> BioShock: Infinite- A Steel Embrace
>  by djingledjango
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> The Monster
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


BioShock: Infinite- A Steel Embrace


Booker Dewitt sighed heavily as he and his current ally, a beautiful girl named Elizabeth, walked warily through the streets of the underwater utopia of Rapture. Andrew Ryan's brilliant and well lit halls gave a warm, cheery air to the place. The gigantic windows showed off the amazing array of undersea life surrounding the city. An enormous whale swam slowly by the window. Booker paid no attention to the beautiful surroundings he walked though, however. The private detective and the woman accompanying him were beginning to see the warning signs of an apocalypse in Rapture, and they wanted out. 

The war between Andrew Ryan and the rebel leader known as Atlas was coming to a head and only one would be emerging as the victor. The war was tearing the city apart, and residents were urged by Ryan to stay in their homes unless an emergency arose. Emergencies arose all the time due to the rebels causing chaos and destroying property. Chaos was erupting in new places every day in the beautiful city. The ensuing conflict caused the surface bathysphere to be locked off and used by no one, except certain individuals with a specially crafted key. One such key belonged to the scientist Yi Suchong who was employed by Ryan. 

"So...tell me how you did that." Booker said to Elizabeth, who regarded him with a raised eyebrow. 

"How I did what?" She asked him. He chuckled quietly to himself and shook his head. 

"You were able to distract those guards easily enough while I slipped past...but you kept them occupied...all the way until I was done getting into Suchong's facility." Booker explained. "You just seem like you have a lot more to you than you put off." Elizabeth smirked and looked forward. 

"I suppose the gift of gab just comes naturally to me as the gift of thievery comes naturally to you." She said. "You do have that key on your person now, after all." Booker smiled as they continued to move. The duo  currently and apprehensively moved toward the surface bathysphere to escape.

"Are you sure, I mean absolutely sure, they aren't following us?" Asked Booker. He knew that Ryan had a large amount of genetically altered and dangerous citizens, known as Splicers, at his disposal. If he knew of their theft of the key, he would surely have sent a group of them after the two of them.

"If I thought they were following us, I'd be opening tears to help us out." Elizabeth said. She possessed the strange and powerful skill to open small portals to other worlds, known as tears. "I'm sure they aren't following us."

"I haven't asked you your thoughts." Booker said to her as two paramedics carried a horribly mangled person on a stretcher. "Who do you think Atlas is?"

"I think he's a noble man." Elizabeth responded. "He seems to have his heart in the right place. The working class have nothing here in Rapture, and he's trying to get it for them. I respect that." 

"He's going about it the wrong way, though." Booker said, his eyebrows furrowing. "Whatever Atlas is planning, Ryan is ready for it. He'll win and Atlas is going to fail. All out assault on Andrew Ryan is about as good a plan as Napoleon's plan in the battle of Waterloo." 

"So you're a man of history, huh?" Elizabeth asked Booker, raising an eyebrow. 

"Let's not get distracted." Booker said. "Focus on the task at hand."

"We've got the key." Elizabeth said. "We're getting out of here. Might as well have some small talk while-"

"Stop!" Booker said harshly, putting a hand in front of Elizabeth. The woman wondered what was wrong before she looked ahead and saw the massive Bouncer series Big Daddy, accompanying a Little Sister through the halls. The massive syringe gripped soundly in her hand.

"How do you expect to get around him?" Elizabeth asked Booker, who turned and looked at her. 

"I'm open to ideas." He said. 

"He's sure as hell not going to let us get anywhere near her." Elizabeth said. "And it's a small hallway." 

"Hey!" A gruff voice called from behind them. "There they are!" The detective and his companion turned and saw four Splicers moving toward them furiously. Two of them held pistols while the others held vicious looking clubs.

"Take cover, Elizabeth!" Booker shouted as he drew his revolver from his coat and opened fire on the Splicers. The gunfire caught the attention of the Big Daddy, who growled and moved the Little Sister behind him. One of the Splicers shot at Booker but missed and hit the Bouncer. He must not have seen it down the hallway behind Booker's body. It's portholes glowed a deep red. 

"Oh shit." The splicer said as The Big Daddy charged for them. Booker jumped out of the way and took cover with Elizabeth behind a crate. 

"I thought you knew that we weren't being followed!" Booker said. 

"I didn't see any sign that we'd been found out!" Elizabeth said. "It's not like you've never made a damn mistake in your life." 

The Big Daddy roared as he launched his drill through the torso of one Splicer. He screamed in agony as the steel cable attaching the drill to the Big Daddy's arm became taut and pulled him into the crushing embrace of the metallic behemoth. It crushed the splicer's head with one squeeze of it's huge fingers. It then charged for the others, taking bullets like they were nothing and eviscerated two of them with a single swing of it's spinning drill before picking up the third one and bending him backwards, breaking his spine in two. The Bouncer threw the corpse onto the ground and turned to see Booker peeking over the edge of the crate he and Elizabeth were behind. Believing him to be another one of the Splicers, the Big Daddy began moving toward the crates.

"Get 'em, Mr. Bubbles!" The Little Sister cried out in joy as her protector's drill began to rotate.

"Elizabeth," Booker said to the woman next to him. She looked at him. "Think of the farthest place from here that you can...And open a tear." 

"Booker...you're not seriously..." Elizabeth began. 

"Do you want to be killed?" Booker asked her. She said nothing. "Then do it." Elizabeth reluctantly opened the tear and sat back. The land looked very different from Rapture, to be sure. It was bright and green, very plentiful. Some wild horses galloped through the fields. 

"Good." Booker said before holding his hand in front of the two of them. It lit up with electricity just as the Big Daddy threw the large crate to the side. A bolt of electricity came from his hand and seemed to paralyze the Big Daddy. Booker then threw down what looked to be a sort of mine in front of it. The electric shock seemed to fade away as the Big Daddy began to step forward, right onto the mine. The explosion wasn't massive, but it was enough to stagger the behemoth for a moment. Booker took the opportunity to move forward with all of his strength. He jumped and kicked the Bouncer with both feet, moving the Big Daddy back another foot or two...

Right into the tear. 

The whole occurrence took about three seconds before Elizabeth closed the tear. Booker breathed heavily and looked at his companion, who sighed and looked at her hands ruefully.

"What have I done?" Elizabeth said to herself. 

"What do you mean?" Booker asked with a small smile on his face. "We just cheated death there." He said. 

"I just sent that thing to another place...with other people." Elizabeth said. "They won't know what it is...it could kill them...a lot of them." 

"Better them than us, Elizabeth." Booker said as he looked at the Little Sister, who was currently crying at the loss of her protector. "Right?" He then looked at Elizabeth who still looked very guilty of her action. 

"Right?"


_____


"You want a piece of me?!" Scootaloo shouted angrily. "Bring it, you prissy little-" The young Pegasus escaped the hold of her two friends, Sweetie Belle and Applebloom and leaped over the desk she sat at before bounding toward the known bully of her class, Diamond Tiara. The prim little filly had said some rather unsavory things about her friends and when Scootaloo stood up for them, Diamond Tiara made a personal jab at Scootaloo's lack of flying ability. Diamond Tiara exited her seat and ran to the opposite side of the room, attempting to escape the suddenly terrifying wrath of her intended victim. 

"Scootaloo!" Cheerilee yelled suddenly, making Scootaloo stop in her tracks. Their teacher rarely raised her voice, but when she did, something serious was up. "Stop where you are right now!" 

"But Miss Cheerilee-" Scootaloo began, raising her eyebrows. 

"I don't want to hear it." Cheerilee said. "I'm so tired of you fighting Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon." Diamond Tiara stuck a tongue out at Scootaloo and blew a raspberry. "And I'm so tired of you bullying the three of them!" This grabbed Diamond Tiara's attention, as her eyes widened. 

"But-" Diamond Tiara began. 

"The both of you stay after class for detention." Cheerilee said. "An hour for you, Diamond Tiara. Scootaloo, you get forty five minutes." Scootaloo looked at her friends and shrugged. Diamond Tiara's mouth dropped. 

"But she attacked me!" Diamond cried out, nearly on the verge of tears. 

"Because you said something that was very personal and hurtful to her." Cheerilee said. "An hour for you. No exceptions." Scootaloo smiled to herself and sat down next to Applebloom and Sweetie Belle. 

"Why're ya smilin'?" Applebloom asked. "You have to stay after class for forty five minutes." 

"Yeah, but Diamond Tiara has to stay an hour." Scootaloo said. "I get to leave and she has to stay fifteen more minutes. I'll take it." The orange filly looked at her friends and smirked. 

"When you put it that way, that's a nice win for you!" Sweetie Belle said happily. They were interrupted by Cheerilee clearing her throat and tapping a hoof on the floor. The three fillies moved away from each other and sat straight up in their seats. 

"Sorry, Miss Cheerilee." The three fillies said almost in complete unison. 

The rest of class passed by relatively quickly. As the rest of the students left the schoolhouse, Scootaloo, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle all sat together. Unlike Scootaloo's friends, Diamond Tiara's friend Silver Spoon left her there alone. The spoiled little filly eyed the three cutie mark crusaders evilly, most likely plotting to do some horrible thing to them that she couldn't possibly hope to actually do. Cheerilee sat at her desk, bored of course, grading papers. She didn't bother to pay much of any visual attention to the four fillies sitting at their desks, but she had very acute hearing. None of the fillies said a word to each other. The crusaders raised their eyebrows at Diamond knowingly, which only served to infuriate their enemy even more. Taunting Diamond Tiara managed to stay a good way to entertain themselves for a good ten minutes. After that, they as well as Cheerilee, ebbed away into the flow of boredom. Applebloom teetered silently back and forth in her chair, Sweetie Belle fidgeted about with her hooves, and Scootaloo merely laid her head down on the table. 

"Okay." Cheerilee said. "Scootaloo, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle. You three are free to go." The cursaders cheered and smirked happily at Diamond Tiara. 

"What?!" Diamond Tiara nearly screamed. "They get to leave early?! Why would you let them leave early and not me?" Cheerilee leaned forward on her desk and furrowed her eyebrows. 

"Because. There are two things that I really cannot stand. A spoiled-rotten child who feels that it's entitled to anything it wants, and a bully. You just so happen to be both of those to a T." Cheerille turned to the three crusaders and smiled at them. "You three have a nice weekend. See you monday." 

"Bye, Miss Cheerilee!" Applebloom said.

"See you Monday!" Sweetie Belle called. 

"Thanks, Miss Cheerilee!" Scootaloo finished off their farewells as they left the building. They celebrated as they walked; this fantastic victory of their sworn enemy was not one they'd soon forget and one that they'd never let Diamond Tiara live down. 

"Alright!" Scootaloo said happily, rubbing her fore hooves together. "Applebloom! We're gonna have a complete blast tonight!" 

"You bet!" Applebloom replied. "We're gonna make a bonfire in my backyard, have candied apples and do all kinds of other cool stuff!" 

"You guys get to have all the fun!" Sweetie Belle sulked. "I have to help Rarity out on some stupid dress order." 

"Well, you could really try begging Rarity to let you stay with us tonight." Scootaloo said with a smirk. "Even though I don't think begging's your style." Sweetie Belle blushed intensely and looked away from her friends. 

"Actually, I already did beg." Sweetie said. "She still said no, and that this is a big order." 

"Are ya at least gettin' paid for any of it?" Applebloom asked her friend. "After all if you're helpin', you should get a cut of the profit."

"I already asked her that too." Sweetie Belle continued. "She said that whatever we make off this order is going toward groceries, and since we'll be sharing that, we'll be technically sharing the profits." They passed an ice cream stand and waved to the nice stallion that ran it that they usually bought from. 

"What?!" Scootaloo said. "Oh, come on, that's not cool." 

"Makes sense to me, actually." Applebloom said. "Applejack actually says somethin' very similar to me a lot of the time that Ah work at the stand." 

"Oh..." Sweetie Belle said, looking down for a moment. "I guess that does make some sense." 

"You'd think that after so long being in class with us, Diamond Tiara would lay off on the insults." Scootaloo said before blowing her purple mane out of her eyes, frustrated. "I really wanted to hit her." 

"Violence is never the answer, Scootaloo." Sweetie Belle said with a smile, earning a raised eyebrow from her Pegasus friend. "At least...that's what Rarity tells me." 

"That bit about your wings was seriously uncalled for, though." Applebloom said. "And as far as Ah'm concerned, she's long overdue for a good sluggin'." They continued walking together, chatting merrily about some different things before they finally arrived at the Carousel Boutique. 

"Alright, guys." Sweetie Belle said, turning to her friends with a smile. "Here's my stop."

"Ah really wish you could come with us, Sweetie Belle." Applebloom said, slightly saddened. 

"Next weekend, definitely!" Scootaloo said, nodding happily. 

"Okay!" Sweetie Belle said before moving toward her home. "See you guys!" Waving to their friend until she moved into her house, Applebloom and Scootaloo walked together. 

"I've just gotta run by the home and grab some stuff." Scootaloo said. "Then I'll be there with you in the treehouse."

"When ya say it like that, its so depressing." Applebloom said. 

"What do you mean?" Scootaloo asked her friend. 

"Just the way ya say it." Applebloom continued. "The Home. Ugh, it breaks my heart every time I hear it." 

"Oh, it's not so bad." Scootaloo said. "The ponies there are really nice, and I barely ever spend any time there anyways. I just go there to sleep." 

"Don't ya want somethin' more than just...The Home?" Applebloom asked her. The question stung Scootaloo a bit and she shrugged as they walked. 

"I don't know." Scootaloo said. "I guess I've never really wanted anything other than what I've got. I mean don't get me wrong, it looks really nice to have an actual family, but I don't...I..." Scootaloo sighed heavily and looked down. She was lying through her teeth. Of course she wanted a family. Of course she wanted a kind of guardian that was more than just an overseer that was nice. 

"We don't have to talk about it, Scoots." Applebloom said, putting a hoof on her friend's shoulder. "Ah'll meet you back at the treehouse." 

"Okay." Scootaloo said with a smile and a nod. "See you there." 

Applebloom and Scootaloo went their separate ways, Scootaloo deciding to take the long way to the home for young fillies where she slept. Her hooves suddenly felt heavier and her eyelids felt like they were drooping. She moved along a path that went around the outside of Ponyville, the town perfectly visible from where she was. Her mind buzzed as it usually did when she was longing for a true family of her own. Being told you were dropped off on a doorstep as a baby wasn't exactly the best thing to hear growing up as a lonely filly. Her friends helped a ton, sure, but they couldn't truly fill the gap that a parent should fill. Someone who could watch over her...protect her. A father, maybe...a father that would never let anything bad to her. 

As Scootaloo walked, a sort of portal opened about ten feet above the ground in front of her. Her eyes widened heavily as she looked, terrified at what looked to be a portal to another realm. Out of the portal came something that made Scootaloo's eyes widen in fear even more. 

A gigantic monster. It was hunchbacked and looked to be made of metal. Eight lit up holes lined the front of it's head, glowing yellow menacingly. It had enormous appendages with what looked to be five tentacles sprouting from the tip of it. It only had one of these for the other appendage, terrifyingly enough was an extremely dangerous-looking drill. It towered over Scootaloo, dazzling and terrifying in its stature. It groaned deeply and looked around at where it was. It was blocking her from Ponyville. She couldn't possibly get past it. She did the only thing she could think of to do. 

She screamed. 

She screamed as loudly as she could. This grabbed the attention of the monster before Scootaloo. It groaned loudly and began to move toward the filly. It's footsteps rocked the earth around it, Scootaloo feeling the tremors that came with it's massive steps. She backed up, whimpering, unsure of what exactly to do. This creature likely wanted to eviscerate her where she was. I reached it's arm out to her, prepared to grab her. She dodged the hand and stepped back quickly. The creature began moving toward her again, increasing in speed. The terrified filly turned and ran, her mind running out of viable options of escape.

The monster gave chase, proving to be deceptively fast, despite it's massive size. It was able to keep up with Scootaloo, who was sprinting. It groaned once more, making Scootaloo's heart rate increase even more. Instinctively, her little wings tried to take her into flight, but she failed miserably as they did nothing but flutter where they were. Into the Everfree Forest she ran. As far as the filly was concerned, nothing in this forest was as bad as what was pursuing her now. The many trees slowed the monster down considerably. This coupled with Scootaloo's small frame allowed her to escape. She still heard the creature moaning, though. Goddesses, it was an awful sound. She heard the stomping of the monster's massive feet coming closer. It somehow was still on her trail. She frantically looked around for any kind of place to hide, eventually setting her sights on a cave-like formation in some rocks. She moved as quickly as she could into the formation and hunkered down where she was. She felt far from safe, but it was better than out in the open. 

A low growling alerted Scootaloo that she was far from alone. A manticore, one of the most feared beasts in Equestria, moved forward from the shadows and snarled as Scootaloo. It took a swipe at Scootaloo, who just barely dodged the blow. She ran from the cave, determined to survive whatever it took. Until she ran right into the monster that had been pursuing her before. It groaned once more, looking down at her. 

'It's over...' Scootaloo thought to herself. 'I'm going to die here and now. If this thing doesn't get me, the manticore will.' The monster that stood above her didn't make any kind of killing move, however. It merely looked down at her. Confused for a moment, Scootaloo's thoughts were interrupted by a roar from the manticore. It was currently staring down this new monster. The massive metal behemoth quickly grabbed Scootaloo. She screamed, but found out that it was all for naught as the monster placed her gently behind it. It roared right back at the manticore and stood in front of Scootaloo, brandishing it's massive drill at the manticore. 

It was...protecting her. 









> Protector
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------



Scootaloo's mind struggled to comprehend what exactly was happening before her. Just minutes earlier, she was being chased by this massive metal monster that looked as if it wanted to end her life. But as she looked at it now, standing between her and the manticore that currently craved her flesh, it was protecting her. Contrary to what she believed and what was heavily implied by the behemoth's look, it wanted to preserve her life, not take it. But even as it stood, blocking the manticore from killing her, Scootaloo still feared the metal giant with every fiber of her being. It's pure size alone was enough to strike terrible fear and at the very least, sheer awe. It was just as large as the manticore and it was definitely heavier, but whether or not it could defeat the carnivore remained to be seen. 

The manticore stalked back and forth in front of Scootaloo's new savior, growling deeply, surveying for a weak point in it's new enemy's guard. There was none to be seen. It roared and pointed it's drill at the manticore, the weapon rotating where it held it out. Scootaloo's heart pounded heavily in her chest as she waited for what exactly was going to happen. 

With a massive roar, the manticore vaulted itself forward, determined to eviscerate this new foe. The protector roared just as loudly as it moved forward and collided with the beast, the eight portholes in it's head now glowing a harsh red. The manticore clawed at the protector and attempted to penetrate it's armor with it's stinger tail, but it failed miserably as the protector shoved it back easily, sending it tumbling onto it's back. A massive amount of earth came up from the ground from the sheer force of the manticore's tumbling. It got up quickly and regained it's footing, preparing for another strike. It eyed Scootaloo quickly, who was still frozen where she stood. It made a mad dash for the filly, closing the distance between them rather quickly. Just before it reached it's prize, however, the protector collided with it once again. Knocking the manticore back with a shoulder charge, Scootaloo heard several audible cracks come from within the manticore's body. It squealed as it tumbled and hit a tree, the force of it knocking it down. It struggled to get up, but it was crippled heavily. As it attempted to flee, the protector moved up to it and lifted it up by it's neck, beginning to rotate it's drill. Seeing what was coming, Scootaloo reached a hoof out and yelled,

"No!" 

But it was too late. The protector plunged its drill into the manticore's belly, making it screech in agony for a few moments before expiring. Blood showered the ground around the protector and it's kill, soaking in the soil. Scootaloo's eyes widened heavily and filled with tears. Sure, the manticore had wanted to kill and eat her, but it was just doing what a manticore does naturally. It was already crippled...it didn't have to die like that. The protector tossed the body of the manticore onto the ground casually, it's portholes returning to their original color of yellow. It began to approach Scootaloo, who was frozen in terror. At this point, she knew that the protector didn't want to hurt her...but she still feared it like death. It stroked her mane lovingly, seemingly making sure she was alright. She slowly turned and walked away from the protector, her stomach dropping as she realized that it was still following her. Like it or not, Scootaloo wasn't going to get it to stop. All she could hope to do was go back to Ponyville and try to get her problem solved. 


_____


Applebloom sat in the treehouse, waiting patiently for her friend Scootaloo to arrive so they could begin their sleepover festivities. She already had the whole night planned out. First, they'd brainstorm for new crusading ideas to use when next they saw Sweetie Belle. After that, they'd draw and do other kinds of crafting things because Scootaloo always loved to draw...especially when it came to her idol, Rainbow Dash. Then after the drawing, they'd go and ghost hunt in the Sweet Apple Acres barn because the last time that she and her friends were in there, they could have sworn that they heard strange noises. And finally, they'd go into the house where Applejack, Big Macintosh and Granny Smith would hopefully play a game with them. If that wasn't the case, they'd most likely go to bed after dinner. The thoughts of excitement and adventure excited the farm filly so much that she smiled to herself and bounced in place for a few seconds. 

All this was dependent on whether or not Scootaloo wanted to partake in these activites or not. When they had parted, the Pegasus filly had looked quite downtrodden. Perhaps all that talk about the home wasn't necessary in the first place. A knock at the door sent the filly sprinting to the door. She threw it open to behold Sweetie Belle, who beamed happily at her. 

"Sweetie Belle!" Applebloom said, smiling happily. "What're you doin' here?"

"Rarity let me come over!" Sweetie Belle said happily. "I worked extra hard so she went ahead and let me come!" Applebloom cheered happily and wrapped her unicorn friend into a hug before bouncing up and down. When they separated, they both went and sat down on the bed in the treehouse. 

"So where's Scoots?" Sweetie Belle asked. "Let's get the crusading underway!"  

"Ah actually don't know exactly where Scootaloo is." Applebloom said, still confused as to why Scootaloo was running so late. "She said she just had to go by the home and get a few things and then she'd be right here." Evening had begun to set on Equestria. The sun sank slowly, the sky turning a bright orange. "Ah'm actually a little worried." 

"Oh she'll be fine." Sweetie Belle said. 

"What if she was attacked by Timber Wolves?" Applebloom asked, her eyebrows raising up. 

"That's an extremely rare occurrence." Sweetie Belle said, raising an eyebrow and smirking at her friend. 

"It happened to my sister." Applebloom said. "It could have happened to Scootaloo." 

"You're worrying too much." Sweetie Belle said, shaking her head slightly. "She'll be here soon, and when she gets here we're gonna have a blast. I'll bet on it." The two fillies thought they heard a strange noise come from outside, but they quickly dismissed it. 

"Why would Ah wanna bet against her bein' fine?" Applebloom asked. 

"No, you're missing my point..." Sweetie Belle continued. "You see-"

A loud moan interrupted the conversation the two fillies were having. They both screamed and looked at each other, sure that there was some sort of monster outside their treehouse. They both trembled, terrified at the many possibilities before they heard Scootaloo.

"Hey Applebloom! Come out here!" Scootaloo cried from outside. Both Applebloom and Sweetie Belle sighed deeply in relief before they moved to the front door of the treehouse. 

"Geez, Scootaloo." Applebloom said. "How'd ya..." Applebloom's sentence was interrupted by her jaw falling open as she saw Scootaloo and her new companion, which looked to be a metal monster. 

Applebloom and Sweetie Belle screamed and held each other, not taking their eyes from the behemoth beneath them. Scootaloo put her forehooves up momentarily and attempted to calm them. 

"Girls..." 

They continued to scream. 

"Girls! I..."

They still screamed, deafened by their fear. The protector merely looked at them passively, moaning once more. This only served to terrify Scootaloo's friends even more. 

"Applebloom and Sweetie Belle!" Scootaloo finally yelled, shocking her friends from their intense terror of this new creature that stood beside Scootaloo. Sweetie Belle and Applebloom looked back and forth between Scootaloo and this new...thing that looked so monstrous but strangely was not harming Scootaloo or them for that matter. Both of them struggled to speak, but no words came from either of them. Finally, quivering in fright, Applebloom spoke up. 

"Scootaloo...what is that...." Applebloom said. "Th-Thing?!" 

"Do I look like I know?" Scootaloo replied, raising an eyebrow. She no longer felt fear of this gigantic creature, but she still was wary of it's presence, as well as the fact that it was prepared to kill whatever looked to have a want to harm her. 

"Where did it come from?" Sweetie Belle asked. 

"I was walking to The Home to get some things to come and stay with you, Applebloom. All of a sudden, this portal appears out of nowhere...and it's like...well, a portal. I couldn't really see what was on the other side. Then...well...this guy comes out of it. He started to chase me, so I ran into the Everfree Forest to try to lose him." Scootaloo explained, moving through the events that had just transpired around her. "But when I hid in a cave to try to get away from him, it turned out to be the den of a manticore." Scootaloo's friends gasped deeply at this. 

"Well, are ya alright?!" Applebloom asked. "It didn't sting ya, did it? It's poisonous!" 

"I'm scratched up a little bit, but I'm okay for the most part." Scootaloo said. "Anyways, this manticore chases me, because I don't know, I guess he wanted to eat me or something. But this guy..." Scootaloo gestured to her new companion. "This guy put me behind him and he protected me."

"What happened?" Sweetie Belle asked. 

"He fought the manticore and he killed it." Scootaloo said, a kind of pseudo-pride coming across her face. "Easily." Applebloom and Sweetie Belle were amazed by this. Aside from full-grown dragons, manticores were the most powerful and vicious creatures in Equestria. This behemoth didn't have a scratch on him. It groaned deeply, it's portholes glowing brightly in the ever-increasing darkness.

"Oh, my Goddesses!" Sweetie Belle said. "He killed a manticore?" Scootaloo merely nodded.

"Ah'm guessin' it was with that drill he has there?" The filly asked. Scootaloo nodded once more, once again looking at her protector as if he was her bodyguard and she was some sort of important pony. 

"That's awesome!" Sweetie Belle said, suddenly excited. "He must be so strong!" 

"A lot stronger than a manticore, that's for sure." Scootaloo said. "When he knocked it away from me, the pure force of the manticore's flying body knocked a tree down!" 

"Amazin'..." Applebloom marveled. "He's so quiet...can he talk?"

"No...I don't think so." Scootaloo said. "All he does is groan and roar. At least that's all I've heard him do." 

"Well bring him up here!" Applebloom said happily. "Let's hang out with him! He's obviously nice." 

"I don't know about that, Applebloom." Scootaloo said, raising an eyebrow. "I don't know how he'll react to you two." 

"Oh, come on!" Applebloom said before giving off a small nervous laugh. "He won't hurt you, so why would her hurt me?" 

"Well..." Scootaloo said. "Come down here...take your time and don't get too close too quick." 

"Alright." Applebloom said. She looked at Sweetie Belle, who looked just as afraid as she was. It was one thing to say that she was going to do it, but something else entirely to actually get up close to the monstrous looking creature, despite what Scootaloo had just told her. She slowly moved down the ramp, coming closer and closer to her friend and her new overseer. The protector seemed to definitely acknowledge her, but the closer and closer the farm filly came to it, it stayed as indifferent as it was before. Applebloom shifted as she came up to it, looking up to it and gulping before slowly moving to touch it. It groaned lightly and looked down at her, to which Applebloom shrieked and hid behind the stairs. 

"It's okay, Applebloom." Scootaloo said. "If he wanted to hurt you, you'd probably already be dead." Applebloom came out from underneath the stairs and approached him once more, more confidently this time and stood beside him. She smiled and looked up as Sweetie Belle. The unicorn filly cautiously, albeit more promptly than Applebloom, approached the behemoth and looked up at him. 

"Okay!" Scootaloo said. "I guess we can take him inside. Maybe we can find some kind of way to communicate with each other." The other two fillies smiled at their Pegasus friend and nodded before moving up the stairs. The protector followed Scootaloo up the ramp, making the sturdy wood beneath it creak heavily and tremble as the true strength of it's foundations were tested by its weight. When the four of them came to the front door of the treehouse, they realized that the doorway was much too small for their new guest. 

"Here, let me try to get him to maneuver trough the door." Scootaloo said, moving quickly through the doorframe. The protector wasted no time breaking through much of the wood surrounding the doorframe, leaving a large hole where the door was. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle's jaws dropped and they grew wide eyed at the sight of most of the front façade of their tree house destroyed. 

"My sister's gonna kill me..." Applebloom said with a gulp. Scootaloo looked at Applebloom and Sweetie Belle and giggled nervously. 

"Heh...oops..." The filly said. "So anyways...let's go ahead and sit over here...uh...What should we call him?" 

"He kinda looks like he's in a big divin' suit." Applebloom said. "You know, one of those big heavy ones?" 

"Let's just try some names out and see what he responds too." Sweetie Belle said. "That seems like a good place to start. But let's try water-themed names first...see if we can't give him a good one."

"Wave?" Scootaloo called. The protector gave no response.

"Coral?" Applebloom suggested, getting a raised eyebrow from Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle.

"Shark?" Sweetie Belle tried. Still no response at all. It merely sat and looked between the three of them.  

"Fish?"

"Sandy?" 

"You're not very good with names tonight are you?"

"Bite me, Sweetie Belle. Why don't you try to think of a better one? Ah'm tryin'. " 

"Relax, I'm just messing with you." 

"Come on, let's stay on topic." Scootaloo said. "How about Mister-" The word 'mister' caught the behemoth's attention as he immediately looked at Scootaloo who had said it. The three fillies looked at each other and saw in each other's eyes that they were getting somewhere finally.

"Mister Wave?" 

"Mister Water?"

"Mister Bubbles?" 

The protector moaned and stood up, looking toward Scootaloo who had once again gotten somewhere.

"Is your name Mister Bubbles?" Scootaloo asked the protector, who groaned once again. "Huh...Mister Bubbles...I don't think it fits too well..." The other two fillies giggled at the name and regarded this metal beast. 

"So, Mister Bubbles..." Applebloom asked him. "Where are ya from, exactly?" The protector merely looked at her and said nothing. Not so much as any kind of moan or grunt. Applebloom sighed and looked down at the floor. 

"Look, if you want us to help you, you're gonna have to tell us what you are." Scootaloo said. The protector seemed to pay extra attention to her. More than the other two fillies present by the way. 

"He seems to really like you, Scootaloo." Sweetie Belle said. "Why do you think he likes you so much?"

"I don't know." Scootaloo said, perplexed by the situation herself. "I mean, I was the first pony he ever saw here...he might have made some kind of connection...I seriously don't know, I'm just rambling things off the top of my head here."

"Ah kinda wish Ah had my own protector..." Applebloom said. 

"I don't think you should wish that, Applebloom." Scootaloo said. "This...Mister Bubbles...is going to cause a lot of chaos here in Ponyville unless something is done about it. Can you imagine how crazy everypony will go when they see him? They'll be so blinded by fear they won't realize that he's just trying to protect me...Some police might get hurt trying to take him in because he might think they're trying to hurt me...I just don't know how any of this is going to work out...I'm really worried." 

"Oh, don't worry, Scootaloo..." Sweetie Belle said. "It'll work out. Ponies in Ponyville are pretty accepting and as long as you tell them not to attack him, I think it'll be fine. We can figure out how to solve this then."

"I just want to get him back where he belongs." Scootaloo said, still frowning. "He might hurt somepony...What if the princesses have to get involved?"

"Now why would Princess Celestia and Princess Luna get involved with this?" Applebloom asked. 

"Well, it looked like he came from some...I don't know...other dimension. The princesses might be the only ones that can get him home..." Scootaloo said, her ears laying back. "I owe this guy my life...I just don't want him to get hurt..." 

"What if..." Sweetie Belle said. "What if he doesn't want to leave you?"

As soon as these words left Sweetie Belle's mouth, a harsh cracking could be heard from below the three fillies and Mr. Bubbles. The floor of the tree house trembled violently before giving in and breaking due to Mr. Bubbles' huge weight. The cutie mark crusaders screamed as nearly the entire tree house came falling from the tree. In a quick move, Mr. Bubbles grabbed Scootaloo and held her close, shielding most of her with his hard steel carapace. Scootaloo broke loose from her protector's hold and stood among the wreckage. 

"Applebloom! Sweetie Belle!" She screamed, intensely worried about her friends. 

"Ah'm..." Applebloom said before coughing from all the dust. "Ah'm okay. Ah got a few scrapes, but Ah'll be fine." 

"My leg is pinned!" Sweetie Belle said as tears fell from her eyes, struggling to get loose from a heavy piece of timber that did indeed have her leg pinned to the ground. "I think it'll break my leg if I don't get it out! Agh! It hurts!" Applebloom and Scootaloo quickly looked at each other in fear before moving as quickly as they could to get the piece of wood off of Sweetie Belle's leg. They tried as hard as they could, but failed. Scootaloo flashed a look to Mr. Bubbles, who merely stood idle where he was.  

"Mr. Bubbles!" Scootaloo yelled. "Come here!" 

The protector began to move toward the two fillies, poised to do whatever Scootaloo asked of him. 


_____


Applejack and Rainbow Dash walked together as they returned from Ponyville. They had both had a rather long day at their respective jobs. 

"Gah, that danged apple stand." Applejack said with a massive huff. "Ah hate standin' there all day long, doin' nothin' but tryin' to get somepony to buy some apples. It can't compare to applebuckin' every spring and summer." Rainbow Dash snickered and raised an eyebrow at her friend. 

"Well if you had wings and were a pegasus, you could join the weather patrol and be active every day!" Rainbow boasted, despite the current ache in her wings that she felt. Even though she loved weather patrol, it was extremely hard work on many days. 

"Yeah yeah." Applejack said. "Ah don't think Ah'd be interested in bein' wet all the time, thank you very much." 

"It's not that bad when you get used to it." Rainbow said. 

"To each their own, Ah suppose." Applejack said as they continued walking, the sun sinking on the horizon more and more. By the time they'd gotten anywhere near Sweet Apple Acres, the sun had set completely and night had descended upon Ponyville. 

"Well, thanks for walkin' me home, Dash." Applejack said. "You gonna give me a kiss goodnight?" Rainbow Dash blushed heavily and coughed into one of her forehooves. 

"AJ, what the hay are you talking about?" The pegasus said. "I just wanted you to have somepony to talk to on the way home. I've had to go home alone myself a lot, so-" Applejack laughed and slugged Rainbow in the shoulder, interrupting her nervous rant. 

"Ah'm just funnin' ya, Dash." Applejack said. "Thanks, though. That was thoughtful." 

"Hey, no problem." Rainbow said before they both heard the scream of three very familiar-sounding fillies. Applejack looked at Rainbow, her eyes widening.

"I heard it too." Rainbow said before they both took off into a dead sprint toward the known residence of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, the tree house. They both stopped dead in their tracks at what they saw. The tree house was completely destroyed and Sweetie Belle was trapped underneath a large chunk of wood. Applebloom and Scootaloo were seemingly attempted to remove this large piece of wood as this...monstrous thing stalked up behind them. It was huge, almost as big as the entire tree house was. It's eight yellow eyes glowed in the dark as it brandished it's menacing-looking drill.

"Come on!" Applejack said. "We gotta save 'em! That thing ain't gonna mess with my sister!" Both mares barreled toward the monster at top speed, coming up on them fast...


_____


Booker had no idea of what to make of his current situation. He walked toward the surface bathysphere of Rapture, key in hand, accompanied by Elizabeth and the Little Sister left behind when her Big Daddy had been thrown through the tear. He should have felt some semblance of joy at this moment, but something ate away at him. Elizabeth's face would not lose it's guilty look and the Little Sister seemed to be somewhat happy, a stark contrast to how she was when they took her with them. He sighed and entered the bathysphere anyway, prepared to leave this underwater city for good. 

"You ready?" Booker asked Elizabeth, who seemed to be snapped from a stupor as she looked at him and nodded. Booker nodded back to her and put the key into the keyhole before turning it, activating the core systems of the bathysphere. He looked at Elizabeth one more time before pulling the large lever on the central control. The door to the bathysphere closed quickly, letting out a loud hiss that scared the little sister before it took off, slowly moving toward the surface where Booker DeWitt and Elizabeth could finally be free once more. Both had gone to Rapture with the promise of freedom...it turned out that freedom was only offered to the super successful. Booker sighed happily, that unexplainable weight coming off of his shoulders. 

"Thank God. Finally we're getting out of that hellhole." Booker said with a large smile. "Looks while we got out while the getting was good, huh?" Elizabeth didn't respond to what he said, she merely looked out the window upon Rapture, growing smaller and smaller as they ascended to the surface. 

"Look, I know that your feeling guilty that we threw the Big Daddy in another world, but they're probably dealing with him in their own way." Booker said. 

"Or they're not." Elizabeth said. "Maybe they don't know how to act around him and maybe he's slaughtering dozens of them right now." 

"It's best to just not think about it." Booker said. "Forget it happened."

"Where are we going?" The Little Sister asked, her distorted voice chilling Booker's bones. Despite this, he looked down at her kindly.  

"Home, sweetie." Booker said to her, kneeling down to her. "We're going home." 

"What about Mr. Bubbles?" She asked him.

"Mr. Bubbles had to go somewhere else, hun." Booker said. "I'm sure he's fine. You know Mr. Bubbles. He's tough." Booker stood up and saw Elizabeth raising her hands above her head before spreading them apart. It took a few seconds for Booker to realize what exactly Elizabeth was doing. 

"Elizabeth!" Booker said. "Elizabeth, no!" Booker looked up to see a massive tear opening above them, seawater funneling out out it in massive quantities.

"I'm sorry, Booker." Elizabeth said as she finished opening the tear. "We cant just let him roam around there."  With these words, the bathysphere moved through the tear. They all felt weightless...and they saw the night sky. They began to fall. Booker and Elizabeth screamed as the Little Sister laughed gleefully. For all she knew, this was some recreational ride. They suddenly hit the ground of wherever they were, but they bathysphere stayed intact, so the three of them were relatively unharmed...Except for Booker. His wrist had to be at least fractured. It began to swell as he growled in pain before glaring at Elizabeth, who looked to be prepared for an argument. 

"What the hell were you thinking?!" Booker yelled at her. 

"I was thinking that I'd prevent the slaughter of possibly an entire town!" Elizabeth yelled out. "I can't believe you don't agree with this!" 

"Out of one hellhole and into another!" Booker said. "Yeah, I don't know why I disagree either!"

"You don't even know what this world is like." Elizabeth said, dropping the tone of her voice when she noticed that the Little Sister was getting scared. "It could be better then where we're from."

"As far as I'm concerned, if it's not home, it's a hellhole." Booker growled. 

"Well we're here now. So we'd might as well just deal with it." Elizabeth said. 

"Easy for you to say, you little..." Booker mumbled before turning the wheel on the emergency door of  the bathysphere, seeing as how the main door to it was now against the ground. He opened it and pushed the door open before poking his head out of the bathysphere, to behold a spear point held to his face. 

"Woah..." Booker said. "Easy now." 

"You and whomever you arrived with exit the craft, now!" A gruff voice said. Booker's eyes widened heavily as he noticed who, in fact, was making the voice. It was a horse...or rather...a pony. He had a horn on his head and was clad in bright gold armor. A talking unicorn with armor and a spear...he must have been dreaming...he must have been knocked out by the impact of the bathysphere. He was snapped out of his stupor by the spear crashing against the bathysphere, right next to his head. 

"Move it!" He yelled. 

"Okay! Okay! Relax...man...unicorn." Booker said as he came out of the Bathysphere.

"Unicorn?" He heard Elizabeth's voice say from inside the bathysphere. "What the he-" Her sentence stopped dead in the middle as she saw what was outside the bathysphere. The Little Sister came out and began to rejoice. 

"Yaaay!" She said. "Unicorns!" 

Booker and Elizabeth looked at their surroundings as they stood atop the bathysphere. What must have been fifty to  one hundred of these armored unicorns stood around the bathysphere. Terrified onlookers watched from afar...looking to be just standard ponies and ponies with wings. Booker looked at Elizabeth and raised an eyebrow. 

"See what I mean?"












> Love, Hate and a Large Drill
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------



Applebloom and Scootaloo tried their hardest to get the large, incredibly heavy chunk of wood off of their friend's leg. The unicorn filly cried in pain as she laid there, feeling the pressure on her leg increase more and more. She knew that after a few more seconds, the large metatarsal bone in her lower leg would give way and break in two. The ground shook as Mr. Bubbles approached the struggling fillies. Scootaloo looked up at him as he stood idle in front of her. Her eyes widened in disbelief. 

"Mister Bubbles!" Scootaloo cried, earning his attention. "Help her!" Mr. Bubbles merely stood and looked at her, not moving at all. 

"What is he doing?" Applebloom cried out. "Sweetie Belle's leg is gonna break!" 

"Mister Bubbles!" Scootaloo cried out louder. "Help me get this off of her leg!" The protector groaned loudly and wrapped his large fingers around the chunk of wood before casually lifting it off of Sweetie Belle and throwing it away. Applebloom and Scootaloo rejoiced, moving toward their injured friend to give her a hug. Sweetie Belle cried as her friends embraced her, relieved and extremely happy that her friends had saved her. 

"Goddesses, we were so worried!" Scootaloo said, tears coming to her eyes before she nuzzled Sweetie Belle. 

"How's your leg?" Applebloom asked her. "Can ya move it?" 

"I...I don't know." Sweetie Belle said, tears of pain still falling from her eyes. "It...It hurts..." 

"Try to move it, sweet pea." Applebloom said, her eyebrows raising with worry. Sweetie Belle tried to move her leg, but failed, crying out quietly in pain. The unicorn filly fell back where she laid and clenched her teeth before giving off a sob. "Ah think it's broken..." Applebloom whispered to Scootaloo as she looked at her friend's swelling leg. Scootaloo gulped. 

"It's all thanks to Mr. Bubbles." Scootaloo said, a scowl forming on her face as she looked at the metal behemoth that stood behind the three of them. He moaned quizzically upon seeing the filly he was protecting point at him. "Ever since he showed up things have gotten worse!"

"Scoots, calm down." Applebloom said. "If he wasn't here, Sweetie Belle's leg would probably be a lot worse off than it is." Scootaloo thought for a moment. Her farm filly friend was right. Mr. Bubbles had in fact saved Sweetie Belle's leg, which probably would have suffered irreparable damage if the chunk of wood hadn't been removed. 

"Mr. Bubbles..." Scootaloo said, giving him a shameful look. "I'm sorry..." Mr. Bubbles moaned softly, moving his hand out to most likely stroke the Pegasus filly's mane. 

"Stop right there, monster!" The three fillies heard a familiar voice cry out. They turned and were relieved to see Applejack and Rainbow Dash, running and flying respectively, toward them. Scootaloo realized with horror, however, that Applejack looked to be poised to "rescue" her from her protector. The focused and dedicated look in her eyes and the pace at which she moved confirmed it. 

"Wait, Applejack!" Scootaloo cried. "No! Don't come any closer!" But the filly's cries fell on deaf ears. Applejack closed the distance between her and Scootaloo before quickly pushing Scootaloo behind her...

And away from Mr. Bubbles. 

Mr. Bubbles roared in outrage as he moved closer to Applejack, who was attempting to shield Scootaloo from her protector. 

"Sis!" Applebloom cried out. "What're ya doin'?"

"Ah'm savin' your flanks!" Applejack cried. "Now get out of here!" 

"Applejack!" Scootaloo cried out, terrified for the mare's life. "Get away! Now!" 

"Why the hay would Ah?" Applejack said, turning her head quickly toward Scootaloo, a single eyebrow raised. 

"Because he's protecting me!" Scootaloo cried, looking at Mr. Bubbles, who was moving closer to the two of them. "And right now, he thinks you're a threat!" Applejack looked confused at Sweetie Belle before turning back toward Mr. Bubbles, who cast an enormous shadow over her as he towered above her, groaning menacingly. He brought his large hand back and quickly brought it into Applejack, shoving her roughly away from Scootaloo. Applejack flew and tumbled, end over end on the ground roughly, finally coming to a halt on her side. She groaned, seemingly in much pain.

"Applejack!" Applebloom cried out as she sprinted toward her sister. "Are you okay?!" The farm mare seemed to have some trouble breathing as she struggled to stand on the ground. Scootaloo prepared to defend Applejack, but she noticed that Mr. Bubbles' portholes still glowed yellow, which she had deduced to be his neutral color. 

"You piece of-" Scootaloo heard another voice cry from above her. "I'll kill you!" The filly looked up to see Rainbow Dash plummeting from the sky at extremely high speeds, straight toward Mr. Bubbles. The filly's eyes widened heavily as thoughts of her idol being eviscerated flashed through her head. Frantically, the filly called out to Rainbow Dash.

"Rainbow Dash! No! No! NO!" Scootaloo screamed, completely in vain. The cries fell on deaf ears at the daredevil pegasus, determined to get payback for her currently injured friend, flew into Mr. Bubbles. 

Clang

Mr. Bubbles stumbled forward one step and Rainbow Dash fell onto her back, stunned, with a very bloody nose. Scootaloo looked on in horror as her protector's portholes turned dark red...the same color they were when he killed the manticore. It turned toward Rainbow Dash, who had just come to. The pegasus gasped in fear, her eyes widening heavily as Mr. Bubbles let out a deafening roar. It brought it's drill back to plunge it into the pegasus pony's midsection.

"NO!!!" Scootaloo screamed, jumping in front of Rainbow Dash just as Mr. Bubbles thrusted his drill. The very tip came to a stop mere inches from Scootaloo's face. Tears streaked down the filly's face, as she stared up at the protector, whose portholes returned to the color yellow. "Mr. Bubbles...no." Mr. Bubbles moaned softly and stepped back, allowing Rainbow Dash to stand and move quickly to Applejack's side. Scootaloo watched her idol the whole way, until she finally looked at her

"Are you okay, AJ?" Rainbow asked frantically. Applejack coughed and struggled heavily before standing up. 

"Ah'm..." Applejack said. "Ah think Ah'm alright." The farm mare said. 

"Are you sure?" Rainbow asked her. "Your legs are shaking." 

"Ah might..." Applejack said, breathing heavily. "Need a little help." 

The pegasus wasted no time at all coming to her friend's aid. Applejack put a fore leg around Rainbow's shoulders, Rainbow putting in the effort to keep Applejack standing. 

"Scootaloo..." Rainbow said. "What the hay is that thing?" 

As if on cue, Mr. Bubbles moaned and looked down at Scootaloo. The filly had no idea herself just what exactly she was looking at. It seemed to have a die-hard urge to protect her, and her only. Other fillies he was indifferent to, as she saw with Sweetie Belle and Applebloom. But anything...anything at all that could pose any kind of threat was a threat to Scootaloo in Mr. Bubbles' book. This apparently included mares. 

"I...I don't know, Rainbow." Scootaloo said. "I really don't." 

"How are you not dead yet?" Rainbow asked, an eyebrow raised. "He looks evil! Look what he did to Applejack!" 

"He's not evil." Scootaloo said. "At least I don't think he is. He's been...protecting me." 

"I've got to take Applejack to the hospital." Rainbow said. "She's in pretty bad shape. Come with me, Scootaloo." 

"I can't." Scootaloo said with a frown, looking at her idol, longing to go with her. 

"Why not?" Rainbow Dash inquired. Scootaloo sighed before continuing. 

"He'll follow me everywhere I go." Scootaloo said. 

"What if I just take you and fly up really really high?" Rainbow asked. 

"You won't get close, Rainbow." Scootaloo said, tears forming in her eyes. "He'll kill you." 

"I'm fast." Rainbow said. 

"I don't want you to risk it, okay?" Scootaloo said suddenly, surprising the mare speaking to her. "Just...please, take Applejack to the hospital. I'll be okay here, I promise."

"I'll send Twilight here." Rainbow said. "She might know what to do." 

"Rainbow..." Applejack said finally. "Ah'm hurtin' pretty bad here..." 

"Oh! Sorry, AJ." Rainbow said quickly, before allowing Applejack to climb up onto her back. Scootaloo helped Sweetie Belle over to Rainbow Dash, who was able to climb onto her back as well. It was a tight fit, but Rainbow looked confident that she could carry them both. "Be safe, Scoots. I'll be back soon. Hold on tight, guys. Applebloom! You know where the hospital is, right?" The filly nodded at the pegasus. "Meet us there." 

The rainbow-maned mare flew toward Ponyville at breakneck speed as Applebloom approached Scootaloo.

"You gonna be okay here by yourself?" Applebloom asked. Scootaloo nodded and smiled at her friend. 

"Yeah." Scootaloo said with a small nod. "Twilight will be here soon." Applebloom nodded and started running toward the exit of Sweet Apple Acres. Scootaloo sighed deeply and turned to Mr. Bubbles, who moaned lightly. Scootaloo sniffled and sat down next to his massive boot. Mr. Bubbles noticed her do this and followed her lead, sitting with a huge vibration. Scootaloo looked up at Mr. Bubbles, who looked down at her. He groaned deeply and put a hand on her head. 

She wanted to resent him. She wanted to hate him...but she couldn't...not after all he'd done for her. He'd caused so much trouble for her...indirectly in most of the cases, but he had caused it nonetheless. But despite his terrifying look and strange stench, he seemed so caring and so dutiful. For whatever reason, he wanted no harm whatsoever to come to her in any form. 

She sat alone with Mr. Bubbles for what seemed like hours. Eventually, Scootaloo laid over and cuddled up to Mr. Bubbles. His exterior was cool and clammy, the opposite of what the filly had hoped for. But even so, there was something comforting about laying on this creatures leg. Even more so when he placed a caring hand on her back.


_____


Scootaloo was woken up quite suddenly by Mr. Bubbles standing. Her eyes flitted open as she looked around, hoping for no hostile presence. To her great relief, it turned out to only be princess Twilight Sparkle, who landed before her, Spike riding on her back. The baby dragon cried out in fear as he saw what was standing in front of Scootaloo. 

"Sweet Celestia!" Spike yelled. 

"Scootaloo!" Twilight said. "What is that?" She seemed frantic, keeping perfectly in theme with every other reaction Mr. Bubbles had gotten that day. The filly wanted to roll her eyes. She had been asked that very question so many times already. Still, the princess and her assistant looked genuinely concerned for her safety. Scootaloo stood and walked in front of Mr. Bubbles. 

"I don't know what exactly he is." Scootaloo said. "All I know is that he wants to protect me and his name is Mr. Bubbles." 

"Mister...Bubbles?" Twilight asked. "How'd you find that out?"

"Well, Applebloom, Sweetie Belle and I-"

"Where did he come from?" Twilight interrupted her suddenly, taking the filly off guard.

"I don't-"

"Is it evil?"

"Princess Twilight." Scootaloo said, furrowing her brows for a moment before she realized who exactly she was talking to. She then immediately changed her attitude to be much more cordial. "I really don't mean to be rude, but I can't answer all those questions at once." The princess blushed bashfully and nodded.

"I'm very sorry." Twilight said with a nod. "Could you please start at the beginning?"

"Yes I can." Scootaloo said, before continuing, preparing herself to describe the occurrences of that day. "After we got let out of school today, Applebloom and I were gonna have a sleepover here at the treehouse. It turned out that I'd forgotten a few things at the Home where I live, so I was on my way to pick them up. After Applebloom and I split up, I chose to take the scenic route, which was through the fields outside of Ponyville. Suddenly, a portal or something opens and out comes this guy." The filly gestured knowingly to the behemoth still standing protectively above her. Twilight nodded, understanding, seeing as how she'd never seen or heard about anything like this in Equestria.

"Okay." Twilight said. "Go on." 

"Well, I was terrified at first, so I ran and he chased me. He chased me all the way into the Everfree Forest where I thought I'd lost him. But I ended up hiding in a manticore den by accident. It tried to kill me, but Mr. Bubbles came to protect me. He killed the manticore without so much as a scrape. He was able to throw it around like a chew toy." Scootaloo said. As she described the battle, Twilight struggled to comprehend what exactly she was hearing. Manticores were not to be meddled with by any means ever and if this thing killed one truly as easily as Scootaloo described it... She failed trying to comprehend what exactly it was capable of. The princess almost shuddered upon seeing dried blood on Mr. Bubbles' drill. "So I brought him to Sweet Apple Acres hoping to get some help. Me and the girls took him up into the treehouse. He was so heavy that the treehouse collapsed and a big piece of wood fell on Sweetie Belle's leg. Applejack and Rainbow Dash saw this and I guess they thought Mr. Bubbles was trying to hurt us. They fought him and he put Applejack in the hospital. I barely saved Rainbow Dash from him."

"How did you save her?" Twilight asked.

"I jumped in front of his drill as he was about to stab Rainbow with it." Scootaloo said. "Probably not the best idea...but I was prepared to do it anyway."

"I understand." Twilight said. "She'd probably be dead right now if you didn't." 

"After all that, they called you here, I guess." Scootaloo said. "I mean, what are you thinking right now?"

"I don't know, Scootaloo." Twilight said to the filly. "I really don't know...I'm going to go let Granny Smith and Big MacIntosh know about what happened to Applejack." Scootaloo nodded at her and looked up at Mr. Bubbles. He moaned lightly. 

"What are you?" Scootaloo asked him. "Why are you protecting me? I mean...me of all fillies?" The protector merely placed a hand on her head and stroked it softly, making Scootaloo sigh. 

"I mean, I know you're from a different world...or dimension...or universe, or whatever..." Scootaloo said. "But I just can't stand not knowing anything about you, Mr. Bubbles." The protector moaned once again. A timber wolf howl echoed through the night, making him to stand and grunt, ready to protect his new charge. 

"It's okay, Mr. Bubbles." Scootaloo said. "It's just a timber wolf. Calm down." The filly stood and pulled on the Big Daddy's hand, prompting him to look down at her. She nodded comfortingly as he sat down once more. She laid her head on his leg once more, worried about things to come. 

"I know you're not bad, Mr. Bubbles." Scootaloo said. "I'll make sure they don't hurt you..." 


_____


Rainbow Dash sat in the hospital beside Applebloom and Rarity. Their sisters were now in the hospital, thanks to Mr. Bubbles. Rainbow put a hoof on the filly's shoulder and smiled at her. 

"Don't worry, Applebloom." Rainbow Dash said with a small nod. "Applejack's fine. She's always been really tough."

"Oh, Ah know." Applebloom said. "But still, Ah can't help but worry. What if she can't applebuck? That's one of her favorite things?" 

"I think she'll live if she can't applebuck for a while." Rainbow said. "I'm gonna make sure she's good and taken care of."

"I just..." Rarity said. "I don't know what to make of what's happened." 

"It was a surprise for us all, Rarity." Rainbow said.

"Why would it protect Scootaloo?" Rarity said. "I mean, nothing against the little dear, but why her in particular?" At that moment, Big Macintosh came bursting into the hospital, a worried look on his face, similar to the look that was on Granny Smith's face, who rode atop his back. 

"Is Applejack okay?" He asked Rainbow Dash, who nodded at him. The pegasus stood and approached him, escorting him comfortingly into the waiting room. 

"She's fine." Rainbow said. "The doctor should be out any minute to give us a lowdown." 

"Rainbow Dash, what the hay was that thing back at the farm?!" Granny Smith asked, to which Rainbow looked at her and sighed. 

"I have no clue, Granny Smith." Rainbow Dash said. "All I know is that it wants to protect Scootaloo. 

"Shouldn't we alert the royal guard?" Big Mac asked. "Looked a might mean to me." 

"Apparently, it's not completely evil." Rainbow Dash said. "It just wants to protect Scootaloo. All it really did was shove Applejack away from her. It didn't go after her, it didn't attempt to kill her..." 

"But what happened to your nose?" Granny Smith asked.

"Well, when I saw it shove Applejack, I kinda went into overdrive." Rainbow said. "I tried to fly into it, but I didn't do anything because it's made of metal. All I did was break my nose and peeve him off. He tried to kill me after I attacked him, but Scootaloo stopped him and he just became indifferent to me again."

"Aren't ya gonna get that looked at?" Big Mac asked.

"Later." Rainbow said. "Applejack and Sweetie Belle need all the attention right now." 

"What happened to Sweetie Belle?" Granny Smith asked the pegasus, who shrugged.

"All I know is when Applejack and I got there, the tree house was destroyed and Sweetie Belle's leg was stuck under a big hunk of wood." Rainbow said. 

"They seem to think that it's fractured." Rarity said. 

"For now, let's keep quiet about...whatever it is." Rainbow said to them. "We don't want to cause a panic." They nodded and at that moment, the doctor walked into the room, Applejack moving behind him, her right front leg in a splint. Applebloom jumped up and hugged her sister softly. 

"She's going to be fine." The doctor said. "Her front right leg is fractured and she has some bruised ribs, but she'll make a full recovery. As will your little sister, Miss Rarity. Her leg is fractured and they're splinting it right now." Rarity gave off a large sigh of relief. 

"Thank you for the good news, Doctor." Granny Smith said. 

"How did you say this happened again?" The doctor asked Rainbow Dash. 

"The tree house they have back at Sweet Apple Acres collapsed." Rainbow said. "It's pretty bad." 

"Oh." The doctor said to her. "Well, I hope you get that issue resolved well." He looked at Big Mac and Granny Smith, who nodded at him. As the doctor left the room, Applejack approached Rainbow, an eyebrow raised. 

"Rainbow Dash, where's Scootaloo?" Applejack asked her. 

"Back at the farm." Rainbow replied. "Twilight's there."

"Let's get back there." Applejack said. "Twi might need our help." 


_____


The everfree forest had always been known to house a diverse array of monstrosities and horrors. 

But deep in the darkest bowels of the everfree, where even the most monstrous creatures did not dare set foot, something stirred. Something that hated every living pony in Equestria. Something filled with nothing but spite, malice and anger. 

Something evil.

It did nothing but flourish in the ignorance of Equestria and its rulers. It's goal was simple.

Destroy every living thing it could. In Ponyville, Canterlot, Las Pegasus and everywhere else in this pathetic land full of peace loving, tame ponies. 

And it was almost ready to accomplish it's goal.

The hive would prevail, and nothing would stand in its way.






> Questions and (Very Few) Answers
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------



"What are you?" The interrogator said gruffly. He was a unicorn stallion who certainly looked as if he didn't take any bull for answers. He seemed to be the toughest looking pony so far to Booker, which really wasn't saying much of anything. The detective and his companion, Elizabeth sat in an interrogation room similar to the one Booker knew of back in Rapture. In fact, this whole scenario he was in reminded him a bit of Rapture. He, Elizabeth and the Little Sister had been taken into custody without so much as any sort of explanation and the Little Sister had been taken away from the two of them to an undisclosed location. Yes, it was sort of like Rapture...just with ponies. 

"We're humans." Booker said, looking tiredly at the interrogator. 

"What the hay are humans?" The stallion asked, narrowing his eyelids.

"Man...Mankind...The dominant species of the planet." Booker said, trying to explain it to the interrogator. "No?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." The interrogator said. "There are no...well...humans here. Just ponies. Ponies are the dominant species of this planet." 

"Oh, well isn't that just dandy?" Booker said, looking at Elizabeth.

"Do you really not have humans here?" Elizabeth asked the interrogator. "I mean, where we come from, there are ponies...certainly not unicorns or pegasi...but normal ponies...But they don't talk...they don't build things either..." 

"If you're referring to what you are...no." The stallion said. "We don't have any of...what you are here." 

"Well, that sure eases my mind." Booker said, leaning back in his chair and sighing heavily. "Look, if you'll just give us the creepy little girl you guys took from us and we'll be on our way."

"I'm afraid we can't do that." The unicorn interrogator said. "Not until we know more about you." 

"We've already told you everything we could." Elizabeth said. "Look, we just want to get out of here and get the monster we accidentally sent here." 

"You see, we've received no reports of a 'monster' anywhere." The interrogator said. "For all we know, you're lying to us." Booker groaned and placed his forehead in his palm. 

"Well then, since we're stuck here, why don't you tell us about this place?" Elizabeth said. "Where are we?"

"You are in the land of Equestria." The unicorn said, a subtle hint of pride in his voice. Booker couldn't hold back a small chuckle, which interrupted the unicorn in the midst of his speaking. "You find something funny about that?"

"Well you see, I find it witty, is all." Booker said, raising an eyebrow. "Where we're from, an equestrian is a man or woman who rides on the back of a horse...and equus is another word for horse...so I just find it witty...Equestria." Booker finished before giving off another small chuckle. The interrogator rolled his eyes before looking back at Elizabeth.

"Equestria is a peaceful land where ponies like me live. Here, we have three different kinds of ponies: Earth ponies, which are the kind without a horn or wings, pegasus ponies, which are ponies with wings that can fly, and unicorn ponies such as myself. We can use magic to do certain things, though it takes a lot of effort." The unicorn said with a small nod. Booker laughed quietly again. 

"It's like a damn children's book." Booker mumbled quietly. The interrogator flashed Booker an annoyed look before continuing.

"The pegasi mostly live among the clouds, whereas the unicorns and earth ponies live on the ground. Long ago, there was a conflict between the three races of ponies, which went on for a long time. Finally, they all came to a pact of friendship that brought the races together and united Equestria into the land it still is to this day." The unicorn said. 

"Incredible." Elizabeth said, a small smile forming on her face. 

"Oh, I think you brought a tear to my eye." Booker said, furrowing his eyebrows. 

"You know right now, we're being awfully nice to you." The unicorn said. "So nice it makes me sick in fact. What we could  do is throw you in a dungeon. How'd you like that?"

"Bull." Booker replied simply. "For all you know, you'd be starting war with our world. We could come in through a million portals and wipe all of you off the face of this planet." The interrogator, taking Booker's words into account looked to the side and sighed. 

"Fine." He replied. 

"Why are we being treated so unfairly?" Elizabeth asked. "You're just keeping us in a dimly lit room. We might as well be in a dungeon. We don't want to hurt any of you. We actually want to save you. See-"

"I know, I know." The unicorn said. "You supposedly sent some sort of monster here that could cause widespread havoc if left unchecked. But I'll say again, we haven't gotten any reports of that kind and we would have by now if there was danger of any sort anywhere in the land."

"Instead of dancing around the question, maybe you should give the lady a coherent answer." Booker said. 

"I was going to, you piece of-" The unicorn calmed himself and looked at Elizabeth. "When you came down in your craft, it crushed two earth ponies and their child to death. The large volumes of water from the portal injured several others. Now I know this isn't your fault, but we need to take precautions." 

"Well, what about my wrist, huh?" Booker asked angrily. "I told you that it's hurt and you haven't done anything about it." The unicorn sighed heavily and looked at Booker. 

"Fine, then. I'll send a physician in here to look at it. If only to shut you up." The unicorn said before moving toward the door. Booker looked at Elizabeth and raised an eyebrow. 

"Pleasant guy, isn't he?" Booker said to her.

"We just need to get out of here." Elizabeth said. "Use that little sister to lure the Big Daddy away from any civilians into a tear."

"I'm still not used to the 'civilians' here." Booker said. "I keep forgetting that you're talking about ponies and not humans...I mean...Talking...intelligent...ponies."

"It's strange, I know." Elizabeth said. "I'm not used to it myself either."

"So how exactly do you plan to get out of here?" Booker asked Elizabeth, who shifted uncomfortably in her seat and sighed. 

"If worst comes to worst...I can use tears and we can get out of here by force." Elizabeth said to the detective. 

"Well screw it, why don't we do that now?" Booker asked. "I just wanna get out of here."

"We're only doing that if we have to." Elizabeth said. 

"Elizabeth, they're animals." Booker deadpanned. "There's hundreds of ponies back home. Hell, I'll buy you one." 

"No thanks." Elizabeth said. 

"So under what circumstances will we...have to?." Booker asked. "I need to know so I can act fast if need be." 

"If there is no other possible way we can get out of here and they refuse to cooperate, I'll wink at you and bring out a shotgun in a tear." Elizabeth said. "Remember, this is our contingency plan. Last resort. Got it?" Booker nodded at her.

"Got it." He said as an earth pony with medical garb entered the room. "I'm guessing you're the doctor." Booker said to him, placing his hand on the table. The doctor stared at Booker and Elizabeth for a moment before shaking his head, bringing him back to the situation he was in. 

"Yes, indeed I am." The brown pony said. "I'm told that you have been injured and require medical attention." Without saying a word, Booker held up his wrist, which had in fact swollen some more. The doctor shook his head. "Ooh, that looks nasty, I must say." He moved a little closer.

"What do you think is wrong with it?" Booker asked. 

"Well, just from the looks of the injury, I'd definitely have to say that it is at least fractured." He said. "Can you move it at all?" Booker strained a bit and grunted in pain before looking at the doctor. 

"No, I don't think so." Booker said. The doctor clicked his tongue and began to examine the wrist some more. 

"Well, I'll have to get you a cast." The doctor said. "But to determine what kind of cast, I'll need to get an Xray of the bones. Please come with me." Surprised, Booker stood up and looked at Elizabeth for a moment. The woman shrugged subtly, raising an eyebrow.

"So what, you guys are just gonna trust me now?" Booker said. "The interrogator said that we have to stay in here." 

"We'll be accompanied by a guard." The doctor said. "So now if you'd please follow me, we can determine the extent of your injury." Booker sighed and left the room, walking alongside the doctor. The doctor didn't bother looking at Booker even once, but Booker couldn't care less. He was more enamored with the architecture of the castle he currently walked through. If ponies were capable of building structures like this in this world, he could barely imagine what else they could do. 

"What is this place?" Booker asked the doctor. 

"This, my strange-looking friend, is Canterlot Castle. This is the dwelling place of Princesses Celestia and Luna, two of the four rulers of this land." The doctor said. Booker couldn't help but crack a small smile at hearing the strange names. It sounded like something he'd read to a little girl before she went to sleep. 

"Who are the other two?" Booker inquired. 

"Princess Cadence is one of them, and she rules over the Crystal Empire, which is a good distance from where we are now. The fourth is a newly inducted princess. Princess Twilight Sparkle was formerly a unicorn when she was a student of Princess Celestia, but she has recently been crowned as a new princess, becoming an alicorn in the process." The doctor explained.

"What the hell is an alicorn?" Booker asked. The doctor raised an eyebrow at him, recognizing the unfamiliar word "hell" as some sort of profanity. 

"An alicorn is a special type of pony with the horn of a unicorn and the wings of a pegasus. They possess a potential for magic unlike most other ponies in Equestria. What happened in Princess Twilight's case was an extremely rare occurence." The doctor said. 

"And this 'magic'..." Booker said, taking note of the particularly well-made stained glass windows. One such window depicted what looked to be six ponies together, surrounded by what looked like some sort of power.

"Magic is the essence of a unicorn or alicorn's mental energy. They can use it to manipulate objects, teleport and they can even concentrate magic into focused offensive blasts to ward off danger." The doctor said. 

"Well that kinda makes it seem like unicorns are above the other two. Earth ponies and uh..." Booker lost track of what to call the flying ponies as he gestured to the doctor for assistance.

"Pegasi. But Equestria was founded purely based on the equality of all three types. Magic isn't just something a unicorn can use effortlessly. It takes an intense amount of concentration. Spells can often backfire if the unicorn fails. There are certain perks and attributes to each pony type."

"Such as?" Booker asked as he struggled to register the fact that he was becoming interested in the subject of types of ponies. 

"Well, earth ponies are the strongest of the three, physically. They possess a high endurance level for physical tasks. Most of the construction and farming in Equestria is done by earth ponies." The doctor explained. "Pegasi are the fastest of the three. They can fly through the clouds and even manipulate weather." Booker sighed as they approached the doctor's office. All of this was so much to register, but then again, there was no way in hell it would be easy. 

"I just wouldn't have ever dreamed this place existed back when I was where I came from." Booker said. 

"And I have never imagined anything like you." The doctor said. "Now please come in, so I can do the X-Ray." 

"So you guys have X-Rays here, huh?" Booker said. The doctor looked back at the detective as he led him through the hallways. 

"Why yes, we do." The doctor said. "Surprised?"

"Yeah, I guess I am." Booker said. "Where I come from...we have ponies, but they don't speak and they don't build. There definitely aren't pegasi or unicorns. They're just dumb animals." 

"Well, I'm sure your time here has been a bit of a culture shock." The doctor said, opening the door leading into the X-Ray room. He dismissed the guard accompanying them to wait outside the room.

"A bit of one, yeah." Booker said as he looked at the complicated machinery. "Son of a bitch. Ponies are more advanced than we are..." 

"What, you don't have X-Rays where you come from?" The doctor asked.

"No, we do...Just...not like this." Booker said. The doctor mused for a moment before gesturing to a small chair next to what Booker presumed to be the X-Ray machine.

"Okay, please sit in that chair and place your injured wrist where you see the red dot." The pony doctor said. "I'll move into the capture room so we can get this over with." Booker nodded and sat in the chair before placing his wrist underneath the beam of light. 

"Hold your position, please." The doctor said. A sharp clunking noise came from within the machine and the doctor re-emerged from the capture room. "Very good. Thank you. Now if you'd please go with the guard back to the holding room where your companion is, you will receive further news on your injury as soon as possible. Until then take this ice pack and apply pressure with it for thirty seconds every two minutes. It should help with the swelling." The doctor gave him a nice smile as he handed over the ice pack. 

"Oh, well...thanks, doctor." Booker said. "Look, I'll go back to the holding room, but I promise you, we're not here to hurt you...what happened to that family, it's a damn shame, but that's not our fault. We didn't know-"

"I understand." The doctor said with a nod. "And if it helps at all, I don't believe you want to hurt us, and I'll try to put in a good word for you. But I'm at a disadvantage insofar as I don't have very much influence." Booker nodded.

"Thanks anyway, Doctor." Booker said as he left the room. He looked at the guard, who didn't look back. "Well, they're not all bad, I guess." Booker murmured to himself.


_____


Booker and Elizabeth sat in the holding room for what seemed like hours. They were both completely bored and had run out of things to talk about. Elizabeth attempted to sit straight up in her chair and for the most part she succeeded, but she'd catch herself slouching and rectify it. Booker merely sat back in his chair, doing with the ice pack as the doctor had instructed him. 

What looked to be a servant pony entered the room with what looked to be two salads. 

"You both should eat." The pony said. "Here are your meals. They are artisan crafted garden salads with a specially made balsamic vinaigrette dressing. Please, enjoy." Booker grimaced at the salad. He'd always been a picky eater. 

"Hey, uh...any chance you have a hamburger back there?" Booker asked the servant. The servant looked at booker and raised an eyebrow.

"A...hamburger?" He said. "I'm afraid I don't follow." 

"You don't have hamburgers here?" Booker said before realizing again that he was in a world of ponies. "Well that actually kinda makes sense." He mumbled.

"Is that some sort of delicacy in your world?" The servant asked.

"Kinda." Booker replied.

"What is it?" The servant asked him. He looked genuinely interested in the subject at hand. Booker looked at Elizabeth, who raised an eyebrow at him cautiously.

"I don't think you'd want to know." Elizabeth said. 

"Oh, but I do. Please tell me." The servant said.

"Okay, fine." Booker said. "Don't say I didn't warn you. A hamburger is ground up cow meat, cooked between two buns and often served with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and some onions." The servant looked nauseated for a moment.

"In your world, your kind eats...flesh?" The servant asked.

"That's kind of harsh, but yeah." Booker said. "But in our world, animals like cows aren't intelligent like I assume they are here. They can't talk, they can't reason...hell, they can barely think for themselves..." 

"Booker, I don't think it's working." Elizabeth said. Booker saw that the servant still looked nauseated. 

"Go on ahead and leave." Booker said. The servant left quickly and Booker sighed before looking at Elizabeth. "Well, if they didn't already think we were monsters before that..."

"I think we'll be fine." Elizabeth said. "We've proven to them that we're not hostile." The door opened once more and in walked the most astonishing sight Booker or Elizabeth had seen since they had arrived. 

Two large and stately looking ponies walked in, their long legs giving them a graceful stride. One was white, one was dark blue. The white one was slightly larger than the blue. They both had long, flowing manes that seemed to glow on their own. They both possessed a horn and wings, so they were alicorns. They wore crowns, so they were most likely royalty.

"Greetings, travelers." The large white one stated. "I'd like to formally welcome you to Equestria."

"Uhh..." Booker said. "Thank you." 

"I am Princess Celestia. This is my sister, Princess Luna." The smaller dark blue princess gave a curt bow. 

"We have been informed of all the details of your arrival, including the death of that family. While it is extremely unfortunate, it is easily seen that neither of you meant to harm them." Princess Luna said. 

"Even so, we're very sorry about that." Elizabeth said. "My name is Elizabeth."

"Booker." Booker stated as he sat up in his chair. "Booker DeWitt. Just call me Booker." 

"Well, Booker DeWitt and Elizabeth." Princess Celestia said. "We would like to offer our sincerest apologies for your current conditions. Equestria has its fair share of threats, and we had to take precautions." 

"You all seems so peaceful here." Booker said. 

"We are." Princess Luna said. "But in the quest for peace one will always meet those who will attempt to deny them that peace." 

"So now that we've introduced ourselves, would you kindly tell us why you're here?" Princess Celestia asked. Booker looked at Elizabeth, who offered him the floor. He took it.

"Well, the world we used to be in, it was our home, but we lived in a city...an underwater city." Booker said. The princesses looked astonished.

"My word...And I take it that your kind is very technologically innovative?" Princess Luna asked. Booker nodded.

"You could say that. Anyways, the city we were in may sound like the best haven for peace ever, but it was a hellhole if there ever was one. In this underwater city, people could genetically modify themselves. Whether it was their strength level, their looks, or even how much hair they had. People were genetically modifying themselves so much that they became addicted to it. It turned them into hideous mutated freaks. We call them splicers." Booker explained.

"Splicers..." Princess Celestia  said. "How odd."

"But this city had a civil war brewing. A war that would have made it into a worse hell than it already was. So Elizabeth and I decided that we needed to get out of there. But on the way, we had to steal a key for the craft that crushed that family. We call it a bathysphere, and it was locked to everyone except certain officials who had that key. It would have taken us to the surface so we could get out of there. The head honcho we stole the key from knew that we did and sent some of his splicers after us. They chased us into an altercation with what we call a Big Daddy." Booker said.

"A Big Daddy?" Princess Celestia asked. "What exactly is a Big Daddy?"

"I'm getting to that. A Big Daddy is a man...or what used to be a man, genetically modified and fused to the inside of a diving suit to the point where he isn't human anymore. Strongest things I've ever seen. They were originally intended for construction, able to hold up fifteen ton steel beams like they were nothing and drill through solid rock like it was clay. But a problem came up with Splicers taking the Little Sisters, which are produced to harvest ADAM. Now ADAM is the lifeblood of that underwater city. Without ADAM, there's no genetic modifications. That makes ADAM worth more than gold." Booker said.

"Goodness." Princess Luna  mused.

"So one of the head honchos in this underwater city came up with the bright idea to modify these Big Daddies to protect the Little Sisters from the splicers. It worked. A little too well. You mess with a Little Sister, you mess with her Big Daddy, and you do not wanna mess with her Big Daddy. Getting back to me and Elizabeth, we accidentally incurred the wrath of this Little Sister's Big Daddy. Elizabeth here can open what we call tears. Portals to other worlds." Booker said.

"Sister..." Princess Luna said to Princess Celestia. "You don't think...the mirror?" 

"I don't know, Luna." Princess Celestia said, looking as if she was in deep thought for a moment. "I don't know...Go on, Booker."

"We were able to knock the Big Daddy through the tear, but Elizabeth had opened up the tear so quickly, she didn't know exactly where it went. So we decided to go through the tear ourselves and bring the Big Daddy back to our world."

"And this...Big Daddy..." Princess Luna said. "This is the monster you've been speaking of that is supposedly running loose?" Booker nodded.

"As far as what we can do about it..." Princess Celestia said. "We have not received a single report of any monster in Equestria. We can contact each city to make sure, but since there is no evidence that the Big Daddy is here, it does not warrant a full-fledged investigation." Booker quickly stood and pointed toward the white princess.

"Listen to me, Goddamn it!" Booker cried.

"Booker, sit down!" Elizabeth said to him. 

"No, this has to be said!" Booker retorted. "We've been getting fed the same bull all day long! Wherever this thing is, there probably isn't anything to contact! It is genetically modified to kill!" 

"I understand your frustration, Booker." Princess Celestia said, furrowing her eyebrows. "But we cannot waste resources on this when we have no concrete evidence. How do you even know for sure the Big Daddy was sent here?" 

"Princess Celestia, with all due respect, I know for sure that it was sent here." Elizabeth said. 

"Perhaps we should at least contact Princess Twilight, sister." Princess Luna said to her sister. "They seem to be genuinely concerned." Princess Celestia looked at her sister, then at Booker and Elizabeth. The woman nodded at her. Princess Celestia sighed and nodded.

"Very we-" She was interrupted by a member of the royal guard bursting into the room. 

"Princess Celestia! Princess Luna!" He cried. He was completely out of breath and looked terrified. 

"Calm down and speak." Princess Celestia said. "What is wrong?"

"It's Ponyville!" He said. "There's been a changeling invasion! Queen Chrysalis has returned, and there's a monster on a rampage throughout the town. It doesn't look to be aligned with the changelings!" Princess Celestia looked at Luna, whose eyes widened. 

"Prepare a detachment of the royal guard." Princess Celestia said.

"Wake every member of the night patrol as well." Princess Luna added.

"Send them all to Ponyville and engage the changelings. Luna and myself will be down to provide additional support." Princess Celestia said. The guard gave a salute and left the room quickly. A small messenger pony walked into the room seconds later. 

"Message for you from Princess Twilight." The messenger said. Celestia took the message and read it, her eyes widening drastically before looking at Princess Luna. 

"It's true." Celestia said before looking at Booker who smirked at her. 

"Satisfied?" He said. 

"I assume you have a plan to extract the Big Daddy?" Celestia asked. 

"Yeah, we do. But we'll need that Little Sister you've taken from us." Booker said with a small nod. Princess Celestia nodded.

"Very well." She said before looking at Luna. "Luna, summon Discord. We'll need his assistance. I hope you and your companion are well-versed in combat situations, Booker." The princess turned around to see Booker withdraw a shotgun from a tear produced by Elizabeth. Elizabeth held a pistol which she proceeded to load. 

"Your highness," Booker said before cocking the shotgun. "It's my specialty." 




> A Dead End
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------



The morning dawned on Ponyville, bringing warmth to the countryside. It was a happy and bright day, but Twilight Sparkle wasn't feeling happy and bright. If anything, she was feeling completely and utterly exhausted. She was the last of the group present to take watch of Scootaloo and this new creature that held her so close to it. Twilight stared at it, perplexed and confused at the same time. This thing didn't sleep at all. It's glowing yellow portholes shined brightly throughout the night and continued into the morning, being dimmed by the rising sun. Scootaloo slept soundly, resting her head on it's leg. Twilight stared at this "Mr. Bubbles".

It stared right back at her. 

They'd been staring at each other all night long. She had tried to get as close as she could the previous night, though she could only get about eight feet away from them before it started to get angry and Scootaloo would have to calm it down. 

Twilight hated the creature. 

If it wasn't for this...thing, she could be getting sleep and waking up in her bed. She could be getting ready for a nice day on the town. But most of all, Scootloo could be sleeping in her own bed as well. Even though Scootaloo had said that it had saved her from the jaws of a monstrous manticore, Twilight couldn't help but feel a certain deposition for the thing. 

"Twilight, hey, you okay?" The alicorn heard her friend Rainbow Dash ask from behind. She turned and gave a small nod toward the pegasus, who sighed. "You can go sleep now, Twilight. I've got this." The princess shook her head. 

"No, I...I can't sleep anyway." Twilight said. "Not while this...monster is still here." 

"Well, it's protecting her, at least." Rainbow said. "It saved her-"

"From a manticore, yeah I remember." Twilight said. "Still I just...I just can't trust this thing." 

"Well, what are we going to do?" Rainbow asked. "None of us can get close enough to grab Scoots to get her away from it." 

"Well, I've sent a letter to Princess Celestia requesting assistance." Twilight said before sighing quietly and rolling her eyes. "She hasn't replied yet."

"Well, Spike's busy sawing logs right now." Rainbow said. "Maybe the letter will come in after he wakes up."

"It doesn't..." Twilight snapped before gaining control of herself. She was tired and grumpy, but there was no reason to take out her frustrations on Rainbow Dash. "It doesn't work like that. He gets the messages whether he's awake or not. If she sends it while he's sleeping, it would wake him up." 

"What are you guys talking about?" Scootaloo asked as she stood up and stretched. 

"Oh, it's nothing, Scoots." Rainbow said. "Don't worry about it."

"Well, do you have any kind of a plan yet?" The filly asked. "You know, to get me away from him?"

"We're still thinking about it, Scootaloo." Twilight said. "This situation is...well, none of us could have possible anticipated it. But we're trying. I promise." 

"Okay." Scootaloo said, giving the princess and her idol a small nod. 

"How'd you sleep, Scootaloo?" Rainbow Dash asked her. 

"I slept alright, I guess." Scootaloo said. "I have a little crick in my neck...but that's about it." 

"Rainbow, could you go get Spike for me?" Twilight asked. "Just wake him up if he's asleep." Some time later, Spike came running from the farm house and looked up at Twilight.

"Hey, Twilight." He asked. "What's up?"

"Is there any news on that letter from Princess Celestia?" Twilight asked with a raised eyebrow. Spike shook his head and frowned. 

"No, I wish." Spike said. "Princess Celestia would know what to do." 

"I swear, the only time she doesn't answer..." Twilight said before looking at her dragon companion.

"Get the girls." Twilight said. "All of them. We need to do this ourselves." 

"What do you mean, Twilight?" Spike asked the princess, who returned her glare to the creature now standing in front of Scootaloo.

"I have a plan." 


_____


Pinkie Pie hummed happily to herself as she continued decorating the two-tiered cake she was preparing for some filly's birthday party. She didn't know who exactly, but she had gotten the order from Mrs. Cake, as well as a small slip of paper with the filly in question's name on it. Pinkie appraised her cake and the work she had put into it so far. It looked decent, but nowhere near presentable by Sugarcube Corner standards. She immediately hopped back to work applying details to make the design of the cake truly pop. 

Pinkie worked happily, humming a little tune. Despite the bad news of Applejack's injury, as soon as she heard that her farm mare friend would be okay, she immediately returned to her usual perky and happy mannerisms. Some more details needed more work to make the cake complete, but Pinkie felt a compelling urge to decorate the top of the cake to get it out of the way. Decorating the top was always the most tiring and meticulous, because it was always the part of the work that involved the most danger of messing the cake up. 

"Okay, time to get this done." Pinkie mumbled to herself as she began making icing flowers on the top. What she did, it was an art...at least to her. She put mental power into each flower and each icing petal looked to be near perfect. Sure, there were several small imperfections; but to the untrained eye, they were unnoticeable. The time eventually came for her to write the filly's name on top of the cake in hot pink frosting. She reached for it on the table...to find that it wasn't there. 

Pinkie Pie's heart jumped as she frantically began searching for the slip of paper. She frowned and groaned as she looked in every possible place for the paper. A voice from the front of the sweet shop shocked her from her search. 

"Pinkie Pie!" Mrs. Cake called from the front. "You have a visitor!"

"Coming!" Pinkie said. She cantered out of the kitchen to behold Fluttershy. She beamed happily at the sight of her new friend. "Fluttershy! HI!" She cried as she wrapped her friend in a tight hug. 

"Uh...Hi, Pinkie Pie..." Fluttershy said, slightly out of breath. "Could you...put me down, please?"

"Oh! Yeah, sorry." Pinkie Pie said before giving off a small nervous chuckle. "What did you need?"

"Oh, well...Rarity told me to come get you because we have to go to Sweet Apple Acres." The timid yellow pegasus said. "Twilight needs to talk to us." Pinkie Pie nodded happily. 

"Mrs. Cake?" Pinkie asked her employer. 

"Oh, certainly." Mrs. Cake said. "I wouldn't deny a summons from the Princess. I can finish the cake, Pinkie dear. You go on to Princess Twilight." 

"Thanks, Mrs. Cake!" Pinkie Pie said happily before leaving the store and heading toward Sweet Apple Acres with Fluttershy. "So what did Twilight want us for, Fluttershy?" The party pony asked. 

"Oh, I don't know." Fluttershy replied. "Rarity told me it was urgent, though." 

"Well, that's good enough for me." Pinkie said before quickening her pace. "Let's go! If it's urgent, that means that Twilight needs us!" The two ponies moved faster. As Pinkie Pie began to run faster than Fluttershy, the pegasus began to fly to increase her speed, though not by much. They arrived at Sweet Apple Acres before long.

And promptly screamed at what they saw. Fluttershy immediately hid behind Pinkie Pie, who stood and stared at Mr. Bubbles, astonished.

"Girls, girls, calm down." Rainbow Dash said as she flew up to the both of them quickly. 

"Wh-What is that thing?" Fluttershy stammered, her eyes as wide as dinner plates. 

"We don't know." Rainbow said, as the three of them began to walk to the rest of the group. Fluttershy made it a point to tiptoe behind Rainbow. "Real quick description here: It's protecting Scootaloo for some reason. We don't know why. All we do know is, that it'll attack anything that tries to get to her. I myself have experienced that, and if it wasn't for Scootaloo, I'd be dead. It apparently killed a manticore like it was nothing." Pinkie Pie's eyes widened at the statement as Fluttershy merely cowered further behind Rainbow Dash.

"So...what exactly are we going to do about, uh..." Pinkie Pie asked. "It?"

"Well apparently, Twilight has a plan she wants to share with us." Rainbow said as they neared further and further to the group. Applejack had a splint, which didn't fail to concern Pinkie and Fluttershy.

"Applejack, a-are you alright?" Fluttershy asked. Applejack smiled at her and nodded slowly.

"Ah'm alright, sugarcube." Applejack said. "Just got my leg hurt a bit, that's all." 

"Did that thing do it to you?" Pinkie asked. Applejack nodded. They all looked at the Big Daddy, which by this point had stood and began to stand in a ready stance to combat anything that might try to harm Scootaloo.

"Girls, if I could have your attention, I was thinking we could get started." Twilight said before looking at Scootaloo. "Applejack, could you stay here and watch over Scootaloo?"

"What, so Ah'm not part of the plan?" Applejack asked Twilight who nodded at her. 

"You are, but because of your injury, you'd be playing a different part in the plan than you would if you weren't injured. We'll be coming back here to fill you in. But for now, because of your splint, please stay here." Twilight said.

"Twilight, we can't just leave her here." Rainbow said to the alicorn, bringing a hoof into the air. 

"Who's going to watch over Scootaloo if we take Applejack with us?" Twilight asked, raising an eyebrow. 

"We don't have to go somewhere else." Rainbow said. "We can discuss everything right here."

"What if that thing can understand us?" Twilight asked.

"It can't!" Rainbow said quickly before looking at the metal behemoth. "Hey! What are you doing just standing there? Growl if you can understand me!" The protector did nothing. It merely stood at the ready and watched them. 

"Rainbow, that doesn't mean anything." Twilight said. "It could still understand us and just-"

"Look, we've never done anything like this without Applejack!" Rainbow said angrily. "It's not right!"

"Rainbow, it's fine." Applejack said. "Y'all go on. Ah'll wait here." 

"But Applejack-" Rainbow began. Applejack moved toward Rainbow a put a hoof on her cheek. 

"Don't worry, Dash." Applejack said with a warm smile. "I'll be fine." Rainbow sighed and nodded. 

"Okay, well, let's go." Rainbow said. A flash of magic came from Twilight's horn and in an instant, they were in Golden Oaks Library. Rainbow Dash sighed. "Okay, so what's the plan, exactly?"

"Well, it's not going to be simple by any stretch of the word..." Twilight said, sitting down in the parlor. "But if we pull it off, I think we can separate Scootaloo from that monster long enough for him to lose track of her."


_____


Each of the six friends stood in place, ready to execute their part of the plan. Scootaloo stood nervously behind her protector, wondering exactly what was going to happen. Twilight furrowed her eyebrows at her five friends, who stood ready. She looked at the nearby trees. If they weren't going to be able to be moved, it would all be ruined. If things truly went to pot with this plan, it could go extremely wrong with everyone else involved, but as far as she knew...Scootaloo was in danger. She hadn't eaten for at least twenty four hours, and it was more as if Scootaloo was a prisoner instead of the Big Daddy's charge. Applejack looked at the farmhouse up the hill and shivered slightly in concern for her family, who was now locked away inside for safety.

Twilight looked quickly at Pinkie Pie and nodded. The pink party pony aimed her party cannon at the Big Daddy and fired it, immediately enraging it. Confetti, balloons, bouncy balls and streamers flew all over the Big Daddy, making him let out an earth shaking roar of rage. It's portholes turned dark red as it charged toward Pinkie Pie, distorted. This allowed Pinkie to easily dodge him and run away, still holding his attention. 

Twilight shot a magical blast at the protector, further confusing him. He aimed his drill toward Twilight. The alicorn wondered what exactly it was doing until she registered the drill had fired from it's arm. She moved too late as the drill collided with her wing and broke it. Twilight let out a cry of agony as her crippled, bloody wing attempted to keep her airborne. It failed miserably as she fell clumsily to the ground. 

"Twilight!" Scootaloo nearly screamed. The Big Daddy approached her, it's drill now back in it's place on it's arm. It revved the weapon before feeling another magical blast from behind. 

"You! Monster!" Rarity cried. "Over here!" The Big Daddy quickly turned it's attention on the white unicorn, who suddenly felt a distinct fear. Twilight stood as quickly as she could as the Big Daddy ran at Rarity, who tried to avoid is as well as she possibly could. 

"Got her!" They all heard Rainbow Dash cry out, as she held Scootaloo. She immediately flew as quickly as she could toward Ponyville, Fluttershy carrying Applejack on her back following close behind. The Big Daddy bellowed monstrously, shaking the very air around it. Their ears ringing, Twilight and Rarity used their magic to tie a large blanket over the Big Daddy's portholes. They then manipulated the two nearby trees to wrap all their roots and branches around the behemoth. For added measure, Pinkie fired the party cannon into the mixture of steel and tree branches. Twilight then focused all of her mental power to create a force field around the Big Daddy and the trees. The entire restraining process lasted merely four seconds, and even as soon as the trees massive roots wrapped around the Big Daddy's arms and legs, he shattered them. 

It was already failing. 

"Quick! Twilight!" Rarity cried. "Atop my back! You have to maintain that force field if the plan is to succeed!" Twilight had to ride on Rarity's back, in order to maintain complete mental concentration. As soon as they began to run away, the Big Daddy smashed through the trunks of both trees and ran against the force field. Realizing it was trapped, it began to pound away at the force field, making the ground shake. Twilight strained even now as the behemoth just started to pound against it. 

"Hurry...Rarity." Twilight said. "The force field won't last long." 

Back in Ponyville, Rainbow quickly landed before the library and ran inside, Scootaloo in tow. Applejack and Fluttershy sat perched atop the library, keeping watch on the monster currently inside the force field. It was seeming to break through. 

"Ponyfeathers." Applejack said. "If that thing breaks through the force field before Twilight, Rarity and Pinkie Pie are out of it's sight, they're done for." Fluttershy sniffled and wiped away tears from her eyes. Thankfully, the three of them were able to get inside Ponyville as the Big Daddy continued to pound on the force field. 

"They're in!" Applejack cried happily. Inside the library, Rainbow Dash sat up in Twilight's room with Scootaloo, who was sobbing and clutching onto the pegasus tightly. They sat close to the window, ready to fly away if the monster found them. 

"Twilight's gonna die because of me!" Scootaloo cried, her tears wetting Rainbow Dash's chest. 

"It's going to be okay." Rainbow Dash said as comfortingly as she could. "It's going to be alright. Twilight's going to be alright." 

"You don't know that!" Scootaloo cried before they heard the front door of the library open. Scootaloo immediately ran toward the source of the noise, leaving Rainbow Dash behind.

"Scootaloo! Scootaloo, wait!" Rainbow cried as she ran after the filly, who she found being held back by Rarity. Scootaloo was attempting to get to Twilight. She mumbled apologies at miles a minute. 

"Rainbow, come get her." Rarity said. "Twilight needs to focus. Now, Scootaloo, calm down." 

"Oh, Goddesses, her wing!" Scootaloo nearly screamed, tears running down her face. 

"Come on, Scootaloo." Rainbow said, pulling Scootaloo back. She held the filly close and kissed her on the head. Scootaloo grabbed onto Rainbow Dash and held her tightly, never taking her eyes of Twilight as Rainbow took her back to the upstairs window. Suddenly, Twilight let out a loud shriek of agony and fell onto her side, breathing heavily and deeply. 

"Twilight!" Rarity cried. "Are you okay?" 

"It's..." Twilight breathed, looking up at Rarity with tears in her eyes. "It's coming. I...I failed. Tell Rainbow Dash to get as far away from here as possible..." Rarity nodded and quickly ran up to the room. 

"Rainbow! Get out of here now! It's coming!" Rarity cried. 

"We're not going to be able to leave." Rainbow said, her eyes widening as she looked out the window. Scootaloo had buried her face in Rainbow's chest.

"Why?" Rarity asked as she looked out the window. An enormous green force field laid over Ponyville, except for one large hole. This hole faced the Everfree Forest and the army of Changelings headed for it. Accompanying them was what looked to be a possessed Ursa Minor, and leading them into battle was none other than Queen Chrysalis.



> Desolation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------



The protector let out a massive bellow as it destroyed the trees holding it to the ground. It tore them up by their roots and threw them aside as if they were twigs. After pulling the sheet off of it's face, it looked around to see that it was surrounded by what looked to be a kind of barrier. In the distance, he could see three familiar ponies running away for no more then two seconds before they disappeared into the small town. Letting out another roar, it charged for them, only to knock into whatever that strange field was. It smashed its fist into it, and it seemed to give for a moment before coming back to it original fortitude. The Big Daddy reeled it's drill back and slammed it into the force field several times in a row, but the field still did not give. 

The Big Daddy was far from deterred, however, so it continued to smash into the field relentlessly. With each and every hit, it seemed to become more and more weak. It roared as it released another drill punch into it, and it finally gave way. The Big Daddy wasted no time in moving toward that little town. It hadn't seen where it's new charge had gone, but it did see those three familiar ponies moving into the town. That was the best place to look. 


_____


"The plan was simple." Twilight said to Applejack, who now took shelter in the library. "We were to disorient the creature long enough to get Scootaloo away from it. Hopefully, it doesn't know where she is now. We just have to hope that it doesn't find her." 

"But what if it came to Ponyville to look for her?" Applejack asked angrily, making Twilight frown heavily. "Did ya even consider that?!"

"She hadn't eaten, Applejack! I was thinking about her!" Twilight retorted.

"Both of you stop!" Rarity yelled. "We don't have time for any of this! In case you didn't notice, there's a small army of changelings outside."

"All we can hope for at this point is that it'll look somewhere else other than Ponyville long enough for Princess Celestia and Princess Luna to get here." Twilight said. "We need them now." 

"Come on, Twilight." Rarity said, moving the princess toward a hiding place. "You need to hide. If the changelings find you..." Rarity shook her head and lead the princess down to her lab beneath the library. 

"Barricade the door and don't open it for anypony until this is all over." Rarity said. 

"Rarity! Where are you going?" Twilight asked her. 

"I've got to get to my sister." Rarity said. "She won't know what to do!" The unicorn closed the door to the basement behind her.

"Wait!" Twilight cried out. "Let me help! Don't leave me down here!" Twilight Sparkle sighed deeply and begrudgingly began to move large and heavy objects to the door. Despite what she may have said, she was still incredibly weak from producing and maintaining the force field for that amount of time against such a powerful force. Something that could break through one of her force fields in that amount of time was certainly not to be trifled with. She began to question the effectiveness of the plan she devised. What if the creature really did follow them here? And if then, did it have some sort of extra sense that allowed it to find Scootaloo?

She definitely couldn't have helped fight the changelings. She had used up most of her power on the force field and she was sporting an obvious weak point. Her broken wing throbbed deeply, making her stop for a moment and attempt to tend to it. Her bright purple fur was soaked with crimson. She tried to make it unfurled, but it only went about halfway, and the main limb of the wing was crumpled like a paper bag, definitely broken in more than one place. Despite the pain currently in her new limb, the alicorn was thankful she was alive. The wing was beginning to throb more and more as time passed, and Twilight came to accept one horrible truth. 

She had to set it.

She had to set the bones if they were to ever properly function again. Twilight had read a large amount of medical books, and she at least had the book knowledge of how to set limbs; even wings were covered in most of the books. The part that worried her was that she had absolutely no experience. She knew she had to have something to bite on, so she took one of the leather belts from one of the lab coats and put it in her mouth, biting on it. Twilight then enveloped her broken wing with magic. Her eyes widened and her breathing increased with each second that passed. 

'Okay...Okay...You can do this...' She thought.

She looked back at the wing, horribly bent and bloody.

'One...'

She closed the magic on the wing a little tighter.

'Two...'

She bit down on the leather as hard as she could.

'Three.'

Twilight screamed and screamed.


_____


Applejack and Rarity struggled to push the bookcase in front of the laboratory door to conceal Twilight's presence from any changeling invaders. It was packed to the brim with smell tomes and potion lists, so naturally, it was incredibly heavy.

"Applejack!" Rarity said when they finished. "I need you to come with me to the boutique. Sweetie Belle is there and I cannot risk her safety." Applejack nodded and stood up. 

"It's on the way to the farm, so Ah ain't got a problem with that." The farm mare said. "Either of y'all wanna come with?" The farm mare regarded Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, who sat together. Fluttershy held tightly onto Pinkie Pie, who had her fore legs wrapped around the Pegasus as well. Pinkie nodded before talking to Fluttershy.

"Fluttershy, we need to go." Pinkie Pie said, bringing the yellow mare to a stand. "We're not safe here." 

"Ah'll go get Dash." Applejack said as she moved up the stairs toward the room where Rainbow held Scootaloo. She found Rainbow Dash standing guard faithfully in front of a bed that Scootaloo hid underneath. "Dash! Hey, come on, let's get out of here."

"Why?" Rainbow said, not taking her eyes off the window. 

"Because we need to take shelter, that's why!" Applejack said to Rainbow Dash, who slowly looked at her. 

"Who's gonna guard Twilight from the changelings?" Rainbow said. "And even more importantly, what will that thing do if it finds all of us guarding Scootaloo versus just one of us?...You go." Applejack approached Rainbow Dash, a look of sorrow on her face. 

"If you die, Ah'll-" Applejack was silenced mid-sentence by Rainbow's lips on hers. The farm mare's eyes widened heavily and her face heated up. Her heart pounded heavily in her chest as Rainbow Dash separated from the kiss. 

"If I die?" Rainbow said, smirking with a blush on her face. "Come on, AJ. This is me we're talking about." It took Applejack a few seconds to regain her composure and she nodded, her own heavy blush on her face.

"Just...be careful." Applejack said as she left the room, watched every step of the way by the cyan pegasus. 

If Rainbow died that day...at least she'd die with no regrets.


_____


"Are the guards and chains really necessary?" Booker asked, raising an eyebrow at Celestia, who sat in the seat in front of him and Elizabeth, who was also chained to the floor of the chariot they were in. "I mean, you got the report of the Big Daddy. All we want to do is help." 

"Who are those peculiar creatures again?" Discord asked Princess Luna. "I forgot whilst staring at their strange tentacle-y appendages." Luna rolled her eyes and began describing what Booker and Elizabeth were to the Draconequus. The little sister merely sat where she was and hummed lightly to herself, her distorted voice noticeably making the guard watching them uncomfortable. Celestia turned her head toward Booker, her eyebrows furrowed. 

"Until we know for absolutely certain that you haven't been lying to us, you will remain in those chains." Celestia said before levitating Booker's shotgun and Elizabeth's pistol before them. "I assume these to be weapons, are they not?"

"Yeah, they are." Booker said. "Weapons that we want to use to help you."

"Booker, relax." Elizabeth whispered to him. "They don't have any idea what we can do."

"Take the fact that I healed your injured wrist as consolation that we will not harm you." Celestia continued. "But we still can't trust you until we know for sure. I mean no offense." 

"Yeah, none taken, your highness." Booker deadpanned, rolling his eyes. "If you don't trust us, why the hell did you bring us?"

"Booker, calm down!" Elizabeth scolded him. 

"Because if the monster reported truly is the 'Big Daddy', you two are the only ones who know how to stop it." Celestia said. 

"And we'll need as much assistance as we can possibly get to combat the changelings." Luna added, looking back at the two humans. Booker took the time to look around at the massive detachment of Royal Guard that was accompanying them. It wouldn't be a good idea to try something fancy, seeing as how they were outnumbered about forty to one. 

"So it's not that you don't trust us...it's just that you don't trust us." Booker said, raising an eyebrow. He was obviously making fun of Celestia's attempts to be courteous. 

"I like this guy." Discord said, raising an eyebrow and smirking.

"While I don't appreciate your humor, Booker, we do not." Celestia sighed, furrowing her eyebrows. The princess began to mentally prepare herself for the battle that lied ahead. The last time she had encountered the malicious race known as the changelings, she had been defeated by their Queen. Chrysalis. 

While Celestia was indeed very powerful, Chrysalis was too strong for the princess to fight efficiently when she had been feeding off of the love of Shining Armor, the captain of her royal guard. A long period of time had passed since then, and the princess of the sun knew not if Chrysalis had been empowering herself in the same fashion as before. Even so, she had her sister Luna by her side this time. Celestia herself had seen Luna in battle when she transformed into Nightmare Moon. The princess of the night possessed a distinct ferocity in combat that she often kept hidden behind a veil of grace and pristine regality. 

"Well, princess Celestia, I think you'll find that my friend and I here can definitely be trusted." Booker said as he patted Celestia on the back gently. Celestia smiled to herself and nodded. Perhaps they could be trusted. 

Wait...

He had patted her on the back. 

He had been chained to the floor of the chariot.

Celestia immediately turned around, her eyes widened, to see Booker holding his shotgun on his lap. He raised an eyebrow at the princess. 

"Tears..." Booker said, holding up the key he had obviously used to unlock the shackles. It had a strange hazy appearance to it. "They're marvelous things, aren't they?"

"How...How did you..." Luna said, dumbfounded. "Discord! You could have stopped them!" 

"Wha- I..." Discord said as he pretended to notice the key for the first time. "Oh, darn." He said, smiling at Luna. 

"Look, I could have easily killed both of you with this just now." Booker explained, holding up his shotgun. "But as luck would have it, we want to help you. So naturally, I didn't kill you." 

"Why you-" Luna began, anger visible on her face. 

"Please!" Elizabeth said. "He's right. All we want to do is help. That Big Daddy could destroy an entire town easily. We just want to get it out of here." 

"Calm yourself, sister." Princess Celestia said. "I suppose even if they aren't deserving of our trust by now, it doesn't matter." Luna sighed and nodded. 

"You make a valid point." Luna said before glaring at Discord. 

"What?" He said. "I believe them!" 

"I should have figured one of your chaotic sensibilities would." Luna said as she rolled her eyes. "What does that do by the way?" The princess asked, pointing to the shotgun. Booker held up the shotgun and smiled at the princess. 

"You just point and-"

"No..." Celestia gasped, interrupting Booker. Luna, Discord, Booker and Elizabeth looked at Celestia, whose face was contorted into an expression of despair. They then stared at the massive force field surrounding Ponyville, and the small changeling army inside, brutalizing the citizens of the small town. Fires raged as buildings collapsed. The sound of death was audible from where they were.

"Guard!" Celestia said, almost frantically. The guard closest to the princess flew to her and addressed her.

"Yes, your highness?" He said, intimidated by what he saw happening to Ponyville.

"Contact Princess Cadence and tell her to bolster the ranks of the Crystal Empire." Celestia said to him. "We need to be prepared for war." 

War.

The word sent a noticeable dark chill throughout the group, seeing as how war was virtually unheard of in Equestria. The guard merely stared at her, his eyes widened in disbelief. He said absolutely nothing to the princess as she looked into his eyes. 

"Go!" Princess Celestia shouted, her true, booming voice sounding throughout the air around everyone. The guard immediately flew in the direction of the Crystal Empire. Booker furrowed his eyebrows as he loaded his shotgun and cocked it. 

"Never thought in a million years..." He mumbled as he watched Elizabeth load her pistol. 

"What could they want?" Luna asked her sister, who stood straight up in the chariot. "Sister!" Luna nearly cried, her eyes widening. 

"Twilight." 


_____


Screams...

So many screams.

"Applejack! Come on!" Rarity cried out as she let a blast of magic loose into a changeling that was seemingly targeting Fluttershy. The farm mare fought with a changeling physically, her splint doing absolutely nothing to help her. It hissed at her as it began to push her back. The farm mare let out a massive blow into the side of the changeling's head with her splint, knocking it unconscious. Applejack immediately returned to Rarity's side, breathing heavily. 

"Got-dang splint." Applejack said as they continued to move through the town. Fluttershy took cover by Pinkie Pie's side. In any other situation, the pink party pony would try to make light of the horror around them, but every ounce of her fun spirit was suppressed the moment she had glimpsed three changelings mercilessly beating a stallion while his family watched and screamed. 

He had looked to be dead.

Pinkie tried to help...tried to stop the three awful changelings, but she had been stopped by Applejack, who knew better. The same would just happen to Pinkie Pie. They weren't supposed to be heroes right now. They were supposed to survive. 

The changelings were not like they were before. They weren't even bothering to hide their true forms. They were murderous...obviously ordered to give no quarter. Pinkie Pie's eyes filled with tears as she held onto Fluttershy and attempted to keep her now-straight mane out of her eyes. The group stopped in an alleyway that was sheltered from the chaos...for that moment at least. The roar of the ursa minor echoed throughout the entire town and the ground shook as it stepped.

"Applejack...from here, what is the quickest way to the farm from the boutique?" Rarity asked between deep breaths. 

"We take a left straight outta the boutique and then make a right." Applejack said. "It's a long way, but it's a straight shot." Rarity nodded at her and looked at Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. 

"Did you both get that?" Rarity asked. Pinkie Pie nodded, but Fluttershy seemed to be in a state of shock, merely staring ahead, her eyes wide. Rarity didn't try to speak to the yellow pegasus anymore. She nodded. 

"Okay." Rarity said. "On three. One...two...three!" 

They sprinted out into the alleyway, dodging attacks from Changelings and fighting back when neccesary. A changeling jumped onto Applejack's back, sinking it's teeth into her shoulder, making her cry out in pain. She bucked it off and kicked it in the head. It's body seemed to go limp. As they continued to run, the boutique came into their view. 

"We're almost there!" Rarity cried. "I just need to get Sweetie Belle!" 

"Ah don't think it's gonna be that easy." Applejack said, her eyes widening heavily as she pointed at something. Rarity turned around and saw the thing she wanted to see the least in this entire situation. 

The monster...the same one that held Scootaloo prisoner was stalking toward them.

It seemed to recognize them. 

"No..." Rarity said under her breath. 

It roared as it began to charge straight for them. 

"Run!" Rarity screamed.


_____


Twenty Minutes Earlier

The Big Daddy ran as quickly as it could in the direction the ponies had run in. It moved surprisingly fast for it's massive bulk, making the ground shake as it ran. The earth crumbled beneath it's mighty boots as it steadily approached the town. It ran into the buildings, smashing through corners and knocking whatever was in it's way out of it's way. Several ponies screamed, but it didn't pay them any mind. They were not what it was after. 

If it found those ponies that were running away, it found it's little sister. 

A massive force field appeared around the town, making the Big Daddy groan confusedly for a moment before getting back to its business. It didn't care what happened around it, it just needed...needed to find it's little sister. She was here in this town, somewhere, and the steel behemoth would tear it apart brick by brick if it had to to find her. 

A strange pressure resounded throughout the back of the Bouncer's steel carapace, making it stop in its tracks. Something was attacking it. It's portholes turned red and it jumped onto it's back, making whatever had attacked him squeal in agony. The Big Daddy turned around to see some strange creature, horribly crushed and whining. It was black, had four legs, wings and a horn. It hissed angrily at the Big Daddy before it plunged it's drill into the creature's body, ending it's life. 

It felt another attack, and immediately grabbed the attacker, another one of the strange creatures, by it's head. It struggled, doing absolutely nothing to stop the powerful steel Behemoth. It squeezed the thing's head and once it felt a distinct popping come from it's skull, it threw it away and continued to run through the city.  

Another creature attacked and the Big Daddy tore it's wings off and crushed the creature's spine with it's boot as it ran through the city. These strange creatures began to surround the Big Daddy, at least twenty of them landing around it, slowly closing in to mob it. The protector roared and plunged it's drill into the ground, sending a massive shockwave through the earth and stunning to creatures.

The Bouncer went to work, immediately grabbing a changeling by it's leg and smashing it into it's comrades, breaking their bones and mutilating their bodies. It launched it's drill into the crowd of them, the sharp weapon penetrating through three at a time before the Big Daddy recalled it to it's arm. 

At that point a changeling that was bigger than the manticore the Big Daddy had killed arrived on the scene. It roared at the Bouncer, prompting the Protector to return the roar. They clashed, the changeling brute attempting to bite the Big Daddy's arm. But just in time, the Big Daddy landed a punch on the Changeling's ribs, caving them in. The changeling squealed in agony before the Big Daddy plunged it's drill through it's meaty neck, nearly severing the head and sending dark green blood everywhere. 

The changelings fled from the Protector, convinced of it's invulnerability, as it charged through the city. The chaos around it was merely a secondary concern to the Big Daddy. It turned a corner and set it's sights on it's target. 

The ponies from earlier.

It stepped toward them, angry that it's charge was not with them. It would kill them anyway, seeing as they had attacked it before. Their eyes locked on it just as it began to charge.


_____


"Run!" Rarity screamed as the four mares moved as quickly as they could away from the Big Daddy, which sprinted after them. It was certainly much faster than it appeared to be, as it began to close the distance between it and the group of ponies. "Faster! It's gaining!" Rarity cried. 

Applejack breathed heavily, her splint making it much more difficult to run for her. Her fractured limb throbbed in horrible pain as they kept trying to get away. They ducked through alleyways, only for the Big Daddy to smash through them in it's pursuit. 

"How are we going to get away?!" Pinkie Pie cried. Rarity looked back at Pinkie Pie to answer as she saw the Big Daddy lift up a large wagon with one hand and hurl it at the four of them. It would crush them. Rarity immediately stopped and focused on the wagon. 

"Go!" She cried as she caught it with her magic. She strained heavily as she hurled it back at the Big Daddy, only to smash through it in the air. As the behemoth barreled toward Rarity, she didn't even have a second to think. She teleported a few feet away from the Big Daddy, just in time to dodge it's drill, which plunged into the ground. With a scream, she dodged a powerful swipe from the Bouncer that would have surely left her crippled.

Rarity sprinted to catch up with her friends, even though she was already out of breath from the teleportation. She looked back quickly to see a swarm of changelings distracting the Protector. She had barely caught up when they reached the boutique, leaving the Big Daddy behind as it slaughtered its attackers.

"Alright! Go!" Applejack said as Rarity ran into the house. "Ah think it's comin' again!" The statement struck a chord in Rarity as she sprinted through the house, searching for her sister. The boutique had already been ransacked and destroyed. This sent fear coursing through Rarity as her breathing became frantic. 

"Sweetie Belle!" Rarity screamed. "Sweetie Belle!"

"Rarity?" A timid voice called from her bedroom. Rarity whimpered as she sprinted for the room and found Sweetie Belle hiding underneath the bed. Tears streaked down her face.

"Oh, Sweetie Belle!" Rarity cried out, immediately grabbing her sister and holding her close. "I'm so happy you're alright!" 

"What's happening?" The filly asked, terrified. 

"I don't know, my dear." Rarity said. "But we have to go now. We're going to Sweet Apple Acres. You'll get to see Applebloom." Rarity pulled her sister up as they began moving toward the door. 

"What about Scootaloo?" Sweetie Belle asked through a sob. Rarity teared up herself, not knowing what had happened to the little orange pegasus. As she turned to answer her sister Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy ran into the bedroom and took shelter against the far wall from the door. They breathed heavily in fear. 

"Rarity-" Applejack began frantically before a massive drill crashed up through the floor, the pronounced ridges cutting through Rarity's leg as she fell back.

"Hide, Sweetie Belle!" Rarity screamed as a massive hand reached through the floor and took hold. "HIDE!" Sweetie Belle took shelter in Rarity's closet as the Big Daddy began to pull itself through the floor. It groaned loudly, it's red portholes glowing brightly. 

"Ah'm gonna distract it while y'all get outta here!" Applejack said, looking at Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, their eyes wide in disbelief. "Take Sweetie Belle and go!" The Big Daddy began to pull itself up through the hole. 

"NO!" Rarity cried, tears beginning to streak down her face. "I can't let you die!" 

"What else are ya gonna do?!" Applejack nearly screamed. "Tell my family Ah love 'em." 

Just as the Big Daddy began to come up into the room, it stopped.

It let out the loudest roar that any of the mares had ever heard. The boutique shook from the sheer force of the sound, which left the mares' ears ringing. The Big Daddy let go of the ledge and and dropped down through the hole. The four mares watched it move through the boutique quicker than it chased them. It smashed through the front wall of the house.

It was gone. 

They had been spared. They all stood in a sort of trance, staring at the gaping hole in the floor.

"Come on!" Pinkie Pie cried suddenly. "We have to get to the farm!" Rarity snapped out of her trance and immediately helped Sweetie Belle out of the closet. 

"I thought..." Sweetie Belle said through her tears. "I thought he was good..." 

"No." Rarity said. "He's not good." Rarity cringed as Pinkie Pie finished wrapping a tourniquet around her injured leg. The five mares then left the house and ran for the farm as fast as they could, away from the changelings, away from the Big Daddy...

Away from the death. 


_____


Celestia and Luna cast a powerful spell, one that had the strength the create a large hole in the force field. 

"Charge!" Celestia cried. "Protect the citizens at all costs!" The large detachment of the royal guard and night patrol flew through the hole and engaged the changelings, their powerful offensive magic providing a decent cover for the landing of the Princesses, Booker and Elizabeth. The bat ponies, mostly incapable of magic, fought with an animalistic ferocity that surpassed that of many wild beasts in Equestria.

"Come!" Celestia said as she launched a magical blast that took out at least five changelings. "We must hurry!" 

"Where are we going?" Booker asked before shooting a changeling down with his shotgun. He then let out a burst of Electrobolt into a changeling, the plasmid paralyzing the creature, allowing him to get off an easy shot. 

"We must rescue Princess Twilight Sparkle!" Luna cried, letting out a large magical blast of her own. "She is extremely inexperienced and likely the target of this assault!" 

"Perfect!" Booker said as he lit a changeling aflame with incinerate. He looked at Elizabeth, who was in the process of opening a tear. From the tear came a samurai warrior, who began to eviscerate changelings. "Hey. You good?"

"Yeah." Elizabeth said as she scored a perfect shot on a changeling with her pistol. "Let's go." 

The princesses, Discord, Booker and Elizabeth moved through the town, repelling changeling attacks as the skirmish occurred behind them. The number of changelings was staggering, hundreds of them engaging their soldiers. While they were holding their own quite well, they were beginning to fall into a disadvantage. As they reached the town square, they  and ten to fifteen of their soldiers were surrounded by what looked to be at least one hundred changelings at once. 

"You guys ready?" Booker cried out as he cocked the shotgun. "This is gonna get pretty ugly real fast!" 

"You wanna see ugly?" Discord scoffed. "Visit my grandma. She could teach these guys a thing or two." 

"We need to save Twilight." Celestia said, furrowing her eyebrows. "Whatever the cost." 

"Well, then..." Elizabeth said. "We'd better get to work." 

The changelings attacked, swarming the small group. Elizabeth shot a changeling in the head before being tackled to the ground by one. Booker immediately ran forward and kicked it off of her before shooting it dead. He helped her up, immediately turned and bashed a changeling with the butt of the gun. As a large group of changelings approached Discord, he snapped his claws, causing a nearby building to come to life to attack them. Wooden beams fused together to become limbs with large claws. razor sharp boards of wood came from the font of the house forming a mouth. Discord watched, satisfied as his creation began to kill the attackers.

"Oops." Discord said, an evil grin spreading over his face. Celestia launched a bolt of magic into a group of changelings, taking out a good number of them before bucking several behind her with her powerful legs. Just as a rather large changeling jumped on her from behind, Luna blasted it off of her. The royal guard and bat ponies began to fall, crumpling from the overwhelming might of the changeling army. 

A changeling sunk it's razor sharp teeth into Booker's leg, making him cry out in pain before caving it's head in with a blast from his shotgun. He froze a changeling that pounced at Elizabeth solid with winter blast before kicking it into hundreds of ice shards. Princess Luna felt a sharp pain in her back right leg as it was stabbed by a changeling horn, making her grit her teeth in pain before bucking it away and blasting several more with bolts of magic. Realizing they'd be overwhelmed eventually, Celestia began to charge a spell, the pure power of it heating up the area around her. 

"Luna! Booker! Elizabeth! Discord! Get as close to me as you can! NOW!" The princess cried. Luna, aware of what her sister was doing, began to push Booker toward Celestia. 

"Wait, why?" Booker asked. 

"You'll see, just move!" Luna said as Elizabeth moved toward Celestia as well. 

"This should be fun." Discord said after teleporting to coil around Celestia's body. Once they all were with Celestia, the sun princess let out an offensive spell that appeared to be a large shockwave of fire. It coursed throughout the town square and not much farther, wiping out many of the changelings attacking, and sending many of the rest fleeing. 

"Why didn't you use that earlier?!" Booker cried immediately as he reloaded his shotgun. 

"Look around you, Booker." Celestia said, furrowing her eyebrows. As Booker looked around, he saw the bodies of the soldiers that had assisted them. They'd all been killed. "I couldn't kill them." 

"Jeez, I..." Booker said. "I'm...I'm sorry." 

"We have to go now." Celestia said, moving in the direction of Golden Oaks Library, the residence of Princess Twilight Sparkle. For all she knew, they were too late. They hurried throughout the streets of Ponyville, fighting the chaos around them as they went. They turned the corner and began to approach the library. 

But what they saw transpiring left even Princesses Celestia and Luna in complete and utter awe.

"Oh, wow." Discord gasped. "What is that?"


_____


Twenty Minutes Earlier

Rainbow Dash sat on the bed in the upper bedroom of Golden Oaks Library, holding Scootaloo close to her as the filly cried. The situation began to get more and more hopeless as time went on. There wasn't any sign that the chaos outside had ended, there was no positive reassurance. Eventually, the changelings would come to this library in search of Twilight and find her and Scootaloo. From that point, there were two possibilities that Rainbow saw happening.

They'd find them and Rainbow would fight them as well as she could and die to hopefully give Scootaloo some time to escape. But assuming Scootaloo didn't escape, she'd be killed as well.

The massive steel behemoth would find them, and it would kill her. Afterwards, the behemoth would hopefully resume its protection of Scootaloo, keeping her safe from the changelings. 

Rainbow Dash desperately hoped that it was the latter. She knew she was going to die, there was no way around it. Above all, though, she wanted Scootaloo to live. She cared deeply for the filly, as if she was her younger sister. Rainbow slowly stroked Scootaloo's mane and kissed her on the head again. 

"Whats..." Scootaloo said. "Wh-What's gonna happen?" 

"I'm gonna protect you," Rainbow said. "And kick the flank of any of those changelings that want to mess with you." 

"You don't honestly believe that, do you?" Scootaloo asked. Of course Rainbow didn't believe it. But she had to stay positive for Scootaloo. 

"Yeah, I do!" Rainbow said. "Do I detect you doubting my awesomeness?" 

"Oh, no." Scootaloo said, wiping the tears from her eyes. "You're so awesome, Rainbow. It's just that if they all come here and gang up on you..."

"You know what? You're right." Rainbow said. "But you know what I know for myself?"

"What?" Scootaloo said.

"You're going to be absolutely fine." Rainbow said.

"How do you know?" Scootaloo said. 

"Because I know." Rainbow said. "I'll die before-" As Rainbow said the words, the ceiling of the library caved in to reveal Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings riding atop the head of an Ursa Minor. The bear's fur was black as night and it's eyes glowed a bright blue. 

"My sincerest apologies for interrupting, but did someone say 'die'?" Chrysalis said as she stepped into the room. Rainbow immediately stood up in front of Scootaloo, hunching protectively. "Oh, that's cute." The evil queen said before lifting Rainbow Dash up with her magic and levitating the pegasus before her. 

"Put her down!" Scootaloo cried out. 

"Not likely, my dear." Chrysalis said. "Where is Twilight Sparkle?" 

"Not here, if that's what you're wondering." Rainbow Dash said with a smirk. "What, you think you can just take an ursa minor for a walk through the woods without somepony getting alerted to it?"

"What are you talking about?" Chrysalis asked, making Rainbow scoff and roll her eyes.

"Stupid changeling." Rainbow said. "Celestia knew about your little attack before you even got here! Now Twilight's in another place, and you're feeling really dumb." Rainbow Dash lied. Fortunately, Rainbow Dash always was skilled in the art of deception. Chrysalis growled and used her magic to pull Rainbow's wings out to be fully extended behind her. The pegasus grunted and attempted to resist the magic, but she failed. The Queen threw Rainbow Dash roughly into the wall of the bedroom, wings first. An audible crack was heard, and Rainbow screamed in agony as her wings broke.

"Rainbow Dash!" Scootaloo cried out, tears welling up in her eyes as Chrysalis picked the pegasus up again and slammed her into another wall roughly before throwing her down on the ground. Rainbow Dash coughed deeply as she rolled onto her side, blood leaking from her nose. Chrysalis stepped on one of the broken wings, making Rainbow shriek. 

"You may be good at lying, my sweet. But you cannot lie to the best liar in Equestria." The evil Queen approached Scootaloo, who trembled as she stood above her. "Now, where is she?!" 

"I...I..." Scootaloo said. 

"WHERE?!" Chrysalis shrieked right in Scootaloo's face, making the filly's ears ring. The filly turned her head away from Chrysalis, and stood firm. 

"I'm not telling." Scootaloo said. At that moment, Rainbow Dash leaped into Chrysalis' side, knocking her off balance and making her stumble. The pegasus let out a flurry of punches into the Queen's head, making the evil changeling screech with fury. 

"Changeling piece of-" Rainbow snarled before Chrysalis pulled The pegasus off of her with her magic once more and slammed the pegasus against a wall, this time moving the magic around her neck, cutting off her air supply. Chrysalis continued to strangle Rainbow Dash, breathing deeply with hatred before calming down extremely suddenly. 

"You...have heart." Chrysalis said before spitting out a glob of blood. "And a tremendous amount of gall. I respect that." 

"You let her go!" Scootaloo screamed through a sob. 

"If you don't want to tell me where Twilight Sparkle is, fine." Chrysalis said. "Then you won't mind my friend here destroying this house with you and your blue protector still in it." Chrysalis shot a magic beam at the ursa major that, until this point, had been waiting patiently by the library. It roared loudly and began to demolish the library, pulling the walls apart. Scootaloo screamed at the top of her lungs, knowing now that she would die. 

From the distance, came a very familiar roar. One that Scootaloo remembered hearing in the Everfree Forest as she was being attacked by a manticore.

"What in the..." Chrysalis said, confused by the roar that was obviously not her ursa major. "No matter. It would appear that you and your little blue guardian are-"

"She's not my only guardian." Scootaloo said, furrowing her eyebrows at Chrysalis. 

"What?" Chrysalis growled as she narrowed her eyes, "You dare interrupt-"

"If you think that Rainbow Dash is the only thing here in Ponyville that is willing to fight to the death for me..." Scootaloo said. "You're dead wrong!"

"What in Equestria are you-" 

Chrysalis was interrupted by a squeal of pain from the ursa minor behind her. The queen turned around to see it get pulled down to the ground. The ground shook from the impact. Completely and utterly surprised, Chrysalis flew out of the room to see what was brutalizing the ursa minor this way. The Big Daddy, only a third the size of the ursa minor, had impaled it's drill into one of the back legs of the bear and pulled it to the ground. The ursa minor immediately turned around and grabbed the Bouncer and prepared to bite into it with it's massive jaws. With a massive and deafening roar, it opened its mouth. 

As it clamped it's teeth down onto the steel carapace of the Protector, it's teeth shattered and it cried in pain as it brought the Bouncer out of it's mouth. The Big Daddy wasted no time in launching it's drill into the massive bear's eye, making it drop the steel behemoth. With a massive roar, the Big Daddy pulled the Ursa Minor to the ground head first and recalled the drill to it's arm. It then ran toward the ursa minor and jumped onto it's head, it's weight keeping the bear's head on the ground. It rotated it's drill at high speeds and plunged it's drill into the ursa minor's head, making it squeal in agony. The bear's limbs flailed about, destroying parts of the library. The Big Daddy withdrew the drill and plunged it in again in a different place in the bear's skull cavity. With this second impaling, the bear expired, ending the long and awful struggle. 

The Big Daddy stepped off of the ursa minor's head, leaving the dead beast behind like it was nothing. It then looked up, locking onto Chrysalis. The Queen gasped and flew back into the bedroom as the Big Daddy quickly scaled the side of the library to get to her. She immediately lifted Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash with her magic and began to fly out of the room when the Big Daddy grabbed her leg. She immediately turned and screeched loudly, before producing an intense light defensive spell, disorienting the Big Daddy and making it step back. She immediately flew out of the library to see Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Discord and two strange creatures she'd never seen before. 

"Celestia!" Chrysalis said. "That is quite the enforcer you have!" Celestia responded by launching a magical blast at Chrysalis, who dodged it. 

"It isn't one of ours." Luna growled, scowling at the changeling queen. "We don't know what it is." 

"Well, no matter." Chrysalis said. "If Twilight Sparkle wants miss Rainbow Dash here to live, she knows where to find me." The changeling Queen began to fly away before she was interrupted by Celestia. 

"Chrysalis!" Celestia said, her eyes filled with rage. "I hope you know...you've started a war." 

"Good." Chrysalis said, an evil grin crossing her face before letting out a massive screech, calling the rest of the changelings to follow her as she flew away with Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash. The force field dissipated as they flew back to their hive. The Big Daddy launched itself from the massive hole in the library and began to pursue the changelings. 

"Guard!" Princess Celestia cried, earning the attention of one of the remaining royal guard. 

"Yes, princess?" He said. 

"Find Princess Twilight." The princess of the sun said, furrowing her brow as she watched the cloud of Changelings disappear. "Consider that an order of the highest priority." 

"Yes, your highness!" The guard cried out as he returned to his fellow soldiers to give the orders.

"So what do we do now?" Booker asked, breathing heavily as he watched the Big Daddy break through the treeline into the woods. 

...

No response.

"Princess?" Elizabeth said gently. She still received no response from the sun princess. 

"Sister!" Luna said. "What are we to do?"

"We prepare for war." 















> 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." 










> Isolation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


"Hello?" Scootaloo called through tears in the everlasting darkness. "Hello?" The filly couldn't see three feet in front of her in the dark Changeling dungeon. She had no idea where she was...or what was lurking in the darkness with her. The only thing the terrified pegasus knew was that she was chained to a hard stone wall. The shackle dug into the skin on her back leg, creating unbearably uncomfortable friction on her soft, furred skin. Scootaloo's heart leaped inside her chest ever time she'd hear a drop of water, or a hoofstep. Things were moving out there in the darkness, some of them even sounding like they were getting closer and closer to her; and every time Scootaloo would think this was the end for her, the noises would stop and she'd continue sitting still and scared in the dungeon. 

She'd been here for what seemed like days, but she was sure it couldn't have been more than one. Once Chrysalis had brought her and Rainbow Dash into the Everfree, the evil Queen casted a sleeping spell on Scootaloo. Rainbow Dash certainly hadn't needed it. The darkness of her slumber was nothing compared to the darkness she faced now, with all it's noises and fears. The filly sat back for a moment and felt tears come to her eyes. A sob escaped her throat as she slumped where she was, letting her head droop down. The tears ran down her face and off of her nose as she cried. The liquid on her face was yet another discomfort to add to her ever growing list, but she didn't care. The filly let out a wail of despair as her body slowly sunk to the wet ground. Scootaloo hated to cry. Rainbow Dash wouldn't be crying right now. She'd be trying to find some way to escape. But Scootaloo couldn't help it. She was locked up in a dark dungeon in a place she knew to be far away from home and her idol Rainbow Dash was probably dead or worse. She continued to cry for what seemed like a half an hour before she pulled herself back together once more. 

Scootaloo sighed to herself and resolved to not give up. For the sake of her friends and for the sake of Rainbow Dash, she wouldn't give up. She'd try...at least she'd try...to find her way out of this dungeon. The filly looked back at the shackle on her back leg and inspected the lock closely. Scootaloo had to squint her eyes hard to actually see it in the darkness. It appeared to have a rather large keyhole, which could fit any assortment of things. With a small, short breath, Scootaloo began to look around the expanse of the area the shackle allowed her to move. Small rocks of all shapes and sizes littered the area around her, so taking great time and great care, Scootaloo began to examine all the different kinds of rocks and pebbles. She found a lot of robust round rocks, which obviously couldn't help her, but she eventually found a long, thin rock that looked as if it might have been able to be put into the keyhole. Scootaloo sighed. 

"Well..." She whispered to herself. "It's worth a shot." 

The filly picked up the rock and began to push it into the keyhole. With a small jolt of elation, Scootaloo realized that the rock fit. She continued to move the rock around in the lock for a while before she began to hear many hoofsteps approaching her cell. She couldn't see who exactly was coming but it sounded like at least three individuals. A small noise caught her ear as she backed away from the source of the noise, whatever it was. The noise was groaning...a feminine voice groaning. It sounded familiar. Several dark husks could be made out by Scootaloo at her cell door. It was opened quickly and forward stepped two of the husks while one stayed behind. One of the individuals appeared to be basically dragging the other on the floor. At this point, Scootaloo could recognize the shadows to be a changeling and a pony. The changeling roughly threw the pony into the wall right next to Scootaloo, and the filly gasped with horror at what she saw. It was Rainbow Dash, beaten and bloody. Her wings seemed to be back in place, albeit still swollen horribly, and her face definitely looked as if she'd been beaten senseless. She groaned as she attempted to get up off the floor. 

"Stay down or I'll punch you in your wing again." The changeling hissed evilly. Rainbow, looking up at the changeling in hatred, lowered herself back down onto the ground. Scootaloo looked up at the changeling with tears in her eyes. 

"Why are you doing this?!" Scootaloo cried out. "What did we ever do to you?!" The changeling promptly slapped her across the face, making the filly cry out in pain.

"You will speak when spoken to." He growled angrily. Scootaloo sobbed as she looked up at him. Suddenly, Rainbow Dash lunged at the changeling and loosed a hoof into his gut, knocking the wind out of him. He coughed roughly for a moment and kicked the pegasus in the ribs, making her cry out and sending her back to the floor. 

"Throw 'em the cups!" He yelled at the other changeling at the door of the cell as he chained Rainbow Dash to the wall beside Scootaloo. The other changeling threw the cups, one of them landing next to Scootaloo and the other hitting Rainbow Dash in the side. She just continued to lay still on the floor. He looked at Scootaloo. "They're for the water." 

"Wh-where's the water?" Scootaloo asked the changeling before he lit a torch on the wall. The light exposed a puddle of water that had dripped from the ceiling of the dungeon three feet to Scootaloo's right. 

"You might want to give her some." He said as he nodded his head back at Rainbow Dash with an evil grin. "She might just need it." He left them in the cell, torch still burning. Scootaloo immediately grabbed both of the mugs and moved to the puddle, wincing at the shackle digging into her flesh. She filled the cups full of water and took them over to Rainbow Dash. 

"Rainbow Dash...look at me." Scootaloo said softly, prompting Rainbow to move her face from the floor and look up at the filly. What she saw made Scootaloo's eyes brim with tears instantly. "H-Here...Drink." Scootaloo gave Rainbow Dash a cup of water, which she hungrily gulped down. Rainbow breathed heavily as she looked at the second cup. 

"A-Aren't you gonna drink that one?" Rainbow asked as she trembled violently. 

"No. I'll have some later. You drink it." Scootaloo said softly as she brought the cup to Rainbow's lips. Rainbow drank that cup and continued to breathe heavily on the floor.

"What did they do to you?" Scootaloo asked, wiping the tears from her eyes.

"Well a-at first t-they were really nice and they..." Rainbow stuttered, most likely from shock. "Set my wings." 

"They what?"

"Said they didn't want me dying before Twilight would give her life for me." Rainbow coughed roughly and continued. "So that felt really nice." 

"Rainbow..." Scootaloo said softly, sorrow lacing her words. 

"Then they p-proceeded to tie me up and beat me. J-Just for the heck of it." Rainbow groaned. "Made up the excuse that it was to get information. They never asked me a single question. Went on for a couple hours." 

"Oh, Goddesses..."

"Then that l-lovely individual p-punched me in the wing on the way here b-because I said some choice words to him during the beating." Rainbow Dash groaned. "The good news is, I don't think they'll kill us, at least not for now." 

"Why?" Scootaloo asked her. 

"We're hostages." Rainbow Dash said roughly. "They won't kill us as long as it'll allow them to get to Twilight." 

"But Twilight...Wouldn't turn herself in, would she?" 

"I hope not. Then again, if she doesn't...well..." Rainbow trailed off for a moment before looking back at Scootaloo. "You should drink. Now." Scootaloo nodded at Rainbow Dash before taking one of the cups over to the dank puddle and filling it with water. She gulped it down quickly and cringed. 

"Ugh...it tastes awful." Scootaloo groaned.

"Trust me, I've had worse." Rainbow Dash rasped. "More than one lonely night at the bar..." Both of the pegasi chuckled quietly together, sharing a short moment of relaxation together. The moment, while comforting, was much too brief. A sharp scream of agony echoed throughout the prison. 

"So do you think we'll be rescued?" Scootaloo asked Rainbow Dash. 

"Your guess-" Rainbow stopped as she erupted into a massive coughing fit. Once she was finished, she trembled before settling down once more. "Your guess is as good as mine, Scoots." 

"So...why'd you kiss Applejack?" Scootaloo asked Rainbow Dash, who blushed heavily and looked at Scootaloo with a raised eyebrow. 

"What're you talking about?" Rainbow asked the filly.

"Come on, I may be young, but I'm not stupid." 

"I seriously-"

"Look, I don't care if you're fillyfooler. To be honest, I've wondered about it myself." 

"For your information, I'm bi." Rainbow spouted involuntarily before placing a hoof on her mouth, before moving it to her forehead. "Oh, geez." 

"Oh, come on! It's not like I don't know about fillyfoolers." Scootaloo said. "I don't care. Seriously. Now why'd you kiss her?" Rainbow Dash's blush didn't fade as she sighed.

"I've had it for AJ for a while." Rainbow Dash said. "And I figured that I was gonna die. I thought I would never have a chance to do it again, so I just went for it, you little eavesdropper." Scootaloo giggled.

"Well I think that's sweet." Scootaloo said with a smile. 

"Thanks a lot." Rainbow said. "You went and reminded me of that. Now I see me and Applejack's reunion going two ways."

"Oh yeah? What way would that be?" Scootaloo asked Rainbow Dash with a raised eyebrow. 

"Well, the first possibility is that Applejack is extremely homophobic like I've always feared and she'll beat the tar outta me." Rainbow explained. "The second is that she turns out to like me back...And...Well...I really hope it's that second one." 

"Well, Applejack didn't seem repulsed when you kissed her." Scootaloo said with a smile. "So I think that marks off that first one."

"She could have just been saving my feelings since we were both probably going to die." Rainbow deadpanned.

"Still. I think it'll be the second one." Scootaloo said with a small smile. "I have faith." Rainbow looked over at Scootaloo and smiled before giving her a small nod. Rainbow saw the small amount of blood seeping from Scootaloo's shackle. This caused her to notice the small rock embedded in the lock of the shackle.

"You trying to pick your lock?" Rainbow asked, nodding her head to the shackle and giving off a few small coughs. Scootaloo nodded.

"Yeah, I was trying when they brought you in." Scootaloo said. "To be honest, I'd forgotten." 

"You know they'll hurt you badly if they find that, right?" Rainbow asked. "I mean, they beat me senseless just for calling them names." Scootaloo let out a small giggle. 

"Yeah, I know." The filly said. "It didn't work at all anyways. I figured it'd be worth a shot. I know it's stupid, but I had to try something."

"Hey, don't say that." Rainbow said before coughing for a few seconds. "That's not stupid at all. It's exactly what I would have done."

"Thanks." Scootaloo said. "Some good it did anyhow." 

"So...since we've examined Rainbow Dash underneath the relationship-hidden-love microscope, why don't we take a look at Scootaloo for a change?" Rainbow asked. Scootaloo giggled and nodded.

"Okay, okay." The filly said. "I mean, I haven't really developed any true crushes yet. I mean, I could see myself with a filly or a colt. I don't really think it matters all that much. I just figure that I'll end up with whoever I end up with." 

"Couldn't have said it any better myself." Rainbow Dash said with a smile and a nod. "That's a great way to look at it." 

"I wonder what Mr. Bubbles is doing right now." Scootaloo said, looking forward at the cell door. 

"What the hay is up with that thing anyways?" Rainbow asked. "I mean, it's like...a monster. He just attacked us."

"He didn't attack any of you." Scootaloo retorted quickly, taking Rainbow Dash off guard. "He only defended himself when you all attacked him." 

"He broke Twilight's wing." Rainbow said, furrowing her eyebrows.

"Because she was taking me away from him." Scootaloo said. "Trust me, I'm grateful for what she tried to do, but it just angered Mr. Bubbles."

"What were we supposed to do?" Rainbow Dash asked her. "Let you die of hunger while it guarded you?"

"I don't know!" Scootaloo cried. "I don't know...All I know is that he wanted to protect me...He killed a manticore for me. He almost killed Chrysalis."

"Almost, my dear." A loud voice said from the cell door. Rainbow and Scootaloo quickly looked toward the door to behold Queen Chrysalis approaching them, a smug and holier-than-thou look on her face. Rainbow's lips parted in a snarl as Scootaloo backed up against the wall of the cell. Green magic enveloped the shackle on Scootaloo's leg and detached it from the filly. "You're coming with me." The Queen said with a large grin. Rainbow Dash, mustering a large amount of strength, moved herself in front of Scootaloo. 

"She's not..." The pegasus winced in the middle of her sentence. "...going anywhere!"

"Poor choice of words, Rainbow Dash." Chrysalis said with a small laugh as she picked the pegasus up with her magic. She gingerly laid Rainbow Dash down several feet away from Scootaloo. "Oh, how I wish I could smash you against that wall. But I need you to draw in Celestia and her little entourage, and I feel as if I so much as dropped you, you'd roll over and die." The queen let out a hearty laugh at her own joke, which Rainbow and Scootaloo didn't find humorous in the slightest. 

"Run, Scootaloo!" Rainbow Dash cried. "Go now!" 

Scootaloo merely stood in place, shivering with fear at the sight of Chrysalis. She had no idea what this monster was going to do to her. 

"And where exactly would she go?" Chrysalis asked Rainbow Dash, cocking her head to the side. "Hmm? Scootaloo, where exactly would you go to escape this dungeon?" Scootaloo said nothing in response earning a small chuckle from the Changeling queen.

"Now, you and I have some important manners to discuss." Chrysalis said with a grin that showed her sharp teeth that made Scootaloo shiver. Chrysalis lifted Scootaloo up with her magic and began to carry her out of the cell. 

"R-Rainbow!" Scootaloo cried. "Rainbow Dash, help me!" Rainbow Dash, however futile her efforts were, struggled against her bindings. She felt fiery pain surge up her body, but she didn't care. The metal dug into her leg as tears leaked from her eyes. Both from the pain and the prospect that she may never see Scootaloo again. 

"Scootaloo!" Rainbow cried out! "Be strong! Don't be afraid! You'll be fine, I know it!" Rainbow Dash hadn't any inkling of an idea whether that statement was true or not. Scootaloo's heart beat faster and faster as the queen carried her away from the only thing that made her feel at least a little safe in this dungeon. 

'Be strong. Don't be afraid.' Scootaloo repeated to herself over and over to herself in her head. 'Be strong. Don't be afraid.' The filly found it to be extremely difficult when she heard the few other prisoners howling with agony. She silently cried in fear at the sounds, making Chrysalis chuckle again. 

"Don't be afraid, little one." Chrysalis said to her. "They can't get to you. Who knows what they'd do if they did. They're all so hungry...A bit of meat would probably sound delectable to them." Scootaloo knew the statement was nothing but another bit of cruelty from Chrysalis, and it made her hate the queen even more than she already did. Scootaloo suddenly felt extremely drowsy. She looked around, her vision seeming to blur as her head moved. She barely registered the queen chuckling once more as she faded from consciousness. 

The filly awoke in a chamber that had three windows. These windows showed the outside world with a seemingly radiant brilliance. Scootaloo tried her hardest to get to that outside world, before Chrysalis walked into the room and engaged a spell that almost immediately showed the "outside world" to be a falsehood. Scootaloo felt like breaking down into tears as the queen stood before her. 

"I suppose you might have guessed why I brought you in here, little pegasus." Chrysalis said with an almost charismatic tone. If Scootaloo hadn't already known the kind of monster the queen was, she might have trusted her based on the current tone of her voice alone. 

"You want me to tell you about Mr. Bubbles." Scootaloo said, almost grinding her teeth together. 

"So that's what you call it?" Chrysalis said. "It seemed to have a certain desire to preserve your life. Could you tell me why that is?" 

"I don't know." Scootaloo deadpanned.

"I know that is a fallacy, dear child." Chrysalis hissed. No response came from Scootaloo. This agitated the evil queen. "What exactly is it?"

"I don't know." Scootaloo said blandly once more. 

"You must know for it to have such and attachment to you." Chrysalis reasoned, earning a scowl from Scootaloo. "Tell me right now." 

"I just told you that I don't know." Scootaloo said. "What, that wasn't simple enough for even you to understand?" The queen gritted her teeth together. She slammed her hoof onto the table, breaking off a large section of it. This succeeded in making the currently defiant pegasus filly jump with fright.

"You possess much of the bravado of your miss Rainbow Dash." Chrysalis mewed. "But...I wonder how long exactly it will last. Bring her in!" Scootaloo wondered who exactly Chrysalis was talking about and discovered with horror that her awful suspicions were correct. Rainbow Dash was chained to a rack, her legs spread out, putting her in a vulnerable position. She struggled against the bonds before looking at Scootaloo and relaxing almost instantly.

"I am not in a gaming mood, Scootaloo." Chrysalis spouted suddenly and loudly. "If you do not give me the information you know of this newly discovered juggernaut Celestia has in her charge, some...uncomfortable things will happen to Rainbow Dash here." 

"Don't give in, Scootaloo." Rainbow growled before receiving a punch in the stomach from the changeling guard who had rolled her in. 

"I don't know..." Scootaloo said weakly, her bravado faltering. Chrysalis growled and surrounded Rainbow Dash in what looked to be a burning magic. It didn't seem to cause any external damage to Rainbow, but the cyan pegasus began to writhe on the rack and scream in agony. Tears almost immediately filled Scootaloo's eyes as her breathing increased in frequency. The magic dissipated and Rainbow let out a massive breath as her body went limp. She breathed heavily, her chest rising and falling dynamically and slowly. 

"What is it?" Chrysalis said. "What kind of damage can it take?"

"I-I don't know! I-I..." Scootaloo stuttered, her heart racing in her small chest. "It...It..." 

"Scootaloo!" Rainbow cried out before weakly bringing her head up. Keeping one eye closed and seemingly dealing with residual pain, Rainbow Dash continued. "Don't you dare give this piece of trash what she wants!" 

"Are you truly prepared to let Rainbow Dash suffer?" Chrysalis said. "This spell slowly corrodes victims on the inside." 

"I can't wait till Twilight and Celestia get here." Rainbow snarled at Chrysalis. "I'm gonna beat you until your legs never work again." 

Chrysalis surrounded Rainbow in the magic once more, making her howl in pain once more. Her body moved in seemingly unnatural ways as her voice went hoarse from the screaming. Scootaloo cried, sobbing, begging for the queen to stop. But what Rainbow had said had seemingly struck an evil chord within the large Changeling. 

"Please! Please, stop it!" Scootaloo screamed. She screamed for what seemed like half an hour before Chrysalis finally stopped the spell and glared back at Scootaloo. Rainbow's body hung limp on the rack, but she still seemed to be breathing weakly. "please...please..."

"What...is...that creature?" Chrysalis growled. "What are its capabilities?!"

"I'll tell you everything...I know." Scootaloo said. "I was walking to my friend's house before it teleported to me from a portal above the ground. It followed me and has been fighting for my safety ever since. It's killed things for me. You saw it kill that Ursa Minor. That's all I know." Chrysalis grunted and turned back toward Rainbow Dash.

"Wait! PLEASE NO!" Scootaloo screamed before breaking down in sobs again. "That's all I know, I swear...I swear...Please...just stop hurting her."

"My queen." The changeling guard said to Chrysalis somewhat urgently. "Her heart has stopped." Scootaloo audibly gasped as tears flowed from her eyes. Chrysalis rolled her eyes and turned toward Rainbow Dash before letting out a bolt of magic into her. The pegasus was shocked awake and gasped as her body seized up on the rack. Her eyes bulged and her body went limp once more. She seemed to be concious, but she began to tremble heavily. 

"I have no use for a dead prisoner." Chrysalis said spitefully before turning toward Scootaloo. "Please enjoy the rest of your stay here. Take them back." The guard laughed gleefully as he moved closer to Scootaloo. He let loose a hoof into her face and her vision went black.

"Scootaloo." The filly heard a familiar voice calling. "Scootaloo, wake up. You alright?" Scootaloo opened her eyes to see the welcome sight of Rainbow Dash. She felt a tender hoof on her back. As her vision cleared she came to the realization that her idol looked awful. Her mane was disheveled, her face looked ragged, and her body still trembled, presumably from the torture. They were back in their dank dark cell and her leg had once again resumed bleeding from the tight shackle.

"Welcome b-back to the land of the l-living, kid." Rainbow said unsteadily, giving Scootaloo a weak smile. "Or...whatever you'd call this." The filly immediately hugged onto Rainbow Dash and sobbed into her chest. No words were spoken between the two of them for the rest of that night. They eventually laid down on the cold floor, holding each other. Scootaloo had fallen asleep and was resting soundly, but Rainbow Dash couldn't help herself to sleep at all. She couldn't stop thinking about how desperately Chrysalis wanted...no...needed to know everything about the monster.

They didn't want to find out how to enslave it. They wanted to know how to kill it. 

They feared it.




> The Cauldron
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------



Booker stepped back through the tear from Rapture into Zecora's hut with a loud sigh. He looked at Elizabeth, Celestia, Luna, Discord, Zecora, Applejack, Rarity and the little sister. and held up a sheet of paper. 

"I couldn't find the plasmid. But I did get a list of it's chemical makeup...Figured it had to count for something."  He looked at the list and cleared his throat before looking at the others, including Zecora, who was still a bit dumbfounded by the whole scenario they were in. "Okay...looks like the first part is ADAM. It's in the Little Sister's blood." Booker said, raising an eyebrow at Elizabeth, who shielded the ADAM-filled child protectively. 

"You mean, cut her open and withdraw blood from her?" Elizabeth asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Yeah. She's got ADAM in her blood. Look, you know Little Sisters can't die unless that sea slug is ripped from their guts." Booker said with no regard to how the Little Sister present at their meeting felt. The little girl gasped and grabbed onto Elizabeth's skirt.

"See? You're scaring her." Elizabeth said, furrowing her eyebrows. 

"Allow me to assist in this situation." Zecora interjected. "A word from me, and the child's worries will be done." Booker raised an eyebrow at Zecora who looked at him expectantly. He sighed before stepping aside for the Zebra to approach the Little Sister. 

"Hello, little sweetheart. What is your name?" Zecora asked. "My name is Zecora. I believe you'll find me quite tame." 

"Why does she speak in rhyme all the time?" Booker asked Applejack quietly, who shrugged at him. 

"No one really knows." Applejack whispered back. "It's just somethin' she does." 

"My name is...Jenny." The little sister said, her distorted voice seemingly having no effect on Zecora.

"Jenny...A beautiful name, it's true." Zecora said comfortingly. "Now if you'll listen for a moment, I'll tell you what we'll do."

"What'll we do?" Jenny asked, not looking as afraid anymore and gaining a look of curiosity. Zecora smiled warmly.

"One moment." She said before moving toward Booker and Elizabeth. 

"What?" Booker asked.

"What you told me is true, a cut will heal on her arm?" Zecora said quietly. "I will not do this child any permanent harm." 

"Yes, yes it's true." Booker said, raising an eyebrow. 

"She'll be fine." Elizabeth said with a nod and a smile. "Little Sisters can survive explosions. I would still approach it with caution, though. She is a little girl." Zecora's eyes widened for a moment before she nodded and returned to Jenny.

"So Jenny, what we'll do is a simple trick." Zecora said. "We'll give your arm a small cut. It won't hurt. Just a nick." 

"Why do you want to cut me?" Jenny asked, appearing scared again at the prospect of having her arm cut into. 

"We are doing it to assist your friend, Mr. Bubbles, because some friends of ours are in some deep, deep trouble." Zecora continued.

"Mr. Bubbles? You know Mr. Bubbles?" Asked Jenny brightening up and receiving a nod from Zecora. "And I can help him?" 

"Yes, indeed you surely can, little one." Zecora answered happily. "And after you do, with Mr. Bubbles you may continue to have fun." 

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Jenny asked. "I wanna help Mr. B!" 

"That's a good girl, Jenny." Elizabeth said, removing a small knife from her pocket and moving it over the small flame of Incinerate that Booker had produced for her to sterilize it. After letting it cool, Elizabeth moved closer to Jenny. "Now this will hurt for only a second or two, okay?" 

"Okay." Jenny said trustfully, looking at Elizabeth with her glowing eyes. Elizabeth smiled at her before cutting into the flesh of the girls forearm, making her wince and her eyes fill up with tears. 

"Booker, come on! Bring a cup!" Elizabeth cried, prompting Booker to grab a small cup from a shelf and hold it underneath the wound. Jenny began to cry quietly as Elizabeth lightly squeezed her arm, causing her blood to seep from the wound.

"Oh, Jenny it's okay! We're almost done now." Elizabeth said as she applied pressure to the wound as it healed. Within moments, the wound was healed and the cup was half full. "There. We're all done, baby girl." Jenny looked up at Elizabeth and smiled at her, tears still in her eyes. 

"A very brave girl were you." Zecora added happily. "Very brave and quite strong, too." Jenny laughed and clapped for a moment. 

"You're funny!" Jenny exclaimed happily. Zecora chuckled happily and continued to talk to Jenny, putting in every effort to entertain the Little Sister. Booker silently pulled Elizabeth to the side as the ponies and zebra gathered around to adore the girl.

"What are we doing?" Booker whispered to her.

"What do you mean?" Elizabeth replied. 

"Why are we getting so involved in this war? Why don't we just find the Big Daddy, and get it back to Rapture and let these...ponies handle this themselves?" Booker said, making Elizabeth frown at him.

"What will they do without us?" Elizabeth asked him. "Are we supposed to just let them get wiped out?"

"We don't know that they will." Booker replied. "They may get destroyed...they might not. It's not our problem." 

"I can't believe you're saying this." Elizabeth said. "We're staying until this is all resolved." 

"You just expect me to go along?" Booker asked her, making Elizabeth feel even more outraged. "If I wanna go back, you'd better damn well take me back. I've got rights." 

"And they count for what here?" Elizabeth asked. "You'll go back when I go back. End of discussion." 

"What else is on the potion list?" Zecora asked suddenly, immediately drawing the duo's attention. "Because I would very much like to get this situation fixed." 

"It's called a plasmid." Booker replied before looking at the list. "And next we need...Scopolamine." Booker looked at Elizabeth and raised an eyebrow, making Elizabeth roll her eyes. 

"Zecora, do you have Scopolia plants?" Elizabetha asked.

"Scopolia plants are in my possession, my friend." Zecora said, moving toward a large assortment of jars. "And I believe I'd have to cut the leaf end." 

"That's right." Elizabeth said with a respectful smile and a nod. "That's where the Scopolamine is."

"What is that stuff?" Applejack asked. 

"I was just wondering the same thing." Rarity said. "It's so interesting." 

"Scopolamine is a calming herb that helps stomach problems, but it is also used to pacify stressed patients. I suppose that it's going to work to pacify the Big Daddy." Elizabeth explained.

"Oh, perfect! A science lesson!" Discord said sarcastically.

"Discord!" Celestia scolded the Draconequus. He smirked at her and gave her a small wink, prompting the princess to roll her eyes and give her attention back to the zebra mixing the potion. A shuffling came from the front of Zecora's hut, gaining the attention of everyone present. Through the doorway came Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, both noticeably frightened. Pinkie Pie embraced Applejack while Fluttershy wrapped Rarity in her fore hooves. 

"We just came from the hospital." Pinkie Pie said before noticing that Applejack's leg seemed to be completely fine. "Applejack, your leg..." 

"Oh, Princess Celestia fixed me up, sugarcube." Applejack said before looking away for a moment. "She fixed me up because Ah'm going to fight the changelings."

"Applejack, you can't!" Pinkie Pie cried, her eyes widening in worry. 

"Pinkie Pie...They...They have..." Applejack, taking a moment to compose herself, looked at Pinkie with determination driven by worry and sorrow. "They have Rainbow Dash!" Pinkie and Fluttershy gasped. 

"What happened?" Fluttershy asked, her eyes filling with tears. Applejack looked at her and tried to answer, but she was unable to hold her tears back any longer. Applejack quickly walked out of Zecora's hut. The farm pony noticed through her tears the darkening sky becoming ever more prevalent over the daylight. She barely registered Princess Luna's soothing voice explaining to Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie that the probability that Rainbow was alive was quite low. Fluttershy's loud sob overtook all other voices as Princess Celestia attempted to imbue a bit of hope into them. The farm mare looked up into the sky as she sat down on a large rock...contemplating the kiss Rainbow Dash had shared with her before they last parted ways. So deep in thought she was, that she didn't notice the footsteps approaching her from behind. Applejack watched the woman, Elizabeth she believed, sit down next to her. Applejack quickly wiped away her tears and tried to look as composed as possible, which was a futile effort.

"Hi." She said. "I don't think we've really been introduced. My name is Elizabeth." 

"Howdy, Elizabeth." Applejack said with a small smile. "I'm Applejack. It's good to meet you." 

"It's good to meet you." Elizabeth replied with a sweet smile. They sat there for what seemed like ten minutes. Elizabeth, now completely certain that Applejack wasn't going to say anything, decided to speak up first. "So...are you okay?" 

"Oh...Heh heh...Ah'm sorry about that back there." Applejack said. "Ah guess Ah kinda freaked out." 

"Well, I assumed that Rainbow Dash is your friend. Of course you'd be concerned." Elizabeth said with a smile. "I just wanted to-"

"Know why Ah'm reactin' so strongly to it." Applejack said, looking at Elizabeth with a raised eyebrow. Elizabeth, a bit taken aback by the farm mare's wit, nodded lightly.

"How did you know?"

"Ah may talk like a hick, sugarcube, but Ah'm often underestimated in the intelligence department." Applejack said with a sigh. 

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." Elizabeth said. "I'm sorry if I was prying."

"Oh, Ah don't care all that much." Applejack replied. "Before me and Rainbow last parted ways...She, uh...Well, she kissed me."

"She kissed you..."

"As if she was never gonna see me again." Applejack said, worry becoming more and more prominent in her tone as she went on. "Ah had no idea she had those feelings for me." 

"I see..."

"And...Ah think Ah...Ah think Ah might..." Applejack said, looking toward the ground with a large blush on her face. 

"You think you might feel the same way." Elizabeth said, a small smile appearing on her face. Applejack, now knowing the Elizabeth was on the same wavelength as her, felt tears in her eyes as she looked toward the woman. Applejack sighed heavily and looked toward the ground once more. 

"...Yeah..." Applejack said. "It's gotten to the point...that if she really is...you know...Ah don't know what Ah'll do..." Applejack's voice caught in her throat as her tears began to flow. "Ah don't know if I could take it..." Elizabeth watched Applejack with sympathy as she struggled to hold her crying back, but failed as she silently sobbed.

"You find her." Elizabeth said with a smile. 

"What?" Applejack asked quietly, her voice sounding scared, very much unlike her. 

"If there's even a chance that Rainbow Dash is out there...Go out there knowing that Rainbow Dash is alright...and she will be." Applejack smiled appreciatively at Elizabeth and wiped her tears away. 

"That's awfully sweet of you to say, sugarcube." Applejack said. "But how do you know?"

"I have my ways." Elizabeth said with a warm smile. "Now what do you say we go back in there and see what we can do to help?" Applejack looked at her and nodded with a newfound, confident smile before standing to go back into the hut. 

"Oh, uh...uh wait...Wait a second." Applejack said, stopping for a moment. She looked at Elizabeth with an adorably embarrassed look on her face. "Don't...don't tell anyone...Please." Elizabeth smiled and giggled slightly. 

"Not a word." She replied.


_____


Fluttershy's eyes drifted around the interior of Zecora's hut. Even though it was already well established that Zecora was a friend, Fluttershy never did like to go into the zebra's hut. She looked to Zecora, speaking to Princesses Celestia and Luna, who were assisting in any way they could with the plasmid. Jenny watched in wonder as the greenish liquid stirred in the cauldron, her bright eyes reflecting the dim light coming from the liquid.

"It's...so horrible. What happened to Twilight..." Fluttershy said quietly, her mind still quite distressed over all of the awful circumstances she was now aware of. 

"And she's definitely going to be alright?" Pinkie Pie asked. Rarity nodded and smiled tiredly. 

"Thankfully, we got her just in time." Rarity said before looking toward the ground sadly. "However, as you know, the situation with Rainbow Dash is significantly...less hopeful."

"Is there even a chance...that she's alive?" Pinkie Pie asked, her mane once again fallen completely straight over her face. 

"Her vital energy...when she was taken it was extremely faint, but it was still present nonetheless." Princess Luna explained. "That is to say...She may yet live." 

"Then we need to go save her now!" Pinkie Pie cried out. 

"We can't...At least not yet." Princess Celestia said. 

"Do you remember that metal thing?" Discord asked them, to which they nodded. "Well, we're going to make him work for us." 

"Wait...that thing...was so powerful. How..." Fluttershy said, sounding very unsure.

"Watch this." Booker said, holding his hand up and sending jolts of electricity over his hand. Then, as quickly as the electricity appeared, it disappeared. He snapped and a bright flame appeared at the tips of his fingers. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were mesmerized by this sudden display of colors before them, especially since neither of them knew what Booker could do. 

"These are called plasmids. They give the user...special powers."

"Ooh, ooh! Can you freeze things?" Pinkie Pie asked excitedly. Booker nodded. "What about launching things in the air?"

Another nod.

"Can you control minds?"

Yet another nod.

"Can you move things around?" 

Another nod, accompanied by a distinctly annoyed look. 

"Can you summon a swarm of bugs to attack your enemy and distract them while causing minor damage over time so that you can get in close and deliver the final fatal hit with some sort of wrench or other melee doohickey?" Pinkie asked, getting more and more excited as her question continued. Booker, surprised by how specific Pinkie was being, nodded slowly.

"Uhm...Yeah." Booker replied before leaning toward Rarity. "Is she psychic or something?"

"Ha, well...um..." Rarity replied, seemingly attempting to come up with an explanation before finally giving up. "We really don't know."

"We're off topic." Booker continued. "Back where Elizabeth and I came from, there was a plasmid being developed by a scientist named Yi Suchong. It was designed to control a Big Daddy." Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie nodded.

"Huh...so that's what it's called." Fluttershy said. "Fitting, I guess." 

"If we can control the Big Daddy, we can use him to help us destroy the Changelings!" Discord spouted happily, appearing above Booker, startling him. The private eye shouted as he jumped back and glared up at discord. 

"Careful, friend. That's a good way to get a face full of fire." Booker said, holding up a hand and creating a ball of fire that levitated before his fingers. Discord giggled.

"Oh, what an adorable puppy you have there!" The draconequus said, clasping his hands together adorably. 

"Puppy?" Booker said before looking at his hand and realizing that Discord had turned his fireball into a beagle puppy that he was now holding in his hand. The man's eyes widened as he put the puppy on the ground. It was almost immediately swept up by Fluttershy, who snuggled her face into it's muzzle. It licked her happily.

"Oh, thank you, Mr. Dewitt!...Oh...May I call you Mr. Dewitt?" Fluttershy said adorably, causing Booker to feel his internal constitution begin to crack. He almost cracked a smile.

"Uh...sure. That's fine." Booker said. "Anyways, that's the plan we're using...Don't know how well it's gonna work, but I figure it's the best chance for me and Elizabeth to get the big lug back to our world...Speaking of which, where did Elizabeth go?" 

"She went outside to check on Applejack." Fluttershy said. "For some reason the situation...with Rainbow Dash...is affecting her more than it is the rest of us..."

"If we can get that Big Daddy to help us, we've got a better chance of finding her. That's for sure." Booker said to Fluttershy.

"Do you know where the Big Daddy is?" Pinkie Pie asked. 

"The royal guard are making regular sweeps over the forest. They are delivering reports on the creature's location ever half hour." Princess Luna said. "The last report before they lost track of it stated that it was moving through the forest in odd directions...destroying everything around it and searching through the debris. They...described it as breaking through thick trees with a swipe of its arm and breaking through stone as if it were soft clay." 

"That sounds like a Big Daddy, alright." Booker said. 

"The...plasmid you have requested is finished." Zecora said to Booker as she came closer to him, handing him a vial with bright green liquid in it. "One sip should do the trick. Be careful with this." Booker took the vial and looked at it, raising an eyebrow of uncertainty. 

"Don't you have any syringes?"

"Syringes?" Zecora asked, tilting her head. 

"Never mind." Booker said. "Well, they did used to make these drinkable..." He cautiously raised the vial toward his lips. He knew what it was like taking a new plasmid. It would be a complete reshuffle of his genetic code like all the others...and it would not be fun. The cool glass came ever closer to Booker's lips.

"Remember, sir, just a sip." Zecora said, making Booker jump slightly. "I know not how you will react to it."

"Gee, thanks for the advice." Booker said, furrowing his eyebrows for a moment before bringing it to his mouth. The chemical makeup of this plasmid was largely unknown to him, and judging by how it was mixed together in a cauldron, there were most likely imbalances in the make up of it. For all the private eye knew, it was lethal.

"How is it coming?" Elizabeth asked as she and Applejack walked back into the hut, causing Booker to jump again, still having not taken a sip of the Plasmid. He looked over at them and sighed heavily. 

"Got the Plasmid right here." Booker said, holding the vial up. 

"Oh, well good." Elizabeth said before crossing her arms. "Then go ahead and drink it."

"I was gonna before you interrupted me." Booker replied with annoyance before moving his eyes back to the vial. "Well...Here we go." He took a sip from the vial and handed it to Discord. A slight tingling sensation rose from within him, becoming more and more present as seconds went by and eventually becoming a distinct burn. Booker's skin became pale and a thin layer of sweat began to form on his skin.

"Oooh, boy. Here we go." Booker said, putting a hand on his stomach and bracing himself on a table. 

"What are you feeling?" Elizabeth said, seemingly concerned by Booker's appearance. 

"It feels like...ugh..." Booker said, clenching his teeth. "It feels like fire spreading from my stomach outwards." Suddenly, Booker pitched forward, clenching his stomach hard. He fell onto his backside and breathed deeply and frequently, holding back cries of pain. There was fire within is very being. As if his body was killing itself from within.

"We must help him!" Zecora said. "I believe his life is becoming dim!" 

"No, no it's normal." Elizabeth said putting up a hand. "His entire genetic code is reshuffling itself. It has to do it for the Plasmid to take effect."

"You sure as hell don't sound concerned at all." Booker groaned, seemingly more relieved. He still sweated bullets and his face was pale as ice, but it was as if he was conquering the pain. "I don't even know if this will work."

"Well, you're not dead." Elizabeth said with a small smile. "That's a good thing." Booker shakily stood and exhaled heavily. 

"I need some water." Booker said curtly and with a distinct rasp, seemingly recovered.

"You got it!" Discord said, disappearing suddenly and reappearing immediately with a relatively large glass of water. Booker took it and nodded before bringing it to his lips to take a sip. He stopped and glared at Discord warily.

"Where'd this come from?" He nearly demanded. 

"What?" Discord said, cocking his head. "Why, good sir, whatever could you mean?" 

"I know you like to pull pranks you wily little-"

"Mr. Dewitt." Princess Celestia said to the human who was obviously in no mood to play games. "I assure you that if there are any...adverse effects, Discord will be punished accordingly." Celestia shot Discord a look that prompted the draconequus to let out a small chuckle. 

"Oh, I'm shaking in my fur-slash-scales-slash-feathers." He replied before patting the princess on the head lightly. 

Booker sighed heavily and took a sip of the water. A moment passed before his eyes widened slightly. 

"This...this is some good water." Booker mused before taking a swig from the glass. 

"I got it from the mountains of Canterlot." Discord said as his eyebrow furrowed, a large grin appearing on his face. "The freshest of the fresh." Booker, now feeling like a bit of a heel, cleared his throat. 

"Oh, well...Thanks." 

"Anytime." Discord said, the tone of his voice disturbingly happy and benevolent.

"How do you feel?" Applejack asked Booker, who looked at her and sighed before taking another gulp of water. 

"Wonderful." Booker replied. "Now all I need is a shot of whiskey and I'll jump through a hoop for you." 

"Whiskey, huh?" Applejack said. "I'm partial myself. How much can you take?" Booker, upon looking into Applejack's large green eyes, saw a glint of fiery competition.

"Enough." Booker said. "Why? You wanna see if you can take me?"

"If'n you think you're tough enough." 

"A drinking contest...with a talking pony wearing a cowboy hat..." Booker said, seemingly in deep thought for a moment before shaking his head slightly and chuckling. "This shit is getting to be too much."

"So...what is the next step of the plan?" Elizabeth enquired. Booker drank the rest of the water from the glass and looked at the two princesses as a green, flesh-like globule came from within one of several large green blisters on his hand.

"We find him." 


_____


Booker, Elizabeth and Applejack walked through the forest on the ground as the princesses and Discord kept watch from above. Accompanying them through the skies was a platoon of soldiers, ready for combat.

"We'd better hope this works." Booker said. "If we find that Big Daddy and this doesn't end up doing anything. The vast majority of everyone involved with this will be screwed." 

"Why're you so cynical?" Applejack asked Booker, who sighed and turned back to keep an eye out for the hulking giant built of metal. Applejack was very confused by Booker's refusal to speak, but shrugged it off, deciding to continue to watch for the monster. Just the thought of facing the Big Daddy again sent nervous chills down Applejack's spine. When she last encountered it, she felt the pure power of the thing in the very steps it took. Her thoughts drifted as they walked along the forest floor. They drifted to her friends, reminding her of Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, who had elected to stay with Zecora to watch over Jenny, who was oblivious to the dire situation they were in. Her thoughts drifted to her family, reminding her that she had to get back to them, whatever it took...which reminded her of why she was out in the Everfree Forest to begin with. 

Rainbow Dash.

Applejack was always known as a pony that, once she had set her mind to something, she'd see it through to the end, no matter what it took. But added to her regular sense of stick-to-itiveness was something more in this situation. Something more that compelled her beyond her normal rationale of just trying until she got it done. She had to save Rainbow because of a promise she had made her. A promise not made in words, but one made by a physical gesture. That wonderful, completely unexpected kiss was a promise that Rainbow Dash had made to Applejack that with her, Applejack may find something much more wonderful and fulfilling than friendship.

The odds were that Applejack was reading entirely too much into the kiss. It could have been just a last minute gesture of Rainbow's probable long-standing attraction. It could have been an action born of desperation. But there was that urgency in Rainbow's kiss that Applejack felt. That need for Applejack to know the truth about how the cyan pegasus truly felt about her. 

"Applejack?" Elizabeth asked quietly, snapping the farm pony out of her thought. "Are you alright?" 

"Yeah...Yeah, Ah'm fine, Elizabeth." Applejack said. "Just...thinkin'." The quiet hoof falls of a royal guard fell behind the three of them, prompting them to turn around to face him.

"The creature has been spotted half a mile west from your current position." He said.

"Thank you. Tell the princesses to hold the troops back. We need to do with quietly." Booker said. The guard nodded before taking to the skies once more.

"I understand why you'd want to do it quietly but I'm just curious, why specifically?" Elizabeth asked.

"I overheard some of the higher-ups in the lab talking about how it won't work if the Big Daddy is enraged. And since they're going to be giving it to police, they need to be able to use it at all times." Booker said as they began to move in the direction of the Big Daddy. The distance they traveled didn't seem at all like half a mile, rather it seemed to be much more than that. But each of the three chalked it up to the anticipation of the moment.. Approaching from behind a thicket, they observed the Big Daddy lifting a boulder that was at least half his size. He grunted quizzically before roaring with anger. 

"Here we go..." Booker said quietly, the green globule appearing once more in his hand. "Gotta aim it just right..." The cocked his arm back and threw the globule, missing the Big Daddy just as it turned around from the boulder, the globule barely escaping it's sight. Booker sighed with relief. 

"Smooth." Applejack said with an amused smile. 

"You wanna try this?" Booker asked her, and upon receiving no answer, smirked before cocking his arm back once more. He threw the globule and it hit directly on the back of the Big Daddy's helmet, making it stop in it's tracks. Booker, Elizabeth, Applejack, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Discord and the troops all waited in stunned nervous silence. They all knew that if the plasmid did not work, that the fight of their lives would be upon them. The Big Daddy turned around and stood in place for a moment, it's portholes now noticeably glowing green instead of yellow. Booker stood slowly and walked until he came into direct line of sight with the Big Daddy. It calmly approached him, it's footsteps making the ground shake, and stood before him, apparently awaiting any command. 

"It's done!" Booker called. "You all can come down now." Elizabeth and Applejack emerged from the thicket while the princesses, Discord and the troops descended from the skies. 

"Can you understand me?" Booker asked the Big Daddy. It let out a long moan, the loud noise surprising the vast majority of the ponies there. "Do you remember where you last saw your little sister?" The Big Daddy let out another, shorter moan.

"Take me there." Booker said simply. The Big Daddy turned and began to tromp toward wherever it was leading them. The entire group followed, a steady march into the unknown, lead by a nigh impenetrable metal giant.

"You may want to assemble all of the troops, sister." Luna said. "Where we're going...it could be right into the Changeling hive. These few will not last long." Celestia nodded before turning to one of her chief guards, who had overheard everything. He nodded and left to muster the forces of Equestria. The journey now underway had to be taken on foot, due to the heavy canopy of trees overhead.

"Mr. Dewitt." Celestia said, prompting Booker to turn to her. "A word, if you would." Booker nodded.

"Sure." He said as he began to walk next to her.

"I once sent my star pupil to a town to prepare a festival we ponies of Equestria celebrate every summer. She disliked that town and disliked almost every new pony she met. She wanted nothing more than to return to Canterlot and resume her studies. I urged her to try to make new friends and enjoy herself. To get involved with the town and the ponies that lived there. She did and ended up making five new best friends in that time she was there. She loved her friends so much that she didn't want to leave, so I permitted her to stay there in that town. Now, thanks to those friends, Equestria still exists, having been saved by them many times. Thanks to those friends...she is now a princess. Royalty of these lands." Celestia said to the human, who listened to every word.

"That's a nice story, your highness." Booker replied. "But what does it have to do with me? What's your point?"

"My point, Mr. Dewitt, is that sometimes, getting involved with things you'd prefer not to can lead to something beautiful." 

Booker stopped in his tracks, stunned and watched Princess Celestia as she moved forwards with the ever growing group of ponies marching to what very well could have been their doom.

She never once looked back at him.