> Scootaloo's Big Daddy > by DarthVendar > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Prologue (Edited) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was a peaceful night in Ponyville, the night sky was clear and beautiful, and all around town ponies were turning in for the night. Scootaloo could almost see the other fillies and colts being tucked in by their moms and dads. Scootaloo looked back inside the cutie mark crusaders tree house and suppressed the tears she felt coming. Normally, she would try to be tough like her hero Rainbow Dash, and she wouldn't have any problems sleeping in the tree house, but tonight was different. Diamond Tiara's voice echoed in her skull again. "I bet the reason your daddy doesn't come to parent teacher conference is because he is too embarrassed of having you as his filly." Scootaloo wanted to kick that little brat right on the face, but at the same time she couldn't deny that Tiara was right. Why else would Mom and Dad just leave her on the doorstep of an orphanage with only a note with her name on it? Scootaloo was glad she got out of there; it held too many bad memories. The little orange pegasus walked over to the tree house window and peered up at the night and made a wish. “I wish I had a daddy. A big daddy, that would make Tiara eat her own words and could go crusading with me and my friends." Suddenly a shooting star streaked across the night sky and fell with a quiet thud in the Everfree forest. Scootaloo's eyes grew wide, she wasn't entirely sure what had happened but either something cool had just fallen from the sky or she had a new daddy. She grabbed her cape and charged out into the night ready for adventure. Rapture, 1954 Subject Alpha 9 - 2 Patrolled down the long halls of Rapture with his Little Sister riding on his shoulder. The citizens of Rapture moved out of the way of the seven foot, several hundred pound behemoth, and he wouldn't have liked it any other way. Alpha 9 - 2 was a simple soul of only base intelligence; in fact he didn’t even know his own name. All he knew for sure was that he was supposed to protect and serve his Little Sister. Today was beginning to look like any other; he would carry his Little Sister around, she would point out things she wanted him to go to, then he would get her food, and finally they would head home to the Little Wonder Educational Facility. Today, as Alpha walked in the alleyways behind Fontaine Futuristics, his little Sister noticed something and tapped on his yellow face plate before she pointed off at an object to his right. "Mr. Bubbles look over there. Something is glowing." Alpha slowly turned to face in the direction she was pointing. It wasn't uncommon for her to point out things she wanted him to get for her; however, it was a little strange that she was doing it in a garbage filled back alley and not a toy store. When he finally faced the direction she was pointing he knew without a doubt what she was interested in. Before him, sitting on the ground next to a large dumpster was a Plasmid vial with the word "unstable" taped onto it. It was flashing every color of the rainbow like it was a physical LSD trip. Alpha grabbed his Little Sister and set her on the ground so she could grab the Adam while his mind tried to process what he was seeing. Whenever he found some Adam he would always give it to his Little Sister to drink, and although it looked odd it was still Adam. However, even she was apprehensive of drinking the flashing liquid. She carried the vial over to him and looked up at him with her big yellow glowing puppy dog eyes. "Mr. Bubbles, can you test it and make sure it is safe, please?" How could he possibly say no? Taking out a syringe Alpha took a small dose of the strange Adam. While even the most desperate of Splicers would think twice about injecting such a strange concoction into their blood stream Alpha merely obeyed jabbing the syringe through his suit and into his arm. At first, nothing happened. Alpha emptied the syringe into his arm and Waited for some sort of effect. He was actually worried for a second that he wouldn't get any sort of power from it. His focus shifted to his personal wellbeing when a feeling of agonizing pain and built-up energy threatened to disintegrate him. His body contorted in pain and glowed as the plasmid moved throughout his system. He cried out in agonizing pain and vanished before his Little Sister's eyes. Alpha found himself falling. Falling between space and time as both began to lose meaning. The planes of existence shifted and let him pass by uninterrupted until he finally caught one head on. Suddenly time, space, and gravity had meaning once more as he landed in a wet marsh. Despite his existential crises Alpha 9 - 2 was perfectly fine, and dragged himself out of the marsh with relative ease. Taking a short break the Big Daddy made a mental checklist to make sure he was in fact unharmed. 'Bones don't feel broken, suit seal is secure, and fingers are nonexistent, wait... What?!' Alpha looked at where his hands used to be and stared at his new hooves in shock. Instead of fingers there was now a hard stubby end to each of his arms. Even his suit had been changed giving him metal boots instead. It was as if he never had fingers to begin with. His back legs were no different except that he now had an extra joint that made his leg even less familiar. He wondered how he would use his drill and machine gun now. Suddenly his drill swung out from being behind his hoof and the machine gun came out of a square metal box on his back. It proved too much for Alpha. His mind went through various questions and thoughts as he tried to make sense of it all. 'Why am I some kind of horse?! Where did I get this strange gun saddle and drill!?! Ryan! He must have done this to me! He tore me apart and put me back together again as this thing! Probably for his precious little sisters! Curse you Ryan! Curse you Rapture! Curse you Comstock! Wait.... What did I just say?' The feeling of blood slowly running down his nose brought an end to his brief moment of independent thought. His mind struggled and lagged behind this new universe until he knew who he was. Mainly due to the intense mental programming and conditioning he had received as a Big Daddy. 'I am Subject Alpha 9 - 2. Alpha series Big Daddy. Earth pony. I must protect and serve my Little Sister at any cost.' His existence now making sense Alpha got onto all fours and began searching for his little sister. He was convinced he had only put her down moments ago, but that was in an alleyway and now he was in a marshy forest. Alpha tried to make sense of it all when he heard the sound of a young girl’s screech echo through the air. Alpha charged full speed towards the source of the screaming with one thought on his mind. 'Protect Little Sister.' > Chapter 1: Never get between a Daddy and his Sister (Edited) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "The mind of the subject will desperately struggle to create memories where none exist…" ―R. Lutece, Barriers to Trans-Dimensional Travel, 1889 Scootaloo wasn't so sure that she had done the smartest thing when she ran into the Everfree in the middle of the night. This was heavily supported by the fact that she was now being chased by eight timberwolves and was completely lost. Sometimes she wondered how she got herself into these situations. Though at the moment the only thing she was wondering was how she was going to get out of this mess alive. She was quickly getting tired, she still couldn't fly, the timberwolves were catching up, and screaming was not helping. Unfortunately, while she was distracted thinking of some way to survive her last option ended due to an unfortunately placed root. Scootaloo tripped and somersaulted straight into a tree; if it weren't for the fact that she was in a life or death situation she would have thought it was a pretty cool trick. Of course, staring into the angry green glowing eyes of a timber wolf made other thoughts come to her head. In desperation she spoke aloud; pleading with fate to let her live. "I don't know why I deserve this, but I regret everything I've ever done. I'm sorry I went overboard occasionally when I searched for a cutie mark, I'm sorry I'm not going to be able to learn how to fly from you Rainbow Dash, and I'm sorry I went into the Everfree in the middle of the night." Tears streamed down her eyes as she realized that she was doomed. "I just wanted a dad." While most would see this display and would regret whatever actions they were doing to cause it, the timber wolf did not care. It was going to protect its territory and get a meal at the same time. It stood up on its hind legs and brought its right paw up to end the filly in a single deadly strike. Suddenly a metal helical object bursted through the wooden creature's chest and stopped only a centimeter before Scootaloo's nose. The little filly went cross-eyed staring at the strange new addition to the timber wolf, wondering what in Tartarus had just happened. The wooden wolf slowly turned its head to face the source of the protrusion only to stare into a single large red glowing eye. 'I regret everything.' Was the last thought that entered the once vicious animal's mind. Alpha let out a loud angry roar and ripped a large chunk of the strange wooden creature's chest before tossing both chunks away from the strange orange Little Sister. At least his mental programing believed she was a little sister. Though consciously he wasn't too sure; she didn't look like any Little Sister he had seen before. 'Aren't Little Sisters supposed to have yellow eyes, black hair, and little fingers to carry…' Alpha shook his head clear once more as another nosebleed dripped down his face under his helmet. 'Must protect Little Sister.' Alpha recovered from his strange thoughts and positioned himself between the filly and the rest of the wolf pack. The wolves were beginning to encircle him cautiously; they had never encountered anything like the strange metal and leather pony before them. Maybe they planned to attack him from multiple sides at once Alpha didn't care though; it wouldn't work. With a single thought the machine gun harnessed to the right side of his back came out of its protective metal case with AP ammunition loaded. If Alpha could actually feel emotions he would have smiled under his helmet. The Gatling machine gun span up preemptively and pointed to the nearest wolf on his right. 'Now I see why I have been modified like this: I can shoot my machine gun and use my drill at the same time, while also being able to carry my Little Sister easier.' The Mexican stand off lasted a few moments until the wolf on Alpha's left made the first strike. The wolf pounced towards the Hulking pony and was quickly dealt with by his powerful motor drill. Alpha then opened fire on the wolf to his right ripping it into splinters. He quickly turned the gun on the remaining wolves quickly tearing two more apart. The wolves began to panic as the constant thudding of Alpha's powerful machine gun caused even their wooden ears to ring. Alpha moved in to finish the job launching his drill at the nearest timber wolf and pulling the poor creature before ending it with a burst of his machine gun to its head. Although two of the wolves had managed to escape with their lives he was certain that through their wounds and the smoldering heaps of their fellow pack members that they had learned the first rule of Rapture: Never get between a Big Daddy and his Little Sister. Satisfied that he and his charge wouldn't be bothered again his faceplate glowed yellow once more and he turned to the little filly to ensure she was unharmed. She was cowering in a small nook in the tree with both her front hooves and her small wings covering her ears. 'Serve Little Sister.' Alpha felt a little confused when that mental command spoke out to him. 'She hasn't asked for anything. What am I supposed to serve her for?' It took him a few moments until he realized that he was expected to comfort her; after all, she just had a near death experience. Carefully Alpha sat on his haunches, picked the little filly up onto his lap, and petted her head. After a few moments of making the most soothing sounds he could her breathing slowed, and she stopped crying. Once more satisfied that he had done his duty Alpha picked her up by her midsection and held her in the air for a moment to look at her. She looked back at him with big curious violet eyes unknowing of the significance of his actions. She was his Little Sister now and he would protect and serve her for as long as she lived. He then pulled her onto his shoulder and began walking towards signs of civilization in search of either a temporary shelter or a Little Wonders Educational Facility. > Chapter 2: Problems with a metal giant. (Edited) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "I love you Mr. Bubbles." ―Unknown Alpha curled around his Little Sister keeping her warm in the cool night. Although he would have preferred a Little Wonders Educational Facility this wooden shelter was still appropriate for their needs; even if he broke every single ladder rung trying to get on. Alpha shuddered as numerous bad experiences with stairs and ladders leapt forward in his mind. He watched her sleep peacefully as he thought to himself. He never slept, except for during repairs, as he had to always keep guard, but it did allow for him to plan things out and spot out eventual problems. He began a mental list of important questions and problems. 'Where am I? This does not look like any part of Rapture I have seen. Perhaps I'm on the surface. That means I am living among the parasite and away from the source of Adam and Eve. I will have to depend on my little sister to be my source. I am going to have to hide myself from those Greedy Americans and Stupid Socialist Comm-' A sharp headache and the feeling of yet another warm nosebleed running down his muzzle interrupted his thoughts. He shook his head and tried to recollect himself. 'I am going to have to hide from the Equestrian and Griffin parasites if I am going to keep my little sister safe here on the surface. These headaches and nosebleeds are interrupting my thoughts and jumbling my memories. I almost forgot the day I was given my one and only Little Sister here. I will have to keep track of these nosebleeds and treat them with Adam once she produces enough.' Alpha inhaled deeply knowing that he would be able to take care of his Little Sister. He inhaled again feeling something was terribly wrong. Alpha made sure that he was breathing air that was being pumped from outside his suit at that very moment, but it was to no avail. His Little Sister was not producing the pheromones necessary to keep him alive. 'What happened? She was producing pheromones just yesterday. Why would she stop? As long as she had Adam she should keep producing them. So why... That's it she just needs a little more Adam! Tomorrow I will put her in a safe location and go grab her an Adam slug.' Alpha nodded to himself approvingly causing shadows to bounce around the tree house due to his yellow face lamp. Feeling better about his situation he waited for his Little Sister to wake up. Scootaloo was woken up by her alarm which she quickly silenced. She yawned and talked to herself like most sane individuals. "I had the weirdest dream last night... I was being chased by timber wolves and a giant fabric and metal cyclops saved me. I’ll have to tell Sweetie Belle and Applebloom about it." Finally Scootaloo realized that for some reason the floor of the tree house was unusually soft and realized that she was sitting on some kind of strange tan fabric. She quickly realized that the cloth and metal cyclops wasn't a dream after all and she had fallen asleep on it. She did the only sensible thing that every pony in a horror movie failed to do. She ran as fast as she could away from the monster. After running only ten feet away from the tree house her great escape came to an end as the very ground shook violently. When she regained her footing she realized what had happened. The cyclops was so heavy that just by jumping the short distance from the main floor of the tree house to the ground it had caused an earthquake. Scootaloo froze in place and stared up at what had to be the biggest pony she had ever seen; if it even was a pony. The cyclops was at least three feet taller than Big Mac; Scootaloo had seen adult Manticores that weren't as tall as the thing in front of her. Then just when she thought the bulbous metal cyclops couldn't be any more terrifying, it started walking, causing a minor earthquake with each step. Scootaloo was panicking, frozen in place with no idea what to do. "Stop!" She cried out in desperation, shutting her eyes tightly. Somehow as if by magic the rumbling stopped, and everything was quiet. Scootaloo opened her eyes in surprise and stared at the motionless giant in front of her. She couldn't believe it, she just commanded a massive monster. "Sit?" With a loud thud and yet another earthquake it sat down in front of her. Scootaloo sat down as well in complete disbelief. "That actually worked?! You can understand me?" The behemoth didn't respond and tilted its head. "Do you talk? You know.... Words. 'Blah Blah Blah' like that? Can you do that? Blah blah blah?" The giant stared at her for a moment, before speaking what sounded like deep grunts. "Argharolllgaroghall" Scootaloo flinched but tried to be supportive, like a true friend. "...well... You get the idea anyway." She lifted up a small stone in her hooves. "This is called a rock. Rock." She tried to copy how Miss Cheerilee would teach the young foals how to speak. The cyclops looked at her for a moment, got up, and ran into the Everfree at a speed that was very unsettling. Scootaloo wondered a few moments why it had left, then suddenly it returned carrying a boulder the size of the tree house. "ROAGHK!" "Very.... Good...." Scootaloo couldn't believe what she had just seen. How could something be that strong. After taking a moment to recover she tried to continue her lesson. She pointed at one of the orchard trees of the Apple’s farm. "And that is a tree." Before she could even react the giant walked over to the tree she pointed out and pulled it out of the ground. "TREEEH!" 'And that was destruction of property.' Scootaloo switched into panic mode."WOW! WHAT ARE YOU DOING PUT IT BACK! Apple Jack would kill me if she found out you did that!" And with that the cyclops put the tree back in its hole rather confused. "I think that's enough of our lesson... Can you at least understand me and answer with a nod for yes and a shake for no?" It nodded back in reply. Excitement filled her tiny body. She had so many questions that she wanted to ask, but so few of them could be answered with only yes or no. Suddenly she remembered her wish. "Are you my Daddy?" He nodded again. Scootaloo jumped in the air in celebration. "I am so going to rub this in Diamond Tiara's face! This is the best thing that has ever happened to me! I should tell every pony about you! ...No... They'll panic. The ponies of Ponyville always freak out whenever something they don't understand happens. Like when we met Zecora. Okay you stay here and don't get seen. I'm going to school." Scootaloo pointed at the tree house for emphasis before she started walking towards her scooter and school. Unfortunately her hoof steps had a thundering echo. This was going to be a long day... > Chapter 3: Under the... lake? (Edited) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "This little Sea Slug has come along and glued together all the crazy ideas I've had since the war... it doesn't just heal damaged cells, it... resurrects them... I can bend the double helix... black can be reborn white, tall, short, weak, strong..." ―Brigid Tenenbaum Scootaloo was on edge. Somehow nopony had seen her new massive daddy; even with his earthquake inducing trot. They were nearing the school and it was inevitable that they would bump into somepony. Suddenly she heard the sound of rustling behind them. Her eyes grew wide and her heart threatened to beat out of her chest. "Somepony is coming! Quick hide behind a tree or something!" She commanded, staring at the nearing source of rustling bushes and grass. Several rapid tremors followed by silence told her that her Daddy had done what she asked; she just hoped that whoever the pony was that they somehow couldn't feel or hear the ground shake. Her heart thumped faster and faster as the rustling drew near, until finally a squirrel jumped out of the foliage. Scootaloo let out a deep breath she didn't know she was holding. She took a moment to steady her shaky legs and calm herself. 'Be brave, like Rainbow Dash.' She told herself silently. She turned to face the direction her thundering daddy had gone and immediately facehoofed.Sitting behind a thin tiny sapling of a tree in complete view of the world was her big daddy. "That isn't hiding!" She yelled at him. 'This could not be any worse. The big lug is as subtle as the 's' in subtle.' She thought to herself, while the towering cyclops peeked out from behind the tree confused; as if the little 2 inch wide trunk could actually block his vision. Scootaloo knew it was time; she had to convince the tan giant to not go to school with her. "Okay... I got to go to School." She spoke loud, clear, and slowly pointing towards the school for emphasis. "You, go hide and make sure that nopony can see you. I'll come out later when school ends. Okay?" He nodded yes, and Scootaloo sighed with relief before walking towards the school. Unfortunately after only a few feet her foot steps had a thundering echo. She facehoofed again and looked back at the giant. "No, you stay. I go." She pointed to a big nearby bush which he climbed into, it hid him pretty well, but she could still see his glowing yellow eye. "Stay." Scootaloo slowly backed away still looking at him until she reached the school. Finally confident he would stay safe and put she went inside to the horrors of school. Alpha peered from his bush into the school windows; inside he could see many Little Sisters sitting in desks in front of a teacher. Now his Little Sister's actions started making sense. However, he didn't understand why she hadn't told him that the building was a Little Wonders Educational Facility, or why it wasn't properly marked. Although why she had pointed out things for him to get, but then got angry that he had gotten them still confused him greatly. Almost as much as why she had tried to get him to talk. Didn't she know that he could only speak in deep grunts, growls, moans, and roars as designed by Dr. Suchong. It was luck that he was able to make that hard 'T' sound for tree. Now that he thought about it, he was surprised by the amount of trees the ponies here had just left out in the open. Didn't they realize how easy it would be to sabotage them and destroy their source of oxygen. He shook his head confused, these ponies were so strange. He looked back up to watch his Little Sister learn reassuring himself that she was safe. Now normally he wouldn't disobey an order from his Little Sister, however, since her safety takes priority over her orders he headed back out to the forest he recovered her in. It felt strange to him to see so many tall trees unguarded, and with strange wildlife living freely. Lost in his thoughts Alpha nearly walked straight into a large stream of water, but managed to catch himself and not fall in. The third part of Alpha's programing kicked in. 'Repair and maintain Rapture.' He had, at least as far as his programing was concerned, discovered a massive leak probably due to a hull breach. Although judging from the amount of water pouring out he concluded that the breach would be too large for him to close off alone, it did however give him a direction. 'I simply have to follow up the river to the breach and I'll find Adam slugs in no time.' With time being something he did not have very much of he thundered up beside the river causing several seismographs nearby to detect a small anomalous earthquake in an area that otherwise had no fault lines. Eventually Alpha made it to the large Saddle Lake and trotted straight in believing he had made it to the sea. He marched towards the deepest area of the lake. His footsteps finally stopped causing the ground to shake. As he walked about he combed the lake bed for large black slugs, unfortunately before he could find any something else found him. Alpha had just found a small cloth bag with a loop on the end when he noticed the twenty or so creatures swimming around him. They were strange fish like equines with colorful patterned scales instead of fur and a multitude of fins and sails across their bodies resembling hair. They had surrounded him and were floating about gracefully at various depths pointing rusted tridents at him, which was very different from him walking on the seafloor due to his great weight. He didn't know exactly what was going on, but he assumed that they wanted him to leave. They had left a small gap in their formation away from where he wanted to go, and they hadn't attacked him yet despite their numbers advantage. They were most likely attempting to herd him through the hole in their formation and away from his goal. Alpha however wanted no part in their plan. 'I don't have time for this.' He lifted up his right hoof and focused on using a particular plasmid. Suddenly the water surrounding Alpha became charged with high voltage electricity which caused varying effects to the sea pony guards. Those that were particularly close to Alpha suffered from cardiac arrest while those further away felt excruciating pain and muscle spasms. Although Alpha was at ground zero the attack didn’t faze him. He was far tougher than the sea ponies, and despite a few muscle spasms he shrugged it off. Their reaction was almost instant as they fled away from him in every direction, it was almost as chaotic and fast as when there was a half price sale on Adam. 'Didn't like that shock jockey did you.... No wait... Electro bolt...' The feeling of blood running out his muzzle and yet another headache stopped his thoughts. 'I have to find an adam slug these headaches may be my body failing me already.' He left the wounded and dying sea creatures that remained and continued his search. Nearly four hours later Alpha finally found a large black slug, ironically enough near a undersea stone village he assumed the sea ponies lived in. It took him some effort to remove the slug off its rock without killing it but he eventually accomplished his task and placed it in his sack. His mission accomplished Alpha went on his way to return to his Little Sister. Scootaloo had never been more glad to get out of school. She was going to make sure nothing bad had happened to the giant cyclops and show him to Sweetie Belle and Applebloom. She had been resisting the urge to run back to the big tan giant and instead walked calmly to keep the surprise for her best friends. Unfortunately the only thing that could possibly ruin her mood turned out to be right behind her. "Hey blank flanks move out of the way and let ponies with actual parents through." Diamond Tiara commanded like the brat she was. Scootaloo stopped and faced the little snob and her side kick Silver Spoon her teeth grinding. That was a low blow even by Diamond Tiara's standards. She would have let it go if Tiara had just been insulting her, but the fact that Tiara had insulted Sweetie Belle for having busy parents and Apple Bloom for what happened to her’s was just wrong. She tried to think of a comeback. "Hey I have a dad!" Scootaloo caught Applebloom flinching slightly. Horse apples she just insulted Bloom and not defended her, definitely not Scootaloo's proudest moment. Diamond Tiara didn't seem to care about any of that though and continued being a smug rotten brat. "Oh yeah? Well then why don't I see you with him more often? Is he embarrassed that you’re just a blank flank?" Thankfully before Scootaloo could teach that rotten filly a lesson the ground began to shake and the rhythmic thumping began to grow louder heralding only one thing. Scootaloo smiled smugly as Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon's expressions evolved from confusion, to disbelief, to terror as their eyes grew wide and their hooves quaked frozen in place. Finally a large shadow fell over Scootaloo and her friends while a yellow light targeted Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. Pointing up and behind her Scootaloo proudly proclaimed to her friends and enemies. "This is my Dad." Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon stood there for a moment before running away as fast as they could leaving a couple small dust clouds in their wake. Scootaloo took a deep breath of the justice that still hung in the air, before turning to try to calm down her friends. Unfortunately they seemed to have had a similar idea to Tiara and Spoon. 'I probably should have told them about him... I didn’t really think this one through.' Scootaloo looked up at the giant. "Hey. Thanks for scaring those bullies off, but can you be a little less scary around my friends?" He tilted his head to the side confused. She facehoofed again and decided that explaining how to be less scary wasn't going to work. "So... How was your day?" Scootaloo asked trying to end the awkwardness of the situation. The massive cyclops brought out a filthy moss covered object she thought may have once been a bag. He unstrapped it from around his neck and placed it on the ground. Just when she thought it couldn't be any weirder he pulled out of the bag a massive slimy black thing and placed it in front of her. Scootaloo looked between the black thing and her big daddy, absolutely confused. However, he didn't offer any answers and just leaned in looking at her expectantly. Still with no idea what was going on she poked the black blob with her right hoof a couple of times only to watch as two black eyestalks shot out and it slowly start to crawl away. She looked back up at the tan cyclops her ears splayed back. "Was I supposed to do something with that.... Or were you just showing it to me?" His shoulders and head fell instantly making him appear sad. Scootaloo didn't know what had happened but it was very strange to see him express any emotion besides confusion. Before she could even attempt to comfort him though the massive stallion broke out into a coughing fit his yellow eye flashing red with each cough. Without warning he punched a nearby pine tree into splinters. Scootaloo watched as the behemoth took his anger out on the tree, she wasn't sure if it was something she had done that caused it but it was terrifying. He eventually calmed down and looked at her with his glowing yellow eye. Before he could even do anything something fast and multi colored slammed into his side. > Chapter 4: Subject Alpha VS Rainbow Dash > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "You're not done here soldier! Eat everything that's on your plate! Finish it!" ―Cornelius Slate Subject Alpha was taken completely by surprise when the attack came. There was no warning when a 3' 5", 120 pound, multicolored flying mare slammed into his side at nearly mach 1. Fortunately at 7' 0", and weighing in with all his equipment at nearly 1000 pounds, Subject Alpha could take a hit. The force of her attack caused him to stumble to the side slightly. To Alpha's dread, the mare took advantage of his surprise by quickly jumping off of him and grabbing his Little Sister. Alpha felt molten rage pump in his blood as he performed his primary duty. 'Protect Little Sister!' The rainbow colored pegasus hovered twenty feet in the air holding his Little Sister. "Don't worry Scootaloo I saved you from that big, slow, dumb monster." The Rainbow Splicer bragged to his Little Sister. Alpha quickly thought up a plan. He couldn't fire at the flying splicer with his machine gun or he would risk hitting his Little Sister as well, and with her not producing pheromones properly it was likely her regenerative abilities were gone too. He raised his right hoof and aimed the drill bit at the cocky pegasus' head "We’re safe up here. There’s no way he could possibly get us, after all I'm Rainbow dash the fastest thing there is!" She opened her arms wide like she was on a stage acting, and Alpha was growing sick of her heart beating. Alpha watched as his drill launched from his hoof, a long winding cable trailing behind and wrapped around the rainbow pegasus' right hoof. He then proceeded to pull the mare out of the sky with enough force to dislodge his Little Sister from her grip. With precious few seconds Alpha switched footing and brought up telekinesis; just in time to catch the little orange filly. His Little Sister stared at him in complete shock as he carefully placed her down, it almost seemed to Alpha that she hadn't seen a plasmid before. With his Little Sister safe Alpha faced the cyan and rainbow maned mare he had grounded. The rainbow maned pegasus in question had managed to remove the cable from around her hoof. Alpha recalled the drill back to his right hoof and let out a thundering roar. He was going to enjoy this. The Big Daddy jumped into the air at the pegasus ready to impale her by slamming his drill into her gut. At the last second she flapped her wings skidding her body across the ground and to safety. The force of Alpha's attack shook the earth, and made Rainbow Dash realize that she had seriously screwed up. Alpha put his drill away and shifted his stance to that of a racing pony. With his target barely getting onto her hooves, he launched himself forward like a speeding train. However she managed to fly out of his way and watched as he knocked down the tree that was behind her, and the tree behind that tree. "Hey slow poke! Missed me!" She mocked. The red glow of Alpha's helmet shined through the cloud of dust he had created, which was her only warning before a spiraling drill flew towards her head. Once again at the last second the multicolored mare dodged his attack; rolling to her side the drill harmlessly dug itself into a sizeable rock. Alpha was done playing games, and he was sick of her avoiding his attacks. He retracted his drill, however this time his drill was the one that stayed in place. Alpha was pulled towards the mare at a staggering speed and with his combined velocity and size Rainbow Dash stood no chance. The impact of the blow launched her into a tree. Pulling his drill free from the rock, Alpha made his way to the wounded mare and pinned her down; his heavy leg crushing down on her back hoof. She cried out in pain and looked up at him with tears and fear in her eyes. She wasn't going to avoid her death at the last second, not this time. Alpha activated his drill and prepared to finish this fight with a deadly punch. "No! Stop!" Scootaloo jumped between him and the cyan pegasus nearly getting herself skewered as well. "Don't hurt her! She's a friend, she just didn't know what was going on." Alpha pushed his Little Sister aside, ignoring her pleas only to have the little filly grab his helmet and stare into his red visor. Her eyes grew big and sad, "Please." She whimpered. Alpha knew he was going to regret this, but sometimes a Little Sister has to learn the hard way. His drill slowed to a stop and retracted. Finally his helmet turned from red to yellow as he forced himself to calm down. Scootaloo's face went from sad to instantly adorable, as she realized he wasn't going to hurt anypony and she gave his helmet a hug. "Thank you." Unfortunately the cute moment was cut short by the arrival of five other ponies. Alpha scooped Scootaloo up in his left hoof and pressed her against his underside to protect her. 'I should have killed that pegasus when I had the chance.' > Chapter 5: Disarming the situation > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "A man chooses. A slave obeys." ―Andrew Ryan A tense stand off began between the six most powerful and legendary heroes in all of Equestria and Subject Alpha. For what felt like several minutes the only sound that broke the silence of the stare down was a deep growl emanating from the tan behemoth. Eventually though Twilight broke the tense silence. "Rainbow Dash, are you okay?" The usually talkative cyan pegasus was still watching her life flash before her eyes. "What!? Uhh...Y-yeah." She shook herself out of her trance, and slowly got up wincing as she put pressure on her back leg that had been pinned to the ground. "I've had worse crashes.... Just not many..." Nodding, Twilight turned her attention to the orange and purple foal being pressed against the metal and leather titan. "Scootaloo, how about you? Has it hurt you?" Scootaloo shook her head. "Nah, my dad would never hurt me." Everypony's eyes nearly popped out of their heads. "Scoots... You mind running that by me again?" Rainbow dash asked after picking her jaw up from the ground. "Well... Last night I saw a shooting star... And... I don't have a family.... So.... I wished I had a dad, then he fell out of the sky, and saved me from timberwolves.... And yeah..." Scootaloo explained. Twilight facehoofed. "Scootaloo that doesn't make any sense!" "Well neither does Pinkie Pie, but nopony questions her!" The filly retorted. Twilight gave a silent touché, and tried to think of what to do next. "Can you get him to calm down and come with us to my castle? I don't want to freak any pony else out, and I want to do some tests on...him." Subject Alpha pressed the small Pegasus even tighter against his chest. "I don't think he wants to..." Scootaloo replied. A few moments of silence passed as a plan formed in the purple alicorn's head. "Fluttershy. Can you try to calm him down?" The yellow Pegasus gave a look of 'why me' before nodding. "S-sure... I'll try." She answered, and very slowly walked towards the giant. She stopped a few feet short of the towering beast and spoke in a kind, gentle voice. "Hello, Scootaloo's daddy. If you would be so kind... Could you come with us. That is, if you wa-" the rest of her words were cut short when Subject Alpha placed Scootaloo down and brought his helmet right up to her face. Every pony watched in terror not knowing what to do, and then Fluttershy did the unthinkable. She gave him the stare. For several tense seconds everypony held their breath. "DING!" Subject Alpha's helmet changed from red to bright green. His form visibly relaxed and he stood up tall tilting his head questionably at Fluttershy. Pinkie broke the awkward silence that followed. "Did it work!?" "I-i think so..." Fluttershy replied hesitantly. "Uh... Could you, follow me Mr. Scootaloo's dad, If you don't mind?" Subject Alpha nodded, and the very awkward trip to Twilight's castle went off without a hitch. Phials by Flimflam bros. Presents "Stare Down" Control your enemies and get them to work for you. Make eye contact and even the most powerful of beasts will be under your control. Maintain eye contact for prolonged control. "Why let Unicorns have all the fun?" > Chapter 6: Desperate Measures (Edited) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Big Sister is always watching. " ―Sofia Lamb "Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!!! That hurts!!" Rainbow Dash's cries of pain echoed inside the crystal throne room of Twilight's castle. "Well it wouldn't hurt as much if you would stop struggling." A very frustrated Nurse Redheart retorted as she continued to put a medical boot onto Rainbow Dash's right hind hoof. "Well I wouldn't struggle if you didn't make it hurt so much!" Rainbow Dash yelled just as the boot was finally put on all the way. Twilight facehoofed for the hundredth time since the poor nurse had begun treating the cyan pegasus' injuries. Rainbow Dash had overreacted the entire time as if she was hurt even worse than when she had broken her wing. Though in reality the most serious injury that Dash had received from her very one sided fight was a badly sprained and bruised hoof. "You should consider yourself lucky that you only have to wear that for a few days. It could have just as easily crushed your bones to dust, or worse. So stop complaining already." Twilight snapped at her friend, and made a mental note to pay Redheart double. Rainbow Dash glared back in response, but remained silent. Twilight didn't let it faze her, but did add an apology to her list. "Okay enough!" Apple Jack interrupted. "Stop yer squabblin’, there are more important things at hoof. Now can anypony tell me what in tarnation that thing we just brought back here is?" Twilight brought her attention back to her other four friends; who, with the exception of Pinkie, were all in various stages of worry and set it upon herself to calm them down. "What we brought back is a pony." Twilight answered, trying to sound as certain as possible. "A very large pony in a full diving suit. I don't know why he or she behaves like an animal, or why he or she is refusing to leave Scootaloo's side." Rainbow Dash nearly flung Nurse Redheart off of her as she sprang to her hooves. "Wait Scootaloo is still with that thing!?" Twilight had to take a moment to recover from Dash's ear splitting outburst. "She didn't want to leave her 'Dad' alone, and don't worry they’re in the playroom I set up for when my niece Skyla is old enough to visit. I also had guards posted outside the door just in case something happens." Twilight smiled, feeling confident that she had covered everything. "And I let Sweetiebelle and Applebloom in there as well so Scootaloo wouldn't get lonely." Pinkie added happily. A stunned silence filled the room and you could almost hear Twilight's plan shatter. Just as quickly as it began that silence gave way to pandemonium as the six friends rushed out of the throne room, leaving a very confused nurse behind. Worst case scenarios played in Twilight's mind; all of them filled with wounds and destruction. She focused on getting to the playroom as quickly as possible hoping she wouldn't be too late. While Twilight blocked out everything except reaching her goal, Rainbow Dash was berating Pinkie. "What were you thinking Pinkie!? You left Sweetiebelle and Applebloom with a monster as strong as a manticore. One that nearly killed me!?!" Pinkie happily replied "Yup," and everypony remembered the first rule of Pinkie Pie: Never question Pinkie Pie. Finally the group reached the playroom and two very confused guards. Twilight flung the door to the room open and the group froze at the doorway in shock. Rarity took the sight particularly badly and nearly fainted at the horror before her. Subject Alpha carefully lifted the small teacup that was wedged between his front hooves so that the rim of the cup would tap his view port. He then lowered it back to it's place on the blanket in front of him just as the yellow and red filly in front of him took a sip of her own. Suddenly the white, purple, and pink unicorn atop his head gave his helmet a few taps. "Hey. Can you pass me some more of that ribbon please?" She pointed a hoof in front of his visor to what she wanted. With minimum effort from his telekinesis plasmid, he was able to pass the filly another piece of ribbon without accidentally flinging her off him. With that the Little Sister was satisfied and went back to whatever she was doing. Alpha wondered where these Little Sisters' Big Daddies were, but knew that it didn't really concern him. He then looked over at his own Little Sister and wondered why she didn't want to play with the others. The orange and purple filly was laying on a small bed and staring intently at the other fillies. if they had said anything he hadn’t heard it,as he was more concerned with not crushing the teacups Suddenly the door opened rapidly, and he watched the fillies reactions carefully. If they responded with fear then he would toss the Little Sister on his head off and defend them. However if they reacted with joy or with contentment then play time could continue. "Thank Celestia you are finally here!" Scootaloo cried out in relief. Subject Alpha took another sip of imaginary tea at the confirmation that splicers weren't about to attack. "Look what they did to my Dad! It’s so wrong!" "I don't see what's wrong Scootaloo. I ain't forcing him to play tea." The yellow filly with red hair answered first. The unicorn on his head spoke next. "Yeah he seems okay with me putting ribbons on him." Alpha clicked the tea cup against his visor again. "But he's my Dad, Sweetie Belle. Dad's don't wear ribbons on their heads!" 'Yes dads do not wear ribbons on their heads only the best Big Daddies do.' Alpha agreed. Suddenly a bright pink mare sat beside him. "Can I join?" She asked happily. Seeing that she didn't mean any harm, and because he was in a particularly good mood he levitated a spare teacup and saucer. She then proceeded to pour herself hot chocolate from a kettle that he was pretty sure wasn't there a second ago, and call out to someone to his left. "I told you it would be okey dokey." Subject Alpha slowly turned his head to look at the someone, and found himself staring at five mares and two stallions of various colors staring at him in shock. Coincidentally, there was a small foal sized mirror near the door; which allowed him to see the rainbow of colors tied in perfect bows on every jutting piece of his helmet. He looked from the mirror to the ponies staring at him and took another sip, content with everything that was happening. As the day passed into night Subject Alpha laid beside the small bed as his little sister worked on removing every colorful ribbon. He didn't care that the mares had talked with the Little Sisters, that the other two had to leave, or what his Little Sister was saying. Something about how dads were boys, and there couldn't be a girl dad; it didn't make sense to him. The only thing he cared about was that he was with his Little Sister. A burning feeling in his lungs brought the Big Daddy out of his thoughts as another wave of coughing set in. He was dying, none of the little sisters were producing pheromones, and there was nothing he could do. He had been unable to find an Adam slug to restart her pheromones. He could only last as long as possible, but he wiuld continue to protect her the best he could. "You okay Dad?" Scootaloo asked. He nodded still tasting iron in his mouth. It was best not to concern her, she couldn't do anything either. He could maybe last one more day, but it was more than likely he would not wake up tomorrow. Instead he would drift into a coma, and his body would destroy itself. He had already accepted his fate; at least he would spend one last night with his Little Sister. With the last ribbon removed Scootaloo got off the bed and climbed on top of his back. "Good night Dad. Don't let the parasprites bite." With one last yawn she rolled up into a ball and drifted to sleep. For the first time in many years Alpha felt that tug of sleep as well, and he was ready. Subject Alpha 9-2 dreamt of lighthouses, millions of them, of every shape and size, sitting on an infinite ocean. There were boardwalks that connected all the lighthouses together and he could even see figures walk across them. Some ran, some walked, some had two legs, others four, but they all came from one lighthouse and exited another. Everyone except him. He was stuck in the water between. Every time he tried to swim for a lighthouse or a boardwalk the current would pull him away. Eventually he gave up and let the current take him, and his mind wandered. At one point he entertained the thought that each of those lighthouses was in fact an entire universe, and that the lighthouses that looked the same were the same universes but with different outcomes. Then he realized how silly that all sounded and thought of just how bad someone had to be at planning to place so many lighthouses together in the middle of the sea. Then something happened. Something he couldn't explain. He heard a voice. "Wake up Subject Alpha. Wake up." Alpha opened his eyes to find a bright blue unicorn with well kept red hair, golden eyes, and a hourglass on his flank. The stallion spoke with a polished deep Buckingham accent that was very calming. "Not that you of all ponies don't deserve a rest, but I do fear you would not be able to wake up. Now Subject Alpha, I do believe that you have forgotten something." The Big Daddy was feeling very confused, and wondered if he was still dreaming. The odd stallion however did not care, and continued speaking. "When you first came to this world you saw something so common to you that you didn't give it a second glance, nor realize its value. Perhaps you didn’t realize that Adam is not the only thing that can restart the secretion of pheromones." Alpha had no idea what the pony was talking about, and was frankly a little freaked out. An awkward moment of silence passed and the blue stallion realized that nothing he was saying was ringing any bells in the Big Daddy's head. With a roll of his eyes and a sigh the unicorn gave a final hint. "It's blue." Suddenly the image of a syringe of Eve glowing blue half buried in the mud from where he first arrived came to the front of his mind. His eyes widened in realization and he sprang to his hooves. Unfortunately Scootaloo had still been sleeping on him and was flung across the room. Alpha rushed over to the dazed and confused filly and placed her back on his shoulder, but when he turned back towards the odd stallion he was gone. Deciding to put the odd experience into the back of his mind Alpha ran as fast as he could towards the forest. He didn't bother opening doors he had no time for that, and instead smashed through them with the shoulder that currently didn't have a filly on it. As he rushed into the night with half a dozen armored guards in pursuit he kept thinking a single sentence over and over. 'I still have time!' Scootaloo was having difficulty understanding what exactly was going on. She had just been dreaming about flying alongside Rainbow Dash when suddenly her dad had thrown her across the room, and smashed through every door in Princess Twilight's castle. "What are you doing!?" She yelled at the metal giant, but he just kept running as if Chrysalis and Tirek were chasing after him. All she could do was hold on and ride out his crazy rampage. After what felt like hours, he finally came to a stop at a muddy swamp. She knocked on his helmet hoping that he would finally listen to her. "Hey! What in Tartarus was that all about! Everything was great, we were sleeping in a palace for crying out loud! Now why are we in a giant mud pit in the middle of the Everfree!?!" Instead of giving her an answer the metal horse lifted her off his shoulder, placed her on a rock, and dove into the mud. She facehoofed on her little rock and stared at her Big Daddy in disbelief. "You came all this way, left a castle in ruins so you could have a mud bath!?! That has to be the dumbest thing I've ev-" Subject Alpha cut off Scootaloo's rant with a triumphant roar and made his way back to her carrying a glowing blue square. He then sat down beside her and began cleaning mud off of it by wiping it on himself. Things were getting to Pinkie Pie levels of weird. "What are you holding?" She asked, trying to get a good look at whatever it was from several feet away. When he finally considered it clean enough he held it out in his right hoof letting Scootaloo get a good look. It was a square bottle full of a glowing blue fluid and a metal prong sticking out where the cap should be. Her Big Daddy then lifted up his left hoof, a small jet of flame burst from the tip, and began to burn the metal prong with it. Now she was completely confused. "What are you doing?! First off what is that thing? Second, fire doesn't catch on fire, so what are you trying to?!" Scootaloo was just about to walk away from his craziness when something big and heavy pushed her down sideways onto the rock. It was Subject Alpha. Her Big Daddy was pinning her by pressing his front left hoof against her shoulder, and she couldn't move. No matter how hard she tried to squirm and kick. She had a better chance moving the sun then getting him off her. "Why are you doing this!? I can't breath, and you're hurting me!" She yelled at him, as loud as she could, but he didn't even look at her. Instead he raised the square blue bottle with his right hoof gripped tightly around it. The metal prong pointing down. It was a needle. Scootaloo's pupils shrunk into tiny points as her worst fear was realized. Her dad was going to stab her with the mother of all syringes. Scootaloo struggled with all her might and with tears streaming down her eyes pleaded. "NO PLEASE NO! STOP! IMSORRYIFIDIDANYTHINGTOMAKEYOUANGRYBUTPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEDONTDOIT!!!" But still he raised the needle up like the blade of a guillotine being raised for an execution. She closed her eyes and waited for the pain that would surely co- THUD! "Welcome to the circus of value!!" Scootaloo opened her eyes to see a strange box like thing half buried in the mud a few feet away with the most terrifying creature she had ever seen painted on it. The whole situation had gone beyond Pinkie Pie levels of weird and Scootaloo was on the verge of a mental breakdown. Fortunately though Subject Alpha was just as confused about the arrival of the scary box and released her. Trembling Scootaloo backed away from everything, unsure of what to trust, or whether this whole thing was a messed up dream. Looking between the box and the tan and metal giant, Scootaloo's mind filled with questions. 'Why did he suddenly attack me? How long is he going to be distracted by that weird box, and where did it even come from.' The answer to the latter of those questions came to her when she noticed that Subject Alpha was no longer looking at the box, but something in the sky. When she followed his gaze she saw what looked like a tear in the night sky. Almost as if someone had tried to erase something and went too fast and hard. Scootaloo gave the only response possible for the situation. "What the Bu-!" Suddenly the tear exploded with a giant ball of salt water and silenced the little filly. Wet, scared, and confused the little filly wiped hair and water out of her eyes and looked up to see the tear gone, and that something came out with the water. It wore a tan and rubber suit similar to her Big Daddy, but that is where the similarities ended. It had a pony shape to its body but its legs and body were thin and stretched out unnaturally. Each leg had a metal brace and it had a sphere for a head with a single glowing red eye. With a distorted metallic voice it screeched out into the night, and stared at her metal giant. Her Big Daddy suddenly stabbed himself with the blue glowing needle and tossed it aside. He then stepped between Scootaloo and the new thing and span his drill threateningly. In response the langly pony lifted up its left hoof, and a massive needle extended. Slowly Subject Alpha looked over his shoulder to Scootaloo and said a single word. "Rhun!" > Chapter 7: Subject Alpha Vs Big Sister (Edited) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Big Sisters are the new gatekeepers of Rapture: Born from Little Sisters, they don costumes much like their former protectors--the Big Daddy. However, these lithe, broken, mysterious creatures are worlds different from the hulking beasts that inspired their design..." ―Unknown 'PROTECT LITTLE SISTER' Subject Alpha 9-2's mental programing commanded with indelible authority. He brought his attention back to what he believed was a Rogue Big Daddy before him; hoping that his Little Sister would do as he said and find some place safe to hide. With a single thought his 50 Cal machine gun extended out from his armored saddle loaded with Armor Piercing ammo, and brought up his drill just in time to block a two foot needle from stabbing into his face. Quickly countering Alpha opened fire with his machine gun only to watch his enemy disappear in a puff of purple smoke before the bullets even hit. For a moment the Big Daddy froze in place as his mind tried to make sense of what just happened. Unfortunately one moment was all the Rogue Daddy needed. A ball of fire slammed into Subject Alpha's left side and sent him rolling across the muddy ground. Quickly getting up and throwing his body to his left Alpha managed to avoid the next volley of fire and locate his opponent high in a pine tree. He returned fire with his machine gun. In turn the mad Rogue avoided the stream of bullets by jumping from tree to tree with ease. The Rogue suddenly flipped the tables by firing balls of fire while it jumped around in the trees surrounding Subject Alpha. Nowhere near as fast as the Rogue, Subject Alpha was unable to dodge the firestorm, and was pounded by blast after blast of incinerate. Although the small balls of fire would normally be more annoying than dangerous to Alpha the sheer number of blasts that hit were taking their toll. Thoroughly pissed, Subject Alpha timed the Rogue's next round, raised his right hoof, and with proper leading launched his drill. The drill head flew through the air with its coiling retractable cable trailing behind before burying itself several inches into the Rogue's back right thigh. Alpha then retracted the cable and pulled with all his might, slamming the Rogue straight into the ground. The drill bit dislodged itself from the Rogue Daddy due to the force of the impact, and Alpha knew just what to do with it. Returning the drill back to his right hoof Alpha leaped into the air intent on smashing the drill into the Rogue. With a perfect back flip the Rogue gave another screech and charged him again. Blocking the needle with his drill again, Alpha moved in close and delivered a headbutt. Although the Rogue was sent sliding several feet both of their helmets rung for several seconds. ‘Definitely not my brightest idea.' Although it was annoying to him, it was a downright excruciating for the rogue daddy. It was holding its helmeted head screaming in pain, and he could have sworn the rogue had an unsettling vibrating effect similar to a tuning fork. Alpha span his drill up and attempted to thrust it into the rogue’s midsection, but yet again the flexible rogue jumped out of the way. However, this time Subject Alpha was ready and launched his drill into the rogue's back, pulled it back to him and then bucked the rogue off his drill. The force of his buck managed to launch the rogue daddy twenty feet straight into a tree. Wanting to give the thin rogue a taste of its own fiery medicine, Alpha launched his own fire burst of incinerate. Acting quickly the rogue backflipped onto the tree it was against, and while upside down blocked his attack by telekinetically making a shield out of nearby rocks. The rogue then aimed the burning pile of rocks back at him. It only took Alpha a second to realize the inevitable. 'Well... Shit.' With the force of a car slamming into him at 20 miles an hour, Subject Alpha was flung back 30 feet and landed on sharp rocks. Upon impact with the ground Alpha's drill accidentally launched, slammed into a rather large boulder of granite, and shattered into several dozen pieces. It took Subject Alpha several seconds to process the fact that his high tech drill had just been turned into a glorified brass knuckle. Issue: Hydraulic Fluids / Gases within drill cause subject to become unreliable. unstable. --Launching option to be removed from drill in All future models. -Dr. Suchong (Creator of the Big Daddy), December, 31, 1958 'Oh Buck!' Alpha got up as quickly as he could and what remained of his drill retracted back. However when he faced where the rogue daddy had been it was nowhere to be found. He turned around searching for the give away red glowing visor, but he couldn’t locate it. Subject Alpha tried to keep aware of any sign of an attack, but by the time he heard the sound of a distorted screech it was already too late. The rogue daddy dropped in from above; the massive needle attached to its left hoof ready to skewer him. To Alpha the world moved in slow motion, but no matter how slow everything became he was still the slowest one there. He could only watch as the needle came closer and closer. With the full force of the rogue behind it the needle entered his stomach just under his front right hoof, and lanced him. The rogue grabbed his neck to hold him close, and while twisting the needle inside of him began to literally drain the life out of his body. Subject Alpha screamed in agony as his strength, and his Adam was drained from him. He felt so weak, so quickly, and his mind struggled to think of a way out of what had to be one of the worst hugs in history. 'Protect Little Sister.' Even in his final moments his mental programing commanded him to win. Suddenly the rogue's reaction to being headbutted came to his mind. "Well I'm dead anyways." Alpha slowly brought his head back with all the strength he could muster, and brought his face down on the rogue daddy's head. "Ding!" The Rogue pulled its life sucking needle out of him and grabbed its helmet in an attempt to block out the noise. Alpha rushed forward now able to use what little strength remained in him to push the rogue into a tree. "Ding!!" The rogue's helmet slammed against the tree and caused the rouge to give an endless twisted scream. Backing up slightly Alpha activated what was left of his drill. The rogue charged at him in a blind fury. Alpha delivered an uppercut to the rogue with every ounce of his strength left.. "Ding!" The rogue flew backwards and slammed the back of its helmet against the tree again. "Dong!" The rogue daddy collapsed at the base of the tree, and its visor turned off. Staring at his unconscious foe, Alpha prepared to finish it off. His machine gun extended, once more loaded with armor piercing rounds. At this range he could not miss. The barrel of the gatling span up. "Wait! What are you doing!?" A particular foal yelled out. Alpha slowly put his machine gun away, and stared at his Little Sister, who should have been very far away. "What is with you and trying to kill ponies!?" Scootaloo yelled at Alpha. 'Because they are trying to kill me as well, also dead ponies can't hurt you.' Alpha thought to himself. Scootaloo grabbed Subject Alpha's helmet and peered in with adorable puppy dog eyes. "Please... Dad... No more killing... I have no idea what happened tonight, but please. There is no reason to kill anypony." 'You are absolutely adorable, but sadly I must follow my programming and if I must kill then I will--' 'Serve Little Sister!' 'Et tu Programae?' Alpha slowly and carefully nodded. 'fine I won't kill anyone tomorrow... I wish I could stay longer...' "Thank you!" Scootaloo squealed with joy and hugged Alpha's helmet. "Oh I almost forgot!" Scootaloo stopped hugging Alpha and picked up some rocks. The little filly then threw the rocks at Alpha as hard as she could. "What were you trying to do with me earlier! Some ritual sacrifice or something!? No more needles! Okay?! I hate needles!" When Scootaloo ran out of rocks, she punched and kicked him, and when she got too tired she cried. Alpha didn't react to her rocks or punches, but lifted her up and gave her a big gentle hug when she cried. When Scootaloo finally calmed down he placed her back on the ground. "Thanks." Scootaloo said calmly before giving Alpha's hoof a hug. After a few moments Scootaloo realized that there was still a unconscious armored pony next to them. "Uh... So do you think you can carry that back with us?" Alpha gave a shrugging nod, began unwinding what was left of his drill and started tying the unconscious thin pony with the tow wire. The walk back to the crystal castle was long, painful, and tiring. Alpha knew his time was coming, at least he was able to protect his little sister one last time. He walked inside the castle with the guards giving him dirty looks, but still giving him his space. Suddenly there were those six mares again, it felt like he was missing so much. Like he was blinking and suddenly minutes would pass, and their voices seemed so far away. The rainbow colored mare led Scootaloo away, but before he could follow the white unicorn stopped him. "You’re hurt..." She gestured to the blood trail behind him. "Please let us help you." She spoke with a kind reassuring voice, but he knew he could not be helped. "Please darling, would you kindly take your helmet off?" Alpha paused for a moment. 'Something she just said doesn't sit right with me.' He thought. Slowly he sat on his haunches and slowly grabbed his helmet and gave it a sharp turn. The sharp hiss of releasing pressurized gas. Slowly Alpha lifted the bulbous metal helmet of an Alpha Big Daddy off his head and revealed a messy sweat plastered orange coat, a rats nest of a long auburn mane, bright glowing yellow soulless eyes, and a muzzle covered in blood. 'Would You Kindly?' Subject Alpha suddenly felt the world spin around him. He vomited blood before the mares and he passed out knowing this was his end. > Would You Kindly: Would You Kindly? > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Would You Kindly?" ―Would You Kindly? Would You Kindly? Would You Kindly? Would You Kindly? Would You Kindly? Would You Kindly? Would You Kindly? Would You Kindly? Would You Kindly? Would You Kindly? Would You Kindly? > Chapter 8: Examination > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "One does not undertake an experiment knowing one has failed " ―Rosalind Lutece Rarity sat down in her throne and rubbed her face not knowing what to do. For some reason the giant tan suited pony, that Scootaloo believed was her "dad", had decided to wake up in the middle of the night, break down nearly every door in the castle, and took Scootaloo. The worse part though was that nopony could seem to find the orange filly and her giant friend. Doors could be repaired, but if anything happened to Scootaloo Dash would be devastated. Just as she thought about her the cyan and rainbow Pegasus flew into the throne room and made a quick landing. All of the old bearers of Harmony looked to Dash for news. "Nothing... I found nothing..." The usually brash Pegasus was on the Virge of tears as she spoke. "I tracked them to the Everfree but then the trail went cold. I don't know what to do girls..." Rainbow Dash buried her face in her hooves, and a heavy silence filled the room. Everypony watched as their friend suffer and felt completely helpless. "Hi girls! We're back!" Scootaloo cheerfully announced breaking the silence. The orange and purple filly was covered in mud, came riding in atop her "dad", with a odd tan form bundled in wire beside her and a giant smile on her face. Scootaloo jumped down from the massive pony's back and was immediately hugged by a teary eyed Rainbow Dash. "I'm so glad you're okay!" While the rest of her friends were still recovering from the shock of the filly's sudden return, Rainbow Dash asked the one question on everyponys' mind. "What happened?" Scootaloo looked around to all the curious faces staring at her, cleared her throat, and began. "Well... I'm not sure exactly why it happened, but here's what happened. I went to sleep tonight on top of my dad, because he's nice and warm, but for some reason in the middle of the night he wakes up, and stands up so fast he launches me across the room. I don't know what, but something must have spooked him, because before I could even realize what is going on, he picks me up and starts charging through doors. I'm yelling at him to stop, but he just doesn't listen and carries me into the Everfree forest." Scootaloo then sat on her haunches and began emphasizing her words with her front hooves. "Then things get weird. He takes me to a bog and suddenly just set me down on a rock. Now I'm thinking 'Maybe he just wants to show me this place, or somthing', but then he takes off without me and starts searching for a weird giant needle in the mud. Well when he finds it he pins me down and tries to inject me with it! That was scary, but just before he stabs me with the needle a weird talking box falls from the sky and lands like ten feet away from us. He let's me go, I don't know what's going on, I still don't know what was going on, but when I looked up to see where the box fell from, I see a weird tear thing in the sky. Suddenly Boooooooooosh!!! it explodes into water, and soaks everything." Scootaloo spreaded her front hooves out wide to demonstrate the explosion. "Then were the water lands this thing suddenly appears." Scootaloo gestured to the Big Sister tied up on Alpha's back. "And it and Dad get into an Epic fight, but in the end Dad won and we brought it back here. And that's what happened." Scootaloo smiled and folded her front hooves her tale complete. Everypony stared at the filly not sure of what to make of her tale, except for Rarity who stared at the wobbly legged Big Daddy and the blood trail following it. Rarity quickly formed a plan and spoke before anypony else. "That's quite the tale Scootaloo. Uh... Dash can you go clean her up, please." The cyan Pegasus nodded and the two of them left the thrown room. As soon as Scootaloo left Rarity slowly approached the behemoth, getting between it and where Scootaloo left with Rainbow Dash. "Your hurt..." The alabaster unicorn tried to reason with the Big Daddy gesturing to the blood trail behind it. "Please, let us help you." The tan giant turned his bulbous near featureless helmeted head to look at it's blood, and then turned back to the mare in front of it. Rarity didn't know what it was thinking, but she knew that nopony was going to be able to help it if it didn't get out of that suit. "Please darling, would you kindly take your helmet off?" For a moment the giant pony remained completely motionless, and Rarity grew worried that it would not allow anypony to help. Slowly it sat onto its haunches and brought its front hooves to its helmet. Rarity silently thanked Celestia and watched as it quickly twisted its head. Slowly the metal bulbous helmet came off revealing a startling sight. The Big Daddy was a large orange stallion, with a dark auburn mane. Both his mane, and coat were very unkept long rats nests. As horrifying as his mane and coat were, his eyes were far more unsettling that is if you could call them eyes. Where the stallion's eyes should have been were two yellow lifeless glowing bottomless pits. There was no distinction between the whites of his eyes, pupils, or irises, only yellow. His muzzle was more concerning health wise though. It was a mixture of orange fur, brown dried blood, and red fresh blood, that poured from his nose and mouth. All in all Rarity was terrified of what she saw but glad she had the stallion remove its helmet. The silent moment of observation of the pony underneath the mask suddenly came to an end when the stallion vomited a horrid mixture of sick and blood. Rarity just managed to dodge out of the splash zone when the great stallion keeled over, sending his forgotten unconscious prisoner skidding across the smooth floor. What little medical know-how the fashionista had, kicked in. She rushed over to the Stallion and with both her hooves applied pressure to the gapping wound on the stallion's side. "Somepony get a doctor!" The reserved unicorn shouted. Less than ten minutes after he had collapsed the Big Daddy, and Big Sister had been loaded onto separate reinforced metal gurneys and rolled into the castle's infirmary. Doctor Suture looked over Alpha thinking of how this was the stranges procedure he had ever preformed. He had been called to the newest Princesses castle in the middle of the night alongside Nurse Redheart, with no idea what was in store for him. The light blue unicorn wiped sweat, and stray strands of his white mane away from his dull blue eyes. Now here he was beginning what could possibly turn into a operation, with a screwdriver, as he had to remove a pony from a suit not designed to be removed from. Giving one final twist the large metal saddle made a solid thud against the gurney, finally free from the rest of the suit. Sighing Suture placed the screwdriver on a small table beside him, and gave a glance at his cutie mark, a green cross. He silently remembered the promise he made to help everyone, pony or otherwise, no matter the challenge and turned his attention to the four guards standing guard around his other patient. "Hey, you four! If you would do something useful, by helping me lift this heavy thing, instead of stupidly standing around a restrained sedated like a bunch of idiots, that would be great." He deadpanned. The guards all glared at him in frustration just as tired, but gathered around the stallion's gurney with the Doctor. "Redheart, when we get this thing off of him I want you to take my place and get him out of this thing." The tired nurse Together the five stallions lifted a four hundred pound peice of Rapture machinery to an empty gurney. The gurney managed to hold the advanced saddle's weight, but made some very concerning groans of protest. The five stallions took a moment to catch their breaths. Twilight had wanted to study all the equipment they took off those two, and had insisted that instead of piling it all on the floor, that it was taken to her study. Dr. Suture though, was just glad he wasn't the one who had to wheel it all over to the princess. "By Celestia!..." Redheart exclaimed, interrupting their panting. Suture walked over to the mare to see what sort of unseen injury had disturbed her so greatly. What he saw made him freeze in his tracks, where the stallion's navel should have been at the center of his belly, was a vast multitude of tubes, wires, cables of all various sizes, and colors. Each tube and wire was in some way connected into the Big Daddy's lower torso, pumping various fluids into a system between the stallion, and small machines hidden inside the suit. It all reminded him of a foal attached to a placenta by its umbelical cord. "Doctor, what should we do?" Nurse Redheart brought him back from his reverie. Shaking his head he Suture got back to the task at hand. He tried to think through what the situation required of him, while also passing his unsureness off as him educating Redheart. "We can't remove any of the equipment attached to him, obviously, as we don't know what the purpose of each part is... I want you to take a blood sample, hook him up threw the helmet hole to a monitor and I.V, and then give him a transfusion of O negative. He's lost a lot of blood. I'll treat his wound, scan his body for anything else, and take bone, and horn marrow samples. Then let's put him back inside this thing, don't want to accidentally disconnect something." Nurse Redheart gave a quick nod, and the two set to work. The two medical professionals encountered no issues as they worked, however the monitor reported the stallion's brain activity slowly dropping, until Dr. Suture scanned the unconscious stallion's body. Suture took a double take, and did another magical scan. Redheart took notice of this and prepared for the doctor to list injuries for her to treat. "Gallbladder, Appendix, Tonsils, Adenoids, Prostate, Right Kidney, Spleen, Testicles..." The doctor mumbled out barely loud enough to be heard. "Doctor? Is something wrong with all of those organs?" She asked, hoping that she had just misinterpreted that the large stallion had massive organ damage. "Yes. They are gone. They have all been surgically removed. This stallion has been under the knife many, many times." He replied matter of factly, hiding his shock while, Redheart's jaw dropped. Everything else went without a hitch, and they moved onto their next payment. The guards stood at the ready as the restraints on the Big Sister were removed, just in case she somehow woke up early. Suture messed with its helmet for a few seconds, before finally figuring out how to remove it. However as soon as he saw the muzzle underneath the doctor froze. "She's just a filly..." He spoke in shock trying to confirm what he was seeing. Underneath the mask was a very light grey mare with a black mane, who could be no older than sixteen although her legs were abnormally long. She was at the cusp of marehood, her face still pudgy like a filly, but deffinately with a more mature form. "I have daughter that's older than her." The doctor spoke quietly feeling a heaviness in his heart. Fortunately removing the mare from her suit was easy as she wasn't attached to her suit like the stallion. Upon removal they discovered that she was a Pegasus, her wings had been restrained against her body with belts, and that her open wounds from fighting Alpha had already miraculously healed. Finally Dr. Suture scanned her, fearful of what had been done to the tall young mare. Redheart watched as Suture backed away from the gurney, sat down, his face nearly turn green, and his eyes grow wide. She stared at the mare and wondered what had been done to her. After a moment of fighting his gag reflex the doctor finally spoke. "Well nurse... Her legs are extremely weak, having grown rapidly to math the height of princess Luna, which explains those braces... And... I need you to bring the ultrasound over." Redheart stared at him completely in shock. "She's with foal?!" Suture nearly shook his head slowly, and was silent as Redheart set the ultrasound up. When Suture activated the advanced device he didn't bring the probe to the mares uterus, but instead much higher up the Big Sister's torso. Redheart, and the guards watched the monitor of the ultrasound in horror as a low resolution image of a living fat snake like creature inside the Big Sister's stomach appeared. Suture and Redheart both silently wondered, just what kind of monsters would do these things to ponies. Twilight sat with Scootaloo in the infirmary the next day, they couldn't hide her "dad's" absence from the filly for very long. Scootaloo was sitting at the foot of the massive stallion's make shift bed, and watching him like it would make him better faster. "Is he going to be okay?" Scootaloo asked the violet Alicorn not removing her gaze from the Big Daddy. Twilight had to take a moment of silence to think. "I don't know Scootaloo..." She answered truthfully. "The Doctors did everything they could, and hes stable now.... But we aren't sure what's wrong with him yet..." Scootaloo was silent for a few seconds... "He has to be alright Twilight..." The orange and purple filly choked out as tears began to flow. "He has to..." For several hours Twilight watched as Scootaloo curled up against the massive stallion, waiting for the test results to come back, and to make sure that nothing happened to the filly. The alicorn got lost in her thoughts and paced the room trying to figure out why somepony would do such terrible things to Alpha and the Big Sister. The sound of struggling and panicked breathing brought Twilight back to reality as the grey mare woke up. The purple Alicorn quickly faced the struggling gangly pegasus, and charged a spell. "Stop!" Twilight commanded trying to channel her inner Luna. The grey mare had broken her front hooves rerestraints and looked up at the Alicorn with her wings opened wide. The mare's yellow sonless eyes locked on Twilight and for several long tense seconds nothing happened. Neither made moved a muscle, until the pegasus noticed her wings. Twilight watched in confusion as the Pegasus suddenly turned to look at her right wing, and acted like it was the very first time she had found it. She grabbed, stretched, and flexed her wings in absolute astonishment. A huge genuine smile formed on the mare's face as she turned back to twilight. "I'm an angel." Suddenly blood poured from the pegasus's nose, and she collapsed back on her bed. > Chapter 9: While the cat's away > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Poor things… what a life. Marchin’ around playin’ Daddy until some Splicer manages to kill off their Sister… and then if the coma doesn’t take ‘em they turn maniac... nothin’ left to do but scream." ―Augustus Sinclair Twilight silently laid on her bed still shaken from her encounter with the strange mare. She had been in her room for hours unable to go to sleep even as morning approached, her thoughts would not let her settle down. Nothing about the two ponies laying unconscious in the infirmary, only a few floors below, made any sense. They were the strangest ponies she had ever seen- no even heard of. They shared enough traits that Twilight could deduce they came from the place, both of them were abnormally tall, even for horses, their eyes glowed yellow and empty, they healed at an extraordinary rate, and they possessed powers only unicorns had. However, and to Twilight's dismay, that was where the similarities stopped. The Stallion, that Scootaloo believed was her wish fulfilled dad, was incredibly strong, tough, and violent, he was more an animal than a pony, yet he protected and served Scootaloo loyally and now with his wounds completely healed was in a coma. The Mare was fast, thin, agile, and as Twilight had discovered capable of far more complex thought, yet she attacked Scootaloo and her protector seemingly unprovoked. It was all backwards! Twilight in frustration buried her face in one of her pillows. Maybe it was just how these ponies were... or far more terrifyingly what they were made... She didn't want to accept it, she didn't even want to acknowledge it, but the idea that Ponies would be so cruel to turn other ponies into monsters with science and magic crawled back to the front of her mind yet again. It made her sick to her stomach. Twilight tossed the pillow aside getting out of bed yet again to pace about her room. Twilight picked up her notes to reread Scootaloo's statement, which she got while from the poor filly while her "big daddy" was being examined, again and contemplated sending a fifth letter to Celestia. She eventually decided against it, after all a double check of her double check of her double check was plenty, Celestia was probably just not awake at 3:47 in the morning. Unable to shake an uneasy feeling Twilight continued to read hoping that somewhere in Scootaloo's story were all the pieces to make sense of the puzzle before her, or at least something that could give her more clues. Suddenly it popped out at her. It was so obvious she nearly smacked herself in the head with her notebook. The metal box that had arrived at the same time as the mare was still out in the middle of the Everfree. How did she miss it? Maybe it would provide all the clues Twilight needed to solve this whole mess. The purple Alicorn quickly trotted out of her room only too collapse completely exhausted just beyond the doorway in front of a couple of guards that were keeping watch. Twilight mentally face hoofed she managed to take only a single step before falling face first into the ground in front of her personal guards. she couldn't imagine anything more embarrassing besides going back to magic kindergarten. "Your highness... are you alright?" Asked a very familiar voice. 'NO! Anypony but him!' Twilight thought to herself, and slowly opened her eyes to look at the light orange pegasus stallion "Flash Sentry?" his expression rapidly changed from confusion and worry to shock and excitement. "You know my name?!" Twilight mentally double facehoofed and facedwinged. 'right we haven't met yet... i gotta think of something fast!' For a few awkward silent seconds Twilight blushed bright red while both Flash Sentry and a green unicorn guard on the left side of her couldn't help but notice the struggle. "I recognized you from your transfer file!" Twilight finally announced a bit too loud. "Oh. I see." Flash smiled taking that answer as satisfactory. Twilight gave a sigh of accomplishment as she finally pulled herself off the floor. She pulled it off leaving Flash Sentry none the wiser and with no consequences. "Oooooo! Me next! You know my name right?" said the green unicorn guard on her left shattering whatever delusions Twilight had of calling any part of this interaction a success. Twilight wisely decided to stop digging any metaphorical holes and was honest with the guard. "I'm sorry, but i don't know who you are..." The expression of devastation that the guard held made Twilight feel like she just kicked a small puppy. "It's Green Horn your majesty.... Green Horn." Twilight decided that the only thing left to do was to abandon the conversation. tired or not there was a mysterious metal box she needed to get. "Well it was nice to meet you Green Horn, and Flash Sentry, but i have to get going." Suddenly green Horn moved himself in front of her and where once was a crushed look of disappointment now a sly grin had taken it's place. "Princess would this task of yours be hugely important that you alone must go? Because you look like you haven't slept in days, and me and flash can go do it if you want." Twilight had to take a moment to consider his rather odd offer for a moment. it wasn't like she needed to be the one to get the box, and her bed which was only moments ago shunning her from sleep did seem to be inviting her back. "Alright... If you follow the Big pony's tracks they should lead to a boggy area where a strange metal box landed a few hours ago. I need that box here by morning and if there is anything else nearby like it i need that too... okay?" Green Horn saluted "You got it your highness." and quickly galloped off dragging Flash Sentry with him. Twilight glad that the ordeal was over with, went back to her bed for some well needed sleep. Scootaloo was curled up on Alpha's chest glaring at the unconscious mare restrained in the bed beside them. That creepy thin mare had done this to her dad, she knew it. She also knew that many of the doctors twilight had dragged in from their beds though he would never wake up. She was going to make her pay if that mare woke up and her dad didn't she silently swore it! 'Nothing will stop me from getting my revenge.' Suddenly Pinkie troted in with two small cakes balancing on her back and a big smile on her face. "Suprise!" Scootaloo couldn't believe what she was looking at. "Pinkie.... What are you doing?" Pinkie paused for a second confused as if it wasn't obvious what she was doing. "I'm throwing their welcome to ponyville party." Pinkie Then placed a cake at each of their head tables. "Chocolate for him, and vanilla for her." Scootaloo took a moment to get over her shock. "Pinkie... why of all times do you think that right now is a good time to throw a party for a mare that put my dad in a coma and is practically in a coma, and my dad who is in fact in a coma!? Also why did you bring her cake?!" Scootaloo shouted in frustration. Pinkie just smiled wider "So that they have another reason to wake up, and so that when they do wake up they can have cake. Now as for her..." Pinkie looked at the unconscious mare. "Not all mean ponies are evil. sometimes they're just mean because they are scarred and alone. If that's the case with her then when she wakes up, she doesn't have to be mean anymore." Scootaloo rolled her eyes still plotting revenge finally deciding to stop trying to reason with Pinkie. She looked down at her protector and wished he would wake up and enjoy his own cake. she tried her best to fight the inevitable to stay strong and be brave but it wasn't enough to stop the tears that started streaming down her face. She had only a couple of days ago got a dad, and now he was being taken away from her for no good reason. She felt so helpless, out of all the things she had done, all the adventures she had with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, all she could do was cry. Suddenly a very comforting and soft pink hoof wrapped around her to give a gentle hug as Pinkie sat down beside her. The usually talkative and over excited party pony didn't say a word and just tried to be as comforting as possible. Scootaloo didn't know if she appreciated it or hated it. After what felt like forever Scootaloo finally managed to calm down enough to stop crying. "Pinkie? Do you think he'll wake up?" She asked dreading what the pink mare's response might be. Pinkie gave a big smile, and responded. "Of course silly. Nopony ever dies in My Little Pony." Meanwhile in the frozen north Three diamond dogs brothers trudged across the frozen tundra loaded with gems they had secretly mined from beneath the Crystal Empire. Pup struggled with his bag as his older brothers Dogwood and Boss continued their steady march without any struggle. Even though he was only a pup, in both name and age, he was expected to carry just as much as his brothers. He didn't find that very fair, but they had voted on the issue sometime ago and it had passed 2 to 1 for equal hauls. He didn't find the voting really fair either. They were nearly halfway home when Pup could no longer hold his sack of gems his paws burning in pain. Dogwood casually faced him still walking towards home. "Come on Pup. Pick up your bag and start moving. Or do you want to be left behind again?" Pup glared at his older brother remembering how last time they left him during a blizzard. He had come with a beard of icicles and so cold he had to thaw out for a week. Pup quickly rubbed his aching paws in snow to numb the pain and ran after his brothers, his sack dragging behind him. Just as he was about to catch up to his brothers the ground shook beneath their feet. It lasted only a moment but it was long enough to send pup face first into the snow, and his brothers on edge. Dogwood and Boss sniffed the air their ears twitching, while pup tried to get snow out of his nose and ears. "Boss, could that have been an earthquake?" Dogwood asked tentatively. Boss scanned the horizon his eyes cold and serious. "There has never been an earthquake here in all of our family history. Dogwood stay on guard, something doesn't smell right." Boss answered the hackles of his neck standing on edge. His nose finally free of snow pup sniffed the air, and immediately understood what boss meant. The air was unnatural it was as if the air was uneasy yet unable to go anywhere like there was a thunderstorm overhead that crystal clear morning. Boss suddenly faced Pup a grim look on his muzzle. "Pup Leave the gems we need to go now!" Dogwood stared at Boss as if he had just watched his brother turn into a strawberry. "Leave the Gems?! Boss have you gone crazy?!" Boss silenced any further questions with a glare so fierce the air itself seemed to turn to ice, leaving Dogwood's only response as a nervous gulp. The three of them ran across the barren valley of snow as fast as Pup could run. Not even on the final stretch did Pup's feeling of dread lift until without warning a pair of massive purple crystals shot up through the ground directly in their path. Boss managed to roll ahead of them in time, but Dogwood was caught between them as lightning arched across. Pup skidded to a halt just in time to watch his brother be electrocuted. Dogwood seemed to struggle between those crystals for an eternity, though in reality it was only a few seconds, before he finally collapsed his unblinking eyes starring directly at Pup. Just as suddenly as the first two had sprung up six more rose from the snow, surrounding Boss in a cage of lightning. Pup could only watch as at the center of the cage darkness itself seemed to come together shaping into the form of a pony. Boss didn't need an introduction to the murderer of his brother, and charged the living shadow that was still coalescing itself. only mere inches were between boss's fist and the creature when the final and only blow came. a sharp crystal shot from the ground and impaled Boss as one would an interesting insect. Pup watched the blood drip down the crystal, the Dark gray stallion finally materialize his curved red horn, as the stallion gloated to his dying brother, before he did the only thing he could. He ran... Meanwhile in Dodge Junction Diablo loved the moments before he played the part he was born to play. He was a terrifying beast, his black coat and mane only contrasted by the scars across his body and his white face. Appearance meant a lot to him it was why he always wore a black duster and stetson where ever he went, it was why he glared at every pony he saw and imagined all the things he could do with them. Unfortunately his Brother Lucifer had no such feelings about appearance and reputation. 'That thin tan stallion with dark blonde hair could blend into a crowd of zebras, no pony ever recognized him, nopony ever shook with fear because of Lucifer. No one cares about a stallion wearing a brown duster. EVERYPONY WORE A BROWN DUSTER!' But they were brothers and Lucifer was good at what he did, he was a planner, Which was exactly what Diablo needed this morning. Lucifer opened up a pocket watch in his hoof before announcing the greatest two words in the history of words. "It's time." Diablo put out his seventh cigarette since they started waiting outside the Bank of Equestria. "It's about damn time." together they walked up the steps as if it had been rehearsed. "You sure these contraptions will work?" Lucifer gave a harsh look back insulted that He would suggest anything he made would not work. "I'm certain." he spoke through gritted teeth. Diablo chuckled, nothing else needed to be said. Today was going to be good. As they reached the main doors of the bank Lucifer stayed behind while Diablo went in alone. slowly and calmly he walked up to one of the two bank tellers, both were pretty mares that looked like they weren't paid enough to run the first shift of the day. from the pockets of his duster he pulled out a denim bag and laid it out in front of her. Show time. "I want every bit you have in the bag. now." The mare went into shock and confusion, she even looked around the bank at the four royal guards who were stationed nearby and all of them heard what he said. With a smile she pushed the bag towards him. "No sir. I don't believe i will." The four guards moved in to apprehend him as if he was a joker. A vein in Diablo's forehead nearly burst in frustration. He lifted up his right hoof and pulled back the sleeve of his duster revealing the hand cannon and pump shotgun strapped to the side of his hoof. The first to die where the guards on his right they couldn't fathom what was going on when the hand cannon rounds punched through their armor, their chest, and proceeded to leave a spray of blood on the wall behind them. The guards on his left were dispatched with a shotgun round while they were still in shock from seeing their friends die in mere seconds. they weren't as fun with just little bloody holes appearing all over there bodies. it was the bank teller that was something else entirely it all seemed to move in slow motion. he swung his body around fired off the hand cannon and watched the bullet fly right for her forehead. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his life as what had once been a pretty mare's face suddenly was ripped apart and flung all across the room. skull, teeth eyeball, and brain it all went everywhere It was glorious, and then it was over and her body was slumped against the floor with an eyeball hanging onto her head by a thread. Diablo turned to the poor remaining bank teller covered in her coworkers blood and gave her the bag. Diablo smiled. "Now you give me every bit you can fit into this bag." she of course did as she was told. and when she gave the full bag back to him he simply turned around and walked away. Diablo had entered the bank simply a pony, now he exited the master of life and death. Outside Lucifer stood near the door frost escaping his every breath. "You got the bits?" Diablo handed him the bag and admired his brother's handy work. "looks like you had fun" a museum of frozen statues were running up the stairs of the bank Diablo counted ten before he got bored. Lucifer looked at the bloody money bag. "it seems so did you. now lets get out of here we now have enough for our plans." Diablo nodded to his brother and lifting up his left hoof watched as a ball of fire formed. with a short toss he lit the bank aflame before joined his brother in leaving town. Not that it really mattered. Nopony could stop them. Meanwhile in The Everfree Flash Sentry grunted as he pushed the "Circus of Value", which had well stated it's name for the hundredth time already, while Green Horn pulled it onto a cart Green Horn... "Borrowed." "I'm telling you man, this... this is the beginning!" Green Horn announced proudly. Flash Sentry rolled his eyes wondering what scheme Green Horn could be coming up with. "The beginning of what exactly?" A look of excitement Flash didn't like filled Green Horn's eyes. "The beginning... of you... and the princess..." for dramatic effect Green Horn lifted his hooves from the very heavy box and tapped them together making a smooching sound while simultaneously crushing Sentry. Green horn realized his mistake quickly, fortunately, and continued pulling the vending machine up the cart. "I mean I know you like her. like a lot." Flash Sentry blushed. "Okay yeah true but, that doesn't explain your scheme at all!" he yelled frustrated that they were still struggling with a heavy machine and his love life, or rather lack of one, at the same time. "But it does! Because I set you up do do tasks for the princess personally and now all you have to do is... well do them, and BOOM PROMOTION! CAPTAIN OF THE GUARD: FLASH SENTRY!" Green Horn once again removed his hooves from the machine, this time to make an explosion motion with them. However, unlike last time Flash actually managed to dig deep and push the metal box the last little bit onto the cart. Flash Glared at his friend panting heavily. "yeah, and?" "Well isn't it obvious Princesses go for their captains of the guard." Green answered nonchalantly. Flash Sentry took a moment to process what he just heard. "By Celestia I think you're right...." He announced dumb struck. "But... Do you really think she's into me?" He asked blushing. "Dude totally! My best friend is going to be a prince by next year mark my words!" Green Horn announced to the world before hopping off the cart. "Well one step to prince hood done." Flash Smiled for a moment day dreaming of prince hood for a moment before shaking his fantasies away. "Well I'm just glad there isn't anything else to bring back." As if on Que the sky ripped open for a moment letting four large barrel shaped objects to land nearby, before closing back to normal. For a moment Flash Sentry and Green Horn simply stared at the Barrels for a moment shocked at what they just saw. Suddenly they all opened with a hiss. "MY AIM IS TRUE AS MY EYE IS THE PROPHET'S" Scootaloo watched as suddenly Pinky's bouncy hair drooped straight and her eyes filled with fear. "Oh.... This is one of those stories..."