and sent the ball of fiery energy back at the mares who’d cast it. The magic burst into hundreds of glowing insects that washed over them like a vengeful hurricane. They cried out in pain as the bugs bit and stung them relentlessly, each one felt like being pinched by red-hot pliers.
Thankfully, the spell didn’t last long. The bugs dissolved back into the ether; leaving Twilight and her old friends sprawled on the floor covered in raw sores and debilitating welts.
“Now, I will just be taking these back,” Chicane said coolly as the bronze necklaces floated away from the twitching ponies wearing them.
“No! I won’t let you get away with this!” Twilight gasped, reaching out to grab the crown and feeling pain dance across her whole body.
“Funny, that’s exactly what Rain said right before I showed her my long drive.” Chicane joked while he collected the six pieces of magic jewelry. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll just be taking these down to ADAM production, along with Rain’s genetic code. I’ve got a date with a Princess, and I’d hate to keep her waiting.”
“You’ll... never beat Celestia! She’s had bowel movements tougher than you!” Rainbow grunted, ignoring the crippling pain and raising her empowered hoof. Electricity arced along its surface, releasing blood and pus from under her cracked skin. She screamed and shut her eyes, but managed to send a short blast of blue lightning at Chicane before her EVE gave out.
The zap rolled off his shield like raindrops on an umbrella. “Wow, I’ve gotten worse shocks than that from doorknobs...” Chicane shook his head, then added, “Bonus points for imagery, though.”
“Don’t... encourage... her...” groaned Rarity.
“He’s going to use the Elements to increase ADAM production,” Twilight said, wincing as she attempted to get back to her feet. “And he’s going to pour it all into himself! Rain was planning on raising an army, but you’re going to attack all alone, aren’t you?”
“A magician never reveals his trick, Clap-trap,” said Chicane, rubbing a hoof on his jacket and magically reattaching its sleeves.
Applejack opened a tin of salve she got from Rarity’s medkit and slathered it over her wounds. “You can gloat all you want, but Princess Celestia’s still gonna stomp you into the ground! ...Right, Twi?” she finished weakly, passing the salve to Rarity.
“With that much power... there’s no telling if anything would be able to,” she replied, fully realizing the nefarity of Chicane’s plan. “He- he could burn down all of Canterlot without breaking a sweat-”
Chicane laughed again. “Yes, but then where would I put all the treasure ponies pay me to not burn their homes down?”
Rarity passed the salve to Fluttershy, but she didn’t take it. The small pegasus could only gape up at the stallion with disdain. “You, you really are a monster,” she breathed through her clenched jaw.
Chicane’s smile waned slightly, and his left eye twitched. “You fight a monster long enough and turning into one becomes inevitable. All I wanted from Celestia was the power to do magic, and what does she tell me? TOO BAD! You weren’t BORN WITH IT, TOUGH LUCK KID. She became my enemy that day, just as she became Rain’s, and now she will have to answer to ME.”
With that, the furious earth pony teleported away in a flash of light, his manic laughter resounding back through the hole in space-time. The mares left behind continued to administer the soothing salve, when there was another flash a few seconds later and Chicane reappeared.
“Oh, and please don’t try to follow me. I’ve sealed the exits and set Minerva to implode. I know that will likely make you want to follow me more, but there’s a teleport inhibitor on the whole building. Only works if you got the genetic code. Which you don’t. If you still feel like trying though, ask Twiley here what happened to the donkey we tested it on. Now, I really must go. God-hood awaits!” Then he was gone once again.
“Minerva destruction in, five minutes,” said a mechanical voice over the loudspeakers. “Please vacate the area. WARNING, teleport suppression field active. You now have four minutes, fifty seconds to evacuate.”
Acting on pure willpower, Twilight ignored her bug bites and went to Summer Rain’s desk. She felt around underneath and pressed the secret button Rain had showed her once before. The rich wood finish flipped over, and a terminal screen and input device rotated into place. “Rain should have control over all of Rapture’s subsystems from here. If I can bypass the encryption, I can stop the countdown and lift the inhibitor, then we can-”
“No!” Rainbow cried, covered in creamy salve and fighting mad. “Everything you say only leads us to more trouble, so guess what? I’m calling the shots now!”
“What?! But, what about Chicane!?” Twilight shot back, already picking at the keys with her hooves. “There’s no time, we- we can’t just let him get away!”
“There are now four minutes and thirty seconds to evacuate,” warned the loudspeakers.
The screen flipped back down into the desk under Rainbow’s blue hoof. “Forget him! We ain’t dying for a city that’s been trying to kill us since we got here! I say we bust the door down, take the sub outta here and warn the Princesses.”
“We don’t have time!” Twilight protested, but found no support in the eyes of the group.
“I’m afraid I must agree with Rainbow, for once,” Rarity said in answer to Twilight’s pleading look. “Things have gone quite awry, perhaps it’s time we hand things over to somepony who can handle this? Like the current Bearers of the real Elements of Harmony?”
“I think we should go, too,” whispered Fluttershy. She didn’t exactly know what ‘imploding’ was, but that only scared her more.
“But, we have to do this!” begged Twilight, “I have to do this! If we don’t end things here-”
Applejack sighed and shook her head. “Look Twilight... we tried, alright? I told you on the sub, we just ain’t what we used ta be no more.”
“If we leave now, then it will be too late! Chicane will become an unstoppable force of destruction that will bring pain and destruction to every corner of Equestria!”
“Pain and destruction, huh?” Rainbow sneered. “Say, what exactly did happen to that donkey Chicane mentioned?”
Twilight’s jaw dropped, but she was unable to cover an involuntary wince. “That was different, Mr. Chestnut knew the risks, he just wanted to help and...” Try as she might, the others didn’t look very convinced. “Look, I know what I did was wrong, but we need to fix things-”
“No, you need to fix things,” AJ cut in again. “That’s what all of this has ever been about. That’s why you brought us here in the first place. So we could save yer hide, and give you some sort of redemption you could cling to, then pretend everything was back to normal.”
“There are now four minutes to evacuate.”
“That’s not the truth!” Twilight said as her tears fell onto Rain’s desk.
“Then what is?” Applejack asked quietly.
Twilight closed her eyes, picturing the tiny cell she had spent months wallowing in. It was there that she’d assumed Rapture had broken her spirit, but in truth, it had happened long before then. “I lost myself down here. It happened gradually, so much so that I didn’t even notice until it was too late. Rain took me under her wing; got me involved with the other scientists in Rapture, got me working on my own projects. But I was changing, absorbed by the infinite prospects. I knew- I thought, that if I had my friends by my side... they could remind me who I used to be.”
The jail cell in her mind faded away, leaving her alone in an unending blackness, lost and alone for all eternity. Twilight opened her damp eyes and looked at the faces of those she’d wronged. Even with the five of them in the same room as her, the feeling of loneliness lingered.
“That’s not what happened though,” Fluttershy said, in the sternest voice she could muster. “Don’t you see? You’re still the same Twilight who experimented on innocent ponies, deer and apparently donkeys too. You expected us to make you better, but you just made us worse.”
“I never wanted that!” Twilight blurted. “You have to believe me when I say that.”
Rainbow stepped away from the desk, joining the others on the far side. “Maybe I would have believed the old Twilight, but now.... I don’t know.”
Twilight sat hard on the floor and sobbed. She glanced down at the decaying body of Summer Rain; an angry and confused mare, all she’d wanted was the chance at a better life. Not just for herself, but everypony. But she wasted her chance to do good on vengeance. Rain was furious because others wouldn’t see her point of view, but she was unwilling to see theirs, and she ended up dying alone, betrayed by one of her own supporters.
“I hate myself for what I did. I hate that I was weak enough to abandon my morals, and I hate that because of my actions, ponies are dead. There was so much pain in my cell with me, but there was one thing I held onto; that kept me going and reminded me of the good within myself.”
“What was-s-s-s i-it-t-t?” Pinkie asked, moving out of the crowd to the crying unicorn on rattling limbs.
“You. All of you!” Twilight looked up at Pinkie, smiling through her tears. “The memories of our time together in Ponyville gave me hope, and made me realize what was at stake, what I let slip away far too easily. I respected Rain, almost as much as I feared her and her vision of the future. I could see Equestria burning in my nightmares, and I was powerless to stop it. When I felt the connection to Pinkie, I knew I had to do something, anything to prevent the disaster.”
Her smile faded, and she had to look away. “I couldn’t imagine how much it would cost me, but I can’t give up.” Twilight flipped the screen back out of the desk. “I won’t let my mistakes spread, no matter what happens to me.”
“There are now three minutes to evacuate. Please vacate the area immediately.”
Out in the ocean, an explosion rocked Minerva’s foundations. The office shook, kicking up a cloud of settled dust and knocking the ponies inside off their hooves. “Secondary charges blown. Setting Primaries.” the automated voice droned as the aftershocks died down and the underwater castle became still, minus one pony who continued to shake all over.
“Come on, we have to go now!” Rainbow took to the air and flew to the broken entry to herd the others out, when she noticed Pinkie shaking like a paint mixer. “Uhh, you okay there Pinkie?”
The jittery mare didn’t seem to hear. She shook harder and harder, bouncing right off the ground and bulging out with a sharp pop. The others backed away as she settled back on the floor and stood perfectly still.
Pinkie briefly inspected herself, then cheerfully exclaimed, “I forgive you!”
Twilight blinked a few more tears loose, her mouth working to speak but only managing a feeble, “...What?”
Fluttershy gasped, “That was the doozy?”
“Eeeeeyep! I really didn’t see it coming, but there it is!” Pinkie said with a huge smile, then turned to the shell-shocked Twilight. “I forgive you! For hacking my brain, and for what you did down here. And for leaving us to travel Equestria in the first place.”
“WHAT!?” Rainbow fell from the air, landing on her rump. “Are you crazy Pinkie? How can you forgive her, just like that?!”
“Easy! Because she’s my friend. And I should have been there for my friend the whole time,” Pinkie replied, locking Twilight in a soul-crushing hug. “Maybe none of this would have happened in the first place if we’d been there for Twilight when she needed us most, like we can be there for her now.”
“Pinkie, I can’t- No, what I did to you is beyond forgiveness.” Twilight fought against the hug, but was unable to break free.
“Too bad! I’m not mad at you anymore, so you’re just gonna have to accept it!” Pinkie squeezed harder, ending Twilight’s escape attempt with a pitiful squeak.
“There are now two minutes to evacuate.”
Rainbow groaned, tugging at her bottom eyelids, “Uuuuugh, we don’t have time! We need to get out of here now!”
“Not till the job is done,” Pinkie said, finally releasing Twilight and sitting firmly at her side. “I’m going to help my friend make things right! I mean, Equestria and a lot of lives are sorta at risk from all this.”
“Ah’m staying too.” Applejack blurted, joining Pinkie and Twilight behind Rain’s desk.
“Good grief...” Rainbow groaned again, releasing her eyelids and snapping them back into place.
Unlike Pinkie, Applejack didn’t grab Twilight in a loving embrace. She locked the metal-winged unicorn in a hard glare and said, “I can’t rightly say Ah’m willing ta give ya a clean slate, but Ah will give you a second chance. Ya’ll need all the help you can get, and so does Equestria. This ends right here, right now.”
The farmer’s harsh, but honest words left Twilight momentarily speechless. She stifled a few more sobs and stammered, “Applejack, after what you said- I... Thank you.”
AJ’s hard glare softened. “Thank me when we’ve finished saving us all.”
Finding her group of supporters dwindling, Rainbow threw her forelegs up. “I don’t believe what I’m hearing! She’s the one that got us into this mess in the first place!”
“This mess is bigger than any of us on our own, Dash,” Applejack said. “Which is why we need ta stick together and see it to the end if we want what we had together in Ponyville to exist past tomorrow! Maybe we can get back what we had, and maybe we can’t. But Ah know for certain that Ah want my foal to have a chance at the life Ah had, not to live in fear of some ADAM-fueled monster!”
Rainbow responded by crossing her arms and grumbling to herself.
“Yeah! Applejack’s- wait...” Pinkie began as she started to tremble again, “Your... f-f-foal?”
Rarity gasped, ignoring the flash of pain from her bullet wounds. “Applejack! Are you pregnant?”
The orange farmer flushed a deep red. Guess there’s no point in hiding it now... “Ah... think Ah might be. Pretty sure, actually.”
Pinkie exploded into the air again, landing with a with a massive smile that split her face in half, “Woah! Double doozy! Also, APPLEJACK’S HAVING A BABY!!”
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Fluttershy asked. She temporarily forgot about the impending destruction and imagined how happy Harvest Moon would be when he found out. Despite how scared she was, Fluttershy smiled.
“Well, Ah wasn’t sure at first.” Applejack removed her hat and scratched the back of her head, making sure she used her normal forehoof. “Then, Ah was scarred, and Ah really didn’t want ya’ll ta worry, especially if it turned out Ah was wrong.” She put her weathered cowpony hat back on with determination etched all over her freckled face. “But Ah still ain’t quitting, and Ah can’t sit this one out anyway. If Ah can save my youngin' from a life lived in fear, yer darn-tootin’ Ah’ll fight tooth and nail for it.”
“Yeehaw!” cried Pinkie, earning a round of incredulous stares. “What? It seemed appropriate.”
“I will also be staying then,” Rarity declared. “That brute needs ADAM for his little invasion. And as I understand, that means he’ll be using my little Spikey-wikey. I shall not allow that.” She turned to Twilight abruptly. "Er, he is still little, right, Twilight?"
Dash watched the injured unicorn limped around the desk, then slumped in defeat. “Well... I can’t miss out on a fight Rarity is in on... so I guess I’m staying too.” She sulked over, then grimaced and rubbed the back of her neck. “And... sorry I snapped at you Twi, for the whole Rain being dead thing. I was... just being a little dumb.”
Twilight couldn’t help but smile at the ponies amassing around her. “You’ve always been a loyal friend Rainbow Dash, even when I don’t deserve it.”
“Yeah well, maybe you should start trying to deserve it from now on?” Dash said with the ghost of a smile.
“I will, you have my word.” Twilight nodded.
“AJ’s having a baby! Ooooh this is so exciting!!” Pinkie bounced around the others, “I can start organizing the shower as soon as we take care of Meanie-McBugs-Up-His-Sleeves.”
Applejack rolled her eyes, then noticed the one pony who hadn’t joined Twilight. “How about it ‘Shy? Feel like joining the old team one more time to put the baddies in their place?” she asked hopefully.
Fluttershy couldn’t move or speak. She had been so close to getting out of Rapture, but now it looked as though there would be another fight. “I... I...” I’m not ready to forgive any of you. She wanted to say, but she just didn’t have it in her to crush their spirits just as they were starting to rise. Instead, Fluttershy swallowed the lump in her throat and said, “I don’t know how to drive the sub...” The sheepish pegasus remained where she sat, to the surprise of the rest of them.
“I understand, Fluttershy.” Twilight said morosely. Even being able to speak with her old friends was more of a gift than she felt she deserved. Despite Fluttershy’s lingering reproach, a warmth was returning to her heart, one she hadn’t felt in almost sixteen years.
Another percussive explosion rocked the office. “Sixty seconds until total destruction.”
“Uhh, as great as all this touchy-feely stuff is,” Rainbow said, struggling to keep her balance. “Would you mind doing that hacking stuff and stopping this place from, you know, imploding?”
“Oh! Right. That would be rather pertinent...” Twilight said, snapping out of her hopeful reprieve. She hammered away at the keypad, pulling up the Minerva defense grid and disabling the encryptions on all active commands.
“Countdown aborted. Have a prosperous day,” announced the automated voice.
“There!” Twilight exclaimed. “Ha, Chicane may be a master of illusionary tricks, but his skill with security systems leaves something to be desired.”
“Way to go, egghead! Way to save our butts!” cried Rainbow.
“What happens now?” Rarity asked, returning to a sitting position.
Pinkie Pie jumped out from behind her, bouncing in a circle around the stunned unicorn, “Well, first I’m gonna have to get a cake, and have Mr. Headliner make up some banners. Then I’ll need to unbox the good confetti and-”
“Ah don’t think she was referring to mah baby shower, Pinkie...” Applejack chuckled.
”Oh. Oh! Stop the bad pony first, right rightrightright,” Pinkie said, filling away her mental checklist for later.
“Well, I’ll need to make a new copy of Rain’s genetic key." Twilight said, tapping her chin as a plan formed in her mind. "Actually, it might take a while, so we should take the time to gather up some supplies while I work. Also, the entrance to the ADAM labs is crowded with desperate Splicers trying to get in, so somepony will need to clear them out. Once we get inside, we’ll need to find Chicane, get back the Elements and take him down before he becomes too powerful and causes the fall of Equestria as we know it.”
“Is that all?” Rarity stammered.
Rainbow smiled. “You know, as awesome as the Wonderbolts are, which they totally are... I’ve missed this.”
Twilight took in the sight of all her friends together. Things might not be perfect between them, but they were working together for the salvation of Equestria, and that was more than she could have asked for.
I have too.
Also LikedSimilarAuthor
- TheWritingWorkshop · 5.5k words · 14 4 · 593 views
- TheWritingWorkshop · 6.6k words · 22 1 · 947 views
- ThatMrSomeGuy · 27k words · 44 6 · 2.4k views
- LikeaBaws · 17k words · 52 6 · 2k views
- Swordomatic · 25k words · 59 1 · 1.6k views
- Fate is Manic · 7.2k words · 45 7 · 2.2k views
- MerlosTheMad · 12k words · 148 15 · 3.6k views
- BroSteve · 26k words · 58 4 · 4.3k views
Stats
Page generated in 0.163 seconds
Total duration
1,136 users online
1,807,165 hits today, 1,996,409 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
It's been too long, my love...
cs417523.vk.me/v417523409/322c/WzsjXPkSMkE.jpg
I hope, assuming the mare six survive Rapture, Mengele Twilight doesn´t get away so easily. One thing is to get her friends´ forgiveness, other is to expect the same for all her victims.
Can someone explain to me why this has a dislike?
yes twilight did somet6hing wrong not like....
rarity abandoned her friends for the canterlot elite all but disowning them for her stay and having the gull to place the elite over them during her trip.
or rainbows multiple trip[s up her own flank with her ego resulting in her treating her friends very badly.
or AJ's stubborn pride causing trouble not just for her friends but several disasters for her family.
and of couarse it's not liek last time they abandoned twilight it nearly caused the country to be invaded by parasights.
i'm sorry yes twilight did wrong but she is imperfect and by celestia she suffered worse for it then any of them have in the last few hours. if there not what they used to be anymore it's because all of them betrayed there elements not because twilight lost herself to science. this story is normaly a great mix of bioshock and mlp but this chapter? not up to your usual standard man.
3546054 because everyone has the right of an opinion, good or bad.
Things are heating up.
3546951
It was a rhetorical question
3546054 Haters gonna hate.
Spike. We need more of Spike here. I want him to be all beefed up and whatnot. I'm telling you again, he's going to be Delta. Also, in the end, (If Spike gets upgraded) I want him to stop Twilight from going back up to the surface, and say they don't belong up there anymore.
3546054
That dislike is from April! I'm just glad I haven't gotten more.
3546341
Rarity: Hiding her felllow townsfolk friends in order to impress Canterlot´s Elite.
AJ: Running away from her home.
Rainbow Dash: Boasting and being inconsiderate about the feelings of those next to her.
Twilight: Experimenting with innocent people, including children, creating abominations, sinking a ship with hundreds of passagers, manipulating and drawing her best friends into the hell she personally helped to create...
Well, nopony is perfect.
Dude, your moral compass is scary.
3547115 and mine was a rhetorical answer
3549840 the point is those living in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. yes what twilight did was wrong however it doesn't change that she is aware of the situation better then them...agian
and there initial soloution to a potentialy cataclysmic event is to turn on her and pretend she's crazy...agian.
Honestly I thought Chican would tell twilight a code word and tell her to kill her friends or take the elements and then kill herself and then they find out that she was controlled the whole time.
let's hope Twilight don't bring up some little thing about the effects of ADAM on unborn foals. now we wait for more.
You know. An ending I think would be great would be twilight sacrificing her life so her friends can escape and as they look back they forgive her and them honoring her when they return to the surface. That would be bitter sweet ending.
This has been a great lecture. i began to read because MerlosTheMad recomendation early this week. I have enjoyed your writting, for sure you know what you are doing. I have kinda suffered a bit with all the bad time the mares have been through, also with Fluttershy actitude. But i suppose it fits in Rapture, where everybody dark side comes out. Well i just want to say thaks for this excellent reading and i'm eager to read your next work
3561472
Thanks for the awesome comment! I'm really glad you think I know what I'm doing, cause there are times when I sure don't
This is undoubtedly the darkest thing I've written; my other stories are a tad on the silly side, but it's all good writing experience. I'm working on the last chapter now, should be out after/around the holidays!
3566285
about the "you know what are you doing", well, Im not an expert on English (I'm not ever native XD) but meant that your writting skill is very good, not just your story telling skills that are also good. 
How to explain it...? I like the story because, even it's not ideal/fangasm, it keep me hooked and I was reading it even while walking down the street XD. And the writting is also good because I see a good use of the grammar and the narration is well detailed :)
Well, I'm eager to read that last chapte. I'll try to get some time to read something else of your work
3551535
Hehe, Dbz, eh?
3729620 ...wut?
3732052 at one point during dragon ball z Goku tells Friza he was giving him a rhetorical answer, sending him into a rage over the silliness of it.
3732544 ...ahh...
3729620
3732052
Rhetorical questions? Who needs them?
3738262 the Rhetoricalns need them!
Helllo? Anyone still on the other side of the monitor? We've been waiting for quite a bit of time, ya' know, We gonna get that chapter?
4616281
I really want to finish this story. It's been ongoing for so long, I've just got a lot of interests and hobbies and I've been moving (and I like making excuses) So yes, I do plan on finishing.
But I haven't a clue when.
4631223 I understand. I still don't understand why my story has more than yours. You work much harder and write more.
OK, it's been a year since the last time this was updated and it's so close to the ending....so what's taking so long? I really hope this doesn't end up as a dead fanfic, it's not my most favorite crossover fanfic, but I got to at least know how it all ends, right? I mean for peter's sakes don't leave me hanging with just a cliffhanger!
Oh, and one more thing....I was half expecting Twilight to have been unknowingly under control by Chicane by some genetic code word or something, I mean this is a crossover to Bioshock after all.
5197519
I'll go pester him on facebook.
<.<
5197519 That'd be cool and will utterly blindside everypony xD
I think this guy has passed on, I mean, he hasn't been online since 2014, and it's 2023, either that or he just lost interest.